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Keyte, Garnet Ewart

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Gender: Male

Garnet Ewart Keyte was visited by Francis Collinson in Chipping Campden in about the 1950s when he sang The Foolish Boy. Researcher Katie Howson has also discovered that he was also recorded by the BBC in 1940 for a radio series called Thirsty Work:

Broadcast on 28th November 1940 (repeated 3rd January 1941)

“An evening of popular and country singing recorded by the BBC Mobile Recording Unit in a Cotswold inn. Chairman, Charles Gardiner. Singers: George Hawkins, Lionel Ellis, Ben Benfield, Garnet Keyte, Dick Taylor, Sydney Nicholls, and other regulars of the Ebrington Arms, Ebrington
Produced by Maurice Brown.

 

The Keyte family had lived in the Blockley/Ebrington/Chipping Campden area since at least  the 16th century and had been of high status. Members of the family had owned manor houses and been Sheriffs of Worcestershire and Members of Parliament. By the 19th century the family their fortunes were lower and songs were collected from two members of the family: Garnet Ewert Keyte who was a coal merchant in Chipping Campden and Higford Keyte who was a farmer and postmaster in Ebrington.

Garnet Ewart Keyte was born in 1883 in the Shipston on Stour registration district, which included Chipping Campden. By 1891 he was living in Sheep Street, Chipping Campden with his parents William, a haulier born in Blockley, which was then in Worcestershire, now in Gloucestershire, and Charlotte.

Garnet Ewart Keyte’s grandfather, Charles Keyte,was baptised on 3 November 1820 in Blockley, the son of William and Elizabeth Keyte. He married Alice Coteril in 1842 and by 1851 they were living in Blockley where Charles was an agricultural labourer and Alice was a silk worker with three children, George born about 1845, Lucy Maria born about 1847 and Frederick born about 1849. They also had a lodger. In 1861 they were still in Blockley and had four more children, William (Garnet’s father) born 1852, Elizabeth born about 1854, Maria Louisa born about 1857 and James born about 1859. Charles was still working as an agricultural labourer as were his sons, George and Frederick, and Alice and her daughter, Lucy Mari(a), were both silk factory workers. Charles and Alice also had a lodger. They continued to live in Blockley and by 1871 had two further children, Thomas H. born about 1862 and Annie A. Keyte born about 1864. Charles was working as a woodman and Alice, her daughter Maria Louise and son Thomas were silk factory workers. Charles Keyte continued to live in Blockley until his death in 1883.

Garnet Ewart Keyte’s father, William ‘Napper’ Keyte, had left home by 1871 and was a stableman working at the Jockey Stables in Blockley. William then married Charlotte Andrews in Chipping Campden on 18 November 1876 and by 1881 they were living in Sheep Street Lane, Chipping Campden, where William was working as a petroleum oil dealer and Charlotte was a dressmaker. At that time they had two daughters, Eleanor born about 1880 and Alice, born 1881. By 1891 William was working as a haulier. The family were still living in Sheep Street, Chipping Campden and had four more children, Garnet, Annie born about 1885, Maria born about 1887 and Catherine born about 1890. By 1901 Garnet was still living at home in Sheep Street where his father, William, was a coal and general dealer. He had another sister, May born about 1894, and a brother, William, born about 1897. On 22 December 1906 Garnet Ewart Keyte married Ethel Smith in Quinton, Warwickshire and by 1911 they were living in Bartleet Cottages, Chipping Campden with two children, Ethel Evelyn Keyte, born in Coventry about 1908 and Ewart Kyte born in Chipping Campden in 1910. Garnet was working as a coal dealer’s labourer. Garnet then operated the Coal business from Sheep Street, Chipping Campden. He lived in Station Road, Chipping Campden for many years and had two houses in Chipping Campden. Garnet’s wife, Ethel, died in early 1919 and in 1920 he remarried in the Shipston on Stour registration district.His second wife was Frances Beatrice Merriman née Webb,  herself a widow with three young children after her first husband had been killed in World War One. By 1939 they had moved out of the centre of the town and were living in a new council house on Station Road, from where Keyte continued to run the coal business. A Frances B.Keyte died in 1956 in the Cotswold registration district. Garnet Ewart Keyte died in early 1971 in Oxford.

Notes by Carol Davies May 2015

The following information is taken from a family tree of Garnet Ewart Kyte which can be found at: http://members.shaw.ca/panthers5/KeyteBlockley.html. Further information on Garnet Ewart Keyte’s ancestors can be found on this website.
Garnet and Frances had the following children:
1.BETTY KEYTE.
2.ELEANOR KEYTE who married ERNEST RICHARD KEYTE.
Their child is JONATHON KEYTE

3.MARION KEYTE who married MR HAZEL, owner of Cotek Papers Ltd. Operating at Draycott.
Previous business destroyed in fire at Todenham.
Child of MARION KEYTE and MR HAZEL is Scott Hazel
4. MOLLIE KEYTE.
5. STELLA KEYTE.
6. THOMAS KEYTE.
7. GARNET HENRY KEYTE, b. 14 July 1920, Chipping Campden.
8. WILLIAM JOHN HIGFORD KEYTE, b. Abt. 1927; d. 5 December 1985; m. PATTA PLESTED.
Notes for WILLIAM JOHN HIGFORD KEYTE:
William John Higford had a haulier firm used for transporting Cotek Paper products from Draycott to Europe.
Garnet Ewart Keyte had a third marriage to Mary Padbury and they had two children,

ANDY KEYTE, b. Abt. 1930; m. TRIXIE.

and RONALD KEYTE.

Notes by Carol Davies with thanks to Katie Howson February 2022

Keyte, Garnet Ewart photo

Songs Performed: