Vera Wilding Owen (1881 - 1954)
Elisha and Harriet’s daughter, Vera Wilding Owen, was born in January 1881. She was the only child living with Elisha in 1911. A man who knew the family well, thought she had worked for a while at "Nigel Ltd", a London fashion business in which her siblings, Effie and Norman, were involved but she returned to Wistanstow (see here). Elisha's death and the liquidation of "Nigel Ltd." both occurred in the summer of 1932 so she may have returned at around that time. She then ran the shop for many years - she was listed in Kelly's Directory of 1934 as the shopkeeper at the Post Office in Wistanstow - and she continued to live in the family home. Vera, of 'The Hollies', Wistanstow, died on 23 March 1954, aged 73 [Ludlow 1954, 1st qt]. At that point there was an open-air auction in the garden to sell off the family property. Vera never married.
It is interesting to note that in 1997 the residents of Wistanstow decided that their village which boasted a thriving school and playgroup, a stunning twenties village hall and a medieval church needed a village shop! They appointed a Wistanstow Village Shop Committee and raised the funds to convert the old smithy into a shop run by volunteers, operating for the benefit of the villagers and offering tourist information but not seeking to make huge profits. It opened on 14 April 2000.