Violet Helen Carson OBE
Born 1st September 1898 on German Street, off Oldham Road, Ancoats, (renamed Radium Street during WWI) in the heart of industrial Manchester, to William Brown Carson and Mary Clarke (Tordoff). Her Scottish (Dumfries) father a flour miller and manager of a local flour mill, her mother an amateur singer. Within a year the family had moved to 12 Mill Street, which would have been close to junction with Great Ancoats Street, doubtless an address associated with Williams employment. Violet and her sister Nellie followed in their mother’s footsteps, after taking piano lessons at school they performed around the North West singing as the Carson Sisters.
By the beginning of WWI Violet became a pianist in the picture houses accompanying the silent movies of the time. I believe at some point she played at the Ambassador on Langworthy Road amongst many other local theatres and the Carlton on Cross Lane where 20 years anniversary of Coronation Street was celebrated, broadcasting the first two episodes to a full house.
Violet married George Frederick Peploe a manager of a building company on her birthday 1926 at Manchester Cathedral, the church in which she was baptised 28 years previously. The couple registered their address as Mitre Hotel in Manchester. Throughout the marriage the couple lived at 1 Granby Road, Swinton. (Ironically Granby Road is very close to The White Horse on Worsley Road a favourite pub of Tony Warren who she would encounter as a child actor in 1951, a meeting he never forgot).
George sadly passed away on 25th March 1929. Violet never remarried, instead she focused on her career.
By the commencement of WWII Violet had moved from Swinton to a bungalow at 18 Fleetwood Road in the Cleveleys district of Blackpool together with her then retired parents. In Violet’s final years sister Nellie also lived there.
In the mid 1930’s Violet joined the BBC in Manchester where she frequently performed on the wireless in Songs At The Piano, ‘Auntie Vi’ in Childrens Hour and Nursery Sing Song amongst many other programs of the day.
Further early achievements within the entertainment business involved working for the Council For The Encouragement Of Music & The Arts (during the war years), interviewer and panelist on Woman’s Hour. She was the resident pianist ‘ Violet at the piano’ for several years for the Mabel & Wilfred Pickles quiz show entitled Have A Go. Her talents led to regular appearances on the popular religious choral radio programme Stars On Sunday, later also as a tv show Violet appearing with many well known names including, Vince Hill, Matt Munro Harry Secombe and Moira Anderson as a highly regarded pianist and vocalist. Along side the heavy schedule she featured in several radio and stage plays and a tv production of Richard III. One can only assume some kind of elocution instruction was provided in her informative years producing a voice far removed from her northern roots and upbringing and far cry from the strong northern dialect and sharp tones of Ena Sharples.
Ena Sharples appeared in and delivered the first line in the inaugural episode of Coronation Street on the 9th December 1960, originally scripted for a mere three months, Ena was a regular character for the next 20 years portraying the battleaxe in over 2,000 episodes. Her quarrels and confrontations with Elsie Tanner were legendary, the ever present hairnet and sharp tongue enough to put the fear of god into the most hard-edged dock worker from Trafford Road. As the 1970’s progressed Violet’s health declined, appearances in the show were reduced. Although Coronation Street made Violet a name known throughout the country she felt it had somewhat overshadowed her work of the past 50 years which she was very proud of, in one interview she was quoted saying “ Violet Carson was destroyed the day Ena Sharples appeared on television”
Violet proved to be a shrewd business woman, in the 1960’s investing in shares of Telefusion an up and coming TV rental chain after opening a shop in York she was quite taken by the family atmosphere and bought shares in their company.
Two years after the first Coronation Street broadcast she was made ITV personality of the year. This was followed in 1965 with the OBE award and an honoury first class Master Of Art awarded from The University Of Manchester in 1973.
Violet read the lesson at the memorial service to her friend and local matriach Gracie Fields autumn 1979.
Violet Helen Carson Peploe passed away on 26th December 1983 the home she shared with her parents and sister on Fleetwood Road, Cleveleys, Blackpool . She left an estate of £ £194,602.
© Susan Tydd 2021
Do not reproduce without permission.
1 Granby Road, Swinton. The home of Violet and George.
© Susan Tydd 2021
Please do not reproduce without permission.
Images courtesy of Manchester Guardian. Wikipedia. Timepix. National Library Of Scotland.
Please do not reproduce without permission.
Images courtesy of Manchester Guardian. Wikipedia. Timepix. National Library Of Scotland.