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Sunday, November 3, 2024

Frith Graves, Marlow



Grave of George Frith d.  1926 age 84

ALSO OF

Emma his wife

April 1930. Aged -6 yrs. 

Grave in Marlow Cemetery. Hard to read.




The above grave is for Charles William Frith died September 19 1936 age 68

Also:

Mary Jane 

Died July 19 1935 age 73

This is also in Marlow Cemetery. 

See the Grave Index for links to all gravestone photos and transcriptions on the blog. Graves are included for Marlow churches and cemetery plus some for Little Marlow and Bisham churchyards too.

NB: We try to group graves belonging to individuals of the same surname on the same post but it doesn't necessarily mean they are all related. 

©Marlow Ancestors.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Recreated 1920's Marlow High Street Trade Directory with notes

Part One - odd numbers

With notes

Recreated from adverts, letters, trade directories, property transactions, newspaper stories, court cases etc.

The property numbers quoted here are not necessarily going to match up with modern numbers because of demolitions and amalgamations or other reasons and remember that the High Street had already been renumbered in the 1910s so that any 1920s property numbers will not usually be referring to the same property as their Victorian counterparts. 

Some properties on this side of the High Street were residential at this time and are not included in this post. The post office was also in the High Street, and the entrance to the brewery.

Many people mentioned here already have multiple mentions on this blog. To see all posts featuring any person looking for that person on the A-Z Person Index on the top drop down menu. More High Street history posts are indexed here, including


1-3 Lawrence and Son estate agents for domestic and commercial sales and lettings, auctioneers, valuers, insurance agents. The surveyor at the company was John Robert Laird. The business was later "Lawrence Son and Laird". One of the Mr Lawrences was a director of the Marlow Water Company.

5 Harold John Welch hairdresser in 1920 (bn 1879). (Sometimes given as being at 3 but was not)

7 National Provisional and Union Bank  - previous occupants of this building are listed here

9 Mrs Bonner Wellicome antiques 1920 (in business by 1911) New Branch of London County Westminster And Parr Bank mentioned as opening at no 9 1922. Head clerk on opening was Mr G. W Cousins.

11 Welbourne and Simpsons printers. Simpson was Herbert Edward Simpson born c1872. Earlier Smith & Co stationers, printers and circulating library. By 1942 was just ran by Herbert as H.E Simpson's  newsagent, tobacconist and lending library.

13 Lawrence J Smith office insurance agent, correspondence address for Great Marlow Water Company. Also in 1920 custom and excise office of James Gauld and the premises of confectioner Bert Jaynes. Lawrence at least was still there in the early 1930s. Presumably the offices  were above or behind the shop.

17  Harrell Limited grocers. In 1929.


Harrell's were still at no. 17 in 1939. In the early 1930s there was an off licence at no.45 High Street called Harrell's which may have been a related business.


19-21 Charles Drye "coach builder" of long standing but was already moving into the field of motor cars. Business came to be known as the "Marlow Carriage and Motor Car Company". A lot more on the early days of motoring in Marlow in this post

23 British and Argentine Meat Company. There by 1915. Some staff seem to have lived in. Formerly the base of royal furniture makers the Mealings

25 Phillip Brothers fishmongers. By 1931 was Mac Fisheries. Phillips there by 1911. 

27 George Frederick Hill offices? Later amalgamated with number 29 into one premises.

29 Arthur George Hill upholsterer and cabinet maker. Arthur was in business with James Henry Tugwood until 1900 when they dissolved their partnership as furniture dealers, upholsters and decorators under the name Tugwood and Hill. Thereafter Arthur continued under his own name only. He witnessed his neighbour Gutteridge (below) being burgled in 1912. In the 1930s this was Hill and Son Upholsterers and in 1942 "A.G Hill and Son".

31 William Guttridge  hairdresser, perfumer, fancy goods and toy seller. Had been in premises some years. In 1912 was described as a hairdresser and tobacconist when he was burgled. [Building demolished - site is now Oxfam]

33 Ellen Arnold confectioner. The toy shop today. Formerly the Way family premises see here.

35 Lovell's building company offices. Their builder's yard was behind some of the neighbouring buildings along here. They also had a bit of yard Dedmere Road. Still here 1942. Became a national business.  In Marlow they also functioned as undertakers and house decorators. History of other former builders who occupied this property here and about Young James Lovell himself here.




37 Leo Redver Ryan electrical supplies and radio seller/electrician in 1929, probably earlier too. Moved premises to number 44 by 1938. Killed when a bomb fell near Bovingdon Green in WW2. His son was also injured. They were delivering a radio. A WW1 Navy veteran. The Imperial War Museum has a photo of Leo as a young man see here (leaves this site). The man for whom Ryan's Mount in Marlow is named. 

41 [Cromwell House] Gerald Berkeley Wills  surveyor and architect in 1920. He was still in the High Street several years later but I am not certain if his premises were still at Cromwell House. Gerald designed the Marlow Cottage Hospital in 1914. He built Wolmer Cottage Bovingdon Green and lived in it with his family. Prior to his marriage to his wife Kathleen, Gerald lived at Stratton House, West Street Marlow.

The building became by 1926 the offices of the Marlow Urban District Council. It housed the Post Office from December 1897.  The council clerk Llewellyn Shone had an office in the building. 

By 1925 also offices of Cripps and Shone solicitors.

Full history of Cromwell House here

47 Alfred Davis junior journalist. Prominent in the organisation of local sports - and the Olympics! 

49 Walter Davis tailor. A Long standing business. 

The Chequers Hotel / pub. Billiards room. RAC approved. Pub also mentioned as a "masonic hall" 1927. In 1920 and 21 run by Lillian Long (bn 1888). Her husband William was a motor engineer. Could be something to do with the below. Lilian and William had moved to Aylesbury by 1932 where William worked as the manager of the Aylesbury Motor Company.

55 Marlow Motor Company. Newly formed with £500 capital in 1920. Also the premises of an unknown electrical engineer in the same year. / The Corner Restaurant in 1927 which also offered boarding. In 1927 proprietor was Charles J Paul. Restaurant still there late 1930s. Charles was also an insurance salesman. On corner of High Street/Institute Rd. 

57 Grays' Stores. Henry Gray born c1867. Took over the Clifton grocer's and wine merchant's in 1901. Initially ran the shop with his brother James who was also a rent collector / letting agent but James had left the shop by about 1906 to concentrate on the latter business. Henry's shop was one of the fancier places in town to buy your provisions. He lived in Glade Road in this period. James lived in the Old Vicarage then Thamesfield.

59 TNW Watts possibly residential address. He was also secretary to Hambledon Council. Long term surveyor and inspector of nuisances for Marlow Urban District Council. Later became a confectioner's shop. Today is Fego.

61 William and Thomas Sellman builders, plumbers and painters. Here by 1911. Went from these particular premises before 1939. In 1942 no.61 was Tillion's florists. 

75 William Jackson dentist. Here by 1911.  This building does not exist anymore. Not in same spot as modern 75. Formerly a doctor's premises.

77 George Morton antiques. By 1939 was Kendall and Morton antiques dealers. Not in same place as modern 77 due to renumbering.

79 William Robinson pianoforte tuner in 1920. Not in position of modern 79 due to renumbering. William not listed 1915.

81 Thomas Wheeler refreshment rooms. These were on the corner with Station Road. Not the same as modern 81 due to renumbering. Not there 1915. He had previously ran a restaurant in Slough. Born c1863. 


- Unnumbered - Currall's Garage (sales and service) plus radio agents. 

Note also on the Causeway (a continuation of High Street) on the same side of the street as the odd numbers.

Charles H Carter Bridge Restaurant bakers and confectioners.




Part two will contain the even numbers plus selected references.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this information for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.



Monday, October 21, 2024

Vintage Bourne End shop adverts no 2

 As regular readers will know, we focus mainly on Great Marlow parish with occasional forays further afield to nearby places that have tied in to our research. Today however we would like to share some vintage shop advertising from our riverside neighbour Bourne End. These come from a little undated (but post 1948)  guide to the village which calls it a "grand place in which to spend a holiday" as well as to live. This booklet comes from the collection of the late great Michael Eagleton who kindly left it to me. 




Above, Griffins Stores, proprietor J M Davis. Newsagent with stationary, confectionary, tobacco and ice creams available. 



Above, R H Wicks, The Parade. Offers to make and fit carpets, and repair and renovate upholstery and bedding. Below that is an advert for the longstanding Townsend Bros. boat builders of the Eagle Boat House - "two minutes walk from the W.R Railway Station". 



Above, Arthur Shortland's department store at 2-3 The Parade. Clothing, footwear, mattresses, floor coverings, fabric and bedding are amongst the goods on offer. Many locals will remember this trading into modern times. 



Above, E J Machpherson newsagents, stationers, printers  and confectioners with library, fancy goods and toys. Also The Cafe at  Station Approach. 


Bourne End motors "automobile agents and engineers". 



Above, the Station Fruit stores. "Personal attention given to all orders". 


Above, the Old Forge Well End, opposite the Black Lion,  was then operating as an accomodation and refreshments provider. They promise tea is served in an attractive tea garden in the summer months. Sounds delightful! 


And from the Marlow Directory and Thames Guide 1891 - 


The Railway Hotel, Bourne End. "Every accomodation for Boating Parties, Cyclists, etc."


More adverts in the post here

As mentioned above we focus on Great Marlow but any other posts containing info relating to areas such as Bourne End, Hedsor, Well End etc are indexed here

For a specific family, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There's thousands of people listed there. 


©MarlowAncestors. 


Monday, October 14, 2024

Foxes Piece Marlow History

Foxes Piece was originally a name given meadow off what is now Glade Road (but was a mere track then). This was on the opposite side of the road from the modern Foxes Piece flats and school. The meadow got the name from school proprietor George Faux (pronounced Fox) who with his wife Ann, a former servant of Princess Amelia, ran a private boys' school where Cedar House is now from 1757 until George died in 1797. The boys used the meadow as an extension of their playground and as a cricket pitch. A detailed post about this school with more about the Fauxes can be found on the blog: here.

Across the road from the school were two more fields called "Upper and Lower Foxes" comprising parcels of land known as Foxes Two Acres, Foxes Little Two Acres and Foxes Lower Acres, presumably also once used by Faux. Over the years all the fields became known collectively just as Foxes Piece. The Faux school meadow site was eventually built over but the name Foxes Piece lingered for the rest of the fields and for the area around them.


 

 Above, from the 1839 map drawn by William Francis for the Platts Farm estate sale which included land  within Marlow Fields such as Foxes Piece. The land is shown as plots 20-23 comprising lot VII here. Glade Rd can be seen running between plots 20 and 21. 


Part of the site amounting to 23 acres extending down to the side of Glade Road as well as Little Marlow Road was hired out as private (and not particularly cheap) allotments by the end of the Victorian area by landowner Sir William Clayton. Previously they had been let to farmers. The allotments were put up for sale in one lot in 1910. At the time land in the Glade Road area was highly desirable for property development. The buyer was John Langley, whose interesting biography Kathryn has written in a post under our Marlow Heroes series here. He did not immediately build on the site. Part of this land was later given by John to the town for the building of the Cottage Hospital.

In 1939 part of the Foxes Piece were bought by the Urban District Council under sanction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health at a cost of £1300 for use as community allotments. These are the modern allotments.

During the second world war many evacuee children came to Marlow. There was relatively little playing space for them or for the children who were already living in the town so the future school site at Foxes Piece was purchased for £800 by the council in 1940 as a recreation ground which became known as Foxes Piece Playing Fields. It totalled 8.5 acres.

After the evacuee families left Marlow the recreation ground remained in use for local people for a few years but in the 1950s Foxes Piece First School was built on part of the site between 1954-56. There were only three classrooms back then plus cloakrooms, a staffroom and scullery. It isn't clear whether any part of the playing fields were retained for public use or whether the whole of the playing fields were enclosed for the school use. I remember being told multiple times by Marlow people as a child in the 1980s /90s that a public right of way ran through the school playing fields and that you were allowed into the fields themselves at the weekend. I remember them seeing people walking dogs there and many people walking through the school grounds on a weekend as a shortcut. My dad took me through there himself. I am sure that that was not with the council blessing and certainly the site is not open access today! I presume that the lingering belief that the grounds were public land was a throwback to the days of the official playing fields there.

In 1966 it was decided that the critical shortage of infant school places in the town meant that new schools had to be built. Foxes Piece was picked as the site for a middle school to adjoin the first school. Following an over two year build the school welcomed its first pupils in 1969. It had a 320 child capacity. The two schools together combined were then known together as Foxes Piece Infants School with Mrs Nye as the new head. Later the schools were again  referred to separately as the First School and Middle School.

By 1969 the school buildings were used as polling stations in elections, something which gave the pupils some welcome days off!

Newly built next door were the local authority owned rental flats of Foxes Piece (the first families moved in 1964/1965). The flats were initially usually described as Foxes Piece Estate. Council houses in the Newfield Gardens area were also in their early days referred to under that name sometimes.  

Meanwhile the Foxes Piece allotments continued. They were mostly unfenced until 1974 when sadly the theft of produce and some vandalism forced their enclosure behind fence and padlock. They remain in cultivation today. More on the history of the various allotments in Marlow and those who used them here.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Sources:

1833 Parochial Assessment of Great Marlow,  surveyors working notebooks in my family possession and transcribed by me.

1839 map, copy in my family possession.

Personal Interviews.

Bucks Herald cuttings May 10th 1940 and 16th July 1910.

Bucks Examiner December 2nd 1955. British Library Archives via the BNA. Reading Evening Post February 11th 1966. As previous. Reading Mercury February 11th 1939. As previous.

© MarlowAncestors 

Monday, October 7, 2024

The Most Difficult Job In Marlow History?

 Marlow is a place where even the election to an unpaid parish position could result in civil disturbances, accusations of bribery and corruption and occasionally bloodshed. Elections to parliament were even worse. The 1880 election riot, and women's bread riot of 1800 are probably the best known. Someone had to officially call these elections or polls and announce the often unpopular (with the disenfranchised) results, and for the first half of the 19thc the man with the short straw was Henry Stallwood. 


Hidden history of Quoiting Square

Henry was of relatively humble origins and yet he came to wield some power and responsibility. Born in 1807, I believe he was the son of William and Maria Stallwood and therefore brother to influential Chartist Edmund Stallwood whose biography I've linked to below. William ran the small Three Loggerheads beerhouse in Quoiting Square (later The Queen), and Henry lived next door for a while. He worked as a young man as a shoe maker like William. (Combining beer selling and boot and shoemaking is almost a cliche in Marlow at this time.)  But it's Henry's parish roles we are going to focus on. Quoiting Square was the centre of non conformity in Marlow, home to the Congregational Church or Salem Chapel as it was then known. It was also the centre of liberal and "radical" politics (the Clayton Arms pub was in particular, named for local landowner and liberal political  candidate Sir William Clayton of Harleyford Manor.) So many of the residents of West Street, Oxford Rd and Quoiting Square  were identified at this time with being "independent" either in terms of how they voted or how they worshipped (and usually both). 


Marlow was regarded as a pocket borough, which returned two M.Ps. In other words, it was in control of the majority land owners the Williams family of Temple House. Generally it was considered, rightly or wrongly, that if you were one of the minority of Marlow residents with the right to vote, and you were one of Williams tenants, you'd better vote for him and his running partner or you might find yourself promptly evicted or trade withdrawn from your business. Accusations of voter bribery and intimidation were common on the other side too. Who you voted for was publicly known after all. So in 1835 Henry, and William Stallwood, found themselves commemorated in a list of 34 "Independent Voters" who'd dared to vote against the status quo, unsuccessfully as it turned out.  This list was intended to mark the bravery of those concerned but it probably marked them out for a certain amount of abuse from opposing quarters too. 


Parish Constable - A Bloody Business

I've mentioned one fairly thankless task Henry will have, that of returning officer for the borough. But Henry may have come to mind to those who voted him in because he'd already fulfilled another clutch of very difficult roles in Great Marlow history. These were those of parish constable, tithing man, and hayward. You might think a little country town might not be an especially stressful place to be a petty constable. Unfortunately for Henry you'd be wrong. Marlow had a reputation as a centre for poaching and some of these men were violent, both to keepers, witnesses against them, and to the arresting officers. Generally Henry took the option of  safety in numbers and a group of tithing men and petty constables did their best to surprise the offenders at home. The tussle to arrest one of the most notorious poachers, watched by a 100 strong crowd in 1840, is covered in detail in this post here. You will see from that that in 1842 Henry inflicted some severe injuries on the same suspect during an arrest. Henry was not afraid to use the staff given to him shall we say. Were the suspected criminals violent on arrest because the police were rough to them or was it the constables felt they were entitled to give as good as they got? Hard to say but it's fair to say Henry and his colleagues often had the crowd against them, and they were very much outnumbered. When Henry as tithing man was attending the Marlow horse races* in 1836, his attempts to keep the course clear nearly got him a ducking in the river. He was implicated in an assault by a parish constable on a race goer who had apparently ignored instructions to stay behind a line. The man received a head injury, and the crowd thought the constable and Stallwood had used excessive force to make their point. No action was taken against Henry but the constable was successfully sued for damages. 


Henry the sleuth 

Henry was a parish constable for much of the 1830 and 40s. Technically any householder could be selected for this role, which was then unpaid, and the position lasted a year. But if you were selected, and didn't want to do it, you could nominate a substitute and pay them to do the job for you. Henry was obviously one who was willing to take more than his fair share of turns. He was regarded as a brilliant constable, at least by those who didn't feel the brunt of his official staff. 

He took the role seriously, and very frequently we can find him patrolling the streets at all hours of day and night looking for the criminally inclined. (In this age of violent arrests, Henry was nevertheless usually patrolling alone. There were not enough police to do otherwise even if they wanted to.) He seems to have been a vigilant soul. To give one example from 1838.. One night, Henry sees William Meads lurking suspiciously outside the shoe shop of John Beck. He waits and watches as William breaks open the shutters, and goes inside. William then emerges back  through the window and sidles off. Henry follows him back to his lodgings, collars his man, and finds 12 pairs of shoes about his person. William Meads had a previous conviction for theft and so the sentence was inevitable - transportation for life. 

A bold thief attempted a break in at Henry's own house in 1854. (He was then living in Chapel Street.) The bolts were too strong to break through. They did manage to get into a store and liberate 2lbs butter though. 


More jobs for Henry

In 1839 Henry was elected to the position of surveyor of the parish roads. It was a hotly contested affair with numerous candidates, and allegations yet again of nefarious tactics.  Why did anyone care so much about what seems a role of only very local importance? More people had the right to vote for these parish positions than had the right to vote, and candidates were promoted by one political party or another so it became a way to show support for them. Many of those who won were the "liberal" or "independent" voters in political elections and they said it showed what the result would be in terms of their choice of M.P if the franchise was wider. Henry obviously did a good job as he was returned with little opposition the following year. In this role he had to check the roads were in good order and repaired in good time if not. 

Then in 1842 he was nominated for the joint position as registrar and relieving officer  (eg for the administration of poor relief funds) for the Marlow district of the Wycombe Poor Law union. The previous man in the job has been sacked due to numerous "defalculations" in his accounts.  How many of these roles Henry wanted to fulfil in their own right is hard to say, but I suspected he was generally put forward to represent the liberal interest whenever an opportunity arose. On this occasion he was unsuccessful at the poll, although he did come second. 

This was a time the parish position contests were getting yet more political. A sustained attempt to ensure Conservative voters turned up at the parish vestry in 1843, meant all "rad" holders of parish positions were ousted - including "Lord Chancellor Stallwood" as one paper put it. No more parish constable Stallwood either. However any attempt to keep our man out of local affairs were doomed to failure. 


Dirty tactics of another kind

Henry was still occupying parish positions in the 1850s and 60s. He continued in the unpopular (elected and this time paid) role of parish rate collector for more than 20 years from 1849. In other words, he issued demands for payment of the local taxes 3 times a year, and then came to collect the money due. Marlow people did not like paying their rates in general. In this job he would clash with some of those on his own side politically who objected to some specific rates or how they were administered. But Henry showed no favour and was not averse to applying a little pressure on the late payers. One  complained that Henry employed a group of "dirty boys" to "huzaa" (shout and create a hullabaloo) outside the house of anyone who wasn't ready to pay the first time he called to collect his dues. The magistrates were sceptical that someone in a respectable position would do any such thing, but when asked Henry happily admitted that he did employ one boy to create a disturbance! He suggested the youngsters' friends probably tagged along. The J.Ps responded that Henry had "a painful duty to perform".


He was obviously doing his best to be impartial as regards collecting the rates but I suspect he sympathised with those who felt they were too high. He was one of the founding members of the Marlow rate payers association, and at its inaugural meeting in the Clayton Arms in 1866, he was elected to the chair. Their brief was to watch over parochial spending  and ensure everyone got good value for money. 


From 1859 he was also the parish inspector of nuisances and chair of the Nuisance Committee. This usually meant investigating reports of overflowing cesspits, stinking drains and overgrown piles of farmyard manure. The scale of the challenge facing Henry here is hard to imagine. In his first year he reported  605 cases of nuisance within the town! This only accounts for those cases where he found there was a legal cause for complaint, not every one he had to investigate. Let's hope he didn't have a good sense of smell.


These kind of offences were not just unpleasant but often dangerous to health. In 1866 Henry chaired a meeting which aimed to prevent another cholera outbreak in the town. (In recent years there had been ones in 1832 when 49 people died, 1849 with 12 deaths, and 1850 with "many" fatalities.) It was settled upon to begin a house to house inspection to look for dodgy wells whose water would be tested. It was also decided to organise a subscription for a new parish pump to provide access to clean water.  I'm not sure which pump this was - the ones in Quoiting Square and St Peters Street are both possibilities. 

I will mention one last role, which he kept up to his death - county court bailiff. 


At election time

As mentioned above, one of Henry's most eye catching roles was the one of returning officer.  He took this on in 1836 and continued it for decades. This involved him taking the official public nominations for "right and proper persons" to represent the borough in parliament. Special hustings were erected outside the town hall/ Crown in Market Square for this to take place. If only as many candidates were bought forward (and seconded) as there were seats, this was straightforward. If not, a show of hands in favour of each would be M.P was requested. Henry had the job of deciding if two people had a clear majority of support. If not, he would declare a poll was necessary, and formal voting would take place on another day shortly after. If Henry's decision was disputed by either side, a poll could also be requested by those present. I don't think the show of hands ever actually settled the election, it was more of a formality. Henry usually gave some speech appealing for calm and good conduct.  He was present on the platform throughout voting  and supervised the recording of each eligible persons vote in the poll book. He then had to announce the winner. The actual voting part of the day was usually accompanied by some shouting and jostling but the real trouble generally began once the victor came forward. I don't think Henry was ever injured as a result, but as missiles were recorded as thrown at the stage more than once, he may have just learned when to make a speedy exit.  Winners and losers almost always make a point of thanking Henry for his even handed behaviour and diligence in this position. 


Henry himself was not prevented from engaging in political causes. In 1867 he was present at a reform meeting at The Greyhound Inn. Almost all those publicly recorded as attending were non conformists. He put forward a proposition that the franchise should be extended to the working class and that there should be a clamp down on voter intimidation and bribery. This was unanimously carried. In particular Henry wanted to see those accused of either offering bribes or accepting them punished properly. Other votes were to support the use of a secret ballot. 


Family man

I've not mentioned much of Henry's personal life because his public one has taken up so much room! Married to Mary (b c 1809), he had several children including little Clara who died after 3 weeks illness in 1853. Another daughter, Mary Ann would be a school teacher as a young woman. As such she was considered for the position of schoolmistress at the Union workhouse school at Bledlow but in the end was unsuccessful. I've wondered whether this Mary Ann may have been one of the juvenile pupil teachers of the Marlow girls British school but more research is needed. Henry was definitely an early supporter of the Marlow British schools (that is ones that were non denominational in their religious teaching) and was on the committee to start the first one (boys only originally) in 1852. Mary Ann also worked as a dressmaker. 


The Stallwoods were members of the Congregational Church in Quoiting Place (Quoiting Square now). Henry was a proud teetotaler like so many of his fellow worshippers. He said he took the pledge in 1841 and never looked back. He addressed the local temperance society several times. 


It's hard to imagine Henry had much leisure time but we know where he could be found when he did -  at the Great Marlow Literary and Scientific Institute reading room in the High Street. He was a supporter of this from the start, and often sat on the committee. 


Goodbye Henry

Henry died in the summer of 1872 age 65. The Bucks Herald declared he had been a "shrewd, industrious and diligent man" who was "painstaking and efficient" in his work. At that point he had moved to Cambridge Terrace (Cambridge Rd). Marlow would have to find someone else to do their dirty work!


Additional information:

Chartist Edmund Stallwood : here

 Early policing - crime fighting societies, parish constables, tithing men, sheep stealing and the night watch here

Index of posts related to Quoiting Place / Square: here

Index of posts about riots, dodgy elections, bribery and other crimes here

*Marlow Horse Races- comprehensive history, updated October  here

The British schools in Marlow: here

The Literary and Scientific Institute - here

Three Loggerheads beerhouse : here

All mentions of a person or family here can be found in the A-Z person index on the top drop down menu. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day.

 

SOURCES INCLUDE:

1833 parish assessment, from original in our possession. 

Robson's Commercial Directory 1839. 

Census - transcript from the originals by Jane Pullinger. 

Windsor and Eton Express February 11th 1854, 13th December 1862, 11th August 1866, 23rd March 1867 - Slough Borough Libraries

Report of The British Schools Society 1856. 

Bucks Herald 6th January 1838,  31st March 1860, 2nd Jan 1862, 27th July 1872. Bucks Gazette 28th March 1840 & 5th November 1842, Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News 20th July 1872,  Berkshire Chronicle May 11th 1842, Reading Mercury 5th November 1853 & 23 March 1867  - all British Library Archive. 

"England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2JT4-32Z : 31 December 2014), Henry Stallwood, 1872; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.


© MarlowAncestors




Saturday, October 5, 2024

Vintage Bourne End business advertisements.

 Here are a few more vintage ads from a circa early 1950s guide to Bourne End. It is from the collection of the late Michael Eagleton who kindly left it to me. 



Above, E R Spindler, Cookham Rd. Baker and confectioner. 


Louise the hairdresser, 5 Royalty Parade. The place to go for a manicure or a Marcel wave.


Above, S A Aldridge sound and vision specialist with a mobile radio repair service. Sales, installation and service for all makes of television. 




Above J Woodbridge & Son ironmongers, furnisher, and heating/sanitary/electrical engineer. Station Corner. 



Above, Child & James auctioneers, estate agents, surveyors  and valuers. The Parade. 




Above, Gray's tailors, general outfitters and boot and shoe specialists. Furlong Rd. 




Above, A H Fountain electrical engineer. Royalty Parade. 



Above, Richard Wilson landscape gardener and sports ground contractor. Wharf Lane. The man for anything from care of fashionable rock gardens to looking after a bowling green. 

Some more Bourne End Adverts here

We do not generally cover areas outside of Great Marlow Parish but any posts of ours that cover the Bourne End area are listed in the index here


© MarlowAncestors 


Monday, September 30, 2024

Victorian Trinidadians in Marlow

A report in the South Bucks Free Press of a children's cricket match in the summer of 1862 contains mention of a talented though very young "back stop" on the team of the prestigious Marlow Place Academy who was a "coloured" boy from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. His name was T.M Cadett. Also on the Marlow Place team were 3 other boys with the last name Cadett. Intrigued, I decided to see if I could find out more about these boys. It was far from easy but what an interesting group!

The especially talented little back stop was the youngest of 4 brothers (as they turned out to be). The middle initial M is not mentioned in other record of him (the newspaper did make several mistakes as to initials of the other cricket players) He is most usually referred to as Thomas Cadett Junior. He would have turned 11 in 1862. His brothers and fellow pupils were Thomas James aged 16, James Stuart aged 18 and William James (or William James Henry) aged 14. All were British subjects born in Port Of Spain, Trinidad. 

At that time, British references to someone being "coloured" and from the Caribbean were usually to those thought be of mixed black and white heritage and this is the case with the Cadett boys. Their paternal grandparents were an English sugar plantation owner, James Cadett, who died before the boys were born, and his black Trinidadian (unmarried, at least at the time) partner Angelle. He had children with other women too, all of whom he acknowledged and provided for but not all of whom were allowed to have the family name Cadett. This and his will suggest that the children he had with Angelle were favoured above his others. Angelle had her own house in Port of Spain given to her by James along with other property. When he retired to a small house in London, she remained in Trinidad. There had been an estrangement between them and James asked for her to be paid no further maintenance after his death.

James was a significant slave owner. His first sugar plantation was the River Estate but in 1828 he moved to Carapichaima Hall and changed its name to the Waterloo Estate. Compensation for the loss of the slaves when slavery became outlawed was paid to his heirs through their representatives.

One of those heirs of James and Angelle was James, the father of our Marlow Place boys. James had his sons with a woman called Matilda. Her race and background is not known to me nor whether she was legally married to him or not. He was a doctor and remained in Trinidad. His brothers, our Marlow boys' uncles, moved to Scotland and London. 

At an early age Dr James Cadett sent his sons to England to be educated. This was almost always done to the sons of the wealthy in Trinidad. Marlow Place Academy was a boarding school which had a high reputation for it's excellence and was located in Station Road Marlow in the former reputed home of a Prince Of Wales. You can see a photo of the building as it is today and read more about the school in https://marlowancestors.blogspot.com/2022/02/marlow-place-history.html. The history of the school is also expanded here

One feature of the school was the importance placed on cricket as a recreation. The school possessed its own meadow used for the sport. An optional extra subject at the school was French which might well have been taken up by the Cadetts, given the fact that the Cadett family is thought to have originally arrived in England as refugees from France many years previously plus the presence of French speakers in general on Trinidad itself.

Just three years after the Cadett boys were enjoying a sunny day's sport in the Marlow meadow, the brothers found themselves in difficulty upon the death of their father. James Stuart Cadett was already back in Trinidad by then, living on his father's Waterloo plantation and working as a civil, agricultural and mechanical engineer as well as millwright. In 1864 he applied for a patent for a steam ploughing machine which he had invented. 

William James was still in England when his father died. Thomas James and Thomas Junior may well have been too. Certainly Thomas Junior might have been expected to still be at Marlow Place given that his brothers had remained in education there until their mid - late teens.

Doctor James died indebted to many individual people as well as owing money to a bank. All of these creditors were soon circling and demanding that their claims upon the estate be settled. His executors were a Thomas and a William Cadett, both of whom were living in Britain. These may be his brothers who bore those names and lived in Britain or perhaps his sons William James and Thomas James. The executors didn't at first appear to deal with the estate (but remember how hard it was to get mail from so far away at the time!) and so one of the creditors was granted permission to distribute the estate to the benefit of himself and the other creditors if the executors didn't soon arrive in Trinidad. It looks like the family money had virtually evaporated. In the end William James the son definitely voyaged to the island to help settle his father's affairs. This was either as one of the executors, instead of them or in addition to them. Court cases and disputes about the estate continued for some months and appear complex.

What happened to the inventive James Stuart Cadett can't be discovered by me. At least not yet. He had his own business premises in Port of Spain so hopefully his career as engineer progressed happily even if the hereditary family estate where he had lived was threatened by the creditors. I would love to see a picture of his steam ploughing machine, but search high and low as I have done, I cannot find one.

William James Cadett returned to England with the wish to become a civil engineer like his brother. He first got practical mechanical experience at the Watling Works in Stony Stratford. Following that stint he studied engineering at the Department of Applied Sciences at King's College London. Upon finishing his studies in 1871 he was elected an Associate of the College. 

In January 1876 William James set himself up in business in Finsbury Chambers London, while continuing to be the assistant Engineer at the River Conservancy at Lee, Kent. The next month he was elected to the Institute of Civil Engineers. Along with his partner Edward Dudley he won several prizes for their submitted design for various proposed civil engineering projects. In the same year James married at Cookham Dean Helen Clark, daughter of George Clark of  Bisham Park Farm near Marlow proving that he had maintained links to our immediate area. The future looked rosy for the couple with William James tipped for much success in his career particularly around river, water and sewage projects which were progressing at a pace in this era, but tragedy struck. Just over three months from his marriage to Helen, William contracted blood poisoning and died after 10 days suffering at Bisham Park Farm. He was only 29 years old.

Helen eventually remarried.

What of the last two brothers who studied at Marlow Place? That is the two Thomases. There is a suggestion that Thomas James Cadett emigrated to Australia and became a grocer (but went bankrupt). Thomas Junior the talented young cricketer is more mysterious. In the 1870s a man of this name was a poet causing some local Trinidadian excitement with his self published work "Timothy Cotton", in the style of Byron. It's sentiments were considered a bit too bohemian by some. Is this our Thomas? The author was said to have travelled the world extensively and used those travels for creative inspiration. Our Thomas was only in his early 20s when the substantial poem was published. Was he sufficiently old to have travelled extensively enough to be that poet? Probably, but without further biographical details for the poet I can't say for certain that they are one and the same person. It's tempting to think tales of the residence in Marlow of Byron's friend Percy Bysshe Shelley and rumours of Byron's visiting him here might just have inspired a young scholar, sitting at his desk in Marlow Place...

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Further reading:

An African boy in 1800s Marlow here

Alexander James Gratton, of St Vincent, "The Spotted Boy". here

Slavery and the abolition movement in Marlow here

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this information for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Some Sources:

Royal Trinidad Gazette:

https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00097247/00205/3j

https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00097247/00205/3x

https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00097247/00180/2x

Will of James Cadett, the grandfather:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/1295623392

Weekly Calendar,1864 University of Florida Archives

https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/09/47/30/11246/0093.txt

Trinidad Chronicle 13th Dec 1864 British Library Archives via the British Newspaper Archive.

The Institute of Civil Engineers, minutes of proceedings 1878.51:270-271.

South Bucks Free Press June 21st 1862. Reading Mercury 15th July and 28th October 1876 British Library Archives via the British Newspaper Archive.

"England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2JRR-SQW : 31 December 2014), William James Cadett, 1876; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Cookham, Berkshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

Census of England and Wales 1861, transcribed from microfilm. Census information remains Crown Copyright.


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