Berwick Road is not one of the older streets in Marlow in terms of being a residential address. But it did exist as a lane to the workhouse and to farm lands before any private homes were built there.
This post tells the story of some of the earlier residents of the road.
In 1909 scandal hit when Nellie Harvey, a married woman, was accused of "immoral conduct" with an unknown young man on Marlow Common. On the day in question she had claimed a sick headache and sent her children out to play while her husband was out at work.
James Belcher, landlord of the Chair Makers Arms pub in Dean Street Marlow spotted her, he claimed, misbehaving with a man. This he told her husband John at his place of work- and people in the pub, and people in Market Square.
A furious Nellie sued him for substantial damages on a charge of slander.
This charge could only stick if the allegation wasn't true. Unfortunately for Nellie multiple witnesses disproved her statement that she had only gone out once for 5 minutes. One of her neighbours in Berwick Road Thomas Patterson, an insurance agent, was amongst those who saw her meet and go off with a young man who had arrived in the road by bicycle. Laura Allen of nearby Workhouse Lane (now Munday Dean Lane) was another witness whose testimony went against her. Laura said that the man walked with an arm around Nellie's waist.
Nellie's sons Henry and Francis gave evidence on the other hand in support for Nellie's statement that she had felt unwell and had not gone off away from home. Though out at play with their sister they said they did look in at home several times during the afternoon in question.
The jury (obviously with the judge's approval) found for James Belcher. He was awarded costs. The unfortunate Harveys moved away from Marlow.
Witness Thomas Patterson's wife later had her own day in court as a witness. She was amongst a number of Marlow housewives defrauded by a dishonest employee working at the Marlow Branch of the Co-Op in 1912. Money they paid off their grocery accounts was embezzled rather than credited to them.
The residents above were amongst the relatively few in Berwick Road in the Edwardian era. The area, historically known as The Berwicks, was largely agricultural and horticultural with meadows, small holdings and the town's parish allotments (established in 1886) predominant in the immediate vicinity. There were no houses in Seymour Court Road then. Another feature of the road in these early days was that a large number of the houses were given female names, such as Ruby Villas. In 1903 builder George Smith named Christina and Revina Cottages after his infant daughters, continuing this trend. These still bear the name of his little girls but the other homes in the road have generally lost their original monikers. The homes George Smith built were not perhaps as pleasant as their name suggested when they first went up. George was told off for allowing them to be occupied by the first residents before he had supplied them with adequate sanitation!
It was some years before the street received any lighting.
Adding to the Berwick Road agricultural feel was James Price's horse dealership, a long term fixture there. In 1910 James was accused of allowing a work horse of his to be ill treated by an employee. He was acquitted.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day.
Related Posts:
Early history of nearby Seymour Court Road here
Chairmakers Arms list of landlords / history timeline here
Index to posts about other places in Marlow including Dean Street and the Workhouse in Munday Dean Lane here
To search for ancestors on the blog please use the Person Index option on the drop down menu. As of June 2022 over 6,000 people are mentioned.
See:
Buckinghamshire Examiner February 22nd 1909 copy at the British Library retrieved via the BNA. Accessed August 2020. [Harvey case]
Census my microfilm transcription.
Judicial research Jane Pullinger.
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