South Place, Great Marlow

South Place seems to have been first developed in the 1850s. It was formerly the rick yard for Platt's Farm whose farm house you would have found off Mill Rd a little further towards the river and on the other side of the road. It was purchased by George Cannon in 1839. 

South Place is one of those Marlow Streets that if you lived there your address was likely to be described in a bewildering variety of ways in its early days. If you believe your ancestor lived in South Place watch for them being stated as being in Mill Road/Lane (which is the road that South Place leads off), Strong Beer Acre (a vanished area of Marlow previously adjoining the location of South Place), Mill Lane, Platts Road (alternative early name for parts of Mill Road) or Marlow Fields. Census records usually give South Place correctly but other records are very wayward. By the 1890s you should be alright with little variance of address to confuse things.

The earliest residents of South Place lived on the edge of the then built up area of town. Once the nearby railway station arrived in the early 1870s development of the surrounding area picked up pace. The people of South Place however remained easily able to walk out onto open fields and down to the River Thames. 

Being close to the river could have disadvantages of course - the little street was badly flooded in 1894, 1896,1903,1908 and again in the 1940s.

The Prince Of Wales pub on the corner of South Place and Mill Road was often used by barge men for lodgings. The pub started as a beer house. It was there by 1861, getting a full licence in 1864. For a list of the historic landlords of the Prince Of Wales see this post.

As well as the pub lodgers other residents worked on the Thames. One such example was George Picton who lived in South Place with his wife Ann by 1881. In 1893 George was labouring for the Thames Conservancy when the punt he was using overturned near Oxford, drowning him. It was some time before his body was recovered. Ann's first husband James Rockell also drowned in the river. To help manage financially after the death of her husband she took in lodgers at her South Place home but emotional recovery from her double widowhood proved impossible for Ann. Six years after George's death she slit her throat with a razor that had belonged to him. Her married daughter Jane Cox who also lived in South Place and the local surgeon Francis Culhane tried unsuccessfully to save her life after Jane discovered her dying mother. 

For another sad case of a South Place resident drowning in the Thames see Kathryn's post here. 

Ann was not the only suicide in South Place history- twenty two years earlier resident John Ford, a gardener, hung himself in his bedroom. His wife had left him taking his 4 young children and many of their possessions with her. He had gone to Coventry for a while in an unsuccessful attempt to find them. He was described as very depressed upon his return. He had also been physically ill and was living off money raised by selling what remained of his furniture. His body was discovered by his sister Sarah Sparks who had been keeping an eye on him and trying to lift his spirits.

The cottages in the street were generally very small- two rooms up and two down was the standard. In 1897 two such cottages with each their own wash house, outside toilet and garden were rented out to two different families at a collective rent of 17 shillings a year. Bargain!

Small houses didn't deter larger families from settling there. Francis and Prudence Corby present on the 1861 census had six children aged from one year old Harriet up to 18 year old journeyman plasterer Henry at home. Francis was a journeyman bricklayer. Journeymen were skilled labourers who had finished training in their trade but worked for others rather than on their own account. The family still lived in South Place a decade later.

Thomas and Annie Croxon meanwhile squeezed 8 children into their home at the time of the 1881 census. Thomas then was a servant. Later he is censused as a general labourer and an army pensioner.

The couple were still in South Place in the 1910s.

A new and better well and pump were provided for the residents to share in 1866. Other mod cons like street lighting and a proper paved street took longer to arrive in South Place. The road was labelled unsanitary in 1896 so more improvements were still needed then.

Additional notes:

Francis Corby was the born 1817 son of Ambrose and Sarah Corby. He and Prudence Martin married in West Wycombe in 1838. Before they lived at South Place the couple lived at Dean Street [under its original name Well End, not to be confused with Well End Little Marlow] with Prudence's parents.

Thomas Croxon and Anne "Annie" Edwards married in 1866. Their daughter Alice had an illegitimate baby girl who died soon after her birth in South Place.

More information: 

See the "Specific Shops, Streets Etc" menu here  to look for other Marlow addresses and check the Person Index in the top drop down menu to look for all mentions of any individual here. 

Thousands of people are listed!

Posts about everyday life for your ancestor in old Great Marlow: here

©Marlow Ancestors. .

Photo snapped September 2020 by Kathryn Day. Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

Sources:

Censuses, my transcription from microfilm. Census content always remains Crown Copyright.

Property records 

Pub and beer house research of Kathryn Day.

Maidenhead Advertiser 8th Feb 1893 and South Bucks Standard 6th January 1899, British Library Archives.

"Particulars and Conditions of Sale of a very valuable and highly productive freehold estate called Platts Farm" 1839.