Ellen Creswell, known as Nellie, was one of the Marlow ladies who pioneered cycling in the town for female riders and competitive rowing for local women too.
Born in 1867 to Eliza and Henry Creswell, Nellie spent her early years in the Cross Keys pub in the town as her father was the landlord there. He retired in her late childhood and the family eventually moved to a house called The Ferns in Glade Road. This is still there (number 17) but does not bear the name. Not to be confused with The Ferns, Little Marlow.
She not only served as one of the committee members of the Cycling club, the only known Victorian woman to do so in Marlow, but became the club's Vice Captain. She helped organise and competed in club competitions which tested speed or agility on a bicycle, not infrequently beating all of the men in mixed events. She did it in long skirts too. While a few women in England cycled in pantaloons or rational dress at that time Nellie made it clear she did not support club membership for women that dressed that way (or for men with unconventional cycling dress).
The Marlow club went out on group rides but Nellie pedalled off on her own out of town too, something which many female cyclists did not yet feel comfortable doing in the Victorian age. Nellie was fined 10 shillings by the Henley Magistrates for riding on the footpath on one such trip in 1898 [Henley Advertiser 5th March 1898].
Nellie also, by 1892, was rowing for Marlow at the Regatta in the women's team events.
There was a strong sporting tradition in the Marlow Creswell family. Her uncle Augustus was one of the best local male rowers and her brother George played for Marlow F.C. in it's early days as well as the more famous Everton. George's premature death by way of blood poisoning in 1904 devastated the Creswell family. Nellie had acted as bridesmaid at his wedding to Catherine (Kate) Chamberlain of Bisham.
Nellie herself did not marry but remained living in her parental home in Glade Road with her parents and then after their deaths on her own. She is buried with her parents in All Saints churchyard in Marlow. Her date of death is indecipherable but from other sources we know it was no earlier than 1928.
The son of her brother George, also called George, died in the First World War. Nellie apparently was the beneficiary of his estate. He had lived with her at The Ferns, Glade Road for most of his life. I am uncertain what happened to his mother Catherine after she became a widow.
All mentions of any person on this blog can be found under the Person Index. There are plenty of Creswell / Cresswells! More posts about people of Glade Road or any other street can be found indexed here. More grave photos and transcriptions indexed here.
You can find out more about the early history of cycling in the town in Kathryn's post here
Other posts you might like: "Groundbreaking women in Marlow History" here.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day with additional research by Kathryn Day.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here.
