This post tells something of the people who lived in Potlands (morphed to Portlands in about the 1870s), a higgledy piggledy collection of about 7 cottages and outbuildings plus some small market garden plots that sat behind West Street, next to what we now call Portlands Alley. All are long gone. The name was present in the 1600s, and buildings erected there by the mid 1700s but this post focuses on the people of 1800s Potlands. Portland Villas, on the opposite side of the alley, will be a separate post of their own in the future.
A large number of the male residents of the Potlands cottages were gardeners, both domestic and market. The Bradshaw family rented market garden grounds off both sides of West Street from at least the late 1700s, including in Potlands. Members of the family were still there at the time of the Victorian censuses. William Bradshaw, a gardener, and his wife Catherine, a lacemaker, lived in Potlands for decades of the 1800s. Their son William and his wife Sarah also made their home there. William senior won multiple local prizes for the fruit and vegetables he grew in his gardens- plums, pears, beans, peas.
John Neighbour (born July 1804, according to his census entries in Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire) was the gardener to the Wethereds at the large house Remnantz in West Street, and another prize winning vegetable grower. He too was a long standing Victorian resident at Potlands. His son William born 1834 grew up to be the much lauded gardener of Court Garden house near the other end of Potlands Alley. He lived with his wife Emma in the Lodge in Pound Lane in 1861 before bagging the even more prestigious job as Head Gardener to Sir William Clayton at Harleyford in 1866. Once again here he was a prize winning gardener though his speciality was flowers such as freesias and petunias rather than fruit and veg.
Samuel Quelch the coachman who lived at Potlands with his wife in 1861 probably worked either at Rennantz or Court Garden. The Wethered family of Remnantz definitely owned 2 cottages in Potlands.
Adding to the country feel of this address was the piggery at least one cottage had next to it in the 1830s. Going to a pump or well to fetch water helped reinforce the rustic experience. Potlands got no mains water supply until 1903.
On a more industrial note on one side of Potlands Alley beyond the cottages lay Wethered's Brewery which was a major employer in the town and which against all odds managed to persuade several Potlands men to work there rather than in a garden. Examples include Charles Bateman a brewery labourer resident there in 1881 and Henry Smith a maltster in the same year. And 27 year old 1901 resident Francis Faulkner was an assistant mineral water manufacturer. Charles Bateman was summoned to the local court for driving his cart without a rein in 1870. To be honest the brewery horses were generally so well trained and rehearsed in their routines that they needed very little guidance on the road, but Victorian law was inflexible on that point.
When the residents weren't hard at work they had a wide choice of public houses within a stones throw from their homes. The absolute nearest one was the Red Lion which was perched on the corner of Potlands Alley and West Street. Potlands resident John Loosley, a labourer, stopped off for a drink there on his way home from a trip to Henley in 1832 and had his cotton umbrella stolen from the premises.
Alfred Neighbour (born 1840, son of William above) who grew up in Potlands became the landlord of the Red Lion. Like most Great Marlow historic landlords he managed more than one premises in his time so our Marlovian ancestors would also have seen him and his wife Emma behind the bar of the Dog and Badger in nearby Medmenham. In 1867 as landlord of the Red Lion Alfred was summoned for allowing gambling at cards on his premises. However the Red Lion wasn't a very troublesome pub overall and the cottages of Potlands were generally a quiet place to live. (Read a biography of Alfred Neighbour here) Robert and Mary Loosley had a pair of sheets stolen from their garden in 1858 during a mini crime spree in the town and there was the occasional drunk arrested in the nearby alley or a robbery there during the Fair, a tragically destitute and starving man stole a half sovereign that Mrs Jane Bradshaw had just put on her mantlepiece in 1879 but that's about the extent of crime in the immediate vicinity. Robert Loosley, born circa 1805 was, by the way, another of Potlands's gardeners. He was the brother of the John Loosley who had his umbrella stolen in the Red Lion.
What of the occupation of the ladies of Potlands? Eliza May born when her parents (Joseph - a gardener!- and Hannah Jane nee Brown) lived in a Potlands cottage in 1833, grew up to run a boarding house by the sea in Hastings Sussex with her siblings George and Jane. Given that Hastings was popular for seaside holidays / recuperation and that the Mays had a plum spot on Carlton Parade near the beach they may well have found themselves lodging other Marlovians down for a rest cure, or bumped into them on the seafront.
Like so many widows in Victorian Marlow 47 year old Elizabeth Faulkner resident in 1901 earned a living as a seamstress. Living with her was her widowed father Jonathan Brown who was ...yes you guessed it - a gardener! Elizabeth was the mother of Francis Faulkner mentioned above.
Martha Neighbour, wife of John the gardener above, worked as a seamstress both before and after her widowhood.
Many widow seamstresses would have been returning to the trade they had pursued as young unmarried women. Ellen Smith living in Potlands with her family in 1901 was a 17 year old trainee dressmaker.
A linked trade was that of lace-making as followed by amongst others 13 year old Ellen Chown and 15 year old Eleanor Merchant. Ellen Chown was living with her mother and stepfather James Hopkins, who from other sources is known to be a labourer at the brewery. The family later moved out onto West Street. In 1862 Ellen found James dead in bed at the age of around 58. The inquest demonstrated just how worn out James was- here was a man who for years had struggled for breath and coughed of a morning, whose legs were 'bad' and who was starting to suffer from palpitations too. The shocking thing for us today looking back is that despite all these symptoms Ellen testified that she considered this but middle aged man to be in good health! Low was the general standard of wellbeing for manual labourers in those days. James had the day before his death returned home from work at 6pm, had only a cup of coffee and a slice of bread and butter to eat, before retiring to bed at seven. He was up again at 10.30 because he had as a matter of routine to put in another hours work overnight filling barrels. He returned just past midnight and should have been up again ready for work between 5 and 6 am the next day. Worried that he wasn't, Ellen went to check on him and found him dead. The inquest was held in the Red Lion. By sad coincidence Ellen was herself found dead in her bed in West Street in 1891 resulting in another inquest. She too was someone who was someone usually short of breath. She was formally identified by her half brother George Hopkins who had moved to Cookham and, true child of Potlands that he was, became a gardener. The last person to see Ellen alive was her friend and previous Potlands resident Sarah Smith to whom Ellen spoke her final words of "Good night, God Bless".
The deaths of both James and Ellen were deemed to be due to natural causes.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day.
Related posts:
To find more posts about Potlands or nearby addresses like West Street and Hayes Place see this index.
Every mention of a person on this blog can be found on the A-Z person index (over 4,000 people at last count).
More posts relevant to the Red Lion can be found on the Pub Related index.
Where your gardener ancestor worked: here
Some sources:
1841, 1851, 1861,1871 and 1881 census Great Marlow my transcription from microfilm. Census information remains Crown Copyright.
Hastings census 1871,81,91 and 1901 Great Marlow census transcribed from microfilm by Jane Pullinger.
Bucks Gazette 20th October 1832.
Reading Mercury 20th Feb 1858. South Bucks Standard 16th Jan 1891. Copies held at the British Library Archives, via the BNA.
1833 parochial assessment original working notebooks, held by me and transcribed by me.
Parish registers.
Additional research notes by Aiden O'Brien.
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