Above a decaying street sign for the road. Its very first sign was put up on a Mr Taylor's house in 1899. This will be a later replacement presumably.
Originally called Marefield Place then Prospect Place and then finally the modern Prospect Road. The first six homes there had an additional collective name Prospect Row but be warned cottages in Wycombe Road near Prospect House were also referred to as Prospect Row (not to mention there being elsewhere Prospect Cottages and Prospect Villas- in case you haven't already noticed it Marlow people were very careless when inventing house names and haphazard at rendering addresses).
The road was built up from circa the 1850s but it was never fully developed, with market gardens and allotments rather than homes taking up most of the space down one side. A carriage building premises was the only commercial property firmly within Prospect Road. More on that in the post "A heroic former resident" linked below. There was also by the early 20th century a shop on the corner of Prospect Road and Queens Road but the entrance was in the latter.
In 1891 4 brick cottages within the road each consisting of 5 rooms and having a garden and outhouse were put up for sale "with good tenants" in place. The character of the street was what Victorians would have classed as "respectable working class" but there were several "rough" streets in the immediate vicinity and conditions weren't physically great in Prospect Road either. The road was taken over by the council in 1892 because its private owner had left the road surface in a "disgraceful state".
In 1894 Dr Dickson complained that a well used for drinking water by 6 of the cottages was at high risk of contamination due to it having been dug only a few feet from a privy and scarcely any further from a cess pit. He finally managed to get the well closed off six years later.
You have to wonder if gas was not laid on until late in the street for in 1905 some wind blew over the lighted candle that George Sadler was using to light his room, nearly burning the house down. Thankfully both he and his neighbours were on the ball and sprang into action swiftly both to fight the fire and summon further help. It is possible George did have a partial gas supply as in this period some people did not fit gas lighting upstairs even if they did below. There was a fear of dying in your sleep from a gas leak if gas lights were used upstairs.
Prospect Road residents didn't cause much trouble compared to their nearby neighbours elsewhere in the Marefield area or Dean Street but there were a few incidents of fallings out that came before the courts. Eliza Allen newly arrived in 1901 from the virtual shanty town outside Marlow known as "Cape Town" soon fell out with her neighbours Nellie Harvey and Edith Howse. She was fined 5 shillings for assaulting each with the threat of a week in jail per fine if she didn't pay them. She hadn't turned up to court. Her husband William, who worked at the paper mills and as a bootmaker, had previously spent a month in jail for stealing a barrel when they lived at Cape Town. Eliza sometimes worked as a needlewoman. There's a post all about Cape Town on the blog here.
William and Elizabeth Todd, residents of Prospect Road, lost two sons during the First World War - William and Augustus. William had just married while Augustus died in Turkish custody in 1917 after months as a prisoner of war.
The road today, above, shows no historic buildings. The first homes there were all on the left side of the street with market gardens and allotments on the other side and at the end.
More related posts:
Grave of one time resident John Lunnon Taylor here.
An heroic historic resident here
Grave photo and info about former resident Alfred Peddle here
Sources Included:
Maidenhead Advertiser 22nd July 1891. South Bucks Standard 10th November 1899 and 8th September 1905. British Newspaper Archive.
England censuses, my transcription from microfilm.
Private correspondence.
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