While Eton Place survives as a place name in Marlow, unlike it's "twin" Cambridge Place, the old buildings are all long gone. As we have often been contacted by those with ancestors living in this busy little place in the Victorian and Edwardian era, this post will hopefully bring the old street back to life.
Most of the housing was occupied by working class families, but it did not have the reputation for real poverty that some of the other nearby streets and rows did. This is not to say there were not some individuals there who were really badly off however. It's worth noting that Eton Place is in the general area known as Marefield and many people give that as their address as opposed to anything more specific well into the 1920s. Sometimes they may also describe their address as "Eton Place, Marefield(s).
It's proximity to the very many public houses in Dean Street did mean a certain amount of drunk and disorderly behaviour spilling over there, not necessarily actually involving any of the residents! It's amusing how often those slightly worse for wear seem to end up wandering down Eton Place when it was not exactly part of their route home. However there was one nasty brawl that did involve a resident, 37 year old bricklayer William Stacey, in April 1882. The victim was John Neighbour of Marefield and the weapon a rather unusual one...
A Triangle Wielded In Anger
Constable Birch was on routine patrol around midnight in Cambridge Road, just behind Eton Place. He heard a tremendous row going on so hot footed it to the scene. As he approached he heard John Neighbour call out several times that he had been hit, and what he took to be the sound of a bottle falling to the floor. It was dark in the place but eventually he saw John leaning up against a wall with blood pouring down his face. It transpired that William Stacey had struck John on the head not with a bottle but a "triangle" which was in fact an iron cornice mould. Amusingly William had been using it as a triangle in the musical sense as part of an impromptu band celebrating a local wedding, I think in one of the Dean Street pubs. (Concertina, spoons..) He was returning home to Eton Place with his wife in what might be called a jolly state. It was at the corner of the Place and Queens Road that he met brothers John and William Neighbour also on the way home from an evening drinking. William Neighbour made a comment that it was time Stacey went home to bed, and especially his wife Elizabeth should do the same. Stacey took that as an insult, insinuating that Mrs Stacey was the sort of woman to stay out late, with the connotation of immoral character. He asked the Neighbours if they wanted to "start something" at which John Neighbour turned and asked him just what he meant by that. The end is not hard to predict and Stacey hit John on the head above his eye, knocking him unconscious briefly with the results we've seen. He was taken to Mr Atterbury, assistant to surgeon Shone, and then PC Birch returned and arrested Stacey who admitted the action. The doctor said the cut to Neighbour went to the bone and narrowly avoided destroying his eye.
The background to this seemingly petty squabble is a little complicated. The Neighbour brothers were something of a terrible twosome, getting into no end of minor scrapes and brushes with the law.** They seem inseparable and rarely does a case involving one not involve the other. But they were not serious offenders, mostly troubling police with drunken and disorderly behaviour and silly nuisance offences such as kicking a door and then running away. It was for one of the last offences in February 1882 that saw Mrs Stacey testify that she had seen William Neighbour kick the door of William Smith in Queens Road, an action that resulted in him receiving a fine. It was insinuated that Elizabeth had lied about this as another man there "Potter" confessed to the action and yet another witness said it was in fact brother John who was guilty. It seems in the melee it was probably difficult to see what was going on. So there was bad blood between the Neighbours and the Staceys who also trouble the courts fairly often with drink related bad behaviour. The court found against Stacey noting that you could not be under the illusion that hitting someone with such an implement could do anything other than a nasty injury. But they also decided he had acted under provocation and counted the fact the weapon was not carried with the intention to do any harm. So a sentence of 4 months detention with hard labour came Stacey's way.*
Most crime associated with Eton Place was minor thefts such as the loss of George Rockell's ferret, lifted from his back garden. It was thankfully recovered alive and well!
A Stranger Appears...
Although the number of people living in Eton Place was relatively dense, it's certain they all knew each other well and a stranger wandering about would attract attention, especially if he was discovered to be foreign. In 1902 one such person visited the Boddy family home. Ellen Boddy opened the door to a loud knock and found a well dressed man unknown to her standing there. He said (in a heavy foreign accent) that he had lodged with a Mrs Boddy in Station Rd about 5 years previously and wished to call on her. Young Ellen was clearly not this person so she took him to see her mother in law who had indeed lived previously at Station Rd but she did not recognize him either. Whether he himself thought Mrs Boddy senior was his former landlady is not clear. Regardless he left, having asked for no assistance or favour of any kind. A day later he was found floating face down in the river off the end of St Peters Street. He was spotted by Charles Woodley, who alerted the landlord of the adjacent Two Brewers, John Clark Truss. Truss recovered the body but the victim was not immediately identified. I do believe his identity was eventually established as a Frenchman who had been living in London but the circumstances of his trip to Marlow were a mystery.
Tragedy for No.14
In 1939, resident of no 14 Eton Place, chauffeur Henry Samuel Batt, was killed on the sinking of the Dutch liner Simon Bolivar. This sank after coming in contact with a German mine. Henry was traveling aboard with his employer Sydney Preece of Maidenhead and the latters 3 year old daughter Elizabeth. He helped to put little Elizabeth in a wooden box to act as a sort of life raft for her, an action that undoubtedly saved her life. Preece managed to keep Elizabeth afloat and push her in front of him as he kept afloat in turn but he became separated from Henry. Henry is buried in Maidenhead cemetery. The horror for the Preece family was that Sydney Preece's wife and parents had all died in a car accident recently and so father and daughter had been travelling to visit her other grandparents who would be taking care of little Elizabeth for a while.
Eton Place Gossip
Other events an Eton Place ancestor would have remembered and talked about were the scarlet fever outbreak amongst children in 1882. There were thankfully no fatalities. The Sanitary authorities ordered that the landlords of the affected properties should have them thoroughly cleaned out and disinfected. Predictably some landlords were less than forthcoming with work and at least one was fined for delaying the necessary actions. (He claimed he did not think the children really had scarlet fever and the house was already clean.)
Then there was the great stink of March 1887. A cart carrying barrels of waste from cess pits in neighbouring cottages was left standing by Eton Place for more than an hour, causing a sickening odour and obstructing the road. A brave soul ventured past the cart and summoned a constable to investigate. The cart was driven by William Burt but the case presented against him was dropped as he was only following orders of employer farmer William Creswell.
I hope this gives you an idea of the events that impacted on the lives of our Eton Place residents of days gone by. There's many more we could mention..but if you are looking for a specific person or family, look for them in the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu or the Biographies of Families menu here
William Stacey's wife Elizabeth or Lizzie was nee Sadler and her little sister Ellen was the "Sleeping girl of Turville" - see here
To find other posts on specific streets see the menu here
Other posts about everyday life in old Marlow here
Written and researched by Kathryn Day.
© MarlowAncestors.
* Also present at the infamous Triangle fight was labourer George Jones of Marefield.
**The Neighbour brothers were aged 23 (John) and 19 (William). Their sister Matilda features in a post to follow shortly. The boys grandfather, a convict transported to Australia will also feature soon.
