Wellingrove, Station Road

Wellingrove is a house in Station Road Marlow, originally called Wellingrove Villa. (Sometimes rendered as Welling Grove)

The first mentions of anyone residing there I have found were of Lawrence and Mrs Smith who lived at Wellingrove in 1869, who will feature in a separate post on the blog in the future, and of Mrs Jane Townsend who died at Wellingrove in September 1874. She was described as the elderly widow of Joseph Townsend J.P. The couple had married in Hackney in 1827* and initially lived in London where Joseph worked as a land agent and surveyor. In around 1831 they moved to Wood End House at Medmenham near Marlow, the Townsend family estate. After around 20 years the couple decided to rent out Wood End and live in Marlow. This was initially in the High Street. (A post on Joseph Townsend will follow.)

After Jane's death the contents of Wellingrove, down to a library of some 500 books, 35 paintings and a  good stock of wine, was sold across a two day auction held at at the house.

The next known occupiers after Jane Townsend were Charles and Mary Jubber who had moved to the area from London. They were in residence by 1876. Charles previously ran Long's Hotel in New Bond Street London with his brother Henry. This they had taken over from their deceased father. They also had a business as spirit and wine merchants together but dissolved all of their business partnerships in 1873. Long's Hotel was a high class hotel that nevertheless had rooms set aside on the ground floor away from other guests for the use of raucous men who wanted to sit together drinking and gambling after their Gentleman's clubs shut down for the night.

Charles threw himself into life in his new riverside home town. He kept a luxury steam launch called The Plover which he lent to the Oxford University rowing crew's training staff when the crew practiced in Marlow or nearby for the traditional Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The launch was also made available to officials at the Marlow Regatta. Charles was one of those behind the setting up of the modern incarnation of the regatta. He was also a keen fisherman and a fellow of the Royal Zoological Society. Unfortunately of Mary little can be discovered except that she was a Sussex lady by birth. The couple lived quite modestly in Marlow with just one live in servant but they had plenty of money as besides their expensive steam launch they had enough to buy several acres of land near the new railway station. Charles advertised for builders to erect him two semi detached villas on some of the land. 

Charles and Mary left the town for Richmond in Surrey in 1886.

By 1912 Wellingrove is described as a "High School". A northern German governess known as Erna Warnemunde posts adverts in regional press seeking an holiday position in that year. She tells us that she speaks fluent German, French and Italian. The teaching of foreign languages by conversation was a speciality of the establishment. The principals of the school were the Misses Cooper and Farmer. It was a boarding school for young ladies and advertised itself as "eminently suited to girls requiring pure and bracing air". The principals promised to take special care with the girls physical health by means of "nourishing food" and outdoor games and walks. Florence Farmer had earlier coached young boys for entry into Borlase School and both her and Violet Cooper were among the specially invited guests to the opening of new school rooms at Borlase in 1910. 

Undated advertisement from Paton's School Guide, courtesy of Michael Eagleton. 

A later resident of Wellingrove in 1915 was Mrs W Cousin. She was a member of the British Science Guild and the Eugenics Education Society. The latter was later renamed the Eugenics Society and followed a now discredited science. Eugenics could be "positive", that was encouraging those seen as desirable to have as many offspring as possible to improve the future of the society and race which they belonged to, or "negative" which was focused on promoting the allegedly scientifically proven benefits of encouraging or preventing "undesirable" people from reproducing.  Undesirables might include the less intelligent, those with disabilities, non-white people, criminals or the poor. In England the most serious concern was usually that the poor working classes would keep having children! At the time being poor and being a potential criminal was usually seen as the same thing. Whether Mrs Cousin leaned towards so called "positive", or "negative" eugenics can't be ascertained by me. She may have been a teacher in the school. 

By the later 1920s members of the Townsend family again lived at Wellingrove. A Miss F Townsend was one of the same new breed of unashamedly intellectual women as Mrs Cousin but in a uncontroversial way -she was a member of the Classical Association, the Women's Farm and Garden Association, and the South Eastern Union of Scientific Societies.

This blog focuses on the pre 1930s period so I'll leave it there. I will fill in more information about any other historic residents of the house as I find them.

To find more posts related to Station Road or any other Marlow address see the Street index here. Thousands of people are mentioned on this blog. All mentions of each individual can be found on the A-Z  Person Indexes.

*Jane was nee Henderson.

Sources included:

Annual Report of the Eugenics Society, 1936-7. 

J. G. Harrod's &Co Royal County Directory of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. United Kingdom, J.G. Harrod & Company, 1876.

The Pall Mall Budget: Being a Weekly Collection of Articles Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette from Day to Day, with a Summary of News. United Kingdom, n.p, 1874.

1891 England and Wales Census for Richmond, Surrey, Rootspoint.Com. Crown Copyright.

Lloyds List, 1st March 1873.

England and Wales Census for Great Marlow 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 my translation from microfilm. Crown Copyright.

Kelly's Post Office Directory for Buckinghamshire etc 1883 published by Kelly's Directories Limited.

Sun, London. 17th May 1832. Bucks Herald 17th October 1874. Bedfordshire Mercury 19th September 1874. All British Library Archives.

Hornsey Journal,  April 5th 1912 as above. 

Paton's List of Schools.