Walker grave, Great Marlow

 This grave is in All Saints Parish Church. 

William Walker, son of William and Patience Walker of this parish. D. 28 Oct 1826. Age 18. 

ALSO OF

William Walker died 21 June 1845 age 75

And:

Patience Walker, relict of the above (widow) Died at Tottenham 26 (May?)18?4. Age 76. 

Notes from Charlotte:

William was a broker. He and Patience lived West Street from at least 1833 - 1845. See his property description on the 1833 parochial assessment here.

©Marlow Ancestors. Reproduction of this images is freely allowed for local or family history purposes if you credit this blog.

Medmenham During WW2

 Danesfield House at Medmenham  was converted into an RAF base for the skilled interpretation of aerial photographs during the second world war. Those asked to analyse images for the sake of mission planning included explorers, geographers and scientists as well as representatives from the RAF, Army and Navy. Models and maps of landscapes were also made at Medmenham to help in the planning of operations including the Dam Busters raid and D-Day. The latter event alone required thousands of models. Phyllis Court near Henley was also used for model making. Some of the model makers were professional artists. The planes that took the photographs for Medmenham landed at RAF Benson on Oxfordshire. All of this was strictly secret at the time, even some of those working in other roles at the Medmenham base did not understand or know all the work that was going on there! The role that the base had played in the war effort was revealed in the autumn of 1945 when British journalists were invited in for all (well probably not ALL) to be revealed. Tens of millions of images passed through the hands of the Medmenham team. Many women held senior positions at the base, including Constance Babbington Smith a journalist at Aeroplane magazine and a biographer of Amy Johnson. Constance while at Medmenham was the first person to identify the V1 rocket and it's launch ramp. It was considered that women were more patient and thorough than men when poring over images in quantity so they formed the backbone of the service.

Constance did not just interpret photos back at base, she flew with crews over enemy territory and took photos herself.

It wasn't all hard work for the 1-2000 staff engaged there at any given time. Regular dances were organized for them and locals at the relatively new Medmenham Village Hall and Henley Town Hall. The base had its own theatre and dance band. Glenn Miller and his band visited and performed on one occasion. Americans at the base organized extravagant Halloween parties. Some Halloween balls and dances occurred in England from the 1920s onwards but the celebration was a far bigger occasion of course in America.

Actress Sarah Oliver nee Churchill was another photo interpreter not to mention the daughter of Winston Churchill. Sarah was a tough cookie who made it plain she did not want the safe and unchallenging desk job she was offered after joining the WAAFs and applied to be a photo interpreter instead. She encouraged showbiz friends to come to the base to help entertain her colleagues and to attend local events fundraising for the war effort. The cinema in Marlow was used for one such event according to the book Women Of Intelligence: Winning The Second World War With Air Photos by Christine Hallsall and published by the History Press. This is a book I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about RAF Medmenham. The ISBN for this book if you want to order it is 0752486519 9780752486512.

Sarah was given time off from her work at Medmenham to accompany her father on key diplomatic meetings with Joseph Stalin, the Chinese President and Franklin Roosevelt. Her father visited RAF Medmenham itself in 1943.

**

In a different branch of service, the Royal Marines, Lt Leonard Raoul Pugh is buried in the churchyard at Medmenham. His grave says that he died in "active service" In fact he died instantly after being accidentally shot in the head during an exercise at Larkhill Range on Salisbury Plain. He was in his 23rd year at the time. Leonard had served in Egypt and taken part in the Landing of Sicily in July 1943.

Leonard was baptised in his mother's native Lancashire* while his businessman father was Welsh so what connection he had to Medmenham is not clear to me. I don't believe his parents ever lived there. Presumably he had as a young adult lived there or perhaps he had enjoyed visiting the village as a tourist as so many others did. Leonard would certainly have enjoyed the surrounding beauty as he was poetically inclined. None of his many poems were published in his lifetime but they were gathered and published by Macmillan in 1948 along with some biographical notes as to their author. In them one of his officers described him as "a grand lad without fear and always able to get the best out of his men".

To see a photo of Leonard's grave please see the Commonwealth War Graves Commission page for him here (goes off blog).

***

Despite the war Medmenham was a popular destination for not walkers, fishermen, photographers, artists, boaters and cyclists to stop off at during the 1940s. Catering for those day trippers and holiday makers employed some of the locals but agriculture was the mainstay of the local economy. Land girls filled the gaps caused by recruitment of male workers. One of these Miss L Wallington who worked at Killdown, Medmenham for Mr Keene won a distinction in a tough proficiency test she entered in 1944. These tests were judged by experienced farmers. Miss Wallington took the test in fieldwork which meant she must demonstrate skill in the driving of a horse and cart, harnessing a horse, ditch cleaning, hedge trimming, hoeing and "sheep throwing" (!).

The above mentioned Mr Keene was a member of the Bucks War Agriculture Committee, who helped organize these land girl tests amongst much other important work.

The British Shorthorn Society was based at Westfield Medmenham during the war. This tirelessly promoted Shorthorn cattle as a good alternative to normal dairy cows for milk and butter production in this time of food crisis. Society members periodically donated free cows to be sold with all profits going to the Red Cross.

On the subject of first aid, classes in that were held at Medmenham in the Village Hall as part of the village's war preparations.

*Leonard was born 10th July 1921. His parents were then of Lawsword Formby, Lancs but later moved to Anglesey.

For more posts on Medmenham see the Nearby Places Index for this blog.

Related Posts:

World War Two in Marlow Part One here and Part Two (which includes secret goings on at sentry Hill near Medmenham) here.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Sources for this post:

Pugh, R. L (1948). Poems: With a Memoir of the Author. United Kingdom: Macmillan and Company Limited.

Commonwealth War Grave Commission.

Lancashire Online Parish Clerks (OPC). Baptisms. https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Formby/stpeter/baptisms_1907-1923.html

Bucks Free Press. April 1st 1944. British Library Archives via the BNA. Yorkshire Post 7th September 1945, as previous.

https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-175/sarah-churchill-more-than-a-thread/

Personal interview.

Will And Research Sarah Coombs

Will of Sarah Coombs of Great Marlow, Widow. Will written 1830. Proved 1836.

Appoints James Brooks, baker of Great Marlow and George Wilson of ....Middlesex, gentleman executors and gives them £20 each for their trouble.

Niece Elizabeth Wilson wife of said George Wilson £50.

Nephew Thomas Belton the elder of Sheerness in the county of Kent shipwright son of my brother William Belton £50.

Mary Belton wife of late brother Thomas Belton the of Sheerness £10.

£20 divided equally between all children of James Richards of Sheerness, clerk living at time of testator's death.

Wearing apparel and linen divided equally between the said Elizabeth Wilson and Mary Belton.

Her plate [silver] divided between said Elizabeth Wilson and said Thomas Belton the elder.

All furniture to be sold and the money from that and anything else left in her estate to be divided between said Elizabeth Wilson, Mary Belton, Thomas Belton the elder and the then living children of James Richards.

Will witnessed by Samuel Carter of Great Marlow and Ralph Spicer of Great Marlow.

Notes:

Sarah Coombs was 85 when she died. She was buried with her husband Jonathan who had died in 1812. Their grave can be seen on the blog here. She lived on the Causeway Great Marlow in 1835 a few doors from her executor James Bird Brooks. A clock was stolen from her in a burglary that year. She did not head her own household in 1833. A George Wilson has recently left a house on the Causeway then, this could be the man of that name in her will or another relative.

Nee Belton, Sarah married Jonathan at St Botolphs, Aldgate, London in 1796. ["England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJ7C-LLF : 12 March 2020), Jonathan Coombs, 1796.]

The probate entry for the will says that the executor named in the will as James Brooks was correctly James Bird Brooks. More on him here.

Ralph Spicer was a lawyer. More on him here.

There were three men in Marlow called Samuel Carter in the 1830s - a blacksmith in the High Street, a shoe maker and a carpenter.

More Marlow wills can be found in the Wills Index on the top drop down menu. 

Will is held in the National Archives Kew. Will transcribed by Charlotte Day and then summarised here by her.

©Marlow Ancestors. If using my summary credit this blog.

For all mentions of an individual here, search the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu where you will find more than 6,000 people listed...

Marlow's Extraordinary Victorian Gardeners

 This is a tribute to our Victorian Marlovians who took their gardening so seriously that a particularly choice apple could attract crowds when displayed in a grocers window. Horticultural shows could raise strong passions and petty squabbles, mostly amongst those organising them. The shows nevertheless were visited by the local gentry who might bring a party of "fashionable persons" to peruse the magnificent carrots and sweet little nosegays gathered by local children. We have featured biographies of some of the local head gardeners and nurserymen before but this post deals mostly with our talented amateur growers. (See below for a link to a history of Marlow allotments.)

First up we have Henry Allnutt, best remembered as a solicitor. In 1868 he published a book called "A System For Cropping A Kitchen Garden" resulting from his careful horticulture experiments. More particularly he based the book on some "ancient" notes kept by his grandfather who took the same scientific approach to his gardening. Henry aimed his book not at those who could afford a team of gardeners but those with more modest gardens who were most in need of maximizing their returns from the space at their disposal. The magic system uses crop rotation, successional sowing and inter-cropping and as such still contains very relevant tips and advice. Perhaps not quite so exciting is one of Henry's other main publications, aimed at farmers  - The Wheat Diagram. This was a large pull out diagram mounted on rollers that could show you the average price of wheat from 1641 to the present. It was an "interesting and valuable read" so they say. 

As mentioned above, growing a large vegetable could cause someone to become quite the local celebrity. Prize specimens can be found on display at pubs and grocers. John Price's 36lb marrow was on show somewhere in the High Street in 1890. It was noted that his success was remarkable as his Cambridge Rd garden was only small.  The fact that Wildsmith Badger had pulled a carrot in his garden 4 and a half feet long was considered entertainment enough to grace the pages of newspapers nationwide in 1806. And Mr Janes, of Valley View, Little Marlow Rd had an apple weighing around 1lb on display at the Greyhound Inn in 1900. If size did not impress you how about a 29 year old marrow, as preserved by Jeremiah Harding of Trinity Cottages? This, along with a 23 year old example was displayed somewhere in the town in 1893. 

In 1905 journalists were visiting Harleyford this time to see a bunch of bananas 60lbs in weight when cut, as grown by James Sharpe. A picture of this crop appeared in the Morning Leader. For many years banana plants were offered for sale from the estate but how many purchasers had success with growing them is hard to say. 

The Horticultural Journal visited W J Morgans in the High Street in 1892, not to admire their magnificent drapery and millinery, but to see the junior deputy of the business "Mr Morgan" who had a secret Eden at the rear of the premises. He was an orchid grower who produced blooms to astonish the professionals. This was especially so considering the limited space and lack of professional help at his finger tips. The London journalists were followed by those from local papers. Those specimens that Mr Morgan could allow out of his tender care sometimes graced the stage of the Music room during concerts and other events. 

The first Marlow Horticultural Society started in 1846 with a show in "Mr Hewett's meadow" - it's usual venue up to the 1850s. We are told that it was "very numerously and respectably attended." There were classes for gentleman's gardeners, as well as amateurs. Unfortunately it was held on a Tuesday, so the majority of working men and women could not attend. Over the next few days the event grew bigger and there is some indication that some businesses declared a half day holiday. The church bells were allowed to give a merry peel to indicate the start of the show while various bands entertained the guests. The main tent in 1850 was said to be some 300ft long with a second 60ft in length. With prizes totalling £40-50 it is no wonder that many locals entered a class or two. It was as the Bucks Advertiser out it "a useful exhibition of nature's sweetest gift." While almost everyone agreed the shows were a great success, unnamed individuals involved in their organisation fell out and the wealthy patrons lost interest. So the shows came to stop in the 1850s before the Horticultural Society was resurrected in 1861 with the first show in 1862.  Court Garden was the usual venue at this period, the host F W Berger extolling the virtues of a society to "encourage friendship and good feeling amongst the labouring classes" by promoting healthy competition. It's a shame the same mutual good will did not exist amongst it's promoters as apparently more ill feeling (and lack of funds) ended the society again in 1867. A Cottagers Horticultural Society was active for a while in the 1870s with shows in Spinfield park, before it too disappeared. A few shows popped up again in the late 1880s and early 1890s but in 1894 we are told there is no Horticultural Society at present due to "petty jealousies" and "bad management". The following year there was a horticulture show at Gyldernscroft which attracted 500 entries for yet another incarnation of the Horticultural Society. The aim was similar to before - to "encourage healthful and honest industry." After a few years this was more often held in Alder Meadow as part of the Marlow Week celebrations leading up to the Marlow Regatta. If looking at tasteful dinner table flower arrangements or champion cabbages began to pall, there was the companion event on the same day to entertain you - the bicycle gymkhana aka the bicycle fete and dancing until late. This society finally flourished, also organising chrysanthemum shows and rose ones (latter / from 1908 usually at either the cricket ground or Gyldernscroft)

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Related Posts:

History of Marlow allotments here

List of head gardeners at the "big houses" in and around Marlow with links to biographies if available - here

General posts about Marlow History - here

To find every mention of a family or individual here, use the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down menu. 

Sources:

A System For Cropping A Kitchen Garden - Henry Allnutt (Estates Gazette 1868)

Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening - Vol 9

Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Garden - 1892 collected edition. 

The Gardeners Chronicle And Agricultural Gazette, January 1849

Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News  - 27 June 1846 & 6 July 1850

Bucks Herald 6 July 1850

South Bucks Standard 12 September 1890, 21st July 1893, 31st August 1894 & 23rd August 1895. 

Allotment history research by Kathryn. 

1905 Marlow Guide

Morning Leader March 1905 digitised by Archive.org

Slough and Eton Observer Match 25th 1905  (Slough Borough Libraries)

The Amateur Garden Guide - Messrs Elliott & Co, Great Marlow 1882. 

 Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - 07 August 1806 (British Library Archives)

The Garden: an illustrated journal of gardening in all its branches. 1903. 

Royal Horticultural Journal - July 1909. 

© MarlowAncestors