Life in 1950s Marlow Part Three Transport and Childhood

Part One covered sport and leisure, Part two dealt with homes and employment.

Post by Charlotte

Transport 

Car ownership while not uncommon was far from universal in the 1950s so bus services and trains as well as cycling were important to local people trying to get from A to B. Currall's Garage in the High Street offered repairs and sales for those lucky enough to have their own car and of course there was Platts garage too. Platts was a Morris and M.G dealer. The Maple Garage in Little Marlow Road was an Esso and Ford dealership. Unusually for the times it opened for the sale of petrol on a Sunday.  Petrol rationing continued into the 1950s meaning careful thought needed to be made about whether any journey was necessary. A couple of  petrol pumps stood ready outside Comptons cycle shop in West Street for any motorists who pulled up kerbside. Marlow Bottom wasn't to be left out, Witches Barn Garage still operated in the village.

A Mr or Mrs Cook of Marlow had a red upholstered 1953 second hand Austin A30 for sale as advertised in the Reading Mercury 1958 for a bargain £415.

See a pic of the A30 on Wikipedia here.

Daniel Gibbons of 19 York Road had previously operated as a secondhand car and other vehicle dealer but I haven't found any reference to him still doing that in the 1950s. He was definitely still operating as a rag and bone man however, which was previously his sideline.

George Bason of 18 Wycombe Road sold secondhand motorbikes and offered repairs.

Mr Sylvester of 41 West Street was a driving instructor, possibly the only one in town at first. 

Driving could have its hazards then as now. Heavy snows of February and early March 1958 saw buses unable to reach High Wycombe and the roads out of town to Henley and Stokenchurch were blocked for all traffic.

More bizarrely the road at the foot of Bisham Hill was covered in jam for hours following a collision involving a truck carrying several tons of the sweet stuff in 1958. What a sticky situation.

Concerns about the weight of the traffic crossing Marlow Bridge have dogged the structure since the 1800s. Increased weight restrictions on vehicles using the bridge and emergency structural repairs to it were both needed in the 1950s. Thames Valley services from Maidenhead stopped crossing the bridge in 1958 because of new weight restrictions. Instead passengers got on and off in Quarry Wood Road.

Other bus services connected Marlovians to Reading and High Wycombe. The Marlow-Little Marlow-Bourne End service however came to an end in the 1950s because too few people were using it at a time when petrol rationing meant bus companies had to ensure every bus they sent out on a journey had earned it's share of the limited petrol supplies available.

Bicycles were available to buy from C. A Boddy in the High Street. Like quite a few other cycle suppliers in this time period he also supplied prams. Well, they both have wheels, I suppose. The Boddys also sold toys. Another cycle agent was Comptons in West Street, also a motorcycle seller and as mentioned above a petrol supplier 

Marlow still had a full sized railway station in the 1950s.

Childhood 

Schools

The 1958 Marlow Town Guide lists the Girls' school as being in Oxford Road and the Boys' one in Wethered Road as well as Sir William Borlase School (then just for boys and both a boarding and day school) in West Street. They obviously hadn't updated themselves from their previous edition as the schools had in fact been totally reorganised in 1954. A good lesson in treating all historical sources even very official seeming ones with caution. Back to school for the guide authors we say! The boys' school had been transformed into a unisex secondary school known as All Saints Secondary School. The future site of Great Marlow School was purchased by the council in 1957 though it would not be developed into a secondary school for several more years. Bigger premises were sorely needed as All Saints Secondary School was bursting at the seams. Until further schools opened in Stokenchurch and High Wycombe children from Lane End and Cadmore End had to attend the Marlow school. Overcrowding meant that the school was not able to offer the G.C.E exam, as extra classes for the pupils who wished to study for it could not be physically accommodated. Any children who wanted to pursue post 15 education elsewhere would be helped to find avenues to it where possible however. 

Reach for the stars, kids

As well as not having to take exams the pupils of All Saints weren't required to do homework - until the teachers got the unwelcome idea to try it in 1955. At first only some classes fell victim but from September 1956 the whole school was told to expect compulsory homework unless they had a parental letter of exemption. Such exemptions might be because the child helped in the family business, looked after younger siblings or simply because the family did not believe that school work should be allowed to encroach in family together time (this latter was a common sentiment). 

At their speech day in 1956 the speaker was an Air Vice marshall who told the children that they were lucky to be growing up in the Atomic Age as there would be lots of exiting opportunities for them. He predicted interplanetary travel might be an established fact by the late 1980s or early 90s.

In 1958 at the Borlase School speech day the guest speaker was t.v personality and criminologist John Watson who told the boys that in order to be happy men they would need two things- the right job and right wife. He warned them that a "safety first" attitude in life would be dangerous to them (not necessarily in reference to choosing a wife). 

Borlase converted part of the original school building into a flat for the caretaker and a recreation room for the school masters during the 1950s. Mr Hazelton, the Head in 1957 said that in the next year there would be around 350 pupils at his school including 80-90 boys in the Sixth Form. This he felt represented a school that had grown too fast to keep up with itself.

The 1958 Town Guide  also makes no mention of Foxes Piece School which was built between 1954-56, initially just as an infant's school with only three classrooms. The rest of the grounds were used as sports fields for other Marlow schools. Foxes Piece was only meant to be a temporary school at first. However it was extended and became a full junior school for 5-12 year olds in the 1960s. More on the early days of this school and the history of the Foxes Piece area is available in my post here.  

Another point upon which the Town Guide was well out of date on was the fact that the Oxford Road school was then functioning as another infant school. A premises in St Peters Street (which had also previously functioned as the Girls' School) was in 1954 turned into a mixed junior school (middle school). There was a mixed Catholic school in St Peter Street too. At Medmenham children attended the village school. Danesfield was of course yet to exist.

Dial Close, a private school for girls operated from the Causeway.  Another private girls school Wycombe Court was located at Lane End but put on buses to bring in Marlow pupils. It had a unisex kindergarten.

When they weren't being drilled in the three Rs or receiving questionable life advice from a criminologist, there were numerous leisure opportunities for our younger Marlovians.

Hobbies, toys and clubs 

Owning a television was becoming increasingly common in the town. British children with a set might already be watching 2 hours of television every day according to research quoted in the book A Century of Childhood. A t.v show detailing the adventures of American Davy Crockett led to a mass childhood craze of wearing a Davy Crocket style mock fur hat. I haven't been able to find evidence of these on sale in Marlow but Bonners Superstore in High Wycombe certainly offered them and was only a bus ride away.

Model airplanes and games could be bought from Moretons (primarily a bee keeping supplies shop!) in West Street. The children of the secondary school and if the former boys' school kept bees on the premises and produced their own honey so they may actually have enjoyed browsing the bee keeping supplies while they were there. Toys were also available from the Woolworths in Market Square, from the Boddy's BTC toy shop in the High Street and from Jane Ann's in West Street which offered Meccano, Dinky, Triang and Hornby ranges amongst others. The small department store W.J Daniels in Market Square had an upstairs toy department.

The Marlow Sea Cadets , just for boys, formed in 1956 though they did not yet have their own premises and met initially at All Saints Secondary School. A Boys Club, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides already existed. The latter met in a hut in Quarry Wood Road. 

Higginson Park, Riley Park (usually then called Riley Recreation Ground), Gossmore and Seymour Park were all open spaces available to play in while a children's paddling place was set up in an enclosed section of the River Thames in 1958. This was in addition to the official Bathing Place Marlow then had in the Thames at Quarry Woods for both adults and children.

Not all the outdoor activities of 1950s Marlow children would meet our approval today. Butterfly and bird egg collecting were still quite widely practiced by some children, mostly little boys. I used to have a 1950s children's butterfly book previously owned by a local boy in which the young reader is given detailed instructions as to how to use poison to suffocate a trapped butterfly and warned that sniffing or accidentally consuming the recommended poisons might kill him too. A repurposed soft drinks bottle was recommended as a carrying vessel for such poisons. Fail! Though Mr Watson the safety-last criminologist probably approved.

For sources for this series of posts see Part One. Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

A Triangle Used In Anger - Life In Eton Place, Marlow

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. 

Skating And Snowballs - Winter In Marlow

The winters of 1891/2, 1892/3 and 1893/4 and the early spring of 1895 saw the Thames at Marlow frozen to some degree for 4 years in a row. By the end of  January 1891 there had been 9 weeks of frost. It was hoped that the Thames or one of the flooded meadows adjacent would freeze sufficiently to host a cricket match on the ice, along with torch lit skating races at Cookham but all of a sudden the thaw set in and the ice disappeared quickly. The river had frozen most completely nearer Maidenhead and so many Marlow residents were noted as having made the journey to a "splendid piece of ice" extending from Boulters Lock to "beyond Mr. Woodhouse's boathouse at Cliveden Reach." Reports suggest "fully a thousand persons" were disporting themselves on this stretch. Some Marlow people were among those who found a way to make a profit out of the excited visitors. They laid planks to help skaters access the river from the bank and charged people for help getting onto the ice and also for fixing and unfixing skates onto boots. At Cookham Lock several people were seen to ride or drive horses onto the ice and cyclists also put in an appearance. 1891 also saw several hundred people gather on the flooded and frozen meadows at Bisham and Temple. A large number of skaters also gathered at Mr George Jackson's pond at Westhorpe and one man was seen skating on the weir pool at Marlow on Christmas day 1891. The committee of the National Skating Association's negotiations to bring some races off in the neighborhood came too late to beat the thaw but some locally arranged handicap races did occur at Marlow. These male-only races were organised by Alfred Davis and John Langley, who also acted as a starter.  The main event was won by Edward Shaw, which was they say "a very popular win". The number of spectators was enormous, despite the cold. (See below for a partial list of those men and boys competing.) A correspondent for the Fishing Gazette in early January 1891 says that one afternoon he had witnessed fully 200 persons on the river ice opposite Shaw's boathouse including a great number of "skatists and hockeyists". Such a sight he said was not within memory of "the middle aged generation" with the ice 6 inches deep in some places along the upper Thames. The thaw was still ongoing into February, the hard ground causing most of the water from the riverside to run into the river itself. The water level rose by 2ft within a few days of the thaw beginning. 

Unfortunately timed as that thaw may have been, it was not as dramatic as the so called "silver thaw" of 1867 when the sudden break up of a frost lead to showers of minute ice crystals that destroyed many umbrellas wielded against them. 

Thin ice proves a peril

Heavy snow in 1893 saw drifts of 12ft depth in places reported between Cressex and Marlow. The roads from Wycombe were understandably blocked. Those skating and sliding on frozen ditches and ponds were said to be of both sexes and all ages. The stretch of frozen Thames was much more limited than in 1891, but the ice formed near the Berks and Bucks shores was regarded as "moderately safe" which was enough to get large numbers of skaters out near Bisham Church. Under Marlow Bridge the ice seemed to stretch across the whole width of the river, and so naturally some of the curious tried to edge their way across from one bank to another, despite warnings the ice was very thin in the centre of the span. A few made it across safely to cheers but then a young man tried to make the return journey and fell through the ice. The water beneath him was said to be 22ft deep. A very difficult rescue was accomplished after the youngster had spent 10 mins in the frozen water, very largely thanks to Mr J G Meakes who had laid a very long ladder across the breach and so allowed rescuers to approach. The young man was very lucky to be alive, if very cold. 

In February 1895 a little girl from the Grace family fell through the ice after trying to skate on it just beyond the end of the St Peter Street slipway. The screams of her young companions bought Mr Jones, the coachman of Thames Bank to the scene and he was able to mount a successful rescue. 

Incidentally, anyone curious to know the temperature in the 1890's could wander  - or slide along -  the High Street pavements to Messrs Smith & Co who had a very large thermometer on the outside of the building.  

Beware of snowballs! 

One way of keeping warm might be to engage in an energetic snowball fight. But as always reports of some over enthusiastic throwing resulting in broken windows come to the surface. In the heavy snowfall of 1904, Supt Summers received so many complaints of bad behaviour that they did their best to catch groups of boys lurking suspiciously with snowballs at hand. Three naughty boys who went too far in pelting a little girl walking up Institute Rd saw themselves hauled before the magistrates. William Boddy, Jack Hall and Charles Collins received a fine of 1s each for their efforts. 

Edwardian scenes

Although the Victorian era frozen river scenes are probably the most famous, January 1908 saw the Thames frozen from bank to bank beneath Marlow Bridge. And vast scattered sheets of ice stretched between Meakes Boat House and Bisham Church. However the ice was not thick enough to bear a persons weight so the crowds that came to see the sight were restricted to the towpath. But they still went skating. The reason is the Thames was in flood and so the riverside meadows were used as improvised skating rinks as they had been used for generations, private property or no. For decades the premier skating spot was however Cockmarsh, and so Marlow crowds made the journey there. They were not the only ones. It is said that even Londoners made the trip to Bourne End to enjoy the neighbourhood skating. Reporters from the Daily Graphic also made their way to Marlow and took images of an ice hockey match proceeding on the iced over floodwater. This freeze made the conditions difficult for the swans and a decision was made to remove them from the river and hold them inland for a couple of months. Catching them seems quite a task however, as most had moved inland themselves, some by "several miles". 

Not all fun and games

Snow and ice maybe gives romantic image of Marlow in the the winter. But there's another side. Cold and wet conditions made life a misery for those needing to work outside especially if they had poor quality clothes and boots and came from a poorly heated home. In 1872 the torrential December rain made the working conditions of those employed on laying the Marlow railway dangerous. So the work had to be temporarily abandoned to a sea of mud. 

Others working outside whose labour did not stop were obviously very vulnerable if poorly clothed in freezing temperatures. Rag and bone man Charles Slade of Gun Lane was believed to have died of exposure while doing a round at Hambledon in early 1895. He was found insensible in the road alongside his donkey cart near the Dog & Badger at Medmenham. He could not be revived.  In fact he was dead by the time he was returned to Marlow by Thomas Stroud of Dean Street who had been drinking at the Dog and Badger. The conclusion was the extreme cold had bought on heart failure which had in turn caused the fall from the cart. Wife Sarah tells the inquest that her husband had been suffering much from the low temperatures and that they had sometimes had a lack of food over the winter. 

Fog was sometimes bad enough to be described as a serious interference for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic and the trains did not escape disruption. Frozen pipes deprived many households of water, so water sellers were back on the streets after they had ceased to be a common feature throughout the town. (Eg several enterprising souls were seen selling water in February 1895. The Marlow Water Company endeavoured to supply those homes normally connected to their supply with water from the standpipes too.) 

 Regular collections were made to help the poor afford coals for the winter. But for those without a home, the situation was worst of all. The last word will go to the case of "tramp" James Healey. In January 1908, James came into the town and tried to find somewhere to stay. He did not succeed.  Described as "quite an old man" he was frightened at the prospect of spending the night outside during an extremely cold spell. So he picked up a stick and deliberately broke the glass of one of the council owned street lamps in Trinity Road where the Police Station was located. He then went to them and confessed to his act of desperate vandalism. He knew they would have no choice but to arrest him and keep him in the - relatively- warm cells overnight. He got a longer stay than he hoped for, as he was subsequently sentenced to 7 days gaol with hard labour. In the same week beggars were caught in West Street, Institute Rd, and Station Rd and also received 7 day sentences.  

List of competitors in 1891 Marlow ice skating handicap races:

Boys:

C P Lovell (winner 500 yards junior race), Frederick Plumridge, Frank Langley, A Smith. 

Adults:

E Shaw, A Shaw, Reggie Shaw, C Shaw,  J Payne, Taplin, Bowles, Hooker, Smith, Grove, Tom White, Rowe, Cox, H Harman, W Davis, Lees?, Collier, Bailey, Lovell, Ashtead, Nicholls. 

Veterans: 

W Lunnon, ? Langley, E Flint, W Shaw, A J East, W Toovey, 

Researched and written by Kathryn Day

Related Posts:

Victorian Christmas in Marlow part 1 here and 2 here

Edwardian Christmas in Marlow here

Bonfire night in Victorian Marlow here

A listing of other posts about every day life in old Marlow  here

Easter and May day here

Selected Sources

The Fishing Gazette: Devoted to Angling, River, Lake, and Sea Fishing, and Fish Culture, Volume 3. ( Charles William Bradley & Co 1895) & The Fishing Gazette 10 January 1891, ditto.

Reading Mercury 21 December 1872. From British Library, accessed via the BNA October 2020. 

South Bucks Standard 23 January 1891, 24 November 1893, 2 December 1904, 10 January 1908, as above. 

Notebook of Miss E Morton. 

©Marlow Ancestors

A History Of Marlow Allotments

It's hard to know the date the first allotments in the modern sense arrived in Marlow as all the first ones were privately rather than council owned and they tended to be small scale. Records don't really exist for the establishment of these couple of acre concerns. But one of the first, and the oldest still existing, is the Parish allotments off Munday Dean Lane, aka the Workhouse Field allotments. This is part of land known as "the Berwicks" for hundreds of years, and believed to be part of an historic charitable bequest. 

Although laws had been enacted in the times of George III and William IV to empower churchwardens and overseers of the poor for example to take over parish land for use by the labouring poor, this did not seem to happen in Marlow. The 1882 Allotment Extension act tried to clarify and strengthen the earlier acts, and this was followed by the 1887 Allotments Act that compelled authorities to provide land for allotments were demand was felt. The parish in Marlow just pipped the last act. In 1886 the Vicar and churchwardens hatched a plan to turn the field adjacent to the former workhouse into allotments. In February they went to the 6 acre field to divide it into 41 plots (or 44, depending on who you believe). They made an occasion of it and some of the future allotment holders went along to witness the division. The annual rent would be 6d a pole, with most plots 20 poles in size. This was regarded as an "exceedingly low" rent at the time. The number of applicants had exceeded the number of plots. The Churchwardens were said to be "extremely satisfied" with their effort. Although mention is made later of the Vicar (Rev Fearon) wondering whether any other Parish land could also be turned into allotments, the plan was shelved despite the success of the workhouse field site. Probably this was because there was a big increase in privately owned allotment grounds in the next few years. The tenants of all of these had to be artisans or labourers. The potential gardeners were required to swear to their status, and there was clearly some quibbling about who exactly was a member of that group. In 1901 the agreement was worded to say access to a plot at the Parish allotments was restricted to the "labouring poor." At meeting of parish council that year, the question was raised as to whether the several parish councillors who rented plots there really qualified under that condition. It does seem doubtful that they would have classed themselves as either poor or labourers under other circumstances considering they were business owners. But the parish council said no favouritism had been shown. 

The next large scale allotment that is still with us today was at the area known as Hanging Hill off Prospect Road. (From 1886/7) This was owned by Mr Micklem who must have seen the success of the nearby Parish Allotments, and thought he could put his own large field to profitable use in the same way. He would also charge 6d a pole. He was not wrong about the demand for more plots, as every one was snapped up within days of Mr Micklem announcing his intentions. By 1890, the Board of Agriculture reported the fact there were 217 allotment plots in Marlow across all sites. 

Around this time small areas off Glade Road were also let as allotments. These were on the other side to Foxes Piece and were also run as a business. Some only had 1-2 plots. They quickly earned the reputation for charging high rents for indifferent ground. Foxes Piece allotments, owned by large scale landowner General Owen Williams, started in December 1889. He had previously let the land to a local farmer, but allotment provision were regarded as a better way to earn money. They also undercut the Glade Road neighbours - at first! All of these allotments could be described as "the Glade Road allotment gardens" or the Marlow Fields allotments so it can be hard to split the history of the sites. The stated size of Owen William's Foxes Piece actually let as allotments varied hugely. The "other" site, largely forgotten now, on the east side of Glade Rd belonged for many years to Robert Hammond Chambers, who also owned the long vanished "Marefield Allotments" for a while. The latter was a 4 acre site also described as located "in Dean Street opposite the Bank beerhouse". It was actually just beyond Berwick Close as you head down Berwick Road towards Munday Dean. Other very small sites were located off New Town Road, the largest of which was Mrs Marshall's measuring just over an acre. 

Poor labourer, high rents

Hammond Chambers was a controversial land lord for the allotment holders. He charged 10d a pole which was described as an extremely high price. (1895) He was not the only private owner of allotment land to charge this level of rent however. A letter to the local press signed "a working man" complained at these high charges in Marlow. He had been told that as some plot holders defaulted on their rent, the remaining ones had to be made to pay in order to make the sites profitable. Charitable enterprise they were not. Our letter writer complained that Mr Dorsett had promised to act on the high rents when he was up for election as a councillor but nothing visible had been done. The following month, the Marlow Parish Council tried to address the problem. They wrote to both of the Glade Road allotments owners who were now charging the same "unacceptable" 10d a pole rent. While Owen Williams agreed to reduce the rent back to 6d, the reply recieved from the agents acting on behalf of Hammond Chambers was "unsatisfactory." It was a landlords market it seems. In this year, 54 acres were under cultivation in Marlow as allotments. The cheapest plots were 4d a pole. 

The light fingered and quick fisted

The variety of vegetables and fruit on offer at the allotments proved a tempting sight to some of the lighter fingered Marlow residents. For example, two ladies recieved a 5s fine each for helping themselves to turnip tops at Foxes Piece in 1892. (Turnip tops were often eaten at this time, and were also sold as "spring greens".)

There are reports of rival plot holders coming to blows. Some disputes with petty beginnings ended up in court. In 1900 George Boddy, a labourer from Eton Place and Hanging Hill plot holder, found himself before the magistrates bench for pulling up his allotment neighbours John Dormer's broccoli plants. John had made a path across his plot which other people had also began to use. He turned a blind eye until some of those wandered off the path and trampled his crops. He therefore decided to dig up the path and plant some broccoli where it had been. George said he thought path was a shared one and objected. He was heard to threaten to pull up the new plants so when they were indeed destroyed, he was summoned. As no serious harm was done, George escaped a fine but was made to pay 5s 6d costs. 

The problem with pigs

Pig keeping was a problematic occupation in Marlow. The various parish officers responsible for dealing with nuisances often had to deal with complaints about people erecting a pigsty against a house, not necessarily their own! At the time, pig keeping was allowed at both the Glade Road allotment gardens and at Hanging Hill and Marefield. As Glade Road was increasingly developed for middle class housing, the presence of the pigs became a little contentious. The medical officer of Marlow Urban District Council braved a visit to the sites after an avalanche of complaints in 1897. He went on a warm day in July and could not disagree that the local residents had a just cause for complaint after experiencing the smell from the manure first hand. (He counted an incredible 157 pigs on the Glade Road sites and 73 at Hanging Hill). The poorly constructed styes with no proper bases or drainage were ordered to be improved or taken down. But the problem just sprang up again elsewhere! In the meantime, Glade Road residents hoped for a favourable wind in the opposite direction. 

Chicken and pigeons could also be kept at most of the allotments. The former were a frequent target of thefts. In 1900 several fowls were stolen from the Glade Road allotment of Spittal Street butcher Thomas Carter. Baker Henry Sawyer of Little Marlow was found guilty of this theft along with a similar one in Wycombe Road. His punishment? 14 days imprisonment with hard labour. 

Allotments, a tonic for the working man. 

Allotment gardening was regarded as a wholesome activity that would encourage the poor to be industrious - a well meant if misplaced thought when it concerned manual labourers who already knew the meaning of hard work all too well. Classes for allotment produce were introduced into local horticultural shows with cash prizes on offer. Some classess recieved no entries however and so these particular ones were abandoned. It's hard to know why some classes were not supported, but perhaps the allotment holders could just not afford to pay the entry fee required to submit veg in all the classes they would have liked to. Competing for different allotment prizes clearly bought a lot of fun and pride for others. Another idea to encourage the gardeners was to hold lectures on relevant subjects, sometimes on the allotment grounds themselves. A large number of working men attended lectures organised by the Marlow Technical Education Centre at one of the Glade Road allotments in 1894. They had secured Richard Dean, a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society to give talks on how to make allotment gardening profitable. He spoke of the striving to produce better and better crops that could be encouraged by some friendly rivalry if the plot holders could organise their own show and horticultural society. They decided to do just that. 

Later history

The 1908 Allotment Act acknowledged that many local authorities had dodged earlier requirements to provide land for allotments where demand existed so it made provisions more explicit and extensive. In Marlow a committee was formed, meeting in the Institute, to look into the issue of whether more allotments needed to be provided. They had received many letters asking for more plots to be made available. They decided to investigate who the people were making these requests and whether "the demand was genuine." Perhaps they thought a landowner hoping to flog some land to the council was writing fake letters? Unfortunately it was up to the Parish Council to police themselves in regard to this vetting and however many letters were sent to them asking for plots, they always decided the need for more allotments was not sufficiently demonstrated. To be fair to the council they said not everyone replied to their letters asking the wanna be allotmenteers to come to a meeting to state their case. The fact this was going to be held on a work day when there was no paid time off probably had something to do with that. However, the Parish Council report on the land then let as allotments is interesting. Hanging Hill, Foxes Piece, Marefield and Glade Rd allotments were all still in operation. Potential future sites were identified off  New Town, Little Marlow and Dedmere roads. 120 people again wrote to the council in 1910 asking for more allotments, and again the request was ignored. No doubt this was partially sparked by Foxes Piece going up for sale. Initially knocked down unsold, it did eventually find a buyer in Marlow Urban District Council chairman John Langley. He paid £1,300 for 23 acres - some of which was not in horticultural use at the time. He did however continue to allow some of the site to remain as allotments. Some of this land would a few years later be donated to the town for the building of Marlow's second Cottage Hospital. 

This blog deals with events up to 1920's but I will just add that in 1939 the Marlow Urban District Council wrote to the  Minister of Health and to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries for sanction to acquire some land at Foxes Piece for use as allotments at a cost of £1,300. The following year mention is made of the acquisition of the "playing field known as Foxes Piece" for £800. Part of the motivation for the extended playing field provision was the influx of war time evacuees in Marlow. This part continued in use as playing fields for a while before the building of Foxes Piece First School 1954-56. The allotments remain, not as large as they once were of course.

Related posts

Where your gardener ancestor worked: here

Marlow heroes Bonny & Corby, related to Hanging Hill here

History of Foxes Piece area - here

General Marlow history posts: here

To find all mention of your ancestor here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There is currently over 6,000 people in there.  To find other posts about Glade Rd, see the Specific Shops, Streets etc index in the same menu. 

Researched and written by Kathryn Day 

Sources:

Hall, Thomas H. The Law of Allotments - being a treatise on the law relating to the allotment of land for the labouring poor (Longmans, Green and Co, 1886)

Local newspapers including:

Reading Mercury 11 November 1939, Bucks Herald 13 February 1886, 10 February 1933, Maidenhead Advertiser 17 December 1886, South Bucks Standard July 13 & 26 September 1894, 20 March 1913. All copies at British Library. 

Board of Agriculture report into allotment cultivation at Marlow 1890.

©Marlow Ancestors

Women Of Oxford Road Almshouses

The almshouses for widows which stood in Oxford Road had been a gift of John Brinkhurst in the early 1600s.

Here's something about a few of their Victorian residents who received entry into them by being voted for in a meeting of the trustees. Voting took place upon the death of an occupant. As well as their home the widows received a small weekly income from the charity. In 1893 this was 5 shillings. The minimum age for entry was 60. Residents could come from Bisham or Marlow.

Elizabeth Keen

Born Elizabeth Windsor circa 1818 to parents Thomas, a postman, and Mary. She worked as a satin stitch worker as a young woman like so many other Marlow women, including her sisters Fanny and Eliza.

Elizabeth was elected into her charity house in 1893 and continued as resident until her death in 1901 following a short illness. Her young granddaughter Mary Deane lived with her then. At the time of her election to the Almshouses Elizabeth was around 75 years of age and living in Eton Place, Marlow. Two years earlier in 1891 at the time of the census she was a widowed needlewoman living in Dukes Place with her daughter Louisa born 1847. Both Louisa and Elizabeth's son Edwin (1839) and other daughter Sarah (1835) had been born illegitimately to Elizabeth prior to her marriage in 1857 to John Keen / Keene. Sadly Louisa was an inmate of St John's Hospital in Stone, Buckinghamshire, an asylum for "pauper lunatics" by 1901.

Emma Boddy

Emma received the happy news that she had won a place at the Almshouses in 1903. She was circa 70 years old and the widow of brewery labourer George Boddy who died between the 1871 and 1881 censuses.

Emma herself had worked as a needlewoman during her marriage and as a charwoman as a widow. At the time of her winning an Almshouse she lived at Cromwell Cottage which I think was the old gardener's cottage for Cromwell House. At the time Cromwell House was no longer in domestic use. The garden cottage was behind the High Street*. 

The first home she lived in with George was perhaps in South Place where she appears on the 1861 census.

In 1870 they lived in Gun Lane (now called Trinity Road). Here Emma was assaulted during a heated argument with her neighbour Julia Martin. Emma took Julia to court where the guilty party was fined 5 shillings.

Charlotte Kilham

Admitted Autumn 1900. There until her death in 1910.

She was born as Charlotte Frith circa 1833 in Great Marlow according to the census. She may have been an inmate in the Bledlow children's workhouse as a child, otherwise her early youth is hard to trace.

In 1871 she was the unmarried housekeeper or perhaps "housekeeper" of Henry Kilham a widowed bricklayer in Little Marlow. She and he had a baby daughter Clara that year. The next year they married but Henry, who was 65 years old (26 years older than Charlotte) died within weeks of the ceremony.

Charlotte moved to Marlow and supported herself as a needlewoman. Before entering the Almshouse she lived in Trinity Road Marlow with Clara who was also a needlewoman.

More widows of these houses in this post. To find every mention on this blog of a person of interest to you choose the Person Index option on the drop down menu.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

* A description of a  "Cromwell House Cottage" in 1898 refers to a bigger premises however as it had a coach-house and three horse stable in addition to a small garden. (South Buck Standard 6 May 1898)

© Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this material for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that my sources also remain credited.

Sources Included:

GRO Marriage and Death Registration Indexes. 

Census Great Marlow 1861, 71, 81, 91 my transcription from microfilm. National Archives, Kew.

1901 England and Wales Census Database Louisa Windsor in Stone record from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9Y1-G5C. National Archives.

Little Marlow 1871 census Charlotte Firth [Frith] from England and Wales Census Database, Familysearch https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXS5-262 National Archives Kew.

Newspapers in British Library Archives, via the BNA:

South Bucks Standard 26th October 1900 and 20th December 1901.

Graces of Marlow (some distressing content) *Updated September 2024*

Whilst wading through my mountains of research on Great Marlow people I noticed that I had picked up quite a lot of information about those of the last name Grace so I have gathered a selection of it  here:

George and Sarah:

George poss bapt 1765 Marlow to parents George and Jane however there are two contemporary Georges and only one baptism between them. Married Sarah Nibbs [this name also Knibbs in local records] 1785 Marlow. Sarah buried 1820 age 68.

George and Mary

George son of above George and Sarah. Baptised 1790 Marlow. Wife Mary buried 1840. George on 1833 parochial assessment and on 1841, 51, 61 census Gun Lane [now called Trinity Road]. On 1833 assessment his home was a cottage and garden worth £3 10 shillings a year. This would be very small, though there were slightly smaller cottages in Gun Lane. George on 1851 census is bricklayer's labourer 

Children:

Richard 1.) bapt 1811. Died 1814. 

2.) bapt 1815. Wife Mary Ann. Lived St Peter's Street 1851. Richard in 1861 summoned for failing to contribute to the maintenance of his children who have been sent to Reformatory Schools. Children not named in case. Road labourer for the parish 1881 when he lived St Peter's Street. *Update - one of the children was young Emily, sentenced to 3 years in the reformatory for stealing the clothes belonging to some of the girls attending the Miss Washbourne's Ladies Seminary or school in Marlow. Emily was at Hampstead Reformatory.*

Elizabeth bapt 1813. Mother of illegitimate son William bapt 1837 (who probably moved to Downley). Both of them live with her parents Gun Lane 1841. Probable mother of illegitimate daughter Sarah Webb Grace bapt 1839 too. This second child is not on the 1841 census.

George bapt 1821. Home with parents 1841. George, or just possibly his father, was stabbed by teenage Gun Lane resident Alfred White in 1858. Survived but badly injured. Alfred went for 2 years in a reformatory school as a result. George probably married a Rachel Smith 1865 Buckinghamshire.  Wife definitely a Rachel. Lived 1871 and 1881 Coleshill Buckinghamshire.

Michael bapt 1826. Home with parents 1841. Ag lab. See below.

Mark bapt 1828. See below.

Frederick bapt 1836. With parents 1841. Later a labourer. Wife Eliza. Daughter Sarah born circa 1869/70 charged with stealing clothes from a woman she briefly lodged with at Rotherfield Greys near Henley in 1888. When arrested she was working at Shiplake Farm.

George and Jane

George born circa 1841/42. Parents of Mark and Penelope below. Grandson of George and Sarah above. Lived with widowed grandad George in Marlow 1851 and 1861 Gun Lane. In 1858 sentenced to 14 days in prison for attempting to steal a pie from the shop of Margaret Winfield. Accomplice Thomas Stone managed to run off with two pies but George was seized by Mrs Winfield while trying to take his one. Was not George's first conviction. That Thomas Stone later accomplice to George Grace's father Mark in stealing peas from a field. 1871 George was a casual lodger at Bear lodging house come pub Chapel Street. George married a Jane who died 1892 Oxford Road Marlow aged 50. They lived there 1891 too when George is listed as a shoe maker and Jane as a laundress, as was their teenage daughter Alice.

Mark and Penelope.

Mark bapt 1828. Son of George and Mary above. He home with parents 1841 and with wife and parents 1851. Ag lab. Married 1849 Little Missenden Penelope James. Children Michael, Mary Ann, Elizabeth (Betsy), Richard, George (possibly 2 with first dying) James,  Polly?. Possibly others. Some children born before couple's marriage. Penelope acquitted of pickpocketing William Saunders in 1859. Couple lived Dean Street 1861. Mark acquitted of assaulting a woman in Quarry Woods that year. Wife Penelope died 1871. She had been drinking heavily, including at the Mint in Dean Street with her husband. He went off for a while with his nephew to go to Burroughs Grove outside Marlow. There he spent some hours drinking at the Three Horseshoes. When he returned home with some friends in a donkey cart they ran over Penelope near Marlow Bottom. She had been lying there in the road drunk and it was thought had already been run over by a ginger beer delivery vehicle. It is likely she had intended to meet her husband coming back from Burroughs Grove but had drank too much to make the journey. The report of the Reading Mercury on her inquest is listed in the sources below. The newspaper can be accessed at the British Library or via the BNA online for a fee. If you choose to read it please be warned that it contains some graphic information about the autopsy. Her husband Mark and son Michael were witnesses at inquest. Penelope was buried at Holy Trinity Church Marlow. There is no visible gravestone for her now. To see pictures of the church and graveyard as it is today please see this post. 

Mark still lived Dean Street 1881. He had by then married a second wife Emily. In 1884 received 3 months in prison for receiving stolen goods, wire netting, taken from Mr Darrell of Medmenham. Had only just then been in court for attacking his daughter Bessy during a drunken argument in the Chairmaker's Arms Dean Street.

Working for High Street builder Young Lovell 1889 when charged with stealing 6 yards of asphalt from him.

George and Alice

George born circa 1856 to Mark and Penelope above. Married Alice Green Cooper 1876. Her two brothers John and George Green beat him up 1882 so he summoned them for assault. He himself was in court charged with stealing 2 cakes and some tea from Alfred Ilsley the grocer in the High Street. Sentenced to three months hard labour. Not his first conviction. To see a photo of what these premises look like today or read more about Alfred Ilsley see here.

Michael and Eliza

Michael was a coal porter and sometimes grocer, the son of Mark and Penelope above. He gave evidence at his mother's inquest. Lived Dean Street 1873. Worked for Mr Langley, presumably John Langley.

Young daughter Rose burned to death in 1880 after being left momentarily unattended by her mother Eliza in a chair by the fire while Eliza went to take husband his breakfast and to walk two other reluctant children of hers to school. Rose had suffered fits before, and had played with the fire, either of which may have led to her getting close enough for her clothes to catch fire.

Live Cambridge Road 1881. Eliza operating a corner shop 1887, 1888 in Dean Street near corner to Queens Road. Shop new built 1887 and part of "Jubilee Terrace" which honoured Queen Victoria's Jubilee. Still there 1891. No longer any old buildings there. Eliza fined £5 for selling adulterated butter (plumped with too much water) shortly after she opened. It seems a commercial traveller had taken advantage of her inexperience and given her incorrect advice about product labeling. As such Eliza's large fine seems very unfair. She must have been a determined business woman to recover from such a dent in her finances. 

Michael and Eliza's son Walter later managed her shop until a fire, probably cause by mice, destroyed his stock in 1906. He moved to a different premises in Dean Street in the corner of Trinity Road where it seems his father operated as the boss. Unbelievably the next year that shop also caught fire but with less serious consequences. By 1911 the Graces had left the premises. They did not live in there.

Mary Ann Grace

Mary Ann born circa 1857/58. Daughter of Mark and Penelope Grace, above. On 1871 census a furrier living at home. 1881 own household, she an ag lab with her illegitimate daughter Rose. Married 1881 Charles Boddy. Charged later that year with stabbing him in the head with a knife in an argument after he had hit her. Her sister Elizabeth Grace rescued their baby from being in the room in the midst of their argument. When she heard her sister scream she thought she was being attacked and fetched constables. When she realised the situation she initially told the policeman her sister always went for a knife if she was angry, before seeming to decide to help Mary Ann after all and struggling with the officer who wanted to take the knife as evidence. The force of the blow had bent the knife. The blade penetrated to the bone. Mary Ann was sentenced to 6 months hard labour in Aylesbury jail. Her husband tried to prevent her arrest and did not wish her prosecuted. He required stitches to a 2 inch wound and lost a lot of blood. She said he had continually mistreated her. On hearing her sentence she fainted. (The arresting sergeant in the case was John Maneely whose biography can be read here) At the same Quarter Sessions that saw Mary Ann put in prison, her husband Charles was himself sentenced to three months in jail on the charge of fowl stealing. She still lived with her husband in 1891 when she was again arrested for threatening him, and for drunk and disorderly conduct. A constable said she behaved towards her husband then in "the most disgraceful manner" and was seen to chase him up Dean Street with a poker. An 18 shilling fine was the punishment this time. Three years later Mary Ann, up for further drunk and disorderly offences, and for swearing in public, said in court that she was driven to drink by a husband that continued to mistreat her and her children. She said she was afraid to go home so she spent much time outside. She however denied she had been drinking on the occasion for which she was arrested because she said she had no money. Mary Ann said her husband drank it away and her children would starve if she was not there for them. It was obviously a sad and difficult case and the magistrates told Mary Ann just to go home and there was no punishment. 

Walter and Elizabeth

Walter son of Michael and Eliza above and born circa 1877. Wife Elizabeth of Devon origin. In 1901 lived York Road and Walter described as grocer. Probably working already in his mother's old premises. Certainly Walter in 1906 had the grocery shop on corner of Dean Street and Queens Road which his mother previously ran. The premises that year suffered a serious night time fire. A constable on his beat saved the family's life by seeing flames and waking them. Shop and family's living space both badly damaged. His shop, seemingly in charge of his father Michael this time, had moved to corner of Dean Street and Trinity Road in 1907 when a lamp fell over and caught the room on fire. This time the flames were extinguished before serious damage occurred. Walter and Eliza left Marlow not long after that second fire, leaving Michael with the shop. Walter was possibly a Salvation Army man. 

*************************************

The Graces were not the focus of my research so there is likely to be much more out there on them if you look purposefully. There are definitely many more criminal cases involving the Graces - as victims as well as perpetrators. All posts are updated with new research as often as possible.

To find people of interest on this blog use the Person Index option on the top drop down menu. There is also a Biographies of Families option on that menu which you may find useful.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research if you credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain credited for contributing too.

Sources:

1833 parochial assessment. Original  notebooks owned by my family and transcribed by me.

My old transcription of Great Marlow Parish Registers.

My transcription of Great Marlow census from microfilm. Census content is the property of the Crown.

Little Missenden marriage, provided by Jane Pullinger. Also judicial records  / Quarter Session research of Jane. Thanks Jane!

Bucks Herald 23rd October 1858. Croydon Weekly Standard 16th April 1859. Reading Mercury 9th November 1861. Reading Mercury 11th September 1871 [Penelope's death] and 4th March 1882. Buckingham Advertiser 12th April 1884. Bucks Herald 18th December 1880. South Bucks Standard  28th September 1906. All British Library Archives. Via the BNA.

Death Certificate Jane Grace.

GRO Marriage Index online from the GRO website.

The Sad Case of Harriet Boddy

It is a cold but fair February afternoon in Great Marlow 1903. Hannah Allen, of Hatches Row by Dean Street is about her housework when her teenage granddaughter Eliza runs in. The girl tells her that there's a baby lying on the ground outside. A boy from the Holloway family she says, saw it first and asked her to look. Hannah glances out of her kitchen window. In the grass next to the rubbish pit known as Langley's Pit, used by the local council she can see certainly something, and she goes to investigate. 

Lying face down at the edge of the pit, is a naked, bloody newborn. Hannah remains calm. Though the child is not moving she knows that does not mean it is hopeless. She places her hand upon the little girl but finds her stone cold. Hannah removes her apron to give the girl a decent covering and sends Eliza for a constable.

The constable notes blood on the grass and a gooseberry bush by the pit. Possibly also in a privy by it which upon inquiry he finds is used by the Boddy family headed by John and Sophia of Marefield Passage. (Aka Maresfield)  Harriet Boddy, the 24 year old eldest daughter of the house is known to be expecting. 

Theirs is not a happy home. John and Sophia are by their own admission living separate lives under the same roof. They no longer share a room. The fact that Harriet has for the second time become pregnant by an unknown father is causing financial worry and resentment from the main breadwinner, dad John. With only a labourer's wage he is already a man who leaves for work at 5am at the very latest, often at 4am. He has said the child might have to go to the workhouse. His wife and daughters are no longer talking to him as a result.

Under the cover of Hannah's apron the infant is carried to the Verney Arms pub in Dean Street to await examination by a surgeon.

In the meantime the constable seeks Harriet. She is not at home but her sister directs him to their grandmother's house. There he finds her sitting with her three year old son Albert playing on her lap. She denies having given birth but agrees that a doctor can examine her.

Her grandmother takes her upstairs to await Doctor Culhane. His examination when he arrives is brief. The constable waits outside the bedroom door. Doctor Culhane tells him that there is no question about it-  Hannah has just given birth.

The constable takes her and her grandmother back to to Harriet's house in Marefield Passage. A trail of blood drips runs from the back door, up the stairs and to Harriet's bedroom. Someone has tried to wipe up a large puddle of blood on the floor beside her bed. The blanket is bloodstained.....

So began a case that horrified Marlow though it would not have surprised them. I have found multiple examples in Marlow history of dead babies being discovered in fields and ditches. Usually no parent was identified for them. The suspicion was always that the child was an illegitimate one stillborn or the victim of infanticide. At least one other case was in the immediate vicinity of Marefield.

The coroner's inquest on baby Boddy returned a verdict of wilful murder and a warrant was issued for Harriet's arrest. 

Her initial appearance in a court of law was at a special hearing at the magistrate's court where it would be decided whether or not to send the case to the Assizes. Harriet had spent the time since her arrest in jail without access to any legal advice.

Such cases were always extremely difficult. It seems that the blood on the child probably came from the birth process and a bleeding umbilical cord. There were no obvious injuries to the body. Neither were there signs of disease or malformation in the child's internal organs. Cause of death was in other words "unascertainable" using only the scientific evaluation available in the early 1900s. If the mother claimed that the child was born dead it was hard to prove otherwise. This was exactly what Harriet claimed. She said that she had not realised that she was so close to term. Her mother Sophia had intended not to leave her side close to her time. As it happened Harriet found herself alone at home when she felt labour pains. Within an hour, she said she had given birth to a stillborn child. She admitting taking the body out to the rubbish pit. Of very low intelligence according to most people who knew her, she had no real explanation for doing this. Possibly the trauma of it all. Any jury at the Assizes would have to consider whether Hannah was telling the truth or had as the prosecution argued killed her daughter by leaving her to die of exposure and bleeding by the rubbish pit.

John Boddy, Harriet's father gave evidence that suggested that the child was in fact born between 4 and 5 in the morning, hours before Harriet claimed. He said that he had heard an odd sound outside which he later took to be a newborn cry as he laced his boots before work. He also heard Harriet come in the back door just afterwards. If this was the case the entire family was at home at the time. Sophia Boddy and two other daughters would even have been sleeping in the same bedroom as Harriet. No one else in the family agreed with this version of events. Perhaps Harriet was moving about because of early labour pains, whether she was able to recognise them or not. The sound may have been her not a baby.  Why she would deny this can't be told. One thing is sure- her father's evidence was dangerous if excepted by a jury as it would destroy her claim that the child was born dead, never having drawn a breath or making a sound. It could seem to imply complicity in the concealment of birth, or worse, on the part of his wife and daughters who surely could not have failed to notice someone giving birth inches from where they slept. 

The case was sent to the Assizes. John Boddy's evidence either mistaken or even malicious was not given much weight. There a jury decided that a murder charge was not appropriate without evidence of any premeditation leaving the possible charges of manslaughter and concealing a birth still on the table. 

At this point Harriet did have a defence lawyer. She plead guilty to the concealment of birth charge only. This matched the jury's opinion by the time they heard all evidence. Her lawyer hoped she could escape without penalty given that by then she had spent 4 months in jail, was mentally incapable of proper judgement and had suffered enough already by losing the child she had been looking forward to having. In concealing the birth there could have been no premeditation. Harriet had not sought to hide her pregnancy from anyone. Nor had there actually been any real attempt to conceal the body. It was plainly visible where she had laid it. Her 3 year old Albert was not neglected. In fact he seemed a happy boy loved by his mother.

The judge was more hard-line than the lawyer or jury and said in his opinion the case bordered on manslaughter. He clearly had doubts that the child was really born dead. He imposed a sentence of 3 months hard labour.

Within a few years of the case Harriet's father died leaving Sophia and Harriet to support the family as charwomen. I do not believe Harriet ever married.

BACKGROUND:

Maresfield Passage- AKA Gas Alley in the case notes- no longer exists, neither does Hatches Row. The Boddy household had lived at Maresfield passage for many years.

There were other Boddy households in Marlow at the time. While many of those other Boddy individuals were related to one another their tie if any to John Boddy was not obvious to me upon very superficial research. John lived in Lane End before moving to Marlow. Sophia was née Collins. They married 1877.

Eliza Allen lived in Cambridge Road. She was 15 years old. She had Holloway cousins which probably included the boy who first saw the body.

Research sources:

Marriage, death and birth certificates from the GRO.

1881 and 1891 censuses transcribed by me from microfilm census page images held at a LDS family history centre., London. These would now be available online.

1901 census from Find My Past UK accessed March 2018.

Newspapers at the BNA accessed March 2018 / June 2020: South Bucks Standard 13th February 1903, Reading Mercury 27th June 1903, Bucks Herald 20th June 1903.

Great Marlow parish registers, old transcriptions by me.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

To find every mention of a person on this blog use the person Index option on the drop down menu.

© Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain credited for the information they provided.

So far this blog contains mention of

174

people from or associated with Marlow.