Will of Thomas Bowles 1819

 Thomas Bowles of Great Marlow. Will written 1814, proved 1819. An awkwardly expressed will in the beginning.

Says that he is sick and weak but of sound mind and memory.

To loving wife Elizabeth and her assigns all the houses he is possessed of with their appurtenances and all other of his personal property until the children reach 21. Certain of the properties go to various of the children as they each reach the 21 milestone, as described below. She can still have the house he lives in and any residual property for the term of her natural life unless she remarries. When she dies or remarries son William to have it.

Daughter Sarah at age 21 to receive the house next door with appurtenances and the long back house adjoining it.

Son Thomas at age 21 the house with appurtenances in testator's own occupation [so he is using a second house too as the one he lives in was previously mentioned in the will. The second house may have been a place of business or storage] next door to Manus Gray [probably meant to be Parmenus Gray who witnessed the will. The testator was likely using a friendly short form of the name when he gave it as Menas. The name Parmenas /Parmenus in various forms was traditional in the Gray / Grey  family of Marlow].

Son James at age 21 house with appurtenances in the occupation of John Harding.

The child that the testator's wife is pregnant with will receive £50 over and above it's share of his residual estate as described below.

All household goods and furniture to his wife for life. All residual estate to be invested and wife Elizabeth to receive the income from that in her lifetime. Afterwards the principle sum to be divided equally between his children.

Executors his wife and his brother James Bowles.

Testator signed only with a mark.

Witnessed by John Allnutt, Jno. Mossenton and Parmenus Gray.

Will was proved by the brother James Gray with power to administer also reserved to the other executor Elizabeth.

NOTES=

"Jno" (a common way of rendering both John and Jonathan on paper) Mossenton was probably the cordwainer of Chapel Street John Mossenton.

Will transcribed and summarised by me Charlotte Day from an original at the National Archives, Kew. Notes also by Charlotte.

Well over 100 wills of Marlow people are on this blog. See the wills index here

For every mention of any individual on this blog please see the A-Z Person Index. There are lots of Bowles!

©Marlow Ancestors. Reuse for family or local history purposes freely permitted with credit to this blog.

Price & Bowles Grave, Marlow cemetery

Above - in loving memory of a dear son Raymond Francis Price d August 1939 age 7 "just a ray of sunshine called back to heaven". *

ALSO OF

Edith May Bowles his grandmother - died 23rd October 1937 age 44 years "time can never dim the memory of those happy days".

 This grave can be found in Marlow cemetery. 

Further information: 

Little Raymond was drowned in the river near Riverwoods. His parents were Mr & Mrs Nelson Price of "Greenwood" New Town Rd. He was picnicking on the river bank with his mother and some friends when he wandered off, it is believed to look for an ice-cream seller. But the young boy fell into the river somehow and in a flash he was gone. The touching inscription seems entirely appropriate. 

Edith lived at 26 Dean Street in the 1920s and prior to that in South Place.  Her husband was Frederick. Edith clearly had many ups and downs in her life. If you are interested in her please contact us directly (may be upsetting).

To look for information about any particular person on this blog use the A-z person index on the top drop down menu. 

For other grave images see the index here

Index of posts about general Marlow history here

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

The Dreaded Pox In Marlow.

 Smallpox (not for the squeamish!)

You are feeling a bit tired, and at the back of your mind there is the thought that you might be going down with a cold. You check the funds in your purse or pocket and contemplate a visit to the reliable Mr Foottit in the High Street or perhaps good old Mr Cannon. Those chemists always have some promising pick-me-up when you feel yourself sagging. I'll go later, you think, it might pass. Save my money for now.

By the afternoon there's no doubt that you are sick. You ache all over. Your head throbs. You stand shakily on the threshold of your home. The shops are only a couple of streets away but suddenly such a walk feels too far. Standing up worsens the growing pain in your back. You call to one of the neighbourhood children playing nearby and send him to the nearest chemist with the promise of a coin for his trouble. See what there is for a cold, you say. No, say influenza. This can't be only a cold.

You receive a powder, and the bill from the boy, dose yourself and retire to bed. There you remain for days, feverish. The powder is doing nothing for you and your throat feels raw. Pushing up the sleeves of your nightshirt you notice spots on your skin. A fearful possibility has entered your mind. With all the strength you can muster you get out of bed to find your looking glass. With a little prayer you raise the mirror to your face, opening your mouth. The bursting sores you see inside leave you in no doubt. There are no other disease rashes like this. You have smallpox and within days there is a one in three chance that you will be dead...

Few diseases were the source of such terror as smallpox or "the dreaded pox" as it was known. Those that didn't die from it frequently bore deep scars on their faces for the rest of their lives to the degree that some covered their faces in public or refused to go out at all. The marriage possibilities of numerous young women and even some men were felt to have been destroyed by the pox's ravages on their complexion. Scarring also occurred elsewhere on the body as the pox spots would spread from the initial mouth area to much of the body including the soles of the feet and palms of the hands. These spots started flat before hardening and filling, bursting open, and then scabbing over.

In 1837 nearly 100 people died of smallpox in Marlow. Two years later the town suffered another outbreak which killed 164 people and infected many more. Periodic smaller outbreaks occurred regularly in the 1800s. In the closing years of the 1800s a Marlow magistrate recalled a time within living memory when as many as a third of those you met in the streets carried smallpox scars. At the time of his speaking you would still meet similar people but nowhere near as regularly. 

The above magistrate was speaking well after the introduction of a smallpox vaccine. Marlow was a place known throughout the Victorian age and into the 1900s for vaccination reluctance. In 1859 Marlow doctor Robert Colbourne lamented that forty nine out of fifty children he met had not been vaccinated against smallpox. The vaccines were suitable even for babies. This was critical as at least half of the children under the age of one who caught the disease died from it. In some outbreaks that figure was even higher. A foetus could, it was reported, contract the disease from the mother in utero and thus be born with it.

Vaccine refusal was usually on the grounds of safety concerns but perhaps was also sometimes on religious grounds, as local non-conformist Christian families seem especially likely to have refused all vaccinations, not just the smallpox one. They may have felt vaccinators were wrongfully "playing God". Vaccination did not necessarily prevent smallpox infection, far from it, but it made death less likely. Also counting against the arguement for vaccination was the fact that some of those who received the vaccine came down with a form of pox as a direct result of it. This was not typically fatal but it could still cause disfigurement and days of illness (and thus unemployment) which poor families could not afford to endure. 

In 1920 in a council meeting it was stated that about 1 in 7 Marlow children still had not had their available childhood vaccinations, smallpox or otherwise. Councillor Harvey said that he thought vaccines were largely a money making scheme for doctors, which caused the present Dr Dickson, a smallpox survivor himself, great offence. Smallpox vaccines were free to the patient but doctors received money from health authorities for giving them out. They would come to your home to inject you and also visited places such as schools. 

While Drs Dickson and Colbourne were firm advocates for vaccination the efficacy of the smallpox vaccine received a more lukewarm response from other local medical men. In 1894 the Wycombe Union district number one chief medical officer said that he couldn't really say whether smallpox vaccines worked to prevent smallpox though he thought they were worth persisting with until they were conclusively proved to be ineffective. This was just after the town's last major outbreak of the disease in the 1800s, when 28 people were infected. Thankfully this was by a milder form than usual and no deaths were recorded.

As a survivor Dr Dickson would have got reasonable though not absolute protection from reinfection. For this reason women who had pox scars to prove that they had been infected were much in demand to nurse the newly infected, saving members of the patient's household running the risk. Even if there was no active outbreak in their home area some people in the 1700s and 1800s decided to employ smallpox survivors as servants as a matter of routine as they were unlikely to bring the pox into the family.

Families also liked their doctors to have had smallpox previously if possible. You didn't want to arrive at his house with indigestion and go home with the pox. There is evidence that during outbreaks people held back from consulting doctors on other matters for fear of infection. This had a bad effect on their businesses. Dr Culhane during the 1893 outbreak was estimated to have lost £50 of his expected income through his, heroic and dedicated, serving of patients effected by smallpox and the reticence of others to be seen by him as a result. The authorities compensated him slightly over half of his losses which is all he asked for. This was somewhat begrudgingly given by the local poor law union, especially by one member who asserted that smallpox was a big fuss over nothing and could be cured by the application of cream of tartar!

A two month closure order on the schools also brought unintended financial consequences for the town's educational staff. Teachers were unable to collect the usual fees from their pupils if the children weren't allowed to come to school and to add insult to injury the dim-witted education authorities threatened to cut funding from Marlow schools for their "poor attendance rates" during the time they were officially closed. The mistress of the Bovingdon Green School didn't know how she was going to keep her school going.

Who got the pox?

Children often seem to have brought smallpox into the home of affected Marlow families. Once there it spread easily between people by way of shared bedding (most children shared beds with their siblings), or by the affected person talking in close proximity to, coughing near, or otherwise being in close contact with others. The responsible variola virus wasn't sufficiently contagious to affect those not in very close contact and contagion usually flowed from patients who had reached a stage of feeling quite ill (and thus not likely to be out and about) rather than from those still in the earliest stages of smallpox.

It was understood that isolation of patients should occur but that was a hard ask for families living in one or two room homes which was the case with some Marlow households in the early and mid Victorian era and of course earlier. 

Being in the overcrowded workhouse also increased your smallpox risk. Marlow Workhouse in Munday Dean Lane had no ability to isolate the sick from the well. Skin infections and lice were a routine problem as a result and in 1841 came smallpox to add to the woes of the inmates. The Wycombe Union houses where Marlow paupers were sent after our own workhouse closed in 1843 suffered their own regular outbreaks. Fourteen inmate children were found to have smallpox in 1864. The workhouse used two rooms at the top of the main building to contain the infected and all inmates were banned from leaving the premises for a fortnight as a precaution. It isn't known whether any Marlow children fell ill during this outbreak though Marlovians were at several other times blamed for bringing the pox into the union house.

Infected domestic homes would be disinfected, the patient's clothes burned and everyone within the household offered vaccination. As I stated above, vaccination did not bring complete protection from the disease. It was thought wise to re-vaccinate someone every time they were suspected of having come into contact with the disease, rather than trust to the continued effectiveness of any previous vaccinations that they had been given. Some people's arms became so marked with vaccination scars that they joked that they were more disfigured by the cure than the disease. Vaccination within 4 days of exposure was considered best for protection. 

Supplies of lymph from calves infected with cowpox were sent from London at a cost in 1893 of two shillings for a tube that could vaccinate three against the related smallpox. Those three people were then used as human wells for vaccine and the next three people to need it were vaccinated using lymph drawn from their arms once the initial vaccination was thought to have sufficiently "taken". The bodies of the second lot of people would then be used as a source of vaccine for three more people and so on. This "arm to arm" programme was cheaper then using bought in calf lymph for each potential person to be vaccinated but it could be fiercely resisted. Outside of times of outbreaks the main people to be vaccinated were very young children and many parents took a dim view of this repeated cutting of their children. It was painful and left scars. 

Technically from 1852 receiving vaccination against was compulsory for children who did not have poor health or whose parents did not get an exemption on the grounds of ethical beliefs against vaccination. This was little enforced before the 1870s and even then parents often secured exemptions if they wanted them and a great many local authorities simply refused to prosecute refusers right into the 1900s.

Eventually a permanent isolation hospital was built for the Wycombe district at Booker. A temporary hospital had been erected earlier at Marlow Common in order to contain the 1893 Marlow smallpox outbreak. On that occasion a milder form of the disease predominated and of 28 infected Marlow people (all from Dean Street) sent to the hospital, none died. Dr Culhane treated the 28, plus 2 sent from Wooburn, and monitored the families of the patients who had to isolate in their homes with the help of nurse Mary Menday, sent from the Wycombe Board of Guardians.

Servants living in the homes of their employers stood at great risk of being dismissed or at least temporarily sent away if they were so much as suspected of having the disease. In 1870 smallpox suspect Miss Jones was paid off and told to leave by her panicking employers when she began to feel unwell at her job in London. She did indeed have the disease and her return to her parents in Bovingdon Green caused an outbreak in Marlow. The poor girl almost collapsed with exhaustion in trying to reach the care of her parents. She walked home to Marlow from Bourne End station after catching the train from London Paddington where she had had to endure a five hour wait, alone and unwell, for the right train. Understandably this abandonment of a young, very sick girl by her employers caused outrage. Not all employers were so unfeeling. The girl's father worked for Wethered's Brewery* and they continued to pay him during his enforced isolation at home with her. Without such payments rental obligations could not be met and eviction and homelessness was a very real possibility for families stricken with the disease. The local guardians of the poor promised to cover the rent of some families while they isolated but there was, with good reason, often distrust that sufficient money or any money at all would indeed be given to them. A case in point was Mr Bowles of Marlow who suffered illness for six weeks during the 1893 outbreak. His wife did not become ill but couldn't go out to work as she was required to isolate and the family were pushed to the brink. They had been promised in front of witnesses money to cover their rent and to replace the contaminated clothes they had burnt but received nothing. 

Miss Jones wasn't the only person to bring smallpox home from London. The same month Jones returned, a man with smallpox did the same and started his own small outbreak in Marlow. A decade earlier five female rag sorters at Temple Mills fell ill with smallpox after handling London rags which were noticed too late to "smell of smallpox". The peculiar and distinctive smell which clung to smallpox patients, their clothing and bedding, mostly in the late stages of the disease, was reported quite often by ordinary people but medical journals rarely mention it.

The 1893 outbreak in Marlow also began when a rag sorter handled contaminated rags. She passed infection on to her little daughter who then unwittingly spread it further. The little girl and her mother had the last name Ford but lived in the household of the mother's employer Mr Simmonds, the rag and bone man. 

The perception was that smallpox in London began most often in the autumn and then spread out to the nearby counties by way of travellers packed tight into stagecoaches or, later, railway carriages. There seems some evidence to suggest infections were at their most severe around April and May. 

We can't blame London for all Marlow infections. You can bet the severe outbreaks at High Wycombe in 1870 and at Reading back in 1772 affected Marlow too. 

There was a belief that rubbish and dirt could harbour the pox and that bad smells could make you more vulnerable to infection. James Beckett in complaining to the Marlow Urban Council council in 1898 said that he believed that the piles of refuse dumped in an old gravel pit next to his marlow home had caused a smallpox outbreak in the immediate vicinity. 

Treatment 

Symptom management was the best that could be hoped for from doctors. Either your immune system could cure the disease or it could not and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. 

Cooling drinks such as chilled milk and lemonade (non fizzy in those days) were recommended for those in the grip of the fever which was such a prominent early symptom of the disease. Eating wasn't easy for small pox patients so liquid strengthening foods like the ubiquitous "beef tea" (the water beef has been cooked in, no tea involved) or gruel had to be resorted to. Opium was proscribed for pain. Severe back ache in the lumbar region was one of the diagnostic features of small pox. A lesser known complication of the disease is blindness so the eyes of sufferers needed careful bathing and care if the conjunctiva became inflamed. The rest of the body was gently sponged to clean the patient and to soothe them. Olive oil was dabbed onto your skin sores if the person nursing you was a gentle soul, carbolic acid if they had more a more savage approach to patient care. Both the oil and the acid had their advocates as means of decreasing smallpox scarring.

You will note that too many of these remedies were well out of reach for the poorest patients, the very ones most likely to suffer the disease. Beef, lemons for making lemonade and olive oil were all rare luxury items for them. If they had no well or water supply at home (and during the earliest most severe outbreaks most would not) they would be dependant during their isolation period on kind neighbours bringing them water with which to wash the patient or make up gruel. In cases where diarrhoea and vomiting accompanied the disease maintaining the hygiene of the patient without a domestic water supply must have been impossible.

Once isolation hospitals, temporary or permanent, became available, life for the affected poor became somewhat easier as while in hospital they were fed and treated at taxpayer expense not according to their own meagre means. If room ran out in the hospital the patients forced to isolate at home instead were delivered the necessities that they would have received in hospital. 

Smallpox is now extinct worldwide so that vaccination occurs only with those working in places such as research labs. The last cases locally were apparently in the 1920s. 

Written and researched by Charlotte Day. ©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog .

*A biography of Miss Jones' characterful mother Emily is available on the blog here

You may also interested in=

The 1890s flu epidemic in Marlow here Romantic troubles for Doctor Culhane here. Dr Dickson biog here

Selected Sources=

The World Health Organisation.

A Treatise On The Theory And Practice of Medicine by John Syer Bristowe of London. 1879 edition. Published by H.C Lea.

Transactions Medico-Chrirugical. The Journal of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, London. 1896. Volume 79.

The Lancet, April 2nd 1870. Google Books.

Reports to the Medical Officer of Privy Council 1866.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10855-smallpox

Bucks Free Press 15th April 1859, 5th February 1864, 22nd Dec 1893, 11th April 1894, 30th December 1898 and 7th May 1920. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Buckingham Express 28th January 1871. South Bucks Standard April 13th 1894. British Library Archives accessed via the BNA.

Edwardian / WW1 Trinity Road and Trinity Place Part Two

Part One dealt with the odd numbers in this street and is available here. This part contains the even numbered homes and their residents as well as those people whose exact address, odd or even, is not known.

Trinity Road was previously Gun Lane and at times during the Edwardian era was also referred to as "Trinity Lane". Trinity Place was a small cul de sac which lead off Trinity Road and was previously known as Gun Place. It was at times numbered as if it was part of Trinity Road, and sometimes as a separate entity*

This was poor area with most homes consisting of just three rooms (kitchen come family room downstairs and two bedrooms above). Piped water arrived here at the close of the 1800s but not before the only well for the residents had already run dry. Life here was tough and there is some distressing content below which may involve your own particular family.

All the homes listed below were demolished long ago.

It is likely some residents have been missed due to the rapid tenant turnover in poorer streets. We will endeavour to add in anyone found to be missing as research opportunities permit.

Even numbered* properties were on the right as you came in from Dean Street. Numbers given as they were then=

2.) Charlotte (bn circa 1845) and Joseph Budd (bn circa 1848). He worked at the gasworks in nearby Cambridge Road as did sons John and Walter who lived at home. Charlotte's 62 year old maternal cousin, Alfred White who also lived in Trinity Road at an unknown address but likely with Charlotte sadly took his own life by hanging in 1907. His body was found by a telegraph boy in the yard of Mr Lovell the builder (off the High Street). Charlotte gave evidence in the resulting inquest. She said that she thought Alfred intellectually impaired. He was deaf and had trouble speaking. As a result of this he had been known as "Dummy White". Earlier in his life Alfred had spent time in jail for stabbing George Grace in the arm following a quarrel. By coincidence George had also died by his own hand in Marlow Fire Station. Alfred had become depressed due to unemployment. Instead of help in his worries he had been prosecuted at Maidenhead for threatening to do away with himself on a previous occasion.

Joseph and Charlotte Tubb's daughter Jane features in the Edwardian Trinity Road post Part One.

4.) This brick and tile house formed a pair with no.6. Thomas and Eliza Barnes and their children then Clara and Amos Moody with their children, followed by a Mr Beaver. 

Thomas Barnes was a bricklayer born circa 1860/61. Eliza was born circa 1863, and was nee Cook.  Thomas was earlier in his life attacked in Trinity Road by two men from other Marlow streets. Amongst the projects that he worked on as a bricklayer was the building of the Salvation Army chapel in Crown Road. This was later rebuilt and is now a daycare nursery. The family moved to Chapel Street by 1911. 

Clara and Amos Moody were both born around 1866. Both spent at least some of their childhoods in nearby Dean Street. Amos was the son of John and Elizabeth Moody, Clara the daughter of Caleb and Elizabeth Boot. Clara and her living-at-home daughter Ada were both laundresses when they lived in Edwardian Trinity Road. Amos worked at the paper mills in the Edwardian era but had been a farm worker as a young man. Amos's sister Jane had a very troubled and sad life. She may have lived in Trinity Road for a while early in the Edwardian era with her husband. A full biographical post about her is already on the blog (distressing) here.

6.)Frederick and Charlotte Bailey and their children, then H Tubb, then labourer William Henry Tubb with his wife Mary and their children.

Frederick Bailey was born circa 1866 and Charlotte in circa 1865. Frederick was a drayman at the brewery. Charlotte died in 1909 following a strange incident where a varicose vein in her leg ruptured when she was out at night near the Plough in Wycombe Road. Instead of getting help from the pub or nearby houses Charlotte made her way home, bleeding. Her daughter Annie fetched the doctor. Police from the police station in Trinity Road as they had first aid training but nothing could save Charlotte and she quickly passed away. How her leg came to be injured was investigated. She had just parted company from her husband at that time (he perhaps intending to visit the Plough?). To one person she said someone had kicked her in the leg. To others she said she had just knocked it herself. A trail of blood lead to a horse trough by the Plough but no further conclusions could be arrived at. 

Charlotte was born Charlotte Bowles, the daughter of George and Ann Bowles of Dean Street.

After Charlotte's death Frederick moved with his children away from Trinity Road and became a gardener. They lodged at the Black Horse, Chapel Street. As a teenager Frederick had had to pay a one shilling fine for gambling at cards with his friends in the "recreation ground" (Gossmore). A less controversial teenage hobby of his was playing football for the Marlow Star football team who played in Star Meadow, off Wycombe Road, very close to Trinity Road. He was their captain in 1886.

Mary Tubb was born circa 1888 and William Henry around 1884. 

This house was a brick and tile building which formed a pair with number 4.

8.) In 1907 Samuel Macklow /Mucklow a bricklayer and probable former soldier who was born around 1854 in Worcester and his wife Ann aka "Annie". This Annie was one of the neighbors who rushed to help the dying Charlotte Bailey of no 6 above in 1909. Samuel and Annie lived in Dean Street in 1902 when they were fined with other of the street's residents for abusing and violently assaulting a Bristol man who had come into the town to do a job at the brewery and was lodging in Dean Street. Other outsiders were also employed on the same job and staying in the lodging houses along there. This caused huge resentment amongst the Marlow men who felt work which was rightfully theirs was being stolen from them by strangers. One of the accused Marlow women stabbed the Bristol man with a knife during the fracas but it wasn't clear to the court exactly which woman was responsible. This incident wasn't the first time that Samuel had been convicted of disorderly conduct.

Niece Gladys Sewell was also in household of the Mucklows. She was the daughter of Walter and Elizabeth Sewell of Dean Street and granddaughter of Edwin Sewell who lived at no 12 Trinity Road. See below.

10.) In 1907 Mr G Armstrong, then agricultural labourer John Lovegrove born circa 1861, his widowed sister in law Jane Rockell and Jane's widowed daughter Henrietta Bidmead, a laundress. In 1909 Jane died from heart disease and an ulcerated leg after refusing medical treatment. John found her dead in bed when he came home from work. At some time between 1911 and 1915 both John and Henrietta left this house. Henrietta moved to number 13 on the other side of the street. She was born a Rockell in around 1871 and married William Henry Bidmead.

12.) This property was condemned and demolished in 1932 Edwin Sewell born circa 1846-49 who had come to Marlow from Rickmansworth Hertfordshire as a child with his parents. He moved from Dean Street Marlow to Trinity Road between 1901 and 1905. Wife Ada. Daughter Alice when married lived at no 22, see below. Granddaughter was Gladys Sewell who lived at no 8 Trinity Road.

14.) This property was condemned and demolished in 1932 Hannah Burt an unmarried laundress born around 1871. Her agricultural labourer brother Joseph lived with her as did, early in the era, her elderly mother Harriett. The latter was the widow of Thomas Burt and had raised her children in the Hamlet of Monday Dean near Marlow, at Ragman's Castle on the outskirts of the town, at Boulter End, Flackwell Heath and in Dean Street Marlow. She and her husband were evicted from their Dean Street home in 1897 and may have moved to Trinity Road as a result. She was deaf by the late 1880s. Thomas died early in 1901, before the census. He had been a labourer. Harriett died in 1903. She was at marriage Harriett Boddy. Emma, daughter of Thomas and Harriett appears amongst the inhabitants of Trinity Road without an assigned house number. See at the end of the house listings below.

16.) Also known as 1 Trinity Place Thomas and Ann "Annie" Rockell  and their children. Thomas was born circa 1849 and Ann in around 1850-2. Probable maiden name Frith. Long term Trinity Road residents as a couple and it looks like Ann spent part of her childhood there too.

18.) Also known as 2 Trinity Place Mrs Ann Goodchild, widow born circa 1846. Came from West Wycombe. Her labouring son William James lived with her. Earlier in her widowhood Ann had worked as a chair caner in Marlow.

20.) Also Known as 3 Trinity Place George and Louisa "Lewey" Budd and their children. Early on in the era James Bowles who was described as George Budd's brother in law (born circa 1848) also resided here. George Budd was an agricultural labourer and born circa 1874. Louisa was born circa 1878, the daughter of William and Ann Bowles. James Bowles was marked on the 1901 census as deaf from birth.

22.) Also Known as 4 Trinity Place Thomas Turner and his wife Elizabeth and their children, then in 1907 the newly married couple Robert and Alice Armstrong who had several children in this house, then R Stroud. 

Thomas Turner was a labourer born circa 1866 and Elizabeth in circa 1873. They moved to Chapel Street before 1911.

Robert and Alice Armstrong were both born around 1882. He was a house painter. Alice was nee Sewell, the daughter of Edwin Sewell who lived at no 12. The family later moved to Oxford Road. 

24.) Also known as 5 Trinity Place James and Louisa Cook and their children. James was a bricklayer's labourer born circa 1866. Louisa was born 1870. One of the children was Edith who was found along with other young laundry hands to have been working longer hours than legally permitted at Quarry Laundry in 1908. They started at 8am and should have finished at 4pm but instead ended their working day at 5.30pm. Her employer was fined. It is unknown whether this extra work was actually welcomed as an opportunity by Edith or whether she was being exploited.

26.) Also Known as 6 Trinity Place. Thomas and Mary Langley then Arthur and Beatrice Bowles, then Beatrice Bowles as a widow.

Thomas Langley was born around 1867 and Mary in around 1868. He was a labourer. She was nee Mary Louisa Edwards. She spent her childhood in Trinity Road. Her parents were Caroline and James Edwards.

Arthur Frederick Bowles was a gardener born circa 1884. He was a casualty of the first world war, dying in hospital at Bedford of pneumonia in 1918. He had served in the Labour Corps according to the newspaper reports as to his death and the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry according to his grave. As a teenager Arthur was found to have stolen some partridge eggs from private property. One of his co-accused was Thomas Rockell son of Thomas and Ann Rockell of no 16 above.

Beatrice Bowles was at her 1907 marriage to Arthur Beatrice Usher.

Residents whose house numbers are unknown or questionable=

Florence Collier and her children resident 1912. She was fined for swearing at them.

Charles and Mary Edwards. Residents 1901. He born circa 1870 and she in 1871. They had with them "adopted child" Dorothy Bright born circa 1897.

Sophia Edwards resident 1901 Trinity Road. Born circa 1834. Widow of William Edwards. Had lived in Trinity Place in 1895 and Trinity Road earlier. Kept pigeons in her back yard.

Mrs Harriett Elizabeth Groves who slit her throat with a razor in what was ruled as a fit of "temporary insanity" in 1911. She was taken to the Cottage Hospital but could not be saved. Wife of Alfred Groves, a labourer. Harriett was Harriett Ford at marriage. She was in her 27th year when she died.

Henry and Emma "Emily" Harris who lived Trinity Road on the 1901 Census with Mary Ann Burt age 20, Henry's stepdaughter and their other children. Henry Harris is not to be confused with the close-in-age Henry Harris, saddler and harness maker of Spittal Street. Henry of Trinity Road (bn circa 1857-59) was a worker at the brewery while his wife Emma (bn circa 1857) was a furrier. The family including Mary Ann Burt left Marlow for Langley Marish in Bucks where Henry worked as a farm carter by 1911. Emma was nee Burt and though born in Flackwell Heath had spent some of her childhood in Marlow. Her sister and widowed mother both lived at no 14 Trinity Road, see above. Emma was a servant as a teenager.

Sarah Ann and Joseph Hiscock. Trinity Road residents in 1909 but in Dean Street by 1911. Some of their children were born in Winchester Hampshire. Joseph was that classic Dean Street occupation - a vegetable hawker. Sarah worked at Quarry Laundry. When the owner went bankrupt in 1910 he owed money to many of his employees including Sarah. The court ordered him to pay them.

Alfred and Elizabeth Hopgood both originally of Reading lived in this street in 1911 but had left the town by 1915. Alfred was born around 1863 and was a building labourer. 

Mary Loftin born circa 1835 resident of Trinity Road 1901. Mary was a widow who worked as a charwoman. On the census she says that she was born at Bledlow Ridge. She died in 1907. Widow of William Loftin a gas / engine fitter. The couple were also living in Trinity Road at the time of his death in 1896 and previously. They had married late in life in 1890 when both were already widowed and so had no children together. Mary Ann was at the time of her second marriage the widow of farm worker Joseph Martin. William Loftin had been the lodger in their Trinity Road home.

William Moody who was a resident in 1916 when he was fined 10 shillings for having no light on his cart.

Sarah Slade resident 1901 age 62 with her 24 year old son. Widow of Charles Slade. She had lived in Trinity Road for many years. Charles was fined for being drunk and disorderly in Trinity Road in 1895.

Ada and Eli Smith with their children who moved to Marlow circa 1911 from Wooburn. She worked in a paper mill at Wooburn even after she moved to Marlow  and he was by trade a builder's labourer. This family suffered severe hardship due to Eli's continued unemployment. He was imprisoned for child cruelty at the behest of the NSPCC because of the deprivation the children experienced. The court seemed sceptical about his attempts to provide for them while recognizing that Ada worked very hard. It isn't clear if she actually lived at home during the working week. She told the court that her working hours meant she could not see to things at home anyway. She had sold her clothes and bedding so that the children could eat. Nevertheless the children suffered from vermin, sores, uncleanliness and a lack of education because they had no clothes in which to attend school. The Inspector from Marlow Police Station in Trinity Road collected donations of clothes for the children from other Marlovians. There was virtually no furniture in their "filthy" home, and no fire in winter. The court ordered Ada against her wishes to place the children in the Union Workhouse until their home situation improved and so they could be intensely treated. If she did not take them to the workhouse she too would be jailed, despite the NSPCC saying they did not think any charges against her should be pressed.

Wages were low in this period giving families little chance to save money for emergencies. Children being unable to attend school because they didn't have a full set of clothes still, shockingly, occurred in Marlow in the 1940s. The court's apparently sceptical attitude towards Eli should be taken with some reservations. The privileged men who sat in judgement generally subscribed to the view that you could always find work if you wanted to and that all poverty must be the victim's fault. That those working could be paid so little they could neither fulfill their family's wants nor save for when they weren't in work wasn't within their understanding. Eli, while not in paid employment, made rag rugs which the children hawked in the town, so he was hardly idle. See above under house number 2 for a case of the suicide of an unemployed man. The Smiths moved to Dean Street by February 1912. Ada was at marriage Ada Priest. 

Private Thomas Stroud son of Henry and Sarah Stroud of Trinity Place was killed in action in December 1914 while serving with the Royal Berkshires. He died instantly after being shot in the heart. The news of his death broke locally early the next year. He was also said to be a resident of Trinity Place then.

*Note= Marlow was beyond terrible at organizing street numbering, displaying house numbers, or making sure everyone knew what number they lived at. Some people refused to acknowledge the fact that their home had been officially renumbered and carried on using the old number. Others don't ever seem to have understood what their house's number was even after it was officially given one. Some people without moving house would give a different number for their home every different time they were asked, based presumably on guesswork. I often have to use multiple sources to repopulate an Edwardian street in this town reliably.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

Similar Posts 

Victorian residents of Trinity Cottages Jeremiah and Emma Harding here

General earlier history of Trinity Road here

Edwardian St Peter Street here.

Edwardian Cambridge Place here

Edwardian Spittal Street and Spittal Square Part One here and Part Two here

Edwardian wedding gifts in Marlow here

Some Sources=

Marlow Town Guide and Almanack 1907 and 1915 editions. Marlow Printing Company.

Bucks Herald February 16th 1916. Reading Mercury Nov 26th 1884 both British Library Archives, via the BNA.

South Bucks Standard and 22nd Feb 1907 , 13th August 1909 and July 8th 1910.

Reading Mercury 16th Nov 1918. Copy at the British Library.

Bucks Free Press Feb 16th 1912, Bucks Free Press Archives.

All 1901 census from the microfilm transcriptions of Jane Pullinger, with thanks.

"England and Wales, Census, 1911", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VP-JRQ : Thu Feb 13 06:47:46 UTC 2025), Entry for Eli Smith and Ada Smith, 1911.

https://buckinghamshireremembers.org.uk/php_scripts/bksidget.php?id=5578

"England and Wales, Census, 1911", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VL-H36 : Thu Feb 13 16:47:53 UTC 2025), Entry for Henry James Harris and Emma Harris, 1911.

"England and Wales, Census, 1911", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VP-JRS : Thu Feb 13 06:35:45 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred Hopgood and Elizabeth Hopgood, 1911.

"England and Wales, Census, 1871", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKZ2-ZW5S : Tue Oct 08 17:32:05 UTC 2024), Entry for Thomas Burt and Harriett Burt, 1871.

"England and Wales, Census, 1911," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VP-NLV : 22 July 2019), Frederick Henry Edward Bailey in household of Thomas Blewitt, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

1905 Williams estate sale papers, copy kindly provided by Adam Baxter of the Marlow Society.

GRO Birth, marriage and death registration indexes, GRO online. Except Marriage of Henry Harris and Emma Burt which was Find My Past https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=BMD%2FM%2F1883%2F3%2FAZ%2F000128%2F092

Personal interview, rent receipt.

Edwardian /WW1 Trinity Road Part One

 This was previously Gun Lane and at times during the Edwardian era was also referred to as "Trinity Lane".

A poor area with many homes consisting of just three rooms (two bedrooms and a kitchen come family room) and at least one having only two rooms. Piped water arrived here at the close of the 1800s but not before the only well for the residents had run dry. The road surface was not properly made up until near the end of the era. Most houses here were demolished long ago.

It is likely some residents have been missed due to the rapid tenant turnover in poorer streets. We will endeavour to add in anyone found to be missing as research opportunities permit. 

Odd numbered* properties were on the left as you came in from Dean Street. Numbers given as they were then=

1.) Richard Cook, born circa 1861, unmarried farm labourer. Richard seems to have lived in Trinity Road or in Trinity Place just off it all of his life. He was the son of Richard and Keziah Cook.

3.) In 1907 Mrs Price. Then carter Robert Bowles and his lodgers the Hall family headed by laundress Mrs Hall. After that Bertie (agricultural labourer bn circa 1885) and Jane (bn circa 1883) Bryant and their children. 

Mrs Price was PERHAPS Clara Price who lived at an unknown number in Trinity Road in 1901 with her husband Francis, a vegetable hawker, and their children. However she wasn't a widow at this point so the 1907 Town Guide wouldn't usually list her as the head of household, and the guide says Francis is in Dean Street. You would expect Clara to be with him there but this couple did go on to separate in later years so PERHAPS this is evidence of an earlier separation that didn't last. They were together in Dean Street in 1911. The couple's son Nathan died at Trinity Road aged 7 months in 1895. They had a daughter called Freedom!

A Wesley Hall, presumably of the above Hall family was in 1912 fined for swearing in his home in Trinity Road for two whole hours! It was a risky business raising your voice in Trinity Road, or swearing with the window open given the fact that the Police Station was in the same street. Prosecutions for swearing so that it could be heard outside were very common in Edwardian and Victorian Marlow. Trinity Road was a major hotspot for such offences. You definitely needed to stop up your ears if you went by.

The Bryant's two month old baby daughter Rosamond suffocated while sharing her parents bed in 1913. The potential dangers of co-sleeping were understood at this time but the benefits in most people's eyes outweighed them and it was a very common practice. A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded.

Jane Bryant was the daughter of Joseph and Charlotte Budd who will feature in the second part of my Edwardian residents of Trinity Road post as they lived on the other side of the street. Her baby daughter Rosamond was named after her sister.

5.) W Aldridge. Then uncertain others. Then Rose and George Jones and their children. This couple came to Marlow from Wooburn between 1912 and 1914. At Wooburn George (bn circa 1879) had been working at the board mills as well as assisting at times in a coal business. He admitted stealing a small piece of coal from that business and was bound over as a result. It is possible that this precipitated the family's move to Marlow. He was a private in the Royal Berkshires when he was injured in 1914 and was evacuated to an English hospital. Still resident 1915 however in the next few years the couple separated and only Rose (nee Harmsworth) and the children remained at no 5.

 7.) A Winkworth then labourer James Bowles. The latter was born circa 1855 and continued to live here for many years.

9.)William Beaver a domestic gardener /labourer, born circa 1852-54 but has a variable birthdate. Moved in to number 9 late 1901 or very early 1902. Continued to live in this tiny cottage for many years. He lived alone as he had separated from his wife Rachel (nee Stacey). In 1902 he took out an ad in the paper warning traders in the town he would no longer be responsible for any bills she ran up. They were already living apart at the time of the census the previous year. Rachel had taken the children and gone to live in High Wycombe. William was the uncle of Richard Cook, above. That is, he was the brother of Richard's mother Keziah who was born a Cook. 

11.)Rapid turnover of tenants. Charles Higgins and his wife Esther, Miss Hunt, then laundress Selina Austin (who gives her address on the 1911 census as no 6 but she can't live there as it was certainly the home of someone else at that time and her censused neighbors show her to be in fact in no 11. See the note far below about Marlow's atrocious street numbering record).

Charles Higgins was born in the early 1840s Bucks and grew up in Skirmett. He was a labourer. Esther's birthdate wanders on censuses. They moved to Trinity Road from Hayes Place Marlow between 1901 and 1907. They also lived up at Marlow Common and out at Burroughs Grove for a time. While at the latter Esther was called to give evidence at the inquest into the death of a newborn baby. The mother of the child could not afford even the cheapest midwife. These typically attended not only the birth but visited washed and dressed the newborn child for the next day or few days. When Esther heard about the mother's situation she offered to help in any way she could and said to send word to her when she was needed to attend. Unfortunately Esther fell ill at the crucial time and the mother decided she could not fairly call on her. Instead she gave birth without assistance and passed out towards the end. The child died within minutes of being born for want of attention. Another woman fetched by one of the mother's children, saw that the mother was unwell immediately after the birth but did not check on the child or stay with them because she had supper to prepare. She did return 45 minutes later but found the child dead. The coroner's jury were not impressed by her actions.

As a young man Charles Higgins spent a short time in jail for failing to pay the fine levied on in for assaulting a man helping to clear a Skirmett pub of some disorderly customers.

Selina Austin moved to Marlow some time between 1908 and 1909. She lived in Trinity Road with her children / step children. Selina was born circa 1868, the daughter of Richard and Ruth Jewell of Turville. As a young woman she worked as a servant in Henley and got into trouble for obtaining a silk blouse under false pretences. As a first time offender she was bound over rather than jailed. She married her recently widowed husband Thomas Austin in 1901. Within a matter of weeks he had deserted her and his children so Selina had to ask for poor relief. Though he returned to her he deserted again in 1908. At this point he was a rag and bone man. She wished for a separation order but he promised to return. Shortly afterwards she moved to Marlow, seemingly without him but taking her children and step children.

In 1909 her stepson Henry Austin age 15, of "weak intellect" was convicted of stealing 6d from her. She had sent him to pay for certain goods she had requested but he instead spent it on toffee and having fun in Cookham. This offence saw him ordered to a reformatory school. Soon after his return he was arrested for begging for food and jailed for 14 days. The local police inspector had found him a job but said the young man was "idle" and ended up in the workhouse, from which he stole clothes. In 1914 he was jailed again for stealing sacks from a barn.

Selina moved to Dean Street, probably by 1915, and then later went to Berwick Road.

13.) William Collins or Colyer, a council employed road scavenger and his wife Florence for most of the era followed by Henry and Emily Nash and their children. The Nash family moved here from Chapel Street. Henry was a carpenter born circa 1864. Emily was born circa 1860. Towards the end of the era Henry as a widower became the lodger here rather than the tenant and the household head was Henrietta Bidmead (nee Rockell, widow of William Henry Bidmead). Henrietta was the niece of John Lovegrove and she had previously lived with him on the opposite side of the street and therefore both these residents feature mostly in Part Two of this Edwardian Trinity Road post. Later Henry Nash moved to number 22 Trinity Road to live with his then adult and married son Reginald. 

15.) A brick and timber semi detached house with some stucco. Two bedrooms. Initially the home of John Boot (bn circa 1855), beater at the paper mills and his wife Harriett (born circa 1859), their son also called John plus Harriett's widowed sister Mary Ann Francis. The Boots were very long standing residents of Trinity Road. They paid 3 shillings 6d a week rent in 1905. Their son John became a postman.

After the Boots left Mr and Mrs Harry Bowles made it their home. Harry was already a soldier in the Royal Berkshires before the First World War and then saw active war service before his capture and retention in a German POW camp in 1917. He was held in Westphalia.

Police Station and Court (17-19) - the Sergeant and his family typically lived in. Police officers will form separate posts on the blog so are not included here. Buildings stand but in different use.

Holy Trinity Church

21.) Trinity Cottages Brick, Flint and tile two up, two down home attached to number 23. Alice Player, then Mr Smith (not the Eli Smith who appears in Part Two of this post) who was followed sometime between 1905 and 1907 by Samuel Todd, a carter born circa 1880, his wife Mary born circa 1878 and their children.

This cottage still stands.

23.) Trinity Cottages . A two up two down brick, flint, and tile cottage. James (bn circa 1859) and Annie Mitchell (bn circa 1868) with their children occupied the cottage at the start of the era along with the teenage Florence Cheetham who was cousin to James. The Mitchells, who paid 3 shillings a week rent in 1905, Were followed by  A Hickman, then Eliza Atkins and her husband James Atkins a brewer's labourer. Both the Atkins were originally of Stokenchurch. They moved into this particular house between 1905 and 1907. In 1901 they lived in Chapel Street, Marlow. Eliza was born circa 1853 and James circa 1846. 

This cottage still stands.

Even numbered properties will be in Part Two along with some Edwardian Trinity Road Residents that can't be certainly placed in any particular house number.

*Note= Marlow was beyond terrible at organizing street numbering, displaying house numbers, or making sure everyone knew what number they lived at. Some people refused to acknowledge the fact that their home had been officially renumbered and carried on using the old number. Others don't ever seem to have understood what their house's number was even after it was officially given one. Some people without moving house would give a different number for their home each different time they were asked, based presumably on guesswork. We often have to use multiple sources to repopulate an Edwardian street in this town reliably.

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

Similar Posts 

Victorian residents of Trinity Cottages Jeremiah and Emma Harding here

General earlier history of Trinity Road here

Edwardian St Peter Street here.

Edwardian Cambridge Place here

Edwardian Spittal Street and Spittal Square Part One here and Part Two here

Edwardian wedding gifts in Marlow here

Some Sources=

Marlow Town Guide and Almanack 1907 and 1915 editions. Marlow Printing Company.

South Bucks Standard 24th July 1913, South Bucks Standard 18th April 1912, . Reading Mercury 24th November 1914. South Bucks Standard 12th November 1909. All British Library Archives via the BNA.

South Bucks Standard February 7th 1902. Directly from the British Library.

Maidenhead Advertiser 17th October 1888. Baylis Media Archives.

Williams estate sale papers, copy kindly given by Adam Baxter of the Marlow Society.

Rent receipt from Jane Pullinger.

Excerpt Henley advertiser 26th June 1897.

GRO marriage Index, GRO online.

https://www.rootspoint.com/record/1881-UK-Census/Slian-Jewell-1869-Turville-Buckinghamshire-Turville/45eac361-6400-40dd-968a-5910b9edb3fd/l

https://www.rootspoint.com/record/1901-UK-Census/James-Atkins-1846-Stokenchurch-Buckinghamshire-Marlow-Urban/50235109-fac7-40e6-ae41-0874082aee1d/

https://www.rootspoint.com/record/1901-UK-Census/John-W-Boot-1859-High-Wycombe-Buckinghamshire-Marlow-Urban/d4b375a0-a0ad-44f9-842a-51474bcabaea/

Other 1901 census information from the transcription from microfilm by Jane Pullinger.

"England and Wales, Census, 1891", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GGX-Z3Z : Thu Jan 16 07:18:41 UTC 2025), Entry for William Beaver and Rachel Beaver, 1891.

"England and Wales, Census, 1901", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9YY-186 : Thu Feb 13 03:33:37 UTC 2025), Entry for Henry Lunnon, Robert Lunnon, Rachel Beaver 31 Mar 1901.

More Historic Shopkeepers of Quoiting Square Marlow.

A grocer's shop formerly operated from where the children's shoe shop is today in Quoiting Square.

Aaron Maskell originally from the Cookham area (born 1814) ran the business in these specific premises by 1861 (seemingly from 1854). In 1862 he was summoned to court after inspectors found his weighing scales were not properly maintained and thus not weighing true. He said this was just an oversight and the court believed him -it was a common problem. He was allowed to pay only the court costs rather than a fine plus costs.

Aaron hired a shed further up Oxford Road in which he kept ducks and geese. In the 1800 grocers did not usually sell any fresh birds so this looks to have been a different side line business for Aaron. Some of these birds were stolen and slaughtered before they could be recovered in 1865. He is also listed as a bacon curer in 1854. Many grocery shops produced and sold their own bacon in this era with curing taking place on the premises.

Aaron died suddenly in 1873. He had been suffering from chest problems for four years and had been previously diagnosed with heart disease but had not had any recent medical attendance. On the day of his death he woke up with pains in the chest and arm. Today we would understand these as symptoms of a potential heart attack and an emergency situation but Aaron had to be persuaded to even go back to bed to rest let alone seek medical attendance. Eliza Mann* who lived with the Maskells gave him some ginger water (which would have been seen as invigorating) and then called for a doctor. Sadly his condition deteriorated and his life could not be saved.

Aaron's wife Anna (née Hemmens, stated as of Alton in Middlesex when they married in Heigham Norfolk 1837) then took over the helm of the shop. In 1878 her niece in law Emily Hemmens (widow of Charles) who had been assisting the couple for some years became the manager. These proprietor's all had spirit licences too and sold beer, including that of Marlow's Wethered Brewery. 

Emily died in 1884 and her assistant George Henry Britnell ran the business himself. George was from Little Marlow originally and married his wife Jane Larkin in Kensington Middlesex in 1885.

In 1890 George's shop assistant Ellen Harris was a witness when a boy stole from the till of a shop in nearby West Street. She gave evidence in court for the prosecution. Theft from shops was very common in Victorian Marlow but it was most often of goods hanging outside or displayed in the window rather than of money.

In the early 1900s George retired in favour of Edward Albert Piercey who moved from Lane End where he had been a licensed victualler. By this time the shop was mostly operating as what we would now call an off licence with groceries of secondary importance. Edward only stayed a few years, transferring the business and its alcohol license over to Edward Neighbour in 1906. Edward kept the store equally as a grocery shop, provisions merchant and off licence. Below is an ad from 1915.

When I was a very little girl I had an elderly friend Elsie Coster who lived as a child in Oxford Road near this shop. Her brother Albert worked running errands for the business as a teenager in the early 1920s and I believe Elsie herself worked there as a shop assistant for a brief period.

Edward's father has a biography post on the blog here. Edward's maternal grandparents feature in this post, while this one features both his aunt and maternal grandma.

The business continued as "E Neighbours" until at least 1933. The business is not in the 1939 Kelly's Directory. Bertram Scammell general shopkeeper was probably in the premises then.

Elsewhere in the Square William Bowles ran a fruiterer's shop from at least 1873 to at least 1897. He survived bankruptcy in 1886. He had a fruit store up Oxford Road and also occupied Oakengrove / Oaken Grove Farm. An old building in Oxford Road he no longer needed was the first home of Marlow's Salvation Army members. This made him somewhat unpopular and he eventually evicted them on the grounds their band practices and meetings were too noisy. You have to remember that the Army apart from promoting teetotalism which was seen as threatening in a brewery town was perceived as radical even dangerously subversive religiously and socially for many other reasons in it's early days. William was not as far as can be seen a member himself.

The shop where William lived and worked no longer exists, neither do his fruit store or the first Salvation Army building. More about the controversial (and violent!) early days of the Salvation Army in Marlow here.

*Eliza Mann married James Meakes of Marlow and the couple kept the Plough pub. More here.

See also previous post on "What did Platts used to be?" for shops that used to be on that Quoiting Square spot here.

See also here for my previous post on Elizabeth Tyler/ Lee whose husband just might have been in the Maskell/ Britnell/ Neighbour etc grocery store in earlier times.

For some history and the historic landlords of the pub next door to the grocery shop mentioned above (the Clayton Arms) see here

Sources:

Historic advertising material.

Bucks Examiner 17th December 1890. Copy held at the British Library Archives. Viewed by me via the British Newspaper Archive March 2021.

Reading Mercury 28th June 1862, accessed as above.

UK Census images my transcription from microfilm, National Archives. Census information remains Crown Copyright.

Heigham Parish Registers

Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, Bucks and Oxon 1854, 1883, 1911, 1915, 1920, 1939 by Kelly's Directories Limited. 

Marlow Town Guide 1891.

Marlow Directory and Almanack 1907, 1915. Marlow Printing Company.

Duttons Directory of Buckinghamshire by Dutton, Allen and Co 1863.

GRO Death Index online

Kensington marriage from Jane Pullinger.

Property records.

Recreated 1920's Marlow High Street Trade Directory with notes

Part One - odd numbers

With notes

Recreated from adverts, letters, trade directories, property transactions, newspaper stories, court cases etc.

The property numbers quoted here are not necessarily going to match up with modern numbers because of demolitions and amalgamations or other reasons and remember that the High Street had already been renumbered in the 1910s so that any 1920s property numbers will not usually be referring to the same property as their Victorian counterparts. 

Some properties on this side of the High Street were residential at this time and are not included in this post. The post office was also in the High Street, and the entrance to the brewery.

Many people mentioned here already have multiple mentions on this blog. To see all posts featuring any person looking for that person on the A-Z Person Index on the top drop down menu. More High Street history posts are indexed here, including

1-3 Lawrence and Son estate agents for domestic and commercial sales and lettings, auctioneers, valuers, insurance agents. The surveyor at the company was John Robert Laird who lived on the premises with his family. The business was later "Lawrence Son and Laird". One of the Mr Lawrences was a director of the Marlow Water Company.

5 Harold John Welch hairdresser in 1920 (bn 1879). (Sometimes given as being at 3 but was not) / The Cafe (that was the official name!) ran by Rose Owles.

7 National Provisional and Union Bank  - previous occupants of this building are listed here. The bank manager Cuthbert Raymond lived on the premises with his family. This was normal for banks at the time. More history of this premises here

9 Mrs Bonner Wellicome antique and furniture dealer 1920,21 (in business by 1911) New Branch of London County Westminster And Parr Bank mentioned as opening at no 9 1922. Head clerk on opening was Mr G. W Cousins.

11 Welbourne and Simpsons printers. Simpson was Herbert Edward Simpson born c1872. Earlier Smith & Co stationers, printers and circulating library. By 1942 was just ran by Herbert as H.E Simpson's newsagent, tobacconist and lending library. At some point in the 1920s the printers also apparently used number 15 High Street.

13 Lawrence J Smith office insurance agent, correspondence address for Great Marlow Water Company. Also in 1920 custom and excise office of James Gauld and the premises of confectioner Bert Jaynes. Lawrence at least was still there in the early 1930s. Presumably the offices  were above or behind the shop.

17  Harrell Limited grocers. Below is an ad from 1929. Possibly had moved from the other side of the High Street.

Harrell's were still at no. 17 in 1939. In the early 1930s there was an off licence at no.45 High Street called Harrell's which must have been a related business. Number 17 was later taken over by Barksfield Brothers for a second Marlow premises. 

19-21 Charles Drye "coach builder" of long standing but was already moving into the field of motor cars. Business known initially as the Marlow Motor works, then  came to be known as the "Marlow Carriage and Motor Car Company". A lot more on the early days of motoring in Marlow in this post. Now W H Smith. 

23 British and Argentine Meat Company. There by 1915. Some staff seem to have lived in. Formerly the base of royal furniture makers the Mealings

25 Phillip Brothers fishmongers from at least 1911. Some staff lived on the premises. By 1931 was Mac Fisheries. 

27 George Frederick Hill offices? Later amalgamated with number 29 into one premises.

29 Arthur George Hill upholsterer and cabinet maker. Arthur was in business with James Henry Tugwood until 1900 when they dissolved their partnership as furniture dealers, upholsters and decorators under the name Tugwood and Hill. Thereafter Arthur continued under his own name only. He witnessed his neighbour Gutteridge (below) being burgled in 1912. In the 1930s this was Hill and Son Upholsterers and in 1942 "A.G Hill and Son".

31 William Guttridge  hairdresser, perfumer, fancy goods /Harriet Guttridge toy seller on the same premises. Husband and wife. William had been in premises some years. In 1912 he was was described as a hairdresser and tobacconist when he was burgled. [Building demolished]

33 Ellen Arnold confectioner. The toy shop today. Formerly the Way family premises see here, also Kempster's. 

35 Lovell's building company offices. Edward Turner the manager lived in the premises. Their builder's yard was behind some of the neighbouring buildings along here. They also had a bit of yard in Dedmere Road. Offices still here 1942. Lovells as a whole became a national business. In Marlow they also functioned as undertakers and house decorators. History of other former builders who occupied this property here and about Young James Lovell himself here.

37 Daisy Ilsley's Prep School 1921. Her sister Emma Ilsley taught music and shorthand here too /Leo Redver Ryan electrical supplies and radio seller/electrician in 1929, probably earlier too. Moved premises to number 44 by 1938. Killed when a bomb fell near Bovingdon Green in WW2. His son was also injured. They were delivering a radio. A WW1 Navy veteran. The Imperial War Museum has a photo of Leo as a young man see here (leaves this site). The man for whom Ryan's Mount in Marlow is named. 

41 [Cromwell House] Gerald Berkeley Wills offices several businesses. Surveyor and architect by 1920. He was still in the High Street several years later but I am not certain if his premises were still at Cromwell House. Gerald designed the Marlow Cottage Hospital in 1914. He built Wolmer Cottage Bovingdon Green and lived in it with his family. Prior to his marriage to his wife Kathleen, Gerald lived at Stratton House, West Street Marlow. By 1921 also offices of Cripps and Shone solicitors. 

The building became by 1926 the offices of the Marlow Urban District Council. It housed the Post Office from December 1897.  The council clerk Llewellyn Shone had an office in the building. 

Full history of Cromwell House here

47 Alfred Davis junior journalist. Prominent in the organisation of local sports - and the Olympics! 

49 Walter Davis tailor, hosier, hatter etc. A Long standing business. 

The Chequers Hotel / pub [53] Billiards room. RAC approved. Pub also mentioned as a "masonic hall" 1927. In 1920 and 21 run by Lillian Long (bn 1888) who took over the premises in 1917, having moved from London. Her husband William was a motor engineer. Could be something to do with the below motor company. There is some reason to believe William and Lillian also rented no 55 in the early 1920s. They had moved to Aylesbury by 1932 where William worked as the manager of the Aylesbury Motor Company.

55 Marlow Motor Company. Newly formed with £500 capital in 1920, most likely involving William Long above. Also the premises of an unknown electrical engineer in the same year. / The Corner Restaurant in 1927 which also offered boarding. In 1927 proprietor was Charles J Paul. Restaurant still there late 1930s. Charles was also an insurance agent. On corner of High Street/Institute Rd. 

57 Grays' Stores. Henry Gray born c1867. Took over the Clifton grocer's and wine merchant's in 1901. Initially ran the shop with his brother James who was also a rent collector / letting agent but James had left the shop by about 1906 to concentrate on the latter business. Henry's shop was one of the fancier places in town to buy your provisions. He lived in Glade Road in this period. James lived in the Old Vicarage then later the house Thamesfield.

59 Residential address of Harry Redgrave jobbing gardener as well as the office (and possibly rooms of) T.N.W Watts who was secretary to Hambledon Council. Long term surveyor and inspector of nuisances for Marlow Urban District Council. Today is Fego.

61 William and Thomas Sellman builders, plumbers and painters. Here by 1911. William lived in. The Sellmans left these particular premises before 1939. In 1942 no.61 was Tillion's florists. 

"Palmers" Dr George Downes. Physician. His home and medical premises in one. His wife Aileen Downs was instrumental during WW1 in setting up an Infant Welfare Centre in Marlow, which suffered from high infant mortality due to poor housing and poverty at that time.

67 James Eyre Jackson artist.

73 "Quarry House" Francis Culhane doctor, surgeon, councillor. Biographical post on him here

75 William Jackson dentist 1920. This building does not exist anymore. Not in same spot as modern 75. Formerly a doctor's premises.

77 George Morton antiques. By 1939 was Kendall and Morton antiques dealers. Not in same place as modern 77 due to renumbering.

79 William Robinson pianoforte tuner and music warehouse in 1920.  Had been there for some years. He probably also gave piano lessons. In 1921 his widow Lily Robinson operated as a piano and music dealer here. Not in position of modern 79 due to renumbering. 

81 Thomas Wheeler refreshment rooms. Also tobacco seller. These premises were on the corner with Station Road. Not the same as modern 81 due to renumbering. Thomas  was not there 1915. He had previously ran a restaurant in Slough. Born c1863. 

Also Honourable mention to 

Charles Carter baker and confectioner on the Causeway which is a continuation of the High Street. (In recent times was Burgers. A  long standing bakers premises)

- Unnumbered - Currall's Garage (sales and service) plus radio agents. (Building demolished) 

Part two will contain the even numbers plus selected references.

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

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The Resilience Of Jane Moody / Anson

*Please be aware that the contents of this post includes historic information that may be distressing to read related to the Anson, Moody, Bowles, Anderson and Neighbour families.* 

Jane Ann Moody was born to agricultural labourer William and wife Jane of St Peter's Street, Great Marlow in 1856. We have chosen to feature her as she represents a tale of survival. Life for the men and women of the working class Victorian Marlow was often extremely tough and the reality of the existence of those on the lowest income bracket can be shocking to read to modern Marlow residents long separated from this period. We will tell Jane's story honestly but also fairly. She did not conform to the moral standards of the day and as such was always going to be looked down upon by some in authority. We want to flesh out some the official details of her life so her struggles can be put into context. 

By the time she was 15 years old Jane had moved to Dean Street with her parents and siblings, a densely populated working class area of town. It was about this time that the young girl met the teenage William "Billy" Bowles, grandson of the then landlady of the Cherry Tree pub also in Dean Street. He worked as a hawker. William's grandfather  Thomas Bowles had died under tragic circumstances when still young - you can read more about it and the Cherry Tree here. He was therefore from a family that knew hardship. But it was also one that had came back from disaster, thanks to the strength and determination of his grandmother Emma. William and Jane began to court each other openly - their young age and relative lack of supervision was commented on later but they remained together for something like 7 years. Their relationship was by all accounts tempestuous at times, driven by mutual jealousy. They began to fight both verbally and physically. When Jane was 18 she took out a summons on William for assaulting her but the case was settled out of court. 

A Poor Diet Leads To Tragedy

If Jane and William had to deal with gossip about their relationship before, it was going to get a lot harder after 1876 when Jane fell pregnant. At the time of the baby's birth, the couple had not married which was another black mark against them in the eyes of society. This infant would sadly not live beyond a few months. An inquest was held at the Duke Of Cambridge, and the doctor described the child's emaciated condition. But the coroner's jury was quick and specific to state that they cleared Jane of any charge of neglect. She had made a mistake it was said, and had weaned the child when it was just a few days old, feeding the little one on cornflour and sugar paste with milk. Surgeon Shone who completed the post mortem said such a diet was nutritionally insufficient and the child had never thrived and therefore died of natural causes hastened by malnourishment. It should be noted that very early weaning of children was not at all uncommon in this period. Some of the papers made much of the fact that the bereaved mother was called into the court room and given a "severe reprimand" as to regards her future conduct. (Moral that is, not as regards to infant care). But let's also look at what the more sympathetic sources had to say. They stated that Jane was at this point living in lodgings with one of her sisters, and both girls had gone to work all day every day. As an unmarried women Jane could not simply become a stay at home mother and still support her child, nor could she take the baby to work with her. She needed to have the baby fed while she was away, and while the cornflour and sugar mix seems to us a strange feed, it was in fact a standard feeding mixture of the time for babies old enough to be truly weaned. The surgeon stated that the diet should have been primarily milk based and Jane's error was in the thinking the balance should be different. What's more the initial decision to "dry nurse" or wean the child was made because of Jane's poor physical state of health immediately after the birth. 

Two years later, Jane was pregnant again and William Bowles was the acknowledged father of this boy, known as William Moody. He paid a weekly sum for maintenance, as ordered by a court. The couple still did not marry however, which further blackened her reputation.  

Body Found In The River

In 1878, the relationship of Jane and William was going through a particularly difficult time. She had begun to see other men, at least according to rumour, but William declared he still loved her. Sadly, a young woman, Matilda Neighbour*, decided to cause a little trouble, although she may have been motivated to protect William too. In any case she went to the Cherry Tree where William was to be found and told him that Jane was with another man (a relative of hers) and that if he didn't believe her perhaps he should come and see. William left, and his grandmother told Matilda off, asking her not to come to her premises with such gossip. It seems William did see Jane walking with another man, as well as others, and according to some, a fight broke out although who was involved exactly is hard to pick out from confused accounts given later. Jane said William had threatened to kill her, struck her, and dragged her by the hair. John Neighbour, of whom William had been jealous, intervened. She said they had actually agreed to separate a few days before, but William did not want to be replaced as a sweetheart so soon. (Jane denied there was a successor to her affections and said John Neighbour was actually the sweetheart of another.) Ultimately Jane was said to be aggrieved at William acting in an possessive way as she saw it, and told him to go home as she did not want him. These words were alleged to weigh heavily on the young man. A few days later, William was found floating face down in the river near the bottom of St Peter's Street. His lifeless body was retrieved by John Clark Truss of the adjacent Two Brewers pub, where the inquest into his death was also held. Much was naturally made of the events of the days leading up to his death and the reports tend to hold Jane to blame for it, although a verdict of "found drowned" was recorded rather than suicide. One declared that Jane was a young woman of "considerable notoriety" in the neighborhood of Marlow, and that the case shone a dark light into the immoral "going ons" in the Dean Street area. 

But there is another fact the newspapers skip over. Jane was living with her sister in a cottage in Dean Street that had been previously declared as unfit for human habitation. Numerous orders were made to force the owners to clean it up and provide proper sanitation, most of which were ignored. Finally some work (but not all that was required) had been done and Jane had found a home there. Would those who criticized Jane for being always out, have happily stayed in in such a premises? The neighbouring cottage was let to another woman tarred with the same brush as Jane, the "notorious" Eliza Anderson.**

What's That In Your Apron?

By 1881, Jane and her little boy were back living with her parents and numerous younger siblings elsewhere in Dean's Street - sometimes they were also living in Hatches Row, off Dean Street. The next few years were eventful for her. It started with a 10 shilling fine for stealing some rape greens (used like spring greens, a common edible of the past and only recently "rediscovered" here as a gourmet vegetable) growing in a farm field. A number of other woman were caught in the same sweep - this kind of harvest or turnip greens were a common subject of crop rustling as they were easy to gather quickly. The woman had collected them in their aprons and when challenged they claimed to be gathering primroses. This claim unfortunately fell apart when the ladies were ordered to empty their aprons! Some time after this, Jane was also amongst a group of woman caught taking mushrooms from some fields belonging to the Wethered family. In this instance she escaped a fine despite pleading guilty as the Wethereds declined to press the charges further. They had suffered a plague of mushroom thefts and so wanted to make a point without making a particular example of the women. They hoped the summons to court would act as a deterrent for others. 

A little later Jane fell out with a lady, Sarah West*** of Marefield Passage, also located off Dean Street. What the two bickered over the records don't really make clear but Sarah went to court asking that Jane be bound over to keep the peace against her. Sarah said Jane would follow her up the street and swear at her and call her names, to the point Sarah was in fear of her life. However once Jane had spoke in her own defence, the case was dismissed.

 

In 1884 Jane was pregnant with another illegitimate child, young Nellie. It was her fifth child according to statements reported as uttered by Jane during a maintenance order hearing. This does not quite tally with the numbers of her then children given elsewhere. Regardless, she said the current babies father was William Price but she was denied a maintenance order for "lack of corroborating evidence". 

Jane would go on to marry William Anson. He was usually described as a general labourer at this time. 

Happily Ever After?

Jane, her husband, and her two illegitimate children moved eventually to Primrose Lea, another fairly crowded group of houses adjacent to Dean Street (the place name remains but none of the housing). Was this the start of happier times for the troubled woman? Sadly for her children in particular, the answer is no. We have written many posts about the number of drinking establishments to be found in Marlow, and in the Dean Street/Marefield area of Marlow in particular at this time. If you had sorrows to drown, there was plenty of opportunity to do so on your doorstep. Tragically, William appears to have been an alcoholic, or at least a heavy drinker unable to hold his drink. Numerous convictions for drunk and disorderly behaviour and/or using obscene language while under the influence came his way. But William was not a happy drunk winding his way home singing merrily with a few swear words thrown in. In the words of Inspector Pearce of Marlow police, Anson became "nearly mad" when in drink. On one day in 1908 the officers were called because Anson was rolling drunk and carrying an axe. He chopped up every single piece of furniture in the couple's home. (In Church Road. In this period both of what's now part of Trinity Road and Wethered Road were called Church Road but in this case Wethered Road was meant).The next day he was drunk and armed with an axe again, this time he was apparently attempting to chop up some wooden clothes pegs and the washing. Without much success naturally. It's a miracle he didn't loose a limb! He bravely plead not guilty to behaving in a disorderly fashion on this occasion but given the witness and obvious state of his belongings, he was found guilty and fined. This was not his last conviction for something similar. A few weeks later, Jane had finally had enough. She said he had deserted her and so begged for a separation order to be made. This entitled Jane to live apart from him without legal harassment to re join the marital home. She was granted it along with a maintenance order for a weekly sum to be paid by her husband for the care of her youngest daughter Maude. Jane explained that her husband had even before this time frequently stayed away from work. She had found him at the Cherry Tree or slumped drunk on their doorstep on such occasions. He in his defence accused her of being a heavy drinker herself but I have found no convictions for any public misdemeanours on her part of this kind.  At the separation order hearing, a weary policeman stated that really Anson's problems were all alcohol related and if only he could stay sober, he'd get on well. (In 1891 William Anson was described as a labourer at the Gas Works which were off Dean Street very close to the couple's home. He may have still been working there at this point.)

Afterword

Anson did not learn his lesson straight away as at least one more drunkenness related conviction followed in 1909. But let us hope he did so eventually, because as is so often the case, Jane would return to live with her husband. In 1911 both he and the couple's son Charles who lived with them were described as wood cutters. A tragically comic occupation for Anson given his form with an axe. In the 1910s the couple lived in what is now called Wethered Road. This blog deals with the pre First World War period primarily but we must finish by saying that Jane lived to the age of 83, dying in 1939. 

* Matilda Neighbour age 17 was the daughter of Dean Street general dealer William Neighbour and wife Jane a needlewoman. 

** The owner of the two cottages (James Meakes) wrote a defensive letter to the South Bucks Free Press after the Moody/Bowles case. He does not mention the fact his properties were in a poor state or that they had been condemned. Instead he wishes to defend himself from the charge of renting to two girls of poor repute. He says they were not in fact his tenants but their respective fathers were. He said Jane Moody's father had declared he wanted the property for a daughter of his who was soon to get married. Mr Anderson had rented the other because he declared he had a small home and large family so wanted a second cottage to put some of the children in! The landlord added that both girls had now moved out and so "all difficulty in the matter as far as I'm concerned is removed". Except of course terrible living conditions for the next tenant! 

*** Sarah West's son William John Stacey features in a post here

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Other related posts:

All mentions of a person can be found in the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu where you will find more than 4,000 people mentioned. The same menu has options for post listings of  more detailed entries relating to specific individuals and families. 

More beer sellers than bakers : temperance in Marlow here

Crime and disorder in old Marlow -  here and images of the police court at which Jane made her several appearances here

History of the gas works where William Anson worked: here

More on the history of some of the streets/addresses mentioned above can be found here

Every day life in old Great Marlow when Jane lived here here

SOURCES INCLUDE:

Census 1841,1851,1861,1871,1881,1891 - Transcribed from the original microfilm by Jane Pullinger and Charlotte Day

Judicial case notes for Great Marlow Petty Sessions compiled by Jane Pullinger in 1975, and used with thanks. 

Maidenhead Advertiser 5 April 1876, copy from the British Library archive. 

Reading Mercury 1 April 1876

Berkshire Chronicle 28 April 1883

Bucks Herald 8 November 1884.

South Bucks Standard 7 August 1908. 

England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVHP-QKBB  Jane A Anson, 1939. 

South Bucks Free Press 23rd August 1878. 

© MarlowAncestors