Early 20th Century Shopkeepers In Queen's Road Marlow

Queen's Road was fields before residential development began, slowly at first, from the mid 1800s. In Victorian times it had at least a pub and a grocers. This post deals with the early 20th century.

Virtually all historic buildings have been destroyed in this road so that any street numbers given here bear no relationship to any modern property in the road with the same number. 

Henry and Margaret Brown(e). Margaret Brown(e) grocers. Not here 1907 but this husband and wife are censused together with Henry named as a grocer in 1911. Margaret seems to have started operating alone from late 1911, suggesting that Henry had died. She was still there running the shop in 1915 but not 1920.

John Bryant general shopkeeper at number 24 from at least 1911 to at least 1921 but not before 1901. This shop was on the Cambridge Road side of the street, not far from Eton Place. He had previously operated a greengrocery shop in Spittal Square (c1890-1901) and lived there with his family. He was also a market gardener. John was a retired soldier who came originally from Flackwell Heath, born circa 1846. Probably still running the shop in 1924. Wife Anne (Annie) assisted in the business. The couple had previously ran the Fighting Cocks pub in Dean Street for a few months before it was closed down. This doesn't mean that John gave up vegetable selling, many Dean Street landlords earned extra money by selling potatoes in particular, but other greens too from their premises. John and Annie had also lived possibly at Newtown Road Marlow before arriving in Queen's Road and opening the shop there. Their son Robert was killed in action in WW1, thankfully other sons George and Harry survived. During ww1 John was charged with profiteering by selling potatoes at inflated prices at High Wycombe. He grew the potatoes on his allotments in Marlow. He'd probably need more than an allotment to consider himself a market gardener so there was likely land elsewhere in his keeping. There were market gardens in Queen's Road itself at the time which he may have hired part of. His sons Harry and George who helped in his shop later became wholesale and hawking greengrocers on their own account with a smallholding off Little Marlow /Wycombe Road. It is possible this same piece of land has previously been in their father's cultivation. George as a married man lived at no 27 Queens Road while Harry moved to 88 Newtown Road. By 1939 John Dawkins ran John Bryant's former Queen's Road shop on a day to day basis, though John still lived there.  The shop, adjoining bakers and cottages were all built by the Plumridge family of the Duke of Cambridge. 

William Buckland a general shopkeeper cum grocer at number 41 from at least 1907 (but probably not before 1905) until at least 1939. This was on the corner of Prospect Road. It was later turned into a house. William was born circa 1865. 

Mary Grantham (Mrs) called herself a sweetshop keeper in 1901 but later was a grocer. Mary was originally from Wiltshire and the widow of Thomas Grantham. She died aged 55 in 1915. The business was taken over by her daughter Elsie Grantham who ran it as a general shop. Elsie was born circa 1894 and looks to have married Harry Armstrong in 1935. The shop was almost on the corner of Oxford Road, on the Cambridge Road side of the street. A popular stopping place for school children. 

William Henry Saunders at no.26. On Cambridge Road side of the road not far from Eton Place. Bakery by 1907 to at least 1920. Assisted by wife Jane (nee West, whose parents lived at Keynsham's Farm, Cadmore End when their daughter married in 1896). This couple were Wesleyans. They lived in nearby York Road before being based in Queen's Road. Number 28 was later converted into a house without the removal of the bread ovens and so was often still referred to as "The old bakery". 

Just as a bonus, another business in Queen's Road in this period though not a shop:

Frederick Dunn insurance agent at no 36 at least 1911-20. Wife Louisa. He was born Lane End 1870. They moved to Marlow from High Wycombe but had also previously lived briefly in Manchester. Frederick had previously worked as a chair caner. The couple's son Frederick jnr worked at the paper mills as a boilerman.

And also mention must be made of:

J East a general dealer in 1907 (Cambridge Road side of the road). Uncertain whether he had a shop or dealt more informally which was common in that occupation.

And the Grace family whose shop was on the corner of Dean Street and Queens Road in this period and earlier with the main entrance however on Dean Street. More on them and other Graces here.

Some Sources:

England and Wales Census, 1911," , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VP-VH9 : 22 July 2019), Mary Grantham, 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.

"England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7VP-J4M : 22 July 2019), Fred Dunn, 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.

Marlow Almanack and Directory 1907.

Marlow Guide 1905 

Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire etc 1911, 1915 and 1920 editions 

1891 census of England  and Wales Great Marlow transcribed from microfilm by Jane Pullinger and 1901 census transcribed by me. Census information is Crown Copyright

"England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV8Z-KYB5 : 8 October 2014), Elsie M Grantham and null, 1935; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1935, quarter 2, vol. 3A, p. 3266, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England. 

Personal Interviews - thanks to all!

South Bucks Standard 4th September 1896.

Reading Standard 7th September 1916. This edition from British Library Archives via the BNA. As was Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News April 17th 1917.

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Buckland Graves, Marlow and Hurley

 This grave below is located in Marlow Cemetery. 

Dorothy Mary Buckland

August 12th 1929

Age 34

"Semper amour"

And from Hurley:

Above, George Buckland. Died April 14 1869 age 53

AND

James Buckland

Born October 21 1853

Died June 27 1864

AND

Louisa born July 16 1857

Died October 26 1877 

This grave marker is at Hurley -  St Mary's Church. 

Use the grave tab to find an index of grave images uploaded already.  We upload as many as possible from Marlow that date to pre 1929. A selected few from outside this period are included if the stone also commemorates an earlier death. We have also uploaded a few from surrounding areas such as Bisham, Hurley and Little Marlow. 

The Person index in the top drop down menu will help you find other references to your ancestors. 

©Marlow Ancestors Use of this image is freely permitted for family and local history purposes if credit is given to this blog. 

Gipsy Families In Great Marlow History

 Gipsy families have a very long association with the Great Marlow area. In the Victorian era they often made camp in fields at Little Marlow, up Gypsy Lane, next to Little Marlow Road, around Marlow Common, in Berwick Rd and at the top of Dean Street. There is also some evidence for camps at least sometimes at Medmenham and Well End. A good many of the Marlow visiting gipsies had family connections to Oxfordshire gipsy families. As well as that county they often visited Berkshire locations but much more distant connections such as those into the West country are also evidenced.

By the end of the 1800s a certain number of gipsy people had chosen a (relatively)  settled life in Marlow. Dean Street was their main home and some of their descendants still lived in that immediate area in 2019 when I spoke to them.

The gipsy women of Dean Street went out into the nearby woods to gather deadly nightshade to sell to London chemists who used the plant in beauty and other preparations. They also gathered wood to be made into skewers by their menfolk. Those skewers* also went to London. Many non gipsy people did participate in this trade but it was a gipsy speciality. Skewer makers rarely had official permission to gather the wood they used which caused friction with local landowners.

The gipsy families linked to Marlow who were still living an itinerant lifestyle focused on wooden peg making, comb making and horse dealing. Some paid agriculture labour, general hawking and the operation of sideshows and other fair stalls also helped the finances. Locally fortune telling booths, horse dealing and stalls selling cherries seem the most common fair time businesses for gipsies (although the perception that gypsy ladies were naturally psychic meant some of those advertising that they were of Romany heritage may have somewhat slender claim to this in reality - but it was good for business!)

Marlow Fair was held every October*. It was focused on selling horses, pigs and cattle but for many in town was largely a time to enjoy the steam powered roundabouts and sideshows which clogged Quoiting Square, West Street, the High Street and sometimes Spittle Street and the Causeway too. As well as to run stalls gipsies came to sell horses and to just meet up with each other. Simmering arguments between individuals and families could then have an airing if they existed. Plato Buckland himself was accused by fellow gipsy Charles Smith in 1896 of assault during the fair but Charles withdrew the accusation in court. Most confrontations were between men but Charlotte Guess was assaulted by Frederick Chapman during a row in 1891.

A perennial problem for all gipsy families in the 1800s was finding somewhere to pitch their tents, or later in the century their wooden caravans, between their usual camps and allowed stops such as at the fairs. Continual convictions of Marlow gipsy families for camping at the roadside and in particular for having their loose horses wandering about on the highway while the family was resting occurred both in the immediate vicinity of Marlow and elsewhere. Mark Guess husband of the Charlotte Guess above was one of those convicted of obstructing the highway at Marlow in 1888.

Sadly I found no reports of a gipsy wedding at Marlow but the funeral pyre of the caravan of elderly gipsy Plato Buckland of Marlow, made nationwide headline news in the 1920s. Reports suggested he was 100 years old, that claim was seemingly out by some years  but he did have a long term association with Marlow. He was a horse dealer while the mother of his children and partner Anne Williams was a hawker . Unusual names are often used in gipsy families. The name Plato was hereditary in the wider Buckland gipsy clan going back to at least the 1700s.

In 1896 both Anne and Plato successfully gave evidence in defence of their son Owen Williams when he was accused of being part of a gang of men who had violently robbed a young man* of cash and a bottle of gin in Little Marlow Road. Anne testified that Owen was at home making clothes pegs at the time of the alleged attack. Plato said the group of gipsy men other witnesses had seen in the vicinity was only himself, his son Nathan and others (but not Owen) going to the Rising Sun in Chapel Street to see about a possible horse deal.

A search of the gipsy vans turned up none of the stolen items. Owen was set free. 

In 1912 he was himself the victim of an attack by two other gipsy men near Maidenhead after a horse deal turned sour. Attacked with a reaping hook and whip weighted with lead weights for maximum effect, he suffered a nasty head injury before the police rescued him.

The reports of Plato's caravan burning funeral show how both the public and press romanticised aspects of the gipsy way of life. Sadly this did not translate into tolerance or kindness when a gipsy family needed somewhere to stop and camp as the convictions for so doing show. Fundraising comic sketches and musical performances put on at the early Marlow Institute and elsewhere in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods sometimes featured locals dressed in the character of "gipsies" and behaving in every stereotypical "gipsy" way (I.e nothing like a real gipsy) as a comedy act. Whether the real things were baffled, amused or upset by this we'll never know. The same thing would happen everywhere in those times.

*A special post about Marlow skewer makers is on the blog here.

*Marlow Fair history posts here for Victorian times, and for Edwardian times here

*The accuser was Humphrey Millen jnr of the The Ferns, Little Marlow. The defence implied he had drunk the gin and presumably also spent the money himself! That said he and his family do seem to have good character by other reports.

Other last names I have found in gipsy families associated with Marlow (Great or Little)

Beldham /Beldam/Beldon 

Buckland

Eyres

Fletcher

Frith

Fuller

Ingham

Price

Williamson

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Research Sources:

Census England and Wales transcribed by me from microfilm.

Crime research of Jane Pullinger.

Newspapers in the custody of the British Library, via the BNA. Accessed September 2020. Maidenhead Advertiser 1912,  Bucks Herald 21st November 1891 and 8th February 1896.

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The Artnet website has an image of gipsy children at Marlow in its sales archives.

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