The Energetic Smiths of Beaufort Cottage

 Reuben Nereus Smith and Mary Ann Smith lived in Beaufort Cottage from at least 1874 when their baby son Henry Bernard was born there. Sadly the infant died the next year.

Reuben was the collector of rates and assistant overseer for Marlow for many years, the agent for the Harleyford estate, the Managing Director of the Marlow Water Company, Chairman of the Wycombe Chair Company, Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Chair Company based in Marlow, a house agent and the clerk of the Great Marlow Parish Council. He had many of these roles at the same time. When did the man ever sleep? More on the Buckinghamshire Chair Company and Reuben's involvement here

Reuben started off his working life quite humbly as a teenage shop boy working in London. He was born circa 1834 -36 - according to the census this was in Marlow. Reuben may have worked as a tax collector in London too. He spent the years c1854-1862 in Australia before returning home with a good amount of money behind him. Five years later he was appointed inspector of nuisances for the Wycombe board of guardians, and in 1872 he became the collector of parish rates, only relinquishing this role in 1899. 

His brother Robert Hayes Smith** was a hairdresser come printer/ bookseller/ newsagents who had premises in Spittal Street Marlow, then later the High Street. 

We can presume Reuben's youthful leisure activities did not include skinny dipping as he was one of those, along with his father, getting into a flap in Marlow in 1877 about the younger generation's way of bathing in the Thames. There was he said "an infestation" of young men running along the riverside at Marlow without a stitch on. It was still a problem decades later so Reuben didn't win that round. (More on the swimming here!)

Lawrence Joseph Smith son of Reuben and Mary Ann was also bookseller and stationer by 1893 when he applied for a alcohol license for his premises and became a spirit merchant too. Those Smiths liked to keep busy! Did I mention that he also later had a role in the Wycombe Chair Company and the local parish too just like his dad?

Angela* Theresa their daughter was a student at Northampton School of Sciences and Art. She was an art student, their best pupil in 1893, and passed examinations qualifying her as an art teacher, though I have found no evidence she actually took on that role.

In 1899 the fact that she, as a female, was one of the winners of a football results prediction competition ran by a local paper generated an incredulous (but good natured) article from that said paper.

Angela was Reuben and Mary Ann's second daughter. Their eldest Celestina died aged only in her 30s in 1902. Against social norms of the day she had set herself up in business -as a furniture dealer and coal merchant- and headed her own household as a young unmarried woman. She lived as such in Dallington Northampton on the 1891 census with her younger siblings Angela and Reuben junior as her assistants. Angela had quite an unusual career path then. There can't be too many young women who went from assistant coal merchant to art student! On the 1901 census Angela had no listed occupation probably as she was about to be married to William Davis of Northamptonshire.

Celestina is on the same census as a resident in an Isle of Wight boarding house living on her own means. So no more furniture or coal dealing. Given that she died a year later it is possible her residence on the Isle of Wight was for reasons of poor health- it was a popular destination for that. She died at Beaufort cottage and is buried in the Catholic churchyard.

Reuben died in 1915. I am unsure as to Mary Ann's death. Unfortunately I can find little about her as a person except that she came from Inverness-shire Scotland.

* Name registered at birth as Angela but she is referred to elsewhere as both Angela and Angelina. Unusual names ran in the Smith family- Reuben's mother was apparently called Ledger. Angelina is a name that is predominantly Catholic in use at this period. 

** Read about a theft at Robert's shop, and the surprising perpetrator here and more about Robert here

Some research Sources:

Censuses my transcription of images on microfilm.

Newspapers held by the British Library and accessed from the BNA August 2020: South Bucks Standard 10th February 1899, 10 March 1899 and 25th August 1893. [Football competition, Angela's art success].

As above but accessed March 2021: Bucks Herald 23rd June 1877. [Nude bathing].

Marriage certificate and birth certificates obtained from the GRO. Death registration indexes on the GRO website, death certificates.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. Additional research by Kathryn Day. 

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

Even More Where In Marlow Was..? PART 3

A list of difficult or vanished addresses for modern researchers, updated often. 

Part One here, Two here. Four here. Five here

 To find out more about a particular house, street, shop etc see the Specific shops, streets etc option on the top drop down menu. 

Acorns, The house, Institute Rd. Still bears name. 

Ashley View - Newtown Rd

Avonmore - (See also this post on the 1890s flu pandemic  Here )

Avondale - house, Beaumont Rise. 

Bothy, The - the name for gardeners accomodation on large estate, and gardens. Can be found at Highfields and Danesfield.  Not used for accomodation at Remnantz despite name in Wethered Park - that building was a potting shed, and prior to that a vinery! 

Bromleigh - Station Rise

Bungalow, The - Wethered Rd 2. Station Rd 3. New Town 

Caxton, Caxton Villa - now Mill Rd, in Platts Cottages/Row

Cintra - Claremont Gardens

Clwyd - Portlands (adjacent Portland Villas)

Cornerways - Gossmore/Mill Rd. There was also a Crossways, Station Rise

Corshel - Newtown 

Crossways, The - Station Rise. See also Cornerways. 

Derriford  - Queens Rd

Dolls House, The - Claremont Rd

Elmwood - Glade Rd

Fairlight - Claremont Gardens

Fairford - Appartments in Station Rd. 

Glendower - Portlands

Glenoma - New Town eg Holland Rd, Newtown Rd area

Glenrosa or Glen Rosa - Claremont Rd. 

Glenthorne - house, Beaumont Rise

Godstone - Little Marlow Rd

Greyroofs - qv Portlands, may be meant for Greywalls. 

Harris's Gardens- West End as they called it. We would now render this place as being in Henley Road. Borlase side of road.

Hermitage, The - Pound Lane.  (occasional alternative name for the Deanery, St Peters Street too) 

Homelea - Red Pits, off Henley Rd. 

Homeleigh - Beaumont Rise

Homerton Cottage - Eton Place

Invergarry Dedmere Rd

Inverglyde - Beaumont Rise

Jordans- house apparently in Marlow Bottom 1700s.

Klemler - New Town - New Town rd area

Kewfields - Beaumont Rise

Larches, The - Oxford Rd

Leacroft - Little Marlow Rd

Lilyville - Dedmere Rd

Lindum - Little Marlow Rd

Lowermead - Dedmere Rd

Lulworth/Lulworth Villa - contemporary address given as Claremont Estate or Glade Rd, now in Claremont Gardens. Also name given more recently to a house in Munday Dean. 

Modena - Claremont Gardens

Montague House- house St Peter's Street.

Myne holm - Glade Rd, Myneholme - Institute Rd. Would not surprise me if the two properties were in fact one as Glade Rd was adopted as a nearest address for homes in the new development around Institute Rd before the name was established. 

Palmers - High Str, modern no 65.  Named after previous owners. Also historic surgeons premises, one of several in High Street, hence aka  Doctors House but this name may also refer to other properties depending on period. 

Reddersberg - West Street. One of a rash of South African inspired house names adopted in Marlow  around the time of the relief of Mafeking and later. 

Rosemead - Mill Road.

Rosemary AKA Rosemary Villa - Berwick Road.

Rosemont, Rosemount - New Town

Rosare - New Town Rd

Royton - Newtown. 

Ryepeck, Rye Peck - house then private residential hotel, riverside. For a post featuring the Cuppy family, one of whom briefly ran this place see post here. Originally built as a private residence. 

Spowkes - Hayes Place

Three Gables - the name taken on by the replacement for the original Thames Lawn by Marlow Lock. (Note Thames Lawn is also the name taken on by Lymbrook/Thames Bank after approx 1925)

Wedmore - Station Approach

White Cottage, The - Little Marlow Rd

Whitehead Place - address given for James Beckett, carpenter in Pigots Directory 1844. He is later described as being in the High Street. Other Beckett property is in Quoiting Place. 

Win-Tor - Little Marlow Rd

Post researched by Kathryn Day with with additional research by Charlotte Day.

For more Where In Marlow Was, see several previous posts linked at top. 

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

Will The Horseless Carriage Ever Catch On In Marlow?

In 1897 the South Bucks Standard pondered whether "vehicles worked by steam, electricity or some other power not yet discovered" would ever become a standard method of transit. The reason for their contemplation was the appearance of what they considered to be the first ever motor car to grace the streets of Marlow. The sight of a horseless carriage complete with passengers going at a smart pace along the High Street "astonished" passers by. They did not know to whom it belonged. The following year, two such vehicles passing through to Henley were described as an "uncommon spectacle as yet in Marlow."

Yet just two years later, the same paper said that hardly an hour went by without the "peculiar rumbling" of a car being heard in the town. The Marlow families known to have a car in 1899 include Max Lindlar of Marlow Lodge (previously Suffolk Lodge, off Station Rd,) and surgeon Mr Allingham who split his time between London and Blounts Farm house, and then had a house built at Marlow Common. In 1901 Allingham's driver suffered severe cuts and bruises when the car in which he was the only traveller skidded on ice in Oxford Lane and then overturned. The car was smashed up itself and naturally the scene attracted a curious crowd. 

There were many complaints of speeding vehicles but our ancestors expectations of how fast a motor car should travel were far different from our own. For example complaints of cars "sweeping" down Oxford Rd towards the West Street corner at a dangerous pace were said to be travelling at as much as ...12mph. (1903)

Car de Luxe

As times move on you can see the carriage builders, cycle manufacturers, blacksmiths and inns adapting to the times and offering services to cater for motorists too. For example in 1902 Walker's Forge would not only competently  shoe your horse but were also advertising themselves as "tyresmiths" for motor vehicles. Hotels proudly announced that they had a garage and perhaps an inspection pit for running repairs where once they might have boasted of fine stabling. The Crown Hotel was one of these in 1915. (The Crown was one of the first in Marlow to advertise their suitability specifically to motorists and by 1904 they stated that they had been appointed the official local hotel of "the Automobile Club".)

 

C Drye, as seen above in 1905, started out as Warner & Drye Carriage Builders but gradually changed their focus to encompass first bicycles then cars. They eventually called themselves The Marlow Carriage and Motor Car Co. They would still build you a horse drawn carriage to order, but could also fix your car. Their main premises was in the High Street  where W H Smith is now. Cycle depot C J Bateman's in West Street also began to describe themselves as a "Motor and Cycle engineer" and most of the towns many cycle sellers and manufacturers began catering for motor cyclists at least. The Station Road cycle workshop premises became the Marlow Motor Car and Engineering Co, offering motor repairs of every description thanks to the inspection pit. They tried to offer every service an Edwardian motorist could wish for, from driving lessons to the ability to hire an expert chauffeur and/or vehicle at a moments notice. They also sold cars as the district agent for the Belsize Car. In 1907 they advertised the Belize 6 Cylinder as the Car De Luxe. Sounds perfect. 

The condition of Marlow's roads and pavements caused a lot of angst in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Back in the 1840's sand was sprinkled on the highway to improve conditions, but it can't have helped much. William Crouch Junior who made a living from sweeping the dung of the highway was fined in 1843 for damaging the road surface by taking the sand up accidentally while removing the manure. Perhaps the authorities should have employed him instead. A common complaint was the authorities did not notice problems with the road surface very quickly, and once they did it took endless meetings and procrastination to get something done. Those with the power to fix the situation were reluctant to begin work that would have to be charged to the rates. William was not the only person to earn an income from collecting road scrapings in those pre car days. The scrapings, chiefly dung, were sold on to gardeners and farmers and the right to collect them from a specific area had been sold by the authorities in turn. Later the council, or their sub contactor would be responsible for sweeping the roads and disposing of any rubbish. (See note 1)

A plague of dust and mud

The problem of swirling dust was also a cause for complaints. It was commented on by visitors and even Punch made a mention of it - "Oh why doesn't Marlow water it's one great street?" The water would dampen down the dust in theory, but too much made surfaces sticky and unpleasant in a different way. And of course, then winter rains sometimes caused "a plague of mud" which caused "much suffering" to householders and business in 1899. The roads developed for housing around this time suffered the most as they were not necessarily on the regular road watering or maintenance schedule. In 1908 the 24 households then in Claremont Road petitioned the council to do something about the atrocious road and path conditions in their road. The parish surveyor was sent to make a report but change came slowly. At this time more of the side streets saw their "footpaths" tarred as they described it, for example Glade Road and Institute Road in 1910. (The main roads themselves had been "tarred" from 1909. The rest were surfaced with "field flints" and gravel.) 

If Marlow had thought horse drawn vehicles bought up the dust, it was nothing compared to the work of the motor cars. At a Marlow Urban District Council meeting in 1904, those attending complained that cars passing down the street meant everyone in the vicinity got coated with filth and that the choking dust clouds lingered in the air some time afterwards. This made walking the streets very unpleasant indeed. The problem was at its worst on Sunday because the roads were not watered (damped down in order to suppress dust) then. This is when things got complicated. Some present considered that asking people to work on a Sunday on the roads would be wrong and not sufficiently justified by the fact doing so would make life easier for those walking to and from church services. Some actually considered it monstrous that driving was considered a Sunday suitable activity at all. Why should the "disgraceful" behaviour of a few motorists force others to break the Sabbath? Aside from a few arguments about what did and didn't count as the Sabbath, the alternative voices argued that those objecting to Sunday labour did not make opposition if the lamps in their streets were lit on Sundays by a worker and so on. In the end a compromise was made that the main streets would continue to be watered on a Saturday but would be done later in the day than before so the effects would hopefully last until Sunday Morning. They didn't, and complaints flooded back in. 

Tarring the roads themselves didn't solve all the problems of dust, but it did help tremendously. Of course not everyone was satisfied. In 1910 the main street of Bisham was now "a tarred abomination, smelling evilly, and wearing a squalid and abominable look" due to the arrival of the motor car. The village had now "the unwelcome choice of two evils; to be half choked with billows of dust, or to coat its roads with tar compositions " according to a travel guide. 

Reports of early car accidents are outnumbered by those involving Edwardian motorcyclists. For example  in 1904 motorcyclist Cecil Adrian Stacey of Bisham was fined for dangerous driving after he knocked Marlow cyclist, Sidney James Chalk off his bicycle in  the High Street. He was going out of Institute Road at a "considerable pace" - 10mph -  and took the corner badly. He swerved into the wrong side of the road and then tried to squeeze through a narrow gap between the cyclist and a cart. He knocked down Sidney by doing so. He continued on without checking what happened to the victim, who was thankfully not seriously hurt.  

Another hazard for wannabe motorists was a lack of visible street names. The Parish council complained about this in 1895 but it took another three and a half years for a new batch of handsome blue enamel plaques to be ordered from Mr Batting. Not all roads were labelled but funding was again the issue. 

Town trade killed by the motor car?

The motor car was here to stay. Marlow was a town that did so much trade from visitors for the "river season" and day trippers too that increased transport availability must have bought some additional visitors in. But in 1913 Edward Riley (the man who gave Riley Recreation ground to Marlow) thought that trade in the town had been "killed by the motor car". This is an interesting comment considering how few Marlow residents could have afforded to own a car at that time. Perhaps so many of the wealthier summer only residents spent their time motoring off to access bigger shops and attractions that the town traders no longer saw the trade boost they had came to rely on. 

For more on other forms of transport see a post on Victorian and Edwardian Marlow Cyclists and Cycle Manufacturers/sellers  here

And information on the Wyatt stagecoach masters here

Other transport related posts are featured on the General Marlow History menu option.

Notes. 

1. The issue of where to dispose of these scrapings and rubbish caused a lot of angst, especially as those collecting the waste for the council were accused of tipping it into any old ditch or corner, most notoriously around Strong Beer Acre (Station Road, 1897 use of a name with long heritage for the general area). The muted use of the old gravel pit at what we would now call Seymour Court Road at the top of Dean Street was ridiculed by the more progressive council members who pointed out this meant moving the rubbish dump closer to one of the most populous areas of Marlow, which would hardly deal with the problem. The pit would be better filled in they said, as it was old and unsightly. There is indeed now housing on the site.

Undated album page, featuring the Wethered family and their motor at Remnantz. 

 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Related posts:

More general Marlow history and travel related posts can be found under the General History listing  here

More about the Lindlars and other residences of Marlow Lodge here

All mentions of a person on the blog can be found under the A-Z  person index in the top drop down menu. 

Sources

The Horseless Age Vol 21 (The Horseless Age Co, 1911)

The Spectator June 15 1895, digitised by Google Books. 

Berks Chronicle 21 February 1843, copy from the British Library.

South Bucks Standard 9 July & October 1 1897, 20 May 1898, 6 & 13 January, 13 October 1899, 18 April 1902, 10 April 1903, 08 May 1908 as above. 

South Bucks Free Press 28 June 1898, 27 December 1901, June 10 1904, October 18 1907 as above

Punch - August 21 1886 Volume 1, digitised by Google.

Marlow Guide 1905

Harper, Charles George - Thames Valley Villages. (Chapman 1910)

Country Life clippings, 1904. 

©Marlow Ancestors

The Badgers of Lulworth, Claremont Road

 

Built 1903, Claremont Road, Great Marlow. Perhaps built as one house? 

Anne Badger AKA Annie moved in as the first resident of Lulworth in 1903. She had just retired from running a fancy goods repository in Market Square. Prior to that she had ran a boot and shoe repair shop. In 1879 a man stole a pair of boots from her shop. Luckily nearby shopkeeper Owen Wright saw and took off after the man capturing him and handing him over to police. See Owen's premises and find out about the historic occupiers of it here.

Sadly Anne died of heart disease aged 64 just a few months after moving in to Lulworth. She was a Catholic and is buried at St Peter's Roman Catholic Church in Marlow. Her husband Joseph, a master boot maker, had died aged just 35 back in 1874 but Anne was survived by six adult children. More on their shop here

Her son Joseph junior had lived with her and continued in residence at Lulworth after her death. He was a solicitor's clerk / cashier in Marlow but had sidelines as a photographer and a seller of typewriters using some of his mother's shop space for the latter. His photographic work featured in both local newspapers and the London Evening News. He was also a property speculator buying up plots of building land on Newtown Road then selling them on.

He was a politically active man being one of the founder members of the Marlow branch of the Tariff Reform League which pushed for tariffs to be imposed on the import of foreign goods into Britain to protect British businesses.

Joseph taught Pitman shorthand to both men and women at the Marlow Institute (being paid 5 shillings per class taught) and at Borlase School. At the Institute he took part in musical entertainments on the cello and viola. His musical talents and willingness to both act in and stage manage amateur dramatics also made Joseph a useful participant in fundraising events for both the Institute and the Catholic Church. Being a Catholic was difficult in late 1800s England with some people still questioning whether Catholics should really be able to hold any positions of authority in the country or vote for instance. These doubters included local people and an angry Joseph found himself writing to the papers many a time to object to Anti-Catholic hate speech by visiting speakers or letter writers to the local press. *

Did I mention he was an amateur competitive rower too, or one of the electoral returning officers who supervised polling stations in Marlow? That was one busy man. He still had time to tend his garden though and was on the committee of the annual Marlow Horticultural Show. 

He appears to have left Lulworth by 1907. By 1913 he lived in Glade Nook, "Claremont Estate" Marlow. I think this house was in Claremont Gardens as we would call it today. When living there he served as Honorary Secretary to the local committee set up to help house Belgian refugees in the First World War. To read more about Marlow in the First World War see Kathryn's series of posts beginning with this one.

I found no evidence of a marriage for Joseph.

Photo by Kathryn Day. Research and text by Charlotte Day. Additional research by Kathryn Day. 

*Being Catholic also opened up a few employment opportunities. Ann's teenage son John for example secured a position as a page at Danesfield House in Medmenham, home to the wealthy Catholic Scott Murray family. They had paid for the construction of the Catholic church in Marlow. 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

More information:

To find every mention of an individual here, use the A&Z person index in the top drop menu. There is over 4,300 people mentioned there. 

For other posts about specific houses, and Glade Rd see the index here