Deacon Grave, Great Marlow *updated March 2025*

 

The tragic grave in the churchyard of little Charles Sidney Deacon "beloved child" who died aged 6 months on November 11th 1898.

Parents: James and Ida.

Photograph from November 2020 & March 2025. © Marlow Ancestors. Image reproduction fully permitted for family or local history purposes.

To find all grave images on the blog see this index here

And for all mentions of a family or individual see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There's over 4,300 people there. 

East Arms Inn, Hurley *updated*

Near the toll house. Often used by anglers to stay in and to house coroner's inquests. Also used for auctions.

History timeline and historic landlord listing.

1851-67 James Cowley. Wife Lucy. They came from the Marlborough Arms in Hurley some time between 1847-51. In 1864 James so badly injured his hand when a gun he was cleaning in the bar of the East Arms discharged that he had to have it amputated [Reading Mercury 13th August 1864, British Library Archives, via the BNA]. During his time as landlord the premises were, sadly,  often used for celebratory dinners after hare coursing meets.

1876-77 Lucy Cowley widow of James. She gave up that year. Lucy retired to Shinfield where she died in 1882.

1877-78 Thomas Clout. He died in 1878. Widow Caroline took over. Thomas and Caroline look to have come from running a pub in Iver. In 1877 their 14 year old employee Alfred drowned while fishing in the river at Hurley.

1878-79 Caroline Clout as above.

1879-81 William Claydon.

1883 - Francis Davis

1884= recommended as a place to stay by readers of the magazine Illustrated Sports.

1891-94= William Deacon and wife Elizabeth. William seems to have been a rare thing - a Hurley born Hurley landlord. He was only  59 when he died September 10th 1894 after a short illness. The Deacons changed the name to the East Arms Hotel. William and Elizabeth were previously at the Ray Mead Hotel in Maidenhead for 25 years. At his death William was described as a "amiable and generous man". He also served as president of the local Licensed Victuallers Protection Association. 

Above, 1891 advert. "Every accomodation for the fishing, picnics and excursion parties " . You will note William offers stabling for 40 horses, a high and dry camping ground and boat sale, hire and repair from his "works at Bourne End Station" including a boat yard there. Spot the printing error. 

1894-1907 Elizabeth Deacon, widow of William above. In 1904 severe flooding hit Hurley and numerous washed out families were given shelter by Elizabeth. She suffered the theft of its Slate Club funds in 1905, by club secretary Thomas Reed of Bisham. He served 2 months in Reading gaol with hard labour. See more here. In 1904 the Arms saw the inquest of Hurley's 7 year old resident, Thomas Edwin Overall, who had been killed in a hit and run while on a path. The inquest ruled the boy had been killed by dangerous driving and therefore the driver of the car was arrested for manslaughter. Mrs Deacon says her telephone never stopped ringing with offers of help to the bereaved family. Young Thomas was the son of Charles Edwin who had already lost his wife and who had 6 other children.  (Stanley Monroe Noble, coming from London, was the driver. He was controversially acquitted.)

Post by Charlotte Day. Gaps in dates are gaps in my research or relate to information yet to be uploaded. 

Compiled from censuses, licensing information, court cases, adverts, directories newspapers as quoted above, etc. Kelly's Post Office Directory by Kellys Directories Limited 1854 and 1863. Edward Cassey and Co's Directory 1865, Dutton, Allen and Co Directory 1867. Royal County Directory 1876 by J.G Harrod and co. London Metropolitan Archives.

More Hurley pub history and landlord listings in the future. We have a large number of similar posts for pubs in Marlow, Little Marlow, Medmenham and Lane End (all Buckinghamshire) plus a few for the Hurley pubs we have already featured. These are all listed here.

Our main focus is Marlow on this blog but we do cover places like Hurley because of frequent connection between them and Marlow. For a list of Hurley, Harleyford and Temple related posts see here

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this content for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here.

Marlow Floods A Plenty

  

Marlow is a town with a history of getting it's feet wet. The floods didn't just inconvenience those with riverside homes either. They stopped the mills, church services, river traffic and transport and bought some traders into severe financial difficulties.

When the floods were at their worst, navigation on the Thames was stopped altogether, for example in the early part of 1840. In this year, towing boats was impossible with the tow paths several feet underwater. This meant barges had to stay where they could, and await the water levels dropping sufficiently. High water made the already dangerous flash locks even more perilous to travel through. The flood channels such as the one finishing near the back of the Compleat Angler, were sometimes overwhelmed.  Floating debris was another hazard. Many Marlow people ran barges or worked on them, and a stopping of river traffic meant some were stranded away from home. Other businesses were stopped because they were dependent on river bourne deliveries of raw materials. 

The 1894 flood

Even after the age of horse drawn barges was over, flooding still caused havoc in the life of the town. In November 1894, a particularly bad inundation caused church services at the riverside All Saints Church to be abandoned, while the railway was "engulfed in a sea of water". This water was said to have put out the engines and it was subsequently decided to raise the rails to stop this happening again. Mill Lane, Mill Alley (Seven Corner Alley), St. Peter's Street and South Place all suffered substantial flooding. 

Captain Edward Wilfred Marshall of The Eyrie (off Gossmore) was seriously ill at home when the flood water rose. He had suffered from flu, and it was now believed he had pneumonia. His anxious wife and doctors had to weigh up the risk of remaining put and what they considered as the risk of removing a severely ill man from his home. Captain Marshall's infant son and nurse were sent to the safety of Remnantz. Before long The Eyrie was surrounded by a "tremendous flood" and with the water level rising, they had no choice but to take Marshall away. The water was 4ft deep outside when help was summoned. The horses bearing his carriage away were chest deep in the flood  as they made their departure. Marshall and his wife Penrose were taken to the Crown Hotel, but sadly he died there shortly afterwards age 28. Many blamed his final illness on the unhealthy situation caused by the flood water. (Captain Marshall and his menagerie is subject of a separate post here)

Flood mark at Marlow Lock, above. 

Summer floods stop play

While autumn and winter floods made living and working conditions miserable for many, Marlow did not always escape flooding in the summer either. Floods then extended the prospect of financial loss to a different range of people. It's sometimes easy to underestimate how dependent many Victorian and Edwardian Marlow businesses were on tourism or how many summer visitors the town received. 

The summer flood of 1903 was said to have been the worst for 50 years. People visited the town to "mess about on the river" but boating and fishing came to a halt. The hotels and private lodging houses were empty. The pubs and hotels that catered for boating and fishing parties by serving lunches, and hiring out punts and fisherman (fishing guides) did no trade. Salters Steamers could not run their river trips. The boathouses found no demand for hired steam launches or canoes. The mills had to stop. It was in short "disastrous" for the trade in Marlow. The Reading Mercury reported that all roads south of the town were cut off and that many hundreds of acres of Thames side meadows were flooded. This included all those in the vicinity of Pound Lane, with the cricket field included. Residents reported flooded cellars (barrels are said to have floated out of one unnamed pub cellar) and overwhelmed cess pits. Worse for some was the stench of decaying vegetation left behind as the waters receded, along with thick foul smelling mud that had to shovelled off the streets. At least the train managed to continue, thanks to the work done after 1894. The water got to within 1-2" of the rails, and lay all around the line, as far as the Bourne End road at it's worst. The storm that accompanied the initial deluge was marked by large hailstones and a horse was struck by lightning and killed at Seymour Court. At Danesfield house, the lightning hit the roof, causing significant damage. The rain coming through the ceiling caused substantial damage to some tapestries hanging on the walls, worth together several thousand pounds. 

In December of 1903 there were yet more floods, with water levels rising to just under a foot below the summer flood mark of that year. 

Station Road is submerged..again

The residents of Station Rd had more cause to complain than most. The summer flood just mentioned affected them badly in June-August. Then in September of the same year a heavy rain storm saw the road and houses flooded again. Questions were raised about the affect on visitor numbers if those arriving at Marlow train station had to step through several inches of water (at best) on their way into town. But what of the poor people actually living there? They resorted to blocking up their doorways "with 6-7" of wood backed up with a heap of mud and stone" but to no avail.  The water entered  the houses and was "spoiling the furniture". At a Council meeting, councilor Mr J H Deacon tried to get something done. Drainage work was planned to be completed at the same time new paving was due to be laid but that was 6 months away. Mr Deacon said autumn floods were likely and following on from the two already that year, could the Station Rd residents afford to wait? The other councillors (who did not live in Station Rd) thought they could. They said the homeowners should just raise their steps 6-7" to protect their homes. Mr Deacon pointed out that this had already been tried at the Wheatsheaf and the two cottages adjoining but they still flooded. It's also worth noting that most of these cottages were rented and some landlords were not willing to spend on these potential improvements. Mr Deacon failed to get any further money voted to help Station Rd as the others did not want the rates pushed up as a result. So when a "memorable" flood occured in February the following year, the cottages were again flooded. Things improved for the road gradually but it was still suffering in home floods long after the time our blog deals with. 

There have been many more bad flood years eg 1908, but the worst in recent times was 1947. Again this is out of our blog time frame but if you Google the date, you'll find plenty of images online. 

Always look on the bright side?

More minor seasonal floods were regarded as useful for irrigation purposes by farmers with land near the river, and some thought it added to the value of their holdings.  

A more ambitious plan to make use of excess Thames water was proposed by civil engineer Mr McClean in 1869. His idea was based on a plan previously advanced by him in 1849 and 1850, in conjunction with Mr Blackwell. This was to "embank and canalize" the Thames between Marlow and Henley, with the object of creating in the present channel of the river, a series of "impounding reservoirs". The lowest of these would be connected to London via a 36 mile canal, and so would provide the capital with more drinking water. Gravity would allow the provision of water for low lying parts of London, and a pump would be needed to serve the rest. Mr McClean thought this would solve both the inadequate provision of water in populous London, and flooding around the Thames. But the scheme was not to be! 

The other people who gained when the floods came were illegal fishermen. Those who did not have the right to take fish from certain areas of the Thames "netted" the ditches and flooded areas around the river, confident perhaps no one much would be on the water to notice. In the early 1870's the "netting  on the meadows adjacent to the river during flood time was carried on wholesale" with large quantities of fish captured and sold. The Thames Conservancy and the Angling Clubs put a stop to this by gathering the fish left stranded in the ditches or pools of water and returning them to the river themselves.

One last person to benefit from the flood was a Mr Couch of Quarry Wood House who in the 1870's is said to won a bet that he could drive his boat over the weir while a flood was on, as a feet of daring. It seemed to get stuck a little on the edge but finally slipped over and down again safely "to the cheers from the crown on the bridge". Don't try that at home!

Researched and written by Kathryn Day. Above picture shows Marlow floods in the modern day.

Related content:

Related posts about the river can be found in the General History post listing here including this about Victorian and Edwardian children drowned in the river

More about Way family of Wheatsheaf here

The angry, roaring hissing mist of 1897 here

To find all mentions of your ancestor here, click on the A-Z person index in the same menu. This currently contains over 3,000 individuals. 

SOURCES INCLUDE:

Royal Commission on River Pollution: Third report of the commission appointed to inquire into the best means of preventing the pollution of rivers - 1866, (C E Eyre & Spottiswoode) 

Great Britain Parliament, House of Commons - Reports from committees vol 17, 1877

Great Britain House of Commons - Reports from Commissions - Vol 33 1869

Wheedon, J P, Angling Clubs and Preservation societies of London and the provinces 1883. (Clowes 1884)

Leslie, John Dunlop - Our River (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co 1881)

Bucks Gazette 3 November, 11 January 1840. Copy held at the British Library Archive and accessed via the BNA.

Derby and Newcastle  Mercury, 1 November 1747, as above

Wolverton Express, June 1903 - thanks to Roger Woodman. 

©Marlow Ancestors.