Foxes Piece Marlow History

Foxes Piece was originally a name given to a meadow off what is now Glade Road (which was a mere track then). This was on the opposite side of the road from the modern Foxes Piece flats and school. The meadow got the name from school proprietor George Faux (pronounced Fox) who with his wife Ann, a former servant of Princess Amelia, ran a private boys' school where Cedar House is now from 1757 until George died in 1797. The pupils used the meadow as an extension of their playground and as a cricket pitch. A detailed post about this school with more about the Fauxes can be found on the blog: here.

Across the road from the school were two more fields called "Upper and Lower Foxes" comprising between them parcels of land known as Foxes Two Acres, Foxes Little Two Acres and Foxes Lower Acres, presumably also once used by Faux. Over the years all these fields became known collectively just as Foxes Piece. The Faux school meadow site was eventually built over but the name Foxes Piece lingered for the rest of the fields and for the area around them.

 

 Above, from the 1839 map drawn by William Francis for the Platts Farm estate sale which included land within Marlow Fields such as Foxes Piece. The land is shown as plots 20-23 comprising lot VII here. Glade Road can be seen running between plots 20 and 21. 

Part of the site amounting to 23 acres extending down to the side of Glade Road as well as Little Marlow Road was hired out as private (and not particularly cheap) allotments by the end of the Victorian area by landowner Sir William Clayton. Previously they had been let to farmers. The allotments were put up for sale in one lot in 1910. At the time land in the Glade Road area was highly desirable for property development. The buyer was John Langley, whose interesting biography Kathryn has written in a post under our Marlow Heroes series here. He did not immediately build on the site. Part of this land was later given by John to the town for the building of the Cottage Hospital.

In 1939 part of the Foxes Piece were bought by the Urban District Council under sanction of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health at a cost of £1300 for use as community allotments. These are the modern allotments.

During the second world war many evacuee children came to Marlow. There was relatively little playing space for them or for the children who were already living in the town so the future school site at Foxes Piece was purchased for £800 by the council in 1940 as a recreation ground which became known as Foxes Piece Playing Fields. It totalled 8.5 acres.

After the evacuee families left Marlow the recreation ground remained in use for local people for a few years but in the 1950s Foxes Piece First School was built on part of the site between 1954-56. There were only three classrooms back then plus cloakrooms, a staffroom and scullery. It isn't clear whether any part of the playing fields were retained for public use or whether the whole of the playing fields were enclosed for the school use. I remember being told multiple times by Marlow people as a child in the 1980s /90s that a public right of way ran through the school playing fields and that you were allowed into the fields themselves at the weekend. I remember them seeing people walking dogs there and many people walking through the school grounds on a weekend as a shortcut. My dad took me through there himself. I am sure that that was not with the council blessing and certainly the site is not open access today! I presume that the lingering belief that the grounds were public land was a throwback to the days of the official playing fields there.

In 1966 it was decided that the critical shortage of infant school places in the town meant that new schools had to be built. Foxes Piece was picked as the site for a middle school to adjoin the first school. Following an over two year build the school welcomed its first pupils in 1969. It had a 320 child capacity. The two schools together combined were then known together as Foxes Piece Infants School with Mrs Nye as the new head. Later the schools were again  referred to separately as the First School and Middle School.

By 1969 the school buildings were used as polling stations in elections, something which gave the pupils some welcome days off!

Newly built next door were the local authority owned rental flats of Foxes Piece (the first families moved in 1964/1965). The flats were initially usually described as Foxes Piece Estate. Council houses in the Newfield Gardens area were also in their early days referred to under that name sometimes.  

Meanwhile the Foxes Piece allotments continued. They were mostly unfenced until 1974 when sadly the theft of produce and some vandalism forced their enclosure behind fence and padlock. They remain in cultivation today. More on the history of the various allotments in Marlow and those who used them here.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Sources:

1833 Parochial Assessment of Great Marlow,  surveyors working notebooks in my family possession and transcribed by me.

1839 map, copy in my family possession.

Personal Interviews.

Bucks Herald cuttings May 10th 1940 and 16th July 1910.

Bucks Examiner December 2nd 1955. British Library Archives via the BNA. Reading Evening Post February 11th 1966. As previous. Reading Mercury February 11th 1939. As previous.

© MarlowAncestors 

Chapel Street Area Schools

The earliest known private School in Marlow was established circa 1757 by George Faux AKA Fox*. This was a boys' school and was known as Faux's Academy. It was located in where is now The Cedars near the corner of Glade Road and Chapel Street. He died in 1797 and left all he had, including 3 cottages in nearby Chapel Street to his wife Ann. It does not appear that he owned the school premises however.

Ann was involved with the domestic arrangements of the school. In her youth she had been a servant of Princess Amelia, daughter of George 2nd. She died at Marlow in 1823 age 85 according to her obituary. At that time tribute was paid to how Ann had paid "the most correct and anxious attention to the health and comfort to the hundreds of pupils who were educated at that respectable seminary".

By 1818 the school was operated by a Mr and Mrs Henry Terry as Great Marlow Academy. Former pupil Charles West Cope in his memoirs recalled his time at the school then as one of absolute misery amid constant bullying by other boys. He was then  aged seven. He described how the usher (assistant teacher) at the school took the boys into the beech woods on their half day off but did nothing to stop the older children deliberately getting the younger ones lost and then leaving them alone, or killing squirrels with sling shots. During one bullying incident Charles suffered a broken elbow and dislocated shoulder. Whilst he was recovering he was thrown into a ditch of thistles and burnt (accidentally but negligently in that case) with a candle by other boys. 

With a serious burn and thistle injuries to deal with as well as his original injuries Charles weakened and developed a fever. A surgeon called for leeches for the poor child- and amputation tools in case he considered it best to remove the arm!

Thankfully that did not happen but Charles never recovered full use of his injured limb. He was removed from the school and returned to his family in Yorkshire. I wish I could say his school life was happier thereafter but his memories of his time at Leeds Grammar School included masters who pulled boys' ears till they bled amongst other cruelties. The price the family of Charles paid for his "education" by the Terrys was 24 guineas including board, lodging and laundry (the last was often not included in standard fees.) For boys over 8 years the fee was 26 guineas per annum. Some subjects were charged extra for if studied- these included Latin, Greek, French and land surveying / mapping skills. 

Henry Terry and his wife Isabella were clearly not the best when it came to supervising their student's behaviour. This may have told on them in the end as Henry suffered bankruptcy in 1826. All his school equipment including 300 books had to be auctioned off to pay creditors. Reverend William Faulkner, originally from Oxford, bought the equipment and took over the premises after some refurbishments. His was a high class boarding school for boys and a great success but perhaps it was not really William's vocation as he was after all an ordained clergyman. It was common for clergy without positions to set up as school masters. In 1838 he got a position as a vicar in Hanging Heaton Yorkshire and gave up the school. His wife Rose (nee Bond of Great Marlow, his second wife) had died of fever in 1832, while his son Frank a trainee doctor had drowned in the Thames at Marlow** whilst on a visit home so perhaps he felt like leaving the town anyway. The sale of goods when he gave up his school make his establishment sound a fun place because as well as the usual school desks, maps and globes there was scenery and props for amateur theatricals, an "electricity machine" for science demonstrations (William was one of the members of the British Society For The Advancement Of Science), a pianoforte and tambourines. The school had a dedicated playground then too as it had done when the Terrys ran things -in those days the boys had used it as somewhere to roast in makeshift ovens the squirrels they had killed in the woods! We can only hope this was not due to a lack of other food provided!

Tragically, William became ill and died within a few months of arriving at Hanging Heaton.

The former school building was put up for sale just as an ordinary house after Faulkner left but along came someone else who wanted to run a school on the premises - Samuel Field Cooper (previously of Regent House Academy, Romford, Essex) and his wife Elizabeth who used the name Prospect House Academy for their enterprise. This can be a little confusing as there was later another house called Prospect House nearby later. That was also used for a school for a while. More on that further down this post. 

Samuel Field Hooper died in 1840 not long after the family arrived in Marlow. He was in the prime of his life. The couple's third son 9 month old Markham died of influenza at the school just two months later.  Elizabeth (nee Grace) continued to run the school with two live in schoolmasters. She had more than 20 residential pupils in 1841. 

One of Elizabeth's assistant teachers William H Baker, appointed head master after her husband's death,  took over the premises full time in his own right after he married his master's widow in 1841. William pursued a revolutionary, for the time, system of education for the young boys he taught and boarded. He believed children didn't need to learn by rote or by having a terror of making mistakes instilled into them. Treat them with kindness he said and encourage their natural love of discovery and the boys will develop a life long thirst for learning and get through their lessons far more quickly. Harsh measures were on the other hand "calculated to debase the minds of youth'. Although a member of the Church of England, he stressed that the religious education offered would be suitable for congregationalists and other dissenters. Regular lectures on science and philosophy were an extra option during the colder months when the boys couldn't use the school's large playground so much in their leisure hours. William was passionate about astronomy in particular.

In fair weather he encouraged his pupils to play cricket in a nearby meadow which the school had long used and to go angling on the Thames, which in those distant days could actually be seen from the house. He took the boys down to the river to teach them to swim. The boys' cricketing uniform for a match against a Wycombe school in 1843 consisted of a straw hat with blue ribbon around it, a blue striped shirt and white trousers. 

His wife Mrs Baker helped run the school and offered "abundant, nutritious food". Her maternal care was considered to make the school especially suited to boys of a delicate constitution - or so they said! 

The annual price for a boarding place at the school, including washing of clothes (which as mentioned before often wasn't included in school fees) and school books was 30 guineas. Dancing lessons extra. Each pupil was required to bring with them a silver spoon and 6 towels. 

Boys at the school were prepared for university or commercial pursuits " foreign or domestic" including agriculture. Book keeping and land surveying were thus amongst the subjects studied as well as traditional ones such as grammar and French. A later reminiscence about the school said wealthy farmers especially liked to send their children there. (Although other pupils were undoubtedly from the gentry.) In 1846 it was decided to target the market of agricultural families more particularly. Baker advertised that he would be adding regular series of lectures on subjects such as geology and chemistry adapted to agricultural purposes to the curriculum. Overall the range of subjects studied was much broader than that usually offers in grammar schools and the like. Elocution, drawing, Latin, French, Greek, modern history (not just ancient), and geography taught with "globes both terrestrial and celestial" were all on the menu. 

Religious instruction was of course also attended to. "Particular regard is given to the moral and religious deportment of the pupils who are regularly instructed in the pages of the holy writ" claimed Mr Baker. 

Each year the school had a public examination of the pupils, to show off their learning and of course attract the attention of parents of prospective pupils. Sometimes this was held at the school, at other times in the town hall. The pupils work in the form of penmanship and drawing was also put in display, to very favourable reviews. In 1845 the pupil exhibition included a play performed in French with "a purity of accent not to be expected in ones so young".

While it did well at first and the Bakers were much liked in the town, for unknown reasons they developed financial difficulties and had to move away.

Prospect House Academy was taken over in 1848 by Thomas Mathews who offered a classical and commercial education for boys. Buoyed by his success attracting new pupils, Thomas in 1857 took the impressive Marlow Place for his school which became known as Marlow Place Academy. To read more about this school see my general schools post published here and a more detailed post here

Their former school building became home to the Cock(e)s sisters by 1861, who renamed it The Glade. More on Charlotte Cocks here

With the name Prospect House no longer in use it was reused as the name for another house almost opposite the Glade at the junction on Little Marlow Road, Chapel Street and Wycombe Road. This building no longer exists. It too had been in use as a school. In this case it was a school for girls ran by a Miss Clark or Clarke in 1844. The school seems to have gone out of use relatively quickly and the building was for a while in domestic use. A James and Sarah Cox lived at the new Prospect House from at least 1869. James farmed some of the fields nearby. He ran a dairy business until he retired in 1883. By then he had moved to St Peter's Street.

Mary Henderson died at Prospect House in 1899 aged 55 (when she was paying £55 per annum for her lease) while a Mr Christopher Sparks was the resident by 1903 and until at least 1908. Christopher was a builder, tax assessor and insurance agent. In 1900 the house was described at auction as containing 5 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms, a kitchen, and stabling while earlier descriptions invariably mention a large detached wash house too. 

Two years later the building was returned to scholastic use. It was a general school for girls and a prep school for boys called Prospect House School. Day and boarding places were available. Subjects offered included Domestic Economy, Home Nursing and Musical Theory. This school didn't seem to last long however as Prospect House was the ordinary home of a Mrs Debbin, widow, in 1912.

Captain and Mrs Homerton were the residents in 1918 when their son was born there.

Our blog focuses on pre- 1920 Marlow so I'll leave it there.

Written and researched by Charlotte  Day with additional research by Kathryn Day.

*Faux or Fox probably gave his name to Foxes Piece which originally described land on both sides of Glade Rd, just beyond Cedar House and on the opposite side. Find out more here

**William's brother James a Chartist and Temperance campaigner not to mention grocer, druggist, town councillor and temperance hotel proprietor of Oxford also drowned in a river.

More Chapel Street related posts indexed here

Sources for this post included:

Pigots Royal, National and Commercial Directory 1831 and 1844. Both University of Leicester Archives.

1841, 51 census transcribed by me from microfilm. Census information always remains Crown Copyright.

Memoirs of Charles West Cope, published by Bentley. 1881.

Kelly's Directory 1911 & 1915.

Newspapers at the British Library archives, supplied by the BNA: South Bucks Standard 17 June 1898, 7th February 1908,  30th September 1910 and 18th July 1912.

Reading Mercury 17th February 1838, 16 December 1843 as above.

Oxford University and City Herald, 6th July 1839. As above.

Morning Chronicle 15 January 1819, & Aylesbury News 20 December 1845 British Library. 

Windsor and Eton Express 08 February 1823, Slough Library.

Property records held by my family and transcribed by me.

"Particulars and Conditions of Sale of a very valuable and productive estate known as Platts Farm" - 1839, printed by George Cannon. (Foxes Piece land descriptions) 

GRO death index

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