Marlow in World War Two 1944-45

This is the last in a series of posts about Marlow during WW2.

Part One dealt with preparations for, and the early months of, the war here

Part Two covered 1940-41 here.

Part Three Covered 1942-3 here.

February 1944

Mr Ball of Westfield Medmenham is calling for local farmers to donate animals to a charity auction at Reading in aid of the Red Cross.

April 1944 

In the last 12 months, 43 Marlow families have experienced their family members being held as prisoners of war.

The Marlow Red Cross commanded by Julia Wethered of the High Street, plans to open a medical supply depot in the coming weeks.

The Ministry of Fuel reduces the amount of coal and coke that households can order, acknowledging that for some the new limits will not be enough for their needs.

Expectant mothers can now order an additional rational book for their unborn child so that they can access extra eggs, milk and meat (when available) during their pregnancy.

May 1944

A series of fundraising events take place in the town as part of the national Salute The Soldier Week fundraising drive. The aim is to encourage both cash donations and (in particular) investment in war bonds and savings bonds. To sell such savings products the savings committee hut in Marlow Bottom will open every day. The village has set its own target of £300 raised. Dwight D Eisenhower sends a letter to the town as a whole wishing Marlow luck with their efforts. His letter is itself auctioned off as part of the fundraising and is sold for £3 9 shillings. Novelist Rebecca West takes part in a charity quizz event at Court Garden as part of the week. A town parade to mark the week is joined in by 1300 people. The villagers of Marlow Bottom raise more than double their £300 target, while Marlow as a whole raises an astonishing £290,000. Later in the year the government gives Marlow a plaque to commemorate this success but where this was put we do not know (somewhere in town centre was the planned place).

June 1944 

Marlow Bottom's Red Cross volunteers arranged a fete to raise money for interned British residents of the Channel Islands.

July 1944 

Marlow Urban District Council has a target of collecting 10,000 books from the town for paper recycling. Children from the Girls, Boys, Roman Catholic and private Dial Close schools are all dispatched to do door to door collections. Books of educational or antiquarian interest are not desired. Before the end of the month this target is exceeded by 2,000.

The volunteers at the British Restaurant in Marlow have been so overworked in recent months that there has been a fear that some will breakdown. The restaurant has had to stop serving suppers as a result, and is making a loss but at first refuses to follow official guidance as to raising their prices as some Marlow people cannot afford to pay more. In November losses are so great they are forced to increase prices against their wishes.

August 1944

Harry Belcher of West Street is fined for missing 5 Home Guard drill sessions (he was compulsorily enlisted into the Guards). His wife has been ill and in need of attendance plus as a private hire car driver his business is dependant on him being available in the evenings when drill practice is held. Harry feels he will lose his business if he keeps being called to practice when he needs to work and points out that he is hardly a war shirker - he joined up to fight in the last war when underage and suffered captivity as a prisoner of war then. Him and his wife have already lost their son in the current war and clearly with his grief and financial worries he has had enough. He tells those trying him that he has done enough for his country. 

October 1944

Leading Aircraft woman Betty Sweetman of Oak Tree Avenue has been working at RAF Fighter Command as an operations room "plotter" but has now been posted to similar operations in France. 

November 1944

Mrs Allen of Holland Road writes to the Bucks Free Press complaining about the terrible food in the British Restaurant at Marlow. Her veg was undercooked and her treacle tart dry and hard. Wycombe and Maidenhead she says have fine restaurants but not Marlow.

December 1944

Helga Stene, an escapee from Norway, gives a talk on life under the Nazis to a large audience at Court Garden.

 

Quarry Laundry organizes a Christmas Quizz to raise funds to buy every Marlow P.O.W 200 cigarettes. Any leftover funds are to go to their employees away serving in the war.

January 1945

The British Restaurant closes for good. Later this year it reopens as a canteen for schoolchildren.

The Marlow Bottom.W.I resolve to knit warm clothes for children in liberated countries.

February 1945

Marlow Urban District Council are on the urgent hunt for the blankets they gave out to the evacuees who came to the town, most of whom have now gone home, some probably with their blankets. The Ministry of Health has told the council that they will be charged for any blankets not collected and returned to the Ministry.

Car headlights can now be unmasked in a lifting of blackout regulations .

May 1945

May 7th - Germany unconditionally surrenders with the surrender coming into effect on the 8th, known as V.E Day. The official announcement comes over the radio. However everyone knows about the Allied victory already, and before the King's public address the town is festooned with flags and bunting and the churches have already hosted thanksgiving prayers.

The official announcement is broadcast in the cinema in Station Road and to the dancers at Court Garden at a quickly organized celebration event. A collection is made at the dance for POWs. Impromptu street parties spring up around the town before the surrender announcement, followed on V.E Day by more organized ones. One of the latter is in Glade Road and involves not only a tea in the street but sports and games in a nearby field for the children, a magic show, singing and dancing. Another tea is organized for  children jointly by the mothers of lower Newtown Road and Dedmere Road. Mr and Mrs Hodges of Victoria Road organize a party to which those of Station Road are also invited. Poor Mrs Hodges, falls over in one of the associated running races and fractures her arm.

A hundred children from upper Newtown Road and Little Marlow Road attend a celebration tea in the church hall followed by games in the park.

At Whitsun a victory fete is held at the Red Cross hut at Marlow Bottom. 

Prisoners of war returning home to recuperate after their release from medical treatment will temporarily get double rations every week to help them rebuild their strength.

Salvation Army band member Arthur Furmston returns home after over 5 years as a POW and is given a welcome home tea and social by other church members.

A special church service at All Saints gives thanks to the civilian volunteers that have helped during the war, as they are about to be dismissed. These and various youth groups gather and parade to the church beforehand.

Land girl Miss J Duncalffe gets a scarlet armband in honour of her four years continuous service at Seymour Court Farm.

July 1945

The parents of some of the last few child evacuees in Marlow have proved untraceable so they will need to stay for now.

August 1945

Victory over Japan is announced by the Prime Minister on the radio. The next two days are declared holidays but some Marlow people haven't heard the news and turn up for work anyway on the first day. Flags and bunting are again brought out across the town and people dance on the lawns of Court Garden. Thanksgiving services are held in the parish church and the Baptist church. Residents of South Place and Platts Row in Mill Road have a joint V.J Day street party complete with fireworks and a bonfire. The town's children are treated to a tea, sports competitions along with more informal games like pillow fighting and more fireworks. There are similar treats for children at Little Marlow.

Wethered's brewery have their own celebrations for their employees and families.

William Perry of Berwick Road dies after celebrating in the pub with his friends, drinking and dancing. When he gets home a little worse for wear he vomits and chokes as a result.

At Medmenham there is a garden party at the Vicarage, a dance in the village hall and a tea for the village children for V.J Day celebrations.

September 1945

Councillor Kibblewhite, hopes the Ministry of Agriculture will be able to give back Gossmore Recreation Ground as the town sorely needs space for football etc. At the moment a crop of clover is growing in it.

Mr Whalley of the Lawn is told by the council he must postpone plans to extend his home as due to the war labourers have been in very short supply and are more needed elsewhere in the town. In particular they are going to be building some long planned council houses in Seymour Park Road, which have had to be put off repeatedly because of labour and material supply problems.

October 1945

Marlow residents visit High Wycombe Guildhall to view a display of crucial war items secretly made in Wycombe during the war. These include tank and bomber plane parts.

November 1945

Memorial services are held as usual for the dead of the previous war. The Vicar in his address acknowledges that the recent war has robbed many of their last faith in God and they have turned from the church.

Late in 1945 

Marlow building company Y.J Lovell is building "prefab" accommodation in Reading. These are an emergency response to war-derived housing shortages.

Some Sources=

Bucks Free Press 25th August 1944, 25th May 1945, 16th November 1945. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Personal Interview.

Bucks Herald 18th February 1944, British Library Archives, Via the BNA.

British Journal of Commerce, Post War Trading Edition, 1945. London.

The Entertaining Hammerton Family Of Glade Rd/Beaumont Rise

If you were to stroll down Glade Road in the 1880s, you would probably eventually find yourself outpaced by a particularly vigorous octogenarian on one of his shorter strolls, perhaps to Maidenhead or Cookham. If you don't think that's a particularly short ramble for a man the age of James Humphrey Hammerton, he will scoff at your ideas. Known to be a sociable and chatty fellow, he would probably love to stop and tell you how when he lived at Brixton he used to walk to Portsmouth to breakfast with friends. No doubt joining the Royal Navy at the tender age of 10 gave the young James plenty of experience of physical discomfort to harden his constitution! We will leave James to his exertions while we take a look at the entertaining Hammerton family. 

Agent and dressmaker

Browsing the census entries for Great Marlow, you would find James Humphrey Hammerton at The Kentons Glade Rd from 1881 when he's given the occupation of "retired commercial agent" while his daughter Edith is in later life a dressmaker. Both roles sound typical for the generally reasonably well off  Glade Road residents at the time and it would be easy to assume there was not much interesting about the pair. But how wrong we would be! 

I think James, his second wife Jessy and the aforementioned daughter Edith arrived in Marlow around 1876. For James it was a retirement from a busy life but for Edith it was probably the start of an even busier one. 

HMS Victory Souvenirs

James was born 1802 at Newington Butts Surrey. He joined the navy young as a "first class volunteer" and was promoted to Lieutenant. His father, James Hamilton Hammerton was also a naval man and one who was a gunner on HMS Victory under Nelson no less. A looking glass said to have been made from the timbers of the Victory was a treasured family possession and one proudly shown to visitors at Marlow. Naturally with such a family background, James had no shortage of stories of derring do and "breathtaking escapes" from his families naval years. The most famous story of all was that James had - somewhat unwittingly perhaps- saved the life of George IV when the latter slipped when boarding a vessel at Portsmouth. He reached out and grabbed James who managed to steady him and so both were prevented from taking a watery tumble. James was later part of the "Preventative Service" who were on the prowl along the south coast for smugglers. No wonder he was ready to leave the navy in his 20s and settle down to marriage and life in Brixton. 

He was seemingly always interested in science and among his roles in life before he arrived in Marlow was as director of The Electric Telegraph Company in the 1840s. He wrote to various scientific and technical journals about the subject of using gutta percha to insulate telegraphic wires, which he hoped could be laid underground in existing gas pipes. Some of the practical experiments James had conducted sounds alarmingly hands on considering they involved sending electrical currant through wires he only hoped were sufficiently insulated. His chief idea to insulate telegraph wires at their point of mounting onto posts, also using gutta percha, does not seem to have been tried in use as it was feared the material was too subject to weathering to be worthwhile. He is said to have later been the superintendent of the telegraph company charged with laying wires between Scotland and England and also to have worked with the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I wonder if he was a friends of Marlow's native born engineering family, the Clarks - specifically Edwin and Latimer. They all had special interests in many areas of science as well as telegraph systems and they also worked with Brunel. Edwin Clark and James were both enthusiastic members of the Marlow Mutual Improvement Society too, which aimed to bring educational  lectures in reach of everyone. The Victory looking glass, and the naval swords belonging to both James and his father were on display at some of the Society events. And Edwin and James also shared a passion for photography. How interesting the photo albums of James Hammerton would no doubt be for us today. 

Later in life James was a cement and slate etc agent hence his latter description as a "retired commercial agent". 

 Retirement in Marlow 

By the time James came to Marlow with wife Jessy he had retired. They would seem to have had a comfortable life, with a live in servant in their Glade Road home. Jessy died in 1891, after which James was said to have somewhat curtailed his vigorous exercise regime. Perhaps he felt he was finally "getting on" a little. But when he was not physically able to walk too far, was this the end of meeting James around town? Not a bit of it. He had a wheeled chair hired so he could still go out and get his daily dose of fresh air. And when he wasn't doing that, he loved to sit out the front of the house  all day to chat to passers by. But even the redoubtable James could not last for ever and he died at home in his 96th year. (1898) 

Edith Hammerton is a busy lady 

Now we come to Edith Hammerton, daughter of James and Jessy. After her father death she moved to "Holmeleigh" or "Homeleigh"  in Beaumont Rise, which leads off Glade Rd. Both Edith and her mother can be found listed as helpers at church events, but it's after her parents death that Edith seems to have come into her own. After this Edith becomes a whirlwind of energy when it comes to helping the community. Whether she favoured long walks herself isn't recorded but she certainly knew her way to All Saints Church. Edith was a Sunday School teacher for a great number of years. She seems to have been a favourite with the children, who remembered her fondly many years later although they also remembered she was a stickler for politeness and decorous conduct. But what else could we expect from a Sunday school teacher. Edith was a frequent donor of goods and money to the Cottage hospital and was one of its lady visitors. These were generally speaking better off ladies who did the rounds of the sick when it was considered necessary, and also visited within the hospital. A different lady from amongst the committee or subscribers would fulfill the role each week, and they often made suggestions as to how improvements could be made to better support the need of the mainly poor patients. 

Edith could be found serving at parish teas, fundraising for various events, and hosting stalls at bazaars for every cause imaginable. She was also amongst the ladies who decorated the parish church for the Harvest festival. These decorations sometimes seem bewilderingly complex constructions of corn, bread, flowers and produce completely covering the alter etc. I wonder sometimes how the poor vicar made it through!  Works of art they surely were and it's a great shame that images of these ladies amazing creations have not survived. 

Her day job was as a dressmaker until she had earned enough to retire on "private means". Dressmaking seems the inevitable occupation in Marlow of better off unmarried woman who still needed an income to some degree. Edith worked from home but she also employed others to assist her. 

Edith Hammerton died in 1949 aged 92. 

*Did you know that if you go to Marlow Museum you can see a charming miniature kitchen presented by Edith? The accompanying plaque says that it had been in her family since 1796! Please check with the museum that it will be on display before your visit. 

Find out more about this lovely object here: Marlow Museum

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Related posts: 

Early residents of Beaumont Rise - (Edith's neighbours!) here

Latimer Clark here and Edwin Clark here

The mutual improvement society and Marlow Literary and Scientific Institute - both supported by James Hammerton - here

For other posts about Glade Rd or Beaumont Rise residents - see the street index here

Everyday life in the Marlow of Janes and Edith - here

To look for a specific person use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

Sources:

Marlow Directory and Almanack 1907 

Marlow Directory and Tourists Guide, 1903. 

Marlow Guide 1907. 

Mechanics Magazine, Register and Gazette, 1848 collected edition.  Knight and Lacey, 1848. 

Mechanics Magazine, Register and Gazette, 1849 collected edition.  Knight and Lacey, 1849.  

PCC will of James J Hamilton Hammerton "gunner of His Majesty's ship The Victory" proven 1828  PROB 11/1735/190, National Archives, Kew. 

Prescott, G. B. (1860). History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Telegraph. United States: Ticknor and Fields.

Bucks Herald 28th February 1891 

Hampshire Telegraph 4th June 1898

Henley and South Oxford Standard - 27th May 1898 

South Bucks Standard 29th October 1897, 29th May 1898, 29th September 1899, 24th October 1902, 30th November 1906. 

Kelly's Directory Of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxon 1883, 1911, 1920, 1939 by Kelly's Directory Limited.

England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N242-NFM : 14 July 2023), James Hamilton Hammerton, 1799.

England and Wales Census, 1861", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MP-3P3Q : Sat Mar 09 01:12:50 UTC 2024), Entry for Edith Hammerton and Ada Hammerton, 1861.

"England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVHB-K4XV : 4 September 2014),

Census transcripts from originals by Jane Pullinger, 1881 & 1891 with thanks. 

Edith E Hammerton, 1949; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

Leighton House, Glade Road, Marlow

The former Leighton House school, Great Marlow.  

In 1891 this is described as a boarding school for boys aged 10-16 years. It had 9 boarding pupils, though the school took day pupils too. On census night, mathematics teacher Mr M Jefferies was present along with a housekeeper and servant. The school was run by the Misses Curtis, sisters Martha and Alice, whose school started in a Marlow Bottom farmhouse before moving to Cambridge House, Cambridge Road and finally to Leighton House late in 1883 following the death of the elderly previous occupier Ellen Bennett. Alice Curtis died at Leighton House in 1893 but Maria  remained running the school until at least 1898. The Curtises offered a classical education but cricket and (unusually) football were available too. The older boys played in local amateur cups alongside adults and older youth teams. Their home ground was the meadow by the Railway Station, now built over, which was just a stone's throw from the school and used by many sporting teams. It was presumably the case that male teachers were also part of the team outside of junior competition as the school had a total of 15 pupils only in 1897 and some of these would have been too young to play against teens and adults.

 The school advertised in press** aimed at British subjects living overseas locations such as South Africa.  It was suggested that those who wished to provide an English education for their offspring would find that special care and attention was given to them at Marlow. 

The school was a successful one both academically and financially for the sisters. Maria Curtis often donated money from her profits to the local cottage hospital and to Holy Trinity Church in Marlow.

The goal of the boy pupils' academic studies was to prepare them for entry into the public schools and thus to university and the professions. In 1897 the South Bucks Standard reported that the local vicar had organised an essay writing competition for the boys on the subject of the "life of Queen Victoria"* The winner was Charles Smith of Rose Villa, Great Marlow. Charles was the son of Lawrence Smith and grandson of Reuben and Mary Smith all of whom there is a full post about here

In 1889 two less fortunate boys from the town, 11 year old Joseph James and 12 year old Henry Wheeler, were accused of stealing two pairs of boots from the school premises (Bucks Herald 23rd February 1889, British Library Archives). Henry Wheeler had the charges against him dismissed for want of evidence. But Joseph was given 4 lashes from a birch rod and labelled in court a "bad, artful boy". He was the son of James and Charlotte James. He appears with them on the 1881 census in Queens Road.

Sometimes during the Summer holidays the house was let to tourists. Many other Glade Road homes were put to the same use at that time.

By 1900 Leighton House was a fully residential property occupied by George Tweedie. In 1904 it was Marlow bank manager Percy Quayles in residence, though he left that year to manage a Hampshire branch.

In 1910 Ernest and Mrs Williams lived it seems not altogether happily in the house. He was arrested for being roaring drunk in Beaumont Rise after his wife refused him entry into their home. A few weeks later the contents of the house were forcibly put up for sale in distress of rent - polished brass bedsteads and fine carpets included -  which doesn't seem to bode well for the continued state of their marriage either. It took multiple sales to clear things.  

Between at least 1915 and 1938 Leighton House was home, let's hope more happily, to solicitor Leonard Nash, his wife Julia and their family who had moved there from "Westwood" in Institute Road. Leonard and Julia (nee Syrett) had married Loudwater, Bucks in 1905.

Being close to the railway station made Glade Road good for holiday rentals as said above but it also made the residents the first victims of travelling salesman who arrived in town that way. Leonard Nash sued a travelling china repairer in 1915 for doing more harm than good to a vase Leonard entrusted to him!

In 1925 Leonard bought for £1300 some 29 acres of land off Newtown Road, a canny piece of work as this was an area of Marlow where houses were being rapidly thrown up. He also is likely the L.R Nash who bought the house Effra in Beaumont Rise in the 1920s.

Related posts:

To find out more about the historic residents of other Glade Road properties in Marlow see this index.

Listing of 72 plus Marlow schools of yesteryear here

Education related posts and everyday life in old Great Marlow here

To find every mention of an individual here use the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down. 

 

Photo by Kathryn Day. Post researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

*edition 24th December. Copy at the British Library. Accessed via the British Newspaper Archive.

**For examples of the schools advertising at expatriates see for example The African Critic 30th November 1895. 

.

Emma and Jeremiah Harding

Updated January 2024

Emma Macklin married Jeremiah Harding in 1845. Both had been living prior to that in Dean Street Marlow and the area adjacent to that street, Marefield, was the couple's home in 1851.

As a young man Jeremiah was a farm worker but he spent most of his life involved in the gardening trade. On the 1861 census he was a gardener's labourer but by 1870 he was the head gardener to Charlotte Cocks at The Glade in Glade Road Marlow. We know this because in that capacity he charged a lad with stealing apples from the garden. Perpetrator John Vernon was fined 1 shilling plus costs for the offence.

On the 1861 census Emma was given as an embroiderer. This was a tough year for the couple as in it they suffered the death of their eleven year old son James. They were living by then at Trinity Cottages. These were next to Holy Trinity church in what was then Gun Lane, now Trinity Road. They still exist but I am uncertain as to whether they are still collectively named Trinity Cottages. Jeremiah later became the sexton of Holy Trinity church. He and Emma lived in their cottage for the rest of their respective lives. 

In 1871 Emma was censused as a charwoman but later returned to needlework. Jeremiah must have retired from his role at the Glade because in the South Bucks Free Press 25th July 1879 he advertised for one or two days a week gardening or lawn mowing work.

In 1893 went on holiday to London for a week having not been away from home in 25 years. It isn't clear if Emma accompanied him. He sent in an account of his trip to the South Bucks Standard (26th August issue, British Library Archives). They printed it but seem to tease him a little by imitating his local dialectical speech in their title "A Marlowman's Visit to Lunnon". Jeremiah's account is an absolute delight in the way it gives us a window into what was a tourist attraction in those days. He arrived by train and on his first day walked around, sampled travel by Underground and went to see the pub where the week before a barmaid had been shot before visiting a too hot and stuffy music hall. Later in the week he managed a glimpse of the Tichbourne Claimant at Westminster Hall. At Madame Tussauds he was impressed by the Room Of Horrors. He also managed to pack in visits to Westminister Abbey, the National Gallery, Regents Park Zoo, the Albert Memorial, the South Kensington Museum, Horseguards, Lambeth Palace, Hyde Park, St Paul's Cathedral and the Thames Tunnel and ride various trams, river boats and overland trains. Not only that but Jeremiah took a train to Dover where he saw the sea for the first time, confirming it did indeed taste salty and getting his feet wet from an unexpected wave. Within a day of arriving in London he had been noticed as being obviously "up from the country" which reminds us that the Buckinghamshire accent would have been then strong and noticeable and that customs of dress and behaviour could be very different between even people of the same class who lived in Marlow and those from the cities.

Jeremiah died at Trinity Cottages in 1899. His South Bucks Standard obituary said that he had never recovered from the death of his wife the year before. The same obituary said that one of the couple's sons had emigrated to New Zealand. It is possible the article meant Australia as their son Robert (possibly Richard) certainly migrated there. But perhaps they also had a son who went to NZ. Their son in Australia was the curator of the Botanic Gardens at "Toowoomba" as it was described in 1887.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day. 

Biography of Charlotte Cocks plus a photo of The Glade today here

See the Person Index in the top drop down menu for all mentions of a person on this blog. More than 4000 people get a mention. 

More Gun Lane related posts can be found on this index

©Marlow Ancestors.

Sources:

GRO marriage and death indexes on the GRO website accessed October 2020.

Obitury = South Bucks Standard, copy held at the British Library. Accessed via the BNA October 2020.

England and Wales Census from Familysearch website run by the LDS (Intellectual Reserve Inc) accessed September 2020.

The Limes, Glade Road

The house immediately after the Baptist Chapel in Glade Road, if walking away from the railway station. On the side of the building a large "built 1884" plaque is unmistakable so it was erected the same year as the Baptist Chapel. A house on the other side of the road now called "Lime House" [number 1] is not the historic "The Limes".

Historic occupiers I can identify:

1890-91 John and Mrs Lily Mentor. John's tragic death by suicide is examined in Kathryn's post here.

1896 as summer renters and 1897-99 as actual residents= Conrad Dressler, sculptor and potter and his wife. Conrad was a member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibitor's Society. He operated later from Medmenham Pottery at Marlow Common. Conrad and his wife moved to live nearer to it at Bovingdon Green. To read about trouble Conrad got into see " Artists In Marlow History" here and a full post about his pottery at Marlow Common here

1899 - Mrs Greenwood. 

1900= house is again a seasonal holiday let.

1908= Alice and Henry Gray. This couple skipped about a bit in Glade Road, occupying various properties. Henry bought Clifton's stores grocery and off licence shop in the High Street early in 1902. This was on the corner of Institute Road. He had previously been manager of a similar shop in Staines but was of Marlow birth. His brother James was a mortgage broker / insurance agent based in the Old Vicarage in the High Street who soon came into the grocery business with Henry too.

1911-24 Mrs Moore.

Our blog focuses on Pre 1930s Marlow People.

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

Sources Included:

Mapping the practice of sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951. University of Glasgow and HATII. http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk .Accessed 23rd October 2021.

South Bucks Standard 17th April 1891 and 22nd May 1896. British Library Archives copies.

Kelly's Directory of Bucks 1911 and 1924. Kelly's Directories Limited.

Clifton Villa, Glade Road and the Wells Family

The Wells family were one of the first to settle in Glade Road Marlow, arriving in Clifton Villa by 1881.

Mark the father was a corn merchant and baker, retiring shortly after the family went into residence there. He seems to have maintained ownership of his old premises and the house that went with them though he did not run the business there. He would not have had a lot of rest in retirement. Mark was one of the Overseers of the poor and a director of both the Marlow Gas Company and the Buckinghamshire Chair Company. He was also a shareholder in the Great Marlow Railway Company and an active fundraiser for Marlow Hospital. Mark died in 1909 in his 79th year.

The mother in the family Sarah Elizabeth also raised money for the hospital and gifted the patients books in 1911 (Bucks Herald 29th April 1911, British Library Archive accessed November 2020). As a widow she attended meetings of the National Service League in Marlow an organization campaigning for the introduction for men of compulsory National Service in the army so Britain would not be left vulnerable to attack. This organisation was more than usually popular in Marlow (See for instance South Bucks Standard 15th April 1911, British Library Archives). The Wikipedia article on it says that it was largely supported by right wingers. This is interesting as Mark Wells was a Liberal. Perhaps there were a few heated conversations over the breakfast table while Mark was still alive! Sarah died in 1918.

The couples three daughters Marion and Emily, who did not marry, and Harriet (who married James Luck of Leighton Buzzard) all lived at Clifton Villa as adults with their parents for at least a while.

Marion died in 1924.

More families of Glade Road can be found under the "Specific Shops, Streets ...etc" option on the menu. All mentions of someone on the blog can be found on the Person Index.

In my research I also used census data transcribed by me from microfilm. Also of use to me was the GRO death registration index on the GRO website, accessed November 2020.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to reuse this post for family and local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here. 

Unpleasant Odours And Unseemly Sights - Ebenezer and Baptist Chapels, Marlow

The Baptist Church in Glade Road is not the first baptist place of worship to have existed in Marlow. The move to Glade Road was not without controversy as you will see below! 

It is hard to pinpoint the exact first places of Baptist worship within the town. We know they were active here for at least 20 years before they erected their first little chapel in Dean Street. They held their "anniversary" meetings outside, in the "Crown Close" in the 1830's - this is referring to the field later usually called Crown Meadow, now Riley Recreation Ground. Open air preaching wasn't unusual at the time but no doubt they would try and hire some indoor accomodation if funds and numbers allowed. We do know that the chapel erected in Dean Street in 1855, was consistently called their first "proper" place of worship in Marlow. 

Dean Street was a populous and working class area of town. The Baptist chapel, or Ebenezer Chapel as it was often known, was small with 150 sittings. Work began on it in 1855 and it was opened in the late summer of the following year. It was later said the congregation quickly realised the limitations of the site they had chosen, as the chapel was set back from the road in a location known as Providence Place, where an infant school could also be found. It was, so the complaints went, quite out of sight. But no doubt at the time the small congregation chose the best site they could afford. Above the door was the stern words to "Stand by the right with all thy might". 

The man who was regarded as largely responsible for bringing the Baptist mission to Marlow was builder, insurance agent and tax assessor/collector William Crake* of Chapel Street. It was he who actually built the Dean Street chapel. 

They then began their work amongst the poorer citizens of Marlow. In 1859 they began offering lectures for "the working classes" on various subjects. Naturally most of these had a religious or moral theme but this was not exclusively so. Another focus of their work was to encourage abstinence from alcohol. Dean Street was an area full of public houses and beer shops so this was not the easiest of tasks. Many of the Baptists such as William Crake mentioned above were life long abstainers. The first anniversary of the Sunday School or Sabbath School as it was usually known, saw special services in the chapel. It was so crowded that a platform was erected "on top of the pews" to accommodate more worshippers. At this event, a brick and stone model of the Ebenezer Chapel was exhibited. It had been created by one of the talented teachers there. The success of the school had "exceeded the most sanguine expectations". 

In 1865 the chapel was closed for several months so that a new Sunday school room could be built and other repairs and improvements could be completed. It was repainted too. Clearly the congregation invested in the site because they expected to stay there for the foreseeable future. 

 In the 1880's the church began to consider a new home. They felt they needed more space and there was no further room to expand where they were. Glade Road was an area undergoing a lot of development at the time and there was a number of empty plots to choose from. They secured the current site for £195 in 1884 and Marlow builder Arthur Corby won the tender to erect the new chapel at a cost of £950. The building committee consisted of Rev John Bray who came to Marlow from Fyfield in 1883, D Clarke of High Wycombe, and Marlow men John Birdseye, William Crake, W Piercy, and J Chilton. The architect was Maidenhead's C A Wardy. 

Work progressed quickly. The foundation stone was laid in March 1884, and the building was officially opened in July of the same year. But the eager worshippers began to use the site when the building was not even complete. The first services were held there in April 1884. This keenness to leave Dean Street was interpreted in various ways. Some saw it as eagerness and pride in what their fundraising had achieved in a short time. Others thought the haste indecent, and that the chapel was abandoning it's poor neighbourhood for a more salubrious one. The reporter in the Maidenhead Advertiser said he was himself not at all surprised in their hurry to "be quit of the unpleasant odours and unseemly sights of Dean Street" in favour of a well to do location that would allow worshippers to approach "their tabernacle through a more genial and healthy atmosphere." Unfortunately for the residents of Dean Street, moving to less crowded and healthier parts of town was a distant dream. Was this criticism fair? The Baptists did not give up working with the poor in Marlow. The move allowed them to have more room for the Sunday school amongst other things. But to some, the move was still an admission of failure. The same local reporter mentioned above said that the Baptists had failed to attract many worshippers from the Dean Street area despite being based in its midst so they might as well make room for another group like the Salvation Army more "fitted" for the work. The Salvation Army did indeed become active in Marlow shortly afterwards, and they did host many open air meetings in Dean Street and nearby. 

Despite the controversy, most believed the new building was at least an attractive addition to the town. A special service to open it was conducted by the Rev W Lewis of St Albans. It looks different now to then as the fascia was rebuilt in 1932. The new Sunday school did well, with the youngsters enjoying of course an annual outing. Burnham Beeches was a perennially favourite destination. In 1889 the children had a merry time playing sports and games at Bencombe Farm in Marlow Bottom. The winners of several races came away with "useful" prizes. This was followed by a grand tea at the farm. 

The old chapel in Providence Place, Dean Street is long demolished but it was used by the Parish Church as a Mission Room after the Baptists left. They previously had used a converted cottage. You can read more about the mission rooms here

The Glade Road chapel is still in use by the Baptist congregation.  

Related Posts:

*Biography of William Crake here

For more on Dean Street or Glade Road see the menu here.

Similar posts to this can also be found under Church Related menu here

All mentions of a person on this blog are listed on the Person Index on the top drop down menu. There are 6,000 people listed there as of March 2023. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Sources:

The Church: Volume 1-8, 1883. 

Reading Mercury 6 July 1839, 23 August 1856, 9 February 1859, 3 November 1883,12 July 1884, all at British Library Archive and accessed via the BNA. 

1883 and 1939 Kelly's Directory (Kelly's Directories Ltd)

©Marlow Ancestors 

 

Nellie Creswell

Ellen Creswell, known as Nellie, was one of the Marlow ladies who pioneered cycling in the town for female riders and competitive rowing for local women too.

Born in 1867 to Eliza and Henry Creswell, Nellie spent her early years in the Cross Keys pub in the town as her father was the landlord there. He retired in her late childhood and the family eventually moved to a house called The Ferns in Glade Road. This is still there (number 17) but does not bear the name. Not to be confused with The Ferns, Little Marlow.

She not only served as one of the committee members of the Cycling club, the only known Victorian woman to do so in Marlow, but became the club's Vice Captain. She helped organise and competed in club competitions which tested speed or agility on a bicycle, not infrequently beating all of the men in mixed events. She did it in long skirts too. While a few women in England cycled in pantaloons or rational dress at that time Nellie made it clear she did not support club membership for women that dressed that way (or for men with unconventional cycling dress).

The Marlow club went out on group rides but Nellie pedalled off on her own out of town too, something which many female cyclists did not yet feel comfortable doing in the Victorian age. Nellie was fined 10 shillings by the Henley Magistrates for riding on the footpath on one such trip in 1898 [Henley Advertiser 5th March 1898].

Nellie also, by 1892, was rowing for Marlow at the Regatta in the women's team events.

There was a strong sporting tradition in the Marlow Creswell family. Her uncle Augustus was one of the best local male rowers and her brother George played for Marlow F.C. in it's early days as well as the more famous Everton. George's premature death by way of blood poisoning in 1904 devastated the Creswell family. Nellie had acted as bridesmaid at his wedding to Catherine (Kate) Chamberlain of Bisham.

Nellie herself did not marry but remained living in her parental home in Glade Road with her parents and then after their deaths on her own. She is buried with her parents in All Saints churchyard in Marlow. Her date of death is indecipherable but from other sources we know it was no earlier than 1928.

The son of her brother George, also called George, died in the First World War. Nellie apparently was the beneficiary of his estate. He had lived with her at The Ferns, Glade Road for most of his life. I am uncertain what happened to his mother Catherine after she became a widow.

At All Saints can be found this grave of Nellie (Ellen) and her parents - "In loving memory of my dear parents - Eliza Ann Creswell d Jan 25 1903 aged 73 and Henry Creswell d. June 9th 1913 age 79 years. [Henry was the son of George and Charlotte Creswell of The Swan and would later run The Cross Keys for a few years himself]

Rear of the grave: Also Ellen Creswell (Nellie). Inscription currently obscured by greenery. 

All mentions of any person on this blog can be found under the Person Index. There are plenty of Creswell / Cresswells! More posts about people of Glade Road or any other street can be found indexed here. More grave photos and transcriptions indexed here. 

You can find out more about the early history of cycling in the town in Kathryn's post here

Other posts you might like: "Groundbreaking women in Marlow History" here.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day with additional research by Kathryn Day.

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

Shamrock Cottage

Number 7 Glade Road today. Now renamed.

Given the Shamrock name is this Marlow's luckiest address?

Maybe so!

On 18th March 1896, Emma Hubbard died at her home there at the age of 98. [She was baptised at Cookham in June 1797]. A great age to reach at any time but especially lucky to achieve for a woman born in the 1700s. Emma was the widow of William Hubbard originally of Pinkney's Green. The couple had no children.

He was a corn merchant / insurance agent and general business man. The couple moved about a considerable amount during their married life and Emma made quite a few moves herself as a widow.

The local news obituary of Emma stated that she was a cheerful woman with a sharp memory till the end of her life. It explained too that she was the daughter of farmer John Westbrook and was born on Spencer's Farm, Maidenhead. This was located on the road to Cookham. The baptism record shows her mother to be an Ann. 

John Westbrook was a gentleman farmer holding not only Spencer's Farm but several others nearby.

The newspaper obituary also said that Emma was a relative of Richard Westbrook who once ran the Crown in Marlow. I haven't investigated whether this is accurate. The pub business was in the family- Emma's older brother John ran the Saracen's Head in Beaconsfield from circa 1841 until he sold up in 1848.

She came to Marlow in the 1870s to live with her brother John having previously lived as a widow in Reading with her married sister Sarah Micklem and Sarah's husband the magistrate Edward Micklem. It was after John Westbrook's death in 1877 that she moved to Shamrock Cottage. Accompanying her was her niece Eliza as a paid companion, presumably the "Miss Westbrook ". Emma and Eliza had arrived in Glade Road by the time of the 1881 census. By 1891 the two had added a 15 year old live in servant to the household, Dora. I found Dora's last name hard to read- Mare? Emma was living on her own means. Her husband's financial affairs seem to have been a bit up and down, and her dad made her sister Caroline his only heir but Glade Road was a moderately expensive address so Emma was either frugal or a shrewd investor of what she had.

What of Eliza Westbrook her paid companion? Well perhaps some of that lucky shamrock charm had rubbed on her too as she lived to at least the age of 101! She moved away from the cottage at some point between 1903 and 1911. By 1939 she lived at number 8 Station Road Marlow.

Eliza was a regular donator of goods like clothing to the patients of the Cottage Hospital in Glade Road. Her aunt Emma used to donate gifts to children in Buck's workhouses so theirs was a kind household.

William Fisher was the resident of Shamrock Cottage by 1911 and until at least 1924. More on him in future.

For more residents of specific houses in Glade Road, Marlow see on the menu under "Specific Shops, Streets....ETC".

All mentions of any individual on the blog can be found on the Person Index.

*New content is currently uploaded daily*

Sources included:

Bucks Herald 28th March 1896. South Bucks Standard March 1896. British Library Archives.

Censuses my transcription from microfilm.

Kelly's Directory of Bucks 1911, 1915 and 1924. Kelly's Directories Limited. 

"England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NY1S-177 : 21 September 2020), Emma Westbrook, 1797.

GRO death registrations, GRO.

Will John Westbrook, 1839. National Archives, Kew. Transcribed by me.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use the contents of this post for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here.

A History Of Marlow Allotments

It's hard to know the date the first allotments in the modern sense arrived in Marlow as all the first ones were privately rather than council owned and they tended to be small scale. Records don't really exist for the establishment of these couple of acre concerns. But one of the first, and the oldest still existing, is the Parish allotments off Munday Dean Lane, aka the Workhouse Field allotments. This is part of land known as "the Berwicks" for hundreds of years, and believed to be part of an historic charitable bequest. 

Although laws had been enacted in the times of George III and William IV to empower churchwardens and overseers of the poor for example to take over parish land for use by the labouring poor, this did not seem to happen in Marlow. The 1882 Allotment Extension act tried to clarify and strengthen the earlier acts, and this was followed by the 1887 Allotments Act that compelled authorities to provide land for allotments were demand was felt. The parish in Marlow just pipped the last act. In 1886 the Vicar and churchwardens hatched a plan to turn the field adjacent to the former workhouse into allotments. In February they went to the 6 acre field to divide it into 41 plots (or 44, depending on who you believe). They made an occasion of it and some of the future allotment holders went along to witness the division. The annual rent would be 6d a pole, with most plots 20 poles in size. This was regarded as an "exceedingly low" rent at the time. The number of applicants had exceeded the number of plots. The Churchwardens were said to be "extremely satisfied" with their effort. Although mention is made later of the Vicar (Rev Fearon) wondering whether any other Parish land could also be turned into allotments, the plan was shelved despite the success of the workhouse field site. Probably this was because there was a big increase in privately owned allotment grounds in the next few years. The tenants of all of these had to be artisans or labourers. The potential gardeners were required to swear to their status, and there was clearly some quibbling about who exactly was a member of that group. In 1901 the agreement was worded to say access to a plot at the Parish allotments was restricted to the "labouring poor." At meeting of parish council that year, the question was raised as to whether the several parish councillors who rented plots there really qualified under that condition. It does seem doubtful that they would have classed themselves as either poor or labourers under other circumstances considering they were business owners. But the parish council said no favouritism had been shown. 

The next large scale allotment that is still with us today was at the area known as Hanging Hill off Prospect Road. (From 1886/7) This was owned by Mr Micklem who must have seen the success of the nearby Parish Allotments, and thought he could put his own large field to profitable use in the same way. He would also charge 6d a pole. He was not wrong about the demand for more plots, as every one was snapped up within days of Mr Micklem announcing his intentions. By 1890, the Board of Agriculture reported the fact there were 217 allotment plots in Marlow across all sites. 

Around this time small areas off Glade Road were also let as allotments. These were on the other side to Foxes Piece and were also run as a business. Some only had 1-2 plots. They quickly earned the reputation for charging high rents for indifferent ground. Foxes Piece allotments, owned by large scale landowner General Owen Williams, started in December 1889. He had previously let the land to a local farmer, but allotment provision were regarded as a better way to earn money. They also undercut the Glade Road neighbours - at first! All of these allotments could be described as "the Glade Road allotment gardens" or the Marlow Fields allotments so it can be hard to split the history of the sites. The stated size of Owen William's Foxes Piece actually let as allotments varied hugely. The "other" site, largely forgotten now, on the east side of Glade Rd belonged for many years to Robert Hammond Chambers, who also owned the long vanished "Marefield Allotments" for a while. The latter was a 4 acre site also described as located "in Dean Street opposite the Bank beerhouse". It was actually just beyond Berwick Close as you head down Berwick Road towards Munday Dean. Other very small sites were located off New Town Road, the largest of which was Mrs Marshall's measuring just over an acre. 

Poor labourer, high rents

Hammond Chambers was a controversial land lord for the allotment holders. He charged 10d a pole which was described as an extremely high price. (1895) He was not the only private owner of allotment land to charge this level of rent however. A letter to the local press signed "a working man" complained at these high charges in Marlow. He had been told that as some plot holders defaulted on their rent, the remaining ones had to be made to pay in order to make the sites profitable. Charitable enterprise they were not. Our letter writer complained that Mr Dorsett had promised to act on the high rents when he was up for election as a councillor but nothing visible had been done. The following month, the Marlow Parish Council tried to address the problem. They wrote to both of the Glade Road allotments owners who were now charging the same "unacceptable" 10d a pole rent. While Owen Williams agreed to reduce the rent back to 6d, the reply recieved from the agents acting on behalf of Hammond Chambers was "unsatisfactory." It was a landlords market it seems. In this year, 54 acres were under cultivation in Marlow as allotments. The cheapest plots were 4d a pole. 

The light fingered and quick fisted

The variety of vegetables and fruit on offer at the allotments proved a tempting sight to some of the lighter fingered Marlow residents. For example, two ladies recieved a 5s fine each for helping themselves to turnip tops at Foxes Piece in 1892. (Turnip tops were often eaten at this time, and were also sold as "spring greens".)

There are reports of rival plot holders coming to blows. Some disputes with petty beginnings ended up in court. In 1900 George Boddy, a labourer from Eton Place and Hanging Hill plot holder, found himself before the magistrates bench for pulling up his allotment neighbours John Dormer's broccoli plants. John had made a path across his plot which other people had also began to use. He turned a blind eye until some of those wandered off the path and trampled his crops. He therefore decided to dig up the path and plant some broccoli where it had been. George said he thought path was a shared one and objected. He was heard to threaten to pull up the new plants so when they were indeed destroyed, he was summoned. As no serious harm was done, George escaped a fine but was made to pay 5s 6d costs. 

The problem with pigs

Pig keeping was a problematic occupation in Marlow. The various parish officers responsible for dealing with nuisances often had to deal with complaints about people erecting a pigsty against a house, not necessarily their own! At the time, pig keeping was allowed at both the Glade Road allotment gardens and at Hanging Hill and Marefield. As Glade Road was increasingly developed for middle class housing, the presence of the pigs became a little contentious. The medical officer of Marlow Urban District Council braved a visit to the sites after an avalanche of complaints in 1897. He went on a warm day in July and could not disagree that the local residents had a just cause for complaint after experiencing the smell from the manure first hand. (He counted an incredible 157 pigs on the Glade Road sites and 73 at Hanging Hill). The poorly constructed styes with no proper bases or drainage were ordered to be improved or taken down. But the problem just sprang up again elsewhere! In the meantime, Glade Road residents hoped for a favourable wind in the opposite direction. 

Chicken and pigeons could also be kept at most of the allotments. The former were a frequent target of thefts. In 1900 several fowls were stolen from the Glade Road allotment of Spittal Street butcher Thomas Carter. Baker Henry Sawyer of Little Marlow was found guilty of this theft along with a similar one in Wycombe Road. His punishment? 14 days imprisonment with hard labour. 

Allotments, a tonic for the working man. 

Allotment gardening was regarded as a wholesome activity that would encourage the poor to be industrious - a well meant if misplaced thought when it concerned manual labourers who already knew the meaning of hard work all too well. Classes for allotment produce were introduced into local horticultural shows with cash prizes on offer. Some classess recieved no entries however and so these particular ones were abandoned. It's hard to know why some classes were not supported, but perhaps the allotment holders could just not afford to pay the entry fee required to submit veg in all the classes they would have liked to. Competing for different allotment prizes clearly bought a lot of fun and pride for others. Another idea to encourage the gardeners was to hold lectures on relevant subjects, sometimes on the allotment grounds themselves. A large number of working men attended lectures organised by the Marlow Technical Education Centre at one of the Glade Road allotments in 1894. They had secured Richard Dean, a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society to give talks on how to make allotment gardening profitable. He spoke of the striving to produce better and better crops that could be encouraged by some friendly rivalry if the plot holders could organise their own show and horticultural society. They decided to do just that. 

Later history

The 1908 Allotment Act acknowledged that many local authorities had dodged earlier requirements to provide land for allotments where demand existed so it made provisions more explicit and extensive. In Marlow a committee was formed, meeting in the Institute, to look into the issue of whether more allotments needed to be provided. They had received many letters asking for more plots to be made available. They decided to investigate who the people were making these requests and whether "the demand was genuine." Perhaps they thought a landowner hoping to flog some land to the council was writing fake letters? Unfortunately it was up to the Parish Council to police themselves in regard to this vetting and however many letters were sent to them asking for plots, they always decided the need for more allotments was not sufficiently demonstrated. To be fair to the council they said not everyone replied to their letters asking the wanna be allotmenteers to come to a meeting to state their case. The fact this was going to be held on a work day when there was no paid time off probably had something to do with that. However, the Parish Council report on the land then let as allotments is interesting. Hanging Hill, Foxes Piece, Marefield and Glade Rd allotments were all still in operation. Potential future sites were identified off  New Town, Little Marlow and Dedmere roads. 120 people again wrote to the council in 1910 asking for more allotments, and again the request was ignored. No doubt this was partially sparked by Foxes Piece going up for sale. Initially knocked down unsold, it did eventually find a buyer in Marlow Urban District Council chairman John Langley. He paid £1,300 for 23 acres - some of which was not in horticultural use at the time. He did however continue to allow some of the site to remain as allotments. Some of this land would a few years later be donated to the town for the building of Marlow's second Cottage Hospital. 

This blog deals with events up to 1920's but I will just add that in 1939 the Marlow Urban District Council wrote to the  Minister of Health and to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries for sanction to acquire some land at Foxes Piece for use as allotments at a cost of £1,300. The following year mention is made of the acquisition of the "playing field known as Foxes Piece" for £800. Part of the motivation for the extended playing field provision was the influx of war time evacuees in Marlow. This part continued in use as playing fields for a while before the building of Foxes Piece First School 1954-56. The allotments remain, not as large as they once were of course.

Related posts

Where your gardener ancestor worked: here

Marlow heroes Bonny & Corby, related to Hanging Hill here

History of Foxes Piece area - here

General Marlow history posts: here

To find all mention of your ancestor here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There is currently over 6,000 people in there.  To find other posts about Glade Rd, see the Specific Shops, Streets etc index in the same menu. 

Researched and written by Kathryn Day 

Sources:

Hall, Thomas H. The Law of Allotments - being a treatise on the law relating to the allotment of land for the labouring poor (Longmans, Green and Co, 1886)

Local newspapers including:

Reading Mercury 11 November 1939, Bucks Herald 13 February 1886, 10 February 1933, Maidenhead Advertiser 17 December 1886, South Bucks Standard July 13 & 26 September 1894, 20 March 1913. All copies at British Library. 

Board of Agriculture report into allotment cultivation at Marlow 1890.

©Marlow Ancestors

Don't Mess With Matron Part Two

           The Glade Road site.

This post is a continuation of a history of the first Cottage Hospital. Part one here.

 Problems mount at the hospital 

The site at Cambridge House was considered likely to be a quiet one when the hospital first opened. It was not quite to be. Some open ground to the rear of the hospital was used frequently as a place for children to play football but this was preferable to it's use by "delinquents" who adopted the site in the mid 1890's. They were said to throw stones and break windows although the hospital itself escaped their specific attention. Police began to keep a close eye on the area and a number of boys were rounded up and sent before the magistrates mostly to receive small fines and vigorous telling offs. Three boys playing football in Eton Place in 1895 were especially censured because their actions could have caused "considerable discomfort" to patients in the nearby hospital. Richard Engelfield, Arthur Rockett (Rockell?) and James Dormer recieved 1s fines each. To be fair to the boys, neither Riley Recreation ground or Higginson Park were yet open to the public. Then there was the fair and also steam organs, travelling theatres and roundabouts that turned up in what is now Riley Recreation Ground at other times. 

Give us space! 

The improvements in 1894/5 cost £200 and added a new operating room, a new ward and two W.C's. The narrowness of the stairs, passage and landing had been partially eased by widening all 3. But the stairs were still steep and added much to the exhausting  nature of the work. This was not just true for the Matron Mary Cole, but the mostly unnamed servant and charwoman who toiled up and down dozens of times a day.  The wages for the general servant were described as good for a "really trustworthy person" in 1894, but the frequency of adverts appearing for this role suggests it was hard even by the standards of domestic service, good pay or no. 

The last years

In 1908, Nurse Cole was again working alone. Another probationer had come and gone. It was said the assistant nurses did not get enough free time, to which the hospital replied that Cole sacrificed her own days off so often that she could scarcely give any more time to allow the nurses more leisure. They praised Cole's strict economy that saved every possible penny. She could do no more. 

The hospital felt cramped, the stairs were steep and Dr Dunbar Dickson, one of the hospital surgeons in regular attendance, thought the sanitary arrangements totally inadequate. So in 1911 a committee was formed to consider potential sites for a brand new more commodius building. An area of Glade Road let as allotments and belonging to John Langley chairman of the Marlow Urban District Council was considered the most suitable spot. Mr Langley offered to sell the land at a favourable price, but later offered the site entirely for free, providing building work was started within a year. Alternatively he would offer a £250 donation if they prefered another site. 

Architect Mr G Berkeley Willis A R.I.B.A, a local man, was asked to draw up plans which were approved. Estimated cost £2,400. But the Charity Commission needed to investigate the plans for affordability and because of the deed of trust giving the Cambridge Road building to the hospital specified it had to be used for that purpose. The charity investigation took some time and I will spare you the details! The upshot is the plans were approved, but with 8 beds, revised down from 12. 

The Charity Commission had visited the old hospital and didn't consider it practical to make any further improvements or extensions there. The road outside was considered busy (and noisy), and the arrangement of wards over two floors inconvenient. Mr F.O Wethered who had initially supported the hospital move, changed his mind. He commissioned an architect to draw up plans to adapt the existing site, at the cost of £600-700, supported by some of the other subscribers. This would provide a new staircase, and put all the wards on the same floor. He also thought if the hospital would amalgamate with the Provident Nursing Association, more home visits would be possible, reducing the number of those who needed admitting to hospital in the first place. But those in favour of the move said the new site would be much more versatile as it allowed for expansion as well as being quieter and healthier. And they had also raised a lot of funds. With arguements going back and forth, the staff of the old  hospital had had enough and issued an ultimatum. They gave notice that should the plans come to nothing, they would "with deep regret, be obliged to sever their connection with the hospital". Finally the hospital went ahead. 

A last rush of fundraising saw a wide range of events including the popular hospital parades by the local Friendly Societies joined by the Marlow Town and Salvation Army bands. The 1912 one saw 1,000 people attend the open air service at Court Garden at the conclusion of the march. (The parade started at Star Meadow off Wycombe Road at 2pm and went along Chapel Street, Dean Street, Cambridge Rd, Oxford Rd, Quoiting Square, High Street and Glade Rd. A star attraction was a Wethered brewery vehicle converted into a hospital scene with master F Nicholls as the patient.)

The new hospital would have two wards, one male and female, each with 3 beds. The other 2 beds were to be in single person wards, to allow for isolation of the infectious. And of course there would be an operating theatre and an outpatient department. It was opened by General Higginson in August 1915. As this was obviously war time, the trustees  were empowered to place the building at the disposal of the army authorities should the need arrive. Cambridge House was also placed at the authorities disposal. After the War it was noted that the new buildings design had allowed the hospital to run at full capacity during the war, managed by just the Matron and a probationer with the able assistance of  a cook and servant. Of course this is the staff levels that tended to run the old hospital at full capacity too, but with fewer stairs and corners to clean we can hope it was a less exhausting business! 

Matron Mary Cole would not make the journey to the new site. Once the hospital had secured it's future, she resigned, her health having suffered due to the burden of her workload. She had given 25 years unrelenting dedication to her work in Marlow. 

The work of Nurse Cole or Sister Cole (either title of which was used at the time to refer to her) must have saved dozens of lives, alongside the surgeons, servants and nurses working with her. And by helping the injured breadwinner avoid permanent disability they helped still more families avoid destitution. 

Related Posts

Biography of Edward Riley here

Biography of hospital surgeon Dr John Dunbar Dickson here

Call the Apothecary here

Marlow Hero Nurse Cassidy here

Matron Mary Cole here

Benjamin Atkinson, surgeon here

Midwife Sarah Price here

Some of the patients treated at the hospital here

A full list of medical related posts can be found under the general history option on the top drop down menu. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

©Marlow Ancestors.

Many Female Ironmongers

 There was an ironmongers in Marlow High Street [Great Marlow] when I was a very small child. Little did I realise then that the building had been used for that trade for well over 150 years by that time.

First known occupier of the premises was James Maclean in 1824. In 1833 his premises consisted of a house, shop, and garden with an annual value of £13. He married twice, the second time to Elizabeth who according to her obituary was born at Munday Dean Farm.

James was a brazier and tin plate worker as well as an ironmonger. He died in 1860 as an old (nearly or a little over 80) and "much respected inhabitant" of the town the Reading Mercury newspaper said.

His wife Elizabeth took over the shop full time. She was one of the first Marlow inhabitants to buy shares in the Great Marlow Railway Company which brought trains to the town.

In 1884 13 year old George Cook alias Payne was sentenced to 10 days hard labour for obtaining a knife from her by false pretences. The next year William Harrison got a month's hard labour for stealing eight pairs of gloves from her premises worth a shilling each. Presumably these were work gloves of some kind. 

Elizabeth was by then advanced in age and by 1888 her niece Susanna Goldswain was shop manager for her. Susanna had lived with her aunt and uncle for some years, probably always assisting in the business.

Elizabeth died in 1890 age 92. She, her husband James and niece Susanna are all memorialised on the same gravestone in the churchyard of All Saints, Marlow. 

Another female ironmonger was soon in the premises - widow Eliza Newman. What experience she had in ironmongery is uncertain, her husband Charles* had been a brewer's clerk at Wethered's Brewery further down the High Street before his premature death at the age of 48. Whether she was a fast learner or did have some kind of previous experience Eliza made a success of the shop in the few years she ran it before retiring to live in Glade Road with her son Charles Junior. It is noted that Eliza herself was behind the counter the majority of the time - she had not merely put her name to the business. While she retired from actively running the shop by the 1901 census the business continued as "Newman and Chalk". Eliza's daughter Mary had married gardener Sidney Chalk and he was now behind the counter. Sidney's and Mary's son Cyril was a prominent local history enthusiast .

Above, Eliza Newman's former premises. 

And in an ad from 1905. 

Sidney Chalk successfully sued the railway company in 1902 after he had a nasty fall at Bourne End Station on his way onto the Marlow train. The £95 damages were substantial for a trip fall at that time. The station was poorly lit and the carriage had pulled in, unusually, more than a foot from the platform without there being any warning to be careful given to passengers. It's surprising that no one else had an accident on the same gloomy evening! Sidney was on his way home from a Unionist political meeting in Slough at the time.

Eliza Newman died in 1906. The shop continued as an ironmongers for long afterwards.

*The mother of Charles was née Goldswain so that it is likely that the Maclean and Newman families were relatives at least of sorts.

Eliza Newman was née Haines. She was daughter of Elizabeth and James Haines of High Street Marlow. Her dad was a boat builder and engineer, who has a dedicated post here

Post written and researched by Charlotte Day.

To find all mentions of a person on this blog see the Person Index.

To see another historic ironmongers premises, see here.

You can find the historic occupiers of other shops and houses in Marlow by looking on the "Specific Shops, Streets Etc" option on the menu or under Pub Related for hotels, pubs, beer sellers and inns.

Some Sources:

Reading Mercury 28th Jan 1860. Bucks Herald 21st June 1890 and 1st February 1900.Buckingham Examiner 12th April 1884. Copies held at the British Library and accessed by me via the BNA April 2021.

Original property records held by my family and transcribed by me.

Census 1841-91. Transcribed by me from microfilm.

Marriage certificates.

GRO Death Registration Index. 

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to reuse this content for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that my sources and I remain credited. Thanks!

More Where in Marlow Was? Part 2

Avenel - house, Cromwell Gardens (see below) Advertised in 1909 as "away from motor dust and noise". Rent: £50 per annum. Built by May 1902.

Avonel - house, Station Road.

Baden Villa - Glade Road. 

Beaulieu - Glade Road, used as apartments. Mrs Emma Bonnett is one charmingly named landlady 1902-4. 

Beckett's Row/ Beckett Row - few cottages in Dean Street. 

Bloom Corner - farmhouse (or sometimes used as such), off Gossmore Lane. 1908 - "better known as the Riverwoods Estate."

Carson's Lane - described as located near the Hand and Flowers in 1883, it's probably Spinfield Lane or one leading off it. Carson owned Spinfield house. 

Coiting Place - not infrequent early spelling of Quoiting Place / Square

Eastwood - Institute Road

Eothen - house, Beaumont Rise

Gravel Pit House - Dean Street. The gravel pit was located in area between Berwick and Seymour Court Rds,  now filled with housing. 

Holland Road - still extant but a house that would be given this street address now may have been described as located simply in "New Town" in the past. 

Hospital Lane - Crown Lane, early alternative name. 

Ingledene - Claremont Road now, may be addressed as Claremont Gardens Estate in the past.  

Institute Rise - early name for Station Rise, used alongside Junction Road - the latter had however also been used for other developments.  For the full list of names that Station Rise and it's twin Beaufort Gardens have been known as see under Upper Station Rise in this list here.  NB although some residents of what we call Station Rise (then Lower Station Rise) used Institute Rise as an alternative name, it was more often used for what was then more usually known as Upper Station Rise or Beaufort Gardens as it is now called. 

Junction Road - Early name for Beaumont Rise.  It was however also used later for what is now Station Rise, in the early days of that street's development AND was in use for Claremont Road ditto before the name Claremont Road was officially adopted in 1901. 

Keswick House. High Street (No. 25 but numbering changed since then) and also another in Beaumont Rise.

Lily Cottage - Claremont Road, originally address given as New Road before the eventual official name of Claremont Road took off. NB New Road has been used for several newly laid out roads in Marlow on a temporary basis.  2. Glade Road. May in fact be the same as above, as Glade Road was given as address for many homes actually in nearby places in this era as it was a more established residential area, and development around it was more piecemeal.

Lilyville.  Dedmere Road. 

Marlow Lane - usually used for portion of Munday Dean Lane that's at Munday Dean itself. 

Merefleet / Mereflett- Beaumont Rise.

Myrtle Cottage- Beaumont Rise.

New Road Hill - brief use for Seymour Court hill, or modern Lane End road which becomes Seymour Court Rd town end. Recorded 1894, 1895. 

Oaks, The - Institute Road, appartments. 

Oaklea Cottage - West Street. 

Quarrydale Road - off Newtown Road. Address may also be given as New Town or Marlow Fields. 

Rossendale - Glade Road. Apartments and used for summer season lets.  

Spittal Lane - alternative name for Crown Lane mainly pre 1860's. 

Station Villas - Dedmere Road. Edwardian. On the same side as the station, the first group of terraced houses you pass after Station Approach when heading away from the town. 

St Joseph's  - house, Institute Road

St Peters Cottage - in Station Road, not St Peters Street. 

Sycamore House - house, opposite old Post Office in West Street used as a school for girls by Mrs Ann Winter 1860's and  private lodging house 1875- 1901, under Mr and Mrs Jacob Ransom, then as a shop 1902. See also The Sycamores. 

The Sycamores - house, near Marlow Lock. Often let to summer visitors. Not the same as Sycamore House but often confused with it. In Mill Rd now, but may be described as located at Thames Bank or on Thames Lawn in the past. 

Thornton House - Claremont Gardens

Valetta - Cambridge Road

 

The first part of Where in Marlow Was.. can be found here and parts no 3 here, no 4 here, Five here

Compiled by Charlotte Day with some research also by Kathryn Day.

*To find all mentions of a street or house you are interested in, see the drop down menu above for the Places index and Pub listings* 

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to reuse this research with credit to this blog and a link here. 

Cupper Family of Fair View Glade Road

 

Updated June 2025

I have always thought Fair View House in Glade Road Marlow to be so lovely with all the decorative metalwork so I decided to look into some of the house's former occupiers.

My attention was caught by the Cupper  family so here's a little portrait of them:

Arthur and Eliza Cupper moved to Marlow circa 1890. They were in Glade Road on the 1891 census and in the 1891 Marlow Directory and Almanack though not in Fair View. Arthur was a domestic coachman, just as he had been for years in London before that on the census but when the Directory was published he was listed as a boarding house keeper.

He and his wife married at St Margaret's Westminster in 1869. Arthur was originally from Bramfield, Suffolk [born 1840 to William and Harriet] while Eliza was a London born girl from a family of Sussex origin [nee Hoadley born circa 1850 St George Hanover Square Parish, London to parents John and Mary Ann]. Eliza's father was a footman which made me wonder if he and Eliza's future husband had worked together in a large house.

All the couple's children except their youngest Maud, seem to have been born in Paddington or Marylebone in London. Maud was Marlow born.

By 1895 Eliza was managing Rye Peck House by the river as a private residential hotel (short term apartments with luncheon and tea included). It had been recently converted from a house. The South Bucks Standard was very impressed by the conversion saying that Rye Peck deserved to "become immediately popular amongst those who in search of relaxation and health, estimate cleanliness and comfort at their true value. The house which is excellently fitted up is cosy and well furnished and admirably suited to its purpose" .

Nevertheless this private hotel didn't seem to last long and Eliza turned to running a domestic service registry, that is an employment agency for servants, from the High Street where the family also lived for a time. Business must have gone well or Eliza was simply generous of nature as she was a frequent donor of funds to Marlow Cottage Hospital.

Arthur died in 1907 and by the early 1910s Eliza had moved the family back to Glade Road and into Fair View* and was running her agency from there. She supplied cooks, parlour maids, nurse maids, whatever you needed short or long term.

Her sons Edgar and Henry both attended Borlase grammar school in West Street. Henry was admitted on a scholarship in 1909, I am unsure about Edgar. Both played football for the school as Old Borlasians. Both were also competitive rowers in local competitions. Their sister Maud herself was a medal winning rower as an 18 year old at Marlow Regatta in 1913.

Henry and Edgar both served in World War One. Henry was mentioned in despatches in 1916 as a second Lieutenant in the Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry. As a civilian he worked in the USA and Canada as an executive of an automobile company and married an American woman. He returned to England by 1921 with his family and settled in Glade Road, but not in Fair View.

Edgar suffered a twice fractured leg from a German grenade thrown into his trench during his military service. He was then in the 7th battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. It is said on a number of websites that while he was away fighting Edgar's wife bigamously married someone else and that he himself also committed bigamy. These websites are sites concerned with filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock as Edgar's wife's second marriage was to a man who wrote screenplays for Hitchcock. I have not researched this issue myself at all. His marriages were not to local women. 

By the way there was by sheer coincidence a man in Victorian Marlow named Alfred Hitchcock but he was a gardener!

*A previous resident at Fair View /Fairview was the elderly and very religious Caroline Patrickson, a lady of private means. She moved to Effra in Beaumont Rise sometime between 1904 and 1907 and had also lived elsewhere in Glade Road. While at Fair View Caroline lived with a paid companion and a maid. She died in 1924 aged 88. I'm her will she left bequests to the two servants she had then (different from her ones who served her at Fair View), Ms Wilmott her companion and Jane Day her maidservant.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

Several other houses in Glade Road have histories on this blog describing who lived there. To find them see this index

Sources:

1907 and 1915 editions of the Marlow Directory and Almanack.

GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes online.

Census 1841, 51, 61,71, 81,91 transcribed by me from microfilm.

1911 census via Find My Past.

Bramfield, Suffolk and St Margaret's Westminster parish registers. Thanks to Jane Pullinger for accessing the latter in person for me.

South Bucks Standard 21st August 1913. Copy held at the British Library Archives and accessed by me March 2021 via the BNA.

Bucks Herald 25th December 1915, as above.

South Bucks Standard 5 November 1909, as above.

Reading Mercury 15th January 1916, as above.

Bucks Free Press March 21st 1924. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Photo by Kathryn. Taken March 2021.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research or image for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here so that the sources listed above remain credited for the information they provided.