Black Boy, Hurley History and Landlords

The Black Boy, Hurley Bottom

Historic landlords with history notes:

1842 George and Ann Godfrey. Ann died that year.

1842-45 George Godfrey as above. George died that year aged 67. In 1843 thieves made an unsuccessful attemot to rob his premises by cutting hole in the outside wall. They did make their hole but they didn't manage to get away with anything. My own ancestors in Kent were robbed of all their possessions when thieves cut through their kitchen wall so don't think such attempts never worked!

1851-1855 James Leech. Wife Sophia. James died 1855.  

1855-65 Sophia Leech widow of James above. 

1865 David Leech

1863-68 Martha Leech. 

1869 Alfred Woodeson.

1871 "Mr Woodson" gave up and Thomas Street took over.

1871-1883 Thomas Street. Thomas went on to run Hurley Flour Mills. He made a great success of himself and moved into Ladye Place Hurley. After he left the Black Boy the premises were put up to let with outbuildings and orchard. Described as a fishing and boating inn. [Reading Mercury 29th September and 24th Nov Fishing Gazette both newspapers in British Library Archives accessed via the BNA].

1885 bakers horse and cart stolen from outside the pub! 

1886 license transfer from Thomas Ballard to James Bolton who still there 1887. In 1887 used for Inquest on 17 year old drowning victim William Goodall who fell out of a punt at Hurley.

1890 to let furnished. [Reading Mercury 11th October]. 

1894 Samuel Bailey.

 1894-1895 Archibald Lonsdale/ Lansdell 

1895 Joseph Edwin Lane, briefly.

1895-97 Thornton Tailor / Taylor.

1897-98 George F Cranmore. Summoned for being drunk and disorderly. 

1911 Tooke Holmes. 

1913 Arthur Frederick Taylor gave up to Albert H Eyre / Ayre.

1913- 1916 Albert H Eyre gave up licence as he was serving in the army during the First World War. You had to be resident on the premises to have a license. I am unsure if he ever returned. 

1920 Sidney Tanner

1922 Frederick Taylor

1946 to let with orchard and 1 acre.

Compiled from censuses, licensing information, court cases, adverts, directories newspapers as quoted above, etc. Kelly's Post Office Directory 1847, 1863, 1869 and 1887 editions, Kelly's Directories Limited.

Looking for the Black Boy, Marlow? Landlords listing in this post.

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

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

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

Homers Farm Marlow *updated Feb 2026*

Updated April 2025

Although historically within Great Marlow Parish Homers Farm /Holmers Farm  was about 3 miles from it, closest in fact to Booker. It was about half a mile from the turnpike road between Marlow and High Wycombe.

Description 1834= 123 acres 1910= arable and pasture farm.

Historic occupiers (these are not normally the same as the owners) and history timeline:

1742 Samuel Wellesley. 

1781-1784 at least - Barabbee Fastnedge (a man with a name destined to be spelled a 100 different ways!) Mr Fastnedge was at Triphooks farm 1786 (possibly in addition to this) Also farmed at Finnemoor. Possibly Homers was owned by James Batting of High Wycombe at this time. 

1823= up for sale. It's proximity to the turnpike road between Marlow and Hug Wycombe is considered a distinct advantage. 122 acres of enclosed arable and meadow land and orchard, plus farm house, barns, etc. It's in "the highest state of cultivation, lying extremely compact, divided by quick hedges, in well proportioned fields in a ring fence completely surrounding the homestead." Has been occupied by the same (unnamed) family for 40 years who also have the freehold. (Windsor & Eton Express, 10 May 1823)

1833= Edmund Collins. Owned by Mrs Rose.

1840- George Hunt occupier leaving and selling off his farm stock including a crop of oats, 28 "meaty ewes", 8 horses or colts, some pigs, a barren cow, 70 fowl and bits of household furniture [Auction notice Bucks Advertiser 24th July 1840] .

1841- 1862 Thomas Greenslade. One of the parish Guardians of Great Marlow. In 1851 he has 120 acres employing 5 labourers. In 1861 92 acres being farmed (so some of farm may be let to others or sub let) and Thomas is employing 3 men 2 boys. Two geese stolen from him 1859. The actual owner of the farm in 1862 was still Mrs Rose.

1867 Mrs Greenslade, presumably a widow of Thomas above, left the farm selling up all her stock and household furniture. She mainly seems to have been operating as an arable and sheep farm though she also had a few pigs.

1869- Richard Child. 

1870 - Freehold up for sale, tenant Richard Smith to quit at Michaelmas. The owner William Rose had recently died and his executors are to sell up. Includes residence, barns etc plus a "well sheltered farm yard" and a pair of workers cottages. 123 acres. Shooting in the estate was let separately to Lord Carrington whose land also adjoined the farm. 

1876-83 John Campbell. Wife Elizabeth. Both originally from Scotland. He was farming 123 acres 1881 and employing 2 men and 2 boys. 

1888- duck and drake stolen from the farm.

1891-1901 John Campbell. Son of John and Elizabeth above. Sister Marion lived with him. Raised pigs and crops. Worker James Goodall who lives at the farmed fined 1893 for not sending 3 children to school. They may have been helping on the farm.

1903-1916 Miss Marian Campbell, leasee. Daughter of John and Elizabeth above. Born 1851. Her premises were very close to the Booker isolation hospital and Marian herself took in some residential patients for "open air treatment" as well as supplying produce to the hospital. In 1904 Marian gave evidence in the trial of a nurse at the hospital accused of burning it down out of anger for not being promoted to matron there. Marian had been told by the accused that she felt like setting fire to the bushes outside it but replied that it was a foolish idea and would set the whole place on fire. As it was two blocks went up in flames simultaneously which immediately made police suspect arson rather than accident. However nurse Isabel Livingston who was so hysterical in the dock the trial proceeded only with great difficulty was found not guilty of arson. See the South Bucks Standard 10th June 1904 for much more on this case.

In 1910 the farm was bought by Lord Carrington from an unknown previous owner but Marian continued as tenant.

Marian died at the farm 1916. Buried High Wycombe. Worshipper at Handy Cross church which no longer exists.

1920 Mr A Stacey.

1939 William Wiltshire, dairy farmer assisted by his son also called William.

For more farm occupier posts Great Marlow see the Specific Shops, Streets Etc option on the menu here. For Little Marlow use the Nearby Places option here. You will also see a Person Index option on the menu to help you find every mention of a person on this blog. The General Marlow History option here contains other posts which may be of interest to you such as information on local harvest home celebrations or historic agricultural wages in Marlow. 

Farm occupancies identified from wills, adverts, trade journals, censuses, property records, court cases etc. I hope to fill in the gaps in dates as I wade through my Everest sized mountain of research notes.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

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

Theophilus Clifford - stonemason

Updated December 2023

If you have ever crossed Marlow Bridge you have seen the stonework of he wonderfully named Theophilus Clifford. His first name is from the Bible and though a bit old fashioned for a man born as he was circa 1796 it would have been a familiar first name to most people in his day.

Theophilus married in his native Oxford in 1817 to fellow local Sarah Goodall. At some point in the early 1820s the couple moved to Marlow after Theophilus bought a stonemason's business there from Mrs Smith. In 1823 Theophilus sued his neighbour Mr Allum for £300 for slander after Allum publicly accused him of stealing a leaden pump from the yard they shared. 

A great opportunity for the young stonemason presented itself with the 1829 decision of the town to replace it's wooden bridge with a new iron suspension bridge.

Theophilus, in partnership with Marlow builder Thomas Corby, won the contract to do the stonemasonry and brickwork for the bridge's pillars. The bridge building process was a painful and fraught one. I have a post on the blog which goes into detail about this if you want to learn more - see link below. Suffice to say money was in short supply. Theophilus and Thomas found themselves being asked to take a pay cut from their contract price, with the threat of being replaced if they refused. They had already started work, and Theophilus had had to procure the stone from suppliers pressing continually to be paid themselves so such a request seems unfair.

There was growing unease about the bridge project per se and Theophilus and other contractors came to realise that they had to agree to lower and later payments or risk the whole project.

So it was perhaps with mingled feelings Theophilus gazed upon the finished project in the Autumn of 1832. His early pride in the suspension bridge is evidenced however by the naming of his and Sarah's daughter with the middle name Suspensiana in 1829. You can read about the extraordinary struggles to complete the Suspension Bridge here.

Other places that Theophilus is known to have worked include Cromwell House in Marlow High Street and in Little Marlow Church.

Theophilus and his family lived in the High Street. In the 1833 parochial assessment notebooks the property he occupied was described as a dwelling house, workshop, garden and yard with an annual value of £10.

The year of the assessment Theophilus was burgled and a copper boiler and some pots and pans were stolen from his home.

Later in the 1830s he had to pay £70 compensation to a Mr Strange for allegedly maliciously and falsely prosecuting him for allegedly stealing marble offcuts from him. Strange said that Theophilus was trying to crush him as he wanted to set up his own business in rivalry to Theophilus who had previously had no rival in the town of Marlow. 

In the early 1840s Theophilus and Sarah returned to Oxford. They lived in St Aldgates in the city centre. Tragically Theophilus died aged only 55 in 1845. His will left all he had to his "dear wife" Sarah in her lifetime then to all his children equally. He wanted three of his children in particular- Jane, Charlotte and James- to have his furniture. Sarah was the sole executor of the will and guardian of their children. The 1841 census also shows children William and Mary to the couple. Mary became a straw hat manufacturer. She married Henry Quarterman and had several children before dying at the age of 40. More on her and other straw hat makers in Marlow here

William became a stone mason like his father but died of consumption aged 27 a year after Theophilus.

Daughter Jane also died of consumption in 1846. Other daughters died prematurely too- Sarah aged 23 in 1841 and Elizabeth aged 19 in 1842.

Sarah died after a long illness at Rose Place, St Aldates Oxford in 1863 aged 65. She was buried at Marlow with several of her children. See the grave here.

For other grave pictures see under Graves on the menu. All mentions of someone on the blog can be found by searching for them on the Person Index.

See:

Original will from Oxfordshire Record Office.

Oxfordshire marriage bonds and allegations, Find My Past, accessed October 2020.

1841 census, transcribed from microfilm image by me.

Quarter Session Records, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies.

1833 original parochial assessment notebooks and corrections in possession of my family and transcribed by me.

Grave transcription by Kathryn.

Windsor and Eaton Express 27th July 1833. British Library Archives.

Jane's death notice= Oxford Chronicle 28th March 1846. Copy held at the British Library and accessed by me online via the BNA September 2020.

© Marlow Ancestors. If quoting from this material credit this blog and link here so that my sources remain linked to the information they provided.