Life in 1950s Marlow Part Four Food and Shopping

 Part One dealt with Sport and Leisure, Part Two concerned homes and employment and Part Three dealt with Transport and Childhood.

Introduction

During the 1950s great concern was felt by Marlow shopkeepers about the frequency with which Marlow residents chose to shop elsewhere. The long favourite "big town" destination Maidenhead and nearby High Wycombe had been joined by Slough as an easy option for those traveling by car (it had already been accessible though not quite so conveniently by train). The Marlow Chamber of Trade tried to encourage Marlovians to spend their money primarily in the town. In response to such pleas one unnamed Marlow woman wrote to them in 1959 saying that shoppers were forced to go elsewhere because Marlow shops carried too narrow a range of stock and only very low levels of what they did carry. Another woman wrote to the Bucks Free Press in a similar vein.

It should be noted that allegations that Marlow people ignored their own shops had been made almost yearly since at least the 1880s, and yet the occupancy level for business premises was high at all times until a slump came in the 1960s.

Sunday opening of shops came to Marlow in the 1950s. Only book, toy, fancy goods, souvenir and stationary shops could open (up to 8pm in 1959) or those selling postcards, or souvenir photographs.  Marlow was deemed eligible as it was "a holiday resort". Not all eligible retailers chose to exercise this new freedom however and for some shoppers Sunday trading was still seen as very much the wrong thing to do.

Many shopkeepers no longer lived in their premises in the 1950s, though there were exceptions. Herbert Haley the High Street chemist had a flat above his shop as did the proprietors of the chemists at 14 Spittal Street for instance.

Non-Food Shopping 

The long standing drapers, outfitters and clothiers, Morgan's, in Market Square still existed in name in the early 1950s though it then sold McIlroy brand clothing from High Wycombe. Later in the decade it became W.J Daniels, famed for it's big sales. A little further down the High Street earlier in the decade was Helen Whateley, dressmaker and tailor. If you were lucky that is- she didn't open weekends or Wednesday afternoons.

Miss D Wiggham ran the Dawn Boutique at 1 Station Road. For men Hewetts in the High Street was an outfitter who also sold sports clothing and school uniforms.

Farrier's Wool Shop at no 48 High Street sold hosiery and underwear as well as embroidery and knitting supplies and finished pieces of embroidery art to decorate the home.

Making their own clothes remained quite common for women. Men's clothes except for knitted items such as scarves and socks, had long since been generally considered too risky for the average domestic tailoress to attempt, due to the skill level necessary and also because of the less forgiving and more expensive fabrics involved in suits and trousers. Some housewives were still sufficiently skilled to make shirts, though by this period it wasn't the norm for them to make rather than buy them.

Knitting machines could be bought from A.E King drapers in Spittal Street, which also sold hosiery, women's underclothing, blankets and household linens.

Those wanting to accessorise with a walking stick or similar could head to "fancy goods", tobacco, confectionery and grocery retailer Coster and Sons, also in the High Street. A small shop -how they packed all that in I'll never know!

Walking sticks were also sold by John Harleigh and Sons the sports goods / sportswear shop in Spittal Street as were ladies handbags, luggage, and umbrellas. This was still an era infused with the "make do and mend" ethos and in that spirit Harleighs both sold and repaired all those items. Similarly you could make use of shoe repairers Ted Neighbour, who also operated in Bourne End, or Mr Palmer in Station Road. New shoes were sold by Millwards in the High Street and old ones repaired there. 

A jeweller and watchmaker with decades of experience behind him, Lawrence Mundy, operated in Chapel Street. Ronald Bailey was a jeweller and silversmith at 37 West Street.

Home furnishings suppliers in Marlow were described in Part One "Homes" of the life in 1950s Marlow posts.

Food

"High class" groceries could be bought from the two High Street premises of Barksfield Brothers grocers and wine merchants. The "family grocer" R Browns was also in the High Street while Dorsetts was in Market Square. Mr Dorsett had a "mobile shop" by the end of the decade that visited outlying places, including the High Wycombe suburbs.  All the grocers in Marlow still shut for lunch in the 1950s.

Mac Fisheries supplied fish and shellfish (and fruit from the fruiter's section) and Harleyford Dairy had shoppers' dairy based needs covered. Both of these were in the High Street. Another fishmongers Castle Fisheries was in Chapel Street and acted as both a hot fried fish takeaway and a shop which sold fresh and dried fish for home cooking. Castle Fisheries was operated by members of the Bunce family. Butchers were located in Market Square, the High Street and Spittal Street. Tom Morris butchers of Spittal Street supplied the meat for Borlase School meals.

Ellison's and Sons was a baker of the High Street, plus of course there was Burgers.

Aldridge's in Market Square offered a range of frozen foods. These were still quite new and some people refused to even consider buying frozen meat in particular and could even be cautious about frozen vegetables. Most frozen meat had been shipped in from abroad e.g New Zealand lamb and a prejudice about the quality of foreign bred animals was partly to blame for this attitude .Advocates of frozen foods however were passionate in trying to open those closed minds! The methods of freezing used commercially in the 1950s were not as advanced as they are today so it is generally considered that frozen products would have been of more variable quality then and cooking them required more skill and judgement than we would necessarily realize today.

Pinkneys Nurseries at 54 High Street was both a fruiterer and a florist (a not uncommon combination in the past). 

Those that wanted to try a touch of self sufficiency could purchase supplies from one of Marlow's most unusual shops, Moreton's beekeeping supplies at 19 West Street. This also sold games, model aircraft, balsa wood for crafts, guns, ammunition, and fishing tackle. Quite a mix!

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. ©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Sources for this series of posts are listed in Part One.

Life in 1950s Marlow Part Three Transport and Childhood

Part One covered sport and leisure, Part two dealt with homes and employment.

Post by Charlotte

Transport 

Car ownership while not uncommon was far from universal in the 1950s so bus services and trains as well as cycling were important to local people trying to get from A to B. Currall's Garage in the High Street offered repairs and sales for those lucky enough to have their own car and of course there was Platts garage too. Platts was a Morris and M.G dealer. The Maple Garage in Little Marlow Road was an Esso and Ford dealership. Unusually for the times it opened for the sale of petrol on a Sunday.  Petrol rationing continued into the 1950s meaning careful thought needed to be made about whether any journey was necessary. A couple of  petrol pumps stood ready outside Comptons cycle shop in West Street for any motorists who pulled up kerbside. Marlow Bottom wasn't to be left out, Witches Barn Garage still operated in the village.

A Mr or Mrs Cook of Marlow had a red upholstered 1953 second hand Austin A30 for sale as advertised in the Reading Mercury 1958 for a bargain £415.

See a pic of the A30 on Wikipedia here.

Daniel Gibbons of 19 York Road had previously operated as a secondhand car and other vehicle dealer but I haven't found any reference to him still doing that in the 1950s. He was definitely still operating as a rag and bone man however, which was previously his sideline.

George Bason of 18 Wycombe Road sold secondhand motorbikes and offered repairs.

Mr Sylvester of 41 West Street was a driving instructor, possibly the only one in town at first. 

Driving could have its hazards then as now. Heavy snows of February and early March 1958 saw buses unable to reach High Wycombe and the roads out of town to Henley and Stokenchurch were blocked for all traffic.

More bizarrely the road at the foot of Bisham Hill was covered in jam for hours following a collision involving a truck carrying several tons of the sweet stuff in 1958. What a sticky situation.

Concerns about the weight of the traffic crossing Marlow Bridge have dogged the structure since the 1800s. Increased weight restrictions on vehicles using the bridge and emergency structural repairs to it were both needed in the 1950s. Thames Valley services from Maidenhead stopped crossing the bridge in 1958 because of new weight restrictions. Instead passengers got on and off in Quarry Wood Road.

Other bus services connected Marlovians to Reading and High Wycombe. The Marlow-Little Marlow-Bourne End service however came to an end in the 1950s because too few people were using it at a time when petrol rationing meant bus companies had to ensure every bus they sent out on a journey had earned it's share of the limited petrol supplies available.

Bicycles were available to buy from C. A Boddy in the High Street. Like quite a few other cycle suppliers in this time period he also supplied prams. Well, they both have wheels, I suppose. The Boddys also sold toys. Another cycle agent was Comptons in West Street, also a motorcycle seller and as mentioned above a petrol supplier 

Marlow still had a full sized railway station in the 1950s.

Childhood 

Schools

The 1958 Marlow Town Guide lists the Girls' school as being in Oxford Road and the Boys' one in Wethered Road as well as Sir William Borlase School (then just for boys and both a boarding and day school) in West Street. They obviously hadn't updated themselves from their previous edition as the schools had in fact been totally reorganised in 1954. A good lesson in treating all historical sources even very official seeming ones with caution. Back to school for the guide authors we say! The boys' school had been transformed into a unisex secondary school known as All Saints Secondary School. The future site of Great Marlow School was purchased by the council in 1957 though it would not be developed into a secondary school for several more years. Bigger premises were sorely needed as All Saints Secondary School was bursting at the seams. Until further schools opened in Stokenchurch and High Wycombe children from Lane End and Cadmore End had to attend the Marlow school. Overcrowding meant that the school was not able to offer the G.C.E exam, as extra classes for the pupils who wished to study for it could not be physically accommodated. Any children who wanted to pursue post 15 education elsewhere would be helped to find avenues to it where possible however. 

Reach for the stars, kids

As well as not having to take exams the pupils of All Saints weren't required to do homework - until the teachers got the unwelcome idea to try it in 1955. At first only some classes fell victim but from September 1956 the whole school was told to expect compulsory homework unless they had a parental letter of exemption. Such exemptions might be because the child helped in the family business, looked after younger siblings or simply because the family did not believe that school work should be allowed to encroach in family together time (this latter was a common sentiment). 

At their speech day in 1956 the speaker was an Air Vice marshall who told the children that they were lucky to be growing up in the Atomic Age as there would be lots of exiting opportunities for them. He predicted interplanetary travel might be an established fact by the late 1980s or early 90s.

In 1958 at the Borlase School speech day the guest speaker was t.v personality and criminologist John Watson who told the boys that in order to be happy men they would need two things- the right job and right wife. He warned them that a "safety first" attitude in life would be dangerous to them (not necessarily in reference to choosing a wife). 

Borlase converted part of the original school building into a flat for the caretaker and a recreation room for the school masters during the 1950s. Mr Hazelton, the Head in 1957 said that in the next year there would be around 350 pupils at his school including 80-90 boys in the Sixth Form. This he felt represented a school that had grown too fast to keep up with itself.

The 1958 Town Guide  also makes no mention of Foxes Piece School which was built between 1954-56, initially just as an infant's school with only three classrooms. The rest of the grounds were used as sports fields for other Marlow schools. Foxes Piece was only meant to be a temporary school at first. However it was extended and became a full junior school for 5-12 year olds in the 1960s. More on the early days of this school and the history of the Foxes Piece area is available in my post here.  

Another point upon which the Town Guide was well out of date on was the fact that the Oxford Road school was then functioning as another infant school. A premises in St Peters Street (which had also previously functioned as the Girls' School) was in 1954 turned into a mixed junior school (middle school). There was a mixed Catholic school in St Peter Street too. At Medmenham children attended the village school. Danesfield was of course yet to exist.

Dial Close, a private school for girls operated from the Causeway.  Another private girls school Wycombe Court was located at Lane End but put on buses to bring in Marlow pupils. It had a unisex kindergarten.

When they weren't being drilled in the three Rs or receiving questionable life advice from a criminologist, there were numerous leisure opportunities for our younger Marlovians.

Hobbies, toys and clubs 

Owning a television was becoming increasingly common in the town. British children with a set might already be watching 2 hours of television every day according to research quoted in the book A Century of Childhood. A t.v show detailing the adventures of American Davy Crockett led to a mass childhood craze of wearing a Davy Crocket style mock fur hat. I haven't been able to find evidence of these on sale in Marlow but Bonners Superstore in High Wycombe certainly offered them and was only a bus ride away.

Model airplanes and games could be bought from Moretons (primarily a bee keeping supplies shop!) in West Street. The children of the secondary school and if the former boys' school kept bees on the premises and produced their own honey so they may actually have enjoyed browsing the bee keeping supplies while they were there. Toys were also available from the Woolworths in Market Square, from the Boddy's BTC toy shop in the High Street and from Jane Ann's in West Street which offered Meccano, Dinky, Triang and Hornby ranges amongst others. The small department store W.J Daniels in Market Square had an upstairs toy department.

The Marlow Sea Cadets , just for boys, formed in 1956 though they did not yet have their own premises and met initially at All Saints Secondary School. A Boys Club, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides already existed. The latter met in a hut in Quarry Wood Road. 

Higginson Park, Riley Park (usually then called Riley Recreation Ground), Gossmore and Seymour Park were all open spaces available to play in while a children's paddling place was set up in an enclosed section of the River Thames in 1958. This was in addition to the official Bathing Place Marlow then had in the Thames at Quarry Woods for both adults and children.

Not all the outdoor activities of 1950s Marlow children would meet our approval today. Butterfly and bird egg collecting were still quite widely practiced by some children, mostly little boys. I used to have a 1950s children's butterfly book previously owned by a local boy in which the young reader is given detailed instructions as to how to use poison to suffocate a trapped butterfly and warned that sniffing or accidentally consuming the recommended poisons might kill him too. A repurposed soft drinks bottle was recommended as a carrying vessel for such poisons. Fail! Though Mr Watson the safety-last criminologist probably approved.

For sources for this series of posts see Part One. Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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