So Who Did Eat Puppy Pie Under Marlow Bridge?

If you wanted to hear a choice selection of expletives in Victorian or Edwardian Marlow all you had to do was call out to a passing bargeman "Who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?"

You didn't need to be in Marlow- the phrase was used not only upon the whole stretch of the Thames but on other stretches of water in England, and was known in Ireland too.

The angry response came from the question being a reference to an alleged incident where an unwitting bargee had stolen a pie only to discover after he had eaten it up "under Marlow Bridge" that it was made from the flesh of unwanted, drowned puppies. The pie's owners was said to have been fed up with their pies being stolen so set the pie thief up, breaking the news as to the pie contents only when it was too late and the last crumb eaten.

It is likely some such incident did happen as there are too many references to the tale for it to be otherwise but the circumstances are not consistent across different versions of the story and nor is the time period given for the incident.

The nature of the person whose pie had been stolen varies too. Not all versions even agree that it was Marlow Bridge involved though by far the greater number do.

The earliest print reference to this story which I have found dates from 1846 and says that the awful pie was consumed under Maidenhead Bridge, not Marlow (The Era 14th June, British Newspaper Archives). The Pall Mall Budget newspaper in 1872 also set the scene in Maidenhead as did the Saturday Review in 1867. One later Victorian memory recalled bargees being asked who ate the puppy pie under Waterloo Bridge in London.

The earliest reference to Marlow being the scene of the crime was in a newspaper of 1848 but the author there said the pie question was a "hidden taunt" and he did not personally know any particular story behind this odd question routinely thrown at bargees.

Francis Francis the elder (yes that was his name) in 1854 thought the incident had happened at the "beginning of the 18th century" and gives a version not matched by any later versions. He says that a gentleman of Marlow was the pie owner. This cook used part of an unwanted litter of poodle puppies (only in this version is a specific dog breed mentioned) for the pie filling and left it wrapped in a blue cloth down under the bridge where all the bargemen had left their lunches for later, in the expectation that one of them would surely eat it. This version has more detail than most others with the breed of dog which was victimized given, plus the colour of the cloth, and the detail that it was wrapped at all. It was of course normal for working men to carry their lunches in knotted clothes or handkerchiefs, and the different colours and patterns of these helped the men to tell whose lunch was whose. It is possible that the gentleman pie owner had observed that a particular thief used a blue cloth for his lunch and was thus specifically targeting an individual for vengeance. He might even have swapped out the correct lunch for the sabotaged one, rather than left matters to chance.

In 1856 Bell's Life In London thought that the pies stolen by the bargees were the lunches of the men building Marlow's new suspension bridge (which happened between 1829-32). This building was beset with problems which caused Marlow to become not just a local but nationwide laughing stock. People specifically came to Marlow to ask the locals where their new bridge was as it didn't seem to have been built yet and to witness the embarrassed local reactions. You can easily imagine the passing bargees joining in the teasing and becoming resented as a result. A perceived theft (we can't be sure in any scenario that any bargemen were actually guilty of stealing any pies only that they were believed to be guilty. Itinerant people were pretty much always blamed rather than locals for any unsolved crimes in the past) of some lunch by them might have been the final straw and a plan of revenge hatched. Remember too that the effect of the new suspension bridge on river flow was a cause for concern for commercial river users and this would have lead to increased tensions between them and the bridge builders and townspeople responsible for thst. The works themselves must have created disturbance to the nearby wharves too.

The Preston Pilot newspaper in 1860 also  thought the legendary pie owner to be a gentleman. It mentioned that in other parts of the Thames the usual question to annoy bargemen was "Who ate the cats?" with no mention of Marlow Bridge. Was there another historic occurrence of revenge baking this time involving cats????

In the same year the journal Littell's Living Age stated that it was a Marlow publican who had been targeted by light fingered bargemen and that the bargees thought they had stolen a rabbit pie when they picked up his puppy one.

In the magazine Temple Bar of 1865 the aggrieved cook was given as the landlord of the Ferry Inn along the river at Medmenham though the puppy pie was still regarded as having been eaten at Marlow under the bridge.

Various different references to the "who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?" question in the mid Victorian era regarded it as an old or ancient one and the originating story possibly a myth.

In A Drive Through England in 1885 James John Hissey agreed that the pie had been baked by the landlord of an unspecified Medmenham pub. This landlord had heard that some bargees on their way to the village had hatched a plan to raid his larder yet again and placed just the puppy pie in it to teach them a lesson.

Henry Jones in The Way About Buckinghamshire written 13 years later also thought that a landlord was inspired to bake the infamous pie upon hearing that a plan to attack his larder was afoot. But the author thought that the landlord was that of the Compleat Angler in Marlow. I'll deal with that possibility below.

In 1912 the Sunderland Daily Echo attempted to explain the well known Marlow puppy pie question to it's readers. It claimed that the bargees were in the habit of using a Marlow baker's ovens for their own pie baking. When they came to fetch their pies they would falsely claim the biggest pies there as their own, leaving the smaller ones they had in fact baked behind for other customers. It was indeed normal for people to pay to use a bakery's ovens to cook their pies in, as many people had no oven at home, or only a very small one. It is not very believable however that the bargemen could claim other pies as their own as each pie would have had a mark or sign cut into the pastry top in order to distinguish it from others. You also have to wonder if the bargemen really had the capability on their barges to make pastry. It is possible their wives at home had made the pies for their husbands to carry along with them but if so why give them raw uncooked pies which would, unrefrigerated, soon spoil rather than already cooked ones which would last longer?

The Marlow bakery involved was said to be a small one near the river. There would be at least two possibilities for such a bakery in early Victorian or late Georgian Marlow if that is the correct era to be looking at. 

In the 1914 editing of The Gourmet's Guide To London thought that the keeper of the Compleat Angler at Marlow had baked the puppy pie at the time of the old Marlow Bridge which was sited differently to our modern one. The Bisham side of it ended just by the Compleat Angler before it was condemned in 1829.  No time frame is given but the Creswell family had the inn in the early 1800s and were in part barge masters so it may not be particularly credible that they would wish to enrage the bargemen, or that the bargees who wish to enrage a potential employer. 

In 1939 in A Few Naval Customs etc Napier Thomason Beckett thought that the pie thefts had occured from an unnamed, but no longer existing, inn by the bridge, so not the Compleat Angler which still existed. This could be the former Waterman's Arms by the river or the Bowl and Pin which was demolished so that the new church could be built in 1833. Read more about the controversial church build in this post.

Also in the 1930s historian Francis Colmer thought that the pies originally stolen were cooling on a bench at Mr Rolls Wharf which was indeed at the foot of the bridge. He guessed that the pies came from the nearby Waterman's Arms but he probably didn't know about the Bowl and Pin. I'm not sure why they would choose a busy wharf as a place to cool their pie though!

A letter written to the Daily Mirror in 1949 by a Mr Walker of Mitcham Surrey placed the original incident "70 or 80 years" ago which was clearly far too late. He said the puppy pie was baked by the cook of the Compleat Angler and that game pies were the ones previously stolen. 

That's all clear as mud isn't it? Various of the story versions above have some plausibility as to time and place or situation but many have implausible aspects too and none seems without question the right one.

There is one curious thing about all versions of the story. Namely that the prankster pie maker gets the last laugh. As a group bargeman were protective of each other and quick to take offence on behalf of any of their number whether known to them personally or not. When the boys of the Marlow based Royal Military College 1800s annoyed the bargemen it led to months of running battles between the two groups. Bargees angered by a Marlow man's behaviour in the 1760s (seemingly beating a boy, whose relationship to the bargees if any is unknown) rioted and robbed the town over 3 days. There was clearly a secondary motivation of anger at local corn and wheat prices behind that riot, which also involved the ladies of the town. Farmers, millers and bakers were particularly targeted. The bargees took food and either gave it to the women or sold it to them for the price they thought should have been charged in the first place, were it not for the greed of the producers. I wonder if the beaten boy had been caught stealing food in desperation or had complained about Marlow prices. The bargees also joined in with the rioting women of Marlow who, incensed at unaffordable food prices in the town, pulled down three bakeries in 1800. It doesn't seem very credible that anyone could feed a bargeman a trick puppy pie and there be no reaction from their fellow bargemen. Unless the thief stole their pies too and they were also fed up with him!!

Still, those merely mentioning the pie to a bargeman years later were not uncommonly ducked into the water, given a black eye or bombarded with missiles. The pie baker was taking a huge risk in upsetting the bargemen.

It is interesting to note that the 1760s riot incident involved larders in the town being ransacked. Innkeepers were amongst the many targeted. Did this lead to a lingering association in the town between thefts from larders and bargemen? Does the incident of the puppy pie actually come from some misremembered act of revenge after these larder raids? The town was said to have been almost emptied of food by the angry boatmen and the women who supported them at that time.

The question of "who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?" was previously used as an example of a question to which no possible answer could be given. If someone asked you a question anywhere in England which you felt unable to answer you could shrug and say, "Who ate puppy pie under Marlow Bridge?". It was equivalent to our "How long is a piece of string?" So clearly very early on the identity of the unfortunate pie thief was forgotten or was never known by anyone but the few people present at the eating.

It was, by the way, believed in Victorian England that Chinese people routinely ate puppy pies, and according to some missionaries puppy pie was also a dish in Zanzibar. I'm not sure about the typical kitchen set up in Zanzibar but Chinese people at that time didn't do any baking so that legend is a non-starter.Nevertheless the unsafeness of puppies if any Chinese visitor was nearby was a running joke in England. 

People would also use the expression "I could eat a puppy pie" to express the fact that they were so hungry that they could eat anything.

In case you are wondering whether anyone could actually eat a puppy pie and not realize that something wasn't quite right, the flavour of dog is apparently just like game. That information comes from those Zanzibar missionaries, we promise. No animals were harmed in the production of this post. 

Honestly, I'm a vegetarian.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Related posts= Creswells of Compleat Angler here  and here. Detailed post about the history of Marlow bargemen here, the 1780s built bridge here and of the current Marlow Bridge here

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use my research with credit to this blog.

Additional sources quoted above=

The Real Salt by Francis Francis the elder, 1854.

The Gourmet's Guide To London by Nathaniel Newnham Davis.

The Living Age vol 67 . Google Books.

The Preston Pilot 28th January 1860, Sunderland Echo 7th June 1912, Daily Mirror  5th January 1949. British Library Archives. Via the British Newspaper Archive.

This Lock Keeper Is A Lady

 People are sometimes surprised to find their female ancestors working in traditionally male occupations. One of those relevant to our blog area is that of lock keeping. Today's subject is Hambledon Lock Keeper Martha Lomax, who was married to Marlow born John. 

Martha was not the first or only female pound keeper at Hambledon (as they were often known in her day, refering to the newer pound style locks). Like most of her fellow Victorian women working in this role, she had taken it on after her husband who had previously performed the task died. Officially the Thames Commissioners had declared it "undesirable" for females to be appointed to pound keeping duties from 1831, but this was not enforced entirely as you can see. It's worth noting that descriptions of journeys up and down the Thames during the Victorian era also include notes of a woman physically operating a lock, eg Temple, even though she was not technically the lock keeper herself. It might be the wife, daughter or other relative for example. Some of these recognise the women as a familiar figure in charge so their help was more than occasional. And of course a woman becoming a lock keeper could not just learn to do it overnight - if they inherited the job they already needed to know how to handle themselves. A lock keeper, male or female, could pay an assistant of course but far better to keep it in the family and get some free help from any children considered old enough! 

A DANGEROUS ROLE

Martha was born in Bray. Her husband was a former soldier who had been in receipt of a pension since the age of just 18.  John (born Great Marlow c1820) and Martha (nee Butler) married in 1861 and settled in Gun Lane, Marlow [Demolished, now Trinity Rd]. They lived initially with John's widowed mother Deborah, a laundress. After spending some time away from Marlow, John won the role of Hambledon Lock keeper in around 1868. Unfortunately he died in 1873, after a period of illness. And so Martha, with 4 children to care for, stepped into his shoes. She had already operated the lock during his period of sickness. But tragedy had not yet finished with poor Martha. 

In the same year, Martha's little boy, age just 4, was drowned at the Lock. An unfortunate number of lock keepers children have died at home in our local area, and not to mention lock keepers themselves*. At the time, the lock had been entirely closed a short while so that it could be entirely rebuilt.  (And not before time many said**.) The work was still ongoing although the lock was scheduled to be re-opened a week before. Young John was playing outside with 10 year old brother Henry on a therefore fairly quiet Saturday afternoon. Henry went inside but John hung back in the garden. After a few minutes his mother asked Henry to get John in, but the younger boy was not to be found. Henry sadly caught a glimpse of his brothers body in the water and shouted for help. Afterwards he would say he believed John was already dead. His cries were heard by three workman working on the lock who ran to assist. John had now sunk out of view beneath a tied up punt, so the workman dived in. After several attempts they bought the little boy up, lifeless. He was carried into the lock house and attempts made to revive him by slapping and rubbing him as was the usual way. But Henry's fears were confirmed. John was already gone. The inquest was held at the lock house with the child's body laid out to view. Verdict was accidental death by drowning. It was believed that the boy had attempted to get into the punt, as he had done before alone but sadly it appeared that he had slipped and fell in the water. 

LIFE AT THE LOCK

Many accounts can be found of jolly punting and picnic parties passing through Hambledon Lock. They tend to extoll the beauty of the riverside scenery and the prettiness of the surrounding countryside. Life on the river bank was not always quite so romantic however. In the year after Martha's double tragedy, a letter appeared in The Times calling attention to the primitive sanitation arrangements of the Hambledon Lock Keepers cottage. It was singled out as an example of rural toilets that drained directly into the river, resulting in pollution of the water. It was not the only source to suggest you could sometimes smell Hambledon Lock before you could see it. While sewage might find its way into the water, a set of rules for lock keepers from 1867 states that keepers should at least endeavour to keep the lock free of dirt, weeds and dead animals. And they should neatly mow the grass about the lock too.  

On the other hand, we have descriptions of the lock in Martha's time that mention the pretty garden, with a profusion of lavender. She also had a little orchard. An account of a river trip from 1876 mentions only pleasant sights and smells at the lock. This included a little kitten called Bob who scampered across the grass.  He probably belonged to the surviving Lomax children William, Martha, Jane and Henry. Also mentioned is a tail less dog called Tiny who barks at every barge passing through the lock. 

In the late 1860s it was prohibited to put up notices at the Lock advertising the fact you could offer refreshments. This was a traditional side line, and doesn't seem to have come to an end, advertised or not. Martha probably offered these too. She was after all a good cook, as was her daughter Martha. (See below) What she definitely offered was an occasional bed for the night for the weary rower or fishermen. The lock keepers were banned from taking in lodgers in 1871 but occasional occupation of rooms by guests was tolerated. We know that Martha's busy time for this was around Henley Regatta when no beds could be found in that town or any nearer. 

Other parts of Martha's role other than the winding up of sluices and opening of gates included taking tolls and issuing tickets, and working with other lock keepers to relieve flooding as required. People would shout "lock! lock!"when they wished to summon her or an assistant.  Vessels with goods loaded upon were supposed to be given priority over pleasure craft or empty trade craft. At certain times such as when Henley Regatta was held, the numbers of boats put into the lock at once sometimes caused complaint. It was so before and after Martha's time in charge too. But Martha had the  problem of being female and any quibble at how the lock was managed were too often put down to that. Suggestions were made several times that she should be moved to a quieter lock but she resisted this until finally being relieved of her position in 1882. She had held on for nearly 10 years. 

AFTERWARDS

When Martha lost her job, she also lost her home. Eventually she settled in Reading, working first as a charwoman, then as a cook. She retired to an almshouse and died there in 1907 age 76. Daughter Martha, born at the lock, would also enter service as a domestic cook, working for example in Kensington and Reading. Son Henry would go on to to have the interesting occupation of  attendant on the insane at Montsford Asylum, Oxfordshire. 

*Some children to drown at the locks include 8 year old James Johnson at Hurley Lock, Grace Simpkins and Ellen Lawrence Wood, both daughters of Temple Lock Keepers, and in 1868 the 8 year old son of Marlow Lock Keeper Thomas Coster.  See below. 

**A few years before the repair was made Hambledon Lock was described as having gates that looked as though they might "drop of their hinges" and roll their "battered timbers into the water at any moment". It was "dilapidated". It had had several repairs before - it was considered in "imminent danger of collapse" in 1865. Another remembered it to be so leaky it look a very long time to fill. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Further information:

Other lock keepers children to drown are mentioned here

For other posts related to the River Thames see the list of posts here

Georgian pound keeper at Marlow - here

Our focus is Great Marlow Parish but we cover a few people from nearby places. To see other posts on Hambledon and around, see this here

To find every mention of a person of family here, check the A-Z Person index in the top drop down menu - there's now over 6,000 individuals listed there. 

SOURCES

Rules for Lock Keepers 1867, Thames Conservancy. 

Reading Mercury August 1873. 

Berkshire Chronicle August 1873. 

Census 1841, 51, 61, 71 and 81 - courtesy of Jane Pullingers transcript from the microfiche. 

United Kingdom, Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records, 1760-1913," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5H1-S8V : 9 March 2021), John Lomax, ; from "Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records 1760-1913," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing WO 97, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

Leslie, John Dunlop. Our River. (Bradbury, Agnew & Co 1881)

Pask, Arthur Thomas. From Lock to Lock: A Playful Guide (Judy publishing office,1882) Digitised by Google and accessed March 2010.

Sterry, Joseph Ashby - Tiny Travels (Tinsley Brothers 1874)

Stirling, A M W - William De Morgan and his wife. (H Holt &Co 1923)

Thacker, Fred S - The Thames Highway Vol 1&2, 1914. 

The Illustrated Sporting And Dramatic News September 1876. (Vol 4)

The Little Anglers Annual 1884. (G Little, William Cate 1884)

© GreatMarlowAncestors

The Lives Of Owen Sawyer and Joseph Russell

Sometimes we pick a random individual from Marlow's past and decide to flesh out the bones of their life. So now is the turn of Victorian West Street and Queens Rd resident Owen Sawyer. 

Owen was born in 1847 to West Street bakers James and Charlotte Sawyer. They and their business feature in a post here which includes a photo of their premises. Charlotte had the reputation of being an accomplished businesswoman and she continued the business after her husband's early death. In this she was assisted by Owen's brothers Henry and James. Subsequently James would take over the management of the bakers from his aged mother, and indeed continued to run it after her death. 

Owen however was apprenticed to High Street cabinet maker Daniel Walker, who also ran The Hope public house later. Daniel did not just make furniture, he also engaged in more general carpentry tasks. So Owen would later recall engaging in work such as making and even erecting fencing. It was good training if hard work and Owen would later strike out on his own as a skilled carpenter. He initially moved to Dean Street after marrying wife Mary Ann and that was the setting for the event below. Subsequently he spent several decades living in Queens Road. 

Murder! 

A dramatic incident in the life of Owen occured when he was 28 and found himself in court charged with assaulting Thomas John Pattison Junior. Thomas said Owen forced himself through his front door and attacked him although it isn't clear what the motive would have been. Fortunately for Owen, the witnesses supported a quite different version of events. Owen had heard Sarah, the wife of Thomas screaming "Murder! Murder!" as he was going pass their home. He, Sarah's sister and her neighbour rushed in and found that Thomas had Sarah by the neck and was threatening her with her knife, despite the fact she was holding one of their children. He had apparently been offended by the fact Sarah expressed the wish to stay in their current home rather than move to Strong Beer Acre as Thomas had announced they would shortly be doing. Thomas was bound over for a year to keep the peace for one year, and Owen was found not guilty of the assault. 

Diving superstar

Owen was a renowned swimmer and diver, and a member of the Amateur Rowing club. In 1875 he won a regatta competition which involved diving as far as possible off Marlow Bridge. The entry point into the water was marked and whoever got furthest from the bridge was the champion. Owen's winning distance was 40 yards. It was noted that he was a hard man to beat when in form! Other events included "diving for eggs" and water polo in canoes. The Rowing club also had monthly competitions running at this time, which Owen took part in. In the 1890s he operated the telegraph system at Bourne End Regatta that transmitted the official results from the umpire. They were then announced to the crowds who couldn't all see the finish clearly. He was also a member of other sporting institutions in the town - and one of the players who made up The Royal Victoria Working Mans FC, Marlow's "other" football team which subsequently amalgamated with Marlow FC. (Read more on them here)

Another institution in the town that Owen had great involvement in was the Clayton Arms Slate Club, a friendly society.  This provided invaluable support to working men in the event of accident or illness robbing them of the opportunity to earn their living. Owen was one of the founding members, and also served on its organisational commitee. You can read more about it here. He was also a member of the Marlow Volunteer fire brigade. Even after retirement from that he sometimes lent a hand at fires, such as one at the George & Dragon during the October street fair of 1898. Civilians were often utilised in such occasions, and someone of Owen's experience was obviously all the more welcome. Owen suffered a house fire of his own that nearly cost the life of two of his children - you can read more in this post about his father in law John Langley here

Lastly we should mention Owen's role as one of the collectors of contributions for the local Transvaal Relief Fund around 1900. This dealt with cases of need in families who had a member serving in the South African wars then ongoing. Furthermore he was elected to the committee of this group. 

Owen could also be found as a member of the Bucks Rifle Volunteers. He was the oldest Volunteer when he retired after 34 years diligent service in the autumn of 1902. Owen had by then attained the rank of Corporal. He said on his retirement that the hours spent with his fellow rifle volunteers were amongst the happiest of his life. As a member of the Volunteers Social and Shooting Club, he had spent many happy days with these comrades at the rifle range and in local pubs. You can read more about the volunteers here

Two sad events - the first

In 1890, Owen was working at a house in Mill Lane. He saw a young man who he knew slightly coming along the lane. This was Joseph Lionel "Joe" Russell* age 25, who had been crippled for life in a childhood accident.  He had been born into a military family in India, but shortly after their return to England, his father had died.  His mother had worked at Bray Court, and the lady of that house and subsequently Marlow Place (Mrs Haig) had tried to support Joseph with an allowance when his mother had in turn died. She had also paid off some of his debts. It had once seemed doubtful that Joseph's physical condition would allow him to fully support himself. But he had nevertheless started work as a commercial clerk to Thomas Butler the wine and spirit merchant. And so the allowance had finally been stopped, although Mrs Haig still provided his clothing. However, Joseph was subject to fits of depression and had taken to drinking. When he passed Owen, he asked to shake his hand, and told Owen they would not see any such other again. Joseph then proceeded along Mill Lane towards the Mill and river. Owen was naturally suspicious at such ominous words, and watched the other man carefully. When he saw his destination, he ran a short distance down the lane to the Mills and called for help. Mr Wright and Owen found a muddy and wet Joseph at the bank of the Thames attempting to wade in. He could not swim and had a suicide note in his pocket. He was bought back to the Mills to receive medical attention. Suicide was a criminal offence then, and so Joseph was bought before the court and Owen had to give evidence as to what he had seen. Joseph was let off as he promised not to attempt his life again. Sadly, he did not keep this promise, and three years later he drowned after throwing himself off Marlow Bridge. 

A tragedy close to home

In 1903 Owen appeared at another inquest. This was sadly that of his brother James Sawyer the baker. For reasons that are not always easy to grasp, the Sawyer family bakers was no longer doing well in the few previous years. A severe fire in 1897 can not have helped although both the building and contents were insured. By May 1902 it had closed, and James was out of work. (The business was sold to Charles H Carter who ran the Bridge Restaurant and bakers on the Causeway, where Burgers is now. As he already had a West Street branch, the business was moved there) I believe he may have worked for another baker in town at first but this did not last. When leaving the bakery he had of course also lost his home. (He went to lodge with Jane Thornton.) He was 67, and perhaps he could not face "starting again". One evening Owen met his brother in the Carpenters Arms and noted his downcast look. He gave him some money, as the baker was significantly in arrears with his rent.  The two parted and no one saw James alive again. His person was spotted in the river near Thames Bank by labourer Thomas Munday. Thomas retrieved the body with the assistance of equipment provided by the Marlow Lock keeper, and the aid of George Budd. It was taken to the Two Brewers, where a copy of his and Owens parents' marriage certificate was found in his pocket. Deliberate entering of the river could not be proved, nor a definite  accident as there were no witnesses so the verdict of the inquest jury was the open "Found Drowned".

A happier event of that year was the marriage of daughter Ada to Edwin Meadows Madeley. Ada was a former school teacher at the national school. 

Owen's own death was less dramatic and he passed away age 78 in 1926. 

*Joseph came to Marlow from Holyport near Maidenhead shortly before his first suicide attempt. He lodged for seven years with plumber George and Louisa Davis in Cambridge Rd. George and Louisa feature with their daughter Annie in a post here - but be warned it's another sad post! Joseph was said to have been in a fearful state when Mrs Haig took him under her wing, unable to go up stairs for example. He had spent much time in Maidenhead hospital. Louisa Davis believed that his first suicide attempt had been precipitated by her threat that if he continued such heavy drinking he must leave her home. She believed the second was due to a guilty conscience, as she considered it likely that he was stealing from his employer. He had too much money to spend on drink she said, given his other expenses and level of wages. Joseph had two brothers and two sisters, whom Mrs Haig had also helped get a start in life. The boys were in the Army at the time of his death. He was buried in a paupers grave at Cookham, with no family to attend the service. His body had been found by Spade Oak ferryman Jonathan Sparks. The jump from the bridge was witnessed by carpenter Mark Creswell.

 Mrs Haig remarried and went to live at Fox Court, Maidenhead with husband Captain Masey. 

. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

To find all mentions of an individual or family here use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu.

 Use the General History tab to find out more about everyday life in Joseph's and Owen's Great Marlow. 

©Marlow Ancestors.

Biggs / Bristow Family Bakers

 Joseph Biggs, originally of Dinton Bucks, moved to Spittal Street Great Marlow in the very late 1850s or 1860.

He was a middle aged widower with a much younger "servant" Sarah Bristow in tow, by whom he had had 3 children - Ellen, Joseph and Alfred. The children were referred to as both Bristows and Biggs at different times. Sarah had worked for him since at least 1851.

Joseph was a corn dealer and baker with a shop in Spittal Street. After his death in age 71 Sarah, sometimes as Sarah Biggs and calling herself a widow, other times as Sarah Bristow, ran the business herself. In 1868 she was fined for having deficient scales used for weighing out bread and also, interestingly, meat. Such prosecutions occur frequently with shopkeepers whose scales needed to be recalibrated every so often to keep them true but who often forgot to organize this. In 1890 Sarah was again fined this time it was 10 shillings for selling bread without weighing it first, another very common offence. Such prosecutions arose from random test visits by the authorities.

By then Sarah's children were no longer at home. On the 1891 census she had a ten year old servant Nellie Edwards living with her to assist her. She may also have had daily shop staff that didn't live in with her.

Sarah's premises on the left hand side. 

Sarah's son Joseph junior with two of his friends had been hailed as "romantic" and "gallant" heroes for diving into the Thames to rescue an exhausted and capsized rower following a competitive race at Marlow in 1874.

One of those friends, John Langley junior, went on to marry Joseph junior's sister Ellen in 1877. Both Joseph junior and his brother Alfred were successful young rowers at Marlow themselves. Women did row competitively at this time but I have found no evidence of Ellen Biggs also competing. You can see the grave of Ellen Biggs/Langley at Holy Trinity church, Marlow here. 

I think Sarah Biggs may perhaps have died in 1909. She had left these premises by 1907 and they became a cafe.

****

Thousands of people are mentioned on the blog in relation to Marlow and some of its nearby places. Use the Person Index on the top drop down menu to search for individuals.

More posts about specific Marlow families indexed here.

More Spittal Street content indexed here. Other nearby streets also have indexed content on the same index.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day. ©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog.

Some Sources:

"England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXS5-G47 : 26 June 2022), Ellen Biggs in entry for Sarah Biggs, 1871.

"England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GGB-V6Z : 22 February 2021), Sarah Biggs, Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, Buckinghamshire county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

1881 census Great Marlow, my transcription from microfilm. 

Bucks Herald 15th August 1874. British Library Archives.

Reading Mercury 26th July 1890. British Library Archives.

Great Marlow Parish Registers, original.

James Haynes - Boatbuilder & Thief Catcher

 

James Hayne(s) was born in Marlow in the first few years of the 1800s. Perhaps not as famous as the late Victorian boat builders of Marlow and Bisham, he deserves a post of his own because of the many roles he played here - from preserving law and order, to preserving Marlow Bridge. 

As a young man James followed in his father's footsteps and worked as a carpenter. His dwelling house and work premises were in the High Street and Causeway at this point. In 1828 the workshop is described as located 200 yards from his home and were also separate in 1833. In any event, in 1828 a thief broke through the shutters of the workshop and stole a saw and an axe from James. This kind of theft was taken very seriously at the time as depriving a workman of his tools of the trade could too easily lead to him loosing the means to provide for himself. James was lucky in that the tools were recovered and the thief caught. The young man responsible, John Green, was an apprentice to another carpenter. It was James himself that recovered the tools, after he received something of a tip off. They had been hidden under some wood shavings in a loft. The judge expressed a regret that John had begun "a career of crime at a very early period in life" which seems perhaps a little strong given it was a first offence and he had previously borne a good character. Luckily for John, his master was willing to keep him on and spoke of his general steadiness. The judge therefore decided to be merciful and sentenced him to 2 months in prison. 

James did well in his carpentry business and seems to have been well regarded by his fellow traders. By 1833 he was working from a workshop and yard "at the wharf" with a residence in the High Street, still officially a carpenter. There were many buildings at the wharf, some quite ramshackle, that this could have been, used for all kinds of purposes over the years. 

James worked on Marlow's new suspension bridge and like so many others involved had to put in a few requests to actually get paid. This would be the start of a long involvement with the bridge. He was regarded as someone who could get things done, so it is no surprise he also later fulfilled the then elected role of parish surveyor. But the biggest role for James was as one of the parish constable in the days before a regular paid police force. If a warrant was issued for someone's arrest, James and his colleagues were supposed to stop their day jobs and execute it without delay. If they failed to do so without sufficient energy, they could themselves end up in court for neglect of duty. They also had to fit in routine patrols. James fulfilled the role for at least 10 years in the 1830s and early 1840s. He was required to follow up leads as regards to suspects or locating stolen goods, such as the parasol he found hidden in a water storage tank in the yard of Bond the builders in 1843 (not stolen by a Bond!) His finest hour was probably policing Marlow Fair in the same year. His patrols with fellow constables Henry Stallwood and Steadman Camden (biographical post about Steadman here) were completed with such a sharp eye and energy that not a single robbery was reported, despite the massive influx of visitors. 

It was not all hard work for James at this time. He was a regular participants in the charming Sunny Side v Shady Side of the High Street cricket matches which ran for several annual contests in the 1840s and 50s. It was usually played at the Aldermary - that is the meadow more or less where Marlow Cricket Club is now to be found off Pound Lane. So which side was the sunny one? The West Street / Higginson Park side. The Shady, Liston Court / Station Road side had the best level of success and was the one that James played for. It attracted a good crowd, no doubt including wife Elizabeth (nee Osborn) and their several children. One of these, Caroline, would go on to marry Robert Shaw, son of "King of the River" Robert Shaw, of boatbuilding fame. 

A little after this time, James begins to be more consistently described as located at the Causeway or "Bridge House" (of which there have been more than one in Marlow) and eventually his former home was taken over by Sellmans plumbers and painters. James also begins to be described as a boat builder at this time. He chose this occupation when filling his census return in 1851. He may well have always had a side line in repairing or maintaining boats but the hiring of them for leisure purposes was exploding in popularity at this time. Marlow was becoming more and more of a fashionable destination for visiting anglers from London and elsewhere - it's easy to underestimate just what a role tourism played in Marlow's past even at this period. See below for some linked posts about this. At some point James began to use what was known as the old tithe barn by the suspension bridge* as part of his business, or at least he used part of the area. It seems he may have shared usage of the actual barn building itself, apparently with a wheelwright at some point. (In 1872 the barn was let by the new Buckinghamshire Chair Co as a temporary workshop, although they were still there several years later)  James sold second hand boats and fishing punts as well as making his own river craft to a customer's specifications. It seems he specialised in punts in fact. He would also hire you a boat, house yours out of season, or do routine maintenance such as varnishing the timbers. The Marlow Amateur Rowing Club which started in 1871, used Haynes as their boathouse too, before they had their own premises. 

Next to James at the riverside was of course the suspension bridge. The story of its construction was frankly a tale of misery, and you can read about it in the posts linked to below.  James must have been only too aware that before the bridge was very old, it needed quite a bit of maintenance. He was Clerk of the Works for the repairs done in 1860 - facing some difficulty due to the reluctance of some to stop attempting to use the bridge while it was worked on. The surveyor assessing this work asked James to provide a boat so he could take a good examination of its state from the water. Finding one suitable proved difficult it seems. When the surveyor was taken ill, James was asked to make a report on the bridges condition himself. But the work was nevertheless completed on schedule. (The deal platform was replaced at "considerable expense" but by 1869 dry rot had set in and more work was needed.) By 1863 James was Surveyor of Bridges for the district, and under his care the bridge was repainted and repaired further. He was responsible for gathering tenders for this work. 

In 1866 James was one of a number of local men that testified before a parliamentary committee on improving the condition of the Thames. He made it very clear that he regarded the existing Thames Navigation Commissioners should all be sacked for incompetence. He claimed they had neglected to do routine maintenance on the river for many years and so had made it less appealing for those who wanted to use the river for commercial transportation of goods. While the rival attractions of the railway he acknowledged, he considered that the Commissioners had done nothing to make the river stand up against the competition. Instead James said the Commissioners had bought shares in the Railway and effectively given up!  I find his information concerning the river at the time Marlow had a flash lock the most interesting. He said the flash (surge of water) was made twice a week in those days, and this required the "draining" of the river for 4 miles (not literally drained dry of course!) so in "short water time" there was "no water" for days together - that is the water level was comparatively very shallow. 

By 1865, the business was known as James Haynes and Son(s) and its location was "Marlow Bridge". The eldest son Joseph James, who initially worked as a carpenter, sadly died aged just 32. It was less than a year after his marriage to Mary Poulton of Ferry House, Cookham. James himself would not live much longer. In May 1879, he passed away at Marlow. Wife Elizabeth survived until 1883, living in her later years in the High Street with son George and unmarried daughter Ann. George defined himself as a boat builder on the 1881 census, but it seems the business under the name of Haynes was largely over. Robert Shaw, mentioned above, would take over the site.  Eventually he would build a fancier boathouse by the bridge, the "tithe barn" having been demolished "recently" in November 1877, to make way for a never built hotel that faced strong local opposition. James was to quote one contemporary guide to the Thames, "a grand character" and I'm sure he was sorely missed by the boat men of Marlow. 

*This building was where Tierney Court is now. It was known at that time as the tithe or conventual barn but this was not probably its actual purpose. It's the "curious old building" that James Joseph Sheahan described in his History and Topography of Buckinghamshire. He was correct to describe how it was generally referred to by the locals (as there are a number of sources using this title before he did) but I have a suspicion that he got his information about the Marlow building confused with the tithe barn at Bisham. He described the roof of the Marlow barn as Spanish chestnut, which it was not, but the Bisham one was according to several earlier sources.  Both were also used to house Napoleonic war prisoners. I wonder if Sheahan might not have poached his description of the Marlow barn from the 1860 John Murray Handbook for Travellers in Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire. (John Murray, 1860) in which the description "curious old building"  is also used. That book goes on to describe the "monastic barn of Bisham abbey in which French prisoners were kept during the war" and also mentions that the "conventual barn" at Bisham has a roof of Spanish chestnut. So possibly Sheahan confused the two if he helped himself to a little reused information!? 

 Owner of the "barn" at its demolition (autumn 1877) was Owen Williams who seemed confident his hotel plan would go forward. He had apparently got as far as inviting tenders for its erection. However, this was premature and in the end Mr Williams sold the site to "Mr Burt" for the creation of a 50 bed hotel with stabling for 20 horses, a  coffee room and 100ft long covered balcony. The authorities scuppered this plan by making it clear that they would refuse the alcohol licence on the grounds that there were too many others suppliers of liquor in the area. The real reason was probably the objection of existing traders to such competition, in particular that voiced by Charles Miller Foottit of the Compleat Angler who had recently invested in improving his own premises! At this point the barn had descended into a place that tramps and the destitute sort shelter. It was described as dilapidated but also a picturesque feature of the river side and there were clearly many who did not want it to disappear but to no avail. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

More related Posts:

To find all mention of an individual here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

James' daughter Eliza features in a post here

The amateur who built a barge in his back garden, 1860s here

Life for the parish constables of Great Marlow here

Robert Shaw - here

Marlow Fair here

The troubled building of the Suspension Bridge here

1820s recreated trade directory Great Marlow here

Bellows, bricks and brandy - reviving the drowned here

Picnics and Punts- Summer leisure in late Victorian and Edwardian Marlow here

Biography of Charles Miller Foottit of the Compleat Angler here

The Bucks Chair Co here

SOURCES INCLUDE:

1833 Parish Assessment, original copies held by us. 

Census 1841,51,61,71, 81 - transcribed from microfilm by Charlotte and Jane Pullinger. 

Harrods Directory 1847, J G Harrod & Co. 

Slater's Royal and Commercial Directory 1852

Thames Navigation Improvement Commission, (1866) Parliamentary Papers Vol 33, Great Britain Houses of Parliament. 

The Architect, April 17 1869, digitised by Google. 

Reading Mercury, 6 April 1839, 24 April 1858

Oxford Journal 26 April 1828. 

Bucks Herald 2 July 1836

Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News 8 Feb 1873

Berkshire Chronicle 4 November 1843

Bucks Chronicle and Bucks Gazette  4 July 1863

Bicester Herald, 6 June 1879.

GRO BMD index

Q/AB/43/515,Letter, Bucks Archives. 

Dickens, Charles - Dictionary of the Thames, 1880 edition. 

Pask, Arthur Thomas - From Lock to Lock, "Judy" 1882. 

Salter, John Henry. River Thames: a guide, 1881. 

© MarlowAncestors. 

Otters in the Thames at Marlow

 If you were fortunate to walk along the Thames of an evening in the 18th century you may have had the pleasure of seeing an otter at Marlow. Mostly active at night, they might still leave a trail on the banks that you could see during the day. They could still be found in Victorian times, but in much lower numbers, and unfortunately a few Marlow men had a role to play in their decline and eventual disappearance. The Thames otters are now back although I am not sure any have yet made their way to Marlow. 

The problem for the otters was that Marlow made a lot of money from the men that came to Marlow to fish. And otters were regarded as ruining the anglers sport as they competed for the fish stocks. So if a fisherman saw one, he was likely to catch and kill it. Fisherman in this context usually refers to the professionals who were employed to convey or escort anglers to the best fishing spots. Henry Rockell, a long time fisherman of this type, caught and killed a "very fine" otter 3ft 10" long and weighing 23lb in 1862. In 1891, the Temple Lock keeper boasted of catching his 5th otter in 2 years. Part of the motivation was regular payments by angling clubs offered for the capture of otters dead or alive. (In 1880 there was a 10 shilling reward for a dead otter offered by the local anglers association. In 1889 the reward was £1) You have to cheer the otter that escaped two gunmen who had come across it on the towpath near Hurley. They fetched a punt in order to pursue it on the river but it managed to go via a ditch into private property where it was safe from their attention. Perhaps this was the same one that eluded Hurley Lock Keeper Davis in 1872. He fetched his gun but then found the only cartridge he had didn't fit it. The Hurley lock keeper Townsend was gently satirised in an 1882 Thames guide for being a man obsessed with the subject of otters, turning every conversation round to the subject of needing to keep a watchful eye out for them. By the time the book had been published, Mr Townsend had caught and stuffed one of his quarries, putting it on display in a glass case. Mr Barksfield, a carpenter on the Danesfield estate, killed both a male and female otter in 1889.

One person who would pay for a live otter was Alfred Heneage Cocks of Thames Bank and later Poynetts near Hambledon. A man of many interests, Mr Cocks was the keeper of a menagerie of British wild animals, which included some otters bred in captivity. He contributed his observations about their behaviour to many journals and institutions. His prize male otter, captured on the River Isis in Oxfordshire, died while still young leaving him with two captive females and a thwarted plan to breed them. He gained another in 1895 thanks to the lock keeper at Temple. It was in fact an otter that had started Alfred's animal collection when he was still a boy. He had came across a Marlow man who had caught one and who offered to find another and sell it to the young man. He finally managed to breed a litter from a young female he had hand reared within his house. Alfred seems to have possessed at least 8 other adult otters between the 1870s and 1890s, caught by either himself or others chiefly around Marlow and Bisham. Some he kept for over a decade.  I'm pleased to say at least one female made a successful break from her cage into the freedom of the Thames however. Strange as it may seem in our eyes, considering his habit of removing them from the wild, Alfred considered himself an ally of the otters.  He campaigned to make it illegal for lock keepers to trap the animals (successfully, it was banned by the Thames Conservancy in 1903) and declared the shooting of them by anglers ignorant and disgraceful. 

The last mention of an otter I can find nearby until recent times was one sadly killed by a dog in the river in 1916. Otters were now rare enough in this stretch of Thames for the appearance of the otter to be reported nationally. 

Other once abundant wildlife that may not be easy to find in the Marlow waters now are eels and lamprey. Eel baskets or "bucks" used to sit on the older versions of Marlow Bridge. Eel "lines" are mentioned later - the anglers also objecting to these for interfering with other fishing.  Marlow's Domesday book entry says the manor was good for 1000 eels a year. An unfortunate diner at an unnamed Marlow public house in 1766 died in "great agony" after an attempt to consume 5lbs of eels, along with 5lbs bread, and 5 quarts of beer. He managed the bread and beer, but became sick after chomping his way through the first 3lbs of eels! (Mr Adnose Jack)

Marlow was regarded as the farthest part of Thames from London that was good for catching lampreys. In the late 18th century the Dutch were said to be the buyers of "incredible quantities" of these each spring. They were still regarded as abundant in the early Victorian era. A mostly forgotten seasonal harvest that would have occupied many Marlow people. 

Salmon had disappeared from our stretch of the Thames in the the first part of the 19th century. (1820 was a date often given for last one caught.) Wycombe Road farmer William Cresswell (Creswell) had extensive knowledge of the river. In 1866 he was one of several Marlow men who appeared before a Royal Commission on the subject of preventing pollution in the Thames and improving its navigation. He was asked how the river had changed within his life time. The loss of salmon stood out to him. He recalled last seeing one in the river 48 years before, but before that he remembered salmon of 20-30lbs were taken. William had ran the Swan barge with his brother George in his youth, and had also taken out fishing parties from the Compleat Angler, ran by his parents for decades. Various people had ideas as to why the salmon had vanished, with the inclusion of more locks one suggestion, and too many steam launches on the river another, along with pollution. 

For a sight that was just as unusual in the past as now we can mention a 7ft long sturgeon seen swimming in the Thames in 1824. It came from the direction of Maidenhead and seems to have escaped the attention of fisherman. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Related posts:

To read more posts about the Thames in Marlow from the bargemen working on it, to frozen river skating and procedures for reviving the drowned see the index here

To find all mentions of an individual here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu where you will find links to posts about 3,025 and counting former residents of Marlow. 

A post listing for info about places close to Marlow such as Harleyford, Temple and Hurley is available here

Sources

Zoologist Monthly Journal of Natural History, 1877 (West and Newman)

Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1881. 

The Zoologist, 1882 collected edition. 

Alfred, H.J, 1859 - A complete guide to spinning and trolling for fishermen. (Alfred & Son London)

Dickens, Charles - Dickens Dictionary of the Thames (Dickens 1889 edition)

Fennell, John Greville, 1867 -The Rail and The Rod, or tourist Anglers Guide to waters and quarters. (H.Cox,London)

Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce Journal Vol 17 (RSA 1869)

Fearnside, William Gray, 1834. Tombleson's Thames  (Tombleson and Company,  London)

Windsor and Eton Express 31 August 1824 - copy from the British Library and accessed via the BNA November 2020

Bucks Herald Apr 1 1882, as above

South Bucks Standard. 1 March 1891, as above.

Western Daily Press, 29 April 1916. As above.

Kelly's Directory of Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire 1883, (Kelly's Directories Ltd)

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic news, vol 2 1875. 

Pask, Arthur Thomas, The Thames From Lock To Lock, a Playful Guide 1882. 

Weekly Amusement, December 1766. Digitised by the InternetArchive. 

©Marlow Ancestors

The Angry, Roaring, Hissing Mist of 1897

On June 24th 1897, Marlow was planning to continue their celebrations of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. They did not expect to be dodging falling trees or the scattered glass of blown in windows at All Saints. The storm unleashed on our town is chiefly remembered generally for the giant unseasonal hailstones, and locally for the damage done to the steeple of the church. But when reading contemporary eye witness accounts it's hard to disagree with those who consider the storm may in fact have been a minor cyclone.   

There have of course been many gales in Marlow history. In January 1840 for example, the roof of the stabling at Court Garden was damaged by a large ornamental elm tree torn up by it's roots and deposited on the building. It was one of several large trees in the park to suffer the same fate that day, and they were joined by a pair of old poplar trees at Remnantz. In the summer of 1846, Marlow featured in national newspapers after becoming one of several places to suffer a summer storm complete with hailstones "more akin to pebbles."

The 1897 storm hit Marlow at 6pm on a Thursday. The South Bucks Standard said it was one of the most violent on record. Torrential rain and deafening thunder thankfully saw those outside run for shelter before the worst hit. 

The Rev Whittingstall was in All Saints conducting a service. Those in attendance commented on the dark looking sky looming above as they entered. Heavy rain was followed by hail that rattled the windows so much that the poor Reverend could no longer make himself heard. He finally abandoned the service when one of the hailstones broke a window and sent glass showering down onto the book he was reading from. Although national reports say several windows were blown in, the local press say the stained glass ones at least escaped with minor damage only. The windows on the south side were peppered with small holes however. Quite a lot of rain did get in, and the congregation bunched together where they could stay driest. It is a miracle no one was hurt, as the stone pinnacles of the West and East corners of the steeple came crashing down, one falling through the tower, narrowly missing the spot just vacated by the Sexton. The other, falling inwards, came to rest precariously on the tower. Unsurprisingly the cross on top of the steeple was said to be "somewhat displaced". 

Those who saw the storm through a window described in as "an angry, roaring, hissing mist which whirled and swept along carrying all before it." All reports mention the deafening noise, and the fact the "devastation" wreaked was over a relatively narrow path. It is this which we probably have to thank for the fact no one was killed, although injuries to both persons and livestock occured. In Marlow, the storms path seems to have followed the River Thames for a while, more or less. This was obviously unfortunate for the riverside church, but also for those who had gathered on the cricket field off Pound Lane. It is said the field went from a pleasant grassy field to a "roaring field of water" within 2-3 minutes. It was worse on the river itself. The water was seen to rise several feet in height and the lock gates were blown open. A steamer was inside the lock at the time. Although those on board were severely shaken, it was considered incredible the vessel had not been destroyed rather than just badly damaged. Those at the cricket ground were delayed getting home as Pound Lane had been left a maze of branches that temporarily made the way impassable. 

An estimated 18 large elm trees were uprooted, at Court Garden and Remnantz again, amongst other places and there were numerous other smaller trees lost. Fruit crops were also affected. In the county of Essex, which was probably worst hit overall, entire fields of wheat, oats and barley were swept away and crops of vegetables reduced to a pulp. 

The local nature of the damage meant those celebrating the Jubilee with sports at Little Marlow were able to take shelter safely in a very large tent erected for the occasion of a linked communal dinner. They were able to continue their sports a little after, unaware of the damage experienced in Marlow just a few miles away, although the programme was reduced. One end of Glade Road saw the vegetation trashed, the other was unscathed. The allotment gardens around Marefield also escaped untouched. 

The steeple was already damaged prior to the whirlwind, as it was soon described. One of the other pinnacles were said to have already been lost, and the parapet was decayed. A London engineer and expert in  church spire restoration, Mr J S Morris, was called down to make a full assessment of the damage. He was accompanied to the top of the spire by churchwarden and enthusiastic mountaineer Francis O Wethered. Their verdict was not encouraging. An extensive fissure was seen at the top and the whole was considered to be in a very dangerous condition. It was immediately decided that the church bells could not be rung until significant repairs were made in case the vibrations created bought the whole lot down.  So a fund was started to make good the damage and also change the appearance of the steeple to make it more attractive. The progress of this fund was reported in adverts over the next few years, with the names of donors usually attached. There was also a collection box affixed to the church door for those who preferred anonymous donations. The restoration work was completed in the June of 1900. The steeple now had 8 pinnacles at the base. Many considered this a big improvement. So perhaps some good came of this storm.

Related Posts

Marlow floods of the past here

Skating and snowballs - winter in old Marlow here

Other posts about the parish church, the river, other jubilee celebrations and life in old Marlow in general can be found in an index here

 Researched and written by Kathryn Day. 

Sources include:

 South Bucks Standard 2 July 1897, 06 January 1899, 24 June 1900 - British Library Archive, accessed via the BNA. 

Information on the hail stones provided by Jane Pullinger with thanks, and on the damage to trees of Remnantz by Alan Day. 

Meteorological Record 1897 -  (The Meteological Office 1897)

©Marlow Ancestors

The Energetic Smiths of Beaufort Cottage

 Reuben Nereus Smith and Mary Ann Smith lived in Beaufort Cottage from at least 1874 when their baby son Henry Bernard was born there. Sadly the infant died the next year.

Reuben was the collector of rates and assistant overseer for Marlow for many years, the agent for the Harleyford estate, the Managing Director of the Marlow Water Company, Chairman of the Wycombe Chair Company, Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Chair Company based in Marlow, a house agent and the clerk of the Great Marlow Parish Council. He had many of these roles at the same time. When did the man ever sleep? More on the Buckinghamshire Chair Company and Reuben's involvement here

Reuben started off his working life quite humbly as a teenage shop boy working in London. He was born circa 1834 -36 - according to the census this was in Marlow. Reuben may have worked as a tax collector in London too. He spent the years c1854-1862 in Australia before returning home with a good amount of money behind him. Five years later he was appointed inspector of nuisances for the Wycombe board of guardians, and in 1872 he became the collector of parish rates, only relinquishing this role in 1899. 

His brother Robert Hayes Smith** was a hairdresser come printer/ bookseller/ newsagents who had premises in Spittal Street Marlow, then later the High Street. 

We can presume Reuben's youthful leisure activities did not include skinny dipping as he was one of those, along with his father, getting into a flap in Marlow in 1877 about the younger generation's way of bathing in the Thames. There was he said "an infestation" of young men running along the riverside at Marlow without a stitch on. It was still a problem decades later so Reuben didn't win that round. (More on the swimming here!)

Lawrence Joseph Smith son of Reuben and Mary Ann was also bookseller and stationer by 1893 when he applied for a alcohol license for his premises and became a spirit merchant too. Those Smiths liked to keep busy! Did I mention that he also later had a role in the Wycombe Chair Company and the local parish too just like his dad?

Angela* Theresa their daughter was a student at Northampton School of Sciences and Art. She was an art student, their best pupil in 1893, and passed examinations qualifying her as an art teacher, though I have found no evidence she actually took on that role.

In 1899 the fact that she, as a female, was one of the winners of a football results prediction competition ran by a local paper generated an incredulous (but good natured) article from that said paper.

Angela was Reuben and Mary Ann's second daughter. Their eldest Celestina died aged only in her 30s in 1902. Against social norms of the day she had set herself up in business -as a furniture dealer and coal merchant- and headed her own household as a young unmarried woman. She lived as such in Dallington Northampton on the 1891 census with her younger siblings Angela and Reuben junior as her assistants. Angela had quite an unusual career path then. There can't be too many young women who went from assistant coal merchant to art student! On the 1901 census Angela had no listed occupation probably as she was about to be married to William Davis of Northamptonshire.

Celestina is on the same census as a resident in an Isle of Wight boarding house living on her own means. So no more furniture or coal dealing. Given that she died a year later it is possible her residence on the Isle of Wight was for reasons of poor health- it was a popular destination for that. She died at Beaufort cottage and is buried in the Catholic churchyard.

Reuben died in 1915. I am unsure as to Mary Ann's death. Unfortunately I can find little about her as a person except that she came from Inverness-shire Scotland.

* Name registered at birth as Angela but she is referred to elsewhere as both Angela and Angelina. Unusual names ran in the Smith family- Reuben's mother was apparently called Ledger. Angelina is a name that is predominantly Catholic in use at this period. 

** Read about a theft at Robert's shop, and the surprising perpetrator here and more about Robert here

Some research Sources:

Censuses my transcription of images on microfilm.

Newspapers held by the British Library and accessed from the BNA August 2020: South Bucks Standard 10th February 1899, 10 March 1899 and 25th August 1893. [Football competition, Angela's art success].

As above but accessed March 2021: Bucks Herald 23rd June 1877. [Nude bathing].

Marriage certificate and birth certificates obtained from the GRO. Death registration indexes on the GRO website, death certificates.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day. Additional research by Kathryn Day. 

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

Best On The Thames - Praise For Marlow

 

A little while ago we published a post containing some of the less flattering reviews and descriptions that visitors to and residents of old Marlow left behind them. This post will make happier reading for proud Marlovians! 

The River

"Between Marlow and Henley the constant succession of scenes of Sylvan beauty strikes the gazer dumb with enthralled imagination" - Belgravia Magazine vol 14 (Alfred Rimmer, 1881)

"The view from the bridge, both up and down the river is one of the most beautiful on the Thames" - John Merrylees, Patterson's Guide to the United Kingdom (William Patterson, 1885)

The Weir (Ware)

"In breadth, comeliness and situation...amongst the best to be found on the Thames" The Art Journal - vol 45 (Virtue and Co, 1883)

The Town In General

"From it's situation, it is capable of becoming a very neat country town" -

The History And Antiquities Of The Hundred Of Desborough -  Thomas Langley, (Faulkner & B&J Clark. 1797)

"It looks like a place purposefully made to whisper a tale of love into a fair ladies ear - a spot to loose your heart in and be grateful for the loss" 

 - Turner and Griffin's Picturesque Views of English, Scottish, And Welsh Scenery - Thomas Miller (Frank Bentley 1873) 

"A right bonny place" - Bells Life In London, 1879

"..a Paradise on Earth ...invites all who seek a haven of Peace and Rest." - Marlow Official Guide, 1931/2. 

"The atmosphere of the place is happy and relaxed as though every day was a Saturday." Eric De Mare in "Time On The Thames", Architectural Press, 1952.

General Situation

"The vicinity of Marlow presents scenery beautiful, picturesque and rich" - Isaac Slater, Slater's Royal, National and Commercial Directory, 1852

"The situation of the town is pleasant and picturesque and the scenery along the Thames here is very agreeable" - The Imperial Cyclopaedia Vol 2 (Society For The Dissemination Of Useful Knowledge, 1850).

"The surrounding scenery is replete with variety and beauty" - Samuel Lewis, The Topographical Dictionary (S Lewis & Co, 1833)

"For sweet rustic beauty, few places surpass Marlow. Hence it is the resort of the poet, the artist and the literary man who come to imbibe aspiration from the scenery" - resident Robert Hayes Smith in 1885 speech to the Volunteer Fire Brigade annual dinner. 

Little Marlow

"A charming rustic village with a pretty church". George Dunlop Leslie. (Bradbury, Agnew and co, 1881)

Part 2 is here

 Compiled by Charlotte Day and Kathryn Day.

©Marlow Ancestors.

Skating And Snowballs - Winter In Marlow

The winters of 1891/2, 1892/3 and 1893/4 and the early spring of 1895 saw the Thames at Marlow frozen to some degree for 4 years in a row. By the end of  January 1891 there had been 9 weeks of frost. It was hoped that the Thames or one of the flooded meadows adjacent would freeze sufficiently to host a cricket match on the ice, along with torch lit skating races at Cookham but all of a sudden the thaw set in and the ice disappeared quickly. The river had frozen most completely nearer Maidenhead and so many Marlow residents were noted as having made the journey to a "splendid piece of ice" extending from Boulters Lock to "beyond Mr. Woodhouse's boathouse at Cliveden Reach." Reports suggest "fully a thousand persons" were disporting themselves on this stretch. Some Marlow people were among those who found a way to make a profit out of the excited visitors. They laid planks to help skaters access the river from the bank and charged people for help getting onto the ice and also for fixing and unfixing skates onto boots. At Cookham Lock several people were seen to ride or drive horses onto the ice and cyclists also put in an appearance. 1891 also saw several hundred people gather on the flooded and frozen meadows at Bisham and Temple. A large number of skaters also gathered at Mr George Jackson's pond at Westhorpe and one man was seen skating on the weir pool at Marlow on Christmas day 1891. The committee of the National Skating Association's negotiations to bring some races off in the neighborhood came too late to beat the thaw but some locally arranged handicap races did occur at Marlow. These male-only races were organised by Alfred Davis and John Langley, who also acted as a starter.  The main event was won by Edward Shaw, which was they say "a very popular win". The number of spectators was enormous, despite the cold. (See below for a partial list of those men and boys competing.) A correspondent for the Fishing Gazette in early January 1891 says that one afternoon he had witnessed fully 200 persons on the river ice opposite Shaw's boathouse including a great number of "skatists and hockeyists". Such a sight he said was not within memory of "the middle aged generation" with the ice 6 inches deep in some places along the upper Thames. The thaw was still ongoing into February, the hard ground causing most of the water from the riverside to run into the river itself. The water level rose by 2ft within a few days of the thaw beginning. 

Unfortunately timed as that thaw may have been, it was not as dramatic as the so called "silver thaw" of 1867 when the sudden break up of a frost lead to showers of minute ice crystals that destroyed many umbrellas wielded against them. 

Thin ice proves a peril

Heavy snow in 1893 saw drifts of 12ft depth in places reported between Cressex and Marlow. The roads from Wycombe were understandably blocked. Those skating and sliding on frozen ditches and ponds were said to be of both sexes and all ages. The stretch of frozen Thames was much more limited than in 1891, but the ice formed near the Berks and Bucks shores was regarded as "moderately safe" which was enough to get large numbers of skaters out near Bisham Church. Under Marlow Bridge the ice seemed to stretch across the whole width of the river, and so naturally some of the curious tried to edge their way across from one bank to another, despite warnings the ice was very thin in the centre of the span. A few made it across safely to cheers but then a young man tried to make the return journey and fell through the ice. The water beneath him was said to be 22ft deep. A very difficult rescue was accomplished after the youngster had spent 10 mins in the frozen water, very largely thanks to Mr J G Meakes who had laid a very long ladder across the breach and so allowed rescuers to approach. The young man was very lucky to be alive, if very cold. 

In February 1895 a little girl from the Grace family fell through the ice after trying to skate on it just beyond the end of the St Peter Street slipway. The screams of her young companions bought Mr Jones, the coachman of Thames Bank to the scene and he was able to mount a successful rescue. 

Incidentally, anyone curious to know the temperature in the 1890's could wander  - or slide along -  the High Street pavements to Messrs Smith & Co who had a very large thermometer on the outside of the building.  

Beware of snowballs! 

One way of keeping warm might be to engage in an energetic snowball fight. But as always reports of some over enthusiastic throwing resulting in broken windows come to the surface. In the heavy snowfall of 1904, Supt Summers received so many complaints of bad behaviour that they did their best to catch groups of boys lurking suspiciously with snowballs at hand. Three naughty boys who went too far in pelting a little girl walking up Institute Rd saw themselves hauled before the magistrates. William Boddy, Jack Hall and Charles Collins received a fine of 1s each for their efforts. 

Edwardian scenes

Although the Victorian era frozen river scenes are probably the most famous, January 1908 saw the Thames frozen from bank to bank beneath Marlow Bridge. And vast scattered sheets of ice stretched between Meakes Boat House and Bisham Church. However the ice was not thick enough to bear a persons weight so the crowds that came to see the sight were restricted to the towpath. But they still went skating. The reason is the Thames was in flood and so the riverside meadows were used as improvised skating rinks as they had been used for generations, private property or no. For decades the premier skating spot was however Cockmarsh, and so Marlow crowds made the journey there. They were not the only ones. It is said that even Londoners made the trip to Bourne End to enjoy the neighbourhood skating. Reporters from the Daily Graphic also made their way to Marlow and took images of an ice hockey match proceeding on the iced over floodwater. This freeze made the conditions difficult for the swans and a decision was made to remove them from the river and hold them inland for a couple of months. Catching them seems quite a task however, as most had moved inland themselves, some by "several miles". 

Not all fun and games

Snow and ice maybe gives romantic image of Marlow in the the winter. But there's another side. Cold and wet conditions made life a misery for those needing to work outside especially if they had poor quality clothes and boots and came from a poorly heated home. In 1872 the torrential December rain made the working conditions of those employed on laying the Marlow railway dangerous. So the work had to be temporarily abandoned to a sea of mud. 

Others working outside whose labour did not stop were obviously very vulnerable if poorly clothed in freezing temperatures. Rag and bone man Charles Slade of Gun Lane was believed to have died of exposure while doing a round at Hambledon in early 1895. He was found insensible in the road alongside his donkey cart near the Dog & Badger at Medmenham. He could not be revived.  In fact he was dead by the time he was returned to Marlow by Thomas Stroud of Dean Street who had been drinking at the Dog and Badger. The conclusion was the extreme cold had bought on heart failure which had in turn caused the fall from the cart. Wife Sarah tells the inquest that her husband had been suffering much from the low temperatures and that they had sometimes had a lack of food over the winter. 

Fog was sometimes bad enough to be described as a serious interference for both pedestrian and vehicular traffic and the trains did not escape disruption. Frozen pipes deprived many households of water, so water sellers were back on the streets after they had ceased to be a common feature throughout the town. (Eg several enterprising souls were seen selling water in February 1895. The Marlow Water Company endeavoured to supply those homes normally connected to their supply with water from the standpipes too.) 

 Regular collections were made to help the poor afford coals for the winter. But for those without a home, the situation was worst of all. The last word will go to the case of "tramp" James Healey. In January 1908, James came into the town and tried to find somewhere to stay. He did not succeed.  Described as "quite an old man" he was frightened at the prospect of spending the night outside during an extremely cold spell. So he picked up a stick and deliberately broke the glass of one of the council owned street lamps in Trinity Road where the Police Station was located. He then went to them and confessed to his act of desperate vandalism. He knew they would have no choice but to arrest him and keep him in the - relatively- warm cells overnight. He got a longer stay than he hoped for, as he was subsequently sentenced to 7 days gaol with hard labour. In the same week beggars were caught in West Street, Institute Rd, and Station Rd and also received 7 day sentences.  

List of competitors in 1891 Marlow ice skating handicap races:

Boys:

C P Lovell (winner 500 yards junior race), Frederick Plumridge, Frank Langley, A Smith. 

Adults:

E Shaw, A Shaw, Reggie Shaw, C Shaw,  J Payne, Taplin, Bowles, Hooker, Smith, Grove, Tom White, Rowe, Cox, H Harman, W Davis, Lees?, Collier, Bailey, Lovell, Ashtead, Nicholls. 

Veterans: 

W Lunnon, ? Langley, E Flint, W Shaw, A J East, W Toovey, 

Researched and written by Kathryn Day

Related Posts:

Victorian Christmas in Marlow part 1 here and 2 here

Edwardian Christmas in Marlow here

Bonfire night in Victorian Marlow here

A listing of other posts about every day life in old Marlow  here

Easter and May day here

Selected Sources

The Fishing Gazette: Devoted to Angling, River, Lake, and Sea Fishing, and Fish Culture, Volume 3. ( Charles William Bradley & Co 1895) & The Fishing Gazette 10 January 1891, ditto.

Reading Mercury 21 December 1872. From British Library, accessed via the BNA October 2020. 

South Bucks Standard 23 January 1891, 24 November 1893, 2 December 1904, 10 January 1908, as above. 

Notebook of Miss E Morton. 

©Marlow Ancestors

Bellows, Bricks and Brandy - Reviving the drowned

 People have always bathed in the Thames at Marlow. But many have also lost their lives doing so. The Black Hole, with a reputed depth of 25ft, in the river past Quarry Wood, was an extreme example of a sudden drop in the river bed. But there were other spots where the gently shelving floor fell away, as well as currents, weeds and underwater obstructions.

The task of fetching a body from the river, or looking for a lost swimmer usually fell in practice to someone from one of the boat houses (or the lock keeper) - Shaw's by Marlow Bridge is the one mentioned most frequently. They had a dredger which enabled them to search where human eyes and probes could not. The bodies were usually taken to a nearby inn which would also hold the resulting inquest. The Compleat Angler, and Two Brewers saw a large number of such events. As time passed, the bodies were usually held elsewhere but the inquests were still often in the nearest pub to the place of recovery. (From 1907 the coroner's were requested not to use a public house for an inquest unless absolutely nowhere else suitable could be found.)

Mr Shaw had to use his dredger in 1901 to find the body of one of his own employees, 21 year old William Button of Reading.  William was employed as a waterman. He was bathing after work with two colleagues, from a raft under Marlow Bridge. He suddenly disappeared, presumably after suffering from cramp. A "very good" swimmer, he could not be found by his companions and the dredger was called for. 

Some of the dead were among Marlow's very many visitors who came to enjoy riverside camping or some gentle punting or fishing. Perhaps the saddest case was that in 1906 of Chiswick/Kew Schoolmaster John S Gilbert, and his two adult sons (Frederick 20, an electrical engineer, and Frank 22, a clerk in the Stock Exchange). They had come to the  Marlow area for a short holiday and spent the night camping on the riverbank near Medmenham Abbey. (One source says they were on a small island there.) Frank, a strong swimmer, decided to have a bathe while the others prepared breakfast. But he became tired fighting the current and sank. His dad leapt into the water to save him, but did not resurface. The second son then followed his father into the water - and also failed to come back up. Two  friends of the family who had joined them on the trip witnessed the scene, and one (G A Ackerman) entered the water to assist and briefly managed to get the fathers head above water but ultimately needed rescuing himself. The other, Harry Kentfield, on the riverbank could not swim and  shouted for help. It came too late however. A quantity of weeds in the water tangling limbs was regarded as a possible explanation for such a tragedy. The farm bailiff from Medmenham who recovered the bodies (Robert Keene) however said he could see no significant weeds and thought the men had panicked "and lost their heads". 

Stories of those entering the water and not regaining the surface alive are common. In many cases the reason why could only be guessed at. Some sort of heart attack was a possible cause of death for East Dulwich accountant George Frewin Pinnock who came to Marlow to do some business for grocer A E Howard. George was staying at the Compleat Angler and decided to enjoy a quick swim in the back waters there. He took a dip and almost immediately came up face down in the water. Sadly his wife had died of heart disease just a few weeks before. (1902)

The area to the front of "The Anglers" next to the old Marlow bridge also caught many victims. Another Compleat Angler guest that died there was minor poet and Pigots Directory representative William Rowlinson in 1829. William was from Manchester and was in the area gathering information in order to compile the next Pigots Directory, a listing of businesses etc. He was staying at the Compleat Angler and went swimming with one of the proprietor William Creswell's young sons. It seems Rowlinson got cramp because despite being a strong swimmer, he sank and Creswell could not find him in time. The dead man may not have lived in Marlow but the expression of grief at his accident suggests he had made a strong impression and many friends during his visit (s) here. The Quakers of Wycombe began to raise a subscription for his young widow (he was 24) and his small son and daughter. They also intended to pay for a stone to be erected over his grave at Bisham church. Forty years later it was said the grave was not marked. Perhaps not enough was raised or the money may have been used for a memorial closer to his home. (See note 1 below for more on Rowlinson)

Given the toll of victims, it's not surprising the Royal Life Saving Society visited Marlow Lock in 1910 to give demonstrations about how to save a person from drowning.

Once ashore the methods used to revive someone recovered from the water usually involved rubbing the person over to stimulate circulation and if they came round, issuing them with some alcohol such as brandy. In 1783 the Royal Humane Society issued instructions on how to deal with a person feared drowned. In the accompanying directory of surgeons listed residing within riverside areas, George Trash of Marlow is included. The recommended actions for George to follow include removing the victims clothes should they be wearing any (male river swimmers usually were nude) and then taking the victim to the nearest inn or failing that somewhere else that could offer a warm bed and a large fireplace. A sort of CPR was suggested with artificial respiration and a slight press to the chest when it could be seen the lungs had inflated. The use of small bellows up the nostril in preference to mouth to mouth respiration does date the advice a little! Attempts to stimulate the patient included giving them a vigorous shake of the limbs, applying hot bricks or tiles to the palms and soles of the feet and rubbing the skin with salt or flannels sprinkled with rum or other spirits. You could also try tickling the nose with a feather, rubbing a heated warming pan up the spine, and in the case of a child laying the little soul between two healthy adults in the hope of gently warming them back to life. Another reason to chose a pub to take the victim to was the strong chance they had a brew house (as it was still the era alcohol was made on the premises). This was needed as the last step if all the other methods to revive the swimmer had failed. The body should be surrounded by warm grains or placed in a deep warm bath in the sort of container a brew house might have. They would then wait several hours in the hope of what must really have been a miracle recovery. It's interesting that the Society in local branches raised funds to reward those who made the effort to search for the drowned or drowning and those who took the unfortunates in. The surgeons who were members of the society would attend those retrieved from the water free of charge. This encouraged those in charge of the victim not to delay in summoning medical assistance. 

Moving forward a century to 1880 - the Rev Charles Voysey  did a demo in Marlow of the New Patent Life Preserver. "For complete convenience in wearing and perfect efficiency in buoyancy power" it was said.  This was perhaps not the most quick to use life saver. It relied upon having the opportunity to "carefully" mix an acid and alkali powder which was then put into pockets held within 3 waterproof sacks. These were stitched inside someone's clothes or strapped on to a webbing belt, 2 on the front, the other to the rear of the wearer. When the mixed powders touched water, the reaction released a gas. This inflated the sacks and kept them up for some 50-60 hours or so it was claimed. The set of 3 pouches and powder cost 10s 6d. 

A Selected few other victims

NB This post does not include information on suicides in the river, or probable suicides. 

1836 - Frank Faulkner, eldest son of school master William Faulkner, age 21. Faulkner senior often took the boys of his school to bathe in the Thames. On this occasion, Frank was visiting Marlow having recently started a physicians practice in London. He went swimming with his brother and a friend. It seems his strength failed, and his two companions very nearly died too trying to save him. 

1861 - Ellen Leary, age 59, hawker of cotton, stay laces, needles etc, lodging at Marlow. Her basket was found floating between near Bisham. She is believed to have slipped off the tow path when "not quite sober."

1868 -  John Frederick Nolan of Ireland, house painter working for a London builder employed at Thames Villa. He could not swim and intended to bathe only but he did not realise that the gently sloping river bed gave way to a sharp drop and he tumbled out of his depth. 

1888 - Helen Frances Warner, married daughter of Mrs Haig of Marlow Place. Drowned near Temple while bathing with her two sisters. She got out of her depth. 

Researched and written by Kathryn Day. 

Related posts:

Little lives lost in the Thames - Child drowning victims here 

Bargemen of Marlow here

Biography of Robert Shaw who recovered a huge number of the drowned here

Floods in Marlow History, and plans to "embank and canalize" the river between Marlow & Henley here

History of Compleat Angler here

Avert your eyes, bathers about! Victorian nude bathing at Marlow and swimming races here here

To find all mentions of an individual here use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu where you will find over 2,700 people currently listed. Other posts about everyday life in old Marlow can be found here

SOURCES

Harland, John (ed) - Lancashire Lyrics, (Whitaker, 1866)

Smith, James - The Mechanic Or Compendium of Practical Inventions vol 2 (Caxton press 1809.)

Royal Humane Society - The reviving of Persons apparently dead by drowning (- RHS London, 1783)

Medical Times Gazette, Vol 2, 1873. Digitised by Google. 

GRO Death registration index. 

Maidenhead Advertiser August  1 1906, British Library Archive. 

Windsor & Eton Express, 26 September 1829 as above

Reading Mercury - 9 November 1861. As above

Berks Chronicle - 27 Jun 1829 As above

Bucks Gazette 20 July 1901. As above

Bucks Herald 14 August 1880, As above

Slough, Windsor and Eton Express August 4 1906

Notes 

1. Rowlinson (Rawlinson) had contributed poems to the Literary Gazette and regional publications, including some written in what was described as East Lancashire dialect. One was called "Remember me". He had started work as the clerk in Messrs Cardwell & Co cotton warehouse in Manchester ("Newmarket buildings")

©Marlow Ancestors