Mysterious Disappearances And Suffragettes- Early Residents Of Victoria Road Marlow

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

A couple of cottages named Victoria Cottages erected in 1872 were likely the first homes built in Victoria Road. They still exist today.

The first resident of Victoria Road Marlow who can be definitely named is a Mr E Savage who in May 1880 wrote a letter to the maker of a "Pectoral Syrup" extolling it's virtues as a cure for asthma, whooping cough and similar conditions. The writer was also impressed by soothing powders for children sold by the same maker. As a stated father of 8 children you could see how he might appreciate such powders! We can only hope all those children were not squeezed into his Victoria Road cottage as it would have been a small one. Perhaps some had, thanks to all that soothing medical attention, grown to adolescence or adulthood and moved out by the time their parents moved to Victoria Road!

On the subject of moving into or out of the street, the South Bucks Standard of 8th July 1892 contained an advert for a house contents sale at number 1 Victoria Road*, the resident William Ashby having "moved away" from the area. Behind this simple advert there was an alarming truth- William, a three weeks married insurance agent, had vanished into thin air shortly before the sale. He said goodbye to his wife one morning having told her that he was going to meet his Prudential Assurance Company boss in High Wycombe but was never seen again by neither her nor anyone else in the area. He did not turn up to the work meeting. No one could fathom why he would wish to leave his home, job and bride, nor did they think that he had any personal worries. The fact that she put the furniture up for sale almost immediately suggests that the new Mrs Ashby (Florence Ann nee Faulkner) gave up on her husband quickly. Financial distress may have been involved, though William was said to have been highly successful at selling insurance in the past two or three years. The items for sale suggest a comfortable income: a velvet covered drawing room set, tapestry carpets and a marble topped wash stand etc.

As a teenager in his native Northamptonshire William had worked as an under gardener so becoming an insurance agent was a step up for him. Prior to his marriage he lodged with the Everest family in nearby Glade Road, Marlow.

So where did William disappear to? The answer intriguingly was apparently Ireland. He married, despite already being married, a Bridget Kelly in Dublin in 1899 before returning to England with her to raise a family. The couple lived first in Yorkshire and then in Westmoreland and Lancashire with William reverting to his original occupation as a gardener. Florence herself as "Florence Ann Ashby or Faulkner" remarried in 1900 a shoemaker John Gibbard. This was back in Northamptonshire. Did she believe William dead? Perhaps the first marriage was annulled. William could be declared legally dead after 7 years of being missing. I only hope poor Florence found happiness after her distressing and humiliating desertion. The quick sale of the furniture may hint that Florence did in fact receive some communication from her husband saying he intended never to return even if she did not wish to make it public at the time.

Victoria Road is a few minutes walk from the River Thames. Today you would be surprised to hear that it had flooded but in 1903 overspilling river water reached the residents there. Mr T Coster an engineer who rented a Victoria Road cottage in the early 1900s specialised in building for customers in Marlow and elsewhere their own docks and boathouses to help them enjoy the river. He also serviced ornamental waterworks. 

Coster's business would not have caused much nuisance in Victoria Road itself but the residents did have some other commercial occupiers to put up with, most notably the steam powered chair making premises of the Buckinghamshire Chair Factory. A full post about that business by Kathryn is available here. Their premises included a saw mill. The working conditions were pretty awful, with improper sanitation, no ventilation for those working with the wood and flimsy buildings. Kathryn's post will tell you more. The company went out of business in 1912 but a sawmill company took over from them and annoyed the residents of nearby Dedmere Road with the amount of sawdust which blew into their homes and gardens. The Mathew Couchman who in 1903 was a timber merchant and engineer with a saw mill in Victoria Road had a side line in milling barley or any other meal required by customers. 

Disturbance could come from other sources too- the artist's studio in Duchess Place in Victoria Road (near the corner with Dedmere Road, no longer used as a separate address) was used by the Women's Freedom League for a Suffragettes' meeting in 1912. Mrs Mary Sargant Florence chaired the event. 

Her studio was used in another radical way too- as the base for a Girls' Club. Not much radical in that you may think. But you could count on your hand the number of such organisations for girls as opposed to boys at that time. That young females should spend leisure time outside of their own home (as their brothers routinely did) and away from their families was hardly ever considered important. The club was aimed at working class girls and acted as an educational as well as social venue. The education of working class girls was one of the lowest priorities for society as a whole in that era. A more detailed post about the Girls Club will be published by Kathryn on this blog in the future.

*House numbers have been altered since. This number one is not the number one seen today.

Written and researched by Charlotte Day.

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

Sources:

Bucks Herald. 9th May 1885. South Bucks Standard 8th July 1892. British Library Archives via the BNA. 

Berkshire Chronicle 1st August 1903. As above.

"England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DZ3-RL9 : 13 December 2014), William Lerson Ashby, 1892; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1892, quarter 2, vol. 3B, p. 166, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England. 

Votes For Women?

UPDATED BY CHARLOTTE OCTOBER 2023

We have mentioned the "no tax without presentation" protests of Mary Sargant Florence of Lord's Wood, Marlow Common and Edith Hayes of Bovingdon Green and Bourne End in our previous Groundbreaking Women of Marlow History post which you can read here. This entry gives a background to some of their work in Marlow - and that of their opponents. 

While campaigning for election as M.P for Great Marlow in 1852 (ultimately unsuccessful) candidate Mr Bell pledged to act to give women the vote and got loud cheers from women and men as a result at the hustings. So support for universal suffrage is older in Marlow and the country as a whole than you might think. Bell of course was campaigning on many other points too.

The first specific public meeting in Marlow dedicated solely to supporting women's suffrage that we have so far found record of was held in 1872. The National League of Woman's Suffrage* was behind this meeting, as well as others in neighbouring towns such as High Wycombe and Maidenhead the year before. This group does not seem to have had as much success with regular meetings in Marlow compared to their activities in these neighbouring places. The meetings took the form of lectures and/or debates, with guest speakers, often from London. Attendance is usually said to be modest, or growing. In 1873 a Miss Beedy gave a lecture in Marlow in support of a proposed bill to remove the "electoral disabilities of women". 

Bring your bells and whistles! 

Things were rather quiet as regards public acts in support of women's suffrage in the next two decades within Marlow. But in the Edwardian era, the cause was invigorated by the determined Sargant Florence mentioned above. In 1908 the Public Hall (now the Masonic centre) in St Peter's Street saw a meeting of the Women's Freedom League to debate the issue of women paying tax when they had no say at the ballot box about how that tax should be spent. The meeting was presided over by a London member, Mrs Holmes. This meeting had been well advertised in advance and so those opposed to votes for women, or general troublemakers came armed for action. As soon as the meeting open, a crowd of young men came in and stood at the back of the room. From there, they did their utmost to disrupt proceedings and drown out all speakers. They blasted tin whistles, rang hand bells and sang a raucous  version of the National Anthem whenever one of the women on the stage attempted to speak. In the end the meeting was abandoned before most of the women had been on the stage. Some went to an ante room to attempt some kind of plan on their tax protests, but the youths followed and forced their way into the room. No one was thankfully hurt.  If the mob thought they'd silence the women for good, they were however wrong. Perhaps it is not surprising that several subsequent meetings of the Freedom League were held in the quieter surroundings of Lord's Wood. The ladies would however soon be back in the town centre. 

The following year the group met there to discuss what to do about the forthcoming Kings Speech. Some hoped it would include a mention of voting rights for women, but should it not, the League was going to protest on the spot. Meredith MacDonald volunteered to be the Marlow groups representative in London. There would first be a deputation to ask for the voting issue to be included in the  Speech, where Meredith would also represent our group.  During their debate, a visiting woman from Australia expressed the view that politics had become more responsible and political debates more calm since the vote had been extended there.

 How many less well off Marlow women attended the meeting we do not know. It was held in the afternoon when many were at work. Reports about meetings tend to focus on those in organisational roles or giving speeches, who tended to be better off. But the issues of course affected all. 

Suffragists in Market Square

The ladies (and their male supporters) decided to have a large scale open air meeting in the Market Square in 1910. The crowd was said to be considerable although the caveat was added that many were curious children. Although some mention is made of cat calls and the like, the event seems to have been more more peaceful than previous ones. Mrs Sargant Florence presided over many of the meetings around this time. It may have been hard to hire some premises due to the fear by the owners that damaging trouble would follow. Another venue used by the women was the now demolished "Duchess Studio" in Victoria Road, which housed a girls club supported by many of the women attending. 

Hands off my property

In 1911 & 1912, Mary Sargant Florence and Edith Hayes had both decided to stop paying their taxes in protest at their lack of voting rights. Their jewellery was seized in lieu, and auctioned off in the High Street by Mr Kendall. The women were prepared to let everyone know their sacrifice so marched through the town, banners aloft, and alerting all as to the turn of events. The secretary of the Tax Resistance League, Mrs Stanley Edwards, joined the ladies - Sargant Florence was a founder member of this movement. Also in attendance were many supporters from far and wide - including London. One member of the Tax Resistance League gave a speech in which she stated that it was "the duty of women taxpayers in this country to refuse payment of all imperial taxes until such times as they are allowed through their elected representatives in parliament to express their opinions as to the way in which these large sums should be spent." During the sale, Mr Kendall might well have felt a little intimidated. He was at pains to stress he was just doing his job. Most if not all of the seized items were bought by supporters of one of the Leagues or the other and proudly and publicly returned to their owners. Auction over, the women took the chance to hold a protest meeting against the seizure and sale. In 1914 the two again had property seized in lieu of unpaid tax, and the unfortunate George Kendall was again responsible for selling it off. A dog cart, silver kissing cup and candlesticks were the purloined articles this time around. 

National League For Opposing Women's Suffrage

This group lived up to its name and was also active in Marlow, if for a shorter period. They were for various reasons against any extension of the vote to women. The first Marlow based meeting of the group seems to be that that occured in January 1913, in the town hall.  Marlow set up their own branch in March 1913. It was held in the home of Mr W C Lyndell (The Cedars as it is now known) and his wife was the honorary secretary. Alfred Davis was the honorary treasurer - a figure better known for giving his name to the Marlow Football club ground in honour of his work in the sporting sphere. Other committee members included "Miss Wethered", Lady Frances Higginson, Mrs Bath, Mrs Hawton, Mrs Fell, Mrs Thomas, and Miss Hewett. The group first meeting ended with the successfully passed resolution to ask their local MPs to vote against women's suffrage. (Some of whom were at the meeting.) It seems our local groups activities were curtailed by the First World War and I can't find much evidence that the initial enthusiasm saw many more meetings. 

We know which side won, although if you were not over 30 or a homeowner, the vote was still denied to you in 1918 while it was granted to other women. It wasn't until 1928 that all woman over 21 could vote. 

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

© MarlowAncestors

* This group was founded in 1867 and later was part of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. A meeting of the latter, non political and non militant, were held at Danesfield in 1912. (Mr & Mrs Hornby Lewis then in residence) 

Related posts:

Women's riots of 1800 - here

General listing of posts related to women's history in Marlow and also general everyday life - here

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

Sources include:

The Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions Volume 13 edited by Jessie Bourchet (1882) and Volume 4 1873. 

Annual Report of the National Society for Women's Suffrage 1872, digitized by Google. Accessed August 2020.

First Report of the Executive Committee, National Society for Women's Suffrage.  July 1872. 

 South Bucks Standard May 1908, February 1909. January & November 1910, January & April 1912, March 1913. 

Maidenhead Advertiser January 1913. 

Woman's Franchise Journal 11 February 1909. 

The Vote, November 1912. 

Slough, Eton and Windsor Observer, 28 February 1914 , Slough Library.