From Manor House to Mangle-Rooms

 

In this blog we tend to focus on the less famous and/ or wealthy residents of Marlow past in order to represent the majority of people living here in days gone by. But this post is about some of the fancier residences in town and what the fashionable locals were seeking or would expect to have in their ideal homes prior to 1850. For many, the choice of where to live was about finding somewhere affordable and hopefully warm and well maintained. Unfortunately affordability and comfort did not necessarily go together! 

The earliest home I will deal with is Marlow's manor house, at the time of the death of Constance Le Despenser in 1416. Her husband Thomas was executed in 1400 but Constance managed to keep her customary widow's or dower portion of the estate, one third of the manor. When she died, an inquisition post mortem was held. This was a customary examination of what property someone held at their death, of who it was held etc, in order to facilitate it passing to the correct heirs, and to protect the interests the Crown. The inquisitions were supposed to be thorough and accurate but it's amusing how often they come with incomplete or inaccurate information- in particular what right someone had to land or when they were granted it. But Constance's one third of the manor included "two rooms in the site of the manor, built above and below at the end of the great chamber, the deyhous [dairy] and cow-house at the entrance to the court of the granary there" as well as one bay of the great barn. She of course also received various pieces of land and woodland, rent from the mill farm, and a third of the manor money spinners such as tolls from the market and fairs, court fines, and the "view of the frankpledge",  that is the money forfeited by a group of people within the manor if one of their member committed a crime. These cow houses and barns might seem rustic accessories for the home of a granddaughter of a king, but they were essential for the running of the household. We do not know how much time, if any, Constance herself actually spent at the manor here as she had other property to choose from. 

 One of Marlow's West Street homes. 

These type of agricultural outbuildings were still a selling point for large and expensive Marlow homes into the early 19th century. Some were relics of a farming past for the property, others proudly modern. Remnantz had a dairy for example and the 9 bedroom home known as The Cottage (later Quoitings, not the same as Oxford Cottage) still had both a dairy, an extensive cow house and a granary in 1846. Almost all the larger houses of West Street in particular could boast of some kind of barn, piggery or cow house prior to 1820, and they were not considered incompatible with genteel living when situated a suitable distance from the house. 

Above, the dairy at Remnantz as seen from West Street.  Cow name plaques were still on display inside in the 1990's including, yes, a Daisy. 

In the 1600's and 1700s in particular, one of the chief features of a property advertised is access to a private well. This was essential to a large household before mains water could be relied upon. Aware that not all wells are created equal in terms of reliability and cleanliness, the property advertiser's usually specify that the properties well is truly good or "sweet". Drainage was a contentious issue. Even Lady Queensbury, renting the Deanery in St Peters Street in 1879, encountered the problem of evil smelling odours wafting into her otherwise pleasant home. She described these as being so overwhelming that she was unable to use some of the rooms, including her own bedroom. Her daughter went further and said the odour was reminiscent of a fitting human body she had encountered while travelling in Patagonia! The cesspits were moved from under the house to a further distance, but apparently still caused a nuisance. 

A separate brewhouse was a standard feature of the better houses in the same period.

Still outside, the actual planting of a garden in terms of flowers rarely gets mentioned.  The wow factor in Georgian and Regency Marlow was all about the tastefully planted shrubberies, gravel walks, and in the largest gardens, mature or "forest trees" in the "pleasure garden" -as opposed to the kitchen garden which was ideally walled to provide shelter for crops. Garden fashions came and went, and what is promoted by Marlow house sellers isn't necessarily what London buyers would have considered the last word on garden design. Lawns feature more as a desirable aspect after the 1840's. Greenhouses were also desirable as they could help the family enjoy a much wider range of fruit and flowers at the tail end of the growing season. The largest Marlow homes boasted more than one greenhouse or glasshouse, designed to cater for plants preferring different temperatures or humidity. Few could compete with the huge orchard house (glasshouse for fruit trees) of Court Garden. Orchards as a whole, some quite small, were much more common however. 

Stabling was taken for granted in those larger properties. Marlow Place could accommodate 10 horses in 1834 and Thames Bank between 6-8 in 1812. A double coach house was something to aspire to, perhaps a smaller chaise or gig house too, and a carthouse for the more practical. Paddocks for the horses are not often mentioned although many of the houses in Marlow did come with meadow land. In reality there was no shortage of grazing in the town centre and the tenants of these "closes" or pieces of enclosed land behind the High Street for example were often not the occupiers of the house or business attached to it. 

A "brick and tile" house description showed the potential purchaser they would not be buying an old fashioned thatched or timber framed residence. "Sashed" is often added to this description to show the property had modern sash windows. Bow windows followed these as a feature of note, and continued to be specifically mentioned as a selling point into the 1850's here. 

 

Moving inside, the most attention was always given to describing the entrance hall (first impressions count!) and rooms used for entertaining. If you relied on printed house advertisements from the 1700's and early 1800s you'd almost imagine no home in Marlow came with a kitchen. They are rarely considered worthy of a specific mention as they will "only" be the domain of the staff.  However because the smooth running of the house was dependent on these practical features, a token description of the home having all the necessary "domestic offices" was usually added. These were of course not offices in the modern sense but the provision of facilities for running the household such as laundry rooms and stores. An outside detached wash house was a desirable feature here prior to around 1820 because it took the work away from the peace of the house. Prospect House at the junction of Wycombe and Little Marlow Road was especially proud of their "excellent" wash house around the late 1700s. Some homes were advertised with a specific "mangle room" later. (The older 'box mangles" were hefty pieces of kit, and needed a lot more room than the Victorian kind with rollers that we tend to think of) The traditional position of the kitchens changed over time, from basement accommodation and back extensions  to a more central spot in the home. The cooks at Remnantz must have been glad indeed when the kitchens moved from the relatively gloomy cellar to the floor above, saving them tramping up a flight of stairs. Back kitchens which occasionally feature in Georgian house ads refer to what we would later call a scullery. Sometimes rooms specific to the upper servants use do get detailed, for example a housekeepers room, and a butler's or footman's pantry. 

 

Bedrooms feature much less prominently in property advertising than they do now. We often mention the number of bedrooms first because it's an important search criteria for us. The exact number of bedrooms usually  got left out in the 1700s advertisements, in favour of lengthier descriptions of the sort of rooms you would entertain visitors in. All homes had bedrooms, but not all could boast several reception rooms so the print space was given over to the those more distinguishing features. The scope of servant accommodation was also usually left fairly vague  - usually just described as  "ample" or "suitable" or a mention was made of attics, a traditional spot for a maid's bedroom. For comparison, Marlow Place had 10 bedrooms in 1834, The Cottage 9 in the same year and Court Garden 8 in 1848.  Dressing rooms were a standard feature of these more substantial properties. 

Around 1800 and for a period of about 10 years it was fashionable in Marlow to describe the dining room as an "eating room." The wealthy would expect at least a drawing room and breakfast room (otherwise morning room or morning parlour) in addition, if not a library. The most fashionable and modern houses between about 1810 - 1830 e.g Thames Bank and Spinfield, boasted of rooms separated by folding or French doors that would allow two or three rooms to be used together to form a large single space for dances. Wine cellars were frequently described, but some houses had a beer cellar too. 

From the 1840's billiard rooms start becoming more of a promoted feature in Marlow, peaking in the 1890's. The Cottage had a newly built self contained billiards room on offer in 1846, a good solution if no existing space could be sacrificed. As time went on, the type of house offering a dedicated billiards room includes the less substantial properties more often.

Moving down the scale, a newly built 3 bedroom house in West Street in 1840 could offer 3 good bedrooms, a parlour, roomy kitchen, pantry, and a wash house with pump, stable, yard, and good gardens. The house was promoted as having a "passage entrance" which was the next best thing to a large entrance hall. This was important because this distinguished the house from a truly old fashioned or smaller scale one in which every room opened into each other, and the front one directly onto the street too. 

Another forgotten type of home bonus was the lease of a home that came with a pew in the parish church. Less common was an icehouse, but Court Garden had one in 1848 as did Spinfield. 

Last word goes to the location of our ancestors perfect home. Advertisements naturally extolled the delights of fine views, especially of Quarry Woods or the river. But there's much more focus on describing the healthy climate or excellent air that a particular spot enjoyed - or so they said. This is understandable given the number of diseases believed to be caused at the time by damp or unhealthy air. Even the type of soil the homes were built on was considered important, with heavy clay considered especially dangerous to health. Court Garden was advertised as sitting on chalk and gravel soil when up for rent in 1848. However as this soils chief advantage was supposed to be that it was well drained, and given the frequent basement flooding Court Garden suffered from, this seems to be a somewhat optimistic selling point!

Among the spots in Marlow praised for their healthy situation in the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian periods was Newtown Road (Little Marlow Rd end), Prospect House, Spinfield, Highfields, and Oxford Road. Amusingly, almost any home not located within either the High Street, that end of West Street or St. Peter's Street, gets described prior to 1840 as "near Marlow" rather than within it. Thames Bank, Oxford Cottage, Western House, Tylecotes and The Glade/Cedar House are amongst the properties so described.

 

I have compiled the above after reading and comparing a vast number of property descriptions and auction notices etc specific to Marlow. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

© Marlow Ancestors. 

Related posts:

If you are interested in a specific house in Marlow, take a look at the post index here

For posts about everyday life in old Marlow see the index here

And to find all mentions of an individual on the blog, use the A-Z person index on the top drop down menu. 

Ann Barney, Almswoman

Ann was born Ann Gomm circa 1809 in Bristol according to the census. By 1829 she was in Marlow as she married James Barney, a bricklayer at Marlow in that year.

On the 1841 census the couple lived in St Peter's Street Marlow with their family - George, Sarah, James and Henry. In 1851 they were at Dean Street. James senior died in 1853. After that Ann supported herself by working as a laundress. This was a common occupation for widows to follow but a very poorly paid one. She lived with 4 of her children in Berwick House, the former parish workhouse in Munday Dean Lane which by that period was subdivided into rental accommodation for the poorest families. On the 1871 census she lived in West Street Marlow.

Ann entered the Almshouse circa 1878. This would have been after she was elected to the almshouses by the trustees of the almshouses charity. She may have nominated herself for this, or someone else may have alerted the trustees to a her deserving case.

On the 1881 census Ann was living in her almshouse with her granddaughter Gertude Barney aged 11 (daughter of Henry). Within the next few years Gertrude moved on and Ann was left alone in the house. She became increasingly frail and by 1886 needed help to even get into her bed. Esther Wethered (widow of the former vicar of Hurley Florence Wethered- yes Florence was a male*) lived in nearby Oxford Cottage and along with another wealthy volunteer "parish visitor" Mrs Graves alerted Walter Lovegrove** one of the Guardians of the poor to the fact that Ann needed someone to take care of her. Walter wrote to the Wycombe Board of Guardians to request that Ann receive money to pay for a nurse attendant. This was refused on the grounds that Ann received a small income of €1 a month as an almswoman and thus was not legally classified as destitute. Nor on the same grounds would they give her a ticket to enter the workhouse infirmary for treatment despite the local doctor believing that would be the best thing for her.

Ann herself paid for Mary Stroud of Oxford Road to attend her for the sum of 2 shillings 6 pence a week. Mary got her breakfast, did her laundry, helped her get into bed and generally kept an eye on her during the day. But she did not remain overnight. 

Ann's family weren't absent from her life. The local surgeon would later testify that her daughter "Mrs Allum" had always been "very kind" to her mother but no longer lived in Marlow. Neither did her granddaughter Ellen Barney (daughter of George) but she still came to visit and did what she could for Ann when she did so. One of Ann's sons sometimes contributed to the cost of the nurse, as and when he could. The family members absent from Marlow apparently did not realise that Mary Stroud did not remain with Ann at night.

By 1887 Ann was struggling to afford Mary Stroud's attendance, even though one of her sons was paying part of the weekly cost. She asked Mary to pawn a blanket and dress of hers at Mr Batting's pawn shop in West Street. Embarrassed, she appealed to Ann to say the items came from an invented person rather than herself. The dress realised 2 shillings 6d and the blanket 1 shilling 6d.

Shortly afterwards Ann was found dead having fallen out of bed in trying to reach something and hit her head causing a fatal apopletic fit, though Dr Culhane testified that she had twice before had apoplectic fits caused by "overeating". The coroner said he felt that old people should not be left in a position where they had no attendance at night. The jury returned a verdict of death by natural causes. Her inquest was held at the Clayton Arms, a little further down Oxford Road, off Quoiting Square.

For more Oxford Road related posts see here 

Post by Charlotte Day.

Other Almswomen posts:

Sarah Evans

More Almswomen

First post about almswomen

Other related posts:

*Florence Wethered, eccentric Vicar of Hurley

**Walter Lovegrove biography

See Bucks Herald 11th June 1887 and South Bucks Free Press June 10th 1887 for details of Ann's inquest.

Census transcriptions, my own from microfilm. Census information remains Crown copyright.

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

But None Of Us Are Perfect! New Court and Globe House

UPDATED NOVEMBER 2024

New Court house and outbuildings were, controversially at the time, built in 1875-77 partially on what had previously been the grounds of Globe House in the High Street. I am uncertain how old Globe House was though I think that it was probably the home of Luke Medwin in the 1780s. There was another house too which stood next to it also fronting onto the High Street and also demolished to make way for the stable and other buildings of New Court.

Between (at least) the 1810s and 1840s the Hone family owned that other house and much of the land behind it which would become the site of the New Court grounds. John Hone left his High Street home to his son also called John in his will written in 1813 and proved 1819.

In 1831 the Hone property was empty. Two years later it was described as consisting of the house, lawn, greenhouses, pleasure garden, orchard, kitchen garden, stables, large store house and coach houses and had an estimated annual value of £50 a year.

John junior had married Susannah Gage daughter of the vicar of Bisham in 1822. She did own the house after his death but I haven't got John's will and their daughter Susannah junior who died young in 1844 left all her (unspecified) property to her mother so it is possible the house went first to Susannah junior.

Globe House meanwhile was occupied by Stephen Gardiner a merchant in 1841 and by Elizabeth Welch in 1851. It was worth £12 a year in 1833. Behind it were sheds and a yard. 

George Davenport lived there from at least 1861 to the time of his death in 1869. George had earlier in his life been declared insane due to religious mania and a generosity of habit that was considered irrational. George had for instance refused to prosecute a man who stole his coat on the grounds that none of us are perfect! He also couldn't stop giving money away to the point that the wellbeing of himself, his wife and their children was considered to be under threat. Thus the official declaration of insanity. 

By the time he moved to Marlow poor George was a widower. He had a paid companion to "watch" him, as well as four other servants. He died of apoplexy in 1869 aged 61. His obituaries speak of his great generosity to the Marlow poor so those impulses of his hadn't been entirely curbed.

53 year old Esther Wethered, who had an independent income, was resident in the house in 1871. Née Peel she was the widow of Florence James Wethered who had for years been the Vicar of Hurley near Marlow before his death in 1867. Their son Florence Thomas was also Vicar of Hurley. If you are puzzled about these two male uses of the name Florence, don't be. For most of history males were the only bearers of the name.

Esther moved out of Globe House to The Cottage, Oxford Road. Despite the name, The Cottage was not little, but a good sized house. There Esther died in 1903. With her at both of her Marlow homes as well as in Hurley was her long term parlour maid / housemaid Emily Eaton who was originally from Caversham.

Esther had actually wanted to move from Globe House into the Old Workhouse building which was put up for sale by the parish. She put in an offer of £1200 for the building but withdrew from the deal after the offer had been accepted, causing some ructions.

On a more positive note, Esther was a dedicated supporter of the Cottage Hospital both in terms of financial donations and practical gifts for the inpatients such as eggs for their breakfast.

In 1875 Frederic William Berger was the owner of Globe House and it was he who knocked it down, and the house next door which had been occupied by William Vincent Baines a coal and salt merchant in 1871. The demolition in itself didn't get people's backs up, it was what he replaced them with. The street frontage of the property was the stable block and coach house plus a brick entrance archway, the new house being well back from the road. Nowhere else in England, lamented the Bucks Herald, would you be allowed to put the back end of your stables onto a town's main street. For others the red brick of those stables and the size of the arch were a vulgarity no matter where they were placed. In the building trade and architecture community the archway in particular was seen as a triumph of design however.

Globe House had had an archway entrance too, there are some old photos of Marlow which show it however this was itself apparently not hugely old as property descriptions of what I believe to be Globe House in the late 1700s say that the arch then had a room at the top, something which the photographed arch clearly does not so that must be a later archer.

The architect of New Court was not a Marlow man but the builder of the stabling and archway was, Thomas Corby, based right next door to the new stable block. He, his father and their workers built so much of Marlow at the time. I will do a separate post on him and his work in the future. He may have actually built the house as well.

Frederic Berger had previously been living at Court Garden house in Marlow. Hence the not very original New Court title for his new home. He was a horticultural enthusiast famed in gardening circles, especially for the full orchard within a glass house he had at Court Garden. He had much less space to play with - between 2.5 and 3 acres depending on what source you believe - at New Court. But he made sure to include a gardener's lodge within his plans, a vital thing for attracting and keeping the most skilled head gardeners. The grounds also contained substantial glass houses, a vinery, a small orchard and pleasure grounds. Inside the house were seven bedrooms, a morning room, study, dining room, drawing room and kitchen.

Unfortunately Frederic died in 1878 and the house was sold. I could not decipher the name of the person who bought it. It was sold again in 1880 by Mr Norman Layton. See my post on the Rookery in Marlow here for more of how he fits into the Marlow story. 

In 1883 Jane Ward, widow bought the house for her and her (grown up) children. Née Hoane she was a Marlow woman born 1814. Her husband William Lakin Ward was of Essex origin but by then practised in Marlow as a successful solicitor. He was the Clerk to the local Magistrates and the Clerk of the Commissioner of Property, Land and Income Taxes in Marlow. Many a Marlow will I have transcribed from the Victorian era was witnessed or drawn up by him. He died in 1872 before the family moved to New Court. 

Jane was one of those women who were able to vote for the first time when County Councils were first formed in 1889. Not only did she vote  but she banded together with a group of other Marlow women to nominate a (male) candidate to represent Marlow. This level of engagement with the full electoral process so early on was highly unusual for women.

Jane donated books to the town's new Institute's library in 1890 and supported other charities too. 

A list of those attending her funeral and laying wreathes include her household staff - butler Mr Flint, housekeeper Mrs Stretton [Sarah, listed as the cook 1901 census], maids Miss Curd and Miss Sure, head gardener Mr Turnedge and under gardeners Messrs Brinsden and Silver. 

Her grave in All Saints churchyard is shown above.

Her children were also active in local affairs. Daughter Elizabeth never married but filled her time with concern for improving the lives of the poor. She even studied for an examination in domestic hygiene to help her understanding in this area. She also liked gardening and was involved with the parish church. She died aged just 38 in 1888.

Jane's son George Rolls Ward was a mad keen cricketer from his schooldays onwards. He served as the captain of Marlow Cricket Club and Honorary Secretary of Bucks County Cricket Club at different times as well as being a churchwarden, Chairman of Marlow Gas Company and JP. He too never married. He died of pneumonia in 1907 aged 57.

As Jane herself died soon afterwards and in 1908 the house was again up for sale. By this time it had gained the mod con of a bathroom!

Mrs Robert Forrest, widow, was living in the property in 1918 when her daughter Nesta married William Wain of the RAF. Nesta married secondly William Duncan Forbes Liston in 1921. They made their home at New Court but with this we are stretching beyond my normal blog time period so I'll leave it there with just a few more notes. Nesta added a library extension to the house in 1931. She left New Court and the grounds to the people of Marlow. Since the end of the house as a private residence several of the specimen trees which once graced the garden such as the mulberry and Judas trees have been lost though the wellingtonia redwood still soars into the sky. The house still stands however, divided into multiple residences for older people. The archway and stable block remain next to the High Street. You can walk through the arch into a little shopping complex built onto the one time grounds of the house. 

More posts about individual houses in Marlow, big and small, can be found under the "Specific Shops, Streets...Etc" menu option. That's also the place to look for other High Street related posts.

More grave photos on the menu under Graves.

See the Person Index for all mentions of any person on the blog.

Post researched and written by Charlotte Day.

Research sources:

PCC will John Hone held at National Archives Kew and transcribed by me.

1833 parochial assessment surveyor's working notebooks held by my family and transcribed by me.

Census - my transcription of census page images on microfilm.

Bucks Herald 30th October 1875 and April 27th 1907.  Newspapers held by the British Library and accessed via the BNA. 

Boyle's Court and County Guide 1869, digitized by Google.

Death and marriage certificates obtained from the GRO.

Post Office Directory of Northants, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire. Edited by ER Kelly. Published by Kelly and Company London. 1869.

Building News and Engineers Journal, volume 31. Copy held by University of Michigan. Digitized by Google. Other loose physical pages possibly from a different edition of the same publication.

Gardener's Weekly Magazine and Floricultural Cabinet 1863, digitized by Google.

Great Marlow Parish Registers, old transcription by myself.

Reading Mercury 11th December 1875. Copy held in the British Library Archive, accessed via their partnership with the BNA.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day, photos and additional research by Kathryn.

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