Life in 1950s Marlow Part Three Transport and Childhood

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

Post by Charlotte

Transport 

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

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

See a pic of the A30 on Wikipedia here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Childhood 

Schools

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

Reach for the stars, kids

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hobbies, toys and clubs 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life in 1950s Marlow Part Two Employment and Homes

Employment 

Major employer Wethered Brewery off the High Street, celebrated a bicentenary in 1958 with two garden parties for employees. Other larger employers in the town were the local council, Poppets Beads and the building trade in general. 

Poppets beads were plastic costume jewelry items. The company moved into the former cinema in Spittal Square in 1953. The old projectionist's room was used as the manager's office and the old seating area for production. Many of those employed by the company actually worked from home, only visiting the factory to collect the beads which they then strung into necklaces and other pieces. Both men and women were involved in the bead making. The same company also made aircraft parts as a sideline! In 1955 this division moved into its own Chapel Street premises with only a tiny bit of work still taking place amongst the bead making in the old cinema. Soon the cinema was deemed too small also and Poppets left to take over a nearby disused lamp shade factory. The former cinema was eventually acquired by the local council who intended to demolish it and use the site for housing, though this did not end up happening.

On a smaller scale in terms of employment there was Sunnydene and Quarry laundries, the newer cinema in Station Road, Toy Works Limited a toys, games and sporting goods factory in Court Garden (established 1943), the Victoria Engineering Company in Victoria Road, the Greenwich Saw Mill, the Marlow Coach Building Works in Newtown Road (which mainly built caravans such as the Marlow Tudor), C.C.K Limited at 53 High Street which produced women's scarves etc, Dairymaid Ice Cream Supplies in Crown Lane (commercial supplier, run by S.A Hawken), Mines and Putnam high class furniture makers in Station Road, Arnold's factory in Marlow Bottom which made wooden needlework boxes and automatic bottle wash machines plus possibly furniture, the Westhorpe sand /gravel pits and the various local schools, shops, pubs, cafes / tearooms, hauliers, and farms.

Toy Works as mentioned above proudly stated that though a few parts had to be imported from France or Germany most of their products were made with local labour only. Many of their toys were traditional wooden ones like bagatelle boards. The packers were usually female.

C.C.K Limited had moved to Mill Road Marlow from London because of the Blitz and chose never to return to the city after the war ended. Their products were made of plain or printed silk, rayon and wool. As well as fashion scarves they manufactured practical aprons in plastic or woven materials. I haven't been able to find out if their products were actually stocked by any shop in Marlow itself or whether they were all sent elsewhere.

I am aware that a Louisa Dereford and George Dereford ran "Marlow Mosaics" in this era but whether this was their own artistic enterprise solely or whether it was a business that employed additional mosaic artists I am unable to say at this point.

Employment opportunities in the 1950s could still be much constrained by the gender of the job seeker. It worked both ways of course- no one would employ a male nanny or maid but women had especial difficulties. The local press routinely carried job adverts that specified the gender that the successful candidate would have to be, and for the majority males were what was being sought. Some roles you might not predict did go to women more than men however. The traditional assigning of poultry on farms to the care of women for instance is reflected in the desire expressed by the owners of Bencombe Farm at Marlow Bottom in an advert for a female employee to run the poultry and turkey deep litter system there.

It was not uncommon for it to be specified that a prospective female employee who directly engaged with the public would need to be good looking as well as professionally competent. For example when Mac Fisheries in Marlow High Street wanted a female shop assistant in 1955 their advert in the Bucks Advertiser said that she must have a "good appearance and attractive personality". They do however get marks for specifying that the delivery van driver that they also found wanted at the same time could be male or female. That would have been quite unusual.

Marlow's first female police officer, W.P.C Ellington, arrived in 1954 after she transferred from High Wycombe.

Female workers doing exactly the same job as men were paid less than them. It was reasoned men had families to support so needed more money however this reasoning was of course nonsensical as thanks to the recent war the number of households with a female breadwinner had probably never been higher. Pay rates for those doing the same job also varied by age in many industries. Younger workers on farms, in most shops or in certain Post Office roles for instance whether male of female were paid less than those of the same gender over 21 or over 32 depending on the job. 

Get the right position and you never knew where it might take you. The Reading Mercury of 16th August 1958 reported that  Angela Chalk of Marlow and another former stable girl at Pinches stables in Field House Farm had the previous year won jobs working in the stables of a wealthy countess in France.

Those seeking a new situation either locally or further afield could make use of the I.H.B employment agency at 92 High Street Marlow or the government labour exchange. Under the Notification of Vacancies Order 1952 employers in most categories had to recruit only through scheduled employment agencies or the labour exchange. This was intended to mean the government could prioritize filling jobs in critical industries ahead of any others. Understandably, it was not popular with those employers who were de-prioritized. They could advertise a position in the newspaper but applicants had to go through official channels to make any application and stood a chance of being refused permission to contact the advertiser if it was thought they could be of better use to an essential industry or service. Men over 64 and women over 59 could apply for jobs without restriction as presumably they were considered too "old" for the essential industries. The order was rescinded in 1956.

Though the farming industry was less of an employer than it had been previously, it was still an important part of the national economy. A Young Farmer's Club had been formed in Marlow by 1954. Farm hands worked from 7.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and half days on Saturdays. Increasingly other workers were getting their Saturdays off and a couple of weeks of paid holidays a year too. This coupled with the low agricultural industry pay and the long daily hours involved meant the abandoning of land based jobs by country people. Between 1948 and 1954 the number of female farm workers in the Marlow District fell by three quarters and that of males by over half. Mechanisation could only make up for these losses to a certain degree.

General labour shortages generally meant employers had to think of other ways to attract staff. Fines and Putnam the furniture makers of Station Road advertised that their employees could enjoy music while they worked as well as a canteen. Those wanting domestic staff in Marlow often reassured prospective candidates that they would be included in fun outings as part of their job.

Homes

The 1950s was still a notable era for the building of social housing. The council put out tenders for the building of 14 new council houses at Westhorpe Road for instance in 1954. In 1959 the last 38 older houses remaining in Dean Street were ordered to be demolished as the long standing Marlow slum clearance schemes first stage finally drew to a close. Multiple homes in Queens Road were similarly declared unfit for human habitation and compulsorily purchased for future demolition at around the same time. By the end of the decade the council was the biggest landlord in the town. 

The former Carriers Arms in Wycombe Road (now demolished) was used by the council as a hostel for those who had nowhere else to go in the early and mid 1950s. They took over the premises from the Ministry Of Housing. It is possible that originally evacuees or refugees had been put in the building. There was a critical shortage of even this temporary type of accommodation. There were still families living in metal shacks early in the decade at Beechwoods and in converted wooden sheds at Marlow Bottom (as owners and as tenants). The Marlow Bottom situation incensed Wycombe Rural District Councillor Mrs McKelvie who lambasted her colleagues for dragging their feet on providing new homes, rental or to buy, for those living in such structures. The situation was more complicated than it seems. Planning restrictions from on high meant people who had bought land in the village and had put up a temporary home on it while they raised funds for a more substantial structure were prevented from completing their dream despite having sufficient money to do so. In other words it wasn't only poverty (though it certainly could be) that forced people into living in such structures. Home owners could be ready, willing and able to make their shack a comfortable home but were told such work would contravene new planning regulations curtailing fringe developments. In a hope of exceptions or a governmental change of heart people clung on in their shacks or tried to sneakily extend or improve them without being noticed.

For private buyers in Marlow two estate agencies come auctioneers were available in the shared premises of no 37 High Street, Simmons with Gray and co, at no 84 there was George Kendall estate agent, valuer and auctioneer and at no 3 auctioneer and estate agents Lawrence and Laird. New homes were being thrown up everywhere possible in the Marlow urban area during the 1950s once materials and labour shortages caused by the war had eased, including the Wycombe Road and Oak Tree Road area, at Highfields, Lock Road, Chiltern Road, Riverside Drive, Gypsy Lane and Spinfield Park. While shortages of materials did remain private homes could only be built with a (hard to come by) licence from the council, Under rules set down by the Ministry of Housing priority was to be given to social housing on all potential urban development land.  

Bungalows remained highly desirable homes. A small 4 room bungalow in Wethered Road with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room could be bought in 1954 for £1750. Most homes were in the £2,000 - £4,500 bracket however.

Not every home yet had electricity in the 50s. Some of the older pre-war council houses for instance received electric lights and sockets in 1957 but others remained without it. Certain Chapel Street homes would not install electricity until the 1970s. The Electrics Company (Marlow) Limited in Market Square despite its name sold many calor gas appliances. These were not only stoves but lighting apparatus, gas powered fridges and gas fueled irons too. Many people kept oil lamps in case of winter power failures. Where electricity was present it was not necessarily installed in every room of a house. In any case in the early 1950s winter electricity demand often outstripped supply and Marlow users could expect one, even two, scheduled days a week when their supply would be turned off. These were notified of in advance as colder days drew near. The southern Electricity Board had an office and showroom in the High Street.

Coal and coke for fires were supplied by amongst others G.E Stevens of West Street and George Deane and Co (who had taken over the business and name of old Marlow company W.T Porter). Deanes were also one of the town's removal companies so very useful to have around! Early in the decade coke and coal supplies were not sufficient for the town needs due to nationwide problems. This left families having to severely ration their use of hot water at times.

By no means all Marlow homes had a bathroom in the 1950s, or even an indoor loo. Indeed there were houses without bathrooms in Wycombe Road in the mid 1960s, and in South Place even later, in the 1970s.

Antique furnishings were clearly popular amongst 1950s Marlovians. Bishop Limited in West Street specialised in antique silver, Sheffield plate and fine porcelain and there were at least two further antique shops on the town. There was also Walker's Antiques in the High Street. Secondhand but not antique furniture was sold by Taplins in Oxford Road. Buying secondhand furniture was seen by many as preferable as pre-war items were regarded as better quality. 

New furniture, carpets and other home furnishings could be bought from Norman Heals at 44 High Street as did Alan Hunt's Market Square shop. Mr Hunt's wares could be bought by way of a hire purchase scheme with payments spread over a period of up to two years. He also sold bedding from his second premises in Spittal Street. Hines and Putnam of Station Road were high quality upholsterers early in the decade who proudly made and marketed the "Marlow Suite" of sofa and armchairs. They moved from Marlow later in the decade but seem to have continued to make the Marlow suite. 

Washing machines could be purchased from Platts radio and television shop but there was still laundry services in the town -Quarry Laundry offered a free sock darning service to their customers - and hand washing in tubs wasn't yet quite redundant. Older people thought it superior! 

Pretty much every little usual item for DIY or home maintenance could be bought from the packed Chalk's ironmongers in the High Street, which under different but related families had a long heritage in Marlow. See my post here for the history of this building.

Not every home had a telephone by any means in the 1950s but the public call box provision in the town was expanding. The hamlet of Munday Dean got its first box during the 1950s.

For sources for this series of posts see Part One.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

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

Marlow in World War Two 1944-45

This is the last in a series of posts about Marlow during WW2.

Part One dealt with preparations for, and the early months of, the war here

Part Two covered 1940-41 here.

Part Three Covered 1942-3 here.

February 1944

Mr Ball of Westfield Medmenham is calling for local farmers to donate animals to a charity auction at Reading in aid of the Red Cross.

April 1944 

In the last 12 months, 43 Marlow families have experienced their family members being held as prisoners of war.

The Marlow Red Cross commanded by Julia Wethered of the High Street, plans to open a medical supply depot in the coming weeks.

The Ministry of Fuel reduces the amount of coal and coke that households can order, acknowledging that for some the new limits will not be enough for their needs.

Expectant mothers can now order an additional rational book for their unborn child so that they can access extra eggs, milk and meat (when available) during their pregnancy.

May 1944

A series of fundraising events take place in the town as part of the national Salute The Soldier Week fundraising drive. The aim is to encourage both cash donations and (in particular) investment in war bonds and savings bonds. To sell such savings products the savings committee hut in Marlow Bottom will open every day. The village has set its own target of £300 raised. Dwight D Eisenhower sends a letter to the town as a whole wishing Marlow luck with their efforts. His letter is itself auctioned off as part of the fundraising and is sold for £3 9 shillings. Novelist Rebecca West takes part in a charity quizz event at Court Garden as part of the week. A town parade to mark the week is joined in by 1300 people. The villagers of Marlow Bottom raise more than double their £300 target, while Marlow as a whole raises an astonishing £290,000. Later in the year the government gives Marlow a plaque to commemorate this success but where this was put we do not know (somewhere in town centre was the planned place).

June 1944 

Marlow Bottom's Red Cross volunteers arranged a fete to raise money for interned British residents of the Channel Islands.

July 1944 

Marlow Urban District Council has a target of collecting 10,000 books from the town for paper recycling. Children from the Girls, Boys, Roman Catholic and private Dial Close schools are all dispatched to do door to door collections. Books of educational or antiquarian interest are not desired. Before the end of the month this target is exceeded by 2,000.

The volunteers at the British Restaurant in Marlow have been so overworked in recent months that there has been a fear that some will breakdown. The restaurant has had to stop serving suppers as a result, and is making a loss but at first refuses to follow official guidance as to raising their prices as some Marlow people cannot afford to pay more. In November losses are so great they are forced to increase prices against their wishes.

August 1944

Harry Belcher of West Street is fined for missing 5 Home Guard drill sessions (he was compulsorily enlisted into the Guards). His wife has been ill and in need of attendance plus as a private hire car driver his business is dependant on him being available in the evenings when drill practice is held. Harry feels he will lose his business if he keeps being called to practice when he needs to work and points out that he is hardly a war shirker - he joined up to fight in the last war when underage and suffered captivity as a prisoner of war then. Him and his wife have already lost their son in the current war and clearly with his grief and financial worries he has had enough. He tells those trying him that he has done enough for his country. 

October 1944

Leading Aircraft woman Betty Sweetman of Oak Tree Avenue has been working at RAF Fighter Command as an operations room "plotter" but has now been posted to similar operations in France. 

November 1944

Mrs Allen of Holland Road writes to the Bucks Free Press complaining about the terrible food in the British Restaurant at Marlow. Her veg was undercooked and her treacle tart dry and hard. Wycombe and Maidenhead she says have fine restaurants but not Marlow.

December 1944

Helga Stene, an escapee from Norway, gives a talk on life under the Nazis to a large audience at Court Garden.

 

Quarry Laundry organizes a Christmas Quizz to raise funds to buy every Marlow P.O.W 200 cigarettes. Any leftover funds are to go to their employees away serving in the war.

January 1945

The British Restaurant closes for good. Later this year it reopens as a canteen for schoolchildren.

The Marlow Bottom.W.I resolve to knit warm clothes for children in liberated countries.

February 1945

Marlow Urban District Council are on the urgent hunt for the blankets they gave out to the evacuees who came to the town, most of whom have now gone home, some probably with their blankets. The Ministry of Health has told the council that they will be charged for any blankets not collected and returned to the Ministry.

Car headlights can now be unmasked in a lifting of blackout regulations .

May 1945

May 7th - Germany unconditionally surrenders with the surrender coming into effect on the 8th, known as V.E Day. The official announcement comes over the radio. However everyone knows about the Allied victory already, and before the King's public address the town is festooned with flags and bunting and the churches have already hosted thanksgiving prayers.

The official announcement is broadcast in the cinema in Station Road and to the dancers at Court Garden at a quickly organized celebration event. A collection is made at the dance for POWs. Impromptu street parties spring up around the town before the surrender announcement, followed on V.E Day by more organized ones. One of the latter is in Glade Road and involves not only a tea in the street but sports and games in a nearby field for the children, a magic show, singing and dancing. Another tea is organized for  children jointly by the mothers of lower Newtown Road and Dedmere Road. Mr and Mrs Hodges of Victoria Road organize a party to which those of Station Road are also invited. Poor Mrs Hodges, falls over in one of the associated running races and fractures her arm.

A hundred children from upper Newtown Road and Little Marlow Road attend a celebration tea in the church hall followed by games in the park.

At Whitsun a victory fete is held at the Red Cross hut at Marlow Bottom. 

Prisoners of war returning home to recuperate after their release from medical treatment will temporarily get double rations every week to help them rebuild their strength.

Salvation Army band member Arthur Furmston returns home after over 5 years as a POW and is given a welcome home tea and social by other church members.

A special church service at All Saints gives thanks to the civilian volunteers that have helped during the war, as they are about to be dismissed. These and various youth groups gather and parade to the church beforehand.

Land girl Miss J Duncalffe gets a scarlet armband in honour of her four years continuous service at Seymour Court Farm.

July 1945

The parents of some of the last few child evacuees in Marlow have proved untraceable so they will need to stay for now.

August 1945

Victory over Japan is announced by the Prime Minister on the radio. The next two days are declared holidays but some Marlow people haven't heard the news and turn up for work anyway on the first day. Flags and bunting are again brought out across the town and people dance on the lawns of Court Garden. Thanksgiving services are held in the parish church and the Baptist church. Residents of South Place and Platts Row in Mill Road have a joint V.J Day street party complete with fireworks and a bonfire. The town's children are treated to a tea, sports competitions along with more informal games like pillow fighting and more fireworks. There are similar treats for children at Little Marlow.

Wethered's brewery have their own celebrations for their employees and families.

William Perry of Berwick Road dies after celebrating in the pub with his friends, drinking and dancing. When he gets home a little worse for wear he vomits and chokes as a result.

At Medmenham there is a garden party at the Vicarage, a dance in the village hall and a tea for the village children for V.J Day celebrations.

September 1945

Councillor Kibblewhite, hopes the Ministry of Agriculture will be able to give back Gossmore Recreation Ground as the town sorely needs space for football etc. At the moment a crop of clover is growing in it.

Mr Whalley of the Lawn is told by the council he must postpone plans to extend his home as due to the war labourers have been in very short supply and are more needed elsewhere in the town. In particular they are going to be building some long planned council houses in Seymour Park Road, which have had to be put off repeatedly because of labour and material supply problems.

October 1945

Marlow residents visit High Wycombe Guildhall to view a display of crucial war items secretly made in Wycombe during the war. These include tank and bomber plane parts.

November 1945

Memorial services are held as usual for the dead of the previous war. The Vicar in his address acknowledges that the recent war has robbed many of their last faith in God and they have turned from the church.

Late in 1945 

Marlow building company Y.J Lovell is building "prefab" accommodation in Reading. These are an emergency response to war-derived housing shortages.

Some Sources=

Bucks Free Press 25th August 1944, 25th May 1945, 16th November 1945. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Personal Interview.

Bucks Herald 18th February 1944, British Library Archives, Via the BNA.

British Journal of Commerce, Post War Trading Edition, 1945. London.

Coster family of Marlow

 There were historically many Costers in Marlow. We will feature as many as we can on this blog in the future but for this post I will deal with the children and descendants of a particular couple- Edward Joseph Coster and his wife Elizabeth nee Fleming. 

Edward was almost always known by his middle name Joseph. He even married Elizabeth under that name in 1843! He was then 21 years old. Edward was the keeper of Marlow's lock for many years from 1848 onwards. This was not a particularly well paid job (though you did get a house with it) and he also worked as a cordwainer until at least 1863 to supplement the family income. In 1854 it was decided by the powers that be that many Thames lock keepers were to lose their wages entirely, including Edward whose £3 a month was cut off. In return for keeping their homes and the tolls given by pleasure craft he was to work for free! Bear in mind that the pleasure craft traffic could be very low outside of the holiday season. Fortunately several of his daughters remained at home as adults and brought in an income from their "fancy" needlework. 

Elizabeth's origins are unclear. On the census she usually says that she was born in Shoreditch London. She might be a relative of the Flemings who had Marlow Place as their country home though there would be a great gulf between that family and that of her future husband in terms of wealth. There was a Fleming connection to the Wyatt family of Marlow not obviously anything to do with the Flemings of Marlow Place and possibly another Fleming family group too so that needs to be born in mind.

Edward grew up in a long gone cottage by the also lost "Tithe Barn" near Marlow Bridge. 

Lock keeping was well established in the Coster family. Edward's dad Richard* spent much of his working days as a foreman carpenter and boat repairer at Marlow Wharf for the Thames Commissioners as well as boatbuilding on his own account, but later in life became the lock keeper at Boveney, Bucks. Richard's brother Thomas was the lock keeper at Temple, the next lock along the river from Marlow. Thomas retired in 1883 because of ill health.

Edward and Elizabeth had eleven or twelve children. They raised their family as Congregationalists, attending the church in Quoiting Square. Edward had not been raised that way himself but Elizabeth may have been. 

One of their children, 7 year old Willie drowned at the lock in 1868 after apparently falling into the water unseen by any adult. Children of lock keepers were quite frequently lost in this way in the 1800s. The Thames was a generally dangerous place in Victorian times. Few years went by without a drowning, or several, in the vicinity of Marlow. In his position of lock keeper Edward more than once had to assist in the recovery of the bodies. Still, apparently, his job didn't merit any pay!

Another child of Edward and Elizabeth, Edwin also died as a child, though not as a result of an accident. Another son Charles was probably also a child death.

Edward's son Edmund became a prominent Marlow grocer at no 20 High Street (old numbering. In later numbering was no 50, also eventually Edmund was at no 52 as well). It is possible that when he appeared in the 1881 census as a grocer's assistant it was for Noah Bartlett of West Street who married Edmund's sister Ellen, though he also had a relative Richard Coster who had a grocery shop in West Street (that Richard suffered bankruptcy in 1888 and disappeared, his family apparently never seeing him again). Noah Bartlett was also a congregational man. Sadly Ellen died less than a year into her marriage. More about Noah in this post here. The post contains a link to an image of Ellen's grave and a picture of Noah's premises in the modern day.

Above, high class provisions available from Coster & Son.. 1931. 

Edmund eventually expanded into a second premises in West Street. This sold grocery and later some hardware. Like most Marlow grocers of Victorian and Edwardian times Edmund suffered multiple thefts from his premises. The lists of items stolen from him give as a flavour of his stock- packets of tea, pots of jam, bottles of sauce, canned fruit and packs of candles. He died in 1930, his wife Mary (nee Carter) in 1933. By 1920 their son Sydney was a partner in the business. After Edmund's death the High Street shop was taken over by their son Sydney who used no 50 for groceries and no 52 as a tobacconist with some lines of "fancy goods" too. Adverts from his early years in charge show that he specialized in the grocery side in Empire butter and bacon. A 1933 advert says an A Coster was also running the shop. Poor Sydney died suddenly when just 54 while acting as goalkeeper for the mens' hockey team. He had played for Marlow for years and was the Captain of the Bucks Hockey Association. I think that he was one of the special constables of Marlow. By 1948 only the tobacconist and fancy goods side of the business at 52 was still running but it was still "Costers" for years to come.

Emily, sister to Edmund, Willie and Ellen married Marlow  High Street architect Richard Wellicome of Marlow in 1878 at the Congregational Church. Her sister Alice married West Street grocer Albert G Fleet there 7 years later. Albert both ran his own shop and assisted Edmund Coster in Edmund's secondary West Street premises. When their church needed to raise £300 for renovations in 1889 Alice was amongst the stall holders at the fundraising bazaar (running a Japanese theme stall). Alice also trained the children of the non-conformist teetotal Excelsior Band Of Hope (which was based in the Congregational church) singing and elocution.

Emily Coster as Emily Wellicome operated as a milliner and fancy draper from no 5 High Street (old numbering), eventually assisted by her daughter Florence. Astonishingly, just like Richard Coster, Richard Wellicome disappeared in the midst of a financial cloud. Wellicome had been the parish surveyor and rate collector and a warrant was issued for his arrest in 1907 for falsifying his accounts. The case drew national press attention and the unfortunate Emily was pressed for interview by journalists. She spoke of her distress. A cryptic postcard was sent by him from Gloucester to their 14 year old daughter Mabel saying "We are just off, feeling better, best love to all". A Marlow woman thought she had seen him on a London omnibus with a "wild" look on his face. Some of his account books were discovered abandoned in a bag at a Liverpool quayside but of the man himself neither police nor his family could find any trace then or ever. Later that year Emily's brother Edmund the grocer, who held the mortgage for Richard and Emily's home put a lien on the property so the absent Richard could not sell the property without satisfying the debt. All credit to Emily for picking herself up and carrying on. Mind you, with several young children at home what else could she do? By 1920 Emily had retired from her business. Initially she lived in Claremont Gardens but when she died in 1929 she was of 10 Glade Road.

Another sister Anne "Annie" Coster did not marry and worked as a fancy needlewoman. She also helped out in Congregational fundraising events and was, like her dad and brother in law Noah Bartlett, a long standing Sunday School teacher. After the death of her parents she kept her own household in her parents' old Station Road home, no longer needing to work presumably because of parental inheritance. Her also unmarried sister Julia (another former needlewoman) lived with her as did their uncle William Coster. Another fancy needlewoman their sister Lucy died at the age of 32.

Alfred Coster the eldest son of Edward the lock keeper moved to Devon where he worked as a draper. He married Mary Ann Wish in Newton Abbott.

A Mrs Coster, who could be Edmund's wife, was one of the women who stitched the banners used in the town as part of the one thousand strong children's parade which formed part of the 1887 Queen Victoria's  Jubilee celebrations.

Edward Joseph the lock keeper lost his wife Elizabeth aged 63 in 1886 and shortly afterwards decided to retire on the small pension granted to lock keepers. Well-wishers collected £70 to give him as a leaving present. In 1898 he died at the home in Station Road which he shared with several of his unmarried daughters and was buried with Elizabeth in the churchyard of the Congregational Church. The South Bucks Standard in reporting his death said that Edmund was a lifelong teetotaller (he was on the committee of the Marlow Total Abstinence Society when it formed) who never used "improper words" and had performed his duties "quietly, honestly and industriously". They also said that he was a man known for his kindness to children. Things were probably quite rosy for his 25 grandchildren then! He was also a cricket fan and keen walker.

*his mother was Elizabeth nee Windsor, who lived long enough to celebrate her hundredth birthday in 1889. By this time she lived in Bray. Her brother William Windsor the town postman was said to be a renowned Marlow eccentric. 

Post written and researched by Charlotte Day.

Related posts: 

Other posts related to those who made their living on or around the river (including other lock keepers, barge men etc) at Marlow can be found in the index here

To look for mentions of a particular person or family see the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

To find information about particular shops, businesses or homes see the index here

Some Sources=

GRO marriage index, GRO online.

England and Wales censuses 1841-81, transcribed from microfilm by me. Census information remains Crown Copyright.

"England and Wales, Census, 1901", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSWG-5KC : Thu Feb 13 06:58:01 UTC 2025), Entry for Alfred Coster and Mary A Coster, 31 Mar 1901.

England and Wales census 1891

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4GGN-LPZ?lang=en

Baptisms of Edward Coster, Richard Coster, Thomas Coster- Great Marlow Bishops Transcripts, Find My Past.

Pigots Directory 1842, Slaters Directory 1852. Kelly's Directory 1899 and 1920 by Kelly's Directories Limited.

Marlow Directory and Almanack 1907, Marlow Printing Company.

Guide to the Crown Hotel Marlow, circle 1934.

Maidenhead Advertiser November 13th 1889, Baylis Media Archives.

South Bucks Standard July 1st 1898

Bucks Free Press. June 1887. Bucks Free Press Archives.

Newspapers from the British Library Archives and accessed via the BNA: Reading Mercury 12th September 1868 and 9th October 1886, South Bucks Standard 12th April 1907, Daily News 11th April 1907.

More Cadets of Marlow's Royal Military College

 Others are mentioned in a detailed post about life for the boys at the college here.

*Sir Henry De La Beche, entered the College at Marlow in 1810. Continued his training at Sandhurst. Soon abandoned military life and became instead an eminent geologist and fossil hunter. Went on research trips to examine the geology of England, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy and Jamaica. With William Conybeare the first to name a species of plesiosaur. Wrote a pioneering practical manual for geologists. Also a geographer. Awarded medals by the kings of Belgium and Denmark for his work in geology. 

*Lt Col John Bonamy. Born no later than 1796. Served in the Peninsula War. He was a member of the 6th Royal Warwickshire regiment.

*Sir Edmund de Gonville Bromhead. Born 1791. Soldier who rose to rank of Major-General. Became a baronet after the death of his brother. Father was a Lt General in the army. Home was Thurlby Hall, Lincs. Had at least 10 children with his wife Judith.

*General Sir George Brown. Scottish.

*Archibald Elijah Chasters.

*Sir John le Couteur, of Jersey. Born 1794. Entered the college at  the age of 14. Whilst there he spent a short time in the hospital sharing a room with George FitzClarence the illegitimate son of the then Prince William, later King William 4th. Another of William's illegitimate sons was untrusted to his protection when he took entered the college and the pair became friends. John became a Lieutenant aged 17. Published his memoirs of fighting in Canada during the Anglo-American War of 1812. Made Aide de Campe for Jersey by King William who had never forgotten his kindness to William's illegitimate sons at the Royal Military College. Conducted research on and published works about the science of agriculture. Pioneer of the use of tarmac on roads.

*Sir George Everest. Of Welsh origin. Born 1790. Served the East India Company in a military capacity and in the Bengal Artillery. Surveyor General of India 1830+. Mount Everest is named after him in honour of his previous work in the area. Refused to stop working at his surveying job even when an illness temporarily paralyzed his limbs. Was winched into a seat to supervise work as he couldn't move himself. Had the nickname of Never Rest. Left India in 1847.

*Major General Humphrey Robert Hartley. Born 1794. Was cadet Under Officer at the College. Served in the Peninsula War and also in America, France and Australia. Encouraged the establishment of regimental savings banks for soldiers who wanted to put money aside for their future lives.

*"Captain Hawley". Fought at Waterloo.

*John James Rowe. Possibly served in the Peninsular War.

*Sir Henry Watson. Soldier and M.P.

Post Office Blues

 This is a brief run down of the post offices in the 1800s and early 1900s in Great Marlow. 

The Regency Post Service 

At the start of 1800 Marlow was looking forward to its first official "cross post" between Marlow and Maidenhead and certain other places in Berkshire and Oxfordshire. A cross post means letters between the two places didn't have to go up to London and then back down to the intended recipient but instead went direct which obviously saved a lot of time. I say the first official cross post because unofficially letters had been taken by carriers and coachman and other commercial travellers. It makes sense for these people to take post but it undercut the post service so was not officially allowed. After the cross post for Marlow actually started in 1801, adverts were placed in the newspapers threatening dire consequences to these unofficial letter carriers if they continued. They faced a £5 fine per letter carried and £100 for every week the practice continued. A very high price to pay. The official letters were left at the post masters who then saw them distributed to the actual recipient. 

From at least the 1820s the Post Master at Marlow was James Field of the High Street. With only one post delivery and dispatch to deal with, posting did not occupy all of James time. The family ran a school, and James also worked as a tailor and insurance agent. Latter people would remember the post office was almost an afterthought, a cramped room with the school room up a somewhat rickety staircase. (You can read more about the Fields school here  and read their wills here). James died in 1849 and it seems his widow continued to be in charge for a little while. 

Early and mid Victoria post office

A common complaint was Marlow didn't get frequent enough deliveries of mail. But in 1848 after much effort, the town secured a second post as the mail coach running between High Wycombe and Maidenhead would now stop at Marlow in both directions. John Moss the High Street iron monger, inventor and agricultural machinery manufacturer was credited for a relentless campaign to secure this benefit. He considered improved postal communication essential for a successful businessman like himself to operate - and compete with those in other better supplier towns. At this point the post office was in West Street with the Tyler family in charge. The premises tended to change when the postmaster did. 

In 1852 the post from Maidenhead arrived at the very precise time of 5.10 am and 2.15pm and left at 10.45am and 8pm. If you wanted to send a letter after that you had to go to a town with a later dispatch and people really did trouble to do so which shows how important the post service was. When I say the post arrived I mean it came by mail cart. Later the train would bring in much post, but it had yet to reach Marlow. Even then letters were still brought by mail cart from Wycombe. The post arrival times were subject to change over the years and so therefore was the time you might get your post delivered at home. 

In 1860 the mail cart contractor between Marlow and Maidenhead, Mr Hall suffered an accident near Pinkneys Green. His horse was startled by shooting in a farmers field, bolted and crashed. The cart was smashed to pieces, mail scattered  and Hall was much injured. In fact a cart wheel was supposed to have passed over his head which if true makes the prognosis that he'd be able to resume work  seems quite miraculous. They did not mention how long the poor man's recovery was expected to take. In 1875 it was announced that the midday mail to Marlow would now arrive by train from Maidenhead rather than cart. No mention is made of a change in transport method for the other delivery yet so either it was already bought by train or there was going to be two ways it came to town.

The next milestone was probably the opening up of telegraphic services at the Great Marlow Post Office from 1870. This meant recruiting more people to deliver the messages. And in 1877 Marlow got it's long awaited third post arrival and dispatch, thanks to the 4.15pm train to Maidenhead. 

In 1880 it was possible to officially use a rival parcel delivery option in Marlow. Sutton & Co promised a cheap service through local agents, and the Marlow one was Banbury's the chemist. The Victorian equivalent of an Evri parcel stop! In the following decade there were still three post deliveries a day to the town, and one on a Sunday. The post boxes were cleared in time to get the post to the station at the right hour. If you realised you'd left it too late to post your letter in the usual way, you could go to the West Street post office and pay an extra fee to have it placed directly in the mail bag, up to around 20 minutes after the official time the bags were made up. After that you'd have to wait until the next dispatch.  In this decade the mail cart contractor was John Creswell who employed others to actually drive it (I think they were mainly bringing post from High Wycombe). Time keeping was taken very seriously and this lead John getting into trouble in 1881. His horse fell and cut its knee. He tried to secure another one in time to take the mail out at the right hour but could not. So unfortunately he decided to allow his driver Charles Shephard to take out the injured horse. This was reported to the police, and so John was bought before the magistrates and given the maximum fine of £5 for cruelty to the horse. 

 Snow drifts and other difficulties 

Everyday difficulties in the town for our Victorian postman included vandalism of the post boxes (the enamel tablets giving the collection times were constantly removed), the occasional theft of mail bags and complaints at the posties spending too much time waiting at the door for someone to answer when not all had letter boxes. Then there was the possibility of the Wycombe mail cart getting stuck in a snow drift as happened in 1893 at Borroughs Grove. The dedicated driver abandoned the cart and bought what mail he could on horseback, but it arrived a day late. 

The 1890s

 At this time our main post office was still in West Street, and John C Butler was postmaster. It opened from 7am-8pm and on Sundays from 7am - 10am for letter or telegraph business. But if you wanted to take advantage of one of the other services offered over the counter, such as buying insurance or a money order, or a licence you had to wait until after 9am and couldn't buy these at all on a Sunday.  By now the post was dispatched from the town 4 times a day, while post arrived three times. The boxes were emptied either 4 or 5 times a day and actual household deliveries were usually twice daily. You could however call at the post office to collect a letter possibly waiting for you if you were really in a hurry to receive it. And it was still possible to pay extra and slip your last minute letter across the counter if you'd just missed the last posting time. The main boxes were described as positioned at Thames Lawn (not the house currently known as Thames Lawn, this one was adjacent to the lock and you will still see a little wall box there in Mill Road), near the parish church, (may be referring to the wall box currently at the church hall but photographs show one at this period in a wall opposite Station Rd on the other side of the High Street), in York Rd (gone), Station Road (gone), and in Chapel Street (gone). 

The distant outpost known as Institute Rd...

In the mid 1890s the increased trade at the Post Office made some in the town question whether we didn't need a bigger and more modern building to host it. It had been slightly enlarged in 1883 to accommodate an increased parcel traffic but this wasn't enough. This issue would rumble on a very very long time. The post authorities agreed the existing building was not only too small for current demand, but "unsanitary". They had secretly planned to find an alternative for several years they claimed. This claim would infuriate post master John Butler. He said he'd constantly complained in private letters to his bosses about how dire the conditions were in West Street. The health of his staff had suffered he said. But he'd been rebuffed as the Post Office said the income at Marlow didn't justify the expense of either finding a bigger premises or making good the old. After two years of threatening to resign as his health was worth more than any lost income, he did so in September 1897. He saw out his 3 months notice and wrote to remind the Post Office that the lease there expired in a few weeks, and he wondered what exactly they planned to do about that. This was all happening behind the scenes. 

 One proposal was to build a purpose built premises in Institute Rd where there were plenty of undeveloped plots available. The Post Office went as far as to draw up a plan of how the building might look but if they hoped the locals would be impressed they were wrong. They said Institute Rd was not central enough, despite running directly off the High Street. If the post office had to move, it should be in the High Street itself they said. A vote at a public meeting in 1894 condemned the Institute Rd site as unsuitable. They said the 30 or so commercial travellers who came to the town each week usually put up at The Crown at the other end of the High Street to Institute Rd and would be inconvenienced by having to walk to the new site. It's slightly baffling that a walk of probably 3 minutes would be considered something that would put off these commercial men from visiting Marlow but the residents of West Street were also unhappy that their convenient branch would be lost to the very slightly further away High Street let alone Institute Rd. (Three times as many people signed a petition for the office to stay in West Street as signed one to move it to the High Street.) One advantage of the new Institute Rd site was considered to be that it would be (slightly) nearer Shaw's boat house and that as a large number of letters and telegrams came their way relating to the hire of boats, it would save some delivery time. But the needs of the locals should come before tourists it was declared. 

There were more public meetings and an unofficial group of local citizens were tasked with finding a possible High Street site that would suit the Post Office but without initial success. Some locals were sceptical that the local committee would make  any progress anyway because they said the gentleman could shortlist any site they liked but it would be no good if the owner didn't wish to sell.  And knowing the town was desperate the owner would probably charge a high price for the building. A deputation even met the Post Master General. He agreed to stay the Institute Rd plan to give time for a more locally supported alternative to be found. The Post Office would be willing to rent somewhere they said, if the rent was reasonable. (They eventually said they'd only be willing to rent an existing building and would not fund a purchase or a new build after all.) An alternative plan to improve the existing West Street premises were considered but this was found to be too difficult and expensive. A proposal to raise a private subscription to pay for a new build in West Street never got off the ground. 

So what would the never to be built Institute Rd alterative have looked like? It would have had a resident for the Marlow post master next to and connected with the main post office building. You'd have entered through a spacious lobby in which all the post office notices would be displayed. Then proceeding through some swing doors, you'd enter the main room 22ft square with polished mahogany counters. Leading off this would be an office for the Marlow post master and a 40ft long 22ft wide sorting office fitted with "swing seats" for the postman. Then there were rooms for the telegraph staff and various other offices and a separate entrance for parcels. Sounds very efficient and much different to the "cribbed, cabined and confined" West Street premises. (Or as a letter writer to a local paper called it, "a miserable excuse for a post office".)

A home at last

The list of potential properties on West Street or the High Street considered as a potential site is indeed long. It included the old malt house and Langston's original boot stores, both in the High Street as well as numerous residential properties. Many of these look no more spacious than the existing post office, and the residents were not usually very receptive to the idea of being turfed out. Someone had the idea that the new stables of New Court that fronted the High Street (next to what's now W H Smith) should be demolished as an eye sore and affront to the town and the post office put up there. 

Finally, after three years of public meetings, protests and indignant letter writing, Cromwell House in the High Street became available, almost opposite old Mr Fields premises.  At first the fact the drawing room was on a different level to the front room was considered to scupper the plan to use this part as a sorting office. But after a little more investigation it was felt the levelling of the two would not cost as much as initially feared. Still it seems the Post Office originally rejected Cromwell House when it first became available. The reminder sent by retiring  Marlow post master John Charlton Butler that the lease on the West Street premises was due to run out in a matter of weeks seems to have panicked them into action. A deputation came to John and asked him if he'd allow the premises to be used for longer under a new post master but he utterly refused. It was against his conscience to allow what he considered a dangerously unhealthy place to continue in use. 

So alterations were made to Cromwell House and a nice new lamp was affixed outside.  John Charlton Butler later revealed that the move there from West Street was done at such speed that it was chaotic and a lot of property had been left behind with him. After a few weeks and more reminders a frustrated John said he'd begun using the left behind papers as fire lighters and would continue! He was very bitter at both his former bosses and members of the town council - "parasites" as he referred to them - who he said were taking credit for getting a new premises. The new post master was John William Langdon. 

Still the Post Office was satisfied. The residents of West Street were not, and successfully petitioned to get a sub post office in their Street which opened in June 1898. This was described as nearly opposite the old one, and in the premises of clothier A E Sutton. (Sutton occupied three different premises in West Street, the last was the former Sycamore House boarding house which he took over in 1901.) I should mention that there was also a sub post office at this time in Station Rd at the corner of Mill Rd in a grocers. It was proposed that if the authorities thought Marlow a little over supplied this could be closed in exchange for allowing the West Street sub to open but it survived. I expect the poor post master general had had more than enough of Great Marlow by then and had no appetite for an avalanche of letters from disgruntled Station Rd residents! 

Edwardian Era  and beyond 

So did the post office live happily ever after? Hmm, some people are never satisfied. A 1904 visitor to the town said Marlow couldn't count as a modern sort of place as its post office closed at 8pm on weekdays and  5pm on Sundays. In Maidenhead you could visit the post office at 9pm he said, and at Wycombe you could still post letters to London at 11.30pm. What they would have thought of our current arrangements? 

The mail cart was still running between Maidenhead and High Wycombe via Marlow to supplement the use of the train at the time of the first world war. In 1911 the cart was struck by lightning at Pinkneys Green. Both horse and man were rendered senseless but amazingly after 30 mins they were recovered enough to continue onwards. The driver did admit to feeling "a bit queer" for sometime afterwards as well he might. 

As for additional sub post offices, the residents of Marefield petitioned for one in their area for many years but it did not open there until June 1939. (In the Dean Street grocery shop of Mr Porter). 

Written by Kathryn Day. Researched by Kathryn Day and Charlotte Day.

Related Posts: 

Victorian Postman Plumridge here (also covers workings of late Victorian post office here)

Will of postmaster James Field 1849 and his wife Sarah 1855 here

Life of the poetic postmaster, radical and friend of Shelley William Tyler -here

For biographies of other post office staff eg postmen/letter carriers see the General History index occupations section here

General posts about Marlow history here 

To find every mention of an individual here, use the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. There's over 6,000 people listed there. 

SOURCES INCLUDE: 

Kelly's Directory for Buckinghamshire 1852, 1854, 1883, 1889, 1905, 1911, 1920, 1939. (Kelly's Directories Ltd) 

Notice - Changes to Postal Delivery - 1874, 1875, 1877. Thanks to James Purdsey for a view of these. 

Marlow Guide 1903 & 1905

Census, 1841-91 - Transcript from the microfilm made by Jane Pullinger. 

 Berkshire Chronicle 29th April 1848, Gloucester Journal 30th March 1801, South Bucks Free Press 27th October 1860, Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News 9th April 1870, Bucks Herald - 17th February 1877, 30th July 1881 & 3rd June 1911, and South Bucks Standard 24th April 1891, 18th & 25th May, 6th July & 31st August 1894, 15th Feb 1895, 6th August 1897, 12th Feb & 24th June 1898, 9th September 1904 - these copies via the BNA. 

Slough, Windsor and Eton Express Oct 31 1885 - Slough Libraries. 

Slater's Commercial Directory 1850

Maidenhead Advertiser 31st March 1880, 22nd November 1883 - Bayliss Media Archive. 

© MarlowAncestors

The Ransoms of Sycamore House

Sometimes when I'm scanning records etc relating to Marlow's past, I pick a random name to research for a post here. We do this in the hope that by doing so we will end up with a list of people quite representative of all the souls that used to live here, rather than only the rich and famous ones. Hence today's subjects are a Victorian couple known as Jacob and Hannah Ransom or Ransome. The pair flitted about Marlow address wise in their first few years, but they are most associated with Sycamore House in West Street. Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. The name isn't in use anymore and we can't be sure now which property it once referred  to, but it seems to have been on the same side as the Three Tuns (that is the side occupied by Sainsbury's currently) and probably not too far from the inn. NB There is a property in Mill Rd long known as The Sycamores which is unrelated. 

If you read descriptions of Sycamore House in the late Victorian period, when it was used as a sort of private boarding house or small hotel, with private dining and sitting rooms for guests available, it seems a perfect picture of Victorian comfort and respectability. If you walked inside, you would have found the "large club room" used by the ladies and gentlemen of Marlow's Victorian bicycling club to host meetings and "at -homes". Walking towards the back, you might hear a tap tap tap sound. That will be Jacob, engaged in his day job. While Sycamore House is technically the concern of both Jacob and Hannah (assisted by their daughter Annie) Jacob was a life long shoemaker. He does not seem to have given this up when they decided to offer accommodation at Sycamore House. On his death he was remembered as a shoemaker in his obituary, and probably that's what he would have considered himself rather than a boarding house keeper. 

Jacob was baptised as Jacob Beak to Mary Beak in Somerset in 1818. He sometimes referred to himself as Jacob Beak Ransom before generally adopting the name Ransom. He may have been illegitimate. He seems to have arrived in Marlow as a young man, having already been trained as a cordwainer. His first wife was local lady Catherine Julia Greenwood, who was also from a shoemaking family. Unfortunately Catherine died before long, leaving Jacob with a son, Richard. He subsequently married Hannah, who was from Turville. 

Jacob's life in 1850s Marlow seems not to have have been an unqualified success financially speaking. There was a lot of competition in the shoemaking trade in the town but also a lot of demand. Unfortunately Jacob was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1860. While very unfortunate for him, his doing so is useful for us as it gives a list of previous addresses for Jacob in Marlow. Not yet at Sycamore House, he was at the time of the petition living in the High Street. Prior to that he'd been resident in West Street and had combined boot and shoemaking with beer and bread selling. I haven't yet been able to trace the details of Jacob's beer selling licence, but I don't believe it's something he held for long. At this point over half of the beer shop keepers of Marlow worked as boot-makers or cordwainers as well so it was a classic combination. He may have had an off licence, but these were less common - the fact he was selling bread too may support this although usually they would specify he had been a shop keeper too in the record. Before that he'd worked as a boot and shoe maker at Oxford Terrace (Oxford Rd), Chapel Street and Spittal Street. Frequent changes of address weren't especially uncommon in 1850s Marlow.  But they can sometimes indicate financial difficulty, which given the bankruptcy that followed makes sense. People moved on when their landlord run out of patience with their backward rent payments.

 Sycamore House was then occupied by the Misses Winters school which was originally for young ladies, but they took in little boys (aged up to 9 or so) from 1865. The boys could be day or boarding pupils. The latter paid £16 an annum including their laundry expenses and dancing lessons both of which were often charged for separately. Other subjects like music were added extras. Day boys were educated for 12s 6d a quarter. 

I can imagine that Jacob and Hannah must have taken on Sycamore House after a period of much better income, or perhaps they had some good fortune such as an inheritance. It sounds too big to be something someone who only wanted an average boot and shoemaking premises would need so perhaps they already had in mind the idea of letting rooms. They were there in 1871 if not before, and were offering rooms from at least 1875. (I think they probably did so earlier on a smaller scale.) Their advert in the Maidenhead Advertiser that year says that "Persons paying short visits to this town will find ample accommodation at the above establishment including private dining and sitting rooms". Marlow got it's own station in 1873 and perhaps this was the impetus to open up for guests, or to compete more with others offering accommodation. A predicted influx of tourists was considered both a reason to bring the rail here - and a reason not to!  In the same year Jacob advertised that he could make to measure any description of boot or shoe as well as repair them. 

The inclusion of the advert in the Maidenhead Advertiser reminds me of another of Jacobs roles - that of Marlow agent for the paper. These agents took in adverts and usually acted as a kind of reporter too. 

Unusually for a boarding house, Jacob and Hannah had a club room, more usually associated with inns. As mentioned above it was used by the Cycle Club who set out for runs, in club colours, from outside. (You can read more about them here ) It could be hired by other groups too and in 1889 it's probably the room referred to that offered a bagatelle board, chess and draughts along with light refreshments courtesy of Hannah and Annie. It would have been quite a unique establishment in that it wasn't a pub but offered a socialising space and games. We are told that the Ransoms sometimes cater for large parties of visitors and as they don't seem to have actively advertised much after the 1870s, perhaps they had a good word of mouth reputation. 

Hannah died in 1895 aged 73. Sycamore House continued and it looks like eldest daughter Annie was probably in charge. She was then unmarried and in her mid forties  but that changed in 1902 when she wed their former lodger and builders ckerk Edgar Mathews. A little before Jacob decided to retire from business. He sold up in order to move in with one of his married daughters in Cambridge Rd. Jacob was in his early 80s and may have already retired from the shoe making side. No mention of cordwainers tools or stock is mentioned amongst the household goods offered for auction before his move but that may be because he'd already disposed of them. 

Sycamore House was taken on by A E Sutton the outfitter and clothier who already had a premises nearby in West Street (which was also the sub post office from 1898.) Sutton sold shoes too. He put in a new shop front and seems to have invested in making it look good. 

Jacob died in 1904 "highly respected by all that knew him". Annie and Edgar moved to Suffolk and  Sycamore House seems to have lost its name. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day. 

Further Information:

All mentions of an individual here can be found in the A -Z person person index in the top drop down menu.

No Rational Dress Allowed - the Victorian Cycle Club here

General Marlow history posts: here

Selected sources: 

Maidenhead Advertiser 2nd October 1872, 10 March & 23rd June 1875, 16th June 1889 Bayliss Media Archive

Reading Mercury 8th December 1900

South Bucks Standard 29th July 1895, 6 May 1898,  8th Jan & 14th June 1901, 27th June 1902,  19th July 1904. Bucks Chronicle 7th November 1860 - British Library Archive. 

England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2NTX-L59 : 31 December 2014), Catherine Julia Ransom, 1845; from "England & Wales Deaths, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Death, Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

Census transcriptions from the originals by Jane Pullinger and Charlotte Day. 

Kellys Directory of Leather Trades 1880, 1881, 1885. 

Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire, 1880. 

Harrod & Co Directory 1876. 

England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:263T-N48 : 13 December 2014), Edgar Matthews, 1902; from "England & Wales Marriages, 1837-2005," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing 1902, quarter 2, vol. 1A, p. 134, Paddington, London, England, General Register Office, Southport, England.

© MarlowAncestors

Victorian Ladies of Business - the Misses Barton

 The Misses Barton were formerly large scale employers in a characteristic Marlow industry for upwards of half a century. Yet hardly anyone remembers them now. As female business owners and ones employing an entirely female workforce, our story of Marlow's Victorian women of business wouldn't be complete without them. Their industry was the manufacturer of embroidered clothing, in particular baby clothes. Marlow used to be famous for this, and if you have a young female ancestor* who gave their occupation as satin stitch worker or embroiderer in a census, it's very likely they were working in this industry. There were several large employers in Marlow in this field, including the Washbournes, Flints, and Bartons, occupying several hundred women and girls between them. Fashion's came and went, and all the families manufacturing in this are had their financial ups and downs as we shall see, but they nevertheless lasted most of the 19th century and some beyond. 

Susan (b.1820), Rosa (b 1830, Ada (b.1826) and Amy (b.1832) never married. Their sibling Charlotte (b.1813) did but was soon widowed and returned to Marlow to live with her sisters. (It's surprisingly common for local woman who had their own means of making a comfortable income to remain single we've noticed. Money bought choices unavailable to the poor.) They had at least one brother with them for a while at Marlow -  Frederick. He will be researched more later but today's subject is the Barton woman. 

Background 

The girl's parents William and Charlotte were not of local birth and seem to have moved here from London in the late 1830s. William was a baby linen manufacturer at this time. They had certainly arrived by early 1840, when they were living in West Street in a house valued at £17, let from Sir William Clayton. A near neighbour was the Flint family of fellow embroiders/cap makers. At this time, it was estimated 2,000 women and girls were employed to produce satin stitch work for these kind of employers in the neighborhood of Marlow. The relationship between these two big rival concerns is an interesting one. I believe they became acquainted when both were in London. But by this point, their relations were anything but cordial. In 1841 William Barton acted as an "informer" as it was referred to at the time.  He reported that old family friend John Tarrand Flint was engaging in the "truck system" at Marlow. This means he was accused of paying some of his female workers in the form of groceries rather than ready money. This practice had now been made illegal for most manufacturers to do. William said this was not fair on the workers  and had a disastrous affect on local shop keepers if allowed to go on. (And of course might have reduced Flints costs in a competitive market, especially as the goods supplied were supposed to be tea and coffee supplied by one of his sons then working for a tea dealer.) Barton sent to the Aylesbury assizes to lay his information. This was not well received in Marlow where the Flints were well regarded, especially as it was said to be an act of ingratitude by the Bartons who apparently had been assisted by the Flints when in "abject need". Furthermore John Flint had taught the baby linen business to the Bartons in the first place they said. The Flints denied they paid anyone other than in coin, and the justices declined to take the case further. William Barton tried again at the local magistrates court but they said that the women's work didn't count as manufacture as defined in the Act that banned the Truck System. William then presented a letter from an MP who had first proposed the bill. The latter said it was his intention that the law should apply to all wages but the JPs said intention was all well and good, but the letter of the law as passed was their business. William thought the Flints should have to pay a heavy financial penalty, but they always denied having begun the truck system. So no more came of the matter directly. It seems that the Barton's son Frederick was involved in an altercation with Flint's son Charles the year before, which saw the former convicted of assault and fined £5. Sympathy was expressed at the levying of what was the maximum penalty, considering all that seems to have been involved was the shaking of a fist in a face, and maybe a little shove. It was assault considered that the magistrates should have taken into account that young Frederick Barton claimed to have been much provoked by Charles Flint blackening his character to his unnamed employer with the supposed intent of stealing his position! Reports in different papers come down either very harshly on the Bartons or quite the opposite, and partly this is because the papers were very politically partisan and the Barton family were associated with the Clayton political cause. When William's outbuilding in West Street was the victim of arson in 1843, the Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury news thought "It is to be regretted that any one could be found base enough to attempt to do an injury to one so universally respected and who from his kindness it was thought impossible to have an enemy". Short memories there.  As both parties were generally known for generosity and good employee relations, let's hope the squabbles worked themselves out and the two could live happily in the same town over the next few decades! 

Housing trouble

But back to the sisters. The time after their arrival in Marlow was obviously rocky. Although their house in West Street sounds a good size and had a pleasant garden stocked with fruit trees and flowers, it was also described as in quite a state of disrepair. It's hard to know how far in the past the Barton's financial difficulty was. A nice looking residence in a respectable street quietly falling apart behind the scenes suggests perhaps they needed to be cautious with their funds. They moved out to another house in West Street in the summer of 1840. I do not know if the girls themselves had any embroidery training beyond what all young ladies were expected to have, but their mother Charlotte was certainly an accomplished needlewoman. She was still had the eyesight and dexterity to execute complicated sewing projects in her senior years, including an embroidered family portrait completed when she was age 80. This was put on display in Marlow on a few occasions as part of fundraising events. 

Elections in Marlow were usually fraught, sometimes violent and always accompanied by accusations of fraud and bribery on both sides. William Barton's vote was struck off as invalid in the 1842 election as he had voted (for the Claytons) on the strength of occupying the first West Street house mentioned above. But he'd actually moved out before the election and you had to be actually be in occupation in your registered property in order for your vote to count. (And for a minimum time before the voting day.) No action was generally taken against those voting when not entitled to, and in William's case it was probably an innocent error, as the house he moved into would also have qualified him to vote had he registered on the strength of occupying it - although he might have fallen slightly short of the minimum residency. Those who wanted his vote discounted said the disputed  house was empty with a "for rent" sign up in the window.  Several workman employed to do it up then said there was no furniture there. But as what counted as "occupation" was not always simple, it was attempted to show that as the Barton girls and their mother had visited the old house and picked the fruit from the garden, it was still occupied. They had gone in as they had not got to the end of their notice period the family said, and Clayton had commenced household repairs in the hope of finding another tenant sooner. If he could, he'd let them off the rest of the notice. The court was not convinced especially as the Barton's had all the furniture in the new house, and so the vote was thrown out. 

A Comfortable Life

By 1851, the family had moved to what was then known as Mill Lane or Thames Bank, now Mill Rd. (Thames Bank was also the name of a substantial house, but the Barton were not in occupation there.) Later they would occupy the beautiful property known as Thames Lawn. Now this is NOT the house now known as Thames Lawn (which was previously known as Thames Bank House and Goodyers) but an earlier version that stood nearer the lock which burned down in 1897. It was rebuilt in a different style and much enlarged but within a few years the name had changed and Thames Lawn was adopted as a moniker for the house that currently bears the name. 10 years later we are told the Barton's employ 80 hands. By this time Rosa had sadly passed away.  The remaining Barton sisters were aged between their late 20s through to their 40s, and it's difficult for us to know how involved at this point they were in the business. Their parents were elderly though, and it's hard to imagine they wouldn't have welcomed some assistance. They clearly knew enough to practically take over things when their father died in 1872. 

At an uncertain point probably some time before Williams death, the others moved out of Thames Lawn which was then in the occupation of William Rose, a solicitor. The 1872 household furniture sale which occured on the death of Rose gives us a glimpse into what must have been a comfortable home, as well as a prettily placed one. Among the objects sold by Roses estate were a library of 900 (yes 900) books, a nearly new oak punt, a "very fine" dining suite, old Wedgwood, Chelsea and oriental china, a phaeton, bronze figures and some oil paintings. [It was common to sell up possessions when moving, even if not after a death, necessity was not necessarily involved and was not in Roses case.] The Bartons remained in Marlow - I'm uncertain as the address the immediately moved to but in the 1890s onwards they were living at Wood View. 

The Ladies Lend A Hand

It's from the 1870s on that we see the sisters start to be listed much more often at events, as subscribers, at meetings etc in their own right. I think this was a new chapter in their lives, independence in financial and social matters going together. It's a shame that so often they are listed just as "the misses Barton" as it's difficult to get an idea of the individual interests and character of the women. It does seem that all had a hand in the business though, as variously each are described as a baby linen manufacturer at times. Susan died in 1878 though. 

They always appeared amongst those ladies manning stalls and tea tables at parish events, such as the annual parish tea and harvest festival. They were especially active in supporting the cottage hospital. Not only did they subscribe to it (to provide for its maintenance), but they also organised collections to make sure everyone else contributed too! And they made very frequent donations of practical items from newspapers for the patients to read to things like butter, eggs and old linen which was recycled into cleaning materials etc. 

It seems the sisters maintained an interest in history, in particular that of their craft. They owned lots of items of antique linen and clothing which they lent to various local exhibitions and fundraisers. In 1891 they displayed some of these plus a handsomely embroidered muslin dress at a display of local craft and industry held at the Music Room in St Peter's Street (now the Masonic centre). But the exhibition I'd most like to have seen was what they contributed in 1884 to what was known as a "Conversazione" at Marlow Place. This was a fundraising event for the Literary Institute and was a  sort of display of curiosities with an supposedly intellectual bent. The Misses Barton lent the embroidered family portrait of the family completed by their mother mentioned above, as well as artwork, a piece of lace made out of the pith of an Indian tree, a silver snuff box, an Egyptian water bottle and a portrait of the former Russian Czar, as removed from a cottage at Sebastopol by a former Marlow resident. An interesting collection! 

I haven't traced the death of Amy but the last of the other sisters, Ada Sarah occured in 1906. There wasn't much of a baby linen or large scale embroidery trade left in Marlow although there were still plenty of woman earning a living as dressmakers, seamstresses and the like. Considering the work produced here was once considered amongst the best in the country, according to William Barton, it's a shame it's not a trade better remembered. 

Written and researched by Kathryn Day 

* Not all of the women working in this industry were young. In 1891 it was noted that Samuel Flint (son of Charles) had a number of elderly women working for him, including some aged 80. 

Related posts:

This deals with the sudden death of one of the Barton's servants: here

The Flints, embroiders of Marlow: here

All mentions of an individual or family here can be found in the A-Z person index in the top drop down menu. 

Index of posts related to other Marlow industries and employers etc here

Sources include:

Report into the controverted Elections at Great Marlow (1843 Anon)

Journals of the House of Commons February 3-December 13, 1842: Vol 9 Publication date February 3-December 13, 1842. HMSO

Census transcript from the originals, by Jane Pullinger and Charlotte Day. 

England Marriages, 1538–1973", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJVS-1NY : 13 March 2020), Charlotte Benton Barton in entry for Thomas Hamer, 1837.

Kelly's Directory of Bucks 1899 (Kelly's Directory Ltd)

Dutton's Commercial Directory 1863. (Dutton & Co 1863)

Windsor & Eton Express 17th March 1842, Slough Borough Libraries

South Bucks Standard 13 November 1891,  29th November 1895, British Library Archive

Bucks Herald 8 November 1884, 29th Jan & 6th October 1906, as above

Bucks Gazette 28th March 1840 & 27th February 1841, as above 

Bucks Examiner, 27th February 1891 as above. 

Bucks Advertiser And Aylesbury News 22 April 1843, as above

Thames Bank/Lawn research by Kathryn. 

Kempster Grave, Marlow

 

Grave of Annie Kempster died November 18th 1916 age 52 "Mother"

And William John Kempster who died January 1940 age 75. 

Notes by Charlotte:

William ran a bakery and confectionary shop in the High Street with an additional branch in West Street. Annie was his wife. Her maiden name was Arnold. Her sister Mary lived with the couple in 1911 as a shop assistant.

This memorial is located within Marlow Cemetery.  Photo by Kathryn in 2021.

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