Above, one of the businesses in 1930s Marlow that employed a surprising number of people - Sunnydene Laundry, New Town.
Employment=
The biggest employers of Marlow men were the brewery off the High Street in Marlow and Jackson's millboard mill in Bourne End. Some of the workers from the latter took the branch line train to the mill every day. Others in order to save money walked to work along the riverbank. Marlow's paper mill was in its dying days and during these final years did not employ anything like the number of people that it had previously done.
Other major sources of employment for Marlow men were the chair industry, the building industry and the various haulage and general contractors of Marlow, the local council which had a surprising number of road labourers, the boat builders, the Gas Works in Cambridge Road, the Water Works in Chalk Pit Lane, the brickworks in Newtown, the painting and decorating trade and the town's offices and shops who needed plenty of clerks to fill up their ledgers. Some clerks and shop assistants hopped on the train to Maidenhead and Wycombe for their jobs though the majority still worked in Marlow itself. Market gardening had nearly disappeared in the town but there were still numerous men employed as private gardeners. General labourers were considerably less common than in previous eras but were still found in Marlow occasionally. Due to mechanisation the number of farm hands was also relatively small by the thirties. In 1931 around 11.3 per cent of working men across the Marlow and Wycombe districts were employed in the sphere of agriculture which was seen as a very low number. Marlow once had large numbers of greengrocery and fruit hawkers too, especially from Dean Street, but these too had almost disappeared by the thirties. Street sellers of novelties and household items still frequented the streets of Marlow but these were usually travellers from elsewhere just passing through.
For women unpaid domestic labour took up the majority of the time of married women, though some were in paid employment as well. Businesswomen concentrated on shop keeping with some female publicans, eatery owners and boarding house keepers. Employed single women were most likely to work as shop assistants / cashiers, clerks (rare a generation previously), bottlers at the brewery, hands at Jackson's Mill in Bourne End, laundresses at Quarry Laundry or Sunnydene Laundry, french polishers in the furniture trade (another newer job for females) and domestic servants. The numbers of domestic staff, especially general maids rather than the better paid cooks and housekeepers, had nevertheless plummeted since the 1800s. Getting any servant was thought to be very hard so employers often felt that they couldn't afford to be very choosey. The residents of Remnantz, West Street who advertised that they were willing to take on a head cook with no previous experience were obviously feeling both desperate and brave. Remnantz, by the way, was one of the few Marlow houses that still had a butler in the 1930s.
A Domestic Science Centre located behind the school in Wethered Road provided training for those who might look to become servants, or wanted to learn manage without them!
It should always be remembered that "farmers' wives" and sisters were heavily involved with farming. Typically they were in charge of all poultry and often all swine on a farm, holding the responsibility for the employee's first aid (in a time when blood poisoning and tetanus were common outcomes of farmyard accidents), the marketing of many of the farm goods and often assisting in hay making to name just a few things.
For both men and women the local schools also provided employment, as did the cinema which had a surprising number of usherettes, cashiers and other workers. During the war some London based Odeon workers took refuge in Marlow. The head of Technicolor Kay Harrison (formerly Marks) and his wife Heather came to The Fern House Little Marlow along with several other Technicolor staff. Kay seems to have been genuinely interested in rural life. He later owned a large turkey farm elsewhere!
For Gypsies male and female licenced general hawking was the most common occupation along with, for the men, horse dealing.
In Little Marlow agricultural occupations remained common, as did market gardening. The Mash and Austin jam factory was still in operation at Westhorpe, Little Marlow to at least 1933. Women predominantly worked in the factory while men were employed on the firm's 2000 acre model fruit orchard and garden. The company was highly unusual for the era in that it did not spray it's fruit with pesticides. Some of the fruit grown was also sold to Cunard for use on transatlantic liners.
For those in need of a new domestic service place Emily Norcott had a servant's registry office in Spittal Street. More generally the Ministry of Labour office was in Chapel Street (in part of Liston Hall) by 1939. Unemployment in early and mid 1930s Marlow was at times severe. The authorities initiated various projects in order to provide employment for men in the town, new landscaping in Higginson Park for instance. Bad as unemployment was in Marlow it was worse elsewhere in the country. The major undertaking of putting in mains sewerage for Marlow was partially funded by a government grant on condition that 50 per cent of the labour was to be made up of those sent in from the most suffering areas. The presence of these outside labourers and their families was begrudgingly accepted as the council could not afford the well over £100,000 expected cost of the sewage scheme otherwise. The council tried to negotiate for only single men to be sent, without success. Given the great lack of decent housing for the existing working class families in Marlow this makes sense. Single men could be accommodated as lodgers in single rooms rather than whole houses. One councillor's suggestion that they could be offered no more than huts to live in (for a scheme that was likely to begin in the late autumn or winter) is best forgotten.
One of the reasons the town hoped to secure funding for a lido was because building it would provide temporary employment opportunities. Unfortunately their application for the necessary funds was turned down and no lido built.
In 1933 a cottage in Spittal Square was lent to the Allotment Association to use as a social centre for their members who were unemployed. Playing cards, magazines and a billiard table were provided for them. Additional allotments were also provided for the unemployed so they did could still feel productive and not become demoralized. Some of these were in the region of Oak Tree Road, just perhaps in fact at Seymour Park before it became a recreation ground.
Homes
Many of Marlow's council homes were built in the 1930s (110 by August 1934) replacing cramped and in some cases dangerous cottages for working people either in the same roads or elsewhere in town. The (mostly now ex) council properties in Trinity Avenue and Seymour Court Road date from this era for instance. Ongoing slum clearance schemes targeted for closure or demolition homes in Dean Street, Trinity Road, Eton Place, West Street, Portland's, Spinfield Lane and Spittal Square owned by private landlords. The disgraceful condition of these houses beggars belief. More than one had missing exterior walls! In 1934 alone 70 houses in the town were condemned as unfit for human habitation. The unusually high occurrence of diptheria amongst Marlow children up to the early 1930s was put down by medical authorities to the unsanitary and unsuitable conditions too many families were forced to live in. Mains drainage in Marlow cut the incidence of this dreaded disease to zero almost immediately. But other challenges remained and Marlow still had a higher than average infant mortality rate.
The new council houses were mostly "non parlour" homes, that is ones with a single, combined kitchen and living space downstairs.
Despite the council efforts at slum clearance some very humble private homes and in some cases actual shacks of wood or tin were still in use on the outskirts of Marlow at Marlow Bottom, Seymour Plain and Munday Dean. Those at Seymour Plain were mostly tin shacks and amid concern that the area was turning into a slum most were forcibly demolished in 1948. What happened to those who had lost their only home, however humble, as a result of this is unknown to me.
In Marlow Bottom some of the tiny homes were only second, holiday, residences (particularly likely to be tin shacks and seen as an especial embarrassment and eye sore), but not the majority of them. The beautiful rural setting of Marlow Bottom made it a popular place for the retired which also explains why so many small homes existed there - the residents needed much less living space if they were just couples without children or other family members living at home. Marlow Bottom had noticeably fewer children present as residents on the 1939 Register for instance (Ancestry) than other local places, and in the early 1930s there were less than 30 primary school age children from the village attending the Marlow C of E schools. However Marlow Bottom was a very popular camping spot for Scout or other youth groups, often large ones, so the rural tranquility hoped for by the various retired householders of the village wasn't one hundred percent guaranteed!
Another key area of contemporary housing development in thirties Marlow was the Oak Tree Road area.
As has been typical in Marlow's past streets and houses were laid out in the 1930s without any decision being made as to what the new street should be called. The first residents of Trinity Avenue for instance must have had a hard time getting any post while the council hummed and hawed for weeks as to whether their road should be dubbed Trinity Avenue or Poplar Avenue (due to apparently aborted plans to line the street with poplar trees) or something else. Street numbering continued to be haphazard with at least one street having two separate houses accidentally given the same official number by the council! Other residents had no number at all that they knew of so just made a rough guess when asked.
Most people in Marlow town itself lived in houses, bungalows or cottages but there were a few flats, in the old staff quarters of Court Garden in Pound Lane (the main body of Court Garden house was leased to the council for office use by the park trustees etc in 1933) and off Claremont Gardens for instance.
Bungalows were very fashionable (though some deemed bungalows were barely-extended shacks), as were homes with whimsical, countrified names e.g "Rippling Waters" "Sunshine" and "Flowerdene". On the duller side of naming at least three bungalows in Marlow were, at the same time, simply called "The Bungalow". Plots of land for the building of bungalows could be bought in Marlow for £15-16!
Attempts to build "weekend bungalow" holiday units along the river towards both Spade Oak and Henley were mostly thwarted by local opposition on the grounds that they would ruin the tranquility of the riverside environment.
Taking in lodgers remained extremely common in the 1930s. Additionally homes of all descriptions in Marlow became fuller following the arrival of war evacuees in 1939. If you had a spare room you could not refuse to take in one of these children (and in some cases also their mothers who had accompanied them) in many parts of the country but Marlow chose not to do enact such powers in the town. Social pressure was hoped to be sufficient to get most householders on side. Poorer households that clearly did not have spare rooms nevertheless offered evacuees a part of their shared space. On a more informal basis some Marlow householders squeezed in adult friends and family members who had retreated from London while it was at particular risk of bomb attack.
Mains drainage arrived in Marlow at long last in the 1930s as did mains sewerage as mentioned above. Spare a thought for some nearby villages however. Fingest didn't even have piped water in 1934 so residents were reliant on wells. At the start of the decade Well End and Hambledon were also without mains water.
Electricity was becoming more common as the decade progressed both in homes, hotels and other buildings - Bovingdon Green villagers were raising money to add electric lights to their village hall at the start of the decade - but cottages in a few places such as Chapel Street remained without electricity as late as the 1970s. Gas connection was widespread however and could be used to power fridges as well as for cooking and lighting. These fridges were bulky and at risk of bursting into flames but if you really wanted one cheap installment plans were available to purchasers. The Gas Show Rooms were at no 9 High Street during the 1930s. Electric fridges were very expensive- more than the equivalent of 6 month's wages for some peoople.
Not for everyone the lure of all the mod cons the thirties could offer however. Coal fires remained very popular. A ton of coal from G.E Stevens in Oxford Road would set you back 38 shillings for the basic product, or 54 shillings for the very best quality coals. A tiny three room bungalow cost 11 shillings a week to rent in Marlow in 1934, so a ton of basic coal cost the equivalent of over three weeks rent for such a tenant. Mr Stevens was also a corn and seed merchant who sold fruit trees, bedding plants and ornamental bushes for your garden.
Some of Marlow's Gypsy families had lived settled lives in bricks and mortar dwellings for some time but others held with their precious caravans and a simpler life. Ever increasing harassment and restrictions on the movement of caravans at a nationwide level meant some felt they had no choice but to live in vans permanently parked in the same field or on the same wayside rather than roam. It was at times a painfully felt compromise. For those that did still travel the traditional pulling up places of Marlow Common, the fields near the waterworks in Chalk Pit Lane and land off Gipsy Lane remained but the development of Seymour Court Road had removed a long standing camping place there and council intolerance led to the loss of generations old campsites off Berwick Road and in the chalk pit itself in 1939. For a general history of Gypsy families in Marlow please see this post.
Other Marlow residents chose to live in caravans too, usually on small plots of land that they owned.
Shopping=
Coster & Son tobacconist advert from 1931.
The main shopping streets in the 1930s were the High Street, Chapel Street, Spittal Street / Square and West Street though there were far more small shops sprinkled about the town than there are now. Residents of Queen's Road, Wycombe Road, Maple Rise, Station Road, Quoiting Square, Seymour Court Road and even the hamlet of Munday Dean could all visit their own grocery shops. Both Marlow Bottom and Bovingdon Green villages had post offices come grocery stores. The expansion of the Marlow Bottom store into a combined post office and shop came as a huge relief to the old age pensioners of the village who had to attend a post office in order to collect their pension. Those that couldn't afford the bus fare from Marlow Bottom turning into Marlow itself walked instead. In 1935 it was said that this involved for some of them a 3 mile round trip from their homes, rain or shine.
For items you couldn't source within the town, Maidenhead rather than High Wycombe seems to have been the alternative shopping destination of choice for most ordinary people and was accessible by both train and bus. The lure of London department stores was always powerful for the better off residents of the town.
Mail order items delivered to the Marlow train station and either collected from there or delivered onwards to your home were popular. Marlow was nevertheless a very self sufficient town with plenty of opportunity for residents to buy locally produced items. You could still get bespoke boots made here despite the huge amount of readymade footwear also stocked in Marlow at Milwards (which had an x-ray machine you stuck your foot and prospective new shoes into to ensure they fitted like a glove). Miss Irene Cain of the High Street and the Mallett* sisters of West Street were some of the dressmakers still available who could make you a dress from scratch though the ready made market had decimated employment numbers in the dressmaking trade. The town centre dairies sold milk taken from local animals as did the the farmer at Seymour Court Farm. A reasonable proportion of pork, lamb and poultry sold by the Marlow butchers came from animals raised on local farms. George Bailey in West Street made his own cycles right there as well as selling popular national brands.
Above, advert for Morgan's drapers, clothiers, outfitters etc. 1931.
Most shopkeepers no longer lived above their premises by the thirties though some of the staff they employed did so.
So what other types of shops could the Marlow shopper enjoy in the 1930s? You were not short of grocers as mentioned above, nor of drapers, bakers or butchers and the smoker could choose between not one but eight separate tobacconists in the town! Remember some of the pub's also sold tobacco directly to customers as apparently did the football club, ditto the cinema. At least one shop in Marlow, probably several, had coin operated cigarette dispensers outside so even if they were closed you could buy cigarettes. The 1934 fete come sports competition held by the residents of Marlow Bottom included a cigarette lighting competition. Presumably speed based.
Several of the tobacconists were also confectioners. With some grocery shops and newsagents also selling sweets children in Marlow had plenty of places to spend any pocket money (Mr Sinclair the dentist shared premises with Badgers confectioners in the High Street which seems a clever idea). North's toy shop still existed in West Street to absorb any remaining shillings in the pockets of young Marlovians and there was a Woolworths, and some toys sold by Morgans the outfitters upstairs. Woolworth's new bright red sign went down none to well with the town snobs!
Marlow Fair previously forced out from the High Street and other town centre roads continued in fields until the war caused it's final cancellation in 1939.
If you desired fish or poultry you visited Mac Fisheries in the High Street. Or if you didn't want to cook it yourself you could opt for one of the town's two fried fish shops. These also sold chips or to use 1930s speak "chipped potatoes" and would today be called fish and chip shops but at the time the fish was usually seen as the main attraction. Fish and chips hadn't yet quite attained the status of a beloved national dish and the growing presence of fried fish shops in England was a source of horror to quite a few people. Whereas today most people would find the smell of a chip shop at least a little enticing there was no food smell except that of cooking cabbage more hated and complained about in the thirties than the smell of frying fish from such shops. Some English people wanted them banned entirely from the country on the grounds of their "offensive" smell. So it is probable that the fried fish shops in Marlow at this period didn't enjoy universal approval though memories of them suggest they and their owners (as shopkeepers and as individuals) were very much loved and respected by their customers.
Boxed chocolates were sold at no 55 High Street.
On a healthier front there was at least two greengrocer's shops to choose from in town. You might not imagine that there were any vegetarians around in the 1930s but there must have been some locally as in the previous decade there had already been a health food store in High Wycombe which specifically advertised that it catered for vegetarians and fruitarians. Nut based alternatives for animal suet were amongst the products it had sold. By the 1930s it had moved to include more traditional food as well as the more niche health food products. It was one of the first shops in the area to get Mars Bars. These were firmly in the health food section their adverts tells us thanks to all that nutritious butter, eggs and chocolate involved in each bite. Hmmm....
Those that wanted to start up a shop in Marlow, or any another business could consult commercial property agent Walter Lord who was also a valuer. He handled property over a wide area.
Should you get tired of shopping, refreshments were available at the Dutch Tea House in West Street which offered morning coffee as well as afternoon tea, the Corner House, the Bridge Restaurant run by Evans and Atkinson, the Swan Cafe and Blue Bird Cafe amongst several others. The Swan would deliver you cakes and treats within a 5 mile radius and offered a set luncheon for businessmen at 3 shillings for 3 courses. Both Little Marlow and Well End had their own tearooms.
During the first few decades of the twentieth century the number of pubs in Marlow fell dramatically due to a long term campaign by local authorities to limit the number of licensed premises available. Pubs lost in the thirties include The Cherry Tree in Dean Street which suffered a closure order in 1931, the centuries old Greyhound in the same year, The Carriers Arms in Wycombe Road lost in 1939, The Jolly Cricketers at Bovingdon Green forcibly closed in 1934 and the Bricklayers Arms in Chapel Street which officially shut down in 1932. The Verney Arms in Dean Street survived a few months into the 1940s. Early pinball machines and grab a prize mechanical arm machines arrived in Marlow's pubs during the 1930s, though their legality was often in question and grumblings about their ability to corrupt the then "youth of today" never far away.
What you wouldn't want to do as a shopper in early 1930s Marlow was get caught in need of the toilet. The town's only proper public convenience then was by the station, quite a walk from the High Street. You had to push coins into a slot in order to use it but having paid there was no guarantee the door would unlock for you as it was meant to. Nor could you flush the toilet after each use. Scraps of torn newspaper were provided for those who did manage to get past the payment system. There was apparently a wide gap between the roof and the top of the side walls, stuffed with barbed wire, as one poor lady patron that got stuck in the toilets had to climb out through this to the injury of both herself and the eggs she was unfortunately carrying in her shopping bag. Plans to add conveniences to Higginson Park and Crown Lane were underway in the mid 1930s following complaints as to the unhygienic state Higginson Park was left in after bank holiday weekends in particular.
*One of whom long retired was still alive in the late 1980s and as a gesture of friendship to my mother had made for me and my twin sister beautiful baby shawls and clothing. Her hobby then was poking around in the old bottle and china dumps in the town especially in Old Pound Lane to see what "treasures" she could find. We miss her dearly.
Radio and electrical suppliers will be mentioned under Leisure in part two of this series of 1930s life posts, and clothes shops more fully in a later post still.
Researched and written by Charlotte Day.
To be continued...
For a detailed post about the preparations for war and the first few months of WW2 in Marlow please see my already published post here. It will be updated with new information later this year.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.
Selected Sources:
1939 Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire etc, by Kelly's Directories Limited
1931 Marlow Town Guide
An Economic Survey of Buckinghamshire Agriculture: Pt.1. Farms and Estates. United Kingdom: n.p., 1938.
The Commercial Grower Volume 60. United Kingdom, n.p, 1925.
Original shop invoices and receipts.
Crown Hotel Marlow guide c 1931-36.
Bucks Herald 19th May 1933, Bucks Herald October 1st 1930. British Library Archives.
South Bucks Free Press 10th August and 7th September 1934 and Bucks Free Press 10th March 1933, Bucks Free Press Archives.
Personal interview.
