Company Outing of West Surrey Central Diaries Guildford 28th July 1921

On the reverse, written in pencil, it reads

"Bournemouth trip July 28th, 1921 Girls Club"

London Road, Guildford ~ Circa 1912

Cow and Gate circa 1940

Cow & Gate Glucose Tin from the circa 1940
From Cow & Gate Ltd. Guildford England, Net weight of original contents 454 g. (1lb.)

Drummond Arms, Guildford, Circa 1910

The Hogs Back, Guildford ~ Circa 1932

Guildford Market (Cattle) ~ Circa 1930

Coronation Procession at Guildford 1911

Woodbridge Road, Guildford ~ Circa 1925

Worplesdon Cricket Ground - Circa 1909

St Catherine's Cottages, Guildford Circa 1900

Chertsey Street, Guildford ~ Circa 1907

Market Day at Guildford ~ Circa 1910

Passfield, Liphook circa 1916

Not exactly Guildford and District, but this postcard caught my eye as it relates to my own family history.

This is of Passfield, at Liphook, a location named on many census returns for my Elstone family

Quarry Street, Guildford ~ Circa 1912

North Street, Guildford circa 1911

Cattle Market, Guildford Circa 1910

A view of Old Guildford circa 1902

I have had trouble locating the actual spot of this picture. I think it is a small alleyway off the High Street, on the right hand side, just past W.H. Smiths. What do you think?

Cattle Market, Guildford circa 1905

Advertising - Dennis Bros Ashtray

Guildford Floods - December 2013

Daily Mail - 27th December 2013

Manor Farm, Wanborough - June 1986

I saw this watercolour in the early 1990s. It is of Manor Farm at Wanborough and was painted by local artist, Jean M Blair in June 1986, which was just a few months before the Puttenham One Place Study commenced.

References in the Strangest of Places (part two)

When I was in the local library last week I spotted this anthology, recently published called “The Library Book” Each chapter is about twenty pages or so from a well know and respected writer, sharing their personal views or memories about books.

The chapter written by Alan Bennett, which commences at page 25 talks about his parents and their regular outings to the public library in Leeds. Alan Bennett talks about the fact that his father left Leeds in 1944 to relocate with his family to Guildford.

This is what Allan Bennett said on page 30 with regard to Guildford in general

".....I don't remember ever finding the public library, but this was because a few doors down from the Butcher's shop where Dad worked was a private library, costing 6d a week, which in the children's section had a whole run of Richard Crompton's William books.........."

The second paragraph on the same page made reference to Walnut Tree Close and you can read those details on the Walnut Tree Close Study page.

I am quite curious to see if I can identify the location and the Butcher's shop that Allan Bennett is talking about.

The Library Book published Profile Books 2012 – ISBN 978 1 78125 005 1

Wanborough School

Courtyard of Abbots Hospital

Air View of Guildford - Circa 1940

Surrey's Capital: A Guide to Guildford & the District - Homeland Handbooks 1925

South of England Postcard Fair - 2000

South of England Postcard Fair - 1997

Guildford Railway Poster

The Chantries or Pilgrims Way circa 1907

Cow and Gate Advertisement circa 1960

Advertisement for Cow and Gate Ltd produced circa 1960

Floods at Guildford - 3rd January 1928

Postcard by D Box. 86 years ago today, this was the view at Guildford. It shows the lower High Street, with St Nicholas Church on the left, looking up to the Mount.

Season's Greetings from Guildford Circa 1906

The Guildford Floods of 1968

As I am going through and uploading the material to the Walnut Tree Close (Guildford) website, I thought I would share the following story and picture.

In September 1968 the River Wey in Guildford burst its banks. My Mum says they heard a noise one Sunday evening and she went to the door to look out. She told her Dad there was water in the road, and the response was, as one might expect, "Don't be ridiculous!" My Grandfather then went to the back door and sure enough the water was just coming in the door.

The family then worked steadily trying to get what they could upstairs, but essentially it was really too late for some items. On the Monday morning, Mum and her Dad went into Guildford to get some wellington boots, by that point it was inpassible in some parts of town, but they did get the wellingtons and some bread and other essentials. By Lunchtime on Monday the water was well and truly inside the properties and the lower section of Guildford closed off, and the water continued to rise rapidly.

There was at the time an Army barracks in Guildford and they helped to evacuate those worse affected. My Grandparents elected to stay in their home. By Tuesday morning the water had all gone, but a dreadful smell and clean up now existed.

My Mum at the time worked at the department store in Guildford, Plummer Rodis, which was situated also along the banks of the River and the store was also flooded. Mum recalls the Managing Director, a Mr Brown, coming to talk to the staff, thanking them for all their hard work during, what would have been a challenging clean up operation and costly to the business, regardless, as a way of thanking the staff he paid them all an extra week's wages. A far cry from working for a large business today.

Mum always says that my Grandmother was totally oblivious. On the Monday evening, Gran said she felt like a cup of tea. Anyway, Gran toddled off downstairs and it was a few minutes before my Grandfather realised that she had gone downstairs. They heard a small bang then a bit of an expletive and then eventually Gran came back up the stairs with a teapot and a set of cups and saucers. She had turned the gas on and made the tea, completely oblivious that she could have completely blown the house and them to pieces.

When I asked how high the water had come into the house, the response was the water had started to climb the stairs and had made it past the first three. It might have been a dreadful experience, but not totally unexpected given how close the house was to the river. The reason for the flood, was not due to excessive rain. but there was a problems with the locks which controlled the volume of water.





This photo was taken by Allan Edwards, whose mother in law lived across the road from my Grandparents. I have looked at this photograph lots of times as it shows the house,the first on the right where my Grandparents lived, but it was only recently that I realised that the top window is open and has my Grandparents looking out and the bottom window has my Mum peeping outside.

Walnut Tree Close (Guildford) Community Archive

Back in 1984, I removed an article from the local newspaper about Walnut Tree Close. My family had been connected with the road since at least 1911. My Grandmother was born in the road in 1912.

She lived in the same property until about 1937, when her mother, who was a widow passed away. For a time, as the eldest daughter she had been looking after her brothers. At some point she returned home from town where she found her brothers had vacated the house, each going their separate ways within the Guildford area.

Between 1937 and 1939 she lived with her sister and brother in law in the Bellfields area and when she married my Grandfather in November 1939 she and my Grandfather initially made their home in Bright Hill, before relocating back to Walnut Tree Close in 1940, although in a different property. My family association with the road remained until 1996.

That first newspaper clipping was effectively the beginning of the end; as I have built up quite an archive of data.  I therefore felt it was about time, to get the material on-line.

I have therefore developed the website and a blog to accompany the website and over the course of the coming months plan to get the material on-line. 

The study is already registered with the Society for One-Place Studies

Wanborough Cricket Club - Circa 1930?

Not the clearest photo, and sadly no one is identified in this picture. This dates circa 1930

Lymposs and Sons

Handcart and milk maid from Lymposs and Son Dairy. This firm operated from two dairies in Guildford, addresses at High Street and Woodbridge Road. Lymposs and Son eventually merged with another diary to create Lymposs and Smee.

Elstead Football Club 1911

Standing Row - Herbert ELLIS, u/k, u/k, William BIAS, George WARNER, Alfred NOVELL, Guy BOVINGTON, Sandy TILSON, u/k, Henry ELLIS, Lewis NOVELL, u/k.

Sitting Row - first 3 u/k, Hubert HARDY, Jack BOND

Epsom and London Road, Guildford circa 1909

Order of Buffaloes - George R Stentiford - 24th November 1932

The following was shared with me for the purpose of posting to Guildford & District. A medal awarded to George R Stentiford, a member of Order of the Buffaloes in the Jubilee Lodge (number 3508) at Guildford. Dated 24th November 1932

I was a little curious about George R Stentiford, so decided to have a little look at what paper trail he had left behind.

Firstly, I located a marriage of George to Clara Punter in Kingston Upon Thames

Marriage at Kingston Upon Thames - Image courtesy of Ancestry

George's occupation showed that he was a professional footballer. A quick search on Google revealed a small amount of detail via Wikipedia. This confirmed that he started his football career in Kingston before moving to various clubs in the north of England before returning to Surrey and playing for Guildford United.

A further search on Google revealed that George is buried in Merrow, Guildford with Clara - See HERE for details, and I on a trip to Guildford I located the grave at Merrow, which you can see on Grave Encounters.

Guildford Market Stalls - August 1939

This account comes from -
The Market Traders' Review - A supplement to the World's Fair, dated Saturday, August 5th, 1939

Shalford Road Guildford - 2nd August 1906 - After the Storm

Puttenham Street 1914

This is a recent addition to the study and given to me as a present.

This is an original print from "A Pilgrimage in Surrey", by James S. Ogilvy; Published by George Routledge & Sons, London in 1914

Frederick William Wait & Bertha Agnes Turner - Guildford 1917

So, Who was Fred?.....

This was a question that I strove to answer back in December 2011 when I showed this picture on this blog and on Anglers Rest

A search of the Marriages for a B Turner in Guildford 1916+ to a Fred revealed one such entry. The marriage of Bertha A Turner to Frederick W Wait in the September Quarter of 1917 at Guildford. (Ref 2a, 201).

Working backwards to the 1911 Census. Did that reveal more of Bertha? The index revealed one entry for a Bertha E Turner. I took a chance and looked at the data. It didn't pay off, and revealed a Bertha Elizabeth Turner residing at 144 Walnut Tree Close Guildford, a stones throw of my Grandmother at 114. Isn't research curious?

Anyway, A quick look through the First World War records didn't prove obviously helpful, neither did the Commonwealth War Graves website. So I still didn't know who Fred was. A quick search of the 1911 Census for him and I was surprised. It revealed one entry; just one.

Frederick William Wait, Single and Aged 20 years born 1891 Guildford. On overseas military duty and recorded as in the 7th Dragoon Guards and stationed at Hislop Barracks, Trimulgherry, Duccan, India.

That I had not expected. This is still not conclusive that the Fred in India is the Fred in France. Were regiments pulled from various bits of the Empire in order to fight in Europe. Quite possibly.

Into June of 2013 and Ancestry have just released the Surrey records - a fabulous day! I took opportunity to see if I could locate the marriage record that had appeared in the indexes.

And here we are. The marriage 96 years ago today!

Courtesy of Ancestry.
Marriage September 13th 1917 St Mary's Guildford