The Fairway and Storr's Lane

Rather surprisingly the land now comprising these 2 quiet thoroughfares hosted at least 3 dwellings which farmed about 15 small fields in the 1840’s. The entire area was taken up thus, except for one small piece (which was left as wasteland, presumably because it was deemed unfit for any purpose).

During the 20th century the developers moved in, and we now have The Fairway and Storr’s Lane. The origin of the name of The Fairway is fairly easy to work out. But why is Storr’s Lane called Storr’s Lane? And what have chickens got to do with it?

This section includes detailed history of the properties in The Fairway and Storr’s Lane. But we begin with a history of a wider area up to 1902. This wider area covers:

The Fairway,
Storr’s Lane, and
Lawford’s Hill Road and Lawford’s Hill Close.

After this early section we will continue with just The Fairway and Storr’s Lane. We will deal with Lawford’s Hill Road and Close in a separate menu item.

THE FAIRWAY / LAWFORDS HILL AREA PRIOR TO 1902

Until the early 20th century, the area covered by The Fairway, Storr’s Lane and Lawford’s Hill Road & Close was a quiet area comprising just 2 small farms. Today it consists of around 30 sizeable houses, all of them built since 1930. This first section looks at the whole area (approx 30 acres) up to 1900. Post-1900, we have written about the development of The Fairway and Storr’s Lane after this first section. Lawford’s Hill Road and Close are covered in their own section (separate menu item).

The 1841 Tithe map (shown below) is a good place to start our journey. We have coloured the routes of today’s 3 main roads (Red = The Fairway, Blue = Storr’s Lane and Green = Lawford’s Hill Road). The lands belonging to the 2 farms have been shaded. Alongside it we have shown for reference the current OS map of the same area (with thanks to Ordnance Survey).

1841 Tithe Map of Lawfords etc - Todays roads shown and farms.jpg

The first farm (coloured blue), belonging to Samuel Greenfield and was called Lawford’s Farm (for reasons which are explained further down this page). It was 12 acres in size, and comprised plot numbers 1296 to 1306. The map shows 2 dwellings (coloured pink) on the farm, both around the middle of (what is today) Storr’s Lane. The more southerly of the dwellings remained until the 1990’s, when The Tree House was built on the plot. The other dwelling does not appear on later OS maps, and so presumably was demolished.

Samuel also owned the 32 acres of commonland numbered 1292 (which stretched as far as where Berry Lane is today and a little further). Mr Greenfield was a well known figure at Fox Corner, as he also owned the largest farm in the area, Bakersgate. His story is told in the Bakersgate section, where he is identified as “Samuel Greenfield IV”.

The other farm (coloured yellow) was much smaller and belonged to John Woods. It was 5 acres in size and comprised plots numbered 1307 to 1311, but it doesn’t appear to have had a name, which is a bit odd.

It included 2 dwellings on (what is now) The Fairway. The house in the plot numbered 1308 was where Dodger’s Well is today. The other building (in the plots marked 1310 and 1311) was probably semi-detached and stood where Crabtree House is today.

Ownership and occupation of the buildings up to 1841

We will now jump back in time some 200 years, and find out how Messrs Greenfield and Woods came to own their farms in 1841.

In early times, the whole area lay within the Manor of Crastock (later referred to as the Manor of Bridley). The 2 plots described above (which from now on we’ll call the Greenfield plot and the Woods plot) were first cultivated several years ago, and were both held copyhold. [We can think of copyhold as the land being owned by the Lord of the Manor, but rented on a long lease to the tenant, who had the right to pass the land to his or her heirs. This meant that some copyhold plots were occupied by the same family for a long period – as we will see is the case with both the Greenfield and the Woods plots].

The Greenfield plot

The earlier history of the Greenfield plot is as follows:

Mid-1600’s: The property (known as Longmoor) was held (copyhold) by a John Palmer.
Late-1600’s: Following the death of John Palmer, the property was held by a William Piper.
1728: Edward Lawford (1681 – 1753) now held the property, still known as Longmoor. He was responsible for collecting all of the rents of the Manor, suggesting that he held some status in the area.
1753: On the death of Edward Lawford, the property passed to Edward Lawford’s next of kin – his daughter, Ann Greenfield (1721 - 1774), who had married Samuel Greenfield in 1745. We have written about Samuel in more detail in the Bakersgate section of this site, where we refer to him as Samuel II (1720 - 1795).
1774: Ann Greenfield died, and the property passed to her husband, Samuel Greenfield II.
1795: Samuel Greenfield II died and the property passed to his son, Samuel Greenfield III (1746 - 1836).
1836: On the death of Samuel III, the property passed to his son, Samuel Greenfield IV (1779 – 1854). Samuel III’s will actually stipulated that it should be inherited by his grandson, George Greenfield. However this did not happen, perhaps because it was not allowed by the rules of copyhold. In any event the property passed to Samuel IV, and it was he who held it in 1841

Clearly the Lawford name has been remembered via Lawford’s Farm, Lawford’s Hill Road and Close. The area in fact was generally known as Lawfords throughout most of the 19th and early 20th centuries. We do not know, however, whether it was Edward or Ann who is the source. It would be rather nice to think that, several years after Ann’s death in 1774, one of her sons used Ann’s name to name the area as Lawfords. Ann herself would have been completely unaware of her name being used in this way (let alone that her name would still be in use 250 years later, and probably a lot more years to come). More realistically perhaps, Edward Lawford may have built a farm which became known as Lawford’s Farm – probably around 1730. But we don’t know for certain.

The Woods plot

The rest of the land belonged to John Woods (1782 – 1857) who also farmed the land himself. John had been born in Puttenham in 1781 and had purchased the 5 acre plot c1804. He was married at the time, but his first wife died, and he remarried Anne Compton (who was also widowed) of Worplesdon in 1828. They had a son, John, in 1832, who much later became the superintendent of the cemetery opposite St John’s Church on the Stoke Road in Guildford. Ann died in 1858.
Here are the transactions up to 1841 (note that surnames are not always spelt consistently!).

• 1653: A 500-year lease was granted by the Lord of Crastock Manor (Paul Carrill) to William Leynord, a husbandman from Bridley for a cottage (built c1652), garden plot and 2 acres of land, recently enclosed from waste. This gives us an exact date for the first building on the site of today’s Dodger’s Well.
• 1708: A 1,000-year lease was granted by the Lord of Crastock Manor (Leonard Child) to William Leynard of Woking for 1 acre of land abutting the above.
• 1710: William Linnard dies, leaving a cottage, barn, garden and 3 acres of land to his son John Linnard.
• 1734: John Linnard died, leaving the cottage and land to his son Henry Linnard.
• 1734: Henry Leynord, a husbandman from Shalford, assigned the lease to William Harrod (1707 – 1766), a husbandman from Worplesdon. The property comprises a cottage (already pulled down), a garden plot and 2 acres of land enclosed from waste.
• 1766: William Harrod died, leaving the property to his nephew, John Harrod (c1720 – 1772). His will mentions no wife or children, suggesting that William Harrod never married.
• 1772: John Harrod left the property to his wife, Sarah Harrod (1726 – 1800). The property now comprises a tenement (ie cottage), barn, garden, orchard, and 4 closes of arable or meadow ground. This matches the farm as shown in the 1841 Tithe map (shown at the start of this section)
• 1800: Sarah died, leaving her entire estate to her cousin, John Woods of St Catherine’s Hill, Guildford. John was the incumbent at the time of the 1841 Tithe map.

We think that, soon after 1826, the lands of Crastock Manor were enfranchised, meaning that copyholds were converted into freehold ownership. Hence by the time of the 1841 Tithe map, both farms were recorded as being owned (by Samuel Greenfield and John Woods respectively).

1841 - 1857

In short, both farms were soon (c1855) purchased by the gentleman who owned Bridley Manor at the time – Alexander Robertson, who is discussed more fully in the Bridley Manor section. We cannot be sure of Mr Robertson’s intention, but it was probably (in modern-day parlance) to increase the size of the Bridley estate in order to achieve efficiencies of scale. This should have led to an increase in profitability, which would have enabled the landowner to make a nice profit on selling the estate.

Probably a good idea in theory, but Mr Robertson and future owners didn’t seem to live long enough to let it turn out that way, as we shall see.
As to details, John Woods sold his 5-acre farm in 1855 and died 2 years later in 1857. We don’t know for sure when Lawford’s Farm (17 acres of farmland, plus 32 acres of commonland) was sold, but given that Samuel Greenfield IV died in 1854, it could well be that both farms were sold to the Manor of Bridley (in the person of Alexander Robertson) around the same time c1855. As it happened, Mr Robertson died in 1857, and so didn’t live to see any profit from this particular piece of business.

John Woods and his family appear on the 1841 and 1851 censuses as living at his farm (on the site of today’s Dodger’s Well), but we should mention the other people who lived in the area at this time. The following bullet points demonstrate how close the family relationships were at the time (which is code for “It’s a bit complicated”).

Joseph Cranston was the farmer at Lawford’s farm, where he and his family lived. Both Joseph (1775) and his wife Charlotte (nee Johnson, 1782) were born at Billingshurst and were married there in 1799. They had 4 children. The eldest, Jesse (see bullet point below), was born in Billingshurst in 1811, but the family then moved to Pirbright for some reason. The next 3 children were born at Pirbright, where Joseph initially gave his occupation as gamekeeper. Joseph died at Lawfords Farm in 1851 and Charlotte in 1858.
Jesse Cranston, the eldest son of Joseph and Charlotte (see bullet point above), stayed at Lawfords Farm for a while. He married Jane Boylett in 1844 when he was aged 33 and Jane just 19. Jane was the daughter of Elizabeth Boylett (see bullet point below). They had 10 children. In 1861 Jesse was a bricklayer, working presumably for the Bridley estate. By 1871 the family had moved to what is now called Chapel Lane, Pirbright (near to the Providence Chapel), and by 1881 they had moved to Church Lane, Pirbright. Jesse died there in 1885 and Jane in 1897.
Elizabeth Boylett (nee Boxall at Worplesdon in 1797) was the daughter of John and Hannah Boxall from Ockham and Godalming respectively. She married James Boylett (born Kingston in 1782) in 1820. They had 10 children, the 3rd of whom was James Boylett (see bullet point below) and the 4th of whom was Jane, who married Jesse Cranston (see bullet point above!) in 1844. James died in 1837, aged 55. In 1851 Elizabeth was a washerwoman, but she died in 1857. Coincidentally, the entry of her death in the parish record immediately follows that of John Woods, who had owned the “Woods plot” (refer above). We have shown the 2 entries below.
James Boylett was born in 1823, the 3rd child of Elizabeth and James Boylett (see bullet point above). He married Mary Stevens (born 1831 in Pirbright) in 1850, and they proceeded to have 14 children over the next 22 years. They stayed in the Lawfords area (possibly living in the house on the site of today’s Primrose House) until the 1880’s. James described himself variously as a stockman or a labourer. They then moved to Burners Cottage in Pirbright, where they were near to a Richard Stevens and his family (who may have been a distant relation of Mary) and Henry Greenfield (who had previously lived at Bakersgate).

1857 - 1902

We’ll now take a look at how the area developed over the rest of the 19th century, as part of the Bridley estate. In 1857, after Mr Robertson’s death, the Bridley estate (including the Lawfords area) was put up for sale. We are fortunate that a detailed map was prepared for this purpose.

After the 1857, and under new ownership, the farms were quickly put under the management of Bridley Manor Farm, without any resident farmer in the Lawfords area. The dwellings at Lawfords were used instead to house agricultural workers.

To start with, we have shown below 5 further maps of the area. Left to right (top row first), they are:

The 1857 map to support the sale of Bridley Manor
The 1873 OS map
The 1888 Bridley sale map
The 1902 Bridley sale map
The 1915 OS map

The OS maps are shown with our grateful thanks to Ordnance Survey.

There are several points of interest. First we’ll look at the roads:

The Fairway already appeared clearly on the 1841 map and looks to be an established (and straight) road). •
Storr’s Lane appears for the first time on the 1873 map.
Lawford’s Hill Road was non-existent. It only came into being in 1925.
Lawford’s Hill Close was only created in 1970.

Next we’ll look at the buildings:

All of the dwellings on the 1841 Tithe map are shown.
A third building near the end of The Fairway is shown on the 1873 and 1915 maps. On the 1902 and 1915 maps it is named Dawson’s Well and was still shown on the 1938 OS map. It has long since disappeared and its foundations (if the house had any) would lie today just north of the 11th green of Worplesdon Golf Course (where today’s OS map has the word “Stone”).
A third house appears further down Storr’s Lane on the 1857 and 1873 maps, together with a well. This house is today’s Primrose House (recently built in place of the previous Primrose Cottage).
A house appears on the Bagshot Road on the 1873 map, just south of Storr’s Lane. Long since demolished, it was where the garden of Hunter’s Green is today.

Finally, we’ll look at the footpaths and fields. Several small details here:

There are no footpaths marked on the 1841 map, and that is fairly typical of the Tithe maps in that year – tracks were only shown if they were deemed to be significant (which probably meant if they carried wheeled traffic).
On the 1857 and 1873 maps, a footpath is shown leading to Lawford’s Farm. This is not a surprise – we would have expected some sort of track to the farm from a main road. However, it is a little surprising (on the 1873 map) to see this path extend as far as the parish boundary (the dark dotted line in the south-west quadrant) and the path beyond it. The path is also shown on a 1956 building plan for one of the houses on The Fairway. Today, however, Storr’s Lane ends at Primrose House and there is no public right of way beyond. We do not know when or how this right of way ceased.
The 1873 map also shows a footpath leading from the end of The Fairway to the parish boundary and the path beyond it. This path still exists and is well-used.
Also on the 1873 map, Just beyond the parish boundary (and running roughly parallel to it) is another path running in a SE-NW direction. This is the path between Malthouse Lane and Chapel Lane in Pirbright, which is still in very good use today. We have written about the path in the section on Malthouse Lane.
An additional footpath appears on the 1915 map. It leads from Primrose Cottage in a southerly direction, meeting Malthouse Lane opposite Mount Lodge. We can think of only one reason why this path was made: To reduce the time taken to walk from Primrose Cottage to the nearest pub (The Fox). The path is shown on a 1956 building plan for one of the houses on The Fairway, but does not exist today, as it would traverse one of the back gardens in Lawford’s Hill Road.
The 1857 map shows that some of the commonland at the western end of the farms has been cultivated as 3 new fields (plots 1292d, e, and f), as has the strip adjoining the Bagshot Road. No doubt this was down to Mr Robertson trying to maximise the value of the estate.
The 1857 map also shows that some fields have been transferred from Lawford’s Farm (coloured yellow) to the other, unnamed farm (coloured pink). The 2 farms are now much closer in size. This was presumably to make the farms easier to manage.
The 1857 map shows that the strip to the north of the Fairway (now the 11th hole of Worplesdon Golf Course) has been subdivided into plots, which suggests a plan to convert them into farmland (never to be implemented – the 1873 map shows the middle plot as being a plantation of trees).
The drainage ditch (which emanates from Bridley Pond across the Bagshot Road and which runs between The Fairway and Storr’s Lane) is neither shown on the 1841 map, nor on the 1857 Bridley sale map. The field pattern rather suggests that it didn’t exist at that time (in which case the land would have been quite boggy). It does appear on the 1873 map (and successive maps). We think it may have been dug by the new owners (Bridley Manor) post-1855. A comparison of the 1857 and 1888 sale plans shows that the fields have been reconfigured. This and the new drainage ditch would have been part of Bridley Manor’s “efficiency” measures, we suspect.
The 1902 map shows the area as being offered for sale in several small lots (each numbered and in a different colour). This shows a clear intent to sell the land as development land.
The 1915 map shows that the 32 acres of commonland (previously attached to Lawford’s Farm) had been converted to farmland. This may well have happened earlier – perhaps at the same time as the drainage ditch was dug as part of the Bridley Manor “efficiency” measures.

Although the Bridley estate was, in both 1857 and 1888, offered for sale in lots, the estate was bought in its entirety in 1857 by Lord Grantley, and then, in 1877, bought in its entirety by Major Ewing. Their stories are told in the Bridley section.

But the estate was once again put up for sale following Major Ewing’s death in 1888, and bought in its entirety by Richard Garton, scion of a sugar refining family (his story is also told in the Bridley section). He decided to sell it once again in 1902. Apart from 2 footpaths leading to the track between Chapel Lane and Malthouse Lane, there are few (if any) changes since the 1887 map was produced. The only named buildings were Lawford (Lawford’s Farm) and Dawson’s Well.

The estate in 1902 was again marketed in lots, but this time, the sales blurb accompanying the sale emphasised the development opportunities (and not the agricultural prospects, as previously). Here are some examples from the 1902 sales brochure (Lots 13 and 15):

And below we have shown the part of the sales brochure dealing with Lot 18 (which became Holes 11-15 of Worplesdon Golf Course).

So, a fairly consistent message to potential buyers: Build a few nice large houses and make a nice large profit. There were certainly several people with newly-made wealth around at that time, so the idea was sound, especially as there was no such thing as the Green Belt in those days. In the event, houses ended up (many years later) being built at a greater density on smaller individual plots than envisaged by the seller. This trend has continued to this day, when we frequently see large houses being built on much smaller individual plots than in earlier times.

The buyer of the entire estate in 1902 was Thomas Montagu Richards, who bought the whole estate. Unfortunately he used other peoples’ money fraudulently to buy the estate and accordingly ended up in Maidstone Jail. Not surprisingly this was quite a scandal in its day. His full story is told in the Berry Lane section.

To begin with we can’t be certain who lived in each dwelling, as each resident told the census-taker that they simply lived in Lawfords (actually in some years the census-taker heard it as “Larfords”, which gives us a clue as to the local accent in those times).

However, the 1902 sale details do tell us a little about each of the 6 buildings at Lawfords at that time:

Dawson’s Well: 3-room cottage let to Mrs Kail
Dodger’s Well site: 5-room house let to Mr Wye
Crabtree House site: 2 semi-detached cottages, used as a single 6-room dwelling let to Mr Mitchell
Lawford’s Farm: 5-room cottage let to Mr Heather
Primrose House site: 3-room house on short-term lettings (although the tenant at the time, John Strudwick and his family, were to stay in the house quite a long time).
Hunters Green site: 3-bedroom house on short-term lettings

We examine what happened to each of these properties after 1902 in the relevant section on this site (the first 5 houses in this section, the 6th house in the Bagshot Road section). We’ll now take a look at some of the occupants of these houses during the period 1857 – 1902.

We have mentioned above that James Boylett and his family were probably living at the Primrose House site.
George and Ruth Mitchell. George was born in Dunsfold in 1831, the son of a farmer (of 150 acres). In 1854 he married Ruth Cheeseman (born in Pirbright in 1821). Ruth grew up in Pirbright, but in 1851 was recorded as being a house servant to an Inland Revenue inspector in York. That seems a long way away from home, and we can only speculate as to why she had chosen to live there. Back in Surrey (Bisley), George and Ruth produced 4 children, and by 1871 they were living in the Lawfords area. George was an agricultural labourer throughout his life and died at Lawfords aged 59 in 1890. Ruth died 2 years later in 1892, aged 71. One of their sons, George, was living in one or both of the 2 semis where Crabtree House is today with his wife, Martha and their 6 children.
William Heather, who described himself as a farmer at Lawfords in 1901. William was born in 1869, the son of Thomas and Eliza (nee Gunner) Heather from Worplesdon. This family of Heathers do not seem to be related to the Heathers that originally (c1830-1870) ran the shop at Rickford which became Christmas Bakery. Instead the family lived at Gooserye and then Whitmoor Common. Thomas described himself as a labourer until 1881, when he was a butcher, and then in 1891 he had become the Parish Clerk. William married a lady called Donna Marie (surname unknown), who was 18 years older than him. William became a gardener, and the couple moved to Oxshott.
Frederick Wye, born in 1848, son of William Wye and Martha Larman, and grandson of Isaac Larman, steward at Bridley and his wife Susan. Frederick was an agricultural labourer, and in 1877 he pleaded guilty to “feloniously stealing one horse to the value of £40, the property of Frederick Searle (Editor’s note: Mr Searle lived near Hogleys Farm) at Pirbright.” He was sentenced to 6 months hard labour at Wandsworth. 4 years later Frederick married Eliza Simmonds and they had 6 children, one of whom, Frederick Wye junior, died during WW1 at Loos in 1915. The Wye family stayed in the Bridley/Lawfords area between 1881 and 1901 before moving to Witley.
John and Ann Strudwick. They lived at Lawfords from the 1890’s until 1912, when they moved to St Brelade, a house near Fox Corner, and we tell their story there.
Isaac and Maria Keel (or Kail) lived at Dawson’s Well between 1891 and 1901 (and possibly longer). Isaac was born at Perry Hill, Worplesdon in 1822, the son of a labourer, George Kale (or Cale) and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1841 Isaac joined the 3rd Regiment of Foot (known as “The Buffs”) and served 21 years. 15 of those years were spent overseas in the East Indies, Greece, Corfu, Malta, Crimea and China. Some of those sound like rather nice places to be stationed, but the Crimean War (1853-56) and the 2nd China War (1856-60) would not have been much fun at all. A picture of some men from that Regiment during the Crimean War is shown below.

Dawsons Well - The Buffs Crimean War.jpg

In 1872 Isaac married Maria Downes. Both were widowed. Maria had been born Maria Hakins in Chilworth in 1833, but we cannot find any trace of either of their first marriages (Isaac’s may well have been during one of his overseas postings). Isaac died in 1900 and Maria in 1910 (she may have continued to live at Dawson’s Well up to c1908 when Worplesdon Golf Course was founded).

30 years after 1902, the sound of bulldozers could have been heard, and the 49 acres of green fields and heathland were gradually turned into houses and gardens over a period of several years. The first area to be developed was Lawford’s Hill Road from around 1930, then The Fairway from 1935. Last to be developed was Lawford’s Hill Close in 1962. Storr’s Lane comprised 2 dwellings in 1857, and still contains just 2 dwellings – in the same positions as the original buildings, but built within the last 30 years.

We will deal with Lawford’s Hill Road and Close in a separate menu item. But we will continue with The Fairway, followed by Storr’s Lane, below.

The Fairway since 1902

In the previous section we noted that, in the years prior to 1902, there were only 3 buildings in what is now the Fairway:

Dawson’s Well
A house where Dodger’s Well now stands
2 semi-detached cottages called Lawford’s Cottages, sometimes used as a single 6-room dwelling, where Crabtree House now stands.

Dawson’s Well soon ceased to be a dwelling when it was acquired by Worplesdon Golf Course in 1908 (though we have written a little about towards the end of this section), which left just 2 dwellings from the 1900’s.

We can see from the 1902 sale plan shown above that the land occupied today by The Fairway was offered as one lot (Lot 17) of 13 acres, but who purchased it? Well the Woking 1911 Rate Book records the entire acreage on which The Fairway stands (including the 2 cottages where Dodger’s Well and Crabtree House stand today) was owned in 1911 by an E Leonard Harvey. He either bought it at the 1902 auction, or bought it subsequently. Although the name is slightly different, we’re pretty certain that this gentleman was in fact Edward Douglas Lennox Harvey, so we will say a few words about him.

Edward (1859-1938) was the son of a wealthy Scottish landowner, William Harvey (1799-1867). William was born in Elgin in 1799, and the reader might be wondering how William acquired his wealth. A good question, and the answer, unfortunately makes unhappy reading. William left Scotland in his 20’s to seek his fortune in the Caribbean. The “Slave Return” for Kingston in 1826 shows William James Harvey “possessing” 6 slaves. By 1829 the number had risen to 17 slaves. In 1832 he “possessed” 39 slaves between the ages of 19 and 60, but mainly aged in their 40’s.

The main industry in Jamaica at that time was sugar plantations, and we assume that William had acquired one such. A medium-sized plantation would have had 150 slaves apparently, so William’s plantation was on the small size. Slavery was then abolished in 1834, and slave-owners were compensated by the British Government between 1834 and 1838. In today’s money, slave owners received around £32,000 per slave, and so William would have received amounts equivalent to over £1 million today. This would have been on top of the handsome sugar-based profits he had been making in previous years, thanks to slave labour.

William returned to Scotland after the abolition, a rich man. He married Isabella (nee Barclay in 1818) in Elgin in 1836. William was aged 37, and Isabella 18. In 1861 William and Isabella were living in Carnousie (not Carnoustie), a few miles south of Banff, with their 10 children, a tutor, a nurse and 8 servants. Edward, the youngest child was aged only 2. It must have been a big house.

William became the Laird of Carnousie, Banffshire. We have shown below a picture of his and Isabella’s imposing grave at Turriff, near Carnousie. It seems that he died a respected member of the community, notwithstanding how he had obtained his wealth.

William’s son, Edward (who had been born in Paris in 1858) moved south to England, studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1885 married Constance Hills at Sevenoaks. He became a freemason in 1886. In 1891 the couple were living at the rectory in Downham Market, and Edward was the rector there. A picture of Edward in his Downham Market days is shown below.

They had a 2 year-old daughter, Marjorie, who had been born at Croydon. It is evident that Edward had inherited a fair amount of his father’s wealth, as by 1901 he and his family had moved to a large house called Beedingwood, near Horsham. A history of Beedingwood and Edward’s life there is reprinted below (with a few small edits), with thanks to http://www.derelictmisc.org.uk/.

Beedingwood was built in 1876 for Irish bacon merchant and Christian evangelist Thomas Anthony Denny (1818-1909) and his wife Mary Jane Noel. Unfortunately, Mary died the following year but Denny continued to live at Beedingwood until 1893, when he married Lady Elizabeth Hope and moved away.

In 1894 the house was sold to the Rev. EDL Harvey MA, OBE, JP, his wife Constance, their family and twenty domestic staff. Edward Douglas Lennox Harvey, who had recently left his position as rector of Downham Market in Norfolk was keen to serve the community and was to fill the roles of Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant for Sussex, Chairman of Sussex County Cricket Club, Collyer's School Governors, the local Conservative Party and Horsham Magistrates as well as becoming a member of the District and County Councils.

Edward's life at Beedingwood does not seem to have been an overly happy one, however, and was marked by the deaths of several family members: in 1897 the family suffered the loss of their nine year old daughter, Marjorie to a sudden illness. In April 1908 the youngest son, Ernest Ian, drowned in a boating accident at Eton, which was followed by the death of his mother Constance just three months later.

Edward remarried, and his second wife Emma (nee Rawson in 1867), bore him a son in 1913. Edward was awarded an OBE for chairing the West Sussex Local War Pensions Committee.

But tragedy struck again the following year when Edward’s two eldest sons, Douglas and Frank, both Lieutenants in the 8th Queen's Royal Lancers, were killed in action near Messines. Edward died in 1938 at the age of 80 and his estate was sold shortly afterwards.

In 1943, a group of professionals and philanthropists decided to establish a residential rehabilitation centre to help return workers suffering from overwork, nervous strain and depression to full productivity. In 1944, the group acquired a house called Roffey Park (across the road from Beedingwood) and set about converting it to serve as a hospital. Shortly afterwards they acquired Beedingwood, which they used for auxiliary medical and support staff. By the end of 1946 the council had converted the Beedingwood Estate's old stables and dairy to serve as a research and training institute.

In 1981 the Rehabilitation Centre, by then known as Roffey Park Hospital became the first in England to close under the Conservative Government's 'Care in the Community' programme. The estate buildings were sold: Roffey Park was converted into flats while Beedingwood and the stables became a management college. Shortly afterwards, Beedingwood became surplus to requirements and was closed in 1983. The house was sold in July 1994, and despite efforts to make it a listed building, it was soon stripped of anything valuable and left to decay.

In 2007, a fire broke out in the central part of the house destroying the drawing room, entrance hall, main bedrooms and corridors. Fifty firefighters from seven brigades took four hours to extinguish the fire, which it seems was a deliberate act. The building was deemed unsafe and was demolished the same day. In 2008, planning permission was granted for three large detached houses and garages to be built on the site. We have shown an early (1920’s?) photo of Beedingwood, together with a 2005 photo (with thanks to http://www.derelictmisc.org.uk/).

xxxxxxx

In the early 1900’s Edward found time and spare cash to make some investments, and one of these was to buy up the 13 acres which now form The Fairway. We don’t know how much he paid for this, but judging by similar property purchases at this time, it would have been around £1,300 (today worth c£130,000).

By 1931 he had sold the land on which Dodger’s Well and Crabtree Cottage now stand to Ernest Storr, who lived in Storr’s Lane (see section below). This land had contained 2 tenanted houses, and perhaps Edward did not want to include these in his investment portfolio. Or perhaps he had sold the entire 13 acre Fairway plot to Ernest Storr between 1911 and 1931.

At his death in 1938, Edward possessed effects worth £68,000 (worth £3.7 million today) which would probably have included his Beedingwood property as well as his land at The Fairway (which would have risen in value from c£1,300 when he bought it in the 1900’s to c£2,300 in 1938).

We have calculated that, if William Harvey had invested his slave compensation package in 1838, then the proceeds would have been able to buy around 15 estates similar to The Fairway. But his profits from growing sugar using slave labour would have allowed him to buy many, many more similar estates.

It is easy to disapprove of the fact that this land was bought with the proceeds of slavery. However, Edward held the land as an investment, with just one house being built on the land in 1935, towards the end of his life. It seems that Edward had devoted most of his life to serving the community, whereas the exploitation and development of the land was carried out by other people after Edward’s death. However, it could also be argued that, instead of investing that money in the land, Edward could have used it to compensate the people his father had exploited. But that idea had not really emerged 120 years ago.

After Edward’s death in 1938, the area was presumably sold and divided into lots. Development started in earnest at that time. 4 more large houses were built in 1938-39 and The Fairway acquired its name. More (large) houses were built from 1956 and throughout the 1960’s. The last plot to be used for a new house was Aquarius in 1969.

The houses originally built on The Fairway in the 1930’s had generous plots of land (around 2 acres) each, but during the 1950’s and 1960’s this land was gradually infilled. More recently, most (6 out of 8) of the 1950’s-1960’s houses have been demolished to make way for even larger houses. The 2 Victorian dwellings on the sites of Dodger’s Well and Crabtree House unsurprisingly suffered the same fate.

And thus we arrive at The Fairway today: A private cul-de-sac running alongside the 11th fairway of Worplesdon Golf Course, containing just 13 large houses. The area is quiet and secluded, with an open feel to it, thanks to the general absence of fencing and railings. Most of the houses are built in the “Surrey Vernacular” style, ie ordinary, non-pretentious buildings, using styles and materials typical to Surrey. One obvious exception to this is Touchstone House, rebuilt in 2014 in a Georgian style.

Whenever one of these houses is sold, any new buyers usually have to pay an eye-watering sum for the privilege of living on The Fairway. To anyone who has walked along The Fairway, this should not come as a surprise.

We have shown below the current OS map of The Fairway (with grateful thanks to Ordnance Survey). To fill in the missing house names from the top right corner: The first house is Springwood, the 4th house is Aquarius, the 6th house is Rustlings, and the house at the end of that row (Treemonisha on the map) has been renamed Crabtree House.

The casual observer walking along the road will be struck by how new some of the houses seem. No fewer than 6 of the houses are new builds between 2004 and 2014, following demolition of the previous house. (The Chilterns, Crabtree House, Danum House, Badger’s Brook, Rustlings, Touchstone House). Others have had major extensions which have changed their appearance (eg Oaklands, Conway House, Dodger’s Well, Springwood).

Another feature of the road has been the number of changes of house names. By our reckoning only 3 of the 13 original house names survive. One house has had 4 different names during the last 50 years. We don’t know what has made the owners in this particular road feel the need to change their house names so much more often than elsewhere in the area.

We have shown below a table of the 13 houses in The Fairway, with their dates of construction. The table includes the houses (shaded blue) that have been demolished. There are 10 of them

We will start our tour at the Bagshot Road end of the road, proceeding along the road until we finish up at Lindenwood.

Springwood

Springwood was built c1938 and was one of the first houses to be built on The Fairway. The first owners were Hugh and Ruth Price. Hugh and Ruth were both born in 1903, Hugh in Wandsworth and Ruth in Wimbledon. Hugh was the son of a manager in a London firm of wood agents, and Hugh had followed him into the trade (in 1939 he was a timber sales manager). Ruth was the daughter of a “commercial traveller in the cabinet trade”. Perhaps it was wood that had somehow brought Hugh and Ruth together? Hugh served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers during WW2.

The Fairway only acquired its name around the time Hugh and Ruth moved in. Now before moving to Springwood, Hugh and Ruth had lived in Horsell in a house named Fairways. Could it be possible that they suggested the name of the road in honour of the adjoining 11th fairway of the golf course, but also with a nod to their previous home? We’ll probably never know.

The Prices moved out at the end of WW2 and lived for a while at nearby Wyngate in Lawford’s Hill Road, where we continue their story (including a note about Hugh’s cricketing prowess).

By 1945, Lancelot and Gwendoline East had purchased Springwood. Lancelot (known as Lance, but to give him his full name, Lancelot Crofts East) was the son of a coffee planter, Henry East and his wife Maud (nee Crofts). Lancelot had been born in 1901 while his parents were in India, near Madras.

By 1911 the family had returned to the UK and were living in Bedford with 2 servants. But 3 years later, in 1914, Lance’s father Henry died. After WW1, Lance’s mother, Maud (who was 14 years younger than Henry), moved to Earl’s Court and returned to India for a while. Meanwhile Lance was enrolled as a cadet at Sandhurst.

Lance reached the giddy heights of Lt Colonel. In 1941 he led the 5th Battalion of The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey) and was awarded the DSO. Early in 1944 he was appointed Provost Marshal for Middle East Land Forces and retained this appointment until July 1946 when he became Provost Marshal of Rhine Army. [A Provost Marshal is responsible for “policing the army”.] In 1946 he was made an OBE for his services as Provost Marshal Middle East.

He was a keen sportsman and played hockey for his Battalion, rugby for Richmond RFC and was runner-up in the Army Light Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1926. He was a member of the British Pentathlon Team at the Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928. He excelled at fencing and was a keen polo player. A photo of Lance in his army days (with thanks to his regiment) is shown below.

Within a few years the Easts had moved to Church Lane, Worplesdon, and it seems that they rented Springwood out for around 10 years to a variety of tenants until selling the house in 1962. The Easts remained at Church Lane and died in 1993 (Lancelot) and 1994 (Gwendoline). They are buried in Worplesdon churchyard (photo below).

In 1960 Dr Stuart and Elizabeth Hayes moved into Springwood, having previously lived at St John’s. Stuart was a doctor at the surgery on Lower Guildford Road, Knaphill, and later at the surgery on Hermitage Road.

Stuart Tufnell Hayes had been born in 1914 in Wood Green, Essex, and in 1940 married Margaret Kenyon (born 1912 in Birkenhead). They produced one son, but sadly Margaret died in 1952, aged only 40. Stuart remarried to Elizabeth (surname unknown).

In 1966 Stuart and Elizabeth obtained permission to build a house on part of their property, and Chilterns was built. Its history is covered below.
Stuart and Elizabeth stayed at Springwood until c1979. Stuart died in 1984 at Farnham.

By 1981 Dolores Neufeld had purchased Springwood. Dolores (nee Francois in Cambridgeshire in 1923) had married Charles Neufeld, an Austrian refugee, born in 1923, who arrived in Britain during WW2, in 1947.

Charles Neufeld may not be a household name, but he was the founder of Newfold Ltd, a company based in Ashford, Middlesex, that made rubber toys for film and TV use known as Bendy Toys. Blue Peter used their toys. They also made casts of Margaret Thatcher and Dennis Healey for Spitting Image. And if you are old enough to remember Andy Pandy, you’ll be delighted to know that he (and Teddy and Looby Loo) was one of Charles’s creations as well. Latterly the company branched out into making bendy toys for anyone to buy. Apparently their bendy Dalek was very popular. Production at stopped at Ashford in 1996, moving to New Delhi.

[In case anyone is wondering, the toys were made of springy rubber over a wire frame. Charles learnt his skills when we worked at Dunlop soon after WW2.]

2 pictures of well-known Bendy Toys are shown below. You can buy them on eBay!

Charles and Dolores had 4 children, one of whom, Anthony, became the Sales Director of the company. The family had a 10-acre estate in Camberley and took at least one trip across the Atlantic (aboard The Queen Mary, first class of course) in the 1950’s.

But in 1971 Charles was named in a divorce case. An actor, Michael Medwin was granted a divorce after his wife, Sunny, admitted committing adultery with Charles. Despite granting the divorce, the judge found that there was no proof that Charles had actually committed adultery. However it looks as though Charles and Dolores separated, and that it was only Dolores who lived at Springwood from 1981. Charles moved to Windlesham, then Wentworth, owning a racehorse along the way. He died in 2005.

Dolores died in 1991 and Edward and Pauline Williams purchased Springwood.

In 1997 Mr & Mrs Williams made an application to build a third house on the property, but this was refused.

Springwood was sold to the current owners in 2001.

The Chilterns

Chilterns was built in 1966 on a plot carved out from Springwood (above). The first owners were Norman and Muriel Jean (known as Jean) Curtis and their family. Norman was born in 1922 in Halton, Buckinghamshire and Jean (nee McKibbon) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1923.

Norman joined the RAF and achieved the rank of Group Captain (equivalent to an army colonel). He was awarded the OBE in 1965.

Norman and Jean were married in 1950, and in 1954 the family sailed to New Zealand (first class) where they spent 2 years. That sounds like a good posting to us. They had 4 children. Here are pictures of Norman in his younger RAF days, and Norman and Muriel together later on.

Norman died in 2004. Muriel sold Chilterns in 2006, moving to Esher, where she died in 2008.

Paul and Brigitte Hennessy were the new buyers of Chilterns. They promptly demolished the house (a mere 40 years after it had been built) and built a replacement, but retaining the house name. They sold the house to the current owners in 2013. Below is an agent’s photo of The Chilterns (with thanks).

Woodlands (previously St Ann’s)

St Ann’s was another of the first houses to be built in The Fairway, along with Springwood. It was built in 1938 and the first occupants were Howard and Annie Gib.

Howard Alaric Gib was born in 1871, the son of General Sir William Gib KCB, who had joined the East India Company’s Army and served during the Indian Mutiny in 1857-8. Howard’s middle name, Alaric, is unusual and means “Ruler of all” or something similar. Perhaps it’s not surprising then that he chose to join the army. Howard joined the North Lancashire Regiment in 1992 and was a 2nd Lieutenant by 1892 at the age of 21. He was soon transferred to the Indian Army, where he was promoted to major in 1910. He had been initiated as a Freemason in 1904.

Annie was the daughter of a Scottish father and German mother - Colonel and Marie Robertson of Liddington Hall, near Guildford – who were a wealthy family.
Howard and Annie married in 1895 in India and had 2 daughters. After Howard retired from the army, he and Annie lived in Ealing before they moved to Yew Trees in White Lane, Guildford in 1932 before moving into St Ann’s in 1938, where they had 4 servants and a live-in nurse.

Howard died shortly after moving into St Ann’s, in January 1939, aged 68. Perhaps he had been unwell for some time, hence the live-in nurse. Annie remained in the house until 1948 when she moved to a flat in Aldersey Road Guildford (off the Epsom Road) with her daughter Faith Gib. Annie died in 1961.

John and Elizabeth Kerr purchased St Ann’s in 1948 and renamed it Woodlands. The name has remained unchanged ever since. John was born in 1898, possibly in Lincoln, the son of a patternmaker. He and Elizabeth (nee Rawes) had married in London in 1947. They moved to The Orchard House on Blackhorse Road in 1956. John died in 1974.

In 1956 John and Joan Fisher bought the property. John was born in 1916 and Joan a year later, both in London.

John was the son of Brigadier Sir Gerald Fisher (pictured below). Sir Gerald was born in India in 1887. He served in the 3rd Gurkha Rifles and later the Political Service in India. He was appointed Companion, Order of the Star of India (CSI), Knight Commander, Order of the British Empire (KBE), and Companion, Order of the Indian Empire (CIE). Later he became chairman of the Horsell Conservative Association.

Joan was the daughter of Major Robert Brodribb A’Court Bergne. She was given her father’s middle name of A’Court, but at least she was spared the Brodribb. She and John were married in 1946 and lived for a few years in York Road, Woking before moving to Woodlands.

The Fishers decided to subdivide the Woodlands plot, and in 1969 just under 50% of the plot was sold to a developer (Eden Developments Ltd). Aquarius (covered below) was soon built on the new plot. The Fishers only stayed 2 more years in Woodlands, selling up in 1971. John died in Fulham in 1981 and Joan died at Kingston in 2011, aged 94.

John and Susan Long purchased Woodlands in 1971 and stayed there until 1998, when the current owners bought the property. Susan (nee Murphy) and John were married in 1967, but we know little else about them.

Aquarius

Aquarius was built in 1969 on a plot carved out of the Woodlands property as described above. The original owners still live in the property.

Path to Storr’s Lane

Between Aquarius and Conway House is a narrow path through to Storr’s Lane. The path widens out after it crosses the ditch (which drains from Bridley Pond, under Malthouse Lane and down to Fox Corner – it is normally full of plant detritus, together with the odd tennis ball).

The path is not often used, and the casual walker would be rather unfortunate to meet another walker on the narrow stretch and have to squeeze past them between the fences.

The path on the Storr’s Lane side is first shown on the 1875 OS map. At that time it served as a track across the fields from Lawford’s Farm down to the semi-detached houses where Crabtree House stands today. But the narrow path on The Fairway side first appears only on the 1975 OS map. We can only assume that someone was using it as a footpath when only 2 or 3 houses existed on The Fairway, with large gaps in between.

Conway House (previously Elsinore)

Conway House started life as Elsinore, probably built in 1939, at roughly the same time as Springwood and St Ann’s (now Woodlands). There is an entry in the 1939 register immediately following Springwood and St Ann’s: “V new house in Fairways”, which seems to refer to Elsinore. The name was presumably chosen to conjure up the castle which appears in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

However its first appearance on the Electoral Register is in 1945. This shows Sheila Child, Mary Overend and Frances Talbott as being the occupants. We think that Mary and Frances were servants to Sheila Child, who was born Sheila Mathewson in Montreal in 1910, the daughter of an Irish stockbroker. In 1933 she married Sir Coles John Child (born 1906), as described in the cutting below. Next to it is a photo of the couple from The Tatler of 1941 (with thanks).

Sir John was also the 2nd Baronet of Bromley Place. The baronetcy had been created for his father, who had been a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Kent. Reverting to Lady Sheila, we have included a newspaper cutting from June 1945 below, detailing a misdemeanour (2 actually) of hers (surname misspelt).

The Childs only stayed at Elsinore for a year or 2 before moving to Chobham Park House. This house just happened to be on the market in 2023 at the time of writing this section. The estate agent’s blurb and pictures are enticing: It comprises 54 acres of beautifully manicured lawn and gardens, and 4 separate properties. And a pool, tennis court and 14 stables. The asking price is £8.2 million. Sheila died in 1964, aged only 54. Sir John died in 1971, aged 65.

Rose Liddell purchased the house in 1946. She was a 77-year old widow, who had been born Rose Adelaide Lawrence in Pontypool in 1869, the daughter of the owner of an ironworks. She moved to London and in 1899 married Leveson Vernon-Harcourt, an Oxford-educated London barrister. They had 2 children, but Leveson died at the age of only 38 in 1909.

In 1914 she married Matthew Liddell, a coal-mine owner from Newcastle, who was also recently widowed. They lived at The Hall, Stillington in Yorkshire with 3 maids and a footman. Matthew died in 1934, and Rose returned to the south, living first in central London, and then in Shalford before moving to Elsinore.

Curiously, the house she was born in back 1871 in Pontypool was called Woodlands. Could this have influenced the Kerrs to rename their next-door house from St Ann’s to Woodlands (refer section above). Unlikely, surely.

Rose had a variety of carers living with her during the next few years. In her retirement at Elsinore (with her black labrador, “Brackie”), she was considered to be a very kind lady. But she was also known for wearing a lot of make-up, and was sometimes referred to as “the painted lady”. She died in 1959, aged 88. Probate was granted to her son from her first marriage, William Vernon-Harcourt OBE, a retired colonel.

In 1959 Reginald and Catherine Turnbull purchased Elsinore. Previously they had lived a couple of hundred yards from Wentworth Golf Club and now they moved to a house next to Worplesdon Golf Course, so it seems that someone in the family enjoyed golf.

Reginald March Graham Turnbull was born in 1936, the son of a ship owner named Reginald March Turnbull (1907-1997), who was in turn the son of a ship owner called Reginald March Kesterson Turnbull (1878-1943), who was also the son of a ship owner called Reginald March Turnbull (1848-1912). Slightly confusing, so we will take a closer look at their history.

The story goes back to 1852, when a Thomas Turnbull (1819-1892) started building boats at a Whitby shipyard, at first wooden boats, but later steam-powered. Much of his trade was with ports in the Black Sea (bringing grain to Britain). In 1869 he sent one of his sons, Reginald March, and a cousin to London to drum up valuable charter business for his boats. They formed the company Turnbull, Scott & Company, as ship and insurance brokers and soon joined the Baltic Exchange. The business flourished over the following years, although not without losing a couple of ships. Below is a newspaper cutting about one of their launches in 1875, and a picture of one of their boats in 1897 (with thanks to The John B Hill Collection).

At the end of WW1, the company purchased 5 German boats which had been impounded as war reparations, and at that time the company owned 12 ships. Quite a bit of business involved shipping coal to Rio de Janeiro, and bringing grain back to Britain. 3 ships were lost during WW2. During WW2, Reginald MK Turnbull became Minister of War Transport. He was knighted in 1941 for his efforts but died in 1943, aged 65.

After WW2 the size of the fleet dwindled. In 1973 one of their boats was scrapped in Hong Kong Harbour after being rammed by another boat in thick fog. 3 lives were lost. By 1990 just one boat remained, and the Turnbull family sold what remained of the business for a mere £2.5 million.

We will begin with the father of the person who lived in Elsinore, Reginald March Turnbull (1907-1997). In 1931 he married Helen Barr, as described in the cutting below. As the headline suggests, Helen was quite a tennis player – she played at Wimbledon in the years 1932-35. But the marriage did not last, and the couple had divorced by 1939. In 1940, Reginald March Turnbull remarried Agnes Steele-Perkins.

Young Reginald was born in 1936 and in 1960, he married Catherine Gladstone. Given the reference to a groomsman named Gladstone in the press cutting above, we suspect that Catherine may have been a relation of his, and therefore also related to William Ewart Gladstone. They had 5 children.

Below is a (rather posed) picture of (L to R) Young Reginald, Old Reginald March and a cousin, MT Turnbull, probably taken in the 1970’s.

The Turnbulls only stayed 8 years at Elsinore before moving to West Hall Farm in Pirbright in 1967. Reginald died in 1995, aged 59, 2 years before the death of his father, aged 90. Young Reginald left an estate of £1 million.

In 1968 Elsinore was bought by Sir Patrick and Lady Morgan, who promptly renamed the house Conway House (Conway being Sir Patrick’s paternal grandfather’s first name)).

Sir Patrick was born in Glasgow in 1917, the son of Sir Charles Morgan KCB, DSO, a Staffordshire man who had become a captain in the Royal Navy. In 1944 Patrick married Mary Hermione Fraser-Tytler (who was born in 1922, the daughter of Neil Fraser-Tytler, DSO, TD and his wife, Christian. Patrick and Mary had 4 children.

Sir Patrick (full title: Rear Admiral Sir Patrick Morgan KCVO, CB, DSC) was a distinguished captain in the Royal Navy. He rose to the heights of Flag Officer (equivalent to Commanding Officer) of the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia 1965-70. The photo below shows all such Flag Officers from 1958 to 1985 with their two distinguished patrons. The press cutting from 1970 describes probably his most difficult situation during this period.

But obviously the trick he described in the next press cutting (2 years earlier) was not 100% foolproof....

His wartime experiences must have been harrowing - as a young Lieutenant in 1942, he had to attend a formal inquiry into the loss of 2 British ships (HMS Neptune and HMS Kandahar) during WW2. He was the Navigating Officer on a cruiser (HMS Penelope) about half a mile from HMS Neptune when the latter ship struck a mine, with the loss of 764 men.

The Morgans sold Conway House c1978, probably at the time of Sir Patrick’s retirement, and moved to Hampshire. Sir Patrick died in Hampshire in 1989, aged 72. Lady Mary died in 2021, aged 99.

The next owners (from 1979) were Michael and Penelope Stearn. The Stearns’ stay in Conway House was a short one, as, by 1986 the house was owned by Dr Patrick and Barbara Robinson. We think that Patrick was born c1947, and he married Barbara (nee Smith) in 1975. He may have worked at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey. The Robinsons’ stay was even shorter than their predecessors’. In the late 1980’s the current owners moved into Conway House. The house was extended in 1990.

Rustlings (previously Links View)

An initial plan to build a house on the plot where Rustlings now stands was submitted in 1955 and refused by Woking Council. A revised plan was submitted by a Mr Arthur Woolgar in 1959, who was a builder living at Stringers Common in Jacobs Well. Arthur was born just south of Guildford in 1911, the son of a bricklayer. By 1963 he had stopped building houses, and was advertising his services for house repairs, painting and decorating.

We have shown an extract of the 1959 plan below, and it can be seen that the plot is much narrower than today’s Rustlings plot, and the proposed house is in a different position from today’s Rustlings.

Arthur’s plan was approved, the house, named Links View, was built and lived in by Arthur for a few years. The name of the house is interesting for 2 reasons. Firstly, Worplesdon Golf Course is not a Links course (the term is used for courses on sand along the coast). But secondly, the name suggests that the house at that time had a view of the course, which it doesn’t today, because of trees. It suggests that the northern side of The Fairway was a lot more open then than it is today.

The next owners of Links View were Cyril and Phyllis Tite, who by 1967 had changed the name of the house to Rustlings (perhaps they couldn’t live with the misuse of the word “Links”, or maybe there was no longer any “View”, or perhaps a bit of both). We know very little about the Tites, except that Cyril was born c1914 in Croydon, and sailed to Shanghai in 1935 as a salesman, whilst living in Guildford.

At some stage early in their tenure, the Tites acquired some of the land of Conway House (then called Elsinore - refer above). The 1975 OS map shows the Rustlings and Conway House plots as they are today, with Rustlings at the western end of its enlarged plot.

The Tites sold the house in 2002 to the current owners. In 2006, the house was demolished and rebuilt in the centre of the plot.

Oaklands (previously Blencathra and Windrush)

The first house on the site where Oaklands is today was built in 1956 and named Blencathra (after the wonderful Cumbrian mountain). The owners were Reginald and Audrey Blyth, who were living in Lyne Lane, Chertsey (a few hundred metres from the M3-M25 junction, which of course didn’t exist then). We have shown a view of the front of the house from the original building plans. Councils require a little more accuracy in drawings these days!

Reginald was born in 1925, the son of a railway clerk from East Ham, Essex. Audrey was also born in 1925, in Ilford, and was the daughter of a manager in a cardboard box factory. Reginald and Audrey were married in 1950, and they moved to Weybridge. They had 2 children. After leaving Blencathra in 1959, the Blyths moved to Morton Road in Horsell and stayed there until Reginald died in 2006, and Audrey in 2009.

John and Moira Bevan were the next occupants from 1959 to c1962. The Bevans were followed between 1962 and 1964 by William and Henrietta Hammond who had previously been living in Farnham. We don’t know much about either of these families.

In 1964 John and Gillian Tullis purchased Blencathra. The plot was a double-size plot as shown on the drawing below, taken from the Rustlings plans (prepared 5 years earlier in 1959). Blencathra is marked on one plot, but the Tullises also bought the plot immediately to the south-west, which is unmarked. The Rustlings plot is edged in red, Elsinore at the top right is now Conway House, and the building at the bottom left is Dodger’s Well.

The Tullises immediately set to work developing their 2 plots. They built a new house on their vacant plot to the south west, named it Touchstone, and moved into this house themselves. We continue their story in the section dealing with Touchstone below.

Meanwhile they changed the name of the original house from Blencathra to Windrush c1967. The new name could have been a reference to the ship the Empire Windrush, which brought the first group of Caribbean emigrants to Britain in 1948 (and which has been the focus of much attention during the last few years). Or it could have been chosen conjure up memories of the small tributary of the River Thames (the River Windrush), which flows through Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. We suspect it was probably the latter reason.

We will continue here the story of the house now named Windrush. The first occupant c1967 was an AA Smailes.

By 1970 Gerald and Blanche Raynor had purchased Windrush. We think that Gerald was born in Birkenhead in 1924, the son of a locomotive fitter. Just after the end of WW2 he completed his army training and was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the Camerons. Blanche (nee Crosher) was born in Paisley in 1916.
They were married in Southport in 1949 and had 1 son. Before moving into Windrush, the Raynors were living in the northern suburbs of Brighton, and before that, at East Grinstead. We don’t know what Gerald’s occupation was, but it seems that the family moved around the country regularly. The Raynors made some additions to Windrush in 1970, but only stayed there a few years before moving on.

By 1976 the current occupants had purchased Windrush and renamed it Oaklands.

Touchstone House (previously Touchstone)

As described above in the section dealing with Oaklands, Touchstone (as it was then called) was built in 1964 on a vacant plot next to what was then called Blencathra (then Windrush, now Oaklands). The owners were John and Gillian Tullis, who had been living in Blencathra, but moved into Touchstone as soon as it was built. The plots of both houses were similar in size, so it begs the question: Why would they move out of an 8 year-old house into a brand new house next door? Maybe they wanted a larger house? Perhaps they wanted to utilise some of the then recent home innovations (eg central heating)?

The Tullises extended the house in 1968 and again in 1972.

John Kiel Tullis was born near Manchester in 1930, the son of John G and Ethel Tullis. Both were scions of the Tullis family who had founded John Tullis & Sons of Glasgow.

The company described itself as “Leather belting specialists, manufacturing all classes of machinery belting”. It was set up in 1869, with manufacturing site at St Ann’s Leather Works in Glasgow. The street on which the original factory stood was renamed Tullis St in the 1920’s (a name which still stands). In 1889 the company purchased a tannery in Tullibody, Alloa (which took hides from Highland cattle).

Not surprisingly by the 1970’s the company had focussed more on plastic, rather than leather, belts. We have shown a photo of the Alloa site in the 1970’s below. The company went into liquidation in 1992. The Alloa site was bought by the local council for £2 in 1991, demolished in 2001 (right hand picture below, thanks to Bobby Robinson) and is now a housing estate. [Lest the reader has never visited a tannery, the writer can assure them that the smell can be absolutely foul.]

Here are an 1897 catalogue and 2 examples of the company’s letterhead from c1918 and c1940.

Back to John Tullis. He worked for the family company as an engineer. In 1954 he returned by ship (1st class) from India, having spent 18 months there. In his youth he suffered from polio and in 1959 he married Gillian (“Jill”, nee Farquhar in 1935) in London (he was living in Kensington). Jill and John were both keen (and good!) golfers, members of Sunningdale Golf Club. John played in the British Amateur Golf Championship, and a match between John and the British amateur champion Michael Bonallack was reported in the newspapers (John lost). Jill and John had 1 son.

The Tullises lived at Touchstone until c1983, when they moved to Englefield Green. John died in 2007 in Lambeth.

The next owners of Touchstone from 1983 were Raymond and Jean Smart. Raymond married Jean (nee Hughes) in 1956 in Chelsea. They had moved initially to a flat in Esher, but we know very little about them.

The Smarts lived in the house until 2014, when it was demolished and rebuilt by a developer, Willowcroft Homes. There were strong objections to the proposed new house from several neighbours, one of whom likened it to a “footballer’s house”. Nevertheless the development went ahead. The new house (now named Touchstone House) was sold in 2015 to peopleunknown , and sold again to the current owners in 2017. Below is an agent’s photo of Touchstone House (with thanks).

Dodger’s Well (previously Lawford’s Cottages)

We will pick up the trail from 1902 of the house that had been built on the site of where Dodger’s Well is today. As a reminder, the house (or more likely a predecessor dwelling) had been built in 1652 as a farmhouse, and from the mid 1800’s had become part of the Bridley Manor estate. The previous occupant had been a Mr Wye in 1901, but he and his family soon moved to Witley.

The next occupants were Albert and Alice Noldart. Albert was born in 1871 near Godalming, the son of Thomas Noldart, a shepherd, and Mary (nee Thaynes). Thomas died aged only 30 when young Albert was only 3 years old. Mary remarried (to a George Potter, an agricultural labourer) a couple of years later.

In 1891 Albert was training as a soldier at Caterham Barracks, but by 1898 he was a labourer in Farncombe, and he married Alice Wiggett, aged only 19, who was the daughter of a labourer. Alice’s mother lived to be 4 days short of 94, which in 1934 was something of a rarity (it was reported in the local newspaper).

In 1910 the couple moved to “Lawford’s Cottages”, which was then the name used for both of the 2 houses which stood where Crabtree House and Dodger’s Well stand today. By then they had 5 children, but there were 6 more to come, making 11 in total.

The owner in 1911 was Edward Harvey, about whom we have written in the introduction to this section. By 1931 the cottages were owned by Ernest Storr (refer to the Storr’s Lane section below).

The newspaper cutting below relates a very disturbing story against Albert in 1931.

Within 10 days (legal processes obviously moved quickly in those days) Albert had been tried at the Central Criminal Court, found guilty and sent to Maidstone Jail for 3 years.

Albert emerged from prison in 1934. For whatever reason, by 1938 the Noldarts had moved out of Lawford’s Cottages to Rose Cottage in Berry Lane. Albert died in 1954, and Alice in 1955.

The next owners were Miles and Lilian Illingworth in 1938. For reasons known to them, they changed the name of the house to Dodger’s Well [the only other Dodger’s Well we can find is a little-known mine in Western Australia], and may well have carried out some modernisation work, which we think probably involved demolition and rebuild (as the house had been built many years previously).

Miles (born 1909) came from a well-to-do Yorkshire family which had money made out of the cotton industry in the 1800’s. [As far as we can tell his family was not related to that of the England cricket captain, Ray Illingworth]. His parents had left Yorkshire for Woking in the early 1900’s and were living in a large house in Hook Heath Road. His father in 1911 gave his occupation as “Private means” (which means that he lived off his own private wealth).

In 1934 Miles married Lilian (“Betty”) Merriman (also born 1909), who was living at Abney on the Bagshot Road. Her story is told in the Bagshot Road section. The following year Miles’s sister (Anne) married Lilian’s brother (Hugh). So it was probably a tightly-knit family. Miles at that time was an insurance clerk.

In 1939 Miles joined the Army Reserve, and in 1940 he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. By 1943 he was a Captain. By 1949 he was sailing to New York aboard the Queen Mary, and gave his occupation as “Director”. By pure coincidence one of his fellow passengers was the father of the writer of this piece. Who knows, they may have chatted over a G&T.

Miles was a life vice-president of Worplesdon Cricket Club. The Illingworths built some extensions to Dodger’s Well in 1964, and sold the house around 3 years later, moving to Church Lane, Worplesdon. Miles died there in 1994 and Lilian died in Petersfield in 2002.

The new owners in 1967 were Graeme and Devina McKelvie.

We know little about their early history, but in 1945 Graeme was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Dragoons. Devina (nee English) had been born in 1927. Her father worked for the Indian Police, and so she spent some of her formative years in India. Her family also had a base at Farnham.

Graeme and Devina were married in Kensington in 1949, and they immediately moved to Cawston, on the outskirts of Rugby where they had 2 children. They were living in Edinburgh during 1957-64, and at Dodger’s Well from 1967 to c1984. They then returned to Cawston, where Graeme died in 2012 and Devina the following year.

The next owners were John and Anne Kelly (c1984-c88). They were followed by Dennis and Adolfine Haslop. Dennis was born in 1938 in Islington, the son of Oswald, a window cleaner, and Minnie (nee Coleman) Haslop, born 1907 and 1911 respectively. Adolfine was born Adolfine de Greger. They married in Islington in 1959 and lived there for about 5 years. They then moved to Chislehurst c1965. Dennis was recorded as being at the Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1976, and in 1987 had the distinction of being the first distance learning MBA at Henley Management College. The newspaper picture below shows Dennis 2nd from right) at a celebration of the 5,000th such MBA in 1991 (she is the lady on the right of the picture)

Dennis and Adolfine moved to Dodger’s Well c1988 and stayed there until 1997. Dennis and Adolfine moved to a flat in Hook Heath Road.

The current owners purchased the house in 1997 and embarked on significant extensions in 1998.

There appears to be a well in the front garden of Dodger’s Well. This would make sense, as why would the house have been built there back in the early 1800’s if there was no available water source? It might also partly explain the house’s name (originating in 1938).

Danum House (previously Danum)

Danum House was built in 1968 by a building company called Bardolin Developments. It seems that the plot was carved out of the Dodger’s Well plot.

Once built, the house was sold to Robert and Peggy (nee Baker) Turner. Robert was born in 1926, the son of a carpenter from Knaphill. He and Peggy (nee Baker) were married in 1949 and then lived in Wych Hill Way, Woking in a house named Danum. No prizes for guessing why they named their new house in The Fairway Danum. We’re sure the Turners would be pleased to know that, although the original Danum has been renamed, its younger brother still bears the name (albeit in the form of Danum House). In case the reader is wondering about the origin of the name, Danum Fort is the name of the Roman Fort located in the middle of Doncaster. This would be our guess as to how the original Danum got its name.

The Turners extended Danum in 1972, but then c1975 sold Danum to Alan and Marjorie Piper, who immediately renamed the house Danum House. Alan and Marjorie (nee Williams) had been married in 1968. They sold the house c1983 to Frederick and Vera Nobes. Frederick was born in 1926 in London and married Vera Tee (born London 1927) in 1946. They lived in Harrow before moving to The Fairway. Frederick died in Fareham in 2002 and Vera died in 2016.

Trevor and Karen Collar bought Danum House in 1987. Trevor was the son of John and Winifred (nee Croft) Collar, born in Hammersmith in 1954, while Winifred was the daughter of Frederick and Edith Croft from Middlesex. Trevor was a director of a company called Peak Performance, based in Hounslow. The company was a car repair business, specialising in Triumph Stags (remember them?), which also sold used cars. One of their adverts from 1991 is shown below, next to a wedding picture of Trevor and Karen in 1987.

Danum House - Trevor and Karen Collar.jpg

Badger’s Brook (formerly Pyinma)

The first incarnation of today’s Badger’s Brook was prepared by a Mr E Holloway. In 1956 he gained approval to build a house between Crabtree House (then called Lawford’s Cottage) and Dodger’s Well (written on the plan below as “Dodgeswell”). Although approved, the house was never built.

In 1958 approval was given to a different plan, submitted by a different architect, with the house located in a slightly different location. Extracts from both plans are shown below. The 1958 (successful) plan is on the right.

Another part of the 1956 plan tells us that the only other buildings on The Fairway between (what was to become) Pyinma and the Bagshot Road at that time were Dodger’s Well, Elsinore (now Conway House), St Ann’s (now Woodlands) and Springwood.

By 1959, Pyinma was built and owned by Cecil and Violet Pateman. Cecil was born in 1908 at Brixworth, near Northampton, the son of a kennel-man (who worked for the local hunt, in case you were wondering what a kennel-man did). Violet was born Violet Woodward. They were married in 1939, by which time Cecil was a cost accountant. They had 2 children. In 1945 they sailed first class back from Bombay, which sounds like a pleasant sort of trip. We’re not sure what happened to the Pateman family, but it seems that in 1970 Cecil moved to Surbiton, while Violet moved to Shalford. Cecil died in 1982 in Shalford, and around the same time Violet moved to Rustington in Sussex, but may have died in 1985.

The next owners of Pyinma in 1970 were John and Esther Peacock, who lived in the house for a little under 10 years. They were followed in the late 1970’s by John and Joan Crabb, who also stayed in the house for around 10 years. We know very little about either of these families.

In the late 1980’s Keith and Karen Humfress purchased Pyinma. Keith was born in 1958 in Northumberland, and married Karen Perkins in 1984. We think that Keith remarried in 2004 to Julia Fox, and they lived in London.

By 2001 Keith and Karen had left Pyinma, and the house was demolished by a property company the same year. A new house was built, named Badger’s Brook, and by 2004 the current owners had purchased the property.

Crabtree House (formerly Treemonisha and Lawford’s Cottage)

We will pick up the trail from 1902 of the house that had been built on the site of where Crabtree House is today. As a reminder, the house was built in the early 1800’s, then became part of the Bridley Manor estate, and was occupied by George Mitchell, a farm carter, and his family. The house comprised 2 semi-detached cottages, and was known then as Lawford's Cottage (or Cottages).

By 1911 Charles and Annie Chuter were living at Lawford’s Cottages as tenants. The owner was Edward Harvey, about whom we have written in the introduction to this section. Charles was a miller, born in Worplesdon in 1882. He was the brother of George Chuter, who was living at Rickford in the house where Deepdene now stands. Annie (nee Bowerman) was born near Oxford in 1880. The Chuters had lived in the house since at least 1910, as in that year Charles’s mother, Sarah, died in their house.

When Charles was called up in 1915, he was still living at Lawfords Cottages, and gave his occupation as gardener. But as soon as WW1 ended, Charles and Annie moved to Kemishford, in Mayford with their 2 sons. The photo below may be a picture of Charles during his post-WW1 days as a Special Constable.

The next occupants of Lawfords Cottage (during 1918-19) were James and Annie Pennell, who had moved to Surrey from Hampshire (near Alton), and had been living at the Bridley Oast House. James was born in 1860 and was a waggoner at Bridley. Annie (nee Maynard) was born in 1863. James died in 1919, and Annie moved to West Byfleet. William Salisbury moved into Lawfords Cottages in 1920, but stayed there less than a year.

By 1921 Albert and Amy Woodyer had moved into Lawford’s Cottages. Again we think that they were tenants, rather than owners of the property. Albert was born in 1890 at East Clandon, the 9th of 13 children of James Woodyer, a labourer. Amy, born in 1893, was the eldest child of Bill and Harriett Stonard, who were living at No 8, Pirbright Cottages. The Stonards’ story is told there.

They married in 1914, and lived for a few years with Amy’s parents (and their 10 other children). That must have been quite a crowded house, and not much fun for the newly married couple. The Woodyers must have been itching to find their own house, and in 1921 moved into Lawford’s Cottages with their young son Frederick (born 1920). Albert was a gardener.

In 1931 the cottages were owned by Ernest Storr (refer to the Storr’s Lane section below).

Albert and Amy stayed in Lawford’s Cottages (or Lawford Cottage as it became known) until about 1970 – almost 50 years. At some stage (pre-1945, and possibly at the time the Woodyers moved in), the 2 semis were knocked into a single house. Albert died in 1975 and Amy in 1980, both in Poole.

Their only child, Frederick, married a young lady who was also called Amy, which must have caused some confusion in the household. Perhaps to reduce any confusion, in 1946 Frederick and Amy moved to what is now called Annin’s Cottage in Malthouse Lane, and their story is told there.

In the 1970’s Lawford Cottage was sold to John and Elizabeth Rishworth. No-one will be surprised with what happened next: Lawford’s Cottage was some 130 years old, and had been inhabited by a couple for nigh on 50 years, and so the Rishworths obtained planning permission in 1977 to demolish the house and build a new one. This duly took place and the new house was called Treemonisha. A small outdoor swimming pool was also built.

Treemonisha is certainly an unusual house name. It is also the name of a little-known opera, written by Scott Joplin in 1911. It was never performed in his lifetime, and his orchestrations of it have been lost. In the humble opinion of the writer, the opera (orchestrated by someone other than Scott Joplin) is definitely worth a listen.
John was born in 1926 and worked for Marks & Spencer. Shown below is an entertaining cutting from the Daily Mirror from 1969 (with thanks) highlighting John’s skills. Later he rose to the dizzy heights of Merchandise Director. He and Elizabeth lived initially in Stoneleigh in the 1950’s and moved to Burgh Heath in 1961 before purchasing Treemonisha.

John died in 1994. A photo of him is shown below. Elizabeth remained in the house until c2004.

The next owners were Simon and Francesca Wallis. In 2005 they gained permission to demolish and replace the house, but they stayed in the house only 2 years before Mr & Mrs Mitchell bought the property in 2006. They gained planning approval for a larger replacement house, but only stayed for 3 years.

The house was sold again in 2009 to the current owners, and within a year Treemonisha was demolished. It was replaced by a much larger bungalow, and renamed as Westcombe Park (which some may think rather pretentious-sounding). It has since been renamed Crabtree House. Some walkers along the path to the south-west of the new property have questioned the scale and impact of this new development in the green belt, as seen from this path.

So within the last 50 years, the property has seen 2 different houses demolished and replaced, and undergone 3 changes of name – a lot of change even by The Fairway’s standards.

Path to Malthouse Lane

Sharp-eyed readers may have spotted that the footpath has changed its position from earlier maps, such that today it runs closer to Crabtree House. In case anyone is remotely interested in when this happened, the answer is provided by the newspaper cutting below from 1953. But it doesn’t explain the reason for the change, which presumably was to expand the grounds of The White Cottage (now Lindenwood).

Lindenwood (previously The White Cottage)

Lindenwood is the only house on the north side of The Fairway, and is located less than a stone’s throw from the 11th green of Worplesdon Golf Course, close to the Woking-Pirbright parish boundary.

Although not obvious to the casual observer, a closer look at today’s Lindenwood will reveal that part of the structure was originally an elegant 1930’s house. This part of the house is painted white, which reveals why the house was originally called The White Cottage. It was built c1935, and the first owners were Hugh and Christine Riddle.

The 1949 OS map (an extract of which is shown below with thanks) suggests that The White Cottage (circled in blue) sat on the golf course itself, but that seems unlikely.

[Although the White Cottage appears by name on several registers in the 1930, 1940’s and 1950’s, its actual location was surprisingly difficult to pin down. For example, its position in the 1957 Electoral Register implies that the house was between The Bays (in Berry Lane) and The Old Malthouse. That’s not even close. The 1957 Woking Directory implies that it was between Storr’s Lane and Linksholme (now Hunter’s Green). Better, but only just. Another Electoral Register gave its address as “Fox Lane”, wherever that was supposed to be. Perhaps these were efforts to mislead future historians. If so, they worked well. The 1959 phone directory listed the address as “White Cottage, The Fairway”, which is getting closer, but the truth only fully emerged in a dusty Woking Council tome from 1964, which connected the current owners of Lindenwood to a house named “The White Cottage”.]

Back to Hugh and Christine Riddle. Hugh was born in Pennsylvania in 1874, the son of John and Kitty Riddle. The Riddle family had emigrated from Co Donegal to America c1782, and John had been a clerk at the local coal docks. But young Hugh decided to do something completely different. He obtained a BA at Cambridge, and became a medical student in London. In 1910 he married Christine Brown, the daughter of a wine merchant. They had 2 sons: Hugh Joseph (“Huseph”, 1912-2009) and Christopher (“Jack”, 1914-2009).

Hugh’s most famous achievement was to achieve some notoriety for a 4-volume textbook he published in 1914 “The Family Encyclopaedia of Medicine”, serialised in The Daily Mail. Until then, most medical textbooks were pretty bland, quoting old, well-known remedies. Hugh’s book was much more comprehensive and up-to-date. The problem was that he advertised that it had been authored by ‘thirty eminent specialists’ (who were named), which was untrue. The public, however, didn’t seem to mind this, and bought the book nonetheless. A picture of the book is shown below, in case any readers have it lurking somewhere on their bookshelves.

The Riddle family lived at The White Cottage until the mid-1950’s. Both boys joined the RAF and were promoted to Squadron Leader on the same day in 1941. Huseph has his own Wikipedia page, although this may be partly because of his wife, Tinker, whose father was MD of Rolls Royce Ltd and the first Secretary of the RAC. Huseph was also a portrait painter, and painted Queen Elizabeth II in 1965. Jack married Mary Backus and they had 2 daughters. After Hugh (the elder) died in 1954, the family moved to Earl’s Court. Christine died in 1976. Both Huseph and Jack died in 2009, the former in the South of France and the latter in Chichester. We have shown below pictures of (from L to R) Hugh the elder, Christine, Huseph and Jack.

The next owners of The White Cottage (from c1958) were Robert and Jane Pezaro, who were living in Hampstead, but must have preferred the Surrey countryside. Robert was born in 1930 and we think he was a director of Moss Bros. Here he is on the right at a function. Jane is on the left. The picture is from The Tatler (with thanks) from 1958. The Pezaros moved out of The White House in 1967 to live half a mile down the Bagshot Road in The Old Mill House, Rickford. They later moved to Kidlington.

After the Pezaros left The White Cottage in 1962, the current owners bought the house, built some extensions, and renamed the house Lindenwood.

Dawson’s Well (no longer exists)

Dawson’s Well was perched right on the edge of the Woking parish boundary, next to where the 11th green of Worplesdon Golf Course currently is. As the name suggests, there was indeed a well a few yards away, but the well was actually situated in Pirbright. Even today the ground around the well is saturated 365 days a year.

The house was built c1850 and we have covered its early history in the sections above. We assume that the house was acquired by the newly formed Worplesdon Golf Club in c1908. It seems highly likely that the tenants would have been evicted at the time, and yet the house remained on OS maps until 1961, which is surprising. Perhaps it was used as a storage hut, or maybe a refreshment stop for thirsty golfers. Whatever purpose it served, there is no visible trace of the house today.

STORR'S LANE SINCE 1902

Storr’s Lane looks as though it is an unadopted road. In 1902 the lane was probably more of a track, with just 2 dwellings on it. Today there are still just 2 dwellings. They are in the same positions as the original buildings (more or less), but have both been built within the last 30 years.

The strip of land between Storr’s Lane and the ditch (running between Storr’s Lane and The Fairway), comprising 10 acres as well as the 2 dwellings, was put up for auction in 1902. We cannot be certain who bought it at the auction, or whether it was sold at all. But we do know that by 1911 the 10 acre strip was owned by William Behrens. William was a London solicitor who had purchased the next-door plot to the south in 1905. It looks as though he bought this land primarily as an investment, as he only built one house (The Corner House, on the Bagshot Road) on the entire 36 acres. Instead he seemed content to sell the land to others, and let them do the developing. He had probably sold all of this land by 1923, and his story is told in more detail in the Berry Lane section.

Below is a table showing when the houses in Storr’s Lane were constructed.

The Tree House (previously Lawford’s Farm)

We have written about the history of Lawford’s Farm until 1902 in the introductory section to The Fairway (above). In 1902 Lawford’s Farm was being let to Mr Heather, presumably as a working farm. Prior to that, the farm had existed since at least 1841, when it appeared on the Tithe Map. But it is quite possible that there was a building on the site a good deal earlier. The property was a good size (12 acres) and had been cultivated since the mid-1600’s so there may well have been a dwelling on site for the farmer to live in. However, we can’t find any documentary evidence of this.

By 1911 Ernest and Emma Storr were living in Lawford’s Farm, and it was owned by William Behrens, as described above.

Ernest Flower Dipple Storr was born in 1879 in Islington. We cannot trace who his parents were, nor where his middle name of Flower came from, but his other middle name of Dipple may have been the surname of his mother or grandmother – again we cannot trace this.

2 years later, the 2 year-old Ernest was living with an Edward and Emma Storr – presumably relatives, but the census is not explicit on this. Edward and Emma were living off their own means, which suggests that they were reasonably wealthy. By 1891, Edward and Emma had moved to Westfield, Woking, and Ernest was still living with them, aged 12. Likewise in 1901, although Ernest described himself as a greengrocer by then.

In 1902 Ernest married Florence Rhodes (born Staffordshire in 1876), who was living in Woking. 2 years later, both Edward and Emma died. Ernest and Florence continued to live in Westfield until 1910, when they moved into Lawford’s Farm, with their 3 sons. In 1911 Ernest described himself as a smallholder, although he had already won a prize at a local show in 1910 for his poultry, and in 1912 he placed an advert in 1912 referring to “Lawford’s Poultry Farm”. An example of one of his ads from 1916 is shown below.

Within another 8 years, Florence had produced 4 more sons at Lawford’s Farm. Ernest would surely have been pleased with all this potential free labour he could see in his own home. As well as the poultry business, he was placing ads for potatoes, privet bushes, cabbage and lettuce. Here is another example of one of his ads, this time from 1927.

We know that by 1931 Ernest had purchased Lawford’s Farm (probably a few years earlier from William Behrens). He had also purchased Lawford’s Cottages (which stood where Dodger’s Well and Crabtree House stand today) from Edward Harvey. Both of these latter houses are covered in The Fairway section above. We don’t know what prompted Ernest to invest in local property, nor where his money came from, nor do we know how much other land he owned.

In 1939, Ernest described himself as a market gardener, living with Florence and their 2 youngest sons, Fred (born 1917) and Douglas (born 1919). But the other 5 Storr children had fled the nest (albeit not very far) by then:

George (born 1905) and his wife were in Pirbright, having lived at nearby No 5 Chapel Rd 1937-39, and then 7, The Gardens until at least 1970. George was a gardener (heavy work), which these days would probably be called landscaping.
Edward (born 1905) and his wife Elsie lived at Leatherhead. Edward was a police constable there. In 1939 Edward was promoted to Detective-Constable, and 2 or 3 years later, to Detective-Sergeant. He retired in 1962, as a Chief Inspector at Dorking and died in 1982.
Charles (born 1908) and his wife Esther were living at Flexford. Charles was a market gardener and tomato grower and died in 1962.
Cecil (born 1914) and his wife Violet were living in Kingfield, Woking. Cecil was a bus conductor and died in 1975.
Raymond (born 1915) and his wife Winifred were living in Epsom. Raymond was a chauffeur and gardener, and died in 1995.

Florence died in 1949, and Ernest remained at Lawford’s Farm until he died in 1967. After his death, their youngest son Douglas Storr and his wife Jenny stayed at the farm. Douglas and Jenny expanded the product range of the farm to include daffodils. One of the unforeseen problems of this was that the bulbs spread into neighbouring plots. When the owners of Sleepy Hollow on the Bagshot Road moved into their new home in the early 1980’s, they found large numbers of the bulbs emerging where their new lawn and garden would be. They quickly realised that the source of this nuisance could well have been the daffodil farm on the other side of the public footpath. The problem was quickly resolved with the aid of a rotovator. Every springtime, a few daffodils can be seen flourishing by the side of the footpath.

Douglas died in 1981, and Jenny continued to live at the farm for a few years. By 1991 Jenny had moved out of Lawford’s Farm, and she died elsewhere in Surrey in 2002.

After Jenny moved out in the late 1980’s, the farm fell into disrepair and by 1990 was a ruin (the author can remember clambering through what remained of the house – the elements had not been kind to it after Jenny had moved out).

The property was sold c1995 to a Mr RMG Turnbull, and unsurprisingly he demolished the old farm and built a new house a few yards away. The new house was named The Tree House.

The house was sold in 2005 to Mr Wilson and Miss Fernando. The property was sold again in 2021 to the current owners.

Primrose House (previously Primrose Cottage)

Primrose House sits at the end of Storr’s Lane in 2 acres of land, which stretch in a south-westerly direction to the Woking-Pirbright parish boundary. We have written about the history of Primrose Cottage (as it was then called) until 1902 in the introductory section to The Fairway (above). As a reminder, the original house was built between 1841 and 1857, and in 1901 John Strudwick was the tenant.

In 1911 John Strudwick was still living there. In 1912 the Strudwicks moved out to St Brelade at Fox Corner, and their story is told there. We are not sure who lived in the house between 1912 and 1918.

As regards ownership, like Lawford’s Farm above, the house was owned by William Behrens. In 1918 Lucy Thompson, who owned The Old Malthouse purchased Primrose Cottage from William Behrens. Lucy and her husband, George, had been left an enormous sum of money by a relative of George’s, and they probably had some difficulty wondering how to invest it. Primrose Cottage was part of the answer. In fact it used up just 0.2% of their inheritance, so it was a very small part of the answer.

By 1919 the house was occupied by Auguste and Juliette Menuge and their family.

Auguste had been born in Boulogne in 1877 and moved to England in his youth. We are not sure what caused his move, but the 1901 census shows two 17 year-old girls named Menuge living in Berkshire and Leamington respectively, who look as though they were Auguste’s younger sisters. It does not appear that their parents accompanied them to England.

In 1901 Auguste married Agnes Carlos (born in Shropshire in 1868) in Paddington. Agnes was previously married in 1886 (when aged only 17) to an Edward Weddell Miller, the son of a wine merchant who described himself as a gentleman on his marriage certificate. They had 2 children, but were divorced in 1899, the reason being Agnes’s adultery with Auguste Menuge. Agnes had to pay £50 (today £5,000) towards Edward’s costs. As an aside, Auguste was using a fictitious name, John St Clair, which was exposed during the divorce hearing (see document below).

xxxxxxx

After her divorce in 1899, Agnes worked as a servant in the household of Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and later the Leader of the Opposition. Joseph was an important politician of his time, being best remembered for being a major cause of the 2nd Boer War, and also being the father of future prime minister, Neville Chamberlain. We have included a photo of Joseph Chamberlain below (unfortunately we don’t have any photos of Agnes).

So Auguste and Agnes were married in 1901, but their marriage did not last. In 1911 Auguste was living in Englefield Green, working as a commercial traveller. He described himself in the census of that year as “Single”, obviously forgetting that he was in fact married (to Agnes). Agnes in the same census was boarding in Paddington, but she described herself as “Married”. She died in 1912, without having any further children.

In 1914 Auguste undertook a business trip to Canada and sailed from Quebec back to England (2nd class) on the Lusitania. As is well known, the Lusitania was torpedoed 8 months later with the loss of 1,200 lives, an incident which contributed to the USA’s entry to the war. He was working for Victoria Works, Englefield Green at the time. Presumably his French nationality gave him some advantages in (French-speaking) Quebec. He gave his address as Englefield Green, and described himself (correctly this time) as “Widowed”.

The first reference to Auguste living in Primrose Cottage (mid-1919) was him being fined 15 shillings (£30 today) for 2 offences under the Muzzling and Control order for dogs. This is also the first reference to Primrose Cottage by name. He obviously liked fierce dogs, as 6 years later he placed an ad in the Surrey Advertiser for “the safest and cheapest” dog locks!

In 1920 Auguste married Juliette Levasseur. Juliette had French parents, but was born in Dulwich (in 1887). In 1911 she was working as a governess in Kensington and the following year she gave birth to a son, who we understand was given up for adoption under a different name (Ronald Moyses). The son, however, in his later life used Menuge as his surname.

After all the excitement in their respective early lives, Auguste and Juliette appear to have settled down. They proceeded to have 2 children: Patrick (1921 – 2003) and Hagen (1924 – 2018).

Patrick was still living at Primrose Cottage in 1939 (at which time he was a “Foreign Correspondent”) but left the Fox Corner area during WW2 and married Phoebe Joyce Thomas in Bathavon in 1944. They lived in Warwick Gardens, Earl’s Court, where Patrick was a textile agent. Joyce appeared in a 1954 newspaper article concerning that year’s “Loveliest Mother of Kensington” competition. We think that Joyce is third from the left of the pictured ladies (photo below), but we have included the full article, so that the reader can fully appreciate the nature of this competition. We suspect it does not run any more....

We’re sure that most readers will wonder who ended up winning the competition. The answer is given below. Joyce is lady on the right-hand side (holding the number 8).

Patrick and Joyce had one daughter, Denise (who was the 8 year-old in the above competition). Denise sadly died in a car accident in 1974 aged only 29, leaving a husband and 2 young children. Joyce died in 1986, aged 70, and Patrick remarried the following year to Winifred Roberts (aged 67). Patrick and Winifred moved to New Milton (near Bournemouth), where Winifred died in 1998 and Patrick in 2003. Below is a photo of Patrick (he is the smartly-dressed fellow at the back in the centre).

Back to Auguste and his family. In 1921 Auguste was a dealer in motor car accessories. By 1931 he had purchased the Primrose Cottage property from Lucy Thompson. In fact, given that Lucy and her husband sold Rickford Malthouse and left the area in 1920, it seems likely that the sale would have happened around that time. The deeds of Primrose House would probably tell us the answer.

In 1937 Auguste placed an ad for “English lessons for foreigners” at 1/6d (today £3) per hour, which seems very reasonable. In the 1939 register, Auguste (who described himself as a merchant), Juliette, Patrick and Hagen were living together in Primrose Cottage. Hagen’s middle name was Francois, and he was known as Frank.

Patrick had married during WW2, and had left to live in London with his wife. During the war, Auguste placed a few ads selling bits and pieces. One such ad offered “Cardboard boxes 10 x 13 x 4 inches.” With Amazon now offering scores of these items for free, we’re not sure that would get many offers these days.

After WW2, Auguste placed a more unusual ad, offering a croquet set for sale. Whether this suggests that Primrose Cottage included a croquet lawn, or whether Auguste was more of a dealer in odds and ends, we do not know, but Auguste died in 1949.

In 1954 an ad appeared in Surrey Advertiser: “150 heavy young table cockerels for sale. Horvath at The Chalet, Primrose Cottage, Lawford’s Hill Lane”. This raises 2 questions: Where was The Chalet, and who was Mr Horvath?

Unfortunately we can’t answer either of these questions properly. We do know that Joseph Horvath was born in 1909 and lived in The Chalet until his death in 1978. He only appeared in the electoral register in the late 1960’s, suggesting that he may not have been a British citizen until then. Horvath is a very common surname in both Hungary and Slovakia, so Joseph may have originally lived in one of these countries before arriving in the UK, but this is guesswork on our part.

And we do not know anything about The Chalet. It may have been a small building which was just to the north of Primrose Cottage (and has now been demolished). The building does not appear on any of the OS maps. After Joseph’s death in 1978, a variety of people lived in The Chalet until the late 1990’s.

The ad also refers to “Lawford’s Hill Lane”, which does not seem to be an official name, although it was still being used in a newspaper ad in the late 1960’s.
Back to the Ménages: Juliette lived in Primrose Cottage with Frank and his family until 1959, when she moved to Stoke Road, Guildford, and then to Eagle Road (just off Stoke Road). She died in 1972, aged 85.

In 1957 Frank married Penelope East from Oxshott. Penelope had been born in London in 1935, the daughter of William East, an Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of London. Frank and Penelope had 3 sons: Julian (born 1958), Adam (born 1961) and Angus (born 1964). Frank and Penelope made some alterations to the property in 1970, and at some stage applied for permission for use of the property as a caravan site (unsurprisingly and thankfully refused).

All 3 children moved out of the area in due course, leaving Frank and Penelope alone in Primrose Cottage. Frank died in 2018, and the property was sold to the current owners, who demolished the house and built a larger, more modern house, renamed Primrose House. We have shown below an agent’s photo (with thanks) of Primrose Cottage before its demolition. The Fairway and part of Worplesdon Golf Course can be seen beyond the house.

The Fairway and Storr's Lane

Mid-1600’s: The property (known as Longmoor) was held (copyhold) by a John Palmer.

Late-1600’s: Following the death of John Palmer, the property was held by a William Piper.

1728: Edward Lawford (1681 – 1753) now held the property, still known as Longmoor. He was responsible for collecting all of the rents of the Manor, suggesting that he held some status in the area.

1774: Ann Greenfield died, and the property passed to her husband, Samuel Greenfield II.

1795: Samuel Greenfield II died and the property passed to his son, Samuel Greenfield III (1746 - 1836).

The 1857 map to support the sale of Bridley Manor

The 1873 OS map

The 1888 Bridley sale map

The 1902 Bridley sale map

The 1915 OS map

The OS maps are shown with our grateful thanks to Ordnance Survey.

There are several points of interest. First we’ll look at the roads:

The Fairway already appeared clearly on the 1841 map and looks to be an established (and straight) road). •

Storr’s Lane appears for the first time on the 1873 map.

Lawford’s Hill Road was non-existent. It only came into being in 1925.

Lawford’s Hill Close was only created in 1970.

Next we’ll look at the buildings:

All of the dwellings on the 1841 Tithe map are shown.

A third house appears further down Storr’s Lane on the 1857 and 1873 maps, together with a well. This house is today’s Primrose House (recently built in place of the previous Primrose Cottage).

A house appears on the Bagshot Road on the 1873 map, just south of Storr’s Lane. Long since demolished, it was where the garden of Hunter’s Green is today.

Finally, we’ll look at the footpaths and fields. Several small details here:

There are no footpaths marked on the 1841 map, and that is fairly typical of the Tithe maps in that year – tracks were only shown if they were deemed to be significant (which probably meant if they carried wheeled traffic).

The 1873 map also shows a footpath leading from the end of The Fairway to the parish boundary and the path beyond it. This path still exists and is well-used.

The 1857 map shows that some of the commonland at the western end of the farms has been cultivated as 3 new fields (plots 1292d, e, and f), as has the strip adjoining the Bagshot Road. No doubt this was down to Mr Robertson trying to maximise the value of the estate.

The 1857 map also shows that some fields have been transferred from Lawford’s Farm (coloured yellow) to the other, unnamed farm (coloured pink). The 2 farms are now much closer in size. This was presumably to make the farms easier to manage.

The 1857 map shows that the strip to the north of the Fairway (now the 11th hole of Worplesdon Golf Course) has been subdivided into plots, which suggests a plan to convert them into farmland (never to be implemented – the 1873 map shows the middle plot as being a plantation of trees).

The 1902 map shows the area as being offered for sale in several small lots (each numbered and in a different colour). This shows a clear intent to sell the land as development land.

The 1915 map shows that the 32 acres of commonland (previously attached to Lawford’s Farm) had been converted to farmland. This may well have happened earlier – perhaps at the same time as the drainage ditch was dug as part of the Bridley Manor “efficiency” measures.

And below we have shown the part of the sales brochure dealing with Lot 18 (which became Holes 11-15 of Worplesdon Golf Course).

Dawson’s Well: 3-room cottage let to Mrs Kail

Dodger’s Well site: 5-room house let to Mr Wye

Crabtree House site: 2 semi-detached cottages, used as a single 6-room dwelling let to Mr Mitchell

Lawford’s Farm: 5-room cottage let to Mr Heather

Primrose House site: 3-room house on short-term lettings (although the tenant at the time, John Strudwick and his family, were to stay in the house quite a long time).

Hunters Green site: 3-bedroom house on short-term lettings

We examine what happened to each of these properties after 1902 in the relevant section on this site (the first 5 houses in this section, the 6th house in the Bagshot Road section). We’ll now take a look at some of the occupants of these houses during the period 1857 – 1902.

We have mentioned above that James Boylett and his family were probably living at the Primrose House site.

John and Ann Strudwick. They lived at Lawfords from the 1890’s until 1912, when they moved to St Brelade, a house near Fox Corner, and we tell their story there.

Dawson’s Well

A house where Dodger’s Well now stands

2 semi-detached cottages called Lawford’s Cottages, sometimes used as a single 6-room dwelling, where Crabtree House now stands.

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But obviously the trick he described in the next press cutting (2 years earlier) was not 100% foolproof....

Here are an 1897 catalogue and 2 examples of the company’s letterhead from c1918 and c1940.

John died in 1994. A photo of him is shown below. Elizabeth remained in the house until c2004.

George (born 1905) and his wife were in Pirbright, having lived at nearby No 5 Chapel Rd 1937-39, and then 7, The Gardens until at least 1970. George was a gardener (heavy work), which these days would probably be called landscaping.

Edward (born 1905) and his wife Elsie lived at Leatherhead. Edward was a police constable there. In 1939 Edward was promoted to Detective-Constable, and 2 or 3 years later, to Detective-Sergeant. He retired in 1962, as a Chief Inspector at Dorking and died in 1982.

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We’re sure that most readers will wonder who ended up winning the competition. The answer is given below. Joyce is lady on the right-hand side (holding the number 8).