Showing 114 results

Florence Mable Bridges was the wife of Fredric Henry Bridges of 8 Sefton Road, Croydon

The Roads Act of 1920 placed the county, county boroughs and the large burgh councils as the registration and licensing authorities for both vehicles and drivers within the area. This followed on from the Motor Car Act of 1903 ,which had first created the system of registration and licensing of motor cars and motorcycles together with the annual issuing of Driving Licenses by local authorities. Croydon County Borough continued as a licensing authrity until 1965 when responsibility was passed to the newly formed Greater London Council.

Growth in vehicle ownership, the transferring of the vehicles between owners and the increase in both the number of Licenses being applied for and the ease in which disqualified drivers were making false claims to other areas, prompted the need for change. The Vehicle and Driving Licenses Act of 1969 created a new centralised record system for registration and licensing drivers and vehicles and the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) was subsequently formed.

Many local authority records of vehicle and drivers have been lost or destroyed. It is presumed that those of Croydon County Borough were destroyed following transfer to the GLC.

Dr Sidney Joseph Madge D.Sc.,F.S.A., a local historian and Purley resident began work on the history of the district in 1890. He was Assistant Keeper of the books at the British Museum for many years and was also a co-opted member of Coulsdon and Purley UDC Library Committee 1944 - 48. In October 1952 he was presented with an illuminated address at the meeting of Coulsdon and Purley Council on Monday, as a token of the councils thanks for the long and fine work done by him in connection with the historical records of the district which he has given to the library. Dr Madge , in return, presented the chairman, Coun. A G V Page with an early history of the Manor of Coulsdon from Cuthred to the Crusades [SJM/2, Coulsdon and Purley Advertiser 31 October 1952 p.1 col.2]

At the time of his death on 3rd February 1961 he lived at 23 Russell Hill Road, Purley. There is a short obituary to be found in the Coulsdon and Purley Council minutes for 1960 - 61 vol. XLV1 p.959 which is held in the Local Studies Library.

Contemporary directories list George Richardson, builder and undertaker, at Southbridge Place 1874-1888.

Phyllis Devereux was born on 14th March 1914 in London, the third of six children. After a period of living in Wales, she moved to Shirley in 1920.

In 1930, she started work as a draughtswoman for The Metal Propellor Company, Purley Way and later worked for the London Passenger Transport Board at Thornton Heath Pond followed by a period with Engineering, a technical journal. During the war, she worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company at Teddington followed by periods of employment with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and the Kuwait Oil Company. Between 1949 and her retirement in 1970, she worked at the Geological Museum, Knightsbridge. She currently lives in Caterham.

Compiled by Baldwin Latham (1836-1917), a Croydon resident who was surveyor to Croydon Board of Health from 1863 to 1870. He left this post to start his own private practice as an engineer.Throughout this time he continued to live in Croydon. Extracts from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography read; Latham, Baldwin a civil engineer and meteorologist, was born on 6 December 1836 in Nantwich, Cheshire, the son of George Latham, architect and surveyor. After attending Nantwich grammer school he entered his fathers office in 1851, and served the usual three-year pupillage as a civil engineer. He then moved to Sandiway, Cheshire, to work for three years with the contractors Douglas and Beckett before joining Joseph Glyn, a civil engineer and fellow of the Royal Society, in the Fens at Ely. In 1860 Latham went into business on his own account in Ely, and on 24 November 1863 he married Ann Elizabeth, daughter of William Neal, draper, of Ely, with whom he moved to Croydon and raised a large family....By 1868 Latham had designed the sewerage, irrigation, and water works for fifteen English towns. He had also begun a series of nearly forty papers reporting on these and related matter....Latham is best remembered for his contributions to public water supply, particularly in the Croydon area. His book, Sanitary Engineering, a Guide to the Construction of Sewerage and House Drainage (1873, and 2nd edn, 1878) was regarded as a classic in its day. In the latter part of his life, he analysed the parish records of Croydon from their commencement in 1538 to identify deaths caused by water-borne diseases. He constructed from his summary of the state of the Croydons water year by year to 1900. His interest in the characteristics of the districts hydrology continued undiminished, and they formed the subject of the last paper he gave, to the Croydon Natural History and Philosophical Society. It was in press when Latham died, on 13 March 1917, at his home, Park Hill House, Stanhope Road, Croydon, aged eighty-one: he suffered from phlebitis and a pulmonary embolism. He was buried at Croydon cemetery on 19 March. He was survived by his wife.

Walter Troake joined Croydon Tramway Company, and was aboard Croydons first electric tram in September 1901. He was also on board the last electric tram to run in April 1951. He retired in 1943, and was appointed to serve as NALGO retired members liaison officer in 1945. This volume dated 1957, is in tribute to the 12 intervening years working for NALGO. He died in 1963, aged 85.

John Blake lived at 65, Park Lane, Croydon. He appears on the 1851 census as an auctioneer, aged 69 alongside three servants named as Rebecca Standing aged 40 years, Sarah Standing aged 19years and Amelia Skinner aged 38years. His birthplace is given as Surrey, Croydon. He died at his residence in Park Lane on the 23rd February 1852 aged 72 years.

A tribute was published in The Surrey Standard of 28 February 1852 and was subsequently printed for private circulation. The Local Studies Library holds a copy. The following excerts from that publication sum up the character of the man and read Not only was he a great labourer in the business of life, but even his recreations would have been labours to many; for with the exception of the hours spent in social discourse with his numerous friends, whom he delighted to make happy around him, the pauses in his professional labours were chiefly devoted to important works for the benefit of others. His guardianship of the poor, the management of public charities, the duties of trustee for families not related to him, and the dispensation, with discrimination mixed with warm hearted benevolence, of his numerous private charities, were his mode of unbending or refreshing his mind after the labours of business

He had a strong natural common sense and sound judgement ...a natural simplicity of character...a straightforward plainess of manner and intention , and a candour and openness of heart, which enabled every one who knew him to see, as it were, beneath the surface of his character , and to percieve and feel the integrity and the benevolence that formed its basis. These qualities it was that gained him the warm esteem, and the most implicit confidence of all who knew him

It seems that in the absence of wife or children a large portion of Mr Blakes extensive possessions will devolve, we presume, on his nephew, and partner in business, whose amiable disposition, good business habits, and well known integrity, render him a worthy object to recieve the falling mantle of his lamented relative, and a fit successor to follow in his good uncles steps of charity and utility.

Jabez Spencer Balfour was born in Leith in 1834. Balfour was the most popular man in Croydon up to the years 1892, after which he was the most reviled. When Balfour moved to Croydon he lived at London Road then later at Wellesley House which stood approximately where Wellesley Road multi-storey car park is now. After Balfour took an interest in practically every movement in the town he was a natural choice for Charter Mayor in 1883. Balfour soon became top of the list for Burgesses of the Central Ward. Balfour became associated with a group of companies of which the Liberator Building Society was the principal one whoever this society failed in 1892 and Balfour fled to South America as a result of this. Due to the collapse of this society many thousands of small savers had lost their life savings. It wasnt until this happened and he fled to South America that the public found out he had swindled a huge number of people out of a huge sum of money through this building society. Balfour was eventually caught in South America, tried and sentenced to 14 years hard labour and was jailed on 28th November 1895. Balfour was accused of and found guilty of fraud. He was released in 1906 and died in 1916.

Mary Alicia Neville-Kaye (16 January 1911 - 17 December 2007) attended Whyteleafe County Grammar School for Girls, 1921 - 1929 (see http://www.semperfidelis.org.uk/announcements.php checked 23 Jan 2008).

Mary joined the staff of Overbury School in September 1939 and was immediately evacuated to Brighton. Following her return to Croydon, she was evacuated to Lee in Devon in June 1940. The log book (SCH1/2/1) records that she rejoined the staff on 11 January 1943.

She was later, briefly, Teacher In Charge (14 June - 30 August 1949) at Overbury before becoming Head of Purley Oaks Infants School (30 August 1949 - 23 July 1954) and then the first Head of the new Fairchildes Infants School, New Addington from 31 August 1954 until her retirement on 09 April 1976.

She was awarded an OBE in 1984 for her forty year service with the St John Ambulance Brigade (see Croydon Advertiser 22 June 1984). At the time of her death she was resident at Whitgift House, Brighton Road.

Dorothy Miles was born 7 March 1899. She was the daughter of Albert G J and Elizabeth Miles; and had younger siblings Marjorie (b 7 June 1902); Norman (b 1906); and Nancy (b 29 March 1912), who in 1919 was a pupil at Old Palace School. Dorothy was educated at Old Palace School and at the London School of Economics. She began work in the off ice of L H Turtle (toolmaker and cutler) at 6 Crown Hill, Croydon, in November 1915, and in 1919 was still there, as a secretary. She later worked for much of her life for Grants (as secretary to the Directors). In the course of 1919 she became engaged to Wallis Powell, who left later in the year for Australia to set up the firm of Foster Clark (food manufactureres): in the event, she never married.

Harold Frederick Bing (of Rostherne, Alton road, Waddon) entered Croydon British Boys School, Tamworth Road, in 1905. He started at Standard I, and progressed through to Standard V, before entering secondary school by scholarship in 1910. He therefore missed out on Standards VI and VII.

Barbara M. Cooper lived in Purley and recorded in this diary a weekly record of bird movements in and around a local small wood. She recorded her diary between Dec 1949 - Jul 1950.

Arthur Tooth (1839-1931) entered the Church of England in 1863. His religious beliefs and practices, in his parish of Hatcham, Kent, leant towards the extreme High Church: he came into conflict with the Church authorities, resulting in his imprisonment for 28 days in 1877, and the resignation of his living in 1878. He then bought Stroud Green House, Woodside, and transferred his community of nuns there from Hatcham. He intended to build a large hospital for inebriates, but only the chapel and one cloister wing were finished, and the convent in fact functioned as an orphanage. The property was sold in 1924 to Croydon Corporation, and the community moved to Otford Court, Kent where Father Tooth died in 1931. Croydon Council demolished the old Stroud Green House; laid the grounds out as a public park (Ashburton Park); and converted Father Tooths convent buildings into a public library (Ashburton Library), opened in December 1927.

There were two Samuel Waghorn(e)s, perhaps father and son. The two sections of this book (written in different hands) appear to represent the work of the two individuals. Samuel Waghorn I seems to have been based in the Limpsfield or Titsey area of Surrey. His regular customers included the Biscoe family (of Hookwood, Limpsfield) and Sir John Gresham (of Titsey). His business was firmly rooted in the rural community, largely comprising work on agricultural equipment (wagons, ploughs, harrows, wheelbarrows, etc). He also received an income from the rent on two houses, one at Farley Common. Samuel Waghome II (c1789-1858) may have moved to Croydon in about 1819, when he first appears in rate books, occupying a cottage in a yard off the High Street (near Mint Walk). He stayed there until 1822, and then moved to a cottage in Old Town (Duppas Lane), where he remained until 1828. From 1826, however, Samuel also appears as the joint occupier with Richard Jones (an established coachbuilder) of what had been Jones house and shop on the west side of the High Street. After 1834, Waghorn was the sole occupier, and he subsequently expanded into the adjoining property as well. These premises (numbered 83 High Street by 1851, renumbered 146 High Street in 1886, and renumbered 252 High Street in 0 931) were to remain the firms headquarters for some eighty years.

Samuel IIs regular customers in the 1820s, as recorded in this book, included well-known Croydon names such as Robert Corney (his neighbour), John Dingwall, John Battersbee, etc; as well as customers further afield in Battersea, Vauxhall, Sussex, etc. He did occasional jobs for the Brighton Coach. Samuel IIs business had become slightly more urban and perhaps higher class than Samuel Is: there are more references to work for tradesmen and on drays etc, and also on chaises and carriages. To judge from his writing and accounting methods, Samuel II was also probably better educated than Samuel I.

Samuel II died in October 1858, aged 69, but the business continued to be known as Samuel Waghorne, presumably run by his widow, Harriet (c1789-1867), and their son, Thomas (c1822-1868). In Warrens Directory for 1865-6, the firm is named Waghorne and Son.

After the deaths in close succession of Harriet and Thomas, the business was taken over in 1868 by James T Miles, and renamed Waghorne and Miles. The firm prospered in the latter part of the nineteenth century as a builder of superior carriages of various types, and, from about 1902, of motor car bodies. In about 1906 it was bought up by Marchant and Sons, a firm of coachbuilders established at 34 Tamworth Road in about 1873. Marchant and Sons took over the High Street premises, and continued to operate from that address until the 1950s.

JR Bex, Builders and undertakers, was established by James R Bex in about 1889. It was based at Wyche Grove, South Croydon. The premises were initially unnumbered, but from about 1928 were assigned the number 25: after World War II, the firm extended its business into no 23 - previously a private house occupied by Walter J Bex - and used 23 Wyche Grove as its address. From the turn of the century until about 1916 it also had a timber yard situated on the opposite side of the road.

In about 1873 the firm was taken over by W Cullen and Sons Ltd and it subsequently operated under that name.

The firm appears to have run the two sides of its business in tandem. Some of its account books relate specifically either to building work or to funeral direction, but many relate to both.

Henry Grantham was employed as a Gamekeeper on the Ballards Estate, owned by Charles Hermann Goschen. He was born in 1861 in Ewhurst, Surrey

Thomas Bainbridge, active 1778-1818, was a well-known land surveyor and cartographer of estate and enclosure maps. He was based in London in Grays Inn, but worked in all parts of the country.

John Whitgift was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 until his death in 1604.

Frederick Foss was a solicitor, who was active in the movement for the incorporation of Croydon as a Borough. When the campaign finally succeeded in 1883, he became the Charter Town Clerk: that is, he briefly acted as Town Clerk until the formal election to the post of CM Elborough. In 1886, he was elected to the Council, and he served as Mayor 1892-1893. In July 1893 he was elected Alderman; and later that year he was made a permanent Justice of the Peace. In 1895 Elborough fell ill and eventually died, and Foss again acted as Town Clerk for five months. The present album was given to him in recognition of this work at a Council meeting on 21 Sept 1896 (Croydon Advertiser, 26 Sept 1896). In 1902 he again acted as Town Clerk; and he was given the Freedom of the Borough in 1907.

Abel Garraway was the son of Daniel Garraway, grocer. Daniel died in 1832, when Abel inherited his copyhold property in Croydon, notably a messuage near the Cornmarket. He also owned some freehold property. He later seems to have lived in Hackney and Mitcham, and died in 1860.

Mrs Caroline (Carrie) Spratt was a dresser at the Grand Theatre (High Street, Croydon) at the same time as her husband was stage door keeper there.

Charlotte Emily Mortimer (born 1867; known as Emily) was a teacher at the Princess Road Board School. She married Harry Marchant in 1896 and had a daughter, Constance Elsie.
She died in 1937.

Harry Guy Simmons (1909-1964) worked as a service mechanic for Croydon Corporation Electricity Department. During World War II he served in No. 9 platoon, G Company, of the 32nd County of London Battalion of the Home Guard, which was made up of Electricity Department staff. He was initially a volunteer, but was promoted to Lance Corporal in about August 1942.