Guildford Road - North

This Section deals with the section of the Guildford Road between Cove Bridge (ie the Mill Lane turning) and the mini-roundabout where the Aldershot forks off to the right. We will work north to south covering each house on the east side of the road first, and then cross to the west side of the road, moving north to south again.

We have shown below an extract from the 2024 OS map (with thanks). We have also included a table showing when each house was built.

East side

Early days to 1929

Part of the Rocque map of 1763 is shown below. We have shaded the current housing area and nearby fields (relating to both east and west sides of the road) of this section red (approximately, as the field boundaries are not very accurate). There is just 1 dwelling in the red area (at the south-western corner on the eastern side of the road), and this was Newmans.

The 1805 map right (with the current housing area and nearby fields shaded red) shows that some of the fields in 1763 have been subdivided into smaller fields, perhaps to permit more farmers to work on the land, albeit on smaller plots.

The land shaded red on the east side of the road now comprised 2 fields. The larger field, Upper Law Meadow (7 acres), was part of Court Farm, whose history is set out in the Court Farm section.

The smaller field in 1805 (numbered 185) was part of Newmans Farm. The small black square on the southern border of the field was the Newmans farmhouse. It sat where the house called Newmans (refer below) is today.

The 1841 map left shows some further subdivision of fields.

As to the question of who farmed these fields, the Manor Court Rolls allow us to trace several of these copyhold tenant farmers of Newmans as follows:

1490: Henry Checcer surrendered “one cottage with appurtenances (ie accessories) called Newmans” to the use of John Remna. This surname was later spelled in various ways, but usually as Remnant (a name which crops up in other early Pirbright records).
1558: Johanna Rempneham (late the wife of John Rempneham) died. The property held by them (since date uncertain, possibly 1509) passed to their son, John Rempneham jnr.
1593: John Rempnant jnr died and Newmans passed to his son, John Rempnant 3.
1613: John Rempnam 3 surrendered Newmans and another property to Thomas Marten senior and Thomas Marten junior. The property comprised a tenement (ie a dwelling) with 2 crofts (ie small fields), and 2 acres of land at Ffelmore (ie Fellmoor, near Rails Farm).
1613-1658: At some time during this period, Newmans was surrendered to William Collins.
1658: William Collins surrendered Newmans to his son, William Collins junior, and his wife, Johane.
1665: William Collins senior died, leaving Newmans to his son, John Collins.
1714: John Collins died, leaving Newmans to his son, John Collins 2. As he was only 11 years old, his mother, Elizabeth Collins took custody of the property.
1775: John Collins died, leaving Newmans to his son, John Collins 3. He also left “Bernards” (ie Burners) to young John.
1825: John Collins 3 died, leaving Newmans to his son, William Collins (our apologies for the lack of imagination by the Collins family in choosing first names).
Early 1800s: Some of the fields were incorporated into other farms by William Collins.
1841: The Tithe map of 1841 shows William Collins owning and farming 4 neighbouring plots 48-51, now comprising just 2 acres.
1844: William Collins died, without having any children.
1844-1852: The property was sold 3 times to Messrs Joseph Streat, Charles Ruffold, and then Morris Ashby.

The Collins dynasty was a major player in Pirbright history from the 1600s onwards for 200 years. We have written about them in the Guildford Road S section. We have also gone into further detail in the Collins family section.

Morris Ashby (1819-1879) was a scion of the Staines brewers, Charles Ashby & Co, who became a joint-owner of the business in the 1840s. Now why did Morris purchase Newmans, several miles away from where he lived, in the 1850s, with no obvious connection?

Well, there was a connection, albeit not an obvious one. One of the daughters of John Collins 3 (refer above) was Elizabeth Collins (born in Pirbright in 1781). Elizabeth married a James Fladgate of Chobham in 1809. James became one of William Collins’s executors when William died in 1844. Elizabeth and James Fladgate had 4 children, one of whom was Henry Fladgate (born 1820). Henry became a business associate of Morris Ashby. And so we think that Henry Fladgate was the person who nudged Morris into buying Newmans.

Early during the time that Mr Ashby owned Newmans, it was converted into a “beerhouse” (ie a pub), called The Swallow. Given Mr Ashby’s livelihood, we shouldn’t be too surprised by this. We have included an interesting press cutting regarding the pub in the Newmans section below.

In 1874 Morris Ashby sold the property to Edward Joseph Halsey and Frederick Mellersh. Copyhold rights ceased over the property and it became part of the wider Halsey estate. We have written about Edward Joseph Halsey (1836-1905) in the Halsey Family section. Frederick Mellersh was a Guildford land agent, acting on behalf of the Halsey family.

The Swallow ceased acting as a pub in the late 1880s, and was subdivided into 2 separate dwellings.

By 1919, Henry Halsey 4 had folded the Newmans land (including Upper Law Meadow) into Whites Farm and offered it for sale at auction. The subdivided cottage on plot 185 was now called Swallow Cottages.

The successful purchaser of Newmans and Whites Farm in 1919 was John Cherryman of Causeway Farm. John paid £2,200 (worth £94,000 today). We have shown a map of the area sold and discussed John Cherryman in more detail in the Whites Farm Section.

John Cherryman immediately passed the newly-acquired Whites Farm (72 acres, including what used to be Newmans) to 3 of his sons. In 1929 the Cherryman sons sold the land abutting the Guildford Road to various people:

The Newmans piece (9 acres) to Basil Bennett, who owned Fords Farm.
Upper Law Meadow to Esdor Faggetter, the Pirbright builder.
The triangle of land where Swallow House and Keill House stand today to Arthur Brooke Johnstone, who also bought most of the rest of Whites Farm.

1930 onwards

Aldersford to Ganavan (7 houses)

These 7 houses were all built between 1955 and 1961 on a strip of land carved out of Upper Law Meadow, and we will cover their development history in this short section before looking at each house separately.

We have described above how the whole of Upper Law Meadow ended up in the hands of Basil Bennett (the owner of Fords Farm) in 1929, and we will now write about what happened to it during the period 1929 to 1961.

By 1950, Upper Law Meadow was in the hands of Willem Frederik Van Den Ende (1885-1951). William was born in Rotterdam in 1887, the son of a seaman. During 1915-1918 he made 3 trips to New York, giving his profession as Nurseryman. In 1928 he married Helena Lebbing in Holland.

We don’t know when he arrived in England, but the family lived in Horsell, and by 1944 Willem was running a nursery in Carthouse Lane. He also owned 30-40 acres of land in Pirbright, which comprised Upper Law Meadow and Grove Farm. When selling Upper Law Meadow, he was careful to stipulate that any building built on Upper Law Meadow should not be called Grove Farm House, or even contain the word Grove in the name.

In 1950, 5 months before his death, Willem sold the land to John Howard Kirby (1898-1971). We think that John was born in Fulham in 1898, and in 1921 married Violet Collyer, from Brookwood. At the time they were living in Horsell. They then moved to West End, and then Lynwood, just along from the Nag’s Head in Knaphill.

In 1951 John Kirby sold the land to Edwin (“Ted”) Roland Watkins (1907-1991). We can’t really understand why John Kirby had bought the land in 1950, but then sold it soon afterwards, unless it was some sort of pre-arrangement with Willem van den Ende. Perhaps John Kirby had been the tenant on the land.

Ted Watkins owned the Pirbright Post Office. He and his wife, Winifred (Win) were living at Winkfield in Chapel Road until WW2. After the war, they moved to No 1, The Terrace, where we tell their story. In 1939 he was Branch Manager of Smith’s Books (we’re not sure which branch), so we don’t really understand why he should have wanted to buy Upper Law Meadow unless it was for investment reasons.

In 1954 Ted Watkins sold off the strip of land fronting the Guildford Road where Willowbrook, Cherry Brook and Ganavan are today for development, and the 3 houses were duly built during 1954 and 1955.

But the following year tremors must have been felt around Pirbright when an application was made by the strangely-named AE Fruitnight and Pirbright Estate Ltd to build 92 houses and 6 shops on the land. The mid-1950s was a peak house-building period in Britain’s history, and so Edwin’s idea to cash in on his land near to Pirbright village with road frontage is understandable. But 92 houses sounds just a tiny bit excessive.

Arnold Ernest Fruitnight (1904-1957) was a developer from Romford, Essex. His grandfather had settled in West Ham from Germany in the 1870s, and married an Englishwoman. The family adopted “Fruitnight” during 1914, presumably to avoid any anti-war sentiment. We agree that it does sound more English than German, but we don’t think it was a good choice for a family trying to avoid attention. As an aside, the literal translation of their surname would have been “Not fruit”.

Pirbright Estate Ltd was a now-defunct company, presumably set up by Edwin Watkins as his share of the venture.

The decision whether to build the 92 houses (and 6 shops) went right up to government minister level (in the person of Duncan Sandys). It was (thankfully, we suspect that most Pirbright people would agree) rejected. He ruled that only the frontage could be built on, and that is what we now see in the strip of 4 houses Aldersford to Darleymede. We have shown the relevant press cutting right.

So having been rebuffed in his grand plan, in 1960 Edwin Watkins sold the remainder of the strip of land which fronts onto the Guildford Road to Thomas Denholm Lock, who we presume was a developer. Edwin did however stipulate that the land should be for residential (ie non-industrial) use only.

Lock duly built 4 houses along the road, and sold them off individually, although it looks as though the first occupants of some of the houses may have been short-term tenants, rather than owners. Below we have detailed the occupants of all 7 of the houses post-1955.

Aldersford

The first occupants of Aldersford in 1960 were Robert and Pamela Wickens. We know nothing about them, except that they were married at Harrow in 1953 and that Pamela’s maiden name was Garlick.

The next owners from the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s were Cyril and Irene Short. Cyril was born c1920 and Irene (nee Schwinge) in Reigate in 1922. They married at Newton Abbott in 1944. In 1951, Irene sailed from Malta to Liverpool and gave her address as Teignmouth, Devon. We can’t find any trace of Cyril making that trip though. They had 2 children and owned a flat in Teignmouth. c1975 the Short family moved to Knaphill.

From the mid-1970s until 2003 Norman and Jasmine Male owned Aldersford, having previously lived at Send. Norman was born in 1932, and Jasmine (nee Cornelius) was born in Chard in 1934. They were married at Chard in 1956 and Norman became a Chartered Engineer. In 2003, the Males moved to Yeovil. Norman died there in 2013 and Jasmine in 2019.

The current owners purchased the house in 2003.

Fairwood

The first occupants of Fairwood in 1960 were Harold (Harry) Llewellyn and Edith Williams. Harold was an Animal attendant. The couple had previously been living at No 12, Upper Stanford, and we think that Harold may have been working at the Pirbright Institute. Their stay at Fairwood was a brief one, and they soon returned to No 12, Upper Stanford.

The next occupants (probably owners) from c1967 were John and Rosemary Hunter. John and Rosemary (nee Edwards) married at Daventry in 1960. John became Chairman of Pirbright Parish Council. By 1972 they were living at Burrow Hill House, where we tell their story.

Robert and Hazel Eades purchased Fairwood c1972. We think that they married in 1956 in Lewisham, and, before moving to Pirbright, they had been living in Potters Bar. The Eades family moved away in 2018 after 46 years at Fairwood, and the house was purchased by the current owners.

Foxglove

The first occupants in 1960 were Jack and Marjorie Glover. We think that Jack was an aircraft engineer by trade, born in Cheshire in 1913. Marjorie (nee Fox) was born in Yorkshire in 1919. They married in 1944 and had 3 children, living in Skipton. They had a couple of business trips to the US in the 1940s and 1950s.

In 1957, Jack and Marjorie were relocated to Byfleet, and were living in one of 32 caravans on Chertsey Road, in connection with aircraft production at nearby Brooklands. At the time Jack was working for Rolls Royce. It is not very well known that Brooklands was used to build aircraft, but the old race track had been commandeered into aircraft production (Wellingtons and Hawker Hurricanes) during WW2. After the war, Vickers bought the site and built the Viking, Viscount and VC10 airliners there. We assume that Jack was relocated from Skipton to Byfleet for this purpose. They soon relocated to the newly-built Foxglove, which would surely have been much more pleasant than a caravan next to an aircraft factory.

It must have been indeed more pleasant than a caravan in Byfleet, as the Glovers stayed at Foxglove until c1973, when they relocated back to the north of England. Jack had been voted onto Pirbright Parish Council in 1971, but was a member for only 2 years. Jack died in 1981 in Colne, and Marjorie in Gargrave, Yorkshire in 2002.

In 1973, the current owners purchased Foxglove.

Darleymede

The first owners of Darleymede in 1960 were John and Anne Hardwick. John was born in Winchester in 1933, the son of a “Master dairyman”. Anne was born Anne Bowen in Meriden, W Midlands in 1934, the daughter of a Motor Car salesman. They married in 1959 at Winchester and moved almost straightaway into Darleymede. They had 2 children.

John died in 1993 in Pirbright, but Anne remained at Darleymede for a further 6 years. The house was then sold 3 times in the space of 2 years. The estate agents would have been delighted by this. The current owners purchased the house in 2001.

Law Meadows

Law Meadows may be able to lay claim to be the first gated community in Pirbright. It was built c2020 and sits on the old Upper Law Meadow, using about 40% of what remained of it. There are 9 houses on the street.

Upper Law Meadow has quite a long history. In 1548, it (“Lawe Mede”) was rented by a William Hayward from the Lord of the Manor, Stanislaus Browne for the princely sum of 2 pence per annum. This would work out as £14 per annum today. We have shown a copy of the rental list right, with the relevant item highlighted. In 1580 it was rented by Sir George Chamberlaine. At the time he also rented Rails Field.

By the 1800s the meadow formed part of Court Farm. During the late 1800s it became part of Whites Farm, which was (in 1919) sold to John Cherryman, as described in the Whites Farm section. As we have described above in the sections dealing the early history of Aldersford to Darleymede, the meadow ended up, in 1951, in the hands of Ted Watkins.

The post-1951 history of Law Meadow is fairly complicated. In summary:

1951: Upper Law Meadow was bought by Edwin (“Ted”) Watkins, a Pirbright resident, who owned the Post Office.
1955: 3 houses (Willowbrook to Ganavan) were built. Refer sections below.
1956: There was a failed attempt to build 92 houses and 6 shops, as explained in the section above.
1957: A Scout Hut was built on the land. Ted Watkins donated the land for the hut. The rest of the field was being used for horse grazing at the time.
1960: A further 4 houses (Aldersford to Darleymede) were built. Refer sections above.
1971-73: 2 applications to build 8 houses on Upper Law Meadow were refused.
1981: A 6-room single-storey agricultural dwelling was built behind Willowbrook, Cherry Brook and Ganavan. Occupancy was restricted to people employed in the locality in agriculture, forestry or horse-breeding. It was called Law Meadow, but we are not sure who owned the land at this point. The new house was occupied by some members of the Mason family after Donald Mason’s death in 1983. Donald had been the publican of The Cricketers from the mid-1950s. We have told the story of Donald Mason and his family in The Cricketers section.
1996: The land was sold to Lancaster Guildford (the owner of the Volvo Garage across the road – refer section below), who offered to the council a plan for the land to be used for storage of cars. This plan was later withdrawn (presumably because the Council had signalled that it was a non-starter).
1999: The house Law Meadow was sold again to Philip and Maxine Gray, who married in 2000.
2001: Approval was given to use the land for agricultural/equestrian use, including horse breeding (ie stud use). (A few years later the Grays also rented 40 acres of land to the North-west of Vines Farm from the then owner of the farm.)
2012: The Council agreed that 5 residential units on the land had been used as single dwellings (without Council approval) for more than 4 years, and that, according to the law at the time, the 5 dwellings were now lawful (as an aside, the 4 years required for this was changed to 10 years in 2024).
2014-2017: 9 applications were submitted for alterations and extensions to the house, with a variety of outcomes.
c2018: The equestrian business and the Grays moved to new premises, and the land was sold to Hawksmoor Homes Ltd of Guildford.
2018: Approval was granted to demolish the 5 dwellings, a scout hut and commercial stud buildings and build 8 dwellings.
c2020: The 9 homes were sold to new owners and are now fully occupied.

In summary, from 1981, the original meadow environment started to be built on. The number of agricultural buildings increased over the next 30 years. By use of the “4-year rule”, a precedent for 5 dwellings on the land was set in 2012. By 2018, the area had become a rather nondescript area of mixed-use buildings, with quite a lot of tarmac and concrete on the ground. The development in 2020 has provided new housing and arguably created a more attractive setting.

We have shown below a photo of the Scout hut with some of the Scouts of the day (or were they Cubs?). We have also shown a recent photo by the builder (with thanks) of the front 3 properties.

Continuing southwards from Law Meadows...

Willowbrook

The first owners of Willowbrook in 1955 were Eric and Cassandra Woolgar. Eric was born in 1929 in Guildford, the son of a Guildford bricklayer. In 1939 Eric was living on the Aldershot Road. Cassandra (nee Smith) was also born at Guildford in 1929, but moved to Feltham.

They were married at Feltham in 1952, and initially lived there. They moved to Willowbrook in 1955 and had 2 children. Eric was a pretty good cricketer, playing for Guildford as an opening batsman, wicket keeper and captain. He scored at least 2 centuries. The Woolgars stayed at Willowbrook until c1976.

In 1976 Peter and Sylvia Francis purchased Willowbrook. Sylvia (nee England) was born in Lambeth in 1939. They were married in 1960 in Lambeth. The Francis family moved out of Willowbrook in the late-1990s.

The next owner was Gerda Stern. Gerda Maud Seligman was born in London in 1911. She was brought up at Prince’s Gate, just over the road from Hyde Park.

Gerda married Walter Otto Stern (1905-1997), who had been born in Hampstead, educated at Westminster School and became a director of Metal Traders Ltd (a company which collapsed in 1972, probably after Walter had retired). In 1939 Gerda was living in a boarding house in Eastbourne.

Walter and Gerda had 3 children and, after WW2, lived at Durrows on Berry Lane, and then The Tile House on the Bagshot Road, near Worplesdon Golf Course. Walter died in 1997.

Gerda moved into Willowbrook after Walter’s death in 1997 and died in 2006, aged 95. The house is now owned by her relatives.

Cherry Brook

The first owners of Cherry Brook in 1955 were John and Auriol O’Inn. John was born in Croydon in 1914. Auriol (nee Ings) was born in Brentford in 1910 and grew up in East Molesey.

They married in 1938 and continued living in Croydon, with John working as an Aeronautical engineer. In 1950 the family sailed to Mombasa to live in Kenya. We assume that John was working for East African Airways, which had been founded in 1946. In 1952, the airline became the first airline not based in the United Kingdom to carry a reigning monarch.

The family’s stint in Kenya finished in 1955. Given that the Mau Mau fighting was at its worst around this period, we suspect that the O’Inns were only too glad to return to a quiet corner of England (ie Cherry Brook). In 1965 John was working as a Charge Hand for BEA (one of the precursors to British Airways) at London (ie Heathrow) airport.

The O’Inns left Pirbright c1979 and moved to Torbay. The next owners were Trevor and Catherine Cobley. Trevor, who was a great grandson of a LSWR signalman at Pirbright Junction, became a senior civil servant. He was born in Surrey in 1948 and married Catherine (nee Bean) in 1974.

Catherine is very well known in the Pirbright community. She became a Guildford Borough council member in 1979, and in 1996 was Mayor of Guildford. After that she became a non-exec member of West Surrey Health Authority. Trevor sadly died in 2011.

Cherry Brook was sold in 2005 to the current owners.

Ganavan

The first occupants of Ganavan in 1954 were Daniel and Dr Jean Wilson. Daniel Gorrie Wilson was born in Auchterarder, Perthshire in 1922, and we think that he married Jean Lauder in Newton Abbot in 1945. We don’t know whether Jean was a doctor of medicine or maybe connected with the Pirbright Institute, or a doctor in a different discipline.

Ganavan is the name of a scenic coastal town on the west coast of Scotland, opposite the Isle of Skye. It sounds a very likely candidate for being the inspiration for the house name. The Wilsons left Pirbright in the late 1960s.

The next owners from c1968 were Captain Ivan and Daphne Miller. Daphne was born Daphne Archer. They married in 1956 and lived in Ottershaw prior to moving to Pirbright, so we think that Ivan was a full-time army captain. They stayed at Ganavan until at least 1992, but by 2002 they appear to have been living apart in Aldershot (Ivan) and Guildford (Daphne).

During the 1990s Ganavan was sold to the current owners.

Keill House

Keill House sits on land which belonged to Swallow House (refer section below). We think that it was built c2002. The first owners were William and Gillian Burgess. William and Gillian (nee Livesey) were married in Surrey in 1996. The house was sold to the current owners in 2017. An agent’s photo of the house is shown right (with thanks).

Swallow House (previously Swallow Corner)

The triangle of land on which Swallow House and Keill house now stands formed part of the original Newmans Farm, whose history we have covered above in the “Early Days to 1929” section. In 1929 the then owners (the children of John Cherryman) sold the triangle of land to Arthur Brooke Johnstone, who also bought Whites Farm, as described in the Whites Farm section.

Mr Johnstone immediately sold the property to Daniel Fry and Arthur Laker, who were trading as Fry & Laker, builders and decorators. The following year, Fry & Laker obtained permission to build a workshop on the property, more or less where Keill House is today.

The partnership of Fry & Laker was dissolved on 31 December 1935, with Arthur buying out Daniel’s share. Thus Arthur Laker took possession of the triangle of land. Swallow House was built in 1937 for Arthur and Kathleen Laker. We have shown below a plan of the plot, together with a drawing of the proposed frontage of the house.

The plan confirms what we already know:

The plot included the land where Keill House (refer above) stands today.
The workshop on the plot (built in 1930 and used by Fry & Laker) is shown.
The land to the north (part of Upper Law Meadow) is shown as being owned by Esdor Faggetter, who had purchased it from John Cherryman’s sons, probably c1929.

Reverting now to Arthur and Kathleen Laker, Arthur was born in 1899, son of Alfred and Annie Laker, who lived at the newly-built No 15, Pirbright Cottages. We tell Alfred’s and Annie’s stories in that section. Kathleen (nee Perkins) was born in 1908, probably in Berkhamsted, the daughter of a gardener in Worplesdon.

They were married in Pirbright in 1930, Arthur giving his profession as Decorator, and they soon had 2 children. Initially they lived at Beech Cottage, School Lane. They moved into Swallow House immediately it was built in 1937. To begin with, they named the house Swallow Corner, and by the time of the 1939 register, Arthur had promoted himself to Master builder and decorator. The Lakers were early adopters of the telephone. They were on the network by 1942, when Arthur described himself as a House decorator. We have shown a photo of Arthur’s truck (maybe from the 1950s) and his letterhead (from 1965) below. The house was not renamed Swallow House until the 1960s.

Arthur joined Pirbright Parish Council in the 1930s, and sat on the council for over 30 years, latterly as Chairman. It was during his watch in 1970 that Pirbright street lighting was changed from gas to electricity. We have shown a photo of Arthur and Kathy (left) and Arthur and a colleague (right).

Arthur died in 1982 and Kathleen in 1997. The house was then sold, in 1998, to Martin Hennelly and Heike Melitz. Martin was born in 1968 in Luton. They left Swallow House in 2004, and the house was sold to the current owners the same year.

Newmans (previously The Swallow, The Old Swallow, Swallow House, Swallow Pond Cottages and Swallow Farm, amongst others)

The house called Newmans has a long history. In the “Early history” section above, it is clear that a dwelling of some description has stood on the site since at least 1490. At that time, King Henry VII was on the throne, and it was a mere 5 years after the Battle of Bosworth (where Richard III lost his crown). Unsurprisingly, Newmans is a Grade II Listed Building. The listing particulars are shown below.

House. Late C16, reclad in later C18/early C19. Timber framed on rendered plinth, brown and red brick cladding, rendered cladding in gable to left. Plain tiled roof with central rear ridge, multiple, stack under corbelled top. 2 storeys and attic in gable to left with leaded attic window. Tiled pentice hood on brick dentils to base of gable. 3 leaded casement windows across the first floor, narrower to centre, with 2 three light windows across ground floor. C20 stable style door to centre in gabled Porch, open to left half, closed brick to right with arched window. Right hand return front: Queen-post roof truss exposed in gable. 3 wings to rear, hipped to centre.

The dwelling was originally owned by the Lord of Pirbright Manor and let copyhold to various people (as described in the Early History section above) until 1874. In this section we will look at the occupants of Newmans from the mid-1800s. Neither the 1841 or 1851 censuses record anyone living at Newmans. So we will start from 1861.

In 1861 William and Hannah Warner occupied “Newmans House”, renting it from the owner, Morris Ashby (refer early history section above). William was born in Farnham in 1796, the son of an agricultural labourer. Hannah (or Anne) Flutter was born in Aldershot c1794. She and William married in Ash in 1816 and had 7 children. In 1851 the couple were living in Ash, where William was an agricultural labourer.

But by 1856 the Warners had moved to Pirbright. William gave his occupation in the 1861 census as a farmer of 9 acres (which would have been fields 47-49 on the Tithe map at the head of this section). William was being a little modest on the census form, as the cutting left (from 1856) shows that Newmans was already operating as a pub in 1856, and that William was running it.

We’re sure that this incident must have been an oversight on William’s part, hence his smaller fine than the other 2 offenders. [As an aside, one of the magistrates on the case, RAC Godwin-Austen Esq, was to have a close connection with Pirbright 10 years later. In 1866, one of his daughters married Col Armstrong, who lived at The Manor House. We tell his story there.]

One of William and Anne’s children, Ann Warner (born 1833) had married James Stevens in 1856 in Pirbright. James had been born in Pirbright in 1831, the son of Richard and Martha Stevens. We’re not sure what was going on in the Stevens family, but in 1841 it looks as though Richard, Martha and 8 of their children were living at Vines Farm, whilst their 3 youngest children (including James) were living on The Green, apparently on their own! In 1851, James and his 2 youngest siblings were living with their mother (who was by that time widowed) at Potteries in Chapel Lane. But when James was married in 1856, he did not give the name of his father in the marriage register. Perhaps he and Richard did not get on with each other. Or perhaps he didn’t know who his real father was.

In 1871, James and Ann Stevens were living in the house. James described himself as “Beerhouse keeper and labourer, plus farmer of 7 acres”, so he was a busy man. The address given was “Swallow, Collins Green”, which is rather vague, but it tells us that Newmans was still operating as a beerhouse called The Swallow. Ann’s mother, Hannah Warner, was still living there, but as a widow. She died later the same year. By 1881 James, Ann and their 4 children were living near Henley Park. James was a labourer.

We can’t find any reference to the house in the 1880s, other than that it was still being used as a beerhouse in 1888. Left, we have shown an 1886 painting by Mary Cawthorn of Newmans. To our eyes it looks a little quiet to be a pub. So perhaps the pub business was on its last legs by then.

By 1890 the house had been converted from a pub into 2 discrete cottages, now called “Old Swallow”. We are not sure whether this means that it had ceased to be a pub by then, or whether, after 34 years of being a pub, it was able to call itself “Old”. We think probably the former. The cottages were later called “Swallow Pond Cottages”, and various other names which included the word “Swallow” (eg Swallow House, Swallow Farm). The Cottages didn’t seem to be numbered, so we will arbitrarily call them No 1 and No 2 and deal with them in that (arbitrary) order. Before we do, here are 3 wonderful photos of Newmans from c1905. The first two show Swallow Pond in the foreground (larger than it is today!), while the third photo is a side view of the house. In dry summers, carts and waggons used to be driven through the pond to swell the felloes and prevent their wheels collapsing.

No 1

An Edward and Ann Warner were living at the house from 1890. Edward (born in Ash in 1829) was one of the sons of William and Hannah Warner, who had rented Newmans from 1856, when it first started operating as a pub. Ann had been born Ann Harding in 1825, the daughter of James and Millament Harding, who lived at Potteries in Chapel Lane. Prior to moving to No 1, Edward and Ann had also lived at Potteries in Chapel Lane.

They had 3 children and stayed at No 1 until 1908, when they moved to No 8, Model Cottages (now Vapery Lane).

The next occupants in 1908 were Herbert and Lily Boylett. Herbert Lewis Boylett was born in 1884, the son of James and Mary Boylett. James Boylett was an agricultural labourer who worked at Lawfords Farm in the late 1800s. We have written about James’s and Mary’s backgrounds in the Fairway and Storr’s Lane section. James and Mary had moved to Burner’s Cottage and lived there until James died in 1899. Mary then moved to Henry Cottages until her death in 1906.

Lily (nee Stonard and known as Tot), was born in Pirbright in 1889, the daughter of William and Alice Stonard. They were living next door at No 2 (refer section below) and Lily had been brought up there. This probably explains why Herbert and Lily decided to live at No 1 (free meals, babysitting etc?). Herbert and Lily were married in Pirbright in 1908. Herbert at that time was a carman (what we would call a delivery driver today, although he would have driven a horse and cart, not a white van).

Herbert and Lily had 4 children, 3 of whom stayed in the area and whom we meet elsewhere on this website. The fourth, Reginald, died aged only 10 in 1922.

In 1929, Herbert and Lily moved to No 1, Council Cottages. Their daughter, Ivy, married John Street in February 1931, but in October the same year, Herbert died, aged only 47. He had been working as a carter for Captain Stanley of Furze Hill. We have shown a photo of Lily, right

The next tenants of No 1 from 1930, according to the Electoral Register, were Albert James and Margaret Wiggins. Albert had been born in Walton-on-Thames in 1903, the son of Albert Willie Wiggins (who had been the insurance agent - ie salesman - for Prudential Insurance in the area since the early 1900s) and Alma Wiggins. The family had lived at No 4, The Terrace, and then No 6 West Heath.

It sounds like a normal enough story. But the Electoral Register was not correct. Albert and Margaret were not actually married, and the story was anything but normal. The press cutting from October 1930 (shown left) paints a very different picture as to what had really happened.

In summary, Albert had met a lady called Agnes McGregor in Scotland in 1921. He returned to Pirbright and the pair kept in touch via letters until 1928. But at this point, Albert took up with a Mrs Margaret Baker in Pirbright, and by 1930 they were living together. So far, so good – it sounds like a fairly typical tale of everyday love. But then on 30 August 1930, Albert travelled to Glasgow, and he and Agnes were married there. Only 6 days later, the couple separated and Albert returned to Pirbright to continue living with Margaret.

Unsurprisingly Agnes travelled to Pirbright to find out what had happened and when she found Albert and Margaret living as a couple, she must have felt a bit miffed – to put it mildly. 27 days after the marriage she brought an action against Albert for maintenance payments, which were duly granted.

It wasn’t mentioned in the newspaper report, but Margaret was 4 months pregnant at the time of the hearing. The baby was born in Pirbright the following March and took his mother’s surname (Baker).

Albert and Agnes’s formal divorce duly followed in 1933. Margaret had been born Margaret McGinley in Donegal in 1891, the eldest of 12 children. She had married a George Baker in 1921 in Londonderry and they had 2 children, the first in Londonderry, and the second in Hartley Wintney. Both children died after 3 months. We don’t know what happened to George Baker. He may have died or the couple may have divorced (although they were both catholic).

Whatever, Margaret and Albert went on to live as a married couple under the name Wiggins. Perhaps the scandal had raised too many eyebrows in rural Pirbright, but the couple moved to Epsom (where their story might not have been known) shortly afterwards. They had another child and married formally in Guildford in 1957 (when Margaret was 66). Margaret died in Neath in 1974, and Albert in Buckinghamshire in 1986.

No 2

In about 1892, William and Alice Stonard moved into No 2 for what turned out to be a long stay. William was born in 1850 at Lawfords (but baptised at St Michael’s Pirbright). He was the son of Henry and Hannah Stonard. Henry was an agricultural labourer who worked at Lawfords Farm in the mid-late 1800s. We have written about Lawfords in the Fairway and Storr’s Lane section. In 1861 William was living with his grandfather (Stephen Stonard) and his father at No 2, Longhouses. Alice (nee West) was born near Wood Street in 1854, the daughter of an agricultural labourer.

In 1871 William and Alice married in Pirbright. At the time, William was a labourer. They started a family right away (their first child was born 3 months after their wedding) and ended up with 12 children. Initially they lived in Normandy, but moved to No 2 in Pirbright c1892. Alice became the village midwife.

Below is a photo from c1903 of William and the formidable Alice with 5 of their children in front of No 2. We have also shown 2 photos of William and Alice in their later years. William remained a labourer, and worked for a time at Brookwood Cemetery.

A member of the family has told us about how it was a Boxing Day tradition for all of the Stonard family to go to Swallow Cottage (ie No 2) on Boxing Day. 10 to 15 grandchildren would sit on the wall outside like ‘swallows waiting to migrate’.

Another told us how, in later life, William suffered gangrene in his right leg, which had to be amputated below the knee. As a result, he could only get about outdoors by being wheeled about in his wicker-work bathchair.

One of their granddaughters, Lilian, lived with them for a while, and one of her tasks was to wheel her grandfather around the village in his bathchair (as in the photo above) for his constitutional.

One day, he decided he wanted to go up Mill Lane, maybe to visit his relations at Duchies Cottage, and Lilian, a slip of a 14-year-old girl, had the task of pushing him. The lane not being made up in 1928, it wouldn’t have been too easy to push up the gentle slope past the Manor House and Mill, but when she came to turn left, past Pirbright Lodge, it became somewhat harder. Once they reached the top of the hill by Admirals Walk House, she turned the chair round, somehow lost her grip and, with no brakes, off went Grandad in the bathchair, somehow negotiating the bend at the bottom, with a frantic child in hot pursuit, convinced that the poor old chap would meet his end by being run over by a bus when he reached the main road.

Alice gave her granddaughter a piece of her mind when they got home. William, once he’d got over the excitement, never tired of telling the tale to all and sundry for the rest of his life.

William died in 1935 and Alice moved to No 1, Council Cottages, West Heath. She died there in 1937. We have shown the 2 press notices below

In 1937, with both cottages now vacant, the owners (ie the sons of John Cherryman) decided to sell the entire house. The purchasers (and new occupants) were Ronald Seymour and Dorothy Lucy Skelton, who had been living at The Nurseries on the opposite side of the road (today Hovers Well). Ronald himself was a nurseryman. We have described their early lives in the Hovers Well section.

Having bought Newmans, the Skeltons immediately set about altering the building, which included changing the house to single occupancy (rather than 2 cottages). A plan of the changes made is shown right. They also changed the name of the house back to its original Newmans.

Then disaster struck: Ronald died in September the same year (1937). We have shown left the press cutting announcing this. It lists some of Ronald’s many achievements. It also mentions his mother, Lady Beatrice Skelton, who was still living when Ronald died. She died, aged 86, living in Whites Lane, Guildford in 1944. She has a variety of rose named after her. Doubtless this was an outcome of Ronald’s work!

Dorothy remained at Newmans until the early 1950s, when she moved across the road to Collins Green. She lived there until her death in 1986. Of the Skeltons’ children, Elizabeth (born 1917) married Michael Turner-Cooke in 1945 and they had one son, who died the same year. Elizabeth died at Cunningham House in 1992.

Their son, Frank Seymour (“Bill”) Skelton, started as an articled clerk in a firm of Chartered Accountants, but soon saw the error of his ways. He joined the RAF during WW2 and was awarded the DFC and DSO. He and his pilot were credited with shooting down 21 enemy aircraft. The citation for his awards referenced "an unsurpassed example of outstanding keenness and devotion to duty". A picture of Bill (left) and his pilot is shown below.

After the war Bill studied theology at Cambridge and became the chaplain of Clare College, Cambridge, and then the rector of Bermondsey. After an emotional breakdown in 1969 he left the church and did charitable work instead. A biography of him notes that “He was unmarried; but for the last 21 years of his life he found emotional fulfilment with his close friend Christopher Eldridge.” He died in 2003 and was buried in Southwark Cathedral. The plaque to him is shown below (with thanks to www.findagrave.com).

The next owners of Newmans, from the early 1950s, were Sir Irving and Lady Valerie Gane.

Irving Blanchard Gane was born in Cricklewood in 1892, the son of a solicitor. In 1916, as a Lieutenant in the army, he had married Florence Coulter. Florence was born in 1900 in Canada, daughter of an Irish farmer who had emigrated there. Later during WW1 Irving was promoted to Captain. Irving and Florence initially lived in Richmond. From 1936 they lived in Guildford (at Warren Farm House in Warren Road). They had 3 children (all daughters).

In 1945 Irving was appointed as Chamberlain of London. This job (initiated in 1237) was, and still is, effectively the finance director and paymaster role for the City of London Corporation. This meant that Irving was responsible for investing the City of London’s funds. He also administered the admissions to the Freedom of the City and personally admitted all honorary freemen. If you look carefully on the internet you can find a wonderful photo from 1953 of The late Queen Mother receiving the freedom of The City from Irving, surrounded by an admiring audience of other freemen and assorted dignitaries. Unfortunately the photo is under copyright, and thus we cannot show it here.

Florence died in 1951, aged only 59. In 1952 Irving travelled to New York (on his own). Perhaps he was en route to Canada to visit his late wife’s family. He was recorded as having 8 pieces of baggage, which seems quite a lot. In 1955 Irving’s address on the Electoral Register was simply “Effingham Golf Club”. He would have recorded this the previous year, ie in 1954.

In 1954 Irving was appointed KCVO (Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order), which entitled him to be called “Sir”. The same year he married Valerie Donald Cory in Westminster. Valerie had been born in Cardiff in 1905, the daughter of Sir Herbert George Donald Cory, 2nd Baronet Cory of Coryton and Lady Gertrude Cory (nee Box). Sir Herbert was a director of John Cory & Sons, the well-known shippers and coal-exporters, and (we would imagine) he was rather wealthy. Like Sir Irving, Lady Valerie was recently widowed. It was around this time that Sir Irving and Lady Valerie purchased Newmans.

In 1959 Sir Irving and Lady Valerie travelled to New York. They travelled Cabin Class (ie First Class) and for his employment he modestly gave “Chamberlain of London”, which rather stood out on the list of the assorted teachers, managers, accountants, etc.

In 1962 Sir Irving retired from the job of Chamberlain. He died in 1972, aged 79. The press report of his death is shown right.

Lady Valerie remained in the house for a further 29 years and died in 2001, aged 96. A photo of the house in 1987 is shown left.

The house was sold in 2002, 2010 and then in 2021 to the current owners.

West side

We now move to the west side of the road.

Early days to 1922

We have again shown below the 1805 and 1841 maps below (with the current housing area and nearby fields shaded red).

In 1805, the land shaded red on the west side of the road (around 4 acres) comprised the greater part of 2 fields, which were part of a small (12 acre) farm called Hovers, owned by Henry Halsey 1. The Hovers farmhouse is marked on the 1805 map, but tricky to spot. It sits just below the red-shaded area, in an open-ended triangle. What looks like a capital B is actually the Hovers Farmhouse, situated where Hovers Well is today.

We have set out its early history in the Hovers Well section, but in summary, it was held by the Faggetter family from the 1500s until 1793, when it was sold to Henry Halsey. It was soon integrated into the larger Court Farm (later renamed Manor Farm, which Henry had established around the Manor House. Please refer to those sections for more detail.

In 1841 “Plot 54, Meadow” was owned by Henry Halsey 2 and let to Rev William Parson, the resident parson who was living in The Manor House at the time. We can’t think what the Reverend gentleman used it for.

In 1922 the 2 fields were sold by Henry Halsey 4, as part of Lot 17. The buyer was Frederick Ramuz, and we have told his story in the Manor Farm section. As explained in that section, he sold it immediately to Esdor Faggetter, the local Pirbright builder, developer and property owner. We think that he then sold the land to the person who built the first garage in Pirbright, Edwin Clarke.

We now work our way south, starting with The Garage.

Lancaster Volvo Garage (previously Clarkes of Pirbright and a few other names)

The first references to a garage on this site are from 1925, when Edwin Clarke (who we think bought the land from Esdor Faggetter) submitted his plans to the local council. We have shown an extract from these plans below. The map has been angled 90 degrees clockwise.

A few points to note from this plan:

The garage itself - a very modest affair compared to today’s effort - comprises 3 separate garages and an office.
A 3-bedroom bungalow to the west was for Mr Edwin and his family to live in.
The boundary to the west (bordering on Mr Heyland’s land) remains to this day, but immediately behind the boundary now are Tangles and Ferndale, and behind them, Rapley’s Field. These are all discussed in the Mill Lane – East section.
The boundary to the south (bordering on the Nursery Ground) remains unchanged. Beyond it today is Swallowfield (refer section below).
But the large chunk of land to the south of the garage (where the compass was drawn) is now the road called Collens Field. We have written about this in the section below.

The garage was duly constructed and named “Clarke’s Garage”. It appears in the 1926 telephone directory (shown below).

We have shown below 3 early (between 1925 and 1935) photos of the garage. The Bungalow is clearly visible in the left-hand photo. We have also shown a couple of newspaper ads (from 1929 and 1939), which tell us the dealerships they held.

7 projects to renovate or extend the garage were undertaken over the next 20 years.

Many of these were minor, but a new Motor Car Showroom in 1935 (abutting the garage on the south side) would have been a significant addition to the business. We have shown a drawing from the building plan below. With its glass frontage, it would have been pretty impressive at the time.

We have also shown a photo of the showroom taken some 30 years later in the 1960s.

One of the building plans (from 1929) appears to show that there were no fewer than 11 petrol pumps on the island in front of the garage. Other plans from a few years later show only 7 pumps, which is supported by the older photos above.

A second bungalow, a little way to the west of the garage itself, was approved in 1930 and built.

We’ll now write about the garage’s founder, Edwin Clarke. Edwin Bedford Clarke (1891-1978) was born in 1891 at Ryde in the Isle of Wight. He was the son of Edwin Clarke, a fishmonger.

He married Eva Webb in 1913 near Bath at which time Edwin was a chauffeur. Eva was born in Swindon in 1887, the daughter of a quarryman. In 1921 the Clarkes were living at Churchmead Cottage with their 2 daughters. Edwin was still working as a chauffeur. An advert from early 1925 (shown below) was perhaps Edwin’s first venture into the auto business. At the time of the ad, he was still living at Churchmead Cottage, and the idea of a garage had probably not crossed his mind. In case the reader (like the author) had no idea of what a Calthorpe JAP was, we have shown a picture of one below. If you wanted, you could buy one for £5,000 today.

The garage and bungalow were duly built in 1925. However Eva never moved into the Bungalow. She appears to have moved away from the area in 1925 at the time The Bungalow was being built. By 1930 an Ellen Hammond was living in The Bungalow with Edwin. We think that Edwin and Eva divorced in the 1930s. Edwin remarried Ellen Hammond locally in 1939. Meanwhile Eva died in Devizes in 1944.

During WW2, the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) station was located at Clarke’s Garage. Edwin was the leading fireman and was on call day and night.

Edwin and Ellen were still living at The Bungalow in 1946, but they moved away the same year. The garage itself was sold to a new owner (we don’t know the identity of this new owner), and renamed “Clarke’s of Pirbright Ltd”.

The new occupants of the bungalow (renamed Bedford Cottage - a nice nod to Edwin) were William and Ellen Gates. William had worked at the garage (as an employee) since 1937 and had been born in Bisley in 1901, the son of a cowman. We’re not aware that he was related to the other (better-known) Bill Gates. Ellen (nee Noldart) was born in 1906 in Farncombe, one of the 11 children of Albert Thomas and Alice Noldart.

William and Ellen were married at St John’s in 1930. Ellen’s father gave his name as Thomas, rather than Albert. The reason for this was probably that he had a court case looming. Early in 1931 Albert (Thomas) was found guilty of molesting one of his daughters (not Ellen), aged 15, who later gave birth to a child. We have said a little more about this unpleasant incident under Dodger’s Well (at the time called Lawford’s Cottages) in The Fairway and Storr's Lane section. In 1932 William and Ellen had moved to Pirbright, living at No 3, Belmont Cottages in Goal Road.

William died in 1957. In 1961, Ellen remarried to Frederick Watts, a widowed cemetery worker, who was living at No 16, The Gardens. Ellen moved out of the Garage bungalow into The Gardens.

The new garage owners decided to raise the garage’s profile by placing regular display ads in local newspapers. These ads emphasised the company’s status (of official Rolls-Royce, Bentley and later Jaguar dealers), as well as its all-round 24/7 repair service. As a sign of that time, one of the Positions Vacant ads asked for “Women petrol pump attendants”, while another asked for a “General Clerk (male)”. Oh dear. In 1950 they invested in extending the forecourt and added more access.

Unsurprisingly the garage employed several staff during the 25 years from 1946. In particular we mention:

Eric and Ethel Sealey-Bell lived at Bedford Cottage between 1937 and 1959 (and possibly longer). By 1959 Eric was Service Manager of the garage. Here he is (see photo left), first on the right with long-serving petrol pump attendant, May Knight, Mr Robertson on left and Bob Borodale centre right.
Norman David and Sonja South lived at Bedford Cottage between 1968 and 1970. Norman was a motor mechanic.
Clifford Henry Bromfield was the accountant at the garage in 1954. Still using his title of Major, he and wife Ethel Bromfield lived at Church Cottage, Church Lane, where they stayed until 1984.

Below is a photo from c1955 showing some rather nice-looking cars. Part of the showroom built in 1935 appears on the extreme left of the photo, and 7 petrol pumps are clearly visible. A copy of the garage’s letterhead is also shown from around this time or a little later. We have also shown a couple of the ads from 1955.

I'm a paragraph

The garage was still called Clarke’s of Pirbright Ltd until 1972. It was then sold to Romans of Woking Ltd, under whose name it traded. They immediately altered the forecourt, including provision of a new island with pumps and a kiosk.

We have shown left (with thanks to the Surrey Advertiser) a photo of Romans in 1972. The 1930s showroom is still there. But by looking at the cars on display, it is obvious that the previous emphasis on luxury cars has been toned down somewhat...

In 1985 The Pirbright garage was transferred to a new company called The Forum Ltd (which also operated in Staines) and became a Volvo dealership. [The previous company, Romans of Woking Ltd, eventually closed in the 1990s, but the company was then bought and became Romans, a dealer in supercars (most of which are for sale at 6- or 7-figure prices).]

The owners of The Forum lost no time in selling off the southern part of the garage plot to Guildford Council in 1986 to form Collens Field (refer section below).

In 1995 The Forum Ltd appears to have been bought by Squire Furneaux, a Volvo dealership in Cobham. The name of the Pirbright garage was immediately changed to Squire Furneaux. For some reason the name soon changed again to Lancaster Volvo, albeit still owned by Squire Furneaux. There have been several alterations to the garage recently. The most notable occurred in 2024-25, when a major renovation took place, involving erection of a workshop/MOT facility, and various other refurbishments.

Collens Field

Collens Field comprises 15 homes (for some reason numbered 1-18 with some gaps) in a cul-de-sac next to the garage. The name of the road is a mystery to us. Collins was a common surname in Pirbright from the 1600s right through to the early 1900s. But Collens is much rarer, appearing only in the 1600s and the late 1700s. We have no information where these Collenses lived, and we suspect that the name Collens was in reality a mis-spelling for Collins. We respectfully suggest that, given that the road was built on land farmed by the Faggetter family for at least 130 years, “Faggetter’s Field” might have been more appropriate.

As we described in the section above, the land was sold by what is now Lancaster Volvo Garage to Guildford Council in 1986. 15 Council homes were built and opened in 1987. These homes comprised:

7 one-bedroom houses,
3 one-bedroom bungalows for the elderly,
5 two-bedroom bungalows, designed for disabled people.

We have shown below 3 photos from the time: The first 2 depict “the first sod”, while the third could be called “Nearly finished”.

As far as we know, only 2 of the homes have since been bought by their tenants from the Council. The other homes remain Council-owned. We also think that 2 of the tenant families who moved in in 1987 are still living in Collens Field.

Swallowfield

Swallowfield has the distinction of being one of the few properties in Pirbright to have its own postcode. In answer to your next question, we haven’t a clue – please refer to Royal Mail.

The house was built in 1936 on land belonging to Ronald Skelton, who lived at Hovers Well, where we tell his story. The land was part of Skelton nurseries, which stretched further south along the western side of the Aldershot Road. We have shown a photo (right) of part of the building plan from 1936.

The first occupants (presumed owners) of Swallowfield were Leonard and Ellen Gardiner. Leonard Redfern Gardiner was born in Droitwich in 1877, the son of a vicar. Ellen Allarton Marston was born in Wolverhampton in 1886, the last of 10 children. Her father, John Marston, had founded the Marston Cycle Co in Wolverhampton, which made Sunbeam bicycles from 1887. Below is a drawing of one model from an 1896 Sunbeam catalogue and a photo of none other than Sir Edward Elgar with his new “Royal” Sunbeam, which he called “Mr Phoebus” having purchased it in 1903.

Leonard and Ellen married in 1914 near Devizes. Leonard was a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR). They lived initially at Mutford, near Lowestoft, and had 3 children. They came to Pirbright in 1924 and lived for 4 or 5 years at Bakersgate, then St John’s Hill Road (near St John’s), before settling in Swallowfield in 1936.

In the 1939 register, Leonard was a retired Commander of the RNR. Given his experience, it is no surprise that during WW2 he was head of the ARP wardens of Pirbright. Here he is (photo right) with Ellen. But it is surprising to read that he was fined £2 in 1940 for contravening blackout regulations!

Shortly after WW2 the Gardiners moved to Jackman’s Lane (which is off St John’s Hill Road). Leonard died there in 1960. Ellen died in Winchester in 1971.

Frank and Evelyn Marriott were the next owners of Swallowfield from c1947, having moved from Haslemere. Frank Frederick Marriott was born in Keswick in 1899, the son of a Customs & Excise supervisor. Evelyn Ballantyne was born in Lambeth in 1902, the daughter of Horatio and Catherine Ballantyne. Horatio was a Scottish analytical chemist.

Frank became a Petroleum engineer for Shell, which involved a lot of travel to places where oil could be found. In 1927 he worked at Sarawak in what was then British Borneo, but is now East Malaysia. They married in Venezuela in 1929 and returned to Kingswood, near Tadworth later that year. In 1935 Frank sailed back to Sarawak. From 1943 to 1945 the family lived in Trinidad, then it was back to Sarawak. In between all this travel, they had 3 children.

The Marriotts put Swallowfield on the market in 1955 and moved to Hook Heath, where Frank died in 1969. Evelyn died in a hotel in Weybridge in 1976. The 1955 sale particulars tell us that Swallowfield had 2 reception rooms and 5 bedrooms, and that the grounds (which included a tennis court, orchard and paddock) were 2¾ acres in size. We have shown photos of the house and garden below.

The successful bidders in the auction were Archibald and Ethel Ballantine. We don’t think that Archibald was related to Evelyn Marriott (nee Ballantyne, who lived in the house just before them), nor to the Archibald Ballantine who lived at No 6, Pirbright Gardens in 1908.

Archibald Ian Kirk Ballantine (known as Ian) was born in Glasgow in 1912. Ethel (“Bobby”) nee Skeels was born in Wisbech in 1916, one of 12 children of a fruit grower and his wife.

In 1939 Ian was working as a fruit shipper and renting a room in Beckenham, and surely it was some form of fruit connection that brought Ian and Bobby together. Regardless, they were married in Wisbech in 1943. By that time, Ian had probably enlisted in the Merchant Navy, as, in November that year he was serving as Assistant Purser on R.M.S. Andes, sailing from Liverpool to New York & was later awarded a WW2 Merchant Service Medal.

Ian visited the US as a fruit broker in April 1947. Very unusually for those times, he flew, rather than sailed, to New York. This would have been quite an experience for Ian, as transatlantic passenger flights only started in 1939. By 1947, after allowing for the war years, they had only been operating for a couple of years. These were the days when the crew wore naval-style uniforms on transatlantic flights, and the New York flight to London took 17 hours, possibly on a DC-4. There were 2 stops: At Gander (Newfoundland) and Shannon. Ian paid for his own flight.

The Ballantines lived at Wisbech, where Ian presumably worked in the fruit business, and had 2 daughters. In 1955 we suspect that it was Ian’s job that brought him down south to Pirbright. Ian, a canny businessman, had a wholesale fruit & veg business at the Old, then the New Covent Garden Market.

While at Pirbright, Bobby helped out at a school in Ash. She was chairman of the Womens’ Institute and was an expert and enthusiastic gardener. She regularly won several prizes at the Pirbright horticultural show (though Ian may have been a bit miffed that she didn’t always win the Fruit prizes). Left is a photo showing Bobby (on the left) and Ian flanking Mrs Evan-Jones.

Ian died in 2002, aged 90, and Bobby in 2007, while living at Swallowfield. A photo of their gravestone in St Michael’s Churchyard is shown right.

Swallowfield was sold in 2007 to the current owners, who have made extensive alterations and additions.