Postcard of the Onslow Arms, post-marked 1908 (by kind permission of Roy Pobgee), one of the Cranleigh pubs that may have been flouting DORA’s regulations on ‘treating’ At the Guildford Borough Bench, a bar attendant and the manageress of the Lion Hotel in Guildford were both fined £5 on two counts of buying a ...
READ MORE +
The shop run by the Cheesman children’s aunts, Mercy and Mary Mann, in Dorset House (now Pimm’s Funeral Service) After two agonising months without any news of their son Joe, on June 2nd Chris and Ruth Cheesman of Victoria Road received a letter from him. It had been written on April 18th. The good news was that he ...
READ MORE +
During the week beginning 11th June, we are celebrating 50 years of education at Park Mead. The Infant school opened first with 36 children as the estate was being built and the older pupils transferred to the Junior school to form their first intake of 99 pupils. Over the years, many changes have taken place; ...
READ MORE +
Arthur Wadey and others on Pitch Hill, working for A.B. Johnston (photo by kind permission of Don Hilsdon) The impressive monster of a machine shown in the picture was used by employees of A.B. Johnston, farmer of New Park. Here, Arthur Wadey (born 1895) and others are cutting pit props on Pitch Hill. The props ...
READ MORE +
British troops blinded by gas on April 10th 1918 at an Advanced Dressing Station near Béthune (Imperial War Museum) British civilians faced more and more restrictions in support of the War effort. The ‘Curfew order’ that came into operation on Tuesday April 4th specified that no lights were to be used on shop ...
READ MORE +
William Heath Robinson’s ‘Spring-cleaning the Ark’ (1925) In March 1918, a new family moved into ‘The Copse’ at the corner of Horsham Road and Grove Road. This was the artist and cartoonist, William Heath Robinson, his wife and four children. A gifted artist and book illustrator, he is now remembered principally ...
READ MORE +
The wartime wedding of Albert Kevern and Olive Streeter, with the bride’s parents on either side of them, and several soldier friends. The bridegroom’s parents could not travel from Cornwall to Cranleigh for the service. (Photo by kind permission of Brian Kevern.) Monday February 25th was the big day when food ...
READ MORE +
A conspicuous lack of animals at Guildford cattle market in Woodbridge Road in January 1918 (David Rose, Guildford: Remembering 1914-18 (2014) By the end of 1917, the German U-boats’ attacks in the Atlantic on ships bringing food to Britain had resulted in acute shortages. At the Guildford cattle market on Tuesday ...
READ MORE +
Elmbridge Road, early 20th century (courtesy of Michael Miller) In 1917 the Balls family lived at no. 7 Elmbridge Road. It was then known as ‘Jessamine Cottage’. Jonathan Balls was a gardener. The family were active members of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Here they became good friends of Charles and Annie Crick, ...
READ MORE +
Cranleigh’s first garage opened in the Ewhurst Road, next to the White Hart, but as car sales mounted it moved to larger premises next to the Three Horseshoes Three incidents from November 1917 highlight how life has changed in the past century. At the Guildford County Bench on November 16th, Arthur William Upson ...
READ MORE +
