Nostalgia by Michael Eagleton

Robert Ticehurst was a well-liked Marlow vet, with a surgery in West Street. He took a great interest in the history of the town and was one of many contributors to the interesting little book “Marlow, Parish & People, in the 19th Century”, published in 1991.

The Marlow Society has recently been given a collection of nearly forty of Robert’s collection of photographs mainly from the 1800s, but some prints are even earlier. Only two were completely new to me but a few others were in better quality than my own copies or showed wider angles.

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1) I thought I had found a real gem here, but Robert’s version of this famous picture was in reverse, and when I entered a “flip” command it ended up the same as mine, although a little sharper, and indeed better than the same picture that appears in “The Marlow Branch” by Paul Karau and Chris Turner. It’s Marlow Station in the 1880s, with a 517 class engine, number 522, about to depart, in reverse, for Bourne End. Little weather protection for driver or fireman.

2) Looking along a gas-lit West Street, just a few years later, with, on the left, the Queen pub on the corner of Quoiting Square, and the Red Lion opposite.

3) Wider angle and a little better quality than mine, this is a circa 1860 photograph by Rebecca Blake of the building by the bridge that ended its life as a boat house and coal store but was recently proved to have been Marlow’s Manor House, or at least a part of it. Nice view of the first church spire as well as a stovepipe hatted gentleman. One of the earliest photographs of Marlow.

4) I have many pictures of Marlow’s Street Fairs, but not this one, first of two photos unknown to me: a real “find” despite the very poor quality. A Causeway view, church and bridge dimly beyond. The unruly fairs ended in 1903 on police orders.

5) High Street celebrations. I always assumed this was pre-1876 as on my copy no added chancel was visible on All Saints Church in the distance. However Robert’s darker version shows a very faint outline of this chancel, built 1876/7 before the main roof was raised. So it is now fairly certain this was the 1887 50th Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria. Morgan’s store on the right.

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6) The other one new to me, although there are several similar views. It is “The Anglers” in its original form (later The Compleat Angler) and with just one remaining eel trap or “eel buck” on the weir. Previously there were five. On the left, the little bridge (the parapets still visible today) that crossed over the now disappeared “fast stream” that bypassed the weir. When investigating Bisham Road floods and their causes five years ago the Environment Agency refused to accept that such a stream ever existed, although it shows up on many old maps!

Contact Michael on michael@jazzfans.co or 01628 486571