Horley Local History Society

NEWS

Horley Local History Society

OCTOBER  2011

Meetings Calendar

The Society meets at Strawson Hall, 156 Albert Road, Horley, Surrey, every 4th Thursday in the month at 7:30pm for 8:00 unless otherwise stated below.





Thursday 23 February 2012 Society’s AGM followed by review of relocated archives and sale of duplicated items.

Thursday 22 March 2012 The History of Oxfam in Horley by Mike Peters.

HLHS’s Archives

As mentioned in the June 2011 Newsletter, the majority of the Society’s archives have for many years resided in the house of John McFarlane for which we thank him. He is now in a care home in Reigate and his house has been sold, therefore this part of our archives had to be moved fairly rapidly in August this year.

This possibility was foreseen back in 2004 and the current Chairmen of both our Society and the Local History Centre at that time jointly warned the Surrey History Centre, the County, Borough and Town Councillors of the inevitability of this event not once, but on several occasions since. While some suggestions were made by the last two Councils after repeated reminders, none were suitable. Despite two local papers warning of the possibility of losing a large part of Horley’s heritage at the eleventh hour, rather than having to bin them they have been placed in storage. Fortunately the local storage facility does permit certain access for research but it is far from being a long term solution to safeguard them for the town. This situation might well have to be faced yet again in the not too distant future, so we can only restate:- As these archives have been assembled over many years and today virtually constitutes Horley’s heritage, they can never be replaced.

Are there any more Christ Hospital plaques in Horley?

In 1602 Christ Hospital then in London, bought most of the land that was Horley Manor. Up to quite recently the Society was aware of only one Christ Hospital plaque in Horley, that on Spiers Farmhouse (see the April 2009 edition of the Newsletter). As reported in the July 2010 Newsletter the Society obtained permission to have it repositioned on one of the new houses in Spiers Farm Close, a name also suggested by the Society.

Another plaque of a different design shown below has recently been found on a house that stands on land bought by Christ Hospital in 1602. This begs the question as to whether other unknown plaques exist within Horley? If anyone has knowledge that they might, then please contact the Society. Thank you.

Records from Horley Police Station

With news that our Police Station built in 1901 had closed and was likely to be demolished in the near future, the Society sought permission to copy for our archives what photos, etc might still reside within it. Unfortunately the few that remain probably came from  the  Society, but further investigation suggests others might have been removed for save keeping. This possibility is now being pursued.

From the Archives (1)

The Churchwardens & Overseers of the Parish of Horley received a letter on 25 April 1835. (sic)

Gentlemen, it is time thare was a stop put to the goeings on att George Monk’s all day long on a Sunday and severall night in a week the house is full of men drinking of sider while their wifes and children is starven at home and it is a harbour for lazy girls which brings trouble to the Parish and the ruing and destructsion of many a family which Monks don’t do it for want now he has got money houses and land and a house furnished as well as any farmer in the Parish and is well of it is you Churhwardens and Overseers duty to put a stop to it and you should have done it long agoe if you had done your duty.

(George Monk lived in Monk’s Cottage in Horley Row but this is not believed to be the reason for the Cottage’s name)

From the Archives (2)

(From Peter Cox found in the "19th Century British Library Newspapers" available via the Surrey Library's web-site)
Extracted from the Dundee Courier 12 April 1881

As a Police Sergeant at Horley Surrey was going his rounds on Sunday night he noticed a bottle fixed close to the house door of one of the Overseers who had a threatening letter sent him last week. On examination the bottle was found to contain gunpowder with a fuse down the neck. The whole had been rammed so tightly that the fuse burnt itself out without reaching the powder. There were several persons in the house and had the charge ignited the result would have been disastrous. The Police have a clue to the perpetrators.

(You might ask, “did the perpetrators come from Scotland?”)

From the Archives (3)

(From Peter Cox)

Extracted from Lloyds Weekly Newspaper Sunday 27 Sept 1896 “The Missing Heiress”

Miss Ursula Dickinson, a niece of Lord Londesborough and daughter of the Rev, George Cockburn Dickinson was an heiress and kept pedigree cats. When a valuable one wanted medical attention  she sought help from Reuben Schofield, a so called veterinary practitioner at the time, in Horley. After  some association with Schofield she agreed to open a cat and dog hospital in Tooting  which he proposed and she became a partner (presumably providing the finance).
After some months Mrs Schofield received a letter  saying that her husband had ran away with Miss Dickinson and he enclosed an open cheque that she could draw on to support herself and their two children. She found that this was worth just £3. Her father found that she had already drawn some £11,000 of what was thought to be an inheritance of £22,000 and he had also been asked to pay several outstanding bills that the couple had run up.

(Unfortunately the extract did not report how this affair ended and whether this Horley philanderer met his comeuppance. In the 1895 Kelly’s Directory only, Samuel R Scholfield is listed as an owner of a Drug Store in Station Road, Horley)

From the Archives (4)

(From Peter Cox)

The following is a précis of the report in 1897 of the 21st public meeting of the Women’s Temperance Association.

The President, Lady Battersea congratulated the Association on having attained its majority and if the Duxhurst Farm Colony had been the sole outcome of the Association’s work, it would have justified its existence over and over again. (cheers) Canon Wilberforce dwelt upon the evils caused by intemperance - that cancer which is draining the very life of the nation. He earnestly commended the work being done at the Farm Colony.
Lady Henry Somerset, who met with an enthusiastic reception, pointed to the failure of the prison system to deal with habitual drunkards and maintained that habitual inebriety ought to be treated not as a crime but as a disease. She proceeded to describe the system adopted at the Duxhurst Colony between Reigate and Horley, explaining that the idea in starting the Colony had been to open a hospital in the real sense of the word having settled on the village system. Its motto being “Fresh air and hard work”. The imates being employed in gardening under a lady gardener. At present (1897) they could accommodate 42 patients in the village and in the past year they had to refuse 3200 cases.
Some 50 slum children from Bermondsey, dirty, ragged and unkempt filed on to the platform and sang several hymns. These were children to be sent for a holiday at the “Birds Nest”. A band of children at present staying at the Home clad in white pinafores and quaint red caps carrying flowers then took their places behind the less fortunate little ones and the contrast formed a pathetic and striking object lesson.

(More details on the Colony at Duxhurst will be given by Ros Black at the January 2012 meeting, so don’t miss it.)

This newsletter is published by the Horley Local History Society.      www.horleyhistory.org.uk       : Brian Buss       Telephone: 01293 782231

Previous Newsletters can be downloaded in PDF format: listed below.