Catastrophic Fire at Clandon Park #NT

The Surrey Infantry Museum

Today I share with many people great sadness at the terrible destruction of Clandon Park House by the fire yesterday evening.  Although not the most beautiful house to look at from the outside, it contained a stunning collection of beautiful artefacts, ceilings and its unforgettable marble hall. There are many pictures online of its lovely rooms including some on my Pinterest page here

The Corps of Drums of the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Regiment at Clandon Park in 1989

Last year I visited an exhibition about the First World War Hospital which was set up in the house in 1915 and while there I also spent considerable time in the Surrey Infantry Museum in the undercroft.  This contained the collections of the Queen’s Royal Regiment and the East Surrey Regiment from three and a half centuries of service.  There were uniforms, medals, musical instruments, flags and pictures from the Indian mutiny, Crimean War, Boer War and both world wars of the twentieth century.

Here are some of them.

These life sized figures dating from 1715 wear the uniform of the Princess of Wales Regiment and were made when the Regiment was quartered in Carlisle.  They carry flintlock musket, sword and socket bayonet. The leather pouch contained three grenades. 

Just some of the many medals on display including several Victoria Crosses.

The Sovereign's Colour was presented to the Regiment at Gosport in 1847.  The last time it was paraded was in Singapore in 1947,

Update about the Colours

All photos from http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/new_museum/new_museum.shtml

A year ago soldiers recreated the scene when Clandon was a War Hospital.

A sad story 

A Serious Offence

On 10^th October 1886, The Surrey Mirror reported that a serious offence had taken place on the premises of Guildford Union Workhouse.  Frank Maplestone Riches, who been appointed Temporary Master of the Union owing to the death of the previous Master, Mr Hardwick, was charged with embezzlement of £10, the money of the Guardians.

Mr Riches was prosecuted by the clerk to the Guardians, Mr Mark Smallpeice.  Riches had disappeared after agreeing to a meeting to go through the accounts, to look for an explanation of ten pounds 9 shillings and 6 pence which was unaccounted for.  A specific amount of five shillings paid to Mr Riches by a coal merchant was not forwarded to the Guardians.

Frank Mapleston Riches had been taken into custody in Alnwick, Northumberland, from where he was taken to Guildford for judgement.  He was found guilty of embezzlement and was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.

The former Cuckfield Workhouse

This was a sad termination of his lifelong connection to Workhouses.  In 1861 he was living at Thingoe Union Workhouse in Bury St Edmonds where his parents were Master and Matron.  By 1881 Frank was Assistant Master at Cuckfield Union Workhouse in Sussex, where his older brother Thomas T. Riches was Master so it would have been a natural progression for Frank to become Master of Guildford Union Workhouse.  What a pity that he succumbed to the temptation of dipping into the funds to which the responsible role of Master gave him access.

Sources

British Newspaper Archive

www.Ancestry.co.uk

Scattered Homes

A house in Recreation Road

Towards the end of the 19^th century, Poor Law Guardians were increasingly concerned about the upbringing of children in their care.  The workhouse was a totally unsuitable environment so other solutions were sought.

Boarding out in the homes of foster families was tried but there were few families able or prepared to do this.  In some areas Cottage homes were set up; several houses round a green, each housing approximately 12 children with a foster mother.  This was deemed to isolate the children in an unreal situation.

In Sheffield, J. Wycliffe Wilson, chairman of the Board of Guardians, suggested another solution.  In 1893 he set out to purchase several artisans homes scattered about the city, where approximately 15 children would live with a foster mother and attend the nearest Board School.  No more than 30 children would attend each school so that they could become integrated into the local community.  On Sundays the children would be taken to the neighbouring churches and Sunday-schools.

The success of this scheme lead other unions to adopt it and thus in 1908 Guildford Board of Guardians set up seven of these homes with romantic names such as Elsinore, Restormel and River View.  Each home housed 11-13 children aged 5-14, either all boys or all girls with a foster mother, who was usually a single woman in her 30s.  Brothers and sisters were separated into different homes.  Next door to the Workhouse in Union Road, was a Receiving Home for children where they could be assessed, but some children remained there.

The members of one family were “scattered” in several homes by 1911.  They were the sons and daughters of Samuel Norsworthy.  Samuel had been a contractor’s carman living in Quarry Street, Guildford with his wife Annie and 7 children, until Annie died in childbirth in 1910.  We find Samuel residing in Guildford Union Workhouse in the 1911 census along with his 10 month old daughter Constance, while two of his children, 11 year old Annie and 4 year old Ernest William are next door in the Children’s Receiving Home.  Meanwhile 13 year old Leonard and 6 year old Henry Charles Norsworthy are down in the town at Elsinore Scattered Home in Springfield Road.  Nine year old Cecil Norsworthy was in another scattered home, Newark in Recreation Road.  The oldest two children are at work; Selina as a housemaid in Weybridge and Samuel Arthur working as a gardener on a fruit farm in Shalford.

Another family who were split up after the death of their father were the Longhurst children from Shere.  Dorothea, aged 11, and her 10 year old brother Nicholas Irwin were lucky enough to stay with their mother, Elizabeth, taken in by their grandmother in the same village but younger brothers Edward, aged 8, and Charles, aged 6, were in the scattered home, Elsinore, while 10 year old Henry Algernon was living at Newark in Recreation Road.

Tower Hill Memorial

Henry Algernon Leslie Longhurst, can be found on a memorial at Tower Hill, recording that he was a steward in the merchant navy who was killed on SS Ashcrest on December 9^th 1940, son of Elizabeth Longhurst and husband of Annie Maud Longhurst of Grange Town, Cardiff.