Saturday 7 May 2011

A historic walk down Kings Road

I thought I'd put all the old pictures I've found of Kings Road, Haslemere in some order:


Entrance to Kings Road c.1910 - the railway house on the right was demolished in 1960
 from Winter and Collyer, Around Haslemere and Hindhead in Old Photographs,
Alan Sutton Publishing, 1991


'The Hazels' on Kings Road c. 1910 this was a private temperance hotel, restaurant and confectioners


from Winter and Collyer, Around Haslemere and Hindhead in Old Photographs,
Alan Sutton Publishing, 1991




W.H.Stoneman & Co c.1920 - next to the Three Counties Church viewed from near Fosters Bridge.  This builders merchant business began around 1908.  There is a petrol pump outside (underneath the 'lavatories' sign).  Aruna House now stands on this site.


from Winter and Collyer, Around Haslemere and Hindhead in Old Photographs,
Alan Sutton Publishing, 1991

The Kings procession 1903 - "A great procession followed King Edward VII along Kings Road towards Midhurst in 1903...the building on the left was the gasworks.  The Haslemere Gas Company was incorporated in 1868 with a nominal capital of £1,500...in 1917 the Limited Company was dissolved and re-incorporated as The Haslemere and District Gas Company, becoming part of the Southern Gas Board following nationalization on 1 May 1949.  The old gas works was closed in 1972 when the area was converted to natural gas"  (Winter and Collyer, Around Haslemere and Hindhead in Old Photographs, 
Alan Sutton Publishing, 1991).  

Note there appears to be a man sitting on the window at the gas company, you can see his feet and hands.  All that remains of the building now is  a brick wall between the terraced houses pictured and some new houses, Holmwood Heights.  After the King's visit, Foundry Road or Gasworks Road as it was named became Kings Road.

Somewhere along the road, the King would be reported to say "that he had always heard of Haslemere as a pretty town, but now was disappointed"(Rolston, Haslemere 1850-1950, Phillimore, 1964).

from Winter, Tim, Around Haslemere,
Tempus Publishing Limited, 2002


The Weaving House and the old Studio - behind the horse in the background.  The side of the hill between Kings Road and Longdene is much less developed, some buildings can be vaguely seen in the Foundry Meadow area.  In the foreground is a horse-powered pug mill, puddling clay before it was used to make bricks and tiles.  The site of the photograph is what is now the Wey Hill car park.  Wey Hill was previously known as Clay Hill, where there were brickworks.
Looking across to Kings Road from Weyhill c. 1910
from Winter, Tim, 
Around Haslemere, Tempus Publishing Limited, 2002


The Weaving House - an old postcard.  The weaving sign of three shuttles can clearly be seen by the gate.  A notice on the gate is headed ‘Haslemere Weaving’.  The entrance door is on the first floor of the building, demonstrating the steep slope that the house is built on.  The entrance ‘bridge’ crosses a small stream referred to historically as ‘Brittons Water’. 

from Winter, Tim, Around Haslemere,
Tempus Publishing Limited, 2002


The tree in the middle of the road - another view of the Weaving House where Foundry Lane joins Kings Road.  The girl is holding a hoop.
from The Craftsmen, January 1902

The Old Studio c.1982 - with the Weaving House in the background

from T.D.L. Thomas, 'Rustic Renaissance: Arts and Crafts in Haslemere', Country Life, April 15, 1982

Spinning wool outside in Kings Road - Miss Flora Synge at her spinning wheel in 1917, it is not clear where exactly on Kings Road she is.  Flora's great niece has told us that Flora "was a second cousin of Joseph King and a very independent lady, a graduate of Cambridge and wove all her life, settling in Hawkshead in later life.  She used to take her spinning wheel on the train when she returned home to Liverpool to visit her parents".

from  Janaway, John,  Surrey: A Photographic Record 1850-1920,
Countryside Books, 1984

The Dye House

The side of the Dye House from
Pooley, 
The Changing Face of Shottermill, Acorn Press, 1987
Back view of part of The Dye House 1933 - this picture by Francis Frith was taken from Longdene and appears to show the side of Honey Hill, Foundry Lane, on the left.  The small black hut in the middle of the photograph, with the 'white' window, was attached to the rest of the Dye House, which is hidden by trees, when it was turned into a residence around 1950.  The building on the left of the black hut must be St George's Hall, site of the Country Church, where St George's Flats now stand.  The view across to St Christopher's Green is now blighted by the Weyhill car park.  The buildings which flank the current car park can be seen on the right.  The photograph has two horizontal lines: the train line nearest the Dye House hut and then the main road through Weyhill.

from the Francis Frith archive
The Foundry 1876 - from which Foundry Road (now Kings Road) originally got it's name.  Winter (Around Haslemere, Tempus Publishing Limited, 2002) states: "Puttick's Mill Foundry was almost certainly between the present-day Foundry Lane and Kings Road, about where St George's Hall and the old Dye House were later built on the south side of the road.  In August 1876 there was still the 'shadow' of a water wheel visible on the wall behind the short ladder (in the picture below).  The 1886 Ordnance Survey map showed two buildings, close together, with a leat carrying water to them from the stream near Foster's Bridge.  From the mill wheel the water ran away into the stream towards Sicklemill.  This is now piped below the small side road of houses, built where the first Haslemere sewage works was sited, and, later, a builder's yard used by Riley & Whishaw.  The approach road to the foundry led from the old coach road that crossed the railway line through a crossing gate at the corner of St Christophers Road.  At this time there was not continuous road through on the present line of Kings Road.  It is not known when the foundry closed but William Puttick was listed at the Lion Foundry, Shottermill, perhaps near Lion Green, in a later nineteenth-century trades directory."

from Winter, Tim, Around Haslemere,
Tempus Publishing Limited, 2002

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