Need cheap generic LEVITRA?…

Also at 4.35 pm ‘ish I posted a piece on ‘Hops, Brewing & Hosteleries’ which I do not see

These were of great importance to Farnham and as such of its wealth. Hops were believed to have been introduced to Farnham in the late sixteenth century and between the mid nineteenth and the mid twentieth century the town had more Hostelries per head than any other in the country.
Today we still have the ‘Hop Blossom’ Pub in Long Garden Walk and many will remember
‘The Hop Bag’ Pub (where an earlier Pub on this site was called ‘The Pocket of Hops’)
in Downing Street facing the William Cobbett.

In 1839 there were 70 Hop Planters listed Pigot and Co.’s Directory and a “considerable manufacture of hop bagging, canvass etc.” Basket Makers were kept busy as were looms weaving new ‘Hop Pockets’ which would wrap the Hops for Market. Charcoal Burners were also a feature in surrounding coppices and woodlands as Charcoal was the favoured fuel for drying the Hops. Thomas Matthews & Co. who are recorded as having won Medals for their Beers in London in 1890, operated from the Lion & Lamb Brewery (the name, also of a Coaching Inn, lives on,
along with the lovely wooden Sculpture by Edwin Russell in 1986 following the redevelopment of the area).
Farnham Hops were considered to very superior in quality and as such were once worth “Tuppence a Bushel” more than others. Two good varieties were ‘Goldings’ (I believe that there are still people in Farnham with this Surname) and ‘Fuggles’ which are even now grown locally on the Hampton Estate and used in brewing at the Hog’s Back Brewery. Farnham’s fair and delicately flavoured Hops were much favoured by folk in the Westcountry.
In days gone by Hops were taken by horse and waggon into Hampshire to be sold at the Weyhill Fair.

James Stevens who was born in 1773 started Farnham’s first Bank but linked to a London Bank in 1806. This arose from the need to keep his ‘Hop Monies’ paid to him at Weyhill, safe and to avoid the habitual, often violent ‘accostings’ when riding home from the Fair. (To learn more see 1970 Farnham Museum Society Newsletter Vol. 2 Research -Rebellion, Disorder -21st century link to Banking crisis – “Some Memories” contributed by Christine Stevens.)

The Families of Stevens and Knight (John Henry Knight the Inventor is of this family) owned, between them , half of the most important Houses and good Hop Ground in Farnham. The Farnham Maltings had been a Tannery in the 1700s but it is thought that Brewing began there when John Barrett bought the premises in 1845. He took advantage of the fact that the Army were in Aldershot in 1850 and expanded by building along the riverfront. Later the business passed to the Sampson Family whose Sign may still be seen on the end of his cottage at 18 Bridge Square. Just near here is a Sarsen Stone which is of very hard sandstone and used by ancient man to mark river crossing places. The River Wey provided a convenient supply of water and it is interesting to reflect that the name ‘Farnham’ means roughly ‘the place where the reeds grow’.

Apart from the Stevens & Knight families other notables of more recent memory were those of Bide, Caesar, Parratt and Tice. Alan Tice who will be remembered by some had the wooden bridge over the Wey at the Maltings dedicated to him after his death – ‘Alan Perrett Tice – Hopgrower’. (He used to ride his pony, Joey from Badshot Lea where his Father had Hopland to the Farnham Grammar School through the town as the pony refused to go along Darvills Lane, rather eerie even now, past Snailslynch. He carried a bag on his back with feed for Joey and his Homework. In theory the pony was stabled in an old shed at the School but was frequently seen to be grazing the Cricket Pitch.)

Farnham was said to have gone ‘Hopping Mad’ in the picking season when all and sundry descended on the town. Many local traditions such as the ‘Pole Pullers Procession’ are long forgotten but one important Feast was ‘Hop Sunday’ which was successfully discouraged in 1829. Rev. Charles Hume, a one time Curate of Farnham has recorded his impressions of the Festival:

“It was the mid Sunday of the Hop-picking Season, when the town of Farnham was handed over to the dominion of Hop-pickers. Booths for the sale of vast quantities of fruit, stalls piled high with cakes of every description, and presenting mountains of gilded gingerbread were erected early on Sunday morning, as close as they could stand, along both sides of the street, leaving only room for a carriage or the old road waggon of the period with its eight horses and its tinkling bells to pass between them. The Hop Sunday was a sort of Carnival for the neighbourhood for miles around.
The countryfolk in gigs or carts, or on foot, flocked into the town, while in Farnham itself there were thousands of hop-pickers congregated from far and near. The streets were thronged with the idle and the profane; and it no uncommon thing to see people as early as nine o’clock on the Sunday morning drunk in the booths, or staggering on the crowded pathway.”

The new Bishop was very dissatisfied with this state of affairs and strove to bring it to an end.
It is recorded that Farnham people often burned effigies of those unpopular with them. One such, of Bishop Sumner took place in 1830 shortly after angry crowds had threatened him in Farnham Castle during the Agricultural Riots.

The Hop-picking Season, commonly known as ‘Hopping’ lasted for about three weeks.
I read with astonishment that at such times “the Hop-grounds of Farnham alone would furnish employment to upwards six thousand men, women and children”. These all had to be accommodated and in May 1870 ‘Hoppers’ (perhaps aptly named) Barracks were approved in Red Lion Lane. But in September 1872 Mr. Thomas Wonnacott, a West Street Architect, who felt rather strongly about all things of a sleazy nature drew attention to ‘the powers that be’ and to the general public of the herding together of old and young, married and single, male and female and to the ensuing indecency and immorality. In October Mr. Wonnacott explained the principles of the Earth Closet and advocated its use as an experiment in a ‘poor part’ but it was not taken up.

Men, often on stilts were needed to erect the poles from which strings were tied along which the Hops were trained. It is noted that as late as 1953 a skilled Hop Stringer, Mr. Smith would string an acre and a half a day in Mr. Tice’s Hop Gardens on Guildford Road. Ten miles of imported Coir string were required to string an acre of Hops. Legions of Pickers were needed at the time of harvesting – usually in September. Even children played their part with small children picking up fallen flower bracts in the fields.

It was important for the Pickers to have a good ‘Tallyman’ – one who was not going to short change them by under-weighing or rejecting the Hops for no good reason. They were also dependent on a Pole Puller, who cut the Hops from the pole upon which they had grown, to keep their baskets plentifully supplied. The Pole Puller, in turn could not be seen to show favouritism – sometimes difficult because some of the ‘Hop Poles’ would yield better than others and he would not wish necessarily to carry them too far.

There is in Farnham Library (Ref.’Surrey Investigations- Farnham – Palmer / LOC 942-2 FAR) first hand accounts of Hop Picking including one from Barbara Splatt who was taken to the Hop Fields as a Baby and how she went onto to pick Hops every year until 1940. Her Mother aimed at 50 Bushels a day with her Daughter’s help. Friends who wished to pick together ‘signed on’ together.
The Pickers were paid two days after the last day when people usually turned up in their ‘Sunday Best’ – just to prove that they had better than the tatty clothes that they went picking in. Barbara’s Mother used to go straight down into Farnham and order – and pay for – her Winter Coal.

The need for the Council to overcome their reluctance to spend good ratepayers’ money
on Public Conveniences became pressing. Locals generally warmed to the idea – those who did not were about 500 people living in the vicinity of Castle Street. They watched the Sanitary Inspector’s every move. Mr. Sargent came up with 4 alternatives:
The first was a scheme which entailed the alteration of 2 Park Row, a cottage owned by
a Miss Margaret Kelly (who lived in Castle Street) and who was asking £450. When this, dare I say, leaked out, the Council received a Petition with 550 Signatures saying that the site was in no way suitable. Other suggestions included the rear of No. 11/12 Castle Street, up the yard by No. 3 or underground in the middle of Castle Street opposite Long Garden Walk. The Yard behind the International Stores in the Borough and building on the triangular piece of ‘no-man’s’ land at the the bottom of Bear Lane, with the entrance facing north so that clients might approach the door furtively via the Park were also suggested.

As more and more people became car-borne, the cavalcade, especially on Sunday evenings in the Summer, became almost a spectator attraction. The nose to tail pro-cession through inadequate streets of the town would start soon after teatime and go on
until late into the night. This sort of traffic could not wait for the by-pass road that was now being discussed at Kingston. Urgent improvements were made to existing streets, such as ‘ironing out’ the kinks in Crondall Lane and tarmac-ing it at a cost of £2,867. New roads such as the Ridgway, Shortheath and from the latter to the Bourne Crossroads were begun or planned. On completion the roads in the Bourne were baptised.
There was some bickering over the name ‘Bourne’ Hill which the locals had always known as ‘Gravel’ Hill.

At the December Council Meeting in 1929 (the year in which Woolworths came to Farnham) Cllr. Alan Tice (Hopgrower) pronounced that:
in his opinion Castle Street was now the Town’s Car Park and “always would be”.
Therefore a Public Convenience must be in the vicinity. He stated that “an underground one, say in the cobbled area at the bottom of the street, could be made to look unobtrusive, hardly noticeable in fact, despite all the outraged residents might say.”
Councillor Winter grumbled the Council were too flexible to the will of the public –
“We want a little more iron in our blood, and a little less water.”

Fairly early in 1930 Mr. Sargent, ever prospecting for likely sites for Public Conveniences,
reported to the Council that to add a ‘Ladies’ to the ‘Gents’ in East Street and South Street
would cost about £110. This seemed reasonable but Councillors still hankered after one in Castle Street. He was instructed to prepare a scheme, underground if possible opposite the Windsor Almshouses. There were snags as others who had been there previously had discovered: roots from the Plane trees planted to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, an old sewer and a brick arched culvert taking water from Castle Hill to the river and the remains of an old tank associated with a well.
The owner of No 16 Castle Street was prepared to sell his house to the Council for the purpose. The frontage was 16 feet going back 84 feet which seemed a good possibility so preliminaries were entered into. However by August local opinion had ‘put pay’ to this idea when stern letter arrived at the Council from a Solicitor. Again, the Council looked up and down Castle Street, telling Mr. Sargent to report on one site “near the lampost”.
At mid summer a suitable spot was still being sought. Nos. 124/5 East Street would have been a good site but Courages wanted £3500 and the Council refused to go over £3000.
This is where the old ‘Fourteen Penny ‘ House (? a Pub) had once been.
In the Summer of 1932 a Sub-Committee was formed to take firm action for the provision of a Public Car Park and Toilets. Councillor Winter remarked “I hope that this will not be thought to be a convenient way of shelving it”. The Chamber of Commerce took up arms and presented the Council with an ultimatum which read:-
It is eminently desirable in every Town that there should be one place of resort for all motor vehicles carrying passengers.
That this provision will have to be made in every town of any size within a comparatively short period of years from today.
That the longer the initial step is delayed the more difficult it will become to find any really suitable place for the purpose, regard being that the preliminary consideration is to give ready access of car and bus users to the business part of the town.
That, taking the long view of the matter, the facilities asked for should be provided free of charge for the users.
That any scheme suggested should be complete with lavatories and waiting rooms.

The Chamber went on to suggest a few possible sites ‘The Hart, South St. Meadows, or the cobbled area in Castle Street. But the Council had not themselves been idle – they had no less than 6 likely sites for a Public Convenience in mind: No. 1 Park Row which Courages were willing to sell, land at the Hart owned by Kinghams (unwilling) and four spots in Long Garden Walk – two which could be available.
They favoured the one in Park Row 40 feet from Archie Harrison’s Nelson Arms – a tourist attraction in itself. The Cottage had a frontage of 24 feet and contained a living room, small sitting room, scullery and four bedrooms. Downstairs could be converted into a ‘Ladies’ and a ‘Gents’ and upstairs into a Flat for a Caretaker for about £200.
Courages could be offered, say £300. The Flat did not materialise. In due course
No. 1 Park Row (now affectionately known as ‘Loo Lane’) came to vie with the Castle as Farnham’s most important tourist attraction.

(In 1933 it was decided to build more Public Conveniences between 65 and 66 East Street at a cost of £740. Note. I live near the Six Bells Pub in Hale Road and I believe there were at one time 17 Ale Houses between it and Woolmead which may have been significant!)

In 1937 Public Conveniences were built in Brightwells at a cost of £280.

In November of that year at the 147th Vension Dinner at the Bush Hotel the Guest of Honour, Sir Philip Henriques, the Chairman of Surrey County Council spoke of the coming By-Pass. He felt that the townspeople of Farnham would eventually come to the conclusion that the right action had been taken because the Park would have been preserved intact and that they would have a fine By-pass to the south to prevent people being killed more than necessary.

William Cobbett was buried in Farnham on Saturday 27th June 1835 in the pouring rain. His Bearers were his four Sons watched by a crowd of about 8,000.
Florence Nightingale often stayed with her Aunt & Uncle at Waverley Abbey house and visited Farnham
Gertrude Jekyll often ‘did the Gardens’ of Falkner Houses and of course worked closely with Lutyens who grew up in Thurlsey, a Village near Farnham.
Mike Hawthorn was born in Yorkshire but came to Farnham as a two year old when his Father Leslie wished to be near the Brooklands Racing Circuit.
Leslie started the Tourist Trophy Garage and tuned many Racing Cars including Mike’s own Cars.

This collection of houses and farms to the north-west of Farnham is just in Surrey, and will always be associated with Harold Falkner, the celebrated architect of Farnham. Falkner, with the assistance of two labourers, built nine houses at Dippenhall between 1921 and his death in 1963. One, Burles, comprises two barns brought from Gloucestershire and placed end to end.

Falkner, a contemporary of Lutyens and godson of Gertrude Jekyll, was a legend in his own lifetime, at least in Farnham. He was spoken of in hushed, reverential tones and to me, as a junior reporter on the Farnham Herald in the early 1960s, he was a god-like figure. One hesitated to become involved in stories concerning Harold Falkner and it was therefore, with some trepidation, that I prepared for my first meeting with the great man. It must have been a year or before the architect’s death that my editor, the late Mr T Pope – a man whose feeling for the town of Farnham came through in every word he wrote -asked me to return so material to Mr Falkner, who lived in West Street and quite close to our offices. I was to knock and enter and proceed through to a back room where I would find the architect. It was a bright day but inside the house it was dark and cheerless. A voice weak with old age, called out. I traced it to the appropriate room, which was darker still, and as I announced myself I was unsure of the man’s whereabouts. I needed to remain in that room no longer than it took to state my business, and to this day I cannot say how he was positioned or indeed whether he was on a bed or a sofa.

The Falkner legend lives on in the town, where houses he designed are in much demand. There are good examples in the Great Austins area to the south of the railway line as well as in Dippenhall. This little corner of Surrey is largely unknown outside Farnham and district and, in spite of the in traffic which has turned the lanes into a perceived shortcut to and from the M3, it still has plenty of rural charm.

NB
The village information above is taken from The Surrey Village Book, written by Graham Collyer and published by Countryside Books.

Gardens designed for Falkner by his Godmother Gertrude Jekyll:

Halls Cottage, Frensham, for H Falkner, 1924 (4113/7/28);
Mavins End, Farnham, for H Falkner, nd (4113/5/2);
North Munstead, for H Falkner, 1920 (4113/7/1, 27);