Today’s blog continues the story of Stanstead, an imposing house which once stood on Cheam Road. Interest in this house was sparked by the loan to the archive of a beautiful illustrated Victorian notebook, in which the teenage author, Violet Field, described the property and its inhabitants. To catch up on the story so far, visit episode one here. Today, Clive, our volunteer house historian, continues the story of the house into the twentieth century…
The Story of Stanstead – the Middle Years (1896-1925)
As we saw in the previous episode, in 1896 Henry Dunkin sold Stanstead to Henry George Smallman, who lived there until 1900. In 1901 Stanstead was empty, and from 1902 to 1913 it was occupied by C.H. Williamson. In 1913 it was briefly in the possession of Percy Vere Windebank, and from 1915 to 1925, the occupier was Mrs M. E. Gibson.
In Sutton Archives, there is the sales particular from when it was sold in 1913, reference 62/19/4. This offers some insights into the grandeur of the property.
The information about each of its occupiers is very variable.
Henry George Smallman was born in Poplar in 1854, and grew up in the Brixton/Camberwell area. He trained as a solicitor, becoming an articled clerk in 1874. He was admitted to the Freedom of the City of London in 1878 (presumably by patrimony), took his final examinations in 1879, and in April 1880, he married Louisa Strong at St Giles’s Church, Camberwell. A large family soon followed, taking the family name Strong Smallman: Henry Richard George (b.1881), Ellen Hammelton Louie (b. 1882), Raleigh (b.1883), Constance (b.1885), Elsie May (b.1886), Howard (b.1890), Arthur Frederick (b.1891), Charles (b.1894) and Bertie (b.1898). The family seems to have moved home frequently: Henry and Ellen were born in Lee (Kent); Raleigh in Brixton; Howard and Arthur at another address in Lee; Charles in Eastbourne; and Bertie at Stanstead in Sutton. Censuses show the family at Rose Villa, Lee, in 1881; Lee Lodge, Lee, in 1891; Carlton House, Herne Hill, in 1901; and Homeside, Eastbourne, in 1911. Henry George was living at Eliot Lodge, Beckenham, in 1917. This makes a total of at least seven addresses in less than 40 years.
Meanwhile, Henry George’s career as a city solicitor was flourishing. From at least 1888 to 1898, he had an office just off Cheapside, and in 1905 Henry Richard was also admitted to the Freedom of the City of London. In 1905/6 Henry George was one of the two Sheriffs of the City of London, responsible for the smooth running of the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, and in June 1906 he was knighted; he was also an Alderman of the City of London. His career seems to have come to a sudden end in 1909, when he had a serious nervous breakdown in court; the 1911 Census lists him as a ‘retired solicitor’. The same Census shows Sir Thomas Vezey Strong and Elizabeth Mary Strong (Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of London) as his visitors in Eastbourne. Sir Thomas had been a Sheriff of London in 1904/5, the year before Henry. It is likely that they were related to Louisa, but I can find no evidence that Sir Thomas was her brother. Perhaps a cousin? In 1918 Sir Henry was charged with libel by Sir C. J. Stewart, the Public Trustee; he originally pleaded ‘not guilty’ but changed his plea to ‘guilty’. He died at Eliot Lodge in 1923, and Louisa in Streatham in 1931. I haven’t followed the careers of their children in any detail. Henry Richard became an architect and stayed in the Sutton area until at least 1932, and Arthur died in action on the Western Front in November 1916. Howard tried to set up a garage business in St. Nicholas Road, Sutton from 1914 to 1916. Ellen, Constance and Elsie May never married, and died in 1968, 1940 and 1973 respectively; Bertie was the last of their generation to die, in 1983 at Banstead.
By contrast, I have discovered little about C. H. Williamson (at Stanstead from 1902 to 1913) and Mrs M. E. Gibson (1915-25). Charles Henry Williamson and his second wife Edith (Née Newton) did arrange for their children, Mary Viola, Ernest and Dorothy to be photographed by David Knights-Whittome, a photographer whose premises at 18 High Street recorded a remarkable number of residents between 1904-1918. Their images survive in the archive today.
The most dramatic event in the story of Stanstead came in 1913, when it was owned by Percy Vere Windebank, who was not living there at the time (I can find no evidence that he ever lived there). I assume that his name was intended to be an encouragement, and hope that he didn’t suffer too much for it at school. Before we recount the event, let’s look at Percy’s family and his career. He was born in the Croydon district in 1866, and married Mary Jane Nield in Stockport in September 1891. They soon had a large family, though not as large as the Smallmans’: Mary (b.1892), Olive (b.1894), Stanley (b.1898), Ivy (b.1900) and Marjorie Irene (b.1902). Like the Smallmans, they seemed to have moved house a lot, from Streatham until 1903, then various addresses in Sutton: St Olave’s, Mulgrave Road, (1903-07), Burrswood, Mulgrave Road (1909), Hillcroome, Eaton Road (1910-12), Burrswood, Mulgrave Road (again! 1913-28). The Electoral Registers also show him at Burrswood, Upland Road, from 1922-26.
Percy Vere had a successful career as a builder and property developer; I can remember local estate agents occasionally advertising ‘Windebank houses’ when I moved to Sutton in the 1970s. He was said to be “planning extensive improvements” to Stanstead, which he had bought only a week before the event; even in 1913 there can’t have been much demand for a 12-bedroom family home. He made a trip on the Mauritania (a cruise?) with Mary and Marjorie in 1928, and died in 1934 at the Regent Hotel, Leamington Spa.
I haven’t followed the children’s lives in detail, but would like to highlight two of them. Olive enrolled as a midwife in 1926 and soon left to work in Africa. In July 1927 she married Percy Cromwell Forrester in Kenya, and they had three children: Barbara Ann (b. 1928 in Nakuru, Rift Valley), Mary Janet (b. 1931 in Nairobi) and James Roland (b. 1933, also in Nairobi). Percy died in Kenya in 1968 and Olive in Nairobi in 1974 at the age of 80.
Stanley was educated at Epsom College and went on to become a stockbroker. He married Phyllis Marjorie Slough from Stonehouse (Gloucestershire) in 1930 and they lived in the Guildford area. He was listed as ‘retired’ in the 1939 Registration, which may indicate an illness or disability. He died at Holmbury St Mary in 1952.
The dramatic event was an arson attack on Stanstead, made on 11 th September 1913, apparently by Suffragettes. There was a detailed report in The Suffragette for 19 th September 1913, which I summarise here. My comments are shown in […].
About 2.30am a neighbour was awakened by a noise, and looking out of a window saw a fire at the back of Stanstead. He sent his son to alert the Sutton Fire Brigade [situated at the Public Hall, where Chancery House now stands in St Nicholas Way, less than ½ mile away. By 3am firemen had arrived with the escape tender and the ‘steamer’ (which had powered hoses). They found the billiard room at the back of the house ‘burning furiously’. It took them half an hour to subdue the fire, which had severely damaged the billiard room and affected some nearby rooms. A search revealed that nobody was in the building at the time, and most of the firemen returned to the station. A secondary outbreak was soon subdued.
The police investigated and discovered that fuses of cotton wool soaked in ‘benzoline’ (a petrol additive) had been inserted through the windows, and that the billiard room floor had probably been saturated with benzoline. They believed that only the wakefulness of the neighbour, and the swift action of the firemen, had prevented a very extensive and serious conflagration. Suffragette publications found in the grounds were taken as further evidence of the perpetrators. A valuable house in Burdon Lane had recently been destroyed by arson, again attributed to the Suffragettes. [this had taken place in March 1913].
I have been asked ‘why Percy? What had he done to upset the Suffragettes?’ I can find no evidence that he had, and believe that Stanstead was chosen because it was (a) large and imposing and (b) empty, as was the house in Burdon Lane. This would have caused maximum impact with no risk of loss of life. Their mistake was to choose a house that was too close to the Fire Station.
The Past on Glass & Other Stories... 