Where Is This? No.147

Published on: 12 Feb, 2015
Updated on: 19 Feb, 2015

By David Rose

Newark Mill, between Ripley and Pyrford on the Wey Navigation was last week’s mystery picture.

A bit of a difficult one, but nevertheless a number of readers correctly identified it.

Click here to see last week’s post and the replies that, as usual, add some further details.

The quirky photo of a boundary was another hard one, but again some worked out the location – just inside the fence of the sports ground as viewed from Woodbridge Road.

There are one or two other plain stones beside the fence there. I have often wondered when and why they were placed there.

Back in the 1970s, when I along with some friends became interested in the theory of ley lines and their supposed magical powers, we wondered if these stones might be ancient ones placed there thousands of years ago!

We based our theory from details in a book that was doing the rounds at the time called The Old Straight Track by Alfred Watkins. In it, he proposed many theories of these ley lines that he said could be traced by drawing straight lines on an OS map and joining up tumuli, sites of old churches and standing stones, etc.

We tried this and found many lines criss-crossing the Guildford area. Surely just a coincidence?

Where was this – not so many years ago?

Moving swiftly on to this week’s mysteries and the vintage photo dates from about the 1980s, showing people sitting outside somewhere in the town centre enjoying a drink.

Do you remember this place and its name?

Do you know this location?

The quirky photo is an unusual view of some buildings in the town centre, one of them with a wind vane. I might have featured the wind vane before in another photo, possibly in the forerunner to the Guildford Dragon, the St Catherine’s Village website. My memory escapes me. However, there should be plenty of readers who haven’t tried this one!

If you know the answers please leave a reply in the box below. All replies will be posted at about the same time next week, along with a new post with the answers to this week’s photos and the next pair of images.

Responses to Where Is This? No.147

Chaz Folkes Reply

February 12, 2015 at 9:07 am

The top photograph is of the Blackfriars pub which is now the front entrance of the Friary. I remember it from the 80s but couldn’t work out where it fitted in with the present layout. Good to see a picture at last!
Chris Townsend Reply

February 14, 2015 at 6:13 pm

The Blackfriars pub was part of the newly-built Friary Centre. It opened in 1981 and closed in 1989 to accommodate more shops.

The building with the tower and wind vane is on Ward Street, next to the Guildford Institute.

Now offices, it was formerly a temperance hall, built in 1876: “Ward Street Hall” as is inscribed above the doorway to the left of the tower.

There are notes on both subjects in Mark Sturley’s book “The Breweries and Public Houses of Guildford”, which has a chapter on the temperance movement.
Raineee Wornham Reply

February 14, 2015 at 7:18 pm

The pub was called the Blackfriars. I use to work there back in the 1980s and also at the Jolly Farmer.

The landlords of both pubs were a husband and wife team. She had the Blackfriars and he ran the Jolly Farmer.
Doug and Bill Staniforth Reply

February 17, 2015 at 5:18 pm

It was the Blackfriars on the corner of North Street and Commercial Road, which previously was the site of the DER shop.

The quirky photo is Ward Street Hall, next to Guildford Institute.
Margaret Cole Reply

February 18, 2015 at 11:33 am

This was the Blackfriars pub in the Friary shopping centre.

It didn’t last long and was replaced by shops at the lower North street entrance.

The turret with a weathervane is on Regent House, Ward Street. The building is rented to a kids’ academy for drama and dance.

It sits next to Guildford Institute. Please make these pictures easier I think this is featured in your book on the First World War, I might have to buy it.

[David Rose: It is a dilemma every week whether to pick what I think is either an easy to identify location, or something hard. I try to feature both on a regular basis. Yes, you would do well to buy a copy of my new book Great War Britain Guildford. I can call round with a signed copy. Do let me know. And for anyone else the same applies if you live in the Guildford area, or I can post copies]
Ray Springer Reply

February 18, 2015 at 1:34 pm

This is the Blackfriars at the main entrance to the newly built Friary Centre in 1981.

It lasted only just over seven years and was closed in December 1989.

Plans for a replacement pub were never realised.

Pubs within shopping centres are pretty rare which is surprising considering the catchment area available.
Nicolas Whitehead Reply

July 1, 2015 at 2:42 pm

I was the landlord/manager of the Blackfriars pub for a while in the 1980s.

We had the dubious honour of being one of Friary Meux’ first million pound turnover per annum pubs.

It was lively to say the least. Although we had two cellars and two deliveries a week, we had to leave our beer deliveries at Christmas and at other busy times on pallets in the underground service area.

We hosted live music and battle of the bands competitions, in conjunction with the local radio station upstairs, and also stand-up nights (then called alternative cabaret), and were often used to trial new products.

We had some laughs but also our fair share of trouble including regular bomb threats.

Moving to the Onslow Arms in Cranleigh was a welcome relief at the time!
Andrew Davison Reply

October 23, 2015 at 12:19 pm

Going back to why Friary Meux changed from black and red to blue and red.

I worked for Friary Meux’ estates department at the time in Guildford. A “bigwig” came down from the national board to outline the changes.

Many of the staff had worked for Friary Meux before the Allied takeover and asked why the colour had been changed.

He said rather limply that the marketing guys had decided black was too “funereal” and had changed to dark blue.

The old timers did not seem very convinced. I worked for Friary Meux (or Inde Coope South) from May 1978 until January 1988, first in the esates department at Guildford, then based at the Effingham depot as a brewery stocktaker.