Where is This? No.179

Published on: 7 Oct, 2015
Updated on: 7 Oct, 2015

By David Rose

Just as I hoped, there were a number of correct replies to last week’s mystery vintage picture that featured a Dennis Loline double decker of the Aldershot & District bus company travelling down North Street.

Lots of good replies that included details of shops once there including John Perring’s furniture store on the right (the site today is the Metro bank), and of course plenty of facts about the bus and its destination – Aldershot and Farnborough.

I knew the quirky picture of a boundary stone was a tricky one, but some readers provided the answer, correctly stating it can be found on the London Road.

There is a simple printed notice (a sheet of paper that has been lamented) attached to the fence behind it that reads: “This stone marks the boundary between Guildford and Burpham. It has been here since at least the 19th century and is shown on old maps as B.S. Pre 1920 it was the boundary with the parish of Worplesdon as the parish of Burpham was only created then.”

Click here to see last week’s post and all the answers at the foot of it.

Do you remember this in Guildford?

This week’s vintage picture (click on it and it will open in a new window and enlarged) is another kindly supplied by Ade Morley. Just look at that sign stating ‘ANCIENT LIGHTS. Do you know what a sign like that indicated?

There is also a hanging sign for Wilkinson Sword razor blades.

Two clues then as to the location: a narrow passage or alleyway of some kind, perhaps where not a lot of sunlight penetrates and a hairdresser or barber’s shop?

Do you know where this is?

This week’s quirky picture (also click to see larger) is a shelter of some kind in a village near Guildford. Do you recognise it and can anyone add some details of when it was erected?

If you know the answers to this week’s mysteries and can perhaps add some extra facts, please leave a reply in the box below. They will be published at about the same time next week along with two more mystery images.

Responses to Where is This? No.179

David Balchin Reply

October 10, 2015 at 7:27 pm

I lived in Wonersh until, aged 21, I got married.

From when I was about five years of age, I used to sit in the bus stop, in the middle of road in Wonersh village, waiting for buses to take me to to Shamley Green School.
Doug and Bill Staniforth Reply

October 13, 2015 at 5:12 pm

Picture 1:
Ancient lights were windows that protected the occupant being deprived of light.

We’ve got no idea where this is but would guess at Jeffery’s Passage

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Ancient+Lights

Picture 2
This is the Pepperpot at Wonersh. This has been demolished several times in the past by cars, lorries and probably speedboats.

It is said that the oak beams and roof tiles came from the ice house of Wonersh House. The pub in the background the Grantley Arms was formerly called the Fighting Cocks. It was rumoured it was going to revert to this name.

See http://www.wonershhistorysociety.co.uk/Pepperpot.htm

Speedboats in demolishing a pepper pot? Seems like an escape to Gulliver’s travels of West Surrey. Ed
Chris Townsend Reply

October 13, 2015 at 6:19 pm

I remember a barber’s shop on Jeffries’ Passage, towards the top on the west side, so the Ancient Lights could have been there.

Henry Jeffries was a chemist who came to Guildford before 1861; the shop on the High Street on the west side of the alley was a chemist’s for some years before that, and continued under Jeffries’ name until about 1955.

The quirky picture shows the Pepperpot shelter at the road junction in the centre of Wonersh.

A postcard view of a village scene (pre-Pepperpot) from the early 1900s was featured in Where Is This? No.63. This webpage gives 1929 as the year it was built:

http://www.wonershhistorysociety.co.uk/Pepperpot.htm
Brian Holt Reply

October 13, 2015 at 9:58 pm

I do not know where the Ancient Lights signs referred is. The right to light is, a form of easement in English law that gives a long-standing owner of a building with windows a right to maintain the level of illumination.

It is based on the Ancient Lights Law. The rights are most usually acquired under the Prescription Act 1832.

The Rights: In effect, the owner of a building with windows that have received natural daylight for 20 years or more is entitled to forbid any construction or other obstruction that would deprive him or her of that illumination. Neighbours cannot build anything that woulds block the light without permission.

The owner may build more or enlarger windows but cannot enlarge their new windows before the new period of 20 years has expired. It is also possible for a right to light to exist if granted expressly by deed, or granted implicity, for example under the rule in Wheeldon V Burrows (1879). After the Second World War, owners of buildings could gain new rights by registering properties that has been destroyed in bombings and the period was temporarily increased to 27 years.

The Pepperpot, Wonersh. given to the village by Robert Haslam in 1929 who owned Wonersh Park. The original one was larger than today’s one, because it had been damaged six times and in April 1983 it was hit by a lorry and was beyond repair.