Where Is This? No.190

Published on: 23 Dec, 2015
Updated on: 23 Dec, 2015

By David Rose

Readers quickly identified the barns / sheds in front of Guildford Cathedral featured as last week’s mystery vintage picture as being at Ridgemount.

They appear to have been part of the farm that was once there. Click here for last week’s post and all the replies at the foot of it for extra details about that.

And the quirky picture showing an arch within some stonework can be seen at the foot of Castle Hill just to the left of Castle Arch when facing it looking down the road towards Quarry Street.

Not so many got that one and no-one supplied any details as to what it is.

A cottage in the snow – but where?

Being Christmas but almost certainly no snow around here this year, I have chosen a wintery view for this week’s mystery vintage picture.

It is from a picture postcard in the collection at the Guildford Institute. The addition of the white stuff should not make it any harder to identify the location, and any details about the cottage would be welcome.

Do you know where this ghost writing (fading lettering) can be found?

It’s getting trickier to find quirky things to feature, but here is some painted lettering slowly fading away (know as ghost writing) on a building in the town centre, which I hope I haven’t featured anywhere before.

Do you recognise it (the picture was taken at night) and know which building it is?

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; and remember, our policy is to publish full names.

The replies will be published at about the same time next week or the week after (depending on how my festive celebrations are going) along with two more mystery images.

And finally…. many thanks to all who take a peek at this column each week and especially to those who send in replies. May I wish you all compliments of the season!

Responses to Where Is This? No.190

Bernard Parke Reply

December 24, 2015 at 7:14 am

1) Cottage at The Chantries.

2) Rodboro Building. The sign dates back to when the whole seller Doweswells ocuppied the first floor.
Mary Bedforth Reply

December 24, 2015 at 7:58 am

The cottage at the entrance to Chantry Woods belonging to GBC . http://www.shalfordvillage.co.uk/shalford-history/the-chantries-the-gem-of-Guildford

The Rodboro building. Grade 2 Listed.
http://www.guildfordsociety.org.uk/rodboro.html
David Bailey Reply

December 24, 2015 at 3:16 pm

The old cottage is at the end of Shepherd’s Way (off Pilgrims’ Way) near the entrance gate to the Guildford Chantry woods.

The wording can be seen painted on Rodboro Buildings. Corner of Onslow Street/Bridge Street.
Brian Holt Reply

December 28, 2015 at 10:43 pm

1. Chantry Cottage, off Pilgrims’ Way, once it was a gamekeeper’s cottage.

I knew the Chantries as woods but many trees come down in the 1987 storm.

We used to go and pick bluebells in the woods, or walk through to St Martha’s to pick rhododendrons.

To the left of the cottage is the Pilgrims’ Way, a lane with South Warren Farm further down the lane.

2. Rodboro Buildings, opposite the entrance to the Friary Shopping centre.

After Dennis Brothers Ltd had it, a boot and shoe company had it as a factory from 1919 until 1928.

It was then a confectionery warehouse, that is what the sign was for.

Once threatened by demolition, this Grade II listed building has been a pub since 1998.
Chris Townsend Reply

December 29, 2015 at 8:17 pm

The cottage is Chantry Cottage off Pilgrims’ Way, at the foot of the Chantries.

From http://shalfordvillage.co.uk/shalford-history/the-chantries-the-gem-of-guildford

“The original medieval Chantry woodland was mainly in the south-west, near the former gamekeeper’s cottage, which was built in 1812 by Henry Edmund Austen of Shalford House.”

The ghost writing “wholesale tobacco & confectionery distributors” is on Rodboro Buildings.
Margaret Cole Reply

December 29, 2015 at 8:55 pm

The first picture is The Cider House in Pilgrims’ Way.

It was once Keepers Cottage when owned by the landowner Godwin Austen as part of his estate.

It is near a car park leading to the Pilgrims’ Way route and St Martha’s.

The second picture shows Roboro Buildings on the corner of Bridge Street and Onslow Street. Above where Clares Motor Spares were.
Jeff HIlls Reply

December 31, 2015 at 10:53 am

I believe the writing is on the wall of the old Rodboro Buildings where I once worked.
Bill and Doug Staniforth Reply

January 5, 2016 at 4:30 pm

We think the cottage picture is at St Catherine’s, (a popular choice for mystery photos) and is that a youthful Mr Giles in the foreground?

The ghost writing is on the Rodboro Buildings.

We did wonder,with the new year, whether the Dragon editors are making a resolution to award prizes for correct answers?

[Ed: What’s the point of making resolutions when you have broken them by the end of January?]