Where Is This? No.206

Published on: 20 Apr, 2016
Updated on: 20 Apr, 2016

By David Rose

A view of Ripley High Street was last week’s vintage photo, while the quirky photo featured the drinking fountain and cattle trough erected in Shalford to mark Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897.

Congratulations to all who identified them. Click here to see last week’s post and all the replies with additional details and some links that give more information about the feature in Shalford.

Which road is this funeral procession taking place in? Click on image to enlarge in a new window.

This week’s vintage picture dates back to 1929 and shows the funeral procession of Mr M.V. Nicholas, who had been Guildford’s chief constable.

Hopefully it won’t be too dificult to work out where this is. The procession is coming up a hill near the town centre and is about to turn off to take a road to a cemetery (I think). Will those clues be enough? And if you look closely there is a for sale sign relating to the Castle Brewery. Bought out by Friary, Holroyd & Healy’s Brewery, it had closed in 1927.

Where can this weather vane be found? Click to enlarge in a new window.

For the quirky picture yet another weather vane! We’re are going to be doing every one on the planet at this rate!

I spotted this when entering a building in a village near Guildford on Tuesday evening to give a talk to its local history group. The building is a fairly modern village hall. There is a clue here in the man featured on the weather vane. If you can work out what he is, you may well guess the name of the history society (as he’s its logo) and identify which village it is in.

To regular reponder John Lomas, who uses street views and such things on the internet to work out these puzzlers – ‘go west, young man’.

Apologies in that my line of sight for quirky things when out seems to be the tops of buildings, or those cattle troughs. I continue to find it difficult to spot quirky things that we haven’t covered before.

I have been thinking, I may change the style slightly and offer up images of perhaps street views from odd angles, allyways, paths, and so on, but with a feature within them to make sure they can be identified. How does that sound?

If you know where this week’s mysteries are, please leave a reply in the box below – and extra details if you have them.

They will be published along with two more mystery images at about the same time next week. Good luck.

Responses to Where Is This? No.206

Dave Middleton Reply

April 21, 2016 at 1:50 pm

The funeral procession took place in January 1929 and is that of the Chief Constable of the Guildford Borough Police Force, WV Nicholas Esq, who was Chief Constable from 1909 to 1928 and was succeeded by Mr Walter Oliver, who was in turn Chief Constable of the Borough Police from 1929 until 1942 when he retired when the Borough Force was merged with Surrey Constabulary during the Second World War.

I believe Chief Constable Oliver,is the man in the peaked cap to the left of the station sergeant (the man with three stripes and a crown on his sleeve).

Mr Oliver had joined Guildford Borough Police in 1901 as a constable and rose through the ranks to be Chief Constable (no flitting about between police forces as is the case today!).

The location is the A3100 Portsmouth Road at Guildford.

The Wycliffe Building is to the right of the funeral vehicles and the procession is in the act of turning right to go up Mount Pleasant to join The Mount and head up to the cemetery.

At that time, the Borough Police station was located in a purpose-built and rather grand building, which is now occupied by Laura Ashley on North Street.

All the buildings on the left of the road in the picture are long gone now, replaced by the flats, Mount Court, Bishop’s Court and Sherborne Court.

The office building for sale in the foreground on the right, is now the location of the junction with Bury Street and the entrance to Condor Court.

Just visible at bottom of the hill on the left is the sign for the Weyside Temperance Hotel at the junction of the Portsmouth Road and The Mount, where part of Sherborne Court now stands.

The weather vane is on Normandy Village Hall and that’s all I know about that!
Mary Bedforth Reply

April 21, 2016 at 4:26 pm

‘Norman’ atop Normandy Village Hall.

http://normandyhistorians.co.uk/norman.html

The Mount leading up to the cemetery. A steep climb for vehicles and those with two legs or four.

It’s a beautiful tranquil place which I visited recently. On Professor Newmark’s new grave there is this short verse by Goethe. So apt.

The Traveller’s Night Song II

Over all the hill-tops
Is Rest,
In all the tree-tops
You can feel
Scarcely a breath:
The little birds quiet in the leaves.
Wait now, soon you
Too will have peace.
Ray Springer Reply

April 21, 2016 at 7:56 pm

The Police procession is on the Portsmouth Road just up from the High Street.

Presumably the cemetery they are heading for is at the Mount.

The weather vane on the quirky picture is “Norman” on the new Normandy Village Hall.

The building was opened in 2013 and the vane is modelled on the logo of the Normandy Historians.
John Lomas Reply

April 21, 2016 at 10:02 pm

The old photo would appear to be on Portsmouth Road and the procession is turning back on itself on to Mount Pleasant, presumably to avoid going straight up The Mount from the town bridge.

The Castle Brewery site also included a pub, The Malt House Tap, which lost pubs says closed c1924.

The “ave a shot and risk it” were running to Godalming at that time. The livery of a bus seen in the pitcure is odd, but the light coloured top looks too light for the Tracco’s light green.

I might add that the bus looks very modern considering the date of the picture.

The wind vane is on Normandy Village Hall, as you say a rendition of the local history society’s Logo, but also in a plain silouhette like almost a conical coffee pot or percolator with steam emanating from the spout.
Andrew Backhurst Reply

April 21, 2016 at 10:34 pm

The old picture I would say has got to be The Mount.

And the quirky one I know very well, it is ‘Norman’ of the Normandy history society topping off Normandy Village Hall.
Ian Plowman Reply

April 21, 2016 at 10:38 pm

Portsmouth Road turning into Mount Pleasant, then presumably up to the mount cemetery
Chris Townsend Reply

April 23, 2016 at 3:48 pm

The funeral procession of William Veal Nicholas was going up the Portsmouth Road, past Wycliffe Buildings on the right of the picture, and was about to turn right up Mount Pleasant towards the Mount Cemetery, avoiding the foot of the Mount itself, which is so steep. (Was that route always used?)

An old friend recalled how horse-drawn hearses needed chocks under the wheels in bad weather. The cemetery should be a picture at the moment, if the cowslips are out.

The figure on the weather vane is not Noggin the Nog (my first thought) but Norman the Norman – of Normandy.

He has his own webpage here: http://normandyhistorians.co.uk/norman.html as part of a very good local and family history website.
- Mary Bedforth Reply
  
  April 29, 2016 at 11:49 pm
  
  Yes Chris they were when I visited recently. Also primroses in abundance and at the bottom, a lovely display of blue Anemone blanda which have naturalized in the grass under the beeches.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemone_blanda
Brian Holt Reply

April 25, 2016 at 9:19 pm

Coming up the Portsmouth Road and turning into Mount Pleasant, going to The Mount Cemetery.

The weather vane is on Shalford Village Hall, Kings Road.
Margaret Cole Reply

April 27, 2016 at 10:09 am

The funeral cortege is going up Portsmouth Road from Guildford and is probably turning into Mount Pleasant and into The Mount for the cemetery at the top.

The Norman weathervane can be found on the new Normandy Village Hall at the former Manor Fruit Farm and was the brainchild of Christine Wilks wife of Trevor, the designer of the village hall.