Where is This? No.237

Published on: 1 Dec, 2016
Updated on: 1 Dec, 2016

By David Rose

The vintage picture featured last week was a view from today’s Riverside in Bellfields looking towards the Woking Road and Stoke Bridges.

The building on the left was a lodge house of Stoke Hill House – formerly the home of the Paynter family and now long gone.

Of those who correctly identified the location, two suggested it was this lodge house. Brian Holt also noted that at Riverside, when traffic could turn into it off Woking Road, on one occasion a woman taking her driving test managed to steer her car into the river! I think the story made the national press and was in the 1960s. Can anyone add any more details?

The quirky picture, as many correctly identified, is a part of the Seeds of Hope children’s garden at Guildford Cathedral.

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

Once a chapel, do you where it is? Click to enlarge in a new window.

This week’s vintage photo is from a picture postcard I bought at last Saturday’s Surrey Postcard Club fair, held as always at St Peter’s School in Merrow.

It was posted on October 3, 1906, sent by someone who signed themselves as J. W. The recipient was a Miss Good of Brook Lodge, Byfleet.

The sender wrote: “Many thanks for yours [presumably meaning postcard], it is very good but as I have not one of mine I am sending you my little chapel. When are you coming over this way again?”

The buildings still stands, but is no longer used as a chapel. It is on a main road out of Guildford about a mile and a half from the town centre. Do you recognise it?

Where in the town centre can this be seen? Click to enlarge in a new window.

This week’s quirky picture is a stone cattle trough now used as a planter right in the town centre. So, where is it?

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

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

Responses to Where is This? No.237

Dave Middleton Reply

December 2, 2016 at 9:24 am

The former chapel is on London Road at Burpham, between Ganghill and Highclere and last time I walked past, had a statue of Boris the Boar of Harry Potter fame outside.

The hedging and the fine gateposts have long gone.

The stone trough stand at the Castle Street end of Chapel Street outside the Giggling Squid and is one of a pair, the other being on the opposite side of Chapel Street.
John St Claire Lomas Reply

December 3, 2016 at 5:49 pm

The old chapel is on the right-hand side of London Road between Ganghill and Highclere.

Gmaps appears to label it Emporia Brands and Streetview shows it with a wild boar carving and plinth on a pallet outside.
Chris Townsend Reply

December 4, 2016 at 4:37 pm

The “little chapel” looks much the same as in 1906; it’s on the London Road at Burpham, near George Abbot School.

The building was described as a Mission Hall on an O.S. map of 1896 and a Primitive Methodist Church in 1914, but is no longer listed as a church in a 1930 directory.

Does it have a foundation stone with clues to its origins?

The cattle trough is on Chapel Street. Do we know where it came from?
Brian Holt Reply

December 7, 2016 at 4:10 pm

The vintage picture is of the old Methodist Chapel, London Road, Burpham.

The quirky picture shows Chapel Street. There are two of these stone cattle trough used as planters, opposite each other at the Castle Street end of Chapel Street.
Margaret Cole Reply

December 7, 2016 at 7:36 pm

The first picture is No.7 Old Farm Road. The Old School House has been used by Wilkins and Sonfor (a furniture store) and now Bellsure Group Security Systems Suppliers, and very nicely upgraded.

The second picture I think can be located outside White Lion Walk and Quarry Street showing the newly laid sets.
Moira MacQuaide Hall Reply

December 7, 2016 at 11:14 pm

The old chapel on London Road was built as a Primitive Methodist Chapel in about 1880.

It was closed fairly early in the 20th century but has been used by various companies since. Currently owned by Emporia, it was bought by James Rackham and done up to be used for office space for his company. They have the original foundation stone.
David Mowat Reply

December 8, 2016 at 6:44 pm

The vintage photo is of the former chapel just to the north of Abbotswood on the London Road. It is now the home of a wine wholesaler and importer.

The quirky photo is of the cattle trough or planter at the junction of Chapel Street and Castle Street. (Other entrants may suggest an alternative use for it?)