Where Is This? No.239

Published on: 15 Dec, 2016
Updated on: 16 Dec, 2016

By David Rose

The house with the name Pentholme on the gate was always going to be a tricky one to identify, but we have the answer.

Reader and historian Frank Phillipson did some searching on line and came up with a house of that name in a street directory of 1922.

Back then the occupant was a Herbert Sothern. The Kelly’s directory in question is from Kent! The house was listed as in Seven Oaks Road, Farnborough, near Orpington.

So not Guildford at all. Frank used Google Street View and discovered it’s still there today – here’s the image.

Pentholme is in Farnborough, near Orpington, Kent! Click to enlarge slightly in a new window.

Continuing his research he found that Herbert William Sothern “of Pentholme Orpington Kent, died 4 February 1927”. His widow, Ada, died later that same year on August 27.

He adds: “Pentholme is now 50 Sevenoaks Road. In the 1911 census Pentholme is vacant with Herbert William Sothern and his wife living in West Norwood.

“By 1913 he is listed in Kelly’s as being at Pentholme. It would seem therefore that it is him who had the postcard made. I have also found out that he was a chartered accountant.

“There was however an architect, Walter Albert Williams, living next door at the house called Copper Beeches who worked on buildings in Orpington. I wonder if Pentholme was an example of a house he designed and had a postcard made of it as a promotion?

Last week’s quirky pictured showed the back of Guildford’s County Club, viewed from the path that runs through Holy Trinity Churchyard – a bit easier to identify as four readers did and who replied.

Click here to see last week’s post and the replies.

Where was this branch of Biddles in Guildford? Click to enlarge slightly in a new window.

This week’s vintage mystery picture shows a building occupied by the print and stationery firm Biddles – but it’s not their main base in Martyr Road.

Do you recognise this building and can say something of when Biddles were there?

Which pub is this and where is it? Click to enlarge in a new window.

The quirky picture is a pub sign and a bit of an unusual one at that as it is in the style of a postage stamp. Do you know which Guildford pub and where it is?

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.239

Frank Phillipson Reply

December 15, 2016 at 11:30 pm

The Biddles shop is now Austen Reed, next to the Royal Grammar school.The black ball finials on the RGS gave it away.

The King’s Head pub sign is in Stoke Road.

The sign is quite away from the pub being the other side of Kings Road on the edge of Stoke Road.
John Lomas Reply

December 15, 2016 at 11:46 pm

Biddles, next door to the Royal Grammar School’s side door in the small gable wall, which can just be seen to the right of the picture.

I thinkk Biddles were still there in the 1950s early 60s. I’m sure I used to go there to get large scale Ordnance Survey plans when I worked at Arthur Savilles (later Howard Morleys).

The quirky pic is also a sneaky peek. It relates to the King’s Head on Stoke Road, but instead of being directly outside the pub, it is on the opposite corner of Kings Road (opposite Markenfield Road).

The brick structure is the railway bridge carrying the Effingham line over Stoke Road.
Ray Springer Reply

December 16, 2016 at 12:08 am

Biddles was in Upper High Street.

The pub is the King’s Head on Stoke Road opposite the Stoke Hotel.
Bernard Parke Reply

December 16, 2016 at 7:15 am

1) Next to the Royal Grammar School.

2) The King’s Head pub by Stoke Road.
Max Byfield Reply

December 16, 2016 at 4:20 pm

The shop is the now empty Austin Reed store in the upper High Street next to the Royal Grammar School (the distinctive finial on the roof of the RGS is a bit of a giveaway).

The pub is the King’s Head in Stoke Road (the railings in the background are on the railway bridge that carries the line from Guildford main to London Road station across Stoke Road).

Apart from the unusual design it’s also a bit odd I think in that the sign is across the other side of Kings Road, rather than being directly outside the pub.
Carol Norris Reply

December 16, 2016 at 4:21 pm

Picture 1: I recall buying books and stationery in Biddles in, I suppose, the late 1940s and the 1950s.

Mr Maisey was, I think, the manager of the book department and he used to give me a book token at Christmas.
Dave Middleton Reply

December 16, 2016 at 6:05 pm

The Biddles shop was at 218 the High Street, immediately next to the Royal Grammar School to the east side of the school.

The shop was recently occupied by Austin Reed, the gent’s outfitters, but they moved out and I can’t remember who’s in it now, or if it’s vacant at the moment.

Here’s a link to the Biddles history page on their website:

http://www.biddlesofguildford.co.uk/about_us.html

The postage stamp sign is for the King’s Head pub at the junction of Stoke Road and Kings Road at Guildford.

Nice Christmas lights on it at the moment and a splendid show of hanging baskets throughout the summer.
Diane Longman Reply

December 16, 2016 at 8:27 pm

The picture of Biddles that then became Austin Reed Ltd from June 1966 until recently.
Chris Townsend Reply

December 18, 2016 at 5:49 pm

Biddles’ bookshop was between the Royal Grammar School and Somerset House.

My earliest memory of the shop is of exchanging a half-crown book token there, a prize in a “Surrey Ad” colouring competition.

About 1964 the shop moved to the ground floor of Biddles’ printing premises in Martyr Road.

There is a history of Biddles in the book Memories of Guildford (published in 2000), as well as this webpage:
http://www.biddlesofguildford.co.uk/about_us.html

The pub is the King’s Head, King’s Road, off Stoke Road.
Dennis Bloodnok Reply

December 19, 2016 at 9:41 pm

The Biddles picture is fairly straightforward; it is the shop they had at 218 High Street, despite it having the number 164 on the board outside. To the right, you can clearly see part of the Royal Grammar School’s Old Building. Biddles’ own web site tells us they were at the site shown until 1923.
Bill and Doug Stanniforth Reply

December 20, 2016 at 4:32 pm

Picture 1 looks remarkably like the old Biddles building in Guildford High Street next to the ‘Grammar Skool’, but it’s probably in Oldham knowing the geographical knowledge of the editor.

Picture 2 is The King’s Head in Stoke Road.

I did not realise that you were “Grammer Skool” kids but I should have guessed from the amount of editing your comments require. Ed
Brian Holt Reply

December 20, 2016 at 7:39 pm

Biddles shop at 104 High Street was next to the Royal Grammar School.

Biddle & Sons was founded in 1885 by Charles Biddle, a printer from Alton, who occupied a small corner shop in Martyr Road, Guildford.

In 1894 Charles retired and he died in 1905. His son, Leonard, continued to run the business.

Riddles once had two shops in the High Street – at numbers 12 and 218.

A old photo shows this shop in 1921 as a underwear shop, then number 104. In photos of the Royal Grammar School’s fire in December 1962 Biddles shop can be seen as 218 High Street. This was soon after all the buildings in the High Street were renumbered.

The sign is for the Kings Head pub Sin toke Road, by the railway bridge.
Jennie Antliff Reply

December 21, 2016 at 7:27 am

Biddles shop was in Upper High Street next to the Royal Grammar School.

I bought all my school supplies from there and later worked for them in Martyr Road and Woodbridge Road.

The name continues with the stationery shop in Ward Street.
Margaret Cole Reply

December 21, 2016 at 10:06 am

This picture of Biddles was in the Upper High Street just beyond the Royal Grammar School.

It was a very good shop with all the stationery any school kid wanted. It was there in the 1950s. I think Jones the shoe shop came after it.

Now the postage stamp Kings Head sign can be found in Stoke Road with the railway bridge showing in the background.

This was a student pub with all the technical college bods frequenting it regularly.
David Mowat Reply

December 21, 2016 at 10:57 pm

Biddles in the photo is on the Upper High Street next to the Royal Grammar School.

The now empty site previously housed Austin Reed.

The King’s Head pub is on Kings Road just off Stoke Road. (It is close to a well known cycle shop whose owners have aquatic ambitions!)