Where is This? No.254

Published on: 6 Apr, 2017
Updated on: 6 Apr, 2017

By David Rose

Plenty of replies to last week’s mysteries, but as some readers correctly pointed out, the vintage picture of the shops along Aldershot Road near the junction with Southway and Northway I have featured before!

Sorry about that, and especially to the readers who have regularly been following this column for a few years. With so many images featured now, I sometimes lose track of what I have published.

The quirky picture showed one of the wooden pieces of public art that can be found at Woodbridge meadows beside Walnut Tree Close. I have featured some of those before, but not the one seen last week – I think!

Click here to see last week’s post and all the replies with extra details given. Many thanks to you all.

Let me try harder this week and I think the vintage picture has not been featured here before. It is from the collection of images owned by Philip Hutchinson, who gave me a copy of this one some years ago. I hope he does not mind me using it.

Do you recognise where this is? Click to enlarge in a new window.

A nice picture of a train passing over a bridge in Guildford. The scene has changed a bit, do you know where this is?

Any ideas where this obelisk can be found? Click to enlarge in a new window.

While this week’s quirky picture is an obelisk within a more recent and fairly large housing complex on the outskirts of Guildford. The homes have been built on what was a specific place and a plaque on the obelisk gives details of what it once was and who the roads are named after. Any more clues and I will give the location away.

If you think you know the answers and can add any extra details, please leave a reply in the box below, The answers, along with the next pair of images, will be published at about the same time next week.

Responses to Where is This? No.254

John Lomas Reply

April 7, 2017 at 12:34 am

The old picture is Stoke Road bridge, looking away from town towards the Lido etc.

It must date prior to 1934 because that is the earliest map I can find that shows Kings Road extended forward to meet Stoke Road opposite Markenfield Road. Prior to that it had a bend and passed in front of the Kings Head pub.

The paling fence shows where Kings Road would come out later and also where the island with the bus stop is today.

The obelisk is in the centre of the Hopkin Close green space which was previously the parade ground for the Queen Elizabeth barracks.

I have been unable to find a photo of it at any previous place elsewhere on the barracks site.
Norman Hamshere Reply

April 7, 2017 at 9:33 am

Railway bridge across Stoke Road at the bottom of Nightingale Road with Markenfield Road just visible to the left.

Between the end cottage and the railway was a builders’ yard. His works van in the 1940s was a very decrepit bull-nosed Morris.

Where the advertisement board stands is now a pedestrian tunnel under the railway.
Dave Middleton Reply

April 7, 2017 at 5:59 pm

The street scene is Stoke Road, Guildford, just south of the railway viaduct, looking north.

The photographer would’ve been standing roughly outside the Stoke Hotel.

The cottages to the right of the picture are long gone, replaced with flats and a pedestrian passage has been opened up through the embankment, to the right of the road.

The obelisk is on Forster Road on the Queen Elizabeth Park development in Stoughton and has a plaque commemorating the former Queen Elizabeth Park Barracks and WRAC Depot, which the new estate was built on.

It is one of a pair, the other one being on Hopkin Close, on the Grange Road side of the estate.
Simon Nelson Reply

April 7, 2017 at 8:01 pm

Rail bridge over Stoke Road with junction of Nightingale Road on the left.
The obelisk comemorates the site of the WRAC camp at Stoughton.The current location is Hopkin Close off Grange Road.
Linda Jackson Reply

April 7, 2017 at 8:23 pm

1. This looks like the cottages before the railway bridge along Stoke Road with Markenfield Road is on the left.

I lived next door to Pollard the plumbers as a child in the 1950s and 60s. Happy memories.

By the way, the horse drawn cart heading towards the bridge is interesting. Could it be the old rag and bone man, a chimney sweep, or the chap who sharpening knives, scissors etc? They would shout up and down the road for trade.

2. Queen Elizabeth Park.
Mike Dillon Reply

April 11, 2017 at 4:49 pm

This is the bridge in Stoke Road, between Markenfield Road and Nightingale Road.

The trees in the background are in Stoke Park.
Ben Darnton Reply

April 11, 2017 at 5:37 pm

Lovely photograph of a 2BIL electric train passing over the Stoke Road Railway bridge in 1925 , the year in which the “New Line” from Guildford to Surbiton via Effingham Junction was electrified.
Margaret Cole Reply

April 12, 2017 at 7:01 pm

The first picture shows the railway bridge Stoke Road. There is also a pedestrianised walkway under the railway there now.

Second picture is more difficult, but can be found at Hopkins Close, Grange Road, and is a commemorative plaque to the ATS and WRACS who were in the area from 1943 to 1993. A very pretty looking area.
Brian Holt Reply

April 13, 2017 at 10:52 am

Stoke Road railway bridge taken from outside the Stoke Hotel, looking towards Guildford Technical College.

Flats now built where the old houses were.

The train going to London Road station on the slow line to Waterloo.

The obelisk is in Forster Road Queen Elizabeth Park, Stoughton, has four big concrete balls.
Chris Townsend Reply

April 13, 2017 at 8:30 pm

I think the old photo shows the north side of the railway bridge carrying the “New Line” over Stoke Road. In that case, the turning to the left of the photo would be Nightingale Road and the cottages would be on the site of the present flats.

The obelisk is on Queen Elizabeth Park, the site of the old WRAC camp.