Where is This? No.265

Published on: 24 Jun, 2017
Updated on: 24 Jun, 2017

By David Rose

Nearly everyone who replied last week correctly identified the Compasses Inn at Gomshall as the mystery vintage picture.

In the book The Breweries and Public Houses of Guildford Part II, Mark Sturley wrote: “The site of the property later to become the Compasses can be traced back to 1742 when it was a copyhold tenancy of the Manor of Gomshall Netley. The existing building is thought to have been erected in 1830 by the Steadman family who soon after sold it to John Sherman of Shere. As a shop it was leased by W H Sherman in 1870 to John Grover a Gomshall grocer who was also named as a beer retailer in the 1867 directory.”

He writes of it changing hands with a Jane Rogers leasing it to Guildford brewers Lascelles, Tickner & Co, in 1886 for 21 years.

It was bought by the Rt Hon Thomas Cecil Baron Ferrer in 1904 and later became the property of the Surrey Public House Trust – a bit like today’s pub chains. It was owned by Salisbury brewers Gibbs Mew in 1985. Can anyone confirm whether it is now owned by a pub chain, brewery or is a free house?

Last week’s quirky picture was of a wooden seat in the form of a dragonfly. It can be found at Guildford’s Riverside Nature Park near Burpham. There are at least two of these there among other wooden features. The one photographed is on the east side of the lake, and not the one on the boardwalk that some readers mentioned. Well done to all who replied.

Click here to see last week’s post and all the replies, with extra details supplied.

Do you recognise these buildings? Click to enlarge in a new window.

This week’s mystery vintage picture shows a house and some outbuilding that were once a dairy in what;’s now a Guildford park. Do you recognise them?

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

The quirky picture is a badge on which the name ‘ONSLOW’ is a big clue. But where exactly can it be found?

If you think you know the answers and can add some 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.265

John Lomas Reply

June 24, 2017 at 3:38 pm

The old picture is of the farm located just off Nightingale Rd which according to Google Maps now houses a scout shop.

I’m fairly sure that back in the 1960s when I played cricket with The Outlaws that there were changing rooms in that farm complex.

The plaque is on the Onslow Village Hall on Wilderness Road, opposite the shops.
Stuart Catt Reply

June 25, 2017 at 5:59 pm

The Nightgale Road car park for Stoke Park is where these buildings can be found.
Mike Williams Reply

June 26, 2017 at 7:31 pm

Ah, at last two I can do.

Home Farm, Nightingale Road, Stoke Park* and Onslow Village Hall.

*I didn’t know this was once a dairy. Can you tell us more David?
Mike Dillon Reply

June 28, 2017 at 3:52 pm

The buildings are within the entrance of Stoke Park from Nightingale Road.

The building on the left covered with ivy was/is used as sports changing rooms.

I used them a lot when I played football on the pitches at that end of the park.

The Onslow plaque is on the front of Onslow Village Hall in Wilderness Road.
Margaret Cole Reply

June 29, 2017 at 7:32 am

The first picture shows Home Farm, Nightingale Road, Stoke Park.

It was used as changing rooms for us Pewsey [name of school house] walking single file and misbehaving as much as we could.

Second picture is a real mystery.
Chris Townsend Reply

June 29, 2017 at 8:59 pm

The mystery buildings are part of Home Farm, Stoke Park, on Nightingale Road. The model farm complex dated 1881 was built for James Smith Budgett of Stoke Park Mansion.