Where Is This? No.48

Published on: 12 Mar, 2013
Updated on: 12 Mar, 2013

By David Rose

A view from the top of Guildford Castle keep was last week’s mystery vintage photo. Key buildings seen in the view included the chimney of the Friary brewery, the spire of Guildford Methodist Church (when it was on the corner of Woodbridge Road and North Street), and the gas holders near the cattle market.

Click here to see last week’s post and all the replies at the foot of it. You will see most got it spot on and have added some interesting details.

The mystery sign can be found at Guildford Cathedral.

Readers may not realise, but the order in which your replies appear on the post are in the order you send them in. Hence, if you are quick off the mark when the new images are put up, and reply first, your comment appears at the top of the list.

So, there is a facsimile sheet of Green Shield Stamps to anyone who can beat Bernard Parke to the top spot by replying ahead of him!

Do you have a suggestion to where this is?

Do you have a suggestion as to where this is?

Here’s this week’s mystery photo. It shows a road being laid out just before its houses were built along it. Dating to the early 1920s, you might be able to recognise one building at least in the distance on a main road on Guildford’s outskirts.

This is one of a small set of tiny photos that were passed on to me a couple of weeks ago. They could so easily have been consigned to a black refuse sack and thrown away. This remarkable (one off) set of images is a rare insight into a specific part of Guildford’s early council housing under construction.

Can you name the road, or the one in the distance?

Have you seen this mystery sign, or can suggest where it can be found.

The mystery sign must have a river connection. Any suggestions as to where it can be found?

If you know the answers please leave a reply in the box below. All replies will be posted at about the same time next week, along with a new post with the answers to this week’s photo and mystery date, and the next pair of images.

Responses to Where Is This? No.48

Bernard Parke Reply

March 13, 2013 at 7:35 am

1) Stoughton looking towards the Royal Hotel in the Worplesdon Road

2) The boat yard at Millmead
Norman Hamshere Reply

March 13, 2013 at 9:20 am

Fentum Road,Stoughton. Royal Hotel to left,adjoining scrap metal yard that would later be site of Yellow Bus garage.
Peter Bullen Reply

March 13, 2013 at 10:53 am

First thoughts (determined that PB beats BP to Green Shield stamps): site of Shepherds Hill estate looking across Worplesdon Road towards where the Royal Hotel was to be built on the corner of Barrack Road, opposite Sparrows the butchers’ shop.
Ray Springer Reply

March 14, 2013 at 9:53 am

The road is the Worplesdon Road at Stoughton. The building on the left looks like what was the Royal Hotel (now a Chinese Restaurant). I think the road under construction is Shepherds Hill or Fentum Road.
The mystery sign could be at Leroys Boat House.
I’m sure I haven’t beaten Bernard – one has to get up early in the morning to do that. No green shield stamps for me.
Raineee Wornham Reply

March 15, 2013 at 6:30 pm

The building in the back ground is what was the royal pub,and the building site is the start of Shepherds Hill being built!!
Chris Townsend Reply

March 16, 2013 at 5:21 pm

The photo shows the site of Shepherd’s Hill housing estate. The first 6 houses (of 83) were opened by the Mayor on 6th December 1919. The road in the distance is Worplesdon Road, with the Royal Hotel on the left, on the corner of Barrack Road.
Doug Staniforth Reply

March 18, 2013 at 2:08 pm

The picture is of the contruction of Shepherds Hill Stoughton looking down to the Royal Hotel.
Could the sign be at Leroy’s boat house (do they hire speedboats?)
Shirley and Brian West Reply

March 18, 2013 at 7:25 pm

The main building is, I think, the Bell Inn on the Woking Road and the new road was the start of the Bellfields Estate.
Brian Holt Reply

March 18, 2013 at 9:58 pm

The building on the left in the photo was the Royal Hotel, now the Beljing Restaurant Worplesdon Road , Stoughton.

Then the first shop further down was Reynolds Stores in the late 1940’s and 50’s.

The photo was taken from where number 1 & 2 Shepherds Hill now stand, before the houses was built in 1920.
Julia Funnell Reply

March 24, 2013 at 11:15 am

I know I am late in responding, i.e. after the answer has been given, but I remain convinced that this photo is taken from Fentum Road. With a little help from Google Maps and Street View, it can been seen that if you stand in Shepherds Hill, outside number 1, looking towards Worplesdon Road, then the Beijing/Royal Hotel is to the right, not the left as in the old photograph.

Placing Google’s little orange man at the end of Fentum Road, one can just see a small part of the right had side of the Beijing, meaning the bulk of the building is to the left in as in the old photo.

Is it possible that the curve at the end of the road being constructed is now the entrance into the recreation ground? I do wonder though why this road appears so narrow.
Brian Holt Reply

March 25, 2013 at 5:15 pm

I would like to comment on Julia Funnell’s earlier comment and explain why it was not taken from Fentum Road. If it had been taken from that position you would look straight across to the end of the old Royal Hotel where the two chimneys are.

The angle that the photo was taken from was not straight and was taken by a person looking slightly to the right.
This is the exact view you get from the bottom of Shepherds Hill.

I have been looking at this view every time I go out for last sixty years.