50 VALE ROAD
Originally called Johannesburg or Johannesberg. House numbers were not allocated to the south side of Vale Road until about 1904. This account has been helped by the kind loan of early deeds by the current owners.
The architectural plans for the semi-detached houses now numbered 48 and 50, and 60 and 62, dated 22 April 1897, are held at the East Sussex Record Office as DH/C/12/2/77. They were prepared for Messrs. Chapman and Cuff of Silverhill, who were partners in the building trade operating from 1 Alma Terrace, on the next street. These plans would give valuable details of the original look as well as the layout of these houses.
In a deed of the 22 Dec 1897, held by the present owners, a lease for the property was sold. A simple plan shows the width as 25 feet on the street (but 28 feet 6 inches at the back) and the depth as 151 feet. The plan shows that the adjoining no. 48 had already been conveyed to Mr H.B. Philpot.
The lease was between Frederick William Pigott and Edward Maximilian Bethune of the first part and Isabella Eversfield of Denne Park, Horsham, widow, of the second part, and Henry Beeching Philpot of St Leonards on Sea, tailor and outfitter, of the third part. It refers to the will of Charles Gilbert Eversfield dated 15 March 1880 appointing his wife the said Isabella executrix, which was proven 27 March 1886. Building leases were being sold to the said Pigott and to Henry Vaughan. A house was being built on the plot by Philpot (that is, both no. 48 and no. 50, as they form a semi-detached building and he owned both plots; he was the capitalist and not the actual builder). It does not seem to say how long the lease was, but Isabella Eversfield normally sold 99-year leaseholds, nor for how much.
Henry Beeching Philpot was born in 1848 at St Leonards. He was educated at Hurst College in Sussex. In 1867 he married Mary Ann Puttnam in Brighton. He became a freemason in 1877 at Dover. He was of Filsham Lodge, St Leonards, and died in 1919 and was buried in Hastings. There is a detailed obituary in the 22 February 1919 issue of the Hastings Observer. The clothing business of Philpot & Sons was at 38 Marina, later 37-39 The Colonnade, St Leonards, and was run by Henry from 1877, after the death of his brother William. From 1898 the business was run in partnership with Albert Henry Philpot. In 1907 it became a private company with all shares owned by the family.
From 1899 electoral registers give the occupant as J.G. Wright. He was probably a tenant.
In the 1901 census we have, probably again as tenants, for Johannesburg:
Josias G. Dwight, head, married, 76, retired insurance clerk, b Surrey, Clapham
Alexandrina Dwight, wife, 73, b Surrey, Lambeth
Charlotte A. Wilson, dau, W, 48, b Surrey, Lambeth
Stanley W. Cater, grandson, S, 25, army accoutrement maker, employer, b Surrey, Stockwell
Ellen Birt, servant, S, 17, servant domestic, b Sussex, Hollington
Josias George Dwight was the son of William Moss Dwight, Treasury clerk, and married, 22 Feb 1849, Westminster, Alexandrina Kent. They were in Wimbledon in the 1911 census. He died 23 Aug 1913, 181 Queens Road, Wimbledon, aged 89.
Alexandrina Dwight died 11 July 1917, 41 Oakhill Road, East Putney, aged 89. Charlotte Augusta Dwight married, 8 Oct 1878, Brixton, Francis MacDonnell Wilson, merchant. He died 21 Feb 1879, Stockwell. She died 1938, Wandsworth.
In the 28 July 1906 issue of the Hastings Observer there is a brief, enigmatic advertisement for a “house to be let or sold, 2 Boveney Road, Honor Oak Park, London, apply to J.H. Martin, 50 Vale Road, St Leonards.”
In the 7 December 1907 issue of the Illustrated London News Mrs E.S. Fullagar of 50 Vale Road is listed as one of the winners of a limerick competition. Elizabeth Sarah Fullagar was for a time a governess, as show in the 1939 Register created for identity card purposes, and died in 1940 at 7 Vale Road, aged 90. She is a mysterious person about whom I know little – possibly her family were lodgers in the house.
On the 21 November 1909 James Henry Martin of 50 Vale Road, formerly of 302 Devonshire Road, Forest Hill, Kent, died, age 74. His will was proven by James Henry Martin the younger of 18 Queen’s Road, Beckenham, Kent. The 27 November 1909 issue of the Hastings Observer has a detailed obituary.
He was a senior partner of Killick, Martin & co., ship brokers. He had lived in St Leonards for four and a half years, had previously visited often, staying at Eversfield Place or the Grand Hotel. Mrs Martin predeceased him at St Leonards in 1894; this was Louisa Barber Martin, who died at 36 Eversfield Place, aged 51. Two sons were formerly pupils at Eagle House School. The company owned a large fleet of vessels serving India and the Far East.
In the 1911 census we have for no. 50, given as a 6-roomed house:
Richard Breuer, 61, married 41 years, no children, general accountant, own account, at home, born London
Mary Ann White Breuer, wife, 63, born Suffolk, Lowestoft
They were at 8 St Margaret’s Terrace, St Leonards, but running a lodging house, in the 1901 census. They were still at no. 50 in the 1913 electoral register.
On the 29 October 1913 there occurred at 50 Vale Road the death of Albert Griffin, aged 72. His will was proven by his widow Rosa Matilda of the same address.
They were in Bromley, Kent, in both the 1901 and the 1911 census. He was a coal merchant. His widow was still at no. 50 in the 1919 electoral register, and died 22 Nov 1927, 7 West Hill, St Leonards, probate to her only child Ethel Rose Griffin, spinster (a governess in the 1911 census). The two of them were in the ground floor flat of that address, in the 1922 electoral register (Ethel Rose only was there in the 1921 Register). Ethel Rose was probably the woman who died in 1949 at 36 Fairlight Avenue, Hastings, age 68.
So far it is possible that all these occupants were merely tenants and not owners. We are on firmer ground with a deed in the possession of the current owners. On the 2 October 1922 Albert Ernest Garton of 50 Vale Road, gentleman, sold that house to Eliza Margaret Telling, wife of Charles Sylvanus Telling, of 105 Norbury Crescent, Norbury, Surrey, for £900.
Albert Ernest Garton had married Clara Octavia Smyth in 1904 at Lincoln. In the 1911 census they were living in Lincoln, he a tobacconist, with one child. In the 1939 Register they were in Hailsham, both retired, she as a former schoolmistress. He died in 1943 at Hailsham; she died there in 1953.
The Tellings had moved from London, where they were both born. Although Charles is described as a gentleman in the deed he was a cooper in the 1881 census for Lambeth.
There is a letter by Charles Telling in the 16 August 1930 issue of the Hastings Observer complaining that the cost of travelling from the Front to Silverhill has doubled to two pence, and he will “walk now rather than be imposed upon”. He was about 73 at the time. He was writing about the tram which began at Silverhill.
Apparently they let a room. In the 30 May 1931 issue:
Sunny comfortable bed-sitting: electric, gas: permanency, 50 Vale Road.
On a sadder note, in the 18 July 1931 issue:
TELLING. On Tuesday, July 7th, 1931, at 50 Vale Road, St Leonards on Sea, Dorothy Winifred, the beloved and only daughter of Charles Sylvanus and Mrs Telling. Interred in family grave, Norwood, on Saturday, 11th. At rest.
She was only 34. She died after a long illness, and one of the six non-family mourners named at the funeral were Miss Giles, friend. This was almost certainly one of the Giles sisters at no. 52, next door.
On the 28 September 1932 Dorothy’s mother, Eliza Margaret, died at the age of 76, and Miss Giles is again listed as attending the funeral. In addition, Emma Giles, the older sister, together with the widower Charles Sylvanus Telling, was an executor to her will. The sisters were both retired schoolteachers.
In 1933 Charles married again, in Hastings, to Beatrice Evangeline Morton. She was born on the 5 July 1874 in Kent. In the 1911 census in Thornton Heath, Surrey, she was aged 36, a dressmaker’s forewoman, living with her parents. Her father Charles was a law clerk. In the 1932 electoral register for Streatham, Surrey she was living with the Siderfin family, presumably as a lodger.
Charles died in 1935 at the age of 78. His death was awful, and is told in the Hastings Observer on the 21 December 1935:
BURNS PROVE FATAL. ELDERLY ST LEONARDS MAN’S DEATH . While trying to draw up a fire with the aid of a newspaper in his home on November 27th Mr Charles Sylvanus Telling, aged 78, of 50, Vale-road, St Leonards, had a fainting attack and fell on the fire, receiving burns which proved fatal.
At the inquest, conducted by the borough coroner (Mr H.C. Davenport Jones), at the Buchanan Hospital yesterday (Friday), Mrs Beatrice Evangeline Telling said her husband had suffered from heart trouble intermittently for years. He was epileptic and suffering from fainting fits.
On November 27th he collapsed after working in the garden, and later in the day he was sitting in front of the fire in the front room of the house, when witness, on entering, found the room found the room full of smoke and the right side of her husband’s clothing in flames. A chair and the rug were also alight.
She called in her nephew, who wrapped a coat around Mr Telling and sent for Dr Lee. From pieces of burnt newspaper lying in the room she formed the opinion that her husband had been trying to draw up the fire with a newspaper, as he frequently did, and had a recurrence of the fainting attack. He had never been able to tell her what happened.
Henry Philip Morton, the nephew, said on going into the front room he found his uncle on his knees in front of the fire, and his clothing in flames. He wrapped a jacket round him, put out the flames and went for Dr Lee.
Dr Kathleen Vickers (house surgeon) said Mr Telling was suffering from extensive burns on the right side of the body and on the right arm. He progressed under treatment satisfactorily for a few days, but then the wounds turned septic and he died on Thursday from septic absorption. Mr Telling’s heart was in a bad condition.
Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, the Coroner said: “I am satisfied that Mr Telling put a newspaper across the fire to draw it up, and had a recurrence of the epileptic or fainting seizure.”
On the 27 September 1936 Emma Louisa Giles of no. 52, spinster, sold no. 50 to Florence Mary Virgo of 1 Clyde Road, St Leonards for £700. The deed (in the possession of the current owners) explains that Eliza Margaret Telling, owner of the house, had by her will appointed her husband Charles as executor and trustee to live in the house during his lifetime. It was then to go to the Central Aid Council of the borough of Hastings. This must have meant that Charles’ widow, Beatrice, was ejected from the house she lived in. Emma was acting as the representative of the deceased.
In the 1939 Register Beatrice was at 59 Park Lane, Carshalton, Surrey, with her widowed mother Clara, a retired teacher. She was a retired costumier’s manager. They were apparently lodgers of the Ash family. She died on the 16 November 1950 at 27 Priory Avenue, Hastings. Her executors were the same nephew, a post office engineer, and his wife.
The new household is listed in the 1939 Register:
Florence M. Virgo, single, born 19 Nov 1869, single, retired
Bessie A. Virgo, single, born 22 Dec 1907, single, unpaid domestic duties
John Desmond Orford, born 29 March 1930, at school
Florence Mary Virgo was born in 1869 in Blakeney, Gloucestershire, to John, a miner. In the 1911 census she was a boarder at 53 Hughenden Road, Ore, assistant in fancy goods. She died 4 July 1951 at Bexhill when her will was proven by her niece Bessie Anne Akhurst. Bessie was born Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, to John William, canvasser for a brewery. She married in 1945, in the registration district of Battle, Robert Barwick Akhurst. He died in 1959, while she died 1992 in Surrey.
Orford was born in Hackney and married in 1959 and died in 1975 at Welling, Kent. He was probably a nephew or some other relation.
It was probably Bessie who was selling a couple of bicycles, in the 18 March 1939 issue of the Hastings Observer:
Lady’s Hercules Safety cycle, as new, £2 10s; Sunbeam, 15/- 50 Vale Road.
The house was sold on for £1250 in 1945 (ACC 5276/22, East Sussex Record Office, are papers relating to the house, 1920-45, from the Perring law firm in Hastings), not seen by me. This was presumably to Ivor Joseph Brooks, metal polisher, who on the 16 February 1948 sold it on again.
Brooks was born 26 January 1910, Swansea, Glamorgan. Unfortunately his father was absent from the 1911 census, but Anne his mother stated in the record that she had been married for 12 years and had had 6 children, all, together with her widowed Swedish-born father, crammed into a four-room house. He married Annie Curran in 1938 in Oxford and had several children. They were in Oxford in the 1939 Register, he as a metal polisher. He died in Hastings in 1972; his widow died there in 1988.
The current owners have a copy of the 1948 deed for the “exchange”, which sold it to sisters Lillie Helene Louise Walger and Hildegarde Ingeborg Beatrice Walger, spinsters, both of 1 Old Harrow Road, St Leonards, for £2800. A deposit of £280 was to be handed over, and completion date was set for the 8 March 1948.
The Walger sisters were born in St Leonards but both parents had been born in Germany. Lillie was born in about 1890, and Hildegarde was born 29 July 1891. Their father, of Joachim Lodge, 44 Springfield Road, St Leonards, was naturalised in 1906. There were at that address in the 1901 census, having been in Kenilworth Road in the 1891 census. In the 1911 census Carl Ludwig was a professor of the violin, viola and cello. Mother Gertrud was a professor of singing and German. Besides the girls, there was a servant.
Their father died at 44 Springfield Road on 5 January 1936. I was unable to find the sisters or their mother in the 1939 Register. Their mother died in Hastings in late 1946 at the age of 92.
There is a wealth of documentation on the sisters’ teaching in the local newspaper. Here are some examples.
17 April 1948:
School of Art and Music. The Misses Walger. Change of address. 50 Vale Road. New term May 3rd. Please note: special group teaching of violin beginners; also German, all grades.
1 October 1949:
German lessons given, all grades, grammar and conversation. Miss Hildegard Walger, 50 Vale Road.
13 September 1952
SCHOOL Art and Music, 50, Vale-road, St. Leonards. Miss Walger, L.R.A.M. Term begins September 22nd. Also German tuition, all grades.
19 September 1953, two advertisements:
German tuition given, conversation and grammar, all grades. Miss Walger, no. 50.
School of Art and Music, no. 50. Violin, viola, piano: Miss Lillie Walger, LRAM: drawing and painting: Miss H. Walger.
The 1950 Kelly’s Directory has this entry for Vale Road:
50 School of Art & Music (Misses L. & H. Walger, principals)
There was also the need to get rid of some furniture, which was presumably the meaning of the rather vague insert in the 15 November 1952 issue:
Sofa, armchair, dining room chairs, fireside chair. Call next week. 50 Vale Road.
Lillie died on the 8 December 1953 at the Buchanan Hospital. There is a detailed obituary in the 19 December 1953 issue. It said that for many years she gave valuable service to the Hastings Competitive Musical Festival, and was a member of its executive committee. She studied at the Dresden Conservatoire, Germany, but took her degree at the Royal Academy of Music. The surviving sister, Hildegarde, decided to move about eight months later, with this notice, in the 7 August 1954 issue:
Miss Walger of no. 50 enquires about an unfurnished flat, 2 ladies, 1st week September or earlier, 2 bedrooms, preferably Silverhill area.
She died on the 15 November 1975 at 6 Cumberland Gardens, St Leonards.
I am not aware of who lived at no. 50 later until the 1973 Kelly’s Directory lists Peter T. Andrews.
50 VALE ROAD
Originally called Johannesburg or Johannesberg. House numbers were not allocated to the south side of Vale Road until about 1904. This account has been helped by the kind loan of early deeds by the current owners.
The architectural plans for the semi-detached houses now numbered 48 and 50, and 60 and 62, dated 22 April 1897, are held at the East Sussex Record Office as DH/C/12/2/77. They were prepared for Messrs. Chapman and Cuff of Silverhill, who were partners in the building trade operating from 1 Alma Terrace, on the next street. These plans would give valuable details of the original look as well as the layout of these houses.
In a deed of the 22 Dec 1897, held by the present owners, a lease for the property was sold. A simple plan shows the width as 25 feet on the street (but 28 feet 6 inches at the back) and the depth as 151 feet. The plan shows that the adjoining no. 48 had already been conveyed to Mr H.B. Philpot.
The lease was between Frederick William Pigott and Edward Maximilian Bethune of the first part and Isabella Eversfield of Denne Park, Horsham, widow, of the second part, and Henry Beeching Philpot of St Leonards on Sea, tailor and outfitter, of the third part. It refers to the will of Charles Gilbert Eversfield dated 15 March 1880 appointing his wife the said Isabella executrix, which was proven 27 March 1886. Building leases were being sold to the said Pigott and to Henry Vaughan. A house was being built on the plot by Philpot (that is, both no. 48 and no. 50, as they form a semi-detached building and he owned both plots; he was the capitalist and not the actual builder). It does not seem to say how long the lease was, but Isabella Eversfield normally sold 99-year leaseholds, nor for how much.
Henry Beeching Philpot was born in 1848 at St Leonards. He was educated at Hurst College in Sussex. In 1867 he married Mary Ann Puttnam in Brighton. He became a freemason in 1877 at Dover. He was of Filsham Lodge, St Leonards, and died in 1919 and was buried in Hastings. There is a detailed obituary in the 22 February 1919 issue of the Hastings Observer. The clothing business of Philpot & Sons was at 38 Marina, later 37-39 The Colonnade, St Leonards, and was run by Henry from 1877, after the death of his brother William. From 1898 the business was run in partnership with Albert Henry Philpot. In 1907 it became a private company with all shares owned by the family.
From 1899 electoral registers give the occupant as J.G. Wright. He was probably a tenant.
In the 1901 census we have, probably again as tenants, for Johannesburg:
Josias G. Dwight, head, married, 76, retired insurance clerk, b Surrey, Clapham
Alexandrina Dwight, wife, 73, b Surrey, Lambeth
Charlotte A. Wilson, dau, W, 48, b Surrey, Lambeth
Stanley W. Cater, grandson, S, 25, army accoutrement maker, employer, b Surrey, Stockwell
Ellen Birt, servant, S, 17, servant domestic, b Sussex, Hollington
Josias George Dwight was the son of William Moss Dwight, Treasury clerk, and married, 22 Feb 1849, Westminster, Alexandrina Kent. They were in Wimbledon in the 1911 census. He died 23 Aug 1913, 181 Queens Road, Wimbledon, aged 89.
Alexandrina Dwight died 11 July 1917, 41 Oakhill Road, East Putney, aged 89. Charlotte Augusta Dwight married, 8 Oct 1878, Brixton, Francis MacDonnell Wilson, merchant. He died 21 Feb 1879, Stockwell. She died 1938, Wandsworth.
In the 28 July 1906 issue of the Hastings Observer there is a brief, enigmatic advertisement for a “house to be let or sold, 2 Boveney Road, Honor Oak Park, London, apply to J.H. Martin, 50 Vale Road, St Leonards.”
In the 7 December 1907 issue of the Illustrated London News Mrs E.S. Fullagar of 50 Vale Road is listed as one of the winners of a limerick competition. Elizabeth Sarah Fullagar was for a time a governess, as show in the 1939 Register created for identity card purposes, and died in 1940 at 7 Vale Road, aged 90. She is a mysterious person about whom I know little – possibly her family were lodgers in the house.
On the 21 November 1909 James Henry Martin of 50 Vale Road, formerly of 302 Devonshire Road, Forest Hill, Kent, died, age 74. His will was proven by James Henry Martin the younger of 18 Queen’s Road, Beckenham, Kent. The 27 November 1909 issue of the Hastings Observer has a detailed obituary.
He was a senior partner of Killick, Martin & co., ship brokers. He had lived in St Leonards for four and a half years, had previously visited often, staying at Eversfield Place or the Grand Hotel. Mrs Martin predeceased him at St Leonards in 1894; this was Louisa Barber Martin, who died at 36 Eversfield Place, aged 51. Two sons were formerly pupils at Eagle House School. The company owned a large fleet of vessels serving India and the Far East.
In the 1911 census we have for no. 50, given as a 6-roomed house:
Richard Breuer, 61, married 41 years, no children, general accountant, own account, at home, born London
Mary Ann White Breuer, wife, 63, born Suffolk, Lowestoft
They were at 8 St Margaret’s Terrace, St Leonards, but running a lodging house, in the 1901 census. They were still at no. 50 in the 1913 electoral register.
On the 29 October 1913 there occurred at 50 Vale Road the death of Albert Griffin, aged 72. His will was proven by his widow Rosa Matilda of the same address.
They were in Bromley, Kent, in both the 1901 and the 1911 census. He was a coal merchant. His widow was still at no. 50 in the 1919 electoral register, and died 22 Nov 1927, 7 West Hill, St Leonards, probate to her only child Ethel Rose Griffin, spinster (a governess in the 1911 census). The two of them were in the ground floor flat of that address, in the 1922 electoral register (Ethel Rose only was there in the 1921 Register). Ethel Rose was probably the woman who died in 1949 at 36 Fairlight Avenue, Hastings, age 68.
So far it is possible that all these occupants were merely tenants and not owners. We are on firmer ground with a deed in the possession of the current owners. On the 2 October 1922 Albert Ernest Garton of 50 Vale Road, gentleman, sold that house to Eliza Margaret Telling, wife of Charles Sylvanus Telling, of 105 Norbury Crescent, Norbury, Surrey, for £900.
Albert Ernest Garton had married Clara Octavia Smyth in 1904 at Lincoln. In the 1911 census they were living in Lincoln, he a tobacconist, with one child. In the 1939 Register they were in Hailsham, both retired, she as a former schoolmistress. He died in 1943 at Hailsham; she died there in 1953.
The Tellings had moved from London, where they were both born. Although Charles is described as a gentleman in the deed he was a cooper in the 1881 census for Lambeth.
There is a letter by Charles Telling in the 16 August 1930 issue of the Hastings Observer complaining that the cost of travelling from the Front to Silverhill has doubled to two pence, and he will “walk now rather than be imposed upon”. He was about 73 at the time. He was writing about the tram which began at Silverhill.
Apparently they let a room. In the 30 May 1931 issue:
Sunny comfortable bed-sitting: electric, gas: permanency, 50 Vale Road.
On a sadder note, in the 18 July 1931 issue:
TELLING. On Tuesday, July 7th, 1931, at 50 Vale Road, St Leonards on Sea, Dorothy Winifred, the beloved and only daughter of Charles Sylvanus and Mrs Telling. Interred in family grave, Norwood, on Saturday, 11th. At rest.
She was only 34. She died after a long illness, and one of the six non-family mourners named at the funeral were Miss Giles, friend. This was almost certainly one of the Giles sisters at no. 52, next door.
On the 28 September 1932 Dorothy’s mother, Eliza Margaret, died at the age of 76, and Miss Giles is again listed as attending the funeral. In addition, Emma Giles, the older sister, together with the widower Charles Sylvanus Telling, was an executor to her will. The sisters were both retired schoolteachers.
In 1933 Charles married again, in Hastings, to Beatrice Evangeline Morton. She was born on the 5 July 1874 in Kent. In the 1911 census in Thornton Heath, Surrey, she was aged 36, a dressmaker’s forewoman, living with her parents. Her father Charles was a law clerk. In the 1932 electoral register for Streatham, Surrey she was living with the Siderfin family, presumably as a lodger.
Charles died in 1935 at the age of 78. His death was awful, and is told in the Hastings Observer on the 21 December 1935:
BURNS PROVE FATAL. ELDERLY ST LEONARDS MAN’S DEATH . While trying to draw up a fire with the aid of a newspaper in his home on November 27th Mr Charles Sylvanus Telling, aged 78, of 50, Vale-road, St Leonards, had a fainting attack and fell on the fire, receiving burns which proved fatal.
At the inquest, conducted by the borough coroner (Mr H.C. Davenport Jones), at the Buchanan Hospital yesterday (Friday), Mrs Beatrice Evangeline Telling said her husband had suffered from heart trouble intermittently for years. He was epileptic and suffering from fainting fits.
On November 27th he collapsed after working in the garden, and later in the day he was sitting in front of the fire in the front room of the house, when witness, on entering, found the room found the room full of smoke and the right side of her husband’s clothing in flames. A chair and the rug were also alight.
She called in her nephew, who wrapped a coat around Mr Telling and sent for Dr Lee. From pieces of burnt newspaper lying in the room she formed the opinion that her husband had been trying to draw up the fire with a newspaper, as he frequently did, and had a recurrence of the fainting attack. He had never been able to tell her what happened.
Henry Philip Morton, the nephew, said on going into the front room he found his uncle on his knees in front of the fire, and his clothing in flames. He wrapped a jacket round him, put out the flames and went for Dr Lee.
Dr Kathleen Vickers (house surgeon) said Mr Telling was suffering from extensive burns on the right side of the body and on the right arm. He progressed under treatment satisfactorily for a few days, but then the wounds turned septic and he died on Thursday from septic absorption. Mr Telling’s heart was in a bad condition.
Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, the Coroner said: “I am satisfied that Mr Telling put a newspaper across the fire to draw it up, and had a recurrence of the epileptic or fainting seizure.”
On the 27 September 1936 Emma Louisa Giles of no. 52, spinster, sold no. 50 to Florence Mary Virgo of 1 Clyde Road, St Leonards for £700. The deed (in the possession of the current owners) explains that Eliza Margaret Telling, owner of the house, had by her will appointed her husband Charles as executor and trustee to live in the house during his lifetime. It was then to go to the Central Aid Council of the borough of Hastings. This must have meant that Charles’ widow, Beatrice, was ejected from the house she lived in. Emma was acting as the representative of the deceased.
In the 1939 Register Beatrice was at 59 Park Lane, Carshalton, Surrey, with her widowed mother Clara, a retired teacher. She was a retired costumier’s manager. They were apparently lodgers of the Ash family. She died on the 16 November 1950 at 27 Priory Avenue, Hastings. Her executors were the same nephew, a post office engineer, and his wife.
The new household is listed in the 1939 Register:
Florence M. Virgo, single, born 19 Nov 1869, single, retired
Bessie A. Virgo, single, born 22 Dec 1907, single, unpaid domestic duties
John Desmond Orford, born 29 March 1930, at school
Florence Mary Virgo was born in 1869 in Blakeney, Gloucestershire, to John, a miner. In the 1911 census she was a boarder at 53 Hughenden Road, Ore, assistant in fancy goods. She died 4 July 1951 at Bexhill when her will was proven by her niece Bessie Anne Akhurst. Bessie was born Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, to John William, canvasser for a brewery. She married in 1945, in the registration district of Battle, Robert Barwick Akhurst. He died in 1959, while she died 1992 in Surrey.
Orford was born in Hackney and married in 1959 and died in 1975 at Welling, Kent. He was probably a nephew or some other relation.
It was probably Bessie who was selling a couple of bicycles, in the 18 March 1939 issue of the Hastings Observer:
Lady’s Hercules Safety cycle, as new, £2 10s; Sunbeam, 15/- 50 Vale Road.
The house was sold on for £1250 in 1945 (ACC 5276/22, East Sussex Record Office, are papers relating to the house, 1920-45, from the Perring law firm in Hastings), not seen by me. This was presumably to Ivor Joseph Brooks, metal polisher, who on the 16 February 1948 sold it on again.
Brooks was born 26 January 1910, Swansea, Glamorgan. Unfortunately his father was absent from the 1911 census, but Anne his mother stated in the record that she had been married for 12 years and had had 6 children, all, together with her widowed Swedish-born father, crammed into a four-room house. He married Annie Curran in 1938 in Oxford and had several children. They were in Oxford in the 1939 Register, he as a metal polisher. He died in Hastings in 1972; his widow died there in 1988.
The current owners have a copy of the 1948 deed for the “exchange”, which sold it to sisters Lillie Helene Louise Walger and Hildegarde Ingeborg Beatrice Walger, spinsters, both of 1 Old Harrow Road, St Leonards, for £2800. A deposit of £280 was to be handed over, and completion date was set for the 8 March 1948.
The Walger sisters were born in St Leonards but both parents had been born in Germany. Lillie was born in about 1890, and Hildegarde was born 29 July 1891. Their father, of Joachim Lodge, 44 Springfield Road, St Leonards, was naturalised in 1906. There were at that address in the 1901 census, having been in Kenilworth Road in the 1891 census. In the 1911 census Carl Ludwig was a professor of the violin, viola and cello. Mother Gertrud was a professor of singing and German. Besides the girls, there was a servant.
Their father died at 44 Springfield Road on 5 January 1936. I was unable to find the sisters or their mother in the 1939 Register. Their mother died in Hastings in late 1946 at the age of 92.
There is a wealth of documentation on the sisters’ teaching in the local newspaper. Here are some examples.
17 April 1948:
School of Art and Music. The Misses Walger. Change of address. 50 Vale Road. New term May 3rd. Please note: special group teaching of violin beginners; also German, all grades.
1 October 1949:
German lessons given, all grades, grammar and conversation. Miss Hildegard Walger, 50 Vale Road.
13 September 1952
SCHOOL Art and Music, 50, Vale-road, St. Leonards. Miss Walger, L.R.A.M. Term begins September 22nd. Also German tuition, all grades.
19 September 1953, two advertisements:
German tuition given, conversation and grammar, all grades. Miss Walger, no. 50.
School of Art and Music, no. 50. Violin, viola, piano: Miss Lillie Walger, LRAM: drawing and painting: Miss H. Walger.
The 1950 Kelly’s Directory has this entry for Vale Road:
50 School of Art & Music (Misses L. & H. Walger, principals)
There was also the need to get rid of some furniture, which was presumably the meaning of the rather vague insert in the 15 November 1952 issue:
Sofa, armchair, dining room chairs, fireside chair. Call next week. 50 Vale Road.
Lillie died on the 8 December 1953 at the Buchanan Hospital. There is a detailed obituary in the 19 December 1953 issue. It said that for many years she gave valuable service to the Hastings Competitive Musical Festival, and was a member of its executive committee. She studied at the Dresden Conservatoire, Germany, but took her degree at the Royal Academy of Music. The surviving sister, Hildegarde, decided to move about eight months later, with this notice, in the 7 August 1954 issue:
Miss Walger of no. 50 enquires about an unfurnished flat, 2 ladies, 1st week September or earlier, 2 bedrooms, preferably Silverhill area.
She died on the 15 November 1975 at 6 Cumberland Gardens, St Leonards.
I am not aware of who lived at no. 50 later until the 1973 Kelly’s Directory lists Peter T. Andrews.