Marlow in Bucks.
This charming garden at the back of a pub is not in Marlow, but it is very
close, just up the River Thames, and it has a feel and look that is a lot like
Marlow. It's the Olde Bell in Hurley. We had dinner there with
David and Janice in August 2003.
Here's the front of the pub. The Five Crowns, in Newport Beach, California,
was modeled on the Olde Bell in Hurley.
Ian grew up in Marlow, at least from the age of 13 on,
which means it is where he has the most memories.
His mum and dad lived there until the end of
their respective lives, 1983 for his dad and 1996 for his mum. Home was a
typical middle class house about a mile from the town center which the Stocks
bought in 1966 when dad was promoted to London. It was a 30-mile each way
commute for dad for years, some of those years before the motorways were built
into London, and he could spend two and a half or more hours a day commuting,
but he was never happier than doing the Saturday morning shopping in
the town or tending his roses in the back garden. He was close to his childhood
home in Slough, and to a few of his friends from those days whom he saw
regularly.
Grandma Stock was from Birmingham, about 80 miles away, and left the
turf of her family to move to Marlow, but loved it as much as Grandad. She lived
there for thirty years. Here is a picture of the
family home just after Grandma died.
The equally idyllic interior on the left is the quadrangle of
Sir William Borlase's School, the Marlow
school where Ian received his later years of secondary education (which lasts in
England roughly from age 11 to 18).
When Ian attended, the lawns and garden benches were strictly off limits, but
they always looked good.
The shop for snacks during breaks between classes was just down the road, and
called the Tuck Shoppe. Times have changed, as they are wont to do, and now Gez
and Jenny (the former a classmate of Ian's at Borlase's, where the latter was
unable to study during her husband's tenure: it was an all boys school) live in
the Tuck Shoppe and have made it into a lovely home.
Gez is a writer and publisher of successful niche magazines covering the music
business.
Andrew, another classmate, stands outside his office on Marlow
High Street (his firm has several offices now, and all seem to whirr and buzz
along quite nicely, thank you), has been the most successful
estate agent (realtor) in the
Marlow area for years now. He even bought Grandma
Stock's house after she died and lived in it with his family for a couple of
years.
Ian's good friend and Andrew's identical twin brother
David can be seen here. David wears a
beard, in part to distinguish himself from Andrew, and people will still
occasionally address one thinking that he is the other!
Back to Marlow. When we visited for a week in July 2007,
the Thames was in flood, following summer deluges that lasted for weeks on end.
The floods inundated homes further west in Oxford, but in Marlow they were
limited to the garden of the Compleat Angler Hotel, in the photo on the right.
All Saints Marlow, the
parish church, is across the flooded river on the right. It is also behind the
boys in the photo on the left, taken during an earlier more clement summer,
2002. The boys wanted to drive the boat that we rented
for an hour, and were not happy that day until they did. The combination of
Marlow bridge and this church has inspired generations of amateur photographers.
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Marlow's key asset is the River Thames, which is
the
original reason for the town's existence. First a ferry and then a
bridge crossed the river in Marlow, and then a lock was built there when
the river was made navigable. Here is
Alex piloting a little motorboat upstream toward Bisham Abbey, in the
background, a holy place so old that it was home to the Knights Templar. Crusaders
are buried there.
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Here are Papa and Charles during the same excursion
looking the other way downstream toward Marlow. The boats behind us are
moored alongside Higginson Park, the lovely riverside park.
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Many of the more welcoming local pubs can be found
close to the river. The Olde Bell, above, is a short walk from Hurley, a
few miles upstream from Marlow, and the Ferry sits on the riverbank at
Cookham, a few miles downstream. Charlie is playing pool in the Ferry.
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Here are Charlie and Alex in the local market town of
Reading, again on the banks of the Thames. Ian's great grandfather was
the Goods Agent for the Great Western Railway in Reading until his
retirement in 1939.
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The bottom line is that Ian is
so familiar with Marlow that he neglected to accumulate photos of its
hot spots. So this page will remain incomplete until he does so! In the
meantime, here are Marie-Hélène, Charles and Alex on the pedestrian
bridge that leads to Marlow Lock.
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Here is what they were looking at: this photo is
Copyright John Bushby, 2003, with thanks to the
Marlow Society.
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