A History of Clewer

11. THE HAMMOND FAMILY

The Clewer Group

Note The Hammond family had an undertaker's business on Dedworth Road and were very prominent in Clewer affairs. The late Harry Hammond who was born at St.Andrew's Villas in 1899, eventually retired to West Wittering, Chichester. His father had been Parish Clerk until 1938 and a photograph in the Museum shows him receiving a presentation from Rector Payne-Cooke on the stage of the Parish Hall, on the occasion of his retirement.

I started my school life at St.John’s Home kindergarten and well remember May Day and the Maypole dancing. The boys were dressed in velvet suits with large lace collars and the girls wore long white silk dresses. We learned to swim in the Mill Stream, but had to take care because of the weeds. Sometimes we were told off by Mr.Goodman who worked on White Lilies Island. He lived next door to the Southgate family who were boat builders and hirers. Often we were ferried over to Clewer Point on the Brocas side.

The Conservative Cricket Ground was opposite the Church bridle path (Clewer Court Road) and later the racehorse stables were built there. It is now Stephenson Drive. Before the Boys' School was built on the main road the land was owned by a coal merchant, Mr.Duley, and he used to let it for Lord John Sanger's Circus. We used to watch the animals being trained, for a charge of 2d and we followed the elephant to the Mill Stream for their wash and brush-up. On their way back they would drink water from a trough outside the Duke of Edinburgh pub.

We didn't have much money so we tried to crawl under the Big Top but we nearly always got chased away.Opposite the old Rectory, a farmer, Mr.Rainer, built a nice house and a public footpath went from Parsonage Lane through his fields to the main road. It was known as the "hop gardens'' and is now Orchard Avenue.

On the other side of the road was another public path, Lovers' Walk, which went by Clewer Manor (now Haileybury School) and right through to Spital. Where King George VI Club now stands, on Clarence Road, there used to be gravel pits around 1880, and my father told me they used to break the ice there in winter and take it up to Layton's Restaurant in Thames Street, for their ice-boxes. The payment was twopence a pailful.

My father was Robert Arthur Hammond. He was born at 11, Bexley Terrace (now Oak Lane) and was educated at Clewer Green School. The Headmaster was Mr.Samuel Poynter who is buried in Clewer Churchyard.My father joined the Church choir in 1876 and served for 57 years.

His fellow choirmen were a mixed society: G.Shorter (schoolmaster), Randle Ford (solicitor), H.Parkyn (wood carver to Queen Victoria), H.Poynter (estate agent), W.Moore (postman and parish clerk), and Victor Biddulph (gentleman).

I entered the choir in 1907, the organist being Mr.Humfries who lived at Lower Knights in Windsor Castle. My singing voice did not last but I stayed on as a server until starting my army service in 1916.

My father became Parish Clerk on the death of Mr.Moore.There were many well-respected folk in the parish in those days:Sir Daniel Gooch of Clewer Park, who was very kind to the poor; Squire Foster of Clewer Manor; Lady Trees Berry of St.Leonards; Mr. and Mrs.Clive Wigram of The Limes in Clewer Village.

My father and myself made the memorial board to the fallen in the 1914/18 war (on the wall of the Brocas Chapel) and the names were carved by Mr. Parkyn.

The Clewer Police Station (now the block of shops which includes the Clarence Road Post Office) was a fine building and provided mounted and foot patrols.

When an arrest was made the culprits were kept in the cells at the rear and we used to watch for the lights to go on, then we would run home and tell our parents how many cells were occupied.

We had very few sports etc. in our days so we used to have fun in the ditches when dry. When they were full of water we made little boats and sailed them. The girls stretched a long skipping-rope across the main road and lowered it to allow horses and carts to pass - they were mostly farm carts, with the odd bakers' and milk drays.

The Haslemere Road area was formerly Green's builders' yard and opposite was the local fire station with its manual-worked hand Dump. Bob Walker was the Chief Officer and he kept a shop in Lower Oxford Road.

The Police Mortuary was next door and we often saw bodies being brought in from the river in an old canvas bier. There seemed to be many drowning cases, mostly suicides.

Apart from the old Rectory, the remaining land in that area was mostly allotments, except for Clewer Parish Hall. Mr.Smith (also a choirman) owned the Clewer Nursery Gardens in Surly Hall Road (now Maidenhead Rd.) and was responsible for the grave-digging and churchyard upkeep. Ben Boatman and Mr.Copas were his employees.

Everything was rural and pleasant in the village, with the old forge and sweet-smelling lime trees.Most of the land in Clewer Green Road (now Hatch Lane) was occupied by the Convent of St.John the Baptist or was owned by the Convent. On the west side stood St.Andrew's Hospital which was staffed by nurses and Sisters from the Convent. It supplied convalescent beds for the poor of London.

Many a time we watched the horse-drawn fever-van taking patients to the Isolation Hospital at Cippenham.

In the New Road (now Dedworth Road) was a row of cottages built by Canon Carter for the widows of the clergy. The rent was one shilling per week. The central lodge was for the person in charge and a maid. It had large double doors to allow the wheel-bier to go through when a funeral from St. Andrew's Hospital (behind the cottages) passed on its way to Clewer Church.

St.Andrew's Cottage (now an Abbeyfield home) was used as a small rest home with nursing accommodation for the occupants. 'Where the Three Elms now stands stood an old cottage where Mr.Gulliver carried out shoe repairs.

Where Delta Garage now stands was St.Augustine's Home for orphan boys, (seniors). The juniors were in a Home called Melrose, joined to St. Augustine's by a covered way, and both were in the charge of Mr. and Mrs. Green who were very strict.

Note: Mr.Hammond's memory failed him in one matter. The cottages on Dedworth Road were not built by Canon Carter, as he states, but by Charlotte Sterkey and Sister Mary Ashpital. Over the large central doorway to which Mr.Hammond refers, was the text: "Praise the Lord, 0 my soul : And forget not all His benefits."