Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[petelang]

Hi Guys.
Today my phone pinged and I received this photo of my Armstrong Siddeley in as new condition, from a relative of the people pictured within. He knows who all these people are but not the location or the date. He thought the photo was dated 1922 but that cannot be because this model was not available until at least 1931, although mine was supposedly first registered in 1933.

There is reference to something "Surrey" in the wall of the building. Both myself and the owner of the photo are seeking if anyone can recognise the location? Any ideas chaps?

[/img]https://flic.kr/p/2jarn5v

[Rick]

Interesting photo. I believe that the AGH registration series came into being in March 1933, a London issue. The word after Surrey on the wall appears to end in ST, what a shame that the sign hanging up on the LHS isn't more visible.

RJ
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[MikeEdwards]

There are quite a few groups on flickr where people try to establish locations - one quick example being https://www.flickr.com/groups/guesswhereuk/ - you could join there and see if anyone has an idea.

It strikes me as the kind of place that would be recognisable to a local, but "Surrey" doesn't give much to search on.

[Ray White]

I thought perhaps the word under 'Surrey' could be 'West'. To my mind that would be more correct (grammatically speaking) than the usual practise these days of transposition; 'West Surrey Golf Club' being a good example.

[peter scott]

If anyone has an AA or RAC book from the 1930s the list of hotels might trigger some possible words.

The hanging sign appears to give the hotel name ????ION ???ER

I have a 1926 AA book but unfortunately it is alphabetic by town not county. Looking at the Surrey towns listed in Wiki possibles might be:

The Lion, Guildford

The Albion, Woking


OK neither of those.

Peter
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1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Ray White]

The Swan Inn at Chiddingfold.? Probably not.



Of course it is difficult to picture many of the old Surrey villages now because after WW2 old buildings were often greatly "aged" to make them look older. I have stayed at the Swan and it is lovely.

[Penman]

Peter; send the link to( drosedragon at gmail dot com )(address edited as per normal to avoid spammers)The Guildford Dragon on-line newspaper has a quite active Through Time section and you may well get an answer from their readers.
https://www.guildford-dragon.com/category/through-time/
I check the Dragon out regularly so can let you know if anything comes of it.
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[Cargy]

This was taken in front of the Wotton Hatch Hotel of Guildford Road, Wotton, Abinger Hammer, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6QQ, as it looked sometime about or after 1928. You can see a photo of it that year here: https://www.francisfrith.com/wotton/wotton-wotton-hatch-hotel-1928_81472 and it still appears to be there.

[Rick]

[Cargy]

Rick, after a fruitless look at closed pubs/hotel websites, I searched for “Surrey Hotel” in the National Newspaper Archive and in the first half-dozen reports was one about a blackout prosecution at the Wotton Hatch Hotel from 1940, I spotted that that its word endings, possibly “-ON", "-CH" and "–L", matched those on the sign on the left of the photo. A search of the web turned up what seems to be the only old photo if it - on Frith’s site.

[MikeEdwards]

Oh, well done. I started browsing through the Frith site, but didn't get as far as that one. I'm not actually sure I'd have recognised it.

[petelang]

I never cease to be amazed at the breadth of knowledge amongst all of you guys. That is a brilliant bit of detective work. Thank you to all contributors. I'll look into it further.
Peter

[Ray White]

This is what it looks like today. I must have passed it dozens of times but the penny didn't drop.

[Cargy]

Reason for the “Surrey - - - - T” sign over the porch is that the Inn was acquired in 1910 by the “Surrey Public House Trust Company”, a business group which operated many pubs, inns and hotels in the south east with temperance in mind. They bought it from J. H. C Evelyn, although at least two generations of the Dibble family had run it previously. Several members of Surrey Trust’s management, Sir Edgar Vincent (alias “the Piccadilly Stallion”), Harry Redfern and William Madden, were influential on the Defence of the Realm Act Liquor Control Regulation’s Central Control Board, a body set up in 1915 to make pub management more responsible for preventing wartime drunkenness. The Wotton Hatch was renovated and extended several times from purchase until the 1930s, to make it “not a Ritz Palace but a quiet inn where the ordinary man and woman might be victualled at their ease...”

P.S. Hatch was a local term for a normally closed cow gate, across a public road over unfenced fields, of which there were once a dozen on this stretch of road, including one here at Wotton. Not a lot of people know that.

[Peter_L]

Quote Cargy " P.S. Hatch was a local term for a normally closed cow gate, across a public road over unfenced fields, of which there were once a dozen on this stretch of road, including one here at Wotton.
Not a lot of people know that." End Quote

I bet Michael Caine does.

Great information, thanks for posting.