Thomas Ethelbert Page opened this boarding house on Hindhead Road, between Daviesites and Robinites on the top of Frith Hill, in 1875[1]
and ran it until he moved to the slightly larger Hodgsonites across the road at the end of
1880. The boys who lived in these three buildings during term time, as well as those in Hodgsonites and Bodeites, would have entered the school
grounds by crossing the bridge over Sandy Lane (now Charterhouse Road). They would return back to their house for meals.
There were some features that were common to all the boarding houses as each had two living rooms, one for the Upper School pupils, usually
called the Hall, and another for the Under School, mostly referred to as the Long Room or Under Long Room. They would all eat dinner in the
Long Room, but the Upper School ate breakfast and tea in the Hall[2].
The top image shows the outhouse in 1906, so just over 30 years since it had been built. Enough time for all the shrubs and trees to grow.
Amusingly, although there is a gate on the left, many preferred to walk round the edge - the grass there is flattened.
Thomas Page was an interesting man. He was born at Lincoln in 1850, where his father had been manager of the Lincoln and Lindsey Banking
Company[3] and educated firstly at Lincoln Grammar School; he then went to Shrewsbury where he
became head boy. From there he won a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge in 1869 and won numerous prizes. He was elected a Fellow
whilst at University [4].
Apart from his scholastic attainments, he was one of the first men to wear "Oxford Bags," and for half a century he remained faithful
to wide pepper-coloured trousers of remarkable cut, plus a black jacket and bowler hat. The story goes that when he was at Charterhouse he saw a
sample of this coloured cloth and was so pleased that he bought 100 yards of the material![5].
He was an active member of the Incorporated Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools and at a meeting in 1907 proposed a motion
that there should be a central body to look after the interests of the profession[6].
He retired from teaching in late 1910 and was already an Alderman and a Justice of the Peace in Godalming[7].
He and his family then moved to Woodcote, a substantial property a little further along the road.
Dr. Page was elected as one of the Governors of Charterhouse in 1913[8]. In 1924 the Freedom of the
Borough of Godalming was conferred on him. He had recently retired from the Town Council and had been in public service for 33 years as a councillor
and alderman. He was by this time an honorary doctor of literature of Manchester University, and a member of the governing bodies of Cranleigh,
Charterhouse and Shrewsbury schools. He served as a magistrate, was a member of Surrey County Council and was also on the Surrey Education Committee[9].
He was also a member of the Reform Club, where he would often go for lunch. In 1934 he was made a Companion of Honour for services to scholarship and
letters; he was then editor in chief of the Loeb Classical Library[10]. He passed away on 1 April 1936.
He was survived by his wife, Delamontte Caroline Eugenie, nee Toynbee, who ran the housekeeping side of the boys' boarding houses they lived in,
advertising for and appointing housekeepers, cooks, maids, cleaning staff. etc., over the years[11].
About 1955.
T. E. Page was succeeded as housemaster of Pageites in the Long Quarter (Spring Term) of 1881 by Rev. William Francis John Romanis[1]
who was another Cambridge graduate, this time from Trinity College. The 1891 census records him as a Clerk in Holy Orders and Assistant Master, living
with his wife, one child, two visitors and five staff as well as 40 boy boarders[12]. He moved to Weekites in 1896.
Reverend Francis Shepley Ramsbotham then took over Pageites, but retired from teaching in 1910[4] [13].
He then built Twycross, where he lived after retirement[14].
His successor was Alan Fenwick Radcliffe, who had had been a boy at Charterhouse, joined the staff in 1890 and became the Pageites housemaster in O.Q. 1910 (Oration Quarter, or
Autumn Term). He retired in 1929 and his funeral was held at Puttenham Cemetery in 1936[15]. Andrew L. Irvine then became housemaster.
There is a two storey flat roofed brick built extension on the second image, above, but it is unclear when this was added. The publisher of this postcard, Frith,
produced a very similar view in 1927 (their ref. 79371), which also showed this extension although it was not on their 1906 postcard (top).
Pageites was one of the very few outhouses to have been modernised in the 1960s[16]. Despite this,
the nineteenth century building was replaced by a new boarding house within the school grounds in early 1974[17], the third to
open after the decision to sell off the land on Frith Hill where many of the outhouses had been built.
Although the original Pageites was taken down after the pupils had moved out, the foundations of both it and the other nearby boarding houses were still
in situ in 1976. The new road along the top of the hill, Twycross Road, had not yet been built. A section of Farncombe Hill that went past the
Manor House was to be eventually renamed Huxley Close, although one section was to remain as somewhere for walkers and a short cut from Farncombe
station. The road surface is still underneath the debris from the overhanging trees. The bottom section is still called Farncombe Hill today.
Read more about what happened to Robinites and the other outhouses in the 1960s and 70s,
including the Markenhorn project.
Other Charterhouse "outhouses" built in the 19th century
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