This early Edwardian postcard shows increasing development
along Peperharow Road and is worth comparing with a picture
taken less than a decade earlier that is also on this
web site[1]. The
only vehicle on Peperharow Road is a hay cart on the bend close
to the bottom of Dean Road, the cul de sac on the right.
On the left hand side of the road are three new houses and
next to the hay cart are two strips bounded by close-boarded
fencing. The land either side of this fencing was to be built
on over the next few years (see the
next image) and it is possible that the fencing was in
preparation for that.
Dean Road had houses on both sides by this time and another
plot is fenced and appears to have work going on, but this
isn't totally clear. In the 1901 census[2],
the heads of household in Dean Road were Messrs. Heathorn,
Gale, Godwin, Jeffries and Burgess as well as Mrs. Brockelsby.
Two more properties were under construction at census time,
so there were fewer dwellings than appear in this photograph.
By 1911 some of the names on Dean Road had changed and the
household heads by then were Messrs. Hawkings, Russell, Godwin,
Kearvill, Cooke, Wheeler, Smith, Parsons, Mayne and Burgess;
two properties were uninhabited[2].
Charterhouse School is
also clearly visible on the top of the hill (top, right) and
there is a goal post on the edge of the plateau. Some of the
houses further along Peperharrow Road were built for the masters
of the school; Aldous Huxley, whose father was an Assistant
Classics Master at the school, was possibly born in one of
them[3].
Enlargement of the centre of the top image, showing Charterhouse
School's Old Sanatorium.
It was to the south of, and below, the field known as Green
and separated by a belt of coppice.
A second sanatorium was further along the road. Both were "out
of bounds" [4] to
healthy pupils.
Unfortunately for the viewer, no explanation is provided in
the card's message about the reason for the arrow. It could have
indicated where the school's bathing place was on the River
Wey.
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