The Fernhurst Society
Tales from the Archives - 12
Tudor Gardens? Tudor Gardens??
No, you’re right, the name ‘Tudor Gardens’, the new housing development next to Fernhurst Club on the main road, does not refer to the architecture!
In fact, it commemorates a family who did a great deal for the village in the early 20th century. Without Owen Scripps Tudor we would have no village hall. Without is daughter Alice there would probably be no Fernhurst Revels and crowning of the May Queen.
Owen Scripps Tudor, born in London in 1836, built up a successful business in the Argentine and brought his family to Fernhurst in March 1905. They rented Friday’s Hill House until it became a school, moved to Nirvana in Midhurst Road and thence to his new house Heart’s Delight.
He purchased a large plot of glebe land from the church – at one time all the land surrounding what is now Glebe Road belonged to him. Within a few years he leased a parcel of land for the rent of five shillings a year for the building of the village hall and also donated the not inconsiderable sum of £250 towards the building costs, which was opened in 1909.
He also built The Hostel of the Good Shepherd in Glebe Road – to be supported by the rent from a pair of semi-detached houses in the main road called The Laurels. Other organisations which benefitted from his generosity were the church and Fernhurst football team.
(Part 2, Alice Tudor to follow)
If you would like to know more about this story, or research other local topics, the Archive is open on Tuesdays, 2.30-5pm in the Village Hall. Other times by arrangement.
Christine Maynard
Fernhurst ArchiveOne of a series of short articles bringing you some of the incidents from our rich village history. Collated by Christine Maynard, based on documents preserved at the Fernhurst Archives, these originally were published in the monthly Fernhurst News.
The Fernhurst Archives
Fernhurst History
