No 96

This page presents the history of 96 Langham Road, Teddington. The sources used are listed here.

Before 1898
National Liberal Land Corporation (later changing their name to National Land Corporation) bought the land on which Langham Road was built around 1881 – 1883, after which the site was referred to as the Teddington Weir estate. Construction of the road then began, and the company gradually auctioned off plots over the next few years. See here for more details

1898
Plots 159, 160 and 161 on Langham Road were sold to William Dennison, a brushmaker, of East Road, Kingston. (Number 96 sits on plot 159 plus a bit of plot 160). At the same time, National Land Corporation were released from an indenture taken out in 1891/1892 between NLC and Edward Bond of the “Bank, Hampstead” with plots 159, 160, 161 as security. ^13,17,18

1899
William Dennison sold on the 3 plots to William Henry Dearling, a “gentleman” living at Fairholme, Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill . William Dearling was a retired Licensed Victualler, who appears to have owned several plots in Langham Road. (In 1915 when he died he was living at Tregaron, 59 Langham Rd.)^13,18

On the same day William Dearling also purchased plots 162, 163, 164 in Langham Road from a William Rawlings, who had originally purchased the plots from the National Land Corporation earlier in the same month!^13,18

1902 – 1906
In February 1902 William Dearling sold on plots 159, 160 and 161 to Alexander Lawson, a builder living at Alma, Vicarage Road, Teddington. By the end of the year, two villas had been erected: Mona Villa and Greenhithe (which later became 96 and 98 respectively) – clearly based on the design for some other plots in Langham Road built by the same builders. ^13,15 See here for more information about the builders.

Then in December Alexander mortgaged Mona Villa and Greenhithe to Rev Arthur Edoe Kinch of Farnborough & Robilliard King-Stephens, a solicitor, of Teddington. Both houses were rented out by then: Mona Villa to a William Macquire, who appears to have lived there until about 1906.^13,16

1906 – 1922
Beatrice Mary Mackay took over the tenancy of Mona Villa and it was renamed Dolaguri. ^16,19

Beatrice had been born in Lincolnshire in 1862. Her father was a clergyman who in the 1890s moved to a new parish in Twickenham. Beatrice was unmarried and moved with her father to Waldegrave Park, Twickenham where she lived until his death in 1906 ^17,18.

In 1907 Alexander defaulted on the mortgage payments for numbers 96 & 98 and the properties were repossessed. Together with St Maur (no 104), they were then put up for auction by order of the mortgagees (The Chronicle, 1st March).^13,20

Mona Villa was purchased for £485 by Donald Sween Mackay, a York solicitor and brother to Beatrice, and Beatrice continued to live there.^11,13,17,19

The 1911 census shows Beatrice was living at no 96 with a servant: Selina Emma Goodenough from Walton on Thames.¹⁷

In 1921 Beatrice was sharing the house with Frederick William and Clarice Mary Wadey, and their one year old daughter, Joanne Clarice – possibly renting out rooms? Frederick had served as a sergeant in the Army Service Corps (Expeditionary Field Canteens) during WW1. Clarice had served with Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliaries. He and Clarice married in Rouen around 1918.^17,18

At the time of the 1921 census Beatrice was paying a visit to Yorkshire, while Frederick, Clarice and Joanne were at no 96, together with Clarice’s mother and sister. Later in the year the electoral register shows Beatrice there alone. Frederick and Clarice had moved to Atbara Road in Teddington.¹⁷

The following year Donald sold the house and Beatrice Mackay moved away to live in the Lancaster Gate area, where she seems to have rented a room in a house.¹⁷

1922 – 1954
Dolaguri was sold for £700 to two sisters of private means – Nina Beatrice & Mabel Violet Hobson (born in 1871 and 1873 respectively) – and they moved into the property. Nina and Mabel had previously been living in Kingston initially with their father, an actuary, and subsequently when their father remarried with their elder sister Winifred, who died in 1916.^17,18,19

Over the next few years the sisters had guests / domestic help living in – electoral rolls show Annie Green (1929-36) and Ellen Mahoney Crawt (1937). But in 1938 Mabel and Nina were living alone in Dolaguri.¹⁷

By 1947 Doris Mary Norman, Mabel and Nina’s unmarried niece, had moved in – maybe to help look after Mabel who died later that year. Before the war Doris had been living with her parents and working as a dance teacher, but her parents had both died during the war. Nina continued to live at Dolaguri after Mabel’s death, but Doris left and an Emmeline Rhodes moved in.^17,18

Nina died in 1950 and the house was inherited by her niece Doris Norman. Emmeline moved out and no 96 was rented out to Joseph & Gertrude Marley, who lived there with daughter June, June’s husband Arthur Keen, son Alan and daughter Pamela. They were joined soon after by June and Arthur’s baby son. Then in 1952 Joseph & Gertrude had another son of their own – Robert. ^17,18

1954 – 1978
After 4 years of renting, Doris sold the property in 1954 to her tenant Joseph Marley, at that time a millwright’s mate.¹⁹

Joseph Menzies Marley had been born in 1901 in Sunderland, the son of a postman. He joined the Durham Light Infantry and was posted to India where he served in Sialkot on the North West Frontier as a Lance Corporal. While there he met and married Gertrude Rose Howard in 1928. Gertrude was from Battersea and was born in 1911. It is likely that her father was at the time serving with the Suffolk regiment in Dalhousie.¹⁸

Around 1956/7 the Keens moved out, and Pamela’s new husband, William J Hawkins, moved in. Then in 1961 Alan’s future wife, Patricia Foard, moved in. More change in 1963 when Pamela and William Hawkins moved out, leaving the house occupied by Joseph and Gertrude, their sons Alan and Robert, and Alan’s wife Patricia. And then in 1967 Alan and Patricia moved out.¹⁷

The following year Joseph died leaving Gertrude as owner.¹⁸ She continued to live at No 96, and then in 1970 Robert (Bertie) Morley moved in. He had been born in 1903 in Wandsworth and was a widower living in Twickenham who had worked as a Commercial Traveller.¹⁷

In 1973 Gertrude married Bertie Morley. ¹⁸

1978 – 1983
Gertrude sold the property to  Derek Arthur & Clare Julie Hacking who took occupancy.¹⁹

1983 –
The Hackings sold the property to John & Liz Waters who still owned and lived in the property at the time of writing. ¹⁹