UPDATE No. 21

SNELLS PARK

In about 1908, Samuel South(2) moved from Tottenham Terrace to 39, Snells Park, Edmonton, where he lived with his family until the further move to River House in 1917. His father Samuel(1) lived at no 43. ".......our own house there was quite large, one of a pair, three floors and a side entrance as no tradesman used the front door. Coal was emptied through a covered hole just by the side door. We always had a maid, complete with cap and apron." (Gladys). "....our house had about 9 rooms" (Hilda). Snells Park was the site of a large house and grounds occupied by the Snell family. It was sold in 1848/49 for housing development. In later  years the housing  stock was allowed to deteriorate and the estate was demolished in the 1950's and replaced with local authority housing and flats. The street pattern, however, remains as it was at the time the Souths' lived there The three eldest children (L to R) Hilda May (1902-1995), Gladys Ella (1906-2001), Elsie Emily Maud (1900-1977), of  Samuel(2), stand at the gate of 39, Snells Park circa 1908.

SAMUEL(1)

Samuel South(1) married Alice Barnard on 25 July 1875, 16 months after Samuel South(1) married Alice Barnard his father, Joseph(1) and stepmother, emigrated to New Zealand. The photograph (right) is the earliest of Samuel(1) and Alice discovered to date. It is believed to have been taken circa 1879 probably in the garden of 26, Angel Lane, Edmonton, the former home of his father. At that time, Samuel(1) continued to operate the nearby Dysons Road pottery that he had bought from his father. The move to White Hart Lane, Tottenham did not take place for another 7 years. The eldest of his 10 children, Samuel(2) (1876-1956), Alice (1879-1959) sit on the laps of their parents.

SNELLS PARK(2)

Hilda Beech has left some memories of her childhood at Snells Park (see above):  "My memory was of almost a kind of "village life" with a mixed population. Mr Lawman the Relieving Officer lived in a house opposite us. There was a small building in one garden and I was given to understand it had been a schoolroom. Next to us was a family named Atkins who ran, from a large building in their garden, a flourishing laundry. There was a mulberry tree in the garden and we used the leaves to feed our silk worms. I went, as did other members of the family, to St James School until going to the Latimer School. The sweet shops kept by Collier and Barker were well used by the children at the St James School. I have vivid memories of the 1914 war. Wardens patrolled the ward and, if you wanted to be roused if there was a raid, a P. card was put in the window. I well remember the Zeppelin raids and seeing the Zep in the sky. All very exciting for a child."

CLAY HILL

The conveyancing history of River House in Update 19 described the transfer of the land and property to members of the Baker family byJohn Edward Ford. When Ford redeemed the mortgage from the Bakers on 5 April 1897, the reconveyance of the land to him was endorsed by T Naughton "A Commissioner appointed to take acknowledgements of married women" as follows:- "This deed was this day produced before me and acknowledged by Mary Louisa Dove [formerly Baker] therein named to be her act and deed previous to which acknowledgement the said Mary Louisa Dove was examined by me separately and apart from her husband touching upon her knowledge of the contents of the said deed and her consent thereto and declared the same to be freely voluntarily executed by her and I declare that I am not interested or concerned either as as a party or as a Solicitor or clerk to the Solicitor for one of the partners or otherwise in the transaction giving occasion for the said  Acknowledgement" Dated this fifth day April One thousand eight hundred and ninety seven T Naughton 56 New Broad Street London A Commissioner appointed to take acknowledgements of married women  Until the enactment of the Married Woman's Property Act 1882, which became effective in 1883, a woman lost control of her property to her husband upon their marriage ("Husband and wife are one person, and that person is the husband"). However, it is assumed that the act was not retrospective and, therefore, that Maria Louisa Baker married Ezekial Dove between the transfer of the mortgage in August 1882 and the enactment thus requiring the protection of the Commissioner when reconveying the land on order to ensure that it was a voluntary act not undertaken at the behest of her husband. It was not long before Ford had entered another deal and on the 9 October 1897 had granted a mortgage of £17,740 for the sale of the Clay Hill land to William John Macqueen, a brick merchant of Army and Navy Mansions, Victoria Street, Westminster, on an escalating interest subject to Macqueen covenanting to erect at agreed intervals 225 houses "at a prime cost of not less than Three hundred pounds each" on or before 29 December 1901. The Indenture also said:- "And also that he will not remove from the said premises brick earth brick clay or bricks but will remove all bricks made upon the said premises for building the houses and other erections thereon" "Provided always and it is hereby lastly agreed and declared that the Mortgagor shall be permitted make bricks upon the said premises for the building of the houses and other erections thereon and to that end the brick earth or brick clay in the said premises" The houses were to be built on the land now occupied by the White Hart Lane Housing Estate developed by Tottenham Council in the late 1930s, but, in the event, none were constructed by Macqueen who was in breach the covenant to erect the first fifty dwellings by the 29 December 1898. The mortgage was redeemed and by an Indenture of the 27 March 1899, the land reverted to Ford. This is a test KLB 12/99