The Knowle Society
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The Knowle Society
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CURRENT EXHIBITION Then & Now Fascinating contrasting photographs of historical views in Knowle taken from the Society's archives and juxtaposed with current or recent images.
A selection of recent past exhibitions and outlines of their contents follows below
A timely exhibition following the 2007 centenary of Scouting Mounted by the 1st Knowle Scout Group and 4th Knowle Sea Scout Group (The Knowle Society was grateful to the Scouts for providing this material while the Society's access to its own material was limited during library refurbishment)
A CENTURY OF CURTIS'S BAKERY [2007]
The Building 1801 -The Beaufoys - Four Generations of Kimbells The Thompsons - Henry Blundell - The Pickerings The 1970's Restoration - The Library Today The Knot Garden - Local History Centre - Origins of the Name
KNOWLE IN TRAFALGAR YEAR [2005] The Manor - The Church - Buildings - Transport - Health & Welfare Law & Order - Education - Sport & Leisure
Selection of Photographs from the Archives Scrap Books - Parish Magazines The Work of the Local History Centre
V. E. Day Party in Hampton Road, 1945 Last Days of War - Nine More Years of Rationing Some who Served - V. E. Day - Personal Memories - V. J. Day Those Who Died - War Graves at Knowle - Remembrance
The Red Lion about 1900 The Building - The Sign, Early References The Licensees - Colourful Customers - Scenes from the Yard Red Letter Days - The Bowling Club - The Wartime Lion and After
AMERICAN INTERLUDE - D-DAY [2004] An American Army Medical Unit in Knowle (1944) Knowle Men and Women in the Armed Services Fire Fighting - Air Raids - The Home Guard - Evacuees - Dig for Victory First Aid - Rationing - Fund Raising - Bakelite Ltd Research Laboratory
GUMLEY
WILSON, SQUIRE OF KNOWLE [ 2004]
Squire of Knowle -
The
Black Sheep of the Family A brilliant Latinist - Extravagant
& the ruin of his family Flight to America to avoid a
debtors’ prison - The end in a pauper’s grave In 1989 a group of London University students bought for £25 at a car boot sale in Ascot a solicitor's deed box labelled Guy Fleetwood Wilson - they fancied the box. Sir Guy was a distinguished man and the nephew of William Henry Bowen Jordan Wilson, who inherited the Manor of Knowle in the early 19th century. He was often called Gumley Wilson, after his estates in Gumley, Northamptonshire. The deed box contains papers relating to the Wilson family, apparently for use in the administration of Sir Guy’s estate, but including a postcard of The Wilson Arms, Knowle, Warwickshire, through which the students traced us. Sir Guy died in 1941, a 90 year old bachelor, whose only relations were a multitude of far-flung distant cousins. He had added a codicil to his will, which left the disposal of his residuary estate - the major part of it - unspecified, and which was therefore dealt with under the intestacy laws. As the cousins then put in a bid for their slice of the cake, the box contains a large number of birth and death certificates, together with depositions which had to be translated into a form acceptable to an English court in order to prove their identity. The estate took seven years to sort out. Gumley Wilson was wildly extravagant and caused misery to his family. He disposed of most of the family pictures and silver and was forced to sell the Knowle Hall Estate in 1849, although he retained the Lordship of the Manor until his death in 1887. Faced with a debtors’ prison, he bolted to America with his mistress, but eventually returned. Ending life with nothing but a few sticks of cheap furniture, he was buried in a pauper’s grave in Dulwich Cemetery. The papers in the deed box comprise letters, documents, notebooks, etc. They include Gumley Wilson’s death certificate, a letter in his own handwriting and several documents in which his ruined family felt no inhibitions in expressing their feelings about him in the frankest terms. Sir Guy spent much time and money trying to buy back the family property - his bitterness is all too plain. Judging by the acerbic correspondence which flew back and forth Gumley’s heir was little better - and at one point his French wife claimed to be pregnant in order to acquire what remained of the family property, whether genuinely or not is unclear. This box of papers has recently been sorted by Peter Court, who has done a first class job - including translation of letters in very difficult handwriting from the French. Some of the most interesting formed part of the Local History Centre display in the show cases (March to May 2004). Resist the temptation to smile. It was a family tragedy.
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©The Knowle Society 2008 - Last edited: 12 September 2008 |
