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Flooding at A. Lodge & Co, 259 High Street, Brentford

Howard Webb sent this postcard image showing firemen pumping water out of the flooded basement of A. Lodge & Co., 259 High Street.

The same image appears in Chiswick & Brentford by Patrick Loobey; he dates it to 1906. It also features in The Archive Photograph Series Brentford compiled by Carolyn and Peter Hammond; they note the firemen are wearing their work-a-day flat caps rather than brass helmets.

In the window 'Practical Weighing Machinists'. A crowd of schoolboys and older men have gathered to watch.

Howard sent a scan of the back of the card. It reads:
As you will see by the back I shall be at home this week. Hope this will reach you on Sunday morning.
____________ A ______________

The card is postmarked Brentford 8.15 pm Nov 3 1906 and addressed to:
Miss M. Stimpson,
Gordon House,
Gordon Road,
Hinksey
Oxford

The message suggests the writer worked at Lodge's and that the flooding was a recent event. Perhaps 'A' was a son? On a hunch, a search for a marriage between Lodge and Stimpson using FreeBMD found a promising one: Arthur Richard Lodge married May Annie Stimpson in 1910, Oxford registration district.

Searches of the 1901 census found the couple: May Annie was living with her parents, Barnard and Julia Stimpson, and siblings, at 17 Gordon Street, Oxford. Her father was a college servant.

Arthur Richard Lodge, 19, born Bermondsey, was living with his parents Arthur and Emily Lodge and siblings at 75 Whitestile Road, Old Brentford. His father was a weighing machinist.

The 1911 census shows Arthur Lodge senior, Emily and five of their children at 259 High Street, Old Brentford; Arthur Richard Lodge and his wife's home was 12 Gordon Street Oxford; like his father, Arthur was a weighing machinist.

A few notes about no. 259 High Street.

Published August 2021