Blackburn Cottages, Epsom Common

[Allan F Sparrow]

My grandmother, Louisa May Tichener (later Sparrow) was born at Blackburn Cottages in February 1882. I have seen a photograph of the cottages as they are now (joined into one, it seems) but I don't know exactly where they are. Anyone here have local knowledge? I used to live in Epsom, but I never knew the occupied part of the Common at all well. I've looked at all the old maps I can get hold of, but they only give names to buildings such as "The Cricketers"!

I would also like to know where Vine Cottages were, especially if they were anywhere near Blackburn Cottages. Someone in the family lived at 66 Bracken Path in 1917, and my grandmother sold a pair of cottages at 59 and 60 Bramble Walk in 1937: I can at least see those street-names on the maps!

Nothing vital hangs on this, just curiosity!

[elsinore]

There is an image of Blackburn Cottages here

https://www.epsomandewellhistoryexplo...SurnamesT.html

together with some nice information about the Ticheners and others.

The cottages seem to be on Bracken Path. You can view them on Google Streetview by looking northwest across the green from Bramble Walk.

Peter

[elsinore]

Even better - I didn't think Google Streetview extended onto Bracken Path but it does. So, you can stop outside the cottages and read the nameplate in the wall!

Peter

[Allan F Sparrow]

Thanks for this prompt interest!

I already knew the Epsom and Ewell site – it's where I saw the photoograph of Blackburn Cottages. I've also read the stuff on the Ticheners, and even provided a correction, though I don't think it's been included yet; at least it hadn't been when I last looked.

It's interesting to find the cottages are on Bracken Path: I wonder if they were number 66! I would still like to know where Vine Cottages were, however.

Allan

[Allan F Sparrow]

Thanks for this prompt interest!

I already knew the Epsom and Ewell site – it's where I saw the photoograph of Blackburn Cottages. I've also read the stuff on the Ticheners, and even provided a correction, though I don't think it's been included yet; at least it hadn't been when I last looked.

It's interesting to find the cottages are on Bracken Path: I wonder if they were number 66! I would still like to know where Vine Cottages were, however.

Allan

Correction: I just checked the Epsom site again, and my amendment has now been included! It used to say that Harry Oliver Tichener (my grandmother's brother) could not be found in the 1911 census; now it says, correctly, that he was living alone on Epsom Common as a farm worker.

I've also visited Google street view for the first time, and seen Blackburn Cottages. They seem to be still two dwellings, after all, though it looked otherwise on the other picture I had seen. Must look around again when I can find time.

Allan

[elsinore]

Had a poke around on the 1911 census and found a Vine Cottage (transcribed as Cottages) in South Street, Epsom, occupied by a John Crockford and his two daughters.

It also appears in a list of properties for sale on that same Epsom & Ewell site, as follows:

Clatford House, Bohemia and Albury, 3 roomy dwelling houses and Vine Cottage at the rear of above, a charming country cottage. 37, 39, 41 and 43 South Street.

However, it may no longer exist. Where it should be is now Rosebery Park.

Peter

[Allan F Sparrow]

Thanks again. The Vine Cottages I am looking for were probably different. In the 1881 census they are recorded as if they were well away from South Street, on the Common west of the railway as it now is. One of them was the residence of the man who reported the death of my grandmother's father in 1882, hence my interest in finding out whether they were near Blackburn Cottages; after all, there was a widow left behind, who might have reported the death herself.

Allan