THE MILES FAMILY Peter (1858-1937);
his wife, Kate (1858-1936); &
their daughter Gladys (1892-1914)

On the wall in the middle of the south aisle of Christ Church Epsom Common, about a foot apart, are the two pinkish-brown alabaster memorial tablets illustrated below. The pale stone makes the incised lettering quite hard to read. The text of the left hand tablet is “IN MEMORY OF KATE MILES / HER HUSBAND PETER MILES MADE A GIFT FOR THE / LIGHTING OF THIS CHURCH / NOVEMBER 1936” and, on the right “IN MEMORY OF GLADYS KATE / MILES. HER FATHER PETER MILES MADE A GIFT TO REBUILD / THE ORGAN OF THIS CHURCH / NOVEMBER 1936″.

Kate & Gladys Miles’ memorial tablets
Photographs by Roger Morgan © 2019

These seem as much (if not more) about remembering Peter Miles’ generosity rather than his wife and daughter. But, in case that was not sufficiently registered here, the point is reinforced by the text incised in the archway at the east end of the south aisle, illustrated below.

The record of Peter Miles’ gift
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2019

(The rebuilding of the organ was in memory of Christ Church’s founder and very long-serving Organist and Choir Master, George Good – whose memorial is incised in the stone on the other side of this archway.)

Peter was born Q1 1858 in East Horsley. His birth was registered in the Guildford District as “Peter Miles NICHOLLS”: his mother, Jane Nicholls (originally from Horsley), did not marry his father, Peter Miles (originally from Dorking), until Q3 1858, registered in the Reigate District. The family is not readily found in the 1861 Census. However, by the time of the 1871 Census the mid-30s parents (with Peter senior as a “Farm Labourer”) are recorded living on Epsom Common with the 13 year old Peter junior and three more children.

By the time of the 1881 Census, the 44 year old Jane is recorded living at Heaths Cottage on Epsom Common with two more children born since the 1871 Census. Neither Peter senior nor Peter Junior was at home, and Jane is listed as a “Laundress”.

Peter senior died in mid 1882. Peter junior returned home and the 1891 Census records him as the 33 year old head of the household at “The Cricketers Inn” on Stamford Green where his widowed mother, 53 year old Jane, is listed as the “Licensed Victualler”.

An early postcard of Stamford Pond, with “The Cricketers” beyond.
From Roger Morgan’s collection

On 6 October 1891, Peter (recorded as a “Publican”) married Kate Deane in Christ Church Epsom Common. They were both aged 33. Kate was the daughter of George (a local “Railway Engine Driver”) and Sarah Ann Deane. Gladys Kate, the couple’s only child, was born on 26 July 1892, and baptised in Christ Church on 25 September that year.

By the time of the 1901 Census, Jane had retired from “The Cricketers” and was living in the adjacent cottage. (She later moved to 8 Lintons Lane and died, aged 84, in December 1922.) Peter, however, had moved to be the “Licensed Victualler” at Ye Olde King’s Head in Church Street, opposite St Martin’s. By 1911, the family had moved again, to the “Railway Guard Inn” in Church Road (not to be confused with the “Railway Inn” in Epsom High Street that was lost when the eastern section was widened in the 1930s) where that year’s Census notes Peter as the “Licensed Victualler”.

Left: Ye Olde King’s Head.
Right: Railway Guard Inn
Images Courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum

Sadly, Gladys Kate died in mid-1914, aged only 21, and was buried in Grave A608 of Epsom Cemetery on 10 July. The Cemetery records note her address as 4 Ivy Cottages, Church Road, Epsom.

Peter and Kate later retired from inn-keeping and moved to “Rylstone”, 23 Windmill Lane, Epsom. They had somehow made significant money from their trade: when Kate died (aged 78) on 10 May 1936, the Probate records note that her estate was £3,557 (about a quarter of a million pounds at 2019 prices). She was buried in Epsom Cemetery on 14 May 1936 in Grave A609, the plot next to her daughter.

It was later that year, in November, that Peter made what the PCC minutes of 27 November 1936 refer to as “a very generous gift of £1,000 (about £75,000 at 2019 prices) … as a memorial to his late wife and daughter” with the wish that it “be allocated in the following manner: £150 for re-lighting the church, £750 for rebuilding the organ, and £100 to be placed on deposit, the income therefrom to accrue to future repairs to organ, lighting and heating.”

Peter died (aged 79) on 16 January 1937 – before any of the work at Christ Church that he had generously funded had even started. He was buried in Epsom Cemetery on 20 January in the same Grave (A609) as his wife, and also alongside their only child. The headstone illustrated below commemorates all three. The Probate records note his estate as £13,419 – getting on for a million pounds at 2019 prices.

The headstone over the family’s graves in Epsom Cemetery
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2019

Roger Morgan © 2019