Bakers Cottages

The Borough Memorial Plaque at 222 Chessington Road reads
“BAKER COTTAGES
Home of the Baker family,
powder monkeys, builders
and local newsagents”.

However there is some doubt about the exact location of ‘Bakers Cottages’ as one of the Baker family was a builder and built many homes locally, some of which have since been replaced by later buildings.

The Baker Family has long been associated with Ewell.  In 1863 James Baker was one of the three men who died in a Gunpower Mill explosion.  In his notebook the Reverend George Glyn, Bart., Vicar of Ewell wrote:

20 April 1863
An awful catastrophe occurred last Wednesday morning, the 15th at 6.a.m. Three men, James Baker, Henry Hockham and a single man, Weverman, only lately come, had just begun work in the corning house at the powder mills when it blew up and instantly scattered their bodies in mangled pieces over the adjoining fields. Baker has left a widow and six young children, Hockham an elderly man has only left a widow and two daughters, grown up, one married the other a widow. Baker and Hockham were buried in the new churchyard on Saturday, a sum of £200 14s 6d was subscribed and invested in Ewell savings bank in the name of the Vicar and Churchwardens for the sole benefit of Widow Baker.

Aftermath of the April 1863 Ewell Gunpowder Mill Explosion

Much of what we know of the family comes from a conversation Jeremy Harte (Museum Curator) had with Len Baker. 6 October 1989.

His great-grandfather was the James William Baker,  who died in 1863 in the explosion at the gunpowder mills. He married Ann Herning. the daughter of Homing who was landlord of the Lord Nelson in Ewell. After he died. Ann married again. to a man called Godfrey.

By the first (Baker) marriage, Ann had at least five children — Jack, William James (Len’s grandfather). Jo. Robert. and Louise. By the second (Godfrey) marriage, she had two sons. Fred and Bill Uncle Fred was a carpenter. and he used to be a lamplighter as well. After this finished. Len’s father took the pole and used it for getting things down at the shop in Chessington Road — Len still has it.

Uncle Bill used to make his money building. then he would disappear for a while, and would be found drunk behind a hedge. He lived at Mogador and ended up as a tramp, or at least as a gentleman of the road.

Uncle Jack was a horse dealer (by other accounts he was a horse thief). He lived in the cottages at the back of the Chessington Road shop and he ended up at 2 Chalk Lane.

When his wife died, he sent the children to Canada. except Aunt May and Edmund, who were brought up by their uncle and aunt (Lens grandparents). The children in Canada – all daughters — got on well and in the War one of their sons was over here and made contact.

William James Baker (but he was always known as Jim) married a woman called Fenning from Surbiton, and they were Len’s grandparents. Jim served his apprenticeship in Epsom. at Dorsets.

Uncle Jo and his wife Alice lived in the house next to Bakers Field on the Longmead side, by the bridleway. Bakers Field is on the left as you leave Longmead and go down Chessington Road; they used to make hay there. Uncle Jo was the builder, he built Oakdale Road and other houses along Chessington Road. He drank whiskey. He died just before the 30s. After that Alice had the proceeds and lived with a companion.

Uncle Robert was in India and died of disease before demobbing. Aunt Loo kept a bakery.  She had one child, a daughter.

William James (Jim) had a son Walter Baker, who married Florence Eliza Godfrey (she had a Russian grandmother). These were Len’s parents. They kept the shop in Chessington Road: this was built by a local carpenter, and not very well; his mother fell into the cellar, which is now filled in. This cellar was where the tobacconist’s jars were. The cottages at the back were known as Stones Cottages

W. Baker newsagents at 224 Chessington Road with Walter Baker in the doorway. The news boards at the front report the General Strike 1926

From looking at early 1900’s voters lists for Chessington Road we know:

• George Baker Lived in Lintrathan, Chessington Road,
• James Joseph Baker, a carpenter, lived in one of two freehold cottages in Chessington Road
• John Baker, a Cab Man, lived in Chessington Road (May not be related)
• William James Baker, a Hot Water Engineer,  lived at 2 Downs View Chessington Road.

Borough Memorial Plaque

The Baker Cottages are “stop 13” on the Ewell Heritage Trail devised in 2005 to celebrate The Rotary Club of Ewell’s 50th Anniversary (and the centenary of Rotary International). Like most of the other points of interest on the trail, it is marked by a Borough memorial plaque, as illustrated below.

BAKER COTTAGES
As the plaque notes, these were the “Home of the Baker family,
powder monkeys, builders and local newsagents”.
Photographs by Roger Morgan © 2023