george nottridge

 

Subject Name :  George Nottridge
                            (b1810 – d 1884)

Researcher :      Pauline Sieler

 

George Nottridge came from a family of nursery labourers, working at the Goldsworth Nursery which was an important part of Woking’s history for over 200 years.

George was born on 27th September 1810, the third of nine children for James and Mary Nottridge 1, 2. He was baptised at St Peter’s Church, Old Woking, on 28th October.

The Goldsworth Nursery where the Nottridges worked had been established in the 18th Century for the growing of trees and shrubs, specialising in rhododendrons, and later fruit trees, azaleas and camellias 3, 4.  Rhododendrons had been introduced to Great Britain and became popular for game-bird cover on hunting estates. The Woking area in the 19th Century had large areas devoted to nurseries for growing and development of a wide variety of ornamental plants which flourished in the sandy soil, otherwise poor for general agriculture.

The Goldsworth Nursery was one of the most well-known, and in 1828, at the time when 18-year-old George and his father James were almost certainly working there, the editor of ‘The Gardener’s Magazine’, J.C. Loudon, praised the philosophy of nursery owner Robert Donald. 

‘The men employed here are not gardeners who have come in to work for a few weeks or months …. but local labourers who know nothing more of gardening than the performance of the operations of nursery culture which they have been taught, and which they continue to perform year after year till they attain a higher degree of perfection in them than professed gardeners’. 

Loudon went on to note that Robert Donald had built cottages on his land for his workmen to live in ‘which does credit to him as a liberal-minded man’.

After George’s father James had passed away in 1834, the 1841 Census showed George, aged 30, living in Goldsworth with his widowed mother Mary, 59, and his siblings Richard (27) and Sarah (20) 5, 6.  George and Richard were noted on the Census as ‘ag lab’ (agricultural labourers), going in line with the Goldsworth Nursery ‘job description’ in the 1828 Gardeners’ Magazine article.

The 1851 Census showed four of the Nottridge brothers almost certainly ‘labourers’ at the Goldsworth Nursery 7.  George was an unmarried 40-year-old, living with brother John, 25, and their mother Mary, 68, in Cripplegate, Goldsworth. This would have been Cripplegate Cottage, now a listed building, in St John’s Road 8. Also in Goldsworth was brother William and his family, with brother Richard and his wife Lydia close by at January Hill (now Janoway Hill) 9, 10.  A fifth brother, James, was a labourer living with his family on a farm next to Goldsworth 11.

George and his brothers would now have been working for Robert Donald junior, who took over the running of the Goldsworth Nursery following the death of his father in 1848 12.  One of Robert Donald’s first jobs was to be responsible for the landscaping and planting of shrubs and conifers at the Brookwood Cemetery which opened in 1854 13. 

The 1861 Census was the first to confirm that George’s place of work was the Goldsworth Nursery 14.  George, 50, his 35-year-old brother John and their mother Mary, 78, were living at the 200-acre nursery alongside the owner Robert Donald 15.

Later in 1861, George married Sarah Spong 16.  Sarah was around ten years older, a nurse, and the widow of gardener John Spong who had died earlier that year 17.  Sarah and John Spong were not recorded at the same address in either the 1851 or 1861 Censuses, so they may not have been living as a couple for some time 18.

George’s mother Mary passed away in Goldsworth in December 1862, aged 79 of ‘general decay of nature’ 20. The health of George and Sarah was soon a cause for concern too, as the Guildford Union Poor Law accounts for the six-month period up to Lady Day (25th March) 1864 showed them receiving relief for ‘own & wife’s illness’ 21.  Six years later, George, 60, and 70-year-old Sarah were inmates of the Guildford Union Workhouse.  There are no admission records for the Workhouse, but the Poor Law accounts showed that they spent most of the next 12 months there. 

At the time of the 1871 Census, George and Sarah were out of the Workhouse, lodging with George’s widowed sister-in-law Lydia Nottridge at January (Janoway) Hill 21. Lydia’s husband Richard, George’s brother, had passed away just a few weeks earlier 22.  George was noted on the Census as an ‘ag lab’, but it is not known whether this meant he was still working at the Goldsworth Nursery.

George was widowed on 6th February 1877 when Sarah died in the Guildford Union Workhouse aged 77 from ‘old age’ 23.  He also lost his sister-in-law Lydia three months later 24.

George was in the Guildford Union Workhouse when the 1881 Census was taken 25.  Now 70, it seems likely that George spent the rest of his life as an inmate, passing away there from bronchitis on Christmas Day 1884 aged 74 26.  He was buried five days later at the church where he had been baptised, St Peter’s, Woking 27. 

George, along with brothers Richard, William, John and their father James had all worked in the nurseries around Woking.

The Goldsworth Nursery continued in business until it was sold for development in the early 1970s and is now the site of the Goldsworth Park Estate 28.

 

December 2020, updated August 2024

References

The source for all records is FindMyPast.co.uk, unless otherwise noted.  Spellings are as written on official records.

  1. George Notteridge 27 Sep 1810 birth, 28 Oct 1810 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1809-1812; ref WOKP/2/1
  2. James Notteridge 4 Jan 1806 birth, 2 Feb 1806 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1770-1808; ref WOKP/1/3; page 113
    Elizabeth Notteridge 29 May 1808 birth, 26 Jun1808 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1770-1808; ref WOKP/1/3; page 122
    Richard Notteridge 21 Mar 1813 baptism England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975; Woking, Surrey; FamilySearch Intl
    Jane Notteridge 12 Nov 1815 baptism England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975; Woking, Surrey; FamilySearch Intl
    William Notteridge  14 Sep 1818 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; ref WOKP/2/2; page 38
    Sarah Notteridge  18 Feb 1821 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; ref WOKP/2/2; page 55
    Hannah Notteridge  14 Dec 1823 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; ref WOKP/2/2; page 77
    John Nottridge  26 Mar 1826 baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Baptisms; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; ref WOKP/2/2; page 97
  3. Nurserymen to the World The Nursery Gardens of Woking and North-West Surrey and plants introduced by them 1989 Author and Publisher EJ Willson
    Surrey Nursery Records     Surrey History Centre; Woking Surreycc.gov.uk
    Goldsworth & Knaphill Nurseries – Home of the Rhododendrons 2014 Author Iain Wakeford WokingHistory.org
    Walter Charles Slocock & The Expansion of Goldsworth Old Nursery 2015 Author Iain Wakeford WokingHistory.org
  4. Goldsworth Nursery, near Woking, Mr. Donald, F.H.S. May 13 1826 The Gardener’s Magazine and Register of Rural and Domestic Improvement; 1828; Volume 111; Art VIII; Calls at Suburban Gardens; pages 122-3; author JC Loudon Biodiversity Heritage Library BiodiversityLibrary.org
  5. James Nottridge 14 Dec 1834 burial National Burial Index for England & Wales; Woking, St Peter; age 57
  6. Mary, George, Richard, Sarah, James, Mary Nottridge 1841 England Census for Goldsworth Cottage, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1080; book 7; folio 27; page 13
  7. Mary, George, John Nottridge 1851 England Census for Cripplegate, Goldsworth, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1594; folio 109; page 28
  8. Cripplegate Cottage, 174, St John’s Road, Woking National Heritage List for England; Listed Building; Grade II   HistoricEngland.org.uk
  9. William, Ann, Elizabeth, James, Jane, Lucy Nottridge 1851 England Census for Goldsworth, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1594; folio 107; page 24
  10. Richard, Lydia Nottridge 1851 England Census for January’s Hill, Goldsworth, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1594; folio 109; page 28
  11. James, Sarah, Mary, William, John Nottridge 1851 England Census for Royal Oak Farm, Goldsworth, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1594; folio 109; page 29
  12. Robert Donald 11 Dec 1848 burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Burials; Woking, St John 1842-1874; ref WOKJ/4/1; page 9
  13. Brookwood Cemetery The Heritage of Woking, An Historic Conservation Compendium (as amended 2000) Woking Borough Council Woking.gov.uk
  14. Mary, George, John Nottridge 1861 England Census for Goldsworth Nursery, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference RG09; piece 424; folio 132; page 10
  15. Robert, Maria Donald 1861 England Census for Goldsworth Nursery, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference RG09; piece 424; folio 132; page 9
  16. George Nottridge & Sarah Spong Oct-Nov-Dec 1861 marriage England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005; Guildford, Surrey; volume 2A; page 96
  17. John Spong & Sarah Stedman 9 Apr 1820 marriage West Surrey Family History Society; Surrey Marriages; Woking
    John Spong     Apr-May-Jun 1861 death England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007; Kingston, Surrey; volume 2A; page 119
  18. John, Sarah, Hannah, George, Daniel, Sarah, Eliza, Emma, Rose, Stephen, Ann Spong 1841 England Census for Fish Ponds, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; book 7; folio 12; page 16
    John, Emma, Stephen, Ann, Martha Spong 1851 England Census for Mayford, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1594; folio 53; page 3
    John Spong 1861 England Census for Richmond Grove, Kingston, Surrey; reference RG9; piece 456; folio 145; page 25
    Sarah Spong 1851 England Census for Saunders Lane, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference HO107; piece 1594; folio 89; page 32
    Sarah, Stephen Spong 1861 England Census for Westfield, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference RG9; piece 424; folio 160; page 21
  19. Mary Nottridge 6 Dec 1862 death England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007; Oct-Nov-Dec 1862; Guildford, Surrey; volume 2A; page 24
    Digital copy from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  20. George Nottridge, Sarah Nottridge Guildford Poor Law Half Yearly Accounts 1864-1871; BG6/33/1 Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking, Surrey  Surreycc.gov.uk
  21. Lydia, George, Sarah Nottridge 1871 England Census for January’s Hill, Woking, Guildford, Surrey; reference RG10; piece 807; folio 19; pages 4 & 5
  22. Richard Nottridge 22 Feb 1871 burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Burials; Woking, St John 1842-1874; ref WOKJ/4/1; page 87
  23. Sarah Nottridge 8 May 1877 death England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007; Apr-May-Jun 1877; Guildford, Surrey; volume 2A; page 43
    Digital copy from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
    Sarah Nottridge  14 May 1877 burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Burials; Woking, St Peter 1867-1932; ref WOKP/5/2; page 33
  24. Lydia Margaret Nottridge 6 Aug 1877 burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Burials; Woking, St John 1874-1886; ref WOKJ/4/2; page 18
  25. George Nottridge 1881 England Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke Next Guildford, Guildford, Surrey; reference RG11; piece 778; folio 94; page 9
  26. George Nottridge 25 Dec 1884 death England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007; Oct-Nov-Dec 1884; Guildford, Surrey; volume 2A; page 53
    Digital copy from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  27. George Nottridge 14 May 1877 burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Burials; Woking, St Peter 1867-1932; ref WOKP/5/2; page 33
  28. Work starts on mini-town development 17th Aug 1973 Surrey Advertiser and County Times, page 25