Parish of Leatherhead - Marjorie Goodger 1913-2007
from the December 2007 magazine
Marjorie Goodger, née Langworthy, whose ashes were interred in the churchyard in October, was a member of an old Leatherhead family well known in the area for many years around the beginning of the last century. Born in 1913, Marjorie was brought up by her mother, Nellie, living with her grandparents William and Annie Hill at 27 Poplar Road when her father was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. (CPO George Langworthy together with his brother-in-law George Hill is commemorated on the town's War Memorial).The family had previously lived at Gravel Hill. Next to the retirement bungalows built on the site of Windfield, and now re-numbered, the Still family of Windfield owned two old houses, at 27 lived William Hill the estate gardener and at 25 Mr Cook the chauffeur.
Mrs Still took a kindly interest in Marjorie and offered to pay for her private education, but Nellie was a proud woman and turned down the offer. Marjorie had a lifelong love of the beautiful countryside surrounding the town. She remembered some of the original large houses such as Givons Grove, and talked of garden parties and fetes at Vale Lodge and Thorncroft in the 1920s and 1930s.
During the Great War she heard the guns in France from the Sussex Downs. She remembered the town's horse-drawn fire engine and its horses having to be brought when necessary from their stables around the town; the Swan Hotel, the construction of the Mickleham by-pass; the chimes of the clock on the School for the Blind; Mr Humphries the butcher; and the shop owned by the two Misses Grantham in Poplar Road. Among her happiest memories were the dances held at the Institute.
If you have memories to add or a photo of Marjorie, please contact Frank Haslam, the editor of these pages.