The Henderson and Chattington Families
| including the Dawes, James, Cooling, Ronald, Skingley,Wells, Woods surnames. | |
| Derek Henderson inherited a considerable number of family photographs from his father and has made some available for use on this website. They give the essence of a family with Redhill and Reigate connections and record a little of the passing of the years in those towns, Redhill especially, as there are one or two with local scenes as a background. Some members of the later generations of the family are still local but the period covered by the photos is a fairly short one, generally the first sixty years of the 20th century, enough for the generations and the times to change considerably. Derek also supplied the text and the majority of the caption wording. |
| Please note that pictures may not be reproduced without prior permission of Derek Henderson. |
| Pictures are numbered for reference. |
| The Henderson / Wells Family | ||
| The Hendersons originated in the Scottish highlands. Henry Henderson came south to join the Metropolitan Police in the 190%s, where he met and married Londoner Rose Wells. They had three children, Harry, George and Marjorie. Henry died prematurely in 1924. Rose's brother Harry and his wife Bessie ran a grocery shop in Holmesdale Road in Reigate. When they decided to retire to Sussex, Rose moved from the Bromley area to take over the shop, and Harry and Bessie looked after George for several years. But when Rose got her affairs on a sounder footing he returned to her in Reigate, where he went to secondary school and after that took up an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. He met my mother Eileen Chattington in the 1930s. At the end of the war, Rose, Marjorie and her two children Jackie and Ross moved to Sussex, and the shop was taken over by Harry Henderson and his wife Peggy. | ||
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| Henry Henderson, b1887, here
photographed by a West Croydon photographer c1910 (Derek Henderson collection) |
Rose Henderson, nee Wells,
c1910 (Derek Henderson collection) |
Rose (née Wells) & Henry
Henderson photographed by Lybley & Co of Anerley in
Bromley in Kent. They were married in Lambeth in SW
London in December 1912. (Derek Henderson collection) |
| The three Henderson children, Marjorie, Harry and George | ||
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| Rose's brother Harry Wells and
his wife Bessie with Rose's son, George, probably at
Holmesdale Road, Reigate, c1920. (Derek Henderson collection) |
Marjorie, George and their
mother, Rose Henderson, probably at 54 Holmesdale Road in
1939 (Derek Henderson collection) |
Harry Henderson 1939 (Derek Henderson collection) |
| Simple Family Tree |
 |
| The above tree explains the
relationships between those people shown above and in
further pictures below (Tree drawn for explanotory purposes by Alan Moore) |
| The Chattington / Dawes Family | ||
| The Dawes appear to have been Greater Londoners originally. Arthur Dawes ran a pub in Wandsworth. He and his wife Kate, nee James, had nine children, Mary, Edith, Arthur, Elsie, Walter, Daisy, Stanley, Lily and Dorothy. |  7 |
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| Arthur and Katie Dawes (Derek Henderson collection) |
Their daughter, Mary Dawes,
aged about 25 in 1910. (Derek Henderson collection) |
| John Chattington marries Mary Dawes | ||
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 10 |
|
| Above: - John Chattington in
1911 when he married Mary Dawes (far right). (Derek Henderson collection) |
John & Mary Chattington
with their daughters Kath (front) & Eileen c1917 (Derek Henderson collection) |
|
Henry Chattington worked at the tanyard as a Tanner's beamsman as did his son John (b1858). John married and had two children but his wife died early. Three years later in 1911, John married Mary Dawes and they had a further three children, Kath, Eileen and Stan. When they married Henry's address was 59, Garlands Road, Redhill and Mary's was Alma Road, Reigate. At some point they moved to the terraced cottage at 27 Oakdene Road opposite the tanyard. The children were brought up there. |
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| Stan with his father John Chattington c1921 out the back of 27 Oakdene Road with rabbit hutches (Derek Henderson collection) | John and Mary Chattington in
the garden of the house at Oakdene Road 1930s (Derek Henderson collection) |
l-r Eileen, Mary and Kath
Chattington with Stan in front in the late 1920s. (Derek Henderson collection) |
 14 |
||
| In this school group from
around 1928 Eileen Chattington is 3rd from right in the
back row (Derek Henderson collection) |
||
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| Eileen Chattington in Redhill
High Street in the early 1930s. The picture was taken
before traffic lights were installed in 1934, hence the
presence of a policeman on point duty. (Derek Henderson collection) |
Eileen Chattington in the
garden of the house in Oakdene Road early 1930s (Derek Henderson collection) |
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| George Henderson and Eileen
Chattington 1930s (Derek Henderson collection) |
George Henderson with his
mother Rose Henderson 1939 (Derek Henderson collection) |
 19 |
| Wedding of George Henderson to
Eileen Chattington at St Matthew's Church 4 Dec 1940. L-R
unknown, Peggy and brother Harry Henderson, mother Rose
Henderson, George and Eileen. Sister Marjorie Skingley,
Eileen's sister Kath , baby David and father Bob Cooling,
Eileen's mother Mary Chattington (nee Dawes) and Maurice
Cooling. (Derek Henderson collection) |
 20 |
 21 |
| Stan Chattington with his
mother Mary in the garden of the house in Oakdene Road
early 1930s (Derek Henderson collection) |
Stan Chattington (left) and
unknown boy in Oakdene Road by the tanyard with horse and
cart (milkman or baker?) c1921. The tanyard has gone but
Oakdene Road retains much of its character. (Derek Henderson collection) |
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| Stan Chattington 1939 (Derek Henderson collection) |
Wedding of Stan Chattington to
Sylvia Woods c1940 (Derek Henderson collection) |
Stan Chattington proudly
showing off his first car (Austin 10) late 1940s outside
the tanyard in Oakdene Road (Derek Henderson collection) |
 25 |
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| Kath (top right) & Eileen
(bottom left) Chattington in Brownie uniforms c1920 (Derek Henderson collection) |
Kath Chattington (left) and sister Eileen with Bob Cooling, possibly on Wray Common, late 1930s (Derek Henderson collection) | Wedding of Kath Chattington to
Bob Cooling (Derek Henderson collection) |
 28 |
| Bob & Kath's wedding 24
August 1936 - l-r Bob's father, Bob's half-brother
Arthur, Bob's stepmother, Bob, Kath, Stan and Mary
Chattington and Kath's cousin Gloria. (Derek Henderson collection) |
 29a Harry Henderson's wedding to Margaret Ronald on 12 October 1939 (Margaret was known as Peggy) L-R George Henderson, unknown man, Betty Wells, Harry Henderson, Peggy's father, Peggy, Marjorie Henderson*, Charlie Wells, Peggy's mother, unknown lady. (Derek Henderson collection) *Marjorie Henderson appears below in picture 29b |
 29b |
 29c |
| The wedding of Marjorie
Henderson to Jack Skingley 18th November 1940. Jack was
killed in 1944 (photo courtesy Jackie Maude) |
PC Skingley on duty late 1930s (photo courtesy Jackie Maude) |
| Jack Skingley joined the RAF in 1942. He was awarded the DFC and was killed in a bomber raid over Belgium in 1944. Jack and Marjorie's children Jackie and Ross were born in Reigate in 1941 and 1944. Fuller details about Jack's police career can be found on the Reigate Borough Police page on this website. | |
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| L-R Sylvia Chattington with
daughter Carole, Eileen Chattington with her nieces David
& Maurice Cooling, Stan Chattington holding baby
Derek Henderon (supplier of these photos) in 1943. The
reason Stan is in civvies is that he was invalided out of
the army after being crippled in one leg at Dunkirk. (Derek Henderson collection) |
Sylvia, Carole and Stan
Chattington outside their house in Earlswood c1945 (Derek Henderson collection) |
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| Two pictures
of Mary Chattington (nee Dawes) outside no.27 Oakdene
Road in the 1930s (left) and in 1960. (Both pictures Derek Henderson collection) |
|
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| Outside 27 Oakdene Road in the
late 1950s. L-R George Henderson, Mary Chattington, young
Peter Henderson (brother of Derek Henderson who supplied
the pictures on this page, Carole Chattington with
friend, Sylvia Chattington and Eileen Henderson. (Derek Henderson collection) |
Stan and Sylvia Chattington
standing by their car in Oakdene Road. Behind them is buildings of the old tannery that have since been demolished. (Derek Henderson collection) |
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| This view west down Okdene Road
taken from same place as picture 35 above shows the road
and houses that replaced the tannery. (photo by Alan Moore) |
View towards east (towards
Redhill) taken in Oakdene Road at the end of February
2009. On the right is the house with the distictive
sloping wall seen in pictures 32, 33, 35 and 36. (photo by Alan Moore) |
 38 |
| And finally - another photo of
the supplier of the above family photographs, Derek
Henderson, son of George Henderson and Eileen
Chattington, taken in Oakdene Road in 1944. (Derek Henderson collection) |
| This has been a brief look at families who
originally came to the area from differing places, became
intertwined, and with their presence added to the history
of Redhill and Reigate. Since the war family members have
lived in a number of local locations and some of them
have moved away. Some still live locally. Many
more photographs from Derek Henderson's collection can be
seen at http://www.photography.spentbrothers.com/FamilyPhotos/index/index.html Please note that pictures may not be reproduced without prior permission of Derek Henderson. |