EDWARD JEFFREY STRANGE
Hopefully as spring approaches we will be having some pleasant, warm, dry weather, and we will be able to get outside to enjoy many of the parks and open spaces that Tunbridge Wells has. Many of these have been donated to the town over the years. One gentleman, part of the ancient Tunbridge Wells family of Stranges, donated two of our green spaces – Cadogan Playing Fields, and Hilbert Recreation Ground.
E. J. Strange was born in 1869 and his maternal grandfather, William Hilbert, was the engineer behind the Calverley Waterworks, on which Grosvenor and Hilbert Park is founded.
His paternal grandfather, also called Edward Jeffrey Strange, was a plumber by trade, starting work in 1824 in Pembury. In 1856 he built the impressive building, No 8 London Road, as this work premises, the business expanding into all building trades as Tunbridge Wells grew in size. His wife, Mary, ran a hosiery shop at 9 The Parade, The Pantiles, and the family lived first, above the shop, and then at Nevill Lodge, more or less where Union Square now is. They had ten children, and the fifth, Charles Matthew Strange carried on the family business. Charles married Lydia Hilbert, William’s daughter and they lived at 4 Cumberland Gardens. Lydia died not long after giving birth to their fourth child. Within three years Charles had remarried, to his second cousin Mary Anne Price.
The younger E.J. Strange was apprenticed as a joiner and carpenter and went on to became Managing Director of the family building firm, Strange and Sons. He was involved in several trade organisations, and Tunbridge Wells activities. He was one of the founders of the Tunbridge Wells Rotary Club, and a Freemason, where he was a donor to various charities. In 1929 he was elected Councillor for the South Ward, and he became Mayor in 1936. He was created a Justice of the Peace in 1925 and an Alderman in 1939. He was a member of the Mount Pleasant Congregationalist Church, now known to us as Cotswold and Ismail shops. As well as all the other activities he was involved in, he still had time to give to the Church, serving as a deacon, treasurer and a supporter of the Sunday School.
In 1928 he donated the land known as Cadogan Playing Fields, in St John’s Road, and in 1931 a large part of Charity Farm to the Local Authority to form the parkland to be known as Hilbert Recreation Ground, in memory of his mother, Lydia. In 1933 he was appointed a life member of the National Playing Fields Association.
In 1894 he married Maude Helen Coulson, and they lived in Cadogan House in the centre of the town, where the Crescent Road car park now is. They had four daughters, the eldest two moving to Australia. Maude died in February 1940, and Edward on December 24th 1941. They are buried together in Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, next to the grave of Maude’s mother Annie and her elder sister Alice. The graves are as photographed, there are no headstones, but lettering around the rectangular sides. This has meant that over the years some of the lettering has been obscured, most notably that of Edward Jeffrey Strange J.P. There are several other members of the Strange family at the cemetery, including Edward’s brother, Charles Hilbert Strange, and their father Charles Matthew Strange, who lived to the grand age of 86.
Now available for sale in Tunbridge Wells Museum: a 36 page booklet by Drs Philip Whitbourn & Ian Beavis outlining the history and natural history of Grosvenor & Hilbert Park, £4.00 per copy.
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