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John Jupp - Jack of all tradesJohn Jupp was born the eldest son of William Jupp of Snout’s Farm, Blindley Heath on 1st September 1851. Despite a strong farming background he was obviously not interested in that trade and went on to become a chemist. He trained under the supervision of Thomas Gravett in East Grinstead for four years. John then worked as an assistant there for another year before setting himself up in Cottenham Terrace Blindley Heath.
John opened his shop in Blindley Heath on 27th October 1878 rent free until 3rd November as he had repaired the ceiling and the windows of the property. In the 1881 census he was still living at Snout’s Farm with the family and recorded as a Student of Medicine at the age of 29 years. A photograph of the shop in Cottenham Terrace shows him selling Pure Drugs and Chemicals, Patent Medicines, Stationery, Toys,
He opened his second premises in Lingfield on 20th February 1882 having brought his goods over from Horne (where he might also have had a shop or was living at the time) over the weekend before with the help of one William Clark. The ‘Tin Shop’ as it was known was erected in what is now the garden of the Greyhound Inn. One of the adverts for his new shop shows him as THE LINGFIELD DRUG STORES Despite the small profits shown in the ledgers he had enough capital by 1885 to acquire some land beside the Tin shop and to embark on the building of a dwelling for himself and his wife. He had married Rosina, daughter of William and Philadelphia Wallis of Horne, on 25th December 1883. A document giving an account of the building of the house and how the village was at that time was found in a chimney during renovation work around 1980. “John Jupp Born September 1st 1851 Monday, August 11th 1885 The House was built by John Jupp of Lingfield, eldest son of William Jupp, Farmer, of Snout’s Farm, Blindley Heath, Surrey Henry Boorer, Foreman Bricklayer, of Porter’s Hall, Lingfield Their wages were as follows, per day Lingfield (at the time of writing this) was a somewhat scattered village. The places of Worship were the grand old ParishChurch of St Peter and St Paul, a Baptist Chapel in Plaistow Street and Doctor Austin’s Mission Room adjoining the National Schoolroom. Revd. Wilmot Guy Bryan (Vicar) the Baptist Minister (Mr. Beal from Copthorne, who drives over every Sunday) Various Speakers at the mission Room.. The following were the Public Houses in the immediate vicinity – The principal Gentry living at the time in the neighbourhood were as follows – ----------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------- W.D. Farrance (Post Office, in front of Baptist Chapel) (now the Co-op) Benjamin Groves (J Jupps old schoolmaster) is now an old man, but still continues as he has for many years to be the Parish Clerk, and man of the Parish. The Clubs held here were the J. Jupp requests that this brief account (which may come to light some day, perhaps centuries) will be handed over to the Vicar of the Parish or some competent person, who will keep it, so as he may be able to give the Inhabitants then living a little account of how Lingfield was in the year of our Lord PS It should be mentioned that the Old Cage in Plaistow S Signed John Jupp, Playstow Hall, Lingfield,/ August 12th 1885 There is a stone plaque over the door – J. J. PLAYSTOW HALL 1885. By 1887 it appears that he had added the shop to the building as the following article appeared in the Surrey Mirror dated 5th February of that year – “Parish Meeting Room – this institution which rather flagged at the close of last winter season for want of suitable premises has been again started in a more central part of the village under the superintendence of Mr. Jupp, who has fitted up for the purpose a room over his shop. The room is opened every evening during the week for reading and games. Social evenings will be from time to time arranged, and the Rev. W.B. Bryan proposes to hold a class for instruction of geometric drawing.” Also reported on 26th February was this item - “Sudden Death – William Banks, an old inhabitant of this parish (Lingfield) and a carpenter by trade dropped and expired at noon on Thursday 24th inst. The deceased at the time was looking into Mr. Jupp’s shop window when he fell backwards and instantly died. He had been medically treated for heart disease. Age about 70 years.” Kelly’s directory of 1887 lists his shop as Chemist, Stationery Fancy Repository. John was involved with various activities in the village and again the Surrey Mirror mentions one of them– “3rd January 1885 – John Jupp, a member of the C of E Temperance Society arranged a concert in the School rooms.” He was keen on singing and at one time all the Jupps were in the Blindley Heath Church choir. He was also very fond of photography and often gave Magic Lantern slide shows (on glass slides) to the villagers. He walked miles to take his photographs and one notebook logs his walk on Whitsunday 1902 with his nephew William Ernest Ovenden to Limpsfield, Titsey and Westerham. The book contains numbers to remind him of where he took the photos. His ledgers, of which three remain, give an insight into the social activities of the day. For example on Friday 7th February 1890 he mentions the Ploughing match at Moor Farm, Dormans Land. He also records an influenza epidemic raging throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and America commencing at Christmas 1889 and lasting through to March. Many in Lingfield had it and 2 old persons died from the after effects at Marsh Green. He had a good and busy day on 7th June 1890 and August 1898 was very dry with “quite a record heat until 24th” On the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1897 he put a slide image of the Queen in the circular window above the shop for all to see. In 1902 he arranged an Open Air Patriotic Concert beside the shop with a lantern show. This was also an opportunity for the assembled company to ‘give three cheers for the Royal Family and send good wishes for the King’s speedy recovery’ (from an operation for appendicitis – the coronation being delayed because of this). John also built a wooden hall behind the shop. This was known as either Jupp’s hall or the Village hall. It was used for various functions some of which were his own shows. The Silver Band used the hall for a considerable time. The building was damaged in the 1943 bombing of Lingfield School and eventually demolished. In his book, ‘The Lingfield I Knew’, Gordon Jenner wrote of John Jupp extracting teeth for 1/- (5pence). He mentioned that he was sent to Dr. Austin for an extraction as John felt it was too difficult for him to do. On another occasion John took out a tooth of one of Gordon’s schoolmates. The boy screamed to such an extent that John became alarmed. The father passed over the shilling but when John went round to their house the next day he found the boy had gone to school none the worse for his ‘ordeal’and he refunded the shilling. When this news spread round the school other boys tried the same thing when they went to him, but John didn’t fall for it again. John and Rosina never had any children so they offered to bring up one of Rosina’s sister’s boys, William Ernest Ovenden (known as Ernest). He moved in with them when he was about 10 years old in the late 1890’s. He is shown with them on the 1901 census aged 13 and working with John. He was involved in the erection of the first lamp post in Lingfield at the junction of Plaistow Street and Vicarage Lane (now Vicarage Road). This lamp was erected in 1913 or thereabouts. Apparently people had complained about how dark it was in this area of the village so John put a collecting box on his counter and in due course he had enough money to erect the lamp post in the widest part of the road, near the oak tree and cage. John and Ernest took it upon themselves to light and clean the lamp and keep it supplied with paraffin. They used a ladder leant against the horizontal bar near the top to reach the oil reservoir and light or extinguish the lamp. Rosina died in 1906. When Ernest married he brought his wife to live in Playstow Hall. An entry in the 1922 Kelly’s directory shows the premises as just a Drug store. John Jupp died on 2nd March 1927 and his nephew, Ernest, carried on the business until his death in the 1960s. The Jupps of Lingfield maintained a strong connection with the family church in Blindley Heath. On the death of their father the sons had erected a plaque in his memory inside the church and John did the same for his brother George. John also had the Lych gate erected in memory of his family. He and his wife are buried together in that churchyard. Playstow Hall has led a chequered life since then …. but that is another story.
© Rita Russell May 2006
Sources Newspaper cuttings – Surrey Mirror and East Grinstead Courier
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