Churchfield Road

Image: © Ian Capper Taken: 20 Apr 2008

At first appearance, an ordinary modern housing development, but in fact it is one with great historic relevance to the Geograph project. Shown on an 1895 street map of Reigate on this site is "Photographic Printing Works", being the place from where Francis Frith & Co. operated. The Francis Frith collection is the largest collection of historic photos of day to day life in the UK, essentially the 19th/20th century Geograph - to quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Frith Francis Frith "embarked upon a colossal project — to photograph every town and village in the United Kingdom; in particular, notable historical or interesting sights." See http://www.francisfrith.com/ for the results. It is unfortunate that Francis Frith's name is not commemorated in this development - in fact it is not clear why the name Churchfield Road was chosen, as there is no obvious ecclesiastical connection. However, the Frith name is commemorated elsewhere in Reigate - see Image and Image He is also named on a tombstone in Reigate cemetery (see Image). The site subsequently (in the 1920s?) was redeveloped as an essence factory operated by White, Tompkins and Courage Ltd, "distillers of essential oils, fruit and flavouring essences; manufacturer of fine chemicals and flower oils". This was demolished in the early 1990s, with Churchfield Road being built in its place.

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