IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Sidney Road, STAINES-UPON-THAMES, TW18 4LX

Old locally made Johnson & Sharp Manhole in New Street at Staines upon Thames. This tiny street has many old examples of street furniture made locally. Johnson Iron Foundry It’s unlikely for a town such as Staines to have its own ironworks as there is no locally sourced iron ore to smelt or coal to power the furnaces. However, Staines had more than one foundry over the years. The local foundries did not use iron ore, they made their products from pig and scrap iron. It seems likely they used smaller “Cupola furnaces” fuelled by coke which was readily available from the Staines and Egham Gas & Coke Company, on The Causeway, just over the River Thames. On the High Street just east of the Blue Anchor was the site of Johnson & Sharp’s Iron Foundry. This started here in a small ironmongers founded by the Ashby Family in 1790. In 1800 the premises were owned by Edward Ashby. His tenant was Thomas LeFevre who at the time was the only listed ironmonger in Staines. By 1835 the business was run by Ashby in his own name. After he died in 1869, it was bought by the Right Honourable Jesse Collins who had a number of managers and business partners over the years. One manager was a Mr Johnson and he named the business Johnson & Company (1889 – 1894). When managers and partners changed he would also change the name, first to Johnson & Smith, then back to Johnson & Company, later Johnson & Sharp (1905 – c1910) and finally Johnson & Clark. The products produced were mainly street furniture, such as man-hole & metal drain covers, seats and lamp posts.

Mormon church at 41 Kingston Road. This church is on an unusually large number of business style websites like Yell & Yelp etc. all of which give you no information at all apart from a map and the address. All I could find apart from all that is that the Fulham Brass Band rehearsed here in 2012, so that will have to do.

This is one of three Renshaw drain covers in News Street. John Enoch Renshaw started his Iron Foundry around 1903 at Mill Mead. Now the aptly named the Renshaw Industrial Estate. The foundry closed in the mid-1970s. However, there are still some other examples of its street furniture within the town.

A view of London Road (A308) as it was in 1976. Very little has changed building wise - the white fencing around the service station forecourt appears to have gone and the associated vehicle maintenance facility appears to have changed name. The dual carriageway sign has gone though. The bus on the 216 is RF449 an AEC Regal. It is in its last few months of service from Kingston garage and was withdrawn in October 1976. It saw subsequent use in a non-psv role until being scrapped in 1985. Information from Ian's Bus Stop at http://www.countrybus.org/rf/RF4a.htm

Worth comparing with Martin Addison's 1976 contribution Image which was taken from about the same spot (near the corner of Greenlands Road) and with similar orientation. Shot taken at about 2.20pm on December 29th, 2013. For the record, the price of unleaded petrol at the Shell garage was 129.9p per litre.

On London Road.

This Shell Petrol Station, on London Road, Staines has been here for many years as you can see from https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1781714

"Renshaw Staines" manhole cover in Matthews Lane next to Staines Police Station. John Enoch Renshaw started his Iron Foundry around 1903 at Mill Mead. Now the aptly named the Renshaw Industrial Estate. The foundry closed in the mid-1970s. However, there are still some other examples of its street furniture within the town.

This is in Matthews Lane, next to Staines Police Station. John Enoch Renshaw started his Iron Foundry around 1903 at Mill Mead. Now the aptly named the Renshaw Industrial Estate. The foundry closed in the mid-1970s. However, there are still some examples of its street furniture within the town.