Deerings Road: where did the name come from?

The origin of the name Deerings Road remains a puzzle - although since this website started and provoked some new interest a few suggestions have come forward. Whether we will ever find the truth depends on someone, somewhere finding the Road's equivalent of the missing link.

One contender comes courtesy of Phil Deering, the grandson of an Edwin Deering who lived in Reigate around 1900. As you can see from the section that Phil sent to me in 2007, there is definitely a link from his grandfather... but I must add this is now questioned by Jeremy Greenwood one of our local historians who believes that there was too great a social and financial gulf between the Waterlows, who would have been responsible for naming many of Reigate's roads at the time, and a bank clerk for it to be credible that the road was named after him. That is of course, unless anyone can find any evidence of a link that can move the debate on.

However, as Phil Deering's email makes interesting reading about a Deering who definitely did live in Reigate around that time, I have presented his account below:

I read with interest your page on Deering's Road History and the fact that how the road was named is not accurately known. I wonder if it may have anything to do with my great grandfather, Edwin Deering who, in the 1871 census, resided at 54 Holmesdale Road, Reigate. Also interesting is the reference to the 1895 Mayor, "Henry Ongley (Mayor from 1895 to 1897) subsequently lived at 56 Deerings Road. He was apparently a vendor of poultry game and fish and was Mayor during Queen Victoria's jubilee." Edwin's grandfather was also a vendor of poultry etc at Leadenhall Market in London and several of his kin were in this trade.

Edwin Deering was born 26 Dec 1842 at 2 Bedford St, Mile End, Stepney, the fourth living son of William (Clerk & Collector of Billingsgate Market for many years) and Louisa. He started his career with the ill-fated firm of Bill Brokers, Overend, Gurney & Co. of 65 Lombard St, London as a bank clerk. In 1862 he married Emma Tessier, dau. of George Frederick Tessier, bankers clerk of 8 Burlington Place, Old Kent Rd, Surrey. Their first son, Ernest Henry was born 8 Nov 1864 at Buxton Rd, Stratford, London. Unfortunately his employers, a Quaker firm had engaged in some highly risky financial transactions, in particular with the Mid Wales Railway Co.. There was a run on the firm which led to its sensational downfall on 11 May 1866 when it stopped payment. This caused so much panic that it led to a run on many banks including the Bank of England and in the October Overends paid out 2/6d in the pound.

Edwin appears in the 1871 census and also on the electoral roll of 1874 living at South Park, Reigate, Surrey. In 1878 Edwin and Emma had a lucky escape when they took a pleasure steamer to Gravesend on Feb 3. They decided to return to London by train and the steamer Princess Alice had a disastrous collision in which 500 persons perished. In 1879 he became manager of the Tipton branch of the Birmingham, Dudley and District Bank which later merged with other banks to form Barclays Bank in 1896, and there he remained for nearly thirty years.

His connection with Overend and Gurney at the time of their crash I feel led him to Reigate for one of the Partners of the firm, Henry Edmund Gurney, lived in nearby Nutwood Lodge, Gatton. I suspect my great grandfather worked for him in Reigate from 1867 until 1879 when he made the move to Tipton [Site Manager's note: Jeremy Greenwood has noted that Henry Gurney's only involvement in the financial world after the crash of Overend and Gurney was as the director of a number of insurance companies, which makes this account slightly less likely]. Edwin’s father in law, George Frederick Tessier, also lived in Reigate in 1871 at Ackworth Cottage and in 1881 at Park Road. His daughter Harriet Tessier lived with him. He died in 1884 and she passed on in 1900 but not before sending attached card to my grandfather, Ernest Henry Deering, in America. Also Edwin’s younger brother was William Henry Deering, I.S.O., F. I.C, F.C.S., who became Chief Chemist at the War Office at Woolwich Arsenal and in the 1901 Census is listed living at Rosewell, Blackborough Rd, Reigate for a period – at that time he was Assistant Chief Chemist. He got the Imperial Service Order in 1906 and retired to Torquay in 1908.

My grandfather, Ernest Henry Deering, was born in 1864 in Stratford, London and would have lived with his parents in Reigate from about 1867 until 1879 when they moved to Tipton, Staffs. He may have attended St John’s School, Reigate until 1879 when he would be 15 years old.

Following the publication of this account, Jeremy Greenwood added the following observation:

The question of the origin of the name has gone on for nearly a century. In Wilfred Hooper's notes are the names of the new roads in Reigate and their derivation and even he didn't know the answer nor did his father, Thomas Rowland Hooper - the first local historian of Reigate. I am sure [Deerings] must be a local placename but have never found anything remotely like it.