
We were amazed to have been handed these photographs by local resident Tim Cox, we cared for Tim’s family recently and were really grateful to have caught sight of these amazing photos depicting the funeral procession of a Mrs Allen arriving at the Salvation Army Hall in Sackville Road on the 14th of May 1913!

As you can see from the top photograph the area has changed a little! this was taken at the back of where Honeycroft and Clarendon House now stand, and the second photo shows St Barnabas church opposite us on Sackville Road. Our office is where the W. Skinners signage is on the right hand side. From what we gather Mrs Allen must have been an important member of the Salvation Army in order to receive such a grand turnout, the streets were literally lined for her!
We love a bit of local history here at Bungards, having served our community for 115 years we also have a lot of history ourselves to draw upon so we decided to trawl back through the ledgers to see if we could find Mrs Allen’s service in our records, sadly we did not conduct her funeral but it was a fascinating way to while away a few hours looking over the old records!
We hope you found this an interesting piece of local history, we’ll post more as and when we find it, and if any of you can add to Mrs Allen’s story or have anything that is related to Poets Corner or indeed Bungard & Sons please do feel free to give us a call, or drop in and share your history with us!