Henry Adams, Haslemere

Founded in 1990 in Chichester, Henry Adams has now thirteen branches across Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. I do not know when their Haslemere office opened but this sign looks very recent.

Henry Adams
London
Surrey
Sussex
Hampshire
-------
Estate
Agents
-------
henryadams.co.uk

This newly painted sign covers almost completely an earlier ghost sign. Only the upper part of the first line has survived but that is enough to identify it as

Harrods

A quick search through issues of Country Life from the 1960s and 1970s reveals Harrods Estate once had an office at 56A, High Street indeed.

Location: High Street, Haslemere, Surrey / Picture taken in September 2009

Maides ironmonger, Haslemere

It looks like this wall was painted on two occasions but only one ghost sign can still be read:Maides
Ironmonger
& Co.
The forge of William Maides, a famous blacksmith, once stood across the road from this sign. The guide published by the Haslemere Society and the Haslemere Visitor and Local Information Centre in which this is mentioned does not provide any date but the name appears in an article of The Surrey Advertiser published in 1864 about a meeting that took place at Haslemere Town Hall. Was it the same William Maides though? As it was relatively common to give the first name of the father to the first male child, it is not possible to be sure. In any case, since the sign refers to an ironmonger rather than a blacksmith, it may be that this particular business was started by a heir of the famous blacksmith rather than by William Maides himself. Or maybe it operated in conjunction with the forge?

Location: Lower Street, Haslemere, Surrey / Picture taken on: 30/08/2010

Court Hairdresser, Haslemere

Here is a sign I first saw several years ago but whenever I passed by it, it was always quite dark. Yesterday, at the end of a walk through the southwest corner of Surrey, I finally managed to get a decent picture.
This stylish sign was painted most certainly in 1920. Indeed a 1933 issue of The Law Journal Reports mentions the business of a hairdresser established by one Kingsley in 1920 at The Pavement, Haslemere. In 1925 it was taken over by Miss Stevens, who in 1932 sued the local electricity company, hence the reference in a journal that isn't found usually in hairdressing salons. Miss Stevens took the Hindhead Co. (previously the Hindhead Electricity Co, with whom Kingsley had signed the original contract) to court after it increased in 1929 the pressure on the mains from 100 to 220 volts and the transformer it had installed to cope with it allegedly damaged the permanent waiving machines, hair-driers and other electrical equipment she used.

Ladies'
&
Gentlemen's
Court Hairdresser
...son Kingsley
The Pavement
Location: High Street, Haslemere, Surrey / Picture taken on: 30/08/2010