Ski Sunday: the annual World Cup ski races at Wengen provide part of the course for an annual competition established by a member of the Odling family from Croydon
CROYDON CHRONICLES: A dynasty began in the late 1800s with a family living at Lennard Road whose relatives would build a global business empire from marble, played roles in running the British team at the 1936 Winter Olympics, helped to build Broadcasting House and to dismantle London Bridge, as well as taking part in Dunkirk and D-Day.
DAVID MORGAN traces the history of the Odling family
The wedding register at what we know today as Croydon Minster shows that on Thursday, August 27, 1896, William Anselm Odling was married to Margaret Briton. The ceremony was conducted by Rev Allen T Edwards, assisted by Rev T G Hill, the curate who was in the middle of a court case because of the anti-social behaviour of one of the parishioners…
Margaret Briton would have attracted attention as she was marrying thousands of miles away from her Australian home in Wingelo, New South Wales. William Odling, the groom, was the eldest son of Anselm and Susanah Odling, who lived in Wickham House, 9 Lennard Road in West Croydon. The 1900 Kelly’s Directory for Croydon shows the parents still living at that same address.
Anselm Odling was a Croydon resident of some standing. In May 1880, when he was nominated for a position on the Croydon Board of Health, he was described as: “a gentleman, very highly respected, who had lived in the neighbourhood for many years and whose experience would doubtless prove him to be a very useful member of the Board”.
Odling had married Susanna Jameson in Cottingham Parish Church, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on December 11, 1862. At the time, his address was registered as Kennington, south London.
The Odlings settled in London, where in 1870 Anselm Odling opened a business, dealing in marble. The extent of operations of his successful marble company were reflected in the marriages of three of his children.
William’s bride came from New South Wales, as Australia was one of the major bases for the Odling company. Another son, Herbert, had gone out to Sydney in 1885 to help run the business, which was being managed by his cousins Harry and Marcus Odling. Herbert joined the company in 1882, aged 17, when he left Brighton College. He, too, married an Australian, Lilian Alberta Maud Hanson, at St Luke’s Church, Burwood in Sydney, in September 1894.
White stone: Michelangelo’s David uses the Carrara marble, as the Odlings would use hundreds of years later
Frederic Odling, the youngest son, was married to Emma Bertozzi in Carrara, north-west of Pisa, in Italy, in February 1897. Carrara is a place known for its marble. It was from Carrara quarries that Michelangelo sourced the pure white marble blocks that he used to carve his Renaissance masterpieces, including David and Moses.
It was Herbert Odling who turned out to be the driving force behind the success and growth of the company. In a visit to London in 1892, he united the Australian and British branches of the company. On a return visit in 1897, he was made general managing director.
After World War I, the Odling business grew rapidly. In Australia, several marble memorials were built by Odlings in tribute to Anzac troops who died at Gallipoli and in other battles. The most well-known of these was at Bundaberg in Queensland. The 38-foot-tall memorial was carved out of a single two-ton block of Carrara marble.
Global business: the Odlings built many marble memorials after WWI, including this one in Bundaberg, Queensland
The Odling company also did very well in this country in the 1920s. By 1926, there were six depots established, in London, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool, Plymouth and Bristol. A Dublin depot opened in 1937.
Anselm Odling and Sons Ltd was a prominent exhibitor at the 1924 Building Exhibition at Olympia. Different coloured marbles were fashionable in affluent homes, helping to create the art deco look, using geometric and striking designs.
Olympia exhibition: Odlings were a prominent business, offering the height of 1920s architectural fashion
When the BBC decided to build their headquarters, Broadcasting House, at Portland Place, near Regent Street, marble was an essential part for the design of the interior. The contract to supply the marble was given to Odlings.
They were immediately faced with a challenge.
Originally, from 1922, the British Broadcasting Company, and from 1927 the British Broadcasting Corporation, its general manager, later director general, was Sir John Reith, who was known for being very demanding, of his broadcasters and staff, and suppliers.
Sir John decreed that Portland Place should use British materials wherever possible.
But in the late 1920s and early 1930s, there were only three sites in Britain quarrying suitable material. One was in Devon, but Odling discounted this as its stone did not polish well enough. Another site was Purbeck in Dorset. Purbeck marble had been used extensively in churches and cathedrals throughout the country. It was decided that it would not create the desired look.
A thing of beauty: the marble-like entrance hall at Broadcasting House, created by Odlings for the BBC. They used a form of limestone, quarried in Derbyshire
This left the Odlings with the third site, in Derbyshire, Hopton Wood. Often containing small fossilised shell fragments, Hoptonstone was chosen as it polished to a high degree and came in two distinct colours, which provided a pleasing contrast. Geologists would be quick to point out, though, that Hopton stone isn’t actually marble, but a form of limestone which polishes very well.
“It makes the entrance hall a thing of beauty,” said a BBC spokesman after Broadcasting House’s completion.
Horace Odling died in October 1937, aged 72. His tenure at the helm of the company was both long and profitable. He was a strong believer in cooperation between various aspects of industry. He was the founder of the Marble Merchants’ Association and also a prominent figure in the Decorative Marble Association and Wholesale Granite Memorial Association.
‘Leading marble merchant’: Horace Odling’s death saw his son, Cedric, take on the business
After Horace Odling’s death, his son Cedric took over as chairman.
Born in 1895 in Australia, Cedric Odling returned to England with his parents and was educated at Winchester College before joining the family business.
He joined the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant in 1916, during World War I. He served with the 2nd Wessex Howitzer Brigade and by 1918 had been promoted to Acting Captain and Adjutant.
After 1918, he remained in the Royal Artillery with the Territorial Army. In 1934, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1938, with war looming once again, he took command of the 92nd (London Division) TA Field Regiment. One year later, as the TA expanded under emergency legislation, he took command of the new 140 Regiment.
Lt Col Odling was in the British Expeditionary Force sent to France after war broke out in 1939, and in 1940, was involved in the British Army’s retreat to Dunkirk. He was fighting in one of his regiment’s northerly gun positions at Mont des Recollets, Cassel. Injured on May 28, Odling was captured by the Germans two days later at Krombeke vicarage, which was being used as a BEF casualty clearing station.
Prisoner of War: artillery colonel Cedric Odling, shortly after his capture by the Germans in 1940
Odling was to spend three years as a prisoner of war in Oflag IX, a camp for captured Allied officers.
On November 1, 1943, at the age of 48, and because of his injuries, Cedric Odling was repatriated to England via Sweden under the Red Cross scheme. He remained in the Army and was transferred to G2 of SHAEF – the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force – based in Grosvenor Square, near the Embassy of the United States, where he was involved in the planning of D-Day.
As well as having a significant military career, when he wasn’t working in the family marble business, Cedric Odling loved fast cars and winter sports. In 1925, he had been a founder member of the “Downhill Only” ski club in Wengen, Switzerland, close to the Eiger and one of the premier ski resorts in the world.
Odling presented the club with a cup to be competed for annually by members. The silver bowl trophy was mounted on a base of marble quarried from his own company’s Italian depot.
The Odling Cup is still held to this day, staged as a giant-slalom using the top of the Lauberhorn race track on which World Cup professional races are staged.
Cedric Odling was president of the Downhill Only Club from 1945 to 1948, and was a proficient skier despite his war-time knee injury.
For the Winter Olympics of 1936, Odling was appointed the treasurer of the British Olympic squad. He travelled in his Bentley from Wengen to the Games venue at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Hitler’s Germany.
Odling had plenty of work sorting out the financial arrangements for 28 men and 10 women in six events. This was a successful Games for Great Britain, winning a gold medal in ice hockey, a silver in the women’s figure skating and a bronze in the four-man bobsleigh.
After his wartime service, Cedric Odling resumed the chairmanship of the family business, but post-war austerity and increasing competition from other materials saw the Odling business contracting.
In 1958, the lease at the Liverpool depot expired and shortly after that all operations were moved to Hull. By the mid-1960s, Odling was ready to retire, and so the business was passed to a cousin and the board of directors. Anselm Odling and Sons was soon after incorporated as Odlings Ltd. In 1967, the Bristol and Hull depots were bought by Bridgwater Holdings, based in Surrey.
I’ve got a bridge to sell you…: the previous London Bridge, pictured here in 1900, and which was sold to an American tycoon in 1968 for £1million
Harold Towndrow was the managing director of the Odlings company when it was engaged by the City of London Corporation to prepare the old London Bridge to be transported to Arizona. Robert McCulloch, an American tycoon, paid £1million in 1968 to buy the bridge, so he could assemble it in Lake Havasu City as a tourist attraction.
It has often been claimed that when buying London Bridge, McCulloch had thought he was purchasing Tower Bridge, though this has been disputed and denied. Wgat McCulloch was buying was a London Bridge full of history, and which had “the Nancy steps”, the scene of a fictional brutal murder in Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist.
Every single piece of the bridge stoneware – more than 10,000 granite blocks – had to be numbered before it was dismantled ready for transportation to Arizona.
Cedric Odling lived out his retirement years in Cuckfield, Sussex, dying in December 1981 at Haywards Heath Hospital, aged 91.
The company, Odlings Ltd, was dissolved in 2016.
The Odling couple who were married in 1862 began quite a dynasty. Anselm and his wife Susannah continued to live in their Croydon house for the rest of their lives. Susannah died in 1903, her husband in 1907 (aged 86, from pneumonia).
Now, they were deserving of a marble memorial.
David Morgan, pictured right, has been chronicling Croydon’s history for Inside Croydon for almost a decade. Morgan is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Minster choir to sing world premiere of Wallen’s latest work
- The curious case of the Croydon curate and his woman stalker
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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Many thanks. Fascinating stuff as ever.
As an aside to the London Bridge story when I visited Lake Havasu many moons ago the staff all scoffed at the suggestion the purchaser thought he was getting Tower Bridge. “He went and looked at the bridge three times,” one guy told me. But then he added, “Not sure what some of the folks that come here think they’re going to see though!”
The Queen Mary perhaps?