On July 31, 1950, the King and Queen, the mayor of Reigate, Alderman Miss M C Donkin, and many others sent their congratulations to Mr and Mrs Jepthah Shaw, of Devon Road, Merstham, on the occasion of their diamond wedding.

In 1890, when Jephthah had led his wife to be to the altar at the Chapel of Hope at Shaws Corner, as Olive Vigar she had a close connection with the area, her grandfather, Joseph Hatton, having been a minister at the same chapel only a few years previously.

Jephthah, however, had an even stronger connection with Shaws Corner, as in the 1820s his grandfather, Simeon Shaw, started and built up a flourishing business as a wheelwright in the area.

The business was carried on by Simeon's son, William, who ran it in conjunction with a secondary business, as he built and also ran a public house across the road called the Forester's Arms, now the Hatch.

In the 1880s the Forester's Arms was used as the headquarters of the old Gladstone Liberals. In 1878 William sold the public house to a brewery and the wheelwright's to a Mr Palmer and moved to Station Road.

Jephthah was a son of William, and one of Jephthah's sons was R B Shaw, who was the Reigate Borough School Attendance Officer in the 1950s.

The Shaw family name remains to this day in Shaws Corner, situated midway between Reigate and Redhill. It is now a busy junction that is home to the war memorial to the fallen of two world wars.

Article by Alan Moore, author of A History of Redhill Volumes 1 and 2. History website www.redhill-reigate-history.co.uk