The lives of John and Henry Titchener and the first connection to Streatham when Henry went to live there in 1866 to help his aunt Mary Crockford.
Meanwhile Ann's brother, John, had also met a partner. He had married Milly Dunmall, the daughter of the landlord of the Rock and Fountain at Well Hill, who had built for the young couple a cottage a few yards down the hill from the inn. Their married life, however was short; for Milly died and left the young man a widower.
We must now return to the Crockfords. On Thomas Crockford's death, his wife and daughters, Mary and Harriet, left Hewitt's and went to live at Well Hill, in the cottage near the wells in the Back Hill. Mary left home and went into service at Beckenham, where she married a young gardener, named John Carll. During the time that the Crockfords had lived at Hewitt's Methodist services had been started in The Old Room at Chelsfield, and after their removal to Well Hill Mrs. Crockford and her daughter, Harriet, continued to attend these services Sunday by Sunday. The young widower, John Titchener, also worshipped with the Methodists, and between him and Harriet Crockford there grew up a friendship, and after a time they were married and lived with Mrs. Crockford in the Back Hill.
Here their three children were born - John, Henry and Polly, and when old enough they went day by day to the School at Chelsfield. In this School John became a pupil teacher and began his career as a schoolmaster. Polly, who was very short of stature owing to an accident during her childhood, lived on with her father until his death. Meanwhile the three children and their parents, sometimes visited their Aunt Mary Carll, whose husband, John Carll, had by now settled down in a green-grocer's business at Streatham Common.
John and Mary Carll had no children; they often wished for young company, John was no longer young and suffered from rheumatism, and anticipated the need of help from a younger man in the shop before many years were passed. So it was that in 1866 John and Harriet Titchener received a letter from their sister Mary, asking if they would allow their boy, Henry, then 12 years of age, to go and live with them, in the hope that he might take his uncle's place in the business later on. After much discussion, the parents agreed, and on the 4th October 1866 Henry Titchener left home and went to live at Streatham Common.