My great grandfather George Gammen Rutty was a road builder around that area and bought the Tudor House where he lived with his wife and where they brought up a family of six girls and two boys. My Grandfather was Edgar George Rutty a wheelwright. My Knowledge of the house mostly comes from my Aunt Madelene who I got to know when introduced to her during the late seventies. I visited her for several years until her death in 1988 and she talked a great deal of her family life; her visits to her grandparents and their home she referred to as The Rutty House and how it was connected to Royalty . She was full of gladness when talking of her visits to that house and described it in great detail with its sweeping stairway and the great armorial collection, which, she said , she had helped her father pack in great boxes to take to the British War Museum. She and her siblings had happy times visiting their grandparents – she described hiding under the skirts of her grandmother while playing hide and seek and would hear her father and grandfather ‘talking business.’
I tried to visit the church where one of my great aunt’s was married – under the arch my Great Grandfather had erected there; according to my Aunt Madge, her grandfather had laid the foundation stones to the arch. However I didn’t have correct information regarding Bromley and Bromley By Bow . I wonder if the ae h my aunt spoke of refers to the arch described in in the article on The Tudor House. My aunt told me that though the house was left for the benefits of the ‘Down and Outs’, along with the garden. it was bought by the council with a ‘peppercorn payment’. There was an article in a newspaper describing he local council’s reaction to George Gammen Rutty’ s gift of the house as a cause of laughter, ridiculing such a gift and decrying the Rutty House as derelict and should be pulled down.
NB: The spelling of My Great Grandfather’s surname seems to be somewhat conflicted. On a copy of his death certificate his name it is spelt as I have written it, and so said my Aunt Madelene. My Aunt died in 1988. She told me many things and was always positive ,succinct and truthful in the telling of her recollections of her family history.