The Cranmers, The Canons and Park Place

For some 250 years the Cranmers and their descendants the Simpsons held the lordship of the manor of Mitcham Canons and were major landowners in the parish. Two of the three large houses which branches of the family occupied during this period still survive. Among those who lived in them were East India merchants, a Cavalier, Huguenot emigrés, officers who served in the American War of Independence or in the Napoleonic Wars, a leading churchman and botanist, and many others. Each has a place in the story of Mitcham, and yet sadly few are remembered today. Only the Cranmers have been commemorated, in the name of the school now on the site of their mansion, the Green overlooked by all three houses, and two local roads.

Nearby lies the Three Kings Piece which, with adjacent roads, lies within the Cricket Green Conservation Area.