MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Bulletin 232
December 12, 2024
The Physic Gardens of Mitcham
November 26, 2024
by Irene Burroughs
Bulletin 231
September 13, 2024
Memories of the New Merton Board Mills 1964-1976
September 11, 2024
by Robert Parkin
Merton Mail
August 8, 2024
The Society’s e-newsletter is published monthly, lists and reviews MHS and other organisations’ events and reports on local topical issues. Selected articles are reproduced here.
Bulletin 230
May 22, 2024
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May 18, 2024
Bill Rudd Archive
March 12, 2024
Research Notes
March 11, 2024
The Society has inherited from former members various files containing their research notes. Although some of these have been published as standalone booklets or articles in our Bulletins, many contain incomplete and unpublished research material, or additional material to update published works.
Bulletin 229
March 6, 2024
About the Society: Test layout
March 5, 2024
Anglo-Saxon sites in Merton (test page)
January 3, 2024
Bulletin 228
December 13, 2023
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Bulletin 227
September 29, 2023
Medieval Morden: Neighbourhood and Community
September 20, 2023
This study focuses on social interaction and community dynamics, in the light of the demands made of Morden’s inhabitants by the State, by the Church and in particular by Westminster Abbey as manorial lord, but also by the local community and the family. Most of the information comes from manorial court rolls, and the role and processes of the manor court are examined at the outset. Other chapters consider differences in status and in wealth, the role of credit, the evidence for conflict and cooperation and for the exercise of power and influence by local people. From brewers and bakers to priests and parishioners, this book explores the strengths and the tensions that worked together to form and to challenge a sense of neighbourhood and community in Morden especially in the centuries following the Black Death.
This volume also includes a substantial biographical register of over 1000 individuals who appear in the surviving records and who played their part in creating medieval Morden’s communal life.
Medieval Morden: Neighbourhood and Community
September 20, 2023
Morden is now a suburb within the London Borough of Merton, its only claim to fame being as a terminus of London Underground’s Northern Line. However, only a century ago it was still a small agricultural community and its medieval origins were still in evidence. Although almost nothing now remains of its medieval structures, we are fortunate that a considerable archive survives, detailing its layout and its day-to-day life.
Motspur Park and West Barnes Memories 1920 to 1947: Collections & Recollections
August 1, 2023
Local History Notes 37: by Bruce S Bendell, with further memories by his friends Douglas Headley and Fred Gilden. Written in 1988, these memoirs were lodged with Merton Local Studies Centre. They recall Mr Bendell’s memories of first visiting grandparents in the West Barnes area of Merton, and then moving there as a child until his marriage in 1940. His recollections of walks with his brothers in what was then countryside are especially vivid. He particularly remembers his work at the knitting factory of Boulanger, in Seaforth Avenue. He also details the development of the local housing estates between the Wars.
Bulletin 226
June 15, 2023
Bulletin 225
March 10, 2023
A History of Fry’s Metal Foundries and the Tandem Works
February 23, 2023
Studies in Merton History 12: by Michael J Finch
This account focuses primarily on the foundation of Fry’s, the companies that existed long before Fry’s that shaped Fry’s future, and the people who made it happen through belief, determination and hard work, not to mention the willingness to take chances. It is a fascinating story of success and a rise from nothing that justifies the effort to tell the story, because there is little information otherwise available. The fact that information is scant is the biggest surprise, given the enormous impact Fry’s Metals had on the print metal industry in those early days, the number of people they employed, not just at the Tandem Works, but also at the branch foundries and overseas, and the impact of the company on local communities.