MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY Author Archive: Janet Holdsworth
01 The Cricket Green
1.THE CRICKET GREEN: The Heritage of Cricket; The Village Playground
2.THE MANOR OF VAUXHALL
3.THE BURN BULLOCK (FORMERLY THE KING’S HEAD)
4.THE TATE FAMILY
5.THE TATE ALMSHOUSES
6.MITCHAM’S FIRST PRIMARY SCHOOL
7.THE METHODIST CHURCH
8.ELM LODGE
9.MITCHAM COURT
10.THE WHITE HOUSE (FORMERLY RAMORNIE) No 7 CRICKET GREEN
11.OTHER BUILDINGS AROUND THE GREEN: The Eastern Side of the Green; Sir Isaac Wilson and The Cumberland Hospital; Chestnut Cottage; The Western Side of the Green
APPENDIX: POLICING OLD MITCHAM
02 North Mitcham
1.THE MIDDLE AGES: The Estate of Merton Priory in North Mitcham
2.THE MANOR OF BIGGIN AND TAMWORTH
3.FIGGES MARSH
4.TOOTING JUNCTION TO LAVENDER AVENUE: Road and Rail; Tooting Old Hall; Swains Farm; Figges Marsh, or Tamworth, Farm; London Road Cemetery and Tamworth Farm Recreation Ground; The Poplars
5.POTTER & MOORE ‘PHYSICK GARDENERS’ OF MITCHAM
6.RENSHAWS CORNER: The Oxtoby Houses, or ‘The Chestnuts’; Lock’s Lane and Eastfields Road; The Willows and Manor Cottage
7.BIGGIN FARM AND GORRINGE PARK
8.THE STREATHAM ROAD: Roe Bridge; A Country Lane; The Impact of the Railways; Urbanisation
03 Pollards Hill Commonside East and Lonesome
1.PRELIMINARIES: Geology and land use; Beating the bounds
2.LONESOME: Lonesome Farm; The Lonesome Chemical Works; ‘Blake’s Folly’ and Long Thornton
3.EASTFIELDS: Eastfields Farm and the Mizen family; James Pain and Sons Ltd. (1872 – 1966)
4.COMMONSIDE EAST: The smaller houses between Grove Road and Manor Road; The Cedars, Commonside East; Tamworth Lodge, Commonside East; Tamworth House, Manor Road
5.THE FARMS ON COMMONSIDE EAST: Sherwood Farm; Galpins, or New Barns, Farm
6.A PERAMBULATION FROM EASTFIELDS TO MEOPHAM ROAD
7.URBANISATION: Long Thornton and Pollards Hill (pre-1939); Municipalisation; The building of the post-war Pollards Hill Estate
8.THE CHURCHES
APPENDIX 1: Reminiscences of work at James Pain and Sons Ltd
APPENDIX 2: The Cedars, Mitcham Common
04 Lower Mitcham
1.LOWER MITCHAM, OR WHITFORD
2.THE WILFORD FAMILY OF MITCHAM
3.SIR JULIUS CAESAR’S “LITTLE PROPERTY AT MITCHAM”
4.MITCHAM HALL
5.MANOR HOUSE
6.BARON HOUSE
7.MITCHAM STATION
8.AND FINALLY … The Crown Inn; Baron Place; The Congregational Church; The Broadway
05 Lower Green West Mitcham
1.THE LOWER GREEN
2.352-356 LONDON ROAD, MITCHAM
3.THE WHITE HART, 350 London Road, ‘The Hooden on the Green’
4.346-348 LONDON ROAD, MITCHAM
5.THE CRICKETERS, LOWER GREEN
6.THE VESTRY HALL
7.MITCHAM’S FIRE BRIGADE
8.VILLAGE FUN AND FESTIVITIES
9.THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND NATIONAL SCHOOLS
10. HALL PLACE
11.THE HOUSES AROUND LOWER GREEN WEST
APPENDIX I: The structural evolution of Old Hall Place
APPENDIX II: Excavations carried out on the site of Hall Place
06 Mitcham Bridge, The Watermeads and the Wandle Mills
1.MITCHAM BRIDGE
2.THE WANDLE FISHERY
3.THE WATERMEADS AND HAPPY VALLEY
4.THE MILL COTTAGES (Nos. 475-479, London Road)
5.THE MILLS BY MITCHAM BRIDGE
6.’WANDLE GROVE’, OR ‘WANDLE HOUSE’, AND THE BROOKFIELDS ESTATE
7.THE SURREY BREWERY
APPENDIX I: Extracts from The Story of Lyxhayr by E B Hedger
APPENDIX II: The Fire at Lyxhayr Ltd, Grove Mill, Mitcham 1907
APPENDIX III: Public Meeting concerning the Wandle Pollution Incident in October 1995
07 The Upper or Fair Green, Mitcham
1.ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
2.THE MANORS
3.OLD BEDLAM
4.29-31 UPPER GREEN EAST
5.THE FIRS, OR ELMWOOD
6.THE WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH AT THE UPPER GREEN
7.MITCHAM FAIR
8.MITCHAM AND THE RALEGH FAMILY
9.DURHAM HOUSE
10.MITCHAM HOUSE
11.THE HOSTELRIES: The Nag’s Head; The King’s Arms; The White Lion of Mortimer (formerly the Buck’s Head); The Lord Napier
12.FROM WESTERN ROAD TO COMMONSIDE EAST: The Western Side of the Green; The Eastern Side of the Green: Majestic Way and St Mark’s Road; Upper Green East
13.PARISH PUMP AND VILLAGE GREEN
14.THE FINAL SOLUTION, OR ATTEMPTING THE IMPOSSIBLE?
APPENDIX: Sir Ambrose Crowley (1658-1713)
08 Phipps Bridge
1.PHIPPS BRIDGE, PHIPPS MILL AND BUNCE’S MEADOW
2.THE CALICO PRINTERS
3.DIVERSIFICATION
4.THE HATFEILDS AND WANDLE VILLA
5.EVERETT’S PLACE
6.WANDLE HOUSE
7.NEW CLOSE
8.THE PAINT AND VARNISH MANUFACTURERS
9.NORTH OF PHIPPS BRIDGE
10.THE PHIPPS BRIDGE ESTATE
09 Colliers Wood or ‘Merton Singlegate’
1. THE KING’S HIGHWAY
2. PLACE-NAMES, BOUNDARIES AND FIELDS
3. PICKLE COMMON, THE PICKLE DITCH AND THE WHITSTERS OF JACOBS GREEN
4. COLLIERS WOOD HOUSE
5. AN INDUSTRIOUS VILLAGE
6. WANDLE BANK CORN MILL
7. EARLY VICTORIAN COLLIERS WOOD
8. THE VICTORIAN SUBURB EMERGES
9. CHRIST CHURCH
10. WILLIAM DE MORGAN AT COLLIERS WOOD
11. INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION
12. EDWARDIAN COLLIERS WOOD
13. RECOLLECTIONS OF AN EDWARDIAN CHILDHOOD
14. THE DECLINE OF THE RIVER WANDLE AND COLLIERS WOOD
15. WANDLE PARK 1907-2000
16. THE WANDLE HERITAGE
17. FROM SEWAGE DISPOSAL WORKS TO NATURE PARK
18. A MISCELLANY
1 Reminiscences
Merton Historical Society has published a number of recollections by local residents in our series of Local History Notes.
Most of these are by Mitcham residents with memories ranging from the 1920s to the 1960s, though there are a few relating to Merton and to Morden. We even have reminiscences from the 18th and early 19th centuries,
We would particularly welcome reminiscences of local commercial and industrial activities.
10 Ravensbury
1.THE MANOR OF RAVENSBURY
2.RAVENSBURY MANOR HOUSE
3.RAVENSBURY FARM
4.THE RAVENSBURY PRINTWORKS
5.THE RAVENSBURY SNUFF MILLS
6.WHITE COTTAGE, MORDEN ROAD, MITCHAM
7.MITCHAM GROVE
8.GROVE HOUSE
9.RAVENSBURY AND THE ORIGINS OF MITCHAM
APPENDICES:
1 Extracts from wills; 2 Trees in Ravensbury Park; 3 Memories of the Ravensbury Factory in the 1930s; 4 Excavation Reports: The Grange, Morden (1972); Ravensbury Manor House (1973); Mitcham Grove (1974-5)
11 The Cranmers, The Canons and Park Place
1.INTRODUCTION
2.THE CRANMERS
3.THE CANONS
4.OTHER BUILDINGS OF INTEREST AROUND CRANMER GREEN
5.PARK PLACE
6.COMMONSIDE WEST
7.THE THREE KINGS PIECE
8.JOHN DONNE IN MITCHAM
9.THE HOUSES ON COMMONSIDE EAST
APPENDICES:
1 The Canons – a description
2 Mrs Esther Maria Dixon/Cranmer’s Recipe Book
3 Mrs Esther Maria Dixon/Cranmer’s Journal
4 Probate inventory of Rebecca Cranmer, September 1815
12 Church Street and Whitford Lane
1. CHURCH ROAD: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
2. MITCHAM IN 1291
3. GUIDE TO THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER AND ST PAUL
4. CHURCH STREET AND THE MANOR OF VAUXHALL
5. CHURCH STREET: A PERAMBULATION
6. LOVE LANE AND GLEBELANDS
7. LONDON ROAD alias WHITFORD LANE
8. LONDON HOUSE
APPENDICES:
1 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MITCHAM WORKING MAN
2 CHURCH STREET IN 1838 AND 1846
13 Willow Lane and Beddington Corner
1.PREHISTORY
2.MEDIEVAL LANDOWNERS
3.THE WILLOW LANE ESTATES DURING THE TUDOR PERIOD
4.A CENTURY OF CHANGE (1607-1688)
5.THE LOGWOOD MILLS
6.THE 18TH-CENTURY WHITSTERS
7.THE CALICO PRINTERS
8.MITCHAM MILL: COPPER, FLOUR AND LEATHER
9.ALONG THE CARSHALTON ROAD
10.THE SURREY IRON RAILWAY
11.FROM FARMLAND TO INDUSTRIAL ESTATE (1850-1990)
APPENDICES:
1 The Loss of the Hundred Acres: Mitcham becomes smaller!
2 The role of the people of Beddington Corner in securing the preservation of Mitcham Common
3 Bennett’s Hole Local Nature Reserve, Willow Lane, Mitcham, Surrey
4 Commercial and industrial premises on the Willow Lane estate in 1965
14 Upper Mitcham and Western Road
1.LOCK’S LANE AND EASTFIELDS ROAD
2.LONDON ROAD
3.THE SWAN INN
4.POUND FARM, UPPER MITCHAM
5.EAGLE HOUSE, MITCHAM
6.THE HOLBORN SCHOOLS
7.THE ELMS
8.THE WEST FIELD AND ITS ARCHAEOLOGY
9.ZION CHAPEL
10.THE GASWORKS
11.THE HOLBORN UNION WORKHOUSE
12.THE VARNISH FACTORIES
13.WESTERN ROAD IN THE MID-1960s
APPENDICES:
1 The Waldenses
2 Inscriptions concerning Peter and Hannah Waldo in Worting church
3 Farms and enclosures in Mitcham
4 ‘Hay Furlongs to Lavender Park’
INCLUDES SERIES INDEX
2 Share your Memories
If you would like to share your own memories of the area in bygone days, please leave a message in the box below:
3 Memories of Morden Between the Wars: a ‘Chat Show’ held in September 2012
In September 2012 the Society organised a ‘Chat Show’ hosted by Peter Hopkins with guests who grew up in Morden in the 1930s and whose families lived in Morden before suburban development in the area. Audio clips and photographs can be accessed from the links on this page. The audio clips have been rearranged by topic, and include some of the questions and comments from the audience at the end of the meeting.
4 A Century of Change
In March 2017 Peter Hopkins was asked to create an exhibition on A Century of Change in Lower Morden and Cannon Hill, for an Open Day celebrating the 60th anniversary of St Martin’s Church, Camborne Road, Morden.