Bulletin 135

PRESIDENT: J Scott McCracken BA FSA MIFA
VICE PRESIDENTS: Viscountess Hanworth, Arthur Turner, Lionel Green and William Rudd

BULLETIN NO. 135 SEPTEMBER 2000

PROGRAMME SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER

Saturday 9 September 2.30pm River Wandle walk
A Millennium event, led by Eric Montague, exploring part of the western bounds of Mitcham,
from Merton Abbey Mills to Morden Hall Park. Meet at the Wheelhouse, Merton Abbey Mills.

Thursday 12 October 7.30pm Merton Civic Centre
David Harrison: ‘Jack Dimmer VC’

The Evelyn Jowett Memorial Lecture for 2000 honours the memory of a Merton hero of the
first World War. We welcome back David Harrison, a well-known local historian, who led a
.Mysterious Wimbledon. walk for us in May this year.

Saturday 4 November 2.30pm Snuff Mill Centre
Annual General Meeting (see page 16)

After the business part of the meeting is concluded there will be a members. presentation of
selected items from workshop meetings.

Saturday 2 December 2.30pm Snuff Mill Centre
‘Merton, Mitcham and Morden 1000 Years Ago’

A Millennium occasion. What do we know, and what can we conjecture, about our area in the
year 1000 AD? Several speakers, from among our members.

There will also be a short slide presentation about Oxford by members Pat and Ray Kilsby,
linked with the visit they are offering us next year (see page xx).

Tuesday 12 December British Library, guided tour

Meet at 2.25, for tour at 2.30, in the paved courtyard of the Library at 96 Euston Road.

Nearest
station St Pancras. Numbers needed ahead of time.
Cost £4/£3. Coffee shop and restaurant available.

(For the Snuff Mill Centre drivers should park in the Morden Hall Garden Centre car-park and
take the path across the bridge; go through the gateway towards Morden Cottage.

Buses 118, 157, 164)

The Society’s events are open to the general public, unless otherwise stated.

MYSTERIOUS WIMBLEDON

Thirteen adults and a baby joined David Harrison for this ‘walk of History and Mystery’ on 20

May. Our
starting point was the Dog and Fox, formerly The Sign of My Lord’s Arms, where horses are still

to be seen, even
if the market garden and bowling alley of Edward Winchester’s tenancy have passed from memory.

Opposite
stands The Brewery Tap, though the brewery it served was burnt down and replaced in 1890,

rather appropriately,
by the fire station, now in private occupation. Further along the road, the Rose and Crown was

formerly The
Sign of the Rose, the Crown perhaps being added in celebration of Charles II’s restoration in

1660.

Eagle House, an early 17th-century mansion, was built for Robert Bell, a merchant with the East

India Company.
The dress shop with the wrought-iron frontage was formerly the dairy, while Mason’s Yard has

preserved a
common feature of yesteryear, the yard with workshop concealed behind the house fronting the

road. Similarly,
a glimpse of a timber-framed building beyond the gates adjoining Claremont House, round the

corner, indicates
another area hidden from the public gaze.

Moving on to Rushmere, which provided rushes for roofing, flooring and lighting, we heard of

the 17th-century
Puritan occupation of witch-hunting. If a villager’s pig died, or other calamity fell, the

blame was often levelled
at the weakest member of the community. The elderly widow with a squint or wart or gammy leg

would be
brought here by the mob, accused of witchcraft and thrown into the pond – no ducking stool for

Wimbledon! If
she floated she was deemed guilty and stoned to death; if she drowned she was belatedly

declared innocent.

Other tales followed, of highwayman Jerry Abershawe, who turned to crime in his teens in the

1790s. He was
finally captured after killing a Bow Street Runner and, following his trial, was hanged at the

Surrey gibbet,
opposite the present Oval tube station. His body was then hung in chains at Tibbett’s Corner,

one of his earlier
haunts, where it was observed by Prime Minister William Pitt on one of his many visits to

Wimbledon, and
recorded in his diary.

Wimbledon was also the scene of many of the duels among the ruling classes. Pitt himself fought

a duel against
the MP for Southwark in 1798, both men firing twice and missing both times. Another Prime

Minister, Wellington,
fought a duel in Battersea Park. The last duel here was in 1840, when the Earl of Cardigan,

later to find fame at
Balaclava, wounded his opponent and was arrested by Wimbledon’s village constable and brought

before
Wandsworth magistrates. Refusing to recognise their jurisdiction, he was tried before the House

of Lords but
was acquitted on a technicality.

In the Georgian period, Wimbledon had a high proportion of inns and beerhouses. The Rising Sun,

now a
private house, was popular among the labouring classes from nearby Workhouse Lane, but was

considered to
lower the tone of the area and was closed down by the authorities. The Fox and Grapes in Camp

Road catered
for a wider clientele around 1787, being both a tea and gin shop. In the 19th century it housed

the changing
rooms of Wimbledon Football Club, a far cry from the facilities of the present day. The Crooked

Billet may
have been the home of Walter Cromwell, who was a brewer and aleseller in the area as well as

blacksmith. His
son Thomas rose to become Earl of Essex and lord of the manor of Wimbledon until he lost his

head and Henry
VIII’s favour.

Our walk took us past Cannizaro House, Chester House, Kings College School,
Southside House and Gothic Lodge, each with its own tales to be told. We
were especially fortunate to be able to visit the courtyard belonging to the
former stables of Lauriston House, William Wilberforce’s home. They have
been converted into two private dwellings, and the owner of one of them was
on our walk. At the other end of Lauriston Road was the house built for the
father of Robert Graves, who spent his childhood here.

Another mystery is how Dick Turpin and his horse Black Bess managed to
frequent The Swan, even though it was built several decades after he was
hanged. Following the ‘back doubles’ to Sunnyside Place we were faced with
an unusual piece of pavement architecture, an Edwardian prototype electricity
transformer station, which unfortunately never worked! It is now owned and
maintained by Merton Council.

David’s vast store of local knowledge and his inimitable style made this walk
both informative and entertaining. He will be talking to the Society at the
Evelyn Jowett lecture in October. Meanwhile he organises a wide range of
walks and talks relating to the local area and to London through the ages.
.

Peter Hopkins

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 2

VISIT TO OLD BATTERSEA HOUSE ON 13 JUNE 2000

One quiet Sunday morning over 40 years ago, I remember trying to find my way to Old Battersea

House to meet
my daughter’s godmother on a visit from Dublin, as a relative of hers was living in the house

at the time. I knew
nothing of its history, but thought what a delightful Queen Anne style house it was.

So, all these years later, I was most interested to be able to go on a visit with the Society.

The house was built
in 1699 on Tudor foundations and may have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren, but this is

not well
substantiated. It was owned by various families, and was at one time a college, but in 1930 was

bought by the
local council, who wanted to demolish it. Colonel Charles Stirling saved the house and became

its tenant, with
his wife, whose sister was Evelyn De Morgan. They owned many paintings by her and ceramics made

by her
husband William, along with furniture from the Jacobean era and the William Morris circle. All

these they
brought to the house. Before she died, Mrs Stirling formed the De Morgan Foundation and

bequeathed the
collection to it.

By 1970 the house was greatly in need of restoration and this was undertaken by Malcolm

S.Forbes, an American
publisher, who obtained a lease from the local authority. The family still make it their London

base. They own
a large collection of Victorian paintings and these were brought to the house in 1975. In 1982

the Forbes
Foundation moved back into the house. They show the collections to the public, encourage

interest in the arts
and grant awards to students. Some De Morgan ceramics are
to be seen, but the main collection is in Cardiff.

Evelyn De Morgan was the daughter of a QC and determined
to become a painter, which was not a usual ambition for an
aristocratic young lady of the time, but apparently her parents
were supportive and encouraged her, and allowed her to travel
to Italy. She studied at the Slade School, and regularly
exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, which was then quite .way
out.. Roddam Spencer Stanhope was her uncle and influenced
her work. She depicted a wide range of subjects – classical,
allegorical and mythological, but also issues of her day. She
was also greatly influenced by the Italian Renaissance and
the Pre-Raphaelites, but she was not so well known as many
of the artists belonging to this group. In those days she was
probably overshadowed by the men, and she did not in fact
sell many works. Partly this was due to her sister Mrs Stirling
obtaining a very large number of them. Many of the paintings
have an ethereal, fairy-like quality, but the draughtsmanship
is always excellent. They are imaginative and full of vibrant
colour.

Evelyn married William De Morgan, who was 12 years older.
They had no children. She supported her husband in his work
with stained glass and he produced a new lustre for ceramics.
Tiles were decorated at the William Morris factory. At first
these were simple, stylised flower patterns, but as time went
on he was more influenced by Islamic art and then he used
rich blue and turquoise glazes, and the designs included
carnations, tulips, and palmettes, grotesque and fantastical
animals and monsters. The technique required three separate
firings and so was very expensive. His factory finally closed
in 1907 and William started a new and successful career
writing novels.

We were shown three of the principal rooms on the ground
floor and longed to see more of the collections upstairs!
(Sometimes these are shown by special arrangement.) For me
it was a most enjoyable visit, rounding off my first glimpse
of the house so long ago.

Lorna Cowell

Evelyn De Morgan: The Dryad 1884-5, from the guidebook to the De Morgan Foundation at Old

Battersea House

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MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 3

VISIT TO KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY on Saturday 22 July

A visit to a necropolis is not everyone’s idea of a jolly outing on a sunny summer Saturday.

But the Kensal
Green experience was an enjoyable and memorable one for our party of members and friends.
Our knowledgeable guide – all the guides are volunteers and members of the Friends of Kensal

Green Cemetery

– explained how the necropolis movement began. By the early 19th century London’s old burial

grounds had
become scandalously overcrowded, an insult to the dead and a hazard to the living. George

Frederick Carden,
a young barrister, set up the General Cemetery Company in 1830 and in 1832 an Act of Parliament

was passed
.for establishing a general cemetery for the interment of the dead in the neighbourhood of the

metropolis..
A tract of 55 (later increased to 77) acres of smallholding land was purchased at Kensal Green.

The landscaping
was probably influenced by Nash’s Regent’s Park and by the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. To

provide for
every persuasion, chapels and consecrated ground for Anglicans and for Dissenters were planned,

and an area
of unconsecrated ground was also designated. Apart from conventional burial, provision was made

for vaults
and mausolea, and three sets of catacombs were constructed. H.E.Kendall’s Gothic designs won

the competition
for the buildings, but were put aside in favour of a classical concept, with Doric for the

Established Church and
Ionic for the Dissenters.

The cemetery opened in January 1833, and the first interment was that of a Margaret Gregory, on

the 31st of
the month. Almost immediately Kensal Green was a success, helped no doubt by the decision of

two of the
children of George III to be buried there. And it rapidly became one of the places to visit in

London. Distinguished
persons as well as fashionable ones chose this handsome new cemetery for their resting-place.

We were told
that about 800 of its occupants appear in the Dictionary of National Biography. For instance we

saw the tombs
of Anthony Trollope (very modest), Wilkie Collins, both Brunels, tightrope-walker Blondin,

W.H’smith,
Thackeray, Byron’s wife, George Cruikshank, Thomas Hood and many others. It was pointed out

that some,
who had died before 1833, had been re-interred at Kensal Green.

Some of the monuments, and many are superb, are Grade II listed, and work by artists such as

William Burges,
C.R.Cockerell, Owen Jones and Eric Gill can be seen. Every style seems to be represented, from

.Egyptian. to
Art Deco. Some are in a sad state of repair, and it was noticeable how much better granite

withstands weather
and pollution than does marble, Portland stone or sandstone.

In the Anglican chapel we admired the hydraulic catafalque,
restored at huge cost, which was designed to swivel right
round at the end of the service, and then, if required, smoothly
descend to the catacombs below. We divided into two groups
for our tour of these catacombs, which contain 216 separate
vaults. Each vault is divided into .loculi.. The total capacity
is about 4,500, of which about 3,000 spaces have been taken
up. Many loculi are protected by iron grilles. For this type of
burial there is an outer display coffin, often elaborate; a lead
case within; and inside that another coffin, which contains
the embalmed body. Coffins on supports last better, as the
air can circulate all round them. Ultimately however silver
studs turn black, and velvet crumbles to dust. The .best. and
most expensive loculi are those at eye-level. In some cases a family purchased an entire vault.

In one or two the
end of a cul-de-sac is owned privately and gated off. A peculiarity of Kensal Green is that

ownership of every
plot, or loculus, is freehold. This means that the cemetery company cannot easily intervene

with the upkeep (or
otherwise) of the burials.

Before adjourning for tea to the Dissenters. Chapel (restored by the Friends) we were able to

see the grave of
George Parker Bidder QC (son of the great railway engineer), who led the campaign to save

Mitcham Common.
A handful of us then lingered late to pay our respects to Alexander Hatfeild (whose son

purchased the Garths.
Morden properties) and some of his family. We nearly got locked in for the night, but 3½ hours

had been spent
most absorbingly.

Kensal Green Cemetery is still owned by the original company and is still open for burials.

These days it is
mainly local people who choose this remarkable site for their last resting-place. The cemetery

is open every
day and there is a guided tour (£4/£3) every Sunday at 2pm regardless of the weather. Kensal

Green station is
on the Bakerloo Line, and entrance is by the western gate – turn right into the Harrow Road

from the station.

Judith Goodman

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The Kensal Green catafalque.
Illustration from The Magazine of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery March 2000.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 4

RAY KILSBY has something to add on THE ATHLETIC FAME OF MITCHAM

On reading Tony Scott’s article [Bulletin 134 June
2000] I noted the reference to Mrs Dorothy Tyler (née
Odam). I am delighted to report that Dorothy, who
lives six doors along, beside the green where Pat and
I are in Sanderstead, is in good health, still active and
a recent broadcaster on radio and TV. This photograph
was taken in Barbados on her 80th birthday. Once
upon a time she attended Gorringe Park Mixed Infants
School, from where she may be remembered by some
members.

Dorothy has supplied me with a list of international
and other performances by Mitcham AC ladies from
1920 to 1969. I am passing the documents to Bill
Rudd, for the Society’s collection.

Incidentally Dorothy tells me that Kitty Tilley did not
compete in the 1936 Olympics, since there were no
shot or discus events for women, although she did
compete in the World Games in London, 1934, and
European Games in 1938 and 1946.

Sadly, Kathleen Tiffin Dale’s husband died in June
this year. His father was the Mitcham builder Stanley
Dale.

Dorothy’s impressive record is as follows:

High Jump
1936 Olympics Berlin Silver, after a jump-off for gold (aged 16)
1938 Empire Sydney Gold
1939 Brentwood World high jump record 5.5.375″
1948 Olympics London Silver after jump-off for gold
Set Olympic record which stood 12 years
1950 Empire Auckland Gold
1952 Olympics Helsinki 7th
1954 Empire and Commonwealth Vancouver Silver
1956 Olympics Melbourne Finalist

Dorothy made at least 30 other international appearances between June 1936 and December 1956.
She also competed at international level in long jump, javelin, hurdles, relay and pentathlon

(British record-
holder), and was a member of many committees, and a referee and judge for field events. From

age 33 to 46
she set 14 age world records – undoubtedly a Mitcham celebrity on the world stage.

PROPOSED VISIT TO MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD
ON SATURDAY 21 JULY 2001

Ray and Pat Kilsby have most kindly offered to run a coach trip to Oxford on Saturday 21 July

2001,
to mark the 50th anniversary of the Society – but only if enough members/guests are interested.

A
tour of Merton College, including hall, library and chapel, will cost £2.50. Such tours are not

normally
available. There could be an open-top bus tour of the city; and a booked lunch or evening meal

are
also possibilities. There will be local pick-ups and set-downs within Merton.

The Kilsbys need to know likely numbers as soon as possible, in order to work out feasibility

and
costs.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 5

LIONEL GREEN looks at PLACE-NAMES AS SURNAMES,
with some examples of local interest.

Personal identity in the Middle Ages was by Christian name, and an additional descriptive name

only added

when found necessary. Most appellations were suggested by the person’s appearance or

occupation.
Thomas Becket’s father, Gilbert, who came from Rouen, was probably given the nickname .beak.

because of
his appearance. Thomas himself was tall, with an aquiline nose, and the Norman/French for a

small bird was
becquet.

On 23 May 1162 Becket was elected archbishop of Canterbury at Westminster Abbey, and came to

Merton to
become an Augustinian canon and to choose his confessor.1 Up to this time he had been referred

to as Thomas
of London because he was born at Cheapside, and continued to use that name even when he became

archbishop.
But officially he was now Thomas of Canterbury, and there are still many churches dedicated to

Saint Thomas
of Canterbury.

The use of the preposition .of.(de) with a surname suggests a provenance i.e. a place-name.
Hubert de Burgh [see previous Bulletin] was of Norman/Irish descent and had a family surname,

being the son
of Sir Reyner de Burgh of North Tuddenham, Norfolk. There is no connection therefore with the

place-name

of Burgh in Surrey, which is recorded in the Domesday survey as Berge.2 This would have been

derived from
beorg, meaning .barrow. of which several are known in the area.
In 1215 many barons opposed King John, including William de Mowbray, who lost his estates in

England

including Banstead. Hubert de Burgh used his influence for Mowbray to recover them, and as a

reward was
given the manor of Banstead in 1217. He eventually retired there in 1234 and died there in

1243. There is a
possibility that the spelling of the place-name .Burgh. in Surrey may have changed because of

the statesman,

as this spelling first appeared in 1237.
Walter de Merton, when employed by the priors of
Merton, took the name of his birthplace – de Basing,3
but in 1236, when appointed attorney to Prior Henry
Basing he took the name of Merton because of his close
association with the priory, and no doubt to avoid
confusion with the prior’s name. He founded Merton

College in 1264 as a corporate body under a warden the
first in the country.
William Longe, who had a surname, decided to be

known as William of Wykeham, as he was born at
Wickham, Hants. As bishop of Winchester he assisted
in setting up the Good Parliament of 1373, which
passed laws on the regulation of trade and the protection
of subjects against injustice. The feudal baronage, led
by John of Gaunt (he was born at Ghent), was jealous
of the riches of the church and despised bishops who
acted as statesmen. On the dissolution of Parliament
in July 1376, John of Gaunt reversed all measures, and
William of Wykeham was removed with other prelates.
He was accused of embezzlement and misgovernment
and deprived of his income. He was also forbidden to
come within 20 miles of the royal court. He had to
leave his palace at Southwark in December 1376, and
lodged at Merton priory.

When it was realised that Merton was only eight miles
from Westminster, William moved to Newark priory,
and finally to Waverley abbey. On the accession of
Richard II in June 1377, William was pardoned, and
obtained a papal bull for the endowment of a new
college at Winchester in 1378. In the following year
he issued a charter of foundation for New College,
Oxford.

Signatures to the Surrender of Merton Priory
16 April 1538

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 6

Another resident with a respected surname was Thomas, son of John Munday who became sheriff of

London
in 1514 and Lord Mayor in 1522. When Thomas professed as a canon of Merton priory about 1502,4

he chose
the name Wandsworth, presumably his birthplace. He spent some years in the 1520s at the Inns of

Court in
London in order to gain legal qualifications and returned to the priory, where he became

cellarer,5 and was
elected prior of Bodmin in 1534. At Bodmin he was known as Thomas Munday.

By the beginning of the 16th century it became the custom to use an alias to avoid confusion

with similar place-
names. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the government had to compile lists of

thousands of monks
and canons in order to settle the pension which was to be paid to each. The lists can be found

in the Letters and
Papers – Foreign and Domestic of Henry VIII (which were printed between 1862 and 1910).

At Forde Abbey, Devon (now Dorset) the following place-names appear, with chosen aliases:Thomas
Charde Chard, Somerset abbot d.1541 Tybbes
William Sherneborne Sherborne, Dorset Rede
Richard Exmester Exminster, Devon Were
John Brydgewater Bridgwater, Somerset Stone
Robert Ylmester Ilminster, Somerset Roose
Ellys Olescum Awliscombe, Devon Potter
Thomas Stafforde Stafford, Staffs Bate
William Wynsor Windsor, Berks Hyde
William Denyngton Dennington, Suffolk Wylshire
Richard Kingesbury Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset Sherman

At Southwark, Surrey:Bartholomew
Linstead Lunsted, Kent prior d.>1556 Fowle
Thomas London London Hendon
Stephen London London Byssater

At Bermondsey, Surrey:

Robert Warton Warton, ?Lancs abbot6 d.1557 Purefoy, Parfew
At Tandridge, Surrey:John
Lyngfeld Lingfield, Surrey prior Huntley

At Merton, Surrey (complete list of canons at Dissolution):John
Ramsey Ramsay, ?Essex prior d.1558 Bowlle
John Debnam -sub-prior d.c1558 Thomas
Godme.chester Godmanchester, Cambs refectory/sacristan Colson
John Codyngton Cuddington, Surrey sacristan d.1569 Mansell or Mantill
Richard Wyndesore Windsor, Berks precentor Todde
George Albyn St Albans, Herts succentor d.1557 Curson
John Hayward –Richard
Benese -d.1546 Thomas
Mychell -Edmund
Downam Downham, Cambs precentor d.1568 Honybee
Thomas Paynell -d.1563/4 John
Salyng Selling, Kent d.1570 Greenwood
John Martyn Merton, Surrey Meryvale
Robert Knycht -d.?1575 John
Page -scholar

Notes:

1.
He chose Robert the sub-prior, who was probably a fellow-student at Merton, for he later wrote

a biography of Thomas and clearly had
knowledge of his early days. He described Becket as a bright and intelligent pupil, but one who

was lazy and preferred games to study.
2.
John Morris Domesday Book: Surrey 1975 5.24
3.
The Merton Cartulary records him as witness in 1230/1 – .Walter the clerk of Basing. (fol.

cxvii 95v).
4.
A.Heales The Records of Merton Priory Oxford 1898 pp.311-2
5.
Surrey Wills No.105 2 Sept.1533, Thomas as witness
6.
Elected bishop of St Asaph in 1536, but retained abbacy until the Dissolution.
MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 7

LIONEL GREEN must have been watching television. He calls his article on one of today’s

essential
services

IT’s GOOD TO TALK

.Mr Watson, come here, I want you.. These words are thought to have heralded the invention of

the telephone
by Alexander Graham Bell in 1875. But the telephone is much older than this. The name derives

from the
Greek -tele (far) and phone (sound), and was used in the late 17th century to describe the

string telephone
which we made in our youth. In the mid-19th century a German professor Philip Reis created a

rudimentary
electric telephone. He covered a hollowed-out beer barrel bung with sausage skin to make a

diaphragm, to
which was attached a strip of platinum to provide a make-and-break electrical circuit. A

knitting needle attached
to a violin acted as a sound box. The bung contraption, receiving the sound, marked the

beginning of the
electric telephone. Bell discovered that if two membrane receivers were connected electrically,

a sound wave
would cause the first to vibrate and induce a voltage in an electromagnetic coil that would

cause the second
receiver to vibrate in a similar way. This was the system used by Bell in 1865, which he

patented in America
in 1876.

The first telephone exchange in London was set up in 1879
at Coleman Street, and in the following year the United
Telephone Company was formed. At this time telephones were
used mainly for business, and thus only available during
business hours. These were 9.0 am to 7.0 pm Monday to
Friday, and 9.0 am to 5.0 pm on Saturday. An exception was
made at Westminster, which remained open for 24 hours for
the benefit of MPs. The first London subscribers to a
telephone system were issued with numbers alone, but in 1895
the number was prefixed with the name of the exchange
controlling that area. The Bank of England did not find it
necessary to install a telephone until 1902.

What is now the borough of Merton was served by two exchanges – at Wimbledon and Mitcham – but

both
were housed at the post office in Compton Road, Wimbledon, which opened on 1 May 1908.1 By 1916

there
1,418 subscribers.

Experiments with an automatic exchange began as early as 1912, at Epsom. .Automatic. meant that

no operator
was spoken to. Subscribers now had four numbers, so that numbering commenced at 1000. Tones

advised if
the number .phoned was available, engaged or unobtainable. In London the first three letters of

the exchange
were used, and the telephone dial incorporated letters with numbers. Thus a new verb was

introduced into the
language .to dial..

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On 11th September 1929 the Mitcham exchange was transferred to
a new building at 22 The Parade, Mitcham, and converted to
automatic working.

In the 1930s new lines were installed at a rate of 1000 lines each
week in London, with a new exchange opened every few months.
By 1932 there were 226 exchanges in London, of which 45 were
automatic, and in that year 27 exchanges were built in new buildings,
all designed by the Office of Works architects.2 One of these was
opened at 203 Kingston Road on the Merton/Wimbledon boundary,
and came into operation at 1.30pm on Wednesday 14 September
1932, when 1950 subscribers were switched from Wimbledon to
Merton. It was built with a capacity of 10,000 lines.3 The suggestion
that the new automatic exchange should be named Merton Abbey
was not accepted, nor any other local name. No doubt the one chosen,
LIBerty, derived from the Liberty works at Merton Abbey, whose
telephone number became LIBerty 2444.

The General Post Office (GPO) now had to find pronounceable names that would fit into the new

telephone
system. Most main-line London railway stations fitted in well: VICtoria, PADdington, WATerloo

and EUSton.
AMBassador in west London served many of the embassies. ABBey was a natural for Westminster,

although
ABBey 1234 was allocated to London Transport Enquiries. HEAdquarters was reserved for the GPO.

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MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 8

The amalgamation of letters with numbers on the dial caused some
problems. Dialling SUTton transmitted the same signal as PUTney, so
Sutton was given two new exchanges – VIGilant and FAIrlands.
STReatham was equivalent to PURley, so the latter became UPLands,
because the exchange was on Purley Downs.

Also accommodated at the Merton (LIBerty) exchange was the auto/
manual switchboard for DERwent exchange, from 15 January 1936,
and that of MALden from 26 July 1939. A new exchange was planned
for Wimbledon, and a site purchased in Homefield Road in August
1936.

After World War II a new unit was added to the LIBerty exchange on
15 March 1954, and given the name CHErrywood. The BT archives
contain a note: .The choice of name is arbitrary, being convenient to
the Director system. No name of local significance being suitable..
But the name refers to ancient woodland on the Merton/Morden
boundary.

In 1964 an exchange called FOUntains was added to STReatham, and
on 32 January 1965 DERwent was transferred to VIGilant (Sutton)
and MALden to KINgston.

The list of usable names was finite, and All Figure Numbering (AFN)
took place between March 1966 and October 1967, as all London
exchange names were converted to three-figure numbers. London’s
best remembered number, WHItehall 1212 for Scotland Yard, was no
more! LIBerty became 542, CHErrywood 540, MITcham 648, with an
additional 640 from 6 March 1967. The auto/manual exchanges at
LIBerty and MITcham were transferred to Balham on 9 December
1967. Thus all subscribers reverted to the arrangements before 1895,
with numbers only.

More recently, London numbers have been prefixed with an additional 01, then 071 and 081,

followed by 0171
and 0181. In April 2000 this was changed again, to (020) 7 and (020) 8.

1. Except where other sources are given, all dates are taken, with grateful thanks, from BT

Archives, 268-70 High Holborn.
2. The Times 2 September 1932 p.10
3. The Times 14 September 1932 p.12
(Rectangle comment XPMUser
24/05/2017 19:47:01
blank)
WE ARE SORRY …

We hope we shall not need to run a regular column of corrections, as several of the broadsheet

papers now do, but there are a few matters to put straight.
Firstly, the by-line of the fine account of the life and career of Anne Hallam in Bulletin

No.134
disappeared between one computer and another. It was by Ray Ninnis, to whom many apologies.
It was not Ray who drew attention to this omission, though he would like readers to note that

the
whole inscription on her Mitcham tomb is in a combination of Roman and italic lettering, and

not
as he described.

Arthur made an unauthorised appearance in Eric Montague’s article on the Vikings in Surrey. It
should have course have been Alfred who was Aethelred’s brother in the second paragraph; and
in the second line of the same passage the date should be 870.

Please amend your Bulletins accordingly.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 9

JOHN PILE, stimulated by Eric Montague’s piece in the last Bulletin, has responded with his

thoughts on

SAXON MERTON

Without re-opening the debate about the identity of Merantun (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle sub anno

755 [757]) and
Meretun [Mæredun] (ASC sub anno 871 [870]), it should be pointed out, before another myth

becomes too
deeply rooted in Merton’s folklore, that any association of the probable Saxon graves described

by J.Edwards in
his Companion from London to Brighthelmston (1801)1 with the .Battle of Meretun. must be firmly

rejected on
the grounds that spears, swords, .and other exuviæ of a battle. are found almost exclusively in

pagan graves. The
practice of burying weapons with the dead had died out completely within half a century of the

conversion of the
Suthrige to Christianity around 650 AD, and by the 9th century the Church had established

complete control
over the burial of the dead and its rites.2

Although the suggestion that these or any other graves containing weapons could be connected

with the Battle of
Meretun must be dismissed, the discovery of the graves has important implications for the Saxon

settlement of
Merton. That the graves recorded by Edwards were Saxon cannot be doubted, as the Saxons were

the only
people known to have buried weapons with their dead males, not as relics of battle, but as

indicators of social
status. Burials were usually grouped in cemeteries which lay close to the settlements they

served. Pagan burials
.to the west of the Wandle. therefore suggest a nearby settlement of the period 5th to 7th

century, probably
contemporary with the settlement of 50-100 people implied by the size of the cemetery at Morden

Road, Mitcham.3

The Merton burials were discovered in the late 18th century, and Edwards. reference is

tantalizingly vague as to
the exact site. W.H.Chamberlain records further burials of Saxon date in Merton and offers a

precise location for
their discovery: .In the year 1882 Mr.Harding, while digging in the garden of the rear of these

cottages, unearthed
some ancient spearheads, Saxon coins, and what appeared to be human remains. These he found at

a depth of
four feet. Dr Bates acquired the spearheads and the author the coins. It is believed that a

battle was fought near
here between the Saxons and the Danes..4 The cottages in question are the row of six, now

numbered 15-25 in
Church Path, then numbers 1-6 Church Row, but numbered sometimes west-east and sometimes east-

west.
According to Trim’s Wimbledon & Merton Directory for 1881 Mr C.Harding was at No.2. The 1881

census lists
seven families in the six cottages, and places Charles Harding, 28-year-old carpenter and

joiner at No.6. Both
numbers are likely to refer to the present No.17. Although Chamberlain may have been mistaken

about their
connection with a battle, there can be little doubt that the burials were Saxon. What is

particularly interesting is
the close proximity of the graves to the parish church of St Mary, which is reputed to have

been built by Gilbert
the Knight in 1114 to replace an earlier one – no doubt of Saxon date – recorded in Domesday

Book (1086).5

John Morris, in his gazetteer of Anglo-Saxon Surrey, records a single find of a late 5th or

early 6th century cast
bronze saucer brooch from Merton, but he does not mention any of the burials.6 The exact find-

spot of the
brooch, which is now in the British Museum, is not stated, except that it was .on Stane Street,

one mile northwest
of Mitcham and 5 miles north-west of Croydon. and lay within the grid square TQ 25 69. If this

location is
accurate, it would place the find-spot in the north-west corner of Morden Hall Park, as this is

the only place
where the line of Stane Street intersects this grid square.7 Morris suggests that the brooch

may be a stray find
from the Mitcham cemetery, but he offers no reason for this belief. The Greater London Sites

and Monuments
Record (SMR) Reference Number 030669 states erroneously that the grid square TQ 25 69 lies

.nowhere near.
Stane Street, and, by implication, throws even more uncertainty on the provenance of the brooch

than may be
justified.

The evidence, if it is to be relied on, suggests a pagan Saxon origin for settlement around St

Mary’s church,
dating from the 7th century at the latest. This close proximity of pagan burials to a later

Saxon church is paralleled
in several other parishes in north-east Surrey. In Mitcham, a large and extensive cemetery of

5th- and 6th-century
date lay about 500m to the south of the parish church, or considerably closer, if a bronze bowl

found c.1867 on
the site of Vicarage Gardens was a grave-good.8 At Beddington a Saxon cemetery was situated

about 500m
north-east of the site of the parish church, and at Croydon, a Saxon cemetery has been found

600m south-east of
the parish church. These local examples of apparent continuity of occupation from pagan Saxon

to medieval
times run counter to the current received wisdom that settlement nucleation from early Saxon

dispersed farmsteads
occurred around 900, perhaps for greater security during a period of Danish raids, eg Della

Hooke (1998).9 It
may be, however, that the examples cited happen to be the focal settlements on which the late

Saxon nucleation
was directed. It has also been suggested that the large cemeteries may have served a dispersed

population,10 but
this model does not accommodate those cases where more than one cemetery has been found in

close proximity.
At Coulsdon. for example, cemeteries at Farthing Down and Cane Hill are less than 1km apart and

face each
other across a dry valley, both being within the same medieval parish.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 10

Eric Montague refers to Bishop Denewulf’s well-known letter to King Edward of c.90011

concerning the bishop’s
estate at Beddington, which, he says, had been .recently stripped bare by heathen men.. This

letter has been
published in a convenient translation by Dorothy Whitelock.12 Incidentally, Beddington, Surrey,

is occasionally
confused with Bedhampton, Hampshire (also a Winchester manor), and a recently published guide-

book to
Bedhampton parish church offers bishop Denewulf’s letter as evidence for Danish raids along the

Hampshire
coast, an assertion that has been repeated uncritically in successive guide-books for at least

a century!

It should not be assumed that because someone named Swein is recorded in Domesday Book he is

necessarily
Danish or of Danish parentage despite the fact that the name is indisputably of Scandinavian

origin. The Old
Norse word sveinn .boy., ‘servant., was adopted into the Old English language at an early stage

and has survived
in the compounds .boatswain. and .coxswain. to the present day, so that Robert le Sweyn,

recorded in a
Westminster Abbey document of 1296, is more likely to have been an English servant or swineherd

than a
Danish settler. In his study of the personal names in the Winton Domesday (c.1110 and 1148),

Olof von Feilitzen
found that out of a total of 318 different personal names listed in 1148 7.3% were of

Scandinavian origin, but
many of these were common in both pre- and post-Conquest Normandy, and those found in

Winchester in the
12th century may well have come from this source.13 Also, it was the prestige of certain

Continental names that
often led fathers to give them to their children regardless of their personal origins. It

should be remembered that
there were five high-profile and aristocratic Sweins active in England during the 11th century

who would have
been admirable models for name-giving.14

The presence in the Merton area of place-names of Scandinavian origin requires a different

explanation. Biggin
in Mitcham, first recorded in a documentary source of 1301, and .landes called Biggynge. in

Croydon, recorded
inn 1493, are late and fall within the Middle English period of language development. The word

bigging .a
building. was ultimately derived from Old Norse byggja .to build.,15 and the occurrence of

Biggin in Mitcham
and Croydon, .unusually far south. as they may be, need occasion no surprise as, by the time it

is found in
Surrey, it was a well-established word in the standard Middle English vocabulary.16

The fact is that neither the personal name nor the place-name evidence supports the idea that

there was any
appreciable Scandinavian presence in north-east Surrey beyond the possibility that a few

isolated individuals or
families had settled here. As C.W.Phillips has pointed out: .place-names showing Scandinavian

influence
diminish progressively in the area between the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk south-westwards

towards London,
but there is good evidence of Scandinavian custom here, and Domesday Book shows that many of

the leading
men in this area were of Scandinavian origin in 1086..17 However, it should be added that the

possession of an
estate in Domesday Book does not imply residence, particularly among those of higher social

standing.

If the search for evidence of Scandinavian presence is widened to include archaeological sites

and artifacts,
account must be taken, as Eric Montague rightly says, of the half-dozen or so finds –

particularly swords – of the
Viking period from the Thames and its tributaries from Staines to the River Lea. Such finds are

generally
interpreted as votive offerings, although it is possible that they originally accompanied a

late survival of a form
of water-burial.18 But the question remains as to whether the weapons were deposited by

Scandinavians or by
Saxons who may have acquired them on the battlefield. The Viking sword found in an old channel

of the
Thames at Chertsey in 1981, and mentioned by Eric Montague in his article, is a good example of

this class of
find.19 Perhaps, as with the grave-goods found with Saxon burials, these Viking Age finds

should be related to
nearby settlements rather than to battles or river-crossings, but the question arises as to why

comparable material
is rarely found on land-based sites in this area.

The problem of Scandinavian settlement in north-east Surrey clearly requires further

consideration, and useful
progress might well be made by correlating the various categories of the rather scanty evidence

already available,
although it is felt that despite the new insights this may provide, it is unlikely that the

current impression of
minimal Scandinavian influence will require much revision. Perhaps any traces of pre-Alfredian

Scandinavian
settlement that may have existed south of the Thames disappeared when the area was saturated

with a
predominantly Saxon culture. Neither place-names nor distinctive archaeological evidence has

survived in any
significant quantity, but this is not surprising, given that in the Danelaw itself .the various

excavations in
deserted medieval village sites have not yet been successful in showing a clearly Scandinavian

phase in any site
examined..20 It is possible that our local Scandinavians are equally archaeologically

invisible.

1.
Quoted By E.N.Montague .The Impact of Scandinavian Raids …. Merton Historical Society

Bulletin 134 (June 2000) pp.13-15
2.
D.Brown Anglo-Saxon England (1978) p.29
3.
H.F.Bidder and J.Morris .The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Mitcham. Surrey Archaeological Collections

56 (1959) p.128
4.
W.H.Chamberlain Reminiscences of Old Merton (1925) p.38
5.
P.Hopkins. report .Eighth Evelyn Jowett Memorial Lecture – 21st October 1998: History of St

Mary’s Church, Merton, by Graham Hawkes. Merton
Historical Society Bulletin 128 (Dec 1998) pp.12-13
MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 11

6.
J.Morris .Anglo-Saxon Surrey. Surrey Archaeological Collections 56 (1959) p.143
7.
C.E.(.Bill.) Sole ‘stane Street in Greater London. Merton Historical Society Bulletin 132 (Dec

1999) p.11. The accompanying map shows this very
clearly.
8.
Bidder and Morris op.cit. p.75
9.
D.Hooke The Landscape of Anglo-Saxon England (1998) ch.6
10. E.N.Montague The Archaeology of Mitcham (1992) p.29
11.
P.H. Sawyer Anglo-Saxon Charters (1968) No.1444
12. D.Whitelock English Historical Documents 1 (1955) 501, Doc.No.101. Later editions of EHD

omit this document.
13. O.v.Feilitzen .The personal names and bynames of the Winton Domesday. M.Biddle (ed.)

Winchester in the Middle Ages (1976) pp.143-229
14. F.M Stenton Anglo-Saxon England 3rd edition (1971) index
15. J.E.B.Gover et al. The Place-Names of Surrey (1934) pp.51-52; A.H Smith English Place-Name

Elements pt.1 (1956) p.35
16. J.A Simpson and E’s.C.Weiner The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd edition (1989)
17. C.W.Phillips, Ordnance Survey Map Britain before the Norman Conquest (1973) pp.11-12
18. S.Denison .Burial in water .normal rite. for 1,000 years. British Archaeology 53 (June

2000) p.4: R.Poulton Saxon Surrey. The Archaeology of
Surrey to 1540 ed. J.and D.G.Bird (1987) p.201
19. K.East et al. .A Viking sword found at Chertsey. Surrey Archaeological Collections 76

(1985) pp.1-9
20. Phillips op cit. p.10
PETER HOPKINS has been reading about a prominent Anglo-Norman family with links with

Mitcham:THE
MAUDUIT LORDS OF MITCHAM

When Merton Priory was dissolved in 1538, it held several estates in Mitcham, the largest being

the manor of
Biggin and Tamworth. As C A F Meekings has pointed out, .The circumstances whereby Merton

priory
obtained its manor at Mitcham are not known but it would seem to have been by gift from the

Mauduits, a
baronial family the head of whose honor was at Hanslope, co. Bucks..1

I recently came across a reference to two studies of the Mauduit family and their lands by Emma

Mason,2
which I obtained through the Inter-Library Loans system. In 1086 the first William Mauduit was

a tenant-in-chief
in Hampshire, and also held land in Winchester, the capital of the Anglo-Norman realm, and in

Rouen,
the capital of Normandy, as well as half a fee at Weston in Berkshire held from Abingdon Abbey.

He held one
of the chamberlainships of the exchequer, an important position at the centre of the royal

bureaucracy. His
eldest son, Robert I, succeeded him as chamberlain, but died with Henry I’s heir and other

notables of the
kingdom when the White Ship sank in 1120. His daughter’s husband inherited his chamberlainship,

but his
younger brother, William II, was also appointed a chamberlain. William II obtained the barony

of Hanslope in
Buckinghamshire following his marriage to the daughter of Michael of Hanslope, another member

of Henry
I’s administration, and with it lands in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, later adding

lands in Rutland.

The family continued to prosper, his son, William III (chamberlain c.1158-1194), marrying a

daughter of the
earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, Simon II de Luz, and thereby gaining lands in

Northamptonshire and
Leicestershire. However, when his wife’s brother died, William did not inherit the earldom, nor

did he retain
these lands. During the reign of Henry II, Westminster replaced Winchester as the hub of the

English financial
administration, and William III began to buy properties around the Abbey. His son, Robert II

(chamberlain
1194-1222), continued to buy properties in Westminster, and also in Mitcham and South

Streatham.

Robert’s son, William IV (chamberlain 1222-1257), inherited lands in Buckinghamshire
and Berkshire following the death of his maternal grandfather in 1223. He had also
received the manor of Walton in Warwickshire on his marriage to Alice, daughter of
the late earl of Warwick, Waleran of Newburgh, shortly after her father’s death in
1203/4. Walton was some distance from his other lands, so he granted it to a colleague,
Simon de Walton, who later became a royal justice and ultimately Bishop of Norwich.
However, the Newburgh marriage did prove profitable in the long run, as in 1263
William and Alice’s son, William V (chamberlain 1257-1268), inherited the earldom
of Warwick. William V died in 1268 and, as he left no children, the earldom passed to
his nephew, William de Beauchamp IV, in whose family it remained until 1449.

A description of the royal household at the death of Henry I in 1135 can be found in
the Constitutio Domus Regis, of which two copies survive. It lists all the members of

Arms of William

the royal household, ranging from officers of the first rank to scullions. It records

Mauduit Earl of

their daily pay, their allowance of bread and wine, and of candles. William Mauduit

Warwick, from John

II, the chamberlain in charge of the camera curie or privy purse department, received

Speed’s map of ‘The

14 pence a day, and always took his meals in the household. He received one thick

Counti of Warwick’

candle and 12 pieces of candle, and had two or three sumpter horses with their

(1630). The two bars

allowances.3

are red on a silver
background

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 12

Like William II, both William III and Robert II performed their duties in person, but by the

time of William IV
much of the routine work was carried out by his knights and clerks. William V paid his senior

clerk in
permanent residence at the Exchequer at least £5 a year.4 Although the family did not enjoy

great landed
wealth before 1263, its members were in constant touch with men of influence at the exchequer

and among the
royal justices.5

William III was personally responsible for the transport of bullion across England and to the

Continent. In
addition to supervising treasure-convoys, he was authorised to make payments to a wide variety

of royal
servants and charities. He sat in on the audits of the exchequer, usually, but not necessarily,

at Westminster.
He also shared important legal functions with other barons of the exchequer, attending

councils, and acting as
an itinerant justice. William III served as sheriff of Rutland from 1179-1188 and again in

1190. He also
succeeded his father as castellan of Rockingham, just over the Northamptonshire border, an

office that he held
for life. His younger brothers also made their way in the service of Henry II, Robert

supervising building
operations at the royal palace of Clarendon in Wiltshire from 1176-1187. He was castellan of

Salisbury from
1177-8 and sheriff of Wiltshire between 1179 and 1187.6

The chamberlains were always on the move, and made full use of their various properties. Robert

II’s mansion-
house by Longditch in Westminster, where he lived when the exchequer was in session, included a

private
chapel, under licence from the abbot of Westminster, William Postard (1195-1200).7

Robert Mauduit II also acquired a half-virgate and a moiety of a tenement in South Streatham

from Ralf son of
Alward,8 and various lands and tenements in Mitcham which the compiler of the Beauchamp

Cartulary did not
consider worth recording in detail. He did, however, record that Robert also received licence

from the Prior of
Southwark, who held the church of Mitcham, to have a chapel in his curia or mansion house at

Mitcham,9
suggesting that Robert and his family were often resident at Mitcham in the opening years of

the 13th century.
In 1201/1202 Robert Mauduit and Ernald de Mecham sold to Gilbert de Bovenay10 a freehold

property in
Mitcham which Ernald had obtained from Gilbert de Waleton and John his brother in 1199.11 The

involvement
of Robert suggests that the Waletons had held the property from him. Over the next 30 years we

come across
several other members of the Walton family holding their property in Mitcham from the Mauduit

overlords.12

In 1206/7, Robert gained yet another property in Mitcham, when William, son of Robert Jud,

parker of Hanslope
in Buckinghamshire, granted him the tenement in Mitcham which he had inherited from William

Bataille.13
(Bataille had been Robert’s attorney in Michaelmas 1206 in a suit against Ernald’s widow,

Felice.14 The
Mauduits had held the barony of Hanslope since c.1131.)

However, by 1218, Robert no longer needed his Mitcham properties. On 4th March 1218 he granted

all his
lands and tenements in Mitcham, described elsewhere as 3 carucates,15 to a tenant, William del

Teil for an
annual quit-rent of 29s 9d.16 The grant was confirmed by his son William IV.17 In 1225 William

de Walton
brought an assize of novel disseisin against William del Teil, but it was disallowed when the

charter of 1218
was presented.18 (William de Walton also held a freehold estate in Lower Morden, which his son

gave to
Merton Priory.)

William del Teil quitclaimed the land to Robert’s son William IV (1222-1257),19 and it seems

likely that this
was the estate granted to Merton Priory. Prior Giles (1222-1231) admitted that he and his heirs

owed William
IV Mauduit and his heirs 29s 9d for the service due for the lands held of him at Mitcham, as

well as the scutage
on a twelfth of a knight’s fee, for which they paid 6d or a pair of gilt spurs at Easter. Each

new prior was also
to pay the Mauduits as relief a pair of spurs and the usual relief for a twelfth of a fee.20

This grant was probably early in Giles’s priorship, as a Merton Priory rent-roll21 from the

1220s includes a
payment of 5s. at Michaelmas from William de Walton for his lands at Mitcham. On 8th April 1230

Roger de
Waletot (ie Walton) and Alice his wife brought an action of mort d.ancestor against the prior

for 44 acres in
Mitcham.22 Giles resigned as prior in 1231, becoming a Cistercian, and his successor, Henry de

Basinges,
took up the case, calling William de Mauduit to warrent for the land, now described as 46½

acres. Roger and
Alice agreed to release their rights on payment to them by William Mauduit of 9 marks.23

In 1235 the prior again called William Mauduit to warrent for property described as 80 acres

land and 8 acres
meadow in Mitcham in an assize of mort d.ancestor brought against them by Hubert, nephew of the

late
Matthew de Walton.24 The Waltons still held land in Mitcham in 1247/8 when Amisius de Wauton

granted a
carucate of land there to Robert, prior of Merton.25

The impression is that the Waltons were a particularly litigious family, but this was probably

not the case. At
the time the only way that interest in land could be conveyed or confirmed was by going through

a lengthy
judicial process. It may have been that the Waltons were the sitting tenants of the property

that the Mauduits
had granted to Merton Priory, and needed to have their position clarified in each generation in

this way.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 13

The Mauduit properties passed to the Beauchamp earls of Warwick, and yet no reference to them

can be found
among the Merton Priory records. By 1314/15 the priory was deemed to hold its manor of Mitcham

of the
honour of Gloucester as a quarter of a knight’s fee, and this was the case throughout the 14th

century.

However, there is a further link with Mitcham. William Mauduit III’s fellow chamberlain was

Henry Fitz
Gerold, who was succeeded by his brother, Warin. Warin’s daughter and heir to the

chamberlainship, Margaret,
married Baldwin de Reviers or Redvers, Earl of Devon and Wight, and lord of the manor of

Vauxhall which
included land in Mitcham. Merton Priory held a moiety of Phipps Mill from this manor.

Notes
1 CAF Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre (Surrey Record Society, 1983) Vol. II, p.481, note 188.
2 Emma Mason ed. Beauchamp Cartulary (Pipe Roll Society NS 43 1971-72, 1980); Emma Mason .The

Mauduits and their Chamberlainship of the
Exchequer. in Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research Vol. XLIX No. 119 (May 1976)
3 Geoffrey H White .The Household of the Norman Kings. in Transactions of the Royal Historical

Society 4th series vol. XXX (1948) pp.127-156.
4 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary p.liij.
5 Emma Mason .The Mauduits and their Chamberlainship of the Exchequer. p.2.
6 Emma Mason .The Mauduits and their Chamberlainship of the Exchequer. pp.4-7.
7 Emma Mason .The Mauduits and their Chamberlainship of the Exchequer. App. V.
8 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary 208.
9 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary 205.
10 Surrey Fines (Surrey Archaeological Society, 1894) p.4; PRO CP 25(1)/225/2, no. 14.
11 Surrey Fines (1894) p.5; PRO CP 25 (1), 225/2, no. 26.
12 c.f. CAF Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre Vol. II, p.482, note 188.
13 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary 204.
14 Curia Regis Rolls iv, 214 quoted by Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary p.120 note.
15 CAF Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre Vol. II, p.481, note 188, quoting PRO CP 25(1)/225/4, no.

8
16 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary 206.
17 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary 207.
18 CAF Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre Vol. II, p.481, note 188, quoting PRO JUST 1/863, m.3.
19 Emma Mason (ed) Beauchamp Cartulary 247.
20 CAF Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre Vol. II, p.481, note 188; quoting Merton Cartulary BL

Cotton MS Cleopatra C vii, f. cxvj. v, Cart. 223, which
Heales The Records of Merton Priory (1898) p.117 misdates 1249-63 and wrongly identifies as

Hitcham in Buckinghamshire!
21 Merton Cartulary BL Cotton MS Cleopatra C vii, f. cxxv v, Cart. 281 which Heales (op cit

p.111 & App. LXVI*) misdates to c.1242; see C A F
Meekings & P Shearman Fitznells Cartulary (Surrey Record Society 1968) p.lii & note 7 on

p.clviii.
22 Heales op cit p.91 quoting Close Rolls 14 Hen III pt. I, m.12;
23 Heales op cit p.97; C A F Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre Vol. II, p.481, note 188, quoting

PRO C.R.R. XIV no.1728; PRO CP 25(1)/225/8 no.16.
24 C A F Meekings The 1235 Surrey Eyre Vol. II, p.325 (188), p.349 (268) & notes pp.481-2, 496.
25 VCH Surrey iv, p.231, quoting Feet of Fines Surrey 32 Hen III no.52.

IN BRIEF
©
Excavation by MoLAS (Museum of London Archaeological service) at the Merton Priory gatehouse

site

(ex-Wimbledon Palais) has revealed fragments of an arch similar to that now at St Mary, Merton,

as well as
a 13th-century tile kiln – one of the earliest yet found in Surrey. Boundary ditches may be

Roman or Saxon.

©
!!!!!High Street Londinium, a major exhibition at the Museum of London until 7 January 2001,

transports the
visitor back to the via decumana, or main shopping street, of Londinium in 100 AD. Exhibits are

based on
the latest archaeological finds.

©
!!!!!Wimbledon – a Surrey Village in Maps has been written by Richard Milward and Cyril

Maidment (both
also members of Merton Historical Society). Using maps from eight different periods, computer

enhanced
and adjusted for direct comparison, as well as graphs, tables, scene-setting text, and a good

index, this is a
most effective approach to local history. Highly recommended. £5.95 from Wimbledon Society

Museum.

©
A letter in the August edition ofSaga magazine refers to the use ofKango electric hammers in

minesweepers
during World War II. Kango were in Lombard Road, then in Windsor Avenue, Merton. Do any readers

have
memories of/information about Kango? Do let us know.

©
.Out-of-town. members may not know that Tramlink finally began service from Wimbledon to

Croydon
and beyond at noon on 30 May, and is proving very popular.

©
In a Local Heroes programme devoted to Yorkshire and shown on 30 May, Adam Hart-Davis

celebrated the
career of biologist William Bateson (coiner of the word .genetics.), who was born in Whitby.

Professor
Bateson was the first director of the John Innes Horticultural Institution, in Merton Park.

©
The William Morris Society has published a short article by your editor on William De Morgan at

.Merton
Abbey. in its Journal Vol XIII No.4 Spring 2000.

©
Peter Hopkins’ exhibition on the history of the West Barnes and Cannon Hill area, originally

produced for
a church in Motspur Park, will be at West Barnes Library (8942 2635) from 4th September. The

accompanying
booklet, for church funds, is on sale at £2, and will be available at MHS meetings or direct

from Peter.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 14

LOCAL HISTORY WORKSHOP

Friday 14 July 2000: Peter Hopkins in the chair; five members present and one other sent

information.
©
!!!!!Stephen Turner had sent the following extract from the first

Mitcham Tithe Survey of 1838 relating to 70 Christchurch Road,

the 19th-century weatherboarded cottage dismantled and rebuilt in

replica in 1979-80 [see Bulletin No.134 page 12]. The map is from

the 1846 Tithe Apportionment Survey.

No Proprietor Occupier Description a r p

291 James Moore John Pool Garden }

292 James Moore John Willett Garden }

293 James Moore George Anderson Printing Shop }0 1 1

294 James Moore John Pool Cottage }

295 James Moore John Willett Cottage }

©
!!!!!Bill Rudd spoke of the Merton Borough Show and Festival in the late 1960s and 1970s. In

1969 the Society
had an illuminated stand at the show, which was quite an attraction, and we enrolled 12 new

members. Bill
still has the plans for this stand, the programme of events, and the local newspaper, which did

a front-page
spread of the show. This was the occasion on which the photograph discussed at the last

workshop was
taken [see Bulletin No.134 page 12].

©
!!!!!Judith Goodman told us of the mysterious Mr Dusgate who came from a wealthy Norfolk family

and
travelled extensively, especially in the Middle East. In 1813 he was aboard HMS Hannibal, where

he wrote
to his friend the publisher John Murray requesting him to despatch some writings by Lord Byron

to his
(Dusgate’s) friend, Mrs Roberts of Mitcham, Surrey. An Abraham Dusgate had attended the Revd.

Mr
Robert’s Mitcham academy about ten years earlier. Only on the morning of the workshop did

Judith receive
from Virginia Murray, the archivist at Murray’s, two photostat letters written by a Dusgate,

but with two
very different handwritings and signatures. Judith suggested (tongue in cheek) that Mr Dusgate

may have
been doing a Nelson! He is an elusive Mr Dusgate, as he is not in the DNB or lesser

publications.

Judith also had more to say about local artist Harry Bush, of Queensland Avenue, Merton [see

Bulletin
No.134 page 12]. The majority of his paintings were of views from the windows of his home. One

sold at
Christie’s a few years ago for £23,000. Mrs Bush was also an artist.

©
!!!!!Peter Hopkins reported on the first stage of the project to arrange for the translation of

the medieval
documents relating to Morden. Maureen Roberts, a volunteer from Surrey Archaeological Society,

has
completed the translation of an ‘Extent’ or valuation of the Manor of Morden taken in 1312. The

original is
in Cambridge University Library, and a 16th-century transcript is in Surrey History Centre.

Peter also thanked Judith for lending him her copy of Sawyer’s Anglo-Saxon Charters, which

lists and
evaluates all known documents of this period. One of these documents is the will of Prince

Athelstan, who
died in 1014, leaving his estate of Morden to St Peter’s monastery, where he was buried. Canon

Livermore,
in his history of Morden’s churches, had understood this to be our Morden, left to St Peter’s

Westminster,
but Sawyer identifies it as Morden in Cambridgeshire, left to St Peter’s Old Minster at

Winchester. Judith
has also photocopied the 19th-century published transcripts of Westminster Abbey’s Anglo-Saxon

charters
relating to our Morden. Although no original charters survive, the 12th-century fabrications

were based on
a tradition that Morden was among the earliest of the properties given to Westminster, before

the abbey was
refounded by Dunstan in the reign of Edgar (959-975), and that it was one of the grants

confirmed by Edgar
in 969.

This was my first workshop visit, which I found so interesting I intend to attend as many as I

can.

Don Fleming

Workshop dates: Fridays 20 October and 8 December at 7.30 pm at Wandle Industrial Museum.
All are welcome.

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SAXONS AND VIKINGS

Scott McCracken, President of our Society, is giving a 2-term course under this title at Merton

Adult College,
Whatley Avenue SW20. Friday mornings 10-12, beginning 29 September. Tel. 020 8543 9292.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 15

50TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
SNUFF MILL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTRE, MORDEN HALL PARK
SATURDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2000 at 2.30 pm

AGENDA

1 Chairman’s welcome. Apologies for absence
2 Minutes of the 49th AGM held on 6 November 1999
3 Matters arising from the Minutes
4 Chairman’s Report
5 Membership Secretaries. Report
6 Treasurer’s Report: reception and approval of the financial statement for the year, copies of

which will

be available at the meeting
7 Election of Officers for the coming year

a) Chairman
b) Vice Chairman
c) Hon. Secretary
d) Hon. Treasurer
e) Hon. Auditor
8 Election of a Committee for the coming year
9 Motions of which due notice has been given
10 Any other business
At the conclusion of the business part of the Meeting there will be a presentation of selected

items from the

year’s workshop meetings.

NOMINATIONS for Officers and Committee members should reach the Hon. Secretary 14 days before

the

AGM, though additional nominations may be received at the AGM with the consent of members.

MOTIONS for the AGM must be sent to the Hon. Secretary in writing at least 14 days before the

meeting.

The MEMBERSHIP SECRETARIES remind members that subscriptions are due on 1 October.
Single member £6
Additional member in same household £3
Student member £1

A renewal form is enclosed with this Bulletin. Please complete it and return it with your

subscription to the

Membership Secretaries or in person at a meeting.

Members who pay their subscriptions by Banker’s Standing Order, please ignore the renewal form.

MERTON HERITAGE CENTRE

The Heritage Centre at The Canons, Madeira Road, Mitcham, is now open six days a week:Tuesday
to Thursday 10am – 4pm
Friday to Saturday 10am – 5pm
Sunday 2pm – 5pm

A new exhibition is due to open on 15 August, and will look at transport in the borough.

Admission is free.
Telephone: 020 8640 9387

Letters and contributions for the bulletin should be sent to the Hon. Editor.
The views expressed in this Bulletin are those of the contributors concerned and not

necessarily those of the Society or its Officers.

Printed by Peter Hopkins

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 135 – SEPTEMBER 2000 – PAGE 16