Bulletin 162

PRESIDENT: Lionel Green PRESIDENT: Lionel Green
VICE PRESIDENTS: Viscountess Hanworth, Eric Montague and William Rudd
BULLETIN NO. 162 CHAIR: Judith Goodman JUNE 2007

PROGRAMME JUNE’sEPTEMBER

Saturday 9 June Guided walk round Cricket Green, Mitcham
Meet Tony Scott outside the Vestry Hall at 2.15 for 2.30pm for an informative tour of this
picturesque and historic area. No need to book.

The Vestry Hall is on several bus routes and a short walk from Mitcham Tramlink stop.

The Kilsbys. coach trip to Cambridge on 14 July

Waiting list places only available

Sunday 19 August .From Doublegate to Singlegate.

A walk led by knowledgeable member Cyril Maidment, who is also a member of the
Wimbledon Society. Meet at South Wimbledon Underground station at 2.15 for 2.30pm.
No need to book.

Thursday 20 September 2pm Visit to the London Fire Brigade Museum

Cost £3/£2 concession.

LOCAL HISTORY WALK AROUND MERTON PARK . 7 JUNE

On Thursday evening, 7 June, there will be a guided walk around Merton Park,
conducted by Clive Whichelow, on behalf of the John Innes Society. Clive is also a
member of our Society. He has written several booklets and many articles about Merton and Wimbledon, as well as giving talks, and leading walks in the area. Find out more about the history of Merton Park, from Nelson to nursery rhymes, and from film studios to Suffragettes, not to mention the odd ghost!

The walk will start at 7.30pm at the Erridge Road entrance to Merton Park Primary School and will last for about 1½ to 2 hours, finishing at the White Hart in Kingston Road. It is suitable for persons with an average level of mobility and for children over

12. There is a charge of £2 for all attending the walk, payable on the day.

.THE RIVER WEY NAVIGATION’

There was a full house at the Snuff Mill Centre for this illustrated talk on 17 February by Hugh Compton, whose

interest in various forms of transport includes membership of the Parliamentary Waterways Group.
By the mid-17th century the Wey had been used locally for navigation for a considerable time, for the advantages
of water-borne transport were most apparent in those days of very poor roads. Various attempts had been made
to improve parts of the river, and in 1651 an Act of Parliament was promoted by Sir Richard Weston of Sutton
Place, near Guildford, as a result of which a 15-mile navigation with its 13 locks was completed by November
1653, at a cost of £15,000, connecting Guildford with the Thames at Weybridge.

This had commercial advantages for the
town of Guildford and other places of
industry, but the traffic was chiefly timber,
corn and other agricultural products. In
1764 the Godalming Navigation opened,
and enabled barges to work a further four
miles up river. The heyday came after
1796, when the Basingstoke Canal was
linked to the Wey. Eventually, in 1813, an
Act of Parliament backed by the Earl of
Egremont of Petworth, Sussex, authorised
the building of the Wey and Arun Junction
Canal, so that in the 19th century it was
possible to travel by boat from London to
Littlehampton by way of Guildford. At this
time coal from the Midlands, brought to
London via the Grand Junction Canal, was
among the growing variety of goods
carried. However, enlightened social concern was expressed, for instance in the 1877 Act, that made the education
of the children of canal barge workers compulsory, and other controls were to be imposed, such as the provision
of better living spaces on the barges.

Commercial success was also soon to be challenged by the development of railways, and the canals thereafter
declined and many parts fell into decay. Recent decades have seen the revival of use for recreational purposes,
and the National Trust’s Dapdune Wharf in Guildford is a visitor centre for those who might wish to experience
at firsthand some of the intriguing and attractive places shown in the speaker’s slides.

Ray Ninnis

PS In reading around the subject a little for this report I found that Ralph Dodd’s proposed Grand Surrey Canal
of 1799/1800 would have connected Kingston, Epsom and Croydon to the Thames at Rotherhithe and would
have passed through Mitcham, Morden and Merton. Sadly, it was rejected. RN

THE ANNUAL DINNER

This occasion, on 28 February, marked the 56th anniversary of the founding of the Society. As Park Place, our
usual venue, was closed for refurbishment we celebrated in an upstairs room at the George, in Morden. While it
lacks the architectural dignity of Park Place, the George, in one guise or another, has been a local landmark and
convivial meeting-place for centuries. Both food and service we were pleased to find very satisfactory, and the
company, of course, was first-rate.

JG

WANDSWORTH MUSEUM

The future of this admired museum has now been secured, by private money. The Hintze Foundation (the Hintze
family live in Wandsworth Borough) is setting up a Charitable Trust to manage the museum. The museum’s
present premises in Garratt Lane will house a new library, as the Council planned, but the museum will now
move to the West Hill library building. This it will share with the privately run De Morgan Foundation collection,
whose future was also originally threatened by the Council’s plans.

JG

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The Anchor at Pyrford Lock 1978Illustration from M Denney Historic Waterways Scenes: London & South-
East England Ashbourne (?1970s)

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 2

.THE CROYDON, MERSTHAM AND GODSTONE IRON RAILWAY.

Paul Sowan, of Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society, spoke to a large audience at St John’s church
hall in High Path on 24 March. Well known as a historian of underground Surrey and associated topics, Paul last
talked to us, in December 2002, about Reigate stone . its extraction and use. Indeed Reigate stone cropped up
(or outcropped?) this time too. Why, he wondered, wasn’t the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Iron Railway
(CMGIR) called the CMGRIR? It was just as much part of the original scheme that it should go to Reigate as to
Godstone, forking off to both from Merstham.

The history of transporting materials from Surrey and Sussex to the Thames goes back at least to Roman times.
Bricks and tiles of that period made in a kiln excavated in Croydon have been found in London and in Canterbury,
and Reigate stone has been uncovered at pre-Boudiccan sites in London. Over the centuries, these southern
counties also provided the capital with lime/chalk, fullers earth, Wealden iron and timber. Stone from Surrey was
used at Windsor Castle and at the old Westminster Palace. Transport for a long time was mainly by sea, as the
easiest way.

Paul is inclined to think that the Surrey Iron Railway, of 1803, was not, as often said, the first public railway in the
world. He thinks possibly the second, probably the third . the first being near Wakefield. However it was the one
that caught the attention of foreign industrialists. Russian and German visitors came, to scrutinise it and draw
maps and diagrams to take back home.

Two years later, in 1805, the CMGIR opened. It closed in 1836, ten years earlier than the SIR. A terminus in Bell
Street, Reigate, was the original intention, to serve the local sand mines. But that never happened. The mines
presumably had to continue to send their products laboriously by road.

The railway did not go to Godstone either. The deposited plans for this section showed that the intended route
would actually, and mysteriously, have avoided the main chalk pits and stone quarries en route, and terminated at
Ivy Mill, Godstone, nowhere near Godstone’s stone mines. Why was this? Paul suggested that the fact that
members of the Joliffe family, important quarry owners in Merstham, had joined the board was significant. In
fact the railway never did go beyond Merstham, and though it connected with the Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) and
the Croydon Canal (at what is now Pitlake, in Croydon) none of the three entities making up this network ever
really made any money.

However, even the limited length of the railway as built was a more testing and a larger-scale enterprise than the
SIR. Some of its trackbed was incorporated into later lines, but CMGIR embankments and cuttings can still be
identified at Coulsdon, Hooley and Merstham. Paul showed an excellent selection of maps and plans, views of
the railway (including a Hassell watercolour of a bridge at Merstham), and its remains, and many underground
shots of the mines and their industrial archaeology. He stressed that research was continually revealing more
about this aspect of Surrey’s history, and also reminded us that there are four open days a year at Reigate’s sand
mines.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed a stimulating talk by an expert in his field.

Judith Goodman

PS The British Association
for Local History has chosen
an article in the Bourne
Society’s Local History
Records by Paul Sowan
called .The Croydon,
Merstham and Godstone Iron
Railway. as one of the five
winners of its 2007
Publications Awards.

CMGIR remains at Merstham
Drawing by R Oliver in

Industrial Archaeology of
Surrey AIA (1990)

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MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 3

.MEMORIES OF MITCHAM 1965-1970′

On 21 April members and visitors were treated to an excellent slide show and lecture from the well-known
Mitcham historian, a vice chairman of this society, Eric Montague. He is the author of many books and articles
on Mitcham, the most recent, still in progress, being the Mitcham Histories series. It was appropriate that the
event was held in the new Parish Centre just off Church Road, a most historic part of Mitcham.

Mitcham was administratively a parish within Croydon Rural District until it became an Urban District in its own
right in 1915, at which time the population was about 30,000. In 1934 it achieved borough status. The Local
Government Act of 1964 brought into being, on 1 April 1965, the London Borough of Merton, removing the
whole area from Surrey County Council jurisdiction, and making it part of Greater London.

In 1965 Mitcham as a borough had a public library, three local newspapers and two swimming pools (an open-
air pool in Wandle Park and an indoor pool in London Road). There were plans to build a new town hall in the
grounds of Mitcham Court, which had been acquired by the council in 1939. Mitcham had large council estates
at Phipps Bridge, Pollards Hill and even at Tadworth, and smaller estates in London Road (Glebe Court),
Armfield Crescent and Laburnum Road. All local government activities were controlled by the borough except
for education and the main highways, which were county responsibilities.

Eric explained that the new council embarked upon a
programme of clearance of older properties and redevelopment,
and his lecture showed many slides of
properties that were demolished in 1965-1970. He began
with the Christchurch Road area, showing the railway
bridge and the Tandem works, which have both gone.
Two old properties have, strangely enough, been
demolished and rebuilt as replicas . Millers Mead cottages
in Colliers Wood High Street in about 1968, and 70
Christchurch Road in about 1965.

In the middle of Mitcham Common a windmill had been
built in 1808 on land owned by James Moore, the lord of
the manor. It operated until struck by lightning c.1880.
The substantial Mill House was used in 1965 as a changing
room for the numerous football pitches adjacent to it on the Common. The Croydon end of the Common was
.landscaped. using clay dug out during construction at Pollards Hill in the 1970s. The pitches have gone and the
Mill House is now a pub/restaurant.

In 1965 Mitcham station was served by trains on the Wimbledon-West Croydon line. The station building with
the arched entrance in London Road was sold fairly soon after that date and is now the attractive Station Court.
The railway closed on 31 May 1997, to be replaced by Croydon Tramlink on 30 May 2000. The coal order office
on the railway bridge closed in the 1960s, but the building remained with a succession of small office users until
demolished during Tramlink works. Just along London Road towards the town centre, the Congregational church
has been replaced by the houses of Linden Place. In the other direction, the brewery which produced Mitcham
Ales between about 1820 and 1910 has been demolished. Most of the site is used for open storage, but The
Beeches was built on the site of the brewer’s house. Rose Nursery, a weatherboard house in Tramway Path,
has been replaced by two houses.

In Streatham Road, Pascall’s sweet factory was still open
in 1965, but within about ten years it closed and the site
was redeveloped as Mitcham Industrial Estate.

The area around the Cricket Green may appear to be
relatively unchanged since 1965, but a new building,
Brook Court, has appeared next to Mitcham Court, and
a considerable amount of sheltered housing has been built
onto the back of Sibford. SS Peter & Paul Catholic school
was substantially rebuilt in 1975.

A number of other areas of the old Borough of Mitcham
were covered in Eric Montague’s enjoyable lecture, but
there is not space enough to mention more.

Tony Scott

The Tandem Works, Christchurch Road May 1974

Site of Tamworth Farm, Figges Marsh June 1967

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 4

.HOMAGE TO ALL HEROES: COPENHAGEN 1801′

This was the title given to an event in Great Yarmouth on 31 March organised by the 1805 Club. The highlight
was the unveiling of the first memorial in the United Kingdom to all those who took part in the Battle of
Copenhagen in 1801. The plaque, inscribed in English and Danish, has been installed in the Middlegate Gardens
next to the Norfolk Nelson Museum. It has been funded by the 1805 Club, the Royal Navy, the Royal Naval
Museum, the Society for Nautical Research and the Nelson Society.

We watched a procession of very smart and well-drilled sea cadets from all over Norfolk, with their excellent
band, in attendance on the Mayor of Yarmouth, the Lord Lieutenant of the county and the Danish Defence
Attaché to the UK. He it was who did the unveiling. And though there has always been some bitterness in
Denmark about this perhaps unnecessary, and certainly bloody, battle, the atmosphere of the occasion was one
of warm friendship and respect.

There was then a lively lecture on the battle . it was the one in which Nelson
.turned a blind eye. . by a distinguished Danish naval historian, and the day was
rounded off with a civic dinner in the very grand Assembly Room at the town hall.
After the speeches and toasts there was a raffle draw, for which I turned out to
have the lucky number! The prize was .. a climb the next day for two persons up
Yarmouth’s restored Nelson’s Monument.

This graceful structure predates the completion of the Trafalgar Square column by
30 years. It was funded by the people of Norfolk and designed by Norfolk-born
William Wilkins (architect of the National Gallery). Nelson was always proud to be
a Norfolk man. Fife sandstone, brought by sea, faces the locally made brick core of
a Doric column, which supports a drum, six Coade stone caryatids in the form of
Victories, each holding a laurel wreath, and a globe on which stands Britannia, who
clasps a trident and an olive branch. The 217 easy-rising steps within take you up to
the level of the caryatids. feet, and quite daunting ladies they are when close to and
looming over you. Down below, each side of the square pedestal bears the name of
one of Nelson’s great battles . Cape St Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar
. and above is inscribed the name of his ship at the time. From the top of the steps
the view, of sea, town and the Broads, is tremendous (so is the wind!).

By the end of last century the monument had fallen into a sad state of decay. The
huge cost of restoring it for the Nelson Bicentenary in 2005 was borne mainly by the
Heritage Lottery Fund, who stipulated that it should be open to visitors to climb for just
eight days last year and eight days this year. Two at a time, with a guide, is all there is
room for, and you have to pre-book. As recipients of special permission to climb it
Mike and I felt very fortunate, and we thoroughly enjoyed our unexpected treat.

Information/bookings: www.nelsonmonument.org.uk or 01493 850698

JG

THE WILLIAM MORRIS GALLERY

Readers have probably heard about the threat to the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. Waltham Forest
Borough Council intends to reduce the opening hours, rewrite job descriptions, including making the curator also
responsible for the borough’s other museum, and cut staffing and cleaning costs. This important museum, in a
childhood home of Morris, is known and visited by scholars and admirers of Morris’s work and ideas from all
over the world as well as by local people. The fine collection of artefacts is complemented by documents,
photographs and an excellent library of books by and about Morris. The staff are knowledgeable and helpful.

There have been public meetings and (well-behaved) demonstrations against the proposals. By the time this
Bulletin is out a decision may have been made. Even so, please write in support of the Museum and what it

stands for to
Councillor Naz Sarkar and Councillor Clyde Loakes
Cabinet Member for Leisure, Arts and Culture Leader London Borough of Waltham Forest
Waltham Forest Town Hall Waltham Forest Town Hall
Forest Road Forest Road
London E17 4JF London E17 4JF JG

Nelson’s Monument at Great Yarmouth photo: J Goodman 2007

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 5

LOCAL HISTORY WORKSHOPS

Friday 16 March, evening meeting, Peter Hopkins in the chair
©
Bill Rudd had considered further the Time Team account of their research into the Liberty Print Works at Merton
Abbey Mills. In particular, in the Wandle they had found brick foundations of support walls to two platforms
projecting into the river. These they took to be landing stages. Bill could not accept this, since there were no boats
on the river and therefore no need for landing stages. He agreed the stages were real enough and could be seen on

maps earlier than the 1894 one. He thought their function was to facilitate the drawing of water in heavy buckets
for use in the works [see page 8].
Bill also brought a sales leaflet on the substantial new Barratt development, Waverley Apartments, on the former

Masters of Morden site in Green Lane, beside St Helier station.
©
Cyril Maidment showed a photo taken about 100 years ago of the priory wall by the Pickle ditch, scanned from
an old quarter-plate glass negative. Similar ones were well known, and some were used in Lionel’s book on the
priory. Since that section of the wall still exists he had attempted a .then and now. picture, but this was not possible

due to the dense vegetation shielding the wall. However he did succeed in taking a section of the wall with a new
‘sainsbury’s. sign towering above it.
The Geoffrey Wilson article on trams was greatly appreciated. The changeover point was in High Street, Tooting,

not Colliers Wood.
©
Madeline Healey spoke of her Uncle John, a colourful character, the brother of her father. He was a member of
the crew of the WW1 submarine M Class, the M-1, launched 9 July 1917. This class comprised a big submarine,
100m long, constructed solely to carry a massive 12-inch gun, intended to prey on merchant ships at a distance that
would make retaliation by torpedo very unlikely. The Royal Navy decided, after all, not to use it in the war for fear
of the Germans. copying it . Britain being far more dependent on vulnerable merchant shipping. On 12 November
1925 the M-1 was lost with all 69 hands off Start Point in Devon. The captain came from Carshalton. Uncle John,
Able Seaman Sales, happened to be on compassionate leave due to the death of his mother. His home was Laurel
Villa in Lewis Road, Mitcham.
©
Judith Goodman had looked at some recently acquired auction sales particulars at Surrey History Centre:
SP/3646. 18 March 1846, seven newly built houses, two with shop fronts, possibly opposite the Six Bells.
SP/3647, 29 August 1873, a four-acre strip of land, previously Merton .Poor’s Wood., covering the northern end
of the .Apostles., roughly from Grand Drive to Vernon Avenue.
SP/3651, 16 September 1874, 13 freehold cottages in Wandle Bank, Wimbledon
Lot 1, the first six houses in Wandle Bank, known as Wandle Terrace
Lot 3, the next five houses in Wandle Bank, known as 1-5 Bank Buildings, and
including an .important and valuable. artesian well
Lot 2, the next two houses in Wandle Bank, known as 6 and 7 Bank Buildings
SP/3652, 17 May 1878, five freehold cottages in Wandle Bank (these were
Lot 3 above)
SP/3653, 26 April 1910, Mr Hilliard’s fishmonger’s at 40 High Street, Merton
SP/3654, 8 July 1863
Lot 1, the Victory public house, Single Gate (Colliers Wood) together with a
bowling green and garden. The Single Gate of the turnpike is shown on the
map.
Lot 2, 2 High Street, Merton (later to become a post office, and then destroyed
in the Blitz).
Lots 3, 4 and 5, three freehold houses (4, 6 and 8 High Street, Merton, built in
1790 by James Perry, and still standing in 2007).
Lot 6 was a small plot behind these four houses, with a 68-foot frontage along Wandle Bank.
©
Peter Hopkins reported two more Surrey History Centre accessions of local interest:

(i) Papers relating to Herbert Hickox, who, 100 years ago in Haydons Road, Wimbledon, had developed and used
equipment for .While You Wait. photographs, and
(ii) A still book from the Batsworth Road, Mitcham, works of the herbal oil distillery of W J Bush and Co.
Peter also gave an update on his Medieval Morden project. He has compiled a list of some 120 officials of
Westminster Abbey mentioned in the Morden account rolls. He also described how the Abbey managed its manor
of Morden and, in detail, how much the manor had to pay for this management. Cyril Maidment

3652
3654,
Lots 3,4 and 5
Reduced extract from 1894 OS
map, showing the locations of
some of the properties
3651Lot 1
3651Lot 2
3651Lot 3
MERTON HIGH STREET
WANDLE BANK
MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 6

Friday 11 May, afternoon meeting. Six present, Cyril Maidment in the chair.
©
Westminster Abbey Muniment Room have provided Peter Hopkins with digital photographs of documents
in their possession relating to Morden. The images are mostly very clear, and as many of them have also
been copied into the cartulary Peter hopes not to have too much difficulty transcribing them for translation.
They deal with, for instance, land transactions, farming of tithes and appointment of clergy. Peter also told us
that Morden’s mill was constructed at Aldenham, Herts, in 1312/13 and transported on 45 carts to Morden.
©
Lionel Green spoke about the
founding of Holyrood by King David
of Scotland. His mother, St
Margaret, had brought back from the
Holy Land a casket said to contain
a fragment of the Holy Cross (or
Rood). David invited Alwin, canon
of Merton and his own trusted
adviser and chaplain, to bring some
colleagues from Merton and set up
a monastery in Edinburgh to house
the relic. Lionel tells the story in full

in his Daughter Houses of Merton
Priory MHS (2002).
Lionel had brought along a 50-year

old photograph of a MHS ‘summer
ramble. group.

©
Cyril Maidment had been reading
Emma Lazarus’s article .A Day in
Surrey with William Morris.
published in The Century Illustrated
Monthly Magazine 32 (1886) 388

397. He admired the writing, and the
illustrations, but was especially struck by the sentence beginning: ‘some thirty years ago there still remained
a piece of the old [priory] buildings . on the adjoining property of Mr. Littler … This he takes to refer to
the remains of the chapel which stood just north of the .Colour House. at Merton Abbey Mills, and which
would have been used in connection with the priory’s .guest house. on the other bank of the Wandle. He
believes this passage means that a remnant of the chapel still existed in the 1850s. Edward Walford, who
was writing in 1883/4, also refers to .a window of the old chapel. surviving a quarter of a century before.
Cyril had photographed the surviving eastern stretch of precinct wall from the same angle as a view of about
100 years ago . when it did not have a supermarket as backdrop.
©
Rosemary Turner was hoping to get down to a serious study of the Hoares, especially the Morden connection,
using material about them from the Internet.

©
The meanings of two terms connected with madder dyeing had been eluding Judith Goodman, in her work
on the Leach/Bennett calico printing family. She had finally found them in a treatise on madder by Robert
Chenciner published in 2000. Even in this exhaustive study they did not appear in the index. .Crops. and
.Umberoes. . both in various spellings . were the two best and most expensive grades of madder, after
roasting and grinding.

In the same book was a reference to madder ovens seen at Mitcham in 1773. Were these John Arbuthnot’s?
She also told the meeting that John Leach’s house at Bookham, when he retired from Merton Abbey, had

been previously the home of novelist, playwright, diarist and ex-member of the royal household, Fanny
Burney, and her French émigré husband.
She had also found a reference to a .James Lee of Merton Abbey Flax-mills. who obtained a patent in 1812,

for preparing hemp and flax, without the process of steeping and dew-retting.

Judith Goodman
The next workshops will be at Wandle Industrial Museum on Friday 29 June at 7.30pm
and Friday 31 August at 2.30pm. All are welcome.

MHS members on a summer ramble to North Holmwood on 2 June 1957
Evelyn Jowett is on the right of the 2nd row from the back. Next to her is Lionel’s
first wife, Dorothy, and Lionel is on the right at the rear. Mike Nethersole, still a
member, is on the left of the back row. His sister Joan is in front of Miss Jowett.
Mike’s wife Hilary is somewhere at the front . perhaps she will enlighten us.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 7

BILL RUDD explains

THE MYSTERY BUILDINGS

Abbey House
Colour House
Wheelhouse
the .mystery buildings.
When I wrote my account of Liberty Print Works
. Wartime Remembrances1 I illustrated it with
some post-war photographs I had taken. I added
an outline of the buildings on the back page. This
was done by taking a photocopy of the site as shown
on the post-war Ordnance Survey map, as it
showed the air raid shelters. A stencil clear copy
was made, and a photocopy taken in which the
buildings were numbered and other details. Peter
Hopkins added a list of names of the buildings and
enclosed the plan in a neat border.

Out of interest I took a photocopy of the site as it
was in the 19th century when it was Littler’s. Most
of the wooden buildings could be identified for
whatever purposes they were used for. But there
were two buildings, small, long, which overlapped
the east bank of the river. What was their purpose?
Then I suddenly realised I had a possible answer.

In my booklet I said that the first thing I did on
arrival at the works as a tierer was to get a bucket
of water from the river for the printer to wash his
blocks. A little perilous, as it meant lifting a now
heavy bucket on a hooked rod over the stone ledge.
The Littler tierers must have had the same job.
What better than to have a covered platform,
possibly with some support?

And it was the brick foundation of a support wall
of the northernmost building that Time Team found.
Not a dock or wharf! The river is non-navigable .
except for the antics of a few canoeists. The
buildings might well have been used for washing
purposes while the wheelhouse was being rebuilt.

1.
W J Rudd Liberty Print Works . Wartime Remembrances
MHS Local History Notes . No.8 (1994), obtainable from
the Publications Officer, Peter Hopkins, 57 Templecombe
Way, Morden, SM4 4JF
Enlarged and annotated extract from 25-inch OS map of 1865

IN BRIEF

©
The current exhibition, till 24 June, at the excellent Geffrye Museum, Kingsland Road E2, (020 7739 9893) is
called Home and Garden part 3 (1914-1960) and happens to feature a painting by Merton’s Harry Bush
called December Sunshine, from 1925, on loan from the Museum of London, which depicts the view from
the back of his house in Queensland Avenue.

©
Lambeth Local History Forum is again putting on a Festival of Heritage Walks in South London from
May to October. Telephone Lambeth Archives Department on 020 7926 6076 for a leaflet.

©
Wandsworth Museum, 11 Garratt Lane, has an exhibition till 1 July about keeping clean in earlier times;
from 14 July to 23 September Just the Job will look at working lives and how they changed as the area that
is now Wandsworth Borough became more industrialised; and from 14 August to 23 September you can see,
and shed a tear at, Last Orders: Memories of Young’s Brewery.

©
On that subject, Wandle Industrial Museum will be paying their own tribute to south London’s last major

brewery, when they launch their new exhibition about Young’s on 16 June. Tel: 020 8648 0127 for information.
©
And don’t forget the Wandle Festival on Sunday 24 June. See the local press for details.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 8

DAVID ROE looks at the early post-war scene locally:
MERTON, MORDEN AND MITCHAM IN 1947

This article tries to paint a picture of life in Merton, Morden and Mitcham 60 years ago, based on reports, articles
and letters in the local press. Newsprint restrictions meant that local papers were limited to eight pages (broadsheet).
Even so they still gave plenty of space to reporting cases of very petty crime (by today’s standards) . such as
minor thefts, being drunk and disorderly, and failing to have lights on bicycles or to renew dog licences. However
the main news was of the difficulties of the time. Britain suffered in the first three months of 1947 from one of
the coldest winters on record: .The Big Freeze.. This was followed by a thaw, heavy rain, gales and floods.
Rationing was still in full swing, and there was a housing shortage, with delays in the repair of buildings damaged
by bombing and in the construction of new houses.

The cold winter

In early March
a pedestrian
was seen
crossing the
ice-covered St
Helier Avenue
on his hands
and knees to
avoid a fall .
not to be
attempted
today! The
outdoor toilets
at many local
schools were
frozen and unusable, and a temperature of 33°F . just above freezing . was reported inside one school. Power
cuts meant that much industrial production in the area ceased in February. Thousands queued with wheelbarrows
and hand-carts for coal and coke at the Wandsworth Gas Company’s depot in Western Road, Mitcham. Some
blamed the ‘selfish. miners . since nationalisation of the coal industry on 1 January they could no longer be
forced to work long periods of overtime at low pay. Sometimes the producers blamed the consumers. Mr Tyler
of the local coal office said, .When coal is delivered there is a great temptation to start using it . the poorer
classes of the public are the worst offenders.. One of the Wandsworth Gas Company’s adverts in the local
press made reference to the latest addition to its fleet of colliers . the diesel-engined Mitcham, which was then
the largest ship to navigate 20 London bridges going up the Thames.

Politics

A letter in March from a ‘standard Socialist. advocated true socialism . abolishing private property, establishing
a classless society, with no need for wages and the monetary system, .and mankind henceforth will be master of
himself and the overlord of Nature.. However, the problems of the time meant that there was growing
disillusionment with the ruling Labour government that had swept to power after the war, and in April Labour
lost control of Merton and Morden Council. There were letters bemoaning the increasing intrusion of party
politics into local government: .What has happened to the men who before the war controlled our local affairs
through their own judgement and convictions . and not by what they were told from Labour and Tory headquarters
in London?. There was much debate about whether Ratepayers. Association and Independent candidates were
really Conservatives in disguise, and later in the year a lack of co-operation amongst their opponents helped
Labour to hold Mitcham Council, although with a much reduced majority.

Food and other shortages

The Mitcham News and Mercury stated that no other borough had taken all its recreation grounds for cultivation
in wartime, as Mitcham had done. However, despite a waiting list, many allotments were unused owing to lack
of security of tenure. Sixty acres of Mitcham Common were still turned over to the growing of potatoes, which
were harvested in September with the help of land girls. However, the crop had been depleted by theft . one
court case saw two men convicted of stealing four tons of potatoes. A letter in the Wimbledon Borough News
(which covered Merton and Morden also) complained about smells from the premises of the Trafalgar Pig Club
on allotments at 129 Merton High Street. The activities of the club, which was formed in 1941, were stoutly
defended in a response from its chairman.

Getting ice off the road in Morden

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 9

There were pleas in the local press to cut
down on smoking . not for health reasons,
but to save money that would be better spent
on food. A reader wrote to suggest that to
reduce imports from the USA tobacco should
be grown in Mitcham, which had ‘similar soil
to Hampshire where it was grown on a large
scale.. An advert on behalf of the British film
industry (competing with Hollywood) showed
the actress Margaret Lockwood saying, .We
can’t grow tobacco but we can make films..

Clothing was rationed, as well as food. A letter
in the local press came from a parent who
wished to thank a gentleman on Cannon Hill
Common who ‘so very kindly tore his
handkerchief in half to bind up the arm and
leg of my small son who had cut himself. This
act is all the more appreciated owing to handkerchiefs being half a coupon each and so very difficult to obtain
these days, and the fact that this was a new one..

Housing

In February it was reported that the
population of Merton and Morden was 75,185,
but there were 3,599 families on the waiting
list for housing, and construction was in
progress for only 454 houses and flats. In
February squatters moved into 57 huts on the
wartime gun-site on Mitcham Common.
Later 17 families moved in as squatters at
the unoccupied prisoner-of-war camp on the
Prince George’s playing fields in Bushey
Road, Raynes Park. This had originally been
an Anti-Aircraft gun-site, and then it housed
German prisoners of war, who, according to
an article in May, .were finally moved out
several weeks ago.. The response of the War
Department, the site owners, was to
immediately make the rest of the huts
uninhabitable.

The local authorities took great pride in those few council housing developments that could be completed. Under
the headline .Pollards Hill Goes Gay. there was a report that the first prize in the new Horticultural Society
competition had been won by 61 South Lodge Avenue . the first .Arcon. to be completed. Arcons are now a
museum piece . they were a particular design of .prefab. bungalow, which at Pollards Hill were built with the
assistance of German prisoners of war. The chairman of the Mitcham Housing Committee, in refusing permission
for a tenant on the estate to keep his car alongside his bungalow, said, .If a person could afford to own and run
a car he could rent a house with a garage..

Children

It was reported in May that Merton and Morden had the largest child population amongst local authorities in
Surrey, and it was still growing. However, the plans of the Nelson Hospital to add a new maternity wing were
thwarted by the Minister of Health.

Children were not so mollycoddled in those days. At an open day at Merton Park Primary School there was an
exhibition of boxing by the nine- and ten-year-old boys. The headmistress said, .While the boys learn boxing the
girls are taught first-aid.. Schools proudly celebrated Empire Day on 24 May with patriotic tableaux, hymns and
songs. In July there were the first reports of cases of infantile paralysis (polio), which resulted in fewer children
attending the public baths. There was pressure to remove the widely used .pig bins., holding domestic food
waste, as they attracted flies which could spread the infection.

Despite the food shortage, there were no signs of malnutrition or
‘size zero. figures among the beauty contestants at a Wimbledon fair

Squatters at the Bushey Road prisoner-of-war camp

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 10

There were no reports in the local press at this time of general problems with bad behaviour by schoolchildren,
although there were individual exceptions. For example, a reader complained about boys being allowed to use air
guns . in this way he had lost a pigeon flying from the Grove Hotel in Merton . .The bird was worth £20 and has
also done valuable war service..

Religion

The local press carried adverts for church services, and also frequently published the views of Christians who
regretted the decrease in numbers attending church. One reader wrote, .The only thing that can save the
country today is the return to God of the great mass of the people.. Another wrote, .The mere desire to have
enough money to spend on pleasure is a sure sign of decadence.. In April the local area saw a visit from the
national .Christian Commando. campaign . a team of clergy who visited the works canteens, cinemas, pubs and
clubs to spread the word. One of the team suggested that any good works (e.g. helping the victims of recent
flooding) done by atheists were .the spirit of Jesus Christ working through them, whatever they may call
themselves.. Another said that education was not a substitute for God. All that education might do was to
educate cleverer devils. At a visit to a Mitcham laundry (described as a .den of unbelief.) the Rev. Trevor
Greeves found the going tough, and asked at the end of his visit, ‘shall I come again?.. .Yes. was the reply,
.we.d like to have this out..

Industry

There were increasing concerns at the close proximity of industry to housing. In January a reader described
Garth Road as .the Black Country of Morden.. Following a public enquiry, Benningas was refused permission
to extend their margarine factory in Bond Road, Mitcham. The site had originally been used as a piggery, and
then gasworks, and was acquired by Benningas in 1932. On 2 June there was a major fire in Mitcham .
.London’s biggest blaze since the Blitz.. In hot weather the Ministry of Supply’s rubber dump in Willow Lane
went up in flames. Black smoke spread over London, while 45 fire engines fought the fire. 10,000 tons of tyres
and other rubber goods were lost, valued at £20,000. Fortunately there were no casualties, and neighbouring
properties survived . the dump would have been larger, but during the coal shortage of the previous winter much
of the rubber had been used as fuel in the northern cotton mills.

Sport and recreation

There had been a resumption of sporting
activity after the war, and the usual sports
were played at local level, although pitches
had disappeared owing to the use of the land
for allotments or military purposes. In 1947
only five cricket pitches survived on Mitcham
Common compared with 24 in use before the
war. As today, reports of football in the local
press concentrated on Tooting and Mitcham
FC and Wimbledon FC, who reached the
Amateur Cup Final in 1947. Also reported
was the less familiar sport of bicycle polo. It
became popular in south London in the 1930s
and there had been a .Merton Wheelers. team.
In 1947 Tooting BC was one of the top
national teams. Their matches were played
at Mitcham Stadium, now gone, which was situated where Ormerod Gardens is today, off Sandy Lane.

The papers carried notices of local dances (e.g. Reg Dale’s Merry Makers Dance Band at Merton Public Hall,
Kingston Road) and all the programmes of the local cinemas, including the Mitcham Majestic, the Gaumont at
Rose Hill and the Morden Odeon. Cinema going was hugely popular at this time, and on 6 September the
Sunday Pictorial organised a Film Stars Garden Party at Morden Hall Park, attended by a crowd of 20,000.
The film stars toured the park in jeeps. The proceeds went to the NSPCC and the Church of England Children’s
Society. Saturday morning pictures for children at the cinema were becoming more popular, and some adults
thought this inappropriate. As a result Odeon Cinemas offered to host a religious service for children once a
month. The first was held at the Morden Odeon on 28 September, attended by 150 children. The cinema
manager accompanied the hymns on the organ, while the words were projected onto the screen.

Sources:

Wimbledon Borough News 1947; Mitcham News and Mercury 1947; Mitcham Advertiser 1947

Bicycle polo at Mitcham Stadium

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 11

PETER HOPKINS has been investigating
LANDHOLDING IN MORDEN AROUND THE YEAR 1200

One of the many puzzles that have exercised my mind as I have pursued my studies of Medieval Morden has been
the fact that the Westminster Abbey estate at Morden paid out each year, from at least 1283 until at least 1450, the
sum of 4s to members of the Kennardesle or Kynnersley family.1

The Kynnersleys held a .manor. in Carshalton, and another in Horley. The Carshalton possessions included a block
of 64 acres of land in the northwest corner of the ancient parish of Carshalton (but in the 20th century incorporated
into Morden parish). This block of land lies on the south-western side of Green Lane between Rosehill and Love
Lane, Morden. In the mid-15th century it was known as .Oldfeld.,2 in 1496 as .Kynwardesley Field.3 and in 1733,
rather long-windedly, as .eight several fields, pieces or parcels of inclosed grounds . in the several fields there
called Oldfields..4

Until 1817 a detached piece of land within Morden parish was in the same ownership as the 64 acres in Carshalton.
In the 14th century, this piece of land was said to be .land at Gildenehelde. or .Gilleneheld.;5 in the 15th century .land
at Gildonehill.,6 in the 16th century .Mr Scott’s mede upon the gilden hille. containing 9 acres;7 in the 18th century
.8 acres called Huntley’s Meadow alias Gilton Hills.;8 in the 19th century .8 acres formerly Huntleys Meadow alias
Gilton Hills, now called Gillmore Hill.;9 and in the 1838 Morden Tithe Apportionment .Buckles Meadow. of 9 acres
3 roods 30 perches.10 (Scott and Huntley were successive lords of the manor of Kynnersley, and William Buckland
(rather than Buckle) of Mitcham bought the Morden plot in 1817).11

How had this small plot of land in Morden come to be part of a Carshalton manor? And why did the Westminster

Abbey estate at Morden pay 4s a year to make use of it?
Among various land charters copied into the great cartulary at Westminster Abbey known as the Westminster
Domesday are two charters relating to a one-virgate freeholding in Morden. Around the end of the 12th century or
the beginning of the 13th, Robert Morin granted this virgate to Robert de Claygate at 4s a year. The holding seems
to have been a compact unit, and is described in the charter as:

one virgate of land with pertinents in Morden . namely that virgate which Agmund held, which lies
between the land of John son of Peter and the old croft.12

A few years later Robert de Claygate in turn granted this virgate to Westminster Abbey, charging the 4s a year

payable to Robert Morin, plus an additional 2d a year payable to Robert de Claygate.13
So we have the Abbey holding a property within Morden at 4s a year payable to Robert Morin, some 60 years
before the first recorded payment of 4s to the Kennardesle or Kynnersley family. There are no other extant records
of the Abbey making annual payments for lands within Morden. Could this be the same property? Was Robert
Morin a predecessor of the Kynnersleys in the ownership of this land?

Another clue can be found among the Records of Merton Priory collected by Alfred Heales. Merton Priory also
had dealings with a member of the Morin family. On 2 February 1196, an agreement was made in the Curia Regis:

between the Prior of Merton plaintiff and Gilbert Morin defendant, concerning the whole land
which is between first Poeclose and land which Sedmar de Lathorn held between Morden and
Walton {?Awlton} . Namely that the same Gilbert grants to the aforesaid Prior and the convent at
the same place all that part of the aforesaid land that is below the road towards the north, which
road proceeds from Morden towards Awlton, to hold to the same Prior and the aforesaid convent of
the same Gilbert and of his heirs in perpetual alms free and quit from all secular exaction. And the
same Prior quitclaims his whole right and claim that he has in all the other part and of the aforesaid
land above the aforesaid road towards the south to the same Gilbert and his heirs in perpetuity.14

Here we have Gilbert Morin owning land alongside a road leading from Morden to Carshalton. When I drive to
Carshalton I usually go along Middleton Road to avoid the Rose Hill roundabout. But before Middleton Road was
created in the 20th century, the way from Morden to Carshalton would have been along Green Lane directly into
Wrythe Lane (or possibly from Green Lane via Bishopsford Road into Green Wrythe Lane).

What properties did Merton Priory possess in Carshalton? Apart from the parish church, the only properties
mentioned in Merton Priory’s records at this time are small properties, the large estate known as Mareslond
apparently being given to them in the 14th century.15 But it did possess two large estates within Morden during the
medieval period. Hobalds, with 100 acres in Morden and a further 30 acres in each of Merton and Malden, was
given to Merton Priory in the 1230s.16 The North East Surrey Crematorium occupies much of this estate. It is not
known when Merton Priory received its other estate in Morden, the 150-acre Spital estate, which occupied the area
between Central Road, Green Lane, Farm Road, and Bishopsford Road.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 12

If it was already in possession of the Spital estate in 1196, Merton Priory may well have wanted to add the adjoining
11 acres in Carshalton between the Morden parish boundary and Green Lane to round off the estate. And Gilbert
Morin may well have been happy to increase his standing with God by granting them an odd bit of land separated
from his other properties by the main road. It was certainly shown as part of the ‘spital Farm alias The Lodge.
estate in 19th-century estate maps and in the tithe map.17

Even the physical geography works.Thepiece of land released to Merton Priory is described asbeing .below the
road towards the north., and the remainder of the Oldfields as being .above the aforesaid road towards the south..
Green Lane runs SE from Love Lane to Rose Hill, so the Spital land would have been to the NE of the road and the
Oldfields to the SW. At this point the houses on the NE side of Green Lane are slightly below the level of the
road, and Canterbury Road slopes down from Green Lane.

However, the suggestion that Merton Priory already held the Spital estate by 1196 wreaks havoc with an earlier
theory I held! Around 1220 Westminster Abbey had three large independent freehold estates in Morden. William
de Wattune paid 2s a year for 1 virgate, John Ducet paid 3s for 1½ virgates, and Richard de Winnelondune paid 6s
4d for 2½ virgates.18 William de Wattune’s 1-virgate estate was given to Merton Priory in the 1230s and became
the 100-acre Hobalds estate, mentioned above. John Ducet had bought 2¼ virgates from Richard Sakespeye, but
Richard’s widow claimed one-third as dower, which she sold to the prior of Westminster in 1220, leaving John
Ducet with just 1½ virgates.19

I had wondered whether Ducet’s 1½ virgates had become the 150-acre Spital estate, and Richard de Winnelondune’s
2½ virgates had become the 250 acres in Morden that formed part of the Ravensbury estate. The ratios match, and
one reference to Hobalds comprising a carucate of land, rather than a virgate, adds support to John Blair’s view
that compact freehold estates, though assessed in virgates, were much larger than the villein virgate of 20 acres.20

However, if Ducet owned this estate in 1220 and Merton Priory held the Spital estate from 1195, it seems unlikely
to have been the same estate. Unless, of course, Ducet had granted the estate to the priory while retaining ownership
for the term of his life. Such arrangements are not unknown, but we have no evidence to support such a view in this
instance!

1 Westminster Abbey Muniments 2728527375
2 Court Rolls of the Manor of Carshalton oe
Surrey Record Society Vol II 51, 53
3 Chertsey Abbey Cartularies . Surrey Record

Society Vol XII 131
4 Surrey History Centre K85/2/49
5 Westminster Abbey Muniments 27306-19
6 Westminster Abbey Muniments 27373-5
7 Surrey History Centre K85/3/5
8 Surrey History Centre K85/2/49
9 Surrey History Centre K80/5/23-4
10 Morden in 1838: The Tithe Apportionment

Map . MHS Local History Notes . 13
1 1 Surrey History Centre K80/5/23-32
1 2 Westminster Abbey Muniments Book 11,

fo 170a
13 ibid
1 4 A Heales The Records of Merton Priory App

XXX (translation PJ Hopkins)
15 Victoria County History: Surrey IV, 233
1 6 British Library Add Ch 8139; Westminster

Abbey Muniments 9287; CAF Meekings The
1235 Surrey Eyre Surrey Record Society Vol
XXXII, 481-2, note 188; Westminster
Abbey Muniments 1915*; Westminster
Abbey Muniments Book 11 fo 169b; Heales
op cit 101

1 7 eg London Borough of Sutton Archive 2361/
2/2 Sales Particulars and map of Henry
Hoare’s estates in Mitcham, Carshalton and
Morden 1828; Morden Tithe Map 1838 see
note 10 above

1 8 British Library Add Ch 8139; Westminster
Abbey Muniments 9287
1 9 Westminster Abbey Muniments Book 11,
fo 170b-171a

2 0 CAF Meekings op cit 481-2, note 188 (a
carucate was an alternative term for a hide,
normally considered equivalent to 4 virgates);
J Blair Early Medieval Surrey 71-4

Oldfields Gilden Hill Spital Green Lane
50% reduced extract from the First Edition 6-inch Ordnance Survey
Map, with annotations and shading to identify locations mentioned in the
text. The suggested location for the land .north of the road from Morden
to Awlton. is the mid-grey area between Green Lane and Spital.
Wrythe Lane
MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 13

LIONEL GREEN traces a benefactor of Merton priory:
FARAMUS OF BOULOGNE (d.1183/4)

About 1145 Faramus of Boulogne gave the church of Carshalton to Merton priory. An important gift by perhaps
an important person .of Boulogne.. This article is about the man and the name, and his relationship to the Crown
at the time of king Stephen.

The emergence of the Boulogne family in England can be found in Domesday Book of 1086. The Domesday
tenant-in-chief of Carshalton was Geoffrey de Mandeville, and he held three manors in Surrey . Clapham,
Carshalton and Wanborough.1 The entry for Carshalton states that .Wesman holds 6 hides from Geoffrey, son
of count Eustace, to whom Geoffrey de Mandeville gave this land, with daughter.. This daughter of Geoffrey de
Mandeville, daughter-in-law of count Eustace II of Boulogne (d. c.1088), was none other than the grandmother
of Faramus of Boulogne. From the records of gifts of land to the abbey of Bec-Hellouin it is possible to give
names of descendants. Geoffrey de Boulogne, son of count Eustace, gave a hide of land in Balham, and his
grandson Faramus confirmed the grant .made by his grandfather Geoffrey and his father William.. About 1145
Sybil, daughter of Faramus, gave further land to Bec and confirmed that .the land she owned in Balham now
belonged to Bec..2

When a later Geoffrey de Mandeville (d.1144) came into possession of the Surrey manors, a close relationship
already existed between him and Faramus. Geoffrey served in the royal household troops and was the hereditary
constable of the Tower of London. Later in 1140 he received further honours from Stephen, including the
earldom of Essex. Faramus joined the royal household and travelled with the court.

Faramus was said to be a nephew of queen Matilda,3 and for his relationship with the Crown it is necessary to
see how Stephen became king. In 1102 when Stephen was about five, his father, the count of Blois, was killed.
Stephen was brought up in the household of Henry I together with the king’s only legitimate son, prince William.
The king was devastated when William was drowned in 1120 in the White Ship disaster, and thereafter treated
his nephew Stephen as his own son. The king arranged a marriage in 1125 between Stephen and Matilda,
daughter of the count Eustace III of Boulogne (d.1125). This brought to Stephen the whole Flemish county, an
English honour and an outstanding lineage.

Henry I died in 1135 and Stephen immediately sailed from Wissant for England to claim the throne. He was
rebuffed by the citizens of Dover and Canterbury, but welcomed in London, which accepted him as king. His
brother Henry was bishop of Winchester and seized the treasury for the king. Stephen and Matilda were crowned
separately at Westminster abbey. Queen Matilda is not to be confused with the empress Matilda, who was a
cousin of Stephen and the surviving child of Henry I.

The empress also claimed the throne of England, and in September 1139 landed on the south coast with Robert
of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry. She had many supporters in the central and west side of England, but
Stephen continued to rule in the east. The deadlock was broken in 1141 when Robert of Gloucester was able to
march on Lincoln from the north and take the lightly garrisoned castle, and even capture king Stephen on 2
February. Stephen was taken to Bristol and imprisoned in the castle, but his mercenary force of Flemings, led by
William of Ypres, managed to withdraw to London. Faramus was placed in charge of the royal household whilst
Stephen was in captivity.3

Geoffrey de Mandeville quickly sought confirmation of his honours from the empress. She realised that she
needed his support, and gave him three castles and made him sheriff and justiciar of London, Middlesex and
Hertfordshire. On 8 April 1141 the clergy at Winchester elected the empress to be domina Anglorum, and plans
were made for a ceremonial entry into London. The Londoners were not so enamoured, and the citizens rang
the church bells, which to them was a call to arms. It is thanks to the annalist of Merton priory that we know the
date . 24 June 1141.4 The empress retreated hastily to Oxford, whilst the Londoners entered the lodgings of the
.intruders. and helped to dispose of the prepared feast.

Queen Matilda of Boulogne was keeping up resistance to the empress and demanded the release of Stephen, but

to no avail.
At the beginning of August the empress marched her men from Oxford to Winchester, which alarmed bishop
Henry, who was wavering in his support for her. She besieged him in his castle, but 1000 men, loyal to Stephen,
came down from London and cut off food supplies for the besiegers. William de Ypres burnt Andover, and the
empress, in danger of capture, escaped to Ludgershall. Robert of Gloucester fought a rearguard action to save
her, but was eventually captured.

Stephen’s queen demanded large ransoms for the many magnates who were captured, and Robert was exchanged
for Stephen, who was freed on 1 November 1141.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 14

King Stephen’s first child was named after his grandfather Eustace, and would have followed Stephen as king.
But he was never crowned, and died in 1153. The empress returned to Normandy in 1146, and under the Treaty
of Wallingford in 1153 Stephen was recognised as king of England. However Henry of Anjou, the empress’s
son, born in 1133, was to be heir on the king’s death. All foreign mercenaries were banished from England.

About 1149 Stephen’s second son William, never destined for the Crown, married Isabella of Warenne and
became earl of Surrey. This brought him the county of Norfolk and the honour of Pevensey. With the latter he
had .the service of Faramus of Boulogne..5 In May 1157 Henry II, now king, took away some Warenne land,
inclding Norwich and Pevensey, but allowed William of Warenne (d.1159) to keep land in Mortain and Boulogne.

In 1153 Faramus of Boulogne was holding Dover castle, probably until Henry became king. William of Warenne

gave Faramus Martock, in Somerset, which had been part of the honour of Boulogne.6
In 1143 king Stephen had arrested Geoffrey de Mandeville and demanded the surrender of his castle. After his
release he was killed in battle in the following year. The king seized some of his estates and the Surrey manors
were given to Faramus of Boulogne about 1145. He passed on the manors of Clapham and Carshalton to his
daughter Sybil, and the manor of Wanborough was given to Waverley abbey. But the church at Carshalton was
passed by Faramus to Merton priory, and a house built for the priest about 1148.

The charter of foundation of Faversham abbey, issued in May 1157, was attested by Faramus.7 Stephen’s queen,
Matilda, and Stephen himself had been buried in the abbey in 1152 and 1154 respectively, and no doubt Faramus
attended.

In 1157 and 1158 Faramus held the manors of Wendover and Eton. Like many men of power and wealth, he
borrowed, from moneylender William Cade, in 1165. In this he was following the example of Merton priory,
which borrowed .for the works of the church., but at least the priory offered the vineyard at Sutton as security.8

Faramus died in 1183/4,9 and Sybil was his sole heir. She had married Ingelram de Fiennes and brought up a son
William, who died in 1241. Ingelram was warden of the Cinque Ports and went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
He was killed in 1189 at Acon (Acre).

1.
Domesday Book (Surrey) f.36b (25:1,2,3)
2.
W Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum (1846) vi pt.3 pp.1016-7, 1068
3.
T Arnold (ed.) The Historical Works of Symeon of Durham Rolls Ser. 75 vol.II p.310. .Rexit autem familiam Regis Stephani Willelmus
d.Ipre, homo Flandrensis, et Pharamus nepos reginae Matildis, et iste Boloniensis.. .Moreover, in the household of king Stephen were
William of Ypres from Flanders and Faramus , nephew of queen Matilda, also of Boulogne..
4 .
Corpus Christi College Camb. MS 59 f.163v (Merton annals) .a London expulsa est in die Sancti Johannis Baptiste.
5 .
6 .
7 .
8 .
9 .
O Manning and W Bray The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey (1806) I p.xvi
J H Round Peerage Studies (1901) p.160
J H Round Geoffrey de Mandeville (1892) p.147
NA Exch. King’s Remembrancer Misc. 1/1b line 23; English Historical Review 28 (1913) p.223
Pipe Roll 30 Hen II 112: The 30th regnal year was from Oct. 1183 to Oct. 1184.
NORMANDY SCOTLAND BOULOGNE

William I = Matilda Malcolm III = St Margaret Eustace II = Ida de Bouillon
K1066-87

d1093

d1093
dc1088

Geoffrey de Mandeville

Robert William Stephen = Adela
Stephen Stephen
K1135-54 K1135-54Henry I = Matilda David Mary = Eustace III = Geoffrey

+

d1134 Rufus k1102

d1137 d1135

d1118 d1153 d1116

d1125 de Mandeville

de Boulogne
K1087-1100

Theobald IV Henry William Matilda = (1) Henry V = Matilda William
of Blois of Blois

d1120 d1167 d1125

of Boulogne of Boulogne
d1171

= (2) Geoffrey

d1152 d1130
of Anjou
d1150

English sovereigns
shown in bold type

Henry II = Eleanor Eustace = Constance William = Isabella Faramus = Matilda

K reigned

K1154-89 of Aquitaine d1153 d1159 de Warenne de Boulogne

= married

d1202 d1199 d1183/4
d died Richard I Ingelram = Sybil
k killed K1189-99 de Fiennes of Tingrie
k1189

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY . BULLETIN 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 15

LIONEL GREEN looks at some more connections with Merton priory:
FIFIDE .

This is a name that occurs, in forms such as Fifehead and Fifield, in Dorset, Essex, Somerset and other counties,1

and probably refers to a land unit of five hides.
The Anglo-Saxon military organisation was based on a five-hide system, and the fyrd (military service required
of a thegn) quota was calculated by dividing the number of hides in a vill by five.

The customs of the shire for Berkshire appear in the Domesday Survey for that county. .If the king sent an army
anywhere, only one soldier went from five hides, and for his provision and pay, four shillings were given him from
each hide for his two months of service..2 This meant that each five-hide unit could supply a fully armed knight
for the royal army. The assessment of five-hide districts was made regardless of possession by thegn or peasants.

J H Round in 1888 reassembled villages in Cambridgeshire as recorded in the Domesday Survey, and found that
hidages of estates added up to five hides or a multiple of that figure.3 He also found that hidation was fixed
independently of area or value.4

. and SHELWOOD

Fifide was a holding near the manor of Shelwood, Surrey, a sub-manor of Ewell which was held by Merton
priory from 1156 until the Dissolution of the monasteries. The West Sussex Record Office contains a survey of
the manor of Shelwood in 1635,5 and gives an acreage of 4,156 for .the lands now and formerly of this manorut
supra.. Assuming that a hide was 120 acres, this would equate to approximately 35 hides; or seven fifides.

Fifide and Shelwood appear in association in the Merton Priory Cartulary . Fifide’s location is not known, but the

name Shelwood survives in Shellwood Manor Farm, Little Shellwood and Shellwood Cross near Leigh, Surrey.
The Saxon thegn, possibly provisioned from fifide, is unknown, but there was certainly a military presence in
Ewell. The 12 Saxon burials so far found in Ewell have yielded grave goods of knives, spearheads, shield bosses,
rings and brooches.6

The tenant of king William was Osbern de Eu who held the manor of Ewell and the manorial church of Leret
(Leatherhead) plus 40 acres.7 Osbern held the important church of Farnham from the bishop of Winchester,8
and also the church at Woking.9

The manor of Thorncroft in Leatherhead was held at the Survey by Richard fitzGilbert (de Clare),10 and the
former minster church had probably suffered from the taking of two thirds of the demesne tithe portions by
Richard as tenant-in-chief.11 Richard’s daughter Rohese married Eudo Dapifer (d.1120), and about 1100 Eudo
gave the church at Leatherhead to his newly-founded abbey at Colchester.12

Osbern was the son of Osbern, vicomte of Eu (d. c.1058), and related to Eudo Dapifer.

1 .
O.Manning & W.Bray The History and Antiquities of Surrey (1814) I p.453 note x; E Ekwall The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English
Place-Names (4th ed.) Clarendon Press, Oxford (1981)
2.
Domesday Book (Berkshire) I 56b; Eng. Hist. Docs. ii 929
3.
P E Dove (ed.) Domesday Studies (1888) London pp.119-120
4.
J H Round Feudal England (1895) p.63
5.
Holmes & Campbell . Box 51 (unlisted). I have to thank Mary Day for delving to obtain this information.
6.
Ewell Surrey Archaeological Society Villages Project (2004) p.31
7.
Domesday Book (Surrey) I f.30c (1.9)
8.
Domesday Book (Surrey) I f.31a (3.1)
9 .
J Blair Early Medieval Surrey (1991) Sutton, Stroud, and Surrey Arch. Soc. p.105
10. Domesday Book (Surrey) I 35c (19.39)
11. Blair op. cit. p.148
12. Blair op. cit. p.101; Surrey Archaeological Collections 38 (1930) p.204
GOOD NEWS!

The long-awaited MoLAS report on the excavations at Merton priory is due to be launched at the Museum of
London as this Bulletin goes to press. A local launch at the Chapter House site is planned for 4 July. The book
will be available from the Museum of London, if not locally.

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 162 . JUNE 2007 . PAGE 16