Bulletin 235

Chair: Christine Pittman
BULLETiN No. 235 SEPTEMBEr 2025

Mary Tate Cottages, Cricket Green, Mitcham (Photo: Christine Pittman 2025) See p.7.

CONTENTS
Message from the Chair 2
Programme September 2025 – april 2026 2
Obituary: Dave Haunton 3
‘Lost English country houses’ – Janet Holdsworth 4
Questions and discoveries at Morden Lodge and ivy Lodge – Peter Hopkins 5
Launch of MhS publication Miss Tate and her Almshouses 7
Visit to all Saints Church, Putney Common – Tony Scott & Irene Burroughs 8
Wandle industrial Museum exhibition – ‘Women of the Wandle’
‘Motspur Park 100’ – Malcolm Claridge 10
Three Victorian industries in North Mitcham – Norma Cox 11
Local history Workshops:
3 May – Michael Kelly; Thomas Parsons and Sons; Variety Artistes Memorial Wall 13
13 June – Priory wall in Pickle Linear Park, Housing conditions in Mitcham, Variety Artistes
Memorial Wall (contd) 14
25 July – Morden Hall park, North Mitcham allotments, Merton Priory wall, Mitcham (Adelaide),
some online databases 14
Exhibition: ‘Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textiles’ – William Morris Gallery 15
Letters to the Editor: Andrew Simon – flour milling; John hawks – Christchurch & Merton Priories 16

a MESSaGE FrOM ThE Chair

We welcome all members to a new season of talks, from October to April, and especially invite you to our AGM
in November, and an early birthday celebration in February. If any of you are interested in volunteering, in
any capacity, to help us keep the Society functioning, please let us know – you can email our Secretary mhs@
mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk or speak to any of the committee at the October talk.

This Society is only as good as the sum of its members’ efforts. If we have to cut back on what we offer, it will
be because we do not have the volunteer numbers to support all our programmes.

A Membership renewal form is enclosed with this Bulletin, as well as the aGM agenda. The minutes of last
year’s AGM were enclosed with the December Bulletin.

Christine Pittman, Chairperson, MhS

PrOGraMME SEPTEMBEr 2025 – aPriL 2026

SUMMEr EVENTS
Thursday 4 September at 2pm – Guided walk in historic Kingston exploring 17th-century
architecture, local industries and public houses. Meet outside the Fighting Cocks pub, Old London
Road, opposite Cleave’s Almshouses. Booking essential:

email mhs@mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk

Saturday 27 September at 2.30pm in the Chapter house – ‘Merton Priory lost and found!’

See enclosed flyer for details and booking information

aUTUMN TaLKS

Saturday 11 October at 2.30pm – ‘Blueprinting history: cyanotype printing on textile’
A talk by Cathy Corbishley Michel

Saturday 8 November at 2.30pm – aGM followed by members’ talks:
Peter hopkins – Merton Court rolls transcription project
Norma Cox – researching local businesses

Saturday 13 December at 2.30pm – ‘William Kilburn, botanical illustrator & eminent
calico printer’ – a talk by alison Cousins of Wandle Industrial Museum

Saturday 10 January at 2.30pm – ‘herbal heritage and local folklore’ – a talk by roy Vickery

Saturday 14 February at 2.30pm – Celebrating Merton historical Society’s 75th birthday

Saturday 14 March at 2.30pm – ‘Sir Patrick Kelly, a story that starts in ireland, moves to
Mumbai and ends in Wimbledon’ – a talk by Geoff Simmons

Saturday 11 april at 2.30pm – ‘richardson Evans, conservation pioneer, local campaigner
and benefactor’ – a talk by Michael Norman Smith

Talks are held in St James’s Church Hall in Martin Way, next to the church.
Buses 164 and 413 stop in Martin Way (in both directions) immediately outside.
Parking in adjacent streets is free.

LOCaL hiSTOrY WOrKShOPS:
Fridays 5 September, 17 October, 28 November 2025, 9 January 2026, 20 February 2026
and 10 april 2026 from 2.30pm

at the Wandle Industrial Museum, next door to the Vestry Hall, Mitcham.
Do join us, whether you wish to contribute, to ask questions, or just to listen!

Visitors are very welcome to attend any of our events.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 2

DaVE haUNTON

We are sad to announce the death of our esteemed Editor, former
Chair, researcher, writer, and very good friend, Dave Haunton.

Peter Hopkins writes: We first met Dave at our Local History
Workshop on Friday 31 August 2007, but by the time I reported on
that Workshop in Bulletin 164 he had already written and published
his first article, on ‘Lines Bros wartime pilotless aircraft’, in Bulletin

163. In my belated report, I said: ‘We were pleased to welcome David
Haunton, who has recently joined the Society. An interest in family
history revealed that some relatives had been bombed out of their
Merton Park homes during World War II. Discovering that little was
recorded on bombings in the area, David enquired at the National
Archives, and found several maps and lists relating to bomb damage
in Merton and Morden from 1940 onwards. He brought along copies of some of these, showing sites of public
shelters and ARP Wardens posts, as well as bombsites. A detailed plan of Lines Bros [printed in that Bulletin]
shows the wartime production sites mentioned in his article in our last Bulletin, as well as shelters and bomb
damage suffered in February 1944. We look forward to more articles from David.’
That hope was fulfilled beyond all expectations, with wide-ranging articles and Workshop items. His wartime
articles continued, including in-depth research into the locations of bombs and V-1s in the Merton area. His expert
eye on all matters to do with art produced further contributions, especially in his commentary to our reprint of the
artist Dewy Bates’s 1889 article On the Wandle., which we published in 2016. His knowledge of heraldry was also of
great value and our latest publication, Karen Ip’s Miss Tate and her Almshouses, relied heavily on his interpretation
of the Tate family coat of arms and its unusual depiction on Benjamin Tate’s memorial in Mitcham parish church.
But there were many more topics that led Dave into print – including a fascinating calculation of whether it would
have been physically possible for King John to have travelled by horseback from Winchester to Merton to sign
safe conducts for barons heading for Runnymede and for him to have then ridden back to sign further documents
at Odiham in Hampshire on the following day. The journey would have been impossible, confirming that the
identification for that signing as being at Merton was in error for Merdon, in Hampshire (Bulletin 213, March 2020).

Katie Hawks adds: ‘David Haunton would insist that he wasn’t a historian (‘I’m a mathematician, really’), but his
keen – and twinkling – eye for detail made him an ideal historian’s editor and set him off on the Magna Carta wild
horse chase. His calculations of horse power and distance have lain to rest definitively (I think!) any suggestion
that King John stopped at Merton Priory on his way to sign Magna Carta. Dave was always generous with his time,
and I’m grateful for his comments on my own research. I’ll miss his shrewdness and his sense of humour.’

In addition to researching and writing articles, Dave served as MHS Chair from December 2011 to September
2014, and shortly afterwards took over as Editor of the Bulletin on the retirement of Judy Goodman. His first
edition was number 193 in March 2015 and he helped pack his final edition, number 234 for June 2025, ten years
later. He was also a valued member of our editorial group, putting his grammatical understanding and thorough
proof reading skills to excellent use.

Other committee members remember his quirky emails, his dry, witty sense of humour, his support and kindness.

Keith Penny writes: I succeeded Dave Haunton as Chair of MHS in 2014; he was happy to pass the job to someone
else and then became most helpful and supportive in my year or so of finding out about the Society’s activities.
He provided me with an ironically titled list of ‘What Everyone Knows’ that proved of great value and stopped me
asking too many questions that for others had obvious answers. It was Dave who introduced me to the artefacts then
kept in disused Council premises in Morden, the dispersal of which collection later occupied much of my time. His
own research interests proved very useful when I came to write about wartime Longthornton, for he had produced
papers for the Bulletin about the V-1 raids, and we found a mutual interest in the surviving air raid shelters of that
area. As a part of the publications reading team, I was astounded by, and envious of, his extraordinary skill in
spotting errors in otherwise unrewarding texts such as footnotes and page references, although we did not always
agree on matters of usage or typography. His search for historical accuracy was combined with a whimsical sense
of humour; he was one of those people for whom historical societies provide a niche, and without whom they are
the poorer.

Mick Taylor has clear memories of filming an interview with Dave about the wartime experiences of his Merton
relatives for the Carved in Stone website: https://youtu.be/zB9ein4Shjs

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 3

This edition of the Bulletin was compiled by a team of volunteers, as a tribute to Dave Haunton, in the hope that
he would not have been too embarrassed by our efforts. He certainly would have had something droll and even
self-deprecating to say about it, while being kindly encouraging and extremely polite.

We send our condolences to his family.

a TaLK ON LOST ENGLiSh COUNTrY hOUSES

For the last talk of our 2024/25 season on 12 April, Matthew Beckett introduced us to Lost English Country
Houses which he had been exploring for the last 20 years. Matthew has become an expert at seeing what is not
there – ranging from nothing at all, through gardens, outbuildings, to repurposed buildings.

What is a Country House? There’s no agreed definition. Some have parkland attached to them, others are much
smaller, especially in urban areas. Matthew uses a broad definition.

How many houses have been lost? A Country Life book published in 2011, England’s Lost Houses, put the number
at 1185. Matthew believed there were more and set out to prove this. So far he’s found another 847 and, along with
discoveries by others, the total is over 3000. He’s created an excellent web site at http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/
index.html to document all the properties, which is well worth a visit. Set aside some time for this enjoyable task!

Country houses have always been lost, but this loss accelerated after 1900.

Why the losses? The reasons are complex and interlaced. The cost of maintenance, loss of revenue from the
surrounding land, the agricultural depression of the 19th century, fire (accidental or otherwise), enemy action
and World Wars, changing social attitudes, profligate landowners, death duties, urban and industrial expansion.

Some examples

Tehidy House/Park in Cornwall, demonstrated several of these elements. The house had been owned by the Basset
family since Norman times. Income from tin mines contributed to the family income and as this diminished in
the late 19th century, the family did not reduce their spending, which, combined with a love of gambling, led to
debt. The sale of the house and gardens for £10,000 in 1916 followed the disposal of the mines and other land.
The property was converted into a hospital. Shortly after the hospital opened in 1919 a fire destroyed much of the
house, but it was rebuilt and continued to provide hospital services until 1988. It’s now luxury apartments.

Trentham Hall in Staffordshire, with roots in the first Elizabethan era, was refurbished by Sir Charles Barry in the
1830s. Industrial pollution from Stoke-on-Trent subsequently encroached on the Hall and grounds leading to its
demolition and the sale of materials in 1912.

Holland House in London suffered from German bombing in 1940. However, not all of the buildings were lost
and some were repurposed.

In 1911 a fire gutted Sledmere House in East Yorkshire, home of the Sykes family. But it was reconstructed and
opened to the public.

Carden Hall in Cheshire, Uffington House in Lincolnshire and Clandon Park in Surrey all suffered from fire,
caused by dry wood and unsafe wiring.

A generation of new wealth generated from finance and industry led to the acquisition of houses, either bought or
rented. Many were in turnkey state, and several had golf courses or marinas constructed.

After 1918, there was a shortage of cheap labour and, after the Wall Street crash, a shortage of money. Some houses
had been used for military purposes in World War I. Coupled with hostility from local authorities, more houses
were lost.

There was, however, some revival and renewal before 1939, including new builds by the ‘New Aristocracy’, an
example being Port Lympne in Kent built by the Sassoon family.

World War II ended this revival. Houses were again requisitioned for the war effort, their structure often damaged
and contents lost. Egginton Hall in Derbyshire was unhabitable following vandalism by World War II troops and
was demolished in 1955.

But the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947, which established listing of buildings and the Civic Amenities
Act of 1957 did help slow down the loss. However, hostile social attitudes and punitive death duties at 75% (badly
affecting the Dukes of Devonshire where two owners died in quick succession) did not help.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 4

Impoverished landowners were glad to sell up. The estates were increasingly sold as economic units, ignoring the
houses which were marketed as suitable for schools or convalescent homes. Some were sold for urban or industrial
development – the Hams Hall site in Birmingham became a power station. Others were dismantled and sold
abroad for reconstruction. Entire rooms from demolished houses were reassembled elsewhere, including a Robert
Adam room in the ‘new’ Lloyds of London building.

In the case of the Grosvenor family, money was not an issue. Eaton Hall in Cheshire, designed by Waterhouse, was
demolished in 1961, with a new, and unsuccessful, modern replacement. That in turn was demolished in 1990s
and replaced by a Loire Chateau style house.

Some losses in Surrey

Ardenrun Place in Blindley Heath was destroyed by fire in 1933.

Bourne Hall in Ewell became a school in 1925 before demolition in 1960 to make way for a new civic centre. Some
of the old gardens remain, and the 1960 building is now listed!

Witley Park near Haslemere and the Devil’s Punchbowl has an interesting history. Built in the late 19th century, it
boasted an underwater smoking room. It was built by James Whitaker Wright, businessman, Methodist preacher
and swindler who migrated to Canada, where he promoted silver mining companies which never made a profit for
the investors. After his return to England in 1904 he was found guilty of fraud. He took cyanide in court to avoid
a 7-year sentence. In 1906 much of the surrounding land was bought by local residents and gifted to the National
Trust. After the sale of the house in 1952, there was a fire. The latest owner has built an enormous house in the
classical style on the land.

Matthew is always looking for photos of these lost houses, which do not need to be formal professional shots. They
are often found in family photo albums. If you have any, please contact Matthew on contact@lostheritage.org.uk

Janet holdsworth

Peter hopkins reports on
QUESTiONS aND DiSCOVEriES aT MOrDEN LODGE aND iVY LODGE,
MOrDEN haLL rOaD

Recently I was invited to talk to year 2 pupils at Liberty Woodland School at Morden Lodge about the history
of their site. I had visited the school in 2021 and had left them a book I had made for them, so the teacher and
children were well prepared with questions. Afterwards they asked me to walk around the site with them and point
out things of interest. They were particularly interested in the well, and asked how the water was obtained. They
naturally suggested a bucket on a long rope, but I explained that a newspaper report from 1806 had an interesting
description:

Among the numerous improvements lately made at the splendid seat of Mr Abraham Goldsmid,

near Merton, Surrey, is a curious well. It is sunk in the yard, opposite the servants’ hall. It is upwards

of 200 feet in depth; and about the mouth of it is erected a circular stone wall, thirty-one feet high.

On the summit is a curious gallery of carved stone, inscribed with Hebrew characters. The water,

which is forced up from the well by an engine, is drawn from a brass cock. The following lines are

inscribed upon a stone, opposite to this elegant structure:

This Well Abraham dug, and high its waters rise;

So, from the grave, man hopes to reach the skies;

Thus through the hills the silent waters drain,

‘Till brought from depths to mount in springs again.

1806

(Sun (London) BL_0002194_18060828_009_0002, BNA accessed 22.1.2022)

When Goldsmid’s house was demolished in 1815, the Second Sale of Building Materials included ‘two
forcing pumps’, presumably used for pumping the water from the well (Morning Chronicle transcribed
from BL_0000082_18151003_011_0004, BNA accessed 1.12.2021).

The children came back to me by email asking for more information on how the water was raised, so, wanting to
understand better, I asked John Pile for his thoughts and he used the AI application Copilot to enquire further. I
was particularly struck by the following section in Copilot’s response:

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 5

Many country houses integrated forced-water systems with innovations like brass taps and
intricate piping to clearly demarcate potable water from drainage and waste systems. Diagrams
from the era—a 19th-century publication even included detailed drawings of forcing or lifting
pumps—reveal how engineers of the time designed these systems to overcome the vertical and
horizontal distances involved, sometimes employing a 30-foot-high water tower or circular wall
as a reservoir to maintain steady pressure. Such arrangements were as much a show of modern
engineering prowess as they were essential to the day-to-day running of the estate.

This seems to be exactly what is being described at Morden Lodge in 1806. Where exactly would this circular wall
have been – the newspaper report says ‘about the mouth’ of the well? And what diameter would it have been? I can’t
help wondering if the circular concrete domed structure a yard or two from the well was connected in any way?
Apparently there is an identical concrete structure in the vicinity of Morden Hall itself, though I haven’t been able
to discover where exactly. I have contacted the National Trust team at Morden Hall in the hope they can provide
more information.

The class also took me into Ivy Lodge, which wasn’t in their tenure when I visited in 2021. A fascinating building!
But I was intrigued when their teacher, explained that a section of wattle and daub internal walling had been
uncovered opposite the doorway into the school library – the former coach house. This suggests that an earlier
structure lies within the present building. I am hoping the National Trust will let me look at the reports made at
the time of this discovery, and any photos.

I had already looked at the online report on Ivy Lodge on the NT heritage records website, which Christine had
found: https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA129773. That describes
the present house as ‘a mid/late eighteenth century classically inspired building. It is similar in style to the 1806
build of Morden Lodge (125005) with its low arched windows and was probably built as its combined stable/lodge
and carriage shed.’

The earliest record I have found of a house on this exact site (tithe plots 359-360) is from 1728, an index of tenants
in a Garth rent book, which includes Wise. In 1745 Richard Wise was leasing from Richard Garth a messuage in
Stoyle Street, with a 1-acre orchard behind (Surrey History Centre K85/2/51). Stoyle Street was the old name of
Central Road and its extension along Morden Hall Road, later known as Morden Lane.

On 28.6.1780 Richard Garth granted to Nathaniel Polhill a 10-year lease, from 5.7.1780, of White House, a
messuage or tenement called Wises House with orchard and gardens, together with the 9-acre ‘Horseleys between
mansion house of Richard Garth and house of Mr Warrington and islands called Mount Nod or Osier Grounds’,
for £20 a year (SHC K85/2/96).

Warrington owned an earlier house on the Morden Lodge site between 1760 and 1774, his executors then selling it
to John Groves, a builder who replaced the old house with a modern brick house. It was from Groves that Abraham
Goldsmid bought the house around 1798, soon having it extended and transformed to become a showcase of his
wealth. He also leased neighbouring land and buildings from the Garths, including some formerly leased to Polhill.

After Goldsmid’s suicide in 1810, his showhouse was demolished and the Garth leases were surrendered, including
the modernised coach house that became Ivy Lodge. This seems to be the house leased 1814-17 to William Lambert
@ £18pa, according to the Morden land tax.

On 17.7.1818 Owen Putland Meyrick leased to Adam Taylor for 21 years at £14pa two tenements or cottages in
Morden Lane with gardens late in the tenure or occupation of William Lambert (SHC K85/2/142) and the land tax
registers record Taylor as tenant paying £18pa between 1818 and 1831.

The 1838 tithe register shows a George Fankett or Faukett (?) occupying plot 359, a garden, and plot 360, House,
buildings & yard, and on 7.10.1841 Richard Garth leased to John George Fuller for 12 years at £20 pa the messuage
or tenement with stable yard and walled-in garden situate in Morden Lane, late in the occupation of Mrs Fautlett(?)
(SHC K85/2/175-176)

Finally on 4.11.1867 a Statutory declaration of Wm Knight of Morden, builder, with a plan, shows a messuage
in Morden Lane occupied by Edward Waller south of the walled garden [= TAM 360-361 ie Ivy Lodge]. (SHC
K85/2/355)

If my reasoning is correct, a house existed here by the beginning of the 18th century, probably the structure
incorporated within the present Ivy Lodge. A cottage in Morden Lane, near Growtes (Morden Lodge) is recorded
as early as 1225 and can be traced through manorial records into the mid 16th century – the limit of my manorial
researches so far! Clearly there is more to be discovered.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 6

BOOK LaUNCh: MISS TATE AND HER ALSMHOUSES

On 5 July 2025, Merton Historical Society celebrated
the launch of its latest publication Miss Tate and her
Almshouses: faith, feminism and philanthropy in late
Georgian and early Victorian England at St Peter & St
Paul, Mitcham Parish Church. The author, Karen Ip,
and the Vicar, Father David Pennells, held a question
and answer session on stage, discussing Mary Tate, who,
in the 1820s, endowed the beautiful cottages which still
exist, on Mitcham Cricket Green.

In May 2023, the author
first came to one of our
local history workshops, which we hold every six weeks at Wandle Industrial
Museum, with questions she thought we might be able to answer, and in return,
told us intriguing stories from her research. A few months later, while she
continued her research, MHS members made a visit to the Parish Church as part
of their summer visits programme, and the idea of combining the research and the
church into a special book launch was born.

The book tells the story of an intelligent, generous and socially-conscienced

woman, who was born into a comfortably-off, philanthropic family, her father’s

only child by his second wife, who owned homes in Hampshire and Leicestershire

as well as Mitcham. Mary Tate was not just unusually aware of the poverty and
lack of opportunity that existed at the time, but chose to put her inheritance to good use, paying for schools,
food, churches and housing, trying to improve the lives of poor villagers, uneducated children and elderly
women in England.

Andrew King, Musical Director at Mitcham
Parish Church, performed Karen Ip’s song about
Mary Tate for the audience, which included
parishioners, dignitaries, current residents of the
Cottages, and MHS members; there was a display
of prints and engravings of the original Tate house
in Mitcham, later converted into ‘The Recovery’,
a home for people with mental health problems,
and then demolished to make way for the cottages.
The church holds six memorials for members of
the Tate family – her grandparents Benjamin and
Mary Tate, her aunts Martha and Sophia, her father
George, and her cousins once-removed Elizabeth,
William and Anne. Mary herself was buried in the
family crypt, near her beloved father.

We are grateful to all parties for their hard work in

arranging the launch, to Clare at Willow Bough for the

catering and Mick Taylor for the photos.

Miss Tate and
her almshouses
Karen ip
MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Copies of the book are available from publications@mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk
or speak to Peter Hopkins at one of our talks.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 7

a ViSiT TO aLL SaiNTS ChUrCh, PUTNEY COMMON

A small group of MHS members enjoyed a really excellent conducted tour of this Arts and Crafts decorated
church on 10 June. The church is located just off Lower Richmond Road and has the wonderful rural location
of Putney Common.

We met our very informative guide outside the
church and after we were seated on a bench in the
churchyard she explained that the ancient parish
church of Putney is St Mary’s at Putney Bridge. The
vicar there, Robert Henley, called for the building of
an additional church to cater for the growing number
of parishioners in west Putney, particularly after the
coming of the railway. A public meeting was held in
1868 and subsequently land forming part of Putney
Common was donated by the lord of the manor,
the 5th Earl Spencer, to build a church, vicarage and
school. The foundation stone of the church was laid
in 1873 and the church was opened one year later.

The architect of the church was George
Edmund Street (1824-1881), best known
for the Royal Courts of Justice in the
Strand but also the architect of numerous
churches, vicarages and schools across the
country. There is a little local connection
for us in Mitcham, in that G E Street had
his school education in one of the boarding
schools in Mitcham. He initially joined
an architectural practice in Winchester
and subsequently lived in Wantage and
had numerous commissions in the City of
Oxford.

with round-headed windows. It is not the Gothic style that was
popular for new churches at that time. The church is unusual
in that its exterior is built of London stock bricks that are
cream coloured but inside the church is seen to be composed
of red bricks interspersed with patterns formed by black
Staffordshire engineering bricks. It is not only an example
of fine architectural design; it is also a showcase of Victorian
bricklaying skills.

The chancel was dedicated to Lady Henley (1803-1869), the
mother of the vicar of the Parish Church at Putney Bridge and
initiator of the church building project. The Henley family met
the full cost of the chancel. It is possibly relevant to mention
that Lady Henley was the sister of Robert Peel, the former
Prime Minister.

The whole wooden ceiling of the church is lavishly decorated, probably to a design of G F Bodley, and was
painted in 1893. When the church was opened, most of the windows were of clear glass but very soon afterwards
donations permitted stained glass to be installed so that now all of the windows are of stained glass. This makes
it rather dark inside the church and the beauty of the decorated ceiling is almost lost.

The design of All Saints church is of the Early English style
MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 8

We were informed that there is usually a large triptych against the east wall above the high altar depicting the
vision of the heavenly Jerusalem as in the Book of Revelation. This was painted by John Stanhope, a close friend
of Edward Burne-Jones. For some reason it had been removed when we visited the church.

The stained glass windows are the crowning glory of this church.
They are all of the Arts and Crafts style and all except two were made
by Morris & Co. with the designs originating from Edward Burne-
Jones. Most of the windows depict saints, some well-known and some
lesser known. Three windows in the South Aisle depict the Christian
virtues of Charity, Justice, Peace, Reverence, Fortitude and Humility.
The windows in the North Aisle depict the Old Testament characters
of Moses, Samuel, Abraham, David, Solomon and Elijah.

I found it very interesting and revealing to hear that virtually all
of the stained glass figures had been designed for another location
and copied for All Saints Church. The original location for the
design of each specific window is known. Edward Burne-Jones
produced more than 700 designs for church windows during his
30-years collaboration with William Morris and came to look upon
his stained glass designs as a spiritual act of witness. Even though
it was not a generally sunny day when we visited, the stained glass
windows at All Saints were a blaze of colour and light.

Right: Melchizidek and Abraham

We met at 2.00pm and the children were coming out of the adjacent All
Saints Primary School at about 3.30pm when we left the church. It was a
very interesting afternoon visit to an Arts and Crafts treasure. Thanks to
Bea for setting it up.

Below: The East Window

Above left: An angel

Text by Tony Scott,
photos by irene Burroughs.

Above right: The Ascemsion

WOMEN OF ThE WaNDLE

This exhibition, currently on display at the Wandle Industrial Museum, highlights the stories of
some exceptional women, who managed properties and businesses, in particular mills, along the
River Wandle, which they had inherited upon the death of their husbands, and women whose lives
are connected in other ways to the river: Anne Cranmer, Mary Ann Littler, May Morris, Anne
Boleyn, Ethel St Clair Grimwood, Suzzanna De Berdt, Anne Arbuthnot, and Mary Dewsbury
among them. Their stories are all different, but surprising in their bravery and resolution.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 9

MOTSPUr ParK 100

On 12 July 1925 Motspur Park Station, on the Raynes
Park to Epsom and Chessington line opened for business.
Celebrations, arranged by the local community, were
held on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 July 2025 to mark the
centenary of that date.

I grew up in Phyllis Avenue, one of the local roads the
station was created to serve. When I married Jeanne in
1963 we were able to purchase our own house in the
same road. Our son and daughter grew up in that house.
From that house I walked to Motspur Park station for 34
years to catch the train to Waterloo station on my way
to work.

So it was without question that on Saturday 12 July I would travel the 30ish miles from my present home
to be part of the celebrations. The activities took place in West Barnes Library adjacent to the station, as
well as the station entrance itself and the nearby Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Playing Fields.

Fire and Steam was the title of the fascinating talk given by Christian Wolmar, the railway historian
and author, to around 80 people squashed, sardine-fashion, into the small area in the Library which
is set aside for public meetings. This year is also the 200th Anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington
railway journey which is considered by the railway community and many others to be the beginning of
Britain’s railway journey. His talk, humorous and reflective, looked at the high, and low, spots of that 200year
journey. Although he did not mention
Motspur Park Station by name it was easy
to see where this little station with its island
platform, situated behind the Library, fitted
into the bigger picture. The other great
attraction also crammed into the Library
was the O gauge Green Valley Railway, with
yes – Motspur Park as its only station. Several
books on the local area and the local railways
were on sale.

Following Christian Wolmar’s presentation, Cllr Martin Whelton, the Mayor
of Merton, and Paul Kohler, the local MP, spoke. Everyone then assembled by
the Station Approach entrance to the station for a ribbon cutting performed
by the Mayor and the MP. I personally was delighted to see the Vicar of Holy
Cross Church speaking a powerful prayer of blessing on the station and all
who used it. The area around the station had been hung with an amazing
display of bunting made by members of the local community.

The afternoon continued in the Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Playing Fields with a family picnic, local
charity stalls, food stalls and other outdoor activities. This delightful open space holds many memories
for me. As a child I spent many happy hours playing with friends on its huge area of grass or walking its
boundary path by myself. When I was a child the woodland area between the grass playing field and the
brook/railway/gas holders was strictly out of bounds – by law – so it was always fun, and a real challenge,
to squeeze through the fence to explore it. Now, I am delighted to report, it is a very pleasant woodland
walk open to all! Ah, an enlightened Borough Council!

Thanks must go to the Motspur Park 100 Committee organizing team, West Barnes Library, Friends of
West Barnes Library and Friends of Sir Joseph Hood Memorial Playing Fields, who created an amazing
event which clearly drew the local community together and set Motspur Park station on its journey to its
next 100 years. Malcolm Claridge

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 10

Norma Cox takes us on a walk around North Mitcham
iN SEarCh OF ThrEE ViCTOriaN iNDUSTriES

There were three Mitcham industries, founded in the Victorian era and located near each other in North
Mitcham. The earliest was Mizen’s Nursery founded in 1866, when the Mizen family came to live in Elm
Cottage, Grove Road, near to the current day Eastfields level crossing. Alfred Mizen was the youngest of the five
children. Their Elm nursery was bordered by London Road, St Mark’s Road and Feltham Road. As the business
grew so did the workforce and a number of terraced homes and small cottages were built to accommodate the
nursery staff. The next firm was Pains Fireworks who, in 1872, moved their fireworks business from Brixton to
Eastfields just before the Explosives Act 1875 decreed that explosive businesses should not be in areas of dense
population. James Pain lived in part of the Chestnuts (originally called the Chesnuts), a large house at Renshaw
Corner, Mitcham. The third industry was Pascall, who had manufactured sugar confectionery in a small shop
off Oxford Street, London, and this business moved to Mitcham in 1897. I studied the three industries and
decided to walk around some Mitcham streets to see if there were any reminders of the firms.

introduction

I recorded information on these three famous industries of Victorian Mitcham and noted their whereabouts,
as, from the 1920s to the 1930s, Mitcham was soon to be covered in ‘bricks and mortar’ for the housing so
desperately required after World War 1.

Mitcham was still a relatively small village at the end of the 18th century. The Mitcham herbal industry of
Potter and Moore provided the mainstay of the local economy throughout the first half of the 19th century. By
1851 the spreading network of railways allowed the spread of the suburbs. Industries soon started to move to
the Mitcham location and this brought the need for housing for the workers. Mizens were market gardeners,
growing flowers, vegetables and bedding-plants for the London markets. Gerald Morris’s book The Mizens of
Mitcham is an excellent source of information about this family. Edward Mizen had moved from Battersea
in the 1860s. Later, when the business thrived, the Mizens started to build accommodation for their staff,
with four Mizen houses in Grove Road, a street which was once open fields, and two wooden cottages in
land which became nearby Acacia Road. Their business in Grove Road was later known as Eastfield Farm
and it was expanded and had extensive greenhouses where the Mizens grew their salad vegetables. A house
named Oakleigh in Grove Road was built next-door to Elm Cottage, which belonged to Edward Mizen senior.
Oakleigh belonged to Edward Johnson Mizen, who was the eldest Mizen son. His son Edward Ernest lived on
the opposite side of Grove Road, in a house with its grounds backing onto the railway line, next to the railway
footbridge that led to Sandy Lane. Pound Farm was purchased by Edward Mizen in 1894 and was named after
a cattle and horse pound which existed there earlier on land opposite Bond Road. In 1909-1911 Edward Mizen
built more workmen’s houses in Lansdell Road, St Marks Road (The Villas) and in Feltham Road opposite
Carew Road where, in 1894, a pair of brick-built cottages named ‘Carry Close Cottages’ were erected. In the
1920s and 1930s the Mizen business was thriving even though these were the ‘slump years’ – they started to
specialise in mustard and cress in the 1930s.

Pains Fireworks purchased two fields, which were rented out to the Mizens. These years saw Mizens and Pains
Fireworks bring useful employment to the inhabitants of the Lonesome area and both firms thrived due to
increased demand for their products. The Mizens also had fields at Downs Farm Ewell. The Mizen Brothers
grew in stature and became pillars of local society and government. In 1910 when the extension to St Marks
Church (erected 1909) was built, Alfred Mizen clambered up to fix the cross on top of the spire. By the 1950s
the farms were run down and Elm Nursery in London Road was in very poor state. The Mizen land was now
needed for housing. Eastfield Farm closed and Elm Court housing estate was erected on the site. The two ‘Carry
Close Cottages’ in Feltham Road were demolished in 1972. Details of the demolition of the Mizen houses are
given in the Appendix of Morris’s book. The Bedfont Close housing estate was built on remaining Mizen land.
The greenhouses and Oakleigh and Elm Cottage were demolished for Eastfields School and grounds in 1962.

Pains Fireworks factory arrived in the 1870s. During World War 1, Pains made ‘Very lights’, rockets and
maroons (distress rockets) for shipping but in 1923 the founder, James Charles Pain, died. The business was
carried on by his son and grandsons until the factory finally closed in the 1960s. Because of the Home Office
regulations about the factory’s site and the necessity for open land surrounding it, the Pains bought a field to
the north of it and another to the southwest which was called Stainbank Field after Rev Stainbank who lived on
Cedars Avenue. In 1966-67 Pains Firework factory moved to High Post, Salisbury, where the firm merged with
Wessex Fireworks. Their Mitcham land and adjacent Stainbank Field is now the site of Eastfields council estate.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 11

The Eastfields Housing Estate was built on the site of Pains Fireworks in Clay Avenue, Moore Close, Mulholland
Close, Potter Close and Thrupp Close. The main gates to Pains were in Acacia Road close to Mizen Cottages in
the Acacia Road extension. Opposite was Stainbank Field which used to be full of pansies, rows of beetroot and
lettuce in the Mizen heydays. The left side of Stainbank field was bordered by a wooden fence and a row of large
horse-chestnut trees. Alongside the Pains factory which stretched down to Bolstead Lane was the tarragon field.
Pains factory was laid out in a series of isolated sheds separated by grass and trees as seen in a photograph on
Morden Council’s photoarchive website. Mizen’s workers were allowed to cut and gather the hay there. Philip
Pain, one of James Pain’s three sons, ran the famous firework business after his brother James Charles’ death
in 1918. Philip lived in Oxtoby’s old house at Renshaw Corner, while the firm took the right-hand and larger
house for offices. Philip died in 1926 and the company’s offices moved back to London. A director of the Pains
factory was Captain Frederick Raymond Milholland who was the grandson of the owner James Pain. A Close
in Mitcham built in 1972 was erroneously named Mulholland Close after this man. Mulholland Close was built
on land once occupied by Pains Fireworks.

The third factory was Pascall, a famous confectionery industry which had premises at 100 Blackfriars Road,
London and at Mitcham from 1897. It was a family business founded by James Pascall to manufacture and sell
predominantly sugar confectionery such as herbal cough drops and rock. In 1866 James Pascall had worked
for Cadbury’s before setting-up in business with his brother Alfred in a small shop off Oxford Street, London.
In 1877 they moved to the larger Blackfriars premises but this
building was destroyed by a fire which was accidentally started by an
employee. The firm moved to Mitcham to a building among the fields.
In 1898 the business was incorporated as a limited company and in
1920 there was a public issue of shares. In 1922 the firm advertised
at the British Industries Fair for Sweets, Chocolate and Novelties. An
advertisement is shown to the right. In 1959 the firm was acquired by
Beechams and the company would be amalgamated with Murray’s
confectionery business – the firm who made Murray Mints. In 1964
the Pascall business, along with Murrays, was acquired by British
Cocoa and Chocolate.

acknowledgements

Thanks to Grace’s Guides for the historical information about Pascall and for use of the Pascall advertisement.

references

Eric Montague, Mitcham A Pictorial History (1991, Phillimore & Co)
Eric Montague, Mitcham Histories: 2 North Mitcham (2001, Merton Historical Society)
Gerald A Morris & S Morris, The Mizens of Mitcham (1989, Merton Library Service) p5, 9, 11, 16, 18, 21, 25
www.mitchamhistorynotes.com/tag/elm-court
www.mitchamhistorynotes.com/2015/03/10/james-pain
https://photoarchive.merton.gov.uk/collections/work-and-industry/51345-pains-fireworks-eastfields-mitcham
www.mitchamhistorynotes.com/2016/07/01/mulholland-close
One area of Pains Fireworks was located west of Sandy Lane, Acacia Road and Tamworth Lane known as Firework Lane.
www.gracesguide.com.uk/James_Pascall
Doris Pidgeon https://www.sidvaleassociation.org.uk/images/Magazine/SVA-Mag-98-Summer-2023.pdf
www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Express and Echo (Monday 8 November 1960)
Figure 1. Pascall Poster www.gracesguide.co.uk/James_Pascall

COrrECTiONS

Norma Cox has alerted us to two errors in the References in her article ‘Two Merton Mill Sites (and some
Upholstery memories)’ published in Bulletin 234, June 2025 p8-9:
In the list of References for 7, 8, 10, 12, 13 and 15 it states ‘as note 1’ but it should be ‘as note 2’.
Also reference 15 is p59.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 12

LOCaL hiSTOrY WOrKShOPS

2 May 2025 – Six present, rosemary Turner in the Chair

◆ Peter hopkins had been sent by David Bird a piece from Solo Recital, the reminiscences of Michael Kelly (1826;
cut down edition 1972, p.62). It referred to his dining with his dear and lamented friend Lady Hamilton, at
Merton. He had been seated near Lord Nelson who mentioned having met Mr Kelly’s old master, Aprile who
spoke of him with great affection. Mr Kelly had given Aprile his pianoforte. Rosemary immediately looked
up the name Michael Kelly on Wikipedia which said that he lived 25 Dec 1762 – 9 Oct 1826. He was an Irish
tenor, composer and theatrical manager who made an international career of importance in musical history.
Peter said that Judith Goodman’s and Bill Rudd’s collections contained photocopies of the earliest days of
MHS. He had also scanned Rosemary’s photographs of the 50th anniversary.
Toby Ewin had sent Peter plans from 1920 of a house in Motspur Park. The house was on the Malden side.

◆ David Luff said work was being carried out on the High Path estate. He didn’t know if they were doing up
the flats or taking them down and he didn’t know if the mosaics were still in situ.
◆ John Sheridan did a guided walk for WIM on Sunday 27 April around Morden Hall Park and Merton Abbey
Mills. A woman on the walk told him that her father had worked for Thomas Parsons and Sons, paint and
varnish manufacturers of Mitcham. John had found a history of the firm published in 1952 to mark their
150th anniversary. The firm started off in 1802 as coachbuilders, and later specialised in varnish and paint
for coaches and train carriages. They were a family dynasty. During the war their entire output of paint went
towards the demands of the services and essential industries. They closed in the 1960s. A number of paint
and varnish factories were clustered in the Mitcham area. They could have used linseed oil produced by the
milling of flax seeds at mills along theWandle. Another example, WilliamHarland & Sons, had originated in
the King’s Cross area and moved to Phipps Bridge in the 1840s when King’s Cross was redeveloped for the
railways. The industry had declined for the same reasons as other industries in the area: pollution, logistics,
scale of production with ageing plant and buildings, land prices, and globalisation.

John also said he was trying to identify the Domesday mills of the Wandle. Some authors had said there were
13 but it seemed they were not counting the seven in the Battersea manor which were highly likely on the

lower Wandle. Peter would look out a report from Dave Saxby about Morden Mill, where a Saxo-Norman

ditch or channel had been discovered when the National Trust was installing the turbine a short distance

upstream of the former Western Snuff Mill.

◆ Bill Bailey summarised the limited sources available for information on the work of the Mitcham Parochial
Council and the housing of the working classes after 1894. He quoted from reports of the Public Health
officers of the Croydon Rural District Council, which detailed evidence of unsanitary conditions in houses
in Mitcham, some of which were unfit for habitation. The increase in population ran ahead of the building of
new houses. He was following through the resolutions from the parish on housing as they were considered
by the District and County Councils.
◆ Joyce Bellamy continued to update us on the joys and challenges of promoting the historic Cricket Green
area and the centrality of the Vestry Hall to the local administration. Following the recent renovations and
restorations of the Vestry Hall, plans are underway to seek listed status.
◆ rosemary Turner had finally got to visit the Variety Artistes Memorial Wall in Streatham Park Cemetery
which records the deaths of artistes from 1922 to 1944. It was a quick visit so there is more to be explored.
She was sorry to see that it didn’t appear to have been touched since the Music Hall Guild received a
Heritage Lottery grant to restore it and lay out a garden in front of it in 2009. She could barely read what
was written on it. The Guild had a number of plans connected with the grant and Rosemary wants to see
if they were carried out. One of her friends has two ancestors on there. She was thinking of emailing the
Guild – it would make an interesting talk, as the cemetery is actually in Mitcham. The name index that
they were going to put together is at www.ArthurLloyd.co.uk. In another area there was a memorial to
the Ganjou brothers and Juanita, who were the world’s greatest variety act 1929-1957. Near the wall is
the grave of Will Hayes who died in the 1950s. Ida Lupino and Rosemary Squires have graves there, also
Desmond Dekker, singer of the Israelites. Rosemary has done some online research but there is still more
to find out.
rosemary Turner

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 13

Workshop 13 June 2025 – Four present, rosemary Turner in the Chair

◆ Peter hopkins reported on discoveries during his recent return visit to Liberty Woodland School in Morden
Lodge (see p.5).
Peter also shared an update from Geoff Potter of Compass Archaeology who are monitoring repair work on
the collapsed stretch of Priory Wall alongside the proposed Pickle Linear Park. A trial pit at the southern
end of the collapsed section revealed a single course of bricks 500 to 600mm up on the face of the wall.
Above this there is also more brick within the core of the wall, visible where it has collapsed. This all raises
an interesting question as to how much of the wall has been rebuilt, from what level and at what date. It
is certainly possible that the brickwork seen in the wall face may represent the line of just such a rebuild,
at some point in the post-medieval period. (Since the Workshop, Geoff has sent Peter a digital copy of his
report on the work undertaken.)

◆ Bill Bailey returned to the actions of the Mitcham Parochial Committee of the Croydon Rural District Council
in the 1890s. The Committee received reports from the Medical Officer of Health on housing conditions in
Mitcham, including the state of some houses which were declared ‘unfit for habitation’. Also, with the growth
of population, houses in some areas were overcrowded. The law made it possible for the County Council, on
application from the District Council, to authorise the Council to build houses for the working classes of the
parish. Alfred Mizen, Mitcham employer and Councillor, took up this issue in 1897 with the support of the
Parish Council. At the District Council he met resistance on the grounds that the area of housing need had
not been identified and that any action would lead to an increase in the rates. Working class housing was the
main issue in the Parish Council election of 1898 when twelve candidates shared an election address focussed
on housing (eleven of these were successful). Further activity at the District Council and a formal request to
the County Council to sanction house building led to the County Council agreeing to an inquiry and this
took place at the Vestry Hall in December 1898. Evidence for and against was given as to the state of housing;
the case against by W Mapp Thompson and T Allen, both Mitcham representatives on the District Council.
In the inquiry hearing a Mr Wilson said he was the owner of the Gorringe Park estate and he undertook to
build 200 cottages in eight months. Based on the Inquiry Report, the County Council’s decision that it would
not be prudent to agree to allow the housing to be provided was published January 1899.
◆ rosemary Turner had been following up on the Streatham Park Cemetery Variety Artistes Memorial Wall
that she mentioned at the last Workshop. She has heard from the Music Hall Guild – the same man with
whom Audrey King was in correspondence in 2010. He said that the plants in the memorial garden had been
killed by insects during lockdown. They are trying to get together £700 to have the marble on the wall cleaned
again and to replant the garden. The chapel was still proving elusive. The cemetery is within the Borough of
Merton and the Guild would happily give us a talk about the wall and those mentioned on it.
She also reported that planning permission for the destruction of the 200+year old cottage mentioned in
Bulletin 234 is going ahead.

Peter hopkins

Workshop 25 July 2025 – Seven present – Peter Hopkins in the chair

◆ Bethan rigby said that her MA dissertation on the environmental microhistory of Morden Hall Park would
be handed in by September. The focus was largely on pollution and environmental harms. Enslavement also
featured in the work. Bethan expressed gratitude to the MHS: the work of Eric Montague, the generosity of
information-sharing on the website, and support from Peter Hopkins had been particularly helpful.
Bethan had found an 1827 report held by the British Library from Taddy Tomlin and Co (which became Taddy
& Co, owned by the Hatfeilds of Morden Hall Park) on the quality of Indian tobacco. It appears the report
went to the East India Company and government. It sat alongside other short trade reports, including one
on cotton produced by enslaved people on St Simon. (BL IOR/F/4/1079/29439, also cited in IRO/E/4/1051
pp813-24).

James Taddy, founder of Taddy & Co, had enslavement as core to his tobacco business, says Nick Draper in
his study of investors in the London Docks (Draper, Nicholas. ‘The City of London and slavery: evidence
from the first dock companies, 1795-1800 1’ in The Economic History Review 61.2 (2008): 432-466.). The
company also had an enduring presence in South Africa, according to Stefan Schirmer (Schirmer, Stefan.
‘The contribution of entrepreneurs to the emergence of manufacturing in South Africa before 1948’ in South
African Journal of Economic History 23.1-2 (2008): 184-215.)

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 14

◆ David Luff recapped the history of the decay of the Merton Priory wall near the Pickle Ditch, due to excessive
vegetation, Sainsbury’s having raised the ground level on the west side of the wall, and the wrong kind of mortar
having been used for past repairs. Update: as of the last week of July, the National Trust had constructed a
core wall and were planning to face it with flint and Reigate stone in the same pattern as the original wall.
◆ John Sheridan had investigated the history of the North Mitcham Allotments Association, situated at the end
of Rigby Road, off Streatham Road (CR4 2ET). Roads to the south of the allotments were developed as housing
in the early 20th century by Albert Casanova Ballard. Ballard was told that he was not allowed to develop
land close to the River Graveney because of the risk of flooding, so in 1921 he sold off the land as allotment
plots and established the association to manage the allotments. In the event the Graveney was culverted
soon afterwards and the land has not flooded since, but the allotments prevented any further development.
The popularity of allotments has varied over the years but there is now a waiting list. Events in the history of
the allotments include the keeping of pigs during WW2, illicit tobacco cultivation, and a threat in 1967 to
construct a road through the allotments as part of the abortive inner ring road scheme. This report will be
expanded into an article for a future edition of the Bulletin.
◆ Janet holdsworth has been exploring the history of West Riding areas other than her main interest of Haworth.
◆ rosemary Turner had continued her research into burials of music hall artists in Streatham Park Cemetery.
She had located some graves, an ‘Artiste Wall’, and a chapel which was unfortunately not accessible for health
and safety reasons, and which, according to a plaque, had been erected ‘to the memory of the variety profession
through the generosity of the Variety Artists Benevolent Fund’.
◆ Christine Pittman circulated some photographs of buildings in Mitcham, Adelaide. Many of the buildings
were built with local stone and had corrugated iron roofs They were over 100 years old, and one two-storey
building carried ‘ghost signs’ painted on its walls. The residents of the suburb are said to be proud of their
conservation zone. The origin of the name of Mitcham, Adelaide, is connected with the emigration to Australia
in 1836 of Mr William Giles of Mitcham, who had worked for the banker Henry Hoare, who died in 1828.
◆ Peter hopkins had found some online databases in editions of the British Association for Local History’s The
Local Historian journal. A database of English Civil War veterans who applied for welfare payments yielded no
recognisable names in Merton or indeed in Surrey. A database of early English censuses 1801-1831 contained
limited information about a few named householders in Croydon and Streatham. A ‘People of 1381′ database
listed one person from Merton, one from Morden and several from Mitcham who appeared in records of
court cases arising from the Peasants’ Revolt. The TNA catalogue of charitable trust deeds (C 54) included
records for Merton, Mitcham and Morden.
John Sheridan

Next Workshops Fridays 5 September, 17 October 2025, 28 November 2025, 9 January 2026,
20 February 2026 and 10 april 2026 from 2.30pm at Wandle industrial Museum.
all welcome.

aN ExhiBiTiON TO ViSiT

The William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow has recently announced an upcoming exhibition
Women in Print: 150 Years of Liberty Textiles. Tracing the history of Liberty fabrics, the exhibition
will survey the evolving influence and status of women in textiles over the past 150 years. It
will feature over 100 works, spanning garments, fabric, original designs, film and historic
photographs.

A programme of events will run concurrently with the exhibition, which is part of the Gallery’s
75th anniversary programme.

10 October 2025 – 21 June 2026, William Morris Gallery, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, London E17
4PP. Entrance is free. www.wmgallery.org.uk

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 15

TWO LETTErS TO ThE EDiTOr

andrew Simon explains the developments in flour milling

I read with interest the article about Grove Mill and Crown Mill, in Bulletin 234, pages 8 and 9.

Regarding the concluding remarks, I’m sure it is correct to suggest that by the early 1900s flour could be obtained
from cheaper sources than from the smaller local mills.

The author mentions the replacement of the traditional grinding stones by roller milling and that was very much a
part of the wider changes. I have a personal interest in this as my great-grandfather Henry Simon was, with others,
largely responsible for this and other changes in flour milling. He set up in Manchester as a consulting engineer
in about 1870 and from about 1880 was organising the complete design and construction of modern mills using
rolls and a variety of other improvements described as the ‘Simon System’. After he died in 1899, the business was
continued by his son Ernest Simon (my great-uncle) in the UK and later around the world.

These modern mills were generally much larger buildings than the traditional wind and water mills, typically
on about four floors. They were often built alongside deep-water shipping berths, from which grain elevators
sucked the grain to bins at the top of the building, before the flour and other products emerged in sacks at ground
level. Prairie grain from North America was found to be well suited to roller milling, hence the location of mills
in major ports around the UK. Grain was also imported from places like South Australia, as recorded in Eric
Newby’s book, The Last Grain Race. English grain meanwhile continues to make superb biscuits.

All this led to improved nutrition for the general population who, for the first time, had access to white bread,
hitherto a luxury product, and at lower prices.

It also quite rapidly led to the demise of most of the traditional wind and water mills, which either became disused
or had to find other products to mill, as at Grove Mill and Crown Mill. Apart from the Mills Archive website
which you mention (but I have so far failed to get the relevant pages to open) the history is recorded in Glyn Jones’s
book The Millers (2007, Carnegie Publishing).

By now it may be all this is known to you via the Wandle Industrial Museum and perhaps other sources. If so,
please forgive me for troubling you!

John hawks writes on Christchurch and Merton Priories

I much enjoyed Tony Scott’s piece in Bulletin 234, but I wonder a bit about the headline.

The parallels are close, and Christchurch may have resembled Merton in medieval times, but not so much now.
For one thing Merton had no West tower, and though the article would be right that both originally had central
towers, Christchurch’s was never rebuilt after it fell around 1415, and in the event was replaced by the West tower.
For another, Merton’s first nave was without aisles, which was typical of most early Augustinian churches. The
Norman nave of Christchurch does have aisles, but as Peter Hopkins reminds me these had been built before it
was reconstituted as an Augustinian Priory.

The weight of central towers in medieval churches put such strain on the crossing arches that collapses were not
infrequent. Naturally they caused great damage and reconstruction, famously at Ely where the unique octagon
so spectacularly fills the hole thus created. Merton’s tower fell in 1222, which led to the complete rebuilding of the
nave in the Gothic style with aisles, and we may assume a new central tower also. At Christchurch the collapse
occasioned the rebuilding of the entire Eastern part of the church.

No great matter, though – Tony’s is a delightful article which furthers the debate. I’m always being asked as
unofficial curator at the Chapter House what Merton Priory looked like, and have to reply that no-one quite knows
but comparison with other surviving buildings certainly helps!

MHS is bound by the UK General Data Protection Regulation.
Please see the MHS website regarding how this concerns your personal data.

Letters and contributions for the Bulletin should be sent to the hon. Editors,
by email to editor@mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk.
The views expressed in this Bulletin are those
of the contributors concerned and not necessarily those of the Society or its Officers.

website: www.mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk email: mhs@mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk

Printed by Peter Hopkins

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 235 – SEPTEMBER 2025 – PAGE 16