Bulletin 236

Chair: Christine Pittman
BULLETiN No. 236 DECEMBEr 2025

Season’s greetings to all our members

(from the archive: Night staff at Morden District Office under pressure to sort Christmas cards for delivery,
December 1962. Photo taken at 1.15am by WJ Rudd) see p.11

CONTENTS
Programme December 2025 – april 2026 2
Your new Committee 2
have you paid? 2
Chairperson’s report November 2025 – Christine Pittman 3
an audience with Scott McCracken – John Sheridan 4
Variety artistes Memorial in Streatham Park Cemetery – Rosemary Turner 6
Devonshire Dining rooms conclusion – Christine Pittman 7
MhS 75th anniversary – student researcher 8
have you got a tale to tell? 8
Mitcham’s New Elected Parish Council in the 1890s – Bill Bailey 9
More of Bill rudd’s photos of Christmas at the Morden sorting office in 1962 11
North Mitcham allotments – John Sheridan 12
Pubs of Kingston guided walk, 4 September 2025 – Rosemary Turner 14
The Trafalgar Freehouse 14
a forgotten part of local history – John Hawks 15
New publication from East Surrey Family history Society 16

PrOGraMME DECEMBEr 2025 – aPriL 2026
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
Visitors are very welcome to attend any of our events.
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 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!
PrOGraMME DECEMBEr 2025 – aPriL 2026
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
Visitors are very welcome to attend any of our events.
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 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!
YOUr NEW COMMiTTEE

At our AGM on 9 November, the following were elected:

Chair: Christine Pittman

Vice Chair: Bea Oliver

Secretary: Rosemary Turner

Treasurer: Janet Holdsworth

Committee: Ian Aldridge, Bill Bailey, Irene Burroughs, Peter Hopkins, David Luff and Tony Scott

haVE YOU PaiD?

Subscriptions for 2025-2026 are now overdue. Please note that this will be the last issue to reach
you if we do not receive your payment before the next Bulletin. A membership form was enclosed
with the September Bulletin. Current rates are:

Individual member £12, Additional member in same household £5, Full-time Student £5.

If possible, please use online banking to pay your subscription, as banks charge us for cheques – details
on the renewal form. But if that is not possible for you, cheques are payable to Merton historical
Society and should be sent with completed forms to our Membership Secretary.

website: www.mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 2

ChairPErSON’S rEPOrT NOVEMBEr 2025

This year we lost two of our most significant members – Dave Haunton, Editor of the Bulletin, former Chair
and Vice Chair, contributor of articles on World War 2 in the borough, and our in-house expert on the war and
coats of arms; and Michael Nethersole, a founder member from his childhood, along with his family, who were
so active and energetic. We benefitted from the collection at his funeral, and have put that money towards our
commissioning of a student to research the history of the Society, to be celebrated on the occasion of its 75th
year in 2026.

Just one Committee member is resigning – San Ward, who has worked with us remotely, scanning slides,
selecting photo collections for the home page of our website, writing the e-newsletter, posting on X, and offering
opinions for the website group and for committee discussions. Thank you, San.

Our winter talks season, with its wide-ranging interests, featured dogs in London, the development of West
Barnes and Motspur Park, paper conservancy, transport history in Merton Park, Liberty of London at Merton
Abbey Mills, lost English country houses, and a bonus talk at Merton Priory, when Scott McCracken talked
about the Society’s excavations of the Chapter House and the saving of the site, so long ago. Summer visits were
to All Saints arts and craft church, in Putney and a guided walk around Kingston pubs, many of which had
disappeared.

Our publications programme was impressive: Peter Hopkins won the LAMAS local history publication award
for volume 3 of his Medieval Morden series; we launched Karen Ip’s book Miss Tate and her almshouses at
Mitcham Parish Church in July with an entertaining and informative question and answer session, a musical
performance and tasty catering, and The British Association for Local History reviews published in the Local
History News were highly complimentary: they described Memories of New Merton Board Mills as ‘a model
publication: in addition to reviving the more distant past through documentary evidence, it is important for
local societies to capture the recent past before it disappears’ and praised the ‘beautiful advertising material
for the various herbs’ in our publication The physic gardens of Mitcham – these were actually the author’s own
drawings. It is impossible to list all the subjects researched and reported in our quarterly Bulletin.

In April we had a display and book stall selling copies of Trouble at Mill at the West London Local History
conference; our publication Railways of Merton was on sale at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Motspur
Park station in July; and we held our usual stall and displays at the Heritage Discovery Day in Morden library
in August.

Our website group has now come to the end of its review, our postings on X will finish with the departure of
San Ward from the committee, but we continue with regular postings on Facebook.

Our 6-weekly local history workshops, held at the Wandle Industrial Museum, have again covered a very wide
range of discoveries and interests. I’m pleased to be able to report that we have had younger people joining us
for these sessions, people who are new to the study of history but who realise that their research on the current
state of the environment in their niche area, actually is the result of what has happened in the past, and they
have come to us for advice and information on that past.

Next year, we celebrate the Society’s 75th anniversary, with a slide show at our February meeting and a book
launch in the summer – we recruited an A-level student, Carrie Lynott, to do the research, and if you would like
to contribute your memories and experiences, please let me know before you leave today.

We continue to work alongside the Wandle Industrial Museum, the Chapter House at Merton Priory, the
Heritage Centre in Morden Library and Mitcham Parish Church, knowing that we are all working in our own
way towards supporting the local community through our common interest in the past. But all societies must
change and adapt. It’s for this reason that we no longer include 8-mile rambles in the Surrey Hills, archaeological
excavations, model-making, historical re-enactments or amateur dramatic groups as part of our programme.
We must put our energies into activities that are successful, in terms of numbers and costs involved and for
which we have the resources. If we are to continue, we need more support in terms of administrative assistance,
such as members who can use email to help arrange talks and visits, we need a new Editor, and someone with
experience – or at least – an interest – in working on the layout of our publications and we are also looking for
practical assistance with transport for people and equipment. None of these roles by themselves are particularly
time-consuming, but there are several Committee members who are currently covering 2 or 3 roles. Please
volunteer today or mention it to someone you know who is looking for an opportunity to do something useful
and interesting.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 3

aN aUDiENCE WiTh SCOTT MCCraCKEN

On Saturday 27 September 2025, archaeologist Scott McCracken regaled a rapt audience of 120 people, in Merton
Priory Chapter House Museum, with stories of how the priory was revealed after centuries hidden under textile
bleaching fields and industrial sites.

Curator John Hawks hosted Scott in an interview format on a
platform in front of a large map of the priory site. Scott explained
that he had studied archaeology and anthropology in his home city
of Toronto, before coming to England for postgraduate work. In
1975, having read The Testimony of the Spade by Geoffrey Bibby,
he decided to concentrate on practical archaeology while teaching
part-time at Birkbeck College and Oxford, archaeology being a
popular adult education subject at the time.

At the same time the old Tooting, Merton and Wimbledon railway line, which ran over the site of the Chapter
House, was being taken up, offering the opportunity for excavations funded by the Department of the Environment.
Scott was hired to lead the excavations between 1976 and 1978.

The presence of the Chapter House had been known since 1921/22. Local antiquarian Col H F Bidder discovered
part of its foundations while digging between railway sleepers – a local gardener was delegated to look out for
trains. (A member of the audience, Matthew Hillier, said that passenger services were suspended between 1917
and 1923, and the only traffic would have been a couple of freight trains daily.)

Scott mentioned a somewhat flowery account of Bidder’s rediscovery of the priory, which appeared mysteriously
in the New York Times in 1926. (An account of the excavation had appeared in the Society of Antiquaries’
Archaeologia Vol LXXVI, which might have found its way to New York.)

Scott and his team excavated the whole of the Chapter House in a single trench, which required the removal of
the station platforms, much to the consternation of railway enthusiasts and Ordnance Survey mappers. The team
found and re-excavated Bidder’s infilled holes. They also undertook some work to the south of the Chapter House
during the construction of the electricity pylon, which is still there today. The priory church site was not available
for excavation at that time, as it was situated to the north of the Chapter House under Station Road and under land
and buildings owned by Corfield Ltd’s metal pressing factory. Scott told a story – possible apocryphal – of the firm
having made fins for wartime bombs with the factory’s address stamped on them.

There was little more to be done at the time other than erect a chain link fence around the Chapter House site to
the south of Station Road, in the midst of the then semi-derelict industrial area. There was also a plaque on the
other side of Station Rd, on a small site in front of the Corfield works canteen. However, Scott drew on a map the
boundary of an extended priory site, and this was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The next opportunity for major excavations arose between 1986 and 1990, when Sainsbury’s acquired their present
site and demolished the industrial buildings. They erected a marquee to consult the public on their plan to open a
Savacentre superstore. Scott became the project manager for the excavations and for negotiations with Sainsbury’s,
while working at the same time on another dig in Kingston. He had to inform Sainsbury’s that works taking place
within the scheduled ancient monument would require the consent of the Secretary of State, and that this could
be obtained if they made suitable concessions. It was already known that Sainsbury’s would be required to pay for
archaeological excavations and a report. The question at issue was the method and extent of the preservation of
the remains of the priory.

Meanwhile Merton Council planners had earmarked the route of the former railway for a relief road, to be built
at Sainsbury’s expense, to give access to the Savacentre and to relieve pressure on Merton High Street. The idea of
elevating the relief road to expose the Chapter House foundations was alive, but Sainsbury’s were opposed. The
council were undecided. They knew the Savacentre proposal was popular and would regenerate the area. They
would not have wanted Sainsbury’s to walk away if confronted with the expense of a bridge over the Chapter
House remains.

Sainsbury’s broke the deadlock by requesting a public inquiry. Scott made the case that if the already exposed and
preserved Chapter House remains were covered over, the result would be a net loss for the whole project – the
Chapter House foundations were entire, the priory was of national importance, and Sainsbury’s would in any case
be free to cover the other partial remains once the archaeologists had left. That convinced the inquiry chair, and
the construction of the bridge on Merantun Way was stipulated as a condition of planning approval. The cost to

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 4

Sainsbury’s was about £3m at 1988/89 prices, but the Savacentre store was immediately profitable. Its design life
was 25 years, but the Sainsbury’s and M&S stores currently occupying the building are still going strong.

The negotiations with the Sainsbury’s team, and their bankers and lawyers, were fraught at times, but David
Sainsbury visited the site and was relaxed about the bridge. Sainsbury’s were required to enclose and preserve
the remains presentably, but not to sponsor a museum. That came later at the initiative of the Merton Historic
Buildings Trust, later the Merton Priory Trust, with funding from the National Heritage Lottery.

More than seven hundred burials were discovered on the priory site. Thirty-two skeletons were found in the
Chapter House: these burials included priors. Canons were buried in the immediate vicinity of the priory church
and Chapter House. Some of the clerical burials were accompanied by a pewter chalice. Local people who could
afford it were buried in the nave, others were buried in cemeteries in the precinct.

Fortunately there were no watertight coffins containing fluid. Bones had to be cleaned and photographed or drawn

– not a simple task because the soil was clay-like. Scott took skeletons home on the underground in an Adidas
bag for safe keeping overnight and delivered them to the Museum of London the following morning. Rumours
swirled around the local area about the exhumations, and on one occasion while carrying a bag of bones Scott was
recognised on the Tube by a child as ‘the man who dug up the bodies’.
The Museum of London’s task was to analyse the bones. The British Medical Journal published a spoof article about
the prevalence of cases of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH), or fusion of lumbar vertebrae, caused by
a rich diet and excessive kneeling to pray. There did indeed turn out to be a number of cases of DISH. An account
of the analysis of the bones appears in the 2007 MoLA monograph by Saxby and Miller.

One complete skeleton appeared to be wearing a chastity belt, which upon further analysis was revealed to have
been a hernia belt. That skeleton was on display in the Museum of London for a while, until removed to storage by
a director who disapproved of displaying human remains.

The remains of a finger were found in the base of a buttress supporting the apse at the north east end of the Chapter
House. The apse having been a later addition to the original Chapter House building, the builders must have sliced
through an earlier burial adjacent to the original wall.

Scott signed a burial licence authorising the Museum of London to retain bones deemed suitable for study. Other
bones were to be reinterred in local cemeteries. MoLA still have many skeletons which have not been fully analysed,
because analysis is resource-intensive, and new analytical techniques have emerged since the initial analyses were
done. Strontium testing, for example, could reveal where people spent their childhoods.

Scott stressed that it was standard lawful archaeological practice to treat bones in this way in this country. A
Catholic bishop had visited the site during the excavations when three graves were open. He conducted a short
service and made no complaint, saying that their souls had already departed.

One floor tile became known as ‘The dancing ladies’. Scott has still not seen a tile bearing a similar image anywhere else.

Scott described various encounters with criminals and vandals during the period when archaeology was underway
and the former Liberty print works had been abandoned.

After dissolution, in 1538, most of the Merton Priory church stones were carted to Ewell to build Nonsuch Palace.
The stones were used mainly as hardcore at Nonsuch. When Nonsuch Palace was dismantled in 1682-83, many of
the stones were reused in the locality. Some, however, were excavated and found their way to the Museum of London.

Some Roman pottery was found during the excavations.
The Roman road Stane Street passed through the north
transept of the priory church, and may have provided part
of the foundations. Stane Street crossed the Wandle near
the site of the Kiss me Hardy pub, now closed.

Finally, the question was asked ‘How did the archaeology
survive?’ The answer is that the site of the priory was
forgotten over the centuries, the industrial buildings
covering it did not have deep foundations, and much of the
site was textile bleaching fields from the 1660s. Indeed, a
bleaching field trench could be seen cutting through the
Chapter House apse.

John Sheridan

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 5

VariETY arTiSTES MEMOriaL iN STrEaThaM ParK CEMETErY

The Streatham Park Cemetery is located in Mitcham. It features a memorial wall dedicated to music hall artistes
and other entertainers who are interred there, and I recently went to see it.

There are 200 names on the wall, covering the years 1922-1944. At the top is inscribed ‘Erected to the loving
memory of the following Artistes of the Variety Profession’. The cemetery has a long connection with the
Variety Artistes Benevolent Fund (now the Royal Variety Charity) and the wall was erected by them in 1924,
and the chapel of remembrance was added in 1958 at their request.

The VABF paid for the funerals but the artistes were buried in unmarked graves, and so they built the wall. It
would appear that the area behind the wall up to the path running across the cemetery was used for the artistes’
burials. Most of the artistes buried in the area are from a bygone age: Lupino Lane, Florrie Ford, Tom Costello,
Dorothy Squires, Brian Barder, Norman Clapham, Arthur Henry Cross VC and Charles Kunz. Will Hays has a
grave with a memorial stone next to the wall, paid for by his family.

The Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America obtained a lottery grant in 2009 to have the marble cleaned,
a garden laid out and a museum set up in the chapel. As the names on the wall are all the performers’ stage
names, a research project was set up to explore the lives and careers of those listed there. The results would be
displayed in the chapel museum. It looked a lot different from the photo that I saw from 2010 – the marble had
become discoloured again and the garden was overgrown.

I contacted the Music Hall Guild and received a very helpful email reply, explaining that the shrubs in the
garden had been attacked by insects during lockdown and they were trying to raise money to have it restored
and also to have the marble cleaned again. Their hopes to have the chapel museum open in the summer of 2010
came to nought. When I eventually located the chapel museum, I was told that it was not open to the public as
it was unsafe. I found a few memorials on the wall leading to it.

In 2010 they had also planned to unveil a plaque to Hetty King, a male impersonator who lived round the
corner from the Wimbledon theatre. They were hoping to have a reception in the theatre and were also putting
together a theatre production about some of the old performers.

The website www.arthurlloyd.co.uk lists the names of the people on the wall, and gives details of their careers.
The site was named after Arthur Lloyd who was a Scottish singer, songwriter, impresario & comedian who
wrote over a thousand songs. He was born on 14 May 1839 in Edinburgh and died there on 20 July 1904.

I discovered that there are extra plaques lined up against the back of the wall with additional names.

One is for the Ganjou brothers and Juanita who were ‘the World’s Greatest Variety Act 1929-1957’. It is very
elaborate, showing them performing acrobatics.

I took a friend to visit there as she had two ancestors mentioned on the wall, George and Madge Belmont. She
found their names and their grave numbers and the year that they died. The office gave us a map marking the
position of their graves. Their real names were William George Hawkins and Edith Batchelor. William married
Edith bigamously in Scotland. She was known as the handcuff queen.

rosemary Turner

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 6

DEVONShirE DiNiNG rOOMS CONCLUSiON

In Bulletin 228, December 2023, I wrote about the research I
undertook to show that a photo of the Devonshire Dining
Rooms on the Merton Memories Photographic Archive was
not situated in Devonshire Road, Colliers Wood, but in the
local High Street.

By checking two of the advertised events, ‘On the Warpath’
at the Kings Hall cinema in Tooting and ‘The Monk and the
Woman’ at the Wimbledon Theatre, I narrowed down the date
to July-August 1912.

Enhancement of the street name on the building revealed
that it was called The Pavement, and having ruled out five
‘Pavements’ still existing in London, including one in Worple
Road, Wimbledon, I found that there was a small row of shops
with that address in Merton Road, Mitcham, although the
directories suggested the previous street went out of use around
1910. Merton Road, Mitcham later became High Street, Colliers
Wood.

Using all available trade directories for this period in the
Heritage Centre in Morden library, I was unable to locate the
Devonshire Dining Rooms at this address, but did find ‘James
Devonshire, dining rooms’, listed at 25 Abbey Parade, High
Street, Merton in 1910/11.

However, Mr Devonshire and his dining rooms then
vanished from the records, and I subsequently traced James
Devonshire and his wife sailing to Australia on 28 March
1911, just a week before the census on 4 April 1911.

There I had to leave the research, not quite complete, until
in August 2025 I had to leap off the 200 bus when I suddenly
saw this building in Haydons Road, Wimbledon. There was
the street sign ‘The Pavement’ on a building with the distinct
moulding that appears between each property, and unusual
window design. Although the sash windows themselves
have been replaced in some places, the brickwork, stone
lintels, frames and other features remain untouched along the
row, numbers 108-122. I had found the Devonshire Dining
Rooms.

Back to the trade directories I went, which showed the
following:

1910/11 110 Haydons Road, Wimbledon: Mrs A Gould,
dining rooms

1911/12, 12/13 and 13/14 110 Haydons Road, Wimbledon:
John William Friend, dining rooms

In the census taken on 4 April 1911, John William Friend was recorded as living at 110 Haydons Road,
Wimbledon: he was 50, and his profession was ‘coffee and dining room keeper’. He lived there with his wife
Jane Elizabeth Friend, aged 44, and they had been married less than a year. There was also a lodger, William
Kendal, aged 29, who was a window cleaner.

Is that Jane Friend in the 1912 photo?

From 1915, the property is not recorded, meaning that it is empty and John Friend and his wife disappear from
the records. It is probably impossible to find the connection between James Devonshire and John Friend, but
their dining rooms were situated less than half a mile apart.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 7

Out of interest, I can report that 110 Haydons Road is now an Italian café, and for sentimental reasons, I had a
coffee there recently. Next door to the dining rooms in 1911-1915, at 108 Haydons Road, was George Hilliard,
who had a fish shop – 108 is currently Golden House, Chinese food and fish and chips. At no 112 was Miss
Jarvis, confectioner – now it is a convenience store.

John William Friend and Jane Elizabeth Friend married in St Stephen the Martyr Hampstead, Avenue Road,
Camden on 1 June 2010. He was listed as being a bachelor, aged 50, a cook by profession, living in Spa Road,
Bermondsey. Previous appearances in the records suggest he was baptised in St Paul’s, Covent Garden in 1860,
enrolled at St John’s National School in 1868, aged 8, but was dismissed a month later for ‘irregularity’, and may
have been in St Pancras Workhouse in 1902.

Jane Friend, formerly Larman, who married him at the age of 44, was born in Paddington, living in Acorn Row,
NW London, and in the 1901 census, she was living in Chesterfield, Derbyshire with her sister and brother-inlaw
and their 6 children.

I have now tracked down the third poster in the window of the older photo – the Big Circus at Earl’s Court
was part of ‘Shakespeare’s World’, a melodrama performed in August 1912. It is the story of one woman’s love
against another’s jealousy and deals with circus life: the chief magistrate’s daughter falls in love with Jack, the
tightrope walker, and when she drops a white rose at his feet after a performance, the snake charmer is jealous.
There is an outbreak of fire in the magistrate’s house, his daughter appears at the window calling for help, but
she cannot be rescued. Jack finds a long rope, ties it up, and walks the tightrope, rescues the woman and carries
her down on his shoulder. He asks the magistrate for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but the father refuses
consent until Jack makes a fortune. Jack attempts a feat, walking up a rope to the top of a high tower, when he is
almost at the top, a huge boa constrictor which has escaped from the snake charmer’s box in the tower, slithers
onto the rope. The magistrate’s daughter pulls the animal back into the tower, Jack reaches the top, and they
both appear in a window, holding the reptile.

So their story and my research both end on a positive note.

Christine Pittman

MhS 75Th aNNiVErSarY – STUDENT rESEarChEr

In February 2025, our committee agreed to the idea of celebrating Merton Historical Society’s 75th anniversary
in 2026, by commissioning a ‘budding researcher’ to prepare a booklet on our history.

We were lucky enough to attract the interest of an A-level student living in Ewell, with family connections to
Merton. Her name is Carrie Lynott, and she has already started her research by visiting the Surrey History
Centre, by collecting photographs, working her way through all the issues of the Bulletin (this publication is
number 236) and she’s now asking members for their memories.

It will be interesting for us to see how the idea of a local historical society has changed in line with social and
political changes, to remember past members and to be proud of what we have all achieved.

Plans currently exist for a slide presentation at our meeting on Saturday 14 February, with perhaps a celebratory
birthday cake, and for a book launch in the summer.

We invite everyone associated with the Society to contribute ideas, memories, photos and other documents.
Please fill in the enclosed questionnaire, speak to any committee member at our monthly meetings, or email
chair@mertonhistoricalsociety.org.uk and definitely put the February meeting in your diary – we’d like as many
members as possible to join us.

haVE YOU GOT a TaLE TO TELL?

Ben Westmancott is working on a book, collecting oral histories from people connected with Fisher FC and the
clubs that came before it. Fisher Athletic played their home games in Mitcham between 1967 and 1982 on land
opposite what was the Goat Inn, (now the Crown of Mitcham) on Goat Road. He wants to make sure local voices
of those who remember this era are preserved for future generations. Any members who might have memories,
photos, or connections to share, and any advice or introductions would be hugely appreciated.

Contact Ben by email: ben.westmancott@gmail.com

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 8

MiTChaM’S NEW ELECTED PariSh COUNCiL iN ThE 1890s
The First Election

Mitcham’s first elected parish council met in December 1894. Under the terms of the Local Government Act
of 1894, a parish meeting was called on 8 December at the Vestry Hall to elect the new parish council of 15
members. More than three hundred registered voters attended, and, after 33 nominations had been checked
and questions put to the candidates, there was voting by show of hands, each voter having 15 votes but able to
give only one vote to each candidate.1 After the results were announced to the meeting, rules allowed for five
voters to demand a secret ballot, and this was the case in 1894. Voting took place at the Vestry Hall and the
Singlegate Board Schools on 18 December, so that the first meeting of the council could take place before the
end of the year.2

The same Act enfranchised for parish and rural district elections those on the local or parliamentary register.
The local register included qualified women. The Act provided that women should not be disqualified because
of marriage, though – in a system rooted in property – a husband and wife could not both be qualified in
respect of the same property. In Mitcham during the late 1890s approximately 2,100 people were registered
to vote; of these 220 were women, who would presumably have been unmarried, widowed, or married with
property in their own right by virtue of a legal settlement.3

In advance of the election a committee comprising the Vicar and Churchwardens of St Peter and St Paul called
a meeting to draw up a list of candidates: ‘trustworthy and honest citizens…representative of all the different
interests in the Parish’ who were ‘capable of administering our Parish with efficiency and economy’.4 The
committee published the list in the local newspapers along with the reminder to voters: ‘An Elector can give
One Vote to each Candidate but is unable to give any Candidate more than one Vote’. In the event John R Chart
(not on the church’s list) received most votes (586), followed by George Bidder (510) with Stephen Gregory in
15th place with 265.

The table below shows the men successful in this first election, with their occupations and addresses. It gives
a small picture of village Mitcham at the time, professional men, along with local tradesmen, and a good
representation of the market garden and horticultural worlds. The majority of these men were re-elected in
subsequent annual elections and served three or four years. Those marked with an asterisk, nine of the fifteen,
were included in the church’s list of candidates.

Members of Mitcham Parish Council elected 1895 to 1900

Thomas Allen* Market Gardener Sherbourne House, Eastfields
George P Bidder* Queen’s Counsel Ravensbury Park
William Catt* Grocer High St. Lower Mitcham
John R Chart Corn Dealer Upper Green
Charles Dungate Gentleman East Dulwich
Stephen Gregory* Wood Sawyer Pratt’s Folly, Phipp’s Bridge
Charles M L Hallward* Journalist/Civil Servant Simla Cottage, Lower Green East
William Harbour Schoolmaster (Singlegate) Park Road, Colliers Wood
George Farewell Jones* Solicitor Cedars Ave, Commonside
John M Leather* Florist Nursery Cottage, Eastfields
Alfred Mizen Nurseryman/Mkt Gardener Brook Cottage, Eastfields
Edward Mizen Florist/Nurseryman Elm Cottage Eastfields
Rev Robert Richman* Congregational Minister Douglas House
John Stickings Florist (on own account) Railway Cottages, Lower Mitcham
Rev Daniel Wilson* Clerk in Orders The Vicarage

Notable absentees from the church’s list who were to be active and influential on the parish council well into the
next century were Alfred Mizen and his brothers. The first chairman of the parish council, George Bidder QC,
died in 1896, and William Harbour the schoolmaster served only two years as a councillor.5 It is noteworthy
that the early parish councillors were based in ‘old’, Lower Mitcham, and that only one member lived in ‘new’,
North Mitcham. Presumably the East Dulwich resident met the Mitcham property qualification and chose to
use his vote there.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 9

Local Government act 1894

In 1894 the top tier of local government in Surrey was the county council based in Kingston-upon-Thames,
first elected in 1889. The next level down, following the 1894 Act, was the Croydon Rural District Council
(CRDC), the successor to the Croydon Sanitary Authority. The CRDC’s area stretched from Mitcham in the
north to Sanderstead and Purley in the south. It was an elected body, with parishes returning councillors to the
CRDC in proportion to their population. Mitcham was the largest parish and it returned four councillors to
the CRDC; elections to the CRDC were held every three years. Qualified women could stand as well as vote in
local elections: Miss Ruth Boobyer, of Baron House, Mitcham, was an elected member of the CRDC from 1894.

Mitcham Parish Council was one of six parish councils in the area of the CRDC, and, with 15 members, was the
largest. The other parishes were Merton, Coulsdon, Beddington, Sanderstead, and Purley. Each of these, like
Mitcham, now had an elected parish council alongside a parish meeting. The parish meeting had to be called at
least once each year for the election of councillors.

For Mitcham, as the new arrangements were introduced, the key body was the CRDC’s Parochial Committee.
This was made up of Mitcham parish councillors alongside CRDC councillors elected for Mitcham, with one
councillor from another parish council. In 1896 eight of the Mitcham councillors (including Alfred and Edward
Mizen, and Rev. Richman) joined sixteen CRDC councillors to form the Mitcham Parochial Committee
(MPC). This mix of parish and CRDC members was seen as a way to reduce misunderstanding and the friction
between the CRDC and the parish councils which had happened previously. Over the following years Mitcham
councillors on the MPC increased in number and gradually became responsible for its business.

The MPC met monthly at the Vestry Hall and reported to the CRDC. It received information on births and
deaths; notification of the incidence of infectious diseases; approved the making up of new streets; approved
action, sometimes in the courts, on reported instances of ‘nuisances’, insanitary, not-fit-for-habitation dwellings;
and the removal of rubbish. Specifically, the CRDC resolved to delegate to the MPC: the week-to-week running
of the allotments, the removal and disposal of ‘house refuse’ (at least once a week), and the cleansing of streets
and pavements.6 This left the parish council with responsibility for arranging funerals at the burial ground,
acting as trustee for local charities and their accounts, and for the lighting of local streets, and as a meeting place
and a forum for the discussion of topical concerns.

The Condition of Mitcham

As mentioned above, MPC members received reports on aspects of public health – matters like infectious
diseases, housing, and the supply of clean water. The content of these detailed accounts of the condition of the
housing in which Mitcham’s poorer, working class residents lived was often shocking:

Dr Mair (Medical Officer of Health) reported that he had ‘made a house-to-house inspection of 12 cottages,
situated near Phipp’s Bridge, in the parish of Merton, and has to report that they are all without a proper water
supply. For drinking water the tenants are supposed to go to an artesian well fountain in Merton Lane, Mitcham,
which is about 200 yards from the nearest house, and probably half a mile from the furthest. Water for domestic
purposes is obtained from the Wandle and the Pickle, which are in close proximity to all the houses, and are
both more or less polluted. Several of the tenants admitted to me that occasionally the river water was made use
of for drinking purposes, and in other cases the same receptacle was made use of for drinking water and the
river water. A case of typhoid fever occurred in one of the houses last February, and I was satisfied that it was
caused by the consumption of the river water. I am of opinion that the present condition is one most dangerous
to the health of the tenants and recommend most strongly that the owners, Mr. Littler of Mitcham and Mr.
Bates of Haydons Road, Wimbledon, should be required to provide a safe supply of drinking water…There are
several other defects in the houses…in the case of one, occupied by George Addaway is quite unfit for human
habitation. The house is a wooden structure, in an advanced state of dilapidation. The rooms are all in a filthy
condition; the living room is paved with bricks and is occupied at night by three children, aged 9, 7, and 5′. 7

Dr. Mair presented a special report upon the condition of certain dwellings at Eastfields, Mitcham, and under
section 30 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, submitted certificates representing that the dwelling-
houses known as nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, Allen’s or Ebenezer’s Cottages, Mitcham,
occupied by Messrs. Hall, C. H. Charman, Mrs. Sarah Jakeman, Messrs. J. Cannon, R. Lincoln, J. Clifford, Peter
Gray, Jesse Legg, Mrs. Dyke, Messrs. James Bigg, C. Hide, G. Hawthorn, E. Fry, and A. Wyatt respectively, and
belonging to Mr. Thos. Allen, of Eastfields, Mitcham, appear to be in a state so dangerous or injurious to health
as to be unfit for human habitation.8

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 10

The minutes of the MPC’s June 1897 meeting reported one case that the Inspector of Nuisances had
investigated…’a complaint with reference to the overcrowding at Grosvenor House, Western Road….and found
that the premises are let out in apartments, a Mr Symonds occupying 2 rooms with his family of 6, aged 18,
16, 12, 10, 7 and 4 years respectively, all sleeping in one room, the air space being considerably below the
standard required….(after visits from the Inspector and the Medical Officer of Health) ….they were informed
that several children were now sleeping in another room. The owner informed him that he was now taking legal
steps to evict the family from the house’. 9

Mitcham’s population in 1891 was 12,127 and rose to 14,903 in the 1901 Census, a 23% increase which aggravated
the housing problem. The rise in the number of these kinds of official complaints about the condition of housing
in Mitcham, led the CRDC, in 1897, to delegate its powers under the Public Health Acts to the MPC which
became the sanitary authority for the parish.

The Housing of the Working Classes Act, referred to in the second report above, was the legal basis on which
the inspections and instructions to improve housing conditions were based. That Act also enabled a parish
council, with the agreement of the rural district council and the county council, to provide houses for working
classes. In the autumn of 1897 Alfred Mizen moved at the MPC that the attention of the CRDC be drawn to
the inadequate housing in Mitcham for the working classes. The motion went on to recommend that the CRDC
obtain from the county council the certificate necessary to bring Part 3 of the Housing of the Working Classes
Act into operation for Mitcham.10 The progress of this proposal through the CRDC and Surrey County Council
is to be the subject of a future contribution.

1 This contrasted with voting in elections to school boards, including Mitcham’s, at this time. Each voter had as many
votes as places to be filled on the school board, but was able to spread their votes about the candidates as they wished.
If a voter gave all their votes to one candidate it was called ‘plumping’.

2 Elections to the parish council took place annually until 1903; after this every three years.
3 Wallington and Carshalton Herald 22/12/1894 and electoral registers at LBM Local History Collection.
4 Wallington and Carshalton Herald 15/12/1894.
5 Mitcham Parish Meeting Minutes 1894-1900 (Surrey History Centre).
6 Croydon Rural District Council Minutes, 16/04/1896 (Croydon Archives).
7 Mitcham Parochial Council Minutes 11/07/1895 (Croydon Archives).
8 Mitcham Parochial Council Minutes 5/10/1896.
9 Mitcham Parochial Council Minutes 15/06//1897.
10 Mitcham Parochial Council Minutes 19/10/1897.

Bill Bailey

More of Bill rudd’s photos of
ChriSTMaS aT ThE MOrDEN SOrTiNG OFFiCE iN 1962

A welcome tea break for the night staff

When packages were wrapped in brown paper
and tied up with string

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 11

NOrTh MiTChaM aLLOTMENTS

Allotments have roots in working class culture and have helped feed the families of workers in mills and factories, as
well as being sources of pleasure and recreation. Their growth as a social phenomenon coincided with an increase in the
urban population and improvements in working conditions in the 19th century, notably the eight-hour working day, half
day working on Saturdays, and annual holidays. Many allotment sites are owned by local authorities or by Railtrack. The
popularity of allotments has varied over time. They peaked during wartime, dipped in the late 20th century, and in recent
decades allotment-holding has transcended class boundaries and has also attracted immigrant populations who want to

grow their heritage foodstuffs.

However, Ballard was told that he was
not allowed to build on the site at the
end of Ridge Road because of the risk
of flooding from the River Graveney.
Ballard’s solution was to divide that
land into allotments and sell them
individually under the terms of an
indenture dated 24 June 1920. A plan of
the allotments was lodged with the Land
Registry in September 1921 (right).
The indenture authorised trustees to
collect money from allotment holders
and required the trustees to use the
money to construct and maintain
paths, boundary fences and the gate. An
annual subscription paid for upkeep of
the common areas. If allotment holders
were in default of payment, the trustees
were entitled after due notice to seize
and dispose of their plots in order to

A gate giving access to these
allotments is located at the
end of Ridge Road, a cul de
sac off the A216 Streatham
Road, near the railway bridge
and a few blocks south of the
River Graveney crossing. In
1909 the land now occupied
by the allotments was owned
by Albert Casanova Ballard
(right). He wanted to build
houses there, alongside houses
he was building nearby in his ‘Garden Road Estate’.

Advertisements appeared in the Daily Mail in March
and April 1914 for newly-built houses in Garden
Road. The houses were marketed through Goodall of
Streatham Hill and boasted two reception rooms, three
bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, electric lighting
and the latest gas water heaters. Prices ranged from
£270 to £450. Presumably the more expensive houses
had enhanced specifications, such as extra bedrooms.
The North Mitcham Plot Owners Association, which
manages the allotment site, holds a copy of an undated
leaflet advertising the houses at £250 in somewhat
desperately gushing language, so perhaps Ballard had
been obliged to reduce the price. No doubt houses
in the other roads in the estate were completed over
the following few years – they are certainly there now.

The reverse of the estate agent’s leaflet defines the
estate by circling the roads within it: Garden Road,
Ridge Road, Caithness Road, Park Avenue, Melrose
Avenue, Elmhurst Avenue, Beecholme Avenue and
Hill Road (left).

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 12

pay the debts. To this day the trustees of the North Mitcham Plot Owners Association carry out the functions set out in

the indenture, supported by an elected committee of plotholders.
It is not clear why Ballard disposed of the land in this manner. His intent might have been altruistic, but if so that only
crystallised after his original intent to develop the land was thwarted. It is possible that he wanted to ensure that any
subsequent property developers would find it difficult to acquire the land. He would have known that public pressure
was building to culvert the Graveney in order to alleviate the risk of flooding. Indeed, there had been regular press
reports of flooding from around 1910, possibly the result of surface water run-off from newly developed land. Press
reports appeared in 1921 of plans to ‘improve’ the Graveney. According to the Association’s archives, the Graveney was
duly culverted in 1924. Part of the culvert was at the location where the Graveney borders the allotments. The river is
no longer culverted at that point, but it is canalised in a deep concrete channel. There are no reports of serious flooding
at the allotments in living memory.

The plots flourished in the inter-war years and there were regular flower and vegetable shows.
On 2 May 1919 the Mitcham Advertiser reported that Mr R C Lang, secretary to the committee of property owners in
Garden Avenue, had asked the council to contribute towards the cost of making up Garden Avenue, owing to the increased

cost of road-making. The council was unable to accede. The fact that the road was unadopted at that time might have
alleviated the danger of flooding due to surface water run-off.
One plotholder, Mr F Bosomworth, paid a tithe redemption charge of 18s 8d in March 1926 in respect of plot no. 47.

The association holds no other records relating to tithes. At the time of the tithe rentcharge apportionments in 1846, the
allotment site was tithable arable fields owned and occupied by a William Fuller. Further research would be required to
discover how and when tithe rentcharges for the remainder of the allotment site were redeemed or extinguished.

In 1940 rules in the indenture forbidding the keeping of livestock other than poultry were relaxed for the duration of
the war. The remains of brick pig sties survive in one of the plots. It seems that pigs were kept illicitly for some years
after the end of the war.

In May 1947 the War Damage Commission agreed to consider a claim for repairs to bomb damage to the main gate. This

was the only bombing incident on the allotment site.
Two nearby allotment sites were closed in 1961, whereupon the North Mitcham allotments became the only local
allotments.

In February 1963 HM Customs and Excise responded to a complaint about the cultivation of tobacco. The plotholder

was advised not to grow excessive quantities.
The allotments were threatened in 1967 by the post-war plans for a system of London ‘ringway’ roads. A slip road would
have gone through the middle of the site. The trustees refused to allow the road builders access to carry out test drills.
The project was eventually abandoned. Some houses which had been compulsorily purchased are thought to have been
transferred to housing associations.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a period of decline, with ageing and absent plotholders seemingly discouraged by the uncertainty
about the proposed road. There was also a problem of trespassing and vandalism, which was alleviated when British Rail
mended their fences in 1984 – the site is bounded on two sides by suburban railway lines. Surveys by trustees and levies
for repairs brought some absent plotholders to light. An upturn in plot cultivation was reversed by a spate of vandalism
in the mid-1990s, but the popularity of ‘growing your own’ prompted recovery and now the allotments are again popular
and well-maintained by the trustees and an active committee.

The allotment office is housed in a hut on the site. There is no mains water and no electricity. Some old

medicine bottles (left) and pieces of metal were unearthed in 2025 during the construction of a new

waterless composting toilet for use by plotholders.

The author thanks Viv Shaw, Secretary of the association, for her
time and for access to the association’s records (right, with scythe
in front of the office).

Postscript: albert Casanova Ballard

Ballard moved to Plymouth in 1923, where he described himself as a ‘inancier and
landed proprietor’. He founded a boys’ club, and in 1932 he became president of
Plymouth Argyle Football Club. He later moved to Teignmouth where he died in
1942 aged about 75.

Sources: North Mitcham Plot Owners Association archives, British Newspaper
Archive, Daily Mail Archive.

Photos: Viv Shaw, John Sheridan and North Mitcham Plot Owners Association
Archives.

John Sheridan

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 13

PUBS OF KiNGSTON GUiDED WaLK 4 SEPTEMBEr 2025

The day started wet and windy but by the time seven of us gathered for the start of the walk, the sun was
out. Our leader was Kingston Guide, David Bridge, and the walk started in Old London Road outside the
almshouses. David began by explaining that English ale was originally made by using barley and was a safer
option than drinking water, and was often made by housewives. Hops came in from Holland much later and
were then grown in this country.

We were told that after the Sign Act in 1393, public houses started displaying their names. There were different
terms, such as ale house, inn and tap house, which historically had separate meanings and restrictions as to
what was sold and what services were provided, in the same way that we might now refer to pubs, hotels and
wine bars. In 1831 there were nine breweries in Kingston and we were shown a diagram illustrating how these
breweries merged or were taken over. In 1840 a temperance movement started in Kingston which had an effect
on the sale of beer. The bailiff books still survive and the bailiffs also acted as magistrates – their books are a
useful source of information relating to the pubs.

David pointed out the sites of the public
houses and gave us the details of their history.
Brenda Hawkins was our photographer for
the day, but as most of the pubs no longer
existed, this was a difficult task.

Some of the pub buildings are now used as
commercial and retail spaces, others have
been demolished, yet a few still remain true to
their origins, and after learning about nearly
20 pubs, we finished at the Druid’s Head, a
Grade II* listed hostelry dating from the 17th
and 18th centuries, where we had a well-
earned glass of beer.

The Griffin, grade II listed,
now a commercial centre

THE TRAFALGAR FREEHOUSE

In Bulletin 219, September 2021, we published an article entitled ‘Clive Whichelow marks and mourns the
closure of the Trafalgar pub’. With a brief history of the pub’s existence, since 1868 at least, and noting its
celebration of Nelson’s connections with the local area, it seemed that the pub was to remain only as a local
memory, along with so many other British pubs which were lost in the years after Covid-19.

And yet…..the pub was re-opened in 2023 as The Trafalgar Freehouse, and despite the threat of demolition,
as part of the regeneration of High Path Estate, the pub has not only survived a planning application, but also
an appeal by the developers against Merton Council’s rejection of its application to demolish and re-build a
heritage asset, on the grounds that it would
cause substantial harm to the area’s heritage
and social value, as well as parking issues.

The Trafalgar has strong community support,
with backing received during the planning
process and a consultation questionnaire in
November, it has now been granted funding
by the Plunkett Foundation, to assist with
the appointment of an advisor, who will
help with the process that could lead to
community ownership.

mhs-wjr-26-12 The Trafalgar PH High Path 04-63

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 14

a FOrGOTTEN ParT OF LOCaL hiSTOrY
John hawks on the Wandle industrial Museum’s latest welcome acquisition

While Merton’s history has become an essential part of my life, in the company of MHS’s finest I could certainly
never claim to be more than an ‘honorary historian’. And as such, in contributing this rather offbeat item to
the Bulletin, I feel I may risk bringing coals to Newcastle – except that this is all about bringing them from
Newcastle!

My interest was only recently aroused by one of those delightfully unpredictable events. The Bexhill Museum
is a fine dedicated building of 1914, virtually on the seafront and with a lovely seaside collection, including a
wonderfully detailed town model. It’s a must to see if you’re ever in Bexhill, which alas not many of us seem
likely to be these days – I hadn’t been there for 75 years!

Anyway, I had a splendid excuse to go down there again when they contacted Mick Taylor at the Wandle
Industrial Museum earlier this year. They were having a clear out, and one of their unwanted exhibits, a gift
from a deceased resident’s family, was a superb model of a ship – no, not in a bottle, this one, but in a six-foot
glass case. They specially wanted the Wandle Industrial Museum to have it, not on account of its size, value or
quality, but because it had no actual relevance to Bexhill (a key criterion for them), and was named, believe it
or not, SS Wandle.

It belongs to a part of comparatively recent history of which very few people these days are even remotely aware.
But it makes perfectly good sense when you think about it. 100 years ago all the main London gas and electricity
companies needed huge and constant volumes of coal, and all had their own fleets of colliers – long, low steamships
specially designed both to manage the difficult waters of the North Sea and to navigate the River Thames. These
‘up-river’ colliers (also nicknamed ‘flat-irons’) had a shallow draft so they didn’t ground on the riverbed when
fully laden, and retractable masts and funnels so they could travel safely under the Thames bridges.

The Wandsworth and District Gas Company was one of the major suppliers to the larger South London area,
and between 1905 and 1959 three successive vessels named SS Wandle brought coal by sea from Tyneside and
up the Thames to their gasworks at the mouth of the River Wandle. The first SS Wandle in the Wandsworth
fleet was launched in 1905, and in 1915 had a famous wartime encounter in which she courageously repelled
a German U-boat with her single gun. Large crowds gathered along the river all the way from Westminster to
Wandsworth to cheer her return! Less happily, however, she ended up in 1917 being wrecked, when on her
500th voyage she ran aground off Flamborough Head.

Her replacement, the second SS Wandle, was launched in 1923 and plied the route steadfastly till 1932, when
she was sold to another company. After this in 1942 she too was wrecked, not by enemy action but after an
unfortunate collision at sea off the coast near Middlesbrough.

The third SS Wandle which replaced her in 1933 was the biggest of the three, and carried 2,200 tons of coal. As
in the First World War, so in the Second, the North Sea was particularly dangerous for merchant ships, which
had a vital wartime role, and many were armed to repel attack by air and sea. In 1940 and 1941 SS Wandle twice
fired on and hit enemy aircraft and twice saw off German E-boats (special high speed attack launches). Then in
1942 she was attacked by a flotilla of E-boats, and her bow was completely destroyed by a torpedo. Amazingly
she survived, and after extensive repairs she continued doing her vital work successfully from 1943 till 1959,
when she was finally scrapped.

MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY – BULLETIN 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 15

It’s this last humble but rather heroic
vessel that the exceptionally detailed
model commemorates, and there
could be no more suitable home for it
than the Wandle Industrial Museum.
But where in that small space to put
it? The inspired answer was right next
door in Mitcham’s Vestry Hall, where
Building Manager Julie Noel has given
it a warm welcome and pride of place
in the foyer – well worth dropping in
for a look next time you’re passing.

As a final curiosity, over the years a
nice tradition arose – many of these
colliers were named after the areas their various companies supplied with gas or electricity. As well as SS
Wandle there were the SS Mitcham, Wimbledon, Wandsworth, Croydon, Chessington, Tolworth, Ewell, Kingston,
Guildford, Woodcote, Dulwich, Sydenham, Bromley, Brockley, Southwark, Camberwell, Lambeth, Catford, Effra,
Brixton, Kennington – and plenty more North of the River! All the names are listed in a rare and fascinating
illustrated booklet The Gas and Electricity Colliers, published in 1984 by the World Ship Society, which can be
seen at the Wandle Industrial Museum.

NEW PUBLiCaTiON FrOM EaST SUrrEY FaMiLY hiSTOrY SOCiETY

Mitcham St Peter & St Paul Monumental Inscriptions

The SS Wandle III unloading at Wandsworth in 1933

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 236 – DECEMBER 2025 – PAGE 16