Chronicles so far [this page] — every month from June 2021 to the present, to include all images (reduced) and text . . .
Check also:
Chronicles all so far — includes material to be added to this page
— May 2024
— May 2023
— May 2022
[Add text here.]
We'll look in more detail at this gorgeous watercolour later, but first here's a literary challenge for you. Who wrote this, in which novel, and when — it's July but in which year, give or take a few?
"Wandsworth Common was as lonely this evening as a patch of sand in the centre of Africa . . . "
I went out for a walk one evening, at the end of the second week in July . . . for a solitary ramble amongst the quiet Surrey suburbs, in any lonely lanes or scraps of common-land where the speculating builder had not yet set his hateful foot.
It was a lovely evening; and I, who am so much a Cockney as to believe that a London sunset is one of the grandest spectacles in the universe, set my face towards the yellow light in the west, and walked across Wandsworth Common, where faint wreaths of purple mist were rising from the hollows, and a deserted donkey was breaking the twilight stillness with a plaintive braying.
Wandsworth Common was as lonely this evening as a patch of sand in the centre of Africa; and being something of a day-dreamer, I liked the place because of its stillness and solitude.
It's one of my favourite evocations of the Common and Wandsworth. It continues:
My thoughts were pleasant, as I walked across the common in the sunset; and yet, looking back now, I wonder what I thought of, and what image there was in my mind that could make my fancies pleasant to me. I know what I thought of, as I went home in the dim light of the newly-risen moon, the pale crescent that glimmered high in a cloudless heaven.
I went into the little town of Wandsworth, the queer old-fashioned High Street, the dear old street, which seems to me like a town in a Dutch picture, where all the tints are of a sombre brown, yet in which there is, nevertheless, so much light and warmth.
The lights were beginning to twinkle here and there in the windows; and upon this July evening there seemed to be flowers blooming in every casement. I loitered idly through the street, staring at the shop-windows, in utter absence of mind while I thought . . .
And while we're in the neighbourhood, I can't resist quoting some more:
"The town of Wandsworth is not a gay place . . .
The town of Wandsworth is not a gay place. There is an air of old-world quiet in the old-fashioned street, though dashing vehicles drive through it sometimes on their way to Wimbledon or Richmond Park.
The sloping roofs, the gable-ends, the queer old chimneys, the quaint casement windows, belong to a bygone age; and the traveller, coming a stranger to the little town, might fancy himself a hundred miles away from boisterous London; though he is barely clear of the great city's smoky breath, or beyond the hearing of her myriad clamorous tongues.
There are lanes and byways leading out of that humble High Street down to the low bank of the river; and in one of these, a pleasant place enough, there is a row of old-fashioned semi-detached cottages, standing in small gardens, and sheltered by sycamores and laburnums from the dust, which in dry summer weather lies thick upon the narrow roadway.
Having set the scene so vividly, we are finally introduced to our young heroine, Margaret Wentworth:
In one of these cottages a young lady lived with her father; a young lady who gave lessons on the piano-forte, or taught singing, for very small remuneration. She wore shabby dresses, and was rarely known to have a new bonnet; but people respected and admired her, notwithstanding; and the female inhabitants of Godolphin Cottages, who gave her good-day sometimes as she went along the dusty lane with her well-used roll of music in her hand, declared that she was a lady bred and born.
Perhaps the good people who admired Margaret Wentworth would have come nearer the mark if they had said that she was a lady by right divine of her own beautiful nature, which had never required to be schooled into grace or gentleness.
She had no mother, and she had not even the memory of her mother, who had died seventeen years before, leaving an only child of twelve months old for James Wentworth to keep.
So, who wrote this, in which novel, and when?
The answer is given somewhere below.
If there's a theme common to all of the items in this month's Chronicles, it's donkeys.
You will have noticed in a quotation above that on Wandsworth Common a "deserted donkey was breaking the twilight stillness with a plaintive braying" This is the animal most frequently associated with the Common. There are articles in the local press i the nineteenth century about the theft of donkeys from the Common, donkey racing was a popular sport at Wandsworth Fair, and we know that donkey rides were regularly on offer on Wandsworth and Clapham Commons in the 1870s.
Why so many donkeys? I suppose for the obvious reason that in the days before cars, vans and lorries, donkeys were the most valuable beast of burden, whether laden with panniers or pulling a cart:
And even well into the twentieth century:
In his London Labour and the London Poor (1861-62) Henry Mayhew writes marvellously, and at length, about the costermongers' carts and barrows, their habits and beliefs, and their close relationship with their donkeys. (See e.g. vol. 1.)
The costermongers almost universally treat their donkeys with kindness. Many a costermonger will resent the ill-treatment of a donkey, as he would a personal indignity. These animals are often not only favourites, but pets, having their share of the costermonger's dinner when bread forms a portion of it, or pudding, or anything suited to the palate of the brute.
But donkeys were not always so cosseted, as we can see in this court case, where two boys are sent to prison for abusing donkeys on Clapham Common in 1856.
Now back to donkeys on "Wandsworth" Common . . .
I was intrigued by a reference in a letter from "Fusbos" published in the Naval & Military Gazette, April 1841, about what might happen if a court of arbitration were created to replace duels:
People...will be more cautious; they will not go to skirmish among the donkeys of Wandsworth Common, and if they see the ghost of the dusty miller, with a blue truncheon in its hand, they will adjourn to some uncommon common, or find a place of more secrecy.
[BNA: Link.]
"Donkeys on Wandsworth Common... ghost of the dusty miller ... a blue truncheon" — what on earth could this be about?
I think I know.
Duels were not uncommon on the Common in the early nineteenth century. I've written and talked about some of them, for example in "Two duels" (1807, 1832), and "Alias Wilkinson, Jones and Smith" (1839), and Alias Wilkinson, Jones and Smith — again.
And you may recall that Oscar Wilde referred to a duel on the Common in his comical short story, The Canterville Ghost, 1887:
"Poor Jack was afterwards shot in a duel by Lord Canterville on Wandsworth Common, and Lady Barbara died of a broken heart at Tunbridge Wells before the year was out, so, in every way, it had been a great success."
But I couldn't help thinking that Fusbos was referring to something else, and here's my theory. That his "Wandsworth Common" is in fact what we would now call Wimbledon Common; and he was not wrong.
How so?
I'm pretty sure Fusbos was alluding to the duel recently fought (12 September 1840) between the Earl of Cardigan (later the ambiguous "hero" of the Charge of the Light Brigade) and Captain Harvey Tuckett near the windmill on Wimbledon Common.
But the pair had faced one another on an area of common that was technically part of Wandsworth Parish (hence "Wandsworth Common"), of which the miller, Thomas Hunt Dann, was also a parish constable. It was the fact that they were standing in Wandsworth that empowered him to act. If they had stepped over the parish boundary into "Putney Common" or "Wimbledon Common", Constable Dann couldn't touch them.
Hearing the reports of the pistols and seeing that Tuckett was seriously wounded, Dann took Cardigan and others into custody. The duellists and their friends were brought before the Wandsworth magistrates (including local landowner William Nottidge and the owner of Price's Candles, William Wilson).
This is a cracking story that I really must write up some time, but I've probably said more than enough for today.
Let's turn back to the image at the top of this page, from Gordon Bradley, painted in 1835 just a couple of years before work began on cutting railways across the Common. (Can you spot the donkey?)
Some time ago I stumbled across this extraordinary watercolour. A caption says that it's a view of London from Wandsworth Common, but more importantly for us it's a view of Wandsworth Common — and of these we really do not have very many.
I traced the image to the Museum of New Zealand. Thanks to the generosity of the Museum, a high resolution scan is available free of charge. (In the USA, the Smithsomian and the Getty do likewise. I wish more British museums and libraries did the same. And as for hideously disfiguring watermarks across photographs — get rid of them — they're an abomination!)
I hoped that I could "restore" this image digitally — mend some rips and tears, brighten it up a little, bring out some more detail — and this is my first attempt. Nice, isn't it?
In the distance, on either side of the midline, St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey (including the remains of Houses of Parliament, destroyed by fire the previous year — this is well before the Victoria Tower/Big Ben were built). We are on an elevated position looking across and down towards Westminster and the City. Smoke rises from a number of tall chimneys. How close they are, and yet up here things are very different from the City in the distance.
But up here on the Common is another world entirely.
The air is clear and the landscape scarcely peopled. There are some contented cows, a solitary horse, a few sheep, and (on the right) what must surely be a donkey — a clump of elms on a knoll, two slender silver birches, some clumps of a straggly shrub (probably gorse, but it doesn't look much like that to me). There are suggestions of a few houses in the distance (the one on the far left may be quite a mansion) — the grass seems thin and possibly overgrazed — the ground is stony and barren — to the right, we see broken ground — evidence of small-scale gravel or sand digging, with pools in worked-out pits.
And an enigmatic couple — she is almost certainly bare-foot, in a bonnet and red cloak (a sure sign of a "gypsy", and holding a baby — he carries a sack on a stick over his shoulder, he wears a wide-brimmed hat, pale (possibly canvas) trousers, and a blue top. Is he perhaps a sailor? Is there some transaction taking place between them? Perhaps he intends to seek his fortune in the City and she promises to tell his fortune, if he crosses her palm with silver?
Who knows?
Images such as these are not like photographs. There is no single "point-of-view". We have no idea how much the artist changed things to suit his purposes. But assuming for a moment it was indeed a fairly literal image, where might the artist have positioned himself?
I have some theories, but they will have to wait for an airing. In the meanwhile, what do you think?
At this point, I had intended to tell in full Cornelius Webbe's story of Sir Isaac, the donkey who flew a kite on Wandsworth Common in 1841 (from the chapter "Parks for People," Glances at Life in City and Suburb, 1845); but for the moment here's a short extract:
The story begins:
STROLLING OVER WANDSWORTH COMMON in the ever-memorable year 1841, we observed in a corner of that wide waste a solitary donkey. No uncommon sight to be seen on a common, it will be said. True, but this donkey was seen under uncommon circumstances, as we shall relate.
Before we came up to him we had been puzzling our little wit to account for a large kite floating high in the air in that open spot, without the usual accompaniment to a kite – a boy at one end of it, to conduct its ascent and descent.
We looked all over the long, level flat, and devil a boy was there to be seen anyhow – not even the whistle or whoop of a boy to tell us of the whereabout of one.
Much marvelled we at this miracle of an effect seemingly without a cause as we went leisurely towards the spot over which the kite was hovering.
But shortly a light broke in on our darkness.
It was the donkey we had seen, and no soul else, that was flying the kite!
The sagacious Sir Isaac (named after Newton, of course) is, I believe, a definite maybe for the inspiration behind A.A. Milne's Eeyore, but perhaps that narrative is a little too long for you right now. Better to leave the rest for another time.
Last month I told the story of Charles Knight, transported to Australia on board the Isabella for stealing a mare (though a horse, not a donkey) from Wandsworth Common. In 1841 he was tried and sentenced to 15 years' transportation.
I asked if anybody would like to help research his story. And just look what happened (more or less by return). One of our readers, Diane Oldman, who lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, replied that she had researched the Isabella, and some of its crew and prisoners. And indeed she has, in the greatest detail. I am very thankful to her for sending links to her research.
Charles Knight must have been held at Portsmouth in rotting prison hulks — many of them Royal Navy vessels left over from the French wars — for nearly a year before setting off on the Isabella for Australia.
19 Jan — departed Portsmouth
19 May — arrived Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land
Passage 120 days.
Disembarked 266 convicts.
Read all about it on Diane's marvellous "Redcoat Settlers in Western Australia 1826-1869" website.
Oh, yes. I nearly forgot to reveal anything about the novel that began this month's Chronicles.
You will recall that it included the line: "Wandsworth Common was as lonely this evening as a patch of sand in the centre of Africa":
[I] went out on this particular evening for a solitary ramble amongst the quiet Surrey suburbs, in any lonely lanes or scraps of common-land where the speculating builder had not yet set his hateful foot . . .
The phrases "scraps of common-land ... speculating builder ... hateful foot" sets the story firmly in the 1860s — it's very much in the rhetorical style of the defenders of the Common (such as John Buckmaster) when it was still "owned" by Lord Spencer.
The novel is Henry Dunbar (aka The Outcast), by Elizabeth Braddon — often called "Miss Braddon" or "Mrs Braddon". She is best known today for Lady Audley's Secret and other "sensation" novels.
Henry Dunbar was adapted successfully for the stage by Tom Taylor, the editor of Punch who lived in Lavender Sweep, Battersea, where Mrs Braddon was a frequent visitor (hence, presumably, her intimate knowledge of Clapham and Wandsworth). Tom Taylor was also prominent in the movement to preserve Wandsworth Common. It could be argued that Mary Braddon too was defending the Common through her evocation of its qualities (and her contempt for the "speculating builder" and his "hateful foot").
Strongly recommended.
— Wikipedia: Mary Elizabeth Braddon]
— Henry Dunbar — the Story of an Outcast: there is a good online version here, and an excellent modern print edition, with notes etc by Anne-Marie Beller, has been published by Victorian Secrets, here.
— The Mary Elizabeth Braddon Association website includes an excellent biography and bibliography.
.Here's a map of Wandsworth Town as the novelist would have known it:
I would love to see images from the period — they must surely exist — but for now we'll have to make do with this photograph probably taken about 30 years after Mary Braddon's novel:
Do you know of any earlier or better images of the High Street? Do say.
— The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building and post-war education . . . [this page]
— What we were watching at the Granada Cinema, Clapham Junction in 1949 [opens another page]
As you may have seen last month, 2024 is my 75th anniversary year, and I'm still time-travelling around this marvellous aerial image:
Here's more or less the same view today:
1949, mid-century, looked backwards and forwards. April's Chronicles mainly related to the recent past (though not of course the item about local vicar Chad Varah and Dan Dare). Most involved the destruction caused by the war, though I counted my own parents' marriage and my birth as quite constructive. But now I'd like to mention a few more future-oriented projects on and around the Common.
Growing up round here in the 1950s (particularly if you were a boy) meant you were almost certainly taught by men who had not been to university or teacher-training college in the normal way — most had spent years in the armed forces and then speedily retrained after they were demobbed.
I was reminded of this when by chance I came across fragments of a photograph of the "Wandsworth Training College, 1949—1950", which was plainly taken in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum/School/Building (which I'll call from now on the Patriotic).
I pieced these together, and tweaked the resulting image for clarity. Perhaps you can recognise a relative, a friend, or an old teacher?
The baby-boom of the late 1940s and early 1950s (to which I was making my own small contribution), plus the raising of the school leaving age from 14 to 15, demanded a huge increase in the number of teachers, and many more new schools. Desperate times, desperate measures.
Special crash courses were set up to recruit ex-service personnel (and others) into teaching. Fifty-five new temporary centres, were set up, one of which was the Patriotic, built 1857—1859.
The Patriotic, permanent as it looks, has proved extraordinarily versatile. Built for the orphaned daughters of military men who had died in the Crimean War of the mid-1850s, it was requisitioned during WWI for use as the 3rd London General Hospital, after which it returned to service as an orphanage. A year or two earlier a substantial area of its grounds had been sold to the LCC and this was re-purposed post-war to accommodate the Cricket Pitches, Bowling Green, Tennis Courts and Cafe.
In WWII the girls were turfed out once again (they were evacuated to Wales) and the Patriotic became the London Reception Centre (January 1941 to May 1945). More than 30,000 "alien refugees and escapers" arriving from occupied Europe were interrogated here with the aim of spotting potential spies (for and against), and gathering intelligence. (It has often been alleged that torture was carried out here, but we'll leave that question for another time.)
By 1949, everything had been transformed yet again, and the Wandsworth Training College was opened.
Jenny Keating summarises:
An emergency scheme was devised, aimed particularly at ex-services people. They would not have to have specific academic qualifications but the selection process would be rigorous. The training would be concentrated into one year and there would be a two year probationary period.
The initial scheme, in Dec 1944, was on a limited scale and with limited eligibility but it attracted many applicants. In June 1945 the scheme was opened to all men and women who had served at least a year in HM Forces or in a war industry and applicants poured in — 5000 a month by December 1945.
This resulted in the problem of finding college places for them all but eventually, by Dec 1947, fifty-five new temporary colleges had opened, in a varied assortment of buildings — country houses, hotels and boarding houses, hospitals etc — offering nearly 13,500 places.
Students ranged from 21 to over 50 and came from a wide range of civilian occupations although clerical workers predominated. Over three quarters had some secondary or technical education and about half had School Certificate or higher qualifications. Training staff came from all branches of teaching, but mainly secondary schools. There was enormous enthusiasm and keenness to get on in the early years of the scheme, although many students had problems settling in to systematic study and working on their own.
Gradually the emergency colleges were transferred into permanent ones and by August 1951 the last one closed. Dent concludes that:
For many years teachers and administrators debated the value of the Emergency Scheme. What is certain is that it produced about 35,000 Qualified Teachers, and this made practicable the raising of the school leaving age in 1947. (By 1951 one in six of the teachers in maintained schools was emergency-trained.) Many of them proved above-average teachers, and more than a few first-class. On the other hand, there was possibly a higher proportion of weak teachers than among those produced by permanent training colleges.
[Jenny Keating, "Teacher training — up to the 1960s", 2010. This paper was produced as part of the wide-ranging History in Education Project, based in the Institute for Historical Research. Numerous background papers, and a substantial oral history archive, are freely available. Well worth following up.]
Cathy Rowntree (25 March 2024):
What an amazing picture! I never imagined that so many were being trained there. I'm not aware of any of teachers that might have gone on to work at local schools, but when I was at Shaftesbury Park (Holden Street School) on the Shaftesbury Estate, 1971-9, the Headmaster, Eddie Holgate, was one of those who had been "emergency trained" and it was annoying to me that such teachers only had to do two years at college, whereas we had to do three.
I think a lot of them were ex-army or navy officers & therefore considered to have had some training, but were now out of work after the war. More teachers were needed because the school leaving age was raised from 14 to 15. Mr Holgate was ex-RAF & had the moustache to go with it.
Hugh Betterton (13 May 2024):
When I started teaching at Kennington School in early 1970s, two or three teachers there had been "emergency trained" in 1945/6. This was a 6-month course usually for ex-physical training instructors (PTIs) from the Forces. One man proudly claimed that he didn't need any "training" as you just told the pupils what to do and they did it . . . Ah, enlightened times!
The Wandsworth Training College closed fairly soon after the impressive group photograph was taken. So what happened next?
By 1952 (and possibly earlier) the London County Council (LCC) bought the Patriotic and its substantial grounds and immediately set about building the Fitzhugh Estate (1953—1955 [?]). With its five eleven-storey "point" blocks artfully set in "the serene greenery of Wandsworth Common" (as the Layers of London website puts it), it had quite an impact. Never having seen anything higher, we always called these blocks "skyscrapers". Wandsworth Common had been precipitated into The Future.
And what about the massive Patriotic, now almost (but not quite) dwarfed by the new Fitzhugh Estate?
For the next few years the Patriotic became Honeywell Secondary School, which (unusually for the time) was mixed.
[Most of the new schools subsequently constructed in the early 1950s in Wandsworth and Battersea were single-sex. So why was Honeywell Secondary mixed, and most of its successor schools single-sex? Whatever the reasoning, as a result single schools are still the norm among state secondary (though no longer of junior) schools in Wandsworth.]
The school has left only the faintest of traces that I can find, so please let me know if you have anything you can add — for example I have only seen images of girls at the Honeywell Secondary School — does anybody have any of boys? How did they all fare?.
Here's practically all I have found (with the invaluable help of Cathy Rowntree, Archivist of Honeywell, Clapham County and Walsingham Schools):
Cathy Rowntree writes (13 May 2024):
"The pictures of the girls' art classes in 1958 were sent to me by Mrs Anne Oree nee Faulkner, when I was researching the Honeywell Centenary in 1991. She was the art teacher and also took a party of about 30 girls on a school journey by coach to France & Italy in April 1958 with other staff."
[Incidentally, you may recall the hall as it appeared in George Coates's painting of the 3rd London General Hospital, c.1915.]
By this time, the Patriotic was in a pretty desperate state of decay, and a new school was built on the site, in a modernist style, but for boys only. This was Spencer Park School.
On opening, in 1957, the intake was made up of boys from Honeywell Secondary School (already on the site, of course, in the Patriotic), plus others from Wandsworth Secondary Technical School (Garrett Lane) as well as some students from schools in Lavender Hill and Earlsfield.*
[* Learning this helped me to understand something I recalled (but couldn't make any sense of) from my childhood — the presence in the Earlsfield Primary School playground of Big Boys — and I mean Really Big Boys — up to 15 years of age. I now see that there had been no places for them in any secondary school, so they continued at their former school until Spencer Park and other local boys' schools were completed.]
Why was it called Spencer Park School (and not, for example, Wandsworth Common) School?
Good question. Were the LCC planners ill-informed about the history of the area? Did they think it sounded "historic", and maybe even "classy"?
[After all, they elected to call the Fitzhugh houses after Elizabethan (and earlier) aristocratic families. (I have tried to explain this seemingly strange development elsewhere — see Why "Fitzhugh", "Morville", "Gernigan", "St Quentin", "Skipsea", "Woodham"?].
The girls stayed for a further year in the now sadly dilapidated old building before departing, in 1958, for the brand-new Garratt Green School, erected on the edge of Springfield Mental Hospital a mile away down Burntwood Lane.
The boys returned to the now-empty Patriotic for at least some lessons, but Spencer Park moved out for good in September 1976 as the building was clearly unsafe.
— Layers of London: Garratt Green Comprehensive School, 1960
— Wikipedia: Burntwood School
— Wikipedia: Emanuel School.
Spencer Park Boys' School moved out of the Patriotic altogether in September 1976, further buildings having been added nearby.The school was amalgamated with Wandsworth Boys' in 1986, on the Patriotic site, and renamed John Archer School. Bur the new school was not to last long.
— Wikipedia: John Archer (British politician)
— Wikipedia: Wandsworth School
Spencer Park School, rebadged "John Archer School" after joining with Wandsworth Boys' School in 1986, finally closed in August 1991 and was soon demolished.
The then-headmaster of Emanuel School (Peter Hendry, as it happens my favourite teacher) is said to have wanted to buy the site, to add to the Emanuel grounds, but property developers were able to pay a lot more.
[My old schoolfriend Hugh Betterton reminds me that there had also been talk of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) amalgamating Emanuel and Spencer Park Schools on a combined site, but this was scotched when Emanuel went "independent". It would be interesting to learn more.]
By the way, access to the Fitzhugh Estate and the various educational establishments (Wandsworth Training College, Honeywell Secondary School, Spencer Park/John Archer School, was only ever from entrances on Trinity Road. There was no bridge from Windmill Road until the housing estate was built c.1991 [check date]. Neither was there a path across the Cricket Pitches from the cafe throughto Windmill Road.
The bridge and path, which you can just about see in this photograph, have hugely increased access to and from the Common.
[Does the housing estate have its own name? Someday soon I hope to write about the people commemorated in its street names: Coates Avenue, John Archer Way, Nevinson Close, Stott Close, Or perhaps a reader would like to do it for me?]
— The Royal Victoria Patriotic Patriotic Building and post-war education . . . [this page]
— What we were watching at the Granada Cinema, Clapham Junction in 1949 [opens another page]
"Stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Burntwood Lane — the early years"
Tuesday 28th May 7pm, NatureScope, Wandsworth Common (next door to cafe).
The Asylum opened in 1841, located here because of its proximity to London, and its “southern aspect, good air and ready supply of water”. It was renamed Springfield Hospital early in the last century.
To some it looks more like an Oxford College (or Hampton Court) than a Victorian asylum (and certainly very different from the later "bins" that appeared to be modelled on contemporary factories, warehouses or prisons).
Its grounds have been a farm (home to the "nearest pigs to Piccadilly"), a golf course, and now Springfield Park, London's first for more than a decade.
I'm hoping to cover quite a range of topics, among them (possibly):
— the secretive removal of "pauper lunatics" for anatomical dissection
— the public outcry at the death of Daniel Dolley after "treatment" by freezing cold shower
— visits of Great and Good aeronauts who arrived and departed by gas-filled balloon
— "A visit to Wandsworth Lunatic Asylum on a dark and gusty night" in 1880 to view a theatrical performance
— The Springfield War Hospital WWI as a treatment centre for soldiers suffering from shell shock
— the fate of "Hare-and-Hound" runners lost in the grounds
— revelatory photographs from the 1850s of female patients, by Hugh Welch Diamond, now found in museums and art galleries around the world
"Stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Burntwood Lane — the early years"
Organised by the Friends of Wandsworth Common
The opening of a new park in the grounds of Springfield Hospital has highlighted this extraordinary pioneering building and its grounds dating from 1840. But why was it built here in such an impressive manner, and surrounded by such spacious grounds?
— Tuesday 28th May, 7pm
— Free
— Booking required (contact history@wandsworthcommon.org)
— Naturescope, Wandsworth Common, SW18 3RT
I very much hope to see you there.
More info. about the Wandsworth Heritage Festival:
— Visit Wandsworth Heritage Festival 2024.
— Download a pdf of the 2024 festival.
My 75th Birthday Special: Wandsworth Common in 1949 Part II
Repurposing the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building for post-war education:
— Wandsworth Training College
— Honeywell Secondary School (mixed)
— Spencer Park School for Boys
— John Archer School for Boys
1949: What we watched at the Granada Cinema, Clapham Junction
The personal is historical . . . and geographical
My 75th Birthday Special: Wandsworth Common in 1949 Part I
Including Dan Dare — born and bred in Battersea? — and the Revd Chad Varah sets up the Samaritans.
— "Dear Sir, You may be interested to know..." J.P.Ede's letters to the South Western Star on nature on Wandsworth Common, 1949.
— "Up with the cuckoo . . . "
— Old Uncle Tom Knapweed and all . . .
— Cicely Mary Barker
— Gorse: "What wealth is lavished upon Wandsworth Common in these days of Spring . . . far beyond the worth of money . . . richer than a miser's hoard."
— Witchery o'er Battersea
— Bird sanctuaries invaded
— A plaque to Edward Thomas unveiled
— The Cat's Back Bridge
— Mulberry trees: Up, lads, and at 'em
— John-Go-To-Bed-at-Noon
— The Plough
— Is the Horsetail a Fern?
— Vikings off course
— Blackberries: Ede is elated
— Not the last of the Mohicans
— Snakes alive!
— Hedge Mustard as lucifer matches
— Dragonflies
— Toadstools
— An injured heron
— Beatrix Potter
— Scarlet flycaps
— Down to the Crossroads . . .
— Traffic lights, 1936 . . .
— The death of a young woman motor-cyclist, Ethel Hearn, in a collision with a bus, 1929 . . .
— "Bus and Car Collide", 1934 . . .
— "Extraordinary poisoning case", 1907 . . .
— A dispute between neighbours on Honeywell Road: A pet monkey poisoned and corrosive liquid thrown, 1890. . . .
— "Curious Discovery of an Infant at Clapham Junction", 1878 — was she thrown from a passing train? . . .
— The Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Boys up for sale, 1872 . . .
— Girl found wandering on the Common seeks adoption, 1909 . . .
— Burntwood Cottage young gentleman accused of theft, 1843 . . .
— The burial of Peter Le Neve Foster, 24 February 1879 . . .
— Feedback from Peter Santo Warner about an item in December 2023's Chronicles . . .
— 8 February 2024: "Edward and Helen Thomas on Wandsworth Common", for the Friends of Wandsworth Common . . .
— May Talk: "Stories from the Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Burntwood Lane — the early years" . . .
— News of a 75th anniversary special . . .
— James Leadbeater, 11, imprisoned and whipped for stealing sticks of celery, 1873 . . .
— Tom Sayers, bare-knuckle fighter — his first big fight, c.1849 . . .
— Report of Christmas Dinner for 200 poor children, 1868 . . .
— Home-School on Trinity Road , 1890 . . .
— Poisoned Lovers on Wandsworth Common, 1907 . . .
— Election excitement, 1910 . . .
— Little Red Riding Hood for the happiness of the poor, 1903 . . .
— The Wombles of Wandsworth Common, 1975 . . .
— George Harrison and John Henry Dearle . . .
— Orchids sent from Wandsworth Common to Washington, "soften the impression that Britain is a land of grey austerity", 1949 . . .
— Henry Nottidge Moseley sets off round the world on HMS Challenger, 1874 . . .
— The death of a seal, 1856 . . .
— Light Brigade-hero James Lamb, charged with being drunk and incapable, complains he'd been robbed, 1903 . . .
— Juvenile pilferers, 1877 . . .
— In praise of Virol: a Wandsworth mother's testimonial, 1914 . . .
— A Christmas Quiz, featuring Wandsworth Common, a sword, and the adorable Mabel Looms. Plus lots of lovely images by a local artist . . .
— December 2022 stories . . .
— December 2021 stories . . .
[Click on three dots to go straight to item]
— "Pitches for the playing of football, hockey, and rugby netball at the London County Council parks and open spaces will be fully marked out by the council's staff free of charge", 1913 . . .
— Girls (from Clapham County School?) playing hockey near Bolingbroke Grove, c 1910 . . .
— The Royal Masonic School for Girls, 1852 . . .
— The Peabody estate, 1934 . . .
— Heritage-washing . . .
— Ballooning from Wandsworth Gaspworks . . .
— Remembering local people who died in WWI and WWII . . .
— Oscar Wilde recollects his humiliation on Clapham Junction Station, 13 November 1895 . . .
— "Fine Cell Work: Designer Charlene Mullen brings her signature style to the iconic Wandsworth prison. Complete with escape rope and ‘getaway’ helicopter this intricately embroidered and truly unique design is a focal point for any space." . . .
— Outrage continues over the destruction of gorse and trees, the planting and mowing of grass, and the erection of fences . . .
— Engraving of the "Windmill" and RVPA, 1932 . . .
— Cyclist thrown from his bike by runaway horse, 1897 . . .
— David Bromwich's poem "Wandsworth Common" published fifty years ago this month, 1973 . . .
— Young girl assaulted when out with her governess. Her furious father writes to the South Western Star, 1904. . . .
— Cholera deaths in a tent on Wandsworth Common, 1866 . . .
— Wiseton Road cows at fault, 1922 . . .
— Calls for the 5-acre "Railway Enclosure Piece" to be returned to the Common, 1892 . . .
— Pedestrianism - Double v. Moore [fracas], 1849 . . .
— St James's Drive: A Victorian postbox is sited on the Common, but only after much debate. . . .
— November 2022 stories . . .
— November 2021 stories . . .
— The Rustic Bridge remade in stone (largely by unemployed ex-servicemen), 1920 . . . [click on three dots to go straight there]
— Improper conduct, 1900 . . .
— English and American Teeth from Wandsworth Common, 1906 . . .
— Prince of Wales's homecoming eagerly awaited at Battersea, 1920 . . .
— Baskerville Cricket Club play in the foggy gloom, 1953 . . .
— On reaching Wandsworth Common, "the fourth eleven had rather an unfortunate experience", 1909 . . .
— Bellevue butcher's horse worked when in pain, 1919 . . .
— "Iniquitous" Tar-paving, 1909 . . .
— A "refreshment kiosk" to be erected in Battersea Cemetery, 1898 . . .
— "People are dying to move here! Incredible four-bedroom home with a spooky twist", 2021 . . .
— A "mob of some four hundred persons awaited the arrival of the funeral cortege at Battersea Cemetery with the avowed intention of wreaking vengeance . . . ", 1877 . . .
— Calls for a new mortuary to replace the "horrors of the present place", 1916 . . .
— Battersea demands the right to deposit road sweepings on the Common, "as hitherto", 1887 . . .
— Black Sea is being filled with refuse, 1869 . . .
— Typhoid and other diseases in the girls' and boys' asylums caused by sewage, 1874 . . .
— Pick of Past October Chronicles . . .
— the arrival in Wandsworth in 1911 of groups of so-called "Galician Gypsies".
— Zeppelin Raid, 1916 . . .
— Harry Fullwood, Balloon View of the 3rd London General Hospital, 1915 (video) . . .
— Bombs on and around Wandsworth Common 1940—1945 (intro) . . .
— Bomb hits Wandsworth Common Station, 1940 . . .
— "Grace's Gruelling Grind" — cycle clubs meet on the Common in spite of the bombs, 1940 . . .
— "Footballers need shower-baths — not horse troughs", 1953 . . .
— "From time immemorial the inhabitants of the Western suburb of London have rejoiced in Wandsworth Common: it is a delicious recreation ground. Nature's own handiwork with no laid out flower beds, no palings or stretched stiff walks", 1863 . . .
— "In marking out the new season's soccer pitches, the LCC improves upon 'old Euclid'", 1920 . . .
— The transfer of control over the Common from locally-elected Conservators to the distant Metropolitan Board of Works evokes fears of punitive over-regulation, 1887 . . .
— "I, for one, never walk on a beaten track when I can get fresh turf for my feet", "Rus in Urbe" rails against rutted, straight footpaths over the Common, 1867 . . .
— Alleged Black Sea Nuisance, 1870 . . .
— Sounds of the (18)80s, 1889 . . .
— This issue is between the games-playing and the non-games-playing public. . . .
— A puzzle for you: Who is young "Charles Baldwin", who parachutes from the top of a local printworks?, 1890 . . .
— Cricket fracas at the Freemason's Tavern [Roundhouse], 1867 . . .
— Navvies and Bricklayers' Labourers' Union meeting on Wandsworth Common, 1892 . . .
— "Prisoner's arrest was the outcome of the smartness of a scboolgirl named Holly Leggett, 40 West Side, Wandsworth Common", 1909 . . .
— Kalulu, "the lion of the day", has returned to Africa with Henry Morton Stanley, so cannot be present at Halbrake School Sports Day, 1875 . . .
— The quest for conkers has begun, 1938 . . .
— Beware men with badges: "In a furze bush — alleged spy charged with blackmail", 1906, and another in 1902 . . .
— Death of Dr John Tod Thyne, 1932 . . .
— "Obstinate alien" lands on Wandsworth Common, 1904 . . .
— "The death of Sarah Tonks, aged 18, who was found on Saturday morning sleeping on Wandsworth Common", 1909 . . .
____________________
— "Wandsworth Common: Written on a sand-dune in the Sahara, near Timbuctoo" [Can you guess when?] . . .
— "In texture it rivals velvet of the richest pile" —lush grass on Wandsworth Common, 1930 . . .
— We don't want to keep off the grass: petition to remove the hurdles, 1896 . . .
— Sport v. Nature: the LCC defended, 1927 . . .
— "We like the bowling green best when there are no bowlers and no spectators", 1931 . . .
— The newly laid cork pitch worries cricketers, 1951 . . .
— George the Giraffe (not eating grass), 1954 . . .
— Singer jeered: "Wandsworth Common in the neighbourhood of the bandstand may become as bad as Clapham", 1930 . . .
— When Wandsworth Common Youths Make Whoopee, 1939 . . .
— Throwing stones, 1916 . . .
— Two small girls rob eleven children in one day, 1892 . . .
— Twelve-year-old boy killed by a stray horse, 1874 . . .
— "The death of Sarah Tonks, aged 18, who was found on Saturday morning sleeping on Wandsworth Common," 1909 . . .
— Cycleplane tragedy, 1909 . . .
— Wandsworth Common's "Seven Different Kinds of Air", 1927 . . .
— The Dunmow Flitch, 1899 . . .
— The Bolingbroke prefabs receive their first residents, 1947 . . .
— Cate Blanchett and Emma Thompson to star in new film about Wandsworth Common's inspirational Cook sisters? . . .
— Pam Alexander . . .
— Elsie Duval comes to court again, for throwing stones, 1912 . . .
— De-wilding Wandsworth Common, 1919 . . .
— The history of Wandsworth Fair . . .
— Trouble at the Fair, 1822 . . .
— Wandsworth's earliest known women runners — Bet Beasley and Sal Humphries, 1822 . . .
— Lightning brings tree down on prefabs — dog killed, iron leaves man's hand, 1955 . . .
— Kalulu at Halbrake School's Sports Day, 1874 . . .
— Samuel Sullings and the renovation of St Mark' Infant School . . .
— Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Girls, 1857 . . .
— Fifty years later, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra return to the RVPA . . .
— Intrepid balloonist Madame Garneron effects a safe descent on the Common, 1851 . . .
— A wearying wait for prefabs to be built, 1946 . . .
— Mick goes missing — is a gang of dog-stealers at work? — 1939 . . .
— A permanent hospital to be built on the Common?, 1920 . . .
— Lads shooting airguns on the Common, 1939 . . .
— Widening the Bellevue railway bridge, 1892 . . .
— "All's well that ends well", 1870 . . .
— The Wandsworth Common Act is passed, 1871 . . .
— "All love for Benni and Bella Spanier who were killed in Auschwitz in 1944 and Ruth, their daughter, who escaped Nazi Germany on kindertransport, arriving in England, aged 11, in 1939 and for those who have lost their lives or been impacted by war. . . .
— Gone fishing . . .
— Children fishing in the 1930s and 1950s - and "gentles" . . .
— Edward Thomas on fishing . . .
— Even more on fishing . . .
— Dora Littlechild (1928—2023) . . .
— Friends of Wandsworth Common, Common Memories video (2023) . . .
— Victory Funfair — Wandsworth Goes Gay (1945) . . .
— Bagpipes on the Common may spark revolt (1904) . . .
— Yellow-bay gelding stolen from Common — £5 reward (1831) . . .
— Those darned spikes again (1939) . . .
— Trees and lightning deaths — science v. the supernatural (1914) . . .
— Couple's disgraceful conduct (1901) . . .
— Ernest Bevin public meeting attended by just 14 children (1945) . . .
— Elsie Duval in court for smashing post office windows (1912) . . .
— Leonora Green, View from my window, 1932 . . .
— The early history of the Battersea Rise crossing . . .
— New hard tennis courts for London, 1923 . . .
— Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary celebrated on and around the Common, 1935 . . .
— Inwood v. Twilly on Wandsworth Common, with 2000 spectators, 1845 . . .
— Twilley Street and the Twilley Asteroid . . .
— A sign in the Wandsworth Heavens, 1939 . . .
— Bowls — marbles for grown-ups, 1934 . . .
— Wandsworth Fair, 1837 . . . . . .
— A new railway station suggested for Trinity Road, 1914 . . .
— On the Common, Broomwood Road celebrates the end of the war, 1945 . . .
— Dancing Green, 1934 . . .
— Jack Heath's attempt on the World Non-Stop Walking Record, 1973 . . .
— "Mr. Bertram . . . for a wager . . . to walk from the Hope Tavern, Wandsworth Common, to Clapham Junction station in 20 minutes", 1877 . . .
— Notice of Arthur Twilley's first race, 1845 . . .
— Ninety-five reindeer have their run of the Common, 1887 . . .
— Would-be duellists "Wilkinson, Smith and Jones" — their identities revealed, 1839 . . .
— Earlsfield Road evolves, 1879 . . .
— The remnants of the 3rd London General Hospital sold off, 1921 . . .
— Cricket pitches opposed as "enclosures", 1877 . . .
— Spencer Cricket Club leaves the Common, 1878 . . .
— Indignation at the public "being deprived of ancient common rights" by the erection of fences and signs to "keep off the grass", 1895 . . .
— Some very naughty boys set light to the Reformatory on Spanish Road, 1870 . . .
— "Black, grim, and weird looked Wandsworth Common . . .
— Mysterious death of a woman, 1887 . . .
— Cowkeeper George Rough waters down his milk, 1874 . . .
— The first prefabs to be built on the Common, 1946 . . .
— Classic anti-war play by Battersea resident Sean O'Casey performed at St Mary Magdalene, 1939 . . .
— "The day when all news will be transmitted by wireless may be far distant, but a decided step in this direction has been made" on Wandsworth Common, 1913 . . .
— In case of emergency . . .
— Crossing the Common at night, William Thorne breaks both his legs, 1838 . . .
— Fundraising for Bolingbroke Hospital, 1895 . . .
— Man injured vaulting over iron railings, 1939 . . .
— A new slaughter-house for Bellevue Road?, 1893 . . .
— Firing the furze on Wandsworth Common, 1850 — two boys face transportation to Australia . . .
— Tom Taylor (Punch): "The Warning of Wandsworth Common", 1865 . . .
— Whiteley Exerciser for sale, 1899 — Lewis Carroll . . .
— Charles Booth — Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898—1903 . . .
— George Neal jailed for the manslaughter of Lottie Crump, 1900 . . .
— The death of a child in a pram, 1902 . . .
— Alias Wilkinson, Smith and Jones — a duel interrupted, 1839 . . .
— Edwin Ransome, long-time campaigner for the Common, defends the record of the outgoing Conservators, 1888 . . .
— Appeal for donations to buy the 20 acres of "Neal's Farm" that will become the Cricket Field, 1912 . . .
— Outrage at the destruction of trees, 1920 . . .
— Open air dancing, a bandstand, quoits and croquet on the Common, 1925 — the Extension is finally "thrown open to the public" . . .
— IRA bomb on the track near the Cat's Back Bridge, 1992 . . .
— The energetic cyclist Olive Elliott endorses "Constrictor" bicycle tyres, 1913 . . .
— Beating the Bounds — a perambulation of Battersea parish with John Buckmaster, 1862 . . .
— Hunting for Treasure, 1904 . . . [link]
— Big Ben's Boom heard on Wandsworth Common, 1857 . . .
— Rugby-netball — Wandsworth, Clapham and Battersea's homegrown sport, 1912 . . .
— Spencer Lodge, a great "lost house", demolished 1855 . . .
— Volunteer regiments in case of emergency, 1895 . . . [link]
— "2000 spectators gather on Wandsworth Common to watch a race, 1847 . . .
— Attempted suicide in the Black Sea after "a matrimonial squabble" — 1867 . . . [link]
— A considerable quantity of sound Mangel-wurzels for sale, 1838 . . .
— "Juvenile horse stealers", 1868 . . .
— "Cock-fights in a Wandsworth beer-shop," 1838 . . .
— Hare and hounds run through the Asylum, 1872 . . .
— Daylight aurora on Wandsworth Common, 1871 . . .
— The late A.F. Pieschell's cellars of French and foreign wines for sale, Burntwood Lodge, 1823 . . .
— Shots fired at a crowded train at Wandsworth Common, 1939 . . .
— The new Trinity Road underpass opens, 1970 . . .
— Jumbo lost on Wandsworth Common . . . [link]
— "Ostend Rabbits" . . .
— Revd John Erskine-Clarke, "Chatterbox" . . .
— Prisoner 4100, George Davey, aged 10, gaoled for stealing two rabbits . . .
— When the Circus came to the Common . . .
— Nurseryman Robert Neal appeals to "Noblemen and Gentlemen" to buy his plants, to make way for the Toast Rack . . .
— Back gates onto the Common . . .
— A new road bridge over the railway . . .
— "Robert Inwood of Tooting, Surrey — Winner of Upwards of Fifty Races" . . .
— Wandsworth Common woman discovers Grape-Nuts . . .
— An iron church on the edge of the Common . . .
— Resurrection-men dig up four bodies . . .
— Treasure-hunters dig up the turf on the Common . . .
— Quadricycle Tandem for Sale, Blenkarne Road . . .
— Death of Thomas Crapper . . .
— St Mary Magdalene Church "pillaged" . . .
— Whatever happened to "Nottidge Road"? . . .
— When Vampires (and Reindeer) played football on the Common. . . .
— 2-3-5, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 4-5-1, 3-5-2 . . .
— Chartism and the death of Mrs Brough . . .
— Albinia Countess Dowager of Buckinghamshire seeks tenant for Burntwood Cottage . . .
— After a Magic Lantern Show, "the Asylum disappeared for ever, its place taken by the migrant from Westminster" — Emanuel School displaces the Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Boys . . .
— Wandsworth sculptor's new mechanical hand . . .
— Unemployed to titivate Wandsworth Common . . .
— Battersea Vestry declines to contribute £1000 to increase the area of Wandsworth Common . . .
— "Amputations avoided — the knife superseded" . . .
— Two December duels . . .
— Catastrophe on a number 19 bus . . .
— Two undertakers slug it out in Battersea Cemetery . . .
— "Death of the Battersea Claimant" . . .
— Losing money at a cock fight . . .
— "A real live Woodcock has been discovered on Wandsworth Common" . . .
YouTube Video of talk to the Friends of Wandsworth Common, 18 October 2022.
— The Man Who Eats Grass, 1939
— Clive Branson, radical Battersea artist
— Shepherd fined for driving 36 sheep to Wandsworth Common after 10 in the morning, 1920
— The death of Edward Archer, 1826
— The "primitive wildness" of Metropolitan Commons under threat, 1863
— Women Munition-Makers at Battersea Polytechnic, 1916
— Edward William Mountford, local architext
— A Bridge for Wandsworth, 1863
— Boys begging on Wandsworth Common, and cholera, 1866
— "Dr Livingstone, I presume . . . " 1871
— Armistice Day, 1920
— "Pincher", a black terrier, lost. One guinea reward.1822
— Mayhem in Battersea Cemetery, 1873
— Grimm views of Wandsworth Common and Battersea Rise in the 1770s
— Walter Besant and the Black Sea's killer Pike . . .
— A bizarre death at "Wandsworth Common" station, 1849
— "Dig for Victory" competition, 1942
— Fog and ice, 1920
— Photographs by Lewis More O'Ferrall, 2022
— Spot the barrage balloon . . .
— The great British Pet Massacre . . .
— Mysterious assault upon a Gentleman (was it the one-armed Watchman?) . . .
— Signals between the Common and Belleville School . . .
— Malicious damage of trees . . .
— Pedestrianism and running races (a suspicion of match fixing?) . . .
— Starving boy runs away with the gypsies . . .
— The Charge of the Light Brigade . . .
— UFOs over West Side . . .
— Scavengers wanted (to deal with "scrapings of the roads, and for collecting and removing all dust, dirt, ashes, rubbish, ice, snow, and filth, in the parishes of Battersea, Clapham, Putney, and Wandsworth") . . .
— Mr Bonham's prize-winning potato . . .
— Price's Battersea Sperm Candles . . .
— The Marylebone Cricket Club . . .
— The Charge of the Light Brigade . . .
— Bernard Holloway (1888—1915) of Burntwood Grange . . .
— Skye Terriers . . .
— The Rood Screen at St Mary Magdalene Church . . .
— The Navvies and Bricklayers' Labourers' Union . . .
— The Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Boys . . .
— Major Rohde-Hawkins . . .
— Europa and Zeus (in the guise of a bull) . . .
— Braxton-Hicks and the Lambeth Poisoning Mystery . . .
— Madame Poitevin, The Parisian Aeronaut, comes to ground on Wandsworth Common . . .
— Whale hunting in the Southern Ocean . . .
— World War Two Wandsworth Common from the air . . .
— How to deal with fire bombs . . .
— Allotments . . .
— Prefabs around the Common . . .
— Heat waves . . .
— August Bank Holiday 1935 . . .
— the Common's disgraceful cricket pitches
— George Lohmann: superstar cricketer who learnt his trade on the Common . . .
— Stamping Out Revolt in Upper Tooting . . .
— Conveying a woman naked through the streets . . .
— Laundresses demonstrate . . .
— Two actors duel over the reputation of a lady . . .
— Adder bites boy and ends up in hospital . . .
— "Legs" v "Fly" . . .
— The last rabbit on Wandsworth Common? . . .
— Water Sickert an the bust of Tom Sayers . . .
— Mrs Purrant of Bennerley Road, Wandsworth Common, writes about her husband's poisoned finger . . .
— Police win game of Quoits . . .
— My postillion has been inhumanly kicked in the face by an Army Captain on his way to the Epsom Derby . . .
— When swans go bad . . .
— John Buckmaster's Cookery Class . . .
— Emily Duval comes to court for smashing windows: "Every little helps" . . .
— Lost on Wandsworth Common: A blood bay mare . . .
— Samuel Sullings appears in a new suit . . .
— Risks to children playing on the Brighton Line . . .
— Coroner's Court at the County Arms pub: Neal's farm worker dies "by the Visitation of God". . . .
— Madame Poitevin's balloon lands on Wandsworth Common . . .
— King and Queen meet the allotment holders of Wandsworth Common during WWI . . .
— Trams for Bolingbroke Grove? . . .
— Phoebe Buckmaster wins a prize for reading penmanship . . .
— The "horrid chasm which they have made on Wandsworth Common, which henceforward is to be divided eternally . . . " . . .
— On Wandsworth Common, a pedestrian named Wigley performs a herculean feat. . . .
— James McNeill Whistler, Friend of Wandsworth Common . . .
— the Conservators announce new rules for grazing animals on the Common — all "entire" (i.e. uncastrated) males banned . . .
. . .— Edward Stern, brother of Lord Wandsworth, pledges to make up the funds to purchase the cricket area . . .
— Queen drives across Wandsworth Common . . .
— Leopard escapes on the Common . . .
— Thunderstorm kills seven, including four young children . . .
— Lord Spencer sells 55 or so acres of Wandsworth Common for £3700. . . .
— Edwin Rayner Ransome, Quaker campaigner for Wandsworth Common . . .
— Emily Duval's daughter Elsie in court for throwing stones through a Post Office window . . .
— Thomas Hardy writes about two young women passengers on his train from Wandsworth Common to Town . . .
— Bellevue Garage: We Win! . . .
— [Endymion Porter map?] . . .
— Wandsworth Lodge cleared . . .
— The Princess Royal lays a foundation stone at the Bolingbroke Pay Hospital . . .
— The Common's Conservators sue milkman George Rough for pound-breach. . . .
— Donations to the fund to preserve Wandsworth Common mount. Concern for fence-breaker Samuel Sullings, languishing in gaol. . . .
— Thomas Hardy sees "a monster whose body had four million heads and eight million eyes". . . .
— John Buckmaster in court for fence breaking. . . .
— The "sagacious collie" Grissel saves a child from drowning in a Wandsworth Common pond. . . .
— A new prison, but where to put it? . . .
— Charles Knight sentenced to 15 years' transportation . . .
— Edward Thomas, In Memoriam (Easter, 1915) . . .
— "LOST!!! One thousand pounds reward"" . . .
— A railway and a barracks . . .
— Have some Madeira, m'dear . . .
— The death of Edward Thomas, Easter 1917, at Arras . . .
— Wandsworth Common: The Musical . . .
— Shooting a dog . . .
— Death of a Lunatic . . .
— The Nightingale, a flight of Cuckoos, and bird-trapping . . .
— A suicide through jealousy . . .
— Dangerous holes . . .
— Attacking the Salvation Army . . .
— Surely this is Fernside? . . .
— Two wheels good, four wheels bad . . .
— Bird trapping . . .
— The Hope for sale . . .
— The trouble with cricket . . .
— Baby abandoned in a cabbage patch . . .
— A wife and house for Revd Moseley . . .
— To pond or not to pond? . . .
— The Vote and suffrage meetings on the Common . . .
— Samuel Sullings imprisoned . . .
— Oswald Parsons, the first known fence-breaker — and the "Magna Charta" . . .
—
— Stags and hounds on Wandsworth Common . . .
— Sporting Wandsworth Common: A Talk of Two Halves . . .
— Celebrating the poet Edward Thomas . . .
— Black Sea — cricket on ice . . .
— The origins of Neal's Nursery . . .
— The Magdalen estate: "artistic, convenient and well-planned houses . . . to which Small Motor Houses could be erected" . . .
— Thomas and Emma Hardy move in . . .
— An iron fence to protect a little-known part of Wandsworth Common . . .
— Funeral of Andrew Cameron, local politician and last Chair of the Wandsworth Common Board of Conservators . . .
— Crossrail II opposed . . .
— Thomas Hardy — 1 February 1880 . . .
— Trinity Schools? A lake on Trinity Road in Upper Tooting? . . .
— London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway requested to remove the gipsies "camping on their land on Wandsworth Common." . . .
— "RIDING over Wandsworth Common the other day, we suddenly met a cycling Rip Van Winkle . . . . . .
— 5 February 1881 — Death of historian and cultural critic Thomas Carlyle . . .
— Whistler's friend, lawyer and major collector James Anderson Rose . . .
— "The Thames Angling Preservation Society has just presented 5000 "tiddlers" for restocking the ponds of Wandsworth Common . . .
— On Wandsworth Common, in front of "an enormous concourse", local man Mills loses to "the Holloway Novice" Frost. . . .
— Stealing Robert Neal's Horsebeans . . .
— The Bolingbroke Fancy Costume Ball was held at the Albert Hall, February 6th in aid of Bolingbroke Hospital, opened three years earlier on Bolingbroke Grove — yet another initiative by the extraordinary John Erskine Clarke. . . .
— High drama on Bellevue Road. A greengrocer horsewhips a lady living nearby for not having paid her bill. . . .
— Happy Birthday, Mr Buckmaster — but when exactly were you born? . . .
— What connects Alice Through the Looking Glass, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes, and Wandsworth Common? . . .
— Gunshots over Wandsworth Common salute the New Year . . .
— Thomas Hardy, "A January Night (1879)" . . .
— Birds on the Common were trusted weather forecasters, as here with the arrival of snipes: . . .
— Snipes near London . . . and other bird auguries . . .
— A snowy Hope Tavern and Belle Vue Road, early 1900s. . . .
— Iced-over ponds and lakes were a great source of pleasure but also of grave danger. The death of an eighteen-year-old boy in the Black Sea in 1833. . . .
— Attempted suicide in Black Sea 1833 . . .
— Skating was commenced on the large piece of water on Wandsworth Common to-day, where the ice was at least three inches thick. Hundreds people availed themselves of the opportunity. . . .
— "Yesterday several large parties of the unemployed in the neighbourhoods of Battersea, Wandsworth, and Clapham paraded the various thoroughfares asking alms . . . " . . .
— William Morris's protegee John Henry Dearle (1859-1932). . . .
— Winters particularly hard in winter for Gypsies and other Travellers. . . .
— End of the First World War, the preacher Harry Jeffs generated spiritual warmth from a chance observation of couples cuddling together in the snow on Wandsworth Common. . . .
— Cold Januaries called for off-the-shelf medicinal or dietary interventions, such as Fynnon Salt and Grape Nuts. . . .
— Atom-hot car found on Wandsworth Common . . .
— Wandsworth Common was often used for sermonising and speech-making at mass political and religious gatherings. A number were attacked by hostile locals, which raised the issue of a public right to free speech. . . .
— Unusually large Wandsworth Common pond-life. . . .
— "Fears about the presence of exotic animals was boosted on Saturday when a fisherman found a terrapin the size of a dinner plate in Wandsworth Common Pond . . . " . . .
— The Ashantee and other C19 wars and the RVPA — letter to The Times reminds us of the function of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylums on Wandsworth Common not just to take in orphans of the Crimean War. . . .
— Unpardonable liberty: Daniel O'Connor, a carpenter, charged with being drunk and wantonly ringing a bell at the house of Peter Le Neve Foster Esq., Wandsworth Common, in the middle of the night. . . .
— Opposition grows to the repurposing of the St James's Industrial School (on today's St James's Drive) as a smallpox hospital. . . .
— Wandsworth Common and the making of JRR Tolkien — 33 Routh Road in 2021 — Christopher Wiseman's home from 1913, at which Tolkien and friends met at the start of the first world war. . . .
— Sudden death of Canon Theodore Wood, vicar of St. Mary Magdalene, Wandsworth Common. . . .
— Ernest Perry, MP for Battersea South (1964-79), recalls Wandsworth Common in the years on either side of WWII — including vandalism to trees and house-proud squatters in Nissen huts. . . .
19 December 1940 — the death of James William Lovegrove, Master Tailor, Allotment activist, Sufi mystic. . . .
— The first obituary of J.W.Lovegrove was published in Tailor & Cutter and Women's Wear, January 3rd 1941, so I'll probably describe his life in more
— 1827 — Yesterday a very numerous meeting of the most affluent and respectable resident gentry of the neighbourhoods of Battersea, Wandsworth, and Clapham Commons, assembled at the Swan Tavern, at Stockwell . . . " To oppose Lord Spencer . . .
— "Wandsworth-common is a receptacle for every species of filth, which is brought from the most distant parts and there deposited . . . ." . . .
— The newly-formed "Wandsworth-Common Preservation Society", meeting at the Freemasons Hotel, New Wandsworth Station, issues a call-to-arms: . . .
— Horse lost, £5 reward . . .
— Christmas Dinner for Poor Children at New Wandsworth, 1867 — "The little children were gladdened by receiving from Mr Buckmaster a gift of 2d each to keep in their pockets for Boxing Day." . . .
— W. Wilson of Wandsworth Common registers a design for his new beetle trap. . . .
1865 — "A bustard was shot on on Wandsworth Common by two lads, who were out shooting small birds." . . .
— Alfredo Antunes Kanthack, the brilliant young Brazilian scientist who counted bacteria on Wandsworth Common . . .
— Duel on Wandsworth Common, 1831 . . .
— 1 November 1869 — New Wandsworth Station closes after 11 years. . . .
— 2 November 1828 — Cricket — Wandsworth Gentlemen triumph against the MCC on Wandsworth Common, "with not a wicket down". . . .
— Origins of the name "Heathfield". . . .
— 7 November 1866 — "They hate trees and everything that is beautiful" — John Buckmaster gives evidence before a Parliamentary Select Committee on local democracy and how to improve our area: . . .
— "London going out of Town or The March of Bricks & Mortar!", a satirical print by George Cruikshank, 1829. . . .
— 7 November 1846 — Strange visitor shot on Wandsworth Common — a Bittern . . .
— AT THE PLOUGH, Garret Lane, Wandsworth, on last, Mr. D of Rotherhithe and Mr Chance shot at 25 sparrows each, for £10; Mr D. won by 1 bird, killing 22 in first-rate style. — On next Mr Toby and a gentleman shoot at 25 birds each, for £10. Other matches will be shot; to commence at two o'clock".
— Date? — Soldier shoots a pet dog on Wandsworth Common . . .
— 22 May 1894 — John Ingram, a 32-year-old gravedigger in Putney Vale cemetery (opened 1891), was killed by a stray bullet from the rifle range on Wimbledon Common . . .
— 9 November 1839 — The Chartist Northern Star rages against the "inclosure" of the commons (including Wandsworth Common): "The poor of this country do not possess so many privileges, that they can afford to be patiently robbed of them . . . here the rosy-cheeked, chubby little children may freely inhale the breath of Heaven." . . .
— Chartist meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848. . . .
— Monday 11 November 1918 — Armistice Day / Sunday 14 November 2021 — Remembrance Day — Remembering Eddie Fisher ["Sir Edmund Tintacks"], who lived on Loxley Road and was a pupil at Emanuel School. . . .
— 17 November 1866 — Abraham Smith (12), whose feet were naked, and who appeared destitute of underclothing, and Edward Cherry (13), both living in the gipsy encampment near the Wandsworth Railway Station, were brought up on remand charged with soliciting alms off foot passengers on Wandsworth-common." . . .
— 20 November 1879 — Death of Conservator James Du Buisson — for many years an active Wandsworth Common campaigner and benefactor. . . .
— 20 November 1914 — it is claimed in the House of Commons that "thousands of men" are unofficially drilling on Wandsworth Common, such as their enthusiasm to fight "in the event of an invasion". . . .
— 20 November 1875 — The head teacher of a local private school asks the Common Conservators if they can repair the nearby "Heathfield Ground" cricket pitch — but faces objections from local footballers " who are fearful that the ground will be monopolized by patrons of the sister sport to the former's detriment. This is surely a most shallow and puerile objection, as we can see no reason whatever why both sports should not continue to be played on the Common." . . .
— 21 November 1874 — John Buckmaster to give a lecture on Cookery at the Assembly Room, Wandsworth. . . .
— 22 November 1861 — At the Appeal Court, Mary Ann White, a homeless woman accused of indecent exposure on the Common, is refused permission to be kept prison while the appeal is being decided. . . .
— 24 November 1834 Old Bailey — "These are the claws of my goose." Thomas Flavell, a labourer living on Wandsworth Common, recognises his goose, that has been stolen (and probably killed) by James Clarkson. Clarkson declares: "The goose was dead when I found it in the hedge." . . .
— 25 November 1886 — Provisions are to be inserted in the Metropolitan Board of Works Various Powers Bill for next Session transferring to that body all the powers at present exercised the Conservators of Wandsworth Common, provision being also made for winding up the affairs of the Conservators, and discharging them from any further liabilities in respect of that common. . . .
— 26 November 1937 — Call in House of the Commons for a great road to be built joining Hampstead and Wandsworth Common. . . .
— 28 November 1878 — Thomas Hardy has recently moved to 1 Arundel Terrace, Trinity Road. He is often troubled at night. "Woke before it was light. Felt that I had not enough staying power to hold my own in the world." . . .
— 30 November 1886 — Calls are heard from some Battersea ratepayers to abolish the local Conservators — who've been managing Wandsworth Common since the 1871 Act — and hand the Common over to the widely-despised Metropolitan Board of Works. They believe this will save them some money. . . .
— A furious John Buckmaster writes letters in defence of local democratic control. He ridicules as trivial the amount the Common costs per capita, and reminds people how disgracefully the MBW has always behaved towards the Common. . . .
— Earlier in the month The Times (19 November 1886) has reported an escalating conflict between the defenders of the Common (the Conservators and the "Wandsworth Common Protection Society") and the Patriotic Fund (that runs the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylums for girls and boys). . . .
There are grievances. . . .
— The Patriotic Schools have been built with money given as an act of charity by the public to provide for the orphans of soldiers and sailors. Earl Spencer had taken some of this money for the 50+ acres of Common now lost to the people of Wandsworth and Battersea. Two "asylums" had been erected on the land. Yet in 1882 the boys' school has been sold off to fee-charging Emanuel. (In 1882 Emanuel Hospital, then located in Westminster, had gazumped a bid from the local School Board.) . . .
— Moreover, twenty acres is now being leased to market-gardeners/building contractors the Neal(e) family, who are "carrying on a trade or business" there and trashing the land in the process. It is a private deal, without public advertisement or competition. Buckmaster senses skulduggery. . . .
— In the view of the Conservators, any land superfluous to the RVPA's requirements should be restored to the Common. . . .
— Local people are fearful:
— "those who had noticed the extent of building operations in London would understand that the letting of land for agricultural purposes was generally the preliminary to its forming a building estate."
— [PB: And they weren't wrong, were they? The "Neal" land was bought (not given) back around 1911 — it's now the fine open cricket/rugby/bowls/tennis area near "Neal's Lodge".
— But the RVPA for Girls is now privately-owned, and surrounded by houses — the Fitzhugh Estate (built by the LCC in the early 1950s) and the "Windmill Green Estate" — is that what it's called? There has even been talk by WBC of considerable further building in the area.]
— 7 Nov 2021: Graham Jackson on the location of the field, and the idea of playing cricket in November . . .
— 1 October 1807 — "Volunteer Sham Fight", Wandsworth Common — more military manoeuvres on the Common during the Napoleonic Wars. A force "of upwards of 3000 men . . . subjected themselves to military exercise, for an uninterrupted period of nearly 30 days." . . .
— 2 October 1863 — George Fergusson Wilson (of Price's Candle Works) on how he dealt with the invasion of "American Water-Weed" in the Black Sea, which lay outside his house on the Common. . . .
— 5 October 1867 — A deputation from the Wandsworth Common Preservation Society presents the petition or "memorial" to the Metropolitan Board of Works, calling on the Board to take control of the Common away from Earl Spencer. . . .
— 8 October 1870 — Common campaigner George Bickerdike asks for donations to support John Buckmaster's court costs — Buckmaster had "accidentally" broken a window of the "Lord of the Manor" pub for which he was facing prosecution. . . .
— The quarrying of gravel on the Common. . . .
— 9 October 1804 — "Coronation" of a new Mayor of Garratt. . . .
— 10 October 1866 — a boy, John Hobbs, caught throwing stones at trains, runs away with the gypsies on the Common (with the court's blessing). . . .
— 10 October 1847 — "Pedestrian races" — hundreds of people assemble on the Common to watch — and gamble — on walking and running contests. . . .
— 10 October 1863 — A deputation of local "great-and-good", including the vicar of St Mary's, Rev. J.S. Jenkinson, the solicitor and vestry clerk Arthur Corsellis, and John Buckmaster, is granted an audience with Earl Spencer at Spencer House. . . .
— 11 October 1889 — Old soldier John Breeze dies in his home in Park-road Battersea — and is buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Bolingbroke Grove on 18 October 1889. More about JB later in the month, on the anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade (25th October 1854). . . .
— 12 October 1889 — One of several "Polytechnic Bazaars" at Bramblebury, West Side, Wandsworth Common: "The youth of Battersea want a Polytechnic, and won't be happy till they get it . . . " . . .
— 15/16 October 1987 — "The Great Storm"
— I was thrilled to get this response from Cathy Rowntree. Cathy grew up on Nicosia Road, then moved to the other side of the Common with her husband Phil. She taught at Honeywell School for many years, and remains their archivist. (She's also the archivist for Clapham County School for Girls, Broomwood Road, 1909-1991.) . . .
— Women's Franchise — Sunday 18 October 1908 . . .
— Local suffrage campaigner Mrs Emily Duval is advertised to speak on Wandsworth Common, and her son Victor — Battersea-born founder of the Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement — at Caxton Hall a few days later . . .
— 18 October 1866- >Gravel digger buried alive on Wandsworth Common . . .
— Earl Spencer's initial demand for an annuity of £500 per year for relinquishing control of the Common was largely based on the income from gravel that he would be forgoing . . .
— Although John Buckmaster disapproved of gravel digging on the Common, and called for its cessation, it was a visit by two poor gravel diggers c.1863 that he says caused him to try to save the Common . . .
— 19 October 1907 — Rugby — Bath play Harlequins on Wandsworth Common . . .
— 23 October 1880 . . .
— On returning to his home in Trinity Road, the author Thomas Hardy falls dangerously ill . . .
— 23 October 1886 — In praise of Wandsworth Common in mid-October. A remarkably poetic article highlights the wholesale damage being done by the Neal family to "one of the prettiest corners of the Common", where "a couple of real full-grown willows stand, as if to weep over the spoliation going on under their shadow" . . .
— 25 October 1854 — The Charge of the Light Brigade — Battersea-resident John Breeze died on Friday 11 October 1889 and was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Bolingbroke Grove a week later . . .
— 26 October 1828 — Cricket: MCC to play Wandsworth home and away . . .
— 29 October 1835 — Birth of John Poyntz Spencer, future 5th Earl Spencer, who relinquished control of Wandsworth Common in 1871 in return for a substantial annuity and the land on which Spencer Park now stands. . . .
— John Poyntz Spencer (1835-1910) . . .
— 1 September 1860 — "To be disposed of . . . two fine Brahmin cows" . . .
— 2 September 1904 — "A perfectly white sparrow has taken up its quarters on Wandsworth Common" . . .
— 2 September 1860 [CHECK DATE] — 200 ratepayers sign a memorial to Earl Spencer opposing enclosure of the Common. This is decribed by one anonymous writer to the press (John Buckmaster?) as like "a petition from sheep to a wolf". . . .
— 3 September 1860 — what appears to be John Buckmaster's first letter about the enclosure of the Common is published in the Times . . .
— 8 September 1854 — at the height of the Cholera epidemic, Wandsworth prison is declared free of this and many other diseases — said to be a testament to the healthfulness of Wandsworth Common, and vindicating its choice as the site of the new prison (opened 1851) . . .
— 10 September 1869 — "On Wandsworth Common a tree was literally shattered in two, and on the south side of the common, at the back of the residence of Mr. Allen, a valuable horse was killed by the lightning" . . .
— 18 September 1865 — "The Bride and Her Groom" — a humorous poem in the Cockney vernacular, featuring the Common and other Wandsworth locations. Based on a true story . . .
— 18 September 1871 — In August and September John Buckmaster gives a series of lectures at the Albert Hall on displays of art and craft in the International Exhibition, including the Pre-Raphaelites . . .
— 21 September 1863 — a proposal to cut two more railway lines across Wandsworth Common . . .
— 21 September 1802 — "Quitting the Manor farm . . . numerous articles for sale", including "250 loads of dung" . . .
— 25 September 1804 — "Grand sham fight" on Wandsworth Common — military manouevres during Napoleonic wars
— 25 September 1869 — Questions are asked about the fenced triangle of land opposite Lake Terrace at the corner of West Side and North Side . . .
— 28 September 1869 — "Three Wandsworth Commoners" write in support of local butcher Mr Clark for breaking down the fences made by his neighbour John Costeker . . .
— 29 September 1864 — two men and four women (all in their twenties) appeared in court for "wandering abroad and lodging in an outhouse on Wandsworth-common without having any visible means of existence" . . .
— Date? — Wandsworth District Board of Works orders an avenue of Black Poplars to be planted on the Common . . .
No Chronicles posted
— 1 July 1858 — "Melancholy Death of a Child on Wandsworth Common" . . .
— 9 July 1870 — Samuel Sullings, Wandsworth Common martyr, released and feted. "Three cheers for Mr Buckmaster, three groans for those who had enclosed the common" . . .
— 11 July 1857 — Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Girls, Wandsworth Common. An event stage-managed to "sparkle" that turned into a dull farce. . . .
— And the Oscar goes to . . . Wandsworth Prison / Part I . . .
— 14 July 1870 — The Great Mansion House Meeting, "under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, to invoke the sympathy and assistance of Londoners in preserving the rights of the public over Wandsworth-common." . . .
— 15 July 1871 — Eels on Wandsworth Common, a great Victorian enigma . . . . . .
— 20 July 1908 — "Grand Old Man" John Buckmaster's death announced . . .
— 177? — "Master Bruce" writes a letter home: "Dear Sister, We hunt upon the Common and one of the great Boys is the Hare, and the middle Boys hunt it . . . " . . .
— 29 July 1879 — Kate Webster executed for the murder of Julia Martha Thomas. . . .
— 29 July 1844 — 26-year-old Amelia Alfery attempts to drown herself and her two youngest children in the Black Sea, Wandsworth Common. . . .
— 30 July 1827 — The Gypsey Party pitch their tent among the cedars on Wandsworth Common . . . . . .
— 31 July 1871 — The Wandsworth Common Act 1871 is passed: "The Conservators shall at all times keep the Common open uninclosed and unbuilt on" . . .
— 14 June 1914 — Thunderstorm on Wandsworth Common kills seven. Four of the dead are small children . . .
— 28 June 1823 — Birth of Edwin Rayner Ransome in Colchester, Essex He died on 17 May 1910 in Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common, London at age 86, and was buried in FBG Wandsworth . . .
— 27 June 1879 — Thomas Hardy: "From Tooting to Town again. In railway carriage a too statuesque girl; but her features were absolutely perfect" . . .
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