"[https]://theconversation.com/urban-commons-are-under-siege-in-the-age-of-austerity-heres-how-to-protect-them-121067
Urban commons are some of the largest and most iconic green spaces in towns and cities across the UK. The London commons spring to mind, including Hampstead Heath and Wimbledon Common, but many UK cities have comparable commons that are just as highly valued, such as Town Moor in Newcastle, Mousehold Heath in Norwich, or Clifton and Durdham Downs in Bristol. These wide expanses of parklands or moors are treasured places for city-dwellers, offering space to exercise, socialise and play outdoors.
Urban commons are vital for culture, health, well-being and biodiversity. Ample scientific research has demonstrated the physical and mental health benefits of having access to nature. Indeed, it's been estimated that providing fair access to good quality green space for every household could reduce government spending on health care by 2.1 billion per year.
The historical associations of the commons also shape a sense of place and identity for local communities. For example, the Town Moor in Newcastle was the scene of large Chartist rallies in the 19th century, aimed at getting the vote for working-class men as were other urban commons across England. And Mousehold Heath in Norwich is closely associated with Kett's Rebellion in 1549, against the enclosure of common land by landowners in East Anglia.
Photograph of a Chartist meeting on Kennington Common, London, 1948. William Edward Kilburn/Wikimedia Commons.
Despite these evident benefits, urban green space is under threat in an age of austerity. Selling off green space in urban areas can be a quick fix for local authorities with stretched budgets, as they struggle to maintain frontline community services. In 2018, charity Locality published research showing that, on average, 4,131 public buildings and parks are currently being sold off each year by cash-strapped councils.
There is also constant pressure on legally protected green space, with regular applications to de-register village greens and areas of common land for development. A recent example is Yateley common in Hampshire, part of which was de-registered following a planning inspector's decision in 2019 to allow an extension of facilities at Blackbushe Airport.
Are they really common?
Urban green space comes in a variety of forms: urban commons, village greens, parks and community gardens. The term "common" evokes ideas of community ownership, control and use: "Hands off our common" is a frequent battle cry when these green spaces are threatened by development.
But many commons don't belong to the people at all. Most urban commons are not community-owned assets. In fact, they have many have different legal identities, and varying degrees of legal protection and security. Some are registered as common land and protected by law. Others have no legal protection, other than that given by the planning system for example, if they are designated as parklands, allotments or conservation areas.
The result is that a mixed bag of legal protections and status applies to land that looks very similar and performs similar functions as recreational green space in UK towns and cities. For example, Epping Forest in London and Town Moor in Newcastle are protected by their very own parliamentary acts. Clifton Down in Bristol is a "traditional" common, registered under legislation that guarantees its status as common land. Other urban commons have much less secure legal protection and could be more easily lost to development.
Guarding green spaces
There are several routes for securing greater legal protection for urban green space. One is to get it registered as a town or village green, under the Commons Act 2006. Land can be registered as a town or village green where a significant number of inhabitants in the local area have been using the land for "lawful sports and pastimes" which might include dog walking, playing with children, blackberry picking and other forms of informal recreation for at least 20 years.
If a landowner wants to voluntarily dedicate their land as public green space for the future, they can do so relatively easily, by a deed of dedication. Land registered as a town or village green will be protected from development indefinitely, unless it's de-registered, which is a complex process.
"true" target="_blank">Link.]
urban commons those that have the legal status and protection of common land are extremely precious community assets. Getting green space registered as common land is different to registering a town or village green English law recognises several rights of common, most of which are based in ancient and customary land use rights.The most suitable way for establishing a new common today is the ancient right of estovers, which gives neighbouring households the right to take natural produce such as fruit or berries, or fallen timber, from the land. When a landowner grants estovers, it means the land can be registered as a common, by law. And once registered as such, public access is guaranteed, as all common land is subject to the "right to roam".
The main benefit of this approach is that it creates private property rights for members of the local community (the neighbouring households), which not only secures public access to the land, but also gives the local community a sense of ownership. Registration as a town or village green, while hugely beneficial, does not give property rights to members of the community.
Green space can also be protected through the planning system — through the local development plan, for example, or by designation as a conservation area. But this can be changed when new development proposals are considered.
It's vital for communities to be able to champion their urban commons. That's why a group of us at Newcastle University are leading a three-year interdisciplinary project to investigate how these valuable green spaces can be protected. It will explore the complex legal and cultural identity of the UK's many urban commons, and develop new strategies to shape their future use in towns and cities.
The UK's surviving urban commons are precious green spaces, but the laws that protect them are confusing, complicated and in some cases outdated. We also need to use the existing law creatively, to create and protect urban green space by getting it registered as town or village greens, or as commons. There is much work to be done by researchers, politicians and also the public themselves, to safeguard these spaces for the future."
"MacMaster, Neil, 'The Battle for Mousehold Heath, 18571884: "popular politics" and the Victorian Public Park
Park',
Volume 127
Issue 1
May 1990
< Previous
Next >
THE BATTLE FOR MOUSEHOLD HEATH 1857-1884: "POPULAR POLITICS" AND THE VICTORIAN PUBLIC PARK
Neil MacMaster
Past & Present, Volume 127, Issue 1, May 1990, Pages 117154, [https]://doi.org/10.1093/past/127.1.117
Published:
01 May 1990"
"The Commons Preservation Society and the Campaign for Berkhamsted Common, 1866-70
B Cowell — Rural History, 2002 — search.proquest.com
This paper considers the role played by the Commons Preservation Society (CPS) in defending Berkhamsted Common in Hertfordshire from enclosure 18661870. The CPS was an organised pressure group, which deployed a series of legal and historical arguments to defend open spaces from development and to encourage anti-enclosure legislation. At Berkhamsted the CPS orchestrated a fence break in March 1866 to oppose forcibly the enclosure of a portion of the common by the trustees of the second Earl Brownlow.
The primary purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how material gathered by lawyers working for the CPS in the course of the subsequent legal dispute over the fence break can be used to throw new light upon the uses of common lands in the later nineteenth century.
A secondary aim of the paper is to consider the longer-term impact of the CPS on debates about common land and enclosure, and to point to the need for further research into the origins, motivations and activities of the Society.
Cited by 24 Related articles All 3 versions
[BNA: Link.]
"The Plumstead Common Riots of 1876: A Study in Mid-Victorian Protest
David M George
Pages 195-210 | Published online: 18 Jul 2013
Download citation
[BNA: doi.org/10.1179/174963211X13127325480235" target="_blank">Link.]
Despite widespread recognition of the importance of open spaces as the 'lungs of the capital', the year 1876 saw the Lords of the Manor of Plumstead, the Provost and Scholars of Queen's College Oxford, attempt to sell the majority of Plumstead Common.
With more respectable means of protest unable to secure the traditional right of access of local people, it was left to an emigrant Irishman, John De Morgan, and his Commons Protection League to prevent its enclosure.
Keywords: ANTI-ENCLOSURE, ENCLOSURE, JOHN DE MORGAN, PLUMSTEAD, PROTEST, VICTORIAN
This paper suggests that encroachment upon public space, such as Plumstead Common,
was fiercely second time in 1877 for similar anti-enclosure activity at Selston Common in
Nottinghamshire"
"[https]://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/rural-history/article/gods-earth-will-be-sacred-religion-theology-and-the-open-space-movement-in-victorian-england/7B77F942CD9579088BD055DE91E23480" target="_blank">Link.]
Volume 22, Issue 1
April 2011 , pp. 31-58
'God's earth will be sacred': Religion, Theology, and the Open Space Movement in Victorian England
ELIZABETH BAIGENT (a1)
DOI: [https]://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793310000130
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2011
Abstract
The Victorian open space movement is accounted for variously by nostalgia, progress, and a changed conception of national identity, but explanatory factors are generally understood in secular ways which take little account of the pervasive influence of contemporary Christianity. These explanations overlap with discussions of nineteenth-century leisure which stress its links with secularisation. Christianity however was a significant motivation for some open space campaigners whose theology explained how nature was to uplift those who experienced it. This paper considers the Commons Preservation Society, founded in 1865; the preservation of Epping Forest for recreation between 1865 and 1880; and the forest's management in the 1880s and 1890s. It argues that although histories of the Commons Preservation Society and the Epping Forest campaign describe them in secular, rational terms, many prominent campaigners were motivated by religion, in the sense of orthodox Christianity. Practical religion significantly affected the development of mass recreation for the poor in the forest. Explanations of the open space movement which ignore religion thus seem inadequate.
53. Members of both the Commons Preservation Society and the Cobden Club included George Shaw Lefevre, Edward North Buxton, Henry Fawcett, and Thomas Henry Farrer. A.C. Howe, 'The Cobden Club', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Other Commons Preservation Society free traders included Thomas Hughes (Charlotte Mitchell, 'Hughes, Thomas', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography); Andrew Johnston (The Times, 18th April 1910); George Burney (G. Burney, Epping Forest to be Saved without a Corn Tax! (Milwall, 1872); Robert Hunter (H. Rawnsley, 'A National Benefactor Sir Robert Hunter', Cornhill Magazine (February 1914, 23039); and Octavia Hill, 'The Future of our Commons', pp. 175206 in Hill, Our Common Land, pp. 1812). For the link between open space and free trade in Epping Forest in particular see Buxton, Epping Forest 1923 edition, p. 15
etc etc"
"Subject: BUCKMASTER'S CROOKED LAWYER
A low, drunken, unprincipled lawyer, who had represented himself as a person connected with the aristocracy, very influential, with large expectations, began to interest himself about the parish charities; and nothing is so popular in a parish as doubts whether these charities go to the right persons. By corrupting the churchwardens and overseers and a few others he was appointed legal adviser to the parish. Everything was litigated, and his bills were cheerfully paid, and the man who questioned
[332]
them was threatened with a writ. Some of them were of the most shameful character, such as removals, making out summonses, advising as to rates, appearing before the magistrate to excuse certain defaulters. At last a few began to rebel; these he threatened with writs. He used to attend the vestry meetings half drunk with a horsewhip, and it was left to me to fight him. I knew he was a scoundrel, and I was not afraid of him.
I was at first in a minority, and could do nothing until I changed the minority into a majority, which I did at the next election, and which you can always do if you are in the right and will work for it. When he knew how the election was going he rushed into the room with five or six others and tried to take possession of the ballot-box, but they failed. He said, "That fellow," pointing to me, "has turned the parish against me by lying, and before I have done with him he and his children shall come to my house and beg a piece of bread."
Iresolved to have my revenge. It is better to have a thief for your enemy than for a friend.
[333]
The late Board of Churchwardens and Overseers had to procure a piece of land for a cemetery. Their legal adviser ran up a bill of upwards of seven hundred pounds, which was paid at a public-house the night before they went out of office. This bill was the most extraordinary piece of parish robbery ever known. Charges for supplying ten copies of the agreement, to superintending the drains, to meeting the inspector, to advising as to suitability of the soil. At the foot of this bill was written, " I have examined this bill. — W. Anderson." And this was represented as a taxation.
I felt this was a robbery, but my colleagues were not disposed to take any steps. We had got rid of him, and why trouble further. But as long as he was in the parish there was danger. Isuggested a meeting of the ratepayers, but this was not thought desirable because there was still a strong party in the parish who had profited in various ways by his companionship. At last Imanaged to have the bill referred to a well-known parish lawyer, who advised us to obtain an order for the taxation of the bill. The Vice-Chancellor hesitated because the bill was paid,
[334]
but we obtained the order. The lawyer said, as he left the court, "You can't get butter out of a dog's mouth," and more than half the charges were taxed off. Then an order was made for payment of upwards of three hundred pounds. He had previously sold his furniture and moved into another county and then there was further delay. Then he moved a long distance away, where he lived in grand style for a few months. Some of his old companions used to visit him.
I was determined to hunt him down for his insults, and, contrary to the advice of the lawyer and the Board, Iput an advertisement in the Telegraph asking for information as to his whereabouts. As soon as the advertisement appeared his house was besieged with tradesmen from a near town who wanted their money. He returned to the neighbourhood of London, when by accident a friend who had heard me speak of him gave information as to his whereabouts, and in a few days he was in prison, and there Ileft him. The parish thought I had done a greater service in ridding it of their legal adviser than in
[335]
saving the common, and I was presented with a service of plate. All this was going on during the common agitation, and it was he who had frightened Wrigsby and told him to tell the court all I had said to him. Plausible in his manner, with a pleasant smile, those who knew but little of his inner character thought him a nice kind gentleman and wondered why I should be so spiteful. I had not forgotten his threat — that was why I followed him.
[PB: Is it possible to find who this crooked lawyer was? "W. Anderson"? Was this his real name, or Buckmaster's creation? Where did Iget the name "Anderson"? Surely it wasn't James Anderson Rose, who was a lawyer, but a stalwart of the campaign? NO! It was Reynolds.]
See West Middlesex Advertiser and Family Journal — Saturday 13 August 1864
Testimonial to Mr. Buckmaster.
The great parochial battles of Battersea are now ended. There will, however, lively discussions in the Vestry whether a lamp-post should be 8 feet or 8 feet inches, or whether it be more economical to use Purbeck or granite for kerbing footpaths, or whether it be possible to do things which are impossible. These vital questions will occasionally occupy the serious attention of men rated at 25 a year.
Happily no one now suspects the parish officers of any misappropriation of parish money, and the great man, before whom all small men were terrified, and parish officers worshipped, now in prison; but Mr. Buckmaster, against whom lawyers on both sides of the river have times sworn vengeance, has achieved a great victory.
For years he exposed the chicanery, the deceit, and falsehood of a party now defunct. Extracts from lawyers' bills were printed and circulated for the edification of the ratepayers; affidavits and opinions of counsel for a time defeated his efforts; but a man waits the truth and justice of his case will the end receive its proper and just reward; and although we cannot endorse all Mr. Buckmaster's opinions, we believe he deserves well of the parish, and this recognition of his services must be as agreeable as, we understand, was unexpected. the anniversary of his wedding-day he received a polished oak box, containing the following inscription:
St. Mary, Battersea. — This box, containing 64 pieces of plate, was presented to Mr. Buckmaster, by a few gentlemen, in acknowledgment of services rendered in the parish during period of great trouble and difficulty. — August, 1864."
[PB, Note — This is not Corsellis but Reynolds]"
"1871 — AGREEMENT REACH WITH SPENCER — INCLOSURE ACT — WC & WIMBLEDON COMMON — WC BILL — SPENCER WILLING TO TREAT — BLACK SEA — ROSE ON RATES — BUCKMASTER? — REMAINS OF WC
[BNA: Link.]
"LORD (STANLEY OWEN) BUCKMASTER_CAMPAIGNER_FOR_WOMENS_ADMISSION_TO_LEGAL_PROFESSION.png
[BNA: books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=U6niDQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=buckmaster+educational+miscellanies+1861+female+education&ots=7PtCUbsG_G&sig=GShzZlCWiLkL4ewzkwIIxMfEQJs#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">Link.]
target="_blank">Link.]\n[BNA: books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=U6niDQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=buckmaster+educational+miscellanies+1861+female+education&ots=7PtCUbsG_G&sig=GShzZlCWiLkL4ewzkwIIxMfEQJs#v=onepage&q=buckmaster&f=false" target="_blank">Link.]
target="_blank">Link.]\nBUY
edith buckmaster palestine and pamela
[BNA: Link.]
"On 29/06/2020 12:03, Philip Boys wrote:
Hello again, David Hi!
I've just had a reply from the Library at Bath University::
I've done a keyword search for this item with Mary Tasker as the author as well as looking for the name John Buckmaster in the title of the dissertation without success.
If the item was a Masters dissertation then I don't believe it would have been kept this long in our collection — our retention policies for student authored works really only apply to PhD level outputs.
Darn it!
So if there's any way I can get to see a copy of Mary's thesis, that would be wonderful. Is there any way I can do that without causing you a lot of hassle?
That's what Mary told me would happen; but I hope you may be able to borrow one of Adrian's family's two copies, as his nephew Hugo
is apparently working in Teddington and has got very interested in J.C.B..
By the way, a few months ago I discovered by chance that Gunnersbury Museum has a collection of Buckmaster memorabilia. Naturally I got on the case immediately, and they replied:
We have several scrapbooks, letters and material relating to JC Buckmaster, which you would be very welcome to visit and use for your research. It is currently uncatalogued and so I can't confirm whether it contains information about Wandsworth, however I personally find it an interesting collection and I am sure you will too. There is much about his lectures, recipes etc and his 'progressive' views that women be encouraged to teach Home Economics! There are also some photographs of him and his family.
Hilda came to my attention recently and she seems a fascinating character. I believe she donated a sizeable number of objects to the museum before she emigrated.
The Archive is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays, by appointment but I am now away until January the 8th. If you would like to let me know a date after this that falls on one of these days, I would be glad to show you the Archives.
Kind regards
Kathryn [Rooke]
Maddeningly, lockdown arrived just before I could get there — Grrrr! Yes, maddening! and a hint for when it opens again: from my brother Michael's experience when he wanted to see those things, you'll need to give warning in advance, as the things are arranged with various others of the kind they are, not in a JCB display — or they were then, anyway — that was a long time back.
Thanks once again for all your help — and for the invite to meet up. I'd love to — but who know when!
All best Both ways! D.
Philip
On 29 Jun 2020, at 08:49, David and Ida wrote:
On 28/06/2020 16:50, Philip Boys wrote:
There are several names here that i hadn't worked out (and probably never would without this crib), but I'm fairly confident I can add a few — it will take me a little while to sort them out but I'll send asap.
Interesting!
JCB obviously loved wordplay (as well as having a healthy fear of the law of libel). Did he also perhaps want to avoid embarrassing his sons, particularly Stanley Owen?
I hadn't thought of those points, but think you must be right on both of them
I presume you'll have read my cousin Mary Tasker's superb Study of his Life and Work? Adrian says there are two copies in his family.
Unfortunately, I haven't. I know about her Master's thesis at Bath (indeed, I've emailed the Library there to see if they have a copy, which i assume they do, though it's not in their online catalogue) Is this the Study, or another work? See also below, MT's article about JCB.
Yes, it's the Study. I hope you may be able to borrow one of Adrian's family's two copies, as his nephew Hugo is apparently working in Teddington and has got very interested in J.C.B.
I wonder what was wrong with the copy? I have an edition by Caliban Books, with a substantial introduction by John Burnett (a serious scholar), dated 1982.
Don't know! I do know that my brother Michael organised a small new edition which he distributed among all the Miller family young; as I don't have one, I'm wondering whether he got Burnett into it. I'll look next time I see one of our sons.
Have you seen these?
No, I hadn't! very interesting indeed — Mary hadn't told me about those. Thanks a lot! More for the Family collection.
This is the cover of New Scientist, 11 August 1977 — you will see he is described (rather baldly) as "A bastard from Bucks who gave science to the working people", though his legitimacy or otherwise is not mentioned by MT. MT's essay appeared a few weeks later.
I don't know the full story about that rude comment, but I think his marriage certificate came after his birth.
incidentally, H Moseley was a great promoter of JCB's career, who lived on the edge of Wandsworth Common. And I think JH Pepper had been taught/inspired by JCB. I expect Wilson and Armstrong are also somehow connected to JCB, but I don't (as yet) know how!
And very best wshes to you, Philip! I hope we may may meet sometime. If ever you come near Bath (where Mary lives) and Bristol (where I live), please come and see us!
On 28/06/2020 13:49, Philip Boys wrote:
Hello, David
So good to hear from you
I was thinking as much about the, er, Cosmic aspect — how extremely unlikely it was that somehow or other I would get to hear about and then to see and read Hilda's memoir. And indeed to be in touch with you, without actively seeking you out.
I've been intrigued by JCB's life and work for quite a while. I don't even recollect how it all started. Probably a chance reading of just his name in relation to the defence of Wandsworth Common. Then idly googling him but finding next to nothing online (at least initially) — no dedicated Wikipedia entry, just a brief mention in Stanley Owen Buckmaster's Wikipedia entry, and a few sentences in the DNB.
Then finding a copy of A Village Politician, which is such a good read.
And then and then . . .
I quickly realised there was so much more to JCB than ever appears in A Village Politician. I wonder why?
And of course there's his maddening way of disguising his name, the names of others, placenames, dates and so on.
if ever there was a way of guaranteeing that I'd get hooked, it was this.
Having started, my interest has grown and grown — there are still enormous gaps in the record, and in my understanding, but it's been terrific communicating the interest to others in the Wandsworth area. (Sales of old copies of his biography are soaring — to at least 3.)
I'm very pleased to be in touch!
All best
Philip
HistoryBoys
14 Loxley Rd
Wandsworth Common
SW18 3LJ
On 28 Jun 2020, at 12:43, David and Ida wrote:
Easy, Philip!
Hilda was my mother's first cousin, and my wife and I several times went to stay with her in Canada, and enjoyed listening to her remarkably lively memories when she was well over eighty. I inherited those papers.
David
On 28/06/2020 12:12, Philip Boys wrote:
Hello, Richard and David
I've just read Hilda Buckmaster's remarkable recollections. I'm completely overwhelmed — I can't believe the good fortune that has led this.
How on earth did it come about?
All best
Philip
HistoryBoys
14 Loxley Rd
Wandsworth Common
SW18 3LJ
On 28 Jun 2020, at 09:16, History Wandsworth wrote:
Dear David
Thank you very much for sending through your cousin's notes. I have forward them to Philip Boys, copied, who has researched JCB extensively and knows more about him than anyone else I know. I'm sure he'll find them fascinating and will have some follow up questions for you.
Many thanks indeed
Much appreciated
Richard"
"If Phoebe Price, his mother, died 5 March 1825, and JCB says he was ? years old, he would have been born
Intro says
Phoebe was 23 when she died in 1823 or 1825
Two children John aged 3 or 4 — "for unknown reasons the autobiography says 2"
and Dick, not mentioned in the book
We know
Phoebe Price was baptised 20 Feb 1802
Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
- Phoebe Price married Thomas (18-06-1843) on 17 October 1824 ? [ OK — Ancestry.com. England, Select Marriages, 15381973 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Bu how do we know
- Phoebe was born 1802 — Feb ?
Married Wife Emily Anne Goodliffe, born 1831 died 1890, 7 August 1853
23 Feb 1820 = Hubble Family Tree
49 in 1871 = born 1822
58 in 1881 = born 1823
70 in 1891 = born 1821
Death Index and Probate Calendar = 89 in 20/7/1908 = born 1819
!!
So if Phoebe and Thomas married in 1824, JCB was indeed illegitimate
1871
"Keeper of Refreshment House" on corner"
""JAMES DIGBY — Copyhold house" — was it JB who Buckmaster tried to get involved in the WC court case ("Wrigsby")
It was certainly Digby (vide Passmore)
[BNA: Link.
NB A few others are called "copyholders""
"WHY WAS BUCKMASTER NOT ON ELECTORAL REGISTER IN 1876
[BNA: Link.]
And I'm sure I;ve read about impediments to standing for election — hence he became the ?vestry clerk or whatever"
"[https]://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1870-01-01/1879-12-31?basicsearch=%2bbirmingham%20%2bweekly%20%2bpost%20%2bbuckmaster&freesearch=birmingham%20weekly%20post%20buckmaster&exactsearch=true&retrievecountrycounts=false&sortorder=score
1 june 1873 — can't find the "Weekly" Post, only the Daily Post — + no 1 June edition
LOTS of references to HCB — science, art, cookery
[BNA: Link.]
"Bibilio:
[BNA: scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22John+Charles+Buckmaster%22" target="_blank">Link.]
A Village Politician, the Life-story of John Buckley, Edited by JC Buckmaster. With an Introd . . . .
[CITATION] Changing The Boundaries: The Voluntary System, Private Popular Education and The Battle for Useful Knowledge, C. 1830sc. 1860s . . .
R Aldrich — Public or Private Education?, 2004 — RoutledRelated articles
[PDF] plymouth.ac.uk
'The Road to Learning': Re-evaluating the Mechanics' Institute Movement
DR Watson — 2018 — pearl.plymouth.ac.uk
This thesis is a re-evaluation of a movement founded to provide what Samuel Smiles called
"the road to learning" for workers in the nineteenth century. Mechanics' institutes emerged
during the 1820s to both criticism and acclaim, becoming part of the physical and intellectual Related articles All 3 versions [https]://www.findagrave.com/memorial/86764733/john-charles-buckmaster
John Charles Buckmaster
Birth 23 Feb 1820
Aylesbury Vale District, Buckinghamshire, England
Death 20 Jul 1908 (aged 88)
Teddington, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, England
Burial
Teddington Cemetery
Teddington, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, England
Plot Ec Grave B.199-201
Memorial ID 86764733 View Source
Born at Slapton, Aylesbury Vale, Bucks.
Councillor on Teddington Urban District Council
and Chairman of the Library Committee
Lived at Ashleigh, Kingston Road, Teddington
Buried 24th July 1908, aged 89
Probate 9th November 1908 at London
Emily Anne Goodliffe Buckmaster
Birth 1 Nov 1831
Cambridge, City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Death 30 Jun 1890 (aged 58)
Teddington, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, England
Burial
Teddington Cemetery
Teddington, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, England
Plot Ec Grave B.199-201
Memorial ID 86764217 View Source"
"A seminar by you sounds like a fabulous idea — whether you mean a small discussion group and/or a larger talk like your wonderful map one. I do know what you mean about having a deadline.
I would love to know more about him, but don't have the time or inclination to do primary research on this. Anyway, I think we can say you've got him covered! Let me know if you fancy a chat at any stage.
All best
Sue
Sent from my iPhone
On 14 May 2020, at 11:29, Philip Boys
_ Isn't it a wonderful book!
Also, incredibly readable.
I'm thinking how to do a new edition, or at least an annotated version of the final chapter [spelling out who he's talking about, where, when, and so on]
With an intro [his background etc] and and a postface of some sort ["what happened next"]
That would be another GREAT thing to do for WC150
And there's SO much more to him than you see in his book
His teaching and organising of the new state system of education [also started 1871, as it happens]
His Cookery books, and classes
His innumerable Science textbooks
His passionate advocacy of, oh so many many things — his defence of Battersea costermongers, calls for tree planting etc, art education in schools, free libraries, baths and washing facilities for the working class, and and and on it goes
His fearless attacks on all sorts of skulduggery in local and national politics
And there's probably a LOT more besides.
More from me anon
All best
Philip
PS I wonder if I could discipline myself best if Iwere to think about hosting a seminar on his life and works? ( Ialways work most efficiently when Iface imminent humiliation.
On 14 May 2020, at 11:17, Sue Delafons wrote:
Hi Philip
I hope the Sam Scullings piece met with your approval, particularly as it now seems to have gone viral via Richard, which I wasn't expecting. I did wonder whether to send it to you first, rather than the whole group, but thought that you would be overwhelmed if everyone did that! But if you spot anything in any of the stuff I'm writing which you want to add to or edit, please do so (though just let me know any changes so I can keep track).
I was on a bit of a roll the other day, so have also drafted pieces on Earl Spencer, Ernest Bevin and John Archer the last two being quite brief. I thought I would take another look at them and send them round nearer the meeting, rather than upping the ante at this point.
Re John Buckmaster, I hadn't thought about a case for support for the plaque, which Richard says will be needed fairly soon. I am of course very happy to leave this to you as he is very much your passion. But if you would like it, we could do one of our sessions where you talk and Itake notes, and then draft something up for you to review and revise. That seems to have worked in the past, when you have so much material you are struggling to cut it down.
Just let me know sometime if this seems like a good route to take, I'll keep a respectful distance from him unless I hear anything from you. Except for his autobiography, which you can see from the attached I searched the country for Shame only the last chapter seems to be re WC, but v pleased to have it and get a further insight into him: have a bit of a crush myself now!
Sue
From: Sue Delafons
Sent: 12 May 2020 21:41
To: Philip Boys
Cc: rosalind page
Subject: How's THIS for dedication?!
"ANCESTRY
Smith/Pengelly and ? Family
Loads of info to follow up, e.g. here
"HG ruminates in detail about Stanley Buckmaster
[BNA: books.google.co.uk/books?id=tLGhBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT7693&lpg=PT7693&dq=buckmaster+hg+wells&source=bl&ots=NnJJgkMNSl&sig=ACfU3U1wH0ITZns_IaBxPjPHmzGNiu_p6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih9KKc9ofmAhXFSRUIHSeZBPkQ6AEwDHoECBIQAg#v=onepage&q=buckmaster%20hg%20wells&f=false
No refs to SB's father, though"
"Birth Control and the Population Question in England, 1877-1930
By Richard A. Soloway
[BNA: books.google.co.uk/books?id=y_s4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT209&lpg=PT209&dq=buckmaster+hg+wells&source=bl&ots=oShhwkMKMS&sig=ACfU3U3AYg41pt9RzwYVlfXK0BVRmnmoVQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih9KKc9ofmAhXFSRUIHSeZBPkQ6AEwC3oECBEQAg#v=onepage&q=buckmaster%20hg%20wells&f=false
Numerous refs to Stanley:
[BNA: books.google.co.uk/books?id=y_s4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT209&lpg=PT209&dq=buckmaster+hg+wells&source=bl&ots=oShhwkMKMS&sig=ACfU3U3AYg41pt9RzwYVlfXK0BVRmnmoVQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih9KKc9ofmAhXFSRUIHSeZBPkQ6AEwC3oECBEQAg#v=onepage&q=buckmaster%20&f=false
[BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wellstrue" target="_blank">Link.]
"[https]://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=%2Bbuckmaster%20%2Benclosure&freesearch=buckmaster%20enclosure&retrievecountrycounts=false&sortorder=dayearly&page=37
Lincoln, Friday, November 22
[BNA: Link.]
. . . presided, -evctal farmer* were among the audience, aud paid great attention to the lecture, which was full life and humour. Mr. Buckmaster said in the classes they had for years been quietly instructing a Quarter . . .
Published: Friday 22 November 1889
Newspaper: Stamford Mercury
County: Lincolnshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 13960 | Page: 5 | Tags: none
the annxjae show
. . . part, our young people have only been labelled by this conventionalism and not always truly educated for the work life. Mr. Buckmaster's picture of the faculty of writing and reading dying out in the villages after, boys and girls have left school with this . . .
Published: Friday 30 September 1892
Newspaper: Herts & Cambs Reporter & Royston Crow
County: Hertfordshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 3524 | Page: 5 | Tags: none
[BNA: Link.]
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, THURSDAY, I)n4:3IBER 14, 1893
[BNA: Link.]
. . . South Buskswhich have been erected at Wycombe at, a cost of nearly 2,r00 in the presence of Viscount Curzon, M.P., Mr. Buckmaster (of the Science and Art Department), and a large gathering. Lord Carrington spoke of the great value of technical education . . .
Published: Thursday 14 December 1893
Newspaper: Daily Telegraph & Courier (London)
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 5996 | Page: 5 | Tags: none
[BNA: Link.]
"[PDF] Demons and Domesticity: A History of Women . . . — Semantic Scholar
[BNA: [https]://pdfs.semanticscholar.org . . .
History at London Guildhall University, advertising ephemera from the John. Johnson Collection at the . . . .. On May 9, 1873, the reclusive Queen Victoria made a rare public appearance. . . . chef used a gas stove to whip up a parsley omelette. The golden . . . Borrowing the format of Buckmaster's cookery classes, appliance."
"ALL
BNA = +buckmaster +wandsworth +common +spencer 1850 — 1899
TO THE EDITOR,
. . . MATKK. Wandsworth Common. Yesterday a deputation, consisting of the Rev. J. H, Joskin son, vicar of Battersea; the Rev. W. Hodgson, member of the Wandsworth Board Works; Messrs. James Walton, churchwarden of Battersea, W. Todd, M. Lawson, Buckmaster, and . . .
Published: Saturday 10 October 1863
Newspaper: London Evening Standard
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 870 | Page: 5 | Tags: none
THE LATE PRINCE CONSORT.INAUGURATION OF A MEMORIAL STATUE AT ABERDEEN
. . . Battersea; Mr. W. Todd, Mr. M. Sawson, Mr. Buckmaster, and Mr Corsellis, vestry clerk of Battersea, had an audience with Lord Spencer, lord of the manor, relative to the enclosures on Wandsworth-common. After a memorial to his Lordship on the subject had . . .
Published: Saturday 17 October 1863
Newspaper: Northampton Mercury
County: Northamptonshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 1555 | Page: 3 | Tags: none
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE
. . . brothers the rare good fortune of presiding at the same time over the highest civil and common law courts of this oountry. Sit George, being member of the House Commons, was Chairman of the Committee of Privileges and Elections; and 1741 he was appointed . . .
Published: Saturday 3 March 1866
Newspaper: Bucks Herald
County: Buckinghamshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 31532 | Page: 4, 5, 6, 7 | Tags: none
WANDSWORTH DISTRICT BOARD OF WORKS
. . . gentlemen had seen Lord Spencer's agent on the subject of Wandsworth Common, and were told it would havo beeu laid out long ago had it not been for the legal proceedings now pending. Whatever that decision might be, Lord Spencer desired to preserve that . . .
Published: Saturday 6 July 1867
Newspaper: South London Press
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 757 | Page: 6 | Tags: none
WANDSWORTH COMMON
. . . had no right whatever on the Common, though the House of Commons had said otherwise. If they were trespassers, why didn't Lord Spencer order them off, and punish them for being there?(laughter) when they saw the Common taken away without reasons a . . .
Published: Saturday 24 August 1867
Newspaper: South London Press
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 1298 | Page: 11 | Tags: none
CONDITION OF THE CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY
. . . York Journal of Commerce. THE ENCROACHMENTS ON WANDSWORTH-COMMON. -Yesterday a nieting of nearly 5,000 inhabitants of the parishes of Wandsworth and Battersea was held on the piece of land lying close to Clapham Junction . . .
Published: Saturday 24 August 1867
Newspaper: London Daily News
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 5811 | Page: 5, 6 | Tags: News
"SAVE WANDSWORTH COMMON!"
. . . enclosure of the common, and except a protest from Mr. Rose, there appeared no strong feeling against the enclosure Wandsworth Common. In the last 20 years 140 acres had enclosed the sum of 15,000, received by Lord Spencer. The Common . . .
[there appeared no strong feeling against the enclosure Wandsworth Common????]
Published: Saturday 24 August 1867
Newspaper: South London Press
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 3056 | Page: 5, 6 | Tags: none
TTHREATENED ENCLOSURE OF WANDSWORTH.COMMON
. . . had no right whatever on the common, though the House of Commons had said otherwise. If they were trespassers, why didn't Lord Spencer order them off and punuh them for being there? (Lnughter.) Wheu they saw the common taken away without reasons assigned . . .
Published: Saturday 24 August 1867
Newspaper: Morning Post
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 1100 | Page: 6 | Tags: none
the HULL ADVERTISER, TUESDAY, AUGUST *>7, 1867
. . . parisl.es Wandsworth and Battersea was hel "'the niece of land lying close to Clapham Junct.on n accordance with a promise which had been made a few nights before, that the assembly should take place, and the destruction of the portion of the common enclosed . . .
Published: Tuesday 27 August 1867
Newspaper: Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette
County: Yorkshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 1544 | Page: 2 | Tags: none
THE BEDFORDSHIRE MERCURY, SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1867. WANDSWORTH COMMON
. . . they had right whatever on the Common," though the House of Commons had said otherwise. If they were trespassers, why didn't Lord Spencer order them off, and punish them for being there ? (laughter.) When they saw the common taken away without reasons a . . .
Published: Saturday 31 August 1867
Newspaper: Bedfordshire Mercury
County: Bedfordshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 901 | Page: 8 | Tags: none
OUR PAROCHIAL PARLIAMENTS
. . . prevailed. Wandsworth Common Preservation. A letter was received from Mr. C. E. Buckmaster, asking, on behalf of a committee for the preservation of commons, if the Board intended to take steps for the preservation of the footpath across Wandsworth-common . . .
Published: Saturday 31 August 1867
Newspaper: South London Chronicle
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 3577 | Page: 5 | Tags: none
WANDSWORTH DISTRICT BOARD OF WORKS
. . . the Wandsworth District Board of Works have agreed the destruction of tho ornamental water called the Black Sea, on Wandsworth Common : 'and to make or and making roads to facilitate the 'en.-Insure and building on Wandsworth Common Earl . . .
Published: Saturday 31 August 1867
Newspaper: South London Press
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 3758 | Page: 5 | Tags: none
OUR PAROCHIAL PARLIAMENTS
. . . agreed to. Wandsworth-commox. The Clerk reported on the question referred to him to the public right? over the common. Was of opinion that there had not been a defined and distinct footpath that had been interfered With. A letter from Earl Spencer was read . . .
Published: Saturday 23 November 1867
Newspaper: South London Chronicle
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 7670 | Page: 4, 5 | Tags: none
THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY
. . . south sides of tbe common Mr. Cummins, Bea hbourne, Wandsworth-common ; Mr. Jennings, Nightingale-lane ; Mr. Bose, Wands worth-common; Mr. Warrington, Wandsworth-common; and in tae districts on tbe north and . . .
Published: Friday 27 December 1867
Newspaper: Clerkenwell News
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 2464 | Page: 2 | Tags: none
BEBIDENCB
. . . Amelia, 17, Clarendon terrace, Belsize-road, St. John's Wood, spinster Spencer Rev. Charles V., Wheatfield, Tetsworth, Oxon, clerk Spencer George A. F., Turton, Lancashire, gentleman Spencer William, St. Giles'-street, Oxford, publican Spiers James, 1, Pem . . .
Published: Tuesday 18 February 1868
Newspaper: Bedfordshire Times and Independent
County: Bedfordshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 12557 | Page: 6, 7 | Tags: none
Advertisements & Notices
. . . surgeon Spearing, Miss Amelia, 17, Clarendon-terrace, Belsize-road, St Johli's Wood, spinster Spencer, Rev. Csarles V., Wheatfield, Tetsworthl, Oxen, clerk- Spencer, George A. F., Turton, Lancashire, gentleman Speneer, William, St. Giles's-street, Oxford . . .
Published: Saturday 22 February 1868
Newspaper: Oxford Journal
County: Oxfordshire, England
Type: Advertisement | Words: 15469 | Page: 2, 3 | Tags: Advertisements & Notices
WANDSWORTH COMMON AND THE PUBLIC
. . . WANDSWORTH COMMON AND THE PUBLIC. At the meeting of tho Metropolitan Board the 17th inst., a deputation of inhabitants of Wandsworth and Battersea was introduced Mr. Meadeu (the representative of the district), and memorial numerously signed was presented . . .
Published: Saturday 25 July 1868
Newspaper: South London Chronicle
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 472 | Page: 2 | Tags: none
MID-SURREY ELECTION, 1868,
. . . Josiah, Esq., Leicester House. Carshalton Balfour. J. Spencer. Ewi,, White I*o*l HUI, Red Hill. Bradford. A. . Esq., llelle Vue-place, Clapham. Brand, .lames. Esq,. J.P., Bedford Hill, Streatham. Buckmaster, J. C.. Esq., St. .lohn's Hill. Battersea. Bircbam . . .
Published: Saturday 12 September 1868
Newspaper: South London Press
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 312 | Page: 4 | Tags: none
land ROUTE. It\ Vmi-VUATION by STEAM with INDIA, CHINA, V _ .rTRAUA, Ac, rift EGYPT, Irom SCVTHAMTTON ..
. . . Edward, Esq., Clapham-common. Coleman, Robert E., Esq., South Fields, Wandsworth. Cobb. Standee. Esq., Surbiton. Cockerell, G. J., Esq., Wandsworth. Cooper, James, Esq., Richmond. Gerry. Edward, Esq., Essex House, West Hill, Wandsworth. Chadwick. Edwin, Esq . . .
Published: Saturday 12 September 1868
Newspaper: Morning Post
County: London, England
Type: Advertisement | Words: 11172 | Page: 1, 4, 8 | Tags: Classifieds
BLACKWALL LINE of PACKETS-MEL- HOCRNB (Port Phillip), Direct-Messrs. GREEN'S Ship HIGHFLYER, 1209 tons. Curtain ..
. . . A. Bowring, Esq. . . 10 0 J. Hole, Esq 10 0 Right Hon. H A. Bruce, Right Hon. Sir Wm. Hntt, M.P 30 6 M.P. 10 0 Mr. J. C. Buckmaster 5 0 Tlio Earl of Lichfield 60 0 Cassell, Petter, and Galpiu .0 0 Win. ./ones Loy.l, Esq 50 0 .T. 1. Ciieethani, Esq 25 . . .
Published: Friday 25 September 1868
Newspaper: London Evening Standard
County: London, England
Type: Advertisement | Words: 34124 | Page: 1, 4, 7, 8 | Tags: Classifieds
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1868
. . . Edward, Esq., Clapham-common. Coleman, Robert E., Esq.. South Helds, Wandsworth. Cobb. Rhodes, Esq., Surbiton. Cockerell, G. J., Esq. Wandsworth Cooper, James, Esq,, Richmond. Corry, Edward, Esq Essex House, West-hill, Wandsworth Chadwick, Edwin, Esq. . . .
Published: Saturday 14 November 1868
Newspaper: Surrey Comet
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 1982 | Page: 1 | Tags: none
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1868
. . . Edward, Esq , Clapham-common. Coleman, Robert E., Esq . South Fields, Wandsworth. Cobb, Rhodes. Esq., Surbiton. Cockerell, C. , Esq. Wandsworth Cooper, James, Esq., Richmond. Cony. Edward, Estj. Essex House, West-hill, Wandsworth Chadwick, Edwin, Esq . . .
Published: Saturday 21 November 1868
Newspaper: Surrey Comet
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 2024 | Page: 1 | Tags: none
THE South London Press, Saturday, February 13, 1869
. . . Brodrick. Ishall be happy to act with him in the matter of the first resolution. regards the secondthe preservation of Wandsworth Common shall only be too glad of the opportunity to help so desirable au object. But the neighbourhood must itself first come . . .
Published: Saturday 13 February 1869
Newspaper: South London Press
County: London, England
Type: Article | Words: 1217 | Page: 4 | Tags: none
COPY OF RETURN, pursuant to 7 and 8 Vict., Cap. 32
. . . Waddesdon. Bucks, farmer Bloom, Mrs. Harriet, Newport, I. w widow Bloomfleld, Rev. 8. Thomas, 23, Oberstein-road, New Wandsworth, D.D. Bloxham, Miss Emma, Oxford, spinster Bloxham, Miss Frances, Oxford, spinster Bloxham, Miss Maria, Oxford, spinster . . .
Published: Saturday 20 February 1869
Newspaper: Reading Mercury
County: Berkshire, England
Type: Article | Words: 15821 | Page: 2, 3 | Tags: none"
"DICKENS
Indiana University Press logo
Journal Article
Dickens, "The Chimes," and the Anti-Corn Law League
Michael Shelden
Victorian Studies
Victorian Studies
Vol. 25, No. 3 (Spring, 1982), pp. 328-353 (26 pages)
Published by: Indiana University Press
[BNA: Link.]
"The Battle for the Common: Politics and Populism in Mid-Victorian Kentish London
Robert Allen
Social History
Vol. 22, No. 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 61-77 (17 pages)
Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
[BNA: Link.]
"a history of public space
contested public and private spaces in England. By Dr Katrina Navickas
Home
contact
the map
all maps
Political Meetings Mapper
case studies
Kennington Common
north Manchester
Peterloo
Stevenage
Croydon
Blackstone Edge
Sheffield
history of public space
timeline
definitions and typologies of public space
bibliography
sources and data
campaigns and projects
thoughts in progress
podcast series
books
bibliography
Table of Contents
Key reading:
Websites and online resources:
Current and relatively recent reports on public space etc:
Covid and public space:
GIS resources:
Printed primary sources:
Webpages and online articles:
Contemporary radical geography:
Enclosure and common rights:
Current privatisation/gentrification of public space:
Theory: new materialism
Local histories and a sense of place:
Locales:
Sheffield
Croydon
Stevenage
Urban improvement and gentrification:
The 'civilising' of popular custom debate:
Leisure and associations:
Ecological gentrification:
Public space, parks and politics:
Public order and public space conflicts:
'Greening', preservation, parks and garden cities:
Green Belts:
urban greening
Street life and fears of juvenile delinquency and deviance:
Planning:
Protest and legislation:
New town utopias and postwar reconstruction:
The 'new new urban history':
Street spaces:
Public health/sanitation:
Nuisance and annoyance
Housing:
The Environment:
Land reform and the 'Land Question':
Rural utopias:
Preservationist campaigns:
Planning and preservation:
Tenants' movements:
colonial and imperial spaces and planning:
Militarisation and requisition:
Key reading:
Matti Hannikainen, The Greening of London, 1920-2000 (Routledge, 2016)
James Greenhalgh, Reconstructing Modernity: space, power and governance in mid-twentieth century British cities (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017)
Christopher P. Rodgers, Eleanor A. Straughton, Angus J. L. Winchester and Margherita Pieraccini, Contested Common Land: Environmental Governance Past and Present (Routledge, Abingdon, 2011)
Stuart Hodkinson, 'The New Urban Enclosures', City, 16: 5 (2000), 500-518
Guy Shrubsole, Who Owns England? (Harper Collins, 2019)
Brett Christophers, The New Enclosures: the appropriation of public land in Neoliberal Britain (Verso, 2019)
James Winter, Secure from Rash Assault: Sustaining the Victorian Environment (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999)
Iain Channing, The Police and the Expansion of Public Order Law in Britain, 1829-2014 (Routledge, 2015)
Antonia Layard, 'Public space: property, lines, interruptions', Journal of Law, Property and Society, 2: 1 (2016), 1-47
Peter Clark, Jean-Luc Pinot and Richard Rodger, eds, The European City and Green Space: London, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg, 1850-2000 (Routledge, 2006)
Websites and online resources:
Who Owns England? — [https]://whoownsengland.org/ and [http]://map.whoownsengland.org/" target="_blank">Link.
National Library of Scotland Maps — [https]://maps.nls.uk
DB Estate — on Cressingham Gardens, Lambeth — [http]://www.db-estate.co.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Municipal Dreams by John Broughton: @MunicipalDreams and [https]://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Link.
LCC Municipal: [https]://lccmunicipal.com/ and @lccmunicipal
Defra 'Magic Map': [https]://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx
Department of Environment register of common land in England (2015): [https]://data.gov.uk/dataset/05c61ecc-efa9-4b7f-8fe6-9911afb44e1a/database-of-registered-common-land-in-england
'Sold from under us': [https]://council-sell-off.thebureauinvestigates.com/" target="_blank">Link.
Matteo Tiratelli, database of riots in Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, 1800-1939: [https]://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=853781
Right to Roam campaign by Guy Shrubsole and Nick Hayes: [https]://www.righttoroam.org.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Image collections (this may change):
University of Sheffield J R James Archive: [https]://www.flickr.com/photos/jrjamesarchive/albums/" target="_blank">Link.
Manchester Archives Plus: [https]://www.flickr.com/photos/55918222@N02/" target="_blank">Link.
Lambeth Archives Landmark image collection: [https]://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/" target="_blank">Link.
Britain From Above — Aerofilms collection of photos 1930s-50s: [https]://britainfromabove.org.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Timepix images of Ordnance Survey revision point photos: [https]://www.timepix.uk/map
Vision of Britain: Survey of London — [https]://www.british-history.ac.uk/search/series/survey-london
Imperial War Museum — Ministry of Works plans, e.g. of Stevenage: [https]://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205132811
Picture Sheffield: [https]://www.picturesheffield.com/" target="_blank">Link.
Current and relatively recent reports on public space etc:
London Assembly report on London's Public Space, 2011: [https]://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/Public%20space%20June%202011%20Webme.pdf
City of London Open Space strategy, 2014: [https]://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/environment-and-planning/planning/heritage-and-design/Documents/open-spaces-strategy.pdf
House of Commons, Public Parks committee report, 2017: [https]://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmcomloc/45/45.pdf
Landscape Research Group, cadastral maps of landownership: [https]://landscaperesearch.org/funded-project/2017-landed-cadastral-maps/" target="_blank">Link.
Dimitrios Bormpoudakis, Joseph Tzanopoulos, Evangelia Apostolopoulou, 'The rise and fall of biodiversity offsetting in the Lodge Hill large-scale housing development, South East England', Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space (2019): [https]://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FBIUDWFWUGY9QRTVV8GG/full
Andrew Smith, 'Paying for parks. Ticketed events and the commercialisation of public space', Leisure Studies, 13: 5 (2018), 533-46 [https]://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02614367.2018.1497077
Andrew Smith, 'Justifying and resisting public park commercialisation: The battle for Battersea Park', European Urban and Regional Studies, 26:2 (2019), [https]://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0969776418767731
Covid and public space:
British Medical Journal blog, 3 July 2020: [https]://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/07/03/covid-19-has-highlighted-the-inadequate-and-unequal-access-to-high-quality-green-spaces/" target="_blank">Link.
Government advice on management of open spaces: [https]://www.gov.uk/guidance/safer-public-places-urban-centres-and-green-spaces-covid-19
GIS resources:
Handily listed by Alasdair Rae of Sheffield University:
[BNA: ajrae.staff.shef.ac.uk/#resources
[BNA: ajrae.staff.shef.ac.uk/buildings/" target="_blank">Link.
Alasdair Rae's interactive map of Green Belt: [https]://alasdair.carto.com/viz/c1925a82-9670-11e4-ab1a-0e853d047bba/embed_map/" target="_blank">Link.
and [http]://www.statsmapsnpix.com/2018/07/green-belt-atlas-version-4.html" target="_blank">Link.
Alasdair Rae's map of land cover: [https]://figshare.com/articles/A_Land_Cover_Atlas_of_the_United_Kingdom_Document_/5266495
Printed primary sources:
J. J. Sexby, Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London (1905), [https]://ia802609.us.archive.org/31/items/municipalparksga00sexbrich/municipalparksga00sexbrich.pdf (PDF)
Medical Officers of Health reports into sanitary conditions in London boroughs, c.1848-1972: Wellcome collection, [https]://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/" target="_blank">Link.
Robert Hunter, The Preservation of Open Spaces and of Footpaths, and other rights of way (2nd edn, Eyre and Spottiswood, London, 1902): [https]://archive.org/details/preservationofop00huntuoft
Six Essays on Commons Preservation, by Henry W Peek (London, 1867), [https]://archive.org/details/sixessaysoncomm00peekgoog/page/n7/mode/2up
LSE collections of digitised material:
Women's Suffrage: [https]://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/suffrage
Street Life in London, 1877: [https]://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/streetlifeinlondon
Black Abolitionists interactive map: [http]://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/Map:Abolitionists/" target="_blank">Link.
Webpages and online articles:
[BNA: architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/mapping-londons-estate-regeneration-programme/" target="_blank">Link.
Norwood Society: [https]://www.norwoodsociety.co.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Doreen Massey, 'Landscape/Space/Politics/An Essay', [https]://thefutureoflandscape.wordpress.com/landscapespacepolitics-an-essay/" target="_blank">Link.
on footpath registration: [https]://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/04/memory-lanes-the-ramblers-trying-to-save-10000-lost-footpaths
on the privatisation of public spaces:
[BNA:
[BNA: Link. Social housing/class divides/squatting and public space: Anna Minton on gentrification and place-making: [https]://placesjournal.org/article/the-price-of-regeneration-in-london/" target="_blank">Link
Pasttense blog: [https]://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Link.
Class Walls — Cutteslowe, Downham and roadworks. . .
'We All Live in Tolmers Square' — Bartlett 100 blog: [https]://bartlett100.com/article/we-all-live-in-tolmers-square
Lucy Finchett-Maddock, Protest, Property and the Commons: Performances of Law and Resistance (Abingdon, Routledge, 2016)
Contemporary radical geography:
Alvaro Sevilla-Buitrago, 'Capitalist Formations of Enclosure: Space and the Extinction of the Commons', Antipode, Vol. 47 No. 4 (2015) 999 — 1020
Darshan Vigneswaran, Kurt Iveson and Setha Low, 'Problems, Publicity and Public Space: a Resurgent Debate', Environment and Planning A, 49: 3 (2017), 496-502 (and all of that issue — special issue on public space)
Margaret Kohn, 'Privatization and Protest: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Toronto, and the Occupation of Public Space in a Democracy', Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 2013), pp. 99-110
Margaret Kohn, Brave New Neighbourhoods: the privatisation of public space (Routledge, 2004)
Margaret Kohn, The Life and Death of the Urban Commonwealth (Oxford, OUP, 2016)
Florian Langstraat and Rianne Van Melik, 'Challenging the 'End of Public Space': A Comparative Analysis of Publicness in British and Dutch Urban Spaces, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2013, 429 — 448
Don Mitchell, 'People's Park again: on the end and ends of public space', Environment and Planning A, 2017, Vol. 49(3) 503 — 518
Antonia Layard, 'Property paradigms and place-making: a right to the city; a right to the street?', Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, Vol. 3 No. 2, September 2012, pp. 254 — 272
Antonia Layard, 'Public space: property, lines, interruptions, ' Journal of Law, Property and Society, 2 (2016)
Antonia Layard, 'Shopping in the Public Realm: a Law of Place', Journal of Law and Society, 37: 3 (2010)
Don Mitchell, The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space (The Guildford Press, New York, 2003)
L. Finchett; Maddock, Protest, Property and the Commons: Performances of Law and Resistance (2015)
Darshan Vigneswaran, Kurt Iveson and Setha Low, 'Problems, Publicity and public space: a resurgent debate', Environment and Planning A, 49: 3 (2017), 496-502
Don Mitchell, 'People's Park again: on the end and ends of public space', Environment and Planning A, 49: 3 (2017), 503-38
Don Mitchell, 'People's Park: Definitions of the Public, and Democracy', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85: 1 (Mar., 1995)
Mike Davis, City of Quartz: excavating the future in Los Angeles (1990)
Michael Sorkin, Variations on a Theme Park: the New American City and the End of Public Space (1992)
L Staeheli and Don Mitchell, The People's Property? Power, Politics and the Public (New York, 2008)
J Kayden, Privately Owned Public Space: the New York Experience (2002)
N Fyfe, ed, Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public Space (1998)
M Akkar, 'The changing 'publicness' of contemporary public spaces: a case study of the Grey's Monument Area, Newcastle Upon Tyne', Urban Design International, 10: 2 (2001), 95-113
T Banerjee, 'The future of public space: beyond invented streets and inverted places', Journal of the American Planning Association, 67: 1 (2001), 9-24
C. De Magalhaes, 'Public space and the contracting out of publicness', Journal of Urban Design, 15: 4 (2010), 559-574
B Fraser, 'Madrid's Retiro Park as a Publicly-Private Space and the Spatial Problems of Spatial Theory', Social and Cultural Geography, 8: 5 (2007), 673-700
D Madden, 'Revisiting the end of public space: assembling the public', City and Community, 9: 2 (2010), 187-207
R Paddison and J Sharp, 'Questioning the end of public space: reclaiming control of local banal spaces', Scottish Geographical Journal, 123: 2 (2007), 87-106
A Madanipour, Public and Private Spaces of the City (2003)
G. Macleod, 'From urban entrepreneurialism to a revanchist city? On the spatial injustices of Glasgow's renaissance', Antipode, 34: 3 (2002), 602-24
David Crouch and Gavin Parker, 'Digging-up Utopia? Space, practice and land use heritage', Geoforum, 34 (2003), 395 — 408
Shelley Egoz, Jala Makhzouma and Gloria Pungetti, eds., The Right to landscape: contesting landscape and human rights (Ashgate, 2011)
Gavin Parker, Citizenships, Contingency and the Countryside: rights, culture, land and the environment (Routledge, 2006)
Shelley Egoz, Karsten Jrgensen, Deni Ruggeri, eds., Defining Landscape Democracy: A Path to Spatial Justice (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2018)
Brett Christophers, 'Geographical knowledges and neoliberal tensions: compulsory land purchase in the context of contemporary urban redevelopment', Environment and Planning A 2010, volume 42, pages 856-873
Enclosure and common rights:
Christopher P. Rodgers, Eleanor A. Straughton, Angus J. L. Winchester and Margherita Pieraccini, Contested Common Land: Environmental Governance Past and Present (Routledge, Abingdon, 2011)
Christopher Rodgers, 'Environmental Management of Common Land: towards a new legal framework?', Journal of Environmental Law, Vol 11 No 2 (1999)
Nicola Whyte, Inhabiting the Landscape: Place, Custom and Memory, 1500-1800 (Windgather Press, 2009)
Wendy Darby, Landscape and Identity: Geographies of Nation and Class in England (Bloomsbury, 2000)
Peter Linebaugh, Stop, Thief! The Commons, Enclosures and Resistance (PM Press, 2014)
Ben Cowell, 'The Commons Preservation Society and the Campaign for Berkhamsted Common, 1866 — 70', Rural History, 13: 2 (2002)
David M. George, 'The Plumstead Common Riots of 1876: a study in mid-Victorian protest', The London Journal, 36: 3 (2011), 195-210;
Robert Allen, 'The battle for the common: politics and populism in mid-Victorian Kentish London', Social History, 22: 1 (1997), 61
Iain Taylor, 'Pressure Groups, Contested 'land-scapes' and the politics of ridicule in Sevenoaks, Kent, 1881-85', Journal of Victorian Culture, 21: 3 (2016), 322-45,
David Kinngray, 'Rights, "Riot" and Ritual: the Knowle Park Access Dispute, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1883-85', Rural History, 5: 1 (1994), 63-79.
Ian D. Rotherham, ed., Cultural Severance and the Environment: the ending of traditional customary practice on commons and landscapes managed in common (Springer, London, 2013)
J. W. Aitchison, 'The Commons and Wastes of England and Wales, 1958-1989', Area (1990)
John Aitchison, 'The town and village greens of England and Wales', Landscape Research, 21: 1 (1996), 89
Jesse Goldstein, 'Terra Economica: Waste and the Production of Enclosed Nature', Antipode, 45: 2 (2013), 357-375
Brian Short, 'Conservation, class and custom: lifespace and conflict in a 19th century Forest environment', Rural History, 10: 2 (1999), 127-54
Brian Short, 'Environmental politics, custom and personal testimony: memory and lifespace on the late Victorian Ashdown Forest, Sussex', Journal of Historical Geography, 30 (2004) 470 — 495
Briony McDonagh and Carl Griffin, 'Occupy! historical geographies of property, protest and the commons, 1500-1850', Journal of Historical Geography, 53 (2016), 1-10
Alex Jeffrey, Colin McFarlane and Alex Vasudevan, 'Rethinking enclosure: space, subjectivity and the commons', Antipode, 44: 4 (2012)
R. W. Hoyle, 'The enclosure of Preston Moor and the creation of moor park in Preston', Northern History, xlix (2012), 281-
Christopher Rogers, 'Custom and common right: waste land, enclosure and social change in west Lancashire', Agricultural History Review, xli (1993)
Sara Birtles, 'Common land, poor relief and enclosure', Past & Present, clxv (1999), 74-106
J. Langton, 'Forest fences: enclosures in a pre-enclosure landscape', landscape history, xxxv (2014), 5-30
Leigh Shaw-Taylor, 'Labourers, Cows, Common Rights and Parliamentary Enclosure: The Evidence of Contemporary Comment c. 1760-1810', Past & Present, 171 (2001), 95-126
Michael Williams, 'The Enclosure and Reclamation of Waste Land in England and Wales in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 51 (1970), 55-69
Leonard Baker, 'Human and Animal Trespass as Protest: Space and Continuity in Rural Somerset and Dorset', History Workshop Journal, ? (2019)
H. R. French, 'Urban common rights, enclosure and the market: Clitheroe Town Moors, 1764 — 1802', Agricultural History Review, 51: 1 (), 40 — 68
Jane Humphries, 'Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women: The Proletarianization of Families in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries', Economic History Review, 50: 1 (1990), 17-42
Carl Griffin, 'Becoming Private Property: Custom, Law, and the Geographies of 'Ownership' in 18thand 19th-Century England', Environment and Planning A, 42:3 (2012), 747-62
Timothy Shakesheff, Rural conflict, crime and protest: Herefordshire, 1800-1860 (2003)
Mark Bowden, Graham Brown and Nicky Smith, An Archaeology of Town Commons in England (English Heritage, 2009)
Brodie Waddell, 'Policing the Commons in the Vale of Yorkshire, c1550-1850', in Ian D Rotherham, ed., Cultural Severance and the Environment (2013)
Matthew Cragoe and Briony McDonagh, 'Parliamentary enclosure, vermin and the cultural life of English parishes, 1750-1850', Continuity and Change, 28: 1 (2013)
Briony McDonagh, 'Landscape, territory and common rights in medieval East Yorkshire', Landscape History, ? (2019)
Briony McDonagh and David Crouch, 'Turf Wars: conflict and co-operation in the management of Wallingfen, East Yorkshire, 1281-1781', Agricultural History Review, 64: 11 (2016), 133-56
Leigh Shaw-Taylor, 'The management of common land in the lowlands of southern England, c1500-1850', in M. DeMoor, eds, The Management of Common Land in North West Europe (2002)
Rex C. Russell, 'Parliamentary enclosure, common rights and social
change: Evidence from the parts of Lindsey in Lincolnshire', The Journal of Peasant Studies, 27:4 (2000), 54-111
Elaine Tan, ' "The bull is half the herd": property rights and enclosures in England, 1750 — 1850', Explorations in Economic History, 39 (2002) 470 — 489
Current privatisation/gentrification of public space:
Antonia Layard, 'Privatising land in England, ' Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law, 11: 2 (2019)
Antonia Layard, 'Planning Law and the Human Rights Act 1998', Journal of Environmental Law, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 349 — 391
Antonia Layard, 'Shopping in the Public Realm: A Law of Place', Journal of Law and Society, 37: 3 (2010)
Antonia Layard, ' Public Space: Property, Lines, Interruptions', Journal of
Law, Property and Society, 2(1), (2016), 1-47
Antonia Layard, 'Property paradigms and place-making: a right to the city; a right to the street', Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 3: 2 (2012), 254-272
K. J. Brown, 'The Hyper Regulation of Public Space: The Use and Abuse of Public Spaces Protection Orders in England and Wales', Legal Studies, 37(3) (2017) 543-568
A. Barker, 'Mediated Conviviality and the Urban Social Order: Reframing the Regulation of Public Space', British Journal of Criminology, 57: 4 (2017)
C. Little 'The 'Mosquito' and the transformation of British public space, ' Journal of Youth Studies, 18:2 (2015)
J. Coaffee 'Normalising Exceptional Public Space Security: The Spatial Fix of the Olympic Carceral' in M. De Backer at al. (Eds.) Order and Conflict In Public Space (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016)
P. L. Doan and H. Higgins, 'The Demise of Queer Space? Resurgent Gentrification and the Assimilation of LGBT Neighborhoods', Journal of Planning Education and Research, 31: 1 (2011)
E. Anderson ''The White Space"' Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 1: 1 (2015)
Theory: new materialism
Gerardo del Cerro Santamaria, 'Planning new Materiality and Actor-Network Theory: a review essay', Society + Space, 15 October 2019, reviewing R. A. Beauregard, Planning Matter: Acting with Things (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2015)
Hans Schouwenburg, 'Back to the Future? History, material culture and new materialism', International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 3: 1 (2015), 59-72
Frank Trentman, 'Materiality in the future of history: things, practices and politics', Journal of British Studies, 48: 2 (2009)
Chris Otter, 'Locating matter: the place of materiality in urban history', in Tony Bennet and Patrick Joyce, eds., Material Powers: Cultural Studies, History and the Material Turn (London, 2010), 38-59
Local histories and a sense of place:
Gillian Tindall, The Fields Beneath: the History of One London Village (1977; paperback ed. Eland, London, 2010)
K. D. M. Snell, Parish and Belonging: Community, Identity and Welfare in England and Wales, 1700-1950 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006)
Michael Woods, 'Engaging the global countryside: globalisation, hybridity and the reconstitution of rural space', Progress in Human Geography, 31: 4 (2007), 485-507
Tony Parker, The People of Providence: a housing estate and some of its inhabitants (Eland, London, 1983)
Lionel Rose, 'Rogues and Vagabonds': Vagrant Underworld in Britain 1815-1985
Brodie Waddell, 'Governing England through the manor courts, 1550-1850', Historical Journal, 55: 2 (2012), 279-315
Locales:
Sheffield
Ian Taylor, Karen Evans and Penny Fraser, eds., A Tale of Two Cities: a study in Manchester and Sheffield (Routledge, London, 1996)
Sheffield as it is (Sheffield, 1852)
Robert Eadon Leader, Sheffield in the 18th century
Dennis Smith, Conflict and Compromise: Class Formation in English Society 1830-1914 (Routledge, Abingdon, 1982)
Richard Thomas Simmons, 'Planning Industrial Development: the Norfolk Estate, Sheffield, 1800-1914', Planning Perspectives, 12: 4 (1997)
J. H. Stainton, The Making of Sheffield, 1865-1914 (1924)
William Hampton, Democracy and Community: a study of politics in Sheffield (1970)
Larry Bennett, Neighborhood Politics: Chicago and Sheffield (Routledge, 1997)
Herbert Hawson, Sheffield: the Growth of a City, 1893-1926 (1968)
Rupert Hebblethwaite, 'The municipal housing programme in Sheffield before 1914', Architectural History, 30 (1987), 143-79
Tim Willis, 'Contributing to a real socialist commonwealth: municipal socialism and health care in Sheffield (1918-1930)', in Der Munizipalsozialismus in Europa /Le socialisme municipal en Europe, eds, Uwe Khl (Institut Historique Allemand Paris De Gruyter, 2001)
Croydon
Nicholas Goddard, 'Sanitate Crescamus: Water Supply, Sewage Disposal and Environmental Values in a Victorian Suburb', in Bill Luckin et all, Resources of the City: Contributions to an Environmental History of Modern Europe (Routledge, 2005)
Oliver Marriott, The Property Boom (Hamish Hamilton, 1967)
J. N. Morris, Religion and Urban Change: Croydon, 1840-1914 (RHS, Boydell Press, 1992)
E. H. Hare and G. K. Shaw, Mental Health on a New Housing Estate (Oxford University Press, 1965)
J. N. Morris, 'A disappearing crowd? Collective Action in late 19th century Croydon, ' Southern History
Dan's reading list: [https]://docs.google.com/document/d/1jo46SkWYaljMU041LqT4kNz2BOxKlQvhmWvAlw2F25c/edit?usp=sharing
Stevenage
Bob Mullan, Stevenage Ltd: aspects of the planning and politics of Stevenage New Town, 1945-78 (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980)
Eric Claxton, The Hidden Stevenage (The Book Guild, Lewes, 1989)
Harold Orlans, Utopia Ltd: the story of the English New Town of Stevenage (Yale, New Haven, 1953)
Jon Lawrence, Me Me Me? the search for community in post-war England (Oxford University Press, 2019)
Urban improvement and gentrification:
Nicholas Goddard, 'Sanitate Crescamus: Water Supply, Sewage Disposal and Environmental Values in a Victorian Suburb', in Bill Luckin et all, Resources of the City: Contributions to an Environmental History of Modern Europe (Routledge, 2005)
Henry W Lawrence, 'The Greening of the Squares of London: Transformation of Urban Landscapes and Ideals', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 83: 1 (1993), 90-118
H. L. Malchow, 'Public gardens and social action in late Victorian London', Victorian Studies, 29 (1985), 97-124
F. H. Aalen, 'Lord Meath, city improvement and social imperialism', Planning Perspectives, 4 (1989), 127-152
The 'civilising' of popular custom debate:
A. Donajgrodzki, ed, Social Control in Nineteenth Century Britain (London, Croom Helm, 977);
Robert Storch, ed., Popular Culture and Custom in Nineteenth Century England (London, Croom Helm, 1982);
R. W. Malcolmson, Popular Recreation in English Society, 1700-1850 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1973);
Alun Howkins, 'The Taming of Whitsun: the changing face of a nineteenth-century rural holiday', in Eileen Yeo and Steven Yeo, eds., Popular Culture and Class Conflict, 1590-1914 (Brighton, Harvester Press, 1981).
Robert Storch, 'The Policeman as Domestic Missionary: Urban Discipline and Popular Culture in Northern England, 1850-1880', Journal of Social History, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Summer, 1976), pp. 481-509
Peter Bailey, Leisure and Class in Victorian England: rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830-1885 (London, Routledge, 1978)
J. M. Golby and A. W. Purdue, The Civilisation of the Crowd: Popular Culture in England, 1750-1900 (London, Batsford, 1984)
Andy Croll, 'Street Disorder, Surveillance and Shame: Regulating Behaviour in the Public Spaces of the late Victorian British Town', Social History, 24: 3 (1999), 250-68
David Churchill, Crime Control and Everyday Life in the Victorian City: the Police and the Public (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017)
Leisure and associations:
Andrzej Olechnowicz, 'Unemployed workers, enforced leisure and education for the 'right use of leisure' in Britain in the 1930s', Labour History Review, 70 (2005), 27-52
J. K. Walton, The British Seaside
Mike Huggins and Jack Williams, Sport and the English, 1918-1939 (Abingdon, 2006)
Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, 'Keep fit and play the game: George VI, outdoor recreation and social cohesion in interwar Britain', Social History, 11: 1 (2014), 111-29
Stephen Jones, 'State Intervention in Sport and Leisure in Britain between the Wars', Journal of Contemporary History, 22, 1 (1987), 163-182
Robert Snape, 'The New Leisure, Voluntarism and Social Reconstruction in Inter-War Britain', Contemporary British History, 29 (2015), 51-83
Mark Freeman, 'From 'character-training' to 'personal growth': the early history of Outward Bound 1941-1965_, History of Education, 40: 1 (2011), 21-43
Robert Snape and Helen Pussard, 'Theorisations of leisure in inter-war Britain', Leisure Studies, 32: 1 (2013), 1-18
Ecological gentrification:
Sarah Dooling, 'Ecological Gentrification: A Research Agenda Exploring Justice in the City', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33: 3 (2009) [https]://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00860.x
Sarah Dooling, 'Ecological gentrification: Re-negotiating justice in the city', Critical Planning, 15 (2008): [https]://criticalplanning.squarespace.com/volume-15
Hamil Pearsall, I sabelle Anguelovski, 'Contesting and Resisting Environmental Gentrification: Responses to New Paradoxes and Challenges for Urban Environmental Justice, [https]://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.5153/sro.3979?journalCode=sroa
Earl Jacoby, Crimes Against Nature: squatters, poachers, thieves and the hidden history of American conservation (2003)
Public space, parks and politics:
Lynn Hollen Lees, 'Urban public space and imagined communities in the 1980s and 1990s', Journal of Urban History, 20: 4 (1994), 443-465
John Michael Roberts, 'Spatial Governance and working-class public spheres: the case of a Chartist Demonstration at Hyde Park', Journal of Historical Sociology, 14:3 (2001), 308-36
P. T. Smith, Policing Victorian London: political policing, public order and the London Metropolitan Police (1985)
Peter Gurney, 'The politics of public space in Manchester, 1896-1919', Manchester Region History Review, 11 (1997), 12-23, [http]://web.archive.org/web/20070221172231/[http]://www.mcrh.mmu.ac.uk:80/pubs/pdf/mrhr_11_gurney.pdf
Iain Taylor, 'Pressure Groups, Contested Land-Spaces and the Politics of Ridicule in Sevenoaks, Kent, 1881-85', Journal of Victorian Culture, 21: 3 (2016), 322-45
Antony Taylor, 'Commons-stealers, land grabbers and jerry builders: space, popular radicalism and the politics of public access in London, 1848-1880', International Review of Social History, 40 (1995), 383-407
David Killingray, 'Rights, Riot and Ritual: the Knole Park Access Dispute, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1883-5', Rural History, 5: 1 (1994), 63-79
Neil McMaster, 'The Battle for Mousehold Heath, 1857-1884: Popular Politics and the Victorian public park', Past & Present, 127 (1990), 117-54
R. H. Hoyle, 'The Enclosure of Preston Moor and the Creation of Moor Park in Preston', Northern History, xlix: 2 (2012)
Sheridan Gilley, 'The Garibaldi Riots of 1862', Historical Journal, 16: 4 (1973), 697-732
Nan H Dreker, 'the virtuous and the verminous: turn of the century moral panics in London's public parks', Albion, 29:2 (1997), 246-267
Robert Henderson, 'The Hyde Park Rally of 9 March 1890: a British response to Russian atrocities', European Review of History, 21: 4 (2014), 451-66
Public order and public space conflicts:
Lisa Keller, Triumph of Order: democracy and public space in New York and London (New York, Columbia University Press, 2010)
Edward Royle, Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: Popular Freethought in Britain, 1866-1915 (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1980)
Malcolm Chase, 'The popular movement for parliamentary reform in Provincial Britain during the 1860s', Parliamentary History (2017)
James Vernon, Politics and the People: a study in political culture, c1815-1867 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993)
'Greening', preservation, parks and garden cities:
Green Belts:
Matti Hannikainen, The Greening of London, 1920-2000 (Routledge, 2016)
Peter Clark, Jean-Luc Pinot and Richard Rodger, eds, The European City and Green Space: London, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg, 1850-2000 (Routledge, 2006)
Fabiano Lemes de Oliveria, 'Green Wedges: origins and development in Britain', PP, 29:3 (2014), 357-379
Martin J. Elson, Green Belts: Conflict Mediation in the Urban Fringe (Heinemann, London, 1986)
M. Amati and M. Yokohari, 'Temporal changes and local variations in the functions of London's Green Belt', Landscape and Urban Planning, 75:1-2 (2006), 125-42
R. J. C. Munton, London's Green Belt: containment in practice (London, Allen and Unwin, 1983)
Marco Amati and Makoto Yokohari, 'The establishment of the London Green Belt: reaching consensus over purchasing land', Journal of Planning History, 6: 4 (2007)
D. Thomas, London's Green Belt (London: Faber and Faber, 1970)
Marco Amati and Makoto Yokohari, 'The actions of the landowners, government and planners in establishing the London Green Belt of the 1930s', Planning History, 26: 1-2 (2004), 4-12
G.E. Cherry and A. Rogers, Rural Change and Planning (London: E&FN Spon, 1996),
urban greening
Aya Sakai, 'Re-assessing' London's squares: the development of preservation policy
1880 — 1931_, Town Planning Review, 82: 6 (2011)
Tim Brown, ' The making of urban 'healtheries': the transformation of cemeteries and burial grounds in late-Victorian East London', Journal of Historical Geography, 42 (2013) 12 — 23
Kermit C Parsons and David Schuyler, eds, From Garden City to Green City: the Legacy of Ebeneezer Howard (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002)
Henry W Lawrence, 'The Greening of the Squares of London: Transformation of Urban Landscapes and Ideals', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 83: 1 (1993), 90-118
Nan H. Dreher, 'The Virtuo"
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a history of public space
a history of public space
a history of public space
contested public and private spaces in England. By Dr Katrina Navickas
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bibliography
sources and data
campaigns and projects
thoughts in progress
podcast series
books
bibliography
Table of Contents
Key reading:
Websites and online resources:
Current and relatively recent reports on public space etc:
Covid and public space:
GIS resources:
Printed primary sources:
Webpages and online articles:
Contemporary radical geography:
Enclosure and common rights:
Current privatisation/gentrification of public space:
Theory: new materialism
Local histories and a sense of place:
Locales:
Sheffield
Croydon
Stevenage
Urban improvement and gentrification:
The 'civilising' of popular custom debate:
Leisure and associations:
Ecological gentrification:
Public space, parks and politics:
Public order and public space conflicts:
'Greening', preservation, parks and garden cities:
Green Belts:
urban greening
Street life and fears of juvenile delinquency and deviance:
Planning:
Protest and legislation:
New town utopias and postwar reconstruction:
The 'new new urban history':
Street spaces:
Public health/sanitation:
Nuisance and annoyance
Housing:
The Environment:
Land reform and the 'Land Question':
Rural utopias:
Preservationist campaigns:
Planning and preservation:
Tenants' movements:
colonial and imperial spaces and planning:
Militarisation and requisition:
Key reading:
Matti Hannikainen, The Greening of London, 1920-2000 (Routledge, 2016)
James Greenhalgh, Reconstructing Modernity: space, power and governance in mid-twentieth century British cities (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017)
Christopher P. Rodgers, Eleanor A. Straughton, Angus J. L. Winchester and Margherita Pieraccini, Contested Common Land: Environmental Governance Past and Present (Routledge, Abingdon, 2011)
Stuart Hodkinson, 'The New Urban Enclosures', City, 16: 5 (2000), 500-518
Guy Shrubsole, Who Owns England? (Harper Collins, 2019)
Brett Christophers, The New Enclosures: the appropriation of public land in Neoliberal Britain (Verso, 2019)
James Winter, Secure from Rash Assault: Sustaining the Victorian Environment (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999)
Iain Channing, The Police and the Expansion of Public Order Law in Britain, 1829-2014 (Routledge, 2015)
Antonia Layard, 'Public space: property, lines, interruptions', Journal of Law, Property and Society, 2: 1 (2016), 1-47
Peter Clark, Jean-Luc Pinot and Richard Rodger, eds, The European City and Green Space: London, Stockholm, Helsinki and St Petersburg, 1850-2000 (Routledge, 2006)
Websites and online resources:
Who Owns England? [https]://whoownsengland.org/ and [http]://map.whoownsengland.org/" target="_blank">Link.
National Library of Scotland Maps [https]://maps.nls.uk
DB Estate on Cressingham Gardens, Lambeth [http]://www.db-estate.co.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Municipal Dreams by John Broughton: @MunicipalDreams and [https]://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Link.
LCC Municipal: [https]://lccmunicipal.com/ and @lccmunicipal
Defra 'Magic Map': [https]://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx
Department of Environment register of common land in England (2015): [https]://data.gov.uk/dataset/05c61ecc-efa9-4b7f-8fe6-9911afb44e1a/database-of-registered-common-land-in-england
'Sold from under us': [https]://council-sell-off.thebureauinvestigates.com/" target="_blank">Link.
Matteo Tiratelli, database of riots in Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, 1800-1939: [https]://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=853781
Right to Roam campaign by Guy Shrubsole and Nick Hayes: [https]://www.righttoroam.org.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Image collections (this may change):
University of Sheffield J R James Archive: [https]://www.flickr.com/photos/jrjamesarchive/albums/" target="_blank">Link.
Manchester Archives Plus : [https]://www.flickr.com/photos/55918222@N02/" target="_blank">Link.
Lambeth Archives Landmark image collection: [https]://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/" target="_blank">Link.
Britain From Above Aerofilms collection of photos 1930s-50s: [https]://britainfromabove.org.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Timepix images of Ordnance Survey revision point photos: [https]://www.timepix.uk/map
Vision of Britain: Survey of London [https]://www.british-history.ac.uk/search/series/survey-london
Imperial War Museum Ministry of Works plans, e.g. of Stevenage: [https]://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205132811
Picture Sheffield: [https]://www.picturesheffield.com/" target="_blank">Link.
Current and relatively recent reports on public space etc:
London Assembly report on London's Public Space, 2011: [https]://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/gla_migrate_files_destination/Public%20space%20June%202011%20Webme.pdf
City of London Open Space strategy, 2014: [https]://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/environment-and-planning/planning/heritage-and-design/Documents/open-spaces-strategy.pdf
House of Commons, Public Parks committee report, 2017: [https]://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmcomloc/45/45.pdf
Landscape Research Group, cadastral maps of landownership: [https]://landscaperesearch.org/funded-project/2017-landed-cadastral-maps/" target="_blank">Link.
Dimitrios Bormpoudakis, Joseph Tzanopoulos, Evangelia Apostolopoulou, 'The rise and fall of biodiversity offsetting in the Lodge Hill large-scale housing development, South East England', Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space (2019): [https]://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FBIUDWFWUGY9QRTVV8GG/full
Andrew Smith, 'Paying for parks. Ticketed events and the commercialisation of public space', Leisure Studies, 13: 5 (2018), 533-46 [https]://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02614367.2018.1497077
Andrew Smith, 'Justifying and resisting public park commercialisation: The battle for Battersea Park', European Urban and Regional Studies, 26:2 (2019), [https]://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0969776418767731
Covid and public space:
British Medical Journal blog, 3 July 2020: [https]://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/07/03/covid-19-has-highlighted-the-inadequate-and-unequal-access-to-high-quality-green-spaces/" target="_blank">Link.
Government advice on management of open spaces: [https]://www.gov.uk/guidance/safer-public-places-urban-centres-and-green-spaces-covid-19
GIS resources:
Handily listed by Alasdair Rae of Sheffield University:
[BNA: ajrae.staff.shef.ac.uk/#resources
[BNA: ajrae.staff.shef.ac.uk/buildings/" target="_blank">Link.
Alasdair Rae's interactive map of Green Belt: [https]://alasdair.carto.com/viz/c1925a82-9670-11e4-ab1a-0e853d047bba/embed_map/" target="_blank">Link.
and [http]://www.statsmapsnpix.com/2018/07/green-belt-atlas-version-4.html" target="_blank">Link.
Alasdair Rae's map of land cover: [https]://figshare.com/articles/A_Land_Cover_Atlas_of_the_United_Kingdom_Document_/5266495
Printed primary sources:
J. J. Sexby, Municipal Parks, Gardens and Open Spaces of London (1905), [https]://ia802609.us.archive.org/31/items/municipalparksga00sexbrich/municipalparksga00sexbrich.pdf (PDF)
Medical Officers of Health reports into sanitary conditions in London boroughs, c.1848-1972: Wellcome collection, [https]://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/" target="_blank">Link.
Robert Hunter, The Preservation of Open Spaces and of Footpaths, and other rights of way (2nd edn, Eyre and Spottiswood, London, 1902): [https]://archive.org/details/preservationofop00huntuoft
Six Essays on Commons Preservation, by Henry W Peek (London, 1867), [https]://archive.org/details/sixessaysoncomm00peekgoog/page/n7/mode/2up
LSE collections of digitised material:
Women's Suffrage: [https]://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/suffrage
Street Life in London, 1877: [https]://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/streetlifeinlondon
Black Abolitionists interactive map: [http]://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/Map:Abolitionists/" target="_blank">Link.
Webpages and online articles:
[BNA: architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/mapping-londons-estate-regeneration-programme/" target="_blank">Link.
Norwood Society: [https]://www.norwoodsociety.co.uk/" target="_blank">Link.
Doreen Massey, 'Landscape/Space/Politics/An Essay', [https]://thefutureoflandscape.wordpress.com/landscapespacepolitics-an-essay/" target="_blank">Link.
on footpath registration: [https]://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/04/memory-lanes-the-ramblers-trying-to-save-10000-lost-footpaths
on the privatisation of public spaces:
[BNA:
[BNA: Link. Social housing/class divides/squatting and public space: Anna Minton on gentrification and place-making: [https]://placesjournal.org/article/the-price-of-regeneration-in-london/" target="_blank">Link
Pasttense blog: [https]://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Link.
Class Walls Cutteslowe, Downham and roadworks
'We All Live in Tolmers Square' Bartlett 100 blog: [https]://bartlett100.com/article/we-all-live-in-tolmers-square
Lucy Finchett-Maddock, Protest, Property and the Commons: Performances of Law and Resistance (Abingdon, Routledge, 2016)
Contemporary radical geography:
Alvaro Sevilla-Buitrago, 'Capitalist Formations of Enclosure: Space and the Extinction of the Commons', Antipode, Vol. 47 No. 4 (2015) 9991020
Darshan Vigneswaran, Kurt Iveson and Setha Low, 'Problems, Publicity and Public Space: a Resurgent Debate', Environment and Planning A, 49: 3 (2017), 496-502 (and all of that issue special issue on public space)
Margaret Kohn, 'Privatization and Protest: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Toronto, and the Occupation of Public Space in a Democracy', Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 11, No. 1 (March 2013), pp. 99-110
Margaret Kohn, Brave New Neighbourhoods: the privatisation of public space (Routledge, 2004)
Margaret Kohn, The Life and Death of the Urban Commonwealth (Oxford, OUP, 2016)
Florian Langstraat and Rianne Van Melik, 'Challenging the 'End of Public Space': A Comparative Analysis of Publicness in British and Dutch Urban Spaces, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2013, 429448
Don Mitchell, 'People's Park again: on the end and ends of public space', Environment and Planning A, 2017, Vol. 49(3) 503518
Antonia Layard, 'Property paradigms and place-making: a right to the city; a right to the street?', Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, Vol. 3 No. 2, September 2012, pp. 254272
Antonia Layard, 'Public space: property, lines, interruptions,' Journal of Law, Property and Society, 2 (2016)
Antonia Layard, 'Shopping in the Public Realm: a Law of Place', Journal of Law and Society, 37: 3 (2010)
Don Mitchell, The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space (The Guildford Press, New York, 2003)
L. Finchett; Maddock, Protest, Property and the Commons: Performances of Law and Resistance (2015)
Darshan Vigneswaran, Kurt Iveson and Setha Low, 'Problems, Publicity and public space: a resurgent debate', Environment and Planning A, 49: 3 (2017), 496-502
Don Mitchell, 'People's Park again: on the end and ends of public space', Environment and Planning A, 49: 3 (2017), 503-38
Don Mitchell, 'People's Park: Definitions of the Public, and Democracy', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85: 1 (Mar., 1995)
Mike Davis, City of Quartz: excavating the future in Los Angeles (1990)
Michael Sorkin, Variations on a Theme Park: the New American City and the End of Public Space (1992)
L Staeheli and Don Mitchell, The People's Property? Power, Politics and the Public (New York, 2008)
J Kayden, Privately Owned Public Space: the New York Experience (2002)
N Fyfe, ed, Images of the Street: Planning, Identity and Control in Public Space (1998)
M Akkar, 'The changing 'publicness' of contemporary public spaces: a case study of the Grey's Monument Area, Newcastle Upon Tyne', Urban Design International, 10: 2 (2001), 95-113
T Banerjee, 'The future of public space: beyond invented streets and inverted places', Journal of the American Planning Association, 67: 1 (2001), 9-24
C. De Magalhaes, 'Public space and the contracting out of publicness', Journal of Urban Design, 15: 4 (2010), 559-574
B Fraser, 'Madrid's Retiro Park as a Publicly-Private Space and the Spatial Problems of Spatial Theory', Social and Cultural Geography, 8: 5 (2007), 673-700
D Madden, 'Revisiting the end of public space: assembling the public', City and Community, 9: 2 (2010), 187-207
R Paddison and J Sharp, 'Questioning the end of public space: reclaiming control of local banal spaces', Scottish Geographical Journal, 123: 2 (2007), 87-106
A Madanipour, Public and Private Spaces of the City (2003)
G. Macleod, 'From urban entrepreneurialism to a revanchist city? On the spatial injustices of Glasgow's renaissance', Antipode, 34: 3 (2002), 602-24
David Crouch and Gavin Parker, 'Digging-up Utopia? Space, practice and land use heritage', Geoforum, 34 (2003), 395408
Shelley Egoz, Jala Makhzouma and Gloria Pungetti, eds., The Right to landscape: contesting landscape and human rights (Ashgate, 2011)
Gavin Parker, Citizenships, Contingency and the Countryside: rights, culture, land and the environment (Routledge, 2006)
Shelley Egoz, Karsten Jrgensen, Deni Ruggeri, eds., Defining Landscape Democracy: A Path to Spatial Justice (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2018)
Brett Christophers, 'Geographical knowledges and neoliberal tensions: compulsory land purchase in the context of contemporary urban redevelopment', Environment and Planning A 2010, volume 42, pages 856-873
Enclosure and common rights:
Christopher P. Rodgers, Eleanor A. Straughton, Angus J. L. Winchester and Margherita Pieraccini, Contested Common Land: Environmental Governance Past and Present (Routledge, Abingdon, 2011)
Christopher Rodgers, 'Environmental Management of Common Land: towards a new legal framework?', Journal of Environmental Law, Vol 11 No 2 (1999)
Nicola Whyte, Inhabiting the Landscape: Place, Custom and Memory, 1500-1800 (Windgather Press, 2009)
Wendy Darby, Landscape and Identity: Geographies of Nation and Class in England (Bloomsbury, 2000)
Peter Linebaugh, Stop, Thief! The Commons, Enclosures and Resistance (PM Press, 2014)
Ben Cowell, 'The Commons Preservation Society and the Campaign for Berkhamsted Common, 186670', Rural History, 13: 2 (2002)
David M. George, 'The Plumstead Common Riots of 1876: a study in mid-Victorian protest', The London Journal, 36: 3 (2011), 195-210;
Robert Allen, 'The battle for the common: politics and populism in mid-Victorian Kentish London', Social History, 22: 1 (1997), 61
Iain Taylor, 'Pressure Groups, Contested 'land-scapes' and the politics of ridicule in Sevenoaks, Kent, 1881-85', Journal of Victorian Culture, 21: 3 (2016), 322-45,
David Kinngray, 'Rights, "Riot" and Ritual: the Knowle Park Access Dispute, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1883-85', Rural History, 5: 1 (1994), 63-79.
Ian D. Rotherham, ed., Cultural Severance and the Environment: the ending of traditional customary practice on commons and landscapes managed in common (Springer, London, 2013)
J. W. Aitchison, 'The Commons and Wastes of England and Wales, 1958-1989', Area (1990)
John Aitchison, 'The town and village greens of England and Wales', Landscape Research, 21: 1 (1996), 89
Jesse Goldstein, 'Terra Economica: Waste and the Production of Enclosed Nature', Antipode, 45: 2 (2013), 357-375
Brian Short, 'Conservation, class and custom: lifespace and conflict in a 19th century Forest environment', Rural History, 10: 2 (1999), 127-54
Brian Short, 'Environmental politics, custom and personal testimony: memory and lifespace on the late Victorian Ashdown Forest, Sussex', Journal of Historical Geography, 30 (2004) 470495
Briony McDonagh and Carl Griffin, 'Occupy! historical geographies of property, protest and the commons, 1500-1850', Journal of Historical Geography, 53 (2016), 1-10
Alex Jeffrey, Colin McFarlane and Alex Vasudevan, 'Rethinking enclosure: space, subjectivity and the commons', Antipode, 44: 4 (2012)
R. W. Hoyle, 'The enclosure of Preston Moor and the creation of moor park in Preston', Northern History, xlix (2012), 281-
Christopher Rogers, 'Custom and common right: waste land, enclosure and social change in west Lancashire', Agricultural History Review, xli (1993)
Sara Birtles, 'Common land, poor relief and enclosure', Past & Present, clxv (1999), 74-106
J. Langton, 'Forest fences: enclosures in a pre-enclosure landscape', landscape history, xxxv (2014), 5-30
Leigh Shaw-Taylor, 'Labourers, Cows, Common Rights and Parliamentary Enclosure: The Evidence of Contemporary Comment c. 1760-1810', Past & Present, 171 (2001), 95-126
Michael Williams, 'The Enclosure and Reclamation of Waste Land in England and Wales in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 51 (1970), 55-69
Leonard Baker, 'Human and Animal Trespass as Protest: Space and Continuity in Rural Somerset and Dorset', History Workshop Journal, ? (2019)
H. R. French, 'Urban common rights, enclosure and the market: Clitheroe Town Moors, 17641802', Agricultural History Review, 51: 1 (), 4068
Jane Humphries, 'Enclosures, Common Rights, and Women: The Proletarianization of Families in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries', Economic History Review, 50: 1 (1990), 17-42
Carl Griffin, 'Becoming Private Property: Custom, Law, and the Geographies of 'Ownership' in 18th- and 19th-Century England', Environment and Planning A, 42:3 (2012), 747-62
Timothy Shakesheff, Rural conflict, crime and protest: Herefordshire, 1800-1860 (2003)
Mark Bowden, Graham Brown and Nicky Smith, An Archaeology of Town Commons in England (English Heritage, 2009)
Brodie Waddell, 'Policing the Commons in the Vale of Yorkshire, c1550-1850', in Ian D Rotherham, ed., Cultural Severance and the Environment (2013)
Matthew Cragoe and Briony McDonagh, 'Parliamentary enclosure, vermin and the cultural life of English parishes, 1750-1850', Continuity and Change, 28: 1 (2013)
Briony McDonagh, 'Landscape, territory and common rights in medieval East Yorkshire', Landscape History, ? (2019)
Briony McDonagh and David Crouch, 'Turf Wars: conflict and co-operation in the management of Wallingfen, East Yorkshire, 1281-1781', Agricultural History Review, 64: 11 (2016), 133-56
Leigh Shaw-Taylor, 'The management of common land in the lowlands of southern England, c1500-1850', in M. DeMoor , eds, The Management of Common Land in North West Europe (2002)
Rex C. Russell, 'Parliamentary enclosure, common rights and social change: Evidence from the parts of Lindsey in Lincolnshire', The Journal of Peasant Studies, 27:4 (2000), 54-111
Elaine Tan, ' "The bull is half the herd": property rights and enclosures in England, 17501850', Explorations in Economic History, 39 (2002) 470489
Current privatisation/gentrification of public space:
Antonia Layard, 'Privatising land in England,' Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law, 11: 2 (2019)
Antonia Layard, 'Planning Law and the Human Rights Act 1998', Journal of Environmental Law, Volume 13, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 349391
Antonia Layard, 'Shopping in the Public Realm: A Law of Place', Journal of Law and Society, 37: 3 (2010)
Antonia Layard, ' Public Space: Property, Lines, Interruptions', Journal of
Law, Property and Society , 2(1), (2016), 1-47
Antonia Layard, 'Property paradigms and place-making: a right to the city; a right to the street', Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, 3: 2 (2012), 254-272
K. J. Brown, 'The Hyper Regulation of Public Space: The Use and Abuse of Public Spaces Protection Orders in England and Wales', Legal Studies, 37(3) (2017) 543-568
A. Barker, 'Mediated Conviviality and the Urban Social Order: Reframing the Regulation of Public Space', British Journal of Criminology, 57: 4 (2017)
C. Little 'The 'Mosquito' and the transformation of British public space,' Journal of Youth Studies, 18:2 (2015)
J. Coaffee 'Normalising Exceptional Public Space Security: The Spatial Fix of the Olympic Carceral' in M. De Backer at al. (Eds.) Order and Conflict In Public Space (Abingdon: Routledge, 2016)
P. L. Doan and H. Higgins, 'The Demise of Queer Space? Resurgent Gentrification and the Assimilation of LGBT Neighborhoods', Journal of Planning Education and Research, 31: 1 (2011)
E. Anderson ''The White Space"' Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 1: 1 (2015)
Theory: new materialism
Gerardo del Cerro Santamaria, 'Planning new Materiality and Actor-Network Theory: a review essay', Society + Space, 15 October 2019, reviewing R. A. Beauregard, Planning Matter: Acting with Things (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2015)
Hans Schouwenburg, 'Back to the Future? History, material culture and new materialism', International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 3: 1 (2015), 59-72
Frank Trentman, 'Materiality in the future of history: things, practices and politics', Journal of British Studies, 48: 2 (2009)
Chris Otter, 'Locating matter: the place of materiality in urban history', in Tony Bennet and Patrick Joyce, eds., Material Powers: Cultural Studies, History and the Material Turn (London, 2010), 38-59
Local histories and a sense of place:
Gillian Tindall, The Fields Beneath: the History of One London Village (1977; paperback ed. Eland, London, 2010)
K. D. M. Snell, Parish and Belonging: Community, Identity and Welfare in England and Wales, 1700-1950 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006)
Michael Woods, 'Engaging the global countryside: globalisation, hybridity and the reconstitution of rural space', Progress in Human Geography, 31: 4 (2007), 485-507
Tony Parker, The People of Providence: a housing estate and some of its inhabitants (Eland, London, 1983)
Lionel Rose, 'Rogues and Vagabonds' : Vagrant Underworld in Britain 1815-1985
Brodie Waddell, 'Governing England through the manor courts, 1550-1850', Historical Journal, 55: 2 (2012), 279-315
Locales:
Sheffield
Ian Taylor, Karen Evans and Penny Fraser, eds., A Tale of Two Cities: a study in Manchester and Sheffield (Routledge, London, 1996)
Sheffield as it is (Sheffield, 1852)
Robert Eadon Leader, Sheffield in the 18th century
Dennis Smith, Conflict and Compromise: Class Formation in English Society 1830-1914 (Routledge, Abingdon, 1982)
Richard Thomas Simmons, 'Planning Industrial Development: the Norfolk Estate, Sheffield, 1800-1914', Planning Perspectives, 12: 4 (1997)
J. H. Stainton, The Making of Sheffield, 1865-1914 (1924)
William Hampton, Democracy and Community: a study of politics in Sheffield (1970)
Larry Bennett, Neighborhood Politics: Chicago and Sheffield (Routledge, 1997)
Herbert Hawson, Sheffield: the Growth of a City, 1893-1926 (1968)
Rupert Hebblethwaite, 'The municipal housing programme in Sheffield before 1914', Architectural History, 30 (1987), 143-79
Tim Willis, 'Contributing to a real socialist commonwealth: municipal socialism and health care in Sheffield (1918-1930)', in Der Munizipalsozialismus in Europa /Le socialisme municipal en Europe, eds, Uwe Khl (Institut Historique Allemand Paris De Gruyter, 2001)
Croydon
Nicholas Goddard, 'Sanitate Crescamus: Water Supply, Sewage Disposal and Environmental Values in a Victorian Suburb', in Bill Luckin et all, Resources of the City: Contributions to an Environmental History of Modern Europe (Routledge, 2005)
Oliver Marriott, The Property Boom (Hamish Hamilton, 1967)
J. N. Morris, Religion and Urban Change: Croydon, 1840-1914 (RHS, Boydell Press, 1992)
E. H. Hare and G. K. Shaw, Mental Health on a New Housing Estate (Oxford University Press, 1965)
J. N. Morris, 'A disappearing crowd? Collective Action in late 19th century Croydon,' Southern History
Dan's reading list: [https]://docs.google.com/document/d/1jo46SkWYaljMU041LqT4kNz2BOxKlQvhmWvAlw2F25c/edit?usp=sharing
Stevenage
Bob Mullan, Stevenage Ltd: aspects of the planning and politics of Stevenage New Town, 1945-78 (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980)
Eric Claxton, The Hidden Stevenage (The Book Guild, Lewes, 1989)
Harold Orlans, Utopia Ltd: the story of the English New Town of Stevenage (Yale, New Haven, 1953)
Jon Lawrence, Me Me Me? the search for community in post-war England (Oxford University Press, 2019)
Urban improvement and gentrification:
Nicholas Goddard, 'Sanitate Crescamus: Water Supply, Sewage Disposal and Environmental Values in a Victorian Suburb', in Bill Luckin et all, Resources of the City: Contributions to an Environmental History of Modern Europe (Routledge, 2005)
Henry W Lawrence, 'The Greening of the Squares of London: Transformation of Urban Landscapes and Ideals', Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 83: 1 (1993), 90-118
H. L. Malchow, 'Public gardens and social action in late Victorian London', Victorian Studies, 29 (1985), 97-124
F. H. Aalen, 'Lord Meath, city improvement and social imperialism', Planning Perspectives, 4 (1989), 127-152
The 'civilising' of popular custom debate:
A. Donajgrodzki, ed, Social Control in Nineteenth Century Britain (London, Croom Helm, 977);
Robert Storch, ed., Popular Culture and Custom in Nineteenth Century England (London, Croom Helm, 1982);
R. W. Malcolmson, Popular Recreation in English Society, 1700-1850 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1973);
Alun Howkins, 'The Taming of Whitsun: the changing face of a nineteenth-century rural holiday', in Eileen Yeo and Steven Yeo, eds., Popular Culture and Class Conflict, 1590-1914 (Brighton, Harvester Press, 1981).
Robert Storch, 'The Policeman as Domestic Missionary: Urban Discipline and Popular Culture in Northern England, 1850-1880', Journal of Social History, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Summer, 1976), pp. 481-509
Peter Bailey, Leisure and Class in Victorian England: rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830-1885 (London, Routledge, 1978)
J. M. Golby and A. W. Purdue, The Civilisation of the Crowd: Popular Culture in England, 1750-1900 (London, Batsford, 1984)
Andy Croll, 'Street Disorder, Surveillance and Shame: Regulating Behaviour in the Public Spaces of the late Victorian British Town', Social History, 24: 3 (1999), 250-68
David Churchill, Crime Control and Everyday Life in the Victorian City: the Police and the Public (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017)
Leisure and associations:
Andrzej Olechnowicz, 'Unemployed workers, enforced leisure and education for the 'right use of leisure' in Britain in the 1930s', Labour History Review, 70 (2005), 27-52
J. K. Walton, The British Seaside
Mike Huggins and Jack Williams, Sport and the English, 1918-1939 (Abingdon, 2006)
Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska, 'Keep fit and play the game: George VI, outdoor recreation and social cohesion in interwar Britain', Social History, 11: 1 (2014), 111-29
Stephen Jones, 'State Intervention in Sport and Leisure in Britain between the Wars', Journal of Contemporary History, 22, 1 (1987), 163-182
Robert Snape, 'The New Leisure, Voluntarism and Social Reconstruction in Inter-War Britain', Contemporary British History, 29 (2015), 51-83
Mark Freeman, 'From 'character-training' to 'personal growth': the early history of Outward Bound 1941-1965_, History of Education, 40: 1 (2011), 21-43
Robert Snape and Helen Pussard, 'Theorisations of leisure in inter-war Britain', Leisure Studies, 32: 1 (2013), 1-18
Ecological gentrification:
Sarah Dooling, 'Ecological Gentrification: A Research Agenda Exploring Justice in the City', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 33: 3 (2009) [https]://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00860.x
Sarah Dooling, 'Ecological gentrification: Re-negotiating justice in the city', Critical Planning, 15 (2008): [https]://criticalplanning.squarespace.com/volume-15
Hamil Pearsall, I sabelle Anguelovski, 'Contesting and Resisting Environmental Gentrification: Responses to New Paradoxes and Challenges for Urban Environmental Justice, [https]://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.5153/sro.3979?journalCode=sroa
Karl Jacoby, Crimes Against Nature: squatters, poachers, thieves and the hidden history of American conservation (2003)
Public space, parks and politics:
Lynn Hollen Lees, 'Urban public space and imagined communities in the 1980s and 1990s', Journal of Urban History, 20: 4 (1994), 443-465
John Michael Roberts, 'Spatial Governance and working-class public spheres: the case of a Chartist Demonstration at Hyde Park', Journal of Historical Sociology, 14:3 (2001), 308-36
P. T. Smith, Policing Victorian London: political policing, public order and the London Metropolitan Police (1985)
Peter Gurney, 'The politics of public space in Manchester, 1896-1919', Manchester Region History Review, 11 (1997), 12-23, [http]://web.archive.org/web/20070221172231/[http]://www.mcrh.mmu.ac.uk:80/pubs/pdf/mrhr_11_gurney.pdf
Iain Taylor, 'Pressure Groups, Contested Land-Spaces and the Politics of Ridicule in Sevenoaks, Kent, 1881-85', Journal of Victorian Culture, 21: 3 (2016), 322-45
Antony Taylor, 'Commons-stealers, land grabbers and jerry builders: space, popular radicalism and the politics of public access in London, 1848-1880', International Review of Social History, 40 (1995), 383-407
David Killingray, 'Rights, Riot and Ritual: the Knole Park Access Dispute, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1883-5', Rural History, 5: 1 (1994), 63-79
Neil McMaster, 'The Battle for Mousehold Heath, 1857-1884: Popular Politics and the Victorian public park', Past & Present, 127 (1990), 117-54
R. H. Hoyle, 'The Enclosure of Preston Moor and the Creation of Moor Park in Preston', Northern History, xlix: 2 (2012)
Sheridan Gilley, 'The Garibaldi Riots of 1862', Historical Journal, 16: 4 (1973), 697-732
Nan H Dreker, 'the virtuous and the verminous: turn of the century moral panics in London's public parks', Albion, 29:2 (1997), 246-267
Robert Henderson,'The Hyde Park Rally of 9 March 1890: a British response to Russian atrocities', European Review of History, 21: 4 (2014), 451-66
Public order and public space conflicts:
Lisa Keller, Triumph of Order: democracy and public space in New York and London (New York, Columbia University Press, 2010)
Edward Royle, Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: Popular Freethought in Britain, 1866-1915 (Manchester, Manc"
"[https]://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/streetlifeinlondon
Street Life in London
Street Life in London Book Cover
Page contents > John Thomson | Read Online | Images
Street Life in London, published in 1876-7, consists of a series of articles by the radical journalist Adolphe Smith and the photographer John Thomson. The pieces are short but full of detail, based on interviews with a range of men and women who eked out a precarious and marginal existence working on the streets of London, including flower-sellers, chimney-sweeps, shoe-blacks, chair-caners, musicians, dustmen and locksmiths. The subject matter of Street Life was not new the second half of the 19th century saw an increasing interest in urban poverty and social conditions but the unique selling point of Street Life was a series of photographs 'taken from life' by Thomson. The authors felt at the time that the images lent authenticity to the text, and their book is now regarded as a key work in the history of documentary photography.
Published copy of volume 1 of Street Life in London (Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London, 1877) by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith.
John Thomson
John Thomson was a talented and influential photographer, who had spent ten years travelling in, and taking photographs of, the Far East. On his return to London he joined with Adolphe Smith, a socialist journalist, in a project to photograph the street life of the London poor. The volumes were published in monthly parts as Street Life in London, and were an early example of social and documentary photography.
Read Online
You can read Street Life in London online or download a PDF version."
"allen battersea vestry 1866
[BNA: Link.]
"CHARTER OF THE FOREST
[BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_Forest
harter of the Forest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Charter of the Forest, 1225 reissue, held by the British Library
The Charter of the Forest of 1217 (Latin: Carta Foresta) is a charter that re-established for free men rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs. Many of its provisions were in force for centuries afterwards.[1]
It was originally sealed in England by the young King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke.[2] It was in many ways a companion document to Magna Carta.[3] The Charter redressed some applications of the Anglo-Norman Forest Law that had been extended and abused by William Rufus.
Contents
1 History
2 Contents
3 Development
4 Significance
5 Surviving copies
6 In Popular Culture
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
History
"Forest"[4] to the Normans meant an enclosed area where the monarch (or sometimes another aristocrat) had exclusive rights to animals of the chase and the greenery ("vert") on which they fed.[5] It did not consist only of trees, but included large areas of commons such as heathland, grassland and wetlands, productive of food, grazing and other resources.[6]
Lands became more and more restricted as King Richard and King John designated greater and greater areas as royal forest. At its widest extent, royal forest covered about one-third of the land of southern England.[5] Thus it became an increasing hardship on the common people to try to farm, forage, and otherwise use the land they lived on.[citation needed]
The Charter of the Forest was first issued on 6 November 1217 at St Paul's Cathedral, London,[7] as a complementary charter to Magna Carta from which it had evolved. It was reissued in 1225[8] with a number of minor changes to wording, and then was joined with Magna Carta in the Confirmation of Charters in 1297.[9]
At a time when royal forests were the most important potential source of fuel for cooking, heating and industries such as charcoal burning, and of such hotly defended rights as pannage (pasture for their pigs), estover (collecting firewood), agistment (grazing), or turbary (cutting of turf for fuel),[10] this charter was almost unique in providing a degree of economic protection for free men who used the forest to forage for food and to graze their animals.
In contrast to Magna Carta, which dealt with the rights of barons, it restored to the common man some real rights, privileges and protections against the abuses of an encroaching aristocracy.[11] For many years it was regarded as a development of great significance in England's constitutional history, with the great seventeenth-century jurist Sir Edward Coke referring to it along with Magna Carta as the Charters of England's Liberties,[5] and Sir William Blackstone remarking in the eighteenth century that:
"There is no transaction in the antient part of our English history more interesting and important, than the charters of liberties, emphatically stiled THE GREAT CHARTER and CHARTER OF THE FOREST "[12]
Contents
A medieval forest, from Livre de chasse (1387) by Gaston III, Count of Foix.
The first chapter of the Charter protected common pasture in the forest for all those "accustomed to it", and chapter nine provided for "every man to agist his wood in the forest as he wishes".[5]
It added "Henceforth every freeman, in his wood or on his land that he has in the forest, may with impunity make a mill, fish-preserve, pond, marl-pit, ditch, or arable in cultivated land outside coverts, provided that no injury is thereby given to any neighbour."
The Charter restored the area classified as "forest" to that of Henry II's time.[citation needed]
Clause 10 repealed the death penalty (and mutilation as a lesser punishment) for capturing deer (venison), though transgressors were still subject to fines or imprisonment.[13]
Special verderers' courts were set up within the forests to enforce the laws of the charter.
Development
By Tudor times, most of the laws served mainly to protect the timber in royal forests. However, some clauses in the Laws of Forests remained in force until the 1970s, and the special courts still exist in the New Forest and the Forest of Dean.
In this respect, the Charter was the statute that remained longest in force in England (from 1217 to 1971), being finally superseded by the Wild Creatures and Forest Laws Act 1971.[14]
The Charter was a vehicle for asserting the values of the commons and the right of commoners against the state and the forces of commodification.[15] The Act that replaced it was about the protection of nature and administering the commodification of natural resources.[16]
To mark 800 years of the Charter of the Forest, in 2017 the Woodland Trust and more than 50 other cross-sector organisations joined forces to create and launch a Charter for Trees, Woods and People, reflecting the modern relationship with trees and woods in the landscape for people in the UK.[17]
Significance
According to Guy Standing, the Charter "was not about the rights of the poor, but about the rights of the free. For its time and place, it was a radical assertion of the universality of freedom, its commonality."[3]
Surviving copies
It is claimed that only two copies of the 1217 Charter of the Forest survive, belonging to Durham Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral. The Lincoln copy is normally on display in the David P J Ross Magna Carta Vault in Lincoln Castle, together with the Lincoln copy of Magna Carta. A manuscript of the 1225 reissue narrowly escaped destruction in 1865 and is now available in the British Library (Add. Ch. 24712).[18]
However, there is another recently discovered copy of the Charter of the Forest in Sandwich Guildhall Museum in Kent.
In Popular Culture
The Charter has inspired the name of the Read-Opera The Charter of the Forest, which deals with themes such free people's relation to power, which were codified in one form by the original Charter of the Forest.[19]
See also
English land law
Forestry in the United Kingdom
R v Hampden (1637) 3 Howell State Trials 825, known also as the Case of Shipmony, leading to the Ship Money Act 1640
Notes
Henry III's Charter of the Forest: facsimile and translation
"William Marshal earl of Pembroke, ruler of us and of our kingdom" is mentioned by name.
Standing, Guy (2019-08-29). Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth. Penguin UK. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-241-39633-9. OCLC 1083358125.
A term derived from the Latin "foris", a door or gate.
Geraldine van Buren, "Take Back Control: A new Commons Charter for the twenty-first century is overdue, 800 years after the first": in Times Literary Supplement, 10 March 2017, pp. 23 — 25.
"The alternatives to privatisation and nationalisation". The Economist. 2019-09-12. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
Rothwell, Harry English Historical Documents 1189 — 1327 (1995) p337
Rothwell, Harry English Historical Documents 1189 — 1327 (1995) p347
Rothwell, Harry English Historical Documents 1189 — 1327 (1995) p485
George C. Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century, 1941.
"Forests and Chases: Henry III's Charter of the Forest". St John's College Oxford. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
William Blackstone, Tracts, chiefly relating to the antiquities and laws of England. Oxford. 1771-11-30. Retrieved 7 August 2018. (Oxford 1771) p283.
cl 10 read, "No one shall henceforth lose life or limb because of our venison, but if anyone has been arrested and convicted of taking venison he shall be fined heavily if he has the means; and if he has not the means, he shall lie in our prison for a year and a day . . . "
Standing, Guy (2019). Plunder of the Commons. p. 23. ISBN 9780141990620.
Standing, Guy (2019). Plunder of the Commons. pp. 1 — 23. ISBN 9780141990620.
Standing, Guy (2019). Plunder of the Commons. p. 23. ISBN 9780141990620.
"The Charter for Trees, Woods and People". Retrieved 25 July 2017.
Harrison, Julian. "How The Forest Charter Was Saved From Destruction". Medieval manuscripts blog. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
"The Charter of the Forest". The Charter of the Forest. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
References
Library resources about
Charter of the Forest
Resources in your library
Resources in other libraries
GC Homans, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (1941)
H Rothwell, English Historical Documents 1189 — 1327 (1995)
P. Linebaugh, The Magna Charta Manifesto (2008)
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Charter of the Forest
BBC Radio 4 "The Things We Forgot to Remember," Series 2 Episode 4, from 6:15 onwards
British Library article
The Magna Carta Manifesto Reviewed by Jeffrey Edward Green
Page on the Charter from St John's College, Oxford
Carolyn Harris' Charter of the Forest, on Magna Carta Canada 2015
The 2017 Charter for Trees, Woods and People
Lincoln Castle"
"STATUTE OF MERTON
[BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Merton
Statute of Merton
Long title Ancient Statute of Merton
Citation 20 Hen 3
Introduced by Barons of the Peerage of England [a]
Dates
Royal assent 1235 by Henry II Iof England
Other legislation
Relates to Magna Carta
Status: Repealed
A page from a book, with the title "A list of the English statutes" and two columns of text below, one for English and the other for Latin. The Statute of Merton is the first statute listed.
Kilty's English Statutes, 1811; Volume 143, Page 262. Extracts from the Statute of Merton.
The Statute of Merton or Provisions of Merton (Latin: Provisiones de Merton, or Stat. Merton), sometimes also known as the Ancient Statute of Merton, was a statute passed by the Parliament of England in 1235 during the reign of Henry III. It is considered to be the first English statute, and is printed as the first statute in The Statutes of the Realm.
Containing 11 chapters, the terms of the statute were agreed at Merton between Henry [1] and the barons of England in 1235. It was another instance, along with Magna Carta twenty years previously, of the struggle between the barons and the king to limit the latter's rights.
Amongst its provisions, the statute allowed a Lord of the Manor to enclose common land provided that sufficient pasture remained for his tenants, and set out when and how manorial lords could assert rights over waste land, woods, and pastures against their tenants. [2]
It quickly became a basis for English common law, developing and clarifying legal concepts of ownership, and was one of the English statutes carried over into the law of the Lordship of Ireland.
Having long been disused, it was revived under Duke of Northumberland John Dudley in January 1550 to enable lords to enclose their land at their own discretion, out of keeping with the traditional Tudor anti-enclosure attitude.
The Statute also dealt with illegitimacy [3] stating that "He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his parents".
It also dealt with women's rights dowries ("A woman shall recover damages in a writ of dower"), and widows' right to bequeath land ("Widows may bequeath the crop of their lands"). [4]
Chapter 4 of this statute was the Commons Act 1236.
Chapters 1 and 2 and 9 were repealed for the Republic of Ireland by section 8 of, and Part Iof Schedule 2 to, the Succession Act, 1965, subject to the savings in section 9 of that Act. The whole statute was repealed for that Republic by section 1 of, and Part 2 of the Schedule to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1983.
Contents
1 Dating and nomenclature
2 Extracts
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Dating and nomenclature
The statute was passed in 1235 and is named for Merton where it was passed. It is considered the first English statute. [5] Magna Carta was initially enacted in 1215 and is counted as a statute by some sources as early as 1225; [5] however, The Statutes of the Realm does not consider it as a statute prior to a 1297 confirmation. [5] The Charter of the Forest had been passed in 1217 but is not considered a statute.
Extracts
A woman shall recover damages in a writ of dower. [4]
Widows may bequeath the crop of their lands. [4]
He is a bastard that is born before the marriage of his parents. [4]
See also
List of English statutes
Henry de Bracton
Notes
The division of Parliament into the House of Lords and the House of Commons would not occur until 1341; Parliament met as a unitary body at the time of the passage of the Statute of Merton.
References
Merton's New Religious House Consecrated
Journals of the House of Commons (1803 reprint) Volume 27, page 574, originally published 1756
1788 — Before European Settlement
[BNA: msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000143/html/am143--262.html" target="_blank">Link.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Statute" . Encyclopdia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
__________________
Magna Carta (and"
"MERTON ABBEY — MERTON PRIORY
Merton Abbey is an area in southwest London, England. It lies between South Wimbledon and Colliers Wood in the London Borough of Merton.
Merton Abbey takes its name from Merton Priory, which once stood on the northern edge of the district.
The area is bounded by Merton High Street to the north, the River Wandle to the west, Christchurch Road to the east and Deen City Farm to the south.
Most of what is now the Merton Abbey residential area fell within the grounds of Merton Priory. The priory was founded by Gilbert Norman, the Sheriff of Surrey in 1114 and was built on the southern edge of the Roman Road known as Stane Street.
Merton Priory remained an important centre of learning in the area until it was sacked by King Henry VIII in 1538. Surviving sections of the old priory wall can still be found in many of the area's gardens, especially near Liberty Avenue.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the ruins of the sacked priory were gradually replaced by mills as heavy industry developed along the River Wandle. The south of the neighbourhood consisted mainly of lavender fields.
In the 18th century, the river itself was diverted from its original course and many waterways were created to drive the multitude of silk mills and bleaching works that had sprung up along this portion of the Wandle Valley.
To assist the local industries, the world's first railway line, the Surrey Iron Railway opened in 1803 and ran up what is now Christchurch Road. The line closed in 1838.
Merton Abbey, as a residential suburb, was developed in the 1930s, sitting to the south of the Liberty Print Works and Merton Board Mills. The neighbourhood was extended to the south with the addition of Brangwyn Crescent and neighbouring cul-de-sacs in the 1980s. This period also witnessed the demolition of Merton Board Mills, which was replaced by the Sainsbury's Savacentre. Merton Abbey station and railway line were also removed at this time and the line was replaced by the Merton relief road, Merantun Way.
Liberty Print Works were eventually refurbished and converted into the Merton Abbey Mills craft village. In recent years, the remainder of the brownfield site to the east of Merton Abbey Mills has been developed into a residential complex which includes luxury apartments, a hotel, a gymnasium and several restaurants.
The section of the River Wandle through Merton Abbey is a man-made diversion, constructed in the 18th century. The original river still flows beneath Liberty Avenue (once a river path) and turns north before Christchurch Road, resurfacing at Runnymede where it is now known as the Pickle Ditch before rejoining the modern river at the northeast corner of Sainsbury's."
"1861 CENSUS
Thomas ?? Reynolds
Born Denmark
[BNA: Link.]
"THOMAS REYNOLDS (1771-1836) b. Dublin, d. Paris
This is presumably our man's grandfather
His biography was written by his son, also called Thomas Reynolds
So presumably our man is Thomas Reynolds III
- NOTE — V OLD — IS THERE A MORE RECENT BIOG?
Thomas Reynolds
Alfred Webb
A Compendium of Irish Biography
1878
Reynolds, Thomas, the principal informer against the United Irishmen in 1798, was born in Dublin 12th March 1771. [We take the following particulars mainly from his Life, by his son, 2 vols. London, 1839a work containing much interesting and valuable information regarding the times of which it treats.]
He appears to have belonged to a wealthy Catholic family, and to have been educated at a Jesuit College in Flanders. During subsequent visits to the Continent he witnessed some of the principal events of the French Revolution.
Upon his marriage to a sister of Wolfe Tone's wife, in 1794, he estimated his property at 20,000, apart from business.
Reynolds settled at Kilkea Castle, County of Kildare, which he held on lease from the Duke of Leinster.
He was a member of the Catholic Convention of 1792; but retired with the Earl of Fingall when more cautious counsels began to prevail, and soon afterwards became a Protestant.
At the solicitation of Lord Edward FitzGerald, he joined the United Irishmen, was appointed treasurer of his district, and colonel of an insurgent regiment.
Only then, as he states, fully instructed as to the designs of the United Irishmen, and overcome at the thought of the horrors impending over the country, he in March 1798 gave the informations that led to the arrest of the Leinster Directory.
He then retired to Kilkea. During the Insurrection the Government troops, for no assigned reason, occupied and wrecked the castle. He computed his losses at 19,760.
His son says:
"It has been my father's lot since then to witness the ravages of war in the Peninsula, where Spaniards, French, Portuguese, and English, with their German auxiliaries, men trained to rapine, alternately plundered and devastated the country; but in all that disorder of which he was an eye-witness during six years, he has frequently assured me that he never saw such cool-blooded, wanton, useless destruction as was committed [by the King's troops] at Kilkea and the surrounding country."
Some attempts are said to have been made to assassinate him; and at length, harassed and worn out, he unreservedly went over to the government side, was lodged in the Castle, and openly gave evidence.
In October 1798 the freedom of the city of Dublin was presented to him. His son feelingly descants upon the ingratitude with which he was treated by Government, the lukewarmness of his friends, and the virulence of his enemies and political opponents.
A yearly pension of 1,000 for his life and the lives of his sons was settled upon him.
He was for a time Postmaster at Lisbon, and was sent as Consul to Iceland. His sons also received official appointments.
Reynolds spent the last few years of his life on the Continent. His death in Paris, on 18th August 1836, at the age of 65, is described as having been truly edifying.
Letters from the Earl of Chichester, the Marquis of Camden, and other persons of note testify to the high appreciation in which he was held.
Sources
294. Reynolds, Life of Thomas: by his Son. 2 vols. London, 1839. Richey, Alexander G., see No. 174.
331. United Irishmen, their Lives and Times: Robert R. Madden, M.D. 4 vols. London, 1858'60.
"VVG
REYNOLDS, THOMAS (1771 — 1836), informer, was born on 12 March 1771 at 9 Park Street, Dublin, in which city his father, Andrew Reynolds (1742 — 1788), had acquired a considerable fortune as a manufacturer of poplins. His mother was Rose (d. 1797), eldest child of Thomas Fitzgerald of Kilmead, co. Kildare, and it was at Kilmead that Reynolds spent the first years of his life under the supervision of a Roman catholic priest.
At the age of eight he was sent to a protestant school at Chiswick, near London, where he remained till the beginning of 1783, when he was removed to a jesuit seminary at Lige.
He returned to Ireland in the spring of 1788, and, his father dying shortly afterwards, he inherited considerable property from him. But falling into dissipated habits, in consequence of which he became seriously ill, he went for the sake of his health by sea to Rotterdam.
From Rotterdam he proceeded to Paris, and in the spring of the following year he made a journey through Switzerland into Italy, returning to Paris in July. Becoming alarmed at the progress of the French revolution, he returned to Dublin, where he speedily relapsed into dissipation.
In March 1792 he came of age, and, according to his son's account, into the possession of a fortune of 20,000l., exclusive of his share in the capital and profits of his father's business. Living thus in affluence, he passed his time idly and agreeably to himself. He represented the city of Dublin in the catholic convention of 1792, and continued to be a member of the committee till its dissolution, after the passing of the relief act of 1793.
On 25 March 1794 he married Harriet Witherington (1771 — 1851), whose sister Matilda was the wife of Theobald Wolfe Tone [q. v.] But, in consequence of the dishonesty of a partner, his business had at that time so far declined that he found himself in serious pecuniary embarrassment. His principal creditor was a wealthy Dublin merchant of the name of Cope, to whom his firm stood indebted for 5,000l.
Hitherto he had avoided politics, but in January or February 1797 he yielded to the solicitations of his friends, and became a United Irishman.
Shortly afterwards he obtained an advantageous lease of Kilkea Castle in co. Kildare from the Duke of Leinster, through the good offices of Lord Edward Fitzgerald [q. v.], by whom he was in November induced to accept the post of colonel of the so-called Kildare regiment, and subsequently, in order to enable him to attend the provincial meeting, that of treasurer of the county.
On 19 Feb. 1798 there was a provincial meeting of the Leinster directorate at Oliver Bond's house in Dublin, and it was only then, according to his own account, that he became for the first time acquainted with the real designs of his fellow-conspirators, and of their intention to seize Dublin and to subvert the government by force of arms. In terror — real or feigned — at his discovery, he consulted his friend and creditor Cope, and, having disclosed enough to arouse Cope's curiosity, he was invited to play the part of informer.
Cope, who was subsequently rewarded with a pension, was authorised by Cooke, the under-secretary, to stick at no sum — not even 100,000l. — in order to induce him to turn approver. Reynolds was willing to assent on less exorbitant terms. His name was to be kept a secret, and he was to be substantially indemnified for any loss he might sustain. Whether his readiness to reveal the conspiracy was due, as his son and biographer argues, to a desire to save his country from the horrors of a bloody revolution, or to less honourable motives, it is beyond a doubt that he was at the time, except for his lease of Kilkea Castle, practically a bankrupt.
In consequence of information furnished by Reynolds, government was able to arrest the provincial committee at Bond's house on 12 March, and so practically to kill the conspiracy. That Reynolds had betrayed them was certainly the opinion of some of the United Irishmen, and it is said that only his coolness and intrepid bearing on being challenged with his perfidy by Samuel Neilson [q. v.] saved him from being shot dead on the spot. Others were not so credulous as Neilson, and more than one attempt seems to have been made to assassinate him; and, in order to disarm suspicion, he took an oath before a county member that he had not betrayed the meeting at Bond's.
For a time his secret was so well kept that his property at Kilkea suffered severely from the military, who were freely quartered there, in consequence of his supposed 'croppy' politics. On 5 May he was actually arrested on a charge of harbouring Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and it was not till he had been taken to Dublin, and his identity revealed to Under-secretary Cooke, that he was set at liberty. It was impossible to return to his house, and so, having promised to give evidence at the forthcoming trials, he was accorded shelter in Dublin Castle till the storm had blown over.
The terms of the bargain were arranged by his wife, and, in addition to a pension of 1,000l. a year, to commence on 25 June 1798, with 5,000l. in hand, it was agreed that he might settle in any part of England he liked, and receive from government letters of introduction, recommending him and his family to the particular attention of the gentry of the place. He was the principal crown witness at the trial of John McCann on 17 July, but it was said that under the fierce cross-examination of Curran, it was rather he than McCann who was on his trial. He was, again, the principal witness at the trial of William Michael Byrne on 21 July, and of Oliver Bond on the 23rd, and was on the last occasion scornfully denounced by Curran.
After the suppression of the rebellion and the restoration of the metropolis to some degree of tranquillity, Reynolds emerged from his quarters in the castle and took a house in Leinster Street. By the influence of government he was on 15 Oct. made free of the guild of merchants of Dublin, and on 19 Oct. received the freedom of the city. But the feeling of the populace was extremely hostile to him, and one night, when Major Sirr was dining with him, his house was attacked by the mob. The assailants were driven off; but Reynolds, not feeling secure, removed shortly afterwards to England, going in the first place to Allonby in Cumberland, and subsequently to London.
After a short time he was compelled, by his habitual extravagance, to retire to Usk in Monmouthshire; but, returning to London, he eventually, in 1810, succeeded in getting himself appointed postmaster or packet agent at Lisbon. The emoluments of the office during the four years he held it amounted to 5,600l., but on the withdrawal of the British army from the Peninsula they sank so low that he resigned it, and in September 1814 returned with his wife to London.
Early in 1817 he was offered the post of British consul in Iceland, and after some hesitation, and stipulating that he should not be obliged to reside there, he accepted it. The appointment occurred about the time of the trial of Wilson and others for high treason in connection with the Spa-fields meeting. True bills were found against the prisoners by the grand jury of Middlesex; but, Reynolds's name appearing on the panel, public feeling was greatly aroused against government. 'He should retire,' said Curran, 'from public view, hid beneath the heap of his own carnage.'
Lord Castlereagh, who suffered acutely from the untoward incident, evidently took this view of the situation, and in July Reynolds was quietly shipped off to Copenhagen to take up the duties of his consulship. The salary attached to the post was barely 300l., and after a brief trial, including a visit in the summer of 1818 to Iceland, he determined to resign it.
Returning for that purpose to London, he was allowed to transfer the consulship to his son, and to travel for his health on the continent.
After Lord Castlereagh's death in 1822 he was informed by Canning that government desired to have as little to do with him and his family as possible, and that the consulship would be abolished but an adequate allowance allotted him. He retired permanently to Paris, where he loved to parade his pompous person in the Champs-Elyses.
He is said to have undergone a religious conversion in 1831. In the following year he was attacked by cholera, to the effects of which he eventually succumbed on 18 Aug. 1836. He was interred in the family vault in Welton church, Yorkshire.
In 1839 his younger son, Thomas (d. 1848), undertook the task of vindicating his father's character; but the investigations of Madden, and more recently of Fitzpatrick, do not tell in Reynolds's favour. A more judicial and less hostile view is taken by Mr. Lecky.
[Reynolds's Life of Thomas Reynolds, to which is prefixed an excellent portrait; Madden's United Irishmen, vol. i.; Curran's Life of Curran; Fitzpatrick's Secret Service under Pitt, containing much curious information; Howell's State Trials, vol. xxvii.; Lecky's Hist. of England in the Eighteenth Century; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography.]
[BNA: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Reynolds,_Thomas_(1771-1836)_(DNB00)true" target="_blank">Link.]
"'Wastes and Strays' Blog
Newcastle University
Rambling through Enclosure
Rambling through Enclosure: Excursion 1
It is a peculiar thing to start a job while in the midst of a national lockdown. Ifind an unsettling strangeness in never having physically entered my place of work and virtual introductions to colleagues — their faces looming in and out of focus on my computer screen as each speaks in turn. As with most of the population, my world has shrunk to the confines of my domestic domain. At a moment when the shared resource of our public health is under threat from the Covid-19 virus, we have been enclosed by government guidelines telling us to 'Stay at Home'. Like many working parents, Istart to juggle the accommodation of home working with homeschooling — my sphere is corralled further as Irelocate my computer to a bedroom in search of working 'space'.
[BNA: lh4.googleusercontent.com/4cOK2N7_6sQjCRZKBYqb_Pp7logTPvB2_Yxz8uolsnVwX2Ap20enlLFPTIX5ZpFMD2kNruW9o6six075iB00tyYoex_F_7XOBtczjVlqycC9rcoQT6q83sMMldz6ud--2WRuvY7QGMkeRqZJfQ" taget="_blank">Link.]
STAY AT HOME times three
% Copyright Jaggery, from geograph.org.uk/p/6437309.
Produced under a creative commons license.
As the artist-researcher on the 'future' strand of Wastes and Strays, I hope to engage communities around our four case study sites in creative explorations of their future visions for urban commons. My initial instinct is to get to the know the lay of the land; to invite local residents to guide me along a ramble, on foot and in word, so that I can come into contact with each common and each commoner's know-how. I want to convivially walk and listen — to stories accompanied by blackcap warbles and flight path whines, to trails of thought infused with the fragrant petrichor of rain-drenched soil, to common knowledge shared along trodden paths of tarmac shock, gravel bounce and tussock spring. Listening is characteristic of my creative practice, my attentiveness, however, stretches beyond the oral-aural conversation to an engagement with all the physical senses. It is an approach grounded in my understanding that embodied listening is both a corporeal and social practice that recognises we, the human, as well as the non-human, are always in relation. In the collaborative events Igenerate participants might find themselves journeying through trails of moving, reminiscence and story, making with materials, writing and performance. The shifting between different forms of creative expression aim to foster exploration from different points of view. Instead, Isit grazing on digital images of the four commons' landscapes and vicariously imagine bodily encounters at a distance. Isink into historical accounts unearthed by my fellow research associates. Immersed in the past; my attention snags on correlations with the present. Not surprisingly, my awarenesses are lured towards other instances of constraint, when barriers were erected to curtail the everyday activities of working people. In other words, my thoughts turn to enclosure.
Fenced. Photograph by Siobhan O'Neill
Although our four case study commons were all touched by the second wave of enclosure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the extent of incursion varied in each case. In Brighton, the common of Brighthelmstone was mostly overlaid by the piecemeal encroachment of the town, as open plain transformed into formal gardens and built facilities for the burgeoning seaside health resort. Whereas, the robust defence of rights of pasture made by the freemen of Newcastle ostensibly preserved the town's common lands against the processes of 'improvement'. The division and privatisation of common lands in England was arguably carried out in the name of increasing productivity. For urban commons, however, the notion of improvement extended towards ambitions to 'tidy up' and regulate open public space and to assuage the increased need for urban housing. All the same, enclosure was not simply a matter of inserting spatial boundaries within the landscape, of redefining legal definitions of property or economic rationalisation. Enclosure expropriated commoners from the land and in so doing, dismantled common people's way of life.
By Langley Bush I roam but the bush hath left its hill;
On Cowper Green I stray — 'tis a desert strange and chill -
And spreading Lea Close Oak ere decay had penned its will
To the axe of the spoiler and self interest fell a prey;
And Crossberry Way and old Round oak's narrow lane
With its hollow trees like pulpits I shall never see again.
Enclosure like a Bonaparte let not a thing remain,
It levelled every bush and tree and levelled every hill
And hung the moles for traitors — though the brook is running still,
It runs a naked brook cold and chill.
Remembrances by John Clare
Contemporary discourse on common property has redefined the commons to be viewed as not merely a noun but a verb as well. Historian Peter Linebaugh introduced the term 'commoning' in his book The Magna Carta Manifesto (2008), to depict the social practices through which shared resources are generated into a commons. As Linebaugh explains, "commoners think first not of title deeds, but of human deeds: how will this land be tilled? Does it require manuring? What grows there? They begin to explore. You might call it a natural attitude". Commoners physically interact with the land, it is through corporeal action that the common is collectively produced and maintained. Moreover, Linebaugh stretches this thinking further, for he wants us to understand that commoning is neither bodily action nor shared resource, but rather, it occurs in their inter-relation. Commons are embedded in the processes of labour that emerge in correspondence to a singular environment, whether field or upland, forest or coast. England's commons, then, were lands infused with subsistence activities; where people foraged, pastured their animals, collected wood, quarried stone and gravel, as well as hunted and fished. Commons were also sites where customary traditions, festivities and recreational activities took place. It follows, then, that the enclosure and privatisation of common lands and the extinguishment of common rights manifestly deracinated existing ways of life. Barring ordinary people from the commons dispossessed them from their communal routines, customs and labour practices based in an economy of diversified resources. As an artist who works with the body and performance, I find myself drawn to consider the changes in embodied practices and customs that were tied up in this transformation of land ownership and usage.
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Brighton. A Bird's-eye View from the Preston Road by D Havell, 1819
% Society of Brighton Print Collectors. Produced under a creative commons license.
In an earlier blog entry, fellow research associate, Sarah Collins, analysed a series of historical images depicting the gradual remodelling of the Steine in Brighton. Viewing the illustrations, I too was attracted to the reflections of hybridity in spatial and embodied materialities. In the 1797 image On the Steine, Brighton, East Sussex by John Southerby, I can see how the town's mariners would have landed their catches and hauled up their fishing boats in close proximity to the diverted eyes of bibliophiles in the library and the arrested ears of audiophiles tuned into a musical ensemble. The engraving A Bird's-eye View from the Preston Road by D Havell (viewed above) illustrates labourers cutting and binding up what to my untrained eye looks like sheaths of wheat. Brighthelmston Common here operated an open-field system in which individually owned strips of land were interspersed across the common. Once the crop was harvested, the land would have been opened up for pasturage. Reference to 'hempshares' indicates that hemp would have been cultivated on strips; flax too was propagated. In this way, the commons provided the resources for rope-making and linen sail production in support of the local fishing industry. Mid-field in the picture, lines of laundry arc across the grassland between the streets, depicting the common custom of hanging out washing. In this case, domestic cloth but traditional use could also refer to the commercial, to the hand-loom weaver stretching out a woollen piece or the mariner drying fishing nets, as seen further down the valley upon the Steine. The images help to convey how rights of use manifest in bodily action, in the activities of sowing and reaping, of laying out and mending nets, of fingers twisting fibres into cord.
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Beauties of Brighton Beach by Alfred Crowquill, 1825
% Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In J. A. Erredge's history of Brighton, he marks the changing occupation upon the Steine, from "the depository of the materials of the aborigines, for fishing," to "the place of rendezvous for the nobility and gentry, the beaux and belles delighting to promenade there, expend their small talk, and listen to the strains of military bands." As the seaside health resort developed through the enclosure of common land to publicly managed pleasure grounds, so the mixed function of this public space gave way to genteel leisure pursuits of the urban elites. The word 'aborigines', as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary means, "the earliest known inhabitants of a particular country". The mariners, then, are situated as the 'earliest known inhabitants', possibly in contrast to the leisure resort visitors, who as 'newcomers' gradually colonised the town. I wonder whether the mariners might not have wielded their antecedent claim to forestall the developments of the visitor attraction investors? Indeed, J. G. Bishop, another Victorian chronicler of Brighton, assigns the term "auncient custom" to describe the fishermen's usage of the Steine, evoking some sense of substance in the durability of tradition. In other instances of anti-enclosure resistance, commoners did argue judicial legitimacy based upon having exercised their common rights for 'time immemorial'. The legal defence presented by the Pockthorpe Committee against the city of Norwich's enclosure of Mousehold Heath (1880-83) is a case in point. The ascription of 'time immemorial' indicates how the longevity of customary practices, stretching back beyond individual living memory into collective remembrance, gave a sense of immutability. It also, Ibelieve, correlates with the understanding of commoning as an iterative process, produced and reproduced through the interactions between indigenous inhabitant and inhabited place. It is this sense that seems to inflect Linebaugh's assertion that commoning is independent of "the temporality of the law and state". Although he situates the protection of customary commons practices in the Charter of the Forests of 1217 (the lesser-known counterpart to the Magna Carta), he goes on to contend that the Magna Carta "does not list rights", but rather, "grants perpetuities". Here, he invokes a temporal elasticity, in which practices of common can be seen to be rooted in the past and propagating the future. In the struggle against changing common rights of use, commoners, like Brighton's mariners, aimed to both preserve their past-present customs and safeguard their present-future means of self-support. In similar vein, I suggest, the Wastes and Strays research project aims to open up an understanding of the past-present narratives of our four case study commons to enable citizens and researchers to co-generate multifaceted definitions of the present-future of the urban common.
From 1773, however, the future of the Steine lay in the hands of the Town Commissioners. Writing in Pleasure Gardens in Georgian and Regency Seaside Resorts: Brighton 1750-1840, Sue Berry notes that despite popular resistance from the town's fishermen, the Steine was enclosed in 1776. Ostensibly, she argues, because many of the new commissioners held investments in leisure facilities and acted in their private interests. The following 'improvement' of the Steine encompassed levelling the ground, laying new turf and the creation of footpaths to facilitate a more genteel perambulation. Trees and shrubs were planted, both as ornament and as shelter from sun, wind and salt. Sections of land were corralled by wooden fence or iron railing. The seasonal stream was channelled to a sewer. Visitor residences, including the palatial Royal Pavilion, were constructed to circumscribe the Steine; thus, cementing its edges. The extent of these 'improvements' represents a significant level of construction, and I might surmise that a sum of Erredge's 'aborigines' supplied the necessary labour. It is difficult to measure the effect of the loss suffered by labourers, mariner or agricultural worker, of common right means to supplement their wages. Certainly, the labouring-classes socio-economic position would have determined the need for some workers to become enclosers; paid to fence off land and plant hedges. Accordingly, Iimagine the same economic pressures that provoked the town's fishermen to contest the changing use of the Stein might potentially have entangled them in the physical acts of its enclosure.
The intertwining relational trails between the labouring classes and the enclosure movement drew me to wander into the work of John Clare, both as labouring commoner and poet of the natural world. In truth, the diversion occurred by happenstance; my egress was inspired by a turn in homeschooling towards the Romantic poets. It is not to say, however, that the "peasant" poet's nightingale or fallen elm made an appearance next to Wordsworth's daffodils or Blake's lamb in the Year 7 curriculum. John Clare has been characterised as 'the poet of the environmental crisis', for his work is seen to critique both the capitalist subjugation of the natural world in the enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the resultant environmental degradation seen today. Living through the enclosures of his native Helpston in Northamptonshire in the 1810s, Clare acts as a valuable witness to the ecological consequences. Just as the term ecology defines the relations and relationships between organism and environment, so Clare understands the mutuality between commoner and commons. Accordingly, his enclosure elegies speak of social and environmental collapse in the devastation wrought coevally on the natural landscape and on the rural labourer's way of life.
Enclosure came and trampled on the grave
Of labourer's rights and left the poor a slave;
And memory's pride, ere want to wealth did bow,
Is both the shadow and the substance now%
Thus, with the poor, scared freedom bade good bye
And much they feel it in the smothered sigh,
And birds and trees and flowers without a name
All sighed when lawless law's enclosure came;
And dreams of plunder in such rebel schemes
Have found too truly that they were but dreams.
The Moors by John Clare
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John Clare statue in the grounds of his birthplace
% Copyright Peter Turner, from geograph.org.uk/p/5098264. Produced under a creative commons license.
For Clare, the consolidation of arable land, felling of trees, diverting of streams and laying of new roads resulted in irreversible damage to the local flora and fauna and dispossessed commoners' of their social customs and independent livelihoods. However, Clare's recourse to work as a manual labourer in enclosure gangs and as a lime-burner appears to unsettle his anti-enclosure protest. Clearly, the social and economic reordering that emerged through enclosure was messy and paradoxical. Waged employment in the processes of 'improvement' did offer temporary amelioration from the effects of economic depression. Here, I notice analogous threads weaving through the narratives of Helpston, facing an agricultural depression, Brighton, encountering a decline in the fishing industry and Norwich, grappling with a downturn in the worsted trade. Clare, a landless labourer who's family consistently faced penury, had no option but to take casual work when available. Writing in John Clare: Nature, Criticism and History, Simon Kovesi astutely notes; "a choice is a product of socio-economic power, and he (Clare) had none". Iequally perceive the unexpected labours of enclosure in our pandemic present and potential future. Parents have adopted the role of teacher, extending both their working hours and areas of expertise in support of their children's education. Considering the subtleties of poetic interpretation, it is perhaps not surprising that I was pulled into a parallel learning of critical analysis alongside my daughter. Workers have been tasked with quickly absorbing new modes of job-related communication, mastering new software in its execution, from conference calling to editing video presentations. Manufacturing labourers have modified their processes to produce PEE and medical equipment, so enabling a craft distillery to make sanitiser, a flooring manufacturer to produce parts for protective shields, a trench coat factory to fabricate non-surgical gowns and masks for patients. Further parallels might be drawn in the way our current lockdown enclosure could transform working practices of the future. The apparent success of labourers' adaptation to home working has led some employers to question the necessity of paying high rental charges for city centre office space. Although there are potential benefits, a reduction in commuting could increase workers time with family and decrease pollution, the socio-economic position of workers facing a new economic depression could also lead to an acceptance of inappropriate working conditions and social isolation.
It is, however, Clare's ability to write from lived experience that weights his poetics to explore the common peoples' alienation from the environment and the attendant damage done to the common land. This position is most poignantly struck in the poem, The Lament of Swordy Well, when Clare humanises nature by giving a tract of enclosed land, not simply a human voice but the voice of a labourer on poor relief.
Alas, dependence, thou'rt a brute
Want only understands;
His feelings wither branch and root
That falls in parish hands.
The muck that clouts the ploughman's shoe,
The moss that hides the stone,
Now I'm become the parish due,
Is more than I can own.
The Lament of Swordy Well by John Clare.
In the poem, Clare deftly blends the land's experience of enclosure with the experience of hardship suffered by a labourer dependent upon parish aid. At the time, enclosure and poor relief were both perceived by the authorities in terms of 'improvement', where one aimed to maximise agricultural productivity, the other promoted industrious and utile labour. In contrast, Clare characterised both as conjoined forms of exploitation. Exploitation founded in enclosure's restructuring of natural resources and human labour as commodities subject to the fluctuations of the market economy.
Stepping back from Clare but maintaining his discerning eye, I notice in Erredge that paupers in Brighton were employed in "scavenging, cleansing, and watering the streets". In this employ, the bodies of the poor were harnessed up to "muck-trucks" to haul away equine manure and tied with ropes to "barrel-constructed water-carts" to wash down the roadways. In this way, Brighton's 'indigenous' labourers may well have been conscripted to maintain the roads and pathways, which had been newly carved across the common. It is difficult for modern sensibilities to imagine the physical effort of such labours but, suffice to say, Erredge likens it to the heavy work undertaken by convicts in a government prison. Eventually, he records, the parish officers were "shamed out" of this system of exploiting those "whose only crime was poverty". Only to substitute it with another "health-destroying" activity, the wheeling of shingle and sand from the beach to the workhouse in barrows. This, I reflect, is more akin to a physical task we might be able to recreate, although I wonder to what extent public participants would engage in such an action simply for an 'authentic' experience of the past. The workhouse — steeped in "dread" for Clare's 'Swordy Well' pauper, functioned as a routine threat meted out to the "able-bodied" who failed to observe a commitment to industrious labour. The drudgery acted as a deterrent. Another drudge that coevally exploited Brighton's natural coastal resources and workhouse labour was the collecting and crushing of oyster-shells in large iron mortars. Oyster shell was used in the construction of footpaths in the parks and, like burnt lime, as a fertiliser for the land. It was a material bound up with the privatisation and 'improvement' of the commons, both in arable land and in pleasure garden. In accord with Clare's double-bind, then, Brighton's out of work labourers became ensnared in the entanglement of enclosure, performing the physical tasks of a landscape transformation that ostensibly excluded them the land and its subsistence usufructs, which Linebaugh reminds us are the "goods or usages required for well-being".
Oyster Shell Collection
Photograph by Siobhan O'Neill
It is a recurrent narrative. It resounds in Norwich, when Mousehold Heath was similarly transformed into a public park by the city corporation in the 1880s. Through the local Act of Enclosure (1883), the inhabitants of neighbouring Pockthorpe lost the mutually informing common rights and economic independence that manifested in their local monopoly of gravel extraction and brick-making. Once again, out of work labourers, dependent upon the city's unemployment fund, were compelled to supply the physical toil that advanced the landscaping of the Heath. Writing in The Battle of Mousehold Heath, Neil MacMaster observes that over three hundred and fifty unemployed men on poor relief were taken on as manual labourers for the task. The extent of unemployment here points back to the unsustainable consequences of enclosure for the people who inhabited the commons, who became subject to the uncertainties of the waged labour market. Charged with the load of taking away the "roughness of various places", the hired hands prepared the ground for the materialisation of the landscape architect's plans. As human tools of enclosure they cleared land plots for turfing and tree-planting, excavated soil and banked it up for a new road, and poignantly, they broke down the edges of old gravel pits and filled up the holes. In other words, the labourers dismantled the remnants of the industry, which had, in some instances, sustained their independent livelihoods. Enclosure induced a profound change in commoners' relationship with the environment; although here the common transformed to public park, the broader 'public' were largely not involved in the management the land as commoners had previously been.
In an attempt to imagine the physical action implicated in grinding mollusc shell with pestle and mortar, Idetour, via a visual flashback, to the BBC One living history television series 24 Hours in the Past. The programme, as the marketing tagline promoted it, saw "six celebrities travel back in time to the relentless graft of Victorian Britain". Produced as an immersive experience, the performers spent ninety-six hours in a recreation of working-class industrial life, moving each day to a different form of labour and heritage location. Following the decline in their fortunes, the final episode saw the team arrive in The Workhouse, a National Trust property in Southwell. It was here, enclosed in the workhouse yard, that Irecall actor Alistair McGowan, striking a heavy metal rod into a wooden mortar to crush chunks of bone. Iremember how he physically struggled with the task, failing to complete even half of the expected quota. He spoke of the pressure ricocheting through the joints of his wrist with each thud of the staff. I was interested in the way the physical simulation seemed to put him in touch with an embodied experience of the past, actualising a bodily movement that has extensively disappeared from contemporary life.
I am aware, however, that living history, whether in the form of a television production or an immersive museum exhibit, can be problematic. In accord with broader critiques of the 'heritage industry', 24 Hours in the Past could be accused of presenting an overly simplified and commodified version of the past, from a historical narrative that might more accurately be seen as exploitative and unstable. On the one hand, the production amplified the voices of a typically under-represented working-class existence and certainly did not shirk away from representing the dirt, toil and hardship. On the other hand, the celebrity status of the participants and the immersive reality television format corroded 'authenticity' and manifested working-class life as "spectacle". Nonetheless, I am still piqued by the sense of embodiment in the recreation of bone-crushing in a conserved Southwell workhouse. I notice how interpretation emerges out of the bodily action, as the "expert" historical commentary develops in response to McGowan's reflections of the physical strain he experiences. So, historian Ruth Goodman, explains that for skilled labourers (potters, desk clerks, actors) the physical work of the workhouse "could destroy the tools of the trade, the hands", and as a result, labourers would be unable to return to their trades even when work became available. There is a reciprocity in the sense-making, here; it arises through the encounter between the 'participant', the material remnants of the past and the knowledge of the Victorian specialist. By fostering a playful and visceral engagement with historical narratives, performance can help nudge participants towards a consideration of the embodied and relational aspects of past worlds. There is potential here for our urban commons research to engage performance as a means to engender embodied ways of knowing. In this way, the recreation of commonplace activities that typically go unheeded may stretch understanding beyond the easily articulable.
Getting in touch with the past, Isuggest, evokes a mutuality and I hear how McGowan is touched back with affect by his corporeal encounter with workhouse labour. Struck by the "awful" task of "thumping" bone, he goes on to question whether "mental illness and depression" would have been an issue for workhouse inmates. The thought reverberates within the past-present connection, recognising how his present self would have been overstretched in this past world. As he concluded, " Ialways try to see a way out, but boy that would have really", he signalled to his head alluding to a prospective detrimental impact on his mind. Inote his use of gesture, here, to convey what seemingly words cannot. If Ilisten to the resonances of McGowan's insight within my past-present ramblings on enclosure, Imight attend to the deterioration in John Clare's mental health, as his life progressed further away from the unmitigated relationship with the natural world of his youth. Clare's poetry was also born out of immersion, it emanated from the proximity of open access, from daily wanderings across heath and common. His depictions of the natural landscape are absorbed, saturated with the minute detail of sight, sound, smell and texture, conveyors of an intimacy available through a commoner's know-how. When the enclosure of Clare's parish recast his right to roam as trespass the loss of the world he knew was intensely felt. It is a reminder that commoning is deeply affective; as commons emerge through relationship, so it shapes both human and other-than-human 'subjects'. Clare's subjectivity, then, was woven through with threads of the commons and his alienation from the landscape, in restricted access and its physical transformation, helped to prompt an unravelling of his self-recognition.
Into the nothingness of scar and noise, -
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
' IAm' by John Clare
The correspondence between mental wellbeing and access to nature equally reverberates within our present lockdown. Enclosed citizens across the country have turned to neighbourhood green spaces as a place for exercise, recreation and relief. Certainly, as Iventure abroad to walk along playing field and canal bank, the opportunity to view an open horizon lifts the dreariness levied by working within the confines to my domestic pen.
Walking the Blue Line
Photograph by Siobhan O'Neill
As I increasingly skirt around the proximal bodies of other citizens Isurmise a renewed interest in utilizing semi-natural spaces within the urban environment, with potentially significant impact for the future of urban commons. The bodily doings of recreation in urban common sites is something Iwill return to in the next Wastes and Strays blog. For now, as lockdown measures start to ease Ilook forward to immersing myself in the sonority, aroma and texture of our sites, hopefully in the socially distanced accompaniment of some local commoners.
Dr Siobhan O'Neill
Kett's Rebellion, 1549
On 10 July 1549 — 471 years ago this month — Robert Kett, along with his brother William and a crowd of supporters from the surrounding rural area, arrived in the city of Norwich, teamed up with poor inhabitants of the city, and began destroying enclosures that had been erected on the city commons. Having settled on Mousehold Heath, just outside the city, they drew up a series of demands. In a previous blogpost we explored the appeals to historic rights over common land on Mousehold Heath by nineteenth-century residents of Norfolk. Mousehold Heath, then, was the focus of conflict concerning common rights and land over several centuries.
As well as constituting one moment in a longer chronological history of resistance by commoners in and around the city of Norwich, Kett's Rebellion was also one episode in a wider uprising in 1548-9 known as the 'commotion time'. While there were other issues at stake (not least attempts by the government to firmly establish Protestantism) an important spark for these uprisings was the anti-enclosure proclamations issued in June 1548 and April 1549. Enclosure — the parcelling out of common land into individual privately owned plots — was an affront to common rights. This was often viewed as a rural issue and many of the uprisings of 1548-9 were rural in focus. One distinctive feature of the Norfolk case was the urban setting and the solidarity between urban and rural protesters who travelled from all over Norfolk and Suffolk to join the rebellion. A deeper investigation of the case helps to explain this solidarity and why Mousehold Heath was chosen as the location for the rebel camp.
It was the launch of a second enclosure commission on 8 July 1549 that was the immediate spark for the uprising in East Anglia. During traditional celebrations associated with the dissolved abbey in the rural Norfolk town of Wymondham, crowds marched into surrounding fields to dismantle hedges and fences. Some of these fences were on land belonging to Robert Kett a local yeoman farmer. Rather than objecting to the destruction of his property, Kett agreed with the rioters that the enclosures should be removed and offered to lead them 'in defense of their common libertie' (Holinshead Chronicles as quoted in Andy Wood, Riot, Rebellion and Popular Politics in Early Modern England. Palgrave, 2001, p. 63). The rebels marched ten miles towards the city of Norwich, destroying other enclosures along the way.
While the city authorities refused the rebels entry, the poor people of Norwich were quick to make common cause with their rural neighbours, having recently been engaged in conflicts over the enclosure of common land within the city. In choosing Mousehold Heath as the location for their camp, the rebels were further alluding to these issues. Mousehold was itself a vast tract of common land (originally stretching all the way from the"
"Family History
There are a number of long established businesses still operating on the Royal River Thames and arguably the most famous of these is Salter's Steamers Ltd (or Salters' for short), based at Folly Bridge in Oxford. The firm played a key role in popularising pleasure boating on the non-tidal river and its history provides a fascinating insight into how water-based leisure developed over the past two centuries.
The current business was established in Oxford in 1858 by the brothers John and Stephen Salter, but the founders were already leading racing-boat-builders prior to this. Their close association with the river dates back to at least 1836, when their parents, James and Elizabeth, moved from Fulham to Wandsworth to take over 'The Feathers' pub, a waterside tavern situated by the mouth of the river Wandle. This became one of the early centres for rowing in the country and by the middle of the century Harry Salter (John and Stephen's older brother) had established himself as one of the foremost rowing coaches of The Era. The family were also enthusiastic competitors who entered many of the major regattas for professional oarsmen. In 1850 John and Stephen spent time with the famous Tyneside boat-builder and oarsman Harry Clasper, and, after returning to Wandsworth, the racing boats they built began to achieve considerable success in contests around the country. In 1857 they built their first eight that was used by Cambridge in the university boat race, and it was the following year that the brothers started their business in Oxford, in order to tap into the city's burgeoning rowing scene.
The firm forged its early reputation through its relationship with the city's rowing scene. It provided a wide range of services for the crews, including selling and renting out craft (both racing and training vessels), as well as building and letting out many of the college barges that were moored by Christ Church Meadow and used as clubhouses. The business quickly grew from a small enterprise to become the country's leading racing boat-builder in the 1860s. The firm built more racing craft than any other business at the time and some newspapers commented that it seemed to have a monopoly of the trade. The firm even provided the umpire eights that were used in the Henley Royal Regatta. The success of Salters' in all of the major domestic contests, most notably the university boat race between 1861 and 1869, also helped it to gain international fame. It was one of only a few local businesses to export globally at this time and its craft played a part in the early development of rowing in countries as far afield as India and New Zealand. Racing boats were not the only type of vessel the firm sent abroad. In 1904 one unusual order was for a large stern wheel paddle steamer (named Endeavour) that was ordered by the Baptist Missionary Society for use on the Congo. T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia') was another customer (and friend of the family) who had a canoe sent out to him in the Middle-East in 1913.
In order to expand the firm accumulated a large number of waterside properties around Folly Bridge, as well as residential housing that was used as both a source of rental income and subsidised accommodation for employees. The racing-boat department declined in the mid-1870s, following the departure (from ill-health) of Stephen Salter, but by that stage the business was focusing more heavily on the pleasure boating market. Water-based leisure was already popular in Oxford in the mid-nineteenth century and one of the most famous outings was undertaken by Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) in July 1862. He travelled from Folly Bridge to Godstow and it was during the trip that he first told the stories that eventually became Alice in Wonderland. A number of authors have suggested this was on a boat rented from Salters', although Carroll did not say where he got the boat from. It is certainly possible that it might have been, though, because the firm was one of the two main hire companies operating at Folly Bridge at the time.
Salters' also helped to popularise the long-distance 'Thames trip' between Oxford and London by providing a free delivery and/or retrieval service for those wanting to undertake a one-way journey. This became a very fashionable activity in the late Victorian period, when the river entered what some authors have described as a 'golden age' for leisure. The popularity of pleasure boating was connected with the rise of recreational camping, and the firm offered a range of tent boats to cater for those who wanted to sleep on board overnight (although camping on the bank was also another option). By the late-1880s the firm's rental fleet had grown to an incredible 900 craft (including racing boats), which undoubtedly made Salters' one of the country's largest inland boat-letters.
In 1888 the firm began operating a steamer service between Oxford and Kingston, the expansion of which opened up the Upper Thames to much larger numbers of visitors. By forging a close relationship with others in the transport industry, Salters' was able to tap into the growing excursion market and to establish a monopoly over the long-distance journey. By joining forces with the Great Western Railway the firm introduced a range of 'circular tours' involving sightseeing by both rail and river. These ensured that Salters' became a convenient 'one-stop-shop' for those in the tourist industry wanting to organise trips on the river between Oxford and Kingston. The service benefitted from a large amount of publicity and was very profitable in the early years, which enabled the firm to build up its fleet (initially by purchasing them, but also, from 1901, by building them). By the beginning of the twentieth century the firm was the biggest passenger boat operator on the non-tidal Thames with its steamers well-known both nationally and internationally. The business also became a leading authority on the river and the surrounding area, partly because of the popularity of what became known as The Salter's Guide to the Thames (of which fifty-seven editions were produced between 1881 and 1968).
The firm's success also helped to elevate the second generation of the family to prominence in Oxford. By the end of the nineteenth century the business was being run by the brothers John, James and George, and the oldest two were very active in local politics (as Liberals representing the South Ward). They became central figures in the city's civic affairs and both served as Mayors of Oxford during the Edwardian period. The three brothers were also prominent Wesleyan Methodists and their religious convictions inevitably influenced how they ran their business. The Oxford and Kingston service was not run on a Sunday (until 1933), nor was alcohol served on board.
It was James Salter's oldest son, Arthur, who went on to achieve the greatest fame. He initially entered the civil service and was a key figure in charge of shipping in both the First and Second World Wars. During the 1930s he became Gladstone Professor of Political Theory and Institutions at Oxford University, which led to him serving as an MP for the University. He received many awards and honours during his illustrious career, and in 1953 he was elevated to the peerage, as Baron Salter of Kidlington.
The business experienced some cash-flow problems in the early part of the twentieth century, but it benefitted greatly from a large amount of contract work in the latter stages of the First World War, which helped to swell the workforce to unprecedented levels (167 employees in the summer of 1918). The craft Salters' built during the conflict included dinghies, pontoons, collapsible boats, cutters (used on larger military vessels), motor boats, launches, whalers, seaplane tenders, gigs, coastal motor boats, pinnaces and pontoons. The firm, which became Salter Bros Ltd in 1915, also benefitted from a notable rise in pleasure boating both during and directly after the conflict.
In the 1920s the three most important parts of the business were the boat-building department, the rental fleet and the Oxford and Kingston steamers, which each typically generated between 20% and 30% of the firm's total annual turnover. Over the course of the decade orders received by the former grew to unprecedented levels, peaking at 359 in 1930 (including 21 canoes that were outsourced from Canada). Hydroplanes made for racing were particularly popular at the time, and one built by Salters' (Itsit VII) achieved a record speed for a class C outboard off the Isle of Wight in 1929. Small dinghies and paddle boats for boating lakes were also beginning to be popular and those built for local councils around the country became an increasingly important market for the firm. Salters' also had a prolific oar-making department that was responsible for producing nearly 2,000 items in 1925, which included 1,334 sculls, 239 poles (mainly punt poles), 217 oars and 174 paddles. Self-drive cabin cruisers were also introduced into the hire fleet in the 1920s. One such craft the firm built for a private client was Bosphorus (1936), which was moored up at Folly Bridge and was regularly used by both the owner, Warren Lewis, and his brother, the famous author C. S. Lewis.
The overall trend in the interwar period was one of falling income from the scheduled services and rising income from boat-letting, which included the rental of privately hired steamers (especially those used on the increasingly popular circular tours). The 1930s depression temporarily affected all areas of the business, although it was the boat-building department that suffered the most, as orders failed to recover after falling by approximately a third.
The Second World War was a considerable fillip for Salters', as it benefitted from additional contract work and a significant increase in pleasure boating, especially travelling on the Oxford and Kingston steamers. Some of the largest passenger boats were requisitioned and converted for use as hospital ships on the tideway, although it was only the passenger boats that the firm had built for other operators — those that were designed to run on salt water — that were able to be involved in the Dunkirk evacuations.
The company continued to be profitable in the immediate aftermath of the conflict, aided by its close ties with those in the travel industry, and it was coach operators that became increasingly important, as road replaced rail as the main way in which people travelled to tourist destinations. The 1950s and 1960s were a difficult time for the firm, however, and it was during this period that it sold off much of its residential property. There were a variety of reasons for the downturn, but one major local factor was that Salters' was unable to compete with the wages offered in Oxford's motor industry, which had grown massively from the 1920s onwards. Like many other businesses in the city, it was forced to source employees from other parts of the country, although it was fortunate that the jobs on board the steamers remained popular. By contrast, Salters' struggled to recruit and retain its skilled but low paid craftsmen, which contributed to the demise of traditional wooden boat-building. Despite the challenges it faced, the firm's fleet of large passenger boats peaked in the late 1950s at seventeen craft, although the majority of the 'steamers' (as they continued to be called) had been converted to diesel by that point (a process that took from 1944 to 1964 to complete).
The company's performance improved considerably in the late 1970s, as the river briefly became busier (in terms of traffic through the locks) than at any time in its history. The firm's fleet of motorised rental boats, which now included canal boats, grew to its largest size (aided by bookings from Hoseseasons holidays) and its racing craft were in the ascendency once again, following reinvestment. The proudest moment for the firm in a generation came in 1976 when Oxford University won the boat race in a Salters'-built eight. The victory was also the third record-breaking craft that the company had built for the contest, which is unrivalled by any other boat-builder. Furthermore, both the number of passengers being carried on the steamers and the output of the boat-building department also reached new heights in the 1970s. The latter was the result of the introduction of fibreglass construction and a particularly popular product at the time, which even briefly revived the firm's export trade, was the life-raft designed to be placed on passenger boats. Yet as traffic on the river swelled to record levels the resultant delays forced the company to cut the long distance Oxford-to-Kingston service into smaller sections (in 1974). This, as well as catering for the growing demand for both short round trips and the private hire market, drew the firm into direct competition with other operators and made it more dependent on Oxford, at a time when its fleet was declining in size.
This was followed by a downturn in the 1980s, when the output of the boat-building department declined and Salters' finally bowed out of racing craft construction. The depression of the early 1990s was a particularly difficult time for the firm and it not only disposed of its rental fleet (although it was reinstated in a smaller form a decade later), but it also had to sell one of its yards to Hertford College, which built student accommodation on the site. This was followed by further investment in property in the twenty-first century, as the firm sought to take advantage of the sharply rising housing prices in the area. Two of its yards on Brook Street were converted into residential accommodation and this change of emphasis eventually led to a restructuring of the firm. Salter Bros Ltd became a separate property company (as it remains today), whilst the boating side of the business was devolved to Salter's Steamers Ltd.
This latest change was one of many ways in which the firm adapted and diversified in order to survive. Over the course of the past 150 years the different departments of Salters' were able to support each other, and the business transformed itself from one that revolved around a skilled trade to one that was largely concerned with providing leisure services. In doing so, it became one of the most important firms connected with the recent history of the non-tidal Thames, as it was at the forefront of the changes that transformed the river from a working waterway into one of recreation. Indeed, Salters' was amongst the prominent leisure providers of the Victorian age (and beyond), as it did more to popularise pleasure boating on the higher reaches of the waterway than any other comparable business. It is not surprising, therefore, that its name has become synonymous with the river.
The firm is now run by fifth and sixth generation family members, which makes it one of Oxford's oldest businesses to still be under the control of those directly descended from its founders. In an era when heritage tourism is increasingly popular, it is fitting that we acknowledge the considerable contribution that Salters' has made to the city, the Thames and the surrounding area — a legacy that continues to this day.
Dr Simon Wenham, Historian
For more detailed information about the firm's history, see S. M. Wenham, Pleasure BBoating on the Thames: a History of Salter Bros, 1858 — Present Day (out in May 2014)"
"WANDSWORTH DISTRICT BOARD OF WORKS (1855-1900)
Wandsworth District Board of Works
[[https]://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=17419&inst_id=133&nv1=search&nv2=]
Reference code(s) : GB 0347 WDBW
Held at : Wandsworth Heritage Service
Click here to find out how to view this collection at [http]://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/homepage/215/local_history_and_heritage
Full title : Wandsworth District Board of Works
Date(s) : 1855-1900
Level of description : Collection
Extent : 687 files
The responsibilities of the Wandsworth District Board of Works were mostly focussed on the maintenance of roadways and public lighting, new buildings, public transport, efficient sewerage, the prevention of contagious diseases and public health.
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Wandsworth District Board of Works was formed in 1855 under the Metropolis Local Government Act. The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the governing administrative body that the individual Districts reported to.
The parishes of Clapham and Streatham were also included in the Wandsworth District.
Battersea was included in the Wandsworth District until 1887 when it opted out owing to the rapid increase of its population and was reconstituted as a Metropolitan Vestry.
The MBW was replaced by the London County Council in 1889.
The Wandsworth District Board of Works was replaced in 1900 by the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth.
Content
Scope and content/abstract:
The collection consists of administrative papers of the Wandsworth District Board of Works. These include several duplicate runs of Minutes of Proceedings for the Board's meetings, as well as minutes of the Finance Committee. There are also Annual Reports and Reports of the Sanitary Inspector. The bulk of the collection is made up of agendas and supporting papers collected to be used at the Board's fortnightly meetings. These papers include letters of complaint and petitions from the public, planning approvals and refusals for new buildings, roads and sewers, correspondence from other Vestries, copies of Accounts, lists of Board members, copies of Reports from Board Inspectors, copies of Bills of Parliament and many other administrative papers. There are numerous papers regarding the expansion of the railways and the introduction and expansion of the tramways.
Access & Use
Language/scripts of material:
English
System of arrangement:
The original system of arrangement has been maintained.
This material is only available in the Wandsworth Heritage Service search room at Battersea Library. Please contact Heritage Service staff for more information.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Finding aids:
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Archival Information
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Please contact the Archive for further information.
Allied Materials
Related material:
D72 Records of the Proprietors of Battersea Bridge.
[BNA: aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=17419&inst_id=133&nv1=search&nv2=]true" target="_blank">Link.]
"Wandsworth District (Metropolis)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wandsworth District within the Metropolis
District from 1855 to 1888 before Battersea was removed
Created 1855
Abolished 1900
Succeeded by Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth
Status District
Government Wandsworth District Board of Works
HQ Battersea (1855 — 1888)
Wandsworth (1888 — 1900)
Wandsworth was a local government district within the metropolitan area of London, England from 1855 to 1900. It was formed by the Metropolis Management Act 1855 and was governed by the Wandsworth District Board of Works, which consisted of elected vestrymen.
Until 1889 the district was in that part of Surrey included in the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works, in which year the latter became the County of London, and the district board remained but under London County Council.
Since 1965 its area corresponds to the London Borough of Wandsworth plus all parts of Clapham and Streatham it included, some of which are in the south west of the London Borough of Lambeth.
Area
The district comprised the following civil parishes:[1]
Battersea, excluding Penge exclave (1855 — 1888)
Clapham
Putney
Streatham, including Knight's Hill exclave
Tooting Graveney
Wandsworth
The district included a small exclave, namely of Streatham parish: Knight's Hill, but did not include the exclave of Battersea parish: Penge.
Under the Metropolis Management Act 1855 any parish that exceeded 2,000 ratepayers was to be divided into wards; as such the parish of Clapham within the Wandsworth District Boards of Works was divided into two wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 or North (21) and No. 2 or South (15).[2]
In 1873 as its population had increased the parish of Battersea was divided into four wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 (18), No. 2 (21), No. 3 (21) and No. 4 (12).[3][4][5]
In 1883 as its population had increased the parish of Streatham was divided into three wards (electing vestrymen): No. 1 or Balham (21), No. 2 or North Streatham (18) and No. 3 or South Streatham (9).[6][7]
In 1894 as its population had increased the parish of Wandsworth was divided into six wards (electing vestrymen): Southfield (21), Northfield (15), Fairfield (24), Heathfield (15), Earlsfield (15) and Springfield (18).[8][9]
Abolition
The district was abolished in 1900 becoming the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth and the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.[1]'''''"
"Metropolitan Borough of Battersea ( — 1965)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Borough_of_Battersea
Battersea
St Mary
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 (3324322940).jpg
Former Battersea Town Hall (now Arts Centre)
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.svg
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea shown within the County of London
Area
1831 3,020 acres (12.2 km2)[1]
1851 2,343 acres (9.48 km2)[1]
1901 2,161 acres (8.75 km2)[1]
Population
1801 3,365[1]
1851 10,560[1]
1901 168,907[1]
Density
1851 4.5/acre
1901 78/acre
Origin Ancient parish
Abolished 1965
Succeeded by London Borough of Wandsworth
Status Civil parish (until 1965)
Metropolitan borough (1900 — 1965)
Government Vestry of the Parish of Battersea (1888 — 1900)
Battersea Borough Council (1900 — 1965)
HQ Municipal Buildings, Lavender Hill
Motto Non Mihi Non Tibi Sed Nobis
(Not for me, not for thee, but for us)
Arms granted to the metropolitan borough in 1955
Battersea was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in the County of London, England. In 1965, the borough was abolished and its area combined with parts of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth to form the London Borough of Wandsworth. The borough was administered from Battersea Town Hall on Lavender Hill and the building is now Battersea Arts Centre.
Contents
1 Ancient parish
2 Parish in the Metropolis
3 Metropolitan borough
4 Ecclesiastical parish
5 Coat of arms
6 Population and area
7 Politics
7.1 Wards
7.2 Parliamentary constituencies
8 References
9 Further reading
Ancient parish
As an ancient parish, Battersea was part of the hundred of Brixton and county of Surrey. It included the exclave of Penge.
Parish in the Metropolis
In 1855, under the Metropolis Management Act 1855, the civil responsibilities of the parish were passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works. The two parts of the parish were assigned to different districts by the act establishing the MBW: Battersea was included in the area of the Wandsworth District Board of Works and the hamlet of Penge in that of Lewisham District Board of Works. Penge became a civil parish in its own right in 1866.
On 25 March 1888, a separate vestry was formed as a local authority for The parish of Saint Mary Battersea excluding Penge.[2]
In 1889, the Local Government Act 1888 reconstituted the area of the Metropolitan Board of Works as the County of London, and Battersea was transferred from Surrey to the new county.[3]
The population of the parish in 1896 was 165,115 and it had adopted the Public Libraries Act 1850 immediately upon obtaining local independence in 1888, with its own vestry. For electoral purposes, the parish was divided into four wards and had 120 elected vestrymen.
Metropolitan borough
In 1900, the London Government Act 1899 divided the County of London into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs, and the vestries and district boards were dissolved. The parish became the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea, with the borough council replacing the civil vestry.
The Metropolitan Borough included within its bounds Battersea, Battersea Park, Clapham Junction and parts of Wandsworth Common and Clapham Common.
In 1913, John Archer became mayor of the borough and the first black mayor in the capital.[4]
Ecclesiastical parish
The ancient parish, dedicated to St Mary, was in the Diocese of Winchester until 1877, then the Diocese of Rochester until 1905, and then finally in the Diocese of Southwark. From 1851, as the population of Battersea increased, a number of new parishes were formed: [5]
St George, Nine Elms in 1853
Christ Church, Battersea Park in 1861
St John, York Road Battersea in 1863
St Philip, Queen's Road, Battersea in 1870
Church of the Ascension, Lavender Hill in 1871
St Saviour, Battersea Park Road in 1872
St Peter, Plough Road, Battersea in 1876
St Mark, Battersea Rise in 1883
All Saints, Queen's Road, Battersea Park in 1884
St Michael, Wandsworth Common in 1884
St Andrew, Stockdale Road, Battersea in 1886
St Stephen, Battersea Bridge Road in 1887
St Barnabas, Clapham Common in 1895
St Luke, Ramsden Road, Battersea in 1901
St Bartholomew, Wickersley Road, Battersea in 1906
A number of new parishes were also formed within the detached part of Battersea parish, the hamlet of Penge: [5]
St John the Evangelist, Penge in 1851
St Paul, Penge in 1869
Holy Trinity, Anerley Road, Penge in 1873
Christ Church, Penge in 1886
Coat of arms
In 1901, the borough adopted an unofficial coat of arms, consisting of a shield vertically divided blue and white, the division line being indented (in heraldry-speak Party per pale indented azure and argent). This design was taken from a flag dating from 1803. On top of the shield was a dove bearing an olive branch. The Latin motto was Non Mihi, Non Tibi, Sed Nobis, or "Neither for myself, nor for yourself, but for us".
In 1955, the borough received an official grant from the College of Arms, based on the old device. The colours in the shield were reversed, and a bordure or heraldic border added. The bordure consisted of silver and blue waves, representative of the River Thames, and bore sixteen gold stars for the sixteen wards of the borough. The new crest on top of the helm was the dove of the 1901 design, with the addition of sprigs of lavender, for the old lavender fields of the area, and Lavender Hill, the main road of Battersea. The old motto was retained.
Population and area
The area of the Borough was 2,163 acres (8.8 km2). The population recorded in the Census was:
Battersea Vestry 1801 — 1899
Year[6] 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891
Population 3,365[7] 4,409[7] 4,764 5,311 6,617 10,560 19,600 54,016 107,262 150,558
Metropolitan Borough 1900 — 1961
Year[8] 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961
Population 168,907 167,743 167,739 159,552 [9] 117,140 105,870
Politics
A map showing the wards of Battersea Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.
The first election to the council was on 1 November 1900, with the Progressive Party taking control of the new borough. They retained power until 1909, when the Municipal Reform Party (allied to the Conservatives) gained a majority. The Progressives regained the council in 1912, holding power until 1919 when the Labour Party gained control. In 1931 the borough come under Municipal Reform control again. Labour regained power in 1934, retaining it for the rest of the borough's existence.
Elections of the whole council were held every three years. Elections were cancelled during the two world wars (1914 — 1918 and 1939 — 1945). The 1952 election was postponed for a year so that it did not clash with elections to the London County Council. The number of councillors returned at each election was as follows:.[10]
Local elections
Year 1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1945
Progressives 37 38 29 2 29
Municipal Alliance 17 16 25
Municipal Reform 52 25 11 21 25 22 31 18 15 5
Labour 41 33 29 33 23 37 40 50
Discharged servicemen 2
No Municipal Reform candidates were nominated after 1946, and Conservative candidates were nominated at local elections for the first time.
Year 1949 1953 1956 1959 1962
Labour 34 37 46 34 40
Conservative 21 18 18 21 12
Liberal 3
Wards
From 1900 to 1949 the borough was divided into nine wards, returning either three, six or nine councillors:
Bolingbroke (6 councillors)
Broomwood (6)
Church (6)
Latchmere (6)
Nine Elms (9)
Park (6)
St John (3)
Shaftesbury (6)
Winstanley (6)
In 1949 the wards were redrawn, with fourteen wards returning three to five councillors each:
Bolingbroke (3)
Broomwood (3)
Church (4)
Latchmere (4)
Lavender (3)
Newtown (3)
Nightingale (5)
Nine Elms (3)
Park (4)
Queenstown (4)
St John (4)
Shaftesbury (3)
Stormont (3)
Thornton (3)
Vicarage (3)
Winstanley (3)
The latest ward to be redrawn was Fairfield ward, with three councillors.
Parliamentary constituencies
For elections to parliament the borough was originally part of the parliamentary borough of Battersea and Clapham, which consisted of two divisions, Battersea and Clapham.
In 1918 the metropolitan borough was divided into two constituencies:
Battersea North (Church, Latchmere, Nine Elms and Park wards) and
Battersea South (Bolingbroke, Broomwood, St John, Shaftesbury and Winstanley wards)
The boundaries of the two constituencies were adjusted in 1949 to reflect the redrawn borough wards:
Battersea North (Church, Latchmere, Newtown, Nine Elms, Park, Queenstown, Vicarage and Winstanley wards)
Battersea South (Bolingbroke, Broomwood, Lavender, Nightingale, St John, Shaftesbury, Stormont and Thornton wards)
The constituencies continued unchanged until 1983[11] when the Battersea constituency largely succeeded these two.
References
Notes
Vision of Britain — Battersea population (area and density)
Metropolis Management (Battersea and Westminster) Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. C.17)
Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. C. 41), s.40
John Archer biography (Black History) Archived 7 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine accessed 14 Jan 2008
"'Parishes: Battersea with Penge', A History of the County of Surrey". 1912. pp. 8 — 17. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
Statistical Abstract for London, 1901 (Vol. IV); Census tables for Metropolitan Borough of Battersea
(probably including Penge)
Battersea MetB: Census Tables accessed 19 Jun 2007
The census was suspended for World War II
Election results as reported in The Times, 3 November 1900; 4 November 1903; 3 November 1906; 2 November 1909; 2 November 1912; 4 November 1919; 4 November 1925; 3 November 1928; 4 November 1931; 3 November 1934; 3 November 1937; 2 November 1945; 7 May 1949; 7 May 1953; 11 May 1956; 8 May 1959; 12 May 1962
F.A. Youngs, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume 1, 1979
Bibliography
"The London Manual 1899 — 1900" edited by Robert Donald (Edward Lloyd Ltd., 1899)
Further reading
Robert Donald, ed. (1907). "London: Battersea". Municipal Year Book of the United Kingdom for 1907. London: Edward Lloyd."
"Uncommon Lands: Public Property and the Rise of the Individual.
Stout, Daniel M.
Academic Journal | Victorian Studies; Winter2018, Vol. 60 Issue 2, p269-278, 10p
This article examines the theoretical hurdles that the English legal system faced in t . . . more"
"[http]://search.wellcomelibrary.org/iii/encore/eds/C__S%22wandsworth%20common%22__Orightresult__X0?lang=eng&suite=cobalt
The Third London General Hospital, Wandsworth Common, S.W.
Academic Journal | Publisher: Scientific Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0012036 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0267-6478 (Print) Linking ISSN: 02676478 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Hospital (Lond 1886) Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE"
"The Use and Abuse of the English Commons, 18451914*.
Howkins, Alun
Academic Journal | History Workshop Journal; Oct2014, Vol. 78 Issue 1, p107-132, 26p, 5 Graphs
Although the history of the English commons has figured large in the historiography of . . . more
The Use and Abuse of the English Commons, 18451914*.
History Workshop Journal; Oct2014, Vol. 78 Issue 1, p107-132, 26p, 5 Graphs
Although the history of the English commons has figured large in the historiography of rural England, the period after 1845 has received little attention outside a number of local studies. This article examines the course and extent of enclosure from 1845 to 1914. It also begins to look at those who used the commons in this period. It argues that the usage ofcommon land remained vital to some sections of the working poor in both rural and urban areas. It also suggests that opposition to enclosure changed in the period after 1860 not only through the appearance of a middle-class movement to preserve commons but through changes in working-class organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
Content provider:
Complementary Index"
"The Bolingbroke Hospital, Wandsworth Common.
Academic Journal | Publisher: Scientific Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0012036 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0267-6478 (Print) Linking ISSN: 02676478 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Hospital (Lond 1886) Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE
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Additional actions:
Bolingbroke House, Wandsworth Common.
Academic Journal | Publisher: Scientific Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 0012036 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0267-6478 (Print) Linking ISSN: 02676478 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Hospital (Lond 1886) Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE"
"WELLCOME SEARCH "WANDSWORTH COMMON"
[BNA: search.wellcomelibrary.org/iii/encore/eds/C__S%22wandsworth%20common%22__Orightresult__X0?lang=eng&suite=cobalttrue" target="_blank">Link.]
"Survey of London English Heritage 2013 22 was characterized by substantial houses in generous groundsa direct result of the estate owners' strict leasing and selling policy, which prescribed only detached or semi-detached houses and stables.53 Despite later infill and rebuilding, the area is still distinguished from its close neighbours by some unusually large properties.
In February 1866 the Old Park estate was purchased by J. J. Welch and H. P. Hughes, a City warehouse manager and wool-broker respectively, who within a month had mortgaged it to the auctioneers Debenham, Tewson & Farmer, and commissioned a simple street layout from the architects Wimble & Taylor. This comprised four new roadsThurleigh, Sudbrooke, Westerdale (now Ramsden) and Winchelsea (now Rusham)and a widened Nightingale Lane. That April, Welch and Hughes tried but failed to sell at auction the only real plumthe old house and its groundsand so in 1868 agreed instead to its purchase by Edward Tewson, one of their mortgagees. Thereafter the mansion remained in separate ownership and was let to tenants for the remaining twenty-five years of its life.54
Welch and Hughes then began auctioning off freehold plots for house-building. This began in two phases in 1867 and 1869 with the sale of ground fronting Nightingale Lanea main route where large mansions were already in existence on the opposite (Balham) side, where more were going up: such as Ferndale, of 18656, home of the sanitary-ware manufacturer George Jennings; and Helensburgh, built around 1864 by William Higgs for the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, replacing an earlier house of the same name. Spurgeon had been drawn by the area's 'secludedness', but this was fast disappearing as builders continued to make inroads; adverts for the Old Park estate sales stressed the 'great demand' now for high-class housing 'in this favourite neighbourhood'.55"
"I've taken delivery of my iPad, which is pretty swish. Useful, in its way, but my old desktop computer is (and is likely to remain) my chief device.
That said, I can now use DropBox — I've been looking at James Lord, for example. It's SO weird (to us now) what would-be politicians thought most important and most likely to impress the electorate — in 1868, attacks on Catholicism — hatred of Jesuits!
But as you'll remember, Protestants in Northern ireland at this time were berating the Liberal Earl Spencer for being a) soft on Catholics, and b) a rubbish landlord for Wandsworth Common.
On the other hand, Buckmaster (and Iguess Bickerdike and Tom Taylor, Rose and others) were longtime radical Liberals. And notice Conservative Henry Peek in there too . . .
[BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Surrey_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_1860strue" target="_blank">Link.]
"____
[BNA:
"Howdie, Stephen Thanks for the smoothie and the really nice chat Let's do it again soon V nice too to meet Annabelle [surname?) She seemed really good to me All best P SO many things to do & exchange info about. But hee's a start: THEGENEALOGIST [worked 24may2020] Username = philip.boys@btinternet.com Password = 17Chesham PERSON RESEARCH [BNA:
It yields JL "Barrister at Law" and James Lord "Labourer" et al TITHE MAP RESEARCH Tithe maps can be awkward to find, so here's a guide: SEARCH PAGE > MENU BOTTOM R = TITHE & LANDOWNER > TITHE APPORTIONMENTS (NB Check out other links too, e.g. the v useful LLOYD GEORGE DOMESDAY SURVEY of 1939 e.g. "SHEPPARD / WANDSWORTH" [BNA:
To find who owned/who lived in etc info, enlarge map until pink "pins" appear Click on pin e.g. Clicking on Burntwood [Grange] yields [BNA:
"Hello, Stephen I'm on a roll I've been hoping for months to find out who on earth Buckmaster et al's hate object (one of them, anyway) who was enclosing the Common in the 1850s and 1860s was — who they refer to a "A Tailor" . It was McKellar ! See here, from Keith Bailey's Lord v Todd Lombard Estate Despite the mutual mistrust and misrepresentation that apparently characterized the business dealings of James Lord and George Todd at Bolingbroke Grove, they continued to work together. In October 1867, Todd auctioned the Lombard Estate, described as '9a 1r 27p of valuable freehold building land fronting York and Lombard Roads, with sites for villas, houses and shops . . . worthy of the attention of land societies, builders, speculators and capitalists commandingly situate near Battersea Town station [opened 1863]', giving access to both City and West End.24 The owners were Mary and Louisa McKellar, wealthy unmarried daughters of a West End tailor. Lord paid 11,700 for 7.5 acres in April 1868. Must follow this up! All best P "St John's Lodge (demolished) This house of about 1839, one of Battersea's last large villas, was unusual in having been projected after the railway arrived. It stood just north-east of the 8 corner of St John's Hill and Plough Road. After some thirty years as a house it was taken over by Battersea Grammar School, whose history is given in volume 49. It was demolished around 1936 for the Granada Cinema. The site, of just over three acres, was garden ground until 1838 when George William Cockerell, a Southwark auctioneer, bought the freehold in the Spencer sales, along with a paddock to the south and a lease of part of the St John's Place triangle to the west.17 St John's Lodge was under construction in 1839, and perhaps always intended for Cockerell's own occupation; at any rate, he himself moved in with his family. The cost was met by heavy mortgages secured on Cockerell's property here and in Southwark. The house, of brick with stucco or stone dressings in a restrained Greco-Italian style, had a two-storey centre block divided by a strong cornice. While the front was only three windows wide, with a central porch in antis, the back boasted five windows per storey looking out upon a long garden with a fountain (Ill 16.4). To the sides were lower wings, irregular by 1870. The Richmond branch of the LSWR lopped off the northernmost tip of the garden in 18468. Six cottages, known as Swiss Grove, were also built at this end of the property; these were later sold to the railway and had gone by 1870.18 Cockerell died in 1855 before paying off the mortgage. His widow moved to Wandsworth, but their oldest son, the Rev. George William Cockerell, stayed on at St John's Lodge. The family's finances were gravely embarrassed in the early 1860s by a wastrel youngest son, James Charles Cockerell, who persuaded his mother to pay his debts through further mortgages. Following his bankruptcy in 1865, his mother and brother were sued by a solicitor, John Murray, for their compounded debts. Murray appears eventually to have won a judgement, and then sold his rights to Alfred Jones, a City solicitor, who became the Cockerells' chief creditor for debts of over 7,300. The original mortgage debt was mostly met by selling some pieces of property.19 9 The Cockerells meanwhile had vacated St John's Lodge. In 1861 the house was tenanted by the Patriotic Fund Commissioners, suggesting that it may briefly have been the first home of their boys' school, soon afterwards at East Hill, Wandsworth, and later in the premises now occupied by Emanuel School (vol. 49). The tenancy was short-lived, for in 1862 a 21-year lease was issued to Herbert James Triggs, a boot manufacturer living at St John's Place. Triggs assigned the lease to James Lord, who had moved into the house by early 1864.20 James Lord (18141906) was among the more colourful figures in Battersea's Victorian development. He was a barrister by profession, among whose many publications was a textbook on conveyancing. But he came from a clergy family, and kept his convictions in trim as long-term chairman of the Protestant Association, spokesman for anti-Catholic causes and author of a lengthy doggerel poem called Sister Theresa, ne Ryan, The Abducted Nun (1865). Lord arrived in Battersea in 1858, when he bought the freehold of one of the Five Houses on Bolingbroke Grove and installed his family. Two of his children were to make some name: his daughter Emily, later Emily Ward, as founder of the Norland nurses, his son Walter Frewen Lord as a historical author.21 Lord's transfer to St John's Lodge coincided with his first venture into development, whereby the surveyor and estate agent George Todd laid out his Bolingbroke Grove property for building. He teamed up again with Todd in 1868, buying a second estate north of York Road where they planned further modest streets (pages ##, ##). He was riding high enough to present himself as Conservative candidate for East Surrey at the election of that year, but was roundly beaten. Nevertheless, Lord and Todd now laid plans for a third Battersea development off Latchmere Road, where the Shaftesbury Park estate afterwards rose. Meanwhile, at St John's Lodge the builder most 10 employed at Bolingbroke Grove, John King, improved the house and garden around the time Lord moved in.22 By 1870 Lord's local profile was high as one of the champions fighting to preserve Wandsworth Common. A crisis now overtook his affairs. Misconduct of some kind took place in connection with his building transactions, and a solicitor absconded to America. Lord himself was not held to blame, but with debts of at least 42,000, he had to seek liquidation by arrangement in the summer of 1871. Plans for the Shaftesbury Park site collapsed amid a dispute between Lord and Todd.23 St John's Lodge was let for six months to the 8th Marquess of Tweeddale. Lord was there at the time of the census in 1871 but vacated in June, never to return. Although his lease had been short, he remained keen to get the house back. Meanwhile Alfred Jones, the Cockerells' chief creditor, had died. His executors tried to eject Lord's assignees for non-payment of rent, then in July 1873 put all the Cockerells' interests at St John's Hill up for auction. Having been discharged from the liquidation arrangements, Lord entered in a bid for the whole. He was successful for the leasehold properties of St John's Place, but his private offer for St John's Lodge itself was declined. It went instead to John Costeker, acting for the Sir Walter St John trustees who wanted the site for their new grammar school. Lord took the matter to court, arguing that his lease had been unfairly set aside. This tied up the house in Chancery, from which it could not be extricated till 1875, when Costeker and the school trustees were confirmed in possession.24 Lord's later career is obscure. He and his trustees were still involved with the Bolingbroke Grove development in the later 1870s, but he never recovered his prosperity or public profile, and had to relinquish his St John's Place leases, once again heavily mortgaged, in 1882. Latterly he lived in a flat in Brixton, seemingly alone.25 11 54 & 56 St John's Hill The sole survivor today of the St John's Place development and its outliers is a lone pair of semi-detached houses, now 54 & 56 St John's Hill (Ill. 16.5). They stand in isolation, set back from the road between the former Granada Cinema and the sidings of Clapham Junction Station. Formerly named Chesterfield and Westwood houses, the two plots were leased in 1828 to Edward Parsons, builder, and Charles Andrews, plumber, both of Wandsworth. Building may not have been completed until 18323 when Andrews sublet his house to John Adam, a fruit broker. Two years later the houses were described as capital newly erected residences, with stabling and gardens.26 Though the forecourt is used today as a turning point for buses, they still have a faded elegance, presenting straightforward brick and stucco faades, of three storeys over a basement, with the windows to the ground floor set in blind arches. By the 1970s they had been united as the Clapham Junction station-master's house; today they are in use as railway offices. The area since 1845" "Hello, Sue Lovely to hear from you — I've missed you! Here's an immediate response to your questions. I hope this helps. More from me in reply to the body of your email when Inext slow down for a second. Feel free to ask questions and make comments — Ienjoy them All best Philip EDITING QUESTIONS FOR SUE DEL Source of quotes please? Earl Spencer The preceding years had seen his agents enclosing and selling off much of the Common for development, prompting mass protests and opprobrium in the press for his rapacity and neglect. "Where he found paradise he has made morasses," [wrote xx?]. "Where health, fever, where life was sustained, invigorated and prolonged, he has striven to produce pestilence and death" Was this from a local or perhaps Irish paper/date please? It was from the Ballyshannon Herald — Saturday 26 June 1869 (also e.g. Portadown News — Saturday 26 June 1869) Incidentally, Inow know who wrote all this stuff . It was a really weird Ulster loyalist / barrister / property developer called James Lord — one of the names listed as a major backer of the Preservation of WC Committee — Stephen has written a good summary of his life and rather pathetic end. I was always puzzled why a Northern Irish newspapers should have been so obsessed with Wandsworth Common [BNA: Link. Samuel Sullings Was this next quote from the same demo as when Sullings was arrested? Think Sue Dem will probably quote it in her intro anyway, so used there rather than in Sullings article [*there's quite a nice quote here if it's the same incident "At each crashing of the fence there[SD1] was a great hooting and hurraghing." But not vital [https]://pasttenseblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/today-in-london-radical-history-enclosure-fences-torn-down-wandsworth-common-1870/] I too love the phrase "At each crashing of the fence there was a great hooting and hurrahing." but I have never found the exact original source — though I've looked. Or indeed when exactly it was published — I've seen refs in both 1869 and 1870 [BNA: Link. [BNA: Link. For example, PastTense: " in April 13th 1870, "a large number of persons assembled and asserted their right of way by breaking down the fences". Some 300-400 people armed with hatchets and pickaxes re-established a footpath enclosed by a Mr Costeker at Plough Green. "At each crashing of the fence there was a great hooting and hurrahing."" This was indeed the Sam Sullings event. But you could always use it without the quotes — doubtless it's a fair description of what happened! Magdalen [no "e" — that's Cambridge] College In the mid-19th century, Magdalen College, Oxford became a significant landowner in Wandsworth, inheriting [ xx can we give a rough estimate of size acres/hectares?]. At least 150 acres — i.e about the same size as the whole WC in 1871. Sophia Sheppard and later Magdalen College bought and sold different plots in the area for development, but this was probably the average extent. The Toast Rack Any idea when it first earned the name? Iwish I did — i"ve looked — but no. It used to be marketed (e.g. in the 1890s) as "College Park". Fernside Reference to owner Millis Coventry being named on the second poster from 1870 (more middle class than 'Down with the Fences'), was this as one of the early supporters/donators? Can you confirm if this is the case, and also if possible send a link to copy of this second poster? Did it have a distinguishing title/slogan, or how to describe it? Ideally I would like to see it sure I have done in the past, but can't find it now.! PRESERVATION OF WANDSWORTH COMMON — To the Working Men and Others of Battersea, Wandsworth, Lambeth, and other parts of South and West London [BNA: Link. Yes indeed, Millis Coventry was big in the movement — and Fernside, his estate, was pretty stupendous Bellevue Garage Who remembers the garage gates being in place as recently as 2008? Hmm, I have no idea — Ipersonally vaguely recall the gates, but not at all clearly or confidently. I'll have a look round. [SD1]Not sure this is the same event at least not the same source as Sullings (ie the Village Politician), but anyway it's a great quote and probably belongs in the introductory essay" "Roger Logan's notes, written up by Sean Creighton [or his son] and sent to me in December 2020. I have cleaned them up a little, but not, as yet, by very much: _______________ JOHN CHARLES BUCKMASTER Roger Logan The evidence of official records of the period in which he was active suggests that John Charles Buckmaster superficially to have been a pain in the neck for the authorities. Complaining about the stopping of 'public footpaths', protesting about meeting proceedings, waging a campaign against a professional local government officer all combine to create the image of a man negative in attitude and hidebound by tradition. Nothing ccould be further from the truth. During life of nearly 90 years, which spanned the greater part of the 19th century, this man of humble rural origins witnessed at first hand the great change in English life, that of the metamorphosis of productive agricultural soil into profitable building land. The consequential restructuring of English society was one of which Buckmaster himself was part. Starting life as an agricultural labourer and ending as retired civil servant, living a comfortable life in suburban retreat, he epitomised the changed society. The move from 'working' to 'middle' class was not one which, however, made him deny his roots. In fact the very opposite was true with the publication of an autobiographical work in 1897. A contemporary of Charles Dickens, his was a life spent working for a living, involving himself actively in the causes of society and community concern. For the first third of his life he engaged in activity supporting causes of reform, particularly the Anti-Corn Law League, and participating in that major feature of the whole Victorian age, the rise to prominence and influence of the professions. In his case teaching was the skill, Buckmaster being one of the early recipients of the opportunities offered by a recently founded teacher training college (the concept itself being novel). His move to St. John's College, Battersea, began a connection with the area, which lasted until 1890 (?) he took what was and still is a demographically typical south-westward move away from the Metropolitan area, across the Thames to Teddington. Here he remained until his death at 89 on 23 July 1908. Just as his actions provide a commentary on the Victorian Age, so in his words, reflections of the nation of the man can be found. In his will Buckmaster stated that he did not want relatives or friends to be miserable at his departure, "as I have finished the work I had to do." With typical publicly announced self-justification, he made his final pronouncement. Some forty years earlier, in 1870 he had been moved to make statement consistent with the content of his will. (Will proved November 1908) He acknowledged that he had "sometimes increased hostility and a feeling of social antagonism, and might have said hard things, but if he had erred it was not an error of intention ir heart.' (Footnote not supplied). This was a man whose life was one of struggle, involving himself with campaigning issues, sometimes gaining success, sometimes being rebuffed. A life-long active involvement with all manner of issues, an ability to communicate well with people at all levels, a sense of 'virtuous indignation' (South London Press. 21 May 1867), were combined with the good fortune of making connections with men of influence who were prepared to offer opportunities for his personal development. He was born at Slapton in Buckinghamshire in 1823. Anti-Corn Law Involvement (1839-46) The Anti-Corn Law League was founded in March 1839 at a large delegate Conference held .. the single object of the organization to repeal the Corn Laws was agreed upon. Essentially composed of the middle class, it was not clear how Buckmaster came to be involved with the movement, rather than the more directly political Chartists. There is nothing to associate Buckmaster with the latter in his autobiography although this could have been this the result of deliberate omission. All that can be gleaned from A Village Politician is that he was engaged wholeheartedly in the work of the movement by the first half of the 1840s. Travelling primarily through southern England, he spoke at rallies designed to convey the message of the League to tenant farmers and village laborer's like himself. In 1841 he was still living at Slapton with his relatives, so it is highly likely that his activities with the League post-dated that time. The chronological sequence of his account of the period can be tested from comparison with accounts of recorded League activities. Returning to London in . from a period of actively campaigning in support of the League in the south of England, Buckmaster took the opportunity of call at the London residence of a contact he had made when active in Yorkshire, 'the member for West Riding". (A Village Politician). Although not named in his autobiography, it can with virtual certainty be said that this was Viscount Morpeth. Identification of the MP helps with accurate dating of events in Buckmaster's life at this period. George William Frederick Howard, Viscount Morpeth (1802-64 ( was a Liberal MP (NOTE: actually, a Whig) from 1826 to 1841 representing successfully Morpeth, Yorkshire (NOTE. Morpeth is actually in Northumberland) and after the 1832 Reform Act the West Riding. In 1841 the General Election resulted in a Conservative majority, notable for it being "the only occasion between the first two Reform Acts when they won both the seats in the West Riding of Yorkshire perhaps the most important industrial constituency in the country." (Blake. The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill. p. 44) Morpeth thus lost what was a normally a safe seat, under exceptional circumstances. Presumably it was between then, and his successful regaining the seat in January 1846 that he encountered Buckmaster on one of the latter's forays northwards in connection with his Anti-Corn Law League work. Morpeth retained his seat until on the death of his father, he succeeded to the title of 7th Earl of Carlisle. (DNB) It seems it was Morpeth who suggested to Buckmaster that he should enroll at a training college for teachers. Institutions of this nature were themselves innovatory in the 1840s. They were the product of developments in ideas about the need for teachers to be adequately educated and trained. One of the first such was St. John's College, Battersea. Originally established as a privately funded organization by two Assistant Poor Law Commissioners, Dr James Kay and Mr. Edward Tufnell, management and control of the College was assigned to the Church of England's National Society in 1843. In determining the date of Buckmaster's entry to St. Johns it should be noted that he talks of Morpeth as a sitting MP. It follows that this might place his association with the College to a date after January 1846. Although James Kay had ceased to have direct control over the College, it appears to have been he, who via a letter of introduction from Morpeth, arranged for Buckmaster to enter St. John's. The local environment is full described by Buckmaster is his autobiography. ' Ipassed through endless cabbage gardens to what was called a square, a triangular piece of round surrounded by quaint old houses and shops. And a few yards from the extreme point, facing the Thames, was a large square house, standing in about two acres of ground; it had a large garden, with several large cedar and other trees, and had once been the residence of a wealthy city merchant. It was now called a college. It was pleasantly situated and inside there was evidence of comfort and substantial workmanship.' It was, however, 'the idea of two or three years with these men;, (i.e. his fellow students) that suggest an age of doubt and uncertainty about the direction his future would take. In practice the doubts were informal and in late 1848, after two years study he received a certificate for completing the approved course and examinations.' From his autobiography it appears that at some point, possibly during 1847, even 1848, he was fortunate enough to be engaged to undertake some private tuition. This was to the children of the Reverend Henry Mosely, MA, a former Professor Natural Philosophy at Kings College, London, and from January 1844, an Inspector of Training Colleges, including St. Johns. Moseley lived just across the Battersea parish boundary in Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth. Having become qualified and 'just settled down to work' Buckmaster was 'informed that (his) services were required for a week or two to assist the Poor Law Inspector in the examination of a large pauper school a few miles from town.' What appeared to be an excellent opportunity turned out to be an experience of nightmare proportions, whose consequences were to effect not only Buckmaster's thinking, but the lives of countless poor London children. The establishment concerned was a Poor Law District School in Tooting, about four miles distant from the training college at Battersea. The premises and grounds comprised some 52 acres close to the junction of the main London to Epsom road, the principal east-west route. Over 1,400 children of both sexes from one to fourteen were accommodated there, farmed out by the various parochial and district Guardians of the Poor of parishes close to London and its developed environs. For each child in his 'care' Druet received 4s 6d per week. Buckmaster found on his initial tour of inspection of the institution bedrooms lacking fireplaces and 'an open stinking sewer ditch into which the filth and sewerage filtered.' The buildings were old, some being the out-buildings of an old manor house, others temporary wooden barracks. Almost immediately Buckmaster found himself embroiled in what his contemporary Charles Dickens described as 'an enormity'. Periodically cholera occurred regularly, a fatal disease which medical science remains unable to detect its causes. On Monday, the first deaths in the asylum occurred. Between then and the 18th January, 118 children died, and were buried in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, Tooting, about half a mile away. 'For several days and nights' wrote Buckmaster, the case was sorrowful beyond description.' The impact of the experience on Buckmaster is evident from his writings. 'The four and sixpenny greed, the desire to make money out of the flesh and blood of poor children, indicate his abhorrence of the contracting system. The tragedy did in fact mark the end of this particular system of 'child care'. (Village Politician . p. 255) Druet's asylum was closed within a few months, and before too much longer an improved arrangement was introduced. Following his return to the College Buckmaster was, in his words, 'assigned to take charge of the education of the junior division in a juvenile convict prison.' Nowhere in his autobiography does he specifically state that this was Parkhurst, on the Isle of Wight. (To be checked: Documentary evidence exists in IoW C.R.O to show that indeed between 1849 and 1851, he as present at that establishment.) Meanwhile back at St. John's changes were taking place. Late in 1848 the Principal, the Rev Thomas Jackson, MA, resigned his post to go to Austria. In the vacuum that followed his departure, the College was under the temporary direction of the Vice-Principal, the Reverend John Hunter. Because of unsettled policies affecting the future of the College, he was required to run things on a shoestring, and without 'any clear view of what the future might hold'. It was in this situation that Buckmaster returned in the spring on 1851. The Census return for the 5th April 1851 shows him to have been in residence at the College, which recorded his age as 25 and his birthplace as Dunstable, Bedfordshire, and his occupation as Industrial Master. Shortly after this a new permanent Principal to the College arrived. This was the Reverend Samuel Clark, whose appointment, despite glowing account in the official history of the college, did not bring complete contentment and satisfaction. Buckmaster described the situation. "One master after another resigned, until I was the only one left, and Ifelt my days were numbered ". (S.J.C. p. 286) After a hated discussion with Principal Clark, he left, "and never set foot in the place again" The evident animosity between Buckmaster and Clark did not, it appears, extend to those who taught science. Years later as former students were moved to record:- " I must not forget Mr Buckmaster who worked hard with us, over his lessons or lectures upon "physical science and industrial matters." (S.J.C. p. 152) "Here was the "old lab", designed in Principal Clark's early days, when Mr Buckmaster taught chemistry." (S.J.C. p. 239) The exact date of his departure is uncertain. Buckmaster participated in the Great Exhibition of May Sept 1851, and if he did it is conceivable that he established a contact with Henry Cole, said by some to have been the person primarily responsible for the presentation of the 1851 Exhibition. 1852 is a mystery By the middle of 1853 he had met and was engaged to Emily Goodliffe, who hailed from Trumpington in Cambridgeshire. With her he found a house in Battersea, away from the village and the scrutiny of St. John's College. It was there that the couple spent their lives until the death of Emily in 1890. Describing the house in St John's New Road, off St John's Hill, immediately adjoining the site of what was later to become Clapham Junction station, and the circumstances that he had acquired the home he wrote:- "Our income was small, and we had to be modest in our rent. After going about within a mile radius of my work, we settled on a compo thing called a villa. Ihated it, but my future wife thought it would do very nicely. I was only reconciled to it because it was in a muddy lane, surrounded by cabbage gardens and orchards, and on an early spring evening I would sit in a little garden, not much larger than the house, scent the hosthas and the lilac and hear the cuckoo. The house was a wretched Jerry affair and gave us no end of trouble and expense". (Village Politician. p. 280) There is it will be asked, no mention of the nearby railway and although it was by no means the extensive track of rail lines that was later to be constructed, the existing tracks served three established routes taking passengers and goods into Waterloo station. It has been calculated that by ?????, some trains passed through the point. Also not mentioned by Buckmaster is the fact that, the house into which he and Emily moved was next door to what appears to have been a relative of his wife, possibly a sister. Evidence for this comes from Buckmaster's niece, ????? who recorded in that ????? Goodlife, Emily's sister married a Mr Stevens. The Battersea parish books named occupier ????? from ???? Goodlife (which it had been since), to Charles Stevens, and in the 1851 Census reveals the family by the ????? Charles Stevens, a Spanish merchant. A ?????, his wife and their two children, both of whom had been born in Battersea. By May 1854 he had notably a wife and also a child to support and his future once again was doubtful. Fortunately, not far from his home, a trade school (a school in which science and drawing as applied to industrial arts, together with French, were the major aspects of the education), was in the process of establishment in Wandsworth. Here he was appointed science master, requested to attend two to three days each week, performing his duties for four years. At the end of this time the school was closed by order of the science and education department. During this time his own education then took a further development when he obtained a scholarship working 30 hours a week at the Royal school of ????? to be trained as a master for trade and navigation schools., walking there and back daily. On the eve of examination day "the confusions of his life reached new heights" "My wife was ill in bed; the girl had gone out and I had to take care of the child to prevent its falling into the fire or eating cinders. At the same time, I had to read up for the next day's examinations, which lasted several hours" (Village Politician. p. 295) The results were published the day after the examinations and to his restrained joy he found himself one of the two successful candidates. Two years later, he received from the Board of Trade his certificates indicating his success in the final examinations. After this, no appointments were offered to him, he continued the scholarship for a further year. Until the closure of the Trade School he found himself in "receipt of an income to which Iadapted my wants", but subsequent to being without an occupation he was compelled to seek alternate employment. As before in his life, his acquaintanceship with men of authority helped him and he secured either through Professor Moseley or Henry Cole, an appointment to the Science and Art Department, a comparatively new Department created after the Great Exhibition. It was reorganized in 1858, were Henry Cole was appointed as Secretary to the Department. Buckmaster's job was called "Organizing Master" although in successive censuses he described himself as an examiner. Biography John Charles Buckmaster was born at Slapton in Buckinghamshire in Feb 1823. Early in 1853 he makes his first appearance in the official archives, in the minute book of the Battersea parish vestry meeting of 29th March, when, although not present, he was nominated to be one of the Overseers of the Poor for Penge, then a detached hamlet administered from Battersea. Following his first appearance at the 30th September 1853 meeting he attended consistently at meetings until August 1854, after which there is no record of his attendance until after local administration of the area around London was re-structured in August 1855. During late 1853, early 1854 he was appointed to the Compensation Fund Committee of 20 vestrymen whose objective was to give consideration to any project submitted by parishioners for utilizing the sum of 1500 which had been paid by the Commissioners under the Battersea Park Act 1853 (9 +10 vic, c.38). The project selected by the Committee was for "a building for general and public purposes" eventually came to fruition as Battersea Lammas Hall. (Battersea Vestry Minutes 26/1/54) His associations with the Vestry coincide with his taking up residence in St. John's New Road (later renamed Preston Road) the southern approach road from St John's Hill to Clapham Junction railway station. When Buckmaster moved in, however, there was no station; two railway lines, those of the London and South Western Railway Company., and the London and Richmond Company were in the vicinity. In 1852 the houses in St. John's New Road were built and whilst over the ensuing years several of the 21 properties were occupied, many remained unoccupied. In the event this was fortuitous, since a further railway company, the Crystal Palace and West End of London, began to take interest in the area by establishing a line to the south of the existing tracks, and requiring the acquisition of properties on the St. John's New Road. By November 1857, the original 21 buildings had been reduced by demolition to ?????. All this had taken under the nose of J. C. Buckmaster, and, may well have been influential in forming his attitude to issues where railway companies were concerned. Where and when Buckmaster met his future wife is unclear. In mid-1853, however he was affianced and looking for a home. He describes this period thus???? What is not mentioned in his biography is the fact that the house into which he moved was next door to one occupied since ????? by a Mary Goodlife. This it appears was the sister of his wife Emily. A significant feature of Buckmaster's choice of home was its value, in rental and rateable terms. Initially they were respectively 22 and 16, increased after general review which took place in 1859 to 24 and 18. The consequences of his selection of a house in the St. John's New Road included his ineligibility, under the provisions specified in the Metropolitan Management Act 1855 which provided for the re-organisation of local government around London, to stand for election as a public representative, a Vestryman. Eligibility to serve was confined to those who could show themselves to be "an inhabitant householder rated at not less than £40". The relevance of this restriction to the resultant composition of local authorities, and the consequential objectives and process of achieving those objectives is currently subject of study. Buckmaster could not, even if he desired, be a vestryman. Nor, since Battersea did not have its own locally based local authority, but elected vestry which itself sent representatives to the Wandsworth District Board of Works, could he be a member of the single most important locally active body. Although unable to be a representative Buckmaster was eligible to vote at the selection of Vestryman. The first election under the revised arrangements took place in November 1855, the name of Buckmaster not appearing among the list of those present. 1851 Census Mary Steadman — 44 Annalist Hannah Simpson 66 Wife of lecturer of Philosophy Henry Simpson — 27 s Edward Fisher — 52 Retired silk merchant Georgia Fisher Anthony Norman 36 Gardener Susan Norman + Crickleman George Crickleman 20 Surveys assistant Maria Crickleman - Anne Dunn — 54 Assistant Allen Thunett — 48 Clerk in P.O John Boyds — 34 Gold lace man + Embroiderer Ann + Children Terrace House Training Establishment of Schoolmasters Census 5 April 1851 John Brown — 32 Master of commercial school Scotland George W Martin 26 Music master Marylebone, Middlesex John C Buckmaster 25 Industrial Master Dunstable, Beds Students 18 2 — 1 19 2 2 20 3 2 21 0 — 2 22 5 23 2 24 1 25 26 1 (Mar) 27 28 1 29 1 30 1 (Mar) 31 1 32 33 34 35 Wan Ponsford 19 Schoolmaster Newport, Hants Francis Bush — 22 Schoolmaster Bath, Summerset John A Jackson 21 Schoolmaster — France Vicarage _____ _____ Jon S Jenkinson Vicar 53 Gunnersbury park Museum CA Buckmaster _______ 1273/2 — 2796/1 1871 Census 1. Wayne Robinson — 42 Music seller Louisa Robinson 36 Wife Amelia Robinson 15 — Daughter 2. John C Buckmaster 49 Goal service, science and art department ________ certificate examiner Emily A Buckmaster 39 Wife Martha A Buckmaster 8 Phoebe Buckmaster 3 Eliza Richardson 41- Governors Nacy Wiseman 35 Sister Charlotte Hawkins 23 ________ (_____) 3. Charles B Stevens 38 _______ (Spanish) — Oxford Mary E Stevens 34 Cambridge Emily M Stevens 9 School Battersea Annie G Stevens 35 cousin Ramsgate, Kent Charlotte Derby 23 _____ (domestic) — Bethnal Green 11 April 1881 Census Sarah Nicholls Wid 63 Sara Nicholls __ 31 Matilda Nicholls - Charles Brain — 36 Ellen Brain Edith Brain Louisa Brain John Gazes Mary Gazes Paulina Gazes John C Buckmaster — 58 Examiner, Education dept, Science and art department Emily A Buckmaster 49 George Buckmaster 22 Pheobe Buckmaster 13 school Eliza Richardson 51 Governess Maria _______ 17 ________ Theo Shaw J.C. Buckmaster mother's name was Phoebe (___) Buckmaster Vestry Attendance 29th March 1853 Not at this meeting Joseph Buckmaster nominated for appointment as Overseer of Poor for Penge Friday 30th September 1853 — present 7.00pm Old Infant School, Green Lane Appointed one of 20 committee members to Compensation Fund Committee " afford an opportunity to any of the Parishioners to lay . . . .such Project as they may be ????? of promoting" Money from Battersea Park Commissioners, 1,500; from Daniel Watney for stopping up footpath 450 (43) 10 November 1853 Present 1 December 1853 Not present 26 January 1854 Present Committee reported on 8 proposed projects The Battersea Park Act 1853 9 + 10 Vic, C. 38 1500 to be available to Church Wardens 1500 for a building for general and public purposes 400 for school in St George's district Poll requested on vote approving allocation of money Thursday + Friday 2 + 3 February 1854 3rd January 1853 Not present 30th March 1854 Present 18th April 1854 Present 25th April 1854 Present 26th May 1854 Not Present 29th June 1854 Present 3rd August 1854 Present 9th August 1854 Not present 1st December 1854 Not Present 8th December 1854 Not present 26th March 1855 Not present 10th April 1855 Not present 20th April 1855 Not present 2nd August 1855 Not present + 500 to be paid by WELCPR for existing rights on Battersea West Common (Wandsworth) 16th August 1855 Not Present 27th September 1855 Not Present 25th March 1856 — Not present 22nd April 1856 Not present 30th April 1856 Not present 14th April 1857 Not present (annual) P. Cazenove Signature 7th August 1857 Not present Nothing for 1858 (These minutes are in elected Vestry Book) 26th Feb 1859 Present (Annual Meeting) 10th April 1860 Present (Annual Meeting) B proposed vote of thanks to returning Church Wardens Thornton and Picking. Carried unanimously 2nd April 1861 Present (annual meeting) Adjourned to 6th April John Charles Buckmaster elected Sidesman for ensuing year Proposed by Mr. Poupart Sec by Mr. Gregg 15th July 1861 Present 27th February 1862 Not present 14th August 1862 Present B Seconded Rate Assessment. Proposed by H. S Thornton, of 2d in the 1 11th August 1863 Present 25th October 1864 Not Present 14th November 1865 Not present No 1866 7th March 1867 Not present 30th April Not present. Meeting covered by notice dated 22nd April 1868, with J.C. Buckmaster as one of 2 Churchwardens Churchwardens Accounts year coming 7th March 1867 ending 19th March 1868. Signed by B No 1869 8th July 1870 No list of attendees Accounts for year ending Easter 1870 proposed by J .C. Buckmaster and Hubert De Carteret Ecclesiastical District of St Mary's Rate of 4d in proposed by Mr Hadfield. Signed by B 26th May 1872 No list of attendees Accounts for ecclesiastical district of St Mary For 1871 proposed by Mr. R. Hadfield + B 31st May 1873 not mentioned, no list of attendees 4th Sept 1873 not mentioned, no list of attendees 11th June 1874 not mentioned, no list of attendees 22nd April 1875 not mentioned, no list of attendees 22nd July 1876 not mentioned, no list of attendees Buckmaster Elected Vestry 1st Election meeting 20/11/1855. B not present. Not a candidate for Vestry 2nd Election meeting 29/5/1857. B not present 25/3/1858. B not present (Elected Vestry). B on a list to be adopted for Overseers for ensuing year His list voted down in favour of alternative Annual meeting 27th May 1858 Meeting elected to Vestry B present B proposal, Bernard John Graham seconded List of names to fill vacancies on elected Vestry His list covered 73 to 28 Poll demanded held 28th May 1858 24th March 1859 Elected Vestry B. not present B On list to be adopted for overseers. His list defeated Annual Meeting 30th May 1859 Meeting to elect Vestrymen B Present B Proposed, Mr Alder seconded Inspector of Votes His two adopted B Proposal, Mr. Kerney seconded list of names His list carried 55 to 10 Poll demanded Held 31st May 1859 B list successful 154 67 B ????? Adoption of 5 Auditors for year 27th March 1860 Elected Vestry Meeting B on list of overseers — Address St,. John's Road, St. John's Hill 2nd May 1860 Elected Vestry B elected to be member of Burial Board 24th May 1860 Annual meeting B Present B nominated on part of parishioners Henry Juer and John Lyth Inspectors of votes B Proposal Mr Poupart seconded list of names for election B list carried 40 5 27th May 1861 Annual meeting B Present B Proposed, Mr Gregg seconded, Henry Juer and David Jones Inspectors of votes Alternative pair proposed Latter chosen 40 28 (For Churchwardens) B nominated Inspector of Votes by Mr Walton, Churchwarden B nominated, Hart seconded, list of proposed Vestrymen Alternative list proposed and seconded Latter elected 54-44 Poll demanded by Buckmaster, Jules, Poupart, Henry Gregg and D Jones (For Churchwarden) 26th May 1862 Annual meeting B Present B nominated Inspector of Votes by Churchwarden Alton 25th May 1853 Annual meeting B Present B nominated Inspector of Votes by ratepayer of parish For Vestryman Mr. Buckmaster proposed that Mr. Page be elected a Vestryman, but ultimately withdraw nomination. S. Poupart moved, B seconded "thanks to be given to Mr Dennis Gaven, churchwarden for his kind and impartial conduct at the law". 28th July 1863 Jt application for Vestry Clerk for Corsellis and Cladwin 23rd May 1864 Annual Meeting B Present B nominated Inspector of Votes by Churchwardens B Proposed list of ?????, No seconder 5. of his slate elected 22nd May 1865 Annual Meeting B Present B Proposed slate of 5. — All 5 elected 14th May 1866 Annual Meeting B Present B Chosen Inspector of Votes for ratepayers B Proposed, Acomb seconded slate of 3 28th May 1866, Adjourned meeting B Present Elected as additional members 12 up to 36 20th May 1867 Annual Meeting B Present B Not happy with minutes of previous year 27nd May 1867 Adjourned Meeting B Present B Proposal Ayles seconded "That in the opinion of this meeting of Ratepayers it is not desirable to proceed to the election of Vestrymen until the proceedings of the meeting held in June and October last are properly recorded in the minute book." 5th June 1867 — B as churchwarden in the chair 10th June 1867 — B in chair No business inquorate (5) 11th July 1867 — B present, not chair — No business — inquorate (8) 18th July 1867 B present, not chair — No business — inquorate (3) 25th July 1867 — B present, not chair — No business — inquorate (7) 2 motions from B to be considered 21st October 1867 inquorate (5) 28th October 1867 inquorate (5) 11th November 1867 12 present B not present Minutes of 5th June signed 23rd March 1868 — B present, not chair Minutes of last Vestry signed Churchwarden and Sidesman appointed by Vicar Then inquorate, B leaving room 20th April 1868 16 present — B present, not chair Contest for People's Churchwarden B nominated, against Poupart. Chosen 8 to 4 (by Nassau senior) B nominated Samuel Swift as Sidesman B nominated 3 to be Burial Board members All elected 25th May 1868 Annual meeting B present B Churchwarden B Proposed slates for Vestrymen Alternative proposal B list won. Poll demanded B list won poll 3rd June 1868 Notes John Buckmaster — Village politician SC8.340 Caliban book 8.50 paperback 0 094573 71 1 Signed 1899 forward by A.J. Mundella Viscount Buckmaster Roundabout (Owen Stanley) D8.300 MF + G Witherby 5.50 0 85493 015 9 Burkes Peerage 2nd Viscount Buckmaster — Owen Stanley b. 24/9/1890; m. (1) 21/12/1916; (2)23/1/1916. d. 1974. (succ 6/2/1834) 3rd Viscount Buckmaster (succ ?????) John Charles Buckmaster "Ashleigh" Teddington (at death). b. 23/2/1823; m. 9/8/1853 Son of Thomas Buckmaster, Slapton Bucks d. 20/7/1908 Married Emily Anne Goodlife of Trumpington, Cambs d. 30/6/1890 Elder daughter of George Goodlife Children - 1. Charles Alexander: b. 16/5/1854; m. 28/12/1887; d. 24/5/1949 2. George Alfred: b. 7/2/1859; m. 1890; d. 21/12/1397; 3. Stanley Owen: b. 9/1/1861; 1st Viscount 24/2/1933; m. 29/12/1889. Of Cheddington d. 5/12/1934 4. Martin Arnold: b. 2/8/1862; m. 4/2/1910; d. 14/8/1960 5. Phoebe (not listed): b. 1868 Buckmaster, Stanley Owen (1861-1934) first Viscount Buckmaster (1933) of Cheddington (1933-1934) Lord Chancellor + Statesman Aldenham School Christ Church College, Oxford 1882 2nd class Maths 1884 called to Bor inner Temple 1902 Lincolns Inn KC. 1910 Bencher Developed large Chancery Practice 1910/13 Counsel to Oxford University MP (Liberal): 1906-10 Cambridge borough 1911-15 Keighley Damson 1913-15 Solicitor General (Knighted) 1914-15 Director Press Bureau 1915-16 Lord Chancellor (PC+Baron) Thereafter an appellate Judge in the House of Lords "a powerful orator on many subjects" Chairman of Governors, Imperial College 1923/24 GCVO 1930 Viscount 1933 Martin Stanley (11 April 1921) 3rd Vis" "USE SHEILA'S EDITED VERSION, NOT THIS HOW THE BATTLE FOR WANDSWORTH COMMON WAS FOUGHT & WON This was sent to me by Emma at WHS as a series of photographs, which i cleaned up, OCRd, and started to edit This is the text as it stood 3 December 2020. It needs a lot of work. ________________ 1_1 About 1760 several persons who then lived near that part of Wandsworth-common which adjoins Garratt-lane formed a kind of club, not to eat and drink, but to devise measures for removing the encroachments made on the common, and to prevent others being made. The members were persons mostly in humble circumstances, but they agreed at every meeting to contribute a small sum for the defence of their collective rights When a sufficient sum was subscribed they applied to a worthy attorney in the neighbourhood, who brought actions against the encroachers in the name of the president, or, as he was styled, the mayor of the club. They gained their suits with costs, the encroachments were removed, and the president, who lived many years to protect their rights, was called the "Mayor of Garratt." PORTIONS TAKEN FROM WANDSWORTH COMMON. Between the years of 1785 and 1818 no less than 36 enclosures were made, varying from half an acre to 96 acres, making up a total of 172 acres, in Wandsworth parish alone. Some of these enclosures were made with, and some without, consent. Subsequently, about 1821, the portion now known as the Magdalen College estate was enclosed and let to the late Mr. Neal, on easy terms, thus appropriating for private benefit another large Portion of the Common. Since that time the following additional enclosures have been made _________________________ 1_2 IACRES. 1836. South Western Railway . . 14 1846. St. James's Schools 0 . 20 Estate by Black Sea . . 10 1848. McKellar's triangular piece 0 20:1- 1848. Piece by Black Sea 0 . . H 1852. Telescope piece . . . 1-?-s 55 1854-7. — Patriotic Schools 0 0 0 1854. Brighton Railway . . . ilk 1854. Ditto by Nightingale lane 0 15 1857. Ditto opposite cemetery 0 0 9 18616-House of Correction. . . 10 1868. Road from Freemason's Hotel along past pumping mill. . 21: is6s..Road east side of Spencer Park 1869. Plough Green piece . nearly 2 Total . 173 About the year 1850, after the construction of the South Western Railway, Mr. Herring {I recall the Survey calls him Hemming], who lived at Ivy Cottage, since pulled down, put a fence across the entrance to Plough-green, and stopped up a right of way. This fence, with the aid of a timber carriage, was knocked down by the inhabitants who walked in procession across the Green. The timber truck was afterwards named the "Magna Charta." Some of the persons were summoned to the Wandsworth Police Court, but the magistrate dismissed the case on the ground that there was a right of way. In the year 1877 [PB: 1867?] a suit was instituted against Lord Spencer as Lord of the Manor, on the part of one Digby, a copyholder, for having alienated to Messrs. C. W. Todd and others certain parts of Wandsworth-common, thereby affecting Digby's rights as a copyholder. This suit was before the courts until the settlement of the whole ____________________ 2_1 matter, by the passing of the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. The following is extracted from a small pamphlet on the "Commons and Open Spaces near London," reprinted about 1868, from Thrr Pftrocithd Critic: "Wandsworth-common, in the parish of Wandsworth, on the shore of the Wandle, and in Domesday Book Wendlesorde, there are, or were, four manors, Battersea and Wandsworth, Dunsfold and Alfarthing. With the exception of Dunsfold all are now held by Earl Spencer. Many interesting facts are associated with the early history of these manors ,1-71 which Royalty and nobility are conspicuous figures. The commons of Battersea and Wandsworth manor consist of about 150 acres, but little now remains of the Battersea portion: its once celebrated fields have been made into a park, and the remaining land has either been built over or destroyed by a network of railways. Thirty species of fossil shells were found in excavating the London clay, but no fossils were found in the gravel pits which so sadly disfigure the common, and which, if permitted to go on unchecked and uncontrolled, will destroy what remains of its beauty. Encroachments and enclosures have been made by the railways, by the St. James's industrial School, by the Patriotic, Schools, by the Prison, and by private individuals. When the common was leased by a committee of gentlemen there was some supervision, but at present there seems to be no authority to abate nuisances or regulate the gravel digging, notwithstanding all the damage which has been done. What remains of Wandsworth-common is still attractive to pedestrians. An avenue of trees nearly a mile in length is still remaining, and in spring and summer is an especial object of beauty." But how long the trees will continue is doubtful, for since the above was written -No of them, immediately opposite the cemetery, have been cut down to make room for the erection of a beer shop called the Lord of the Manor. This destruction of beautiful trees for such a purpose roused the indignation and spirit of the neighbourhood. Two or three gentlemen commenced proceedings to stop by injunction any further building operations. An ornamental piece of water, of five acres, known as the Black Sea, studded with thirteen small islands, and beautified with shrubs and flowers, was, together with eight acres, leased to the late Mrs. Wilson. At her decease the lease was purchased by Earl _____________________________ 2_2 Spencer, and the gravest apprehensions were entertained that the thirteen acres would be turned into building sites. In May, 1868, the Vicar, the Rev. T. S. Jenkinson, invited a few gentlemen to meet at his house to consider if anything could be done to stop the continual encroachments on the Common. A road was made by the side of the South Western Railway from the Railway bridge, opposite the Freemasons Arms, past the old pumping mill to the bridge on Trinity road, another road, being a continuation of Spencer-road was made to form a building frontage to the Spencer Park Estate. There was also an enclosure of a long strip of green sward on the side of the main road, which now forms the north frontage of the Spencer Park Estate. A committee was appointed, and frequent meetings were held, which at last resulted in a memorial to Earl Spencer, which was signed by upwards of 200 ratepayers of New Wandsworth. All these efforts were useless. At last the indignation and enthusiasm of the neighbourhood were fully aroused, and the way prepared for further action. Application was made to the District Board of Works to take charge of the Common, and prevent further encroachments. This was supplemented by an appeal to the Metropolitan Board of Works, and at a meeting held on the 17th of June, 1868, Mr. Meaden presented a memorial from the Wandsworth Board of Works, praying the Metropolitan Board to enforce the provisions of the Commons Act of 1866, so as to save what remained of the Common from further encroachments. This was referred to the Works Committee. A deputation attended of inhabitants of Wandsworth and Battersea, introduced by Mr. Meaden, who presented the following memorial: The memorial of us the undersigned inhabitants of the parishes of Wandsworth and Battersea, showeth- 1. That the whole of Wandsworth and Battersea Commons are within your jurisdiction. 2. That these Commons formerly consisted of about 300 acres, but, in consequence of many enclosures and encroachments, the open spaces low remaining, do not, we believe, consist of fore than 150 acres. 3. That from time immemorial these Commons have been entirely open for the public use and _____________________ 3_1 recreation, and were formerly noted for their great natural beauty and fertility, and are, not-withstanding their present neglected state, still greatly resorted to by the inhabitants of the metropolis, the access by rail being remarkably easy, and the fares low. 4. That the continual encroachments on the Commons, the excavation of gravel pits which Iwhich are left in a dangerous state to tilt. %uldie, and serve as resorts for dissolute characters the deposit of rubbish, and other nuisances of a like nature, have given rise to a wide-spread feeling of regret and dissatisfaction, which has resulted in an application to the Board of Works for the Wandsworth District to enforce the Commons Preservation Act of 1866. 5. The necessity of maintaining the Commons and open spaces around London, in consequence of the rapid increase of the population, has been recognised both by your honourable Board and the Legislature, and we would respectfully urge that the preservation, unenclosed, of Wandsworth and Battersea Commons has become a matter of great importance to the inhabitants of the metropolis. Your memorialists therefore hope that, in consideration of the public importance of the subject, your hpnothiable Board will be pleased to direct immediate steps to be taken to put the Commons Preservation Act of 1866 in operation, to secure and maintain, unenclosed, for the benefit of the public, in perpetuity, the existing Commons of Wandsworth and Battersea. J. S. Jenkinson, Vicar of Battersea. E. R. Ransome, Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth common. H. Brown, Cornwall Villa, Wandsworth common. J. D. Keighley, Ashdown, Wandsworth common. Charles Gray, Chestnut Villa, Wandsworth common. William Carter, Althorp House, Wandsworth common. George Alder, Battersea Rise. G. H. Page, Spencer road. C. M. Hanson, Spencer road. Hubert de Carteret, Spencer road. Paul Oppitz, Vardens road. G. H. Swounell, Wandsworth common. John Costeker, St. John's hill. Wm. Compton Smith, Ivy Lodge, St. John's hill. Alexander Webster, 25, Oberstein road. H. W. M. Wilson, Spencer road. James Mudie, Park road, New Wandswor0. Francis R. Bertollacci [Bertolacci], Park road, New Wandsworth. John Archbutt, Wandsworth common. Andrew McKay, Park road, New Wandsworth. Ambrose P. Boyson, Wandsworth common. T. S. Watson, The Gables, Wandsworth common. James Du Buisson, Wandsworth common. Edward [Millis] Coventry, Wandsworth common. _______________________ 3_2 Mr. fiord and Mr. Buckmaster addressed Ihi! Board on the subject, asking them. to miertere for )1tV4!TitiOn of further encroach-went without dclav, pointing out the gradual inereame of eliciore and. bildings. They bilorwed 1.114! 1:(iard that one of the copy-holdten,,t waN Hhout to take proceedings to ieHt thn ,'melt, or enclosure r,y the Lord of the M an%r, 14,ari 81)(1 wer. N Iet ro%ol itan Board of SS: orks, October, 1868. At the ordinary weekly meeting of this Board, Sir John Thwaites presiding. Mr. Hows, pursuant to notice, moved that a committee be appointed to conduct the business of the Board connected_ With parks and open spaces, such committee to consist of 15 members. The Chairman observed that the Board could not delegate its powers to any committee. Mr. Hows then said be would simply move that the question of parks and open spaces be referred to a committee of the whole Board. He did not thereby intend to imply that there had been any neglect on the part of the Board, but it was evident that the Improvement Committee had enough to do without haying these questions to deal with. Mr. Westerton seconded the motion, because the Improvement Committee had had so much to do that the item of open spaces had entirely disappeared from their agenda papers. Mr. Ruutz supported the motion, feeling that they had never taken their proper position in reference to the Commons Preservation Act. The Board had as yet done nothing under that Act, in which they should have taken the initiative, instead of leaving it for Local Boards to take the earliest steps. Mr. Savage was in hopes of having the two parks (Southwark and Finsbury) opened early in the ensuing spring. There had been, he said, too much delay already, for the parks should. have been completed long since. He was sure, when the contract was made for the execution of the works at Finsbury Park, it would never be carried out. Mr. Elt moved, as an amendment, that the committee should consist of 15 members. Mr. Bidgood seconded the amendment. Upon a division, the numbers: appeared for the amendment 10, against it 14. The amendment was therefore lost Mr. Savage then proposed his motion: "That, La consequence of the continued delay ___________________ 4 which has liken place in laying out and opening, for the use of the public Finsbury and South-Iskar parks, a select committee 41 I2 in number be appointed for the purpose of planting and ont the parks, subject thn approval ot Ole Board, and of opening thou tor he health and recreation of the inhabitants 44 ghe norown, and southern diNtrICIS o I I It' 11101.01) OHM nt t he public generally, in the sprin;,,. Mr, Thompson (Clerkenwell) Hecon4 led the motion, and hoped the matter would heu re,ft.Irnvd, htur, if not, they would have delay alter cola; and, it things did not speedily mie to It conclusion, in his opinion, there otila btN some strong expression of feeling on t he part of the public. Mr. Richardson (Greenwich) said he was advised by their solicitor that the Board could only carry out the provisions of the Commons Preservation Act in case preliminary action was taken by the local authorities. After a long discussion, the motion was negatived by 16 to 10. Extract from a report of the Metropolitan Board of Works for 1869-70:% Commons and Open Spaces. %After referring to Tooting Bey. Common and another open space or t Aro, it says: "WANDSWORTH COMMON. Wandsworth and Battersea Commons are still the subject of legal investigation, as also is Wimbledon Common, and the Board are therefore not at present in a position to deal with etm" 1868. November 10th. After waiting some time, and being unable to learn that any steps were being taken by the Metropolitan Board of Works in regard to our Common, Mr. Ransome went several times to the offices of that Board, but could not obtain any satisfactory information. On November 10th he waited in the street until Sir John Thwaites came along, and went with him into his private office. After some conversation on the subject Sir John Thwaites stated, as chairman of that Board, that the Board could not take the matter in hand at all so long as there were lawsuits pending respecting portions of the common. Finding that no steps were being taken by that Board, and that that Board eontetth Plated selling Portions of open spaces taken under their control, We began to feel afraid of them, lest Wandsworth-common might be still further reduced if they took it in hand and we began to despair of being able to rescue our common from the bands of speculative builders, dust contractors, and others, especially as a new road had recently been fonnil-1g — the new Wandsworth-rom bridge, along by the old pumping mill, to the bridge on the Tooting-road, with the Hhc)Il road forming. a continuation of Spenceror.mad, Mahe Es frontage to What is ilOW 1,1w. Hlumeeis Park EState; au]. im:10.1,fl from tho effilurpm, Moreover, Earl Spencer's 11,!y the: eThi Ids Ilie d;Ariel) "1"3"1"1", eliel("0"/ long strip of (Y t(% add to the north) Hide of the Hivi estati..!, cutting the, main row] down to a: were AoteOft. road, instead of ifim being a VO(%i road as it bad been from time immemorial. .A petition signed by more than 2($) ratemayertr; of New Wand.sworth was sent to 14.,art Spencer, protesting against, these (,r) oat;I) rn ents , but a deaf ear was turniA to -web Meeting after meeting was held, either at the house of the vicar or elsewhere, to consider what was best to be done, whilst Mr. J. C. Buckmaster, then a churchwarden, endeavoured to keep the question alive, either by articles in the newspapers, or, in 1869, by breaking down fences which had been erected on a portion of the common between the cemetery and the New Wandsworth goods station of the Brighton Railway, in the presence of about 2,000 people who had assembled to show their sympathy and interest in the proceedings. Mr. Buckmaster was summoned, in consequence, to the Wandsworth Police Court, but Mr. Dayman dismissed the case, holding that the only remedy was an action for trespass. Somewhere about this time the following unanimous resolution was agreed to by the Metropolitan Board of Works (See the evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons): " That it is highly desirable to preserve the commons and open spices near the metropolis for public recreation and enjoyment, such open spaces to remain unenclose(J, and that the Board should compensate the lords of manors and commoners in restrict of any rights of which they may be deprived. ThaL towards meeting the expenditure to be incurred, power should be given to this Board to sell certain portions of such spaces for building or other purposes." The same witness, Sir John Thwaites, the chairman of that Board, stated that it would be impossible to carry out the plan proposed by the Board unless the Board had sufficient power to dispose of a portion of the land for building purposes, &c. 1870. .Manth 14th. A large and influential meting was held at the Lammas Hall, Battersea, convened by Mr. J. C. Buckmaster, churchwarden of the parish of St. Mary's, Battersea, at the request of seven influential parishioners, including the vicar and the late Tom Taylor. The hall was filled by eight o'clock, amongst those _________________ 5 present being Messrs. Lord, Eccles, H. Whiting, Lambert, Bertolacci, Buckmaster, Ransome, Bass, Bickerdike, Carter, Taylor, Goldsmith, Coventry, B. Smith, Clark, Owen, Noir, Griffiths, Poupart, Todd, and others. Mr. Buckmaster, having been voted into the chair, read Mr. Peek's letter, addressed to himself, as follows: " Wimbledon House, 7th rep., lb/ U. " My dear read your remarks in the City Press of Saturday, and I have sent a copy of the paper to Earl Spencer. The public may grumble as much as they please; that will never stop encroachments or enclosures. What I have been thinking of is this: round Clapham common there are many wealthy gentlemen, some of whom are beginning to feel alarmed at Lord Spencer declining to renew the lease of that part which belongs to him. And in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth there are also many well-to-do people. If these will pay 4,000 into a bank Iwill add 1,000, and, as a Battersea copyholder, would at once commence proceedings to take up everything irregular during the legal term, which, Ibelieve, is 20 years. " We are vigorously defending this common, and intend to leave no stone unturned to settle the question once for all. I have my hands very full, but am quite willing to do what I say, but not on a less scale, having named the precise sum we fixed on here. Yours faithfully, HENRY W. PEEK . To J. C. Buckmaster, Esq. PS — Iwill hold myself bound to this offer to June, 1870, but no longer." Mr. Buckmaster roused the enthusiasm of those present by a graphic description of the various encroachments on the common, and concluded his address by saying that tis his services had hitherto been, so they would continue. He had sometimes incurred hostility and a feeling of social antagonism, and he might have said hard things, but if he had erred it was not an error of intention or of heart. From a boy he had been taught to do his utmost to secure for others the liberty and privileges which he enjoyed, and on principle he should always endeavour to act. A substantive resolution, pledging the meeting to use its utmost endeavours to raise the sum requisite to secure Mr. Peek's offer of 1,000, was moved by Mr. Eccles, and seconded by Mr. Lord, who said lie appeared oil that platform as one interested, like them all, in the present movement, and he considered the time had now arrived when this long-vexed question ought to be submitted to a proper tribunal for a legal settlement once for all, and announced, amidst loud cheers, his subscription of 100. Mr. Ransome, from the body of the meeting, congratulated those present on the practical turn it had assumed, and submitted that a committee of management should be then named, with power to add to their number, and that meetings be held at Wandsworth and Clapham, and sub-committees formed for raising subscriptions throughout the neighbourhood, and his 50 should be ready at any moment. Mr. Ransome spoke with much earnestness, and was deservedly cheered. Mr. Lambert and Mr. Bertolacci also addressed the meeting, also several working men, whose remarks were listened to with marked attention, as showing how largely they participated in the movement and suggestions were made for establishing district committees amongst themselves for raising penny subscriptions. The following gentlemen were named on the executive committee, viz.: — Messrs. Lord, Lambert, Eccles, Whiting, Ransome, Bertolacci, Rose, Bickerdike, and the chairman (Mr. Buckmaster). Subscriptions were announced amounting to nearly 400. cordial vote of thanks having been given to the chairman, some of those present went home with a deep-seated determination to be up and doing, which augured well for the successful issue of this movement. In order to carry out the resolution for raising funds the members of the committee, with subsequent additions in numbers, divided the district for house to house visitation. Mr. Ransome undertook the residents on the edge of the common. He called upon the late Mr. Du Buisson and told him he wanted 100, which he agreed to give, and invited the committee in future to hold their meetings at his house. The members of the committee used to go daily (mostly in the evening) to the various houses, perhaps ten or twelve in a day, and thus helped to rouse a wide-spread interest in the movement. Collecting subscriptions involved a great deal of time and labour but nothing seemed to deter some of the more earnest workers. Mr. Ransome stated that the moving cause of zealous efforts on his part was a religious conviction that it would be good, both morally and spiritually, for those who might succeed him, to have such an open space as this preserved for public use; that he himself had often felt the benefit of being able, even for a short time, to retire from the noise and bustle of city life, and quietly to enjoy what there might be left of country. This feeling, no ____________ 6_1 doubt, actuated others. We are now enjoying the outcome of labours but for which other portions of the common would long since have been devoted to building purposes, and Wandsworth-common by this time woud have been a thing of the past. On April 4th, 1870, a public meeting was held at Price's Candle Works Institute, York-road, Mr. Lord being the chairman, supported by Meesrs. Buckmaster, Ransome" on( tett Hatetter, tnit I themt, and a large nombn et wart joy: men of the neighbourhood. Mr. Lord briefly alluded to the movement, and said that now or never was the time to be in earnest, that they might have an uphill battle to fight, but by all putting their shoulders to the wheel they would, he felt sure, ultimately triumph. Mr. Buckmaster next addressed the meeting with his accustomed earnestness and fluency, pointing out the various enclosures and encroachments by which the area of the common had been greatly reduced, and rousing the enthusiasm of the audience to J their part towards nutting a stop to bather encroachments. Mr Ransome followed in a somewhat similar strain, remarking that they were not there to interfere with Lord Spencer's rights, if he had right on his side, but they were there to vindicate their own rights, which they believed were being invaded. He preferred conciliation to coercion, believing that more flies were caught by sugar than by vinegar; but at any rate they were determined to come to an issue. He exhorted the working men to believe that much could be done by small contributions, and urged them to take the matter up in a spirit of determination, as one in which their health and that of their families was largely concerned. Mr. Fithian, Secretary of the Commons Preservation Society, stated the peculiarities of the law of common rights as between one party and other. Manorial rights dif. 1,1041 in;Immo count jos; but the rights of oupyh,,14,r, inhabitants we one and the same. Mr. Ounds, as representing the artisans in Messrs. Price's establishment, stated the strong interest felt in every workshop on t [w queNtion, and said that before June arrive,1 they would be trepiored with sub. evident.te, by their subscriptions, to hiinw in sympathy with the movement. Mr. Conder and other made a few remarks, and Mr. Turner pledged himself to collect 5. In the early part of April, 1870, Mr J. G. Mason and Mr. Ransome were deputed by the committee to call upon the Lord Mayor for permission to have a meeting at the Mansion House, with the view of enlisting public sympathy and help, but the Lord Mayor did not at that time see his was to assent, although in the following July he consented to a public meeting. On April 13th, 1870, about 150 men in midday attacked some gates and fencing which had been put up at the rear of the "Plough" Inn, where there had been a footpath in constant use across that portion of of the common known as Plough-green. On asking a female bystander what all the stir was about, she replied, "Shure it's the fincing they're going to pull down, and mane to do it." After breaking through the fence at the entrance to the footpath, the crowd, greatly increased, and cheered by the enlivening strains of Ethiopian minstrels, who led the procession across the path until they reached another fence near the Freemasons Inn. This fence was quickly demolished, and the "right of way" was asserted in a rough and ready manner, causing angry words and much excitement in that otherwise quiet neighbourhood. The stir and tumult continued until dusk, hundreds of people hastening to see what had been done about the footpath. Strathblaine-road and other roads now occupy this portion of the common. A trial, lasting four days, took place at the assizes in Guildford, in the following August, 1870; although evidence was adduced to show that the piece of ground in question had always been an unenclosed portion of the Common, Mr. Justice Bovill ruled that because no defined path could be ascertained, the plea of free user could not be established, and the appropriation of the land to private purposes was carried out. This decision was appealed against but lost. The railway had out through and across the original path which had there from time immemorial, and its continuous track was lost, and so was that piece of the Common, as far as the public were concerned, and so was the 400 odd which the trial cost Mr. Clark for lending some tools to the people who broke down the fences. On the evening of this memorable April 13th, 1870, a crowded public meeting was held at the "Spread Eagle" Assembly Rooms, under the presidency of Mr. Bevington, J.P., supported by Messrs. Buckmaster, Ransome, Eccles, Coventry, Boyson, Hunter, [p7] Mason, Conder and others. The Chairman, who was received with loud applause, said that it was very inspiriting to himself and his friends to be received with such cordial marks of approval as had been evinced towards them that evening. After referring to Mr. Peek's letter, he observed that they wished the work to be prosecuted in a temperate and strictly legal manner, and that he could not, as a magistrate, countenance the proceedings which had that day taken place near the "Plough" Inn, for such doings were calculated to prejudice rather than assist in determining what the rights of the Lord of the Manor really were. He understood that Battersea had already commenced liberally to contribute towards this fund, and he hoped Wandsworth in this respect would not allow itself to be out-distanced. Mr. Ransome then rose and announced that their chairman had just told him he would give 50. The applause excited by this announcement having subsided, Mr. Buckmaster, who was greeted with a perfect ovation, came forward and said he was glad to have been privileged to bring before their notice a question, not of local, but national importance. He was there to deprecate, with just indignation, the gradual absorbtion of Wandsworth Common, an open space surrounded, for the most part, by poor people unable to help themselves, and which should therefore remain open and unenclosed. (Applause.) He then described with great earnestness the various enclosures and encroachments made since the year 1846. His humorous reference to the Telescope piece and House of Correction served to mingle good humour with earnest determination. He stated also that the attention of the Board of Works had been repeatedly drawn to these enclosures, but that this had produced no practical effect. The Chairman observed that after Mr. Buckmaster's eloquent address, he should like some gentleman on the other side to say a few words on the subject. No one responding to this invitation, a motion was brought forward by Mr. E. Coventry, pledging the meeting to raise as large a proportion as possible of the sum of 4,000 for the parish of Wandsworth. Mr. Boyson, in seconding the motion, observed that they should strive for their rights in a legal manner. He was quite sure they would do their best to collect the money, remembering that not themselves only, but all London was interested in the matter, _________________ 7_2 A gentleman in the body of the hall said he should be glad to have the term copyholder defined. Mr. Hunter said it was very simple. A copyholder was one who held his lands by a copy roll, his land passing by certain forms which freeholders did not require. He concluded his explanation of the public common rights by remarking that the rights of the copyholders and freeholders, if properly enforced, would he sufficient to keep the common open, without any pecuniary compensation to the Lord of the Manor for such rights as he might possess. Mr. Ransome referred to the action of some of the inhabitants about a hundred years ago, when encroachments were attempted, and the celebrated Mayor of Garratt was originally the chairman of a humble band, who met together every week to pay subscriptions for the resisting of an encroachment that had taken place, and having obtained an advocate, the encroachment was removed. He remarked also how grateful he felt to the worthy chairman for having come to the rescue that evening: that a week ago he had spent a whole day in wandering from one gentleman to another to obtain a chairman of some local influence; that towards evening, weary and discouraged, he had called on Mr. Bevington, telling him how the case stood, and that that gentleman remarked: " Well, Mr. Ransome, we must not leave you in the lurch. Iwill, if you wish, preside, although it is not much in my line to do such things." Mr. Ransome also stated that prior to this meeting he had again called on Mr. Du Buisson, telling him he wanted him to give a second ,t100, and that he would himself give a second so that there might be something substantial of which to inform this meeting. Mr. Du Buisson kindly assented, and this was done. A vote of thanks was given to Mr. Hammond, the landlord of the Spread Eagle, for the gratuitous use of the rcom an this occasion. A similar vote was accorded to Mr. Du Buisson, who had offered a room in his house for the use of the Committee. The following gentlemen were named as a nucleus for the Wandsworth Committee: Messrs. Du Buisson, E. Coventry, Boyson, Wainwrigt, Ransome, Howell, Watson, Corthoin, C. Haydon, Roffe, Batley, Whitehead, and Mason. Subscriptions in the two parishes of Battersea and Wandsworth were then announced to amount to 1'909 7s. 6d., of which 478 had just been promised for that evening. Thus terminated this enthusiastic and encouraging meeting. Following upon this meeting the Committees both set to work in thorough earnest, canvassing the whole neighbourhood for subscriptions ,and meeting periodically to report proceedings. Visits were also paid to members of Parliament and other persons of influence, either for contributions or other help. The "Commons Preservation Society" also gave valuable aid, having the ear of not a few gentlemen who had found themselves together to prevent encroachments, &c., on Common lands. It will have seen observed that Mr. Peek, i" "SURVEY OF LONDON — BATTERSEA — 50.19_deep_south.pdf CHAPTER 19 South of Wandsworth Common This chapter considers the small district at the southernmost tip of Battersea, where it edges into neighbouring Balham (Ill. 19.1). It is an area of about sixty-five acres, today covered almost entirely by housing, most of it developed between the 1860s and early 1900s on land acquired by the National Freehold Land Society and British Land Company. The new streets were built on ground adjoining — and once part of — Wandsworth Common, and the proximity of this open space has done much to determine the area's character. Two early developments of the 1850s also helped shape that character. One was the railway line running to and from Crystal Palace, which cut across the common, dividing the land covered here; a commuter station was added at Wandsworth Common in the late 1860s. The other was the building of an industrial school, subsequently converted to a workhouse, infirmary and eventually a general hospital (St James's Hospital), which remained an important local facility until its closure and demolition in 1988 — 92. Both subjects are covered in detail in volume 49 but are touched on here for the central roles they played in the area's suburban development. The limits of that area, as defined for the purposes of this chapter, do not follow the old Battersea parish boundary — which bears little relationship to the present topography and in places cuts through the middle of streets and houses — but the more regularized Battersea Borough boundary of 1900 — 65. In any case, boundaries have little relevance here. The area merges imperceptibly into neighbouring districts, having much in common with the streets between the commons to its north, with Balham to its south-east, and with Upper Tooting to its south and west. Rarely, if at all, is there any sense of connection with Battersea. One place of distinct character is Bellevue Road. Slotted between two main north — south traffic routes (Trinity Road and St James's Drive), Bellevue Road has become this little district's high street. Its rows of varied houses, restaurants and specialist shops overlooking the common, and the narrow side-streets of modest two-storey cottages running off it, have a 'London village' atmosphere which differs from the more solidly residential suburban streets east of St James's Drive. Early development Before the 1850s this was undeveloped land, forming the southernmost reaches of Wandsworth Common. Later, when its character was changing, the common was remembered wistfully as one of the 'wild spots, where the heather and the furze have bloomed . . . and where the sedentary citizen might step off the highway and breathe the unpolluted atmosphere of nature'.1 Road improvements began to eat away at this 'beautiful oasis' in the 1820s. Firstly, in 1825 the 2nd Earl Spencer and his fellow Battersea Bridge proprietors persuaded the parish vestry to allow a new 25ft-wide road to be made leading from Trinity Road northwards across the common to join Five Houses Lane (now Bolingbroke Grove), providing a more direct route from Tooting and the south towards their bridge.2 St James's Drive is the southern part of this road; the northern part, which continued across the common to meet Bolingbroke Grove (roughly opposite Thurleigh Road) was obliterated for the railway in the 1850s. Bellevue Road came two years later, in 1827, connecting Nightingale Lane, and thus Clapham and the districts to its north-east, with Garratt Lane and the south-west.
To a large extent both roads followed the routes of old footpaths across the common.3 But no development followed on, the two roads leading for over twenty years through empty waste and furze until the 4th Earl Spencer and his agents, began enclosing and selling off parts of this southern fringe of the common. (Such enclosures provoked a conservation movement, which in 1871 finally secured what was left of the common for public use by Act of Parliament — see vol. 49.) Building development began in 1850 with the sale by Lord Spencer of twenty acres of the common to the Governors and Directors of the Poor for St James's, Westminster, as the site for an industrial school for that parish's poor children. Influential in the negotiations was the surveyor Charles Lee — a member of both the St James's school committee and the Battersea parish vestry, and an agent of Lord Spencer's to boot; he also designed the school buildings. Lee had suggested that the land could be had at 'a very reasonable rate', given that Spencer was a parishioner of St James's (with a mansion in St James's Place), and he also thought that no tenants or copyholders would protest against the sale. Grazing on the common was now rare, and in any case ample space would still be left for this if required.4 Though St James's School was to be the only building here for some time, and might be thought a hindrance to suburban development, those connected with it saw its impact as positive and significant. Writing in 1878, Frederick Crane, a churchwarden of St James's, said the school's presence had brought 'population' to the area, 'changing in the course of a comparatively few years this out-of-the-way corner of a wild heath into a piece of singularly eligible suburban building land'. The school had been built facing the Battersea Bridge proprietors' new road, which by the mid 1860s, with the school well-established and houses beginning to emerge opposite, had grown into a 'leading public thoroughfare' and, according to Crane, 'by common consent, as it were', been named St James's Road. (It has been known as St James's Drive since 1940 and is generally referred to here by that name.)5 Only a few years after the school opened in 1851 two more big slices were taken out of the common to accommodate the lines of the West End & Crystal Palace Railway, which opened in 1856. As has been said, north of Bellevue Road, the upper arm of St James's Drive was removed to make way for them, and the railway company also stopped up a new roadway laid out along the St James's school's eastern boundary, which thereafter earned a reputation as an 'abiding place' of gypsies and 'loose characters'. A second unfinished road along the school's southern boundary, connecting with St James's Drive, also became obstructed, by a disgruntled local resident. Both were later sold to the St James's authorities, in 1863.6 At first the new railway's 'West End' terminus was a temporary one on the north side of Bellevue Road, which closed in 1858 when the line was extended to Chelsea Bridge. The opening of the present permanent railway station on the south side of the road in 1869 recognized the emergence of this little area as a growing suburb.7 It is with this post-1860 building development that the rest of this chapter is concerned. Between Bellevue Road and St James's Drive This was part of a larger, 20-acre wedge of ground between Trinity Road and St James's Drive enclosed between 1848 and 1853 by Henry McKellar, a wealthy local landowner, to add to his extensive Wandsworth Lodge estate adjoining to the west.8 It was claimed at the time that McKellar had agreed to take only a small plot, and had appropriated the rest without authority. Here is J. C. Buckmaster, champion and protector of the common, on the subject: one gentleman had a three-cornered nuisance of five acres conveniently near to his own house. The court leet gave him permission to enclose it, with the distinct understanding it was never to be built upon. The gentleman thanked the court leet and "stood glasses round"; in a few days the business of ditching and fencing goes on, and somehow it is not only the three-cornered piece which is enclosed, but another piece by the side of it, four times larger than that which was represented as a nuisance.9 There was still nothing but empty fields here in 1863 when McKellar died and this land was sold along with rest of his estate.10 The chunk between Trinity Road and St James's Drive, known as McKellar's Triangle, and two other lots adjoining on the west side of Trinity Road, were acquired by the Liberal-backed National Freehold Land Society and British Land Company to form a new estate. This was intended to attract buyers of small freeholds for house-building (which came with voting rights) from among London's growing mass of respectable working people, tradesmen and lower middle-class professionals. Very quickly the British Land Company's surveyors began laying out new streets: Althorp, Nottingham and Wiseton Roads within the area covered by this chapter; Brodrick and Wandle Roads just outside. Road frontages were divided into house-plots, which were sold at auction in the summer of 1864.11 Characteristically, these plots were only as big as was required to give the new owners the right to vote — hence the small size of many early houses. However, some buyers seem to have taken multiple plots in order to accommodate larger houses; and as well as the owner-occupiers, small-scale builders took the opportunity to buy up lots in twos, threes and fours, and build short runs of speculative houses.12 Three of the earliest buildings, erected in 1864 — 5, were the Hope Tavern, standing at the apex, opposite the site later taken for the railway station (suggesting that this was already anticipated) — the ideal spot for a pub — and two good-sized double-fronted houses situated some way down the two main roads: White Lodge, at 23 Bellevue Road, and Clifton Villa, now 111 St James's Drive. The Hope was a three-storey squareish box, with bay windows to its first floor at the front and sides; the single-storey bar extension in front was added subsequently (Ill. 19.2). The two houses were of pale brick, and originally would have shared a similar old-fashioned flat-fronted style; the prominent two-storey bay windows of White Lodge are a later addition, of 1883.13 Around these three cornerstones further development followed quickly. Between 1866 and c.1871 much of Bellevue Road filled up, mostly with small two-storey houses and shops, as at Nos 4 & 5 and 6 — 11, though there was also a large dairy at No. 14. Later infill of the 1870s and 80s introduced considerable variety, for example: the bulkier three-storey red-brick shops at Nos 12 & 13 (1876); a pair of red-brick houses at Nos 18 & 19 (1884), built in the grounds of an earlier house (Churzee Cottage, of 1866), by its owner; and especially the fine group of house, stables and workshop in rubbed red brick, erected in 1887 at No. 16 by Leonard Bottoms, a local builder, for his own use (Ill. 19.3).14 Like Bellevue Road, the west side of St James's Drive became built up in the late 1860s, but almost entirely with houses, the only commercial properties here being a shop and later a bank at the corner with Nottingham Road. At first most were smallish semi-detached pairs, such as 1 — 4 Hope Villas (now Nos 133 — 139), built c.1865 — 6 at the north end, beside the pub. Bigger three-storey semis were erected at Nos 115 & 117 in 1869 — 70 for S. & T. Dunkley, to designs by the architect Frederick Sullivan. Also, the two-storey, double-fronted house in the manner of White Lodge and Clifton Villa was popular here, as at Nos 83 (originally Milford Villa), 89 (Graythorne), 97 (Dalton Villa) and 99 (Woodbine Cottage), all of c.1871. These were often of white brick, with simple but attractive cut or moulded brick decorations (Ill. 19.4). Other examples of this type, more elaborately ornamented, can be found further down St James's Drive, outside the area covered by this volume. Bigger houses included the three-storey and basement pair at Nos 85 & 87, of 1871, and a detached residence with a prominent central staircase tower, originally called Bentley House (now No. 91), built in 1879 for George Dempster of Serpentine Lodge in Hyde Park, alongside an earlier development of his, Hyde Park Villas (now Nos 93 & 95).15 Most of these St James's Drive houses were given raised ground floors to make the most of the prospect overlooking a small wedge of common land, protected under the 1871 Act, which was well planted with trees to screen the view of the railway lines and platforms beyond. The first houses in the side-streets between the two main arteries, in Althorp, Wiseton and Nottingham Roads, were generally smaller, often with just a 16ft frontage, and the speculative builder seems to have been a bigger presence here. The regular rows at 6 — 26 Nottingham Road (of c.1866), 32 — 44 Althorp Road (c.1867), and 21 — 39 Wiseton Road (c.1867) are typical examples, all being small, two-storey cottages with two rooms to a floor, characteristic of the type of housing erected around London under the freehold land societies at this time (Ill. 19.5). Smith's Terrace, at 35 — 47 Althorp Road, of c.1869 — 70, was a rare attempt at a palazzo-style terrace, albeit in a crude, old-fashioned neoclassical style, with the name in a small pediment; the developer was Henry Smith (Ill. 19.6). Later, bigger houses here include Nos 1 & 3 Althorp Road, a pair of three-storey semi-detached villas with barge-boards, erected in 1878 by G. Wallis, a Balham builder.16 All these side-streets also had a smattering of trade or commercial properties (see Social and commercial character, below). Of later alterations and additions, the most important before the war were the red-brick flats and shops of Bellevue Parade, erected at the corner of Bellevue and Wiseton Roads in 1928 to designs by J. W. Stanley Burmester and G. Whittaker. The modishly fexisting building regulations.17 Between St James's Drive and the railway Whilst development was taking off in the mid 1860s on the west side of St James's Drive, the land opposite, behind St James's industrial school, was still a 'park-like' expanse of open fields. With the creation of the Westminster Poor Law Union in 1868, St James's parish hoped to sell the building and its immediate grounds to the new body, but hold on to the surrounding 141/2 acres, with a view to speculative development. By then houses were starting to go up to the school's east, in Balham. Here two new roads of c.1864 — 5 leading off Balham High Road — Balham Park Road and Boundaries (sometimes Boundary) Road — had been brought right up to the eastern limits of the school site, where they ended abruptly. Such a layout can only have been planned in expectation that in time the school's surplus land would be given over to building and these roads continued across it to St James's Drive.18 In fact Boundaries Road in its original form seems to have been oriented so as to line up with Charles Lee's blocked road to the south of the school. One consequence of the 1871 Act protecting Wandsworth Common from further encroachment was the increase in value it brought to other potential building land in the vicinity, including the St James's site. As a result, the Local Government Board, which had final authority over the disposition of poor-law property, saw greater gain in selling the land freehold. And so, having been bought from Lord Spencer at 30 an acre, it was sold at auction in 1878 to the British Land Company at a price of 1,000 an acre.19 By the end of the year plans by Henry Michell, the company's surveyor, for Ouseley Road and the present western sections of Sarsfeld and Balham Park Roads had been approved, and by 1879, when a high wall was built around the school and its grounds, house-building on the estate had begun.20 As before, on their land west of St James's Drive, the company's activities here were not restricted to Battersea parish, but were to include streets of houses to the east of the St James's site in Streatham parish — in Heslop Road and the eastern arms of Sarsfeld and Balham Park Roads, where it had also bought up land — and subsequently also in Boundaries Road.21 Balham Park Road was where building kicked off, in 1879. The houses erected there proved to be something of an anomaly, being generally the biggest and best in the area, and clothed in a distinctive architectural style (Ills 19.7, 8). The developer was a Scottish-born builder, William Kerr of Ramsden Road, Balham. Kerr's houses skirted the common in continuation of an existing roadway to the east (see Ill. 19.1), and at first he intended to lay out forty houses, twenty on either side. But he may have overstretched himself, as he was still finishing off houses here as late as 1885, and in the end built only twenty-nine (Nos 77 — 103, 82 — 84 and 98 — 122), leaving empty plots at Nos 86 — 96 on the north side, and Nos 65 — 75 on the south, at the junction with Ouseley Road, where he was also active (below). These were later filled by other builders with standard suburban houses of c.1904 — 5 during a later phase of development on the estate. Neither did Kerr become involved with the house plots at the road's far western end (at No. 105, and 74 — 78 St James's Drive, designed by Herbert Bignold, and 80 — 86 St James's Drive), where the buildings also date from 1904 — 5.22 The generous size of Kerr's houses had not been anticipated by the British Land Company, which had sold him the land in the new road in sixty-three lots, presumably in the expectation of terraced houses being built of some 20ft frontage. But Kerr must have thought that a location so close to the common and the new railway station would attract a better class of resident, and increased the plot sizes to 36 — 39ft of frontage, supporting a far superior type of detached, double-fronted villa.23 Each of Kerr's houses was of two storeys, with splayed bays either side of a central entrance; these were generally only of one storey, though a few of the houses on the south side have full-height bays. This allowed for three or four ground-floor rooms to be arranged either side of a central staircase hall, with a kitchen, scullery and WC in a block at the rear, and four bed and dressing rooms on the floor above (Ill. 19.8). A bathroom and second WC were usually tucked into a half-landing between the two main floors.24 's houses marks them out, and lifts them above the drabness of the surrounding streets. Though a few house fronts are of red brick, white brick is the street's predominant facing material, usually offset with dressings and bands in red, stock and black brick, and decorative string-courses and panels of moulded brick or terracotta. Most of the houses have porticoed entrance porches, and the survival of pierced stone parapets above these and the window bays here and there suggests that the little red-tiled roofs used elsewhere are probably later alterations — perhaps dating from c.1900 — 10, when a lot of the houses underwent improvement. Kerr must have made his mark locally with this development: a decade later, when he and other builders who had worked on the British Land Company estate were busy building houses farther east, off Balham High Road, they were described as 'well known in the neighbourhood'.25 Almost identical houses on the west side of Longley Road, in Tooting, must also be by Kerr. Kerr was also responsible for some of the smaller semis and trios of houses around the corner in Ouseley Road, at Nos 2 — 22, of 1881 — 2, tricked out in a simplified version of his Balham Park Road style.26 Otherwise this road, Heslop Road, and Sarsfeld Road to their south followed a standard pattern, with mostly two-storey houses of c.1881 — 6, faced generally in red or greyish-white brick, with full-height splayed bays and frontages of around 20ft — though these tended to be grouped in semi-detached pairs rather than terraced. Three similarly styled houses at 54 — 58 St James's Drive date from the same period. The red-brick group at 9 — 19 Ouseley Road, of 1883 — 5, built by Cousins & Harmer of Wandsworth, differs slightly, having a third storey in gables above the two-storey bays. Also, a very large detached three-storey house, named Titchfield, with an attached stable-block, was built in 1881 across several plots at the south end of Ouseley Road by William J. Buchanan of Upper Tooting.27 Now 44 Ouseley Road, this was commissioned as a residence for John James Evans, a fishmonger in Great Titchfield Street, St Marylebone, hence the house's name. A second detached villa, Minehead (No. 42A), in a Queen Anne Revival style, was added around 1900 alongside, in the grounds of Titchfield. Both were acquired by the Wandsworth & Clapham Union in 1906 to add to the poor law infirmary about to be erected immediately behind, beside the school, which was by then in use as a branch workhouse.28 Sarsfeld Road had a greater number of smaller, stock and red-brick terraced cottages at its north-western end, of which Nos 11 — 17 (part of Sarsfeld Terrace, of c.1882) and Nos 19 — 29 (c.1884) survive; similar properties occupy the south-eastern end of Heslop Road. Like Kerr, most of the builders at work in these roads in the 1880s hailed from Balham, Augustus Nixon of Ramsden Road being perhaps the most active, especially in Sarsfeld Road. Others came generally from near by, from Clapham, Upper Tooting or Battersea.29 The south-western stretch of Boundaries Road dates from the late 1890s and early 1900s, as part of another British Land Company estate to the south-east of the St James's site, as far as Upper Tooting Park. At first the very end of the road, where it turns south to joint Upper Tooting Park, was known separately as Dermot Road, but this was incorporated into Boundaries Road in 1901. Only the west side is covered here: the east side, along with the other streets of this British Land estate — Doyle (now Osward), Wontner, Hosack, Nevis, Tunley, Rowfant and Marius Roads — is in Balham.30 In Boundaries Road nearly all the houses were terraced, there being few semis — though two big pairs at Nos 164 & 166 (by Stanton Bros of Bromley, 1899) and 168 & 170 stand out as obvious exceptions. The traditional two-storey bay-fronted terraces, like those erected by Abel Playle at Nos 152 — 162, or by Madge & Lewis at Nos 172 — 186, both of c.1899, differ very little from housing of twenty years earlier. But one marked change was in the provision of cottage-flats, with which this west side of the street was well stocked. One group, at Nos 68 — 90, built by Thomas Tompkins of Elmfield Road, Balham, has been demolished. But two other good runs survive, at Nos 92 — 138, and Nos 188 — 226, both developed by Charles Whillier, a Clapham plumber, in 1899 — 1901.31 In terms of their planning, these were typical of London cottage-flats of the early 1900s, each apartment having three rooms, its own kitchen, scullery, bath and WC. Whillier or his designer took some interest in their appearance, enlivening the red-brick fronts with moulded brick panels, bands of paler, moulded terracotta, decorative tiles to the paired entrance porches, and tiled pathways (see Ill. 0.11). Some of the properties on the north side of Upper Tooting Park date from the same period, including, in the area covered here, the pair of red-brick and roughcast detached five-bedroom villas at Nos 12 & 14 (known originally as Hill Crest and Allerton respectively). These were built in 1901 — 2 as a speculation for and to designs by the architect William Hunt, who lived locally.32 Hunt and his son and partner, Edward A. Hunt, who are better known as designers of townhouses and commercial properties in Mayfair, resided at Hill Crest in the early 1900s, shortly after Hunt senior's term of office as Mayor of Wandsworth (1902 — 3); E. A. Hunt was also responsible for the 1930s wing of Wandsworth Town Hall. Both houses were heavily rebuilt around 1950, having suffered bomb damage. Since 1965 No. 14 has been the vicarage to the church of Holy Trinity, Upper Tooting.33 The story of the other few houses in this part of Upper Tooting Park is tied to the later history of first-generation buildings at the south end of St James's Drive. This had been built up in the 1860s and 70s with large detached and semi-detached villas in spacious grounds. The biggest of these was 'Ye Tyle House', at the far south end, with a servants' cottage, coach-house and stable in its grounds, which fronted both St James's Drive and Upper Tooting Park. By the mid 1920s the owner and occupant, F. J. Liddington, had decided to embark upon speculative infill development, beginning in 1925 with the four ordinary semis at 4 — 10 Upper Tooting Park, built by Potterton & Sons of Balham in the grounds of his house. These were followed in 1932 by another row of four at 8 — 14 St James's Drive, on this occasion designed and built by Fawcett & Co. (Clapham) Ltd. In contrast, these were dressed in an attractive suburban neo-Tudor manner, with dark brick, black-and-white half-timbering, tiled hipped roofs and tall chimneys. Liddington must have sold up soon after, for in 1934 — 5 Ye Tyle House was demolished for a little estate of terraced and semi-detached houses in the same style (again by Fawcett & Co.) at 2 & 2A Upper Tooting Park, 4 & 6 and 16 St James's Drive, and another eleven in a new cul-de-sac called Appledore Close. Cut off from the hustle and bustle of the two main roads, Appledore Close is a quiet retreat, its well-designed houses grouped pleasantly around a central space (Ill. 19.10). Most of the houses of the Tyle House estate had two ground-floor reception rooms, a kitchen, other services and an integral garage, with three or four bedrooms and a bathroom on the floor above.34 The remaining old houses of St James's Drive to the north, at Nos 20 — 40, were demolished shortly after the war (see Post-war changes, below). East of the railway: Ravenslea Road area The area south of Nightingale Lane, between the railway and Ravenslea Road, was not built up until the 1890s. It was part of a 15-acre piece of the common sold by Earl Spencer in 1854 to the West London & Crystal Palace Railway Company. This included the site of the present Wandsworth Common Station but otherwise was used principally by the railway company to dig gravel for ballast. The solicitor James Anderson Rose, who acted for the Wandsworth Common Preservation Association and lived near by, contested the railway owners' right to sell this land as surplus when they tried to do so in 1867. After a lawsuit, Rose bought the site from them with the intention of preserving it as an open space. This he was able to do during his lifetime, but shortly after his death in 1890 the land came on the open market. Local preservationists urged the LCC to reunite it with the common, but by the summer of 1894 it had been acquired by the builder-developer Alfred Boon.35 Boon's Wandsworth Common estate got under way around 1897 — 1900, with the construction of houses at 1 — 15 and 2 — 14 Wexford Road, followed shortly afterwards by those adjoining at 121 — 131 Nightingale Lane and 1 — 9 Mayford Road (1 & 3 now demolished). Many were built under lease from Boon by Abel Playle of Wroughton Road, who had been active earlier in the 'Between the Commons' area to the north. Boon was at the same time busy developing the adjoining Fernside estate, on the east side of Ravenslea Road, in Balham.36 These first houses were a mix of detached and semi-detached, varying somewhat in plan-form and exterior detailing, but all generous in size — of three storeys, with big rooms and an average of six or seven bedrooms — and shared the same attractive red-brick late-Victorian free style. There are some particularly fine entrance porches, with tiled surrounds and good stained-glass to the doors (Ill. 19.11); those in Mayford and Wexford Roads have granite columns. While these houses were being finished, Boon's builders were also at work on another row of big three-storey semis, at 1 — 15 Ravenslea Road, of c.1900 — 1, though this time in an Old English style with roughcast and half-timbered upper storeys and dormers. The last stretch of frontage here was built up around 1900 — 2 with smaller, two-storey terraced houses at 17 — 75 Ravenslea Road, to which more were added at Nos 77 — 81 (of c.1905), and at 85 — 89 (of c.1907). Abel Playle was once again prominent among the builders.37 Post-war changes The area suffered some serious damage in World War Two, particularly from two V1 flying bombs, which brought about the demolition of houses at the west end of Sarsfeld Road (Nos 1 — 9) and also beside St Jude's Church, at 60 — 80 Sarsfeld Road and 60 — 90 Boundaries Road. This latter site was utilised after the war for public housing, erected by Battersea Borough Council in 1956 — 8. Vacant houses at 20 — 22 St James's Drive, used as an emergency meals station during hostilities, were demolished after the war along with Nos 24 — 40 adjoining to make room for St James's Close — eight semi-detached houses of 1952, and a three-storey L-shaped block of flats of 1954, again by Battersea Borough Council. One other small area of municipal housing is 1 — 16 Mayford Close, three blocks of flats of Cornish unit construction, built in 1958 — 60 for Battersea Council on the site of damaged houses in Mayford Road and adjoining land by Selleck Nicholls & Company. Unusually for this type of post-war temporary housing they retain their original facing of small pre-cast concrete panels (Ill. 19.12).38 Modern commercial architecture is thin on the ground. Two recent developments at the north end of Althorp Road are Bellevue House (by Haverstock Associates, architects) and Althorpe House (by Lynn Davis Architects), both of c.1987 — 9.39 The greatest change in recent years has been the closure of St James's Hospital in 1988, its demolition in 1992, and the use of its site for a modern housing estate, opened in 1995. Originally known as the St James's Estate, this is now generally referred to as Old Hospital Close, after one of the new roads at its centre.40 It was designed by the architects Phippen Randall & Parkes for the St James' Consortium, a syndicate of local housing associations, and was built by Wimpey Construction at a cost of around 11 million, provided through a combination of Housing Corporation grants and private finance. As built the estate comprised 236 homes, in a mix of flats and houses, seventy-eight of which were designed for shared ownership, the rest for rent. As befitted the site's long history of welfare, it also included accommodation for those with special needs, an octagonal community building, and a nursing home for twenty-four elderly people (designed by B. Urquhart Associates). The blocks at the centre of the estate, in and around Old Hospital Close, are generally taller, and here the use of red brick is greater. But on St James's Drive the relatively low scale of the various units, the dominant use of stock brick and pitched roofs, and the architects' postmodern interpretation of an Italianate style were all adopted specifically to blend in with the Victorian housing of the surrounding streets, which by then had been designated a Conservation Area. Social and business character Development of the British Land Company's first estate here in the 1860s and 70s established a respectable lower middle-class dormitory. Early residents in and around Bellevue and St James's Roads were a consistent mix of junior clerks, tradespeople, shopkeepers, schoolmasters and builders, most of them with young families and perhaps a single resident servant. A few higher-paid professionals, such as stockbrokers and accountants, took to some of the bigger houses of St James's Road.41 House-names such as Acacia Villa,ingleside, The Homestead and Fernerei proclaim the middle-class suburban aspirations of the area's builders, developers and residents, and multiple occupation was virtually unknown here. By the mid 1870s Wandsworth Common had become 'alive with nursemaids and children on fine days', and the area could be described as resembling a 'comfortable looking town of respectable inhabitants'.42 This pattern of occupation was to persist beyond the Second World War. The later British Land estate east of St James's Road was less aspirational. The double-fronted villas of Balham Park Road were an exception, drawing in a higher tier of middle-class professionals; but elsewhere, in the terraces and semis of Ouseley and Sarsfeld Roads, families of gas engineers, shirtmakers, bootmakers, and commercial travellers were the norm, a few of whom could occasionally afford a young resident maid. In places the proximity of St James's Infirmary, and especially its mortuary and consumptive wards, brought down values, and in these pockets rents were lower and tenancies shorter. And monthly tenancies and cheaper" "TRINITY RD A214 road From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Coordinates: 51.4578N 0.1828W A214 shield A214 The A214 road running through Anerley. Major junctions East end West Wickham The A214 is a part primary, part non-primary A road in London, England. It runs from Wandsworth to West Wickham. The section at Wandsworth, which is part of Trinity Road, was to be part of the London Ringways and is built as a three lane dual carriageway between Wandsworth Roundabout and Dorlcote Road. The route runs through the London Boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambeth and Bromley, passing through Tooting Bec, Streatham, West Norwood, Crystal Palace, Anerley, Elmers End and Eden Park." "TRINITY RD A214 Jump to navigation Jump to search A214 Location Map ( geo) Cameraicon.png View gallery (11) From: Wandsworth (TQ261752) To: West Wickham (TQ382659) Distance: 10.8 miles (17.4 km) Meets: A217, A3205, A3, B234, B229, B237, A24, B241, B242, A216, A23, A215, B232, A212, A213, A222, B230, A232 Former Number(s): B233 Primary Destinations Clapham Junction Highway Authorities Bromley Croydon Lambeth Transport for London Traditional Counties Kent Surrey Route outline (key) A214 Wandsworth Streatham (A23) Streatham A214 Streatham West Wickham The A214 is a road of two halves in south London. It starts off very grandly as a small part of the Ringway 1 scheme and is a primary route until we reach Streatham. Strangely, this section of road was only Class I Iin 1922 (as the B233) and did not become part of the A214 until the 1930s. We leave the roundabout with the A217 and A3205 just to the south of Wandsworth Bridge and take the dual carriageway (Trinity Road) under the London to Ascot railway. Next we pass under the only grade separated junction on the A214 with the A205 South Circular and climb up the hill where we pass over several series of lights with the B234 and the B229 and pass over the mainline from Waterloo to the West Country. Over to our right is Wandsworth Prison and to our left is Wandsworth Common. By now Trinity Road has become a traffic-clogged S2 and at Tooting Bec we reach the junction with the A24. The Bec part of the name comes from an abbey in Normandy of the same name who were lords of the manor. Tooting Bec Road The A214 carries straight on along Tooting Bec Road with Tooting Bec Common on our left and we leave the London Borough of Wandsworth for the London Borough of Lambeth. Eventually we arrive at the traffic clogged Streatham One-Way System. The A214 briefly multiplexes south along the A23 and then we turn left by the sylvan beauty of Streatham Common. We follow Streatham Common Northside and Crown Lane and pass through two sets of lights. The boundary between the boroughs of Lambeth and Croydon now runs down the middle of the A214 until we reach the roundabout with the A212 on the edge of Crystal Palace Park. At the second set of lights en route we cross over the A215 and go down Crown Dale pass the B232 and then up Central Hill where we join the infamous Upper Norwood gyratory at Westow Hill where we meet the roundabout with the A212. Four London Boroughs meet here and they are Lambeth, Southwark, Bromley and Croydon. For the rest of our journey we will be in the London Borough of Bromley and we take Anerley Hill. On our left is a small but interesting museum about the Crystal Palace that was destroyed by fire in 1936. Another point of interest, if my sources serve me correct, is that Anerley Hill is where the first road traffic accident took place. The A214 passes over two railways in succession, as Anerley Hill becomes Anerley Road. We meet the A213 at the Robin Hood at Anerley and go straight on to Elmers End Road. In a short while the A214 widens to pass under the Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction railway plus Croydon Tramlink by Birkbeck station and we are officially in Beckenham. After this we pass the expansive South Norwood Country Park (formerly a sewage works) on our right and then pass over the humped back bridge over the Mid Kent Line to Hayes. The A214 turns left at the lines and briefly multiplexes with the A222 along Croydon Road until we reach a large and quite fast roundabout with pretty flowerbeds in the middle. We go almost back on ourselves and take Upper Elmers End Road and we pass under the Mid Kent Line which we shall follow for almost the rest of the journey. We pass Eden Park Station and the A214 becomes Links Way. We meet the B230 at a roundabout and go straight on up South Eden Park Road, past all the large houses, which becomes Beckenham Road. We are now in West Wickham and we go straight on at the traffic lights into Station Road and journey's end, the next set of lights on the A232. [BNA: Link.] "TRINITY RD etc etc Floating in the air Other than the plans for the motorway that were drawn up in 1965 — which include a number of features that would have to be deleted when the Balham Loop was dropped — evidence for the Clapham-Wandsworth Link is hard to come by. Certainly no plans for its terminal interchange at Wandsworth have yet come to light. One place where it makes an appearance, though, is in the plans for a different road altogether, the Wandsworth Bridge Southern Approach. Wandsworth Bridge itself was opened in the 1930s, but didn't have a southern approach road. It just ended on York Road on the south side of the river. An approach road was planned, but only built in the 1960s, by which time the Greater London Council were in charge, and designed it as a component of their London-wide road plans. Consequently, it opened in the late 1960s as a three-lane dual carriageway with a major grade-separated junction beneath the A3 East Hill and a huge square roundabout at York Road. The Southern Approach was meant to be continued further in both directions — south towards the A24, by widening Trinity Road, and north to Wandsworth Bridge on a flyover that would lift off from a gap in the central reservation and pass across the top of the railway and the roundabout. North of the bridge, the dual carriageway would continue, turning the corner into Townmead Road, which would be widened in similar fashion to form an approach to Chelsea Interchange on Ringway 1's West Cross Route. The whole thing would have ended up being one of the more substantial and important links in the Secondary Road Network. A previous version of this page made the brash claim that the Wandsworth Bridge Southern Approach was in the way of the Clapham-Wandsworth Link and may have been altered or even demolished to make way for it. That absolutely isn't the case, and in fact the construction plans for the Southern Approach include an elevation plan for the flyover that shows it passing over the top of not just the railway but also a large empty space labelled "future motorway". It's a very rare, fleeting glimpse of a little motorway plan that is not just difficult to spot now, but was almost entirely overshadowed by bigger and more destructive plans even in the 1960s. more . . . [BNA: Link.] "COUNTY ARMS [BNA: pubwiki.co.uk/LondonPubs/Wandsworth/CountyArmsHotel.shtml" target="_blank">Link " "BOUNDARY POSTS [BNA: tootinghistory.org.uk/2017/08/02/parish-boundary-postsjunction-of-trinity-road-and-st-james-drive/" target="_blank">Link Parish Boundary Posts At The Junction of Trinity Road and St James Drive, Tooting Two parish boundary posts: Streatham and Wandsworth. Three historical parishes meet at this point, the third being Battersea." "JAMES SMITH DIGBY — 49.5._parks_and_open_spaces_chapter(1).pdf One such copyholder, James Smith Digby, was persuaded to file a case in Chancery. An agricultural labourer with little or no education, Digby was not the best choice for a stooge, quickly crumpling when he appeared in court.171 Similarly, attempts to interest the Metropolitan Board of Works in protecting the common were unfruitful. But under the terms of the 1866 Act, the local community could band together to protect an open space by electing conservators and raising money on the rates. This was the course that was taken for Wandsworth Common. Lord Spencer agreed to transfer his rights and profits to the conservators for an annuity of 250, reserving to himself only the area of the Black Sea (modern-day Spencer Park).172" "I'm afraid the SoL rather traduces James Smith Digby (1804-86). Born in Battersea, son of a blacksmith, he was a 'male servant' in 1841, but thereafter in the Census a [master] grocer with a shop in the High Street. He married twice, but had no surviving children. His signature on the 1869 marriage certificate (at St. Paul Deptford) is in a very fair hand compared with others involved. The 1867 Directory has him in High Street. So, no semi-literate ag lab, merely a Buckmaster stalking-horse. It's easy to see him getting flustered by a posh lawyer though. All the defendants in the case were involved in the Chivalry Road saga. Thanks for the tip-off. I can see no reason for there being an unlikely coincidence of two James Smith Digbys in C19 Battersea, especially as the grocer had no surviving children. Isuspect the SoL mistook the fact that he was a copyholder with an agrarian background. He may have had a small plot of land somewhere, but probably means that his High Street shop was on manorial land. I've always found the very Victorian practice of not-naming-names entirely annoying — clearly they didn't think that posterity would expose their deceit. The libellous pen-portrait of the hapless Digby might have suited Buckmaster's purposes, but he was clearly dealing with no straw-chewing Battersea peasant. Digby was first married in 1842 at Lambeth. Amelia died in August 1865, so during the Buckmaster tale he was indeed a widower. He remarried at Deptford in November 1869. His entire life seems to have been spent in Battersea. Attached exhibits show his signature on the two marriage certificates. You'll note that his blacksmith father was also able to sign. ************ Imay have found a possible point of origin for the Buckmaster-Digby connection. In 1841 Buckmaster was at the Terrace House Teacher Training Establishment, and some time in the 1840s, Digby set up in business in the High Street in the last premises south of Winks Buildings on the west side. It did not feature in the 1835-6 Spencer sales and thus may have been Spencer FH into the 1860s. If Digby rented his premises, there is a possibility that it remained manorial property ,giving it copyhold status. Extracts from Sale Plan and Tithe Map attached. At least I've sorted out the Phoebe Road>Chivalry Road question. It was the name of C.W. Todd's mother, sister and daughter. The passing mention of Mabel as the possible name remains elusive however. Best wishes Keith" "Hello Philip Ialways get exactly the impression you report — people talking into the unknown from inside a very small space. A nice easy question this time. The culprit is none other than Camden, who in 1586 used the phrase Vandalis riuulus, followed by Drayton in 1612 (Vandal, Wandle) and Ogilby's 1675 map (Wandle). In the Battersea charter bounds which date from the mid- late-10th century, it's hlyda burnan, from OE hlyde, 'loud one' and burna 'stream', presumably a reflection of its (relatively) rapid flow over pebble beds. The aforesaid flow of course gave rise to a disproportionate number of mills in only 10-11 miles. by the C14, it had become Lotebourn. It's unclear when the old name finally disappeared. The place-name is from personal name Waendel and OE worth 'enclosure' (of several possible kinds!). It sometimes has the connotation of a subordinate place — not necessarily by size, but often administratively, as in the relationship between Battersea and Wandsworth that lasted until the C19. _____________ As for Waendel Several points of note: 1. Wendel/Waendel is a very rare personal name in England, but often connected with streams and their banks. If (and it's a very big 'if') the name Wendelesworth existed as early as the grant of Battersea to Barking abbey c.690 then my inclination would favour it as a pers.-name. If not, then, might it come from OE windels, denoting something that winds, modern English windlass, which as the paper says is often compounded with 'ora', riverbank or shore? That would fit in with transhipment of grain or whatever at/near the Wandle mouth to give us 'enclosure' associated with a windlass. The fact that the sole appearance of Vandal is in Camden tells against it, especially as Latin V is pronounced W, as weni, widi etc. Morning Philip I have a (very) dim recollection that the Latin initial letter is such cases was originally U, they not having a W in the alphabet, which of course also gives Wandalis when spoken. The V, as in other cultures relates in part to ease of stone-carving. The source you found is the text of the Place-Name Society's Place-Names of Surrey (1934) , which has, along with other shires, been accumulating on my groaning shelf for many a long year. Research since yesterday's exchange has now convinced me that OE windels never occurs without its -i-, so forget the 'enclosure with a windlass' hypothesis. Waendel might be highly unusual as a personal name, but so is Beaduric of Battersea and many others, not to mention the large number of names that never made it into print, so to speak! Having perused the "Vandal" paper again, I'm unpersuaded that Waendel denotes a tribe. Examples of names which do are Swaffham 'settlement of the Swabians', some Saxtons 'village of the Saxons', Danelaw and of course England. The apparent rarity of Waendel is a function of a patchy written record pre-1066. Searle's Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum (1897), still valid as the bible on AS personal-names has only eight names, either simplex like 'our' Waendel or compounds., six male and two female. They tend to occur late in the A-S period (C10/11), suggesting that it might be a recent 'fashion' influenced by Continental naming fashions. That would be consistent with the 9th/10thC dating of the "Battersea" charter bounds. (The late-7th grant of Battersea/Wandsworth to Barking has come under suspicion by recent scholars, but the case is "not proven".)" "Hello, Keith You did a great job on Vernon Collings — well sleuthed you Here's something I've just drafted on Thomas Cromwell and Allfarthing Manor — some (probably much abbreviated) version of it might end up in the book on the 150th anniversary of the WC Act that I'm involved with. It's supposed to be "popular" in style. As a local boy, Putney-born Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540) wanted to acquire land in his old neighbourhood. In 1534 he persuaded the Abbot of Westminster (who owned this and many other nearby manors) to release it into his care. This was a "voluntary" arrangement — it wouldn't have been so after 1536 when the Dissolution of the Monasteries took place by law and physical force. Allfarthing Manor stretched from the Thames in the north to Burntwood Lane in the south, and from the Wandle in the west roughly to today's Lyford and Heathfield Roads in the east. Not large, but not insignificant either. The manor house itself, which Cromwell probably never lived in (he had plenty of other properties, and this house would have been pretty paltry in comparison) was near the edge of the Common, on Allfarthing Lane. And of course Cromwell only had the enjoyment of the land for less than six years — he was executed in 1540 and the land reverted to the Crown (hence Charles I could eventually hand it over it Endymion Porter). This was the period of "Tudor inclosures" — a time when open land over much of the country was divided up and fenced as small fields or "closes" — mainly for the benefit of sheep. The eastern edge of Allfarthing Manor, marked by a strong hedge with standard oak trees all the way along, stopped at the Common. It seems likely that Cromwell, having no access to this valuable "waste", helped himself to a 50?-acre rectangle projecting out into the Common, up to the boundary between Wandsworth and Battersea parishes. [PB: I'll check the acreage] But the "Allfarthing Piece" remained unenclosed and fully part of the Common until the early C19 when Thomas Sheppard (Sophia's husband) threw a fence round it all and began leasing out parcels of land for new houses, market gardens and nurseries. Part of the animosity between Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More was about man-eating sheep — More in his Utopia (1516) having written a devastating satirical critique of the super-rich of their day who enclosed land for sheep: our sheep [] that commonly are so meek and so little, now, as I hear, they have become so greedy and fierce that they devour men themselves. They devastate and depopulate fields, houses and towns. For in whatever parts of the land sheep yield the finest and thus the most expensive wool, there the nobility and gentry, yes, and even some abbots though otherwise holy men, are not content with the old rents that the land yielded to their predecessors. Living in idleness and luxury without doing society any good no longer satisfies them; they have to do positive evil. For they leave no land free for the plough: they enclose every acre for pasture; they destroy houses and abolish towns, keeping only the churches and those for sheep-barns []. [more in the same vein below] Thomas Cromwell's Allfarthing Piece is now called the "Toast Rack". Good story, isn't it. All best Philip ________________________________ Here, for your interest, is some more of More on the terrible social effects of enclosure — Buckmaster would have known this at first hand: 'Thus one greedy, insatiable glutton, a frightful plague to his native country, may enclose many thousands of acres within a single hedge. The tenants are dismissed and compelled, by trickery or brute force or constant harassment, to sell their belongings. One way or another, these wretched people men, women, husbands, wives, orphans, widows, parents with little children and entire families [] are forced to move out. They leave the only homes familiar to them, and can find no place to go. Since they must leave at once without waiting for a proper buyer, they sell for a pittance all their household goods []. When that little money is gone (and it's soon spent in wandering from place to place), what remains for them but to steal, and so be hanged just, you'd say! or to wander and beg? And yet if they go tramping, they are jailed as vagrants. They would be glad to work, but they can find no one who will hire them. There is no need for farm labour [] when there is no land left to be ploughed. One herdsman or shepherd can look after a flock of beasts large enough to stock an area that would require many hands if it were to be ploughed and sowed. 'This enclosing has led to sharply rising food prices in many districts. Also, the price of raw wool has risen so much that poor people who used to make cloth can no longer afford it, and so great numbers are forced from work to idleness []. 'To make this hideous poverty worse, it exists side by side with wanton luxury. [] Banish these blights, make those who have ruined farmhouses and villages restore them or rent them to someone who will rebuild. Restrict the right of the rich to buy up anything and everything, and then to exercise a kind of monopoly [.]. 'If you don't try to cure these evils, it is futile to boast of your severity in punishing theft. Your policy may look superficially like justice, but in reality it is neither just nor practical.'" "DIGBY / WRIGSBY Buckmaster - ________________ Our first battle began and ended in a police court. But there was a still more formidable battle preparing. Writs were served on two or three persons for damage and trespass in [319] asserting their right to the footpath. Evidence of user [meaning?], as shown by old maps and deaf old men and women over eighty years of age, had to be collected. After some weeks we arrived at the assizes before the Lord Chief Justice. We had great difficulty in keeping, day after day, thirty-three witnesses together; they would wander all over the town, and the old men would be sitting on doorsteps smoking with a strip of blue ribbon in their hats. When our case came on there was a good deal of preliminary sparring between counsel. At last they got into the ring. When the defence came the judge seemed restless; he constantly interrupted our counsel, who was the son of a judge, and shortly after himself became a judge. I was sitting near him (the counsel), and I could see the blood rising in his neck like mercury in a thermometer, until at last it came to boiling heat. He pulled himself together and said, "There must be something in my manner exceedingly offensive to your lordship of which I am not conscious, or I should not be interrupted in this way." "Oh dear no! pray go on." [320] And the case, which threatened at the beginning of the defence to be finished in ten minutes, went on for a day and a half, and ended with a verdict for the plaintiffs. The judge told the jury there was no footpath across a common. We appealed and lost. We had a meeting for mutual condolence. We were advised unless we could secure a copyholder, of which there were not more than six left, or an Act of Parliament, the common must go. Imanaged to obtain a list of copyholders, and there was only one at all likely to become a plaintiff. He was a poor, ignorant old man, either a bachelor or a widower, living in a dirty, tumble-down, pantiled old copyhold, and obtained a miserable living by selling potatoes, brickdust, and treacle. I had often seen him, but had never spoken to him. Imentioned these qualifications to the lawyer, who said, "He is the very man!" Imade some private inquiries, and found he had a weakness for gin and water. Ipassed his shop almost every morning about the time he was watering his greens and sorting his potatoes. The next [321] time I said, "Good morning, Mr. Wrigsby." He returned the compliment. Ipraised his potatoes and at once ordered half a bushel. Iallowed a few mornings to pass by, simply wishing him good morning. I said, "If you will call on me in the evening and bring up another half-bushel of potatoes Iwill pay you." He came up. Isent my wife into another room and asked Mr. Wrigsby to have a pipe. He sat down. Iordered some hot gin and water. We talked about the rates and taxes, and we agreed that the parish was going to the bad. I asked, "Who is your landlord?" He replied, "Nobody; it's copyhold. One gentleman endeavoured to purchase a copyhold, but he would not have been admitted by the Court Leet." I said, "You are a copyholder?" He replied: "Yes, but Inever go to the Court. My father was a copyholder, and he kept two cows and a pony on the common, but I have no cows, and I am my own pony, and think it would be a good thing if the common was built over; it would bring a little more business into the parish." 11 [322] "Have a little more gin and water, Mr. Wrigsby. I think as you don't get any benefit from the common the least they could have done would have been to give you compensation, or a piece of the common. You are a poor, hard-working man, and I think they have behaved very badly to you. All the rich people round the common have been helping themselves pretty freely, and I daresay you know I have been doing what I can to stop any further stealing." "Everybody in the parish knows what you have done, but you don't seem to have prevented it. I hear that fellow Dobs, who owes me a bill I can't get, is taking in a bit near the lane." "Mr. Wrigsby, Dobs is a land-stealer, and you are the only man in the parish that can stop his stealing." "How can Istop it? I have no money to go to law." "Mr. Wrigsby, you would be the greatest benefactor this parish ever had if you would only enter your protest against this robbery of your rights. Iwill guarantee that you shall [323] not be sixpence the poorer, and if we win you may be richer." "Do you want me to go before the magistrate and complain? " "No. I want you to sign a paper that you object to these enclosures." "Well, as it's to oblige you, I don't mind, if you will promise to stand by me, but I can't afford any expense, and I depends on you. If the common was built over it might not do me much good. I daresay they would build shops as sells the same as I do." "When shall we meet to sign this paper? Will you come to my house, or shall Icome to yours?" "Just as you like." "Then, if you don't mind, perhaps you will come to me next Thursday evening at halfpast six. You need not mention to any one our conversation, because it only concerns the copyholders, and you are almost the only one left. Will you have a little more refreshment before you go home?" "No, thank you." As soon as I saw Mr. Wrigsby's back Iran [324] off to the lawyer and reported our interview. He was highly delighted. He said, "At seven my clerk shall be there with the plaint; it has been prepared a long time. You and my clerk must witness the signature." On Thursday Mr. Wrigsby was in good time. I had ready the long clay and tobacco and gin and water. We talked about parish — matters, and just as the first glass was finished I heard a knock at the door. I said, " I daresay this is the man with the paper." It was important that Wrigsby should have his wits about him. The clerk began reading the plaint, and Ikept Mr. Wrigsby occupied in conversation while the rights of estuary and turbary were gone over. Mr. Wrigsby paid little attention to it. He made no remarks, except asking if all that writing was about the common. It was rather a long business, but at last we came to the end, "whereof the memory of man faileth not," and Mr. Wrigsby signed it in the presence of two witnesses. Ishall never forget the expression of joy on the clerk's countenance as he watched Mr. Wrigsby put on his spectacles and sign his [325] name. He took a little piece of blotting out of his pocket and placed it carefully over the signatures, put the plaint in his black bag, said ' Good-night, Mr. Wrigsby," and was out of the house in an instant. Mr. Wrigsby wondered he should be in such a hurry. He thought he had come to talk about the common. Poor Mr. Wrigsby little thought that he had commenced proceedings against the lord of the manor, the Brighton and South Coast Railway Company, the West London Extension, the South-Western, and six others. It may be said that Iought not to have taken advantage of Mr. Wrigsby's weakness, but it was our last extremity, and Aristotle would have defended it. Whatever came of it, Mr. Wrigsby could not suffer; he had nothing to suffer with. The lawyer asked me to accompany him to a Q.C. in Lincoln's Inn, who was the best authority on real property. A few minutes after ten he came into his chambers, and the lawyer laid on his table the plaint. After some general remarks about commons he turned over page after page, then turned it back again, then looked at the signatures, [326] and appeared to me not very sanguine about the matter. Anyhow, we were now going to law, and there was some satisfaction in knowing it. Iventured in the most respectful way to say, " I think, sir, Iought to tell you that the plaintiff in this case is a very illiterate man." " I should think he is a damned idiot, or he would never be a plaintiff in a case of this kind. There is no law on the subject — the law has to be made. Iwill attend to it, but God only knows where it will end." We left, and for a few weeks everything was quiet. Ioccasionally called on Mr. Wrigsby, whom the lawyer had never seen, and what astonished me was that he had told this eminent Q.C. that he didn't want to see him. As soon as the other side knew Wrigsby was plaintiff, off they went to him, and told him that he would be sent to prison for signing an affidavit. He came to me in great trouble, and told me the enemy had been to him. Igave him a pipe and something to drink, and as we parted he said pathetically, "You will stand by me, won't you?" Ireplied, "To the very last." Ifrequently called on him [327] with words of comfort and encouragement. At last he was cited to appear on his affidavit before the court, and immediately after he had an attack of gout, which I hoped would continue long enough for the case to stand over. Icalled on his doctor, and said, " I have seen Wrigsby. I don't think he is well enough to appear." He replied, "Don't you want him to appear? I can give you a certificate for the usual fee," which Ipaid, and Wrigsby did not appear. The Long Vacation was coming on, and Wrigsby still had the gout. The defendants were very anxious to force on the case, but were rather late. I hoped, and the committee hoped, something would happen. We continued at convenient intervals our meetings, and public feeling and most of the newspapers were with us, but they could not stop the lawsuit or say much about it. One paper praised the public spirit and intelligence of the plaintiff. As soon as the courts opened Wrigsby had to appear. The doctor's certificate had lost its virtue. I saw him, and explained to him that, no matter what they asked, he was to 14 [328] say that he was a copyholder, and meant to protect his rights. He repeated this over tome. Ibegged of him not to say anything more. I said, "If they ask you your age say you are a copyholder." Icalled with a cab for the great plaintiff, but I had my fears. Ifelt as if we were going to an execution, but Wrigsby knew he was going into society, and dressed accordingly. He had on a pair of primrose-coloured breeches and gaiters, which hung on his body in graceful fulness; a yellow plush waistcoat, with large glass buttons, which gleamed like cat's eyes; a blue coat, far too small, with a few brass buttons; and a large white choker twisted round his neck like a tablecloth. The appearance of the plaintiff in court was a sensation. Six defendants were each separately represented by counsel, supported by a strong detachment of lawyers. Where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together. As Mr. Wrigsby stood up the Vice-Chancellor looked at him, as well he might, for he was a natural curiosity. Counsel for the Railway Company began by a few loving remarks about Mr. Wrigsby's health, [329] and in less than twenty minutes Wrigsby told the whole story of his signing the affidavit — what I had told him to say, that I would stick to him to the last, that he should not be sixpence the poorer for the lawsuit, perhaps better, that the common was no good to him and never had been, and it was to oblige me that he signed the paper. He didn't know exactly what it was about, but I told him it was all right. If an earthquake had swallowed up me and the others I should not have objected. After all my work this was a terrible blow. The lawyer leaned over to me and said, "It is all up." The counsel and lawyers for the defendants sniggered at each other, waiting for the magic words, "Judgment for defence The thieves who had stolen the common laughed outright, and as Icame out of court jeered at me. The Vice-Chancellor, a pious, good old man — may he rest in peace ! — said, " Ishall reserve judgment." Then the counsel and lawyers stared at each other and leisurely packed up a cartload of papers and books and left. Inever spoke to Wrigsby again, and Ifelt [330] counsel's opinion of him at our first joyful interview was correct. What was to be done? Another mass-meeting where we could pour out our sorrows and find comfort in the frantic hurrahs of the demos, who wanted to go at the fences! In a few days we heard rumours of an armistice. Inever knew for certain; but Ibelieve the good Vice-Chancellor had an interview with the lord of the manor, who consented to a friendly Act of Parliament by which all that was left of the common — about one hundred and fifty acres — should remain open and unenclosed for ever on payment of two hundred pounds a-year, or twenty years' purchase, secured on the rates of the parishes adjoining the common, which was about a farthing in the pound. The parishes cheerfully assented, and after five years the fighting ended. The Metropolitan Board of Works employed counsel to oppose the Bill, and we were put to great expense by the opposition. We had to find the money for this struggle as best we could. But the Board of Works spent the ratepayers' money in resisting the Bill. A [331] more unprincipled and unjustifiable act could only be explained by the rottenness and corruption of the body that promoted the opposition. Happily they failed." "1_1 About 1760 several persons who then lived near that part of Wandsworth-Common which adjoins Garratt Lane formed a kind of club, not to eat and drink, but to devise measures for removing the encroachments made on the common, and to prevent others being made. The members were persons mostly in humble circumstances, but they agreed at every meeting to contribute a small sum for the defence of their collective rights When a sufficient sum was subscribed they applied to a worthy attorney in the neighbourhood, who brought actions against the encroachers in the name of the president, or, as he was styled, the mayor of the club. They gained their suits with costs, the encroachments were removed, and the president, who lived many years to protect their rights, was called the "Mayor of Garratt." PORTIONS TAKEN FROM WANDSWORTH COMMON. Between the years of 1785 and 1818 no less than 36 enclosures were made, varying from half an acre to 96 acres, making up a total of 172 acres, in Wandsworth parish alone. Some of these enclosures were made with, and some without, consent. Subsequently, about 1821, the portion now known as the Magdalen College estate was enclosed and let to the late Mr. Neal, on easy terms, thus appropriating for private benefit another large Portion of the Common. Since that time the following additional enclosures have been made 1_2 ACRES 1836. South Western Railway . . 14 1846. St. James's Schools 20 Estate by Black Sea . . 10 1848. McKellar's triangular piece 20 1848. Piece by Black Sea 1 1852. Telescope piece . . . 1 1854-7. — Patriotic Schools 55 1854. Brighton Railway . . . 11 1854. Ditto by Nightingale lane 15 1857. Ditto opposite cemetery 9 1861- House of Correction. . . 10 1868. Road from Freemason's Hotel along past pumping mill. . 2 1868 Road east side of Spencer Park 1869. Plough Green piece nearly 2___ Total 173 About the year 1850, after the construction of the South Western Railway, Mr. Herring, who lived at Ivy Cottage, since pulled down, put a fence across the entrance to Plough-green, and stopped up a right of way. This fence, with the aid of a timber carriage, was knocked down by the inhabitants who walked in procession across the Green. The timber truck was afterwards named the " Magna Charta." Some of the persons were summoned to the Wandsworth Police Court, but the magistrate dismissed the case on the ground that there was a right of way. In the year 1877 [PB: 1867? 1868?] a suit was instituted against Lord Spencer as Lord of the Manor, on the part of one Digby, a copyholder, for having alienated to Messrs. C. W. Todd and others certain parts of Wandsworth-common, thereby affecting Digby's rights as a copyholder. This suit was before the courts until the settlement of the whole ____________________ 2_1 matter, by the passing of the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. The following is extracted from a small pamphlet on the "Commons and Open Spaces near London," reprinted about 1868, from The Parochial Critic: "Wandsworth-common, in the parish of Wandsworth, on the shore of the Wandle, and in Domesday Book Wendlesorde, there are, or were, four manors, Battersea and Wandsworth, Dunsfold and Alfarthing. With the exception of Dunsfold all are now held by Earl Spencer. Many interesting facts are associated with the early history of these manors , in which Royalty and nobility are conspicuous figures. The commons of Battersea and Wandsworth manor consist of about 150 acres, but little now remains of the Battersea portion: its once celebrated fields have been made into a park, and the remaining land has either been built over or destroyed by a network of railways. Thirty species of fossil shells were found in excavating the London clay, but no fossils were found in the gravel pits which so sadly disfigure the common, and which, if permitted to go on unchecked and uncontrolled, will destroy what remains of its beauty. Encroachments and enclosures have been made by the railways, by the St. James's industrial School, by the Patriotic, Schools, by the Prison, and by private individuals. When the common was leased by a committee of gentlemen there was some supervision, but at present there seems to be no authority to abate nuisances or regulate the gravel digging, notwithstanding all the damage which has been done. What remains of Wandsworth-common is still attractive to pedestrians. An avenue of trees nearly a mile in length is still remaining, and in spring and summer is an especial object of beauty." But how long the trees will continue is doubtful, for since the above was written two of them, immediately opposite the cemetery, have been cut down to make room for the erection of a beer shop called the Lord of the Manor. This destruction of beautiful trees for such a purpose roused the indignation and spirit of the neighbourhood. Two or three gentlemen commenced proceedings to stop by injunction any further building operations. An ornamental piece of water, of five acres, known as the Black Sea, studded with thirteen small islands, and beautified with shrubs and flowers, was, together with eight acres, leased to the late Mrs. Wilson. At her decease the lease was purchased by Earl _____________________________ 2_2 Spencer, and the gravest apprehensions were entertained that the thirteen acres would be turned into building sites. from HOW THE BATTLE FOR WANDSWORTH COMMON WAS FOUGHT AND WON [Reprinted from the Mid-Surrey Gazette, 1887], pp.2-4 In May, 1868, the Vicar, the Rev. T. S. Jenkinson, invited a few gentlemen to meet at his house to consider if anything could be done to stop the continual encroachments on the Common. A road was made by the side of the South Western Railway from the railway bridge, opposite the Freemasons Arms, past the old pumping mill to the bridge on Trinity road, another road, being a continuation of Spencer-road was made to form a building frontage to the Spencer Park Estate. There was also an enclosure of a long strip of green sward on the side of the main road, which now forms the north frontage of the Spencer Park Estate. A committee was appointed, and frequent meetings were held, which at last resulted in a memorial to Earl Spencer, which was signed by upwards of 200 ratepayers of New Wandsworth. [PB: I wonder if this 200-signature petition still exists in the Spencer archive?] All these efforts were useless. At last the indignation and enthusiasm of the neighbourhood were fully aroused, and the way prepared for further action. Application was made to the District Board of Works to take charge of the Common, and prevent further encroachments. This was supplemented by an appeal to the Metropolitan Board of Works, and at a meeting held on the 17th of June, 1868, Mr. Meaden presented a memorial from the Wandsworth Board of Works, praying the Metropolitan Board to enforce the provisions of the Commons Act of 1866, so as to save what remained of the Common from further encroachments. This was referred to the Works Committee. A deputation attended of inhabitants of Wandsworth and Battersea, introduced by Mr. Meaden, who presented the following memorial: The memorial of us the undersigned inhabitants of the parishes of Wandsworth and Battersea, showeth- 1. That the whole of Wandsworth and Battersea Commons are within your jurisdiction. 2. That these Commons formerly consisted of about 300 acres, but, in consequence of many enclosures and encroachments, the open spaces now remaining, do not, we believe, consist of more than 150 acres. 3. That from time immemorial these Commons have been entirely open for the public use and [p.3] recreation, and were formerly noted for their great natural beauty and fertility, and are, not-withstanding their present neglected state, still greatly resorted to by the inhabitants of the metropolis, the access by rail being remarkably easy, and the fares low. 4. That the continual encroachments on these Commons, the excavation of gravel pits which are left in a dangerous state to the public and serve as resorts for dissolute characters — the deposit of rubbish, and other nuisances of a like nature, have given rise to a wide-spread feeling of regret and dissatisfaction, which has resulted in an application to the Board of Works for the Wandsworth District to enforce the Commons Preservation Act of 1866. 5. The necessity of maintaining the Commons and open spaces around London, in consequence of the rapid increase of the population, has been recognised both by your honourable Board and the Legislature, and we would respectfully urge that the preservation, unenclosed, of Wandsworth and Battersea Commons has become a matter of great importance to the inhabitants of the metropolis. Your memorialists therefore hope that, in consideration of the public importance of the subject, your honorable Board will be pleased to direct immediate steps to be taken to put the Commons Preservation Act of 1866 in operation, to secure and maintain, unenclosed, for the benefit of the public, in perpetuity, the existing Commons of Wandsworth and Battersea. J. S. Jenkinson, Vicar of Battersea. E. R. Ransome, Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common H. Brown, Cornwall Villa, Wandsworth common; J. D. Keighley, Ashdown, Wandsworth common; Charles Gray, Chestnut Villa, Wandsworth common; William Carter, Althorp House, Wandsworth common; George Alder, Battersea Rise; G. H. Page, Spencer road; C. M. Hanson, Spencer road; Hubert de Carteret, Spencer road; Paul Oppitz, Vardens road; G. H. Swounell, Wandsworth common; John Costeker, St. John's hill; Wm. Compton Smith, Ivy Lodge, St. John's hill; Alexander Webster, 25, Oberstein road; H. W. M. Wilson, Spencer road; James Mudie, Park road, New Wandsworth; Francis R. Bertollacci [Bertolacci], Park road, New Wandsworth; John Archbutt, Wandsworth common; Andrew McKay, Park road, New Wandsworth; Ambrose P. Boyson, Wandsworth common; T. S. Watson, The Gables, Wandsworth common.; James Du Buisson, Wandsworth common; Edward Coventry, Wandsworth common. Mr. Lord and Mr. Buckmaster addressed the Board on the subject, asking them to interfere for prevention of further encroachment without delay, pointing out the gradual increase of enclosure and buildings. They informed the Board that one of the copy-holders was about to take proceedings to test the right of enclosure by the Lord of the Manor, Earl Spencer. Metropolitan Board of Works, October, 1868. At the ordinary weekly meeting of this Board, Sir John Thwaites presiding. Mr. Hows, pursuant to notice, moved that a committee be appointed to conduct the business of the Board connected with parks and open spaces, such committee to consist of 15 members. The Chairman observed that the Board could not delegate its powers to any committee. Mr. Hows then said he would simply move that the question of parks and open spaces be referred to a committee of the whole Board. He did not thereby intend to imply that there had been any neglect on the part of the Board, but it was evident that the Improvement Committee had enough to do without having these questions to deal with. Mr. Westerton seconded the motion, because the Improvement Committee had had so much to do that the item of open spaces had entirely disappeared from their agenda papers. Mr. Runtz supported the motion, feeling that they had never taken their proper position in reference to the Commons Preservation Act. The Board had as yet done nothing under that Act, in which they should have taken the initiative, instead of leaving it for Local Boards to take the earliest steps. Mr. Savage was in hopes of having the two parks (Southwark and Finsbury) opened early in the ensuing spring. There had been, he said, too much delay already, for the parks should have been completed long since. He was sure, when the contract was made for the execution of the works at Finsbury Park, it would never be carried out. Mr. Elt moved, as an amendment, that the committee should consist of 15 members. Mr. Bidgood seconded the amendment. Upon a division, the numbers appeared — for the amendment 10, against it 14. The amendment was therefore lost. Mr. Savage then proposed his motion: "That, in consequence of the continued delay [p4] which has taken place in laying out and opening, for the use of the public Finsbury and Southwark parks, a select committee of 12 members be appointed for the purpose of planting and laying out the parks, subject to the approval of the Board, and of opening them for the health and recreation of the inhabitants of the northern and southern districts of the metropolis and of the public generally, in the spring of 1869. Mr, Thompson (Clerkenwell) seconded the motion, and hoped the matter would be referred, for, if not, they would have delay after delay; and, if things did not speedily come to a conclusion, in his opinion, there would be some strong expression of feeling on the part of the public. Mr. Richardson (Greenwich) said he was advised by their solicitor that the Board could only carry out the provisions of the Commons Preservation Act in case preliminary action was taken by the local authorities. After a long discussion, the motion was negatived by 16 to 10. Extract from a report of the Metropolitan Board of Works for 1869-70: Commons and Open Spaces. After referring to Tooting Bec Common and another open space or two, it says: "WANDSWORTH COMMON. Wandsworth and Battersea Commons are still the subject of legal investigation, as also is Wimbledon Common, and the Board are therefore not at present in a position to deal with them." [italics in original] 1868. — November 10th. — After waiting some time, and being unable to learn that any steps were being taken by the Metropolitan Board of Works in regard to our Common, Mr. Ransome went several times to the offices of that Board, but could not obtain any satisfactory information. On November 10th he waited in the street until Sir John Thwaites came along, and went with him into his private office. After some conversation on the subject Sir John Thwaites stated, as chairman of that Board, that the Board could not take the matter in hand at all so long as there were lawsuits pending respecting portions of the common. Finding that no steps were being taken by that Board, and that that Board contemplated selling Portions of open spaces taken under their control, We began to feel afraid of them, lest Wandsworth-common might be still further reduced if they took it in hand and we began to despair of being able to rescue our common from the bands of speculative builders, dust contractors, and others, especially as a new road had recently been forming from the new Wandsworth bridge, along by the old pumping mill, to the bridge on the Tooting-road, with the short road forming a continuation of Spencer road, to make a frontage to what is now the Spencer Park Estate; all taken from the common. Moreover, Earl Spencer's agent with the connivance of the district surveyor, enclosed a long strip of common to add to the north side of the said estate, cutting the main road down to a mere 40ft road, instead of its being a good wide road as it had been from time immemorial. A petition signed by more than 200 ratepayers of New Wandsworth was sent to Earl Spencer, protesting against, these encroachments, but a deaf ear was turned to us. Meeting after meeting was held, either at the house of the vicar or elsewhere, to consider what was best to be done, whilst Mr. J. C. Buckmaster, then a churchwarden, endeavoured to keep the question alive, either by articles in the newspapers, or, in 1869, by breaking down fences which had been erected on a portion of the common between the cemetery and the New Wandsworth goods station of the Brighton Railway, in the presence of about 2,000 people who had assembled to show their sympathy and interest in the proceedings. Mr. Buckmaster was summoned, in consequence, to the Wandsworth Police Court, but Mr. Dayman dismissed the case, holding that the only remedy was an action for trespass. Somewhere about this time the following unanimous resolution was agreed to by the Metropolitan Board of Works (See the evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons): "That it is highly desirable to preserve the commons and open spices near the metropolis for public recreation and enjoyment, such open spaces to remain unenclosed and that the Board should compensate the lords of manors and commoners in restrict of any rights of which they may be deprived. That towards meeting the expenditure to be incurred, power should be given to this Board to sell certain portions of such spaces for building or other purposes." The same witness, Sir John Thwaites, the chairman of that Board, stated that it would be impossible to carry out the plan proposed by the Board unless the Board had sufficient power to dispose of a portion of the land for building purposes, &c. 1870. — March 14th. — A large and influential meting was held at the Lammas Hall, Battersea, convened by Mr. J. C. Buckmaster, churchwarden of the parish of St. Mary's, Battersea, at the request of seven influential parishioners, including the vicar and the late Tom Taylor. The hall was filled by eight o'clock, amongst those _________________ 5 present being Messrs. Lord, Eccles, H. Whiting, Lambert, Bertolacci, Buckmaster, Ransome, Bass, Bickerdike, Carter, Taylor, Goldsmith, Coventry, B. Smith, Clark, Owen, Noir, Griffiths, Poupart, Todd, and others. Mr. Buckmaster, having been voted into the chair, read Mr. Peek's letter, addressed to himself, as follows: "Wimbledon House, 7th Feb. 1870. " My dear Sir Iread your remarks in the City Press of Saturday, and I have sent a copy of the paper to Earl Spencer. The public may grumble as much as they please; that will never stop encroachments or enclosures. What I have been thinking of is this: round Clapham common there are many wealthy gentlemen, some of whom are beginning to feel alarmed at Lord Spencer declining to renew the lease of that part which belongs to him. And in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth there are also many well-to-do people. If these will pay 4,000 into a bank Iwill add 1,000, and, as a Battersea copyholder, would at once commence proceedings to take up everything irregular during the legal term, which, Ibelieve, is 20 years. " We are vigorously defending this common, and intend to leave no stone unturned to settle the question once for all. I have my hands very full, but am quite willing to do what I say, but not on a less scale, having named the precise sum we fixed on here. Yours faithfully, HENRY W. PEEK . To J. C. Buckmaster, Esq. PS — Iwill hold myself bound to this offer to June, 1870, but no longer." Mr. Buckmaster roused the enthusiasm of those present by a graphic description of the various encroachments on the common, and concluded his address by saying that as his services had hitherto been, so they would continue. He had sometimes incurred hostility and a feeling of social antagonism, and he might have said hard things, but if he had erred it was not an error of intention or of heart. From a boy he had been taught to do his utmost to secure for others the liberty and privileges which he enjoyed, and on principle he should always endeavour to act. A substantive resolution, pledging the meeting to use its utmost endeavours to raise the sum requisite to secure Mr. Peek's offer of 1,000, was moved by Mr. Eccles, and seconded by Mr. Lord, who said he appeared on that platform as one interested, like them all, in the present movement, and he considered the time had now arrived when this long-vexed question ought to be submitted to a proper tribunal for a legal settlement once for all, and announced, amidst loud cheers, his subscription of 100. Mr. Ransome, from the body of the meeting, congratulated those present on the practical turn it had assumed, and submitted that a committee of management should be then named, with power to add to their number, and that meetings be held at Wandsworth and Clapham, and sub-committees formed for raising subscriptions throughout the neighbourhood, and his 50 should be ready at any moment. Mr. Ransome spoke with much earnestness, and was deservedly cheered." "BUCKMASTER'S PSEUDONYMS Placenames in the Burnett/Caliban edition, 1982 Claywick = Slapton Oxenbridge = Uxbridge Flatover = Andover Saltbury = Salisbury Wiverton — Tiverton Grundle = Arundel Finchester = (probably) Chichester Detworh = Petworth Dighurst = Midhurst Chalkover = Wendover Barne = Calne Gippham = Chippenham Bolborough = Marlborough Polesfield = Petersfield Fogmore = Bognor ____________ [PB: Check this against the scan of the original. Harmonise the page refs. Clarify the entries without page numbers. ] "In the copy of this book which went to Hal was a letter from J. C. Buckmaster to T. Fisher Unwin (dated later 8. 2. 04) which explained some of the disguised names. He appears never to have sent it. " p. 6, Claywick = Slapton p. 3, Oxenbridge = Uxbridge p. 4, Menister = Barker[can't find] p. 19, Shoemaker = Holmes p. 29, Norcot = Northall Tapper = Dowbiggin Trinkwasser = Bridgewater p. 131, Wiverton = Tiverton p. 123 -read on to 159, Hockey = Liphook Polesfield = Petersfield public house in the square "The Jolliffes" [PB: possibly the Joliffe Arms, Kilmersdon, near Radstock, south of Bath = BA3 5TD] awful, Jones Dighurst = Midhurst p. 171, Grundle = Arkwright Fogmoor = Bognor Fin = Chichester Betworth = Petworth Grindham = Col. Wyndham Chalker = Andover Barne = Calne Ramsdown = Lansdown Balborough = Marlborough Arlingford = Wallingford p. 225, Wackem = Wickham p. 227, Loger = Haynes Ch XI, Matterson = Patison Floring = Baring PB: The following are my own identifications- with page refs to the Caliban edition: p. 305 "Six acres enclosed" = within the area now called "the Scope", between Lyford Rd and Trinity Rd p. 306, "the adjacent common" = Clapham Common p. 307, "A gentleman. . . I had opposed" = Sir Henry Peek MP p. 314, "One stupid young fellow" = Samuel Sullings p. 321, Wrigsby = Digby p. 322, Dobs? Perhaps "anyman", but could it be George Todd? p. 331 -333, "A low, drunken, unprincipled lawyer" — this was TAF Reynolds. But JCB he was no less opposed to? Corsellis, for many of the same reasons, so it is possible he embraces both within the same account. p. 335, "Bishop Wilberforce" ("Soapy Sam"), son of William Wilberforce. p. 336, "The lord of the manor" = at this time, John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl "the new vicar" — John Erskine Clarke (1827-1920) "The iron church" = St Mark's, Battersea Rise "My eldest son" = NOT Stanley Owen Buckmaster (1861-19??), future Lord Chancellor, and Viscount Buckmaster" WHO'S WHO DEFENDERS OF WC Who signed what . . . . [It would be good to add letter-writers. Notice below what a high proportion live at the the north of the Common — where the conflict was most intense.] George Alder, Battersea Rise (May 1868 Memorial) [numerous refs in "50.15_west_of_st_john_s_road.pdf"] John Archbutt, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) Mr. BASS, Battersea (Preservation poster) Francis R. Bertollacci [sp? Mr. F. BERTOLACCI?), Park road, New Wandsworth (May 1868 Memorial) (Preservation poster) Ambrose P. Boyson, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) [James Bevington] [Samuel Bevington] Mr. BICKERDIKE, Elm Terrace, St. John's Hill (Preservation poster — Secretary) John BUCKMASTER, St. John's Hill (May 1868 Memorial) (Preservation poster — Secretary) H. Brown, Cornwall Villa, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) William Carter, Althorp House, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) Wm. Compton Smith, Ivy Lodge, St. John's hill (May 1868 Memorial) Mr. CONDER, Park Road (Preservation poster). John Costeker, St. John's hill (May 1868 Memorial) Edward Coventry, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) [= ? Mr. MILLIS COVENTRY, Wandsworth common (Preservation poster). CUMMINS, Nightingale Lane (Preservation poster) James Du Buisson, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) Hubert de Carteret, Spencer road (May 1868 Memorial) C. ECCLES, Lavender Sweep (Preservation poster) Charles Gray, Chestnut Villa, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) Mr. GREVALLE, Lavender Hill (Preservation poster) [Isn't he named "Gravelle" sometimes?] C. M. Hanson, Spencer road (May 1868 Memorial) p>Mr. HUNTER. Louvaine Road (Preservation poster) [Yes, this IS the famous Robert HUNTER]. J. S. Jenkinson, Vicar of Battersea (May 1868 Memorial) G. JENNINGS, Nightingale Lane (Preservation poster). J. D. Keighley, Ashdown, Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) Mr. C. LAMBERT, Wandsworth Common (Preservation poster — Treasurer) James Lord, St. John's Hill (May 1868 Memorial) (Preservation poster — Treasurer) Andrew McKay, Park road, New Wandsworth (May 1868 Memorial) James Mudie, Park road, New Wandsworth (May 1868 Memorial) Paul Oppitz, Vardens road (May 1868 Memorial) Mr. OULDS, 25, Lavender Road (Preservation poster) G. H. Page, Spencer road (May 1868 Memorial) E. R. RANSOME, Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common (May 1868 Memorial) (Preservation poster) Mr. J. ROSE [James Anderson Rose], Nightingale Lane. {NB also his brother William, Upper Tooting.] Mr. N. SENIOR, Lavender Hill (Preservation poster) [Nassau Senior] G. H. Swounell [sic? Swonnell? Swannell?], Wandsworth common (May 1868 Memorial) TOM TAYLOR, Lavender Sweep Mr. WARRINGTON, Nightingale Lane (Preservation poster) T. S. Watson, The Gables, Wandsworth common. (May 1868 Memorial) Alexander Webster, 25, Oberstein road (May 1868 Memorial) Mr. H. WHITING. Lavender Hill Mr. M. WHITING. Lavender Hill H. W. M. Wilson, Spencer road (May 1868 Memorial) 1868 Memorial — from How the Battle was Fought [Notice some baddies! They're mainly from North Side, park rd etc — were they anxious about the imminent development of Spencer Park? The Survey mentions a memorial to Spencer at this time.] J. S. Jenkinson, Vicar of Battersea. E. R. Ransome, Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth common. H. Brown, Cornwall Villa, Wandsworth common. J. D. Keighley, Ashdown, Wandsworth common. Charles Gray, Chestnut Villa, Wandsworth common. William Carter, Althorp House, Wandsworth common. George Alder, Battersea Rise. G. H. Page, Spencer road. C. M. Hanson, Spencer road. Hubert de Carteret, Spencer road. Paul Oppitz, Vardens road. G. H. Swounell [sic?], Wandsworth common. John Costeker, St. John's hill. Wm. Compton Smith, Ivy Lodge, St. John's hill. Alexander Webster, 25, Oberstein road. H. W. M. Wilson, Spencer road. James Mudie, Park road, New Wandsworth. Francis R. Bertolacci, Park road, New Wandsworth. John Archbutt, Wandsworth common. Andrew McKay, Park road, New Wandsworth. Ambrose P. Boyson, Wandsworth common. T. S. Watson, The Gables, Wandsworth common. James Du Buisson, Wandsworth common. Edward Coventry, Wandsworth common. Mr. Lord and Mr. Buckmaster addressed the Board etc etc" "Battersea Vestry Minutes Extracts and Notes made by Roger Logan with editorial clarifications by Sean Creighton Battersea Vestry Minutes 1855 20 November 1855 The Vestry was convened according to the following notice. 'We, the undersigned churchwardens of the Parish of St. Mary in the County of Surrey hereby give notice that we appoint the 20th day of November 1855 for the first election of Vestrymen under the provisions of the Act of Parliament for the better local management of the Metropolis.' Dated the 23rd October 1855 'The Parishioners duly qualified according to the provisions of the Act of the Sessions??? in the 18th and 19th years of the reign of Queen Victoria entitled 'An Act for the better Local Management of the Metropolis" are hereby required to meet at the old Infant School Room, Green Lane Road, on Thursday 20th November at 10 o'clock in the forenoon . . . to the provisions of the same Act, and then and there to consider of and elect fit and proper persons to be Vestrymen and Auditors of Accounts of the parish of Saint Mary Battersea, that is to say Twenty four Members of the Vestry Five Auditors of Accounts' 60 were present. Two lists of names proposed. Names taken seriatim 'the greatest number of hands held up for such names' will constitute the Vestry. Roger Logan comments So on 23 November 1855 began a new era in Battersea of local government, or management as it was described in the Act which had passed through Parliament in the Summer Session. Battersea, in 1851 was home to ???? souls. It was an area not yet physically linked by buildings to the City of London or those parishes adjoining which had been accepted into the metropolis. The travesties and injustices of British urban life were not a daily experience to those whose lives did not take them beyond the parish boundaries. By 1855 the resident population had increased, but it was as the 1851 Census information that it was to be judged. Total Parishioners ____; Ratepayers _____; Ratepayers paying £40 or more _____. By these statistics the shape of Battersea's local government was fixed. The total population was insufficient to justify a discrete administrative unit, as the parish was, in consequence, to be united with others to form an area "managed" by a District Board. To provide representatives on that District Board a local body of "fit and proper Vestrymen" was needed, to be chosen from the "duly qualified" parishioners. In Battersea, as a consequence of the provision of the Act whereby if less than 1/6 of the ratepayers were rated at £40; £25 ratepayers were eligible to elect Vestrymen. What could the elected Vestrymen anticipate? Then, as now, the representatives of the people could expect no direct financial reward for their services. Motivation came from other sources. The make up of the constitution was varied. Around the edges of the Commons in south Battersea bankers and businessmen daily made the journey to the City. For some the experience of travelling through areas inhabited by the less fortunate made an impact and, as a consequence, such men were prepared to act constructively for the benefit of the disadvantaged in their own parish. Others of course, were more inward-looking and self seeking, unwilling to share, sometimes even intent on depriving those who were existing on a minimum.' 20 November 1855 (continued) Vestrymen Election: Name Votes Position in poll Alder, George 54 1 Baker, William Garrad 35 13 Bass, George 34 14= Bridge, William 39 9= Brocking, Robert William 32' 16= Curtis, William Benjamin 29 21 Everett, Samuel Charles 31 18 Graham, Bernard John 36 11= Griffin, James Sear 40 8 Hart, Jacob 39 9= Hewer, William 46 4= Juer, Henry 46 4= Noble, James 50 2 Pain, Edward 48 3 Parsons, Francis 28 22= Passmore, William Henry 32 16= Picking, William 46 4= Poupart, Samuel 45 7 Reynold, Thomas Andrew Fitzgerald 30 19= Sellar, Frederick 28 22+ Smith, Samuel, Sen 34 14= Smith, Samuel 30 19= Spencer, Robert Peter 28 22= Woods, William 36 11= 60 present: Five persons 'signified in writing their assent to serve as Auditors of Accounts' for 1855/7 Finch, George Ayles, George Stroud, James Vedy, Louis G Carne, Henry It was resolved that they 'be elected Auditors of Accounts for this Parish under the Provisions of the 18th and 19th Victoria cap. 120' 28 November 1855 12 persons elected by Vestry for Board Name Votes Picking, William 23 Poupart, Samuel 21 Juer, Henry 20 Sellar, Frederick 19 Griffin. James 14 Noble, James 14 Pain, Edward 14 Curtis. W. B 13 Hart, Jacob 13 Hewer, William 13 Reynolds, T. A. O 13 23 plus Vicar 17 December 1855 Determined by lot as to which years Members to go out of office. 1857 1858 1859 Hart Hewer Graham Noble Reynolds Sellar Juer Poupart Curtis Griffin Pain Picking 1856 No meetings recorded in 1856 Battersea Vestry Minutes 1857 3 April 1857 18 present: (a) To make a list of the fit and proper persons to be Overseers for 1857/58 (b) To determine by lot the vestrymen who are to go out of office in May next and the following years namely 1858 and 1859 Out in May 1857 May 1858 May 1859 Pain Griffin Woods Parsons Everett Picking Baker Broking Smith Bridge Hart Spencer Bass Passmore Sellar Reynolds Smith Sear Graham Curtis Hewer Alder Noble Poupart Juer subsequently re-elected 8 May 1857 11 present to appoint a day for election of 8 Vestrymen and 5 Auditors. 29 May 1857 50 present: Two lists presented Not to be considered seriatim To be put list for list After a division List No 1 carried Henry Pariss* William Bridge James Purdy Wm B Curtis* T. A. O. Reynolds James Gammon Stephen Neaten Thos Reeve Denny* * also on List 2 List 2: Finch, Geo Broad, Jonas Baker, Wm G Curtis W B Parsons, Francis Powis Denny, Thos R Gwill, Wm Question: Were: Pain, Edward 3rd NO Parsons Francis 22nd YES Baker, Wm G 13th YES Bass, George 14th NO Noble James 2nd NO on List No 2 i.e. attempting re-election? Auditors elected 1857/58: George Ayles Henry Crane George Finch Michael Dowden John White 3 June 1857 15 present to elect so many Vestrymen .. to members of the Wandsworth District Board . . . as may be necessary for supplying the vacancies among the members of such Board elected for the parish. The voting papers having been deposited in the Balloting box the Inspectors proceeded to examine the said votes and presented the Chairman with the following statement. Name Votes Whether elected Alder, George 7 votes Not re-elected Bridge, William 9* Griffin, James 11* Re-elected Hart, Jacob 6 Not re-elected Juer, Henry 15* Re-elected Neaute, Stephen 9* Parsons, Henry 2 declared elected in lieu of those retrying by lot 10 June 1867 18 present to consider threatened action by Wandsworth District Board of Works against four former Highway Board members (also Vestry members) 24 August 1857 Auditor of the South West Metropolitan Audit District mentioned Battersea Vestry Minutes 1858 6 April 1858 20 present to elect auditors for 1858/59. Elected: Mr Allder Mr Bowes Mr Juer Mr Witford Nichols Mr Bridge Roger Logan questions whether this was legal as in wrong minute book. 23 April 1858 16 present: (a) to set date of election of Vestrymen and Auditors (b) to elect members of the Burial Board (a) set for 27 May 1858 (b) agreed 24 March each year for 1/3 retirement from Board and election of 2 Auditors, not Board members 5 May 1858 16 present: Burial Board — 2 alternatives for Auditors. (1) Henry Juer, James Purdy — 10 votes; (2) George Finch and T. Hardy — 4 votes 27 May 1858 102 present: (a) To elect 9 Vestrymen (b) To elect 5 Auditors 29 November 1859 County Rate assessment made 1836 County Rate 6d in the £ Police Rate 6d in the £ MBW expenses 3d in the £3 Main drainage rate 4d in the £ 17 parishes in East Surrey under the Metropolitan Board of Works subject to special taxation Battersea's ratepayers overcharged Wandsworth District Board of Works area: Battersea 13.25% over assessed Tooting 8.5% overcharged Wandsworth 13.5% Clapham 3.75% Putney 0.75% Streatham 4% Report from Committee received BVM Minutes 1860 21 January 1860 Rateable values 1858 Buildings Rails South West Railway 4,080 3,105 Richmond 1,330 Brighton & South Coast 2,050 1,650 6,130 6,085 London Gas Co 800 200 Phoenix 125 Wandsworth 38 800 363 Southwark & Vauxhall Waterworks 2,550 850 Battersea Vestry Minutes 1862 Date not given re-Election to Wandsworth District Board of Works Members in retiring order: Jonas Broad, Henry Juer, James Purdy, James Watson 1864: George Alder, Stephen Neate, Henry Pariss, Alexander Webster 1865: John Downey, George Payne, Samuel Poupart, Nathaniel Purdy Date 1862 No. Vestrymen present Notes re-business 24 June 7 29 July 7 4 August4 12 August 17 See below 26 August 10 See below 16 September 13 30 September 8 Committee set up to 'enquire and report upon an improved system of collecting parish rates.' 8 October Committee recommended (a) Establishing 3 collection districts — Nine Elms, The Town, The Hill (b) 3 collectors, each residing in own district (c) Payment tube 4d in the £ on the amount collected 28 October 10 See below 25 November 10 Resolved unanimously "that this Vestry is of opinion that the Trust if the Surrey and Sussex Roads be abolished." 30 December 5 inquorate 2 August 1862 "Act to prevent holding of Vestry or other meeting in Churches 13 + 14 Vict. Cap. 57" Adopted 12-3 For: Simmonds, Poupart, Alder, Purdy, Webster, Board, Walton, Juer, Ayles, Pemberton, Clark, Burney Against: Noate, Payne, Trott (b) Overseers authorised to provide an Office for the transaction of the business of the parish. 26 August 1862 To Order the payment of expenses at the late election of Vestrymen £1.18s.6d. Police attendance £20s. Printing notice 8s.6d To be referred to the Overseers "request for them to pay the said amount out of the Poor Rates of this parish." Report of the Auditors of the Burial Board: D. Jones & John Luyth 506 deaths in year in parish; 241 buried; 118 adults; 35 children Calculated to require 13 acres to fill up 2 acres. 28 October 1862 (a) Committee report received, endorsed and passed to Guardians (b) (b) letter re-Surry and Sussex Roads Trustees advised that Local Act for the Trust limited by Annual Turnpike Acts Continuation Act, 1862 to 1 November 1863 Expenses in Battersea of maintaining, including watering, for 1861 were £404 (exclusive of salaries, land changes and incidents). Length of road about 1 mile 2 furlongs 140 yards BVM Minutes 1863 Date 1863 No. Vestrymen present Notes re-business 27 January 12 3 February 6 24 February 13 1862 R.Vs: Nine Elms £35,683 The Town £34,734 The Hill £94,027 17 March 16 31 Marsh 13 7 April 18 28 April 12 To appoint a day for elections of Vestrymen & auditors — Monday 25 May 25 May 31 See below 3 June 17 See below 30 June 3 No business done 6 July 20 11July 15 20 July 24 Application from George Chawin and Mr Arthur Alexander Corsellis for Vestry Clerk position. 19 votes for joint appointment 28 July 4 Inquorate 13 August 14 18 August 18 25 August 6 Inquorate 29 September 9 Burial Board Auditors report entered in Minutes recommended "a radical change in their system of Book Keeping". 25 May 1863 Election of 8 members of the Vestry and 5 auditors P.S. Ratepayers only will be eligible to be present in the body of the hall. Lists proposed/seconded by Parins/Poupart 8 names by Bricking/Trott — Rev I.M. Soule Chair — George Paynet Pundy — William Duce and G. Simmonds Finally agreed to put names seriatim for show of hands Elected for three years Hewer 19 Gent Webster 23 — Gent Walton 24 — Gent Ayles 20 — glass cutter Pemberton 16 Grocer Simmonds 22 — Gent Duce — 15 Water proof manufacturer Juer — 23 Gent Not elected: Soule 5, Paine — 2 Auditors: Thomas Clark. Butcher. St John's Hill George Bass. Builder. Plough Rd William Gosling. Gentleman. 4 Woodbine Cottage, Bridge Rd John Packer. Engineer. Bolingbroke Place, Church Rd David Homes. Gent. 6 Eden Villas, Bridge Rd 3 June 1863 17 present to elect Board of Works members: Retiring: Broad*, Juer*, J. Purdy, Walton* (* eligible for re-election) The 17 'deposited a Vestry paper in the Ballot box in the possession of the Chairman'. The ballot paper contained 16 names. 11 got some votes. Brocking, Gamman, Ing, Pemberton, Walter got no votes Juer 16* Walton 16* Broad 8* Simmons 8* Ayles 1 Burney 6 Duce 1 Hewer 4 Sargant 5 Seldon 1 Sellar 2 (*) Elected for three years Lists of Appointed Alderman and auditors affixed to outer door of or outer wall near the door of every church and public chapel. Battersea Vestry Meetings 1864 23 May 1864 56 attended in Lammas Hall. 19 names put forward for 8 places Those elected for 3 years: Name No. votes Status George Alder 50 Gent Henry Condy 48 " Thomas Clark 33 Butcher George W. Payne 29 Gent John W. Denny 29 Miller Henry Brown 28 Gent Major William De Carterett 26 Gent W. Edward Spooner 26 Gent Auditors elected Name No. votes Status David Jones Gent Eden Terrace, Bridge Rd William Gosling Gent Woodbine Cottage, Bridge Rd Charles Lambert Gent Battersea West Common Charles Noakes Barge owner Ivy Cottage, Church St George Bass Builder Plough Rd 1 June 1864 15 present. Show of hands in lieu of Ballot Name Retiring Elected or not George Alder Yes Re-elected Stephen Neute Henry Pariss Dead Alexander Webster Yes Re-elected Hewer Elected Sellar Elected Battersea Vestry Meetings 1865 22 May 1865 64 present. Had died: Hewer Retiring: Broad, Burney, Downey, George Payne, Poupart, N. Purdy, Seldon, Sellar Elected for 3 years: James Broad, Gent James Acomb, Gent James Flaxman, Building 48, Chatham St George Todd, Jnr. Auctioneer, Prince's Rd, Battersea Park Samuel Poupart, market gardener N. Purdy, wheelwright William Austin, victualler, High Rd, Battersea Park Frank Sellar, grocer Elected for one year: Samuel Lalhoy William Austin proposed by Henry Cook. Auditors elected: Charles Lambert, Gent John P. Turner, Gent George Bass, builder Charles Noakes, wharfinger Henry F. Huntley, victualler The 'roads of Battersea had been in a most disgraceful state ever since he had known it. A gentleman coming to take his house, his wife's dress and boots got muddy, and of course he got disgusted and would not come to the neighbourhood.' Buckmaster. 'There had only been 3 meetings during the last 12 months.' 17 June 1865 13 present. Representatives on District Board of Works retiring: Downey, Payne, Poupart, Purdy Agreed to have ballot rather than show of hands Elected: Todd (7 votes), Spooner (10), Poupart (9), Purdy (11) Battersea Vestry Meetings 1866 14 May 1866 101 present to elect 22 Vestrymen and 5 Auditors 8 Vestrymen retiring: George Ayles, William Duce, Henry Juer, Samuel Lathey, Joseph Pemberton, George Simmons, James Walton, Alexander Webster. Meeting adjourned to Monday 28 May 28 May 1866 140 present: Number of Vestrymen to be increased to 36 from 24 in consequence of the Rated Householders now exceeding 2,000. Poll of parish to be held Tuesday 29 May. Auditors elected: George Bass (builder), Charles Lambert (Gent), Henry Huntley, J. Stubbs and John G. Brown Poll 29 May 1866 Name Politics Votes Elected Not Elected Address William Gerrard Baker 85 X Rev. Samuel Barosly 84 X Henry Beauchamp Con 127 X Royal Terrace William Bridge Lib 43 X Henry Condy Con 127 X Devonshire House Rev. Burman Cassin Con 85 X St.George's Battersea, vicar Thomas Dives Con 86 X Lavender Hill William Evill Con 86 X Battersea Rise Richard Finch Con 127 X Lord Auckland, Falcon Rd Edward Fownes Con 86 X Edward Gammon 42 X William Gerrard 84 X William P. Harris 85 X Henry Huntley Con 41 X Henry Juer Lib 43 X Charles Lambert 41 X James Lord Con 127 X St. John's Lodge, Battersea Rise Walter Meiler 124 X George Mellish 84 X Albert Tavern, Battersea Park Stephen Neute Con 42 X George Roddell 42 X Nassau Senior 127 X Henry Smith 126 X Edward Stanford Con 41 X John P. Turner Lib 127 X Christopher William Todd Con 83 X Battersea Rise William Turner Con 42 X Hugh Wallace Lib 41 X James Walton 126 X David Watson Con 127 X Gasworks, Nine Elms Alexander Webster Lib 42 X David W. Young Con 126 X High St Frederick Wix Con 86 X 6 June 1866 Election to Wandsworth Board of Works by hand not ballot: Retiring: Broad, Simmonds, Walton, Juer Elected for 3 years: Turner, WALTON, Young, Simmons, Walton, Juer Elected for 1 year: Acomb 1866 Select Committee on Metropolitan Local Government. Second Report Includes quotations from Buckmaster and A. Corsellis Battersea Vestry Minutes 1867 Vestry Attendance 1867 Notes 22 May Mr Turner said that he had received no notices of Vestry meetings since he was elected, nor had he a summons to attend . . . meeting, as he thought Vestrymen should'. Acomb and Purdy proposed/seconded that 'Minutes of the previous Vestry be confirmed.' See South London Press below 27 May 56 No election held due to incompleteness of minutes 5 June 9 Election of WDBW members. Retiring: Acomb, Alder, Sellar, Webster. Elected: Gammon, Alder, C. W. Todd, Webster 10 June 5 No business 11July 8 Inquorate 18 July 3 Inquorate 25 July 7 Inquorate 21 October 5 Inquorate 28 October 5 Inquorate 11 November 12 Business transacted 22 May 1867 Meeting Report South London Press Meeting held 'with the purpose of choosing Vestrymen for the ensuing year.' 'It will be seen (that) after two hours talk, the meeting never got past the confirmation of the minutes of the election in May 1866, and eventually became so figured [??] that neither clerk, chairman, reporters nor audience could tell exactly what subject was under discussion.' Churchwarden Stuart was the Chair. 'There appear to have been two main strands. One was a conflict between the elected Vestrymen and the general body of people, the ratepayers. The other was the antipathy between one of the ratepayers, Mr. J. C. Buckmaster and the Battersea Vestry Clerk Mr. A. Corsellis (who was also Clerk to the local authority for the area, the Wandsworth District Board of Works.' Buckmaster, supported by Acomb, attacked the accuracy of the May 1866 annual Vestry meeting minutes prepared by Corsellis. 'Mr Buckmaster did not desire to descend to personal altercation.' Others joined in the debate but eventually 'the meeting dispersed when a third show of hands on a motion was passed.' 'Mr Bridge remarked . . . knowing something of the way in which the affairs of the parish of Battersea went on he became disgusted and retired from the Vestry. It was high time some change took place.' C.W. Todd 'had taken a special train from the Isle of Wight to come up again'. (Possibly brother of George Todd [PB: No, his son.]) South London Press editorial comment 'The Battersea folks had another turn at baiting the Vestry Clerk on Monday, and kept it up so long that, after two hours talk, they had not even confirmed the minutes of a meeting in May 1866. For once Mr. Corsellis's imperturbable obstinacy yielded slightly to Mr Buckmaster's virtuous indignation.' As if by good fortune for Buckmaster 'the fact cropped out that not long since the parish had an auditor of accounts who could neither read nor write.' 'The situation was clearly unsatisfactory, and so a reconvened Vestry meeting was summoned for the following Monday, the 27th of May. Despite, or may be because of the turnout . . . was relatively small, some 56 ratepayers attending.' 'Once again the issue of the minutes being incomplete was raised, and once again the proceedings were continuously thwarted. Feelings ran high. George Todd, a prominent local building developer, estate agent and auctioneer, openly stated that he was "opposed to the Vestry Clerk as strongly as any man", (but) "wanted to see fair play." Acomb, who at the previous meeting had supported Buckmaster suggested to him that "its only spleen you've got against Mr Corsellis", and went further 'suggesting that it was Buckmaster, amongst others, who had secured Corsellis's services as Vestry Clerk. "If I was the slightest degree instrumental in bringing Mr Corsellis into the parish I deeply regret it", observed Buckmaster. Essentially 'the meeting trooped out of the hall, leaving election of Vestrymen to stand till 1868.' South London Press 1 June 1867 'The interest taken by the ratepayers of South London in the choice of vestrymen seems not to have been abated this year. Though in some cases the formality of the poll has been dispersed with, the rejected candidates taking the show of hands as decisive, in one or two have been not contests at the polling booths. As will be seen elsewhere the Battersea electors frittered away the time until they broke up without electing any representatives at all, to supply the place of those dead or retired from office. Possibly nobody will suffer, and few will care for this, but those who consider the proceedings calmly cannot regret that in this case personal hostility seems . . . to have been aimed at, and the interest of the public made a quite minor consideration.' Battersea Vestry re-convened following Monday 27 May 'proceedings were continuously thwarted, so that none even proposed 16 Vestrymen and five auditors. Needed. Churchwarden Stuart took Chair. Mr Todd opposed to the Vestry Clerk as strongly as any man but wanted to see fair play Mr. Ayles 'subsequently styled the Jo. Hume of Battersea. Acomb against Buckmaster "its only spleen you've got against Mr Corsellis." 'If I was the slightest degree instrumental in bringing Mr Corsellis into the parish I deeply regret it.' Mr Todd said it was the old members who stood in the way of the wishes of the parishioners. '---the meeting trooped out of the hall, leaving election of Vestrymen to stand over till 1868.' Battersea Vestry Meetings 1868 Vestry Attendance Notes 23 March 7 Inquorate 14 April 9 One item of business done. 1 Vestryman left — meeting inquorate 20 April 16 Letter form Greenwich Vestry meeting on Friday 13 March 1868 desirable to have 'one general??? assessment of the rateable value of all property chargeable to such Rates throughout the whole of the Metropolitan Area.' 25 May 73 See below 3 June 14 Retiring: Purdy, Spooner, Poupart, G. Todd Elected: Charles Lambert, Dr. W. H. Kempster, George H. Swonnell, Hugh Wallace. James Walton had left the parish — resignation read — Mr Castever elected 15 June 10 13 July 6 Inquorate 17 July 14 Not legal. Summoned by Churchwarden not Vestry Clerk 24 July 13 17 August 13 See below 1 October 10 Resolved that 'this Vestry approves and sanctions the employment of Mr Charles Gray a public Accountant of 10 Sargeants Inn from the 25 August 1868 at a remuneration of 2 guineas per diem. . . ' Preliminary report by Accountant made 28 September 1868. 13 October 9 25 May 1868 73 present: Retiring Vestrymen: Acomb, Austin, William Baker, Beauchamp, Broad, Evill, Flexman, Gerrard, Poupart, N. Purdy, Sellar, G. Todd Due to retire 1869: Harris, Henry Smith, Walton Two lists presented. Poll demanded. Fixed for next day Tuesday 26 May 1868. For Mr Buckmaster's List — 114 votes For Mr Webster's list- 23 votes Elected for One Year Elected for Two Years Elected for Three Years William Baker Capt. Hubert Decarteret Conrad Hanson Francis Bestolacci Edward Clark Charles Lambert* Henry Brown John Costeker Andrew McKay* John Doulton Robert Miller* Thomas Danby Joseph Oakey* Thomas Elliott William C.Smith George Gardiner* Edward Stenning William Gerrard* George H. Swonnell* Edwin Gammon* Henry J. Slater Charles Goldsmith* Arthur Tapp* William Gammon Hugh Wallace* Richard Hadfield* Philip Wood (Park Rd) All Conservative bar those marked * 3 June 1868 Parish in 2 Districts for Poor Rate Collection Purposes 1 June 1868 East West Total No. of houses 5,682 George Nichols George J. Chadwin Rental ( £) 2381 3301 1645 2253 0-20 722 708 21-30 140 241 31-40 43 133 41-50 22 80 51-60 26 53 61-80 10 19 81-100 9 70 100+ Return of Poor Relief Recipients included. 17 August 1868 Report of Committee 'to enquire into the present mode of conducting the business of the vestry. . . ' Committee be requested to continue and 'employ a competent gentleman to examine the following practical accounts': The Church Rate Accounts, The Local Rate Accounts, The Poor Rate Accounts, The Charity Accounts 'since the date of the appointment of the Vestry Clerk and also into the present method of keeping the parish accounts.' Committee 'came to the conclusion that an accountant should be engaged to investigate the financial records and accounts of the parish.' 10 November1868 Moved and seconded nem con 'that the Conservative Committee be allowed the use of the Vestry Room on polling day.' 8 December 1868 J. C. Buckmaster present. Resolved that he should take the Chair (Churchwarden) General Elections 1868 and 1874 Results November 1868: Liberals 379; Conservatives 279 J. E. Gorst. Under Disraeli in 1872 the Conservative Party organisation was to some extent overhauled by J. E. Gorst. He was the Party's Principal Agent. He arranged to field up to 50 more candidates in 1874 election compared to 1868.The job which he did was one whose 'propaganda and persuasion were beginning to replace 'influence'' November 1867 saw creation of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations — although it got off to a poor start Who did mid-Surrey return? 2 Conservatives- why? In April 1870 the post of principal Agent was offered to J. E. Gorst, a barrister then aged 35, who sat in Parliament from 1866 to 1868 for Cambridge City, but lost his seat in the 1868 General Election. Gorst was chosen 'above all perhaps because he had already shown a keen interests in the problems of 'urban Conservatism.' (Blake) Battersea Vestry Meetings 1869 24 May 1869 Elections A MacKay left parish (had elected to 871). J. P Turner elected for 2 years Elected for three years: W. G. Baker, F. R. Beggolacci, Thomas Dives, Jus Crosby, Thomas D. Kighley, Pail Oppitz, James Lord, Robert Eary, Stephen Shepherd, Henry Kesterton, Frederick Wix, D, W. Young Auditors elected: George Bass, John G. Brown, Alex Webster 2 June 1869 WDBW representatives: J. P. Turner, Thomas, D. Keighley, D. W. Young, Stephen Shepherd. 22 June 1869 Meeting called by Buckmaster as Churchwarden. Poor Law Board letter read about 'the removal of Mr Corsellis from the Office of Vestry Clerk of the Parish.' Committee appointed to report on merits of several candidates: Buckmaster, Francis Bartolacci, Richard Hadfield, J. Peacock Turner and Hugh Wallace Roger Logan's commentary on the events from May 1867 For Buckmaster, in his campaign to oust Corsellis, the lack of a full Vestry complement of 36 (depleted by some 16 members) may well have been an intended objective. Earlier that year, in March, he had been selected Churchwarden by the annual meeting of the church vestry. In this capacity, he was eligible to serve as an ex-officio member of the elected Vestry, and indeed could be asked to act as Chairman. This would enable him to sustain his efforts against Corsellis. In terms of democracy, the next twelve months were unsatisfactory. Eleven meetings were convened, but of these seven were inquorate at the opening, and a further two quickly became so after Vestrymen departed. The Vestry did manage at its June meeting to elect 4 Wandsworth District Board of Works representatives, but little else of any significance was transacted at the remaining quorate meetings. Of the dispute between Buckmaster and Corsellis, there is no detailed between May 1867 and May 1868; it must be presumed that hostilities continued to exist. Evidence of the influence that Buckmaster developed is clear by the time of the May 1868 annual Vestry elections. Some 73 ratepayers attended the meeting. Because of the hiatus caused by the previous year it was essential for the conduct of the Vestry that it replace some 27 vacant posts. Two lots of eligible candidates were proposed, one by Alexander Webster, the other evidently by J. C. Buckmaster himself recently re-elected as Churchwarden for 1868.69. The overriding measure of support for Buckmaster can be deduced from the results of the poll which was held on Tuesday 28 May 1868. His list received 111 votes, Webster's only 23. The tumult in such was small, relative to the number of eligible electors but at least some semblance of democratic proceedings had been re-introduced into Battersea' local government. Success for Buckmaster in this was followed by the election of 4 members from his list to represent Battersea on the Wandsworth District Board of Works. The existence of a full complement of Vestrymen helped to ensure that fewer Vestry meetings were inquorate during 1968/69 than the previous year. In August 1868 Buckmaster introduced his coup d'etat. It was proposed to establish a Committee 'to enquire into the present mode of conducting the business of the Vestry.' The Committee was shortly instructed to 'employ a competent gentleman to examine . . . the parochial accounts . . . since the date of the appointment of the Vestry Clerk and also into the present method of keeping the parish accounts.' Events moved quickly and at the beginning of October the Vestry approved and sanctioned 'the appointment of Mr Charles Gray, a public accountant of 10 Sergeants Inn from the 25th August 1868 at a remuneration of £2 per item.' In June 1869 Buckmaster, as Churchwarden, now in his third period of office, called a meeting of the Vestry, no doubt 'satisfied with what he had to say. Reading a letter from the Poor Law Board he announced their consent to 'the removal of Mr Corsellis from the office of Vestry Clerk on the parish.' Immediately it was put in hand, with Buckmaster to the fore, to select a new Battersea Vestry Clerk.' Battersea Vestry Minutes 1869 — continued 8 July 1869 70 present. Candidates: Thomas Harrap, Vestry Clerk of Acton & Assistant Clerk of Marylebone J. Peacock Turner, Accountant, Elm Terrace, North Wandsworth Philip Wood, Solicitor, 38 Bucklesbury, City Charles Costaker added Turner withdrew from the Committee Votes cast in turn: J. P Turner 10 T. Harrap 13 P. Wood 10 C. Costaker 9 Costaker eliminated, Turner and Wood withdrew. Thomas Harrap appointed. 20 July 1869. Nothing noted Battersea Vestry Meetings 1870 13 January 1870 Battersea Ratepayers Association letter referred to Churchwardens and Overseers for attention, about the assessment of rates. 1870 Vestry Election No record of 1870 Vestry and Auditor selections 16 May 1870 Separate lists combined by Committee John Brown, Battersea Park Terrace John B. Berney, Plough Lane John Condes [Conder], 21 Park Rd Thomas Reeve Denny, Lavender Hill John William Denny, York Rd Charles Eccles, Lavender Sweep William Gerrard, Lombard Rd William Gosden, Spencer Rd Richard Hadfield, Spencer Rd, Joseph J. Kilsby, York Rd Benjamin Thorne, Nine Elms John Trott, High St John Pease, Battersea Park John J. Bishop, 2 Eaton Villas, Vardens Rd Thomas Clark, St. John's Hill John Cleave, 1 Eaton Villas, Vardens Rd John Thomas Gamizian, The Square Thomas Vaughan Morgan in place of Mr Salter, Plumbago Works Alfred Payne Maynard, York Rd Williams Spriggs, Church St Alexander Webster, 25 Oberstein Rd Battersea Vestry Minutes1871 Election of Vestrymen 15 May 1871 Elected for 3 years: (votes) Robert Miller (111) William Bridge (105) George Reed (103) George N. Paine (100) James Chorley (87) Nathaniel Purdy (86) William H. Kemspter (85) Alfred Maynard (83) Joseph Oakman (83) Henry Elliott (83) Henry Osborne (77) Joshua Kaley (73) Elected for one year to replace vacancies: William Duce (72) Hugh Wallace (65) William Haynes (63) 12 others got votes No Auditors names recorded Election of members of District Board of Works 7 June1871 Cleave re-elected to Board after resigning. 6 proposed. Maximum 13 votes. Wallace, Miller, Purdy, Kempster elected Battersea Vestry Meetings 1872 10 May 1872 12 Vestrymen to be replaced and 5 auditors. 27 candidates as Vestrymen. Name Votes Period elected Hy Kesterton 135 3 years Hugh Wallace 111 " Joseph W. Hucox 109 " Geo Appleton 105 " Wm Duce 91 " Geo Chadwin 91 " John Lucy 91 " Ch??? W. Todd 82 " John Morritt 71 " Edwin Lathey 67 " Geo Durrant 65 " Alfred B" "NOTES SENT TO ME FEB 2021 BY SEAN CREIGHTON Battersea Vestry Minutes Extracts and Notes made by Roger Logan with editorial clarifications by Sean Creighton Battersea Vestry Minutes 1855 20 November 1855 The Vestry was convened according to the following notice. 'We, the undersigned churchwardens of the Parish of St. Mary in the County of Surrey hereby give notice that we appoint the 20th day of November 1855 for the first election of Vestrymen under the provisions of the Act of Parliament for the better local management of the Metropolis.' Dated the 23rd October 1855' 'The Parishioners duly qualified according to the provisions of the Act of the Sessions ??? in the 18th and 19th years of the reign of Queen Victoria entitled 'An Act for the better Local Management of the Metropolis" are hereby required to meet at the old Infant School Room, Green Lane Road, on Thursday 20th November at 10 o'clock in the forenoon . . . to the provisions of the same Act, and then and there to consider of and elect fit and proper persons to be Vestrymen and Auditors of Accounts of the parish of Saint Mary Battersea, that is to say Twenty four Members of the Vestry Five Auditors of Accounts' 60 were present. Two lists of names proposed. Names taken seriatim 'the greatest number of hands held up for such names' will constitute the Vestry. Roger Logan comments So on 23 November 1855 began a new era in Battersea of local government, or management as it was described in the Act which had passed through Parliament in the Summer Session. Battersea, in 1851 was home to ???? souls. It was an area not yet physically linked by buildings to the City of London or those parishes adjoining which had been accepted into the metropolis. The travesties and injustices of British urban life were not a daily experience to those whose loves did not take them beyond the parish boundaries. By 1855 the resident population had increased, but it was as the 1851 Census information that it was to be judged. Total Parishioners ____; Ratepayers _____; Ratepayers paying 40 or more _____. By these statistics the shape of Battersea's local government was fixed. The total population was insufficient to justify a discrete administrative unit, as the parish was, in consequence, to be united with others to form an area "managed" by a District Board. To provide representatives on that District Board a local body of "fit and proper Vestrymen" was needed, to be chosen from the "duly qualified" parishioners. In Battersea, as a consequence of the provision of the Act whereby if less than 1/6h of the ratepayers were rated at 40; 25 ratepayers were eligible to elect Vestrymen. What could the elected Vestrymen anticipate? Then, as now, the representatives of the people could expect no direct financial reward for their services. Motivation came from other sources. The make up of the constitution was varied. Around the edges of the Commons in south Battersea bankers and businessmen daily made the journey to the City. For some the experience of travelling through areas inhabited by the less fortunate made an impact and, as a consequence, such men were prepared to act constructively for the benefit of the disadvantaged in their own parish. Others of course, were more inward-looking and self seeking, unwilling to share, sometimes even intent on depriving those who were existing on a minimum.' 20 November 1855 (continued) Vestrymen Election: Name Votes Position in poll Alder, George 54 1 Baker, William Garrad 35 13 Bass, George 34 14= Bridge, William 39 9= Brocking, Robert William 32` 16= Curtis, William Benjamin 29 21 Everett, Samuel Charles 31 18 Graham, Bernard John 36 11= Griffin, James Sear 40 8 Hart, Jacob 39 9= Hewer, William 46 4= Juer, Henry 46 4= Noble, James 50 2 Pain, Edward 48 3 Parsons, Francis 28 22= Passmore, William Henry 32 16= Picking, William 46 4= Poupart, Samuel 45 7 Reynold, Thomas Andrew Fitzgerald 30 19= Sellar, Frederick 28 22+ Smith, Samuel, Sen 34 14= Smith, Samuel 30 19= Spencer, Robert Peter 28 22= Woods, William 36 11= 60 present Five persons 'signified in writing their assent to serve as Auditors of Accounts' for 1855/7 Finch, George Ayles, George Stroud, James Vedy, Louis G Carne, Henry It was resolved that they 'be elected Auditors of Accounts for this Parish under the Provisions of the 18th and 19th Victoria cap. 120' 28 November 1855 12 persons elected by Vestry for Board Name Votes Picking, William 23 Poupart, Samuel 21 Juer, Henry 20 Sellar, Frederick 19 Griffin. James 14 Noble, James 14 Pain, Edward 14 Curtis. W. B 13 Hart, Jacob 13 Hewer, William 13 Reynolds, T. A. O 13 23 plus Vicar 17 December 1855 Determined by lot as to which years Members to go out of office. 1857 1858 1859 Hart Hewer Graham Noble Reynolds Sellar Juer Poupart Curtis Griffin Pain Picking 1856 No meetings recorded in 1856 Battersea Vestry Minutes 1857 3 April 1857 18 present: (a) To make a list of the fit and proper persons to be Overseers for 1857/58 (b) To determine by lot the vestrymen who are to go out of office in May next and the following years namely 1858 and 1859 Out in May 1857 May 1858 May 1859 Pain Griffin Woods Parsons Everett Picking Baker Broking Smith Bridge Hart Spencer Bass Passmore Sellar Reynolds Smith Sear Graham Curtis Hewer Alder Noble Poupart Juer subsequently re-elected 8 May 1857 11 present to appoint a day for election of 8 Vestrymen and 5 Auditors. 29 May 1857 50 present Two lists presented Not to be considered seriatim To be put list for list After a division List No 1 carried Henry Pariss* William Bridge James Purdy Wm B Curtis* T. A. O. Reynolds James Gammon Stephen Neaten Thos Reeve Denny* * also on List 2 List 2: Finch, Geo Broad, Jonas Baker, Wm G Curtis W B Parsons, Francis Powis Denny, Thos R Gwill, Wm Question: Were: Pain , Edward 3rd NO Parsons Francis 22nd YES Baker, Wm G 13th YES Bass, George 14th NO Noble James 2nd NO on List No 2 i.e. attempting re-election ? Auditors elected 1857/58: George Ayles Henry Crane George Finch Michael Dowden John White 3 June 1857 15 present to elect so many Vestrymen .. to members of the Wandsworth District Board . . . as may be necessary for supplying the vacancies among the members of such Board elected for the parish. The voting papers having been deposited in the Balloting box the Inspectors proceeded to examine the said votes and presented the Chairman with the following statement. Name Votes Whether elected Alder, George 7 votes Not re-elected Bridge, William 9* Griffin, James 11* Re-elected Hart, Jacob 6 Not re-elected Juer, Henry 15* Re-elected Neaute, Stephen 9* Parsons, Henry 2 declared elected in lieu of those retrying by lot 10 June 1867 18 present to consider threatened action by Wandsworth District Board of Works against four former Highway Board members (also Vestry members) 24 August 1857 Auditor of the South West Metropolitan Audit District mentioned Battersea Vestry Minutes 1858 6 April 1858 20 present to elect auditors for 1858/59. Elected: Mr Allder Mr Bowes Mr Juer Mr Witford Nichols Mr Bridge Roger Logan questions whether this was legal as in wrong minute book. 23 April 1858 16 present: (a) to set date of election of Vestrymen and Auditors (b) to elect members of the Burial Board (a) set for 27 May 1858 (b) agreed 24 March each year for 1/3 retirement from Board and election of 2 Auditors, not Board members 5 May 1858 16 present Burial Board 2 alternatives for Auditors. (1) Henry Juer, James Purdy 10 votes ; (2) George Finch and T. Hardy 4 votes 27 May 1858 102 present (a) To elect 9 Vestrymen (b) To elect 5 Auditors 29 November 1859 County Rate assessment made 1836 County Rate 6d in the Police Rate 6d in the MBW expenses 3d in the 3 Main drainage rate 4d in the 17 parishes in East Surrey under the Metropolitan Board of Works subject to special taxation Battersea's ratepayers overcharged Wandsworth District Board of Works area: Battersea 13.25% over assessed Tooting 8.5% overcharged Wandsworth 13.5% Clapham 3.75% Putney 0.75% Streatham 4% Report from Committee received BVM Minutes 1860 21 January 1860 Rateable values 1858 Buildings Rails South West Railway 4,080 3,105 Richmond 1,330 Brighton & South Coast 2,050 1,650 6,130 6,085 London Gas Co 800 200 Phoenix 125 Wandsworth 38 800 363 Southwark & Vauxhall Waterworks 2,550 850 Battersea Vestry Minutes 1862 Date not given re-Election to Wandsworth District Board of Works Members in retiring order: Jonas Broad, Henry Juer, James Purdy, James Watson 1864: George Alder, Stephen Neate, Henry Pariss, Alexander Webster 1865: John Downey, George Payne, Samuel Poupart, Nathaniel Purdy Date 1862 No. Vestrymen present Notes re-business 24 June 7 29 July 7 4 August4 12 August 17 See below 26 August 10 See below 16 September 13 30 September 8 Committee set up to 'enquire and report upon an improved system of collecting parish rates.' 8 October Committee recommended (a) Establishing 3 collection districts Nine Elms, The Town, The Hill (b) 3 collectors, each residing in own district (c) Payment tube 4d in the on the amount collected 28 October 10 See below 25 November 10 Resolved unanimously "that this Vestry is of opinion that the Trust if the Surrey and Sussex Roads be abolished." 30 December 5 inquorate 2 August 1862 "Act to prevent holding of Vestry or other meeting in Churches 13 + 14 Vict. Cap. 57" Adopted 12-3 For: Simmonds, Poupart, Alder, Purdy, Webster, Board, Walton, Juer, Ayles, Pemberton, Clark, Burney Against: Noate, Payne, Trott (b) Overseers authorised to provide an Office for the transaction of the business of the parish. 26 August 1862 To Order the payment of expenses at the late election of Vestrymen 1.18s.6d. Police attendance 20s. Printing notice 8s.6d To be referred to the Overseers "request for them to pay the said amount out of the Poor Rates of this parish." Report of the Auditors of the Burial Board: D. Jones & John Luyth 506 deaths in year in parish; 241 buried; 118 adults; 35 children Calculated to require 13 acres to fill up 2 acres. 28 October 1862 (a) Committee report received, endorsed and passed to Guardians (b) (b) letter re-Surrey and Sussex Roads Trustees advised that Local Act for the Trust limited by Annual Turnpike Acts Continuation Act, 1862 to 1 November 1863 Expenses in Battersea of maintaining, including watering, for 1861 were 404 (exclusive of salaries, land changes and incidents). Length of road about 1 mile 2 furlongs 140 yards BVM Minutes 1863 Date 1863 No. Vestrymen present Notes re-business 27 January 12 3 February 6 24 February 13 1862 R.Vs: Nine Elms 35,683 The Town 34,734 The Hill 94,027 17 March 16 31 Marsh 13 7 April 18 28 April 12 To appoint a day for elections of Vestrymen & auditors Monday 25 May 25 May 31 See below 3 June 17 See below 30 June 3 No business done 6 July 20 11July 15 20 July 24 Application from George Chawin and Mr Arthur Alexander Corsellis for Vestry Clerk position. 19 votes for joint appointment 28 July 4 Inquorate 13 August 14 18 August 18 25 August 6 Inquorate 29 September 9 Burial Board Auditors report entered in Minutes recommended "a radical change in their system of Book Keeping". 25 May 1863 Election of 8 members of the Vestry and 5 auditors P.S. Ratepayers only will be eligible to be present in the body of the hall. Lists proposed/seconded by Parins/Poupart 8 names by Bricking/Trott Rev I.M. Soule Chair George Paynet Pundy William Duce and G. Simmonds Finally agreed to put names seriatim for show of hands Elected for three years Hewer 19 Gent Webster 23 Gent Walton 24 Gent Ayles 20 — glass cutter Pemberton 16 Grocer Simmonds 22 Gent Duce 15 Water proof manufacturer Juer 23 Gent Not elected: Soule 5, Paine 2 Auditors: Thomas Clark. Butcher. St John's Hill George Bass. Builder. Plough Rd William Gosling. Gentleman. 4 Woodbine Cottage, Bridge Rd John Packer. Engineer. Bolingbroke Place, Church Rd David Homes. Gent. 6 Eden Villas, Bridge Rd 3 June 1863 17 present to elect Board of Works members: Retiring: Broad*, Juer*, J. Purdy, Walton* (* eligible for re-election) The 17 'deposited a Vestry paper in the Ballot box in the possession of the Chairman'. The ballot paper contained 16 names. 11 got some votes. Brocking, Gamman, Ing, Pemberton, Walter got no votes Juer 16* Walton 16* Broad 8* Simmons 8* Ayles 1 Burney 6 Duce 1 Hewer 4 Sargant 5 Seldon 1 Sellar 2 (*) Elected for three years Lists of Appointed Alderman and auditors affixed to outer door of or outer wall near the door of every church and public chapel. Battersea Vestry Meetings 1864 23 May 1864 56 attended in Lammas Hall. 19 names put forward for 8 places Those elected for 3 years: Name No. votes Status George Alder 50 Gent Henry Condy 48 " Thomas Clark 33 Butcher George W. Payne 29 Gent John W. Denny 29 Miller Henry Brown 28 Gent Major William De Carterett 26 Gent W. Edward Spooner 26 Gent Auditors elected Name No. votes Status David Jones Gent Eden Terrace, Bridge Rd William Gosling Gent Woodbine Cottage, Bridge Rd Charles Lambert Gent Battersea West Common Charles Noakes Barge owner Ivy Cottage, Church St George Bass Builder Plough Rd 1 June 1864 15 present. Show of hands in lieu of Ballot Name Retiring Elected or not George Alder Yes Re-elected Stephen Neute Henry Pariss Dead Alexander Webster Yes Re-elected Hewer Elected Sellar Elected Battersea Vestry Meetings 1865 22 May 1865 64 present. Had died: Hewer Retiring: Broad, Burney, Downey, George Payne, Poupart, N. Purdy, Seldon, Sellar Elected for 3 years: James Broad, Gent James Acomb, Gent James Flaxman, Building 48, Chatham St George Todd, Jnr. Auctioneer, Prince's Rd, Battersea Park Samuel Poupart, market gardener N. Purdy, wheelwright William Austin, victualler, High Rd, Battersea Park Frank Sellar, grocer Elected for one year: Samuel Lalhoy William Austin proposed by Henry Cook. Auditors elected: Charles Lambert, Gent John P. Turner, Gent George Bass, builder Charles Noakes, wharfinger Henry F. Huntley, victualler The 'roads of Battersea had been in a most disgraceful state ever since he had known it. A gentleman coming to take his house, his wife's dress and boots got muddy, and of course he got disgusted and would not come to the neighbourhood.' Buckmaster. 'There had only been 3 meetings during the last 12 months.' 17 June 1865 13 present. Representatives on District Board of Works retiring: Downey, Payne, Poupart, Purdy Agreed to have ballot rather than show of hands Elected: Todd (7 votes), Spooner (10), Poupart (9), Purdy (11) Battersea Vestry Meetings 1866 14 May 1866 101 present to elect 22 Vestrymen and 5 Auditors 8 Vestrymen retiring: George Ayles, William Duce, Henry Juer, Samuel Lathey, Joseph Pemberton, George Simmons, James Walton, Alexander Webster. Meeting adjourned to Monday 28 May 28 May 1866 140 present Number of Vestrymen to be increased to 36 from 24 in consequence of the Rated Householders now exceeding 2,000. Poll of parish to be held Tuesday 29 May. Auditors elected: George Bass (builder), Charles Lambert (Gent), Henry Huntley, J. Stubbs and John G. Brown Poll 29 May 1866 Name Politics Votes Elected Not Elected Address William Gerrard Baker 85 X Rev. Samuel Barosly 84 X Henry Beauchamp Con 127 X Royal Terrace William Bridge Lib 43 X Henry Condy Con 127 X Devonshire House Rev. Burman Cassin Con 85 X St.George's Battersea, vicar Thomas Dives Con 86 X Lavender Hill William Evill Con 86 X Battersea Rise Richard Finch Con 127 X Lord Auckland, Falcon Rd Edward Fownes Con 86 X Edward Gammon 42 X William Gerrard 84 X William P. Harris 85 X Henry Huntley Con 41 X Henry Juer Lib 43 X Charles Lambert 41 X James Lord Con 127 X St. John's Lodge, Battersea Rise Walter Meiler 124 X George Mellish 84 X Albert Tavern, Battersea Park Stephen Neute Con 42 X George Roddell 42 X Nassau Senior 127 X Henry Smith 126 X Edward Stanford Con 41 X John P. Turner Lib 127 X Christopher William Todd Con 83 X Battersea Rise William Turner Con 42 X Hugh Wallace Lib 41 X James Walton 126 X David Watson Con 127 X Gasworks, Nine Elms Alexander Webster Lib 42 X David W. Young Con 126 X High St Frederick Wix Con 86 X 6 June 1866 Election to Wandsworth Board of Works by hand not ballot: Retiring: Broad, Simmonds, Walton, Juer Elected for 3 years: Turner, WALTON, Young, Simmons, Walton, Juer Elected for 1 year: Acomb 1866 Select Committee on Metropolitan Local Government. Second Report Includes quotations from Buckmaster and A. Corsellis Battersea Vestry Minutes 1867 Vestry Attendance 1867 Notes 22 May Mr Turner said that he had received no notices of Vestry meetings since he was elected, nor had he a summons to attend meeting, as he thought Vestrymen should'. Acomb and Purdy proposed/seconded that 'Minutes of the previous Vestry be confirmed.' See South London Press below 27 May 56 No election held due to incompleteness of minutes 5 June 9 Election of WDBW members. Retiring: Acomb, Alder, Sellar, Webster. Elected: Gammon, Alder, C. W. Todd, Webster 10 June 5 No business 11July 8 Inquorate 18 July 3 Inquorate 25 July 7 Inquorate 21 October 5 Inquorate 28 October 5 Inquorate 11 November 12 Business transacted 22 May 1867 Meeting Report South London Press Meeting held 'with the purpose of choosing Vestrymen for the ensuing year.' 'It will be seen (that) after two hours talk, the meeting never got past the conformation of the minutes of the election in May 1866, and eventually became so figured that neither clerk, chairman, reporters nor audience could tell exactly what subject was under discussion.' Churchwarden Stuart was the Chair. 'There appear to have been two main strands. One was a conflict between the elected Vestrymen and the general body of people, the ratepayers. The other was the antipathy between one of the ratepayers, Mr. J. C. Buckmaster and the Battersea Vestry Clerk Mr. A. Corsellis (who was also Clerk to the local authority for the area, the Wandsworth District Board of Works.' Buckmaster, supported by Acomb, attacked the accuracy of the May 1866 annual Vestry meeting minutes prepared by Corsellis. 'Mr Buckmaster did not desire to descend to personal altercation.' Others joined in the debate but eventually 'the meeting dispersed when a third show of hands on a motion was passed.' 'Mr Bridge remarked knowing something of the way in which the affairs of the parish of Battersea went on he became disgusted and retired from the Vestry. It was high time some change took place.' C.W. Todd 'had taken a special train from the Isle of Wight to come up again'. (Possibly brother of George Todd. [PB: son?]) South London Press editorial comment 'The Battersea folks had another turn at baiting the Vestry Clerk on Monday, and kept it up so long that, after two hours talk, they had not even confirmed the minutes of a meeting in May 1866. For once Mr. Corsellis's imperturbable obstinacy yielded slightly to Mr Buckmaster's virtuous indignation.' As if by good fortune for Buckmaster 'the fact cropped out that not long since the parish had an auditor of accounts who could neither read nor write.' 'The situation was clearly unsatisfactory, and so a reconvened Vestry meeting was summoned for the following Monday, the 27th of May. Despite, or may be because of the turnout was relatively small, some 56 ratepayers attending.' 'Once again the issue of the minutes being incomplete was raised, and once again the proceedings were continuously thwarted. Feelings ran high. George Todd, a prominent local building developer, estate agent and auctioneer, openly stated that he was "opposed to the Vestry Clerk as strongly as any man", (but) "wanted to see fair play." Acomb, who at the previous meeting had supported Buckmaster suggested to him that "its only spleen you've got against Mr Corsellis", and went further 'suggesting that it was Buckmaster, amongst others, who had secured Corsellis's services as Vestry Clerk. "If I was the slightest degree instrumental in bringing Mr Corsellis into the parish I deeply regret it", observed Buckmaster. Essentially 'the meeting trooped out of the hall, leaving election of Vestrymen to stand till 1868.' South London Press 1 June 1867 'The interest taken by the ratepayers of South London in the choice of vestrymen seems not to have been abated this year. Though in some cases the formality of the poll has been dispersed with, the rejected candidates taking the show of hands as decisive, in one or two have been not contests at the polling booths. As will be seen elsewhere the Battersea electors frittered away the time until they broke up without electing any representatives at all, to supply the place of those dead or retired from office. Possibly nobody will suffer, and few will care for this, but those who consider the proceedings calmly cannot regret that in this case personal hostility seems to have been aimed at, and the interest of the public made a quite minor consideration.' Battersea Vestry re-convened following Monday 27 May 'proceedings were continuously thwarted, so that none even proposed 16 Vestrymen and five auditors. Needed. Churchwarden Stuart took Chair. Mr Todd opposed to the Vestry Clerk as strongly as any man but wanted to see fair play Mr. Ayles 'subsequently styled the Jo. Hume of Battersea. Acomb against Buckmaster "its only spleen you've got against Mr Corsellis." 'If I was the slightest degree instrumental in bringing Mr Corsellis into the parish I deeply regret it.' Mr Todd said it was the old members who stood in the way of the wishes of the parishioners. '---the meeting trooped out of the hall, leaving election of Vestrymen to stand over till 1868.' Battersea Vestry Meetings 1868 Vestry Attendance Notes 23 March 7 Inquorate 14 April 9 One item of business done. 1 Vestryman left meeting inquorate 20 April 16 Letter form Greenwich Vestry meeting on Friday 13 March 1868 desirable to have 'one general ??? assessment of the rateable value of all property chargeable to such Rates throughout the whole of the Metropolitan Area.' 25 May 73 See below 3 June 14 Retiring: Purdy, Spooner, Poupart, G. Todd Elected: Charles Lambert, Dr. W. H. Kempster, George H. Swonnell, Hugh Wallace. James Walton had left the parish resignation read — Mr Castever elected 15 June 10 13 July 6 Inquorate 17 July 14 Not legal. Summoned by Churchwarden not Vestry Clerk 24 July 13 17 August 13 See below 1 October 10 Resolved that 'this Vestry approves and sanctions the employment of Mr Charles Gray a public Accountant of 10 Sargeants Inn from the 25 August 1868 at a remuneration of 2 guineas per diem' Preliminary report by Accountant made 28 September 1868. 13 October 9 25 May 1868 73 present Retiring Vestrymen: Acomb, Austin, William Baker, Beauchamp, Broad, Evill, Flexman, Gerrard, Poupart, N. Purdy, Sellar, G. Todd Due to retire 1869: Harris, Henry Smith, Walton Two lists presented. Poll demanded. Fixed for next day Tuesday 26 May 1868. For Mr Buckmaster's List 114 votes For Mr Webster's list- 23 votes Elected for One Year Elected for Two Years Elected for Three Years William Baker Capt. Hubert Decarteret Conrad Hanson Francis Bestolacci Edward Clark Charles Lambert* Henry Brown John Costeker Andrew McKay* John Doulton Robert Miller* Thomas Danby Joseph Oakey* Thomas Elliott William C.Smith George Gardiner* Edward Stenning William Gerrard* George H. Swonnell* Edwin Gammon* Henry J. Slater Charles Goldsmith* Arthur Tapp* William Gammon Hugh Wallace* Richard Hadfield* Philip Wood (Park Rd) All Conservative bar those marked * 3 June 1868 Parish in 2 Districts for Poor Rate Collection Purposes 1 June 1868 East West Total No. of houses 5,682 George Nichols George J. Chadwin Rental () 2381 3301 1645 2253 0-20 722 708 21-30 140 241 31-40 43 133 41-50 22 80 51-60 26 53 61-80 10 19 81-100 9 70 100+ Return of Poor Relief Recipients included. 17 August 1868 Report of Committee 'to enquire into the present mode of conducting the business of the vestry' Committee be requested to continue and 'employ a competent gentleman to examine the following practical accounts': The Church Rate Accounts, The Local Rate Accounts, The Poor Rate Accounts, The Charity Accounts 'since the date of the appointment of the Vestry Clerk and also into the present method of keeping the parish accounts.' Committee 'came to the conclusion that an accountant should be engaged to investigate the financial records and accounts of the parish.' 10 November1868 Moved and seconded nem con 'that the Conservative Committee be allowed the use of the Vestry Room on polling day.' 8 December 1868 J. C. Buckmaster present. Resolved that he should take the Chair (Churchwarden) General Elections 1868 and 1874 Results November 1868: Liberals 379; Conservatives 279 J. E. Gorst. Under Disraeli in 1872 the Conservative Party organisation was to some extent overhauled by J. E. Gorst. He was the Party's Principal Agent. He arranged to field up to 50 more candidates in 1874 election compared to 1868.The job which he did was one whose 'propaganda and persuasion were beginning to replace 'influence'' November 1867 saw creation of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations — although it got off to a poor start Who did mid-Surrey return? 2 Conservatives- why? In April 1870 the post of principal Agent was offered to J. E. Gorst, a barrister then aged 35, who sat in Parliament from 1866 to 1868 for Cambridge City, but lost his seat in the 1868 General Election. Gorst was chosen 'above all perhaps because he had already shown a keen interests in the problems of 'urban Conservatism.' (Blake) Battersea Vestry Meetings 1869 24 May 1869 Elections A MacKay left parish (had elected to 871). J. P Turner elected for 2 years Elected for three years: W. G. Baker, F. R. Beggolacci, Thomas Dives, Jus Crosby, Thomas D. Kighley, Pail Oppitz, James Lord, Robert Eary, Stephen Shepherd, Henry Kesterton, Frederick Wix, D, W. Young Auditors elected: George Bass, John G. Brown, Alex Webster 2 June 1869 WDBW representatives: J. P. Turner, Thomas, D. Keighley, D. W. Young, Stephen Shepherd. 22 June 1869 Meeting called by Buckmaster as Churchwarden. Poor Law Board letter read about 'the removal of Mr Corsellis from the Office of Vestry Clerk of the Parish.' Committee appointed to report on merits of several candidates: Buckmaster, Francis Bartolacci, Richard Hadfield, J. Peacock Turner and Hugh Wallace Roger Logan's commentary on the events from May 1867 For Buckmaster, in his campaign to oust Corsellis, the lack of a full Vestry complement of 36 (depleted by some 16 members) may well have been an intended objective. Earlier that year, in March, he had been selected Churchwarden by the annual meeting of the church vestry. In this capacity, he was eligible to serve as an ex-officio member of the elected Vestry, and indeed could be asked to act as Chairman. This would enable him to sustain his efforts against Corsellis. In terms of democracy, the next twelve months were unsatisfactory. Eleven meetings were convened, but of these seven were inquorate at the opening, and a further two quickly became so after Vestrymen departed. The Vestry did manage at its June meeting to elect 4 Wandsworth District Board of Works representatives, but little else of any significance was transacted at the remaining quorate meetings. Of the dispute between Buckmaster and Corsellis, there is no detailed between May 1867 and May 1868; it must be presumed that hostilities continued to exist. Evidence of the influence that Buckmaster developed is clear by the time of the May 1868 annual Vestry elections. Some 73 ratepayers attended the meeting. Because of the hiatus caused by the previous year it was essential for the conduct of the Vestry that it replace some 27 vacant posts. Two lots of eligible candidates were proposed, one by Alexander Webster, the other evidently by J. C. Buckmaster himself recently re-elected as Churchwarden for 1868.69.The overriding measure of support for Buckmaster can be deduced from the results of the poll which was held on Tuesday 28 May 1868. His list received 111 votes, Webster's only 23. The tumult in such was small, relative to the number of eligible electors but at least some semblance of democratic proceedings had been re-introduced into Battersea' local government. Success for Buckmaster in this was followed by the election of 4 members from his list to represent Battersea on the Wandsworth District Board of Works. The existence of a full complement of Vestrymen helped to ensure that fewer Vestry meetings were inquorate during 1968/69 than the previous year. In August 1868 Buckmaster introduced his coup d'etat. It was proposed to establish a Committee 'to enquire into the present mode of conducting the business of the Vestry.' The Committee was shortly instructed to 'employ a competent gentleman to examine the parochial accounts . . . since the date of the appointment of the Vestry Clerk and also into the present method of keeping the parish accounts.' Events moved quickly and at the beginning of October the Vestry approved and sanctioned 'the appointment of Mr Charles Gray, a public accountant of 10 Sergeants Inn from the 25th August 1868 at a remuneration of 2 per item.' In June 1869 Buckmaster, as Churchwarden, now in his third period of office, called a meeting of the Vestry, no doubt 'satisfied with what he had to say. Reading a letter from the Poor Law Board he announced their consent to 'the removal of Mr Corsellis from the office of Vestry Clerk on the parish.' Immediately it was put in hand, with Buckmaster to the fore, to select a new Battersea Vestry Clerk.' Battersea Vestry Minutes 1869 — continued 8 July 1869 70 present. Candidates: Thomas Harrap, Vestry Clerk of Acton & Assistant Clerk of Marylebone J. Peacock Turner, Accountant, Elm Terrace, North Wandsworth Philip Wood, Solicitor, 38 Bucklesbury, City Charles Costaker added Turner withdrew from the Committee Votes cast in turn: J. P Turner 10 T. Harrap 13 P. Wood 10 C. Costaker 9 Costaker eliminated, Turner and Wood withdrew. Thomas Harrap appointed. 20 July 1869. Nothing noted Battersea Vestry Meetings 1870 13 January 1870 Battersea Ratepayers Association letter referred to Churchwardens and Overseers for attention, about the assessment of rates. 1870 Vestry Election No record of 1870 Vestry and Auditor selections 16 May 1870 Separate lists combined by Committee John Brown, Battersea Park Terrace John B. Berney, Plough Lane John Condes, 21 Park Rd Thomas Reeve Denny, Lavender Hill John William Denny, York Rd Charles Eccles, Lavender Sweep William Gerrard, Lombard Rd William Gosden, Spencer Rd Richard Hadfield, Spencer Rd, Joseph J. Kilsby, York Rd Benjamin Thorne, Nine Elms John Trott, High St John Pease, Battersea Park John J. Bishop, 2 Eaton Villas, Vardens Rd Thomas Clark, St. John's Hill John Cleave, 1 Eaton Villas, Vardens Rd John Thomas Gamizian, The Square Thomas Vaughan Morgan in place of Mr Salter, Plumbago Works Alfred Payne Maynard, York Rd Williams Spriggs, Church St Alexander Webster, 25 Oberstein Rd Battersea Vestry Minutes 1871 Election of Vestrymen 15 May 1871 Elected for 3 years: (votes) Robert Miller (111) William Bridge (105) George Reed (103) George N. Paine (100) James Chorley (87) Nathaniel Purdy (86) William H. Kemspter (85) Alfred Maynard (83) Joseph Oakman (83) Henry Elliott (83) Henry Osborne (77) Joshua Kaley (73) Elected for one year to replace vacancies: William Duce (72) Hugh Wallace (65) William Haynes (63) 12 others got votes No Auditors names recorded Election of members of District Board of Works 7 June1871 Cleave re-elected to Board after resigning. 6 proposed. Maximum 13 votes. Wallace, Miller, Purdy, Kempster elected Battersea Vestry Meetings 1872 10 May 1872 12 Vestrymen to be re" "Sheila Palmer's much improved transcript based on the OCR'd document Date of publication? Some pp are fuzzy — re-photograph? HOW THE BATTLE FOR WANDSWORTH COMMON WAS FOUGHT AND WON REPRINTED FROM THE MID-SURREY GAZETTE 1_1 About 1760 several persons who then lived near that part of Wandsworth-Common which adjoins Garratt Lane formed a kind of club, not to eat and drink, but to devise measures for removing the encroachments made on the common, and to prevent others being made. The members were persons mostly in humble circumstances, but they agreed at every meeting to contribute a small sum for the defence of their collective rights When a sufficient sum was subscribed they applied to a worthy attorney in the neighbourhood, who brought actions against the encroachers in the name of the president, or, as he was styled, the mayor of the club. They gained their suits with costs, the encroachments were removed, and the president, who lived many years to protect their rights, was called the "Mayor of Garratt." PORTIONS TAKEN FROM WANDSWORTH COMMON. Between the years of 1785 and 1818 no less than 36 enclosures were made, varying from half an acre to 96 acres, making up a total of 172 acres, in Wandsworth parish alone. Some of these enclosures were made with, and some without, consent. Subsequently, about 1821, the portion now known as the Magdalen College estate was enclosed and let to the late Mr. Neal, on easy terms, thus appropriating for private benefit another large Portion of the Common. Since that time the following additional enclosures have been made 1_2 ACRES 1836. South Western Railway . . 14 1846. St. James's Schools 20 Estate by Black Sea . . 10 1848. McKellar's triangular piece 20_ 1848. Piece by Black Sea 1_ 1852. Telescope piece . . . 1_ 1854-7. — Patriotic Schools 55 1854. Brighton Railway . . . 11_ 1854. Ditto by Nightingale lane 15 1857. Ditto opposite cemetery 9 1861- House of Correction. . . 10 1868. Road from Freemason's Hotel along past pumping mill. . 2_ 1868 Road east side of Spencer Park _ 1869. Plough Green piece nearly 2___ Total 173 About the year 1850, after the construction of the South Western Railway, Mr. Herring, who lived at Ivy Cottage, since pulled down, put a fence across the entrance to Plough-green, and stopped up a right of way. This fence, with the aid of a timber carriage, was knocked down by the inhabitants who walked in procession across the Green. The timber truck was afterwards named the "Magna Charta." Some of the persons were summoned to the Wandsworth Police Court, but the magistrate dismissed the case on the ground that there was a right of way. In the year 1877 [PB: 1867] a suit was instituted against Lord Spencer as Lord of the Manor, on the part of one Digby, a copyholder, for having alienated to Messrs. C. W. Todd and others certain parts of Wandsworth-common, thereby affecting Digby's rights as a copyholder. This suit was before the courts until the settlement of the whole ____________________ 2_1 matter, by the passing of the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. The following is extracted from a small pamphlet on the "Commons and Open Spaces near London," reprinted about 1868, from The Parochial Critic: "Wandsworth-common, in the parish of Wandsworth, on the shore of the Wandle, and in Domesday Book Wendlesorde, there are, or were, four manors, Battersea and Wandsworth, Dunsfold and Alfarthing. With the exception of Dunsfold all are now held by Earl Spencer. Many interesting facts are associated with the early history of these manors , in which Royalty and nobility are conspicuous figures. The commons of Battersea and Wandsworth manor consist of about 150 acres, but little now remains of the Battersea portion: its once celebrated fields have been made into a park, and the remaining land has either been built over or destroyed by a network of railways. Thirty species of fossil shells were found in excavating the London clay, but no fossils were found in the gravel pits which so sadly disfigure the common, and which, if permitted to go on unchecked and uncontrolled, will destroy what remains of its beauty. Encroachments and enclosures have been made by the railways, by the St. James's industrial School, by the Patriotic, Schools, by the Prison, and by private individuals. When the common was leased by a committee of gentlemen there was some supervision, but at present there seems to be no authority to abate nuisances or regulate the gravel digging, notwithstanding all the damage which has been done. What remains of Wandsworth-common is still attractive to pedestrians. An avenue of trees nearly a mile in length is still remaining, and in spring and summer is an especial object of beauty." But how long the trees will continue is doubtful, for since the above was written two of them, immediately opposite the cemetery, have been cut down to make room for the erection of a beer shop called the Lord of the Manor. This destruction of beautiful trees for such a purpose roused the indignation and spirit of the neighbourhood. Two or three gentlemen commenced proceedings to stop by injunction any further building operations. An ornamental piece of water, of five acres, known as the Black Sea, studded with thirteen small islands, and beautified with shrubs and flowers, was, together with eight acres, leased to the late Mrs. Wilson. At her decease the lease was purchased by Earl _____________________________ 2_2 Spencer, and the gravest apprehensions were entertained that the thirteen acres would be turned into building sites. In May, 1868, the Vicar, the Rev. T. S. Jenkinson, invited a few gentlemen to meet at his house to consider if anything could be done to stop the continual encroachments on the Common. A road was made by the side of the South Western Railway from the railway bridge, opposite the Freemasons Arms, past the old pumping mill to the bridge on Trinity road, another road, being a continuation of Spencer-road was made to form a building frontage to the Spencer Park Estate. There was also an enclosure of a long strip of green sward on the side of the main road, which now forms the north frontage of the Spencer Park Estate. A committee was appointed, and frequent meetings were held, which at last resulted in a memorial to Earl Spencer, which was signed by upwards of 200 ratepayers of New Wandsworth. All these efforts were useless. At last the indignation and enthusiasm of the neighbourhood were fully aroused, and the way prepared for further action. Application was made to the District Board of Works to take charge of the Common, and prevent further encroachments. This was supplemented by an appeal to the Metropolitan Board of Works, and at a meeting held on the 17th of June, 1868, Mr. Meaden presented a memorial from the Wandsworth Board of Works, praying the Metropolitan Board to enforce the provisions of the Commons Act of 1866, so as to save what remained of the Common from further encroachments. This was referred to the Works Committee. A deputation attended of inhabitants of Wandsworth and Battersea, introduced by Mr. Meaden, who presented the following memorial: The memorial of us the undersigned inhabitants of the parishes of Wandsworth and Battersea, showeth - 1. That the whole of Wandsworth and Battersea Commons are within your jurisdiction. 2. That these Commons formerly consisted of about 300 acres, but, in consequence of many enclosures and encroachments, the open spaces now remaining, do not, we believe, consist of more than 150 acres. 3. That from time immemorial these Commons have been entirely open for the public use and _____________________ 3_1 recreation, and were formerly noted for their great natural beauty and fertility, and are, not-withstanding their present neglected state, still greatly resorted to by the inhabitants of the metropolis, the access by rail being remarkably easy, and the fares low. 4. That the continual encroachments on these Commons, the excavation of gravel pits which are left in a dangerous state to the public and serve as resorts for dissolute characters — the deposit of rubbish, and other nuisances of a like nature, have given rise to a wide-spread feeling of regret and dissatisfaction, which has resulted in an application to the Board of Works for the Wandsworth District to enforce the Commons Preservation Act of 1866. 5. The necessity of maintaining the Commons and open spaces around London, in consequence of the rapid increase of the population, has been recognised both by your honourable Board and the Legislature, and we would respectfully urge that the preservation, unenclosed, of Wandsworth and Battersea Commons has become a matter of great importance to the inhabitants of the metropolis. Your memorialists therefore hope that, in consideration of the public importance of the subject, your honorable Board will be pleased to direct immediate steps to be taken to put the Commons Preservation Act of 1866 in operation, to secure and maintain, unenclosed, for the benefit of the public, in perpetuity, the existing Commons of Wandsworth and Battersea. J. S. Jenkinson, Vicar of Battersea. E. R. Ransome, Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common H. Brown, Cornwall Villa, Wandsworth common; J. D. Keighley, Ashdown, Wandsworth common; Charles Gray, Chestnut Villa, Wandsworth common; William Carter, Althorp House, Wandsworth common; George Alder, Battersea Rise; G. H. Page, Spencer road; C. M. Hanson, Spencer road; Hubert de Carteret, Spencer road; Paul Oppitz, Vardens road; G. H. Swounell, Wandsworth common; John Costeker, St. John's hill; Wm. Compton Smith, Ivy Lodge, St. John's hill; Alexander Webster, 25, Oberstein road; H. W. M. Wilson, Spencer road; James Mudie, Park road, New Wandsworth; Francis R. Bertollacci, Park road, New Wandsworth; John Archbutt, Wandsworth common; Andrew McKay, Park road, New Wandsworth; Ambrose P. Boyson, Wandsworth common; T. S. Watson, The Gables, Wandsworth common.; James Du Buisson, Wandsworth common; Edward Coventry, Wandsworth common. _______________________ 3_2 Mr. Lord and Mr. Buckmaster addressed the Board on the subject, asking them. to interfere for prevention of further encroachment without delay, pointing out the gradual increase of enclosure and buildings. They informed the Board that one of the copy-holders [PB: Peek? Digby?] was about to take proceedings to test the right of enclosure by the Lord of the Manor, Earl Spencer. Metropolitan Board of Works, October, 1868. At the ordinary weekly meeting of this Board, Sir John Thwaites presiding. Mr. Hows, pursuant to notice, moved that a committee be appointed to conduct the business of the Board connected with parks and open spaces, such committee to consist of 15 members. The Chairman observed that the Board could not delegate its powers to any committee. Mr. Hows then said he would simply move that the question of parks and open spaces be referred to a committee of the whole Board. He did not thereby intend to imply that there had been any neglect on the part of the Board, but it was evident that the Improvement Committee had enough to do without having these questions to deal with. Mr. Westerton seconded the motion, because the Improvement Committee had had so much to do that the item of open spaces had entirely disappeared from their agenda papers. Mr. Runtz supported the motion, feeling that they had never taken their proper position in reference to the Commons Preservation Act. The Board had as yet done nothing under that Act, in which they should have taken the initiative, instead of leaving it for Local Boards to take the earliest steps. Mr. Savage was in hopes of having the two parks (Southwark and Finsbury) opened early in the ensuing spring. There had been, he said, too much delay already, for the parks should have been completed long since. He was sure, when the contract was made for the execution of the works at Finsbury Park, it would never be carried out. Mr. Elt moved, as an amendment, that the committee should consist of 15 members. Mr. Bidgood seconded the amendment. Upon a division, the numbers appeared — for the amendment 10, against it 14. The amendment was therefore lost. Mr. Savage then proposed his motion: "That, in consequence of the continued delay ___________________ 4 which has taken place in laying out and opening, for the use of the public Finsbury and Southwark parks, a select committee of I2 members be appointed for the purpose of planting and laying out the parks, subject to the approval of the Board, and of opening them for the health and recreation of the inhabitants of the northern and southern districts of the metropolis and of the public generally, in the spring of 1869. Mr, Thompson (Clerkenwell) seconded the motion, and hoped the matter would be referred, for, if not, they would have delay after delay; and, if things did not speedily come to a conclusion, in his opinion, there would be some strong expression of feeling on the part of the public. Mr. Richardson (Greenwich) said he was advised by their solicitor that the Board could only carry out the provisions of the Commons Preservation Act in case preliminary action was taken by the local authorities. After a long discussion, the motion was negatived by 16 to 10. Extract from a report of the Metropolitan Board of Works for 1869-70: Commons and Open Spaces. After referring to Tooting Bec Common and another open space or two, it says: "WANDSWORTH COMMON. Wandsworth and Battersea Commons are still the subject of legal investigation, as also is Wimbledon Common, and the Board are therefore not at present in a position to deal with them." 1868. — November 10th. — After waiting some time, and being unable to learn that any steps were being taken by the Metropolitan Board of Works in regard to our Common, Mr. Ransome went several times to the offices of that Board, but could not obtain any satisfactory information. On November 10th he waited in the street until Sir John Thwaites came along, and went with him into his private office. After some conversation on the subject Sir John Thwaites stated, as chairman of that Board, that the Board could not take the matter in hand at all so long as there were lawsuits pending respecting portions of the common. Finding that no steps were being taken by that Board, and that that Board contemplated selling Portions of open spaces taken under their control, we began to feel afraid of them, lest Wandsworth-common might be still further reduced if they took it in hand and we began to despair of being able to rescue our common from the bands of speculative builders, dust contractors, and others, especially as a new road had recently been forming from the new Wandsworth bridge, along by the old pumping mill, to the bridge on the Tooting-road, with the short road forming a continuation of Spencer road, to make a frontage to what is now the Spencer Park Estate; all taken from the common. Moreover, Earl Spencer's agent with the connivance of the district surveyor, enclosed a long strip of common to add to the north side of the said estate, cutting the main road down to a mere 40ft road, instead of its being a good wide road as it had been from time immemorial. A petition signed by more than 200 ratepayers of New Wandsworth was sent to Earl Spencer, protesting against, these encroachments, but a deaf ear was turned to us. Meeting after meeting was held, either at the house of the vicar or elsewhere, to consider what was best to be done, whilst Mr. J. C. Buckmaster, then a churchwarden, endeavoured to keep the question alive, either by articles in the newspapers, or, in 1869 [PB: 1867 Demonstration? ], by breaking down fences which had been erected on a portion of the common between the cemetery and the New Wandsworth goods station of the Brighton Railway, in the presence of about 2,000 people who had assembled to show their sympathy and interest in the proceedings. Mr. Buckmaster was summoned, in consequence, to the Wandsworth Police Court, but Mr. Dayman dismissed the case, holding that the only remedy was an action for trespass. Somewhere about this time the following unanimous resolution was agreed to by the Metropolitan Board of Works (See the evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons): "That it is highly desirable to preserve the commons and open spaces near the metropolis for public recreation and enjoyment, such open spaces to remain unenclosed and that the Board should compensate the lords of manors and commoners in restrict of any rights of which they may be deprived. That towards meeting the expenditure to be incurred, power should be given to this Board to sell certain portions of such spaces for building or other purposes." The same witness, Sir John Thwaites, the chairman of that Board, stated that it would be impossible to carry out the plan proposed by the Board unless the Board had sufficient power to dispose of a portion of the land for building purposes, &c. 1870. — March 14th. — A large and influential meting was held at the Lammas Hall, Battersea, convened by Mr. J. C. Buckmaster, churchwarden of the parish of St. Mary's, Battersea, at the request of seven influential parishioners, including the vicar and the late Tom Taylor. The hall was filled by eight o'clock, amongst those _________________ 5 present being Messrs. Lord, Eccles, H. Whiting, Lambert, Bertolacci, Buckmaster, Ransome, Bass, Bickerdike, Carter, Taylor, Goldsmith, Coventry, B. Smith, Clark, Owen, Noir, Griffiths, Poupart, Todd, and others. Mr. Buckmaster, having been voted into the chair, read Mr. Peek's letter, addressed to himself, as follows: " Wimbledon House, 7th Feb. 1870. " My dear Sir Iread your remarks in the City Press of Saturday, and I have sent a copy of the paper to Earl Spencer. The public may grumble as much as they please; that will never stop encroachments or enclosures. What I have been thinking of is this: round Clapham common there are many wealthy gentlemen, some of whom are beginning to feel alarmed at Lord Spencer declining to renew the lease of that part which belongs to him. And in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth there are also many well-to-do people. If these will pay 4,000 into a bank Iwill add 1,000, and, as a Battersea copyholder, would at once commence proceedings to take up everything irregular during the legal term, which, Ibelieve, is 20 years. " We are vigorously defending this common, and intend to leave no stone unturned to settle the question once for all. I have my hands very full, but am quite willing to do what I say, but not on a less scale, having named the precise sum we fixed on here. Yours faithfully, HENRY W. PEEK . To J. C. Buckmaster, Esq. PS — Iwill hold myself bound to this offer to June, 1870, but no longer." Mr. Buckmaster roused the enthusiasm of those present by a graphic description of the various encroachments on the common, and concluded his address by saying that as his services had hitherto been, so they would continue. He had sometimes incurred hostility and a feeling of social antagonism, and he might have said hard things, but if he had erred it was not an error of intention or of heart. From a boy he had been taught to do his utmost to secure for others the liberty and privileges which he enjoyed, and on principle he should always endeavour to act. A substantive resolution, pledging the meeting to use its utmost endeavours to raise the sum requisite to secure Mr. Peek's offer of 1,000, was moved by Mr. Eccles, and seconded by Mr. Lord, who said he appeared on that platform as one interested, like them all, in the present movement, and he considered the time had now arrived when this long-vexed question ought to be submitted to a proper tribunal for a legal settlement once for all, and announced, amidst loud cheers, his subscription of 100. Mr. Ransome, from the body of the meeting, congratulated those present on the practical turn it had assumed, and submitted that a committee of management should be then named, with power to add to their number, and that meetings be held at Wandsworth and Clapham, and sub-committees formed for raising subscriptions throughout the neighbourhood, and his 50 should be ready at any moment. Mr. Ransome spoke with much earnestness, and was deservedly cheered. Mr. Lambert and Mr. Bertolacci also addressed the meeting, also several working men, whose remarks were listened to with marked attention, as showing how largely they participated in the movement and suggestions were made for establishing district committees amongst themselves for raising penny subscriptions. The following gentlemen were named on the executive committee, viz.: — Messrs. Lord, Lambert, Eccles, Whiting, Ransome, Bertolacci, Rose, Bickerdike, and the chairman (Mr. Buckmaster). Subscriptions were announced amounting to nearly 400. A cordial vote of thanks having been given to the chairman, some of those present went home with a deep-seated determination to be up and doing, which augured well for the successful issue of this movement. In order to carry out the resolution for raising funds the members of the committee, with subsequent additions in numbers, divided the district for house to house visitation. Mr. Ransome undertook the residents on the edge of the common. He called upon the late Mr. Du Buisson and told him he wanted 100, which he agreed to give, and invited the committee in future to hold their meetings at his house. The members of the committee used to go daily (mostly in the evening) to the various houses, perhaps ten or twelve in a day, and thus helped to rouse a wide-spread interest in the movement. Collecting subscriptions involved a great deal of time and labour but nothing seemed to deter some of the more earnest workers. Mr. Ransome stated that the moving cause of zealous efforts on his part was a religious conviction that it would be good, both morally and spiritually, for those who might succeed him, to have such an open space as this preserved for public use; that he himself had often felt the benefit of being able, even for a short time, to retire from the noise and bustle of city life, and quietly to enjoy what there might be left of country. This feeling, no ____________ 6_1 doubt, actuated others. We are now enjoying the outcome of labours but for which other portions of the common would long since have been devoted to building purposes, and Wandsworth-common by this time would have been a thing of the past. On April 4th, 1870, a public meeting was held at Price's Candle Works Institute, York-road, Mr. Lord being the chairman, supported by Messrs. Buckmaster, Ransome, Bertolacci, Hatcher, and others, and a large number of working men of the neighbourhood. Mr. Lord briefly alluded to the movement, and said that now or never was the time to be in earnest, that they might have an uphill battle to fight, but by all putting their shoulders to the wheel they would, he felt sure, ultimately triumph. Mr. Buckmaster next addressed the meeting with his accustomed earnestness and fluency, pointing out the various enclosures and encroachments by which the area of the common had been greatly reduced, and rousing the enthusiasm of the audience to do their part towards putting a stop to further encroachments. Mr Ransome followed in a somewhat similar strain, remarking that they were not there to interfere with Lord Spencer's rights, if he had right on his side, but they were there to vindicate their own rights, which they believed were being invaded. He preferred conciliation to coercion, believing that more flies were caught by sugar than by vinegar; but at any rate they were determined to come to an issue. He exhorted the working men to believe that much could be done by small contributions, and urged them to take the matter up in a spirit of determination, as one in which their health and that of their families was largely concerned. Mr. Fithian, Secretary of the Commons Preservation Society, stated the peculiarities of the law of common rights as between one party and other. Manorial rights differed in various counties; but the rights of copyholders and inhabitants were one and the same. Mr. Ounds, as representing the artisans in Messrs. Price's establishinent, stated the strong interest felt in every workshop on the question, and said that before June arrived they would be prepared with substantial evidence, by their subscriptions, to show their sympathy with the movement. Mr. Conder and others made a few remarks, and Mr. Turner pledged himself to collect 5. In the early part of April, 1870, Mr J. G. Mason and Mr Ransome were deputed by the committee to call upon the Lord Mayor for permission to have a meeting at the Mansion House, with the view of enlisting public sympathy and help, but the Lord Mayor did not at that time see his way to assent, although in the following July he consented to a public meeting. On April 13th, 1870, about 150 men in midday attacked some gates and fencing which had been put up at the rear of the "Plough" Inn, where there had been a footpath in constant use across that portion of of the common known as Plough-green. On asking a female bystander what all the stir was about, she replied, "Shure it's the fincing they're going to pull down, and mane to do it." After breaking through the fence at the entrance to the footpath, the crowd, greatly increased, and cheered by the enlivening strains of Ethiopian minstrels, who led the procession across the path until they reached another fence near the Freemasons Inn. This fence was quickly demolished, and the "right of way" was asserted in a rough and ready manner, causing angry words and much excitement in that otherwise quiet neighbourhood. The stir and tumult continued until dusk, hundreds of people hastening to see what had been done about the footpath. Strathblaine-road and other roads now occupy this portion of the common. A trial, lasting four days, took place at the assizes in Guildford, in the following August, 1870; although evidence was adduced to show that the piece of ground in question had always been an unenclosed portion of the Common, Mr. Justice Bovill ruled that because no defined path could be ascertained, the plea of free user could not be established, and the appropriation of the land to private purposes was carried out. This decision was appealed against but lost. The railway had out through and across the original path which had there from time immemorial, and its continuous track was lost, and so was that piece of the Common, as far as the public were concerned, and so was the 400 odd which the trial cost Mr. Clark for lending some tools to the people who broke down the fences. On the evening of this memorable April 18th [CHECK TEXT — actually 13th?], 1870, a crowded public meeting was held at the "Spread Eagle" Assembly Rooms, under the presidency of Mr. Bevington, J.P., supported by Messrs. Buckmaster, Ransome, Eccles, Coventry, Boyson, Hunter, [p.7] Mason, Conder and others. The Chairman, who was received with loud applause, said that it was very inspiriting to himself and his friends to be received with such cordial marks of approval as had been evinced towards them that evening. After referring to Mr. Peek's letter, he observed that they wished the work to be prosecuted in a temperate and strictly legal manner, and that he could not, as a magistrate, countenance the proceedings which had that day taken place near the "Plough" Inn, for such doings were calculated to prejudice rather than assist in determining what the rights of the Lord of the Manor really were. He understood that Battersea had already commenced liberally to contribute towards this fund, and he hoped Wandsworth in this respect would not allow itself to be out-distanced. Mr. Ransome then rose and announced that their chairman had just told him he would give 50. The applause excited by this announcement having subsided, Mr. Buckmaster, who was greeted with a perfect ovation, came forward and said he was glad to have been privileged to bring before their notice a question, not of local, but national importance. He was there to deprecate, with just indignation, the gradual absorbtion of Wandsworth Common, an open space surrounded, for the most part, by poor people unable to help themselves, and which should therefore remain open and unenclosed. (Applause.) He then described with great earnestness the various enclosures and encroachments made since the year 1846. His humorous reference to the Telescope piece and House of Correction served to mingle good humour with earnest determination. He stated also that the attention of the Board of Works had been repeatedly drawn to these enclosures, but that this had produced no practical effect. The Chairman observed that after Mr. Buckmaster's eloquent address, he should like some gentleman on the other side to say a few words on the subject. No one responding to this invitation, a motion was brought forward by Mr. E. Coventry, pledging the meeting to raise as large a proportion as possible of the sum of 4,000 for the parish of Wandsworth. Mr. Boyson, in seconding the motion, observed that they should strive for their rights in a legal manner. He was quite sure they would do their best to collect the money, remembering that not themselves only, but all London was interested in the matter, _________________ 7_2 A gentleman in the body of the hall said he should be glad to have the term copyholder defined. Mr. Hunter said it was very simple. A copyholder was one who held his lands by a copy roll, his land passing by certain forms which freeholders did not require. He concluded his explanation of the public common rights by remarking that the rights of the copyholders and freeholders, if properly enforced, would be sufficient to keep the common open, without any pecuniary compensation to the Lord of the Manor for such rights as he might possess. Mr. Ransome referred to the action of some of the inhabitants about a hundred years ago, when encroachments were attempted, and the celebrated Mayor of Garratt was originally the chairman of a humble band, who met together every week to pay subscriptions for the resisting of an encroachment that had taken place, and having obtained an advocate, the encroachment was removed. He remarked also how grateful he felt to the worthy chairman for having come to the rescue that evening: that a week ago he had spent a whole day in wandering from one gentleman to another to obtain a chairman of some local influence; that towards evening, weary and discouraged, he had called on Mr. Bevington, telling him how the case stood, and that that gentleman remarked: "Well, Mr. Ransome, we must not leave you in the lurch. Iwill, if you wish, preside, although it is not much in my line to do such things." Mr. Ransome also stated that prior to this meeting he had again called on Mr. Du Buisson, telling him he wanted him to give a second 100, and that he would himself give a second so that there might be something substantial of which to inform this meeting. Mr. Du Buisson kindly assented, and this was done. A vote of thanks was given to Mr. Hammond, the landlord of the Spread Eagle, for the gratuitous use of the room on this occasion. A similar vote was accorded to Mr. Du Buisson, who had offered a room in his house for the use of the Committee. The following gentlemen were named as a nucleus for the Wandsworth Committee: Messrs. Du Buisson, E. Coventry, Boyson, Wainwright, Ransome, Howell, Watson, Corthorn, C. Haydon, Roffe, Batley, Whitehead, and Mason. Subscriptions in the two parishes of Battersea and Wandsworth were then announced to amount to 909 7s. 6d., of which 478 had just been promised for that evening. Thus terminated this enthusiastic and encouraging meeting. Following upon this meeting the Committees both set to work in thorough earnest, canvassing the whole neighbourhood for subscriptions, and meeting periodically to report proceedings. Visits were also paid to members of Parliament and other persons of influence, either for contributions or other help. The "Commons Preservation Society" also gave valuable aid, having the ear of not a few gentlemen who had found themselves together to prevent encroachments, &c., on Common lands. It will have been observed that Mr. Peek, in his liberal" "God's earth will be sacred': Religion, Theology, and the Open Space Movement in Victorian England ELIZABETH BAIGENT (a1) DOI: [https]://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793310000130 Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2011 Abstract The Victorian open space movement is accounted for variously by nostalgia, progress, and a changed conception of national identity, but explanatory factors are generally understood in secular ways which take little account of the pervasive influence of contemporary Christianity. These explanations overlap with discussions of nineteenth-century leisure which stress its links with secularisation. Christianity however was a significant motivation for some open space campaigners whose theology explained how nature was to uplift those who experienced it. This paper considers the Commons Preservation Society, founded in 1865; the preservation of Epping Forest for recreation between 1865 and 1880; and the forest's management in the 1880s and 1890s. It argues that although histories of the Commons Preservation Society and the Epping Forest campaign describe them in secular, rational terms, many prominent campaigners were motivated by religion, in the sense of orthodox Christianity. Practical religion significantly affected the development of mass recreation for the poor in the forest. Explanations of the open space movement which ignore religion thus seem inadequate. BNA: [www.cambridge.org/core/journals/rural-history/article/gods-earth-will-be-sacred-religion-theology-and-the-open-space-movement-in-victorian-england/7B77F942CD9579088BD055DE91E23480 1. Hill, Octavia, Octavia Hill's Letters to Fellow-Workers 18721911, ed. Whelan, Robert (London, 2005), p. 104 Google Scholar. 2. 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Murphy, 'Rawnsely, Hardwick Drummond', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 74. Buxton, G., 'The Late Mr. E. N. Buxton and the Preservation and Restoration of Three Essex Forests', The Essex Naturalist 21:1 (1924), p. 14 Google Scholar. 75. Hale, 'Labor and the Human Relationship with Nature', pp. 25769. 76. Shaw Lefevre, English Commons and Forests; Eversley, Commons, Forests, and Footpaths; and see Peek, H.W. and Maidlow, J. M., eds, Six Essays on Commons Preservation: Written in Competition for Prizes (London, 1867) Google Scholar. Thompson, E.P., Customs in Common (London, 1991) Google Scholar and Taylor, Antony, '"Commons-stealers", "land-grabbers" and "jerry-builders": Space, Popular Radicalism and the Politics of Public Access in London, 18481880', International Review of Social History, 40:3 (1995), 383408 CrossRef | Google Scholar are the only real exceptions and neither is well informed. See full discussion in Baigent, 'A "splendid pleasure ground"'. 77. For suicides see e.g. 'Dreadful Occurrence in Epping Forest', Jackson's Oxford Journal (26th August 1837); 'The Mysterious Tragedy in Epping Forest Inquest', The Morning Chronicle (21st December 1858). For murders see e.g. 'Confession of the Murder of a Woman in Epping Forest', The Caledonian Mercury (17th July 1863); 'The Epping Forest Murder Examination of the Prisoner', The Illustrated Police News (22nd June 1878). For gypsies see e.g. 'The "gypsies" of Epping Forest', Daily News (27th August 1874). For prostitution see e.g. 'The Epping Forest Commission', Daily News (11th November 1875). 78. Miss Minnie Roberts cited in Green, Georgina, Keepers, Cockneys, and Kitchen Maids: Memories of Epping Forest 19001925 (Woodford Bridge, 1987), p. 57 Google Scholar. Reid, 'Playing and Praying', p. 762. 79. 'The Epping Forest Commission', Daily News (11th November 1875). 80. Coller, D.W., The People's History of Essex (Chelmsford, 1861), pp. 4867 Google Scholar. 81. Loughton vestry minutes, 1st April 1875, cited in Thompson, P., 'The Willingales of Loughton', Essex Naturalist 21 (1926), p. 159 Google Scholar. 82. 'Epping Forest', Daily News (12th February 1872); 'Epping Forest', Daily News (15th July 1873); 'Epping Forest', Daily News (12th February 1872); 'Mr. Lowe on Epping Forest', Daily News (28th September 1872); 'Epping Forest', The Times (8th July 1871); 'The Preservation of Epping Forest', The Times (12th February 1872); 'Epping Forest', Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper (19th November 1871); Bedford, J.T., The Story of the Preservation of Epping Forest (London, 1882) Google Scholar; 'Epping Forest', The Times (3rd August 1869). 83. Reardon, Religious Thought, p. 21. 84. See e.g. 'The Encroachments on Epping Forest', Reynolds's Newspaper (29th October 1871); Baigent, '"A splendid pleasure ground"', for the campaign as a populist, not a class, battle. 85. See e.g. Letters from Reverend A. F. Russell, The Times (11th and 24th November 1884). 86. At Mousehold Heath, poor commoners fought for their common rights, which benefitted them materially whilst having deleterious aesthetic effects, but were defeated by the corporation, its middle class supporters, the church, and the Commons Preservation Society, and the common became a park. MacMaster, 'Mousehold Heath'. 87. For commons protests with greater spontaneous working class involvement see Allen, Robert, 'The Battle for Plumstead Common', South London Record 1 (1985), 1620 Google Scholar; Allen, Robert, 'The Battle for the Commons: Politics and Populism in mid-Victorian Kentish London', Social History 22 (1997) 6177 CrossRef | Google Scholar; MacMaster, 'Mousehold Heath'. Taylor, '"Commons-stealers"' argues otherwise for Epping Forest but contains several serious errors of fact. See Joyce, P., Visions of the People: Industrial England and the Question of Class 18481914 (Cambridge, 1991) CrossRef | Google Scholar for populism. 88. The Commons Preservation Society needed local commoners in order to mount legal challenges to enclosure, but its relationship with locals could be problematic, as at Mousehold Heath (MacMaster, 'Mousehold Heath') where their aims were quite different, and at Epping Forest where sharp words between local and national preservationists were exchanged in the press after the battle was won; see Baigent, '"A splendid pleasure ground"' for recriminations. 89. Buxton, Fowell 'gave much thought to church affairs on the practical side', in Russell, G. W. E., Lady Victoria Buxton: A Memoir, with some Account of her Husband (London, 1919), p. 114 Google Scholar; Reid, 'Playing and Praying', p. 796 for 'practical Christianity' as a stimulus to Christian social work. 90. Morgan, G., The History of Fifty Years Work of the Abbey Street Sunday Schools, Bethnal Green (Bethnal Green, 1890), pp. 9 Google Scholar, 10, available at [http]://www.ferdinando.org.uk/book_files.htm, consulted 22nd April 2010; The Times (31st July 1866). 91. Letter of 17th January 1834 cited in Buxton, C., Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Baronet, with Selections from his Correspondence (London, 1848), p. 361 Google Scholar. 92. Green, Keepers, Cockneys, and Kitchen Maids, p. 24. Edward North Buxton (18941957) was grandson to the Edward North who was active in the Commons Preservation Society and, like him, was verderer of the forest. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage (London, various edns). 93. Russell, Lady Victoria Buxton, p. 115. 94. Howell, P.A., 'Varieties of Vice-Regal Life with Special Reference to the Constitutional Role of the Governors of South Australia, 18901927', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 3 (1977), 1548 Google Scholar; Peter Howell, personal communication, 29th June 2000; E. Baigent, 'Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 95. Both brothers were fellows of the Royal Geographical Society and Edward North was a knowledgeable natural historian. Baigent, 'Buxton, Edward North'; Buxton, 'The Late Mr E. N. Buxton', pp. 1214; James R. Ryan, 'Photography, Geography, and Empire 18401914' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of London, 1994), pp. 1445; Howell, 'Varieties of Vice-Regal Life', p. 27. Edward North Buxton aimed to stop indiscriminate slaughter of game, rather than to stop hunting completely. 96. Russell, Lady Victoria Buxton, p. 114. 97. Russell, Lady Victoria Buxton, p. 114. The breadth of their evangelicalism is shown by Fowell Buxton's refurbishing of the Lady Chapel at Waltham Abbey and the building of St Thomas's Church, Upshire, near Warlies, in 19012. Both projects exhibited an artistic discernment unusual amongst evangelicals. James Bettley and Nikolaus Pevsner, Essex, Buildings of England, p. 801; Daniel Wackett, personal communication, 18th September 2009. He also commissioned a crucifix (Howell, 'Varieties of Vice-Regal Life', p. 27). The donated land was at Oak Hill, Theydon Bois, and Yardley Hill, Sewardstone. Baigent, 'Buxton, Edward North'. 98. 'The Epping Forest Fund', Daily News (1st February 1877). 99. E. Baigent, 'Brady, Sir Antonio', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; George, W.H., Sir Antonio Brady (18111881): Civil Servant, Fossil Collector, and Philanthropist of West Ham, Essex (Barking, 1999) Google Scholar; A. Brady, 'The humble. . .address and petition of the inhabitants of the East End of London, in public meeting assembled, on Wanstead Flats 8th July 1871' (Stratford, 1871). 100. Taylor, Brandon, Art for the Nation: Exhibitions and the London Public 17472001 (Manchester, 1999) Google Scholar. 101. Harrison, Peaceable Kingdom, p. 140. 102. 'The Saving of Epping Forest The Late John T. Bedford', City Press 3rd March 1900; biography of the Bedford family, typescript, Corporation of London Records Office. I am grateful to Dr Anita McConnell for these two sources. Bedford, The Preservation of Epping Forest. 103. Hawkins, Henry, London's Great Legacy: Epping Forest described by Pen and Camera (London, n.d. 1895?), pp. 16 and 127 Google Scholar. 104. Offer, Property and Politics, chapter 20; Murphy, Founders of the National Trust; Cannadine, 'The First Hundred Years'; Ranlett, '"Checking nature's desecration"'. 105. Baigent, '"A splendid pleasure ground'". 106. Brace, Catherine, 'A Pleasure Ground for the Noisy Herds? Incompatible Encounters with the Cotswolds and England 19001950', Rural History 11:1 (2000), 7594 CrossRef | Google Scholar; Howkins, 'What is the Countryside For?' 107. Offer, Property and Politics, p. 348. 108. Murphy, Founders of the National Trust, p. 105. 109. Matless, Landscape and Englishness, pp. 62, 68; Jones, G. Stedman 'Cockney and the Nation 17801988', in Feldman, D. and Jones, G. Stedman, eds, Metropolis London: Histories and Representations since 1800 (London, 1989), pp. 272324 Google Scholar. 110. For descriptions of East Enders in Epping Forest see Morrison, Arthur, To London Town (London, 1899) Google Scholar. Morrison was familiar with the East End and latterly lived in the forest at Loughton. I am grateful to Richard Dennis for this reference. 111. Holland, Henry Scott, A Bundle of Memories (London, 1915), pp. 2412 Google Scholar, 2467, cited in Offer, Property and Politics, pp. 3489. 112. Green, Keepers, Cockneys, and Kitchen Maids, p. 7. 113. Hunter, Robert, The Epping Forest Act 1878, with an Introduction, Notes, and Index by R. Hunter (London, 1878) Google Scholar. 114. 'Epping Forest E. N. Buxton' The Times (3rd February 1883). 115. 'Epping Forest', The Times (12th February 1881). 116. 'Epping Forest', The Times (14th February 1881); 'Epping Forest', The Times (25th November 1881). 117. 'The Epping Forest Railway', The Times (12th March 1883). 118. 'The Epping Forest Railway Bill. House of Commons, Monday, March 12, Division Railway defeated', The Times (14th March 1883). 119. 'Epping Forest and the Great Eastern Railway', Daily News (29th December 1880). 120. Epping Forest, (preface to 1923 edition). 121. Russell, Lady Victoria Buxton, p. 115. Baigent, 'Buxton, Sir (Thomas) Fowell'. 122. Owen, David, English Philanthropy 16001960 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), p. 3" "AIM25 Battersea Parish Identity Statement Reference code(s) : GB 0347 BP Held at : Wandsworth Heritage Service Click here to find out how to view this collection at [http]://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/homepage/215/local_history_and_heritage Full title : Battersea Parish Date(s) : 1560-1878 Level of description : Collection Extent : 7 sub-fonds, 2490 files Battersea Parish was responsible for the civil administration of Battersea until the creation of Battersea Metropolitan Borough Council in 1900. This collection includes records of: the Battersea Parish Vestry; the Battersea Parish Overseers of the Poor; the Battersea Workhouse 1744-1835; the parish Churchwardens; Battersea Lammas Hall; the parish Surveyor of Highways; various charities within the parish; and other records relating to the civil administration of the parish. Until 1856, the Vestry of Battersea was an open vestry, including all the ratepayers and with the Vicar as chair. After the 1855 Metropolis Management Act, the parish ceased to be seen as a rural parish and began being classed as a part of London. The Vestry was set up, and classed as part of the Wandsworth District Board of Works, along with Clapham, Wandsworth, Putney, Streatham and Tooting, where it had 12 representatives. The Highway Board and Inspectors of Lighting for Battersea were superseded, and their powers passed to the District Board of Works. From 1877 to 1887 various attempts were made to incorporate Battersea in its own right and after the Metropolis Management (Battersea and Westminster) Act, 1887 Battersea ceased to be represented on the Wandsworth District Board of Works and Battersea Vestry was incorporated. This meant it took on responsibility as the Sanitary, Highway and Sewer Authority for the parish and had to elect vestry-men. In 1888 the Vestry took possession of offices in Battersea Rise, purchasing them from the District Board of Works and in 1891 purchased the Elm Hill Estate on Lavender Hill to build a new Town Hall. The building, designed by E Mountford, was opened in 1893. The 1899 London Government Act wound up the vestry system and created Metropolitan Borough Councils, which took over from 1900. Content Scope and content/abstract: Battersea Parish was responsible for the civil administration of Battersea until the creation of Battersea Metropolitan Borough Council in 1900. This collection includes records of: the Battersea Parish Vestry; the Battersea Parish Overseers of the Poor; the Battersea Workhouse, 1744-1835; the parish Churchwardens; Battersea Lammas Hall; the parish Surveyor of Highways; various charities within the parish; and other records relating to the civil administration of the parish. [BNA: Link,]
A WHO'S WHO IN THE BATTLE TO SAVE WANDSWORTH COMMON
"BUCKMASTER_179
Copy of Letter from Mr. Buckmaster, forwarded to the Treasury, by the 'Vice-President of the Committee of Colwell on Education, on. the .19th of July, 1884, with their reply, and further letter from. Mr. Buckmaster.
ST. JOHN'S HILL, WANDSWORTH
hoot 7/h, 1862. 1;
With a view to some modification of my present duties and the substitution of a fixed payment for my remuneration instead of by fees, Ibeg most respectfully to ask your kind consideration Of this communication.
With increasing years, and occasional ill health, Ioften feel scarcely able to perform my Present work, but which, in some lighter form, I hope to be able to contimie for some years. ln 1853 Ientered the School of Mines as a Science Student/ at a weekly payment of 30s., which was increased to . £150 a year by my holding at the same Salle the appointment of Science Teacher at the Navigation Schools of Blackwall and Shadwell, and the Trade School of Wandsworth. Ialso assisted Dr. Playfair with the preparation of Science Diagrams and Apparatus.
This continued till 1857 when (under Dr. Playfair), I was permanently appointed Keeper of the Animal and Food Collection at South Kensington, at a salary of 113 3s. a week. At this time Ioccasionally assisted with Science examinations, and attended meetings for the purpose of explaining the Educational objects of the Science and Art Department, with special reference, to schools and classes fur instruction in Science and Art, and for this service I was paid for every meeting the sum of Is [?]. This arrangement continued from 1859 till June 1865, when my remuneration was increased to £2 2s: for every meeting, and £1 Is. for each day occupied in the service of the Department, and, with the exception of two short intervals, my time since 1805 has been exclusively given to my present work.
During the months of April and May in 1867 I was engaged as Secretary to Five Juries at the Paris Exhibition, and, from April to October in 1873 I was paid by the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1141 for 312 Lectures on Food and Cookery at Ole Exhibition held in that year. With those two exceptions my entire income since 1850 has been derived from public sources.
Previous to my connection with the Department Ioccasionally assisted Professor Moseley with examination papers, and Iheld for several yen rs the office of Science Lecturer at the Training College, Battersea, where Ientered as it student on the advice of Dr. Kayo, in 1842 or 1843.
Iventure to hope that these long continued public services may he thought worthy of consideration, if my request can be entertained. The amount which I have earned annually during the last fifteen years has been on an average of about ..C370 a year. My humble request is that the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education would permit application to be made to the Treasury to pay me, instead of fees, a fixed sum of t870 a year (or even a smaller sum), so long as I am capable of performing the duties which they may call upon me to do.
I am, Ri., (Signed) J. C. BUCKMASTER.
To the Secretary of the Science and Art Department."
"SHIRLEY PASSMORE
Origins and size
What we now call Wandsworth Common was formerly a portion of the wastes of the Manor of Battersea and Wandsworth and was known as Battersea West Heath (that part in Battersea parish) and Wandsworth East Heath (that part in Wandsworth parish) and was one of several wastes of this large manor. It is a plateau of gravelly land lying between the valley of the Wandle in the west and the Falconbrook (now underground) in the east.
Some documentation about common land in Wandsworth does not differentiate clearly between Wandsworth East Heath and Wandsworth West Heath (Putney Heath / Wimbledon Common), or Garratt Common (now Garratt Green), nor between common cultivated fields, common pasture, and manorial wastes.
Common in Wandsworth and 'Wandsworth Common' are not synonymous. Thus all figures relating to the original extent of the common (Battersea West Heath / Wandsworth East Heath) are subject to a margin of error. It is unlikely that it once stretched from Clapham to Wimbledon as is frequently stated.
The John Rocque map of 1741-5 clearly indicates the difference between waste and pasture. The whole waste is now called Wandsworth Common.
The outline shape of the common is similar to its outline today. However, this masks the nibbled away holes in its interior and the loss of most of the land south of Bellevue Road. Today the common covers about 180 of an original (estimated) 400 acres1. By 1866 the acreage had been reduced to 150 but some land has been restored since then.
Enclosures
Early enclosures of common land in Wandsworth are said to have been mainly on a small scale, but by 1818 around 170 acres had been enclosed and some of this land had been part of the area we know as Wandsworth Common.
About 20 acres, known today as the 'toast rack', had been alienated quite early on and was known in 1642 as Allfarthing Piece. By the early 19th century it was owned by Magdalen College, Oxford. In time they leased it to a Mr Neal to use as a plant nursery but by 1883 the College began the building of the five residential roads with their Oxford-connection names (Routh, Patten, Henderson, Dorlcote, Baskerville). The estate was called College Park.
Rapidly increasing urban populations gave landowners financial incentive to develop any open space, and in Wandsworth the advent of the railways curving their way through the conveniently open space of the Common almost sealed its fate.
From 1763 the Lord of the Manor of Battersea and Wandsworth and its sub-divisions was Earl Spencer. The forth earl, Frederick, from 1845 until December 1857 and the fifth earl, John Poyntz, until 1910. It was under Frederick that many of the major land sales and enclosures occurred and it was John Poyntz who finally gave up all Spencer rights to the common.
The London and Southampton Railway (later the London and South Western Railway) cut a swathe through the common between 1836 and 1838 (Railway Act 1834) taking 14 acres and beginning the process of division into distinct sections which is such a feature of the common today.
The West London and Crystal Palace Railway (later the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway) acquired various parcels of land between 1857 and 1862, in total some 37 acres. Seven of these acres (bought 1861 and 1862) were "only very slightly used by them for railway purposes" (House of Commons Committee of Inquiry 1865). Some reports say as much as 16 acres were not needed for the line but went to speculative builders or for contractors' yards.
The railway had paid 580 to Earl Spencer for the right to lay track across the common and built Lammas Hall and a school in Battersea as compensation for loss of commoners' rights. Protest and an interview with Spencer about the excess land taken was to no avail.
Twenty acres sold (1850) to the St James's Westminster Industrial Schools, together with a reported 21 (McKellar's Triangle) to a Mr Mckellar in 1848 and a further 12 to him by 1856 removed all the remaining common south of Bellevue Road, with the exception of the small area around Wandsworth Common Station.
In 1852 the Justices for Surrey had bought eight and a half acres in front of the prison, presumably for security reasons, and this land was conveyed on trust that it would be 'laid out ornamentally'.
Earl Spencer reserved the power to prevent development without his consent, a power he handed on to the LCC in December 1890.
1852 also saw the erection of the (then) world's largest reflecting telescope, the Craig Telescope, on two acres of land temporarily donated by Spencer on the north-west corner of what is now called 'The Scope'. It could not live up to the claim of being able to see 1/4 inch letters half a mile away and did not last long. A Times Team archaeological dig in 2003 tried to locate the remains of the structure but failed.
The enclosure that was to cause enormous damage to the common and have far-reaching consequences for its future, but which was not much opposed at the time, was the 52 acres of land between the railway tracks sold to the Royal Victoria Patriotic Fund Commissioners on 24th June 1857, to build an orphanage (asylum) for the daughters of soldiers, sailors and marines killed at Crimea.
It was, however, the repeated attempts to enclose the small Plough Green between St John's Hill and North Side (the Road to Clapham) with its footpath between the two roads, which irritated more, and aroused people to action on several occasions.
The Wilson Estate and the Black Sea
An early enclosure (date not known) on the northwest corner of the common was a house surrounded by a large garden that later expanded to about 8 acres of parkland. It is shown on the Rocque map of 1741. The estate was leased in 1829 from Earl Spencer by William Wilson the founder of Prices Candle Factory. On later maps a 5-acre lake known as The Black Sea adjoins the park. This was most probably a disused gravel pit and later was utilised as a reservoir. It supplied 12,000 gallons of water a day to properties around.
When the cutting for the London Southampton Railway was made it cut off the end of the lake and its feeder spring. The LSR Company was obliged under the 1834 Act to take various steps to ' . . . for ever thereafter keep up and maintain a supply of water in the said pond No 3 and two other ponds contiguous thereto' (or until the Lambeth Water Company would take over the supply). A pumping mill was installed on the railway embankment to pump back water from the cutting into the lake.
At some stage, perhaps 1846 when a new lease is recorded between Anne Wilson and Earl Spencer, the estate was expanded right up to the edge of the lake taking in 11/2 acres of common. The lake ceased to be a reservoir at about this time and it is suggested that the 1846 Lease also included the lake. However, the Battersea and Wandsworth parishes were stated to own the lake when used as a reservoir so the situation is unclear.
What is clear is that at least from this time, perhaps earlier, Wilson looked after the lake and was responsible to a large extent for turning it into "One of the most picturesque and ornamental waters near London" It has to be a myth that he put in an island to commemorate the birth of each of his 13 children because the islands are already there on the Cruchley map of 1829.
In November 1866 the fifth Earl Spencer bought back the lease of this estate from the widow of William Wilson and "the gravest apprehensions were entertained that the 13 acres would be turned into building sites". (It was to become Spencer Park).
Concerns increase
In 1867, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company offered for sale some of its surplus land. The site, opposite St Mary's Cemetery in Bolingbroke Grove, was bought by Christopher William Todd. Excavations for building foundations were begun. "As bricks and mortar rose so dissatisfaction increased".
Many people, those living around the common in particular, were becoming greatly disturbed by the speed and extent of enclosures.
John Buckmaster, a political reformer of his day and a prime motivator in the battles to save the common, said "The common was fast melting away . Private owners adjoining were adding portions to their own properties . . . ..villas sprang up like mushrooms . . . .land grabbers and jerry-builders would soon have joined hands on the last square foot of turf".
The Vicar of Battersea, the Revd John Jenkinson, invited 'a few gentlemen' to meet at his house to discuss what could be done, perhaps under pressure from Buckmaster who was his Churchwarden. They met in May 1868.
A committee was appointed which approached the District Board of Works for support in an appeal to the Metropolitan Board to take over the common under the powers of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866. On 17th June 1868, with District support, a deputation from Battersea and Wandsworth put their case to the Metropolitan Board. They stressed the need for open space for the rapidly expanding population, a need that had been recognised by Parliament when it passed the 1866 Act.
Ironically, considering the damage already done to Wandsworth Common by the railways, one of the arguments used to convince the Board that it should be involved was that 'notwithstanding their present neglected state . . . ..the commons were still greatly resorted to by the inhabitants of the metropolis, the access by rail being remarkably easy and the fares low.'
The matter was referred to the Board's Works Committee and went on a tortuous round of committee meetings and nothing was heard of it so on 16th November 1868 Mr Ransome, another leading activist in the cause, waylaid the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board on his way to his office. He was take control of the common they would need to sell yet more of it to provide money for compensation to the Lord of the Manor and for management costs.
Ransome learned that nothing could be done yet anyway because of impending local lawsuits (there was a legal battle being waged over Wimbledon Common also). He commented "We began to be afraid of them lest Wandsworth Common might be still further reduced if they took it in hand and we began to despair of being able to rescue our common from the hands of speculative builders, dust contractors and others . . . " (recent losses had been land taken for Windmill Road, up to the lake, for the slip road alongside the Wilson estate, and for straightening the estate's northern boundary along North Side).
Local action in knocking down enclosure fences had resulted in fines and in one case imprisonment.
Buckmaster himself had organised one fence-removing protest in the presence, it is said, of 2000 people. In court the case against him was dismissed as one of trespass only. Clearly the only hope of success would be to find a Copyholder with rights to the use of the common to bring an action in the courts.
The Digby Lawsuit
A local lawsuit was filed on behalf of a James Smith Digby. It is described in Buckmaster's 'A Village Politician'. Digby was a copyholder of land in the acreage bought by Mr Todd. He lived in a tumbledown cottage and made a living 'selling potatoes, brickdust and treacle'. He liked the developments because they brought more trade. However, he was persuaded to sign a form put in front of him, little realising that he had begun proceedings on behalf of himself and all other tenants of the Manor against Earl Spencer, the Brighton and South Coast Railway Co., and four others.
He was no match for the lawyers and revealed his true feelings and how he had been persuaded to sign the document.
All seemed lost but the case was adjourned and was eventually overtaken by the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. It had nevertheless given extra time for concerted action to save the common.
Meanwhile, a petition was sent to Earl Spencer, signed by 200 residents of New Wandsworth, and there was plenty of interest shown for the cause by letters to national as well as to local newspapers.
Earl Spencer's answer to the claim that commoners on both commons had a whole series of listed rights was to deny the existence of either. He was the absolute owner of the common pasture and the common wastes of the manor.
Fund-raising defence committees set up
On 14th March 1870 a large meeting was held at the Lammas Hall in Battersea. Buckmaster read a letter he had received from Mr (later Sir) Henry Peek MP who offered to put 1000 into a fund to finance legal action if wealthy men around Clapham and Wandsworth Commons would match it with another 4000. The offer was open until June. Clapham Common was largely the old Battersea East Heath and over half of it was in Battersea parish. Peek had earlier sponsored prizes for the best essays on how, legally, to protect commons.
It was decided to have a committee of management with sub-committees in Battersea and Clapham and to hold meetings in the various areas to ask for money. Perhaps not wanting to seem motivated by self-interest, Ransome, who lived overlooking the common, said he was motivated by a religious conviction that it would be good "both morally and spiritually" for those that might succeed him to have such an open space preserved. He enjoyed coming back from "the noise and bustle of the city to what was left of the country".
On 4th April a Mr Lord chaired a well-attended meeting at Prices Candle Works Institute where Mr Fithian of the newly formed (national) Commons Preservation Society tried to explain the law of common rights. The workmen promised 5 (working men eventually contributed around 50).
In April also Mr Ransome and Mr Mason of the committee went to the Mansion House to try to persuade the Lord Mayor to hold a meeting to raise public awareness.
They failed.
Plough Green
An attempt at around 1850 to remove fences around Plough Green had resulted in a court ruling that there was a public footpath. After a second attempt, and another court case, Mr Justice Bovill ruled that because no defined path could be seen a plea of free user could not be established.
On Appeal, also lost, the ruling was that since the railway had cut the track it had lost continuity and therefore no longer existed. It was on 13th April 1870, when a very determined public effort to remove the fences had occurred. It was a splendid affair with bands and cheering crowds. The 'stir and tumult continued until dusk' (Mid Surrey Gazette)
In the evening of this eventful day, a crowded public meeting was held in the Spread Eagle. Chaired by a Mr Bevington JP and supported by the fund-raising committees. However, Mr Bevington was of the opinion that the kind of activity at Plough Green was not considered the best way forward.
This meeting had two aims, to get wider public interest and to raise more money. Battersea had already contributed liberally to the Defence Fund but Wandsworth was lagging behind. Buckmaster gave an impassioned speech. A Wandsworth sub-committee was formed. Mr Du Buisson, active for and generous to the Fund from the start, now offered a further 100 and the use of his house for committee meetings.
However, even with the evening's takings of 478, the Fund only stood at 909.7s.6d. A public meeting in Putney raised a further 180.
Campaign gains approval of eminent people
The Spread Eagle meeting certainly provoked further action for more influential support. A decision was taken for all funds raised by both the Battersea and Wandsworth committees to be used for the benefit of Wandsworth Common, Clapham Common residents having proved they were well able to 'take care of their own common'. Fund raising from now on was more methodical. Banks opened subscription lists, posters were put on railway stations, weekly collections were made at work sites. A public meeting was held.
In July 1870 Buckmaster and Ransome again asked the Lord Mayor to hold a meeting in the Mansion House. This time, presumably because the cause was becoming more respectable, he agreed. It was held on 14th July 1870 and ten members of Parliament attended including Sir Charles Dilke, Henry Fawcett, WH Smith, and Mr Mundella. Apologies came from such notables as Dean Stanley Bishop of Winchester (then Wandsworth's diocese) and CH Spurgeon of the Baptists. At this meeting Resolutions of support were made and permission given to raise money in the City. The Lord Mayor had one concern. He thought that Earl Spencer was willing to enter into the same agreement over Wandsworth Common as was being negotiated at Wimbledon and he said "nothing should be done that could be construed as throwing sand into the machinery".
Negotiations
Spencer archives show that on 1st August 1870 Forster, Spencer's Agent, wrote to the committee via Dryden, a negotiator at Wimbledon. He was prepared to negotiate if the committee a) abandoned litigation b) accepted the status quo and c) paid Earl Spencer 500 annually from a local rate, or set up a body of Trustees with power to sell outlying pieces to pay Spencer a lump sum. He suggested that the outlying pieces were unimportant and would be difficult to manage. The committee felt that 500 was too much annual compensation for 'disappearing gravel' particularly as Wimbledon (six times the acreage of Wandsworth Common) was only being asked for 1000. They could not agree either with the claim that the Black Sea was part of the Wilson Estate and therefore not part of the unenclosed common. Wilson's management, they said, had not conferred ownership of this lake which remained largely unfenced and open to the public on three sides.
Meantime on 3rd September, Mr Watson of The Gables, a big house on the edge of the common, and an original committee member, wrote directly to Earl Spencer pleading with him not to listen to those who were advising him to fill in the lake for their own profit. He said he was "prompted by a strong feeling on the subject and anxious that it may not be a reproach to one possessed of an ancient and honoured title, ample fortune and large domains, to have destroyed a little corner of beauty which gave delight and enjoyment to many thousands." He wrote again later asking for a personal interview.
Spencer agreed to meet him and one other on 4th October for one hour. Watson, together with Ransome, had what turned out to be an historic and friendly meeting. Spencer repeated the same offer that Forster had earlier indicated to give up his rights to the common for compensation of 500 a year paid from a local rate but he wanted the Black Sea not to be included in the deal as he already had plans to fill it in to add to his already advanced plans for the Spencer Park estate. Ransome said that this annuity would be more than could be raised annually and ventured to suggest 250 as a more realistic sum. Spencer agreed to reconsider and let them know.
Forster was somewhat annoyed that his negotiations had been side-stepped but the result was that Spencer agreed to either transfer the whole common including the Black Sea for 500 pa, with the proviso that the lake was filled in because a (by now) murky body of water next to his building proposals for the Wilson Estate would be unacceptable, or alternatively he would hand over the common minus the Black Sea for 250 pa. The committee chose the latter option and they agreed to cease to question Spencer's right to the lake.
The 1871 Wandsworth Common Act.
Now that the Defence Fund would not be needed for further legal action, the money was to be used to put a Bill through Parliament.
There were still hurdles to overcome. Three lawsuits were pending. There was opposition from two railway companies. Pieces of land to restore (Ransome negotiated with the railways for the restoration of some small areas, notably the 'bumps' alongside the railway in the Bolingbroke field), but most significantly, the opposition of the Metropolitan Board of Works to management being placed in the hands of Conservators instead of themselves. The Board, with the support of the District Board, would oppose the Bill on this ground. If they succeeded the Bill would fail.
The Defence Committee left no stone unturned in seeking support for the Bill. They sent out leaflets, held a public meeting, canvassed as many people in Battersea and Wandsworth as they could. Sixty- nine percent of those canvassed were supportive.
The Bill (in the name of the Wandsworth and Battersea Vestries) came before Parliament on 21st April 1871. The Committee Stage was reached on 24th.
Mr Watson and Mr Ransome were questioned at length but succeeded in convincing the MPs that the Metropolitan Board should not be given control. It reached the House of Lords on 8th May and was to be passed in early June. One last hiccup occurred when Earl Spencer suddenly realised that his annuity depended on the Poor Rate and his payments might be jeopardised if this changed. He sought provision to be able to dig gravel or reclaim his estate if payment ceased. His request was refused and the Bill became law on 10th July 1871.
A map accompanies the Act and it shows land that must be restored within 6 months. The Act freed from rights of Common all the land and gave the Conservators the right to buy or be given back any of the already enclosed and alienated land which would then automatically revert to common (In 1900 the LCC acquired Garratt Green under the Act and it is now a registered common ).
At this time the common was in a pretty dire state after years of neglect. The Mid Surrey Gazette of the time writes of stinking ponds and disused gravel pits full of rubbish. Mud and slush everywhere. No paths, no seats, huge muddy ditches, piles of rubbish and 'every conceivable nuisance, the result of gipsy vans and tents and naked women washing their clothes in the said ponds' On a visit to Battersea in connection with the installation of Erskine-Clarke as Vicar, Earl Spencer is said to have remarked "is this the common there has been so much trouble about?" It was probably the first time he had seen it.
The wider picture The battle to save what was left of Wandsworth Common cannot be viewed in isolation. There was a national concern about the plight of commons around London. A Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry had been set up in 1865, initiated by the Rt Hon George Shaw Lefevre (later Viscount Eversley) and, because Earl Spencer had already brought in a private Bill in 1864 to enclose Wimbledon Common, it looked at the situation there first. It was the future of that common that set the seal on what was to happen in Wandsworth and elsewhere. In particular, much is owed to the clear analytical thinking of a Wimbledon solicitor, Philip Henry Laurence.
Earl Spencer had brought in his Bill under a statute of 1236 (Statute of Merton) in which commons could be enclosed if the Lord left enough common pasture for his free tenants. Spencer's case was that there were so few commoners they could be ignored. He proposed selling 1/3 of the common a managed park. The Metropolitan Board's solution for all the remaining commons in London was similar.
The Committee of Inquiry issued a majority report (guided by Laurence) which can be summarised as follows: The Metropolitan Board's proposal was condemned, no land could be spared. Nonuse of Rights did not mean abandonment of them.
Owners of Rights did not have the means to defend them in court. Rights across the common existed in all directions. A 'servitus spaciandi' (right of roaming) was also understood and known to the law yet legal authorities were unwilling to admit any general public rights except those limited to a particular parish or tenants of a particular Manor. Binding judicial decisions seemed to rest on 'no very intelligible principle'. A law should be passed to encompass the greater public, bearing in mind the original intentions of commons law. The Statute of Merton should be repealed. It could be argued that commoners had transferred their rights to the public, so no enclosures to be authorised within the Metropolitan Police District under the Inclosure Act 1845. Rights therefore could not be claimed by Lords or for that matter by Commoners.
The Report led to the withdrawal of Earl Spencer's Bill. Other Lords of Manors reaction was to rush to indicate their claims with enclosures already begun, or threatened. So in 1865, under the suggestion of Philip Laurence and the Chairmanship of the Shaw-Lefevre, the Commons Preservation Society (now Open Spaces Society) had been founded. It had a distinguished founder membership, John Stuart Mill, Octavia Hill, Henry Fawcett and WH Smith among others.
The Commons Preservation Society was able to co-ordinate action. Cases brought to court had central knowledge advantage. There was a tendency for Judges to favour enclosure. Laurence revived an old form of suit in which a single tenant on behalf of other tenants asked for an injunction to restrain the Lord of the Manor. This process went through the Equity Courts whose judges took a much broader and less technical view of the subject than the Common Law judges. More cases were won. Shaw-Lefevre states much was owed to Judge Lord Romilly and Judge St George Jessel.
In 1866 the Metropolitan Commons Act was passed under which commons near London could be permanently secured for the people. This was the Act that the Metropolitan Board of Works had failed to use during the fight to save Wandsworth Common.
The Wimbledon Commoners, however, began a suit in the Law Courts against Spencer. By April 1871 when it had become clear that Rights of Common existed over a large area of Wimbledon, Earl Spencer, fearful perhaps of losing all his rights, negotiated for an agreed settlement. There was then every reason for him to settle with Wandsworth in similar terms.
After the Act. Use of patriotic school land.
After the 1871 Act, with the remains of the common saved and safely in the hands of Conservators, all controversy ought to have been at an end. It was not to be.
The Royal Patriotic Fund Commissioners had bought their land largely by public subscription at a low price, 3,700 for 52 acres. It was never contemplated that it would be used for anything but a girls asylum surrounded by open space. A boys' school was considered in 1870 and suitable buildings sought in vain. Eventually it was decided to utilise part of the girls' school grounds for a new building.
A contract was signed in April 1871 and the building finished in 1873. The boys' school was not a successful enterprise and the building and 12 acres of land were sold to Emanuel Hospital in 1880 for 32,000 (in competition with the Surrey Education Board whom they gazumped by placing a new offer on the table as the SEB was about to clinch a deal).
The land surrounding the girls' school had been intended as a farm or market garden to supply the needs of the school and presumably also to provide work for the orphans. In November 1885 it was noted that part of this land was being separated from the rest and it was learned that the RVPF Commissioners intended letting the farm buildings, a cottage, and about 20 acres of land to a 'desirable tenant' who would continue the market garden use of the land. The desirable tenant was a Mr Neal who combined his market garden activities with those of a lime and cement merchant, tar pavior, and public works contractor.
At the first hint that the land was not needed for school purposes, the common's Conservators offered to buy it back. This offer was refused. The refusal brought suspicion that the ultimate aim of the Commissioners was to sell the land for building purposes. The attention of the public was aroused when the 'desirable' tenant began to use the common for carting his building materials to and from his 'farm'. It was not long before this part of the common was in a terrible state, full of ruts and deep pot-holes full of mud.
From October to November 1886 many letters were written to the press, local and national. They all asked more or less the same questions. How could land acquired by a charity through public donations at a very low agricultural price and without any compensation to Commoners for loss of rights, be used for any other purpose than that originally intended? Why, in any case, were the RVPF Commissioners allowed to let their tenant damage the common as he was doing? Were the Commons Conservators asleep to allow such things to happen? Mr Ransome, the Chairman of the Conservators, wrote to the Daily News (21/10/1886) to explain what they had been doing. " At the present time there is before the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice an action in respect of the damage caused by the tenant in passing across the present common to the enclosed land that was formerly part of this common and which enclosed land, if not wanted for charity should be restored to the common." They had begun an action against the Official Trustee of the Patriotic Fund for alleged trespass.
There was some suggestion that that the Wandsworth Common Protection Association (presumably what the Defence committee had become) was not being as active as it might be. Maybe that was Wandsworth Town Hall in November 1886. A Memorial was sent to the Patriotic Fund Commissioners.
Correspondence followed but the Commissioners refused to say anything because of the pending legal proceedings.
Great efforts were made to get the Neal's Farm land back for the common. Questions were raised in Parliament. Henry Kimber MP (Wandsworth) asked the Secretary of State for War all those questions that the local people had been asking but the Secretary of State was not prepared to intervine.
The RVPF commissioners were on fairly strong ground over the right to do what they liked with their land. It had been bought, not given. They had the right to lease it to Neal for 21 years with an option for a further 21 if they so desired. The Conservators did have a case however regarding trespass and damage to the common by Neal's animals and vehicular traffic.
The Protection Association said "there remains to them [the RVPF Commissioners] the strong temptation presently to convert the whole acreage into a crowded building estate in the very centre of the common" Metropolitan Board gains control At about the time of the issue over Neal's Farm, there was a petition to the Metropolitan Board to take over the common from the Conservators.
It was partly a battle over whether the common should be urbanised or remain natural. The Conservators had done a lot to improve the state of the common since 1871 but money was limited and they preferred it wild anyway. Other people, and some Conservators, thought that the needs of the growing populus should be met with lighting, pruned trees, paths etc.
A leading article in the Daily News compared the 'dreary flat' of Clapham Common (already in the hands of the Met Board) to the beauty of the 'gorse covered area in front of Bolingbroke Grove' and it complained of 'fussy over-regulation'. However, public opinion was moving in favour of the Board and it gained control in 1887.
In an LCC Parks Department publication of 1924 the opinion is given that the Metropolitan Board gained control because local people objected to paying twice for their common by a levy from the Met Board for all London commons and a local rate from Wandsworth's District Board. The local rate had not been based on a system of 'Betterment' ie. the further away you lived the less you paid. Everyone paid the same. Those people who lived a long way from the common and who did not uses it objected to paying. Two years after the Board took control it was itself overtaken by the formation of the London County Council.
Meanwhile, there had been no result, or even much action in the courts over the trespass issue. The new LCC came to an agreed settlement with the RVP Fund Commissioners. The result is recorded in a committee report of 9th December 1890. The right of way for horses and vehicles was withdrawn.
Plaintiffs should give the Defendants 200 towards the cost of building a new road on their own land with an entrance in Trinity Road. Defendants could use the common track for all ordinary usage but the gateway onto the track from the farm was to be partially stopped up by the Defendants to prevent passage of horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, carts, barrows, other animals or vehicular traffic. Should the Plaintiffs build a road over any of the land in the future, the Defendants would have a right of way. Both sides to pay costs.
Thus after five years Mr Neal was prevented from spoiling the common. Prior to the agreement, posts had been placed on the path at"
"EDWIN RAYNER RANSOME JP
Edwin Rayner Ransome J.P.
E. R. RANSOME, Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common (May 1868 Memorial) (Preservation poster)
Rushmere Northside
[BNA:www.google.com/search?q=The+Australian+Friend+edwin+rayner+ransome&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
_______________
The Australian Friend (Hobart, Tas., 105, Elizabeth Street), for I2mo.
27, contains an excellent portrait of Edwin Rayner Ransome, of London,
who has been for many years clerk of the Continental Committee of the
Meeting for Sufferings of London Yearly Meeting, and who is warmly
interested in Friends in Australasia.
EDWIN_RAYNER_RANSOME_2535-Article Text-3963-1-10-20171204.pdf_____________
FRIENDS BURIAL GROUND
[BNA:
[BNA:
HISTORY OF THE MEETING HOUSE [BNA: wandsworth.quakermeeting.org/history/" target="_blank">Link several errors e.g. "On the dissolution of the monasteries, the land was passed by Henry VIII to the Earls of Spencer." and "Many old gravestones remain, including members of the Hanbury family (Allen and Hanbury pharmaceuticals). Thomas Hanbury gave his house at Wisley to the Royal Horticultural Society." Wandsworth Quaker Meeting 59 Wandsworth High St London SW18 2PT" "MAYOR OF GARRATT GARRETT At some little distance on the south side of the High Street is the hamlet of Garratt, which, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, appears to have consisted of a single house, called "the Garrett," or, as Lysons says, "the Garvett." This building was sold towards the end of the sixteenth century by William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, to a Mr. John Smith. The mansion was afterwards the residence of the Brodricks, Viscounts Midleton, but was pulled down about the middle of the last century, and the grounds which surrounded it were subsequently let to a market-gardener to grow vegetables. When Lysons wrote his "Environs of London," in the year 1792, this hamlet consisted of about fifty houses by the side of a small common; but the buildings in Garratt Lanethe thoroughfare connecting Wandsworth with Tootingand its neighbourhood have greatly increased in number within the present century. Various encroachments on the above-mentioned common, about the middle of the last century, led to an association of the neighbours, when, as Sir Richard Phillips tells us, in his "Morning's Walk from London to Kew," they chose a president, or mayor, to protect their rights; and the time of their first election of a mayor being the period of a new Parliament, it was agreed that the "mayor" should be re-chosen after every general election. "Some facetious members of the club," he adds, "gave in a few years local notoriety to this election; and when party spirit ran high in the days of Wilkes and Liberty, it was easy to create an appetite for a burlesque election among the lower orders of the metropolis." With a keen eye to their own interests, as well as to that of their village and their country, the publicans at Wandsworth, Tooting, Battersea, Clapham, and Vauxhall, "made up a purse," to give it character. Foote, Garrick, and Wilkes, it is stated, wrote some of the candidates' addresses, for the purpose of instructing the people in the corruptions which attend elections in the legislature, and of producing those reforms, by means of ridicule and shame, which are vainly expected from the solemn appeals of argument and patriotism. "Not being able to find the members for Garratt in 'Beatson's Political Index,' or in any of the 'Court Calendars,'" says Sir Richard Phillips, " I am obliged to depend on tradition for information in regard to the early history of this famous borough. The first mayor of whom I could hear was called Sir John Harper. He filled the seat during two Parliaments, and was, it would appear, a man of wit, for on a dead cat being thrown at him on the hustings, and a by-stander exclaiming that it stunk worse than a fox, Sir John vociferated, 'That's no wonder, for you see it's a poll-cat!' This noted baronet was, in the metropolis, a retailer of brick-dust; and his Garratt honours being supposed to be a means of improving his trade and the condition of his ass, many characters in similar occupations were led to aspire to the same distinctions." He was succeeded by Sir Jeffrey Dunstan, who was returned for three Parliaments, and was the most popular candidate that ever appeared on the Garratt hustings. His occupation was that of buying old wigsonce an article of trade like that in old clothes, but become obsolete since the fullbottomed and full-dressed wigs of both sexes went out of fashion. Sir Jeffrey usually carried his wigbag over his shoulder, and, to avoid the charge of vagrancy, vociferated, as he passed along the streets, "Old Wigs!" but having a person like sop, and a countenance and manner marked by irresistible humour, he never appeared without a train of boys and curious persons, whom he entertained by his sallies of wit, shrewd sayings, and smart repartees, and from whom, without begging, he collected sufficient to maintain his dignity of knight and mayor. He was no respecter of persons, and was so severe in his jokes on the corruptions and compromises of power that, under the iron rgime of Pitt and Dundas, this political punch, or street-jester, was prosecuted for using what were then called seditious expressions; and, as a caricature on the times, which ought never to be forgotten, he was, in 1793, tried, convicted, and imprisoned! In consequence of this affair, and some charges of dishonesty, he lost his popularity, and at the next general election was ousted by Sir Harry Dimsdale, muffin-seller, a man as much deformed as himself. Sir Jeffrey could not long survive his fall; but in death, as in life, he proved a satire on the vices of the proud: for in 1797 he diedlike Alexander the Great and many other heroes renowned in the historic pageof suffocation from excessive drinking! Sir Harry Dimsdale dying also before the next general election, and no candidate starting of sufficient originality of character, and, what was still more fatal, the victuallers having failed to raise a "public purse"which was as stimulating a bait to the independent candidates for Garratt as it is to the independent candidates for a certain assemblythe borough of Garratt has since remained vacant, and the populace have been without a "professional political buffoon." "None but those who have seen a London mob on any great holiday," adds Sir Richard Phillips, "can form a just idea of these elections. On several occasions a hundred thousand persons, half of them in carts, in hackney-coaches, and on horse and ass-back, covered the various roads from London, and choked up all the approaches to the place of election. At the two last elections I was told that the road within a mile of Wandsworth was so blocked up by vehicles that none could move backward or forward during many hours, and that the candidates, dressed like chimney-sweepers on a May-day, or in the mock fashion of the period, were brought to the hustings in the carriages of peers, drawn by six horses, the owners themselves condescending to become the drivers!" THE FISHMONGERS' ALMHOUSES, WANDSWORTH. Robert Chambers, in his "Book of Days," gives a full and detailed account of the scenes enacted here at the mock elections for the "borough of Garratt," which, as we have stated above, always accompanied a general election, as the shadow attends on a substance. He tells us that the local publicans found it to be their interest to encourage the managers of the fun to constitute themselves a committee en permanence. On these occasions local wits drew up and printed election addresses, squibs, and counter-squibs, &c., and the successful candidates were "chaired" round the town like veritable "knights of the shire." The two last and the most celebrated members for Garratt were those eccentric characters, "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan and "Sir" Harry Dimsdale, who flourished at Wandsworth whilst Lord North and Pitt ruled in Downing Street. Of these individuals Mr. Chambers writes:"In 1785 the death of 'Sir' John Harper left 'Sir' Jeffrey Dunstan without a rival; but in the election of 1795 he was ousted by a new candidate, 'Sir' Harry Dimsdale, a muffin-seller and dealer in tin-ware, almost as deformed as himself, but by no means so great a humourist. The most was made of his appear ance by dressing him up in a tawdry and illproportioned court-suit, with an enormous cockedhat. He enjoyed his honour, however, only a short time, dying before the next general election. He was the last of the grotesque mayors, for no candidates started after his death; the publicans did not, as before, subscribe towards the expenses of the day, and so the great saturnalia died a natural death." Of "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan we have already given some particulars in our account of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, (fn. 6) which was generally the scene of his daily avocations. THE GARRATT ELECTION. (From a Drawing by Valentine Green.) The Garratt election has gained more than its fair share of notoriety from the fact that Samuel Footewho was present here in 1761, and paid nine guineas for a window to view the proceedingsmade it the subject of a farce, entitled The Mayor of Garratt, which was put on the stage at the Haymarket. The character of "Snuffle" in this play was derived from John Gardiner, a local cobbler and grave-digger, who was one of the candidates, under the title of "Lord Twankum;" that of "Crispin Heeltap" was copied from another candidate, also a shoemaker, who came forward as "Lord Lapstone." The other characters also are identified by Mr. Chambers; "Beau Silvester" being the prototype of "Matthew Mug," the principal candidate in Foote's drama, who says, in his address to the worthy electors, "Should Isucceed, you, gentlemen, may depend on my using my utmost endeavours to promote the good of the borough, to which purpose the encouragement of your trade and manufactures will principally tend. Garratt, it must be owned, is an inland town, and has not, like Wandsworth, and Fulham, and Putney, the glorious advantages of a port; but what nature has denied, industry can supply. Cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers may be deemed at present your staple commodities; but why should not your commerce be extended? Were I, gentlemen, worthy to advise, I should recommend the opening of a new branch of tradesparrowgrass, gentlemen, the manufacturing of sparrowgrass! Battersea, Iown, gentlemen, at present bears the bell; but where lies the fault? In ourselves, gentlemen. Let us but exert our natural strength, and Iwill take upon me to say that a hundred of grass for the corporation of Garratt will in a short time, at the London markets, be held as at least an equivalent to a Battersea bundle." We have already spoken of asparagus as one of the chief products of Battersea. (fn. 7) There are in existence three very curious etchings, by Valentine Green, representing the Garratt elections, the scenes in the streets, and the chairing of a successful candidate. All these will be found given in Chambers' "Book of Days," and one of these we reproduce on page 487. It must be owned that the licence assumed during these seasons of misrule was somewhat Fescennine in its character, and that mirth occasionally degenerated into vulgar buffoonery; but, after all, the scene was little more boisterous than that which was witnessed in our fathers' days at many a county and borough election, where popular feeling ran highespecially those at Brentford; and doubtless, the mock elections of Garratt had their redeeming qualities in the safety-valve which they afforded to discontented spirits. In 1826 an attempt was made, though without success, to revive the whimsical farce. A placard was prepared and issued to forward the interests of a certain "Sir John Paul Pry," who was to come forward, along with "Sir Hugh Allsides" (one Cullendar, the beadle of All Saints' Church) and "Sir Robert Needale" (Robert Young, a surveyor of roads), described as "a friend to the ladies who attend Wandsworth Fair." This placard, which may be read in Hone's "Every-day Book," displays a "plentiful lack of wit" compared with those of the last century. The project, therefore, failed, and Garratt, in consequence, has had no representative since the worthy muffin-seller mentioned above." "PASSMORE ON RANSOME When, exactly, did ERR move to the area? Did he live elsewhere in Wandwhere in Wandsworth until he built & moved to Rushmere? Was he influenced by the loss of the Wilson estate, and the imminent draining of the Black Sea and building The Wilson Estate and the Black Sea An early enclosure (date not known) on the northwest corner of the common was a house surrounded by a large garden that later expanded to about 8 acres of parkland. It is shown on the Rocque map of 1741. The estate was leased in 1829 from Earl Spencer by William Wilson the founder of Prices Candle Factory. On later maps a 5-acre lake known as The Black Sea adjoins the park. This was most probably a disused gravel pit and later was utilised as a reservoir. It supplied 12,000 gallons of water a day to properties around. When the cutting for the London Southampton Railway was made [183?] it cut off the end of the lake and its feeder spring. The LSR Company was obliged under the 1834 Act to take various steps to ' . . . for ever thereafter keep up and maintain a supply of water in the said pond No 3 and two other ponds contiguous thereto' (or until the Lambeth Water Company would take over the supply). A pumping mill was installed on the railway embankment to pump back water from the cutting into the lake. At some stage, perhaps 1846 when a new lease is recorded between Anne Wilson and Earl Spencer, the estate was expanded right up to the edge of the lake taking in 11/2 acres of common. The lake ceased to be a reservoir at about this time and it is suggested that the 1846 Lease also included the lake. However, the Battersea and Wandsworth parishes were stated to own the lake when used as a reservoir so the situation is unclear. What is clear is that at least from this time, perhaps earlier, Wilson looked after the lake and was responsible to a large extent for turning it into "One of the most picturesque and ornamental waters near London" It has to be a myth that he put in an island to commemorate the birth of each of his 13 children because the islands are already there on the Cruchley map of 1829. In November 1866 the fifth Earl Spencer bought back the lease of this estate from the widow of William Wilson and "the gravest apprehensions were entertained that the 13 acres would be turned into building sites". (It was to become Spencer Park). Concerns increase In 1867, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company offered for sale some of its surplus land. The site, opposite St Mary's Cemetery in Bolingbroke Grove, was bought by Christopher William Todd. Excavations for building foundations were begun. "As bricks and mortar rose so dissatisfaction increased". Many people, those living around the common in particular, were becoming greatly disturbed by the speed and extent of enclosures. John Buckmaster, a political reformer of his day and a prime motivator in the battles to save the common, said "The common was fast melting away . Private owners adjoining were adding portions to their own properties . . . ..villas sprang up like mushrooms . . . .land grabbers and jerry-builders would soon have joined hands on the last square foot of turf". The Vicar of Battersea, the Revd John Jenkinson, invited 'a few gentlemen' to meet at his house to discuss what could be done, perhaps under pressure from Buckmaster who was his Churchwarden. They met in May 1868. A committee was appointed which approached the District Board of Works for support in an appeal to the Metropolitan Board to take over the common under the powers of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866. On 17th June 1868, with District support, a deputation from Battersea and Wandsworth put their case to the Metropolitan Board. They stressed the need for open space for the rapidly expanding population, a need that had been recognised by Parliament when it passed the 1866 Act. Ironically, considering the damage already done to Wandsworth Common by the railways, one of the arguments used to convince the Board that it should be involved was that 'notwithstanding their present neglected state . . . ..the commons were still greatly resorted to by the inhabitants of the metropolis, the access by rail being remarkably easy and the fares low.' The matter was referred to the Board's Works Committee and went on a tortuous round of committee meetings and nothing was heard of it so on 16th November 1868 Mr Ransome, another leading activist in the cause, waylaid the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board on his way to his office. He was take control of the common they would need to sell yet more of it to provide money for compensation to the Lord of the Manor and for management costs. Ransome learned that nothing could be done yet anyway because of impending local lawsuits (there was a legal battle being waged over Wimbledon Common also). He commented "We began to be afraid of them lest Wandsworth Common might be still further reduced if they took it in hand and we began to despair of being able to rescue our common from the hands of speculative builders, dust contractors and others . . . " (recent losses had been land taken for Windmill Road, up to the lake, for the slip road alongside the Wilson estate, and for straightening the estate's northern boundary along North Side). Local action in knocking down enclosure fences had resulted in fines and in one case imprisonment. Buckmaster himself had organised one fence-removing protest in the presence, it is said, of 2000 people. In court the case against him was dismissed as one of trespass only. Clearly the only hope of success would be to find a Copyholder with rights to the use of the common to bring an action in the courts. The Digby Lawsuit A local lawsuit was filed on behalf of a James Smith Digby. It is described in Buckmaster's 'A Village Politician'. Digby was a copyholder of land in the acreage bought by Mr Todd. He lived in a tumbledown cottage and made a living 'selling potatoes, brickdust and treacle'. He liked the developments because they brought more trade. However, he was persuaded to sign a form put in front of him, little realising that he had begun proceedings on behalf of himself and all other tenants of the Manor against Earl Spencer, the Brighton and South Coast Railway Co., and four others. He was no match for the lawyers and revealed his true feelings and how he had been persuaded to sign the document. All seemed lost but the case was adjourned and was eventually overtaken by the Wandsworth Common Act in 1871. It had nevertheless given extra time for concerted action to save the common. Meanwhile, a petition was sent to Earl Spencer, signed by 200 residents of New Wandsworth, and there was plenty of interest shown for the cause by letters to national as well as to local newspapers. Earl Spencer's answer to the claim that commoners on both commons had a whole series of listed rights was to deny the existence of either. He was the absolute owner of the common pasture and the common wastes of the manor. Fund-raising defence committees set up On 14th March 1870 a large meeting was held at the Lammas Hall in Battersea. Buckmaster read a letter he had received from Mr (later Sir) Henry Peek MP who offered to put 1000 into a fund to finance legal action if wealthy men around Clapham and Wandsworth Commons would match it with another 4000. The offer was open until June. Clapham Common was largely the old Battersea East Heath and over half of it was in Battersea parish. Peek had earlier sponsored prizes for the best essays on how, legally, to protect commons. It was decided to have a committee of management with sub-committees in Battersea and Clapham and to hold meetings in the various areas to ask for money. Perhaps not wanting to seem motivated by self-interest, Ransome, who lived overlooking the common, said he was motivated by a religious conviction that it would be good "both morally and spiritually" for those that might succeed him to have such an open space preserved. He enjoyed coming back from "the noise and bustle of the city to what was left of the country". On 4th April a Mr Lord chaired a well-attended meeting at Prices Candle Works Institute where Mr Fithian of the newly formed (national) Commons Preservation Society tried to explain the law of common rights. The workmen promised 5 (working men eventually contributed around 50). In April also Mr Ransome and Mr Mason of the committee went to the Mansion House to try to persuade the Lord Mayor to hold a meeting to raise public awareness. They failed. Plough Green An attempt at around 1850 to remove fences around Plough Green had resulted in a court ruling that there was a public footpath. After a second attempt, and another court case, Mr Justice Bovill ruled that because no defined path could be seen a plea of free user could not be established. On Appeal, also lost, the ruling was that since the railway had cut the track it had lost continuity and therefore no longer existed. It was on 13th April 1870, when a very determined public effort to remove the fences had occurred. It was a splendid affair with bands and cheering crowds. The 'stir and tumult continued until dusk' (Mid Surrey Gazette) In the evening of this eventful day, a crowded public meeting was held in the Spread Eagle. Chaired by a Mr Bevington JP and supported by the fund-raising committees. However, Mr Bevington was of the opinion that the kind of activity at Plough Green was not considered the best way forward. This meeting had two aims, to get wider public interest and to raise more money. Battersea had already contributed liberally to the Defence Fund but Wandsworth was lagging behind. Buckmaster gave an impassioned speech. A Wandsworth sub-committee was formed. Mr Du Buisson, active for and generous to the Fund from the start, now offered a further 100 and the use of his house for committee meetings. However, even with the evening's takings of 478, the Fund only stood at 909.7s.6d. A public meeting in Putney raised a further 180. Campaign gains approval of eminent people The Spread Eagle meeting certainly provoked further action for more influential support. A decision was taken for all funds raised by both the Battersea and Wandsworth committees to be used for the benefit of Wandsworth Common, Clapham Common residents having proved they were well able to 'take care of their own common'. Fund raising from now on was more methodical. Banks opened subscription lists, posters were put on railway stations, weekly collections were made at work sites. A public meeting was held. In July 1870 Buckmaster and Ransome again asked the Lord Mayor to hold a meeting in the Mansion House. This time, presumably because the cause was becoming more respectable, he agreed. It was held on 14th July 1870 and ten members of Parliament attended including Sir Charles Dilke, Henry Fawcett, WH Smith, and Mr Mundella. Apologies came from such notables as Dean Stanley Bishop of Winchester (then Wandsworth's diocese) and CH Spurgeon of the Baptists. At this meeting Resolutions of support were made and permission given to raise money in the City. The Lord Mayor had one concern. He thought that Earl Spencer was willing to enter into the same agreement over Wandsworth Common as was being negotiated at Wimbledon and he said "nothing should be done that could be construed as throwing sand into the machinery". Negotiations Spencer archives show that on 1st August 1870 Forster, Spencer's Agent, wrote to the committee via Dryden, a negotiator at Wimbledon. He was prepared to negotiate if the committee a) abandoned litigation b) accepted the status quo and c) paid Earl Spencer 500 annually from a local rate, or set up a body of Trustees with power to sell outlying pieces to pay Spencer a lump sum. He suggested that the outlying pieces were unimportant and would be difficult to manage. The committee felt that 500 was too much annual compensation for 'disappearing gravel' particularly as Wimbledon (six times the acreage of Wandsworth Common) was only being asked for 1000. They could not agree either with the claim that the Black Sea was part of the Wilson Estate and therefore not part of the unenclosed common. Wilson's management, they said, had not conferred ownership of this lake which remained largely unfenced and open to the public on three sides. Meantime on 3rd September, Mr Watson of The Gables, a big house on the edge of the common, and an original committee member, wrote directly to Earl Spencer pleading with him not to listen to those who were advising him to fill in the lake for their own profit. He said he was "prompted by a strong feeling on the subject and anxious that it may not be a reproach to one possessed of an ancient and honoured title, ample fortune and large domains, to have destroyed a little corner of beauty which gave delight and enjoyment to many thousands." He wrote again later asking for a personal interview. Spencer agreed to meet him and one other on 4th October for one hour. Watson, together with Ransome, had what turned out to be an historic and friendly meeting. Spencer repeated the same offer that Forster had earlier indicated to give up his rights to the common for compensation of 500 a year paid from a local rate but he wanted the Black Sea not to be included in the deal as he already had plans to fill it in to add to his already advanced plans for the Spencer Park estate. Ransome said that this annuity would be more than could be raised annually and ventured to suggest 250 as a more realistic sum. Spencer agreed to reconsider and let them know. Forster was somewhat annoyed that his negotiations had been side-stepped but the result was that Spencer agreed to either transfer the whole common including the Black Sea for 500 pa, with the proviso that the lake was filled in because a (by now) murky body of water next to his building proposals for the Wilson Estate would be unacceptable, or alternatively he would hand over the common minus the Black Sea for 250 pa. The committee chose the latter option and they agreed to cease to question Spencer's right to the lake. The 1871 Wandsworth Common Act. Now that the Defence Fund would not be needed for further legal action, the money was to be used to put a Bill through Parliament. There were still hurdles to overcome. Three lawsuits were pending. There was opposition from two railway companies. Pieces of land to restore (Ransome negotiated with the railways for the restoration of some small areas, notably the 'bumps' alongside the railway in the Bolingbroke field), but most significantly, the opposition of the Metropolitan Board of Works to management being placed in the hands of Conservators instead of themselves. The Board, with the support of the District Board, would oppose the Bill on this ground. If they succeeded the Bill would fail. The Defence Committee left no stone unturned in seeking support for the Bill. They sent out leaflets, held a public meeting, canvassed as many people in Battersea and Wandsworth as they could. Sixty- nine percent of those canvassed were supportive. The Bill (in the name of the Wandsworth and Battersea Vestries) came before Parliament on 21st April 1871. The Committee Stage was reached on 24th. Mr Watson and Mr Ransome were questioned at length but succeeded in convincing the MPs that the Metropolitan Board should not be given control. It reached the House of Lords on 8th May and was to be passed in early June. One last hiccup occurred when Earl Spencer suddenly realised that his annuity depended on the Poor Rate and his payments might be jeopardised if this changed. He sought provision to be able to dig gravel or reclaim his estate if payment ceased. His request was refused and the Bill became law on 10th July 1871. A map accompanies the Act and it shows land that must be restored within 6 months. The Act freed from rights of Common all the land and gave the Conservators the right to buy or be given back any of the already enclosed and alienated land which would then automatically revert to common (In 1900 the LCC acquired Garratt Green under the Act and it is now a registered common ). At this time the common was in a pretty dire state after years of neglect. The Mid Surrey Gazette of the time writes of stinking ponds and disused gravel pits full of rubbish. Mud and slush everywhere. No paths, no seats, huge muddy ditches, piles of rubbish and 'every conceivable nuisance, the result of gipsy vans and tents and naked women washing their clothes in the said ponds' On a visit to Battersea in connection with the installation of Erskine-Clarke as Vicar, Earl Spencer is said to have remarked "is this the common there has been so much trouble about?" It was probably the first time he had seen it. [ . . . ] After the Act. Use of patriotic school land. After the 1871 Act, with the remains of the common saved and safely in the hands of Conservators, all controversy ought to have been at an end. It was not to be. The Royal Patriotic Fund Commissioners had bought their land largely by public subscription at a low price, 3,700 for 52 acres. It was never contemplated that it would be used for anything but a girls asylum surrounded by open space. A boys' school was considered in 1870 and suitable buildings sought in vain. Eventually it was decided to utilise part of the girls' school grounds for a new building. A contract was signed in April 1871 and the building finished in 1873. The boys' school was not a successful enterprise and the building and 12 acres of land were sold to Emanuel Hospital in 1880 for 32,000 (in competition with the Surrey Education Board whom they gazumped by placing a new offer on the table as the SEB was about to clinch a deal). The land surrounding the girls' school had been intended as a farm or market garden to supply the needs of the school and presumably also to provide work for the orphans. In November 1885 it was noted that part of this land was being separated from the rest and it was learned that the RVPF Commissioners intended letting the farm buildings, a cottage, and about 20 acres of land to a 'desirable tenant' who would continue the market garden use of the land. The desirable tenant was a Mr Neal who combined his market garden activities with those of a lime and cement merchant, tar pavior, and public works contractor. At the first hint that the land was not needed for school purposes, the common's Conservators offered to buy it back. This offer was refused. The refusal brought suspicion that the ultimate aim of the Commissioners was to sell the land for building purposes. The attention of the public was aroused when the 'desirable' tenant began to use the common for carting his building materials to and from his 'farm'. It was not long before this part of the common was in a terrible state, full of ruts and deep pot-holes full of mud. From October to November 1886 many letters were written to the press, local and national. They all asked more or less the same questions. How could land acquired by a charity through public donations at a very low agricultural price and without any compensation to Commoners for loss of rights, be used for any other purpose than that originally intended? Why, in any case, were the RVPF Commissioners allowed to let their tenant damage the common as he was doing? Were the Commons Conservators asleep to allow such things to happen? Mr Ransome, the Chairman of the Conservators, wrote to the Daily News (21/10/1886) to explain what they had been doing. " At the present time there is before the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice an action in respect of the damage caused by the tenant in passing across the present common to the enclosed land that was formerly part of this common and which enclosed land, if not wanted for charity should be restored to the common." They had begun an action against the Official Trustee of the Patriotic Fund for alleged trespass. There was some suggestion that that the Wandsworth Common Protection Association (presumably what the Defence committee had become) was not being as active as it might be. Maybe that was Wandsworth Town Hall in November 1886. [??] A Memorial was sent to the Patriotic Fund Commissioners. Correspondence followed but the Commissioners refused to say anything because of the pending legal proceedings. Great efforts were made to get the Neal's Farm land back for the common. Questions were raised in Parliament. Henry Kimber MP (Wandsworth) asked the Secretary of State for War all those questions that the local people had been asking but the Secretary of State was not prepared to intervine. The RVPF commissioners were on fairly strong ground over the right to do what they liked with their land. It had been bought, not given. They had the right to lease it to Neal for 21 years with an option for a further 21 if they so desired. The Conservators did have a case however regarding trespass and damage to the common by Neal's animals and vehicular traffic. The Protection Association said "there remains to them [the RVPF Commissioners] the strong temptation presently to convert the whole acreage into a crowded building estate in the very centre of the common" Metropolitan Board gains control At about the time of the issue over Neal's Farm, there was a petition to the Metropolitan Board to take over the common from the Conservators. It was partly a battle over whether the common should be urbanised or remain natural. The Conservators had done a lot to improve the state of the common since 1871 but money was limited and they preferred it wild anyway. Other people, and some Conservators, thought that the needs of the growing populus should be met with lighting, pruned trees, paths etc. A leading article in the Daily News compared the 'dreary flat' of Clapham Common (already in the hands of the Met Board) to the beauty of the 'gorse covered area in front of Bolingbroke Grove' and it complained of 'fussy over-regulation'. However, public opinion was moving in favour of the Board and it gained control in 1887. In an LCC Parks Department publication of 1924 the opinion is given that the Metropolitan Board gained control because local people objected to paying twice for their common by a levy from the Met Board for all London commons and a local rate from Wandsworth's District Board. The local rate had not been based on a system of 'Betterment' ie. the further away you lived the less you paid. Everyone paid the same. Those people who lived a long way from the common and who did not uses it objected to paying. Two years after the Board took control it was itself overtaken by the formation of the London County Council. Meanwhile, there had been no result, or even much action in the courts over the trespass issue. The new LCC came to an agreed settlement with the RVP Fund Commissioners. The result is recorded in a committee report of 9th December 1890. The right of way for horses and vehicles was withdrawn. Plaintiffs should give the Defendants 200 towards the cost of building a new road on their own land with an entrance in Trinity Road. Defendants could use the common track for all ordinary usage but the gateway onto the track from the farm was to be partially stopped up by the Defendants to prevent passage of horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, carts, barrows, other animals or vehicular traffic. Should the Plaintiffs build a road over any of the land in the future, the Defendants would have a right of way. Both sides to pay costs. Thus after five years Mr Neal was prevented from spoiling the common. Prior to the agreement, posts had been placed on the path at irregular intervals to stop Neal's traffic. Correspondence in the local paper about poor lighting on the common brought the remark from Edward Johnson that the posts were very unpleasant to bump into in the dark. He had also criticised the LCC's suggestion that perhaps Dorlcote Road would be a more suitable route by which Mr Neal could reach Trinity Road. Johnson was the Hon Sec of the Protection Association and lived in Dorlecote Road. By 1891 the RVP Commissioners had enlarged the farmhouse for Mr Neal and leased it to him for a further 21 years." "SPREAD EAGLE SPREADEAGLE [BNA: boroughphotos.org/wandsworth/search-results/?fYear=&fAreas=&fThemes=&fSearcher=spread " "Wandsworth Common North Side. Here were the largest houses on the NFLS estate (Ills 16.15, 16). They included good villas, as this ground then overlooked the common, the Spencer Park development opposite (in Wandsworth parish) having yet to be conceived: hence the address, though the street was also at first referred to as Clapham Road. When plans for Spencer Park were revealed in 1868, the North Side inhabitants and other neighbours memorialized the 5th Earl Spencer, but he 27 was unable to influence events and could give them no reassurance, taking the line that 'the disappearance of trees and green fields in suburban districts, however much to be regretted, is an inevitable consequence of the spread of London'.66 These large houses therefore now mostly face others across a traffic-bedevilled roadway, part of the South Circular system. As elsewhere on the NFLS estate, a precise chronology of the development is difficult to establish.67 The earliest house is also one of the most altered: No. 20, originally named Mecklenburgh House, built around 1856 — 7. Its first occupant was John Daniel Kachler, a tailor. Only a little later is No. 8 (Bina Lodge), a handsome, symmetrical detached villa with paired eaves brackets and margin lights to the windows (Ill. 16.17). It was built around 1858 by the Kensington builder John Spicer, and first occupied by a retired army captain, Thomas Marshall.68 Marshall was also involved with No. 26 (Castle Cottage), or rather with its first occupant, Joanna Castle, a widow of independent means whom he had married in 1856. The house was described as lately erected in April 1865 when it was sold to Marshall. It is a modest stucco villa with bargeboards and castellated bays at front and back.69 Most of the other houses here date from the 1860s. No. 48 (Aucklands) was built around 1861 by and for George Todd senior, the Chelsea builder, who named it after his birthplace, Bishop Auckland. A cumbersome double-fronted house with wild eaves brackets, it was perhaps Todd's own design, or that of his surveyor son, George junior (Ill. 16.15). It now has a vivid rear extension with timber and the cladding, built for the Rainbow School (Architype, architects, 2009 — 10). Nos 50 — 54 together with the two pairs of semis behind them in Park (now Elsynge) Road seem to be one speculation, as their leasehold interest was sold at auction in 1872 with 80 years to run. The villas on North Side were originally named, from east to west, Blendworth, Kent, Kingston, and The Elms. When they were built the parish boundary ran through the garden of No. 52, so the westernmost houses were in 28 Wandsworth parish. Nos 40 — 46 were likewise the work of a single developer, Nos 40 and 42 (Hohne and Norfolk Houses) were begun in 1860, perhaps to G. H. Page's designs.70 Differing in style but not in date is No. 4 (Devon Villa), designed by G. H. Page for G. H. Swonnell, maltster, and built in 1861, probably by George Bass.71 It is of red and yellow brick with bargeboards, and has a large coach-house to its east. It was converted to flats and a day nursery in 2005. No. 22 (Rushmore Cottage), a plain double-fronted house, was built about 1862 for Edwin Ransome, hardware merchant, Quaker, and a key figure in the campaign to save Wandsworth Common. He died here in 1910.72 Curving round the corner into Vardens Road is The Round House pub at No. 2 (until 1967 the Freemasons' Hotel). It was built in 1862 — 3, only a short step from New Wandsworth Station, which operated as a passenger stop from 1858 — 69. Following the Italianate styling of the neighbouring houses in Vardens Road, it has a sturdy character deriving from its long, continuously curving front, running between pilastered ends. The ground storey incorporates hefty Venetian windows and the whole is topped off by a balustraded parapet (Ill. 16.18). The original name came either from the Freemasons' Girls School to the north-east, or reflected the incidence of masons among local residents, e.g. in Spencer Road; the Earl Spencer Lodge, in which the Todds were prominent, was inaugurated here in 1873.73 Further west, Nos 14 & 16 (Durham Villa and Hatfield Lodge), built around 1864 — 5, form an unusual pair with projecting wings either side of a recessed centre with the entrances. They are in a simple Italianate style, with slightly crude carved-head keystones adorning the windows, and composite capitals to the porches. There is more robust decoration to the later pair at Nos 30 & 32 with incised ornament and dog-toothed window heads. These two, along with Nos 34, 36 and 38 to their west, filled up the last big gap on 29 the North Side frontage and were built around 1877 — 80, apart from No. 34 with its hard red-brick bay and terracotta panels, which was added c.1881 — 2. Its neighbours at Nos 36 & 38 are plainer, but have surprising Venetian Gothic or Moorish side porches.74 As for later buildings, the large villa that formerly stood on the east corner of Spencer Road, at No. 6, was replaced by a small block of flats, Henry Harrison Court, designed by Sir Guy Dawber, Fox & Robinson, for Battersea Council in 1961 — 2; and the nursery ground long attached to No. 20, with a good-sized frontage to the road, was finally built over in the 1980s with No. 18, a self-effacing apartment block. More recently, a pastiche mews development was built in 2009 at No. 2A (Vestry Mews), mimicking the coach-house of No. 4 next door.75" "Survey — Wandsworth Common North Side. SURVEY 15.16 St John's Hill Wandsworth Common North Side. Here were the largest houses on the NFLS estate (Ills 16.15, 16). They included good villas, as this ground then overlooked the common, the Spencer Park development opposite (in Wandsworth parish) having yet to be conceived: hence the address, though the street was also at first referred to as Clapham Road. When plans for Spencer Park were revealed in 1868, the North Side inhabitants and other neighbours memorialized the 5th Earl Spencer, but he 27 was unable to influence events and could give them no reassurance, taking the line that 'the disappearance of trees and green fields in suburban districts, however much to be regretted, is an inevitable consequence of the spread of London'.66 These large houses therefore now mostly face others across a traffic-bedevilled roadway, part of the South Circular system. As elsewhere on the NFLS estate, a precise chronology of the development is difficult to establish.67 The earliest house is also one of the most altered: No. 20, originally named Mecklenburgh House, built around 1856 — 7. Its first occupant was John Daniel Kachler, a tailor. Only a little later is No. 8 (Bina Lodge), a handsome, symmetrical detached villa with paired eaves brackets and margin lights to the windows (Ill. 16.17). It was built around 1858 by the Kensington builder John Spicer, and first occupied by a retired army captain, Thomas Marshall.68 Marshall was also involved with No. 26 (Castle Cottage), or rather with its first occupant, Joanna Castle, a widow of independent means whom he had married in 1856. The house was described as lately erected in April 1865 when it was sold to Marshall. It is a modest stucco villa with bargeboards and castellated bays at front and back.69 Most of the other houses here date from the 1860s. No. 48 (Aucklands) was built around 1861 by and for George Todd senior, the Chelsea builder, who named it after his birthplace, Bishop Auckland. A cumbersome double-fronted house with wild eaves brackets, it was perhaps Todd's own design, or that of his surveyor son, George junior (Ill. 16.15). It now has a vivid rear extension with timber and the cladding, built for the Rainbow School (Architype, architects, 2009 — 10). Nos 50 — 54 together with the two pairs of semis behind them in Park (now Elsynge) Road seem to be one speculation, as their leasehold interest was sold at auction in 1872 with 80 years to run. The villas on North Side were originally named, from east to west, Blendworth, Kent, Kingston, and The Elms. When they were built the parish boundary ran through the garden of No. 52, so the westernmost houses were in 28 Wandsworth parish. Nos 40 — 46 were likewise the work of a single developer, Nos 40 and 42 (Hohne and Norfolk Houses) were begun in 1860, perhaps to G. H. Page's designs.70 Differing in style but not in date is No. 4 (Devon Villa), designed by G. H. Page for G. H. Swonnell, maltster, and built in 1861, probably by George Bass.71 It is of red and yellow brick with bargeboards, and has a large coach-house to its east. It was converted to flats and a day nursery in 2005. [PB: I think I've seen it spelt "Swounell" or similar in WC great and good documents. There were maltsters called Swonnell in Suffolk at this time: [https]://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F169169] No. 22 (Rushmore [PB: Rushmere] Cottage), a plain double-fronted house, was built about 1862 for Edwin Ransome, hardware merchant, Quaker, and a key figure in the campaign to save Wandsworth Common. He died here in 1910.72 [72. William Alexander, The Annual Monitor or, Obituary of the Members of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, 1911 ] Curving round the corner into Vardens Road is The Round House pub at No. 2 (until 1967 the Freemasons' Hotel). It was built in 1862 — 3, only a short step from New Wandsworth Station, which operated as a passenger stop from 1858 — 69. Following the Italianate styling of the neighbouring houses in Vardens Road, it has a sturdy character deriving from its long, continuously curving front, running between pilastered ends. The ground storey incorporates hefty Venetian windows and the whole is topped off by a balustraded parapet (Ill. 16.18). The original name came either from the Freemasons' Girls School to the north-east, or reflected the incidence of masons among local residents, e.g. in Spencer Road; the Earl Spencer Lodge, in which the Todds were prominent, was inaugurated here in 1873.73 Further west, Nos 14 & 16 (Durham Villa and Hatfield Lodge), built around 1864 — 5, form an unusual pair with projecting wings either side of a recessed centre with the entrances. They are in a simple Italianate style, with slightly crude carved-head keystones adorning the windows, and composite capitals to the porches. There is more robust decoration to the later pair at Nos 30 & 32 with incised ornament and dog-toothed window heads. These two, along with Nos 34, 36 and 38 to their west, filled up the last big gap on 29 the North Side frontage and were built around 1877 — 80, apart from No. 34 with its hard red-brick bay and terracotta panels, which was added c.1881 — 2. Its neighbours at Nos 36 & 38 are plainer, but have surprising Venetian Gothic or Moorish side porches.74 As for later buildings, the large villa that formerly stood on the east corner of Spencer Road, at No. 6, was replaced by a small block of flats, Henry Harrison Court, designed by Sir Guy Dawber, Fox & Robinson, for Battersea Council in 1961 — 2; and the nursery ground long attached to No. 20, with a good-sized frontage to the road, was finally built over in the 1980s with No. 18, a self-effacing apartment block. More recently, a pastiche mews development was built in 2009 at No. 2A (Vestry Mews), mimicking the coach-house of No. 4 next door.75 ______________ 66. BL, Add. MS 77134, letters of May & June 1868 67. Except where noted otherwise, the following list is based on RB: POD: Census: WP 68. Lloyds Weekly, 7 Nov 1858, p.4 69. Information kindly supplied by Mrs Towler 70. add ref for 1872 sale: B, 10 Nov 1860, p.728; 22 March 1862, p.214 71. B, 16 Feb 1861, p.116 72. William Alexander, The Annual Monitor or, Obituary of the Members of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, 1911 73. SWS, 4 Feb 1983, p.14; 11 Feb 1983, p.47: South Lambeth, Battersea and Wandsworth Times, 14 June 1873: WHS, local enquiry file 74. LMA, AR/BA/5/207: Census: RB 75. BBC Mins, 31 May 1961, p.34; 27 Sept 1961, pp.121, 127; 26 Sept 1962, p.124: WP" "EDWIN RAYNER RANSOME [Was Richard's father the man who invented the self-sharpening plough? if so, who he? 9-Richard Ransome1,14,27,71,112 was born on 11 Jun 1798 in St. Margaret's, Ipswich, died on 19 Jul 1867 in Rushmere, Wandsworth Common, Surrey at age 69, and was buried in Wandsworth. Noted events in his life were: He worked as an Artist & Copper Plate Engraver in Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common, London. He was Quaker but was disowned for marrying-out. Richard married Eliza Wilder Rayner14,71,112 in 1820. Eliza was born in 1801, died in 1830 in Bergues, France at age 29, and was buried in Bergues, France. They had three children: Edwin Rayner, Ellen, and Eliza. Noted events in her life were: She worked as a Visitation gives EW Rayner. Milligan gives E Wilder. {PB: The following had several lengthy extracts of notes written by Edwin Ransome himself — I wonder if they still exist, and if where they are?] [139] 10-Edwin Rayner Ransome1,29,36,71,112,120,219,220 was born on 28 Jun 1823 in Colchester, Essex, died on 17 May 1910 in Rushmere Cottage, Wandsworth Common, London at age 86, and was buried in FBG Wandsworth. General Notes: Edwin R. Ransome, 86 17 5mo. 1910 Wandsworth. A Minister. Edwin Rayner Ransome, a man who served his generation faithfully and energetically during a long life of almost eighty-seven years, was the son of Richard and Eliza Wilder Ransome, and was born at Colchester in 1823. He came of Quaker ancestry; Richard Ransome, his forefather, was one of the earlv Friends and [140] suffered a long imprisonment for his faith. And yet Edwin Ransome himself was born outside the Society, his father having lost his membership through marrying a lady who was not a Friend. His father was an artist by temperament, and an engraver by profession; he was a great lover of music also, and himself an accomplished player on the flute, a gift which in those days met with scant sympathy amongst Friends. His work took him from place to place, and he seems never to have settled down long anywhere during his son's boyhood. Edwin was the eldest son, an alert, observant boy. There was never anything vague or indefinite about him. His impressions even in early childhood were sharply and clearly defined and remembered vividly long years afterwards. He could always distinctly recall the setting of a broken arm when he was between three and four years old. In some notes of his life, Edwin R. Ransome wrote: " Some of my very early associations were connected with the dear little village of Rushmere, near Ipswich, where my uncle, James Ransome, lived. My dear cousins, Hannah (afterwards Hannah Stafford Allen) and Jane (afterwards Jane Corder) were like [142] mother and sister to me." In their walks together, he adds, " we sometimes took messages to Thomas Clarkson, of anti-Slavery fame. Iremember him as a kindly old man patting me on the head and telling me to be a good boy." In 1830, when Edwin R. Ransome was seven years old, his family were living at Brussels when the Revolution broke out which separated Belgium from Holland. He always retained vivid memories of the time; of the fighting, which they could see from their windows, of the wounded being carried on litters to a nunnery next door to be cared for; of his parents being required to feed some twelve or more of the fighters, and to keep lights burning in every window through the night; of being very nearly struck himself by part of a bursting shell. When, after a few days, a truce was agreed upon, his father succeeded in conveying his family across the frontier, but it was too late to save the young mother from the consequences of this time of terror. It brought on a fever from which she died at Bergues, in North France, and she and a baby daughter, only a few months old, were there buried in the same grave. After being at various other schools [142] at Ipswich and Rotterdam, the little boy, when only ten years old, was taken by his father to the Moravian School at Neuwied on the Rhine, where he remained for over three years, without once going home or seeing any relative. But he was very happy there; his nature responding readily to the kindness and affection with which he was treated. Though he left Neuwied before he was thirteen years old, the time spent there had a powerfully moulding effect upon his mind and character, and the influence of the Evangelical Moravian Brothers, their simplicity, faith and fervour, remained with him through life. He was a loyal member of the " Society of Old Neuwieders,"' rejoicing to attend its gatherings in London, and to join with its members in occasional excursions to Kew or Hampton Court. In 1835, he came back to England under the kind care of Adam Black, the publisher, a journey which then occupied a week. After his return he was sent to a school in Bow, in a fine old house built for Admiral Blake. He records that "Canes of varying length and thickness formed important factors in driving knowledge into us; some portion of which, beginning at the bottom, was driven [143] by cane through the soles of our feet, we having first taken off our boots or shoes. Next to this style of instruction the event (best) remembered by me was a notable eclipse of the sun in 1835, when a number of ladies and gentlemen came into the garden to watch it through a telescope. During the ensuing holidays my father took us for a walk over London Bridge, to see the marvellous sight of a railway on arches, then the wonder of London, from London Bridge to Greenwich. At that time we lived in Hoxton, where Iremember watching from our windows a field of oats swayed by a gentle wind. In this year (1835) Iremember also seeing Hancock's steam coach running along the City Road." A little later his parents went abroad again to reside, and happily for him, their son was sent to his kind uncle, James Ransome, at Rushmere, which thenceforth became his home. He was then for the first time sent to a Friends' School- at Ipswich. It was only for a few months, but he was able afterwards to record that " William Gill, by thoughtful influence, impressed me for good, more than either of my previous school masters had done by liberal use of the cane." Whilst at this school he listened to a Temperance lecture which deeply impressed [144] him, [144] and which decided him to give up the use of intoxicating beverages. He remarked in his old age that he had " become a teetotaler before Queen Victoria came to the throne." Soon after this he was apprenticed for six years to Charles Dix, a Friend at Haverhill, in whose family he lived. He was very happy there, with plenty to do. He was expected to attend the little Haverhill Meeting and was kindly welcomed by the Friends, both at Meeting and socially. When he was seventeen years old, the Friends of his Monthly Meeting did a kindly, and as it proved, a wise thing for themselves and the Society, in deputing two of their number to visit him and invite him to join them in membership. Before this it had never occurred to him to think seriously of joining Friends, but he felt it "so kind of them to invite him " that he gave the matter earnest consideration and decided to apply for membership, and he was duly received in 1840. More and more he grew to love the " Friends," and through a long life he served his chosen Church with a loyal and whole-hearted devotion. At Haverhill he succeeded in starting a Temperance Association, which insisted on [145] appointing him its first Secretary. Some of the older Friends were inclined to feel the advocacy of Teetotalism " an invasion into the rights of individuals," but the young apprentice succeeded in winning his employer to his side, and the Association prospered. Some time after his apprenticeship expired, and after further useful business experience, he was offered, much to his satisfaction, a post at his uncle's foundry at Ipswich, and he removed there in 1848. " In those days," Edwin R. Ransome wrote, " the Meeting at Ipswich was large and influential, including such Friends as Ann Tuke Alexander, formerly of York, a Minister of note in her day, who was the originator in 1813 of the Annual Monitor; William Henry and Sophia Alexander, the latter a Minister greatly esteemed; and John Talwin Shewell, a very spiritually-minded minister. Besides these, there was old Dykes Alexander, Richard Dykes and Samuel Alexander, Bankers, together with James, Robert and Allen Ransome and their respective families." Resourceful, efficient, and willing, Edwin Ransome soon came to fill a useful place in the meeting. On one occasion his knowledge of German led to his being sent to Harwich to assist ninety-nine shipwrecked German emigrants, and accompany them to Ipswich, where they were kindly cared for and sent on their way cheered and comforted. "In 1851," Edwin R. Ransome records, " a considerable number of professors and learned men visited Ipswich whilst the Meeting of the British Association was being held. Many of these wished to inspect the Orwell works, and it was my privilege to have to act as guide on such occasions. It was exceedingly interesting to note the different standpoints from which some of these clever men viewed things. A considerable company of them went a trip by steamer to Bawdsey Ferry. It was quite a treat to hear Professors Owen, Sedgwick, Phillips, Forbes, and others, discourse about the Suffolk Crags as we passed by the Felixstowe cliffs, which then stood in their natural beauty. " In the seventh month of that year Prince Albert visited Ipswich and was greatly interested in the Museum, which had made for itself a name as an educational establishment, under [the] direction of my cousin George. As a steward at the head of the staircase, I was [147] greeted by the Prince with a polite bow, and I was struck by the pleasant tone of his voice and the elegance of his language. " One day I took a young man down the Orwell to dredge from the bottom of the river; he was full of life and energy, and he developed into Professor Huxley. 'Old Landseer,' the painter, proved an interesting companion as Iescorted him to local points of interest; and Professor Bowerbank, of ' London Clay ' celebrity, also proved a genial and humorous visitor, whom my Uncle Robert entertained as guest. On his arrival, taking a cab, the vehicle somehow was upset, and the driver asked him if he would not like to get out whilst it was being lifted on to the wheels again, but he told him he preferred staying comfortably where he was, and so they had to put things right thus, the Professor all the while looking at the crowd of people through the jaws of an enormous shark which he had brought with him. It was quite amusing to witness the enjoyment of unbending in some of these talented men; they seemed like a lot of schoolboys out for a holiday." We see from these notes that Edwin R. Ransome's capabilities as a guide were early [148] discovered and turned to account, and it was an occupation in which he always delighted. When in later years he became a Director of the Wandsworth Gas Company, he used to invite his friends to go round the works with him. A young American lady, who was a guest at his house with her father, wrote after his death, " Irecall the day when he took us through the Gas-works, — and was as enthusiastic as a boy over the different processes and machinery. The dirt and grime did not appeal to me, but his radiance did." In 1852, he and his cousin, Sheppard Ransome, started a hardware business in London, and in the following year Edwin R. Ransome was married to Elizabeth Hunton. After a short stay in Camden Town, he removed with his bride to Wandsworth, " very thankful to be within walking distance of a meeting." The young couple were " received very kindly " by Wandsworth Friends, who at that time were much more numerous than a few years later. " In those days," Edwin R. Ransome wrote, " Wandsworth was comparatively a village with about 12,000 inhabitants, and w& seemed to be quite in the country. One medical [149] man used after dark to carry a lantern in one hand and a pistol in the other, as he went to see some of his patients." But the happy union proved very short, and within a year he was left alone with a little motherless boy. Perhaps it was well for him that for several years the necessary travelling for the business fell to his share. In course of time he had visited most of the principal towns between Aberdeen and Penzance. Wherever he went he was a regular attender of Meetings, and he was received with great kindnesss and hospitality by Friends. Once, at Penrith, he was laid up with a sort of cholera, then very prevalent. A local Friend, Thomas Altham,. hearing of his illness, removed him to his own home, and he and his wife nursed their stranger guest back to health again. In after years he passed on abundantly to others the kindness he had himself received, and " his hospitality was unbounded." " During the six or seven years of my travelling," Edwin R. Ransome wrote, " it was my unflinching rule to let business matters stand aside on First-days, for I had, and still have, great faith in the old saying that - [150] 'A Sunday well spent Brings a week of content, And health for the toil of to-morrow." Peace man though he was, Edwin R. Ransome was also a good fighter. He records that " in the late fifties " he was engaged in a strenuous opposition to local church rates along with another Wandsworth Friend, John D. Watlock. This brought him into close and happy association with the Watlock family; and in 1859, the eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became his wife. Two years later her father died, and her two sisters came to live with her and her husband. This addition to the household, with his own increasing family, necessitated a larger dwelling, and led ultimately to the building of Rushmere Cottage, into which they moved in 1865, and which was Edwin Ransome's home for the rest of his life. He records in his Notes of this period, that " After prayer-fully looking at the matter all round, we concluded that the right thing for us to do was to remain at Wandsworth . . . We had thought we should like to . . . live more in the country, perhaps at Esher . . . but we did not like the idea of leaving poor little Wandsworth Meeting, and so we resolved [151] to remain here and do what we could in helping^ to build it up. Ibelieve this resolution was right and has been blessed by the Lord. " . . . Afterwards, when we annually went to the seaside for summer holidays, it gave us much pleasure to lend our house to Friends from the country thus securing their attendance at our little meeting. Amongst those who came were Samuel Bowly, Marriage Wallis, Alfred Wright, and others." In 1864, Edwin R. Ransome was one of the sufferers from a serious railway accident. At the time he thought that his injury might prove fatal, and his mind turned, he records, " to the dear wife at home, with a dear little one-day- old daughter," yet with it all he could add,. " Ifelt marvellously upheld by Divine power, and my heart was lifted up to my Saviour and my Heavenly Father, in a way that I can never forget, with a quiet sense that all would be rightly ruled . . . . The peace then felt was beyond human power of expression." Hs was moved in a helpless condition to the nearest town, and medically attended till he was able to travel to London in an invalid carriage. With tender thoughtfulness, he contrived to keep from his wife all knowledge of his [152] accident until his return by writing to her daily of other things. About this time he took a leading part in obtaining a Meeting-house for Friends at Hastings, and it was a great satisfaction to him when it was opened in 1866. A few years later he was engaged in a long and arduous struggle for the preservation of Wandsworth Conunon from the encroachments of builders, and it is mainly to him that Wandsworth residents owe what remains of it. For several years he was Chairman of the Board of Conservators of the Common. He was also most actively engaged on the Committee of the War Victims' Fund during the Franco-German War, purchasing and sending out stores at a time when Friends were entrusted with more than £80,000 for distribution. This meant, of course, much laborious and responsible work. It would be impossible to enumerate Edwin R. Ransome's many activities on behalf of his fellow men, both in his own religious communion and outside it. His own Notes pass briefly over these efforts, whilst dwelling at length on many of his earlier memories. He was always ready to join with his fellow men in any movement [152] that appealed to him as being for the uplifting of others. He held out the hand of fellowship to the Salvation Army at its rise, persuading Wandsworth Friends to lend their Meeting House during some week evenings until the Army could secure rooms of its own. He did much to help the cause of Temperance, making himself responsible for a Temperance Coffee House in the High Street. He was much interested in the London City Mission, and had the oversight of a local missionary. For thirty-three years he was Clerk of the Continental Committee of the Meeting for Sufferings, for " corresponding with and having a care over Friends " residing abroad. Beginning with the Friends of Pj^rmont and Minden alone, the Committee came later into friendly touch and sympathy with members of the Society of Friends residing in many parts of the world, particularly with those in Australia. He was like a father to these scattered colonists, sparing no pains to inform himself accurately concerning their position and surroundings, with the conditions of life in each district, till, as an Australian Friend remarked, it was almost impossible to believe that he himself had never crossed the Equator. He did much, however, [154] to promote the visits of others, bringing the need for these before the Yearly Meeting, and succeeding in interesting Friends on behalf of their brothers in other lands, and particularly in the necessity for making provision for the education of the children. It would be impossible to chronicle here all he did for Hobart School, in the welfare of which he took the keenest interest. Another school which he helped to start, and in which he took a warm interest, was the Friends' School for Girls at Nimes, which he visited in company with Joseph Bevan Braithwaite and one of his sons. After a suitable building had been found, it fell to Edwin R. Ransome's share to superintend the necessary alterations and to provide furniture and fittings, a task for which his experience, executiveness and faculty for detail well qualified him. He had inherited not only his father's versatility, but something of his grandfather's inventive faculty. His grandfather had discovered a method by which the blade of a ploughshare "was made to sharpen itself automatically". Whilst at Nimes the party visited Thomas Hanbury at Ventimiglia, and amongst other pleasures greatly enjoyed their exemption from the attentions of the mosquitoes. Thomas [155] Hanbury had exterminated them " by stocking the water with carp fish, which swallowed the larvae suspended just under the surface." In nothing, however, was Edwin R. Ransome more interested than in the meetings of his own Society; his Meeting for Worship, his Monthly or Quarterly Meeting, the Meeting for Sufferings, and Yearly Meeting. He never missed attending these except when prevented by ill-health. He spoke helpfully in our Meeting, literally as a voice from the lowest seat, long before he was recorded a minister in 1889, after which he was at last persuaded to take a seat facing the meeting. His preference for a seat near the door, and consequently behind all his hearers, rose from his desire to be out quickly when the meeting broke up, in order that he might welcome strangers and offer them hospitality. His ministry was always marked by freshness of feeling, simplicity and absolute sincerity of tone. Always it was bright, encouraging and full of hope, like himself. Indeed, its keynote was encouragement to all in trial or difficulty, to trust in and follow the "guiding hand of God," sure of His love and care, and sure that for every sincere follower of Christ all would turn out for the best. His prayers, too, [156] were marked by the same childlike trust and simplicity. After meeting closed, he was out of the room almost before anyone else, speaking to no one till he was outside, and then his greetings were delightfully bright and cordial. Indeed, nothing was more characteristic of Edwin R. Ransome than his joyous buoyancy of spirit. He was full of the joy of living, and seemed always alive himself in every corner of his being, taking keen interest in all experience, and never knowing what it was to be dull. To serve his Lord through serving his fellow men was a constant joy to him. He delighted in his home, in his large family, and in the loving loyal responsiveness of his children as they grew up around him. He had known heavy sorrows. The dearly loved mother of his eight younger children was taken from him soon after the birth of her youngest daughter in 1875, and at no time in his life was Edwin R. Ransome more nearly overwhelmed than by this crushing blow. He was left with so many little children, and their need of a mother's loving care weighed upon him till he knew not what to do. He afterwards married Jane Henrietta Dawson, and when, after a union of fifteen years, [157] he was once more widowed, his eldest daughter was able to be his companion and secretary, and with her sisters to watch over him with loving devotion to the end of his life. He retired from business in 1887, but found full occupation for his time in voluntary work for others, and especially for Friends. Those who knew him only in these later years were struck by his youthfulness of spirit, his kindly joyousness of manner, and the many interests and hobbies to which his leisure hours were devoted. A sympathetic visitor would be shown books in which a neat record was kept of every day's weather, and of the date when the first flower and even the first leaf of tree or plant appeared. He would be invited to examine the collections of fossils, etc., found at Felixstowe, where the summer holiday was usually spent; and where, as the wonderfully active white-haired old gentleman was watched striding along the beach, hammer in hand, and a Scotch cap on his head, he would be taken for some retired Scotch general, — instead of the peaceful Quaker he was. The stones and pebbles he collected were patiently ground and polished at home by his own hands, with quite professional skill. Many [158] geological specimens were sent out to Hobart School for its museum. He loved his garden and kept it in order himself. He liked to show his friends the wild ferns he had collected, and to offer them seeds from "Luther's Tree," as he called it, a Senna Bladder Acacia, grown in his garden from seeds which he had brought from Worms. [PB: Senna Bladder Acacia: [https]://duckduckgo.com/?q=Senna+Bladder+Acacia&t=ffsb&iax=images&ia=images] He always had something of interest to tell. One experience he specially liked to recall was that of seeing his own shadow in the clouds from the gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was towards sundown, when suddenly he saw the shadow of the building on a dark cloud over the city. In the shadow of the building he could see his own; and to make sure it was really the figure of himself which he saw, he waved his arm and the figure did the same. The effect only lasted for a short time, but he was keenly interested in having seen for himself and in such a place, something analogous to the Spectre of the Brocken. Edwin R. Ransome was exceedingly independent in his opinions, and he held to them tenaciously whether others agreed with him or not. It was not easy to him to put himself intellectually, in the place of others, so as to [159] understand their point of view; but however much he might differ in opinion from some of his friends, he was one in heart with them still. His affection remained as warm and true as if they had never disagreed in opinion. And in practice he was equally independent. When his Preparative Meeting decided to hold the mid-week meeting in the evening, he approved the change for others, but announced that as he himself could not come out in the evenings, he should hold his meeting in the morning as before, and should be perfectly happy to hold it alone. And he often did hold it alone and then came away with shining face. It was an hour he would never miss if he could avoid it, and it helped him to spend it in a place endeared by long associations of worship, where naturally " the habit of the soul Feels less the outer world's control." Edwin R. Ransome retained his activity and vigour till the early months of this year. His last illness was a time of [160] frequent suffering and increasing weakness. But his patience and cheery brightness never failed. To him, it seemed that he was no longer able to do anything for others, but in reality it was a time of crowning service; for the foundations of his faith and ministry were then severely tested, and he was enabled to stand the test, and to the last to bear witness to the sustaining presence of his Lord, and thus to set the seal on what he had so long believed and taught. Frequently he would send messages of hope and encouragement to the Wandsworth Friends at their Sunday morning Meeting for Worship. He sank peacefully to rest on the eve of Yearly Meeting. His body was laid in the quiet little grave-yard behind the Meeting-house, in the presence of many Friends from far and near, who united in thanksgiving for a long life of service completed and ministry fulfilled. Noted events in his life were: He worked as an Ironware Factor in London. He was Quaker in 1840 in FMH Haverhill. He worked as a Director of the Wandsworth Gas Company. He worked as a Quaker Minister. Edwin married Elizabeth Hunton,1,14 daughter of Joseph Hunton14 and Fulleretta Sewell,14 on 16 Jun 1853 in FMH Stoke Newington. Elizabeth was born on 12 Nov 1820 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, died on 10 Apr 1854 at age 33, and was buried on 13 Apr 1854 in FBG Stoke Newington. They had one son: Arthur James. 11-Arthur James Ransome1,112 was born on 14 Mar 1854 in Wandsworth. Noted events in his life were: He had a residence in Aviemore, Court Hill, Banstead, Surrey. Arthur married Ida Schelp,1,112 daughter of Ernst Schelp, on 1 Jun 1877 Various sources, including [BNA: archive.org/stream/annualmonitoror1911alex/annualmonitoror1911alex_djvu.txt ______________ [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_in_the_United_Kingdom [PB: one source says the accident occurred the day after one of his daughters was birn — this should help determine the date.] 7 June 1864 7 killed Egham: A special train passed a signal at danger and collided with the train in front[67] 11 October 1864 0 killed unknown Putney. A passenger train collided with a goods train due to passing an unlit signal at danger[68] Thomas-Reynolds-Jane-Housham-blogspot.pdf — this is about Henry Fitzgerald Reynolds et al Thomas Andrew Fitzgerald Reynolds" "1911 CENSUS 1 = EARSLFIELD RD 2= ALLFARTHING LANE 3= THE GROVE 4 = ASLETT ST ETC 5 = Turtle ? Road, Garratt Lane 6= BURNTWOOD LANE 7 = Huntspill St 8= GUELPH ST ETC 9= TREWINT ST ETC 10= SUMMERLEY ST ETC 11=LITTLETON ST 12=LITTLETON ST [both 11 and 12?] 13=EARLSFIELD RD [high nos] 14 = WINFRITH RD 15 = EARSLFIELD RD [mid nos?] 16= VANDERBILT RD 17 = WINFRITH [again!] 18= BROCKLEBANK RD 19= DORLCOTE RD (1-18), BASKERVILLE (36-1 NICOSIA TRINTY RD [200+ — 324, 345 — ?] HENDERSON RD LYFORD RD ALMA TERRACE HERONDALE AVENUE ELLERTON RD [image 461] 7 = 499 1 = image 505 [BNA:
[PYB's TOM — is this THOMAS MALTBY? 14, b. Kensington living 1911 at no73 — the only odd-numbered Loxley house] [There's a fairly full Ancestry family tree — TM married twice, lived Streatham for some of his life, also Isleworth and Richmond , and in 1939 was a "Chartered Secretary to Waterworks . . . [unreadable]. Died Poole 1985. ] [BNA:
8 Loxley / Fisher = 513 CEMETERY LODGE [571] THE COTTAGE WC [573] MAGDALEN [71= 575] 65 = 581 [BNA:
[BNA:
Arthur William Betts Head 1877 34 Male Married Clerk London, United Kingdom 51 Magdalen Road, Wandsworth Common S W 2 Beatrice Helena Betts Wife 1877 34 Female Married 7 London, United Kingdom 51 Magdalen Road, Wandsworth Common S W 3 Eric Edward Beth Son 1904 7 Male London, United Kingdom 51 Magdalen Road, Wandsworth Common S W 4 Phyllis Yvonne Beth Daughter 1909 2 Female WANDSWORTH, England 51 Magdalen Road, Wandsworth Common S W 5 Jessie Ellen Milton Mother's Help (Help) 1889 22 Female Single Mother's Help London, United Kingdom 51 Magdalen Road, Wandsworth Common S W [Hey, PYB says PERCY lived next door - And here is, aged 3, at no.53 (now 77)! [BNA:
15 = 633 No 13! No house? Or was it empty, and therefore not listed? 11 — Geoffrey Cholerton Smith lived here 9 7 5 3 1 = Chapman 1,2, 3 Goldsworth Villas WC [where?] Balliol House — Shardlow = 653 16 Baskerville 304 Trinity rd = 657 _____________ ENUMERATION DISTRICT 20 NICOSIA PATTEN ROUTH [1=image 62 =[https]://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_02389_0061_03?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=586a641210c40aee2644a24f096f3a5f&usePUB=true&_phsrc=PMG3698&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=3835947 20 Routh Rd = image 111 TRINITY RD 174 = image 113 198 = image 139 240 = image 159 260 = image 179 181= 201 267 = 227 LYFORD 66= 229 68 HERONDALE 1 HERONDALE = 233 9 HERONDALE = 241 BURNTWOOD GRANGE = Henry Holloway, Builder and contractor, others in related houses e.g. Fishlock, Gray = 245 — 249 [nb numerous servants] [BNA:
[NB THESE ALL HAVE "UPPER TOOTING" Stamped on them BRODRICK 19 = 309 86 = 447 WANDLE RD NOTTINGHAM RD 23 = 503 [BNA:
BELLEVUE [ has "UPPER TOOTING" stamp] 27 = 533 Swaffield Road Receiving Home and Schools (Earlsfield House) In 1902-3, a large "Intermediate Schools" building, designed by Landsell and Harrison, was erected on Swaffield Road opposite the workhouse entrance. The foundation stone was laid on March 18th, 1902, by the Revd. Hubert Curtis, Chairman of the Wandsworth and Clapham Board of Guardians. The Schools, later adopting the name Earlsfield House, was opened on 12th June, 1903. The building was initially licensed to accommodate up to 150 children, although soon became overcrowded with up to 180 in residence and thirty sleeping on the floor. Wandsworth and Clapham Intermediate Schools from the south, 2004. Peter Higginbotham Wandsworth and Clapham Intermediate Schools, 2004. Peter Higginbotham Dinner Time at Earlsfield House, 1930s. Peter Higginbotham The building has now been converted to residential use. ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM image240 — 256 [BNA: Link. esp. e.g. of a road (not a name) Though it will do either 1891 Census [BNA: Link. 60 Lyford Holloway [BNA:
Battersea Old and New Historically Battersea comprises a large area east from Wandsworth Common to Clapham Common, south from the Thames Riverfront tapering down to Balham. The Village was in the northern part lying back from the Thames. Some aspects of the development of Battersea Semi Rural. Well into the 19th Century Battersea was mainly a rural, agricultural and market garden area, with some industry mainly along the riverfront. Isolated. Until Battersea Bridge was built in 1771 Battersea Village was a backwater. People going to and from London by-passed it using what are now Battersea Park Rd and York//Wandsworth Rds/Lavender Hill and St John's Hill. Industrial Development. The riverfront became important as industries that set up there could be serviced from boats and barges. The 1840s to 1880s saw a dramatic change of Battersea into an industrial area. Railways. From their arrival in 1838 the railways began to dominate the northern part of Battersea helping to trigger the industrial changes with the growth of a large working-class. Politics. A wide-range of mutual, collective self-help organisations were established by local workers including co-operatives, trade unions, friendly societies, loan societies, and cultural, educational and sports organisations. Their political organisations controlled Battersea's local government for all but six years from 1894 to 1964. Battersea Council pioneered municipal services. Religious Social Welfare. The Anglican and Non-Conformist Churches played an important role in providing welfare services before the post-war welfare state was established. Services. The focus of municipal, cultural and retail facilities became based south of the railway line, with the Town Hall and main Library on Lavender Hill, Clapham Junction shopping centre, and music halls and cinema War-time Bombing. Industrial Battersea and the Nine Elms district suffered badly from war-time bombing. De-Industrialisation. The 1950s onwards saw Battersea de-industrialised. Merger with Wandsworth. Battersea ceased to be a local authority in 1964/5 when it was merged into Wandsworth. From then until 1978 political control swung from Labour to Conservative, back to Labour and then since 1978 to Conservative control. Recent Social and Economic Change. Dramatic changes in housing tenure, de-industrialisation and the social and economic composition of the population have resulted in today's Battersea having pockets of high affluence next to pockets of disadvantage. Housing Re-development. As a result of the war damage and slum clearance there were large-scale housing estate developments from the 1950s, including high-rise blocks. Key dates in the history of Battersea (with emphasis on buildings that still exist, or pictures of which can be seen) 1067 William the Conqueror grants the Manor of Battersea to Westminster Abbey. 1627 The St. John family become Lords of the Manor. 1675 Walter St. John gives some cottages to the Church wardens to use as almshouses. 1700 Sir Walter St. John's School is endowed. 1733 Battersea Workhouse opens in Battersea Square. 1736 Baptist Meeting House opens in York Rd. 1763 I saack Ackerman, a London businessman, builds the Sisters House one of which survives as Gilmore House on the corner of Elspeth Rd and Clapham Common Northside. 1771 Battersea Bridge opens a wooden bridge. 1777 St. Mary's Parish Church is re-built. John Fownes opens a glove factory. 1782 William Blake marries Catherine Boucher in Battersea Church. 1790 Horizontal Air Mill is built next to St. Mary's Church. 1801 Benedict Arnold, the American Revolutionary General who switched sides to the British, is buried in the Church. 1811 Town stocks are moved from Battersea Square to church gate. 1815 Wellington's army at Waterloo wear boots built at Marc I sambard Brunel's factory in Battersea. 1827 Henry Beaufoy buys land to build acetic acid factory (closed 1901) 1838 Railway line opens through Battersea from south-west to Nine Elms Israel May Soule is appointed as Baptist Minister (to 1875) 1840 St John's College for training school masters opens in Battersea House. 1843 Price's Candles starts production at York Rd factory using palm oil from West Africa. 1846 Railway line from Richmond opens. 1848 Railway is extended to Waterloo Station. Orlando Jones starch works opens on riverfront (closed 1901) 1849 Christchurch (Battersea Park Rd) is built. 1852 Royal Freemasons' Girl's School relocates to Battersea until 1934. 1855 Earl Spencer sells land on Wandsworth Common to build Royal Victoria Patriotic Hospital. 1856 The Morgan brothers set up the Patent Lumbago Crucible Co, later Morgan Crucible, becoming a major employer till the 1970s. 1858 First Chelsea Bridge opens. Battersea Park opens built on land that had formed part of Battersea Fields. Nine Elms Gasworks starts production. 1860 Railway extends across the river to Victoria. 1863 West London Extension line running across Battersea High St and over the Thames opens. Clapham Junction Station opens. St. John's Church in Usk Rd is built. 1865 Nine Elms Gasworks gasholder explodes ten men killed. 1867 The Congregationalists open their first Church on Battersea Bridge Rd. 1868 St. Paul's Church on St. John's Hill opens. 1870 St. Philip's Church, Queenstown Rd, opens. Education Act leads to building of schools in Battersea. 1871 St. Saviour's Church, Battersea Park Rd, opens After local campaigns Act of Parliament saves Wandsworth and other Commons from development. Battersea Dogs Home relocates to Battersea Park Rd. 1872 Southlands Wesleyan teacher training college opens in Southlands in the High St (until 1927). 1873 Albert Bridge opens. 1874 St. Mark's Church on Battersea Rise opens. 1875 Battersea Grammar School is founded as off-shoot of Sir Walter St. John's 1877 Local campaign saves Clapham Common from development. 1881 Start of tram services 1883 Emanuel School transfers to Battersea Rise. 1885 Arding & Hobbs Department store opens at Clapham Junction. 1889 Vestry opens Latchmere Baths. 1890 New stone Battersea Bridge opens. Central Library on Lavender Hill opens. 1891 Battersea Vestry opens new cemetery in Morden. 1892 John Burns is elected as a socialist as Battersea's Member of Parliament. 1893 Start of building of mansions flats built along Prince of Wales Drive. Opening of Battersea Town Hall (now Arts Centre) on Lavender Hill. 1894 Progressive Alliance of radical, socialists and Liberal organisations takes control of Battersea Vestry. 1894 Battersea Polytechnic on Battersea Park Rd opens. 1895 Salesian Catholic College moves to Surrey Lane. 1900 Battersea Vestry replaced by Metropolitan Borough of Battersea. Progressive Alliance takes control. Grand Theatre, St. John's Hill, opens as music hall, later becoming a cinema, bingo hall and rock venue. 1901 Battersea Council opens its own electricity generating station, and starts to electrify street lighting. 1902 London County buys up tram company and starts electrification form 1903 Anti-Vivisection Hospital opens (later Battersea General Hospital closed 1974) Latchmere (Burns) Estate opens as Battersea Council's first housing scheme. 1907 Short Brothers start making planes in railway arches. Medical students severely damage anti-vivisection Little Brown Dog statue in Latchmere Recreation Ground. 1909 Erksine Clarke retires as Vicar of St. Mary's Arding & Hobbs store is destroyed by fire 8 people die. 1910 London County Council opens St. John's Hospital (closed 1970s) 1920 The South West London Synagogue opens in Bolingbroke Grove (till 2000) 1922 Shapurji Saklatvala, an Indian Communist is elected as Labour MP in 1922; is defeated 1923; re-elected 1924 (to 1929). 1925 Reference Library opens in Altenburgh Gardens. 1929 Work starts to build Battersea Power Station. 1931 Completion of electrification of street lighting 1934 St. John's housing estate is completed on site for former St John's College. 1936 Granada Cinema on St. John's Hill opens on site of Battersea Grammar School, which had moved to Streatham. 1937 Current Chelsea Bridge opens. 1939 Start of Second World War. Battersea experiences heavy bombing. 1945 Council starts Home Help Service 1951 Battersea Park becomes home for Festival Gardens during the Festival of Britain. Last tram runs through Battersea. 1959 Battersea Heliport opens. 1964/5 Battersea Council is merged into the new London Borough of Wandsworth. 1985 Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park is unveiled. 2001 Montevetro apartment block in Church Rd opens. Battersea Population 1831-1871 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 Battersea 5,540 6,887 10,560 19,600 54,016 Clapham 9,958 12,106 16,290 20,894 27,347 Streatham (inc.Balham) 5,068 5,994 6,901 8,027 12,148 Tooting 2,063 2,840 2,122 2,055 2,327 Wandsworth 6,879 7,614 9,611 13,346 19,783 Putney (inc)Roehampton 3,811 4,684 5,280 6,481 9,439 Total Area 33,319 40,125 50,764 70,403 125,060 Battersea % 16.6 17.2 20.8 27.8 43.2 Battersea Population 1881-1921 1891 1901 1911 1921 Battersea 150,558 168,907 167,743 167,739 Clapham 43,698 54,325 58.592 60,540 Streatham (inc.Balham) 42,972 70,933 96,192 52,607 Tooting 5,784 16,473 35,958 40,135 Wandsworth 46,717 68,332 92,376 95,579 Putney (inc)Roehampton 17,771 24,139 28,242 28,558 Source for lines 2-7: Census tabulation by Wandsworth Local History Collection at Battersea Reference Library Some Famous People in Battersea: John Burns. The local socialist leader John Burns becomes a Battersea member of the newly formed London County Council in 1889. From 1889-1892 he is leading figure in Dock and Gas workers' strikes and in the development of New Unions especially among low paid, semi-skilled workers. Many of the new Unions developed into the big unions of today, like Transport & General Workers Union and Unison. 1892 he is elected as socialist MP for Battersea. In 1906 he is appointed Minister in Liberal Cabinet. In 1914 he resigns Cabinet in protest at declaration of First World War. John Archer (1863-1932), black Catholic Liverpuddlian elected as Progressive Councillor. In 1906 he is elected as Progressive Councillor. In 1913 he is elected as Mayor. Supporter of black rights and colonial freedom. Made his living as a photographer. Special interest public health. Campaigner for the unemployed in the 1920s. Backed Shapurji Saklatvala as Battersea Labour MP until 1926 split between Labour and Communists. Block of flats on St John's Estate/Battersea Village named after him. John Smith. 1660s to early 1670s ran a refinery processing sugar from Barbados where he owns plantations. William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Lived in Battersea Rise/Broomwood Rd area 1792-1807. Campaigner in Parliament for abolition of the slave trade. John Walter (1739-1812). Founder of Times newspaper. Lived in Gilmore House 1773-1783. George Alfred Henty (1832-1902). Lived at 33 Lavender Gdns. Journalist and writer of adventure stories for boys. Edward Thomas (1878-1917). Writer and poet, Educated at Battersea Grammer School. Killed in France in 1917. Tom Taylor. Editor of Punch magazine lived on Lavender Sweep (1859-1880). President Lincoln was assassinated while watching Taylor's play 'Our American Cousin' in 1865. Richard Church (1893-1972). Writer. 'Over the Bridge' records his reminiscences of growing up in Battersea as a child. Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912). Died with Scott at the South Pole. Albert Mansbridge. Founded Workers' Educational Association and other educational organisations promoting adult education. Went to Walter Sir John's and Battersea Grammar Schools. George Shearing (1919-) Blind Jazz musician born in Battersea. Now lives in United States. Julian Bream, guitarist (1933-). Born in Battersea. Charlotte Despard. Campaigner for votes for women, freedom for Ireland and other causes. Socialist. Lived and undertook social welfare work in Nine Elms. Caroline Ganley. Leading socialist and co-operator. Battersea and LCC Councillor. Battersea South's MP 1945-51. Buster Merryfield. (1920-99). Born Battersea. Actor. Played Uncle Albert in 'Only Fools and Horses'. Note: transferred from former website." "DOG TALES Dogs chasing the stag across the common The dog shot by 3 soldiers 31 March / April 1860 The dog race = "Legs" v "Fly" = 1871-08-19 Lost dog 1868-09-13 Death of shepherd's dog Dog rescues drowning child — Eastbourne Gazette — Wednesday 28 May 1913 [NB An anti-anti-vivisection story! Link to the Brown Dog]" "The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Property Mapping by Roger J. P. Kain and Elizabeth Baigent University of Chicago Press, 1992 eISBN: 978-0-226-76463-4 | Cloth: 978-0-226-42261-9 Library of Congress Classification GA109.5.K35 1992 Dewey Decimal Classification 333.30223 Throughout history the control of land has been the basis of power. Cadastral maps, records of property ownership, played an important role in the rise of modern Europe as tools for the consolidation and extension of land-based national power. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State, illustrated with 126 maps, traces the development and application of rural property mapping in Europe from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. Beginning with a review of the roots of cadastral mapping in the Roman Empire, the authors concentrate on the use of cadastral maps in the Netherlands, France, England, the Nordic countries, the German lands, the territories of the Austrian Habsburgs, and the European colonies. During the sixteenth century government institutions began to use maps to secure economic and political bases; by the nineteenth century these maps had become tools for aggressive governmental control of land as tax bases, natural resources, and national territories. This work demonstrates how the seemingly neutral science of cartography became a political instrument for national interests. The manuscript of Cadastral Maps in the Service of the State was awarded the Kenneth Nebenzahl Prize in 1991." "SURVEY OF LONDON 49.5 Parks and Open Spaces St Mary's Cemetery [Battersea Cemetery] This cemetery, laid out in 1860 — 1, occupies an L-shaped plot with frontages to Battersea Rise and Bolingbroke Grove (see ill 5.34). Its burial ground and twin mortuary chapels served the whole parish, with a larger consecrated area for Church of England burials and a smaller area for others.189 A lodge was built at the north-west corner of the site, and the whole enclosed by walls and gates. With the rise in Battersea's population a second burial ground was established in Morden in 1890, although this one continued to be used up to the 1960s.190 The Burials Act of 1853 prohibiting interments in churchyards within the metropolis did not insist upon new grounds being provided within the home parish, and in many cases vestries elected to contract with a private necropolis outside London. But in the mid nineteenth century Battersea still possessed a wealth of open spaces, and the then vicar of St Mary's, J. S. Jenkinson, was keen to find a site within the parish. In 1855 a Battersea Burial Board was appointed, composed of the vicars of St Mary's and St George's and members of the Vestry. Burials had already ceased in the churchyard of St Mary's but under the terms of the Burials Act they could continue at St George's until 1858. Jenkinson had consulted Charles Lee, in his role as parish surveyor, about the possibility of acquiring a piece of Wandsworth Common, but when plans emerged for the extension of the West End & Crystal Palace railway across the common, the Board began to look elsewhere.191 A ten-acre site near Christ Church was nearly purchased, but fell through for lack of consensus. Next, another piece of land on the common close to the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum was nearly acquired, but objections from its directors put paid to that option. The timely sale of the Bolingbroke Grove House estate in 1858 finally solved the question. A number of plots offered at auction had failed to sell, and the Burial Board entered into an agreement to purchase three of these lots totalling a little over eight acres.192 Approval was granted by the Secretary of State and the Burial Acts Office by the end of July 1859. Charles Lee drew up plans 'of a simple and inexpensive character' for laying out the ground and for the two chapels, entrance lodge and dead house.193 Building costs were estimated at £3,000 and the Board applied to the Vestry to sanction a loan of £8,000 to cover all their expenses. Usually a formality, this proved a major source of conflict, as some vestrymen strongly opposed providing a parish cemetery at all. At a rowdy meeting, sanction for the loan was refused.194 Members of the anti-burial ground faction now stood for election to the Burial Board. As one-third of its members were supposed to retire annually, it did not take long for the opposition to establish a foothold on the Board. Before they managed to gain the ascendancy the other faction successfully lobbied the Home Secretary to issue a warrant allowing the Board to borrow the money needed to proceed, without the Vestry's sanction. The warrant came through in November 1859 but there were still delays, and the purchase of the ground was not completed until June 1860. Building had begun by October 1860. Contracts were awarded for drainage to Alfred Stacey of Mile End, and for the buildings to Adamson & Sons of Putney. The first burials in the unconsecrated portion of the ground may have taken place around this time, before the buildings had been finished. Permission had loosely been given by Dr Grainger, Inspector of Cemeteries, in response to a plea from the minister of the Battersea Chapel, Israel May Soule, who had learned of three recent cases where 'persons in humble circumstances' had to bury their dead a considerable distance away.195 By the end of the year the buildings had been largely completed and a bell for the chapels ordered from Warner & Sons. The appointment of a superintendent was deferred, but John Ambrose became sexton and started living in the lodge from March 1861. That May the Board was ready to apply to the Bishop of Winchester to consecrate the ground. This coincided with the annual election of members to the Burial Board at which the anti-cemetery faction gained supremacy. Too late to give up on the cemetery, the new board members scrutinized the dealings of the Board and uncovered a number of financial irregularities and falsification of documents by Thomas Reynolds, its solicitor. Reynolds absconded in 1863 owing a considerable sum to the Board. He was later taken into custody, declared bankrupt and committed to debtors' prison. The little twin mortuary chapel range remains the chief feature of the cemetery, a building of simple charm and quiet Gothic details. The chapels, one for Anglicans, one for other denominations, are placed on either side of a tall pointed archway above which sits a meagre bellcote. Each chapel is lit by a lancet at one gabled end, a rose window on the other, but these are switched round so that the east and west elevations are asymmetrical (Ill. 5.38). Among those to have been buried here are John Burns (d.1943); Henry Meyer (d.1865) the ornithologist who published Illustrations of British Birds in 1835 — 43; Sir William Anderson Rose (d.1881), MP for Southampton and Lord Mayor of London in 1862 — 3; William Bishop (d.1961) who established the Wellcome Historical Medical Library and published works on medical history; Kaikhoshru Puntheki, a Parsee lawyer from Bombay, whose gravestone bears a large urn; and Battersea's two long-serving vestry and borough surveyors, J. T. Pilditch (d.1903) and T. W. A. Hayward (d.1937). The finest of the burial ground's memorials is to the sculptor Horace Montford (d.1918), father of Paul Montford, whose work adorns Battersea Town Hall and other local buildings. It also commemorates Horace's wife and his two other sons. A seated female figure of 'Alma Mater' by Horace Montford himself surmounts a pier carrying on one side a roundel with a bas-relief likeness of Gilbert Oscar Montford (d.1900, aged 15) and Horace Louis Montford (d.1930); the later style and dress of the relief suggest it was executed by Paul Montford (Ill. 5.39). REFS 1859: LMA, DW CP/1 194. WHS, D111/1/1, 16 Aug 1859 195. Ibid., 3 Oct 1860 196. LMA, MS 21670/5: CERC, CD 23355, 26278: LMA, DR/OP/5 197. The Times, 30 May 1885, p.8 198. CERC, ECE 7/1/15137; CD 26278 1" "Date? Source? Cemeteries at Wandsworth. Sir H. Peek asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he was aware that the proposal of the Battersea Burial Board to purchase nearly 40 acres of land near Wandsworth Common, in the parish of Wandsworth, had caused great consternation among the rate-payers, in as much as there wore already seven cemeteries in or close to Wandsworth, and one on the borders of that parish for Battersea; that the establishment of another cemetery for a thickly populated parish would not only be prejudicial to a large amount of rateable property, but also in contravention to the intention of the Burial Acts; whether he had been informed that the matter was strongly opposed by the ratepayers of Battersea on account of the large price to be paid for the land; if it were known that the land in question had a sub-soil of clay; and if he would be no good as to cause immediate and fall inquiries to be made into the subject. — Sir W. Harcourt replied that, in consequence of the report on the subject which had been made to him, the site for the cemetery in question would not be approved. NO MORE CEMETERIES.png Where would these 40 acres have been?" TRINITY ROAD — used to be called WANDSWORTH LANE And the lower part, sometimes Wheatsheaf Lane List all variants e.g. isn't it sometimes called "Road between Tooting and Wandsworth"?" "BATTERSEA CEMETERY [BNA: Link. Surrey Churches Index A guide to Churches and Graveyards in Surrey for family historians Battersea Cemetery Go to the Surrey Churches Index Go to the West Surrey Family History Society Home page click here to jump to the location map towards the bottom of the page image of cemetery Copyright Marathon and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence The Surrey Monumental Inscriptions Library has no records for Battersea Cemetery. The cemetery is also known as St. Mary's Cemetery or Battersea Rise Cemetery. for more information about which Monumental Inscriptions are available contact: monumental@wsfhs.org The cemetery is in the ecclesiastical parish of Battersea Rise, St Mark. Friends of Surrey Cemeteries (Surrey Cemeteries: a survey, 2012): Battersea Rise, Bollingbroke Grove SW11 1HE. Opened 1860, closed 1960. 8.5 acres. Chapel. Wandsworth BC, Putney Vale Cemetery. Parish churchyard closed to burials 1853 and 9 member burial board formed and 8.5 acres purchased. Small L shaped cemetery. Iron gates and a rebuilt lodge plus a pair of tiny Gothic chapels. (one unused). Designed by Charles Lee of Golden Square, built by Adamsons & Sons of Putney. Total cost 8,000. Conservation area. Plane trees and poplars, vandalism and council policy of laying flat unstable headstones. Many rhyming epitaphs from the local school of poets. Tombstone designs less interesting however. Medical Officer of Health report in 1870s said 10,500 burials by 1873 since opening in 1860. 1098 in 1873. The 8 acres would soon be full. Common graves left open, holding 14 adults or 26 children each. There appears to be less than required layer of earth between coffins. Burials now taking place in the 4ft between graves leaving only 2ins between coffins. In Apr 1880 the Vestry of Battersea decided to purchase the Earlsfield estate for a 34 acre new cemetery for Battersea. St Mary's closed to common interments on sanitary grounds Apr 1881. Census of London burials in Aug 1889 showed 24,600 burials at St Marys. In Jan 1900 Adelaide Hemmings aged 26 was charged with attempted suicide in the cemetery after taking chloroform there. Battersea Library, 265 Lavender Hill has Battersea BB minutes 1855-93 and accounts 1890-96 plus burial register 1860-1935 (with some gaps). Cemetery said to be closed 1960 but 21stC burials found. Visited 2011 — Nice avenues of English trees on north-south axis. Chapels locked up but looked to be in reasonable condition. Metal gates and fencing/walls along roads and backs of houses. Lodge painted green but would appear to be private now. Recent burials especially in south eastern area. North eastern full of headstones. Nothing spectacular although Parsee memorial nice and several headstones with glass pictures (Whittingham) and inlays (Glassborow). Also relief of boy with woman in the background below female statue (Montford). Some vandalism and laying down. Main gates chained up at night. Pedestrian gate in northwest corner. No facilities but the odd seat. WSFHS CD24(A 2nd Collection of Surrey Baptisms not in The IGI) has baptismal records for: Battersea Christ Church from 1861 to 1876, Battersea St. Mark from 1868 to 1875, Battersea St. Paul from 1869 to 1876, and, Battersea St. Philip from 1869 to 1876. WSFHS CD29(A 2nd Collection of Metropolitan Surrey Burials) has burial records for Battersea Christ Church from 1862 to 1866, Battersea St. Mary from 1778 to 1865 WSFHS CD39. (A 3rd Collection of Surrrey Baptisms) has christening records for: Battersea St. George from 1853 to 1877 Battersea St. John from 1863 to 1876 See our sales page for more information (opens in a new page). Battersea is a district in the London Borough of Wandsworth Unless otherwise stated the dates for the creation of parishes are taken from Youngs, Frederick. A., jr.. Guide to the Administrative Units of England; Royal Historical Society: London, 1979 volume 1 Southern England. The Wandsworth Index will show you all the churches and cemeteries we know of in the London Borough of Wandsworth. If we have missed any or you are looking for a church or graveyard that might no longer exist do please let us know using the email at the bottom of this page If you came to this page from our main index to churchyards If you came from the Wandsworth page use the button at the top of this page to close the page and go back to the Wandsworth index. Links Cemetery web page Wikipedia British History on-line [VCH] British History on-line [Old and New London] contact us: [BNA: surreychurches.org.uk/contact ///volunteered.badly.scare contact us: [BNA: surreychurches.org.uk/contact Tony Kelly 2014-2021 Page last updated: 16 June 2020 web site sponsored by Wychhill Consulting wychhill web site logo" "MAGDALEN RD CEMETERY c.32 acres Introduction Wandsworth Cemetery is on sloping ground alongside Magdalen Road. The layout features a gridiron pattern of paths meeting in a series of ronds-points around which the older monuments are erected, many of them having solid plinths topped by urns, obelisks or crosses. Wandsworth Cemetery is on sloping ground alongside Magdalen Road, and was set up by the Wandsworth Burial Board in 1878. It was later enlarged in 1898. The layout features a gridiron pattern of paths meeting in a series of ronds-points around which the older monuments are erected, many of them having solid plinths topped by urns, obelisks or crosses. The newer section of the cemetery is on raised land beyond a line of horse chestnut trees along the west of the cemetery. The main entrance has a lodge and driveway leading to the chapels, with two garden areas to the south of the drive, enclosed partly by hedging and stone wall. There are a number of war memorials set in formal planting. Sources consulted: Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons, 'London Cemeteries, An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer', 4th edition (The History Press, 2008) For more information see [http]://www.londongardensonline.org.uk/gardens-online-record.asp?ID=WND066 Pip's Patch Pip Pointon's website — for all things Pip! Memories of a beetle collector April 7, 2020 From the Past, In Wensleydale Pip Pointon knicker-bockers A boy filling his pockets with bottles so that he could collect beetles and other creepy crawlies conjures up memories of Gerald Durrell — or even his mentor, Theodore Stephanides. But this Theodore died in 1923, two years before Durrell was born. The Rev Canon Theodore Wood FES (1863-1923) followed his father, the Rev John George Wood (1827-1889), in almost everything. Both trained to become Church of England clergy but then went on to become well-known for their popular books and articles about natural history. (Left: A boy in knicker-bockers like those Theodore Wood would have worn. Theodore had a sister, Amy, who was two years younger than him. The illustration is from the March 1892 issue of The Church Monthly.) Theodore wrote in his biography about his father: "[It] may fairly be claimed for my father that he was the first to popularise natural history, and to render it interesting and even intelligible to non-scientific minds." (The Rev J G Wood; His Life and Work by Theodore Wood FES) The 1892 compilation of The Church Monthly owned by Aysgarth Church begins with a letter by the Rev Fenwick Stowe, Vicar of Aysgarth, introducing the new parish magazine. That January he reported that he had given the second of his two lectures (illustrated with lantern slides) about his visit to Canada "in the Gymnasium". I am grateful to Bob Ellis and Liz Kirby for identifying this as having been a room in the tall building at the top of Church Bank opposite the Aysgarth Falls Hotel. In the 1881 census it was called the Palmer Flatt Boarding School and was also known to the local community as the Rev Hales's school — for its headmaster from 1877 was the Rev Clement T Hales (1845-1900). He moved what had become Aysgarth School to its present site at Newton-le-Willows in 1890. From 1907 to 1947 the building housed the Aysgarth TB sanitorium. In January 1892 the two-page parish magazine included the church notices and information about two baptisms. It ended with this comment by the Vicar: "We hope every one has noticed the beauty of our Christmas decorations." This was followed by the January edition of The Church Monthly beginning with: january_titmice Rev Wood: For more than twenty years now, with two or three brief interruptions, I have been one of those fortunate mortals who are able to enjoy a country ramble at all seasons of the year. I have made pretty fair use of my opportunities. I began by incurring scorn and contumely at school because I would prefer insects to cricket, so that a fine "painted lady" or "lime hawk" seemed to me a better and a greater thing than a score of ever so many, not out; I have been looked upon as a sort of amiable lunatic almost ever since, owning to my fondness for going about with a net in my h and, and my pockets stuffed out with bottles and pill-boxes; and I am still regarded by a certain section of my parishioners as one who ought, by all means, to be encouraged (on the strength of sixpence apiece paid for many a blindworm and hedgehog), but who is undoubtedly in some respects much more than a little "daft". "'Ee bring whoam to-ads in 'is 'arnkerchief, 'ee du." But the result is, that from January to December I know pretty well what is going on in the fields and woodlands around me, where it is to be looked for, and how it is to be found. January might not seem a very promising month for out-door rambling; and yet I have always found much to interest me. Once I went out, from pure curiosity, and without the least expectation of finding anything, to fish in a small pond, when the ice was five inches thick, and a sharp north-east wind was blowing. The cold was fearful, and seemed to numb one to the very marrow; yet life in that little pond was going on very much as usual. The frost had been too much for the fish, it is true; for the thick ice had prevented them from obtaining a proper supply of air-. When Icut out a hole with the chopper which I had brought with me, and sent down my net into the depths below, I found that the more lowly inhabitants of the waters were very lively indeed. Up came a big black beetle- a water boatman — a water-scorpion too, a flat, dull creature, with great jaw-like forelegs and a long bristle sticking out from the end of his body. There were several tiny beetles and several tiny grubs which would be beetles by-and-by, always provided that none of their numerous enemies ate them meanwhile. In the outer world, however, insects during a frost, are conspicuous by their absence. As a matter of fact, they are as numerous as ever; only they are all in hiding. Moss is full of them; the loose rubbish underneath haystacks swarms with them; there are numbers beneath the bark of decaying trees, in company with a perfect host of spiders, wood-lice and centipedes; buried in the ground there are numbers and numbers more. Farmers mostly welcome a hard winter largely with the notion that it will kill down the insects. Never was a more mistaken idea. If anything, indeed, a hard winter is rather beneficial to insects for it prevents the birds from getting at them. And in the following summer they are nearly always unusually plentiful. Winter moths are curious creatures. One sees numbers of them on fences and tree-trunks in January when the weather is mild; and at night the attractions of the gas-lamps lure hundreds of them to their doom. They are very dull and unattractive-looking beings, most of them; slight in body and sombre in hue, with nothing whatever remarkable about them. But these are the males. The singularity lies in the females, which are fat-bodied, long-legged, spider-like creatures, with only the merest apologies for wings, and bearing no resemblance whatever to their lords and masters. What charms the latter can see in them it is difficult to understand. They are not pretty in our eyes; they are not graceful; they cannot even fly. Yet no doubt they are as beautiful in the eyes of the other sex as if they were as broad-winged themselves, and flashing with all the resplendent glories of some of the tropical butterflies. One of these winter moths is white, and has a curious faculty of rendering itself quite indistinguishable when sitting upon a black fence. This it does by choosing a spot which has been splashed with mud by passing vehicles; and the mud-spot and the moth, somehow or other, from a few feet away, look to the unpractised eye exactly alike. The titmice [blue tits] are making themselves very conspicuous. They like to be fed with fat in the winter months, and the best way to do it is to tie up a lump of suet in a piece of wide-meshed netting, and then suspend it by a yard or so of string from the branch of a tree. By this plan it is protected from the ever-aggressive sparrow, who cannot cling to the netting as the titmouse can, and is obliged to look jealously on while that feathered athlete peck away at the feast. The sparrow has often hustled the titmouse away from the morning crumbs on the window-ledge; it is something to the titmouse to find him baffled for once. Nothing to see this January day? There is life, and plenty of it, everywhere about us. A fox prowling cautiously round that rabbit-warren on the side of the hill. Hounds don't hunt him on frosty days, and he feels safe, and is looking about for a nice fat rabbit for dinner. Here on this twig is a batch of insects' eggs, encircling it in a broad ring as regularly as if they had been affixed by human art; there is a cocoon, spun neatly up in a chink of the bark. A neighbouring bough is riddled with beetle burrows; they tell a tale of disease and impending death. Even that tuft of grass at our feet is full of slumbering tenants. We may not hear the busy hum of life that by-and-by will greet us; we may not see the thronging hordes of active creatures that by-and-by will be at work in wood and heath and fi8eld. Yet Nature is never really asleep; and even on this cold January day her pulses are throbbing around us, and her armies have only to be looked for in order to be found ********************** It was reported in the February edition of the parish magazine that the weather had been so bad on January 18 that the Sunday School children from Thornton Rust had not been able to attend the Parish Tea in the Gymnasium. But those from Aysgarth and West Burton were there for the prize giving. They also provided the entertainment which included a number of new "Action Songs". Two days later a concert, also in the Gymnasium, was well attended. The vicar reported on two other concerts — and a serious epidemic of influenza. He wrote: "The epidemic has certainly reached us now but up to date of writing no very bad cases have been reported. It is much to be hoped that by God's blessing the change in the weather may tend to stay the spread of the complaint." There was also a short financial report about the West Burton Clothing Club in 1891. It was noted that the club was started in 1874 and that more than -250 worth of clothing had been distributed to the poor of West Burton. In his "A February Ramble" the Rev Wood grumbled about our British winters: "There is no depending upon winter at all. It may bring us a long spell of Siberian cold or it may pass by with scarcely a week of frost or a fall of snow." He commented again on the fickleness of British weather in his March report (below). In March the Rev Stowe reported that the list of Lent preachers was not complete "chiefly owing to the influenza". But at least the churches were open — which cannot be said this year as we approach Easter. *********************** march_thrush Rev Wood: March, to me, has been a month of many and grievous disappointments. When I was a boy in knicker-bockers, madly enthusiastic as any boy could be over butterflies, and moths, and beetles, and things creeping of every kind — with the exception of centipedes which have ever been my abhorrence — Ialways look forward with hope and gladness to the first few days of March as the end of the winter of my discontent. According to the books in which Ibelieved with all my small heart and soul, birds ought to be building, and flowers starting up, and bees busily working, and butterflies enjoying the warm spring sunshine, and moths flocking in their multitudes to the honey-laden catkins of the sallow. And yet, when that distressful month dawned, I sallied forth again and again, and searched tree-trunks by the hundred, and fences by the mile, and turned over stones in number greater than I should like to count, only to return home with saddened countenance, and boxes empty as when Iset out. And once, later, I took a special holiday in March, and went down to a certain favoured spot by the sea, on the strength of many notable captures made at that particular time in the preceding year, only to see the snow on the ground during the whole fortnight that I was there, while the wind never for a moment came from any quarter but the east. So that not a single insect summoned up courage to venture from its retreat. Yet I have had many pleasant rambles in March, and seen many curious and interesting sights; for when the weather is mild, Nature commences her spring work in a hurry. Birds do begin to build, sometimes, and even get well on with family matters before the end of the month. One can always look with some degree of certainty, for instance, for the nest of the thrush. For thrushes have two or even three broods to bring up in the course of the season, and therefore it behoves them to begin work early if they want to get their first quartet of nestlings fairly started in life before the gooseberries and currants are ripe. But they are not at all wise birds in the way they set about their task. Their one great aim and object, indeed, seems to be to make their nest as obtrusively conspicuous as possible. So they either select a young and solitary tree, in which it must be plainly visible for fifty or sixty yards in every direction (they like oaks best, because the leaves are longest in coming), or they place it within a yard or two of a much-frequented pathway, or they leave a long streamer of straw hanging down, which cannot but attract the notice of every passer-by. The blackbird, too, which begins building about the same time, is quite as foolish, although in a different way. It takes a good deal of trouble to conceal its nest, and stands by it most pluckily until one is just abreast of the bush in which it is built. Then, however, its courage seems suddenly to fail it, and off it flies with a loud and terrified squall, which inevitably betrays the secret of its dwelling. A year of two ago I found a nest which had clearly been built by a blackbird of an original and economical turn of mind; for it was placed upon a bramble-branch against a paling, in such wise that the paling itself did duty as part of the structure. Strictly speaking, in fact, it was only half a nest, which was fastened against the fence very much as that of the martin is fastened against the wall of a house. After making it, however, the builder seemed to have been disappointed with the result, for no eggs were laid in it, and it had apparently been deserted as soon as it was finished. A warm, sunny day in March is sure to bring out some butterflies. Most of these have been hiding away since the autumn in dark, sheltered corners, and are now bent on recuperating their bodily energies after their prolonged fast. So their object is to find, if it be possible, some early spring flower which will furnish them with a draught of refreshing nectar. Most of these butterflies look much the worse for wear. Their six weeks of pleasure and idleness in the autumn have result in wings chipped and torn, and the loss of many a plum and scale. And some are so tattered and worn that one marvels that they can fly at all. But this pale yellow sulphur fluttering lazily by is as perfect and fresh as possible. He looks as if he has never flown before. As far as appearances go, he might have come out from the chrysalis this very day. ~And it is more than likely that he has don so for sulphurs, unlike peacocks, and admirals, and tortoiseshells, do not live through the winter as perfect butterflies, but wait until the first warm days of spring to emerge from the pupal shell. Once, and only once, Iran a sulphur butterfly down in fair chase — soon after Ibegan collecting when sulphurs, as yet, were rarities to me. It led me for fully three-quarters of a mile through a piece of rough and hilly woodland, and at last dropped utterly exhausted in the ferns just before me. Ikilled it, and pinned it into my collecting-box — a proceeding for which I have ever since been sorry. The insect had struggled gamely for its life and done far more than could have been expected of a little weak-winged butterfly. And I think it deserved its life. We shall very likely see a squirrel — not gambolling among the trees, as by-and-by he will, but either visiting or returning from one of those stores of nuts and beech-mast which he laid up so carefully in the autumn. For his appetite, after five months or so of slumber, is as keen as that of the butterflies, and he is now able to reap the fruits of that strange instinct which led him to provide for a future of which, very likely, he had no conception at all. For how can a squirrel of three of four months old know that a time of frost and cold is coming in which it will be able to find no food? Yet it lays up its stores, just as if it had lived for years. Truly a wonderful instinct. Ionce say a squirrel drop from the upper branches of a lofty tree. In leaping from one bough to another his missed his footing, and fell some fifty feet to the ground. Iran to the spot, expecting to find him a crushed and quivering carcase; but long before I could reach him he was on his feet again, scampering as fast as his short legs would carry him to the nearest tree, and apparently none the worse for his tumble. For a squirrel, when he falls, stretches out his legs to their full extent, and converts himself into a kind of parachute; so that the air buoys him up, just as it buoys up on oyster-shell or a flat stone when we throw it sideways. And consequently the rapidity of his descent is greatly lessened, and he alights on the ground uninjured. Share this: Related Rambles of a Naturalist in March and April 1900 April 9, 2021 In "From the Past" Nightingale Duet April 16, 2020 In "In Wensleydale" Rambles of a Naturalist, January and February 1900 February 28, 2021 In "From the Past" Post navigation - Children's Playtime early 1890s Nightingale Duet - Pip's Patch — 2008-2019 All Rights Reserved. Managed by Dales Computer Services" "[http]://www.aircrewremembered.com/cwgc-explanation.html" target="_blank">Link Many of the graves are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Note: Not all relatives of lost servicemen have a Commonwealth War Grave — many chose to have their own family gravestone. These are 'not' maintained by the CWGC, responsibility to maintain these remain that of the relatives. The blueprint that they follow is 'what was done for one — should be done for all, and that all, whatever their military rank or position in civil life, they should have equal treatment in their graves.' The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, (now shortened to CWGC) recommends the use of individual headstones. For those with no known grave, they would now have their names inscribed on a larger memorial near the site of where they fell. Others have described an SP or 'special memorial' which are normally inscribed as 'Buried Near This Spot.' (see below) They follow that every British cemetery would contain two distinctive memorials. One would symbolise Christian sacrifice, representing the majority religion of the British forces. The other would be a memorial stone, a non-denominational altar, to 'meet many forms of religious feeling.'Each had to adhere to the brief, the universal principals that would define the British military cemetery. Most headstones were to be made from Portland Stone — the same material used to build Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral. (There are some exceptions to this — for example many in Scotland and Canada use a granite form of stone) They had to take note of layout guidelines — the Stone of Remembrance had to be placed in the East, the headstones in lines and also facing East. Featured: Scottow Cemetery near Coltishall, NorfolkMilitary cemeteries: Here war graves appear alongside other non-world war service burials. These cemeteries largely remain the property of the Ministry of Defence, with the Commission taking responsibility for the Commonwealth world-war graves. Many of these sites have a similar maintenance regime and commemorative approach to the war cemeteries that we directly control and maintain. War grave plots: In both World Wars, land was set aside by cemetery authorities and churches specifically for war burials. There are about 600 of these plots, containing between them 20,000 graves. These plots generally contain horticultural and structural features common to the Commonwealth war cemeteries abroad including a Cross of Sacrifice or Stone of Remembrance if the plot, or total number of graves, is large enough. Under a new initiative, where there are distinct groups of ten or more war graves in a cemetery, the CWGC is able to turn these into war grave plots by introducing headstone borders and planting. They are working to place a CWGC plate on the entry to all cemeteries where CWWG are located. Screen walls: Where local regulations prevented the marking of individual graves by headstones, screen walls were erected to commemorate the individuals by name. In addition, screen walls can be used to commemorate casualties whose remains were cremated and also in instances of 'alternative commemoration', where the graves in a cemetery or churchyard are no longer deemed maintainable. Special Memorials / Alternatively Commemorated: This is where an individual is commemorated at a different location to their actual place of burial. This is usually due to reasons beyond the control of the CWGC, where it is no longer possible to mark or maintain the registered war grave and where exhumation and reburial in a war cemetery or plot is impossible or impracticable. Alternative commemorations can take different forms, including special memorial headstones, screen walls, or group memorials. These differ from the memorials to the missing that the CWGC also maintains, which commemorate individuals with no known graves. Special Memorials are CWGC headstones which look the same as the usual ones but which do not sit over an actual grave. They have a superscription across the top denoting their purpose. They commemorate men who are buried in the cemetery but whose exact location is unknown or those buried in a grave in another cemetery which is now lost or is unmaintainable. The list is as below: Special Memorial: "Buried elsewhere in this cemetery" Special Memorial: "Believed to be buried in this cemetery" Special Memorial: "Known to be buried in this cemetery" Special Memorial: "Buried near this spot" Special Memorial: "Believed to be . . . . . . . . . . . . " Special Memorial: "Buried in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cemetery (or Churchyard)" Scattered war graves: Individual graves account for the great majority of war burials in the UK and are to be found in every conceivable type of burial ground including many local churchyards. The majority are marked with Commission headstones but a significant number, over 30,000, are marked by private memorials chosen by relatives at the time. These graves are perhaps the most challenging to maintain as they are generally located amongst other graves that are not the responsibility of the CWGC. Here the CWGC has had to adopt a practical approach to care. The headstone should be clean and upright and the surroundings should be tidy. The grave should be accessible but it is generally not possible to establish or maintain border planting in front of the grave. (see samples) The CWGC maintain their graves to a high standard. Many families elected to have their relatives buried in family graves. Sadly over time these can be neglected, for whatever reason, as this sample of the pilot's grave of Blenheim L1516 lost on the 24th May 1940 clearly shows. The CWGC have no jurisdiction to maintain them. (We understand that there maybe many reasons why such graves have failed to be maintained and as such decline to comment) Contact Details for CWGC: (Please try and mention Aircrew Remembered with enquiries — it does help us regarding our recognition) Commonwealth War Graves Commission2 Marlow RoadMaidenheadBerkshireSL6 7DX Email Runnymede Memorial: The Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede commemorates by name over 20,000 airmen who were lost in the Second World War during operations from bases in the United Kingdom and North and Western Europe, and who have no known graves. They served in Bomber, Fighter, Coastal, Transport, Flying Training and Maintenance Commands, and came from all parts of the Commonwealth. Some were from countries in continental Europe which had been overrun but whose airmen continued to fight in the ranks of the Royal Air Force. Others such as the Malta Memorial and the Alamein Memorial follow the same guide lines. As from May 2017 we are able to offer a high resolution photograph of every panel at the Runnymede Memorial — thanks to one of our new volunteers. Please contact us for further details. As time moves on, research uncovers new information which sometimes confirms an identity of a lost one and that they do in fact have a headstone — as and when absolute positive proof is submitted to the CWGC — details are amended. Although their names are not normally removed from the panels. We have many locations that we have investigated to various degrees where we are sure the graves marked as 'Known Unto God' are the graves of crew members. One such case are the graves of the crew from 18 Squadron Blenheim IV L9325. Which we are proud to have been able to assist with this, as indeed, many others! We fully accept the reasons why the CWGC have to be so very careful with reports sent to them. In the UK cases relating to identification of RAF personnel are a matter for the Air Historical Branch of the RAF who do the work on behalf of the MOD JCCC. The RAF, RCAF, RAAF and RZNAF authorities are equally prepared to look at individual cases. The Runnymede memorial is a beautiful and a well laid out area, well worth the visit, parking is easy, wreaths, photographs, mementoes are often laid by visiting relatives from all over the world — of course these are removed after a period of time to keep the area to the standard the CWGC strives to maintain. Anyone not able to visit the memorial, but would like a photo of the panel are invited to contact us and we will do our best to accommodate your wishes. (Maybe not immediately — but we will do our best) Sadly, the Missing Research and Enquiries Unit (MREU), which had been tasked to identify lost aircrew, was disbanded in the early 1950s despite their results — due to the expense. Through thorough research, intelligence and medical reports, they discovered many aircrew that had been 'lost without trace'. In 2016 further research by many amateur researchers are trying to change this — the CWGC will take action once definitive proof has been submitted. It is worth mentioning that other nations, in particular the USA has promised their nation that all their service people will either be brought home or identified and buried where they were lost. In 2017, some 70 plus years — they continue to fulfil that promise! Some relatives, when a loved one was lost within the United Kingdom, could claim the body and that would be honoured and then moved to the cemetery of the choice of the family — normally their home town. A CWGC headstone would be erected and maintained if chosen. Otherwise a private headstone could be erected at the cost of the family." "[https]://inews.co.uk/news/ww1-first-world-war-somme-commonwealth-war-graves-commission-remembrance-armistice-210693 Revealed: The loving messages etched on the graves of British soldiers killed in the First World War The parting words left by the loved ones of British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the First World War are [. . . ] Thy servant sleeping. (Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission) By Dean Kirby Northern Correspondent October 18, 2018 8:46 pm(Updated August 21, 2020 11:17 am) The parting words left by the loved ones of British and Commonwealth soldiers killed in the First World War are being revealed as families prepare to honour their memory during the centenary of the Armistice. Staff at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have gathered together some of the 220,000 messages carved on headstones in battlefield cemeteries that the organisation has tenderly maintained for a hundred years. When the Commission began its work to locate and rebury the war dead from the war their next of kin were offered the chance to add a personal inscription to the headstone. Limited to just 66 stone-engraved characters, mourning families had less than the space of a tweet to summarise the life and hopes of their loved ones. But some of those personal tributes are remarkable according to Dr Glyn Prysor, chief historian at the Commission. "These personal messages from the aftermath of the First World War give us a priceless insight into the emotions of families grieving the loss of their loved ones," he said. "When they chose these tributes — often several years later — many turned to scripture, others to literature. "Often they sought to explain or justify the sacrifice. But they also give us a sense of the personalities of those who died as well as those left behind. "While many are sombre, others are proud, defiant, and even humorous, reminding us that the public response to the war wasn't as straightforward as we might think." The parting messages range from jokes and family messages to scripture and subtle protest and bring to life the human stories behind the people commemorated by the Commission. These words have a profound impact, connecting us with those who lived through the trauma of the First World War, and encouraging us to reflect on our own lives and values. Dr Glyn Prysor, chief historian at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Many give an immediate sense of the person the words commemorate and include striking examples such as one that says: "Shot at dawn, one of the first to enlist, a worthy son of his father." Another says: "An only son killed in action on his way to his leave and wedding." A third says: "On this your wife's birthday, you gave your life for me." A fourth adds: "He would give his dinner to a hungry dog and go without himself." A musical score was etched onto this gravestone. (Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission) A musical score was etched onto this gravestone. (Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission) The huge number of languages and cultures among those who died are reflected in the personal inscriptions including French, Latin, Greek, Gaelic, Afrikaans, Mandarin characters, the Canadian First Nations Cree language, and even one inscription which simply features a bar of musical notation. In looking back at the quarter of a million inscriptions on First World War headstones, the Commission's historians also found some surprising trends, including Australians being the most likely in the then-British Empire to pay tribute to the King. Another theme discovered was how few personal inscriptions were addressed directly to the casualty, with large numbers instead addressing a visitor who would be reading the headstone. Researchers believe this shows that from the very beginning many families were aware these headstones would become part of a public process of grieving and remembrance. A simple message that says so much about the horrors of the First World War. (Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission) A simple message that says so much about the horrors of the First World War. (Photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission) 'These words have a profound impact' The Commission, which cares for graves at 23,000 sites around the world, has launched an online exhibition, Shaping Our Sorrow, which tells the story of how it helped the nation come to terms with the unprecedented loss of life at the end of the First World War. More than 220,000 personal inscriptions are listed next to the names of the war dead on its website. Dr Prysor said: "Visiting a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery is always a moving experience, but the most poignant part is often the simple and heartfelt messages from far away families. "These words have a profound impact, connecting us with those who lived through the trauma of the First World War, and encouraging us to reflect on our own lives and values."" "In Philip Longworth's book "The Unending Vigil — The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission" he records that this issue was hotly debated. It seems that the Canadian Government insisted that it would pay for all the inscriptions of its soldiers and not ask the families to pay. The British compromised, and although Longworth implies that payment for private inscriptions was asked for, in many cases the families could not pay, so in the end the British made the payments voluntary. I am interested in what was the source for the 6p and the 3.5p? Irecall readings somewhere of cost per letter but Longworth's books does not give details. Edit: Trefor Jones' book "On fame's Eternal Camping Ground — A Study of First World War epitaphs in the British Cemeteries of the Western Front" quotes the Imperial War Graves Commission circular letter to the next of kin. The instructions for inscriptions reads as follows: " Inscriptions requiring the use of special alphabets such as Greek etc cannot be accepted The length of the inscription is limited by the space on the stone It cannot therefore exceed a certain number of letters The number of letters is 66, less the number of spaces between the word of the inscription. For instance if you chose an inscription of twelve words, the total number of letters permissible is 66, less ll or 55 letters. The inscribing of this inscription will be at your expense At current rates the cost per letter will be 3 1/2d. and is subject to future fluctuations of cost . . . " The 'your' was in bold type . . . In 1927 the father of a man was charged 3d. not 3 1/2 d. per letter and there was no mention of voluntary payment and in the same year someone was not charged for the spaces between. Jones' book also records one private soldier's gravestone with 400 characters and spaces, so it seems there were inconsistencies. Both these book are well worth buying for anyone interested in this subject. MG" "[http]://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=chatterbox CHATTERBOX The Online Books Page presents serial archive listings for Chatterbox Chatterbox was a weekly British paper of stories for children, published in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was also published as an annual for much of its run, in both the UK and the US. (The UK annual came in two editions, one with ads and one without.) Publication History Chatterbox was founded in 1866 by John Erskine Clarke, who edited the paper until 1902. It ceased publication in 1955. Persistent Archives of Complete Issues 1867-1869, 1871-1875, 1877, 1879-1882, 1884-1885, 1887, 1889, 1891, 1894-1897, 1899, 1901-1902, 1904-1906, 1909, 1913, 1915, 1917, 1922: HathiTrust has many of the early volumes scanned as page images from the University of California. The pre-1877 scans appear to be of the weekly paper; the later ones appear to be the (American) annuals. Some additional volumes not in this set are listed below. 1877: HathiTrust has a London annual for 1877. 1877-1878: HathiTrust has a volume for 1877 and 1878 that may be an unauthorized New York edition. 1890: HathiTrust has the American annual for 1890. 1898: HathiTrust has the annual for 1898. 1905-1906: Project Gutenberg has the American annuals for 1905 and 1906, as illustrated transcriptions. 1912: HathiTrust has the American annual for 1912. 1919: HathiTrust has the American annual for 1919. It mentions that there was no annual for 1918, due to wartime paper shortages. 1920: HathiTrust has the American annual for 1920. 1921: HathiTrust has the American annual for 1921. This is a record of a major serial archive. This page is maintained for The Online Books Page. (See our criteria for listing serial archives.) This page has no affiliation with the serial or its publisher. Help with reading books -- Report a bad link -- Suggest a new listing Home -- Search -- New Listings -- Authors -- Titles -- Subjects -- Serials Books -- News -- Features -- Archives -- The Inside Story Edited by John Mark Ockerbloom (onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu) OBP copyrights and licenses. _______________________ HUGE COLLECTION [BNA: archive.org/details/chatterboxmagazine" " LIVED ON LYFORD RD John Henry Dearle Bear Bell Productions " "The Wandsworth Libraries Service has two copies, Philip: The Heritage Service also has this interesting unpublished manuscript: A Webster Springfield Hosital: an unpublished history of SHG from 1841-mid1960s [1967] All the best Neil. From: 'Philip Boys' via WHS Research Sent: 10 December 2021 14:42 To: whs-research@googlegroups.com Cc: Philip Boys Subject: "Springfield : a short history" by Ian Lodge Patch Hello, all Does anybody have a copy of small pamphlet (18pp): "Springfield: a short history" by Ian Lodge Patch? He was a psychiatrist at the mental hospital. It was published c. 1989 by the Friends of Springfield Hospital. There's a copy in the Wellcome Collection, [BNA: wellcomecollection.org/works/vbssvgyu But if I could access one nearer to home, that would be terrific. Many thanks Philip BTW I've just uploaded a version of my talk on the search for the mid-Victorian photographer Geoffrey Bevington, and his home, Ivy House, on the edge of Wandsworth Common. I hope it works! [BNA: historyofwandsworthcommon.org/videos/HistoryBoys-Geoffrey-Bevington-talk-26nov2021.mp4" "1 [BNA:
The Clapham directory of 1890 shows West Side as possessing only sixteen residences. "Hightrees" has left its name to a block of modern flats at the corner of Nightingale Lane. "Brox Ash", the home of Robert Cooke, whose sister gave the sounding board to the Church, is remembered by Broxash Road. Building of the Church John Erskine Webbs Road, previously known as "Mud Lane", is on the site of an estate owned by Mr. Webb, a city merchant, while Ashness Road stands on the grounds of a large house of that name. All through these long centuries, the parish was served by the ancient Church of St. Mary, "Our Lady of Batersey". John Erskine Clarke, first Vicar of St. Luke's, reflected that with the growth of London's dormitory suburbs, a district situated between two commons and within easy reach of town would soon be developed. He was right. There was to emerge in the space of half a century a large and closely packed South London parish of twenty thousand souls. In the year 1874, Canon Clarke purchased the site of the present Church of St. Luke, which then formed part of the grounds of Old Park House, at that time in possession of the Simpson family. Before he could erect a Church, however, he had to ask permission of the neighbouring resident. That same year the little iron Church was moved from St. Mark's Battersea Rise, and did valiant service for nine years. With the steady increase in the number of houses and population it became more and more apparent that a new and more spacious edifice was required. In 1881, therefore, Canon Clarke addressed a meeting to promote the building of a brick Church; answering the charge of Dr. Thorold, Bishop of Rochester: "A fine red-brick Basilica is the one thing of all others Iwish to see. Who will build us one?" The architect appointed was Mr F. W. Hunt of Upper Baker Street, the builders being Messrs. W. Johnson and Co. of Wandsworth Common. In 1883 the Chancel was built as far as the centre of the first arch, and in the Magazine of the old Parish Church the following year appeared this notice: " St. Luke's, Nightingale Lane. The chancel and south transept of the Basilican Church will be dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Rochester on Saturday November 15th, at 3pm. This portion of the Church will contain 288 chairs — so that with the iron Church annexed there will be room for about 600 worshippers with ample choir arrangements." In the year 1888 the brick nave was completed, and the temporary iron structure, which had proved so useful, was finally removed. In 1889 the children of the district joined together to make a special gift of the font. The basin is hollowed out of a solid block of alabaster, supported by columns of St. Ambrozio Verona marble. Gifts now began to pour in. In June 1889, the white marble Cross above the High Altar was presented by Mrs. Clifford Brookes. It is a copy of some ancient copies in Rome and is said to represent one of the earliest forms of Christian art. The following year certain ladies undertook the cost of the carving of the capitals of the pillars, and in April the fine pulpit given by Mr J. S. Jarvis was dedicated by the Bishop of the diocese, who was also the first to preach from it. The year 1891 saw the addition of new rooms to the Parish Hall and to the Church of the beautiful mosaic panel by Salviati of Venice, representing the symbolical winged bull of St. Luke. The tall north-west tower with its open bell-chamber, and pyramidal copper room similar to that of the mother-church, is a landmark for miles around, and was built in 1892 at a cost of 1,200. On All Saints' Day that year the finished Church was consecrated by Dr. Randal Davidson, Bishop of Rochester, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The handsome chancel screen was placed in position in time for the Patronal Festival, 1894, and is made of alabaster from Tutbury in Derbyshire. As to the marble pillars which support its arches the red came from St. Ambrozio near Verona and the pale yellow from Siena in Italy; the pale red from Turkey; and the green from the island of Tenos in the Greek Archipelago. The balls surmounting the screen are of Indian agate, and were added later by Mr. J. H. Bartlett. The sedilia in the sanctuary, a finely-carved piece of oak, were given in 1896 by friends of Mr. Robert Cooke and his sister, former benefactors of the Church and residents of "Brox Ash". In the following year the Choir stalls and Bishop's throne were added. St Lukes' Church and Parish in the 20th Century The twentieth century has witnessed still further changes in the district around St. Luke's Church. In its opening years the remaining mansion-residences in the neighbourhood of West Side were one by one removed, and new roads and houses formed upon their sites. One of the larger houses to be built was St. Luke's Vicarage, completed in the year 1902. The Parish has been the home of several literary men, notably Mark Rogers of Grandison Road, author of "Down Thames Street", a book on old London; Walter Johnson of Berber Road, who has written several works on archaeology; Henry Proctor of Mallinson Road, and Edward Thomas of Rusham Road. With regard to the Church itself many of the interior adornments date from this century. The year 1901 saw the addition of the beautiful lectern — an angel in white alabaster, the gift of Mr. Clifford Brookes. Two years later the Church received a unique Christmas present from Mr. J. H. Bartlett in the installation of electric light. The electroliers in the nave were designed from a pendant jewel by Bevenuto Cellini in the Pitti Palace, Florence; while those in the chancel are after paintings by Fra Angelico. The bronze candelabra in the sanctuary, standing upon green Florentine marble, are cast from an original by Giovanni da Bologna. The electric lamp in the Lady Chapel is a reproduction of one hanging before the shrine of St. Charles Borromea in the crypt of Milan Cathedral. The organ, built by T. C. Lewis, dates from 1905. In the following year, the mosaics round the apse were given by Mr. Clifford Brookes in memory of his daughter. The fine war memorial testifies to those who, during the dark years 1914-1918, went out from the Parish and made the supreme sacrifice. During the short but brilliant incumbency of the Rev. W. T. Havard, extensive alterations were made to the Lady Chapel under the direction of the well-known architect Mr. Martin Travers. The tryptich forming the reredos, the silvered candlesticks (now on the high altar) and crucifix, and the screen at the entrance were all given in memory of "a Mother and her three sons". In 1927 the window with its curious stained-glass figure of King David playing upon a harp was added, and this has added to the brightness of the Chapel. The finely carved pews were given in memory of former members of the congregation and bear their initials. So began a new chapter in the history of St. Lukes' Battersea which was to be continued under the Rev. Douglas Bartles-Smith, who became Vicar in 1975 and who helped in bringing the Church and Parish to the notice of a wider audience through ventures such as "Christianity '78", and the biennial "St. Lukes' Festival" on the first occasion of which London Weekend Television screened the opening service throughout the British Isles. Altar PlaquePlaque [BNA:
"[ERSKINE CLARKE & CHATTERBOX] English Children's Literature: Annuals--Chatterbox Figure 1.--This was the last issue of "Chatterbox" published in 1955. Note that the boy pictured wears a red blazer from an exclusive private school. This was not what most British boys wore to school. We wonder if this private school image did not affect the popularity of "Chatterbox". As was commonly the case for annuals, the illustrator was not identified. Chatterbox was one of the most popular English publications for children. It was first published December 1, 1866. The last edition was in 1955. Chatterbox was created by the Rev. John Erskine Clarke (1827-1920) of Derby. He also served as the Editor until 1902. Unlike the Boy's Own and Girl's Own, the other best remembered English children's publications, Chatterbox was designed to appeal to boys and girls. Clarke conceived Chatterbox as a weekly paper for children. Given the relative cost of books and magazines in the 19th century, many readers saved the weekly issues and some even had them bound. cite>Chatterbox was primarily a story annual and the content varied over time. There were, however, puzzles, poems, interesting facts, and a variety of interesting activities. Chatterbox was lavisgly illustrated, especially after the turn of the 20th century when the technology for lothographic printing improved. Publishing History Chatterbox was one of the most popular English publications for children. It was first published December 1, 1866. The last edition was in 1955 (figure 1). Few publications have a longer uninterupted history. As such it is a wonderful source of information about children's clothes and childhood in general. The fact that it was often lavishly illustrated makes it a particularly useful source of information. Editors Chatterbox was created by the Rev. John Erskine Clarke (1827-1920) of Derby. He also served as the Editor until 1902. Harvey Darton replaced Clarke as editor in 1902. Clarke decided to persue his religious calling and became the Vicar of Battersea near London and a Canon of Southwark, another London suburb. [Skinner 2] Gender Unlike the Boy's Own and Girl's Own, the other best remembered English children's publications, Chatterbox was designed to appeal to boys and girls. Format Clarke conceived Chatterbox as a weekly paper for children. Given the relative cost of books and magazines in the 19th century, many readers saved the weekly issues and some even had them bound. Many families did not have a great deal of money to buy books and were not disposed to throw away something that could be reused. The saved copies were alkso useful for younger children as they grew up. Clarke began selling such bound editions, but I am not sure just when. For many years Chatterbox annuals were simply a collection of the weeekly issues with no original material, although the covers of the Gardner/Gardner Darton editions were different in the weekly and annual versions. The annuals were popular children's gifts. We notice one inscribed, "To Archie, Xmas 1921 with fondest love and best wishes." Content Chatterbox was primarily a story annual and the content varied over time. There were, however, puzzles, poems, interesting facts, and a variety of interesting activities. A HBC reader reports, " I had a look through the 1955 edition of the Chatterbox Annual the cover of which is seen here (figure 1). The content and is pretty much mundane and rather lacking in illustrations. Inote there are many short stories where there is interaction between teenage girls and boys and some stories more dedicated to teenage girl readers. i.e. 'Phillipa on Location' for girls and 'Derek's Amazing Quest' or boys. The stories are essentially mystery and adventure, first day of the new school term (almost always at private boarding schools), meeting distant cousins for the first time, travels to distant countries (an Uncle who invites his nephew to Kenya) and such like. Interspersed are puzzles, quizzes and hobby features. It's interesting to note there is no romance interaction between the boys and girls, rather they are pre-occupied in solving mysterious lights in the dark woods and so on. Foreign Children We have primarily used Chatterbox and other British periodicals as a source of information on British children's cloting. The illustrations in particular seem a reasonably accurate source of information on children's clothing. Here the publication primarily depicts middle-class children, not the average British child or a range of childrn of different backgrounds. While Chatterbox was primarily for and about British children, there were also some articles and illustrtions depicting children in other countries as well. We are not sure, however, as to the accuracy of these depictions. Asfar a e can tell, they seem as accurate as the depicions of British boys. his is ust a preliminay assessment as outr information is sill quite limited. Illustrations We have varying reports as to the illustrayions in Chatterbox. One report indicates that it was lavishly illustrated, especially after the turn of the 20th century when the technology for lothographic printing improved. Illustrations in the 19th century were mostly black and white line drawings. We note the 1908 annual. There is virtually no photographs but many illustrations are in ink and about 8 colour plates and a color cover illustration. Many of the illustrations are noteworthy as they depict boyswear and British school uniforms of the day. The 1921 edition had a color frontispiece and several other color plates plus a great many black and white and engravings in a book of 317 pages. We are unsure about the illustrators as most of the illustrations were unsigned. A HBC reader tells us that the 1955 edition that he has was "rather lacking in illustrations". Normally the illustrators were not idebtified. This was not only in Chatterbox, but in most of the other annuals as well. The illustrations normally depict children from comfortable middle class families and do not refflect a range of childhood experiences. Working class children were rarely depicted. Publisher Gardner/Gardner Darton was the principal publisher, producing Chatterbox for 60 years. The first few editions of Chatterbox was published in London (1866-70) by William Macintosh. Other publishers included: W. Wells Gardner (1870), Wells Gardner Darton (about 1886), Simpkin Marshall (1929) and finally Dean (about 1936). Curiously, there were two versions of the cover for many years. Well Gardner, presumably to make the annual version more interesting printed two different versions of the cover, one for the weekly edition and a different one for the annual. [Skinner 2] Cost The basic Chatterbox weekly cost a halfpenny. There was some special 1 penny edition with with a loose color plate. Unfortunately these color plates were not included in the Annual version, thus they are relatively rare. For readers who wanted to collect the weekly editions into annuals, they could purchase a special case which cost 1 shilling. The basic Chatterbox Annual cost 3 shillings done in "fancy board" and 5 shillings for the more expensive cloth edition with gilt edges. [Skinner 2] Advertisements Chatterbox was clearly a children's publication. Curiously, many of the adverisments were for adults. Presumably the editors anricipated parents reading the articles to the family, a rather cozy Victorian image. A good example is the advertisement for Tatcho Hair Restorer! It was only the inexpensive 3s editions that had adverisements. The 5s cloth edition was advertisement free, although sometimes there were lists of children's books at the back. [Skinner 2] The 1921 edition had paste-downs have advertisements for various products. The front board was paper-covered, and show a boy and girl giving a puppy a bath at the beach. The Back board was an advertisment for Pear's Transparent Soap. American Editions The Chatterbox Annual was published in the United States for several years. There was no original American material. The British editions were simply reprinted. The authorized editions were printed by Estes & Lauriat and subsequently Dana Estes, LC Page, and Cupples Leon (NY). In addition therecwerecunauthorized pirate editions in the 1880s. [Skinner 2] Sources Skinner, Frank 1. Children's Annuals. Skinner, Frank 2. Children's Books: The Chatterbox Created: September 19, 2002 Last updated: July 26, 2003 [BNA: Link. Press TAB five times to redirect to the Accessibility page." "ERSKINE CLARKE — RACING GIRLS [BNA: thecharmedbookshop.com/listing/759307875/1930s-chatterbox-j-erskine-clarke-the" "MACKINTOSH QUALITY STREET 80TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION TIN HistoryBoys To: HistoryBoys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 11/12/21 18:53 1 Quality Street Chocolates Home Chocolates Fun Facts History Contact In 1890 John Mackintosh and his wife opened a shop in Halifax, Northern England, where they created a new kind of sweet by mixing hard toffee with runny caramel. These toffees were made from inexpensive local ingredients such as milk, sugar beet and eggs They were so successful that in 1898 they expanded the operation to build the world's first toffee factory. It burned down in 1909 so John bought an old carpet factory and converts it into a new facility. When John Mackintosh died his son Harold inherited the business and in 1936 he invented Quality Street, which is still manufactured in the same facility today. Revolutionary Product In the early 1930's only the wealthy could afford boxed chocolates made from exotic ingredients from around the world with elaborate packaging that often cost as much as the chocolates themselves. Harold Mackintosh set out to produce boxes of chocolates that could be sold at a reasonable price and would, therefore, be available to working families. His idea was to cover the different toffees with chocolate and present them in low-cost yet attractive boxes. Rather than having each piece separated in the box, which would require more costly packaging, Mackintosh decided to have each piece individually wrapped in colored paper and put into a decorative tin. He also introduced new technology, the world's first twist-wrapping machine, to wrap each chocolate in a distinctive wrapper. By using a tin, instead of a cardboard box, Mackintosh ensured the chocolate aroma burst out out as soon as it was opened and the different textures, colours, shapes and sizes of the sweets made opening the tin and consuming its contents a noisy, vibrant experience that the whole family could enjoy. Marketing Genius In today's terms, Harold Mackintosh could be considered a marketing genius. Britain in the mid to late 1930s was still feeling the effects of the economic crash at the beginning of the decade and Mackintosh realized that in times of economic hardship and war, people crave nostalgia. Quality Street chocolates were, therefore, packaged in brightly colored tins featuring two characters wearing old fashioned dress, known affectionately as Miss Sweetly and Major Quality. These characters remained on Quality Street tins until the design was changed in 2000. Recent History Mackintosh merged with the Rowntree Confectionary Company in York, England in 1969. Nestle purchased Rowntrees in 1988. [BNA: Link.] " ITHINK THIS IS 1931 — Re: CHATTERBOX — NO? ROGER AND THE MECHANICS DASHED OUT TO CONGRATULATE THE GIRLS Philip Boys To: HistoryBoys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 11/12/21 20:13 1 On 11 Dec 2021, at 18:54, HistoryBoys [BNA: thecharmedbookshop.com/listing/759307875/1930s-chatterbox-j-erskine-clarke-the "MILLAIS — WHITE KNIGHT A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford — Wikipedia Philip Boys 12/12/21 08:54 [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dream_of_the_Past:_Sir_Isumbras_at_the_Ford From HistoryBoys CARDIGAN?" "Adkins Mill, Wandsworth / Henckell / Du Buisson et al Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 12/12/21 17:02 1 Adkins Mill, Wandsworth This mill was situated on the Wandle just south of the present Mapleton Road, on an island formed by a bypass channel. The site is now part of the premises of the In-Wear Company. This was probably one of the seven mills of the Abbot of Westminster included in the Domesday survey of 1086. In 1335 it was recorded as a fulling mill [1]. In 1363/4 the monks of Westminster Abbey purchased the unexpired term of the lease of "Adekyns Mill" from Roger Finch, a London vintner, for 66-13s-6d [2]. In 1380 Abbot Littleton granted the "Over fulling mill" at Wandsworth to Laurence Morden, William Romney and John Coadham, to hold for 20 1/2 years at an annual rent of 9 [3]. In about 1539 the mill was confiscated by Henry VIII. A survey of the lands in Surrey which the young Edward V Iinherited from his father, compiled between 1547 and 1550, included "Adkynamyle", with four acres of land called Southmeade, occupied by Walter Smyth [4]. The mill had become a corn mill by 1589, when John Storer, a London brewer, leased "Atkyns Milles", with dwelling house and appurtenance, and the four acres of Southmead, to Christopher Hammond, miller, of Wandsworth, for 22 years at 31-10s per annum [5]. In 1610 the mill was in the occupation of Margaret Hammond, Christopher Hammond's widow, on lease from Thomas Jones [6]. Margaret Hammond was still there in 1619 [7], and probably remained in occupation until her death in November 1622. In March 1629 Peter Jones, a London draper, sold to Hugh Jones of Wandsworth his half share in two watermills called Adkins Mills or Upper Mills, together with the Southmead property, for 510 [8]. In 1654 the mills were leased by Walter Pell, the then owner, to a partnership of coppersmiths, Henry Robinson, Richard Wilkes and William Roberts [7], and one of the mills was then converted to copper milling. The other mill remained for a time as a corn mill, and in 1661 it was leased to Henry Chinall, miller [7]. He died of the plague in July 1666. Subsequently that mill also became a copper mill. Henry Robinson apparently gained control of the mills and they remained in the occupation of his family for many years. James Robinson was there an 13 June 1704, when the leaseholders of the downstream Upper Mill complained to the Commissioners of the Surrey and Kent Sewers that a tumbling bay erected by Robinson at his mill was "very much to their detriment" [9]. A list of those liable to pay a sewer rate, dated 25 March 1756, recorded that the mills were then held by the Governor and Company of the Copper Miners in England [10]. This company, usually known as the English Copper Company, had been incorporated on 3 August 1691, and acquired an interest in other Wandle mills also, starting with the Wimbledon copper mills in 1720. It was a mining, trading and management company, and the copper working was carried out by various subcontractors. A further list of sewer ratepayers dated 11 August 1763 also named the English Copper Company at Wandsworth [10], but it seems likely that the mills were then still being worked by members of the Robinson family. At this time Henry Robinson was working for the company at the Wimbledon copper mills. In July 1777 James Henckell the younger, a City of London merchant, acquired the lease of the mills [11], probably the head lease from the English Copper Company. He demolished the mills, and built an iron mill on the site. In conjunction with this work, he dammed up the river to provide a greater head of water, which resulted in the flooding of fields upstream from the new mill, and an irregular supply to the Upper Mills downstream. Complaints from the farmers and millers affected were heard by the Commissioners of the Surrey and Kent Sewers on 19 January 1780, and they ordered that Henckell should take measures to prevent the "penning up of water at the said Mill" [12]. Apparently nothing was done, and complaints continued to be made for several years [11]. It was probably in connection with the water engineering works that in 1779 Henckell engaged John Smeaton, the eminent engineer, to suggest improvements to the operation of the mill. Smeaton proposed a method of adapting the 17-feet-6-inches-diameter undershot water wheel by elevating it to become a low-breastshot wheel, but it is not known if his idea was carried out [13]. In January 1783 James Henckell was declared bankrupt [14], but this does not seem to have affected his activities at Wandsworth. In the 1787 edition of "The Ambulator" his works were described as "a considerable iron-foundry and manufactory, by which government were supplied during the late war". Henckell later went into partnership with Thomas DuBuisson [aka Du Buissona] and George Day. Of these Day was the practical ironfounder, and had been managing the mill since at least 1780, when he was listed as the occupier in the first of the Wandsworth land tax registers. By that date Earl Spencer was the landowner. When the partnership was dissolved on 29 September 1810 [15], George Day continued the business in partnership with his sons George and Samuel. George Day the elder died on 18 April 1812, and the business was then carried on by his sons. David Hughson in 1808 gave a dramatic description of the activities carried out at the mill: "At these mills are cast shot, shells, cannon, and other implements of war; in another part of it the wrought iron is manufactured, and the great effect of mechanical power is exemplified in all their operations, in the splitting of iron bars of prodigious length; in a pair of shears which will rend asunder pieces of iron more than two inches in thickness; and in the working of a hammer, which weighs from five hundred and a half to six hundred pounds; the timbers employed are of an enormous size, and the wonderful powers of all the elements are here made subservient in the production of various tools and implements necessary for man in the arts of war and peace." [16] Sir Richard Phillips in 1817 also described the working of the mill as observed a few years earlier: "The application of the expansive powers of Nature, as a moving agent in the steam-engine; the means of generating and concentrating heat in our furnaces; the melting of iron; the casting of the fluid; the colossal powers of the welding hammer, the head of which, though a ton in weight, gives a stroke per second; the power of shears, which cut thick bars of iron like threads; the drawing out of iron hoops by means of rollers, and the boring of cannon, are the everyday business of one of these manufactories, all of which I saw going on at the same instant, without bustle or effort. Iron, the most universal, durable and most economical of the metals, is thus made subservient to the wants of man . . . On my remarking to the proprietor of this foundry, that the men mingled themselves with the fire like salamanders, he told me, that, to supply the excessive evaporation, some of them found it necessary to drink eight or ten pots of porter per day." [17] The porter was, no doubt, obtained from the Old Sergeant public house in Garratt Lane, adjacent to the works, and which, in a later building, still exists on the same site. Evidently George and Samuel Day's lease expired in 1816, for in April of that year an advertisement was published, inviting tenders, to be opened on 7 May, for the letting of the premises "now in the occupation of George Day and Sons, and used as an iron foundry and forge", "for a term of years from the 26th. June 1816". The premises included a dwelling house and yard, and four acres of meadow land. One of the advantages of the mill was said to be its "communication with the River Thames by an iron railway." This was a reference to the Surrey Iron Railway, which passed in this locality along the east side of Garratt Lane, and which had been opened on 26 July 1803. George Day the elder had been a shareholder and member of the first committee of the railway company. The notice referred to the property as "Atkin's Mill", an interesting revival of its ancient name [18]. Apparently no acceptable offers were received, for the Days continued to occupy the mill, as yearly tenants, for the next 20 years. Evidently George and Samuel Day were in financial difficulties by 29 August 1829, when they were fined by the West Brixton Justices of the Peace for their failure to pay their last two poor rate demands [19]. They then appealed to the Wandsworth Vestry for a reduction of the rates, and following an inspection the Vestry recorded on 1 October 1830 that the works premises "were found to be in a delapidated condition . . . the centre of the north portion of the premises was the only part occupied". The dwelling house was also found to be "delapidated", and the Day's rates liability was accordingly reduced [20]. The Day brothers carried on for a few more years, and George Day was named as the occupier in November 1834 [21]. But in December 1834 it was announced that all of their machinery, tools, and stock (which included a 60-feet-span wrought-iron bridge), would be offered for sale at an auction to be held on the premises on 8 December 1834 [22]. On 11 and 12 January 1836, an auction sale was held of the machinery and articles remaining unsold from the previous sale [23]. A final auction of the remaining effects was advertised to be held on 1 March 1838 [24]. The notice announcing this stated that the sale items had been moved to the Surrey Iron Railway wharf, so it seems likely that the Days had vacated the premises, and that the next tenant, Thomas Creswick, had moved in, and commenced converting the mill to paper making. Thomas Creswick was a well-known paper maker, who apparently moved to Wandsworth from a mill at Hatfield. In 1831 he opened retail premises in Chandos Street, Charing Cross. In an advertisement published in 1834, wherein he described himself as "paper and card maker to His Majesty", he claimed to be "the original inventor of tinted writing papers, satined writing papers, tinted and white, satined drawing boards, playing cards with coloured backs" [25]. The pepper mill in 1838 The pepper mill in 1838 [78.8kb] Brayley, in 1850, referred to "the late Mr. Thomas Creswick, whose mills at Wandsworth supplied a considerable portion of the London trade with cards, Bristol boards, drawing papers, tinted papers, &c." [26] Creswick had died ten years earlier, on 17 September 1840, at the age of 66, and in his will proved on 24 October he directed that his business and properties be sold by his trustees for the benefit of his brother William and his daughter Mary Ann Miller. By a codicil, however, he gave the trustees leave to enter into some arrangement for continuing the business [27]. This they did, and his widow Sarah became the proprietor, until her death in early 1843. Sarah Creswick's son-in-law, George Miller, then took over, and evidently decided to discontinue the business. In April 1844, it was announced that the lease of the paper mill and its fixed machinery would be offered for sale by auction "on a day to be hereafter named". The premises were described as "consisting of a powerful water mill, mill house, engine houses and every description of suitable buildings for continuing the extensive trade now carried on; with very superior machinery . . . ". The machinery was said to have been "erected by the late Mr. Thomas Creswick at a cost of many thousand pounds" [28]. No record has been found confirming that an auction was actually held, and the lease was probably sold by private contract, to John Edward Spicer and Cornelius Poulton, who also worked a paper mill in Alton in Hampshire. They were declared bankrupt soon afterwards, on 24 November 1846 [29]. In April 1847 John Henry Spicer took over the mill [30], but was soon in financial difficulties, and later that year it was announced that the stock and utensils of a paper maker in Wandsworth would be offered for sale at an auction to be held on 6 October 1847, "under distress for Excise duties" [31]. On 1 February 1848 a notice was published advertising that the remaining stock and utensils would be offered for sale by auction on the following day, "by order of the Bankrupt's Assignees" [32]. Soon afterwards, the lease of the mill was taken by the partnership of James Easton and Charles Edward Amos, who were named as the occupiers on the schedule to a Deposited Plan dated 28 November 1849, whereon George Miller was named as the owner [33]. James Easton, then aged 18, took over the management of the works. Amos, who was also a partner with Easton's father in an engineering company, probably only provided financial backing. In 1853 Frederick Braithwaite visited the mill, and remarked of "Mr. Easton's paper works" that "The wheel power is equal to 16 H.P. These works use a considerable quantity of water for bleaching and washing the rags, with the addition of a strong solution of alkali, amounting to not less than 20,000 gallons daily, which is returned into the river." [34] Easton and Amos left the premises soon after Braithwaite's visit. They were succeeded briefly, in turn, by Robert Blackburn and George Stiff [30], but by 1854 the mill was unoccupied. On 23 December 1853, a fire broke out at William McMurray's Royal Mills at Esher, which were the largest paper making works in Surrey, and the premises were almost completely destroyed [35]. The following year William McMurray moved to the vacant paper mill at Wandsworth, together with his younger brother James. They gradually demolished the buildings, and built new ones, and at some time extended their premises southwards over the site of former calico printing works. They adopted their previous name, the Royal Mills, for their new premises, which were worked under the supervision of James McMurray, while William managed the retail side of the business at their London office [36]. William McMurray died on 19 November 1887 at the age of 81, and James carried on the business alone, after the resolution of a difficulty raised by the terms of William's will. He had bequeathed his estate to James, but by a codicil had revoked that bequest in favour of Herbert Spicer, the husband of one of his nieces. James McMurray disputed the will, on the grounds that the codicil had been executed while his brother was of unsound mind. In the ensuing court case, the verdict was given in his favour [37]. In an interview given by James McMurray, published in January 1892, he laid "great stress on the value of the wharf on the Thames, about a quarter of a mile from the mill" [36]. This wharf was not actually on the Thames, but alongside a basin connecting with the Thames by a short canal, situated to the east of the Wandle and just north of the present Armoury Way. This had been constructed by the Surrey Iron Railway Company, and opened in 1803. Following the dissolution of the railway company in 1848, the wharf and basin had been sold to the brewers Watney and Wells. William McMurray had probably purchased the property after Watney and Wells dissolved their partnership in 1861. By the date of this interview the firm had become a limited company. On 2 December 1891 McMurray's Royal Paper Mills Limited had been incorporated, with a capital of 105,000, to carry on the business. James McMurray was the managing director, the other board members being Sir John Whittaker Ellis (chairman), Frank Green and Thomas Vezey Strong [38]. James McMurray continued with the management of the business until shortly before his death on 2 February 1896 at the age of 82. Frank Green had resigned on 1 July 1892, and the management was in the hands of Ellis and Strong until Ernest Cooper joined the board on 14 January 1897. On 15 December 1899 Daniel MacMaster, who had been the works manager, was appointed as managing director. The properties owned by the company probably still included estates in North Africa and Spain which had been purchased by William McMurray, on which tripoli grass and esparto grass were grown, and brought to Wandsworth for use in paper making [39]. Davis in 1898 gave an account of the process by which the grasses were manufactured into paper, as seen by him on a visit to the mill [40]. On the evening of 17 January 1903, a fire broke out at the mill which either gutted or severely damaged 22 of the 39 buildings on the site. The machine room and the offices were saved, but many important buildings were ruined. About 35,000 worth of damage was caused [41]. About 160 men were thrown out of work, and on 2 February the mayor of Wandsworth chaired a public meeting to instigate a fund for the benefit of the unemployed workers [42]. The decision taken by the directors was that the mill should be rebuilt and completely re-equipped, and accordingly it was announced that all the salvage plant, machinery and stock would be offered for sale at an auction to be held on 5 May 1903 [43]. In June it was reported that "practically everything was sold" at the auction, and that the demolition of the ruined buildings was in progress [44]. At the annual general meeting of the shareholders of the company held in August 1903, the directors reported that their insurance company had paid out 35,000, and that the salvage sale had realised about 3,500. They had accordingly arranged for plans and tenders to be prepared for the rebuilding works and for new machinery, to the value of 34,000. It was also reported that Sir John Whittaker Ellis had resigned from his position as chairman and director in May last, and that Thomas Vezey Strong had become chairman and John Ross, the former works manager, had been elected to the board [45]. At about this time, Daniel McMaster, the managing director, went to the U.S.A. to examine the milling machinery and processes used in that country. While he was there, he accepted an offer to manage the Oxford paper mill in Maine. He returned in November 1903 to tender his resignation and make arrangements for the emigration of him and his family, and he departed on 10 February 1904. It was reported in March 1904 that the position of managing director had not yet been filled, and it seems that initially James Bailey, the secretary, performed the managerial duties, and later Joseph Shillinglaw. By April 1905 the rebuilding works were well advanced, and much of the machinery had been installed [46]. It seems that a limited amount of paper was then being produced, but in December 1905 legal proceedings were started which were to have disastrous effects. The action was brought against the company by William Guthrie and Company of Glasgow, building contractors, who claimed that the sum of 1,292 was owed to them. The company contested their liability to pay this money, which was mainly on account of extra works carried out by the contractors. On 21 December 1905, judgement was given that the sum of 860 was due to the plaintiffs [47]. Part of this sum was paid to William Guthrie and Company from money paid into court by McMurray's, but there remained the sum of 210 outstanding. On 23 January 1906, William Guthrie and Company, as a creditor, presented a petition for the winding up of McMurray's Royal Paper Mills Ltd to the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice [48]. The case was heard on the same day. The counsel for McMurray's pleaded for an extension of time, in order that the firm could obtain improved machinery to replace that installed which could only produce half the potential output of paper. At present, the "business was carried on at a loss". The court agreed that the petition could stand over for four months [49]. Apparently no improvements were made to the production, and the winding-up order was made on 18 June 1906 [50]. Sir Thomas Vezey Strong (he had been knighted in July 1905) and James Bailey, the secretary, then issued a statement of accounts revealing a deficiency of 73,853. The failure of the company to carry on the business profitably was again attributed to the unsatisfactory machinery, and in particular to trouble with the gas engines, which were late in being installed and did not provide the power required [51]. A meeting of the creditors and shareholders was held on 3 August 1906, at which the Official Receiver reported that the company's debts amounted to 14,543. Sir Thomas Vevey Strong was appointed as liquidator, and expressed his hope that the gas engines could be put into working order very shortly [52]. The following year, Sir Thomas was involved in further court proceedings. A case was brought against him, as liquidator, by Williams and Robinson of Rugby, to recover the sum of 1,734 for the gas engines they had installed. Judgement was awarded in favour of the plaintiffs, but execution was suspended pending the outcome of a counter claim by Sir Thomas against Williams and Robinson seeking 100,000 for damages for breach of contract insofar as the gas engines were inadequate for their purposes [53]. This case was still unresolved in 1909 [54], and the outcome has not been ascertained, but can perhaps be inferred from the contents of an advertisement published in February 1910. This announced that the freehold of the mill premises, and the dock premises, together with the paper making machinery and plant, would be offered for sale by auction on 4 March 1910, by order of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice [55]. At the auction, the highest bid was 54,000, and as the reserve price was 60,000, the property was withdrawn from sale [56]. A further auction was held on 26 April 1910, in separate lots [57]. Some of the machinery was then sold, and the dock premises, which were bought by the Wandsworth Gas Company, but the mill remained unsold [58]. Sir Thomas Vezey Strong's troubles in connection with the paper mill do not seem to have affected his business reputation, for in September 1910 he was chosen to be Lord Mayor of the City of London. (It may be of interest to note that he was the third of the first four directors of McMurray's to have become Lord Mayor, at one time or another. Sir John Whittaker Ellis had held the office before the company was incorporated, in 1881-82, and Frank Green after he retired from the board, in 1900-01.) The paper mill buildings had been taken over by 1914 by Benham and Sons, engineers, and they gradually demolished the buildings and built new ones, on the part north of the Old Sergeant public house. The part of the site south of this was later taken over by the Veritas Incandescent Mantle company. Benhams were still there in 1981, but they had moved by 1985, when it was said that their works were "largely demolished" [59]. Later, the In-Wear clothing manufacturing firm built new buildings on the site. The former mills are remembered in the names of two nearby roads. Iron Mill Place is a short road off Garratt Lane opposite the site, and formerly extended further to the east. A little to the south of the site, running parallel to Garratt Lane, is Esparto Street. [PB: esparto — a coarse grass with tough narrow leaves, native to Spain and North Africa. It is used to make ropes, wickerwork, and good-quality paper.] References 1.Barbara Harvey, Westminster Abbey and its Estates in the Middle Ages (1977), p. 424. 2. Emma Mason, "Westminster Abbey's Fulling Mills at Wandsworth", in Bulletin of the Wandle Group, no. 13 (December 1984). 3. Valor Ecclesiasticus, vol. 1, p. 416. 4. Wandsworth Historical Society News Sheet, no. 88 (April 1970). 5. Minet Library, Deed 494. 6. Montague Giuseppi, "The River Wandle in 1610", in Surrey Archaeological Collections, vol. 21 (1908), p. 190. 7. Dorian Gerhold, "Wandsworth's Water Mills to 1700", in The Wandsworth Historian, no. 70 (1999). 8. Minet Library, Deed 641. 9. London Metropolitan Archives, SKCS 42, p. 167. 01.Ibid. SKCS 46, p. 22. 11. Tony Evans, "Trouble at the Mill", in Wandsworth Historical Society News Sheet, no. 190 (1995). 12. London Metropolitan Archives, SKCS 48. 13. Paul N. Wilson, "The Waterwheels of John Smeaton", in Transactions of the Newcomen Society, vol. 30 (1955-57). 14. The London Gazette, 7-11 January 1783. 15. Ibid. 12-16 February 1811. 16. David Hughson, London, vol. 5 (1808), p. 395. 17. Sir Richard Phillips, A Morning's Walk from London to Kew (1817), p. 86. 18. The Times, 20 April 1816. 19. Wandsworth Local History Library, West Brixton Justices of the Peace Minute Book, 1828-29. 20. Ibid. Wandsworth Vestry Minute Book, 1830-47. 21. Surrey History Centre, QS6/8/164. 22. The Times, 3 December 1834. 23 Ibid. 11 January 1836. 24. Ibid. 26 February 1838 25. Ibid. 26 December 1834. 26. Edward W. Grayley, A Topographical History of Surrey, vol. 5 (1850), Appendix 1, p. 34. 27. National Archives, PROB 11/1934 q689. 28. The Times, 17 April 1844. 29. The London Gazette, 4 December 1846. 30. Alan Crocker, "The Wandsworth Paper Mills", in The Wandsworth Historian, no. 50 (1986). 31. The Times, 25 September 1847. 32. Ibid. 1 February 1848. 33. Surrey History Centre, QS6/8/411. 34. Frederick Braithwaite, "On the Rise and Fall of the Wandle . . . ", in Institution of Civil Engineers Proceedings, vol. 20 (1861). 35. The Times, 26 December 1853. 36. The Paper Record, 8 January 1892. 37. The Paper Trade Review, 30 March 1888. 38. The Paper Record, 8 December 1891. 39. Alfred H. Shorter, Paper Making in the British Isles (1971), p. 141. 40. Cecil T. Davis, Industries of Wandsworth (1898), pp. 29-30. 41. The Paper Makers' and British Paper Trades Journal, 2 February 1903; Wandsworth Borough News, 23 January 1903. 42. Wandsworth Borough News, 6 February 1903. 43. The Paper Makers' and British Paper Trade Journal, 1 May 1903. 44. Ibid. 1 June 1903. 45. Ibid. 1 September 1903. 46. Ibid. 1 May 1905. 47. Ibid. 1 January 1906. 48. The London Gazette, 5 January 1906. 49. The Paper Makers' and British Paper Trade Journal, 1 February 1906. 50. The London Gazette, 19 June 1906. 51. The Paper Makers' and British Paper Trade Journal, 1 August 1906. 52. Ibid. 1 September 1906. 53.. Ibid. 1 August 1907. 54. Ibid. 1 March 1909. 55. Ibid. 1 February 1910. 56. Ibid. 1 March 1910. 57. Ibid. 1 April 1910. 58. Ibid. 2 May 1910. 59. Derek A. Bayliss, Retracing the World's First Public Railway, 2nd edn. (1985), p. 46." "EDWIN WILSON MOLE DISSECTION Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 12/12/21 18:14 1 [BNA: wellcomecollection.org/works/kh7f8mfd [BNA: wellcomecollection.org/works/sfp7c56f DESMAN [BNA: wellcomecollection.org/works/ffaeqev8/items" "Re: BORRIBLES — ACROSS THE DARK METROPOLIS — "WANDSWORTH COMMON" HistoryBoys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 12/12/21 20:36 1 HistoryBoys 14 Loxley Rd Wandsworth Common SW18 3LJ www.historyofwandsworthcommon.org On 29 Oct 2021, at 17:50, Philip Boys wrote: [BNA: books.google.co.uk/books?id=Alj5AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT26&lpg=PT26&dq=The+Borribles:+Across+the+Dark+Metropolis+wandsworth+%22common%22&source=bl&ots=a4YEKqJ7GJ&sig=ACfU3U0wH9wVV-ZvllvUFhfPrUbK1aNkmg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjT-vasifDzAhWKzqQKHZUoBr8Q6AF6BAgVEAM#v=onepage&q=wandsworth%20common&f=false "ROBERT NUTTALL — WANDSWORTH COMMON — NOVEL HistoryBoys To: HistoryBoys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 12/12/21 20:48 1 [BNA:
"EDGAR WALLACE - HistoryBoys To: HistoryBoys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 12/12/21 20:49 1 [BNA:
"WC — NOVEL — Convict B 14 A Novel HistoryBoys To: HistoryBoys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 13/12/21 11:50 1 Convict B 14 A Novel By R. K. Weekes 2021 Preview 88 pages [BNA:
"HUGH THOMSON'S GUIDE TO LONDON Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 14/12/21 12:30 1 [BNA: rbkclocalstudies.wordpress.com/2016/07/21/thomsons-guide-to-london/" "ABEL INGPEN — ENTOMOLOGIST Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 12:34 1 Presumably when there are refs to insects found on Wandsworth Common and Copenhagen Fields, the latter are on Garratt lane (not Islington)? [BNA: academic.oup.com/proceedingslinnean/search-results?page=1&q=ingpen&fl_SiteID=5584&SearchSourceType=1&allJournals=1 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. May 24, 1855, to June 5, 1855 Proceedings Linnean Society London, Volume 2, Issue 64, October 1855, Pages 413428, [https]://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.1848.tb01095_413.x Published: 09 April 2009 . . . . Among our Associates we have also to record three losses during the past year. Abel Ingpen, a zealous and active entomologist, and one of the most constant attendants at our Evening Meetings during a period of nearly thirty years, was born on the 20th of May 1796. At the age ________________ Abel Ingpen From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Abel Ingpen (20 May 1796 in Chelsea 14 September 1854) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He is best known as the author of Instructions for collecting, rearing, and preserving British & foreign insects : also for collecting and preserving crustacea and shells (published by J. Bulcock in 1827 at London). A second edition "edited, with considerable corrections and additions" of this work was published by W. Smith also at London in 1839. Abel Ingpen was an original Member of the Entomological Society of London, a Member of the Microscopical Society of London and an Associate Member of the Linnean Society. He died of cholera. References[edit] Anonym, 1855 [Ingpen, A.] Proc. Linn. Soc. London, London 2:425-426 Newman, 1855 [Ingpen, A.] Trans. Ent. Soc. London (2), Journ. Proc., London 3[1854-1856]:50 [1] Salmon, M. A. 2000: The Aurelian Legacy. British Butterflies and their Collectors. Martins, Great Horkesley : Harley Books : 143-144. External links[edit] BHL scan of Instructions for collecting . . . . [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Ingpen _____ [BNA:
Referencer Anonym, 1855 [Ingpen, A.] Proc. Linn. Soc. London, London 2: 425-426 Ny mand, 1855 [Ingpen, A.] Trans. Ent. Soc. London (2), Journ. Proc., London 3 [1854-1856]: 50 [1] Salmon, M. A. 2000: The Aurelian Legacy. British Butterflies and Their Collectors, Martins, Great Horkesley: Harley Books: 143-144. eksterne links BHL scanning af Instruktioner til indsamling . . . . Salmon, M. A. 2000: The Aurelian Legacy. B Stock Image The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors MA Salmon Published by University of California Press 30/04/2001, 2001 ISBN 10: 0520229630ISBN 13: 9780520229631" "PHEBE & ARTHUR DONCASTER — IN WEST COAST QUAKERS BOOK Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 12:35 1 Correspondence of the Beans with an English family and particularly with one member of the family, Phebe Doncaster (Mar. 26, 1847-Jan. 11, 1924) of Sheffield, England, continued for many years. Phebe was an unmarried "aunt" who took up the correspondence at age 26, after the Beans' trip to England in 1873-74. The Doncasters were among those who hosted the Beans in 1874, and kept in touch. Phebe was the seventh child of Daniel Doncaster (1807-1884), and Maria Mallinson (1811-1880). His father, "grandpa" Daniel Doncaster (1757-1819), manufactured files in Sheffield, England. Grandpa's wife, Jane Rowntree (1765-1837), married Daniel on Nov. 18, 1791, and gave birth to nine children, four of whom did not survive childhood. Phebe's father, Daniel, was the last child born to Jane Rowntree and Daniel Doncaster. Her grandfather inherited the steel business and founded the Sheffield manufacturing firm of Daniel Doncaster & Sons. (SEE Doncaster Family Chart). 385 Helen Doncaster, Phebe's oldest sibling, married back into the Rowntree family on April 10, 1878, to John Stephenson Rowntree (1834-1907). Although Helen's grandmother was the younger sister of John's grandfather, John S. Rowntree already had five young children by his first wife, Eliz. Hotham.386 This marriage was important to Phebe because her oldest sister remained childless and, after being educated at home and spending a year at Mount School in York, Phebe went to live with this sister and her husband's five children. Phebe wrote her first letters and received her first replies from the Bean's while she was living in York at the John S. Rowntree home. The Bean's wrote and kept drafts of their letters to Phebe who shared her originals with the rest of her family. Although Phebe suffered from 104 History of San Jose Quakers, West Coast Friends deafness even as a child, she taught Women's Adult School in York and kept up a lively correspondence and social life. She also gave the Beans information about English Friends. Phebe Moved In with Brother Arthur Near London In 1889, Phebe moved in with her youngest brother, Arthur Doncaster (1856-1931). He owned a house that still exists in the year 2010 at 26 Earlsfield Road in Wandsworth, S.W.18, named "Triberg," possibly for its three stories. The tracks for Earlsfield Train Station parallel Earlsfield Road one block away in front of Triberg. Wimbledon Park Station (of tennis fame) to the South, and Clapham Junction Station near the Thames Rivers, to the North, bracket Earlsfield Train Station at Wandsworth, just outside downtown London. [387] Brother Arthur was deaf from birth. In later years Phebe also became totally deaf. His lifelong interest led him to become a scientific botanist and a partner, and after a short time, sole owner of Watkins & Doncaster, devoted to collecting and distributing exotic specimens. He learned French and German to aid him in his worldwide correspondence. He never forgot a name, botanical or human. He was an enthusiastic walker and mountaineer. For 16 years from 1898 to 1914, he annually visited the Alps with other Doncasters and Rowntrees. We know his cousin John W. Rowntree, and perhaps even the American, Rufus M. Jones joined some of his trips. This last pair played a major role in the future of British and American Quakerism in the 20th Century.388 One of Arthur's correspondents was botanist Joseph Burtt Davy, an English Quaker who completed his PhD. at the University of California at Berkeley, while a member of the San Jose and Berkeley Quaker communities. He went off to newly conquered South Africa in 1901 to collect specimens for 20 years, before retiring to Oxford. We shall hear more of him later. Phebe joined the local Quaker meeting in Wandsworth, which today bills its meetinghouse as "the Oldest Friends Meetinghouse in the Greater London Area." Friends built the first meetinghouse in 1673 about 20 years after George Fox began to gather his church in 1652. The current property deed's land description is identical to the original 1674 deed. Quakers have much altered the buildings. The last rebuild was in 1778. Because of the bombing of London during World War II, it is very likely that this existing 1778 meetinghouse is the oldest. Phebe associated with Kingston Monthly Meeting and Wandsworth Preparatory Meeting as overseer and elder, and at her death donated money for the meeting to distribute. The 'Phebe Doncaster Charity Fund' still distributes funds through the meeting's Ministry and Oversight Committee. During her last 35 years her long experience and sure judgment were valuable in conducting business and keeping in touch with members. Her understanding sympathy, keen intellect, and quick sense of humor, helped young and old alike. She assisted Peace activist Mary L. Cooke, who died in 1916, in the work for peace during the war of 1914-1918. Phebe also was involved in relief work with special concern for conscientious objectors and their military escorts, relatives, and Quaker chaplains, who visited nearby Wandsworth Prison, next to Wandsworth Common. [389] This prison, which in 2005 housed as many as 1,200 men prisoners, began in 1851 as "The Surrey Home of Correction". It had the distinction of being the last place where the United Kingdom carried out its death penalty before the penalty, not the prison, was abolished. Perhaps its most famous inmate was Oscar Wilde, who wrote his poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" there in 1897. English writer Doris N. Dalglish, in her 1938 book We Have Been Glad, described her 1918 encounter with Phebe Doncaster when Phebe was 70 and Doris was only 26: " And in Wandsworth Meeting, which at that period rather lacked the significant strain of "birthright" Quakerism, we did then possess someone who stood to us as a saint. In her we knew the very best of the A Quaker Fight 105 strongly marked Victorian Quaker home life and culture, which had counteracted the life and suicidal tendency that kept the Society a closed community and disowned any member who dared to "marry out". In her dining room hung portraits of her Yorkshire parents, a husband and wife with Quaker coat and bonnet, faces of character and vitality. And she herself, aged, so deaf all her life as to depend on aids and lip-reading, was, for most of us, more inspiring, more brave, and more scrupulous than most people we had met, besides possessing that extraordinary power of bringing out the best in others which makes some goodness so exciting. For me, with my juvenile instinct for assessing others simply by intellect still untamed, there was the additional charm of her critical insight into books and her own literary ability. . . like everyone else who, over a long period, was even vaguely connected with the group of Friends in Wandsworth, Icount having known Phebe Doncaster as one of the experiences by which life, the animal existence, passes into reality and the mood is achieved which can turn to poetry." High praise for an old, deaf and never-married, Quaker woman. Phebe's "Memoir" of Sister's Husband, J. S. Rowntree When her brother-in-law died in April 1907, Phebe wrote a "memoir" of him in a book titled John Stephenson Rowntree, His Life and Works. This book of 446 pages in a red, hardbound, edition includes an Index, two appendixes, a bibliography, a Rowntree chronology and Phebe's memoir in the first ninety-four pages. In the introduction Phebe admits she assembled the memorial statements and writings found in the book. Although she captures J. S. Rowntree's attitudes and beliefs, the book is a hodge-podge of Victorian literary statements. She talks about his interests and charities and recounts his comments on various people and events, with little sense of time or relative significance.[391] A letter from Joel Bean to Phebe Doncaster in August of 1908 described the closeness of the Beans to English Friends and, particularly to the Rowntrees, "We met John S. Rowntree but a few times, but enough for his personality to stamp an indelible memory. His writings for many years, and his messages endeared him to us more and more. We rejoice in reading of the work of his son, Arnold. I would like to know more about his other children and how to place in their family connections the other young Rowntrees, whose names appear in the periodicals. Seebohm Rowntree is, I think, a son of Joseph and brother of the late John Wilhelm. Iinfer that his mother was a Seebohm, & cousin of Jas Rowntree's first wife, who was a daughter of Benja & Esther Seebohm. It always gives me pleasure to trace relationships. The life of Samuel Tuke with the lists of families, appended, is very helpful in that line."[392] She edited a previous book, the 1896 Faithful Unto Death, about Wm. & Lucy Johnson, Friends missionaries to Madagascar. The significance of the contract the Beans reestablished with English Friends through Phebe Doncaster cannot be overstated. "Aunt Phebe," as her family knew her, provided information and lobbied English Friends. The Beans wrote to her every year and sometimes several times. Though nearly deaf, and living with her totally deaf brother, Arthur, she served as the eyes and 'ears' of the Beans in England. Letters to England Describe the Beans' Situation Joel's reply to Phebe revealed much about these early days in California. On September 8, 1884, Joel wrote: "The little messenger announcing the death of thy dear Father, has reached us . . . .393 (Head of the household, John S. Rowntree, died August 16, 1884) 106 History of San Jose Quakers, West Coast Friends "So worn down was Iwhen Icame to California that I had almost to discontinued my correspondence for a length of time. Else, the choice and valued letters of thy dear sister, Lucy (Doncaster, 1842-1934, who married Robert Firth Crosland April 9, 1873) would have been early responded to. . . . "Our life in California has been very full. Nearly half the first years after our removal Ispent with I saac Sharp, crossing the Continent and visiting in the limits of most of the American Y. Mtgs., & in a large number of the States of the Union. It was a time of much interest, tho' my health was low. Since returning, change and rest have been restoring, and tho' not strong, I am relieved from the depressing weariness and able, with enjoyment, to have a part in the interests and the sphere in which our lot is cast. "Our elder daughter, Lydia, was married on the 26th of 6th Mo. (1884) to Chas E. Cox, Principal of Le Grand Academy in Iowa "The separation from our dear old home & friends in Iowa, and the widening of the distance 2000 miles between us and all our friends in the East, could hardly have been borne, had we not felt the sustaining evidence that it was in the clear leading of our Heavenly Father's hand. The comfort of this evidence has never been withdrawn." [394] Two days later Hannah Bean also wrote to Phebe Doncaster, revealing her unfamiliarity with Phebe, by misspelling her name, "Phoebe". "Although this will be addressed to Phoebe (sic, Phebe), my heart embraces you all in very near sympathy and unchanging affection. The sad little messenger brought to us into mourning with you . . . ." "My dear Joel's letter will tell you a little of the past two years .. to explain why we have not written. "During Joel's absence we took boarders, until my health proved insufficient, and then our dear Lydia taught in two families, and her sister attended College, which filled their working hours, and my cares made letters-writing, except to our near relatives, almost an impossibility. "Now dear Lydia has left us and Cathie, now (19 years old) has taken up her sister's mantle. She leaves home at 8 o'clock a. m. teaches a lovely girl of about 13 years until 11:30. Then home to dine and at 1 o'clock recites Greek at the 'University of the Pacific.' "At 2:30, she reaches a beautiful home in San Jose, 3 miles distance by streetcar, where she teaches Algebra, Latin, & English History & Literature . . . and returns home near 5 p.m. "We enjoy our evenings together (after her 1 1/2 hours of study), and feel thankful she shows the adaptation to her duties." [395] Meeting Clerk John Bell Resigned, Sept. 1884 On September 11, 1884, former Clerk John Bell resigned as a trustee of the meeting. Benjamin H. Jones took his place as a trustee in October. The September minutes continue with this disturbing information: "James Bean, on behalf of a portion of the Board of Trustees, reported the result of their investigation concerning a building lot for a new meetinghouse. It was thought best that further time be granted them for consultation and agreement, and report next month."396 The October 9, 1884 meeting, appointed a committee to visit and confer with John Bell and his wife, Hannah, about their resignations from meeting. John Bell's new wife transferred her membership to San Jose Meeting in December 1883. Ten months later, both resigned. The next lines of the October minutes read: "The trustees not being ready to make a further report are given more time for consultation. Joel Bean on behalf of the Committee appointed to correspond with the Trustees of the fund in the hands of A Quaker Fight 107 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to aid in building meetinghouses for Friends, reports that a favorable communication had been received."397 The November 13, 1884, business meeting reported: "The Committee appointed last month to confer with John and Hannah B. Bell, respecting their resignations of membership, present the following report, viz.: . . . The Committee . . . report that some of the Committee have had several interviews with them upon the subject. They justify their course on" "Abel Ingpen's biographer — Edward Newman Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 13:53 1 [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Newman_(entomologist) MANy books [BNA: archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Newman%2C%20Edward%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Newman%2C%20Edward%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Newman%2C%20E%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Newman%2C%20Edward%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%29%20OR%20%28%221801-1876%22%20AND%20Newman%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29" "EDWARD NEWMAN & ABEL INGPEN Philip Boys To: John Jackson johntuton41@icloud.com; Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 13:53 32 2.3 MB Manual_for_the_Butterfly_Collector_Or_In.pdf 3.9 MB Ingpen-Instructions-collecting-insects45006.pdf 3.2 MB 10.2307_community.24794305-1.jpg Show all 3 Attachments Save all as ZIP Lots of EDWARD NEWMAN books (insects, ferns, birds etc) here: [BNA: archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Newman%2C%20Edward%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Newman%2C%20Edward%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Newman%2C%20E%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Newman%2C%20Edward%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Edward%20Newman%22%29%20OR%20%28%221801-1876%22%20AND%20Newman%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29 Icame to Newman because of an earlier great entomological amateur who roamed Wandsworth Common and elsewhere ANBEL INGPEN Newman wrote a short obit And wrote books about collecting e.g" "John Ruskin on the Wandle . . . HistoryBoys To: John Jackson johntuton41@icloud.com; Alan TURK the.turks@blueyonder.co.uk; HistoryBoys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 17:47 3 [BNA: thedabbler.co.uk/2012/07/ruskin-and-the-river/" "WIKIPEDIA — Edward William Mountford Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 18:03 1 [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_William_Mountford" "THE ECOLOGIES OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT — LONDON'S NATURAL HISTORY BY RSR FITTER Wednesday, November 3, 2021 2:00 PM 4:00 PM VIDEO! Join Unit 5 and invited guests Prof Alastair Fitter, Irenee Scalbert and Prof Tom Emerson as they discuss R.S.R.Fitter's work from 1945 and its influence and relevance to our understanding of contemporary urban ecology. Richard S. R. Fitter, born in 1913, was a writer and naturalist. Amongst his many works was London's Natural History, first published in 1945. This represented the first attempt to write a comprehensive history of a great human community in terms of the animals and plants it displaced, changed, moved and removed, introduced, conserved, or lost. In selecting London as an area for such study Fitter, himself a Londoner, took the world's then largest aggregation of human beings living in a single community and showed how the spread of its activities affected the plants and animals in them, destroying some, creating others. With a clear resonance with our contemporary debates about resource use, ecology and the anthroposcene this event will explore in depth the interconnected nature of the built habitat of London, and by extrapolation of other towns and cities. Organised as part of the work of Unit 5 of the M.Arch course this seminar forms part of Registers role in making visible research happening in the taught programmes of courses. All welcome — just click on the teams link below — and read on for more information on our speakers [BNA: registerarchitecturelandscape.uk/events/londons-natural-history-unit-5 Julien Clin: Belonging in the City: Poetics of Place as Resistance to Gentrification Tuesday, November 23, 2021 1:00 PM 2:00 PM Join Julian Clin who shares PhD research in progress. Room KPTK101 and online (Teams) Respondents: Ralitsa Genkova and Kenza El Boudour El Idrissi Image credits: Rut Blees Luxemburg, "Meet Me in Arcadia" from: A Modern Project, 1996. The Edge(s) of Home Architecture, Poetics & Belonging in the City The notion of home is a complex one; even more so in a dynamic, constantly changing, gentrifying city. In a famous essay, Doreen Massey equates home to "the product of the ever-changing geography of social relations." Adding to that a loaded question mark in the essay's title "A Place Called Home?" (1992) Massey challenges the very concept of place (and space) that is at the heart of home. The main point of contention lies in boundaries, which are seen as inherently reactionary and exclusive. But do the built environment and architectural space really not factor into a sense of home? Is home not a defined, that is 'bounded', place? (De + finire, Latin: to draw boundaries.) Is there really no place called home in the city? Building on the German idea of 'Heimat,' on Heidegger's "gathering fourfold," and on contemporary London writing, in this talk Iwill seek to draw the edge(s) of homethat is, return boundaries to the conceptand begin to explore the role of architecture (and its poetic representation) in matters of belonging. Previous November 3 THE ECOLOGIES OF HUMAN SETTLEMENT — LONDON'S NATURAL HISTORY BY RSR FITTER Next [BNA: registerarchitecturelandscape.uk/events/julien-clin-belonging-in-the-city-poetics-of-place-as-resistance-to-gentrification" "RICHARD FITTER & LONDON ECOLOGY - discussed by his son et al Philip Boys To: John Jackson johntuton41@icloud.com; Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 18:12 2 YouTube video [BNA: registerarchitecturelandscape.uk/events/londons-natural-history-unit-5" "EDWARD WILLIAM MOUNTFORD — MORE REFS Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 18:14 1 [BNA: duckduckgo.com/?q=edward+william+mountford+architexct&atb=v144-6__&ia=web Notable buildings: chronological order[edit] Ellen Badger Hospital 1886 Battersea Central Library 18891890 Sheffield Town Hall 18901897 St Andrew's, Earlsfield 1890/1902 Hitchin Town Hall 190001[5] Battersea Town Hall 18911893 St Olave's Grammar School (Southwark site) 1893 Northampton Institute 1896 Old Bailey 19001907 St Michael and All Angels, Southfields, 1901[6] Munstead Grange and Munstead Lodge, Godalming, Surrey, 1902.[4] Lancaster Town Hall 19061909 College of Technology and Museum Extension 18961909 With Herbert Appleton[edit] St Paul's Church, Forest Hill 1882[7] (destroyed by bombing 1943)[8] Beckenham Baptist Church (Elm Road Chapel), Beckenham 188384[7] DNB" "DNB: EDWARD WILLIAM MOUNTFORD, ARCHITECT Mountford, Edward William (18551908) Colin Cunningham [BNA: doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35135 Published in print: 23 September 2004 Published online: 23 September 2004 Mountford, Edward William (18551908), architect, was born on 22 September 1855 at Shipston-on-Stour, Worcestershire, the son of Edward Mountford, draper, and his wife, Eliza Devonshire, daughter of William and Mary Richards of Northampton. He was twice married: first, on 28 June 1888, to Jessie Elizabeth, daughter of John Saunders Smith of Northampton, in whose memory he furnished the south chapel of St Anne's Church, St Ann's Hill, London (a building by Sir Robert Smirke); and second, on 11 July 1903, to Dorothy, daughter of A. G. Hounsham of Hampstead Heath. He had a son, who followed him as an architect, from his first marriage, and a daughter from his second. Mountford grew up in the Cotswolds and was educated privately at Clevedon, Somerset. In 1872 he was articled to Habershon and Pite, architects, and subsequently worked for them as a clerk of works. Lacking the connections that might have secured him patronage, he was employed as assistant to Messrs George Elkington and to Messrs Giles and Gough, before beginning independent practice in 1881. His early works were modest commissions in his native Worcestershire, beginning with a cottage hospital in Shipston-on-Stour. In collaboration with H. D. Appleton (also known as H. D. Searles-Wood) he built a few south London churches in the fourteenth-century Gothic style; and this type of commission formed an occasional part of his employment throughout his career. In his first decade of practice, however, lack of employment left him free to enter numerous competitions. Mountford's first real success was in winning the Sheffield town hall competition (1890); and thereafter he was regularly a winner (later still an assessor) of major public competitions. Among the buildings he won in competition (and subsequently built) were: Battersea town hall (1892; now the arts centre); St Olave's Grammar School (1893; now part of the South London College); the Northampton Institute (1896; now City University); and the central criminal court at the Old Bailey (190007), which replaced Newgate prison of 1769 and is probably Mountford's most important work. Among his other significant buildings were: Liverpool Technical College (1898); Booth's distillery, Cow Cross Street, Smithfield (1901; dem.); offices and flats at 34 Sloane Square, London (1905); the Northern Insurance Company building, 1 Moorgate, London (1906; with E. A. Grning); and Lancaster town hall (19069), completed by his assistant and partner F. Dare Clapham. He was also among the architects invited to compete for the new Strand Crescent at the Aldwych (1900) and for London county hall (1907). Mountford was one of the initiators of the 'Wrenaissance' style in the 1890s and one of the most successful practitioners of its developed form of Edwardian baroque, winning a silver medal at the 1900 Paris Exhibition. He was committed to the association of sculpture and painting with architecture, and worked closely with the sculptors Paul Montford, F. W. Pomeroy, and Gilbert Seale, and with the painters Gerald Moira and Sir William Richmond. He also retained an attachment to the vernacular architecture of his childhood and designed his own house at Munstead, near Godalming, Surrey, in 1901, in collaboration with his wife and with the advice of his neighbour Gertrude Jekyll on the garden. Mountford became an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1881 and a fellow in 1890; he served on its council and (19078) on its prizes and studentships committee. From 1893 to 1895 he was president of the Architectural Association (AA)and acted as an advisory member of the AA school of architecture until his death. He was described as an antiquary (The Builder, 94, 15 Feb 1908, 2745) and travelled in Italy (1880) and later Egypt (for his health). He was also an ardent cricketer and member of the Surrey County Cricket Club. Crippled by arthritis in his mid-forties, he died at his London home, 11 Craven Hill, Lancaster Gate, London, on 7 February 1908. Sources drawings, RIBA BAL, Drawings collection DNB Dir. Brit. archs. A. S. Gray, Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary (1985) Google PreviewWorldCat C. Cunningham, Victorian and Edwardian town halls (1981) Google PreviewWorldCat A. Service, Edwardian architecture and its origins (1975) Google PreviewWorldCat The Builder, 94 (1908), 190 Google PreviewWorldCat F. D. Clapham, ArchR, 23 (1908), 16162 RIBA Journal, 15 (19078), 2745 Building News, 94 (1908), 2445 Google PreviewWorldCat R. A. Fellows, Edwardian architecture: style and technology (1995) Google PreviewWorldCat CGPLA Eng. & Wales (1908) b. cert. Archives RIBA, nomination papers RIBA, biography file RIBA BAL, drawings collection Likenesses photograph, repro. in Building News (11 July 1890) photograph, repro. in ArchR, 161 portrait, RIBA BAL, Drawings Collection portrait, repro. in Architectural Association Notes, 8, facing p. 17 portrait, repro. in W. T. Pike, Contemporary biographies London, 272 Wealth at Death 23,239 2s. 11d.: probate, 10 March 1908, CGPLA Eng. & Wales View the article for this person in the Dictionary of National Biography archive edition. More on this topic Mountford, E(dward) W(illiam) in Oxford Art Online Mountford, Edward William, (22 Sept. 18557 Feb. 1908), architect in Who Was Who" "MURRELL & PIGOTT — MAGDALEN ESTATE 1931 Philip Boys To: Philip Boys philip.boys@btinternet.com; 15/12/21 18:17 1 Magdalen Estate (1931) One of Murrell & Pigott's largest and most well-known commissions came in 1931, when Wandsworth Council appointed the practice to design and lay out The Fieldview Estate the north-eastern section of the Magdalen Park Estate. Mostly brown brick or render two-storey maisonettes, the area has a harmonious appearance due to the harmony of materials and architectural features used around the estate. The buildings have plain clay tiled roofs which are hipped at the ends, and windows were originally white painted timber casements with glazing bars. An attractive and consistently-designed estate, it now forms part of the wider Magdalen Park Conservation Area. The Conservation Area Appraisal describes the history of the development: Under the Council's control, the Fieldview Estate was redesigned by H. F. Murrell and R. M. Pigott FRIBA and was to be a significant departure from the Holloways' scheme. The roads shown as No.1, No.2 and No.3 correspond to Tilehurst Road, Godley Road and Fieldview. Their plan dated November 1932 of the Fieldview Estate is shown below. A number of versions of this were proposed and a letter from Murrell and Pigott in January 1933 said: 'The Borough Council have definitely decided not to build two storey flats that is flats with common staircases and entrances. The site of this scheme is in a particularly good neighbourhood and the type of house erected has to maintain a good standard.' On 3rd August 1933 permission was given for the final scheme, to be completed within 18 months from 24th July 1933. In fact what was built were flats disguised as terraced houses but with independent access via either front or side entrance doors and independent stairs to the first floor flats. Again, space for a church was allowed, but never built. [BNA: Link. __ er biographies Richard Mountford Pigott Born in Wandsworth in November 1888, R.M.Pigott was the nephew of celebrated Edwardian architect Edward William Mountford (1855-1908). In 1911 at the age of 23, he was living with his parents and siblings at 1 Earlsfield Road, Wandsworth. His father was a tea merchant, but Richard chose to enter into his uncle's profession of architecture. A talented student, in 1909 The Architect and Building News recorded that Richard had been awarded the master's prize for hardest worker. In 1912 he won the Architectural Association's Silver Medal for his Architectural Treatment of the Head of the Serpentine, and in 1913 he was awarded first prize in the Saxon Snell Scholarship for his design of a cottage hospital. He worked for a period in his uncle's office, before being articled to Arthur Beresford Pite, and also worked for a time in the offices of John Belcher and F. A. Walters. Richard was also briefly in partnership with E.W. Mountford's son, his cousin Wallis Mountford. R. M. Pigott and his family were keen Congregationalists, attending both Earlsfield Congregational Church and Sutton Congregational Church at different periods. It is perhaps as a result of these lifelong connections with Congregational and other nonconformist communities, along with a long friendship with Robert Wilson Black, that Richard and his future partner were asked to design Congregational churches at Mitcham and Morden, were consulted by the City Temple after its destruction in 1940, and eventually asked to oversee the reconstruction of Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in 1957. Richard entered into partnership with Harold Franklyn Murrell in around 1919, although their first significant commissions did not begin to arrive until c.1921. Richard continued the practice until retirement in 1964, when it was taken over by his son Michael Mountford Pigott. Richard died in July 1975. Harold Franklyn Murrell Born in Lambeth in 1882, Harold Franklyn Murrell can be seen in the 1891 census living with his mother and two sisters on South Lambeth Road. By 1911 he was still living with his mother and one of his sisters, but the family had moved to 7 Thurlow Park Road. Harold's family had a long history of involvement with nonconformist religion, and his cousin Richard Percival Higg's extended family (whom he designed a house in Surbiton for, c.1925) were members of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. A number of family members had been deacons in the Tabernacle, and the extended family's friendship with Charles Spurgeon dated back to at least the 1870s. It was not until some 18 years after Harold's death that Mountford Pigott embarked upon the reconstruction of Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle, and it is unknown to what extent (if any) the late Harold Murrell's family ties influenced their appointment. H.F. Murrell died in September 1939, in a drowning incident while on holiday in Woolacombe. [BNA: Link. [BNA:
"Elizabeth Baigent / National Trust
In January 1853, a number of newspapers around the world excitedly reported the success of Wandsworth Common's Craig Telescope in seeing a third ring around Saturn. For example:
The Craig Telescope
This giant refractor lately erected on Wandsworth Common, of two feet aperture and eighty feet focal length, has been brought to bear up in the planet Saturn on the first favourable evening after its erection. The instant result has been to set the question at rest for ever amongst astronomers as to the satellite having a third ring. This Telescope has brought out this third ring beautifully. It of a bright elate colour . . .
In fine weather the wonders of the heavenly bodies are exhibited by this eighty feet refractor, in a way that the eye of man has never heretofore been permitted to see them.
[BNA: Link.]
[Source: Craig-Telescope.co.uk: www.craig-telescope.co.uk/observations.html" target="_blank">Observations at the telescope.]
But there were innumerable problems with the telescope itself, and also its location on Wandsworth Common — too close to the light pollution caused by London's rapid expansion.
It was in effect a grandiose folly, and within a few years it was demolished.
The Craig telescope: " . . . a Brobdignagian cigar". Isn't that a brilliant description!
Mr Craig had manufactured a refracting telescope with an object glass twenty inches in diameter; it was erected on Wandsworth Common, in a tube resembling a Brobdignagian cigar, but so imperfect was its achromatism and aplanatism that it has long been laid aside as practically useless.
etc etc
[BNA: Link.]
"[https]://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/martin-a-buckmaster
Martin A. Buckmaster
Picture source
Martin A. Buckmaster
Male Born 2/8/1862 Died 14/8/1960
Categories: Art, Community / Clubs
Elected to membership of the Arts Club in 1897. Still a member in 1920 when The Arts Club and its Members, our source for this information, was published. The oldest member of the club, aged 94 years, in May 1957.
Wrote the preface to 'Pink lustre pottery, a handbook for collectors' by Atwood Thorne, 1926. This and other items on the web strongly suggest that he was an expert in and collector of English lustre ware.
Our colleague, Andrew Behan, states that Martin Arnold Buckmaster was born on 2 August 1862 in Battersea, the fourth of the six children of John Charles Buckmaster (1823-1908) and Emily Anne Buckmaster ne Goodliffe (1831-1890).
On 20 August 1862 both he and an elder brother, Stanley Owen Buckmaster (1861-1934), were baptised at Christ Church, Battersea. The baptismal register shows their father to have been an assistant inspector of science schools.
The 1871 census shows him living at 2 St John's New Road, Battersea, with his parents, his sister Pheobe Emily Buckmaster (1868-1918), together with a governess and a female general domestic servant. His father's occupation was described as "Civil Service, Science & Arts Department South Kensington Museum, Examiner".
In the 1881 census he is described as an art student at South Kensington Art School, living at 13 Heathfield Road, Acton, the home of his brother Charles Alexander Buckmaster (1854-1949) who was an assistant examiner at the Civil Service Science & Arts Department, together with a female domestic servant.
He is shown as an artist — painter in the 1891 census, boarding at 6 Talgarth Road, Fulham, the home of Dr George Weathers and his wife, Mary Weathers. The 1901 census lists him as an artist & art master living at 16/17 Coleherne Mansions, 228-230 Old Brompton Road, Kensington, together with a female housekeeper.
On 4 July 1910 he married Dorothy Mary Dyer (1885-1969) at St Jude's Church, Kensington. The marriage register shows him as an artist residing at 17 Coleherne Mansions, whilst her address is recorded as 1 Sydney Place, Onslow Square and that she was the daughter of William John Dyer (1851-1921), a manager of a joint stock bank. On 12 February 1911 their daughter Dorothy Annette Buckmaster (1911-1983) was born.
In the 1911 census he lists himself as an arts master and examiner, still living at 17 Coleherne Mansions with his wife and their daughter, together with a female domestic servant and a nurse. He was an arts master at Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent and was registered as a Associate, Royal College of Art (A.R.C.A.). He was also registered as a Honorary Associate, Royal institute of British Architects (A.R.I.B.A.).
On 15 June 1921 he was initiated as Freemason in the Andrew Judd Lodge No.4145 that held their meetings at Cafe Monico, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1 until 1924 when the lodge moved their meetings to the Criterion, Piccadilly. The name of the lodge was changed to Old Tonbridgian Lodge in 1928 and moved to Freemasons' Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, Holborn in 1937.
Electoral registers confirm that he and wife remained at 16/17 Coleherne Mansions and he was listed there as an art master and examiner on the 1939 England and Wales Register with his wife and a female domestic servant. Electoral registers from 1945 show them residing at 9 Coleherne Mansions. This remained as his address until he died, aged 98 years, on 14 August 1960 at St Mary Abbot's Hospital. Probate was granted on 2 November 1960 to his widow and to his chartered account son-in-law, Guy Frederick Sims Williams (1905-1982). His effects totalled 59,506-13-7d.
We were unable to find an image of Martin A. Buckmaster so we have shown a sample of his still-life artwork.
The Arts Club — left — WW2
Our Greek consultant, David Hopkins, transcribed the Greek quotation and writ . . .
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"BNA SEARCH FEB 1874
I. Verdicts
II. Willing to Be
III. Cases and Classes: Sensational Suicides and Their Interpreters
IV. Bad and Far Better Things
V. Other Times, Other Cultures, Other Selves
VI. Monsters of Self-Destruction
Varney the Vampire, or The Feast of Blood (1847)
John Merrick, the Elephant Man
Nell, Quilp, and Accidental Suicides in Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Divided Self and Self-Destruction in Tennyson's Idylls of the King
Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray
VII. Suicidal Women: Fact or Fiction?
VIII. Century's End: "The Coming Universal Wish Not to Live"
Credits
Chapter 1 of the author's Victorian Suicide: Mad Crimes and Sad Histories, which Princeton University Press published in 1988. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
This web version is a project supported by the University Scholars Programme of the National University of Singapore. Adrian Kang, April Julia Ang, Alvin Wee, Derrick Wong and Sabrina Lim, undergraduates in the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore, working under the direction of George P. Landow, who added links to materials in VW.
Notes
1. See such fine recent studies as Nina Auerbach's Woman and the Demon (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), and Sally Mitchell's The Fallen Angel (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1981).
Directions
Numbers in brackets indicate page breaks in the print edition and thus allow users of VW to cite or locate the original page numbers.
Where possible, bibliographical information appears in the form of in-text citations, which refer to the bibliography at the end of each document.
Superscript numbers link only to documents containing substantial bibliographical information; the numbers do not form a complete sequence.
Non-bibliographic notes appears as text links.
Notes
Bibliography
Auerbach, Nina. Woman and the Demon, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Mitchell's Sally. The Fallen Angel, Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1981.
Radcliffe, J. N.. "On the Prevalence of Suicide in England," Transactions oftbe National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. London, 1862.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
Lewes, George Henry "Suicide in Life and Literature," Westminster Review. July 1857.
Martineau, Harriet. "Self-Murder," Once A Week 17 December 1859.
Strahan, S. A. K.. Suicide and Insanity: A Physiological and Sociological Study. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1893.
Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman. London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1894.
Cobbe, Frances Power. "Criminals, Idiots, Women, and Minors," Fraser's Magazine December 1868.
Bassein, Beth Ann. Women and Death. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Horsley, J. W.. Jottings from Jail. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887.
Mill, John Stuart. On the Suhjection of Women. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1869.
Winslow, Forbes. "Recent Trials in Lunacy," Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology 7. 1854.
Kingsley, Charles. "Tennyson," Fraser's Magazine September 1850.
Jameson, Anna. Characteristics of Women. London: George Bell and Sons, 1889.
Bront, Charlotte. The Professor. London: J. W. Dent, 1969.
Wise, John R. de C. "Belles Lettres," Westminster Review 84, 1865.
Burne-Jones, Edward. Burne-Jones Talking, ed. Mary Lago Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981.
Lombroso, Cesare. The Female Offender, intro. W. Douglas Morris, New York: Appleton, 1895.
Cobbe, Frances Power. "The Final Cause of Women," in Woman's Work and Woman's Culture, ed. Josephine E. Butler London: Macmillan, 1869.
Wilde, Oscar. The First Collected Edition of the Works of Oscar Wilde, ed. Robert Ross, 15 vols. 1908-22; London: Methuen, 1969. The Importance of Being Earnest
Shoberl, Frederic ,ed. "The Suicide," in Forget-Me-Not, London: R. Ackermann, 1827.
DeQuincey, Thomas. "On Suicide," Collected Works, 14 vols., ed. David Masson. Edinburgh: Black, 1890.
Dickens, Charles. Miscellaneous Papers. London: Chapman and Hall, 1911.
Acton, William. Prostitution Considered in Its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects. 1870; London: Frank Cass and Co., 1972.
Scott, William Bell. "Rosabell," in Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William Bell Scott, ed. W. Minto, 2 Vols. New York: Harper, 1892.
Armstrong, John. "Female Penitentiaries," Quarterly Review 83, 1848.
Blessington, Lady. The Governess, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1839.
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Aurora Leigh, ed. Gardner B. Taplin 1864; Chicago: Academy Chicago Limited, 1979. Subsequent references appear in the text by page number.
Duerr, Hans Peter. Dreamtime New York: Basil Blackwell's, 1985.
Meredith, George. The Works of George Meredith, 29 Vols. New York: Scribner's, 1910, vol. 5. Subsequent references are to volume five and appear in the text.
Cope, Harriet. Suicide, London: Bryer, 1815.
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, London: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist, London: Oxford University Press, 1966.
Dickens, Charles. "Wapping Workhouse," in The Uncommercial Traveller, London: Chapman and Hall, 1911.
Donaldson, Sandra M.. " 'Ophelia' in Elizabeth Siddal Rossetti's Poem 'A Year and a Day'," Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 2 November 1981.
Doughty, Oswald. A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti London: Oxford University Press, 1960.
Gilbert and Sullivan, The Complete Plays of, New York: Garden City, 1938.
Hood, Thomas. Selected Poems of Thomas Hood, ed. John Clubbe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970, p. 392. Subsequent references are by line number and are incorporated into the text.
Horsley, J. W.. "Suicide," Fortnightly Review 35. 1881.
Jopling, R. Thompson. "Statistics of Suicide," Assurance Magazine 2, 1851.
Meisel's, Martin. Realizations: Narrative, Pictorial, and Theatrical Arts in Nineteenth-Century England, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Meteyard, Eliza. "Lucy Dean: the Noble Needlewoman," Eliza Cook's Journal 16 March-April 1850.
Reynolds, G.W.M.. The Mysteries of London, London: John Dicks, 1846.
Rossetti, W.M.. Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Family Letters and a Memoir, 2 vols., ed. London, 1895.
Shorter, Clement, ed. The Bront: Life and Letters, ed., 19 vols.. New York: Scribners, 1908.
Thackeray, William Makepeace. Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, 1817-1840, ed. Gordon N. Ray, 4 vols.. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1945.
Strachey, James, ed. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, et al., 24 vols.. London: Hogarth Press, 1953-74.
Periodicals
Blackwood's June 1880
Was Suicide a Female Malady?
decorated initial 'W' omen were fictionalized and mythologized much as were monsters in Victorian England. They too were made into "others" weaker vessels or demons, angels in the house or fallen angels (see such fine recent studies as Auerbach, 1982; and Mitchell, 1981) and suicide was displaced to them much as it was to demonic alter egos. For the most part, fictions about women and suicide became more prevalent and seemed more credible than did facts. The facts themselves were clear: throughout the nineteenth century women consistently had a suicide rate lower than that of men; see especially J. N. Radcliffe, p. 465. Consistent too were the means of suicide. In most cases, women chose poison or drowning over bloodier deaths by gun or knife, a pattern that continues today. These facts were well-established even before mid-century and were well-confirmed after 1858, when William Farr improved record-keeping for cause of death. Lower incidence among women proved, however, easier to determine than to accept. Despite all evidence to the contrary, most Victorians believed what they wished to believe about the frequency of female suicide.
In the main they did so because they wanted and expected suicide, like madness, to be a "female malady." (See Showalter, 1985.) Since women were statistically over-represented among the mentally ill primarily because in Victorian England they were more often confined to "homes" for the insane and were more easily countable than were men they were generally thought to be more vulnerable to madness. The reasoning for linking women and suicide went something like this: more women are confined for insanity than men and suicide is a result of insanity; therefore more women should commit suicide than men (see Lewes, 52-78). Or else it went like this: woman is a lesser man, a weaker being, both physically and mentally. Resisting suicide takes willpower and courage; therefore women should fall victim to suicidal impulses far more readily than should men. Unless the weaker sex were to be credited with unwanted strength, the fact that women killed themselves less frequently than men required considerable explaining. Such was the price of retaining the displacement of self-destruction to women in a patriarchal society that was dedicated to championing male mental and physical superiority and to rationalizing sexual differences. [125/126]
The Discrepancy between Statistics and Expectations
Throughout the century, men's explanations for the discrepancy between statistics and expectations centered on what was presumed to be the female disposition. In 1857, writing for the Westminster Review, George Henry Lewes attributed the cause for the lower suicide rate among women to women's "greater timidity" and to "their greater power of passive endurance, both of bodily and mental pain" (71). Lewes was echoed in 1880 by a writer for Blackwood's who asserted that women were "habitually better behaved and quieter; they have more obedience, more resignation, and a stronger directing sentiment of duty . . . . They possess precisely dispositions of temperament and teaching which best withhold from voluntary death" (727). Female analysts of suicide rates were less likely to make naive pronouncements about female character, but they too felt called upon to explain away the statistics. After observing that "nearly three men commit suicide to one woman," Harriet Martineau concluded that "as there is no such disproportion in the subjects of what we may call natural insanity, we may attribute the majority of male suicides to the habit of men to incur the artificial insanity caused by intemperance" (511). For women's timidity, she simply substituted men's weakness toward another Victorian bte noir, the demon bottle.
At century's end, men like S.A.K. Strahan and Havelock Ellis made less generous conjectures about the female temperament and suicide than had Lewes. Strahan believed that women were weaker contenders in the struggle for existence and therefore less prone to its aftereffects like suicide. For him, their lower suicide rate depended upon woman's "lack of courage and her natural repugnance to personal violence and disfigurement" (179). Female ignobility, not nobility, marked his suppositions. Ellis's similar judgments hinged less on the rate than on the means of suicide. Referring to what he called the "passive" methods of suicide (drowning, for example), Ellis found women temperamentally irresolute in opting for means that required both less preparation and less gore. More violent forms of suicide offended "against women's sense of propriety and their intense horror of making a mess" and reflected their fear of public scrutiny after they were dead. "If it were possible to find an easy method of suicide by which the body could be entirely disposed of," said Ellis, "there would probably be a considerable increase of suicides among women" (335).
Inherent in these observations is an absurd prejudice in favor of bloodier suicides as being braver and therefore more manly. Ellis makes means of suicide so much a point of honor that he begins to glorify self-destruction and loses sight of his real argument about suicide as a "morbid psychic phenomenon." Inherent here too is a more insidious prejudice [126/127] against women and women's bodies, a male supposition that women must wish to dwindle away to nothing. This is a confirmation of the Victorian ideal of the female self that dissolves into others, much as does Dickens's Esther Summerson in Bleak House. Frances Power Cobbe metaphorically described this ideal as exhibited in marriage. It is as though a male tarantula devours a female spider and incorporates the female wholesale into his own being (789). When the female atomizes into the male, there is simply no longer any "other" to contend with. Cobbe's description can also serve to characterize a state of death-in-life, where there is still a remaining female body, but only a living corpse. In this state, the female's logical end becomes suicide. She is like a child or a mistress who exists but must not be seen, and eventually relinquishes her existence as a confirmation of the way in which she is perceived (for a recent examination of such diminishment see Bassein, ch. 1). The Indian institution of suttee, so fascinating to Victorians, well exemplifies this perception of women. The Englishman Ellis certainly posits something similar in his fanciful alternative to accepting the reality of suicide statistics: rates of self-destruction would be much higher for females if women's bodies could disappear along with their sense of self.
The conjectures of Ellis, the famed pioneer sexologist, help confirm the fact that men displace self-loss in sex to women and therefore displace death to them as well. But Ellis did not really deny the statistics; he only wanted them to be otherwise. It took J. W. Horsley, a prison chaplain in the last quarter of the century, to argue resolutely that suicide was predominantly a female crime. Drawing upon his own experience at Clerkenwell Prison dealing with women rescued from suicide attempts and brought to him for "reform," Horsley became convinced that women had a greater propensity to suicide. They were simply less successful in its execution. He contradicted himself, however, when he suggested how easily such intrinsic female suicide might be prevented: "Hysterical girls make demonstrations on the Embankment, and a pail of water over their finery would often be more efficacious a deterrent or cure than the notoriety they gain (or perhaps seek) by apprehension" (256). Horsley's lack of compassion could hardly have been instrumental in "reforming" Clerkenwell's inmates. He himself asserted that hardly five days at the prison went by without sight of a repeated suicide attempt by a woman. With his own callous attitudes, Horsley seemed determined to help substantiate his belief that suicide was beyond a doubt "a specifically female crime" (241).
Male Displacement of Self-Destruction to Women
Ellis and Horsley show the lengths to which intelligent Victorian men could go to continue displacing self-destruction to women. Taken along with theories of passive endurance, their assumptions lead to the [127/128] heart of a puzzling contradiction. Was women's comparative immunity to the suicidal impulse the result of will-lessness or of willpower? Were women really too weak to commit suicide, or were they morally stronger than men and therefore more courageous in resisting it? If they were simply weak, they better fit Victorian expectations of them. As John Stuart Mill pointed out, women were inculcated to believe "that their ideal of character is the very opposite of that of men, not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission and yielding to the control of others" (27). Such people, sentiment ran, would hardly be bent toward self-destruction, for they lacked the fortitude to kill themselves, much as Ellis and Horsley posited. On the other hand, should they run counter to both statistics and expectation, their inherent weakness was at fault. in either of these cases, they proved baser, lesser beings. But what if they were in fact stronger than men in withstanding suicide? This alternative was by far the more troubling one for Victorians so troubling that more fallacious reasoning was concocted to explain it away. Argument was diverted from the courage not to die and from the female sense of duty to those "self-willed" women who opted for death. Late in the century, Ellis tried unsuccessfully to prove that the growing number of women whose working lives most resembled men's were more prone to suicide, but he had to admit that women's tendency to suicide versus men's was continually decreasing. Others had been even less generous to women. The famous case of Mary Brough, who slit the throats of her six children and then unsuccessfully tried to kill herself in the same way, raised enormous hostility more because of Brough's "long-indulged self-will" than because of the child murders. Brough was reported to have been an unfaithful wife who became deranged as a result of her immoral life; her insanity was consequently "self-created" (Winslow, 623) To most Victorians, self-will, Carlyle's first line of defense against suicide, was unnatural in woman an indication that something was radically wrong. Charles Kingsley, for example, disliked Tennyson's Princess Ida because of her "self-willed and proud longing to unsex herself." She had substituted "her own self-will" for "the womanhood which God [had] given her." As a result she was "all but a vengeful fury, with all of the peculiar faults of a woman and none of the peculiar excellences of man" (250).
Women with willpower struck a different chord with women writers. When Anna Jameson wrote about Cleopatra in her book on Shakespeare's heroines, her imagination thrilled to the "idea of this frail, timid, wayward woman dying with heroism from the mere force of passion and Will" (276). Women also looked askance at the timidity that allowed other women simply to dwindle away to death. In Shirley, , [128/129] Charlotte Bront's Mary Cave dies by starvation for love and significance rather as the anorectic Nightingale nearly did. Her death may be a suppressed rebellion, but it is clearly cautionary. In this sort of rebellion, the woman dies in order to become noticed or missed. In Shirley, young Caroline Helstone, the love-starved niece, must learn to read Mary Cave's lesson and live. Bront's own sympathy lay more with Frances Henri in The Professor, who scorned voluntary death in the hope that she would "have the courage to live out every throe of anguish fate assigned me" (226). Later in the century, Victoria Crosse (Vivian Corey) took on Grant Allen's The Woman Who Did (1895) in her The Woman Who Didn't (1895). Allen had described a broken, fallen heroine who initiates suicide by taking prussic acid and then arranges herself on a bed with white roses at her breast. Crosse's heroine, Euridyce, lives on and employs willpower to endure a loveless marriage and defy premature death.
Victorian Images of Women, Female Willfulness, and Suicide
Despite the insights of such women writers, the image of woman as the strong-willed, "vengeful fury" better approaches the dominant Victorian view of female willfulness and suicide because it begins to make myth of willful womanhood (See Auerbach, ch. 1). A decade and a half after Kingsley wrote about Ida, a male writer for the Westminster Review (1865) sketched in the image of the fury. She was the new woman abroad, one who possessed "not only the velvet, but the claws of the tiger." She was "no longer the Angel, but the Devil in the House." With her in mind, this writer reframed an old proverb to read, " man proposes, woman disposes" (Wise, 568) This sentiment was virtually paraphrased by the painter Edward Burne-jones, who said of woman: "Once she gets the upper hand and flaunts, she's the devil there's no other word for it, she's the devil . . . as soon as you've taken pity on her she's no longer to be pitied. You're the one to be pitied then (11). And so she-wolves grew in place of pet dogs. Monstrous women represented female energy bristling with will, whereas male monsters like Hyde depicted masculine energy dispossessed of will. Even when they disposed of themselves, such women were insidiously dangerous because they then threatened the very being of males who were their counterparts in willpower. Ever "vengeful," these monstrous women suggested that willpower was a way into, not out of, self-destruction. They began to displace displacement and needed to be mythologized endlessly in efforts to distance them. Fear of Mary Brough's sexuality and of her anger caused her rebirth in the press and in the popular mind as an utterly appalling miscreation. Fear of Bertha Rochester's female loss of control caused the fictional Rochester in Jane Eyre to lock her up like an animal, to dehumanize her into the ultimate monster she became until she set fire to her cage-like [129/130] home, destroying both herself and, for a time, the will of Rochester in the bargain. A broken man, the once potent Rochester could only be restored by the intuition and ministration of Jane.
Cesare Lombroso, Evolutionary Regression, and Suicidal Women
Making monsters of women was not only the pastime of the press or of novelists during the nineteenth century. Criminologists like Cesare Lombroso, an Italian who was widely admired in England, included women in their theories of evolutionary regression or atavism. For Lombroso, criminals became a manifestation of such atavism; they were less evolved beings, closer to other primates than were most people. And because women were already lesser beings than men, female criminals were the most atavistic of all. In The Female Offender (1893), Lombroso discussed woman's hysteria, hand and facial anomalies, lunacy, tattoos, and of course suicides. To his mind, female offenders were appallingly dangerous because in them piety and maternalism were missing. In their place were "strong passions and intensely erotic tendencies, much muscular strength and a superior intelligence for the conception and execution of evil." To Lombroso "it was clear that the innocuous semi-criminal present in the normal woman," had in these women been "transformed into a born criminal more terrible than any man." His "criminal woman is consequently a monster" (150-152). Lombroso also believed that women were less impelled to suicide than were men because they felt pain less. When thwarted in love, however, their monstrously passionate natures leapt to the fore, so that far more than men, women in love turned into self-destructives.
Lombroso reached an English soil well prepared for his coming. Nevertheless liberals like Mill and feminists like Cobbe had earlier raised voices of protest against such dehumanizing of women. In On the Subjection of Women (1869), Mill questioned the right of men "to worship their own will as such a grand thing that it is actually the law for another rational being" (77). Absolute domestic tyrants were for him "absolute monsters"; lesser tyrants, more the rule in Victorian England, were "savages," "little higher than brutes" (64-65). Mill thus found more primitiveness in men than in women. So did Cobbe, who also thought that to treat woman, who "has affections, a moral nature, a religious sentiment, an immortal soul . . . as a mere animal link in the chain of life" was itself "monstrous" (Cobbe, 9) These two earlier writers helped stand the myth of atavistic womanhood on its head. Later, Oscar Wilde would further invert and deflate it. In The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Jack says of Lady Bracknell, "she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair. " (Wilde, 50).
Lovelorn Suicidal Women
But it was not necessary to treat women as fiends in order to distance them from men. Other myths about their nature would serve equally [130/131] well, especially when it came to suicide. When suicidal women were not feared as willful Medusas, they were usually disdained or pitied as the yearning lovelorn. They displayed that second-class will so often projected upon them. If men had been their main reason to exist, one important supposition went, losing them meant indifference to life. Of all the constructs about women and self-destruction, this one had the deepest hold on the Victorian imagination for the longest time. A catalogue listing all works of art on this subject would have to run on for pages. Domestic melodrama snatched dozens of jilted women from the jaws of suicide, while broadsheet after broadsheet sensationalized their plight. Ophelias and Crazy Janes, madwomen frenzied for want of their lovers (see Showalter, intro. and ch. 3), haunted the pages of Christmas books and annuals. In Forget-Me-Not: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1827, the orphaned Ida is abandoned by her higher-born beloved, Osmond, in favor of a wealthier bride. Poor Ida gazes on Osmond's nuptial pride and turns her "lone footsteps to the shore." "A plunge was heard a dying groan / A bubble in the moonbeam shone; / A light form rose, then sunk again, / And Ida slept beneath the main" (Shoberl, 204-206) The strength of Ida's stereotype would be confirmed by Victorian coroner's juries like Margaret Moyes's, that would ask: "Was this dead woman crossed in love?"
Ida and her jilted sisters both real and imagined were often sympathetic figures, victims of men who were superior to them in status, power, or physical strength, and the source of sympathy for them very often Jay in male perceptions of female honor. Many believed with De Quincey that "there is no man who in his heart would not reverence a woman that chose to die rather than to be dishonoured" (VIII, 399). But deserted women who committed suicide did so not only out of bereavement, Many were seduced as well as abandoned. They killed themselves rather than face the shame of "falling," for fallen women immediately gained new willpower in Victorian eyes. Sinful creatures now considered responsible for their own destinies, they became blameable for their wrong choices (see Mitchell, p. x). If they lived on, as most did both in Victorian literature and in actuality, they might either become prostitutes or else atone for their sin through good works, through death-in-life, or through some untimely demise. Ruined Hetty Sorrel in George Eliot's popular Adam Bede (1859), for instance, became an infanticide. After killing her illegitimate offspring, she was punished for her fall by a sentence of hanging later commuted to transportation but followed by an early death. More common than infanticide for the women who fell was a further fall into prostitution. In Household Words (1853) Dickens tells of "case number fifty-four" at the Home for Homeless Women who "had stayed out late one night, in company with a 'commissioner' [131/132] whom she had known abroad, was afraid or ashamed to go home, and so went wrong" (1911; p. 408). The Home itself was an attempt to counter such prostitution. Established in the late 1840s by a group of women, it set out to find work for young women who had "already lost their character and lapsed into guilt" or to lend an opportunity to "fly" from the "crime" of prostitution (395). In literature more than in life, losing character did mean losing life. William Acton's classic study of prostitution pointed out that prostitutes did not have a high rate of suicide (Acton, 38). In popular poetry like William Bell Scott's "Rosabell," however, when the woman "goes wrong," she before long develops the scornful laugh of the street-walker. People like Scott's narrator can then only moan: "Descent is easy: stage to stage / Facile, they say, and swift, alas" (I, 151). The usual end of such an archetypal fall was self-destruction. Scott's poem concludes with a fatal prophecy for such women: "And every lamp on every street / Shall light their wet feet down to death."
Fallen women were considered deadly to more than just themselves. Scott's Rosabell was led astray not only by her male lover but by the already hardened Joan. Unfallen Victorian women, like those who established the Home for Homeless Women, had to be careful to avoid the taint of the fallen. In discussing the importance of Ladies Committees to female penitentiaries, John Armstrong saw both pros and cons for their existence. Ladies could show requisite pity for their sisters, but it might not be "advisable for pure minded women to put themselves in the way of such a knowledge of evil as must be learned in dealing with the fallen members of their sex." (Armstrong, 375-376) Moreover, the taint from an actual fall could cling to middle-class or even upper-class women for the rest of their lives, another stigma widely illustrated in Victorian literature. In Arthur Wing Pinero's The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), Paula, the cynical second wife of Aubrey Tanqueray, is much beloved by her husband but resented by his daughter, Ellean. By an odd quirk of fate, the daughter falls in love with a former lover of the second Mrs. Tanqueray. To save Ellean from that lover, Paula tells Aubrey of her own affair but then refuses to save herself. She had once revealed to Aubrey that she would have killed herself had they ever parted, but now commits suicide rather than live with his and Ellean's knowledge of her past. Similarly in Dickens's Bleak House (1852-53), after her illegitimate liaison is discovered, Lady Dedlock wanders on to self-induced death by exposure, a fitting metaphor for the revelation of her fall.
Paula Tanqueray and Honoria Dedlock die willingly but only after attempts to live down a deeply internalized sense of descent. Other women in Victorian literature choose death-in-life after a self-perceived fall. They live disheartened, suicidal lives that confirm what they feel [132/133] friends or society must think of them. Marian Erle in Aurora Leigh (1856) becomes a living dead person twice in Barrett Browning's poem. First she flees home to avoid falling victim to a neighboring squire, running until she drops, and then she feels "dead and safe" (Browning, p. 112) Years later she is more severely victimized. Drugged and raped, not "seduced" says she, but "simply murdered" (223), she becomes pregnant but indifferent to her own life. "I'm dead," she admits. "And if to save the child from death as well / The mother in me has survived the rest / Why that's God's miracle you must not tax, / I'm not less dead for that" (224). Marian is only restored by the ministrations of another woman, Aurora Leigh. Less revivable is Dahlia Fleming in George Meredith's Rhoda Fleming (1865), one of the most profound Victorian studies of living death after sexual fall. Dahlia and Rhoda are the two flowerlike daughters of a dead, garden-loving mother. Beautiful, natural, and naive, Dahlia goes to the city, is seduced by Edward Blancove, the worldling son of a banker, and when he deserts her, she evades her family. She is about to marry a ruffian when she is discovered by Rhoda's suitor. Morally strong but blindly unaware of the dangers of supposedly correct behavior, Rhoda is willing to see Dahlia married off after her fall because it will make her respectable again. Only very slowly does Rhoda realize that acts like marrying off are what constitute immorality. Meanwhile, Dahlia dies to life as had Marian Earle. Unable really to accept anything but Edward, she maddens, unsuccessfully attempts suicide, and then succumbs to tedium vitae. Eventually Edward decides he will indeed have her, but by then she has deadened to him as well.
Central to Meredith's portrayal of Dahlia is others' misapprehension of her deathlike indifference. It begins while Edward is still present, on the night when be will leave her. Dahlia, again like Marian Erle, directly states that she is dead, but Edward counters her statement with baby talk. Meredith brilliantly reads both sides of the gulf between his characters. Edward thinks of Dahlia as a child, a will-less, lesser being, and so feeds her child's talk. But Dahlia is love-starved, not weak, and resents this gibberish "as not the food she for a moment requires" (Meredith, vol. 5, p. 98) It sickens her and in turn disgusts Edward, who is about to go out to his club for dinner. Intuiting Dahlia's feelings, Edward glances at the real plate of food that Dahlia is about to have and muses to himself that the "potatoes looked as if they had c"
"From
Henry S. Simmonds, All about Battersea
On the road to Wandsworth and facing Plough Lane was "Ye Plough
Inn," erected A.D. 1701. In front of this Inn grew an oak to which an
iron ring was fastened, and it is supposed that here Dick Turpin the
notorious highwayman occasionally reined up his bonny black
mare. When the Inn was re-built in 1875-6 the trunk was removed
to the front of the "Old House" in Plough Lane, which formerly
belonged to Mr. Carter, who owned extensive market gardens about
here.
The following lines were written in commemoration of the
famous Old Plough Tree, and the present landlord has had the lines
enframed for his customers to read:
"This stump the remains of the Old Oak Tree,
That flourish'd when knights of the road roamed free,
When bands of lawless yet chivalrous knights
Struck fear to the hearts of purse-proud wights!
This gay old king of the forest's wilds,
His proud head bow'd to the sun's bright smiles,
In glorious prime when his branches were strong
As shoulders of Atlas in time long gone!
His leaves in the murmuring breeze did fling
Their sweet green shade o'er the Old Plough Inn!
When the knights of the road of their deeds did sing,
'Twas there to his side was first fixed the ring
To which Dick Turpin the gallant and bold
When going to the Plough to spend his bright gold
Did tether his mare, swift Bonny Black Bess.
When rider and horse stopp'd here to get rest.
Removed from his place when the Old Plough's head
By time's fell decree in ruin was laid!
This stump that remains of the Old Plough tree
In front of 'The Old House,' in Plough Lane you may see.
Here placed in memory of the Old Plough Inn
An aged memento of things that have been!
Here in his last stage, sapped branchless and grey,
Here in cool September, the trunk's first day,
In the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six,
Was planted by Messrs. J. Goodman and Wilkes.
William Holloway.
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"From
Henry S. Simmonds, All about Battersea
LAMMAS HALL situated in Bridge Road West, is Licensed Pursuant to Act of Parliament of the 25th of King George 2nd, was erected in 1858. The Hall will seat about 400 persons and may be hired for lectures, concerts, and other public purposes. The front part of the building is used as a Vestry Hall and for the transaction of other parochial business. A more commodious Hall is urgently needed in a central part of the parish, so also are required Baths, Lavatory, and a Public Library. Lammas Hall owes its origin from a fund which
was paid by the Battersea Park Commissioners for the extinguishment of the Lammas Rights to the Churchwardens, by resolution of the Vestry after several schemes had been brought forward they proposed to build a Hall and Vice Chancellor Stuart appointed the Trustees hence its name "Lammas Hall."
Mr Thomas Harrap, Vestry Clerk.
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'"
"From Henry S. Simmonds, All about Battersea
THE UNION WORKHOUSE, erected in 1836 is situated within the boundary of Battersea parish at the junction of East Hill and St.John's Hill, it is an extensive brick building with accommodation for 833 inmates. The Infirmary adjoining was added in 1870 at a cost of 40,000. The Casual Ward in addition is constructed for 117 casual paupers. The Union comprises Battersea, Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting, and Wandsworth with a population in 1871 of 125,000 and an area of 11, 488 acres. John Sanders, Solicitor and Clerk; Edward H. Taylor, Assistant Clerk; Rev. William Armstrong, Chaplain; T. H. Cresswell, Medical Officer; John Hodge, Master; Mrs Martha Hodge, Matron; Mr. Pettman, Missionary.[1] The poor of England till the time of Henry VIII. subsisted as the poor of Ireland until 1838 entirely upon private benevolence. Judge Blackstone observes that till the Statute 26, Henry VIII. cap. 26, he finds no compulsory method for providing for the poor, but upon the total dissolution of the Monasteries, abundance of Statutes were made in the reign of King Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth which at last established the Poor's Rate, a legal assessment for the support of the poor. Before the Reformation immense sums of money were appropriated for charitable purposes, and notwithstanding many abuses the religious order of those days never so far lost sight of this original institution as ever to neglect the poor. The famous Statute of the 43rd of Elizabeth, 1601, by which Overseers were appointed for Parishes is the basis of all the poor laws in England. By Statute 23, Edward III., 1342, it was enacted that none should give alms to a beggar able to work. An Act was passed 1531, empowering Justices to grant licenses to poor and impotent persons to beg within certain limits of territory. By the Common Law, the poor were to be sustained by "parsons, rectors of the church and parishioners so that none should die for default of sustenance, " and by 15 Richard II. impropriators were obliged to distribute a yearly sum to the poor. An act of 1601 directed that every parish shall provide for its own poor by an assessment to be levied by the Justices in General Sessions and embodied regulations as to how assessment should be made and applied. In 1782 Workhouse Unions were introduced by an Act called Gilbert's Act. The Act of 1834 among other changes established the system of Poor Law Unions."
"From Henry S. Simmonds, All about Battersea
Near the southern boundary of the parish and not far from Wandsworth Common Railway Station, are situated St. James' Industrial Schools. [1]This Institution stands on a portion of 22 acres of land purchased of the Right Honourable Frederick Earl Spencer, K.G., and conveyed to the Governors and Directors of the Poor of the Parish of St. James, Westminster, by Deed bearing dates, the thirtieth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and fifty. The first stone laid 24th September, 1851. The School opened 22nd June, 1852. F. Parkis, Superintendent.
There are now 141 boys in the schools. On leaving a premium of 10 is given to each boy to learn a trade. Mrs. Anne Newton, late of upper Harley Street in the Parish of Mary-le-bone, widow, deceased, by her Will left, dated the 12th of March, 1806, 1,000. 429 19s. 3d. has been received through the Court of Chancery. The interest is given to the best boy selected by his fellow scholars, on condition that the Superintendent agrees with their decision.
Mr. Beal sold on Wednesday, March 13th, 1878, at the Mart, 14_ acres of land for 14, 500, being part of 20 acres bought in 1850 for the sum of 600. The land is in Battersea Parish, bordering on Wandsworth Common, and was part of the site of the Westminster Union (St. James') Industrial Schools. It was bought by the British Land Company."
"From Henry S. Simmonds, All about Battersea
BATTERSEA GRAMMAR SCHOOL, St. John's Hill. Founded under the Trust of Sir Walter St. John A.D. 1700. Scheme revised A.D. 1873.
GOVERNORS: William Evill, Jun., Esq., Robert Hudson, Esq., Rev. Evan Daniel, M.A., W. G. Baker, Esq., John Costeker, Esq., Treasurer, Rev. Canon Clarke, M.A., James H. T. Connor, Esq., Richard Hadfield, Esq., Thomas D. Tully, Esq., Charles Few, Esq., James Stiff, Esq.
HEAD MASTER: Rev. E. A. Richardson, M.A., late Scholar of Queen's College, Oxford. ASSISTANT MASTERS: W. H. Bindley, B.A., late Scholar of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, M. Michael, Bachelier-es-Lettres, University of Paris, C. P. Martinnant, University of London, Mr. Badel, Writing Master, Serjeant Major Doberty, Drill Master.
Scheme of Instruction. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION, (according to the principles of the Church of England) forms a regular part of the teaching of each class. Those boys are excepted from the teaching of the Church Catechism and Prayer Book, whose parents, (being Dissenters), express a desire to that effect, in writing to the Head Master. THE COURSE OF STUDY comprises the English, Latin, Greek, French and German Languages; Writing, Arithmetic, Book-keeping and Mathematics. History and Geography; Natural Science and Drawing. French is taught throughout the School; German in the three highest classes only. DRAWING, (Freehand, Model and Landscape), is taught in all classes. TECHNICAL DRAWING, (including Practical Geometry, and Perspective), and Painting are taught only in the two upper classes. SCIENCE, (comprising Physics, Chemistry and Botany), is taught only in the upper classes. Vocal Music is taught.
School Term and Holidays. The period of instruction is divided into three terms, as nearly equal as possible. The holidays are four weeks at Christmas, three weeks at Easter, and six weeks at Mid-summer, commencing about the 1st of August.
1st Term commences September 7th; ends December 7th.
2nd. do. January 8th; do. March 29th.
3rd. do. April 23rd; do. July 31st.
Tuition Fees. The annual payment for boys above 12 years of age, 12; for boys under 12, 10. The fees are to be paid terminally and in advance.
Regulations for Admission. Application for admission must be made either in person or by writing to the Head Master. No boy will be admitted, who shall be found on examination unable to read English, to write correctly and legibly from dictation and to work sums in the first four rules of arithmetic. The boys must attend at the school for examination on the first day of each term, at two o'clock p.m. The Governors require a term's notice to be given on the removal of a boy, or the payment of the terminal fee.
THE SOUTHLANDS PRACTISING MODEL SCHOOLS. — Girls' School, seven years and upwards, 6d. per week. Infants' Boys and Girls to seven years, 3d. per week.
ST. PETER'S SCHOOLS. Fee, 9d. per week.
ST. JOHN'S, Usk Road. Boys 1st, 2nd, and 3rd classes, 4d. per week, the rest 3d. Girls 1st class 3d., the rest 2d. Infants 2d. per week.
ST. SAVIOUR'S INFANT. Infants 2d. Girls 3d. over 10 years of age 4d.
per week.
CHRIST CHURCH NATIONAL SCHOOLS, Grove Road, Falcon Lane, were erected from designs of Mr. C. E. Robins, selected in competition, and were built by Messrs. Lathey Brothers at a cost of 3,000. Accommodation is given for 200 boys, 200 girls and about the same number of infants. There are two residences, one for the Master and the other for the Mistress. The buildings form a picturesque group facing the roads on three sides with intermediate play-grounds for each sex.
Mr. Robins was also the Architect for the British Schools at Wandsworth and other Educational Buildings in the Parish, as the Walter St. John's Upper Schools and the extension of the Training College, the Chapel of which was decorated by him some seven years since. The office of E. C. Robins, F.R.I.B.A., etc., is No. 14, John Street, Adelphi.
ST. GEORGE'S NATIONAL SCHOOLS, built in 1857 from designs furnished by Joseph Peacock, Architect, Bloomsbury Square. Cost about 4, 500 including a Parliamentary Grant of 1, 500. The Schools were enlarged in 1870. The Infant Schools were established
in 1826. The following text of Scripture is engraved on a stone outside the buildings.
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." — II. Timothy iii. 15.
Boys and Girls 4d. per week for one in a family, 6d. for two brothers or sisters, and 7d. for three in a family, Infants 2d.
Erected outside St. Mary's Schools, Green Lane, is a tablet bearing the following inscription: "National Schools for Girls and Infants.
These buildings were erected by Miss Champion on land granted by Earl Spencer, and opened April 10th, 1850, for the education of the children of the poor on Scriptural principles." This tablet is placed by order of the Parishioners in Vestry assembled in Grateful Remembrance of her Munificent Charities to the Parish of Battersea. — Rev. J. S. Jenkinson, M.A., Vicar. W. H. Wilson, John Hunt, Churchwardens, 1855.
Within the Parish of Battersea there were in the year 1879, Fourteen Voluntary Schools, viz.: Accommodation.
SIR WALTER ST. JOHN'S Up-stairs Middle-class for Boys.
Terms, 15s. to 25s. per quarter.
Ditto Ground-floor Public Elementary School for Boys.
Payments, 6d. and 9d. per week. Head Master, Mr.
Taylor; Assistants, Mr. Jones, B.A., Mr. E. Mills, Mr. Oliver, and Mr. Blackman. 489 ST. MARY'S, Green Lane. Girls; Mistress, Miss Keene.
Infants' Governess; Miss Paul. Boys: Master, Mr. T. Ryder. Fees, Boys and Girls 4d. a week, of which at the year's end 2d. a week will be returned to all who have attended more than 250 times. Infants 3d. a week, of which 1d. a week will be returned to regular attendants at the year's end. 606
CHRIST CHURCH, Grove Road. Master, Mr. Weston.
Mistress, Miss Paton. Infants, Miss Kemp. 590 ST. JOHN'S, Usk Road. Head Master, Mr. Henry Smith.
Mistress, Miss Hook. Infants' Governess, Mrs. Hughes.
658
ST. PETER'S, Plough Lane. Head Master W. F. Normon.
Assistant, W. Beasley. 180
ST. MARK'S, Battersea Rise. Infant Schools, Miss E.Townsend. 4d. per week. 99 ST. GEORGE'S, New Road. Head Master, Mr. John Douthwaite.
Mistress, Miss Salter. Infants' Governess, Miss Holding. 609 ST. GEORGE'S Girls and Infants' Schools, Ponton Road, Nine Elms. Mistress, Miss B. Smith. Infants' Governess, Miss A. E. Basnett. 184
ST. SAVIOUR'S, Orkney Street. Mistress, Miss Merrett. 201
WESLEYAN MODEL, High Street. 557
ST. MICHAEL'S, Bolingbroke Grove, (mixed). Mistress, Mrs.
M. Watson. 3d. per week. 152 GROVE BOYS' BRITISH, York Road, Established 1799, Enlarged 1840. Master, Mr. James Hammond. 196 GIRLS' BRITISH, Plough Lane. Mistress, Miss Mansell.
Assistant, Miss Willett. 297
ST. JOSEPH AND ST. MARY, Battersea Park Road. 466 Total 5284 In 1879 there were Nine Board Schools in Battersea: [1] Name of Builder.
When Opened.
Boys' Master.
Girls' Infants' School. Mistress. Mistress.
Bolingbroke Mr. Spinks, Dec. 1, 1873 Mr. Pink. Miss Mrs. Pink.
Road. Clapham Deacon.
Junction.
Battersea Mr.
Sheppard, April 14, 1874 Mr.
Stokes.
Mrs. Cox. Mrs.
Park. Bermondsey. Parker.'
Winstanley Jan. 6, 1874 Mr.
Vince.
Miss Gale. Miss Road. Blackburn.
Sleaford William Higgs, Aug. 10, 1874 Mr.
Wheaton.
Miss Pook. Miss Street.
South Lambeth.
Browett.
Gideon Wall, Bros., May 16, 1876 Mr. Lee. Miss Dunn. Mrs.
Road.
Kentish Town.
Pyle.
Mantua Sept.
1876 Mr.
Mansell.
Miss Miss Street. Spalding. Spalding.
Holden Feb.
1877 Mr.
Morris.
Miss Miss Street. Macleod. Marshall.
Tennyson Mr.
Tyerman.
Feb.
1877 Mr.
Philips.
Miss Davis. Mrs.
Road. Lower.
Belleville Mr.
Thompson, Aug. 13, 1877 Mr.
Barter.
Mrs. Mrs.
Road. Camberwell Christopher. Watson.
Green.
N.B. — There are Sunday Schools connected with the different places of Worship some of which are held in Board Schools.
LAMBETH DIVISION LONDON SCHOOL BOARD. — Accommodation Area and Cost of New Permanent Schools.
Name of School.
Children Area Cost of Cost of Accommodation.
sq.
feet.
Site. Building.
Sleaford Street 1, 055 23,000 2543 1s.
4d.
8399 19s.
3d.
Tennyson Road 837 28,000 2376 18s.
6d.
7590 9s. 1d.
Gideon Road 776 19, 700 3404 18s.
3d.
9921 7s. 5d.
Holden Street 1, 101 26, 887 3074 14s.
1d.
10305 1s.
7d.
Battersea Park 1, 334 32, 670 2378 5s.
5d.
7442 12s.
9d.
Bolingbroke Road 792 54, 426 768 5s.
5d.
5980 15s.
10d.
Mantua Street 1, 105 32, 670 2334 5s.
4d.
11337 1s.
1d.
Winstanley Road 1, 127 17, 792 3152 5s.
5d.
7948 4s. 7d.
Belleville Road 828 1661 6s.
2d.
10165 19s.
11d.
8, 955 Since the First Edition of this Work was published, Tennyson Road School has been enlarged in order to accommodate 400 Scholars. Landseer Street Board School is held in the large room under the Chapel and accommodates 200 boys.
J. R. Ayris, Head Master. Ponton Road Board School, Nine Elms, opened for girls 9th June, 1879, and for boys August 18th, the same year, has accommodation for 350, Master, Mr. Chase. Mistress, Miss Nutcher. On the South side of Battersea Park Road, between Lockington Road and Havelock Terrace a large Board School has been built to hold about 1, 400 children. Christ Church Schools, Falcon Grove, have passed for the present into the hands of the School Board for London. It is in contemplation to erect four more Board Schools in Battersea.
The first building erected for the London School Board, situated in one of the most densely crowded localities of the East-end, was opened in July, 1873, and since that time no fewer than 152 large Schools have been completed with a total accommodation for about 182,000 children, and an average accommodation for 872 children each. In addition to these, between 30 and 40 schools are now in course of erection, and about 50 other schools have been determined upon, thus the Board is most active in providing for the educational requirements of the Metropolis.
Mr. E. R. Robson, F.R.I.B.A., is the Architect of this Board.
The Board School in Winstanley Road accommodates about 1130 children, the site is the shape of a rhomboid, and the School has been skilfully planned to make the most of it.
Gideon Road Board Schools, the boys and girls' departments are built upon arches to form covered play-grounds underneath. As the site contains sufficient area, the infants' department has been erected as a separate building.
The Board Schools are elaborately fitted up. Books, slates, pencils, etc., for the scholars are provided. The terms for tuition at the Board Schools in Battersea are: Bolingbroke Road, boys, girls, and infants 2d. each. Battersea Park, Mantua Street, Winstanley Road, Tennyson Road, and Sleaford Street, boys and girls 3d. each, infants 2d. Gideon Road and Holden Street on the Shaftesbury Park Estate,
boys and girls 4d. each, infants 3d. each.
School Board Visitors in Battersea: Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Dalton, Mr.
Myland, Mr. Fane, Mr. Chamings and Miss Sydney.
London Ratepayers' School Board Association Established 8th October, 1870.
London or Metropolitan School Board elected 29th Nov., 1870.
Regulations for School Boards issued 21st December, 1870. First election of Metropolitan School Board (Lord Lawrence, Chairman).
Arrangements for erecting or adapting buildings for New School Board, December, 1871.
London School Board Education Scheme proposed 23rd June, 1871.
The London School Board occupied their new buildings on Victoria Embankment, 30th September, 1874.
Second Metropolitan School Board elected; religious party strongest.
Sir Charles Reed, M.P., Chairman, November, 1878.
Sir Charles Reed, Chairman of the School Board for London, died March 25, 1881. Was interred at Abney Park Cemetery, Wednesday, March 30, 1881.
Fourth Metropolitan School Board elected, 1879.
E. N. Buxton, Esq., Chairman of the London School Board.
LONDON SCHOOL BOARD, LAMBETH DIVISION.[1] MISS HEN. MULLER, T. E. HELLER, ESQ., CHAS. R. WHITE, ESQ., REV. G. M. MURPHY, JAMES STIFF, ESQ., STANLEY KEMP-WELSH, ESQ.
The Division of Lambeth is thus defined: The Division of Lambeth shall include the Parliamentary Borough of Lambeth, all the parts of the Parishes of Lambeth and Camberwell outside the Boundary of the said Borough and the Wandsworth District, as described in Schedule B. and Part I. of the Metropolitan Local Management Act, 1855, (that is to say) the Parishes of Clapham, Tooting Graveney, Streatham, St. Mary, Battersea, (excluding Penge), Wandsworth, and Putney, (including) Roehampton. There are 63 Board Schools in the whole of the Lambeth Division for the present year (1879), and 45,000 children on the rolls.
The Elementary Education Act of 1870 aims at the compulsory supply of school accommodation in those districts in which there is a deficiency. The general survey under the Education Act of the School provision of every Parish in England did not commence till the 1st of May, 1871.
By virtue of the Elementary Education Act, 1876, and of the Bye-Laws of the School Board for London, the following will be, on and after the 1st January next, the state of the law as regards children, their parents and employers within the Metropolis.
I. — REGULATIONS AFFECTING PARENT AND CHILD. The term "parent" includes guardian, and every person who is liable to maintain, or has the actual custody of the child. The parent of every child between the ages of 5 and 14 must cause such child to receive efficient elementary instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic.[1] A. — By the Bye-Laws of the School Board, which continue in force, the parent of every child between the ages of 5 and 13 must cause such child to attend an efficient School during the whole time for which the School is open. The following cases are excepted: (a) where a child is receiving efficient instruction in some other manner. (b) where a child is not less than 10 years of age has received a certificate that he has passed the 5th Standard of the Code of 1871: in which case he is wholly exempt from attendance at School. (c) where a child of not less than 10 years of age has obtained a certificate that he is beneficially and necessarily at work: in which case he is exempt from the obligation to attend School more than 10 hours a week. (d) where the child cannot attend School through sickness or other unavoidable cause. If a parent commits a breach of the Bye-Laws he may be summoned before a magistrate, and fined 5s.; and the child may be ordered to attend School. B. — By the Act of 1876, if either — (1) the parent of a child above the age of five years who is prohibited from being taken into full-time employment, habitually and without reasonable excuse, neglects to provide efficient elementary instruction for his child; or, (2) a child is found habitually wandering, or not under proper control, or in the company of rogues, vagabonds, disorderly persons, or reputed criminals; the parent may be summoned before a magistrate, and the child may be ordered to attend School. If the attendance order be not complied with, the parent, if in fault, may be fined 5s.; and in cases of continued non-compliance, the fine may be repeated at intervals not less than a fortnight. The child may also, under certain circumstances, be sent to a certified day industrial School, there to be detained during certain hours each day for a stated period; or to an ordinary certified industrial School, there to be wholly detained for a stated period, which, however, must not extend beyond the time when the child will reach the age of 16 years. In either case, the parent may be made to contribute to the maintenance, of the child. II. — REGULATIONS AFFECTING EMPLOYER AND CHILD. The term "employer" includes a "parent" who employs his child by way of trade or for the purposes of gain. A. — No person may employ, in the year 1877, any child who is under the age of nine years; or in subsequent years, any child who is under the age of 10 years. B. — No person may employ a child within certain limits of age, unless the child shall have obtained either a certificate of proficiency that he has reached the fourth Standard of the Code of
1876; or a certificate that he has previously made 250 attendances at least, in not more than two Schools, during each year for a certain number of years, whether consecutive or not, as follows: Age of Children, Unless they shall who may not be have obtained employed. a Certificate.
Either of Or; of Proficiency, previous due according to the Attendance undermentioned for the Standard. undermentioned number of years.
In 1877 Children between 9 and Fourth Two 12, with the exception Standard of of those who were 11 1876 before the 1st January, 1877 1878 Children between 10 and Ditto. Two 13, with the exception of those who were 11 before the 1st January, 1877 1879 Children between 10 and Ditto. Three 14, with the exception of those who were 11 before the 1st January, 1877 1880 Children between 10 and Ditto. Four 14 1881 and Children between 10 and Ditto. Five subsequent 14'
years The penalty incurred by an employer who acts in contravention of the above provisions is a sum not exceeding 40s. But no penalty will be incurred by the employer (a) if the child was lawfully employed on the 15th August, 1876. (b) If the child obtains efficient instruction by attendance at School for full time or in some other equally efficient manner. (c) If the employment be during a specified time allowed by the School Board for purposes of husbandry, &c.
and if the child be over eight years of age and be so employed. (d) If the child be employed and be attending School in accordance with the provisions of the Factory Acts, or of the Bye-Laws of the School Board. (e) If the employer be bona fide deceived as to the age of the child or as to his having obtained a certificate; or if some agent, without the knowledge of the employer, shall have employed the child — in which latter case the agent will be liable to the penalty.
Although the employer be exempt from penalty, when the child is lawfully employed under the above regulations, the parent will still be liable for any breach of the Bye-Laws, where the latter are more stringent. III. — REGULATIONS AS TO THE PAYMENT OR REMISSION OF FEES. If a parent is unable, from poverty, to pay the School fee of his child, he may apply either to the Guardians of the Poor for the Parish where he lives, or to the School Board. The Guardians, if satisfied of the poverty of the parent, must pay the school fee, not exceeding 3d. a week, of the child, in any Public Elementary School which the parent may select. If the parent select a Board School, the School Board, on his application, may, if they think fit, remit the school fee. The payment or remission of the school fee will not subject the parent to any disability. IV. — FREE INSTRUCTION. Subject to conditions to be made by an order of the Education Department, a child under 11 years of age who obtains a certificate that he has attended a Public Elementary School 350 times a year, for two, three, four or five years according to circumstances, and, also, that he has attained a Standard (to be fixed by the Department) in Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, will be entitled to have his school fees paid for him by the Education Department at a public Elementary School for three years more.
BY ORDER OF THE BOARD.
15th November, 1876.
All Elementary Schools in the receipt of Government Grants are annually examined by H.M. Inspector of Schools, and a report of their condition forwarded to the Education Department. Board Schools are further visited and reported on by an Inspector specially employed by the Board itself for that purpose.
In 1879 there were 63 Board Schools in the whole of the Lambeth Division and 45,000 children on the rolls.
In Battersea there are 68 taverns for the sale of spirits, etc., and 84 beer-houses, making a total of 152 public-houses. There are also 29 coffee-shops.'
'
'"
"DEER
CARTED DEER HUNTING
Campaign Success: WARD UNION HUNT IS FINALLY BANNED
The Facts About Carted Deer Hunting
Carted deer hunting is a cruel sport which causes horrific suffering to defenceless red deer. It subjects the deer — captive bred specifically for the abuse — to a distressing ordeal, leaving them exhausted, injured and severely at risk of dying from heart failure.
The red deer used are taken from a herd which is privately owned by the Ward Union hunt. This hunt is based in Dunshaughlin, County Meath.
Every Tuesday and Friday between November and mid-March, two deer (stags or hinds) are taken out in a cart to a hunt location. They have their antlers sawn off to prevent injuries being caused to the dogs and the manhandlers who wrestle them to the ground at the end of each hunt.
Exhausted and injured: At the end of the hunt, the deer is dragged back to the hunt's trailer. It will be abused again in a future hunt.
One deer is turned out of the trailer, and forced to run. The other is kept as a spare in case the first deer is caught too soon.
During the hunt, the deer is at risk of sustaining injuries as it frantically tries to outrun the horseback riders and the pack of dogs. Being in unfamiliar terrain, the deer has an extremely hazardous route ahead.
Crashing through hedges, over walls, across busy public roads and even into lakes and rivers, the terrified creature does everything it can to stay ahead.
A Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector who monitored a Ward Union hunt wrote: One stag was seen attempting to jump a very high fence and getting his front leg caught on a top strand of barbed wire and hanging, thus suspended, for some seconds before his struggles and/or weight tore him free.
He also outlined how a stag having run at least 8 miles in 90 minutes showed extreme physical distress, panting through its mouth and with a lather of white foam around its muzzle. Reported fatalities highlighted how one deer died of an aneurism while another was accidentally choked to death during capture.
Desperate to escape, a deer slips and falls as the hounds close in.
In a suppressed 1997 document (only obtained by ICABS in Autumn 2003), another Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector concluded that the deerhunt was inhumane.
Yet, no action was taken to stop the hunt which, we contend, is in breach of the 1911 Protection of Animals Act.
ICABS continues to call for a complete ban on this barbarism which surely should have no place in a civilised society.
We have appealed to the Minister for Agriculture, who is well aware of the cruelty involved, to follow the example of her counterparts in Northern Ireland who outlawed a similar hunt, the County Down Staghounds, in 1997. It was ruled that the deer used by that carted deer hunt were domestic animals and thus covered by animal welfare legislation.
A deer with its antlers cut off nervously waits for the hunt to begin.
Video: Carted deer hunting cruelty
The cruelty of carted deer hunting
The following list conveys just some of the cruelty of carted deer hunting and the suffering caused to the deer.
"In January 1999, Irish Council Against Blood Sports monitors obtained the first ever photographic and video evidence of the cruelty of the Ward Union carted deer hunt. Available to view in the videos and gallery pages of www.banbloodsports.com, it shows a terrified and exhausted stag, having been pursued across countryside for one and a half hours and cornered in a field by a pack of hounds. An ICABS cameraman raced to the scene and managed to film the terrified stag under pressure from hounds and being bitten. A number of hunt supporters manhandled the stag to the ground, and the exhausted animal with blood on its mouth and its tongue hanging out, was dragged away down a laneway through a farmyard and pushed into a cart." (Irish Council Against Blood Sports report, 1999) During a Ward Union hunt in December 2009, a hunted deer jumped on to a road, was struck by a car, smashed into its windscreen and suffered a broken leg. The animal was put down. The occupants of the car were left badly shaken according to a relative speaking on RTE's Liveline radio show. The Irish Times of December 19, 2009 reported on the collision as follows "An incident occurred last Friday week which will only strengthen Gormleys view that it should be banned. At 1.30pm a stag collided with the windscreen of a car on the Slane-to- Ashbourne road near Ashbourne. The animal broke a leg and was put down." On 25 November 2008, a National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger monitoring the Ward Union hunt reported that he was forced to "brake hard" to avoid a collision with a hunted deer. The ranger said he "narrowly avoided killing" the animal. In a veterinary report submitted to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, a veterinary surgeon monitoring a hunt at Scurlogstown, County Meath during the 2006-07 season, reveals that a deer "died as a result of 'dry drowning' having fallen into a quarry." The vet mentioned other deer that suffered injuries during the season. Five deer had "slight lameness" and two had "skin abrasions", he said. In an official report dealing with the 2004-05 Ward Union season (obtained by ICABS under the Freedom of Information Act), details are provided about an 8-year-old deer that dropped dead after trying to escape. The death occurred after the creature was hunted for approximately one and a half hours. The following provides a harrowing glimpse into the deer's final minutes of life . . . "the stag . . . jumped over a 5 foot in height wall into the cottage garden, following which 3 nominated handlers entered the garden through a side gate. The stag, in full view of two of the handlers then attempted to escape from the garden by attempting unsuccessfully to scale a higher wall (approximately 8-9 feet high) before being captured on his feet by the three nominated handlers . . . The stag was held for approximately five minutes by the handlers as they waited for the deer cart to arrive, following which he suddenly dropped dead . . . The cause of death was due to a ruptured aorta." A report in the Irish Times revealed that a stag being pursued by the Ward Union hunt was forced to swim across the River Boyne in a desperate bid to escape. The stag went into the river near Navan during a hunt on December 30th 2008 during a chase involving "50 huntsmen and huntswomen on horseback, in addition to some Ward Union staff . . . and a pack of hounds". (from "Stag escapes from Meath hunters by swimming river", Irish Times, December 31, 2008) A farmer who phoned in to RTE's Liveline show following the chasing of a Ward Union deer into a school playground, said he had never before seen "an animal so shook looking". " Ipitied him," the farmer said. "He was covered in a lather of sweat and his tongue was hanging out." When he questioned the hunt about their behaviour, he said they told him to "F*** off." (Liveline Radio Show, RTE, January 2007) A Ward Union deer was choked to death in a wood, the Irish Farmers Journal has revealed. The death occurred at the end of a hunt and is one of the fatalities caused by the Ward Union "over the last few years", the newspaper reported. (From a report highlighted on the Irish Council Against Blood Sports website, 2007) Two deer were hounded to their deaths by the Ward Union hunt during the 2004-05 season. The deer deaths were recorded in a Department of Agriculture report obtained by ICABS under the Freedom of Information Act. A veterinary inspector from the Department highlighted in the report how one deer died from fractured ribs while another died from a ruptured aortic aneurism. According to a Department of Agriculture report obtained by ICABS, a deer hounded by the Ward Union Deerhunt died when recaptured at the end of a hunt. Following a post mortem, it was found that the deer had died from a ruptured aneurism. The report concluded that it was "most likely that the physiological stress of hunting led to the rupture". (From an article in ICABS newsletter, Animal Watch, Issue 1, 2003) A report from a Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector revealed that a deer "accidentally choked" while being captured. "As a young Irish man living in Dunshaughlin County Meath in the 1950's as a groom, I saw many a deer put down after breaking his back as a result of having to make a jump because the hounds were at its heels. I can honestly say it was not a pretty sight. Whilst at home a few years ago the hunt came by and to see the reaction of the huntsmen on the Dublin / Navan road galloping up and down was unbelievable." (From a comment on the Irish Times website, Joe Dowd, United Kingdom, December 2009) The quotes in this section are extracts from the Kane Report on the Ward Union The conclusions of Veterinary Inspector, Kieran Kane are utterly damning of the Ward Union . . .
"The transportation of the stags in the cart is inhumane in its manner and in the design of the cart. The enlargement of the stags is inhumane in that they are ejected suddenly into a strange environment and alone. A stag which has been hunted previously appears, before the hunt starts, to be distressed and aware that he is about to be hunted again. Stags being hunted appear to be terrified of the hounds. A stag is aware when he is being hunted and continues to flee even when the hounds are far behind. Stags are sometimes wounded or injured during hunts by physical incidents or by the hounds. Stags are terrified by people and motor vehicles during the hunt. Stags are apparently distressed and exhausted towards the end of hunts and will hide and lie down at this stage. At the end of the hunt the fact that a man can catch and hold him would seem to be adequate evidence of physical exhaustion by the stag. The handling of the stag when taken at the end of a hunt must be terrifying and stressful to the animal."
"Nervousness of stags in the cart prior to hunts was variable . . . with some appearing very nervous or stressed. At one hunt it was notable that of the two stags in the cart, one which had been hunted previously was showing body tremors, excessive salivation and panting."
"A farmer who saw, at very close range, the stag at bay on 7th February told me that it was bleeding from one leg; also I was informed by Hunt staff that some stags are given antibiotic treatment after hunts if they have injuries such as wounds or swollen limbs."
"On two hunts on which the route of the stag was traced well on a half inch map, it was calculated that one stag had run at least 8 miles and the other at least 12 miles."
"A stag which has been hunted before is, presumably, aware that he is about to be followed by hounds and runs from fear: indeed it is notable that the stag runs although the hounds are not yet on his trail. In the early stages of the hunt the stag runs constantly but as the hunt progresses he may stop running and hide or even lie down and it is at this stage that the hounds may catch up with him."
"A major hazard encountered by stags is barbed wire. One stag was seen attempting to jump a very fence and getting his front leg caught on a top strand of barbed wire and hanging, thus suspended, for some seconds before his struggles and/or weight tore him free."
"Stags are frightened by people and motor vehicles when they cross public roads, which they frequently do during hunts.
"A stag observed, down to 30 yards range through binoculars, having run at least 8 miles in 90 minutes showed extreme physical distress, panting through its mouth and with a lather of white foam around its muzzle."
" I was informed by two eye-witnesses that hounds, although chary of a stag at bay, will attempt to bite him."
"Stags are hunted until about 9 years of age at which time they may get "stiff" or fail in condition and I was told that they are then sold or exchanged with commercial deer farms or slaughtered for venison."
"Domesticated Red Deer are obviously completely unfit for a prolonged chase by hounds. A recent scientific report in England has concluded that wild Red Deer are physiologically unable for a prolonged chase by hounds." In December 2003, ICABS monitors filmed and photographed a Ward Union deer at the end a hunt. The injured animal was seen panting for breath. There was blood on its head. Photos taken on the day can be viewed in our Gallery Page, including this one showing an injured deer with blood on its head "Of course the stag suffers. I saw the hounds attack the hind quarters of the legs of the poor, unfortunate animal. It's horrific to see the end of the hunt." (Meath Councillor, Noel Leonard, on his opposition to the Ward Union hunt, Meath Chronicle, 9th January 2010)
Leaflets: Carted Deer Hunting Cruelty
The Cruelty of Carted Deer Hunting View Leaflet Download (pdf, 2.1 Mb)
carted deer hunting leaflet The Facts About Carted Deer Hunting View Leaflet Download (pdf, 85Kb)
Ban Carted Deer Hunting Poster featuring photos, information and an action item. (A4 page; pdf; 346 Kb)
Campaign Success: WARD UNION HUNT IS FINALLY BANNED
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[BNA:
Deer Stalking — History 20th century there were several packs of staghounds hunting "carted deer" in England and Ireland . . . Carted deer were red deer kept in captivity for the sole purpose of being hunted and recaptured without harm . . . Carted deer that escaped recapture sometimes became the source of wild populations, for example the red deer of Thetford Chase originated with deer left out by the Norwich Staghounds . . . WANDSWORTH GYPSIES [BNA: Link.] "WILLIAM POWELL FRITH [BNA: artuk.org/discover/stories/from-charles-dickens-to-scenes-of-victorian-life-the-works-of-william-powell-frith Follow up " "WILLIAM EDWARD FROST — VICTORIAN ARTIST BORN WANDSWORTH [BNA: artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:frost-william-edward-18101877 yeah 750 [BNA:
[BNA: chrisbeetles.com/artist/496/william-edward-frost-ra [BNA: Link. Took lessons from Miss Evatt — presumably living IWandsworth MISS EVATT [BNA: rsa-dryad.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/rsa-pr-ar-103-14-976-tif RSA/PR/AR/103/14/976 Titre Trial painting of a landscape with trees by Miss Evatt Date(s) 1817 (Cration/Production) Niveau de description Pice Hello, Keith I hope all's well with you and yours. We're back in London which I can't quite adjust to after a good fortnight or more on Dartmoor. Have you come across Caroline Jarvis Evatt nee Hanning or her daughter Caroline Hanning Evatt, living on East Hill 1840s to 1870s? Or a family called the Frosts, possibly nearby, with a son William Edward Frost b.1810? Not crucial but an interesting case. Caroline (daughter) was an amateur artist who spotted talent in WEF when he was young, which helped him to become Etty's principle student and follower. (WEF, like Etty, mostly painted female nudes — for which he became quite famous.) All best Philip PS I'm trying rather desperately to finish of my March Chronicles. I've been deleting passages and even whole storiws left right and centre, but what remains is still so long and desperate for further tinkering. Must stop and publish/be damned. [BNA: rsa-dryad.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/rsa-pr-ar-103-14-974" "December 16, 2009 The Clapham Society Local History Series _ 6 The Oldest Inhabitant by the Revd Henry Whitehead (with Editor_s introduction and notes by Peter Jefferson Smith) Editor_s Introduction On 15 April 1859, Henry Whitehead, a curate at Holy Trinity Clapham, delivered a lecture on the history of Clapham, which he called The Oldest Inhabitant. He had stepped in at short notice to replace the scheduled speaker; and although he had had only a week to prepare it, the talk was deservedly popular. Such was its popularity that it was printed as a one penny pamphlet. Whitehead had two sources for his lecture. He frequently refers to a book, and this was a guide to Clapham published by the local printer David Batten. It had a street directory and map; but the greater part of it consisted of A Topographical and Historical Description of Clapham, Surrey. No author was named, but it is believed to have been the work of George Hyde Wollaston, a City businessman who lived on the West Side of the Common. The other source is the recollections of older parishioners. The result is a mixture of the solid facts from Wollaston, and the recollections of the many older people Whitehead had been talking to. Whitehead was a good if voluble speaker and knew how to entertain an audience. So The Oldest Inhabitant is a light-hearted look at Clapham over the previous couple of centuries, history with a heavy seasoning of anecdote. The lecture does show some signs of haste _ it is discursive at first, and by the end, the lecturer is clearly running out of time. So he ends in a rush, with a tantalising list of matters which have to stand over. It is a shame that we never had Part Two _ what did happen to David Skinner's horse and cart? The lecture is reproduced here exactly as it was in the printed pamphlet, with one exception. Many of the paragraphs were excessively long, and these have been broken up for ease of reading. Henry Whitehead Henry Whitehead was born in 1825, son of a headmaster of a school at Ramsgate. He graduated in 1850 from Lincoln College Oxford, and a year later took Holy Orders in the Church of England. Thereafter, he served as curate in several London parishes. One of these was St Luke's Soho, during the 1854 cholera epidemic. It was in this epidemic that Dr John Snow, believing that the disease was being spread by contaminated water, had the handle removed from the Broad Street pump. After the outbreak, investigations were set up. Whitehead at first disbelieved Snow's theory, but in the first half of 1855 made a detailed house by house enquiry into the circumstances of everyone in the area who had died of cholera, and concluded that Snow had been right. By persistent enquiry, he even traced the means by which the Broad Street well had been contaminated to the washing of a nappy worn by a child who had died from cholera. His published findings were the final link in the chain of evidence proving Snow's hypothesis that cholera is a water-borne disease, and therefore a significant contribution to medicine. From Christmas 1856 to August 1864, Whitehead was the senior curate at Holy Trinity Clapham, a very different world from Soho. He was plainly a man of enormous energy: as well as his parochial duties, he wrote for the monthly Clapham Gazette, helped with a philanthropic lending library, and organised and gave lectures at the Literary and Scientific Institution, of which this is an example. He was also active with the Gardeners' Club, the Mechanics' Institute, the Working Men's Society and the Benefit Club. One gets a clear impression that the comfortable life of respectable, wealthy Clapham meant little to him, whilst he valued the company and friendship of ordinary working Londoners. He was keen to work with young people, and took an interest in what used to be called 'juvenile delinquency'. It was while visiting a Reformatory in north Lambeth that he met a young lady visitor, his future wife. The daughter of an army officer, her social beliefs seem similar to his, and when they married, she was working as a nurse at the Great Ormond Street children's hospital. On their marriage, the couple left Clapham for Highgate, but Whitehead was drawn to the East End by the cholera outbreak of 1866, working as a volunteer and bringing to bear his experience of 1854. He later took up a post as a Vicar in Limehouse, until in 1874 he left London for Brampton in Cumbria. He served in three parishes in the Carlisle Diocese, and died in 1896, aged 70. His life was commemorated by a biography by Canon HD Rawnsley, one of the founders of the National Trust. Rawnsley's book, the main source for this note, can be viewed on line at www.archive.org/stream/henrywhitehead00rawniala#page/n9/mode/2up. For a detailed description of Whitehead's role in the investigation of the 1854 cholera outbreak, see SPW Chave, Henry Whitehead and Cholera in Broad Street, in Medical History 1958, available on line at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/pmc/articles/PMC1034367/. THE gentleman who was to have lectured here this evening on "Microscopic Physiology" having unfortunately fallen ill, it has become necessary for me to appear as his inefficient, but not unwilling, substitute _ not unwilling, because I have now had sufficient experience of the kindness and sympathy of this audience to feel quite sure that you will charitably bear with the inevitable shortcomings of a lecture, the very idea of which, to say nothing of the plan of its execution, had not entered into my head until last Friday morning. Now some of you may have been wondering in your own minds who is the particular individual whom I have taken for the subject of my lecture. It is just as likely as not that suspicion has already fastened upon some person or other _ perhaps, for instance, on our venerable friend Mr. Jones, especially as I was seen in his company one evening last week at the quarterly meeting of the Benefit Club, which I had the pleasure of attending as a visitor at his special invitation. Mr. Jones, as you all know, was one of the founders of that most excellent Society, and Iconfess that I did upon that occasion both see and hear enough to furnish me with a good deal of matter for reflection, about which sooner or later Ishall certainly endeavour to philosophize from this platform. But it will not be to-night. Well then, who is this "oldest inhabitant, " if he is not Mr. Jones? I am sure I don't know any more than you do _ and if I did, I could not possibly find out enough about him to make him the subject of a lecture _ and if I could, perhaps you would not care to hear it _ and if you did, most likely he wouldn't care to have it told. So I think, upon the whole, we had better leave him alone _ which indeed we must do if we don't know who he is. Imay as well then tell you at this stage of the proceedings that no single individual is the subject of this lecture, although Ishall doubtless have occasion, as Igo on, to press many individuals into my service to do duty for a moment or two as "the oldest inhabitant." First one and then another of our neighbours and fellow-parishioners will for a brief space of time appear as a kind of representative man in whom is embodied for some special purpose the spirit of the oldest inhabitant. I do not promise in all cases to mention his name, neither in all cases to withhold it. That Ishall be quite justified in dealing with him thus vaguely will be evident to any one who considers how frequently we do in common conversation appeal to the experience of the oldest inhabitant without feeling it at all necessary to decide who it is of whom we are speaking. For the most part, however, he cuts but a sorry figure in these appeals, for it is far less frequently to his knowledge than to his want of knowledge that we do appeal. He generally turns up when something very novel and unusual occurs, and then he is invariably made to express his astonishment and amazement. "No such thing, " we say, "has ever previously happened in the memory of the oldest inhabitant!" Now if we really did upon such occasions take the trouble of seeking him out, and pay him the compliment of asking his opinion and letting him speak for himself, I dare say we should discover that he is not always so astonished as we are ready to believe. "You young folks, " he might say, "take too much upon yourselves in supposing that you have the monopoly of things wonderful. I have seen and done in my time things a good deal more strange than it ever enters into yourheads to dream of. Why Iremember" _ You all know what happens directly he gets to that. We look at one another as much as to say, "What a bore this old fellow is, " and then we straightway set about thinking of something else, and he talks to the air. In a few short years he passes away, and presently we discover that the memory of very many things which we would gladly recal is for ever buried in his grave. Let us deal more kindly than this with the old man, and the benefit received shall not be all on his side. If it gives him pleasure to talk, it shall give us profit to listen. At least it shall profit any amongst us who have a soul to reverence the past. For my own part I have no sympathy with the man who has no love for the past. Not that Ibelieve that any former days were on the whole better than our own. I differ on first principles with all who systematically disparage the present day in comparison with "good old times." But I am quite sure of this, that no one can really understand the true principles of progress, still less lend effective aid to their advancement, who does not attentively and intelligently study the history and to some extent sympathise with the traditions of the past. Iclaim then for the oldest inhabitant a respect and attention quite apart from his individual merit. Let us reverence him, even in the silence or unmeaning garrulity of his second childhood, as a link which binds us to the past; and by all means let us give heed to his reminiscences in his green old age, even though he should at times prove a little tedious. I must not however be understood as implying that the oldest inhabitant, according to my view of him, is as a matter of course an aged person, or indeed necessarily a person at all. I have met some very young oldest inhabitants during my inquiries within the last few days. In every one, of whatever age, who is preserving from oblivion a tradition of his fathers Isee an oldest inhabitant. Nay, as far as Clapham is concerned, I have met with him in the form of a book, compiled from many sources with evident enthusiasm by one now no more, but whose spirit _ the true spirit of an oldest inhabitant _ still lives and breathes in every page. [i] This book will serve me this evening as a kind of text-book on which to base an hour's talk with you about local matters, interspersed with many oral traditions which have been communicated to me by certain oldest inhabitants of various ages and various stations in life. Perhaps I cannot give you a livelier notion of what sort of changes any aged person has seen in this parish than by telling you that in eighty years the population has increased from 1600 to 16,000. [ii] You must all know some person or persons of eighty years of age who have passed all or nearly all their lifetime in this parish. Last Wednesday evening, when the pensioners came to receive their money from the Committee of the Pension Society, Ihappened to ask one old lady how long she had lived in this parish. "Lived in this parish, sir? why, I was born in it eighty years ago, and never slept out of it more that two nights together ever since." Of course this is a state of things which the railways must tend to do away with altogether. But only think of such persons being the living links which connect us with the time when there were not more than 1600 inhabitants in the parish of Clapham. This statement about the population Itake from the book, from which Ialso learn that eighty years ago there were about 240 houses in the parish. How many houses there are now I do not happen to know. Some of you may perhaps think that there are a great deal too many, and may sigh over the disfigurement or destruction of much that was beautiful and picturesque, or at all events dear to you from many a cherished recollection. But it is no use sighing very deeply over what is inevitable. You must try and take comfort in some such reflection as brought consolation to one who had a soul to appreciate the beautiful and had also a peculiar affection for Clapham. When Mr. Wilberforce was one day passing by the then unfinished houses which now form the Crescent, he said "To be sure it is very sad, but it is like cutting up a haunch of venison into mutton chops." [iii] Of course Mr. Wilberforce's reputation for benevolence is so unimpeachable that he could but have meant to rejoice in the thought that the mutton chops are the dinner of the many, whereas only the few luxuriate over the haunch, otherwise Imight have been tempted to regard his saying as the lament of the epicure instead of the consolation of the philanthropist. Some years ago I had occasion to call at three o'clock one afternoon upon a well-known gentleman. He sent out word that he was at dinner but I was to come in. He pointed in silence to a chair and to the table, and immediately proceeded to help me from a 47-lb haunch of venison. There was but one other man at the table. Ishall never forget those two men. They were both old men, and there they sat, each with a napkin tucked round under his chin, engaged in what was evidently to them a very great solemnity. Very little conversation indeed, and all about the venison! Iremember helping myself to potatoes, and then perceiving that the other guest had none on his plate Iventured to pass them to him. "Potatoes? No! no! Take up room!" Now these men did astonish me very much. But I should have been infinitely more astonished if my fellow-guest had turned out to be a William Wilberforce. It needs not a very old inhabitant of Clapham to remember Mr. Wilberforce. But there is an aged woman in Wirtemberg Street [iv], whom I have often occasion to visit, who has talked with a Clapham worthy who, I should imagine, cannot be personally remembered by any one else now resident in Clapham _ "the merchant" so pleasingly described by the Edinburgh Review, in the celebrated essay on the Clapham Sect [v], as "renowned in his generation for a munificence more that princely; one of those rare men in whom the desire to relieve distress assumes the form of a master passion; and if faith be true to tradition, he indulged in it with a disdain, alternately ludicrous and sublime, of the good advice which the eccentric have to undergo from the judicious. Conscious of no aims but such as might invite the scrutiny of God and man, he pursued them after his own fearless fashion, yielding to every honest impulse, relishing a frolic when it fell his way, choosing his associates in scorn of mere worldly precepts, and worshipping with any fellow-Christian whose heart beat in unison with his own, however inharmonious might be some of the articles of their respective creeds." The particular "honest impulse" which brought him in contact with my friend, leaving an impression upon her mind which seventy years have failed to efface, was one which displayed itself in plentiful distribution of sugar plums from capacious pockets among the children who would eagerly gather around him. Such was Mr. John Thornton who, as you may learn from an inscription in the old churchyard, was born in 1720 and died in 1790. So that my venerable friend has held converse with one who in hischildhood may have known those who had talked with Oliver Cromwell when he was living down here in the old Manor House now unfortunately pulled down. [vi] The demolition of Oliver Cromwell's house to make way for Cromwell Cottages is cutting up the haunch of venison into mutton chops with a vengeance. It is quite conceivable that "the circumstance of Queen Elizabeth's dining at Clapham in 1583 (probably at this Manor House) as recorded in the Churchwardens' Accounts of Lambeth" may have been among the reminiscences imparted to the abovementioned contemporaries of Cromwell by "the oldest inhabitant" of their own boyish days. It would take but fourteen of such generations to carry us right back to Alfred the Great, in whose time one "_lfrid a duke gave thirty hides of land in Cloppeham to Worburgh his wife for life, remainder to Ald'hdryth his daughter and her issue." Twenty-six such generations suffice to connect us with the commencement of the Christian Era, and, bearing in mind that Methuselah must have talked both with Adam and Noah, not more than sixty even with Adam himself. Isometimes think that there are a good many old persons with full use of their mental faculties in Clapham as compared with other places. Very recently a woman whom I was accustomed to visit died in the High Street in her hundredth year. She was deaf and blind but very shrewd in her way. Mr. Greenwood tells me that he had a patient a few years back in this neighbourhood who died a hundred and five years old. There is an old lady in Bromell's Road in her eighty-fourth year who is a wonderful reader. She will read a long work, of the smallest print, and it may be requiring considerable thought to understand, in a very few days, and will give a very good account of its contents. Unfortunately she was not brought up in this place, or I doubt not I should have had many of her reminiscences to entertain you with. A lady now eighty years old, well known in this parish, whose remembrance of bygone events is surprisingly accurate, was at school at the Manor House when it was occupied by Mrs. Castlefranc, who, as Ilearned from a tablet on the north outside wall of St. Paul's Church, was born in 1720 and died in 1790, the dates of her birth and death thus exactly corresponding with those of Mr. Thornton. Upon this tablet Iread the following epitaph, "The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon her, and she caused the orphan's heart to sing with joy." Upon inquiring of my friend, the former pupil of Mrs. Castelfranc, what this inscription meant, Ilearned that two very young girls were once brought to Mrs. Castelfranc's, just as any other girls might have been brought, to be placed there at school. It was stated by the person who brought them that they were from the West Indies, and an address purporting to be the address of their friends out there was given. From that hour to the day of her death Mrs. Castelfranc never saw or heard from any one concerning these girls. No letters written to any one whom the girls could mention were ever answered. This however did not make Mrs. Castelfranc any the less kind to them. She cheerfully taught, fed, and clothed them, and in every way treated them as she did her other pupils; and to the honor of human nature let it be told that to the day of their deaths these two forsaken beings found a home with Mrs. Castlefranc and her successors, and were always welcomed as visitors for considerable periods of time at the houses of very many ladies who had known them as fellow-pupils. In this way they were sometimes staying with the lady who told me their mysterious tale. This lady remembers sitting in Church, with the rest of the young ladies of the school, in the centre of the gallery where the organ now stands. They were displaced by the organ in 1794. [vii] She has attended the balls in the Assembly Rooms at the Plough [viii] . She has a distinct recollection of Mr. Moses Porter, the curate in Dr. Stonehouse's time, being carried up into the pulpit because he was paralytic and unable to ascend the staircase. This must have been a very long time back, as Mr. Porter first became curate in 1763. Perhaps one of the most curious, as it sounds to us, of pulpit reminiscences connected with this parish is the following. A gentleman assured me last Wednesday evening that many years ago, in one of the stage coaches which then ran to London, he was told by an elderly man that he had seen the clergyman in the old Clapham Parish Church with a glass of brandy and water in the pulpit. Of course this seems strange enough to us. But it does not at all follow that it either seemed or was strange then. An anecdote taken from the Clapham Gazette of last April, may throw some light on this matter. Its author is a member of this Institution, who I do trust will some day prove from this platform that he can tell with the same exquisite humour and pathos with which we all know he can write the reminiscences of his youthful days. "Before Ilay down my pen, " he says in the essay alluded to, "let me note another phase of society that has passed away. Every Sunday morning my uncle and myself went to Charlton Church, two miles and a half distant, dined at the inn close by, attended afternoon service, and walked home in the evening. The path lay through green fields; but there are no green fields there now. The old church still stands, and the tattered banners still hang from the walls, but bricks and mortar and the railway whistle have taken all the poetry out of dear old Charlton. The clergyman and my uncle were great friends, and it was their custom to sit upon the tombstones in the churchyard, and drink brandy and water together before service commenced. The congregation lingered about the door _ some to tell of their crops, others to look over the wall, and gaze upon the valley stretching away to the Thames. But when the clock gave warning the good old man would put down his glass, and say, Ring the little bell, John; and when John, the sexton, had rung the little bell, all would go quietly in." Some persons do recollect bygone scenes and events astonishingly well. I was one day reading to my friend, the contemporary of Mr. Thornton, the 2nd chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, when she stopped me at the 3rd verse, and said, "That was Mr. Venn's first text." [ix]Mr. Venn was appointed Rector in 1792. I wonder how many there are here this evening old enough to remember the texts of last Sunday. Two or three days ago Iread to her some extracts from the book which I hold in my hand. This was one "1804 _ one guinea each given to the persons who ventured their lives in endeavouring to rescue John Hunter [x], who accidentally broke through the ice, while sliding on the Cock Pond, and was drowned." "My brother, " she said, "was one of those persons." Some of the other ponds have a like melancholy tradition connected with them. Indeed every pond, past or present, seems to have its own traditions of various kinds. You see, a pond is sure to have its traditions, as every little boy likes a pond. There are boys here to-night who sixty years hence will be telling their grandchildren of the days when it was rare sport to bathe in the Mount Pond, to sail boats in the Long Pond, to fish in Mr. Wilson's Pond, to watch the horses and carriages in the Cock Pond, and to slide upon the ice within the forbidden circle of the Windmill Pond. [xi] Let us hope that their story will not then be a mere tradition of the past. I know a pond has its drawbacks. I am not prepared to regret "the filling up, in 1853, of a pond, nearly opposite the end of Wix's Lane, which had long been complained of as unsightly, dangerous from its situation, and the source of malaria, " still less to withhold sympathy from the Lessees [xii] when they "have the gratification to state that in the course of the past year, 1848, one of the most serious and long-standing nuisances which polluted the Common, (the open cesspool at Mr. Haigh's corner, with the filthy streams which issued from it, ) has been effectually and permanently removed." At the same time Iconfess I should be very sorry to see the ponds all filled up. There is one comfort; it seems to be an expensive matter filling up a pond. I don't know how other persons feel upon the subject, but Icall the Mount Pond a great ornament to the Common. Iremember how delighted I was when Ifirst unexpectedly came upon it, having never before heard of its existence. It burst upon me as they say that the ruins of Palmyra do upon the traveller in the wilderness. Not that Imean to call the Common a wilderness _ though it seems it is not so very many years ago that it was little better than one. "Within the last century, " says our text-book, the Common was little better than a morass, and the roads over it were almost impassable, till the late Christopher Baldwin, Esq., by his influence as a magistrate, and laudable exertions as a resident admirer of the spot, forwarded it to its present state by planting, draining, and improving the roads. The planting is so disposed as to give it the appearance of a park." This park-like appearance is nowhere more striking than from the drawing-room windows of the House called "The Cedars, " as the sloping mound, surmounting the ditch between the road and the lawn, hides the road from the view of persons looking out from the lower windows, and makes the turf appear continuous. This interesting house was built by Sir Christopher Wren. [xiii] We must not however permit even Christopher Wren to divert our attention for more than a moment from doing honour to the memory of Christopher Baldwin. I hold that the man who takes pains to plant trees is a very genuine philanthropist, because he benefits posterity more than he does himself. It is pleasant therefore to read that in 1788 the inhabitants of Clapham "return their thanks to C. Baldwin, Esq., for the great assistance he hath given them in his judicial capacity." But they innocently give some colour to the cynical statement that gratitude is mainly a lively apprehension of further benefits, by appending to their thanks a "request that he continue that favour when they may have occasion to apply to him." I suppose then, judging by the date of this vote of thanks, that many of the trees on the Common are about 70 years old, especially as there follows soon afterwards an entry to the effect that "a standing Committee was appointed to regulate and improve the Common, making walks and planting trees." At any rate you may judge (by comparison) of the age of at least the elms on the Common, from the fact, communicated to me by Mr. Muskett, that his grandfather planted the nine elms and also the six elms about seventy years back. Not that every tree even of the same kind grows at a uniform rate. The nine and the six elms are I think tolerably equal as to size. But there are four elms planted by the late Mr. Harrison, of which two are now more than twice as large as the other two. On my asking Mr. Muskett the reason of this, he very sagaciously answered that neither do human beings grow equally fast or in the end equally tall. Iconfess that I was not aware till Imade these inquiries how fast some trees do grow. I was ignorant enough to suppose that such trees as Mr. Harrison's two large elms were nearer two hundred than one hundred years old _ which ignorance I attribute to my having been brought up in a part of the country, the Isle of Thanet, where trees grow very slowly and never attain any great size. In 1795 there is a record that "Mr. Hibbert is allowed to fence in a piece of ground from the Common, opposite his house, and to plant trees for the ornament of the Common." [xiv] These are the trees just beyond the Buildings Pond. Obviously there was just about that time a general enthusiasm about the planting of trees. No doubt however there are several trees here of older date than this, as for instance the lyme trees in St. Paul's churchyard, which were planted, seventeen in number, in 1718, i.e., 140 years ago. Of these seven only now remain. I am told by Mr. Valler, to whom also I am indebted for much information, that the Scotch firs on the Mount are about seventy years old. I have long been of opinion that if any one competent to the task would but take the matter up, a very valuable as well as interesting lecture might be delivered about the trees on the Common. One object which I have in view in thus alluding to them is to stimulate inquiry, and if possible to inspire the said competent person, whoever he may be, with the laudable desire of entertaining us with such a lecture. Once let there grow up amongst us a habit of our own friends and neighbours talking from this platform as much as possible about local subjects, or at least upon matters relating to real life, and the success of our Institution is placed beyond a doubt. Ibelieve that the trees and ponds of the Common would supply ample material for a very good lecture _ such a lecture as every inhabitant of Clapham would care to hear. There is a species of poplar on the Common, some very graceful specimens of which stand opposite Mr. Parrott's house a little to the North of the Parish Church. Of late years they have suffered considerable injury, having lost many of their top branches in gales of wind. They are beautiful even now, but I am told that about twenty years back they presented so picturesque an appearance that a gentleman, well known for his aesthetic taste, was in the habit of driving down from London once a week and stopping his carriage near the Polygon for the express purpose of admiring them. They appear to be of a kind that very quickly decays. People about here call them the cotton trees, and are under the impression that they were first brought here from the islands of the Pacific by Captain Cook. There is even a tradition that the great tree (another species of poplar) once known as the seat tree, so called from the seats which were formerly round it, was brought here by that celebrated navigator. [xv] I should be sorry to believe that the tradition that Captain Cook had any connection with Clapham has no solid foundation. At all events Mr. Wright, in whose possession the house known as Cook's House now is, assures me that he never lived there, but that it was occupied after his death by his widow, who died at a very advanced age about twenty-four years ago, of whom I doubt not that many here present this evening have distinct recollections. Her memory is perpetuated in this parish by her bequest, known as Cook's gift, to poor widows. As for the great tree Iconfess that it seems to me too old to have been brought here by Captain Cook at any time of his life, though, as I have said, trees evidently grow much faster than Ionce supposed; and Captain Cook, although his widow died so recently, was born in 1728. Mr. Cooper, of the Wandsworth Road, who is now about ninety years old, informs me that when he first came to Clapham, in 1790, the seat tree was about as big round as his body _ I forgot to ask him though whether he meant his body as it was then or as it is now _ and that it formed one of an avenue between the two rows of which he used to hear the Clapham fair was formerly held. Mr. Cooper is an "oldest inhabitant" indeed, the sole survivor, I should imagine, of the original occupants of the Polygon, built in 1792. He was married on the day of Lord Howe's celebrated victory, Sunday, June 1st, 1794, in honour of which coincidence a print of that memorable sea-fight still hangs upon the wall of his parlour. The Clapham fair, the glories of which were still fresh in the remembrance of some whom Mr. Cooper knew in those days, was abolished in 1781, it being at that time "the opinion of the vestry, that the fair, for some years held at this place, is a great nuisance to the inhabitants, and being illegal, the parish authorities have authority from the lady of the manor to put it down." It is a tradition in the family of Mr. Comley, in whose family the sextonship has been for just a hundred years, that in the year when the last fair was held, the fat boy and his friends, who were here for the purpose of exhibition, lodged with his great-grandfather, Mr. John Taylor, parish clerk and sexton. I have been told that the immediate cause of putting down the fair arose from an attempt to bait a bull, contrary to a recorded decree of the vestry in 1693, "Bull baiting forbidden in the Parish, by order of the vestry" _ to say nothing of the law of the land. However, bull baiting, and the fair, fat boy and all, have long since disappeared, and alas, the avenue of trees, as if disconsolate for their loss, has refused to survive them. The one solitary, majestic tree alone remains, patiently awaiting, to judge by precedent, its death blow in some violent gale of wind. There can be no one w" "THE WANDSWORTH COMMON ACT, 1871. NOTICE AS TO CATTLE. THE WANDSWORTH COMMON CONSERVATORS are willing, under certain conditions, to authorize a limited number of Ratepayers to turn out Cattle to graze upon the Common. Before any such authority will be granted, payment will be required according to the following scale, viz.: - For every Gelding, Mare, Pony, Mule, Donkey, Cow, Heifer, Steer, or Bullock — 1-0-0 per annum ["afterwards reduced to 12/-"] [For every ] Calf less than One Year old- 0 10 0 Sheep, on terms to be agreed upon with the Owner. No person will be authorized to turn out on the Common any Bull, or any Entire Horse, Colt, or Donkey. No person will be allowed to turn out any Goats, Geese, or Pigs. The Conservators will not be responsible for damage sustained or caused by any animal turned out on the Common. Applications for authority should be made at the Conservators' office at an early date, as, from and after the 24th of June instant, the following Bye-laws, which have been duly approved by the First Commissioner of Her Majesty's Works, &c, will be strictly enforced. BYE-LAWS. It shall not be lawful for any unauthorized person to turn out on the Common any cattle, sheep, horse, ass, mule, or other animal (whether of a commonable nature or not), or knowingly to permit any cattle, sheep, horse, ass, mule, or other animal, to graze or feed, or remain or be on the Common. But this Bye-law shall not be deemed to apply to a dog under the control of its owner or of any other person. BYE-LAW "23. Every person acting or taking any part in the violation of the foregoing Bye-law shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding the sum of L5 sterling for each offence, and in the case of a continuing offence, every person so continuing such offence shall be liable to a further penalty not exceeding the sum of 40.s.. sterling for each day, after written notice of the offence, during which the offence continues." Conservators' Office, St. Anne's Park, Wandsworth. 3rd June 1872. 1872-06-03-WC-Notice-as-to-cattle-grazing-etc-3jun1872.jpg" - cricket for Tranmere Rd School - football on the cinder pitches - cross-country running on wet Wednesdays in winter at Emanuel, when we couldn't;t play rugby - pitch and putt - a teeny bit of tennis " "[https]://www.amazon.co.uk/Annotated-Collected-Poems-Edward-Thomas/dp/1852247460?asin=B009NY1U80&revisionId=9af93573&format=1&depth=1 NTRODUCTION In 1901 Edward Thomas (b. 1878) predicted a great future for the lyric poem: 'Increasing complexity of thought and emotion will find no such outlet as the myriad-minded lyric, with its intricacies of form'.1 Thomas himself would do much to bring that future into being. He is among the half-dozen poets who, in the early twentieth century, re- made English poetry. His closest aesthetic ally was Robert Frost, but he shared significant literary, cultural and political contexts with W.B. Yeats and Wilfred Owen. He was also in critical dialogue with emergent "modernism" as represented by Imagism and the first collections of Ezra Pound. While the academy has not always recognised Thomas's central- ity to modern poetry, this neglect has been offset by readers' enthusi- asm, and by the generations of poets, from W.H. Auden onwards, who have named Thomas as a key influence. Anne Harvey's anthology Elect- ed Friends: Poems for and about Edward Thomas (1991) contains seventy- six items. Branch-Lines: Edward Thomas and Contemporary Poetry (2007) assembles more recent tributes from poets. The phenomenon of the "Edward Thomas poem" suggests that Thomas's poetry secretes core values, traditions and tricks of the trade. This annotated Collected Poems is another kind of tribute. The Notes include a commentary on the poems. But their main purpose is to indi- cate, largely in Thomas's own words, the rich hinterland that sustained a uniquely intense poetic journey. In two years, facing towards war, Ed- ward Thomas wrote a lifetime's poetry. Aside from some juvenilia, he did not write his first poem 'Up in the Wind' until December 1914. He was then 36. Thomas enlisted in July 1915, and wrote the last of 142 poems on 13 January 1917. Two weeks later, a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, he embarked for France. On 9 April, he was killed by shell-blast as the Arras 'Easter Offensive' began. Poems (1917) and Last Poems (1918) were published after his death. Partly owing to his late po- etic start, critics still find Thomas hard to place. His poetry appears in most Great War anthologies, and the war had a crucial role in its gene- sis. Yet, since he wrote no trench poems, he eludes or disturbs the cate- gory "war poet". If he looks rather more like a "Nature poet", his generic range and symbolic reach expose the limits of that category too. Thomas's art also eludes the critical grasp when it is seen as 'quiet', 'un- derstated' or 'diffident'. This is to mistake means for ends. When Thomas died, he was chiefly known as the author of two kinds of prose: country books, from his precocious The Woodland Life (1897) to In Pursuit of Spring (1914), and literary criticism. Yet he also wrote meditative essays — the title Horae Solitariae (1902) speaks for itself - and impressionistic fictions, such as those collected in Rest and Unrest (1910) and Light and Twilight (1911). He experimented with myth, fan- tasy and fable. And he could never write about the countryside purely as a naturalist or topographer or folklorist or social historian. All Thomas's mixed-up genres feature in his uncoordinated but atmospher- ic novel, The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans (1913), based on his London- Welsh childhood. In retrospect, his imaginative prose is always a poet's prose — soul autobiography that bears out Philip Larkin's dictum: 'novels are about other people and poems are about yourself'.2 Its dispersed modes, images and perceptions aspire to the integration of symbol. As Thomas's prose became more directly autobiographical, with The Hap- py-Go-Lucky Morgans and the memoir published as The Childhood of Ed- ward Thomas (1938), he drew closer to poetry. In 1904 Thomas told his confidant, the poet Gordon Bottomley: 'There is no form that suits me, & I doubt if I can make a new form.'3 It would be simplistic to say that he kept on missing the obvious. In start- ing with an unusual form of writer's block, masked by his copious prose, he proved the mysterious chemistry, rather than deliberate deci- sion, from which poems come. When Thomas's poems came, they were poems of 1914, not 1900, although they encoded the years between. Meanwhile his prose was hampered in its original flights by the need to earn money. He had married in 1899, while still studying History at Ox- ford, because his lover Helen Noble was pregnant. Owing to a venereal infection contracted during celebrations of the Relief of Mafeking, he failed to get the degree that might have made him an academic. Mainly from choice, partly from necessity, and against the wishes of his civil- servant father, Thomas became a freelance writer and literary journal- ist. His diverse book-commissions included Oxford (1903), Beautiful Wales (1905), Maurice Maeterlinck (1911) and The Life of the Duke of Marlborough (1915). The Thomases rented successive country cottages, principally in or around Steep, Hampshire. By 1910, they had three children. Their most regular source of income was Thomas's reviewing for the Daily Chroni- cle and other newspapers. R. George Thomas calculates that from 1900 to 1914 Thomas wrote just over a million words about 1,200 books'.4 He reviewed new verse, editions of old verse, every kind of rural book, criticism. As living to write became desperately entangled with writing to live, Thomas's sanity and marriage were tested. In February 1905 he told Bottomley: 'My great enemy is physical exhaustion which makes my brain so wild that I am almost capable of anything & fear Ishall one day prove it. In January 1906 he lamented: 'Oh, I have lost my very last chances of happiness, gusto & leisure now. I am swallowed up. Ilive for an income of 250 & work all day & often from 9 a.m. until 1 a.m. It takes me so long because Ifret & fret . . . My self criticism or rather my studied self contempt is now nearly a disease.' If such complaints have a theatrical tinge — in December 1912 Thomas described himself as 'ad- vertising my sorrows & decimating my friends' — that, too, was part of the 'disease'.5 Eleanor Farjeon (who loved him) warned a biographer: 'remember that when his moods weren't on him like a sickness, when his nerves weren't harassed by overwork and anxiety . . . he was among other things the best talker, the best thinker, the most humorous . . . His power of friendship was as great as his need of it'.6 Yet on the face of it, and despite Helen Thomas's devotion, early mar- riage was disastrous for a writer who needed creative space. There may have been an underlying mental problem: Thomas refers to 'something wrong at the very centre which nothing deliberate can put right'.7 But the neurotic symptoms that his letters 'advertise' are bound up with fi- nancial worry, domestic claustrophobia, overwork, fear of not getting work, dislike of hustling for work, all compounded by his sense of be- traying 'my silly little deformed unpromising bantling of originality'.8 At certain periods he used opium for relief that may have made things worse: ' I have sent up strange melodies of agony to many a moon'.9 In January 1908 Thomas found another problematic form of relief in his obsession with a briefly-met young girl who haunts his love poetry. He often brooded on suicide: in November 1908 he took a revolver for a walk; in October 1913 Walter de la Mare had to talk him out of a suicidal 'design'. Thomas told de la Mare afterwards: ' I think I have now changed my mind though I have the Saviour in my pocket.' 10 He also suffered a series of nervous breakdowns. Several doctors tried to treat what he calls 'melancholy' or 'depression'. In 1912 the most effective doctor, Godwin Baynes, introduced him to psychoanalysis. This helped Thomas to understand his symptoms: 'the central evil is self-consciousness car- ried as far beyond selfishness as selfishness is beyond self denial . . . and all I have got to fight it with is the knowledge that in truth I am not the isolated selfconsidering brain which I have come to seem — the knowil- edge that I am something more, but not the belief that I can reopen the connection between the brain and the rest'.11 Although Baynes's own impact dwindled, psychoanalytic principles would influence Thomas's poetic structures. It was poetry that 're- opened the connection' or opened, at least, a series of channels. As ther- apy, it lacked the downside that Thomas feared when he wondered 'whether for a person like myself whose most intense moments were those of depression a cure that destroys the depression may not destroy the intensity — a desperate remedy?' 12 Some of his early poems imply Although Baynes's own impact dwindled, psychoanalytic principles would influence Thomas's poetic structures. It was poetry that 're- opened the connection' or opened, at least, a series of channels. As ther- apy, it lacked the downside that Thomas feared when he wondered 'whether for a person like myself whose most intense moments were those of depression a cure that destroys the depression may not destroy the intensity — a desperate remedy?' 12 Some of his early poems imply their own emergence from incoherence. 'The Other' begins: 'The forest ended'. Thomas adapts the 'myriad-minded' lyric to dialogue between different voices, different selves, the roles of patient and analyst. His po- etry revisits conflicts manifested in his letters and diaries (conflicts that did not, indeed, vanish overnight), but with a new power to objectify them as psychodrama. Like another troubled poet Sylvia Plath, if by dif- ferent means, he recasts his subjectivity from poem to poem. Yet Thomas's poems are not 'about himself' in a reductive sense. Nor are they 'himself' in the sense that they put a fragmented psyche together again. Autobiography or case-history is only where his poetry starts. When 'The Other' enters the unconscious and dramatises splits within the psyche, it marks the start of a poetic movement that will internalise the perplexities of modern selfhood. But why did poetry come, or come to the rescue, in December 1914? Eight years before, Thomas had told Bottomley: ' Ifeel sure that my sal- vation depends on a person'.13 The American poet Robert Frost, whom Thomas first met in October 1913, turned out to be a true 'saviour'. Psy- chological, intellectual and aesthetic affinities explain the rapid ad- vance of their friendship. Frost periodically suffered from depression. He was a sceptical post-Darwinian thinker, with residual mystical incli- nations, who had deeply absorbed the Romantic poets and Thomas Hardy. His American precursors, Emerson and Thoreau, had been for- mative writers for Thomas too. Frost's imagined New Hampshire, like Thomas's old Hampshire, was a tree-landscape with dark vistas and enigmatic inhabitants. And Frost's ideas about speech and poetry, which centred on the 'sentence-sound', were akin to those that Thomas had started to develop in Walter Pater: A Critical Study (1914). Aged 39, four years older than Thomas, Frost had yet received little acclaim at home. Thomas, by then an influential poetry critic, largely made Frost's reputation in England and hence in the US. He wrote of Frost's second collection, North of Boston: This is one of the most revolutionary books of modern times, but one of the quietest and least aggressive. It speaks, and it is poetry . . . These poems are revolutionary because they lack the exaggeration of rhetoric, and even at first sight appear to lack the poetic intensity of which rhetoric is an imitation. Their language is free from the poeti- cal words and forms that are the chief material of secondary poets. The metre avoids not only the old-fashioned pomp and sweetness, but the later fashion also of discord and fuss. In fact, the medium is common speech and common decasyllables . . . Many, if not most, of the separate lines and separate sentences are plain and, in them- selves, nothing. But they are bound together and made elements of beauty by a calm eagerness of emotion. 14 A year later and now a poet himself, Thomas produced an impromptu joint manifesto as he set Bottomley straight about Frost's theory: I think . . . [Thomas Sturge Moore] had been misled into supposing that Frost wanted poetry to be colloquial. All he insists on is what he be- lieves he finds in all poets — absolute fidelity to the postures which the voice assumes in the most expressive intimate speech. So long as these tones & postures are there he has not the least objection to any vocabulary whatever or any inversion or variation from the custom- ary grammatical forms of talk. In fact I think he would agree that if these tones & postures survive in a complicated & learned or subtle vocabulary & structure the result is likely to be better than if they survive in the easiest form, that is in the very words & structures of common speech, though that is not easy or prose would be better than it is & survive more often.15 Robert Frost kick-started Thomas's poetry. In his own words: 'Edward Thomas had about lost patience with the minor poetry it was his busi- ness to review. He was suffering from a life of subordination to his infe- riors. Right at that moment he was writing as good poetry as anybody alive, but in prose form where it did not declare itself and gain him recognition. Ireferred him to paragraphs in his book In Pursuit of Spring and told him to write it in verse form in exactly the same cadence.' 16 Some critics play down Frost's impact on Thomas. But it was not only his verse-theory or persistent cajoling that counted. More crucially, his practice showed the way. Thomas told Frost on 15 December 1914: 'I will put it down now that you are the only begetter right enough.' 17 He dedicated Poems to Frost. But he also called his poems 'quintessences of the best parts of my prose books', and declared aesthetic independence: 'since the first take off they haven't been Frosty very much or so 1 imag- ine and I have tried as often as possible to avoid the facilities offered by blank verse and Itry not to be long — Ieven have an ambition to keep un-" "ON WANDLE'S BANKS. THE ROYAL ASSOCIATIONS OF OLD WANDSWORTH. .'n exceedingly interesting lecture on Wandsworth in olden times was delivered last evening in the Bishopsgate Institute to the members of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society by . Mr. Cecil Day is, public librarian of Wandsworth. don't w ant any gvey-haired people Dealing with a subject obvio a usly s round our business, because they look too old to as i t was d ear t o him, Mr. 1)-ayi.s in the outset took an\ and vigour and besides our eustn- his audience back to Roman and Saxon days, and demandi young people, says the manager in of our arge department stores." And it is a then traced local chronology in well-defined sta g es L right up to modern times. Discussing the origin -ueatable fact that men and women with grey i l k find it almost impossible to secure g employ- of the name . VN'andsworth, he was in clined to sugest "the dwelling by the side of the running Iis well what their other qualifications may stream " t h e same Wandle. he afterward, It well known that here in London, thoushowed, whose properties induced its Huguenot men and women lose their positions annu- colony to settle . i n the place no other reason than because they have Wandsworth's situation, on the highway here! hair. Yet until the discovery that a simple tween London and the south-west, procured ;t as Kalama possessed marvellous pro- the d on on of numerous visits from our for stimulating the colour glands of the monarchs as they passed to or from the capital. h air , there was little or no hope for grey-haired Kis, too, went thither to hunt the game which Although they could apply dangerous to produce a dull, painted effect, these a b ou nded in adjoining woods. On one occasion. east . recognised that they only caused laughter in the year 1602, Queen Elizabeth was so per:4 ion. Kalamax, itself, has no colour and Curbed in consequence of getting her feet damp none. Its action supplies new life and while passing the ford of the Wandle that pres'Laity to the colour glands and causes grey or sure was brought to bear upon the churchwar- hair to resume its exact natural colour, be it dens, and as a result a bridge was built which mown, or black. I'ou can rub it any- lasted until the commencement of the eighteenth the skin and it leaves no more trace than century, when it was rebuilt. Now the London t used on the hair for a week or ten days, County Council were busily engaged in widening :e it causes is. truly wonderful. Consider- the bridge. How the babe that was afterwards ,st is small at any chemist's, and the known as " the Old Pretender was smuggled which it is applied, there is no reason through the town was another incident alluded to cone should not restore the natural by the lecturer. their hair and thus do away . with this Coming to more modern times, the lecturer, to success. A prominent hairdresser ,by the aid of limelight views, accompanied his eel on this subject states that he applied audience on an imaginaq tour, which began at to his o w n grey hair and found that it the windmill on Wimbledon Common and traan entirely different effect from dyes. versed the more historically interesting parts of used it on many of his customers, some of Wandsworth parish. He described how upon one Jad been grey for ten years, and in every occasion the miller who resided by the famous mill restored the natural colourblonde to the chanced to come upon a duel in progress, one of brown to th e b row n, and black to the h Mr. Davis told related to how , but for a difference of 5O which emerged in the preliminar y negotiations, the Crystal Palace might have been built tnba t a a i n a t e s b' engageda_ha Charge in e which fame. wa s :mother Lord r C s a t r o d r i ; ga e n combatants ofi at West Hill instead of at Sydenham." "Poster, British Railways, 'Track Laying by Night', by Terence Cuneo, 1950. Coloured lithograph depicting a permanent way gang working with a track laying train, hauled by a steam locomotive, laying new rails and sleepers at Wandsworth Common station. The British Railways totem logo is at bottom left and right. Format quad royal, 40 x 50 ins, 1016 x 1270 mm. [BNA: collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co230939/track-laying-by-night-poster" "Howdie, Jason On 7 Mar 2022, at 10:44, Jason Hazeley Philip What a lot of dead animals in this month's round-up! And there could have been a whole lot more. That plus three fingers being cut off meant it turned the tummy of at least one reader Pierce Egan, then: I think his affection for nicknames was part of his style. He wrote about characters called Coalhole George, Bob Logic, Harry Hairbrain, Major Punt, Bob Tally-ho, Charles Sparkle you get the picture. He seems to have been the Beachcomber of his day. That's interesting. I've had a correspondence with the Clapham Society about who everybody might be. No clues, except that the "Joe" who provided the delicious repast at the (Clapham) Plough must have been Joseph Mason, listed as landlord in various directories of the day (e.g. Batten 1827 and Pigot 1826 (info supplied by Mike Tuffrey, bless him). Septimus E Scott was one of the Ladybird artists. My friend Helen Day has an exhibit of Ladybird art touring the country for the next few years, in case you find yourself near it. A friend?! I've seen the exhibition already — made a pilgrimage to Canterbury a few years ago. But I'd love to go again. I'm pretty mad about illustration, as perhaps you've noticed. Lovely to see the Holloway Bros advert. The first houses on Ellerton Road were built in 1908 (no.1 and nos. 11-33); nos. 3-9 weren't built until 1910/11, in case that affords you any clue as to what might have been built first. (I'd guess Lyford.) Now, a question for you: can you put me in touch with whoever was in charge of the Wandsworth Common Story project? The reason I ask is that a friend runs the Home Community Caf down at St. Andrew's church in Earlsfield, and she wants to put together a book about the project. The WCS seems to me to be a very good template, so I'd like to ask a few questions about how the budget was structured, etc. Your man is definitely Stephen Midlane, who lives v close — on Fieldview (Magdalen Rd end). I'll let him know, but just email him anyway and I know he'd love to help. Stephen Midlane Hope you're well. Keep up the good work! Glad you're enjoying 'em. Write some and I'll post them. JH" "SPORT KORFBALL On 12 Mar 2022, at 17:01, Philip Boys [BNA:
"On 12 Mar 2022, at 10:48, Philip Boys DIFFERENT PARTS HAVE DIFFERENT PASTS As some historian said of the Ukraine Also true of Wandsworth Common" "In March 2022, WANDSWORTH & BATTERSEA DISTRICT TIMES , was not available on BNA but appeared to be digitised in [BNA: newspaperarchive.com/browse/uk/middx/london/wandsworth-and-battersea-district-times/" "Thanks for reference to Stephen Johnson, Mike — I didn't know of it, so I'll be ordering. As Ibet you know, there were quite a number of cholera outbreaks in and around Wandsworth/Battersea/Tooting — e.g. Albion Terrace on Wandsworth Road, and Drouet's "Farm" in Tooting — which my local hero John Buckmaster ("Saviour of Wandsworth Common") saw at first hand and wrote brilliantly about. Incidentally, I checked and the St James's Industrial school took more or less equal numbers of girls and boys — around 100 of each. And now back to today's challenges — I'm looking at the early years of Springfield Hospital ("The Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum"), which incidentally prided itself on piping water all the way from Thames Ditton, well upstream of Battersea's foul reservoirs ! All best Philip On 11 Mar 2022, at 08:51, Michael Tuffrey Thanks for this and the links, I'm still wracking my brains where I saw the reference before. A while back Iread The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson (great read BTW), but I've looked, and it's not there. That focuses on Soho — and now Ilook at it again, Henry Whitehead's role is more central than Irecall. Anyway, all carefully noted — it will emerge sometime with an ah-ha moment! Best wishes Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Monday, 7 Mar, 22 At 12:52 Subject: Re: I wonder if you can help . . . Hello, Mike Found it! JOHN SNOW, ""Report of his special investigation of Broad Street," in the Report on the Cholera Outbreak in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, during the Autumn of 1854" (Pdf in hand — ask if you want it.) Peter Street affords perhaps as singular an instance as could be found of what has often been termed the capriciousness or eccentricity of Cholera. In the smaller portion of it, extending from Green's Court westward to the dead wall, there occurred 19 deaths. In its larger portion, extending from Green's Court eastward to Wardour Street, there was only one death. Now, as a matter of fact, the whole of Peter Street lies, if you measure along the thoroughfare, nearer to the Rupert Street than to the Broad Street pump. But as you approach the dead wall it would take a good judge of distance to decide the point without actual measurement. The house at the corner of Peter Street and Hopkins Street is only four yards nearer to the former than to the latter pump. Consequently its opposite neighbour, No. 23, where 12 deaths occurred, is just so much the nearer still, as the width of a narrow street may render it, to the former. Under these circumstances, especially taking into consideration the circuitous route to Rupert Street, need not be thought strange if the western population of Peter Street sent to the Broad Street pump. In No. 23 two families supplied nine out of the twelve victims to the disease. A surviving member (the mother) of one of these families, informed me that they had water from Broad street at dinner the day (August 31) before her three deceased relatives were seized. In our Parish School, on Wandsworth Common, Irecently encountered by accident a girl belonging to the other family. Father, mother, and four brothers or sisters, were all swept away by Cholera. She told me that they were in the habit of using the Broad Street water. Thinking out loud: This "Parish school" must be St James's Industrial School. I must check whether it took girls at this time, or was she e.g. a servant? Why was Snow visiting — was he employed by the St James's Soho Vestry, hence it was his professional responsibility? I notice there are several references to the Revd Henry Whitehead in this report, including some letters. The relevant papers are in the City of Westminster Archives = [https]://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/5850009f-edc1-40c0-934c-437857f29059 V interesting. All best Philip On 7 Mar 2022, at 09:12, Michael Tuffrey Thanks for sending that link to this month's Chronicles — love the serendipity of one month down the ages. And yes, Irecall something similar about that industrial school — just can't remember where, and my "filing system" doesn't live up to its name! Best wishes Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Thursday, 3 Mar, 22 At 18:49 Subject: Re: I wonder if you can help . . . Many thanks, Mike — that certainly sounds right Ilove it when things that turn up in research attach and re-attach in different and interesting ways There's another John Snow connection that I'm rather interested in. When JS was following up all the deaths in Soho to enquire where they drew their water from (the Broad Street Pump and all that) there was a missing family which troubled him. Most in the family had died but there were children who had not — but they had disappeared. And lo and behold when he was visiting the St James's Industrial School on what is now St James's Drive — I think he was inspecting it as a doctor on behalf of the St James's Westminster vestry, who owned it, and who sent their poor boys and girls there to get them away from Westminster — he got talking to a girl who it turned out came from the missing family — and she confirmed they had used, yes, the Broad Street pump . . . I'm writing this story from memory — but I think I've got it right! All best Philip , which owned the place On 3 Mar 2022, at 18:28, Michael Tuffrey Hello again, I did send it round to colleagues here, but sadly that has not turned up anything. In fact the only concrete suggestion is to look at this piece about Clapham reminiscences, from 1859. The Clapham Society Local History Series 6 -The Oldest Inhabitant by the Revd Henry Whitehead (with Editor's introduction and notes by Peter Jefferson Smith) here: [https]://claphamsociety.com/articles/the-oldest-inhabitant/#xviii It's long and rambling, and the only thing Ispotted that might be vaguely relevant is this (right towards the end) - I have likewise in the course of my researches met with traditions of a celebrated smoking club which used to sit every afternoon at the Plough, the most prominent member of which is said to have been a magistrate whose cocked hat and pigtail have struck terror into the hearts of some now living. He was a stern man, and is reported to have had a very summary way, when fetched for the purpose out of the Plough, of sentencing offenders to be whipped or sent to prison. Roughly the right time period, Iassuming, but the details don't specifically tie up, moer the same general tone, and sadly no real names. However it did me a favour to look at it again, as I'd not previously twigged the Clapham connection with Henry Whitehead of John Snow/Soho/cholera fame. Small world! A whole other trail of course, diseases, not hares. Good luck with it all. Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Tuesday, 1 Mar, 22 At 17:48 Subject: Re: I wonder if you can help . . . Many thanks for your response, Michael — and for the very interesting lists of local great-and-good. I knew vaguely of Batten, but really only his "catalogue of indigenous plants". The dates are spot on, aren't they. Identifying "Joe" is great. Def. looks like our man. If you wouldn't mind passing the cutting around to your colleagues, that would be great. If I had a bit more time, I would look for other refs in the same journal in case there's a a running story. With a bit of luck, the March Chronicles should be ready in a day or two, but I'm afraid the stag-hunting stories just took over and I've though of little else for 2 or 3 weeks. Always the same. All best Philip On 1 Mar 2022, at 11:55, Michael Tuffrey What a curious tale indeed. And multiple levels of mockery. Certainly there were some culture wars going on at the time — the po-faced moralists, abolitionists, church (and especially chapel) going types, and the slavers, the money-men, the frequenters of the drinking houses. One of the Holy Trinity vicars, a Venn Iseem to recall, is on record complaining about what infertile territory it was. The Hardy Boniface name could reflect that sentiment. On the face of it a peer and two knights ought to be recognisable. However I don't think we had a Lord anything, and Sir Joseph and Sir John ring no bells. I've checked through my directories and can't spot any play on names. However see what you think. Attached is Pigot from 1826, which separates out the nobs from the tradespeople. And then much more comprehensive is Batten from 1827, which follows the order of the streets, so you get big houses and shops and pubs. And covers westside including down to the five houses, whereas Isuspect Pigot is just the parish. The Plough is there in Batten (page 14 in his, 5/14 in my copy), with Mason named as the landlord and Pigot has a Joseph Mason at the Plough. So at least that does tie up nicely with them retiring to Joe's for an evening of conviviality. What we really lack are any diaries or letters or narrative accounts of life at the time, giving the gossip and human side — otherwise the Scotch baker, or noted trainer or even artful boy might be recognisable. Sorry not to help. There are four or five of us in Aylson Wilson's little history sub group. I could shunt a note round to them, in case. Actually Timothy Walker is the obvious one, perhaps you've tried him already? If not, very happy to. Good luck Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Monday, 28 Feb, 22 At 20:28 Subject: I wonder if you can help . . . Hello again, Michael I wonder if you can help . . . I'm writing about stag-hunting on Wandsworth Common (well, stag hunts that crossed the Common having set off e.g. near Epsom or Banstead or similar). Some, incidentally, then went on to Clapham Common. I'm trying to work out what if anything is going on in this report from 1827 of "some gentlemen of Clapham" hunting a hare with dogs on Wandsworth Common: Pierce Egan's Life in London, and Sporting Guide — Sunday 21 October 1827 HARE AT CLAPHAM [actually, Wandsworth Common] On Wednesday last, at the request of some gentlemen of Clapham who had invited some friends from town, a trapped hare was turned loose before the crack pack of Clapham hounds on Wandsworth Common, but owing to their eagerness for the sport the poor timid hare was barbarously murdered before she had run 50 yards, the hounds being laid on too soon by Old Bill Day, the huntsman, who is likely to lose his place in consequence of it. Determined to hear the cry of the hounds and see them run, they procured a string and tied it to the hare, when Sir William Doodle-doo, mounted on his celebrated hunter Rosinante, dragged it on round the common: no sooner had the hounds got scent than away they went full cry, followed by Lord Deal, Sir Joseph Pon Top, The Referee, Sir John Hashma Long Stockings, Black Adam, T. Whiteside, Esq. the Scotch Baker, T. Griskin, the Noted Trainer, and the Artful Boy. Among the company viewing the sport was principally noticed Sir T. Allsides, the Beadle of the Parish; who looked as sharp as was looking Out for a cove for a love-child; the Master of the Roll's, the Doctor and Master-of-all-Trades, the Renowned Wallace, but not of Scotch extraction — and last, though not least, was the Hardy Boniface of Leadenhall, who declared it to be a piece of cruelty. The company afterwards retired to Joe's, at the Plough, Clapham Common, and spent the evening in great conviviality. [BNA: Link.] The newspaper takes hunting for granted as a jolly good thing so why the ironic tone? Why the obvious mock-names / pseudonyms? In short, are any of the names real or decipherable? Do you recognised any of them (or similar)? Rosinante/Rocinante, named for Don Quixote's broken-down nag, is hardly an appropripiate name for a hunter. So presumably ironic? Notice the phrase "the Hardy Boniface of Leadenhall . . . declared it to be a piece of cruelty" Were pseudonyms used because the participants were fearful of being exposed (this is just two years after the founding of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (now RSPCA) by worthies such as former local man William Wilberforce. There's obviously something going on in this piece — but what? Any ideas? All best Philip ______________ History Boys 14 Loxley Road Wandsworth Common SW18 3LJ www.historyofwandsworthcommon.org === Mike Tuffrey 50 Lynette Avenue London SW4 9HD 020 8673 1684 1826.pdf> KNOWN CONTRACTS; DATES AND OTHER DETAILS LACKING. [BNA:
" "01-cover- IMG_0753.jpeg 02- IMG_0754.jpeg Frot cover: The Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum — Springfield — at the time of its opening on June 15th 1841. PREFACE MAINLY FOR THE INTEREST of those who work and have worked at Springfield, I have collected here some aspects of its past which might easily be forgotten. This book does not set out to tell a complete story, or one that has been traced up to the present time, but it does record some of the events and personalities that have left their mark upon an institution and its work. Many individuals have contributed helpfully with information and material of various kinds, and to all of these | am very grateful. | must particularly mention Miss P. Philpott who worked on the photographic material and Miss Adrienne Burrows, for information about Hugh Diamond. Finally I must thank Mrs. Barbara Powell, my secretary, for much long-suffering organization and typing. IAN LODGE PATCH 03- IMG_0757.jpeg INTRODUCTION Institutions such as Springfield preserve, in a permanent form. contemporary attitudes and ideas. Although modifications adapt old buildings to new ideas, the concepts that prevailed at the beginning are still to be traced in the bricks, mortar and furnishings that remain. These materials also form the backcloth against which our predecessors moved and worked; with tesver resources, they dealt with similar problems, and in ways that often seem surprisingly up to date. Although much is unchanged, the traces of an institution's past are lost with increasing speed. Since the end of the Second World War, many of Springfield's possessions have disappeared, mostly through neglect or lack of interest, sometimes by actual theft. In 1948, hundreds of pictures which lined the walls, and which had been collected (for example by Hugh Diamond in the 1850s) from Agnews, Colnaghis and other dealers, were removed and destroyed. More recently a hundred glass pharmacy jars, dating from the opening of the hospital, were sold. In 1981, six mahogany chairs, dating from 1840, were stolen from the Committee room. In the same way historical details are lost or forgotten and the character of the hospital atrophies. This book sets out to preserve some of those details to illustrate a particular step in the development of psychiatric care. That step — the establishing of County Asylums — took place gradually, was the consequence of many interacting factors, and was a landmark both scientific and humanitarian. Many individuals were of course involved, of every degree of social importance, but some, of permanent note, were associated one way or another with Springfield — Faraday, Paget, Tom Sayers, Vignolcs, Pollock, Elliotson, Bence Jones, Conolly, Hope, Spencer, Barclay, Perkins and Shaftesbury — to name but a few. The individuals mentioned or illustrated here must be regarded simply as the representatives of the many who, since 1840, have worked at this hospital seeking to establish, or to maintain, high standards of patient care. Until the 19th century, the mentally ill wandered at large, or were looked after by their own families or in private madhouses where standards were often very low. The few public hospitals, such as Bethlem or York, were little better; supervision and inspection was lacking and inept. By the close of the 18th century, public scandals (such as the York Asylum) and the illness of George II I had become factors promoting reform. William Tuke demonstrated at the Retreat (founded 1792) that humanity was practicable and that neglect and brutality were Indefensible. The Asylum Act of 1808 encouraged the building of public hospitals for those who could not pay; however the Counties were slow to respond and by 1827 only 9 such hospitals had been built. Inspection and supervision were provided for in the Madhouse Act (1828) and more fully in 1845 when the Lunacy Commission was established and given responsibility for the standards throughout the whole country; the prime mover of many of these reforms was the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885). As the century continued, public opinion became increasingly sensitive to allegations of cruelty or harshness in the name of cream-km, and to practices that could be construed in this way. In 1838 Robert Gardiner Hill delivered 'A Lecture on the Management of Lunatic Asylums" showing that mechanical restraints (gloves, straitjackets, etc.) were usually unnecessary in the care of the mentally ill, and John Conolly showed that mechanical restraints could be abolished through-out an entire hospital. Gentlefolk and those able to pay were cared for in private madhouses with decent standards but most paupers were accommodated under dismal conditions in houses with contractual arrangements with the parishes of origin. In 1839 Alexander Morison had found that 366 Surrey lunatics were being cared for in various private madhouses catering for paupers. Of this number, Morison arranged that 299 should be transferred from Peckham House, Hoxton and Bethnal Green Asylum, to Springfield at the time of its opening on 14th June, 1841. Details of that event have been lost, but these chapters outline some of the characters and events of the century and a half that have followed. 04- IMG_0759.jpeg THE ESTATE AND ITS BUILDINGS IT WAS STILL LESS than 20 years since the death of George II Iwhen the Surrey Magistrates decided to follow the example of others and to establish a County Asylum. Their Committee began looking for a suitable site near to the centres of population and having a southern aspect, good air and a ready supply of water. They soon found wealthy they needed at Springfield Park (Wandsworth was still itr S then being offered for sale by Henry Perkins since 1823,;letthairlyt, brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay, Perkins. He had, since 1823, leased the estate from the Second Earl Spencer and had begun to collect in the mansion his immensely valuable library. After his father's death in 1834, the Third Earl sold the freehold to Perkins, who soon afterwards decided to move to Dover. Of the 18th century mansion no trace now remains and no print, although its outline appears on maps as law as 1858. But its farm buildings, stables and coachman's house stood until the building of Garratt Green School. Of the large complex, which included also pleasure gardens and an indoor riding school, now only the ice-well is standing, fenced from further depredations of vandals and surrounded by the playing fields of the school. At the time of the purchase, the northern boundary ran from east to west at the level of the Gardiner Hill Unit, and along a line marked by the original lodge (1844) opposite these new buildings. The eastern border followed the line between the parishes of Clapham and Streatham. Along this line (the drive from Glenburnie Gate, between the present Admission Hospital and the main building) a public footpath allowed passers to peer at the patients in the ward gardens — or "airing courts". The Committee were therefore particularly pleased when, about 1860, they were able to extend the eastern border to its present line, giving greater privacy to their patients. A year or two later they added two strips, from the estate of Mr. McKellar, carrying the northern boundary to the line of Beechcroft Road, from Burntwood Lane to Glenburnie Road. No further land was added to the estate after this (1864): a lodge was added to the new entrance with a weighbridge (1893) and a further lodge at Glenburnie Road (1897). The building of the Asylum started about 1838 to the design of Mr. W. Moseley, the County Surveyor for Middlesex, "lately occupied in the extensions at Hanwell Asylum", advised by Alexander Morison and Sir William Ellis. Its Tudor style, with gables and twisted chimneys (now removed as dangerous and not replaced) was praised in the architectural journals, who commented on the subtle angles and variegated brickwork that save the long facade from monotony. But Many distinguished visitors, with an interest in photography, came to Springfield to visit Hugh Diamond. Here, about 1855, is Mrs. Diamond, the Comte de Montizon, Philip Delamotte (Professor at Kings College) and J. J. Forrester the interior was dismissed as void of interest "except it be for the main hall and staircase". The two front wings at this time extended to only part of their present length, and enclosed the main drive approaching the Asylum from the direction of Aboyne Road and the original mansion. At the entrance, the Committee Room lay on the right, and on the left the quarters of the Resident Medical Superintendent. The Steward lived on the second floor of the centre, and after he retired in 1872, nurses and domestics. Behind the main hall, two offices were occupied as doctors "surgeries", where they wrote their clinical notes in massive bound volumes. Further to the rear were the kitchens, gas works, boiler house, well and (after 1881) the builders' yard. On the second floor was the chapel (now a store above Elm dormitory) until the present hospital church was built in 1880. The cost of the whole new Asylum, including the original estate of 97+ acres, was 85,366 19s 1d. At its opening on 14th June, 1841, Springfield admitted 299 patients, all examined by Alexander Morison and transferred from various private madhouses. But subsequently, admissions so far outnumbered discharges that extensive new buildings were needed. The two northern 05- IMG_0762.jpeg Alexander Morison (1779-1866]. Born and educated in Edinburgh, became physician to Hanwell and later Bethlem. In 1809 appointed Visiting Physician to Lunatic Houses in the County of Surrey which made him the natural adviser to the County for the building of the new asylum in tooting about 1838. He lived in Cavendish Square, travelled to Springfield twice weekly, became friendly with diamond and gave lectures to students and nurses. After retiring, he return to Edinburgh. wings were opened in 1849 (Holly, Larch, etc. on the west; Orchid, Sunflower, etc. on the cast), with space for an additional 400 patients, and at a cost of about 35,000. Smaller extensions were made to all the wings as time went by, for hospitals such as Springfield tought a losing battle with the weight of numbers. On the one hand they were required to provide for the ill or incompetent of every kind: on the other they lacked both staff and effective methods of treatment. Besides the pressure of numbers, the Committee were preoccupied with the maintenance of the huge building: "A building covering nearly seven acres of ground, and containing, as does the Surrey Asylum, 1,022 windows, 619 doors, 663 fireplaces, 38 cisterns, 25 baths, 270 watertaps and stopcocks, 307 gas-burners, with an extensive apparatus for cooking, and washing and drying linen, and in which nearly 40,000 gallons of hot and cold water are distributed daily by steam power through more than 4,000 yards of lead piping, can be kept in repair only at a great expense, especially when it is considered that it is occupied by nearly 800 persons, most of whom being patients, act generally without judgment, and sometimes with violence". The original central heating system, for example, caused alarming problems. Iron pipes had been laid to carry steam throughout the wards but they proved too thin, and explosions throughout the wards were frequent, as the pipes burst and patients were injured. Within a few years, almost the whole system had to be removed and new fireplaces installed. The water supply was another source of anxiety to the Committee. They started in 1839 by boring a well in a site that is now surrounded by workshops. The pipes broke at 358 feet, but the boring continued until enough water was found; the resulting supply was enough only for a few years and by 1850 an additional well was needed. In the meantime a contract was signed with the Lambeth Waterworks Company for "not fewer than 30,000 gallons . . . daily" — at a cost of 3d. per thousand gallons. The water received in this way was taken directly from the river at Thames Ditton. This source lay above the massive sewage pollution of London's water that continued until the 1880s and was responsible for repeated drastic epidemics. When cholera broke out m 1854, John Snow (1813-1858) demonstrated that areas of London supplied from the higher reaches of the Thames had much lower mortality: Springfield was fortunate in its location. The second well was not completed until 1860, but maintenance and deepening were often needed, as the population of the Asylum IMG-0763 increased, and baths became an everyday occurrence. The building of the water tower in 1885 (for 1,300) was also designed to improve the supply, as well as to produce sufficient pressure in case of fire: it Was demolished in 1976. The wells themselves, although still in existence have not been used since the Second World War. The newer pump — a single column beam engine, with its graceful Doric column — was broken up for scrap, but the original pump — a Maudslay table engine — continued in use until after the Second World War, and then found a permanent home in the Science Museum in South Kensington. Although from the first the Asylum had to cope with every sort of clinical problem, the development of special facilities followed only gradually. Infectious cases in the enclosed wards, a constant source of epidemics and anxiety, were not separated until 1872 when the Cottage Hospital was opened: designed by the Medical Superintendent, Dr. J. Strange Biggs and built by hospital labour for 955. The "Infirmary Block" for the physically ill, with its operating theatre (now the Dispensary) was opened in 1931, and typified the enclosed, self- contained view of the mental hospital perpetuated since the last century. The most ambitious addition involved the removal of the mentally handicapped, and especially children, from the wards for the mentally ill. The "Annexe for Idiot Children" (now the Admission Hospital) was opened "'in the sixtieth year of Her Majesty's reign" (1897). The idea had been strongly advocated by the Superintendent, Hugh Gardiner-Hill (1856-1925), no doubt supported by an expert member of the Committee, John Langdon-Down (1812-1896). The building, designed by Rowland Plumbe, was opened on 15th October, 1897 with the admission of 20 "idiot children". It was equipped with visiting rooms (and toilets) at the front; the wards (into which visitors did not penetrate) lay to the rear. On the right of the entrance was spacious accommodation for a doctor and his family. It was lit from the first by electricity, although the change from gas needed a grant of an extra 5,000. Its opening made possible at Springfield an active approach to the education and training of the mentally handicapped, previously dispersed — to everyone's disadvantage — through all the wards. Hugh Gardiner-Hill stated the objective as "teaching them to acquire habits of cleanliness, and to develop their dormant senses, so as to adapt their minds and bodies for industrial training, and make their lives the happier by engaging in such occupations as tailoring, mat, basket, brush and shoe making . . . it would be a noble achievement to bring back this unfortunate class within the pale of ordinary life". This aspiration continued until the First World War when the building became a military hospital for the wounded. It was never again used for the mentally handicapped but underwent a further adaptation as the result of the Mental Treatment Act of 1930, providing accommodation for the new "Voluntary" patients. THE COMMITTEE AS A COUNTY INSTITUTION and facility, the Asylum started from the first as a service to the people of Surrey. At the time, that County reached as far north as the Thames, and Wandsworth represented a particularly densely populated area. Before the County Council's Act of 1888, Counties were administered by the Magistrates who were appointed by the Home Secretary after nomination by the Lord Lieutenant of the County. The system ensured that Magistrates were chosen exclusively from among the landed gentry, aristocracy or a few individuals who had risen by sheer industry or merit. Trades- people, the middle classes, or in fact anyone contaminated by business or trade found no place on the Bench or on the Subcommittees recruited from it, such as that which managed the County Lunatic Asylum. Throughout most of Queen Victoria's reign, the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey was William King, Earl of Lovelace (1805-1893). As a young man he had a promising career as a Diplomat, spoke four or five languages and while in the Middle East often talked with Mehmet Ali, the legendary Pasha of Egypt. In 1833 his father died unexpectedly; he returned hastily to look after the family estates and in 1835 married the only daughter of Lord Byron, the poet. She brought with her not only a large inheritance, but also influence with the Whig, Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne; these were the means by which King acquired his title and social eminence in the County. Although deaf and somewhat eccentric, he was a benevolent and competent landlord of his large estates — on which he designed many cottages and schools, as well as his own mansion (Horsley Towers) in what was described a "vaguely Rhenish Gothic" style. In such a milieu, it was natural to appoint minor, or under-employed, members of the aristocracy; Viscount Midleton, for example, or the IMG_0766.jpeg Hon. Sidney Roper-Curzon and Sir Richard Frederick Bt. The 6th Duke of Northumberland (1810 — 1899) was another who served on the Springfield committee (1846 -1869) brackets, although, as the largest landowner in the country, he spent much of his time at Alnwick Castle. When in the south of England, he lived at Albery park, near Guildford, with his father in law, Henry Drummond ( 1786 — 1868). This banker and MP is particularly remembered for found in the chair of political economy at Oxford brackets 1823 brackets and a sect known as the Catholic apostolic Church, which sprang from the Ministry of Edward Irving, a young and gifted preacher of Pentecostal doctrines and experience. After Irving's early death, the centre of these "Irvingites" shifted from Holborn to Albury were a church was built and which is still to be seen. Hon. Sidney Roper-Curzon and Sir Richard Frederick Bt. The 6th Duke of Northumberland (1810 — 1899) was another who served on the Springfield committee (1846 -1869) brackets, although, as the largest landowner in the country, he spent much of his time at Alnwick Castle. When in the south of England, he lived at Albery park, near Guildford, with his father in law, Henry Drummond ( 1786 — 1868). This banker and MP is particularly remembered for found in the chair of political economy at Oxford brackets 1823 brackets and a sect known as the Catholic apostolic Church, which sprang from the Ministry of Edward Irving, a young and gifted preacher of Pentecostal doctrines and experience. After Irving's early death, the centre of these "Irvingites" shifted from Holborn to Albury were a church was built and which is still to be seen. Many other Committee Members sat in Parliament for Surrey; Samuel Gurney (1816-1882) the son of a more famous banker and associate of Wilberforce, lived as a country gentleman in Carshalton: he served as President of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and founded the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. Others included Thomas Alcock (1801-1866) and Richard Alsager (_-1841). William Crawford, who had returned as a rich "nabob" from service in the East India Company; William Stone (1834-1896) had obtained a First in Classics, as well as being a Wrangler, and Henry Kemble (1787-1857) had supported William Pitt and served as Chairman of Springfield through some difficult years: William Denison (1770-1849), another banker, sat for Surrey from 1818 until his death. Some of those associated with the Asylum had reached greater distinction. Sir Richard Baggallay (1816-1888) was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn (1843) and later became Solicitor General and Attorney General; he drafted many of the legal documents for Parliamentary reform. Henry Goulburn (1784-1856), a wealthy West India proprietor, became Under Secretary for the Home Department in 1810, for the Colonics 1812-1821, and Secretary for Ireland 1821-1828. He became Home Secretary in 1828 and again in 1841, and it was during his time in this office that he joined the Springfield Committee where he remained until 1849, a combination of functions that nowadays is hard to conceive. His home in Surrey, Betchworth House, which he bought in 1819, remains in the possession of his family. William Jolliffe Hylton (1800-1876) had at the same time a long political career as a Conservative. He had been Under-Secretary for Home Affairs in Lord Derby's administration and in the Crimea War lost his son at the siege of Sebastopol. A year or two after the war was over, he joined the Springfield Committee where he served for nearly ten years. Like Drummond, a few were financiers. James Freshfield (1775-1864) who, after Cambridge entered the Law and became Solicitor to the Bank of England for 20 years; he became Chairman of the Globe Insurance Company and a member of the legal firm that still bears his name. He was also an important backer of the property developer Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855). At the time there were many members of the middle classes looking for safe investments offering a secure return: reliable speculation in property and the business in mortgages, was particularly attractive at a time when "blue chips" did not exist. Cubitt, whose firm developed Belgravia and Pimlico, was a self made man who had started life as a carpenter. His business acumen led him to increasingly ambitious ventures in developing large areas of London and his need for capital was increasingly easily met as his reputation for reliability and financial security became widely known. It was through backers like Freshfield that public confidence and Cubitt's security grew. Thomas Cubitt himself, although dying a millionaire and leaving a son who entered the aristocracy, never sought public office. It was left to his younger brother, William (1791-1863), a partner in the business, to enter politics and to become, more than once, Lord Mayor of London. William served as Member of Parliament for Andover, 1847-1861, at the same time that he was a Committee member for Springfield. His altruistic interests were also expressed by organizing a relief fund for the cotton workers thrown out of work by the American Civil War. Altruism was an important motive among men who sought election to an Asylum Committee. Springfield, situated a mile or so south of Clapham, attracted the interest of the serious minded and evangelical families who had, a generation earlier, formed the "Clapham Sect". Led by William Wilberforce (1759-1833), and worshipping in the Parish Church on Clapham Common under Henry Venn, they shared the belief that their Christian faith should be expressed in reforming social abuses such ay slavery. Thomas Henry Thornton (1832-1913) was a member of this second generation. A brilliant Classical and Hebrew Scholar at Oxford, he distinguished himself in the Indian Mutiny and became Secretary to IMG_0769 the Punjab Government: for a year he acted as Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, He maintained an active interest in the Universities of Calcutta and Lahore and retired to England to serve on the Springfield Committee and to write two books on India. Two others, similarly motivated, were members of the Barclay family. Charles (1780-1855) had himself been a member of the Clapham Sect, and had taken a prominent part in the anti-slavery campaign. Most of his working life was divided between the brewery (Barclay, Perkins & Co.) and various public offices, Parliament, Guy's Hospital and Spring- field (1837-1842). His son, Arthur Kett Barclay (1806-1869) succeeded his father as Head of the House of Barclay. He developed many scientific interests of his own and for his researches in astronomy was elected to the Royal Society. He remained a prominent figure in the scientific world until he developed a progressive paralysis at the aye of 50; after his death he was remembered as a man of "noble and unselfish character, strong religious principles, just and calm judgment". The interest, to a present day observer, of some of the Committee members, is often accidental. Lewis Loyd (1811-1891), for example, was the eldest son of a banking family and played a part in the family firm, but he lived in Beckenham and his house and estate were bought by the Governors of Bethlem when the hospital was to be moved from St. George's Fields in Lambeth. The Loyd mansion, Monks Orchard, stood on the site of what is now Witley House, Bethlem. The cultural background of the period is evoked by Henry Thomas Hope (1808-1862) whose father had lived at Deepdene, a mansion on the hillside above the main road to the coast, near Dorking. A scholar as well as a man of great wealth, Thomas Hope had introduced into furniture design patterns taken from antiquity: his book of Household Furniture (1807) was a source book for many years, and a set of chairs deriving from Hope's patterns were in the Springfield Committee Room for 140 years until they were stolen in 1981. His son, who sat on the Springfield Committee (1848-1852) no doubt used them himself. Another individual of special interest was Sir George Pollock (178 1872) whose distinctions had all been gained elsewhere before 4 retired to Clapham; he was already 76 when he joined the Springfield Committee for 4 years. His father had been saddler to George i _ his two brothers became distinguished lawyers. Pollock himse we Commissioned in an artillery regiment in India (1803) where to continued to serve for many years. In 1841, a British expedition Afghanistan had been annihilated on the Khyber Pass with only a solitary survivor. The following year Pollock, on his own initiative, relieved Kabul, secured the release of hostages and returned safely. His campaign and methods were regarded as a model of mountain warfare, and were often referred to in the military text books. A name that is familiar to every housewife is that of Henry Peck (1825-1898). A typical successful Victorian businessman, he centered the firm of Peek Bros. which dealt in tea, coffee and spice in its trade with the East Indies. In the years following the Napoleonic wars, business conditions were very favourable and Peck became extremely wealthy. The family firm diversified and expanded, forming the origin of Peek, Frean & Co., Brooke Bond, Associated Biscuits, as well as other companies. Peck lived in Wimbledon House and gave a large tract of land to the Government to enlarge the common. When he retired to Devon in 1863, he occupied himself with building a house containing 104 bedrooms. Very few doctors were represented on the Committee, but one was himself a distinguished psychiatrist. Charles Hood (1824-1876) had been the first Medical Superintendent of Friern Barnet (Colney Hatch Asylum). He moved in 1852 to Bethlem, as Superintendent, and ended a long tradition of absenteeism by himself living in the hospital. He did much to improve the activities and lot of his patients, was consulted by the Springfield Committee over the death of Damel Dolley (1856), and himself joined the Committee for a couple of years in 1865. The pattern of the Committee, in its membership and function, continued along traditional lines for nearly fifty years. Its character reflected the hegemony of the gentry and aristocracy, whose domination derived from agriculture and whose feudal organisation sprang from the Middle Ages. But although it reached its peak in Victorian times, it was soon to crumble. Around the 1870s, the economic basis of this agricultural society was shaken by an increasing flood of cheap grain from America. The penetration of the West by the railways made possible the transport of huge quantities of grain, grown cheaply, to markets in Europe. In this country, prices were depressed, agriculture suffered sharply, and the power and wealth of country landlords diminished, a change marked in 1888 with the passing of the County Councils Act. From that time power in the Counties was no longer the prerogative of the Lord Lieutenant and his nominees: councillors were now elected and the position suddenly became open to the middle IMG_0771.jpeg classes and tradespeople, from the traditional point of view social nonentities. However, although a few were people of permanent distinction, most become more difficult to trace and identify, and their personal history is unknown to us. One of the aristocracy so elected was George Bingham, who succeeded his father as the 4th Earl of Lucan in 1866. During the Crimean War, he had served as A.D.C. to his father who had been held responsible for the confused command which sent the Light Brigade on its disastrous charge. The 3rd Earl had treats! his unfortunate Irish tenantry with similar lack of feeling and had died in old age full of honours but held in awe or even fear. His son, by contrast, has been called "the most lovable and universally beloved of men", and as Earl set about rectifying his father's abuses in Mayo. Although his family no longer live there, it is his name that is still remembered with affection. He was active in County affairs in Surrey and served on the Springfield Committee for nearly twenty years until his death in 1909. Another member of the old class was Edward Hugh Leycester Penrhyn (1427-7). He had sat on the Committee with his father for a year or two after 6867 and remained a member until in 1889 the hospital was transferred to Middlesex; two years later he became Chairman of Surrey County Council, the culmination of a career of public service — Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, the Board of Guardians and an officer in the Surrey Militia. He lived and died in the house in Ease Sheen where he had himself been born. Typical of the new type of Councillor was Cory Francis Cory- Wright (1419-164), coal merchant who prospered and in 1963 4% created 2 Baronet. Hi. father, William Wright, had been severely wounded at Waterloo, tu. chene to christen his son Cory after his friend of that name wheae tunes: he eventually entered. He joined the Springfield Commrastuc on. in the year that he died. The natie of another tector is of particular interest: John Hayoo Lingdon-Drows (rhy-i4h, vas born in Cornwall and lefe screens 6 the age of 63 to ficly his father in his work as an apothecary. He 1" to Loridion few yeass later as an assistant to Michael Faraday afc a" entered the London Rfonpital where be distinguished hirnelf mite nuainy prives before belsy apeninted Assiseane Physician im 5459- fre previon: year he had alu: beer, appointed Medical Superintendent "a the Acshio: for ine: at Radivnced where he stayed for 16 years 4" was them mecended by Bor. Cratharn from Springfield, before COTE bi ea it ttt, Saotinandickd. This provided for the fete minded of the upper classes", and since 1948 has been incorporated into the National Health Service. In 1866 he made his "Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots" in which he described the group of Mongolian appearance, with which his name is now permanently associated. In 1889 he became a County Alderman for Middlesex, and served on the Asylum Committee until his death: he must have been 2 powerful influence in separating the mentally handicapped from the mentally ill, and building for them a new and thoughtfully designed "Annexe", later to become the "Admission Hospital". No account of the Springfield Committee could be complete without mention of Stephen Bridgland (1805-1882), its first effective Clerk and Steward to the hospital. He was appointed in 1842, to succeed the Steward who had quarrelled with Dr. Quick, and remained for 11 years, after which he continued for another 6 years to serve as Clerk and to administer the farm reallyloor of the Administration Block, and retired in old age to Mitcham. However, he gave the Asylum, according to the standards of his time, an efficient and smooth administration and was described as a man of "habitual courtesy and good feeling". The greatest test of his abilities came: int 1856, after the death of Daz! Dolley. The enquiries of the Commissioners of Lunacy were communicated by their Secretary, John Forster (1812-1876) himself a highly cultivated man, a biographer of distinction and" "[https]://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/LNDRG11_654_657-0664?pId=21025156 Westminster Union Schools [BNA:
"1881 Census > London > Wandsworth > All > District [c.30] [BNA:
Royal Hospital for Incurables [BNA:
County Lunatic Asylum [BNA:
"Biography and grave of Cyrus Elliott PB: I notice in 1861 Martha P Leech is Matron, aged 40, unmarried,, born Gosport, in Elliott's Munster [|Monster"] House, London Road, Fulham [now Munster Road?] 1881 says b. Long Sutton, Somerset — she is proprietor Private Lunatic Asylum, Clapham Rd, with her younger sister, also unmarried, Eliza, born Rochdale, Lancs with 9 "borders", "lunatics" (initials), all female 46-74, plus 1 attendant (female) and 3 domestic servants (female) "Clapham Rd" must be what we would call the top of East Hill because the Description of the Enumeration District says "That part of Wandsworth consisting of the south side of East Hill from the "Huguenots" to the common continuing round to Mr Dubuisson's. Heathfield Road to the railway and the houses in Earlsfield Road top end. The north side of the Clapham Road to and including Kent [?] house. The whole of Spencer Park estate. The south side of the London Road to Saint Anne's Road taking the whole of the latter except the two villas at the N E corner. Part of Park Road and the whole of Spanish Road, but not the Boys Home." [BNA:
CE is buried in Heen Cemetery, Worthing [BNA: Link. Cyrus Elliott Burial Number: 0004" target="_blank">Link Gender: Male Occupation: Surgeon Born: 14/11/1809 Died: 07/03/1874 Buried: 14/03/1874 Cyrus Elliott was baptised on the 10th Dec 1809 at St Mary, Newington, Surrey, son of Cyrus and Mary Elliott. In 1841 he was listed as a Surgeon in a "Licensed Madhouse" in Old Brompton. ( I have found no evidence for his qualification as Surgeon.) In 1857 he was resident at Munster House in Fulham. It was a leasehold house and premises for which he paid 150 per year. From a History of Fulham: Munster Road was first recorded in 1397 when it was a rough path running through farmland known as 'Fulham Fields' which stretched from North End Road to the River Thames. In the 16th century the area was dominated by Munster House. Set in eight acres at the junction with Fulham Road the house became known as 'Monster House' due to two hideous stone lions adorning its frontage. It stood for around 400 years and was used variously as a school and a lunatic asylum before being demolished in 1894. In the 1861 census at London Rd., Munster House, Fulham were Cyrus A Elliott 50 proprietor of Asylum. Martha P Leech Matron Plus Assistants [2 male], Attendants [5 male] and Servants [7 — cook, laundress, housemaids, kitchen maids etc]. [PB: And c.25 patients, shown by initials = no occupation [x6], surgeon, clergyman [x2], clark, tailor, builder, lawyers clerk [x2], merchant, farmer, solicitors clerk, barrister, mercantile clerk, surveyor, draper, miller, ironmonger, leather factor, stockbroker] Between 1861 and 1867, Dr Elliott moved to Worthing. He is at Elm Villa, Broadwater Street, in an 1867 Worthing Directory. (The Elms, at 66 Broadwater Street East, was built in 1827 next to the former Elm Villa, which itself dated back to the 1800s.) At some time during the 1860s, Dr Cyrus Elliott built on his land (originally known as The Quashetts) an arch made of large flints that he had collected from the chalk hills around Worthing. It was originally intended to be a screen to the town beyond, the arch stood collecting ivy until 1967 when its condition became precarious and it was demolished. Today, the road leading to the site of the arch has been re-named Ivy Arch Road, and The Quashetts retained as a footpath between Little High Street and Broadwater Street West. (From the Folly Fellowship) In 1865, in Brentford, he married Anna Maria Duncan, who was born in Chelsea about 1830. In 1867 land which Cyrus Elliott owned was taken over for the building of the Gasworks in Worthing : Cyrus Elliott built a vinery at his home, reputedly using large panes of glass left over from Crystal Palace the first Worthing 'glasshouse' using large panes of glass. (The hefty tax on glass was repealed in 1845) He made a donation of 105 towards the building of St Botolphs Church, and was one of the Proposers, in 1873, at a meeting to discuss a Church at Heene. He died in February 1874, at Elm Villa. "23rd April 1874, Will of Cyrus Alexander Elliott late of Elm Villa, Broadwater in the County of Sussex Esquire proved by Anne Maria Elliott of Elm Villa Widow the Relict, Researcher: Liz Lane" "V G on where the records are [BNA: Link. Springfield Hospital A Short History A small book produced by the current Mental Health Trust at Wandsworth that covers the early history of the First Asylum to be built in Surrey, this publication should be available via the Trust. Ian Lodge Patch" "LOST HOSPITALS OF LONDON Springfield University Hospital 61 Glenburnie Road, Wandsworth, SW17 7DJ Medical dates: Medical character: 1841 — current Mental The Asylum Act, 1808, encouraged the building of public asylums, but the Counties were slow to respond. By 1827 only nine had been built, with the mentally ill continuing to live in the streets, in workhouses or in private madhouses. In 1838 the Surrey magistrates finally decided to establish a county asylum for the mentally ill poor. To this end, they purchased Springfield Park for £8, 985 from Mr Henry Perkins (1779-1855), a wealthy brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay Perkins, who had decided to move to Dover. The estate, with 97 acres of land, was considered an ideal location for the Asylum because of its nearness to population centres, its southerly aspect and clean air, and a suitable water supply. Springfield Park contained an 18th century mansion house, stables and a coach house, as well as farm buildings. The entrance drive was from Aboyne Road. A well was bored in 1839. By 1840 construction had been completed. It was the 15th asylum to be built. The buildings had cost £67, 467 and their furnishings and initial expenses some £7, 515. The Asylum had 350 beds and was built to the 'corridor' plan, a state-of-the-art design (ward wings radiated off a long spinal corridor at right-angles). Patients would be diagnosed, classified and sent to designated wards. The Asylum was built in the Tudor style, with twisted chimneys similiar to those at Hampton Court Palace (these were later removed, being considered dangerous, and not replaced). The facade was patterned with variegated brickwork and subtle angles, but the interiors were plain and dull, apart from the main hall and staircase. The buildings were heated by a central heating system, with steam circulating through the galleries and hot air injected through the floors. Grand sweeping lawns, with a stone-carved fountain, flanked the reception area. On entering the main building, the Committee Room was on the right and the residence of the Medical Superintendent on the left. The Steward was housed on the 2nd floor of the central part (but when he retired in 1872 his rooms were used as accommodation for nurses and domestics). Behind the main hall were two offices, used as doctors' surgeries, where the medical staff wrote up their clinical notes in massive bound volumes. The kitchens, gas works, boiler house and well (and, after 1881, a builder's yard) were at the rear of the main building. Staff were hired and the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum opened on 14th June 1841, with 299 patients being admitted that day from other asylums in London and Surrey, mainly from Peckham House (172 patients), Hoxton (54 patients) and Bethnal Green (51 patients). The Asylum had four principal officers — a visiting physician, a Resident Medical Superintendent on a salary of £250 a year, a Matron ( £80 a year) and a Steward ( £150 a year). An attendant (as nurses were called then) earned £26 a year. The cost of keeping an in-patient per week was 9s (45p). By the end of the first year the Asylum had 385 inmates — 170 males and 215 females — although several elements for the proper functioning of the Asylum were still missing, including some furniture and bedding. The front drive had not yet been made, nor the porter's lodge built. In 1842 some £1, 981 was spent on levelling the ground, with the excavated earth being removed. New roads were laid and gravelled. The airing courts (ward gardens where patients exercised) were turfed, and a bowling green laid down for the patients' recreation. An oak fence was erected to mark the estate boundary. A wall was built around the kitchen garden, at the cost of £1, 574, to enclose 8 acres at the northeast of the site. The farm buildings of Springfield Farm, which lay to the west of the Asylum buildings, were re-used to serve the farmland, worked by male patients for occupational therapy. The iron pipes of the central heating system soon proved to be too thin, with the resulting explosions throughout the wards injuring patients. The system was removed and fireplaces installed instead. After five or six years the Asylum had become overcrowded and, in 1849, had to be extended, as a cost of £35,000. Two new wings were added to the building, providing accommodation for 400 more patients. The water supply ran out in 1850 and, while a new well was drilled, the Lambeth Waterworks Co. supplied the Asylum with "not fewer than 30,000 gallons daily", at a rate of 3d (just over 1p) per 1,000 gallons. (The new well became operational in 1860. By 1855 the Asylum could accommodate 430 males and 534 females. The Resident Superintendent of the Female Department from 1849-1858, Dr Hugh Welch Diamond (1807-1886), described as the 'father of psychiatric photography', took photographs of exceptional quality of many of the patients in his care. In 1860 and 1864 additional land was acquired to the east of the site. The Asylum then had 83 acres of farmland and 14 acres of kitchen gardens in which male patients were employed to provide food for the institution (as with other asylums at this time, it was almost self-sufficient). In 1872 a separate cottage hospital (today known as White Lodge) was erected to treat Asylum patients with infectious diseases. Designed by the Medical Superintendent, it was built by the patients at a cost of £955. As the patient numbers increased, two further wings were added at the south of the site. A ballroom was built in 1879. In 1881 a purpose-built chapel was built to replace the one located inside the main building, in accordance with the wishes of the Lunacy Commissioners. A water tower was built in 1885, as the cost of £1,300, in an attempt to solve the water supply problems being experienced from the two wells (the tower was demolished in 1976). The pump from the original well — a Maudsley table engine — was used until after WW2 and is now in the Science Museum. (The newer pump for the second well was broken up for scrap). In 1889 London County Council and Middlesex County Council were formed following the Local Government Act, 1888. The Surrey County Lunatic Asylum was allocated to the Middlesex County Council, who renamed it the Wandsworth Asylum. In 1893 a new entrance was made at Glenburnie Road, thus making the back of the Asylum the front. A lodge was built by the new entrance, as well as spacious accommodation for the Medical Superintendent and his family — the new buildings being lit from the first by electricity. An extra lodge was built in 1897. The Lunacy Act, 1890, sought to separate mentally handicapped children from mentally ill adults and, in October 1897, an Annexe for Idiot Children with 260 beds opened in a separate building, advocated by the Medical Superintendant, Dr Hugh Gardiner-Hill (1856-1925). Visiting rooms and toilets were located at the front of the building, while the ward accommodation was at the rear (where visitors were not allowed to enter). During WW1 the Asylum became the Springfield War Hospital. A Neurological Unit was established in the Annexe for Idiot Children, renamed Springfield House Hospital (separated from the main Asylum by a high fence) for patients with shell shock or loss of mental balance. Together with the 4th London General Hospital, it was the principal reception centre for the mentally disabled from the front in France. At the beginning of 1916 Springfield House Hospital accepted severe or protracted cases referred from the Neurological Units of the 23 Territorial Force General Hospitals in the United Kingdom. After the war the Annexe was never used again for mentally handicapped patients (following the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, it became a building for 'voluntary' patients. It was renamed the Admissions Hospital). The Wandsworth Asylum was renamed Springfield Mental Hospital after the war. In 1927 an association was formed with the Westminster Hospital and Medical School. Clinicians at Springfield taught medical students in their Out-Patient clinics, while the Westminster Hospital consultants provided a service to Springfield patients (this arrangement lasted until after WW2). In 1930 a Nurses' Home was officially opened by Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood. It provided accommodation for 140 nurses, who had previously lived in side rooms and in the towers of the main building. In 1931 an infirmary block (now the Dispensary) opened to treat mentally ill patients who were also physically ill. Operating theatres were installed in the block. In 1932 the Asylum had 1, 848 patients. In 1933, an Annexe opened in Kingston Road to accommodate elderly female patients. In 1939, when it had dropped the word 'Mental' in its title, the Hospital had 1, 931 patients. During WW2, with no bomb shelters available, the patients were crowded into the basements in an attempt the shelter them from high explosive bombs. Dysentery broke out, with hundreds of patients affected. As well as the common Flexner and Sonne forms of the disease, a new strain was discovered. Springfield Asylum, the Annual Report states, had the distinction of developing a new infective agent, unlike any other bacteria of the intestinal group. the bacillus dysenteriae Springfield. This outbreak produced a legacy of carriers of the disease who required segregation from the Asylum population. Although the buildings received no direct hits during the war, they suffered blast damage from flying bombs nearby. At the end of the war in 1945, the Hospital had 2, 040 patients. The Hospital joined the NHS in 1948 with 1, 856 beds. under the control of the Springfield Tooting Hospital Management Committee, part of the South West Metropolitan Regional Health Board. It was by now providing the usual treatments for mental illness — Cardiazol convulsion therapy, electroplexy (ECT) and deep insulin treatment, as well as neurosurgery. Out-Patient clinics were held at Westminster Hospital, St Charles Hospital and West Middlesex Hospital. As with other mental hospitals, the ratio of elderly patients had been steadily increasing. In 1949 the Hospital was overcrowded and seriously short of nursing staff. The Hospital had a bed complement of 2, 177 beds, but there were only 2, 128 patients (740 males and 1, 388 females), of whom 33% were over the age of 65 years. These patients were disturbed, senile or moribund, but did not need psychiatric care; there was nowhere else for them to go. In 1950, when the Hospital had 2, 153 patients, modernisation and repair of the wards began, with underpinning of some of the buildings. Refrigerators were installed in the kitchens. The letter and number system of ward names was abandoned, and the wards were renamed — male wards after trees (for example, Willow, Elm, Yew — Fir and Teak Wards were for the most seriously disturbed) and female wards after flowers (Dahlia, Aster, Zinnia, Fuchsia, Bluebell, Crocus, Marigold, Tulip, etc). The cottage hospital was refurbished and modernised — with a TV and a radio — and became White Lodge — a Neurosis Unit for 20 female patients (male neurotic patients had a ward in the Admissions Hospital). The Medical Superintendent's house became a hostel for male nurses. The farm had 50 cows producing 800 gallons of milk a week; poultry produced eggs, and provided meat, as did pigs. Fruit was provided by the orchard, and vegetables and salads were grown in the kitchen garden. But both farm and orchard were under threat and, in 1951, 2 acres were taken from the orchard end for a school playing ground. In the early 1950s the average stay of a patient was 1, 050 days. In 1953 an Annexe was opened in New Malden for 290 long-stay elderly female patients who required custodial care only. For the Coronation in 1953, TVs were set up in the wards so that the patients could watch the ceremony. A 12" TV set was provided for the Sisters' Sitting Room. The Hospital had 2, 128 patients (764 males and 1, 364 females), who stayed an average of 779 days. Outbreaks of dysentery occurred at the main hospital and the Annexe (this was almost an annual occurrence). By 1954 the Hospital was suffering from a perpetual shortage of nursing staff; there were 110 full-time and 40 part-time female nurses and 120 full-time and 7 part-time male nurses looking after 2, 089 patients, 250 of whom were voluntary. About 21% of patients were over the age of 65 years. The cost of an in-patient was 17s 6d (88p) a week. An arrangement was made with St James Hospital in Balham for Springfield patients to be sent there for general surgery, if necessary. Neurosurgery was carried out at the Whittington Hospital, as the post for a neurosurgeon at the Hospital was vacant. A centralised radio system was installed in the wards. The sum of £7,000 had been granted by the King Edward's Hospital Fund for a new Occupational Therapy Centre for 200 patients. It was to be built equidistant from the main block, the Cottage Hospital and the Admissions Hospital. In 1954 the Catholic chapel was altered to double its capacity. While the Hospital had some 250 Catholic patients, the chapel could only hold 32 (but usually some 45 had to be squeezed in). The extinction of the farm approached and, in 1954, 26 acres of farmland was taken over by the LCC for building purposes (the site now contains a housing estate and a school). The piggeries and poultry remained, however, cared for by male patients, 40 of whom also worked in the gardens and orchards. In 1955 the new Occupational Therapy Centre was opened by Dr Noel Harris, the past-President of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. The Hospital had 2, 093 patients, 16.9% of whom were over the age of 65 years. By now the Hospital was entering the age of tranquilisers. The advent of chlorpromazine (Largactil) led to a reduction in the number of deep insulin treatments. Two Out-Patient clinics were established at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing. In 1955 all dairy farming ceased and the use of the farm gate was discontinued as an exit and entry point. (Burntwood School now stands on part of the farmland, where Springfield Farm's Grade I Ilisted ice house remains in its grounds; the other part became Springfield Park Golf Course, now renamed the Central London Golf Centre.) The resident male nurses vacated the Medical Superintendent's House and moved to the Nurses' Home. The Admission Hospital was redecorated internally. The Hospital had 34 dysentery carriers housed in one ward, and 14 enteric carriers. By 1956 there were 2, 069 patients, 21% of whom were aged 65 or over. The Hospital's death rate was high — 10.94% — but this reflected the fact that many patients were elderly and died of respiratory conditions afflicting old age. By the end of the 1950s the Hospital had been almost surrounded by urban development. During the 1960s the number of in-patients began to fall, mainly due to the introduction of drug treatments which enabled patients to be treated as out-patients. Burntwood Villa was built in 1960 and Springfield Cottages in 1968, in the northwest corner of the site, presumably as staff residences. In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the NHS, the Hospital became part of the Wandsworth and East Merton (Teaching) District Health Authority, under the South West Thames Regional Health Authority. In 1978 it had 1, 124 beds. In 1980 it had 1,000 beds. After another reorganisation in 1982, it became part of the Wandsworth District Health Authority. By 1984 it had 828 beds. The Joan Bicknell Centre was built, named after the first Professor of the Psychiatry of Mental Handicap and a pioneer of psychodynamic thinking in working with people with learning diabilities. By the beginning of the 1990s, due to the new attitude to mental health issues, many of the large mental health institutions had closed or were being gradually emptied. Government policy of deinstitutionalising mental patients and returning them to 'care in the community' had begun to have effect following the report "Making a Reality of Community Care", published in 1986. The National Health Service and Community Care Act, 1990, enabled patients to receive long-term care in their own homes (with adequate support) or in a residential home setting. The Annexe in New Malden — the Morris Markowe Unit — closed in 1991. Ronald Gibson House, a nursing home for 56 residents, opened on the Hospital campus in the same year (it was extended in 2006). Throughout the 1990s fewer patients were admitted to the Hospital and wards were closed. However, out-patient clinics and support services increased. In 1994 the Hospital became part of the Pathfinder Mental Health Services NHS Trust, which changed its name in 1999 to the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. In September 2005 the £7m Phoenix Unit opened, a low secure 2-storey mental health rehabilitation facility with accommodation for 18 patients. The latest development, the £23m Wandsworth Acute Unit, opened in April 2009. It contains an 18-bed acute ward and a psychiatric intensive care unit with 10 beds. Present status (July 2010) The site, which contains some 67 buildings, is currently the headquarters of the Trust. Many of the original Hospital buildings are now disused and the Trust hopes to sell most of the site for redevelopment. The old buildings would be converted into 262 apartments, and new family housing built. This residential area would be known as 'Springfield Garden Village'. The Trust plans to build new mental health facilities in the northern part of the vast sprawling campus. The main building, built in 1840, is Grade I Ilisted and is currently on English Heritage's 'At Risk' register. The Elizabeth Newton Wing, built in 1897, is also Grade I Ilisted. The mortuary (now called Island House) had been converted into an exhibition centre, while the chapel had become the Mayfield Gymnastics Club. Update: January 2011 Planning permission for the redevelopment of the site was refused in December 2010. Update: July 2013 Planning permission was granted in June 1012. The project is now called Springfield Park. N.B. Photographs were obtained in February 2008 The gate lodge on Glenburnie Road, built in 1893. Harewood House, the former Nurses' Home, is seen to the right. The entrance to Springfield University Hospital campus (right). Hightrees — the former Medical Superintendent's Residence (left). A ward building at the north end. The northwest side of the Hospital (left). The male ward block (right). The western elevation of the main administration block, dated 1840, was once the front of the Hospital. Wings were added later on either side. The main administration building(left). The stone fountain still remains in front of the building (right). Mental care facilities on the south side of the campus. The airing court on the south side of the Hospital. The workshop and utility area of the Hospital in the centre of the site. The ballroom with the chapel just visible behind it (left). The Mayfield Children's Centre Nursery (right). Island House, the former mortuary (left). The maintenance yard on the northeast side of the site (right). The Admissions Building, the central part of the Elizabeth Newton Wing. During WW1 the Wing became the Springfield War Hospital. Built in 1897, it was originally the Annexe for Idiot Children. Patient 'escapees' The Hospital has recently attracted a great deal of media attention and controversy because of a high number of violent crimes relating to its escapees. In 2004 John Barrett, a paranoid schizophrenic, left the Hospital, having been given permission to walk in the grounds unattended. He bought a set of kitchen knives and, the next day, fatally stabbed to death a cyclist, Denis Finnegan, in Richmond Park. Since 2005 some 30 patients have escaped from secure wards. In 2009 one patient escaped and two absconded, one of whom was the rapist Barrington Gordon (he was found 12 hours later). Paul Caesar, a convicted killer, went on the run after being allowed to walk in the Hospital grounds unescorted, then committed suicide at Balham station by jumping in front of a train. References (Author unstated) 1915 Medical notes in Parliament. Army casualties (mental strain). British Medical Journal 1 (2842), 1060-1061. [BNA: hansard.millbanksystems.com [BNA: rebuild.swlsgt.mwdev.co.uk [BNA: risk.english-heritage.org.uk [BNA: studymore.org.uk www.contaminationzone.com www.countyasylums.com www.derelictplaces.co.uk www.parksandgardens.ac.uk www.1914-1918.net www.springfieldregeneration.co.uk www.swlsgt-tr.nhs.uk (1) www.swlsgt-tr.nhs.uk (2) www.swlsgt-tr.nhs.uk (3) www.thetimechamber.co.uk (1) www.thetimechamber.co.uk (2) www.wandsworth.gov.uk (1) www.wandsworth.gov.uk (2) www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk Return to alphabetical list Return to home page" "________ The Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837 — 1901 Home Browse Search Analysis Documentation Author: Ebenezer Rogers (1836 — 1915) Biography: Ebenezer Rogers was born in 1836 in Dublin, the son of William Cooke Rogers and Eliza Burrowes. In his teens, he joined the army and served with the 3rd West Indian Regiment rising to captain by 1866. While with the 3rd, he served in expeditions to Gambia (1864) and Honduras (1867). He recounted his experiences in the book Campaigning in Western Africa and the Ashantee Invasion (1874). By the time it was published, he had joined the Pensioners as a staff officer. In 1865, he married Grace Charlotte van Homrigh and the couple had three children. Rogers only wrote a single novel, A Modern Sphinx(1881), reprinted under the title "Madeline's Mystery" as edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. The novel features a character named Dr. Fitzjames based on the real-life Dr. James Barry (died 1865), an army surgeon revealed to be a woman at her death. In fact, in a letter to The Lancet, Rogers recounts once sharing a ship cabin with Barry while never suspecting the truth. Rogers also wrote two works on machine gun tactics. After his wife died, he subsequently married Harriett Edmonston but the marriage ended in separation if not divorce. He died in 1915 in Wandsworth. Author Tags: Army Officers West Indian Authors References: British Census (1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911); The Lancet (19 October 1895) Fiction Titles: A Modern Sphinx: A Novel. 3 vol. London: John Maxwell, 1881. How to Cite APA Chicago MHRA MLA A Modern Sphinx [BNA:
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"On 7 Mar 2022, at 15:48, Philip Boys MARRIAGES. Aug. fi, at Marylebone Church, John Randolph H** Esq., of l'eiikhull, Staffordshire, to Harriett, .. . . . 7, t Islington, Klizabeth, tecoud daughter of late Dr. Coote, ot Doctors' Commons. y. Aug. 7, it his residence on Wandsworth Common, Jote? Kaye, Ksq., in the ll.id year of his age. . . . Published: Saturday 8 August 1840 Newspaper: London Evening Standard County: London, England Type: Article | Words: 184 | Page: 4 | Tags: none Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries . . . Norwood, Miss Haidy, late of Wells House, East Acton.-At Highbury, Ann Elizabeth, widow of the late John Cogan, Esq.-At Wandsworth Common, Joseph-Kaye, Esq. aged 83.-At Hayre-do-Grace, W. Chanleton, Esq. of Stockton, aged 67.-At Paris, aged 91, Peter Patrick . . . Published: Saturday 15 August 1840 Newspaper: Oxford Journal County: Oxfordshire, England Type: FamilyNotice | Words: 1000 | Page: 4 | Tags: Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries At Wandsworth Common, Joseph Kaye, Esq. aged 83. i.e born c. 1757 [BNA: Link.] Bell's New Weekly Messenger — Sunday 5 January 1845 the Rev. George Tyndall, Rector of Lapwortb, late Fellow Merton College, Oxford, to Jane Powell, daughter of the late Joseph Kaye, Esq., of Wandsworth Common. . [BNA: Link.] Barnsley Chronicle, etc. — Saturday 29 July 1876 I can't find the passage on this page: FINANCES . . . chancel, and a tower 24 yards high. It cost about £2000, exclusive of the site and burial-ground, given by Joseph Kaye, of Wandsworth Common. The most liberal contributor was T. W. Beaumont, Esq., who endowed it with £l300, besides the cost of erecting . . . [BNA: Link.] Sun (London) — Thursday 2 January 1845 On the 31st ult., at Speldhurst, the Rev. George Rector of Lapworth, late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford' to Jane Pow e ll, d aug h ter o f t h e l ate Joseph Kaye, Es+, Wandsworth-common. [BNA: Link.] "Hello again, Keith Just in case . . . Acc. To Dorian Gerhold, Wandsworth Past, p51 the Barchards were living there "at least from 1793 to 1851". The house he says stood "on the north-east corner of Geraldine Road" This is particularly interesting to me for a couple of reasons 1. Because "Mr Barchard" (presumably Robert Wildman Barchard) was prominent in the 1820s for trying to save the Common. He had various businesses including coal merchant, and distiller in partnership with Daniel Watney. And 2. Because a Barchard daughter (Ellen) married her near-neighbour living in "Black Sea House" (if that was indeed the name it was known by) the Price's candles genius George Fergusson Wilson. She was an accomplished botanical illustrator. DG names several of the East Hill houses and their tenants/owners. And includes some nice pics. Just thought I'd say. All best Philip" "Joseph Kaye 'of Wandsworth Common' was a trustee under the will of David Lyon sen. (q.v.). Enslaved people on Mount Alexander estate in Grenada were also registered in 1817 as in the possession of George Gun Munro, attorney of Aron Graham, Henry Litchfield and Joseph Kaye, trustees of Messrs. A. Houstoun & Co. Joseph Kaye was almost certainly the man who had been a partner in Winter & Kaye, later Freshfield & Kaye, until his retirement in 1823. Will of Joseph Kaye of Wandsworth Common proved 27/08/1840. Under the will he left £60,000 to his unmarried daughters and £12,000 in trust for the family of his son Charles Kaye. Sources T71/265 pp. 374-377; Judy Slinn, 'Freshfield family (per. 1800 — 1918)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 [[http]://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49721, accessed 14 June 2016]. Henry Charles Litchfield was solicitor to the Treasury. PROB 11/1932/280. 1817 [EA] — _ TRUSTEE Mount Alexander [ Grenada | St Patrick ] \ Commercial (1) PARTNER Freshfields Solicitor DETAILSnotes _Partner in Winter & Kaye, predecessor firm of . . . Relationships (2) Joseph Kaye FATHER _ SON Charles KayeDETAILS Joseph Kaye TRUSTEE _ TESTATOR David Lyon seniorDETAILS Addresses (1) Wandsworth Common, Wandsworth, Surrey, London, Engla" "SURVEY 49.5 For a brief period the common was managed on a similar basis to Clapham by a lease from the Spencers. This was granted in 1839 for 21 years. The five lessees all lived close by: Alexander Gordon, Joseph Kaye, William Nottage, Henry McKellar and William Wilson. However, the lease was terminated in 1851.166 Improvements made during that time were no longer evident by the mid 1860s when the Select Committee on Open Spaces in the Metropolis examined its poor condition. In the intervening years a combination of enclosures and excessive gravel-digging had drastically reduced the common's size and impaired the surviving ground, which was frequently flooded in the winter. All but one of the public footpaths had been stopped up, and an area formerly used as a cricket ground had become useless.167 The resultant Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866 gave a renewed impetus to preservation.168" "THINK ABOUT THIS WANDSWORTH COMMON AS AN EMBODIMENT — A CELEBRATION — AN EXEMPLAR — OF POLITICAL MODEL OF BRITAIN TO COME Neil McGregor was talking on R4 today about Stowe as a designed but informal park embodying CHOICES — people could visit — walk around — go around it whichever way they chose — in short "democratic" — very VERY different from the formal gardens of e.g. Versailles created for autocrats Can it be argued that Wandsworth Common was just such a place designed to allow EVERYBODY a healthy free open space NOT "owned" / ruled / controlled etc as a park The Conservators were democratically elected (every 3 years) At a time when suffrage was opening up to greater numbers?" "Alliott Verdon Roe [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliott_Verdon_Roe ..began to build a series of flying models, and won a Daily Mail competition with a prize of 75 for one of his designs in 1907. With the prize money and the use of stables at his brother's house in West Hill, Putney, he then began to build a full-size aeroplane, the Roe IBiplane, based on his winning model. He tested this at Brooklands in 190708, recording his first successful flight on 8 June 1908.[5] After encountering problems with the management of Brooklands he moved his flight experiments to Walthamstow Marshes, where he rented space under a railway arch at the western end of the viaduct. Despite many setbacks, Roe persisted with his experiments and there is now a blue plaque commemorating his first successful flight (in July 1909) at the site. His aircraft, Avroplane, a triplane, is preserved in London's Science Museum.[6] In addition, a working replica was unveiled on 7 June 2008 at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey. . . . On 28 October 2011 a green plaque was unveiled by Wandsworth Council and members of the Verdon-Roe family at the site of Roe's first workshop at West Hill, Putney." "Miss Palmer's Diary: The Secret Journals of a Victorian Lady Gillian Wagner Bloomsbury Publishing, 30 Sept 2017 — History — 312 pages In 1847, seventeen-year-old Miss Ellen Palmer had the world at her feet. A debutante at the start of her first London season, Ellen was beautiful, rich and accomplished and about to experience the world of dances, opera visits and dinner parties which were a rite-of-passage for young women of her class. To record the glittering whirl of activity, Ellen started writing a diary, a unique daily account which was discovered over a century later by her descendants. For Ellen, the path to true love did not run smooth — after a scandalous encounter with a duplicitous Swedish count, her marriage prospects were dealt a heavy blow. But Ellen was a woman ahead of her time. Undeterred by her increasing social isolation, she set off on a treacherous trip across Europe in pursuit of her beloved brother Roger, an officer in the Crimean War. In doing so she became one of the first women to visit the battlefield at Balaclava. Ellen's diaries provide a first-hand account of the realities of debutante life in Victorian London whilst also telling the story of an inspirational young woman, her quest for love and her spectacular journey from the ballroom to the battlefield." "HENRY MOSELEY BIOGRAPHY [BNA: mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Moseley/" target="_blank">Link MacTutor HOMEBIOGRAPHIESHISTORY TOPICSMAPCURVESSEARCH Henry Moseley Quick Info Born 9 July 1801 Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, England Died 20 January 1872 Olveston, Gloucestershire, England Summary Henry Moseley was an English churchman, mathematician, and scientist. He served as Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy at King's College, London. He then became of of the first H.M. inspectors of schools. View three larger pictures Biography Henry Moseley was the son of William Moseley and Margaret Robins. Let us make it clear before we proceed that the details at the beginning of the Dictionary of National Biography article [16], contain errors. The article begins:- Moseley, Henry (1801-1872), mathematician and writer on mechanics, was born on 9 July 1801, the son of Dr William Willis Moseley, who kept a large private school at Newcastle under Lyme, and his wife, Margaret Jackson. He was educated at the grammar school in Newcastle under Lyme . . . William Moseley was a student at Hoxton Academy in London which was for dissenting divinity students. He was invited to become a pastor at Atherstone in Warwickshire in a church formed on 19 February 1794, he left Atherstone to become an independent pastor in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire in 1795. On 27 May 1796 he married Margaret Robins, the daughter of Robert and Margaret Robins. Their first child, William Michael Robert Moseley, was born in Long Buckby on 25 January 1798; he became an architect. Their second child was Henry Moseley, the subject of this biography. In 1802 the family moved to Hanley in Staffordshire when the Rev William Moseley was appointed as a Congregational minister at the Independent Hanley Tabernacle Church on the High Street [13]:- The Congregationalists possess one of the finest groups of buildings in [Hanley], known as the Tabernacle Church, to which are attached a lecture hall, schools, vestries, and class rooms. The buildings, which are situated in High Street, are in the perpendicular style of architecture, erected with red brick and stone. In the centre rises an embattled tower, with octagonal stair turret and pyramidal spire, attaining a total height of 100 feet. The lecture hall, which is a very spacious apartment, has a richly traceried window of seven lights. Below the chapel is a large hall, around which are placed the various school and class rooms, and a library. We note that Hanley was in the parish of Stoke but not far from Newcastle-under-Lyme. The Moseley family remained in Hanley until 1814, so Henry was brought up in this town where he was a member of an ever increasing family. Children born after Henry included Margaret (born 1802), Francis Xavier (born 1804), Eliza (born 1805), Harriot (born 1809), Louisa (born 1810), Andrew (born 1814), Joseph Newman (born 1816), Emma (born 1818), and George Willis (born 1820). We note that the births were recorded several years after the children were born and there are many inconsistencies in the dates of birth. For example, the birth of Henry, the subject of this biography, is recorded as 19 July 1800 while, in later life, he seemed to believe his birth was on 9 July 1801. Let us note that the Rev William Moseley published several books, some consisting of his sermons, such as Essays on the Evidences of Christianity (1797), A Memoir on the Importance and Practicality of Translating and Printing the Holy Scriptures in the Chinese language (Second Edition, 1801), Actual sin and future misery traced to their real causes; in which the Doctrine of Reprobation is examined (1805), and The New Token for Children (1805). While in Hanley, he was also making a map [14]:- The Rev William Moseley, of Hanley, Staffordshire, has long been engaged in preparing a map to exhibit the geography and history of the Old Testament at one view, and he has now nearly completed his design. This map will contain all the places of any note mentioned in the writings of Moses and the prophets, the division of the Land of Israel into tribes, the distances of the principal places, and the travels of the children of Israel from Egypt into Canaan, with an historical account of each place. After leaving Hanley in 1814, the family probably spent time in Abbeville, Somme, France; certainly Henry attended school there. By 1816 they were living in Hampshire Terrace, Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire when Joseph Newman Moseley was born. Henry attended a naval school in Portsmouth and while there wrote the paper On measuring the Depth of the Cavities seen on the Surface of the Moon. By 1818 the family were living at Canonbury, Islington, Middlesex, and from there on 26 September, he submitted the paper to the Philosophical Magazine. His paper begins:- The attention of astronomers having for years past been directed to measuring the altitudes of lunar mountains, I have frequently been surprised that no attempts have yet been made to ascertain the depth of those cavities which are so conspicuous on the surface of the moon. Under a conviction that determining the depths of such cavities will not be considered unworthy of notice, after the first astronomers of Europe have endeavoured to ascertain the heights of mountains on the moon's surface, Ibeg leave to submit to the examination of your readers the enclosed method of measuring the depths of lunar cavities. From the same address on 12 July 1819, Moseley sent the letter "On cohesion" to the Philosophical Magazine. In it he wrote [4]:- Convinced that the known properties of matter present us with sufficient data for ascertaining the true law of cohesion, and that the ill success of a few, whose aim was rather to reconcile experiment with theories the favourite phantoms of their imaginations, than to deduce such theories from facts, did not stamp impossibility on the undertaking; I have been induced to commence an investigation of the subject, the result of which Ibeg leave to submit to the public through the medium of your valuable magazine. We are unable to find the article with the results of his investigation which he promised. Moseley was admitted as a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge on 21 August 1821. Being a pensioner means that he did not have a scholarship and paid for his tuition. He matriculated in the Michaelmas term of 1822 and began his study of the mathematical tripos. He attended lectures by George Peacock and William Whewell, the latter being a particularly important influence on Moseley since he published the textbooks An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1819) and A Treatise on Dynamics (1823). Also at St John's College at this time was John Hymers and John Hallowes Miller (1801-1880) who were both studying the mathematical tripos. In the B.A. examinations of 1826, Hymers was Second Wrangler, Miller was Fifth Wrangler, and Moseley was Seventh Wrangler. One of his friends at Cambridge was James Challis (1803-1882) who studied at Trinity College and graduated as Senior Wrangler in the mathematical tripos in 1825. Challis was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College in 1826, was ordained in 1830 and became director of the Cambridge Observatory and Plumian Professor in 1836. Following his degree from Cambridge, Moseley entered the Church of England. He was ordained a deacon in Bath and Wells on 23December 1827 and a priest on 19 April 1828; he then became a curate at West Monkton, near Taunton, in Somerset. He certainly had not left mathematics and natural philosophy behind, however, for during his time as a curate he was writing the textbook A treatise on hydrostatics and hydrodynamics for the use of students in the University which was published in 1830. His friendship with James Challis was clearly important to Moseley for he wrote in the Preface [6]:- . . . the Author has to acknowledge his important obligations to his friend Mr Challis, of Trinity College. He is indebted to that Gentleman for the Chapter (VII) on the general Equations of the Motion of Fluids, and the Appendix (A) on the Oscillations of a cylindrical Column of Air. In the former of these papers, Mr Challis has completely solved the general equation expressing the continuity of a moving fluid. You can read the whole Preface to this book and see information about other books by Moseley at THIS LINK. Moseley was appointed Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy at King's College, London, on the 20January 1831. Now King's College, London had been founded in 1829 and required governors and professors to be members of the Church of England but the College was open to "nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely." This would seem to fit Moseley particularly well, being ordained in the Church of England but having a father, William Moseley, as a well-known nonconformist. In fact, in addition to his professorship at King's College, London, he was chaplain there during 1831-33. As the first Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy at King's College, London, he was responsible for building the College's Department of Engineering and Applied Science. Few people publish a book giving the syllabus of the first university course they will teach before they actually teach it, but this is precisely what Moseley did, publishing Syllabus of a Course of Experimental Lectures on The Theory of Equilibrium in 1831. The syllabus is for a course [5]:- . . . to be delivered at The King's College, London, in the October Term of the year 1831 by Rev H Moseley, Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. These Lectures require no introductory course of mathematical reading; the method of demonstration being exclusively experimental. On 23 April 1835, Moseley married Harriet Nottidge, the daughter of William and Mary Nottidge of Wandsworth Common, Surrey. William Nottidge (1767-1853) had married Louisa Browning in 1792 but, following her death in 1797, he married Mary Varnham, daughter of John Varnham, in 1799. Harriet, their second daughter, was born on 1 October 1801 and baptised on 17 November 1801 at Saint Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, London. Henry and Harriet Moseley had daughters Harriet Mary Moseley, born 19 December 1836, and Emily Moseley, born in July 1839, and a son Henry Nottidge Moseley, born 14 November 1844. Henry Nottidge Moseley became a leading naturalist and he sailed on the global scientific expedition of the HMS Challenger in 1872 to 1876. At the time of the 1841 UK census, the family were living in St Ann's Lane, Wandsworth. During the years 1831 to 1844 Moseley was Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at King's College, London, and during this time wrote important papers and books [1]:- Moseley embarked upon a rigorous investigation of the statics of masonry arches and published his findings in 1833, 'On the theory of resistance in statics', and 'On a new principle in statics, called the principle of least pressures' . . . The first of these papers begins:- In a paper inserted in the 'Philosophical Magazine' for October, I have given a demonstration of the following theorem: "If there be a system of forces in equilibrium among which there enter the resistances of any number of fixed points, then are these resistances such that their sum is a minimum; each being considered a function of the coordinates of its point of application, taken with a positive sign, and subjected to the conditions imposed by the equilibrium of the whole.: I have also pointed out the steps by which this principle may be applied to the actual determination of the amount and direction of the resistance upon each point of the system in terms of the other forces which compose it. It is my object at present to give the actual solution of that particular but very important case, of the more general proposition, in which the forces and resistances of the system are all parallel to one another. The solution of this case is entirely free from that elaboration of analysis which besets the more general proposition. In addition to the two books mentioned above, he published several others. In 1834 he published A Treatise on Mechanics applied to The Arts; including Statics and Hydrostatics. He writes in the Preface [7]:- The following work contains treatises on the sciences of Statics and Hydrostatics, comprising the whole theory of Equilibrium. It was intended as the first volume of a course of Natural Philosophy, for the use of those who have no knowledge of Mathematics, or who have made but little progress in their mathematical reading. In 1838 he published Lectures on Astronomy delivered at King's College, London. He writes in the Preface [8]:- This work originally formed part of a course of Lectures delivered to the Class of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, at King's College. They were subsequently printed in the 'Magazine of Popular Science', and have since been revised by the Author, and adapted for publication in a separate volume, in the belief that it may serve the purposes of Popular Instruction. He published Illustrations of Mechanics in 1839, writing in the Preface [9]:- This work is the first of a series, entitled 'Illustrations of Science', by Professors of King's College, London, to be published at intervals of three months, and continued until the circle of the Physical Sciences, and the Sciences of Observation, is embraced in it. The author has proposed to himself the development of that system of experimental facts and theoretical principles on which the whole superstructure of mechanical art may be considered to rest, and its introduction, under an available form, to the great business of practical education. His most famous book, however, was The Mechanical Principles of Engineering and Architecture published in 1843. T M Charlton writes [1]:- There seems little doubt that Moseley's major contribution to bridge construction related to the development of the wrought iron girder bridge. The appearance of his excellent book could hardly have been more timely: it was only a few years later that Robert Stephenson, IK Brunel and others with the cooperation of William Fairbairn, were to embark upon some spectacular railway bridge projects taking advantage of the merits of the then novel rolled iron plate and bars. The tubular or hollow iron girder, forerunner of the currently fashionable box girder, was one result. For more information about all these books, see THIS LINK. Moseley was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in February 1839. A couple of years earlier, in October 1836, his father William Moseley had been tried at Middlesex sessions charged with [15]:- Keeping an unlicensed house in Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury [Middlesex] for the reception of lunatics. His initial sentence was twelve months imprisonment in Middlesex House of Correction and a fine of 50. William Moseley petitioned with the following grounds for clemency [15]:- Acted out of ignorance when housed two lunatics in his house; then applied for licence but convicted before had time to comply with conditions of licence; has wife and seven children dependent on him; sale of house will cover his debts; willing to enter into recognisance; elderly age; committed on false information that house was intended for dangerous lunatics not harmless ones; all magistrates involved recommend reducing sentence further from 6 to 3 months. In January 1844 Moseley resigned his professorship at St John's College. London, and was appointed as one of the first of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. One of his first reports was on Chester College. He observed the construction of the College chapel:- When Ivisited the College in November, I found [the students] busily employed in quarrying the stone of which an abundant supply is found on the premises, they had made some progress with the oak carvings, and the stonework of a very beautiful window was nearly completed. Nothing could be more lively or interesting than the scene presented by the grounds and workshops during the intervals of study. In one place the foundations of the structure were being dug out; in another the stone was quarried. In the workshops I found carpenters, turners, carvers in oak and blacksmiths, plying their several trades; and, in a shed, a group of stone-cutters carving with great success the arch mouldings, mullions, and lights of a decorated window. He published a number of reports as an Inspector of Schools, for example Report on the Battersea Training School and the Battersea Village School for Boys (1846), An Account of the King's Somborne School: Extracted with Permission from the Minutes of the Committee of Council of Education 1847-1848 (1849), and Special report on grants to aid in the purchase of apparatus for instruction in science (1853). Moseley also addressed the Metropolitan Association of Church Schoolmasters on 20 May 1854, delivering the address Faith in the Work of the Teacher. You can read a version of his address at THIS LINK. He continued his work as a school inspector until 1853 and while undertaking these duties, he continued his mathematical research publishing works such as On a machine for calculating the products, quotients, logarithms, and powers of numbers (1847), On the dynamical stability and on the oscillations of floating bodies (1850), On dynamical stability, and on the oscillations of floating bodies(1851), and On the rolling motion of a cylinder (1851). In 1851 the Exhibition of The Works of Industry of all Nations, known as the 'Great Exhibition', was held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in London. In 1850 the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851 had been set up to administer the Exhibition. The Royal Commission, with Prince Albert as its President, set up an extensive jury system to judge all the exhibits displayed in the Crystal Palace. From 17000 exhibitors, the jurors selected the Prize Medal winners and those who should receive an Honourable Mention, and also recommended exhibitors for the prestigious Council Medal. Moseley was asked to be one of the jurors and he was pleased to accept. He was then appointed as Chairman of Class V: Machines for direct use, including Carriages and Railway and Naval Mechanism. This class was divided into seven Sections: Section A: Steam Engines and Boilers. Section B: Separate Parts of Machines, Specimens of Workmanship. Section C: Pneumatic Machines. Section D: Hydraulic Machines, Cranes, Pile Drivers etc. Section E: Railway. Section F: Railway Machinery and Permanent Ways. Section G: Weighing, Measuring and Registering Machines for Commercial and not for Philosophical Purposes. Moseley's Report, detailing the medals awarded by his jurors, was published in [11]. As Chairman of one of the juries, he came to the attention of Prince Albert who then sought to further his career [2]:- . . . in 1853 he was presented to a residential canonry in Bristol Cathedral; in 1854 he became vicar of Olveston, Gloucestershire, and he was appointed chaplain in ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1855. We have already mentioned Moseley's election to the Royal Society in 1839. He was also honoured by election as a Corresponding member in the Mechanics Section of the Acadmie de Sciences on 6 March 1848. Oxford University awarded him an honorary D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) in 1870. At the time of the 1861 UK Census, Moseley was living at the Parsonage, Fernhill Road, Olveston, Gloucestershire with his wife, daughter Emily Moseley, son Henry Nottidge Moseley, and five servants: a cook, parlour maid, house maid, lady's maid, and kitchen maid. He gives his occupation as Canon of Bristol Cathedral and Vicar of Olveston. At the time of the 1871 UK Census, he was living alone at Canon's House, Deanery Road, Bristol, except for his four servants: a butler, cook and two housemaids. He gives his occupation as Canon of Bristol Cathedral. During his time as Canon of Bristol Cathedral, Moseley continued to undertake research and publish articles. Rather remarkably, he published six papers in the last two years of his life. Papers he published after 1854 include: On the rolling motion of a cylinder (1854), On the descent of glaciers (1856), On certain elementary formulae, &c. (1857), On the motion of a plate of metal on an inclined plane, when dilated and contracted; and on the descent of glaciers (1862), On the descent of a solid body on an inclined plane when subjected to alternations of temperature (1869), On the mechanical possibility of the descent of glaciers, by their weight only (1869), On the uniform motion of an imperfect fluid (1869), On the "Veined Structure" of the ice of glaciers (1870), On the mechanical properties of ice (1870), On the uniform flow of a liquid (1871), and On the steady flow of a liquid (1871). Moseley died in Olveston, Gloucestershire and his wife went to live at Cecil Lodge, Stoke Bishop. She died there four years after her husband on 9 March 1876. Let us note that Moseley's son Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844-1891) married Amabel Gwyn Jeffreys (1852-1928) in 1881 and their son, Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887-1915), one of five children, became a well-known physicist who developed the important law of X-ray spectra which provided a major step forward in atomic theory and provided experimental evidence supporting Niels Bohr's theory. Other Mathematicians born in England A Poster of Henry Moseley References (show) Additional Resources (show) Honours (show) Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson Last Update March 2021 DJF/JOC/EFR Copyright information Accessibility statement School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland If you have comments, or spot errors, we are always pleased to hear from you." [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Nottidge [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agapemonites " "[http]://ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/search.php?subpage=searchTerms&time=1647857384 William Guest Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 6 Apr 1784 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link William Guest, aged 18, found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Mary, wife of William Southhouse in the parish of Wandsworth on 5th December 1783: robbing her of a silk purse (valued at 6d) and 10/- in money numbered. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7215&termRef=William%20Guest" "Peter Houlton Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 8 Apr 1775 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link Peter Houlton found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Richard Woodcock in the parish of Wandsworth on 3rd November 1774: robbing him of 2 gold guineas, 2 gold half guineas and a watch, with chain, key and seal (valued at 40/9). [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7163&termRef=Peter%20Houlton" "James Burrell Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: burglary Date Of Execution: 1 Aug 1774 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link George Stephen Hearsay and James Burrell found guilty on an indictment for a burglary in the dwelling house of Christina Williamson in the parish of Wandsworth on 7th April 1774: stealing therefrom a pair of silver candlesticks (valued at 5), 2 silver waiters (valued at 8, 2 silver pint mugs (value d at 4), 2 silver pint mugs (valued at 40/-), 4 silver salts (valued at 3), 8 silver tablespoons (valued at 4), a silver punch ladle (value at 2/-), a gold cased watch (valued at 10), a blue silk mode cloak with lace (valued at 10/-, a black satin cloak trimmed with lace (valued at 10/-), a pair of worked double ruffles (valued at 5/-), 2 pairs of lace double ruffles (value at 5/-), a pink coloured silk work bag (valued at 2/-), a shell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), an enamelled snuff box (value at 12d), a silve snuff box (valued at 30/-), a tortoiseshell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), a pair of Moco (?) stone studs set in gold (valued at 10/-), a silver soup ladle (valued at 10/-), a pair of stone shoe buckles set in silver (valued at 10/-) and a hat pin set with diamonds (valued at 20/-) — the goods and chattels of Christina Williamson; and a silver thimble (valued at 12d) and a pair of silver shoe buckles (valued at 5/-) — the goods and chattels of Henrietta King. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7159&termRef=James%20Burrell" "George Stephen Hearsay Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: burglary Date Of Execution: 1 Aug 1774 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link George Stephen Hearsay and James Burrell found guilty on an indictment for a burglary in the dwelling house of Christina Williamson in the parish of Wandsworth on 7th April 1774: stealing therefrom a pair of silver candlesticks (valued at 5), 2 silver waiters (valued at 8, 2 silver pint mugs (value dat 4), 2 silver pint mugs (valued at 40/-), 4 silver salts (valued at 3), 8 silver tablespoons (valued at 4), a silver punch ladle (value at 2/-), a gold cased watch (valued at 10), a blue silk mode cloak with lace (valued at 10/-, a black satin cloak trimmed with lace (valued at 10/-), a pair of worked double ruffles (valued at 5/-), 2 pairs of lace double ruffles (value at 5/-), a pink coloured silk work bag (valued at 2/-), a shell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), an enamelled snuff box (value at 12d), a silve snuff box (valued at 30/-), a tortoiseshell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), a pair of Moco (?) stone studs set in gold (valued at 10/-), a silver soup ladle (valued at 10/-), a pair of stone shoe buckles set in silver (valued at 10/-) and a hat pin set with diamonds (valued at 20/-) — the goods and chattels of Christina Williamson; and a silver thimble (valued at 12d) and a pair of silver shoe buckles (valued at 5/-) — the goods and chattels of Henrietta King. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7158&termRef=George%20Stephen%20Hearsay" "John Sturmey Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 19 Apr 1753 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link John Sturmey found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of William Jeffreys in the parish of Wandsworth on 21st December 1752: robbing him of 3/6 in money numbered. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7076&termRef=John%20Sturmey" "William Cooper Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 26 Aug 1738 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link William Cooper found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of James Trymmer in the parish of Wandsworth on 23rd May 1738: robbing him of 6 gold guineas. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7002&termRef=William%20Cooper" "William Hart Age: Sex: male Crime: Highway robbery Date Of Execution: 22 Aug 1803 Crime Location: Execution Place: Horsemonger Lane Method: hanging Executioner: Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/1800.html" target="_blank">Link Surrey William Hart (otherwise William Fox) found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Robert James Hendrie in the parish of Wandsworth on 16th July 1803: robbing him of 1 gold seven shilling piece and 1silver sixpence. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=2918&termRef=William%20Hart" "British Executions Home Chronology Links Robert Smith Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 8 Jun 1803 Crime Location: Execution Place: unknown Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng468.htm ROBERT SMITH Executed before Newgate for robbing Coachmen on the Highway, 8th of June, 1803 THIS singular robber was a Scotsman, and one of those adventurers who, ingenious in wickedness, devise new plans of depredation, and make the industrious, whose hard earnings they enjoy, the chief objects of their prey. The mode of robbery which this man adopted was that of employing a hackney-coach to drive him to some??outlet, and then robbing the coachman in the first lonesome place he came to, in which for some time he was too successful. This trade he commenced early in the month of March, 1803, when, being genteelly dressed, at night, about ten o'clock, he hired a hackney-coach at Charing Cross, and ordered the coachman to drive to St John's Farm, near the first milestone on the Edgware Road. When the coach got to the top of the lane leading to St John's Farm, Smith pulled the string and asked the coachman to let him get out, as he had passed the house he wanted to go to; upon which the coachman got off his box and let him out of the coach. Smith then asked what his fare was. When he was told five shillings and sixpence, he put his hand into a side-pocket, pulled out a pistol, and swore he would immediately shoot him if he did not deliver his money, which the coachman complied with. Smith then demanded his watch, which the coachman likewise delivered, and with which he made his escape across some fields. On Monday night (6th of March), about eleven o'clock, he hired another coach, and ordered the coachman to drive to St George's Row, on the Uxbridge Road. When the coach arrived at that place the man got out and, with horrid threats, demanded the coachman's money, at the same time presenting a very long pistol to his breast, and slightly wounding him in the side with a tuck-stick. The coachman delivered his money, amounting to two seven-shilling pieces and eight shillings and sixpence in silver. The robber, on parting, told the coachman that if he attempted to pursue him he would shoot him. But his career did not last long, for on Sunday night, the 19th of March, about ten o'clock, as Thomas Jones and others of the patrol were on duty in King's Road they met Smith, whom they questioned as to his business, etc., and he not being able to give a satisfactory account, one of the patrol put his hand on his breast, and discovered a pistol. On Monday morning he was brought to Bow Street, and underwent an examination, when the hackney-coachman who was robbed near St John's Farm attended; and when a pawnbroker produced a watch corresponding to one of Smith's pawn-tickets he positively identified the watch, and also the person to be the robber. T. Jones (another hackney-coachman, who was robbed in Maiden Lane) attended, and likewise identified a watch produced by a pawnbroker, and the person of the prisoner. The prisoner refused to give any name, or to give any account of himself. He gave the names of Gordon and Smith when he pledged the watches. On his re-examination, in addition to the charges before exhibited against him, Francis Treadwell, another driver of a hackney-coach, stated how the prisoner had robbed and wounded him. Also John Chilton, a porter at Mr Spode's Staffordshire warehouse, swore that on the evening of the 14th instant, about eight o'clock, the prisoner stopped and robbed him of three shillings and sixpence, near Bayswater, and slightly wounded him on the breast with a tuck-stick. The driver of another hackney-coach identified the prisoner as having robbed him a short time since, near Wandsworth, Surrey. On his trial the prisoner pleaded guilty, and the jury pronounced a verdict in accord with his own confession and the evidence before them. He pleaded, however, for mercy, on the ground of its being his first offence; but Mr Justice Heath observed that his plea could not be listened to, for there were five other indictments against him for similar offences, and a sixth for firing at a person with intent to rob. He was executed at the front of the debtors' door, in the Old Bailey, on the 8th of June, 1803." "British Executions Home Chronology Links Elizabeth Brownrigg Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: murder Date Of Execution: 14 Sep 1767 Crime Location: Execution Place: unknown Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng311.htm ELIZABETH BROWNRIGG Executed at Tyburn, 14th of September, 1767, for torturing her Female Apprentices to Death Illustrations: Portrait of Elizabeth Brownrigg Elizabeth Brownrigg flogging her apprentice THE long and excruciating torture in which this inhuman woman kept the innocent object of her remorseless cruelty, before she finished the long-premeditated murder, more engaged the attention and roused the indignation of all ranks, than any criminal in the whole course of our melancholy narratives. Elizabeth Brownrigg was married to James Brownrigg, a plumber, who, after being seven years in Greenwich, came to London and took a house in Flower-de-Luce Court, Fleet Street, where he carried on a considerable share of business, and had a little house at Islington for an occasional retreat. She had been the mother of sixteen children, and, having practised midwifery, was appointed by the overseers of the poor of St Dunstan's parish to take care of the poor women in the workhouse; which duty she performed to the entire satisfaction of her employers. Mary Mitchell, a poor girl, of the precinct of Whitefriars, was put apprentice to Mrs Brownrigg in the year 1765; and at about the same time Mary Jones, one of the children of the Foundling Hospital, was likewise placed with her in the same capacity; and she had other apprentices. As Mrs Brownrigg received pregnant women to lie-in privately, these girls were taken with a view of saving the expense of women-servants. At first the poor orphans were treated with some degree of civility; but this was soon changed for the most savage barbarity. Having laid Mary Jones across two chairs in the kitchen, she whipped her with such wanton cruelty that she was occasionally obliged to desist through mere weariness. This treatment was frequently repeated; and Mrs Brownrigg used to throw water on her when she had done whipping her, and sometimes she would dip her head into a pail of water. The room appointed for the girl to sleep in adjoined the passage leading to the street door, and, as she had received many wounds on her head, shoulders and various parts of her body, she determined not to bear such treatment any longer if she could effect her escape. Observing that the key was left in the street door when the family went to bed, she opened the door cautiously one morning and escaped into the street. Thus freed from her horrid confinement, she repeatedly inquired her way to the Foundling Hospital till she found it, and was admitted, after describing in what manner she had been treated, and showing the bruises she had received. The child having been examined by a surgeon, who found her wounds to be of a most alarming nature, the governors of the hospital ordered Mr Plumbtree, their solicitor, to write to James Brownrigg, threatening a prosecution if he did not give a proper reason for the severities exercised towards the child. No notice of this having been taken, and the governors of the hospital thinking it imprudent to indict at common law, the girl was discharged, in consequence of an application to the Chamberlain of London. The other girl, Mary Mitchell, continued with her mistress for the space of a year, during which she was treated with equal cruelty, and she also resolved to quit her service. Having escaped out of the house, she was met in the street by the younger son of Brownrigg, who forced her to return home, where her sufferings were greatly aggravated on account of her elopement. In the interim the overseers of the precinct of Whitefriars bound Mary Clifford to Brownrigg; it was not long before she experienced similar cruelties to those inflicted on the other poor girls, and possibly still more severe. She was frequently tied up naked and beaten with a hearth broom, a horsewhip or a cane till she was absolutely speechless. This poor girl having a natural infirmity, the mistress would not permit her to lie in a bed, but placed her on a mat in a coal-hole that was remarkably cold; however, after some time, a sack and a quantity of straw formed her bed, instead of the mat. During her confinement in this wretched situation she had nothing to subsist on but bread and water; and her covering, during the night, consisted only of her own clothes, so that she sometimes lay almost perished with cold. On a particular occasion, when she was almost starving with hunger, she broke open a cupboard in search of food, but found it empty; and on another occasion she broke down some boards, in order to procure a draught of water. Though she was thus pressed for the humblest necessaries of life, Mrs Brownrigg determined to punish her with rigour for the means she had taken to supply herself with them. On this she caused the girl to strip to the skin, and during the course of a whole day, while she remained naked, she repeatedly beat her with the butt-end of a whip. In the course of this most inhuman treatment a jack-chain was fixed round her neck, the end of which was fastened to the yard door, and then it was pulled as tight as possible without strangling her. A day being passed in the practice of these savage barbarities, the girl was remanded to the coal-hole at night, her hands being tied behind her, and the chain still remaining about her neck. The husband being obliged to find his wife's apprentices in wearing apparel, they were repeatedly stripped naked, and kept so for whole days, if their garments happened to be torn. Sometimes Mrs Brownrigg, when resolved on uncommon severity, used to tie their hands with a cord and draw them up to a water-pipe which ran across the ceiling in the kitchen; but that giving way, she desired her husband to fix a hook in the beam, through which a cord was drawn, and, their arms being extended, she used to horsewhip them till she was weary, and till the blood flowed at every stroke. The elder son one day directed Mary Clifford to put up a half-tester bedstead, but the poor girl was unable to do it; on which he beat her till she could no longer support his severity; and at another time, when the mother had been whipping her in the kitchen till she was absolutely tired, the son renewed the savage treatment. Mrs Brownrigg would sometimes seize the poor girl by the cheeks and, forcing the skin down violently with her fingers, cause the blood to gush from her eyes. Mary Clifford, unable to bear these repeated severities, complained of her hard treatment to a French lady who lodged in the house; and she having represented the impropriety of such behaviour to Mrs Brownrigg, the inhuman monster flew at the girl and cut her tongue in two places with a pair of scissors. On the morning of the 13th of July this barbarous woman went into the kitchen and, after obliging Mary Clifford to strip to the skin, drew her up to the staple; and though her body was an entire sore, from former bruises, yet this wretch renewed her cruelties with her accustomed severity. After whipping her till the blood streamed down her body she let her down, and made her wash herself in a tub of cold water, Mary Mitchell, the other poor girl, being present during this transaction. While Clifford was washing herself Mrs Brownrigg struck her on the shoulders, already sore with former bruises, with the butt-end of a whip; and she treated the child in this manner five times in the same day. The poor girl's wounds now began to shew evident signs of mortification; and it is probable that she might have been privately buried, and the murderess escaped detection, but for the following circumstance. Mary Clifford's mother-in-law, who had resided some time in the country, came to town, and enquired after the child; and being informed that she was placed at Brownrigg's, she went thither, but was refused admittance by Mr Brownrigg, who even threatened to carry her before the lord-mayor if she came there to make farther disturbances. Hereupon the mother-in-law was going away, when Mrs Deacon, wife of Mr Deacon, baker at the adjoining house, called her in, and informed her that she and her family had often heard moanings and groans issue from Brownrigg's house, and that she suspected the apprentices were treated with unwarrantable severity. Mrs Deacon likewise promised to exert herself to come at the truth of the affair. At this juncture Mr Brownrigg, going to Hampstead on business, bought a hog, which he sent home. This hog was put into a covered yard, to which there was a sky-light, which it was thought necessary to remove, in order to give air to the animal. As soon as it was known that the sky-light was removed, Mr Deacon ordered his servants to watch, in order, if possible, to discover the girls. Deacon's servant-maid, looking from a window, saw one of the girls stooping down; on which she called her mistress, and she desired the attendance of some of the neighbours, who, having been witnesses of the shocking scene, some men got upon the leads, and dropped bits of dirt, to induce the girl to speak to them; but she seemed wholly incapable. Hereupon Mrs Deacon sent to the girl's mother-in-law, who going to the overseers who had placed out the child, they called on Mr Grundy, one of the overseers of St Dunstan's, and all of them going together, they demanded a sight of Mary Clifford: but Brownrigg, who had nicknamed her Nan, told them that he knew no such person, but if they wanted to see Mary (meaning Mary Mitchell), they might; and accordingly produced her. Mr Deacon's servant now declared that Mary Mitchell was not the girl who had been seen in the shocking situation abovementioned; on which Mr Grundy sent for a constable, to search the house, which was done; but no discovery was then made. Mr Brownrigg threatened highly; but Mr Grundy, with the spirit that became the officer of a parish, took Mary Mitchell with him to the workhouse, where, on the taking off her leathern-boddice, it stuck so fast to her wounds, that she shrieked with the pain: but, on being treated with great humanity, and told that she should not be sent back to Brownrigg's, she gave an account of the horrid treatment that she and Mary Clifford had sustained; and confessed that she had met the latter on the stairs just before they came to the house. On this Mr Grundy and some others returned to the house, to make a stricter search; on which Brownrigg sent for a lawyer, in order to intimidate them, and even threatened a prosecution, unless they immediately quitted the house. Unterrified by these threats, Mr Grundy sent for a coach to carry Brownrigg to the compter; on which the latter promised to produce the girl in half an hour, if the coach was discharged. This being consented to, the girl was produced from a cupboard, under a beauset in the dining-room, after a pair of shoes, which young Brownrigg had in his hand during the proposal, had been put upon her. It is not in language to describe the miserable appearance this poor girl made: almost her whole body was ulcerated. Being taken to the workhouse, an apothecary was sent for, who pronounced her to be in danger. Brownrigg was conveyed to Wood Street Compter; but his wife and son made their escape, taking with them a gold watch and some money. Mr Brownrigg was carried before Alderman Crossby, who committed him, and ordered the girls to be taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital, where Mary Clifford died within a few days. The coroner's inquest was summoned, and found a verdict of wilful murder against James and Elizabeth Brownrigg, and John, their son. In the meantime Mrs Brownrigg and her son shifted from place to place in London, bought clothes in Rag Fair to disguise themselves, and then went to Wandsworth, where they took lodgings in the house of Mr Dunbar, who kept a chandler's shop. This chandler, happening to read a newspaper on the 15th of August, saw an advertisement which so clearly described his lodgers that he had no doubt but they were the murderers. A constable went to the house, and the mother and son were conveyed to London. At the ensuing sessions at the Old Bailey the father, mother and son were indicted, when Elizabeth Brownrigg, after a trial of eleven hours, was found guilty of murder, and ordered for execution; but the man and his son, being acquitted of the higher charge, were detained, to take their trials for a misdemeanour, of which they were convicted, and imprisoned for the space of six months. After sentence of death was passed on Mrs Brownrigg, she was attended by a clergyman, to whom she confessed the enormity of her crime) and acknowledged the justice of the sentence by which she had been condemned. The parting between her and her husband and son, on the morning of her, execution, was affecting beyond description. The son falling on his knees, she bent herself to him, and embraced him. The husband was kneeling on the other side; she also kneeled down, and, having besought the Almighty to have mercy on her soul, said 'Dear James, Ibeg that God, for Christ's sake, will be reconciled, and that he will not leave me, nor forsake me, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment.' On her way to the place of execution the people expressed their abhorrence of her crime in terms which, though not proper for the occasion, testified their astonishment that such a wretch could have existed: they even prayed for her damnation instead of her salvation: they doubted not but that 'the devil would fetch her,' and hoped that 'she would go to hell.' Such were the sentiments of the mob. At the place of execution this miserable woman joined in prayers with the ordinary of Newgate, whom she desired to declare to the multitude, that she confessed her guilt, and acknowledged the justice of her sentence. After execution her body was put into a hackney-coach, conveyed to Surgeons' Hall, dissected and anatomised; and her skeleton was hung up in Surgeons' Hall. What is it possible to say on this subject that will not have occurred to every reader of feeling and humanity? This more than common murder -- this murder by inches, has something so shocking in its nature, something so infernal in its progress, that there is no language in which to express our abhorrence of it. That Mrs Brownrigg, a midwife by profession, and herself the mother of many children, should wantonly murder the children of other women, is truly astonishing, and can only be accounted for by that depravity of human nature, which philosophers have always disputed, but which true christians will be ready to allow. Let her crimes be buried, though her skeleton be exposed; and may no one hereafter be found hardy enough to copy those crimes! Women who have the care of children from parish workhouses, or hospitals, should consider themselves at once as mistresses and as mothers; nor ever permit the strictness of the former character to preponderate over the humanity of the latter. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=2171&termRef=Elizabeth%20Brownrigg __________________" "BOWEN & NEALE William Bowen Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 12 Aug 1749 Crime Location: Execution Place: unknown Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: 1749-08-12 THOMAS NEALE and WILLIAM BOWEN Highwaymen; (The former a most hardened Sinner, who died cursing the Spectators of his Execution, August 12, 1749.) IT must, on the perusal of these volumes, have been observed that the unfortunate subjects of the different cases reported have generally been not only guilty of the crime for which they suffered, but of many others, and often more heinous ones. The reader, too, must have frequently felt indignant at the fool-hardy protestations of innocence, with the rope of death suspended over them, of numbers whose guilt had been most incontestably proved. We shudder at the very idea of a sinner departing this world, and his soul journeying to the next, accompanied by the wicked lie with which the breath fled. Some malefactors will have been found, affecting to brave the terrors of death merely, to gratify the few moments of life left, in exultation of the unnatural reflection of having boldly launched themselves into eternity, and that succeeding felons might hereafter say (to use a Newgate phrase) "he died game!" Of the very worst description of hardened villains was that whose crimes we are about to bring to view -- a wretch callous to hope and fear, and who died mocking his God, and cursing his fellow-creatures! The proclamation of peace occasioning the discharge of many seamen, Neale was paid off, and bringing his wages to London, he soon wasted his money in the most dissipated manner, and in the worst of company; and then had recourse to the dangerous practices of a footpad robber. On a particular occasion he stole a tankard from an inn in Hertfordshire, for which he was apprehended, and lodged in the county gaol, and, being tried at the next assizes, was capitally convicted; but obtained a pardon, on the condition of transporting himself for seven years, through the interest of the late duke of Cumberland. Having given bail thus to transport himself, he entertained no thought of fulfilling the contract; but, immediately associating with Bowen and other villains, they committed a variety of robberies in the vicinity of London. William Bowen was a native of Londonderry, in Ireland. His parents, who kept an inn, and lived respectably, proposed that he should succeed them in their business; but an attachment to bad company led him astray from the paths of duty. His father dying just before he came of age, left him the inn, on the condition of his supporting his mother, a brother, and two young sisters: but the young man, deaf to every prudent consideration, associated with people whose circumstances were much superior to his own, to the neglect of that business which would have supported the family. Aware of the decay of his trade, and the consequent ruin that stared him in the face, he came over to London with all the cash he could secure, and fell in company with people who assisted him to spend his money; and, when that was gone, he entered on board a ship as a common sailor. The seamen having received their wages, Bowen got into company with his old associates and some women of ill fame, with whom he spent his last shilling, and then had recourse for support to the perpetration of robberies in the neighbourhood of London, particularly near Stepney and Mile-End. One of Bowen's companions being apprehended for picking pockets, he and others joined to rescue him, as the peace-officers were conveying him to Newgate in a coach. The public being alarmed by this daring rescue, Bowen did not think it safe to stay in London; and having heard that his brother, then a seaman, was at Liverpool, he went thither in search of him: but, on his arrival, he learnt that, having received a large sum as prize-money, he had sailed, to see his friends in Ireland. Bowen immediately wrote to Londonderry; but, not having a letter in return, he came to the metropolis in the most distressed circumstances; when, going to a house where he had formerly lodged, he was informed that Neale had been to inquire for him; and on the following day Neale came to see him, in company with a man named. Vincent. After drinking together, Neale said to Bowen, "Come and take a ride with me." Bowen said he had no money, but the other told him that would soon be procured. On this Neale went out to borrow him a pair of boots; while Bowen went with Vincent to his lodgings, where the latter gave him a hanger and a pair of pistols, which Bowen concealed under a great coat; and then all the parties met at an alehouse in Southwark, whence they went to an inn, and hired horses, on the pretence of going to Gravesend; instead of which they went towards Kingston, where Vincent had a relation who belonged to the Oxford Blues. In their way they purchased a whip for Bowen, and loaded their pistols. On their arrival at Kingston they went to a public-house, and, sending for Vincent's kinsman, they all dined together, and drank themselves into a state of perfect intoxication. Having paid their reckoning, they mounted their horses, determined on the commission of robbery; and, meeting a gentleman named Ryley, Bowen pulled him from his horse, and in the same instant quitted his own. Mr. Ryley ran off; but Bowen following him, threw him down, and, kneeling on his breast, the other entreated that he would not hurt him. Bowen threatened his instant destruction if he did not quietly submit; and, having robbed him of his watch and money, bade him run after his horse, which had quitted the place on Neale's whipping him; and, in the interim, Vincent watched, lest any person should come up to interrupt him. The highwaymen now rode towards London, and when they, came near Wandsworth determined to go to Fulham, and thence to town by the way of Hyde-park Corner. Having divided the booty (except a thirty-six shilling piece, which Bowen secreted) at the Greyhound inn, near Piccadilly, they supped and slept at that house. In the morning they told the landlord that they wanted to go towards Highgate, but were not well acquainted with the road. As they had been good customers, the landlord begged to treat them with half a pint of rum; and then went a little way with them to show them the nearest road. Having arrived at Highgate, they drank at that place, and then determined to proceed to Barnet, at which place they put up their horses, and called for rum and water, of which they swallowed such quantities that Vincent and Bowen fell fast asleep. In the mean time Neale endeavoured to secrete a silver pint mug; but, being detected in the attempt, he was taken before a magistrate, and loaded pistols being found on him, orders were given that his companions should likewise be taken into custody, and all of them were lodged in the county gaol. At the, next assizes an order was made for their discharge (as nothing appeared against them), on their giving security for their good behaviour. For this purpose they wrote to London to procure bail; but Mr. Ryley, hearing that three men of doubtful character were in the gaol of Hertford, went thither, and immediately knew that they were the parties by whom he had been robbed. Hereupon a detainer was lodged against them, and, they were removed for trial at the Surrey assizes, previous to the holding of which Vincent was admitted an evidence fore the crown. His testimony corroborating that of Mr. Ryley, Neale and Bowen were found guilty, and sentenced to die. Being lodged in the New Gaol, Southwark, Bowen was taken ill, and continued so till the time of his execution, He behaved with some degree of resignation to his fate; but was violent in his exclamations against Vincent, on account of his turning evidence. Neale evinced no concern on account of his unhappy situation; but behaved in a manner more hardened than language can express. At the place of execution he paid no regard to the devotions, but laughed at the populace while he played with the rope which was to put a period to his life, After the cap was drawn over his face, he put it up again, and addressed the people in the following shocking terms: -- " Ishall very soon see my Lord Balmerino. He was a very good friend of mine; so that is what I had to say, and d--n you all together." He then drew the cap over his eyes, and was launched into eternity. Henceforth let honour's path be trod, Nor villains seek in vain To mock the sacred laws of God, And give their neighbours pain."" "Benjamin Baker Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: burglary Date Of Execution: 8 Apr 1793 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link Walter Welch and Benjamin Baker found guilty on an indictment for a burglary in the dwelling house of George Wagstaffe in the parish of Battersea on 13th December 1792: stealing therefrom a woollen cloth coat (value at 30/-), a man's hat (valued at 6/-), 4 linen shirts (valued at 12/-), 3 pairs of worsted stockings (valued at 3/-), a watch with silver cases (valued at 2), a silver tablespoon (valued at 3/-), 5 silver salt cellars (valued at 16/-), a silver pepper box (valued at 10/-), 4 silver salt spoons (valued at 4/-), 4 silver teaspoons (valued at 6/-), pair of silver tea tongs (valued at 6/-), and a pair of silver studs (valued at 1/-) — the goods and chattels of George Wagstaffe; and a watch with gold cases (valued at 10), a stone seal set in silver (value at 10/-), a steel chain (valued at 2/-), a silver milk pot (valued at 10/-), 2 silver teaspoons (valued at 3/-), a silver toothpick case (valued at 5/-), a paste stay set in silver (valued at 5/-), 2 gold mourning rings (valued at 1), 2 satin cloaks trimmed with lace (value at 4), a silk cloak trimmed with lace (valued at 30/-), 2 cotton gowns (valued at 1), 8 muslin aprons (valued at 24/-), 9 muslin neck handkerchiefs (valued at 18/-), 8 pairs of cotton stockings (valued at 8/-), 3 linen handkerchiefs (valued at 3/-), 3 silk handkerchiefs (valued at 6/-) and 12 gold guineas — the goods, chattels and money of Ann Rimers, widow.. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7292&termRef=Benjamin%20Baker" "Walter Welch Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: burglary Date Of Execution: 8 Apr 1793 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link
Walter Welch and Benjamin Baker found guilty on an indictment for a burglary in the dwelling house of George Wagstaffe in the parish of Battersea on 13th December 1792: stealing therefrom a woollen cloth coat (value at 30/-), a man's hat (valued at 6/-), 4 linen shirts (valued at 12/-), 3 pairs of worsted stockings (valued at 3/-), a watch with silver cases (valued at 2), a silver tablespoon (valued at 3/-), 5 silver salt cellars (valued at 16/-), a silver pepper box (valued at 10/-), 4 silver salt spoons (valued at 4/-), 4 silver teaspoons (valued at 6/-), pair of silver tea tongs (valued at 6/-), and a pair of silver studs (valued at 1/-) — the goods and chattels of George Wagstaffe; and a watch with gold cases (valued at 10), a stone seal set in silver (value at 10/-), a steel chain (valued at 2/-), a silver milk pot (valued at 10/-), 2 silver teaspoons (valued at 3/-), a silver toothpick case (valued at 5/-), a paste stay set in silver (valued at 5/-), 2 gold mourning rings (valued at 1), 2 satin cloaks trimmed with lace (value at 4), a silk cloak trimmed with lace (valued at 30/-), 2 cotton gowns (valued at 1), 8 muslin aprons (valued at 24/-), 9 muslin neck handkerchiefs (valued at 18/-), 8 pairs of cotton stockings (valued at 8/-), 3 linen handkerchiefs (valued at 3/-), 3 silk handkerchiefs (valued at 6/-) and 12 gold guineas — the goods, chattels and money of Ann Rimers, widow..
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7291&termRef=Walter%20Welch"
"William Thompson
Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: highway robbery
Date Of Execution: 29 Aug 1787
Crime Location:
Execution Place: Surrey
Method: hanging
Executioner: unknown
Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link.
William Thompson, aged 27, found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of John Leigh in the parish of Battersea on 9th July 1787: robbing him of a linen shirt (valued at 5/-), a muslin waistcoat (valued at 5/-), a pair of silk stockings (valued at 5/-), a man's hat (valued at 10/-), 3 muslin neckcloths (value at 7/6), a night gown trimmed with cambric (value at 5/-), a muslin cap trimmed with lace (valued at 5./), a hair fillet (valued at 6d), a silk ribbon (valued at 6d), a cambric handkerchief (valued at 5/-), a lawn handkerchief (valued at 2/-), 3 printed linen handkerchiefs (valued at 3/-), pair of stained leather slippers (valued at 5/-) and 1.9/- in money numbered. He was also found guilty on the previous indictment with Richard Thomas.
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7267&termRef=William%20Thompson"
"George Humphries
Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: highway robbery
Date Of Execution: 1 Apr 1776
Crime Location:
Execution Place: Surrey
Method: hanging
Executioner: unknown
Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link.
John Harris and George Humphries, both of Westminster, found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Samuel Gordon I the parish of Battersea on 21st June 1775: robbing him of a gold watch (valued at 10), a watch chain, seal and key (valued at 2/1) and 3 silver shillings.
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7172&termRef=George%20Humphries"
"John Harris
Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: highway robbery
Date Of Execution: 1 Apr 1776
Crime Location:
Execution Place: Surrey
Method: hanging
Executioner: unknown
Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link.
John Harris and George Humphries, both of Westminster, found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Samuel Gordon I the parish of Battersea on 21st June 1775: robbing him of a gold watch (valued at 10), a watch chain, seal and key (valued at 2/1) and 3 silver shillings.
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7171&termRef=John%20Harris"
"Silvester Dodd
Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: highway robbery
Date Of Execution: 4 Sep 1775
Crime Location:
Execution Place: Surrey
Method: hanging
Executioner: unknown
Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link.
Silvester Dodd found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Mary Jones in the parish of Battersea on 15th July 1775: robbing her of a handkerchief (valued at 2/-) and 9/- in money numbered.
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7169&termRef=Silvester%20Dodd"
"Henry Bryant
Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: highway robbery
Date Of Execution: 6 Sep 1751
Crime Location:
Execution Place: Surrey
Method: hanging
Executioner: unknown
Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link.
Henry Bryant found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of William Bates in the parish of Battersea on 16th June 1751: robbing him of a watch (valued at 5), a hat (valued at 5/-) and 4d in money numbered."
"Silas Barlow
Age: unknown
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 19 Dec 1876
Crime Location:
Execution Place: Horsemonger-lane
Method: hanging
Executioner: William Marwood
Source: [http]://web.archive.org/web/20070624062456/[http]://www.fred.net/jefalvey/execute.h
Murder of ELLEN SOPER, paramour;
Barlow was found guilty of the double murder of his former sweet- heart Ellen Soper who was twenty seven, and their young child, at Battersea on 11th September. They had lived together until she had left him and moved to lodgings. He visited her twice at her new address and each time she felt sick after he left. Eventually she died, and the next day he took custody of the child saying that his cousin would look after it, but it was later found floating in a Battersea reservoir. The body was identified and, when examined, found to have been poisoned with strychnine. Barlow was arrested and charged with murder after a search of his home produced bottles of the poison. The contents of Miss Soper's stomach were then analysed and also found to contain poison. Barlow denied killing the woman but later admitted that he had killed the child. The sentence of death was carried out by William Marwood in Horsemonger Lane on the 19th December 1876.
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=1180&termRef=Silas%20Barlow"
"George William Hibbs
Age: 40
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 13 Aug 1902
Crime Location: 3 Barmore Street, York Road, Battersea, London
Execution Place: Wandsworth
Method: hanging
Executioner: William Billington
Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/" target="_blank">Link.
George William Hibbs was convicted of the murder of Miriam Jane Tye 57 and sentenced to death.
He was one of her lodgers and stabbed her in the stomach on 28 June 1902 at her house on Barmore Street, Battersea, London. She was taken to hospital where she later died on 30 June.
He had stabbed at her on an earlier occasion, 1 June 1902, but had only cut her clothes and she had forgiven him. George Hibbs had lodged with Miriam Tye for between two and three years and was described as a man of morose disposition.
On 28 June 1902 he had asked her for a clean shirt but she had refused saying that he would only pawn it to buy drink. Later she was heard to scream, and was found on the floor stabbed in the stomach. When she was attended to she was still alive and said that it had been George Hibbs that had stabbed her.
However, he denied it and at his trial he said that he had no recollection of what happened.
Miriam Tye was twice married, first to a labourer who died in 1885 and next to a shoemaker who and been an army pensioner and ho had died in 1900 since which time she had obtained her livelihood by charing and washing and taking in single men lodgers. She was said to have born an excellent character for industry, honesty and integrity and was spoken of as a motherly woman in her conduct towards her lodgers.
George Hibbs was the son of a butler who died in 1887. His mother died in 1901. They were described as being both highly respectable and to have had many friends.
George Hibbs had been taught shoemaking in his youth and for some time had followed that calling, but had become addicted to drink and a source of trouble for his widowed mother. He had worked at a bakery and as a labourer but was said to have frequently fallen into disgrace through drink and had been for a time an inmate of a Salvation Army Shelter.
On 24 February 1998 he had obtained employment as a labourer at a Sugar Factory and except for three months had followed that work since, but was noted for having frequently given way to drink and at such times displayed a nasty temper.
He was also described as being an artisan.
It was determined that Miriam Tye and George Hibbs's mother had been old friends and it was thought that George Hibbs, who had lodged with Miriam Tye for 2 years had no doubt formed some affection for her. It was additionally noted that Miriam Tye had informed a friend of her intention of marrying again during the present year.
It was also heard that George Hibbs's mother had told friends that when George Hibbs had been a child that he had had several falls and injured his head and that as a result his drinking of even small quantities of intoxicants frequently caused him to act in a very special and jealous manner.
It was heard that George Hibbs's firm had been shut up for the Coronation and that George Hibbs had therefore not been at work from the 25 until 28 April 1902, the day of the murder, and that he appeared to have been drinking more or less during all of that time which had made him quarrelsome.
On the morning of 28 June 1902 at 11am George Hibbs had asked Miriam Tye for his shirt, but she had refused to give it to him because she knew that he would pawn it for drink, which annoyed him and so he went out.
However, he came back soon after 1pm and went upstairs and according to Miriam Tye, rushed into the room where she was sitting with only her chemise on, and said, 'Now its me and you for it. Imean to do for you and then myself after'. Miriam Tye said that George Hibbs then tried to cut his throat and that when she tried to prevent him he then put his hand over her mouth and stabbed her in the left side of her abdomen.
The knife that George Hibbs had used to stab Miriam Tye had belonged to Miriam Tye's late husband and had been kept downstairs in a drawer for the use of the lodgers for mending their boots, and so it was thought that he must have taken it up with him.
In Miriam Tye's statement to her daughter at the hospital, she said that when George Hibbs burst into her room that he had asked her for 2/- and had said to her, 'If I don't have the 2/- Iwill take good care no one else shall have the 2/-'.
It was said that after George Hibbs left Miriam Tye's room after stabbing her that he had said, ''And now I'll be b----y well hung for it'. He then went downstairs into the room and lay on a sofa and either fell asleep or pretended to fall asleep until the police came, who described him as having been drinking but sober.
Another lodger said that when she saw George Hibbs at 11am that he thought that he had had a drop of drink.
The earlier event of 1 June 1902 when George Hibbs had previously attempted to stab Miriam Tye had involved George Hibbs's either cutting or ripping her bodice with a knife which it was heard Miriam Tye had told another lodger, would have stabbed her if it had not been for her stays. However, it was said that Miriam Tye had cautioned him not to do it again and had forgiven him and George Hibbs had said that he was sorry.
It was said that on 27 June 1902 that another lodger had asked Miriam Tye to have a glass with him which it was said that he usually did when he paid the rent and that when George Hibbs came in and he asked him to join them that George Hibbs had replied, 'No, I don't want your bloody drink, I'll go and drown myself'.
It was said that George Hibbs and the lodger that had asked him to share a drink and always seemed annoyed and jealous of the other lodgers because they were friendly with Miriam Tye, it being noted that they were only friendly with her because she was attentive to them.
When the judge commented on the case in his report he said that the case was very near the line of manslaughter which was also the line of the defence, who said that George Hibbs's mind, owing to drink was in such a condition that he had no definite intent to kill Miriam Tye.
It was noted that when he was arrested he had said, ' I hope it will be a lesson for men who get mad drunk. I must have done it in a fit of jealousy'.
The jury were absent for about an hour before returning their guilty verdict and strongly recommended George Hibbs to mercy.
In the police report to the Secretary of State, it was noted that in view of the Judge's opinion, who had had the opportunity of seeing and hearing the witnesses on both sides, the crime could be considered as the reckless act of a morose, bad-tempered man, who had been drinking for days and who was under the influence of drink at the time and who was disappointed at not getting the money he wanted to continue his drunken bout rather than a wound with the deliberate intention to kill, and that it could be said that the suggestions in the judges notes amounted to a concurrence with the recommendation of the jury to mercy. However, the police report additionally noted that on the other hand, the words that George Hibbs had used to Miriam Tye, as given in her statement to the police and also to her daughter at the hospital, as well as the fact that he had taken the knife up with him when he went to see Miriam Tye bore heavily against George Hibbs.
However, he was not reprieved and his execution took place at Wandsworth on the morning of Wednesday 13 August 1902, at which point it was said that he admitted stabbing Miriam Tye, saying that he loved her and had been jealous.
It was noted that a few people had gathered to see the hoisting of the black flag.
see National Archives — CRIM 1/75/3, HO 144/581/A63547
see Edinburgh Evening News — Wednesday 13 August 1902
see South London Press — Saturday 16 August 1902
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=85&termRef=George%20William%20Hibbs"
"Ada Chard-Williams
Age: 24
Sex: female
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 6 Mar 1900
Crime Location: Grove Road, Barnes, London
Execution Place: Newgate
Method: hanging
Executioner: James Billington
Source: [http]://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t19000212-185&div=t19000212-185&ter
Ada Williams murdered Selina Ellen aged 21 months who she battered and strangled at Grove Road, Barnes, London and then threw into the River Thames around 23 September, 1899.
A woman had read an advert in a paper offering homes for unwanted children. She took her 21 month old daughter Selina Ellen to the home where she paid 3, the full cost being 5. When she went back later with the remaining 2 she found that neither Ada Williams nor Selina Ellen were there. The woman went to the police but they could not do anything because there was no body.
However, later, the body of Selina Ellen was washed up on the banks of the River Thames at Battersea and Ada Williams was arrested.
It was considered that Ada Williams had murdered many other children. The court heard that she would tie up the bundles containing the dead babies using a specific knot, the Fisherman's knot.
see Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 22 February 2014), February 1900, trial of WILLIAM CHARD WILLIAMS(47) ADA CHARD WILLIAMS(24) (t19000212-185).
see Wikipedia
see Execution Of The Day
see Western Times — Tuesday 20 February 1900
see National Archives — CRIM 1/59/4, HO 144/280/A61654
[BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=51&termRef=Ada%20Chard-Williams"
""Hafer Road, Battersea Rise"? {Yes, goes north from Battersea Rise to Limburg Rd, between St John's Road and Lavender Sweep
George Joseph Smith
Age: 43
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Execution: 13 Aug 1915
Crime Location: Herne Bay, Blackpool and Highgate
Execution Place: Maidstone Prison
Method: hanging
Executioner: John Ellis
Source: [http]://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_Kingdom
George Joseph Smith was convicted of the murder of three women, Beatrice Constance Annie Mundy 31, Alice Burnham 25 and Margaret Elizabeth Lofty 38, and sentenced to death.
He drowned them all in baths and the case became known as 'The Brides in the Bath Murders'.
He was caught after the landlady of his second victim in Blackpool became suspicious and informed the police when she read of the death of his third victim in very similar circumstances in Highgate.
The police were unaware of the pattern at the time and had no reason to suspect either foul play or of George Smith having committed murder. However, after they carried out certain investigations they developed evidence of a clear pattern and arrested George Smith, at first on fraud after he made a false entry in a marriage register. However, he was later charged with the three murders and tried at the Old Bailey where he was convicted. However, the trial was noteworthy for the use of the method of 'system' in which George Smith was not tried for all three murders, but rather the jury were asked whether they agreed that there had been a pattern in the deaths, that being that all women were drowned in baths and that upon agreeing that, if they felt that George Smith was responsible for one murder, that of Beatrice Mundy, and that there was a pattern that he was therefore guilty of all three murders.
The process of 'system' was generally used for other types of criminal prosecution and there were few examples of it being applied in cases of murder. As such, the jury were never asked to decide whether George Smith had actually been in the bathroom when he killed Beatrice Mundy, just that there was a 'system' or pattern, and that George Smith was responsible, which was proven through all the other evidence, such as the fact that he married all the women and benefitted financially from their deaths.
Beatrice Constance Annie Mundy
Beatrice Mundy was found dead in her bath on 13 July 1912 at 80 High Street, Herne Bay, Kent. She was 35 years old.
George Smith met Beatrice Mundy in September 1910 in Clifton, Bristol and had married her on 26 August 1910 in Weymouth and soon after extracted 138 of her savings and absconded, leaving her penniless. It was not until March 1912 when he met her again by chance and they moved to 80 High Street, Herne Bay. They lived in Herne Bay for three months during which time George Smith transferred her full financial assets over to himself and then murdered her in the bath on 13 July 1912, after which he went back to his wife in Bath.
Alice Burnham
Alice Burnham was found dead in her bath on 12 December 1913 at a boarding house in Regent Road, Blackpool. She was 25 years old.
George Smith met Alice Burnham in Southsea in early October 1913 and on 15 October 1913 they were engaged and by 20 October 1913 he had transferred her money to himself. He later arranged for her will to be made out in his favour and took out a life insurance policy. On 10 December 1913 they went to Blackpool where George Smith drowned her in the bath on 12 December 1913.
It was noted that the landlady at the guest house they stayed at was highly suspicious of George Smith and the death of his wife and when George Smith left, leaving his card, she wrote on the back of it, 'Wife died in bath. We shall see him again' and when she later read of Margaret Lofty's death in Highgate she wrote to the police of her suspicions, sending them newspaper cuttings of the coroners hearing reports and it was that that drew the attention of the police to George Smith and resulted in him being arrested and convicted.
Margaret Elizabeth Lofty
Margaret Elizabeth Lofty was found dead in her bath on 18 December 1914 at 14 Bismark Road, Highgate, London. She was 38 years old.
George Smith met Margaret Lofty in early December 1914 but she was self-conscious about anyone knowing about their relationship as George Smith was not well educated. She then ran off with him to get married, telling her family that she was going away to work. George Smith arranged for her to make her will out in his favour and take out life insurance before they married on 17 December 1914 in Bath after which they went to London and took a room in Highgate and the next day George Smith drowned her in a bath.
Chronology
11 January 1872: George Joseph Smith was born in Roman Road, Bow, London.
7 February 1891: George Smith was sentenced in Lambeth for larceny and sentenced to six months' hard labour.
1891-1893: George Smith was said to have served in the Northamptonshire Regiment.
24 July 1896: George Smith was sentenced to twelve months' hard labour for larceny and receiving.
1897: George Smith went to Leicester towards the end of the year and opened a baker's shop at 28 Russell Square.
17 January 1898: George Smith (under the name George Oliver Love) married his First Wife in Leicester.
1899: George Smith meets Miss ---- whilst away from his First Wife.
1899: George Smith married Second Wife, Miss ----, at St, George's, Hanover Square Registry, London.
11 November 1900: George Smith was arrested in London.
9 January 1901: George Smith was sentenced to two years' hard labour for stealing and receiving at Hastings.
10 October 1902: George Smith released from prison.
1903: George Smith's First Wife flees to Canada.
June 1908: George Smith met Mrs FW in Brighton and follows her to Worthing where she worked.
3 July 1908: George Smith takes Mrs FW's money under a promise of marriage and flees to Bristol and sets up a small second-hand furniture shop at 389 Gloucester Road..
30 July 1908: George Smith marries Third Wife in Bristol.
June 1909: George Smith met Miss SAF in Southampton.
29 October 1909: George Smith married Miss SAF in Southampton, Fourth Wife.
2-5 November 1909: George Smith takes possession of all of Miss SAF's money.
Later November 1909: George Smith buys 22 Glenmore Street in Southend and lives there for a time with his Third Wife. The property cost 270 on which he paid 240 using Miss SAF's money.
August 1910: George Smith meets Beatrice Mundy in Clifton
22 August 1910: George Smith and Beatrice Mundy take two rooms in 14 Rodwell Avenue, Weymouth.
26 August 1910: George Smith and Beatrice Mundy marry in Portsmouth
2 September 1910: George Smith and his Third Wife are living in Ashley Down Road, Bristol but owe 93 in mortgage arrears.
13 September 1910: George Smith has possession of Beatrice Mundy's 138 and absconds, leaving her penniless.
21 September 1910: George Smith pays off the 93 mortgage arrears.
October 1910: George Smith and his Third Wife move to Southend where they open an antique shop.
February 1911: George Smith and his Third Wife move to Barking Road.
Late 1911: George Smith and his Third Wife move to Walthamstow.
Early 1912: George Smith and his Third Wife move to Bath Road, Brislington in Bristol.
Early 1912: After about seven weeks in Bristol George Smith leaves his Third Wife and goes off travelling.
14 March 1912: George Smith by chance meets Beatrice Mundy in Weston-Super-Mare and they get back together.
20 May 1912: Takes 80 High Street, Herne Bay, on a yearly tenancy.
June 1912: George Smith's Third Wife sells the business in Bristol and does not see George Smith again until the trial.
8 July 1912: George Smith and Beatrice Mundy draw up mutual wills.
9 July 1912: The bath is ordered from the ironmonger.
10 July 1912: George Smith takes Beatrice Mundy to the doctor.
12 July 1912: Beatrice Mundy writes that she has made her will.
13 July 1912: Beatrice Mundy is found drowned in the bath.
15 July 1912: A verdict of death from misadventure is returned. George Smith returned the bath to the shop where he bought it, essentially paying nothing for it or its use.
11 September 1912: George Smith gets probate, and by the end of the year has received all Beatrice Mundy's estate.
October 1913: George Smith leaves his Third Wife to go travelling again and in early October meets Alice Burnham.
15 October 1913: Alice Burnham announces her engagement to George Smith.
20 October 1913: George Smith withdraws all of Alice Burnham's money.
4 November 1913: George Smith insures Alice Burnham's life for 500.
4 November 1913: George Smith marries Alice Burnham, Fifth Wife.
29 November 1913: Alice Burnham's father sends 104 1s 1d through his solicitor.
4 December 1913: Endowment Policy on Alice Burnham's life was taken out.
8 December 1913: Alice Burnham made out her will.
10 December 1913: George Smith and Alice Burnham go to Blackpool where they take rooms at 16 Regent's Road.
12 December 1913: George Smith writes a postcard to Alice Burnham's mother
12 December 1913: Alice Burnham is found drowned in her bath at Blackpool.
13 December 1913: A verdict of accidental death from drowning is returned on Alice Burnham.
15 December 1913: Alice Burnham is buried and George Smith goes back to Bristol.
19 January 1914: George Smith receives the insurance money from Alice Burnham's death.
22 January 1914: George Smith increases his annuity by 500.
14 August 1913: George Smith goes to Bournemouth.
7 or 8 September 1914: George Smith meets Miss AR in her garden.
17 September 1914: George Smith marries Miss AR, Sixth Wife.
21 September 1914: George Smith leaves Miss AR.
December 1914: George Smith meets Margaret Lofty but she doesn't tell anyone about their relationship.
17 December 1914: Marries Margaret Lofty in Bath, Seventh Wife, after which they went to London.
18 December 1914: Margaret Lofty is found dead in her bath at Highgate.
22 December 1914: The inquest is opened.
1 January 1915: Verdict of death from misadventure is returned on Margaret Lofty.
4 January 1915: George Smith goes to solicitors in Uxbridge Road to obtain probate.
January 1915: Landlady from Blackpool communicates with the police her suspicions on Margaret Lofty's death and of George Smith and the police open an investigation.
1 February 1915: George Smith is arrested as he leaves solicitors office at 60 Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush.
23 March 1915: George Smith is charged with the wilful murder of Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham and Margaret Lofty.
23 May 1915: Committed for trial.
22 June 1915: First day of trial.
1 July 1915: George Smith is convicted and sentenced to death.
29 July 1915: George Smith's appeal is dismissed.
13 August 1915: George Smith executed at Maidstone Prison.
note — some dates, mainly months, are approximations.
At the time of his arrest George Smith was described as being age 43, 5ft 8in tall, medium build, fresh complexion, hair dark brown and with a sandy drooping moustache.
Bath Dimensions and Women's Height
Herne Bay: 5 feet long, 3 feet 8 inches along the flat bottom, 2 feet wide at the top and 1 foot 6 inches wide at the bottom at the sloping end and 1 foot 7 inches wide and 1 foot 1 12 inches wide at the other end. Internal depth of 1 foot 4 inches at the sloping end, and 1 foot 5 inches at the other end. Beatrice Mundy was 5 feet 9 inches tall.
Blackpool: 5 feet 3 inches long inside, flat bottom 3 feet 9 inches long, width at the sloping end 2 feet 3 inches at the top and 1 foot 2 inches at the bottom and the width at the tap end being 1 foot 3 inches wide at the top, and 1 foot at the bottom. The depth of the bath in the centre was 18 inches and the bath had been full to 1 12 inches of the top even after Alice Burnham's head had been raised out of the water. Alice Burnham was 5 feet 0 12 inches tall.
Highgate: 5 feet 6 inches long at the top, 4 feet 2 inches along the flat bottom, 2 feet 1 12 inches at the top of the sloping end and 1 foot 6 inches at the bottom, 1 foot 6 inches wide at the top of the tap end 1 foot 6 inches and 1 foot 1 12 inches wide at the bottom. Margaret Lofty was 5 feet 3 inches tall.
Money
The various sums that George Smith received from each of the women that he took money from are detailed below:
Mrs FW: 20 in gold, two 5 notes, and her belongings worth 80-90.
Miss SAF: 340 in total, 50 in cash, 260 in the bank and 30 in Government Stock.
Beatrice Mundy: 2403 15s.
Alice Burnham: 27 19s 5d in her Savings Bank, 100 plus interest due from her father, 10 due from her sister.
Miss AR: 70, Furniture worth 14.
Margaret Lofty: 19 in the Savings Bank, George Smith took out life insurance on her worth 700.
Property
George Smith bought a fair amount of property with the money that he stole from the women that he became involved with. Known property transactions are:
30 Elton Road, Bishopston, Bristol, bought 31 October 1912 for 420.
49 Cranbrook Road, Redlands, Bristol, bought 26 November 1912 for 400.
86 Ashley Down Road, Bristol, bought 5 December 1912 for 215, sold for 1365.
31 Wolseley Road, Bristol, bought 6 February 1913 for 187 10s.
34 Beech Road, Bristol, bought 8 February 1913 for 180, sold for 90.
10 Zetland Road, Bristol, bought 13 January 1913 for 575.
81 Brinland Avenue, Bristol, bought 14 February 1913 for 210.
George Joseph Smith
George Joseph Smith was born in 1872 at 92 Roman Road in Bethnal Green and was said to have displayed early criminal tendencies, having been sent to a reformatory at the age of 9, staying there until he was 16. After returning to live with his mother he was convicted in about 1890 for a small theft and was sentenced to seven days.
On 7 February 1891 he was convicted of stealing a bicycle and sentenced to 6 months hard labour at Lambeth Police Court.
He was later convicted on three counts of larceny at the North London Sessions for larceny and receiving under the name of George Baker and sentenced to 12 months hard labour. It was also stated that it was known by the police that at about that time be was the associate of a woman whose identity was unknown, who he would place in various situations and had steal things for him.
After being released from court he opened a baker's shop at 28 Russel Square in Leicester where he met an 18-year-old girl who he later married under the name of Mr and Mrs Love. They moved about together and George Smith arranged for her to take on various situations, not working himself.
Whilst living together, at some point in 1899, George Smith met Miss ---- and shortly after married her without his First Wife finding out.
However his wife was later arrested by the police and although George Smith managed to flee to London he was arrested there on 11 November 1900 and taken to Hastings were he was convicted for receiving stolen goods on 9 January 1901 and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. He was released from prison on 10 October 1902 and went in search of his First Wife but she avoided him and her brothers drove him away. However, his First Wife felt that she was in danger from George Smith and she went to live in Canada, only returning a couple of times over the next four years for short visits.
In June 1908 George Smith went to Brighton where he met Mrs FW who he followed to Worthing where she worked. He then proposed to her after which he asked her how much money she had, her revealing that she was worth 33 13s. He told her that he was an antiques dealer. Three weeks later George Smith arranged for Mrs FW to withdraw her money and on 3 July 1908 they went to Camden Town Post Office where Mrs FW withdrew 20 in gold and two 5 notes. Immediately after getting the money George Smith made an excuse to leave saying that he needed to go to White City but instead he went to their apartment and took his belongings as well as hers, valued between 70 and 80 and went back to Bristol.
When he arrived in Bristol he used Mrs FW's money to set up a second-hand furniture shop at 389 Gloucester Road and soon after met his Third Wife who he married on 30 July 1908.
Whilst George Smith and his Third Wife were in Southampton around June 1909 George Smith met Miss SAF who he told he was a dealer in antiques. It was said that they became close but did not see each other again until October 1909 when they renewed their relationship and after discussing money they married on 29 October 1909. After determining the status of her finances he arranged for it to be transferred to him and by 2 or 3 November 1909 George Smith had secured all of her money, including the 50 that she had had in cash at the time and 260 in the bank and on 5 November 1909 the 30 in Government stock was cashed and handed over to him.
After securing her money George Smith took Miss SAF to the National Gallery where he then took an opportunity to leave her and went back to their apartment where he packed up every item that she owned and fled. When Miss SAF returned to the apartment she found only three empty boxes and George Smith's bicycle.
George Smith then went to Southend where he wrote to his Third Wife asking her to join him. On 16 November 1909 George Smith invested 240 of Miss SAF's money and bought the house at 22 Glenmore Street in Southend for 270, 40 being left on the mortgage.
The Case — Beatrice Mundy
George Smith and his Third Wife later moved to Ashley Down Road in Bristol, borrowing money off of the Southend property until 2 September 1910 when there was 93 owing at which time George Smith started to look for another source of money. and it was then that he met Beatrice Mundy in Clifton.
Beatrice Mundy was the daughter of a deceased bank manager and possessed a fortune of 2,500.
Beatrice Mundy's brother who was a Commercial Traveller and lived at Longleat, 18 Chatsworth Road in Bournemouth said that their father had died on 11 December 1904 and that he and Beatrice Mundy were the sole family survivors and under his will benefitted practically equally although noted that his portion was rather less than hers. He said that because Beatrice Mundy was not considered to be a good business woman and knew little of matters relating to investments that he and two of his uncles were appointed trustees and a Deed of Settlement was entered into, noting that the affair was managed almost entirely by one of the uncles. He said that he knew that Beatrice Mundy's investments brought in an income of approximately 8 a month and that it was that money that she lived off.
The list of securities included in Beatrice Mundy's Trust Dead at the time were:
18 share in the Wilts & Dorset Banking Co.
300 stock Natal 3 12%.
200 stock New South Wales 3 12%.
3 shares common stock Canadian Pacific Rly.
300 Cape of Good Hope 4% stock.
300 New Zealand 4% stock.
300 Queensland 3 12% stock.
300 Mort. Deb. Rajaweilla Produce Co. formerly Cooper Cooper and Johnstone.
56.18.3 on deposit Wilts & Dorset Bank.
Beatrice Mundy's brother said that after their father died that Beatrice Mundy had no settled place of abode but sometimes stayed with friends and sometimes with relatives but that he knew that in 1910 that she had been staying in Bristol but did know a particular address.
George Smith and Beatrice Mundy became engaged soon after meeting and on 22 August 1910 they went to Weymouth where they took two rooms at 14 Rodwell Avenue and four days later on 26 August 1910 they married. When they married George Smith gave the name Henry Williams, picture restorer.
However, George Smith did not murder Beatrice Mundy for another two years. Instead, in the first instance, he stole her money and made off as he did with Mrs FW and Miss SAF.
George Smith soon determined that Beatrice Mundy was receiving the 8 a month income and that she had a further 138 that had been retained by her trustees for emergencies. It was noted that on their wedding day that George Smith had even instructed his solicitor to write to Beatrice Mundy's family solicitor for a copy of Beatrice Mundy's father's will and when he received it he saw that the bulk of the estate was beyond his grasp but that he could at least get the 138 and it was heard that by 13 September 1915 that he had possession of all of it except 3 which was used to pay for the professional fees.
After that, George Smith fled back to Bristol to his Third Wife, leaving Beatrice Mundy penniless.
Beatrice Mundy's brother said that on 26 or 27 August 1910 he was told by his uncle that Beatrice Mundy had married which was the first that he had heard of the matter, noting that he had never heard that she had been acquainted with anyone or had contemplated marriage. He said that he also later received a letter from Beatrice Mundy to the same effect, but noted that he had since destroyed it. He said that he heard nothing more about it until he was informed that Beatrice Mundy's husband had left her at which point he went to 14 Rodwell Avenue in Weymouth where he found her very much distressed and hysterical, saying that she had practically no clothing, was penniless and was in debt to the landlady.
Beatrice Mundy's brother said that Beatrice Mundy was in no fit state to travel at the time but that he later removed her to his address in Poole where she stayed for two or three months after which she left to live with some friends. He said that he didn't see her again.
After George Smith left Beatrice Mundy he wrote her a letter claiming that she had given him a disease. The letter read:
'Dearest, Ifear you have blasted all my bright hopes of a happy future. I have caught from you a disease which is called the bad disorder for you to be in such a state proves you could not have kept yourself morally clean. It reminds me of what you told me in ref. to the immorality of the man. Anyhow you have got the disease somehow. I don't wish to say you have had connections with another man and caught it from him, But it is either that or through not keeping yourself clean. Now for the sake of my health and honour and yours too I must go to London and act entirely under the Doctors advice to get properly cured of this disease. It will cost me a great deal of money because it might take years before I am cured. The best thing for you to tell the landlady and everyone else that I have gone to France. But tell your uncle the truth that I have caught a certain disease from you and that I have told you that Ishall not return to you until entirely cured. But even your uncle may not ever know that we are parted, unless he happens to visit you so you must keep him away. But if other relatives visit you tell them I have gone to France on business But you uncle tell him the truth, also tell your uncle that you have promised me faithfully to remain with the landlady here until Ireturn. If he happens to ask you about the money, tell him that you kept all the money which was sent to you in a leather bag and 2 days after I had gone you happened to go to the beach and fall asleep and when you woke the bag of money was gone. If you do not carry out every word of my advice you will cause a lot of trouble and the whole affair will be in the Police Court and you will bring disgrace on yourself and relations now study this letter and whatever you do stick to everything you say never alter it or else you will get mixed up and make a fool of yourself. When you have read this letter take it in the street and tear it up.
After you have studied these letters whatever you do take them out in the street and tare them up and throw them away as I told you before tell everyone I am gone to France on business and remain here till my return. No one in in the world need know your disgrace if you do what I say and keep away from every one you know But if your Uncle happens to come here and demand why I have left take my advice and tell him the real truth, that I have caught a disease from you and promised to keep away till I am thoroughly cured, which may take weeks months or years, but he need not know anything in writing as long as he keeps away write to him a week before the 8th and mention nothing about it & ask him to send your money order for 8 instead of cheque but don't write before. It will take me a lot of money for cure. If you are asked by your uncle about the money say 2 days after Ileft you had it all in a hand bag and lost it on the beach while asleep. Now stick to every word of this and never alter it, or else serious trouble and disgrace will fall on all.
Ask you uncle about a week before the 8th to always send your cash in a money order so you can change it at the Post Office pay the L.Lady 25/- weekly for board and lodgings and take my advice and put 30/- out f the 8 into the Post Office Saving Bank, so it will come in handy for illness or other emergencies or for us when Ireturn. If you do not Ishall be angry when Ireturn. You can believe me that Ishall sure to return to you even if it is years to come pray do stop here in this town till Ireturn, and leave the Will and Settlement in the care of the L.Lady till Icome for them myself and tell the L.Lady that you have 8 every month interest on the Will, But whatever you do never leave any letters about so she could know the address of you relatives mark what I say, now tare this letter up at once and throw the pieces in the road'.
After going back to Bristol George Smith paid off the 93 mortgage on 21 September 1910.
George Smith and his Third Wife then moved about a bit, first going to Southend where they opened a small antique and general dealer's shop, staying for four months before then moving to Barking, Road, then Walthamstow and then back to Bristol in early 1912, in each place carrying on the same type of antiques business.
When they got to Bristol they opened a shop in Bath Road, Brislington. However, after seven weeks George Smith went off travelling leaving his Third Wife to run the shop in Bristol and whilst in Weston-Super-Mare he ran into Beatrice Mundy again, by chance and they rekindled their relationship.
Whilst George Smith was away he failed to maintain his Third Wife, sending her only 32 in five months and she eventually sold the shop, which wasn't doing very well, for 5 and didn't see George Smith again until about the end of July 1912 or beginning of August 1912 after he had murdered Beatrice Mundy.
Beatrice Mundy had gone to Weston-Super-Mare on 2 February 1912 to stay at a boarding house called Norwood and it was on 14 March 1912 when Beatrice Mundy had gone out to buy some flowers that she saw George Smith, by chance, staring out over the sea. After taking George Smith back to Norwood, Beatrice Mundy and George Smith went off together, never to return to Norwood and without collecting her things. It was heard that on the very day that George Smith and Beatrice Mundy met again that George Smith took Beatrice Mundy to a solicitors office in Waterloo Street in order to initiate communication with Beatrice Mundy's relations in order to extract more money. It was heard that George Smith explained his actions of August 1910, saying that he had borrowed the money and he gave Beatrice Mundy a promissory note for that sum with 4% interest. It was heard that the solicitor had advised Beatrice Mundy to send the promissory note to her uncle but she never did and it was assumed that George Smith had frustrated that effort.
The solicitors letter that explaining George Smith's actions of 1910 following his return read:
'Dear Sir, We have been consulted by Mr and Mrs Williams who we are pleased to state have now adjusted the differences which arose between them and are now living together as man and wife again.
They are both desirous that we should write to you in order to make you acquainted with these facts and also to give some explanation with a view to removing any apprehensions which may be in your mind in regard to a loan of 150 which was made some time ago by Mrs Williams to her husband.
The facts in regard to this transaction appear to be that some time prior to his marriage Mr Williams went abroad and to enable him to do so he borrowed money from certain of his friends and the 150 advanced by his wife was for the purpose (as indeed Mrs Williams understood at the time), of discharging these debts.
We have advised that Mr Williams should give his wife a Promissory Note for 150 such note to bear interest at 4% per annum, and this he is quite willing to do.
Both our clients think it is due to you as the Trustee of Mrs Williams to be informed of the circumstances in which Mr Williams left his wife.
The fact appears to be that Mr Williams was (though as it turns out wrongly) under the impression that he had contracted a contagious disease. In consequence he designed to be absent from his wife for a time and was naturally reluctant to tell her of his true reason for leaving. It is, however, only fair to him to state that he wrote a letter to Mrs Williams at Weymouth informing her of the circumstances and of his intention to return so that he has since been assiduous in his efforts to find her in order to provide her with a home.
Mrs Williams informs us that she is willing to forgive the past and that she has decided to live again with her husband.
As the contents of these letters are of a private character we must ask you to kindly treat them in confidence'.
Beatrice Mundy's brother said that he received a letter from George Smith on 18 March 1912 with a short note added by his sister, Beatrice Mundy, addressed from 35 Wilmount Street in Woolwich and after that they received a number of letters regarding financial matters that they delayed for as long as they could.
After meeting in Weston-Super-Mare George Smith and Beatrice Mundy moved about a bit and eventually went to Herne Bay on 20 May 1912 and took up residence at 80 High Street, signing a year's tenancy for 18 a year, payable monthly.
At the trial the clerk that arranged the rental said, 'On or about 20th May, a man giving the name Henry Williams came to me in regard to 80 High Street. Irecognise him in the photo. He was clean shaven. He asked what the rental was, and I told him 18 per annum on a yearly tenancy, but he said that would not suit him, as he got his money monthly. I said if it was only a question of the payments I had no doubt we could arrange it. I showed him our printed form of agreement, and he said he would like to take the house. I asked him how many people were to occupy the house, and he said, 'Only my wife and I. We have been married two years no family.' I asked him what reference he could give me, and he said none. I then asked if he could not give me his previous landlord, and he said, 'Never had one' that previous to his marriage he had been living abroad a good deal. I asked where he had been living for the two years he had been married, and he said, 'We have been going about to different places and living in furnished rooms. I have just come from Ashley.' I asked him for a solicitor's reference, but he could not give me one, and then I said, 'Have you a banking account?' On that he put his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out a book. Ilooked at the cover and said, 'Oh, that is a post office savings bank Book. I do not mean that sort.' Iheld out my hand to take it, but he put it back again as he said, 'You need not be afraid. There is between 50 and 60 there.' I said, 'If you are going to furnish the house it won't leave much to live on,' and he replied, 'Oh, but my wife has a private income paid monthly. I have not got anything except that. I dabble in antiques.' Speaking about his wife he said, ' Imight just as well tell you she is a notch above me. She is the daughter of a bank manager, and Imet her in a boarding-house. Her friends did not at all approve of the marriage.' The owner then came in. Ibriefly explained the circumstances, and we finally settled that he must have the house on a yearly tenancy, but he could pay the money monthly, the first month to be paid in advance, and the other months as they became due. The house was fit for giving possession at once. A few days later I went over the house with the prisoner to check the landlord's fixtures contained in the schedule, the agreement dated 20th May, between the o"
"Execution site
Kennington Common
If Tyburn met the needs of northern Londoners, the Surrey gallows at Kennington Common was the site of choice for executions south of the river until the late 1700s. Records indicate that since Sarah Elston was burned at the stake for killing her husband in 1678, more than 100 men and women were executed on gallows that stood on the site of St. Mark's Church.
A popular site for dispatching highway robbers, Kennington was also where 17 Jacobite rebels of the Manchester regiment, including their leader, one Colonel Frank Towneley, were hanged, drawn and quartered following the unsuccessful 1745 rising. During this period the common was also a popular venue for hosting cricket matches, as it remains to this day, located as it is, close to the Oval tube station."
"[http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link.
Surrey 1735 — 1799
902 death sentences led to 337 confirmed executions plus 14 probable ones.
Executions were carried out on Kennington Common unless stated otherwise.
Assize date Name Crime Execution date
1735 — 9 executions
Th. 20 March William Sweet Sacrilege Th. 10 April
" Philip Wilkinson Sacrilege Th. 10 April
Both above hanged at Kingston
" John Robinson Maiming & robbery F 11 April
" William Priestley Highway robbery F 11 April
" Matthew Sellars Highway robbery F 11 April
W 6 August Henry Sellon Highway robbery W 20 August
" Thomas Gray Highway robbery W 20 August
" Joseph Emmerson assault in dwelling house W 20 August
" John James assault in dwelling house W 20 August
1736 — 5 executions
W 24 March John Graham Highway robbery Th. 15 April
" Michael Hughes Highway robbery F 30 April
" I saac Bran street robbery Th. 15 April
W 11 August Elizabeth Gillian Privately stealing Th. 26 August
" William Carlo Privately stealing Th. 26 August
Both above hanged at Kingston
1737 — 4 executions
W 16 March Robert Purdy Murder of his wife, Susannah Th. 7 April
" Rowland Rowley & Highway robbery Th. 7 April
" George Goswell Highway robbery Th. 7 April
" John Cox Highway robbery Th. 7 April
1738 — 13 executions
Th. 16 March Gill Smith Murder of his wife, Elizabeth M 10 April
Hanged on Kennington Common
" Daniel Moylon, Highway robbery W 12 April
" Henry Kelly, Highway robbery W 12 April
" John Riley, Highway robbery W 12 April
" Timothy Cosgrave & Highway robbery W 12 April
" George Green Highway robbery W 12 April
" Walter Connolly Highway robbery W 12 April
" Oliver White Highway robbery W 12 April
" Ann Goodson P/T murder of her husband, Thomas W 12 April
The above executions were at Guildford.
Ann Goodson was burned at the stake
W 2 August Richard Kilburn Highway robbery S 26 August
" William Hoare Highway robbery S 26 August
" William Cooper Highway robbery S 26 August
" Stephen Suton Highway robbery S 26 August
Above 4 hanged at Kingston
1739 — 10 executions
W 21 March John Cooke Highway robbery W 4 April
" Alexander Mills & Highway robbery W 4 April
" John Salmon Highway robbery W 4 April
" John Blundall Housebreaking W 4 April
W 22 August Noah Gooby Highway robbery F 14 September
" Michael Lucas Housebreaking F 14 September
" John Hanna Highway robbery F 14 September
" Eleanor Spencer, Robbery in dwelling house F 14 September
" Johanna Rashford & Robbery in dwelling house F 14 September
" Peter Wellington Robbery in dwelling house F 14 September
1740 — 6 executions
W 26 March John Jenkins Burglary M 14 April
" Patrick Murphy Privately stealing M 14 April
" Thomas Middleton Highway robbery M 14 April
These three hanged at Kingston
W 30 July Mary Cooper Burglary Th. 21 August
" James Hooper Highway robbery F 22 August
" William Creake Highway robbery M 25 August
Creake hanged on Bagshot Heath, afterwards in chains
1741 — 2 executions
Th. 19 March James Lintot Highway robbery M 13 April
" Lawrence Lee Burglary M 13 April
1742 — 6 confirmed executions, plus two probable as no reprieves traced
W 24 March William Walters Highway robbery W 14 April
" James Gunnell Sheep theft W 14 April
" James Johnson Sheep theft W 14 April
" Thomas Williams & Stole in shop W 14 April
" Thomas Jones Stole in shop W 14 April
" Anne Elliott Burglary W 14 April
Above 6 hanged at Guildford
Th. 12 August William Rolfe Highway robbery & murder ??/August/Sept
" Thomas Smith Highway robbery ??/August/Sept
1743 — 6 executions
Th. 4 August James Day & Murder of Simon Petell Th. 25 August
" Ann Hazard Murder of Simon Petell Th. 25 August
" John Harris Horse theft Th. 25 August
" Richard Keeble At large Th. 25 August
" James Hunt Sodomy Th. 25 August
" Thomas Collins Sodomy Th. 25 August
1744 — 4 probable executions as no reprieves traced
M 26 March Joseph Millest Burglary Unknown
" Robert Denn Horse theft Unknown
" Lawrence Burgoyne Highway robbery Unknown
" Edward Southwell Burglary Unknown
1745 — 1746 — No executions
1747 — 3 confirmed executions, plus one possible as no reprieves traced
S 11 April Thomas Richards Highway robbery F 1 May
" William Gill Highway robbery F 1 May
" James Hemmings Highway robbery F 1 May
Above 3 hanged at Guildford
" Nathaniel Miller Highway robbery Unknown
1748 — 2 executions
W 17 August James Lloyd Highway robbery F 9 September
" Edward Griffis Burglary F 9 September
1749 — 10 executions
Th. 16 March Patrick Rena & Highway robbery W 12 April
" Thomas Dobbins Highway robbery W 12 April
" Richard Coleman Murder W 12 April
" Thomas Walker & Highway robbery W 12 April
" Arthur Gibbons Highway robbery W 12 April
Th. 3 August Thomas Neal & Highway robbery F 25 August
" William Bowen Highway robbery F 25 August
" Thomas Supple Highway robbery F 25 August
" Hugh Dawson & Highway robbery F 25 August
" John Gamell Highway robbery F 25 August
1750 — 5 confirmed executions, plus one possible as no reprieve traced (Neale)
Th. 29 March John Shelton Highway robbery Unknown
" Benjamin Neale Burglary Unknown
Th. 9 August James Cooper Murder of Robert Saxby Th. 30 August
" Jasper Vincent & Highway robbery Th. 30 August
" Charles Lewis Highway robbery Th. 30 August
" John Roney Highway robbery Th. 30 August
1751 — 7 executions
Th. 28 March Joseph Chambers Highway robbery W 24 April
" Robert Cheeseman Highway robbery W 24 April
" Peter Matthews Murder of Ann Carter W 24 April
Th. 15 August Henry Bryant Highway robbery F 6 September
" Mathias Keys Horse theft F 6 September
" James Welch Murder of Sarah Green F 6 September
" Thomas Jones Aiding above murder F 6 September
1752 — 6 executions
M 30 March Robert Derby Highway robbery (Mail) F 24 April
Hanged in chains
" Richard Patrick Housebreaking ??/April
" Thomas Gregory Horse theft ??/April
" John Hamilton Forgery ??/April
" John Saunders Burglary ??/April
" Alexander McKey H/T — coining ??/April
1753 — 6 executions
M 2 April William Hurley Murder of Joshua Newton S 7 April
Hanged at St. George's Fields or Croydon
" John Sturmey Highway robbery Th. 19 April
" John Grove Highway robbery Th. 19 April
" John Whissum & Highway robbery Th. 19 April
" Thomas Macksheen Highway robbery Th. 19 April
" Joseph Davies At large Th. 19 April
1754 — 7 executions
Th. 28 March John Revell Highway robbery F 19 April
" Joseph Bragg Highway robbery F 19 April
Above 2 hanged at Kingston
Th. 22 August Richard Gilbert Highway robbery F 13 September
" Roger Dunn Highway robbery F 13 September
" Richard Tickner Highway robbery F 13 September
" James Bard & Burglary F 13 September
" Thomas Watson Burglary F 13 September
Above 5 hanged at Guildford
1755 — 4 executions
M 31 March John Barnard Highway robbery ??/April
" John Glover Burglary ??/April
" Michael Warner At large ??/April
W 13 August William Smith Highway robbery F 29 August
1756 — 4 executions
Th. 1 April John Needham Murder of Sarah Green Th. 8 April
Above hanged at Guildford
" John Farrell Murder of Elizabeth White F 9 April
" James Moor Horse theft Th. 22 April
Th. 19 August James Smith Highway robbery M 6 September
1757 — 2 confirmed executions plus 1 reported as both hanged and reprieved
Th. 11 August Luke Cobb Horse theft F 2 September
" Richard Chapman Housebreaking F 2 September
Above hanged at Guildford
" Robert Mitchell Murder W 17/8 or R 30.3.58
1758 — 3 executions
Th. 30 March James White Housebreaking F 21 April
" Walter White Housebreaking F 21 April
Th. 27 July Thomas Cripps Housebreaking F 11 August
1759 — 2 executions
W 28 March Mary Edmonson Murder of Susanna Walker M 2 April
Th. 9 August Robert Saxby Murder of Ann Saxby M 13 August
Saxby hanged at Guildford
1760 — No executions
1761 — 1 execution
Th. 26 March Francis Hayes Sodomy F 17 April
1762 — No executions
1763 — 3 executions
W 27 July William Bragger Highway robbery F 12 August
" Samuel Beaton Highway robbery F 12 August
" Matthew Dodd Rape of Ann Dutnall F 19 August
1764 — 10 executions
Th. 29 March William Corbet Murder of Henry Knight F 6 April
" William Quilt Horse theft F 20 April
" John Madox Housebreaking F 20 April
" Joseph Ryland Highway robbery ??/April
Th. 23 August John Skinner Housebreaking M 3 September
" William Curtis & Highway robbery M 3 September
" Matthew Wilkinson Highway robbery M 3 September
" Samuel Brain Highway robbery F 7 September
" Matthew Jackson Highway robbery F 7 September
" John Vernon Highway robbery F 7 September
Above 3 hanged at Guildford
1765 — 4 executions
W 27 March Benjamin Marshall & Highway robbery F 12 April
" William Adams Highway robbery F 12 April
" James Thorpe Highway robbery F 12 April
" William Hazle Highway robbery F 12 April
1766 — 3 executions
W 19 March William Tomkinson Highway robbery F 4 April
W 30 July William Loveday Horse theft F 22 August
" Benjamin Stratford Forgery F 5 September
Above 2 hanged at Guildford
1767 — 4 executions
W 25 March Richard Mihill Murder of his brother Robert M 30 March
Hanged on Richmond Hill
" Richard Smith Highway robbery S 9 or M 11 May
W 19 August Joseph Metford Burglary F 4 September
" Mathieu Maraux Highway robbery S 26 September
1768 — 5 executions
M 28 March Samuel Stevens Housebreaking M 18 April
" Thomas Anderson Housebreaking M 18 April
" William Palmer Forgery M 18 April
Above 3 hanged at Surbiton or on Sutton Common
W 3 August Benjamin Branch & Highway robbery F 26 August
" Robert Nash Highway robbery F 26 August
Above 2 hanged at Guildford
1769 — 1 execution
W 15 March James Porter Murder of John Hillier M 20 March
Hanged at Surbiton
1770 — 7 executions
W 4 April Stephen Gregory Murder of Ann Hearn M 9 April
" Hanged at Esher
Stephen Dunn Highway robbery M 23 April
" William Harris Highway robbery M 23 April
" Charles Burkett Burglary M 23 April
" Joseph Adams Highway robbery M 23 April
" George Powdrith At large M 23 April
M 30 July Joseph Batt Burglary W 22 August
1771 — 1 execution
W 20 March John Odell Murder of Sarah Stevens M 25 March
1772 — 5 executions
W 1 April Anthony Whelps Murder of Antonio Janin M 6 April
" William Warren Murder of Sarah White M 6 April
" William Lovell Arson M 26 April
" William Robinson Highway robbery M 26 April
W 12 August James Hopkins Burglary F 4 September
1773 — 3 executions
W 31 March Francis Roe Burglary ??/April
" John Goodchild Burglary ??/April
W 11 August James Green Highway robbery W 1 September
1774 — 9 executions
W 23 March Daniel Dibble & Highway robbery W 27 April
" John Briand Highway robbery W 27 April
" Joseph Stone Highway robbery W 27 April
" Edward Clarke & Highway robbery W 27 April
" Thomas Brandsell Highway robbery W 27 April
W 3 August Richard Robotham Highway robbery ??/August
" John Busby Lloyd Highway robbery ??/August
" George Hearsay Burglary ??/August
" James Burrell Burglary ??/August
1775 — 8 confirmed executions, plus 2 possible (Goodchild & Houlton ) for whom no reprieves traced
Th. 30 March Simon Fox Murder of William Coston S 8 April
" Henry Nicholls Murder of his wife Jane S 8 April
" Robert Goodchild Highway robbery ??/April
" Peter Houlton Highway robbery ??/April
W 16 August James Campbell Highway robbery M 4 September
" William Hudson Highway robbery M 4 September
" John Wilkins Burglary M 4 September
" Silvester Dodd Highway robbery M 4 September
" John Davis Highway robbery M 4 September
" Thomas Jones Highway robbery M 4 September
1776 — 7 executions
W 20 March John Harris & Highway robbery Th. 11 April
" George Humphries Highway robbery Th. 11 April
" Edward Bell Highway robbery Th. 11 April
" William Sharp Highway robbery Th. 11 April
Above 4 hanged at Kingston
W 7 August James Potter Highway robbery M 26 August
" Frederick Wm Gregg Highway robbery M 26 August
" Christopher Ellis Housebreaking M 26 August
Above 3 hanged at Guilford
1777 — 1 execution
W 26 March Thomas Banks Highway robbery W 16 April
Hanged at Kingston
1778 — 8 executions
W 18 March Charles Wadley Highway robbery W 8 April
" William Wright Highway robbery W 8 April
" John Davis & Highway robbery W 8 April
" William Spratt Highway robbery W 8 April
" James Smith Highway robbery W 8 April
" Samuel Scipio Highway robbery W 8 April
Above 6 hanged at Kingston
W 29 July Richard Pendleton Murder of his wife, Elizabeth M 3 August
" Joshua Crompton Uttering Th. 20 August
1779 — 5 confirmed executions, plus 1 reported as both hanged and reprieved
W 17 March John Forrest Burglary ??/April
" Thomas Empson Shot at ??/April
" Henry Arnold Housebreaking ??/April
" Charles Greenhaugh Stole in dwelling house ??/April
M 2 August Timothy Lowe Stole in dwelling house ??/August
" Thomas Pugh Highway robbery Ex or R 4.80
1780 — 7 executions
W 22 March Daniel Cumber Horse theft ??/April
M 14 August Henry Cookman High Treason — counterfeit ??/Aug or Sept
John Jones Highway robbery ??/Aug or Sept
The following were hanged at St George's Fields, Southwark for their parts in the Gordon Riots
??/July Robert Lowell, Riot W 9 August
??/July Olive Johnson, Riot W 9 August
??/July Elizabeth Collins, Riot W 9 August
??/July Edward Dorman, Riot W 9 August
??/July Mary Locke & Riot W 9 August
??/July John Bridport Riot W 9 August
??/July Henry Penny Riot Tu. 22 August
1781 — 1 execution
M 13 August John Edmead Horse theft M 3 September
1782 — 3 executions
M 29 July Richard Worrell Horse theft W 14 August
" Richard Sarbridge & Burglary W 14 August
" Joseph Ogle Burglary W 14 August
1783 — 8 executions
W 19 March James Seal & Highway robbery W 26 March
" Eyre Harding Highway robbery W 26 March
" Griffith Jones Highway robbery W 9 April
" Thomas Cox Highway robbery Th. 10 April
M 18 August Martha Baker Murder Elisha Cook Tu. 26 August
" Henry Symonds Murder Elisha Cook Tu. 26 August
" George Wood Highway robbery F 5 September
" Richard Smith Housebreaking F 5 September
1784 — 8 executions
W 24 March William Guest Highway robbery Tu. 6 April
" William Farren Stole in dwelling house Tu. 6 April
" George Hewetson & Burglary Tu. 6 April
" John Summers Burglary Tu. 6 April
" Henry Hart Burglary Tu. 6 April
" John Townsend, Burglary Tu. 6 April
" William Walker & Burglary Tu. 6 April
" Thomas Collins Burglary Tu. 6 April
1785 — 25 executions
M 28 March John Tarrant & Highway robbery M 4 April
" Joseph Howes Highway robbery M 4 April
" Thomas Pilkington & Highway robbery W 13 April
" Thomas Conquest Highway robbery W 13 April
" Redman Condon Highway robbery W 13 April
" John Watson Highway robbery W 13 April
" John Burfoot, Burglary W 13 April
" I saac Palmer (16) & Burglary W 13 April
" Thomas Barwick Burglary W 13 April
" John Haggarty Highway robbery W 13 April
" Thomas Sharman Stole in dwelling house W 13 April
W 20 July Ann Smith, Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
" Christian Ireland, Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
" Mary Smith, Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
" William Spratley, Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
" John Langley, Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
" William Chandler (16) & Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
" Elizabeth Jackson Highway robbery Tu. 2 August
Above 7 hanged at end of Kent Street next to the borough of Southwark
" Thomas Hudson Highway robbery Th. 4 August
" Charles Jenkins Highway robbery Th. 4 August
" Owen M'Carthy Burglary Th. 4 August
" Philip Gibson, Burglary Th. 4 August
" John Motton & Burglary Th. 4 August
" Henry Wiggs Burglary Th. 4 August
" William Surman Horse theft Th. 4 August
1786 — 8 executions
W 22 March Edward Eagel Housebreaking Tu. 11 April
" William Goddard Housebreaking Tu. 11 April
" James Defontain Burglary Tu. 11 April
" James Coussins Arson Tu. 11 April
" Thomas Nicholls Burglary Tu. 11 April
" Thomas Ladd Sodomy M 10 April
Ladd hanged on Peckham Common
Th. 10 August Michael Hannasy Highway robbery ??/Aug/Sept
" William Parker Housebreaking ??/Aug/Sept
1787 — 13 confirmed executions, plus 1 possible (Ralph) for whom no reprieve traced
M 2 April Edward Lanigan, Murder of an unknown man S 7 April
" Michael Casey & Murder of an unknown man S 7 April
" James Marshall Murder of an unknown man S 7 April
" John Johnson Burglary ??/April
" Thomas Powell & Burglary ??/April
" William Rymer Burglary ??/April
" Thomas Smith H/T coining ??/April
" Charles Farrell Highway robbery ??/April
" Elizabeth Lemmon Stole from shop ??/April
" John Ralph Highway robbery ??/April
W 8 August Richard Thomas Highway robbery W 29 August
" William Thompson Highway robbery W 29 August
" Humphrey Curtis Highway robbery W 29 August
" Robert Holderness Highway robbery W 29 August
1788 — 5 executions
W 26 March John Gray Burglary ??/April
" George Stock Horse theft ??/April
" John Chear Horse theft ??/April
M 14 July John McFarley Burglary ??/Aug/Sept
" William Browne Burglary ??/Aug/Sept
1789 — 3 executions
W 25 March William Lee Highway robbery W 8 April
William Edwards Stole in dwelling house W 8 April
George Vivins Highway robbery ??/April
1790 — 5 executions
M 29 March John King Sheep theft M 12 April
" Peter Cochran Highway robbery M 12 April
" Thomas Kent Sheep theft M 12 April
" John Jackson Sheep theft M 12 April
" Anthony Craddock Stole in dwelling house M 12 April
1791 — 2 executions
- Bartholomew Quain Murder of his wife at Ely M 7 March
See Ely for details
W 23 March William Nicholas North st Stealing on the river ??/April
1792 — 5 executions
W 21 March Thomas Miles Horse theft ??/April
" John Hudson Robbery in dwelling house ??/April
W 8 August Joseph Lorrison & Highway robbery F 24 August
" John Nutcher Highway robbery F 24 August
" Philip George Highway robbery F 24 August
1793 — 3 executions
Th. 21 March John Page Highway robbery M 8 April
" Walter Welch & Burglary M 8 April
" Benjamin Baker Burglary M 8 April
M 22 July Robert Chamberlain Highway robbery M 5 August
" George Vernon Possessing coining implements M 5 August
1794 — 4 executions
W 26 March John Lane Highway robbery Th. 17 April
M 18 August William Hurst & Highway robbery ??/September
" William Newman Highway robbery ??/September
" Thomas Stunnell Highway robbery ??/September
1795 — 5 executions
M 23 March Dennis Ryan & H/T — coining M 27 April
" Joshua Stephenson H/T — coining M 27 April
M 27 July Sarah King Murder of her male bastard M 3 August
" John Little Murder of James McEvoy M 3 August
" Jeremiah Abershaw Shot at M 3 August
1796 — 6 executions
M 21 March Nicholas Inglish Burglary M 11 April
" James Gregory Burglary M 11 April
" John Hartland Riot M 11 April
M 25 July John Clark & Shot at W 10 August
" Leonard Tomlinson Shot at W 10 August
" Hannah Griffiths Burglary W 10 August
1797 — 7 executions
M 20 March Thomas Smith & Highway robbery Th. 6 April
" James Clark Highway robbery Th. 6 April
" William Peto Horse theft Th. 6 April
M 7 August William Harling Sheep theft M 21 August
" George Watts At large M 21 August
" Rebecca Dunn H/T colour coin M 21 August
" William Batho Rape of Sophia Stokes Tu. 29 August
1798 — 5 confirmed executions, plus 1 reported as hanged and reprieved
W 21 March Simon Plunkett Horse theft F 13 April
" John Chambers Highway robbery F 13 April
" Daniel Smith Horse theft F 13 April
" Abraham Clark Burglary Ex 13/4 or R 23.4.98
M 30 July William Hill Housebreaking F 17 August
" John Alison Forgery F 17 August
1799 — 3 executions
M 18 March James Randall Burglary M 1 April
M 15 July William Badger Forgery M 5 August
" John Butler Horse theft M 5 August"
"Enter the murky world of Surrey's executions
By Nazia Dewji
Grim reading: The book looks at many public executions around the area
Sheep thieves, murderers, forgers and rapists were hanged in front of cheering crowds as a spectacle across Surrey in the early 19th century.
The people of Kingston and Richmond watched on as mass public executions at gaols were served up to criminals of the Bloody Code era before Wandsworth Prison even opened its doors in 1851.
A book titled Surrey Executions by Martin Baggoley has listed all the known executions — those in public and later private, our doorsteps.
As early as 1801 records show soldier William Harrison of the 18th Light Dragoons, based in Guildford at the time, was hanged for burgling the Black Lion pub in Kingston where servant Sarah Berry was also raped.
The following year Stephen Stillwell was hung for murdering his wife Mary Ann at the Jolly Gardens inn they owned together in Mortlake.
A neighbour had heard Stillwell shout "come, get up, your time is expired" followed by loud stamping before he appeared blood-soaked on the street and exclaimed " I have my liberty".
Reports at the time also told of Stillwell, who refused to go into his own inn for a pint with a friend because he said his wife made him miserable.
A jury convicted Stillwell of murder and a judge ordered his body to be dissected after he was hanged.
Historian Julian McCarthy, who is a Kingston tour guide, said: "Kingston does have a bloody history. Most of the bloodiness was earlier in the century. Women were burned to death for murdering their husbands but men were hanged."
He added public executions in Market Place were often crimes for Catholics or thieves who may have stolen from churches. Other executions took place on Kingston Hill.
A teenager wore an elegant black silk dress for her execution on April 5, 1813.
Thousands watched on as Sarah Fletcher, 19, faced the rope for murdering her bastard child in Wandsworth — she had used a garter to strangle him.
In 1816, Richard Russell confessed murdering his father in Thames Ditton to the keeper of Kingston House of Correction as he waited to be tried.
The victim had met his son for a drink but the meeting ended with him suffering savage blows to the head with a hammer before he was finished off with a knife to the throat.
Russell stole two 10 notes, 2, seven gold guineas and a half guinea before enjoying half a pint of rum at the Coach and Horses in Kingston with his takings.
But upon hearing the news of the murder, landlord of the pub Thomas Hampton, was able to recall the stranger and managed to find the bloodstained note he had paid with, which would later be enough evidence to hang him.
More than a decade later a Christmas day burglary at the Teddington Lock-house in 1828, ended with three out of four culprits being hanged.
Four men had forced their way in brandishing pistols and threatened the keeper before making off with 20 shillings and a copper medallion.
Kingston's constable Cooke made the four arrests after a passer-by in Kingston noticed a child with the stolen copper medallion.
One of the men involved managed to save himself by giving evidence against the other three — but it could also have also ended rather grisly for William Young who was jeered and struck with objects by a mob on Kingston Bridge that shouted: "Throw him over the bridge."
Author Mr Baggoley warned in his introduction: "In researching the book, I have examined official archive, where available I have read original trial transcripts, and I have also referred to contemporary newspaper accounts.
"Unfortunately, complete records from the early years of the 19th century have not survived intact in all cases and there are conflicting accounts of the crimes, the sentences passed and the names of those executed."
He said where stories did not add up he had referred to the register of deaths in the county gaol to put together his complete list of those hanged in the 19th century.
[BNA:
"DARKLING darkling (adv.) "in the dark," mid-15c., from dark (n.) + now-obsolete adverbial ending -ling (compare headlong). The verb darkle is a back-formation from 1810 (Moore, who rhymed it with sparkle), assuming the -ing as a present-participle adjective ending. But having nothing to do with the participial -ing it does not mean growing dark &c.; from the mistaken notion that it is a participle spring both the misuse of the word itself and the spurious verb darkle. [Fowler] By the same error, darkling (adj.), "dark, obscure, gloomy" is attested from 1763. The adverb was sometimes darklings, with adverbial genitive -s. [BNA:
"1 Morning has broken Like the first morning, Blackbird has spoken Like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing Fresh from the Word! 2 Sweet the rain's new fall Sunlit from Heaven, Like the first dewfall On the first grass. Praise for the sweetness Of the wet garden, Sprung in completeness Where his feet pass. 3 Mine is the sunlight, Mine is the morning, Born of the one light Eden saw play. Praise with elation, Praise every morning, God's re-creation Of the new day! Full Name: Farjeon, Eleanor H., 1881-1965 Birth Year: 1881 Death Year: 1965 Eleanor Farjeon, (born Feb. 13, 1881, London--died June 5, 1965, Hampstead, London), English writer for children whose magical but unsentimental tales, which often mock the behaviour of adults, earned her a revered place in many British nurseries. The daughter of a British novelist and granddaughter of a U.S. actor, Eleanor Farjeon grew up in the bohemian literary and dramatic circles of London. Attending opera and theatre at 4 and writing on her father's typewriter at 7, Farjeon came to public attention at 16 as the librettist of an opera, with music by her brother Harry, which was produced by the Royal Academy of Music. Her success with Nursery Rhymes of London Town (1916), simple tunes originally for adults but adapted and sung in junior schools throughout England, spurred her writing. In addition to such favourites as Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard (1921) and The Little Bookroom (1955), which won the Carnegie Medal and the first Hans Christian Anderson Award, Farjeon's prolific writings include children's educational books, among them Kings and Queens (1932; with Herbert Farjeon); adult books; and memoirs, notably A Nursery in the Nineties (1935; rev. ed. 1960). --www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201881/Eleanor-Farjeon" "Eleanor Farjeon and the South Downs National Park As the National Park marks its 10th anniversary, Dr Heloise Coffey remembers a writer whose life became inextricably linked to this unique area of the British countryside. If the children's writer and poet Eleanor Farjeon were alive today, there is little doubt that she would be celebrating the anniversary of the South Downs becoming a National Park. Farjeon is probably best known for having written the words for the hymn 'Morning Has Broken'. She is believed to have been inspired by a beautiful morning in Alfriston, the East Sussex village on the South Downs Way. Farjeon first developed a love of the South Downs, and of walking, through her friendship with the poet Edward Thomas in the years leading up to the First World War. Thomas lived in Steep in what is now the Hampshire stretch of the National Park. At different times, Farjeon lived in both West and East Sussex: first in West Sussex in the hamlet of Houghton near Arundel where she rented a thatched property called 'The End Cottage' on Mucky Lane, (since renamed the more salubrious-sounding South Lane). She came here when struggling to come to terms with her grief after Thomas's death on the Western Front in 1917. Later, during the Second World War, she rented a cottage in East Sussex called 'The Hammonds' in Laughton, near Firle. In 1937, Eleanor Farjeon wrote 'Elise Piddock Skips in Her Sleep' in which the young heroine, Elise Piddock, lives in the village of Glynde at the foot of Mount Caburn, near Lewes. Although set in East Sussex, its main character was inspired by a little girl called Elsie who would skip near Farjeon's home on Mucky Lane in Houghton. The fictitious Elsie Piddock learns to skip at the age of just three, using her father's braces, quickly becoming a remarkable skipper. She is so good that she comes to the attention of the local fairies who, it turns out, also love to skip. They take her under their (tiny) wings, teach her their skipping steps, and give her a skipping rope with fairy powers. Years pass, Elise becomes an old woman, and a rich lord buys the estate on which Mount Caburn sits. He plans to 'shut up footpaths', 'destroy rights of way' and steal the long-held 'common rights' of the locals, including the age-old tradition of skipping up on the hill in a new moon. As if that weren't bad enough, he draws up plans to build factories in the place where generations of little girls, like Elsie, had learnt to skip. The locals are allowed one last night on Mount Caburn. The agreement from his lordship is that, when the skipping stops, the first brick of the first factory will be laid. But he hasn't bargained for Elsie Piddock. Although now an old woman, Elsie starts to skip with the fairy skipping rope and skips and skips and skips. And never stops. In fact, she's probably still skipping there still, saving Mount Caburn and the surrounding countryside. Eleanor Farjeon's story is more than just a charming modern-day fable with skipping rhymes evocative of playground games of yesteryear it is also quietly radical. In her hands, walkers' rights become skippers' right; the right to roam becomes the right to skip. Here was an author who not only wrote about the South Downs, but walked them; lived them. She would set off from her thatched cottage in Houghton and follow paths which now form part of the South Downs Way. Farjeon would have cut an eccentric figure in the early years of the 20th Century: a woman clutching a shillelagh, a knapsack on her back, smoking a clay pipe and sometimes wearing a Russian peasant-dress made of coarse linen she'd bought at the height of the craze for Russian ballet. She thought of herself as quite a shy and bookish person, lacking in confidence she once described herself as looking like a 'cheerful suet pudding' but walking out on the Downs brought her out of herself and boosted her self-belief. By 1916 she was 'rambling all over Sussex'. Covering many of the chalk paths and byways criss-crossing the South Downs, Farjeon would pick up friends and acquaintances, old and new, along the way. She would compose poems, stories and songs as she walked. Her rambles inspired the poem 'All the Way to Alfriston' recalling a fifty-mile walk she took, starting from Chichester. It describes the villages, their church bells echoing along 'the running downs'; the abundance of wild flowers. It is a snapshot of the Downs a hundred years ago, brought vividly to life through words. Then came the anthology A Sussex Alphabet. First published in 1924, it consists of short poems, one for each letter of the alphabet, celebrating the uniqueness of the South Downs: the rivers (O for Ouse), the birdlife (N for Nightingale), the ancient history (L for the Long Man of Wilmington), and the distinctive geology (F for Flint). Even the South Down sheep, originally bred in Firle, get a mention. Farjeon's life and writings still have relevance today. There is overwhelming evidence that 'getting out into nature' can boost health, happiness and confidence, a fact amplified by the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Farejon understood the importance of experiencing the countryside first-hand in order to value it. She knew that if you know the name of, say, a wildflower or a bird or a tree, you are more likely to care about it and to want to safeguard it for future generations. Dr Heloise Coffey currently lives on the Kent/Sussex border, having lived in East Sussex for many years. A rare first edition of Eleanor Farjeon's "A Sussex Alphabet" was presented to the National Park Authority in 2018 by Dr Peter Robinson, of The Write House, as part of an inspiring project "The South Downs Alphabet", supported by Dr June Goodfield." "Charles Jenkinson — The Grandfather Of Conservatism.pdf These years saw Jenkinson finally establish a private life. In 1780182 he took a long lease on Addiscombe Place, near Croydon in Surrey, a substantial country house built by the diarist John Evelyn's son-in-law William Draper around 1702. Evelyn's verdict on it: "the outside, to the coveing, being such excellent brickwork, bas'd with Portland Stone, with the pilasters, windows and within, that Ipronounced it in all the points of good and solid architecture to be one of the very best gentleman's houses in Surrey, when finish'd."183 Jenkinson lived in the house until his death in 1808; it was thus Liverpool's home for the latter part of his boyhood and early manhood. It brought Jenkinson some criticism; after the Window Tax was increased in 1784 he boarded up several of Addiscombe's windows, being pilloried by caricaturists for doing so.184 Being only ten miles from Westminster the house was useful for political entertaining, of which Jenkinson did a lot; his long-term private secretary estimated in 1802 that Jenkinson's expenses had risen from around 5,000 early in the mid-1780s to 8,000 in 1802 even though his "mode of living" had rather diminished -- evidence of the virulent inflation in the early war years.185 Indeed, the history of the military academy based in the house from 1809 to 1861 tells the story of a convivial dinner probably in 1785 with Pitt, who afterwards rode home (whether to Downing Street or to his house in Putney is not clear) and was shot at by a farmer in Wandsworth. This was commemorated in the 1784-5 Whig satire 'The Rolliad:' "Ah! Think what danger on debauch attends. Let Pitt, once drunk, preach temp'rance to his friends How, as he wandered darkling o'er the plain, His reason drown'd in Jenkinson's champagne, A rustic's hand, but righteous fate withstood, Had shed a Premier's for a robber's blood"186 Jenkinson also expanded his private life during these years, marrying again on June 22, 1782, shortly after he had been relieved of official duties following the pressured last months of North's administration. His bride Catherine Bishopp Cope (1744-1827) was the widow of Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Baronet (1743-81), the grandson of Jenkinson's uncle and early patron Sir Jonathan Cope, with two daughters Catherine and Arabella by that marriage. Catherine had been the youngest of the exceptionally beautiful daughters of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 6th Baronet (1700-78), from a Sussex Tory family, who had been MP for Penryn for 1727-34, had stood against Henry Pelham for Sussex in 1734 and was MP for Boroughbridge under Newcastle's recommendation from 1755-68. Bishopp broke with Newcastle in 1762, supported Bute and Grenville and opposed Rockingham, so his politics had aligned with Jenkinson's. Bishopp had married a sister of the famous Admiral Edward Boscawen, 1st Viscount Boscawen, giving Jenkinson another House of Lords connection. Jenkinson's new wife was 15 years younger than her husband, but at 38 six years older than his first wife would have been. However, she bore him two children. Her daughter Charlotte Jenkinson (1783-1863) married in 1807 James Grimston (1775-1845), who succeeded his father as second Baron Verulam and a distant cousin as tenth Scottish Lord Forrester in 1808. Her second child was a son Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson (1784-1851), Liverpool's half-brother, who eventually succeeded him as 3rd Earl of Liverpool. The ____________ 180 Welbore Ellis (1713-1802) 1st Baron Mendip from 1794. MP for Cricklade, Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, Aylesbury and Petersfield, 1741-90, 1791-95. Secretary at War, 1762-65, Treasurer of the Navy, 1777-82, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1782. 181 Shelburne adopted Jenkinson's " Iremain Your Majesty's Most Duty Full Subject" salutation and variations thereof on his letters; nobody else appears to have done this and it may have been significant in his quick access to Royal favour. 182 Jenkinson's first letter to the King from Addiscombe is dated April 14, 1780. Correspondence of George III, op. cit. Vol. 5 p43 183 Memoirs of John Evelyn Esq. FRS, ed W. Bray, Henry Colburn, 1827, Vol. 3, p400-1, July 11, 1703. 184 See for example "The Shop Tax, Alexander Mackenzie, 1786. British Museum Collection. 185 Glenbervie, op. cit. Vol. 1 p285. 186 "Addiscombe, its Heroes and Men of Note" Col. Henry M. Vibart, Constable, 1894 pp 9,15 quoting Rolliad, 1784-85. 187 William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam (1748-1833) 4th Earl Fitzwilliam from 1756. Whig grandee. Nephew and heir of the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, who d. 1782. Lord President of the Council, 1794, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1794-95, 1806, Minister without Portfolio, 1806-07. Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 1798-1819 188 William Pitt (1769-1806) MP for Appleby and Cambridge University, 1781-1806. Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1782-83, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1783-1801, 1804-06. ____________ EXCELLENT BIOGRAPHY [BNA:
"NPG 1 of 4 portraits of Willoughby Hyett Dickinson, 1st Baron Dickinson [BNA:
"[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/prior/isaac/43879 Contribute to this record Isaac Prior Isaac Prior, one of 200 convicts transported on the John Brewer, 01 December 1841 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: I saac Prior Aliases: none Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: 1812 Occupation: Dealer Date of Death: 28th November, 1884 Age: 72 years Life Span Life span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to 15 years Crime: Horse theft Convicted at: Central Criminal Court Sentence term: 15 years Ship: John Brewer Departure date: 1st December, 1841 Arrival date: 6th April, 1842 Place of arrival Van Diemen's Land Passenger manifest Travelled with 199 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 91, Class and Piece Number HO11/12, Page Number 417 (210) Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If I saac Prior was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about I saac Prior? Contribute to this record Community Contributions D Wong on 16th January, 2021 wrote: Globe London, England 25 Oct 1837 Isaac Prior, a labourer, aged 19, was also found guilty of having stolen a bay horse, the property of William Townsend, at Battersea, and was sentenced to ten years' transportation. Seems that I saac Prior served 2 years for the above crime and then was again convicted at the Old Bailey: ISAAC PRIOR. Theft: simple larceny. 14th June 1841 Verdict Guilty > unknown Sentence Transportation ISAAC PRIOR was indicted for stealing, on the 11th of June, 1 marc, price 7l. , the property of William Goodchild and another; and that he had been before convicted of felony. MR. BALLANTINE conducted the Prosecution. JOHN PENNICARD. I am a carrier, and live on Clapham common. On Thursday night, the 10th of June, I had a brown mare Iturned her out that night on Clapham-common, about nine o'clock I saw her next day, at half-past twelve, perfectly safe on the common I did not see her again till the following Monday morning, when I saw her at Mr. Wallis's, Garret-lane, Wandsworthit was afterwards at the police-officeshe is worth 7l. EDWARD WALLIS. I am a horse-slaughterer, and live in Garret-lane, Wandsworth. I have seen the prosecutor's brown mare Ifirst saw it on Friday, the 11th, about a quarter to five o'clock in the eveningthe prisoner brought it to me, and said he brought it from his brother I asked what he wanted for ithe said his brother would call and settle I said that was not the way I did business, if Ibought the mare I would pay him for it I wanted to know what he wanted for ithe named 3l. I said I should not give any such money as that, and offered him 2l. 5s. , which he took, and Igave him 1s. for himself Ireceived information on Saturday, and showed the mare to the prosecutor at the police-station. Cross-examined by MR. PHILLIPS. Q. Did you know the prisoner before? A. I have seen him, but never spoke to him I do not know what he is, but his brother is a cow-keeper at Battersea I think 2l. 5s. is the value of the horse Iunderstand horses. WILLIAM LEE (police-constable V 38. ) I know the prisoner by sight. On Friday afternoon, the 11th of June, I was in Falcon-lane, in the parish of Battersea, and overtook the prisoner he said, "Good morning" I said, "Good morning; are you going to look at your stock?"he said, "Yes, I am, " and he went towards Clapham-common, and Ireturned to Wandsworth it was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon he was coming in a direction from Battersea. Cross-examined. Q. What do you mean by his stock? A. knew he had a stock on the common at times I do not know whether they were the prisoner's or his brother's I have frequently seen him going that way I was in my uniform. WILLIAM READ (police-constable V 18) On Saturday night I went to a lodging which I supposed to be occupied by the prisoner, in the Folly public-house at Battersea, about a quarter before twelve o'clock at night, and found him sitting in a chair by the firehe looked up and said, "Do you want me, Mr. Read?" I said, " I do" I knew him beforehe got up and put on his boots I said, " I suppose you know what I want you for?"he said, "Yes, I do, " and nudged me I said, "Stop a little, I must secure you before you go out" Iput the handcuffs on him, and took him to the station. Cross-examined. Q. Do you know if he has any stock on the common? Q. I know his brother has. MR. BALLANTINE. Q. Were you present when he was examined before the Magistrate? A. Yes I heard him make a statement, which was taken down by the Clerk(read)" The prisoner says, ' I changed the horse at the White Lion public-house, at Streatham, between two and three o'clock, I drew 1l. , and the horse Isold to Mr. Wallis. ' " JAMES DEAN. I am turnkey of Chelmsford gaol. I have a certificate of the prisoner's former conviction at Chelmsford, which I got from the Clerk of the Peace(read)he is the person. GUILTY. Aged 21. Transported for Fifteen Years. ____________________________________ Isaac was listed as 21 years old on arrival. Native Place: Battersea, Surrey. Occupation: Cattle dealer. Isaac was 5'7" tall, fresh complexion, dark brown hair and whiskers, brown eyes, large scar on right eyebrow, single, protestant, literate. Mother: Frances — 4 brothers and 4 sisters. 1846: TOL — by Mr. Hunter of Evandale, Tas. 31/10/1846: Permission to marry Jane Lowton (Lawton) — per Margaret. 1/1/1847: Married Jane Lawton, 30, a widow — I saac was 25 — at Launceston. 11/4/1848: TOL 1849: TOL, Tasmania. 31/5/1853: CP 14/8/1853: Steerage passenger, Launceston to Melbourne per 'Clarence' — had CP. 28/11/1884: I saac Prior died at Launceston, aged 72, a horse dealer, of heart disease. 29/11/1884 Daily Telegraph, Launceston: DEATH. Prior. On the 28th November, at his son Frank' residence, Victoria-street, Mr I saac Prior, aged 72 years. Funeral Notice THE funeral of the late Mr I saac Prior, will leave his son's residence, Victoria street, to-morrow (Sunday), the 30th inst. , at 4 o'clock. Friends will please accept this invitation. T. J. Doolan, Undertaker. Wellington-street. Convict Changes History D Wong on 16th January, 2021 made the following changes: date of birth: 1812 (prev. 0000), date of death: 28th November, 1884 (prev. 0000), gender: m, occupation, crime" "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/cooley/thomas/95654 Thomas Cooley Thomas Cooley, one of 248 convicts transported on the Runnymede, 11 June 1856 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: Thomas Cooley Aliases: none Gender: - Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: - Occupation: - Date of Death: - Age: - Life Span Life span Median life span was 53 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to 7 years Crime: - Convicted at: Central Criminal Court Sentence term: 7 years Ship: Runnymede Departure date: 11th June, 1856 Arrival date: 7th September, 1856 Place of arrival Western Australia Passenger manifest Travelled with 246 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/18, Page Number 182 Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If Thomas Cooley was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about Thomas Cooley? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Anonymous on 30th May, 2011 wrote: After completing his sentence, Thomas boarded the Rangatira which sailed from Fremantle on 5th December 1864, arriving in Glenelg South Australia on 10 December. Thomas married Ann Sell in 1867 at the St Paul's Chapel in Gawler SA, they had nine children, four dying in infancy. He died in 1904 and is buried at the West Terrace Cemetery in Adelaide. Lois Cooley on 15th August, 2012 wrote: Thomas Cooley was convicted at the Central Criminal Court in 1852 of housebreaking — stealing 1 plane and other tools valued at 3 shillings and onepence. He received a prison sentence of seven years and transportation, arriving in Western Australia on 11th September 1856. In March 1850, he had a previous conviction of housebreaking — stealing 2 handkerchiefs, 1 box and 1 spoon, valued at 7 shillings, for which he served 18 months. On both occasions he was apprehended in Wandsworth, London. In November 1856, two months after his arrival in Western Australia, Thomas Cooley was sent to the Lynton Convict Hiring Depot near Port Gregory. His Ticket of Leave was due on 29th May, 1857, but on this same day he was sentenced to a further 12 months with hard labour and irons and sent back to Fremantle. The charge was — Disobedience of Orders and Acts of Gross Insubordination. On 14th May 1858, Thomas Cooley was issued with his Ticket of Leave. In April, 1859 he received a Conditional Pardon. He remained in Western Australia for another five years before sailing to South Australia on 5th December, 1864. He married Ann Sell on 7th February, 1867 at St. Paul's Chapel, Gawler River, South Australia. His occupations in South Australia included farm management at Tumby Bay, hawker and greengrocer. In later years he worked voluntarily as a cook for Our Boys Institute. He died at home 2nd September 1904 at Gibson Street, Bowden, South Australia. A small obituary was inserted in The Advertiser newspaper on 3rd September, 1904. Reference: Cooley Family Newsletters 1982-1984 compiled by Lois Cooley — (Battye Library, Western Australia)" "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/blackall/thomas/51156 Contribute to this record Thomas Blackall Thomas Blackall, one of 180 convicts transported on the Almorah, April 1817 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: Thomas Blackall Aliases: none Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: - Occupation: - Date of Death: - Age: - Life Span Life span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to 7 years Crime: - Convicted at: Surrey Assizes Sentence term: 7 years Ship: Almorah Departure date: April, 1817 Arrival date: 29th August, 1817 Place of arrival New South Wales Passenger manifest Travelled with 182 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/2, Page Number 345 (174) Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If Thomas Blackall was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about Thomas Blackall? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Maureen Withey on 12th March, 2021 wrote: Tasmanian Assignment record, CON13-1-1 Image 104. Thomas Blackall, Tried Guildford, 15 Aug 1816, 7 years. Age 21, native of Wandsworth, labourer, 5ft 2 ins; brown eyes, black hair, dk ruddy comp, general remarks, Indifferent. Tasmanian Conduct Record. [https]: //stors. tas. gov. au/CON31-1-1$init=CON31-1-1p119 No 81. Thos. Blackhall. A lot of detail on his record. Numerous punishments. Margin of page damaged, but he appears to have had 2 court cases. 1. S. C. 2 months, Feby 1823. 2. L. C. 6 March 1834, Not guilty. - Court of Criminal Jurisdiction. Monday, March 3. Thomas Blackall was adjudged Guilty, upon his own confession, of stealing a pair of pistols, the property of A. W. Coulton; & Thomas Johnson, for receiving the same, knowing them to be stolen, was acquitted. Hobart Town Gazette, 8 Mar 1823. Government Public Notice. The undermentioned Persons have obtained Certificates during the last week: - Certificates. Thomas Blackall. . . . Almorah Hobart Town Gazette, 27 Feb 1824. - Hobart Town Police Report. Friday, January 31st. Thomas Blackall, fully committed for trial, charged with feloniously stealing, at Hobart Town, on the 29th January instant, one saw of the value of 2s. 6d. and other articles, of the goods and chattels of George Govett, of Hestercombe Ferry, in the District of Hobart Town. Colonial Times, 4 Feb 1834. Maureen Withey on 12th March, 2021 wrote: Supreme Court- Criminal Side. Thursday March 6, 1834. George Blackall, a poor, miserable looking wretch, was placed at the bar, charged, with stealing one saw, the property of Mr. George Govett, of Hestercombe. A witness named Pettitt proved the finding, the saw concealed among the thatch of the mens' hut. A fellow servant of the prisoner's was called, who stated that he saw the prisoner bring out of his master's house a saw and coffee-mill; saw the prisoner plant them. Verdict — Not Guilty. George Blackall was then again placed at the Bar, charged with stealing one bottle, and one pint of milk, the property of Mr. George Govett, of Hestercombe. John Gell, servant to Mr. Govett, said that his master having lost considerable property lately, he sat up to watch; this was on the 21st of February; saw the prisoner take the milk and bottle and "plant it. " The milk was Mr. Govett's property. The case resting entirely upon the evidence of this man, who is an assigned servant, and he not giving his evidence in the clearest manner, the Jury, by His Honor's direction, returned a verdict of Not Guilty. Colonial Times, 11 Mar 1834. Convict Changes History Maureen Withey on 12th March, 2021 made the following changes: gender: m" "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/steers/john/108958 John Steers John Steers, one of 180 convicts transported on the Chapman, 06 April 1824 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: John Steers Aliases: none Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: 1799 Occupation: Labourer Date of Death: 1841 Age: 42 years Life Span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to Life Crime: - Convicted at: Surrey Assizes Sentence term: Life Ship: Chapman Departure date: 6th April, 1824 Arrival date: 27th July, 1824 Place of arrival Van Diemen's Land Passenger manifest Travelled with 179 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/5, Page Number 145 (74) Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If John Steers was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about John Steers? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Penny-Lyn Beale on 4th April, 2021 wrote: 1823 — Tasmania, Australia, Convict Court and Selected Records. Register. No; 619. Age; 24 [1799] Height; 5 ft 3 in Complexion; Dark Hair; Brown Eyes; Dark Grey Trade; Labourer Native Place; Wandsworth. Australian Convict Transportation Registers — Other Fleets & Ships, Name; John Steers Ship; Chapman Trial; Surry Assizes Date; 21 July 1823 Sentence; Life Noted against name; DIED; 18 Dec 1841 at Picton Station 1841 — Australia, Death Index, Name: John Steers Death; 15 Dec 1841. Place: Tasmania. Registration Year: 1841 Registration Place: Green Ponds, Tasmania. Registration Number: 847 Convict Changes History Penny-Lyn Beale on 4th April, 2021 made the following changes: date of birth: 1799 (prev. 0000), date of death: 1841 (prev. 0000), gender: m, occupation" "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/botton/james/51352 James Botton James Botton, one of 188 convicts transported on the Atlas, 16 January 1816 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: James Botton Aliases: Burton Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: 1792 Occupation: Farm boy, labourer, selector Date of Death: 1856 Age: 64 years Life Span Life span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to Life Crime: Stealing a sheep Convicted at: Surrey Gaol Delivery Sentence term: Life Ship: Atlas Departure date: 16th January, 1816 Arrival date*: 16th September, 1816 Place of arrival New South Wales Passenger manifest Travelled with 196 other convicts * Arrival date is estimated References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/2, Page Number 250 Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If James Botton was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about James Botton? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Anonymous on 7th October, 2011 wrote: James' wife Elizabeth Hillyer and their daughter Sarah joined him in 1819. Elizabeth was granted 8 acres of land at O'Connell Plains NSW and James was assigned to her. His occupation was a labourer and his religion was C of E. Description: 5ft9ins tall, Complexion: Sallow, Hair: Dark Brown, Eyes: Hazel. Conditional Pardon: 1833 23rd June. Brigette Smith on 24th September, 2015 wrote: James BOTTON changed his Surname to BURTON upon him being granted of 'Ticket of Leave'- FREEDOM Darryl Buley on 25th September, 2021 wrote: *Oxford Journal — Saturday 5 August 1815 Surrey Assizures On the criminal calendar there were forty commitments, but few of them were charged with capital offences, and only three were sentenced to suffer Death, viz Thomas Turner aged sixteen for stealing a horse at Wandsworth, the propertv of Wm. Hunter: Wm. Leopard, aged 40, for stealing thirty barrels of beef and pork on the river Thames, the property of John Busher: and James Botten, alias Botton, alias Bottem, aged 33, for stealing at West Horsley, a sheep, the property of Edward Knapp Holland: they were afterwards reprieved. Convict Changes History Brigette Smith on 24th September, 2015 made the following changes: alias1: Burton, date of birth: 1792 (prev. 0000), date of death: 1856 (prev. 0000), gender: m, occupation, crime" "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/apps/william/84959 Contribute to this record William Apps William Apps, one of 156 convicts transported on the Speke, 05 August 1826 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: William Apps Aliases: none Gender: - Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: - Occupation: - Date of Death: - Age: - Life Span Life span Median life span was 53 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to 7 years Crime: - Convicted at: Kent Quarter Sessions Sentence term: 7 years Ship: Speke Departure date: 5th August, 1826 Arrival date: 26th November, 1826 Place of arrival New South Wales Passenger manifest Travelled with 155 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/6, Page Number 49 (26) Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If William Apps was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about William Apps? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Rod A on 31st July, 2019 wrote: 23/04/1833 — Certificate of Freedom granted. (Sydney Gazette & NSW Advertiser 25/04/1833)." "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/jackson/thomas/17942 Contribute to this record Thomas Jackson Thomas Jackson, one of 296 convicts transported on the Pyrenees, 31 January 1853 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: Thomas Jackson Aliases: Sydney Hall Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: 23rd August, 1829 Occupation: Wood turner Date of Death: 6th September, 1914 Age: 85 years Life Span Life span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to 10 years Crime: Burglary Convicted at: Central Criminal Court Sentence term: 10 years Ship: Pyrenees Departure date: 31st January, 1853 Arrival date: 30th April, 1853 Place of arrival Western Australia Passenger manifest Travelled with 295 other convicts References Primary source: London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Ref. No. P95/nic/004. Find A Grave. Western Australia Convict Records; Convict Dept. Reel No. FCN39, Ref. No. ACC 128/1-32. Ancestry. Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/18, Page Number 2 Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If Thomas Jackson was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about Thomas Jackson? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Ellen West on 8th April, 2021 wrote: Married Mary J Hennessy 7th May 1860 at Guildford Western Australia Their children were (1) Elizabeth Rosina 25/4/1844 (2) Ellen Hall 28/10/1867 (3) Sarah Ann 12/3/1870 (4) Sydney hall 27/2/1874 (5) Dora Mary Jane Hall 1/10/1875 (6) Mary Theresa Hall 2/7/1877 (7) Esther Mary Veronica Hall 17/4/1881 (8) Catherine Ethel May 3/3/1886 Thomas died 6/9/1914 & Mary died 6/1/1921 Iris Dunne on 8th April, 2021 wrote: Date of Birth from Smith Whiteley Family Tree on Ancestry. Baptised 13 Sep. 1829 in Wandsworth, Tooting Graveney, England, parents David Hall (Trade Carpenter) & Sarah, named Sidney Hall Convict Index: Thomas Sydney Hall Jackson, aged 20, Occupation Lath render, Comments D. 6. 9. 1914 E Perth[sic] Convict Records: 1 May 1853, aged 24, Single, Trade Lath Render Marriage 7 May 1860 to Mary Hennessy Burial Karrakatta Cemetery, Western Australia, Roman Catholic Ba, O128A, 7 Sep. 1914 Find A Grave Memorial ID No. 213611195, aged 85 [BNA:[Link.] Convict Changes History Ellen West on 8th April, 2021 made the following changes: alias1: Hall, Sydney (alias) (prev. Hall, Sydney (Alias)), gender: m, crime Iris Dunne on 8th April, 2021 made the following changes: source: London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Ref. No. P95/nic/004. Find A Grave. Western Australia Convict Records; Convict Dept. Reel No. FCN39, Ref. No. ACC 128/1-32. Ancestry. Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Pie" William Brown [BNA:Link.] William Brown, one of 172 convicts transported on the Minerva, 08 July 1824 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: William Brown Aliases: none Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: - Occupation: - Date of Death: - Age: - Life Span Life span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to Life Crime: Horse theft Convicted at: Middlesex Gaol Delivery Sentence term: Life Ship: Minerva Departure date: 8th July, 1824 Arrival date: 19th November, 1824 Place of arrival New South Wales Passenger manifest Travelled with 171 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/5, Page Number 174 Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If William Brown was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about William Brown? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Denis Pember on 4th January, 2017 wrote: Old Bailey Trial 10th September 1823. ([http]: //www. oldbaileyonline. org) t18230910-72 WILLIAM BROWN was indicted for stealing, on the 25th of August, at St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, a mare, price 3 l. , the property of Thomas Heryatt. THOMAS HERYATT. Ilive in Collingwood-street, Blackfriars-road. On the 20th of August, Ilost a mare from a field at Lambeth — I had put it there that morning, and in the evening it was gone; I found it on the 29th, at Smithfield, in possession of Bartlett, who returned it to me. I am certain it is mine. JAMES BARTLETT. I am a dustman. Ibought the mare of Johnson, for three guineas, on the 22nd of August. HUMPHREY JOHNSON. Ilive at Pimlico. On the 20th of August, Ibought the mare of the prisoner, for 45s. , in Duck-lane, and sold it to Bartlett — he said he brought it from Kingston, and gave me a receipt for the money, which Iproduce; (read. ) JAMES GILLMORE. I am an officer. On the 3rd of September, I apprehended the prisoner in Pye-street, Westminster, and asked where he got the mare he sold to Buckthorpe's friend, (meaning Johnson) — he said he bought her at Wandsworth-fair, of a man named Johnson; that he had no receipt for it, and did not know where to find him. Prisoner. Q. I told you Ibought it at Romford-market — A. No. Prisoner's Defence. Ibought her at Romford-market for 2 l. GUILTY — DEATH. Aged 21. Denis Pember on 4th January, 2017 wrote: William is recorded in the 1828 Census: Page 66 [Ref 2759] Brown, William, 27, GS, Minerva, 1824, Life, Labourer for Joseph Onus at Richmond. In 1835, William married Margaret Allen at Richmond. Margaret was the daughter of Edward Allen (Convict, 1806, "Fortune") and Sarah Cowling. Sarah Cowling was herself the daughter of Thomas Cowling (Convict, 1792, "Pitt") and Eleanor Bryan (Convict, 1793, "Sugar Cane"). Convict Changes History Denis Pember on 4th January, 2017 made the following changes: gender: m, crime" "[https]: //convictrecords. com. au/convicts/roberts/john/106607 Contribute to this record John Roberts John Roberts, one of 338 convicts transported on the Coromandel and Experiment, November 1803 Name, Aliases & Gender Name: John Roberts Aliases: none Gender: m Birth, Occupation & Death Date of Birth: 1765 Occupation: - Date of Death: - Age: - Life Span Life span Male median life span was 52 years* * Median life span based on contributions Conviction & Transportation Sentence Severity Sentence Severity Sentenced to 7 years Crime: Stealing Convicted at: Old Bailey Sentence term: 7 years Ship: Coromandel and Experiment Departure date: November, 1803 Arrival date: 7th May, 1804 Place of arrival New South Wales Passenger manifest Travelled with 337 other convicts References Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 87, Class and Piece Number HO11/1, Page Number 352 Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. Did you find the person you were looking for? If John Roberts was the person you were looking for, you may be able to discover more about them by looking at our resources page. If you have more hunting to do, try a new search or browse the convict records. Know more about John Roberts? Contribute to this record Community Contributions Carolyn Sim on 23rd April, 2017 wrote: JOHN ROBERTS was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 12th of August 1802, a box, value 1s. 6d. four shirts value 2l. 8s. two shifts, value 10s. five table-cloths, value 1l. two napkins, value 5s. fifteen aprons, value 1l. 10s. six towels, value 6s. two pair of sheets, value 3l. two pillowcases, value 5s. three half handkerchiefs, value 6s. two stocks, value 5s. five neckcloths, value 10s. a flannel petticoat, value 3s. a pair of pockets, value 1s. four pair of stockings, value 12s. and two waistcoats, value 8s. the property of William Miller. He married Ann Bolton in 1803, and she travelled to Australia on the "Experiment" in 1803 as the wife of a convict. Phil Hands on 6th February, 2018 wrote: Tried and convicted at the Old Bailey on 18th September 1802 for theft, he was sentenced to transportation for 7 years. Left England on 4th December 1803 Ship: — the 'Coromandel' sailed with 200 male convicts on board, there were no reported deaths during the voyage. Arrived on 7th May 1804. He married Ann Bolton in 1802-03, she travelled as a convict's wife on the 'Experiment' which arrived on 24th June 1804. No other record of John has been found as yet. Ann was said to have married convict John Dempsy () in 1809 (no record found) they had 9 children between 1809-1827. Old Bailey Trial Transcription. Reference Number: t18020918-50 635. JOHN ROBERTS was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 12th of August, a box, value 1s. 6d. four shirts value 2l. 8s. two shifts, value 10s. five table-cloths, value 1l. two napkins, value 5s. fifteen aprons, value 1l. 10s. six towels, value 6s. two pair of sheets, value 3l. two pillowcases, value 5s. three half handkerchiefs, value 6s. two stocks, value 5s. five neckcloths, value 10s. a flannel petticoat, value 3s. a pair of pockets, value 1s. four pair of stockings, value 12s. and two waistcoats, value 8s. the property of William Miller. WILLIAM MILLER sworn. — Ilive at Wandsworth, in Surry: The box was delivered into my care on the morning of Thursday, the 12th of August, at Wandsworth, and I was to deliver it to Mr. Campbell, NO. 12, Newcastle-street, in the Strand; I am answerable for it, if it should be lost; I saw the contents of it, and took it to an errandcart that goes to the same place I do; it was stole from Potter's cart; Ireceived the box about nine o'clock in the morning. THOMAS POTTER sworn. — I had the care of an errand-cart of my father's, and Ireceived a box from Mr. Miller, which we took on account of Mr. Miller; Istopped the cart at the corner of Threadneedle-street, and went into the Flowerpot public-house, in Bishopsgate-street, to call for parcels; when Icame back again, Imissed the box our of the cart; Ilooked down Threadneedle-street, and saw the prisoner carrying it on his shoulder; Ijumped down, ran after him, and pulled the box off his shoulder; he ran away; Icalled out stop thief, and he was taken in Broad-street; Imissed him about a minute or two, after he threw the box down; two gentlemen stopped him; I saw his face, and took notice of his dress; he was stopped just as Icame round the corner, that is the man; he had a pepper and salt-coloured coat, with a black collar. HECTOR CAMPBELL sworn. — Ilive at No. 12, Newcastle-street, Strand; I delivered the box to the boy on Thursday the 12th of August, about half past one, with the linen in it, just as I saw it at the Magistrate's; I don't know wo is the proprietor of the cart. THOMAS TERRY sworn. — I am an officer, and was in Finch-lane on the 12th of August; the prisoner was given in charge to me, and I took him to the Mansion-house; he ws charged with stealing a box out of the Wandsworth errand-cart; Miller brought the box to the Mansion-house, but I did not see the contents; I have three handkerchiefs that were taken out of the box. (Produces them. ) THOMAS WALKER sworn. — Ikeep the Fleece in Threadneedle-street, and was standing at the door when Potter pulled the box from the prisoner's shoulder; then the prisoner walked a few paces forward, upon which the boy caught hold of his coat, and called out, he is a thief, he stole the box, still holding him by the coat; the prisoner then pushed the boy violently from him into the kennel, and ran off, the boy after him, leaving the box on the ground; when he got to the corner of Broad-street, I said, I would take care of the box, which I did, and in a few minutes the prisoner was brought back; I am sure he is the man. Prisoner's defence. I am a collar-maker ; I went for harness to an inn; Imet a man with the box in Threadneedle-street, who said he was going to the Excise-office, and asked me if I would give an eye to the box, for that it was going by the Islington stage; he stopping some time, I was taking it to the stage. Potter, He gave no account of it at all; I told him he had stole the box; he said, it was no such thing; he said nothing about the Islington stage. The prisoner called one witness, who gave him a good character. GUILTY, aged 37. Transported for seven years. London Jury before Mr. Recorder. Phil Hands on 6th February, 2018 wrote: Convict John Dempsey arrived on the 'Atlas II' on 30th October 1802. Ron Garbutt on 10th March, 2020 wrote: 1765. Year of Birth. Source. Detail Class: HO 26; Piece: 8; Page: 114 Source Information Title England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 Author Ancestry. com Ron Garbutt on 10th March, 2020 wrote: 18 Sep 1802. Trial and Conviction. Source. Trial transcript. Old Bailey online. General Thomas Hughes on the value of team sports in secondary education "Let the remembrance of it take care of itself" - Thomas Hughes on the transience of athletic fame Archery National Archery Meeting (image) Bathing (i. e. swimming) Passing the Swimming Test at Eton (image) = [https]://victorianweb.org/art/illustration/hall/3.html" target="_blank">Link Victorian bathing machine (image) Learning to swim (image) Bicycling [Woman's cycling outfit (Punch)] The Line of Beauty (Punch) Happy Thought New Regulations for the safety of bicyclists. A man with red flag must precede all horsemen (Punch) Boxing John "Gentleman" Jackson's monument in Brompton Cemetery Thomas Sayers, bare-knuckle boxer Cricket The Eton-Harrow Cricket Match (image) The Eton-Winchester Cricket Match (image) The Cricket Fields at Eton (image) Waiting for His Innings (sculpture) Grand Cricket Match at Brighton, 1844 The professional Fishing Fishing punt and fly fishing Fishing for gudgeon from a punt (H. R. Robertson) Dibbing for Chubb (H. R. Robertson) How very kind (Punch Mr. Bill Pothunter having permission for "One day only" - determines to improve the occasion (Punch) Fly-dressing in the holidays (Punch) Thames Fishing (John Leech) Our friend Briggs contemplates a Day's Fishing (John Leech) Mr Briggs starts on his fishing expedition (John Leech) [Mr Briggs fishing in the rain] (John Leech) Minnow caught by Mr. Briggs; exact size of life (John Leech) Mr Briggs has another day's fishing (John Leech) The triumphant success of Mr. Briggs (John Leech) Mr. Briggs, anxious to become a "complete angler, " studies the "Gentle Art" of Fly-fishing (John Leech) The Pike is a Voracious fish, and bites very readily in the winter months (John Leech) Angling in the Serpentine - Saturday, P. M. (John Leech) Bottom Fishing (John Leech) An Enthusiastic Fisherman (John Leech) Foo the ll The Wall Game (image) Rugby 1899 Golf Harry Vardon Horse racing Derby Day by William Powell Frith Kingston, Winner of the Goodwood Cup, 1842 Pony-Races on Blackheath Horse riding [Riding in Hyde Park] (image) Hunting Shooting an Otter Flight Shooting Approaching the fowl with stalking-horse Shooting with the stalking-horse Hunting with the stalking-horse The stalking-horse in Shakespeare and other authors Moor-hen shooting Mountain climbing Sir Leslie Stephen and Alpine Mountaineering: A New Sport Sir Leslie Stephen and Alpine Mountaineering: A Companionable Pursuit Punting (see Oxford and fishing) Woman punting (1) (Mortimer Menpes) Woman punting (2) (Mortimer Menpes) Rowing and paddling for leisure Man paddling (Mortimer Menpes) Woman paddling (Mortimer Menpes) The Gentle Craft (John leech) Competitive rowing Racing boat, single oarsman The Eight-oared cutter The Thames Wherry Henley-on-Thames: the Regatta Course (I) Henley-on-Thames: the Regatta Course (II) The Captain of the Boats at Eton (image) [The Victorious Boat] at Eton (image) The Rowers (sculpture) Manchester Regatta, 1844 Rugby Sculpture (Ruby Levick) The Ardor and the Joy of a Game at Foot-Ball (Fred Barnard) Skiing Doyle and the introduction of skiing in Switzerland Tennis Hygienic Exercise Punch Track and field Bibliography Games in Victorian Literature: A Bibliography '" "Thomas Hughes on the value of team sports in secondary education George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University [Victorian Web Home - > Authors - > Thomas Hughes - > Works - > Literary Relations - > Theme and Subject] Cricket bats, fishing poles, footballs, and other sports equipment clutter every corner of Tom Brown's Schooldays. Appropriately so, for Thomas Hughes believed sports, particularly team sports, played an important role in secondary schools for exactly the same reasons that they often receive support today: First of all, they give the student (like Tom Brown) with average, or below average, academic interest, ability, and accomplishment something in which to take pride, even to the point of providing a reason to work hard enough to remain in school. Another value of such activities, as the headmaster of a boarding school explained to me more than a half century ago, is simply that it keeps students busy and therefore out of trouble — a point that I am sure both Thomas Hughes and his idol, Thomas Arnold, were well aware. In addition, team sports, as Hughes emphasizes, provide an important form of socialization because they teach participants the value of individual sacrifice for the sake of a group. In Tom Brown's Schooldays, Hughes employs one of the oldest of all literary devices - the positive judgment of something by an impartial or even potentially hostile observer - to emphasize this third important educational value of team sports at secondary schools. In The Iliad Helen points out the Achilles's power and beauty; in this schoolboy novel, one of the teachers at Rugby admits that now that he has begun to understand cricket "scientifically, " as he puts it, " he can see "What a noble game it is, too!" Tom, who certainly agrees, responds that "it's more than a game. It's an institution, " and his young friend Arthur goes farther, proclaiming, probably partly tongue-in-cheek, that is also is "the birthright of British boys old and young, as habeas corpus and trial by jury are of British men. " Ignoring their more extravagant claims, the teacher states what has become the standard praise of team sports: "The discipline and reliance on one another which it teaches is so valuable, I think, " went on the master, "it ought to be such an unselfish game. It merges the individual in the eleven; he doesn't play that he may win, but that his side may. " "That's very true, " said Tom, "and that's why football and cricket, now one comes to think of it, are such much better games than fives or hare-and-hounds, or any others where the object is to come in first or to win for oneself, and not that one's side may win. " Although such views of organized athletics might seem obvious or old-fashioned today, such was not the case when Hughes wrote, though they perhaps came to Rugby earlier than other Public Schools. Histories of Eton and other schools make clear that students had both very light academic workloads and a great deal of unsupervised free time that they devoted to, among other things, drinking, gambling, bullying, fighting, and poaching game. The authorities either ignored organized sports or, in the case of competitions between schools, prohibited them to the point of threatening participating students with expulsion. Rugby, imbued with Thomas Arnold's muscular Christianity, seems to have pioneered what became the standard approach to school athletics in late Victorian England. Related Material "Let the remembrance of it take care of itself" - Thomas Hughes on the transience of athletic fame References Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown's Schooldays. Electronic version from Project Gutenberg produced by Gil Jaysmith and David Widger. ______________________ "Let the remembrance of it take care of itself" - Thomas Hughes on the transience of athletic fame George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History, Brown University [Victorian Web Home - > Authors - > Thomas Hughes - > Works - > Theme and Subject] Tom Brown's Schooldays, which praises the role of sports in Public School education, describes a world of boys and young men enjoying the "legitimate pastimes of cricket, fives, bathing, and fishing, " and one of the things that make Tom a school-boy hero is his accomplishment in becoming captain of an important team. Hughes here briefly sounds a note much like those found throughout so many reminiscences of Public School graduates who regale the reader with tales of once-glorious once-young athletes. Hughes, however, take a very different - and one might say more mature - approach: at the same time that he conveys the pleasure and glory of schoolboy athletic achievement, encouraging his young readers to enjoy every moment of it, he also emphasizes that such accomplishments and the fame they bring are transient - and properly so. Note how in the following passage, he places the reader in a particular moment, makes us feel present, and then moves these events into what will be the past: It was a fine November morning, and the close soon became alive with boys of all ages, who sauntered about on the grass, or walked round the gravel walk, in parties of two or three. East, still doing the cicerone, pointed out all the remarkable characters to Tom as they passed: Osbert, who could throw a cricket-ball from the little-side ground over the rook-trees to the Doctor's wall; Gray, who had got the Balliol scholarship, and, what East evidently thought of much more importance, a half-holiday for the School by his success; Thorne, who had run ten miles in two minutes over the hour; Black, who had held his own against the cock of the town in the last row with the louts; and many more heroes, who then and there walked about and were worshipped, all trace of whom has long since vanished from the scene of their fame. And the fourth-form boy who reads their names rudely cut on the old hall tables, or painted upon the big-side cupboard (if hall tables and big-side cupboards still exist), wonders what manner of boys they were. It will be the same with you who wonder, my sons, whatever your prowess may be in cricket, or scholarship, or foo the ll. Two or three years, more or less, and then the steadily advancing, blessed wave will pass over your names as it has passed over ours. Nevertheless, play your games and do your work manfully - see only that that be done - and let the remembrance of it take care of itself. Waiting for His Innings and The Rowers both by Joseph Durham. [Click on thumbnails for larger images] Some critics have argued that an elegaic tone permeates much of the finest Victorian literature - yearning for lost childhoods that may not have been as idyllic as remembered or yearning for lost ages, such as Carlyle's, Pugin's, and Ruskin's middle ages, that also might not have been all that they were cracked up to be. Certainly, In Memoriam and The I dylls of the King record personal loss, as does Ruskin's Praeterita, which is in part a record of dead friends and relations. Hughes here strikes a note closer to Hopkins's "Spring and Fall" or Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young. " But his chief advice is, enjoy things proper to youth while you can, or as he puts it, "The elms rustled, the sparrows in the ivy just outside the window chirped and fluttered about, quarrelling, and making it up again; the rooks, young and old, talked in chorus, and the merry shouts of the boys and the sweet click of the cricket-bats came up cheerily from below. " References Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown's Schooldays. Electronic version from Project Gutenberg produced by Gil Jaysmith and David Widger. Victorian Web Authors Thomas Hughes Education Sports Last modified 3 August 2006 '" "ATMOSPHERE / AIR Vic Keegan's Lost London 100: Where to look for London Bridge 19th July 2019 The original London Bridge with houses on top — without which London would never have existed — lasted an amazing 600 years, until 1831. In that year, it was pulled down to make way for Scottish civil engineer John Rennie's London Bridge bridge, which survived a mere 130 years before being sold to a chainsaw millionaire and transported to America in 1967. But although the first two London Bridges were demolished, they have not disappeared from the city. A surprising amount of their remains can still be found, if you are prepared to look for them. [BNA: Link. [NB The medieval bridge, not the Rennie etc etc] [BNA: Link. Completed 1831 VVG [BNA: mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Moseley/" target="_blank">Link His brother et al [BNA: kingscollections.org/victorianlives/m-o/moseley-andrew" "The Skeleton Army With heavy drinking increasingly attacked by the Government and media, Tug Wilson suggests we look to history for guidance, and that it is once again time for drunkards everywhere to march under the banner of the Skeleton Army. Skeleton Army The Skeleton Army fights the Salvation Army in the streets, 1884 During the late 19th Century the recently formed Salvation Army were taking their message of virtuous clean living to the streets of Britain, deliberately targeting drunks, gamblers, prostitutes and other 'undesirables'. The Salvation Army's unconventional approach was abrasive to both the Christian establishment and many of those they were preaching to. In choosing to attack popular working class pastimes, they whipped up a violent grassroots reaction and their provocative style of disseminating their message often resulted in public disturbances. Towards the end of 1881 in Weston-Super-Mare a rag tag bunch of libertines, drunkards, publicans and brothel-keepers began an organised opposition to the Salvation Army; the Skeleton Army. Very soon Skeleton Armies started appearing throughout the country. The Skeleton Army's chief purpose was to disrupt Salvation Army activity whenever they surfaced in public. The methods were varied, from the mischievous mockery of the Salvation Army's music and songs in order to make their processions pointless, to openly attacking them in the street. They would pelt the Salvationists with paint filled eggs, dead animals, burning coals and anything else available. When missiles were not to be found, fists, feet and sticks were used. The police would rarely intervene, and when they did, the Salvation Army's unpopular militant manner meant they were just as, if not more likely, to fall foul of their attention. Some in positions of authority, such as the Mayor of Eastbourne, even joined brewers and other supporters by endorsing the actions of the Skeleton Army. The Skeleton Army imitated much of the regalia of the Salvation Army. They too had a uniform of sorts; they would recognise each other by apparel or accessories adorned with skull and crossbones. Their flags would feature skulls, skeletons and coffins. The Salvation Army's slogans were also turned against them. Blood and Fire became Blood and Thunder; whilst their three S's, Soup, Soap and Salvation was replaced by the three B's; Beef, Beer and Bacca. They also produced their own blasphemous and obscene newsletters to promote their cause. Riots occurred frequently wherever the Salvation Army marched but it was in April 1884 in Worthing, shortly after they obtained their first rented premises that things came to a head. Their barracks shared an alley with a liquor store and following a protest against drinking the week before, the store keeper in anger erected a barricade in the alley. The landlord, Mr George Head, tore this down, inflaming the situation. By now, popular opposition to the Salvation Army's message of temperance was growing, and the Worthing Excelsior Skeleton Army was born. Within days, mainly due to the existence of resident troublemakers the Bonfire Boys, they numbered 4,000 and enjoyed the support of local newspaper The Worthing Gazette. Riots involving the Salvation Army and the Skeleton Army became regular, and a very serious confrontation was inevitable. General William Booth, head of the Salvation Army confined the newly appointed Captain Ada Smith and her group to their barracks whilst he pleaded with various law enforcers, all the way up to the Home Secretary, seeking protection for them. No assurance was given but General Booth ordered them to march out again regardless. Foreseeing trouble, Worthing police drafted in extra officers in an attempt to keep the peace. At 2pm, 17th August, the Salvation Army had congregated outside their hall. Police lined the route of their march, truncheons poised as the Salvationists marched past the baiting Skeletons. Despite tensions, matters remained peaceful until the Salvation Army were approaching the end of their procession. Just before they had reached the safety of their hall, the Skeleton Army had over taken them by some thirty yards. The march halted and after a brief pause the Skeletons ploughed into the Salvationists. The atmosphere was charged with blood and the sound of screaming and breaking glass. The Salvation flag soon fell, leaving just the skull and crossbones flag of the Skeletons flying. The police were quick in attempting to crush the disturbance, to no avail. The Salvation Army soon retreated to Montague Hall, where the Skeletons attempted to burn the building down. The landlord, keen to protect his property, shot into the crowd, injuring several of the Skeletons. Only when troops were sent in, and the Riot Act read, was law and order restored. Skeleton Armies continued to sporadically pop up around the country until 1892. In their decade of resistance to the Salvation Army, they were responsible for dozens of riots and several deaths. Eventually the authorities clamped down on their activities, and combined with the increasing popularity of the Salvation Army, their numbers dwindled. Thus ended a short and unruly period of English social history. [BNA: Link. The Wit and Wisdom of Charles Spurgeon Review of Books 2021 CH Spurgeon on Building Missional Churches Charles Spurgeon on the power of the Holy Spirit Charles Spurgeon's Advice for Leaders Charles Spurgeon on Personal, Devotional Prayer Charles Spurgeon on Little Sins, the Curse, and the Centrality of the Cross Charles Spurgeon on Faith and Prayer Quotes About Caring by CH Spurgeon CH Spurgeon's Practical Calvinism CH Spurgeon on Personal Evangelism Great Quotes by CH Spurgeon Spurgeon the 'greasy abolitionist'! A Match Made in Heaven Charles and Susannah Spurgeon Our need of the Spirit, with help from CH Spurgeon The time Imet William Booth, by Rudyard Kipling Books in the year of COVID Required Reading on Early Christianity Out of the Ordinary CS Lewis Spurgeon and the Stolen Gloves RSS — Posts RSS — Comments Website Powered by WordPress.com. Follow Skip to toolbar My Site Reader AMP Write Log Out [BNA: lexloiz.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/the-skeleton-army/" "See also Church History Review Bite-sized chunks of yesterday to inspire faith today, with Lex Loizides The Skeleton Army October 23, 2017Lex Loizides Opposition. Violence. Persecution. The Skeleton Army When Christianity begins to actually take hold to decisively win the hearts of ordinary men and women there is usually a violent backlash. Persecution is not something sensible Christians seek, but even the briefest glimpse of those times when the church has been very successful evangelistically will reveal the presence of a cultural kick-back. The violent persecutions of the church by Diocletian in the early 4th Century, the martyrs before, during and after the Reformation period, the mobs that attacked Whitefield and Wesley, the persecution today of churches forced 'underground', are all examples of this phenomena. When the main body of a population begin to embrace Christianity in significant numbers there's a reaction. The same is true in the history of the Salvation Army. At first there were a few individuals throwing eggs and disrupting open air meetings, but soon there was an organised effort against the evangelists. The dreaded Skeleton Army, so called, violently attacked the Salvationists in order to stop them preaching the gospel. The assaults were persistent and extremely violent as the following accounts illustrate: Arnold Begbie: 'Perhaps the worst of the riots was that which occurred at Sheffieldwhen a Procession led by General and Mrs Booth was attacked by a numerous and savage multitude armed with sticks and stones. The procession arrived at its destination with bruised and bleeding faces, with ton and mud-bespattered garments, cheering the General who had passed unscathed through the rabble. 'Now's the time,' he said, regarding his ragged, wounded and excited followers, 'to get your photographs taken.' Riots occurred at Bath, Guildford, Arbroath, Forfar, and many other places. In twelve months, it is recorded, 669 Salvationists, of whom 251 were women, were 'knocked down, kicked, or brutally assaulted.' Fifty-six buildings of The Army were stormed and partially wrecked. Eighty-six Salvationists, fifteen of them women, were thrown into prison. From one end of the kingdom to the other, this effort to break up The Army was carried on in a most shameless fashion under the very eyes of the law, the mob attacking the Salvationists, the police arresting the Salvationists, the magistrates sentencing the Salvationists.'[i] Richard Collier: 'But molestation wasn't confined to the streetsAt Plymouth, Devon, forty men armed with brimming chamber pots stormed the hall to drench James Dowdle, "The Saved Railway Guard," with urine. Time and again meetings were closed down in wild confusionEven 1,500 police doing extra duty every Sunday seemed powerless to protect Booth's troops. Neither age nor sex proved a barrier, for the mobs were out for blood. In Northampton, one blackguard tried to knife a passing lassie; Wolverhampton thugs flung lime in a Salvationist child's eyes. At Hastings, Mrs. Susannah Beaty, one of Booth's first converts on Mile End Waste, became The Army's first martyrReeling under a fire of rocks and putrid fish, she was kicked deliberately in the womb and left for dead in a dark alley of the Old Town. [ii] Humphrey Wallis: 'No Salvationist defended himself or herself by physical force. Knocked down, kicked, struck, reviled, reported guilty of bestial behaviour, accused of blasphemy and unprintable acts in their Meetings, they took refuge in the reply, 'God bless you,' and in prayer for their assailants. Elijah [Cadman], who had been so 'handy with the gloves,' and experienced such rough handling that a few of his brother-Officers hinted he liked persecution, had never raised a finger for himself or Army protection. More than his share of mud, stones, dead rats, and cats found their billets on or around him. He led a march in the slums waving a stik with one hand, and carrying a dead rat by its tail in the other; he had caught the rat as it flew to its aimA live cat was thrown at him. 'The live one was worse than all the dead ones; for the live one, poor thing, hung on. People wondered why we carried those dead rats and cats with us. It did seem silly. But, don't you see, if we had left 'em where they fell the mob would have had 'em again, and thrown 'em at us again, and one swat in the eye per one dead rat is enough,' said he.' [iii] Roy Hattersley: 'Throughout England opposition to the Salvation Army was growing fast. The Skeleton Armies founded in Exeter and Weston-super-Mare for the specific purpose of breaking up Salvation Army meetings began to set up branches throughout the south of England. Although the Armies had no formal structure or high command, the groups that came together had four common features the backing of the breweries, the sympathy of the magistrates, the conservative attitude of the local population and the relatively small size of the towns in which the 'skeletons' operated. Without the breweries the Skeleton Armies would have been nothing. In one of his many angry memoranda to the Home Secretary, William Booth wrote: In nearly every town where there has been any opposition we have been able to trace it more or less to the direct instigation and often the open leadership of either Brewers or Publicans or their EMPLOYEES. The plan adopted is by treating or otherwise inciting gangs of roughs.' [iv] To read the next post, and hear William Booth preach, click here For the first post in this series on the Salvation Army click here [i] Harold Begbie, Life of William Booth: The Founder of the Salvation Army (2 vols. London: MacMillan, 1920) 2:2 [ii] Richard Collier, The General Next to God (Glasgow: Fontana/Collins 1965) p.94 [iii] Humphrey Wallis, The Happy Warrior (London: Salvationist Publishing, 1928), p.90 [iv] Roy Hattersley, Blood and Fire (London: Abacus, 2000), p.273 2017 Lex Loizides Church History Review Share this: FacebookTwitterWhatsAppPrintEmailRedditPinterestTumblrPress This Loading . . . Related Introducing the Salvation Army October 24, 2013 In "19th Century" London Riots 2011 the Church's Response August 9, 2011 In "21st Century"" "Should you be interested in finding more local people to interview, there's my old friend Hugh Betterton. You may recall that Iwrote a Chronicle last year about the death of three adults and several children in a thunderstorm in 1914. Hugh read it and contacted me: Particularly poignant as Albert Bett(es) and his daughter were killed; my own mother's stepfather and stepsister! My mother was about 8 years old at the time and often talked about the storm, recalling — in a matter of fact way — the deaths. All best Philip ______________ Here's his brief "memory of Wandsworth Common" on the Francis Frith website — clearly he could say a lot more: Wandsworth Common A Memory of Wandsworth. Lived at 26 West Side from late 40s until the underpass was built, then to Morville House in later 1960s. Loved being able to cross Trinity Road to the common where Ispent many hours with different friends, often playing football and cricket. The Frying Pan was wonderful as was the 4 walled building by it which often had water and rubble which was a real invitation for 'bombing' the puddles. I attended Allfarthing as an infant then to Swaffield Boys and onto Emanuel after passing 11+. Friends included Andrew Noble who lived in Acris Street, The 3 MacNamara Boys, David Price and Chris Bull from the small block of flats on Westside. Other friends lived in and around that network of streets behind Westside and Trinity Road. At Emanuel, friendships made from different parts of south London, many of whom Istill see when time (and lockdown) allows. Watched Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (and still do) for many years from when I was about 8 or 9 with my dad. Had pretensions about being a footballer, boosted by a season with Wimbledon when I was 16. Enjoyed that but nowhere near good enough; played Sunday League football from Westside FC for several years until a knee injury stopped that. But played again in higher ed and then ran teams at the schools where I worked; vicarious enjoyment! Those early days in the 50s and 60s were a joy. The freedom of being able to use the common, go to pictures in Wandsworth High Street and Clapham Junction, travelling on trains and buses all over London, the paper round that gave me money to do that. Saturday jobs at Selfridges and Harrods, holiday jobs on building sites, local factories and Arding & Hobbs all gave me a real sense of belonging to the area. No rose tinted glasses though. Just warm memories of a time gone by now, but such a formative time. With thanks to Hugh Betterton for this memory of Wandsworth Eitcoaonviliaao Monday freeing a party of Gentlest'. at Wandsworth Fair, retired to the George public-beam/a hare time refreshateut, when the conversation forming on diferent Pedestrien Faadi of the present day, a lessee of be panda -es tayl mid deposited, that Henry Rower; amen pens ish upend the neighbourhood if end Newington, imolai, en the Post tity, miles within en boar, cerrjing 56 petal} on his head. Yesterday mornioe, he Matted from Hyd% Park — 4 torner, et six . w%elipek, with a basket, 16 weight. of stones no his bead; he was accompanied by men on Animists-, sod followed by considerable lumber of pedestrians, wheal i.e. lift behind. lie trotted eldrig ender his burden with considerable 'peed, and wear once halted entil be 'niched she plate of his dastiestioa, the moon at Hshridge:ten miaetas ender the glee. time, spiwireatly as fresh as when he set set; bets were too and tbree eat against hl. at 'tulips. Bell's New Weekly Messenger — Sunday 6 June 1847 LINK^p WANDSWORTH. Distressing Scene. Mary Anne Alderson, a pretty featured girl, aged eighteen, was charged with the following heartless and daring robbery. The case which provokes, and seems to justify, the remarks we have offered on (he abuse of the powers which the law confides to magistrates with respect to bail, is briefly told:%A hoary-headed miscreant, of superior dress and address — to call him man would be to libel the species — was charged with enticing little girl the tender age ten years from her play, and inducing her to accompany him to booth in Wandsworth fair, where he was observed to act toward her with the grossest indecency. He was given into custody: taken before Mr. Cure; to whom be admits the troth of the accusation; implores that he may he liberated; urges hit respectability; and makes a passionate appeal to the feelings of the magistrate to the consequences which will inevitably result to him from exporors. The magistrate is inexorable. The case is one which he will not dispose of summarily, but will commit for trial. Then arose the question as to bail. If the appearance of the accused party to meet the charge at the aeswons is to be secured, it it obvious that the amount of bail moat be regulated by his circumstances and the LEOPARD ON WC! Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette — Thursday 11 June 1846 LINK A leopard-hunt took place Wandsworth on Wednesday. The leopard escaped from a show at Wandsworth fair and ran to the common; where a man noticed it, and thinking it was a dog he approached — only to take to his heels when he perceived his mistake. A mob assembled, and scoured the common: the stranger was eventually captured at Battersea by his keeper. Morning Advertiser — Monday 22 June 1846 LINK James Beale, aged 10, and Frederick Harvey, 20, were convicted of stealing a purse containing three shillings and sixpence, from the person of Jemima Humphreys. The offence was committed at Wandsworth Fair, on Whit-Monday last, they having been watched for four hours and upwards a police-officer in private clothes. Sentenced to he imprisoned each for one year. Jimt before the adjournment of the Court, Globe — Friday 20 May 1842 LINK TO THE EDITOR OF THE GLOBE. Sir, ln your paper of Tuesday last, under the head of "Steam-boat Accident, " it is there stated that The Era was returning from Wandsworth Fair, and landed her passengers at Hungerford, and was returning to her moorings. The fact is, The Era never put in or took up a passenger at Wandsworth that evening, but returned at her usual time from Richmond, and had been lying at her moorings nearly three hours, when the Vivid, on her return from Greenwich, was struck in the bow by some other boat, and backing her stern against The Era, did considerable external damage to her sponsons, &c. The Era did not go down as stated, neither was there the slightest foundation for such a report. By inserting the above, you will much oblige, Sir, Yours, &c. THOMAS HANCOCK. Era Office, 8, Salisbury-street, Strand, 19th May, 1842. London Evening Standard — Monday 6 April 1840 LINK The Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police have issued notices suppressing Wandsworth Fair, after the present year, it having been hitherto held without lawful authority." Large as the estate was, it was already much reduced from its heyday under the McKellar family, when its total extent was more than a 100 acres.
A previous [owner], Henry McKellar, also owned the land on which Wandle Road, Brodrick Road and the great wedge of of land bounded by Trinity Road, Bellevue, and St James's Drive ("McKellar's triangle"). Much of this land had until recently formed part of Wandsworth Common, but an Earl Spencer had sold it to McKellar. This area had remained open fields until after McKellar's death in ?, when it was sold for building [purposes]." "Landscape / Environment / Sport Flattened cleared areas lines posts and chains fenced off areas . . . hard surfaces bowls, tennis Pubs and publicans promoting & organising matches Contests between 2 players/opponents Challenges — Iwill do this feat From HistoryBoys" "ODD / UNEQUAL NUMBERS OF PLAYERS ODD DISTANCES" "Alun Howkins History Workshop Journal, Volume 78, Issue 1, Autumn 2014, Pages 107132, [https]://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbu021" "CALICO [BNA:
[[https]://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=time+team+%22Digging+Liberty%22%09Merton%2c+London&qpvt=time+team+%22Digging+Liberty%22%09Merton%2c+London&FORM=VDRE] Available on YouTube __________________ An 18th century print house uncovered outside of the wheelhouse during the filming of Channel 4's Time Team During the 17th century the East India Company imported from India cotton cloth called 'calico'. It was printed in bright colours and, although very expensive, became very popular. The new cloth alarmed the English woolen industry, which in 1700 obtained an Act of Parliament banning imported printed fabrics. As a result, merchants imported plain cotton and developed the techniques of printing it. Before the cloth was printed it was bleached in crofting or bleaching grounds (large open areas of grassland cut by parallel, water-filled, ditches). First the cloth was immersed in an alkaline solution made from wood ashes, and then in sour milk. The cloth was then washed in the water-filled ditches and laid out on the grassland, enabling sunlight to bleach it. This was a slow process and took many months to complete; not until the mid- 1750s was the bleaching time greatly reduced by using dilute sulphuric acid for the souring. By the end of the century chlorine, in the form of bleaching powder, made new methods of mass-production possible. The early calicoes were printed by hand using wood blocks, replaced in the 1750s by engraved copper plates. The copper plates had the advantage of taking more detail than the wood blocks, but still had to be operated by hand. By the end of the 18th century copper plates were replaced in turn by copper cylinders which enabled entire lengths of cloth to be printed much faster. Merton Abbey Mills calico works in the 1820s Merton Abbey Mills calico works in the 1820s Merton Abbey calico works In 1724 a calico manufactory was established at Merton Abbey on the east bank of the River Wandle. The calico works probably adapted existing priory buildings for the use of printing and dying. In 1752 a second calico works was established within the walls of Merton priory. These works were located to the north of the Abbey Mills print works, close to Merton High Street, and in 1881 they were taken over by William Morris. It is not certain who established the calico works at Merton Abbey, but in a will of 1756, a John Cecil is mentioned as a calico printer of Merton Abbey. Between c.1776-1783 a calico printer called Robert Maxwell had acquired the Merton print works. Robert Maxwell became bankrupt in 1783 and his copper plates were acquired by Joseph Talwin & Joseph Foster, calico printers for printing at Bromley Hall, another calico works on the River Lea. In 1784 John Leach had taken over the print works and a year later he was joined by a partner and traded as Leach and Howard. In 1786 the firm was called Leach and Co. Between 1787-1811 Leach was joined by various partners and the works were known as Newton, Leach and Co. (including Newton, Hodgson & Leach and other partners). Afterwards the company was called Newton, Leach, Greaves and Hodgson. It was said that they carried on "a very extensive trade" and had brought the art to "a great degree of perfection". "Bennett's Mill" in the 1890s In 1801 John Leach dissolved the partnership and set-up on his own constructing a range of print and dye houses on the west bank of the River Wandle and on the east bank, to the rear of the Merton Abbey print works. The large range of buildings to the south of the site were later to be known as "Bennett's Mill". It was at this time that Leach pioneered in new methods of madder production. In 1802 he invented his improved method of madder dyeing which involved using heated water with steam equipment which is listed in the survey of the works in 1802. Between 1811 and 1819 the Merton Abbey Print works were in the hands of Newton, Langdale, Simpson & Co. Newton had previously been printing in Wallington. In around 1779 Newton had engaged a manager, the Irish designer, William Kilburn, to whom he sold the Wallington works in 1784. In 1781 James Newton was in partnership with James Morison and William Kilburn with a calico works in Wallington. John Leach carried on his calico business to around 1811 when the works were in the hands of his son-in-law, Thomas Bennett for the production of colourful handkerchiefs. In 1821 the firm was called Bennett & Son. Thomas Bennett died in 1827 leaving his business to his son John. The firm continued production until 1833. In 1820 Joseph Ansell had taken over Newton, Langdale Simpson & Co. works at Merton Abbey and in 1831 Edmund Littler took over the Merton Abbey works for the production of silks and fine fabrics. The Littler family were an established calico printing firm both in West Ham Abbey and Waltham Abbey in the Lea Valley. In 1833 Littler also acquired Bennett's print works forming one large printing manufactory. Between c.1845-c.1862 the works were in the hands of Mary Ann Littler and around 1865 the works were in the hands of William and Edmund Littler. In 1875 Littler's started to print goods for Liberty's Regent Street shop and by the 1890's, Littler's were producing all of Liberty's goods. The hand block printed quality that Littler used became synonymous with "Liberty Art Fabrics". With the new Liberty's commission Littler's had made a number of alterations to the works. Between 1890 and 1894 the building located to the north of the mill house had been pulled down and a new brick block printing shop was erected to the south of the "Colour House". This building was known as the New Shop (Later Cole's Shop). One surviving building from the early print works is the "Colour House" built around 1740-1750 and would have originally had two floors. In the 1890s this building was known as the "Coldmount", a place where the printing fabrics were air dried. An 18th century dye pot found during the excavations on the former William Morris site An 18th century dye pot found during the excavations on the former William Morris site Liberty's purchased the Merton print works in 1904. Shortly after Liberty's acquired the site a number of the earlier weatherboarded buildings, including Bennett's mill, were demolished. Liberty gradually replaced the old weatherboarded workshops in brick In 1940 Liberty leased part of the factory, set aside for the screen-printing shop, to Parnall Aircraft Components Ltd. of Yate Aerodrome, Bristol Ltd., a Bristol based aircraft manufacturer. Parnall's also leased the 1929 shop. The work included the assembling of gun turrets for the Bristol Blenhein Fighter Bomber. After the war in 1945 Liberty took back the building leased to Parnall's and finally set up their screen-printing shop. Littler's works at the Merton Abbey print works in the 1890s Littler's works at the Merton Abbey print works in the 1890s Liberty and Co. ceased production at the Merton Abbey Works in 1972, but textile production continued at Merton with Vita-Tex Ltd., Riseline Ltd. and finally Merton Fabrics Ltd. The premises finally closed in 1982. Many of Liberty's buildings still survive today and the site is currently used as a market called Merton Abbey Mills. History of the 1752 calico works Arthur Liberty It is not certain who established these printing works. From around 1775 the works were occupied by Benjamin Vaughan & Son, and William Fenning and James Halfhide (calico printers and whitsters). By 1778 the works were occupied by Fenning, Halfhide & Co. Fenning was declared bankrupt in 1788 and the company name was altered to Halfhide & Sons, who continued production until that company finally went bankrupt in 1804/5. By 1805 a major alteration had divided the printing works into two properties. The gatehouse (James Halfhide's former residence) was occupied by Charles Smith, whilst the printing works were operated by William West on a sub-lease. A more efficient mill house, better suited for calico production was erected on the site. The dye house (ground floor) and the stained glass workshop (first floor) William West left in 1812 and a succession of companies then occupied the site, but only for short periods. From c1816 to 1834 the site was occupied by two separate industries, a leather factory and a silk works. In 1846 the site was leased to Thomas Welch who set up a table-cloth printing works. Welch was a successful printer who obtained a prize medal at the Great Exhibition in 1851. The works continued in his family until 1881 when William Morris purchased the site and established his stained glass, weaving, printing and tapestry works. These works finally closed in 1940. by David Saxby of the Museum of London Archaeology Service" "dorian-gerhold-wandsworths-industrial-transformation-1634-90-surreyac095_169-191_gerhold.pdf Dyeing Dyeing was another of Wandsworth's new industries in the 1650s, and was the onlyWandle industry that seems (at least in the 17th century) to have been carried out at Wandsworth alone. Little has been written about the dyeing industry and the other textile finishing trades, despite the fact that more than half the value of cloth England's main industry was in the finishing.74 The Wandle's water is often assumed to have been dirty, on the basis of Aubrey's reference to 'the Sink of the Country', but what Aubrey actually wrote was that Wandsworth's bridge (over theWandle), not theWandle itself, was the sink of the country.75 Evidently he meant that the bridge was expensive to maintain and was therefore where the country's (ie county's) money was sunk. If the water had been dirty, there could not have been any dyeing or bleaching works along the Wandle, though like any shared resource the clean water had to be defended against abuses and nuisances such as the 'filth mud and dirt' being washed into the river from a nearby road in 1743.76 The MiddleMill was used in the first half of the 16th century to grind a red dye from brazil wood, and two dyers held property at Wandsworth in the 1550s,77 but even if dyeing took place atWandsworth then it does not seem to have continued, and the specific type of dyeing practised at Wandsworth in the 17th century was a skill newly brought by foreigners (though the technique was apparently developed by a Dutchman in London earlier in the century).78 Its first practitioner at Wandsworth seems to have been Nicholas Pluyme, who is first recorded in the parish register in 1651. Pluyme was not just a dyer but a 'scarlet dyer',79 and this was the Wandsworth speciality. Scarlet was the brightest and most difficult colour to create. To make the best-quality red dyes the scarlet dyers used cochineal. This was derived from a small insect that lived on the nopal plant inMexico and was exported from Vera Cruz and then through Havana and Cadiz or Seville. Cochineal had been exploited by Europeans only since the 1540s, and for nearly two centuries no Europeans except the Spaniards, who monopolised it, even knew whether it came from an insect or a plant. It could cost up to 2 per lb, and the cost of dyeing wool with cochineal could exceed that of the unfinished cloth. Success for the dyer depended on the choice of cochineal, the water used for dyeing and the preparation of the acid solution.80 Judging by his placing in the 1665 hearth tax list, Pluyme's dye works was north of the High Street,81 and was probably the site later used for dyeing on the east side of the Wandle (until recently forming part of the Ram Brewery). Pluyme apparently also had premises in London, as he was said to have been bankrupted by losses in the Great Fire.82 His foreign origin is indicated mainly by his foreign-sounding name, but also by his association with Frenchmen such as Nicholas Lichere, a merchant of London and Wandsworth, for whom he was dyeing stockings in 1675.83 His possessions were seized for the benefit of his creditors 182 DORIAN GERHOLD 73 Gerhold 2002, 1812. 74 Holderness 1976, 8990; Fairlie 19645, 489. 75 Aubrey 1719, 1, 14. 76 WHerS: Wandsworth vestry minutes 170944, p 481. In this case it is recorded that the dirt was previously discharged elsewhere to prevent injury to local businesses and the surveyors were ordered to consider possible remedies. 77 Gerhold & Ensing 1999, 17; TNA: LR 2/190, ff 1125. 78 Greenfield 2005, 17682. 79 Squire 1889, 71; TNA: C 24/920, Lesheire v Paravicine; C 5/539/14. 80 Hellot 1901, 101, 102, 105; Greenfield 2006, 536, 94, 100, 20810; Fairlie 19645, 489. 81 TNA: E 179/188/489A. 82 TNA: C 6/183/75. 83 TNA: C 5/539/14; C 7/493/74. __________________ a few days before his death in 1675.84 The dyehouse is next recorded in 1724, but thereafter can be traced continuously until the late 1820s.85 The second scarlet dyer recorded at Wandsworth was Abraham Hebert in 1654. Hebert was at least once described as a Dutchman, but was in fact from Dieppe in France.86 His works were on the east side of the Wandle between the Upper Mill and Adkins Mill.87 In 1672 he was prosecuted for flinging 'his filthy dyinge stuffe' into the Wandle a sign that the purity of theWandle water had to be defended.88 Hebert died in 1682, and his executor's accounts, which survive as part of a Chancery suit, provide a picture of the business. Numerous debts were owed by London merchants for dyeing, especially of serges, which were brought to London from theWest Country, and stockings. The firm also traded in serges on its own account (one William Hebert was based at Exeter, where they came from). Serges were tentered in a field just across theWandle. At least two journeyman dyers were employed, and other expenses included cochineal, starch and barrels of cream of tartar, used as a fixative. The equipment was valued at 685. Hebert had a house in St Helen's Bishopsgate parish in the City.89 The inventory of Hebert's widow, Katherine, of 1684 indicates considerable prosperity, with a total value of 1809, including 104 of plate, 182 of gold and gold rings and 550 of cochineal at 20s per pound (held as security for a loan).90 Hebert left the dyehouse and equipment to his granddaughter Susan, but his grandson Abraham Gosselin was to have the use of 'the dyehouse kettles tenters and appurtenances' for ten years for 60 a year. Gosselin's family was from Caen in Normandy. The dyehouse seems subsequently to have been run by Matthew Hebert (from Dieppe), described as a merchant of London in Abraham Hebert's will, but as a scarlet dyer of Wandsworth in Katherine Hebert's will (he was undoubtedly both). He died in 1703, leaving his dyeing equipment to his wife Mary and son Abraham, who were jointly declared bankrupt in 1705, bringing to an end the Heberts' involvement in scarlet dyeing inWandsworth.91 Subsequently the dyehouse belonged successively to William Kirby, Joost Krull, William Snelling and Everard Fawkner (the latter being Voltaire's host during his residence in Wandsworth from 1726 to 1728), and then members of the Williamson family from the 1730s.92 Another dyeworks, not recorded until 1670 and not located, belonged to Christian Loat or Loot, senior and junior. Loat senior was a thread dyer and did not know the secret of scarlet dyeing. Loat junior 'by travelling abroad & by being in other dye houses in the nature of a servant or journey man & by such educacon as his father had given him, had arrived to a secret knowledge in the art of makeing the bow dye colour or scarlett colour'. For this reason his father took him into partnership in 1679, with a joint stock of 300 entirely supplied by the father, on condition that the son taught the father the mystery of scarlet dyeing within one month and that the father did not share the secret with anyone else except his other son Lewis. Nevertheless, by 1681 Loat junior had still not imparted the secret to his father. On his deathbed in that year, he ordered the handing over of 'a writing of great concern and moment containing full and ample directions how to make the scarlet dye'. Loat senior's inventory of 1684 lists his three kettles (86), four tenters (40), cochineal, fixatives such as cream of tartar and argol, and copperas (vitriol).93 WANDSWORTH'S INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION, c 163490 183 84 TNA: PROB 4/14939. 85 McGow, no 47. 86 Squire 1889, 10; LPL: Eee 1, f 491, evidence of John Wright; Shaw 1911, 88. 87 TNA: E 179/188/489A. 88 SHC: transcript of Quarter Sessions, 16712, p 307. 89 TNA: C 5/164/81. 90 TNA: PROB 5/2021. 91 TNA: C 5/164/81; Shaw 1911, 104, 111; TNA: E 112/745, no 45; PROB 11/370, Abraham Hebert; PROB 11/378, Catherine Hebert; PROB 11/471, Matthew Hebert; McGow, no 44. 92 NRO: Spencer papers, 7d1, Wandsworth freehold rental, Thomas Williamson; TNA: PROB 11/665, Joost Krull. 93 TNA: C 8/281/52; C 6/249/52; PROB 5/2027. For the meaning of 'bow dye' see Greenfield 2006, 17982. _________________ Other dyeworks included one between the Wandle and Garratt Lane closer to the High Street than Hebert's, recorded at least from 1740 to 1754, and one in the south of the parish on the east side of Copper Mill Lane, recorded from 1726 to 1786.94 Wandsworth's dyers such as the Barchards andWilliamsons continued even in the 1820s to be referred to as scarlet dyers.95 Dyeing declined and disappeared from Wandsworth well before the first chemical dye was developed, probably because it became advantageous to dye near the place of manufacture. Pluyme's dyeworks were last held by the Barchard family and closed in the late 1820s, and Hebert's were held by the Williamson family until 1831, when the dyeing equipment was sold and dyeing in Wandsworth came to an end.9" "dorian-gerhold-wandsworths-industrial-transformation-1634-90-surreyac095_169-191_gerhold.pdf Bleaching Bleaching began in Wandsworth in 1657. On 11 April of that year Richard Pillett leased 11 acres beside the Wandle south of Adkins Mill, for 16 a year. He converted part of it into a whiting ground and built there a dwelling for himself, consisting of parlour, kitchen, buttery, brewhouse, three chambers and two garretts.97 Bleaching was long-established elsewhere on the Wandle, having been introduced by Dutchmen in Mitcham, probably as early as the 1590s.98 Imported cotton cloth needed whitening before it could be dyed or patterned, and it was the Dutch who developed this trade. There is no reason to assume a foreign origin for Pillett, but in 1660 he sub-leased 4 acres at the south end of his holding to Francis and Walgrave Lodwick, merchants of Flemish origin, for reasons which are not recorded but may have been for the same purpose of bleaching cloth.99 Bleaching was a long process, taking seven or eight months, and depended on the sun's rays rather than chemicals. There was a cycle of 'bucking' (covering the cloth in a vat with hot water mixed with lye) and crofting or grassing (laying the cloth on the grass for wetting and drying), which was done ten to sixteen times. This was followed by souring with buttermilk and working with bare feet, and finally soaping. Grassing required clean water and sun, and gave rise to a distinctive pattern of parallel water channels, from which water was scooped up to drench the cloths.100 The expense of creating the water channels meant there was strong continuity in bleaching sites. Pillett's inventory of 1673 records his bucking house and beating house, including 'one marble stone to smooth clothes on'. There were also 'three cabbins and cabbin beds', presumably for workers watching over the valuable cloth, and the need to prevent theft was probably also why Pillett was keeping a 'savage great dog' without a muzzle in 1670 (for which he was prosecuted).101 One of Pillett's daughters later stated that he had earned 570 by his trade in 1673. Pillett died in that year, in his will requesting his wife to carry on 'my trade of whiteing lynnen cloth'. The site was still held by his family in 1691.102 Wandsworth's second bleaching site was south of the High Street adjoining a sidewater of the Wandle (fig 4). It is first recorded in 1687, when John Owsley, whitster, leased it, but it already then included 'the whiting house' and a whiting ground. The occupier in 1708 was Griffith Jones, who was related to the Owsleys. On his death in that year he left his whiting trade to his wife and his nephew Robert Evans, taking particular care over the disposition 184 DORIAN GERHOLD 94 Evans 2001, part B, nos 135, 4023, part C, nos 108, 227. 95 Pigot 18267. 96 McGow, nos 44, 47. 97 LPL: E10/20, G40/2/1; TNA: C 5/538/81. 98 Montague 1992, 56. 99 TNA: C 5/538/81; LPL: Ee7, f. 84; ODNB: Francis Lodwick. 100 Higgins 1924, 910; Turnbull 1951, 3. 101 LPL: G40/2/1; SHC: transcript of Quarter Sessions, 166970, p 207. 102 LPL: Ee7, f. 85; TNA: PROB 11/343, Richard Pillett; LPL: E10/21. Fig 4 Plan of the estate of Henry Gardiner, 1828, showing the channels from which water was scooped over the cloth during the bleaching process. The area shown is south ofWandsworthHigh Street betweenMerton Road and theWandle. The bleaching works established (or taken over) by JohnOwsley in 1687 was betweenMerton Road on the left and the sidewater of the Wandle in the centre, where buildings and gardens are shown. The later calico printing works of Henry Gardiner is in the top right-hand corner. (BL: Add 78154, S) of his 'great copper'.103 In 1701 various Wandsworth mill-owners cited 'the extravagancy of whitsters' as one of the reasons for water shortages.104 The replacement of buttermilk by sulphuric acid from the 1750s halved the time taken for bleaching to about four months, and the use of chlorine from the 1780s reduced it further to a few days and made it an indoor process.105 Bleaching was increasingly carried out in the cotton-manufacturing areas, notably Lancashire and Scotland. By then Pillett's and Owsley's bleaching sites had long since become part of calico printing enterprises, which are discussed next." "dorian-gerhold-wandsworths-industrial-transformation-1634-90-surreyac095_169-191_gerhold. pdf Calico printing By the 1660s the new industries had left their mark on Wandsworth's employment and social structures. In the 1670s, in addition to the 8% of male workers employed in corn milling, WANDSWORTH'S INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION, c 163490 185 103 NRO: SOX 277, Corlop etc to Ousley, Hewett to Ousley; TNA: PROB 11/501, Griffith Jones. 104 LMA: SKCS 42, p 89. 105 Higgins 1924, 623, 735, 94, 107. 10% were employed in industry, to which should be added most of the 5% who were described only as Dutchmen or Frenchmen. 106 In 1663Wandsworth's fifteen vestry members included, beside the vicar and one of the lords of the manor, Edward Barker, iron merchant; Abraham Hebert, dyer; Francis Lodwick, merchant; George Street, miller; Edmund Crisp, brewer and Richard Pillett, whitster. 107 Thus, when French Protestant refugees (or Huguenots) began to settle in Wandsworth in the 1680s, following the decision by Louis XIV that there should no longer be toleration for Protestants in France, they came to a place which already had numerous industries, some of them founded by French-speakers. Indeed the fact that French-speakers were already numerous in Wandsworth must have been an important reason for many of the refugees choosing Wandsworth. Their petition of about 1682, requesting permission to build a church at Wandsworth, recalled that they had already established several manufactures there, and the signatories to the petition included Abraham Hebert the dyer. 108 The most important new industry of the 1680s was calico printing, though not all of those who engaged in it were French. Unlike many of the other industries it was a major employer. Calico printers printed patterns on cotton or fustian, using wooden blocks or, later, metal plates. Power was not needed until rollers began to be used in the 1780s. The process started with bleaching, and the bleaching grounds generally became the sites of calico printing, as happened to both ofWandsworth's bleaching grounds. There were printers at Richmond in about 1675 and Mitcham from about 1690, and in 1691 two calico printers with French names are recorded at Wandsworth: Jean Bergeret and Rowland Bouchet. 109 Peter Debuisson, who had been one of Abraham Hebert's journeymen in 1682, took out a patent relating to calico printing in 1715. 110 In 1721 the two most important calico printers petitioning against a ban on the process were the Huguenot Peter Mauvillain (a merchant of London and Morden), who employed 250 at Wandsworth and Mitcham, and Watson, who employed 121 at three works including one at Wandsworth. 111 John Page, a calico printer at Wandsworth by 1729, had married the widow of Richard Pillett's son, and was probably then occupying Pillett's bleaching ground, as he had been doing in 1690. 112 Pillett's premises (probably including the part he had leased out to the Lodwicks) continued as two calico printing enterprises into the 19th century. 113 Owsley's bleaching ground was eventually to become the most important calico printing enterprise in Wandsworth, though by then the works had been transferred to a new site slightly further east (fig 4). It passed successively to Mary Jones and Thomas Lattimore, Richard Butcher and Edward Wells, RichardMarsh (1739), David Asterley (1744), Benjamin Asterley (1761) and Henry Gardiner (by 1774). In 1792 it employed 250 workers, as many as all Wandsworth's other industries together. Insurance policies from 1780 to 1815 list warehouse, stables, cart house, printing shop, pencilling shop, glazing shop 'with drawing rooms over', mill house, dye house, blue dye house and copper plate shop with measuring loft. 114 Two other bleaching grounds developed later: one straddling the boundary between Wandsworth and Wimbledon, first recorded in 1776 and later known as Garratt PrintWorks, and one at DuntshillMills, created in about 1780. 115 Not only must bleaching on the Wandle have declined rapidly after the use of chlorine began in the 1780s, but the development of cylinder or roller printing from 1785 meant that 186 DORIAN GERHOLD 106 Gerhold 1998, 22 (based on information in Squire 1889). 107 LPL: E2/65; Ee2, ff. 2004. 108 Bod: Rawl C984, f. 258. 109 Turnbull 1951, 18; WHerS: MS list of Wandsworth marriages outside Wandsworth, p 10. 110 TNA: C 5/164/81; Squire 1887, 238. 111 Turnbull 1951, 21; Montague 1992, 40; TNA: PROB 11/704, Peter Mauvillain. 112 LPL: G40/2/1. 113 McGow, nos 41, 42. 114 NRO: SOX 277; McGow, no 46; Lysons 1792, 1, 503; Evans 2001, Part C, nos 3947. 115 WVM, 62; McGow, nos 38, 40. steam-power was needed and therefore cheap coal. The London area also had the problem of relatively high wages. The production of printed textiles expanded massively in the north and declined in the Wandle valley. 116 Gardiner's works closed in 1816, and the two works on the Pillett site closed in 1812 and 1834. As elsewhere in theWandle valley, only the more specialised artwork catering for the luxury trades survived. Shawl printing Duntshill until at least 1866 and Garratt Print Works survived until 1895. 117 116 Higgins 1924, 73, 94, 107; Turnbull 1951, 50; Montague 1992, 301. 117 McGow, nos 38, 402, 46; Montague 1992, 36. 118 Weiss 1853, I, 38, II, 333. 119 TNA: PC 2/71, pp 11, 67, 199, 279, 3034, 321, 417; PC 2/72, pp 436, 517, 610, 612, 703. 120 TNA: PC 2/71, pp 397, 405; PC 2/73, p 415. 121 Weiss 1853, 2, 334; Lysons 1792, 1, 503" "THOMAS SHEPPARD [BNA: archive-cat.magd.ox.ac.uk/records/P98 CARICATURE OF DR. THOMAS SHEPPARD, 1809 Repository Magdalen College Oxford Reference number P98 Alternative reference number(s) MC:P98 Date(s) 1809 Level of description Collection Scope and content `Thomas Sheppard (17281814) was made a Demy of Magdalen College in 1747, and then a Fellow in 1749. In 1762, he became Rector of Quarley, Hants., and also Rector of Basingstoke, from 1768. He resigned his Fellowship in 1770. In 1801, he married President Martin Routh's sister, Sophia. Sophia Sheppard outlived her husband, dying in 1848, and during her widowhood became a very generous benefactor to the College (see W.D. Macray's Register, Vol. V, pp.8485). [ I couldn't find Vol V 84-85 online. But did see Macray: Sheppard, Thomas, v. 20, 23, 24, 39, 64-5 ; vi. p. vi, 6 ; vii. 23 ; his wife Sophia, sister of President Routh, v. 48; vi. 13, 30, 31, 37,39, 57. ] This print was given to the archives in May 1998 as Acc. 98/101. A photograph of this caricature, as well as another caricature of Sheppard, may be found at PH/P/639/23. Catalogued in May 1998. Archivist's note Catalogued according to ISAD(G) _____________ CARICATURE OF DR. THOMAS SHEPPARD CARICATURE Repository Magdalen College Oxford Reference number P98/P1 Alternative reference number(s) MC:P98/P1 Level of description Series Archivist's note Catalogued according to ISAD(G) Contents This Series contains the following Items. Click on a title to expand the tree, and click Details to view a catalogue entry in full. Only item or piece level records may be ordered for viewing. P98/P1/1 Caricature of Dr. Sheppard, by R. Dighton, titled "A View taken from Chatham Row, Bath", and dated January 1809. Jan 1809 Details CARICATURE OF DR. THOMAS SHEPPARD CARICATURE Caricature of Dr. Sheppard, by R. Dighton, titled "A View taken from Chatham Row, Bath", and dated January 1809. Jan 1809 Repository Magdalen College Oxford Reference number P98/P1/1 Alternative reference number(s) MC:P98/P1/1 Date(s) Jan 1809 Level of description Item Scope and content This print is mentioned by W. D. Macray "Register", Vol. V, pp.8485, and now appears to be the only copy in the College. [This print is now hanging in the Summer Common Room] Archivist's note Catalogued according to ISAD(G) _______________ FOUND COPIES OF "JOHN SHEPHERD" DESCRIBED AS "A View taken from Chatham Row, Bath", e.g. NPG [BNA:
"THOMAS SHEPPARD 1749. Sheppard, Thomas. Demy, 1747 ; Z)^;w. 7?^^. iii. 269-71. Rector of Quarley, Hants, 1762, which he held with Basing- stoke until his death in 1814. Instit. to Basingstoke 17 Nov., 1768. Resigned his fellowship, 1770. He was elected an alderman of Basingstoke in 1780 and again in 1 798. (Baigent and Millard's Hist, of Basingstoke, 1889, p. 703). To the Blue Coat School and to Deane's almshouses in that town he gave benefactions, increasing their invested funds [ibid., pp. 706, 709). He is said to have been, however, during some period of his long incumbency, non-resident, and that in consequence confirmations were neglected for eighteen years after he became vicar, so that when Bishop Brownlow North held a confirmation in the church in 1783, between 3000 and 4000 candidates were presented ! [ibid., p. 534.) Probably the neglect had been more on the part of Bishop Thomas, North's predecessor, who died in 1781, than on the part of the clergy of the town and neighbourhood t. * Edit. 1896, pp. 81, 126, 226. 1749-50] FELLOWS 85 Dr. Sheppard's liberal benefactions to the College are recorded by Bloxam, ubi supra. In acknowledgement of these a silver cup costing 106 185. 6d. was given to him by the College in 1791. He had the distinction of being included in R. Dighton's series of portrait-sketches of Oxford characters, representing him with a good-natured aspect and very protuberant lips, and he was again delineated by W. Atkinson in 1812, at the age of 83, as a very quaint little figure on horseback. ATKINSON 1812?" "LOTS ON MARTIN ROUTH ET AL [BNA: archive.org/stream/registerofmember05magd/registerofmember05magd_djvu.txt Interesting on his marriage — she [find name] asked him to marry her 3 times before he asented!" "CLAPHAM ROVERS GROUND 9 June 2022 Graham Jackson: Thanks for this. Whilst I think that we would agree that the football club invariably used the old Spencer ground and given that this meeting was held on 18 May ( I have the advertisement for the meeting) when the cricket season was in full swing, the jury on where the rugby section played their matches is , I would suggest still out. At a rugby match played in January 1878 ( against the Gipsies) , the location of the field was described as "Rovers' new private ground at Wandsworth- so called but which is in reality much more adjacent to Tooting" and again the account of the reporter which is also in my book supports that location. Your article below refers to the "new" ground, although of course the club had moved from Bedford Hill at the start of the new season in September 1877. They changed apparently in the Surrey Tavern initially at least until a pavilion was erected on the old Spencer ground a couple of years later. In a way, I am only playing devil's advocate if only to preserve the idea that Clapham Rovers played the 1877/78 season at the Field, but there is no mention of rugby having been played on the "new" ground. Clapham Rovers AGMs refer to the "grounds on Wandsworth Common" and of course Harlequins had no doubt when they moved to the Field in 1901 that they were using "the enclosure at one time the ground of the Clapham Rovers". I have some thoughts on that but I think that is for another time. Have a good break. Regards Graham" Thanks for your email. Please find the maps as you requested. The map of the Heathfield compound is really based on guesswork and the picture of Charles Gwilt in my book. which gives some clues. However the map is a clean copy as unfortunately the book shows the "Tippex" alterations Imade to the original! When I was up the ground recently, Irealised that the hardstanding off of Burntwood Lane was a little further along the road nearer to Trinity Road. Not by much however, but sufficient to suggest that the position of the hardstanding ( which can still be seen in the pavement) and the adjacent tennis court would be reversed. You should also know that just prior to the war the two lane bowling green which was adjacent to the ladies pavilion was moved to a more central position and expanded to a five lane standard size bowling green. It was then that it seems the three/ four tennis courts next to the Brodrick Road garden fence were added. Istill wonder if there is a plan of all this residing somewhere in the Heathfield Archives where I fortunately found the minute books. Maybe some day??? I need to return the books to their Archives but my contact there is difficult to contact directly and as such at present the club, generally, have not seen my book at all, even though it contains so much of their early history! Iwill catch up with you later in the month as I am also away about the time you return. Regards Graham " "PEDESTRIANISM IN — MAN AND WIFE by Wilkie Collins MAN AND WIFE by Wilkie Collins All the best and keep up all the excellent work. 7 DECEMBER 2009 AT 10:02 Boydongood said . . . Excellent and fascinating piece of detective work — many thanks for sharing it with us! I'm also intrigued by the Triang factory — I had heard it was there but know very little about it. Perhaps someone out there could post a link to further information? 7 DECEMBER 2009 AT 11:45 Duncan said . . . What a fantastic post. So interesting. I have some great photos of Merton Abbey Station and here is one Iput on Flickr. I'll upload the others when Iget the chance [BNA: Link. Ialso have this advert for the Lines Brothers Tri-Ang works. [BNA: Link. SOE heroine Violette Szabo even worked here for a while during the war. 9 DECEMBER 2009 AT 08:30 colleen said . . . Brilliant detection! Utterly admirable. 11 DECEMBER 2009 AT 21:05 trellis said . . . There are more walls like this in North London, specifically Edgware and Mill Hill. I have been puzzling about why they appear to be made of melted and glazed firebrick for ages. Thank you for shedding some light on it. 29 OCTOBER 2010 AT 11:50 Boydongood said . . . This is really strange. Iposted my appreciation of this article back in December 2009, and on the weekend I was doing some weeding in my front garden when I noticed that some of this black stuff had been used in a low retaining wall! Even stranger, my house used to be owned by a builder who recycled much old material around the house. I wonder if he could have built these very walls? 25 MAY 2011 AT 15:48 Diana Somerton said . . . My husband worked at Fry's Metals, Tandem Works, Merton Abbey from 1969 to 1991. He recalls a notice board with Fry's name on it and in brackets Eyre Smelting Company. They were taken over by Fry's who were part of the Cookson Group. He remembers old planes being melted down at their Willow Lane site. Fascinating piece of detective work. 27 DECEMBER 2011 AT 14:57 Tom Cresswell said . . . Brilliant detective work, I think you are right to think that the wall comes from the Eyre Smelting Co. Ileft school in 1957 on a Friday and started work at the Eyre Smelting Works on Monday. We worked on blast furnaces, rotating furnaces, both types had to be shut down periodically to be relined, The slag combined with the fire bricks would make ideal walling. Ileft working there in 1965, but Irecal that it did not close for some years after this, very interesting account by you well done. 22 AUGUST 2013 AT 21:28 Anonymous said . . . I've found an old special alloy ingot which says eyre smelting co ltd . Merton abbey connery printed on top. Anybody got any info on this please. 28 SEPTEMBER 2013 AT 20:25 Instant Payday Loans said . . . Hi, Thanks for sharing wonderful news with us. I'm sure many people come to like your blog and gain benefit from this information you have provided. I would love to apply these terms on refinancing. Hope to see more amazing blog on your site. Have a great day . . . !!! 1 hour payday loans 1 hour payday loans no credit check 6 MAY 2014 AT 13:25 Instant Payday Loans said . . . Hello, Its good to be here, very nice post, the content is amazing, keep posting friend it will be very helpful for everyone, Thanks for sharing. Ireally liked it. Thanks And Regards 3 months payday loans 90 day loans Simply awesome Really interesting ,,brilliant post..thanks for sharing . . . !!! 13 MAY 2014 AT 05:21 Railmaster London said . . . As others have noted it before the building of Tandem Retail Park, the Colliers Wood site of Fry's Diecastings (Tandem Works) stood until demolition, I cannot remember the exact late but late 1990s seems about right. They too had a couple of private railway sidings connected to the Merton Abbey Branch (See ariel photographs) and Merton and Morden UDC handbooks of around 1946 showed Eyre/Fry's as apparently the UKs LARGEST processor of non-ferrous metals. Iguess some of their output would have gone to Corfields / T ICrown Merton / Judges whom were to the west along Station Road opposite the Merton Abbey station buildings, again private sidings entered their complex. The walling materials could equally have come from the Former Merton Board Mills, prior to their rebuilding and re-constitution in the 1920s as The (New) Merton Board Mills (1928), again the largest manufacturers of corrigated cardboard packaging in the UK. The Abbey Road properties appear to be built before the 1920s though and the wall looks as old as that (its certainly pre 1960s) so its wierd. Needs listing building status really. 10 JUNE 2015 AT 03:04 Whyperion said . . . Further research, there was a company making slag blocks in the South Wimbledon Area, later it moved to Boundary Road Colliers Wood, Some houses in Nelson Grove Road had front garden walling from it, as do some in Milner Road. The Wimbledon Town Gas works was in Haydon's Road near The British Queen in North Road. I think it closed in the 1920s and could have been a source of these replacement homes. Censuses of the 1820s onwards showed fewer residences in Abbey Lane but I can trace few of them.( Most of the East Side of Abbey Road was the garden and (brick) Wall of Abbey Gate House(Demolished 1914), located itself on Merton High Street around the Abbey Parade / Wimbledon Palais Area) 25 SEPTEMBER 2016 AT 06:47 Whyperion said . . . Oops, Abbey Gate House (Isaac Smith's Residence) Demolished 1904-1906) depending on sources read 25 SEPTEMBER 2016 AT 06:56 Unknown said . . . The Eyre Smelting Co became Fry's Metals Ltd, part of The Lead Industries Group and then latterly Cookson Group. The Factory closed down in 1991 and operations moved to Croydon. Fry's products still exist to this day, being market leaders in the industrial solders and fluxes segment. Fry's Diecastings were a separate company and were based in Prince Georges Road and not Tandem works. 8 MARCH 2019 AT 18:13 Unknown said . . . Ijust found half of a Eyre brick & 5 other pieces of alloy in a creek in Brampton Ont Canada! For real weird right lol. Thanks for all the information guys Iwish I knew how to share a picture. 25 OCTOBER 2019 AT 23:02 About us said . . . Thanks for the post. Ilive in suburban east London, on an Edwardian housing estate. There are quite a few of these clinker brick front garden walls around here. I had always assumed that they had been built using recycled building material from the blitz, but the insides of old smelting furnaces makes more sense. It seems to have been quite a fashion to replace front fences with walls made with this cheap and available material. It's like a wall equivalent of crazy paving! 1 MARCH 2020 AT 14:12" " I am hoping to demonstrate that the illustrious "Clapham Rovers" played on a ground they rented from Magdalen College. (As Wikipedia puts it: the "Rovers' greatest achievement was winning the FA Cup in 1879-80 with a 10 win over Oxford University at the Kennington Oval" ([https]://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Rovers_F.C.). There is quite a debate (in certain circles) about where exactly the Rovers played around this time. I have a strong hunch that their home ground was a Magdalen-owned field close to Wandsworth Prison (the area now enclosed by Magdalen Road, Lyford Road, Loxley Road, and Ellerton Road, in SW18) [here]. The Rovers appear to have moved there in September/October 1877 and were still there in 1887. It appears they played football and cricket, and ran athletics competitions here. The ground may have become the "Spencer Ground" (named after the Earls Spencer). When did the [roped-off] Spencer cricket area on WC (near Surrey Tavern) close? later the "Old Spencer Ground", when the new playing fields were established between Openview and Fieldview. [when?] Hockey was played here [e.g. 25 September 1911 ] 1911_09_hockey_practice_loxley_ground_TheReferee_24sep1911.png When did the area becoe the very first playing field to be owned by the London Playing Fields Association? Please excuse me for pressing my luck, but do your fellow-archivists happen to include a keen historian of early football who might be interested in following something up in your archive? I have a very strong hunch that the illustrious "Clapham Rovers" used to rent their Wandsworth Common ground from Magdalen College. The "Rovers' greatest achievement was winning the FA Cup in 1879-80 with a 10 win over Oxford University at the Kennington Oval" ([https]://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapham_Rovers_F.C.). The Rovers appear to have moved to a Magdalen-owned field close to Wandsworth Prison (the area now enclosed by Magdalen Road, Lyford Road, Loxley Road, and Ellerton Road, in SW18) in September/October 1877 and were still there in 1887. The field continued in sporting use (cricket, football, athletics, hockey) until just before WW Iwhen it was covered in houses, part of the Magdalen Estate. If you can think of someone, do pass this info on. My thanks once again. Philip" "MAPS NLS — NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND [BNA: maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=16&lat=51.44612&lon=-0.16352&layers=102&b=1&z=0&point=51.44612,-0.16352 [BNA: maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=15&lat=51.45496&lon=-0.17142&layers=70&b=1&z=0&point=51.44555,-0.17244 On Buda desktop mac, SEEMS TO WORK WITH ARCTIC FOX BUT NOT WITH CHROME [whereas only CHROME lets me use IMAGE UPSCALER!)" "ministry of works mobile labour force Large enclosure on former RVPA land Various records [BNA: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C14671 e.g. Catalogue description Ministry of Works: Mobile Labour Force; report for the year April 1948 to March 1949 Ordering and viewing options This record has not been digitised and cannot be downloaded. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. You will need a reader's ticket to do this. Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you. Book a visit Request a copy Reference: WORK 70/5 Description: Ministry of Works: Mobile Labour Force; report for the year April 1948 to March 1949 Date: 1948 Jan 01 — 1949 Dec 31 Held by: The National Archives, Kew Legal status: Public Record(s) Closure status: Open Document, Open Description Have you found an error with this catalogue desc ____________ HANSARD 18032005 1940s 1947 December 1947 15 December 1947 Written Answers (Commons) MINISTRY OF WORKS Mobile Labour Force HC Deb 15 December 1947 vol 445 c293W 293W 131. Mr. Sparks asked the Minister of Works if he will give an account of the activities of the mobile labour force for 1946 and 1947 indicating to what extent they have been of service to local authorities in the development of housing schemes. Mr. Key Since it was inaugurated in July, 1946, the Mobile Labour Force has carried out or has in hand the following work"Construction or rebuilding in 22 different areas of 1,007 permanent houses (including 716 local authority houses and 291 houses for Government Departments) and 235 local authority flats." "Repairs to 407 war damaged houses (mainly local authority houses) in 9 areas." "Construction of 788 temporary houses for 13 local authorities." "Site preparation for 200 houses for Ministry of Supply." "Repairs or extensions to 17 hospitals." "Conversion of existing buildings to teachers' training colleges in 16 centres." "Removal of blast-proof walls and windows in Government buildings, schools and hospitals." "Construction of huts for the school meals and raising of the school-age programmes at 33 sites in Bristol, Plymouth and Dover." "Conversions for workers' hostels in 12 rural areas." "Constructional works at seven Government research establishments and at a factory in South Wales." "Provision and adaptation of Government office accommodation, especially nine temporary office buildings in outer London." All this work has been carried out or is in hand in areas where sufficient local labour was not available. [BNA: api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1947/dec/15/mobile-labour-force HANSARD 18032005 1940s 1948 May 1948 11 May 1948 Written Answers (Commons) MINISTRY OF WORKS Mobile Labour Force HC Deb 11 May 1948 vol 450 c203W 203W 95. Mr. Bossom asked the Minister of Works the number of building trade operatives employed on the direct labour scheme at its highest point; and how many are employed today. Mr. Durbin Iassume that the Question relates to the Mobile Labour Force directly employed by my Department. The figures are 7,047 and 7,005 respectively. [BNA: api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1948/may/11/mobile-labour-force MARPLES — Conservative politician who owned a building firm — is clearly keen to put a stop to direct labour — to make sure all building work is in private hands ___________________ The following Question stood on the Order Paper in the name of Mr. MARPLES: (Citation: HC Deb, 26 June 1950, c1884) 30. To ask the Minister of Works what are his plans for the future of the Mobile Labour Force. Photo of Mr Douglas Clifton Brown Mr Douglas Clifton Brown , Hexham Mr. Marples. Photo of Mr Ernest Marples Mr Ernest Marples , Wallasey Question No. 30, and I hope that the Minister has read it this time. Photo of Mr Richard Stokes Mr Richard Stokes , Ipswich The Ministry has for some years proceeded on the basis that all its building work should be let to contract wherever possible and that the Mobile Labour Force should be used only for work of recognised urgency which cannot be carried out by other means. The Mobile Labour Force has done admirable work but I have decided that it should not undertake any further commitments except in very special circumstances. Subject to any such cases arising, the force will be allowed to run down as its programme of work now in hand is completed, which, so far as can be foreseen, will be about the end of 1951. Photo of Mr Ernest Marples Mr Ernest Marples , Wallasey Does that answer mean that the Mobile Labour Force will not continue to build, at a price of 3,000, houses for the Forestry Commission which let in water? Does the Minister realise there is a widespread feeling that the Mobile Labour Force is an expensive method of building, and that that feeling has not been allayed by his refusal to give the costs? Photo of Mr Richard Stokes Mr Richard Stokes , Ipswich The houses built for the Forestry Commission were built under very special circumstances. That case is a very stale one, which I am now having re-investigated. We shall undertake to build only in cases of a special nature, and I do not regard Forestry Commission houses as coming under that head. Photo of Dame Florence Horsbrugh Dame Florence Horsbrugh , Manchester Moss Side What is the size of the Mobile Labour Force which the Minister wishes to have in being? Photo of Mr Richard Stokes Mr Richard Stokes , Ipswich It is not intended to continue the force. Photo of Mr Ernest Marples Mr Ernest Marples , Wallasey asked the Minister of Works why he is using the Mobile Labour Force and direct labour at Capenhurst; how long he proposes to continue using them; and were competitive tenders received for the work being carried out. Photo of Mr Richard Stokes Mr Richard Stokes , Ipswich The Mobile Labour Force is being employed at Capenhurst on certain preliminary works which could not be carried out by other means within the urgent time schedule and without causing delay to the major part of the project. The intention is to let as much as possible of the later work at Capenhurst to normal contract, on the basis of competitive tenders. In reply to the second part of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given him on 19th June. Photo of Mr Ernest Marples Mr Ernest Marples , Wallasey Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that he could have estimated preliminary works on competitive schedules if he had used plus or minus quotations, and had used the schedule of prices they have in the Ministry of Works? In other words, does he realise that he could have received competitive tenders for the work without delay? Photo of Mr Richard Stokes Mr Richard Stokes , Ipswich The hon. Gentleman may be right, but I am not so informed. I have inspected the work myself, and I am satisfied that what has been done is in the general interest. This is only preliminary work which will give the main contractors, whenever they under-take the major portion of the work, a much better start, with the ultimate effect that there will be a much quicker finish. [BNA:
Marples Ridgway was also involved in other major road projects in the 1950s and 1960s [16] including the 4.1 million extension of the M1 into London, referred to as the Hendon Urban Motorway at the time.[17] Use of prostitutes When Lord Denning made his 1963 investigation into the security aspects of the Profumo affair and the rumoured affair between the Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys and the Duchess of Argyll, he confirmed to Macmillan that a rumour that Ernest Marples was in the habit of using prostitutes appeared to be true.[18] In early 2020, the rumours were corroborated by broadcaster and investigative journalist Tom Mangold, based on the diaries of Lord Denning's then-secretary, Thomas Critchley. The diaries reported the transport minister's fetish for being whipped while dressed in women's clothing, as described in great detail by one of the prostitutes who had provided these services to Marples, and confirmed at the time by her detailed knowledge of the interior of Marples' home where the events took place.[19] The story was suppressed and did not appear in Denning's final report.[20] Flight to Monaco Early in 1975, Marples suddenly fled to Monte Carlo.[21] He left just before the end of the tax year, fearing that he would otherwise be liable for a substantial tax bill.[21] Among the journalists who investigated his unexpected flight was Richard Stott (later editor of the Daily Mirror): In the early 70s . . . he tried to fight off a revaluation of his assets which would undoubtedly cost him dear . . . So Marples decided he had to go and hatched a plot to remove 2 million from Britain through his Liechtenstein company . . . there was nothing for it but to cut and run, which Marples did just before the tax year of 1975. He left by the night ferry with his belongings crammed into tea chests, leaving the floors of his home in Belgravia littered with discarded clothes and possessions . . . He claimed he had been asked to pay nearly 30 years' overdue tax . . . The Treasury froze his assets in Britain for the next ten years. By then, most of them were safely in Monaco and Liechtenstein.[22] The flight came at a time when Marples was facing problems on several fronts. Tenants of his block of flats in Harwood Court, Upper Richmond Road, Putney, London, were demanding that he repair serious structural faults and had threatened legal action.[21] He was being sued for 145,000 by the Bankers Trust merchant bank in relation to an agreement made with the French company Ernest Marples et Cie.[21] He was also being sued by John Holmes, the chartered surveyor and director of Marples' property company Ecclestone Enterprises, for wrongful dismissal and who was claiming 70,000 in damages.[21] The Inland Revenue was demanding that he pay nearly 30 years' back taxes on his residence in Eccleston Street, Belgravia, London, as well as capital gains tax on his properties in Kensington.[21] In addition, in 1974, he had lost 130 cases of wine to a fire in a store he owned under a railway line in Brixton,[23] and he had been convicted of drinking and driving for which he received a one-year ban and a 45 fine.[24] Memorial inscription to Ernest Marples on the family grave in Southern Cemetery, Manchester His departure came in the wake of the failure of a plan to avoid paying tax on his properties by involving a Liechtenstein-based company with which he had been involved for more than ten years.[21] He was to sell his Harwood Court block of flats for 500,000 to Vin International which would refurbish and sell them for between 2.25 million and 2.5 million.[21] Marples would only be liable for capital gains tax at 30% on the transfer to Vin which, as an offshore company, would only be liable for stamp duty at 2%.[21] The plan failed following the change of government in 1974.[21] After reports of this plan were published in the Daily Mirror, the Treasury froze Marples' assets in Britain.[25] In November 1977, he paid 7,600 to the British government in settlement of his breach of exchange control regulations, following which he made a return to London.[25] Marples' final years were spent on his 45-acre vineyard estate in Fleurie, France.[21] He died in a Monte Carlo hospital on 6 July 1978.[26] In his will, he left property valued at 388,166.[27] He is buried in a family plot in Southern Cemetery, Manchester.[28] Popular culture In 2009, his name was used for a website 'ernestmarples.com' that campaigned to have the UK Postcode dataset released as Open Data and drew threats of legal action by the Royal Mail against its founders.[29][30] The dataset was opened up on 1 April 2010 following support from many people, including MPs,[31][32] and Code-Point Open can now be downloaded free with data.gov.uk.[33] The founders of the site claim not to have been aware of the controversies concerning Ernest Marples when they chose his name for the website.[34]" "AERIAL WANDSWORTH COMMON KITE JOURNEY BALLOONS - balloon rides - wartime 3RD LONDON GENERAL HOSPITAL AERIAL PHOTOS ? LIGHTNING ETC BOMBS DAILY MIRROR RADIO MESSAGE FROM TRINITY FIELDS to BOUVERIE STREET 1913" "Connect with WRIGHT BROS LYFORD RD? AND HILDA? of Vardens Rd? 29 July 2017 Aviation History At Battersea Power Station If you live at Battersea Power Station, or are one of the thousands who have visited Circus West Village recently, you're probably familiar with Sopwith Way. It's the street which brings vehicle access to the riverside entrance to Circus West Village: it runs between the railway viaduct and our neighbour development Chelsea Bridge Wharf. "Sopwith Way" is the postal address for Circus West. Parts of Circus West Village, including the Village Hall, are located in the railway arches. The 'Venetian Blind' multiplane of 1904. This model was unsuccessful, though the later 1907 version may have flown. The inventor, Horatio Phillips, had earlier worked on helicopters at Battersea. Some readers might also have heard that those railway arches running down the western side of the Power Station site are an important location in British aviation history, and this is absolutely true. The first aircraft manufacturer in the world was based in them; a busy balloon launching field operated next to the rail line for over a decade; many interesting machines were manufactured beneath the arches. Most readers will be aware that "Sopwith" is a famous name in British aviation, of course. Some have even suggested that the Battersea arches were "connected with some of the first UK helicopter flights", but that's not quite true: what is true is that several early experimental helicopters were built there. One of the earliest aviation figures to work at the arches was Horatio Phillips, best known to history as the designer of the "Venetian blind" multiplane. This may have been the first powered heavier-than-air machine to fly in Britain, in 1907. But Phillips built his multiplane in Streatham, not Battersea. Much earlier in his career, however, Phillips had indeed rented a Battersea railway arch to use as a workshop. In 1870 he built a helicopter there, a remarkable machine powered by a steam engine and featuring twenty-foot rotors. Unsurprisingly perhaps, it was unable to lift its own weight off the ground and never flew. Some other non-flying helicopters were also built at the Battersea railway arches. The British Wright brothers, Howard and Warwick, had an engineering workshop at the arches in the early years of the 20th century. They advertised that they could build "any kind of machine to inventor's specifications", and they received several commissions from Signor Federico Capone of Naples to build aircraft to his designs, including two helicopters and an ornithopter (an aircraft with flapping wings like a bird's) all of which were sadly unsuccessful. So no, the Battersea arches had nothing to do with any helicopter flights. But it is true that early helicopters were built beneath them. Early coal-gas balloon operations at 'The Field', Battersea What actually did fly at Battersea, to begin with, was balloons. The famous Short brothers, later to lead one of Britain's biggest aircraft companies, started out in aviation by making balloons. One of their most important clients was Charles Rolls (of Rolls-Royce renown), for whom the Shorts had built the 78,500 cubic-foot balloon "Britannia", which he used for the first Gordon Bennett balloon race in 1906. Rolls and the Short brothers wanted a convenient place for building and launching balloons, and they found it at Battersea. Most balloons in those days were inflated using coal gas, also known as "town gas", the same gas that was used for lighting at the time. This was a mixture of different gaseous chemicals manufactured from coal, very different from today's natural gas, and around half of it was hydrogen. As such it was lighter than air, and as it was affordable and widely available in bulk it was usually the choice for inflating balloons. Just to the southwest of today's Power Station site, between the railway viaducts, there was a group of gasholders connected to a nearby gasworks. Rolls and the Short brothers arranged with the London Gas, Coal and Coke Company to use an open grass area next to the gasholders, known simply as "The Field", for balloon launches. The Shorts rented arches 75 and 81 from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and set up in business there in 1906. They were appointed as the official Aeronautical Engineers to the Aero Club, and made balloons for many well-known early aviators. Customers could keep their balloons stored at the Shorts' factory or the Shorts' own balloon, "Aero Club IV", could be hired for two guineas. Inflation took just an hour and a half, thanks to "special apparatus" installed in cooperation with the gas company. A telephone call to 788 Battersea was all that was required to arrange a flight. The Shorts' balloon field was busy, averaging ten ascents a month and carrying a total of 483 people in 1908. Some seven million cubic feet of gas were used in balloons that year, which was also the year that the British Wright brothers, who had arch number 80 (next door to the Shorts) were delivering the second of Federico Capone's unsuccessful helicopters. But 1908 was the year that Europe woke up to the potential of aeroplanes, when the American Wright brothers demonstrated their plane, the "Flyer", in France. Though they had first flown an earlier Flyer five years previously, the Wrights' success wasn't well-known in Britain until their flights at Le Mans, witnessed by members of the British Aero Club among others. The American Wright brothers had often been suspected of being fraudsters up to that point, but the Le Mans demonstrations by far the most impressive yet seen in Europe by any aeroplane put all doubts to rest. "This is the finish of ballooning," Oswald Short reportedly said to his brother Eustace, on hearing of the French demonstrations. "We must begin building aeroplanes at once." The brothers did so, beginning with an order to make six copies of the American Wright brothers' Flyer under licence. This appears to have been the first case of series production of aeroplanes to a standard design, allowing the Shorts to describe their company as "The First Manufacturers Of Aircraft In The World". One of the new Flyers was bought by Charles Rolls, who made more than 200 flights in it but was sadly killed when its tail broke off during a flight at Bournemouth in 1910. The Short brothers also received another aeroplane order, for a machine along the Wrights' lines but with modifications by the Shorts, in 1909: this was the Short No. 1 aircraft. Meanwhile, in the arches next door, the British Wright brothers had also moved into making planes. These included the 1909 or "Avis" type, generally regarded as one of the first successful British monoplanes, and various biplanes. Aviation historians generally assert that the British Wrights in their Battersea factory were the leading aeroplane makers in the UK from around 1908. By 1911, they had so much work that they had rented arches 79 and 82, boxing the Shorts in. The Howard Wright 1910 Biplane At this point, however, the British Wrights' company was taken over by the Coventry Ordnance Works, a large defence contractor. Howard Wright continued as an aeroplane designer, at first for Coventry, producing a biplane intended for military use in 1912. This was assembled at Battersea but it was not a success, and that year Howard moved to a different firm on the Isle of Wight to design seaplanes for the Royal Navy. His brother Warwick had left the aircraft business to concentrate on motor cars after the takeover, and the Battersea aircraft factory was subsequently closed down. The British Wright brothers continued to be prominent men in aviation and motoring circles, but their Battersea story was over. Meanwhile the start of the Short brothers' involvement in heavier-than-air flight was also the start of their move away from Battersea. The licenced Wright Flyers were actually made at a new factory on the Isle of Sheppey, though the Short No. 1 and perhaps some other early Short planes were made under the Battersea arches. Soon, however, all aeroplane making by the Shorts had moved elsewhere. Only the balloon business carried on at Battersea with the number of ascents steadily declining, as Oswald Short had foreseen. World War Ibrought a temporary revival with military balloon orders, but it also conclusively established the dominance of the aeroplane. In 1919 "The Field" ceased balloon operations and Short Brothers moved out of the Battersea railway arches altogether. The company went on to build many of the flying-boat airliners of the 1920s and 30s, and the Sunderland submarine-hunter of World War II. Short Brothers survives to this day, based in Belfast where it is the largest manufacturing concern in Northern Ireland. Back in Battersea, "The Field" disappeared altogether in 1932 when the gas company built a much taller gasholder on the open grass using then-new waterless technology. However the name survived: the address of the engineer's house at the gasholder site continued to be Nos. 1 and 2, The Field. When coal gas passed out of use and the gasworks itself disappeared, the gasholders survived as storage for natural gas. This role too disappeared in the end, and the National Grid (which had wound up as the owner) finally began demolishing the gasholders in 2013. The site is intended for redevelopment in the near future. The unsuccessful Supermarine Nighthawk anti-Zeppelin fighter, designed to shoot down German airships using the Davis Gun. There was one other aviation facility next to today's Power Station site in the early days: this was Royal Naval Air Station Battersea, located on Kirtling Street to the east of the site during World War I. RNAS Battersea was an experimental R&D facility, where special weapons such as the fearsome "Davis Gun" were tested. The Davis Gun, invented by an American naval officer, was a powerful cannon up to 3 inches in calibre intended for mounting on aircraft. To prevent the gun's recoil destroying the aeroplane, it was recoilless: as the shell was fired from the front of the weapon, a counterweight of lead balls packed in grease was blasted out of the back. This meant that the gun was mounted pointing downwards or upwards, so that the counterweight shot would be thrown clear of the plane. Davis guns were fitted at times in the Royal Navy's Handley Page bombers and Felixstowe flying boats. They were used on the Western Front and for antisubmarine duties, but it's not known how successful they were in these roles. There were also several plans to mount Davis guns in special aircraft for use against Zeppelins, including the remarkable Supermarine Nighthawk (not a biplane nor a triplane, but a quadraplane). None of these went beyond the prototype stage. RNAS Battersea was absorbed into the Royal Air Force when the RAF was formed on April Fool's Day 1918, and closed down not long after the war. The area around today's Battersea Power Station has not figured significantly in aviation since then. Apart from these true stories, there are quite a lot of myths and misunderstandings about the Battersea railway arches and their place in aviation history. It has been claimed in recent times that the great British aviation pioneer A V Roe most famous, probably, for the Avro Lancaster bomber built "the Bulldog plane, the first plane to fly" in the arches. This myth is particularly persistent: some people even go so far as to state that Roe flew the "Bulldog" over Battersea as early as 1904. The truth is that Roe did build the Roe I(aka "Bullseye", not "Bulldog") triplane in south-west London, but not under the Battersea arches. Roe worked in the stables of his brother's house on West Hill, Wandsworth, several miles from the Power Station. He did keep the Bullseye in a railway arch when flight trials commenced, but this arch was on Walthamstow Marsh, far away on the other side of London. In an indication of the way things were changing at the time, Roe transported his aeroplane across the city in a horse-drawn cart. The Bullseye triplane flew successfully above Walthamstow Marsh with Roe at the controls in 1909, but of course the American Wright brothers had flown their aeroplane six years earlier and other plane flights including some by Roe himself, in an earlier biplane had already occurred in Britain. When Roe founded A V Roe & Company ("Avro", the firm which later built the World War I ILancaster) he did so in Manchester, not Battersea. So the Bullseye, which had nothing to do with the Battersea arches and never flew over Battersea, was not the first plane to fly; nor even the first to fly in Britain. It is famous instead for being the first all-British-made plane (including engine) to fly. In looking at the Power Station neighbourhood's aviation history, we've come across many famous names: Charles Rolls, the Shorts, the British and the American Wright brothers and Horatio Phillips though not, in fact, A V Roe. Nor, curiously enough, have we come across the name Sopwith, which is a little odd as we started off our story at Sopwith Way. T O M Sopwith did own a Howard Wright biplane built at the Battersea arches: he's pictured here at its controls. To be fair, the great Thomas Sopwith did have some connections with the Battersea railway arches and certainly visited the site more than once. An early Aero Club member, Sopwith made his first ascent in Charles Rolls' balloon. Later he partnered with his friend Phil Paddon to buy a balloon from Short Brothers, which was named "Padsop" and used for a number of flights from "The Field" between the railway viaducts. Sopwith also learned to fly in a monoplane made by the British Wright brothers in their Battersea arches, and later qualified for Aero Club certificate No. 31 flying in a 1910 pattern biplane, again from the British Wright brothers' Battersea works. The blue plaque for the Short Brothers at Battersea, at the southern end of Sopwith Way (behind the Shell petrol station on Queen's Circus). But Thomas Sopwith didn't make his name in Battersea, or live in the area. He didn't run a business or build any aircraft in Battersea. The Sopwith Aviation Company, producer of the legendary Sopwith Camel fighter of World War I, was based in Kingston. Sopwith went on to lead Hawker Engineering, later to become Hawker Siddeley, and was involved in the production of other famous planes over many years: these included the Hurricane and Typhoon of World War II, and later still the amazing Harrier jump jet. Royal Navy Harriers were crucial to Britain's victory in the Falklands, and the jet remains in service to this day with several nations: Harriers of the US Marines have seen action against Islamic State in the Middle East within the last year. There's a blue plaque commemorating the Short brothers' activities on the Battersea railway arches, but Sopwith's is miles away on his London house in Mayfair (and A V Roe's is by his arches on Walthamstow Marsh). The 1981 Wandsworth Council information pamphlet Flights of Fancy by Patrick Loobey, probably the definitive work on early aviation in Battersea, mentions Sopwith but has no section devoted to him as it does for other pioneers who lived and did their work in the area Phillips, the Shorts, and others. All in all, "Short Brothers Way", "Wright Brothers Lane" or even "Rolls Road" would have made more sense than "Sopwith Way". But Sopwith Way didn't actually come into existence until long, long after aviation activity in the area ceased. The riverside land between the railway viaduct and Chelsea Bridge had originally been a freight yard belonging to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. It continued as a freight yard through much of the twentieth century, with Battersea Power Station operational alongside it. By the 1970s the rail yard had gone, and the riverside between Chelsea and Grosvenor bridges stood empty and abandoned. The Power Station closed down in 1983. There was still no Sopwith Way. Sopwith Way actually appeared on the map in 1994, named by Wandsworth Council. Records show that this was done due to the need to provide a street address for the empty former railway yard, then being used as a police car pound. The old yard was eventually acquired by Berkeley Homes in 1999 and redeveloped as Chelsea Bridge Wharf. This complex of homes, shops and hotel was completed in the first decade of the 21st century. It would seem that in the 1990s, with the authorities keen to stimulate interest in the regeneration of the area around the Power Station, "Sopwith Way" was seen as a more evocative address than "Short Brothers Way". Or perhaps there was simply a mistake somewhere, as with the story that A V Roe worked beneath the Battersea railway arches. However it happened, Sopwith Way is now the address of Circus West as well as Chelsea Bridge Wharf. And given that Thomas Sopwith did own at least three aircraft one balloon and two aeroplanes made beneath the railway arches, perhaps that's fair enough. Share article" "GRACE'S GUIDE: "WANDSWORTH COMMON" [BNA: //www.gracesguide.co.uk/index. php?search=+Special%3ASearch&search=%22wandsworth+common%22&go=Go Results 1 21 of 48 Content pages Multimedia Everything Advanced Trinity Cars of 94, North Side, Wandsworth Common, London Car and Light Commercial Vehicle Stockists. See Also Sources of Information. . . 217 bytes (24 words) — 14: 22, 6 December 2018 James Albert Harvey Bedbrook 1896 of Haresfield, Blenkarne Road, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. See Also Sources of Information Category: Biography. . . 291 bytes (29 words) — 11: 16, 25 June 2016 George William Usill 12, Spencer Road, Wandsworth Common. Died 1902 aged 56 after sudden heart failure. The Engineer 1902/10/03, p329. See Also Sources of. . . 348 bytes (39 words) — 10: 48, 8 July 2016 George Fergusson Wilson 1851 Living at Wandsworth Common: William Wilson (age 78 born Stanmore), a Retired Merchant. With his wife Margaret Wilson (age 65 born Edinburgh. . . 2 KB (340 words) — 17: 48, 7 February 2018 Frederick A. Bond Council. Address: 118, Nightingale Lane, Wandsworth Common, S. W. See Also Sources of Information Category: Biography Category: Births. . . 418 bytes (49 words) — 10: 20, 21 May 2020 William Henry Martin Burgess 1911 Living at 9 Mayford Road, Wandsworth Common: William Henry Martin Burgess (age 38 born Rock, Kent), AutomobHe engineer — Employer. With. . . 907 bytes (121 words) — 07: 48, 20 January 2018 West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway and South Western Railway (L&SWR) at Wandsworth Common to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) at Sydenham. It opened on. . . 2 KB (300 words) — 15: 44, 27 January 2021 Alexander Thomas Clarkson 1911 Living at 28 West Side, Wandsworth Common: Alexander Clarkson (age 63 born Chelsea), Optical Instrument Dealer and Telescope Maker. With. . . 2 KB (276 words) — 17: 11, 24 December 2013 William Wilson (2) 1851 Living at Wandsworth Common: William Wilson (age 78 born Stanmore), a Retired Merchant. With his wife Margaret Wilson (age 65 born Edinburgh. . . 2 KB (301 words) — 14: 10, 11 December 2018 Robert Henry Broadhurst 1911 Living at 11 Ravenslea Road, Wandsworth Common: R. H. Broadhurst (age 44 born Bampton, Oxon. ), Optician and an Employer. With his wife C. . . 754 bytes (97 words) — 16: 04, 24 December 2013 William Milner Crowe April last, at Cregg, Nightingale-lane, Wandsworth Common, Surrey, William Milner Crowe, aged 41, great nephew of the late William Crowe, Esq. , of. . . 836 bytes (105 words) — 06: 14, 7 June 2017 James Pillans Wilson Stanmore), a Retired Merchant, living at Wandsworth Common with his wife Margaret Wilson (age 65 born Edinburgh) and their children. . . . James W. Wilson. . . 2 KB (319 words) — 18: 11, 7 February 2018 Charles Frederick Halsall 1911 Living at 80 North Side, Wandsworth Common: Charles Frederick Halsall (age 30 born Battersea), Engineer — Cycle and Motor — Employer. With. . . 905 bytes (110 words) — 07: 18, 5 April 2020 William Lewis Baker 1896 of 22 Hillier Road, Wandsworth Common, S W 1906 of Hargrave, St. Neots 1908 Died in Northants National probate calendar See Also. . . 868 bytes (108 words) — 16: 59, 17 February 2020 Walter Stanford Wright 1911 Living at 8 Henderson Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. : Walter Stanford Wright (age 38 born Stafford), Merchant (Director Ltd Co) Motor Cars. . . 1 KB (154 words) — 21: 16, 20 July 2016 Otto-Bennett Motor Co of 209 Shaftsbury Avenue, London Tyres See Leonard Egerton Otto and William Webber Bennett Proprietor: S. D. Rose 1905 February. Details of their. . . 1 KB (141 words) — 07: 36, 14 February 2018 Arthur Giraud Browning at his residence, Spencer Lodge, Wandsworth Common, on the 19th October, 1907. After being educated at Bancroft's School, London, he was articled. . . 2 KB (271 words) — 18: 46, 17 June 2015 John Veitch Wilson 1911 Living at 94 Nightingale Lane, Wandsworth Common SW: John Veitch Wilson (age 68 born Edinburgh), Manager — Oil Works. With his wife Alexandrina. . . 2 KB (319 words) — 15: 31, 7 March 2021 Ernest Richard Dolby occurred at his home at 21, Henderson Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. l8, on May 16th. Mr. Dolby, who was born in Liverpool in 1861, was educated. . . 3 KB (403 words) — 09: 08, 13 January 2019 Charles Sidney Lake his education first at Emanuel School, Wandsworth Common, and later during a three years&039; technical course in Berlin. In 1890 he entered the. . . 3 KB (468 words) — 13: 02, 8 September 2015 Results 21 41 of 48 Content pages Multimedia Everything Advanced 1919 Post Office London Location Suburbs Directory Simpson, Frederick R. (engineer), 2 North side, Wandsworth common SW18 Slade, Edmund &co. 3201, Clapham rd SW9 Smith, E. Coleman &. . . 23 KB (3, 147 words) — 08: 33, 13 January 2018 1953 Who's Who in the Motor Industry: Companies T Vehicle Stockists. 94, North Side, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. iS. Telephone: Vandyke 1166. Directors: S. M. Lawry (Managing). A. E. Lawry. . . 19 KB (2, 808 words) — 13: 13, 6 April 2021 1934 Who's Who in the Motor Trade: Name E Bellevue Garage & Service Stations, Ltd. , Wandsworth Common, S. W. B. 18 July, 1910, Wimbledon, Surrey. Ed. : Lexdon House, Seaford; Badingham College. . . 16 KB (2, 303 words) — 17: 42, 4 December 2019 Henry Critchett Bartlett is 58 Northside, a large house opposite Wandsworth Common. In the 1891 England and Wales census HCB is described as a Professor of Sanitary Science. . . 22 KB (3, 545 words) — 08: 59, 4 November 2015 Spong and Co in 1875 born at King William's Street, Wandsworth Common, Dora in 1879 born in Balham, and Irene Osborn born at 124 Fernlea Road, Streatham, in 1882. . . . 14 KB (2, 257 words) — 09: 21, 2 December 2021 William Gravatt Lord Spencer's liberal gift of two acres on Wandsworth Common for it to stand upon, the unforeseen pecuniary difficulties of the. . . 30 KB (5, 136 words) — 11: 57, 23 October 2021 1909 Institute of Metals: Members G. , R. N. , Meadowside, " Thurleigh Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. GOWER, F. W. , The Birmingham Aluminium Casting (1903) Company, Ltd. , Cambridge. . . 37 KB (4, 901 words) — 14: 46, 14 April 2022 1911 Institute of Metals: Members , " Meadowside, " 91 Thurleigh Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. GOWER, FRANCIS WILLIAM, The Birmingham Aluminium Casting (1903) Company. . . 42 KB (5, 488 words) — 15: 47, 13 October 2016 1939 Who's Who In Engineering: Name N S. W. 1. Private address: 277, Burntwood Lane, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 17. Age: 48. Career: Imperial Coll. of Sc. and Tech. , 1911, Sturtevant Eng. co.. . . 46 KB (7, 229 words) — 08: 29, 17 May 2022 1915 Institute of Metals: Members 1915 DAVIS, ALBERT LEONARD, 21 Quarry Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. . . . Meadowside, " 91 Thurleigh Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. . . . 55 KB (7, 067 words) — 16: 16, 5 June 2020 1887 Institution of Electrical Engineers: Members NEWLAND, Joni; LEYLAND. Rathgar, Earlsfield Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. NEWTON, FRANK ALBERT . 4, Rose Hill Road, New Wandsworth, . . . 91 KB (12, 256 words) — 12: 12, 3 December 2021 1953 Who's Who in the Motor Industry: Persons K Tennis. Private Address: 2, Broomwood Road, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. KNIGHT, George Alfred. General Manager, Rootes Ltd. , Canterbury. Born. . . 35 KB (5, 033 words) — 14: 31, 23 November 2020 1939 Who's Who In Engineering: Name K Region, 66 North Side, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 18. Age: 32. Career: H. M. Dockyard, Devonport; London Univ. ; Post Office Eng. Dept. KNOX, Joseph. . . 56 KB (8, 823 words) — 08: 28, 17 May 2022 1920 Motor, Marine and Aircraft Red Book: Company W Welfare Cycle and Motorco. 21 Barmouth rd. Wandsworth Common, London S. W. 18, Repairs, DAO Wellingborough Motor Omnibusco. Ld. 1 High st. Wellingborough. . . 52 KB (7, 875 words) — 13: 45, 28 March 2021 1939 Who's Who In Engineering: Name G W. 1. Private Address: 50 Lyford Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 18. Career: R. . . Private address: Foxwood, Park Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 18. Career: Apprent. . . 137 KB (21, 307 words) — 08: 27, 17 May 2022 1959 Who's Who in the Motor Industry: Name L C. Add: Trinity Cars, Ltd. , 94 North Side, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. 18. T: Vandyke 1166; and Garden Cottage, Portsmouth Road, Esher, Surrey. T: . . . 41 KB (5, 744 words) — 13: 33, 27 June 2020 1906 Liverpool Engineering Society: Members W. S. , Assoc. M. Inst. C. E. , 32, North Side, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. 16th Nov. , 1898. . . Bourne, J. Surveyor, Urban District Council, Rawmarsh. . . 49 KB (6, 857 words) — 18: 28, 2 January 2019 1939 Who's Who In Engineering: Name P PHILLIPS, F. J. A. M. I. E. E. 25, Westover Road, Wandsworth Common, S. . . address: 37, Baskerville Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 18. Career: On. . . 144 KB (22, 672 words) — 08: 29, 17 May 2022 1896 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Members London, S. E. ; and 15 Nicosia Road, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. . . . Harvey, Haresfield, Blenkarne Road, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. . . . 281 KB (34, 472 words) — 08: 13, 16 June 2022 1933 Who's Who in British Aviation: Name S College. Add. : 65, Ellerton Road, Wandsworth Common. SALMOND, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John (Maitland) G. C. B. , C. M. G. , C. V. O. , D. S. O. . . 58 KB (8, 888 words) — 17: 06, 21 June 2020 1922 Who's Who In Engineering: Name K Engineer, 133, Trinity Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 17. T. N. : Bank 879. b. 1873; father Czech, mother English, wife English. Ed. St. Mark&039; s. . . 54 KB (8, 279 words) — 09: 29, 29 July 2021 1953 Who's Who in the Motor Industry: Persons H Note: This is a sub-section of 1953 Who&039; s Who in the Motor Industry — A — B — C — D — E — F — G — H — I- J — K — L — M — N — O. . . 151 KB (21, 491 words) — 10: 18, 16 March 2021 1953 Who's Who in the Motor Industry: Persons L Maunder. Managing Director, Trinity Cars Ltd. , Wandsworth Common, S. W. 18. Born Cambridge, 13th June, 1907. Educated at City of London School. Trained. . . 71 KB (10, 326 words) — 14: 32, 23 November 2020 1888 Iron and Steel Institute: Members Bell, H. S. , 6 Dents Road, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. Bell, Sir Lowthian, Bart. , F. R. S. , Rounton Grange, Northallerton. Bell, Thomas. . . 74 KB (9, 689 words) — 11: 07, 27 July 2020 1939 Who's Who In Engineering: Name H Address: "Taveta, " 5 Frewin Road, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. 18. Age: 48. HERWALD, Nehemiah. A. C. G. I. , B. Sc. (Eng. ), A. M. I. E. E. . . 240 KB (37, 568 words) — 08: 27, 17 May 2022 1904 Motorists LOVEGROVE, J. W. , Grove House, Wandsworth Common, London, S. W. Car: 9 h. -p. Dennis. Hobby: Photography. LOVELL, E. D. , 8o, Herne Hill, London. . . 194 KB (31, 768 words) — 14: 04, 18 November 2020 1959 Chemical Manufacturers Directory: Chemical Manufacturers 1 mile. London offices: 18-19 Belle Vue Road, Wandsworth Common, S. W. 17 (Telephone: Balham 44789). Birmingham office: 33 Rea Street, Birmingham (Telephone: . . . 251 KB (30, 317 words) — 17: 56, 13 December 2021 1922 Who's Who In Engineering: Name B Council. Address: 118, Nightingale Lane, Wandsworth Common, S. W. BOND, George Creswell, F. G. S. , Assoc. M. Inst. . 0. E. , M. M ech. E M. I. Min. E. &039; . . . 329 KB (49, 920 words) — 13: 33, 19 April 2022" "GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON [BNA:
"BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM GRAVATT [re the SCOPE] William Gravatt (1806-1866) 1828 became a full member of the Inst of Civil Engineers 1867 Obituary [1] MR. WILLIAM GRAVATT was born at Gravesend on the 14th of July, 1806. In January, 1822, his father, the late Colonel Gravatt, of the Royal Engineers, Inspector of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, wrote to the late Mr. Bryan Donkin:- 'My son has been brought up to know that he must trust to his own resources for advancement in life. Throwing as far as I can from me the partiality of a father, I must yet be permitted to say that his habits are peculiarly suited for the attainment of the duties of your noble profession, since, to a good classical education he joins a knowledge of mathematics seldom attained at his years, including the practical parts of perspective, and the drawing of plans, elevations, and sections; he has also a most determined bias to whatever relates to machinery, which last I attribute to his having made the steam and other engines in this arsenal the objects of his contemplation.' At the early age of fifteen years, he already showed an appreciation of delicate, mechanical manipulation, as well as an aptitude for mathematical investigation, for both of which he was in after life very remarkable. Shortly after he was placed with Mr. Donkin, a small wager was laid between young Gravatt and a fellow apprentice, that the latter could not, in a given time, unwind a given length of string from a stick planted in the ground by walking round it. Gravatt's winning the wager led him to get out a formula for determining the distance walked round the fixed stick, which his friend the late Professor Barlow found to be correct, and remarked that the same thing happened to be then under consideration by the cadets of the Royal Academy. During his apprenticeship under Mr. Donkin he not only went though the usual routine of mechanical engineering, but he was likewise initiated into those scientific acquirements, the value of which, as essential to the professional status of a Civil Engineer, is now more properly recognized, and of which he never lost sight. At this time began the intimacy with Mr. Troughton and Dr. Wollaston, which continued until their deaths. Through the former he may be said to have been connected by tradition with the father of English Engineers, as the following anecdote will show. At one of Gravatt's frequent visits to Troughton's back parlour, in Fleet Street, he fell into conversation, during her brother's absence, with Miss Troughton, who described the personages therein admitted. 'They all praised her brother' she said, 'save one, a short man, with a grey coat;' and for this she was inclined 'to eye him askant.' He, however, came one day 'to bid Edward his last farewell,' and, at parting, was observed to be in tears. As soon as he was gone, 'Now I know,' said the sister to her brother, 'why he never praised you. 'Twas because he loved you.' This man was John Smeaton. On leaving the works of Mr. Donkin he was placed under Mr., afterwards Sir I sambard Brunel, who, before Gravatt's apprenticeship expired, 'considered that he was a competent person to attend to the management of 'the shield,' in particular, and, in general, to the machinery belonging to the Thames Tunnel.' He frequently remained in the frames all night, and more than once, when Mr. I. E. Brunel was incapacitated by sickness, he stayed on duty for thirty-eight hours, spending those needed for rest at the bedside of his friend. 'On the 5th of March, 1828, silver medals were voted by the Royal Humane Society to Mr. I. K. Brunel and Mr. William Gravatt for having hazarded their own lives to preserve those of their fellow-creatures.' To the latter was presented, by the two directors, Mr. R. H. Marten and Mr. R. P. Harris, a gold ring, as 'A memorial of the events of the 27th of June, 1827, and of his humane, prompt, and efficient help in rescuing them from a perilous situation' during a survey by boat of the interior of the Thames Tunnel after an irruption of the river. In 1832 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in the proceedings of both Societies he took an active interest. ' Iused to meet,' says Professor De Morgan, 'two Engineers at the Society, one military and one civil, who were very curious about questions of principle in mathematics. The first was General Colby, the second was Mr. Gravatt, who was quick to see, and, certainly, a mathematician of the higher branches. A long time ago he told me that he had derived so much benefit from my work on the Differential Calculus that he must insist on subscribing, as a testimonial of the instruction he had received, to some charity; and he requested me to name an institution. I thought he was in joke, and laughed; but he convinced me he was in earnest, at which Ilaughed still more. Irefused to name any charity, and, as I thought, the matter ended. But, a few days after, Iactually received a subscriber's voting-paper for some orphan asylum, which he requested me to fill up in my own way out of the list of candidates, and forward: which I did. There was a curious eccentricity about the method, but it showed a real sense of benefit received; and a person who could have any right to the feeling from so extensive a work on the higher mathematics as my Differential Calculus, must either have been a person who could flatter himself he understood what he did not — a very unlikely thing in so clear-headed a person — or must have had a true understanding of the contents. And this was the impression I derived from other conversations.' Upon the stoppage of the Thames Tunnel works in 1832, he was, by the recommendation of Mr. Donkin, appointed Engineer to the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Here he commenced his first works, in the shape of several bridges across the river, the arches of which were remarkable for their stability and cheapness; in these he was, perhaps, the first to adopt a principle equivalent to that since successfully applied to suspension bridges, i.e., the combination of local rigidity with the distributed support which the curvature of the flexible chain supplies. Thus, while the general curvature of the chain or arch sustains the dead load in equilibrio, the addition of longitudinal stiffness to the structure meets the non-equilibrated stress due to unequal or travelling load. The rise, in Gravatt's bridges, of necessity small, being in the ratio of 4 to a 100 span, he obtained the help of rigidity by an arrangement analogous rather to that proposed by Mr. Cowper, in which the suspending chain, instead of being flexible, is formed of plate iron, so as to possess in the requisite degree the rigidity of a plate or box-girder, than to that of Roebling or Barlow, in which the local rigidity is supplied by the structure of the roadway. The platform of the roadway was laid throughout, on the back of a pair of arched girders, each of which consisted of several layers of timber bolted together, with hard wood keys interposed between the contiguous layers buried half in each, near the bolts, so as to prevent the surfaces from sliding, when pressure had to be obliquely transmitted from layer to layer. In such a structure the stress due to dead load must be throughout compressional, while that due to travelling load may be resolved into:- l. Compressional stress throughout the length of the girder; and, 2. Bending moment, having a local distribution appropriate to the position of the load, and producing tension along the inner, and compression along the outer surface of the girder, or vice versa, according as the curvature which it tends to induce is of a downward or upward character. Under these combined stresses, as they existed in the Gravatt Bridge, it is only when the travelling load rests on a certain region of either haunch, that actual tensional stress is developed ; and then only in the fibres nearer to the inner or outer surface of the girder. Hence, in the first place, in arranging the layers, lengths of which his girders consisted, Mr. Gravatt adopted such dimensions that no break of joint in the inner or outer layers should occur within the region in which actual tensional stress could be developed. Thus, the central part of the girder, forming the, region of the neutral axis, and therefore but little affected by the forces which belong to 'bending moment,' is, in virtue of its position, exempt from that excess of compressional strain which its inner and outer surfaces along the haunches are occasionally called on to endure. And hence, in the second place, in putting the work together, Mr. Gravatt so arranged the combinations that central layers should, prior to the loading of the bridge, already experience a considerable amount of compression, and should thus, when in place, relieve the inner and outer surface of some portion of that excess of compression which, under the circumstances, tends occasionally to fall on them. In other words : 1. The stress on the equilibrated arched girder loaded throughout is compressional; 2. When unequally loaded, and the one munch thereby depressed, the other elevated, the under side of one is a little in tension, and its top a great deal in compression; while the other, or opposite haunch, has its under side much in compression, and its top little in tension; in each case, if the centre line, being almost unaflected, be previously thrown into strong compression in each haunch, then, the excess of tension in either, being thrown on the central part in both, is corrected. Now, Mr. Gravatt, in the act of putting the parts of his cambered girder together, developed a permanent stress on some of them, and, by this means, got out of the material the maximum of work. By Mr. H. R. Palmer he was employed in examining the country for the original scheme of the London and Dover Railway. During the early period of railway construction he devised a level, which generally bears his name, but which he called the 'dumpy,' and also the level-staff, which is now universally employed, but which is not generally known to have been introduced by him. Those whose experience in levelling has been acquired by help of the compact and simple instruments now universally in use, can hardly conceive the range of the step which was made in advance, when these improved appointments, at once matured to a degree which left little room for improvement, were introduced by Mr. Gravatt above thirty years ago. Mr. Troughton had, indeed, already substituted for the cumbrous Y level, with its easily disturbed adjustments, an instrument pretty firmly mounted, and having adjustments of a formal character. But the telescope, from its large focal length and relatively small aperture, was wanting in compactness and in light; and no improvement had yet been made on the old-fashioned staff, with its sliding vane which had to be adjusted to the intersection of the horizontal web, under signal from the observer, by the staff-holder, on whose care in making the adjustment, and in preserving it till the stag had been handled and read by the observer, the veracity of the result materially depended. Mr. Gravatt at once grasped the idea that, with a decent telescope and legibly divided staff, the observer could independently read off his own observations while the staff was in position, and he accordingly originated the character of division now universally in use. And applying to the subject his masterly knowledge of theoretical and practical optics, he so arranged the optical details of the telescope as to obtain, with an object glass of large aperture and short focus, breadth and flatness of field as well as excellent achromatization and definition. For these valuable improvements a Telford Medal was awarded to him by the Institution of Civil Engineers. He likewise contrived a pocket instrument, which he called a 'nadir,' by means of which, and a common box-sextant, without the aid of an assistant or a level-staff, he carried lines of trial levels through districts where the opposition of land-owners or other obstacles rendered the traversing of the country, save by the highways, impracticable. After the rejection of the first Great Western Railway Bill, and the passing of that of the Southampton Railway, which latter, together with the Bath and Basing line, he helped to oppose, in 1834, he was employed by the late Mr. Brunel to survey a line of railway from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil and Dowlais; and, from the passing of the Great Western Railway Act, he was engaged in designing bridges for the first contracts for that line. In 1835, he was engaged by Mr. Brunel to superintend the parliamentary surveys and to co-operate with him in tracing the line for the Bristol and Exeter Railway. This task exhibited his extraordinary and well-known powers of endurance; the whole work, extending over 75 miles, being begun and ended in about a month. The ability with which it was carried out was proved by the permanent works being executed throughout within the limit of the 100 yards on either side of the line laid down on the original parliamentary plans; in other words, no further deviation therefrom was called for during the construction of the railway. Whilst carrying out the works of this line, of which he had been appointed the Acting Engineer by Mr. Brunel, he was, on his own account, Engineer to the canalization of the River Parret to Langport, where he constructed a stone bridge ; and, at Bristol, he designed and superintended the erection of the St. Phillip's drawbridge, the stone piers of which were built on shore in caissons, then launched and sunk in their places. During the railway mania of 1845-6, Mr. Gravatt unwisely accepted the post of Engineer to several lines, which turned out mere bubbles, and by whose promoters he was not only left without professional remuneration, but he was saddled with the cost of the surveys and preliminary charges. His position was thereby, not only then, but prospectively, affected ; and during the rest of his days he suffered more or less from those severe disappointments. In 1850 he was, on account of his well-known mathematical and mechanical acquirements, selected to design and to superintend the construction of an Achromatic Telescope, which was to have been the largest that had hitherto been produced. For the object glass, the refractive-index and dispersive-ratio of the flint and crown-glass parts were determined by a series of careful experiments; and from the data thus acquired the curves of the two lenses were calculated for a combined focal length of 76 feet. The first observation made showed the divisions in Saturn's ring, the slate-coloured ring, and the inner satellites with great distinctness, likewise a and e Lyrae with their minute companions; and the superiority of this object-glass of 24-inches diameter in its command over the faintest points of light was admitted by all observers. Equilibrated by a weight slung over a round brick tower, 64 feet high by 15 feet diameter, the tube could be placed at any altitude and at any azimuth by the observer himself — a railway carrying a light frame on wheels for its movement round the tower. The ease of manipulation was perfect, and the arrangements for neutralizing the vibration of this tube of 85 feet length produced the utmost steadiness. The late Mr. George Rennie (M. Inst. C.E.), who constructed the tube, declined to remove the blocks upon which it had been built save in the presence of Mr. Gravatt. The amount of flexure which took place, upon the removal of all but the end blocks, was, however, exactly what he had calculated it to be, and no more. Both in the design and in the mechanical execution of this telescope, Mr. Gravatt proved himself not alone worthy of having sat at the feet of Troughton, but also in advance of the times. In more instances than one where he corrected the working formula of the leading authorities, the words of his friend Mr. Babbage were confirmed, when he said that — 'Gravatt's mathematical capacity was of a high order, and mathematicians were glad to consult him ; when they had not done so, it was a great satisfaction to them to find that his opinion coincided with their own.' The space-penetrating power of this giant refractor would have extended the boundaries of astronomic science ; but, in spite of Lord Spencer's liberal gift of two acres on Wandsworth Common for it to stand upon, the unforeseen pecuniary difficulties of the person for whom it was constructed prevented its entire completion, and the whole is now falling to ruin; its tube, like a rejected toy, lying on the ground, 'Jacet ingens littore truncus avulsumque humeris caput et sine nomine corpus.' The only existing proof of its work is a photograph, about 9 inches diameter, of the full moon, taken by the Rev. J. B. Reade, on the principal focus, i.e., the focus of the object-glass, on the 6th of September, 1854, in which all the important features in the moon's surface could be discerned. A positive print of this was sent to the International Exposition of Paris in 1855, and received 'Honourable Mention,' with a special notice in the Jurors' Report. When M. Scheutz, in 1854, brought his 'difference engine' to London, Mr. Gravatt at once took up a subject which had long interested him, and he soon mastered the difficulties of that ingenious machine. In 1855 he undertook the task of explaining to Prince Albert and to the Fellows of the Royal Society its principle and mode of action, and when it was placed in the International Exposition at Paris he continued to illustrate its construction and action ; in fact, 'Without him,' says Mr. Babbage, 'we should have had no calculating machine.' The instrument, therefore, which was constructed by Messrs. Donkin after the Swedish original, and which is now worked at Somerset House under the direction of the Registrar-General, is due to Mr. Gravatt. Under his direction, specimens of logarithmic and other tables were calculated and printed without the use of types, thereby establishing the faith of the public in its capability of not only performing but also of registering complicated calculations. He likewise calculated, stereoglyphed, and printed without the use of types, some mountain barometric tables, which, in the form of a brochure, were circulated among his friends.' Amongst the educated classes of the Chinese, who avoid politics, a taste for the mathematical sciences is very prevalent. The numerous translations of western scientific works attest this fact, and among their reproductions is the reprint by them of Gravatt's "'Companion to the Mountain Barometer.' For his services rendered to science, in connection with the Swedish difference engine, he was elected Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Sweden. Mr. Gravatt joined the Institution of Civil Engineers as an Associate in 1826, and in 1828 he was transferred to the class of Members. He was a constant attendant at the meetings, frequently taking part in the discussions, especially on the occasion of novel, or abstruse questions. He took a prominent part in the discussion on the theory of the jet-propeller, and on the submerging of telegraphic cables. It is always difficult to put, in an acceptable shape, before an assembly of practical men, a purely mathematical exposition of the fundamental dynamic conditions which underlie the solution of a practical problem; especially when, on the one hand, the elucidation involves intricate and abstract modes of thought, and when, on the other, the theoretical conclusions drawn therefrom must, in their application to practice, be largely modified by obvious, though collateral practical conditions. Now, Mr. Gravatt's manner in discussion, though convincing in private, was not such in public as to master this difficulty so as to do justice to his matter. It was perhaps attributable to these circumstances that, in the controversy which followed the reading of Mr. D. K. Clark's Paper in 1854 on 'Ruthven's Propeller,' his view was warmly opposed by several eminent members of the Institution. Nevertheless, the view itself, exhibited in succinct and masterly mathematical language, is (regarded in a purely dynamical light, and taking account of its entire fundamental dynamic conditions) a true solution of the question at that time at issue. If by the labours of more recent investigators, like Dr. Rankine and Mr. Froude, this solution has, on the practical side, been extended, Mr. Gravatt's, so far as it went, not only remains uncontroverted, but has received unqualified confirmation. It is to be found among the pamphlets in the library of the Institution, in 'A Letter on Steam Gun-boats of shallow draught and high speed.' His view of the mathematic-mechanics of laying submarine cables was clear and profound, and in himself wholly original; but not absolutely, with regard to others who preceded him in laying down the theory. At the termination of the controversy which took place between himself and the Astronomer-Royal, the latter said, 'Though Ipartly disagree, I do in great measure agree with you, and am rather surprised that with so little calculation you should have arrived at results of such general accuracy.' Mr. Gravatt published in the 'Philosophical Magazine' of July, 1858, a further elucidation of the conclusions at which he arrived during the discussion on Messrs. Longridge and Brooks' Paper read at the Institution in February, 1858. Mr. Gravatt was, in the strictest sense, a remarkable man; peculiar to a degree which may fairly be called extraordinary, even in his defects, especially in those usually associated with want of sense, and implying that want; combined, however, with the possession on most points of the most solid and widely ranging perception and judgment — 'common sense,' in the strictest meaning of the term. He was like one of those wonderful pieces of work of his friend Troughton, which, for some small blemish or defect, its maker consigned to the limbo of the brass-box to be sold some day as old metal, although fit for all but the most perfect performance of the work for which it had been intended. Capable of the warmest and most persistent friendship, Mr. Gravatt was also susceptible of strong resentment. This was, for the most part, based on a perception of wrong, as such, and expressed his strong and clear disapprobation of wrong doing. It was also sometimes tinged with personal feelings, and warped by the operation of one or other of those disturbing mental forces which have already been alluded to; and, as a natural consequence, it was at such times often unjust. But if ever he came to see, as he was never unwilling to do, if proof came before him, that he had been induced into error, he was, in a manner unequivocally hearty, most forward to apologize. In fact, he was chivalrously honourable in all his feelings and transactions, and he never hesitated to admit that he had been in error. The art of engineering men, such as the superior workmen at the Thames Tunnel, he possessed in an eminent degree, and had he been endowed with the same faculty, when he was brought into contact with men in general and with directors of public companies in particular, he would have attained success in life, in proportion to his capacity in engineering matters. Of all the gifts presented to Mr. Gravatt, a pair of calipers made by Troughton's own hands, Bryan Donkin's chronometer by Hardy, and a specimen of Babbage's original difference engine, were those which he regarded with the sincerest pleasure. These tokens consoled him when, finding himself passed in the race of life by men who did not possess his qualifications, he was led to the inference that they did so, not because they were sounder mechanics than he, but because they were more men of the world. It would be very difficult to discuss, in a form suitable for the succinct Memoirs of the Institution, even a portion of the works upon which Mr. Gravatt was engaged. They were remarkable, not for their number, or for their magnitude, in the ordinary sense of that term, but for the amount of refined professional skill; and, if the word may be used, for the 'affectionate' scientific elaboration which they embodied. Some of the boldest and best contrived of his works, the great telescope, and the bridge over the River Parret, near Bridgewater, for instance, have not, in fact, survived. The best memorial of his broad and deep professional knowledge, his varied acquirements, his versatile and kindly humour, would be a record of his table-talk, especially of such portions of it as belonged to the occasions when, in the company of various congenial friends, who, he felt, could appreciate and follow the current of his ideas, he gave full play to his mind. But of this the only record which exists is that which survives in the recollections of his friends. And such recollections, however intimate the friendship and congenial the temper of those who are their depositaries, are at best but ineffective substitutes for the portraiture which short-hand notes alone could adequately supply. It would perhaps seem disproportionate, and perhaps unwarranted to say, that but for Plato the wisdom of Socrates would have been lost. Certainly, but for the indefatigable and almost unexampled labours of Boswell, we should scarcely have half known Johnson. And there undoubtedly have been men of great capacity and varied acquirements, who have possessed, besides great power of communicating their ideas in familiar conversation, whose gifts and whose accomplishments, though they have exerted a wide and deep influence on the current of contemporary thought, have yet left few permanent marks associated with their name and with their history, — 'carent quia vate sacro.' Mr. Gravatt undoubtedly was one of these; and though many Engineers of the present day recollect, with more or less distinctness, how largely their stores of professional knowledge have been stocked from his warehouse; how greatly their forms of thought and methods of investigation have been influenced by his views, they could but poorly convey to others an inheritance which they feel to have been of life-long value to themselves. The career of Mr. Gravatt was brought to an untimely end at Westminster, on the 30th May, 1866, under very painful circumstances. He was 'poisoned by an overdose of morphia given inadvertently by his nurse,' — a faithful and attached servant, to whom, in the jury's opinion, 'sufficient caution was not given by the medical man in attendance.' There was in Mr. Gravatt all the material to make an engineer; he possessed great acquirements, succeeded in almost everything that he undertook, wag full of high, chivalrous and honourable feelings, he had a kind heart and generous mind; and he ought to have taken a very high position in his profession; but in this he failed because he could not, or would not, conform to the ordinary ways of the men among whom his lot was cast. 1866 Obituary [2] DEATH OF MR W. GRAVATT, C.E. WE announce with unmixed regret, the decease of Mr. W. Gravatt, C. E., the well-known inventor of the "Dumpy" level, under peculiarly painful circumstances at the comparatively early age of fifty-nine. Mr. Gravatt had been ill for about ten months, during which time he was attended by Mr Lee. Mr. Lee himself fell sick, however, and Dr. Poole was called in on the afternoon of Tuesday week. Dr. Poole wrote a prescription for a draught containing a large quantity of morphia. This draught was to be given in two doses, but, by a most unfortunate mistake, the nurse in attendance gave the whole at once. Mr. Gravatt never awoke in this world from the sleep which ensued. He passed away quietly and peacefully on the following morning. Under the circumstances it became necessary to hold an inquest, which resulted in a verdict equivalent to one of accidental death. William Gravatt, son of Colonel Gravatt, of the Royal Engineers, was early destined for the profession of a civil engineer, and after receiving an enlarged scientific education from his father, and being, it is believed, partly brought up at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, he went through a course of instruction in practical mechanics at the factory of Messrs. Bryan Donkin and Co. He was then, towards the close of 1826, appointed one of the assistants at the works of the Thames Tunnel, and frequently remained all night in the frames, and more than once was known to have been there for thirty eight hours consecutively. It was in this year that he joined the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he became a full member in 1828. After the completion of the Thames Tunnel he was associated with the younger Brunel for many years on the Great Western Railway, and also on the Bristol and Exeter line, since which he had not been engaged in very active practice. He possessed high mathematical attainments, had a great attachment for astronomical pursuits, and was generally considered to be in all respects a very intelligent man. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1832, and of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1843, and he was also a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Sweden. He took a very warm interest in Scheutz's calculating machine, which he first saw at Messrs. Donkin's factory in 1854, and which he subsequently explained to the scientific world at the apartments of the Royal Society at Somerset House, at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and at the Institution of Civil Engineers. An abstract of his method of considering and of working this machine appeared in a pamphlet issued by the Messrs. Scheutz ; and Mr. Gravatt himself had printed, by machinery, without the aid of types, for private circulation, in 1859, a "Companion to the Barometer," being " Mountain Barometer Tables," calculated and stereoglyphed by the second of Messrs. Scheutz's calculating machines, which machine was made by the Messrs. Donkin for the British Government., for the office of the Registrar General. See Also 1836 Institution of Civil Engineers 1867 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries Bridges of Langport (Somerset) Charles Harcourt White John Donkin Peter John Margary Peter Mark Roget Thames Tunnel The Engineer 1856/06/06 The Engineer 1861/03/01 The Engineer 1866/06/08 The Engineer 1866 Jan-Jun: Obituaries William Gravatt, Senior William Mills (1818-1891) Sources of Information 1867 Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries The Engineer 1866/06/08 The Engineer Categories: BiographyBirths 1800-1809Deaths 1860-1869Institution of Civil Engineers This page was last edited on 23 October 2021, at 11:57. [BNA:
"Mobile Labour Force wants more men . . . Mobile Labour Force wants more men TODAY'S WEATHER Showers, bright intervals, local thunderstor Employment exchanges are now campaigning for more recruits for the MobHe Labour Force which was formed by the Ministry of Works to travel anywhere in the. . . Published: Friday 30 August 1946 Newspaper: Daily News (London) [BNA: Link.] ______________ SEE HOW THEY GROW! See How They Grow ! Even when George Lansbury was its chief, the Office of Works, as it was then called, did its modest, necessary duties efficiently and without fuss. It is now a Ministry and under Socialism has developed into a Colossus, still growing at alarming speed. Next year it will spend 9, 553, 400 compared with 8, 509, 680 in 1946-47. and will employ 21, 365 compared with an average of 19, 289 this year. The Government's housing schemes, which are proceeding so leisurely, are the pretext the employment of a vast administrative and technical all members of which are non-productive. It is safe to assume etc etc [BNA:
Defaming Britain TRUTH for a long time — almost alone — has repeatedly drawn attention to the campaign of vilification against Great Britain conducted in American newspapers and in public meeting by Zionists. Some scepticism has been felt about these exposures, possibly because they are almost unbelievable against the nation which has done most for Jewry, but also because they do not appear to have been supported by evidence from British correspondents in the United States. An article in the Daily Express by C. V. R. Thompson, the New York correspondent of that paper, partly explains the peculiar reticence on this scandal of British newspaper men in the United States. Mr. Thompson says that for nearly a year he wanted to tell the truth about this infamous anti-British agitation, but refrained, because he believed that such an exposure of the Zionists would prejudice the delicate Palestine negotiations. This unconvincing explanation, or something like it, could be put forward to justify almost any suppression of unpleasant news. Mr. Thompson makes up for his reticence by exposing some of the blackguardly and lying attacks made by American Jewry on this country, and particularly on the Foreign Secretary, who is invariably referred to in Zionist advertisements as Adolf Bevin. Small wonder that Mr. Bevin hit back so vigorously recently. Subscriptions to the funds that make possible these scurrilous advertisements are deductible from income tax. The campaign is, therefore, indirectly subsidised by the United States Government. I have no space in which to quote from the filthy propaganda belatedly exposed by Mr. Thompson. It is enough to that Published: Friday 28 March 1947 Newspaper: Truth [BNA: Link.] "[https]://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=%2B%22mobile%20%20labour%20force%22&phrasesearch=mobile%20%20labour%20force&retrievecountrycounts=false&place=london%2C%20london%2C%20england&page=1 Strikers go back . . . Strikers go back The 350 members of the Ministry of Works mobile labour force working on the new chemical research laboratory at Porton, near Salisbury, who came out on strike on Friday over a non-unionist, went back yesterday. . . . Published: Wednesday 24 May 1950 Newspaper: Daily Herald Extra rations . . . deploring the Government's intention to continue import foreign workers. Carpenters employed in the Ministry of Works mobile labour force at Shirley. Croydon, have given notice to strike next Monday unless 12 Polish carpenters working on site there are withdrawn . . . Published: Wednesday 22 October 1947 Newspaper: Daily Herald . . . Protest over Pole labour MEMBERS of the Ministry of Works mobile labour force. working on four different jobs, struck work on Tuesday as a protest against the introduction of Poles into the _force. _ The force to be particularly affected on Tuesday was . . . Published: Friday 17 October 1947 Newspaper: Uxbridge & W. Drayton Gazette County: London, England III:101a OF FOLLY . . . III:101a OF FOLLY Already the first part of the plan is 'upon us. The Ministry of Works is recruiting a mobile labour force of 10,0611 operatives to be directed to work anywhere. Ibis looks good on paper, but men of standing in the building industry who . . . Published: Friday 19 July 1946 Newspaper: West London Observer _____________ Chelsea News and General Advertiser — Friday 30 April 1948 New homes to rise where once a prison stood [photo] On the foundations of the old Millbank Prison are now being built new foundations for the erection of LCC flats by a Mobile Labor Force to replace those that were bombed on the Millbank Estate during the war. ________________________ Parishes: Wandsworth Pages 108-120 A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1912. Citation: 'Parishes: Wandsworth', in A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4, ed. H E Malden (London, 1912), pp. 108-120. British History Online [http]://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol4/pp108-120 [accessed 29 June 2022]. In this section WANDSWORTH MANORS CHURCHES ADVOWSONS CHARITIES Church Estates. All Saints' Free and Auxiliary National Schools. St. Anne's. St. Mary, Summers Town. St. Stephen. Footnotes WANDSWORTH Wendleswurthe (vii cent.); Wendlesurd, Wandelesorde, Wandesorde (xi cent.); Wandlewrth, Wenleswrorth (xii cent.); Wandelesworth, Wendesworth (xiii cent.); Wendlesworth, Wandsworth (xiv cent.); Wansworth alias Wandlesworthe (xvii cent.). The area of the civil parish of Wandsworth covers not quite 2, 445 acres. (fn. 1) Nearly 232 of these were returned in 1905 as permanent grass, whilst there were 8_ acres of woodland and 5 still cultivated as arable land. The soil is the alluvium of the Thames and Wandle, a gravel terrace originally deposited by the river forming the higher ground. The altitude of the parish averages about 50 ft. above the ordnance datum except in the east and south-east, where it rises to 100 ft. The River Wandle (fn. 2) enters it from the south and flows northwards into the Thames. The stream is probably named from the place, not the place from the stream, as is generally supposed. Wendel was no doubt the name of a man. The upper part of the stream is crossed by the main line of the London and SouthWestern railway, which runs north-east from the station of Earlsfield and Summers Town towards Clapham Junction. Other branches of this railway intersect Wandsworth, the Wimbledon and Fulham line which has a station at Southfields in the southwest, and the East Putney and Wimbledon new line running from East Putney station just beyond the borders of Putney to the Windsor branch, on which stands Wandsworth station. Between the Wandle and the main railway line a densely populated district extends southwards. This incloses St. Peter's Hospital, founded in 1618 at Newington by the Fishmongers' Company, (fn. 3) and endowed by various members of the company and also Mount Nod, the burying-place of many Huguenots, (fn. 4) and the workhouse of the Wandsworth Union (which comprises Wandsworth, Clapham and Battersea) in Earlsfield. Two open spaces — Spencer Park, which is maintained by the joint subscriptions of the residents surrounding it, (fn. 5) and Wandsworth Common, (fn. 6) now under the control of the London County Council — stretch along the western side of this part of the railway, east of which again are the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Girls, built in 1857, (fn. 7) the prison and the County of Middlesex Lunatic Asylum. The last of these stands in the south-east corner of the parish, where till recent times the hamlet of Garratt, now a network of new streets, preserved some rural characteristics. In the High Street, which connects the East and West Hills, stands the parish church of All Saints, a short distance west of the Wandle. Beyond it Wandsworth spreads again westwards to the borders of Putney, being now very much built over about the West Hill, but still preserving some open ground to the south where Putney Heath and Wimbledon Park extend within its borders. On West Hill is the Royal Hospital for Incurables, which occupies the house which belonged to a Hamburg merchant, Mr. Rcker, in the early 19th century, but which has been much altered and enlarged. In the tracts of common land which inclose it on the east and west the parish still preserves something of its ancient features. The position of the different estates of which it was once composed (see Manors below) can be approximately determined. The lands which formed part of the manor of Battersea seem to have lain partly between Putney on the west and the Thames on the north and partly in the east of the parish, where they included the West Heath, (fn. 8) now Wandsworth Common, and were bordered by Streatham and Wimbledon. (fn. 9) Downe, more closely connected in its history with Battersea than the other Wandsworth manors, and extending into that parish, spread apparently from the north-east southwards (judging from the position of Downe Lodge on the west of the Wandle), and occupied both sides of the upper stream, whilst Allfarthing was situated in the east and southeast, and Dunsford, with its hamlet of Garratt, in the south of the parish. (fn. 10) Garratt, which was known in the 18th century for its mock elections and mock mayors, (fn. 11) still bears the same name, whilst Allfarthing Lane, Down Lodge Hall and Dunsford Farm preserve, or until recent days preserved, the memory of the manors with which they were once connected. As there was no bridge over the Thames in the parish until 1864, when an Act was passed to construct one and make a road from its extremity to join the Wandsworth road to London, (fn. 12) we must look for the old village not here but on the banks of the Wandle, once famous as a trout stream, (fn. 13) and of considerable value for its fishery in the 15th and 16th centuries. (fn. 14) In early times it seems to have been crossed by a ford at the spot in the present High Street where in 1602 Queen Elizabeth had a bridge built. (fn. 15) Here most of the village lay on the road to Kingston between the East and West Hills, and with the ancient church of All Saints on the left of the stream as its centre. The situation of Wandsworth on a river which has always been of great importance to Surrey industries (fn. 16) developed its trade at an early date. (fn. 17) Allfarthing Manor had shops on it in 1366, (fn. 18) and at the beginning of the 17th century the mill boats were a source of livelihood not only to the boatmen who worked them but also to 'many poore haglers' whose wares they conveyed. (fn. 19) The name of another industry established in the 16th century by Dutch refugees, who kept their manufacture of brass plates for fryingpans and other utensils 'a mystery, ' (fn. 20) still survives in Frying Pan Creek, near land which was once osier ground belonging to the church. (fn. 21) About a century after the Dutchmen came a colony of French Protestants, who carried on a flourishing trade in hats. (fn. 22) Calico-printing and bleaching were also introduced into the parish by foreigners, (fn. 23) and before the close of the 18th century some 500 persons were employed in factories and mills. (fn. 24) Outside the village, however, most of the land was used in almost equal proportions for agriculture and pasture, with the exception of 218 acres in the hands of market gardeners, (fn. 25) some of them probably growing in Garratt its staple commodities of 'cabbages, carrots and cauliflowers.' (fn. 26) The advent of the first iron railway in England, authorized by an Act of 1801 to run from Ram Field through the parish towards Croydon, (fn. 27) must have helped to increase the artisan population of Wandsworth. In 1831, when there were 6, 879 persons living here, it was found that 909 families were engaged in trade and only 164 in agriculture. It is probable that many of the remaining 497 were the families of the gentry and citizens of London who had suburban residences on the East and West Hills. (fn. 28) As late as 1864 Wandsworth was described by a popular novelist as a small old-fashioned town with country lanes and by-ways branching off from its quaint High Street, (fn. 29) but its rural characteristics have vanished since that date with most of its old houses. One of these, the Manor House on the summit of the East Hill, built probably about 1670 for a Low Country refugee, Peter Paggen, (fn. 30) was taken down in 1890. Long before that date the Sword House, at the foot of the West Hill, so called from its decoration with Highland claymore by one of the victors of Culloden, (fn. 31) and another building, the traditional home of Jane Shore, which as the depository of the arms of the Loyal Wandsworth volunteers gave its name to Armoury Yard behind the parish church, had disappeared, (fn. 32) and very little that is ancient now remains in the parish. (fn. 33) By the Local Government Act of 1888 the parish was included in the County of London, and under the London Government Act of 1899 the metropolitan borough of Wandsworth, which includes the civil parishes of Clapham, Putney, Streatham and Tooting Graveney, was formed. In 1891 the population numbered 113, 244 persons, and ten years later it had increased to 179, 877. Some prehistoric and Roman remains have been found in Wand worth. (fn. 34) Among place-names once known in the parish are Heyford, possibly a hamlet (fn. 35) (xii to xvii cent.); Sholand, Eldworth, Eldewell, Goodrichesbury, La Beche, Rustmershohe, Alkerysgore, Grendweg, Bladworth, le Neyte, Templefurlong (xiv cent.); Berkyngesdonne (xiv and xv cent.) (fn. 36); Walterscroft (xv cent.); le lambe super le Hoope and Furnyvall (xv to xvii cent.); Crouchhalle (xv and xvi cent.); Dunshill and Austin Croft, which survive to the present day in Duntshill and Austin Roads, Quick, Hukbramble, le Rame, (fn. 37) Wyllyfeldes, Fryeres Mordoch (xvi cent.); Savage Farm or le Savage, probably from Robert Savage, a Wandsworth tenant of Westminster Abbey in the 14th century (fn. 38) (xvi to xix cent.); Sherningdales (xvi and xvii cent.); Bib Hearon, Starch Hill, Withicombe Coppice, Pinfold (xvii cent.); Drunhenbridge and Burntwood (xvii cent.), the former surviving till the last century in Drunhen Bridge Close and the latter still giving its name to Burntwood Lane, Bigden or Bigon Bridge (xvii and xviii cent.); Shermadine, Applegarth (xviii cent.); Isle of Providence, Lady Close, Beadle Hook (xix cent., but probably of earlier origin), besides the common fields, Bridgefield, Northfield and Southfield. (fn. 39) Southfields is now a separate district. Two meetings of some historical interest took place at Wandsworth. Here in August 1392 a deputation of London citizens tendered their submission to Richard II, who had deposed their mayor and sheriffs for refusing him a loan, (fn. 40) and more than a century later Wolsey met the ambassadors of the Emperor Maximilian at 'Wandsworth town's end.' (fn. 41) Like the neighbouring parishes of Wimbledon and Putney, though in far less degree, Wandsworth has associations with Thomas Cromwell. (fn. 42) Voltaire lived here between 1726 and 1729, (fn. 43) and George Eliot wrote ' The Mill on the Floss' at Holly Lodge, Southfields, her home in 1859 and 1860. (fn. 44) William Loe, chaplain in ordinary to James Iin 1618 and vicar of Wandsworth thirteen years afterwards, is also remembered for his religious verse. (fn. 45) Another divine who held this living later in the same century and was a popular preacher was Nathaniel Resbury. (fn. 46) William Massey, miscellaneous writer and translator, kept a boarding-school in the parish in the 18th century, (fn. 47) as too somewhat later did John Whitehead, afterwards Wesley's physician and biographer. (fn. 48) Among other names of note associated with Wands worth are those of Francis Grose the antiquary, (fn. 49) Henry Moseley the naturalist, (fn. 50) Tom Taylor, dramatist and editor of Punch, (fn. 51) and the journalist and politician Samuel Lucas. (fn. 52) Garrick is said to have lived on Wandsworth Common, and Charles Dibdin, the songwriter, in a house in the parish called Cedar Cottage. (fn. 53) More local interest surrounds the memory of Henry Smith, citizen and alderman of London, who has been described as 'one of the greatest philanthropists of Stuart times.' (fn. 54) A native of Wandsworth, he was buried in the parish church in January 1628, his benefactions to this and other Surrey villages being there recorded on his monument. (fn. 55) Smith was born in Wandsworth in 1549, and died at the age of seventy-nine years. He does not appear to have been connected with the Smith family of Dunsford Manor in Wandsworth. He was by trade a silversmith (but a member of the Salters' Company), and was elected an alderman of London 9 February 1609. He lived in Silver Street, Cheapside. The house built on the site of his shop after the Great Fire was occupied by a refiner for over a century. In his lifetime he gave 1,000 each to the towns of Farnham, Guildford, Kingston, Dorking, Croydon and Godalming. In 1620 he vested all his property, except 500 a year and his house, in trustees, reserving to himself the power of appointing the rents and profits for charitable purposes. The original eleven trustees were headed by Robert Earl of Essex and Richard Earl of Dorset. In 1626 he executed a deed, his trust having been confirmed by a decree in Chancery 20 June 1625, whereby he directed the income of his estates to be applied to the relief of aged, poor or infirm people, married persons with more children than their labour can maintain, poor orphans, poor persons maintaining themselves and their families by labour and putting forth their children to apprentice at the age of fifteen, had characters being excluded from benefit. In 1627 he made his will, leaving 1,000 to be laid out in land for the ransoming of Turkish prisoners, 1,000 for the relief of his poor kindred, his sisters' children being mentioned as his nearest kin; 500 to buy land for the poor of Wandsworth, 1,000 in like manner for Reigate, 1,000 for Richmond, 10,000 to buy impropriations for the relief and maintenance of godly preachers and the furtherance of knowledge and religion, 100 to be lent to poor persons in parcels of 20 at a time. After his death his trustees purchased land for these purposes, and in 1641 allotted the sums in poor relief to a great number of parishes, but chiefly in Surrey, where every parish received a benefaction except Wanborough, St. Martha's and Tatsfield. The two former had probably no separate parochial existence at the time; the last is very small, on the borders of Kent, and perhaps escaped their notice. As the apportionment was by his trustees the popular story that he had some personal grudge against these parishes must be dismissed. The trust was reconstituted by a decree in Chancery in December 1874. The estates now vested in the general trustees are the tithe rents of Alfriston and Mayfield in Sussex, applied in benefactions to poor clergy, producing in 1874 875 17s. 6d. a year; the estates called Bexhill, Eastbrooke, I wood, Telscombe, Warbleton and Worth in Sussex, Kempsing in Kent, Clayhall in Surrey, Longney in Gloucestershire, Longstock in Hants, and Thurlaston in Leicestershire applied to the parishes in Surrey and elsewhere, producing in 1874 9, 817 14s. 5d. a year; the Kensington estate, comprising Onslow Square and about 80 acres in the neighbourhood, applied in allowances and relief to his poor kindred, producing in 1874 10, 642 10s. 9d. a year. The poor kindred were fortunate in the assignation by the trustees of a farm in Kensington to their relief in 1641. The relief of Turkish prisoners, which needed support in 1628 when the Barbary Corsairs were sometimes even in British seas, has long ceased to be an object of charity. (fn. 56) MANORS Before the Norman Conquest all Wandsworth, with the exception of the berewick of Battersea Manor in this parish and Dunsford, was held of Edward the Confessor by six sokemen. (fn. 57) Their land came after the Conquest to Ansculf the Sheriff, and in 1086 was in the possession of his son William Fitz Ansculf, (fn. 58) of whom it was held by four tenants, Ansfrid, Heldred, Ulward and Walter the vineyard keeper. The legality of Ansculf's and William's tenure, however, was questionable, (fn. 59) and it has been supposed that this holding, including estates known later as Downe, Allfarthing, Barking and Finches, was afterwards confiscated by William Iand granted to Westminster Abbey, (fn. 60) a theory corroborated both by the scanty evidence for the existence of any considerable estate in the parish which did not in some way come under the abbot's jurisdiction, (fn. 61) and by the fact that all the important grants in Wandsworth to this house of which record survives were lands already held of him. (fn. 62) But it seems more likely that the Domesday holding of William FitzAnsculf may be wholly or partly represented by the manor of Downe in Wandsworth, over which the overlordship of William Fitz Ansculf's successors survived as late as the 13th century, when Downe, though then held of the abbot, was described 'as a fief of the honour of Dudley, ' (fn. 63) of which the successors of William Fitz Ansculf were lords. (fn. 64) The other manors in Wandsworth would then, as seems to have been the case from their tenure, have originally formed part of the abbot's manor of Battersea, which in 1086 extended into this parish (and may possibly afterwards have included some of William FitzAnsculf's holding). (fn. 65) DOWNE or DOWNBURYS was held of the Abbot of Westminster from the 13th century, if not earlier, by various persons bearing the surname of Downe. One Henry Downe, or de la Doune, in 1199 won a suit touching land in this parish, (fn. 66) and Roger Downe acted as juror the next year, (fn. 67) but whether they held the manor is uncertain. More is known about Robert Downe, the abbot's tenant here for the third of a knight's fee in the reign of Henry III. (fn. 68) He acquired two small Wandsworth estates in 1229 and 1234, (fn. 69) and about the same time held land in the parish of the manor of Battersea. (fn. 70) Among the tenants of the same manor in 1268 Richard Downe is named, (fn. 71) and about ten years later Roger Downe was accused of appropriating a plot of the king's highway in Wandsworth. (fn. 72) He was in the abbot's service in Battersea in 1277, (fn. 73) and three years later was engaged in a suit against a certain Matilda Downe concerning a small Wandsworth estate. (fn. 74) The last Wandsworth landowner of this name seems to have been another Robert Downe of Wandsworth, who acquired a messuage here in 1353, (fn. 75) and in 1358 owed 20, which had to be levied from his property in Surrey. (fn. 76) Possibly he owned, and then or afterwards on account of his financial difficulties parted with, the manor of Downe or La Doune, (fn. 77) which twenty-two years later was granted by Robert Tynesford of Wandsworth and his wife Alice to John Whitwell and Thomas Parnel, chaplain. (fn. 78) In 1377 Thomas Parnel conveyed it to the Abbot of Westminster, of whom it was said to be held immediately, (fn. 79) and the manor of Downe continued to be held by the abbey until its surrender, (fn. 80) at which time it was associated with the office of the treasurer of the outlying lands. The site had been leased by the abbot in 1526 to John Hill, and sublet by Hill in 1532 to Robert Paty, against whom he afterwards appealed to the Star Chamber for forcibly excluding him from the premises. (fn. 81) John Hill's lease was in force until 1550, (fn. 82) but had expired by 1555, when the site of Downe was granted by Philip and Mary to William Handley for twenty-one years. (fn. 83) In 1582 a similar grant was made by Elizabeth to Stephen Ayre. (fn. 84) In 1591 she gave the reversion of the site and the manor itself to William Cammock, (fn. 85) who sold both the next year to Sir Thomas Cecil, son and heir of Elizabeth's minister William Cecil. (fn. 86) From that date until 1639 Downe descended with the manor of Wimbledon (q.v.). In the latter year it was conveyed by the co-heirs of Viscount Wimbledon to Christopher Seymour and Richard Stretton, (fn. 87) trustees probably for Thomas Hewitt, who is said to have been the actual purchaser. (fn. 88) He or his heir of the same name, with his wife Frances, in 1698 sold the manor of Downe to Elizabeth Howland, (fn. 89) the widowed mother of the Duchess of Bedford, to whose heirs it afterwards came, following the descent of Tooting Bec in Streatham (q.v.) until 1792, when Francis Duke of Bedford is said to have sold it to George Earl Spencer, (fn. 90) in whose possession it was united with the manors of Battersea and Wandsworth (q.v.). The manor afterwards known as ALLFARTHING appears in the second half of the 14th century as three separate fees in the possession of Westminster Abbey. (fn. 91) Lands in the first of these, in which in the course of time the other two became almost entirely merged, seem to have been held of the abbot by John and Gilbert of Allfarthing, tenants of his manor of Battersea, the former early in the reign of Henry III, (fn. 92) the latter about 1268. (fn. 93) Their name does not seem to occur again, but part of a Wandsworth estate which John de Molyns, lord of Stoke Pogis, (fn. 94) acquired in 1334 of John son of Robert de Domelton (fn. 95) was called Allfarthing, (fn. 96) and from 1366 onwards the manor of Allfarthing was accounted for among the possessions of the Abbot of Westminster. (fn. 97) The name of BARKING or BARKING FEE, the second holding, is found in the name of a tenant, John of Barking, who with his wife Alice and of her right held lands in Wandsworth in 1248 (fn. 98) and until 1253. (fn. 99) John was a tenant of the abbey in 1249, when the tithes of his land were assigned to the vicar of Wandsworth in the division then made, (fn. 100) and Alice was amongst the Wandsworth free tenants of the Battersea Manor in 1268. (fn. 101) She may have been succeeded by Peter of Barking, who served as a juror here about 1320. (fn. 102) In 1368 and 1369 the abbot's court was held in the fee of Barking, then apparently a separate manor, and from that time it remained one of the Westminster possessions. (fn. 103) Of FINCHES there seems to be no trace before 1354, when Roger Finch, citizen and vintner of London, sold his lands and all his other possessions in Wandsworth, among which suits and services are named, to Sir Robert Longham and others, (fn. 104) from whom they perhaps passed to Richard Rook of Westminster. A considerable estate in Wandsworth and Battersea, of which by far the larger part lay in Wandsworth and was held of the Abbot of Westminster as of his manor of Battersea, was conveyed by Richard to the abbey in 1366. (fn. 105) In 1378 another Richard Rook with others held a court at Finches, (fn. 106) and two years later they conveyed nearly 300 acres of land in Battersea and Wandsworth, held chiefly of his manor of Battersea, to the abbot. (fn. 107) From that date Finches seems to have been merged in Barking Fee, one court being held for the two until 1403, (fn. 108) when Allfarthing was included with them. (fn. 109) The three estates were afterwards almost always treated as one manor, known until the end of the 15th century as Allfarthing Finches and Barking Fee, (fn. 110) but in later times generally as Allfarthing only. Under that title it was valued amongst the possessions of the abbey in 1535, when the prior claimed it as parcel of his revenues, although the abbot had already accounted for it. (fn. 111) It was by that time the most valuable possession of their house in Wandsworth, its farm being valued at 26 12s. 4d., whilst other rents in the parish amounted to 20 19s. 4d. (fn. 112) and Downe brought in only 6 6s. 8d. (fn. 113) Allfarthing, though not mentioned by name, was certainly included in the manors of Battersea and Wandsworth which Henry VIII annexed to the honour of Hampton Court in 1540, when they were declared to be in his hands by the gift and surrender of the late abbot, (fn. 114) since it was described as parcel of that honour until 1628. (fn. 115) It had been leased in 1534 for sixty years to Thomas Cromwell, (fn. 116) head steward four years later, if not at that date, of the monastery (fn. 117); but after his attainder no fresh lease seems to have been granted until 1570, when Queen Elizabeth gave it for a term of thirty-one years to Elizabeth Snow, a widow, (fn. 118) and perhaps the mother of one Edward Snow who died at the manor of Allfarthing in 1587. (fn. 119) A fresh lease of twenty-one years after the expiration of Elizabeth Snow's was granted in 1594 to John Bowyer, (fn. 120) who was in occupation until 1621, (fn. 121) and possibly later. (fn. 122) In 1624 Allfarthing was included in a grant to Charles Prince of Wales, (fn. 123) probably with the intention that it should afterwards be given to Endymion Porter, a gentleman of his bedchamber, who had been for years in the Duke of Buckingham's service, and had attended the prince on his journey into Spain. (fn. 124) It was settled by the king at his son's request on certain trustees, (fn. 125) who were in nominal possession in 1626, when the reversion of John Bowyer's lease was granted to Endymion Porter for thirty-one years from 1646. (fn. 126) Two years later the trustees settled the manor itself on Endymion, (fn. 127) at whose petition Charles I shortly afterwards granted the reversion and remainder to his younger son Thomas Porter. (fn. 128) Endymion, who derived considerable revenues from the manor before the outbreak of the war, (fn. 129) was stigmatized by the Long Parliament in 1642 as a person 'of evil fame and disaffected to the public peace and prosperity of the Kingdom.' He was expelled from the Parliament, in which he sat as member for Droitwich, and excepted from an offer to receive the king's supporters on their submission. (fn. 130) He was with the king at Oxford and elsewhere, but had left the country before January 1648, when his wife was in town to negotiate for his composition with the Long Parliament. (fn. 131) Before the close of the year he was allowed to return for the same purpose, (fn. 132) and Evelyn records his meeting with him a few months after. (fn. 133) He _ied in 1649. He had suffered great pecuniary losses for his delinquency, and the manor of Allfarthing was heavily mortgaged and in 1652 was sold. (fn. 134) It seems to have been afterwards recovered by his son and heir George, (fn. 135) and in 1663 the annual rent due to the Crown from it was granted to the Earl of Sandwich. (fn. 136) From George Porter, who died in 1683, (fn. 137) Allfarthing descended through his son and heir another George to his grandson John, lord in 1723, (fn. 138) when a settlement of it was made on his marriage with Catherine Sutton. (fn. 139) He was succeeded by his only son and heir a second John Porter in or before 1764, in which year the manor was chargeable with an annual payment of 400 to his widow and the gross sum of 5,000 for his five daughters. (fn. 140) The daughters' portions had been paid before 1771, and a fresh settlement of Allfarthing was then made on the younger John's marriage with Mary eldest daughter of Cosmo Nevill. (fn. 141) After his death without issue the manor seems to have come to Pierce, son of his sister Eleanor by her husband Pierce Walsh, who took the name of Porter. (fn. 142) He was succeeded in 1809 by his son Pierce Walsh Porter, who sold the manor in 1811 to Mr. White, who sold in 1816 to Earl Spencer. (fn. 143) A grant of free warren in his demesne lands in Allfarthing and Wandsworth was made to John de Molyns in 1334. (fn. 144) View of frankpledge and court leet, expressly excluded from the 16th-century leases, (fn. 145) were amongst the appurtenances of this manor in the grants to Endymion and Thomas Porter. (fn. 146) There was a capital messuage here from the 16th to the 19th century, (fn. 147) but this has now been taken down. (fn. 148) The tenants of the manor enjoyed common pasture in the commons or waste called Wandsworth East and West Heaths and in Garratt and Heyford Greens. (fn. 149) The Allfarthing woodland, reserved by the Crown, whilst the manor was only leased, (fn. 150) was a very fruitful source of revenue to Endymion Porter. (fn. 151) In 1771 a water mill in the parish belonged to his heir John Porter. (fn. 152) A few records are preserved of a manor in Wandsworth which, chiefly on the ground of the grant of free warren to John de Molyns, (fn. 153) has been identified with Allfarthing. (fn. 154) Such scanty evidence, however, as survives leads rather to the conclusion that it was originally part of Downe Manor and held of the Abbot of Westminster. In 1440 Roger and James Fiennes acquired from John Bitterley and his wife Julia 4 hides of land and other tenements in Wandsworth, the inheritance of Julia, (fn. 155) and in 1444 and again in 1448 Roger was presented as a defaulter for suit at the abbot's court of Downe. (fn. 156) He was succeeded in or before 1461 by Sir Robert Fiennes, (fn. 157) his son, according to one genealogy, (fn. 158) who also held of the abbot in Allfarthing from 1483 to 1485. (fn. 159) In 1486, on the death of Joan Lady Dacre, widow of Sir Roger Fiennes' son Richard, (fn. 160) it was found that a manor in Wandsworth had been assigned by Richard and Joan to Robert Fiennes, husband of Philippa, Joan's sister. (fn. 161) It reverted, however, to Thomas Fiennes Lord Dacre, grandson and heir of Richard and Joan, (fn. 162) another defaulter at the abbot's court of Downe in 1498, (fn. 163) and was sold by him to Sir Reginald Bray in 1502. (fn. 164) Sir Reginald's heir was his niece Margery, (fn. 165) who with her husband William Lord Sandys is said to have been sued by the Abbot of Westminster in 1538 for a Wandsworth manor. (fn. 166) That some such dispute took place is evident from a letter of Lord Sandys addressed to Cromwell, wherein he states that as the abbot will not come to terms about Wandsworth he has 'entered into the manor' (fn. 167); but, as no later trace of his occupation survives, it is probable that a compromise was effected and the estate had come to the abbot before the surrender of January 1540. (fn. 168) DUNSFORD — An estate in Wandsworth was held of Edward the Confessor by Swein and then assessed for 1 hide. (fn. 169) Before 1086 this had been given byingulf the monk to the abbey of St. Wandrille in the diocese of Rouen. (fn. 170) As no later mention of any possession of this house in Wandsworth occurs, it is possible thatingulf's gift was afterwards transferred to Merton Priory, (fn. 171) which held some land here in 1242. (fn. 172) The Ecclesiastical Taxation of 1291 shows that the prior's estate of Dunsford was then valued at 3 10s., (fn. 173) and its tenants ten years later contributed 10s. towards a loan to Edward I. (fn. 174) Some tenements in Wandsworth held of the prior with suit at his Dunsford court were alienated to him by Richard Clere in 1372, (fn. 175) and by 1535 the possessions of the house in Wandsworth and Dunsford formed an estate of considerable value. (fn. 176) On the surrender of Merton Priory in 1538 (fn. 177) Dunsford Manor was granted to Charles Duke of Suffolk, (fn. 178) who sold it the next year to Thomas Cromwell for 403 6s. 8d. (fn. 179) He was attainted in 1540 and almost immediately Dunsford was annexed to Hampton Court as one of the manors which the king had purchased of Cromwell. (fn. 180) It remained in the Crown until 1563, (fn. 181) when Queen Elizabeth granted it to Lord Robert Dudley, (fn. 182) by whom it was shortly afterwards sold to Sir William Cecil. (fn. 183) John Swift, who bought the manor of Cecil early in 1564, (fn. 184) conveyed it five years later to Thomas Smith. (fn. 185) Between 1569 and 1576 a suit in Chancery was brought against the new lord by Thomas Wilford, (fn. 186) who had acquired a lease of this manor from Robert Kirwen, the last tenant of Merton Priory, (fn. 187) and was ejected by Thomas Smith on the pretext of failure to pay his rent, but in reality because he had allowed the place to fall into ruin. (fn. 188) Thomas Smith died in 1576, when Dunsford descended to his son George, (fn. 189) and on his death in 1638 to another Thomas Smith, George's son and heir. (fn. 190) It is said that the second Thomas held the manor until his death in 1657 or 1658 and was succeeded by his son George, (fn. 191) who sold it in 1664 to Sir Alan Brodrick. (fn. 192) It came before or in 1712, either by conveyance or as a trust, to the elder brother of Alan, Thomas Brodrick Viscount Midleton, who held it with Alan's sons St. John and Alan. (fn. 193) St. John Brodrick died in 1728 shortly before his father, and the younger Alan second Viscount succeeded his uncle in the family estates of Midleton and Wandsworth in 1730. (fn. 194) From him they descended through his son and heir George to another George created Baron Brodrick of Peper Harow in 1796, and on his death in" "Victoria County History — Surrey A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 Parishes: Battersea with Penge Parishes: Battersea with Penge Pages 8-17 A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1912. Citation: 'Parishes: Battersea with Penge', in A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4, ed. H E Malden (London, 1912), pp. 8-17. British History Online [http]://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol4/pp8-17 [accessed 29 June 2022]. In this section BATTERSEA with PENGE HAMLET MANOR CHURCHES ADVOWSONS CHARITIES Educational Charities. Edmonds' Charity for Apprenticing. Dole Charities. Henry Smith's General Charity. The Ely Charity. Webb's Trust. Footnotes BATTERSEA with PENGE HAMLET Batrichesia, Patricsey or Patricheseya (xi cent.); Patriceseie (xii cent.); Batricheseye (xiiixvi cent.); Battersey (xvixviii cent.); Battersea (xvii cent.). The civil parish of Battersea is a part of the metropolitan borough of Battersea. The borough dates from the London Government Act of 1899, and includes the greater part of the original ecclesiastical parish of St. Mary Battersea. (fn. 1) Under the same Act Penge, formerly a hamlet of Battersea (see below), was constituted a separate urban district and transferred to the county of Kent. (fn. 2) Battersea extends from Wandsworth on the south-west to Vauxhall in Lambeth on the east and Clapham on the east and south. The Thames bounds it on two sides; Chelsea Reach is to the north and Battersea Reach to the west. Traces of early settlement are few, but some palaeolithic and neolithic implements have been found, (fn. 3) and Roman remains have been discovered in the Thames off Battersea. (fn. 4) They seem to have been carried down into the river or on to the submerged land near it from the higher ground, unless some of them were dropped from pile dwellings. (fn. 5) It has been suggested that the Conqueror fixed a camp at Battersea, whence he ravaged the southern side of the Thames after failing to enter London. (fn. 6) The earliest settlement appears to have been upon the east bank of Battersea Reach, where is situated the parish church and where was the manor-house. Directly south was the important hamlet of Bridges (Brugges, Bregges), which extended along the river bank into Wandsworth as far as the Wandle, which was crossed by a bridge maintained by the Abbot of Westminster, lord of the manor of Battersea and Wandsworth. (fn. 7) Through this hamlet flowed a stream, possibly the Falcon, (fn. 8) which emptied itself into the Thames near the modern Belmont Works, and was crossed in the 16th century by a wooden bridge. (fn. 9) York Road, the main way through the hamlet to Wandsworth, evidently owes its name to the Archbishops of York, who had a house and much land in the neighbourhood. The district of Wassingham or Walsingham (mentioned in a charter dated 693 A.D.) was within the manor of Bridge Court, and possibly in the same neighbourhood. (fn. 10) Sir Thomas More had a lease of land there, and after his attainder it was leased by his son-in-law, William Roper of Chelsea. (fn. 11) Lands called Rydons or Roydons were also included in More's lease. The Roydon family had been connected with Battersea and Wandsworth from at least the 14th century. (fn. 12) Roydon and Wassingham were both considerable hamlets in the early 14th century. (fn. 13) Until the beginning of the 19th century these were the most densely populated parts of Battersea, although in the 17th century there were several scattered houses of handsome appearance and considerable size. (fn. 14) About the latter date Battersea began to grow in the same way as other parishes near London. Its rating in the ship-money assessment was for 35, whilst Putney was rated at 60, Wandsworth at 47 and Streatham at 33. In 1663 there were about 156 houses chargeable for the hearth-tax and 123 not chargeable. (fn. 15) The Huguenots (who had also settled in Wandsworth, q.v.) are said to have originated the market gardens. They were noted for their asparagus, which was traditionally the first grown in England. (fn. 16) A considerable number of market gardeners lived at Battersea in 1639. (fn. 17) Towards the end of the 18th century the gardens covered the district round Battersea Bridge and the land between the present Lavender Hill and Battersea Park Road. Much of the rest of the parish was marsh land, drained by an open sewer, which curved from the southern bend of Battersea Reach to the Thames at Vauxhall. The main sluices were in Battersea, in a district known as Hetheswall or Hesewall. (fn. 18) A considerable part of the commons of Clapham and Wandsworth lie within the parish. Battersea Fields consisted about 1830 of 'an entirely open space, a good deal of it given up to corn and the rest grazing fields, which were inhabited by an enormous herd of cows.' (fn. 19) The rights of common over Battersea Fields were purchased by the commissioners for Battersea Park under an Act of 1853. (fn. 20) The purchase money was applied by the vestry, after some dispute, to the erection of the Lammas Hall in Bridge Road West for public meetings. (fn. 21) The fields were of very evil repute; the Sunday fairs customarily held there were the resort of the roughest and most vicious characters of the neighbourhood. They were also noted for duels, in particular for that between the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea. (fn. 22) The formation of a royal park on this site was chiefly due to the efforts of Thomas Cubitt, pioneer of the great metropolitan building establishments. An Act of 1846 enabled the Commissioners of Works to purchase 320 acres in Battersea. (fn. 23) After considerable delay the park was opened to the public in 1855. (fn. 24) It was transferred in 1887 to the Metropolitan Board of Works, (fn. 25) and under the Local Government Act of 1888 became vested in the London County Council. Much of the land is laid out for cricket and tennis; there are well-wooded walks and drives, a sub-tropical garden, a gymnasium, and an artificial lake of considerable size. Difficulty of approach prevented the early growth of Battersea; its only direct communication with the north side of the Thames was the Chelsea ferry. In 17712 a wooden bridge known later as Old Battersea Bridge was built at or near the ferry (fn. 26) at the expense of Earl Spencer, owner of the ferry, who took the tolls of the bridge. Thenceforward, in addition to the corn mills in Battersea fields, which were the nearest to London in the late 17th century, (fn. 27) the sugar-houses which had existed in 1705 (fn. 28) and the famous enamel factory which had been established circa 1750, (fn. 29) there grew up several important industries, chiefly the manufacture of chemicals, which gave employment to an increasing population. (fn. 30) Sir Marc Brunel, engineer of the Thames Tunnel, established a large saw mill at the foot of Old Battersea Bridge in 1810. (fn. 31) The coaches which took London passengers daily from the Castle and Raven Inns in 1823 were superseded by a continual service of omnibuses before 1839. (fn. 32) Communication with the country was subsequently facilitated by the opening of the Southampton railway from a terminus at Nine Elms in 1838 (fn. 33) and the building of Clapham Junction (originally called Battersea station) within the bounds of Battersea in 1846. (fn. 34) The parish is now traversed by the London, Chatham and Dover railway, which has a station in Battersea Park Road, by the West London Extension railway, which crosses the Thames by New Battersea Bridge and has a station in the High Street, and by the London, Brighton and South Coast main and branch lines from Victoria, which has Clapham Junction, Battersea Park and Wandsworth Common stations. Intercourse with London has also been facilitated by the growth of tramways. The Chelsea Suspension Bridge was built under an Act of 1846, (fn. 35) compensation being paid to the Watermen's Company for a Sunday ferry to the 'Red House,' Battersea Fields, an inn somewhat notorious in the days of duels. (fn. 36) The new bridge was intended as an approach to the park. The Albert Bridge was built under an Act of 1864 (fn. 37) and was opened in 1873. In the previous year was laid the foundation of the Shaftesbury Park estate, near Lavender Hill, which was the earliest attempt to provide artisan dwellings on a co-operative system. (fn. 38) From the middle of the 19th century the number of inhabitants increased very rapidly, and the whole surface of the parish, with the exception of the park and the parts of Clapham and Wandsworth Commons which lie within the parish, is now covered with houses. Consequent on the increase in population, a number of new ecclesiastical parishes have been formedviz. St. George, Nine Elms, in 1853; Christ Church, Battersea Park, in 1861; St. John, in 1863; St. Philip, Queen's Road, in 1870; St. Saviour, Battersea Park Road, in 1872; St. Peter, Plough Road, in 1876; St. Mark, Battersea Rise, in 1883; St. Andrew, Stockdale Road, in 1886; and the ecclesiastical districts of the Church of the Ascension, Lavender Hill, in 1871; All Saints, Queen's Road, in 1884; St. Michael, Wandsworth Common, in 1884; St. Stephen, Bridge Road, in 1887; St. Barnabas, Clapham Common, in 1895; St. Luke, in 1901; and St. Bartholomew, in 1906. Caius Mission Church is in Holman Road. Other places of worship have increased in proportion. There are three Roman Catholic churches, and also a Presbyterian church at Battersea Rise. Thomas Horrocks had a licence for a conventicle in his house in 1672. In 1725 the rector returned to Bishop Willis that there was 'a small meeting' and two or three families of Quakers. (fn. 39) There are four existing Baptist chapels; that in the York Road dates from 1736 and the Battersea Park Tabernacle from 1870. (fn. 40) The Congregational chapel in the Bridge Road dates from 1867 and Milton Hall from 1873. (fn. 41) There are two Wesleyan Methodist, a Primitive Methodist and two United Methodist chapels. The Plymouth Brethren have meeting-houses in Falcon Grove and the High Street. Modern Battersea is divided into districts quite distinct in character. The old town on the river banks from Battersea Bridge to Wandsworth is the industrial district, occupied largely by warehouses, chemical works and factories, notably the candle works of Messrs. Price & Co. The narrow bystreets consist of low cottages, many of which have a small garden or yard attached. Among the warehouses on the river bank stands the Battersea College, the first English training college for elementary teachers, instituted in 1840 by Sir James P. Kay-Shuttleworth. (fn. 42) It is on the site of Bolingbroke House and includes part of the house in which Viscount Bolingbroke lived. (fn. 43) Part of the Southlands Training College, also in Battersea, was the house built for the Duchess of Angoulme as a refuge at the time of the French Revolution. Its name was changed to Southlands by a subsequent occupier, Sir George Pollock. (fn. 44) The Middle School, which is part of a school endowed with 20 a year by Sir Walter St. John in 1700, is close by in the High Street. (fn. 45) This was evidently the main street of the 'village' of Battersea, but it is now a narrow and somewhat squalid street lined at the lower end with stalls. (fn. 46) Near the junction of the High Street with the Battersea Park Road, York Road and Falcon Road the character of the district changes gradually. To the east and south, at a little distance along the Battersea Park Road, is the residential neighbourhood, consisting of large houses, many of which have a pleasant outlook upon the park. In the Battersea Park Road also are the extensive buildings of the Polytechnic. Eastward York Road, formerly known as Pickpocket Lane, (fn. 47) leads to Wandsworth. The Plough Road and Falcon Road are the main thoroughfares southwards to St. John's Hill and Lavender Hill, parts of the Wandsworth Road. This is a broad commercial road, which leads directly from Vauxhall to Wandsworth, and contains the chief public buildings of the borough of Battersea, including the town hall and the public library. To the north of Lavender Hill is the Shaftesbury Park estate; to the south of the Hill streets of villas slope downwards towards Clapham Common and Battersea Rise, the older residential neighbourhoods. (fn. 48) Eastwards the Wandsworth Road leads to Nine Elms, another centre of industries, chiefly connected with the depts of the London and South Western and other railway companies. The 'hamlet' of Penge was part of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Battersea. The curious anomalies of its local government led to its formation as a separate urban district and its transfer to the county of Kent in 1900. (fn. 49) Penge was a wooded district, over which the tenants of Battersea Manor had common of pasture. (fn. 50) The boundaries of the hamlet on the north in February 16045 were the common of Rockhills (evidently Rockhills in Upper Sydenham, immediately north of the Crystal Palace) and the 'Shire Ditch' leading past the house called 'Abbetts' to the north corner of 'Lord Riden's Wood.' The Shire Ditch also bounded the hamlet on the east and was crossed by 'Willmoores Bridge,' half in Kent and half in Surrey. On the south it was bounded by the waste or common of Croydon, the green way from Croydon to Lewisham. On the west was a wood 'of Mr. Colton's' in Camberwell parish, which stretched from Vicker's Oak to the Low Cross near Rockhills. (fn. 51) There seem to have been several tenants of the manor at Penge in 1596, (fn. 52) but in 1725 the vicar of Battersea returned to Bishop Willis that there were only thirteen houses and sixty inhabitants in Penge, who went to Beckenham Church, and for whose care he paid a trifling consideration to the incumbent of Beckenham. (fn. 53) The whole common was inclosed under an Act of 1827. (fn. 54) There were then 320 acres already inclosed and several houses standing there. In 1853 Mr. Schuster sold his park on the summit of Penge Hill to the Crystal Palace Company for the re-erection of the gigantic building made by Sir Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. (fn. 55) The Palace was opened by Queen Victoria in 1854. (fn. 56) In 1877, owing to financial difficulties and to the 'Greenwich fair characteristics,' which had replaced the former educational objects of the Palace, the company was reconstituted. (fn. 57) The Palace, as originally planned, was the exhibition building of glass and iron which had served for the Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, re-erected on this site, with the addition of high water towers to supply the fountains in the grounds. Inside courts were erected to illustrate the arts and architecture of different periods, from the Egyptian monarchy to the Italian Renaissance, and there was a great collection of plaster casts of famous statues. (fn. 58) A School of Art and Music was established, and later a School of Forestry and Engineering, which has continued to flourish. The Palace became the chief seat of the highest class of music near London, and the Handel Festivals, under the direction of Sir Michael Costa and Sir August Manns, obtained the greatest reputation, as did the Saturday Concerts so closely associated with the names of Sir August Manns and Sir George Grove. But the public taste did not rise to this level, and the theatre and music-hall exhibitions gradually eclipsed the educational features. The grounds, of great extent, including a cricket field, football ground and a lake, continue to furnish unrivalled scope for exhibitions, excursions, games and firework or aeronautical displays. The land surrounding the Palace was sold shortly before 1875 for building purposes, and the whole site is now for sale. Between 1821 and 1841 the population of Penge increased very slightly. In 1841 it was 270. In 1851, owing to the establishment of the Surrey School of Industry, the Queen Dowager's Almshouses and the Watermen's Almshouses, it had increased to 1,169. In 1901 it was 22,465. One great cause of this increase was the advent of the London, Brighton and South Coast, and London, Chatham and Dover railways, which constituted Penge a suburb of both London and Croydon. The former has stations at the Crystal Palace, Anerley and Penge; Penge station, on the latter, is within the boundary of Beckenham. A town hall was built in the Anerley Road in 1879. Anerley, Penge and Upper Norwood are the three wards of the Penge Urban District. The ecclesiastical districts of St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul, Holy Trinity and Christ Church were formed in 1851, 1869, 1873 and 1886 respectively. MANOR Earl Harold held BATTERSEA (sometimes known as the manor of Battersea and Wandsworth) before the Conquest. (fn. 59) It is not known how he acquired it. What purports to be a 7th-century charter of Erkenwald, Bishop of the East Saxons, is a grant to the nuns of Barking of 70 'manentes' at 'Badoricesheah next Hydaburn' which he had received from King Cedwalla. (fn. 60) This gift is possibly identical with another, made by an unknown grantor to an unknown grantee, of 28 'manentes' in Batrices ege, 20 at Wassingham and 20 cassates west of the river called 'Hidaburna,' which is dated 693 A.D. (fn. 61) The identity of the holding with that of Harold has not been proved, but the nuns of Barking did not subsequently hold any lands in Battersea. Earl Harold's manor had been acquired by the abbey of Westminster before 1086. Domesday Book states that it was the gift of William Iin exchange for Windsor in 1066 (fn. 62); nevertheless it appears from William's charter that, although the grant was made at the same time as the exchange of Windsor, Battersea was given for the redemption of the crown regalia pledged to the abbey by the Confessor. (fn. 63) Between 1076 and 1082 William granted to Abbot Vitalis and the monks of Westminster the right of hunting in the woods belonging to Battersea. (fn. 64) Henry Irestored Battersea Manor and others which had been kept from the monks by the chancellor, (fn. 65) probably during the four years' vacancy preceding the appointment of Abbot Herbert, 1121. (fn. 66) In the time of Earl Harold Battersea was assessed at 72 hides, in 1086 at 18 hides. The tenants then included a bordar in Southwark, and there was toll of 6 from the berewick or outlying farm of Wandsworth, while 4 hides were held by a knight. (fn. 67) During William's reign several appurtenances of the manor had been alienated. A hide and a half which had been taken by the Count of Mortain was probably identical with the count's holding at Streatham which had belonged to Earl Harold. (fn. 68) Another 3 hides, which had belonged to the manor, were held in 1086 by Gilbert the Priest. (fn. 69) Two hides which Alfled had held of Earl Harold, and the abbey had held earlier in William's reign, had been seized by Odo Bishop of Bayeux, and in 1086 were included in Peckham and held of Odo by the Bishop of Lisieux. (fn. 70) Another hide the reeve of the vill had taken away 'for the sake of some enmity' and added to Chertsey. It was possibly a part of the manor of Chertsey Abbey at Tooting. (fn. 71) The alienation of members of the original manor in Tooting, Streatham and Peckham may account for the strange position of Penge, which was a hamlet of Battersea containing considerable common lands of the manor, (fn. 72) from which it is divided by these three important districts. (fn. 73) Between 1151 and 1152 (fn. 74) Stephen released the abbey from the payment of geld for 43 out of the 71 hides at which the manor was then assessed. (fn. 75) Westminster Abbey. Gules St. Peter's keys crossed with St. Edward's ring in the chief all or. At the time of an agreement between Abbot Richard de Berking and the convent in 1225 Battersea was assigned to the monks for their maintenance in bread and ale. (fn. 76) From an account of the steward of the manor in 1303 (fn. 77) it would appear that the demesne lands were not then farmed out, as they were in 1535, (fn. 78) when the manorial rights and the rent issuing from the site of the manor belonged to the office of the treasurer, but certain rents in Penge were assigned to the sacrist. (fn. 79) The abbey was dissolved 16 January 1540. (fn. 80) The manor in Battersea was retained by the Crown and added in April 1540 to the honour of Hampton Court. (fn. 81) Subsequently it formed part of the jointure of Queen Anne of Denmark, and was granted after her death (in March 161819) to Charles Prince of Wales. (fn. 82) It was transferred by his trustees to Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison, lord deputy governor of Ireland from 1616 to 1622. (fn. 83) He had already acquired a lease of the site of the manor through his marriage with Joan widow of Sir William Holcroft and daughter of Henry Roydon. (fn. 84) This lease descended to Joan from her grandfather Henry Roydon. He had been succeeded about 1538 by his son Henry, whose lease was renewed by the Crown in March 15401. (fn. 85) Henry's widow Elizabeth had the site at farm in 1582, (fn. 86) but in that year a thirty-one years' lease was obtained by Sir Gilbert Gerard and Sir John Sotherton, (fn. 87) who were perhaps trustees for Elizabeth. In 1592 Elizabeth Roydon and her daughter Joan Holcroft, then a widow and afterwards wife of Oliver Viscount Grandison, obtained a new lease to run from 1613 to 1634, (fn. 88) and a reversionary lease was granted to Aaron Best. (fn. 89) In 1627 Viscount Grandison obtained a grant of the site in perpetuity to hold by service of a knight's fee. (fn. 90) He spent much of his time at the manorhouse, especially during his ill-health in 16259. (fn. 91) He died there 30 December 1630; his widow died in the following spring, and was buried at Battersea. (fn. 92) The manor descended to Viscount Grandison's nephew Sir John St. John, bart., an ardent Royalist, who was buried there with great pomp in 1648. (fn. 93) His heir, Sir John St. John, bart., died unmarried in 1657, and was succeeded by his uncle, Sir Walter St. John, bart., who also lived at the manor-house. In 1700 he entailed the estate on his son Henry and the latter's eldest son Henry St. John, the famous Tory statesman, created Viscount Bolingbroke in 1712. (fn. 94) The elder Henry succeeded his father in 1708, and in 1716 was created Baron St. John of Battersea and Viscount St. John. (fn. 95) After his death in 1742 Bolingbroke, who, in spite of his attainder, had been enabled to inherit the estate by an Act of 1725, (fn. 96) lent the manor-house to his friend Hugh Hume, third Earl of Marchmont. (fn. 97) Later he settled there himself, either in 1743 or early in the following year, (fn. 98) and there spent the remainder of his life. He was buried in the family vault in Battersea Church in 1751. (fn. 99) His nephew and heir Frederick, second Viscount Bolingbroke, sold the Battersea estate about 1763. (fn. 100) It was purchased in trust for John Viscount Spencer, created Earl Spencer in 1765, (fn. 101) and has since remained with his direct descendants. (fn. 102) Spencer, Earl Spencer. Quarterly argent and gules fretty or a bend sable with three scallops argent thereon. The Abbots of Westminster enjoyed many liberties in Battersea. (fn. 103) Probably the tenants were exempted from suit at the Brixton Hundred courts about 1235. (fn. 104) Courts leet and baron were held for both Battersea and Wandsworth, at the latter as late as 1834. (fn. 105) A manor-house existed in 1303. (fn. 106) The mansion of the St. Johns, known later as Bolingbroke House, was partly destroyed about 1780. Of the remaining rooms one was wainscoted with cedar. On the site of the house was built a curiously constructed windmill, used at first for preparing oil. (fn. 107) As a corn mill it was occupied by Messrs. Hodgson & Co. It was still standing in 1845. (fn. 108) The manor of SYLVERTON, BRIDGE COURT (xv cent.) or YORK PLACE (xvi cent.), extended over a part of the district called Bridges and was held of the manor of Battersea. (fn. 109) Hence it has been identified with the tenement in Bridges held of Westminster Abbey by Richard de Dol in 1225. (fn. 110) There is, however, no definite proof of the identity of the two holdings. In 1202 Theobald de Fering, who had claimed 2 or 2 hides in Bridges as his inheritance from his father Angod, (fn. 111) released all his rights there to Richard de Dol in exchange for rents in Westminster. (fn. 112) Robert de Dol (fn. 113) settled his land in Bridges on his daughter Joan de Bures (fn. 114) before his death in 1355. (fn. 115) No further trace has been found of its possession by the descendants of Robert de Dol. Bridge Court was in the hands of the abbot and convent, lords of Battersea Manor, in 1444, when the rents due to the 'manor of Bridgecourt' were accounted for separately by the farmer and steward of Battersea Manor. (fn. 116) It had been acquired by Laurence Booth, (fn. 117) Bishop of Durham, before 1474, as in that year he had licence to crenellate his dwelling-house called Bridge Court, to impark his lands there and to have free warren. (fn. 118) The site of the manor had previously been leased for forty years to John Stanley. (fn. 119) In addition Stanley held of the abbey eight houses and certain land with rights of common on Westheath and Eastheath in Battersea and Wandsworth, which were seized by the king circa 1471 upon his illegal attempt to alienate them to the abbey in mortmain. (fn. 120) All these lands so forfeited were granted to Laurence Booth, (fn. 121) who as Archbishop of York bequeathed his estate in Battersea to the see of York for the maintenance of chantries founded by him at St. Mary's, Southwell, on condition of a lodging in the house being reserved for the archbishop when needed. (fn. 122) The archbishops had several other holdings both in Battersea and Wandsworth. (fn. 123) It appears to have been customary for the successive archbishops to sub-let the mansion-house and demesnes, reserving to themselves the use of the house and of 80 acres of land when they wished to reside near London. (fn. 124) The Dean and Chapter of York received the rents and profits during vacancies of the see. Cardinal Wolsey lent the house to Sir Thomas More's son-in-law, William Daunce, but difficulties arose as to the position of Wolsey's servant Oxenherd, who lived there with his wife. (fn. 125) During the lives of Archbishops Lee, Holgate, Heath and Young disputes arose with the lessee, who put the demesnes under tillage. (fn. 126) Consequently the archbishops made little further use of this house, although upon Holgate's deprivation in March 15534 it was plundered and many of his personal belongings were stolen. (fn. 127) In 1556 Archbishop Heath acquired Suffolk Place in Southwark in place of Wolsey's town residence at Westminster. (fn. 128) In 1580, after some hesitation, Archbishop Sandys lent York House, or Bridge Court, to the Lords of the Council as a prison for obstinate Papists. (fn. 129) It was again let on lease to I sabel Peele in May 1630, (fn. 130) and was sold by the trustees for the sale of bishops' lands in 1648. (fn. 131) At the Restoration the see recovered its property, and Bridge Court continued to be leased out by the archbishops. It was occupied about 1750 by the celebrated Battersea Enamel Works, (fn. 132) but in 1814, when a part of the house was still standing, it was occupied by Joseph Benwell. (fn. 133) Some of the demesne lands were let and afterwards sold to Earl Spencer, lord of Battersea Manor, (fn. 134) and before the date when the archiepiscopal estates became vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners the whole of the property had been sold. (fn. 135) CHURCHES The parish church of ST. MARY is a Georgian building dating from 1777; it is built of stock brick with stone quoins, and consists of a small apsidal round chancel and a wide nave with a gallery on three sides. At the west end is a vestry (lighted by an oval window) between two porches, and on the face is a large portico with four round cement columns supporting a pediment above which rises a brick tower with stone quoins like the nave and carrying a small octagonal lantern with a clock and a small wood spire. The windows below the galleries are segmental-headed, those above and also of the bell-chamber are roundheaded. The ceiling is a flat plastered one. The font is of marble; the pulpit is necessarily tall because of the galleries. There are some early 18th-century monuments in the church. The churchyard is situated on the bank of the river. There is a ring of eight bells, all by Thomas Janaway, 1777. The first was the gift of Thomas Rhodes, and the third bears the inscription 'Musica est mentis medicina.' The clock bell is by T. Mears, 1824. The plate consists of silver gilt cup and cover paten of 1678, given by Sir Edward and Lady Emma Winter in 1682; a similar cup and paten cover inscribed as belonging to the parish in 1736; a silver gilt plate of 1678 given by Joseph and Mary Beechcroft in 1736; two silver gilt flagons given by Thomas Walker 1778; a spoon of 1808 and two alms basins of 1778 given by George Errington in 1778. There is also a cork with silver gilt mounts. The whole service of eleven pieces was gilt at the expense of George Scholey, Alderman of London and churchwarden of Battersea 181819. The registers are in five books which record baptisms 1559 to 1630, 1632 to 1669, 1700 to 1812; burials 1559 to 1669, 1700 to 1717, 1723 to 1774, 1778 to 1812; marriages 1539 to 1637, 1640 to 1669, 1700 to 1748, 1754 to 1812. The church of ALL SAINTS, Battersea Park, is a large red brick building in the style of the 13th century, situated to the south-east of the park in Queen's Road. It consists of a chancel with a round apse, north-east chapel, also with an apsidal end, nave of four bays with a clearstory, low aisles, central tower with a pyramidal roof, transepts, that on the south side flush with the aisle, vestry, porches, &c. The arcades have grey stone columns and red brick arches. The roofs are of wood and covered with slates. ST. ANDREWS Church, Battersea, built in 1886, stands between Stockdale and Dashwood Roads, its south side being directly on a connecting road between the two and the north side closed in by houses. It is of stock brick with red brick and stone dressings in the style of the 13th century, and consists of a chancel, with the stump of a proposed tower to the south of it, nave with a narrow north passage-aisle and a south aisle and porch. The roofs are tiled. The church of the ASCENSION, Lavender Hill, is a tall red brick building in the style of the 13th century; it has a chancel with a round apse and an ambulatory about it with an arcade of nine bays, nave of six wide bays with a tall clearstory of lancets, low aisles, north-east chapel off the aisle also with an apsidal end, vestries, &c., and the stump of a future south-west porch-tower. The interior is of red brick, but the columns of the arcades are stone. The roofs are of wood and covered with slates. The pulpit is of oak and has a sounding-board; the font is of stone and marble. A bell hangs in a wood frame at the west end. The church of ST. BARNABAS stands at the north side of Clapham Common at the corner of Lavender Gardens, and is a large stone building erected in 18978 in the style of the 14th century. It consists of a chancel with transepts, nave and two aisles, each with gabled and slated roofs, and a south-west porch tower topped by pinnacles. The church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Wickersley Road, was built in 1902 of brick with stone dressings. It consists of nave with bell-turret at west end, chancel, north and south aisles, north vestry and chapel. CHRIST CHURCH, Battersea, occupies a triangular site, of which part is now used as a public garden, in Battersea Park Road. The building is of stone in the style of the 14th century and consists of a chancel with vestries, &c., transepts, nave with clearstory, north and south aisles, south porch and a north-west porch-tower with a tall octagonal spire. ST. GEORGE'S Church, Nine Elms, is a large building of stock brick with stone dressings. It appears to have been originally an early 19th-century structure of the meeting-house type, to which in more modern times have been added short aisles of three bays and a larger chancel in the style of the latter half of the 13th century. The nave is, as usual in this type, very wide, with a flat plaster ceiling and low gabled r" "HIERONIMUS BURMISTER BURNTWOOD LODGE [BNA:
"LCC START AGAIN HERE [BNA:
"LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL . . . for makiog oil parks and open spaces completely the property of the London County Council; and that, considering the rapid growth of population the neighbourhood of Wandsworth-common, the committee be also instructed to report as to securing certain pieces . . . Published: Wednesday 23 October 1901 Newspaper: Morning Post County: London, England Type: | Words: 1593 | Page: 2 | Tags: none [BNA: Link. "Aeronaut on horseback sees rainbows Sun 14 Jul 1850 08.53 GMT Poitevin, the French aeronaut, whose daring ascent on horseback was lately noticed, has given the following account of his journey in the Constitionel: "The atmospherical disturbance which manifested itself immediately before my departure prevented my noting exactly the ascending force of the balloon. "Accordingly Imeasured it upon supposition, and so that I should be certain to ascend, notwithstanding the resistance that might be offered by gusts of wind. " I had some difficulty in moderating the ascending force, which in a few minutes carried me to such a height as proved too great for the horse. "An abundant flow of blood took place from his mouth, resulting from the interrupted equilibrium between the internal and external pressure, by which man is less easily affected than are other animals. " Itraversed several currents of opposite directions, which occasioned an almost continual rotatory movement of the balloon. The cold was almost insupportable; however, I was very lightly clad. "Far above the clouds I saw several rainbows, and other phenomena caused by the decomposition of the solar rays. Toward seven o'clock Iprepared to descend; and, three-quarters of an hour after, my grappling-hooks were vainly dragging along the surface of meadows and fields of corn, the fruit trees which came in contact with the hooks being dragged down or broken. Progressing in this way, Iarrived, very much against my will, at a wood called the Bois de Villemain, in the canton of Brie-Comte-Robert. During the journey, my horse, as he passed over the cornfields, snatched greedily at the tips of the herbage; and even when grazing the tops of tall oaks he thrust his nose into their foliage. At last, however, I was fortunate enough to put a stop to this perilous dragging along. Icaught sight of a dried-up pond, and on reaching the edge of it, and grasping vigorously a sturdy branch of an oak, Iarrested for a abort time time progress of the balloon. Assistance was soon lent me, forty hearty fellows seized the ropes of the machine, and brought it within the circumference of the pond." The Constitionel adds that at Grimy, near the spot where he alighted, a grand ball was given. M. Poidevin was introduced into the ball room mounted on his charger. [The stunt of equestrian ascents reportedly started in 1798 and was regarded as cruel in its time. Madame Poitevin was prevented from making a similar ascent on the back of a bull when the couple visited England in 1852.] [BNA:
"POITEVIN [BNA: Link. Home > Image Details 'Ascent of M Poitevin, on Horseback, in a Balloon', 1850. 'Ascent of M Poitevin, on Horseback, in a Balloon', 1850. 4 0 c m 33cm actual image size: 25cm x 32cm Description Printed woodcut from 'The Illustrated London News' showing Poiteven ascending on horseback from the Champ de Mars in Paris, France on 14 July 1850. The cruel sport of equestrian ascents was started by Testu Brisy in 1798 and quickly taken up by Poitevin and Margat, who welcomed the publicity it gave them. Madame Poitevin was prevented from making a similar ascent on the back of a bull when the couple visited England in 1852. Image Details Image Ref. 10411164 Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library" "BALLOONING Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com home Archives Classic Galleries February 17, 1969 Getting up on a High Horse There was never any particular reason why horses should learn to fly; it just seemed like a good idea so many times Mary Evans News is always free on SI. Register to have it delivered to your inbox daily. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ORIGINAL LAYOUT ORIGINAL LAYOUT Offhand, balloons and horses would not seem to have much in common. Yet the more one examines the history of ballooning as a sport, the more one becomes aware of a curious affinity between it and equestrianism. Maybe it is because the idea of a flying horse has always filled man with the same feelings of envy he experiences at the sight of a balloon in free flight. Or maybe it is simply that, like horses, the first balloons thrived on a diet of hay. Early balloons floated aloft on hot air, and to provide it they were equipped with iron furnaces which had to be stoked with hay by the passengers. The balloon built by France's famed Montgolfier brothers in 1783 ate like a horse in more senses than one and caused its first noble passengera marquis who went aloft with Aeronaut Pilatre de Roziersome worry because of its habit of belching fire and setting the rigging aflame. Balloons found a further identification with horses in England sometime later, when another balloonist nearly came to grief because local farmers refused to lend a hand and make fast his landing lines. They were not, they said, about to help anyone who came out of the sky "on a devil's horse." This may have been the first time that a balloon was actually called a horse, but in 1785, two enterprising brothers in Strasbourg were hard at work devising a balloon that was meant to look like a horse. It was called, naturally enough, Pegasus, and it was made out of oxhide and inflated, like modern balloons, by a crude sort of blowtorch. Whether or not it ever flew is not recorded. Even if this oxhide Pegasus did get off the ground, however, it was still no more than a balloon shaped like a horse. The dream of sending a real, live horse aloft was not realized until 12 years later. It was a dream long nurtured by Monsieur Ttu-Brissy, an avid fox hunter and balloonist who had once spent an idyllic afternoon following the hounds from the air. To accomplish his dream and thus combine his two favorite pastimes, Ttu-Brissy suspended a heavy platform beneath his balloon, tethered his horse firmly in the center of it and sent the whole rig skyward in what was widely advertised as the first Ascension Equestre. This history-making first was forgotten almost as soon as it was accomplished. Apparently the whole idea was a little ahead of its time, and the fashion in ballooning went off in another direction, that of long-distance flight. During this period, horses were not entirely forgotten, since someone proposed to Napoleon that he build balloons big enough to carry men and horses across the English Channel, but nothing came of the idea. Then in 1830 Charles Green, an English aeronaut who had set several long-distance drift records over Europe, began to yearn for a feat more challenging and more significant. He remembered that Ttu-Brissy had once sent a horse aloft on a platform, and he decided to do him one better. Green planned to send his horse aloft not on a platform or in a basket but hanging freely and elegantly in the air, a position that seemed much closer to natural flight. Not surprisingly, Green's British countrymen did not take kindly to such a highly un-British affront to the dignity (and comfort) of an animal; and so Green took himself to France for his experiments. Britain's newspapers followed him there to report in grisly disapproval on the event. "The horse, a handsome dappled grey," one wrote, "had a stout cloth placed around its body. Several straps, passed over the shoulder and loins, were united in rings, which were attached by cords to the network of the balloon. In this manner was the horse cruelly suspended in the air, nor was there anything to protect the rider, had he lost his balance." After his first successful flight, Green seemed satisfied that the horse had enjoyed it as much as he did and immediately announced that he intended to carry out the same feat in England. His announcement caused a great commotion. The newly founded Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sought, unsuccessfully, to have the flight stopped. Whether their protest upset Green or whether, as he thought it over, he realized his personal danger in sitting unprotected in the sky on a horse (who might, like the mythological Pegasus, be bitten by a fly and go berserk) is not known. At any rate, he drastically modified the bold style he had shown in France. The result did not mollify the SPCA and infuriated Green's more sanguine fans. After the exhibition the papers reported that instead of riding aloft on a fine horse the aeronaut had taken a scraggly undersized pony, bandaged its eyes to keep it quiet and tied it into a wicker basket. The pony was so small "it looked like an undersized Newfoundland dog and was hardly strong enough to hold up Mr. Green. This sham equestrian excursion through the air generally disappointed the onlooker." After this fiasco, so far as we know, Green never went aloft on horseback again. For a while no one else tried it either. For a period of about 20 years no one took any kind of ballooning seriously. The sport had begun to look too easy, and it had lost its early glamour. The only balloons were to be found at county fairs. Then a totally bungled but widely publicized ascension by two Frenchmen, which should have doomed the sport completely, sparked a revival instead. These two, Barral and Bixio by name, took off in a balloon, which, to begin with, was so tattered that it was being mended by seamstresses even as it was being pumped up. Unfortunately, once pumped up it proved too large for its netting, and the extra bag billowed down like a hernia through the neck hoop onto the gondola, threatening to smother the men inside the basket. Barral bravely climbed up on the rigging to see what he could do to save himself and his companion. What he did was rip the bag so that all the air came out in a whoosh, and both aeronauts dropped like stones to the earth. Barral and Bixio's catastrophic attempt had in itself nothing to do with the flight of horses, but it did start a new mania for ballooning. Perhaps the very ineptness of the gallant two made balloons seem sporting again. In England and France there blossomed a brief and wonderful mania for going aloft on horseback. In 1850 and 1851 everyone seemed to be trying it. The London Athenaeum begged the police to do something to "prevent such needless cruelty to animals and to exercise proper supervision over the madmen who undertake such foolhardy feats." Undeterred by such entreaties, the airborne equestrians kept at it, until not only one horse went up, but teams of them; until not only men went aloft but a lady, too, with everyone in proper riding dress; until the feat was so polished that it could be given at regular intervals for audiences. A spectacular show, called Ascension Equestre, was held at the Hippodrome in Paris, and tens of thousands of Parisians came to watch, with the event being reported in newspapers in England and America. Every Thursday and Sunday Monsieur and Madame Poitevin and a famous balloonist of the period, Eugne Godard, rode high in the sky over the delirious crowds. At last the dream of flying horses had reached its full development. From a poster printed in 1851 we can see how the trio looked. The three riders are dangling elegantly from one balloon. The gentlemen ride black horses, the lady a white mare. The men have on hunting costumes and spurs; the horses, which appear delighted and proud, wear full bridles. The lady, who is, of course, riding sidesaddle, is dressed in a long, flowing riding skirt and veiled hat; she carries a crop in her gloved hand. One gentleman is doffing his cap to the crowd below; the other is gathering his mount into a collected trot, while the lady's horse is cantering. The houses are not simply dangling in the air; they are going through their gaits and paces. Having reached an apparent apogee, the sport of sky riding unaccountably faded away until now scarcely anyone takes his horse up in a balloon. But who knows? Hot-air ballooning is on the rise as a sport again today, and its enthusiasts have one form of competition they call the "fox hunt." So maybe soon the horses will be flying once more. February 17, 1969 By Mary Evans CD4MsVdW4ugAGajNDePXor FARcAkfj4HS8ucZ3p8YQ0K Privacy Policy Terms of Use 2022 ABG-S ILLC. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-S ILLC. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy [BNA: vault.si.com/vault/1969/02/17/getting-up-on-a-high-horse" target="_blank">Link First, a quick perambulation to set the scene. Most of these private tennis clubs on the Wandsworth side of the Common, clustered in the south-west of the Common near Burtnwood Lane. " "WILLIAM PAMPLIN Diary of William Pamplin the Elder In the early 19th century Pamplin established a nursery in the Kings Road, Chelsea. In 1825 the land was bought by developers and he moved to Lavender Hill, Battersea. This diary records the planting and ordering of plants with observations of the political events of the time in which he lived. [BNA: gardenmuseum.org.uk/collection/diary-of-william-pamplin-the-elder/" target="_blank">Link. _____________ [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pamplin" target="_blank">Link. William Pamplin From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Portrait of William Pamplin c.1891 William Pamplin (5 August 1806 9 September 1899) was an English bookseller, publisher and botanist.[1][2] Hunneman introduced many non-native European plants to the United Kingdom.[3] Born in 1806 in Chelsea, Pamplin was the son of William Pamplin (17681844), a nurseryman.[1][2] Pamplin wrote for the Magazine of Natural History, and became editor of The Phytologist, owned by by John Hunneman. Pamplin married his daughter Caroline, and took over the magazine.[2][4] Pamplin was also involved with the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt.[5]" [BNA: Link. "START AGAIN HERE [BNA: Link. "[https]://www.smmwandsworth.org.uk/441/WWI-Memorial-Rood-Screen Bernard Henry Holloway: Monday 27th September 1915 Bernard was commissioned on the 23rd September 1914, as 2nd Lieut., Royal Sussex Regt., promoted to Lieutenant in October 1914, and Captain in 9th Batt. in December 1914. He served in France and was killed in action during the Battle of Loos, on 27 September, aged 27, the same day that Rudyard Kipling's son Jack was killed. Bernard has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. He is also commemorated on his School Roll of Honour, College Roll of Honour, at Lords, on the legal profession Roll of Honour, and the Upper Tooting Methodist Church Memorial. This church was destroyed in WW2. When the memorial was replaced, his name was recorded as H Holloway. He left 10,540 in his will, a very large sum for 1916. His estate was split between his father and 2 brothers. His investments in war loans were left to a Miss Louisa Douglass Chapple*. Bernard was born at Burntwood Grange on 13 January 1888. The Grange was a sizable pre-Victorian mansion, noted for its magnificent Gardens and conservatory, on the site of what is now Burntwood Grange Road. It was demolished circa 1940. According to his obituary in Wisden, he went to Leys School, Cambridge, aged 11 in 1899 (founded 1875 for the sons of lay Methodists) and then to Jesus College Cambridge. He was a sportsman, playing rugby, cricket and lacrosse, the latter two for England. At school, he was a Senior Prefect, and a very useful all-round player, proving himself a good Captain of Cricket. He was third in the batting averages in 1904, second in 1905 and 1906, in the latter year with 35.81, and top in 1907, when his figure was 35.75. In the lastmentioned season, he also took twenty-two wickets for 14.59 runs each. He was in the same year and House as Reginald Davey At Cambridge, where he did not obtain his blues for Cricket, he did little in the trial games save in 1911 when, in the Seniors' match, he scored 52 and made 133 for the first wicket with C. G. Forbes-Adam (78). During 1910-11 he visited the West Indies as a member of the M.C.C. team, making 443 runs with an average of 24.61, and rendered excellent service: his highest score was 100 v. British Guiana at Georgetown. In 1911 and three following seasons he appeared occasionally for Sussex, for which side his best performances were against his old University, on the Cambridge ground, in 1913 and 1914, his scores being 58 not out and 32 not out, and 54 and 15. He was a right arm medium fast bowler and made 19 first-class appearances. The war ended his first-class cricket career. (For further information, his batting averages can be studied on the Cricinfo website). He played half-back at Rugby football for Cambridge v. Oxford in 1907, and centre three-quarter back in 1909 (taking a blow to the head early in the match, he imagined the sensation must have been comparable to the feeling of a drunken man! given he was a lifelong teetotaller). For which he obtained his Rugby colours. He was also in the University Lacrosse XI Iin 1908-9-10, being Captain in 1910, in which year he played for England. His nickname was "Babe", due to having "a complexion which would have created the reputation of any face cream on the market". Bernard Holloway was a popular figure at the College. His Cock of the Roost profile, written for Chanticlere in 1910, remarks that "To his contemporaries, he will be one of the most delightful memories of these golden years." Professionally he was articled to J. C. Barnard, of 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields and trained as a solicitor. Bernard was the third son of Sir Henry Holloway, who was a prominent Liberal and JP., being knighted in 1917 for his advice to the Government on the WW1 housing crisis. Henry and his brother had founded Holloway Brothers, a major local building firm, in 1882, and the firm still existed as Holloway, White Allom Ltd until it went into administration in October 2011. Sir Henry moved to Wimbledon in 1919 and eventually to Westgate House near Arundel and died in 1923. David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, from 1916, had lived at 2 addresses in the parish from 1900-1908 before his move to Downing Street on becoming Chancellor, and would no doubt have known Henry Holloway. Bernard had two elder brothers, Roland Eveliegh and Herbert John, who went into the family firm. One was knighted for his contribution to Mulberry Harbours in WW2. Herbert lived in Wimbledon while Roland lived at 60 Lyford Road (a Holloway Bros. house). The family firm was responsible for building the Magdalene Park Conservation area. The scheme was to have been a garden suburb, but the completion of the scheme was frustrated, by the compulsory acquisition of the land between Swaby Road and Openview by Wandsworth Borough Council in the 1920s. The Council also acquired the land between Fieldview and Ellerton Road in the 1930s. The family firm also built a number of landmarks including Chelsea and Westminster Bridges, the extension to the Bank of England, Lavender Hill Library and Bagdad Railway Station. *Miss Louisa Douglass Chapple married Cedric Blaker, C.B.E., M.C. in 1921. She had two children and died at the age of 93 in Lindfield, Sussex, in 1985. Cedric and Bernard both served in the Royal Sussex Regiment, though it seems Cedric served in France after Bernard's death. Louisa was a V.A.D. Nurse during the war. To read further click here. Lastly, an emotive "imagined" letter addressed to Bernard Holloway from Louisa's granddaughter explaining her grandmother's motives for going out to France with the V.A.D." "Bernard Henry Holloway Helena Blaker Writer To my grandmother Louisa Douglas Chapple, who was engaged to Bernard Henry Holloway, Royal Sussex Regiment, died Loos-en-Ghoelle, 27 September 1915 [BNA: Link. [BNA: Link. LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER HOME ABOUT READ WATCH MORE BOOK Sign Up@letter1418 #WW1/LETTER1418 Helena Blaker WRITER Dear Babe, or rather . . . dear Bernard or . . . Dear Mr Holloway, I have known about you all my life. Our deepest hopes were that you would survive. My grandmother Louise was waiting for you, and Ibelieve your engagement was due to take place on your first leave from France. . . . Unfortunately, tragically, . . . you did not return, you were one of those who lost . . . you lost your life. And she, Louise, your dear heart, followed your path out to France to live under canvas, to work alongside those other young women who wore nurses' uniforms and lived in tents and learned to wipe and sweep and wrap, to try to find you, to know what you had known, to work with others in your situation and to try to help them . . . to be close to you, although and since she had not been able to save your life. Ialways heard about you. . . . Each time Ivisited her, and sat beside her in her study, with a long window ahead of us, she would ask me to tell her about love . . . She often told me your name, and she described you seated on a bench beside her, your arm stretched out boldly along the back of the bench to lightly touch her shoulders, and how teasing you were. . . . She was amused by you, and entertained, uplifted . . . into some other realm of possibility in her life. . . . I heard that . . . you made her laugh. Later, she was blown across the world by these events. She was on her way back to New Zealand to marry someone she'd known in childhood — no-one she loved and never anyone she loved so much. . . . (There was a man on horseback, there was a young man on the boat over. . . . ) And then on the journey, at a resting place, my grandfather walked up to her door at night, with a tear in his eye, and asked her . . . and because he was a good man, and because she knew she had to make a decision (and find a way . . . to live), she said yes. Though we come from those people, you were the one she loved. And we all knew that (and we missed you as she did). And despite our lives together, and her warmth and her light humour, we heard in her voice these words from Rupert Brooke: ". . . there is a corner of a foreign field that is for ever England". . . . We knew your stiff Edwardian moustache and your smile; imagined your Cambridge Blue cap (with stripe), and for a moment imagined we saw you pictured in a group, the youngest batsman . . . We knew your name, Babe, as intimately as one knows one's family. (We loved it, imagining the body that went with it, the feeling you gave to the group.) Once we saw a photo of you . . . in a carriage with Louise, smiling — were you twenty perhaps? Louise survived the two wars: my grandfather Cedric was in POW camp in Hong Kong, my father and uncle, her two sons, were born there and educated like men in England. . . . She worked in a munitions factory in Canada, trying to get to Hong Kong when war broke out. And she loved her friends, played bridge with them, . . . and she read Brooke on her journeys into the city centre every day for lunch. She never forgot you. Here is a photo of Louise as she was after you left her. . . . . with her sisters in uniform, on her way to France, looking for your heart. SHARE A LINK TO THIS LETTER: [http]://bit.ly/1umDCP6 [BNA: Link. "[https]://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/bernard-henry-holloway-captain-9th-bn-royal-sussex-regiment [BNA: Link. [BNA: Link. Bernard Holloway From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bernard Henry Holloway (13 January 1888 — 27 September 1915) was an English cricketer active from 1910 to 1914 who played for Sussex. He was born in Wandsworth Common and died in Loos-en-Gohelle, France, during the First World War.[1] He appeared in 19 first-class matches as a righthanded batsman who scored 701 runs with a highest score of 100.[2] Notes[edit] ^ "Cricketers who died in World War 1 — Part 3 of 5". Cricket Country. Retrieved 28 November 2018. Bernard Holloway at CricketArchive [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Holloway" target="_blank">Link. ____" "BERNARD HOLLOWAY remebered at the THE LEYS SCHOOL Bernard Henry Holloway November 18, 2020 [BNA: theleysheadsblog.wordpress.com/2020/11/18/bernard-henry-holloway/" target="_blank">Link. [L]et me tell you about a young of by the name of Holloway, a boarder in North A. He was one of five brothers who passed through the school; his father, Sir Henry, was a Governor. Holloway Junior was an outstanding sportsman at The Leys. He captained the 1st X Icricket team for two years. He also played 1st XV Rugby and later, when he went on to Jesus College, Cambridge, he got not one but two Blues for Rugby, as well as one for lacrosse. In his final year at School, he was Senior Prefect. He later played lacrosse for England, and also represented the MCC at cricket, touring the West Indies, so he played international level sport in two different sports. After University, he trained to be a solicitor. All in all, you will agree that he sounds like one of those sickening people who is good at just about everything he turns his hand to. And yet the Chaplain at the time described him as 'the most popular person I think I have ever known'. Last week, when we stood together (and wasn't it great to do something together, as a whole school?) for our Act of Remembrance, beautifully observed by the way, this young man by the name of Holloway was present. He wasn't there in the flesh, but his name was one of the hundreds on the War Memorial in front of which our Senior Prefects, his successors, placed the wreaths on Wednesday. You may not be able to make it out, but there he is, it is halfway up the column between Matt and Archie. Bernard Henry Holloway, was a pupil in North A from 1900-1907. The Holloways were members of the largest Methodist family group ever to attend The Leys: over one hundred of the extended family passing through the School over the decades; evidence of the exceptional Methodist network that helped to establish The Leys. When war broke out, Bernard was training as a solicitor. He joined up, and became a captain in the Ninth Battalion, The Royal Sussex Regiment. Posted to the Western Front in 1915, he had only been in France three weeks when, in September, his regiment was called forward into the disastrous and ultimately indecisive Battle of Loos, the biggest British offensive of that year. It started on September 25th — Bernard was killed the next day, on the 26th. Twenty of the thirty officers and 362 of the thousand men were killed inside those three days, before the Battalion withdrew from the trenches. Holloway's was one of twelve attacking battalions which sent 10,000 soldiers to attack the German line; of those ten thousand men, 8,000 casualties were sustained in just four hours.With the sort of understatement which was typical of those days, the Battalion War Diary for the Royal Sussex Regiment includes this sentence: "It is regretted that, before being launched into such a desperate action, steps had not been taken to accustom the men to war conditions". These days, the press would no doubt describe them as 'lambs to the slaughter'. They weren't battle hardened, they weren't ready, and the plan of offensive was horribly flawed. They didn't stand a chance.When I am in Chapel, Ioften think of Bernard Henry Holloway. I have met several members of his family in recent years — they remain proud of him and his sacrifice, as I do, vicariously, a century later. As well as having his name on the War Memorial, there is a plaque to his memory inside the Chapel, on the South side, not very far from where Isit. Iglance at it often, to remind myself of him — just one of the hundreds whose loss is memorialised within that wonderful Chapel of ours. No survivors of that conflict, in which around sixteen million people died, remain alive. Other wars have happened since. Some have taken millions of equally young and untried lives. Some have been fought in conditions — whether Middle Eastern desert, African jungle or Vietnamese swamp — that have been as trying and as terrible. Yet still the First World War, the Great War, remains, over one hundred years later, powerfully central to our common consciousness, its brutality and mass sacrifice setting a bloody and terrible high-water mark for all the wars that followed. The appalling irony, of course, is that it was meant at the time to be the war to end all wars, the last time we would perpetrate the outdated and barbaric practice of resolving international disputes by soaking the ground with blood. It is easy, despite the powerful and evocative iconography of this Remembrance season, to lose sight at this distance in time of the individual stories, the stories of flesh and blood, which lie behind these horrific aggregate numbers. That's what 'dynamic inconsistency' does. We discount the humanity, or perhaps I should say the inhumanity, of what happened. Yes, of course, we know intellectually that they suffered. But somewhere deep within us, that deep-rooted and powerful bias persists: somehow, it seems less real than what is happening to us, now. But Bernard Henry Holloway was like you. He had a family who loved him. How they must have mourned his loss at the devastatingly young age of 27. He had ambitions, he had huge potential, he had a career, he had passions. I am sure he had flaws too — he was flesh and blood, like all of us. But if he had been in the years above you at school, you would have looked up to him. Had he been in your year, you might have been a bit envious of him: the Golden Boy: Cambridge graduate, Blues Rugby player, Senior Prefect, international sportsman and also the most popular person that the Chaplain had ever known — a comment made when he was in the Upper Sixth, not a consolatory remark after he was killed, just eight years later. We all struggle to resist that in-built, unconscious reflex, as a result of which we tend to underestimate the humanity of those who lived and died in that terrible conflict over 100 years ago. And just as certain is the fact that future generations of Leysians will look back 100 years from now, will leaf through the archives — digital by then, or possibly whatever comes after digital — and they in turn will look at your clothes and smirk at how old-fashioned and archaic we all looked. So thank you for your efforts to remember. To remember is important for so many reasons; it enhances our humanity, it promotes understanding and, in the words of the Spanish-American philosopher, George Santayana, who lived through both the First and Second World Wars, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Conscious, mindful remembrance here, as part of the Leysian community, enriches us all, by binding us to those who were here in the past, and to those who will follow in the future. Bernard Henry Holloway November 18, 2020" "Bernard Henry Holloway at Jesus College Bernard Henry Holloway born Wandsworth, January 13, 1888; died Loos, France, September 27, 1915. Captain 9 Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment. Educated The Leys. Lacrosse for England. Sussex 8 matches 1911-14; MCC in West Indies 1910-11. 19 first-class matches: 701 runs at 22.61; highest 100; 13 catches. [BNA: Link. "Bernard Henry Holloway at Surrey County cricket Club [BNA: Link. KENNINGTON, THE OVAL, SURREY COUNTY CRICKET CLUB MEMORIAL World War 1 & 2 — Detailed Information Compiled and Copyright Martin Edwards 2020 The memorial takes the form of a wooden board in a wooden frame with a carved inscription and is to be found within the Long Room, in the Member's Pavilion, The Oval Cricket ground, Kennington Oval, Kennington, Lambeth. The memorial lists 48 names of those who fell in World War 1 and the names here have been sorted into alphabetical order although the memorial is mainly in the order. A further memoial for World War 2 exist in the form of a plaque mounted on a stone wall with gold lettering and the Prince of Wales emblem at the top; there are no names listed. The ESPN Cricinfo site is useful to find past players and their statics plus potted histories, only a few of the men listed here have playing histories." "SMM ROOD SCREEN s://www.historyofwandsworthcommon.org/buildings/religious/st-mary-magdalene/" target="_blank">Link. [BNA: Link. [BNA:
[BNA: Link. "Leisure and Recreation in a Victorian Mining Community: The . . . [BNA: books.google.co.uk books Alan Metcalfe 2006 _Sports & Recreation 28 1891 Census, Seaton Delaval, West Holywell, New Hartley, East . . . Study of the Growth of Recreational Facilities in East Northumberland, 1850 — 1914 . . . [BNA: Link. "Sport and the Victorian City: The development of commercialised spectator sport, Bradford 1836-1908 David Pendleton1 January 2015Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities Abstract This study is a history of popular spectator sport in the city of Bradford between the years 1836 and 1908. Its major aim is to chart and analyse the experience of Bradford in relation to the national development of sport in the modern city and how spectator sport, in particular, helped shape personal and civic identities in a bourgeoning industrial community. This project builds on a growing body of work on the development of sport and leisure in British towns and cities during the nineteenth century. Furthermore, it will both complement earlier studies on sport in Bradford and West Yorkshire and add to our understanding of how urban sporting and leisure cultures were forged through a combination of national trends and local economic and social peculiarities. The emergence of a national sporting culture ran parallel with an exponential acceleration in urbanisation, the adoption of the factory system, regularised working hours and growth in disposable income. Bradford's sporting culture, however, was also a product of the city's shifting social structures, which had been shaped by its unique economy. As a consequence, Bradford also played a significant role in determining the national sporting culture as well as reflecting wider trends. Bradford's move from an essentially pre-industrial sporting landscape towards a recognisably modern one took place over a period of little more than fifty years. However, it will be shown that this was an uneven process. In challenging Malcolmson's 'leisure vacuum' theory, it will be argued that Bradford's sporting culture exhibited as much continuity as change. Pre-modern sporting practices, such as the game of knur and spell (presented here as a case study), for example, overlapped with the emergence of codified team sports. Nevertheless, the changes that were wrought in the second half of the nineteenth century were significant and lasting as an increasingly assertive working class had more time and money to spend on leisure. The thesis not only examines and charts how the development of cricket, soccer and rugby within the city were subject to changing economic and cultural contexts, but, especially through an analysis of the switch from rugby to soccer of both Manningham FC and Bradford FC, how agency was a crucial factor in bringing about historical change" "Johnson Da Silva "Johnson Da Silva Johnson Da Silva's former employee, a journeyman baker, in court for having forged and uttered a check for 157 10s Saturday, Aug. 25, 1849 Publication: The Times (London, England) [BNA: go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=23&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CCS118128921&docType=Article&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZTMA-MOD1&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCS118128921&searchId=R6&userGroupName=whl_earl&inPS=true ____ High Court Of Justice. Date: Tuesday, June 1, 1886 Publication: The Times (London, England)Issue: 31774 (Bcfore MIR. JuSTICE CHITTY'.), IN RE DA SILVA, DEoEAVED-SHEPHEn v. a'n T OYAI,CTDI0 TEEVOLENT COLLEGE AND OTHERS.,This was an Ction for the administration of the estate of the late Mr. Charles George Johnson Da Silva, a vendor of a patent medicine, who died in MTarch last, leaving personal estate to the value of about 20,000, and also real estate. In his will he directed that his estate should be administered by the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice; and after bequeathing varions annuities and legaces, he gave the resiue of his estate to the Royal Medical Benevolent College, for the purpose of founding " Da Silva " exhibitions at that institution. It appeared that the Royal Medical Benevolent College was established by special Act of Parliament (XS and IID Viet., c. 166) for the purpose of providin'o assistance for necessitous members of the medical profession and their families.,hlr. lnce, Q.C., and Nr. Bagnold appeared for fhe plaintiffs, the trulstees and executors of the will; Ir. Homer, Q.C. and Mr. W. D). Eawvlins for the Royal Medical Benevolent College* and Ir.G. Foster Cooke for nieces of the testator who took interests under the wilL,MB. JusmnCE CO =y made an order for the administra. tion of the estate. [BNA: go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=23&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=2&docId=GALE%7CCS68340417&docType=Article&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZTMA-MOD1&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCS68340417&searchId=R6&userGroupName=whl_earl&inPS=true Date: Tuesday, June 29, 1886 Publication: The Times (London, England) Coachwaggonette brake made by whitlock mail phaeton hooded by Holland and Holland sociable carriage by feltoe [BNA: go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=23&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=3&docId=GALE%7CCS33737437&docType=Advertisement&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZTMA-MOD1&prodId=TTDA&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCS33737437&searchId=R6&userGroupName=whl_earl&inPS=true" target="_blank">Link "FROOME TALFOURD [BNA: Link. Lambton County Archives November 2, 2017 Froome Talfourd was an early and influential settler. We have a copy of his fascinating memoir in our collection. Here is an excerpt when Talfourd describes getting settled on his new lot in Lambton County: "This lot containing one hundred acres Ibought from squatters. I had a creek running through it on which Jean Petit a Frenchman had built a small flour mill, a log house and a small clearing. The Log House was a good one, but the lots on the front of the river were long and narrow, and we decided to try and buy at the government sale to be held in Chatham in two days, the next lot to the one I had bought, and to that end my brother assisted by a neighbour swam his horse across the River, rode on the American side to Detroit, re-crossed the river in the ferry boat to the Canada side and rode up to Chatham to the land sale. This he did, and bought the land we wanted." From "Readings, Recollections Written in September 1896" by Froome Talfourd. See less 1212 3 Comments 2 Shares Like Comment Share Comments Most relevant" "The Scotsman — Saturday 8 May 1909 PORTRAITS BY RAEBURN AND LAWRENCE . H HIGH PRICES YESTERDAY Messrs Christie sold the pictures by old masters and painters of the early English school belonging to Mr R.G. Behrens and others . . . ""Wandsworth Common , " by P . Nasmyth, [made] 95 gs . ( Agnew )" [BNA: Link.] LOADS of lovely pics by him - GOOGLE wandsworth common painting by p nasmyth [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Nasmyth [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Nasmyth#/media/File:Patrick_Nasmyth_-_Landscape_with_a_Pond_-_WGA16443.jpg" target="_blank">Link. "BIRDS TAWNY OWLS 1910-05-28-owls-Scotsman -28may1910.jpg The Scotsman — Saturday 28 May 1910 [BNA: Link.] "GEORGE HIRST [BNA:
* * * To coincide with the 2011-12 6Nations tournament Tony Jones, Archivist at Emanuel School, wrote an article for the school magazine "Portcullis", relating the story of George and the school spire: "What spire you may ask? The spire on the school tower was removed in 1932 as it was rumoured to be dangerous and a tad rickety. However, around 25 years earlier the future rugby international climbed all the way up to the top, cricket stump in hand, and succeeded in turning round the weather vane, and winning a bet of two pence. George retold the story in the Lent 1933 Portcullis issue via letter: "There were workmen doing something up there and they just had a two-plank platform outside at the last storey. This meant I had to climb up the ridge. With a stump in my hands I got on the planks and looked up and then down. The two-pence seemed then like a cabinet minister's salary, so up I went and turned the weather vane round. Going up was easy compared with coming down on the corner of those slates. One slip and I would not have been writing to you today." "We have a book award George won in 1904 Prize Day on display in the Archive, hopefully his success on the rugby field didn't inspire further Emanuel school boys to climb that shaky old spire. If you want to admire George's feat quite a few old pictures in the Archive show the tower, spire included." [Ed. see above]" NOTTIDGE [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Nottidge [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agapemonites " "BIRDS The Scotsman — Saturday 28 May 1910 TAWNEY OWL [BNA: Link.] 1910-05-28-owls-Scotsman-28may1910.jpg 1910-06-03-birds-KilmarnockHerald.png" TOOTING CRATER ON MOON [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooting_(crater) " "Peter Le Neve-Foster and photography. Taken from the RSA Journal Vol.CXLI INo. 5454 November 1994 Peter Le Neve-Foster and photography Both the photo of Cleopatra's Needle and that of Waterloo Bridge were taken on the Thames Embankment near the Society's House. These are competent pictures and Foster, the true enthusiast, obviously derived as much pleasure from taking and printing his photographs as from admiring the end result. The picture of the erection of Cleopatra's Needle is a good example of documentary photography; the view of his children boating on the Black Sea, the lake in Wandsworth Common near his house, perhaps his most charming study. [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_le_Neve_Foster [BNA: rsa-dryad.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/rsa-ad-ma-101-19-13 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/15 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_15.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/16 — Peter Le Neve Foster and Reverend Cowan, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/16 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_16.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/17 — Building in London taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/17 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_17.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/18 — Installation of Cleopatra's Needle taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1878-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/18 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_18.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/19 — Peter Le Neve Foster and friends at the Crystal Palace, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/19 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_19.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/20 — Peter Le Neve Foster and friends at the Crystal Palace, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/20 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_20.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/21 — View of countryside taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/21 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_21.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/22 — View of a school taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/22 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_22.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/23 — Kew Gardens taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/23 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_23.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/24 — Waterloo Bridge taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/24 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_24.tif [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/25 — View of a lake taken by Peter Le Neve Foster, 1870-1900 [Item] RSA/AD/MA/101/19/25 — RSA_AD_MA_101_19_25.tif" "Hello An enquiry about Peter Le Neve Foster's photographs I wonder if you can help. I am preparing two talks on local history for the friends of Wandsworth Common and the Wandsworth Historical Society. Peter Le Neve, a former Secretary to the Society of Arts, lived for many years on the edge of the Common and took a number of photographs of familiar places. For example, his "View of a School" is the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum — probably the first image ever taken of that building, still there today. [As you can see here: [https]://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Victoria_Patriotic_Building] And his "View of a Lake" is likely to be the "Black Sea", a few hundred yards from his home on North Side, now filled in (and "Spencer Park" built on the site). More broadly, PLNF is one of a small group of important pioneers of photography living locally (including Hugh Diamond and Geoffrey Bevington) — I'm fairly confident they knew each other, and shared their knowledge. I have seen the small jpgs on the RSA website: [BNA: rsa-dryad.maxarchiveservices.co.uk/index.php/rsa-ad-ma-101-19-13 Might it be possible to have higher resolution images of his images to show in the talks? And of course a portrait of him would be wonderful. ( I would of course fully credit the RSA in whatever way you thought was appropriate.) On a related matter, I have have a vague memory of reading that PLNF photographed his children boating on the Black Sea: "the view of his children boating on the Black Sea, the lake in Wandsworth Common near his house, perhaps his most charming study." But that the RSA, which once owned them, returned the photo(s) to a descendant. I'd love to know more, and if possible to see them! Many thanks for your help Best wishes Philip Boys According to the article Peter Le Neve-Foster and photography, RSA Journal Vol.CXLI INo. 5454 November 1994: Both the photo of Cleopatra's Needle and that of Waterloo Bridge were taken on the Thames Embankment near the Society's House. These are competent pictures and Foster, the true enthusiast, obviously derived as much pleasure from taking and printing his photographs as from admiring the end result. The picture of the erection of Cleopatra's Needle is a good example of documentary photography; the view of his children boating on the Black Sea, the lake in Wandsworth Common near his house, perhaps his most charming study. "Hello, Keith Hmm, there are no signs of possibly dilapidated old houses on maps, that I can think of. Do you remember ages Igo I asked a question about the whereabouts of "Botany Bay" close to the Back Sea? The phrase appeared in the report of a speech in 1827 (so only a few years earlier than the cholera outbreak) by Robert Wildman Barchard at the Swan in Stockwell about the need to defend the Common from Spencer. We speculated that "BB" might have been an ironic name for an encampment of gypsies/gravel workers et al near the Black Sea / North Side — any connection, I wonder? I'm going to follow this email with another query for you . . . this time about manors All best Phili On 12 Sep 2022, at 16:27, Keith Bailey Fascinating! Pity about the chronological gaffe though. The first five Heathfield houses were, of course, late-Georgian/Regency. Even though they had periods of vacancy, I can't see them as a makeshift fever hosptial! I would have thought that the "squatters' huts" would have been further over, towards Neal's & the latter prison. Best wishes Keith ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Keith Bailey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Monday, 12 Sep, 22 At 09:57 Subject: Heathfield cottages as "a sort of suburban cholera hospital" in 1832! Hello again, Keith Ooh, this is interesting Tumble-down Heathfield old houses — "mere squatters huts" — as "a sort of suburban cholera hospital" on which "the present row of handsome houses rose mysteriously"! From The Express 11nov1863 Irecall Shirley Passmore mentioned in passing (but sadly did not reference) that tents were erected as temporary accommodation for cholera patients (or those trying to avoid it?) on the patch of Common on which St Mark's was built. (I'd love to know if this is true, and which cholera outbreak). All best Philip" "Fascinating! Pity about the chronological gaffe though. The first five Heathfield houses were, of course, late-Georgian/Regency. Even though they had periods of vacancy, I can't see them as a makeshift fever hosptial! I would have thought that the "squatters' huts" would have been further over, towards Neal's & the latter prison. Best wishes Keith ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Keith Bailey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Monday, 12 Sep, 22 At 09:57 Subject: Heathfield cottages as "a sort of suburban cholera hospital" in 1832! Hello again, Keith Ooh, this is interesting Tumble-down Heathfield old houses — "mere squatters huts" — as "a sort of suburban cholera hospital" on which "the present row of handsome houses rose mysteriously"! From The Express 11nov1863 Irecall Shirley Passmore mentioned in passing (but sadly did not reference) that tents were erected as temporary accommodation for cholera patients (or those trying to avoid it?) on the patch of Common on which St Mark's was built. (I'd love to know if this is true, and which cholera outbreak). All best Philip" "Illustrated London News — Saturday 26 September 1874 THE LATE DE. F. E. ANSTIE, M.D. The lamented death of this gentleman, who was physician to the Westminster Hospital, seems to have been caused by bloodpoisoning in a post-mortem examination of the body of a little girl who died in the Royal Patriotic Fund Girls' School at Wandsworth. He had been called in to inspect the sanitary condition of the school. Dr. Anstie first came before the public an investigator of the uses of alcohol as food. He was the originator and chief conductor of the inquiry into the state of workhouses, which was published some years ago in the Lancet. This inquiry, by the facts it disclosed, was the immediate cause of great improvements in those institutions, as well as of Mr. Hardy's Act tor the better treatment of the sick poor in the metropolis. At the College of Physicians he was an acknowledged leader of the party of reform, by which many important improvements in medical education have been effected. He was the instigator of the recent petition of the College to the Premier on the subject of the overcrowded dwellings of the poor, which led to the Act requiring railway companies to provide houses for the populations which they might displace. As practical physician he was widely known by his researches into the nature and causes of neuralgia, on which he published a valuable treatise. He was editor of a journal entitled the Practitioner, in addition to much literary labour of various kinds. The photograph is Messrs. Barraud and Jerrard. [BNA:
"NB This is during the Indian "Mutiny", when deaths etc were being reported and innumerable soldiers sent out [This may all be from the Observer] Sun (London) — Monday 13 July 1857 LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE ROYAL PATRIOTIC ASYLUM The great Russian was has passed into history, the Chinese war, the Indian mutiny, nay, the trial of Madeleine Smith may have hustled it out of the thoughts and memories of the crowd, but the quotes unnamed demigods quotes who perished at Alma, and in common, and balaclava, have left, as sacred legacies to the country for which they died, the wives and daughters from the from whom they had been torn by the inexorable summons of the trumpet. And there Country has not been death to the appeal, fought with in an incredibly short space of time nearly 1,000,000 1/2 sterling has been accumulated from the free gifts of the people of the United Kingdom, the colonies, Indian empire, much of it even from persons who owed no allegiance to the British crown. Search spontaneous liberality is to be found nowhere but in England, where the resources of the people are only equalled by the freedom with which the latter Etc etc with the Royal Marine Band, which was stationed opposite, in some very energetic musical performances, and a field battery was drawn up close by, ready to give the royal salute on her Majesty's arrival. A second salute was to have signalised the setting of the stone, but in this instance the guns were fired too soon, and the stone had to subside into its place without the usual explosive honours. Punctually at the time appointed the royal carriages were ssen winding rapidly round one of the new roads leadaig to the gt ()end, and immediately afterwards, her Majesty alighted and entered a tent, round the entrinee of which the commissioners of the Patriotic Fund were ranged in uniform or levee costume. Among-t the crowd were Sir G. Grey, Mr. S. Herbert. the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Bede dale, Lord St. Leonards, the Archbishop of C mnterbury, Earl of Hardwick, and several other persons of distinction, and in her Majesty's immediate suite were the Prince Consort, the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, the Princess Charlotte of Belgium, the Prince of Prussia, Prince Alfred, the Prussian Minister, with the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Alsercorn, Earl Spencer, and other members of her Majesty's household, On leaving the pavilion, a procession, formed in in the following order, proceeded to the platform, where the stone was to be laid : The Architect. The Secretary. The Executive and Finance Committee (two and two), The Royal Commissioners (two and two). The Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop of Winch ester. The Lord Steward of H. M. Household. The Lord Chamberlain. The Queen. The Prince Consort. Members of the Royal Family. The Great Officers of State. One hundred orphan boys (fifty from the Duke The great Russian war has passed into history, of York's School, and an equal number from the the Chinese war, the Indian mutiny, nay, the trial Greenwich school) and one hundred girls (fifty of Madeleine Smith, may havehustled it out of the from the Sailors' Orphan Girls' School, and the thoughts and memories of the crowd, but the " un- same number from the Soldiers' Infant Home) fornamed demigods" who perished at Alma, and In- need a line in front of the covered platforms before kerman, and Balaklava, have left, as sacred lega- which the procession passed, and the guard of honcies to the country for which they died, the wives our and the military bands paid their customary and daughters from whom they had been torn by salute, and, as usual, played the National Anthem. the inexorable summons of the trumpet. And their On the arrival of her Majesty at the spot where the country has not been deaf to the appeal, for within stone was to be laid, the Chairman of the Execuan incredibly short space of time nearly a million tive and Finance Committee read the following adand a half sterling has been accumulated from the dress to her Majesty : free gifts of the people of the United Kingdom, the " We, your Majesty's most dutiful subjects, the colonies, our Indian empire, and much of it even Commissioners appointed by your Majesty for the from persons who owed no allegiance to the British formation and application of a Patriotic Fund, ap- Crown. Such spontaneous liberality is to be found proach your Majesty with the assurance of our denowhere but in England, where the resources voted loyalty and affectionate attachment to your of the people are only equalled by the freedom with Majesty's throne and person, and with the expreswhich the latter are ever ready to dispense them sion of our gratitude for your Majesty's condescenin the cause of benevolence. But to speak of mere sion in honouring by your presence and patronage benevolence in the present case would be an insult the foundation of this building, intended for the alike to the givers and to the recipients. The reception and education of the orphan daughters of solace and maintenance of the widows and orphans those soldiers, seamen, and marines, who have of the Crimea must be considered in the light of a fallen in the late war with Russia, and of those who debt on the part of the people of England, and all may hereafter lose their lives in the service of their we can say is that it has been fairly and equitably country. discharged. Out of the subscriptions known ae the " The brilliant valour displayed by your Ma- Patriotic Fund, the widows of the soldiers and' jesty's forces in battle against the enemy early sailors, and of some also of the officers, who pe- aroused the sympathy and admiration of their counrished in the Russian war, have been provided trymen in every part of the British empire, which with moderate allowances for life, and a sufficient was augmented by the unflinching fortitude with -balance still remains for the building, the inaugu- which they encountered in turn the no less deadly ration of which was celebrated on Saturday, and, foes, privation, toil, and sickness, which subseafterwards, for its liberal endowment. For the quently thinned their ranks even more than the building itself 38,0001. has been reserved, and sword. Nor was this feeling confined to your Ma-140,0001. for its subsequent endowment. The ar- jesty's subjects, for in numerous instances natives chitectural design will, we understand, be a modi- of other countries generally united in augmenting fled copy of the celebratedHeriot Hospital in Edin- the contributions which were offered for relieving burgh, and it will accommodate3oo girls, for whose the wants of those widows and orphans who had reception it is expected to be ready in two years been deprived of that support upon which they defrom the present date. During that time there will pended for their maintenance, by the casualties of be ample opportunity for settling on the details of war. training and education, and it is to be hoped that " Your Majesty was graciously pleased to appoint some advantage will be taken of the lights of the us commissioners, under the presidency of your present age in organising such a system of instruc- royal consort, to receive the sums so subscribed, tion, both physical and intellectual, as shall be a and justly and faithfully to distribute them in such great and useful advance on the somewhat antiquated manner as should seem to them best suited to secure curriculum of our existing charity schools. Under the most impartial and beneficent application of the present system a " charity school girl" remains them to the purposes specified in your royal coma charity school girl all her life, so indelible are the mission, and empowering us to appoint a committee traces of her early wooden drillwe cannot call it for the performance of the executive duties of corn' education ; but the Crimean orphans are not cha- missioners, under such regulations as we might rity girls, they are the daughters of the nation, left direct, and these we have much pleasure — in reportin trust by its brave defenders, and they are en- ing to your Majesty, the committee of noblemen titled to the best nurture, and the most sound and and gentlemen whom see appointed have most satispractical education that may be consistent with factorily carried into effect. The subscriptions fostheir normal position in society. The present is tered by your Majesty's example and royal care, the time to think of this, for when matrons have and liberally c )ntributed to persons of every class been chosen, and teachers have been appointed, of your subjects, have produced no les s a sum than and plans of instruction have been organised, it 1,446,985/. 7s. ; a detailed statement of which is would be a hopeless task in this age of red tape to herewith humbly submitted to your Majesty. think of recommending the slightest altsra- " The munificence of the country having thus tion in the programme. The Crimean or- enabled your Majesty's commissioners to provide a phans should be taught to read well, to liberal scale of relief for the maintenance of the write well, to cypher well, and to sew well, widows and orphans, and to extend the benefits of results that are hardly ever attained in existing free certain existing charitable institutions for the eduschools, simply because the teachers are badly paid, cation of the children of soldiers, seamen, and maand therefore of inferior ability. They should suffer rives (as well as officers and men), by adding to no degrading uniformity of closely-cropped heads, their permanent endowment, they resolved, out of i or "charity " habiliments, matters seemingly of the surplus of the funds still remaining at their dissmall importance, but calculated to produce a most posal, to found an institution for the maintenance depressing effect on young people, especially females. and educatiou of orphans, which should not only To put the child of the public bounty into a hideous provide tor those the more immediate objects of and glaringly distinctive dress is equivalent to pin- their cbarge, but also remain a permanent memorial Ding a label on her back, stating the nature and of the national generosity which provided the amount of her obligation. In the particular of means for its establishment. costume a hint may be taken from the Licensed " For this purpose we allocated a sum of 33,0001. Victuallers' School, any one of the p u pil s o f which for the purchase of a suitable site, and the erection might be taken for a respectable child of the middle of buildings for the reception of 300 girls under 15 claws who had not had the misfortune to lose his or years of age, and have endowed it with 140,000/- her natural guardians. The business of domestic "The orphans admitted into this institution will life, the " common things " of housekeeping, be carefully instructed in their moral and religious should be taught practically by practised hand, duties, and, in addition to a useful elementary eauand where the gifts justifying superior culture de- cation, will he taught those breeches of industrial veloped the mse l ves , as they are sure to do in a cer- knowledge which will fit them to perform the duties taro ratio in a n y assemblage of 300 children, the of domestic servants, and when they become wives mans of such culure should be at hand to give and mothers, will enable them to manage their them fair play, for eve! y superior intellect allowed households with economy, and, by habits of cleanlito perish from neglect is a positive and serious loss ness and order, to contribute to the comfort and to the cou n t r y. It may b e th oug ht th a t our bur- cheerfulness of their homes. Such is the proposed ness here is rather to describe than to meralise, but object of the institution which your Majesty is gra" the Queen's name is a tower of strength" to the ciously pleased to patronise, by permitting it to newspapers ; every one will read the account of a bear your illustrims name, and by gracing it with ceremony which her Majesty has honoured with her your p resence this da y . Thus sanctioned, we now presence, and th ere f ore we could hardly choose a commit it to the care of that Almighty Being who better opportunity for calling general attention to has proclaimed himself specially the Father of the points on which we believe the future success of the fatherless. Humbly trusting that it may, under Patriotic School will greatly depend. His guiding Providence, fulfil the objects for which Wandsw or th- common the site chosen for the new it is intended cheeri n g t he heart of the widow and institution, bid s f a i r to become populous with public the orphan, and teaching them to look up with inschools. The situation is healthy, the soil dry and creased loyalty and attachment to the gracious gravelly, and the railway station on its border gives Queen who thus personally sympathises in the sorit all the advantages of an urban position. The Free — rows of those who fall in the service of their Sovemasons had taken possession of a large slice for their reign and their country. ALBERT." excellent school, and now the Patriotic Fund secures The address having been read, the document was a plot of 70 acres. Theirschool will be situated nearly handed to her Majesty, who gave it to Sir George in the centre of the common, and from its windows a Grey, who, in return, handed to the Queen the noble view will be commanded of a finely wooded reply of her Majesty, which was as follows : country on one side, and of London, with its " silver " I thank you sincerely for your loyal and affec- Thames," stretching out like a panorama, on the tionate address. other. The road from town is one of the most beau- Igladly avail myself of this occasion to express tiful out of London, and notwithstanding the foci- the great satisfaction I have derived from the gratilities offered by the railroad, presented quite a fes- fying evidence presented to me of the manner in tive appearance on Saturday, with handsome equi- which my faithful subjects throughout the whole pages rolling rapidly along, soldiers marching to extent of my dominions, and in the most distant fife and drum, gaily dressed groups at every garden parts of the world, have evinced their genuine gate watching for the Queen, and pedestrians trcop- sympathy with my own feelings of admiration forthe ing vigorously off to the scene of the ceremonial. ga l la nt conduct and endurin g fortitude of my naval There the authorities had erected a semi-circular and military forces, by the munificent contribugallery for the accommodation of the more distin- tions to the funds for the relief of the widows . and guished visitors, and had sent to both Houses of orph ans of the brave men who have fall en in the Parliament, and to the various public departments, discharge of their duty to their soverign and their asking how many tickets would be required. In all coun tr y. Y o u have full y justified the confidence cases large demands were made and complied with, placed in you by your judicious l an t d e i l m papprove of but in very few instances was any use made of the tribution of these funds, and e f n th ir em y to the erectickets. By these means numbers who would have the appropriation of a portion o of an institution in been delighted to be present were excluded, and tion and permanent endowment artial dice Majesty on her arrival saw what she rarely wit- the success of which Ishall ever feel the warmest nesses on such occasions. "a beggarly account of interest. empty benches." Numbers of persons without " I am most happy teontdakle h a e p a art r ti t ly inth n e u f o r u l n v d i tahtickets were admitted to the gallery, and thus the Lion of this institutio t picture was, at the 11th hour, made to present a you in committinfogl to the Divine care and protecmore satisfactory appearance. That the paucity of tion, designed may be to the and in ptrahyas bee t n hat the benevolent objects numbers arose from no want of interest on the part with which cif the public, was proved by the appearance of the fullest extehnbti_sehcocopmplished." of CANTERBURY having offered Wandsworth-roads which looked like one continued The Arc i fair, by the long lines of carriages filled with corn- utpena suitable prayer, a glass tube containing specipany that lined all the avenues leading to the n a sof the current coin of the realm was deposited n aperture in the lower stone by her Majesty, grothid, and the crowds which occupied every in s o aether with a splendidly engrossed vellum, on elevated spot from sietlit . of the corewiiich was an appro sriate inscri 3 ption. menial cotald be obtained: The visitors bad ben The bed for the stone having been duly prerequested td aistehd half-past 3, and by that time paLed, her Majesty was handed the silver trowel, all who had been favoured with tieket e had assembled; the outside crowd had also mustered pretty with which she gave the finishing touch to the moretrongly, all waited patiently under a b.roiling tar, and the upper stone was gradually lowered on sun until 5 o'clock, when her Mejesta, with her to its final esting place. Her Majesty having lapd usual punctuality arrived. Alittledistemper, colour, plied the plumb line and level to the masonry, or cheap drapery, on the h front l of the galleries would the satisfaction of finding that it was perfectly true, clieer , lll. than and giving it several raps with the delicately certainly have made t ings ook they did for the F royal visit; but "they manage these polished mallet, declared the foundation of the new nce," and we must, for a little building to bo On a brass plate let into the things better in while longer, be content with the more solid advan- front of the atone is this inscription in Latin and while children were all ranged English : tages of our system. there was eep round in front of the galleries, and d "On the 11th July, t ee n n ri c a e d e e e d v i e e e n ., ted i interest in watching these poor orphans making year of peace,Queen Vic efts of the themselves happy all the unconsciousness of erected from a portion of the free g childhood. The boys of the Duke of York's school United , e t subjects of the were Also present, and kept up a constant rivalry [BNA: Link.] "South London Journal — Saturday 19 September 1863 FIRE AT THE RVPA FOR BOYS — South London Journal — Saturday 19 September 1863 [BNA: Link.] "Dr Ainslie killed by sewer gases — Leicester Daily Post — Wednesday 16 September 1874 Leicester Daily Post — Wednesday 16 September 1874 It is no wonder that Dr. Anstie was killed by the sewer gases at the Wandsworth Patriotic School. I hope there is no second place like it in all England. It seems to have been special/ designed for the spreading of typhoid fever. Ore of the architectsnot responsible for the sewage arrangementsthus write' of it ." The sewage is carried by earthenware drain pipes from the buildings to large tanks, covered with loose boarding, and situated within about 130 yards of the girls' dormitories and 80 yards from one of their playgrounds. In these tanks the sewage stagnates until it can be pumped over the land, and then it is distributed round and about Use buildings, as well as over the kitchen garden and meadow adjoining it." Who can marvel that "the greater part of the illness to which the girls el this school have been subject for some yews pest, is such as would arise from impoverished and rimmed blood." Seeing what the Patriotic Fund was, and who is still the leading manager of it, the permission of a state of things like this for some Paid is beyond mere condemnation. I won- C r if other charity schools have Similar arrange . amts. [BNA: Link.] "Well done, Keith — as soon as I have a mo, I'll pay some ttention I've been distracted in the last couple of days by a question put to me by the Friends of WC — were there any connections between the late Queen and the Common Here are my notes so far [BNA: Link. With luck this rather simpler url points to the same place: [BNA:
"Hello Philip Yes, our water butt overflowed after a couple of moths' rain in two days. Quite by chance, Ilooked in the SoL Battersea volume [49, p.187] on Institutions &c to see what it said about the RVPA and the Boys' add-on, and lo! the east Hill establishment was not founded until 1862, hence its absence from the Census. Thus, nothing missing, 1871 is the first and only account of the East Hill school. I've checked a random selection of the boys' names before and after 1871 and at least two had military fathers when born in the mid-1850s. Many seem to be microcosms of Empire. E.g. Thomas Chance b.Barbados 1856, who was a Signalman 2nd Class in 1881 on HMS Humber at Hull. Joseph Glass (b. Quebec 1857) was the son of a Royal Artillery pensioner. The house on east Hill had previously been occupied by James & Harriet Morris. He died in 1837 — his long & meandering will is PROB11/1882. His widow Harriet lived on until 1857. Their daughter Flamimia [!!] had married Henry Rucker in 1838 hence lived on West Hill in 1860. Looks likely that East Hill House stood empty from late-1857 till the RVP got wind of it c.1860. Good Luck with the 174 boys resident on Census Night 1871!! As you say, there seems to be a distinct cluster of "institutions" round Wandsworth Common, perhaps due to [a] closeness to London by main road; [b] supply of large houses becoming vacant for various reasons and [c] cheap land for expansion, not to mention common land! Best wishes Keith" Queen cuts the cakes Dotter', News Fleet's, 7 Webb, Rill., R. W.ll Complete with coster's cap and small barrow laden with fruit, young Frank Woodley prepares for the fancy dress parade which he won at the Winfield House, Vicarage Crescent, Battersea, party. Afterwards he distributed the fruit to fellow guests. Further bunting went up in many streets on Saturday morning, and probably the best decorated road in Battersea was Parkside Street, where the brickwork of most houses was almost totally obscured, garlands crossed and fairy-lights the roadway and red, white and blue, and other hued Artificial flowers decorated the hedges. Here, 2OO was spent on giving the 144 children a royal time, with a tea, conjuring and ventriloquist shows, races, a cup, saucer and plate, a further present--a Coronation medal-- ices, fruit and sweets. Each household received a Coronation glass jug. Jimmy Down's Band played for dancing till midnight. * * * LIGHTS OF WARSILL STREET Another well-decorated street was Warsill Street, where 7O was spent on decorations, and 147 on a party for 120 children in St. Saviour's Hall on Coronation day. Here, illuminated latticed pylons 10ft. high were erected on both sides of the road with fairy-lights strung out between them. Baskets of illuminted Sowers decorated doorways. Altogether, 4,000 flowers were made. At their party the youngsters received a live-shilling piece each, ball-point pens, brooches, a cup, saucer and plate, with further prizes for f ancy dresses and races. Because Tuesday's party had to be held indoors the committee hurriedly prepared and held another in the street on Saturday. * * * Famous pianist at Astle St. Pianist Winifred Atwell played for half an hour when she visited the Astle Street, Battersea, party. and crowned 14-year-old Maureen Scully Coronation queen. Maureen was attended by Jean Thurston and Pamela Haines. Here, the organisers collected 8249, every penny of which was spent on the children. In addition to a ham tea, they received prizes for races and fancy dresses, NMOIMMUIDWEAR THE sun was the star turn at Saturday's Coronation street parties, for as one organiser said, "If it were possible we'd have been happy to pay 2B out of our funds to ensure line weather." Organisers were Messrs. Saturday was. the day bhe stars, too, were at the Green, Manna, Wright, Sloane. and Duran. Mrs. Kirg prepared parties. Band leader Billy Ternent was at the big four- the food. street affair in Candahar Rd., where lierrison, Nepal, * and Afghan also celebrated. In Astle Street, Batter- Mammoth sea, pianist Winifred Atwell entertained, while down in Earlsfield, at Aslett Street. and at Elspeth Rd., 3OO Battersea, comedian Jimmy Wheeler was a welcome visitor. celebration and silver plaques bearing their Other celebrities had full names commemorating the About 3OO was collected for diaries, particularly the party. The 120 young guests the four-street party in Canda.- Mayor and Mayoress of were Join ed by three visitors bar Road , Battersea , where the Regimental SnerOnersMalors of 180 young Ors of 18 young gueists included ten Battersea (Cllr. and Mrs. the Pe from Dr. Barnardo's Homes. H. F. Harrison), who, dur- in the evening, the adults Races for 25 worth of prizes danced to Tony and his band were held in the morning , and in their drive round the tan, and were enter- the afternocii opened with a borough, vi&ited no fewer tamed by a guest artiste. fancy dress parade judged by than 30 street celebrations. Billy Ternent. Eich child received a Coronation mug, sweets, carnival hat, New coins for crackers, streamers, ices, minerals, as well as a first-class Ascalon S t The orphan guests received a pen and pencil set in addi. EightP tion eight youngsters After entertained Ascalon' * * * . tea. and Spence and Davies, Nine ems , where races and 8.8. C. American comic musical fancy dress competitions for act. and Stan Jay and Joan, prizes were held. Fancy dress comedy duo. winners were At seven o'clock the adults Boys : 1. Terence Cowling; took over and continued the 2. John Pestell; 3. Robert Mills. Jollifications until 1 a.m., danc- Girls: 1. Jennifer Ducker, to the music of Johnny 2. agarYlYn Howard; 3. Sandra Elton and his band. PrMer. Cbnwlation; Pauline' All households participating in the fund-raising efforts re- Each kiddie received a Coro- ceived a photo of the Queen. nation mug and certificate, an ! This mammoth party was ores. pocket of new coins, and a ganleed by Mr. F. J. Haywood bag containing sweets, fruit, and a committee. crisp,: and two pints of minerals. * * * Here, the oommittee, which KHYBER ROAD included every man in the street led by Mr. P. Ducker, In nearby Khyber Road. 52 chairman, lBO was raised for. youngsters were entertained to the kiddies. 'tea and received a cup, saucer The evening saw the adults and plate, toys, and prizes for celebrating. races and fancy dresses. IAltogether ll3 was raised since * * * last October. Here, again, the ASTON HOUSE orphans were not forgotten' six being sent by the L.C.C. at At Mton House on the the invitation of the party or- Springfield Eatate, Wandsworth ganders, Road, the 05 youngsters were There was also a Punch and no less well catered for. The Judy show. 127 collected since October, A three-piece band led the enabled them to be provided adults in dancing in the evenwith a tip-top tea, a cup, ing. saucer and plate each, certiii- , cates, and aprons for the girls, the entertainment # # and pencils for the boys, with prizes for fancy dresses and Mr. Ernest Partridge congratulates Evelyn Deniteva, Malllitson Road's 15-v es old 'Queen'. Two nurses from St.. John's Hospital, Battersea, one cf them a South African, were guests at Saturday's tarty, for the children of Buxton and Pitt Houses. Maysoule Road, Battersea. They joined in the fun, and during the afternoon saw a "coronation" when 16- year-old Maureen Graden was crowned "queen." The 140 children had sports, fancy dress contest, talent competition. and an open-sAr tea. There were presents for all, including "surprise parcels," and then came the highlight of the proceedings, when the "Coronation Queen" cut the coronation cakes. each weighing 351 b., and was joined by both adults and children in drinking the loyal toast. Dancing and community singing followed, interrupted only by a special treat for the children, a fireworks display. Mr. W. Giles and Mr. E. Graydon, assisted by a committee of five, organised the porty. * * Oak:cy, 61 Rd., B.W.U. Helen Cordet of television's Cafe Continental, opened the Ravenswood Road, Ha!ham, street party and crowned the road*. Queen, Josephine Roberts. WKIITERN 11111 DAY, ill, INS -.--_- — f or "elk 7.- A W. J. Bath. 161 Leathwatte Rd., 8. W.ll 40.6 .4. Alta ICASTU & Co. 171/17$ TUE 11 BATTERSEA "Graphic — Saturday 26 September 1874 [BNA: Link.] Anstie-Graphic-26sep1874.png" "Buzzard, T. The Late Dr. Anstie. Practitioner 16:1-43, 1876. [BNA: read.amazon.co.uk/?asin=B07N8YYJ8Q&ref_=dbs_t_r_kcr [BNA: read.amazon.co.uk/?asin=B07N8YYJ8Q&ref_=dbs_t_r_kcr" target="_blank">Link "ANSTIE, FRANCIS EDMUND (1833-1874), physician, was born at Devizes, Wiltshire, 11 Dec. 1833, the son of Mr. Paul Anstie, a manufacturer belonging to a family long notable for their attachment to liberal principles. He was educated at a private school till the age of sixteen, when he was apprenticed to his cousin, Mr. Thomas Anstie, a medical practitioner, with whom he remained three years. In 1853 he entered the medical department of King's College, London, where his teachers were Sir William Fergusson, Mr. Bowman, and especially Dr. R. B. Todd, whose doctrines and practice produced a permanent impression upon Anstie's mind. He became M.R.C.S. and L.S.A. in 1856, was M.B. London in 1857, M.D. 1859. He was admitted a member of the College of Physicians in 1859, fellow 1865. In 1860 he was elected assistant physician to the Westminster Hospital, but did not become full physician till 1873. He was lecturer at that school, first on forensic medicine, afterwards for many years on materia medica, and for a short time on medicine. In 1862 Anstie married a daughter of Mr. Wass of Cromford, Derbyshire, whom he left a widow with a son and two daughters. On his first entrance into professional life Anstie was occupied in administering chloroform for the operations of Sir William Fergusson; but he soon went into practice as a physician, and became very fully occupied in hospital work and in journalism, being for some years a member of the editorial staff of the 'Lancet;' while in the last few years of his life he was beginning to get a good consulting practice. Dr. Anstie's life was cut short by an illness contracted in the course of a sanitary inspection. Some strange cases of fatal disease having occurred in the schools of the Patriotic Fund at Wandsworth, Anstie was called in to make an inspection of the buildings and investigate the causes of the epidemic. In making a post-mortem examination he received a slight wound, from the effects of which he died on 12 Sept. 1874. The sudden death of a man so full of energy and promise by a wound received in the discharge of duty caused an acute and painful sensation throughout his own profession and the public. Shortly afterwards a large number of his personal friends and others raised a memorial fund in his honour, which was applied for the benefit of his family. Dr. Anstie was a skilful physician, an eager investigator, and a vigorous writer. Literary work connected with medicine, in addition to regular journalism, occupied much of his energy during his whole professional life. His activity was mainly directed in three lines -in the advancement of therapeutics, in questions of public health, and in the study of nervous diseases. In therapeutics he began with investigating the action of alcohol on the body in health and disease; and in this he was a pupil of Dr. R. B. Todd, one of whose leading principles was the use of stimulants in medicine. After writing scientific and popular papers on the subject (in the 'London Medical Review,' 1862, and the 'Cornhill Magazine' respectively), Anstie brought out in 1864 his important work on 'Stimulants and Narcotics,' containing the result of experiments, observations, and literary research, and these subjects continued to occupy his attention till the last year of his life. In 1868 he became joint-editor (and in the next year sole editor) of the 'Practitioner,' a new journal intended to advance the scientific study of therapeutics. The special character and importance of this journal, which has done much to invigorate the study of therapeutics in this country, were of Anstie's creation. In questions of public health Anstie was warmly interested; and he took an important part in initiating two important public reforms. In 1864 certain scandals connected with the administration of the poor-law infirmaries attracted public attention, and induced the proprietors of the 'Lancet' to appoint a commission, consisting of Dr. Anstie, Mr. Ernest Hart, and Dr. Carr, to report on the subject. Anstie took the largest part in examining the London infirmaries, and wrote the report which appeared in the 'Lancet' 1 July 1865. Others followed, and one on the state of Farnham workhouse, published in 1867, led to an inquiry by the Poor Law Board, which justified the report of the 'Lancet' commissioners. These inquiries may justly be regarded as the starting-point of the movement of reform which has of late years greatly improved the system of poor-law medical relief. In 1874 Anstie brought before the College of Physicians a motion that the college should petition the prime minister to provide some remedy for the injurious overcrowding of the poor in London, which the introduction of certain railways and improvements had lately aggravated. The petition, being adopted and sent in, was largely influential in inducing the then home secretary, Mr. Cross, to bring in a bill in parliament which became law as an 'Act for facilitating the Improvement of the Dwellings of the Working Classes in large Towns. In this momentous question, the solution of which has not yet been found, Anstie deserves honourable mention as a pioneer. On diseases of the nervous system Anstie wrote several memoirs, and finally a book on 'Neuralgia and the Diseases which resemble it,' London, 1871, on which his friends would be inclined to rest his reputation. He also contributed an article on the same subject to Reynolds's 'System of Medicine.' The views which he expounded in both works were to a large extent original, and doubtless open to criticism; but many of his observations are of permanent value. In 1867 he gave two lectures at the College of Physicians on the sphygmograph. There can be no doubt, however, that the completeness of his scientific work was much interfered with by his multifarious occupations and the ceaseless literary activity which circumstances imposed upon him. Though finding little time for elaborate research, he was a zealous advocate of new and more accurate methods, and did much not only to make known the results of investigation, but to stimulate and sustain the scientific movement in medicine. At the time of his death Anstie's reputation was rapidly growing, and was as great in America as at home. It is no secret that brilliant offfers were made to induce him to accept a professorship and hospital appointment in that country, which family reasons, among others, induced him to decline. In 1874 he took part in the foundation of the Medical School for Women, and acted with great energy as the first dean of the school. Anstie was a man of singularly attractive character. He was warmhearted and generous, a firm friend and an honourable opponent. Though as a reformer he was often engaged in controversy, he gained the regard of the best among his antagonists; one of whom wrote after his death: 'It was impossible to mistake the ardour of the man, or to doubt the complete and very unusual disinterestedness with which he threw himself into all his work.' Besides the works mentioned above, he wrote a very large number of papers and articles, some signed, some anonymous. Among the former were: 1. 'Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System ' (Lancet, 1872-73). 2. Articles in Reynolds's 'System of Medicine,' vol. ii. 1868: Alcoholism, Neuralgia, and Hypochondriasis the latter jointly with Sir William Gull; ibid. vol. iii. 1871: 'Pleurisy, Pleurodynia, Hydrothorax, Pneumothorax, and Hepatalgia.' 4. 'On the Hereditary Connection between certain Nervous Diseases' (Journal of Mental Science, Jan. 1872). 5. 'Notes on Epidemics, for the use of the Public,' 1866. Several medical papers in the Practitioner. [Memoir by Dr. Buzzard (his brother-in-law), Practitioner, Jan. 1876; Lancet, 19 Sept. 1874.] [BNA: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Anstie,_Francis_Edmund ANSTIE, FRANCIS EDMUND (18331874), physician, was born at Devizes, Wiltshire, 11 Dec. 1833, the son of Mr. Paul Anstie, a manufacturer belonging to a family long notable for their attachment to liberal principles. He was educated at a private school till the age of sixteen, when he was apprenticed to his cousin, Mr. Thomas Anstie, a medical practitioner, with whom he remained three years. In 1853 he entered the medical department of King's College, London, where his teachers were Sir William Fergusson, Mr. Bowman, and especially Dr. R. B. Todd, whose doctrines and practice produced a permanent impression upon Anstie's mind. He became M.R.C.S. and L.S.A. in 1856, was M.B. London in 1857, M.D. 1859. He was admitted a member of the College of Physicians in 1859, fellow 1865. In 1860 he was elected assistant physician to the Westminster Hospital, but did not become full physician till 1873. He was lecturer at that school, first on forensic medicine, afterwards for many years on materia medica, and for a short time on medicine. In 1862 Anstie married a daughter of Mr. Wass of Cromford, Derbyshire, whom he left a widow with a son and two daughters. On his first entrance into professional life Anstie was occupied in administering chloroform for the operations of Sir William Fergusson; but he soon went into practice as a physician, and became very fully occupied in hospital work and in journalism, being for some years a member of the editorial staff of the 'Lancet;' while in the last few years of his life he was beginning to get a good consulting practice. Dr. Anstie's life was cut short by an illness contracted in the course of a sanitary inspection. Some strange cases of fatal disease having occurred in the schools of the Patriotic Fund at Wandsworth, Anstie was called in to make an inspection of the buildings and investigate the causes of the epidemic. In making a post-mortem examination he received a slight wound, from the effects of which he died on 12 Sept. 1874. The sudden death of a man so full of energy and promise by a wound received in the discharge of duty caused an acute and painful sensation throughout his own profession and the public. Shortly afterwards a large number of his personal friends and others raised a memorial fund in his honour, which was applied for the benefit of his family. Dr. Anstie was a skilful physician, an eager investigator, and a vigorous writer. Literary work connected with medicine, in addition to regular journalism, occupied much of his energy during his whole professional life. His activity was mainly directed in three lines -in the advancement of therapeutics, in questions of public health, and in the study of nervous diseases. In therapeutics he began with investigating the action of alcohol on the body in health and disease; and in this he was a pupil of Dr. R. B. Todd, one of whose leading principles was the use of stimulants in medicine. After writing scientific and popular papers on the subject (in the 'London Medical Review,' 1862, and the 'Cornhill Magazine' respectively), Anstie brought out in 1864 his important work on 'Stimulants and Narcotics,' containing the result of experiments, observations, and literary research, and these subjects continued to occupy his attention till the last year of his life. In 1868 he became joint-editor (and in the next year sole editor) of the 'Practitioner,' a new journal intended to advance the scientific study of therapeutics. The special character and importance of this journal, which has done much to invigorate the study of therapeutics in this country, were of Anstie's creation. In questions of public health Anstie was warmly interested; and he took an important part in initiating two important public reforms. In 1864 certain scandals connected with the administration of the poor-law infirmaries attracted public attention, and induced the proprietors of the 'Lancet' to appoint a commission, consisting of Dr. Anstie, Mr. Ernest Hart, and Dr. Carr, to report on the subject. Anstie took the largest part in examining the London infirmaries, and wrote the report which appeared in the 'Lancet' 1 July 1865. Others followed, and one on the state of Farnham workhouse, published in 1867, led to an inquiry by the Poor Law Board, which justified the report of the 'Lancet' commissioners. These inquiries may justly be regarded as the starting-point of the movement of reform which has of late years greatly improved the system of poor-law medical relief. In 1874 Anstie brought before the College of Physicians a motion that the college should petition the prime minister to provide some remedy for the injurious overcrowding of the poor in London, which the introduction of certain railways and improvements had lately aggravated. The petition, being adopted and sent in, was largely influential in inducing the then home secretary, Mr. Cross, to bring in a bill in parliament which became law as an 'Act for facilitating the Improvement of the Dwellings of the Working Classes in large Towns. In this momentous question, the solution of which has not yet been found, Anstie deserves honourable mention as a pioneer. On diseases of the nervous system Anstie wrote several memoirs, and finally a book on 'Neuralgia and the Diseases which resemble it,' London, 1871, on which his friends would be inclined to rest his reputation. He also contributed an article on the same subject to Reynolds's 'System of Medicine.' The views which he expounded in both works were to a large extent original, and doubtless open to criticism; but many of his observations are of permanent value. In 1867 he gave two lectures at the College of Physicians on the sphygmograph. There can be no doubt, however, that the completeness of his scientific work was much interfered with by his multifarious occupations and the ceaseless literary activity which circumstances imposed upon him. Though finding little time for elaborate research, he was a zealous advocate of new and more accurate methods, and did much not only to make known the results of investigation, but to stimulate and sustain the scientific movement in medicine. At the time of his death Anstie's reputation was rapidly growing, and was as great in America as at home. It is no secret that brilliant offfers were made to induce him to accept a professorship and hospital appointment in that country, which family reasons, among others, induced him to decline. In 1874 he took part in the foundation of the Medical School for Women, and acted with great energy as the first dean of the school. Anstie was a man of singularly attractive character. He was warmhearted and generous, a firm friend and an honourable opponent. Though as a reformer he was often engaged in controversy, he gained the regard of the best among his antagonists; one of whom wrote after his death: 'It was impossible to mistake the ardour of the man, or to doubt the complete and very unusual disinterestedness with which he threw himself into all his work.' Besides the works mentioned above, he wrote a very large number of papers and articles, some signed, some anonymous. Among the former were: 1. 'Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System ' (Lancet, 1872-73). 2. Articles in Reynolds's 'System of Medicine,' vol. ii. 1868: Alcoholism, Neuralgia, and Hypochondriasis the latter jointly with Sir William Gull; ibid. vol. iii. 1871: 'Pleurisy, Pleurodynia, Hydrothorax, Pneumothorax, and Hepatalgia.' 4. 'On the Hereditary Connection between certain Nervous Diseases' (Journal of Mental Science, Jan. 1872). 5. 'Notes on Epidemics, for the use of the Public,' 1866. Several medical papers in the Practitioner. [Memoir by Dr. Buzzard (his brother-in-law), Practitioner, Jan. 1876; Lancet, 19 Sept. 1874.]" "DOI:[https]://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)49046-0 VOLUME 104, ISSUE 2670, P629, OCTOBER 31, 1874 THE ANSTIE MEMORIAL FUND._ Published:October 31, 1874DOI_ _ _Published:October 31, 1874DOI:[https]://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)49046-0ttps://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)49046-0___" target="_blank">Link. "A Clinical Lecture ON A CASE OF DOUBLE PNEUMONIA FOLLOWING ON PERICARDITIS. FrancisE. Anstie [BNA:
VOLUME 104, ISSUE 2665, P464, SEPTEMBER 26, 1874 THE LATE DR. ANSTIE. Published:September 26, 1874DOI:[https]://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(02)04848-1" "ANSTIE [BNA: Link. "FRANCIS ANSTIE refs in ARCHIVE.ORG [BNA: archive.org/search.php?query=Francis%20anstie" target="_blank">Link "Poor-Law Medical Offficers Association and the Late Dr Anstie White, C. The Lancet 104(2668): 568-569 1874 DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(02)31259-5" "Anstie was described as a person of melodious voice andgenialpresence,boldinopinionandexpression(evento a false air of arrogance) and of restless energy.8 In the last ten yearsofhisshortlifeheemergedasatirelessleaderin the public health field. He combined vision, idealism and pragmatism to prod reform. "For the State to decline to in- quireaboutsuchmattersasthebodilyhabitsandhealthofits membersisnotinfavorof liberty,butinfavorofimmorality, dirt,diseaseanddeath."9He insistedupontheappointment ofspecialqualifiedpersonstoreportandadviseinquestions oflunacy,sanitarypolice,food adulterationandfoodin- spection, and to give evidence on criminal trials and coro- ners'inquests.8 Public scandalsoverthedeficiencyofmedicalandnurs- ingcareinworkhouseinfirmariesledtohisappointmentona Lancet Commission which visited 38 such institutions. An- stiemademostofthevisitsandwrotethereportwhichgener- atedmanyreforms.8 At his instigation the Royal College of Physicians peti- tionedthePremiertoprovidesome remedyforthegreatand increasingovercrowdingofthepopulationinthemetropolis. He protested"thedestructionofmultitudesofpoorhabita- tionswithoutmakinganyconsiderableeforttosupplytheir place"8; some authority was needed with power to control urbanrenewalandinsistuponthebuildingofcompensatory housing for the poor. This resulted in the passage of an Act byParliament"fortheworkingclassesinlargetowns." As editorofthePractitionerAnstieestablishedthefirst Death came prematurely and abruptly at the age of 41. Asked to investigate a series of infectious fatalities in a school, Anstie pricked his finger in doing an autopsy on a case of peritonitis, contracted septicemia and was dead in a week. English medical journals registered shock. Tributes to his brilliant career came from all quarters, perhaps best expressed by Florence Nightingale. " I can not express adequately how great is the loss to our country in Dr Anstie. Many will fall victims to th want of (pursuing) the public health measures of which he was such a devoted supporter" Ref 11 = 1. Editors'Notes.Lancet2:847,1874." "[https]://api.wellcomecollection.org/text/v1/b29339169 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Wellcome Library [https]://archive.org/details/b29339169 ^Mcnfcb ter me gjbrttrg Jbfl A MANUAL OF HYPODERMATIC MEDICATION. THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES ROBERTS BARTHOLOW, M.A., M.D., LL.D., Professor of Materia Medica and General Therapeutics in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia; Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; Member of the American Philosophical Society; Honorary Member of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, of the New York and Ohio State Medical Societies; Cartwright Lecturer for the year 1880, etc., etc. FOURTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. London: 16 Southampton Street, Strand. 188 2. <;(=4 ^9 Copyright, 1882, by J. B. Lippincott & Co. TO COL. JOHN M. CUYLER, Surgeon U. S. Army, IDEDICATE THIS EDITION OF MY MANUAL, IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF PERSONAL KINDNESS, AND TO TESTIFY MY ADMIRATION OF HIS MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL GIFTS, HIS FIDELITY TO PRINCIPLE, AND HIS GREAT PROFESSIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY AS A MEDICAL OFFICER OF THE ARMY. Je pense meme, a raison de ces circonstances, que l_absorptiou sous-cutanee, qui n_a ete employee jusqu_ici sur l_homme que par exception, devra devenir methode generate pour l_administration de tons les medicaments energiques, et jl l_etat de purete. Bernard. Who that has suffered from a painful local affection can think of the alleviation of liis sufferings which follows from the subcutaneous injections of an anodyne without gratitude? Sir W. Jenner. Die ueueste Zeit, melir und mehr einer nicht skeptischen aber rationell critischen Auffassung in therapeutischen Dingen zuneigend, hat diesen ge- waltigen Apparat pliarmaceutischer und dynamischer Mittel grossentheils ttber Bord geworfen, und besclirankt sich auf wenige, aber in eminenter Weise bewahrte, locale Methoden. Dieser gliickliche Uemschwuug kniipft sich zum Theil an die Einfiihrung der lnjpodermatischen Injectionen, welche die symp- tomatischo Behandlung der Neuralgien ausserordentlich vereinfacht und vervollkommnet, die meisten iilteren Yerfahren ersetzt und iiberfliissig ge- macht haben. Eulenberg. TO THE FOURTH EDITION. The rapid progress made in therapeutical science renders necessary frequent revision of any work devoted to its exposition. This is especially true of hypodermatic therapeutics, which deals with the active principles,_the newest products of chemical research, which may be made available for this method of administration. Hence, since the publication of the third edition of this manual, so much has been contributed to this subject, that many changes, and considerable addition of new material, has been found necessary. I have rewritten much of the work, and have added new matter to the extent of one hundred and fourteen pages of text. As heretofore, I have incorporated those new contributions to therapeutics which seem so well grounded as to be permanent additions to knowledge. In the substitution of the term hypodermatic for the familiar word hypodermic, my action may or may not be generally approved, but the change is urgently demanded in the interests of a correct nomenclature. To make the attempt at substitution successful nt will be necessary to have the co-operation of medical authors. The unanimity of scholars in regard to the incorrectness of hypodermic is surely sufficient justification for combined effort. When referring to the subject of _ iridium points__ for needles, I did not know the precise origin of the application of this remarkable metal for this purpose. I have learned since the printing of that part of the work that we owe this important improvement to Dr. William Judkins, of Cincinnati. R. B. 1509 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. TO THE THIRD EDITION. Several years having elapsed since the publication of the second edition of this manual, important alterations have been rendered necessary by the advance in knowledge. But few changes seem desirable in the first part, devoted to _ History, Technology, and General Therapeutics,__ but many changes and numerous additions have been made in the second part, or _ Special Therapeutics.__ C hapters have been added on the following topics: The 'Morphia Habit and its Treatment, Duboisia, Pilocarpine, Chloroform, Chloral Hydrate, Apomorphia, Aquapuncture ; and all of the other chapters have had important additions made to them, and some of them have been entirely rewritten. The size of the volume has been considerably increased, and its usefulness enhanced, it is believed, by these alterations and additions. As this is now the only work on the subject in the English language before the profession, and as this embodies the results of the most recent investigations, the author ventures to express the belief that it must continue to be useful to those for whom it was originally intended. The exhaustion of two editions and the demand for a third indicate that the manual supplies an existing want. The author has, therefore, felt encouraged to increase the size and enlarge the scope of the manual, so as to make it still more worthy of the approval of the medical profession. The hypodermatic method has been greatly extended in range since it was first employed for the relief of pain. The applications of various agents by this mode to the treatment of different morbid states are even more important than the use of anodynes, and it is probable, as other active principles are discovered, the method will receive still greater extension. As, however, no good can exist in this world without a corresponding evil, the usefulness of the subcutaneous medication is embarrassed by a most serious abuse in the employment of the hypodermatic syringe for the purpose of narcotic stimulation. It is no exaggeration to say that this abuse is becoming a gigantic evil, to the extent and dangers of which the medical profession should be fully alive. The author has set forth this subject, as amply as the limits of such a manual will permit, in a chapter on the morphia habit, and he begs now to add another warning in regard to the danger of the lengthened use of morphia subcutaneously ; for no matter how much the original prescription may have been justified in the condition of the patient, and how conscientious the physician in his efforts to prevent abuse, if the habit be formed, the mental and moral degradation which ensues will always be referred to as the blunder or the crime of Dr. So-and-so. R. B. 1509 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. % PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. This edition is not a mere reprint of the first. Numerous and important additions have been made in various parts of the work. I have sought to incorporate every real improvement in hypodermatic medication which has been announced since the appearance of the first edition. Much has been proposed that does not appear to me to be of permanent value, and hence I have omitted it, in conformity with my original design of keeping on the strictly practical side of my subject. Whilst I have omitted much that seemed wanting in the essential quality of utility, I have not felt at liberty to reject from consideration any remedy a knowledge of whose uses might aid the physician in an emergency. Now that the first enthusiasm which attended the introduction of this method has died away, we are in a position to estimate accurately its true merits. It is gratifying to me to observe that the judgments pronounced in the first edition, in regard to the various agents employed in this way, have been confirmed by a larger personal experience and by the general voice of the medical profession. The hypodermatic method is, certainly, a very important addition to our resources, and no physician can be considered as doing justice to his clientele who does not give them the advantage, in suitable cases, of its great curative value. In conclusion, I have to express my obligations to the reviewers for their very favorable notices of the first edition, and to the medical profession for the estimate which they have placed on my labors. 27 West 8th Street, Cincinnati. TO THE FIRST EDITION. As a teacher of Therapeutics, and as a practitioner, it has frequently been brought to my notice that the information existing in our language on the subject of hypodermatic medication is exceedingly meagre. I have been urged by students and practitioners to prepare a convenient manual, to embody in small compass what is really known of value on this subject. This little work is the result. Those who do me the honor to read my book will find that I have drawn largely upon my personal experience in the use of the hypodermatic method. This fact, together with the necessity I was under not to enlarge my work beyond the boundaries of a _ manual,__ will, Itrust, excuse the apparent dogmatism of my statements. As, however, the experience and observation of one individual, how great soever may have been his opportunities, must necessarily, in so extensive and important a subject, be incomplete, I have not neglected the contributions of English, French, and German physicians to this department of practical medicine. I am indebted to the present resident physicians of the Good Samaritan Hospital for important aid. Drs. De Courcev and Rutter, with a scientific zeal which does them honor, submitted themselves to experiments in order to elucidate some important points in the physiological action of morphia and atropia. Dr. Galbraith made and recorded the observations. Dr. J. S. Unzicker, of this city, a very capable physician and pharmaceutist, has placed me under obligations for numerous careful experiments, to determine what agent, if any, is best suited to prevent change in solutions prepared for hypodermatic use. Cincinnati, Ohio. TABLE OF CONTENTS. History of Subcutaneous Medication. The Method. Definition . The Solution. Extemporaneous. Permanent . . . The Syringe. Mode of Injecting. Remedies administered by the Hypodermatic Method. Local and Systemic Effects of Subcutaneous Injections. The Actions and Uses of the Remedial Aoents employed Hypodermatically. Alkaloids of Opium. Morphia and its Salts. The Preparation. The Dose. Physiological Actions. Accidents. . Therapy. Codeia and its Salts. Physiological Effects. Therapy. Narceine. Liquor Opii Compositus. The Opium or Morphia Habit.. Treatment of the Opium Habit. PAGE 17 30 30 31 32 34 36 43 47 49 55 55 55 55 59 61 71 77 118 118 119 119 119 120 132 Atropia. The Solution. The Dose. Physiological Effects. Therapy . Antagonism of Atropia and Physostigma.. Atropia and Pilocarpine. Atropia and Muscaria. Atropia and Quinia. Atropia and Bromal Hydrate. Atropia and Aconite.. Homotropine. Morphia and Atropia. History of Antagonism. Physiological Effects. Therapy.. Duboisia. Physiological Effects. Therapy. Hyoscj'amia. Solution. Physiological Effects. Therapy. . Hyoscine. .. Strychnia. History. Solution. Physiological Effects. Therapy. The Antagonisms of Strychnia. Strychnia and Chloral. Strychnia and Bromide of Potassium Strychnia and Nitrite of Amyl. Conia. The Solution. Physiological Effects. Therapy. PAGE 140 140 141 142 150 161 173 183 187 188 189 190 192 193 199 223 229 229 230 232 233 234 234 236 237 237 237 239 243 251 251 257 259 261 261 262 263 PAGE Curara (Woorara). 265 The Solution. 265 Physiological Actions. 265 Therapy. 267 Nicotia . . . 1 . 270 The Solution. 270 Physiological Effects. 270 Therapy. 271 Hydrocyanic Acid. 272 Physiological Effects. 272 Therapy. 272 Physostigma_Eserine.. 275 The Solution. 275 Physiological Effects . 276 Therap}-. 277 Pilocarpine. 281 The Solution. 281 Physiological Effects. 281 Therapy. 284 Amyl Nitrite. 286 Actions and Uses. 286 Chloroform. 288 Physiological Effects. 289 Therapy. 292 Ether and Alcohol. 294 Actions and Uses. 294 Chloral Hydrate. 298 The Solution. 298 The Dose. 298 Physiological Effects.. 298 Therapy. 300 Chloral and Morphia. 301 Caffein . . . 303 The Solution. 303 The Dose. 303 Physiological Effects. 303 Therapy. 303 PAGE Apomorphia. 305 The Solution. 305 Physiological Effects. 305 Therapy. 306 Ergotin. 308 The Solution. 308 Physiological Effects. 310 Therapy. 316 Quinia. 323 The Solution. 323 Actions and Uses. 325 Carbolic Acid. 331 The Solution. 331 Physiological Effects. 331 Therapy. 332 Mercury. 334 The Solution. 334 Physiological Effects. 336 Therapy. 337 Arsenic. 340 Actions and Uses. 342 Aquapunctijre. 346 Irritant Injections. 349 Injection of Ammonia into the Veins . 353 THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES BY THE HYPODERMATIC, OR SUBCUTANEOUS, METHOD. HISTORY OF SUBCUTANEOUS MEDICATION. With the opening of the present century began attempts to utilize the skin as a medium for the introduction of medicaments into the blood. Chrestien, of Montpellier, who is also celebrated for his researches on the medicinal value of the salts of gold, published in 1804 a treatise on the iatraleptic method. This work was translated into German by Bischotf the following year. Various papers of minor importance appeared in French and German literature during the first quarter of the century. Lcmbert, in 1828, and Richter, in 1835, discussed, in more or less elaborate essays, the endermic method, and Madden, of Edinburgh, in 1838, published an experimental inquiry into the physics of cutaneous absorption. It is in a high degree probable that Madden_s research had its inspiration in the recent devel- opments in regard to the curative effects obtained by the inoculation and implantation of medicines. About 1836, Lafargue had published the results accomplished by his method; that is, the insertion of morphia into the skin along the trajectory of the nerve affected with neuralgia. Lafargue invented a needle-trocar, with which he could effectively deposit morphia in the form of a paste in the skin. Ascribing the curative results of this practice to the pustules that formed at the site of the inoculations, he studied with care their development and structure. Although it was early discovered that the benefit derived from the inoculation of morphia was in no way related to the pustules produced, the good results of the method were most conspicuous, and attracted wide-spread attention at that time. Val- leix, Cazenave, Malgaigne, Hayem, and others in France, Langenbeck, Bertrand, and Von Bruns in Germany, Rvnd in Dublin, and Drs. 'Washing- ton and Taylor in New York, repeated the practice of Lafargue, in some instances modifying the method. These observers, and probably the most of those who practised the inoculations, were not concerned, as was the originator of the method, as to the mode of development and the special forms assumed by the pustules, but referred the curative effect to the action of morphia on the sensory nerves of the part. It, is not surprising, then, that modifications in the mechanical details were soon introduced. In 1839, Drs. Taylor and Washington, of New York, on becoming acquainted with Lafargue_s method and the important curative effects obtained from the inoculations, also inserted morphia along the course of the affected nerve in cases of neuralgia. Instead of inserting morphia in paste by the inoculation plan, they injected a solution of morphia beneath the skin with an Anel_s syringe, an opening having been made previously for this purpose. Anel_s syringe, the real progenitor of the modern hypodermatic instrument, is a small syringe having an elongated tapering nozzle, fine enough for entrance into the lachrymal duct. To convert this into an instrument for subcutaneous injection it is only necessary to put a cutting point on the small extremity of the canula. About the same time, and no doubt influenced by Lafargue_s successful practice, Dr. Holland, as Dr. Wilson* informs us, _cured a case of neuralgia by inserting grain of morphia in four punctures over the deltoid.__ It was also, there is reason to believe, the publication of Lafargue_s results which induced Mr. Rynd, of Dublin, to set about the invention of a complicated instrument for introducing under the skin a solution of morphia by its own gravity. Besides the inoculation method, the endermic use of morphia began to be discussed and to be much employed about the twentieth year of the present century. * St. George_s Hospital Reports, vol. iv. p. 19 (Foot-note). Brown-S6quard has always advocated the ender- mic method, which he holds is in some respects superior to the subdermic. Sieveking * has found the endermic plan work well in cases of persistent neuralgia, and this experience extends back beyond the period when was brought forward the hypodermatic method, with which he compares the endermic. There was, therefore, an abundant experience in the local use of morphia just before the introduction of the hypodermatic method. It was not, however, until the experiments of Dr. Alexander Wood, of Edinburgh, were published, that the method of subcutaneous insertion of morphia began to be properly appreciated. Doubtless also in imitation of Lafargue, Wood began in 1843 the use of a crude syringe (similar to the And), with which he injected a solution of morphia through an opening previously made in the skin. In 1855, or twelve years after the first attempts to execute his conception, Wood published-)" an account of his method. It is certain, however, that the physicians of Edinburgh had become familiar with subcutaneous medication by personal communication with Dr. Wood before any account of it had appeared in the journals of the day. During this time Mr. Rynd, of Dublin, was carrying on his investigations, and lie affirms that _the subcutaneous injection Ihe Lancet, 18G1, vol. i.: _Clinical Remarks on Neuralgia.__ f The Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, 1855. of medicinal substances to combat neuralgia was first used by myself in Meath Hospital in 1844.__ It is obvious that the practice as thus far developed had for its chief, if not only, object, to obtain the local effects of morphia. Even so late as 1861, Dr. Sieveking was concerned chiefly about the local action in the endermic and sub- dermic application of morphia. We find that Dr. Wood began with the same notion, for he strongly insisted on the importance of injecting the medicament into spots painful on pressure. _The local effect depends,__ he says, _ much upon the affinity between the particular medicine administered and the tissue to which it is applied.__ Hot, like Lafargue, seeing a relation between the forms of pustules and the curative action on the nerves affected, but an _ affinity__ between the morphia and the morbid state of the nerves, Wood attributed the cures effected by the new method to the local action. He did not fail to observe, as, indeed, he graphically described, the systemic or general effects which so speedily follow the subcutaneous injection of morphia. The question of priority of discovery has been warmly disputed. As is usual when great improvements are made in the arts and the sciences, the way to discovery is prepared by the work of many investigators. The inventor finally coordinates the results of his predecessors, and adds the experiment or the needed acquisition which completes the discovery. Wood estab- 2* lished his right to he regarded as the discoverer of the hypodermatic method, by using the syringe for injecting a solution of morphia, and by the publication of his experiments and their results. Mr. Rynd, who claims to have been the first to employ the new method, must be ranked with those who were working in the same direction,_ like Drs. Taylor and Washington of this country,_hut who failed to make public their improvements or discoveries in time to substantiate a claim to prioi_ity. Dr. Sieveking asserts that _ Dr. Ivurzak, of Vienna, was the first, he believes, to employ the subcutaneous or hypodermic method, which was then largely used by Dr. Wood, of Edinburgh.__* * * There is no reference to the authority for this statement, hence we are compelled to resort to contemporaneous German works for evidence. The treatise of Prof. Dr. Eulenberg,f the most thorough and elaborate which has thus far been published on this subject, and which is peculiarly rich in its bibliographical lists, contains no reference to Dr. Kurzak_s claims to priority, or to any work done by him on this subject. Dr. Eulenberg also in a more recent publication J on the same topic, Dr. Erlenmeyer, * The Lancet, 1861, vol. i. p. 105. Supra. f Die hypodermatischen Injectionen dor Arzneimittcl, etc. Berlin, 18G7, p. 10. t Percutane, intracutane, und subcutane Arzneiapplication, Allgemeinc Therapie, i. 328. Die subcutancn Injectionen dcr Arzneimittcl, p. 1. and Dr. Lorent* are equally unmindful of Kur- zak_s claim to be recognized as the discoverer of hypodermatic medication. How far, if at all, the progress of physiological research influenced the endermic and sub- dermic application of remedies cannot now he stated with precision; nevertheless there are some important facts which have a distinct relation to the subject under consideration. The first research into the action of a medicament made by the physiological method was conducted by Ma- gendie, about 1819, upon the upas and nux vomica, and on strychnia. In the course of this research Magendie first demonstrated that poisons acted by absorption into the blood. To ascertain the general effects of the remedy being examined, he introduced some of it under the skin of the thigh, and then observed the actions as they occurred. This experiment was performed in 1819.f In the course of this research, also, he tested the rate of absorption from different parts, including the veins. Subsequently, Bernard, pursuing his investigations into the action of curara, and also in his studies of the poisons, introduced the medicament, the subject of experiment, under the skin.! If was, therefore, perfectly well known * Die hypoderm. Inject, nach clinischen Erfahrungen. Leipzig, 1805, p. 1. f Ann. de Chim. et de Physiol., vol. xvi., 1819. % Ler;ons sur les Effets des Substances toxiques et mcdica- menteuses. Paris, 1857, p. 272. to physiologists that medicines introduced under the skin were rapidly absorbed, producing their characteristic effects, at the time when Latargue was studying the forms of pustules caused by the endermic application of morphia, and Mr. Rynd, of Dublin, was inventing an instrument for the more efficient introduction of morphia into the skin. It is the more surprising that the progenitors of the hypodermatic method should have referred the curative action of morphia to the local impression, since they observed that it produced the most decided systemic effect. Although Wood directed that _ the instrument is not to be put into the place where the patient complains of pain, but into the spot where you find you can awaken pain on pressure,__ he accurately describes the rapidity and extent of the narcotic impression. The injunction to insert morphia into the spot painful on pressure had its origin in the practice of Valleix, who, in his work on neuralgia, then in the first flush of its popularity, had recommended the method of Latargue. That Wood fully appreciated the extent of the systemic effect of morphia when administered hypo- dermatically is evident in the following passage : _It is truly astonishing how rapidly it affects the system. If you throw in a large quantity ot morphia, you will see the eyes immediately injected and the patient narcotized, and in a few minutes afterwards you will see him in a profound sleep.__ Making such observations, it is impossible that he should be unaware of the effect of the remedy thus administered on the centres of conscious impressions; hut he yet attributed the curative effect in neuralgia to the local action. It was reserved for Mr. Charles Hunter to demonstrate the important fact that the application of the injection to the painful points, as contended for by Wood, was really unnecessary, and that equally good effects followed the introduction of the injection into a distant part. Mr. Hunter_s first paper appeared in 1859, and was entitled _ Experiments relative to the Hypodermic Treatment of Disease.__ These experiments, made on animals, demonstrated that hypodermatic injections _ acted by absorption; that they acted quicker than by the endermic method, or than stomachic doses; that they acted more effectually ; and that a small injected dose was equivalent to a much larger one by the stomach.__ Mr. Hunter was permitted to use the method of Wood on two patients afflicted with neuralgia, in care of Dr. Pittman in St. George_s Hospital. As _ both had abscess in the neuralgic site, from the continuance of the localization,__ the point of introduction of the injection was varied, and it was found,__ first, that in neuralgia equal benefit followed distant injection of the cellular tissue as followed the injection of the neuralgic site ; secondly, that localization was not necessary to benefit a given part; and,thirdly, that for certain reasons it was better not to localize,_the chief being: 1, the infliction of unnecessary pain; 2, the almost certain risk of irritating, thickening, or inducing matter in the part from repetition ; and, 3, it became evident that a large class of neuralgia would be excluded from this treatment if it was necessary to inject the neuralgic site.__ Great praise must be awarded Mr. Hunter for his success in demonstrating these important conclusions, and for popularizing his method. Ilis industry in collecting facts and presenting them to the profession was indefatigable. His views were perseveringly advanced, with an intelligent appreciation of the nature and importance of his facts. He read papers before societies ; he published articles in the _ Medical Mirror,__ _ Lancet,__ _ Medical Times and Gazette,__ and _ British and Foreign Medico-Chirur- gical Review;__ he issued a pamphlet* containing all of his previous papers and some additional facts, and he enlisted, by personal effort, many of the physicians and surgeons of London in a trial of the new therapeutical expedient. It was thus, chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Hunter, that the method of Wood, previously * On the Speedy Relief of Pnin and other Nervous Affections by means of the Hypodermic Method. Churchill, London, 1805. confined to Edinburgh and to Dublin, became naturalized in England. Mr. Hunter_s papers in the _ Medical Times and Gazette__ attracted the attention of Courty, of Montpellier, and Be- hier, of Paris, who popularized the new method in France. It was soon after tried and reported upon favorably by Scanzoni, of Wurtzburg; Op- polzer, of Vienna; Graefe, of Berlin, and numerous other eminent authorities on the Continent. In 1865 a small treatise, by Dr. Lorent, of Bremen, appeared at Leipsic. A monograph, by Dr. Erlenmeyer, passed to the third edition in 1866. In 1867 the second edition of the elaborate work of Dr. Albert Eulenberg was published in Berlin. Dr. Eulenberg gives a list of two hundred and twenty articles and essays in various languages, but chiefly in German, which appeared on this subject from 1855 to the date of publication of the second edition of his work. From these facts may be seen the extraordinary extension which has been given to'this method of treatment on the Continent. The method of Wood, as illustrated by Hunter, met with a more favorable reception on the Continent than in the country of its origin. According to Dr. Anstie,* _ it is still very much unappreciated__ in England. It is true that the principal English physicians and surgeons think highly of the method, and now employ it largely, * The Practitioner, July, 1868. but, as Dr. Anstie informs us, there are _ practitioners who will not admit that there can he any particular advantage in it which the old way of e-ivinc: medicines does not offer.__ The hypodermatic method, soon after its publication by Wood, was introduced into the United States. Dr. Fordyce Barker, of New York, whilst in Edinburgh in 1856, was presented by Prof. Simpson with a hypodermatic syringe. Soon after his return home, in May, 1856, he used this instrument, and was, consequently, the first in this country to practise the method of Wood. Prof. Barker_s syringe was the model from which Tiemann_s instruments were made. In August, 1857, the late Prof. George T. Elliot published some observations on the hypodermatic method. It thus appears that the new mode of using medicines was known and employed in New York when Dr. Ruppaner_s articles appeared in 1860 in the _ Boston Medical and Surgical Journal,__ the first on this subject published in this country. Not only was the hypodermatic method as taught by Wood early naturalized in the United States, but, as we have already shown, it was practised in New York before Wood made public his discovery, or before the earliest date assigned by Mr. Rynd, of Dublin, for his use in this way of remedial agents. Dr. I saac E. Taylor, in a communication to the _New York Medical Gazette,__* * April 23, 1870. shows that Dr. Washington and he used practically the same method in the New York City Dispensary so long ago as 1839. The idea was suggested to them by the results of Lafargue_s method of inoculation. Instead, however, of inserting the solid medicament by means of a grooved needle, as was Lafargue_s practice, these gentlemen punctured the skin with a lancet, and by means of an Anel_s syringe threw a solution of the medicine under the skin. This mode of operating was the same practically as that suggested and used by Wood in 1855. When the first edition of this work was published (1869), I was not aware of the above facts in regard to the introduction of the hypodermatic method in this country. It affords me sincere pleasure to attribute to my own countrymen the credit to which they are justly entitled. THE METHOD. Definition._Mr. Hunter, in 1859, proposed the word hypodermic as the name for the new method, in imitation of terms already in use, as epidermic, etc. The word hypodermic is compounded of two Greek words, uxo, under, and Ssppa, the skin. This word is condemned by all scholars, who are unanimous that the term should he_in accordance with the rules of construction_hypoder- matic. That eminent philologist and Oriental scholar, Mr. Fitzedward Hall, D.C.L., assures me that under no circumstances is hypodermic allowable. It is, however, so firmly established, and in such universal use, that the substitution of the more correct term can be accomplished only by combined effort. In former editions of this work I have followed almost universal custom in using hypodermic, but in the present edition, and in the fourth edition of my _ Practical Treatise on Materia Medica and Therapeutics,__ I have departed from custom to do my part towards the introduction of the more correct phrase, hypodermatic. The word subcutaneous expresses the same idea, and is in all respects appropriate. By this method the medicament is introduced beneath the skin, usually into the subcutaneous areolar tissue, but also into the muscles. Further, the instrument may be employed to inject medicines into the serous cavities, into the veins, into the parenchyma of organs, and into the tissues of morbid growths. Although these topics are in some respects foreign to subcutaneous medication, it is my purpose to include them in the present edition, since the same process is followed practically in all cases when the hypodermatic syringe is the instrument emplo}Ted. The method consists in_ 1. A suitable solution of the medicament; 2. An instrument for injecting the solution beneath the skin, into the subcutaneous areolar tissue, or into the tissues of muscles, organs, or new formations. The Solution._A medicine employed for hypodermatic use should be capable of perfect solution in the vehicle, which is usually distilled water. Particles of medicine undissolved are not only not in a condition to be readily absorbed, but also act as irritants to the tissue, producing inflammation and abscess. The solution should be free from dirt or foreign o matter of any description, and should be neutral, or, at least, without decided acid or alkaline property. Any substance which will coagulate the blood, or produce violent irritation, is unlit for hypodermatic use. A solution, even of a neutral substance, should not be too concentrated. Pure distilled water is entirely harmless, and the quantity of fluid injected is, within certain limits, a matter of in" "[https]://api.wellcomecollection.org/text/v1/b21780687 CHOLERA: , jts Symptoms ano treatment BY ALFRED ORLANDO JONES, M.D. LONDON: JACKSON, WALFOKD, & HODDER, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1866. HL Price id., or 7s. per 100. The writer, feeling assured that many of the publica- tions which appear in the daily journals on the treatment of Cholera are likely to mislead enquirers, felt constrained to give an outline of treatment, in the efficiency ana safety of which he is pcrjeflly confident, having proven it to he ejfeElual where other remedies had failed, symp- toms being present which indicated the rapid approach o) a fatal termination. CHOLERA :* 3jt0 >jmptom0 anti treatment. SYMPTOMS. The symptoms announcing the presence of the poison in the system are various. In some cases it commences with violent pain in the stomach or abdomen, and nausea, in others with almost painless diarrhoea, vomiting, and purging of fluid matter more or less discoloured with white flocculent epithe- lium ; the legs are drawn up with cramps, and the abdominal muscles drawn into knots ; the vital power is rapidly lowered, and faint- ness or collapse rapidly supervenes. * Cholera, from xa^s, the bowels, and pew, to flow. It is also spoken of as Algide Cholera ; the last term being derived from algeo, to be cold, to indicate the loss of heat, which is one of the symptoms of this fatal disease. The terms malignant and Asiatic are also applied to it. The attack is commonly as sudden as severe. It differs from common Summer Cholera in the remarkable absence of bile, the presence of rice-water evacuations, the early appearance of collapse, and, under ordinary treatment, the great mortality, a striking alteration in the u appearance of the patient, a lividity of the h countenance, the features pinched, the pulse u small and feeble, the surface cold and often |t blue, the breath cold, the eyes sunken and is cheeks fallen, the voice husky and faint" called the vox choleraica"the cessation of the b passag'e of the urine, accompanied with great thirst. Some things might lead us to suppose that there is a want of eleCtricity in the system" for instance, its occurring so frequently in low, damp situations, damp being a powerful con- ductor of eleCtricity from the body, and the faCt that rubbing the limbs tends to relieve some of the symptoms of collapse, would lead to the same conclusion, it being well known that friCtion evolves eleCtricity ; also dry, hot applications to the extremities afford relief. Cold drinks tend to throw the blood to the surface, and bring about the desired reac- tion also, though in another way. It is important to notice Mr. Simons report, that the population drinking dirty water appears tc have suffered three and a-half times as much mortality as the population drinking other water._ It is a remarkable fadt that the symptoms of poisoning by opium, in certain proportions, resemble in a striking degree those of Cholera; for instance, vomiting and diarrhoea, spasms, collapse, pale countenance, livid hands and lips, constant retching, and towards fatal termination small, frequent, and irregular pulse,* and this medicine in small doses, espe- cially in the form of trituration, is strikingly useful. TREATMENT. , It may appear to some useless to speak of .remedies so generally known ; but from what is published in large and small works, the specific value of opium in relation to this disease seems to me to have been lost sight of, and on the other hand, that too much has been said in favour of camphor, which is * See Dr. Guys Forensic Medicine._ indeed an invaluable medicine, although the symptoms it produces on the system ir poisonous doses do not nearly so strikingly correspond with those of cholera ; never theless, they each have their use; the opiun relieves the pain and diarrhoea, and th< camphor relieves the symptoms of collapse viz., the coldness, faintness, &c. Mucl mischief may occur from depending impli citly on either the one or the other; als< other symptoms may arise which may neces sitate the exhibition of other medicines, sue as arsenicum, cuprum, veratrum, mercuriu corrosivus, &c. The treatment that I should recommend until the patient is able to send for a medic; adviser, is as follows :" Tinfture of camphor, five drops; trite ration of opium, five to ten grains, give alternately in half a wineglass of wate; every ten, fifteen, or thirty minutes, accordin to the severity of the symptoms. In the fir stages the strongest tr. camphor given every te minutes, and small doses of opium every fifeee minutes, are the best remedies ; but no tin should be lost in sending for a medical adviser ;he meantime. If there is thirst, drink cold rice nyater and arrowroot, or beef-tea. Let the jatient maintain a recumbent posture ; cover :he body with blankets, and put a hot bottle k o the feet, and throw tinCture of camphor on :he bed, and Condys disinfecting fluid, or ;arbolic acid on the floor; let all nuisances about the dwelling be removed. If this cannot be done, let the patient, as soon as convalescent, be removed to a healthy and ligh situation, to avoid a second attack and expedite recovery of strength. PREPARATION OF MEDICINES. The preparation of the opium is as follows : Triturate, or rub up one grain of opium with forty grains of white sugar or carbonate T lime. The latter is preferable. * The tincture of camphor to be made with qual parts of camphor and spirits of wine; Tie latter must be sixty over-proof. * The preparation of opium that the writer has used : slightly different, but this one he thinks the most mple and most likely to be available for general use. NOTES In Reap. 8vo., price 41., cloth, lettered. ON CHOLERA AND OTHER EPIDEMIC DISEASES. Jfoc tljE (Ese of tlje public, r By FRANCIS E. ANSTIE, M.D., F.E.C.P., Senior Assistant-Physician to the Westminster Hospital, and i: author of Stimulants and Narcotics._ The work of a physician, who from position, experience, p and ability, is well qualified to aft as a guide to the public at M such a period as the present._"Reader. No longer need it be complained that there is no accurate <{ and yet untechnical treatise, from which the general reader can learn those principles which should guide him in avoiding infeftion, and in detefting the early symptoms of disease. In ' all that relates to that wide class of affeftions which attack whole populations at once, and are therefore styled epidemics, sound knowledge and an acquaintance with all that recent re- search has taught, may be gathered from Dr. Ansties volume._ "Popular Science Review. The work before us merits the earnest attention of all persons capable of appreciating the growing importance of the subject of which it treats. The produftion of an eminent hospital physician, who has had peculiarly ample opportunities of acquiring experience, it deals with the topic of epidemic disease in a manner calculated to produce lasting benefit to the community. He gives us, in language divested as far as possible of technicality, a treatise upon this subject whick, whilst it embraces the most advanced views of science, is adapted to the comprehension of every attentive reader._" Daily News. The latest and most generally accepted views of the pro- fession on epidemic diseases in this country are very cl earl) described._"Saturday Review. LONDON: JACKSON, W ALFORD, AND HODDER 27, Paternoster Row." "WELLCOME ANSTIE and MEDICAL SCHOOLS FOR WOMEN — but a different Anstie — a relation? [BNA: api.wellcomecollection.org/text/v1/b24748304_0001" target="_blank">Link.] OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON COMPILED UV W. H. ALLCHIN, M.D. (Lond.), F.R.C.P. UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR IN MEDICINE MEMBER OF THE SENATE AND LATE EXAMINER IN MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY LIFE GOVERNOR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SENIOR PHYSICIAN TO THE WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL PART I. FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY TO THE APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST ROYAL COMMISSION, 1825 TO 1888 {Reprinted from The Medical Magazine) LONDON H. K. LEWIS, 136 GowER Street, W.C. 1905 PRICE HALF-A=CROWN NET A OF THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON COMPILED BY W. H. ALLCHIN, M.D. (Lond.), F.R.C.P. UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR IN MEDICINE MEMBER OF THE SENATE AND LATE EXAMINER IN MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY LIFE GOVERNOR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE SENIOR PHYSICIAN TO THE WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL PART I. FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY TO THE APPOINTMENT OF THE FIRST ROYAL COMMISSION, 1825 TO 1888 (Reprinted from The Medical Magazine) IX^ LONDON H. K. LEWIS, 136 GowER Street, W.C. 1905 1 KGYAL CCLLCcn Or lHY3l.: f GLASS fsounc. 1 DATE :z 1 TO The Right Hon. Sir EDWARD FRY, B.A. (Lond.), RC, F.R.S., (sometime lord justice of appeal, and formerly a crown member OF THE senate), PHILIP HENRY PYE SMITH, B.A., M.D. (Lond.), F.R.S. (vice-chancellor of THE university), AND JAMES ANSTIE, B.A. (Lond.), K.C. (a former member of the senate), TO WHOSE EFFORTS WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY ITS RECONSTRUCTION WAS MAINLY DUE, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. W. H. A. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 [https]://archive.org/details/b24748304_0001 NOTE. The following account is reprinted, with alterations and additions, from The Medical Magazine, in the pages of which it appeared at irregular intervals from April, 1900, to the present time. Several of the references and remarks, more particularly in the earlier parts, are to be taken in connection with the date of the commencement of the publication of this record. October, 1904. PAGE Introduction --- . . . -i The Foundation of THii University 3 The Abolition of the Collegiate System — -8 The Charter of 1858, abolishing restrictions as to place of education except in Medicine 10 Objections thereto 13 The Financial Position of the University 16 Signs of Reversion to the University Ideal --ig Resolutions of Dr. Pye Smith and Mr. Anstie concerning an increased efficiency of the University adopted by Convocation, 1877 20 Report of Sub-Committee on the subject 21 Further communication from Convocation to Senate, urging formation of Board of Studies, 1882 -- ----26 The Medical Grievance — 27 Letter from Dr. Bristowe to Chancellor of the University, 1879 — - . . 28 Dr. Wilson Fox brings subject before Royal College of Physicians, 1883 — - 33 First steps taken by College of Physicians to obtain degree-granting powers, 1883 ----- 36 Adverse opinion of Counsel to the College 38 Meeting of Fellows of College of Surgeons adopted resolution calling on Royal Colleges to try and obtain degree-granting powers, 1884 — - — - 39 Action of the British Medical Association, 1879-1885 40 Deputation to Senate of University from British Medical Association, 1885 — 49 Senate of University appoints Committee to consider proposals of the Associa- tion, 1885 .--..-53 Opinions on Teaching Universities of Sir Robert Lowe and Prof. Lyon PlAYFAIR, 1873 . . . -..--..-.5;^^ Dissatisfaction of University and King's Colleges — . . . . 57 Speech by Sir G. Young at University College in respect to a degree-granting power, 1877 — 62 The Association for Promoting a Teaching University for London, in- augurated 1884 — -- 62 Plan of the Association for Proposed Teaching University for London — - 67 Conferences of the Association with Royal Colleges, Medical Schools, University and King's Colleges, Senate of the University and others — - . 71-80 PAGE Action of Convocation on the Scheme of the Association for Promoting A Teaching University — -..------8i First Scheme of Convocation (Lord Justice Fry's), 1885 ----- 85 Comparison with that of the Association — -.----89 Discussion on, in Convocation, and outside criticism — - — - 91-116 First indications of opposition to change in the University among Members of Convocation, 1885 — - — - — - — - — -93 Second Scheme of Convocation (Sir Philip Magnus's), 1886 . — - . 117 Discussion on, in Convocation — - — - — - — - -119 Further Action of the Royal Colleges — 122 Report of Committee of Delegates of the Royal Colleges approving desirability of their Diplomates receiving a Degree in Medicine and Surgery, 1885 — - 124 Consideration of Report by the Colleges ------- 126-133 Further consideration by Council of College of Physicians, 1886 . . — 135 Further Report of Committee of Delegates, 1886 138 Consideration of, by the Colleges, and adoption ------ 141-155 Action of Medical Schools and others thereon ------- 156 Scheme of the Senate of the University, 1887 160 Memorandum of Lord Justice Fry thereon ------- — 166 Comparison of Schemes of Senate and of Convocation ----- 172 Scheme of University and King's Colleges, 1887 ------ 176 Resignations from the Council of University College — - — - — -178 Speech of Sir G. Young, Bart. --------- — 180 The Position of the Question Immediately Preceding the Appointment of THE First Royal Commission 187 Summary of proceedings up to this time 187 Petition to Privy Council of Association for Promoting a Teaching University for London, 1887 ----------- — igi Petition to Privy Council of University and King's Colleges — - — - ig6 Draft Charter of the Albert University of London, 1887 — - . 202 Action of Senate of University thereon — -- -- -- — 213 Statement of Senate submitted to Privy Council, 1887 213 Action of Convocation on Senate's resolution ------- 219 Action of Metropolitan Medical Schools thereon ------ 223 Petition to Privy Council of the Bishop of London — 225 Press Comments thereon — -- -- -- -- -- 226 Petition to Privy Council of Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons — - 234 Draft Charter of Senate of Physicians and Surgeons — - — - 238 Petition of Sir H. Pitman, M.D., in support 242 Action of Senate of University thereon 244 Memoranda by Prof. Huxley and Lord Justice Fry 245 Action of Convocation on Senate's resolution 249 Opposition to Petition of Royal Colleges by Universities and other bodies — - 251 The Issue of the Royal Commission (1888) 256 APPENDIX. PAGE I. Note on Some Earlier Suggestions for a University of London — - iii n. The Charters of the University of London Previous to 1900 — - vi First Charter, 1836 vi First Charter renewed, 1837 (Second Charter) xii Supplemental Charter, 1850 — xviii Third _ 1858 xxi Fourth ,, 1863 — -xxxiii Supplemental ,, 1867 xlvi Supplemental ,, 1878 — - — - — - — - — - xlviii in. A Chronology of Events Connected with the University of London- li b ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. p. 7, par. 2. The first rooms occupied by the University were in Somerset House. P. i6, par. I. Notwithstanding that the adoption of the new charter (1858) abolished the principle of affiliated Colleges, there continued to appear in the Calendar of the University, after the list of " Institutions from which the University receives certi- ficates for degrees in Medicine," a list of " Institutions in connection with the University as to degrees in Arts and Laws". At a meeting of the Senate on 30th January, 1884, on the motion of Mr. Fitch, it was resolved to omit this second list from future editions of the Calendar. P. 17. In respect to the present (i.e., since 1900) position of the officials of the University it is not the same as was formerly the case. They are no longer members of the Civil Service, and can no longer look forward to a pension. Such pensions, how- ever, as had accrued to them, under the previous arrangement up to the reconstruc- tion of the University, is payable to them, provided they do not leave the service of the University before the age at which retirement is permitted by the rules of the Civil Service. P. 39. Three lines from bottom of page, for "College" read "Colleges". The precise words of Mr. Hickman's resolution were : " That the Council of the College \i.e. the Royal College of Surgeons] do obtain a charter to enable the Council to combine with the Royal College of Physicians of London, with the view to amalgamation of the two Colleges into one great College of Medicine, to be endowed with authority to examine and grant licences to practise in all branches of Medicine and Surgery, and to confer on its licentiates the degrees and titles of Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery ". The Council of the College of Surgeons took no steps to give effect to this resolution. P. 44, line 15. After the word " report" insert " which had been adopted by the Council of the Branch on 5th February ". P. 71, par. 2. Referring to the communications proposed to be entered on between the Association for Promoting a Teaching University for London and the Senate of the University the present writer published a letter in the Lancet for 28th March, 1885, pointing out how difficult he conceived it would be for the University profitably to entertain the proposals of the Association, or those of the Metropolitan Branch of the British Medical Association, and suggesting, he believes for the first time, the reference of the whole question to a Royal Commission. P. 71, last par. For an account of this meeting, which was held at Exeter Hall, see Lancet and British Medical Journal, 5th December, 1885. P. 75, line 9. After " loth July " insert " 1886 ". P. 75, par. 2. Refer to footnote, p. 177. P. gi, line 19. For " Senatus " read " the Senate ". THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. I. 1825-1888. FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY TO THE FIRST ROYAL COMMISSION. "The statutes made for the University of London by the Commissioners appointed under the University of London Act, 1898," were pubHshed in the London Gazette on i6th February, 1900, and laid on the table of the Houses of Parlia- ment the same day. Objection to them in either House must be raised within forty days after being laid before it, and in the form of " an address praying the Queen to withhold her assent". No such objection has been taken, but "the Senate or Convocation of the University of London or any other person or body directly affected by any such statute or regulation, may, within three months after the notification thereof, in the London Gazette, petition Her Majesty in Council to withhold her approval of the whole on any part thereof. Her Majesty in Council may refer any such petition to a Committee of the Privy Council with a direction that the Committee hear the petitioner personally or by counsel, and report specially to Her Majesty in Council on the matter of the petition." * This course, though not free from difficulty or expense, is yet open to objectors, and it is possible, though not probable, that some of the whispers of opposition now heard may find expression in this direction. Otherwise the statutes and the annexed regulations will come into force on * University of London Act, Clause 5. the day on which the Royal Assent to them is given, which cannot be before the middle of May. By the last of these statutes (136) it is provided that the present Vice-Chancellor, who retains office until his successor be appointed, "shall, as soon as conveniently may be after these statutes have received the Royal Assent, take all necessary steps for securing the ap- pointment of a new Senate," on the formation of which the reconstituted University of London may be regarded as having come into being. It may be well in the short interval that now exists before the attainment of this long-hoped-for end, brietly to consider what have been the aims and objects of those who have so long struggled in its pursuit, how far their desires have been realised in the present state of affairs, and perhaps to indicate those directions in which effort still requires to be made and watchfulness exerted lest the full fruits of their labours fall short. Although the present writer is necessarily more conversant with, and this magazine is more directly concerned with, the medical aspects of the question, it is most desirable that the subject as a whole should not be viewed through purely medical spectacles, and the new University be looked upon as an arrangement solely to benefit medicine and those who practise it. No doubt it was certain disabilities under which London medical students laboured that very forcibly con- tributed to the earlier agitations which have eventuated in the present position, and certainly the metropolitan medical institutions have taken their full share in urging and main- taining the question. It might not also be unfair to say that a large part of the motive power came from the medical faculty which, though not the most numerous nor the least distinguished, is distinctly the best organised group within the University and has been on that account throughout the negotiations able to exercise its full share of influence. But it has not been, except at the outset when the full bearings of the question were imperfectly understood, the view of these institutions that medicine alone was concerned in the change, or was the only subject to benefit therefrom. It has been regarded as a movement of metropolitan and therefore of national importance to provide the capital of the empire, and the biggest city in the world, with a University worthy of it, one that should be a University in reality and not only in name ; one where education in its widest and fullest sense should be the main purport of its foundation, and where the test of the examiner should not be considered as the be all and end all of its existence. Whether what has been obtained will satisfy these aspirations remains to be seen. Certain it is that much opposition has existed to their fulfilment and much depends on the new Senate to see that this same opposition shall not prevail ; for unfortunately the statutes, with great powers for the highest excellence, cannot be said to render inferiority impossible. The story is a long one and of sufficient interest in itself to warrant its narration as well as to render intelligible the present position and intelligently to anticipate the future. The Foundation of the University. The London University is the outcome of a movement mainly initiated in 1825 by Thomas Campbell the poet, Mr., afterwards Sir, I saac Lyon Goldsmid and Mr., afterwards Lord, Brougham "for effectively and multifariously teaching, examining, exercising, and rewarding with honours in the liberal arts and sciences the youth of our middling rich people . . . an establishment availing itself of all the experience and experiments that can be appealed to for facilitating the art of teaching, a University combining the advantages of public and private education, the emulative spirit produced by examina- tion before numbers, and by honours conferred before the public, the cheapness of domestic residences and all the moral influence that results from home".* The religious restrictions imposed by the older Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well as the cost of residence at those seats of learning rendered them all but inaccessible to the majority. So favour- * Extract from letter from Thomas Campbell to Mr. Brougham, published in the Times, 9th February, 1825. ably was the idea entertained by the public that a very large sum of money was quickly subscribed, and the foundation stone of the buildings now known as University College, in Gower Street, was laid on 30th April, 1827. In October and November, 1828, the actual opening took place * and in the following year upwards of 550 students entered for the classes in the Faculties of Arts, Laws and Medicine. The institution so far was an entirely private and voluntary undertaking, the property of a body of subscribers of ^100 proprietary shares, known as the "proprietors," by whom the first Council was appointed which thenceforth became the governing body, responsible to the proprietors (now termed Governors). It is worthy of mention that Henry Brougham was appointed the first President of the Council and that he so continued until his death in 1868 when he was succeeded by Mr. George Grote. By the deed of settlement drawn up and signed in February, 1826, it was de- termined that the contemplated building when finished " should be called the ' University of London' and appropriated solely to the objects of the Institution ". The style therefore of the new venture had at first no legal sanction either by charter or by act of Parliament. Clearly the next step was to obtain such a right and with it that other function of a University the power to grant degrees, which was one of the objects with which the Institution had been established and is "incident to the name and title of University ".f In December, 1830, the Council presented a petition for a charter of Incorporation which was on the point of being granted, when the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge demanded that the power of conferring degrees should not be allowed.J The opposition was success- * It may be of interest to record that the Introductory Lecture to the Class of Physiology was delivered on ist October by Air., afterwards Sir, Charles Bell, F.R.S., who was followed the next day by Dr. John ConoUy, Professor of the Nature and Treatment of Diseases. t Speech of Mr. W. Tooke, M.P., in the House of Commons, 4th July,. 1833- :{: Although without the power to confer degrees, it was a part of the original scheme and duly carried out that the students should be periodically and publicly examined by the Professors who might give certificates to those who were successful. On the production of a certain number of Professors' ful; but in 1834 the claim was again urged, especially on the ground that Dissenters being prevented from admission to degrees at the older Universities, it was expedient that some means should be found to furnish other than members of the Church of England with University training and graduation. Again did Oxford and Cambridge oppose, and objections also were raised by the Royal College of Surgeons and the teachers in the London Medical Schools on the ground that unfair ad- vantages would be given to a new rival which should have the power to grant degrees in medicine or surgery. The City of London on the contrary petitioned in favour of the charter being granted. The Council of the " University " consented to waive the right to confer degrees in Divinity and in Medi- cine, and the opposition of Oxford and Cambridge was with- drawn. In 1833, on the motion of Mr. William Tooke, M.P., F.R.S., in the House of Commons, an address was presented to the Crown, praying that a charter might be granted to the institution then known as the "University of London,"* but certificates, a student might be admitted to examination for a University certificate in Literature and Science. Recognising that " to make the docu- ment practically useful as evidence of his having acquired at the University a certain amount of knowledge in the different departments of general and professional education, it must have such a designation as the person obtaining it can conveniently affix to his name and be called by, as is the case when he takes a degree at an incorporated University". But no attempt was made to frame such a designation except in the case of students in the medical faculty who should have conformed to the prescribed conditions and this took the cumbrous form of " ' The diploma of Master of Medicine and Surgery in the University of London ' (which may be thus translated and abbreviated M. Med. et Chi. U.L.)". I have been unable to ascertain that the title was ever conferred or used by any one. The conditions were very similar to those laid down shortly after by the University itself, and the plan was adopted by the Council in compliance with the representatives of the Professors in the Medical Faculty, who supported their request by a statement setting forth the special need for some titles for those about to engage in medical practice that should indicate the special University training they had undergone. * It may be observed that at this stage the terms " University of London " and " London University " were used indiscriminately"at least in the debate on Mr. Tooke's motion, although the former designation was that which appeared in the deed of settlement by the proprietors and was used in the documents issued by the institution. on the Government of the day stating that the subject was under their consideration, the motion was withdrawn. The matter not proceeding as expeditiously as was desired, on 26th March, 1835, Mr. Tooke again moved in the House of Commons that an humble address should be presented to His Majesty, beseeching him to grant his Royal Charter of In- corporation to the University of London, to contain no other restriction than against conferring Degrees in Divinity and Medicine, and this was carried by a majority of 246 to 136. Meanwhile in 1829 King's College had obtained a charter of incorporation, being established also for the purposes of pro- viding- what now would be termed hig-her education but dis- tinctly in connection with the Church of England, in opposition to the wholly unsectarian character of that offered in GoM er Street.* * Occasion may be taken to state that the earlier proceedings of the new institution were not so " godless " as they were asserted to be by its opponents, who did not measure the language in which they referred to it. Among the earliest advertisements issued by the institution was the following : " Religious Instruction."We the undersigned Professors in the University of London, who are Clergymen of the Established Church, having from the period of our appointment entertained the intention of providing religious instruction for those students who are members of our Church, do hereby give notice, that final arrangements have been at length made, with the full approbation of the Council for that purpose. An Episcopal Chapel has been purchased contiguous to the University, to be called ' The University Chapel,' where accommodation will be afforded to the Students for attendance at divine service, and where a course of Divinity Lectures will be regularly delivered during the academical session. "Thomas Dale, M.A., Camb., Evening Preacher at St. Sepulchre's and Professor of English I^anguage and Literature. " DiONYSius Lardner, LL.D., Dublin, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. "John Williams, M.A., Oxon., Vicar of Lampeter and Professor of Roman Language and Literature." This advertisement appeared in the Times on 27th May, previous to the foundation of King's College to which " the abandonment of the irreligious principles of the Gower Street scheme " was erroneously said to be due. The subscribers to the maintenance of the Divinity Lectures included many dis- There were thus two institutions doing identical work and with similar objects, except so far as one of them sought the power to grant to its alumni degrees, or as it was forcibly if inelegantly styled at a later period " to brand their own herrings ". It was clear that this could not be allowed, and the Government (Lord Melbourne's) settled the difficulty by granting, on 28th November, 1836, to the self-called "University of London" a charter under the designation of " London University College," recognising it as a place of academic education and also undertaking to grant similar charters to other institutions of the same kind which might be hereafter established; and on the same clay incorporating under the style and title of the University of London a " body of persons eminent in literature and science, to act as a Board of Examiners and to perform all the functions of the examiners in the Senate House of Cambridge". In this way, then, was constituted the University of Lon- don, primarily with examination and degree granting powers in Arts, Laws and Medicine, which were to be exercised only in respect to candidates presenting themselves from the two London Colleges, King's and University, " or from such other institution corporate or unincorporated as now is or hereafter shall be established for the purposes of education whether in the metropolis or elsewhere within our United Kingdom " (First charter). Among these were included such medical institutions and schools as the Chancellor, Vice- Chancellor and Fellows might from time to time consider fit.* tinguished persons, some of whom were unconnected with the " University". Strenuous efforts were also made by the celebrated Dr. Arnold, who was one of the members of the first Senate of the University of London when incor- porated, to require from every candidate for a degree in Arts, though not in Laws or Medicine, an acquaintance with some part of the New Testament in the original and with Scripture history ; but he was unable to carry the majority of his colleagues with him, and his failure led to his withdrawal. (See articles in Quarterly Review, January, 1887 and 1892, by Sir Joshua Fitch, to which the writer is indebted for some of the information contained in these pages.) * " The Colleges and Medical Schools in connection with the University " were, according to the first published Calendar (1844), separated into " Insti- The Abolition of the Collegiate System. But although the University was from the outset an examin- ing Board for students from certain colleges or schools in con- nection with it, it remained in great mieasure a thing apart, exercising no direct influence on the educational institutions, except by the curricula of study imposed on candidates for degrees and fulfilling none of the other and higher functions of a University such as the encouragement of learning for its own sake and the prosecution of research. In this way did it tutions empowered to issue certificates to candidates for degrees in Arts and Laws," including among others, University, King's, St. Cuthberts, Stonyhurst, Bristol, Manchester New, Highbury, St. Kyrans Kilkenny, and Carlow Colleges, and " Recognised Medical Institutions, Schools and Teachers ''. The London schools enumerated were University and King's Colleges, The London Hospital, The Middlesex Hospital, The Aldersgate School of Medicine, The School of Anatomy adjoining St. George's Hospital, Sydenham College, The Medical School at the Charing Cross Hospital, The Medical School at St. Thomas's Hospital, The Hunterian School of Medicine, The Medical School at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, The School of Webb Street, Southwark, The Medical School of the Westminster Hospital, Guy's Hospital, The Medical School at St. George's Hospital; G. D. Dermott, Esq., Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery, Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury ; The Physicians of the St. Marylebone Infirmary. The varying styles of the different institutions is curious and the recognition of individual teachers is interesting in view of the present position. There were also recognised the Schools at Birmingham, Bristol, Hull, Leeds Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheffield and York ; the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, the Andersonian Institution, Glasgow, and a number of individual teachers connected with the College of Surgeons or Extra- academical Schools, among whom were Drs. Allen Thomson, Fyfe, Lizars, Maclagan and J- W. Balfour. Ireland was represented by the Apothecaries' Hall of Ireland, The Richmond Hospital School of Anatomy, Medicine and Surgery, St. Vincent's Hospital, Mercer's Hospital, The Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, as well as others in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Maryborough. And the list concluded with The University of Malta and The Military Hospital in the Island of Ceylon. Most of the above mentioned, together with others not included, had made application to the Senate of the University for recognition, and on their recommendation had been approved by Lord John Russell (Secretary of State) in the years 1837-9. The first examination for the degrees of M.B. and M.D. took place in July and August, 1839, and the list of successful candidates included students from University and King's Colleges Westminster Hospital Medical School, Birmingham School, Webb Street School, Sydenham College, Aldersgate School, St. Thomas's Medical School and University of Edinburgh (v. Minutes of the Senate, 17th July, 1839). depart considerably from the intentions of its founders who had loyally accepted in University College a position less comprehensive than they had originally sought, confining themselves to teaching and the promotion of learning, content to leave to others the conferring of degrees. The affiliation between the University and its associated schools was, more- over, most imperfect, no mutual representation on the govern- ing bodies existed, nor could exist by the conditions of their foundation, and such an arrangement is almost an essential to the idea of affiliation. For twenty years until 1858 did this system continue, until it became clearly evident that the fundamental object aimed at by restricting the University examinations to the students of a few recognised places of instruction, viz., that the degree granted should be the evi- dence, not only of a successful examination test, but also some assurance of systematic training and education, was in great danger of complete failure. The standard and conditions of the training were very different at the several affiliated institu- tions, and offered in reality but an indifferent guarantee of sound education ; and what was more to the point the Senate of the University could exercise no control over the courses or methods of instruction, had no powers of visitation nor inspection, nor call in question the certificates granted by the schools to their students as a requisite for examination. The arrangement of afifiliated colleges in effect broke down ; but this is not to be taken as evidence of the inherent impos- sibility or undesirability of such a plan, but rather of the extremely imperfect and unsatisfactory way in which that particular attempt was carried out. From these defects in the working of a teaching University scheme, the degrees in medicine were in great measure exempt. Until 1854 these degrees conferred no licence to practise, and were in reality higher qualifications " only, but the holders of them were obliged to have complied with the conditions imposed by the licensing bodies, and in consequence they were actually in receipt of collegiate or academic training. Thus the degree did in their case imply systematic education as well as an examinational success. In 1858* the pretence that the University was in any sense other than a simple examining Board was given up, the charter was revoked and a new one granted, in which all restrictions as to place of education were abolished, except in the case of Medicine, and the doors to a degree in Arts and Laws were thrown open to all who could satisfy the University examiners, irrespective of how or where they obtained their knowledge. Even in respect to the subjects comprised within the Faculty of Medicine the regulations were less exacting than those imposed by the Royal College of Surgeons or the Apothe- caries' Hall, which were and so remained for many years the licensing bodies from which the greater number of London medical students obtained qualifications to practise. The same year it may be noted witnessed the establishment of the General Medical Council. The new charter further introduced another element into the constitution of the University, and one destined in after years to exercise a very considerable influence on the conduct of the institution. Hitherto the body corporate of the University had consisted solely of the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Fellows or members of the Senate ; professors, teachers, graduates and students had no part nor lot therein. Now for the first time after a recital of the names of Chancellor and Fellows the charter (clause 3) proceeded to include as a part of the " body politic and corporate " the existing Doctors and Bachelors of Laws and Medicine, and Masters and Bachelors of Arts and all those on whom these degrees might hereafter be conferred. It was further ordained (clause 15) that all Doctors of Law and of Medicine and Masters of Arts, all Bachelors of Law and of Medicine of two years' standing and Bachelors of Arts of three years' standing should constitute " the Convocation of the" The condition of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum has attracted a good deal of attention ever since the melancholy death of one of its inmates by fire, in January, 1862, and the report of the Royal Commissioners of the Patriotic Fund and some short debates in Parliament within the last few days give us sufficient information on the subject. l ' Asylum, intended for the reception of the orphau girls having a claim on the Patriotic Fund, 47s3 built and endowved by a grant from the Royal eonlmissiozzers of 203,278i., and ras opened on the ast of July, 1859. It was under the control of the :Executive Committee of the Royal Commis3ioners, nucd it3 management was intrusted to a, chaplain and a lady superintendent. The whole control, however, seems to have practieally rested in Caotain FisuurNo E, Secretary of the Patriotic Fund and a paid member of thea Executive Committee. Nothing particular seems to have been,oiiovan of it, even by the Executive Committee, tiutil the death of the girl BEsN =, by firec vwhlle under solitary confinement, in January, 1862. That event, however, and the circumstances attending it, as disclosed at the inquest, alarmed, as well they might, the Executive Committee; and a few days after a committee of 13 lad:es w-as appointed to visit the institution snd report on the condition of the children. .2hese ladies commenced their labours at once, and their first visit seams to have revealed the most startling mismanagerment. At all events, at their second monthly meeting, they reported a set of resolutions to the Execultive Committee, vwhich formed the ground of a11 the subsequent complaints. They represented that solitary confinement was practised as a punishment to an extent they could not approve; that the Lady Superintendent and Senior Mlistress were often absent together; that a system of petty theft hiad grown up in the institution; that some of the girls had been alloNved to go out; without proper attendance; that corporal pimishment 'had been inuflicted on a gzrl of nearly 16 by direction of the Chaplain; and that other irregalaritics of the same sort had been coustantly committed. A fes days after the meeting at which these resolutions were adopted a portion of the Committee-eight out of thirteen-addressed a letter to the Executive Committee, requesting the removal of tlhe Lady Superintendent and the Chaplain. We must confess that, if they were fsatisfied of the truth of their remarks, they could hardly have acted otherwise. Tney felt " that the "Chaplain had assumed powers not authorized,'bytheExecutive Committee ," that "bispunish:ments had been severe and totally unsuit-,able and revolting, especially in a. girls' echool J' and that " the Lady Superintendent wra3 unequal to the control of such an establishment, as not possessing sufficient judgment of her own." The Executive Committee, ,wever, did not see fit to carry oat the recommendion, and, ia consequence, foar of the ladies rened at onca, and the functions of the Ladies' omrmittee, except so far as writing Minutes, in hich they continued very industrious, seem to ave almost ceased. Three others resignied on the fecision of the Execative Committee being ap groved by the Royal Commissioners. Three more ,ave since resigned from private reasons, and of the remaining threa, as was stated in the House ,of Commons on Thursday night by Sir Joa FaZGorr, two aro the wives of the honorary secretariesto the Patriotic Fund. The exception is very significant, for though Sir Jon,' PAsuaToe Imaintained the entire indeuendence of these ladies it,wil b di=cult to -imag"ine themi free froma a -very natural partiality.,We must own, in the first instance, to a sense of a tonch of absurdity in the whole business. There is such hopeless confusion from one end of the a;Eair to tho other. The Chaplain producing "-the "small book' of punishments which ho kept "for "his own satisfaction;' the Lady Superintendent herself inflicting corporaIl punishment on a girl of nearly 16, because no one else in the institution would do it; the Honorary Secretary ordering a girl up to London to be mesmerized because she had fainted; the same individual, as it seems, getting up a sort of miniature reviva, "among the girls,"-these things combine to ma'ke up a picture of almost extravagant anarchy. At first, too, the Ladies' Committee only heightens the scene of confusion. lIt appears in a state of chronic resignation. It disintegrates in large fragmenta; first four, then threo, then one, and another, and another drop ofr, and leave things to take care of themselves. It keeps up a perpetual fire Yith the Executive Committee, and we certainly do not envy the Chaplain and Lady Superintendent under the coustant visitation of these justly indigmant ladies. Nothing seems to have combined,-nothing but a repulsive forcea appears to have acted upontheconstituent parts of this body. Addlto this that everybody threw theblame Ion somebody else. The fault of the Lady Super-,intendent is said to have been that she allowed herself to be gaided, against her bettor judgment, by the Chaplain. The Chaplain acted under the authority of Captain Fr:suBousin, or, in the sarcastic language of theLadies' Minute, "under,"the orders of the gentleman to whom alone he i "seems to have considered hiimself responsible." Captain FMsEEBoNiq is invisible in the report; we suppose hi3 personality and authority are merged in tho official gloom of the Executive Committee. Lastly, to complete this chaotic confusion, many of the members of the Ladies' Committee were the wives or near relations of members of the Executive Committee or of the Royal Commissioners, and, as the two Committees were perpetually at variance, imagination is led on to picture a series of domestic complications of opinion. Fact, it is said, is stranger than Fiction. We certainly think- this passes any imaginary "Comedy of Errors.",If this were a private institution, we should have nothing more bo say on the subject. We should wish the Executive Committee more decision, the Ladies' Committee, periaps, a little more patience; the Chaplain and Lady Superintendent more common sense, and we should hope for their own sakes that they would masage things better, and so we should leave them. But we need not say this is a public concern. Every one is more or less interested in the right employment of the munificent donations to the Patriotic Fund, and though Lord flAnRrNGToN may have been technically right in declining to have anything to do with the matter, it is a subject which deserved to occupy the attention of Parliament. The state of the institution certainly demanded public animadversion. It would be difficult to imagine more gross mismanagement than is implied in the facts we have stated. Any private institution would have sunk auder it iTretrievably. It was wrong from tho beginning. The Lady Superiatendent was said by Sir Joux PARINGTON to be " the daughter of a very distin" guiished naval officer," not unacquainted, we presume, with the use of the cat, " and a lady of the "highest character," and the Chaplain to, be " a "most highly respectable clergyman of the Church "Cof England." lBut the Committea admit, in their correspondence with the ladies, "a want "of previous experience on the part of both "those officers," and if such a want was not considered fatal to their election, it ought to have induced the most careful supervision. Yet for nearly three years-that is, from July, l859,toMay, 1862-the schools were carried on, as the Execu. tive Committee state in their fiual resolution, " in " the absence of regular supervision, excepting that "of the seniorhonorary secretaryof the Royal Com"mission." So far as one can make out, in short, the Superintendent and the Chaplain seem to have had no idea 'whatever of managing girls, and to have shown little capacity for learning. Yet they were left entirely to themselves, and only the horrible death of a girl tnder solitary confinement routsed the slumbering Committee. Lastly, when in despair, the Ladies' Committee was appointed, there seems to have been no clear understanding of the extent of their duties or their powers. Everybody, of course, had the best intentions. Tha correspondence laid before Parliament is full of mutual complitnents. We must except the letters of the ladies, who write with a charming and uncompromising directness, and with a delightful disregard of official forms. But the ladies have common sense on their side when they protest against the interests of so great an institution being intrusted to nothingbut goodintentions. It is, however, the peculiar misfortune of all such public endowments to be administered with nothing,betterthan this barren and useless quality. Inprivate institutions men are quickly reminded if they neglect their duties, or are unable to crry them on. But public institutions are not dependent on private exertions, and, as in this case seems to have been the fact, they become the scene of a number of 'well-intentioned hobbies. Mr. Gr.DsTozn preached an excellent sermon the other day on the text, " Cliarity covereth a multi" tudo of sins." The trath of his interpretation is evident from the consideration of such cases as this. In the affairs of the world, however, the words are too often true in another sense, and abuses in charitable institutions are left covered up which ought to be exposed and remediea at once. In this case the Executive Committee have attempted a remedy iD the shape of a set of new rules. We hope there will be no need for any sharper measures, and that, with the help of the new Committee of Ladies, the institution will soon deserve its magnificent title of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum. "House of Commons, Thursday, June 11 [bottom left] THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM". Mr. W. E. FORSTER asked the right hon. baronet the member for Droitwich whether, of the six ladies who were left on tho ladies' committee of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum, after the resignation of the majority, one was the wife of th chaplain of the asylum, two were the wives of the two secretaries of the Patriotic Fund, one I3 at present m Canada, and a fifth had been prevented by illness in her family from ever attending j and alto whether any,h f g y d r e s d ladieshadbeen added to the committee, and. if o, wben and now many. ? Sir J. PAKINGTON said thst as the question had been put.tahirahe would reply to it; but as his right hon. friend the member for Tyrone had succeeded Lord Colchester as chairman of the committee such inquiries would in future be more properly addressed to him. The ladies* committee originally consisted of 13 members, of whom 7 resigned, leaving upon the committee 6-viz., Lady Sarah Lindsay, the Hon. Mrs. Wellesley, Mrs. Lefroy, Mr. Fishbourne, Mrs. Morrison, and Mrs. Korby. These six ladies had regularly visited the establishment from the disruption nntilthe present time. To five of them the hon. gentle. man's question had reference. Lady Lindsay had lately gone to Canada with General Lindsay, who had been appointed to the command of the Guards, and whose efficient services as a Royal commissioner and a member of 'the committee had therefore been lost to the institution. Mrs. Kirby was the wife of the chaplain, had not been in the habit of attending, and had now resigned. Mrs. Morrison was the lady who had been prevented, by illness'in her family, from attending ; that impediment stffl existed and she too had resigned. The two ladies referred to a tbo wives of the bonorary secretaries were Mrs. Fishbourne and Mrs. Lefroy, who were still members of the committee and lady visitors. Tho inference intended to be suggested by the question, he presumed; was that they wore not independent. Tho experience of tho asylum had, however, shown that husbands and wives were not, of necessity, of the same opinion (alaugh),withregardtothedetailsof school management nymore than withregard to ny other matter. He therefore earnestly hoped that they shonld retain the emce of these two ladies, of whose independence of action ho had no doubt. As, although the visitations had continued no-to-the present time, there was too small a number for the committee, he had great pleasure in informinr; thehon._ gentleman that on Tuesday last the Hon. Mrs. Lloyd Lindsay, Lady Pollock, Mrs. Jenkinson, tha wife of the-rectorofBattersea and sister of the right hon. baronet the Home Secretary, and Mrs. Lawrence, the wife of bir John Lawrence, had been apoointed and bad consented to act npon the committee. "The number of lady visitors thus rose to seven, hut as the executive committee were of opinion that even that number was rather l ??' wa3 frteoded to increase it to nine. Lady Radstock had consented to become a visitor, and Lady Havelock had been applied to. He hoped that she would consent, butif she did not, some other lady would be asked to ioin the committee. Under-Secretary for the Colonies whether the G" ROYAL VICTORIA. PATRIOTIC ASYLUMr.,rr. TORRES asked Colonel Wfilson Patten SWhether there were any vacancies in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum atWanedswvorth; i f so, what number; and, further, would he state whether it was the rule or intention to fill up any vacancies in the asylum solely iith children of soldiers who died in the Crimea, to the exclusion of the children T those whoR having served in the Crimea, had snce died on service witn their regiments in India or elsewhere.,Colonel g ATTENsaid that theinumber of voacl cies in the Royal Patriotic Asylum at Wandsworth lams 37. Those vacancies had been caused by tho necessity to provide temporary accommodation for an hoapital, but they would be gradually filled up, and he belheved that within a short time the number would ho increased toS300. In reply to the second question, he begged to state that the institution was intended to provide for the education of the children of soldiers who were either kiled or wounded, or died from disease contracted in the Crimea. The Royal Commissioners deemed that those children had a first clain upon the institution. But it wasunder consideration whether when all those caims weremet, they should not regard the claims of the children of soldiers who had served in the Crimea, and since met with calamity in other parts of the world. Of course in time wll these claims would bo complied with, and then the institution would he apnlied to the education of the childrenof soldiers gene-,House., The case of the girl Bennett On the question that the speaker leave the chair to go into committee of supply, Mr J.A. Smith said he rose to ask the question of which he had given notice, and which he postponed on Thursday, believing it to be the wish of the right hon baronet the member for Droitwich that he should do so. The Royal commissioners appointed by Royal " "DNB [BNA: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Anstie,_Francis_Edmund ANSTIE, FRANCIS EDMUND (1833-1874), physician, was born at Devizes, Wiltshire, 11 Dec. 1833, the son of Mr. Paul Anstie, a manufacturer belonging to a family long notable for their attachment to liberal principles. He was educated at a private school till the age of sixteen, when he was apprenticed to his cousin, Mr. Thomas Anstie, a medical practitioner, with whom he remained three years. In 1853 he entered the medical department of King's College, London, where his teachers were Sir William Fergusson, Mr. Bowman, and especially Dr. R. B. Todd, whose doctrines and practice produced a permanent impression upon Anstie's mind. He became M.R.C.S. and L.S.A. in 1856, was M.B. London in 1857, M.D. 1859. He was admitted a member of the College of Physicians in 1859, fellow 1865. In 1860 he was elected assistant physician to the Westminster Hospital, but did not become full physician till 1873. He was lecturer at that school, first on forensic medicine, afterwards for many years on materia medica, and for a short time on medicine. In 1862 Anstie married a daughter of Mr. Wass of Cromford, Derbyshire, whom he left a widow with a son and two daughters. On his first entrance into professional life Anstie was occupied in administering chloroform for the operations of Sir William Fergusson; but he soon went into practice as a physician, and became very fully occupied in hospital work and in journalism, being for some years a member of the editorial staff of the 'Lancet;' while in the last few years of his life he was beginning to get a good consulting practice. Dr. Anstie's life was cut short by an illness contracted in the course of a sanitary inspection. Some strange cases of fatal disease having occurred in the schools of the Patriotic Fund at Wandsworth, Anstie was called in to make an inspection of the buildings and investigate the causes of the epidemic. In making a post-mortem examination he received a slight wound, from the effects of which he died on 12 Sept. 1874. The sudden death of a man so full of energy and promise by a wound received in the discharge of duty caused an acute and painful sensation throughout his own profession and the public. Shortly afterwards a large number of his personal friends and others raised a memorial fund in his honour, which was applied for the benefit of his family. Dr. Anstie was a skilful physician, an eager investigator, and a vigorous writer. Literary work connected with medicine, in addition to regular journalism, occupied much of his energy during his whole professional life. His activity was mainly directed in three lines -in the advancement of therapeutics, in questions of public health, and in the study of nervous diseases. In therapeutics he began with investigating the action of alcohol on the body in health and disease; and in this he was a pupil of Dr. R. B. Todd, one of whose leading principles was the use of stimulants in medicine. After writing scientific and popular papers on the subject (in the 'London Medical Review,' 1862, and the 'Cornhill Magazine' respectively), Anstie brought out in 1864 his important work on 'Stimulants and Narcotics,' containing the result of experiments, observations, and literary research, and these subjects continued to occupy his attention till the last year of his life. In 1868 he became joint-editor (and in the next year sole editor) of the 'Practitioner,' a new journal intended to advance the scientific study of therapeutics. The special character and importance of this journal, which has done much to invigorate the study of therapeutics in this country, were of Anstie's creation. In questions of public health Anstie was warmly interested; and he took an important part in initiating two important public reforms. In 1864 certain scandals connected with the administration of the poor-law infirmaries attracted public attention, and induced the proprietors of the 'Lancet' to appoint a commission, consisting of Dr. Anstie, Mr. Ernest Hart, and Dr. Carr, to report on the subject. Anstie took the largest part in examining the London infirmaries, and wrote the report which appeared in the 'Lancet' 1 July 1865. Others followed, and one on the state of Farnham workhouse, published in 1867, led to an inquiry by the Poor Law Board, which justified the report of the 'Lancet' commissioners. These inquiries may justly be regarded as the starting-point of the movement of reform which has of late years greatly improved the system of poor-law medical relief. In 1874 Anstie brought before the College of Physicians a motion that the college should petition the prime minister to provide some remedy for the injurious overcrowding of the poor in London, which the introduction of certain railways and improvements had lately aggravated. The petition, being adopted and sent in, was largely influential in inducing the then home secretary, Mr. Cross, to bring in a bill in parliament which became law as an 'Act for facilitating the Improvement of the Dwellings of the Working Classes in large Towns. In this momentous question, the solution of which has not yet been found, Anstie deserves honourable mention as a pioneer. On diseases of the nervous system Anstie wrote several memoirs, and finally a book on 'Neuralgia and the Diseases which resemble it,' London, 1871, on which his friends would be inclined to rest his reputation. He also contributed an article on the same subject to Reynolds's 'System of Medicine.' The views which he expounded in both works were to a large extent original, and doubtless open to criticism; but many of his observations are of permanent value. In 1867 he gave two lectures at the College of Physicians on the sphygmograph. There can be no doubt, however, that the completeness of his scientific work was much interfered with by his multifarious occupations and the ceaseless literary activity which circumstances imposed upon him. Though finding little time for elaborate research, he was a zealous advocate of new and more accurate methods, and did much not only to make known the results of investigation, but to stimulate and sustain the scientific movement in medicine. At the time of his death Anstie's reputation was rapidly growing, and was as great in America as at home. It is no secret that brilliant offfers were made to induce him to accept a professorship and hospital appointment in that country, which family reasons, among others, induced him to decline. In 1874 he took part in the foundation of the Medical School for Women, and acted with great energy as the first dean of the school. Anstie was a man of singularly attractive character. He was warmhearted and generous, a firm friend and an honourable opponent. Though as a reformer he was often engaged in controversy, he gained the regard of the best among his antagonists; one of whom wrote after his death: 'It was impossible to mistake the ardour of the man, or to doubt the complete and very unusual disinterestedness with which he threw himself into all his work.' Besides the works mentioned above, he wrote a very large number of papers and articles, some signed, some anonymous. Among the former were: 1. 'Lectures on Diseases of the Nervous System ' (Lancet, 1872-73). 2. Articles in Reynolds's 'System of Medicine,' vol. ii. 1868: Alcoholism, Neuralgia, and Hypochondriasis the latter jointly with Sir William Gull; ibid. vol. iii. 1871: 'Pleurisy, Pleurodynia, Hydrothorax, Pneumothorax, and Hepatalgia.' 4. 'On the Hereditary Connection between certain Nervous Diseases' (Journal of Mental Science, Jan. 1872). 5. 'Notes on Epidemics, for the use of the Public,' 1866. Several medical papers in the Practitioner. [Memoir by Dr. Buzzard (his brother-in-law), Practitioner, Jan. 1876; Lancet, 19 Sept. 1874.]" "LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE The E.J. Boys Archive Added 6.8.2013. ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS Wandsworth, London IN PROGRESS — NOT PUBLISHED Engraving of Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Boys, Wandsworth. Click to enlarge. RVPA Boys [Tower removed (after a fire?) date?] (Click on image to enlarge) i. The Royal Patriotic Fund ii. The Building of the School iii. Hopes and Setbacks iv. The Critical Years v. The North Surrey Schools District Board vi. The Newcomer from Westminster PB: several links with the Crimea . . . the first (and very durable) school "Sergeant" was a Crimea vet — the Schoolkeeper is still called the Sergeant [Serjeant?]. See article in Emanuel Archive. BVS mentions a Crimea medal?] [PB, 5.9.2019: I forgot I'd done this already, so re-scanned and re-ocrd it.] THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS (18721882) (i) The Royal Patriotic Fund In 1854, when war broke out with Russia, a national appeal was made for funds for the relief of dependants of soldiers, sailors and marines 'who might be killed or might die on active service ' during the campaign in the Crimea. The response from the public was magnificent; money poured in from all parts of the world, and the. final total amounted to 1,471,375. Royal Commissioners were appointed to administer this Patriotic Fund, and Prince Albert became their first President*. Contributions were made towards the endowment of a number of schools, including Wellington College and the Royal Naval Female School (now the Royal School for Naval and Marine Officers' Daughters, Haslemere), but in addition to securing places for war orphans at existing schools the Commissioners decided to found and administer two schools of their own. These schools were subsequently built and were named the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylums. Land was purchased from Lord Spencer for 3,700 on 24th June, 1857, The fifty-two acres were described as 'waste land'. 14 On 11th July of the same year Queen Victoria laid the first stone of the Girls' School, which was completed, except for the infirmary, on 1st July, 1859: The projected Boys' School was not built yet, but the sum of 25,000 was set aside to accumulate for its endowment. It was originally intended that one hundred boys should be maintained and educated. By the end of 1870, however, the sum invested had reached the figure of 46,300 (most of it East India Debenture Loan), and it was in that year recommended to the Royal Commissioners by their Executive and Finance Committee that the new school should be designed to accommodate two hundred boys. This recommendation was accepted, partly on the grounds that much the same staff would suffice for two hundred boys as for one hundred (alas for schoolmasters!), and in the following year work was begun on the building that now houses Emanuel School. There had been some discussion concerning the site. In 1868 the Executive and Finance Committee had made enquiries concerning a house called 'Fernside' near Balham Station, but they had decided after investigation not to recommend the purchase of the lease for the purpose of adapting the premises. Nor had they proceeded with the project of purchasing a house and land at Sheen. At the meeting of the Royal Commissioners held at the Palace of Westminster on 23rd July, 1870, General Eyre's proposal that the new school should be built on the land belonging to the Girls' School had been countered by Sir John Pakington, who reminded his audience of 'the unfortunate circumstances which attended the Greenwich School for Girls from its proximity to the Boys' School'. (This piquant entry in the minutes is not further elaborated.) In the end it was decided that ' provided proper precautions were taken' there was no serious objection to building on the ground adjacent to the Girls' School, and Earl Grey's motion was carried unanimously that the Executive and Finance Committee should be empowered to make arrangements for building a school on the Royal Commissioners' land at Wandsworth. (to be continued) B.V.S. * The Royal Commissioners were replaced in 1903 by the Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation, to the officers of which the writer owes a debt of gratitude for their courtesy in granting access to their records. 15 THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS (1872-1882) (ii) The Building of the School The Executive and Finance Committee. after consulting the Lady Superintendent of the Girls' School and the Superintendent and Headmaster of the temporary Boys' School, decided to build a wall from the South-Western Railway to the London, Brighton. and South Coast Railway and to erect the new school on the ground so enclosed, thus giving the boys about 12 acres of the 52 purchased from Lord Spencer in 1857. Five architects were chosen to send in plans and designs, and after a close scrutiny those of Henry Saxon Snell were approved. Advertisement was made for builders' tenders, a limited selection of five being made from the applicants. The highest tender was 22.345; the lowest (20.326) was accepted. and Mr. John T. Chappell contracted on 12th April 14 1871 to complete the work of constructing the main building, infirmary, boundary wall, and closets, etc., within eighteen months 'under a penalty.' It was decided that there should be no public ceremony, as in the case of the Girls' School, to mark the laying of the first stone. In their Eleventh Report, dated 21st June 1872, the Royal Commissioners informed Her Majesty that the building operations had been carried on 'with considerable energy', and that the whole of the building, except for the Chapel. had been roofed in before Christmas 1871. They added that the internal finishing had progressed satisfactorily. and were confident that the whole school would be ready for occupation in September. The heating apparatus had been in daily use since 27th May 1872 to ensure that the walls would be thoroughly dry. The roads and playground were being laid out. . It had been thought originally that the boys might attend services in the chapel of the Girls' School. but it was ultimately decided to provide them with a new chapel of their own by building over the dining-hall. The Royal Commissioners were informed that the cost (including internal fittings) would not exceed 800. Mr. Chappell was as good as his word. The building was occupied in October 1872, and the Royal Commissioners comment in their Twelfth Report that it is 'admirably adapted for its purpose." This opinion was confirmed later by the Chief Inspector of the Local Government Board. who in his report on the two Asylums, dated 20th October 1874, on the occasion of an investigation into the sanitary conditions at both schools after an epidemic among the girls caused by the drinking of contaminated water, remarks that 'the buildings seem to me to be well placed and admirably planned, and, excepting some slight defects in detail . . . may be said to possess most of the arrangements necessary to secure comfort and health to the inmates. They are. in my opinion, a credit to the professional gentleman who designed them.' The total cost, including the architect's fee and the salary of the clerk of works, was 32,682 1s. 2d. The larger Girls' School had cost more than double this amount (71,818 7s. 7d.). The cost of the new building was met out of the General Fund. and the endowment fund for the boys was allowed to continue to accumulate. Furthermore, to prevent the new school's being burdened with an annual payment the Executive and Finance Committee had in 1871 redeemed for 714 lis. 6d. the Land Tax of the whole of the ground belonging to the Royal Commissioners at Wandsworth. But in spite of all the wise provision of thoughtful and careful men, the Boys' School was destined to encounter many difficulties in its short span of life. (to be continued) B. V.S. 15 THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS (1872-1882) (ui) Hopes and Setbacks The School was occupied in October 1872, and at the end of the year the number of boys stood at 224. Prudent arrangements had been made for the future economy of the Asylum. The farm and garden were to supply vegetables; and it was intended that the girls should wash for the boys and the boys bake for the girls. The Secretary, appointed to manage both Asylums, took over the house of the Chaplain, who removed outside the grounds. The new school started well. A band was formed and encouraged the Royal Commissioners in the hope that a number of boys would go into the regimental bands after leaving school. The Revd. A. R. Grant inspected the two Asylums in May, 1873, and reported that in the Upper Division of the Boys' School the reading was 'extremely good ', though in writing from dictation there was a falling-off after the First Class, and the standard of grammar was only 'very fair'. He remarked on the latter: ' I should like to see this made more a practical subject, and divested of technicality '. He concluded his report: ' Altogether the school is highly efficient, the boys evidently working with a will, and interested in what they oO'. In his report of the following year there was a sharper note. He observed 'a decided falling-off in the elementary subjects' in the Upper School, but thought this was partly due to the great influx of new boys and to shortage of teaching staff. (In most of the classes there were over forty boys.) In 1875 fresh troubles were encountered. Not only were there many cases of contagious ophthalmia, that terrible scourge of the metropolitan pauper schools, but the Superintendent and Head master, Mr. Hullah, suffered a severe haemorrhage and was forced to retire on an allowance. His wife, too, was at this time incapacitated. by paralysis. However, the School won a better report this year from the Revd. Grant, who considered that it was now in a 'settled state of efficiency'. He was particularly pleased with the standard of reading. In the First Class the examination was on the account of the wreck of the Schiller in The Times of the same morning, and no mistake was made, except in the German names, ' which, of course, I did not count'. Were the boys well looked after? Probably yes, by the standards of the time. An extra blanket was allowed in severe weather to those boys who asked for it. The Chief Inspector to 18 the Local Government Board noted in October, 1874, that there was an abundance of warm water, carbolic soap and clean towels, 'the results being healthy, clean-skinned looking children'. Each boy had his own comb, hair and toothbrush. 'Lard and red precipitate ' were applied assiduously as a precaution against scald head. A few years later the boys were even provided with an additional room in the infirmary where they could have their chilblains dressed in the winter. There were warm baths as well as a swimming-bath. Were the boys happy? That, alas, we shall never know beyond a peradventure. The proximity of the Girls' School on occasions encouraged the bolder spirits to make assignations. doubtless innocent, with the gentler sex, and we may hazard the guess that the inmates of the Asylum were sometimes lonely. Mr. Hullah was succeeded as Superintendent by Mr. William Ridpath, formerly First Assistant Master. The clouds now began to settle round the Asylum. BYVS. (to be continued) THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS (1872-1882) (iv) The Critical Years During the year 1876 Canon Grant made two inspections of the Asylum. In May he noted an improvement .in Grammar; but in his second report he remarked that the teaching, though ' animated and intelligent ', was in some danger of being. too discursive. 'The aim and object of teaching the class may sometimes be sacrificed in this way to the interest and pleasure of an intellectual exercise on the part of the teacher'. This shrewd and pertinent observation was accompanied by a sharp criticism of the distribution of the teaching staff between the Upper and the Lower School. ' During the time of my visit, the School being at work, by my desire, as usual, that Imight see its ordinary course, I could not find that Mr. Brand did anything at all; being not, in fact, required in the Upper School'. Worse was to come. The inspection of 1877 revealed a further falling off in academic standards, class organisation and the attentiveness of the boys during lessons. The Revd. Grant did not mince his words. 'On the whole, the School is below what it ought to be, considering its advantages'. In the same year the Chaplain to the two Asylums, the Revd. John Kyle, was dismissed for embezzling offertory money. The report of the next year brought matters to a head. The persistent Revd. Grant stated flatly that the standard of teaching had 'deteriorated materially', that the pupil-teachers had suffered from a succession of incompetent masters, and that the School was failing. He made one concession: the halftime system had cur tailed the time spent in the classroom. The Headmaster was alarmed, and decided to anticipate the inevitable inquiry. On 17th June he wrote to W. H. Mugford. the Secretary to the Royal Commissioners and the Executive and Finance Committee, expressing ' great regret and surprise' at the report. He referred to the difficulties caused by the changes of assistant masters during the previous eighteen months and to the absence of one for two months with a bad leg. He had always endeavoured to obtain the best masters; the last three men had been strongly recommended. Mr. Ridpath also thought that a strict adherence to the halftime system had been largely responsible for the poor results. The storm passed, but its effects were lasting. And now another matter occupied the minds of the Royal Commissioners: the steady decline in the numbers of the boys. During 1874 the average number had been 316; at the end of 1879 there were only 144. As this reduction added to the proportionate cost of maintaining [23] the boys, it was proposed that admission should. be extended to include orphans of other soldiers, seamen and marines * who have lost, or hereafter lose, their lives in the service of the Crown. or by, or in consequence of, casualties sustained or disease contracted in the service of the Crown; regard being had to the character and services. of the father'. But it was now too late to save the Asylum. The indefatigable Revd. Grant, made his last inspection on 6th and 7th May, 1879. His report was critical, but not severely so. On 1st January, 1880, both Asylums were placed under the Committee of the Privy Council for Education, and the services of the Canon were no longer needed. | The boys were probably little affected during these years by the larger problems of the Asylum. Vivid glimpses of their life are given us in the Minute Book of the House Committee. The dietary scale is frequently mentioned; and the Medical Officer states his opinion in May, 1880, that its inadequacy is responsible for the 28 cases of scaldhead. As a result, the Committee resolve that boys over fourteen be given 8 ozs. of bread for breakfast and 8 ozs. at tea. In November, 1879, the ' Bijou Musical and Dramatic Company' offer to give an Entertainment. The Committee, however, gravely observe that 'considering the general character of Dramatic Entertainments of a humorous nature, and the difficulty of making a selection suitable for a mixed audience of Boys and Girls of the ages in these Schools, [we] deem it prudent to decline this offer with thanks '. One incident particularly disturbed the Committee. On the evening of Tuesday, 19th September, 1876 ('between a quarter to seven and ten minutes to eight o'clock') five girls were on the Boys' School ground talking to the boys. They were admitted through the windows by two of the young servants, Janet Bradford and Mary Jane Vickers. 'George S. Cray wrote the note to the girls; Michael Delohery and George Ward were the channels of communication'. The servants were sentenced to be dismissed, the girls to be sent home to their mothers. The boys who conveyed the notes were caned before the whole school. There are occasional hints of excessive harshness. Mr. Ridpath was accused by a discharged kitchen-maid of severely punishing two boys on a Sunday evening; and he was cautioned at least twice by the Committee. But brutality does not appear to have been tolerated: in 1878 a master was dismissed for ill-treating a boy. After leaving the Asylum, the boys entered different walks of life. An analysis of the various occupations pursued by boys who had left between 1873 and 1878 revealed that 89 were employed in Government service (including 29 sailors or marines and 34 [24] soldiers) and 181 in other trades or professions (including 30 'schoolmasters or pupil teachers, clerks or writers'). But the roll of Old Boys was not destined to be a long one. : (The subject of the concluding article will be the negotiations leading to the sale of the Asylum to the Governors of the United Westminster (Endowed) Schools.) B.V.S. THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS (1872-1882) (v) The North Surrey School District Board In their Report of 1881 the Royal Commissioners informed Queen Victoria that the plan to complete the full endowment of the School to a total capacity of 200 boys would have to be abandoned if the other projects of the Fund were not to be thrown overboard. They advised the appropriation from the Boys' School endowment fund, standing at 69,000, of a sum of 35,855 to provide for the education of Roman Catholic orphans. This would leave the School with an endowment of 33,145, or an income of about 1,200 per annum, ' which would be available for the maintenance and education of orphan boys, so soon as the boys at present in the school have been properly provided for'. The Royal Commissioners went on to declare that the sum chargeable for rates, taxes, and repairs was so large that it was impossible to run the School economically, even if a sufficient endowment for 100 boys could be obtained. The Executive and Finance Committee had therefore been directed to reduce expenditure with a view to closing the School before the end of the year. The Royal Commissioners add: 'Although all the Russian War children will have been provided for, and the future continuance of the School would be only for the benefit of the orphan boys of Your Majesty's Services who have no claims on the Patriotic Fund as originally formed, Your Majesty's Com missioners cannot conceal the regret they experience at the probability of being obliged to close the School'. The main cause of the difficulties was the large sums paid annually for expenses over and above the estimated liabilities for [15] the cost of boys on the Fund. The Asylum had been built for 200 boys and the aim had been to provide a sufficient endowment for their support, but unfortunately the average cost per boy had been 24 — 30 instead of the estimated 17 10s. 0d., and further more valuations had ignored the new boys continually coming on the books. An endowment of at least 129,000 was needed to support 200 boys; and to attempt to carry on the School with anything under that number would soon prove to be a most extravagant arrangement owing to the great additional cost per head. The Royal Commissioners therefore reluctantly recommended selling the School, unless some means could be found to increase the endowment or the School could be filled with paying pupils. Another suggestion was that the Government should take it over (Army children needed more school places than were available) or send 150 or 160 paying children to make up the numbers. But nothing came of these alternative proposals. The amending Act of Parliament enabling the Royal Com missioners to sell the School and to apply a part of its endowment to the education of Roman Catholic children received the Royal Assent on 22nd August, 1881. Negotiations for the sale had already been begun by the Executive and Finance Committee. On 27th July the Committee approved a memorandum of acceptance, with one or two modifications, of the offer of the ' Home for Little Boys'. On 10th November, however, the Secretary was directed to write to the Home expressing the regret of the Committee that in consequence of ' insuperable difficulties ' the negotiations had to be discontinued. The Committee then recommended to the Royal Commissioners that other offers should be invited for the purchase of the School, and advertisements were accordingly inserted in several newspapers (The Times, The Daily News, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Chronicle and The Standard). Finlaison, the Government Actuary, estimated the proceeds of the sale at 26,000. Notice was given that the use of the property was to be restricted to 'Charitable, Educational, or Public purposes', and that the Asylum would not be sold for use as a hospital for infectious diseases, nor the land for speculative building. Lord Chelmsford had unsuccessfully opposed these ' prohibitive stipulations '. As a result of the advertisement two offers were received, one of 20,000 from the Board of Management of the North Surrey School District (Anerley), the other of 22,000 from the Governors of the United Westminster (Endowed) Schools. (It is interesting to note that this was not the first time the Executive and Finance Committee had heard from the Governors. At their meeting on 13th April, 1881, a letter had been read 'stating that the Committee of that School [Emanuel Hospital] had decided on not 16 hiring temporary premises '.) It was resolved that a letter should be written to each of the Governing Bodies requesting them to reconsider their offers. The United Westminster Governors replied by offering 27,500. The North Surrey Board offered 27,000, and 'and, should that be less than any other offer, 500 more than any other Tender received, not exceeding 29,500'. After some discussion it was decided unanimously to recommend to the Royal Commissioners that the offer of the Board, considered as 28,000, should be accepted. (To be concluded) B.V.S. THE ROYAL VICTORIA PATRIOTIC ASYLUM FOR BOYS (18721882) . | (vi) The Newcomer from Westminster _ At their meeting on 9th February, 1882, the Royal Commissioners were considering the recommendation of the Executive and Finance Committee that the Asylum should be sold to the Board of Management of the North Surrey School District when a letter from the Governors of the United Westminster Schools was suddenly brought into the room. It was opened and found to contain an offer of 32,000. The Commissioners were embarrassed. The question was discussed whether they were debarred by the previous action of their Committee from considering this new and unexpected offer. They decided they were not. It was thereupon resolved to inform the North Surrey Board that an offer had been made ' considerably in excess of the sum of 30,000, and to enquire what was the highest bid the Board was prepared to make. The cautious Commissioners also decided to write to the United Westminster Governors asking if 32,000 was their maximum offer, and to advise them that a letter had been sent to the North Surrey Board informing the Board that a considerably higher offer than theirs had been received but not disclosing the amount of this offer. The advertisement for the sale of the Asylum was to be repeated in the newspapers and 16th February was fixed as the latest date for the final consideration of tenders. The proposal was unanimously adopted that the Executive and Finance Committee should be empowered to accept the highest offer; but if the offers were of equal 17 amount that of the Board of Management of the North Surrey School District should be accepted. At the meeting of the Committee on 16th February a letter from the North Surrey Board was read withdrawing from the negotiations, and after consideration it was resolved to accept the offer of the United Westminster Governors. The following draft of the letter to be written to the Governors was agreed upon: ' I am instructed by the Executive and Finance Committee to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this day's date, and I am to acquaint you that they are empowered by the Royal Commissioners to accept the offer contained in your letter of the 9th instant of 32,000 for the purchase of the Boys' School premises, together with the fittings and fixtures enumerated in your letter of the 16th of January, and the Executive Committee hereby acquaint you of their acceptance of that offer. *,.. The Committee are prepared to include such of the essential furniture and effects as would be suitable for the purposes of the Governors . . . (They) regret that there should have been any misconception with respect to the cost of the Building, but they have directed their Secretary to show to you the books in this office by which it will be seen that the stated cost of the Building of between 32,000 and 33,000 does not include the furniture: and further that that amount does not include the Land, the Cottages, the Gymnasium, and some other charges. They will be glad for you to make any extracts from the Books you think desirable . . . (and) request that the sanction of the Charity Commissioners may be obtained as speedily as possible.' On 2nd June the Royal Commissioners empowered the Chair man of the Executive and Finance Committee to sign the contract for the sale on their behalf. They further resolved to inform the Official Trustees of this authorisation and to request them to sign the contract deed, when prepared. The Commissioners agreed to promise the United Westminster Governors ' not to sell the land of the Girls' School between that School and the Boys' School boundary for speculative building purposes'. The sale did not, apparently include the boundary wall between the two institutions, which remained the property of the Royal Patriotic Fund. (The Girls' School retained the use of the 4in. waterpipe for a rental of 1/ per annum payable to the United Westminster Governors: Emanuel School obtained the 2in. pipe.) On 14th July it was reported to the Committee that arrangements had been made for the sale of the Asylum to be completed on the 26th, but on 1st August the legal documents were still not. ready. It was on 26th August that the conveyance deed was at last handed to the Solicitor to the Governors and cheques received in exchange for two separate amounts of 31,000 and 1,000, which were paid into the Bank of England. 18 Section 2 of the Patriotic Fund Act, 1881, had laid it down that the purchaser of the Boys' School should not ' inquire into the legality of the sale or into the application of the purchase money, or be responsible for the non-application or mis-application thereof '. We hear once more of the North Surrey School Board. In May, 1884, the Royal Commissioners were informed that applications had been received from the Board ' first for the purchase of a portion of the Land of the Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum (for Girls) and later for the purchase of the Asylum and land'. But the Executive and Finance Committee were against the sale of Asylum or land, and in this view the Commissioners concurred. During the last two years of its existence the Boys' School had been in a flourishing academic state. The Report of 1881 had stated that the School was in excellent discipline and had made a 'remarkably good' examination. The copybook writing in the lower standard was the only weak point to which attention was called. In the next year's Report, H.M. Inspector declared ' Both the discipline and the instruction reflect the greatest credit on the teachers '. But nothing now could save the Asylum. On 14th December, 1881, the boys were addressed in the dining-hall by the Chairman of the Committee, Earl Nelson, and a parting supper was authorised for them, 'with the amusement of a Magic Lantern'. A few months later, as we have seen, the Asylum had disappeared for ever, its place taken by a migrant from Westminster. B.V.S. [PB: From Emanuel School Archive. Six articles by BVS [Bernard Slater?]. Text needs tidying up, and pdfs of the 6 original articles need adding to the EJBA.] Emanuel School Archive [add info] BVS (Bernard Victor Slater), The Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Boys (1872-1882), first published in 6 parts in The Portcullis (Emanuel School magazine), dates?, pdf. Check also The History of Emanuel School, 1594-1964, by C. Wilfrid Scott-Giles and Bernard V Slater [1966?] Internal links Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Girls. External links Children's Homes (Peter Higginbotham): Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Boys, Wandsworth, London Children's Homes: RVPA, 1881 Census." South London Press — Saturday 7 September 1867 "JUMBLED? CHECK IF IT'S WORTH SORTING OUT Lady's Newspaper and Pictorial Times — Saturday 30 October 1852 FINE ARTS. TIES lONE 2Oll2ilberit 51111MP4122111% and condensation of moisture. The exterior is of bright metal, and the interior painted black to absorb the divergent rays of light. The greatest circumference is 13 feet, the widest portion of the tube being about 25 feet from the object glass. We must say a few w- to the f the instrument, and as "ue powers o, Poscitur mquoreo. Quam dura ad saxa revinciam Yin dicat Alcides." OVID. it has already been ascertained that as a measuring instrument, or We shall hope to see so charming a statuette in the new Crystal for penetrating space, its powers are unapproachable by all other in- Palace. A contemporary observes with reference to this ckssical struments. The lensts a re so p er f ec tl y ac h roma ti c that the planet and beautiful figure, that it is "by a young Irishman, who gives pro- S a t urn a pp ears o f m ilk-lik e w hi teness: and, as regar d s t hi s p l ane t, a mise of attaining the first eminence in that proud department of art good deal of scientific interest has Beet recently attached to it in con- to which he has devoted himself, sequence of the distinguished astronomer, Bond, of th, The fable of Hesione chained to a rock,,to be devoured by a sea- Cambridge observatory, Masc , ichiietts having stated that he monster, anti her subsequent release by Hercules, is familiar to all believed he saw a third ring — -- or belt rOtind the planet. Professor readers of the Heathen Mvthology. The figure tells the story in a simple. graceful, but most effective manner. Challis brought the Northitinberland telescope at Cambridge to bear Young Kirk is the third of the late Thomas Kirk, It ILA., upon it, but failed in discoVering it. Leid Rosse's gigantic telescope whose numerous works are scattered through every part of Ireland, was also employed, but in vain, and it became a matter of great inand several in England. The statue of the late Sir Sydney Smith, in terest to the astronomical world to ascertain whether there was a Greenwich Hospital, ordered by Parliament d ot i ng t h e administra- third ring or not, and this (ideation has been solved by the Craig tion of Sir Robert Peel, is a telling monument to his ability. The telescope, the third, of a clear brilliant giey Colour, having been discolossal statue of Nelson on the pillar in Sackville-street, Dublin, tinctly seen. This is owing to the great quantity of light which the executed when Kirk was a pupil in the schools of the Royal Dublin IWandsworth telescope brings to the eye of the observer from this Society, speaks also well for his fame." planet, giving a bright appearance to what, in an instrument of less An anecdote," the same writer observes, which has never yet would have been completely invisible. met the public eye, is most interesting. When the Right lion. John Power, Wilson Croker was in Ireland, he was not slow in finding out and en- Some idea of its powers may be formed from the fact that it mag"nraging the genius of Ki r k. He saw in his atelier a charming bust nifies the light of the moon 40,000 times. It is positively asserted of Atiatine," one of' the first original conceptions of the young that of a favourable evening, if there were a building or object of the sculptor, became the purchaser, and brought it to London. On one size df Westminster Abbey in the moon, the whole of its parts and occasion, having had the honour of entertaining Sir Robert Peel and proportions would be distinctly revealed. As soon as it is finally adothers of the cognoscenti, this bust, really charming from its aim- justed Mr. Craig proposes to direct the instrument to the planet plicity and beauty, attracted the attention of' all who were in the salon it was placed. The distingitiShed host was asked eagerly Venus, to examine it minutely, in the hope that he may be able to which where he got this " gem of antiquity." The reply was, "It is the settle the question whether she has a satellite or not. We need not production of art Irish stone-cutter." All were incredulous, until Mr. say what an advantage the solution of this fact would be t o science. Croker said, "Give me an order, and Iwill have as many as you like Like Lord Rosse's great reflector, the achromatic telescope on executed for fifty pounds each." Sir Robert Peel never lost sight of Wandsworth Common can only exert its marvellous powers when the the artist until he had obtained for him the commission.'' weather is calm as well as clear. The site upon which the telescope and its tower stands, and which PORTRAIT OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.Painted by is about a mile and a-half from the Clapham station of the South- R. Black, lithographed by G. B. Black. (Ackermann.) We cannot Western Railway, is of the extent of about two acres, and has been compliment the artist having in the present instance achieved a ' ted — so long as the teles- liberally grant. , free of rent, by En Spencer, The happy likenessolt6 great Dnie. Nevertheless, it is exceedingly cope is maintained there. T ground is . at present surrounded by a well executed as far as the lithographer is concerned. boarding, the building 4 its appurtenances being still in the hands STATUETTE OF FIELD-MARSHAL ARTHUR DUKE of Mr. Gravatt and his workmen. It is intended to erect a small WELLINGTON.Under this title, Mr. Walesby has called attention to house within the inclosnre for the use of the resident observer or asan equestrian statuette now exhibiting at his picture-gallery, 5, astronomer who may be placed in charge of the instrument ; but as the Waterloo-place. The model was made by the late Count d'Orsay. IThe r..- "f . arrangements are not yet completed, and the instrument ttseit not statuette is in bronze, and about sixteen inches in h ei g t. t is finally adjusted, no provision has been made to enable the public to mounted upon a pedestal of black marble, the base of which is surrounded with reposing lions and wreaths of laurel. The figure of ins p ect this last marvel of s c ien ce , which we hav e no doubt will soon the Duke is very nicely executed, and the horse is elegant in form, become one of the lions of the metrOpoli" spirited in action, with a gracefully-turned neck; the head is pressive of champing the bit with great energy, and the whole is handled with precision and artist-like squareness. Mr. \Valeta)) , shows the order, iu the Duk e 's handwriting, fur two casts of this sati sfactoryapprobation the -w7 [BNA: Link.] "STAR AGAIN HERE [BNA: Link. South London Chronicle — Saturday 25 March 1865 EARLIER BITS? The also discourses upon Wimbledon, and designates the tendency to diminution of common-area as " Short-Commons." " For us," writes the editor, " the vision of Wimbledon Common surrounded by miles of monotonous palisades, and laid out in trim parallelograms of level grass, intersected by the cleanest of gravel walla, is enough, be it only a vision, to arouse us from exploring the ' Origin of Species ' to protest against the ' Origin of Parks' and the absorption of ' the last of commons.' Not' the last of the commons,' and not closed to the public' are the pleas put against us. Are not Wandsworth Common and the Black Sea left ? Is there not a common at Barnes, or Esher, or Weybridge And if Hainualt is gone, and Epping is going, is not the New Forest left We are not politicians, so perhaps all this is it should be. It may right enough to give to. ' Labour' its Saturday half-holiday, that it may go out of town and enjoy itself, and hold converse with Nature face to face, and at the same time drive Nature far out of town, that half-day is too short to reach her domains LATER BITS? [BNA: Link.] "Northern Whig — Wednesday 3 September 1879 Perambdlatobs ox Pavements. The Rev. Mr. West, of Spencer Park, New Wandsworth, applied the Wandsworth Police Court, London, for a summons against a female servant for wilfully obstructing the footway with a perambulator. He stated that the girl placed the perambulator straight across the footpath and prevented anyone passing. Mr. Bridge said he would send a constable to caution her. Mr. West objected to that course, as the girl was thoroughly impudent, and had set him at defiance. It would do her good to be brought to the court. Mr. Bridge did not think so. would be better to see her mistress. If she did not take up the case he would grant the summons. Mr. West pressed for the summons. Mr. Bridge thought it was a bad thing to bring a young woman to the court, Mr. West was sorry to differ with the magistrate. In his opinion, it would do the young woman good. He had been turned off the footpath by two perambulators being propelled abreast. He had seen three abreast. On one occasion his wife was with him, and both were turned off into the road. Mr. Bridge instructed one of the officers of the court to call upon the girl's mistress and tell her what had occurred. Mr. West said be would not be satisfied wtth admonition. [BNA: Link.] Many more articles on this case [BNA: Link. South London Press — Saturday 5 July 1884 Some Battersea Place-Names. the .k the Alpine Bazaar, held on Monday in aid of the building fund of St. Luke's, Battersea, the Rev. Canon Clarke, vicar of Battersea, contributed the following interesting paper Names of the Neighbourhood ": Echoes of the history of a parish may oft"n be traced in th its . Battersea was fore rB loscly connected with the St. John family, may seen by ancient monuments in the parish church. Sir Walter St. John lived at the mansion the river-side, which is now the Training College for Schoolmasters. Lord Bolingbroke, the statesman and philosopher of Queen Anne's time, lived in a seventy-roomed mansion, close to the river and parish church, part of which still remains within the yard of the Flour Mill in Churchstreet, notably beautiful room panelled with cedar, in which tradition says that Pope wrotehis Essay on Man." There is a magnificent monument to Lord Bolingbroke in the north gallery of the parish church, with inscriptions written by bimsolf, and with medallion portraits Roubiliac. From this family arise many older names of the neighbourhood. Bolingbroke Grove, St. John's Hill, Falcon-lanethe falcon being the St. John crest, as may be seen in the arms of the Grammar School founded Sir Walter St. John. Bleisho, Bullon, and Beauchamp, new roads on Lavender Sweep, are names taken from the east window in the parish church, which gives heraldic glories of the St. John family. Bolinabroko Grove old parish maps is called Five Houscs-lane. Of the five there only remain Bolinghroke Housenow the Pay Hospitaland the mansion of the itev. J. P. Faunthorpo, formerly the residence of Miss Champion, who built the parochial schools. Of these live houses, the first which was demolished stood on the present site of St. Michael's Church. It was the home of the Ohalie and Hofer family. One of the daughters of the house is now the Countess Morelia hence, probably, the recent Murella-road. Mr. Gorst, M.P., owned for a few years the mansion which had been Miss Dent's hence the names of two other roads. The fifth of the five houses was a picturesque one, of which Mr. Charles Lambert was the last occupant and Sir Charles Forbes the owner, so that it shared the fate of the Broomwood property on his death. Broomwood or, as it used to be called, Broomfieldhas very special associations. In it lived William Pitt (hence Chatham-road) and William Wilberforce, the champion of the slave. Hero, too. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce was born, in 1805. The origin tbc house is thus stated in Mr. Cobjuhoun's Wilberforco and His Friends ": 1792 Henry Thornton (M.P. for Southwark) had to seek a home, and he persuaded Wilberforce to share it with him. He purchased Mr. Lubbock's house and grounds at Battersea Kiso, to which an extensive demesne was attached. Reserving to himself one house, which enlarged, he built two other houses on his donusno, one of which, the nearest, he let to Mr. Grant; the other, separated shrubberies which melted into each other, became, under the name of Broomfield, the residence first of Pitt's brother-in-law. this villa Pitt used to spend some his brief holidays, and in his intercourse with the two friends he planned the Thornton Library beautiful oval room, which is the drawing room of Mr. Henry Sykes Thornton's mansion Clapham Common. Broomfield was long ago noted for its nightingales. In 1801 Lord Muncaster, writing about Pitt, speaks of himself as enjoying the first greetings of summer and the voices of the nightingales at Broomfield so it is no wonder we have Xightingale-lane. It said that the naming of the roads on the Broomwood estate was left the solicitors to one of their clerks, and he, holding the kniglus of the wheel to the heroes of the age, called them after cyclists of renown. Of the origin of the names of the other roads between Wandsworth and Clapham Common we can leatn nothing. Spencer Park, Spencer-road, Althorp? Grove, Poyntz-road, honour to the present lord of the manor. Earl Spencer, K.G" who is risking his life as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. To the north of Clapham Junction, between Faloon-lane and Plough-lane, are some doleful streets called after the African explorers Livingstone, Speke, Grant, and Winstauley. [BNA: Link.] Vandalism in the Parks. LONDON takes a legitimate pride in its parks and open spaces, but the habit of fencing off certain portions of the common land is developing into a nuisance. Ibelieve I am right in saying that when the parks were taken over by the L.C.C. the Act of Parliament laid it down that no part of the land intended for the public was to be enclosed. To the annoyance of thousands of people in south-west London sections of the parks and commons have been fenced in to such an extent that it is only possible to walk on the footpaths. Wandsworth Common is one of the chief sufferers. Not only have large portions of the Common been fenced round, but the natural beauties have, been laid waste. Lovely gorse bushes have been destroyed and trees cut' down. Protests have been raised against this vandalism on the part of the L.C.C. [BNA: Link.] " target="_blank">Link,] 1925-11-12-Furze-destroyed-wc-flattened-and-fenced-DailyNews-12nov1925.jpg" "JCB and the Black Sea South London Press — Saturday 24 August 1867 Fifteen years he [JCB] could walk over any part of Wandsworth Common without let or hindrance; now, only a small portion of open Common space was left, and that he desired to preserve. He thought it a monstrous thing the enclosure of these Commons should go on without any right to do so being shown by the parties enclosing. He could recollect the time when they could walk round the Black Sea — (hear, hear) — and also when a gentleman [PB: presumably William Wilson] obtained permission of the Court Leet to enclose 10 acres on the north side of the Black Sea, on condition that the public should walk round it when they liked. Now that had fallen into desuetude, and he believed grand plans for building thereon had been sanctioned by the Board of Works, who had given no assistance in preserving the Common or its footpaths. South London Press — Saturday 19 March 1870: There were several pleasant and convenient footpaths. There was one round the Black Sea; that path has long since vanished into a private garden, and the sea itself is going. London Evening Standard — 14 April 1870
The next enclosure was against the "Black Sea," by the erection of a large house. At that time there was a path all round the Black Sea, and people were in the habit of using it. It was found that the garden of this house was not so private as the owner liked, so he complained of the nuisances which a large number of people constantly passing caused, and on the strength of this nuisance a large piece of the common was enclosed (shame)." Here's an interesting account of Wandsworth Common at the start of the 1860s — at the start of the agitation that saved the Common in 1871. THE METROPOLITAN COMMONS. London enjoys an advantage peculiar to itself, which if properly utilised might be made a genuine and valuable means of health and recreation to the three millions of inhabitants recorded in the last census returns as being included within the bills of mortality. We refer to the various large tracts of common land which surround it on every side, and which in consequence of the rapid construction of short lines of railway from the City and West-end are becoming more accessible every day, but which, as they are growing more valuable for the same reason, are threatened with universal enclosure, unless some means be taken to preserve them from the encroachments of building speculators, connived at by lords of the manor, who are every day tempted by large pecuniary offers to give up their own slender rights, forgetful that at the same time they are destroying the rights of the common people, to whom these commons, after all, really belong, and for whose benefit they might be made so many noble free parks and play-grounds. The persevering attempts of the lord of the manor to place buildings on Hampstead-heath are familiar to everyone who looks over the parliamentary debates. Year after year bills are brought in under one pretext or another, and it requires the utmost vigilance on the part of the inhabitants of the vicinity and of the metropolitan members to prevent the enclosure of one of the most charming bits of wild land that ever ornamented the outskirts of a great city. We can also remember the disclosures of last session respecting Hainault Forest, and the very bad figure which the crown, as the guardian of the public rights, cut in that transaction; but it is the same thing everywhere. "What's everybody's business is nobody's business." The short railways are opening up the commons to Londoners day by day, and no sooner does the little station crop up amid the wild heather than down the building speculators, matters are "made pleasant" with the lord of the manor, and the common rights of the millions of the two metropolitan counties are remorselessly destroyed. The commons begin very close to London. The first is Kennington, which up to no very recent period was wild enough. In the week days it was crowded with cricketers of all ages, and on Sundays with controversialists of every religions denomination. At night it was said to be the resort of bad characters — meaning, of course, persons who were without the means of paying for a night's lodging; and the old people of the neighbourhood could point to the earner close to the church, which within living memory had witnessed the execution of many noted highwaymen and footpads. In fact, great pains were taken to give Kennington-common a bad name, with the ulterior view of improving its morality by covering it with houses, for the advantage of speculative and engrossing individuals. The bricks and mortar at last actually did appear on the ground, and a large corner was dexterously covered with houses before anyone had time to interfere, when a public-spirited tradesman of the neighbourhood took the matter in band, and so bestirred the Woods and Forest for powers and the local public for means, that Kennington-common was rescued from the spoiler, and has now become Kennington-park, one of the prettiest things of its extent about London, being thus preserved for ever as a pleasant promenade and place of renovation for the inhabitants of the vicinity. Such a result is a striking proof of what might be done by a spirited individual. If there were a Mr. Hodgson keeping a baker's shop in the vicinity of each of our great metropolitan commons, we should not perhaps have so heavily to complain of the neglect of the people's legal protectors, the cupidity of lords of the manor, or the encroachments of building speculators. In a time of great excitement on sanitary questions and under great public pressure government rescued Battersea fields from the plague of bricks and mortar, and turned it into a park, which is improving in appearance every day, and is daily more and more appreciated by the public. It is in the hope of stimulating these exertions a little further in the same direction that we now take leave to call their attention to the condition of certain other commons in the neighbourhood of London. Close to Battersea-park lies Wandsworth-common, one of the most beautiful, healthful, and romantic of all our suburban wild lands; but Wandsworth-common is rapidly becoming the prey of the spoiler. It stretches from the high road to between London and Wandsworth on the one side, down to Tooting and Wimbledon on the other, with a noble breadth of heath-covered land all the way, over which a healthful breeze continually plays. Wandsworth-common is now within a few minutes' distance of London-bridge, of the Waterloo-road, and the Victoria stations, in fact of the most thickly peopled centres of London population. It would, if drained and levelled, make a splendid recreation ground for the toiling millions, and also, what we want most sadly, a noble Champ de Mars for our volunteer army. The Clapham Junction station, which is situated at about a quarter of a mile distance from the common, is passed by the almost incredible number of 550 trains per diem [PB: it's now more than 2000], the Brighton line has a station close upon its verge, and the South Western Company has secured twelve acres of land within the common itself. By these means, fifty or a hundred thousand men could at any time be brought to the ground with the greatest facility, as well as ten times that number of spectators, who would be only too proud to see their volunteer army of defence thus turn out some half-dozen times in summer within stone's throw of the great city. But Wandsworth-common is in imminent peril. The enclosure demon has been nibbling at it during these last twenty years, and it was only a few days since that the copyholders laid their grievances at the feet of Earl Spencer, the lord of the manor. We are happy to add that the result was so far satisfactory that his lordship promised that no further encroachment should take place during his lifetime; but then a matter in which the public has so deep an interest should not be left dependent on the will of any individual, however influential, whose power to carry out his good intentions ends with his life. The manorial rights over Wandsworth-common were vested some century or so ago in no less a personage than the famous Lord Bolingbroke; and there is a tradition in the neighbourhood of their having been won from St. John by the Lord Spencer of the period whilst the two were riding across Clapham-common into town, in the highly exciting game of pulling halfpence out of a haystack. However that may have been, the common remained intact in all its primitive wildness under the Spencer rule until about a quarter of a century since, when the work of enclosure, without any parliamentary formalities, began. First twenty acres were taken for St. James's School. Then certain persons leased a large portion, with powers merely to cut turf and cart gravel, and undertaking to apply their profits to the drainage and other improvements of the land in their immediate neighbourhood. They made large profits, but forgot the improvements, and one of their body secured and inclosed about forty acres on his own account, which, on his death, very recently, were sold by auction. The South Western Railway Company have secured twelve acres in the very centre of the common and enclosed it, having given the copyholders £80 for their right of "tetherage," and of course satisfied the claims of the lord of the manor. The London, Brighton, and South Coast Company have a station just as its edge, and four acres of surrounding land, and their line runs right through to Wimbledon. This encroachment would seem to have been a must beneficial one, for it enables people to get from London-bridge or Victoria station to the common in a few minutes, and has wonderfully stimulated building speculation in the adjoining (not common) land. On the right hand side of the high road, from Clapham to Wandsworth town, an extensive settlement has sprung up, called New Wandsworth, consisting of hundreds of handsome villas and cottage, and so great is the demand for these residences consequence of the railway facilities for getting to town, that no sooner is the foundation of a new house dug than the contractor is pestered with applications from intending tenants. This thriving colony is deeply interested in the preservation of the common rights, and its numbers increase every day. The Patriotic school took a tremendous slice, fifty-two acres, the school buildings forming a conspicuous feature in the prospect, and the great telescope requires some twelve or fifteen acres for its accommodation. These are a few of the greater encroachments, but there are, in addition, numberless smaller ones of which there is no very distinct record as to how they came about; but there they are, and their tendency is to spread until the whole common is swallowed up if steps be not taken to preserve it for some public use, either a park, a recreation ground, a volunteer review field, or some arrangement which shall answer all these purposes. There is, for example, a row of houses called Heathfield, running across the centre of the common, of which the history is a little curious. In the year 1832 the spot was occupied by a few tumbledown old houses, mere squatters' huts, and when the first visitation of the cholera broke out in that year theee huts were wed as a sort of suburban cholera hospital. When the pestilence ceased, the present row of handsome houses rose mysteriously in their place, but their very situation shows them to be nothing but as encroachment on the common. The condition of the ground, which is still left intact, is not satisfactory. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood complain that it the resort of bad characters, and the scene of a great deal of profligacy and immorality. One of the large prisons impinges on the common — we are not sure whether it is not also an encroachment — but it has a custom which renders it a great nuisance to the neighbourhood. The male prisoners whose time has expired are all let loose at nine in the morning, and the females at ten, and they generally spend the day on the common, surrounded by their friends from town, making holiday in a manner which does not at all conduce to the tranquillity of the vicinity. A small patch near the western boundary is used as a cricket ground, but the tenant of a neighbouring villas making strenuous efforts to have the cricketing suppressed, on the ground that when the cricketers are tired of their game they are apt to seek variety in the less genteel pastime of "knock 'em downs," a practice to which this gentleman and his family have, it appears, a decided aversion. Should he succeed in banishing the cricketers, another enclosure will most probably follow, and thus, one by one, on one pretence or another, the whole common will be enclosed. Lord Spencer has, we understand, the right to let, but not for enclosure or building purposes; and on the other hand, the copyholders, who claim exclusively the common rights, can only insist on "tetherage," and the right to cut turf and dig gravel. It is therefore obvious that it is in just such a case that the government ought to step in, purchase the slender rights of both parties, and secure the common for the general public. Clapham-common is protected, so is Streatham, and Battersea-fields have been purchased. There still remain Wandsworth, Wimbledon, and Tooting, all which are now brought by the railways within a few minutes' ride of the centre of the town, and the opportunity is most favourable for securing them for ever for that portion of the public who are the head landlords of all English ground, but who can show no title-deeds for their ancient patrimony. [BNA: Link.] "Thames Hare and Hounds [IMAGE: thames-hare-and-hounds-in-action.pdf] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Thames Hare and Hounds is the oldest adult cross-country running club in the world, based on the Roehampton end of Wimbledon Common, adjacent to Richmond Park, and draws runners from across south-west London. Both the men's and women's teams compete in the Surrey Cross Country League, division one; the club also fields teams in road races and relays. Thames host races in Richmond Park and on Wimbledon Common, in particular the cross-country Oxford — Cambridge Varsity Match, held each year since 1880[1] on Wimbledon Common after the end of Michaelmas term. History The club was founded in 1868, by members of Thames Rowing Club, particularly Walter Rye.[2] Its name derives from the Victorian game of "Hare and Hounds" or "Paper Chase", in which one runner (the "hare") lays a trail of paper to be followed by the other runners (the "hounds"). The game had been established in schools for decades before the founding of Thames — the Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt has written records going back to 1831.[3] References Historical Varsity Match Results "Mr. Walter Rye". The Times. Retrieved 4 April 2014. "The Royal Shrewsbury School Hunt (R.S.S.H.)". Shrewsbury School. 2011. ___________________ External links Thames Hare and Hounds [BNA: Link. Thames Hare and Hounds was formed in 1868 making it the oldest adult cross-country club in the world. It was founded by members of the Thames Rowing Club at Putney whose members were looking for an activity to keep themselves fit during the winter months and so emerged from the water and made the short journey up Putney Hill to Roehampton and Wimbledon Common. Their first such event was on 7th December 1867 when they organised a steeplechase from the Red Lion, Putney. They were to do this on two other occasions, on 1st February and 21st March 1868. Later that year, on 3rd October, the following notice appeared in the The Sportsman: "THAMES HARE AND HOUNDS A handicap ' paper hunt will take place on Saturday 17th October, starting from the King's Head, Roehampton Bottom (one mile from Barnes Station) at 4.30 p.m. (3.45 p.m. train from Waterloo). Hounds, who must be introduced by some member of the Thames Rowing Club or belong to an athletic club, rowing club, school, etc., will be roughly handicapped. A pewter will be given to the hound first to reach each hare." This was the first recognised run of Thames Hare and Hounds. The mid-Victorian sporting world in which the club was founded was very different from today and dominated by one issue more than any other: the distinction between the amateur and the professional, in essence those who could play for fun and those who could not. For Thames, the principle of gentlemen amateurism was enshrined in the club's ethos right from the start. Walter Rye — the club's first President — was an untiring scourge of the professional and ensured that his view of how sport should be practised was a pillar of the club's early rules: "VI. No one who is not over eighteen years of age, or who is not a gentleman by position and education, shall be eligible for election. [. . . ] IX. No Member shall compete at any Tradesmen's Meeting under pain of expulsion at the next or any subsequent Club Meeting. Members are particularly requested not to run at any sports as to the management of which there is the least doubt; and it is suggested that, in case of doubt, they should communicate with the Secretary of this Club." Although Thames' stance was far from unusual, the club was one of the more zealous in its application of both the term "gentlemen" and the term "amateur". As a newspaper of the early-1870s commented: "The Peckham Amateurs v. Hare and Hounds. The Thames Hare and Hounds Club, whose headquarters are at Wandsworth, recently considered a resolution, by which it was resolved that intercourse should not be held with any club, and more particularly with certain clubs whose members do not come up to that standard of gentility which, in the opinion of the Thames Hare and Hounds, accords with the haut ton claimed to belong to all members of their own body. But unfortunately for this extreme section of "genteel gentility, " the name of the Peckham Amateur Athletic Club is included in this athletic index expurgatorium, the North London Harriers and the Railway Clearing House Harriers being also specified by name, and of course equally interdicted." This attitude meant that for many years the Club had what can only be described as a fairly healthy aversion to championships and anything that could be deemed to be getting a bit too serious. Despite this, Thames was heavily involved in start of the National Championships, when they arranged to meet Spartan Harriers and South London Harriers over a course from the Bald-Faced Stag at Buckhurst Hill in Essex on 18th November 1876. However, it was in reality a fairly low-key event and referred to in some publications as, "The London Cross-Country Championship." What is certain is that the outcome, was unexpected: "The story of Buckhurst Hill is soon told. South London started fourteen men, Thames thirteen and Spartans five. The rain poured down, the paper ran out, the runners wandered about frozen and lost, no race was declared and it was agreed to re-run at Roehampton." After the fiasco, "The first race for the championship of the metropolitan paperchase clubs" came off on 24th February 1877 over an 11_-mile course from the King's Head at Roehampton. It was a double victory for the home club, taking both the team contest and the individual honours through Percy Stenning — the first of his four consecutive wins. However, after a second victory in 1879, Thames involvement in the National quickly waned. For the first few years, the championship had been "a little family party affair between Thames Hare & Hounds, Spartan and South London Harriers" and this suited Thames' view of the world. As it became established, more clubs wanted to enter and others wanted their turn to host it. All in all, it was getting a bit too serious for Thames and Walter and the desire for a more spectator-oriented affair on an enclosed and lapped course (such as Wembley Park or Sandown Park) was something that did not accord with his view, as he put across witheringly in his essay on cross-country for Athletics and Football: "In 1879 the Thames were lucky again, but in 1880 had to go down before a very well trained, if rough, team of the Birchfield Harriers. In 1881 (when no fewer than 105 ran) the Moseley Harriers came up for the first time, and beat the holders easily, and the next year exactly repeated the performance. Since then the affair has degenerated into a gate-money meeting held on enclosed grounds, and forms the medium of heavy betting and little sport, the change having been effected chiefly at the instance of the countrymen and their allies, ostensibly because they wanted a 'rougher, more open country, ' but really because they wanted to take the management of the meeting from its original promoters, who would have nothing to do with gate and betting. Some day, when the loathsomeness of the roping and betting has disgusted the better class of runners, a championship, in which gentlemen can take part without loss of self-respect, will probably be again instituted on the old lines. But betting must be literally stamped out, and the prizes made quite nominal before we can see who runs for the sport, and who for the profit." Thames' involvement petered out entirely after 1883 and they also abstained from involvement in other athletic bodies that were starting to spring up, including the Southern Counties Athletic Association (1884) and South of the Thames Cross-Country Association (1888). Rye, again, had a fairly scathing opinion of these institutions: "Meanwhile nearly all the clubs (except the oldest) belong either to the Northern, the Midland, or the Southern Counties C.C. Association, which are supposed to govern their members by the A.A.A. rules, but which are all either unwilling or unable to stop the abuses of betting and team concoction, which have much injured the pastime in the eyes of real sportsmen." With its stance clearly set, Thames' immediate future was one of self-imposed isolation, even if this put the future of the club at risk. At the 1895 A.G.M., the Honorary Secretary gloomily reported that: "it was with the utmost regret that he had to inform members that attendances of the active members had fallen to such an extent that nearly all the club runs had not taken place, and only one of the three members' handicaps had been contested — and then by four members — He said that he thought the only way to revive the club was to change the headquarters to a more suitable district close to a railway station." No fixture card was published for the forthcoming season due to the uncertainty of any matches actually taking place and in the event it was only some vigorous recruitment by members that saved the club and led to a more upbeat report from the Honorary Secretary at the following year's meeting. However, neither this narrow brush with oblivion nor the departure of Rye to Norwich in 1900 heralded a change in the Club's stance. His son, Frank already had a strong control over the day-today affairs of the club as Honorary Secretary (a post he had held since 1894 and would hold until 1905) and was just as much of a traditionalist. Therefore, by the early 20th century, Thames was very settled into a comfortable pattern of fixtures, which included club Handicaps and Challenges, matches against local rivals such as South London, Blackheath and Ranelagh Harriers, the University Race, public school fixtures, occasional contests against Services teams and — when there was an empty Saturday — so-called "ordinary" runs or paperchases. For the next 20 years or so very little changed. Thames quite happily bobbed along outside the mainstream of the athletic world, with attention only being drawn to them by the annual University Race — at that time a significant event in the athletic calendar. Change, however, had to come and if there was an impetus for it, it was brought about by the Great War, which took a heavy toll on the club and for a while put its very survival at stake once again. Combined with this was the modernising influence of Harry Hall, who took on the Secretary's role in 1923. Perhaps the final nudge the club needed came in 1921, when one of its members (D.M.Butt) finished in ninth in the Southern and 18th in the National, but had to join local rivals Ranelagh Harriers to do so. Under Hall's influence — he also served as President of the South of the Thames Cross Country Association (1930-31) and Secretary (1931-44) and President (1933-34) of the Southern Counties' Athletic Association — an application was made in 1923 to join the latter body. At almost the same time (October 1922), another fairly radical shift took place in the institution of the position of "Captain of Running". With these events the ball had started rolling and the club's fixture card began its gradual evolution into one that we would recognise today. Within five years of the institution of the captaincy position, the club had established its most enduring fixture against Ranelagh (later to evolve into the Mob Match in 1973). In 1937, the club entered the National for the first time — according to the club's minute book — "for many years." At this stage, the commitment to it was fairly lukewarm: "the club entered a team for the National, primarily to support McIntyre in an attempt on international honours." A year later, however, came a more momentous achievement. With a team consisting of Jim McIntyre (2nd), George Atkinson (9th), Geoffrey Honniball (12th), Hugh Bryant (22nd), David Percival (24th) and Tony Race (39th), Thames secured its first cross-country championship for 62 years with victory in the South of the Thames at Cobham on 12th February (108 points to Mitcham A.C's 135). As the club's minute book reported: "This is the first victory of the club in championships since Thames won the first two National Championships 60 years ago and it was so fittingly celebrated that according to Low's Topical budget in the Evening Standard, Church Cobham is now popularly known as Cobham and Gomorrah." However, these few changes did not herald an abandonment of the club's devotion to the role of the gentlemen amateur. A comparison of the fixture card at the dawning of World War Two and even into the 1960s and early 1970s shows one that was broadly comparable, beyond participation in the Championships races, with that of the early 1900s. Indeed, in 1953, the club established the Old Boys' Race, which strengthened the links with the public schools further. Nevertheless, the progress of the 1920s and 1930s had had a beneficial impact and the arrival of another war in 1939 did not put quite the same strain on the club. It was able to remain more active and issued a general invitation to runners who were in London to make use of the changing rooms at the King's Head. There is a record of it being used on 378 occasions during the war period. Sadly, it also saw the loss of the instigator of change — Harry Hall — who fell from a railway carriage during at blackout, while returning from the club's opening run in September 1944. After the war, the club got back going very quickly, particularly once Peter Miller had acceded to the Captaincy in 1954. Peter harvested the now well-established links with Oxford, Cambridge and the public schools and was able to boast some fine runners in his team, although never in sufficient number to mount a serious challenge for either the South of the Thames or the Southern. It is perhaps significant that real momentum for the evolution of the club to its respected and competitive position today started to build in the early-1970s, just as the physical backdrop of the club began to move steadily away from its Victorian and somewhat rural past. First, in 1973, the club registered as competing in road running. Prior to this, some members — including Frank Carpenter and Anthony Eady — had competed on the roads in the colours of Orion Harriers, but generally, it was seen as an unmentionable activity. Six years later, in 1975, came Thames' most significant performance yet. With a team that included Harold Chadwick (19th), Henk Altmann (23rd), John Hazelden (45th), our current President, John Bryant (54th), John Valentine (55th) and Peter Braithwaite (69th), Thames finished second in the Southern at Parliament Hill. Such was the incredulity that quaint old Thames Hare & Hounds could have taken the runners-up spot in one of the prime cross-country fixtures that the announcer, having proclaimed the result then "corrected" himself, "That must mean Thames Valley Harriers." Another four years were to pass before perhaps the biggest step of all. In 1979, a decision was taken to join the Surrey League. The competition had only been established in 1962, but in that short amount of time, it had become a staple for all of the strongest of the local clubs. There is no doubt that for the likes of Walter Rye — had they been around — the thought of joining a league would have been beyond the pale and tantamount to professionalism. Indeed, even in 1979 the support of the President for the new venture was only on the basis that it did not interfere with "more important" fixtures. Phil Gilbert — captain from 1983 to 1985 — takes up the story: "From 1976-79, I was a student at Durham University. While I was there, Ilearnt a little about engineering and a bit more about sport. Apart from being a reasonable runner and captain of the university athletics team, Ialso discovered mountaineering, fell running, orienteering and Nordic skiing. The coach of the cross-country club was Alan Storey who later became director of the London Marathon. He introduced me to the idea of training in some kind of structured way. In the University we had a number of good athletes including Tim Woods and Ian Beauchamp (both of Ranelagh Harriers), Mike Coram and Hugh Symonds (who ran the first continuous trip over all the 3,000 footers in the British Isles). We also had lively inter-collegiate league and one of my favourite competitors was Rob Swann who ran wearing boxing sweats, boots and a weighted belt. In 1992, he became the first man to walk to the north and south poles, so his training methods eventually paid off. Being in the north-east meant that we frequently met the Newcastle University runners and these included Kevin Foster (later a Great Britain marathon international), Bill Foster (England marathon runner) and Richard Coles. Bill and Richard were members of Blackheath Harriers. On top of this, Alan coached runners at Gateshead including Mike McLeod and Charlie Spedding and we were sometimes roped in to provide cannon fodder for their Sunday runs. When Igraduated, I got a job in London and decided to move to Wimbledon and rented some rooms in a house on 281, Church Road, next to the tennis ground. My landlady was an Australian who was a member of the Hash House Harriers and a friend of Quentin Clough. I was training on my own and "Q" persuaded me to go to "the Thames" where I was led through the "introduced, proposed, produced, elected" maze and became a member in 1979. I cannot recall who my sponsors were but my closer associates at that time were Al Gibbons, Ned Paul, David Fuller, Paul Newby, David and Miriam Rosen and Martin Turner. Apart from running at Thames, Istarted to train with Mike Coram, Bill Foster and Clive Thomas (a Welsh international track athlete), whose favourite session included eight hard 400m repetitions up Victoria Drive outside my lodgings. Running with Thames was good fun, and the traditions and social side were great, but the fixture card was limited to a mixture of challenge matches, championship races and the University Race. We could still call in a number of senior runners from John Bryant's cohort such as John Hazelden and Henk Altmann, but the gap between the standard of these runners and the average Thames member was huge and we did not seem to have any new blood coming in. In 1980, my second season at Thames, Al Gibbons was elected as Vice-captain and I was elected as a Handicapper (to join Paul Newby). Ialso bought a flat at 388, Merton Road and started to meet Al for a pint of Young's in the Pig & Whistle, just down the road. Inspired by a few pints of bitter, we discussed if Thames's heritage could be maintained in the future without a stronger competitive basis. We discussed recruitment and decided that we would set out personally to persuade any good runners that appeared unattached to join Thames. Al told me that he had seen a guy running in Richmond Park — later discovered to be Bill Snelgrove — and started to stalk him. Ialso persuaded Mike Coram, who was a member of Westbury Harriers, to turn out as a guest. Icontinued with Al's stalking plan and over the next few years netted Andy Thomas (by a Durham connection) and Dave Hill (by another north-east connection). However, we had begun to realise that without a stronger local identity and more regular races Thames might struggle to attract and retain good athletes. So we decided to focus our efforts on the Surrey League, which we had entered in division two in 1979. We actually did better than expected as the Officers worked hard at getting out runners and Thames was almost always the most numerous club. We were promoted to Division One in 1986 and established ourselves as one of the better Surrey clubs just below the top echelon occupied by Hercules Wimbledon, Belgrave Harriers and Herne Hill Harriers. Over the next decade Thames continued to grow in strength and stature until we won the league and enjoyed the most successful period in the club's competitive history. Flushed with success in the winter of 1983, we decided to steer the club towards the London Road Running League and at our first attempt won the Division Two title in 1984. This league was sponsored by Nike and I asked them if we could have our prize in the form of sets of running strip. When it was eventually delivered we had white singlets with black satires, blue piping and embroidered Nike logo, and black shorts with white trim. This caused consternation as the club rules specified white shorts but the committee was persuaded that we could wear our new coloured shorts. Istill have a picture on my wall of me crossing the line at 2 hours, 29 minutes in the 1985 London Marathon wearing my Nike strip." As Phil mentions, the entry to the Surrey League provided the impetus to take the club forward and through the efforts of several hard-working captains, we were able to achieve promotion to the top flight in 1986 and its first Division 1 victory in 1995. Since then, the club has added six more titles to its tally (the last being in 2010) and has finished in the top two every season for over a decade. Perhaps the crowning year was 2000-01, when the club took the honours not only in Surrey League Division 1, but also in the South of the Thames Senior (held over home turf) and Southern Counties' Championships. Alongside the success in the Surrey League, four years after the entry to the Surrey League, the club entered the Southern 12-Stage Road Relays for the first time and achieved qualification for the National event in 1991. Things had very much changed. Up to this point, this history has focused on the men's side of the club, reflecting the fact that for the first 113 years of the club's existence, it was an exclusively male institution. The admission of women as members in 1981 — two years after the men's entry to the Surrey League — was probably the final piece in the jigsaw. The politics and process for women joining the club was complex, emotive and lengthy; but suffice it to say that over the past 40 years, the ladies' side of the club has developed and strengthened to a point where — at the time of writing — it has just secured its third Surrey League Division Ititle in succession. Having said all this, many facets of Thames life remain pretty much as they always have been — the handicaps, the challenges, the courses, the Mob Matches, the dinners, the social engagements and so forth. It is this that sums up the club today — a very healthy mix of the traditional and the modern. Many aspects of the club would still be recognised by Walter Rye, Percy Stenning et al it they were to walk into the club's headquarters today. However, the club has managed to thrive by also allowing a gradual evolution to take on the best parts of modern athletics. Had this not happened, had the club stubbornly stuck to the past, it is likely that it would have gone the way of some other great names from athletic days gone by — Lea Harriers, Spartan Harriers, Polytechnic Harriers, Surrey A.C. and Moseley Harriers — or at least ended up as an athletic backwater. That it did not means at the start of the 21st century it is one of the most diverse, interesting and, in historical terms, rich clubs in existence. On 9th December 2021, the club was proud to be announced as a recipient of a World Athletics Heritage Plaque (competition). Thames Hare and Hounds 2022" "arrier (n.) "small hunting dog," 1540s, from Middle English hayrer, eirer (c. 1400) in the same sense, which is of uncertain origin. Possibly from French errier "wanderer" [Barnhart, Middle English Compendium], or associated with hare (n.), which they would have hunted. Influenced by harry (v.). The hawk genus (1550s) is from harry (v.). [BNA:
harry, ravage or devastate hence the bird? But adapted to connect e.g. small hunting dogs used to catch rabbits and hares NB Many athletics clubs still record their origins as in Thames Hare and Hounds Birchfield Harriers — innumerable in the list or Brentwood Beagles ____________ UK Athletics Club Website Directory [BNA: Link. _________________________ hare and hounds morphs into cross-country morphs into long-distance and track running ___________________________" FREDERICK WALL / FA / AND SOCCER Back to the top of this page . . .
Sports mad: OS Map 1916 showing the numerous and vast private sports grounds (for cricket, football, tennis, bowls) to the south-west of the Common.
Some grounds had already ceased to function by 1916 (for example, the "Loxley" or "Lyford ground" between Magdalen Road and Lyford Road) and a few would not be established until c.1920 (e.g. after the Heathfield Club moved its tennis courts and bowling green from what is now called "Trinity Fields" across Burntwood Lane to the land next to Collamore).
"The Grange Tennis Club" (which I knew as a child in the 1950s as "The Romany") also closed some years ago. Its former ground is still there, hiding behind the houses on Lyford Road.
But several of these clubs/grounds (including the Heathfield Bowls Club, the Spencer Club (off Burntwood Lane), and Magdalen Park Lawn Tennis Club (Magdalen Road) are still thriving today.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Daily News (London) — Thursday 12 November 1925
Express (London) — Wednesday 11 November 1863
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!["On 12 Mar 2022, at 10:48, Philip Boys wrote: DIFFERENT PARTS HAVE DIFFERENT PASTS As some historian said of the Ukraine Also true of Wandsworth Common" "In March 2022, WANDSWORTH & BATTERSEA DISTRICT TIMES , was not available on BNA but appeared to be digitised in [BNA: newspaperarchive.com/browse/uk/middx/london/wandsworth-and-battersea-district-times/" "Thanks for reference to Stephen Johnson, Mike — I didn't know of it, so I'll be ordering. As Ibet you know, there were quite a number of cholera outbreaks in and around Wandsworth/Battersea/Tooting — e.g. Albion Terrace on Wandsworth Road, and Drouet's "Farm" in Tooting — which my local hero John Buckmaster ("Saviour of Wandsworth Common") saw at first hand and wrote brilliantly about. Incidentally, I checked and the St James's Industrial school took more or less equal numbers of girls and boys — around 100 of each. And now back to today's challenges — I'm looking at the early years of Springfield Hospital ("The Surrey Pauper Lunatic Asylum"), which incidentally prided itself on piping water all the way from Thames Ditton, well upstream of Battersea's foul reservoirs ! All best Philip On 11 Mar 2022, at 08:51, Michael Tuffrey wrote: Thanks for this and the links, I'm still wracking my brains where I saw the reference before. A while back Iread The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson (great read BTW), but I've looked, and it's not there. That focuses on Soho — and now Ilook at it again, Henry Whitehead's role is more central than Irecall. Anyway, all carefully noted — it will emerge sometime with an ah-ha moment! Best wishes Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Monday, 7 Mar, 22 At 12:52 Subject: Re: I wonder if you can help . . . Hello, Mike Found it! JOHN SNOW, ""Report of his special investigation of Broad Street," in the Report on the Cholera Outbreak in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, during the Autumn of 1854" (Pdf in hand — ask if you want it.) Peter Street affords perhaps as singular an instance as could be found of what has often been termed the capriciousness or eccentricity of Cholera. In the smaller portion of it, extending from Green's Court westward to the dead wall, there occurred 19 deaths. In its larger portion, extending from Green's Court eastward to Wardour Street, there was only one death. Now, as a matter of fact, the whole of Peter Street lies, if you measure along the thoroughfare, nearer to the Rupert Street than to the Broad Street pump. But as you approach the dead wall it would take a good judge of distance to decide the point without actual measurement. The house at the corner of Peter Street and Hopkins Street is only four yards nearer to the former than to the latter pump. Consequently its opposite neighbour, No. 23, where 12 deaths occurred, is just so much the nearer still, as the width of a narrow street may render it, to the former. Under these circumstances, especially taking into consideration the circuitous route to Rupert Street, need not be thought strange if the western population of Peter Street sent to the Broad Street pump. In No. 23 two families supplied nine out of the twelve victims to the disease. A surviving member (the mother) of one of these families, informed me that they had water from Broad street at dinner the day (August 31) before her three deceased relatives were seized. In our Parish School, on Wandsworth Common, Irecently encountered by accident a girl belonging to the other family. Father, mother, and four brothers or sisters, were all swept away by Cholera. She told me that they were in the habit of using the Broad Street water. Thinking out loud: This "Parish school" must be St James's Industrial School. I must check whether it took girls at this time, or was she e.g. a servant? Why was Snow visiting — was he employed by the St James's Soho Vestry, hence it was his professional responsibility? I notice there are several references to the Revd Henry Whitehead in this report, including some letters. The relevant papers are in the City of Westminster Archives = [https]://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/5850009f-edc1-40c0-934c-437857f29059 V interesting. All best Philip On 7 Mar 2022, at 09:12, Michael Tuffrey wrote: Thanks for sending that link to this month's Chronicles — love the serendipity of one month down the ages. And yes, Irecall something similar about that industrial school — just can't remember where, and my "filing system" doesn't live up to its name! Best wishes Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Thursday, 3 Mar, 22 At 18:49 Subject: Re: I wonder if you can help . . . Many thanks, Mike — that certainly sounds right Ilove it when things that turn up in research attach and re-attach in different and interesting ways There's another John Snow connection that I'm rather interested in. When JS was following up all the deaths in Soho to enquire where they drew their water from (the Broad Street Pump and all that) there was a missing family which troubled him. Most in the family had died but there were children who had not — but they had disappeared. And lo and behold when he was visiting the St James's Industrial School on what is now St James's Drive — I think he was inspecting it as a doctor on behalf of the St James's Westminster vestry, who owned it, and who sent their poor boys and girls there to get them away from Westminster — he got talking to a girl who it turned out came from the missing family — and she confirmed they had used, yes, the Broad Street pump . . . I'm writing this story from memory — but I think I've got it right! All best Philip , which owned the place On 3 Mar 2022, at 18:28, Michael Tuffrey wrote: Hello again, I did send it round to colleagues here, but sadly that has not turned up anything. In fact the only concrete suggestion is to look at this piece about Clapham reminiscences, from 1859. The Clapham Society Local History Series 6 -The Oldest Inhabitant by the Revd Henry Whitehead (with Editor's introduction and notes by Peter Jefferson Smith) here: [https]://claphamsociety.com/articles/the-oldest-inhabitant/#xviii It's long and rambling, and the only thing Ispotted that might be vaguely relevant is this (right towards the end) - I have likewise in the course of my researches met with traditions of a celebrated smoking club which used to sit every afternoon at the Plough, the most prominent member of which is said to have been a magistrate whose cocked hat and pigtail have struck terror into the hearts of some now living. He was a stern man, and is reported to have had a very summary way, when fetched for the purpose out of the Plough, of sentencing offenders to be whipped or sent to prison. Roughly the right time period, Iassuming, but the details don't specifically tie up, moer the same general tone, and sadly no real names. However it did me a favour to look at it again, as I'd not previously twigged the Clapham connection with Henry Whitehead of John Snow/Soho/cholera fame. Small world! A whole other trail of course, diseases, not hares. Good luck with it all. Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Tuesday, 1 Mar, 22 At 17:48 Subject: Re: I wonder if you can help . . . Many thanks for your response, Michael — and for the very interesting lists of local great-and-good. I knew vaguely of Batten, but really only his "catalogue of indigenous plants". The dates are spot on, aren't they. Identifying "Joe" is great. Def. looks like our man. If you wouldn't mind passing the cutting around to your colleagues, that would be great. If I had a bit more time, I would look for other refs in the same journal in case there's a a running story. With a bit of luck, the March Chronicles should be ready in a day or two, but I'm afraid the stag-hunting stories just took over and I've though of little else for 2 or 3 weeks. Always the same. All best Philip On 1 Mar 2022, at 11:55, Michael Tuffrey wrote: What a curious tale indeed. And multiple levels of mockery. Certainly there were some culture wars going on at the time — the po-faced moralists, abolitionists, church (and especially chapel) going types, and the slavers, the money-men, the frequenters of the drinking houses. One of the Holy Trinity vicars, a Venn Iseem to recall, is on record complaining about what infertile territory it was. The Hardy Boniface name could reflect that sentiment. On the face of it a peer and two knights ought to be recognisable. However I don't think we had a Lord anything, and Sir Joseph and Sir John ring no bells. I've checked through my directories and can't spot any play on names. However see what you think. Attached is Pigot from 1826, which separates out the nobs from the tradespeople. And then much more comprehensive is Batten from 1827, which follows the order of the streets, so you get big houses and shops and pubs. And covers westside including down to the five houses, whereas Isuspect Pigot is just the parish. The Plough is there in Batten (page 14 in his, 5/14 in my copy), with Mason named as the landlord and Pigot has a Joseph Mason at the Plough. So at least that does tie up nicely with them retiring to Joe's for an evening of conviviality. What we really lack are any diaries or letters or narrative accounts of life at the time, giving the gossip and human side — otherwise the Scotch baker, or noted trainer or even artful boy might be recognisable. Sorry not to help. There are four or five of us in Aylson Wilson's little history sub group. I could shunt a note round to them, in case. Actually Timothy Walker is the obvious one, perhaps you've tried him already? If not, very happy to. Good luck Mike ------ Original Message ------ From: "Philip Boys" To: "Michael Tuffrey" Cc: "Philip Boys" Sent: Monday, 28 Feb, 22 At 20:28 Subject: I wonder if you can help . . . Hello again, Michael I wonder if you can help . . . I'm writing about stag-hunting on Wandsworth Common (well, stag hunts that crossed the Common having set off e.g. near Epsom or Banstead or similar). Some, incidentally, then went on to Clapham Common. I'm trying to work out what if anything is going on in this report from 1827 of "some gentlemen of Clapham" hunting a hare with dogs on Wandsworth Common: Pierce Egan's Life in London, and Sporting Guide — Sunday 21 October 1827 HARE AT CLAPHAM [actually, Wandsworth Common] On Wednesday last, at the request of some gentlemen of Clapham who had invited some friends from town, a trapped hare was turned loose before the crack pack of Clapham hounds on Wandsworth Common, but owing to their eagerness for the sport the poor timid hare was barbarously murdered before she had run 50 yards, the hounds being laid on too soon by Old Bill Day, the huntsman, who is likely to lose his place in consequence of it. Determined to hear the cry of the hounds and see them run, they procured a string and tied it to the hare, when Sir William Doodle-doo, mounted on his celebrated hunter Rosinante, dragged it on round the common: no sooner had the hounds got scent than away they went full cry, followed by Lord Deal, Sir Joseph Pon Top, The Referee, Sir John Hashma Long Stockings, Black Adam, T. Whiteside, Esq. the Scotch Baker, T. Griskin, the Noted Trainer, and the Artful Boy. Among the company viewing the sport was principally noticed Sir T. Allsides, the Beadle of the Parish; who looked as sharp as was looking Out for a cove for a love-child; the Master of the Roll's, the Doctor and Master-of-all-Trades, the Renowned Wallace, but not of Scotch extraction — and last, though not least, was the Hardy Boniface of Leadenhall, who declared it to be a piece of cruelty. The company afterwards retired to Joe's, at the Plough, Clapham Common, and spent the evening in great conviviality. [BNA: Link.] The newspaper takes hunting for granted as a jolly good thing so why the ironic tone? Why the obvious mock-names / pseudonyms? In short, are any of the names real or decipherable? Do you recognised any of them (or similar)? Rosinante/Rocinante, named for Don Quixote's broken-down nag, is hardly an appropripiate name for a hunter. So presumably ironic? Notice the phrase "the Hardy Boniface of Leadenhall . . . declared it to be a piece of cruelty" Were pseudonyms used because the participants were fearful of being exposed (this is just two years after the founding of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (now RSPCA) by worthies such as former local man William Wilberforce. There's obviously something going on in this piece — but what? Any ideas? All best Philip ______________ History Boys 14 Loxley Road Wandsworth Common SW18 3LJ www.historyofwandsworthcommon.org === Mike Tuffrey 50 Lynette Avenue London SW4 9HD 020 8673 1684 1826.pdf> " KNOWN CONTRACTS; DATES AND OTHER DETAILS LACKING. [BNA: " "01-cover- IMG_0753.jpeg 02- IMG_0754.jpeg Frot cover: The Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asylum — Springfield — at the time of its opening on June 15th 1841. PREFACE MAINLY FOR THE INTEREST of those who work and have worked at Springfield, I have collected here some aspects of its past which might easily be forgotten. This book does not set out to tell a complete story, or one that has been traced up to the present time, but it does record some of the events and personalities that have left their mark upon an institution and its work. Many individuals have contributed helpfully with information and material of various kinds, and to all of these | am very grateful. | must particularly mention Miss P. Philpott who worked on the photographic material and Miss Adrienne Burrows, for information about Hugh Diamond. Finally I must thank Mrs. Barbara Powell, my secretary, for much long-suffering organization and typing. IAN LODGE PATCH 03- IMG_0757.jpeg INTRODUCTION Institutions such as Springfield preserve, in a permanent form. contemporary attitudes and ideas. Although modifications adapt old buildings to new ideas, the concepts that prevailed at the beginning are still to be traced in the bricks, mortar and furnishings that remain. These materials also form the backcloth against which our predecessors moved and worked; with tesver resources, they dealt with similar problems, and in ways that often seem surprisingly up to date. Although much is unchanged, the traces of an institution's past are lost with increasing speed. Since the end of the Second World War, many of Springfield's possessions have disappeared, mostly through neglect or lack of interest, sometimes by actual theft. In 1948, hundreds of pictures which lined the walls, and which had been collected (for example by Hugh Diamond in the 1850s) from Agnews, Colnaghis and other dealers, were removed and destroyed. More recently a hundred glass pharmacy jars, dating from the opening of the hospital, were sold. In 1981, six mahogany chairs, dating from 1840, were stolen from the Committee room. In the same way historical details are lost or forgotten and the character of the hospital atrophies. This book sets out to preserve some of those details to illustrate a particular step in the development of psychiatric care. That step — the establishing of County Asylums — took place gradually, was the consequence of many interacting factors, and was a landmark both scientific and humanitarian. Many individuals were of course involved, of every degree of social importance, but some, of permanent note, were associated one way or another with Springfield — Faraday, Paget, Tom Sayers, Vignolcs, Pollock, Elliotson, Bence Jones, Conolly, Hope, Spencer, Barclay, Perkins and Shaftesbury — to name but a few. The individuals mentioned or illustrated here must be regarded simply as the representatives of the many who, since 1840, have worked at this hospital seeking to establish, or to maintain, high standards of patient care. Until the 19th century, the mentally ill wandered at large, or were looked after by their own families or in private madhouses where standards were often very low. The few public hospitals, such as Bethlem or York, were little better; supervision and inspection was lacking and inept. By the close of the 18th century, public scandals (such as the York Asylum) and the illness of George II I had become factors promoting reform. William Tuke demonstrated at the Retreat (founded 1792) that humanity was practicable and that neglect and brutality were Indefensible. The Asylum Act of 1808 encouraged the building of public hospitals for those who could not pay; however the Counties were slow to respond and by 1827 only 9 such hospitals had been built. Inspection and supervision were provided for in the Madhouse Act (1828) and more fully in 1845 when the Lunacy Commission was established and given responsibility for the standards throughout the whole country; the prime mover of many of these reforms was the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885). As the century continued, public opinion became increasingly sensitive to allegations of cruelty or harshness in the name of cream-km, and to practices that could be construed in this way. In 1838 Robert Gardiner Hill delivered 'A Lecture on the Management of Lunatic Asylums" showing that mechanical restraints (gloves, straitjackets, etc.) were usually unnecessary in the care of the mentally ill, and John Conolly showed that mechanical restraints could be abolished through-out an entire hospital. Gentlefolk and those able to pay were cared for in private madhouses with decent standards but most paupers were accommodated under dismal conditions in houses with contractual arrangements with the parishes of origin. In 1839 Alexander Morison had found that 366 Surrey lunatics were being cared for in various private madhouses catering for paupers. Of this number, Morison arranged that 299 should be transferred from Peckham House, Hoxton and Bethnal Green Asylum, to Springfield at the time of its opening on 14th June, 1841. Details of that event have been lost, but these chapters outline some of the characters and events of the century and a half that have followed. 04- IMG_0759.jpeg THE ESTATE AND ITS BUILDINGS IT WAS STILL LESS than 20 years since the death of George II Iwhen the Surrey Magistrates decided to follow the example of others and to establish a County Asylum. Their Committee began looking for a suitable site near to the centres of population and having a southern aspect, good air and a ready supply of water. They soon found wealthy they needed at Springfield Park (Wandsworth was still itr S then being offered for sale by Henry Perkins since 1823,;letthairlyt, brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay, Perkins. He had, since 1823, leased the estate from the Second Earl Spencer and had begun to collect in the mansion his immensely valuable library. After his father's death in 1834, the Third Earl sold the freehold to Perkins, who soon afterwards decided to move to Dover. Of the 18th century mansion no trace now remains and no print, although its outline appears on maps as law as 1858. But its farm buildings, stables and coachman's house stood until the building of Garratt Green School. Of the large complex, which included also pleasure gardens and an indoor riding school, now only the ice-well is standing, fenced from further depredations of vandals and surrounded by the playing fields of the school. At the time of the purchase, the northern boundary ran from east to west at the level of the Gardiner Hill Unit, and along a line marked by the original lodge (1844) opposite these new buildings. The eastern border followed the line between the parishes of Clapham and Streatham. Along this line (the drive from Glenburnie Gate, between the present Admission Hospital and the main building) a public footpath allowed passers to peer at the patients in the ward gardens — or "airing courts". The Committee were therefore particularly pleased when, about 1860, they were able to extend the eastern border to its present line, giving greater privacy to their patients. A year or two later they added two strips, from the estate of Mr. McKellar, carrying the northern boundary to the line of Beechcroft Road, from Burntwood Lane to Glenburnie Road. No further land was added to the estate after this (1864): a lodge was added to the new entrance with a weighbridge (1893) and a further lodge at Glenburnie Road (1897). The building of the Asylum started about 1838 to the design of Mr. W. Moseley, the County Surveyor for Middlesex, "lately occupied in the extensions at Hanwell Asylum", advised by Alexander Morison and Sir William Ellis. Its Tudor style, with gables and twisted chimneys (now removed as dangerous and not replaced) was praised in the architectural journals, who commented on the subtle angles and variegated brickwork that save the long facade from monotony. But Many distinguished visitors, with an interest in photography, came to Springfield to visit Hugh Diamond. Here, about 1855, is Mrs. Diamond, the Comte de Montizon, Philip Delamotte (Professor at Kings College) and J. J. Forrester the interior was dismissed as void of interest "except it be for the main hall and staircase". The two front wings at this time extended to only part of their present length, and enclosed the main drive approaching the Asylum from the direction of Aboyne Road and the original mansion. At the entrance, the Committee Room lay on the right, and on the left the quarters of the Resident Medical Superintendent. The Steward lived on the second floor of the centre, and after he retired in 1872, nurses and domestics. Behind the main hall, two offices were occupied as doctors "surgeries", where they wrote their clinical notes in massive bound volumes. Further to the rear were the kitchens, gas works, boiler house, well and (after 1881) the builders' yard. On the second floor was the chapel (now a store above Elm dormitory) until the present hospital church was built in 1880. The cost of the whole new Asylum, including the original estate of 97+ acres, was 85,366 19s 1d. At its opening on 14th June, 1841, Springfield admitted 299 patients, all examined by Alexander Morison and transferred from various private madhouses. But subsequently, admissions so far outnumbered discharges that extensive new buildings were needed. The two northern 05- IMG_0762.jpeg Alexander Morison (1779-1866]. Born and educated in Edinburgh, became physician to Hanwell and later Bethlem. In 1809 appointed Visiting Physician to Lunatic Houses in the County of Surrey which made him the natural adviser to the County for the building of the new asylum in tooting about 1838. He lived in Cavendish Square, travelled to Springfield twice weekly, became friendly with diamond and gave lectures to students and nurses. After retiring, he return to Edinburgh. wings were opened in 1849 (Holly, Larch, etc. on the west; Orchid, Sunflower, etc. on the cast), with space for an additional 400 patients, and at a cost of about 35,000. Smaller extensions were made to all the wings as time went by, for hospitals such as Springfield tought a losing battle with the weight of numbers. On the one hand they were required to provide for the ill or incompetent of every kind: on the other they lacked both staff and effective methods of treatment. Besides the pressure of numbers, the Committee were preoccupied with the maintenance of the huge building: "A building covering nearly seven acres of ground, and containing, as does the Surrey Asylum, 1,022 windows, 619 doors, 663 fireplaces, 38 cisterns, 25 baths, 270 watertaps and stopcocks, 307 gas-burners, with an extensive apparatus for cooking, and washing and drying linen, and in which nearly 40,000 gallons of hot and cold water are distributed daily by steam power through more than 4,000 yards of lead piping, can be kept in repair only at a great expense, especially when it is considered that it is occupied by nearly 800 persons, most of whom being patients, act generally without judgment, and sometimes with violence". The original central heating system, for example, caused alarming problems. Iron pipes had been laid to carry steam throughout the wards but they proved too thin, and explosions throughout the wards were frequent, as the pipes burst and patients were injured. Within a few years, almost the whole system had to be removed and new fireplaces installed. The water supply was another source of anxiety to the Committee. They started in 1839 by boring a well in a site that is now surrounded by workshops. The pipes broke at 358 feet, but the boring continued until enough water was found; the resulting supply was enough only for a few years and by 1850 an additional well was needed. In the meantime a contract was signed with the Lambeth Waterworks Company for "not fewer than 30,000 gallons . . . daily" — at a cost of 3d. per thousand gallons. The water received in this way was taken directly from the river at Thames Ditton. This source lay above the massive sewage pollution of London's water that continued until the 1880s and was responsible for repeated drastic epidemics. When cholera broke out m 1854, John Snow (1813-1858) demonstrated that areas of London supplied from the higher reaches of the Thames had much lower mortality: Springfield was fortunate in its location. The second well was not completed until 1860, but maintenance and deepening were often needed, as the population of the Asylum IMG-0763 increased, and baths became an everyday occurrence. The building of the water tower in 1885 (for 1,300) was also designed to improve the supply, as well as to produce sufficient pressure in case of fire: it Was demolished in 1976. The wells themselves, although still in existence have not been used since the Second World War. The newer pump — a single column beam engine, with its graceful Doric column — was broken up for scrap, but the original pump — a Maudslay table engine — continued in use until after the Second World War, and then found a permanent home in the Science Museum in South Kensington. Although from the first the Asylum had to cope with every sort of clinical problem, the development of special facilities followed only gradually. Infectious cases in the enclosed wards, a constant source of epidemics and anxiety, were not separated until 1872 when the Cottage Hospital was opened: designed by the Medical Superintendent, Dr. J. Strange Biggs and built by hospital labour for 955. The "Infirmary Block" for the physically ill, with its operating theatre (now the Dispensary) was opened in 1931, and typified the enclosed, self- contained view of the mental hospital perpetuated since the last century. The most ambitious addition involved the removal of the mentally handicapped, and especially children, from the wards for the mentally ill. The "Annexe for Idiot Children" (now the Admission Hospital) was opened "'in the sixtieth year of Her Majesty's reign" (1897). The idea had been strongly advocated by the Superintendent, Hugh Gardiner-Hill (1856-1925), no doubt supported by an expert member of the Committee, John Langdon-Down (1812-1896). The building, designed by Rowland Plumbe, was opened on 15th October, 1897 with the admission of 20 "idiot children". It was equipped with visiting rooms (and toilets) at the front; the wards (into which visitors did not penetrate) lay to the rear. On the right of the entrance was spacious accommodation for a doctor and his family. It was lit from the first by electricity, although the change from gas needed a grant of an extra 5,000. Its opening made possible at Springfield an active approach to the education and training of the mentally handicapped, previously dispersed — to everyone's disadvantage — through all the wards. Hugh Gardiner-Hill stated the objective as "teaching them to acquire habits of cleanliness, and to develop their dormant senses, so as to adapt their minds and bodies for industrial training, and make their lives the happier by engaging in such occupations as tailoring, mat, basket, brush and shoe making . . . it would be a noble achievement to bring back this unfortunate class within the pale of ordinary life". This aspiration continued until the First World War when the building became a military hospital for the wounded. It was never again used for the mentally handicapped but underwent a further adaptation as the result of the Mental Treatment Act of 1930, providing accommodation for the new "Voluntary" patients. THE COMMITTEE AS A COUNTY INSTITUTION and facility, the Asylum started from the first as a service to the people of Surrey. At the time, that County reached as far north as the Thames, and Wandsworth represented a particularly densely populated area. Before the County Council's Act of 1888, Counties were administered by the Magistrates who were appointed by the Home Secretary after nomination by the Lord Lieutenant of the County. The system ensured that Magistrates were chosen exclusively from among the landed gentry, aristocracy or a few individuals who had risen by sheer industry or merit. Trades- people, the middle classes, or in fact anyone contaminated by business or trade found no place on the Bench or on the Subcommittees recruited from it, such as that which managed the County Lunatic Asylum. Throughout most of Queen Victoria's reign, the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey was William King, Earl of Lovelace (1805-1893). As a young man he had a promising career as a Diplomat, spoke four or five languages and while in the Middle East often talked with Mehmet Ali, the legendary Pasha of Egypt. In 1833 his father died unexpectedly; he returned hastily to look after the family estates and in 1835 married the only daughter of Lord Byron, the poet. She brought with her not only a large inheritance, but also influence with the Whig, Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne; these were the means by which King acquired his title and social eminence in the County. Although deaf and somewhat eccentric, he was a benevolent and competent landlord of his large estates — on which he designed many cottages and schools, as well as his own mansion (Horsley Towers) in what was described a "vaguely Rhenish Gothic" style. In such a milieu, it was natural to appoint minor, or under-employed, members of the aristocracy; Viscount Midleton, for example, or the IMG_0766.jpeg Hon. Sidney Roper-Curzon and Sir Richard Frederick Bt. The 6th Duke of Northumberland (1810 — 1899) was another who served on the Springfield committee (1846 -1869) brackets, although, as the largest landowner in the country, he spent much of his time at Alnwick Castle. When in the south of England, he lived at Albery park, near Guildford, with his father in law, Henry Drummond ( 1786 — 1868). This banker and MP is particularly remembered for found in the chair of political economy at Oxford brackets 1823 brackets and a sect known as the Catholic apostolic Church, which sprang from the Ministry of Edward Irving, a young and gifted preacher of Pentecostal doctrines and experience. After Irving's early death, the centre of these "Irvingites" shifted from Holborn to Albury were a church was built and which is still to be seen. Hon. Sidney Roper-Curzon and Sir Richard Frederick Bt. The 6th Duke of Northumberland (1810 — 1899) was another who served on the Springfield committee (1846 -1869) brackets, although, as the largest landowner in the country, he spent much of his time at Alnwick Castle. When in the south of England, he lived at Albery park, near Guildford, with his father in law, Henry Drummond ( 1786 — 1868). This banker and MP is particularly remembered for found in the chair of political economy at Oxford brackets 1823 brackets and a sect known as the Catholic apostolic Church, which sprang from the Ministry of Edward Irving, a young and gifted preacher of Pentecostal doctrines and experience. After Irving's early death, the centre of these "Irvingites" shifted from Holborn to Albury were a church was built and which is still to be seen. Many other Committee Members sat in Parliament for Surrey; Samuel Gurney (1816-1882) the son of a more famous banker and associate of Wilberforce, lived as a country gentleman in Carshalton: he served as President of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and founded the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. Others included Thomas Alcock (1801-1866) and Richard Alsager (_-1841). William Crawford, who had returned as a rich "nabob" from service in the East India Company; William Stone (1834-1896) had obtained a First in Classics, as well as being a Wrangler, and Henry Kemble (1787-1857) had supported William Pitt and served as Chairman of Springfield through some difficult years: William Denison (1770-1849), another banker, sat for Surrey from 1818 until his death. Some of those associated with the Asylum had reached greater distinction. Sir Richard Baggallay (1816-1888) was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn (1843) and later became Solicitor General and Attorney General; he drafted many of the legal documents for Parliamentary reform. Henry Goulburn (1784-1856), a wealthy West India proprietor, became Under Secretary for the Home Department in 1810, for the Colonics 1812-1821, and Secretary for Ireland 1821-1828. He became Home Secretary in 1828 and again in 1841, and it was during his time in this office that he joined the Springfield Committee where he remained until 1849, a combination of functions that nowadays is hard to conceive. His home in Surrey, Betchworth House, which he bought in 1819, remains in the possession of his family. William Jolliffe Hylton (1800-1876) had at the same time a long political career as a Conservative. He had been Under-Secretary for Home Affairs in Lord Derby's administration and in the Crimea War lost his son at the siege of Sebastopol. A year or two after the war was over, he joined the Springfield Committee where he served for nearly ten years. Like Drummond, a few were financiers. James Freshfield (1775-1864) who, after Cambridge entered the Law and became Solicitor to the Bank of England for 20 years; he became Chairman of the Globe Insurance Company and a member of the legal firm that still bears his name. He was also an important backer of the property developer Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855). At the time there were many members of the middle classes looking for safe investments offering a secure return: reliable speculation in property and the business in mortgages, was particularly attractive at a time when "blue chips" did not exist. Cubitt, whose firm developed Belgravia and Pimlico, was a self made man who had started life as a carpenter. His business acumen led him to increasingly ambitious ventures in developing large areas of London and his need for capital was increasingly easily met as his reputation for reliability and financial security became widely known. It was through backers like Freshfield that public confidence and Cubitt's security grew. Thomas Cubitt himself, although dying a millionaire and leaving a son who entered the aristocracy, never sought public office. It was left to his younger brother, William (1791-1863), a partner in the business, to enter politics and to become, more than once, Lord Mayor of London. William served as Member of Parliament for Andover, 1847-1861, at the same time that he was a Committee member for Springfield. His altruistic interests were also expressed by organizing a relief fund for the cotton workers thrown out of work by the American Civil War. Altruism was an important motive among men who sought election to an Asylum Committee. Springfield, situated a mile or so south of Clapham, attracted the interest of the serious minded and evangelical families who had, a generation earlier, formed the "Clapham Sect". Led by William Wilberforce (1759-1833), and worshipping in the Parish Church on Clapham Common under Henry Venn, they shared the belief that their Christian faith should be expressed in reforming social abuses such ay slavery. Thomas Henry Thornton (1832-1913) was a member of this second generation. A brilliant Classical and Hebrew Scholar at Oxford, he distinguished himself in the Indian Mutiny and became Secretary to IMG_0769 the Punjab Government: for a year he acted as Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, He maintained an active interest in the Universities of Calcutta and Lahore and retired to England to serve on the Springfield Committee and to write two books on India. Two others, similarly motivated, were members of the Barclay family. Charles (1780-1855) had himself been a member of the Clapham Sect, and had taken a prominent part in the anti-slavery campaign. Most of his working life was divided between the brewery (Barclay, Perkins & Co.) and various public offices, Parliament, Guy's Hospital and Spring- field (1837-1842). His son, Arthur Kett Barclay (1806-1869) succeeded his father as Head of the House of Barclay. He developed many scientific interests of his own and for his researches in astronomy was elected to the Royal Society. He remained a prominent figure in the scientific world until he developed a progressive paralysis at the aye of 50; after his death he was remembered as a man of "noble and unselfish character, strong religious principles, just and calm judgment". The interest, to a present day observer, of some of the Committee members, is often accidental. Lewis Loyd (1811-1891), for example, was the eldest son of a banking family and played a part in the family firm, but he lived in Beckenham and his house and estate were bought by the Governors of Bethlem when the hospital was to be moved from St. George's Fields in Lambeth. The Loyd mansion, Monks Orchard, stood on the site of what is now Witley House, Bethlem. The cultural background of the period is evoked by Henry Thomas Hope (1808-1862) whose father had lived at Deepdene, a mansion on the hillside above the main road to the coast, near Dorking. A scholar as well as a man of great wealth, Thomas Hope had introduced into furniture design patterns taken from antiquity: his book of Household Furniture (1807) was a source book for many years, and a set of chairs deriving from Hope's patterns were in the Springfield Committee Room for 140 years until they were stolen in 1981. His son, who sat on the Springfield Committee (1848-1852) no doubt used them himself. Another individual of special interest was Sir George Pollock (178 1872) whose distinctions had all been gained elsewhere before 4 retired to Clapham; he was already 76 when he joined the Springfield Committee for 4 years. His father had been saddler to George i _ his two brothers became distinguished lawyers. Pollock himse we Commissioned in an artillery regiment in India (1803) where to continued to serve for many years. In 1841, a British expedition Afghanistan had been annihilated on the Khyber Pass with only a solitary survivor. The following year Pollock, on his own initiative, relieved Kabul, secured the release of hostages and returned safely. His campaign and methods were regarded as a model of mountain warfare, and were often referred to in the military text books. A name that is familiar to every housewife is that of Henry Peck (1825-1898). A typical successful Victorian businessman, he centered the firm of Peek Bros. which dealt in tea, coffee and spice in its trade with the East Indies. In the years following the Napoleonic wars, business conditions were very favourable and Peck became extremely wealthy. The family firm diversified and expanded, forming the origin of Peek, Frean & Co., Brooke Bond, Associated Biscuits, as well as other companies. Peck lived in Wimbledon House and gave a large tract of land to the Government to enlarge the common. When he retired to Devon in 1863, he occupied himself with building a house containing 104 bedrooms. Very few doctors were represented on the Committee, but one was himself a distinguished psychiatrist. Charles Hood (1824-1876) had been the first Medical Superintendent of Friern Barnet (Colney Hatch Asylum). He moved in 1852 to Bethlem, as Superintendent, and ended a long tradition of absenteeism by himself living in the hospital. He did much to improve the activities and lot of his patients, was consulted by the Springfield Committee over the death of Damel Dolley (1856), and himself joined the Committee for a couple of years in 1865. The pattern of the Committee, in its membership and function, continued along traditional lines for nearly fifty years. Its character reflected the hegemony of the gentry and aristocracy, whose domination derived from agriculture and whose feudal organisation sprang from the Middle Ages. But although it reached its peak in Victorian times, it was soon to crumble. Around the 1870s, the economic basis of this agricultural society was shaken by an increasing flood of cheap grain from America. The penetration of the West by the railways made possible the transport of huge quantities of grain, grown cheaply, to markets in Europe. In this country, prices were depressed, agriculture suffered sharply, and the power and wealth of country landlords diminished, a change marked in 1888 with the passing of the County Councils Act. From that time power in the Counties was no longer the prerogative of the Lord Lieutenant and his nominees: councillors were now elected and the position suddenly became open to the middle IMG_0771.jpeg classes and tradespeople, from the traditional point of view social nonentities. However, although a few were people of permanent distinction, most become more difficult to trace and identify, and their personal history is unknown to us. One of the aristocracy so elected was George Bingham, who succeeded his father as the 4th Earl of Lucan in 1866. During the Crimean War, he had served as A.D.C. to his father who had been held responsible for the confused command which sent the Light Brigade on its disastrous charge. The 3rd Earl had treats! his unfortunate Irish tenantry with similar lack of feeling and had died in old age full of honours but held in awe or even fear. His son, by contrast, has been called "the most lovable and universally beloved of men", and as Earl set about rectifying his father's abuses in Mayo. Although his family no longer live there, it is his name that is still remembered with affection. He was active in County affairs in Surrey and served on the Springfield Committee for nearly twenty years until his death in 1909. Another member of the old class was Edward Hugh Leycester Penrhyn (1427-7). He had sat on the Committee with his father for a year or two after 6867 and remained a member until in 1889 the hospital was transferred to Middlesex; two years later he became Chairman of Surrey County Council, the culmination of a career of public service — Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, the Board of Guardians and an officer in the Surrey Militia. He lived and died in the house in Ease Sheen where he had himself been born. Typical of the new type of Councillor was Cory Francis Cory- Wright (1419-164), coal merchant who prospered and in 1963 4% created 2 Baronet. Hi. father, William Wright, had been severely wounded at Waterloo, tu. chene to christen his son Cory after his friend of that name wheae tunes: he eventually entered. He joined the Springfield Commrastuc on. in the year that he died. The natie of another tector is of particular interest: John Hayoo Lingdon-Drows (rhy-i4h, vas born in Cornwall and lefe screens 6 the age of 63 to ficly his father in his work as an apothecary. He 1" to Loridion few yeass later as an assistant to Michael Faraday afc a" entered the London Rfonpital where be distinguished hirnelf mite nuainy prives before belsy apeninted Assiseane Physician im 5459- fre previon: year he had alu: beer, appointed Medical Superintendent "a the Acshio: for ine: at Radivnced where he stayed for 16 years 4" was them mecended by Bor. Cratharn from Springfield, before COTE bi ea it ttt, Saotinandickd. This provided for the fete minded of the upper classes", and since 1948 has been incorporated into the National Health Service. In 1866 he made his "Observations on the Ethnic Classification of Idiots" in which he described the group of Mongolian appearance, with which his name is now permanently associated. In 1889 he became a County Alderman for Middlesex, and served on the Asylum Committee until his death: he must have been 2 powerful influence in separating the mentally handicapped from the mentally ill, and building for them a new and thoughtfully designed "Annexe", later to become the "Admission Hospital". No account of the Springfield Committee could be complete without mention of Stephen Bridgland (1805-1882), its first effective Clerk and Steward to the hospital. He was appointed in 1842, to succeed the Steward who had quarrelled with Dr. Quick, and remained for 11 years, after which he continued for another 6 years to serve as Clerk and to administer the farm reallyloor of the Administration Block, and retired in old age to Mitcham. However, he gave the Asylum, according to the standards of his time, an efficient and smooth administration and was described as a man of "habitual courtesy and good feeling". The greatest test of his abilities came: int 1856, after the death of Daz! Dolley. The enquiries of the Commissioners of Lunacy were communicated by their Secretary, John Forster (1812-1876) himself a highly cultivated man, a biographer of distinction and" "[https]://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/LNDRG11_654_657-0664?pId=21025156 Westminster Union Schools [BNA: "1881 Census > London > Wandsworth > All > District [c.30] [BNA: Royal Hospital for Incurables [BNA: County Lunatic Asylum [BNA: "Biography and grave of Cyrus Elliott PB: I notice in 1861 Martha P Leech is Matron, aged 40, unmarried,, born Gosport, in Elliott's Munster [|Monster"] House, London Road, Fulham [now Munster Road?] 1881 says b. Long Sutton, Somerset — she is proprietor Private Lunatic Asylum, Clapham Rd, with her younger sister, also unmarried, Eliza, born Rochdale, Lancs with 9 "borders", "lunatics" (initials), all female 46-74, plus 1 attendant (female) and 3 domestic servants (female) "Clapham Rd" must be what we would call the top of East Hill because the Description of the Enumeration District says "That part of Wandsworth consisting of the south side of East Hill from the "Huguenots" to the common continuing round to Mr Dubuisson's. Heathfield Road to the railway and the houses in Earlsfield Road top end. The north side of the Clapham Road to and including Kent [?] house. The whole of Spencer Park estate. The south side of the London Road to Saint Anne's Road taking the whole of the latter except the two villas at the N E corner. Part of Park Road and the whole of Spanish Road, but not the Boys Home." [BNA: CE is buried in Heen Cemetery, Worthing [BNA: Link. Cyrus Elliott Burial Number: 0004" target="_blank">Link.] Gender: Male Occupation: Surgeon Born: 14/11/1809 Died: 07/03/1874 Buried: 14/03/1874 Cyrus Elliott was baptised on the 10th Dec 1809 at St Mary, Newington, Surrey, son of Cyrus and Mary Elliott. In 1841 he was listed as a Surgeon in a "Licensed Madhouse" in Old Brompton. ( I have found no evidence for his qualification as Surgeon.) In 1857 he was resident at Munster House in Fulham. It was a leasehold house and premises for which he paid 150 per year. From a History of Fulham: Munster Road was first recorded in 1397 when it was a rough path running through farmland known as 'Fulham Fields' which stretched from North End Road to the River Thames. In the 16th century the area was dominated by Munster House. Set in eight acres at the junction with Fulham Road the house became known as 'Monster House' due to two hideous stone lions adorning its frontage. It stood for around 400 years and was used variously as a school and a lunatic asylum before being demolished in 1894. In the 1861 census at London Rd., Munster House, Fulham were Cyrus A Elliott 50 proprietor of Asylum. Martha P Leech Matron Plus Assistants [2 male], Attendants [5 male] and Servants [7 — cook, laundress, housemaids, kitchen maids etc]. [PB: And c.25 patients, shown by initials = no occupation [x6], surgeon, clergyman [x2], clark, tailor, builder, lawyers clerk [x2], merchant, farmer, solicitors clerk, barrister, mercantile clerk, surveyor, draper, miller, ironmonger, leather factor, stockbroker] Between 1861 and 1867, Dr Elliott moved to Worthing. He is at Elm Villa, Broadwater Street, in an 1867 Worthing Directory. (The Elms, at 66 Broadwater Street East, was built in 1827 next to the former Elm Villa, which itself dated back to the 1800s.) At some time during the 1860s, Dr Cyrus Elliott built on his land (originally known as The Quashetts) an arch made of large flints that he had collected from the chalk hills around Worthing. It was originally intended to be a screen to the town beyond, the arch stood collecting ivy until 1967 when its condition became precarious and it was demolished. Today, the road leading to the site of the arch has been re-named Ivy Arch Road, and The Quashetts retained as a footpath between Little High Street and Broadwater Street West. (From the Folly Fellowship) In 1865, in Brentford, he married Anna Maria Duncan, who was born in Chelsea about 1830. In 1867 land which Cyrus Elliott owned was taken over for the building of the Gasworks in Worthing : Cyrus Elliott built a vinery at his home, reputedly using large panes of glass left over from Crystal Palace the first Worthing 'glasshouse' using large panes of glass. (The hefty tax on glass was repealed in 1845) He made a donation of 105 towards the building of St Botolphs Church, and was one of the Proposers, in 1873, at a meeting to discuss a Church at Heene. He died in February 1874, at Elm Villa. "23rd April 1874, Will of Cyrus Alexander Elliott late of Elm Villa, Broadwater in the County of Sussex Esquire proved by Anne Maria Elliott of Elm Villa Widow the Relict, Researcher: Liz Lane" "V G on where the records are [BNA: Link. Springfield Hospital A Short History A small book produced by the current Mental Health Trust at Wandsworth that covers the early history of the First Asylum to be built in Surrey, this publication should be available via the Trust. Ian Lodge Patch" "LOST HOSPITALS OF LONDON Springfield University Hospital 61 Glenburnie Road, Wandsworth, SW17 7DJ Medical dates: Medical character: 1841 — current Mental The Asylum Act, 1808, encouraged the building of public asylums, but the Counties were slow to respond. By 1827 only nine had been built, with the mentally ill continuing to live in the streets, in workhouses or in private madhouses. In 1838 the Surrey magistrates finally decided to establish a county asylum for the mentally ill poor. To this end, they purchased Springfield Park for £8, 985 from Mr Henry Perkins (1779-1855), a wealthy brewer and partner in the firm of Barclay Perkins, who had decided to move to Dover. The estate, with 97 acres of land, was considered an ideal location for the Asylum because of its nearness to population centres, its southerly aspect and clean air, and a suitable water supply. Springfield Park contained an 18th century mansion house, stables and a coach house, as well as farm buildings. The entrance drive was from Aboyne Road. A well was bored in 1839. By 1840 construction had been completed. It was the 15th asylum to be built. The buildings had cost £67, 467 and their furnishings and initial expenses some £7, 515. The Asylum had 350 beds and was built to the 'corridor' plan, a state-of-the-art design (ward wings radiated off a long spinal corridor at right-angles). Patients would be diagnosed, classified and sent to designated wards. The Asylum was built in the Tudor style, with twisted chimneys similiar to those at Hampton Court Palace (these were later removed, being considered dangerous, and not replaced). The facade was patterned with variegated brickwork and subtle angles, but the interiors were plain and dull, apart from the main hall and staircase. The buildings were heated by a central heating system, with steam circulating through the galleries and hot air injected through the floors. Grand sweeping lawns, with a stone-carved fountain, flanked the reception area. On entering the main building, the Committee Room was on the right and the residence of the Medical Superintendent on the left. The Steward was housed on the 2nd floor of the central part (but when he retired in 1872 his rooms were used as accommodation for nurses and domestics). Behind the main hall were two offices, used as doctors' surgeries, where the medical staff wrote up their clinical notes in massive bound volumes. The kitchens, gas works, boiler house and well (and, after 1881, a builder's yard) were at the rear of the main building. Staff were hired and the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum opened on 14th June 1841, with 299 patients being admitted that day from other asylums in London and Surrey, mainly from Peckham House (172 patients), Hoxton (54 patients) and Bethnal Green (51 patients). The Asylum had four principal officers — a visiting physician, a Resident Medical Superintendent on a salary of £250 a year, a Matron ( £80 a year) and a Steward ( £150 a year). An attendant (as nurses were called then) earned £26 a year. The cost of keeping an in-patient per week was 9s (45p). By the end of the first year the Asylum had 385 inmates — 170 males and 215 females — although several elements for the proper functioning of the Asylum were still missing, including some furniture and bedding. The front drive had not yet been made, nor the porter's lodge built. In 1842 some £1, 981 was spent on levelling the ground, with the excavated earth being removed. New roads were laid and gravelled. The airing courts (ward gardens where patients exercised) were turfed, and a bowling green laid down for the patients' recreation. An oak fence was erected to mark the estate boundary. A wall was built around the kitchen garden, at the cost of £1, 574, to enclose 8 acres at the northeast of the site. The farm buildings of Springfield Farm, which lay to the west of the Asylum buildings, were re-used to serve the farmland, worked by male patients for occupational therapy. The iron pipes of the central heating system soon proved to be too thin, with the resulting explosions throughout the wards injuring patients. The system was removed and fireplaces installed instead. After five or six years the Asylum had become overcrowded and, in 1849, had to be extended, as a cost of £35,000. Two new wings were added to the building, providing accommodation for 400 more patients. The water supply ran out in 1850 and, while a new well was drilled, the Lambeth Waterworks Co. supplied the Asylum with "not fewer than 30,000 gallons daily", at a rate of 3d (just over 1p) per 1,000 gallons. (The new well became operational in 1860. By 1855 the Asylum could accommodate 430 males and 534 females. The Resident Superintendent of the Female Department from 1849-1858, Dr Hugh Welch Diamond (1807-1886), described as the 'father of psychiatric photography', took photographs of exceptional quality of many of the patients in his care. In 1860 and 1864 additional land was acquired to the east of the site. The Asylum then had 83 acres of farmland and 14 acres of kitchen gardens in which male patients were employed to provide food for the institution (as with other asylums at this time, it was almost self-sufficient). In 1872 a separate cottage hospital (today known as White Lodge) was erected to treat Asylum patients with infectious diseases. Designed by the Medical Superintendent, it was built by the patients at a cost of £955. As the patient numbers increased, two further wings were added at the south of the site. A ballroom was built in 1879. In 1881 a purpose-built chapel was built to replace the one located inside the main building, in accordance with the wishes of the Lunacy Commissioners. A water tower was built in 1885, as the cost of £1,300, in an attempt to solve the water supply problems being experienced from the two wells (the tower was demolished in 1976). The pump from the original well — a Maudsley table engine — was used until after WW2 and is now in the Science Museum. (The newer pump for the second well was broken up for scrap). In 1889 London County Council and Middlesex County Council were formed following the Local Government Act, 1888. The Surrey County Lunatic Asylum was allocated to the Middlesex County Council, who renamed it the Wandsworth Asylum. In 1893 a new entrance was made at Glenburnie Road, thus making the back of the Asylum the front. A lodge was built by the new entrance, as well as spacious accommodation for the Medical Superintendent and his family — the new buildings being lit from the first by electricity. An extra lodge was built in 1897. The Lunacy Act, 1890, sought to separate mentally handicapped children from mentally ill adults and, in October 1897, an Annexe for Idiot Children with 260 beds opened in a separate building, advocated by the Medical Superintendant, Dr Hugh Gardiner-Hill (1856-1925). Visiting rooms and toilets were located at the front of the building, while the ward accommodation was at the rear (where visitors were not allowed to enter). During WW1 the Asylum became the Springfield War Hospital. A Neurological Unit was established in the Annexe for Idiot Children, renamed Springfield House Hospital (separated from the main Asylum by a high fence) for patients with shell shock or loss of mental balance. Together with the 4th London General Hospital, it was the principal reception centre for the mentally disabled from the front in France. At the beginning of 1916 Springfield House Hospital accepted severe or protracted cases referred from the Neurological Units of the 23 Territorial Force General Hospitals in the United Kingdom. After the war the Annexe was never used again for mentally handicapped patients (following the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, it became a building for 'voluntary' patients. It was renamed the Admissions Hospital). The Wandsworth Asylum was renamed Springfield Mental Hospital after the war. In 1927 an association was formed with the Westminster Hospital and Medical School. Clinicians at Springfield taught medical students in their Out-Patient clinics, while the Westminster Hospital consultants provided a service to Springfield patients (this arrangement lasted until after WW2). In 1930 a Nurses' Home was officially opened by Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood. It provided accommodation for 140 nurses, who had previously lived in side rooms and in the towers of the main building. In 1931 an infirmary block (now the Dispensary) opened to treat mentally ill patients who were also physically ill. Operating theatres were installed in the block. In 1932 the Asylum had 1, 848 patients. In 1933, an Annexe opened in Kingston Road to accommodate elderly female patients. In 1939, when it had dropped the word 'Mental' in its title, the Hospital had 1, 931 patients. During WW2, with no bomb shelters available, the patients were crowded into the basements in an attempt the shelter them from high explosive bombs. Dysentery broke out, with hundreds of patients affected. As well as the common Flexner and Sonne forms of the disease, a new strain was discovered. Springfield Asylum, the Annual Report states, had the distinction of developing a new infective agent, unlike any other bacteria of the intestinal group. the bacillus dysenteriae Springfield. This outbreak produced a legacy of carriers of the disease who required segregation from the Asylum population. Although the buildings received no direct hits during the war, they suffered blast damage from flying bombs nearby. At the end of the war in 1945, the Hospital had 2, 040 patients. The Hospital joined the NHS in 1948 with 1, 856 beds. under the control of the Springfield Tooting Hospital Management Committee, part of the South West Metropolitan Regional Health Board. It was by now providing the usual treatments for mental illness — Cardiazol convulsion therapy, electroplexy (ECT) and deep insulin treatment, as well as neurosurgery. Out-Patient clinics were held at Westminster Hospital, St Charles Hospital and West Middlesex Hospital. As with other mental hospitals, the ratio of elderly patients had been steadily increasing. In 1949 the Hospital was overcrowded and seriously short of nursing staff. The Hospital had a bed complement of 2, 177 beds, but there were only 2, 128 patients (740 males and 1, 388 females), of whom 33% were over the age of 65 years. These patients were disturbed, senile or moribund, but did not need psychiatric care; there was nowhere else for them to go. In 1950, when the Hospital had 2, 153 patients, modernisation and repair of the wards began, with underpinning of some of the buildings. Refrigerators were installed in the kitchens. The letter and number system of ward names was abandoned, and the wards were renamed — male wards after trees (for example, Willow, Elm, Yew — Fir and Teak Wards were for the most seriously disturbed) and female wards after flowers (Dahlia, Aster, Zinnia, Fuchsia, Bluebell, Crocus, Marigold, Tulip, etc). The cottage hospital was refurbished and modernised — with a TV and a radio — and became White Lodge — a Neurosis Unit for 20 female patients (male neurotic patients had a ward in the Admissions Hospital). The Medical Superintendent's house became a hostel for male nurses. The farm had 50 cows producing 800 gallons of milk a week; poultry produced eggs, and provided meat, as did pigs. Fruit was provided by the orchard, and vegetables and salads were grown in the kitchen garden. But both farm and orchard were under threat and, in 1951, 2 acres were taken from the orchard end for a school playing ground. In the early 1950s the average stay of a patient was 1, 050 days. In 1953 an Annexe was opened in New Malden for 290 long-stay elderly female patients who required custodial care only. For the Coronation in 1953, TVs were set up in the wards so that the patients could watch the ceremony. A 12" TV set was provided for the Sisters' Sitting Room. The Hospital had 2, 128 patients (764 males and 1, 364 females), who stayed an average of 779 days. Outbreaks of dysentery occurred at the main hospital and the Annexe (this was almost an annual occurrence). By 1954 the Hospital was suffering from a perpetual shortage of nursing staff; there were 110 full-time and 40 part-time female nurses and 120 full-time and 7 part-time male nurses looking after 2, 089 patients, 250 of whom were voluntary. About 21% of patients were over the age of 65 years. The cost of an in-patient was 17s 6d (88p) a week. An arrangement was made with St James Hospital in Balham for Springfield patients to be sent there for general surgery, if necessary. Neurosurgery was carried out at the Whittington Hospital, as the post for a neurosurgeon at the Hospital was vacant. A centralised radio system was installed in the wards. The sum of £7,000 had been granted by the King Edward's Hospital Fund for a new Occupational Therapy Centre for 200 patients. It was to be built equidistant from the main block, the Cottage Hospital and the Admissions Hospital. In 1954 the Catholic chapel was altered to double its capacity. While the Hospital had some 250 Catholic patients, the chapel could only hold 32 (but usually some 45 had to be squeezed in). The extinction of the farm approached and, in 1954, 26 acres of farmland was taken over by the LCC for building purposes (the site now contains a housing estate and a school). The piggeries and poultry remained, however, cared for by male patients, 40 of whom also worked in the gardens and orchards. In 1955 the new Occupational Therapy Centre was opened by Dr Noel Harris, the past-President of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. The Hospital had 2, 093 patients, 16.9% of whom were over the age of 65 years. By now the Hospital was entering the age of tranquilisers. The advent of chlorpromazine (Largactil) led to a reduction in the number of deep insulin treatments. Two Out-Patient clinics were established at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Ealing. In 1955 all dairy farming ceased and the use of the farm gate was discontinued as an exit and entry point. (Burntwood School now stands on part of the farmland, where Springfield Farm's Grade I Ilisted ice house remains in its grounds; the other part became Springfield Park Golf Course, now renamed the Central London Golf Centre.) The resident male nurses vacated the Medical Superintendent's House and moved to the Nurses' Home. The Admission Hospital was redecorated internally. The Hospital had 34 dysentery carriers housed in one ward, and 14 enteric carriers. By 1956 there were 2, 069 patients, 21% of whom were aged 65 or over. The Hospital's death rate was high — 10.94% — but this reflected the fact that many patients were elderly and died of respiratory conditions afflicting old age. By the end of the 1950s the Hospital had been almost surrounded by urban development. During the 1960s the number of in-patients began to fall, mainly due to the introduction of drug treatments which enabled patients to be treated as out-patients. Burntwood Villa was built in 1960 and Springfield Cottages in 1968, in the northwest corner of the site, presumably as staff residences. In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the NHS, the Hospital became part of the Wandsworth and East Merton (Teaching) District Health Authority, under the South West Thames Regional Health Authority. In 1978 it had 1, 124 beds. In 1980 it had 1,000 beds. After another reorganisation in 1982, it became part of the Wandsworth District Health Authority. By 1984 it had 828 beds. The Joan Bicknell Centre was built, named after the first Professor of the Psychiatry of Mental Handicap and a pioneer of psychodynamic thinking in working with people with learning diabilities. By the beginning of the 1990s, due to the new attitude to mental health issues, many of the large mental health institutions had closed or were being gradually emptied. Government policy of deinstitutionalising mental patients and returning them to 'care in the community' had begun to have effect following the report "Making a Reality of Community Care", published in 1986. The National Health Service and Community Care Act, 1990, enabled patients to receive long-term care in their own homes (with adequate support) or in a residential home setting. The Annexe in New Malden — the Morris Markowe Unit — closed in 1991. Ronald Gibson House, a nursing home for 56 residents, opened on the Hospital campus in the same year (it was extended in 2006). Throughout the 1990s fewer patients were admitted to the Hospital and wards were closed. However, out-patient clinics and support services increased. In 1994 the Hospital became part of the Pathfinder Mental Health Services NHS Trust, which changed its name in 1999 to the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. In September 2005 the £7m Phoenix Unit opened, a low secure 2-storey mental health rehabilitation facility with accommodation for 18 patients. The latest development, the £23m Wandsworth Acute Unit, opened in April 2009. It contains an 18-bed acute ward and a psychiatric intensive care unit with 10 beds. Present status (July 2010) The site, which contains some 67 buildings, is currently the headquarters of the Trust. Many of the original Hospital buildings are now disused and the Trust hopes to sell most of the site for redevelopment. The old buildings would be converted into 262 apartments, and new family housing built. This residential area would be known as 'Springfield Garden Village'. The Trust plans to build new mental health facilities in the northern part of the vast sprawling campus. The main building, built in 1840, is Grade I Ilisted and is currently on English Heritage's 'At Risk' register. The Elizabeth Newton Wing, built in 1897, is also Grade I Ilisted. The mortuary (now called Island House) had been converted into an exhibition centre, while the chapel had become the Mayfield Gymnastics Club. Update: January 2011 Planning permission for the redevelopment of the site was refused in December 2010. Update: July 2013 Planning permission was granted in June 1012. The project is now called Springfield Park. N.B. Photographs were obtained in February 2008 The gate lodge on Glenburnie Road, built in 1893. Harewood House, the former Nurses' Home, is seen to the right. The entrance to Springfield University Hospital campus (right). Hightrees — the former Medical Superintendent's Residence (left). A ward building at the north end. The northwest side of the Hospital (left). The male ward block (right). The western elevation of the main administration block, dated 1840, was once the front of the Hospital. Wings were added later on either side. The main administration building(left). The stone fountain still remains in front of the building (right). Mental care facilities on the south side of the campus. The airing court on the south side of the Hospital. The workshop and utility area of the Hospital in the centre of the site. The ballroom with the chapel just visible behind it (left). The Mayfield Children's Centre Nursery (right). Island House, the former mortuary (left). The maintenance yard on the northeast side of the site (right). The Admissions Building, the central part of the Elizabeth Newton Wing. During WW1 the Wing became the Springfield War Hospital. Built in 1897, it was originally the Annexe for Idiot Children. Patient 'escapees' The Hospital has recently attracted a great deal of media attention and controversy because of a high number of violent crimes relating to its escapees. In 2004 John Barrett, a paranoid schizophrenic, left the Hospital, having been given permission to walk in the grounds unattended. He bought a set of kitchen knives and, the next day, fatally stabbed to death a cyclist, Denis Finnegan, in Richmond Park. Since 2005 some 30 patients have escaped from secure wards. In 2009 one patient escaped and two absconded, one of whom was the rapist Barrington Gordon (he was found 12 hours later). Paul Caesar, a convicted killer, went on the run after being allowed to walk in the Hospital grounds unescorted, then committed suicide at Balham station by jumping in front of a train. References (Author unstated) 1915 Medical notes in Parliament. Army casualties (mental strain). British Medical Journal 1 (2842), 1060-1061. [BNA: hansard.millbanksystems.com [BNA: rebuild.swlsgt.mwdev.co.uk [BNA: risk.english-heritage.org.uk [BNA: studymore.org.uk www.contaminationzone.com www.countyasylums.com www.derelictplaces.co.uk www.parksandgardens.ac.uk www.1914-1918.net www.springfieldregeneration.co.uk www.swlsgt-tr.nhs.uk (1) www.swlsgt-tr.nhs.uk (2) www.swlsgt-tr.nhs.uk (3) www.thetimechamber.co.uk (1) www.thetimechamber.co.uk (2) www.wandsworth.gov.uk (1) www.wandsworth.gov.uk (2) www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk Return to alphabetical list Return to home page" "________ The Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837 — 1901 Home Browse Search Analysis Documentation Author: Ebenezer Rogers (1836 — 1915) Biography: Ebenezer Rogers was born in 1836 in Dublin, the son of William Cooke Rogers and Eliza Burrowes. In his teens, he joined the army and served with the 3rd West Indian Regiment rising to captain by 1866. While with the 3rd, he served in expeditions to Gambia (1864) and Honduras (1867). He recounted his experiences in the book Campaigning in Western Africa and the Ashantee Invasion (1874). By the time it was published, he had joined the Pensioners as a staff officer. In 1865, he married Grace Charlotte van Homrigh and the couple had three children. Rogers only wrote a single novel, A Modern Sphinx(1881), reprinted under the title "Madeline's Mystery" as edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. The novel features a character named Dr. Fitzjames based on the real-life Dr. James Barry (died 1865), an army surgeon revealed to be a woman at her death. In fact, in a letter to The Lancet, Rogers recounts once sharing a ship cabin with Barry while never suspecting the truth. Rogers also wrote two works on machine gun tactics. After his wife died, he subsequently married Harriett Edmonston but the marriage ended in separation if not divorce. He died in 1915 in Wandsworth. Author Tags: Army Officers West Indian Authors References: British Census (1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911); The Lancet (19 October 1895) Fiction Titles: A Modern Sphinx: A Novel. 3 vol. London: John Maxwell, 1881. How to Cite APA Chicago MHRA MLA A Modern Sphinx [BNA: [BNA: [BNA: "On 7 Mar 2022, at 15:48, Philip Boys wrote: MARRIAGES. Aug. fi, at Marylebone Church, John Randolph H** Esq., of l'eiikhull, Staffordshire, to Harriett, .. . . . 7, t Islington, Klizabeth, tecoud daughter of late Dr. Coote, ot Doctors' Commons. y. Aug. 7, it his residence on Wandsworth Common, Jote? Kaye, Ksq., in the ll.id year of his age. . . . Published: Saturday 8 August 1840 Newspaper: London Evening Standard County: London, England Type: Article | Words: 184 | Page: 4 | Tags: none Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries . . . Norwood, Miss Haidy, late of Wells House, East Acton.-At Highbury, Ann Elizabeth, widow of the late John Cogan, Esq.-At Wandsworth Common, Joseph-Kaye, Esq. aged 83.-At Hayre-do-Grace, W. Chanleton, Esq. of Stockton, aged 67.-At Paris, aged 91, Peter Patrick . . . Published: Saturday 15 August 1840 Newspaper: Oxford Journal County: Oxfordshire, England Type: FamilyNotice | Words: 1000 | Page: 4 | Tags: Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries At Wandsworth Common, Joseph Kaye, Esq. aged 83. i.e born c. 1757 [BNA: Link.] Bell's New Weekly Messenger — Sunday 5 January 1845 the Rev. George Tyndall, Rector of Lapwortb, late Fellow Merton College, Oxford, to Jane Powell, daughter of the late Joseph Kaye, Esq., of Wandsworth Common. . [BNA: Link.] Barnsley Chronicle, etc. — Saturday 29 July 1876 I can't find the passage on this page: FINANCES . . . chancel, and a tower 24 yards high. It cost about £2000, exclusive of the site and burial-ground, given by Joseph Kaye, of Wandsworth Common. The most liberal contributor was T. W. Beaumont, Esq., who endowed it with £l300, besides the cost of erecting . . . [BNA: Link.] Sun (London) — Thursday 2 January 1845 On the 31st ult., at Speldhurst, the Rev. George Rector of Lapworth, late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford' to Jane Pow e ll, d aug h ter o f t h e l ate Joseph Kaye, Es+, Wandsworth-common. [BNA: Link.] "Hello again, Keith Just in case . . . Acc. To Dorian Gerhold, Wandsworth Past, p51 the Barchards were living there "at least from 1793 to 1851". The house he says stood "on the north-east corner of Geraldine Road" This is particularly interesting to me for a couple of reasons 1. Because "Mr Barchard" (presumably Robert Wildman Barchard) was prominent in the 1820s for trying to save the Common. He had various businesses including coal merchant, and distiller in partnership with Daniel Watney. And 2. Because a Barchard daughter (Ellen) married her near-neighbour living in "Black Sea House" (if that was indeed the name it was known by) the Price's candles genius George Fergusson Wilson. She was an accomplished botanical illustrator. DG names several of the East Hill houses and their tenants/owners. And includes some nice pics. Just thought I'd say. All best Philip" "Joseph Kaye 'of Wandsworth Common' was a trustee under the will of David Lyon sen. (q.v.). Enslaved people on Mount Alexander estate in Grenada were also registered in 1817 as in the possession of George Gun Munro, attorney of Aron Graham, Henry Litchfield and Joseph Kaye, trustees of Messrs. A. Houstoun & Co. Joseph Kaye was almost certainly the man who had been a partner in Winter & Kaye, later Freshfield & Kaye, until his retirement in 1823. Will of Joseph Kaye of Wandsworth Common proved 27/08/1840. Under the will he left £60,000 to his unmarried daughters and £12,000 in trust for the family of his son Charles Kaye. Sources T71/265 pp. 374-377; Judy Slinn, 'Freshfield family (per. 1800 — 1918)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007 [[http]://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49721, accessed 14 June 2016]. Henry Charles Litchfield was solicitor to the Treasury. PROB 11/1932/280. 1817 [EA] — _ TRUSTEE Mount Alexander [ Grenada | St Patrick ] \ Commercial (1) PARTNER Freshfields Solicitor DETAILSnotes _Partner in Winter & Kaye, predecessor firm of . . . Relationships (2) Joseph Kaye FATHER _ SON Charles KayeDETAILS Joseph Kaye TRUSTEE _ TESTATOR David Lyon seniorDETAILS Addresses (1) Wandsworth Common, Wandsworth, Surrey, London, Engla" "SURVEY 49.5 For a brief period the common was managed on a similar basis to Clapham by a lease from the Spencers. This was granted in 1839 for 21 years. The five lessees all lived close by: Alexander Gordon, Joseph Kaye, William Nottage, Henry McKellar and William Wilson. However, the lease was terminated in 1851.166 Improvements made during that time were no longer evident by the mid 1860s when the Select Committee on Open Spaces in the Metropolis examined its poor condition. In the intervening years a combination of enclosures and excessive gravel-digging had drastically reduced the common's size and impaired the surviving ground, which was frequently flooded in the winter. All but one of the public footpaths had been stopped up, and an area formerly used as a cricket ground had become useless.167 The resultant Metropolitan Commons Act of 1866 gave a renewed impetus to preservation.168" "THINK ABOUT THIS WANDSWORTH COMMON AS AN EMBODIMENT — A CELEBRATION — AN EXEMPLAR — OF POLITICAL MODEL OF BRITAIN TO COME Neil McGregor was talking on R4 today about Stowe as a designed but informal park embodying CHOICES — people could visit — walk around — go around it whichever way they chose — in short "democratic" — very VERY different from the formal gardens of e.g. Versailles created for autocrats Can it be argued that Wandsworth Common was just such a place designed to allow EVERYBODY a healthy free open space NOT "owned" / ruled / controlled etc as a park The Conservators were democratically elected (every 3 years) At a time when suffrage was opening up to greater numbers?" "Alliott Verdon Roe [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliott_Verdon_Roe ..began to build a series of flying models, and won a Daily Mail competition with a prize of 75 for one of his designs in 1907. With the prize money and the use of stables at his brother's house in West Hill, Putney, he then began to build a full-size aeroplane, the Roe IBiplane, based on his winning model. He tested this at Brooklands in 190708, recording his first successful flight on 8 June 1908.[5] After encountering problems with the management of Brooklands he moved his flight experiments to Walthamstow Marshes, where he rented space under a railway arch at the western end of the viaduct. Despite many setbacks, Roe persisted with his experiments and there is now a blue plaque commemorating his first successful flight (in July 1909) at the site. His aircraft, Avroplane, a triplane, is preserved in London's Science Museum.[6] In addition, a working replica was unveiled on 7 June 2008 at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey. . . . On 28 October 2011 a green plaque was unveiled by Wandsworth Council and members of the Verdon-Roe family at the site of Roe's first workshop at West Hill, Putney." "Miss Palmer's Diary: The Secret Journals of a Victorian Lady Gillian Wagner Bloomsbury Publishing, 30 Sept 2017 — History — 312 pages In 1847, seventeen-year-old Miss Ellen Palmer had the world at her feet. A debutante at the start of her first London season, Ellen was beautiful, rich and accomplished and about to experience the world of dances, opera visits and dinner parties which were a rite-of-passage for young women of her class. To record the glittering whirl of activity, Ellen started writing a diary, a unique daily account which was discovered over a century later by her descendants. For Ellen, the path to true love did not run smooth — after a scandalous encounter with a duplicitous Swedish count, her marriage prospects were dealt a heavy blow. But Ellen was a woman ahead of her time. Undeterred by her increasing social isolation, she set off on a treacherous trip across Europe in pursuit of her beloved brother Roger, an officer in the Crimean War. In doing so she became one of the first women to visit the battlefield at Balaclava. Ellen's diaries provide a first-hand account of the realities of debutante life in Victorian London whilst also telling the story of an inspirational young woman, her quest for love and her spectacular journey from the ballroom to the battlefield." "HENRY MOSELEY BIOGRAPHY [BNA: mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Moseley/" target="_blank">Link. MacTutor HOMEBIOGRAPHIESHISTORY TOPICSMAPCURVESSEARCH Henry Moseley Quick Info Born 9 July 1801 Long Buckby, Northamptonshire, England Died 20 January 1872 Olveston, Gloucestershire, England Summary Henry Moseley was an English churchman, mathematician, and scientist. He served as Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy at King's College, London. He then became of of the first H.M. inspectors of schools. View three larger pictures Biography Henry Moseley was the son of William Moseley and Margaret Robins. Let us make it clear before we proceed that the details at the beginning of the Dictionary of National Biography article [16], contain errors. The article begins:- Moseley, Henry (1801-1872), mathematician and writer on mechanics, was born on 9 July 1801, the son of Dr William Willis Moseley, who kept a large private school at Newcastle under Lyme, and his wife, Margaret Jackson. He was educated at the grammar school in Newcastle under Lyme . . . William Moseley was a student at Hoxton Academy in London which was for dissenting divinity students. He was invited to become a pastor at Atherstone in Warwickshire in a church formed on 19 February 1794, he left Atherstone to become an independent pastor in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire in 1795. On 27 May 1796 he married Margaret Robins, the daughter of Robert and Margaret Robins. Their first child, William Michael Robert Moseley, was born in Long Buckby on 25 January 1798; he became an architect. Their second child was Henry Moseley, the subject of this biography. In 1802 the family moved to Hanley in Staffordshire when the Rev William Moseley was appointed as a Congregational minister at the Independent Hanley Tabernacle Church on the High Street [13]:- The Congregationalists possess one of the finest groups of buildings in [Hanley], known as the Tabernacle Church, to which are attached a lecture hall, schools, vestries, and class rooms. The buildings, which are situated in High Street, are in the perpendicular style of architecture, erected with red brick and stone. In the centre rises an embattled tower, with octagonal stair turret and pyramidal spire, attaining a total height of 100 feet. The lecture hall, which is a very spacious apartment, has a richly traceried window of seven lights. Below the chapel is a large hall, around which are placed the various school and class rooms, and a library. We note that Hanley was in the parish of Stoke but not far from Newcastle-under-Lyme. The Moseley family remained in Hanley until 1814, so Henry was brought up in this town where he was a member of an ever increasing family. Children born after Henry included Margaret (born 1802), Francis Xavier (born 1804), Eliza (born 1805), Harriot (born 1809), Louisa (born 1810), Andrew (born 1814), Joseph Newman (born 1816), Emma (born 1818), and George Willis (born 1820). We note that the births were recorded several years after the children were born and there are many inconsistencies in the dates of birth. For example, the birth of Henry, the subject of this biography, is recorded as 19 July 1800 while, in later life, he seemed to believe his birth was on 9 July 1801. Let us note that the Rev William Moseley published several books, some consisting of his sermons, such as Essays on the Evidences of Christianity (1797), A Memoir on the Importance and Practicality of Translating and Printing the Holy Scriptures in the Chinese language (Second Edition, 1801), Actual sin and future misery traced to their real causes; in which the Doctrine of Reprobation is examined (1805), and The New Token for Children (1805). While in Hanley, he was also making a map [14]:- The Rev William Moseley, of Hanley, Staffordshire, has long been engaged in preparing a map to exhibit the geography and history of the Old Testament at one view, and he has now nearly completed his design. This map will contain all the places of any note mentioned in the writings of Moses and the prophets, the division of the Land of Israel into tribes, the distances of the principal places, and the travels of the children of Israel from Egypt into Canaan, with an historical account of each place. After leaving Hanley in 1814, the family probably spent time in Abbeville, Somme, France; certainly Henry attended school there. By 1816 they were living in Hampshire Terrace, Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire when Joseph Newman Moseley was born. Henry attended a naval school in Portsmouth and while there wrote the paper On measuring the Depth of the Cavities seen on the Surface of the Moon. By 1818 the family were living at Canonbury, Islington, Middlesex, and from there on 26 September, he submitted the paper to the Philosophical Magazine. His paper begins:- The attention of astronomers having for years past been directed to measuring the altitudes of lunar mountains, I have frequently been surprised that no attempts have yet been made to ascertain the depth of those cavities which are so conspicuous on the surface of the moon. Under a conviction that determining the depths of such cavities will not be considered unworthy of notice, after the first astronomers of Europe have endeavoured to ascertain the heights of mountains on the moon's surface, Ibeg leave to submit to the examination of your readers the enclosed method of measuring the depths of lunar cavities. From the same address on 12 July 1819, Moseley sent the letter "On cohesion" to the Philosophical Magazine. In it he wrote [4]:- Convinced that the known properties of matter present us with sufficient data for ascertaining the true law of cohesion, and that the ill success of a few, whose aim was rather to reconcile experiment with theories the favourite phantoms of their imaginations, than to deduce such theories from facts, did not stamp impossibility on the undertaking; I have been induced to commence an investigation of the subject, the result of which Ibeg leave to submit to the public through the medium of your valuable magazine. We are unable to find the article with the results of his investigation which he promised. Moseley was admitted as a pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge on 21 August 1821. Being a pensioner means that he did not have a scholarship and paid for his tuition. He matriculated in the Michaelmas term of 1822 and began his study of the mathematical tripos. He attended lectures by George Peacock and William Whewell, the latter being a particularly important influence on Moseley since he published the textbooks An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics (1819) and A Treatise on Dynamics (1823). Also at St John's College at this time was John Hymers and John Hallowes Miller (1801-1880) who were both studying the mathematical tripos. In the B.A. examinations of 1826, Hymers was Second Wrangler, Miller was Fifth Wrangler, and Moseley was Seventh Wrangler. One of his friends at Cambridge was James Challis (1803-1882) who studied at Trinity College and graduated as Senior Wrangler in the mathematical tripos in 1825. Challis was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College in 1826, was ordained in 1830 and became director of the Cambridge Observatory and Plumian Professor in 1836. Following his degree from Cambridge, Moseley entered the Church of England. He was ordained a deacon in Bath and Wells on 23December 1827 and a priest on 19 April 1828; he then became a curate at West Monkton, near Taunton, in Somerset. He certainly had not left mathematics and natural philosophy behind, however, for during his time as a curate he was writing the textbook A treatise on hydrostatics and hydrodynamics for the use of students in the University which was published in 1830. His friendship with James Challis was clearly important to Moseley for he wrote in the Preface [6]:- . . . the Author has to acknowledge his important obligations to his friend Mr Challis, of Trinity College. He is indebted to that Gentleman for the Chapter (VII) on the general Equations of the Motion of Fluids, and the Appendix (A) on the Oscillations of a cylindrical Column of Air. In the former of these papers, Mr Challis has completely solved the general equation expressing the continuity of a moving fluid. You can read the whole Preface to this book and see information about other books by Moseley at THIS LINK. Moseley was appointed Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy at King's College, London, on the 20January 1831. Now King's College, London had been founded in 1829 and required governors and professors to be members of the Church of England but the College was open to "nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely." This would seem to fit Moseley particularly well, being ordained in the Church of England but having a father, William Moseley, as a well-known nonconformist. In fact, in addition to his professorship at King's College, London, he was chaplain there during 1831-33. As the first Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy at King's College, London, he was responsible for building the College's Department of Engineering and Applied Science. Few people publish a book giving the syllabus of the first university course they will teach before they actually teach it, but this is precisely what Moseley did, publishing Syllabus of a Course of Experimental Lectures on The Theory of Equilibrium in 1831. The syllabus is for a course [5]:- . . . to be delivered at The King's College, London, in the October Term of the year 1831 by Rev H Moseley, Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. These Lectures require no introductory course of mathematical reading; the method of demonstration being exclusively experimental. On 23 April 1835, Moseley married Harriet Nottidge, the daughter of William and Mary Nottidge of Wandsworth Common, Surrey. William Nottidge (1767-1853) had married Louisa Browning in 1792 but, following her death in 1797, he married Mary Varnham, daughter of John Varnham, in 1799. Harriet, their second daughter, was born on 1 October 1801 and baptised on 17 November 1801 at Saint Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, London. Henry and Harriet Moseley had daughters Harriet Mary Moseley, born 19 December 1836, and Emily Moseley, born in July 1839, and a son Henry Nottidge Moseley, born 14 November 1844. Henry Nottidge Moseley became a leading naturalist and he sailed on the global scientific expedition of the HMS Challenger in 1872 to 1876. At the time of the 1841 UK census, the family were living in St Ann's Lane, Wandsworth. During the years 1831 to 1844 Moseley was Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at King's College, London, and during this time wrote important papers and books [1]:- Moseley embarked upon a rigorous investigation of the statics of masonry arches and published his findings in 1833, 'On the theory of resistance in statics', and 'On a new principle in statics, called the principle of least pressures' . . . The first of these papers begins:- In a paper inserted in the 'Philosophical Magazine' for October, I have given a demonstration of the following theorem: "If there be a system of forces in equilibrium among which there enter the resistances of any number of fixed points, then are these resistances such that their sum is a minimum; each being considered a function of the coordinates of its point of application, taken with a positive sign, and subjected to the conditions imposed by the equilibrium of the whole.: I have also pointed out the steps by which this principle may be applied to the actual determination of the amount and direction of the resistance upon each point of the system in terms of the other forces which compose it. It is my object at present to give the actual solution of that particular but very important case, of the more general proposition, in which the forces and resistances of the system are all parallel to one another. The solution of this case is entirely free from that elaboration of analysis which besets the more general proposition. In addition to the two books mentioned above, he published several others. In 1834 he published A Treatise on Mechanics applied to The Arts; including Statics and Hydrostatics. He writes in the Preface [7]:- The following work contains treatises on the sciences of Statics and Hydrostatics, comprising the whole theory of Equilibrium. It was intended as the first volume of a course of Natural Philosophy, for the use of those who have no knowledge of Mathematics, or who have made but little progress in their mathematical reading. In 1838 he published Lectures on Astronomy delivered at King's College, London. He writes in the Preface [8]:- This work originally formed part of a course of Lectures delivered to the Class of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, at King's College. They were subsequently printed in the 'Magazine of Popular Science', and have since been revised by the Author, and adapted for publication in a separate volume, in the belief that it may serve the purposes of Popular Instruction. He published Illustrations of Mechanics in 1839, writing in the Preface [9]:- This work is the first of a series, entitled 'Illustrations of Science', by Professors of King's College, London, to be published at intervals of three months, and continued until the circle of the Physical Sciences, and the Sciences of Observation, is embraced in it. The author has proposed to himself the development of that system of experimental facts and theoretical principles on which the whole superstructure of mechanical art may be considered to rest, and its introduction, under an available form, to the great business of practical education. His most famous book, however, was The Mechanical Principles of Engineering and Architecture published in 1843. T M Charlton writes [1]:- There seems little doubt that Moseley's major contribution to bridge construction related to the development of the wrought iron girder bridge. The appearance of his excellent book could hardly have been more timely: it was only a few years later that Robert Stephenson, IK Brunel and others with the cooperation of William Fairbairn, were to embark upon some spectacular railway bridge projects taking advantage of the merits of the then novel rolled iron plate and bars. The tubular or hollow iron girder, forerunner of the currently fashionable box girder, was one result. For more information about all these books, see THIS LINK. Moseley was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in February 1839. A couple of years earlier, in October 1836, his father William Moseley had been tried at Middlesex sessions charged with [15]:- Keeping an unlicensed house in Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury [Middlesex] for the reception of lunatics. His initial sentence was twelve months imprisonment in Middlesex House of Correction and a fine of 50. William Moseley petitioned with the following grounds for clemency [15]:- Acted out of ignorance when housed two lunatics in his house; then applied for licence but convicted before had time to comply with conditions of licence; has wife and seven children dependent on him; sale of house will cover his debts; willing to enter into recognisance; elderly age; committed on false information that house was intended for dangerous lunatics not harmless ones; all magistrates involved recommend reducing sentence further from 6 to 3 months. In January 1844 Moseley resigned his professorship at St John's College. London, and was appointed as one of the first of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. One of his first reports was on Chester College. He observed the construction of the College chapel:- When Ivisited the College in November, I found [the students] busily employed in quarrying the stone of which an abundant supply is found on the premises, they had made some progress with the oak carvings, and the stonework of a very beautiful window was nearly completed. Nothing could be more lively or interesting than the scene presented by the grounds and workshops during the intervals of study. In one place the foundations of the structure were being dug out; in another the stone was quarried. In the workshops I found carpenters, turners, carvers in oak and blacksmiths, plying their several trades; and, in a shed, a group of stone-cutters carving with great success the arch mouldings, mullions, and lights of a decorated window. He published a number of reports as an Inspector of Schools, for example Report on the Battersea Training School and the Battersea Village School for Boys (1846), An Account of the King's Somborne School: Extracted with Permission from the Minutes of the Committee of Council of Education 1847-1848 (1849), and Special report on grants to aid in the purchase of apparatus for instruction in science (1853). Moseley also addressed the Metropolitan Association of Church Schoolmasters on 20 May 1854, delivering the address Faith in the Work of the Teacher. You can read a version of his address at THIS LINK. He continued his work as a school inspector until 1853 and while undertaking these duties, he continued his mathematical research publishing works such as On a machine for calculating the products, quotients, logarithms, and powers of numbers (1847), On the dynamical stability and on the oscillations of floating bodies (1850), On dynamical stability, and on the oscillations of floating bodies(1851), and On the rolling motion of a cylinder (1851). In 1851 the Exhibition of The Works of Industry of all Nations, known as the 'Great Exhibition', was held in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park in London. In 1850 the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851 had been set up to administer the Exhibition. The Royal Commission, with Prince Albert as its President, set up an extensive jury system to judge all the exhibits displayed in the Crystal Palace. From 17000 exhibitors, the jurors selected the Prize Medal winners and those who should receive an Honourable Mention, and also recommended exhibitors for the prestigious Council Medal. Moseley was asked to be one of the jurors and he was pleased to accept. He was then appointed as Chairman of Class V: Machines for direct use, including Carriages and Railway and Naval Mechanism. This class was divided into seven Sections: Section A: Steam Engines and Boilers. Section B: Separate Parts of Machines, Specimens of Workmanship. Section C: Pneumatic Machines. Section D: Hydraulic Machines, Cranes, Pile Drivers etc. Section E: Railway. Section F: Railway Machinery and Permanent Ways. Section G: Weighing, Measuring and Registering Machines for Commercial and not for Philosophical Purposes. Moseley's Report, detailing the medals awarded by his jurors, was published in [11]. As Chairman of one of the juries, he came to the attention of Prince Albert who then sought to further his career [2]:- . . . in 1853 he was presented to a residential canonry in Bristol Cathedral; in 1854 he became vicar of Olveston, Gloucestershire, and he was appointed chaplain in ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1855. We have already mentioned Moseley's election to the Royal Society in 1839. He was also honoured by election as a Corresponding member in the Mechanics Section of the Acadmie de Sciences on 6 March 1848. Oxford University awarded him an honorary D.C.L. (Doctor of Civil Law) in 1870. At the time of the 1861 UK Census, Moseley was living at the Parsonage, Fernhill Road, Olveston, Gloucestershire with his wife, daughter Emily Moseley, son Henry Nottidge Moseley, and five servants: a cook, parlour maid, house maid, lady's maid, and kitchen maid. He gives his occupation as Canon of Bristol Cathedral and Vicar of Olveston. At the time of the 1871 UK Census, he was living alone at Canon's House, Deanery Road, Bristol, except for his four servants: a butler, cook and two housemaids. He gives his occupation as Canon of Bristol Cathedral. During his time as Canon of Bristol Cathedral, Moseley continued to undertake research and publish articles. Rather remarkably, he published six papers in the last two years of his life. Papers he published after 1854 include: On the rolling motion of a cylinder (1854), On the descent of glaciers (1856), On certain elementary formulae, &c. (1857), On the motion of a plate of metal on an inclined plane, when dilated and contracted; and on the descent of glaciers (1862), On the descent of a solid body on an inclined plane when subjected to alternations of temperature (1869), On the mechanical possibility of the descent of glaciers, by their weight only (1869), On the uniform motion of an imperfect fluid (1869), On the "Veined Structure" of the ice of glaciers (1870), On the mechanical properties of ice (1870), On the uniform flow of a liquid (1871), and On the steady flow of a liquid (1871). Moseley died in Olveston, Gloucestershire and his wife went to live at Cecil Lodge, Stoke Bishop. She died there four years after her husband on 9 March 1876. Let us note that Moseley's son Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844-1891) married Amabel Gwyn Jeffreys (1852-1928) in 1881 and their son, Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887-1915), one of five children, became a well-known physicist who developed the important law of X-ray spectra which provided a major step forward in atomic theory and provided experimental evidence supporting Niels Bohr's theory. Other Mathematicians born in England A Poster of Henry Moseley References (show) Additional Resources (show) Honours (show) Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson Last Update March 2021 DJF/JOC/EFR Copyright information Accessibility statement School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland If you have comments, or spot errors, we are always pleased to hear from you." [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Nottidge [BNA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agapemonites " "[http]://ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/search.php?subpage=searchTerms&time=1647857384 William Guest Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 6 Apr 1784 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link. William Guest, aged 18, found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Mary, wife of William Southhouse in the parish of Wandsworth on 5th December 1783: robbing her of a silk purse (valued at 6d) and 10/- in money numbered. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7215&termRef=William%20Guest" "Peter Houlton Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 8 Apr 1775 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link. Peter Houlton found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of Richard Woodcock in the parish of Wandsworth on 3rd November 1774: robbing him of 2 gold guineas, 2 gold half guineas and a watch, with chain, key and seal (valued at 40/9). [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7163&termRef=Peter%20Houlton" "James Burrell Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: burglary Date Of Execution: 1 Aug 1774 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link. George Stephen Hearsay and James Burrell found guilty on an indictment for a burglary in the dwelling house of Christina Williamson in the parish of Wandsworth on 7th April 1774: stealing therefrom a pair of silver candlesticks (valued at 5), 2 silver waiters (valued at 8, 2 silver pint mugs (value d at 4), 2 silver pint mugs (valued at 40/-), 4 silver salts (valued at 3), 8 silver tablespoons (valued at 4), a silver punch ladle (value at 2/-), a gold cased watch (valued at 10), a blue silk mode cloak with lace (valued at 10/-, a black satin cloak trimmed with lace (valued at 10/-), a pair of worked double ruffles (valued at 5/-), 2 pairs of lace double ruffles (value at 5/-), a pink coloured silk work bag (valued at 2/-), a shell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), an enamelled snuff box (value at 12d), a silve snuff box (valued at 30/-), a tortoiseshell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), a pair of Moco (?) stone studs set in gold (valued at 10/-), a silver soup ladle (valued at 10/-), a pair of stone shoe buckles set in silver (valued at 10/-) and a hat pin set with diamonds (valued at 20/-) — the goods and chattels of Christina Williamson; and a silver thimble (valued at 12d) and a pair of silver shoe buckles (valued at 5/-) — the goods and chattels of Henrietta King. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7159&termRef=James%20Burrell" "George Stephen Hearsay Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: burglary Date Of Execution: 1 Aug 1774 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link. George Stephen Hearsay and James Burrell found guilty on an indictment for a burglary in the dwelling house of Christina Williamson in the parish of Wandsworth on 7th April 1774: stealing therefrom a pair of silver candlesticks (valued at 5), 2 silver waiters (valued at 8, 2 silver pint mugs (value dat 4), 2 silver pint mugs (valued at 40/-), 4 silver salts (valued at 3), 8 silver tablespoons (valued at 4), a silver punch ladle (value at 2/-), a gold cased watch (valued at 10), a blue silk mode cloak with lace (valued at 10/-, a black satin cloak trimmed with lace (valued at 10/-), a pair of worked double ruffles (valued at 5/-), 2 pairs of lace double ruffles (value at 5/-), a pink coloured silk work bag (valued at 2/-), a shell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), an enamelled snuff box (value at 12d), a silve snuff box (valued at 30/-), a tortoiseshell snuff box mounted with silver (valued at 10/-), a pair of Moco (?) stone studs set in gold (valued at 10/-), a silver soup ladle (valued at 10/-), a pair of stone shoe buckles set in silver (valued at 10/-) and a hat pin set with diamonds (valued at 20/-) — the goods and chattels of Christina Williamson; and a silver thimble (valued at 12d) and a pair of silver shoe buckles (valued at 5/-) — the goods and chattels of Henrietta King. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7158&termRef=George%20Stephen%20Hearsay" "John Sturmey Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 19 Apr 1753 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link. John Sturmey found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of William Jeffreys in the parish of Wandsworth on 21st December 1752: robbing him of 3/6 in money numbered. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7076&termRef=John%20Sturmey" "William Cooper Age: unknown Sex: male Crime: highway robbery Date Of Execution: 26 Aug 1738 Crime Location: Execution Place: Surrey Method: hanging Executioner: unknown Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/surrey.html" target="_blank">Link. William Cooper found guilty on an indictment for the highway robbery of James Trymmer in the parish of Wandsworth on 23rd May 1738: robbing him of 6 gold guineas. [BNA: ww.britishexecutions.co.uk/execution-content.php?key=7002&termRef=William%20Cooper" "William Hart Age: Sex: male Crime: Highway robbery Date Of Execution: 22 Aug 1803 Crime Location: Execution Place: Horsemonger Lane Method: hanging Executioner: Source: [http]://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/1800.html" target="_blank">Link](www.facebook.com/groups/446783695525873/permalink/1800839076786988</p>
<p>Alan Bissell</p>
<p>27 January year?</p>
<p>Wandsworth Girls' Korfball Team.</p>
<p>An undated image of members of the Wandsworth Girls' Korfball Team reach for the basket during training on Tooting Bec Common.</p>
<p>Korfball has similarities to netball and basketball. It is played by two teams of eight players with four female players and four male players in each team. By passing and quick movement the players must elude their personal opponents to shoot the ball through a korf the Dutch word for basket which is mounted on a 11 ft high pole.</p>
<p>In play, korfballers only directly oppose members of their own sex, therefore the game is structured to dilute advantages of height, speed or strength. It is the world's only mixed team sport where both sexes play together on completely even terms.</p>
<p>korfball-tooting-common-nd.jpg){kind=link}
!["NB This is during the Indian "Mutiny", when deaths etc were being reported and innumerable soldiers sent out [This may all be from the Observer] Sun (London) — Monday 13 July 1857 LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE ROYAL PATRIOTIC ASYLUM The great Russian was has passed into history, the Chinese war, the Indian mutiny, nay, the trial of Madeleine Smith may have hustled it out of the thoughts and memories of the crowd, but the quotes unnamed demigods quotes who perished at Alma, and in common, and balaclava, have left, as sacred legacies to the country for which they died, the wives and daughters from the from whom they had been torn by the inexorable summons of the trumpet. And there Country has not been death to the appeal, fought with in an incredibly short space of time nearly 1,000,000 1/2 sterling has been accumulated from the free gifts of the people of the United Kingdom, the colonies, Indian empire, much of it even from persons who owed no allegiance to the British crown. Search spontaneous liberality is to be found nowhere but in England, where the resources of the people are only equalled by the freedom with which the latter Etc etc with the Royal Marine Band, which was stationed opposite, in some very energetic musical performances, and a field battery was drawn up close by, ready to give the royal salute on her Majesty's arrival. A second salute was to have signalised the setting of the stone, but in this instance the guns were fired too soon, and the stone had to subside into its place without the usual explosive honours. Punctually at the time appointed the royal carriages were ssen winding rapidly round one of the new roads leadaig to the gt ()end, and immediately afterwards, her Majesty alighted and entered a tent, round the entrinee of which the commissioners of the Patriotic Fund were ranged in uniform or levee costume. Among-t the crowd were Sir G. Grey, Mr. S. Herbert. the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Bede dale, Lord St. Leonards, the Archbishop of C mnterbury, Earl of Hardwick, and several other persons of distinction, and in her Majesty's immediate suite were the Prince Consort, the Princess Royal, Princess Alice, the Princess Charlotte of Belgium, the Prince of Prussia, Prince Alfred, the Prussian Minister, with the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Alsercorn, Earl Spencer, and other members of her Majesty's household, On leaving the pavilion, a procession, formed in in the following order, proceeded to the platform, where the stone was to be laid : The Architect. The Secretary. The Executive and Finance Committee (two and two), The Royal Commissioners (two and two). The Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop of Canterbury. The Bishop of Winch ester. The Lord Steward of H. M. Household. The Lord Chamberlain. The Queen. The Prince Consort. Members of the Royal Family. The Great Officers of State. One hundred orphan boys (fifty from the Duke The great Russian war has passed into history, of York's School, and an equal number from the the Chinese war, the Indian mutiny, nay, the trial Greenwich school) and one hundred girls (fifty of Madeleine Smith, may havehustled it out of the from the Sailors' Orphan Girls' School, and the thoughts and memories of the crowd, but the " un- same number from the Soldiers' Infant Home) fornamed demigods" who perished at Alma, and In- need a line in front of the covered platforms before kerman, and Balaklava, have left, as sacred lega- which the procession passed, and the guard of honcies to the country for which they died, the wives our and the military bands paid their customary and daughters from whom they had been torn by salute, and, as usual, played the National Anthem. the inexorable summons of the trumpet. And their On the arrival of her Majesty at the spot where the country has not been deaf to the appeal, for within stone was to be laid, the Chairman of the Execuan incredibly short space of time nearly a million tive and Finance Committee read the following adand a half sterling has been accumulated from the dress to her Majesty : free gifts of the people of the United Kingdom, the " We, your Majesty's most dutiful subjects, the colonies, our Indian empire, and much of it even Commissioners appointed by your Majesty for the from persons who owed no allegiance to the British formation and application of a Patriotic Fund, ap- Crown. Such spontaneous liberality is to be found proach your Majesty with the assurance of our denowhere but in England, where the resources voted loyalty and affectionate attachment to your of the people are only equalled by the freedom with Majesty's throne and person, and with the expreswhich the latter are ever ready to dispense them sion of our gratitude for your Majesty's condescenin the cause of benevolence. But to speak of mere sion in honouring by your presence and patronage benevolence in the present case would be an insult the foundation of this building, intended for the alike to the givers and to the recipients. The reception and education of the orphan daughters of solace and maintenance of the widows and orphans those soldiers, seamen, and marines, who have of the Crimea must be considered in the light of a fallen in the late war with Russia, and of those who debt on the part of the people of England, and all may hereafter lose their lives in the service of their we can say is that it has been fairly and equitably country. discharged. Out of the subscriptions known ae the " The brilliant valour displayed by your Ma- Patriotic Fund, the widows of the soldiers and' jesty's forces in battle against the enemy early sailors, and of some also of the officers, who pe- aroused the sympathy and admiration of their counrished in the Russian war, have been provided trymen in every part of the British empire, which with moderate allowances for life, and a sufficient was augmented by the unflinching fortitude with -balance still remains for the building, the inaugu- which they encountered in turn the no less deadly ration of which was celebrated on Saturday, and, foes, privation, toil, and sickness, which subseafterwards, for its liberal endowment. For the quently thinned their ranks even more than the building itself 38,0001. has been reserved, and sword. Nor was this feeling confined to your Ma-140,0001. for its subsequent endowment. The ar- jesty's subjects, for in numerous instances natives chitectural design will, we understand, be a modi- of other countries generally united in augmenting fled copy of the celebratedHeriot Hospital in Edin- the contributions which were offered for relieving burgh, and it will accommodate3oo girls, for whose the wants of those widows and orphans who had reception it is expected to be ready in two years been deprived of that support upon which they defrom the present date. During that time there will pended for their maintenance, by the casualties of be ample opportunity for settling on the details of war. training and education, and it is to be hoped that " Your Majesty was graciously pleased to appoint some advantage will be taken of the lights of the us commissioners, under the presidency of your present age in organising such a system of instruc- royal consort, to receive the sums so subscribed, tion, both physical and intellectual, as shall be a and justly and faithfully to distribute them in such great and useful advance on the somewhat antiquated manner as should seem to them best suited to secure curriculum of our existing charity schools. Under the most impartial and beneficent application of the present system a " charity school girl" remains them to the purposes specified in your royal coma charity school girl all her life, so indelible are the mission, and empowering us to appoint a committee traces of her early wooden drillwe cannot call it for the performance of the executive duties of corn' education ; but the Crimean orphans are not cha- missioners, under such regulations as we might rity girls, they are the daughters of the nation, left direct, and these we have much pleasure — in reportin trust by its brave defenders, and they are en- ing to your Majesty, the committee of noblemen titled to the best nurture, and the most sound and and gentlemen whom see appointed have most satispractical education that may be consistent with factorily carried into effect. The subscriptions fostheir normal position in society. The present is tered by your Majesty's example and royal care, the time to think of this, for when matrons have and liberally c )ntributed to persons of every class been chosen, and teachers have been appointed, of your subjects, have produced no les s a sum than and plans of instruction have been organised, it 1,446,985/. 7s. ; a detailed statement of which is would be a hopeless task in this age of red tape to herewith humbly submitted to your Majesty. think of recommending the slightest altsra- " The munificence of the country having thus tion in the programme. The Crimean or- enabled your Majesty's commissioners to provide a phans should be taught to read well, to liberal scale of relief for the maintenance of the write well, to cypher well, and to sew well, widows and orphans, and to extend the benefits of results that are hardly ever attained in existing free certain existing charitable institutions for the eduschools, simply because the teachers are badly paid, cation of the children of soldiers, seamen, and maand therefore of inferior ability. They should suffer rives (as well as officers and men), by adding to no degrading uniformity of closely-cropped heads, their permanent endowment, they resolved, out of i or "charity " habiliments, matters seemingly of the surplus of the funds still remaining at their dissmall importance, but calculated to produce a most posal, to found an institution for the maintenance depressing effect on young people, especially females. and educatiou of orphans, which should not only To put the child of the public bounty into a hideous provide tor those the more immediate objects of and glaringly distinctive dress is equivalent to pin- their cbarge, but also remain a permanent memorial Ding a label on her back, stating the nature and of the national generosity which provided the amount of her obligation. In the particular of means for its establishment. costume a hint may be taken from the Licensed " For this purpose we allocated a sum of 33,0001. Victuallers' School, any one of the p u pil s o f which for the purchase of a suitable site, and the erection might be taken for a respectable child of the middle of buildings for the reception of 300 girls under 15 claws who had not had the misfortune to lose his or years of age, and have endowed it with 140,000/- her natural guardians. The business of domestic "The orphans admitted into this institution will life, the " common things " of housekeeping, be carefully instructed in their moral and religious should be taught practically by practised hand, duties, and, in addition to a useful elementary eauand where the gifts justifying superior culture de- cation, will he taught those breeches of industrial veloped the mse l ves , as they are sure to do in a cer- knowledge which will fit them to perform the duties taro ratio in a n y assemblage of 300 children, the of domestic servants, and when they become wives mans of such culure should be at hand to give and mothers, will enable them to manage their them fair play, for eve! y superior intellect allowed households with economy, and, by habits of cleanlito perish from neglect is a positive and serious loss ness and order, to contribute to the comfort and to the cou n t r y. It may b e th oug ht th a t our bur- cheerfulness of their homes. Such is the proposed ness here is rather to describe than to meralise, but object of the institution which your Majesty is gra" the Queen's name is a tower of strength" to the ciously pleased to patronise, by permitting it to newspapers ; every one will read the account of a bear your illustrims name, and by gracing it with ceremony which her Majesty has honoured with her your p resence this da y . Thus sanctioned, we now presence, and th ere f ore we could hardly choose a commit it to the care of that Almighty Being who better opportunity for calling general attention to has proclaimed himself specially the Father of the points on which we believe the future success of the fatherless. Humbly trusting that it may, under Patriotic School will greatly depend. His guiding Providence, fulfil the objects for which Wandsw or th- common the site chosen for the new it is intended cheeri n g t he heart of the widow and institution, bid s f a i r to become populous with public the orphan, and teaching them to look up with inschools. The situation is healthy, the soil dry and creased loyalty and attachment to the gracious gravelly, and the railway station on its border gives Queen who thus personally sympathises in the sorit all the advantages of an urban position. The Free — rows of those who fall in the service of their Sovemasons had taken possession of a large slice for their reign and their country. ALBERT." excellent school, and now the Patriotic Fund secures The address having been read, the document was a plot of 70 acres. Theirschool will be situated nearly handed to her Majesty, who gave it to Sir George in the centre of the common, and from its windows a Grey, who, in return, handed to the Queen the noble view will be commanded of a finely wooded reply of her Majesty, which was as follows : country on one side, and of London, with its " silver " I thank you sincerely for your loyal and affec- Thames," stretching out like a panorama, on the tionate address. other. The road from town is one of the most beau- Igladly avail myself of this occasion to express tiful out of London, and notwithstanding the foci- the great satisfaction I have derived from the gratilities offered by the railroad, presented quite a fes- fying evidence presented to me of the manner in tive appearance on Saturday, with handsome equi- which my faithful subjects throughout the whole pages rolling rapidly along, soldiers marching to extent of my dominions, and in the most distant fife and drum, gaily dressed groups at every garden parts of the world, have evinced their genuine gate watching for the Queen, and pedestrians trcop- sympathy with my own feelings of admiration forthe ing vigorously off to the scene of the ceremonial. ga l la nt conduct and endurin g fortitude of my naval There the authorities had erected a semi-circular and military forces, by the munificent contribugallery for the accommodation of the more distin- tions to the funds for the relief of the widows . and guished visitors, and had sent to both Houses of orph ans of the brave men who have fall en in the Parliament, and to the various public departments, discharge of their duty to their soverign and their asking how many tickets would be required. In all coun tr y. Y o u have full y justified the confidence cases large demands were made and complied with, placed in you by your judicious l an t d e i l m papprove of but in very few instances was any use made of the tribution of these funds, and e f n th ir em y to the erectickets. By these means numbers who would have the appropriation of a portion o of an institution in been delighted to be present were excluded, and tion and permanent endowment artial dice Majesty on her arrival saw what she rarely wit- the success of which Ishall ever feel the warmest nesses on such occasions. "a beggarly account of interest. empty benches." Numbers of persons without " I am most happy teontdakle h a e p a art r ti t ly inth n e u f o r u l n v d i tahtickets were admitted to the gallery, and thus the Lion of this institutio t picture was, at the 11th hour, made to present a you in committinfogl to the Divine care and protecmore satisfactory appearance. That the paucity of tion, designed may be to the and in ptrahyas bee t n hat the benevolent objects numbers arose from no want of interest on the part with which cif the public, was proved by the appearance of the fullest extehnbti_sehcocopmplished." of CANTERBURY having offered Wandsworth-roads which looked like one continued The Arc i fair, by the long lines of carriages filled with corn- utpena suitable prayer, a glass tube containing specipany that lined all the avenues leading to the n a sof the current coin of the realm was deposited n aperture in the lower stone by her Majesty, grothid, and the crowds which occupied every in s o aether with a splendidly engrossed vellum, on elevated spot from sietlit . of the corewiiich was an appro sriate inscri 3 ption. menial cotald be obtained: The visitors bad ben The bed for the stone having been duly prerequested td aistehd half-past 3, and by that time paLed, her Majesty was handed the silver trowel, all who had been favoured with tieket e had assembled; the outside crowd had also mustered pretty with which she gave the finishing touch to the moretrongly, all waited patiently under a b.roiling tar, and the upper stone was gradually lowered on sun until 5 o'clock, when her Mejesta, with her to its final esting place. Her Majesty having lapd usual punctuality arrived. Alittledistemper, colour, plied the plumb line and level to the masonry, or cheap drapery, on the h front l of the galleries would the satisfaction of finding that it was perfectly true, clieer , lll. than and giving it several raps with the delicately certainly have made t ings ook they did for the F royal visit; but "they manage these polished mallet, declared the foundation of the new nce," and we must, for a little building to bo On a brass plate let into the things better in while longer, be content with the more solid advan- front of the atone is this inscription in Latin and while children were all ranged English : tages of our system. there was eep round in front of the galleries, and d "On the 11th July, t ee n n ri c a e d e e e d v i e e e n ., ted i interest in watching these poor orphans making year of peace,Queen Vic efts of the themselves happy all the unconsciousness of erected from a portion of the free g childhood. The boys of the Duke of York's school United , e t subjects of the were Also present, and kept up a constant rivalry [BNA: Link.]](www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001578/18740926/225/0021</p>
<p>1874-09-26-DrAnstieIllustratedLondonNews-26sep1874.png){kind=link}