The History of Wandsworth Common

Last modified 26 October 2026

All the Chronicles

Every issue of the Chronicles since the first, in June 2021, month by month. Some months were published in two or three parts. There are 64 monthly issues so far.

Other ways in: the subject index and the day-and-month index of dated events. All three are gathered on the Indexes page.

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

2026

October 2026 – Charles Porden’s lost house beside Mount Nod, 1813
September 2026 – Emanuel School: fifty years since going independent
August 2026 – Mount Nod: two women in a shared grave; Extraordinary Wandsworth Women
July 2026 – Mount Nod: restoration and a walk round; farewell to Stephen Midlane
June 2026 – The transformation of Trinity Road, 1968–72
May 2026 – Highways across the Common, part 2: Abercrombie and Forshaw’s plans
April 2026 – Highways across the Common, part 1: Wandsworth Bridge and Trinity Road
March 2026 – Forbidden love on Wandsworth Common
February 2026 – Wandsworth Common since 1945: a Magic Lantern Show
January 2026 – Literary Wandsworth Common: three quizzes

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2025

December 2025, part 1 – Jane Austen and Wandsworth Common
December 2025, part 2 – A Wandsworth Common miscellany: Hugh Welch Diamond; the Stern family
December 2025, part 3 – Season’s greetings
November 2025, part 1 – Paul Martin, photographer: his early life
November 2025, part 2 – Dorrett & Martin’s studio on the edge of the Common
October 2025, part 1 – Trinity Road station renamed, 1950; Leo the lion at Clapham Junction, 1943
October 2025, part 2 – The Royal Victoria Patriotic Asylum for Boys, 1872
September 2025, part 1 – The Quest for P.Y. Betts, by Stephen Midlane and Sue Delafons
September 2025, part 2 – The Quest for P.Y. Betts, continued; Christopher Hawtree
August 2025, part 1 – The Boundary Oak
August 2025, part 2 – Huxley and the geology of “Nappy Valley”
July 2025, part 1 – Elisabetta Caon (1993–2023); the LCC map of 1913
July 2025, part 2 – Thomas Hardy chases an organ-grinder down Brodrick Road
June 2025, part 1 – The death and burial of Job Caudwell, 1908
June 2025, part 2 – Paul McCartney on the Common, 1980; William Faden’s map
May 2025 – Down with the fences!; VE Day at 80
April 2025 – Samuel Sullings and John Buckmaster
March 2025, part 1 – Gideon Mantell, fossils and dinosaur-mania
March 2025, part 2 – “Red Indians” on Wandsworth Common
February 2025 – A picture puzzle; Edward Thomas’s childhood walks
January 2025 – A railway across the Common, 1863; the pubs of Chatham Road

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2024

December 2024 – Season’s greetings; Buckmaster’s Cookery at 150
November 2024 – Ward Muir and the 3rd London General Hospital
October 2024 – Literary Wandsworth Common; Big Bad Mouse; Whack-O!; the Trinity Jazz Club
September 2024 – V for Vengeance: flying bombs and rockets, 1944
August 2024 – What lies beneath: the sewer and the disappearing aqueduct
July 2024 – Gordon Bradley’s view of London from the Common, 1835; Mary Elizabeth Braddon
June 2024 – A Grand Matinée Dansante, 1850; the suffragette Duvals
May 2024 – The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, the Fitzhugh Estate and Honeywell School
April 2024 – 75th anniversary special: the Common in 1949
March 2024, part 1 – J.P. Ede’s letters on nature on the Common, 1949
March 2024, part 2 – Philip Boys at 75: the Common and its surrounds in 1949
February 2024 – Down to the crossroads: traffic lights and accidents in the 1930s
January 2024 – James Leadbeater, 11, whipped for stealing celery; Tom Sayers, pugilist

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2023

December 2023 – John Henry Dearle; Henry Nottidge Moseley and HMS Challenger; James Lamb of the Light Brigade
November 2023 – Rugby netball; the Royal Masonic School for Girls; the Peabody estate; Remembrance
October 2023 – The Rustic Bridge rebuilt in stone; improper conduct, 1900
September 2023, part 1 – Gypsies and Travellers on the Common
September 2023, part 2 – Zeppelin raid, 1916; a balloon view of the 3rd London General Hospital; bombs, 1940–45
September 2023, part 3 – Bombs on and around the Common, 1940–45: the LCC bomb damage maps
August 2023, part 1 – Neal’s Nursery and the origins of the “Prison Banks”
August 2023, part 2 – Grass, hurdles and bowling greens: sport versus nature
July 2023, part 1 – Ruth Spanier and her daughter Anna
July 2023, part 2 – Elsie Duval in court; Wandsworth Fair; the earliest women runners
June 2023 – Gone fishing; Dora Littlechild (1928–2023)
May 2023 – Leonora Green’s painting of the Battersea Rise crossroads; new tennis courts, 1923
May 2023: matters arising – Matters arising: flooding, adverts, beating the bounds and the Bellevue slaughterhouse
April 2023 – Jack Heath’s walking record, 1973; reindeer on the Common, 1887; the would-be duellists
March 2023 – Firing the furze, 1850; Tom Taylor’s “Warning of Wandsworth Common”; Charles Booth’s poverty maps
February 2023 – The Lost Houses and Gardens of Wandsworth Common; treasure hunts, 1904
January 2023 – Jumbo lost on Wandsworth Common, 1883

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2022

December 2022 – White Christmas: Dorrett & Martin’s snow scenes, c.1908; a Christmas Magic Lantern Show
November 2022 – The Man Who Eats Grass; Clive Branson; a shepherd fined, 1920
October 2022 – Spot the barrage balloon; a runaway boy; match-fixing, 1847
September 2022 – September reports, 1893–1907
August 2022 – Wartime: the Common from the air, fire bombs, allotments and prefabs
July 2022 – Everyone for tennis?
June 2022 – The grazing tariff, 1872; the Queen drives through, 1953; a leopard hunt, 1846
May 2022 – Wandsworth Lodge cleared; the Bolingbroke Pay Hospital; milkman George Rough in court
April 2022 – Women in white; reports from 1841 to 1915
March 2022 – Stag hunts; Sporting Wandsworth Common; Edward Thomas; cricket on ice; Neal’s Nursery
February 2022 – Jennifer Penny; the Magical History Tour; Thomas Hardy
January 2022 – My first Magical History Tour; Thomas Hardy, “A January Night”

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2021

December 2021 – Season’s greetings; December news, 1861–1914
November 2021 – Cricket in 1828 and other November reports
October 2021 – A sham fight, 1807; American water-weed in the Black Sea; calls to stop gravel digging
September 2021 – Two Brahmin cows for sale; a white sparrow; John Buckmaster’s first letters, 1860
August 2021 – No edition this month
July 2021 – Death of a child on the Common, 1858; sporting news of the 1870s
June 2021 – The very first Chronicles: lightning kills seven on the Common, 1914; Thomas Hardy; Edwin Rayner Ransome

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Philip Boys (“History Boys”)