Author Archives: Wade

Cranmer Motors

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Cranmer Motors was a garage that was near the present day roundabout with Madeira Road and Cricket Green. Although the 1953 OS map shows it between 76 and 94 Cricket Green, Cranmer Motors Ltd was listed in the 1963 Mitcham Borough List of Factories as Motor Vehicle Repairs, 1 Cranmer Road.

1955 ad

clip from Merton Memories photo reference Mit_Streets_Col_Cro_17-7, copyright London Borough of Merton, showing Cranmer Motors on garage

This photo shows 3, possibly 4, petrol pumps, and the sign projecting from the gable in the roof has the text:

Cranmer
Motors
Regent
Petrol

This dates the photo to before 1967 which was when the Regent brand was changed to Texaco, according to Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.

1953 OS map

Receipt from November 1992 for approx 10 gallons of petrol from the Cranmer Service Station.

The site was redeveloped as flats around 2008/9, as stated in planning application 06/P0708:-

Former Service Station Site, Cranmer Road, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 4LA

Erection of a part 2 / part 3 storey building to accommodate 12 flats (9 x 2 and 3 x 1 bedrooms) together with 12 car parking spaces.

Filed with this application:

Following air raid damage to residential properties during the Second World War, a garage forecourt replaced the destroyed houses on the study site, which by the 1970s was redeveloped as an Esso fuel filling station.

Source: Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd. 2008 An Archaeological Watching Brief at the Former Esso Petrol Station, Cranmer Road, Mitcham, London Borough of Merton.

From the Mitcham Urban District Council minutes,
Volume 3, pages 104, Public Health and Burial Committee meeting of 11th September, 1917, a petrol licence for 150 gallons was issued to Mr G. Hart, Motor and Cycle Works, Cranmers Road.

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Minutes of meetings held by the Mitcham Urban District Council are available on request from the Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre at Morden Library.

1956 : Mitcham Fire Brigade Station Officer Retires

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From the Norwood News – Friday 05 October 1956

NO MORE FIRE CALLS FOR HIM

FIFTY -ONE-YEAR-OLD Mr. H. S. Shepherd, Station Officer of Mitcham Fire Brigade, slid down the emergency pole on Monday morning but not to answer a call.

It was a farewell gesture.

For when Mr. Shepherd came off duty after a 72-hour spell at 9 a.m., he began his retirement.

He leaves the brigade four years earlier than is necessary. Recent changes in conditions enable officers to retire on pension after 30 years.

Mr. Shepherd was born in Mitcham and joined the brigade when he was 19. Apart from the war years, he has been with it since. In 1926, Mitcham fire brigade consisted of a chief officer, an engineer sub-officer — and Fireman Shepherd.

“A BOX”

“The engine was a box on four wheels — but what a machine! It won competitions all over Surrey.”

“It had solid tyres, but it could travel at 45 m.p.h. — faster than engines today, hampered as they are by traffic.”

When there was a fire, a bell, and later a siren, in the Town Hall, called council roadmen and gardeners from their jobs.

They donned uniforms and helmets as the big Merryweather roared down the road.

“Fire-fighting was not as easy then as it is today . . . we had no wireless.”

During the war, Mr. Shepherd worked with the National Fire Service. He was in the thick of the London blitz.

He became Station Officer at Mitcham in 1950.

NEW HOME

This week he will be moving with his wife and children (Roger, 10, and Irene, 20) from the station house to the home on the edge of the cricket green, which he has owned for some years.

“I shall take it easy for a bit,” he said.

“And for the first time, 1 won’t have to sleep with the telephone next to my bed.”

On Sunday. Mr. Shepherd was presented with a barometer by members of Mitcham Fire Brigade, and with a gift voucher by the officers.