Author Archives: Wade

Dalton Avenue

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Road off north side of Lewis Road. Named after local councillor William Dalton, who became mayor of Mitcham in 1942.

Possibly built in 1936/7 with houses in same construction and style as New Close. There are seven blocks of 6 houses, and two of 5.

According to the Royal Mail postcode finder, in May 2018 there are 68 properties, numbered 1 to 22 inclusive, 23A, 23B, 24, 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D and 25 to 63, all with the postcode CR4 3DT.

1952 OS map

The road and houses were built on land that formerly was called Nicholl’s Orchard, as described in a 1903 council meeting, and shown as field number 298 on this 1894 OS map:

1894 OS map

1894 OS map

From the minutes of the
Croydon Rural District Council
Mitcham Parochial Committee
Volume VIII 1902 – 1903
21st July 1903
page 294

… The piece of land in question is about 3.5 acres in extent, and was formerly known as “Nicholls’ Orchard.” It has a frontage of about 230 ft to Lewis Road, and a depth of something over 650 foot. …

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

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

1968 : Turner’s Bakery horse Lizzie retires

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From the Mitcham News & Mercury, 20th September, 1968

After over 25 years as a bakery carthorse, Lizzie has moved from the noisy London suburbs to the peace of a country farm.

Lizzie, a liver chestnut Welsh cob who has reached the
distinguished age of 30, has worked for the past 15 years for Turner’s (Mitcham) Bakery, Fair Green, believed to be the only bakery in London which still uses horse-drawn vans for its delivery rounds.

For those 15 years she has been delivering bread in the Pollards Hill area with her driver Mr. Ted Gibson. Lizzie and Ted were a well-established team as they worked together for J. A. Taylor Ltd of Tooting for 10 years before going to Turner’s.

Life for Lizzie has not all been hard work, however. At the Easter Monday Horse Show in Regents Park she won first prize in the van parade and the Welsh rosette for the best Welsh Cob in the show.

Lizzie’s working day lasted about nine hours and she could make up to 450 calls a day. Anybody who maintains the horse is an outdated and uneconomical means of transportation is challenged by Turners who have proved that if a horse is ill the round takes over an hour longer to operate with a petrol vehicle.

Lizzie went into retirement yesterday (September 19) to Cherry Tree Farm, Lingfield, where she will mix with company from ex-race horses to costers’ donkeys.

Her successor, aptly named Lizzie II, is a nine-year-old bay Welsh Cob who will join Sally, Dolley and Kitty in maintaining Turner’s tradition of horse-drawn vans.

Rising costs led to Turner’s Bakery stopping using horses in 1973.