Author Archives: Wade

Surrey Arms coat of arms

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Photo taken April 2022

Photo taken April 2022

Photo taken 2016.

The coat of arms displayed on the Surrey Arms pub are for the county of Surrey. These arms were in use from 8th August 1934, and were replaced on September 20, 1974.

The description or blazon of these arms :

Per pale Azure and Sable a Fess per pale Ermine and Or in chief a representation of the Crown of King Edgar proper and a Sprig of Oak fructed Argent.

King Edgar, as well as several other Saxon kings, were crowned in Kingston. The ermine underneath the crown is from the arms of the Borough of Richmond. When Kingston and Richmond became part of Greater London, they left Surrey and so these arms were changed.

The sprig of oak and the colours azure and sable (blue and black) have been retained on the current arms for Surrey, see the Heraldry of the World website.

1961 obituary of Jack Gillard, newsvendor at Fair Green since 1920

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From the Mitcham News & Mercury, 10th March 1961

NEWSVENDOR JACK DIES

Sixty-nine-year-old Jack Gillard, who died suddenly in hospital on Tuesday (7th March 1961), was one of Mitcham’s more famous landmarks.

For 41 years, he had sold newspapers at Fair Green, and was known by thousands of local people.

Mr. Gillard, of Henry Prince Estate, Earlsfield, had been in poor health for some time and had not been at his usual pitch for about four months.

He often talked about the changes in the district since he became a newsvendor in 1920.

“When I first moved in to Mitcham – I lived in Love Lane – it was like a small country village,” he would recall.

And he remembered shouting the big news over the years . . . The General Strike, the R101 disaster, the outbreak of war, the first atom bomb over Japan . . .

Three years ago Jack had a serious accident and later a leg was amputated. He was fitted with an artificial limb.

For years he tried to persuade Mitcham Council to let him put up a covered stand, but was never successful.

Jack Gillard