Category Archives: Buildings

1907 : Piggeries at the Holborn Union Workhouse

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Shoreditch Observer – Saturday 12 October 1907

The Mitcham Piggeries.

The Mitcham Workhouse Visiting Committee reported that they had carefully considered the question of keeping pigs at that establishment, and having regard to the profits made during the past three years, and the useful employment provided for inmates of the house, they were of opinion that it was desirable to continue to keep pigs, and recommended “That the committee he authorised to re-stock the piggeries forthwith.”

The Rev. G. Smith asked what had become of the pigs which had been destroyed. He was told that they had been buried in the ground under cultivation.

The Chairman said he had been informed that they were buried on the farm and covered with lime.

The Rev. G. Smith considered it very wrong thing to do. They would probably be dug up, and the disease was likely to spread again.

The Chairman said the pigs were unlikely to dug with one or two spade’s deep, and they were covered with lime.

Mr. Herbert-Burns, Chairman of the committee, said the hole was not kept open to put the whole of the pigs in.

Mr. Walmer understood that if a person died from small-pox and was put under the earth the body would he purified, and it would surely purify pigs.

The Clerk ascertained the gross profit, from which they had deducted the amount received outside for the sale of wash. For the year ending Lady-day, 1905, there was loss of £2 6s. 5 1/4d. In 1906 there was profit of £130 15s. 6d. in 1907, the profit received was £194 16s. 10d., making a total of £323 5s. 11d. The actual cost for wash was £82 12s., leaving net profit of £240 13s. 11d. on the three years’ trading.

Mr. Bolton was still the opinion that they ought to discontinue the keeping of the pigs. They should know whether it was intended to rebuild the piggeries and what was to spent re-stocking. For the sake of £6O per year to in for expenditure of £300 to re-build and re-stock was in his opinion not wise course. He was of the opinion that the old pigs did die of swine fever, and did not like the idea of re-stocking the piggeries that had housed the deceased animals.

Mr. Bassett moved that the report should referred back in order that an estimate of the expenditure might prepared. He did not think they should he such had managers as to keep pigs without a profit.

Mr. Warmer considered they ought to get £200 or £250 profit out of the pigs. If he were ten years younger he would get something out of it.

Mr. King seconded the amendment, but considered that special committee should be appointed to deal with the farm.

Alderman Enos Howes said they had the facts that the pigs did not pay. It was an instance of municipal trading. They could not produce the results of private enterprise.

Mr Garrity said he had to confess he went down to Mitcham supporting the abolition of the piggeries. They were told that they ought to be making £200 out of the pigs ; last year they made £194 and the year before that £120 15s. 6 1/4d. Even in their bad year they only lost £2 5s. 6 3/4d. The farthings came before the Committee and were discussed with all solemnity. (Laughter.) Prior the committee meeting he discussed the matter with Ald. Miller, and he learned that a man only a stone’s throw from the workhouse had made a fortune out of pig-keeping. The question of the proper management was not against the piggeries. The cost of new piggeries was of vital importance.

Mr. Walton said it came as surprise to him after what their friends had said about the loss, to hear the report from the clerk. He was in sympathy with the statement that the management needed re-organisation. They were impressed with the cleanliness and good condition of the piggeries, and he doubted if they would have to spend a five pound note to improve them.

Mr. BOUTON said there was a general expression of opinion to pull down the present piggeries and build fresh places with every sanitary convenience. It would he a failure to put fresh pigs into the old stys.

Mr. Berther thought it would be well if they appointed a special committee to consider the whole question.

The amendment was then put and carried. A notice of motion for the appointment of a special committee has been handed in by Mr. Bolton.

1952 : Village Relics Are Fast Disappearing

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From the Mitcham and Tooting Advertiser of 16th October, 1952

VILLAGE RELICS ARE FAST DISAPPEARING

New building is changing the face of Mitcham

NEW FLATS TO REPLACE GLEBE VILLAS

GRADUALLY the few remaining relics of the Village of Mitcham are disappearing before the advance of the town-makers and other developers. The revolution, begun well within the memory of the oldest inhabitants, and quiescent during the war years, is now very active again. Not the least among those responsible for the changes are the borough council, whose ranges of fiats tower into the sky from Pollards Hill to Figges Marsh, and from the Fair Green to the Cricket Green.

In place of the long line of Glebe Villas in London Road which are being razed to the ground will rise a continuation of the huge block of Glebe estate flats, which will then be completed.

Glebe Villas, a row of three-storey, roomy and dignified semi-detached houses of the Victorian type, with bay windows, were built by George Hill, who was born in the Elizabethan house that once stood opposite the Hall Place, now itself no more.

George Hills was the father of the last of the beadles of the parish and Parish Church. A tradition remains that the bricks used in Glebe Villas were made in Mitcham.

Some of the best-known families in the village occupied the houses fifty years ago. They were in that part of central Mitcham and the London Road known and named as Whitford Lane, and Whitford Gardens opposite keeps that name green in the memory.

It was inevitable that sooner or later, Glebe Villas would go the way of the estates that once stood opposite, and the way of London Road, Lower Mitcham, from the Cricket Green to old Mitcham station and the River Wandle.

CHANGES
In living memory

Virtually all the changes have taken place within living memory. They include the disappearance of Holborn Schools and the erection of Monarch Parade at the Figges Marsh end of the road, the wiping out of Mizen Brothers’ extensive nurseries and the building of Elm Court flats and the development of the market garden land on which the central library, the adjoining shops and the baths now stand.

In its turn the Fair Green has been developed, though it still retains much of its old village appearance and character.

The latest change is taking place at the corner of Cranmer Road, opposite The Canons, where the last section of the old causeway and the last of the old timbered collages that once decorated that corner of the Cricket Green are doomed to disappear. The inevitable change there began in strength when Carlton’s market gardens became the site of Bramcote Avenue and Denham Crescent. A half-century earlier, Mitcham Park displaced the fields and lovers’ walks which the oldest inhabitants remember and whose passing they regret.

Beyond the Cranmer corner another great change in the aspect of Central Mitcham began with the razing of Cranmer House, the erection of Wilson Hospital and Mitcham County School for Girls, and the development of the Cesars Walk estate.

In that upheaval disappeared one of the finest of Mitcham’s ancient monuments — the centuries old tithe barn.

On the site now owned and occupied by Cranmer Motors Limited, formerly stood Piccadilly, now almost forgotten except by natives approaching their century. Piccadilly was nought but a couple or so of little wooden cottages in an alleyway leading to fields. The wood-framed Cramner Restaurant, which faces the obelisk in The Cannons marks the entrance to the Piccadilly that was.

It is all destined to disappear in the reconstruction and modernisation of Cranmer Corner, now proceeding. Quite recently a new sewer has been laid under the premises, including part of the Catholic Church to prevent the flooding of basements of the houses and business premises nearby, a nuisance endured for years.

Several derelict premises, one-time shops, cottages and a printing works, are being swept away, and on their site will be built, the enlargement of the Cranmer Motor Works and service station.

“I think the public generally will agree that the new Cramner Corner will be an improvement on the old Cranmer Corner.” said Mr. V. Cole, a son of a former Mayor and Mayoress of Mitcham, and the proprietor of Cranmer Motors Ltd.