1974 Image courtesy of Collage – The London Picture Library – http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk
No. 1 Cricket Green, at the corner with Cold Blows and now a day nursery, was originally called ‘Brampton’ when it was built by the building firm of Wilson Brothers. They came from Milton, near Brampton in the county of Cumbria, what was then called Cumberland.
One of the brothers, Isaac Wilson, gave Mitcham the Wilson Hospital, the Cumberland Hospital and the Garden Village.
Source: Mitcham Histories : 1 The Cricket Green by EN Montague
There is also a Garden Village in Brampton, paid for by Isaac Wilson.
Lancashire Evening Post – Friday 05 September 1930 (from the British Newspaper Archive – subscription required)
CUMBERLAND MAN’S GIFT TO BRAMPTON.
Canon Sutton, of Bridekirk, chairman of the Cumberland County Council, performed the opening ceremony at Brampton, near Carlisle, yesterday, of a colony of 24 cottages for the aged poor, the gift of Mr. Isaac Henry Wilson, a native of Milton, Brampton, now Mitcham, Surrey.
At Milton six homes are being built, six at Lanercost and six at Walton. The cottages will be rent and rate free to the occupants, who will be aged folk.
Fifty years ago Mr. Wilson left his native soil and made a fortune in building houses on the Surrey side of London and yesterday he was present at the ceremony to explain that his desire was to do something for his native soil, to lessen the burden of the aged who had borne the heat and burden of the day, and to render the eventide of their life much happier. The houses were not for the young, but for, say, spinster sisters and old couples who had had a hard time in life and found their latter days irksome.
Mr. Hugh Jackson, an alderman of the County Council, said that Mr. Wilson had already given 56 cottage homes at Mitcham for aged and deserving people. Less than two years ago he built there and equipped and endowed a hospital at a cost of £60,000, and had since given a further £25,000 for extensions.
Over 60 applications had already been received for the Brampton houses. Mr. Wilson presented Canon Sutton with a golden key with which to open the homes. Complimentary speeches wore made Mr. C. H. and Lady Cecilia Roberts, Mr. Leif Jones, M.P., Mr. J. J. Adams, Workington, and Mrs. Lucy Thompson, and among those present were the Mayor and Mayoress of Workington, Mr. R. H. Hodgson, and Sir James Watt.
