Insurance agent W.J Emson & Co. had a shop in Mitcham for about 50 years, from around 1937 to 1987.
According to the 1921 census, William John Mulready EMSON, age 39, born in 1883, was a police sergeant at the Mitcham Police Station, and lived at the police quarters in Lower Green West (where Vine Cottages is now), with his wife Lilian Rose Emson, aged 38.
This and from 1932 shows him using all of his initials “W.J.M.” and the address as 21 Langdale Avenue, which was his home address as shown in the 1939 registry, with his wife Lillian R. Emson.
Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 21 January 1932
By 1937, his business was from a shop on the corner of Langdale Avenue and London Road at no. 251, as can be seen in this ad. Note that the third initial has been dropped.
1937 ad from Mitcham Cricket Club yearbook
He was listed as a subscriber to the cricket club’s yearbook in 1937, from which it is assumed he was a member of the club. These ads ran up to 1968.
The 1952 Chamber of Commerce guide lists W. J. Emson & Co., at 177 London Road, Mitcham, near the corner with Downe Road.
He passed away in September 1961, and his address on the probate record on Ancestry was 4 Glebe Court, Mitcham.
This ad from 1968 is from the Mitcham Cricket Club yearbook.
1968 ad
The business was listed in the 1971 phone book at 177 London Road, Mitcham, 01-648 9351.
Merton Memories has a c.1987 photo which shows the business at 35 Monarch Parade.
Bakery that was at 33 Upper Green East, where they had a shop and, up to the 1970s, did deliveries around Mitcham by horse and cart. The Turner family had been in the bakery business for almost 200 years.
Clip from 1969 photo by Bill Rudd, reproduced by kind permission of the Merton Historical Society.
The Bill Rudd collection of photos taken in October 1968 on the Merton Historical Society website includes the delivery horses:
The bakery stopped using horses in 1973, as told in this article from the Mitcham News and Mercury, 10th August 1973.
A change of horse power after two hundred years
SALLY the famous horse used by Turners, the Mitcham bakery, has delivered her last loaf of bread. She’s been driven off the streets, together with stable mates Billy and Brandy, because of the rising costs of their own staple food, hay and oats. After nearly 200 years, Turners, one of Merton’s oldest bakeries, have decided that the four footed deliveries of bread and cakes are getting too expensive.
So the three horses have had to go and will be replaced by vans to cover the five mile routes where they were firm favourites with housewives, old folk, children, and gardeners.
During the last two years the firm have tried to ignore the steadily rising prices of feed and shoe-ing because their horses and carts were a tradition and good public relations.
“But in the last few months these have shot up no much in price, shoe-ing has doubled in price for example, that we just can’t afford them any more” said general manager, Mr Ken Turner.
“It’s very sad. I know everyone wilt miss them. I will myself after all these years of keeping horses I’m 60 per cent baker and 40 per cent horse-man.
“The kids loved to feed them and they loved their work. When they went on holiday they often fretted to come back. But they are just not economic any more.”
The three were stabled at the back of the bakery at Fair Green and daily covered most of Mitcham between them.
“There was also the problem that the men who used to drive them have recently retired and its difficult to find young men willing to learn to drive a horse and cart” said Mr Turner.
The firm have always used horses for deliveries to customers, although a fleet of vans has also covered routes between the four shops in the Mitcham area. Recently Turners, a family business since 1792, was taken over by Spillers.
“But the decision has had nothing to do with them. I think they are as sorry as we are. All the staff will miss them too,” said Mr Turner.
The three, Sally, (pictured above), Brandy and Billy are all aged between 12 and 14 years-old. Last year Sally surprised the firm by producing a foal as a momentoe of a holiday romance the previous year.
Now the three have been stabled with some friends of Mr Turner’s at Epsom where they will work in a riding school.
Video showing how to find the Bill Rudd photos:
Comments on this video:
I used to buy my Mum cakes from Turner’s when I was in trouble, as a kid, and picked up sandwiches from Turner’s for my colleagues in the 1970s – we worked at Express Dairies Distribution in Beddington Lane (which had no canteen) . I used to ring in from a phone box EVERY day to take people’s orders. Incidentally, “Babes ‘n’ Tots” was a shop that sold everything from nappy pins to prams – and they probably closed down when my Mum stopped having kids! Best Wishes -and thanks for the memories – from Chatham
From a former resident of Mitcham, now living in Thailand:
The Turners’ bread cart used to come along Lammas Avenue where we lived! As a kid I was allowed to sit on the cart’s driving bench. There was a small Hovis type loaf on the seat! I took a bite. Later the driver saw the bite I had taken and ‘clipped my ear’ and sent me away! Naughty boy I guess! Greetings from Thailand.
Mitcham History Notes 