Tag Archives: Allotments

The Canons Minutes – 1948 Reinstatement of Recreation Grounds

From the minutes of the
Allotments Committee
June 10, 1948

REINSTATEMENT OF RECREATION GROUNDS.

The Committee are asked to give consideration to a scheme for the reinstatement of recreation grounds and open spaces at present used as wartime allotments, a total area of approximately 48 acres. As a basis for discussion I set forth below a statement showing a reinstatement programme based on a commencement in the financial year 1949/50. If such a scheme is adopted holders of wartime allotments will know the date when such allotments have to be given up. For the first year it is suggested that three recreation grounds and open spaces be dealt with namely, Colliers Wood Playing Fields, approximately half Figges Marsh, and Sherwood Park Recreation Ground. This would improve the playing facilities in western, central and eastern areas of the Borough.

Recreation Ground Area in Acres Date of Suggested Reinstatement
Colliers Wood Playing Fields 3.0 1949-50
Figges Marsh – North 7.0 1949-50
Sherwood Park 2.6 1949-50
Figges Marsh – South 7.0 1950-51
Cricket Green 2.3 1950-51
Rowan Road 1.2 1950-51
Long Bolstead 0.6 1950-51
Manship Road 1.0 1950-51
Lewis Road 1.2 1951-52
Deer Park Gardens 1.2 1951-52
Mount Road 1.3 1951-52
Vectis Road 0.4 1951-52
Cranmer Green 2.4 1951-52
Mitcham Court 0.4 1951-52
The Canons 5.3 1951-52
Pollards Hill 12.0 1952-53

Approximate costs of reinstatement are:-

1949-50 £5,200.00
1950-51 £5,000.00
1951-52 £4,100.00
1952-53 £4,000.00
Total £18,300.00

Yours obediently,
Riley Schofield,
Borough Engineer and Surveyor.

Source: Proceedings of the Council and committees, Mitcham Borough Council, Volume 14 1946-48, pages 635-6


See aerial photos from 1945.

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

Mount Road

Road of council housing built after World War 1 between Western Road (opposite the junction with Lavender Avenue) and Church Road. First mention in electoral registers is for 1922.

Named after Councillor H.L. Mount JP, district chairman in 1920. It was an attempt at being a ‘Garden Village’ development with low density and cottage style homes.

House numbering is from east to west, i.e. from Western Road to Church Road. Even numbers are on the south side of the road, from 2 to 86; and odd numbers are on the northern side of the road, from 1 to 69.

The centre part of the road split around an oval shaped green. Before being named Mount Road the road was referred to in council minutes as the Oval Road. During the second world war, this green space was converted to allotments for the war effort. This clip, from an aerial photograph by the RAF in 1946, shows the outline of the plots.

clip from Merton Memories photo 31375, copyright London Borough of Merton.

This green was sold by Merton council to property developer Costain Homes (Southern) Ltd for £2,515,241 in 1988, and subsequently built upon. (Source: Merton Council minutes, 1988 volume 24, Development Committee, page 238, 29th September 1988). Houses built on this oval plot are numbered from 101 to 153 sequentially.

1933 OS map

Mount Road on Google street View, from Western Road end. The houses on the left were built in 1988/9 on the oval green mentioned above.


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


Minutes of meetings held by the London Borough of Merton are available on request from the Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre at Morden Library.