Tag Archives: Bucks Head

The oldest pubs in Mitcham – according to parish records

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From the Mitcham Advertiser – Thursday 07 July 1927

MITCHAM NOTES.

Why are all the public houses in High-street, Colliers Wood, on one side—the west side of the road? I asked the Chairman of the Council and he said he must have notice of the question. I asked Mr. Groom-bridge and he thanked heaven he lived in the wilderness on the other side. I asked Coun. Cusden and he said “What does it matter? The beer is just as good at Cusden’s Stores.” I asked Jack Fitch and he said it was a shame. I asked George Bennett and he said that was one of the inequalities the Labour Party was out to remove. I asked Thirsty Bill, who has often been fined 10s. and costs for being all on one side himself, and he said, “Hie-wash-wash I get for tellin’ ya!”

So I led the way to the Blue Nose and Slop Basin and called for two acid drops. Thirsty Bill’s eyesight is getting bad and in mistake he drank both. “Shay, guv’nor,” he hiccoughed, “don’t-tcha berlieve it.” “Believe what?” I asked. “Thash all pubs in thish—thish street—hic—thash all pubs in any streetsh on one sidesh. Nope. Sh’all wrong. Man who shesh pubs in thish tsreetsh all on one shide—sidesh ish—hic—ish drunk.”

In desperation I asked Mr. R. M. Chart. Mr. Chart knows more about the pubs of Mitcham than any man. This statement, I hope, will be taken in the right spirit. With his usual courtesy he let me waste his time while I propounded the more or less important question then said “It’s an interesting point certainly, and, I think, easily explained.”

Mr. Chart reminded me that unknown to many of the residents of Colliers Wood a brook flows down the east side of High-street into the Wandle at Merton. It is under the roadway and was covered in within living memory. It is the same stream that protects Mitcham from Tooting. “It is reasonable to suppose,” he added, “that when High-street was a rural way with an open brook along the whole of its east side the roadside inns were built on the west side to avoid that brook.”

A simple solution, you must agree, of a great mystery to you and me. Evidently mine host of the days of yore took more pains than does Boniface of to-day to pre-vent his customers from mixing their drinks—involuntarily.

It would have been utterly foolish to let Mr. Chart go without asking him for facts about the King’s Head and the grand old elm slain last week to make a motorist’s holiday.

“Time hollowed in its trunk a tomb for centuries,
And buried there the epochs of the rise and fall of states,
The fading generations of the world,
The memory of men.”

Mr. Chart not only enlightened me about the King’s Head and the elm, but gave me historical notes of a dozen other Mitcham hostelries. The earliest mention of the King’s Head in the Parish Records of Mitcham is under date 1732. There is evidence, however, that the house was erected in the Elizabethan period, for it is a very old timber framed building re-faced with brickwork. The elm, lamented as much by tea sloppers as by froth blowers, was probably more than 250 years old.

On the occasions when the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward) attended Epsom Races and changed horses at the King’s Head, as told in the “Advertiser” last week, the Village Beadle, William Hills, a builder and a fine portly man, who lived at Vine Cottage, Lower Green, the oldest house in Mitcham, was always present in gold laced uniform ostensibly to keep the crowd in order. After one cere-mony of the kind he received a letter written on notepaper crowned with the Royal Arms thanking him for his atten-tion and services.

Mr. Chart thinks the Beadle never knew that he was the victim of a parish wag, for he was always fond of exhibiting the letter. Mr. Hills was also the Town Crier. He paraded the village with a hand bell and always wound up his orations on the subject of the lost sheep or other matters with the pious and loyal sentiment “God Save the Queen.” To which the children, who usually followed in his train, added “And hang the Crier!”

The Bull, Church-road, is first mentioned in parish records in 1753, so it appears to be the second oldest inn in Mitcham. Un-doubtedly all the inns were in existence long before the dates given. The Buck’s Head is mentioned in 1776. It was re-built about twenty years ago and set back 10-ft. from its original frontage on London-road.

The White Hart, beloved of Councillors, and, if I remember aright, of church-wardens of other days, came to the official notice of Mitcham in 1784. The King’s Arms, formerly a timber framed building on a site north of the present building, was first recorded in 1787. The Red Lion (Colliers Wood) comes into prominence in 1792 and two years later the Nag’s Head, a timber building except the front, is men-tioned, as is also the Swan.

The Goat comes next into the records in the year 1805. In 1819 the Half Moon shone at the corner of Lock’s-lane, but it has long since set to rise no more. The Six Bells, Merton Bridge, can also be traced back to 1819. A year later the Cricketers Inn is officially taken notice of, but I have a feeling that it was unofficially observed long before that time, particularly by sportsmen with a dry humour.

The last pub turned up by Mr. Chart was the Phoenix, first mentioned in 1838. It justified its name some years ago by rising out of its dead ashes as the Horse and Groom. Of the Sportsman, which formerly gave Dutch courage to those about to enter Love-lane, there is no official record at all. Which only shows you that the Vestry Clerk of that day, like the last of his line, was a gentleman of discretion.

If Mr. Gaston had been a member of the Fire Brigade Committee, or a follower of the statesman who urged all public per-sons to verify their references, he would not have “made the bloomer” of assuming that the Chief Officer was advocating the purchase of a foam generator like “the only one in London.” That is a machine the size of a motor pump and costing as much. Mr. Wells clearly stated in his report (in front of Mr. Gaston as he spoke) that the machine he had in mind would cost £75. He also clearly stated that his remarks and suggestions were “applicable to the storage of inflammable liquids that do not come within the provisions of the Petroleum Act.”

Now I say that as certain councillors do not come within the provisions of the Petroleum Act it is the duty of the rest to safeguard themselves and Mitcham by the purchase of a continuous foam extinguisher not generator. If one can be got for £75 and will prevent Coun. Groombridge, for instance, from bursting into flames more than fifty times at one meeting it will be a real economy to buy it.

THE COMMONER.

This text was extracted using Google’s AI Studio, model “Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 03-25 gemini-2.5-pro-preview-03-25”, with the prompt “extract the text from this 1927 newspaper article” against the downloaded article image from the British Newspaper Archive.

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1890 Shocking Murder At Mitcham

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From the Illustrated Police News – Saturday 07 June 1890

MURDER AT MITCHAM.

ON the 30th ult., at the Croydon County Bench, before Dr. Alfred Carpenter (in the chair) and other magistrates, George Bowling, fifty-one, a labourer, of Miles’s-cottages, Mitcham, was charged, on remand, with the wilful murder of Elizabeth Nightingale, a widow, with whom he lived, by smashing in her skull with a hammer, at Mitcham, on the 17th. ult.

Sophia Collins, sister of the deceased, had her previous evidence read over, and in reply to further questions said it was a four-roomed house. The prisoner and the deceased occupied the two front rooms, one up and one down. Witness and her brother occupied the other rooms. The deceased and Bowling had the exclusive use of the front door, of which they had the key, and they generally shut the door when they went out. Bowling and deceased lived together for ten or eleven years. Witness and her brother always used the back-door, which was bolted inside at night time. Of late the prisoner had been drinking very much, and quarrels between the pair were frequent. The deceased was of sober habits generally. Witness was on good terms with her. Had never seen her the worse for liquor. Witness usually saw her sister every day, if she did not the prisoner. The deceased worked at a marketgarden, and used to get there at eight o’clock. She would get up between five and six to do her housework. At this point Police-constable Butler, 488 W, produced a plan he had made of the premises, the bedroom being drawn to scale. The witness Collins went on to say that she last saw her sister alive on the 16th ult. The prisoner came in about eight o’clock. Witness did not see him, but she knew his step. She was surprised at his coming home so early. The deceased came in at half-past nine, and remarked to wltness as she was going upstairs, “Aint it cold? Directly she got in her room witness heard deceased and Bowling quarrelling. She heard the prisoner threaten her a good deal. He said, “I will be the death of you.’ She did not hear any blows, nor did she hear any scuffling. Soon after that prisoner came downstairs and seemed to go in his front room, and remained in there about five minutes. Witness heard him go up again. There was more swearing, but she heard no blows. This lasted five or six minutes, and all was quiet after- wards. Witness then went into the washhouse to get water and chop some wood, being absent about a quarter of an hour. Witness heard nothing more during the night. Witness’s brother came in about eleven o’clock, and stayed up about half an hour, and then went to bed. No one else went in or out of the house that night. Next morning, between five and six o’clock, she heard the prisoner come downstairs. Between five and six the same evening she went Into her sister’s bedroom and found her lying on the bed dead, with her skull battered in. Witness had seen a coal hammer in Bowling’s coal-cellar, but not during the past six months. Witness had used it for nailing pictures up. The hammer (produced, stained with blood) was not the one in question, in fact, she had never seen it before. She had several times heard the prisoner threaten to settle her sister. Cross-examined by Mr. Dennis: The last sound she heard was at ten minutes past ten o’clock. She did not know that Bowling went out at ten o’clock, and was drinking at the Buck’s Head public-house shortly before eleven. Witness was not surprised to hear them quarrelling, as it so frequently occurred. Her sister was rather a warm-tempered woman.

Dr. Henry Love repeated the evidence he gave before the coroner as to the death of the woman being caused by repeated and violent blows on the head by a heavy instrument such as the hammer produced. The fact of there having been no struggle showed that the woman was stunned by the first blow.

Inspector Butters, who arrested the prisoner, stated that on the way to the station Bowling said, “I suppose they fetched you ?” Witness replied in the affirmative. Police-constable Banfield, 277 W, deposed that the prisoner said to him, “It was in my temper I done it in.” Other evidence having been called, Mr. Dennis, in reply to the Bench, said he had nothing to say. In answer to the usual caution, the prisoner, speaking with some emotion, said, “Not guilty, and I reserve my defence,”

The prisoner was fully committed for trial at the next assizes on the capital charge. He was removed to Holloway Gaol to await his trial, his departure being witnessed by a large crowd.

Surrey Independent and Wimbledon Mercury – Saturday 2nd August 1890

The Mitcham Murder.

The execution of George Bowling, for the wilful murder of a woman named Eliza Nightingale, with whom he had cohabited for several years at Mitcham, took place on Tuesday morning, at nine o’clock, at Wandsworth Prison.

The prisoner, who was 57 years of age, a labourer, had lived a miserable life with deceased. On the day of the murder the informer had been drinking, and soon after he got home they quarrelled, and the prisoner attacked the unhappy woman with a hammer and literally beat out her brains. The prisoner neither at the time of the horrible occurrence nor since his conviction showed any remorse for his conduct, indeed, he has all along appeared to be impressed with the idea that he was justified in committing the act of violence, on account of the provocation he had received.

He has been visited by a brother and some other relatives, but it does not appear that any attempt has been made, either by memorial or otherwise, to obtain a commutation of the capital sentence. A few days ago the prisoner made out a sort of will by which he bequeathed what he calls his ‘little sticks’ to a brother, and he also at the same time made a formal admission of his guilt.

Mr. Walter Bartlett, of Bedford-row the newly-appointed deputy of Mr. Hudson, the High Sheriff of Surrey, had the responsibility of superintending the carrying out of the sentence, and he arrived at the prison shortly before one o’clock, and went to the prisoner’s cell. The culprit was then pinioned by Berry and walked firmly to the scaffold. He was a short, thick set man, and a drop of over five feet was allowed. He appeared to be dead in an instant.