Cusden | Mitcham History Notes

Sutton & Epsom Advertiser – Thursday 19 November 1936

MITCHAM FOR BARGAINS.

THE WEEK OF WEEKS.

The third Mitcham Shopping Week held under the auspices of the Mitcham and District Chamber of Commerce opened on Saturday in a deluge of rain. This did not daunt the spirit of the traders, however, and when the weather cleared later in the day they commenced reaping the reward of a month’s preparation.

Mitcham housewives know a good bargain when they see it. And it was not long before they were out complete with shopping baskets and perambulators, joining in the great hunt for bargains and still more bargains. In this connection it should be mentioned that those taking part in the “Treasure Hunt” have to search until they find an article in a shop window ticketed with a number corresponding to that on their Treasure Hunt form. The article can be claimed on November 24th but only adults will be allowed to stake a claim and they must produce their form at the time of doing so.

The Children’s Limerick competition is open to any Mitcham child attending school. There is no entrance fee. Prizes will be awarded to the competitors who, in the opinion of the judges, add the most original and topical last line to the given rhyme. Forms may be had from any of the members of the Chamber of Commerce and must be returned on or before Tuesday, November 24th. Prize winners will be notified by post.

The window dressing competition is, of course, for shopkeepers only, though nobody will object if private householders decorate the aspidistra in the parlour window with bunting. It will all add to the gaiety of the occasion and put Mitcham in good form for next year’s Coronation.

A REVIEW OF THE SHOPS.

In spite of the healthy growth of the Mitcham and District Chamber of Commerce, there are always the few dismal persons who, by word and lack of action, attempt to “throw a spanner into the works.” These may or may not reap benefit from the shopping week. But this can be said with certainty, that those traders who are taking active part in the event are bound to get their reward. There are plenty of shoppers in Mitcham and, after all, the shopping week is only an organised effort to keep Mitcham shoppers IN MITCHAM, by offering them as good and better value than they can get elsewhere. A survey of the shops is the best proof of the fine bar- gains offered this week.

Starting with Lower Mitcham we find Birketts displaying good-value ladies’ underwear and some extra special bargains in hosiery. Allen Bros, the wireless people, are making a special feature of the famous Exco sets. Mr. Etheridge, the linoleum specialist, has a wide range of floor coverings in various patterns and prices to suit every taste and pocket. Owing to the particular nature of their business, Robinson’s Dairy may not be in a position to offer many specified bargains, but they do supply excellent milk and dairy produce all the year round. Another trader in this category is Mr. J. N. Cheshire, whose Brookfield Nurseries supply plants to local gardens for every season of the year. Along Church-road, we find that Mr. W. Musco, who has recently acquired the business of Mr. W. Parker, has a shop well stocked with fish, poultry and game.

Leaving the Cricket Green behind, we come to London House, where Francis’s are offering, among other things, very attractive shopping vouchers. In the ironmongery window of this well known store is one of the shopping week attractions a bricklayer’s trowel that would break the heart of any man who lays bricks. Birch, the butcher, having made a particularly keen purchase of prime English beef, is selling it at the same price as foreign beef for Shopping Week. Reynolds, the bacon specialist, is giving away one shilling in the pound discount.

The shops of Mayhew, Spence and Haymes offer a fine selection of toys and fancy goods at rock-bottom prices, suitable for Christmas presents, while Madam Lila’s premises are an attraction to the woman of fashion. Not intending to be “left out in the dark,” the County of London Electric Supply Co. stress the cheapness of electricity for both lighting and heating.

Coming to the Fair Green, we stop and feast our eyes on the tempting cooked meats at Mrs. Haywood’s and the well arranged window of Turner’s, the bakers. It is a pleasure to look up the infinite variety of bread shapes and sizes in Turner’s window, not to speak of the rainbow of pastries and “The Gateway of Health,” which are the work of Miss Turner. There is a fine range of bargains offered in ladies’ wear by H. C. Smith and the newly opened premises of Mrs. Drewett. If we were thinking of moving we would most certainly see what Messrs. Leonard Davey and Hart are offering by way of houses. Miss Ruth Cole suggests that the gift of a permanent wave would be a delightful surprise for a lady, and we agree!

On the other side of the Fair Green we while away a quarter of an hour in Fair Green Market and on our way back to London-road we note the fine quality meat, rabbits, sausages and fish displayed by Hutton’s, the butchers. Mr. F. K. Harvey’s windows also draw our attention by their neat array of medicines and surgical requisites, while our dog’s attention is attracted by the animal foods at Gutteridge’s.

Such an array of bargains has already caused our eyes to bulge, so we stop and have spectacles adjusted at the consulting rooms of Melson Wingate, the dispensing opticians. Three ladies whose adjoining pre- mises have been in existence as long as we can remember are next on the list. These are Mrs. Hicks, the baker, Miss Hicks, the ladies’ and children’s outfitter, who, by the way, is giving a penny in the shilling discount; and Mrs. Hudson, the watchmaker and jeweller. Across the road, Dyne’s offer a wide range of wireless sets and bicycles and Mr. E. C. Morris urges us to buy the children’s Hornby trains and Meccano sets locally.

After seeing what Mr. Spicer, the butcher, offers by way of tempting week-end joints, we continue our way till we come to the Borough Furnishers, noted for modern furnishings at low prices. The windows of the Acme Printers, noted craftsmen at their work, are the next to draw attention. These well illustrates the motto, “Bright Days in Dull Times.” The sun is rising there all the time and in the most gorgeous colours. Next we pass on to the Mitcham Builders Supply Co., who are offering 10 per cent. retail discount during shopping week. There’s a man in the window of the Mitcham Builders Supply Co, who has been painting a door or something for days and days, and he is still painting it. That’s persistence, that is.

NORTH MITCHAM.

A bus along Streatham-road brings us to Hill’s Dairy, noted for fine creamy milk. And whether we agree or not that “beer is best,” we are delighted with what Mrs. B. E. Bird has to show. Special bargains in hosiery, vests, gloves and knitting wools are offered by Mr. H. A. Westbrook, who has done so much in this particular area to promote interest in shopping week. Among a large stock of medical requisites Mr. Prenninger always keeps oxygen in stock, a point well worth remembering in cases of emergency. Harking back to meat, Mr. G. F. Cox, the butcher, is noted for his choice quality English, Scotch and imported meat.

On the other side of the bridge, Messrs. Girdler’s premises display a wide selection of radio sets and “The Dainty” shop, with brightly illuminated and well-dressed windows, has a fine selection of chocolates, confections and tobaccos.

Last, but certainly not least, we note the well-stocked windows of Messrs. Harry Cusden, Ltd, the well known grocers and provision merchants, of Manor-road and Sherwood Park-road.

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.

Mitcham History Notes

Some notes about history of Mitcham, Surrey

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1936 Mitcham Shopping Week

The oldest pubs in Mitcham – according to parish records