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1959 news items

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Friday 2 January 1959

‘Show people how much they can help themselves’
THEY HAVE CHOSEN CLAPHAM
To study the social problems of London
The Clapham Observer reports that an Institute for Group Studies, launched by Viennese social psychologist Richard Hauser and his wife, the pianist Hephzibah Menuhin, will work from Clapham on London’s social problems, including the recent race riots in Notting Hill. The Hausers, who have studied similar tensions in Naples and Sydney, say they chose Clapham because the area is a picture of London.

A DIAMOND WEDDING PARTY
Mr David Osborne, of Laitwood Road, Balham Hill, and his wife Louisa celebrated their diamond wedding with their family at the Clapham home of their daughter and son-in-law, Mr and Mrs Stanley Clarke.

The old lady who wouldn’t ask for help
Alice Richards, 78, of Rosenau Road, Battersea, who was knocked down and taken to hospital with a broken thigh, had been reluctant to ask anyone for help although she was living on her own.

The ‘mumbling’ lorry driver
John George Bush, 51, a street trader of Vienna Road, Battersea, was fined £5 at the South Western Court for careless driving after his lorry hit a car on Putney Bridge. He had told the court he was mumbling to himself and did not hear a warning.

Denies she abandoned children
A woman traced to Brighton, where she was living with a family as housekeeper, denied at the South Western Court that she had abandoned her three young children.

Not such good old days
Mr and Mrs Osborne, marking sixty years of marriage, told the paper that the old days were not as good as people supposed.

MAN CAUGHT BETWEEN TUBE DOORS
An eighty-year-old man was caught in the doors of a Tube train. The guard stopped the train and he was released, shaken but not badly hurt.

Prison for thefts from school
A labourer who broke into a girls’ school in Clapham and stole from the building was sent to prison at the South Western Court.

Fire below — brothers sleep on
Two brothers sleeping in a Clapham house did not wake while a fire burned in the room below. Neighbours raised the alarm and the fire brigade put it out.

Brother is accidentally shot
Two Clapham brothers were at home when one was accidentally shot. He was taken to hospital.

FORMER MAJOR GETS FOUR YEARS’ JAIL
A former major was sent to prison for four years at the County of London Sessions after a case of fraud.

SPENT HER LIFE HELPING OTHERS
Mrs Mary Clark Lawrence, who had spent her life in church and charity work, died at the age of 85. The paper records a lifetime of helping other people.

Friday 30 January 1959

It was Sunday at Bunces Ditch: The spade hit something hard
WORKMEN DIG UP LIVE BOMB
— and carry it to safety
Mr Bill Tapping, of Lynmouth Avenue, Morden, walked about 100 yards carrying an unexploded mortar bomb found by workmen on the Windsor Avenue road extension at Bunces Ditch, Merton Abbey. He threw water over the object, saw that it was a bomb intact except for the tail fin, and carried it to the corner of the road. Bomb parts had been found on the same site the week before.

The ‘ghost’ stores of Upper Green East
Passers-by have been asking for five months whether eight modern shops at Upper Green East, finished but still empty, will become ghost stores. A spokesman for Healey and Baker said only two of the shops were in negotiation. The Deputy Borough Engineer, Mr W. B. Wignall, said the shops were not being taken over because the council would allow only certain types of shop.

Chime, gentlemen, please — but do it quietly
The Ice Cream Alliance, to which about 95 per cent of Britain’s ice-cream vendors belong, has issued a code of conduct on musical vans. Mr L. Dimashio, of London Road, Mitcham, a former president of the Alliance, helped to draw it up. Most complaints have come from Glebe Estate and Pollards Hill.

Monte Carlo car hits a boulder — but finishes run
Damaged steering failed to stop Mr Colin Sproxton, of Homewood Road, Mitcham, and his co-driver finishing the Monte Carlo Rally after the car hit a boulder. He told the paper they were 66th in the general classification and 19th in class, and that they had done better in the championship.

Friday 6 February 1959

No more pigs on the allotments
Allotment holders in Batsworth Road, Mitcham, who combine horticulture with pig-keeping, are to have that part of their holding stopped. Mitcham Council decided on Thursday last week that pig-keeping must cease.

Friday 6 March 1959

An extra day this year — in spite of criticism
TEDDY BOYS AND GAMBLING DENS
That’s Mitcham Fair, says a councillor
Mitcham Fair will stay an extra day, Saturday 15 August, despite strong opposition at the council on Thursday last week. Coun. David Griffith, speaking on the Showmen’s Guild application, said the fair had lost its attraction and was a place for youths and gambling rather than children. Ald. A. Prestage said it had no social value. Coun. Jesse Stringer, who remembered the fair of fifty years ago, said it was a more gentlemanly affair now.

Council refuse MP a room
The Labour council refused to let Mitcham’s Conservative M.P., Mr Robert Carr, hire a Town Hall room once a month to meet constituents. Coun. Ernest Mills asked for the decision to be referred back, saying the request was for ratepayers and not a party matter. Coun. Frank Baker said he would have taken the same view if Labour had asked. Coun. Sidney Knight said Mr Carr had managed to meet constituents by other means for seven years.

DEBATE ON CIGARETTE MACHINE
Coun. Ernest Mills called it “petty officialdom run amok” when the council refused a Streatham Road shopkeeper permission for a cigarette machine on the pavement. The Town Planning Committee cited the Public Health (Buildings in Streets) Act, 1888. Coun. Mills asked how a cigarette machine could affect public health.

Ward switch for Coun. Byford
Coun. Henry Byford, the present Labour member for Colliers Wood Ward, is to fight a different ward in the May borough elections.

Fireman rescues baby in blaze
After getting her two sons out of a fire at her Pollards Hill home, Mrs Eileen Killingbeck collapsed when she realised her five-month-old daughter was still inside. A Croydon fireman pulled the baby, Ann, clear. None of the children was hurt. The fire started at the Ivy Gardens Nissen hut when two-year-old Antony knocked over a paraffin heater.

Man placed on bail twice
Twenty-year-old Jack Sadler, of Khartoum Road, Tooting, was released on £50 bail at Mitcham so that he could appear with others at the Surrey Quarter Sessions. He had already been on £200 bail accused of attempting to break into a Mitcham radio shop, and was also accused of driving a car without insurance.

Library scheme: Another delay
A £58,000 scheme for extensions to Mitcham’s central library in London Road is to stay suspended. The council decided on Thursday last week that the matter should be considered again at a later date. The scheme was already said to have grown to more than twice the original plan.

MINISTRY’S NO TO ONE-WAY TRAFFIC
The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation is not supporting Mitcham Council’s plan to make Armfield Crescent one-way. The divisional road engineer said a one-way road through a housing estate would be a hazard to children who look right before crossing, and that the Commissioner of Police did not think the volume of traffic merited special measures.

Radio sets stolen from homes
While two families were at work on Tuesday, a thief entered houses in Acacia Road, Mitcham, and stole radio sets. One house had been left open; at the other he got in at the back.

More bicycles being stolen
Cycle thefts in Mitcham reached a new peak this week. Police asked riders never to leave a machine unlocked, and said about ten a day were being stolen.

Blind man lectures
Members of Mitcham Youth Club heard a talk on Monday from a St Dunstan’s lecturer. He was 60-year-old Mr Robert Young, blinded in the First World War.

Pot explodes
A varnish pot exploded at Mitcham Varnish Works, Batsworth Road, on Thursday.

Friday 20 March 1959

Bringing beer to your ‘local’
Tulip line skirt to the fore
Margaret Exell’s feature in The News follows the shire horses that still deliver beer by dray, including a four-horse team completing a delivery at Ye Olde Windmill, Clapham Common, before going on to the next call. The piece describes Majestic and Majesty, the heavy horses, and farrier Mr Charles Butler.

Friday 27 March 1959

Beecham Group may take over local sweets firm
£2½ MILLION BID FOR PASCALLS
Shareholders advised to accept offer
The Beecham Group has made a £2,500,000 cash bid for James Pascall, the Mitcham sweet firm, and the directors have recommended acceptance. About 1,000 employees were told there was little doubt Pascalls would stay in Mitcham and that there might be more work if a new factory went ahead.

Ald. Chalkley may be the next Mayor
Ald. David Chalkley, 49-year-old chairman of Mitcham Housing Committee and a member of Surrey County Council, has a second chance to become Mayor. He was nominated last year but turned the offer down because of his wife’s illness. A selection committee is to choose between him and Ald. H. T. Simms.

Wanted: More keepers on the common
Mitcham Common Preservation Society wants more keepers. Members say that when the tip-up seats are closed, Teddy boys move in, and that grass has been torn up and children have been using the seats as a playground.

THE DOG WHO ROAMED IS HOME AGAIN
Peter, the wanderer, is home again. The paper prints his picture with the story of the dog who roamed.

Families who will be glad to leave their homes
SO SQUALID
Wendy Scott describes more than sixty families still living in Nissen huts in Wide Way, Mitcham, long called the borough’s black spot. There is no bathroom, the huts are damp, and families who ask to be moved are told the housing list is very long. One elderly woman has lived in a hut for more than eight years. A health clinic is being built under the huts.

Friday 10 April 1959

Raise your glass — and save twopence
Budget day brought an immediate 2d. cut in the price of beer in Mitcham public houses. Mr Frank Clements, licensee of the Red Lion, Colliers Wood, and president of the Colliers Wood Bounty old people’s club, said customers were pleased, though he had hoped spirits would be cut as well. A spokesman for Latham Brown Ltd, Western Road, hoped the cut in the tax on paint solvents would lower costs.

Lady Lewisham opens the flats
Lady Lewisham, with her eldest son William, aged 9, opened a house in London Road which has been converted into 12 flatlets for elderly people. Mitcham’s Mayor, Ald. H. T. Simms, Mr Robert Carr M.P., the town clerk Mr R. H. White, and housing chairman Ald. D. Chalkley were in the party. The invitation had come from Mitcham Old People’s Welfare Association. Mrs A. H. Shelswell, wife of the doctor who formerly owned the house, was among the guests.

Soccer death off jabs
Mitcham’s health department has had a rush of requests for polio injections for the under-25 age group. The Medical Officer of Health, Dr A. R. Graham, said there was little doubt the rush followed the death from polio of footballer Jeff Hall. Local doctors had asked for 40 doses, far above the usual order.

Friday 17 April 1959

Tenants afraid to let children out after dark
TEENAGE GANGS TERRORISE FLATS
Battersea Council act after complaints
Tenants of Farrant House, Winstanley Road, Battersea, told the Clapham Observer it was not safe to let children out after dark because teenage gangs had been terrorising the block for more than three months. Bricks were thrown, windows smashed and drains blocked. Battersea Council was acting on the complaints.

Heidi’s Club must close by July 1
A deadline of 1 July has been imposed by London County Council for the closing of Heidi’s Club, Albert Square, Stockwell. The owner, Mr P. R. H. S. Greene, has been told the club must shut.

Woman of 79 fell in fire
Mrs Gwendoline Gardner, 79, fell into the fire at her home in Southwark and was badly burned. She was taken to hospital.

Vic Rouse, from Stonhouse St., plays for Wales
Vic Rouse, the 21-year-old Crystal Palace goalkeeper from Stonhouse Street, Clapham, has been chosen to play for Wales against Ireland in Belfast.

ROBERT, 14, FINDS DISUSED WELL
Fourteen-year-old Robert Paskins found an old well while out with a friend. He was not in danger, and the find was reported.

Friday 24 April 1959

Up the flag — and down the hatch
A flag was hoisted to the chimney of the partly built Pollard Oak public house on Monday, and the 24 workmen on the site drank a toast. They were given a nine-gallon barrel. The new house replaces a prefabricated public house put up as a temporary measure after the war. The licence will be held by Mrs Edith Eagers, and the new Pollard Oak will have a bar which can also be used as an assembly hall.

A plea for economic rents
Council tenants should pay an economic rent for their homes, and there should be no Croydon-style means test in Mitcham, Coun. W. F. M. Townsend told an adoption meeting on Wednesday last week.

Friday 8 May 1959

The cost of upkeep is too much, say Surrey County Council
EAGLE HOUSE WILL CLOSE TODAY
Goodbye to the only local nursery
Eagle House nursery, on the edge of Mitcham Common, closes today because Surrey County Council says the cost of upkeep is too much. Mothers who used it called it one of the few places of its kind in the district. What would happen to the house had not been decided.

THE MOST POPULAR CONTEST OF THEM ALL
Entries were still coming in for Mitcham’s Personality Girl competition, to be crowned by a television personality at the Majestic. The paper prints photographs of entrants, including Jill Cooper and Yvonne Terry.

Friday 15 May 1959

Dramatic end to two-day trek across country
SCOUTS HELP SAVE BEAUTY SPOT
They find a plantation blazing
Four Mitcham scouts and their scoutmaster, on the way home from a two-day trek, fought a plantation fire near Frensham Ponds, Surrey, after one of the boys spotted a spiral of smoke. The fire brigade commended them. The party was led by Scoutmaster Patrick Burke.

Bakery raider pockets £10
A thief walked into a bakery in London Road, Mitcham, and left with about £10 from the till.

Albert the town crier drops a clanger
Albert, Mitcham’s town crier, dropped his bell while crying a notice and the clapper came away. He finished the cry without it.

THERE’S ONLY ONE MORE WEEK TO GO
Only seven days remained for entries to the Mitcham Personality Girl contest, which closed the following Thursday, 21 May. Judging was to be at the Majestic, and the winner was to lead the carnival on 20 June.

Children injured in stove flare-up
A nine-year-old girl pulled a pan of hot fat over herself, and two younger children were also hurt, when a stove flared in a Mitcham home. All three were treated in hospital.

United’s pitch is being renovated
Tooting and Mitcham United’s pitch was being renovated after complaints about the playing surface.

Marriage ‘only for upper class’
Bill Roe, of Mitcham, told a debate that marriage was becoming something only the upper class could afford.

Friday 22 May 1959

Council investigate, say Eldertree Way
WHY RED DUST IN MITCHAM
Residents in Eldertree Way asked the council to find where red dust on their homes was coming from. They blamed Beck Meters’ factory. Coun. William Dungate, asked by the Long Thornton and Tamworth Residents’ Association to raise it, said a north-east wind brought a strong smell and that he sometimes walked a longer way home to avoid it.

Personality Girl Contest
RECORD BID — NOW FOR WINNER
So many entries arrived for the Personality Girl contest, which closed on Thursday, that two evenings of preliminary judging were needed, on 9 and 11 June, before the final at the Mitcham Majestic on 12 June. Mitcham Round Table, the sponsors, were delighted. The carnival procession on Saturday 20 June, in aid of Wilson and Wandle Valley Hospitals, was to be headed by the winner and her attendants.

PROUD OLD LADY SEES HER SON BECOME MAYOR
An 89-year-old lady sat in the public seats at Wandsworth Town Hall on Wednesday and watched her son become Mayor of London’s largest borough. Coun. Thomas Victor Rowlands was elected Mayor. His mother said it was a wonderful moment.

Club idea for Eagle House
A suggestion that Eagle House, the London Road nursery which Surrey is closing, might be converted into a boys’ club was made during the week.

They revived gassed woman, get awards
A Clapham car crew were given Royal Humane Society awards for reviving a woman they found gassed, and for trying to revive her husband, who died.

Friday 29 May 1959

A MESSAGE FROM THE NEW MAYOR
That civic spirit must be fostered
Ald. David Walter Chalkley was elected Mayor of Mitcham on Thursday last week and was described as a man with more than average ability and a great flair for public work. He said he would stand for the newly elected councillors, their families, and the town’s civic spirit. The proposal was seconded by Ald. A. C. Prestage.

DEATH OF MR. A. H. BAILEY
Mr A. H. Bailey, former mayor, Boer War veteran and campaigner for a better Mitcham, died on Friday after a short illness. He was 82. He came to the district in 1909, was chairman of the urban district council in 1926, an alderman from 1937, and Mayor in 1944. The paper says Mitcham’s two secondary schools owed much to his efforts. His funeral was on Wednesday at South London Crematorium.

More young voluntary workers are needed
Speaking of his work during the past year, Mitcham’s retiring Mayor, Ald. H. T. Simms, said on Thursday last week that it was heartening to see so much voluntary work, and that more young people were needed.

No date fixed for start on smoke-free zone
Although Wallington and Beddington were already on the way to becoming a smoke-control area, Mitcham Council has told the Minister of Housing that it cannot yet say when its own scheme will start.

LACK OF SUPPORT CLOSES GROUP
The Mitcham branch of the Workers’ Educational Association is to close through lack of support, although it had been successful financially. Only a few members attended during the year.

Take-over bid for cemetery
A take-over bid for the Great Southern Cemetery Company, of which Mr Tom Bage was an officer, was reported. The cemetery, opened some 80 years earlier, was said to be the subject of an offer.

EX-PETTY OFFICER ‘WENT OVER EDGE’
Driving down Shipka Road, Balham, two policemen found 76-year-old Samuel Mountstephen, of Zennor Road, Balham, a retired naval petty officer, throwing rubbish from a stationary refuse lorry into the road, with a handcart and two prams lined up beside it. At the South Western Court on Saturday he was fined £2 for obstruction and using obscene language on 30 April.

Scheme to aid old people
Wandsworth Old People’s Welfare Committee heard Dr M. S. Kataria, of St Francis Hospital, Camberwell, describe a scheme in which an old person is chosen for a six-week stay in hospital so that the relatives who look after them can have a rest. He said the relatives’ rest was the most important part of the scheme.

30 maisonnettes planned
Thirty maisonnettes and two flats are to be built in London Road, Mitcham, near Mitcham Station, on a site formerly occupied by factory premises. The cost to the council will be about £82,000, and work will start soon.

Friday 5 June 1959

The strongroom proved to be too tough for them
RAIDERS BLAST WAY INTO BANK
— and then leave EMPTY-HANDED
Raiders who entered Lloyds Bank, Upper Green, Mitcham, over the weekend tried to burn their way into the strongroom with oxy-acetylene gear and went away empty-handed. A C.I.D. spokesman said they seemed very inexperienced. Early reports put £50,000 in the strongroom. They cut the bars of a ground-floor window, used a lavatory, and left two almost empty oxygen cylinders. The manager, Mr J. G. Turner, said the raiders did not seem to have been Teddy boys, and that the office had not been ransacked.

RED DUST MYSTERY SOLVED
The red dust that puzzled people in Eldertree Way came from Beck Meters, Lilian Road, Mitcham’s chief public health inspector Mr K. J. Gutteridge reported. The dust was iron oxide, so fine that the factory probably did not notice it leaving through the shot-blasting filters. Beck Meters promised to do their best to stop it. Coun. William Dungate had asked the council on Monday to investigate.

A half-hour wait for motorists
On fine weekends, traffic in Croydon Road, Mitcham, is so heavy that drivers trying to get into Beddington Road and Windmill Road sometimes wait half an hour. Members of the Long Thornton and Tamworth Residents’ Association are asking for traffic lights or a policeman at the junction.

Taken to hospital
After a collision with a car in London Road, Mitcham, on Sunday, 84-year-old Mrs Florence Shepherd, of Barrow Avenue, Carshalton Beeches, was taken to hospital with a fractured right arm and a suspected broken jaw.

Personality Girl final next week
Mitcham’s Personality Girl will be crowned by television personality Daniel Negley Farson at the Mitcham Majestic on Friday 12 June. Two semi-finals were held at the Majestic. Thursday’s semi-finalists, chosen on Monday, were Merle Baines, Sheila Cussens, Jill Cooper, Brenda Gibbs, Carol Jackson, Georgina McManus, Maureen Marker and Yvonne Terry. The judges on Monday were Mr J. B. Pritchard for Mitcham Round Table, Miss Libby, matron of Wilson Hospital, and Mrs Margaret Charles for the Mitcham News and Mercury.

Trades Council deputation to factory
Mitcham Trades Council agreed to send a three-man deputation to a factory after members said cement dust, if concentrated enough, could be injurious. An open invitation had been extended to members to visit the works.

FIRE AT PAINT FACTORY
Firemen with breathing apparatus stopped a blaze spreading among cellulose at Hadfields varnish and paint factory, Western Road, Mitcham, on Friday. A foam tender stood by. The fire, in a production room, was found by a security watchman and was out after two hours. Production was interrupted “to a certain extent.”

Man, 74, fell from hut roof
A 74-year-old man was seriously injured when he fell eight feet from the roof of a hut he was painting, onto a concrete floor, at Franciscan Road, Tooting, last week. Mr Sydney Eveleigh, of West Gardens, Colliers Wood, was detained at St James’s Hospital, Balham, with a fractured pelvis.

LAMP EXPLODES
A gas street lamp in Langdale Avenue, Mitcham, exploded on Thursday last week. A jet of flame flared from a broken pipe until Gas Board engineers arrived. Firemen stood by.

Lost job after 26 years
Arthur King, aged 40, of Sherwood Road, Mitcham, who had worked at Hackbridge Cables for 26 years, lost his job as a machine operator after he admitted stealing a tin of copper wire. He said it was scrap and that he wanted it for a fence at home. A representative of the firm said he had been a good worker and that they were sorry to dismiss him.

HE STOLE FACE CREAM
A device to take jars of face cream from a shop, hidden in a man’s raincoat pocket, was spotted by store detectives. Patrick Gordon Glass, a metal polisher, of Grove Road, Mitcham, who pleaded guilty, was conditionally discharged at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Friday 21 August 1959

Canoe capsizes during sudden storm in Austria
MAN IS RESCUED FROM LAKE
Ten-minute ordeal in icy water
Alan Frost, 23, a Pollards Hill estate surveyor, was rescued from a lake in Austria after his canoe capsized in a sudden storm. He was in the water for about ten minutes. His friend, who raised the alarm, pulled him out. Mr Frost was taken to hospital suffering from exposure and later came home to Seventeenth Close.

CRICKET BAT MYSTERY
Workmen converting the stables at “The Croft,” an old Commonside East house, into nurses’ homes found an old cricket bat and ball built into a weather vane, and asked if anyone knew the story. Grocer Mr Fred Tyler said they were supposed to have been put there by a famous cricketer who once lived in the house. Ald. Tom Ruff thought the house had belonged to Frederick Gale, the cricket writer “Old Buffer,” who died about 1910. The Mitcham Cricket Club secretary, Mr J. H. Stainforth, said he knew nothing of it, but that the club might like the bat if it had any historical value.

‘Socialists can still win’
Mr Robert Carr, Mitcham’s Conservative M.P., told party members that the margin between success and failure was small and that a General Election might come as soon as October. “The Socialists can still win if they work harder and more conscientiously than we do,” he said.

Friday 4 September 1959

ROSE COTTAGE WAS NOT ALWAYS SO QUIET
Peter Wilson tells the ghost story of Rose Cottage, opposite Three Kings Pond, Mitcham, once the home of James Canham Read, hanged for the murder of Florence Dennis in 1894. Read was arrested at the cottage. The present occupant, 82-year-old Mrs Ellis Burton, says a woman in grey has been seen in the passage, and that workmen found a well under the floorboards and filled it in. She says nothing unusual happens there now.

Thief steals clothes
A thief stole a pair of boots and a leather jacket from the Morden Road, Mitcham, premises of Hall and Co. Ltd on Monday, and a suit, raincoat and other small items from the firm’s office block. The goods were worth £20.

Industrial Mitcham
Mitcham has over 300 factories, carrying on a great variety of industries, says the borough’s 1958 health report.

Child cruelty
Thirty child-cruelty cases were dealt with in Mitcham last year.

Friday 25 September 1959

Ex-valuation officer’s rating appeal dismissed
Mr Leonard Munday, valuation officer for Mitcham from 1928 until 1947, failed to get a further cut in the rating assessment on his house at Crescent Grove. In a reserved decision in London, Mr R. C. G. Fennell dismissed the appeal against a local valuation court decision which had already reduced the gross value by £2 to £54. Mr Munday, who said the house was in an area planned for industry, had asked for a gross value of £38. He was ordered to pay the valuation officer a guinea costs.

Friday 9 October 1959

The dry weather will not harm flats
Flats at Pollards Hill, one of the few parts of Mitcham built on clay, are not likely to be harmed by the dry weather, the Deputy Borough Engineer, Mr W. B. Wignall, said on Monday. The foundations are special piles which go down to where the clay does not change its moisture. Most of Mitcham is terraced gravel. He said he had not heard of any trouble from the heat anywhere in the borough, except that the hard ground at Pollards Hill was making things difficult for footballers.

Big shortage of school places by 1963 feared
The front page carries a warning of a big shortage of school places by 1963 under Surrey’s major building programme. The rest of the column is cut off in the photograph.

Friday 23 October 1959

Children, not enough recreational facilities
NOT BAD, IT’S JUST …
The front page takes up complaints from the youth on Pollards Hill estate about the lack of somewhere to go. One youngster said things would be easier if there was somewhere to let off steam. The Mayor, Ald. D. Chalkley, is pictured at the Willow Lane depot of Hall and Co. presenting safe-driving awards to the firm’s lorry drivers.

Mr. Carr’s firm is taken over
John Dale Ltd, the container makers of which Mitcham’s M.P., Mr Robert Carr, is chairman, is to be taken over by a holding company, Winterbottom Industries. Mr Carr had resigned the Parliamentary Under-Secretaryship of the Ministry of Labour to go back into the firm, which is his family business.

GOLFERS DISCUSS BRIDGE PROBLEM
Mitcham Golf Club was to meet the following week to discuss a bridge problem on the course.

Friday 30 October 1959

GREEN LIGHT FOR WANDLE SCHEME
And then — no more floods
The Ministry of Agriculture has agreed to the River Wandle improvement scheme, and the Ministry has offered a grant. The paper says the £440,000 scheme, planned to stop flooding, can now go ahead, and that the Ministry will meet a third of the cost.

Friday 6 November 1959

Veteran run
For the third year running, Mr F. E. Manning drove his 1900 Benz over the finishing line in the veteran car run to Brighton, and got back to Mitcham Park in time to see himself on the television newsreel. He crossed the line at 2.30 p.m. Traffic was heavy, so there was no spectacular time; the only stop was for lunch, and the car behaved perfectly. His 17-year-old son Butch stayed at home. The weather was good this year.

Rally time
Sheila Shaw
Western flavour was added to a rally of old coaches at Commercial Road. Sheila Shaw’s “Surrey with the fringe on top” still finished among the top twenty, although a pair of greys advertising cigarettes took first prize.

New headmaster
On Friday the boys at Mitcham Grammar School said goodbye to their headmaster, Mr G. J. P. Courtney. After seven years, Mr Courtney, aged 43, took over on Monday as headmaster of Isleworth Grammar School. Head boy Terry Lewis presented him with gramophone records of Bach’s Passion, and the staff gave him a coffee table.

Friday 13 November 1959

PLANS FOR FAIR
Surrey County Council has been sent Mitcham’s plans for the fair. The paper also shows the sign of the Pollard Oak being unveiled at the opening of Mitcham’s new public house, with the Mayor, Ald. D. Chalkley, among the party.

This road is too much for traders
Traders say Glebe Path is a topsy-turvy place when it comes to delivering goods, because there are two of each house number. Fourteen Mitcham Council maisonettes in Glebe Square have their front doors facing Glebe Path, and the Path’s own numbers run from No. 1 upwards as well. Coal meant for a home in Glebe Path has turned up at Glebe Square.

Friday 20 November 1959

Tried to sell bracelets in a pub
An off-duty policeman saw a man trying to sell two bracelets in a Mitcham public house. Alfred Lundie, 27, of Sugar Boiler, Sunshine Way, Mitcham, told him: “I got it from a bloke at work with no questions asked.” He was charged with receiving two marcasite bracelets knowing them to be stolen. He said he had been given them during a tea break at Randalls confectionery works and did not know they were stolen. The chairman, Mr E. Field, gave him a conditional discharge and told him he had been extremely foolish.

Thief crash
A try-and-try-again thief who ransacked a Cricket Green house under cover of fog escaped with jewellery and other property worth £150, the front page reports.

Friday 27 November 1959

Angry passengers ask the reason for those long delays
‘GIVE US BETTER BUS SERVICES’
The Clapham Observer says bus services on routes through Clapham have never been so poor, and that an all-out bid is being made to get London Transport to improve them. A Clapham Society letter complained of peak-hour waits of 20 minutes. London Transport said many routes were short of crews and that the problem was shared by about 40 routes.

While minding the baby he helped to catch a thief
Police-constable James Raymond, sitting in a car minding an 18-month-old baby, still helped to catch a thief. He chased a man who had snatched a bag, while the baby waited in the car, and the man was later sentenced to prison.

Nowhere to put 40 slum families
Battersea Council has virtually nowhere to put about 40 families whose slum homes are being pulled down. The housing committee was told the waiting list and the lack of sites left the council with a problem it could not solve quickly.

75 years in the choir — that’s Tom
Tom Gibbs has sung in the choir at St Philip’s, Clapham, for 75 years. He was still attending and told the paper he had no thought of giving it up.

Dr. Glyn gives a pledge
Dr Alan Glyn, M.P. for Clapham, speaking to the Clapham Conservative Association, pledged his support for local housing and transport complaints.

Lift crushed laundryman
A verdict of accidental death was returned at the Westminster inquest on Frederick William Donald, a laundryman crushed in a goods lift at the Chelsea Inn Restaurant.

Better lighting for more than 120 roads
Mitcham will be lit up all night
Better lighting is planned for more than 120 Mitcham roads. The council is due to start Stage 15 of the programme to replace gas lamps with electricity. Nearly all Mitcham will now be lit from dusk to dawn, after the council instructed the London Electricity Board to alter switches so that the lamps burn all night. Roads listed include Arnold Road, Commonside East, Glebe Road, Pollards Hill names such as Robinhood Lane, and many others from Ashbourne Road to Westfield Road.

Married on Saturday
Mr William Hawkins, aged 78, and Mrs Mary Draper, aged 72, both members of Mitcham Old People’s Club, were married on Saturday. The club gave them surprise gifts before the wedding.

Cyclist injured
Eighteen-year-old cyclist Bernard Mayer, of Middleton Road, Carshalton, broke a leg and received cuts to his head and severe chest injuries.

Friday 4 December 1959

SCHEME TO EASE TRAFFIC JAMS
One-way plans for London Road
Three ease-the-jams schemes were before Mitcham Council on Thursday last week. Plan one would make London Road one-way between the two branches of Lower Green West, with possibly three lines of traffic outside the Town Hall. Sutton-bound traffic would turn into Lower Green and come back by the second fork. The Ministry of Transport will not allow the widening of Cricket Green and London Road, or two traffic lanes in each direction, until the Limes are widened. Plan two is the Eastfields level crossing, which the council was told was of extreme urgency. Plan three is a black spot at the junction of London Road and Morden Road.

Psychologist service for the schools
Surrey County Council’s education committee has accepted a recommendation that a school psychological service be set up within the existing child-guidance service. The establishment committee was asked to allow six more educational psychologists and six psychiatric social workers. Seven of those appointments have already been allowed for next year’s estimates.

They won’t be ‘ghost shops’ any more
Alterations are to be made to Fair Green so that the empty shops will not stay “ghost shops.” The council was told the work should stop the parade standing vacant.

Different hours for flying
Mitcham model-aircraft enthusiasts who fly at Three Kings Piece are being grounded on Sundays, after complaints during the summer about noise. The new hours will be between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.; previously they were between 2.30 and 9.30 p.m. The only other days allowed at Three Kings Piece are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Model planes are banned from other open council spaces except Figges Marsh and Rock Terrace Recreation Ground.

17 accidents at the baths
Although admissions to Mitcham Baths during the swimming season were a record, there were only 17 accidents, all minor. The previous year there were 20. Most were caused by bathers slipping on the edge of the pool or running on wet surrounds. The baths superintendent, Mr C. P. Walker, said in last week’s report that there had been an increased interest in swimming and in the facilities.

Mitcham Common news items 1910 to 1919

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These news items are not complete, and will be added to when more are found.

Contents

1910
1911
1913
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919

1910

Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette, Saturday 26 March 1910, page 9

MITCHAM PARISH COUNCIL AND THE FAIR.
Showmen’s Guild Manifesto.

In view of the Parish Council Election we have been asked by the Rev. T. Horne, chaplain and lecturer to the Showmen’s Guild, to publish the following manifesto signed by himself on behalf of the Guild Executive Committee:—

“Certain efforts have been made during the past four years to abolish your ancient Charter Fair. Up to now these efforts have failed. Why they have failed is owing to the strong protest you, people of Mitcham, have made against the loss of your rights and liberties, that the abolition of the fair would inevitably bring. The enemies of the fair try to confuse the real issues by asserting that it is a showmen’s question, and that the showmen are merely interfering in your local affairs for selfish purposes.

BUT IS THAT THE TRUTH?

It is not. It is true that the showmen follow their lawful calling as entertainers for profit, and with the laudable ambition of earning an honest living thereby, like all other people who work. That is no argument against the reasonableness of their claim to be heard, and to have just treatment. Showmen are as much entitled to fair play and straight dealing as any other class in the community, and the Guild exists to vindicate and uphold that claim.

LET US CLEAR THE GROUND OF CANT.

The showman, like every other man, has his rights of citizenship. He does not seek preferential treatment. He demands justice, and justice means the right to pursue his lawful calling, with the liberty of all workers, and free from the malign and vituperative utterances of Christian faddists and reformers, who regard him as a material for their reforming zeal. When mistaken zealots attack the showman as a man, the showman shows fight.

THE SHOWMAN FIGHTS FAIR.

He does not attempt to overrule the Home Secretary’s decisions properly given. He does not seek by expensive processes of law (impossible save to the rich) to obtain his own way by other means where the statute of the land gives him no power. He refuses to enter into the debate of fine points of legal intricacy, or to waste his money on their solution. The showman is ever content with ‘tainted!’ in the dock.

THE TRIBUNAL OF THE PEOPLE.

Without the people he cannot live, and it is to the people that he goes for his verdict. Why complicate the issues by fine-spun arguments, as to when a charter is, or when it is not? The obvious truth is good enough for him. Here is a fair—the people want my show—when they do not want me it will then be time enough to close down my business.

WHAT MITCHAM MAY GAIN.

The ratepayers have already paid £400 towards the purchase of the Fair Franchise. Why should not the people of Mitcham get some return for their money? If the fair is removed, with consent of all parties interested, to a more convenient and salubrious site, the Council acting jointly with the Board of Conservators could relieve the rates by the tolls collected year by year from the shows, etc. Mitcham would thus get a sensible and adequate return for its invested money. You will at the same time retain control over the fair, and can co-operate with the showmen in the betterment of the site. The Guild has pledged itself to the reasonable scheme of removing the fair to a better site.

WHAT THE ELECTORS CAN DO AT THIS ELECTION.

They can take care to vote for men who are known to be the friends of the people’s fair. The electors have no direct vote for the Mitcham Conservators, but they have the power to vote for the councillors who do select and elect the Conservators. Here is the situation before the electors. Let it be well understood that no known enemy of the people’s fair shall have the people’s vote. Parish meetings, properly convened, expressing by unanimous vote the people’s will on the fair question, have been scorned and repudiated by the Mitcham Conservators. Public meetings equally enthusiastic have also been treated with contempt. Negotiations of the most persevering and moderate character have been fruitless of good result. The champions of the people’s rights at all crucial moments have been outvoted on the Parish Council.

IT IS FOR THE ELECTORS TO TAKE CARE THAT THEIR WILL SHALL PREVAIL.

Why should the people be despised, denied and flouted by the men who are sent to the Council as their representatives? Upon the question of the fair rights of the people the time has come for distinct pledges. Let the electors of Mitcham see that they are obtained. The Showmen’s Guild will take care that this clear issue is kept before the people. No clouding the issue—no intrusion of side issues to confuse the question—will be allowed to pass without exposure, and the Guild (in the exercise of its legitimate and constitutional rights) will support all the candidates pledged to the maintenance of the People’s right to have and to hold their ancient Charter Fair.”

Daily Mirror, Tuesday 9 August 1910, page 5

FIGHT FOR FAIR.
Mitcham Conservators Post Notices Forbidding Showmen to Take Up Pitches.

Mitcham Common is again to be the scene of a battle between the conservators and the showmen, who are already gathering for the fair. The conservators have opened hostilities by posting notices saying that no spaces will be let for show purposes on the fair green, and enumerating dread pains and penalties which will be incurred by erecting swings and roundabouts on the forbidden ground.

But the Showmen’s Guild is quite ready for war. Not only, they say, will Mitcham Fair open this week as usual, but it will be held on a larger scale than ever. They say that the fair is a legal fair, founded by royal charter, and that until the Home Secretary signs an order for its abolition all its rights and privileges remain. London showmen will meet to consider the situation to-morrow.

Daily Mirror, Wednesday 10 August 1910, page 5

BATTLE OF MITCHAM FAIR.
Showmen Excluded from Historic Green Say They Will “Pitch” There as Usual.

“Notice is hereby given that no sites for the creation of shows, roundabouts or other similar amusements on the fair green will be let for the present year, and proprietors of such shows, etc., are warned that they must not pitch on the land of the fair green.—By order of the Conservators of Mitcham Common.”

The above notice was exhibited yesterday in reference to Mitcham Fair, which begins on Friday, and which has been held on the fair green ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth. Of late, however, the site has been declared unsuitable. In spite of this prohibition, the showmen, several of whom have already arrived at Mitcham, declare that they will pitch on the fair green, as usual, and that they are quite prepared to incur any legal proceedings that may follow.

Daily Mirror, Thursday 11 August 1910, page 5

SITE OF MITCHAM FAIR.
Showmen to Co-operate with Authorities for Removal to Better Place.

The question as to where this year’s Mitcham Fair is to be held came before a meeting of the London committee of the Showmen’s Guild yesterday, held in the show tent of Mr. Alfred Balls on Mitcham Fair ground. Mitcham Common Conservators had forbidden the holding of the fair on the old Fair Green, declaring the site unsuitable. The committee yesterday, while resolving to safeguard the trading interests of the travelling showmen, reaffirmed their readiness to co-operate with the local movement for the removal of the fair to a better site.

Music Hall and Theatre Review, Thursday 1 September 1910, page 12

Guns at Mitcham.

At Croydon Police Court on Friday Henry Harris was committed for trial at the next Guildford Assizes, having been charged with the attempted murder of Frederick Gray, aged fifty, of Wandsworth-road, and Henry Gray, aged twenty-six, of Kensal-rise, by shooting them with a revolver at Mitcham-green on August 12. The injured men attended the court. Mr. A. A. Strong said it was customary for the showmen to take up their positions on the Thursday before the fair, and the members of the Showmen’s Guild had their places allotted by the Guild, so that everything should be done in order. This year, on reaching Mitcham the showmen found that, owing to the notoriety the fair had gained through the action of the local conservators, the ground was occupied by gipsies. On the Wednesday before the fair the Grays found the site they usually occupied was in Harris’s possession. The prisoner, said counsel, was not a showman. Showmen did not carry revolvers, and were a most orderly and law-abiding folk.

Harris carried on a small coal business at Battersea. Occasionally he had gone with shows, and the Grays had helped him. The elder Gray, knowing he had no legal claim to the site, offered Harris £5. On the first day of the fair they had not yet come to an agreement. Frederick Gray was under the impression on Thursday night that Harris had agreed to accept £6 and a use of a portion of the ground. Accordingly instructions were given for the roundabouts to be erected on Friday, but he found Harris was still in possession. About mid-day prisoner asked witness what he was going to do, and witness said, “I’ve finished,” and Harris then said, “I haven’t finished with you.” Between 1.30 and 2 o’clock as witness and his son were walking round the fair ground, Harris ran in front of them, and without a word pointed a revolver at them from a distance of eight or nine paces, and fired several shots.

After being treated by a local doctor witness and his son were taken to Guy’s Hospital, remaining until Wednesday last. A bullet was extracted from his chest, and a doctor told him that if it had been half an inch further to the left, the wound would have been fatal.

Harry Gray, the son, denied that he struck prisoner, or that his father threatened him.

1911

Daily Express, Thursday 13 April 1911, page 5

REMARKABLE QUESTIONS RAISED IN COURT.
“GRANT OF PITCHES.”

Questions of wide importance to the sporting public of London were raised before a Divisional Court, yesterday, when the Conservators of Mitcham Common appealed against a decision of the Croydon Bench in the case of Messrs. Walter Cox and John Cole, members of the Mitcham Village Golf Club. They were:—

Can the conservators of a common grant to a single club the sole right to play golf on the common on one day a week?

If not, can the London County Council assign to a cricket club the use of a pitch in a park for a whole season?

Mr. Justice Phillimore remarked that a golf course laid down on a common was laid down on public ground, but Mr. Justice Scrutton pointed out that if the exclusive use of public ground was illegal in the case of golf it was also illegal in the case of cricket. “And if pitches cannot be granted,” he added, “the clubs will be destroyed, for no one would join a club that could not guarantee a game.”

Mr. Cox played golf on Mitcham Common on a Saturday and Mr. Cole played on a Friday without a caddy, in defiance of rules made by the Conservators that only members of the Prince’s Golf Club shall play over the course on Saturday, and that no one shall play on any day unless accompanied by a caddy. They were summoned by the Conservators for breaking the by-laws, but the cases were dismissed by the Croydon magistrates on the ground that the by-laws were unreasonable and ultra vires.

WORKING MAN’S PLAY DAY.

In opening the appeal of the Conservators against this decision Mr. Danckwerts, K.C., mentioned that a women’s golf club had also been granted a licence to use the common.

Mr. MacMorran, K.C., for Mr. Cox and Mr. Cole, contended that the public should have free access to the common for recreation, and that Saturday was the only day the working man had for such recreation.

“I know,” stated Mr. Justice Scrutton, “that at Blackheath cricket clubs have the same pitch Saturday after Saturday, and spend a good deal of money in improving it. If it is ultra vires for the Conservators to grant permission to the Prince’s Club, all the cricket clubs in London will be affected. They are poor men’s clubs, and they will be deprived of this privilege.”

“Clubs are assigned pitches for the season in Battersea Park,” said Mr. Justice Phillimore. “I have helped some of these clubs, and I know.”

“Mr. Cox and Mr. Cole might as well have played in the Law Courts,” argued Mr. Danckwerts.

“That is not exactly the same,” replied Mr. Justice Phillimore. “If you lay down a nice pavement in front of your house for your children to roller-skate on, you cannot grumble if all the little urchins in your neighbourhood use it too.”

Judgment was reserved.

Daily Mirror, Wednesday 31 May 1911, page 4

GOLFERS ON MITCHAM COMMON.
Judges Refer Case of Players Without Caddies to Magistrates.

The Divisional Court gave its decision yesterday with regard to golf-playing on Mitcham Common. Two players, named Cox and Cole, had been summoned, the one for having played golf on Prince’s Golf Club course on a Saturday, when by regulation members only can play, and without a caddie, the other for playing without a permit or caddie.

The Croydon magistrates had refused to convict.

This decision Mr. Justice Phillimore and Mr. Justice Hamilton further upheld, regarding the regulations that it was sought to enforce as being too much in favour of one class of users of the common. Their Lordships, however, directed that the case should go back to the magistrates on the caddie point.

1913

The Advertiser, Friday 1 August 1913, page 8

MITCHAM COMMON CONSERVATORS.
SHALL THE FAIR BE ABOLISHED OR REMOVED?

A meeting of the Conservators of Mitcham Common was held at the Vestry Hall, Mitcham, on Wednesday evening. Mr. Mallaby presided, and there were also present Ald. G. J. Allen, Messrs. Roberts, Willcocks, A. Mizen, E. Mizen, and J. M. Leather, with the Clerk (Dr. Newnham).

BATHING POND.
With regard to the bathing pond at Marsh, it was said they wanted a keeper who could swim to look after the bathers.
Mr. A. Mizen—It wants someone with a considerable amount of pluck to swim in that lake now.
[Discussion of weeds; all weeds except in one deep place.]

ALLOTMENT OF FOOTBALL PITCHES.
The Clerk said football pitches had been allotted and they were practically the same as last year. Two new applications had been received since the list was made up, but he was afraid he had no room for them. The Chairman remarked that there were altogether nine new applications.
Mr. Willcocks suggested that the senior club, Mill Green Rovers, should have the choice of a pitch on the green opposite the Goat.
It was thought such a matter should be left to the Chairman and Clerk to arrange.

MITCHAM FAIR: A HARDY ANNUAL.
The Clerk reported that Mr. A. Mizen had written to the effect that he had met Mr. Chart and Mr. Cubison as to the transfer of the franchise. They were anxious for it to be completed on the terms previously agreed. They did not think they were safe without a clause stating that the Conservators would use their best endeavours to have the fair abolished. Mr. Harding told him he would be quite content if the fair was removed to Three Kings’ Green. According to a letter from Mr. Harding’s solicitors he did not mind so long as they moved it from Fair Green.
Mr. Willcocks—That simplifies the whole question. In that case Messrs. Chart and Cubison will give way.
The Clerk said the Home Office, they had been informed, were against abolishing the fair. If they had entered into the covenant prepared it would have precluded them from removing.
Mr. A. Mizen suggested that the words “abolition or removal” should be inserted in the covenant.
The Clerk—I would advise the Board to agree to that at once.
The Chairman said the Home Office would [not?] abolish the fair.
Mr. A. Mizen said Dr. Fegen told Mr. Samuels when the deputation waited upon him at the Home Office that it was a delicate matter. Mr. Samuels told them they had to be very careful how they interfered with the amusements of the people.
The Chairman—Suppose the words were inserted—“abolition or removal”—and the conveyance was made, what would be the next move on the part of the Conservators?
Mr. A. Mizen said if opportunity offered he thought they should try to get the fair abolished.
Mr. Leather thought it was a pity they could not put the fair on the Common.
The Chairman said two years ago Mitcham Parish Council would not support the proposal to remove the fair—they wanted it abolished. If they signed this deed to make them use their best endeavours to get the fair abolished or removed they were exactly in the same position as two years ago. The Showmen’s Guild agreed; it was Mitcham Parish Council that refused to consent.
Mr. Willcocks said at a parish meeting the matter was dealt with in a constitutional manner, and by an overwhelming majority the electors of Mitcham decided that they did not want the abolition of the fair. The meeting was called especially to consider this question.
Mr. Leather—I don’t attach much importance to such meetings.
Mr. Willcocks—It is the only constitutional way of getting the views of the electors of the parish.
Mr. E. Mizen—If a public meeting were called it would even move the Golf Club tomorrow. (Laughter.)
Ald. Allen—If Mitcham Parish Council would agree we could move it to Three Kings’ Green at once.
The Chairman—The Home Office do not recognise Mitcham Parish Council in this matter at all.
Mr. A. Mizen said as a trustee he was willing to have those words inserted in the deeds, but, personally, he should always fight for abolition.
Mr. Willcocks pointed out that the fair in its present position was a positive danger and a death trap.
The Chairman—This is a very hardy annual, and I have not the slightest doubt that this time next year it will come up again.
On the motion of Mr. Willcocks the Clerk was requested to write to Mr. Cubison to see if the trustees would agree to the insertion of words to the effect that the Conservators would use their best endeavours to [abolish the fair or procure its removal from] Fair Green to a more suitable site.

A DANGEROUS PRACTICE.
A letter from Mr. Chart on behalf of Mrs. Simpson, of The Birches, was read. It complained cricket was played on the Tower green close to her residence, and on one occasion four balls struck windows in her house within a few minutes.
The Common-keeper was instructed to pay attention to this matter.

1914

Daily Express, Thursday 22 January 1914, page 1

It was decided by the Croydon magistrates that golf on Mitcham Common cannot be restricted to the members of certain clubs.—(Page 5.)

Daily Mirror, Thursday 22 January 1914, page 4

EVERYBODY’S COURSE?

An important decision regarding the rights of the golfing public on Mitcham Common was given yesterday at Croydon, when Frederick Harris, the caddy master of the Prince’s Club, was fined 5s. for obstruction. He had refused to supply a caddy to a non-member.

The Conservators of the common have laid down that no person but a member of the Prince’s Club (of which Mr. Mallaby Deeley is chairman) or the Prince’s Ladies’ Club shall play on Wednesday or Saturday between certain hours. Counsel for the complainant, Mr. A. C. Harrison, of West Norwood, asserted, however, that Mr. Justice Phillimore had decided that whether a person lived at Mitcham or at Kensington, he had an inherent right to play golf upon the course.

The Bench were of the opinion that the regulation giving preferential treatment to a class, distinguishing between the members of the golf club and those who were not, was ultra vires. The Bench agreed to state a case.

Daily Mirror, Thursday 29 January 1914, page 14

GOLF ON COMMONS.
The Growth of the Public Course Movement and Its Sequel.

It is good to hear that no tinge of bitter feeling exists between the members of the Prince’s Club and the residents of Mitcham and district as a result of the recent test case, in which the Croydon Bench decided that the local people had the right to play over the Mitcham Common course at other than certain restricted hours.

The residents are playing in considerable numbers, but it is said that they are tacitly acknowledging the right of members to priority in the matter of starting. As the subscriptions to the club enable the course to be preserved in first-class order (an advantage for which the non-members pay nothing), a simple sense of justice suggests that, whatever the legal aspect of the situation may be, the members ought to enjoy some sort of privilege.

Whether the matter will be left where it now stands remains to be seen. Possibly it will be taken to a higher tribunal, and the question there decided as to whether the conservators of the common are justified in introducing a by-law allotting certain hours to persons who wish to use the course, but who are not members.

Perhaps the happiest solution to the bother might be obtained if the Prince’s Club were to confer with the residents, put before them a proposal to assist them in the raising of their own club to a position of prosperity. Experience shows that where a private organisation uses public land for the purpose of golf, the line of least resistance is obtained by making friends of the local population and offering it encouragement and facilities for the pursuit of the game.

Daily Mirror, Friday 24 April 1914, page 13

Fire In Smoke-room.

The smoking and billiard rooms in the Tooting Bec Golf Club House, Mitcham Common, have been burnt out by a fire as yet unexplained.

The Times, Monday 11 May 1914

GOLF ON MITCHAM COMMON.
RIGHTS OF PLAY OVER THE PRINCE’S COURSE.
DECISION OF THE HIGH COURT.

The Divisional Court, composed of Mr. Justice Ridley, Mr. Justice Darling, and Mr. Justice Rowlatt, heard on Saturday an appeal (Harris v. Harrison) of interest to golfers who are members of clubs on commons. The justices of Croydon convicted the appellant of obstructing the respondent when he was about to play on the Prince’s Golf Course, a part of Mitcham Common, under a permit from the Mitcham Common Conservators. The obstruction alleged was the refusal of the appellant, a caddie master of the club, to supply the respondent, who was not a member of the club, with a caddie during certain hours. It was contended that this was a breach of a regulation made by the Conservators in pursuance of a by-law under the Metropolitan Commons (Mitcham) Supplemental Act, 1891. No caddie master had been appointed by the Conservators, and play without a caddie was forbidden.

The justices were of opinion that the regulation made by the club restricting the rights of the public to play was ultra vires, but their Lordships now took a different view and allowed the appeal and quashed the conviction. Mr. Justice Rowlatt said that there was no duty imposed on the appellant to supply caddies to the public. Mr. Justice Darling held that the club should be allowed some privileges as consideration for spending money on the Common. If the regulation had amounted to total exclusion of the public or had left them without opportunity of play it would have been another matter.

On January 21, 1914, the appellant appeared before the justices to answer a complaint made by the respondent that in the parish of Mitcham on December 6, 1913, he did obstruct and interfere with the respondent, who had made preparations for playing golf on the Prince’s golf course—a part of Mitcham Common set apart for playing golf—and who had a permit from the Mitcham Common Conservators to play golf thereon, by refusing to supply him with a caddie though requested to supply one, contrary to regulation 2 made in pursuance of the by-law 14 by the said Conservators under the Metropolitan Commons (Mitcham) Supplemental Act, 1891. That the appellant was caddie master of the Prince’s Golf Club, and that no caddie master had been appointed and no caddie had been licensed by the Conservators of Mitcham Common.

1915

Mitcham local cutting (Urban District Council election candidates), 1915

EAST WARD.

LAING, W. F.—Unsuccessfully contested North Ward at the last election, and now goes in for the East unopposed.

CHART, J. R.—Undertaker and corn dealer. A member of an old Mitcham family, and at the first Parish Council election was returned at the head of the poll. A trustee of several of the local charities, and hard evangelistic worker.

DENDY, A.—Motor engineer, of London-road, and an old member of the Parish Council.

MIZEN, A., E. E., and E. J.—Members of the well-known firm of market gardeners who have long taken interest in the public affairs of Mitcham. Messrs. A. and E. J. are Common Conservators. The former is a member of the Surrey County Council. Mr. E. J. Mizen is the Chairman of the Croydon Rural District Council.

Mitcham local cutting (Urban District Council election candidates), 1915

WEST WARD.

PARSLOW, W. H.—Builder and house decorator. Has always been popular in the West Ward, where he has headed the poll once. On several occasions has organised a Christmas dinner for the aged poor of Mitcham. Mr. Parslow is also a Poor Law Guardian, and is again offering himself for re-election.

SNOWSILL, E. E.—A gardener by trade, who entered the Parish Council at the last election as a nominee of the Ratepayers’ Association. Has proved himself a most useful and businesslike man, and particularly was this so during his chairmanship of the No. 2 Fire Brigade Committee. More recently he was given a seat on the Board of Common Conservators.

BAKER, P.—A well-known florist of Merton terminus, who, after more than one unsuccessful attempt, returns to the local governing body.

POULSON, H.—A builder by trade, and enters the new Council under the auspices of the Ratepayers’ Association.

1916

Sutton Advertiser (local Advertiser), Friday 21 July 1916

MITCHAM FLOWER SHOW.

The annual summer show of the Tooting, Balham, Merton and Mitcham Horticultural Society was held in the Vestry Hall on Wednesday in glorious weather. There was a good attendance at the opening ceremony, which was performed by Mrs. G. J. Poston, Mr. Poston, as President of the society, occupying the chair, and amongst those present were Dr. T. Cato Worsfold, Ald. R. M. and Mrs. Chart, Mrs. Upton, Messrs. Edward Mizen, Cove, J. R. Chart, W. C. Webb, J. D. Drewett, J.P., C.C., C. Lack (hon. treasurer), W. C. Stratton (hon. secretary), etc.

Mrs. Poston having formally declared the show open, Mr. Lack said there was a membership of 89, and, in spite of many difficulties, the prize money was being paid in full. The Committee decided on the Vestry Hall this year in order to save from £15 to £20 on the tents, etc., but next year, if the war was over, they hoped, by the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Poston, to again hold the show at Bishopsford.

Mr. Mizen, proposing a vote of thanks to Mrs. Poston, said he very much regretted that the Conservators refused to allow them to have the usual sports on the Common. The Mitcham members of the Board of Conservators did not know anything about the application. He would not then say anything more about the matter, which would be taken further.

The show was the most successful yet held, as not only was there a record number of entries, but the exhibits reached a degree of excellence not very frequently attained. The children’s classes brought some keen competition, though the youngsters were naturally disappointed that there were no sports. In refusing consent to hold the sports, the Clerk to the Conservators offered no reason but merely “regretted” in the usual formal manner. During the afternoon and evening the Misses Barnard, Callegan and Florence Howse played selections on the piano. The prizes were presented in the evening by Mrs. Poston.

Local cutting (Advertiser series), c. July 1916

BOY’S ADVENTUROUS CAREER.

Arrested on Mitcham Common on Wednesday by Det. McMullin, William Henry Harris (16), of 50, Marion-road, Lonesome, admitted rifling a gas meter of 2s. 6d. and a French penny. He was charged with stealing 2s. 3d., which the indicator had shown as missing, and with doing damage to the meter to the extent of 10s. Before the County Magistrates on Thursday he pleaded guilty. His mother said she left home on July 17th with her son for Streatham. He parted from her saying he was going to look for a job. When she returned she found the cupboard door open, and the gas meter in a battered condition on the floor, with the money missing. Mrs. Lewis, a next-door neighbour, spoke to hearing a noise like money being rattled in a tin. Looking up she saw the prisoner with the gas meter in his hands. William Jonas, a South Metropolitan Gas Company inspector, said the prisoner left the gas on. Det. McMullin said the boy was convicted last September of embezzling £1 2s. 1d., and was bound over on probation for 12 months. At 15, by giving his age as 19, he joined the Royal Marines. He was rejected after two months’ service and then joined the East Surrey Regiment, in which he served eight months. He left after 47 days’ punishment for a breach of discipline. Mrs. Harris said her husband had been eight months in the trenches. When her boy left the Royal Marines the chaplain gave him the highest character: his one desire was to go to sea. Prisoner was remanded for a week to see what could be done towards getting him to sea.

1917

Mitcham and Tooting Mercury, Friday 2 February 1917

MITCHAM COMMON FIRES.
Volunteers to the Rescue.

Apparently not content with the sport afforded by the frozen ponds on Mitcham Common some youngsters set fire to the gorse growing near Mitcham Junction Station. The flames spread and quickly reached serious proportions, the wind taking them in the direction of the station. Some attempts to beat them down failed. The Mitcham Company of Volunteers, just finishing their strenuous day’s work on the defences, was rushed back to the scene of the conflagration, and under Lieut. Chas. Poston, fell in to the task of extinguishing the fire, which was eventually accomplished. A word of praise is certainly due to the Volunteers for their timely assistance, rendered when all were thoroughly tired after labouring for many hours on the Defences of London.

At the same time another fire commenced some distance away and some difficulty was experienced in putting it out.

Mitcham and Tooting Mercury, Friday 20 April 1917, page 3

MITCHAM URBAN COUNCIL.
Counc. Hill the New Chairman — Prince’s Golf Club Rent.

NEW CONSERVATORS.

There was a contest for the four positions as representatives on the Board of Conservators. Counc. J. M. Leather declined to be nominated again. The Councillors nominated were A. Mizen, E. E. Mizen, and E. E. Snowsill (old members), and G. Farewell Jones, and W. F. Laing. On the first poll the brothers Mizen and Counc. Laing led, while Councillors Farewell Jones and Snowsill tied with 10 votes each. The result of the second ballot was Counc. Farewell Jones 15, Counc. Snowsill 6.

AN EXPLANATION.

At the end of the election Counc. Ernest Mizen said he wished to say a few words with regard to what took place after the ordinary meeting of the Conservators at the Vestry Hall last Wednesday. Owing to the action of the Chairman in taking the question of the Golf Club rent in private, the public did not know what was transacted there. But they ought to know, as it was of public importance.

The Chairman, who was also Chairman of Prince’s Golf Club, desired that the rent payable by the Club to the Conservators should remain in abeyance during the war. At the beginning of the war the rent was reduced from £250 a year to £150, and at the last meeting another proposal was made that the club should be excused from paying any rent while the war lasted. On the proposition of Mr. Hill-Locks, of the Wallington Council, it was decided that he and, he believed, Mr. Allen, of Croydon, should go through the books of the Club and report to the next meeting as to the state of affairs. Well, he could almost say what the result would be. (Laughter). He had been informed that it was not legitimate to call the heath “Mitcham Common.” It was no more Mitcham Common, declared the Chairman, than London or Croydon Common. Mr. Mizen concluded with the remark, “I know you are still interested in the Common though you must not call it the Mitcham Common, and that is why I have spoken.” (Hear, hear.)

Mitcham and Tooting Mercury (local cutting), c. Friday 5 October 1917

TAKEN TO COVER.—During the air raid on Saturday evening S.C. Sergt. Stanley Dale and S.C. William Holloway came across a man lying asleep on Mitcham Fair Green. Moreover, he was drunk and quite oblivious to danger. “We thought we had better take charge of him for his own sake,” explained the sergeant to the magistrates at Croydon on Monday. So they took him to Mitcham Police Station. He was Charles Halford, aged 52 years, a labourer, of Portland-road, Mitcham. At the station he denied being drunk, but the doctor came and confirmed the diagnosis of the “Specials.” Halford was fined 5s., doctor’s fee 7s. 6d., and 5s. each to the Specials (for their expenses), total 22s. 6d. “Yes,” soliloquised the Clerk (Mr Creak), “it’s a luxury to get drunk in war time.”

1918

1919

Mitcham and Tooting Mercury, Friday 21 February 1919, page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.
To the Editor of the Mercury.

THE OLD CROCK.

Sir,—There seems to be a strong undercurrent of opinion amongst the boys of the old brigade who would like a little help … that the brotherly feeling engendered by forming a friendly rambling community … [OCR fragmentary amid advertising columns] … learned to think of taking a ramble over to Mitcham Common, across the fields to the Wrythe, Carshalton, up the gallop to Banstead Downs and home via Belmont and Sutton, leaving, say, Crusoe-road, 9.15 a.m., bottom of Mitcham-lane, 9.25, Cricket Green, 9.30, returning to Mitcham Green, 1.15 p.m.

Yours faithfully,
THE OLD CROCK.