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.