Tag Archives: Mitcham Garden Village

Anstey

1 Reply

A house and market garden that was reached by a track on the west side of Cedars Avenue, and occupied by Mr Pinnock and family.

1955 OS map Anstey

The name ‘Anstey’ was discovered in this news article:

Source: Mitcham Advertiser, 26 January 1928, p. 1 (British Newspaper Archive; rights holder unknown).

Death of Miss Pinnock.

Mitcham Market Gardener Bereaved.

The funeral took place at Mitcham Cemetery on Wednesday of Miss Annie A. Pinnock, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock, of Anstey, Cedars-avenue, Mitcham.

Miss Pinnock, who was forty-three, had been in indifferent health for some time, but her death on Saturday was totally unexpected. She became seriously ill on the previous Wednesday. Her death is deeply regretted by a wide circle and especially by the Vicar and members of St. Mark’s Church, where she had been an active worker for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock are among the best known and most respected inhabitants of Mitcham, where Mr. Pinnock has been in business as a market gardener for over twenty years. Previously he was in the employ of Messrs. Mizen Bros. Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock have resided in Mitcham over half a century.

The funeral service was conducted at St. Mark’s Church by the Rev. W. K. Roberts, who also officiated at the graveside.

The chief family mourners were Mr. and Mrs. Pinnock (father and mother), Mr. W. Pinnock (brother), Mr. W. Webb (uncle), Mrs. Gillingham and Miss Gibson.

The many beautiful floral tributes included wreaths from all members of the family, Ald. A. Mizen and the Misses Mizen, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Mizen, Mr. Edward Johnson Mizen, Mrs. Hicks and family, Mrs. Edwards, Messrs. T. and Charles Turner, Mrs. Huntingford and family, Mr. Pinnock (Hammersmith) and family, Mr. and Mrs. Cottis (cousins), Mr. and Mrs. A. Webb (cousins).

Sold around 1930 according to this news article:

Source: Mitcham Advertiser, 5 January 1950, p. 5
(British Newspaper Archive; rights holder unknown).

Obituary

Mrs. M. Pinnock

At the age of 90, Mrs. Mary Pinnock, of 3, Mitcham Garden Village, died on New Year’s Eve.

The funeral service takes place to-day (Thursday) at St. Mark’s Church, at the opening of which, 50 years ago, Mrs. Pinnock was present. She rarely missed a service there. The service will be conducted by the Vicar, the Rev. A. E. Smart. Interment will be in the parish churchyard.

For most of her life Mrs. Pinnock and her late husband lived in St. Mark’s Parish, and had a flourishing market garden business off Cedars Avenue. The land was sold about twenty years ago, when the Pinnocks retired, and is now covered with houses. Mr. Pinnock, like his widow, died in the Garden Village. Mrs. Pinnock was a member of the Red Cross and the Darby and Joan Club, which meets in St. Mark’s Parish Hall. She was active in the district until a few weeks before Christmas.

Her brother, Mr. Thomas Turner, a retired Mitcham postman, who lives with her son in St. George’s Road, is 92.

Source: Mitcham Advertiser 2nd January 1930
Right margin torn; missing letters restored in the transcription below (notably “East Ward”).

Mr. Thomas Pinnock.

Mitcham Octogenarian Market Gardener Retires.

Mr. Thomas Pinnock, who has been a market gardener in Mitcham for over half a century, retired from business this Christmas at the age of eighty-three.

Mr. Pinnock is a Wiltshire man and came to Mitcham to work for the late Mr. Thomas Allen, of Sherborne Farm, Eastfields. Later he was employed by the late Mr. Edward Mizen, father of the three partners of the firm of Mizen Bros., for whom he worked twenty years. Since then Mr. Pinnock has been in business for himself at Cedars-avenue, where he did a great deal of the work himself. He has enjoyed excellent health. Few men are more respected, especially in the East Ward where all Mr. Pinnock’s days in Mitcham have been spent. He well remembers the lavender blooming in hundreds of acres in Mitcham, and helped to grow it himself.

Mrs. Pinnock, who is a Mitcham woman, is not so old as her husband by thirteen years. At present she and her husband are enjoying a long and well deserved holiday in Yorkshire.

5th November 1936 Mitcham Advertiser

Mr. Thomas Pinnock

Death of Mitcham’s Oldest Market Gardener.

Mitcham has lost its oldest nurseryman and market gardener by the death on Tuesday of Mr. Thomas Pinnock, aged ninety.

He was a market gardener in Mitcham for over half a century—until his retirement seven years ago. He died in Mitcham Garden Village.

Mr. Pinnock was a Wiltshire yeoman farmer’s son and he came to Mitcham to work for the late Mr. Thomas Allen, of Sherborne Farm, Eastfields. Later he was employed by the late Mr. Edward Mizen, father of Messrs. Mizen Brothers, for whom he worked twenty years. Afterwards he started in business as a market gardener and nurseryman in Cedars-avenue, Common-side East, where he remained till he retired.

Mr. Pinnock enjoyed excellent health throughout his long life. He enjoyed life itself and a joke as much as anything. Always cheery and ready to tell a good story, he was a very popular member of the Garden Village circle, and he was esteemed generally, especially in the East Ward, where all his working life in Mitcham was spent. He remembered when lavender bloomed in hundreds of acres of Mitcham, and he helped to grow it himself.

Mrs. Pinnock is a Mitcham woman and is younger than her husband by thirteen years. She has received many messages of sympathy.

The funeral will take place on Saturday. Mr. Donald S. Drewett, Upper Green, Mitcham, is carrying out the arrangements.

Sir Isaac Wilson : Death of a Benefactor of Mitcham

Leave a reply

From The Mitcham News & Mercury, 29th September, 1944, page 4:

SIR ISAAC H. WILSON
Death of Benefactor of Mitcham

REGARDED WEALTH AS AN
OBLIGATION

Mitcham mourns the death at the age of 82 of Sir Isaac H Wilson, The Birches, The Cricket Green, a well-loved personality whose generosity has brought lasting benefits to the people of Mitcham.

Sir Isaac died on Tuesday in the Wilson Hospital, his £120,000 gift to the borough, which with Cumberland house and Mitcham Garden Village remain lasting testimonies to the spirit of a man to whom wealth was regarded as an obligation to the less fortunate rather than a privilege to himself.

In fifteen years his benefactions to the borough have been in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million pounds, but his greatness of heart was something not to be measured in terms of money. He was not a rich man who gave of his wealth has a salve to conscience. Certainly he felt it a duty to spend his money well, and the only return he asked was the increased happiness of the people. Although he has done more for Mitcham than any other man, he was loved for his own sake rather than for his gifts. He was simple kind and modest; he hated publicity, and did not care for constant reminders about the good he had done his adopted town.

QUIET DAILY VISITS

He liked a quiet life, and latterly since ill health had restricted his activities his greatest pleasure was to visit the Wilson Hospital and Cumberland House, a thing he did almost daily when his health permitted. He was the most welcome of all visitors at both places. There was no member of the staff who was not pleased to see the familiar figure coming up the drive, for if his step was slower of recent years, he had always a smile for his friends, and a happy twinkle in his eye.

Much has been written of Sir Isaac’s romantic rise from his obscure native village of Milton, Cumberland to a position of wealth and influence in the world. He was the youngest and only surviving member of a family of four brothers, sons of a yeoman farmer, who went out into the world to seek their fortunes in the building trade, and then spent the fruits of their labours on charity. They spent their youth working on their father’s farm, and later Sir Isaac became a draper’s apprentice.

BUILDING DEVELOPEMENT

He left the drapery business to join his brother, Joseph, in London where the two brothers developed large areas of Fulham, Mitcham and Tooting Junction. The other two brothers, Thomas and John, made fortunes building working class houses in Newcastle, and when they died Sir Isaac inherited several hundred thousand pounds.

The Wilson Hospital, the foundation stone of which was laid by his first wife, who was also a native of Cumberland, was Sir Isaac’s first benefaction to the borough. In November, 1928, it was opened by the Princess Royal. Later Sir Isaac enlarged the hospital adding two wings and installing up-to-date equipment.

THE GARDEN VILLAGE

On part of Cranmer green he built Mitcham Garden Village, the replica of his native Village, where the borough’s old inhabitants may live rent free. His next to gift to Mitcham was Cumberland House, the modern convalescent home at the rear of his own home which cost £60,000. This has been taken over by Surrey County Council. The cost of upholding the home by voluntary methods would have been an enormous charge on Mitcham, and Sir Isaac agreed that the best scheme was for the County Council to accept responsibility. Sir Isaac assured the future of the Wilson hospital by conveying to the trustees property in the district to the value of £45,000 as an endowment for the hospital. He also gave a home for the nurses.

Mitcham was not the only recipient of his generosity. His native village of Milton and neighbouring districts benefited by more than £20,000 from his generosity. This was spent on building cottages for the poor.

The death of his only daughter a considerable time ago was a great grief to Sir Isaac. Later he lost his wife, who, he said, had been the inspiration of the gift of the hospital. His only granddaughter, Mrs Black, lives on the Cricket Green, a few doors from Sir Isaac’s own home. Hs two grandsons are serving with the Forces.

CHURCHMAN AND CONSERVATIVE

For many years he played a prominent part in the town’s life. Earlier in his life he took an active interest in St. Barnabas Church where he was a churchwarden for some time. He was a staunch Conservative and for a time was president of the local Conservative and Constitutional Club. He was a keen educationalist as well as a Justice of the Peace until recently. For some time he was Chairman of the Mitcham Bench.

Formerly a member of Surrey County Council he was also a member of Mitcham Council until last year, when failing health caused him to relinquish many public posts.

In 1937 he became a Freeman of Mitcham, and in June, 1939, was knighted for political and public service in Mitcham.

Sir Isaac accepted honours gracefully, and continued his work in the same efficient and unassuming way.

A GREAT READER

For years Sir Isaac has been Mitcham’s best friend. He invested his money in the borough’s happiness, and both he and the people have drawn generous dividends. His figure, familiar to all who frequent the Green, will be sadly missed. He lived a simple life and of recent years rarelt went out of the borough.

His chief recreation was reading, and for the last ten years he has read little other than books about millionaires, successful businessman and industrialists, or men who, like himself, had risen from obscurity to a place in the world. Following The Fortunes of Lord Nuffield, Henry Ford, the Cadburys and others, he sought comparisons with his own success, and compared their manner of spending their fortune with his own.

The bombing of the Wilson Hospital, which was closed for some time, was a great blow to him, and the town will be glad that he lived to see it repaired and at work again.

Sir Isaac Wilson