Friday 6 January 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
TOO FOND OF LIFE TO COMMIT SUICIDE
Mitcham man’s fate at Beachy Head
Foul play involved? Asks coroner
Frank Grimwood, a Mitcham man, was found beneath Beachy Head. His wife said he was too fond of life to have taken it, a farthing was all that was found on him, and his injuries were consistent with a fall. The coroner could not say whether it was accident or suicide, and asked whether foul play was involved. Grimwood’s brother, who had seen him in Eastbourne, gave evidence.
HELPING THE YOUTH OF MITCHAM
Mitcham Council take first steps at The Canons
After a request from Mitcham Youth Council, the Town Clerk and the Borough Engineer were to meet the youth officer, Mr T. Baptie, about rooms for youth work. The Canons, already used by the Boy Scouts several nights a week, was the building being looked at.
TAKE IT FROM US
Playtime in planning
A letter from the Ministry of Town and Country Planning was read as a sign that the Government might no longer carry out the Greater London Plan. In Mitcham that plan depended on moving industry, including works at Willow Lane, off land wanted for housing.
COMMUNITY CENTRE PLAN
Pollards Hill details
There was still no news of a grant for the Pollards Hill community centre. The finished scheme was described as ambitious, with a swimming bath and a children’s playground, but the clubroom was the part wanted first.
NO DEMAND FOR ALL DAY OPENING
Pollards Hill Society debate licensing laws
Pollards Hill Society debated whether licensed houses should be allowed to open all day. Mr A. W. Pink spoke against all-day drinking, and the society’s next debate was set for eight o’clock at Sherwood House.
ALLOCATION OF HOUSES
Motion for common system rejected
A proposal that housing authorities should share one points system, so that applicants with no residential qualification were treated alike, was rejected.
BORN ON NEW YEAR’S DAY
A baby was born on New Year’s Eve at Woodlands, Mitcham’s maternity home, to Mrs Aviss, of Homewood Road.
HER BAG SNATCHED
A woman walking along Eastfields had her bag snatched by a young man who came up to her on a bicycle.
ONLY 10 C.D. RECRUITS
The chairman of the Civil Defence committee told the Council on Thursday that recruiting in Mitcham for the new Civil Defence Corps was very low.
COLLISION AT CROSS-ROADS
Mitcham driver fined
Thomas William Pernacott, of Locks Lane, Mitcham, a driver for 25 years, was fined £2 with £3 3s. costs at Mitcham on Monday for driving without due care. At a cross-roads in Thornton Road he sounded his horn twice; a lorry slowed, and his van still went on.
COUNCIL WANT EMPTY HOUSES TO BE REQUISITIONED
The Council was told of empty houses that could be taken over for families who had been evicted.
LABOUR PARTY WELCOME 1950
Tom Braddock, M.P., was there
Gorringe Park Labour Party held a New Year social. The sitting Member, Mr Tom Braddock, was among those there.
Friday 13 January 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
TAKE IT FROM US
The battle begins
With the General Election date settled, the paper said Mitcham’s three main parties would be given room to state their case. The fight would be between Mr Tom Braddock, the Labour M.P., and Mr Robert Carr, the Conservative. Mrs Doreen Page was standing for the Liberals. The Communists were not putting up a candidate and meant to support the Socialists rather than split the left vote.
CAUTIOUS MR. CARR
All sides are ready
The campaigns were already under way. Mr Carr was described as cautious about how he would fight the seat.
HOW BATHS WATER IS KEPT CLEAN
“Uncle Charlie” got into mischief
The baths superintendent set out how the water was kept clean, in a week when Singlegate Working Men’s Club had also given its annual children’s party.
Friday 20 January 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
BUT LIBERALS START
No mud slinging
The paper said the political storm would not break in Mitcham until 7 February, when Mr Tom Braddock and Mr Robert Carr would both be in the field. In 1945 Braddock had polled 26,910 and the Conservative 19,742, a Labour majority of 7,168. Mrs Doreen Page, the Liberal candidate, was asking local firms for the same help the other parties expected.
MR. CARR WARY ABOUT EXPENSE
Both the Socialists and the Conservatives were watching what they spent. The legal allowance was about £450, which the Labour agent, Mr Thomas, said should still leave a margin, and Mr Carr was not going to set foot in Mitcham for the campaign until his adoption meeting.
GIRL ASKED MAN IF THEY COULD GO AWAY
Dismissed
A widow, Mrs Pearce, summoned a man of the same address in Chapel Road for assault on New Year’s Day. The bench held there was not enough evidence to commit him for trial.
Friday 27 January 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
CHURCHES TO QUESTION ALL THREE CANDIDATES
Christianity and the nation
Mitcham’s churches invited the three prospective candidates to the Baths Hall on Thursday 2 February. Questions drawn up by the vicars and ministers were to be put through the chairman. There were to be no posters, so that the meeting could not be taken as part of any candidate’s campaign.
LIBERALS MAY HIRE CARAVAN
Tories will be barred
Labour will have last big word
If the Liberals could not rent committee rooms near the middle of Mitcham they would hire a caravan, their agent, Mr Browne, said. The Conservatives hoped to bring down a speaker of Cabinet rank, and were planning a large meeting for 14 February. Labour had booked Harold Laski. Early voting was expected on 23 February, and the parties were not to have the use of schools or other public halls for meetings.
FLATS IN MITCHAM
Council scheme for Elm Nursery site
A housing-committee scheme for the Elm Nursery site provided for 102 two-bedroom maisonnettes, 20 two-bedroom flats and 70 three-room flats, with ceiling heights cut so that the rents could be kept within the Council’s limit. Surrey’s planning consultants had raised points the borough did not think it could meet.
BOYS CHASED BY DETECTIVE
Tools worth £5 were reported stolen from a garden on Sunday. A sergeant saw two boys wandering there; Detective-Sergeant Read followed them onto a bus, and one was later found crouching behind a garden gate. They said they had been looking for a club.
SUCCESS STORY OF AMY SHUARD
Amy Shuard, 25, had signed a contract with the Sadler’s Wells company. She sang on Tuesday. Her first lessons had been paid for while she was a girl at school in Morden, where Miss Norris was a teacher.
MEN IN KHAKI UP FROM ALDERSHOT
Men from the Aldershot area boxed at Mitcham Baths on Wednesday of the previous week in what the paper called Mitcham Boxing Club’s best bill of the season. Sixteen bouts were fought and the programme still ran until 11 p.m. The writer gave pride of place to a loser: 35-year-old Pte Dowdleish, of the Army Catering Corps, making his first appearance for five years, stayed the course against Ron Kenchington of Earlsfield.
CADET TO FLY TO BERLIN
Cadet Flight-Sergeant F. T. Field, of Lammas Avenue, Mitcham, was to fly to Berlin on 8 February as a guest of the R.A.F. He had been nominated by his comrades of No. 2157 (Mitcham) Squadron, A.T.C.
Friday 3 February 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
INDUSTRY AND HOMES MUST BALANCE
Criticisms of the move to Crawley
Provisional plans for the expanded towns were before Surrey County Council. Mitcham was told not to look to Crawley for a quick end to its housing list: people were not to apply until their own authority had said who should go, and new industry had to be balanced with the homes.
COUNCILLOR BAKER WALKS OUT
By-election for the Council
At the housing allocations, Councillor Baker walked out after a dispute about the principle on which tenancies were being given. Alderman Jack Fitch, the oldest member of Mitcham Council and Mayor when Mitcham became a borough, had sent in his resignation because of ill-health. The Mayor and others paid tribute to him.
SLOWNESS ALLEGED
Several members complained that the Council was slow in rehousing people. One case was quoted of a family who had been on the list for eight years.
MANY HAPPY RETURNS
The paper wished many happy returns to Robert, Wilfred and George, the two-year-old triplet sons of Mr and Mrs J. Mara, of Heaton Road, Mitcham.
YOUTH CLUB AND A PARTY
The Coastaliers youth club were refused the hall they wanted unless they could meet a cost of £20. They had been told the arrangements were cancelled when the bills were already printed.
Friday 17 February 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
ELM NURSERY PLANS CHANGED
The Council had substituted a fresh plan for the Elm Nursery site after Surrey County Council treated the Fair Green area as a shopping centre. Rents were still argued over: a wage of £7 was said to be too high a bar for applicants.
£1 NOTE FROM A HANDBAG
A girl, Warr, was remanded on bail for a week at the South-Western Magistrates’ Court, accused of stealing a £1 note from Mrs Emma Miller. The owner missed the note from her handbag and questioned the girl.
ABOUT THOMAS
Sitting M.P. in the wilderness
In the last week before polling day the paper ran a profile of Mr Tom Braddock, to help readers decide how to vote. He had grown up near the Oval, of a Lancashire family, left a job rather than drop his politics, sat on the St Helier division of Surrey County Council, and had been the only Socialist not to support the vote on the devaluation of the pound, because nothing was being done to protect the lower paid against the cost of living.
Friday 3 March 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
ROBERT CARR WINS
86 per cent voted
Conservative increase was 12,139
Thursday’s poll was the biggest Mitcham had seen: 62,800 electors voted, 86 per cent of the electorate and 16,148 more than in 1945. Most of the extra votes went to the Conservatives, who raised their 1945 poll by 12,139. Mr Tom Braddock, the sitting Member, topped his own 1945 vote by 145 and still lost. The Liberal vote was too small to decide the seat.
NEW APPOINTMENT FOR MR. CLAY
Establishment officer and treasurer
The Borough Treasurer, Mr E. C. Clay, was to be appointed Establishment Officer as well. The Council was told it was fortunate to have him to carry both jobs.
GLEBE ESTATE FLATS
On the Glebe Estate, where a hundred flats were under construction, the Council was told that progress was not what it should be. The contractor had not been getting on with the work, and nobody yet knew what the rents would be.
CHANGE YOUR ORANGE CARDS
Reminder for insured persons
About 5,000 insured people in the Clapham and Balham areas were reminded to exchange orange National Insurance cards between 6 and 11 March. Grey, blue and straw cards were not yet due. Anyone who had moved in the last year was told to write the new address on page three, or the next contribution card might not arrive.
Friday 24 March 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
TENDER FOR THE BURIAL GROUND
Mitcham Corporation invited tenders for an extension of the London Road burial ground, including deep sub-soil porous sewers and footways. Forms were to be had from the Borough Engineer at the Town Hall, and tenders endorsed “Tender for Extension of London Road Burial Ground” had to be in by noon on 3 April 1950. The Corporation did not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender.
Friday 7 April 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
NEXT MAYOR OF MITCHAM
Ald. Thomas Arthur East chosen
Alderman Thomas Arthur East, leader of the Independent group, was chosen as the next Mayor. He was 53, first elected for the old East ward, and his family had been connected with Mitcham for about a hundred years. He was a member of Mitcham Chess Club and had long been involved at the Stadium.
POLLARD’S HILL SCHOOL
The argument over a school for Pollards Hill went on. The County Council had been invited to state its needs and had not replied for two years, while the borough laid the estate out. A proposal to put the school behind Recreation Close, in Wide Way, about half a mile off, was opposed locally; Alderman Norris said most of the objections came from people who were already housed, and that Mitcham families would lose out if the scheme were held up.
LICENSING OF PRIVATE BUILDING
The Housing Committee resolved that licensing of private building works had outlived its use, and copies were sent to Mr Robert Carr, M.P., and to the Association of Municipal Corporations. Councillors Gifford and Fido had the resolution taken out, arguing there was still a shortage of timber and little unemployment in the trade. Councillor Bradley called that “a lot of jolly nonsense” and said there was more timber in the country than in 1939.
Friday 14 April 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
MITCHAM WILL HAVE TWO MAY QUEENS AGAIN
Deidre Atkins was candidate-elect of the May Festival Society, chosen by ballot at the society’s annual meeting, and Betty of Merrie England was to be crowned on the Cricket Green. The sixteen-year-old London May Queen would crown Betty, and about fifty Mitcham children were to take part, with the band of the 4th East Surrey (Mitcham Methodist) Company of the Boys’ Brigade. On 6 May the Mayor of Mitcham was to crown Deidre on the same Green, while Betty went on to represent Mitcham among the London May Queens at Hayes. Helen Murphy, 15, of Hatfield Gardens, and Lorna Tilley were also named.
WHERE TO GET YOUR NEW RATION BOOK
Readers were told to take the old ration book, and the identity card if it did not already carry the right details, to the food office. An identity card due for renewal before 21 May could be dealt with at the same time, and new tea coupons would come with the new book.
Friday 21 April 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
PETROL INCREASE
Mr Robert Carr called the new petrol tax “a thoroughly bad tax” because it would put up industrial costs. A Mitcham paint firm told the Mercury it would mean about 4d. a gallon on paint and would touch them by five to ten per cent.
RAIN AT THE FAIR GREEN
The May Queen’s afternoon on the Fair Green was hit by a downpour just before the crowning. Mrs Ericson cut the cake. The new queen wore her dress despite the weather.
ALBERT BRIGGS AND HIS LANCASTER
Albert Briggs was pictured with his scale model of a Lancaster bomber, in a report of a model-aircraft meeting at which a model crashed and the cause was looked for.
Friday 28 April 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
THE HALL IS NOT A GOOD FINANCIAL PROPOSITION
A hall used by a local association needed a new store hut and a new drugget for the floor. It was said not to be a good financial proposition, but the courts filled a real need and the case for keeping them had been thoroughly gone into.
Friday 5 May 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
MAYOR-ELECT AT THE COUNCIL
The Mayor-elect was before the Council on Thursday. On the works hooter, the paper said people who could afford an extra five minutes might put the alarm clock away, but the hooter would still sound.
Friday 12 May 1950
“SHE DID NOT CHEAT AT PARISH WHIST”
Mrs Hart, the misère queen, wins £300
Mrs Rosemary Hart was awarded £300 after being accused of cheating at a parish whist drive two years earlier. The slander was spoken in the hall while she was present. She said whist had been her life, that she played for love of the game rather than prizes, and that she would not play on the night of the verdict. She had kept a sweet shop, and had been ready to sell up.
Friday 19 May 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
ALBERT PRICE
Death from the war
A verdict of death from the war was recorded at Sutton on Albert Price, 54, a dock labourer of Sunshine Way, Mitcham. His widow, Florence May Price, said he had been gassed in the first war and discharged in 1917, and had had chronic bronchitis and asthma ever since. A pension of 16s. was later cut to 8s., and for 27 years he had no pension until Mr Tom Braddock took the case up. He had been out of work for four years. On the Wednesday his wife gave him a sleeping tablet; he was still asleep next day, their daughter fetched the doctor, and he was dead when the ambulance reached the hospital. The doctor said he died from fibrosis of the heart, consistent with exposure to a toxic gas.
Friday 26 May 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
BENNINGA’S COACH TO BRIGHTON
Benninga’s staff lined up outside their coach on Saturday for the firm’s outing to Brighton.
Friday 2 June 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
ALD. T. A. EAST READS THE DECLARATION
Alderman T. A. East read the declaration undertaking to carry out his duties as Mayor to the best of his capacity. He paid tribute to the retiring Mayor for her dignity and impartiality, and said that if he could match her efficiency the prestige of the borough would not suffer.
Friday 30 June 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
METHODISTS PROPOSE A DESIGN FOR MODERN TIMES
Do you like this church?
A new Methodist church was proposed for the Fair Green, to replace the building destroyed in the blitz. The design, in brick and concrete, was by Mr Mills, who had also designed the Colliers Wood Methodist Mission, and it was among those accepted by the Royal Academy for its architectural exhibition. Work still depended on town planning consent and on the Methodist Church, from which the local church hoped for a grant.
YOUNG CONSERVATIVES
Mitcham Young Conservatives, with Mr E. Trotman, the divisional chairman, in the chair, decided to meet every Thursday at 7.45 p.m. at the Elmhurst Cafe in Streatham Road.
Wednesday 5 July 1950
The Evening News
LONDON TRAMS ARE TO GO
London trams-buses switch will take two years, to cost £9 million, says Lord Latham
South London’s trams were to start coming off the streets at the end of September, when the first stage of replacement by buses would be finished. Lord Latham, chairman of London Transport, said the whole change would take two years and cost more than £9 million. About 1,000 buses were to replace 830 trams over more than 100 miles of route, in a nine-stage plan that included Greenwich, Deptford and Southwark.
THE FISHING INDUSTRY
The Government had outlined the help it meant to give the white-fish industry. The Evening News said the proposals were still not clear, despite a statement by Mr Attlee in the Commons the day before, and that North Shields, as one of the chief fishing ports, was directly concerned.
CANADA LIVING COST AT PEAK
Canada’s official cost-of-living index rose another 1.4 points in May, to a record 165.4, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported. Higher meat prices were blamed.
A WALK-OUT AT WALLSEND
All the welders at a Wallsend yard walked out about 2 p.m. after a claim was refused, and met in a cafe. Most went home after a meeting of more than three hours. Shop stewards would not comment afterwards, for fear of aggravating matters.
WALLSEND TORIES PICK CANDIDATE
Preparing for a snap election, Wallsend Divisional Conservative executive recommended Mr Gerard Cuthbert Crangle as prospective candidate. He was a Sunderland man, then a staff speaker-driver at the Conservative area office in Newcastle, and had helped in elections since he was a boy.
Friday 7 July 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
MR. TOM FRANCIS’ GIFT
Lantern slide story of Mitcham
Mr Tom Francis, of London Road, Mitcham, gave his collection of lantern slides of Mitcham to the borough, to be kept in the Public Library. Councillor E. Gulliver, chairman of the Library Committee, called it unique, and Councillor T. Ruff, a former chairman, said it was probably the finest pictorial history of Mitcham that could be produced.
Friday 11 August 1950
Daily Herald
ACID STREAM KILLS MAN
Henry Harris, 47, of Cavendish Grove, Lambeth, died of burns and shock in Wilson Hospital, Mitcham, after the bung blew out of a drum of phenol-carbolic acid at the factory of James Ferguson and Sons, Prince George’s Road, Mitcham, and a stream of acid struck him and two others in the face. Charles Knight was kept in for observation. A third man went home after treatment. The pressure of gas had forced the bung out.
Mitcham News & Mercury
MITCHAM FAIR OPENS TOMORROW
Mitcham Fair was to open the next day, with the Mayor performing the opening ceremony.
CRICKET WEEK
Saw W. G. on the Green
Lindley and Ide, Mitcham’s opening batsmen, were pictured leaving the pavilion at the start of Cricket Week. Another feature recalled W. G. Grace on the Green, and old Mr Drewett coming to watch.
THOUSANDS OF VISITORS ON BANK HOLIDAY
But where were the decorations?
Bank Holiday brought thousands of visitors, but London Road was in its ordinary dress. The paper asked why there were no decorations, noted that nurseries had stopped selling vegetable and tomato plants, and suggested geraniums and other summer flowers for window boxes, and a competition for the gayest house, for the sake of people coming to the cricket and of motorists passing through.
HIT BUS DRIVER ON THE NOSE
Pleaded guilty
A man pleaded guilty to hitting a bus driver on the nose.
Friday 18 August 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
MR G. SHEPPARD DIED IN HIS FAVOURITE CHAIR
Remembered when Mitcham Fair had only one roundabout
Mr George Sheppard, a gas-works pensioner, died in his favourite chair at home on Tuesday. He had started farm work at nine, liked to talk about the old Mitcham lavender, and remembered the Fair when it had a single roundabout.
Friday 6 October 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
MY RIDE ON THE LAST TRAM
The last tram on route 34 made its final run on Saturday night, in pouring rain. Only a handful of people were waiting at the start. At the first stop someone asked “This the last tram, mate?”, a few more got on, and two police cars followed the car all the way.
Tuesday 10 October 1950
Daily Express
WE ARE SURPRISED, SAY THE LIBERALS
Frank Byers, chairman of the Liberal Party Executive, said the decision not to oppose Clement Davies at Montgomery had come as a complete surprise. The Tory vote there had fallen by more than 3,000 at the last election, and he treated the phrase “for the time being” as an empty threat.
VISHINSKY AND THE UNO ARMY PLAN
Andrei Vishinsky waved an olive branch at the United Nations, but British and American diplomats were suspicious and thought he had been caught in the middle of a Soviet peace offensive. The Western plan, introduced by Mr John Foster Dulles, was to give the United Nations armed forces so that it could prevent another Korea.
DEAKIN TO SEEK A RISE FOR DOCKERS
Mr Arthur Deakin, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, said an official claim was to be made for higher dockers’ wages. Unofficial leaders had been agitating for weeks for a “Dockers’ Charter”, including a rise from 19s. a day.
OLD GLORY
Charles Ralls, commander of an ex-servicemen’s group in New York, accused Washington of a plot to replace the Stars and Stripes with the United Nations flag, after sewing kits were sent to farmers’ wives so that they could make the flags at home.
Friday 24 November 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
WANDLE FLOODS INVADE PHIPPS BRIDGE
Water enters four shops
“Came in just like a wave”
Residents call for action
The Wandle flooded the Phipps Bridge area of Colliers Wood and Mitcham. Water welled into the roadway, traffic was slowed, and extra police were sent in. Four shops were flooded. A boot repairer went downstairs at a quarter past four and found himself paddling before he realised the noise was water against the door; he spent two hours bailing out his kitchen. One woman said that when she opened the door it came in just like a wave. The paper said the river was no longer pretty, that its water was often discoloured and sometimes smelt, and that people who had put up with the floods for years wanted something done.
4,500 ON THE HOUSING LIST
Councillor A. E. Mingay said 4,500 names on Mitcham’s housing list were being considered this year, and that anyone above that number would have to wait until another year. One household of eight, five of them grown-ups, was cited. A complaint of insolence by a council housing employee was left over until full details were given.
Thursday 30 November 1950
The Advertiser
NEW SCHOOL ON SITE OF ANCIENT HOUSE
£100,000 building planned for historic Hall Place
Legends of a famous landmark
Plans were being prepared for a new Mitcham County School for Boys, estimated at £100,000, on the site of Hall Place in Church Road. An official of Surrey’s education department told the Advertiser there were more urgent projects, and little prospect of an early start. Hall Place, home of Sir Cato and Lady Worsfold, had been demolished. Before it came down, thieves had already taken lead and other fittings, and they came back even after the site was fenced. Secret chambers and passages were part of the local legend of the house.
Saturday 2 December 1950
150 YEARS OF PAINT MAKING
Firm of world repute
Thomas Parsons and Sons Ltd., of Church Road, Mitcham, were about to complete 150 years, for most of that time with their main factory in Mitcham. The firm, known for paints, varnishes and colours, also had factories in Dublin and Glasgow, and 55 men on the books had between them more than 1,760 years’ service. A man who had just finished 50 years at the Church Road factory spoke at the firm’s first dance and cabaret, held at the Baths Hall on Friday before the Mayor and Mayoress, the directors and about 300 employees. Mrs George Parsons, a director, and the only daughter of Sir Alfred and Lady Newton, presided.
Friday 29 December 1950
Mitcham News & Mercury
MITCHAM BABIES MEET THE MAYOR
Mitcham babies and their mothers met the Mayor and Mayoress, Alderman T. A. East, at a party arranged with the Food Office. With them were Mrs Dalton, Mr W. Dalton, chairman of the Mitcham Food Control Committee, and the Medical Officer of Health.
REV. GEORGE LUBBOCK
Wind and snow did not deter old folk
Wind and snow did not keep the old people away from an outing with the Rev. George Lubbock.
STANDARD UPHOLSTERY STAFF DANCE
Standard Upholstery Co. Ltd. held its Christmas staff dance at Kennards on Saturday. Mr Ben Hensher was among those pictured with the party.
