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1952 news items

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Thursday 24 July 1952

TRAFFIC DANGER: PROTEST PETITION
Mitcham Park ‘nothing but a racing track’
‘PUBLIC DANGER AND NUISANCE,’ SAY RESIDENTS
Council asked to take action
One hundred and fifty-five residents of Mitcham Park signed a petition about traffic through the road, which they called a racing track and a danger to children at a large private school there. R. Olley and C. Harper took it to the Town Hall hoping to speak as a deputation, but on the motion of Ald. T. L. Ruff, seconded by Ald. C. A. Norris, the council refused and said it was a matter for the police.

More shops at Fair Green
Work on former meadow
The borough engineer, Mr Riley Schofield, told the council that another attempt would be made to reshape the Western Road side of the Fair Green, left since the war as little more than the site of a shelter. Work had begun on the walled meadow known as Francis’ Corner, where shops with flats above were to complete The Parade. He did not expect the full reconstruction of the green, as a shopping centre on a roundabout, for some 20 years.

THE NEW CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION
A picture of the new Church of the Ascension at Pollards Hill, gradually taking shape, was taken while the vicar, the Rev. C. A. Richardson, was looking over the progress with his son Mark.

Abolition of fire alarms
‘Nothing short of scandalous’
Ald. C. A. Norris moved the strongest possible protest at a scheme to abandon the borough’s fire-alarm boxes and put telephone boxes in their place. Coun. D. Fido said it was too late to alter the decision.

‘A MENACE’
Lorries in Baron Grove
Coun. E. Gulliver said five or six lorries sometimes stood in Baron Grove so that residents could not get cars in or out of their garages. Coun. E. J. Mills wanted the council’s decision to leave the Mitcham Park traffic to the police looked at again. Ald. G. Pearce said the police sent lorries into Baron Grove because of a bottleneck.

APPEAL FOR ECONOMY
Administration of burial grounds
Coun. R. Stanley asked the Public Health Committee to look, before next year’s estimates, at the cost of running the borough’s burial grounds. They were losing money, but he did not want burial fees raised; they would have to be doubled to make any real difference, and that would cause hardship. His amendment was carried.

MORE HOUSING SITES?
Coun. D. W. Fido, Labour chairman of a Surrey housing committee, pressed the search for more land for houses.

TORY HOUSING TARGET EXCEEDED THIS YEAR?
Party’s chance to prove their mettle
Mr E. C. Trotman, chairman of the Mitcham Division Conservative Association, told the Gorringe Park branch fete that it would be surprising if the Government’s target of 300,000 houses had not been reached and passed by the end of the year. He said critics inside the party were being unpatriotic if they grumbled before the Government had had a chance to clear up what he called six years of Socialist mismanagement.

Brigita will be sorry to leave
Brigita Plume, a 17-year-old Latvian girl at Mitcham County School for Girls in Cranmer Road, was returning to her parents in Germany in August. Her place was to be taken by another Latvian girl. A school fund, aimed at £150, had helped the two of them; Brigita had been living with Mr and Mrs P. Daborn of Glensham Road, whose daughter was a pupil at Sutton.

DROUGHT’S EFFECT ON SUMMER SHOW
Vegetables, sweet peas and fruit suffered most
Flowering begonias, zinnias and roses were the outstanding classes at the 70th summer show of the Mitcham, Tooting and District Horticultural Society on the “News of the World” sports ground. Sweet peas, usually a glory of the show, were a poor crop after the dry weather, though the quality was good. The superintendent of open spaces judged most of the exhibits with Mr Moore.

Prospects in New Zealand
Mitcham displays an interest
Mitcham Vestry Hall was crowded on Wednesday and Thursday nights to see a New Zealand Government film on prospects for emigrants. A government speaker said there would be conscription “if the need arises.” Free passages were open to single men and women of British race, housed in hostels; married people were discouraged unless they had accommodation and a skilled trade. He put the cost of living at about the British level and wages a little higher: carpenters £9 12s. 7d. for a 40-hour week, builders’ labourers a basic £8 16s. 6d., and women footwear operatives £5 10s. 5d.

To buy school equipment
Pollards Hill fete
A fete for East Mitcham schools, opened by the Deputy Mayor, was to buy equipment the county’s education economies had left schools short of. Parents and children filled a programme of costume competitions, dancing and a tug-of-war between fathers.

ELM NURSERY TENANTS
Council and question of representation
The new Elm Nursery Estate Tenants’ Association asked Mitcham Council to recognise it as speaking for the tenants. The Housing Committee replied that it would always be ready to consider what the tenants sent in, without granting that exclusive status.

IN NEED OF NEW HOMES
The Housing Committee listed families still to be rehoused, among them households on the Ravensbury estate, at Laburnum House in London Road, Lower Mitcham, and in huts in Wide Way, Pollards Hill, which it was proposed to clear by the end of the year.

Assessments may be reduced
Occupiers of four maisonettes in Mainwaring Court, on the Elm Nursery estate, objected to a proposed rateable value of £32. The valuation court cut it to £30, to match the Pollards Hill maisonettes, and the valuation officer then proposed the same figure for the remaining 100 maisonettes at Mainwaring and Coningsby Courts.

IMPROVEMENTS TO CROSSINGS
SUGGESTED CHANGE IN LIGHTS
Mr Riley Schofield was looking at pedestrian crossings for the next phase of the Fair Green traffic scheme, including crossings that would take prams more easily. Flashing lights were authorised for the beacons at all pedestrian crossings in Mitcham, at a preliminary cost of £8 a crossing and £12 a post a year to maintain. Residents of Lammas Avenue were to have the footpath at the back of the road resurfaced in clinker for about £330, and the path from Lavender Grove to Heyford Road was also to be repaired.

SERVICE ON FAIR GREEN
Large congregation at Baptists’ rally
Baptists held an open-air service on the Fair Green and drew a large congregation.

Lessons by wireless
Cheam Common children help in demonstration
Children from Cheam Common school helped to show how lessons could be given by wireless.

SIX STUDENTS AIM TO START ART SOCIETY
Exhibition to stimulate public interest
Six students at the Sutton School of Art opened a show of their work at the Cock Hotel, Sutton, hoping to start an art society for Sutton and Cheam. The pictures were all their own; the exhibition was to run for six weeks.

FENCE WOULD COST £1,200
Plan for recreation ground
Fencing a recreation ground in Sutton was estimated at £1,200.

Self-builders optimistic
Progress better than anticipated
Mr J. A. Brown, chairman of the Banstead and District Self-Build Housing Association, told members that progress on their houses was better than they had expected.

400 DRIVERS WARNED
Police warned about 400 drivers after checks on the roads around Sutton and Banstead.

Scout history in pageantry
Lord Baden-Powell opens Banstead jamborette
Lord Baden-Powell opened a jamborette at Banstead. A photograph showed him with District Commissioner F. L. A. Gover and Scouts; another showed four cup-winners of the Banstead Horticultural Society, Messrs J. L. Hammond, A. E. Sawyer, J. C. Snook and W. A. Smith.

Gardening is their hobby
Awards at Banstead show
The Nork Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association’s report sat beside the Banstead horticultural show, where gardening was very much the local hobby.

Stoneleigh’s big day
School grounds packed for annual event
Stoneleigh school’s annual day filled the grounds, with the 1st Stoneleigh Guides and Brownies among those taking part.

Mitcham Common refuse tipping; alarm of residents as to the future
The Long Thornton Residents’ Association heard a report on tipping on Mitcham Common. Residents were worried about what would happen next. The Mitcham Common Board of Conservators had already been concerned at flooding of several sections and at a lease of several acres on the Windmill Road side.

Notes and News from Pollards Hill
Mr T. Fitzgibbons, chairman of the Pollards Hill Estate Tenants’ Association, said tenants had long been trying to improve the weed-covered islands where roads meet on the estate. One idea was that they should choose an island and build their own hut there as association headquarters, in keeping with the surroundings, and that it could be their contribution to the Coronation. He said they would need the tenants’ help if they took it on.

Don’t panic when faced by a snake or squirrel
“Mitcham Notes,” by The Commoner, passed on two local animal alarms: one a snake and one a squirrel, both of which had been written up in the Press and neither of which, the column said, was a cause for panic.

Opposed to transformer
Worcester Park site
Worcester Park residents opposed a plan to put a transformer on a site in the district.

£15,000,000 SPENT ON HEALTH IN SURREY
Annual expenditure is now declining
Surrey’s cost of the National Health Service since 5 July 1948 was put at £15,246,447 up to March. Spending was £4,139,397 in the first full year, £4,412,282 in 1950–51 and £4,119,887 last year. Dental and ophthalmic services paid under the 1951 Act came to £161,389. The cost a head was £3 0s. 8d., against £3 5s. 6d. the year before. Mrs A. Woodgate, chairman of the Executive Council, said the professional standard was high and that the family doctor was the first person people turned to.

Football club action withdrawn
Allegations against former directors of Crystal Palace Football and Athletic Club Ltd were withdrawn by the club in the Chancery Division. The dispute had concerned a lease of buildings to the Harper company and claims of negligence and breach of duty.

UGLY SHEDS, BONFIRES AND SUNDAY WASHING
Ex-councillor has a list of grievances
Mr A. E. Field, a former member of Beddington and Wallington Council, put a list of grievances to the Beddington and Wallington Ratepayers’ Association: sheds, fences, bonfires and washing hung out on Sundays. He said the council should control them.

ROOKERY FARM AS 24 TIP
Scheme starts in October
A scheme to use Rookery Farm as a 24-hour tip was to start in October.

Service to community
Presentations to three ex-aldermen
Three former aldermen were presented with gifts for their service to the district.

Objection to builder’s yard
‘Amenities would suffer’
Neighbours objected to a builder’s yard on the ground that it would spoil the amenities of the road.

FOOTING THE BILL FOR LOCAL SERVICES
How district rates compare
Of the boroughs in the administrative county, Mitcham had the highest rate, stated as 19s. 8d. Sutton and Cheam were next at 18s. 10d. Beddington and Wallington paid 17s. 6d. and Epsom and Ewell 17s. 4d. Among the urban districts Carshalton paid 17s. 10d. and Banstead 17s. 9d. Every district also paid 5s. 10½d. for education and 1½d. for the fire service.

SHOULD BE TRANSFERRED
Families living in gun site camp
The paper said families still living in a former gun-site camp ought to be moved into proper housing.

BIG DROP IN NUMBER OF SIGHT TESTS
Concern over effect of charge for spectacles
Surrey Executive Council was concerned at a sharp fall in sight tests after the charge for spectacles. Mr S. J. Batson thought patients should not be asked to contribute to the cost of spectacles, and the council decided the matter should come back to the next meeting.

Dentist may lose £300 in fees
A dentist faced the possible withholding of £300 in fees after a complaint about his treatment of a patient.

Thursday 31 July 1952

RISK OF WAR HAS DIMINISHED
Mr. Carr on chance of peace in Europe
DEPENDS LARGELY ON SUPPORT FROM WESTERN GERMANY
Mr Robert Carr, M.P. for Mitcham and Wallington, told a Conservative “reporting back” meeting in Manor Road, Wallington, that the risk of war in Europe had greatly lessened and that the peace of Europe depended largely on support from Western Germany. He defended the United Nations line in Korea, dismissed germ-warfare reports as completely false, and said the Government was still trying to reach a settlement with Russia while resisting wage claims it thought inflationary. He noted serious unemployment in textiles, with the figures otherwise about the same as two years earlier.

£8,000 OF BOMB PARTS STOLEN FROM R.A.F.
Director and others charged with conspiracy
Eight men, including Gerald James Davey, 25, a company director of Brudenell Road, Tooting, appeared at Andover on 16 charges arising from the alleged theft of more than £8,000 worth of brass bomb pistols from the R.A.F. station at Longparish. The others included two airmen at the station, a Bournemouth lorry driver, a milk roundsman, a medical student and a storeman. Prosecuting, Mr B. Chill said the pistols were scrap, not dangerous, and that only about £1,268 of the proceeds could be traced. They were committed to Hampshire Quarter Sessions.

Formerly a meadow
A photograph of the building site at the Fair Green, with men at work in front of the shops, was captioned: formerly a meadow, the site was to be used for shops, and the development would complete The Parade.

ALARMED BY GROWING UNEMPLOYMENT
Trade unionists set up an action committee
Worried by redundancy, Mitcham Trades Council called a conference and elected a committee of seven to “stimulate and co-ordinate local workers in their resistance to employers’ attacks.” Mr A. Wilson, of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, said the rot had reached Mitcham. Jack Shaw, a London regional organiser, blamed the diversion of steel and called the Tory Government the cause. Mr E. Martin, secretary of the trades council, pointed to American, German and Japanese competition. A Conservative trade unionist at the meeting blamed politics, and Communist-controlled strikes, instead.

THEY ROWED IN CHAIRS
Sea Rangers give a demonstration
The crew of S.R.S. Mercury, with headquarters in St Mark’s Road, Mitcham, marked a third year under commission with a party for the divisional president of the Guides, Mrs A. H. Bailey, and the district commissioner, Miss M. Carey. The evening included a “man overboard” rescue, a realistically staged fire, and the Rangers’ Song. Miss Lack, a mistress at Mitcham County Grammar School for Girls, was captain.

Threw teapot at wife
Alfred J. Stanley, of Carshalton Road, Mitcham Junction, was remanded in custody for a fortnight for a medical report after his wife, Edna May Stanley, said he had thrown an iron, then a teapot, a jug of milk and cups and saucers at her while she was getting a meal on 6 July, and later a cup of hot coffee. He denied assault. A probation officer told Mitcham magistrates there had been a deterioration in his health.

Won three cups at first attempt
Although he had never entered such a competition before, Mr L. Bateman of Chestnut Grove, Mitcham, won the three major awards at the first summer show of the Pollards Hill Horticultural Association: the Robert Carr cup for flowers, the Tom Fitzgibbons cup for vegetables, and the Founders’ Committee cup for the highest aggregate. The Mayor, Coun. A. C. Prestage, presented them. There were about 400 exhibits from some 120 members. Mr E. P. Donnelly, superintendent of open spaces, judged the flowers and vegetables with his foreman, Mr A. J. Freeman.

Emphasis on safe driving
Road Safety Week starts on Saturday
Mitcham’s Road Safety Week was to open on Saturday with a rally on careful driving. Posters went up through the borough, and heads of schools were asked to talk to children. On the Wednesday the junior road-safety council was to meet outside the Town Hall. Mr R. Burroughs, the safety organiser, said the holiday week had been chosen on purpose. Observers from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the police were to watch how people used the roads.

CALL FOR CUT IN STAFF
County council’s liabilities
With liabilities £337,000 over the estimates and a further rise in the county rate in prospect, Surrey’s Finance Committee asked every department to aim at a 5 per cent. cut in central and divisional office staff by the end of the financial year, mainly by not filling vacancies.

CLOTHES STOLEN
Thieves took property valued at £5 10s., including two jackets and handbags, from the home of Mr Arthur James Rushton in Franklin Crescent, Mitcham, after entering by a front window. An overcoat, a wallet and a bottle of sherry, together worth £4 10s., were taken from the home of Mr Alfred George Whitehead in Tamworth Lane the same night.

WATCH THAT WAS LOST
Owner saw youth wearing it
Mrs Ivy Lily Smith, of Seaton Road, Mitcham, a mother of nine, pleaded guilty at Mitcham to stealing by finding a wristwatch valued at £2. James Payne had lost it on the Cricket Green. She said she sold it for 6s. 6d. She was discharged conditionally.

WIFE DENIES ASSAULT STORY
Said to have thrown chips at husband
Sydney John Webb, of Manor Road, summoned his wife Minnie Amelia Webb for assault, saying that on the evening of 10 July she threw a handful of chips at him while he was cooking. She denied it. Wallington magistrates had already bound both of them over in May to keep the peace. The new summons was dismissed, and the binding over left in force.

Too long at school?
Scholars who cause bottlenecks
County Councillor Mrs M. F. Ashton, speaking to the Wallington Central Ward ratepayers, said some pupils staying on after 16 caused bottlenecks in grammar schools. She thought a boy or girl should stay only while they would benefit, and noted that many who stayed on still did not reach a higher certificate or a university.

TO ALLEVIATE FLOODING
The Long Thornton and Tamworth Residents’ Association complained of winter flooding in the Grove Road area. The borough engineer, Mr Riley Schofield, replied with details of work proposed to relieve it.

FOUND DEAD IN RIVER
The body of a 64-year-old man from the Hatch district was found in about two feet of water in the Wandle near Culvers Avenue, Carshalton, on Sunday morning. He had last been seen on Saturday evening when he went out in his car. There was no suspicion of foul play. The surname in the report is not clear enough to repeat.

Thursday 11 September 1952

OARSMAN DROWNED IN THAMES ACCIDENT
‘No evidence of negligence’
A verdict of accidental death was returned at Kingston on Daniel Ivor Tibble, 18, an apprentice draughtsman of Christchurch Road, Colliers Wood, who was drowned in the Thames at Barnes on 27 August when a rowing four capsized. The deputy coroner, Mr S. Thompson, said there was no evidence of negligence by the masters of a tug and a steamer, or by the other members of the four. A brother, Reginald Arthur Tibble of Andersens Gardens, said Daniel had been a good oarsman. The cox, Kenneth Armitage of Haworth, master of the Royalty, said the four was shipping water and that he stopped the engine.

Stopped after leaving store
Woman denies theft of cardigan
Mrs Blanche Draper, of Winchcombe Road, Carshalton, denied stealing a cardigan, valued at about 16s. 11d., from a store. A supervisor, Mrs Violet Redford, said she was stopped after leaving. Mrs Draper, a waitress, said a strange woman in the shop had pushed the cardigan into her bag. The case was before the Sutton magistrates.

He deserted in 1945
Gunner sentenced to two years’ detention
Gunner Charles Hudson, 39, of Mellison Road, Tooting, was found guilty at a Woolwich court-martial of deserting the Army at Shoeburyness on 3 January 1945, and was sentenced to two years’ detention, subject to confirmation. His wife, Mary Hudson, said she had pleaded with him to overstay his leave in December 1944 after yet another bombing of their home. He told the court he had meant to go back but was afraid, and that he had since kept a fruit and vegetable round. The president, Major C. Murray-Brown, asked if he meant he had been a barrow boy, and told him not to be ashamed of it.

THIS PICTURE of one of the new flats
A photograph showed one of the new flats built by Beddington and Wallington Council, with Mrs Rose Marsh, who had just moved in, hanging curtains at the glass door of the dining room.

THIS CLEVER DISPLAY
Tring’s (Mitcham) Ltd, the sports outfitters and radio and television firm of Monarch Parade, took first prize in the window-dressing contest of Mitcham Shopping Week.

Thursday 2 October 1952

Council clerk for 23 years
Many tributes to Mr. J. W. Wright
Carshalton Council paid tribute to its clerk, Mr J. W. Wright, who was retiring after 23 years in the office. Coun. FitzGibbon said he had carried the democratic system into the life of the town, and Coun. C. H. Davies, for the Labour group, said he had put Carshalton before everything else. Mr Wright said he had started at 14 as an office boy in Worksop, came to Carshalton as assistant clerk in 1921 and became clerk in 1929. His successor was the deputy clerk, Mr C. H. Durrant. He and Mrs Wright had a son, G. B. Wright, a London solicitor, and twin daughters.

EXTRA GRANT FOR HOUSES
Ravensbury estate
The Government grant for non-traditional houses on the Ravensbury estate, previously limited, was increased after the council pressed for the higher rate.

JOY-RIDING IN THE LIFTS
Complaints at Elm Nursery
Youngsters joy-riding in the lifts on the Elm Nursery estate, London Road, Mitcham, were raised at the tenants’ association. The association, formed four months earlier, claimed a membership of 98 per cent. of the tenants and said it had already made some progress with complaints to the council.

GUARDING AGAINST RISK OF ACCIDENT
The borough librarian, Mr E. J. Adsett, warned the Library Committee that the lantern slides could be damaged by accident. He was authorised to spend £40, including storage cases, on protecting them.

FEARS FOR FUTURE IN TRANSPORT INDUSTRY
Trade unionists fighting denationalisation
Mr E. Martin, secretary of Mitcham Trades Council, told delegates that if the Government’s denationalisation Bill became law, wages and conditions on the buses and lorries would slip back to pre-war days. Only 15 people had turned up to a recent protest meeting at the Labour Hall. A local bus conductor said workers were not apathetic. The chairman, Mr W. Hayes, urged every branch to get the petition signed. Mr G. H. Bateman, of the Town Hall staff, had been appointed civil defence officer; 192 people were enrolled in the Mitcham corps.

Flats, cafe, museum?
Council’s plans for The Oaks mansion
Carshalton Council approved a plan to turn The Oaks into four flats, two of them three-bedroom, with seven other rooms for letting to local organisations, catering and a possible museum. Reports from the Royal Fine Art Commission, the National Trust and others had said the house, apart from a late-19th-century kitchen wing, was worth preserving, but no outside money had been offered. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government had also approved the use of land near Mitcham Court as a site for an old people’s club hut, on a 21-year lease.

FOR LYNMOUTH
The Wallington Women’s Co-operative Guild sent £2 to Coun. J. Buttle, a former president of the South Suburban Co-operative Society now living at Lynton, for the Lynmouth flood relief funds.

A park is in his care
Mr George Finch, 50, had been 26 years with Mitcham Council and was gardener and charge-hand at Tamworth Farm recreation ground. His first job, in the days before a separate parks department, was mowing Figges Marsh; he then drove for the council until about three years earlier. Born in Phipps Bridge Road of an old Mitcham family, he joined the Army under age and served until 1926, starting with the council a week after his discharge. He lived in Sibthorp Road.

No records of meals
Cafe proprietress fined
Mrs Hudd, proprietress of the Rookery Cafe, Manor Road, Mitcham, was fined at Wallington: £2 for failing to keep accurate records of meals served and £3, with two guineas costs, for recklessly making a false statement. An enforcement officer worked out that the takings she described should have been about £104 16s. 5d.; the recorded figure was £48 4s. 4d. She said her husband had kept the books while she was away from the business for two years.

DEFAULTERS WARNED
The South Eastern Electricity Consultative Council did not object to standard charges for special meter readings and for reconnection after non-payment. A reading in working hours would be 5s., and reconnection 10s. The charge would not apply where a family was reconnected at the home the supply had been designed for. The secretary, Mr C. Wray, said members should tell consumers who were in difficulty before they were cut off.

MORE SITES FOR HOUSES?
Council have several in view
Beddington and Wallington Council was acquiring several housing sites: 9.2 acres by Beddington Lane; two and a half acres at Court Close and Foresters Drive; half an acre at the Hackbridge Triangle; 2.1 acres at Headley Avenue; and land adjoining Park Farm. The Air Ministry was prepared to sell Great Woodcote, and the council was also interested in land at Wallington station and in a site offered by the Croydon Corporation.

Thursday 16 October 1952

RATE TO INCREASE NEXT YEAR?
Labour ‘making no effort to reduce expenditure’
TORY COUNCILLOR’S CRITICISMS
Coun. J. H. S. Bradley told the Pollards Hill branch of the Mitcham Conservative Association that the Labour council was making no effort to cut spending and was bringing a rate increase next year into view. He objected to going on with the Fair Green scheme at about £3,600, and said more money would also be needed for new houses. Coun. Peters, member for Gorringe Park, said about £13,000 was wanted to improve lighting on main roads but the Government had allowed only about £6,000. He agreed that paint used on the Pollards Hill estate was not of the top grade, and said shoddy work should be reported.

Homes needed for elderly people
Mr Kellaway said the housing list was a poor guide to the need for old people’s dwellings: some applicants were not in need, while others were living in bad conditions and would not be accepted by a landlord. A hostel for 24 was being built at Glebelands with help from Surrey County Council and a further £6,000 from the National Corporation for the Care of Old People. The local committee hoped to raise the balance itself.

‘Nuisance to neighbours’
Noise at boot-repairing workshop
A public inquiry at Mitcham Town Hall heard whether a boot-repair workshop behind 293 Northborough Road, Pollards Hill, would harm the neighbours. The council had refused Mr P. C. Hearne permission and he had appealed. He said he had been on the plot for 24 years and that modern shoe-repairing machines were quiet. A resident of Avenue Road, through a letter read by Mr W. A. Glover for the council, said hammering went on all day, at night and sometimes on Sundays. The deputy borough engineer, Mr W. B. Wignall, said a considerable amount of noise was inevitable.

Council and Coronation
Residents ask: ‘What are the plans?’
South Mitcham residents, meeting at the Congregational Church Hall, asked what the borough meant to do to mark the Coronation in a way worthy of Mitcham. They were not satisfied that anyone at the Town Hall had yet produced a plan.

FACILITIES FOR SPORTS
Support for Pollards Hill scheme
A scheme for sports facilities on the Pollards Hill estate was supported, and a training centre in the district had been visited by councillors looking at what could be provided.

NEARLY 9,000 BELONG TO TORY ASSOCIATION
‘Too few,’ says chairman
Membership of the Mitcham and Wallington Conservative Association was 8,947 at the end of June, 353 more than the year before, Mr E. C. Trotman told members. He still called it too few, against 24,000 votes for the Conservatives in the constituency at the General Election.

Labour choose their candidate
Mr Hugh Jenkins, a trade union officer living at Upper Green, was adopted as prospective parliamentary candidate by the Mitcham Divisional Labour Party. The seat was held by Mr Robert Carr.

VILLAGE RELICS ARE FAST DISAPPEARING
New building is changing the face of Mitcham
NEW FLATS TO REPLACE GLEBE VILLAS
The paper marked the clearing of Glebe Villas in London Road, a Victorian row built by George Hills, son of a beadle of the parish, so that the Glebe estate flats could be finished. It listed other losses within living memory: Hall Place, the old causeway and timbered cottages at the Cranmer Road corner of the Cricket Green, Cranmer House, the tithe barn, and the fields that became Mitcham Park, Bramcote Avenue and Denham Crescent. A new sewer had just been laid past the Catholic church to stop the basements flooding. Mr V. Cole, a former Mayor and proprietor of Cranmer Motors Ltd, said the new Cranmer Corner would be an improvement. A photograph taken about fifty years earlier showed an alley behind The Canons, a raised footway through the centre of The Green.

X-ray tests for teaching staff
Surrey’s Secondary Education Committee decided that teachers in its boarding schools should have an annual X-ray, and that teachers entering the profession should be examined as part of their first medical, after a Ministry circular on tuberculosis. Day-school staff were to be encouraged to be examined periodically. The same approach was to be put to primary and special-school staff.

H.Q. PLAN IN THE BALANCE
South Mitcham Residents make one more effort
South Mitcham Residents’ Association made another effort to keep alive its plan for headquarters on land near Riverside Drive. Support was still short of what the building would cost.

HEAD MASTER LEAVING
Mr. Doig’s new post
Mr Doig, a Mitcham head master, was leaving to take up a new post.

Not only for war-time
Hospital Reserve needed for service now
The St Helier mobile first-aid unit of the National Hospital Service Reserve gave a demonstration at the Ministry of Health in Savile Row to launch a national appeal for women recruits. The Minister and Miss Patricia Hornsby-Smith, M.P., inspected the unit after it had dealt with staged casualties.

THERE IS A POSSIBILITY that this shelter may be moved
A photograph of a shelter on the Fair Green noted that it might be moved from the London Road end of the gardens to the Western Road end as part of the council’s reconstruction scheme. The caption said it was used mainly by the old men of the town.

TRANSPORT: TURNING BACK THE CLOCK
Labour protest against Bill for denationalisation
Mitcham Town Hall was the scene of a Labour protest against the Government’s Transport Bill. Speakers, including Mr R. Beaumont, said that handing road haulage back to private owners would mean worse wages and conditions, and that the railways would be left in a perilous position. Amendments already carried were described as a step in the right direction, but not enough.

WIFE TELLS COURT OF ATTACK BY HUSBAND
Signalman denies accusation of attempted strangling
George Frederick Newland, a railway signalman of Alice Road, Mitcham, was accused at Wallington magistrates’ court of attempting to strangle his wife Winifred at their home on 2 October. She said she was terrified. He denied it. In the same sitting the court also dealt with a maintenance case in which a wife said she had been happy for seven years before the marriage broke down.

Thursday 6 November 1952

COUNCIL DEBATE HOUSE SALES
One vote majority against approval in principle
‘4,000 HOUSES NEEDED TO RENT IN NEXT TEN YEARS’
By 17 votes to 16 Mitcham Council rejected an addendum from Ald. C. A. Norris that it approve in principle the sale of council houses and set up the machinery to do it. A voice cried “The Party whip again!” Coun. D. Fido, chairman of the Housing Committee, said every council house was let to someone who needed it and that something like 4,000 houses would be needed to rent over the next ten years. Coun. E. E. Field said tenants who could buy should have the choice, and that Mitcham had one of the highest loan debts in the county, £3,326,000. The Ministry had lifted the bar that would have kept five councillor-tenants out of the debate. Coun. E. E. Mount, himself a tenant, had withdrawn from the committee discussion.

‘Complete vindication’ for council
The Accountant General’s department wrote that an investigation of the council’s borrowing, after a query from the district auditor, Mr Ronald H. White, had found nothing wrong. The Town Clerk, Mr R. H. White, and the borough treasurer, Mr E. C. Clay, had been to the Ministry. Ald. T. L. Ruff called attacks on the council unwarranted. The same correspondence cleared the way for the Lewis Road recreation ground scheme, off Western Road, which the Ministry had held up on grounds of financial stringency.

LAND RESTRICTED
Fewer houses
Land for building in Mitcham was very tight. One site still in mind was about 35 acres of Croydon Corporation farmland; another was 11 acres of watercress beds scheduled for industry. The Housing Committee was told that if the position was explained, Croydon might release land.

1,200 sign petition for fences
Tenants on an estate where a child had been killed crossing open ground collected 1,200 signatures asking the council for fences. Mr T. Fitzgibbons said people were shocked that temporary prefabs put up three years earlier still had no proper protection from the road. The deputy borough engineer, Mr W. B. Wignall, said there was nothing in the estimates for the work.

RECONSTRUCTION PLAN FOR FAIR GREEN
£3,900 improvement scheme on western half
‘WASTE OF PUBLIC MONEY,’ SAYS ALD. EAST
The western half of the Fair Green, left out of the post-war work on the Jubilee Clock side, was to be improved at an estimated £3,900, including resiting the shelter, if loan sanction was granted. Ald. East called it a waste of public money when a roundabout might later sweep the work away, and a scandalous use of funds while other needs were greater. Coun. E. J. Mills said he could see no advantage in the scheme. The reference back was lost.

Second thoughts on recreation ground plan
The Ministry of Local Government told the council it could now carry out the reconstruction of the Lewis Road recreation ground as originally proposed. The Finance Committee recorded its satisfaction that an interview with the district auditor had cleared the council and its officers.

GIRLS TOLD TO MAKE CAREERS IN NURSING
Chance for specialising and world-wide experience
Miss M. J. Marriott, matron of the Middlesex Hospital, presented the prizes at Mitcham County School for Girls in the Baths Hall and urged more girls into nursing. The head mistress, Miss E. F. Dunn, the last member of the original staff, said the need for nurses was as permanent as the need for doctors and teachers. She reported 75 per cent. passes at advanced level and 67 per cent. at ordinary level, and 34 Royal Society of Arts certificates in the commercial sixth.

CRICKETERS CAN KEEP in practice
A photograph showed two cricketers at the indoor pitches in Mitcham Baths Hall, keeping in practice through the winter.

Footpath not to be closed
Plan to spend £200 on clearing rubbish
A plan to close a footpath and spend about £200 clearing rubbish from it was dropped after Upper Mitcham and Gorringe residents protested and the Highways Committee was warned of the legal difficulty. Coun. H. D. Peters said the committee had changed its mind because of those consequences.

COUPLE SAIL FOR AMERICA
Mr and Mrs A. E. Jenner, of Langdale Avenue, Mitcham, the builders, left on Thursday to board the Georgic at Southampton for America. They had been injured in a car accident the day before they were due to sail in August, and their son drove them to the port. They were going to their only daughter and her American husband, a former G.I. officer, at Knoxville, Tennessee, where Mr Jenner had already spent three months in the building trade and hoped to work again.

Representation of the People Act
Polling Districts
Mitcham Council published the polling districts for the borough under the Representation of the People Act, listing the areas and the polling places electors were to use.

Thursday 20 November 1952

BIG INCREASE IN HOOLIGANISM
Parents ask for more police protection at Pollards Hill
YOUTH COUNCIL’S PROPOSALS TO MEET SITUATION
Junior vigilante club to be formed
Mr Tom Baptie, the youth officer, told the East Mitcham Women’s Co-operative Guild that hooliganism at Pollards Hill had risen sharply. Gangs he believed came from outside the borough were damaging property and molesting people, and parents wanted more police. He later told the paper that youth-club members were afraid to leave home in the evening, that street lamps had been smashed with air pistols, and that house fronts had been damaged. The youth council, which had predicted trouble on the estate before it was built, proposed a junior vigilante club whose members would pledge themselves to protect their neighbours, and a further youth club besides the one already there.

Seeking to give a sense of values
Mr H. Dawe, head master of Pollards Hill county secondary school, told parents at speech day that the extra year at school was beginning to tell in character and stability, not only in examination results. The school’s aim, he said, was sound character, a sense of decency and honest behaviour towards other people.

Raid damage to be repaired
Wilson Hospital, no suggestion of closing
Repairs were to be put in hand at Wilson Hospital. Lt-Col. B. J. G. Madden, chairman of the St Helier hospital group, said there was no suggestion of closing the hospital, and that the matron still had full power to decide which beds were needed.

MANY VISITORS have called at Mitcham Town Hall
Visitors were calling at the Town Hall to see Surrey County Council’s draft development plan. Mr T. A. Bell, the town planning assistant, was explaining points on the maps.

LABOUR TAKE UP TORY CHALLENGE ON INCOME
Support from trade unions
PARTY TREASURER GIVES FACTS AND FIGURES
Mr J. Hempstead, treasurer of the Mitcham Divisional Labour Party, published the party accounts after a Conservative challenge. He said trade union contributions were a large part of the income and invited a comparison with the Conservative accounts.

Old age more pleasant now
Much done to help the elderly
A report on old people’s welfare said much more was being done than before the war to make old age bearable, through clubs, home visiting and the new hostels.

RESIDENTS DROP PLAN FOR NEW H.Q.
Not enough support for South Mitcham project
South Mitcham Residents’ Association abandoned its scheme for headquarters on land facing Sutton Road, near Riverside Drive, but not the hope of a building somewhere else later. The treasurer, Mr H. F. Gamble, told the meeting in the Congregational Church Hall that the estimate was £2,000 and that only £630 had been raised or promised after three years of appeals. The land had been offered on a 14-year lease. He called it the end of an episode, not of a chapter.

Widening of a footpath
Cannot be done, says council
Asked by the same association about widening the footpath on the east side of London Road by Manor House, the Town Clerk wrote that the Ministry of Transport would not approve the scheme because of severe restrictions on road works. Mr Ellis remarked that the council could find £3,900 for the Fair Green but not for this short stretch.

Neighbours go to law
Judge says their dispute was ‘trivial’
Mr Justice Harman, in the Chancery Division, dismissed as lamentably trivial a trespass action by Mr Roy Allan Hayes against his neighbour Cyril J. Byrne. Byrne, the tenant of the ground-floor flat, had used a side passage to paint his windows. The judge said the lease allowed him onto Hayes’s land for that purpose, and gave judgment for Byrne with costs.

THREE MEN BURNT
Three men were burnt on the face when a paraffin pressure burner exploded at Mitcham Smelting Works, Redhouse Road, Beddington, on Thursday. Mr A. G. Steptoe, of Eastfields Road, Mitcham, and the two others were allowed home after treatment at Wilson Hospital.

BACK ON THE SHOW BENCHES
Poultry exhibited for first time since ban
Poultry was back on the show benches for the first time since the ban, at a local society’s show. The Ministry of Agriculture had allowed the classes to resume.

Help in cases of illness
Nursing association funds may be used
Beddington and Wallington District Nursing Association was told it could use its funds to help in cases of illness, under a scheme then before the association.

‘POLITICAL DECISION’
Refusal to sell homes to tenants deplored
The council’s refusal to sell houses to tenants was attacked at a political meeting as a political decision rather than a housing one.

‘Nuisance and danger’
Heavy lorries parked in Baron Grove
Heavy lorries parked in Baron Grove were again called a nuisance and a danger. Residents said the vehicles blocked the narrow road for hours.

£20 betting fine
A £20 fine for a betting offence was reported.

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.