Ravensbury Park

The Building Exploratory HERITAGE THEME: PARKS & MARKET GARDENING RAVENSBURY PARK Image Courtesy of: Peter Briggs TREASURE DESCRIPTION: The River Wandle runs through the southern end of this 6.68 open space which was part of an important 17th and 18th Centuries industrial area. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE The Park is what remains of the Ravensbury Park The large open space in the Park has traces of Estate which can be traced back to the Manor of parallel water courses dug 300 years ago to cre- Ravensbury in the Middle Ages. Fragments of the ate the calico bleaching grounds. 18th Century Ravensbury House, parts of which it is believed dated back to those earlier times, are Some trees planted mid-18th Century can be seen all that remain of this once grand house, though in the Park, including a 30m tall London Plane. illustrations do exist. Ravensbury Mill (another Wandle Treasure) is sit- A calico and printing works were situated close to uated at the Morden Road end of the Park. the River and existed from the late 17th Century until it closed in the 1860s. All that remains of the works is a red brick wall running parallel to the River and can be clearly seen. VOLUNTEER REFLECTIONS Without the river the Park would not be particularly attractive but the opportunity to be able to walk along what appears to be the widest part of the whole river is worth while. RAVENSBURY PARK SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE In the early 18th Century Peter Mauvillain a prominent Huguenot industrialist employed over 200 people at his Wandsworth and Mit- cham (Ravensbury) factories. The work would have included highly skilled pattern design, block cutting, printing, and dyeing. By the mid-18th Century John Arbuthnott had taken on the print works and Ravensbury House on a long lease from Sir Nicholas Carew. Later the House was occupied for a short while by Ad- miral Marriott Arbuthnott who served during the American War of Independence as commander of the North American station. Image Courtesy of: Peter Briggs Between 1800 and 1860 there were a number of occupants of the House until the last ones left in the 1860s at about the same time as the firm Dempsey and Heard, running a shawl printing process at the print works, collapsed. The print works had been operating also during this peri- od with William Fenning and Edward Walmesly being two long-serving operators. VOLUNTEER REFLECTIONS The Park retains a reminder that George Bidder, a prominent Victorian engi- this area of Mitcham and Morden neer, purchased the House and surrounding was once open land through which parkland in 1855. The print works were sold in the Wandle flowed supporting the 1875 to Gilliat Hatfeild, the owner of Morden important textile printing industry Hall. and fine homes and estates. Mitcham, Merton and Morden Councils purchased the land that comprises Ravensbury Park while the print works buildings were purchased in the 1940s so that the housing estate that can been seen over the old wall could be built. References: Ravensbury Manor House and Park – Merton Historical Society The Historic River Wandle 3. Ravensbury to Mill Green – Merton Historical Society An Hour Passed at Ravensbury Park – Wandle Industrial Museum Montague, E N Ravensbury – Merton Historical Society Micro sites.merton.gov.uk sheet_huguenots in the Wandle Photo archive.merton.gov.uk tombstone of Peter Mauvillainpp Merton.gov.uk Ravensbury Park George Parker Bidder: Devonperspectives.co.uk.

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