THORNTON HEATH: AN INTRODUCTORY OVERVIEW

Up until the arrival of the railway in 1862 today’s Thornton Heath area was largely rural with a small population. By 1911 it had been transformed into an urban suburb. Today’s concept of the area is smaller than in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Late Medieval and Tudor Thornton Heath

Thornton Heath was originally the area around the Pond. It comprised 36 acres of heath land running south down the London-Sussex Road. The local residents had common law rights to graze livestock. It was part of the manor of Norbury. This Manor was rented from the Archbishop of Canterbury by Nicholas Carew of Beddington from the 1370s until confiscation under Henry VIII, but later returned to the family.

Colliers Water Lane was a trackway mainly used by the ‘colliers’ or charcoal burners up to the end of the 18thC, collecting water from the pond by the London-Sussex road and Norbury Brook to ‘dampen their kilns ‘ on the Norwood slopes. Originally it linked the Whitehorse Farm area to the London Road. By the 17thC a tiny settlement of cottages had developed around the Pond. Lilac Cottage in Colliers Water Lane was built in the 17thC, and was demolished in the 1920s. Whitehorse Road started as a track between Croydon and Norwood Commons. It had one cottage ‘Whitehorse’ which became 'Elm House', and Whitehorse farmhouse.

A plot of land at the Pond became known as Hangman's Acre with gallows portrayed maps from 1675, and as Gallows Green on maps from 1690.

The London-Sussex road was improved enough for Daniel Defoe to write in the 1720s: "the great Sussex road, which was formerly insufferably bad, is now become admirably good; and this is done at so great an expense, that they told me at Strettham, that 1 mile between the two next bridges south of that town (Thornton Heath) cost a thousand pounds repairing… the materials are very near hand, and very good all the way to Croydon’.

The area saw highwaymen operating against travellers between London and Sussex. There are stories that Dick Turpin used the cottage where his aunt lived. This may have been the same cottage that John Gilpin had lived in. The gallows at the Pond on Hangman's Acre/Gallows Green saw many executions. John Sculthorpe in August 1720, six highwaymen (including Butler, Fox, William Malker, Edward Wilson and Richard Bird) in March 1722 and four highwaymen in April 1723. One ‘man escaped death when the noose broke and he ran off through Thornton Heath’.

The Wheatsheaf coaching inn was built at the Pond in the mid-18th century. It also provided accommodation for court hearings and cells in connection with the trials of people executed on the Green.

1800 to 1862

As a result of enclosures of Croydon common land in 1797 the heathland was turned into cultivatable farmland, and the wooded area was reduced in size. As freeholders of the enclosed land the owners had the right to grant building leases. As a result by 1818, the "hamlet" around the Pond had become a village with between 65 and 68 houses. In the caption to an engraving of one of these, a villa, in 1817, the area was described as "a rural bijoux". Thirteen years later William Cobbett commented that ‘London to Croydon is as ugly a bit of country as any in England’.

The pace of building development in the area in the 1850s was slow, possibly due to demand being lowered by the publicity given to the Parliamentary inquiry into Croydon’s drainage in 1853. It found that the Thornton Heath district had a higher than average mortality rate of 28.1 per 1000 in 1848. A report to the Board of Guardians that year stated: "the whole of the houses

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of Thornton Heath has no drainage, and cesspools contain the vilest compounds". Complaints were made by Thornton Heath residents that Croydon's effluvia was being directed toward them.

Development opportunities were being seen in the main part of modern Thornton Heath. The Englishman’s Freehold Land Society obtained drainage permission in 1854. The key to development was to build a road from the Pond along Collier's Water Lane to the new development its junction with Parchmore Lane but retaining the two farms at that junction.

The Pond Area From 1887

In 1887 Thornton Heath residents funded an ornamental fountain which was built in the middle of the Pond. As the Pond was not fenced round, there were traffic accidents including a mail coach running into the pond during fog. Later it was fenced and in 1897 a fountain was placed in the middle to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Thornton Heath also benefited from the development of the Croydon tram system. The tram headquarters was near Pond, where the modern bus garage is. At first from 1879 the trams were pulled by horses and terminated at the junction of Thornton Heath High Street and Whitehorse Road.

1900 to 1914

The new century started badly. The Council organised a carnival to celebrate it and to raise funds for the Croydon Hospital (situated in Thornton Heath).The district was not invited to take part as its own entity. Angry residents organised their own carnival in June raising more money towards the Hospital Fund than the official carnival. Shortly afterwards having visited the Hospital Princess Christian toured the district which was praised in the national press. The residents and the Council co-operated in raising equal sums of money to build the Clock Tower on Walker’s Green, and the Council purchased Grange Wood for £22,000.

In 1901, the first electric tram outside the London County Council area ran between Thornton Heath Pond and Norbury.

Motor buses were introduced between Thornton Heath and Croydon in 1905. In 1909 the tramway system was extended allowing access to the LCC network.

Sale of Grove Estate 1908

On 13 July the Grove Estate along London Rd northwards from the Pond was sold at auction. The whole estate covered 27 acres. The auction sales brochure states ‘The Land is Ripe for Immediate Development’. It specified that further frontages amounting to 7,604 ft would be available for the erection of villa residences.

The frontage comprised 365-387 London Rd, the houses being named Fawley, Homefield, Westholme, Mayridge, Silchester Lodge, Carrickbawn, Hambledown, Woodcote and Stanmore. Fawley was 3 bedroom, with drawing and dining rooms, and offices, front and back gardens let to W. E. Allen. It had stabling and a paddock with access from Willett Rd. It was let to Bean’s Express. Homefield was 6 bedrooms with stabling let to Mrs Marzetti. Westholme was similar and had a tennis lawn, let to F. C. Evans. Mayridge was let to Mrs Wagstaff, Silchester Lodge to W. J. Martin, Carrickbawn (5 bed) to F. H. Wagstaff. Hambledown, Woodcote and Stamore were all 6 bedroom. Hambledown had a garage for two cars, let to B. C. Wootton. Woodcote was let to A. W. Doen and Stanmore to J. Leete. Some of these properties included tennis lawns. Then there was Grove House the grounds of which ran behind the next row of London Rd houses. Behind the frontage lay The Grange House and its grounds and then Silverleigh House.

The Grove comprised a driveway, 2 floors with 8 bedrooms, a living, dining, drawing and morning rooms, a bathroom, billiard room, and a conservatory. There were two other rooms and a domestic office. Separate from the house was stabling, a coach house, harness room, and a loft with three living rooms. There were also farm buildings and an entrance lodge with three rooms. The grounds comprised lawns, a kitchen garden, greenhouse, meadow and woodland.

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Silverleigh House was reached by a long avenue. It also comprised two floors with 10 bedrooms, a bathroom, a housemaids closet and linen cupboards, a hall, drawing room, dining, library, morning rooms, a back hall, a cloak room and domestic offices. Stabling and a coach house included a harness room, a yard and three living rooms. The garden are had a greenhouse, potting shed and poultry house, tennis and croquet lawns, a kitchen garden, woodland walks and grassland. This was let to H. C. Lambert.

The Grange had 7 bedrooms, but similar internal facilities, plus laundry, coal shed and yard, stabling and a garage, lawns and flower beds, woodland walks, a kitchen garden, greenhouse and paddock with a tennis lawn. This was let to E. H. Parry. Whitethorne House, which was accessed from Thornton Rd, was a 5 bedroom property. It also had a stable, a lawn, flower beds, fruit and rose trees and 2 glasshouses. It was let to H. O. Tarrant.

The original Thornton Heath Library became too small so there were plans to build a new one in Brigstock Rd. Andrew Carnegie, the library philanropist, offered the funds and it was opened on 8 July 1914.

The World War period 1914-1945

By the start of the First World War in August 1914 the area along both sides of the London Rd had been largely developed and there had been substantial development in the area around the Station and along Brigstock Rd.

Following planning permission in December 1923 the Grove estate, was redeveloped creating Ashley Road, Grove Road, Kirklees Road, Fairlands Avenue, and Sycamore Way, and extending Goldwell and Blakemore Roads. Goldwell Road, which had been laid out in 1905 from Galpin’s Rd to just past Leander Rd, was extended into the Grove estate in 1923 along the avenue that that connected Silverleigh House to London Road. With the houses on the London Rd stretch of the Grove Estate being demolished Thornton Heath School in Grove House moved into Silverleigh in 1927, but did not stay there long. Silverleigh was demolished in 1935.

The 1920s saw the demolition of two white painted houses, with wide gravel drives for the carriages, stripped awnings over low flights of steps, and gardens, between Brigstock Road and Malvern Road. The Limes Parade of shops was built, named after one of the houses. One of the businesses that moved into it was Smorthwaite’s bakery, when his shop building was demolished to build premises for the National Provincial Bank. The name of the Croydon Union Infirmary was changed to Mayday Road Hospital in 1923. When it came under the control of Croydon Council in 1932 it was renamed Mayday Hospital. It contained 4 blocks of 96 patients each, five wards of 35 beds, a 20 bed maternity block and two blocks for 26 children.

The Second half of the 20th Century

Mayday Hospital was handed over to the National Health Service when it was started in 1948.

In 1949 the trams were replaced by motor buses. The depot was demolished and the present day bus garage premises opened in January 1950. The last tram ran in April 1951.

On 22 May 1964 mods and rockers had pitched battles at the Swan and Sugar and at Thornton Heath Pond.

From 1969 the facilities of Mayday Hospital began to enlarged along London Rd from Crossland Road to just south of Kingswood Avenue. In 1975 Bill Pitt, the MP presented a petition about the number of vehicles and lack of crossings at the Pond. The Library was refurbished in 1988. The Jubilee Wing of Mayday Hospital was opened in December 2004. In August 2010 the name was changed to The Croydon University Hospital.

Extracted from Sean Creighton. THORNTON HEATH HISTORY. An Introductory Overview; Community & political organisation 1901-1911; Robert Applegarth, trade union leader and engineer 1834 – 1924. History & Social Action Publications. 2018.

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The Weller Estate

Canterbury and Stanley Rds which run off London Rd, and Boston Rd and Canterbury Villas on London Rd were developed on the land and site of Weller House which was demolished in 1851.

This property and land had been owned by Edward Weller, a publican. He died in 1844 leaving it to his doctor Dr Daniel Peacock Wildbore. The will was unsuccessfully contested by Weller’s widow. Wildbore was living at the House in 1849 but moved back to Shoreditch where he had previously lived. The estate of properties that was developed was named the Wildbore Estate. Wildbore School was built in Boston Rd. The road running own from the Mitre pub to Mitcham Rd was listed as Wildbore’s Lane until 1900 when it was replaced by Sutherland Rd. In the 1860s there was the Wild Boar pub in Stanley Rd. York Rd was named Weller Rd until the 1870s.

Edward Weller became rich on gin. As a result he was able to buy land and property in London, including The Grapes in Old St. Around 1825 he bought a large estate fronting on London Rd and built Weller House. He travelled around in a four horse coach with a coat of arms with the Latin motto reading ‘Gin bought it, who’d have thought it’.

When Weller died in 1844 he was buried in South London (now West Norwood) Cemetery. He left £200 for Richard Puplett, who worked for the Croydon firm of Inkman, to drive the body to the Cemetery. Williamson wonders whether Puplett had been the coachman previously employed by Weller before eloping with the latter’s daughter .

Weller’s wife Elizabeth (Betsy) seems to have had to put up with a lot as a result of Weller’s drinking. She tried to have him declared unfit to manage his affairs on the grounds that he was frequently dunk and mentally incapable. They separated, she lived at Weller House while Edward returned to the Grapes.

Weller appointed Wildbore and Rev. Robert Lovelace Hill of Helmet Row, the curate of the Parish of Saint Luke Hill as his executors, leaving them in charge of his leasehold Grapes public house and attached house and sell them after his death and after paying debts and expenses invest the remainder in public funds or stocks and shares. The interest was to be given to his daughter Mary, the wife of John Loom.

When he separated from Betsy he had to leave her an annuity of £150 a year. Under the will this was to be met by the executors from his freehold public house and premises in New Castle St, Strand and the adjoining two houses and premises which he had purchased from Edward Calvert, a brewer.

Notes:

(1) This summary is based on notes made by former Local Archives officer Colin Williamson in 2002 and included in the Broad Green Local History Pack, as a result of some work he undertook to assist a friend of mine who is a descendent of Wildbore, with some extra research I undertook.

(2) John Corbet Anderson included details about Weller in A Short Chronicle Concerning the Parish of Croydon in the County of Surrey – Past Topography.

(3) Ancestry records that Wildbore was born in 1794 and died in 1878. He is listed in the 1845 list of Fellows of the Royal Society of Surgeons. He listed as living in Broad Green in 1849 in E. Daw & Cos Court Guide and Directory of Croydon 1849 lists

(4) He was Chairman of the Guardians of the Poor of the Parish of St Luke, Middlesex, where his sons were born, who wrote a letter about the death of Martin Molly in the workhouse, which was included in the Accounts and Papers – Poor Parliamentary Papers of 1841.

(5) A financial transaction Wildbore was involved in was cited in a case of an insolvent in a Court Case in March 1832 (A Treatise upon the Law and Practice of the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors. With an appendix, containing the Acts of Parliament, the rules of court, &c. Henry Butterworth. 1839. p. 221

Sean Creighton

April 2020. [email protected] 4