The London Forum of Amenity and Civic Societies NEWSLETTER MARCH 2019 Museum News Local History Planning and Obituaries Wimbledon Park Society Notices page 3 pages 4-5 Environment p6-7 pages 8-9 page 11 page 12 really enjoyable career since leaving Changes university, but I had always wanted to work in a museum. Unfortunately, at the I didn’t realise at the time that I needed proper qualifications! So Museum my involvement with the Museum of Wimbledon has been the icing JOHN MAYS pays tribute to the on the cake, and I have made many retiring Chairman and Vice Chairman good friends as a result.” of the Museum, and welcomes its Sheila Dunman’s family new Chairman. connections with Wimbledon go back to her great-grandfather and AT THE END OF 2018 Cassandra she was raised and educated here. Taylor, Chairman, and Sheila After graduating from university, Dunman, Deputy Chairman of the Nigel by Davies Photo she worked in the educational sector Museum Committee relinquished Cassandra Taylor and had a number of appointments their positions and Jacqueline abroad and in the UK. Laurence took over as Chairman. and edited its in-house newsletter. She first joined the Museum Cassandra Taylor has been a She has written over thirty books Committee some ten years ago as member of the Wimbledon Society on consumer, household and Curator of the Ephemera Collection, for over 40 years and a stalwart of money management, plus general and she told us: “One of the joys of the Museum Committee for more lifestyle problem solving. being the curator of Ephemera has than 20 of those years. For a time She was a reporter for Radio been in building up a social history she was the Books Curator, and also Wimbledon, a Governor of a of Wimbledon through everyday editor of the Newsletter. In 2012 leading Independent Girls Boarding items. For example, adverts in she became Vice Chairman of the School and of the Queen’s Road Wimbledon Theatre programmes Museum Committee and Chairman Montessori School. Other aspects are invaluable in recalling long lost in 2014. of her career include membership shops and local businesses. Former Cassandra’s background of Quangos, of the Electricity residents who have contributed and wide experience lie in the Consumers Committee, the Wine to national as well as local life are newspaper sector and as an author. Standard Board, the Funeral also recorded.” She was associate editor of Good Ombudsman Scheme’s Committee Sheila has participated in Housekeeping and a Director of the and two Committees in the then many of the Museum’s activities Good Housekeeping institute. Ministry of Agriculture. including a number of Exhibitions Among other things she has been a It seems that the Museum has in the Norman Plastow Gallery. She trade union official, ran the Family fulfilled a life-long dream for became Deputy Chairman of the Planning Association’s press office Cassandra, who remarked “I’ve had a Museum in 2014. (continued on p3) For the latest information, go to www.wimbledonsociety.org.uk, www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk or the Facebook page. n EDITOR’S NOTE n Wimbledon Society contacts President Tony Michael [email protected] Chairman’s Chairman Jeremy Hudson [email protected] view Deputy Chairman John Mays THE LAST THREE MONTHS of 2018 proved to be exceptionally busy for the Society and its hard-working committee members. Over 230 people visited the Hon Secretary Maureen Field Society’s “Wimbledon in the Great War” exhibition in [email protected] November, and thanks are due to Pamela Greenwood together with Sarah Gould of the Merton Heritage Hon Treasurer Corinna Edge [email protected] Service for their work in putting the successful exhibition together. Planning & Environment At the end of the year Cassandra Taylor retired Committee Secretary Liz Newman as Chairman of the Museum Education & History [email protected] Committee after five years in the role, and we are most grateful for her dedicated service. We are delighted Membership Secretary Simon Ingall [email protected] that Jacqueline Laurence has agreed to take over from her. Museum Chairman Jacqueline Laurence Members of the Planning & Environment [email protected] Committee have had an exceptionally busy Autumn. After numerous meetings with Councillors, Council Local History Michael Norman Smith officials, and representatives of other local groups, first thing in January the Society delivered its response to Subscriptions Jennifer Newman Merton’s draft “Future Wimbledon Masterplan”. As well as a detailed critique of the plan, we submitted our own alternative plan, entitled “Vision 2040” (see Website Asif Malik our website). This advocates a new pro-active approach [email protected] to planning our town centre. It focuses on increasing pedestrianisation and ‘greening’, with strict limits on Wimbledon Society Newsletter the height of new buildings. We also urged the Council Editorial team to think about establishing a concert hall/arts facility in Sally Gibbons [email protected] the centre. Nigel Davies We hope the Council will see “Vision 2040” as an Monica Ellison, Asif Malik, John Mays achievable and constructive plan to make our town Letters to the editor centre a vibrant and attractive locality once more. Please email [email protected] or write to Sally Gibbons c/o The Museum of Thanks are due to Dave Atha, and particularly to Tony Wimbledon, 22 Ridgway, SW19 4QN Michael, for their work in this regard. Printing: The Wimbledon Print Company, 257 Our Membership & Marketing Group is now hard at Haydons Road, SW19 8TY work preparing for the Society’s Dinner Dance which will take place at The Wimbledon Club on Saturday 19 Follow us on Facebook and Twitter October. You will be hearing a lot more about this in www.facebook.com/TheWimbledonSociety @wimsoc the coming months. It promises to be a very enjoyable social occasion as well as a fund-raising opportunity, The name of the Wimbledon Society or that of the Museum of and I hope it will be well-supported by the membership. Wimbledon must never be used to promote personal activities or written work without written permission from the Society. And finally, please note that the Society’s AGM will The articles and photos in this newsletter are copyright of those take place at the Parish Hall, Sacred Heart Church, credited or, where no credit exists, of The Wimbledon Society. No part Edge Hill on Saturday 11 May, starting at 5pm. Do of this newsletter can be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of the copyright holder. come if you can. JEREMY HUDSON 2 n MUSEUM NEWS n Return of the Biscuit Brake A ‘BRAKE’ OR ‘BREAK’ is a table for making crisp beaten biscuits, like ships biscuits, or the fine-textured dough needed for a stamped design. This labour-intensive process involved pounding the dough for hours, at a basic level with the cook’s forearm or a wooden bat. Bakeries used brakes from the 15th century onwards. Unwanted wooden brakes probably became firewood, especially from the mid- & Smith Ltd Plowden Copyright Wimbledon Museum of Copyright 19th century onwards when they The Biscuit Brake after conservation on a temporary plinth (above left); Artefacts curator were replaced by machines with Sarah Kirkham AMA examines the Biscuit Brake in the Museum (above right) mechanised rollers. There is a wooden biscuit brake years old from Wallis’s Bakery, later in actual use. Within living memory the on display in the Museum donated Masons, late ‘The Carlton’ (with Royal Wimbledon Brake was used for making in 1925 by Anna Louise Radclyffe Arms of George IV) and now Carlton- of three or four kinds of biscuit – each (LDWIM 1925.21.1). Now about 300 Johnston, No. 40 High Street. The Brake biscuit punched out by hand from the years old, it was suffering from is half the circumference of a big tree dough on the board – not like the mass- age and damage, so recently it trunk. A long wooden arm hinged to production by the machinery of today. was conserved and set on a plinth the straight edge worked the dough all We have been searching for some by Plowden & Smith Ltd. Perhaps round the crescent over which the arm time to see if there is another brake it is now unique? It is certainly projected. An apprentice boy would add similar to ours. If anyone knows extremely rare. his weight by sitting or jumping up and of the existence of one like it, or Margaret Grant, the Museum’s down on the end of the arm…The feet were should come across one, please first curator, wrote in 1953: sunk into the floor of the bakery I visited contact the Museum. Bread and Biscuit Brake about 230 (1925) in Leith to see such a Brake still PAMELA GREENWOOD Museum changes (contd from p1) herself as “Devoted to the Museum; Jacqueline Laurence has had I love being Photographs Curator, a distinguished career. She took and I am tremendously proud now a first-class degree in History at to have this wonderful new role”. Trinity College Oxford and became The vacancy for Deputy a barrister after studying Law at Chairman will be filled in due City University and the Inns of course. Court School of Law. She practised On behalf of the whole Society as a barrister for fourteen years, but the Chairman and Board would became a full-time mother when like to express their gratitude to her daughter was born in 2001. Cassandra and Sheila for all their Jacqueline has been a Volunteer years of hard work and diligent at the Sir John Soane’s Museum Nigel by Davies Photo service to the Museum.