The History of Wandsworth Common

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Common People

COMMON PEOPLE

[NB This listing is restricted to people active (pro-or contra-) in the C19 preservation and conservation movements.]

— Years - 1870

— John Buckmaster

— Buckmaster - posters

— Buckmaster - Wrigsby

[A great variety of strategies were attempted to preserve Wandsworth Common, including letters and petitions, meetings, mass demonstrations, fence-breaking, court cases...

[e.g. .to raise pubic awareness of the importance of the Common, and what would be lost if Earl Spencer sold it all - including loss of space for sport, such as cricket - And to secure a durable legal arrangement which would not be subject to the ... whims of Spencer... or need to make money etc ]

Preservation of Wandsworth Common poster, published between February and June 1870

The prospect of doing legal battle with Earl Spencer implied a lot of money had to be raised (Spencer's wealth and influence appearing to make him unassailable).

Spencer appears to have wanted to avoid any court cases that could potentially could restrict his "right" to dispose of the Commons as he saw fit. John Buckmaster, for example, tried to provoke him many times - for example by asserting his right to use ancient paths across the Common, which meant breaking down new fences barring the way - but without success.

But Henry Peek MP (of the family who owned biscuit-makers Peek, Frean and Co.) conceived a plan that was expected to force Spencer to come to court. Peek, who lived in Wimbledon and had been active in the parallel campaign to save the Common there, offered £1000 if local people could find another £4000. But time was tight:

Peek was a "Battersea copyholder", meaning (he assumed) that he had certain rights over common land in the manor of Battersea, which he believed Spencer, as lord of the manor, was violating. This Peek believed gave him the right to challenge Spencer's progressive erosion of the Common in court.

For reasons I have not got completely clear in my head, it turned out he did not. Fortunately, the Preservation movement was able to move quickly in a different, and successful direction. The Wandsworth Common Act came into law in July the following year.]

"To the Working Men and others..."

(Click on image to enlarge)

PRESERVATION OF WANDSWORTH COMMON.

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To the Working Men and others of Battersea, Wandsworth, Lambeth, and other parts of South and West London.

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The preservation of Wandsworth Common for the purposes of healthful recreation and enjoyment, is a question of the greatest importance to the Working Men of this District.

The present condition of a large portion of this Common, the unsightly holes and heaps of rubbish in various parts, the ENCLOSURES which have been made, and the character of the buildings erected on portions of such enclosures, give some idea of the future uses to which the remainder of the Common will probably be applied unless a stop is put to further encroachments.

The agents of the present Lord of the Manor appear to act as if the Common were private property, instead of being common land. For a long time, thousands of people have been lamenting and grumbling about the gradual reduction in the size of the Common, but this does of course not stop it.

Now, however, Mr. H. W. PEEK, M.P., has come forward as the Champion of the Common, and has made a very spirited offer in the following letter, dated February 7th 1870, addressed to Mr. Buckmaster:

"The public may grumble as much as they please, that will never stop encroachments or enclosures. What I have been thinking of is this; round Clapham Common there are many wealthy gentlemen, some of whom are " beginning to be alarmed at Lord Spencer declining to renew the lease of that part which belongs to him - and in the neighbourhood of Wandsworth there aro many well-to-do people.

"If these will pay £4,000 into a bank, I will add £1,000, and as a Battersea copyholder, would at once commence proceedings to take up everything irregular during the legal term, which I believe is 20 years.

"I will hold myself bound to this offer till June, 1870, but no longer."

In consequence of this letter, the following Committee has been organized for collecting the sum specified, viz.:

Treasurers:

Mr. JAMES LORD, St. John's Hill

Mr. C. LAMBERT, Wandsworth Common

Secretaries:

Mr. J. C. BUCKMASTER, St. John's Hill

Mr. BICKERDIKE, Elm Terrace, St. John's Hill

Mr. C. ECCLES, Lavender Sweep

Mr. F. BERTOLACCI, Park Road

Mr. CUMMINS, Nightingale Lane

Mr. WARRINGTON, ditto

Mr. G. JENNINGS, ditto

Mr. J. ROSE, Nightingale Lane

Mr. TOM TAYLOR, Lavender Sweep

Mr. H. WHITING. Lavender Hill

Mr. M. WHITING, ditto

Mr. E. R. RANSOME, Wandsworth Common

Mr. MILLIS COVENTRY, ditto

Mr. CONDER, Park Road

Mr. BASS, Battersea

Mr. OULDS, 25, Lavender Road

Mr. HUNTER, Louvaine Road

Mr. N. SENIOR, Lavender Hill

Mr. GREVALLE, Lavender Hill

A number of influential gentlemen have already promised sums varying from £25 to £100 each, but as the amount to be raised is considerable, and as the Common is if anything more valuable to Working Men than it is to those who have private grounds and gardens of their own, this appeal is made to you, to assist as much as may be possible, and that without loss of time.

You should at once make arrangements in your respective factories and localities, for paying weekly subscriptions to some one of your number, or employers, until the time comes for handing the amount over to the Treasurers.

If you wish to see the 150 acres of Common yet left, preserved for the enjoyment of yourselves and your children, you must lose no time:

You see the date named in the terms of Mr. PEEK'S offer!

Now let us show him that we are willing to meet him in the same patriotic spirit, and when the victory has been won, you will have both pleasure and pride in the thought that you helped, according to your ability, in preserving the Common for the benefit of yourselves and those who come after you.

We must all pull together - and may you long enjoy, in your spare time and holidays, the pleasure of breathing the pure air of UNENCLOSED WANDSWORTH COMMON!

Who signed?

— Barchard Family — and the defence of WC — 1827 [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

— Barchard family

— Bevington family (James, Geoffrey, Samuel).

— Bolingbroke / St John family — lords of the manor

— John Buckmaster and family &mdash including Stanley Owen Buckmaster.

— Andrew Cameron — local politician

— Alexander and ? Champion — the "Father of British Whaling" and his daughter - local residents

[Wikipedia: John Erskine Clarke — clergyman]

— [forename] Compton-Smith — Plough Green encloser

— Revd John Conder and family — headteacher

— AA Corsellis and family — solicitor for local vestry, board of works etc. Family became major property owners and developers.

— John Costeker and family — Plough Green encloser

— Mary Coventry [nee Bevington] — [Geoffrey Bevington's aunt?] — married Millis Coventry, Fernside.

— Du Buisson family

— Peter Le Neve Foster (and son Clement) — RSA, photographer etc [was he involved?]

— James Lord

— McKellar family

— Edwin Rayner Ransome — Quaker — campaigner

— James and William Anderson Rose &mdash James Anderson Rose< (lawyer, art collector, campaigner), William (MP and Lord Mayor of London).

— Bolingbroke / St John family — lords of the manor

Sir Henry Peek [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

— Tom Taylor — author — playwright — editor [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

George Fergusson Wilson and the The Wilson family (Price's Candle Works and The Black Sea/Spencer Park) [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

Below is the OLD listing, now moved to People, but with involved people moved out...

— Amelia Alfrey [Alfery, Alfred] and family

— John Archer

— Batstone family

— PY Betts — author

— Ernest Bevin — MP

— Louisa Sarah Bevington — Anarchist essayist, propagandist and poet [Geoffrey Bevington's cousin]

— Jack Black — Queen Victoria's ratcatcher

— Sergeant John Breeze — 11th Hussars — Charge of the Light Brigade

— George Brudenell Bruce

— John Burns — politician

— Lewis Carroll — logician, author, photographer

— Angela Carter — author

— Charlotte Cooper (nee Lee) — world-famous "Gypsy beauty". And her husband — the pugilist Thomas (or Jack) Cooper.

— ? Johnson Da Silva — Burntwood House

— Hugh Welch Diamond ( 1809—21 June 1886) — psychiatrist, photographer

— ? Dorrett and Paul Martin

— Duval family — suffrage activists — names

— Ron Elam — local historian and postcard collector

— Gus Elen — comedian

— Edmund Fisher — local boy killed in WWI

— Leonora Kathleen Green (1901-1966) — artist

— Francis Grose — soldier, antiquary, artist

— Francis Grose and Samuel Hieronymus Grimm — the former an antiquary — lived North Side — the latter a topographical illustrator who drew fine images of the Common in the mid-C18.

— Thomas Hardy

— John Helston — poet and novelist

— Octavia Hill — campaigner

— Holloway Brothers — builders and developers. Bernard Holloway died in WWI.

— Hudson family — Hilda Phoebe Hudson and Ronald Hudson — mathematicians

— Arthur Hughes — Pre-Raphaelite artist

— Pamela Hansford Johnson — author

— Kalulu and Henry Morton Stanley

— Dan Leno

— "Lord Fitroy Lennox" — the Battersea Claimant

— David Lloyd-George

— Lovegrove family — Bolingbroke Grove

— Gideon Mantell

— Henry Mayhew

— The Moseley and Nottidge families

— Neal family — nurserymen — contractors

— Shirley Passmore — historian of Wandsworth Common — campaigner

— Endymion Porter and descendants — lords of Allfarthing manor

— Beatrix Potter

— Potter family — landowners — Wandsworth Common

— Arthur Rackham — artist

— Tom Sayers — pugilist.

— George Shaw-Lefevre — also his uncle — father — sister et al

— George Shearing — jazz musician

— Sophia and Thomas Sheppard — landowners (also Martin Routh)

— Spencer family — lords of the manor

— Charles Spurgeon

— St John / Bolingbroke family — lords of the manor

— Kalulu and Henry Morton Stanley

— Edward and Helen Thomas — writers

— Hugh Thomson — illustrator

— Todd family — George and Christopher — property developers

— Tom Taylor — writer

— Catherine Webster

— Who signed?

— Wilson family — the Beeches. Edwin Wilson (illustrator).

— Wilson family — Price's Candles, Black Sea House.

— Henrietta Wollaston — paleontologist

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John Archer

(Click on image to enlarge)

— Ernest Bevin — Minister of Labour in Churchill's War Cabinet 1940-1945 etc. MP for "Wandsworth Central" constituency (1940-195?) — which included half of Wandsworth Common).

— P.Y. [Phyllis Yvonne] Betts (1909-1990?) — novelist (French Polish (Gollancz — 1933) and remarkable memoirist (People Who Say Goodbye: Memories of Childhood (1989) — grew up in Magdalen Road during WWI — grandparents lived Sherbrooke Lodge — Nightingale Lane. Frequent references to WC and other local places (cemetery — prison — asylum etc). Astonishing.

PY Betts [age?]

(Click on image to enlarge)

— Bevington family — particularly Geoffrey — pioneering photographer — and his brother Samuel — later Mayor of Bermondsey [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

— Jack Black — the Queen's Ratcatcher

— Henry Bolingbroke ?

— John Buckmaster — the man who saved Wandsworth Common [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

— John Burns

— Andrew Cameron [Who's Who — a Conservator]

— Angela Carter (1940-1989? — nee Stalker) — writer — early life in Ravenslea Rd — attended Hearnville School and Streatham [and Clapham High?] School

— Charlotte Cooper (nee Lee) — world-famous "Gypsy beauty" — and her husband — the pugilist Thomas (or Jack). JC was transported to Western Australia [for murder or theft?].

— Arthur Alexander Corsellis (dates) — solicitor (and property developed?) — for 29 years Clerk to Board of Works — usually in conflict with John Buckmaster [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

— John (and son Charles) Costeker [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

Thomas Crapper — sanitary engineer — lived in Middleton Rd (renamed Buckmaster Rd in 193?)

— George Donald — the Last Shepherd on Wandsworth Common

— Harry Gordon Dorrett & Paul Martin — photographers — Bellevue

— Duval Family — moved from ? — Battersea c. ? to live in Park Rd (renamed Elsynge Rd in ?) — militant suffragettes — organised and spoke at events on WC

— Gus Elen (dates) — "If it Wasn't For the 'Ouses Inbetween"

— Doreen Barbara Mignonette Evans (1916-1982) — Motor-racing driver — Bellevue Garage

— Leonora Green — artist — Battersea Rise.

— Francis Grose and Samuel Hieronymus Grimm — the former an antiquary — lived North Side — the latter a topographical illustrator who drew fine images of the Common in the mid-C18

— Pamela Hansford Johnson (dates) (born Battersea Rise — educated at Clapham County Grammar School)

— Thomas Hardy (dates) (lived for three years on Trinity Road)

— Octavia Hill (dates)

— Holloway Brothers (major builders of the houses between Magdalen Rd and Burntwood Lane — some of whom lived in Burntwood Grange and Lyford Rd)

— Dan Leno (dates)

David Lloyd George

(Click on image to enlarge)

— George Shearing

George Shearing — Jazz Pianist and Composer. Battersea Society plaque to on a wall of his former school (Linden Lodge School for Blind Boys [sic?]) — 26 Bolingbroke Grove (now Northcote Lodge School)

• London Jazz News: Plaque to commemorate George Shearing

  Jeanne Rathbone: Sir George Shearing plaque unveiling

— Sophia Sheppard and Magdalen College

— Earls Spencer [Who's Who of the fight over enclosure]

• John Poyntz Spencer — 5th Earl (1835-1910)
• Charles Haddon Spurgeon —

  — Edward and Helen Thomas

  — Thorne Family (Burntwood Lodge and Collamore)

  — Kate (Catherine) Webster — execution of — 1879

  — Henrietta Wollaston — fossil hunter

  The Wright Brothers — pioneers of aviation (but not Wilbur & Orville)

Great and Good lists here?