COLLIERS WOOD INFORMATION

A BIT OF HISTORY

The village of Merton was located on the Roman road Stane Street which connected London to Chichester.

Locally the road ran in a direct line from the current Colliers Wood High Street to London Road, Morden, crossing the site of Sainsbury's. The name dates back to least to the 7th century when documents record its use.

The translation of the name Merton is usually given as "farm by the pond" or "Maera's homestead". Merton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Meretone.  

 



Merton Priory (or Abbey) was founded by Gilbert Norman in 1114 on a site next to the Sainsbury's store (below, reimaged what it looked like)


In 1117 it became an Augustinian establishment and developed a high reputation for scholarship. It is believed to have been the birthplace of Walter de Merton, founder of Merton College, Oxford. 

In 1235, it was the location of Henry III's negotiations with his Barons for the Statute of Merton. The Abbey was also responsible for the educations of St. Thomas Becket and Nicholas Breakspear, the only English Pope. The Priory was closed in 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Its buildings were dismantled and the materials removed for re-use elsewhere. 

 

 The chronology of the Priory

 (Please click on the image to view a larger version)

 

Parts of the Priory's precinct walls are between Sainsbury's and the Priory Retail Park at Pickle Ditch. They can be seen from the path leading from Sainbury's towards the Priory Retail Park just before the footbridge over the ditch and from the retail park itself (below) - follow the path round the building from the corner
where Dunelm is

The stone seating here (and round the corner from Dunelm) in the Priory Retail park was designed by landscape architect Aileen Shackell with letter cutter and stone-carver Richard Kindersley. They were made using stones the Priory's precinct walls.

The carving "Whitsters Bleachers" in the stone plaque refers to the textile industry bleacing which began in the late 16th century when Huguenot bleachers (also known as "whitsters") began settling along the banks of the Wandle and opening their own bleaching grounds.

"Watercress and Watermeadows" refers to a 19th century area of watercress beds which occupied a triangle of land between Brook Path, Merton High Street and Christchurch Road. The crop remained in cultivation until the First World War, after which the land fell into disuse and was gradually acquired for industrial premises.

"Bigging and Tamworth" refers to the the manor of Biggin and Tamworth which belonged to Merton Abbey. In 1291 it was valued at at £1 5s. If the whole of it (640 acres) was on sale now the pricetag would be £567 000 000

"Pickle" refers to "Pickle Ditch" (also "Pightle" which means 'a corner of land') which flows along the original course of the river Wandle. It leaves the Wandle in the Phipps Bridge area and flows for 913 meters until it re-joins the river at Merton Bridge on the High Street


Below: The area of the precint walls and the stone seating



An archway dating from the 12th century was the garden entrance to Abbey House (demolished in 1914) and one of the last remaining parts of Merton Priory. The current arch between Merantun Way and Station Road is a reconstruction built in 1988 (below) when the original was demolished to make way for Merantun Way. However the walls either side are part of the medieval precint walls.



The Merton Priory Chapter House MUSEUM is open on Sundays between 11 am - 4 pm. The entrance is under Merantun Way (A24) between Abbey Mills (just past KFC and Pizza Hut) and Sainburys' car park
 
In 1802, Merton's most famous resident, Admiral Horatio Nelson (below with Emma Hamilton) purchased Merton Place from the widow of Charles Greaves with its large estate for £9,000.

Nelson expanded the estate with the purchase of additional land and until his Merton property covered most of the area west of the Wandle and north of Morden Hall Park. It also included the whole of the area between Merton Road, South Park Road and Haydons Road.

Between trips to sea Nelson lived at Merton Place with his mistress Emma Hamilton and her husband Sir William Hamilton, although Sir William died at his London house in 1803. Unfortunately Nelson had only a short time to enjoy his new home before his death at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.

The Nelson Trail - walk in his footsteps



THE RIVER WANDLE was a focus for industrial activities, especially textile trade. There were bleaching fields beside the Wandle, both inside and outside the former priory walls, used by ‘whitsters’ from the 1660's for bleaching linens and calicoes, but by the mid-18th century (and reputedly by 1724) a calico printworks was established within the precinct, on the site of the present Merton Abbey Mills. A secondary establishment was formed in 1800 a little to the south which became known as Bennett’s Mill.

These two works were later taken over by Littler in 1833 and later by Liberty in 1904. Meanwhile, in the early 1750's, another printworks was established just to the south of the High Street, which would be eventually taken over by Arts and Crafts designer William Morris in 1881. Predecessors to Morris were James Halfhide, captain of the Merton Abbey Volunteers, William West c.1805-1812 and Thomas Welch 1846-1881.

Adjoining the latter printworks was a pair of copper mills, on the site of the priory’s two Amery mills. By the 1660's the mill on the left bank was being used for the grinding of Brazil wood and other materials to produce dyes, but in the 1720's the corn mill on the right bank was converted to copper production, and by the 1760's both buildings were copper mills, using the Wandle to power hammers, rollers and bellows. This site is now occupied by Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer.

Below: Engraving of the Copper Mills and King’s Head, published 1925 and the plaque next to the bridge over the Wandle outside Sainsbury's 

 

The world's first public railway, the Surrey Iron Railway, which was initially horse-drawn, passed through Colliers Wood on its route from Croydon to Wandsworth, between 1803 and 1846

Trams came to Mitcham and Wimbledon in 1906 and 1907 respectively, running through Colliers Wood. Colliers Wood tube station (below in the early 1930's) opened on the 13th of September 1926. It was designed by Charles Holden, whose name now adorns the pub opposite. 

 

 

The name COLLIERS WOOD was first recorded in 1632 and it refers to charcoal-burners not miners. The "Wood" comes from a wood that stood to the east of Colliers Wood High Street, (approximately where Warren, Marlborough and Birdhurst Roads are now) where the charcoal burning took place. Contemporary Ordnance Survey maps show that this wood remained at least until the 1870's but had been cleared for development by the mid-1890's.

A BIT OF TV AND MOVIE HISTORY 

 

One of the longest running British TV series The Bill (26 series, 2425 episodes, 1983 - 2010) was filmed in and around Colliers Wood and other surrounding areas. The "Sun Hill" police station, in the fictional "Canley Borough Operational Command Unit" was at 63 Windsor Avenue. The site is now a film and television studio Wimbledon Studios.

 

And just round the corner none other than Meryl Streep brought Hollywood to Colliers Wood in 2011 when the House Of Commons scenes for the film "Iron Lady" were filmed at Deer Park Studios. She won the Best Actress Oscar for the role in 2012.

SEE ALSO

* MERTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY Lots of interesting information about the history of Merton including these old photos of the Colliers Wood area

* HISTORY OF MERTON (Merton Council's page)

* COLLIERS WOOD AND MERTON HISTORY group on facebook

* WANDLE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM

* WIMBLEDON REBORN facebook group

* MERTON MEMORIES A selection from 15 000 photos owned by the council covering 100 years of the borough's history

* MERTON AT WAR Part 1 and Part 2

* Merton Priory Chapter House MUSEUM on facebook

* YOUTUBE VIDEO Merton Priory - History Unearthed

*Merton Priory Chapter House

* Uncovering the hidden remains of Merton Priory

* Waking London Postcode At A Time SW19: Liberty, Fraternity and Infidelity

* BOMB SIGHT: Was your street hit by a bomb during the during the second World War? Check where bombs fell in Colliers Wood on this page

* There is a working waterwheel at ABBEY MILLS. It was used for washing fabric in the river as part of the textile manufacturing process at the Liberty Silk Works. Now it's turning to drive a potter's wheel, a lathe, a heat pump and to generate some electricity

The local history is told on the walls of the the wheelhouse an there is pottery for sale

The wheelhouse is open from 10am - 4pm every Saturday and Sunday