In November 2017, Neil Robson from the Wandsworth Historical Society gave us an excellent talk about Ted Foster, the dustman from Tooting who won the VC in the First World war. You can now download the slides in Neil’s presentation by clicking this link:
We also videoed the talk and you can see it on You Tube here
Poster for November THG Meeting
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Saturday 24th February 2pm
‘Wandle Wake Up’ Guided Walk
Starts 2pm at St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon Road, SW17 0UQ
An entertaining and informative ramble through the industrial heartland of the Summerstown182 alongside the River Wandle and its nearby streets, featuring some of the words of the poet Edward Thomas who passed through here in 1913 ‘In Pursuit of Spring’. Also on the agenda; The Corruganza Girls, Wimbledon Stadium, the Lost Streets of Earlsfield, the Watercress Queen, Copper Mill Lane and the special place where the waters of the Wandle and the Graveney meet.
Saturday 24th March 2pm
Your chance to contribute to the placing of a historic plaque commemorating local jazz pioneer Sadie Crawford
‘Sadie’s Swinging Tooting’ Guided Walk
£5 charge – Starts 2pm at Edward VII statue outside Tooting Broadway tube station
A grand tour of local historical hot-spots, celebrating the world of jazz pioneer Sadie Crawford. One of the first women to play with the likes of Louis Armstrong, she featured in a recent BBC Radio 4 programme called ‘The Lost Women of British Jazz’. She will be the first woman commemorated in Tooting in this way, so we’ve dubbed this initiative #FirstLadySadie. Born Louisa Marshall in 1885, the youngest of seven children, Sadie spent her early life in a tiny house on Fountain Road. Scrubbing floors at the age of eleven, she escaped domestic service through music, dance and the London stage. She played all over the world with some of the greatest stars of the jazz age and spent the last thirty years of her life in America. Play your part in raising funds to pay for a plaque for this remarkable, inspirational woman by attending one of the guided walks lined up over the next months. ‘Sadie’s Swinging Tooting’ on 24th March, starts at 2pm from outside Tooting Broadway tube station. It takes in key locations in her early life and will stop at her childhood home. The Walk will include many other historical hot-spots with a particular focus on entertainment; the local personalities, cinemas, dance-halls and meeting places that were springing up in this area around one hundred years ago. If you can’t make this date, we will be doing another very similar fundraising walk a few months later, hopefully as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival, details to be confirmed. We are indebted to Sadie’s relatives, the Willis family and historian Howard Rye for their support in this initiative.
Saturday 21st April 2pm
Summerstown182 Guided Walk featuring Streatham Cemetery
‘Summerstown High Fliers’
Starts 2pm at St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon Road, SW17 0UQ
Its one hundred years since the founding of the Royal Air Force. That seems like a good moment to highlight some of Summerstown’s airmen and women, some of whom rest in the delightful Streatham Cemetery. These include an original ‘Top Gun’ from the First World War called Captain Gilbert ‘Gibb’ Mapplebeck whose local connection and daring deeds only recently came to light thanks to The Cemetery Club. We’ll also be visiting the ‘Magnificent Seven’ graves commemorating women including WAAF, Beryl Troke and hearing the stories of four Summerstown182 who served in the Royal Flying Corps. All that and the almost unbelievable story of WW2 Hurricane hero and human cannonball, Flight Officer Paddy Flynn.
Tuesday 16th June 2pm
Sadie Crawford Plaque Unveiling Event
#FirstLadySadie
At 143 Fountain Road, Tooting, SW17
Plans are underway for a spectacular unveiling ceremony on Saturday 16th June, attended by her family, special guests and musical accompaniment. Everyone is welcome!
Sadie Crawford Plaque Unveiling
Saturday 10th November 11am
A very special Summerstown182 Guided Walk to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War
‘Walk of Remembrance’
Starts 11am at St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon Road, SW17 0UQ
Walking in the footsteps of the Summerstown182, stopping at their homes, telling their stories. This unique ‘double circuit’ covers the Earlsfield area in the morning, Tooting in the afternoon. The Walk will finish with a viewing of the war memorial in St Mary’s Church.
@summerstown182
AWARD WINNING, LOTTERY FUNDED COMMUNITY HISTORY PROJECT
NEXT GUIDED WALK – ‘WANDLE WAKE-UP’ SATURDAY 24th FEBRUARY AT 2PM
NEXT PLAQUE – SADIE CRAWFORD, JAZZ PIONEER #FIRSTLADYSADIE
TELLING THE STORY OF A COMMUNITY THROUGH THE 182 NAMES ON THE FIRST WORLD WAR MEMORIAL IN ST MARY’S CHURCH, SUMMERSTOWN, LONDON SW17
Protesting Suffragettes Early 1900’s
Suffragettes and Beyond: the History of Women and the Vote
As we celebrate 100 years of women’s right to vote, come and hear about the long struggle to achieve this democratic right and the stories of some of the feisty women, including Leonora Tyson from Streatham, who fought so valiantly for the cause.
A talk by Charlotte Dobson of the Vote 100 Project from the Houses of Parliament.
Members free
Non-members £2.
The meeting is at our usual venue: United Reform Church, Rookstone Road, SW17 9NQ. Map here.
Vote 100 Project details are here.
Graham Gower spoke at our AGM earlier this week about The Manor House Of Tooting. He has previously published an article in The London Archaeologist about “Early Tooting Bec And Its Reputed Priory”. You can read the article from 2012 online by clicking here , together with some photos.
70 people came to our AGM on Tuesday night. After the AGM business, Graham Gower gave a very interesting talk about the Manor House of Tooting Graveney. He shared with us some previously unseen photos of the Manor House taken shortly before it was demolished in 1896.
Janet Smith was re-elected Chair for 2018 and she gave the following report on our activities during 2017:
“2017 has been a busy and successful year for Tooting History Group.
We’ve:
In addition, we’ve held our regular programme of talks. We’ve welcomed guest speakers on topics such as conservation techniques, local sporting venues, the history of St George’s Medical School and Ted Foster VC.
We’ve established a good relationship with the Archivist at St George’s and in October she invited us to the Medical School to see some of the unusual objects kept in the archive. It was a good opportunity for members to socialise away from our usual venue. In November, we were invited by Burntwood School to see their Grade II listed 19th century ice-house and hear about its restoration. Both visits were free to members of the Group.
Our membership has remained steady at around 65 despite the increase to £10 in our annual subs. We also have 400+ followers on Twitter and 1400+ on Facebook. The addition of the website to our digital presence provides a valuable focal point for all those interested in Tooting’s history. A big thank-you to Philip Bradley for not only creating it, but first going to an evening-class to learn how to do it!
I’d also like to thank other members of the committee for their continued support and the volunteer time that they give: LIbby Lawson for leading the conservation sub-group; Jane Kellock for looking after the money; Angela Cornes for administering membership and emails; Sue Cutler for organising publicity and refreshments; Andrew Cordani for handling the technology. We’re sorry to be losing Heather van Silver, who’s stepping down for personal reasons. We’re always keen to welcome new blood and new ideas so if you think you have something to offer, please don’t be shy!
There are also times when we need some extra pairs of hands for a special event, so we’ve asked you to say on your membership form whether you’d be willing to help out now and again.
Looking ahead to this year, we will, for the first time, be holding monthly talks – we hope this will make us a firm fixture in your diaries! A full list of talks to the end of the year is available tonight and can be viewed on our website: topics include votes for women, a reminiscence evening about the Irish Community in Tooting, the mysterious relationship between Mrs Thrale and Dr Johnson, the Tooting Common Story, and a look-back at the old cinemas of the area. We will also be welcoming Tooting-born author Beryl Kingston for a lively evening of wartime memories.
There will be more visits, including one to the Houses of Parliament at the invitation of our local MP, Rosena Allin-Khan, and more of the best researched walks in Tooting.
We hope you will agree that THG is well worth the membership fee and we look forward to welcoming you to many more of our meetings.”
Janet Smith, Chair THG
Tooting History Group 