567
THE ESTATES GAZETTE
Apbil 8, 1899.
Wallington consists mainly of one fine long street extending southwards up the hill towards Woodcote, on either side of which are many charming houses and villas, and a number of fine modern shops, with residential thoroughfares branching off to the right and left at intervals. The place generally wears a select and very orderly appearance—■it has been called the “ Kensington ” of Beddington—and hereabouts are the substantial houses of many prosperous City people. This is as one would expect to find in a place situated amid such delightful scenic surroundings as Wallington is, and standing on a subsoil of chalk, with a healthy, bracing air blowing across it from the adjoining downs.
There are several places of worship in Wallington, whilst ample educational accommodation exists, both for boys and girls. The parish church, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was consecrated in 1867, and was erected mainly through the munificence of Mr. Nathaniel Bridges, lord of the manor. It is constructed of stone in the Early English style.
Wallington has a station on the L.B. and S.C. Railway, and with an excellent service of trains to London Bridge and the West-end is rendered easily and rapidly accessible.
One of the most delightful of the many charms of this district is the occupation of vast breadths of land for the cultivation of lavender, mint and other sweet-scented roots and plants, which, as has been remarked, turns the place into a veritable Riviera. A walk through the lanes about the flower farms on an evening late in the summer is a joy to be long remembered. The distillation and manufacture of the various essential oils is also carried on in the district to a considerable extent. To the many who find the cultivation of plants and flowers a pleasant recreation, Wallington affords a very fine opportunity, for here, upon the fine rich loam, the apple and cherry, the rose and carnation, the chrysanthemum and the dahlia flourish and prosper exceeding well. Mr. Walford, in fact, mentions the remarkable success which attended some gardening operations on the part of a Mr. Smee, and subsequently by his son, at Wallington, a veritable swamp being transformed into a fair paradise.
On the high ground south of Wallington station, and in the region of the ancient Roman camp, to which reference has already been made, is situated the Little Woodcote Estate, comprising some 600 acres, which is being developed by the Imperial Property Investment Company, Limited, with successful results. The estate occupies a very fine position at an elevation of some 300ft. above sea level, and commanding extensive views of the beautiful surrounding country. The air here is singularly pure, dry and bracing, and having a subsoil of chalk, it needs scarcely to be said that the situation of the estate has everything in its favour in the way of healthfulness ; several good roads have been formed, and a capital system of main drainage laid down. About 700 plots of the land have been already disposed of, whilst 120 houses have been built and let to good tenants or sold, 50 more being now in the course of erection.
Those who would live amid the sweet pure air and the glories of the beautiful Surrey hills; ’mid the sweet odour of mint and lavender, and withal within easy access of town, we would counsel to make their home in the delightful district which we have here endeavoured to describe.
SUTTON,	STJRREY.
Messrs. G. W. DIXON & Co.,
Auctioneers, Valuers, House and, Estate Ag
RAILWAY APPROACH, SUTTON.
Estates Managed, Bents Collected, Sales of Land, House Property, Household Furniture, Ac. Valuations for Mortgage, Prohate, Ac. Mortgages for large or small amounts arranged, Dilapidations Assessed. Agents for the Fire and
Life Insurance Offices.
Department, Wandswprth-road, S.W.; Lost Property Olfice, Waterloo Station; or from the Auctioneers, hallway Approach, Sutton, Surrey.
BUTTON, 'SUE-KEY. — Shops to Let.— LJ Several Large Shops, close to Station; upper parts convenient for private residences, offices, etc.; rents from £150 on lease. Five attractive Shops in busiest part of High-street; large shops, four good bed rooms, bath room, two sitting rooms, kitchen, and excellent offices; low rents, one £85, three £90, and large corner shop £100, all on lease. Two large Shops, with first-class accommodation; nine in same block already let; fronts fitted to suit tenants; low rents, £115 on lease. Two convenient Shops in High-street, suitable for large furniture dealers, drapers, etc.; very low rents.
C^UTTON.—To be Sold, well-built, Freehold detached Residence, three minutes’ walk from Station, on high ground, chalk soil, containing six bed rooms, bath room, three good reception rooms, usual offices, excellent cellars, large garden laid out with great taste, including conservatories, garden lights, summer houses, potting and other sheds.— Price £1,900.—Apply Dixon and Co.
Ç^UTTON.—To be Sold, a Freehold detached L- Residence, in excellent situation, within ten minutes’ walk of Station, containing five bed rooms, dressing room, three good reception rooms, large garden, conservatory, lawn, stabling, etc—Price £1,450.—Apply Dixon and Co.
CJUTTON.—To be Let, two charming modern NT semi-detached Houses, in high healthy situation, fitted with every convenience, high-class artistic decorations and fittings, containing six bed rooms, bath room, two reception rooms, and good offices. Rents £85 per annum.—Apply Dixon and Co.
Full particulars and list of all the available properties to be Let or Sold, Shops, Land, Furnished Houses, etc., in Sutton and district can be obtained of
Re Charles Norrington, deceased.
WORCESTER PARK, CHEAM, and SUTTON, SURREY.
Important Sale of Sutton Gas and Water Shares and Freehold Property.
to Sell by Auction, at the Cock Hotel, Sutton, on Monday, April 24, 1899, at Seven o’clock in the evening, several valuable FREEHOLD BCJILDYNG SITES, situate in Longfellow and Lincoln roads, within five minutes’ walk of Worcester-park Station, and within easy distance of Cheam and Sutton Station. TWO FREEHOLD COTTAGES, and TWO semidetached FREEHOLD VILLAS, situate in the Station-road, Cheam, all let to good tenants and producing £68 15s. per annum. £600 Preference 4£ per Cent. Stock, and £350 Ordinary Stock, of the Sutton Water Company. Also 37 Original £10 Shares, 20 additional ! ditto (7 per cent, maximum), and Six Third Issue £10 Shares (£2 paid), of the Sutton Gas Company. Both the Sutton Water and Gas Companies are paying big dividends and form a very high-class security to trustees and investors.
Full particulars and conditions of sale can be obtained of C. T. Courtney Lewis, Esq., solicitor, 3, Adelaide^place, London Bridge, E.O.; Messrs. Miller, Smith and Bell, solicitors, 3, Salters’ Hall-court, I Cannon-street, E.C., and High-street, Epsom; or the Auctioneers, Railway Approach, Sutton, Surrey.
L. and S.W. Ry.
Clearance Sale, 1899.
STORES DEPARTMENT, WANDSWORTH-ROAD (five minutes from Vauxhall Station).
_
following days, at Twelve o’clock each day punctually, a large quantity of UNCLAIMED PROPERTY, including—
Jewellery, Plated Articles, Opera Glasses, Field Glasses, Umbrellas, Walking Sticks, Boots and Shoes, Wearing Apparel, Portmanteaux, Leather Bags, Bicycles, Furniture, Bedding, Ironmongery, Groceries, and the usual miscellaneous articles.
Admission by catalogue only (price 6d.), which can be obtained four days before sale at the Stores
G-. W_ ZDUXOUST & Go.,
Auctioneers and! Estate Agents,
SUTTON, SURREY,
property of the Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles II., who razed the palace to the ground, and some portions of the materials were utilised in building The Durdans, at Epsom. But though the famous palace has gone, and its gardens wherein Elizabeth delighted to plan her masques, the magnificent timber of its park remains, a fine avenue of elms and Scotch pines being among its glories of this kind.
Carshalton lies about a mile and a half to the east of Sutton, and the way thither forms a pleasant walk. To the north of the village lies Mitcham, whilst to the south is Banstead, with its beautiful downs. Carshalton has earned for itself the reputation of being one of the healthiest localities in England, and it shares with the neighbouring parishes of Wallington and Mitcham the honour of being the great centre for the cultivation of lavender, rosemary, and other perfumer’s herbs. It is certainly one of the prettiest places near London, with its winding thoroughfares and pretty ponds, quaint old houses and shops, and substantial old mansions, its abundance of trees and gardens, and the tortuous course of the modest river Wandle, which has one of its main springs in Carshalton Park. Anciently the manor was possessed by the powerful Norman family of Mandeville, but later was owned by the Carews, of Beddington Park ; it now belongs to Mr. Taylor.
The main street of the village is a winding thoroughfare, bordered on either side by shops and private houses, many of the latter standing within fine old gardens and enclosed by brick walls, whilst here and there is a pleasant old-fashioned wayside inn. At the north end of the street runs the river Wandle, which broadens into a pretty lake, over which there is an iron bridge by the church. The lake or pond, in the centre of which is a small island, is always full of clear spring water, and never freezes, owing to the presence of the springs. Round the pond are several houses, of various styles and periods, but all prettily mellowed by the hand of time, and altogether forming a very pleasing and picturesque view. In fact the whole aspect of Carshalton was, until recently, eminently rural and picturesque, and wore such a pleasant air as to stamp it as a place altogether delightful for residence. But the mark of “progress” is upon it, and the builder is busy devouring such portions of the grounds of old houses as he can lay hands on. From a business point of view this is, of course, highly satisfactory; but to the lover of the beautiful the builder’s encroachment is always painful. Apart from the development which is taking place on the eastern border of the parish, an extensive portion of the grounds of Carshalton Park is being prepared for building upon. The houses to be built on this estate will stand amid very pleasant surroundings.
Of the Wandle, which is such a delightful feature of Carshalton, and provides some excellent sport for disciples of Izaals Walton, nothing has been written in celebration, either in verse or prose, except a little punning reference by Honest Tom Puller in his “ Worthies.” The source of its western branch is in the grounds of Carshalton Park, where the chief spring is enshrined within a pretty grotto. The river is famous not only for its trout, but for the mills and factories that lie along its banks between here and its fall into the Thames.
Carshalton Park was originally the most important estate in the neighbourhood. It is surrounded by a wall of red brick enclosing a deer park, which is said to be nearly two miles round. Aubrey writes of it in 1718 as having “behind it a fine garden, adorned with fish ponds and reservoirs of water, also a long and pleasant walk of orange and lime trees and'a wilderness.” The owner was then Sir William Scawen, who, intending to make an imposing entrance to his mansion, erected a very fine pair of wrought iron gates, with richly wrought screens on either side and noble pillars. This magnificent specimen of the blacksmith’s art remains to this day, fronting the road to Wallington, as a graceful ornament.
Carshalton House occupies the site of a residence built by the celebrated Dr. Radcliffe, founder of the Radcliffe library at Oxford. The present house, which was built by Sir James Eellowes, Bart., stands at the south-west end of the village on the road towards Sutton. The house was the favourite suburban residence of Lord Hardwicke, during his occupancy of the woolsack, and here he entertained many celebrities of the time.
It is a pleasant walk, by ways that are shady and cool in the summer, from Carshalton to Beddington and Wallington. The former is still in many respects a pretty, little model village, as it must have been in the days of the Carews. It is still, as it was then, dominated by the glorious old manor house, though this is no longer the home of a distinguished family nor the centre of grand social festivities such as it was in Queen Elizabeth’s time, being at present an asylum.
Beddington lies on the southern bank of the Wandle, which is here a very pretty stream, pursuing a widening course towards the west. The parish has the reputation of being very healthy, and with its old-fashioned houses and cottages scattered alxrat in irregular fashion, presents in some parts a very picturesque appearance.
Beddington church is a noble old structure, dating back to the 14th century, and contains many interesting monuments to the Carews. The end of this once powerful and important family, some of the members of which enjoyed high favour at the hands of Queen Elizabeth and other sovereigns, was indeed a pathetic one. The family became greatly impoverished in the early part of the present reign, and the last member of the old stock passed away a few years since in a London lodging, homeless and landless.
The spirit of modern development has already become apparent in Beddington, many rows of trim villas׳ having been erected in late years, and the old sleepy quietude of the place is fast disappearing.
Wallington lies adjacent to Beddington, and it has been surmised that the first portion of the name is a corruption of the Roman “Vallum,” or fortified town. On the summit of Woodcote Hill, about a mile south of Wallington station, Camden locates the old city of Noviomagus. He says that here were the remains of a small city and several wells, built of little pieces of flint; and in more recent times fragments of Roman glass and pottery have been found in this neighbourhood.
That portion of the parish which lies nearest to Beddington Park is known as Wallington Green, and with its pretty expanse of greensward, with its bordering of venerable trees and old-fashioned hostelry, forms a charming picture. A local writer speaks of these trees as “ the ancient oaks of Queen Elizabeth’s walk, in the shade of which Royal Bess had her favourite walk during her stay at Beddington House, and beneath which Sir Walter Raleigh I may be supposed to have meditated, and to have smoked his pipe with Sir Thomas Carew.” !