Crooked Billet
| Crooked Billet | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ233706 |
| Location: | 51°25’17"N, 0°13’39"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | London |
| Postcode: | SW19 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Merton |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Wimbledon |
Crooked Billet, also known as Shepherd's Hatch Gate, is a hamlet which forms part of Wimbledon Common in the otherwise urban north-east of Surrey. The hamlet is regarded as a popular green spot and an adjunct to events in Wimbledon.
History
Crooked Billet is a small corner of Wimbledon Common with a green, housing mainly in the form of houses, and two public houses.[1][2] Contrasting with adjoining developed environs, it has maintained its core "identity as a semi-rural enclave". Formerly, it encompassed grazing land, cottages and farm buildings; surviving parts hark back to at least the 17th century. Currently, the public houses host various events, and the Wimbledon Morrismen perform there. A 1617 survey calls it "Shepherd's Hatch Gate" which refers to gates for grazing livestock.[3] A cottage was occupied by Richard Atkins who cultivated one of the fields south of the Ridgway.[3][4]
It is a small, rather obscure area. The first mention of a brewery and inn occurs in 1509 and the name was given to a small row of cottages, although 1776 is the first authenticated date of an alehouse in Crooked Billet. The site has been nicknamed 'Cromwell's Half Acre' after local legend had it that the site was occupied in 1513 by Walter Cromwell, father of Thomas Cromwell the Chancellor of Henry VIII. Walter was a 'smith and armourer, a brewer and hostelry keeper' but his 'half acre' is now believed to have been elsewhere across Wimbledon Common.
The hamlet is named after the Crooked Billet, an inn which still stands here.[5] Both the pub and the area are well regarded.[6][7]
Along with the Hand in Hand pub, the Crooked Billet faces onto a small triangular green. Nearby can be found King's College School. Eagle House and Wimbledon House are also in the vicinity.[8]
After his son died in the Great Plague of London, Robert Pennington, a friend of King Charles II, built Southside House (on nearby Woodhayes Road) as a safe haven for his family.[9]
In the 1770s, the "Cinque Cottages" were built on the green, perhaps as an illegal encroachment.[9]
In the 1820s, Gothic House (later renamed Gothic Lodge) was home to novelist Captain Frederick Marryat. In 1874 it became the home of engineer Sir William Preece, who permitted use of his garden by Guglielmo Marconi to position a radio transmitter "used to send some of the earliest telegraph messages". It was the first house in near London with a telephone and the first with electricity for illumination, boiling a kettle and ironing.[3]
In the 1860s Earl Spencer was Lord of the Manor, and owner of Wimbledon Common. His stated intent to enclose the common land before selling it for building development led to the passage of the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Act of 1871.[10] Consequently, the land is preserved as a commons and saved "for the public in perpetuity". A Board of Conservators manages the property.[3]
In 1872, Sir Henry Peek of Wimbledon House, Parkside, constructed the "Cinque Cottages" which displaced the earlier cottages. The deed of trust provides for the beneficiaries to be "poor men of good character in needy circumstances" 54 years old or older who resided within one of 40 Surrey parishes. Peek played a signal role in passing the Commons Act.
In 1888 Young's Brewery leased the Crooked Billet pub, and bought the freehold in 1928. In 1974 Young's purchased the Hand in Hand. After the pubs were enlarged and refurbished, they were sold in 2006.[11][12] The pubs are separated from the green. In Wright's Alley, Shire horses historically pulled brewer's drays delivering ale to customers.[3]
Outside links
References
- ↑ Loobey & Every 1995.
- ↑ Milward 1989.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedp - ↑ "The Treswell Survey". http://www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk/index.php/on-view/elizabethan-a-jacobean/the-treswell-survey.
- ↑ "Crooked Billet". Best Pubs In London. Londonist. http://londonist.com/pubs/pubs/pubs/crooked-billet.
- ↑ "Food and Drink, London, 11 Best Pubs in London". The Resident. 1 July 2018. https://www.theresident.co.uk/food-drink-london/11-best-pubs-wimbledon/.
- ↑ Brennan, Ailis (2 July 2018). "Wimbledon Tennis in London: Where to Eat and drink". Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/restaurants/wimbledon-2018-tennis-in-london-where-to-eat-and-drink-a3877206.html.
- ↑ Surrey Archaeological Society (1891). Surrey Archaeological Collections: Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County. 10. Bofworth & Sons. p. 160. https://books.google.com/books?id=tmo_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA160.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Crooked Billet, Merton". Hidden London. http://hidden-london.com/gazetteer/crooked-billet/.
- ↑ "The Wimbledon and Putney Commons Act, 1871". https://www.wpcc.org.uk/downloads/publications/1871-act-amended2.pdf.
- ↑ Osbourne 1991.
- ↑ Whichelow 1998.
- Craig, Frederick Walter Scott (1989). British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 465, 467. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
- Hitchcock, Tim (2004). Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London. A&C Black. p. 214. ISBN 9781852852818. https://books.google.com/books?id=kfrUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA214.
- Loobey, Patrick; Every, Keith (1995). Wimbledon in Old Photographs. Stroud: Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd. pp. 8, 50. ISBN 0750907290.
- Milward, R.J. (1989). Historic Wimbledon: Caesar's Camp to Centre Court. Adlestrop, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire: Windrush Press Fielders of Wimbledon, Cassell Reference. pp. 81–83. ISBN 0900075163.
- Osbourne, Helen (1991). Inn and Around London: A History of Young's Pubs (1st ed.). London: Young & Co's Brewery. ISBN 0951816705.}
- Whichelow, Clive (1998). Pubs of Wimbledon Village. City: Enigma Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-9524297-1-5.