Samuel Ambrose Tickner
Samuel Ambrose Tickner, the name has a joyful ring to it. Playful and voluptuous, yet steadfast. Surely a soldier with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. But in fact not a soldier, an...
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Stories
Exploring the lives and heritage of Summerstown, from the trenches of the Great War to the vibrant streets of today.
The Twenty Third
Writing this on 25th May, I had something on my mind all day. When I first started researching the Sunday School teachers and their military histories, this date was highly significant. They were,...
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Clonmel
Its a long way to Tipperary from Summerstown, so what on earth was the story behind an elegantly lettered stone plaque on a house at the end of Franche Court Road and its apparent homage to the...
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Louis Danzanvilliers
The story of how we made contact with the granddaughter of Louis Marie Joseph Vital Danzanvilliers is really quite remarkable. When I suggested one sunny Sunday morning in February, that my friend in...
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Into the Darkness
Until the area was substantially redeveloped in the late sixties, Hazelhurst Road and Foss Road swept southwards from St Mary’s Church, separating in a great V which forked down to Smallwood Road. An...
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Thomas Carrigan
Coppermill Lane was once the main thoroughfare from Summerstown into Wimbledon. What a pleasant stroll it was, go past the watercress beds, then cross the Wandle at a bridge, though be warned,...
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Bear Road, Brighton
Returning from a May bank Holiday trip to Brighton, it was only right to call in at the City Cemetery on Bear Road to view the resting place of one of the Summerstown182. Holding the fort on the...
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Davy Jones Locker
Appropriately enough for someone with nautical inclinations, Francis Albert Halliday was born in Greenwich in 1871. His naval career took him all around the country before he alighted in Summerstown....
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Mykonos
I really do love Huntspill Street. A tranquil retreat from the mania of Garratt Lane. Perhaps its something to do with the bend in the road, helping to block out the noise, but its got a stillness...
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Father and Son
At the northern end of Hazelhurst Road on the western side and roughly where fourteen-storey Chillingford House has sat since 1970, would have been Number 10. Just a few hundred yards from the...
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The Butcher’s Boy
It took a while to pinpoint Private Alfred Ernest Quenzer of the East Surrey Regiment. His name was unusual and his Commonwealth War Graves Commission record has him as ‘Quenza’. That seemed odd...
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The Glengarry
At last people are now contacting Reverend Roger Ryan and myself, telling us how pleased they are that there is an interest in their relative and providing little nuggets of information. Amanda Love...
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