Tiny Ted’s Tooting
For those of us who plonk our rubbish on the pavement early on a Thursday morning and wait for the Serco truck to magic it away, its hard to imagine what happened as recently as fifty years ago. Then...
Read more →Archive
Stories
Exploring the lives and heritage of Summerstown, from the trenches of the Great War to the vibrant streets of today.
Little India
Whether he had an entry into France as dramatic as Private Ryan’s, in the early summer of 1944, 26 year old Ted Pavitt from Sutton, of the 2nd Battalion, Monmouthshire Regiment was bound for the...
Read more →
Remembering William Mace
On the most dazzling of Spring days, Streatham Cemetery was at its loveliest, awash with blue skies, blossom and birdsong. In one tranquil corner, a collection of beautiful decorated daffodils...
Read more →
The Auld Triangle
There have been many wonderful Summerstown182 moments but 25th March 2015 was hard to beat. That was when we welcomed Len Jewell to St Mary’s Church, just a few days short of his 100th birthday. He...
Read more →
Mother’s Day
Another of the fifteen Summerstown182 soldiers killed in the Battle of Arras was twenty year old Henry Edward Wilton of the Royal Marine Light Infantry. He died in the ferocious fighting at the...
Read more →
Guns of Brixton
Smallwood Road is one of the main arteries of the Fairlight area, traversing east to west, it joins up Streatham and Lambeth cemeteries, but has none of the congestion of Wimbledon Road or the...
Read more →
Cousin Herbert
There are three Tibbenhams on the First World War memorial in St Mary’s Church. Identifying the ‘H Tibbenham’ has caused us more than a few headaches. Surely it had to be a brother of Spencer and...
Read more →
Rising Damp
It is ‘Women’s History Month’ and we’ve just done a special ‘Women of Summerstown’ Guided Walk. We have celebrated the stories of the wives, sweethearts, mothers and sisters of the Summerstown182 and...
Read more →
Soap and Water
In about a month’s time we will be celebrating the heroics of Wandsworth’s best known First World War soldier, Corporal Edward Foster VC. The six foot two, ‘Tiny Ted’ from Fountain Road, Tooting who...
Read more →
The Die-Hard
If there is one house that I must pass, three, perhaps four times a day, depending on the number of occasions I need to feed my addiction to Tesco AKA The Prince of Wales, it is 684 Garratt Lane. Its...
Read more →
Upper Tooting
Every once in a while our efforts to contact relatives of the Summerstown182 bear fruit in the most delightful way. A few months ago, after finding William Francis Brown on an Ancestry tree, we...
Read more →
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
The pretty little church on the river has popped up in several 182 stories and is always worth a visit. Surrounded by luxurious tower blocks and gated estates, it was once dwarfed by flour mills,...
Read more →