Was it a form of “dirty” protest against Brick by Brick building on the site of Old Coulsdon’s derelict care home at Homefield House?

Just who is the mystery pizza dumper of Old Coulsdon?

Was it someone with an odd approach to feeding the local ducks?

Or were they giant toadstools? Was it another piece of council-funded “art”, or the latest outbreak of fly-tipping around the borough?

These were the questions residents in Old Coulsdon raised, as Bradmore Pond found itself repeatedly the scene of mysteriously dumped pizza bases.

Bradmore Green is where there is a village pond which was paid for by the widowed Matilda Crowe in 1836, in memory of her husband Philip. Since the 1980s, locals have helped the council keep the pond cleaned and cleared of debris, with Chris Wright, soon to retire as a Conservative councillor, often in the lead.

But in all the pond’s delightful and often quaint history, nothing had been encountered before to match the spate of unsavoury events which have been dubbed, inevitably, “Pizzagate”.

Last week, one spirited Old Coulsdon resident stepped in at night to remove 27 mouldy pizza bases from the grassy area near the pond.

“Who did this, and why?” the resident asked, not unreasonably.

“I picked them all up (a stinky job) and carried them to the bin by the bus stop.”

Another resident observed on Facebook that, from the road, they thought that they looked like giant toadstools.

And the stale pizza bases had been dumped close to a sign which appeals to animal-lovers and the public at large not to feed the ducks. Though apparently, even the local foxes, always on the hunt for food, turned their noses up at the mouldy left-overs.

Even after the resident had done their public duty and removed the pizzas, yet more appeared.

“You don’t get pizzas delivered this quick from Domino’s,” one unimpressed Coulsdon resident observed.

Yet despite the increased vigilence of residents over the past week, a culprit for this form of food fly-tipping has not yet been found.

• For less than the cost of one over-priced coffee each month, you can support the local journalism that brings you Inside Croydon, and get a range of benefits and exclusive offers. Click here to sign-up as a donor
• Inside Croydon Events: for the most comprehensive community events listings, updated daily

• Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
• Inside Croydon is the borough’s only independent news source, and still based in the heart of Croydon
• 1 MILLION PAGE VIEWS IN 2017 (January to September)
• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS 2017: Inside Croydon was source for two award-winning nominations in Private Eye magazine’s annual celebration of civic cock-ups
• “Excellent scandal-digging”: Patrick Kidd, The Times political diary columnist
• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or a local event to publicise, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com