Pub trawl: there’s vestiges of the Overton brewing empire still to be found today, even if the once grand Swan and Sugarloaf at South Croydon ceased being a pub long ago. The building is close to the site of the source of the River Wandle
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: After having delved deep into Croydon Minster’s archive, DAVID MORGAN goes on a bit of a pub crawl in search of one of Victorian Croydon’s biggest business moguls
Victorian heritage: they intended to stick around for a long while
River pollution is much in the news, with sewage and industrial and agricultural effluent creating toxic conditions in our rivers and around our coasts. Much handwringing is made about improving our water infrastructure, but the swimmers, the canoeists and, most importantly, the creatures living in the water are yet to see much improvement.
It doesn’t make it right, but we’ve been damaging our environment in and around Croydon on an industrial scale for centuries. Take a newspaper report from 165 years ago, in March 1859. The company accused of pouring waste products into the River Wandle by the barrel-load was the brewery run by Henry Overton, of Surrey Street.
Overton was one of Croydon’s successful Victorian entrepreneurs, ending up as a real-life Monopoly board champion owning a public service as well as his brewery, various pubs and beer houses, houses and land. The Overton surname can be found in multiple entries in the births, deaths and marriage registers of Croydon Minster. Overton’s Yard, off Surrey Street, takes its name because of the brewery that was once on the site.
Henry Overton also found time to be one of the churchwardens at the Parish Church.
The pollution of the Wandle in 1859 came about because of a problem with flooding in Old Town.
A Mr Sutherland had made a complaint to the Croydon Board of Health, which was heard on March 1, with Mr W. Drummond in the chair. Mr Langley had been out to investigate and reported back that he didn’t believe that Overton’s brewery was connected to the sewer. Nor was Harris’s Builders’ Yard, which was also mentioned in the complaint.
Pollution report: the state of the River Wandle was traced back to the brewers, according to this 1859 newspaper extract
Until the middle of the 19th Century, the Wandle still flowed above ground, past what was then called Croydon Parish Church and on towards Stubbs Mead and Froggs Mead. Sections began to be culverted, covered over, from around 1840, as the chalk stream became little more than an open sewer, with the water closets of Old Town being emptied into it. Outbreaks of typhoid and cholera were a growing issue.
At the 1859 hearing, Langley described the Wandle as being “of a greasy nature” and he also added that “at times there was a great quantity of bungs and corks floating there”. They probably did not come from the Old Town’s WCs.
The Board of Health resolved to put down some additional pipes and that Mr Fenton should be sent to inspect the brewery to see if it was connected to the sewers. In a rather downbeat assessment of the situation, Langley said that even if a pipe was put into Overton’s brewery in Surrey Street to connect it to the sewers, he doubted if it would be large enough to carry away all the waste matter thrown into it.
Exactly how the problem was resolved we don’t know, but it certainly didn’t stop Overton from brewing. His Royal Oak premises, which were begun by his father in 1813, continued producing ale throughout his lifetime, and long after.
Firkin prices: with 1s discounts given for cash
Overton was very close to the River Wandle in more than ways than one. A spring of water that was one of the sources of the river actually rose in his garden, precisely 132ft 2in above THWM (Trinity High Water Mark).
This was one of a number of springs within 400 yards of his premises, including one in the malthouse and another at the mill gates which together flowed into what remained of Laud’s Pond, sometimes called “My Lord’s Pond” after the archbishops who once owned the land. Like many streams which rose on chalk, it was described as “copious and sparkling”.
An 1850 analysis of water samples from the spring which rose near the brewery entrance gate showed that the water was of a fine quality. One gallon of water contained 15.4 grains of chalk, 0.32 of gypsum, 1.21 of carbonate of magnesia and 1.36 sulphate of soda.
Another prominent Croydon gentleman of the time, Charles Chatfield, who lived nearby, also had a spring gush forth in his garden at one time, but it ceased to flow after sewer pipes were laid by the Board of Health. No wonder there was some hesitancy about having more pipework!
Henry Overton completed a significant purchase in 1829, when he bought the Croydon Gas Company. Construction work for the premises had begun in Overton’s Yard in 1827. Overton divided his time between brewing beer and the manufacture of gas. He managed the gas works himself until 1847, when the Croydon Commercial Coke and Gas Company was formed and he sold the business to them.
A local directory of the time declared that once the business had been purchased “it was at once put into superior order and vastly extended, under the advice and supervision of an eminent engineer”. Overton was elected on to the board of directors of the new company.
Regulars’ day out: the Harvest Home pub in Beddington in around 1895 – part of Overton’s large brewing and property empire
Overton’s business dealings, like the River Wandle, flowed westwards, too.
In the 1850s, the Carew estates around Beddington were being broken up and Overton saw an excellent opportunity to develop his business empire. In 1858 and 1859 Overton purchased two cottages and seven adjacent plots of land in Beddington Lane.
He combined and extended the cottages so that he could open a beer house, The Harvest Home. John Machell, a shepherd from Croydon, was the first landlord.
Overton had started buying up land in Croydon much earlier in his career. In 1837 he bought a plot corresponding to what is now 145, 147 and 149 London Road. Back then it was the Turnpike Road; an indenture between Henry Overton, John Reed and John Drummond dated July 7, 1838, which showed the plots of land purchased is held in the Museum of Croydon.
The extent of Overton’s affairs could also be seen in his directorships. In 1838 he was named on the board of the Surrey, Kent and Sussex Joint Stock Banking Company. In 1847 he was on the board of the Farmers’ and Graziers’ Mutual Cattle Insurance Association.
Wedding belle: the wedding of Frances Overton, daughter of Henry and Mary, to Thomas Brown, at Croydon Parish Church in 1855
Henry Overton died in 1864, aged 74. His wife Mary had died 20 years earlier. Their son, Frederick, took over the running of the brewery and many of the ale houses. In 1865, adverts appeared in the local papers with the new office address of the company, 141a High Street. The New Inn was opened on Bandon Hill around this time, too.
The Overtons’ daughter, Rosa, was left a house on Turnpike Road in her father’s will, along with other properties and beerhouses. The Parish Church register shows that she married Richard Paget, a Guildford auctioneer, a year after her father died. Rosa lived in Guildford raising her family until she returned to live in her house (where 149 London Road is today) some time before 1890. Her son, Clarence Paget, grew up to be a most respected Croydon historian, writing Byways in the History of Croydon and Croydon Home of the Past.
Parish records and census returns held in the Croydon Minster archive have helped to uncover some of the details of the Overtons.
Henry Overton was baptised in Croydon Parish Church on March 31, 1790, the son of James and Anne Overton. Both his parents were buried there, too.
Henry was married to Mary Berrington at St Mary’s Lambeth – the church next to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Palace – in September 1817. The Berringtons were a significant family in the commercial life of Croydon, running a butcher’s shop for many years.
In the 1841 census, Henry and Mary were recorded as having five children living at home, 17, Surrey Street, including two sets of twins. Mary and Charles were born in 1826, Frances in 1831 and Rosa and George in 1836. The family had a 20-year-old domestic servant working for them, Mary Holliday.
Local merger: the businesses joined forces in 1892 to become Page and Overton
Although the 1841 census showed a five-year-old son, George, there is no mention of him in the baptism registers at the Minster. The other five-year-old from the census, Rosa Overton, was baptised on June 3 1836.
By the time of the 1851 census, only five people were listed at the Overtons’ Surrey Street home. Mary had died in 1844 aged 47. There is no 1851 mention of George, either. But a son not recorded earlier could be seen: Frederick aged 23, was living at home. Charles, the son aged 29, and Frederick were both described as brewers.
By 1861, only Henry and his daughter Rosa remained in Surrey Street. His elder daughter Frances had moved out after marrying in the Parish Church in August 1855 to Thomas Brown, a corn merchant, who lived in Church Street.
George’s death was recorded in 1860, aged 28, and he was buried at the Parish Church next to his mother.
Henry, too, was buried in the churchyard with his wife and son. Thomas Brown, presumably his son-in-law, and Allen John Lambert, tobacco manufacturer, were the executors of his will, with his effects amounting to less than £25,000 – close to £4million today, allowing for inflation.
In 1892, the Royal Oak Brewery business merged with the Shirley Brewery to create Page and Overton. In 1933, they became part of Charringtons. The Page and Overton Brewery survived until 1954 and was the last one of the old breweries to close in Croydon. The brewery off Surrey Street was demolished in 1972.
Businesses come and businesses go, but the Wandle still flows on. And we still haven’t solved the pollution problem.
David Morgan, pictured right, is a former Croydon headteacher, now the volunteer education officer at Croydon Minster, who offers tours or illustrated talks on the history around the Minster for local community groups
If you would like a group tour of Croydon Minster or want to book a school visit, then ring the Minster Office on 020 688 8104 or go to the website on www.croydonminster.org and use the contact page
Some previous articles by David Morgan:
- Thornton Heath woman’s long fight for equality and rights
- Gordon family’s service that stretched through the generations
- That was the writer that was: Addiscombe girl called the tunes
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
First class piece – cheers!