The Old Surrey and Burstow Hunt: Lionel Edwards was a 20th-Century artist whose work focused on country life. This painting is of the Old Surrey and Burstow Hunt, and dates from around 100 years ago, after they had moved on from Croydon
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Two hundred years ago, the Derby Arms off Handcroft Road ran a well-regarded livery stables and was a centre for local hunts that were attended by princes and dukes, butchers and shop-keepers. From a single gravestone in the graveyard of Croydon Minster, DAVID MORGAN traces Croydon’s hunting history
In 1741, it would cost you four shillings a night to have your horse stabled in Croydon, ready for a day’s hunting.
After the meet, there would be “three fellows” who would dry off your steed and brush it down immediately. The hunting and livery stables were at the rear of the Derby Arms, “in the lower part of the town, on the road leading to Mitcham”.
The importance of Croydon in the fox-hunting scene of the 18th and early 19th Century could be seen in the newspapers of the day.
The Kentish Post liked to keep its readers up to date on what was happening to members of the Royal Family. In March 1739, it reported the Duke of Cumberland, the third and youngest son of King George II, together with his sisters Princesses Amelia and Caroline, “took the diversion of fox hunting in Croydon, Surrey, attended by several persons of quality”.
‘Several persons of quality’: the press has long been fascinated by the royals. This is from March 1739
The Duke was out hunting in Croydon again in November 1751 and The Kentish Post was most concerned that on this occasion he had an accident “at full speed”.
Cumberland was trapped underneath his horse after a fall. Although he told everyone he was fine and even went back to London to go to the theatre in the evening, by Sunday night he was taken very ill. He was bled by the royal physicians – these were the days when physicians used leaches – and Princess Amelia sat up all night with him. His recovery was a gradual one over several days.
Another accident was reported near Croydon in February 1767, when the Duke of Grafton “was riding down a descent and his horse fell with him on a heap of stones which cut and bruised his face”.
A worn gravestone, with a barely discernible name, laid on a pathway outside the west door of Croydon Minster, is a piece of tangible evidence from that time when hunting was common. The name on the memorial is Alfred Bignell, who died in 1837.
Bignell’s father was Joshua Bignell, who ran the Derby Arms in Pitlake, together with a livery stable at the rear of the premises. Joshua Bignell was also buried in the Parish Church graveyard, but of his memorial, there is no trace.
Decline and fall: the Bignell family’s long association with the Derby Arms did not end well
Even as late as 1851, the Derby Arms was still running its hunting and livery stables, although by that time hunting in the area was in decline. Joshua Bignell died in 1850, and it was another son, Atwood, “a chip off the old block”, who took over the running of the premises. His name appeared regularly in the local papers. He was at various times chairman of the Derby Arms Bowls Club, an equine judge for the East Surrey Agricultural Show and foreman of the jury for inquests held at the pub.
Corbet Anderson, the Victorian historian who contributed hugely to the history of Croydon, wrote in 1882 that “Old Josh” would barely be able to contain himself at the dilapidated state of the old stable which he used to keep so neat and trim.
“Old Josh”, Anderson continued, “was a kind-hearted, humane and upright man, though occasionally he was a little brusque in his manners and hot-tempered. He was not only well known at Melton and Rugby by all the men who were with the Quorn and Pytchley but also by all the swells who sported scarlet in the Midlands.
“He was a hater of humbug and a lover of horses. A man would have a hard time of it who failed to carefully nurse a hunter home after a hard day’s run with the Old Surrey.”
The Derby Arms faced Handcroft Road, and was situated a good deal further back from the road than the later pub of the same name. Until late in the 19th Century, the surrounding area will have still been open country. The Derby Arms stood in an area that was known as “Barracks-town”. The barracks had been built in 1794 and described by one reporter as “a cavalry station”.
Horse trading: the Derby Arms stables made it an important place for business
The pub was described by Ewart Bignell, a great grandson of Old Josh: “In appearance the old house was a two-floor building with two bays on either side of the west or front entrance. The door was reached by two short flights of steps, the tread at right angles to the wall, somewhat after the appearance of the Woolpack in Banstead. In front of the comfortable old building was a large walnut tree, one of many on Croydon at the time. The tree was cut down when the new pub was built.”
Back in the 1750s and 1760s, the hostelry was kept by the Bennett family, who had married into the Bignells. Several of the Bennett family were buried at the Parish Church, too, including Sarah Bennett, who died in 1875 aged 85, and who held the licence of the Derby Arms for many years.
Some fictional accounts of the hunting exploits in and around Croydon appeared in print, courtesy of Robert Surtees, the novelist. In his book, Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities, he made fun of the Croydon hunt. His character, John Jorricks, was a boisterous social climber and passionate about fox-hunting. “Hunters are carefully attended to at the Derby Arms, Croydon, a snug rural auberge near the Barrack,” Surtees wrote.
Hunting stories: Surtees’ book from the late 1800s
In another of his books, Surtees described how Croydon was often the rendezvous of London men coming to hunt. There was a variety of coloured coats = hunting scarlet, but also green, blue, black and brown. One-horse “shays” and two-horse chaises were discharging their burdens, grooms were buckling their masters’ spurs. These people would ignore the Greyhound Hotel and make straight for the Derby Arms.
Many local packs took part in the Croydon Hunt: the Derby staghounds, the Sanderstead harriers, the Union foxhounds, Mr Meager’s harriers from Croham and Mr Maberley’s hounds from Shirley.
Surtees ridiculed the Croydon Hunt of the 1820s, as so many tradesmen were taking part, rather than gentry or aristocrats. As a class distinction, he wrote, this wasn’t quite the thing.
Mr Streeter, a well-known local butcher with premises in Middle Row, loved his hunting. On the days of the hunt, he would appear out of his shop, wearing a fine green hunting coat. He would mount his horse and ride off to join the other huntsmen at the Derby Arms. Perhaps he might have bumped into a young William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair, who enjoyed attending Croydon Hunt dinners at the Derby Arms in his younger days, before he was well-known.
John Chandler was employed as an ostler – a stableman or groom employed at a hostelry – at the Derby Arms in the 1820s. In January 1828, Chandler was bitten by a fox. He was given medication but within days died from hydrophobia – rabies.
Hard to imagine: the Derby Arms, in a 20th-Century account, after its hunting days had been and gone
David Garrow’s guide to Croydon, written in 1810, also gave examples of Croydon as an important hunting location. He wrote about one individual who lived in Pound Street next to the chapel, a Mr Osboldeston. Originally from Yorkshire, Osboldeston kept his hounds in his garret and his two horses in a small stable. Osboldeston would go hunting over the local farmland and would offer the farmers a hare or two as a thank you for letting the hunt use their land.
The extent and range of the hunt’s activities could be discovered in another report. Atwood Bignell was badly injured in 1856. His horse attempted to jump a hedge but fell. Bignell was thrown violently but survived his injuries. The accident happened close to Cudham, a village about four and a half miles south of Orpington, in Kent.
Atwood was an unlucky man. He made the newspapers again in March 1874. This time he was attending the races at Lincoln when a temporary wooden stand collapsed. He was one of three people whose injuries were described as “serious”.
The Derby Arms wasn’t the only Croydon hostelry linked to hunting. The Red Lion at Smitham Bottom, the Fox at Keston, the Leg of Mutton at Ashtead, the Pig and Whistle on the Westerham Road and The Feathers at Merstham were all frequented by the Croydon and Surrey Hunts.
The hard-riding, hard-drinking men of the hunting fraternity have long gone. The rural landscape is no more, built over for housing and industry. The Derby Arms ran out of customers and closed. It would be a surprise to many living in West Croydon that both horse and hound were once a common sight in the area and that Parson’s Mead was a large tract of common land. Even a ghostly “Tally Ho” is likely to be swallowed up in the noise of the London Road traffic.
The Surtees books and an old gravestone are all that remain to tell the story of Croydon and its days as a centre of hunting.
David Morgan, pictured right, has been chronicling Croydon’s history for Inside Croydon for almost a decade. Morgan 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:
- The day Dr Bookless took the wicket of the great WG Grace
- From flames to fame, Waddon’s Knox family made their mark
- The church fire that consumed a thousand years of history
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Why on earth are you glorifying Fox Hunting?
We’re not. It’s history.