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Category Archives: David Morgan
Minster memorial celebrates life of Victorian woman reformer
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Croydon society in the late 1800s included several organisations formed to provide help, education and training to the destitute, and their work was at the heart of social reforms to come. DAVID MORGAN profiles the life of one … Continue reading
How Melbourne’s White Flats is linked forever to Croydon
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A thriving business and shopping district, quick public transport links to the city centre, and established city status for a half a century. DAVID MORGAN has traced the history of Croydon outside Melbourne back to its pioneer beginnings … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History
Tagged Australia, Croydon, David Morgan, Gregory Lacey, Melbourne, Victoria
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Whitgift Centre getting some new tunes from an old organ
Croydon has a working pipe organ providing music in a shopping centre, as our organs in shopping centre correspondent, DAVID MORGAN, reports The promo video produced by the London Mozart Players ahead of last weekend’s Mozart at the Minster concert … Continue reading
A thousand years of history: join our Minster tour, Nov 28
Croydon Minster has been at the heart of the life of the town for more than a thousand years. And on Tuesday, November 28, you will have a chance to discover a myriad of fascinating details of the connections between … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History, Inside Croydon
Tagged Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History tour, Inside Croydon
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Purley schoolboy who reached for the sky in Battle of Britain
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The Minster archives are full of accounts of those who gave their lives in the world wars. DAVID MORGAN recounts the story of one, a fighter pilot who just might have been memorialised in a famous movie While … Continue reading
Family keepsakes providing last link to another of war’s victims
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Life at the front in World War I was often brief, bloody and brutal. DAVID MORGAN uncovers some of the last pieces of correspondence from one of the soldiers inscribed on Croydon Minster’s Roll of Honour A few … Continue reading
Lady Mary’s Restoration tunes and her ghostly legacies
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The registers at Croydon Minster contain 17th Century records of the Harvey family who worked for Archbishop Laud and, as DAVID MORGAN explains, had a musician daughter who made a notable piece of history It is another claim … Continue reading
Goodwyn’s list that takes us back through to Tudor times
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A document from the church archive, which dates back to the 16th Century, provides a vital insight into society 500 years ago, as DAVID MORGAN explains Nearly 500 years ago, the curate at Croydon Parish Church, John Goodwyn, … Continue reading
Victorians’ favourite artist for capturing lines of Classic winners
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: From his home on Warrington Road, George Paice became one of the leading Victorian and Edwardian-era artists, specialising in painting the gentry’s pets and racehorses. DAVID MORGAN traces his career, beginning from a WWI memorial in Croydon Minster … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Epsom Oaks, George Paice, Pretty Polly, Stanley Paice, World War I, World War One
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Sharpe’s rebellion in Jamaica highlighted the plight of slaves
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Concluding his tour of places around the world named after Croydon, DAVID MORGAN takes a look at a former plantation in Jamaica and its links to a famous slave uprising One of the popular destinations for tourists today … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History
Tagged Abolition Bill, Croydon, David Morgan, Jamaica, Montego Bay, Sam Sharpe, Slavery, William Gladstone
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Tudor sculptor’s Minster memorials stand the test of time
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Following up on an enquiry from a visitor to Croydon Minster, DAVID MORGAN goes in search of the sculptor of one of the church’s best-known tombs Visitors to Croydon Minster often ask interesting questions about the history of … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Archbishop Grindal, Archbishop John Whitgift, Cornelius Cure, Croydon, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, John Whitgift, King Henry VIII, King James I, Mary Queen of Scots, Nonsuch Palace, Queen Elizabeth I, William Cure
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80 years on the stage – taking Croydon from the Blitz to Narnia
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first performances by CODA, the Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, making it one of the longest-lasting community arts organisations in the borough. DAVID MORGAN looks into how the group came … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ashcroft Theatre, CODA, David Morgan, History, Theatre
Tagged Ashcroft Theatre, CODA, Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, David Morgan, Fairfield Halls, Grand Theatre, Grand Theatre and Opera House, Kenneth Horne, Narnia, Russell Grant, Second World War, Simon Le Bon, The Blitz, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, World War II, World War Two
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The chimney sweep to Queen Victoria and ancestor to a star
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: No need to go all Dick Van Dyke, when Croydon had its very own chimney sweep to the Queen, no less, as DAVID MORGAN has discovered in his latest delve into the Croydon Minster archive “Good luck will … Continue reading
The ‘incompetent’ Lebombo scout who helped win Boer War
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: In the latest stage of his world tour of places named after Croydon, DAVID MORGAN encounters some old-style adventurers in southern Africa If you are a fan of the quiz show Pointless, then you will know that Eswatini … Continue reading
Croydon gold rush that saw thousands move to the outback
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Using the parish records from the Croydon Minster archive as his starting point, DAVID MORGAN’s world tour takes him to the harsh Queensland sheep stations of the 1880s “There’s gold in them thar hills!” The cry goes up, … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Minster, Croydon Queensland, David Morgan, Normanton, Queensland, William Brown
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The battle to save ticket offices – and Croydon’s private army
Our latest podcast includes among our guests former Olympic sprinter Donna Fraser. It’s the first time on our podcast we have had the pleasure of the company of someone who holds the Freedom of the Borough, as Donna does.
Spectacular history of Addiscombe college is required reading
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: It played a significant part of the history of Croydon, and of Britain, yet today is largely forgotten. DAVID MORGAN reviews an important and surprising new book about Addiscombe Military College Kate Birbeck’s new book Addiscombe Military College … Continue reading
Posted in Addington Palace, Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History, Museum of Croydon
Tagged Addiscombe, Addiscombe Military College, Addiscombe Military College and the Cadets who Forged an Empire, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, East India Company, Kate Birbeck
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Hardships and dangers on the Utah trail heading to Croydon
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The pioneering settlers of early 19th Century America expressed their ‘manifest destiny’ by founding a settlement in the Rockies that they called ‘Croydon’. DAVID MORGAN explores what they will have found on the Utah frontier There is, you … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History
Tagged Brigham Young, Croydon, Croydon Utah, David Morgan, Morgan County, Salt Lake City, Utah
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Millionaire Mayor who made sacrifices for others and an ideal
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: One of the borough’s most-revered figures from the Edwardian era lost everything when he declared himself bankrupt. DAVID MORGAN recounts the noble story of Howard Houlder With Heathfield House and its gardens falling steadily into a state of … Continue reading
How Croydon lodged itself forever in a part of Philadelphia
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: In the tumultuous 18th Century, a time of trade, international war and revolution, Croydon’s links with America were many and varied, as DAVID MORGAN’s latest researches have discovered One of the names that I have found in the … Continue reading
Kelly’s heroics and the tale of a soldier’s hard life and death
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: One of the feted heroes in Wellington’s army made a home in Croydon but, as DAVID MORGAN explains, his duties took him far from his wife and family “Daddy! Daddy! Tell us again the story of what you … Continue reading
Gravestone destruction erases link to Royal Waggon Train
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: One of the casualties of the churchyard vandalism at Croydon Minster last month was the gravestone of an old soldier who served in the Napoleonic Wars. DAVID MORGAN looks at the service of John Kennedy and two other … Continue reading
