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Category Archives: David Morgan
Broderick’s Minster visit revives memories of master musician
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Leading opera singer and Croydon resident discusses her love for the music of Felix Mendelssohn in the same historic church where the composer once performed. By DAVID MORGAN “I can’t remember a time in my life when I … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Fairfield Halls, Music, Theatre
Tagged Croydon Minster, Dame Janet Baker, Das Rheingold, David Morgan, Die Walküre, English National Opera, Felix Mendelssohn, Götterdämmerung, JS Bach, Katherine Broderick, Royal Opera House, The Coliseum, Wagner
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Ghostly convocation that is hardly a good omen for the Palace
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: As we head into the season of ghostly stories and things that go ‘bump’ in the night, DAVID MORGAN has a tale for troubled times in Croydon… The tram rattled along Church Street and came to a halt … Continue reading
Murder mystery lingers around crimes of the Borough Poisoner
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A teenaged girl from Croydon proved to be the final victim of a notorious serial killer in Edwardian London, a man who was even linked to Jack the Ripper, as DAVID MORGAN explains In November 1902, there was … Continue reading
Dr Warder’s book The True Amazons made him the bee’s knees
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: This week’s research took DAVID MORGAN back to the turn of the 18th Century and a Croydon physician whose detailed studies revolutionised what we know about bee colonies and honey production A book written nearly 400 years ago … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Gardening, History, Wildlife
Tagged Bees, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Joseph Warder, Queen Anne
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Day that ‘Croydon Boys’ mourned their Secret Army heroine
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Remembrance does not end on November 11, nor is it limited to servicemen from this country, as DAVID MORGAN discovered when researching the life of a Belgian civilian woman resistance fighter who saved the lives of countless Croydon … Continue reading
How Croydon Parish Church remembered its brothers in arms
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: On Remembrance Sunday, using a treasured service sheet from Croydon Parish Church from more than a century ago, DAVID MORGAN outlines early efforts on the home front in World War I, and some of the many sacrifices The … Continue reading
Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture! And all by Royal command
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A chance letter to Croydon Minster has sparked an investigation by DAVID MORGAN into a briefly thriving Victorian era photography studio on North End. But who is the mystery priest? Almost everyone today can take a good photo, … Continue reading
Surrey Street’s Pightling holds unique place in WWI memorials
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: As we approach Remembrance Day next month, DAVID MORGAN outlines details of the life of one of the names on Croydon Minster’s Roll of Honour For the casual visitor, the list of names of soldiers on the Roll … Continue reading
180-year-old business that’s still ticking over in Croydon today
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The clock-making and bell foundry business established off Whitehorse Road in the mid-19th Century by William Gillett still chimes with the present day, as DAVID MORGAN explains The Croydon Times on May 8, 1886, carried a short obituary … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Clockmakers, Croydon Minster, Croydon Parish Church, David Morgan, Gillett and Co, Gillett and Johnston, Gillett and Johnston (Croydon) Ltd, Gillett Bland and Co, Sir Frederick Eldridge, Thornton Heath, West Croydon, Whitehorse Road, William Gillett
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Croydon churchwarden’s outstanding service in war and peace
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Ahead of Remembrance Day next month, using the Minster archives, DAVID MORGAN looks back on the career of a survivor, and war hero, who became a churchwarden Remembrance Day on November 11 is an opportunity to recall not … Continue reading
South Croydon luthier whose instruments sell around the world
In a workshop in the back garden of a quiet residential street, one of the world’s leading makers of guitars and ukuleles is building a business and a global reputation. DAVID MORGAN went along to meet him Daniel Lukes’ careful … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Business, David Morgan, Music, South Croydon
Tagged Daniel Lukes, David Morgan, guitar-maker, Luthier, South Croydon, The Oval Tavern, Trinity School, ukelele
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Brewer’s business empire that flowed with 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 River pollution is much in the news, with sewage and … Continue reading
Thornton Heath woman’s long fight for equality and rights
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Born in the reign of Queen Victoria, she died when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, Dora Russell was an academic, a campaigner for women’s rights and world peace, who met Chairman Mao and supported the Bolshevik Revolution. DAVID … Continue reading
Gordon family’s service that stretched through the generations
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Among the thousands of young men who passed through the gates of the East India Company’s Addiscombe academy in the 19th Century, one Scot rose through the ranks in a career that has been carefully traced by DAVID … Continue reading
That was the writer that was: Addiscombe girl called the tunes
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A 20th Century star of musical theatre from Croydon was Caryl Brahms. DAVID MORGAN highlights the life and career of this now too often forgotten and overlooked writer Fairfield Halls has hosted an incredible variety of shows over … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Art, David Morgan, History, Music, Theatre, Uncategorized
Tagged Addiscombe, BBC, Bernard Levin, Caryl Brahms, David Morgan, David Nobbs, Dennis Potter, Doris Caroline Abrahams, Frank Muir, John Cleese, Keith Waterhouse, Kenneth Tynan, Ned Sherrin, Peter Cook, Richard Ingrams, Roald Dahl, Shakespeare in Love, SJ Simon, That Was The Week That Was, Too Dirty For The Windmill
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Women’s suffrage at tea with the Bonnerjees of Bedford Park
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: An Indian family that settled in Croydon in the 1870s included brilliant, hard-working daughters who played a part in the struggle for women’s rights. By DAVID MORGAN The brass plaque on the north wall of Croydon Minster, dedicated … Continue reading
Tufnell sparked complaints and compliments in Queensland
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: There has been a Vicar of Croydon for more than a thousand years. Before next week’s formal installation service for the latest holder of that historic title, DAVID MORGAN has delved into the archives and found an earlier … Continue reading
Posted in Addington, Canon Andrew Bishop, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Archbishop John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury, Australia, Bishop of Brisbane, Bishop Tufnell, Brisbane, Canon Andrew Bishop, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Edward Tufnell, Queensland, Vicar of Croydon
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Don’t look back in anger – book shows what might have been
Croydon gets a bad rap. Yeah, we know that, with much of it recent and wholly deserved. Croydon has some fascinating history. Yeah, we know that, too. But as DAVID MORGAN found out from a book to be published next … Continue reading
Canon Bishop to take on historic post as the Vicar of Croydon
By DAVID MORGAN For more than a thousand years there has been a Vicar of Croydon. We know that Elfsie was a priest here in AD960. Gaps in our knowledge of the post-holders means that we have to jump forward … Continue reading
Struggle for survival of sawmill school and wilderness church
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: This week, DAVID MORGAN meanders across Canada to chart the founding and decline of another Croydon community, this time in British Columbia Some memories are still visible. The gravestones in the little cemetery provide reminders of folk who … Continue reading
Tough pioneer spirit took Croydon name to the Great Lakes
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The global reach of settlers from what was then a market town in Surrey extends more than 3,000 miles to a small farming village in Canada, as DAVID MORGAN explains Jump aboard a flight bound for Toronto Pearson … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History
Tagged Canada, Croydon, Croydon Ontario, David Morgan, Henry Addington, Ontario, Toronto
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Racing against the great Spitz at a Games scarred by violence
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Chariots of Fire is on the telly, the Paris Games are just five days away, and DAVID MORGAN speaks to the South Croydon-based swim coach about how he raced against one of the greatest Olympians of all time … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History, South Croydon, Southwark Council, Sport, Swimming
Tagged 1972 Munich Olympics, 1976 Montreal Olympics, 2024 Paris Olympics, City of London Police, David Morgan, David Wilkie, John Mills, Mark Spitz, Olympic Games, Olympics, South Croydon, South Croydon Swimming Club, Southwark, St James's Swimming Club, Sutton and Cheam Swimming Club
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Sir Henry Wood’s part in establishing Croydon’s music heritage
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Diddly-omm-pom-Proms… The world-famous annual festival of music is about to start, and as DAVID MORGAN explains, the figure most closely associated with its establishment, together with Sir Edward Elgar, helped start a cultural festival in Croydon The opening … Continue reading
