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Category Archives: Croydon Minster
Friday lunchtime music recitals, Croydon Minster, Jan-Mar 2026
C O M M U N I T Y A D V E R T I S E M E N T
PANTO WARS! Which shows are worth seeing this Christmas
OUTSIDE CROYDON: Ken Towl has reviewed the pantomimes being performed in Croydon and Bromley this festive season. But there’s lots more family shows available across London. Here’s DAVID MORGAN’s suggestions
Mead’s Minster time to end after 32 years of church service
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Denise Mead became verger at Croydon Parish Church in 1993. This week, after working with three Vicars of Croydon, organising countless church events and welcoming Archbishops and a Princess Royal to Croydon, she will take her leave for … Continue reading
This was a pub landlord who never needed any bouncers
CROYDON CHRONICLE: The Crown on North End, demolished in 1950, was a coaching inn with a history that stretched back 500 years, and whose many landlords included Jack Martin, a bare-knuckle boxer from the Regency era whose fights would attract … Continue reading
Posted in Boxing, David Morgan, History
Tagged Boxing, Croydon, David Morgan, Jack Martin, Jack Randall, KIng George IV, North End, Prince of Wales, Regency England, The Crown
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10 shillings to join the Goose Club and lay on a Christmas feast
CROYDON CHRONICLE: Christmas is coming, as the old saying goes, and the goose is getting fat… DAVID MORGAN looks back to the Dickensian era, when financial planning for the end-of-year revels was serious business for the likes of Surrey Street … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History, Surrey Street
Tagged Charles Dickens, Christmas, Crown Hill, David Morgan, Goose Club, Marmaduke Willis, Phiz, Surrey Street, West Croydon
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Oh yes she is! Victorian dancer who became a pantomime star
CROYDON CHRONICLES: One of the great British traditions of this time of year is the family visit to the theatre, or to a church hall for the local am-dram performance, during pantomime season. DAVID MORGAN traces the career of Caroline … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Comedy, Dance, David Morgan, Fairfield Halls, History, Music, Stanley Halls, Theatre
Tagged Caroline Parkes, Charles Fenton, Croydon, Croydon Chronicles, Crystal Palace, David Morgan, Dick Whittington, Fairfield Halls, Panto, pantomime, Sanderstead Dramatic Club, Stanley Halls, The Brothers Grinn, Theatre Royal
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Old Town Carols, with brass band, Croydon Minster, Dec 7
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Carols by candlelight at Croydon Minster, from Sun Nov 30
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
The casualties of war are not always killed on the battlefield
THE CROYDON CHRONICLES: There is history all around the Minster, not only in the archive, as shown this week as DAVID MORGAN provides the story behind one of the church’s plaques, which dates from more than 120 years ago, and … Continue reading
Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged 12th Royal Lancers, Arthur Conan-Doyle, Battle of Modder River, Boer War, Croydon, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, General Kitchener, James Laver, Kimberley, Lord Roberts, Natal, Queen Victoria, Second Boer War
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The heretic bishop who recanted to avoid burning at the stake
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Reginald Peacock was consecrated as a bishop in a service conducted in the Archbishop’s palace in Croydon, but had to survive a show trial and ritual humiliation on the streets of Medieval London, as DAVID MORGAN writes The … Continue reading
Posted in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Agincourt, Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Thomas Bouchier, Bishop of Chichester, Bishop of St Asaph, Bishop Reginald Peacock, Chichester, Croydon Minster, Croydon Parish Church, David Morgan, Dick Whittington, Hundred Years War, John Wycliffe, King Henry V, King Henry VI, Lollards, Old Palace, Pope Calixtus III, Reginald Peacock, St Asaph, Wars of the Roses
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After seven years, council dusts off sketches for Minster Green
There is to be a brief exhibition of long-delayed plans for Minster Green staged at Croydon Minster from Tuesday November 25 to Saturday November 29, from 11.30am to 4pm (to 7pm on Wednesday November 26). The issues of creating a … Continue reading
Old Town Carols, with brass band, Croydon Minster, Dec 7
S U B S C R I B E R A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Remembrance and History: a special Croydon Insider episode
Can you help in our appeal, with the Deputy Lieutenant of Croydon, in providing details of personnel from Croydon who have been killed on active duty in the years since the end of World War II? On Remembrance Sunday, our … Continue reading
Posted in Bourne Society, Croydon Airport, Croydon Insider, Croydon Minster, Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society, David Morgan, History, Inside Croydon, Johnny Dobbyn, Under The Flyover
Tagged Battle of the Somme, Caterham, Croydon, Croydon Airport, David Morgan, Deputy Lieutenant of Croydon, Fiona Satiro, First World War, Johnny Dobbyn, London, Menin Gate, Phil Swallow, Remembrance Day, Remembrance Sunday, Royal West Surrey Regiment, Second World War, Warlingham, World War I, World War II, World War One, World War Two, Ypres
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Armistice Day: when Croydon was ‘beflagged’ with good cause
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Croydon’s joyful response to the news that war had ended in 1918 was widely covered in the local newspapers 107 years ago. DAVID MORGAN sifts through the cuttings in the Minster archives By this time next Sunday, most … Continue reading
Our archive of Inside Croydon’s Remembrance Day articles
Each year, around the time of the ceremonies for Remembrance Day, the Croydon Minister archivist, DAVID MORGAN, has produced a series of often moving articles about the sacrifices made by the men and women of the parish in the 20th … Continue reading
The Croydon schoolboy who was among Ypres’ first casualties
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: The Third Battle of Ypres in 1917 lasted five months and claimed 300,000 allied casualties. DAVID MORGAN recounts the tragic story of one of them, Captain Henry Willders-Lewis, from Croydon, who died on the first day of the … Continue reading
Wandle Park postcard begins trace of a Pitlake family’s history
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: They were the WhatsApp and TikTok of their time, and Edwardian era postcards can provide intriguing beginnings to local history searches, as DAVID MORGAN found out In the early years of the 20th century, the sending of postcards … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon parks, David Morgan, History, Selhurst, Waddon, Wandle Park, West Croydon
Tagged Alice Boddison, Big Ben, Croydon, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Derby Arms, Isaac Boddison, Ontario, Peterborough Ontario, Pitlake, Selhurst, Waddon, Wandle Park, West Croydon, White Star Line
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The Town Hall hero of the Great War who ran Croydon’s baths
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A special ceremony held at Croydon Town Hall in November 1918 saw a council worker awarded the Military Medal and the Croix de Guerre. DAVID MORGAN tells the story of Ernest Saunders’ bravery in battle We are at … Continue reading
Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Croix de Guerre, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Minster, Croydon Parish Church, Croydon Town Hall, David Morgan, Ernest Saunders, First World War, Military Medal, Remembrance Sunday, The Great War, World War I, World War One
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Cranmer and Croydon’s part in the Book of Common Prayer
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: This week’s announcement of the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury will have revived interest in Croydon’s connections with the role, with six of Dame Sarah Mullally’s predecessors being buried at the Minster. Here, DAVID MORGAN tells … Continue reading
Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Anne Boleyn, Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Catherine of Aragon, Church of England, Croydon, Croydon Minster, Croydon Palace, David Morgan, English Reformation, Hugh Latimer, King Edward VI, King Henry VIII, Nicholas Ridley, Queen Mary, Queen Mary I, Roman Catholic, Thomas Cromwell, Tower of London
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Former Sutton vicar to become 106th Archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally, once the country’s leading NHS nurse, later a trailblazing vicar in Sutton, has today been named as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to be appointed to the position in more than 1,400 years. “Sarah’s brilliant,” one … Continue reading
Posted in Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of Croydon, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, Dame Sarah Mullally, Rosemarie Mallett, Sutton Council
Tagged Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of Croydon, Bishop of London, Croydon Minster, Croydon Parish Church, Dame Sarah Mullally, House of Lords, Justin Welby, Rt Rev Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Sarah Mullally, St Nicholas Church
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Singing the praises of Amazing Grace, Croydon Minster, Oct 15
Amazing Grace is one of the most famous of hymns. It was written by John Newton, who was born 300 years ago this year. Grace Will Lead Me Home is a musical event which will celebrate Newton and his hymn, … Continue reading
Croydon Commander with friends in high Admiralty places
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: Trawling through documents that are more than 200 years old provides DAVID MORGAN with precious insights into people’s lives and times Historic wills are fascinating documents. And there’s plenty of them in the Croydon Minster archive… A will … Continue reading
Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats GCB, Algeciras campaign, Captain Adolphus FitzClarence, Commander Richard Griffith, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Greenwich Hospital, HMS Redwing, Horatio Nelson, King William IV, Lord Nelson, Napoleonic Wars, Newfoundland, Royal Navy
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