Recent Comments
Derek Thrower on Perry’s ‘caught on… Jim Bush on Perry’s ‘caught on… insidecroydon on Study shows that ULEZ helps im… Keith Phillips on Study shows that ULEZ helps im… Chris Flynn on Thanks to the magic of Merlin… Sarah Hartman on Petty Perry blocks residents…
Tag Archives: David Morgan
The high street business that made sure Croydon was on song
CROYDON CHRONICLES: A talented musician established a business that over the course of 60 years taught and encouraged at least 30,000 youngsters to sing, play an instrument or perform on stage. DAVID MORGAN looks at the life and career of … Continue reading
Teacher whose poetry saw ‘The Merry Gang’ visiting Croydon
CROYDON CHRONICLES: A Restoration period writer who taught at the Free School made friends with ‘literary lords’ and the Poet Laureate. DAVID MORGAN looks back nearly 400 years to the life and work of John Oldham Poetry performances – spoken … Continue reading
Posted in Art, David Morgan, Poetry, Schools, Whitgift School
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Free School, David Morgan, Earl of Kingston, Jhn Oldham, John Dryden, King Charles II, Lord Rochester, Oliver Cromwell, Poetry, Samuel Pepys, The Civilised Savage, Whitgift School, Will's Coffee House
Leave a comment
Summer special offer: listen to our latest Croydon Insider FREE
Our special summer edition of the Croydon Insider podcast is available now – and completely free of charge. With a special line-up of guests – all Inside Croydon readers or contributors – in this episode we discuss a vast range … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Insider, Gabriel MacArthur, Gardening, Inside Croydon, Nadia Azizuddin
Tagged Banstead, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Insider, David Morgan, Gabriel MacArthur, Hammersfield, Inside Croydon, London Borough of Croydon, Lorna Maye, Mayfield Lavender Farm, Nadia Azizuddin, The Civilised Savage, The Croydon Insider, Under The Flyover, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
Leave a comment
The Whybrew family trade that really put a feather in your cap
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Trades and professions come and go with the passing years, as fashions ebb and flow. Using the Minster’s archive records, DAVID MORGAN discovers another skill, common in Victorian times and used by a local family firm, but which … Continue reading
Pioneer of sociology whose book called for an evolution
CROYDON CHRONICLES: A quiet residential street in South Croydon was where one of the leading works of 19th-Century philosophy was drafted and written. DAVID MORGAN looks at the life and works of Benjamin Kidd After Benjamin Kidd died of heart … Continue reading
After eight years, Bishop prepares for his final Minster service
CROYDON CHRONICLES: History is happening every day, all around us. And today marks the latest important date in the 700-year history of the Vicar of Croydon. By DAVID MORGAN Father Andrew Bishop was in a reflective mood when I caught … Continue reading
The weather warnings from history: thunderbolts and lightning
CROYDON CHRONICLES: A timely trawl through the Minster archive has discovered reports of extreme weather episodes going back more than 400 years. By DAVID MORGAN “Rycharde Esteinge, a young man, being killed suddenlye with a stroke of thunder and lightning … Continue reading
150 years after the last round-up for the Croydon Wool Fair
CROYDON CHRONICLES: For much of the Victorian era, Croydon was a trading centre for Surrey farmers trading one of the products on which the nation’s economy had depended for centuries. But by 1876, all that was about to change. DAVID … Continue reading
Carriage driver yelled ‘Murder!’ in a Victorian road rage episode
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Almost 200 years ago, travelling even modest distances, between the capital and coast, could be a perilous business – especially if you had a short-tempered baronet driving your stagecoach at high speed. DAVID MORGAN explains Impatience on the … Continue reading
Roll up! Roll up! Enjoy Croydon’s summer fayre, 1920s style
CROYDON CHRONICLES: With summer fairs being planned and organised across the borough, this week DAVID MORGAN looks back more than 100 years at the stalls and events staged for the church fête of 1921 The bunting’s up. The marquee is … Continue reading
Biggles and the curious case of the curate from Croydon
CROYDON CHRONICLES: One of the most-read fictional action heroes of the 20th Century was based at Croydon Airport. DAVID MORGAN pulls on his sheepskin helmet and goggles and goes in search of adventure Biggles, the character James Bigglesworth, appeared in … Continue reading
When ‘Race Around The World’ was a tea shipper’s business
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Victorian England depended on trade with the rest of the world, and a vast fleet of merchant sailing ships operated by private businesses, often based in the City of London. As DAVID MORGAN outlines, one such company was … Continue reading
Grave error in the failure to reconstruct great Grindal’s tomb
CROYDON CHRONICLES: The Minster’s archive is a rich source of documents, registers, publications and correspondence that have yielded vast quantities of detail and information about the history of Croydon for DAVID MORGAN. But here is a letter that the archivist … Continue reading
Here’s Croydon’s election results – from Coronation year 1953
In a special edition of the Croydon Chronicles as the borough goes to the polls, DAVID MORGAN has trawled through the Minster archive to take a look at how local elections were run more than 70 years ago Allegations of … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History
Tagged 1953, Conservative, Coronation year, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Labour, Liberal Party, London, London Borough of Croydon, Tory, Winston Churchill
3 Comments
‘Young people out of hand’: perennial problem of street crime
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Mobs of young people roaming the streets, stealing from shops and terrorising the neighbourhood – just an everyday episode in Croydon, not from last month but during the Edwardian era. DAVID MORGAN delves into the Minster archive The … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, David Morgan, History
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Chronicles, Croydon police, David Morgan, Hooliganism, Hooligans, London, Magistrates' Court
2 Comments
Croydon Minster choir on the road to Windsor and the Abbey
Today marks the centenary of the birth of Elizabeth Windsor, who as Queen Elizabeth II set records as the United Kingdom’s longest reigning monarch – 70 years and 214 days – until her death in September 2022, aged 96. So … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Church and religions, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Music, Whitgift School
Tagged Croydon, Croydon Minster, Croydon Minster choir, David Morgan, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II, St George's Chapel, Westminster Cathedral, Whitgift School, Whitgift School Choir
Leave a comment
Duke survived death after he hunted with Croydon’s hounds
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Croydon Minster, David Morgan, History
Tagged Alfred Bignell, Croydon Hunt, Croydon Minster, Croydon Parish Church, David Morgan, Duke of Cumberland, Fox-hunting, Joshua Bignell, King George II, Old Surrey Hunt, Parsons Mead, Pitlake, Rabies, The Derby Arms, The Old Surrey and Burstow Hunt:, West Croydon
3 Comments
The day Dr Bookless took the wicket of the great WG Grace
CROYDON CHRONICLES: A long career in medicine based at Croydon General Hospital and on Harley Street followed for a sporting young man who, when a student at Guy’s Hospital, once enjoyed a cricket moment of a lifetime. DAVID MORGAN explains … Continue reading
Posted in Church and religions, Cricket, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Health, History, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital
Tagged British Medical Journal, cricket, Croydon, Croydon General Hospital, Croydon Minster, Croydon Parish Church, Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace Park, David Morgan, Dr John Bookless, Guy's Hospital, London, London County Cricket Club, Mayday Hospital, Purley Hospital, WG Grace
Leave a comment
From flames to fame, Waddon’s Knox family made their mark
CROYDON CHRONICLES: From the night of the Great Fire of Croydon, DAVID MORGAN tells the story of a family of vicars and bishops, of writers and editors, and Enigma codebreakers The fire which destroyed Croydon Parish Church in 1867 had … Continue reading
Vicar of Croydon announces move to Walsingham this summer
Canon Andrew Bishop is standing down as the Vicar of Croydon, to take up a position in the Diocese of Norwich. The Vicar of Croydon is an ancient church position that dates back to Saxon times, closely associated with Croydon … Continue reading
The wartime night that the ‘first lady of jazz’ sang for Croydon
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Adelaide Hall performed at the Cotton Club, sang with Duke Ellington and took to the stage in the Berlin of Sally Bowles. And she was a star of the old Croydon Empire, as DAVID MORGAN explains It was … Continue reading
Music Hall performer whose potato song helped the war effort
CROYDON CHRONICLES: Musical director of the Croydon Empire theatre enjoyed a colourful career and played a part in the community, writes DAVID MORGAN A century ago, long before we had mass media in our living rooms and at our finger … Continue reading
Posted in David Morgan, History, Music, Theatre
Tagged Croydon Empire, David Morgan, History, Jack Morgan, Music Hall, Second World War, Theatre
Leave a comment
From a few lines in Henry V, actor stood alongside the greats
CROYDON CHRONICLES: An outstanding producer-director at The Old Vic who performed alongside the likes of Sir Henry Irving and Sir Laurence Olivier, and appeared in some of the most notable films of the 1940s and ’50s, Harcourt Williams’ acting talent … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Cinema, David Morgan, History, Theatre, Uncategorized
Tagged Around The World In Eighty Days, Audrey Hepburn, Croydon, David Morgan, Gregory Peck, Hamlet, Harcourt Williams, Henry V, John Gelgud, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Roman Holiday, Sir Henry Irving, The Old Vic, Whitgift Grammar Shool, Whitgift School, William Shakespeare
Leave a comment
Cycle Carnival saw thousands lining the streets for good cause
CROYDON CHRONICLES: There was a time when the town’s streets were not such a hostile environment for cyclists as they are today. They even had an annual event to celebrate, and raise large amounts for charity. DAVID MORGAN takes up … Continue reading
Posted in Cycling, David Morgan, History
Tagged Croydon Cycle Carnival, Croydon Minster, David Morgan, Wulfruna
Leave a comment
