The Croydon Enclosure 1796-1801 (as it affected East Croydon)

Many thanks to Tony Skrzypczyk for Corbet Anderson’s book on the Croydon Enclosure and to Kake Pugh for sending me their spreadsheet based on it, as well as their helpful advice on how to research this topic.  Their own webpage on the Croydon Enclosures (including the enclosure map overlying a present day map) can be found here https://london-road-croydon.org/history/sources/enclosure/croydon-enclosure/. 

In Saxon times, the land between settlements belonged to no one. After the Norman invasion, such land was allotted to the Lords of the Manors.  However, their tenants held common rights with them to feed their animals, catch fish, dig turf & gravel and cut wood on the land.  From 1245, the Lords of the Manor could enclose some common land as long as all local parties with an interest in the land came to an agreement and there was enough left for the other inhabitants of the area. There were seven Lords of the Manor within the parish of Croydon, including the Archbishop of Canterbury who was the Lord of the Manors of Croydon and Waddon which included the ECCO area.

In 1773,  an Act of Parliament was passed to allow for the better cultivation of common land, with the intention of improving the food supply.  The old enclosure process by agreement was replaced by a more formal system of private, public and general acts of Parliament.  In 1796, a bill was introduced to Parliament suggesting that common land in the parish of Croydon be divided and enclosed.  Its petitioners included John Cator (Lord of the Manor of Bensham), Richard Carew (Lord of the Manor of Norbury) and the owners of land that had already been enclosed, such as John Brickwood and Richard Walpole.  The Act was passed by Parliament the following year.  

Croydon Common covered 280 acres, less than a tenth of the common land in the parish of Croydon before it was enclosed.  The map above shows part  of the Common’s southern edge abutting on what is now the northern stretch of Cherry Orchard Road. One track across the common ending here lies along the route later followed by Cross Road. Another track cuts across from the north west, following the later line of Lower Addiscombe Road. Detail from a map of London, published by John Fairburn in 1798(Reproduced courtesy of The London Archives, City of London Corporation).

At the time, common land made up about a third of Croydon parish, 2950 out of 9012 acres.  Three commissioners were appointed for dividing & allotting the land and two surveyors to plan it (including George Wildgoose of Croydon).  A map was drawn up by 1800 and the plots of land allotted to their new owners the following year.  

The road running across the bottom of the image is what is now George Street & Addiscombe Road. The current Cherry Orchard Road branches off to the north before curving the north east just before its junction with the current Cross Road. The route now known as Lower Addiscombe Road runs diagonally across the top of the image  from left to right.  Only the plots left blank were allotted in the enclosure of 1801.  Those coloured-in appear to have been in private ownership before then.  To these we may add plots 104, 105, 1466 & 1467, as these were not allotted in 1801 and contain buildings, perhaps indicating prior enclosure.  A copy of the full map can be found here https://london-road-croydon.org/history/sources/enclosure/croydon-enclosure/.  Detail of  A Plan of the Parish of Croydon in the county of Surrey shewing the allotments in the Common and common fields as divided by an Act of Parliament in the year 1800.

Before the enclosures, the largest part of the ECCO area already belonged to John Brickwood.  Nearly all the rest was part of Croydon Common.  It was gated to prevent grazing cattle from straying.  The common was traversed by gravel tracks, one of which led to Coney Lane gate on the southern border of the Common (near the junction of what are now Cross Road and Cherry Orchard Road).   There were also a few parcels of land that had already been enclosed to the west of the track leading north from the gate.  The J. Harris (who owned plot 1465) was probably James Harris the ironmonger who left three houses in Coney Lane, near Croydon Common to his wife in his will in 1799.  They may have belonged to a forge at the site used to supply his ironmongery business, as a smithy on the site is recorded in later street directories.  There was also land outside the common that belonged to the large landowners Richard Walpole (102), Mrs E. Robinson (1468, 1469 & 1449) and Charles John Clarke (1179 & 1180).  Another gravel tracks ran along what is now St James Road and Lower Addiscombe Road, leaving the common at a gate near the present Hastings Road. 

The Lords of the various Manors were allotted 1/18th of the common land each and people entitled to tithes from the land were allotted common land in lieu (which included John Brickwood).  All the rest of the common land was to be allotted to other person or organisations that the commissioners decide on as compensation for their rights of common.  The criteria for deciding on the extent of these rights is not clear, but appears to have been existing ownership of land in the parish.  It appears that the largest landowners benefitted most.  The new owners or occupiers had to fence and ditch the land awarded within three months of the execution of the award and maintain springs, streams & other watercourses so that the water should flow freely.

Map of John Brickwood holdings before (purple) & after (green) the enclosure act – in and around the area covered by the East Croydon Community Organisation (boundary in red).  The blue area next to plot 698 was a public pond.  Based on a detail of  A Plan of the Parish of Croydon in the county of Surrey shewing the allotments in the Common and common fields as divided by an Act of Parliament in the year 1800 and  https://london-road-croydon.org/history/sources/enclosure/croydon-enclosure/.  

John Brickwood already owned plots 1451-1463 (covering 49 acres) and the right to received tithes from lands elsewhere.  He was then allocated the adjoining plots 693 & 694, plus three plots to the north of what is now Lower Addiscombe Road (697, 699 & 701), as well as one further to the northeast (719).  In addition, as the expenses of surveying & allotting the land was to be covered by the sale of parts of the common land, he was able to buy at auction more than 32 acres (enough land for over 16 football pitches). These included the adjacent plot 692, plus four plots on Biggin Hill, part of Norwood Common.  Not content with that, he bought more land from the people they were allocated to, mostly near his estate (including plots 652, 653, 675, 677, 679, 691, 696, 698), one on Norwood Common and another to the south in Rippingill.  Lot 652 was bought from General Francis Grose. As a result of the enclosures, Brickwood owned at least an addition 72 acres of land.  He also rented more land, such as the Great Mead to the east of his estate (1180).

The remaining plots of land allocated in the ECCO area were generally much smaller than those given to John Brickwood.  They varied from 50sq m (plot 667 – too small to appear on the plan) to 3086 sq m (plot 691). Some of them were owned by individuals, others by organisations.  They are (in numerical order):

  • 654  Mary Glover 
  • 655  John Smith, executor of Richard Smith 
  • 656  William Sanders Robinson
  • 657  Thomas Poole
  • 658  Mary Warne, a minor
  • 661  Richard Smith 
  • 662  Croydon Common
  • 663  The Warden and Poor of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity
  • 664  Reverend Thomas Wigsell
  • 665  Elizabeth Russell
  • 666  Heirs of John Philcox 
  • 667  William Budgen , a clockmaker (too small to plot on map)
  • 668  Tutor Master and Poor of the Almshouses of Ellys Davis
  • 669  Tutor Master and Poor of the Almshouses of Ellys David 
  • 670  Robert Smith, bankrupt landlord of The Swan and the Warden & Poor of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity
  • 671  John Templer
  • 672  William Troughton
  • 673  Robert Thomas Bennett 
  • 674  Mary Amon 
  • 676  Common land
  • 678  Leonard Young
  • 680  George Wildgoose, surveyor 
  • 681  George Wildgoose, surveyor 
  • 682  Warder Vander Kirste, physician 
  • 683  Richard Holmes
  • 684  William Jones
  • 685  Charles de Houst
  • 686  Charles de Houst
  • 687  Overseers of the Poor of Croydon
  • 688  Overseers of the Poor & Church Wardens of the Parish of Croydon
  • 689  Trustees of Croydon Hermitage Land
  • 690  Church Wardens of the Parish of Croydon
  • 695  Charles John Clarke, owner of Addiscombe House

The turnpike roads and public carriage ways were staked. The latter included Addiscombe Road (now St James Road & Lower Addiscombe Road) and a private gravel carriage road called Lee’s Road that ran from the end of Coney Lane (now together called Cherry Orchard Road).  These had to be maintained by the owners and occupiers of the land within the parish.  Herbiage along the roads belonged to the owners of the land alongside it, but no one was to be allowed to graze cattle on the footways & highways.  Public footpaths were to be kept clear with sufficient stiles, gates and footbridges.  One of these ran from the current Lower Addiscombe Road over plots 697 & 698 to Woodside (the current Morland Road).   However, this did not apply to those that “the inclosures render inconvenient”. The footpath leading east from Croydon Common over the Great Meadow or Eight Acres (of Charles John Clarke, in the occupation of John Brickwood) was stopped up and discontinued.

The poor of Croydon had protested at the loss of their right to grazing their livestock and gather firewood and the act allowed for 237 acres to remain unenclosed.  However, these plots were in 28 different places and many very small.  Two of them were in the ECCO area: plot 676 at the corner of the current Cherry Orchard Road & Lower Addiscombe Road and plot 662 on the west side of the current Cross Road.  In 1806, the trustees appointed to administer them decided it would be better to sell them to pay for a new town hall, butter market and enlarge the cemetery of the parish church.

Sources

Corbett Anderson, J., 1889.  Croydon Enclosure 1787-1801. Croydon

Gent, J., 2002. Croydon Past. 2002. Philimore & Co Ltd: Chichester.  Pp. 11, 34.

Paget, C.G., 1929.  By-Ways in the History of Croydon.  Croydon: Central Library.

Pugh, K., 2021.  Croydon Enclosure Map (1800).  https://london-road-croydon.org/history/sources/enclosure/croydon-enclosure/ Accessed 2 August 2024.

Croydon Archives AR136 “The Terrier of the Archbishop of Canterbury, his lands in Croydon” 1543.

Croydon Archives C.G. Paget Notebooks 19 & 20 

Croydon Archives Croydon street directories 1849 & 1874