Thornton Heath Pond Prior to 1906. And Frank Courtney.

            The Postcard

A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Norwood, London SE using a ½d. stamp on Friday the 13th. July 1906. The card was sent to:

Mrs. Mullinger,
c/o Miss Matthews,
Barbican House,
Hollingbury Road,
Brighton.

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

"Many thanks for PC.
Glad you are enjoying
yourselves A1.
How is the weather? It
has been rather dull 
here all the week.
They are getting on
first rate at home.
Went down Wednesday 
night.
With love from
Nell."

Thornton Heath Pond

The old pond at Thornton Heath is in the middle of the London to Brighton road between Croydon and Streatham. The pond appears on all the earliest maps of Croydon, and was an important public watering place for horses and cattle moving to and from Croydon. 

It is possible that the charcoal burners who operated in the area from at least the 16th. century and probably much earlier used the pond as their source of water - hence the name Colliers Water Lane nearby.

However by the late 19th. century, with increasingly heavy traffic, the pond became a potential hazard. In 1891 for example, a parcel mail coach on its way from Brighton to London in fog ended up in the pond.

In 1897 the pond was surrounded by railings, and a new fountain was erected in the middle to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. It is clearly visible in the photograph.

In 1953 the pond was filled in and turned into an ornamental garden with a small pool. (I wonder what happened to the fountain???)

Spasmodic vandalism led the council to fill in even this small pool in 1975, and Thornton Heath Pond became little more than a busy traffic roundabout on the A23.

Nevertheless, there are regular calls to get the pond reinstated in some way, and it may be back one day.  

One feature which will not be back is the Gallows which stood close by, and which was used in order to hang numerous convicted highwaymen.

Frank Courtney

So what else happened on the day that Nell posted the card?

Well, the 13th. July 1906 marked the birth in Reading, Berkshire, England of Frank Courtney.

Francis Bernard Courtney was a Canadian rower. He competed in the men's coxless four event at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Frank Courtney in World War II

Courtney served as a major in the South Saskatchewan Regiment during the Second World War. 

He was killed on the 28th. August 1944 whilst fighting in the Basse-Normandie region of German-occupied France. He was 38 years of age when he died.

Frank was laid to rest at Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery which is between Caen and Falaise in lower Normandy.
   

Taken on: August 13, 2023

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

nostalgic

Thornton

Heath

Pond

1906

Norwood

Mrs.

Mullinger

Miss

Matthews

Barbican

House

Hollingbury

Road

Brighton

Nell

Frank

Courtney

France

Normandy

25THP82 « less

Sets appears in: • Thornton Heath • UK

Stats: 575 views / 1 comment

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder