This week marks the 148th anniversary of the first move to preserve Wimbledon and Putney Commons as the precious 1100-acre public green space we know today.

On 11 November 1864, Sir Henry Peek, owner of the 100-acre Wimbledon House estate on the other side of Parkside, sent a shorthand writer to a meeting at the Village Hall to record proposals by Earl Spencer, Lord of the Manor, for the enclosure of Wimbledon Common and housing development on Putney Heath.

Spencer owned all of the common land along with the Commoners – people living around it who each owned 12 acres of their own and had a traditional right to collect wood and other materials from it. Spencer’s plan was to enclose the parkland, build himself a new manor house near today’s Windmill, and pay for it by the sale of Putney Heath.

His proposals were promoted as a means of stopping undesirable gypsies from ruining the unprotected “wasteland”. This argument was accepted by the Commoners who gave up their own rights in return for compensation and so provided Spencer with absolute control of the land.

Peek and other leading residents determined to fight this and established a Wimbledon Commons Committee in order to preserve the whole area for the benefit of the public.

The implications were relevant not just for Wimbledon but elsewhere in the country, particularly the London area which was losing much common land at the time to rapid urbanisation. In 1865 the Commons Preservation Society was formed and next year this helped to secure the Metropolitan Commons Act, tightening local authority control over commons in general.

In Wimbledon, although Spencer dropped his earlier proposals, he refused to give in. As undisputed owner, he now drained swampland, opened a large brickfield near Caesar’s Well, expanded gravel digging near Parkside and leased part of the Commons for a sewage farm.

The battle continued but after seven years, in 1871 an Act of Parliament finally came into force protecting Wimbledon and Putney Commons in perpetuity. Spencer accepted the vast sum of £1200 a year in return for handing over the Commons to a new body of Conservators who would preserve them for public exercise, recreation and the preservation of natural flora and fauna. The annual payments to the Spencer family continued for another 87 years until 1958 but the Commons had been saved.

Peek’s tireless campaigning had played a crucial role in securing the 1871 Act. So it was ironic perhaps that it was his own beautiful estate on the other side of Parkside that was lost to developers less than 30 years later, soon after his departure. This had included what was acknowledged as one of the finest gardens in the London area, together with a farm, private menagerie and a beautiful lake. It had been open to the public once a year. Today it has vanished virtually without trace.

The Wimbledon Society is working with the Wimbledon Guardian to ensure that you, the readers, can share the fascinating discoveries that continue to emerge about our local heritage.

For more information, visit wimbledonsociety.org.uk and www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk.

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