November Pictures

From Dittopedia

24th November

In a reference to the London game of skittles, J. Wentworth Day refers to the following pubs:

They play a pretty game -- mark you with wooden ‘cheeses’ and not with balls as in the west country -- at the Freemason’s Arms, Downshire Hill, Hampstead, at the Haven Arms, Haven Lane, Ealing, at The Duke’s Head, which is on the river front at Putney, at the not so far off Angel on the Portsmouth Road at Thames Ditton, and at The King’s Head, Kingston, and finally if you live northwards at The Orange Tree in Friern Barnet.

23rd November

On some Easter Sundays, large numbers of London's cyclists headed down England's most prestigious cycling road through Ditton (stopping at The Angel), Ripley, and Guildford, 65 miles to Winchester to spend the night.

22nd November

William IV was on the throne when the first recorded cricket match took place on Giggs Hill Green. The year was 1833, and a Ditton side played against the gentleman of Richmond and Brentford. The result was never recorded nor the names of the players who took part, but the beer was only two pence a pint. At this time the club operated from The Angel, which still overlooks the Green.

21st November

On 11th July 1760, the Church Overseers made an agreement at the Angel Inn with Thomas Keel, a local labourer, to become master of the workhouse for three years. He took control of a building in Thorkhill Road, which at the time was called Workhouse Lane.

20th November

The Angel derives its name from an ancient English gold coin.

An Angel is a gold coin, first used in France (where it was also known as an Angelot and an Ange) in 1340, and introduced into England by Edward IV in 1465 as a new issue of the 'noble' and so at first called the angel-noble. It varied in value between that period and the time of Charles I, when it was last coined (1642) from 6s. 8d. to 10s. The name was derived from the representation it bore of St. Michael and the dragon. The angel was the coin given to those who came to be touched for the disease known as king's evil; after it was no longer coined, medals, called touch-pieces, with the same device, were given instead.

19th November

Francis-Seymour Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford KG PC (5th July 1718 – 14th June 1794) was born in Chelsea but spent a significant part of his life at Forde's Farm, which was eventually demolished to make way for Boyle Farm.

Lord Conway married Charlotte Shorter, a daughter of John Shorter of Bybrook. They were the parents of the Marquess. His father died when the younger Francis was about fourteen years old. The first few years after his father's death were spent in Italy and Paris. On his return to England he took his seat, as 2nd Baron Conway, among the Peers in November 1739.

On 29 May 1741 he married Lady Isabella Fitzroy, daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, and they became the parents of thirteen children.

In August 1750 he was created Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford. In 1755, according to Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, ' The Earl of Hertford, a man of unblemished morals, but rather too gentle and cautious, to combat so presumptuous a court, was named Ambassador to Paris. ' However, due to the demands of the French, the journey was suspended.

From 1751 to 1766 he was Lord of the Bedchamber to George II and George III. In 1756 he was made a Knight of the Garter and, in 1757, Lord-Lieutenant and Guardian of the Rolls of the County of Warwick and City of Coventry.

In 1763 he became Privy Councillor and, from October 1763 to June 1765, was a successful ambassador in Paris. In the autumn of 1765 he became Viceroy of Ireland where, as an honest and religious man, he was well-liked.

An anonymous satirist in 1777 described him as 'the worst man in His Majesty's dominions ', and also emphasised Hertford's greed and selfishness, adding ' I cannot find any term for him but avaricious' . However, this anonymous attack does not seem to be justified.

In 1782 when she was only fifty-six, his wife died after having nursed their grandson at Forde's Farm, Thames Ditton where she caught a violent cold. According to Walpole, 'Lord Hertford's loss is beyond measure. She was not only the most affectionate wife, but the most useful one, and almost the only person I ever saw that never neglected or put off or forgot anything that was to be done. She was always proper, either in the highest life or in the most domestic.'

Walpole visited Forde's Farm on several occasions from his residence at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. Within two years of the tragedy, Lord Hertford had sold Forde's Farm to Mrs Charlotte Boyle Walsingham, and a further two years later, she had re-developed the estate, building a new mansion which she called Boyle Farm, a name still in use today.

In July 1793 he was created Earl of Yarmouth and Marquess of Hertford. He enjoyed this elevation for almost a year until his death at the age of seventy-six, on 14 July 1794, at the house of his daughter, the Countess of Lincoln. He died as the result of an infection following a minor injury he received while riding. He was buried at Arrow in Warwickshire.

18th November

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a nineteenth-century English poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history.

The son of Zachary Macaulay, a British colonial governor and abolitionist, Macaulay was born in Leicestershire and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Macaulay was noted as a child prodigy. As a toddler, gazing out the window from his cot at the chimneys of a local factory, he is reputed to have put the question to his mother: "Does the smoke from those chimneys come from the fires of hell?" Whilst at Cambridge he wrote much poetry and won several prizes. In 1825 he published a prominent essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review. In 1826 he was called to the bar, but showed more interest in a political than a legal career.

During his first period out of office he composed the Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history. The most famous of them, Horatius, concerns the lone heroism of Horatius Cocles. It contains the often-quoted lines:

Then out spake brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate:

"To every man upon this earth death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods."

During the 1840s he began work on his most famous history, the History of England from the accession of James II, publishing the first two volumes in 1848. The next two volumes appeared in 1855. He is said to have completed the final volumes of the history at Greenwood Lodge, Ditton Marsh, Thames Ditton, which he rented in 1854. He had only reached the reign of King William III when he died.

17th November

Arthur Onslow gained much by his marriage to Ann, niece of Henry Bridges, owner of Imber Court. His father-in-law died in the mid-20s, and Onslow came into the entire estate, which had increased through the addition of the holding of Ann's sister, who had recently died. Onslow made Imber Court his principal seat. Early in his career, Onslow became High Steward of Kingston upon Thames. When he died in 1768 at the age of 76, he was buried at St Nicholas Church, Thames Ditton. But subsequently his body, and that of his wife Ann, were moved to the Onslow burial site at Merrow Church, near Clandon.

16th November

Arthur Onslow (1691-1768) was an English politician. He was the elder son of Foot Onslow (died 1710).

Educated at Winchester School and at Wadham College, Oxford, he became a barrister, rising to Recorder of Guildford, and in 1720 entered Parliament as a member for the borough of Guildford. Seven years later he became one of the members for Surrey with the highest majority ever recorded, and he retained this seat until 1761. In 1728 he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons, being the third member of his family to hold this office; he was also chancellor to George II's queen, Caroline, and from 1734 to 1742 he was Treasurer of the Navy.

He retired from the position of Speaker and from parliament in 1761, whereupon he was granted the Freedom of the City of London. As Speaker, Onslow was a conspicuous success, displaying knowledge, tact and firmness in his office; in his leisure hours he was a collector of books. He was exceptional for his reputation for impartiality and integrity, at a time when corruption among politicians was rife. He was also the longest-serving speaker in the history of Westminster having held the position for thirty-three years. He was fantastically well-off at his retirement, having been granted an annuity of £3,000 by the King for the lives of himself and his son George.

Speaker Onslow's nephew, George Onslow (1731-1792), a son of his brother Richard, was a lieutenant-colonel and member of parliament for Guildford from 1760 to 1784. He had a younger brother Richard (1741-1817), who entered the navy and was made an admiral in 1799.

One of his descendants, Cranley Onslow, was an MP in the late 20th century.

15th November

Part 2 of Sir Richard Joseph Sullivan (1752-1806):

Although naturalist was one of Sir Richard Joseph Sullivan’s many occupations, and although he wrote numerous long and detailed descriptions concerning his observations and theories of geology and natural phenomena, he has not been heralded as a giant in the scientific community. Sullivan’s traditional claims to fame is, in fact, his tenure as the Member of Parliament representing New Romney (1790-96) and, subsequent baronetcy of the United Kingdom (1804).

Yet, despite not being widely received as a scientist, Sullivan’s writings on nature and science illuminate the manner in which the intellectual community of the Romantic era often chose apocalyptic language when describing the natural world. Sullivan portrays nature and the earth as actors in a Huttonian cycle of generation, decay, death, and regeneration. The essential movement of the cycle, the movement from life to death to new life, parallels the essential movement of an apocalypse, the death of the present followed by the birth of a new future.

Sullivan intended to combat recent trends towards Natural Philosophy and atheism -- exemplified by Thomas Paine, for example -- and to return the practice of observing nature according to a firm religious perspective. According to Sullivan, the earth is a realm beyond the limited ken of the human mind. Humanity must have faith in the knowledge that the destructions that seem to devastate all possibilities for human life are actually a clearing of the way for new life.

14th November

Sir Richard Joseph Sullivan, first baronet (1752-1806), miscellaneous writer; FSA and FRS, 1785; MP, New Romney, 1787-96, Seaford from 1802; created baronet, 1804; author of:

• An Analysis of the Political History of India (1779),
• A Tour through part of England, Scotland and Wales, in 1778, in a series of letters (1785)
• Thoughts on the Early Ages of the Irish Nation ... and on ... the Ancient Establishment of the Milesian Families in that Kingdom (1789),
• A View of Nature, in Letters to a Traveller Among the Alps with Reflections on Atheistical Philosophy, Now Exemplified in France (London: T. Becket, 1794).
• and other works.

Sullivan lived at Ditton House, and was a Surveyor of Highways till his death in 1806.

In 1786, Sullivan was appointed Ambassador from and to the Nabob of Arcot.

In 1802, Sullivan engaged at enormous expense a herald of the London College of Arms named George Frederick Beltz, to gather proof in Ireland of his descent from the noble house of O'Sullivan Mor. (Sullivan wished to qualify for an English baronetcy.)

His wife, Dame Mary, died on 24th December 1832 ' in the 72nd Year of her Age ', and is also buried at St Nicholas.

13th November

On 3rd August 1791, more than a year after her mother's death, Charlotte Boyle Walsingham married Lord Henry FitzGerald, a member of the Duke of Leinster's family. They had links with the brightest of society, from the Duke of Wellington downwards. They had the following children:

1. Henry William FitzGerald, later De Ros, 22nd Lord de Ros (born 12th June 1793, died unmarried 29th March 1839)
2. William Lennox Lascelles FitzGerald, later De Ros, 23rd Lord de Ros (born 1st September 1797, died 6th January 1874, General); had issue; married on 7th June 1824 Georgiana Lennox (born c.1795, died 15th December 1891, daughter of Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond)
3. Henrietta Mabel FitzGerald or De Ros (died 22nd December 1879); married on 24th October 1828 John Broadhurst of Foston Hall (died 15th December 1861)
4. Olivia Cecilia De Ros (born c. 1807, died 21st April 1885), married on 22nd October 1833 Henry Richard Charles Cowley, 1st Earl Cowley (born 17th June 1804, died 15th July 1884)
5. Geraldine De Ros (died 28th September 1881) married on 25th November 1830 Reverend Frederic Pare
6. Cecilia De Ros (died 6th October 1869), married on 10th December 1835 Hon John Boyle (of Cork family)
7. Arthur John Hill (born 21st December 1795, died 23rd February 1826, Lt. Colonel),
8. Edmund Emilius Boyle (born 4th May 1799, died 12th September 1810),
9. John Frederick (born 6th March 1804, dsp 19.06.1861, Rear Admiral),
10. Augustus (born 23rd October 1805, died young),
11. Charlotte (died 1813)

Members of the de Ros family lived in Thames Ditton for a long while.

12th November

On her mother's death in 1790, Lady Henry FitzGerald became a co-heir to the Barony of Ros. She petitioned the King to terminate the abeyance in her favour. There were counter-petitions by Sir Henry Hunloke (who died in 1804), and the Duke of Rutland, who claimed to hold the barony for historical reasons by virtue of his tenure of Belvoir Castle.

The three petitions were referred by the King to the House of Lords which referred them to the Committee for Privileges. The Committee reported and the House resolved on 9th May 1806 that the barony remained in abeyance between Sir Thomas Hunloke (Sir Henry's son and heir), George, Earl of Essex and Lady Henry Fitzgerald. The King, however, on Lord Grenville's recommendation, terminated the abeyance in her favour. By royal licence, 6th October 1806, she and her issue took the name of de Ros after that of FitzGerald.

It was to fall into abeyance once more in 1939 on the death of Mary Frances, 25th Baroness of Ros, but was again successfully called out of abeyance in 1943 in favour of her eldest daughter, Una Mary, and in 1958 in favour of the latter's granddaughter, Georgiana Angela Maxwell, 27th Baroness de Ros.

11th November

Lord Edward FitzGerald (15 October 1763 - 4 June 1798) was an Irish aristocrat and revolutionary, whose brother Lord Henry lived at Boyle Farm. He joined the British Army in 1779, and fought on the staff of Lord Rawdon in the American Revolutionary War. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on 8 September 1781, his life being saved by a black man named Tony, whom Lord Edward retained in his service till the end of his life.

In 1783 FitzGerald returned to Ireland, where his brother, the 2nd Duke of Leinster, had procured his election to the Irish Parliament as Member for Kildare. In Parliament he acted with the small Opposition group led by Henry Grattan, but took no prominent part in debate. After spending a short time at Woolwich to complete his military education, he made a tour through Spain in 1787; and then, dejected by unrequited love for his cousin Georgina Lennox (who later married the 3rd Earl Bathurst), he sailed for New Brunswick to join the 54th Regiment with the rank of Major.

The love-sick mood and romantic temperament of the young Irishman found congenial soil in the wild surroundings of unexplored Canadian forests, and the enthusiasm thus engendered for the 'natural' life of savagery may have been already fortified by study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings, for which at a later period Lord Edward expressed his admiration. In February 1789, guided by compass, he crossed the country, practically unknown to white men, from Fredericton, New Brunswick to Quebec. Along the way, he fell in with Indians, and in a subsequent expedition he was formally adopted at Detroit by the Bear tribe of Hurons as one of their chiefs. He made his way down the Mississippi to New Orleans, from where he returned to England.

Finding that his brother had procured his election for the County of Kildare, and desiring to maintain political independence, Lord Edward refused the command of an expedition against Cadiz offered him by William Pitt the Younger, and devoted himself for the next few years to the pleasures of society and his parliamentary duties.

10th November

The Barony of de Ros is one with a colourful history. This Barony was created by writ and can pass to either male or female heirs. When there is no surviving male heir, the peerage reverts to the next surviving male or female within the family (i.e. cousins). If there are more than one surviving female heir, the title is in abeyance until there is only one surviving female heir, or until the abeyance is terminated in favor of one surviving female heir, or until a single male heir is produced. The de Ros Barony has been placed in abeyance on more than one occasion, and has been held by several women. Those women who held the title were styled as Baroness de Ros, in her own right.

The de Roos family lineage dates back to 1264 when the barony was created by Henry III. Robert de Roos, 1st Baron Roos of Helmsley or Hamlake, Yorkshire, acquired Belvoir through his wife, Isabel, daughter and heiress of William d'Albini of Belvoir.

Pre-dating the Barony of de Ros, one Robert de Ros Furfan, was a Feudal Lord in the time of King Richard I. He was imprisoned in Normandy and forced to pay a considerable sum for his freedom. But, under King John he regained the Barony of his great-grandfather, Walter Espec. During the troubles of King John's reign, he was the leader of the Baronial Army and one of the 25 Barons appointed to enforce the observance of Magna Carta.

Two generations later, Robert de Ros, 1st Baron de Ros, while taking an active part against King Henry III, was one of the Chief Barons who was summoned to Parliament as Baron de Ros on December 14, 1264. This is the point where the present Barony of de Ros begins.

Most senior peerages seem to feature at least one disgrace, and this one involved Thomas, the 10th Baron de Ros. His Lordship was 'attainted (i.e. subject to the loss of his estate and civil rights because of his actions) in 1461 and beheaded in 1464, at which time all of his honors were forfeited; but his son, Edmund, obtained a reversal of the attainder in 1485 and became the 11th Baron de Ros. Edmund died without a male heir and the title then fell into abeyance between his three sisters.

Other titles that have crossed paths with the de Ros Barony include Earldom of Rutland, the Dukedom of Leinster, and Dukedom of Buckingham. In 1791, Charlotte Boyle Walsingham, married Lord Henry FitzGerald, 3rd son of the 1st Duke of Leinster, which explains the quartering of the de Ros arms with those of FitzGerald.

9th November

Charlotte FitzGerald-de Ros (1769-1831) was born Charlotte Boyle Walsingham in Castlemartyr, Cork, Ireland. She spent most of her childhood with her parents at the Boyle Farm mansion in Thames Ditton. Her mother, also called Charlotte Boyle Walsingham, the second daughter of Frances Coningsby, had bought this estate in 1784 from Lord Hertford, who was grieving over the death of his wife there two years earlier. Charlotte did much artistic decoration inside Boyle Farm and a large amount of it has survived to the present day.

On 3rd August 1791, more than a year after her mother's death, Charlotte married into the Duke of Leinster's family. Her husband was Lord Henry FitzGerald. After petitioning King George III in 1790, she eventually (in 1806) established her entitlement to the Barony of de Ros, the most ancient baronial title in England. Members of the de Ros family lived in Thames Ditton for a long while. They had links with the brightest of society, from the Duke of Wellington downwards. Henry's younger brother was the notorious Lord Edward FitzGerald. Charlotte died on the 9th January 1831.

Charlotte established her claim to the barony of de Roos in 1806 (the spelling of the name was altered to de Ros in 1838). She became suo jure 21st Baroness and added the surname de Ros on to that of Fitzgerald.

8th November

Charlotte Boyle Walsingham (died 12th April 1790), the second daughter of Frances Coningsby, bought the Boyle Farm estate (then called Forde's Farm) in 1784 from Lord Hertford, who was grieving over the death of his wife there two years earlier.

On 17th July 1759, as Charlotte Williams, she married Captain Robert Boyle Walsingham MP (born March 1736, died October 1780). They had two children: Charlotte FitzGerald-de Ros, 21st Baroness de Ros and Richard Boyle-Walsingham (1762-1788).

The Captain and all his crew were lost on board the Thunderer, a man-of-war, of which he was commander, in a hurricane in the West Indies.

7th November

Captain Robert Boyle Walsingham MP (1736-1780) married Charlotte Williams on 17th July 1759. They had two children: Charlotte FitzGerald-de Ros, 21st Baroness de Ros and Richard Boyle Walsingham (1762-1788).

They bought the Boyle Farm estate (then called Forde's Farm) in 1784 from Lord Hertford, who was grieving over the death of his wife two years earlier.

The captain and all his crew were lost on board the Thunderer, a man-of-war of which he was commander, in a terrible hurricane in the West Indies in October 1780. It was the tail-end of the hurricane season, as anyone who has been to Walt Disney World at that time of year would know.

6th November

After her husband's death in Newgate Gaol, Dublin, Pamela, Lady Edward FitzGerald, was no longer welcome at Boyle Farm, the house of his brother, Lord Henry FitzGerald, in Thames Ditton. Pamela suffered a broken re-marriage on the continent, and found no happiness in Paris, where she died in 1831. But her daughters thrived in Thames Ditton, where they lived with an aunt. Pamela's mortal remains were eventually re-interred at St Nicholas Churchyard. In attendance at her third burial were:

• Her grandson Sir Edward Fitzgerald Campbell,
• Her grand-daughter, Lady Selby Smyth,
• Lt General Sire Edward Selby Smyth
• and three great-grandchildren.

Inset into the headstone at St Nicholas was a fragment of marble from the Montmartre tombstone, which was shattered by a German shell during the siege of 1870.

5th November

Pamela, Lady Edward FitzGerald (1773-1831) was the wife of the revolutionary aristocrat, Lord Edward FitzGerald.

While in Paris, FitzGerald became enamoured of a young girl whom he chanced to see at the theatre, and who is said to have had a striking likeness to Mrs Sheridan, his former paramour. Procuring an introduction he discovered her to be a protégé of Madame de Sillery, Comtesse de Genlis.

The parentage of the girl, whose name was Pamela, is uncertain; but although there is some evidence to support the story of Madame de Genlis that she was born in Newfoundland of parents called Sims, the common belief that she was the daughter of Madame de Genlis herself by Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, was probably well founded. On 27th December 1792 FitzGerald and Pamela were married at Tournay, one of the witnesses being Louis Philippe, afterwards King of the French; and in January 1793 the couple reached Dublin. The couple eventually had a son and two daughters.

4th November

Lord Edward FitzGerald (15 October 1763 - 4 June 1798) was an Irish aristocrat and revolutionary. He was the fifth son of the 1st Duke of Leinster and Lady Emily Lennox, and was born at Carton House, near Dublin. He was also brother to Lord Henry FitzGerald, who lived at Boyle Farm, Thames Ditton.

He was on terms of intimacy with his relative Charles James Fox, with Richard Brinsley Sheridan and other leading Whigs. According to Thomas Moore, Lord Edward FitzGerald was the only one of the numerous suitors of Sheridan's first wife whose attentions were received with favour; and it is certain that, whatever may have been its limits, a warm mutual affection subsisted between the two.

His Whig connections combined with his transatlantic experiences to predispose Lord Edward to sympathize with the doctrines of the French Revolution, which he embraced with ardour when he visited Paris in October 1792. He lodged with Thomas Paine, and listened to the debates in the Convention.

Edward's treacherous involvement in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 led to tragedy, and he was shot by soldiers while resisting arrest. He was conveyed to Newgate Prison, and denied proper medical treatment where, at the age of just 34, he died of his wounds on the 4th June 1798. An Act of Attainder confiscating his property was passed but was repealed in 1819.

3rd November

Giggs Hill Green is a large triangular stretch of common ground in Thames Ditton, bordered on one side by the Portsmouth Road. Previously part of the 'waste' belonging to the manor of Kingston, the eight acres of Giggs Hill Green were purchased in 1901 for a mere £250 by the Esher and Dittons Urban District Council.

The mystery of Giggs Hill Green is that there is no hill. The Green has had several different spellings over the centuries. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was known as Le Gighill, Gyghyll, the lane called Gyghill and Giggehill. In Middle English, gigge means a whirling thing, so perhaps a maypole was implied.

Portsmouth Road and the surrounding commons were notoriously dangerous. There was the serious risk of both footpads (i.e. unmounted robbers) and highwaymen. Tom Waters, Jerry Abershawe, Evan Evans, William Hawke and Thomas Banks were all hanged in the 17th/18th centuries for banditry on the Portsmouth Road.

Horace Walpole wrote of the dangers of the Portsmouth Road in 1784:

But here is a worse calamity; one is never safe by day or night: Mrs Walsingham, who has bought your brother's late house at Ditton, was robbed a few days ago in the high road, within a mile of home, at seven in the evening.

(Letter 275 to Hon HS Conway. By 'Mrs Walsingham', Walpole was referring to the mother of Charlotte Boyle Walsingham).

2nd November

In 1849 the branch line came to Hampton Court, with a proper station for Thames Ditton arriving in 1851-2, an event occurred which was to transform life in the village. Initially the trains were pulled by horses from the junction at Surbiton station -- then called Kingston-on-Railway. They must have been a fine sight as they moved between cornfields.

The new transport quickly led to the break-up of estates and to the large-scale development of houses. Old names likes Great Basing Field and Little Basing Field, Church Fields and Hoo Lane ceased to have any meaning. Only the elderly talked of Ditton Street and Ditton Marsh. Rare examples of old big houses which proved adaptable were Boyle Farm, Newlands and the Old Manor House.

For the first 70 years after the railway arrived, Thames Ditton saw a dramatic growth in house-building and population. Now that generation of houses is gradually reaching the end of their productive use, and developers are seeing the opportunity presented by ageing houses seated in large gardens.

1st November

Situated in Weston Green Road, Thames Ditton Lawn Tennis Club is the oldest tennis club still on its original site. It was established in 1882, nine years after the official rules of lawn tennis were laid down. Long after most clubs have replaced grass with various types of all-weather surface, Thames Ditton retains six playable grass courts, which are maintained by the groundsman who also looks after Queen's Club.

In the late 1990s, as the lease of the land on which the Club plays approached its end, the survival of the TDLTC came under threat. The owner of the freehold (a descendant of local hero Hannibal Speer) wanted to sell the site to a residential developer. A question was raised in the House of Commons about the vulnerability of sports clubs to greedy developers. The case entered the legal textbooks as Coppin v Bruce-Smith [1998] EGCS 55 (CA). Fortunately the club won.