Borough of Merton

This southwest London borough has Celtic heritage which subsided when Romans invaded Britain in 43AD.  The area became a local trade route and connected London to the port town of Chicester on the south coast. When Roman influence subsided in 410AD, the Germanic Anglo-Saxons came bringing their influence which are evident in the surviving names of the local villages: Mitcham, Merton and Morden.  Morten means “farmstead by the pool.”

In the 1100s, Merton was a place where modern English Common Law was founded and Henry VI crowned.  Merton Abbey also saw the likes of Thomas Becket and Nicholas Brakespeare, who after becoming the only Pope selected from England (Adrian IV) granted the English King Henry II the lordship of Ireland in 1155. Royal Influence was traded for Industry in the mid-1700s with the area being the main centre for calico cloth printing in England and the world’s first public railway which was the horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway opening in 1803.  The horsedrawn railway gave way to other forms of transport such as trams and buses transforming the area from rural to suburban.

Merton was home to Admiral Lord Nelson beginning in 1801 until his death in 1805 during the Battle of Trafalgar. William Morris, famous for printed fabrics and wall coverings opened a factory in Merton Abbey.  Arthur Liberty, founder of Liberty shops, was also based in the area to produce the famous hand printed silks.  Merton also hosts the international tennis tournament known as the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship and is home to the oldest cricket ground in the world.

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