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No.46 - January 2001 | Contex HOME THE
MILLENNIUM PARTY Any excuse for a celebration - that’s the COLAS spirit! The Millennium looked like a good reason but some millennium projects seemed to be dogged by organisational ineptitude, structural design incompetence and financial failure, none of which are in the COLAS vocabulary. There were also serious differences of opinion - even among members - about when the Millennium should be celebrated. The Committee with its legendary diplomatic skills and fine sense of history decided therefore to celebrate somewhere between December 1999 and January 2001. June 2000 would have been too boringly obvious so it was on October 1st that many members set off in celebratory mood to meet at Morden Hall Park. When Morden Hall had been a school in the 19th century the Function Room in which the party was held had been a dormitory and it was delightfully sited with views on three sides across lawns and garden beds to banks of mature trees. Members greatly enjoyed the refreshments provided and both the jolly and the thought-provoking activities organised by Committee members. The property belongs to the National Trust and our guide for the tour of the park was a native of the Netherlands now working in the Trust’s team to restore the cottages, dairy, stables and gardens. Our tour was extensive and interesting and took in the snuff mill, once powered by the River Wandle, which was excavated some time ago by archaeologists from the Museum of London. After the tour, members enjoyed an excellent buffet meal and the most enjoyable celebrations culminated in the cutting of the COLAS Millennium Cake by our most senior members. Richard Garth, a wealthy gentleman, built Morden Hall in around 1750, but after his death eighteen years later the Garth family preferred to live in the middle of London rather than in the "wilds" of Surrey. The house was rented out to various dignitaries including Thomas Sainsbury, Lord Mayor of London, and Sir Robert Burnett, founder of the Vauxhall Distillery. Later, the Hall was leased to a Reverend J Walls for twenty-one years and became an academy for young gentlemen, hence the bell at the front of the roof. The function room was built probably for use as a dormitory, and the west wing was broadened to twice its original width. A prosperous businessman in the snuff industry found the ideal premises for his new venture in the snuff mill on the river Wandle, a few hundred yards from the Hall, around 1880. He was Gilliat Hatfeild and through the profitable business was able to slowly buy up land and property covering over 1,000 acres around Morden. In 1867 he purchased the Hall and linked it with his surrounding land which he landscaped with trees and ornamental bridges. This has now become Morden Hall Park. The estate was inherited by Mr Hatfeild’s son, also named Gilliat, who spent most of his life living as a recluse in Morden Cottage - today the Council Registry Office. The empty Hall was donated to the War Department in the First World War and was used as a hospital, then as a convalescent home. Gilliat Hatfeild died in 1941, having bequeathed Morden Hall Estate to the National Trust as he did not want his beloved estate to be swallowed up in development and roads. The Hall continued to be used by the local Council for offices until 1981 when they handed the keys back to the Trust. Whitbread have leased the Hall as a Beefeater Restaurant since 1996 but it will now be closed for some time to permit thorough refurbishment. |
