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It
was interesting to see the old newspaper cutting about Merton Cottage in the
July magazine. But frustrating, because there is no date. The house, much of
which dates from the 18th century, stands in Church Path, off
Mostyn Road, and has been privately owned since 1985, though it was a while
before its purchasers (the present owners) could move in, as so much needed
to be done by way of repairs and improvements. The vendors at that time were
the Borough Council. They had inherited it from Merton & Morden Urban
District Council, to whom it had passed when all the property, which had
been occupied by the John Lines Horticultural Institution, came into public
ownership on the Institution's removal to Hertfordshire a few years after
the last war. The house held various council departments at different times,
finally being occupied by the Libraries Department.
When
the council decided to sell Merton Cottage in 1985 it was advertised in the
local Guardian. A very different picture from the one in the July magazine!
Gone is the picturesque creeper and gone some of the surrounding trees and
shrubs. The two views are from the same angle, with the garden front to the
right and the main front, facing Church Path, to the left, but the 1985 view
certainly looks like offices rather than a house. Both pictures show clearly
the house's unusual main facade, with four bays beneath three gables, and
with the front door forming the extreme left-hand bay. The present owners
have moved it one bay to the right, which looks much better.
The
last previous private owner had been Colonel George Ralph Collier Westropp
CB, JP (18591934), who settled in Merton Park on retiring from the Indian
Army. He occupied the house from 1914, but did not buy it until late in
1922. The earlier picture may date from that year, or possibly from the
mid-1930s when it presumably went on the market again. It was the trustees
of the John Innes Charity that then acquired the house, on behalf of the
Horticultural Institution, which was still then in Merton Park. Later on,
from 1945, the director C D Darlingtonn lived in the house. In 1951 the
house was compulsorily purchased by Surrey County Council, with the rest of
the Institution property.
To
go back to its beginnings, there is a record of a building `now erecting' on
the site in 1766, which may have been a rebuilding of an existing house.
Despite what the old cutting says, the house was almost certainly not built
by the Smith family. The most likely original owners are the Batts, an old
property-owning family in Merton. Certainly by 1810 Merton Cottage formed
part of the holdings of Mary Batts. There is however an interesting
connection with the Smiths. After passing briefly to the Dalletts, another
important local family, the house was bought in 1813 by Edward Wyatt
(1757-1833). He was a successful woodcarver, gilder and worker in stone, who
had a shop in Oxford Street and carried out work for the royal family at
Windsor Castle and at Canton House. He now set himself up as a country
gentleman with his own property in the pleasantly rural, but convenient for
London, setting of Merton. Wyatt's daughter Caroline married the nephew and
heir of Isaac Smith (who served as a captain, but was able to retire as a
rear admiral). The Smiths came from the City of
London,
and though their main residence was in Clapham, they acquired Abbey Gate
House and much of the other property at Merton Abbey, as well as old Church
House, but there is no indication that their interest in Merton was as early
as the date for Merton Cottage. So Caroline Wyatt of Merton Cottage married
Isaac Cragg Smith of Merton Abbey. Sadly both young people died within a few
years. The memorial in St Mary's to them and to Admiral Isaac and his
brother Charles was carved by Mary's brother, Richard James Wyatt, an
important neo-Classical sculptor.
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