County Borough of Croydon

Encyclopedia : C : CO : COU : County Borough of Croydon

Croydon was a local government district in north east Surrey from 1849 to 1965. It was formed from the parish of Croydon St John the Baptist as a local board of health in 1849, incorporated as a municipal borough in 1883 and became an autonomous county borough in 1889.

From 1894 to 1915 it was surrounded by Croydon Rural District to the south, east and west; with the County of London to the north, taking in parts of the rural district, mainly the parish of Addington, in 1915. As of 1911 the corporation consisted of a mayor, 12 aldermen and 36 councillors and the borough had an area of 9,012 acres [1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica at Love to Know]. On the enlargement of the county borough the number of aldermen were increased to 18 and councillors to 54, with 18 wards as follows:

Addington
Addiscombe
Bensham Manor
Broad Green
Central
East
Norbury
North
Shirley
South
South Norwood
Thornton Heath
Upper Norwood
Waddon
West
West Thornton
Woodside
Whitehorse ManorF R Youngs Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol 1, London 1979

The borough ran its own tram services until they became the responsibility of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. The borough ran its own fire brigade which was absorbed into the London Fire Brigade in 1965.

In 1965 the county borough was abolished and its former area transferred to Greater London to be combined with that of Coulsdon and Purley Urban District to form the present-day London Borough of Croydon.

Contents

1 Politics
2 Coat of arms
3 External links
4 References

Politics

From its incorporation the borough was controlled by parties allied to the conservatives, known as the Coalition Party or Ratepayers Association. Eventually control passed to the official Conservative party.

Croydon was constituted a constituency, identical with the then borough boundaries in 1885. In 1918 the borough was divided into North and South constituencies. For the general election of 1950 Croydon's representation increased to three seats: North, East and West. In 1955 the boundaries for the three Croydon constituencies were altered to become North East, North West and South.

Coat of arms

The borough was granted a coat of arms on October 16, 1886 by the College of Arms. The style was typical of grants to boroughs by Albert Woods, Garter Principal King of Arms, with its quartered shield and complicated design.

Most of the emblems on the shield were related to the Archbishops of Canterbury who had a palace in Croydon. The three choughs are associated with Thomas a Becket, and appear in the arms of the city of Canterbury, the cross crosslets came from the arms of the Diocese of Canterbury and the flory cross bearing three gold disc was taken from the arms of archbishop John Whitgift. In the fourth quarter was an emabattled fesse, to represent a town wall, and thus municipal government.

The crest on top of the helm featured a grassy mound and heraldic fountain for Croydon Bourne. On either side was a sprig of rye-grass for the irrigation meadows of Beddington Sewage Farm. The crest also contained a gold crozier, another reference to the archbishops, and a crossed sword and tilting spear for Royal Military College of the East India Company which had formerly stood at Addiscombe.

The Latin motto was Sanitate Crescimus or May we grow in health.C W Scott-Giles, Civic Heraldry of England and Wales, 2nd Edition, London, 1953

External links

References

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