Mill Green

In the C17th Mill Green was known as Cranmarsh, possibly a corruption of the Mitcham family called Cranmer. Ownership of the Green was in dispute between the Manors of Mitcham and Wallington until well into the C19th. Originally within the parish of Mitcham, it came under the civil parish of Wallington as a result of boundary revisions in the late C19th century. On the OS map of 1868, then known as Beddington Corner, it was shown as an ‘Old Site' as part of Mitcham Common, but by 1895 it was shown as a separate site, and was administered by trustees. It was used as a recreation ground. Up until the early 1990s Mill Green was managed by LB Sutton on behalf of the Mitcham Common Conservators, which had been established in 1891 as the legal custodians of Mitcham Common (q.v.) under the Metropolitan Commons (Mitcham) Supplemental Act 1891. The Conservators are drawn from the London Boroughs of Croydon, Merton and Sutton and the Corporation of the City of London. Since the 1990s Mill Green has been managed and regulated by the Conservators once more and was included in the Mitcham Common management plan that was adopted in 2007 after wide consultation. Proposals included possible ecological enhancements to Mill Green such as allowing additional areas of grassland to be managed as meadow and selective tree planting to improve the wildlife value although it was agreed that these suggestions should be explored further and in particular their likely impact on current usage of Mill Green. A landscape strategy in 2009 includes proposals to enhance Mill Green so that it and the neighbouring Beddington Farmlands formed a coherent gateway to Hackbridge, and also to re-engineer the river channel into a more natural environment. Now on two areas of Mill Green the mowing regime has been relaxed so that grass is maintained as a meadow throughout the spring and summer and mown again in the autumn in order to benefit plants and insects by providing a more suitable habitat.