Morden Park

The park was once a deer park, originally within the Manor of Morden's Morden Hall estate, which was owned from the C16th-C18th by the Garth family. in the latter C18th part of the estate lands were leased to London merchant and distiller John Ewart who built a house here in 1770, calling it Morden Park; his Morden Park estate had much the same footprint as the public park. At that time much of the estate was in agricultural use until the early C20th and mature trees may once have been field boundaries. John Ewart lived at Morden Park until 1788 after which the estate passed through a number of different owners, eventually purchased by Gilliat Hatfeild, who had already purchased Morden Hall, thus reuniting the two estates.

In 1945 Morden Park was purchased from the Hatfeild family by Merton and Morden UDC and the house and 90 acres were preserved as public open space, the house used as council offices. Behind the house is a courtyard and the remains of a crinkle-crankle wall. Two round single-storey outhouses were reputedly where deer slept in the winter. The courtyard used to have eight chestnut trees and a well, with a fig tree near the house. The walled garden is no longer in existence but one or two trees, including a large pear tree, may be a remnant of planting. The park consists of extensive parkland with mature trees grouped in copses and a continuous belt around the edges. A distinctive 40 feet mound within the park situated within woodland is believed to be a Romano-British burial mound, once used as a base for a summer house. A railed area is the site of an old velodrome. Among amenities added to the public park is an open air theatre with hedged enclosure. Part of the area is leased to the London Playing Fields Association. Trees for Cities, in partnership with Merton Council, have produced education packs for schools, and also installed interpretative boards with information about the park's history, archaeology and ecology.

New trees were planted as part of the Capital Woodlands Project in order to preserve the future of the woodland. Local schools and volunteers participated in the project, which ran from 2007-2010 and was managed by Trees for Cities. Species native to the British Isles were planted, including silver birch, hazel, hawthorn, holly, blackthorn, English oak, rowan, yew and lime. The Capital Woodlands Project was developed by members of the London Biodiversity Partnership's Woodland Action Group, led by Greater London Authority; it was awarded £999,500 by the Heritage Lottey Fund in 2007. Morden Park was one of 6 flagship woodlands participating in the project, the others being Claybury Wood, LB Redbridge; Coldfall Wood, LB Haringey; Peabody Hill, LB Lambeth; Scadbury Park, LB Bromley and Birch and Rowdown Woods, LB Croydon.