Not many residents in Norbury may realise that it's mentioned in the Lord of the Rings - I know that when I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring I had to have a double take, it was that unusual for me to notice. Whether JRR Tolkein had Norbury in mind when writing the Lord of the Rings I'm not sure, in fact I doubt he did, but considering Norbury means "north burh (borough)" in Old English and Tolkein loved Old English, I'd put this down to a happy coincidence. And if you're wondering, the burgh in Edinburgh also means borough.
Norbury is a small town on the A23 just south of Sauron Streatham and used to be farmland - however, as so often goes with industrialisation, the land was built on and people moved in, a railway station opened on the (almost always mentioned on this blog) London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1878, and here we are - an almost unremarkable area which just so happens to be where the border between Croydon and Lambeth sits.
It might be surprising to know Norbury was once the site of horse racing - I certainly didn't expect to find that out - and the station itself was accordingly built with sloping platforms to allow the horses to access the racetrack from there. Perhaps this is also why the station is tucked away in a footpath, unlike most stations which are proudly on display on high streets. I would have taken photos if I was heading to Norbury by train.
The races began in 1868, and included a jump over the nearby River Graveney/Norbury Brook (more on that later) yet ended in 1879 thanks to the absurd regulation that horse racing was to be banned within a 10 mile radius of the Houses of Parliament. And so, the Streatham Races concluded and will never return - good luck telling the residents of Green Lane that horses will be flying through their streets.
Perhaps the more unexpected thing I learned was that Norbury was the sight of a battle as part of the Second Barons' War. This war was between King Henry III's army and that of Simon de Montford, the Earl of Leicester, all because the barons wanted more power (also the cause of the First and Third Barons' Wars). The armies descended upon Norbury in 1264, and...the three sources I've read (a book, a Norbury factfile, and Wikipedia) don't say who won. Apparently the place where they fought was called Battle Green, but I'm not sure where this place would have been. Either way, here is one of the sources.
Norbury Park is arguably one of the nicer parts of Norbury. It used to be called Palmer's Fields but an archbishop bought the land in 1583 for a school. The area has since been leased to Pembroke College, Cambridge, had an estate built on it, has been used for golf courses and the aforementioned horse racing, has even had sheep grazing on it. But come 1935, it's been a public park, and throughout all this time, the Norbury Brook has flown through it.
It's a very shallow river at this point and is hidden behind a fence, easy to not notice when walking by. I followed its trajectory westwards and after getting through a car park ended up by the border between the boroughs. The river continues to flow underneath a bridge, and I noticed it is technically comprised of two branches at this point. As well as this, the river becomes the River Graveney for no particular reason - either way, I've blogged about Norbury Brook before, albeit in Selhurst.
Norbury Brook also has one of the Stones of Croydon, that is the series of boulders that used to stop New Addington residents from parking on the pavement. This one's in honour of the Norbury ward.
At this point, I headed for the Grey Havens Streatham, having thought I'd seen everything I'd wanted to see. Unfortunately, I hadn't heard about the nearby Norbury Hall Park which houses Norbury Manor, itself a historical site, so maybe that's a future blogpost.
Either way, Norbury has surprised me for how historic it happens to be - not too bad for a town between Streatham and Croydon.
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