Abstract

BERNARD NURSE THE explosion of public interest in local history in recent years has been partly .1~uelled by the fear that the creation of new larger local authorities would help to destroy the historic character of former villages. Thus in the preface to his (privately published) From Medieval Manor to London Suburb: an obituary of Carshalton (1970), A. E. Jones proclaimed his dislike of the new London Borough of Sutton: 'In 1965, after 900 years of recorded history as part of Surrey, Carshalton was liquidated, and with its equally ancient neighbours Wallington and Sutton, processed by Act of Parliament into an instant community called the London Borough of Sutton.' Historians, however, are skilled at snatching and dissecting a body. In 900 years, Carshalton inspired only one brief history; since 'liquidation' two more and a reprint of the earlier one have been published, the last by the London Borough of Sutton. Local pride, nostalgia, concern for the environment and the scholarly pursuit of knowledge have helped to create a demand for local history publications which library departments in particular could not fail to notice. The borough librarian of Sutton wrote in his introduction to the reprint of Brightling's History of