THE PRINCE OF WALES AND EPSOM TOWN HALL 1933
In the Yale Centre for British Art, in the Paul Mellon Collection, lies the Stanley Wootton archive comprising of twenty four documents circa 1933-1934, mainly consisting of correspondence between the Australian born, Epsom based racehorse trainer and owner of Walton Downs, Stanley Wootton, and his solicitor Patrick MacMahon, of the Court House, Epsom.
In a letter dated 15th August 1933, Patrick MacMahon writes,
My dear Stan,
Please excuse a dictated letter as this may be a bit long and I am not much of a handwriter.
Mr. Whiteoak Cooper who you probably know is the Clerk to the Epsom Urban District Council which has now absorbed Ewell and Cuddington, telephoned me today and said the Council were extremely anxious to have the new Municipal Buildings which are being erected in the Parade, opened by the Prince of Wales if possible and they wanted to pull every string which they could usefully and properly pull to obtain his consent to open the new buildings.
Scan of original letter
Courtesy of the Yale Centre for British Art
There then followed a complex description of how this “string pulling” should occur.
The Council asked the Clerk Mr Whiteoak Cooper to telephone the solicitor Patrick MacMahon to ask him to contact his client Stanley Wootton, to ask him to contact his friend, Jim Thomas Secretary to the Dominions, who was “a personal friend” of the Prince. Mr MacMahon asked Mr Whiteoak Cooper “what were the grounds for hoping that the Prince would grant this application”.
“All he could tell me was that the Prince knew Epsom intimately, had frequently been to the Races and The Durdans and had consented to the Local Lodge of Freemasons being named after him and he believed but was not certain on this point, namely, that the Prince had actually attended one of the Meetings of the Lodge.”
The Lodge in question is believed to be at Sutton.
The Clerk added that the official opening would of course be postponed to meet the wishes of the Prince of Wales. Patrick MacMahon is clearly not impressed by the the tenuous links between Epsom and the Prince of Wales, and the “string pulling” seems to be an extremely circuitous way of inviting the Prince.
Stanley Wootton appears to be equally unimpressed by the Councils methods and reasons.
On the 21st August1933 he replied in a brief letter from Shifnal Cottage, Epsom,
Will you please ask your friend Mr. Whiteoak-Cooper, for full particulars as to what they would like the Prince of Wales to open.
Scan of original letter
Courtesy of the Yale Centre for British Art
Unfortunately the “string pulling” failed to deliver, perhaps the affiliation to Epsom that the Council expected from the Prince of Wales was not there.
Sunday Pictorial 11th March reported that Lord Ebbisham formally opened the door of the New Town Hall at Epsom, Surrey, yesterday. He was accompanied at the ceremony by Lady Ebbisham who was the former local M.P.
Bill Eacott February 2025