PLACE NAME
Thomas Cranmer (July 2, 1489 – March 21, 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and former Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, (for a short time) Mary I. Cranmer had been a major force in Tudor political circles, among other things he helped build the case for the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and wrote and compiled the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer. However, he found his life cut short during Queen Mary’s reign. He was brought to trial for treason and heresy, found guilty, and condemned to death by being burned at the stake. Even then, it was hoped to make him recant his ways, as a dramatic account of his execution explained, with Roman Catholic priests and scholars doing their best to get him to recant even as he was tied to the stake. This is one of a group of streets on the Morden Park Tudor Estate built by G T Crouch in the 1930s, described in the builders brochure as: “… a splendid ambition come true – an ambition of the builders whose spacious model Estate of picturesque Tudor houses is in a model situation, and an ambition of the house-holder who finds here the perfect house in natural surroundings and yet within the easiest reach of town”. Perhaps the builders took their inspiration from the style of the housing.
