Place Name
On the face of it the answer should be simple: the field belonging to some earl or the other, a local landowner who lived in the manor house or perhaps an absentee landlord. In that case it would be the Earls Spencer who were lords of the neighbouring manor of Wimbledon from the mid-18thCentury and throughout the 19thCentury – and who are name checked in the nearby Spencer Park. But it is not. Neither is it named as A D Mills offers as one possible explanation in a Dictionary of London Place Names after a local family called Earl(e) recorded in the parish of Wandsworth in 1606. Rather it is most likely to be named in honour of an old lady from rural Ireland. According to the brilliant Summerstown blog the area takes its name because of a businessman called Robert Davis. In January 1868, he purchased Elm Lodge from the heirs of William Nottidge. Looking out over a vast network of open fields, high on the eastern side of the Wandle Valley, this was the former manor house Allfarthing. Having expanded the house, he renamed it Earlsfield in honour of his mother’s maiden name. It also referred to the place they lived in Ireland, near Manorhamilton, County Leitrim. From 1877 Davis embarked on a series of developments in the area and as a result of this speculative building Earlsfield Station opened on April 1, 1884.
