North Cheam hits the headlines


Damian Thompson has been unravelling the mystery of bloggerists and tweeters who have been involved in a byzantine plot, posting information and counter-information about Jacob Rees-Mogg, conservative MP for North Somerset. See: Updated: Jacob Rees-Mogg denies allegations of meeting wife in frozen fish department of Sainsbury's, Cheam

My personal interest in the story comes in with the question of the location of the Sainsbury's and the mention of North Cheam. I am proud to say that I was in fact born in North Cheam - at 139 Henley Avenue to be precise, at 9.30am on 1 July 1958. Along with G K Chesterton, I assert this information
"Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment..."
I was moved to Croydon, along with my older brother and sisters, at about the age of one, so I am unable to comment on the location of shops at the time, though I was delighted to discover the above photo which shows the North Cheam Cross Roads shortly after I was translated.

In Rome, the Gregorian University and other bodies had us fill in forms which routinely  asked for "Luogo di nascita" (place of birth.) I always used to put down "Cheam Septemtrionalis."

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