CONSTABLE, Colonel 1784-1877. Farmer. Constable’s Farm (aka Court Lane Farm) was known as one of the best kept farms in South London. Colonel Constable was born in 1784 into a Camberwell family that dated back to the 1670s. Colonel was not a title but a family name first recorded as ‘Cornel’ in the St Giles parish register in 1714. Constable was ploughman at the farm in the 1820s for the lessee Mr Johnson, became caretaker and then took a lease himself in 1842 of the farmhouse, outbuildings and 76 acres. He also farmed around 200 acres on the other side of Lordship Lane. He married twice and had six sons and three daughters. On retirement he was granted an ‘outdoor’ pension by the College and died in 1877 aged 92. Constable Walk, off College Road, is named for him.
