In summer 1868 the Royal Promenade Gardens were opened adjacent to the main gate of Sutton Park.

Ten uncultivated acres were turned into gardens of great beauty: within a few years 20,000 rose bushes had been planted.

There was an admission fee of 2d.

A decade later the newly-formed Sutton Park Crystal Palace & Aquarium Company entered into an agreement to greatly extend the small hotel on the site and also provide a winter garden; a ball and concert room, a skating rink and an aquarium.

This company soon failed and by 1888 the Crystal Palace had been acquired by a newcomer to Sutton, Charles Earle, who rented a house in Clifton Road.

In the next few years, Earle became somewhat notorious in Sutton. He became involved in a number of altercations which ended in court proceedings.

For example, in September 1888 he was fined when he confronted a visitor to the Crystal Palace gardens who had not paid the entrance fee 'and thrashed him and hurt him very much.' The same year he was summoned for not paying his rates.

Those who lived near the Crystal Palace came to regard it as a great nuisance. There were frequent complaints that Earle did nothing to stop drunken and disorderly behaviour.

It was claimed that visitors to the attraction were extremely noisy when they left at night. Earle declared that he was being harassed by a small number of his neighbours and the police. For their part, the police said that Earle had promised to end the drunken behaviour but 'it had since been a thousand times worse.' It all came to a head in 1891 when Earle was fined £5 plus costs for permitting drunkenness and denied a new licence.

It had clearly all got to Earle. That September he appeared one night at the bottom of Mill Street with a gun which went off in a scuffle with a police constable.

Earle's wife had also had enough of the situation. When he was away she removed all the furniture from their house. 'On his return Earle struck her and she cut her head when she fell. Earle was fined for possession of a loaded firearm and for striking his wife, who also secured a separation with an allowance. Unsurprisingly Earle was not heard of again in Sutton.

• Glimpses into Sutton's Past Parts I-III by Stephen Roberts can be ordered from Amazon, £4.99-£5.49.