Ernest Dixon, born c. 1882, was a respected local horticulturalist, nurseryman and amateur historian and a founder member of the Wandsworth Historical Society. His nurseries at 134 West Hill, opened in the 1910s, began selling petrol, which became the primary business – hence Dixon’s Garage/s, as which it continued to be known after his death on 2nd April 1969, aged 87. In the early 1980s, it was owned by a lady (Mavis Mellor?), who sold it to Esso. The historic 17th century Roehampton mounting block, rediscovered in 1921 during the demolition of an old tithe barn in Wandsworth and recently re-installed outside Putney Vale Cemetery, was identified by Dixon, who bought it for fifty shillings and displayed it in the nurseries on West Hill, later on the forecourt of the garage, where it remained for some 60 years.
Philip John Evison ● 1997d