Greenwich Industrial History

Woolwich Western Ferry - a disaster

2012-01-22T19:24:00.003Z

We mentioned anew book about Thames Ferries and promised to highlight some of the localferries mentioned in it. The book is byJoan Tucker and is “Ferries of the Lower Thames” (Amberley Publishing 2010) andis highly recommended

One ferry few ofus will know about is Woolwich’s Western ferry:

Joan describeshow in 1811 landowners and tradesmen set up the 'the Woolwich FerryCompany' to run boats between Woolwichand what is now called Silvertown.

This was for ’the conveyance of persons carriages and cattle and goods,wares and merchandise ... and for making proper roads and approaches to form adirect communication between Kent and Essex and to be of great public utility'.

It was to runfrom The Old Ballast or Sand Wharf and the Company was to alter highways betweenGreen Gate, Plaistow and the river, and between Greenwich and Sand Wharf. Theywere to build houses for the ferryman and offices and the rent would be £5a year. There were special clauses for military transports. Tolls were to belevied to foot passengers, horses, two-wheeled chaisea, coaches with twohorses, and sheep. The ferry must not to work before 4 a.m. or after 10 p.m.between 24 March and 29 September and they need not run in ‘times of ice ortempestuous winds’ and so on and so forth. However soon the local watermen and inhabitants of Woolwich were protesting that the ferry was'prejudicial to divers of the watermen working on the river’ and the Act wassuperseded by another in 1816.

In 1812 a horseboat was ordered at £200 but before it arrived a wherry, bought from Gravesendfor £35.35, was used, together with another from Greenwich costing£2 - although oars, sculls, etc., were paid for separately. There was only asmall building on the south bank for collecting tolls and thenpassengers had to go down steep slopes to the water where there was a platformmade from old ships' timbers. On the north bank a pub was built and weather boarded- this became the Prince Regent, after which much of the area isnow named. Initially it had neither afireplace nor cooking facilities. On the south side the Company built theMarquis of Wellington pub usually known as 'The Duke' or the 'Ferry House'.Both made a loss, but they gradually became the only source of income.

Thus the ferry, as Joan says, ‘did not prosper’. It was in the wrong place - nearly on the Woolwich-Charlton parish boundary, and on the north side on marshlands in an isolated part of Plaistow.

There was soon aftera row about road making and it also appears that the Company did not keep proper records.No dividends on shares were ever paid and eventually it turned out that theagreement made in 1811 to lease the land was invalid. Shareholders did not paytheir share instalments and, following quarrels with shareholders, some directorsresigned. The last set of minutes was taken in January 1828 and the companywound up in 1842.

This sad saga isjust one among many local ferries which are described in the book – and – so – Joan – if yousee this, please get in touch, we would love to hear more from you in person.

Royal visits to Greenwich Industry

2012-01-20T10:10:00.004Z

Thanks to Brian Sturt who has sent us this amazing clip of the East Greenwich Coking plant being visited by the Duke of Gloucester - smoke and coal dust everywhere and all the Duke gets is an overall - which - please note - does not cover his bowler hat. Great shots - including one of a collier vessel.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/mr-therm-gets-big-recruit

to add to the general local royal jollifications here are some more pictures:

The Duke of Edinburgh visits the Fuel Research Establishment at East Greenwich in 1952 - with apologies for quality (scan from a photocopy from a microfilm of a local press report)

Below - the King - in this case George VI - visits Harvey's metal fabricators in Woolwich Road - they were where Charlton fire station now is and there are a few bits of wall and so on remaining from their works. They specialised in perforations.

and - above the Duke of Kent visits the Telcom works on the Peninsula in the 1950s - the site which is now the Alcatel works.

2012-01-19T14:15:00.002Z

BROTHERHOOD IN BUSINESS.

South Metropolitan Gas Co. 1889.

George Livesey: Chair of the Board, gas works manager, temperence activist, strike breaker, pioneer of worker participation and share ownership.

More info to come.

The Gas workers of SouthLondon

by Mary Mills

"One Wednesday morningin October 1889, Charles Tanner the head foreman ... said to me 'the stokersare all in the Union and we have lost all authority in the retort houses ...unless you do something to attach them to the Company we shall be completely inthe power of the Union'... in a quarter of an hour the scheme was set out ...and the same afternoon it was offered to the workmen. The Union men refusedit... and on December 4^th demanded that it be abolished ... then thememorable strike began; thus was our co-partnership born.'"

So George Livesey, thenChairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, described events before the gasworkers strike of 1889 and his Company's formation of a profit sharing scheme —afterwards known as 'co-partnership'. South Met. was the gas company whichcovered South, London in 1889 — it was innovative, ambitious and controlled byGeorge Livesey.

He had arrived at the OldKent Road works aged four when his father was appointed manager. He becameoffice boy at 14 and Managing Director at 50. His background was not that of a'capitalist' but a professional manager from a family background of smallbusiness- men. He had a reputation as a brilliant, innovative gas engineer, aninvolvement in gas politics which had changed the financial structure of theindustry, and a proven flair for administration and negotiation. A life longtemperance advocate, he achieved a precarious balance between pragmatism andidealism. He believed in partnership and brotherhood but he intended to stay incharge himself.

This piece is about hisattempts to mould the lives of workers in his industry. He did this by usingthe strike and that is a different story. (In essence it followed a summer ofindustrial unrest which included the 'Great Dock Strike' and a series ofdisputes in provincial gas works, culminating in achievement of the 8 HourShift System through the Gas Workers Union, led by Will Thorne).

The quotation at the startof the page illustrates the atmosphere of confrontation in South Met. at thetime, and there is little doubt the strike was 'really' about the rise of tradeunion power on the retort house floor. The trigger was the inauguration of aprofit sharing scheme — the Company had already granted the eight-hour day inits retort houses. The scheme was introduced together with the condition thatparticipants must sign an agreement which would have had the effect of makingstrike action impossible. Essentially it was a dispute about the right toorganise. Because the Company was able to use enormous numbers of blacklegworkers housed in siege conditions the strike and the Union in South London wasbroken.

THE COMPANIES AND THE WORKS

First we shall look at SouthLondon Gas workers and put them into the context of their everyday lives. Whowere their employers? Where did they work? The first gas works to open in SouthLondon had been Bankside in 1814. Early works were very small — and probablyworkers there would have been adventurous people prepared to put up with badworking conditions to be involved in this glamorous new technology. Through thenext twenty years many gas works were built — but to quote the title of arecent article — many promoters of the early gas industry were 'Rogues, Speculatorsand Competing Monopolies'. As Companies varied in their honesty towards thepublic so they varied in the treatment of their workers. Early companies wereprivate concerns competing for custom with others. A constant debate — whichpersists to the present day — concerned the ownership and controls over thissource of power. In the middle years of the century there was a movementtowards 'consumer' companies which were to be owned by shareholders who werealso customers of the company. This was followed by a movement towards publicownership where local authorities either acquired existing private concerns orstarted works of their own. The London local government was not powerful enoughto overcome the private owners' lobby and gas remained in private hands. Thissituation persisted until the formation of the LCC in 1889 which re-opened thedebate on ownership with the election of Progressives committed tomunicipalisation. It is no coincidence that industrial disputes erupted in thatyear as it is also no coincidence that George Livesey's solution included movestowards share ownership by the workers in the gas company in which they worked.

Where were theworks? In the early 1820s the Bankside Works (on the site of the present TateModern gallery) belonged to the Phoenix Company which went on to build otherworks at West Greenwich (Creek mouth) and Vauxhall. In the 1850s the SurreyConsumers Company (Rotherhithe) was started. These companies bought out smallerones — for example the Deptford Company itself a successor to the GreenwichRailway Gas Company was acquired by Surrey Consumers in the 1860s (its site,alongside the railway at Deptford, is still derelict). The Lewisham area wascovered by the Crystal Palace (later South Suburban) Company at Bell Green andwas only incidentally party to these events. The other – and ultimatelydominant - gas company in the area was the South Metropolitan founded in thelate 1820s and operating from its works in the Old Kent Road. In the late1870's Government intervention forced gas companies to amalgamate with eachother in the belief that larger companies would be more efficient. SouthMetropolitan took over the Phoenix and the Surrey Consumers, closed down twocompanies in Woolwich and built the East Greenwich Works as a new 'super' worksto supply a much larger area, using new technology and incorporating a chemicalworks to handle by-products profitably (including the biggest gas-holder inEurope, demolished in 1986). Our view of work in the gas industry has beenshaped by pictures like that by Dore of the Lambeth Gas Works (1872) or byFlora Tristan of her 1840 visit to Westminster gas works 'misery and apathydepicted on every countenance and apparent in every movement the poor wretchesmade'. In complete contrast to this are the almost lyrical accounts of life atthe Old Kent Road written in the 1900s by retired workers. The works was nearthe countryside on the Surrey Canal; workers, they said, could bathe, fish andtend their gardens in slack periods. Children played in the works, and men'swives brought dinners in — hot in a basin. This rural atmosphere can still besensed looking across the Chaffinch Brook to Bell Green works. Whateverconditions were really like there was a deterioration in working conditionsthroughout the century as encroaching urbanisation, an escalation in size andincreasing mechanisation destroyed the domesticity of a suburban works like OldKent Road - an element which had made the exhausting work and long hours morebearable.

THE WORK AND THEWORKERS

What did gas workers actually do? Labour historianshave sometimes used the word ‘stoker’ as a synonym for ‘gas worker’. ‘Stokers’ were some of the men employed inthe retort houses. The number then employed changed with the time of year – amajor feature of the industry was that many workers were only be employed inwinter although they might well be seen as permanent employees albeit seasonal. A 1910 study cites about 1,000stokers employed in June to about 1,500employed in December in a total December workforce of about 6,000.

Stokers were those without whom the works could notfunction. It was a job witha measure of 'macho' glamour. Stokers needed to be big men at the peak of their strength. The workwas heavy and undertaken in hightemperatures. The basic tasks did not change in essentials until the 1900s. Will Thorne; writingabout the 1880s could have beendescribing the 1820s. 'Ordinarily the work was agonising —12 hours a day in heat and steam anddraughts, bending and straining theback and arms, taxing the muscles until they became numb'. Twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week,were usual and although workwas not intensive throughout the shift, there was a fortnightly eighteen-hour changeover shift. Retorthouse work was not badly paid —a 1906 study reported 45/- a week as being usual in London (compare this with incomes described in Roundabout a pound a week formanual workers in the same area).

Retort House men were known as heavy drinkers and sowas formed a strong linkbetween temperance activists in both management and workforce. Management attempted to promote a strongChristian ethic —reinforced by the temperance movement deeply embedded in the local culture. This is the South London ofSpurgeon's Tabernacle, of the Band of Hope, and the Good Templars.

Who were the other gas workers? Many were generallabourers — like coal porters.These had much in common with other port workers — were often organised by the same unions. Gas Companyminute books record moredisputes with coal porters than with stokers. In addition there were general labourers doing avariety of jobs and specialisttradesmen — carpenters, blacksmiths, and so on together with numerous specialist gas workers with skillsrelating to the processes outsidethe retort house. They became more important in the 1900s with new processes, mechanisation anddiversification into chemicals.Companies also employed storemen, watchmen, office workers, etc. All until the First World War weremen.

About a quarter of gas workers were 'outside men' —many of them lamplighters. Thegreat-grandfathers of the men in the SEGAS van with their pneumatic drills on the street comer werearound and about with theircart and shovels. Indeed in the 'good old days' of competition in the gasindustry, in the 1830s and 40s, they may well have been engaged in someactivity involving another company's mains — like putting a lump of mud inthem! A growing number of gas workers were engaged in work in customers' houses— fitters, meter readers etc — a group which an employer must keep happy forgood customer relations.

Gas workers were ordinary people living in SouthLondon — and part of the great increase in population in the area in the lastcentury. Men travelled to London to get jobs. Some of them had worked in theprovincial gas industry — Will Thorne, for example, came from Salford to theOld Kent Road in the 1880s as an experienced gas worker. Many returned to thecountry in summer — links with the Newington, Kent brickworks are wellestablished. In obituary and retirement notices the South Met. house magazine(published in the 1900s) outlines details of the lives of workers who migratedto London in youth, worked as labourers, retort house men, acquired a skill onthe district or in the chemical works and perhaps made it to a supervisorygrade. Often their sons followed — gas was a 'family' industry. They had becomeSouth Londoners and part not just of a culture of pubs, knees-ups and the OldKent Road but of aspirations to 'better things' — education, Sunday Schools,Institutes, better housing through Building Societies, security through theForesters or Buffaloes. It was to these aspirations that management reached outin 1889 and on which they tried to build a structure which they hoped wouldchange the world.

THE UNIONS

Gas Worker unionisation istoo often described as something that started with Will Thorne in 1889. Thereis plenty of evidence of unionisation before that. Major disputes in the 1860sand 1870s ended in debacle — then as in 1889 industrial action originated northof the river. South London workers do not seem to have been so ready either tojoin or to initiate action.

A history of the 1872 strikehas not yet been published. A cross- London union started in North London ledto a strike of stokers about the right to organise. Both strike and union weresmashed by management, followed by prosecutions of strikers and sentences ofhard labour. Among others workers at Rotherhithe and West Greenwich came out.What happened at Old Kent Road is perhaps more interesting. South Met. hadgiven wage rises to match those through- out London in the year before thestrike, and had in addition given workers double pay with the weeks holiday 'inorder to attach them further to the Company'. They involved themselves nofurther in London-wide management discussions stressing that 'the men in thisCompany's employ have made no complaint'. Old Kent Road workers did not comeout with the rest of London. It was usual in times of industrial dispute forthe mains of gas companies in dispute to be connected to others who were notand there is considerable evidence that South Met. connected its mains tosupply other Companies' areas during this strike. There is also evidence thatthey disconnected them because of pressure from their own workers. Thisincident is illustrative of South Met. methods and also shows the existence ofworkers' organisation within the Company.

WELFARE WORK

Employers' welfare provisionin the last century is under-researched In the gas industry many companiesprovided welfare facilities and it was argued that workers should be encouragedto administer their own organisations - like sick clubs, "to renderthemselves independent of eleemosynary in their seasonal afflictions'.Employers financial support for these was sometimes necessary - for example thePhoenix Company were obliged in 1878 to supplement the workers sick fund duringa flu epidemic. At Old Kent Road superannuation scheme had been set up in 1855on management initiative which provided the initial finance and administration- 'the foundations of a superstructure'. A meeting was held with workers todiscuss this - it is interesting that a similar scheme for company officers wasturned down at a meeting set up for them. In 1860 a Widows and Orphans Fund wasset up to support the families of dead employees. It has often been assumedthat industrial workers did not get paid holidays until much later, in somecases in the 1930s, but in 1881 when thethree South London Companies amalgamated arrangements for holidays werestandardised. Rotherhithe Consumers Co and the Phoenix had given in kind -double pay at Christmas and Easter; Phoenix had given clothes and gratuitiesworth about £3 each. and had paid for a beano. South Met. with its strongtemperance policies abolished the beanos to substitute a weeks summer holidayfor all workers 'who have conducted themselves well during the past year withdouble pay after three years on condition that the holidays were taken in avisit to the country or seaside - to encourage them to improve themselves andstay out of the Old Kent Road pubs. In the 1850s lectures were laid on by thePhoenix for workers at Bankside - but only one or two attended 'even when theyweren’t religious' - more popular were the washing facilities and the lobbiesequipped with papers and games materials. The standards of these facilitieshave been questioned by subsequent commentators.

Gas was a continuous processindustry which meant Sunday working. In the name of religion, Livesey had triedto cut this at Old Kent Road. Before 1860 management there had tried topersuade workers to take time off to go to church although men were not paidfor these Sundays off. By 1871 Livesey was working with the Lords DayObservance Society and was trying to find ways to abolish Sunday working.

Livesey believed inincentives to self-help and betterment. So the wage structure at South Met.included a system of bonuses. The best retort house gang of the week with thehighest output, for instance, got a payment. He wanted to install a profitsharing scheme for workers, often speaking on his beliefs in a partnership ofcapital and labour. If men were treated well they would work well and they mustbe rewarded for that. 'The men must have the motive of self interest'. TheBoard were not impressed and refused to implement his ideas until in 1884 theyagreed to a limited profit sharing scheme for officers and this wasimplemented.

The formation of the Unionin 1889 was the chance which Livesey had wanted. The Board was persuaded thatprofit sharing might be the factor which would woo the men from the Union andthe scheme was set up. The scheme was based on the relationship of Companyprofits to the price of gas. Gas companies could only put then- dividends up ifthe price went down — so too the bonus to the workers went up if the price wentdown. Those who joined first got a lump sum which they couldn't touch for agiven length of time. Men had to sign a 12-month agreement (which implied theycould not strike); if this was broken the bonus was forfeit. A meeting was heldbetween management and those who had signed from the start to discuss thescheme. Many objected to punitive clauses but others said that the 12 monthsagreement also gave them much needed job security. One worker called for anextension of the scheme to cover share ownership. This was Henry Austin, laterto become a worker director.

After the strike the schemewas extended and over the years altered considerably. A consultative processwas set up by which Depart- mental Representatives met regularly withmanagement to discuss complaints and matters in the workplace. Workers wereable to buy shares. Five years later the Company put in hand a scheme toreserve three Board places for directly elected members of the workforce. Thismet with considerable opposition — not just from members of the existing boardbut also from government bodies and the LCC. The Company began to extend the schemein such a way that the workers' lives were controlled by it. The scheme,described as a 14 'bulwark againstsocialism' ran as a snakes-and-ladder like system of rewards and punishments —over the years it became harder and harder for workers to get their hands onany of the cash held in their name unless they were prepared to invest it inproperty. A company building society was started in which workers wereencouraged to invest. However a bad or uncooperative worker could lose hisbonus and agreement, and soon be on his way to losing his job. Up the ladderlay the possibility of a directorship and property ownership, down wasdegradation.

The Company extended itsrange of welfare benefits until the pro- vision covered workers' lives 'fromthe cradle to the grave'. Pension and sick schemes multiplied and flourished toinclude convalescent homes, dental and maternity schemes and so on. Wide socialprovision was made with most works having an 'institute' complete with theatresand extensive sports facilities. Once in the South London gas industry — and itwas a firm in which son followed father — workers' lives were taken care of.

The South Met. ShareRegister has never been released by the Department of Trade so it has not beenpossible to discover the extent of share ownership by employees by the time ofnationalisation in 1947 but workers felt that it was their industry and thatthey had a chance of their views being represented in it.

THE PHILOSOPHY

Livesey was not involved inan intellectual debate on the future of the working class — but he wasinfluenced by the general debate in the media of the time which saw manyworking class "people as 'the dangerous classes' and the conditions underwhich they lived and worked as morally degrading. Such ideas were influenced byLivesey's own ideological background in the Church of England (St Jude's,Brixton), the Band of Hope, the Lords Day Observance Society, etc. He said in1888 that increasing urbanisation worked to the detriment of local workers — itwas a process he daily witnessed.

Better paid workers wereable to form institutions of respectability — Friendly Societies, BuildingSocieties etc. By 1889 unskilled workers were being recruited into trade unionswhich also challenged workers' loyalties to their employer. This challenge wasalso being taken up in political life through the formation of the LCC.Livesey, living and working in South London, could not fail to be aware ofworkers' aspirations towards 'respectable' status. He wanted to mould workersto that Victorian ideal of 'Christian observance, sobriety and thrift,orderliness and cleanliness'. We must not assume that they did not want to beso moulded.

George Livesey saw socialismas a great evil and undoubtedly had links with some of the more unsavoryelements in anti-union organizations. Hedid have ideas which were more sophisticated than mere union bashing. HisAnglican and temperance background was supplemented by his admiration of theItalian patriot, Mazzini In the years up to his death in 1908 - years in whichcopartnership spread widely in the gas industry - he wrote extensively on hisideas involving himself in the Labour copartnership movement. To quote some ofhis views:

"I do not thinkproperty is divided properly ~ the minority has nearly all the property and themajority are property less."

"the right to propertyis the foundation of liberty and if a man is not allowed to own the product ofhis labour he I not a free man.

"thousands of millionsof capital are invested in joint stock companies from the middle classes - thetwentieth century should do as much for the working classes as thenineteenth for the middle Classes.

Eric Hobsbawn citedco-partnership schemes as 'outbidding' the unions. In truth they could offer interms of material gain more than any union - what they took away was thefreedom to organise on the shop floor. Management would have argued that theysubstituted a different freedom and it is this argument that has become aparamount on in 1987- A hundred years later these competing definitions offreedom are still with us; the quotation above will find many echoes today.

This article first appeared in South London Record in 1988 (and ideas and my research has probably changed quite a bit since then)

Noakesoscope

2012-01-16T11:49:00.002Z

The current Lewisham History Journal has an article as relevant to Greenwich as Lewisham - The Noakes family - tells the story of a family, many of whom were majicians and some of whom lived in the Westcombe Park area. The family also had a business in Nelson Road which seems to have varied from being the 'South London Optical Works' to a forage business.

The article however draws particular attention to the Noakesoscope.......................... read all about it in Journal No.19
(can any kind officer of the Lewisham Society give us details of how to get copies)

Greenwich riverside in the recent past

2012-01-10T15:34:00.003Z

This is on Pipers Wharf - really intriguing.
Does anyone know what this vessel is>>

RECENTLY GIHS visited the studios of Bristol based artist, John Kane. John studied the Greenwich riverside some 10-12 years ago as a source of subject matter. He has kindly allowed us to use some of the photographs he took of potential material for future pictures

The walkway between the two working areas
of Piper's Wharf

Crane Street

One of the cranes which once stood on Lovell's Wharf

The cranes which once stood on Lovell's Wharf

Somewhere in the Thames mud ........

The power station jetty - one of the few things in
these pictures which is still there!

The silos at what was Amylum, with the
cable handling gear at Enderby's in
the foreground

and more debris in the mud

Sand mine in Diamond Terrace

2012-01-06T07:06:00.008Z

Thanks to Sub Brit's Nick Catford for these very wonderful pictures of the sand mine in Diamond Terrace.

(Nick is the man - who if you look on the web for almost any railway or underground site of interest - will have taken important pictures of the site in 1960 or thereabouts).

So - thanks again Nick for these

Deptford Dockyard & Shipbuilding info

2011-12-12T07:17:00.001Z

We now have some details about:

18th February. Symposium on Thames Shipbuilding.info@docklandshistorygroup.org.uk (some input about shipbuilding on the Greenwich Peninsula included) Details now available from Docklands History Group, John Garnet, 39 Oakfield Lane, Keston, Kent, BR26BY
Programme and details will be sent with receipt of £30 booking fee

and - we have received the latest copy of Dockyards - Newsletter of the Naval Dockyards Society.

This includes a detailed account of a visit to the Deptford Dockyard site (Convoys) by members in October. Readers will be aware that this is a major riverside development site which has been subject to a series of planning applications with Lewisham Council, the subject of much local debate.
The account is obviously from a slightly different perspective from much of what we have previously published about the account - although it covers much of the same ground - and has been written by NDS's Secretary, Ann Coats, and Malcolm Tucker, of GLIAS and, of course, a GIHS member. The party was taken round the site by archaeologist Duncan Hawkins and many interesting photographs, by Malcolm, are included.
This is followed by details text of the NDS letter to Lewisham Council Planners - this is available on www.navaldockyards.org

The Society holds its Annual General Meeting in Greenwich every year - although many of its activists are Portsmouth based. Next year's meeting, held at the Maritime Museum on 17th March, will include a tour of the Deptford Dockyard site.

Details of membership can be found on their website - and they also are on Facebook Naval-Dockyards-Society and Twitter @navdocksoc

They are looking for a new membership secretary and committee members. Details Ann Coats anncoats49@googlemail.com

Bad smells in south London 1871

2011-12-08T06:33:00.001Z

The mid-19^thcentury was a great time for a lot of not particularly well regulatedindustry. In 1871 Dr. Ballard, theMedical Officer of Health for Islington investigated some Thameside complaintsof smells. Who had been complaining??

One person wasthe Military Commandant at Woolwich, and Dr. Gordon, the Principal MedicalOfficer of the Garrison. Ballard reported that their evidence was “the clearestand most instructive that I received” and pointed out that the barracks and thebarrack field were “about a mile from the river and at a considerable elevation”but that nevertheless “each variety of odour is perceptible … when the wind isin the northwest or north-north-east one variety is perceived, and wheneast-northeast the other variety”.

Dr. Gordon toldhim that when he travelled on the river between Woolwich and Purfleet that he recognizedthe smell of Lawes Manure Works at Barking Creek as distinct from that from Bevingtonand Brown in Erith Marshes. That smell,said Dr. Gordon, was like that “which he has perceived in India when passing theplaces in which the Hindus consume, by cremation, the bodies of their dead”.

Thus they concluded“A northeast wind would bring effluvia towards the barracks from Barking Creek,distant 2 miles” and on a different day “a more easterly wind would bring thosefrom Erith Marshes, distant 4 miles”.

To the Managerof the Southern Outfall Pumping station at Crossness complaints about smellsmust have been a subject of some sensitivity. He told Dr.Ballard that he could “distinguish two varieties of offensiveodour”. One of these which “he describes as in tolerably offensive” was fromthe, previously mentions, glue and manure works of Brown and Bevington, atErith.

However at Charltoncomplaints were not so bad – Ballard was told this by the local Inspector ofNuisances. There was “only one variety of offensive odour …….that is of an acidand sickening character”. That smellcame from factories on the north shore of the river near the Victoria Docks,and – (oh dear) “from some factories … Greenwich Marshes”.

Ballardtherefore set out to inspect “the several factories between Blackwall Reach tothe west, and Erith Reach to the east”. He sorted them out into three groups:

Group 1 - on theriver bank near Bugsby's Reach – and this in response to complaints fromCharlton, and from the army in Woolwich. Ballard reckoned there were 10factories here to be looked at.

Group 2 on BarkingCreek. Which annoyed the army in Woolwich, the inhabitants of Plumstead villageand of the “little colony at the Southern Outfall Pumping Station”. There werefour factories in this group

Group 3downriver “between Halfway Reach and Erith – which annoyed the same people asGroup 2. There were seven factories here

Ballard pointsout “All of these factories are not equally offensive” …. “Some effluvia is only perceptible at a shortdistance … while the effluvia from others are such as experience has shown, maybe carried by the wind to the distance of several miles”.

Forthcoming episodes will reveal whichfactories smelt of what ……………with exciting details of exactly what Bevingtonand Brown were doing …………..and which factories Ballard found it difficult toremain near, and which were completely deserted apart from the smell.

…………….More to come.

A voyage in a collier

2011-12-05T05:00:00.001Z

One of the most dangerous - and largely ignored - industries was that of the collier ships which brought the coal from north east England down to the Thames. This was a massive industry and its history would take many volumes. In the 19th and 20th centuries part of the trade was coal coming in to the various London gas works. Gas companies had their own collier fleets - with boats undertaking a rapid shuttle service down the perilous and treacherous east coast from Tyne and Wear ports down to London, and back.

The various gas company house magazine published regular accounts from young men who had cadged a voyage on a collier - and returned to write up their experiences. The account below, from the South Metropolitan Gas's Copartnership Journal in the early 1900s. The author clearly had a pleasant trip - not always the case, the east coast could be a terrifying place!!

A VOYAGE IN A COLLIER.

'I ain't no sailor bold, and I never was upon the sea' . Ican no longer sing this with truth. I am one of those newspaper fellows …. who was tremendously rocked in the cradleof the deep off the Yorkshire coast.

It was suggested that we should take a trip, a free trip. Asa newspaperman I accepted the offer, and did not flinch. I made the stipulation, however; that I mustbe back within a week and when we left Greenwich our destination was SouthShields.

It was three o'clock in this afternoon of August 22 that wewent Deptford Pier, and there was shown our vessel, the Canto. 'This is CaptainKennett,' said the old foreman of the wharf, 'and these are the two gentlemenwho are anxious to accompany you back to South Shields.' We shook hands and Ishall never forget the grip of the captain's, hand shake and within the spaceof half an hour we were at the Naval College, Greenwich. We made the acquaintanceof other members of the crew - as well the pilot, who was generally admitted tobe ‘one of the best' on the river. We were privileged to go on the foc'astle,and I heard the pilot say once that ‘that was a near squeak’ and he told thecaptain of a barge what he thought of him.

We soon got to Gravesend, where our pilot left us. Theevening shades were closing when we got to Southend, with information as tohow, amid the multitude of light vessels, a route could be safely navigated.

Again ascending the bridge, I was in time to join my friendin witnessing the lights of Clacton, Walton on the Naze, and to see the hugepassenger vessels leave Harwich for Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp. The mate thensuggested forty winks - and these were about all we had that night.

Come out, you fellows, if you want to see the sun come outof the ocean,' said Talbot, the mate when we were just off Yarmouth. That was breakfast the first morningaboard. We were passing Cromer and onour way to the Wash a breeze rose up, and for a long period we had had plentyof knocking about. No more need be said,with the exception that it was a little rough.

I thoroughly enjoyed the next hours, for the most part out of sight of land, the goingin to Flamborough Head, where the seahas formed caves; on to Filey, Scarborough, Whitby, Middlesborough - which isalways full of smoke - thence on to Sunderland.

It had been my first experience of seeing whales, but at the mouth of the Tees they were rising and 'blowing' around us in alldirections.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when we got alongside Tynedock, but still Captain Kennett had to pay his men, who were all anxious to gethome to their wives and families living in or around Shields.

The next day my companion and myself went to Newcastle bytrain. We spent an enjoyable day in that city, returning to Tyne dock about sixo'clock, only to find our good ship away from her berth. Captain Kennet had,however, told us that this might be so, and reminded us that the funnel wasstreaked red and black. I spotted her along way out in the dock, alongside other vessels nearly half a mile away.Alongside the quay was a brigantine with firs, and I told one of the crew ourtrouble. 'Canto ahoy!' shouted he, and immediately one of the crew poked hisface over the side of the ship and spotted us. He got into a boat and came tothe quayside and we had to climb up a ladder with bars of iron let into theside of the quay, sloped inwards. How Igot down that ladder I know not.

We left Shields just before nine o'clock on Thursday night,and we were on tide at Deptford at half-past seven o'clock on Saturday morning,having made two very quick journeys. We had a rough journey all the way back -off Yarmouth, where we witnessed the London boat going into the Yar. The seabroke right over us and water came into our cabin, and once or twice it camedown in such torrents and made such a row - but Captain Kennet assured us that itwas nothing.

New GLIAS Newsletter - bits, bobs and the ferry

2011-12-02T12:47:00.001Z

The December 2011 edition of the GLIAS Newsletter is out –so – our regular trawl and the most important question – What does it have tosay this month about the industrial history of Greenwich and/or Woolwich??

In fact – it’s largely the usual stories embellished. Butnever mind that.

First of all – a ‘thank you’ to Editor Robert (and Sue) foradvertising all the next GIHS talks at the Old Bakehouse (7.30 all Welcome)

17^thJanuary     Jeremy Hodgkinson on IronFounding in the Weald
21^stFebruary   John Yeardley on Ropemaking inLondon
13^th March      DavidCufley on Bricks and brickmaking locally
17^thApril         Peter Luck on Sugar & Soap – (site recently known as Amylum)
15^thMay          Diana Rimel onBazalgette

And then there are some GLIAS events – reciprocally advertisedbelow:

18^th January – 300 Years of the Newcomen Engineby Prof. Dave Perrett. Willoughby Theatre, Charterhouse Square, 6.30

And a leaflet is enclosed for SERIAC 28^thApril 2012. At Newbury. Details www.biag.org.uk
SERIAC is the South East Regional IndustrialArchaeology Conference – and the programme, as ever, is all rural industrieswith a bit of military stuff.

Back to the newsletter:

There is a long long list of items from the London Archaeologist’sAnnual Fieldwork Round-up. Thisincludes:
Eaglesfield Park, Shooters Hill –excavation of First World War anti-aircraft gun platform Deptford Green, LowerSchool – rice mill established around 1700 replaced by warehouse 1875
Convoys Wharf Deptford – 52 trenchesexcavated, identified area of c19th Great Dock. Outline of Grade II listed c19 Olympiabuilding and area of Tudor storehouse. Other walls and surfaces.

Next comes some bits from News in Brief

Deptford Dockyard – they report about the surviving important remains. And point out ‘the two listed shipbuildingsheds are at present likely to be surrounded and obscured by high rise buildings.These listed slipway covers are the only extant shipbuilding structures aboveground in Greater London (Ref. R.J.M.Surtherland Trans Necomen Society, vol 60pps 107-126)

Then there is a lot of information about a Deptford builtwarship HMS Pandora and her wreck, referring us to a Queensland Museum website. She was built in Deptford by Adams, Barnardand Dudman in 1778-9

Enderby Wharf - they report 'bad news'.... ‘Security is no longerbeing maintained at the property next door and squatters have got into EnderbyHouse. The interior is now so badly damaged that the house’s continued statusas a listed building is under threat. The developers have decided that the Enderbys were ’unkind to whales’ soit is bad to perpetuate their memory. The name 'Enderby Wharf' will probably bechanged’. They also refer to the cable gear on the jetty and refer us toDockland (NELP/GLC 1986 p255)

And then – we come to more on the Woolwich Ferry. And can I repeat the plea that all theseferry enthusiasts PLEASE get in touch with us – or could the GLILAS newsletterask them to??

First there is a long piece by David Dawson about theconnections between the ferry and Crossness sludge vessels. This concernsa grid iron build at Crossness for boat repair recommended to be installed in1894. And it is added that there was a suggestionthat the ‘Woolwich Ferry boats could be serviced on the gridiron at Crossnessand with a little alteration in the levels of the blocks the gridiron can beused for the Fire Brigade boat’. This gridiron was 230 feet long, 50 ft. wideand built of fir timber, most 12 inch square. Timbers were driven vertically into the river bed and cross members use tosupport the vessels. This structure apparentlysurvived into the 1940s, but its subsequent fate isn’t recorded
David Dawson point to the remains of a similar structure at Woolwichjust down from the ferry, known as the Woolwich barge blocks.

And - finally – someone called Bob ‘sewerpipe’ Rogers hasbeen ‘prompted to put pen to paper’ because of the item in the last GLIASnewsletter which said there was ‘little justification for the taxpayer funding theferry'. Bob Sewerpipe says ‘The Woolwich Ferryis living heritage and many of the foot passengers would not be able to use thefoot tunnel. As such it is a lifeline’.

(And can I add – it is also extremely busy and many many vehiclesuse which are not heavy transports)

Woolwich in the General Strike

2011-11-30T12:38:00.001Z

WOOLWICH IN THE GENERAL STRIKE

In the early 1970s there was an attempt to set up a Workers Educational Association Branch in Greenwich - as, then fashionable, History Workshop. To be honest the entire membership was Mary Mills, Deborah Thom, and Iris Dove. The result of our work was a booklet - Woolwich in
the General Strike. Deborah got the by-line and Mary did the typing. The entire project then sunk without trace - except, that here is the text we produced. Iris is now acting in various interesting
projects, Mary is still doing the typing - and Deborah?? Deborah if you are out there, and reading this - hope this scan is ok, and hope it was a worth while project for you.

So - this is what we published in a very very dodgy typescript.
(and there are several places I should have put "sic")

THE BOROUGH
WOOLWICH in 1926 was, as its Medical Officer of Health said 'one of the suburban working class metropolitan boroughs'. It had then a population of 146,000 which was unevenly distributed throughout its three main areas; Woolwich with thirty-two people to the acre; Plumstead with
twenty-two and Eltham with only eight - this compared to a London average of sixty-two.   It was, however, a relatively prosperous borough for a working-class one and those in work earnt good wages. The Arsenal, although no longer the central force in borough life which it had been, was still the biggest employer. But, despite an extensive campaign for alternative peace-time work - which had produced a few railway engines and milk churns – the workforce had been cut to around 8,000. Other engineering works in the Charlton area employed large numbers and Siemens in particular had 6,339 workers. Unions in the Arsenal were well organised with the Engineers Union, the Amalgamated Engineering Union, the Workers Union and the breakaway Government Workers Union. Other engineering works were not so well organised as they were to become in the thirties. Public service workers, and particularly transport workers, were also unionised.

WOOLWICH had a Labour Party that was unusually well organised at the local level since 1903 when they elected their first M.P, Will Crooks.   Since 1919 they had controlled the Borough Council and had an MP, Henry Snell, after 1923. The strength of this local organisation is partly attributable to the local Labour paper, The Pioneer, which had ceased publication in 1922. What happened in Woolwich in May 1926 was to be a reflection of the stronghold that Labour's political ideas had on the Borough.

THE STRIKE
The STRIKE was called for May 3rd 1926 by the General Council of the TUC in support of the miners, who had refused to accept a payment which the employers wanted to make after the withdrawal of government subsidy. The General Council called out certain categories of workers only - transport .. printing ... iron and steel .. metals and chemicals ... building (except in hospitals and housing) .. electricity and gas (except lighting) and Central Union offices were to direct the strike.
This left a gap which in many areas was filled by Trades Councils or ad hoc councils of action, to connect strikers across union boundaries at a local level.

In WOOLWICH and ELTHAM Dick Croy records that some people had tried to set up Councils of Action but that the Labour Party would not let them "anywhere near what was going on". There was no strike bulletin, such as Greenwich and Deptford organised through their Council of Action - at least we have found no evidence of one.

LABOUR
The Borough Council immediately set up local machinery. The Emergency Committee under the Mayor, William Barefoot, met on 4th May to discuss the withdrawal of labour from the Power Station. They persuaded the power workers to continue to supply hospitals, street lighting,
bakeries and laundries after three days discussion. Other municipal employees were also persuaded to stay at work - the sweepers, the scavengers, the sanitary and health officers and the Public Baths
employees. Initially they had all come out and the street lights in Woolwich stayed on for two days as a result - making the streets very bright. There was no sense of urgency in their deliberations. They
took time to discuss moving the statue of Queen Victoria at a cost of £150.

They were preoccupied at this time in fighting the District Auditors’ attempt to penalise Council representatives for paying wages at 10% higher than the National Agreement - this could have resulted in each member paying a £9,000 fine – but they did eventually win.

Mayor, William Barefoot, was a founding member and leading light of the Woolwich Labour Party. He had edited the Woolwich Pioneer throughout its existence. He saw the General Strike as a potential threat to public order and feared what he saw as Communist attempts to subvert peace. He arranged twice daily band concerts to 'keep people off the street'. The local Labour theatrical troupe, the Thespians, put on plays. Ethel Brooks remembers .... "we used to put these things on with
the young Labour entertainers every afternoon at the Town Hall, about three evenings a week as well to give the men something to do. They brought their wives and families and so every afternoon we were full up"

Woolwich was physically dominated by two major building complexes - the Arsenal in the North on the River, and the barracks on the hill.   As with the Arsenal some of the importance as an Army centre had been lost to Woolwich, but there were still 5,000 soldiers in the barracks. During the strike though, these solders were not used much locally - The Welsh Guards were sent to Silvertown to guard the Docks.

One local resident was sent with an artillery detachment to the Rhondda. The experience put him off politics for life and when he saw the homes of the Welsh miners he felt that politicians had done that
and he wanted no more truck with them.

Mr. Crosling, who was eleven years old ....... "can remember seeing the trams and buses with a policeman or a soldier manning the tram or bus along with the driver. They was also on the horsedrawn vans, lorries and the steam Fodon wagons."

Mr. Coleman, who was distributing strike pay got caught in convoy ...."We was in this convoy of troops carrying guns. Up came an officer and he said 'Get out' we said 'you - get us out'. We was in the middle of the convoy with TUC-NUR on the front. He didn't like that but he was more worried than we were."

Locally the troops were confined to barracks – possibly because there were worries about them striking too. Authority appears to have been more interested in volunteers but again many of these were not used.

Jock Offord was offered 'a few shillings' to enrol as a volunteer through his London University Officers' Training Corps but he spent the whole period of the strike sitting in Holly Hedge House on Blackheath playing cards and listening to the horrifying tales told by the other volunteers - many of whom were ex-Black and Tans.

Other volunteers were organised through the Organisation for the Maintenance of supplies. The Masonic Hall was thrown open to them - the paper said there were 3,000 in Woolwich.   The local Labour Council had got food and fuel distribution so well organised that it seems unlikely they had much to do. The Woolwich librarian was attacked for giving two special constables a lift in his car, an indication of the unanimity of support for the strike.

TRANSPORT
Transport workers came out almost unanimously. There were very few trams or buses. Some witnesses say that there were none. Mrs. Ivy Sumner was on holiday in Torquay and had an epic journey home on one of the few trains to get through, driven by two students. She then got a
tube to Lambeth North ........ and then she had to make her way with her cases on foot. "I left my friend on Canal Bridge as she lived in Bermondsey; then I walked all the way back to Humber Road".

Mrs. Nelson's sister walked every day to the BBC at Bush House from Plumstead. Others were luckier - Mrs. Selfe travelled on a furniture van which took a small group to the City regularly.

Newspapers give conflicting accounts of the availability of public transport but most commuters certainly walked to work.

The Free Ferry which never closed except for fog or when the river froze over struck this time. It was closed for two weeks because the crews continued to strike when the two skippers were demoted to make and only went back when their jobs were returned to them. This left only the two foot tunnels for the many who crossed the river.

The trains virtually stopped. The Plumstead NUR branch was the biggest in the Woolwich area, George Coleman was the Chairman .........we had a big meeting. We're going to finish at 12.0 midnight I said, and we did. Course we had a few stragglers ... four union members, I think, two
signalmen, 1 shunter and 1 clerk in the goods department. We didn't worry too much about then because we knew they could not run the railway - they couldn’t drive the engine. Some got through, you had these volunteers who used to go on the engine on the Bexleyheath line from Dartford, you’re like this (steep) going up the line. No more steam. They had to wait half an hour for steam." Some of these trains ran out completely and got stuck blocking the line.

Volunteers faced other hazards if they managed to get a train through. Mrs. Attenborough described women in Charlton attacking the drivers ....... they were.....throwing onions and potatoes and carrots and parsnips anything they could lay their hands on in the way of vegetables, at every train that passed through the crossing. "

A few trains did get through and those who had worked on them used to leave the line and sneak out to avoid the pickets. The stations were picketed daily and sucessfully. The railway men held meetings at the Radical Club, not their usual place which was the Lord Derby. ASLEF (the driver's union) and the Railway Clerks Association were solid too.

OTHER WORKERS
Engineering workers were not called out to start with. The problem for union branches in the Woolwich area was that the definition of who should come out was unclear. There was a genuine problem in interpreting who was and who was not a metal worker, for example. At Siemens the electricians stayed in, but others came out. The Kentish Mercury reported that strikers came in to the shops and 'persuaded some of the youngsters, girls in the shops to come out.

Mr. Selfe remembers ........ " the industrial people were out but the staff used to meet at the top of the hill road that leads to Siemens and were conducted down by the police and military and let into the
building at the bottom".

Eventually the shortage of power and supplies meant that Siemens closed and Mr. Dormer for example was locked out. At Johnson & Phillips, which was quite well organised the Convener called the workers in and out three times, in the end they stayed out but there was confusion.
The Arsenal was the problem for unionists. There were regular meetings of strikers in Beresford Square, just outside the main gates. This had always been the area for public meetings and every Saturday night various speakers, religious, political and commercial would hold forth there. The white collar workers stayed in at the Arsenal, although many of them were organised in unions, particularly the National Union of Clerks but they were not called out, and Mr. Selfe says .... the particular establishment system which penalised a worker both in pension and in job security if he went
out, and ensured that people were not prepared to come out unofficially.

On 5th May the engineers and those in the Workers Union came out. Ethel Brooks remembers ....... "Few people went in, of course, I went on picket duty at the Arsenal. People thought I was mad but I did it. My husband worked in the Arsenal and he was out on strike."

Dick Croy and others travelled around the Arsenal exhorting all the workers to come out. Some did not several witnesses reported that the Arsenal worked all through but most did.   The Arsenal authorities played it very coolly at first, circulating the offices asking for volunteer drivers and then in collusion with Pilbrown Workers Union Official, they wielded the big stick.

On Tuesday, May 11th, they posted a notice from Walter Citrine which came from the TUC Electricity Advisory Committee ordering them to resume work" these men do not come within the category of the first order issued on May 1st (declaring who should strike) and took the step
without consultation with their unions, any resumption must rest with the Trade Union to which they belong". "Therefore all Workers Union government workers are to resume work tomorrow morning May 12th."

On the Saturday May 9th the CSOF (in control of the Arsenal) had said .. "Men who have remained at work and who return to work by Wednesday May 12th will be given preference for employment." Essentially the Trade Union was to accept this reward for strike breaking .... The Shop Stewards Committee told the men 'stand firm be loyal to the miners, be loyal to the working class".

On the Wednesday, 13th May when the strike was anyway called off, the Arsenal workers went back in large numbers. There was to be great bitterness aroused by the strike inside the Arsenal, partly due to the attempts by Arsenal managers to victimise strikers, partly by the lack of unity between unions.

The Printers came out. Most local papers were not published, leaving gossip as the main source of information.

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF THE STRIKE
The relieving committees didn't meet during the strike except in Charlton so no cash was handed out - only food. However, they did relieve the wives and children of strikers in the week ending May 7th
1,324 were relieved, the next week 3,412. Mr. Dormer argued that he was locked out at Siemens and got relief for his wife and child..... "Look, I'm not on strike, I said, I got locked out, machines shut, just like that. I got locked out and I want relief for my wife and child. After a big battle I got some, but just for the wife and child, they didn't pay me anything. " He also reported that he bought the British Worker, the TUC paper, which appears to have been quite a common experience.   The paper was obviously sold wherever large crowds could be found rather than in a systematic way through
union branches. Others bought it in Beresford Square for example.

There were no shortages of food but prices rose. Milk went up 2d. a pint and meat prices rose too. The Council Emergency Committee gave vouchers for the distribution of coal - 1 cwt per household per week. Mrs. Longhurst remembers " I was just a child then, my father had his own coal round in Plumstead and they were very hard times. Coal then was 1s, 2d. per cwt. My brother and I used to go to the Plumstead Town Hall and collect 100 permits, one for each household, each month, no permit, no coal.

The permit system continued because the miners went on strike for another six cruel months.

There was little breakdown of public order too. One truck driver was arrested and fined for chalking
WORKERS ARE ON STRIKE
There was a big battle in Blackwall Lane because strikers marched on the Medway Oil and Storage Company where 200,000 gallons of petrol and kerosene were stored. They stoned the twenty-five policemen sent out to dispose them, were baton charged and fought back for twenty minutes. Two men were given five months with hard labour. The newspaper report says that they planned to fire the fuel, this seems unlikely in extreme.

Ugly scenes were reported at Johnson & Phillips between pickets and blacklegs but the pickets won the day and no damage was done to persons or property.

Two men in Charlton were given a six months prison sentence for trying to stop a bus in Charlton.

In Woolwich itself although the police patrolled Beresford Square but did not intervene. Dick Croy who had often been arrested for unemployment agitation was quite surprised that he was able to speak
freely on this question,

THE AFTERMATH
The TUC General Council called off the strike on 11th May. In Woolwich the Arsenal had already begun to return to work. The CSOF tried to stop the pay of 1,000 men on the grounds that that they had discharged themselves without notice but eventually he restored some of them but not all and some militants found themselves permanently outside the Gates. Siemens and Johnson & Phillips both went back and the events of the strike proved a spur to greater organisation inside the factory.

Transport workers resumed work fairly speedily except in the NUR.

Conflicting instructions came from Unity House eventually they were called out again for three days and George Coleman and two others who had been told not to come back were re-instated. In other cases the railway companies successfully victimised their strikers, but not in this one. The miners were still on strike and the Woolwich labour movement preoccupied itself with supporting them, particularly the women.

"I've always been active in the Labour Party since I joined. It was also organised all over the country to sell little brass miners lamps at a shilling a time. It as very difficult to sell them as a shilling
was a lot of money and I had the job of organising the sale and visiting managers of cinemas to get permission to take collections. We raised quite a bit of money but it wasn’t as much as we would have
liked to have done."

The RACS based on Woolwich and covering all of South-East London had supported the strike from the first. Dick Croy argued for a donation of £10,000 from RACS to the miners and won his case. Lily Paine, who was a strong supporter of the Women's Co-operative Guild said ......... "During the 1926 strike we went out with our collecting boxes. Our Co-op nationally provided the necessities of life for the Miners' families. we were given permission to sell miners' lamps outside the local branches and, in some cases, children of miners were taken in until the strike was over."

Winifred Foley in her book "A Child in the Forest" records how she was taken to Plumstead from the Forest of Dean because her father was on strike, she put on weight and was given clothes, and in general treated very kindly. Plumstead seemed very prosperous to her.

CONCLUSIONS
The General Strike was fairly general in Woolwich. It was also fairly peaceful and such bitterness as was aroused was between unions rather than between classes. Labour had held the people from the borough together and ensured that the tiny Communist party had little effect on the strike. Sympathy for the miners was manifest in everyone we spoke to although two people were not convinced that the General Strike helped them very much.   The labour organisations locally threw themselves perhaps more wholeheartedly into the support of the miners than they did into creating alternative working class organisations to run the strike.

This outline account was prepared by Greenwich Workers Educational Association. It was written up by Deborah Thom, typed by Mary Mills and printed by her and Iris Dove.
We hope to interview more people and reproduced this as a book with all the normal academic details.
Information comes from:-
Cole & Postgate The Common People, 1746-1946
Report of Woolwich in Medical Officer of Health's Report 1926.
Kentish Mercury.
Kentish Independent
Blackheath Local Guide
Woolwich Herald
Plumstead Gazette
Eltham Times.
O.F. Hogg A History of the Royal Arsenal Vol. II
R. Hyman The Worker's Union.
S. Jeffries A History of the Engineers.

We would like to thank the following people who wrote to us, gave interviews or helped in some way : -
Mr. & Mrs. C. Selfe
Mrs. Grace Attenborough
Mrs. M. Nelson
Mr. G. Offord
Mr. G. Crosling
Mr. & Mrs. George Coleman
Mrs. Longhurst
Mrs. Ivy Sumner
Alice & Jack Loveman
Mrs. Lily Paine
Mrs. Ethel Brookes.
Will Fancy (for the loan of his interview with Dick Croy)
and the staff of the Local History Library at Woodlands, Mycenae Road, Blackheath.

We are aware that we have not stuck strictly to Woolwich but strayed over into neighbouring Greenwich since so many people lived in one and worked in the other we hope this is forgiven.
We are well aware that there are probably many errors and certain many omissions in this draft - if you can help us deal with any of them please contact: Greenwich WEA c/o Kidbrooke House or Deborah Thom,BA

A major timber importer on the Charlton riverside

2011-11-29T11:13:00.001Z

So– back to the industrial railways book. I'm flicking through at random for one ofthe many, many Greenwich and Woolwich industries mentioned. Let’s start with Christie & Vesey Ltd of ‘RiversideGreenwich’. The book says they were earlier “Christie's Wharf Ltd - (incorporated3/5/1929”).

Itgives a map reference – but of course Vesey’s Wharf is a block of housesjutting out into the river at the end of Anchor and Hope Lane. So that’s wherethey were?? Or is it?

Articlesfrom railway magazines of the 1920s and 1950s featured the Angerstein railway – still running betweenthe Blackheath rail tunnel and the river. They tell us that the freehold of 16 acres of the wharf area was acquiredin 1912 by “William Christie and Sand Gravel.Co., Ltd,” who were “large sleeperimporters and creosoters.” They built a “largecreosoting works and sawmills” and thus “the district has become a veryimportant timber centre”.

Theydescribe Christie's Wharf as “adjoining Angerstein Wharf”- which means it mustbe one of the two wharves still in use by the aggregate firms which operate onthe Angerstein Railway today.

They sayit was completed just after the war – so in the early 1920s– and is “one of thefinest ferro-concrete piers of its type on the Thames”. They say it can take largersteamers than any other wharf in the reach with 26 ft. 6 in. of water at hightide spring tides, and 6 ft. at low water with a “proper chalk bed wheresteamers may lay in safety”. It is “equipped on the most up-to-date lines, 15400 ft. in length” and is “a very good example of what might be done on theThames banks” and the wharf handles “over 30,000 tons of sleepers and30,000 tons of timber, deals and telegraph poles” and this is done with “steamtravelling cranes, which run on 4 ft. 8in. roads from the wharf back into theworks”. Christie's Wharf they say can “give steamers loaded with timber quickerdespatch than any other place in the Port of London”. They also describe the railwaytracks on the works, and nine steam travelling cranes are employed in the handlingof the sleepers and timber – and this is where our directory of London industrialrailways comes in and 1953 Ordnance Survey map shows “an internal narrow gaugetramway - Ten steam cranes operated on the standard gauge lines”

The1920s railway magazine finally notes that “60,000 tons of timber.... annually… passes over the Southern RailwayCompany's …. and during the Baltic season it is no uncommon sight to see trainafter train leave the wharf composed entirely of timber traffic”.

Whatelse can we find? Turning to the ever helpful net Google finds, bizarrelycopies of the Straits Times – and a listof wills from the 1930s with the headline “TimberImporter Leaves £69,059.” This refersto an. Andrew Charles Christie who has died at the age of 54 and which givestwo addresses “Warning Camp House, Warning, Arundel, Sussex" and “5, RoyalCrescent, Brighton”. He was apparently thechairman of Christie's Wharf – and yes there really is a place called WarningCamp just outside Arundel, and you can visit the gardens in the summer. Family history sites reveal he was Scottish,and came from Stirling where his father was a timber importer – and accordingto the ancestor hunters so were other family members.

So– this was clearly a large and important industry which employed a lot ofpeople. Yet we seem to know very littleabout it. It is very likely that there are some remains of it in the shape ofone of the two aggregate wharves. In factI understand that the Greenwich planners still call it ‘Christie’s Wharf’although Christies and their timber are long gone. I am far from clear aboutVesey – since what we now know as Vesey’s wharf is some distance from the Angersteinrailway and must have been a different site. Has anyone any knowledge – ideas?? When did Christie’s cease work? What were theirScottish connections?? Has anyone the time and inclination to sort all thisout??

Refs:
AngersteinWharf. Southern Railway Magazine Dec 1925 & Nov. 1951.
“Industrial Railways and Locomotives of the County of London” (Industrial Railway Society 2008 compiled by Robin Waywell and Frank Jux)
Pix to come - sorry I am not so silly as to reproduce the OS extract, interesting though it is

Assassination of the Prime Minister

2011-11-28T09:15:00.001Z

Not at all sure that this is industrial history - but anyway - the Woolwich Antiquarian's Newsletter is reminding us that 2012 is important as the bicentennial ofthe Assassination of Spencer Percival, Prime Minister, who is buried in St.Luke's Church, Charlton.

Spencer Percevalis the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated while inoffice. He was shot dead on 11 May 1812 in the lobby of the House ofCommons by John Bellingham. Bellingham was a business man who blamed him for some failings in governmentcompensation incurred in Russia. Bellingham had worked in Russia for some years and had just returned to England a day or so before - and went to carry out this murder before he had even travelled to be reunited with his family. He was tried and executed within a couple of days.

A detailed account of all this can be found in Mollie Gillen's book "Assassination of the Prime Minister. The Shocking Death of Spencer Percival" (Sidgewick and Jackson 1972)

Percival seems to have been buried in St.Luke's through his wife who was a member of theMaryon -Wilson family of Charlton House and Percival is in the family vault. There is also a bust of him inthe church.

We understand that StLuke's is planning to mark the bicentenary with a civic service in May nextyear to be followed with pageantin Charlton Park (and we wait to see what that will involve)

What has Southwark Council done with George Livesey's statue??

2011-11-25T07:13:00.002Z

What has happened to Sir George Livesey’s Statue?

I didn’t ought to go on about George Livesey at length – although I could do so since he was the subject of my M.Phil and I might be a bit obsessive.

George Livesey was a local gas works manager –and in Greenwich he founded and largely designed the world class East Greenwich Gas Works. He also revolutionised the 19^th century gas industry and was a great man generally– he was also a national figure in the temperance movement.

He was also more than a bit of a trouble maker …. he wasn’t particularly posh, had no formal education, and was very, very clever. He has become known as a strike breaker (true) but he also had a lot of ideas about society and property ownership which were unusual, to say the least, for a Victorian industrialist. He was a very long way from the top hatted Victorian capitalist he became in so many 1980s agitprop plays.

His statue stood outside his beloved Old Kent Road gas works – and a couple of years ago was craned over the road to the Livesey Museum – which has now closed – and since then everything has gone very, very quiet.

The Livesey Museum was originally a library which George gave to the people of Camberwell. Southwark Council closed the Library some years ago and turned it into a children’s museum, which they recently stopped funding. It turns out that our George had foreseen possible sales of property and library closures when he gave it to the council 110 years ago, so he tangled up the ownership in such a way that Southwark don’t actually own it. A users campaign was started about the museum closure - but they have proved difficult to talk to, to put it mildly.

So – about the statue.

The statue is unveiled at Old Kent Road

The Sculptor was Frederick William Pomeroy – who also did that cracking statue of QueenVictoria in Woolwich Town Hall. He was the major sculptor of his day and anything by him is pretty important. It was cast in bronze – which I suppose means we should watch out that it doesn’t go the same way as the recent dreadful fate of Rotherhithe’s Dr. Salter (although for all we know it has already gone!!)

It was cast at the foundry of J.W. Singer and Sons at Thames Ditton –and there is lots of information about them around. They were also pretty important.

George stands on a granite pedestal and it says

On the front: GEORGE LIVESEY 1834-1908

On the rear:-

Statue in situ
Both this photo and the
one above by R.J.M.Carr

SIR GEORGE THOMAS LIVESEY. M.l.C.E. ENTERED THE SOUTH METROPOLITAN GAS COMPANY 1848. BECAME ENGINEER, BECAME DIRECTOR 1882 AND IN 1885 CHAIRMAN, A POSITION HE OCCUPIED UNTIL HIS DEATH. HE ENRICHED THE GAS INDUSTRY BY MANY INVENTIONS, WAS A STRENUOUS ADVOCATE OF THE SLIDING SCALE, AND IN 1889 FOUNDED THE CO-PARTNERSHIP OF THE COMPANY. THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED TO HIS MEMORY BY THE SHAREHOLDERS, OFFICERS AND WORKMEN, 1909.

Signed and dated, P. W. POMEROY. A.R.A.SC1- 1909
Unveiled: Friday 8 December 1911, by Earl Grey
Exhibited: 1910, London, Royal Academy of Arts

I am very happy to explain stuff from that inscription – the sliding scale, co-partnership and also Earl Grey, In fact I would be delighted to do so. Also please note that George started work in Old Kent Road Gas Works at the age of 14.

The unveiling at Old Kent Road

The official unveiling was not until 8 December 1911 – and another mystery which has haunted me for years is that a film was apparently made of the occasion. If so it is one very valuable bit of early film and gas industry history– I have asked and asked and asked about it. It must have been kept at Old Kent Road –what happened to it?

I feel very strongly that we need to keep making a fuss about this. Livesey was a great man – albeit one with a besmirched record. He spent most of his life in the Old Kent Road – moving there when he was 5 and working there for the rest of his life. However – he doesn’t just belong to Southwark - he was born in Islington – and he created an industrial empire for all of South London.

Built on the Greenwich Peninsula his revolutionary East Greenwich gas works is now much derided – ‘polluted, nasty’- but, if we stand back more objectively, we should realise it was also a great achievement in terms of technology, management planning, public service and workforce involvement. In its day it was a major showpiece – something to aspire to. We have here the largest remaining of his monumental and revolutionary gasholders – but there is no mention anywhere on the Peninsula of George and his work.

When the Dome was first built there were lots of stories around about it being haunted by Livesey's ghost - fanned, I am sorry to say, by various people and some press officers. I did a number of TV and radio interviews about him at the time.

So – what has London Borough of Southwark done with George Livesey’s Statue – and (if it still exists) what do they intend to do with it?

Mary

PS - By the way – I am more than happy to give talks on George Livesey, his work, his ideas – and the strike breaking. I have lots of pictures and much other stuff –including cut out and build paper gasholders. I deposited a lot of papers –including a half written biography – at Southwark’s John Harvard Library some years ago.

Dirty work below Crossness

2011-11-24T08:17:00.002Z

A recent article in the Crossness Record newsletter describes the last days of the ‘sludge ships’which ran from the south London sewage works until 1999.

This was the second part of a story the first half of which appeared in 2009 and which described how the ‘sludge fleet’ developed under the London County Council and its history until the mid-1950s. It told how the Victorian Metropolitan Boardof Works decided how to the sludge left over from sewage treatment process should be disposed of – they took it down river into the estuary and dumped in the Barrow Deep.

The vessels they used – were a fine sight – and kept up to standards expected of a major public authority. The original boats –described in the first article were steam powered but they were followed by a generation which was diesel powered and of larger capacity - 2,000 tons instead of 1,500. The old original vessel, suitably named "Bazalgette", was scrapped in 1934 after 46 years in service.

A new "Bazalgette" was launched in 1963 and was the first of the diesel powered boats. It remained in service until 1985 when it was sold to an Irish buyer. Crossness Record says that this new "Bazalgette", “heralded the arrival of the modem fleet of sludge vessels”.

Sir Joseph Rawlinson post collison

The GreaterLondon Council was formed and took over the functions of the London County Council in 1964 and a new vessel "Sir Joseph Rawlinson" was brought into service. The name is that of the then chairman of the Fire Brigade and Main Drainage Committee. Sadly, a year later, it was in a collision and sank. The boat was raised but the cost of repair was prohibitive and a new vessel was ordered.

Two vessels were already under construction by the Caledon Shipbuilding & EngineeringCompany of Dundee and a thus a third was added. The three vessels were the "Bexley", in service 1965, "Newham" in service 1966 and "Hounslow” in service 1968. They were diesels of 2,300 ton capacity. In 1977 a fourth vessel was added to the fleet- "Thames" in 1977. By then ThamesWater had taken over the responsibility for sewage disposal. “Thames” was built by Ferguson Bros, of Paisley and was 2,700 tons.

Hounslow

By the late 1990 with changing ideas on sewage disposal the sludge vessels were no longer needed and gradually the remaining vessels were scrapped or sold to new owners."Newham" was sold in 1990, "Thames" ended service in 1998, "Bexley"went to India in December 1999 and "Hounslow" ended the service in 1999.

Crossness Record doesn’t say so – but the sludgeboats did a dirty job while maintaining high standards of public service –and they were something to be proud of - real proper boats.

Greenwich Power Station, industrial railways and stuff

2011-11-23T08:38:00.002Z

Over the past week or so GIHS has had several enquiries from Greenwich University students who saythey are researching the background and architecture of Greenwich Power Station.

First of all I always ask ‘do you mean the one on Crowley’s Wharf’ which is still in use?? But –poor things – they are unlikely to know anything about Blackwall Point power station on the Peninsula or the great series of power stations at Deptford – and to the first power station of allto which there is, scandalously, no memorial. Not to mention those in Woolwich – including – the still standing depot at White Hart Road.

Anyway – I refer them to Peter Guillery’s seminal article “Greenwich Generating Station” in London’sIndustrial Archaeology No.7. (and take pains to point out what an important architectural historian Peter is). I refer them to the GLIAS website http://www.glias.org.uk/ but I am aware that it doesn’t have a link for book sales – and I will get on to the editor myself and try and sort that out. I can, I suppose, provide a photocopy – and –as I actually edited that edition of the journal I might have a digital copy of it somewhere on an old CD.

Drawing of Greenwich Power Station taken
from the booklet produced by LCC on its opening

The other question we need answered about Greenwich Power Station is “is it the oldest power station left fulfilling its original function?? It opened in 1906 to supply power for the London County Council tramways – and still performs the same function, albei tto the London Underground..

Anyway – this note is also to introduce items from another book which has recently come our way. “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of the County of London” (Industrial Railway Society 2008 compiled by Robin Waywell and Frank Jux)

This is an exhaustive list of all the industrial locomotives which ran at some time or other in London. I haven’t done any counting but it is my guess that Greenwich and Woolwich easily top the list of boroughs as far as numbers are concerned – and also as far as sites where locomotives ran. There is hardly a page where a Greenwich industrial site isn’t mentioned – and the two largest sites are ours (the Arsenal with 8 pages, and William Jones with 10 pages). It includes some remarkably obscure firms –and it is a gold mine for us and we should be able to feature many of the companies in the future.

Locos on the power station jetty

So – back to Greenwich Power Station – and, yes, it features as a site for an industrial railway. The book tells us that electric locos built on tramcar trucks were used to haul coal from the jetty but in the early 1920s a system of conveyor belts was used and the locos “relegated to spare”. You will have to look at the book itself for all the details of the locos and the gauges and stuff like that.

Mary

Eltham Road

2011-11-22T07:51:00.002Z

Roads and their uses have always been a subject of interest to industrial historians - they all exist to fulfil a need of some sort and are of all ages from estate roads built in the past few weeks to serve a new development to ancient trackways whose origins can only be speculated on. We tend to take them all for granted.

In a recent edition of the Woolwich Antiquarians newsletter Richard Buchanan has looked at Eltham Road. He takes as his starting point an old Ordnance Survey map of Blackheath and comments that it which shows what we know as 'Hare& Billet Road' marked as "Eltham Road".

Of course, as he points out, what we know today as Eltham Road runs from the Old Tiger's Head Pub at Lee Green to Eltham Green and then up a road called Eltham Hill into Eltham itself. Thus he points that changes in modern road patterns have disguised the medieval direct route from the Dover Road at the top of Blackheath Hill to Eltham.

He says "Using present road names, the route diverges from the Dover Road at Dartmouth Hill then runs to Hare & Billet Road, Tranquil Vale, Blackheath Village, Lee Road, Eltham Road and Eltham Hill".
"The medieval Eltham Road is just under four miles long" and on its route had to cross the Kid Brook "which it did where the railway bridge in Blackheath Village is now" and it also had to cross the River Quaggy "which is bridged in Lee Road just before the Old Tiger's Head Pub".

The destination - Eltham Palace

Eltham Road begins at the point at which the road from Greenwich coming via Croom's Hill meets the Dover Road. He notes that "There were, ofcourse Royal Palaces at both Greenwich and Eltham and domestic supplies normally went by road between them and the Tower of London, as the Court progressed from one to another".

Royal necessities could have course come from London by river via Greenwich, or "possibly with smaller boats along the Ravensbourne &. Quaggy to Lee" and in all cases "needing the Eltham Road for the last stretch to Eltham" and "ordinary trade to London would have followed the same route." Post also used the Eltham Road since "postal services developed from Royal message carrying arrangements" and "the Eltham Road continued to be used in the 17th century as an early route for theRoyal Mail.

Richard finishes with an note about how changes in the functions of an area change the sort of routes we need. "Nowadays to go to Eltham from Blackheath Hill one would take theShooters Hill Road across the Heath before turning right, perhaps not until reaching the South Circular road from Woolwich" and concludes that "The Woolwich connection became the main one as industry developed" - and of course, although he does not say so, the demise of Eltham Palace as a place of Royal importance

A local gas works tar spraying vehicle on Blackheath at the junction of Eltham Road in the 1950s

(Woolwich and District Antiquarian Society. October 2011 Editor Richard Buchanan)

The Woolwich Ferry - views of GLIAS members

2011-11-21T09:49:00.001Z

Over the past years GLIAS's Newsletter has contained several contributions about the Woolwich ferry. As a London wide organisation concerned with industrial history clearly GLIAS members come from all over and are not usually local to Greenwich and Woolwich - having said that I do wish some of these contributors would get in touch with us -
GLIAS
anyway - the October newsletter has another article "WOOLWICHFREE FERRY - MEMORIES OF THE PADDLE BOATS"

The author begins by telling us his memories of the old paddle steamers which were replaced by the current boats in 1963. He says that from 1958 he lived in Woolwich andworked inthe Royal Docks "so had many free rides with or without bicycle on the ferry".

He describes the boats as doing the "300 metre river crossing in a strangesemi-circular course during whichthe boat seemed to spend quite bit of the time going sideways or backwards."(they still do that - don't they? I guess there is a good reason for it)

He then comments (something we all know!) that "compared to today the riverwas busy with commercial activity from all sorts of ships and from barges andlighters and the ferry's crossingwould often be delayed awaiting the passage of a vessel going fast with astrong tide. So coupled with poorvisibility from fog the crossing appeared, at times, fraught with danger".

He goes on: "Thepaddlers were coke-fired so perhapsthe London County Council" who ran the ferry, were setting an example to their citizens on theimportance of smokeless fuelsif pea soupers were to be eliminated". ...... and ...."Normally, the ferries were berthed atthe pontoons with the bow intothe current, but when the tide changed the ferry had to be docked at the end ofone crossing the other way roundcausing confusion on the vehicle deck as the cars had to leave the way theycame aboard rather than being ableto drive through. At busy times three paddlers were in use requiring amid-stream dawdle until the berth cleared.

But - as he says "for an observer withan engineering bent" it was the engines which were the main attraction. "The paddlers had twoindependent engines, singleexpansion I think, twin-cylinder arranged as an inverted 'V driving, big endsside by side, onto a single crankwhich was coupled to one of the paddles. This meant that in theory at least,the ship could rotate about a centralvertical axis if equal power was applied in opposite directions. On most paddlesteamers it suffices to havea single engine with the paddle wheels permanently coupled to opposite ends ofthe crankshaft but the ferryduties in Woolwich Reach demandedgreater manoeuvrability.

And, interestingly, he says: "eachengine required its own driver who took his instructions by way of thetraditional chain-operated telegraph fromthe bridge. Every command was accompanied by a bell code and was displayed on aheavily built brass indicatorwith last-forever vitreous enamel face on it. The order had to beacknowledged to the bridge by the driver(more bells') so there was always a certain theatrical excitement in thevoyage.

And - of course "Added to this was the sort ofsmell only present in the engine rooms of steam ships, a pleasant warmth and anaroma of hot oil and damp steam - themost relaxing feature was the lack of noise with only minor hissing and muffledthumping as the engines got towork pushing the boat against the strong tides.

A view of the old and new ferries together
(and is that the autostaker in the background???)

So far so good - however he then goes on, more politically - "Thefuture of the Woolwich Ferry is interesting to contemplate ....................with the demandsof motor traffic now being what they are the ferry is an anachronism ....pedestrians have the fool tunnel available (unpleasant as it is) and since the DLR wasopened to the centre of Woolwichrapid and frequent access to the southern side of the now commercially silentRoyal Docks ......................Further, this redundant andexpensive to run mode is sponsoredby the taxpayer .............and the main traffic thatneeds to use it are lorries .... Meanwhilethe existing three, nowelderly, ferries must continue to demand heavy repair bills as they rust awayand wear out ...................there seems to be littlejustification for a ferry with its limitedcapacity especially as it is paid for by the taxpayer rather than the user.

Oh dear!! What do we think about that then??!!

Notes on visit to Deptford Dockyard

2011-10-27T11:10:00.004+01:00

Deptford Dockyard Excavations – Notes of site visit Saturday 8 Oct 2011

On 8 October 2011, I was able to join a site visit to see some of the archaeological excavations that Museum of London Archaeology have been undertaking since August at Convoys Wharf. I was accompanying Ann Coats, the Secretary of the Naval Dockyards Society. With a party of local people, we were conducted round by Duncan Hawkins of the consultant archaeologists CgMs. The site has been cleared of most standing buildings and there was a large mound of excavated soil which will be filled back into the excavations, and a not quite so large pile of crushed concrete from the ground slabs and modern building foundations that had overlain them. The excavations we saw open were very impressive.

At the southeast edge of the site, trenches had been dug at the inner end of the Great Dock, which was rebuilt at some time before 1808. One trench had extended right across the dock while some pits were more localised, but all had been filled in again. We learnt that the masonry walls in this part of the dry dock had been truncated for the foundations of a large cold store to a depth of 4 metres below ground. This is most disappointing, considering the almost intact masonry walls found in the 2010 evaluation trench at the river end of the dock. The intervening length, including the location of the gates that (unusually for such a date) divided this dock into two, is under a standing warehouse so may not be explored for some time.

North west of that, the site of the Storehouse, part Tudor and part early eighteenth century and scheduled as an Ancient Monument, had been almost completely laid bare, excavated down to natural soil (mostly gravel) beneath the basement floors, but leaving the structures upstanding. The result was an expanse of more than 1 1/2 acres of red brick walls, all truncated to about 1 metre below ground level in the mid 20th century. Some silt-filled depressions marked the sites of earlier small creeks.

Beyond there, near the riverside, two slipways rebuilt in the19th century had been excavated, revealing yellow stock brick walls and planked floors of reused ships' timbers. In No. 5 Slip, the walls had a brick facing backed by lime concrete, and brick counterforts projecting behind. The stumps of the posts for the wooden roof could be seen. The local researcher Chris Mazeika has found this slipway was rebuilt circa 1855. Following disuse as slipways, presumably after the Dockyard closed in 1869, level timber floors had been inserted for other use, for which the supporting timber piles remained.

A large trench had exposed a section of the wall of the Dockyard Basin, about midway along its eastern side. Its nineteenth-century rebuilding was revealed as a substantial stock-brick wall, as I had expected. Chris Mazeika has found that the engineer John Rennie was involved in this from 1814 onwards. The wall had been truncated about 2 metres below ground, at which level it was perhaps 1.2 metres thick. The depth of the Basin and its walls will be proved by further digging. Behind the 19th-century basin wall, the tie-back timbers of earlier basin walls had been found and taken away for dendro dating. Descriptions in earlier archaeological appraisals, based on very limited evaluation trenches, had suggested a 'lining', in poor condition, which is not borne out, but this excavation well demonstrated the considerable truncation of the remains, at a level that matched the underside of a reinforced-concrete foundation beam from a recent warehouse.

The area of the entrance to the Basin has yet to be excavated. We must await news shortly of whether walls survive to near ground level there, as at the entrance to the Great Dock, although I fear the destructive warehouse extended over the site of Rennie's caisson gate of 1814.

We visited the interior of the 'Olympia' building, the grade-2-listed 1840s shipbuilding shed where the evaluation in 2010 of Slipways 2 and 3 had found them largely intact (now backfilled).
We finished on the site of Sayes Court, where recent excavations (now backfilled) had revealed the foundations of the post-mediaeval manor house. The 'archaeological update' issued by the intending developer, Hutchison Whampoa, following the 2010 evaluation had implied they no longer existed.

These large-scale excavations have revealed much more than the restricted evaluation trenches had previously done. They ought to dispel the impression given in the 2010 'archaeological update' that the archaeological remains were limited. There is some further info. on the MOLA website at http://www.museumoflondonarchaeology.org.uk/News/ConvoysWharf.htm

We may note that the Scheme of Archaeological Resource Management, which has been agreed between Hutchison Whampoa, English Heritage and the London Borough of Lewisham, contains sensible measures to protect the archaeology of this exceptional site – I have copied an extract from Section 7.0, entitled 'Preliminary advice on avoiding archaeological impacts through design' :-

7.1.1 It is proposed that the position and extent of the archaeological remains will be fixed through supplementary evaluation (following appropriate Scheduled Monument Consent), followed by mapping/surveying to both archaeological and engineering standards.
7.1.2 As the supplementary evaluation proceeds the significance of the archaeological remains encountered should be kept under review by the LBL, EH, consultant and clients representative.
7.1.3 Where significant archaeological remains have been identified on the preliminary evaluation or are identified in the supplementary evaluation, a design review will then be undertaken of the proposed development layout and design. Preservation in situ will be achieved by the reuse of modern foundations, or by utilising areas of partial archaeological absence (through truncation) for new foundation locations.
7.1.4 Where isolated (or highly fragmentary) and low value archaeological remains are identified there may be arguments for preserving such remains by record rather than in situ. Such preservation by record will be agreed in advance between the LBL, EH, consultant and clients representative.
7.1.5 Where archaeological remains are identified to be wholly absent, a review of the supplementary evaluation results will be implemented and the need for further archaeological mitigation or otherwise agreed between the LBL, EH, consultant and clients representative.
7.1.6 The objective will be to use historic assets to inform the design process and preserve in situ the archaeological remains.
7.1.7 At this stage a number of measures to avoid archaeological impacts can be identified.

The supplementary evaluation comprises the programme of excavations now in progress and others which will take place in the future. Undertaking these excavations is a significant investment on the part of the developer. The measures recommended to avoid archaeological impacts include the 'encapsulation' of remains underlying buildings wherever possible. 'The possibility should not be excluded that certain remains may be encountered that are of such quality and significance as to justify display within the context of the new development', but dependent on their suitability in terms of condition.
New basements and undercrofts should be wholly avoided except where archaeological remains are found to be absent. Other measures include the designing of pile positions to avoid remains, the raising of ground levels to provide space for services and footings and the use of existing service runs and areas of disturbed ground for the routing of services. The full recommendations are to be found at
http://www.convoyswharf.com/pdfs/Volume_2a_Technical_Appendices/2A-5-Archaeology/CW2-2A-2-5_Archaeology_Vol_II_SARM_Rev_5_Jan_2010.pdf

Malcolm Tucker
9 October 2011, rev. 26 Oct 2011

Appendix of Heritage Assests
(with thanks to Chris Mazeika

Heritage Assets of the former King’s Yard, the Royal Naval Dockyard 1513-1869, the Metropolitan Foreign Cattle Market 1871-1914, His Majesty’s Supply Reserve Depot 1914-1950 and Convoy’s Wharf 1922-2002

Officers’ Residence and Offices
Master Shipwright’s House
Dockyard Officers’ Offices
Office of the Timber Master
Office Clerk of the Survey
Offices for drawing
Model making rooms
Master Shipwright’s Repository
Master Shipwright’s office for drawing
Officers’ Gardens fountains/paths/parterres c.1774

Great Georgian Dry Dock
Stone built Head dock and timber gates c.1800
Capstan and penstock housings
Timber built Stern dock and timber gates c. 1780
Stone built entrance to dry docks c.1800
Saw pits

Storehouse Complex
Four light Tudor mullioned window with original iron work
Tudor Foundation stone and flame headed gothic arch 1513, bearing Henry VIII cypher
Undercroft Tudor Store House
Undercroft 1720 storehouse complex
Landing Place and Lookout stairs and Causeway c.1720

Slipways
Ariadne Slipway No.5 c1420-1855
Two further slipways No.4/No.1

Basin Complex
Basin Slipway Covers George Baker & Sons 1846 (Olympia Building)
Basin Slipways c.1845 Capt. Sir Willliam Denison R.E.
Basin c.1517-1814 John Rennie includes inverted stone arch, caisson gate groove, Basin entrance and river walls
Basin walls with coping stones removed
Basin gate c.1720
Capstan housings/penstocks/Saw Pits

Pepys Era Mast Pond
Mast Pond c.1650 and mast pond gates to river

Greater Mast Pond
Mast Pond c.1756
Mast Pond Canal By George Ledwell Taylor
Penstocks
Infrastructure for two swing bridges

River Wall
River wall demonstrates the final series of openings into the dockyard which are known to have been commenced as early as 1420. The openings to the dry dock, slipways, basin and mast ponds are extant. There is evidence on the foreshore of timber slipways and stone causeway.

Sayes Court House and Garden Complex
Remains of Sayes Court House
Remains of Sayes Court Alms Houses and Emigration Depot
Sayes Court Garden c.1600-1890

ps - pictures attached to Malcolm's article are on their way when I get the technology sorted out.
Mary

Maltings in Stockwell Street

2011-10-19T20:25:00.002+01:00

A member visited the Stockwell Street dig and writes as follows

Yesterday evening residents living in close proximity to the site of the new architecture school and campus library for the University of Greenwich on land to the south of the railway line bounded to the east by the rear gardens of properties in King William Walk, to the south by Nevada Street and to the west by Stockwell Street, were given a talk by Duncan Hawkins of CgMs Consuilting on the archaeological dig which took place during the summer.

No great discoveries were made perhaps understandably for a site which has undergone a whole sequence of urban development and which had been subject to a V2 rocket in early 1945. This landed in the northern part of the site close to the railway and in time new development took place.

Development also continued on parts of the site not affected by bomb damage, the most recent being the construction of John Humphries House for Greenwich Council in the 1960s.The earliest finds were medieval - a 14th century boundary trench - then later finds up to the mid 1800s - stoneware bottles, clay pipes, discarded domestic pottery etc, even the part skeleton of a horse from rubbish pits dotted around the site.

The most interesting aspect of the excavation, which at its deepest went down to close on 3 metres, was the evidence of buildings dating back to the mid 1800s associated with the maltings which were in the centre of the site.

One of these original buildings, in its position and two-storey form, remains on the site but it has, over the years, been given new floors and roof. The three malt kilns which had been part of the maltings operations on the site were also excavated, as were the outlines of more buildings associated with the maltings, including wells. The maltings were established by Frederick John Corder and Alfred Conyers Haycraft towards the end of the 1800s. The partnership was dissolved in 1900 with Haycraft continuing the business until selling out to Hugh Baird and Sons in 1906 or 1907.

Demolition will now proceed and the first part of the new development proposals will be the excavation for, and construction of, a basement which will occupy virtually the whole of the site.

An advert for slides

2011-10-19T07:12:00.002+01:00

Diana Rimel (diana@historytalk.fsnet.co.uk) is downsizing much of her collection of slides. Subjects include River Thames, Greenwich Historic Buildings, Greenwich Park, Greenwich Marshes. The lot, with spare mounts and slide boxes and easily carryable, is offered at £5 to include small donation to GIHS. There may be more in the future when sorted

Culture & Society from the Industrial Revolution

2011-10-14T08:39:00.004+01:00

There are two new courses at Goldsmiths College that may be of interest to people. The courses are in social and cultural history, one setting out from the industrial revolution to World War Two, the other centred on London and with a focus on the Docks and the East End. Classes are one evening a week and continue over a term. The courses also contain study skills that people can use to enhance their learning and appreciation of higher education. There is an emphasis on participation throughout the course, including two field trips, and an opportunity to complete a project on a chosen subject. Links to the courses are given below.

Further information on these courses is available from Stephen Woodhams at s.woodhams@gold.ac.uk who looks forward to hearing from members and others.

Further Information

Culture & Society from the Industrial Revolution:
http://www.gold.ac.uk/pace/social-cultural/historical-studies/culturesocietyfromtheindustrialrevolution/

London Past & Present:
http://www.gold.ac.uk/pace/social-cultural/historical-studies/londonpastpresent/

Dr. Mary Mills

Secretary
Greenwich Industrial History Society
marymillsmmmmm@aol.com
indhistgreenwich@aol.com

More achievements by Merryweather of Greenwich

2011-09-14T06:50:00.005+01:00

Neil Bennett has sent us the following:

Did you know that a Rotary Internal Combustion Engine was conceived and developed in Greenwich High Road, in 1895, thirty-four years before the famous German, Felix Wankel, secured his first patent?

James Compton Merryweather, and his equally eminent engineer, Christopher Jakeman, diverted their energies from fire-fighting equipment to this intriguing project at the zenith of late-Victorian mechanical engineering enterprise.

A drawing of the Merryweather rotary engine is attached, but there isn't space here to try to explain how it works. I doubt very much whether the engine ever worked for more than a few revolutions, even assuming a prototype was actually built, because the builders did not have access to spark-plugs as we know them today, and instead proposed 'hot tube ignition' which must have been far less effective.

Interestingly, itwas not the world's first patent for a rotary internal combustion engine: three earlier ones were taken out in America alone. I have yet to discover an earlier patent for such a thing in Britain - so there's a challenge to all you googlers and researchers.

Ihe mid-late 1960s the London Fire Brigade were seeking new premises to replace their old fire station in Cannon Street. In 1956 the hovercraft had been invented, and ten or so years later, firechiefs were ambitiously contemplating a high-speed fire and rescue hovercraft for the Thames. It was even proposed that a gently sloping ramp would lead from the fire station building into the water, the vessel could be rapidly launched like an R.N.L.I. lifeboat, and would hover her way back up the ramp after each mission for servicing.

What seems to have been overlooked, however, is that when the fire-fighting water jets from the water cannons (monitors) on the vessel were at full throttle, the whole hovercraft would shoot off in the opposite direction, by Newton's Law. That is unless a huge amount of energy was expended in fuel powering highly-tuned aviation propellors, just to maintain the hovercraft on station and remain manoeuverable while it fought a fire. This was not the answer.

The firm Hovermarine had what is known as a 'sidewall' available -a vessel with the hovercraft's virtues of an air-cushion giving high travelling speed, but able to rest in the water, having a ship's rudder and ordinary diesel engines. The sidewall design of hovercraft,as opposed to the better-known amphibious type, cannot leave thewater.

In May 1967, Hovermarine and Merryweather together announced their fire-fighting and rescue vessel and there was a serious intention to build at least two of them. They would have been over 50 feet long, with Merryweather pumps and fire fighting equipment...but it never happened.

Financial issues and a fire at the Hovermarine works contributed tothe vessel never seeing the light of day. The Cannon Street firestation was replaced by Dowgate Fire Station, in the huge Mondial House building in Upper Thames Street, which is close to the river,but in its final form does not have access to the Thames bank. By about 1980, Hovermarine had indeed built four similar high-speed Fireboats for the Port of Rotterdam, but sadly by this time Merryweather and Sons had been left out of the contract and were in the throes of their move out of Greenwich.

Here is an artist's impression from 'Fire' magazine, June 1967, of what the Hovermarine/Merryweather vessel might have looked like... and what's more, I seem to remember having a clockwork toy boat looking exactlythe same - has anyone got one?

Merryweather and Sons has made the progression from a large heavy-metal manufacturing company employing hundreds of men (and a few women) between the banks of Deptford Creek and the Ashburnham Triangle, to a compact and profitable business in rural Kent. Britain's manufacturing prowess, with Merryweather on its meridian in Greenwich, has given way to the Service sector, as seems to befi tmodern times. The company's increasing range of services to corporate and municipal clients remains wedded to fire protection, as follows:-

- Servicing of fire extinguishers

- Service inspection and repairs to dry fire rising mains

- Service inspection and repairs to wet fire rising mains

- Installation of fire alarm systems

- Installation of emergency lighting systems

- Carrying out of fire risk assessments

- Carrying out of structural and passive fire protection work

- Fire training

Structural steelworks on the Greenwich Peninsula

2011-09-10T05:54:00.015+01:00

Universal column being fabricated at Redpath Brown's East Greenwich Works for Babcock & Wilcox

"Redpath's", as it was known locally, was the Greenwich steelworks which stood south of the Pilot Inn - but the firm was actually part of the Teeside firm of Dorman Long.

At a quick visit recently to the Dorman Museum in Middlesborough there was a warm reception and a little surprise at a request for any information about the firm's branch in South London. They have now been kind enough to send two extracts from the Dorman Long company magazine - dated 1947 and 1960 - which include some pictures of Redpath's work.

As the accompanying text says:

"Founded in Edinburgh in 1802, Redpath Brown today is the largest single steel construction unit in the industry. Associated with Dorman Long since 1929, Redpath Brown continues to operate as a separate entity while enjoying the advantages of close association with an important producer of its chief raw material. At home and overseas Redpath Brown steel structures provide the framework of many notable public, commercial and industrial buildings. Among numerous contracts now on hand are:

Aircraft assembly hall for the Bristol Aeroplane Company requiring fabrication and erection of 7,000 tons of' steelwork. The structure has a floor area of 7.5 acres. The building comprises three bays, each consisting of a 331 foot arch span.

Nearly completed by Redpath Brown is the structural steelwork for the new House of Commons. Work on the 1,300 ton steel framework will be finished within the contract period of nine months.

British Nylon Spinners Factory, Pontypool. The first section, 1,000 feet long by 350 feet wide, rising in parts to a height of 100 feet, and involving the supply, fabrication and erection of 13,000 tons of structural steel, is well advanced.

Kingston Power Station, the first section of which is shown, embodies 2,200 tons of steel in the framework and bunkers. The second section of equal size is now under construction.

Robinson and Sawdon, Hull - cambered universal roof beams.

and - the Cleansing Department, Corporation of London.

Underground in Plumstead and Woolwich

2011-09-08T08:06:00.001+01:00

The very wonderful Subterranea is out for September and is jam packed with articles of all sorts of interest (not just bunkers, that is!) including news of Dollis Hill and Fort Halstead - and articles describe visits and tunnels in many parts of Europe, and indeed China. Nearer home is a fascinating article on the Mayor of Ramsgate's work on wartime tunnels now being renovated.

Among the news items are two of Greenwich interest

- the air raid shelter at Waverley Road, Plumstead - they note that the journal British Archaeology has featured this as one of six important threatened sites. They note that the shelter is built in an unusual way with benches, ventilation, electrical fittings and a urinal. (they quote from Brit. Arch. May/June 2011)

- Woolwich Crossrail Station - there is a short article about the proposed station and its funding, and in a different article note the timescale and methods for the tunnel to it.

Subterranea is the journal of Subterranea Britannica and impressively edited by Nick Catford (editor@subbrit.org.uk) http://www.subbrit.org.uk/

A quick historical look at the Greenwich Peninsula

2011-09-04T07:05:00.002+01:00

Docklands History Group Talk 3 August 2011
(the following is a set of notes taken by a member of the Docklands History Group during Mary's talk. It reflects their perception of what she said.)

Greenwich Peninsula by Mary Mills

The subject was so immense Mary said that she had decided to talk about the industrial area, the gas works, now the dome site, and recent changes.

In the 1690s the government had a site which it used as a facility for gun powder testing before the gun powder was exported, using a specially built jetty. Later Enderby’s Wharf, ‘the home of communications’, developed on that site although Enderbys, who had a rope making factory there, left in the 1840s. In the 1840/1860s underwater cables were developed there. The fourth underwater cable to be laid across the Atlantic, and which then worked, was made there. In fact about 97 per cent of underwater cables laid round the world before 1927 were made as well as special alloys and later optical fibres. The site was subsequently used by a series of telecommunications companies – and continues there under Alcatel. She regretted that the historic significance of the site was not better known.

Enderby House, built in the 1840s, was listed but had recently been badly vandalised. There was now to be a cruise liner terminal at the site. The river here was wide enough and deep enough for cruise liners to turn.

Mary then talked of Morden College, a charity, which ran almshouses and had been set up by John Morden of the East India Company and the City of London in 1680. For centuries the College had owned much of West Greenwich and the Peninsula and income from the land funded the charity. It owned the land on either side of Enderby’s Wharf. In the 1840/50s Morden College had parcelled up its riverside land on the Peninsula and encouraged developers to come in to found good quality industries on the sites.

In 1856 there was coal available plus tar and other chemicals from the gas industry and so manufacturing using these developed – a coal based manufacturing economy.

One works was Soames soap works later taken over by Unilever (coal tar soap!). The site later became a glucose factory. This was recently sold by Tate and Lyle to a French company who have demolished the works and the riverside silos leaving it currently empty.

Morden College is still the freehold land owner of much of the west bank area, still letting sites for development albeit now for housing.

At Bay Wharf slips were put in by Nathan Thompson and were later Maudsley Son & Field who had a ship building business there in the 1870s. They built the Halloween and Blackadder, fast sister ships to Cutty Sark, and in 1871 they built a Bospherous roll-on roll-off ferry among other vessels. It is known that this ferry was in use as a cargo ship until the 1990s. It is planned that the current operator of the dry dock on Piper's Wharf, which has to move from its present site, will move to Bay Wharf, which has planning permission for a boat building facility.

In the 1920s Lovells’ Wharf was let to a coal merchant Coles Child (it later became Lovells). Tarmac was on an adjacent site, Granite Wharf, originally Mowlems, where the Swanage Great Globe was made.

At Granite Wharf an early medieval tide mill has been discovered. There would have been mill ponds to impound the water needed by the tide mill. This was believed to be a site owned by the Abbey of Ghent and nearby at Ballast Quay was the Court House for old East Greenwich. The present centre of Greenwich grew up later round the Palace.

The Pelton Arms and roads around it, were named after Durham collieries.

On the east bank George Russell developed “New East Greenwich” in 1801. There were cottages and the Pilot Inn and a large tide mill where Richard Trevithick’s boiler exploded changing the history of the steam engine.

Angerstein had a railway from Charlton to the river, which is still use but much cut back. Also on the peninsula was a power station, Frank Hill’s chemical works and Redpath Brown's steel works. All that is left now from the past is a pub and listed cottages. The old East Greenwich power station coaling jetty remains, by a tower block. It is hoped that this jetty will be used by the Massey Shaw and maybe by other historic vessels.

One of the tower blocks has been named Bessemer Place to recall one of the former industries of the area.

There used to be a huge lino factory, which became Nairns of Kirkcaldy, which manufactured patterned lino to Victorian designs by an automatic process.

One interesting new development is the new Greenwich Yacht Club, which has been rebuilt on a wharf as a platform over the river.

The Millennium Village is still only half built. It has an ecology park, health centre, and shops. During the Olympics a Dutch man is proposing to use the open ground for a campsite.

The gas works was built by George Livesey, quite late but was extensive – and it aspired to the highest standards of quality. It had two gas holders one of which is still in use and one of the largest ever built. The works closed gradually after 1980.

The Peninsula has been re-developed by Greenwich Council rather than by a development corporation. Greenwich Council was party to the Joint Dockland Committee, but the land at Greenwich was left out of the development sites which passed to the London Docklands Development Corporation for urban regeneration. In the mid 1990s the site of the Millennium Dome, built on the gas works site and Ordnance Wharf, was a catalyst for development of the Peninsula. Now the only memory of the gas works, apart from gas holder No. 1, is the war memorial. On the jetty adjacent to where the gas works stood, there is a sculpture, “Quantum Cloud”, by Anthony Gormley. It is planned that there will be a walkway over the Dome by the time of the Olympics. The Architect who designed the Dome was Mike Davies from the Richard Rogers Partnership.

The Beckham Football Academy has become the Greenwich Football Academy and the new Ravensbourne College describes itself as an ‘arts factory’ teaching with an emphasis on digitisation. Their server is used by BT for its training.

There is still a safeguarded route for a new tunnel on the Peninsula to Newham. There is a plan for a cable car across to the Royal Docks and a new Siemens facility.

British Gas had bought up much of the land as other industries failed and this was taken over by the Govenment through their agency English Partnerships. Today the Home and Communities Agency own the remainder of the land and lease it out.

(with thanks to Sally Mashiter)

Newsletters and stuff

2011-09-03T07:26:00.002+01:00

As ever we get a lot of newsletters and so on from a number of organisations - and thanks to all of them.

LAMAS Newsletter - this covers archaeology in London but also produces an excellent list of historical talks at various societies round the capital - of Greenwich interest please note.

"Maritime Greenwich" talk by David Challis. Docklands History Group, 2nd November . Museum of London in Docklands, North Quay No.1.Warehouse, Hertsmere Road, E14. 5.30 for 6. Info 020 7286 0196

"Recent work at Belmarsh: London's Earliest Trackway Unearthed" Diccon Hart 7th September at Orpington & District Archaeological Society, The Priory, Church Hill, Orpington 8 pm 020 8402 4157

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS - Generally this national IA body ignores Greenwich (along with the rest of London) but Robert Carr has submitted a brief note about the bi-centenary of William Armstrong. Armstrong of course played a major role in the Royal Arsenal - where there is of course the Armstrong Building.
Greenwich Industrial History Society has now booked Henrietta Heald to talk to us about Armstrong on 17th July 2012.

GLIAS NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2011. Shame on you GLIAS! not a single mention of Greenwich and/or Woolwich in this issue. What are you thinking of.
Plenty more though which can be accessed via www.glias.org.uk
Also note there is a Treasure Hunt let by Chris and Fiona Grabham in the Paddington area on 1st October. (Chris was, of course, one of our founder members)

REDRIFFE CHRONICLE - nice to see the re-emergence of this newsletter from one of our nearest neighbour organisations in Rotherhithe and Bermondsey

THE LOCAL HISTORIAN

LOCAL HISTORY NEWS

- other newsletters with more Greenwich and Woolwich material in them will be covered later.

Fort Matilda - Woolwich workers sent to Scotland

2011-09-02T05:33:00.007+01:00

The following pictures are of the Fort Matilda torpedo factory in Greenock- now used by community groups and commercial organisations as a trading estate.

From web sites we learn that a railway tunnel was constructed to Fort Matilda railway station - this was an old coastal gun emplacement. The excavated material from the tunnel was used as landfill on an area which became the playing fields known as Battery Park - and which are still there today.

In 1907 the Admiralty bought some of this land for the Clyde Torpedo Factory. This opened in 1910 and 700 workers were transferred from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. They worked on the design and testing of torpedoes. which tests were undertaken in Loch Long - which is across a stretch of water from the factory. During the Second World War torpedoes were made here.

This transfer of manufacturing capacity of technologies developed in Woolwich from the Arsenal to sites elsewhere in the country was not uncommon - green field sites gave space for expansion. Other London industries also moved. Shipbuilding is a prime example, moving out of London in the later 19th and early 20th century to sites in the north of England and Scotland.

More info on any of this is welcome - including anything about any influences that this influx of Woolwich people may have had on this Scottish coastal town.

Charlton Flexi-Disc Factory

2011-08-31T15:36:00.002+01:00

One of the local Charlton based blogs has been speculating about a flexi-disc factory in Charlton. See:

http://charltonchampion.co.uk/2011/08/30/did-charlton-have-a-flexi-disc-factory/

what do any industrial historians out there know?????

- soon to come on this site - pictures of a Greenock, Scotland, torpedo factory - moved there from Woolwich together with its workforce.

Speaker 20th September on Computer history

2011-08-14T02:59:00.001+01:00

The speaker for Greenwich Industrial History Society on 20th September will now be Dan Hayton speaking about sites and remains of the early British computer industry

The Old Bakehouse,Bennett Park,SE3 7.30

Tell your friends.

Industrial Railways

2011-07-21T14:25:00.003+01:00

A good friend has just sent a copy of Industrial Railways and Locomotives of the County of London (Robin Waywell and Frank Jux Industrial Railway Society 2008)

Where to start?? The book is so crammed with information it is difficult to know.

So - just for starters - here are the industrial sites mentioned in the Borough of Greenwich - where locomotives are known to have been used. More detail about some of them at a later time.

Here we go ......................

British Ropes, Anchor and Hope Lane -
British Steel Corporation, Greenwich Works, Riverway - Redpath Dorman Long
W.R.Cunis Ltd.Plumstead Rubbish Shoot
Royal Dockyard Wharf, Woolwich
Flower and Everett Ltd. Angerstein Wharf - dredging and mud clearance
G.A.Harvey, Greenwich Metal Works, Woolwich Road
Charlton Trancar Repair Works
Greenwich Power Station
Ministry of Public Building and Works, Kidbrooke Depot
Royal Arsenal (a massive system and much the largest in the book)
Siemens Brothers, Woolwich Works
East Greenwich Gas Works
Ordnance Wharf Tar Works
Taylor Woodrow Anglian Ltd. Charlton Station
Thames Metal Co td. Angerstein Wharf
Tunnel Glucose Refineries Ltd.
United Glass Ltd. Charlton Works
Kidbrooke Depot
Plumstead Destructor Works, Borough of Woolwich
Balfour Beatty Co Ltd. Blackwall Tunnel Contract
John Brogden, Jnr. Blackheath Railway Contract
Holloway Brothers. Greenwich contract for South Met. Gas
Kirk and Randall Ltd. Warren Lane Works, Woolwich
London and Greenwich Railway - various contracts
John Mowlem & Co. Well Hall Housing Contract
Pearson, Blackwall Tunnel Contract
Charlton Storm Relief Sewer contract
William Webster Southern Outfall contract
Borough of Woolwich, Eltham Contract - Middle Park

- more to come - suppliers - contractors -and non-loco systems

Archaeology in Cutty Sark Gardens

2011-07-12T16:59:00.006+01:00

Our special correspondent says:

When we excavated back from the river wall for a new deep surface water drain we got down to the old foreshore level some 5m below the existing surface. There was a lot of ancient timber, probably parts of revetments or jetties, found. Samples have been sent away for dendro analysis. It is largely Oak - probably some reused ships timbers, and probably from the 13th to the 17th centuries. There is also a lot of leather in a well preserved condition, including fine leather with tooling (book covers or similar) and the usual midden junk.
We have a big pile of the timbers, generally in thick and heavy but short pieces, of which the inside is in remarkably good condition and unless we can find anyone who wants them they'll go in the skip - the wood is suitable for bowl turners, carvers or souvenir makers who want wood with a bit of history, or even as a creative garden feature if anyone's interested.
(anyone interested email indhistgreenwich@aol.com

We've also found the Northern edge of the old Billingsgate Street down by the river - the road is intact beneath a granite cobble surface that may date from the widening / resurfacing in the 1850s, and there are many layers down to mediaeval (putting 13th & 14th century finds in context).

One thing that's clear about Billingsgate dock is that it was a draw dock, i.e. a ramp down onto the foreshore, and not truncated in a solid wall at the South end as at present. As such it may be very ancient indeed - the archaologists are hoping our hole needs to be deep enough for them to go back past the mediaeval.

GLIAS Newsletter - comments on Greenwich industry

2011-07-09T06:55:00.003+01:00

The June GLIAS newsletter gives a number of brief mentions of Greenwich and Woolwich

- the plans for the Blackwall Point Power Station jetty - and the hopes it might accommodate Massey Shaw, Swiftstone and Portwey - and - dare we hope - Robin???
It also recalls fhe GLIAS visit to the Power Station when it was still in use in 1980 - including access to a 'fire brick lined part of a Babcock and Wilcox boiler'

- it notes progress on demolition of the Ferrier Estate, system built in 1968-72.

-notes that demolition of sheds at Convoys have allowed 19th century slipways of Deptford Royal Dockyard to be seen from the river

- refers to Woolwich Ferry and 'the horrendous smell of the river' caused by movement of the old paddle steamers.

Woolwich born inventor of artificial hips

2011-07-09T06:48:00.003+01:00

The Woolwich Antiquarian's June/July newsletter front pages the riveting story of Furlong's Artificial Hips. Furlong were, of course, a well known Woolwich company with a garage and a removal business. Ronald Furlong did not join the family firm but became a doctor. In 1985 he he developed the hydroxy-apatite coated ceramic hip implant - this is the one they gave to the Queen Mother . The newsletter gives a lot of detail about both Dr.Furlong and his hips - taken from a talk given to the Blackheath Scientific Society.

PIPER’S WHARF - famous racing barges on the Greenwich Riverside

2011-06-23T15:57:00.003+01:00

PIPER’S WHARF

Pipers Wharf is one of three main areas which cover the housing development locally known as Lovells Wharf – and is the most downriver of them.
I have been very very nervous of ever publishing anything about Pipers. Sailing barges and boat builders have been a subject covered by those who are expert in the field and there is nothing I could write which would ever be ok by them – in fact I am very intimidated. What follows are essentially a few vague and inadequate notes

JAMES PIPER - BARGE BUILDER

James R. Piper was apprenticed to William Bromley (JP for Gravesend) a Greenwich ship owner. He later moved to work for Mowlem’s at their East Greenwich Yard. After ten years he opened a small yard next door and went on to become one of the largest barge builders on the Thames. He also producing barges for racing and worked as a marine damage surveyor. It should be stressed that Pipers specialist barges were sophisticated vessels – nothing haphazardly built up on the riverside. The design which we now think of as traditional on the River was evolving through this period – these were vessels designed to carry bulk haulage items, to go up narrow creeks, shallows and Thames mudflats, to cross the Channel and trade with Continental ports, to survive the worst the weather could do, to be crewed by a man and a boy – and to win spectacular high speed races in a flash of red sails. Barge races – which of course still take place – attracted large sums in prize money.
(Details about Piper from Yachting and Coast 17th June 1899)

PIPER BARGES

Piper built many vessels – lighters and, latterly refrigerated barges, and doubtless much more. The following is a list gleaned from published sources plus notes of any information I have managed to find in such sources. It is very minimal and I stand ready to be corrected

1890s
Giralda The most famous barge ever launched – watch out for pictures of her which turn up on calendars, picture books and much else – I found myself eating off a table mat with her on it, last year! Not that those who print her picture have any idea about Giralda or that she had anything to do with Greenwich.
She was named after the tower in Seville and built for Goldsmiths of Grays for the purpose of winning the gold cup in Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee year. Jack Currell was the ‘genius of her building’ – he was Pipers foreman. Giralda cost £1,350, was 80ft long and had 3,000 ft of canvas which was all handmade at Pipers yard. It is said that everyone laughed when she was launched because she was straight and flat and ugly - but she was built to win the Gold Cup. She won the Cup under Captain Thurncard for Goldsmiths. She was then raced under Captain William Mitchell winning the Thames and Medway championships many times. She was Champion of the Thames in 1898, 1901, 1904, 1909, fifth 1902. She was Champion of the Medway 1898, 1900, 1903, 1904, etc.
After the races she was sent back to the barge yard to strengthen the boards in the bottom so she could be used for haulage. In a gale in 1901 she finished 5th only in the race and suffered a lot of damage –and there was also damage to Ramsgate harbour and so she was bought back by Piper in 1913. Pipers used her as a barge to moor other vessels from in 1928.
A half model was made and preserved by Pipers and in 1943 a piece of her timber was kept at Greenwich with an inscription on it – I would love to know what has happened to these.

Surf built for Lambert as a racing barge. She was fouled in the 1900 race by Minnehaha at Tilbury but was otherwise placed in races -3rd Medway in 1900, 2nd Thames in 1900, 7th Thames in 1901, 4th Thames in 1902, 7th Thames in 1903,

James Piper A wooden barge of 56 tons. She raced and was 3rd Champion Topsail barge on the Thames in 1894, 2nd Thames in 1895. 3rd Thames in 1896. She was broken up in the 1950s, having been used as a house boat at Cheyne Walk.

Haughty Belle. She was built for E.J.Goldsmith in wood as a Counter stern racing barge with iron leeboards. She won the 1896 race and her design is said to have been ‘astonishing’. Eventually broken up in Cubitt’s yacht basin.

Arctic. In 1978 converted by London and Rochester Trading.

Gerty Broken up at Millwall in 1933.

Ernest Piper. Owned by Goldsmiths in 1919, Metcalfe Motor Coasters in 1942, and then by S.West. Sold for conversion to a yacht in 1950 at Portsmouth. Now derelict and hulked at Shepherds Creek

Maid of Connaught . This vessel had previously been Monarch. Worked for Invicta Coal and Shipping Co. Smeed Dean, W.H.Theobald and Leigh Building Supplies. She was a motor barge by 1935 and then a yacht. She is said to be hulked on Pin Mill Hard.

1900s
Sportsman a wooden barge now hulked at Milton Creek.

Surrey, worked until 1957 when she was laid up when owned by Horlock of Mistley. Later hulked and broken up Whitewall Creek.

Edgar Scholey. Broken up after being in use at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in the 1950s as a house boat.

Surge. Surge means "Sure you are Giralda's Equal". She was 1st in Staysail races in 1937, when owned by Augustus Hills of Annandale House, Greenwich.

Brian Boru, Built of wood and owned by Piper in the 1950s. She was sunk in February 1950 off Southend and laid up. Broken up in 1988 at Brentford.

Arthur Relf. Now infilled at Whitewall Creek.

Gwynronald. Had previously been called Charles Allison. In 1957 she was owned by West of Gravesend, and used for ballast. Became a House Barge in Oare Creek. I do not think she is still there

Miranda barge yacht

1910s
Leonard Piper Owned by Piper and then Wilkes. Sold to Samuel West in 1930. Auxiliary 1934. She became house barge at Chiswick Mall. I visited this vessel when in the 1990s and have no reason to believe she is not still in Chiswick. My main memory is of the vast spaces used as living accommodation below decks – in what would have been her cargo areas. Grand pianos and double beds were dwarfed!

W.Mary. broken up Greenwich.1937. .

M.Piper, Sunk in March 1951 off Grain Spit and raised but not refitted. Eventually she was broken up for scrap at Bloors Wharf in 1954, used for ballast.

1920s
Squeak. A Hoy barge originally called Dorcas running from Sandwich and Dover with general cargoes. She had originally been built in 1898 in Rochester and called Hokey Pokey because of her painted hull. She was burnt out after a petrol drum cargo caught light off Woolwich and killed the skipper. She was sold to Pipers for £60 and had good enough timber to justify rebuilding. She was then rebuilt by and renamed Squeak as a staysail barge. She was dismantled in 1948 after nearly sinking in Sea Reach – she was by then notorious for fires. In November 1943 she arrived at Sheppey Gas Works wharf, Sheerness, with 160 tons coal and made fast in 9ft of water. In the morning the cabin floor had been pushed up of mound of earth 56ft high. The Gas Company denied responsibility but judgement went against them. She was then hulked and burnt out at Bedlam's Bottom.

Pip. Built for London and Rochester Trading and in 1954 her name was changed to Pine. She was run down at Purfleet by a steam boat and her crew drowned. She was dismantled but lay as a hulk at Greenwich and was owned by T.Scholey. She eventually became a motor barge for London and Rochester Trading who changed her name to MV Pinup

Q craft, resident barges for ballast, shallow draught, cabin with bunks and things.

Canada. A motor vessel

J.R.Piper. motor barge

Peter Piper motor barge

Piper II motor barge

1940s
Wilfred sold to London and Rochester Trading in 1954. She is now at the Embankment – and has had a number of names there as restaurants of various sorts. When built she was the last word in modern sail barges. She was used as a motor barge for ballast work and sand from Brightlingsea. Owned by T.Scholey & Co. (Thames) Ltd. Was sold in 1954 to R.Deards at Hoo.

1960s
Kiora. Built for Westray in four months. Cabins, smoking room, saloon, seven state rooms bathroom and captain’s cabin

- And many many more.
- Please correct the many items displaying sheer ignorance~

Lovells - John Mowlem and Granite Wharf

2011-06-23T12:35:00.007+01:00

JOHN MOWLEM AND GRANITE WHARF

This article is one of a series originally written for Bygone Kent. Since then everything has changed. Up until 2001 or so boats were still calling at what was a working wharf - but then Tarmac sold up. The wharf site now has planning consent for housing, which has not yet been built, and the site has flooded. During preparation for building an early medieval tide mill has been found on site - something which looks likely to change the whole history of what we understand as 'Greenwich'.

Since then I have also visited Watchet and seen the replica of 'our' wall as a display on the station.

When I was seven we went on holiday to Bournemouth. I remember the long coach journey all the way from home in Gravesend, and the peach melbas and the long walks up the chines – but most of all I remember the visit to the Great Globe at Swanage. I still have the photograph my dad took of me and my mum at the globe – and, because he was a keen amateur photographer, there is a lot more of the globe in the picture than of us! I was to return to the globe fifty years later as part of my research on the Greenwich riverside.

In a previous article I have described how Coles Child leased land on the Greenwich riverside –Dog Kennel Field – and used it to build houses and factories. The houses still stand in Pelton Road and the surrounding streets – and some of his wharves still remain. One of these wharves has been known as ‘Granite Wharf’ and, until the past few months, has been in use by Tarmac for road building materials. Records show that Granite Wharf was leased by Coles Child to Mowlem, Burt and Freeman in 1852.

The original John Mowlem had been a worker in the Dorset stone quarries who came to London to find work with a sculptor and then founded what was to become the famous contracting firm in 1823. He began with some paving contracts and a wharf at Paddington. By 1852 John Mowlem himself had retired back to Swanage and the firm was then managed by his nephew, George Burt. He too made his home in Swanage and between them Mowlem and Burt managed to take back to Dorset an extraordinary collection of bits and pieces from the London streets. It appears that anything interesting that turned up in the course of demolition and renovation was simply removed and found a place in Swanage – visitors to that town can followed guides and tours to see these monuments and part monuments in some surprising situations.

Mowlem’s main yard was at Millbank on the site of what is now Millbank Tower. The Greenwich wharf is sometimes described as their ‘stone yard’ and no doubt many of the items now in Swanage were taken to Greenwich before being shipped out. ( Maps from the early 1860s show little or nothing on the site – but the records tell us that ‘Mowlem are building substantial buildings on their site’. A roadway, on the line of today’s Cadet Place, goes from what was then Chester Street (now Banning Street) to the river and marks, then as now, the boundary between Greenwich (Lovell’s) Wharf and Granite Wharf. Another pathway turns north east towards the river – there is nothing else. The 1869 Ordnance map tells a different story. The site is now marked as ‘Stone yard’ and two tracks of rails appear to cross the site towards the river edge. There is a slip marked as well as ‘mooring posts’ and a crane. Twenty years later the wharf is much the same although some more substantial buildings have appeared and ‘dolphins’ are marked in the river. The pathway, now ‘Cadet Place’ is called ‘Paddock Place’.

We would know almost nothing about Granite Wharf if it were not for one picture. This picture is today sold at The Durleston Country Park near Swanage as a postcard – but few people in Greenwich would know what it was. I do not know how researchers in Swanage have identified the picture as Greenwich – David Lewer and Bernard Calkin who wrote Curiosities of Swanage had access to an unpublished history of John Mowlem which I have not seen. The picture shows the Great Globe, now at Durlston Head, under construction in Greenwich. Two stone carvers site on top, behind it is a great crane – perhaps the one shown on the map – and in front three figures. That on the right has been named as John Mowlem Burt,George Burt’s son.

The Globe seems to have been the idea of George Burt who, a few years earlier, had commissioned a smaller granite globe which is now on display in Beaulieu. The Great Globe is made of 15 pieces of Portland stone – held together with granite dowels. It was taken from Greenwich to Swanage in sections on one of Mowlem’s sailing vessles and erected at Durlston by a Dorset builder. Whether the stone was taken originally from Swanage to Greenwich for carving is not known – but the expense of carting 40 tons of stone between the two must have been considerable. (ref)

Durlston Country Park, the Globe and the various other things which surround it are well worth a visit. The whole experience is extremely bizarre. Above it is a strange mock castle and all around are bollards, stone tables, boundary stones, etc. from the streets of London. The Globe is carved with a map of the world and various astronomical statements about The Sub, Moon and Earth appear. There are also stone tablets carved with homilies on the subject of Temperence, Prudence and so on as well as ‘clock times of the world’ , ‘convexity of the ocean’ and much else.

Cadet Place – once called Paddock Place – runs along the south east boundary of Granite Wharf. The wall of the wharf here is simply extraordinary, consisting of what appears to be pieces of random stone, some of it set up as a sort of blocked up gateway. Geologists have begun to take an interest in this wall – dubbing it ‘Cyclopean’. The stone has been identified as part of the stockpile of stone which Mowlem’s had in the yard. It is thought that stone quarried in Dorset was shipped to Greenwich to be held here until it was needed elsewhere. It would then be shipped out by Thames Barge. It includes, says geologist, Eric Robinson: ‘White Portland Stone, some of it dressed with the stone pick, pink and red sandstone – not necessarily as hard as the Coal Measures York Stone - - they are joined by ‘Bluestone’ (Diorite) .. at either side the blocks sit at unusual angles with an infill of angular pieces of dark bluestone – this dark stone came from Guernsey in the Channel Islands and was much used in kerbs and cobbles’. It is pointed out this miscellany of stone pieces might serve as a museum of the sort of stones which made up the stone cartage trade in the English Channel – ‘just add some granites’. He continues ‘look at the cobbles and smaller cube setts in the entrance to the yard and you see all of these granitic rocks polished by cart wheels and cars’.

Elsewhere Eric Robinson has provided guides for school children (and indeed adults too) who want to explore the world of stone around them and analyse the history of a site from the stones which used to build it. I was not so lucky as a small child. When we visited the Globe at Swanage in 1947 I had no idea what it was – but, gosh, I was impressed!

Orinoco - sailing barge built on the Greenwich Riverside

2011-06-23T12:12:00.007+01:00

ORINOCO

This article originally appeared in an issue of Bygone Kent.

The site of Hughes Barge Yard is now covered - or soon will be - by housing on the development now known as 'Lovell's Wharf'. Orinoco too is under different ownership and I have not seen her for a long time - information is always welcome.

Jim Hughes was a friend of mine who lived in Blackheath. I knew him as a tenant activist, a teacher, a Labour Party member, a historian but most of all as a sailing barge enthusiast and a lover of London's river. When it was announced that the Millennium Dome was to be built in Greenwich Jim tried his best – but in vain - to persuade the New Millennium Experience Company that they should take an interest in the many famous sailing barges built in Greenwich.

Jim died before the Dome was built but in his last weeks he contacted me and I understood that he wanted me to find the last Greenwich barge still sailing – the Orinoco. I went to Hoo Marina and met her skipper – but she never made it to the Dome despite all our efforts.

I asked Jim's widow, Elsie, if I could look at the books and papers he had left. 'Yes' she said 'but take them afterwards to the Docklands Museum, as Jim wanted'. As I went through the piles of pictures, which were Jim's lifetime collection, I found some manuscript – Jim's notes on the Orinoco and her builders. I felt that the best I could do was to write these notes up into a coherent article and get it published. So, this article is for Jim – and most of it is by him.

Perhaps I should start with what Jim himself had written in a letter to a friend in 1990.
'… a few months it ago it came to my knowledge that the sailing barge 'Orinoco' was built at East Greenwich by a barge builder of the name of HUGHES. From the local history library I discovered that Frederick Augustus Hughes & Co, had been in business as a barge builder at Providence Wharf, River Bank, East Greenwich from 1887 until 1905.'

Jim knew, as I do, that there must have been many barge builders in Greenwich over the centuries. We tend to know about Pipers and Shrubsall – both recent and well documented. Almost all the others have vanished, without record. Their sites probably consisted of a length of foreshore – abandoned once the barge was built – and the barges themselves are long gone. To research one, hitherto otherwise unknown, barge builder was a real challenge.

Perhaps because his name was the same as theirs, Jim spent a lot of time trying to unearth Hughes the bargebuilder.

He found first of all a Frederick Augustus Hughes, a lighterman living in Florence Road, New Cross in the 1850s and born in 1811. Frederick later became a Custom House Agent and his four sons, Frederick, Augustus, Edmund and Walker all went into the lighterage trade. It appeared that his son Frederick was apprenticed to an Augustus Edmunds in 1863. Edmunds lived at Carisbrooke Villa in Westcombe Hill, Blackheath, between 1864 and 1900. He had a barge building business on the Greenwich peninsula and it must have been a large and prosperous business for him to afford such a grand house. Carisbrooke Villa was on the site of what is now Broadbridge Close near Blackheath Standard. No doubt young Hughes was well taught.
By 1887 – F.A.Hughes was registered as a barge builder at Greenwich and ihe signed the lease for the site which seems to have been acquired from Coles Child whose interests he appears to have bought out Coles on the Morden College owned site.

The Wharf was called Providence Wharf and was on the site downriver of what is now Piper's Wharf with an entrance at the end of Banning Street. It is part of the complex of wharves owned by Morden College and developed by Coles Child from the 1840s – a process partly described in my recent articles on Lovell's Wharf for Bygone Kent. Jim discovered that the site is marked as 'Hughes Barge Builders' on maps of the 1880s and on some deeds from Morden College.

Although the business was thus owned by the father, it seems that the sons were in fact in charge. Frederick, who had been apprenticed just down the road with Edmunds, lived nearest to the new barge yard's site in Greenwich - just round the corner in Commerel Street, SE10 – an address which could never be described as up-market. When he later moved it was just along the road to 1 Glenister Road – another address difficult to describe as anything other than in a working class area. Also closely involved in the business was the second son, Augustus George who, in 1886, was living at 'Garnet' 21 Glenluce Road, Blackheath - a much more 'middle class' address than that of brother Frederick. At that time, Jim reckoned, he would be about 35 years old.

Thus the Hughes family ran their barge yard at from the mid-1880s Providence Wharf, taking over Dawsons Wharf next door in September 1890. The works at must have been larger and more diverse than is implied by barge building since it was described in a letter of 1905 as an 'Engineering Works'. – however a feature of the site plan was a 'Launching Way'. Jim found a record that in 1889 Sailing Barge Wyvenhoe was built for Hughes by Forrest. I am assuming that that is the same Wyvenhoe which is up and down the river all the time these days. If she was originally built for Hughes it makes his company seem rather larger than it appears at first sight and that they intended to be a trading company rather than merely builders.

The founder of the works, F.A.Hughes, was around throughout the lifetime of the business and it is a surprise to find him still alive in 1905, aged 94 when he signed a lease which is still in the Morden College archives. However from that date the works seemed to fail. By 1907, Augustus had died, the firm had closed and the wharf was in the possession of Tilbury Contracting and Dredging.

It is possible that an 'Edmund Hughes' continued to work at Providence Wharf. Jim quoted 'The Lure and Lore of London River', dated 1932, which said that a 'small lightering business' was carried on at Providence Wharf by a 'freeman, Edmund Hughes' and that he had gone into business as the first Managing Director of London and Tilbury Lighterage at 'far larger Dreadnought Wharf' – which London and Tilbury had acquired from the Rennies. Pictures published in the 1920s show London and Tilbury's vessel Tilburnia, described as fitted with a 'Hughes rotary cutter' – was this device perhaps developed by Edmund.

Edmund Hughes had moved by then to 1 Priory Park in Blackheath – a much more upmarket address and a house which still exists today. I don't know who Edmund was – Jim seems to have left no record. Was he a son of Augustus – or his brother?

The family however did seem to prosper. In January 1924 an Arthur Mumford Hughes was listed by the Freemen and Apprentices of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights and described as the son of Edmund Hughes of Blackheath. In 1946 he was admitted to the Court of Assistants. Does the middle name Mumford imply that he had some relationship - perhaps through his mother - with the owners of the flour mill in Greenwich? His son Arthur Mumford Hughes was admitted to the Livery in 1924 – he had an even posher address at Mayfield, Chiselhurst, Kent.

Jim had therefore traced the history of a barge building family – from their origins as Deptford lightermen to an engineering/boat building business, meanwhile moving personally ever more into a middle class environment. What has happened to them? Will their family historians discover this saga and take it up? Did they in fact go on to become a much large business under another name.

Jim had started to research the Hughes because of Orinoco and he had found a bit about her. According to him, Hughes built Orinoco in 1895, commissioned by Masons cement fleet based at Waldringfield on the Deben, although she was eventually owned by Cranfield Brothers. The records day she was sunk in collision in the Thames in the 1950s and raised and bought by Tester Laurie Tester of Greenhithe Lighterage co and restored and then rerigged at Faversham. Since then she been in a number of hands as a leisure vessel.

After Jim died I went down to Hoo Marina and found Orinoco and her skipper. I understand that she has now been sold again and would be glad to know what has happened to her and if her new owners know any more about her than I do. Research on her has suffered since Hughes has been confused with the later Greenwich barge builders, Hughan – who were, in any case, on a different site. I would also like to know more about the Hughes family and what other craft they might have built in Greenwich.

Most of this article has been compiled from the notes left by Jim Hughes, and lent to me thanks to Elsie Hughes with some extra research by me at Morden College and at London Borough of Greenwich.

Lovells Wharf - Greenwich Riverside

2011-06-23T11:19:00.004+01:00

LOVELL'S WHARF

By Mary Mills

This article was written this riverside area was still a wharf -which could potentially have been worked - and riverside cranes which remained in situ were a much treasured local feature. Now the cranes have gone, the riverside has been disrupted and the site is all housing. 'Lovells' itself was bounded by Pelton Road/Banning Street and Cadet Place. Cadet Place is gone and its site only marked by the boundary of a block of flats.

The article below is made up of a series of articles originally published in Bygone Kent. Photographs of working on the wharf in the 1980s fron PLA Journal by kind permission Derek Rowe.

For many years people in Greenwich have enjoyed the riverside walk from the town out into the marshes. It is a pathway which has become famous and many tourists already find their way onto it. In the year 2000 it will be the easiest and nicest way for those who want to walk from Greenwich, proper, to the Millennium Dome. They will go along what is still a working riverside past a busy boat repair yard and several large factories.

The industry is now, of course, much depleted. Many people will remember that until about ten years ago there was a real bustle with many working wharves and a forest of cranes. There are still a few cranes at work shifting the ubiquitous aggregate but they are small and few. However, visitors walking on from the Cutty Sark pub will be confronted with just two giant cranes – two of what are believed to be only four 'Scotch derricks' left on London's wharves. In August 1999 local people discovered that the wharf on which they stand is might become the site of a hotel. By the time this article appears a Greenwich Council will have decided whether or not it will go ahead.

The two cranes stand on what is known now as 'Lovells wharf' - but it has had other names in the past. It was built in the nineteenth century when activity on the Greenwich riverside was at its height and was worked successfully until the early 1980s when the need for a deeper berth seems to have meant it was abandoned. It's history is very similar to many other wharves up and down the river Thames.

Greenwich Marsh covered the area which today is known as the 'Greenwich Peninsula'. The Marsh had clear boundaries and at one time there were gates to go through to get onto the marsh. On the riverside the marsh boundary was here between 'Ballast Quay' – and 'Lovells Wharf'. At this point the riverside path leaves the metalled road and becomes a footpath only. Today it eventually reaches the mouth of the Blackwall Tunnel but it once meandered on along the sea wall right round and back to Charlton. Lovells Wharf is at the start of the path through the marsh. The name 'Lovells' in large white lettering can be seen from the river on the wharf wall, above the path, and again on the gable of the buildings.

On the walls of houses in Ballast Quay are little 'Invicta' plaques which tourists often mistake for fire insurance signs. In fact they denote ownership by Morden College. The College, which still stands on the far side of Blackheath, was set up by Sir John Morden in the late seventeenth century to provide an almshouse for 'decayed Turkey merchants'. The whole area of riverside – Lovells and the sites either side, and behind it – are owned by them. They have had an enormous influence on the whole area – and without their archive this article could not have been written

The last wharf before Lovells is 'Ballast Quay' – where the Cutty Sark pub is today. The name 'Ballast Quay' goes back to at least the early seventeenth century and the wharf has had a varied history. In the early nineteenth century it was the site of industrial buildings associated with the Crowley family. Ambrose Crowley was a seventeenth century ironmaster who set up warehousing here and lived in a big house where the Power Station now stands. His family, and their successors, leased the land in this stretch of riverside from Morden College until the mid-nineteenth century when Ballast Quay was developed for riverside housing by Morden College to be known, for a while, as Union Wharf.

In the late seventeenth century the Government had built a gunpowder testing depot down river of Greenwich - a subject which I covered earlier for Bygone Kent. The gunpowder site was sold and by the early nineteenth century seems to have become a ropewalk. Between this and Ballast Quay was a belt of meadowland on which the Crowleys retained their leases until the 1840s. This includes Lovells Wharf.

Although the wharf was not built before the 1840s it is very likely the riverside here was well used by watermen - fishermen, boat builders and the like. Inland was a field known as the 'Great Meadow'. To the south of this meadow was 'Willow Walk' – a path which ran along a dyke. In the 1840s a housing estate was built here and Willow Walk became 'Pelton Road' and it still forms the main road to the river in East Greenwich.

THE GREAT MEADOW

Morden College leased the Great Meadow to the Crowleys but it seems to have been used as meadowland - grazing of horses and cattle and, along the riverside, the growing of osiers for basket making.

By the 1840s Morden College wanted to develop the area in the same way that they had just developed Ballast Quay. In 1830 they had appointed George Smith as their Surveyor. He was an architect who held appointments with some other institutions with interests in the area - he was also Surveyor to the Cator estates and to the Mercer's Company. In 1838 he prepared a survey of Greenwich Marsh and after that the riverside land was leased systematically to developers.

COLES CHILD

The Great Meadow was one of the earliest sites to be allocated by Morden College. It went to William Coles Child. He was a young man, in his early twenties, who had taken over his family's coal trade business based at Belvedere Wharf in London - on the site of today's Festival Hall. They were described 'Coal Merchants, Coke Burners and Wharfingers' and later added the trade of 'Russian Cement manufacturer'. The coal was brought into London in collier ships from ports on the North East coast - Newcastle, Blyth, South Shields, Seaham. It was a massive industry and one which expanded enormously in the early years of the nineteenth century.

Coles Child was clearly well off and in the 1840s was to buy the Bishop's Palace in Bromley (now Bromley Civic Centre) where he became a local figure of some importance. He had multiple interests including building materials, railways and hop growing.

Coles Child owned gravel pits, and a brick works in Bromley and also grew hops near where Theatre now stands. He was proud that his hops were the first to arrive each year at the Hop Exchange in the Borough – something facilitated by the closeness of the railway of which he was also a director. Coles Child was also on the board of the South Eastern Railway and was responsible for a number of extensions to the line – all of them dressed up as independent companies in Kent. In this way he was involved in the promotion of a dock scheme in Greenwich. He must have come into frequent contact with Sir John Lubbock, Chairman of Morden College. Lubbock lived just south of Bromley at High Elms in Farnborough and, like Coles Child, he was involved in philanthropic work in the area. For example, in 1866, Coles Child donated the land for a Working Men's club in Bromley which was later opened by Sir John Lubbock.

In Greenwich Coles Child's worked with Morden College to build the housing estate which still stands between Woolwich Road and the river – the area around William Dyke/Pelton Road.

GREENWICH WHARF

The wharf which Coles Child built on the riverside near his housing was not then called 'Lovells', it was known as 'Greenwich Wharf''.

On 5th July 1838 Child signed an 80-year lease with Morden College for six acres of the Great Meadow to 'form wharves and erect manufactories'. For this he paid £8 an acre but Morden College said that he must spend at least £3,000 on 'substantial buildings'. They were quite clear that what ever development took place on Greenwich riverside that it was to be of a high standard and something which would last. A year later Coles Child signed a lease for more land and took on the remainder of the area in 1844.

In January 1839 Morden College gave Coles Child permission to build a new road to the river along the line of the north side of Willow Walk and thus Pelton Road came into being. One feature of the road is that the houses on only one side have front gardens and it has been speculated that this is because originally the dyke was not covered over. Coles Child also applied to built a tramway – a light railway – along the road so that he could transport his coal and gravel more easily, but he wanted Morden College to pay for it and this they refused to do.

Coles Child strengthened and partly rebuilt the sea wall and a new pier was built at the end of Ballast Quay. By 1840 coke ovens, a limekiln, storehouse and stable and been built and were in operation. Lovells Wharf'' – Greenwich Wharf - then became an industrial site for processing coal and cement from the mid 1840s. It was to continue in this role for the next fifty years.

The limekilns on Greenwich Wharf were initially let to a Mr. Walker. There were numerous people of that name operating in the surrounding chemical and coal trades in the areas and he does seem to have been a success. Another proposed lessee was a soapboiler - a suggestion that drew complaints from the tenants of Ballast Quay. By March 1841 Coles Child was running the limeburning operations himself. the site himself. 'Grey Stone and other limes' were produced there and were, in effect, the start of a cement manufacturing business which carried on into the 1920s.

Coles Child's main activity at Greenwich wharf was as a coal dealer. By June 1840 he advertised that the wharf and premises had been completed and that he could now supply coal and coke 'at a considerable reduction in price' compared to other suppliers. He boasted of facilities for the discharge of coal from ships 'of any tonnage' at Greenwich Wharf 'such as are enjoyed by no other house'. It meant that coal could be loaded 'direct from the hold of the ship into wagons'.

This coal seems to have come from the Durham coal field. The streets which Coles Child built behind the wharf were originally all named after areas connected to pits in Durham. Pelton Road is a very good example because Pelton Main and West Pelton collieries were immediately north of Chester le Street, the Durham mining town. Banning Street which today runs parallel with the river was originally called 'Chester Street'. It seems quite clear that Coles Child had extensive business connections with Durham.

Coke burning was another activity and in 1840 Coles Child also advertised that he was the 'largest manufacturer of Oven Coke in England' - and tha he could offer a service to 'Directors of Railways, Maltsters, Ironfounders and Consumers’. Some of the Great Meadow was used digging brick earth - and leaving pools and ponds which later had to be filled in. Where there had once been cattle grazing and osier along the river was now an area of intense industrial activity. Local people seem to have been glad to see this development – bring jobs and prosperity to the area.

MOWLEM

In 1852 the wharf was divided and a portion to the west was leased to Mowlem, the road building contractor. It became known, as it is still known today, as Granite Wharf.

This long running leasehold on Granite Wharf provided a permanent eastward boundary to Greenwich Wharf. Further east of the Mowlem site a number of other wharves were sublet – but are really outside the remit of this article.

ROWTON AND WHITEWAY

Coles Child clearly did not intend to continue managing his wharfage business in Greenwich personally and he passed into the hands of two managers - William Whiteway and Frederick (Constantine) Rowton. It became known as Whiteway's Wharf. William Whiteway was a local man who had worked in the Greenwich coal trade since he was seventeen.

Rowton announced that he had come to an arrangement with a different Durham colliery 'Caradoc and Usworth'. This was in order to meet the competition from coal which was by then being brought into London by rail. Rowton advertised that he was the sole London agent for 'Caradoc and Usorth' - collieries which were owned by the Rt.Hon. Lord Howden and Messrs. D. Jonassohn and Co. These were two newly sunk pits in the north east of what is now Washington New Town in Co. Durham – the area is now all new housing but the pit sites remain as fenced off rough ground. 'Caradoc' was the family name of Lord Howden, a career diplomat and soldier. Two sorts of coal from the pits were sold in Greenwich - 'Caradoc's Wallsend' and Jonasshon's Wallsend'. 'Wallsend', is a mining area north of the Tyne in Newcastle but by the 1840s the use of the word 'Wallsend' did not mean that the coal came from there – it was a generic term to describe good quality domestic coal.

Rowton and Whiteway also operated a cement works on the eastern part of Greenwich Wharf where there were lime kilns. Bricks were made on site and an area to the rear of the wharf was dug for brick earth. The coal delivery business seems to have been failing and Rowton applied to build a Portland Cement Works with the river frontage let separately. However, some larger Portland Cement Works were currently being built further down river in Greenwich and it is possible that they provided more competition than Whiteway and Rowton could stand. Very little is heard of cement manufacture at Greenwich Wharf.

Both Whiteway and Rowton lived locally in Blackheath In 1871 Whiteway moved into the newly built No.11 Westcombe Park Road called Teign Villa – and he also owned no.9, Gatcombe Lodge. Both of these are big grand houses and no doubt he had a hand in their building and influenced the design. The Teign Valley in Devon is an area in which Whiteway is a very common name and it is thought that the family originates from that area – although William Whiteway himself was said to come from Greenwich. In the Teign Valley there are also a number of chalk and clay pits of which at least one, Great Closes clay pit, was owned by William Whiteway. This might, of course, be merely a coincidence.

Frederick Rowton too lived locally in Blackheath although he moved round the area rather more than Whiteway. At one time he lived at 5 Westcombe Park Road, Meadowbank – which was, of course, next door but one to his partner, Whiteway and the house was later occupied by another Greenwich cement manufacturer, Hollick.

Coles Child died at his home in Bromley in 1872 and the Greenwich Wharf business remained in the hands of Whiteway and Rowton. Whiteway left the wharf ten years later in order to enjoy his retirement. He became an activist in local politics as a staunch member of the Conservative Party and died in 1894 aged 68. Rowton had died in 1888 at No.4. Humber Road., Carlisle House – a large house but not as grand as his previous residence in Westcombe Park Road.

THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Whiteway's cement business continued in operation on Greenwich Wharf but the area in use qreatly diminished and confined to the area along Cadet Place. The easterly section of the wharf became known as Waddell's Wharf.

John Waddell and Co. took on a lease for part of the wharf area. It was later said that Waddell had built a 'dock' and it seems likely that this refers to an improved wharf frontage since there is no sign of dock on the river wall – unless this refers to the inlet at the end of Cadet Place once known as 'Dead Dog Bay'. This is not clearly shown on maps before the early 1990s and could, thus, be Waddell's dock. Although the sea wall and campshedding there is modern at very low water there are signs of earlier brickwork, and, perhaps, a curving masonry entrance. The term 'Dead Dog Bay' comes from the sight of dead animals washed up there and left to rot – sometimes sheep which could have been escapees from the foreign cattle market up river.

Waddell was another coal merchant, supplying them many domestic grates of the area. He had a local office in a prestigious area where his customers in the nicer parts of Blackheath could be received. Presumably the hapless inhabitants of Pelton Road took themselves straight down to the wharf for their purchases. From 1896 Waddell maintained an office this was at 14 Royal Parade in Blackheath. This was a premier position in what are still prestige shop fronts facing across Blackheath. Later, and throughout the First World War, Waddell had a different site in Blackheath - at 7 Blackheath Vale. Although this is a posh address today before the1920s it was an enclave of mill sites and semi-industrial uses and probably more suited to a coal merchant. It may show a downward drift in the Waddell fortunes.

For a short time in the 1880s an ice merchant, John Ashby, rented part of the site. An Ashby cement works was already in business on a site a short distance down river, started by a member of the Staines based Ashby banking family. While it is not known if the ice merchant was one of them or not it is worth noting that in 1880 the main family member in Staines was a John Ashby. On deeds from the 1890s onwards an ice well is shown marked towards the south east portion of the site underneath some buildings. Details of it appear in some later dilapidation reports. People who worked on the wharf in the 1970s have told me that it was still there then and may be still there now. Commercial ice suppliers were fairly common before the days of the domestic refrigerator - there were several others in Greenwich. Ice was, happily, not taken from the Thames but brought from Norway by boat, stored and sold to provide domestic and commercial refrigeration.

This then was the wharf around the start of the First World War. Whiteway's cement and coal business was still in place in some form or another while other parts of the site were in use by wharfage contractors and others. Coles Child's head lease on the whole site expired soon after the First World War and Morden College began a period of re-evaluation of the site.

By 1918 the river along this frontage was silting up rapidly. An inventory of the period describes a wharf with a 1,290 feet frontage to the river and a 245 ft frontage to Pelton Road. There was a gateway into the road way at the back which had by then been renamed 'Banning Street'. All round the wharf on the Banning and Pelton Road sides were houses and shops fronting onto the road and backing onto the wharf. Inside the wharf were brick buildings with slate roofs. This included a stable for fourteen horses, alongside Pelton Road, and above it a loft with living rooms fvor the stable man. On the wharf itself was a travelling crane. The eastern part of the wharf, once Whiteway's section, had a 90-foot river frontage with more brick buildings and a stable for six horses. There was an entrance in to the alley way now renamed as Cadet Place.

On the main part of the wharf was a tenant called Yarmouth Carriers which was based in Hull. It is likely that they were general river haulage operators. .Another sub-tenant were Davis Morgan and Sons and there may have been other short term leases. Yarmouth Carriers left the site in the early 1920s, following some prevarication as to whether they would renew their lease or not. They left behind a crane which - a forerunner of today's discussions on the cranes left by Shaw Lovell - became a problem for the landlords. It was a 'Grafton crane' and repair work was needed on it. A local firm, Flavell and Churchill of Bellott Street, were called in to do the work.

SHAW LOVELL

Shaw Lovell took on a lease for most of the site in the late 1920s. Shaw Lovell (now Bristol ICO Ltd.) were a family business dating from 1869. They originally came from Bristol having grown out of a nineteenth century company known as 'Bristol Steam Navigation Co.Ltd.' This company had early on connections and interests in London and Ireland and employed as their General Traffic Agent, Charles Shaw Lovell who was already in business as a shipping agent. A history of the company 'The story of Lovell's Shipping' was written by Eric Jorden in 1992 and details the complex history of the company, its multifarious activiies and complex structure.

Charles Shaw Lovell had a City of London office in Fenchurch Street in 1871 for his work as a 'Shipping and Forwarding Agent' and by the 1890s had taken his sons into partnership with him and moved to St.Benet's House in Gracechurch Street, an address he shared with the Bristol Steam Navigation Co. There were also offices in Liverpool, Manchester, Hull and Birmingham. The two younger Lovells were soon in effective charge of the Bristol Navigation Company. In 1908 the business was incorporated as 'C.Shaw Lovell & Sons Ltd.' and they moved again to 38 Eastcheap where they remained until bombed out in the Second World War. Changes had however come after the First World War with expansion and a even younger generation of Lovells.

Eric Jorden describes how the company had used the wharf at Greenwich before the First World War and how in, 1911, they took up shares in the then 'owners' Joseph Guy Ltd. and eventually bought the wharf from Guy in 1922 for £3,850. Jorden was writing from Lovell's own sources, and in fact Guy did not own the site but held a sub-lease from Morden College through the Coles Child interests. Lovell's were to sub-let from them, took the lease this over and eventually became head lessees in the early 1920s.

Thus it was only from the 1920s that 'Greenwich Wharf ' became known as 'Lovells Wharf'. Under Lovells the wharf was soon thriving with a business based on the handling of non-ferrous metals cfor which the wharf was ideal at a time when transhipment into barges was common place. In the 1920s the company had played a major part in dealing with scrap metal from First World War battlefields and, since much of this military hardware had doubtless been made in Woolwich and Erith, it is ironic that it should come back to Greenwich as scrap. Eric Jorden considered that it was this trade which encouraged Lovell's to actually buy the site. Srap was collected from the battlefields and stored on the wharf awaiting disposal. The odd unexploded shell was, no doubt, only one of the hazards. There was also a sideline in the export of stone for war grave headstones.

In the 1920s Lovell's purchased ships of their own to carry on the metal trade. These included Innisulva, Innishannan, Tower Bridge and Eiffel Tower. Eric Jorden considered that Tower Bridge was used on the London/Paris service since it could go under low bridges. They also owned a tug and two lighters. The Greenwich Wharf continued in busy use mainly handling metals. On site there was a London Metal's Exchange approved warehouse for the storage of copper, zinc and lead.

In the 1960s Lovell House was built at the southern end of the wharf area as the head office for Lovell's Sea Container Trade. A large computer system was installed there. In 1975 when economies were needed much of the work undertaken in these offices was moved to Bristol. In due course Lovell House was taken over by the Greater London Council and is today used by the local authority for their education social work service.

THE CRANES

This article began with a description of a walk along the riverside and the two remaining derelict cranes. In the 1970s a great deal of expansion had taken place at Lovell's Wharf with the arrival of the 'Butters' Crane from Bristol Seaway at Custom House Quay, Dublin – and this is one of the cranes which is still there. Butters are the manufacturers of the crane based in Glasgow. In due course the container revolution diminished the amount of work available. The company continued to retreat to their Bristol base. In the early 1980s another expansion programme was entered into. The 20-ton 'Butters' crane was moved to a central position on the wharf. Shed space was increased and a special lorry entrance created working with the GLC in order to cut down lorry movements in local roads.

In 1982 the wharf handled 118,000 tons of cargo - steel, aluminium, galvanised sheeting and gas pipes as well as timber and some other items. Much of this was modern 'high tech' products, Lovell's did not consider itself old-fashioned and they were proud of their experience and the techniques developed to handle specialist cargoes. In all this work the two cranes played a key role.

The two cranes are a dramatic local feature - much photographed and the subject of many paintings and drawings. They not really 'cranes' at all but 'Scotch Derricks' - that is a stationery piece of equipment of a type often made in Scotland. Such equipment was once very common around the Port of London but has now almost completely disappeared - we think there may be examples left at Rotherhithe and another on the Lea. Derricks in a permanent position are most practical for the sort of wharfage operations carried out at Lovells. The problems with them were that they took up space and could slew through less than 3/4 of a circle.

It proved surprisingly difficult to find anything very much out about the cranes themselves. Shaw Lovell's records did not reveal when they were first acquired. The lattice-framed style of the derricks was characteristic of such equipment in the first half of the twentieth century and date them probably to before 1950. They are both electrically powered.

The down river crane is the 'Butters' crane brought from Dublin Custom House in the mid-1970s. £30,000 was spent on refurbishment in 1986 when it was moved. It was then capable of handling 20 tons. 'Butters' were been taken over by Morris Cranes but investigations to locate any archive information with Morris proved impossible. The upriver crane was manufactured by Anderson Grice but very little is known about it . Information from Bristol ICO suggests that it was capable of handling 5 tons only but contacts who worked on site say that it could handle 10. It seems amazing that there should be so little information available about two such relatively modern pieces of equipment

In 1999 the wharf had been empty for many years. Lovells appear to have surrendered their lease and it is now managed by Morden College's agents who have been looking for a tenant for a long time. In the last ten years, despite its apparent dereliction, it has occasionally been used for the storage and transhipment of building materials. In mid-1990s it became obvious that wharfage facilities on the Thames were disappearing but that a need still existed - if only for emergency and specialist use. The Government therefore decided to designate some wharves as 'safeguarded' - which should have ensured the future of the wharf as an industrial site.

In 2000 the cranes were removed by Morden College.

Help has also been received from numerous people - in particular Tim Smith (industrial archaeologist), Mr Gale (ex Managing Director of Shaw Lovell), Bristol ICO Ltd, Morris Cranes, and to the ever helpful internet, in particular pages maintained by the Peak District Mining Research Association.

to all fans of loco Woolwich

2011-06-13T10:31:00.001+01:00

following on from a previous entry and Woolwich - I have now been pointed in the direction of:

http://therailwayproject.blogspot.com/

Woolwich award for engineering excellence

2011-06-04T05:22:00.002+01:00

The latest plaque on a Greenwich building was unveiled at a ceremony on Wednesday. This is on the Firepower building on the Arsenal site and was installed as an award by the prestigious Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The Institution established the Engineering Heritage Awards in 1984 to recognise the value of our national engineering excellence. They have so far awarded 60 of them .

It is is instructive to read through the list of past awards and see the many local connections - Crossness Engines, The Thames Barrier, the Jubilee Line, etc etc.

Although in the view of many local people the Royal Arsenal should have been No.1. - it is a shame we have had to wait so long. It is instructive also to note that, apart from Mayor Jim Gillman, that guests at the ceremony were almost entirely from national academic engineering societies - no sign of any locals at all. (I had crept in under the wing of someone else's invitation - Thanks John!) There was also no sign of any press and I will almost guarantee that apart from this effort of mine that there will be no way the general public is told about this award.

Anyway - please go down and look at the plaque

When Woolwich stopped off in Woolwich

2011-05-18T13:31:00.004+01:00

Two pictures of this mornings brief stop off for Woolwich in her journey between Waltham Abbey and Crossness.

Woolwich was one of the locomotives which ran on the internal railways of the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich (when the Arsenal was the Arsenal). She was later run as part of a preservation scheme in Devon and then acquired by the Royal Gunpowder Museum at Waltham Abbey. She is now to be exhibited and used as Crossness Engines.

Woolwich comes to Woolwich on Wednesday May 18th 2011

2011-05-13T21:41:00.003+01:00

The Crossness Engines Trust intends to construct a narrow gauge railway. Crossness Pumping Station is adjacent to the former Royal Arsenal and thanks to the good offices of the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Trust it has been possible to secure the surviving 18 inch gauge equipment from the Royal Arsenal Railway System. It's expected that an initially modest line will be operating within two years and it's very much hoped that it will re-create the former RAR as closely as possible.

On Wednesday 18th May the locomotive 'Woolwich', Avonside 0-4-0T 1748/1916, will be the first item to return to SE London. She's been away since 1959.

Details...

Between 11.30pm - 12.00noon 'Woolwich' will arrive at the Royal Arsenal for display between the Greenwich Heritage Centre and the 'Firepower' Museum, about four or five minutes walk North of Woolwich Arsenal station. The loco will remain there for 60 to 90 minutes. All are most welcome to see her return home. She will then depart for Crossness.

Unfortunately the public cannot be admitted to Crossness Pumping Station on Wednesday but she will be on display there during the next public steaming day on Sunday 26th June. After that date she will be dismantled for restoration.

For further information, please contact;

Ian Bull
On behalf of the Crossness Engines Trust
020 7223 3572
and on May 18th only...
077 998 101 78

Albert Mead - Enquiry

2011-05-05T18:08:00.001+01:00

came across your website whilst searching for information about J Stone & Co, the former engineering company at Deptford. My maternal grandfather, Albert Alfred Mead, used to work with them between the wars, possibly as company secretary. He seems to have been a self-made man, and since we know rather little about his professional life I thought it would be interesting to see if we can find any records that might throw light on his involvement with the company. Albert Mead also appears to have had his own company, Mead Mclean, under which several patents have been recorded. Any information about Mead Mclean would be of great interest as well. I wondered if your Society has any medium via which I could post this enquiry?

The Mead family lived at Lee and Blackheath (South Vale House, until around 1939). My father's family, the Eden-Greens, also lived locally and my grandfather Samuel worked at Johnson & Phillips between the wars. We moved away from Blackheath around 1965.

GLIAS 253

2011-05-05T17:51:00.002+01:00

Tbe April issue of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society newsletter has a lot in it about Greenwich - so much that I can only summarise.

The main item is a long article by Bob Rust - which needs to be read to be appreciated. It runs to three pages and gives the sort of detail which can only come from personal knowleddge. He knows the local names of operations, smells, and what the local kids got up.

Bob Rust - if you are out there and reading this - please get in touch - we would like to talk to you!

GLIAS also notes the local plans for the old coaling jetty on the Greenwich Peninsula and the plans for it as a 'public heritage facility'.

A smaller item laments the imminent demise of John Humpheries House and notes it as the home of the fourth Leo III and refers us to www.leo-comouters.org.uk

GIHS would also like to hear from Chris Lewis who gave the GLIAS lecture on 20th April. He spoke about William Henry Barlow, who was born locally - there is a plaque to him on the presbytery of Our Lady of Grace in Charlton Road. we understand this was an amazing lecture - and - please Chris, we would like to know more.

bricks from the public toilets in Beresford Square Woolwich

2011-04-21T21:13:00.003+01:00

We have a note from a council officer working on a project in Woolwich, which he, and we, thought was of interest:

He says:

"I am currently working on the redevelopment of General Gordon and Beresford Squares in Woolwich town centre. In the course of the construction works at Beresford Square the remains of parts of the old Victorian underground toilets on the square were revealed. We have salvaged a small number of bricks from these toilets and the Heritage Centre have agreed to take one of them for their archives. There are still around 7 or 8 of the bricks remaining, if you are aware of anybody who may wish to have one of them please let us know. The bricks were made by the Farnley Iron Co of Leeds and feature a ceramic coating on one side.

GHIS Programme for the next year!!

2011-04-19T06:56:00.002+01:00

PROGRAMME 2011-12

10th May Duncan Hawkins on Archaeology at Deptford Dockyard

14th June Prof Dave Perrett on Days at the Factories

19th July Rich Sylvester on Making the East Greenwich Map

20th September Ron Bristow on Elliott Automation

11th October Chris Foord on Industries of Barking and Dagenham

15th November John Greig on Greig’s Wharf part II

17th January Jeremy Hodgkinson on Iron Founding in the Weald

21st February John Yeardley on Ropemaking in London

13th March David Cufley on Bricks and local brickmaking

17th April Peter Luck on Sugar & Soap – (site recently known as Amylum)

15th May Diana Rimel on Bazalgette (by popular demand!)

All meetings are held at The Old Bakehouse, Bennett Park, SE3. This is a small theatre in the back of the Age Exchange Shop – which is in The Village opposite Blackheath Station. There is no on site parking – please do not park outside the Bakehouse, but use the car park behind the station. Meetings start at 7.30 and non members are charged £1.
Chair: Sue Bullevant.
Information marymillsmmmmm@aol.com.
Membership Steve Daly, s.daly05@btinternet.com

Frank Sumner - Woolwich Borough Engineer and his Plumstead Home

2011-02-23T15:02:00.002Z

Frank Sumner - Woolwich Borough Engineer and his Plumstead Home
by Dave Ramsay

Frank Sumner MICE - his career

Born: 17th May 1865 - Father: John Sumner of Coleshill near Birmingham, a chemist (retired by December 1904)
Died: 22 December 1914

Scientific training, at Atherstone and privately1879-1881
Pupilage under Mr.Sidney G.Gamble, Assoc. M. Inst. C. E, and under Mr. J.A Gotch, Architect, 1881-1887

Training as assistant to Mr. Gamble, Mr. Gotch, and Mr. O. Claude Robson 1887-1892 at Grantham.
At Grantham he was Resident engineer on extension to a sewage farm on Harrowby estate, laid out new roads, sewers and water main

Assistant Surveyor, Kettering Local Board. Extensions to a sewage farm laid out several miles of new roads, reconstructed several miles of new sewers and assisted with plans for an isolation hospital.

Assistant engineer to Mr. O. Claude Robson, MICE, at Willesden Local Board -constructed several miles of sewers, extended sewage farm, constructed filter beds, assisted with plans for a steel girder bridge

AMICE 9th August 1892

Chief Engineer and Surveyor, Bermondsey Vestry, - much work on sewers and paving, alterations to the Council Chamber. Controlled 200 men

Borough Engineer and Surveyor to Woolwich Borough (Previously Plumstead Vestry) 10 May 1899 -1905.
Constructed 20 miles of sewers, 8 miles of streets,
Prepared plans for and supervised the erection of a combined electric light station-and refuse destructor at Plumstead, with well and hydraulic machinery for making clinker bricks and flags.
Prepared plans for a new Library at Plumstead.
Prepared plans for Public- baths and wash houses at Plumstead, also a coroners court and mortuary.
Prepared plans for widening Well -Hall Road from Eltham to Shooters Hill to 60 feet, paving for Tramway
Street improvements
£30,000, Certifies annually general work.
Controlling 600 men,
Passes plans for 1,500 buildings per year.

MICE 2nd March 1904 MICE

(The above summary was prepared from the detailed supporting statement attached to his application for MICE. Work done between March 1904 and May 1905 was obtained from the ICE obituary of 1914 and is less detailed).

eman of the City of London, 1905.

City Engineer to City of London 1905-1914 Inaugurated central lighting of the City and largely responsible for Fleet Street widening scheme,

A SHORT HISTORY OF "The Gables" BRENT ROAD, SHOOTERS HILL (7 SE18 3DR)
Frank Sumner’s Woolwich home.

Brent Road was an open field, in the 1860s, with some evidence that it had been woodland some short time before that. The rump of that woodland remains at the Eglington Road end of Cantwell Road to this day. It would appear that Brent Road was built as a serviced metalled road in the 1860s by developers who wanted to construct high quality homes to maximise the commercial opportunities of meeting the needs of Royal Artillery Officers, whose barracks were nearby on Woolwich Common.

More particularly, the Royal Military Academy in Academy Road, moved to its present site in 1806, and is only half a mile away from The Gables. The Academy was formed 'to educate young gentlemen for commissions in the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers'. It had been established in 1741, on what later became known as the Royal Arsenal, at 'The Warren' site, in Woolwich.

The 1866 Ordnance Survey shows Brent Road as being constructed with proper footways. Searches of records of the time show no evidence of requests to break into the public sewer, so it is possible that serviced plots were sold. The first evidence existing of the sale of building plots is in 1863, when the west side of Brent Road was put up for auction. No houses were shown as built on the 1866 OS. And the first constructions seem to have been on the east side. Alpine Villas, two substantial pairs of semis, uphill from "The Gables", appear to have been built first.

Local belief is that "The Gables" was the first house built in Brent Road. However the first houses occupied were Alpine Villas who were paying local rates in 1870, and appeared in the 1871 Census. "The Gables" first appeared in the rate book in December 1872. By way of comparison, the Rateable Value of each Alpine Villa was £42 and "The Gables" was £62 in 1886. The London Land Company promoted the construction of a high quality neighbourhood by insisting on a minimum build cost of £300, in a property deed covenant, when the plots were sold.

The London Land Company sold the plots on which "The Gables" stood in January 1870 and October 1872 (to Chapman). Chapman owned the house till at least 1886.

Booth's Notebooks give us a valuable insight into social conditions in Victorian times. On 21st May 1900, George Duckworth took walk number 79 in the company of PC Cline. The entry for Brent Road reads thus. “Steep hill running to the south. The social status is middle-class, well to do. Greenery, lilacs and laburnums." The south end of Eglinton Hill is described as having a similar social status. Other local streets are described as "Fairly comfortable, good ordinary earnings". Prosperity seemed to increase towards the top of Shooters Hill, which was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1865.

From 1872 to 1935 "The Gables" appears to have been occupied by people in very comfortable circumstances. In 1935 building consent was obtained and the house seems to have been converted to multiple occupation with its social status considerably reduced.

THE OCCUPANTS, 1872-1935
1872 - 1874 Captain/Lieutenant Montague Frederick Ommanney. Royal Engineers. Designer of the RE Institute Building, Chatham and promoter of railways in Western and Central Africa
1874 -o 1877 Major Ashlon Papillon. Royal Engineers. RE photographer of the Chinese Opium Wars, 1858-8-1860
1878 -1881 Lieut. Col. William D. Forster, Madras Artillery (ret.l 08 1872) Captain (retired list) Royal Artillery. On active service in India during the "Mutiny”
1882 - 1884 Captain Henry W. Penny Tailyour. Royal Engineers. In the FA Cup Final three times in the early 1870s, RE winning side 1875 MD of Guinness Dublin, 1913-1919
1885 - 1887 empty or missing entries.
1888 - 1893 Lieutenant/Captain Ernest A. Gartside-Tippinge Royal Artillery.
1894 - 1895 Captain Arthur J. Breakley Royal Artillery.
1896 - 1899 no entries in Kelly's, empty.
1900 - 1902 The Reverend Henry Richard Sugden MA Curate of St Margaret’s, Plumstead Common. Missionary, Uganda 1893-1899
1903 no entries in Kelly's, empty
1904- 1907 Frank Sumner MICE Borough Engineer, of Woolwich Borough Council. Designed Plumstead Baths, Library and combined Dust Destructor-Electricity Station
1908 Lieutenant Douglas Stewart Royal Horse Artillery.
1909 No entry in Kellys
1910-to 1913 Captain Henry Charles Whinfield regiment not known.
1914- 1916 Lieutenant John McCauland-Dickson Royal Artillery.
1917 - No entries in Kellys, war time.
1920 -1921 Major BMG Butterworth MC Royal Artillery.
1922 - 1923 Major Noel Warren Nappier- Clacering Royal Artillery.
1924 No entries
1925-1935 Major Bernard and Grace Butterworth, Royal Artillery

HOT OFF THE PRESSES

2011-02-21T17:38:00.003Z

Walking across a car park in Lewisham this afternoon I encountered John King, the eminient Lewisham historian. I asked how his new book on Grove Park was going - and he fished a copy out of his armfull for me. Published today!

So John King - Grove Park. Its History Revisited. Published 2011 by Lewisham Local History Society for Grove Park Community Group.

Clearly Grove Park isn't the most industrial area in South East London - it has a hospital with an interesting and varied past - and lots and lots of suburban housing.
There is also an interesting railway history, as well as trams - and some manufacturing. Flicking through I noticed that Gripfix is a Grove Park product. More details to come

Also recently sent to us David Carpenter. Below the Waterline 2010 Bears Hide Publishing

This is a really really good read although the amount in it about Greenwich is fairly tenuous. It follows on from Dave's earlier book "Dockland Apprentice' which described his apprenticeship at the London Graving Dock and devotion to large, locally produced, motorcycles. So, slightly older Dave, having served his time - signs up on the M.V.Rakaia as a junior engineer, and,then, leaves his Mum and Dad in Woolwich - and off to see a whole lot of ocean. This was a path followed by many young men up to the 1950s when the river was the river and the docks were the docks. Highly recommended - and Dave is happy to give discounts to GIHS members - contact me or Steve for details.

ALSO - Owen Hatherley. A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain. 2010 Verso.

This is a really important book about architecture- and which I have been sitting on for some weeks, being very very nervous about reviewing it. Owen lives locally and I think we deserve to give him quite a bit of attention, particularly as a whole chapter is about Greenwich and devleopment/architectural issues. Owen is basically reviewing architectural developments in recent years in a number of British cities - he has developed a theory of something he calls Blairite architecture, and those locals who follows his local blog will be aware of the general drift of his architectural thought. One thing I have found difficult about writing a review of his book is that I really don't feel equipped to comment on the many cities he mentions because I simply don't know them well enough. So - I will come back later to go through what he says about Greenwich and Woolwich - he is very good on the murals - but somewhat undervalues the role of the dreaded Planning Inspectorate. More later.

ALSO MORE LATER - Joan Tucker Ferries of the Lower Thames Amberley Publishing 2010

This book has so much in it about the ferries of Greenwich and Woolwich that I have also been a bit nervous about reviewing it. There is just so much there. The research is stunning -and I am concerned that I only found about this very very interesting work when it came up by chance on Amazon - I have never seen a review or any publicity. More detail to come.

AND FINALLY - Andreas Schalch First Master Founder of the Royal Brass Foundry, Woolwich. by Pat and Tony Fawcett. with Woolwich District Antiquarian Society.

This is what it says - a booklet about the early work of the Royal Brass Foundry - with lots of pictures. Again more detail to come.

Woolwich Combined Dust Destructor and Electric Generator - Part 3

2011-02-17T07:01:00.002Z

Brief History of the Dust Destructor/Electricity Generator at White Hart Road, Plumstead
By Dave Ramsay

Part 3.

Continuing with extracts from the Local Authority Minutes

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 9 January 1902
Various tenders for electrical plant were accepted. A much cheaper estimate for instruments, from Everett & Edgecoombe had been scrutinised for quality, and found to be very satisfactory. However, a Potentiometer was substituted to improve the quality of one item.

General Purposes, Woolwich Borough Council, 23 June 1902
The Tender for Nixon's Best Navigation Steam Coal, @ £1 2s 6dper ton, be accepted, for Woolwich baths and the Electricity Department. Enquiries -were to be made of the tenderers as to the kind of coal and pit of origin.
Because of allegations made by Cllr. W. Turner, it was recommended that Ald. Turton and Cllr. Butter should examine the quality of coal stock at Woolwich Baths, and future deliveries.
In accordance with the Council's decision of 12 06 1902, the Borough Engineer (BE) Frank Sumner, submitted revised plans for Baths and Washhouses in Plumstead, at an estimated cost not exceeding £35,000.
On the recommendation of the Library Committee, it was recommended that the BE's revised plans, (Scheme A amended) for the proposed Public Library in Plumstead High Street, be accepted.

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 24 June 1902
The BE recommends, and it was accepted, that costs for the building work be apportioned, 2/3 to the Electricity Station, 1/3 to the Dust Destructor, until actual costs were known.

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 6 February 1903
The Town Clerk reported that he had completed purchase of the Woolwich Company's Electricity Undertaking on 02 02 1903 for £95,180. Application had been made to the Board of Trade for commencement of the Woolwich Order.

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council. 7 May 1903
That the Committee interviewed the manager of the Station Engineer of the Plumstead Electricity Works, regarding allegations that he abused applicants for employment. The Committee found his explanation entirely rebuts the charge.
The Committee considered return information from local authorities operating combined Electricity Station / Destructor Works, with a view to determining rates of pay for Stokers. It was difficult to make direct comparisons since all used the "over feed" method to load rubbish whereby rubbish is tipped direct from the cart into the furnace. Plumstead was going to hand feed the furnaces for more efficient results. This was more laborious work and it was recommended that a 1/2d per hour more than the average should be paid. Therefore the rates would be:

Leading stoker 8 1/2d per hour
Ordinary Stoker 8d. per hour
Clinker wheelers 7 1/2d per hour

And that eight hours should constitute one working shift so far as may be found practicable in the running of the station

The new Labour member the Reverend I. Jenkins Jones proposed that this should read that eight hours should constitute one working shift and that all work over eight hours should constitute overtime. This proposal was agreed.

Electricity Committee Woolwich Borough Council 28 May 1903

A letter was read from HM Inspector of Factories (HMEIF). He found safety arrangements at the new Plumstead Station deficient in a number of respects. The committee resolved that the HMEIF recommendations be carried out as expeditiously as possible.

Electricity Committee Woolwich Borough Council 10 September 1903
The Town Clerk reported that its “Power for Assisted Wiring Act” had received Royal Assent on 11 the August 1903. Section Two of this act gave the Council power to sell electricity to neighbouring Footscray Ccouncil. Section Three gave it powers to install and repair electric installations and levy charges for this. Defaulters could be taken to the Police Court

Clearly the promotion of an Act of Parliament by Woolwich was a source of great civic pride.

The BE reported site values at White Hart Road as follows

Disinfector station - 278 Square yards £14.7s. 2d
Brick and flag making plant - 512 Square yards £26 8s 11d
Destructor station - 3,272 Square yards £169 0s 2d.
Highways - 2,368 Square yards £122 6S 4d

Electricity Committee , Woolwich Borough Council 18th November 1903
The BE reported that considerable savings could be made to the cost of producing bricks at the combined works, by converting the window at the eastern end of the hardening chambers into a doorway. This would facilitate bogeys packed with bricks being taken directly to the stacking ground, saving handling and cartage. It would also obviate the necessity of taking off the western heads of the hardening chambers, which is a lengthy operation, involving the breaking of joints on each occasion. The Committee resolved to carry out the alterations, at a cost of £20.
The BE reported on ongoing negotiations with SE Railway Co. (SERC), respecting the proposed siding for the combined station. The Railway Co. wanted the Council to reduce the cost of a necessary strip of land on the west side of White Hart Road and a 15-fcot strip alongside the railway. A modified offer would need to be made to SERC if progress was to be made. The Committee so resolved.

Various WBC Meetings at which sick pay was discussed

Sick pay appears to have been paid to members of staff on the advice of officers, but at the discretion of the councillors. In particular it seems to relate to accidents at work although not exclusively. The following are examples of payments granted after sickness had ended

date on - 5th November 1903 date off 16th November 1903 - for 15 days - Ricked shoulder Alfred Gosling, Stoker - Full pay

date off 26th July 1904 - Burns to foot - R. Weeks, Trimmer - Half pay

date off 14 July 1904 - Injured hand - E. Brennan, Labourer - Half pay

date off 8th March 1904 - 9 days off - F.Adley, Stoker - Full pay

date off 8th March 1904 - 8 days off - F.Richards, Stoker - Full pay

date off 16th February 1904 - T. Reeves, Trimmer - Full pay

date off 16th February 1904 - J.Lill, Stoker - Full pay

date off 16th February 1904 - A. Williams, Labourer - Full pay

date off 20th September 1904 - Poisoned thumb - G. Munsey, Cleaner - Full pay

Woolwich's 19th century CHP - The Council decides

2011-02-10T13:27:00.004Z

Brief history of the combined Dust Destructor / Electric Light Generating Plant. White Hart Road, Plumstead Marshes
By Dave Ramsay

Part 2 – further extracts from the minutes of Plumstead Vestry and Woolwich Borough Council about the White Hart Road Project

Lighting Committee. Plumstead Vestry, 1O May 1900

The purchase of three 300 1HP boilers would be required, but these would need to be modified if the Committee went ahead with proposals for a Dust Destructor to work in tandem with conventional generating plant. A set of 192 pipe "Economisers” were to be provided also.
A visit to St Helens and Darwin, of Members, Surveyor and Electrical Engineer, was proposed to view the operation of Dust Destructors worked jointly with Electricity Stations. The estimated cost of installing an electric street lighting scheme, including street cabling and lights (£l 6,250), but excluding buildings (£17,294), was £40,432.

Lighting Committee, Plumstead Vestry, 31 May 1900

To receive a report of the Electrical Installations Visits Committee.
Frank Sumner the Surveyor, and John B. Mitchell, the Electrical Engineer ' accompanied the Committee. The Deputation took the 1200 train from Euston to Liverpool on 25th May 1900.

Reports
1. Liverpool, St. Domingo Road, Station. This plant burnt only refuse to generate electricity, and had 4 boilers and 8 cells. The plant burnt 100 tons of rubbish per day; the steam generated was 1 Ib. per 1 Ib. of refuse. The low efficiency rate was attributed to the amount of waste gases not used in the flue, and the lack of sufficient heating surface in the boiler. The station was to power tramways and street lighting
2. Liverpool, Smithdown Park Station. This unit is similar to the other with 8 cells. The throughput is 80 tons per day; the steam generated was 1 lb. per 1 lb. of refuse. The reason for the poor performance was similar to above, but their engineer felt that more electricity could be generated if there was more boiler power. Service costs were £50 pa.

3. St Helens, Cropper Hill Station. This unit was a Dust Destructor run in tandem with a dedicated Electricity Works. This plant had been the subject of a learned lecture, by Sir William Preece, and had the most advanced aids to efficiency: Tower Water Coolers, Economisers, Condensers &c. The Dust Destructor apparatus was built by Meldrum Bros. The throughput is 30 tons per day; the steam generated was 1 1/2 lb. per 1 lb. of refuse. It was felt that this rate could not be sustained because of the labour requirements, and because of the increased rate of depreciation it would cause. 9 1/2 tons had to be burnt at night to maintain throughput, but this had to be put in batteries because of low demand.
There was no problem associated with tandem working. The Destructor portion is quite distinct from the Engine and Dynamo Rooms, and no inconvenience was caused by the dust. The labour costs per ton were not known at the visit, so Frank Sumner, the Surveyor, added a footnote to the agenda, saying that he had found out that the costs was 1s 1 ¾ d. per ton.
The Electrical Engineer observed that efficiency could be significantly improved by providing extra boilers so that valuable heat wasted in the flues could be captured. He also strongly urged the deputation to obtain the tram traction loadings for St Helens Trams. This being of the utmost importance because of the emerging LCC tram network that would also require power.
4. Darwen Station. This unit was fuelled solely with refuse, and serves only street lighting, not trams. The refuse was received at a high level, in an enclosed shed, so that there was no paper and rubbish flying about. The rubbish goes down enclosed shoots to the floor below, where it is loaded by labourers into the furnace. This produced steam generated of 1 2/3/4 lb. per 1 lb. of refuse burnt. This was said to be a little more costly at 1s 1d to 1s 2d per ton, but allowed the most efficient generation of heat, at 200 lbs. per square inch.
The Engine Room was attractive with, walls lined in Opalite, window dressings and the arches inside were of Leeds faience, the floor being mosaic. The important point for the Deputation was, that without any other fuel than refuse, it was doing all that the Plumstead Engineer's scheme expected to do for the first 12 months, but without the use of a single ounce of coal.
The Darwen Station processed 32.5 tons of refuse a day, and at efficiency of 1.5 lbs. f steam per 1 lb. of rubbish, the generating capacity of electricity exceeded demand, and steam was being wasted

The deputation was then treated to an excellent high tea in the town Hall.

At the meeting of the 31st May, thanks were given to Mr. Sumner for his careful planning of the tour that enabled so much to be seen in such a short time.

The Committee recommended that the Dust Destructor be erected in conjunction with the Electricity Works.

Lighting Committee, Plumstead Vestry, 28 June 1900

It was recommended that "The type of boilers for the Electric Light Station were to be the same as those adopted for the Dust Destructor".
It was recommended that the National Boiler and General Insurance Company, (NBIC) be engaged to check the boilers and ancillaries came up to specifications.
It was recommended that six companies be invited to tender for the construction of the Refuse Destructor, to the Surveyor Frank Sumner's design and specification, and the boilers to the Engineer's (& NBIC) specification.
It was recommended that application be made to the LCC for sanction of a preliminary loan £20,000 , for the Electric Light Station and Dust Destructor, on the annuity system, spread over as long a period as possible.
It was recommended that apartments be constructed over the offices of the Electrical Engineer's Office, for a caretaker or foreman.

Lighting Committee, Plumstead Vestry, 19 July 1900
It was recommended that the Electrical Engineer's specifications for Boiler House Plant; Engine-House Plant; Street Work, be printed, and that invitations to tender be placed in, "Engineer"; "Engineering"; "Electrical Review"; and "Lighting".

Lighting Committee. Plumstead Vestry, 6 September 1900
Many companies submitting tenders had problems with the "Schedule of hours of labour and rates of wages" contained in the invitation to tender. The schedule specified hourly rates, and many companies wanted to pay workers by piecework rates. The Vestry would not vary its Conditions of Tender.
The Committee was considering the question of acquiring the site for a wharf on the River Bank. They wrote to the Under-Secretary of State for War, because of his interest in the Woolwich Arsenal land between the two sites. A plan was attached showing the proposals for a tramway connecting these sites across War Department land.

Lighting Committee, Plumstead Vestry. 8 October 1900
That the tender of Babcock & Wilcox Ltd., be accepted.
1 Water Tube Boiler 300LH.P. for the electricity works, @ £675
3 Sets of Boiler Fittings and Mountings for Refuse Destructor Boilers @ £145 each
1 Set of Boiler Fittings and Mountings for Electricity Boiler @ £145
1 Economiser @ £435

Lighting Committee, Plumstead Vestry. 12 October 1900

It was recommended that the tender of Wheeler Condenser Company, be accepted.
Horizontal Surface Condenser with 9 inch centrifugal pump and Cooling Tower
(Barnard Steel Tower with forced draught) @ 2,313

Lighting Committee Plumstead Vestry 20 October 1900

Recommended that the tenders for the following plant and equipment be accepted:
Steam and other piping, auxiliary tanks, steam traps, and oil separators @ £3109
Heater detartiser and well pumps, Wm Boby, @£1300
Feed pumps, Worthington Pumping Engine Company, @ £440
Steam Dynamos (2 @ 300 IHP; 2 @ 150 IHP; 1 @ 100 IHP), booster etc @ £8800
Switch board, connections, etc @£1237
Storage batteries @ £863
Plate Girder Travelling Crane, Carrick & Richards, @ £640
Underground mains supply (streets) and installation, Callender Cable, @ £13,078
100 Meters, Shattners of Norwich, @ £317
Containing boxes, demand indicators (100), etc @ £597
Arc lamps and posts, Johnson & Phillips, @ £2100
October's Total £36,816

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 15 November 1900
It was reported that the Dust Destructor / Electricity Station was a project in an advanced stage of development, for which the London County Council, (LCC) had agreed loans.

Electricity Committee. Woolwich Borough. 6 December 1900
Part "A" The Borough Accountant reported on particulars of LCC Electric Lighting Loans:
The present practice of the London County Council is to sanction Loans and make advances for Plant, Machinery and Buildings for the generating and supply of electric light and energy for a period of 42 years, repayable on either the Annuity System or the Installment System.
For land, buildings, culverts, bare copper mains, and royalty licenses, they can advance loans for 50 years on the Installment System and for boilers and all other purposes for 20 years.
No loans for renewals are allowed under the 42 years' system of repayment whatever, either Annuity or Installment, but they have been granted for renewals if the amount is take up on the 50 years' or 20 years' basis.
The Dust Destructor portion of the Loan must be repaid in the ordinary way within the lift of the work, as certified by the London County Council's Engineer, and the equated periods of 42 years and 50 and 20 years do not apply, nor is any deferred payment of principal allowed.
The Committee directed that enquiries be made of three quantity surveyors, for their terms for taking out the quantities of the Dust Destructor / Electricity station and reporting back prior to the next Council meeting.
Part "B" The acceptance of the tender by Wm. Body for the Heater Detartiser and Well Pumps assumed acceptance of "rates of pay and Hours ". A revised estimate was received increasing this by £100, to £1,356 to include these matters. This was still the cheapest quote and was accepted.
A similar problem arose with the "labour conditions" element of the tender for the Steam Dynamos, Booster etc. British Westinghouse accepted the conditions, but the sub-contractor for the engine, Willans, would not on principle. Their engine was judged to be the best. Therefore they were allowed to accept similar clauses as those used by the Battersea Vestry.
Similarly James White would only accept the "labour conditions” for work carried out at Plumstead. They were the only manufacturers of the required "switchboard, connections etc” and the condition was waived for that work done in Scotland. Johnson & Phillips tender for Arc Lamps and Posts at £845 was accepted. However, once accepted realised that the original Vestry tender document contained "labour conditions" and asked to increase their tender price by £300. This proposal was not entertained.
In all 17 items of expenditure for plant in the Dust destructor / Electricity Station, totalling £20,000 were accepted, 15 of which fully embodied the "labour conditions".

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 2 May 1901

The Council made an offer of £80,000 for the Woolwich Electric Supply Co., so that supply would be under public control.

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 17 May 1901

Letters had been received from the following:
29 04 1901 Board of Trade. Additional regulations for ensuring the proper and sufficient supply of electrical energy.
02 05 1901 Local Government Board. Approval of site for Electricity works.
6 & 1005 1901 London County Council. Loan for free wiring purposes.
11 & 14 05 1901 Woolwich & District Lighting Co. Directors will recommend shareholders to accept the Council's offer for the undertaking.

The Borough Electrical Engineer (BE) reported various satisfactory tests on newly installed plant. The Borough Engineer reported alterations to the chimneystack that would save between £600 & £700. Smith & Sons, contractor for the buildings, asked to increase their tender price by £200 because they had forgotten to allow for Portland Stone, the BE refused this, The BE has engaged Mr. W.Martin as Clerk of Works for £4.10s a week.

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 6 June 1901

Mr. W. Martin was appointed Clerk of Works, for the combined Dust Destructor / Electricity Station.

Electricity Committee, Woolwich Borough Council, 13 June 1901

The "trial bore "for the plant's well. This was sunk to a depth of 49 foot 6 inches.
feet inches core sample of strata
1 3 top spit
4 6 brown clay
3 6 peat
0 3 silty sands
3 9 grey ballast
3 3 sand and ballast
2 10 rich ballast
2 6 sharp sand
9 6 grey sand
The report concluded that if the well depth was limited to 45 feet, then the water would not have penetrated the chalk strata, and the water would be much less hard, and would cause less scaling of the boilers and pipes.
When the water from the actual well was tested late in 1903, the water was found to be hard and this caused much distress, because of the need for remedial measures.
A sub-committee was appointed to deal with deviation of contract price.

Electricity Committee (special), Woolwich Borough Council. 19 December 1901

To consider a BE report on the need to anticipate substantial increases in future demand. It was stated that the engine room would need to be extended eastwards within three years. A temporary stop end would cost £266. To build the proposed extension now in advance of need would cost £1,350. There would be an overall saving of £467 by building as part of the present contract. The Committee agreed to the proposal to build in advance of need in anticipation of future demand.

Working Lives of the Thames Gateway

2011-02-08T06:50:00.006Z

Eastside - the east London industrial history project - have published a book to accompany a series of exhibitions and their move to Barking.
It sets out to be a portrait of the industrial world of east London - basically through the oral testimonies of people describing their workplaces.

So - what has it got to say about Greenwich industries - the chapter on 'Energy' begins with a fine picture of "Greenwich Gasworks in the 1960s". Eastside did a lot of work on East Greenwich Gasworks - I remember attending sessions with their staff and some old gas workers. The book presents East Greenwich along with reminisences of Beckton Gas Works (what next!!! these two terrible rivals described together on a page!!) and also includes Barking Power Station (!! 'electricity' another thing best not mentioned in gas works - all united in their deaths).

Another Greenwich industry mentioned - bizarrely under 'Transport' - is British Ropes, based in Charlton. However the longest account of life in that firm is about its closure and the winding up of the sports club.

There are a couple of entries for Siemens, and a mention of the Arsenal - with an interview with GIHS's Ray Fordham very prominent.

Inevitably each submission is a tiny snap shot of one person's impressions of their workplace - in itself a small part of very, very large whole. And it is a pity that the vastness of east London industry is really barely touched - although something is always better than nothing (and nothing is what we usually get - since most people don't believe there was any industry in London at all)

The book touches on many, many industries from north of the river - and also covers works in Erith and Slade Green. This is the Thames Gateway so there is nothing from Southwark or Tower Hamlets- or indeed the vast industries of the Lea Valley. It also gives little sense of scale since the Arsenal gets a couple of entries, less than some fairly small food factories.

Still, mustn't grumble. They have done their best - and we may end up with this being the only record of some very very major industries.

Working Lives of the Thames Gateway. Eastside Community Heritage and Partners. £9.99 http://www.hidden-histories.org.uk/

White Hart Road - Woolwich Council's late 19th century CHP

2011-02-06T20:39:00.007Z

Brief history of the combined Dust Destructor / Electric Light Generating Plant.
White Hart Road, Plumstead Marshes
by Dave Ramsay

This is the first part of an account of Woolwich's first CHP system in the late 19th century. Dave Ramsay has spent many years resarching this and Woolwich's engineer and architect, Frank Sumner.
The White Hart depot was used for many years by the Council as a store and is now part of a trading estate. See it from the train between Plumstead and Abbey Wood stations - Greenwich's most obscure listed building.

Background

The Woolwich and Plumstead areas had a history of radical thinking, self help and questioning officialdom. The Woolwich Building Society was founded in 1847; the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) was founded in 1868; and the Woolwich Polytechnic in 1890. It was against this background that a period of imaginative municipal construction and acquisition took place in the area, during the early 1900s.

Attempts by Queen's College, Oxford, in 1871, to enclose Plumstead Common, extinguish free access and grazing rights, led to the establishment of the "Commons Protection League". In 1876 fences on the Common were torn down in what was described as the "Plumstead Common Riots", and the leader was imprisoned. The resolve and support of the populace was strengthened by this and after further unrest a face saving device had to be found to release him. An Act of Parliament in 1877 authorised the purchase of Plumstead Common, Bostall Heath, and Shoulder Mutton Green, by the Metropolitan Board of Works, (2)"Discover Woolwich", D.Spurgeon).

Workers from the Royal Arsenal fed up with high prices and adulterated food set up their own buyer's co-operative in 1868, operating at first from members houses in Plumstead, and then as the RACS from 147 Powis Street. The ethic of members self help, produced a thriving network of shops and some food production units in the area by 1900. The RACS had a broader ethical remit and provided education and libraries for members. From 1900 onwards the RACS built hundreds of fine terraced houses, some of which were rented out to members and some sold on 99 year leases.

There was therefore a solid record of local achievement for radical thinkers. The issue of an eight hour day for Arsenal Workers occupied trade union activity. However, in the election for Woolwich Council in November 1900, of the 36 councillors, just 11 members of the Woolwich and Plumstead Progressive Association represented radical thinking on the Council. The area was thought to be a bastion of support for the Conservative Party, (1) "The Woolwich Labour Party, 1903-1953".

These were formative years for the Labour Representation Committee. In July 1901 its candidate defeated the sitting Conservative MP in a by election for the Borough Council's, St. Mary's Ward. In another Council by election in the following year, the Rev. Jenkins Jones won St. Margaret’s Ward for Labour. In a Parliamentary by election in March 1903, Will Crooks became the Labour MP for Woolwich. He was the fourth Labour M.P.to be elected. In November 1903 Labour won a majority on Woolwich Borough Council, which it held to 1906.

During this period the vexed issue of a public baths for Plumstead was settled when Labour decided to build the Baths. During this period also Labour built the first council houses, in North Woolwich. The rise of a reforming Labour Party reflected the needs of urban people who wanted progress in their lives. The minimum wage of 30 shillings a week set by the Council in these years was followed by a similar increase in Arsenal Labourers' wages. The provision of decent public amenity for all had long been popular. Any successful local politician would have had to reflect this when forming electoral policy.

The Events

Local Government in the Metropolis was to be reorganised. Eltham Plumstead and Woolwich were to be amalgamated into the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. Civic pride would have dictated that Plumstead Vestry would have wanted to hand over an administration with good civic amenity. Vigorous but prudent pursuit of the interests of Plumstead people would not harm the electoral chances of the scheme's promoters

The logistical problems of disposing of urban waste were difficult and getting worse, as urban building continued apace. Gas street lighting was expensive to run and out of the control of the Vestry, as the gas had to be bought off of the Gas Company. Civic building required bricks and paviors particularly for highway work. It was in this context that Plumstead Vestry investigated the possibilities of building its own power station to supply electricity.

Visits were organised to electricity stations in Leyton, Shoreditch, St Pancras and Brighton. The station at Brighton was thought to be most valuable, particularly in terms of charging mechanisms. It was decided to proceed with a station at Plumstead.

It was felt that the most important action to be taken was the appointment of really able, professional staff. It was decided to appoint an Engineer-Surveyor and an Electrical Engineer. These staff could advise on issues of best practice from around the country. The Committee wanted to investigate the benefits of building a combined refuse destructor and electricity station. In this way, Professor Robson recommended that the waste heat from the burning of rubbish could be used to supplement that produced by the coal burning electricity station. Frank Sumner was appointed Engineer-Surveyor and Arthur Wright Surveyor-Electrical Engineer.

In May 1900 the Committee looked at Frank Sumner's draft plans. Technical details were discussed, as was the need to cater for future expansion in demand. In order to pursue the "combined station” concept visits were to be arranged to inspect working examples of these plants.

In late May of that year four such stations were visited, two at Liverpool, one at St Helens, and one at Darwen. The Committee thanked Mr. Sumner for his careful planning of the visit. The main conclusion was that the combined station was a good idea, as they wanted to maximise the energy capture. To this end it was decided to load the refuse boiler manually, rather than the cheaper top loading by tipping. This method was more labour intensive and slightly more costly, but gave much better rates of burn efficiency. All of the boilers were to be of a compatible type.

Once the plans had been adopted, specifications were to be printed so that the tendering process could begin. It is interesting that Plumstead Vestry Rules insisted that a "schedule of hours of labour and rates of wages" should be included in all tender documents. Plumstead appears to have been an authority prominent improving working conditions prior to the formation of the Labour Party. It could be in that the Labour Party developed so rapidly in Woolwich and Plumstead because its ideals struck a chord with an established radical tradition that was seeking a vehicle to move forwards.

The new Woolwich Borough Council moved diligently to give effect to the plans it inherited from Plumstead. To ensure the public control of electricity supply in the Borough, Woolwich Borough offered £80,000 for the outright purchase of the Woolwich Electric Company. This fell within its powers that were recently given to local government. An application for a preliminary "Electric Lighting Loan" of £20,000 was made by the Vestry to the London County Council. Their sense of urgency of committing the Authority contractually to the scheme, prior to its absorption into the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich some two months later.

The sense of civic and professional pride in the project is communicated from the Committee minutes. The tenders for boilers and water cooling tower equipment were accepted just days before Plumstead Vestry ceased to exist as an authority.

Woolwich Borough Council did accept the scheme and it was pursued with similar vigour. Tenders were accepted very often on the basis of engineering excellence, rather than lowest bid. The "Labour Condition" clauses were adhered to save for the generators, where the unique engineering qualities of this Glasgow product received ascendance. Local companies like Johnson & Phillips, were prominent in the list of successful tenderers. The plant and street cabling made up about £40,000 of the £60,000 cost of the overall cost of the project. Council Officers arid Councillors checked the progress of the construction and installation of the Station.

Plans for a tramway giving direct access for coal from a Thameside Wharf via a tramway to the power station, had to be objections from the MOD, the intermediate land owner. It was decided to source boiler water supply by sinking a well. The depth was surveyed carefully to ensure that "soft" water could be obtained at 45 feet. Sadly in the years between the 1900 survey and opening in 1903 circumstances seem to have altered so that the water obtained was found to be "hard" which shortened the life of the boilers. It may well be that at that time many people sunk similar wells and this reduced the level of the water table in London.

During the three year building period the flexible design had to be extended to cope with increases in demand for electricity. The Co-op and Footscray UDC wanted to buy electricity. Rates of pay for employees were fixed at 1/2 pence above the average at 8 pence for stokers. The two Labour members were able to insist that all hours worked over eight hours would be paid as overtime. There must have already been a radical element on Woolwich Council since Labour did not have a majority until the October 1903 election, by which time the Plumstead Combined Station was due to open.

Notes from Council Minutes

Electric Supply Committee. Plumstead Vestry, Saturday 14 January 1899
Reports were given on previous Committee visits to installations at Leyton; Shoreditch; St. Pancras; and Brighton, in late 1898. The purpose was to establish the kind of installation most suitable to Plumstead. The Brighton operation was thought to be the best.
Electricity was cheaper than gas, its Id against 15s 9d, for street lighting. The Committee was mindful of the advice of Prof. Robinson that steam produced from burning the rubbish, could be used to supplement that produced in the dedicated boilers of the electric generation plant. The Committee was mindful to establish a joint dust destructor/electric generator.

Electric Supply Committee, Plumstead Vestry, 10 May 1899
Frank Sumner, AMICE, was chosen from six candidates as Engineer-Surveyor to the Vestry.
Electric Supply Committee, Plumstead Vestry. 12 May 1899
Arthur Wright was appointed as consultant Surveyor and Electrical Engineer to the Vestry, for a salary of £600 pa, on a five-year contract.

Electric Supply Committee, Plumstead Vestry, 8 March 1900
The Surveyor-Engineer & the Electrical Engineer were given joint powers to appoint an assistant
Lighting Committee. Plumstead Vestry, 10 May 1900
In connection with the Electric Light Provisional Order obtained by the Vestry, the Committee considered the Electrical Engineer's report. The only alteration to the report was to increase the generating capacity of the plant, so that more electricity could be produced, to meet future demand. It was felt that this would eventually prove to be the most economical course.
The Committee required that the plant be "readily adaptable to future extensions". The designs prepared by Frank Sumner, the Surveyor and Engineer had to reflect this. The Surveyor also recommended that the walls of the engine room be faced with white glazed bricks, to eliminate the need for periodic lime washing of the walls. This would be safer for the operatives and the machinery

More to come

Woolwich Antiquarians -The Ferry and more

2011-02-06T06:32:00.002Z

The Woolwich Antiquarians current newsletter has a report of the talk by Andy Griffiths on the Woolwich Free Ferry starting with -

1308 William de Wicton sold the ferry and house for £10
(was this a free ferry - must say I have my doubts!)

1850 first talk of a free ferry - at the time it was just a horse raft
1880 Woolwich Parish had a public meeting- but couldn't afford a ferry - so applied to the Metropolitan Board of Works pointing out that west Londoners could cross the river for nothing
(what's new?)
1885 an enabling act of Parliament
1887 Mowlem appointed to build the terminals and pontoons
1889 the ferry was opened by Lord Rosebery - three days after the inception of the London County Council. The first boat was Gordon, then Duncan and then Hutton. They were side wheel paddle steam boats.
1922 - there were new ferries - Squires, Gordon and in 1930 Will Crooks and John Benn. Everyone loved them.
In the Second World War they did lots of evacuation work from bomb sites, particularly from Silvertown.
1963 the present boats came into service. James Newman, Ernest Bevin and John Burns.
1966 new terminals were built.
The ferry can take bigger and heavier lorries than the Blackwall Tunnel and HGVs are 11% of its users. Most cars use it on weekends. All users are logged. The morning peak is northbound and south bound in the evening. They were designed to take 500 passengers, but are licenced for 350 - usually it is 25. In July they do a charity run for disadvantaged children.
There are five crews each with seven members - and also staff at the terminals.
Maintenance is a problem as the vehicles are getting quite old. John Burns is now waiting for a small spare part which is no longer made. There are no longer any dry docks on the Thames which can take them and they have to go to Hull for major repairs. They do have their own maintenance department - one ferry has recently had its decking replaced there.

The newsletter also has a long write up of a seminar on the Localism Bill

There is also a copy of an obituary to Jeremy Cotton - our local wildlife expert who died over Christmas. Jeremy was also a member of GIHS. The obituary is one which appeared on a sister blog www.marymarysdiary.com

GLIAS Newsletter and Greenwich

2011-02-03T13:21:00.002Z

The February GLIAS Newsletter has quite a few mentions of Greenwich in it:

- converted water towers - Darrell Spurgeon has written to note the water tower at the Hollies in Sidcup - not in Greenwich actually, but near enough. He points out that it was designed by local architect Thomas Dinwiddy and been converted for housing. Ron Bingham has added in a bit about the Brook Hospital tower and that it is now occupied.

Bob Carr has noted that at DLR Cutty Sark station is the top half of the cutting head of the tunnel boring machine on display and also said a few things about the rebuilding of the Cutty Sark itself.
He goes on to note system built flats at Morris Walk Estate - readers might remember we had a speaker on this at GIHS last year - but Bob gives many details.

Bob also reviews a new book by David Carpenter 'Below the Waterline'. David came from Plumstead and describes his life as a marine engineer.

The following talks with an interest to Greenwich industry are also advertised:

A day in the life of a Thames Tug by Richard Thomas - at Cuffley Industrial Heritage Society, 7.30 8th February Northaw Village Hall, 5 Northaw Road West, EN6 4NW

The Tragic loss of HMS Albion - film at NFT3 - 11-4 19th February needs to be booked via their box office

Thames Fishing Fleets 1780s-1820s at Barking and Greenwich by Hugh Lyon. at Docklands History Group 5.30 2nd March Museum in Docklands, Hertsmere Road, E14

Evening Walk round Blackheath by Richard Buchanan on 14th June. No details as yet.

Greenwich Peninsula by Mary Mills Docklands History Group 5.30 3rd August Museum in Docklands, Hertsmere Road, E14

Naval Dockyards Newsletter

2011-01-27T11:42:00.004Z

In the post - the newsletter of the Naval Dockyards Society which covers dockyard history world wide - and this issue covers Naval Heritage in the United Arab Emirates and Hellevoitsluis as well as more local sites, like Plymouth.

This issue includes a page of planning issues at Deptford Dockyard and quotes submissions to Lewisham Planning Committee last November. The Naval Dockyards Society want - to ensure that existing ground structures like the Olympia warehouse and entrance gates are retained - below ground structrures are recorded and preserved- that those dockyard features that remain serve as a constant reminder of the maritime roots of the site and the locality - restoring to use the Olympia water basin with Thames access and the great Tudor double dock.

(Although we are so close to Deptford we hear very little about progress on this incredibly important site - something also complained about by Lewisham Local History Society - what is going on, London Borough of Lewisham?? Please let us know?? GIHS has a speaker on the archaeology - Duncan Hawkins on 10th May - but we need to know what is happening NOW as well)

Back to the Naval Dockyards Society

Among the book reviews is a note about Janet Macdonald's 'British Navy's Victualling Board' (Baydell and Brewer 2010). Members may remember Janet's wonderful - and mouth watering - account of what Nelson's sailors actually ate and the truth about the weevils. Please read her book.

The Society always comes to Greenwich for their AGM and this year it is accompanied by a conference on 'Dockyards in art, literature and film'. details of this and other events www.navaldockyards.org

Victorian Wood Wharf

2011-01-21T19:19:00.003Z

We have been quite excited to see a copy of this new book - Victorian Wood Wharf and Greenwich Riverside 1820-2010.

But - before we get any further - we have no information whatsoever on where to get it, or how much it is, and it doesn't have an ISBN It has been produced by the authors Ronald A.Richards & Derek J.Bayliss. Both of them spent working lives in businesses on that stretch of the Greenwich riverside and historical information is interspersed with their own memories and stories.

The book gives a great deal of detail on several, otherwise forgotten, riverside industries:

for example: Coneybeare Ltd. Marine Engineers and Boilermakers, Orient Lighterage Ltd., Baker barge breakers, Wood & Co. forage makers, Anglo Swedish Welding ... and most of all Pope and Bond.

They go into the historic detail of famous firms like Rennie on Dreadnought Wharf and the less famous gas works at Phoenix Wharf, and go on to General Steam and the Royal Daff.

it also gives details of the pubs -The Sun, The Retreat, The Rose and Crown, The Loyal Briton

the cottages and who lived there .............the council estate ... the barge races .............the recording and rehearsal studios............... the artists

People should know about this little book - the area it covers is full of new residents who will know nothing of what was until very recently a busy working area -which has just grown up informally and was full of interest. In fact its a great little book and don't let it sink without trace.

ugh oh late info
The Wood Wharf
Sale price £5 per copy
108 pages Size A5 Colour
Leighton Darwin Press

Royal Arsenal Book

2011-01-21T16:13:00.003Z

The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich in Old Photographs (Britain in Old Photographs)
by Roy Masters
This was published by Suttons in 1995 but following their demise has not been available. It has been re-printed locally and is available at £9,99 ( £10 ) Plus Postage lowest £2

(there is only one copy available on Amazon and that is £19)

details raymond.fordham@btinternet.com

More bits and pieces from other societies

2011-01-19T09:13:00.003Z

Lots of stuff in the post (must be the New Year!)

Woolwich and District Antiquarians

Their newsletter does give an account of a dig on the Woolwich Power Station site. They did find a 'spectacular iron age fort' - but - sadly for us - no mention of the later industrial uses.

They are advertising meetings:
29th January - Woolwich Free Ferry by Andy Griffiths of TfL
19th February The London Underground by David Brown
26th March - AGM followed by a talk on Georgian London by Ian Bevan
all at Charlton House 2.00

Lewisham Local History Society
Their newsletter is all about New Cross Speedway (well,lots of Greenwich people must have gone to it!). .... and ... er Dr.Crippen

They are advertising meetings:
28th January - George Barnes,Pioneer aviator - by David Snow (new biography is now out). at the Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way 7.45
18th February - Grove Park History Revisited by John King. at Burnt Ash Methodist Church, Burnt Ash Hill. 7.45
25th March - My personal journey through the history of Lewisham - by Heidi Alexander at Civic Suite, Lewisham Town Hall. 7.45

so what else has turned up:

Industrial Archaeology News - this is the newsletter of the national Association for Industrial Archaeology. As ever it is too busy with Cornwall, Somerset and everywhere north to notice London - let alone Greenwich!
However a short article by Bob Carr does mention Robin - the restored steam coaster, she was in the West India Dock until two years ago when she went to Ipswich for considerable renovation work and is now in Tilbury Dock awaiting a permanent home. Fingers crossed we might just get her in Greenwich at the new coaling jetty project.

Industrial Heritage - produced in Settle this is a great little magazine - but it rarely mentions London, or Greenwich. well, better luck next time!
(available from Hudson History, Procter House, Kirkgate, Settle hudsonhistory@totalise. co.uk)

-and - more locally - Woodlands Farm Newsletter - as I have said in the past, our local farm does do real work. This time they are talking about their beehives. support them all you can at Woodlands Farm Trust www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org.
They now have a cafe ope at weekends.

some dates and things from Greenwich Historical society

2011-01-19T09:03:00.003Z

First of all GREENWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
- have sent details of their meeting on Wednesday 26th of January 2011
This is 'Making a Map' by RICH SYLVESTER

By way of publicity they say 'Rich is a a professional storyteller, who has recently completed an MA in Public History at Ruskin College. The East Greenwich History Map grew over the past nine years from his local history walks around the Peninsula, as an attempt to share an understanding of the rich and varied history that exists outside of "Historic Greenwich". Funded by the Heritage Lottery the 2,000 copies were published last year. It's timeline and illustrated text features themes of People, Leisure, Industry, Buildings, Transport, Ships, War, Art and Memorials and Wildlife. Luke Eastop the designer will also speak.

(and we are twisting Rich's arm to come and give the same talk to GIHS)

Also: Greenwich Historical Society advertise their AGM on 23rd March.
their future meetings include:
23rd February Murder most Horris. 1818 nasty murder by Danny Stephens
23rd March - the delights of the Cattermole Panorama by Anthony Cross
27th April - Stuart Watson talking whales on and in the Thames.

Their meetings are at 7.30 at Blackheath High School Vanburgh Park

- and thanks to them for the blurb about my 'Mr.Bugsby and the Coaling Jetty' - although they flatter it to call it a book - its more a few bits of paper!

GLIAS and its latest newsletter

2011-01-19T08:39:00.004Z

Lots of newsletters come through- what have they got to say about Greenwich's Industrial History.

GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY
Newsletter December 2010.

- tonight - thats 19th January - GLIAS has a speaker,Dan Hayton, on Computers on London - this is about remaining structures from the early days of computing. We very much hope he has a lot to say about JOHN HUMPHERIES HOUSE (we have sent him lot of info). It is at the Willoughby Theatre in Charterhouse Square at 6.30. see you there.

GLIAS also records the retirement of Denis Smith as Chair - he has been Chair since slightly before the year dot- the Society formed around his evening class at Goldsmith's College in the very early 1970s (so it is almost a Greenwich Society!!)

Elsewhere Greenwich does get a few mentions in the newsletter - archaeology at Hilton's Wharf is noted, as is the discovery of the gun platform at Eaglesfield Park (which last night's GIHS speaker detailed). the possible Royal Flying corps remains at Thomas Tallis School and Greenwich Reach excavations.

Richard Buchanan has responded to a request in the newsletter on converted water towers and has noted the one at the old Brook Hospital site - and noted the need for increased water when the hospital took on a general, as distinct from a isolation hospital, role. He also says 'the red brick tower was adapted by increasing the size of the tank to the outside dimensions of the tower, the now visible steelwork painted to match the bricks .... the conversion to domestic use saw the steel replaced by glass. Below this the tiny original windows have been retained. The dwelling was out up for sale at £1.2m.............................'

another point is raised by Bob Rust who asks about a centre rail between Greenwich and Maze Hill stations - what was it for??
Bob also comments on memories of Banning Street 'sitting in a queue to deliver a very small consignment to go on a coaster or be lightered to the docks. ..'often the only distraction in those days was watching the cable coming out of the works over the conveyor/bridge to go into the cable tank of the ship lying alongside'.

Foxboro-Yoxall in Kidbrook

2011-01-07T16:53:00.003Z

A REIGATE AND REDHILL history site:

http://www.redhill-reigate-history.co.uk/foxyox.htm

gives a history of the British works of the American instrument makers Foxboro Yoxall. In the article it says they had a factory in Kidbrook??? Does anyone out there have any information on this??

Bits of news - including - Greenwich back in Kent

2011-01-04T13:57:00.004Z

We understand that a Kent IA section is being set up with an inaugural meeting in February - we also understand that they are looking at the historic county - which means us! More details when we have them - and see you there!

Greenwich Historical Association - meeting on Wednesday 26th January 2011 - is about the The Making of a Map - by RICH SYLVESTER who will talk about the the process of making a history map of Greenwich Peninsular and East Greenwich.
Rich worked closely with several of our members on this project and we look forward to hearing about it from him. Suspect this is at Blackheath High School, Mycenae Road entrance, 7.30 but you should check

GLIAS - meeting on 19th January at Willhoughby Theatre, Charterhouse Square, 18.30. This is about early computers in London by Dan Hayton. We have been feeding Dan lots of information about London Borough of Greenwich's John Humpheries House and its Leo III. Hopefully he will also take in Elliott Automation - which was on the Tesco site in Lewisham

Our programme (so far) for the next year is as follows:
all at the Old Bakehouse, Bennett Park 7.30

18th January Andy Brockman The First Blitz: The Eaglesfield Park Anti Aircraft Gun Site and the defence of Woolwich Arsenal in WW1.

15th February Brian Strong on the distilling industry

15th March John King on Aer Lingus and the LMS Railway

12th April Diana Rimel - the Ashburnham Triangle. Part II

10th May Duncan Hawkins on Archaeology at Deptford Dockyard

20th September – Ron Bristow on Elliott Automation

11th October Chris Foord on Industries of Barking and Dagenham

15th November – John Grieg on Grieg’s Wharf part II

From Woolwich to Tripcock Point

2010-12-09T09:16:00.005Z

The following account about the riverside path downriver from the Arsenal comes from the latest edition of the Woolwich Antiquarians newsletter. This is a fascinating piece of riverside whose history has been very much neglected.

Andy Brockman will be with Greenwich Industrial History Society as a speaker again on 18th January (at the Old Bakehouse m 7.30) talking about : The First Blitz: The Eaglesfield Park Anti Aircraft Gun Site and the defence of Woolwich Arsenal in WW1

however - back to the river and what the Antiquarians had to say ........... on "Thames-side Arsenal - a walk led by Andy Brockman"

The walk was along the riverside footpath from Woolwich. The footpath, is now about 10ft higher than it was when the Arsenal was at its peak so most remains l are now covered. In the 19th the Arsenal authorities had themselves raised the river bank, and much of their work is still visible in revetted stone.

At a curve in the riverbank is the Gridiron which was built as a roll-on dock for 100 ton guns to be loaded onto special 'Gog or Magog' barges After manufacture in the Arsenal the gun would be put on a railway wagon, taken to the dock, and rolled (wagon and all) directly onto one of the barges for transport to Shoeburyness or wherever. Although this dock is now overgrown it is in reasonable condition and it is hoped to restore it.

At the next curve the indentation was probably the result of a breach in the river wall. The land was boggy and had been used for a magazine; and latterly for a latrine, with an outfall drain. It was felt by the authorities that there was a need here for revetting, and thus four old boats loaded with stone were gronded here in a line with more stone piled behind. These boats are now accessible at neap tides. The southernmost of them being the only known example of a ballast barge. It had a very basic hull, for local work in calm river waters, with a large hopper in the centre and a crane to dredge ballast from the riverbed. Thames Discovery are investigating it as well as the best preserved of the other three boats.

The third indentation is an ancient breech. Arsenal closed it off with a stretch of riverwall

There are two Second World War Pill Boxes along the path, neither of a usual type. The southernmost is of rough concrete but stands well above ground level. The northern one is of fine concrete, and has a small enclosed yard at the back, open to the sky, with a pedestal base in the centre. The base is set low down but is not big enough to mount any sort of gun - was it a listening post, for a searchlight or what??

Tripcock Point is where the Princess Alice sank and nearby is a descriptive plaque pointing out the site. There is also a modern signpost giving the walking distance to Dartford and Dover eastwards; and Aberdeen westwards...

Monuments around Woolwich with an industrial interest

2010-12-08T18:02:00.004Z

The current issue of the Woolwich Antiquarians newsletter highlights Jim Marrett who opened their autumn season of talks giving the Vincent Memorial Lecture on 30th October 2010.

He concentrated on some of the Statues and Memorials around Woolwich. These are obviously very varied - here are some of the ones he mentioned which have an industrial interest:

There is the RACS building in Powys Street with its statue of Alexander McLeod with the motto "each for all and all for each".
(I hope we don't need to explain that RACS was the great Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society begun by Arsenal workers and one of the earliest co-ops in the world).

Jim next noted that 'We kept our feet dry by using the Free Ferry boats' - and that the boat names include 'Ernest Bevin' (Wartime Bevin Boys and then Labour Government Foreign Secretary - and of course someone who rose through the trade union) and John Bums (famous for trhe Dockers tanner dock strike in 1889, then a radical MP and one of the the first Labour Ministers). He reminded his audience that it was John Bums MP who used the term "liquid history" to describe the River Thames - Burns said , "The St Lawrence is mere water, the Missouri is mere muddy water, but the Thames, well the River Thames is liquid history".
(something we all need to remind the Americans)

Jim noted that insuide the soon to be demolished Woolwich Post Office is a 'a splendid First World War memorial dedicated to all Woolwich postmen who fought and eight men who died'.

At Shooters Hill near Christ Church is the covered memorial seat to Samuel Edmund Phillips, of Johnson and Phillips the Charlton electrical contractors. Over the seat and drinking fountain it records of Phillips
"Write me as one who loves his fellow men"

Labour Copartnership began in the local gas industry

2010-12-08T16:43:00.004Z

The latest edition of Historic Gas Times carries on its front page an article by south London based gas historian, Brian Sturt, about one of the most important innovations carried out in the Victorian gas industry locally:

He says:

Today, bonus schemes are very much the norm, but over 120 years ago was there a choice? A 'Co-Partnership scheme' was first inaugurated by the South Metropolitan Gas Company in 1889 at a time when industrial relations were quite tense and workers had been on strike. The Governor of the South Met, Sir George Livesey introduced the scheme in an attempt to ensure that the gas supply was maintained without interruption.

This scheme gave workers a bonus on wages a percentage of the Company profits, which was held on deposit as shares and gained interest - as an alternative to joining a trade union. From this beginning, 'Co-Partnership' as it became known, developed steadily over the years and by 1908 twelve gas companies operated a similar scheme for their employees. This expanded and when nationalisation of the industry came in 1949, approximately 40 to 45% of employees in the industry were Co-Partners.

From the basic bonus payments at the start,many gas undertakings, depending on the company encouraged employees to become shareholders, elected worker-directors and provided a wide range of social and welfare facilities. The South Met also included discounted gas and formed a building society called 'Metrogas' which was in existence until 1984. Some undertakings published their Co-Partnership Journals, now a major source of information on the more social aspects of the industry for we historians.

For a period until the First World War, the South Met also sent out Christmas Cards - as shown in the illustrations. These record the number of employees in the scheme at the South Met and in 1904 this was 5,001 with over £230,000 invested - equivalent to about £12,000 per employee at today's values.
Brian Sturt
Historic Gas Times is available by subscription. please leave a message here if you would like details of how to contact the editor. (or via Institution of Gas Engineers)

PS - I also hope Brian will not object to me saying that the South Met. Co-partnership scheme was the subject of my M.Phil. Both he and I have a vast amount of material which could be made available to anyone seriously interested in the subject. However - family historians beware = this does not include personal details of participants. Please get in touch with either of us if you would like to know more

Haycrafts of Deptford

2010-12-05T18:05:00.002Z

Dona Haycraft has written to us saying..

I am starting to research family history connected with the Haycrafts in Deptford (ironmongers). My interest started with the Haycraft halfpenny 1795 of which I have a couple and portraits of Joseph and Sarah Haycraft Deptford website Bonhams - the paintings did not sell to my relief!).

http://www.abccoinsandtokens.com/DH.Kent.013.004.html
http://tinyurl.com/34dsp55

I wonder if there is any reference of where John Haycraft had a dock allegedly in Rotherhithe and whether there is any trace of where Thomas (he of the halfpenny) had his business in Deptford's Broadway or whether it was flattened in the bombing of the Broadway in WW2.

The GIHS Webmaster says: According to the Bonhams site, the Haycrafts were a family of shipbuilders, prior to 1700 in Torbay, then subsequently in Rotherhithe and Deptford, Joseph was part of the family business, by then a company of ironmongers fitting out ships in the Viturlline Yard in Deptford. In 1795 his brother, Thomas Haycraft famously coined his own token, the 'Haycraft Halfpenny' which bears the legend 'Payable at Tho's Haycraft's, Deptford'.

I clearly must come to Deptford. Any suggestions of the best places to start? The links between Lewisham/Deptford/Greenwich are confusing to someone in Suffolk!

best wishes, Dona Haycraft
email: dona@donahaycraftphotography.co.uk
Tel: 01379 668669

Elliott Brothers Lewisham - collections

2010-12-03T20:09:00.005Z

We have received the following information about documentation of Elliott Brothers Lewisham - who made electronic equipment on the site now covered by Tesco. We hope to have Mr. Bristow as a speaker some time next year.

"The history of this Company which moved to Lewisham from central London in 1900 is fairly well documented though not in a single volume. Bulletin No 36 of the Scientific Instrument Society includes articles by Dr. Gloria Clifton, Head of Royal Observatory at the National Maritime Museum and by myself. Additionally I have published articles on this Company in subsequent issues of this Bulletin. I delivered a lecture on the Company History to the 2002 Summer Conference of the Institution of Electrical Engineers at Greenwich University and to the Lewisham Local History Society, amongst other organizations.

I was employed by Elliott Brothers in technical and management positions until retiring from Rochester. After the closure of the Lewisham site I took responsibility for the Company's Historic Collection and Archive. These collections cover documents from 1795, and instruments from 1840, to the mid - 20th century. After being exposed to risks of disposal and dispersal, they were taken in by the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford where they are accessible for academic and general research.

The present collection at British Aerospace Systems plc at Rochester to which you refer consists almost entirely of aircraft electronic equipment produced by Elliott Brothers and its successor companies at Rochester. It is not open to the public. The web site uses unacknowledged historical information from the sources given above.

I should be happy to answer questions or to provide information about the Company if required.

Ronn Bristow

Docklands History Group

2010-11-21T08:52:00.001Z

DOCKLANDS HISTORY GROUP

Members may like to know of the Docklands History Group, which meets once a month at the (cumbrously re-titled) Museum of London Docklands, in the old No. 1 Warehouse of the West India Docks.

The Group has been going since 1979, to encourage greater understanding of all aspects of the Port of London and the maritime, industrial and social history of the River Thames. Its very active President is Chris Ellmers, who did so much over many years to get the Museum in Docklands going, and the Chairman is now Edward Sergeant, who saw to it that many industrial archaeological features were suitably preserved and displayed (such as the bridges in the Surrey Docks) when he was the Conservation Officer of the London Docklands Development Corporation in the 1980s.

In recent years the group has heard talks on aspects of such diverse topics as Thames shipbuilding, labour unrest, ice-age geology, riverside land tenure and movable bridges, and the 2011 programme kicks off in February – see the website at www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk/events.

The DHG welcomes visitors to its meetings at a small charge and is looking for new members.

Malcolm Tucker, Treasurer

Meeting on Grieg's Wharf and bits and bobs

2010-11-12T13:08:00.002Z

Next meeting of Greenwich Industrial History society

16th November Grieg's wharf by John Grieg.
Old Bakehouse, Bennett Park, SE3 7.30

Grieg's Wharf is not one of the famous Greenwich wharves - perhaps this talk will make it so!! It was on the Peninsula - and John will tell us all about it!!

In the post today:

Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society Newsletter. This includes (among many other things) a review of the Paul Sandby exhibition held in the Royal Academy earlier this year. Paul was the drawing instructor at Woolwich's Royal Military Academy from 1768 and much of his work in that period show local scenes, some of industrial interest.

Crossness Record - this describes a number of recent events - including the conversion of the engine house into a cosmestics factory for filming. It also includes the most amazing photograph of a Flusher from the 1950s. The site is restricted to visitors because of on going building work but the Trust hopes to make announcements on this soon.

JASON

2010-10-18T14:53:00.002+01:00

the following is an account of a visit to the Royal Naval College Nuclear reactor by a party from GLIAS in 1989

On Tuesday 14th November 1989 a small party of members of the GLIAS Recording Group visited the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, SE10, to see the nuclear reactor Jason. The design of this reactor was developed by Hawker Siddeley from the American Argonaut reactor which first operated in 1957. After running for two years at Hawker Siddeley Jason was bought by the Admiralty and transported to Greenwich where it first ran on 6th November 1962. . ,
Jason is a ten kilowatt, water moderated and cooler graphite reflected, thermal reactor using eighty per cent enriched uranium-aluminium plate fuel elements separated by graphite wedges. Two rows of fuel elements mounted in a ninety degree sector of an annulus formed by two concentric aluminium core tanks make up a single slab core with 'a critical mass of about 2 kilograms of Uranium 235. There are four independent control mechanisms; safety, coarse and fine cadmium control rods and a moderator dump, fail-safe and each capable of shutting down the reactor.
Three flux measuring instrumentation channels ensure coverage by at least two channels throughout the power range. More independent power limit instrumentation is provided by two shutdown amplifiers and there are three radiation monitors which measure levels close to each of the main experimental areas. The fail safe magnetic logic of the safety and interlock circuits makes certain that the correct sequence of operations is followed during the start of operation. Automatic shut down commences should the likelihood of dangerous conditions arise. The reactor is inherently safe owing to the large negative void and temperature coefficients of reactivity. For removable experiments administrative control limits the reactivity available to half a per cent.
The reactor is uses by students taking nuclear courses and is a versatile critical facility. A high neutron and gamma flux environment enables many aspects of operation and control to be demonstrated and training in health and safety procedures is given. Research is carried out by staff and long term students and the reactor’s facilities are also used by outside organisations.
A pneumatic transfer system enables up to three 0.6 ml samples to be irradiates for a given time and recovered to a properly lined lead cell within 3 5 seconds. Supporting services include extensive and well equipped electronic and mechanical workshops, and extensive computing, and simulating facilities. There is a fully equipped radiological protection service.
During our visit safety arrangements were stressed and each member of the party was provided with appropriate protective clothing, including; white cotton shoe covers, and we were obliged to wash afterwards. . Visually one sees a pile of: concrete blocks and the interest is in the control arrangements. Jason is probably the only nuclear reactor housed in a buildin, dating fron 1699. The walls are about six feet thick. As the power output is small the fuel elements installed when Jason went to Greenwich are still viable so there are no problems of transporting nuclear waste. Only about one gramme of Uranium 235 has been consumed in twenty seven years of operation. We are particularly grateful to. Professor J. Head for permitting the visit, and Mr. C. Proust who acted as our host.
Bob Carr (GLIAS Newsletter 127)

Ballast pits and ballast quay

2010-10-17T08:44:00.001+01:00

an old Blackheath resident asks for info:

"can remember as a boy with my friends riding our bikes in and around a large pit on Blackheath. This pit was situated opposite the war memorial on the southeast corner of Greenwich Park. During the war it was used by army dispatch riders I assume for training purposes, as they used to fall off quite a lot.

I recall we kids used to call this pit 'the Fuzzies; why I don't know, it was one of those names you heard as a child and never questioned.

I believe this was only one of several pits on the heath, and I would like to know why they were dug. I was told some years ago that they were ballast pits dug to supply ballast to the Royal Navy Dockyard at Deptford and to Merchant shipping in the Thames, hence Ballast Quay on which the 'Cutty Sark' public house (formerly the 'Union Tavern') now stands . I would appreciate any thing you could tell me about this.

WW1 Ships Chart The Past Climate

2010-10-13T20:06:00.002+01:00

Taken from an Oxford University News Release of October 12th, 2010;

The public are being asked to revisit the voyages of World War One Royal Navy warships to help scientists understand the climate of the past and unearth new historical information.

Visitors to OldWeather.org, launched on 12 October 2010, will be able to retrace the routes taken by any of 280 Royal Navy ships including historic vessels such as HMS Caroline, the last survivor of the 1916 Battle of Jutland still afloat.

By transcribing information about weather, and any interesting events, from images of each ship’s logbook web volunteers will help scientists to build a more accurate picture of how our climate has changed over the last century, as well as adding to our knowledge of this important period of British history.

‘These naval logbooks contain an amazing treasure trove of information but because the entries are handwritten they are incredibly difficult for a computer to read,’ said Dr Chris Lintott of Oxford University, one of the team behind the OldWeather.org project. ‘By getting an army of online human volunteers to retrace these voyages and transcribe the information recorded by British sailors we can relive both the climate of the past and key moments in naval history.’

Dr Peter Stott, Head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution at the Met Office, said: ‘Historical weather data is vital because it allows us to test our models of the Earth's climate: if we can correctly account for what the weather was doing in the past, then we can have more confidence in our predictions of the future. Unfortunately, the historical record is full of gaps, particularly from before 1920 and at sea, so this project is invaluable.’

Dr Robert Simpson of Oxford University, one of the OldWeather.org team, said: ‘Luckily, these observations made by Royal Navy sailors every four hours without fail – even whilst under enemy fire! – can help to fill this ‘data gap’. It’s almost like launching a weather satellite into the skies at a time when manpowered flight was still in its infancy.’

OldWeather.org forms a key part of the International ACRE Project, which is recovering past weather and climate data from around the world and bringing them into widespread use. Met Office Hadley Centre scientist Dr Rob Allan, the ACRE project leader said: ‘By reconstructing past weather from these historical documents we will complete our knowledge of weather patterns and climatic changes.'

Most of the data about past climate comes from land-based weather monitoring stations which have been systematically recording data for over 150 years. The weather information from the ships at OldWeather.org, which spans the period 1905-1929, effectively extends this land-based network to 280 seaborne weather stations traversing the world’s oceans.

The ‘virtual sailors’ visiting OldWeather.org are rewarded for their efforts by a rise through the ratings from cadet to captain of a particular ship according to the number of pages they transcribe. The project is inspired by earlier Oxford University-led ‘citizen science’ projects, such as Galaxy Zoo and Moon Zoo – that have seen more than 320,000 people make over 150 million classifications – which have shown that ordinary web users can make observations that are as accurate as those made by experts.

But it isn’t just gaps in the weather records that the team hope to fill but gaps in the history books too. OldWeather.org is teaming up with naval historians in an effort to add to our knowledge of the exploits of hundreds of Royal Navy vessels and the thousands of men who served on them.

‘Life in the trenches is well documented but the maritime struggle that took place during World War One is less well known,’ said historian Gordon Smith of Naval-History.Net, Penarth, UK. 'This was a global conflict that reached across the world’s oceans to every part of the globe and was about far more than just the Battle of Jutland. We hope these new records will give people a fresh insight into naval history and encourage people to find out more about Britain’s naval past and the role their relatives played in it.’

OldWeather.org features a range of historically-important ships including Battle of Jutland-survivor HMS Caroline, which is still in existence in Belfast, HMS Defence and HMS Invincible, which were both blown up at Jutland with the loss of most of their crews, and HMS Valerian which foundered in a hurricane off the coast of Bermuda in 1926.

It also holds the records of less well-known ships including HMS Dwarf, which on service in the Cameroons in 1914 suffered a boat attack similar to the one mounted by Humphrey Bogart’s character in the movie The African Queen, and river gunboats such as HMS Gnat, HMS Mantis and HMS Moth which patrolled the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates in a military expedition to Iraq with echoes of the modern-day conflict there.

Dr Lintott said: ‘Rather like the Royal Navy sailors setting out on a voyage, with this new project we cannot be sure what is waiting for us over the horizon, what our volunteers find will make a significant contribution to climate science and might even rewrite the history books!’

For more information visit http://www.oldweather.org/

General Gordon's family and convalescent home?

2010-10-10T20:01:00.001+01:00

I wonder if any of your members can help me with information related to my family history research. It relates to Woolwich rather than Greenwich but I hope this is not too much of an obstacle.

What I am looking for is this:

Does anyone know if a member of General Gordon (of Khartoum)'s family was running a convalescent home for military patients in Woolwich around 1879?

I believe that Mrs Hawthorn, nee Dow, a member of the Enderby family, was campaigning against the neglect and ill-treatment of patients in military hospitals around that time, and I wondered if it might be her.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Dugald Macleod