Here is some of the stuff which has come in
GLIAS - I have the new journal which will feature, hopefully soon, with a major new article on Deptford Dockyard.
The GLIAS June Newletter: (its VERY thin)
They are list - of interest in Greenwich -
- Crossness Steaming Days
23rd (That's today - so I might go down later). with a model engineering fair
28th July - with steam wagons and vintage tractors and cars.
1st September - with local history groups.
10.30-5 £5 www.crossness.org.uk
- and - er - that's it. But see review of London's Industrial Heritage - something else that needs to be reviewed here in the future.
Redriff Chronicle - an article about Ada Salter and the Beautification of Bermondsey should be an inspiration to us all - and there is a campaign to raise money to replace the stolen statues of Dr.Salter and his daughter, and the cat and will include a new statue of Ada. www.salterstatues.co.uk
They also advertise Deptford Creek walks - you need to book at the Creekside Centre. (sorry, no details for contacting them, and they are technically in Lewisham)
and finally - and hope she doesn't mind - here is the handout which Hillary Peters prepared and circulated for the Garden Open Day at Ballast Quay
THE GARDEN AT BALLAST
QUAY
- by Hillary Peters
- by Hillary Peters
This wharf has been owned
by Morden College since the beginning of the eighteenth
century. Sir John
Morden bought the East Greenwich estate to support his almshouse on the edge of
Blackheath. Morden
College still flourishes today and still owns this wharf.
From the end of the
eighteenth century, developers rented land from Morden
College and built rows of
houses. Mr. Bracegirdle ran a boat yard here and lived in a house where the Harbour Master's House now
stands. The pub, then called the Green Man, and the row of houses, start to
be mentioned. In 1800, the pub
changed its name to the Union Tavern. The wharf and the street behind were then
called Union Wharf.
In the mid-nineteenth
century, when the wharves of East Greenwich were
flourishing and the rows of houses
had been built, the Thames
Conservancy built the
Harbour Master's Office to control this reach of the
Thames. The Harbour Master and his staff also lived here. He kept a boat here
and supervised navigation on
this busy reach. There were steps down to the beach and a causeway to the low
tide level. A gridiron on the
beach and a steam crane on the wharf were used for salvage and work on craft.
The wharf was surrounded
on the landward side by a very high wall. Railings topped by the German helmet
surrounded both the house
and the approach to the wharf.
When the Port of London Authority was formed at the
beginning of the twentieth century, the post of Harbour Master
for this reach was abolished but the wharf was kept on as Port
of London Wharf. From the
1920's the wharf was used for
general import and export by Lovell's Wharf
next door.
In the mid-1960's the wharf was made into a garden for the use
of the neighbours. From it,
Union Wharf Nursery
Garden
created the gardens of St
Katherine's Dock, based on the idea
of plants growing out of cracks in the concrete - the wild
returning to the derelict inner city. Surrey Docks Farm grew
out of a neighbourhood scheme started here.
The memorial to animals
killed in the Foot and Mouth disaster
of 2001 is fast becoming a memory -
The wharf had a brief
career as a tea garden managed and run
by the neighbours. It is still owned by Morden College and
maintained and enjoyed by the neighbours of Ballast Quay and
their visitors. We hope it offers a taste of the wild in an urban
landscape.
In the 1960's, the whole area
was concrete with working
wharves, shipping, lighterage,
cranes. The garden represented
the first sign of greenery re-
emerging from the industrial
age. Now there is no industry,
the plants have taken root and
the garden illustrates how roots
can break up even the hardest
surfaces and nature can take
over once more.
Forging is very much part of city farming, so we are doing some iron-age forging.
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