Reviews and snippets November 2002
LEWISHAM HISTORY JOURNAL – No.10 2002 has just
been published by Lewisham Local History Society and contains articles on Dolly
Sedgewick and on the Cold Blow Farm area of Deptford. Both of these are outside of the Greenwich
area – but who could resist the article about Dolly who was a ‘lady parachutist
‘ in the early 1900s. Dolly went on to
marry the Lewisham District Surveyor but kept in touch with her past by flying
with the Red Arrows in her 90s
CROSSNESS ENGINES RECORD - Vol.8 No.2. Autumn
2002 – keeps up its usual sanitary standard. Articles on ‘The Cinder Path’,
‘Toilets in China’, Notes from the Octagon (see some of this elsewhere), New
Boilers needed, Book reviews, etc etc
BLACKHEATH GUIDE. - The September 2002 edition
carried an excellent article by Peter Kent in his ‘Riverwatch’ series – this
was called ‘Coming up with the goods’.
Peter talks here about the aggregate trade in Greenwich and how it has
helped the construction of Canary Wharf and much else in Docklands ‘had these
tonnages been transported by road it would have created in excess of 176,000
lorry movements’. He also notes how prefabricated windows and doors – and
indeed the sections of the London Eye and Millennium Bridge have been transported
to their sites by water.
GREENWICH TIME - noted the opening of the new
‘Ha-penny Hatch bridge’ across Deptford Creek. The original was built as part
of the original Greenwich Railway and demolished in the 1930s.
There has also been a mention of the visit to
Woolwich of the replica of Captain Cook’s ship ‘Endeavour’ built for the TV
series. Endeavour was open to the public for some days at the new Woolwich Pier
in the Arsenal.
GLIAS NEWSLETTER -Among a whole range of things
of interest to industrial historians is a write up the Greenwich Foot Tunnel
100 year anniversary celebrations.
JOURNAL OF THE GREENWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
-This includes a number of articles which are heavily ‘dirt’ archaeology as
well as others – ‘Archaeological work in Greenwich 1997-2001’ by Julian
Bowsher, ‘Moving status and Maritime Greenwich’ by Joanna Smith, The Knill
family of Blackheath by Michael Egan, and an Archaeological Investigation at
the Cutty Sark station development by Alistair Douglas. We are also pleased to
see a review of Julie Tadman’s book ‘A fisherman of Greenwich’ by Barbara
Ludlow.
MERIDIAN - The August 2002 edition of Meridian
contained a detailed article about the building of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel as
a tribute to its hundredth anniversary.
SLAS NEWS.- The 91st Newsletter of
the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Society contains an article on the TV
based Time Team’s excavations in Greenwich Park by our member Richard Buchanan.
INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE -The Summer 2002 Vol.28
edition contains several articles of interest to Greenwich readers – albeit
they are all things which have either appeared in our newsletter or written by
our members: John MacLean’s Clay Pipe Making in Plumstead (you saw it here
first – see the sequel in this issue).
Peter Jenkins on Webster and Horsfall (held back by us for lack of space
– you will see it eventually), Mary Mills on John Beale of Greenwich.
GREATER LONDON ARCHAEOLOGY ADVISORY SERVICE –
Quarterly Review -Includes under ‘Greenwich’ reports on archaeological work at
the National Maritime Museum along with Channel 4’s Time Team. Also at Anchor
Iron Wharf where Tudor brick walls are probably those of the Hobby Stables, and
as East Wing (Building 14) of the Royal Arsenal – showing a strengthened floor
used to store ship supplies.
Reports have been received on a number of
Greenwich sites - **National Maritime Museum – Tudor walls from the tiltyard
and mooring chains from training ship Fame - ** Old Royal Naval College
- site trenches used as 18th landfill dumps, internal cess pit, 18th
graffiti, and some Roman remains.
GREENWICH AND WOOLWICH AT WORK by Mary Mills. Sutton Publishing, £12.99 IBSN
0-7509-3000-4.
There have been other publications produced
detailing the life of Greenwich and Woolwich in pictures but Mary Mills in her
book Greenwich and Woolwich at Work has captured in her unique style an
aspect not covered before.
At £12.99 this hard cover of 127 pages of high
quality produced photographs, accompanied by informative captions is excellent
value. For those born in the two districts the book will bring back memories of
their early years, of long lost industries, factories, roads and pubs, which
were part of the everyday life of their parents, relatives and friends. To
those who are relatively new to the area, the pictures will reveal a new and
possibly unexpected aspect to what made the people of Greenwich and Woolwich
tick. To researchers and students
‘Greenwich and Woolwich at Work’ should provoke them into further research to
discover and explore how the industries mentioned and those many others not
covered influenced the lives of the inhabitants in the area.
Review by Ron Roffey
BROOK HOSPITAL WOOLWICH WATER
By Jack Vaughan
In Newsletter July Vol. 5 No.3. p.8 I
submitted a piece on the above outlining the possibility of rescuing some
relevant hydraulic arrangements attached to the base of the former hospital
water tower, shortly to be converted into accommodation.
Ownership of the site which includes the
tower has now changed hands and we are taking up the rescue question with the
newly appointed builders responsible for the Tower building works.
Crossness Engines Trust have shown an
interest in housing the hydraulic items in their collection
We hope shortly to visit the site to
discuss any problems of disconnection and transport.
CROSSNESS ENGINES – NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE OCTAGON
Prince Consort Engine - Following the lagging and the cladding of pipework, gauges needed to be installed to
monitor the control of the engine at work. Meanwhile work on the new cooling
pond is progressing -this is being constructed in a former bunded area which
lay beneath two enormous diesel storage tanks, which were removed from the site
two years ago. The pond has been waterproofed and wooden weirs are being
installed to separate out leaves and oil from water on its way back to the
condenser.
The Valve House
The site for the Easton and Anderson Engine has almost been decided
subject to some final measurements.
Beam Engine House.
Work continues on the windows and soon we will be able to remove stored
materials and find room for parts
removed from the Victoria Engine.
Visitor Centre
A cabinet (inherited from Hall Place, Bexley) has displays of the tools
made on site. Labelling of the photographic display is almost finished and
then lighting will need to be renewed..
We have started to improve the main hall and a bust of Sir Joseph Bazalgette
has been splendidly displayed in a 'classical' cabinet set on the wall at the
far end and painted by our 'resident
artist' to depict London in the 19th century.
The Terrace
Garden..
Circular flower beds
are being restocked with fresh flowers ready for the spring. We are intending
to replace all the missing 'rope' style border edging and would like to know of
a source of this (please contact if you can help).
Aquisitions
Appleby
Single-Cylinder Horizontal Steam engine from a Vinegar Works in Southwark has
been donated. This was once used to drive line-shafting in
Sarson's Works. It was stored at the old Streatham bus garage and two reconnaissance
sorties were made to plan its
disassembly. On Monday 23rd
Sept. a group went to tackle the job which took about five hours, and on the
Wednesday a 'H1AB' crane lorry picked up the engine and brought it to
Crossness. The lorry had previously been to Kew Bridge Engine Museum and picked
up two Watson pumps, originally from the Houses of Parliament where they had
been used in the air-circulation system. These will eventually be on display in
The Valve House.
2. A Sirex WC pan
(c. 1900) is being extracted from the
19th century Bexleyheath Adult Education College building. It should
soon be on display in the Visitor Centre.
Lady visitors will be pleased to know that the
LADIES facility in the small building outside the Beam Engine House has been fitted
with new toilet pans and sinks and awaits redecoration.
Adapted from The Crossness Engines Record, Vol.. 8 No.2.
Autumn 2002 without permission.
KIDBROOKE SCHOOL
ARTICLE FROM
THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN SOCIETY WEBSITE.
Notes in 'Festival Times' that the
original beams of the Dome of Discovery were hidden away in a Greenwich School
sent me scurrying off to find out – was it true? A look through the local papers for Greenwich
in 1951-3 made me pretty sure it wasn't true because there was no coverage of
the story at all but there was something else.
– there were stories of the enormous new school started in Kidbrooke in
April 1951. Although its enormous hall
was actually planned before the Festival of Britain and before the Festival
Hall, it has been compared with them in both style and scale – and it is easy
to understand how the story of the beams began.
I am not really sure if the school is
really anything to do with the Festival but I am writing to tell Festival Times
about it because, apart from the story of the beams, it really has something to
say to us about the early 1950s. The
school was the first purpose built comprehensive school, originally for girls
only. It was on a scale not seen before
– for 2,000 girls and with huge range of special features (eg: 5 gymnasia!). They hold huge scrapbooks of their press
coverage over the years – and it is fascinating to read the hostile stories in
the press when the school opened in 1954 and the constant barrage of critical
stories in the tabloid press of the day.
Nevertheless it has survived and along with the educational ideas which
marked it out, it is rapidly being realised that it is a treasure of early
1950s architecture. The present management is doing the best it can to see that
original features are preserved and, in some cases restored.
The school scrapbooks also contain
articles from the technical press, which detail the construction methods and
materials in a great deal of detail. The
copper domed school hall today stands out above the surrounding suburban
housing – inside it is, understandably, a bit worn, but the integrity of the underlying design
shines through. The dome is, however,
not really like the Dome of Discovery.
If anyone would like details I am happy to send references or a
photocopy. A series of articles was
written about the roof by B.K.Chatterjee, who was one of the engineers involved
– who was he, and what happened to him? Work by an Asian engineer on such a
major building must have been very unusual at the time. The architects of the building were Slater,
Uren and Pike and the consulting engineers were Ove Arup.
MUSEUM IN DOCKLANDS FAILS TO OPEN
The long-awaited Museum in Docklands failed to open this summer after a
mysterious benefactor failed to keep a promise to underwrite running costs. As
a result it has been forced by its main fonder, the Heritage Lottery Fund, to
hold merger talks with the Museum of London.
The museum, which chronicles the 2,000-year history of the Port of
London received an initial £11.5m grant from the HLF five years ago.
Construction costs ran £1,7m over budget, and so far a total of£16m has been
spent. Grants of around £4m from the former Docklands Development Corporation
and corporate donors were quickly swallowed up.
The museum's site, a Napoleonic era warehouse close to Canary Wharf
dating back to 1802, it is itself a piece of Docklands history. It has been
refurbished to house artefacts, paintings, models, boats and machinery that
tell the story of London's port from Roman times to the present day. The
exhibits are all in place, including numerous archaeological finds from Roman
and Saxon times. The galleries are almost ready to be opened, and a fun area
for children is nearing completion. The centre also includes a lecture and film
theatre.
Copied
from GLIAS NEWSLETTER 202, October 2002
without permission.
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