Residents of Bradyll Street in East Greenwich may be interested in the following item from the Yorkshire Post:
"Railway museum rescues historic engine"
ONE of the earliest industrial locomotives in the world has been acquired by the National Railway Museum in York. Bradyll, which dates back to the 1840s, is believed to be the oldest surviving locomotive with six-driving wheels. It has survived in the North East largely by chance.The museum's vehicle collections manager, Jim Rees, said: "the locomotive is of more than mere local or regional importance."The lack of restoration or later rebuilding means that Bradyll remains an incredibly valid piece of railway archaeology, from a period which remains understudied and undervalued by railway historians." no other working machines of this kind have stood the test of time. The locomotive has since been placed in the National Railway Museum's sister attraction at Shildon in County Durham, although the public has only limited access to it.Bradyll's historical importance has now been deemed so great that it has been placed in the national collection, which is overseen by the NRM in York.
Street names in East Greenwich relate, of course, to the Durham coal field - and this is just one survivor.
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Council Resolution
Last night Greenwich Council resolved the following:
That this Council notes:
1. The Borough of Greenwich has a uniquely rich heritage, having played a role at the centre of British and world history for at least a thousand years.
2. Our claim to national and international significance has been reinforced over the centuries by our proud Royal, maritime, military and industrial links.
3. We have an outstanding Royal heritage as the birthplace of King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary I; the site of two Royal Palaces, a Royal Park and the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich, and many other such sites.
4. Next year, 2009, marks the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII’s accession to the throne, and 2012 marks the 500th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Dockyard.
This Council believes that:
1. Celebrating our shared heritage can do much to enhance civic pride and to bind together the many people from diverse backgrounds who call this Borough their home.
2. Learning about the great history on our doorstep is a huge benefit of which the Borough’s schoolchildren should be able to take full advantage.
3. The coming years present unique opportunities to showcase our heritage and enhance the prestige of the Borough, which we should fully grasp.
This Council resolves:
1. To embrace and celebrate our heritage as an integral part of our shared vision for the Borough and its future.
2. To devise specific plans to highlight our status as a significant Royal borough, using the opportunities presented by the 500th Anniversaries of the accession of King Henry VIII, and of the founding of the Woolwich Royal Dockyard.
3. To seek further ways in which our maritime, industrial and local heritage can also be championed alongside such plans.
4. To ensure that our hosting of the Olympics in 2012 is used as an opportunity to strengthen and promote our heritage offer, and does not harm it.
5. To re-affirm our support for the restoration of the Cutty Sark, the iconic flagship of our Borough.
6. To support the ‘Discovery Greenwich’ project currently being undertaken by the Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, which will help bring the history of the World Heritage Site to a wider audience.
That this Council notes:
1. The Borough of Greenwich has a uniquely rich heritage, having played a role at the centre of British and world history for at least a thousand years.
2. Our claim to national and international significance has been reinforced over the centuries by our proud Royal, maritime, military and industrial links.
3. We have an outstanding Royal heritage as the birthplace of King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary I; the site of two Royal Palaces, a Royal Park and the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich, and many other such sites.
4. Next year, 2009, marks the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII’s accession to the throne, and 2012 marks the 500th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Dockyard.
This Council believes that:
1. Celebrating our shared heritage can do much to enhance civic pride and to bind together the many people from diverse backgrounds who call this Borough their home.
2. Learning about the great history on our doorstep is a huge benefit of which the Borough’s schoolchildren should be able to take full advantage.
3. The coming years present unique opportunities to showcase our heritage and enhance the prestige of the Borough, which we should fully grasp.
This Council resolves:
1. To embrace and celebrate our heritage as an integral part of our shared vision for the Borough and its future.
2. To devise specific plans to highlight our status as a significant Royal borough, using the opportunities presented by the 500th Anniversaries of the accession of King Henry VIII, and of the founding of the Woolwich Royal Dockyard.
3. To seek further ways in which our maritime, industrial and local heritage can also be championed alongside such plans.
4. To ensure that our hosting of the Olympics in 2012 is used as an opportunity to strengthen and promote our heritage offer, and does not harm it.
5. To re-affirm our support for the restoration of the Cutty Sark, the iconic flagship of our Borough.
6. To support the ‘Discovery Greenwich’ project currently being undertaken by the Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, which will help bring the history of the World Heritage Site to a wider audience.
Monday, 23 June 2008
100 years of the Yacht Club
On Sunday Greenwich Yacht Club held a celebration to mark their hundredth anniversary. The club was founded in 1908 originally at the Yacht Tavern in Crane Street. Residents might remember when they were in a series of huts along the riverside - the area is now the pathway downriver of the Dome near the ecology centre but then it was between the Power Station Jetty and Horn Lane. They eventually found a home in the old canteen of the Redpath Brown steel works and there they stayed until 1999 when their buildings were the last to be cleared before the Dome opened.
Sunday's event was a lot of fun with all sorts of coming and goings and endless plaques and so on being dedicated by the Mayor and the Director of the Maritime Museum.
Details about the history of the Club can be found in Paul Woodhead's book 'The Yacht Club. Greenwich 1908-2000' - written and published for the club and available from them.
Sunday's event was a lot of fun with all sorts of coming and goings and endless plaques and so on being dedicated by the Mayor and the Director of the Maritime Museum.
Details about the history of the Club can be found in Paul Woodhead's book 'The Yacht Club. Greenwich 1908-2000' - written and published for the club and available from them.
Drawing by Peter Kent
Saturday, 21 June 2008
The Last Wharves of Greenwich
Local riverside scenes are currently being shown at the Paul McPherson Gallery at 77 Lassell Street, in Greenwich. These are the wonderful pictures of Terry Scales which show five decades of the riverside - the recent past which is rapidly becoming unrecognisable. Terry had made presentations of his work at Greenwich Industrial History Society meetings on a couple of occasions and we hope to see him again soon. In the meantime he will be signing his book 'Homage to the working Thames' at the gallery on 28th and 5th July 11.30-2.30 pm.
Monday, 16 June 2008
An American honour for Greenwich
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) plans to designate a John Penn oscillating steam engine (vintage 1841) as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. The designation will take place at a ceremony in Dresden, Germany this July. The engine is currently installed and operational in the paddle steamer Diesbar. Further information about ASME’s Landmark program is available at http://www.asme.org/Communities/History/Landmarks/Landmarks_Program_2.cfm. Since the program began in 1971, they have designated some 250 landmarks worldwide - While the majority of these are in the US, there are five in the UK.
This means of course that while most of Greenwich ignores its engineering past that at least it is on the map as far as the Americans are concerned.
This means of course that while most of Greenwich ignores its engineering past that at least it is on the map as far as the Americans are concerned.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Industrial heritage in the Lea Valley
The Society's meeting last night featured Lindsay Collier (and a helper whose name I don't know!). Below is a summary of what Lindsay had to say - and also 'thank you very much Lindsay, and sorry you got so held up in the traffic in the Blackwall Tunnel).
anyway -
Heritage museum for London’s Lea Valley. By Lindsay Collier MA
For a number of years now the Lea Valley Corridor has been known as a small area of Britain with a huge industrial past, it is a place where over one hundred industrial firsts have taken place, with half of these being in transportation. This achievement alone is a world record. For the last fourteen years the concept for a museum to celebrate this unique heritage called the Lea Valley Experience has been slowly simmering away in Walthamstow. With the coming of the Olympic Games to the valley in 2012, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Britain’s largest and forgotten industrial past that has most certainly changed the world
as we know it today.
Our journey down the River Lea starts in Luton, home of the Vauxhall Car Company and London Luton international airport. before this Luton’s main employment came from many hat manufacturers - Luton Town’s Football Club is nicknamed the hatters. An area of Luton called Leagrave is the home of Electrolux, produced a variety of electrical household appliances. Part of their site was once occupied by Hewlett and Brondeau Ltd who built aircraft – they were founded in 1914 and managed by Hilda Hewlett, the first British woman to receive a pilot’s licence. In 1937 the Percival Aircraft Company moved here from Gravesend. The river then slowly twists its way to Hatfield, home of the de Havilland Aviation company, and the world’s first passenger jet airliner, the Comet.
down river at Chadwell and Amwell are the two main sources of the man made New
River constructed to carry water directly to the thirsty Jacobean residents of London.
Ware, once a Roman inland port is the home of Wickhams, manufacturers of plant and railway vehicles, and Warerite, laminated plastic railway carriage interiors. Ware also has malt houses and McMullen’s brewery. At Colliers End the first British balloon flight finally came to rest in September 1784.
Availability of so much water in the Lea meant it was a great place to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables, all in huge quantities. During the 1930s the Valley had the world’s largest
concentration of greenhouses. At one time it produced two thirds of Britain’s total horticultural output.
The world’s first passenger carrying monorail was constructed in 1825 at Cheshunt
to the design of Henry Robinson Palmer who also invented corrugated iron sheets. Today in Cheshunt, is Tesco’s head office and was once the home of Colin Chapman’s Lotus car company
down river at Waltham Abbey are the Royal Gun Powder Mills which opened in 1787 and produced a wide range of explosives and chemical until 1991.
At Enfield the electric light bulb, was first demonstrated twenty years before Edison by Sir Joseph Swan, and started the Ediswan Company in Ponders End. In 1904 the
diode was invented at the company’s works by Ambrose Fleming. the thermos flask,
was also developed at the work’s laboratories by Sir James Dewar in the 1870s.
Belling, MK and Thorn all set up companies in Enfield. we must not also forget the
famous Lee Enfield Rifle invented there by James Paris Lee.
Edmonton was once the home of Straker Squires who produced cars, lorries, buses and steam vehicles. British Oxygen also had a large factory there. In Tottenham the JAP Company produced speedway bikes and motorcycle engines. Gestetner who made duplicating equipment and the Lebus Furniture Company were also there.
Walthamstow is the home of the first British built car and is where many of the first buses that London Transport used in service were built by the Associated Equipment Company. In 1909 Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe became the first Briton to fly an all British built plane on Walthamstow Marshes – a centenary celebration of this is planned for 2009. also forget Bovince Ltd whose company invented the first method of screen printing
Many toy and sweet companies set up home in the valley: Matchbox, Britain’s, Brimtoys, Lines Bros, Trebor, Maynard’s and Bonds being just a few of them.
Hackney, is the home of petrol, as it was here that Carless Capel & Leonard invented the mixture and patented the name.
Stratford, was once the home of the largest railway works in the country. The London Cooperative was also founded there by its workers. Today the site is being prepared for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Bow, was famous for the matchbox girls strike, rockets, railway works, and the first improved horse omnibus and we finally end our journey at Bow Creek, once the home of the Thames Iron Works which constructed Britain’s first ironclad warship, the Warrior, along with much else including West Ham United Football Club.
In this brief trip down the River Lea I have only touched on some of its many interesting stories. I have tried to give you a taste of why the industrial heritage of the Lea Valley is so important. I hope by reading this it will inspire you to learn more about it and support the development of the Lea Valley Experience museum to celebrate the regions unique past. For more information visit
www.leavalleyexperience.co.uk
anyway -
Heritage museum for London’s Lea Valley. By Lindsay Collier MA
For a number of years now the Lea Valley Corridor has been known as a small area of Britain with a huge industrial past, it is a place where over one hundred industrial firsts have taken place, with half of these being in transportation. This achievement alone is a world record. For the last fourteen years the concept for a museum to celebrate this unique heritage called the Lea Valley Experience has been slowly simmering away in Walthamstow. With the coming of the Olympic Games to the valley in 2012, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase Britain’s largest and forgotten industrial past that has most certainly changed the world
as we know it today.
Our journey down the River Lea starts in Luton, home of the Vauxhall Car Company and London Luton international airport. before this Luton’s main employment came from many hat manufacturers - Luton Town’s Football Club is nicknamed the hatters. An area of Luton called Leagrave is the home of Electrolux, produced a variety of electrical household appliances. Part of their site was once occupied by Hewlett and Brondeau Ltd who built aircraft – they were founded in 1914 and managed by Hilda Hewlett, the first British woman to receive a pilot’s licence. In 1937 the Percival Aircraft Company moved here from Gravesend. The river then slowly twists its way to Hatfield, home of the de Havilland Aviation company, and the world’s first passenger jet airliner, the Comet.
down river at Chadwell and Amwell are the two main sources of the man made New
River constructed to carry water directly to the thirsty Jacobean residents of London.
Ware, once a Roman inland port is the home of Wickhams, manufacturers of plant and railway vehicles, and Warerite, laminated plastic railway carriage interiors. Ware also has malt houses and McMullen’s brewery. At Colliers End the first British balloon flight finally came to rest in September 1784.
Availability of so much water in the Lea meant it was a great place to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables, all in huge quantities. During the 1930s the Valley had the world’s largest
concentration of greenhouses. At one time it produced two thirds of Britain’s total horticultural output.
The world’s first passenger carrying monorail was constructed in 1825 at Cheshunt
to the design of Henry Robinson Palmer who also invented corrugated iron sheets. Today in Cheshunt, is Tesco’s head office and was once the home of Colin Chapman’s Lotus car company
down river at Waltham Abbey are the Royal Gun Powder Mills which opened in 1787 and produced a wide range of explosives and chemical until 1991.
At Enfield the electric light bulb, was first demonstrated twenty years before Edison by Sir Joseph Swan, and started the Ediswan Company in Ponders End. In 1904 the
diode was invented at the company’s works by Ambrose Fleming. the thermos flask,
was also developed at the work’s laboratories by Sir James Dewar in the 1870s.
Belling, MK and Thorn all set up companies in Enfield. we must not also forget the
famous Lee Enfield Rifle invented there by James Paris Lee.
Edmonton was once the home of Straker Squires who produced cars, lorries, buses and steam vehicles. British Oxygen also had a large factory there. In Tottenham the JAP Company produced speedway bikes and motorcycle engines. Gestetner who made duplicating equipment and the Lebus Furniture Company were also there.
Walthamstow is the home of the first British built car and is where many of the first buses that London Transport used in service were built by the Associated Equipment Company. In 1909 Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe became the first Briton to fly an all British built plane on Walthamstow Marshes – a centenary celebration of this is planned for 2009. also forget Bovince Ltd whose company invented the first method of screen printing
Many toy and sweet companies set up home in the valley: Matchbox, Britain’s, Brimtoys, Lines Bros, Trebor, Maynard’s and Bonds being just a few of them.
Hackney, is the home of petrol, as it was here that Carless Capel & Leonard invented the mixture and patented the name.
Stratford, was once the home of the largest railway works in the country. The London Cooperative was also founded there by its workers. Today the site is being prepared for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Bow, was famous for the matchbox girls strike, rockets, railway works, and the first improved horse omnibus and we finally end our journey at Bow Creek, once the home of the Thames Iron Works which constructed Britain’s first ironclad warship, the Warrior, along with much else including West Ham United Football Club.
In this brief trip down the River Lea I have only touched on some of its many interesting stories. I have tried to give you a taste of why the industrial heritage of the Lea Valley is so important. I hope by reading this it will inspire you to learn more about it and support the development of the Lea Valley Experience museum to celebrate the regions unique past. For more information visit
www.leavalleyexperience.co.uk
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
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