A new book on the history of Eltham

I am waiting on the arrival of Eltham Through Time which was published in November by Amberley Publishing.*

It is by Kristina Bedford who lives in Charlton.

The book sets out to show how Eltham has changed with a mix of old photographs and contemporary ones.

It is not the first such book on Eltham.

R.R.C. Gregory published The Story of Royal Eltham in 1909 and since then there has been a succession of books.**

But what makes Ms Bedford’s book different is that half of the images are in colour.

Now at this stage I do have to declare an interest.

Along with local artist Peter Topping I have just published in the same series by Amberley and have been commissioned to write a collection of books on Manchester pubs and the breweries of Greater Manchester.

So I am well aware of both the challenges and possible pitfalls of writing a local history book.

First there is the task of collecting enough images and checking them for copyright.

Then there is the task of finding contemporary photographs which is not always easy.

Sometimes the buildings have been demolished or so dramatically changed as to be unrecognizable and sometimes the modern equivalent is just downright boring.

So much rides on the stories that accompany the pictures.  And I do say stories because a caption stating the date and place is just not enough.

If you are lucky after trawling old newspapers and visiting the archive or heritage centre you might uncover people who remember the old building and have something memorable to say about it.

Failing that there are always the chance comments of someone writing to a friend which can offer up a wealth of human detail.

And one such person was Bertha Geary aged thirteen of School Lane who in 1911 heard history.

"We saw the flying man on Tuesday night fly over head.  Beaumont is his name.  I wish you could have seen him.  

It made such a noise.”

He was André Beaumont and he was one of 30 competitors in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Air race in 1911.

Flying in a Blériot XI he was the first to complete the course which was no mean achievement as many of the aircraft either failed to take off or crashed along the way.

So to him went the £10,000 prize which was awarded to a man whose real name was Lieutenant Jean Louis Conneau of the French Navy.

All of which today we take for granted but was pure magic and wonderment to young Bertha, for who the persistent buzzing of the aircraft’s engines above her head was something new and I guess louder than anything she had yet encountered.

And what Bertha did on the postcard she sent her friend was to write her own address, and with this I was able to track her on a street directory, find out her surname and look her up on the census record.

All of which brought  Miss Geary and her family out of the shadows and led us to know a little bit more about the people who lived in Didsbury.

So I am hoping for the same from Ms Bedford.

Didsbury Through Time chronicles the changes to the area over the last century mixing old images of the place with new photographs and paintings and focusing on some of the people who lived behind the doors of the buildings featured in the book.

Pictures; covers of various books on Eltham, and Didsbury and detail from Bertha Gaery's postcard to a friend, 1911


* Eltham Through Time, Kristina Bedford, Amberley Publishing, 2013

** The Story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C.Gregory, 1909, The Story of Royal Eltham, Roy Brook, Harrop, 1960, Discover Eltham and its Environs, Darrell Spurgeon, Greenwich Guide Books, 1992, revised edition 2000, Eltham in Old Photographs, John Kennett, Alan Sutton, 1993, Eltham,  David Sleep, Tempus, 2004, and a range of books published by the Eltham Society, http://www.theelthamsociety.org.uk/