Lewisham and Chorlton-cum-Hardy ……two places …. two homes

So it is pushing it because I concede I never lived in Lewisham but Eltham is close, and so I was drawn to this picture post postcard which was sent from Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1926 to 24 Brandram Road, south east London.

The image on the front is not much to shout about and I have seen better quality ones of the same spot which is at a crossing of the River Mersey.

The caption just says Jacksons Bridge which was just 42 years old when Mrs. Gardner sent it to Lewisham in the April of that year.

And like so many commercial picture postcards the description is a tad inaccurate.  The bridge replaced an earlier wooden one which was constructed around 1816 by a Samuel Wilton when he ran the pub over the water, which today is known as Jackson’s Boat but back into the 19th century was variously called the Greyhound, the Old Greyhound or the Boat House.

The boat refers to the right of landlords of the pub to ferry people across the river for a fee, and when Samuel Wilton built that first bridge he exacted a toll for crossing over it.

And when the new one replaced the old one in the 1880s the charge remained and did so until the late 1940s.

In time I will go looking for Mrs Gardner but for now I am more interested in its arrival at Brandram Road which is still there but alas the present address is one of a line of new build, and I had to walk up and down the road to find properties which might mirror number 24.

There are some very impressive houses which look to be early to mid-19th century and are complimented by the Merchant Taylor’s Alms Houses which stand behind a tall wall and dates from 1826.

Merchant Taylor's Alms Houses, 1872

And that takes me to the family who received the card.  The message they received was fairly run of the mill, but Mrs Gardner’s handwriting isn’t the best and the name of her friends is unclear.

And that is a shame because I can locate the families who were there three years earlier and in 1939, but at present not in 1926.

Ah well sometimes you just bump into a brick wall!.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy and Lewisham

Picture; Picture postcard, circa 1926 from the collection of David Harrop, and and detail of  Brandram Road, from the OS map of London, 1862-72, courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/