The Library ..... the pub ..... and the oilman .... with a thank you to Village Eltham

Now I know there will be plenty of pictures of the library knocking around and I dare say some better quality versions of this one which dates from around 1915.

Eltham High Street, circa 1915

But I like it for all sorts of reasons, not least because of the detail it offers of the High Street on a bright sunny day, but also because like many it was somewhere I regularly went to, added to which it was where our Stella worked during the 1970s and into the next decade.

So not surprising then that it crops up on the blog in various stories including some that feature a painting by Peter Topping, who like me has been drawn to it, which is a tribute to the building given that Peter is from Preston and has never visited Eltham.*

But I digress, going back to the photograph along with the Library on the north side of the High Street is The Rising sun whose landlady in 1918 was a Mrs. Shirley Relph who took over the pub after the death of her husband in 1909.  He was a William Relph who offered up beer and cheer from sometime in the 1880s and moved into the new Rising Sun when it was built in 1904.

The Rising Sun, 1915

The old pub according to our historian R.R.C Gregory was about 200 years old when it was demolished and replaced by the present pub .

Nor is that the only thing that intrigues me about William.

I had almost given up hope of finding him and then as you do I came across his widow Julia who was still in charge in 1911, and it was Julia who caught my imagination.

She was born in Cadiz, Spain and of course that raises all sorts of intriguing speculation.

But before I could go off on a flight of fancy I discovered her maiden name was West and like William her father was a publican.

That said her parents were in Spain between the birth of her brother in 1852 and when she was born two years later which may explain why they are missing from the census returns for the middle decades of the 19th century.

Directly opposite between Pound Place and Elm Terrace there was a group of tradesmen, which included Frederick Cook, baker at 142, George Mence Smith, oilman at 144, the coach builders Robert Whittaker & Coin 144a, leaving just William Ryde and Sons who were ironmongers and Thomas Grant Bootmaker.**

I am indebted to Paula Richardson, who along with Gus White and Ian Murdock produced a delightful little book in 1984 entitled Village Eltham, which   included 36 photographs of Eltham and the surrounding district drawn from their collection of old picture postcards.***

The book was sent to me by my friend Barbara who like me attended Crown Woods, and like me left Eltham in the late 1960s, me for Manchester and Barbara for Ontario,

Village Eltham, 1984

All of which means the book has travelled far.

Now ever mindful of copyright I only reproduced one image from the book along with the cover, and expressed the hope that the authors would see the story and grant me permission to use some more of the images.

And so just a few days after I posted the story  Pauls got in touch writing, “Hi Andrew - this brought back memories. We published this privately. Most of the postcards were collected by my ex partner, Ian and his friend, Gus. We were all members of the local history group in Eltham. 

I lost touch years ago when I moved to Australia, but I'm sure as long as you give us credit, it is ok for you to share some images, as the whole point of the book was to take them to a wider audience”.****

So I shall do just that.

*Eltham Library, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Eltham%20Library

**Eltham High Street, 1918, Post Office Directory, London, 1918

***A little bit of Eltham from Ontario in Canada, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-little-bit-of-eltham-from-ontario-in.html

 ****Eltham Village,  Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson in 1984 and published by G & Pi Publications Eltham

Along time in the story of a house in Eltham

Cliefden House in 1909

Now I am back at Cliefden House.

This grand 18th century property is still there on the High Street opposite Passey Place.

It was built sometime around 1720 with an eastern addition dating from the mid 19th century.

Together this made for a large 17 roomed house which could accommodate and it has been both a private residence, and a school and now shops and offices.

I have written about it in the past and have decided on a second visit.  Now this is mainly because I want to feature a then and now set of pictures, although strictly speaking they are both then pictures.

The first dates from 1909 and the second from 1977.

Cliefen House in 1977

In the space of that time the front garden and wall have been sacrificed to the widening of the High Street and with scant disregard for such an elegant old property Granada and Frisbys Shoes set about adding the most appalling signage to the exterior.

And we may just have caught the place on a bad year for the front walls look in need of a coat of paint.

So I suppose today we have to be pleased that the present two occupants of the downstairs shops have been a little more subdued with their signs and a fresh coat of paint has been applied.

Pictures; Cliefden House in 1909 from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm and in 1977, courtesy of Jean Gammons

Walking up the High Street on a January day in 1914

Now there are many ways of recreating a walk up the High Street on a day log ago.

One of the easiest is to use photographs from the past, another is to look up the census record and today I am going to use a street directory.

That directory is the 1914 Post Office Directory listing the names of people and businesses from Well Hall Road east along the High Street.

At which point I would usually go off and dig deep into the records to uncover something of the lives of Mrs Dobell of Sherard house, Mr Rosselli of Mr Merlwood and Mrs Yeatman of Cliefden house, but all have appeared in the blog over the years as have the their homes.

And so has the blacksmiths and the London & South Western Bank ltd.

All you have to do to find them is use the search box on the right hand side of the story.

So that just leaves me to suggest you download the list of 1914 occupants and wander up to the High Street to check out who is there now.

Location; Eltham









Pictures; list of residents and businesses from the Post Directory, 1914 and the northern side of the High Street in 2015 from collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

Well Hall House that fine 18th century pile which went in 1930

Well Hall House date unknown

Now I am fascinated by Well Hall House.

It was built in 1733, replacing the Tudor manor house and was demolished in 1930 and it is a place I have written about and will do so again later next month.

But in the meantime I could not resist posting this picture, which comes from the Edith Nesbit Society.

I don’t have a date but it is clearly late 19th century and may date from when Edith Nesbit lived there.

She is of course known for her children’s books some of which feature Eltham in their stories, but there is one in particular which describes in detail the house and its gardens.

This is the Red House which was written in 1902 just three years after she moved in to Well Hall House,

Which just leaves me to  finish with the picture again.

We are looking at the front of house from the large garden which separated the building from Well Hall Lane.

To our left was the ornamental garden and at the rear more gardens, the moat and three ponds.

The orginal estate had consisted of 33 acres but Edith and her husband took a lease on just 7.

Picture; courtesy of the Edith Nesbit Society, http://www.edithnesbit.co.uk/

On Shooters Hill in 1909

Looking down Shooters Hill in 1909

I am back on Shooters Hill in the June of 1841 thinking about the small community of 58 people who lived on this northern boundary of Eltham.

I had planned to write about them today but instead I couldn’t resist showing this picture of Shooters Hill looking west down the road.

It is taken from the book The Story of Royal Eltham which was written by R.R.C. Gregory in 1909 and although it has long been out of print it has been carefully digitalised by Roy Ayres and can be seen online at http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

And so back to our picture which was taken just 70 or so years after yesterday’s story.

Picture; from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

The Tale at Eltham …….

Now I really wish I knew just what the “Tale at Eltham" was, but alas it is lost.

Nor I suspect did anyone know just what had gone on in Eltham in the October of 1917 when this picture postcard was sent to Miss Goddard of Sussex.

I can tell you that it was sent at 2.30 in the afternoon, but can’t make out from where it was posted.

Nor can I really be sure that the sender or Miss Goddard had any connection with Eltham, which leave me wondering if it had been the two “young things” that caught the attention of Eliza who sent it.

But then these picture postcards were standard fare, with the company merely over printing different destinations to attract local audiences.

Some where in the collection I have another with a different place name.

The message on the back is difficult to read but hints a at a boat trip and an admonishment that Miss Goddard hadn’t written recently.

So that is it, a little bit of 1917 which might or might not have a connection with Eltham.

Location; Suffolk and maybe Eltham

Picture; The Tale at Eltham, 1917, from the collection of David Harrop

Looking for Mr. Henry Charles Digby of Eltham ……… you go looking for one …. and you find two

I am the first to say that history is messy and just when you think you have got a story from the past just right, the past throws you a wobbler.

And that is what happened today when I decided to follow up a post from yesterday.

I first came across a picture of the Old King’s Head in the catalogue of Greenwich Heritage Centre, wrote a story on the pub and moved on, fully intending to go back and write some more.

Of course, I never did, but after reposting the story  yesterday, I was drawn back by the name of the postcard publisher, who was a C.H. Digby of Eltham.

Finding Henry Charles Digby proved relatively easy.  He was born in Walworth in 1854, and was living in Camberwell in 1891, working as a clerk.

A full ten years later he was married with a daughter and lived in Beckenham where he worked as a “Printer’s manager”

By 1910 he was on Eltham High Street at no. 31 and from at least 1918 was at no. 6 Glenlea Road where he died in 1936.

All text book research, and the connection with printing, made the story of the postcard publisher.

Except that also in Eltham, at the same time was another Henry Charles Digby.  Both appear on the electoral rolls from the 1919 onwards with the second Mr. Digby living at Footscray Road and later Southwood Road.

What distinguishes them is that my first Henry Charles was married to Rachael, while the second was married to Beatrice Deborah, but both were living in Eltham with their respective wives from 1919

At first I missed the glaring fact that there were two wives, and two different addresses, and only spotted that something was not quite right, when one Henry Charles died in 1936 and the other was still alive two years later.

So, there remains a mystery, but it will be one that someone will help solve, perhaps coming up with more picture postcards, marketed by one of our Mr. Digbys, and locating both on the 1911 census which I have failed to do.

Location Eltham

Picture; the Old Kings Head, High Street Eltham, GRW 276, http://boroughphotos.org/greenwich/
courtesy of Greenwich Heritage Centre, http://www.greenwichheritage.org/site/index.php

Sources; Census records, Enu 11 15 Camberwell, Cambewell, London, Enu 16 51, Beckenham, Kent, Electoral Rolls for Woolwich, 1910-38, Burial Register St John's Eltham, 1936, Directory 1925, Probate, 1936

*At the Kings Arms waiting for Fred Wisdom to pull a pint, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/at-kings-arms-waiting-for-fred-wisdom.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR3GYAPWiZaK8PRGUZ0kbHOnpuKKzx3mmp9r52SxI6-alog4zdsJrZeKzHU

On Eltham High Street ......... looking for Mr Brown

Now, it is so easy to get lost in an old picture of Eltham.

Eltham Village, date unknown

This is one that my friend Tricia found and posted recently.

The caption says Eltham Village and the post mark on the back is 1904.

That said I think the photograph maybe much older, given that the picture has been heavily retouched.

It is a familiar one showing the old brewery and the High Street.

And as you do I went looking for clues, and there on the corner of the wall on the southern side is a shop sign for Thomas Brown.

The shop of Mr Thomas Brown

This usually offers up a way of anchoring the scene in a time, because Mr Brown should show up on a census return and a street directory.

But he doesn’t.

There is a Thomas Brown and this one lives on Eltham High Street but in the 1880s and 90s he was residing in Sun Yard and gave his occupation variously as a road labourer and gardener.

Nor did he appear to have a son called Thomas.

The earliest street directories I can access are from 1914 and no shop keeper called Thomas Brown appears on the list.

That said I did discover that four doors up from the old Chequers pub were the “dining rooms” run by a Mr Charles Wollard who was still there four years later.

His near businesses included a cycle manufacturer, a watch maker, two confectioners, an oilman, a linen draper, and Mrs Alice Brotherton’s refreshment rooms.

Eltham Brewery

I will in due course go looking for Mr Wollard’s dining rooms which may have been a cut above his rival.  Mrs Alice’s premise were a modest affair and no doubt consisted just of the front room of her five roomed house.

She was there from 1911 and it may well have been a way of making an income after her husband who was a parish road builder had died.

They had lived just over the road in Jubilee Cottages and it would be nice to think that some of her neighbours might have dropped in or that she had a small order delivered from the brewery opposite

Of course that is just fanciful tosh and gets me no nearer a date for the picture postcard, which does not even provide the name of the manufacturer of the card.

Still it is a nice picture and I thank Tricia for finding it.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Eltham Village, circa 1904 from the collection of Tricia Leslie

Shopping on Well Hall Road in the summer of 1907

Well Hall Parade in 1907

Now I am back with two more from Greenwich’s collection of old photographs.

They are both of Well Hall Road and are separated by just eight years.

Of the two the first offers up much more detail of what this row of shops looked like just over a century ago.

And it is a world away from today.

It starts with those ornate lamps protruding from the shop fronts which may have been lit by oil but I suspect will have been gas.

The chemist,  the fancy draper and the watchmaker, 1907

Then there are the large windows  with their iron frames which have just a hint of ornate decoration, which are topped by the names of the owners some of which will have been painted but others might have been etched on glass.

And finally there are the shop displays some of which adhere to that old Edwardian maxim of pile them high and sell them cheap.

Now I rather think it must either be a Sunday or early one morning as most of the shops have their blinds down, even though some have opened their large canopies.

On balance I would go for a Sunday afternoon sometime in the summer judging by the number of  pedestrians and the way the light is falling.

And for those with an even keener eye for detail there are no tram lines and of course a total absence of traffic bar the solitary horse and cart.

The caption says 1907 and assuming that there hasn’t ben a rapid turn over of shop keepers the shop on the corner with Greenvale Road opposite the Co-op was Mr William’s who was a cycle maker and seems to have left his shop signs propped up outside.

Little change in 1915 on Well Hall Road

And using the same street directory for 1908 it is possible to identify all the shops and their owners up to the chemists run by the London Drug Company.

Nor has much changed in the eight years that takes us up to the second picture taken in 1915.

By then the tram has arrived, there is a little more traffic which might just be explained by the fact that the shops are open and there are a fair few people about.

It is easy to forget that our parade of shops would have been as colourful as those of today and each would have displayed their names on the awnings which on this sunny day were pretty much all down.

Picture; Well Hall Road in 1907, GRW 378, and 1915, GWR380 http://boroughphotos.org/greenwich/ courtesy of Greenwich Heritage Centre, http://www.greenwichheritage.org/site/index.php

“Longing to tell you ‘the Tale’ at Eltham” ……. October 12th, 1917

Now sadly I doubt that the “The Tale” in the picture postcard refers to the short story written in 1916 by Joseph Conrad and published the following year.

Nor did the recipient live in Eltham.

She was a Miss Nell Goddard who lived in Wenhaston, which is a small village of 818 people in north west Suffolk.

The Domesday Book records that the village had a mill, a church and woodland sufficient to feed sixteen hogs.

Wenhaston, briefly had a railway station which was part of the Southwold Railway which opened in 1879 and closed in 1929 and today has a “thriving pig farm industry.” *

But it does have a pre-Reformation panel painting depicting the Last Day of Judgement, which Miss Nell would have known, because the panel was discovered during restoration work to the church in 1892.

All of which is a long way from Eltham and leaves me to think that this was one of those picture postcards produced in their thousands which were over printed with the names of different places.

That said I like it.

And given that we have the name of the manufacturer, who was a W & K Lonson along with a serial number, we might in the fullness of time find out more.

I hope so.

Location; 1917

Picture; postcard, courtesy of David Harrop

* Wenhaston, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenhaston

The Eltham we have lost, part 2........ The old lane by the National Schools, 1908

Another of those pictures of Eltham’s past which need no comment

This is the old lane by the National Schools as it was in 1908.  The lane is now Archery Road and 'One acre Allotments' was on the right.









Picture; the old lane,  from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Walking along the High Street in 1908, calling in for a pint and a packet of sweets

Walking down the south side of the High Street in 1909

So this is a walk down the southern side of the High Street in 1908 or 1909.

Now even I have to concede this might not be the most zippy story but at least this is a chance to put names to the buildings as we pass down from Court Yard to Elizabeth Terrace.

On the corner of the High Street where it meets Court Yard was Whistler & Worge who were builders.

They were relatively new comers having occupied the premise for just a few years.

Builders, sweet shops and of course the pub

Next to them was John Robert Howe, dairyman followed by Miss Annie Wise, confectioner and at 86 the Greyhound Public House run by Henry Elms who described himself variously as publican, licensed victualler and fruit grower.

Mr Elms had been born in 1844, and moved around Kent before settling in the Greyhound sometime before 1891.

In the yard at the rear of the pub was Thomas Tilling Ltd, jobmaster and at 88 Mellin & Co chemist, just leaving William Narbeth the draper at 92.

I could go on up the High Street or probe deeper behind the doors but I think I shall pretty much leave it there.

Miss Annie had only recently taken over from her widowed mother, and Mr Elms would die in 1910.

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford.

*Eltham Through Time, Amberley, Publishing,  2013

That first cinema at the top of Eltham High Street

This is the Eltham Cinema and was on the corner of the High Street and Westmount Road.

Eltham Cinema, circa 1913

It was opened in 1913 and demolished in 1968 which means I must have seen it countless times on my way to school at Crown Woods but even now it does not register with me.

I can’t be sure but I am guessing it survived as a Picture House until the big plush cinemas further down the High Street, and in Well Hall offered a bigger and comfortable experience.

And until now that was about all I knew, but yesterday I came across The Kinematograph Year Book, Program, Diary and Directory 1914, which is packed with everything from a list of all the cinemas in 1914 with information about this new and exciting form of entertainment along with lots of adverts.

Advert

And from the book I now know that its proprietor was a Mr Robert Frederick Bean who was listed in 1913 at 4 Everest Road.  A few years earlier he was in Brockley describing himself as a manufacturer’s agent for lace.  He was 31, had been married for three years and had two children and employed a nurse and a housemaid.

I wish I knew more about them but that is about it although they do seem to have moved around a bit living in Lewisham as well as Brockley and Eltham.

In time we will learn more and perhaps also a bit more about the cinema which sadly had no listing for the number of people it could seat.

And Tricia had found out more, "it had 1 screen and seated 400  people. It was built in 1912 opened 1913 and closed 1937.

Pictures; Eltham Cinema, courtesy of Thisiseltham, and advert from The Kinematograph Year Book, 1914, page 43

*Thisiselatham, http://www.thisiseltham.co.uk/

With Elizabeth Jane Hunt and three children in a two roomed house in Eltham in 1911

This is the White Hart on a summer’s day in 1909, and it was going to be the subject of the story.

Mrs Ann Nunn who ran the five roomed pub was 59 years old had been born in Suffolk and was a widow.

During the twenty or so years before 1909 she had run another pub on King Arthur Street a few minutes’ walk from New Cross Road.  Back then it was a densely packed part of south east London close to an iron works and in the shadow of the viaduct of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

Now I don’t yet know when her husband died but I think it may have been in 1897.  Either way she was still in King Arthur Street in 1901 and will have moved into the White Hart sometime aftter the January of 1908 and had gone by 1918.  Now I know this because she does not show up on either the street directories for 1908 and 1918 but is there on the sign above the door of the pub in 1909 and fills in her census return two years later.

But as things do I was drawn away from Mrs Nunn and instead wandered a little further up the street, stopping first at Harry Harvey’s fruit and greengrocer’s shop next door.

It is one of those remarkable examples of just how many people can be squeezed into a small property.

Here in the two rooms above the shop lived Mr and Mrs Harvey their two young children and the 18 years old assistant Frederick Walter Saunders.

Nor were the Harvey’s the only family to juggle overcrowded conditions, for around the corner in another two properties with just two rooms each lived the Chapman family of four and Mrs Hunt and her three children.

And it is Elizabeth Jane Hunt’s story that draws you in.  Her three children were aged, 10, 8 and 6, and for her the juggling began with having to have her daughter in her bedroom leaving the two boys to share the downstairs room beside the scullery.

She had been married for eleven years and worked a charwoman, which was not an easy job.

The date of her husband’s death has eluded me so far but I know he was called Charles and worked as a “Steel and Grass Borer in the Gas Works", and in the April of 1901 Elizabeth and Charles were living on the Broadway in Bexleyheath not far from Gravel Hill.  There is a record of a Charles Hunt who died in 1907 which puts their youngest child at just two years old.

His death may have occasioned the move to 4A the High Street and those two rooms hard by the White Hart.

I don’t have a picture of the properties but they look to have been built with one room above the other and a lean to scullery or kitchen attached.

Alternatively they may have been part of number 4 which was the shop run by the Harvey's/  If so this makes that property a much larger one with six rooms which will have been subdivided.

Either way neither Elizabeth Jane or Mr amd Mrs Chapman appear on those street directories which either means the rooms were vacant or that they were not deemed important enough to be listed at number 4.

I am hoping that someone will have a picture, but in the meantime I am forced back to that of the White Hart.

Pictures; the White Hart in 1909, from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

Lost and forgotten streets of Eltham …… no. 1 Elizabeth Terrace

I don’t think I ever took a short cut and walked down Elizabeth Terrace.

Elizabeth Terrace between Boots and W. H. Smith, 2014

It’s that unimpressive thoroughfare sandwiched between Boots the Chemist on one side and WH Smith’s on the other.

If you do, and apparently a lot of people use it to get to the Community Hospital it leads onto Philipot Path which connects Court Yard with Passey Place.

But Margaret Huntley remembers “going to a friend's little house after school. There was a garden opposite which we thought was an orchard and we used to go scrumping in there. Really tiny little place”.

Soon after she recorded her memories of the place, Matt K Minch posted a picture of the terrace taken in 1911, which showed a long line of houses fronted by a row of gardens and decorated with bunting for the coronation of King Edward Vll.

The photograph was taken looking up towards the High Street and as still happened at the time , the arrival of a photographer brought everyone out of their houses.

The eight faces that stare out of us are a mix of grown up and children, and some at least it might be possible to identify, because 1911 was also census year, which means that by working back from the High Street end it should be possible to locate the people in their doorways.

But more of that later.

For now I know that the houses were two up two down and there were 25 of them.

Elizabeth Terrace, 1875, west of  Park Place

A decade earlier in 1901 these 25 houses were home to one hundred people who gave their occupations as laundresses, brick layer, dressmaker , and carpenter and even one agricultural worker, along with a “Telegraph messenger boy” and junior clerk.

So, a mix of jobs, and ones that span neatly Eltham’s rural past where farming had been  an important activity, contrasted with the future, marked by the telegraph and the office.

Most of the residents in 1901 were from Eltham or close by, but there a few from Sussex, Surrey, and even the Midlands and Norfolk.

Not unsurprisingly there are some households which were living in overcrowded conditions, like James and Sarah Slopes who squeezed themselves and five children into the four rooms of their home, while at number 19 the family counted nine individuals.

And we know more about Mr. Slopes, including that he described himself as “a Sexton labourer”, raising the possibility that he worked at the parish church.

By contrast at number 2 Mary Tabley, and Ann Thorn shared the house.  Both were widows, and both took in laundry, although Mary recorded that she worked on her “own account” and Ann was merely a “worker”.

There is more, and I rather think Elizabeth Terrace will become a research project, spanning the years back to 1851 and possibly back another decade.

The street was listed in the 1851 census although it is not clear yet whether we are dealing with the same properties.

We shall see.

Location; Eltham

Pictures; looking east up  the High Street, 2014, with Elizabeth Terrace beside Boots, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick, and the High Street in 1875, OS for Kent map 6inch

Eltham Park Railway Station ........ the one I never visited

So, despite living in Eltham for an important chunk of my childhood I never visited Eltham Park Railway Station.

Eltham Park Railway Station, 1908

But then we lived on Well Hall Road and there seemed very little reason to stay on the train.

On the rare occasions when I did visit the next station on the line it was part of those adventures which led me wandering across Eltham on sunny Saturdays or in the school holidays.

All of which means I have no idea what it looked like, and so I am grateful to that smashing little book Eltham Village published in 1984.*

More so because one of the authors, Paula Richardson has given me permission to reproduce this picture, and as we all know it is always correct to seek the permission of those who first reproduced the image.

Likewise, I shall credit that excellent site Disused Stations for the history of the railway Station, which opened in 1908 by South Eastern & Chatham Railway Company and closed on March 3rd, 1983.**

By then I had done a decade in Manchester and remember my surprise when on going home later in that year the train from Charing Cross deposited me on the platform of entirely different railway station.

Not much of a story I suppose, but sometimes history is made up of the little things.

Location; Eltham

Picture; Eltham Park Railway Station, 1908, from Eltham Village

*Eltham Village,  Gus White, Ian Murdock and Paula Richardson in 1984 and published by G & Pi Publications Eltham

**Eltham Park, Disused Stations, http://disused-stations.org.uk/e/eltham_park/index.shtml

Annie Morris, Ram Alley and more stories of Eltham in the 19th century

Annie and her son William in 1877

I  am back with Annie Morris whose life in Eltham pretty much covered the period when the place shifted from a rural backwater to a suburb of London.

She was born Annie Rice Foster in Pound Place in 1848 and her grandfather and father were blacksmiths on the High Street.

She would have known and gone to school with many children whose parents still made a living from the land, either as farmers, agricultural labourers or trades associated with the rural economy.

Her husband John was a carpenter and joiner, and his father variously described himself as a labourer, groom, gamekeeper and gardener.

John had been born in Yorkshire and his father was from Wales, and during the years before 1851 the family moved back to Wales before settling in Eltham which rather contradicts that old school’s history idea that people seldom travelled.

Judging by the census records the lanes of Eltham would have been full of different accents.  Annie’s grandfather had been born in the North West, her father in law in Wales and her mother in law in Yorkshire.

And looking at the at the servants employed in the grand houses around Eltham they also were drawn from across the country which shouldn’t surprise us given that few of these wealthy families would choose to employ local girls.

In the same way Annie and John moved around a bit, having started their married life in Plumstead in 1875, they were back in Eltham by 1880 and lived in a succession of cottages.

Ram Alley in 1909

Of these I am drawn to their time in Ram Alley which consisted of four cottages by the High Street.

Now I doubt that these properties were ever that wonderful to live in.

Three of the four had just two rooms while the fourth consisted of three. In 1895 they were all condemned as unfit to live in but in the way of these things they were not demolished for another forty-three years.

Annie and John were there in Ram Alley by 1891 bringing up six children in just two rooms.

And it is easy to brush over that simple fact but eight people is difficult enough especially given that the four boys ranged in age from sixteen down to four and there was a daughter under two.

That said Court Yard where they were living a decade later was only marginally less of a squeeze for while it had five rooms there were still eight of them and young Mabel was now 11.

But such was the lot of many working class families in both rural and urban areas and throughout the 19th century commentators reported on the ingenious ways families coped with such overcrowding, ranging from the simple blanket hung across the upstairs room to sharing out children with neighbours or grandparents.

I suppose there was always that simple observation that soon enough the children would move on.  By 1911 Annie and John were sharing Court Yard with just two of their children while up at Ram Alley, three of the four properties were occupied by just one person and the fourth with its three rooms was the home of George Meakin and his lodger Elizabeth Lumley.

Detail of Annie and William

Annie was to record her memories of growing up in Eltham to a local newspaper in 1931 and in the fullness of time I will revisit the stories she had to tell.

But I shall close with another look at the photograph of Annie as a proud mother in 1877.

She is sitting with her eldest son William and the picture was taken in Woolwich.

Now this must have amounted to quite a financial outlay for a working family and I rather think there will not be that many from this period or from their class.

And it is the detail that draws you in.

William is dressed in his finest baby wear but it is Annie who makes the lasting impression with that carefully prepared hair and the striking dress.

She would have been 29.

Location; Eltham, London


Pictures; Annie Morris with her eldest son William courtesy of Jean Gammons, and Ram Alley from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

On Court Yard with Annie Morris

I never tire of looking at this picture which takes me back to an Eltham I never knew.

We are standing on Court Road at the beginning of the last century and it comes from the collection published in Eltham Through Time by Kristina Bedford*

To our left in more recent times was the Grove Market, ahead of us the old Congregational Church and to the right a row of houses and shops which were already old by the time our photograph was taken.

Judging by the leaves on the trees we are in spring but never completely trust an postcard because companies were not averse to the odd “touching up” to enhance the image.

That said I have always been drawn to this bit of Eltham and not because of the palace and the posh buildings associated with it but because of that row in to our right.

I have written about walking past the properties already.**

And it was here that Annie Morris who lived when our photographer pitched up on Court Yard.***

In her time she had lived at  numbers 17 and 25 Court Yard and before that in Ram Alley behind the High Street.

She was born in 1848 at 4 Pound Place, and almost her whole life was spent in here Eltham.

She was a cook and may have worked for Captain North at Avery Hill and through her life we have a snap shot of what Eltham had been and what it was becoming.

Her grandfather had set up a farrier’s business in Eltham in 1803 on what is now the Library, and “attended the old Parish Church in his leather apron.”

All of which takes me back to Court Yard and that picture from Ms Bedford's book

Location; Eltham

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford from Eltham Through Time

*Eltham Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2013, http://www.amberleybooks.com/shop/article_9781445616001/Eltham-Through-Time%3CBR%3E%3CI%3EKristina-Bedford%3C_I%3E.html?sessid=QEZApJq34zSjKNVdmAQp3W3Qy2Osaq7D26IZyhCFhC916IZiIOjjz615AwKjvvXM&shop_param=cid%3D1%26aid%3D9781445616001%26

**Walking along Court Yard in the June of 1841, looking for John Martin and Hannah Simmons, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/walking-along-court-yard-in-june-of.html

***Annie Morris, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Annie%20Morris 

Ms Bedford also has an interesting web site, Ancestral Deeds, http://www.ancestraldeeds.co.uk/

Elm Terrace ......... the picture and the story ...... Eltham High Street in 1905

Now, I have to say that this row of terraced houses is not what you expect to see off the High Street.

And I had to think for a few minutes just where Elm Terrace is, because I don’t remember the houses and I doubt few people today will either.

Elm Terrace is of course one of those narrow little streets off the High Street, opposite the Rising Sun.

As a kid I had no reason to go down there, and the last time I ventured down it was an unremarkable place with a Chinese restaurant and not much else, although there was a bit of a ghost sign which had been exposed after a sign board had been taken down.

It is on the side of the wall of number 23 which was once Four Paws Grooming Saloon, but has been empty for a few years.

Now as everyone knows I am attracted to ghost signs and this one intrigues me because all we have left picked out in giant red lettering is ASTEL, leaving me to wait for someone with a longer memory to tell me what it referred to.

So with that cleared up, I am back to the picture, which is dated around 1905.

I say 1905, but that was when the picture postcard was sent and so the actual date it was taken maybe earlier, but not much because, Margaret writes to her aunt “that I have put a cross by our house. Mrs Smith used to live by the lamp post - the house you see at the bottom is Mrs Masson”.

These were four roomed houses and there were 23 of them in the terrace.

Our own historian Mr Gregory writing in1909 said nothing about the properties and limited himself to a speculation on the origins of the name which he thought “in all probability is derived from two old elm trees which at one time stood at the end of the road remote from the High Street.”*

Now I don’t blame him for passing over a description of the houses, at the time they would have been familiar to everyone.

As it was nine years later they do not even warrant a reference in the 1918 street directory, which confined itself to listing just William Ryde & Son, farriers, and The Eltham Public Hall which was owned by R. Smith & Company.

The line of the roof of the hall is just visible at the end of the terrace. It dated from the 1870s and was the British School but with the opening of the school at Pope Street the building was “used for meetings, concerts and similar purposes”.

As for our houses, those “on left were demolished for the Arcade development in 1930 which was only half completed when the developer went bankrupt.  The Elm Terrace Fitness Centred (opened in 1931 as an indoor market) covers the site of most of the cottages on the right except the last three, which are now used for commercial purposes”. ***

I have to say I do like the picture and more because we can identify pretty much everyone who lived here during the early 20th century using electoral registers and the census returns.

And here I must pay tribute to Tricia, who sent over the picture and did much of the research on Margaret Pocknall from which I know she was a dress maker, born in Eltham in 1877, and her family moved around Eltham and settled just round the corner in Southend Road in Elm Villas.

But I will close with one simple observation and that  even back then, a gable end invited the idle to chalk on the wall.

To which Matt K Minch went one better and posted this picture with the comment, "'Astel' I think is the remnants of the sign that said Hardcastles, this being what became of the 3 houses that survived there."

And that really is it, with thanks to Matt and Tricia who did all the research.
Location; Eltham

Picture; Elm Terrace, courtesy of Tricia Leslie, and Elm Terrace from the collection of Matt K Minch, date unknown

*Gregory, R.R.C. The Story of Royal Eltham, 1909, page 286

**ibid, Gregory, R.R.C., page 287

***Kennet, John, Eltham a Pictorial History, 1995 image 84

William Barefoot and a day in the archives of the Peoples’ History Museum in Manchester

William Brefoot, date unknown

Now I have to confess that for me William Barefoot was just a name on a plaque in the Pleasaunce, and if pushed I could also point to William Barefoot Drive and a small park in Plumstead.

All of which is  particularly embarrassing given that we were both members of the Woolwich Labour Party and Mr Barefoot had along connection to Eltham as a councillor and to the history of Woolwich.

And it was while I was in the archives of the Peoples’ History Museum that I decided to take a break from researching the Great War and instead begin to learn more about this remarkable man.*

I knew that he had been born in 1872 that his father was a sadler and that the family had lived on Frances Street not far from the Dockyard and I vaguely also knew that he had been a councillor for Eltham for 33 years and was the Mayor of Woolwich not once but three times, all of which is an impressive record of municipal service.

But there was much more.

A Hall, Will Crooks 7 W Barefoot, 1910

“Will Barefoot fought West Woolwich several times without success, but it was as Agent for the Borough Party that he lived and died. 

From the days of his apprenticeship in the Royal Arsenal he was identified with the Trade Union, Socialist, Co-operative and Municipal life of the Borough.  

Woolwich Labour Representation Committee was one of the first to enlist ‘individual members’ and made national history in 1902 when Will Crooks was first returned to Westminster.  

Success followed in every direction and came primarily as a result of Will Barefoot‘s genius for organization.  
He was supported in all efforts by his wife and it was a poignant circumstance that Mrs Barefoot died within a few weeks of her husband’s passing.”**

He worked alongside Will Crooks the first Labour MP for Woolwich and would have been an active participant in many of the great events of the early 20th century from the election of Mr Crooks to the General Strike of 1926.

And during the Great War he was active on the London Food Vigilance Committee.

Food Vigilance Committees had sprung up across the country as a means of drawing attention to the sharp rise in the cost of living and set forth a clear set of policies, demanding greater control by both the Government and local authorities of food and fuel along with the participation of the Labour movement.

Inside the archives, 

So for me Mr Barefoot has come out of the shadows, and I rather think I will be spending more time in the Archives & Study Centre calling up material on his life and contribution.

“The Labour History Archive & Study Centre (LHASC) is the main specialist repository for research into the political wing of the labour movement.  

It holds the archives of working class organisations from the Chartists to New Labour, including the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain.  

From Salford, 2013

The collections provide an insight into the social, political and economic life of the last two centuries.

As well as the archives of political parties and leftwing pressure groups, LHASC collects the personal papers of radical politicians, writers and activists.  

The archives complement the objects, photographs and banners found in the museum collections and researchers may well find material of interest in both.*

William Barefoot Memorial, 2013

All of which may seem a long way from Woolwich, but I think not.

Sitting there yesterday reading the same material he would have handled I was reminded that we shared quite a lot.

Pictures; photographs of William Barefoot, Will Crooks and A Hall along with the interior of the study centre and view of the Museum from Salford, courtesy of Archives & Study Centre, at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, http://www.phm.org.uk/ and  William Barefoot Memorial in Well Hall Pleasunce, from the collection of Chrisse Rose, 2013

* Archives & Study Centre, at the People’s History Museum, Manchester, http://www.phm.org.uk/

** Report of the Annual Conference held the Central Hall Westminster May 25 to 28th, 1942