With John Fry, builder, sawyer, land agent and appraiser in Eltham circa 1837

Fry's Buildings numbered as 264-275 in 1844

John Fry is another of those people that has faded pretty much from history.

He appears only once in The Story of Royal Eltham* and yet the more I looked into the contemporary records the more there was about the man.

He is there of course in the census returns but also the land tax records, the tithe schedule and the parish records.

Not bad for a man who up until recently I knew only as a name for a block of cottages tucked behind the High Street.

All of which remains an instructive lesson in how even the forgotten of history can be rediscovered.

Which begs the question of why John Fry?

The answer is partly because the paper trail is there and also that such people were important to the community and so deserve to be recorded as such.

He was born in 1792 in Kent, possibly at Tunbridge and may have been in Eltham by 1818 for although I can find no record of his marriage to Henrietta she was from Eltham and their first daughter was baptized in the parish church in October 1819.

The Smithy just a little east of their home, 1909

He described himself variously as a builder, carpenter, sawyer, land agent and appraiser and in 1833 he built Fry’s Buildings which were just north of the High Street.

They were twelve wooden cottages** which faced east across the fields with longish gardens at the rear.

The buildings were only demolished in 1957 to make way for an extension to Hinds Store and an additional playground to the old village school on Roper Street.

As cottages go they were a decent size consisting of three rooms upstairs and two down.***  And in 1837 were assessed for the land tax at £3 12shillings.

It was these properties which allowed him to qualify to vote in Parliamentary elections and in the election of 1837 he voted for the two Tory candidates.

Fry's Buildings and their home shown in in yellow, 1858-73

His standing in the community was high enough for him to be one of the assessors for the land tax in 1837 and he was active as a church warden.

All of which does bring him out of the shadows.

We know also that his three daughters were all baptized in the parish church, and that he his eldest was still living with him in 1871.****

There is still much to uncover but as  a start I am pretty pleased with how much we know about John and Harriet and so we will leave them in their house set back from the High Street in a long garden a little west of his twelve cottages.

This house, the workshop and his garden he rented from a Francis Kirkpatrick of which
more later.

Location; Eltham, London

*R.R.C.Gregory, the Story of Royal Eltham, 1909
**Ibid Gregory
***1911 census
**** Harriet, 1819, Lydia, 1823,and Sarah 1825

Pictures, detail of Eltham High Street,  1844 from the Tithe map for Eltham courtesy of Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone, http://www.kent.gov.uk/leisure_and_culture/kent_history/kent_history__library_centre.aspx
and Fry's Buildings from the the OS map of Kent 1858-73, the Smithy 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

Uncovering the secrets of Ivy Court on Eltham High Street

Now I am intrigued by this picture which dates from 1909.

The caption just says, “site of the London and South-Western Bank (High Street), House formerly the residence of the late Miss Fry, now of Mr Coulson).”

Not much to go on I grant you but a start.

The bank had been formed in 1862 and merged with Barclays in 1918, all of which would seem to put our picture on the site of the modern Barclays Bank in the High Street.

But this was built in 1932 which seems a long time between our picture and the current building dispensing its cash.

And so to Miss Fry who was one of two sisters who lived on the High Street at Ivy Court.

They were the daughters of John Fry, who owned Jubilee Buildings as well as other properties and was one of those self made men.

The family home was on the north side of the High Street behind a long garden which fronted the main road and commanded a fine view up across fields to the woods beyond.

The house had ten rooms and this was where Harriet and Lydia saw out their days.

Harriet died in 1895, and Lydia in 1907 and thanks to their father they lived on “income from interest” and both left effects worth over £1200.

Their house is still there behind the bank.  “An ornamental iron gate alongside [the bank] frames a path leading to a house of the mid 1820s in a secluded location [which] is now offices.”*

Mr Frederick Colson and his wife Lucy and three children were still in Ivy Court in the April of 1911.

He was a solicitor and the family had moved from Westmount Road where they had been a decade earlier.

Their new address was listed as 29B, which helps  solve the mystery of when the bank was built.

Back when the Fry sisters lived at Ivy Court it was numbered 29, but by 1911 number 29 has the postal address of the London and South Western Bank, and was also home to Harry Wallis the bank manager and his wife and daughter.

So sometime after our two chaps posed infront of Ivy Court part of the garden became a bank and in the fullness of time Barclays chose to demolish their old premises and build the one we see today.

All of which now just requires a picture of Ivy Court as it is now, down that path from the High Street, beside the bank.

And as you would expect my friend Jean is already on to it which will make for another story.

*Spurgeon, Darrell, Discover Eltham, 2000

Picture; Ivy Court, 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

Uncovering more of that hidden house in Eltham High Street

Here we are again with that house tucked away down an alley beside a bank on the High Street.

It was the home of the Fry family, possibly from 1819 and certainly through that century till the last of the Fry sisters died in 1907.

And it is a story I keep returning to, partly because it says a lot about a middling family here in Eltham during the 19th century and because it is a case book example of how you start with a name, go on to locate the family home and along the way discover that a property you thought lost is still there.

Now all of that you can read about by following the link to Ivy Court, John Fry or the Fry sisters.

I fear nothing will remain of the original features, but the firm may be in possession of the deeds which will date the building tell us a lot about the Fry family and may well throw up other interesting stories.

Picture; Ivy Court today courtesy of Jean Gammons

A little bit of lost Eltham, the house behind the bank on the High Street

Ivy Court today

This was the home of Harriet and Lydia Fry.  

They were born here in the 1820s and died here, Harriet in 1895 and Lydia in 1907.

Today it is hidden from view down a passageway beside the bank on the High Street.

But during their life time the property was situated in a long garden which fronted the main road with fine views back across the fields to Shooters Hill and the woods.

It was known as Ivy Court and had ten rooms.

As such it was a suitable house for a family of industry and property.

Their father was John Fry who described himself variously as a builder, carpenter, sawyer, land agent and appraiser and in 1833 he built Fry’s Buildings which were just north of the High Street.

They were twelve wooden cottages which faced east across the fields with longish gardens at the rear and were only demolished in 1957 to make way for an extension to Hinds Store and an additional playground to the old village school on Roper Street.

They were a decent size consisting of three rooms upstairs and two down.  And in 1837 were assessed for the land tax at £3 12shillings.

Ivy Court in 1909

It was these properties which allowed him to qualify to vote in Parliamentary elections and in the election of 1837 he voted for the two Tory candidates.

He was born in 1792 in Kent, possibly at Tunbridge and may have been in Eltham by 1818 for although I can find no record of his marriage to Henrietta she was from Eltham and their first daughter was baptised in the parish church in October 1819.

And this may be a clue to the date of our house which Darrel Spurgeon* suggests was sometime in the 1820s.

Only with the death of Lydia did our house vanish behind the old bank and pretty much out of the view and knowledge of many in Eltham.

It may briefly have come back out of the shadows with the demolition of the old bank but was lost again after the building of the Barclays Branch in 1932.

I would love to know more about its history and what if anything has survived of the original features and perhaps in time that will happen.

But in the meantime I shall resist that unhistorical assertion that here is a house that could represent the changes that have happened to Eltham.

The garden just during the construction of the first bank

True it once stood proud for all to see at the end of a long garden and did so for most of the 19th century, and during their long residence here the Fry sisters would have seen many changes, but so could lots of other people.

Nor was what happened to their home so different from those other even finer homes which were adapted for other uses and different occupants.

So I shall just close by reflecting that for me at least what was once lost is found.

*Spurgeon Darrell, Guide to Eltham, 2000

Picture; Ivy Court, 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 picture of Ivy Court today courtesy of Jean Gammons

Reflections on masks in the Age of the Virus ……. no.2 ..... on the street where they walk

An occasional short series featuring a mask and the irresponsible  use of the said garment.

Perhaps it is my age but I can't understand why people just discard their masks as they walk.

It ranks with that increasingly common practice of spitting in the street, and seems totally unnecessary, risks spreading contamination and are so anti social.

But the discarded masks are in their way part of the history of the virus.

Enough said.

Location; Eltham

Picture; the mask of Eltham, 2021, from the collection of John King