Walking the woods above Well Hall in 1977

Sometimes it is worth remembering just how pleasant it is to live in Eltham.

When we first arrived in 1964 I had no idea that just above where we lived on Well Hall Road were a stretch of woods which gave you a sense of being somewhere far away from the High Street and those busy roads which took you down to Greenwich or Woolwich.

But there they were a dense and wonderful set of woodlands in which you could walk for miles.

And so that is all I am going to say on the matter and just close by thanking my friend Jean for another  photograph of Eltham in the 1970s.

Picture; from the collection of Jean Gammons

What they did to this bit of Shooters Hill

Well here is one they slipped past me.

We are on Shooters Hill in the summer of 1977 and my old friend Jean was passing with her camera.

And what a good job she did, because in the intervening 37 years, the little newsagent’s lock up has been converted into a two storey property, all white and pebbled dashed and Ace Auto Electrical lurking just beyond the Red Lion car park is a Convenience Store.

Now comparing the two scenes I have to say that there has been a distinct improvement.

It just goes to show that not everything urns out for the worst.

Picture; Shooters Hill in 1977, from the collection of Jean Gammons.

The lost Eltham & Woolwich pictures ...... no. 43 ..... the Castle on the hill

Now the story of Severndroog Castle is pretty well known and so the story of this 47 year old picture rests with the image.

It was taken with one of those old clunky instamatic cameras, which processed the film straight away and turned out the image in minutes.

The film was expensive and from memory you only got eight or so shots, but there was something magical about the instant nature of the process.

Today the mobile phone or the digital camera will do it equally fast with the added advantage that it can be sent on to family and friends across the planet.

But in 1970 this was pretty neat, and how better to use the camera than to wander up Shooters Hill.

Someone far more expert than me will be able to explain just how the camera managed to create that blotch to the right of the Castle.

It is quite clearly a tree but a tree which shouldn’t be there, so perhaps the camera didn’t quite work.

Answers on the back of a post card addressed to the Friends of Severndroog Castle or just add a comment to the blog.

Location; Shooters Hill

Picture; Severndroog Castle, circa 1970,  from the Simpson family collection