Painting Well Hall and Eltham ....... nu 8 ....... magic days and evenings by the Tudor Barn

An occasional series featuring buildings and places I like and painted by Peter Topping.

The Barn, 2017

I am guessing we all have our favourite memories of the Tudor Barn and the Pleasaunce.

Mine run from wandering around the gardens on warm sunny days with a girl friend enjoying that heady sense of romance mixed with the memories of the sunlight playing on the moat and the orange coloured brick work of the Barn

And if there is one special memory it will be of a Blues and Folk night sometime in the summer of 1966.

I can’t remember who was on but there was something magical about sitting in the small open air theatre listening to the music with all that history as a backdrop.

Junior Showtime in the Pleasaunce, 1967

For years afterwards I cherished the poster of the event which I bought for a shilling  from the entertainments office of the Council, and as you do I pasted it on the wall of my bedroom.

It featured a guitar and a pair of Chelsea boots in black on a white background and always reminded me of the Pleasaunce.

For my sisters one of their special moments might well be those summer entertainments put on during the holidays and featuring all sorts of kid’s entertainers.

By chance one of those Junior Showtime’s was photographed by the local paper and the clipping with our Jill aged about nine staring back at the camera has survived.

And there hangs a perfect moment in time down at the Tudor Barn.

Painting; The Tudor Barn © 2017 Peter Topping from a photograph by Scott MacDonald circa 2013

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

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Picture; Well Hall courtesy of Scott McDonald and Junior Showtime, August 20 1967 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Tudor Barn in 1909, one for the album

The Tudor Barn in 1909

Now here is one for the picture album.

This is the Tudor Barn back in 1909 and that really is about all I want to say.

Although I find it hard to match this image with the building I knew.

It comes from Eltham Through Time.*

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford.

*Eltham Through Time, Amberley, Publishing,  2013

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

A little bit of Tudor History in Well Hall on a summer's day in 1964

Well Hall Pleasaunce, August 1964

This is one of those photographs we all have in the collection.

It was taken in the summer of 1964 and there amongst the smiling children and their parents is one of my sisters.

And it is one of those odd things that I not only remember the event, but also my mother cutting the photograph out of the local paper and sending a copy to our grandmother.

The event was “Junior Showtime” one of a series of summer time events put on by Greenwich Council at Well Hall Pleasaunce.

The moat and Tudor Barn, 2013 © Scott McDonald 

I doubt that our Jill even remembers the show and I am pretty sure it will be almost impossible to track down the performers on that Saturday in the August of 1964 but it is a reminder of the extent to which local councils put on all sorts of cultural activities.

I still remember a magic summer of fun put on during that long six weeks holidays at my Junior school in south east London in the July of 1961.

And round about the same time the Manchester Corporation Parks Committee issued a “Guide to Leisure and Pleasure in the Open Air” with everything from the big events like the Manchester Show down to “Jerko the Clown, Versatile Children’s’ entertainer presenting Magic and Mirth in various parks.” 

Of course it was not all positive.  Many of the bandstands which for over fifty years had been places to listen to live music were slowly being left to rust and the attention of vandals while the paddling pools were closed and filled in.

The moat and Tudor Barn, 2013 © Scott McDonald

All of which takes me back to the Well Hall Pleasaunce on that warm summers day in 1964 and the Tudor barn which had been built by John and Margaret Roper in 1525.

She was the daughter of Thomas More, Lord Chancellor to Henry V111.

They had married in 1521 in Eltham and lived on a moated island to the south of the barn.

The barn was used for storage but may also have been occupied by servants because at the western end there there are two huge chimney and is all that is left of the buildings they would have known..

Maragret Roper 1539

Margaret and Thomas were the very embodiment of the Renaissance.

She was an accomplished writer and translator while he wrote a much praised biography of his father in law.

The Roper’s home was demolished in the 1730s and a new house called Well Hall House was built between the moat and Well Hall Road.

Its most famous occupant was the children’s author Edith Nesbit, who wrote The Railway Children, and lived here from 1899 until 1922.

After its demolition in the early 1930s Woolwich Council decided to use the renovated Barn as the centrepiece of a new park, the Well Hall Pleasaunce.

Well Hall House, date unknown

"The park was opened in 1933 and the Tudor Barn as a restaurant in 1936.

Although it was intended that a library should be situated there, this never happened and for many years after the War, the Barn was run by the council as a restaurant and upstairs an art gallery and function room for weddings and events.""**

And that brings me back to that summers day in 1964 and the concert area.

It was a popular venue where I attended a mix of blues and folk nights while Brian Norbury remembers “seeing the Strawbs there when Rick Wakeman was making one of his first appearances, about 1970.”

So a nice mix of personal memories a bit of Civic enterprise and a link with Tudor history.  Not bad for a small piece of south east London

Pictures, Well Hall Pleasuance, August 15 1964 from the collection of Andrew Simpson, the moat and Tudor Barn, 2013 ©Scott McDonaldcourtesy of Bernard Skinner, Estate Agents, http://www.bernardskinner.co.uk/ Maragret Roper, from a 1593 copy of a now lost painting by Hans Holbein,, Well Hall House, courtesy of the Edith Nesbit Society, http://www.edithnesbit.co.uk/wellhall.php#picture

* Leisure and Pleasure in the Open Air  Parks Committee, Manchester Corporation, 1963
** http://www.tudorbarneltham.com/

“The Moat, Well Hall”.......... sometime around 1903

The caption just says the “The Moat, Well Hall” and I just love this picture.

It comes from Some Records of Eltham which was published in 1903 and written by Rev. Elphinstone Rivers who was vicar of the parish church from 1895.*

In time I will go digging for more on the author but at present I am marvelling in this old book which my sister Jill found.

The chapters cover the early history of Eltham, include a heap of old documents and some fine pictures which brings me back to this one of Well Hall.

I guess it will have been taken when Edith Nesbit was in the big house which fronted the main road.

This had been built in 1733 and survived until 1930.

I like what the Rev. Elphinstone Rivers wrote about the spot, "seen from the roadway, the present comparatively modern farm house does not strike the beholder as being of great interest.

The old fashioned cottages a little to the north are of a
much more picturesque character.

If one takes the trouble to enter the farmhouse-yard, however, and walk around the back of the stables, he will encounter a fragment of an antique moat and just beyond he will see a picturesque gable end and chimney stack of ancient brickwork which formed a portion of the venerable mansion of the Ropers.

The spot is beautifully quiet one, and should be visited if one wants to see it at its best, when the setting sun is dipping behind the western horizon lighting up the quant old brickwork with a ruddy glow and filling the glass panes with a golden blaze of brilliance.”

Now for that alone I am pretty pleased our Jill found the book, and I rather think there will be more from Rev. Elphinstone Rivers.

Alas the identity of the man sitting by the moat will I fear never be discovered, but then I haven't read through the book so we shall see.

Picture; of the Moat at Well circ 1903, from Some Records of Eltham


*Some Records of Eltham 1060-1903, Rev. Elphinstone Rivers, 1903

On the trail of Mr Charles Hubert Grinling and his contribution to Eltham and Woolwich

So here is a mystery.

What has the Tudor Barn got to do with a Charles Herbert Grinling?

It is one of those stories which is just at its beginning and I guess will run for some time.

I first came across Mr Grinling after a conversation with the Director of the Tudor Barn who wondered “if anyone has any knowledge of CH Grinling?

In the Greenwich Heritage museum there is a long case clock presented to Mr Grinling for services towards the preservation of Well Hall Tudor Barn.

It used to be in the Barn, presumably taken away when it ceased to be an art gallery upstairs.”

Now I have to confess I knew nothing of Mr Grinling but there were some tantalizing references to him including one from a short history of the Woolwich Labour Party which referred to his “religious work” in Woolwich in the 1890s.

All of which fits because he is listed as a "Clerk in Holy Orders" in 1891 census and a "clergyman" a decade later.

He also wrote Fifty Year of Pioneer work in Woolwich, a pamphlet published by the Royal Arsenal Co-op in January 1922.

And like so many interesting stories this one goes off in different directions, so while he is listed on the Woolwich electoral roll from 1898 through to 1939 at Rectory Place he also was registered at what appears to be the family home near Guildford from the 1920s.

On the 1911 census while resident at Rectory Place he described himself as an “Educational and Social Worker,” and amongst the others in the house was his wife’s sister who also described herself as a “social worker.”

All of which suggests we are dealing with a progressive clergyman who did missionary work in the Woolwich are.

He also jointly edited A survey and record of Woolwich and West Kent : containing descriptions and records, brought up-to-date, of geology, botany, zoology, archaeology and published THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY  in 1903.

And finally his gravestone records that he was made “A FREEMAN OF THE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF WOOLWICH”  all of which I think promises more to come.

And in the way of these things there will be someone out there who knows a lot more about Mr Grinling.

Well I hope so.

Picture; the Tudor Barn, courtesy of Chrissie Rose, 2013 & Woolwich circa 1900, Woolwich courtesy of Kristina Bedford from, Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford,

Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014, Amberley Publishing,

Home Thoughts of Well Hall from a distance .........nu 3

Now I am not one to get over homesick but this is the time of year I left Well Hall for Manchester.

In the intervening 45 years I haven’t been back as many times as I would wish and so for all those like me that miss the place and in particular the Tudor Barn here over the next few days courtesy of Chrissie Rose is what we are missing.

Picture; Well Hall Pleasuance, from the collection of Chrissie Rose, 2013

Snow over the Tudor Barn, one winter's day in 2013

© Chrissie Rose

One of an occasional series which feature contemporary photographs of places with a history.

We are of course in Well Hall looking at the Tudor Barn.

The pictures were taken by Chrissie last year when the snow fell across the south.

And I have to say despite growing up in Eltham I cannot ever remember seeing the Barn like this.

So here are just two of the ones she took.  The rest can be seen on her site Just Looking, along with plenty of other pictures.

Now as you do I asked permission to reproduce them and decided that I would choose my favourite and ask Chrissie to choose hers which she promptly did.

© Chrissie Rose

Reading the forecast I see that there is cold weather to come and certainly up here in the North that might translate into snow.

Not that Manchester gets that much.  We are sheltered by the hills and it has been a while since the snow fell and stayed.

Which for me is a shame because I love the stuff and am grateful that Chrissie caught one of the places which still means a lot to me.

Pictures; the Tudor Barn, © Chrissie Rose, 2013

*Just Looking, http://justlookingtoday.weebly.com/

Home Thoughts of Well Hall from a distance .........nu 2

Now I am not one to get over homesick but this is the time of year I left Well Hall for Manchester.

In the intervening 45 years I haven’t been back as many times as I would wish and so for all those like me that miss the place and in particular the Tudor Barn here over the next few days courtesy of Chrissie Rose is what we are missing.

Picture; Well Hall Pleasuance, from the collection of Chrissie Rose, 2013

Home Thoughts of Well Hall from a distance .......... nu 1

Now I am not one to get over homesick but this is the time of year I left Well Hall for Manchester.

In the intervening 45 years I haven’t been back as many times as I would wish and so for all those like me that miss the place and in particular the Tudor Barn here over the next few days courtesy of Chrissie Rose is what we are missing.

Picture; Well Hall Pleasuance, from the collection of Chrissie Rose, 2013

Home Thoughts of Well Hall from a distance ........... nu 5

Now I am not one to get over homesick but this is the time of year I left Well Hall for Manchester.

In the intervening 45 years I haven’t been back as many times as I would wish and so for all those like me that miss the place and in particular the Tudor Barn here over the next few days courtesy of Chrissie Rose is what we are missing.

Picture; Well Hall Pleasuance, from the collection of Chrissie Rose

Home Thoughts of Well Hall from a distance .........nu 4

Now I am not one to get over homesick but this is the time of year I left Well Hall for Manchester.

In the intervening 45 years I haven’t been back as many times as I would wish and so for all those like me that miss the place and in particular the Tudor Barn here over the next few days courtesy of Chrissie Rose is what we are missing.

Picture; Well Hall Pleasuance, from the collection of Chrissie Rose, 201

Another down at the Tudor Barn

I have decided to feature a series of pictures of Well Hall.

They were all taken by Chrissie Rose during March.

Picture; © Chrissie Rose

At the Tudor Barn

I have decided to feature a series of pictures of Well Hall.

They were all taken by Chrissie Rose during March.

Picture; © Chrissie Rose