So ……… who stole Well Hall’s Tudor mansion?

Now I know there will be lots of people who know the story of Well Hall Pleasaunce, and the checkered history of the Tudor Barn which was once part of the estate of the Roper family.

The Barn in 2013

And there will also be those who know that the fine mansion which the Roper’s called home was connected to the high politics of Tudor England, because William Roper was the son in law of Sir Thomas More who fell out with Henry V111 and paid the ultimate price with his head.

The romantic in me wonders whether William Roper composed part of his biography of Sir Thomas in the gardens of the house in Well Hall, and as a kid I too would wander through the Pleasuance trying to  step back to that very turbulent time when Margaret Roper feared for the fate of her father.

The Barn in 1909

Of course, it helps to have a physical “thing” like the Tudor barn which helps anchor that imaginary trip, and just touching the walls adds to that sense of history, which with just a further leap of fancy allows you to conjure up images of Sir Thomas More in happier times visiting his family and perhaps even discussing the merits of the old barn.

But look as you may you won’t find the Roper’s fine home, because although the property stayed in the family till  the early 18th century it was eventually sold in 1733 to “Sir Gregory Page who pulled down the C16 Well Hall, built within a moated area, and replaced it with a new residence also known as Well Hall. This lay to the east of the site, between Well Hall Road and the moat. 

The property, which included the Hall and adjoining farm buildings, continued in the ownership of the Page family, but was largely rented out. Tenants included, from 1899 to 1922, the journalist Hubert Bland (founder of the Fabian Society) and his wife, the children's author Edith Nesbit”. 

All of which I knew but must confess the details of which had faded from my memory.

Well Hall, 1909

So it was Sir Gregory Page who stole our Tudor mansion and built what I still think was an ugly replacement, as the 1909 photograph testifies.

And while it conforms to the design elegance of the 18th century it doesn’t do much for me.

But it too has gone, torn down in the early 20th century, when the Pleasaunce was created pretty much as we know it today.

All of which just leaves me to include pictures of the barn, from now and then with the pile that Sir Gregory Page called home, although I doubt he actually ever lived there.

I have written about https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Well%20Hall%20in%20the%201840s.*

Well Hall from the rear, 1909

And for good measure there is an informative piece on , https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Well%20Hall%20in%20the%201840s.**

Location; Well Hall

Pictures; Pictures; the Tudor Barn 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 the same scene from the collection of Jean Gammons, September 2013

*Well Hall in the 1840s, and Sir Gregory Page, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Well%20Hall%20in%20the%201840s

**Well Hall, Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000850

Snaps of the Pleasaunce ……..

In the summer of 1979 armed with a new camera I wandered across Well Hall snapping at all I saw.

Looking at them again today l have to admit that they weren’t the best and the colour ones have not survived well sitting in our cellar for over four decades.

But they are a record of where I grew up and given that it was 46 years ago some at least now have a period feel.

So while I can recognise the places it is like looking through a dirty window …… you can vaguely make out the building or the scene, but its indistinct and a tad different.

Not so the Pleasaunce, which pretty much looks the same as when I wandered around it in the 1960s, and again in the 80s’ and 90s.

True the floral gardens will have changed a bit, but otherwise it’s the Pleasaunce, a place whose history I have explored over the years.

And that is it.

Location; Well Hall Pleasaunce

Pictures; that familiar Well Hall place, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Down in Well Hall with another stunning floral display

Now I have never tires of the floral display in the Pleasuance.

In time I will track back and find when the first was laid out which I guess would have been when the gardens were first taken into the hands of Woolwich Borough Council.

And I know they also have given a lot of pleasure to lots of people.

I passed the display each day on the up to the roundabout from the station and were a powerful nod to the fact that I was home.

Now Eltham is not alone in having such impressive floral displays and in their way they are one of the small but important achievements of local government.

My favourite display was that of the coat of arms of Woolwich but I also remember other equally impressive displays.

And as ever Chrissie Rose has come up trumps.  Having posted one of her pictures recently she came up with a second taken today.

So here are both of those pictures.

Pictures; of the Pleasunce 2013, & 2105 © Chrissie Rose