Bromleag Volume 2: Issue 37 March 2016

Bromley’s Sunday cinema fiasco Orpington’s meticulous historian Sundridge Park — from grand house to flats Early C15th schooling in Chelsfield and Keston Bromleag The journal of the Bromley Borough Local History Society

Chairman Tudor Davies Springhall, Leafy Grove, Keston, BR2 6AH 01689 855744 [email protected] Treasurer Pam Robinson 68 Rolleston Ave, Petts Wood, BR5 1AL 020 8467 6385 [email protected] Secretary Elaine Baker 27 Commonside, Keston, BR2 6BP 01689 854408 [email protected] Membership Secretary Tony Allnutt Woodside, Old Perry Street, Chislehurst, BR7 6PP 020 8467 3842 [email protected] Programme co-ordinator Mike Marriott 2 The Drive, Orpington, BR6 9AP 01689 820794 or 07917 101520 [email protected] Publications John Barnes 38 Sandilands Crescent, Hayes, BR2 7DR 020 8462 2603 [email protected] Minutes Secretary Valerie Stealey 9 Mayfield Road, Bickley BR1 2HB 020 8467 2988 [email protected] Publicity and website Max Batten 5 South View, Bromley, BR13DR 020 8460 1284 [email protected] Bromleag Editor Christine Hellicar 150 Worlds End Lane, Chelsfield, BR6 6AS 01689 857214 [email protected]

BBLHS website www.bblhs.org.uk

Bromleag is published four times a year. The editor welcomes articles along with illustrations and photographs. These can be emailed, on disc or a paper copy. Items remain the copyright of the authors and do not necessarily reflect Society views. Each contributor is responsible for the content of their article. Articles may be edited to meet the constraints of the journal. Articles are not always used immediately as we try to maintain a balance between research, reminiscences and news and features about different subjects and parts of the borough. Next journal deadline — 1 May 2016

2 Bromleag March 2016 Chairman’s letter Delving into school archives Shortly after hearing our opening lecture of 2016, when Patrick Hellicar gave us an account of the author Miss Read’s childhood in Chelsfield, I opened the archives of Keston C of E Primary School. Immediately, a question came to mind: would Miss Read’s novel, Village School, bear any resemblance to reality as recorded in the Keston archives? A glance at reviews of her published books, led me to imagine they would present a romantic idyll and little more. How wrong could I be? Village School describes a year in the life of a small country school between the two World Wars. The teaching, poor facilities, few resources, social life of the village, childhood illnesses and widespread poverty are all addressed and everything is evidenced in Keston School archives. The introduction of food rationing in 1917 was accompanied by the provision of midday meals in schools which, by 1920, provided 50 meals in Keston each day. All the common childhood illnesses were prevalent, but the number of occasions when the school had to be closed was fewer than in pre-war days and infections such as ringworm, scabies and tuberculosis, no longer appeared. However, the dreaded human louse proved unconquerable! After 1921 school attendance improved during bad weather when the Bromley-to- Westerham buses supplied an hourly service. The inter-war years saw rising living standards for many people but in 1921 John Yelland’s home was a “gipsy caravan on Blackness farm” and the children from the families Lee, Cooper, Dennard, Smith and

Contents — March 2016 News and Events 3 — 9 Web news 25 Letters 19 — 24 Society Meetings Along the River Cray 13 — 14 Bethlem museum and Richard Dadd 15 Chelsfield author Miss Read 16 — 17 Regenerating Place Park 18 Features Sundridge Park 10 — 12 Bromley’s fight for Sunday cinema 26 — 29 Ancient origins of village church sites 30 — 31

3 Bromleag March 2016 News Ayres were registered as of “no fixed abode”, although they only appeared at school for a month or so in spring of some years. In contrast to Miss Read’s experience, Keston was a growing village and numbers of children outstripped the accommodation. The new Biggin Hill Aerodrome and the Acoustical Research Centre added over 20 children by 1931, and the school managers were obliged to halt further enrolments. In 1933, two of the three classrooms seated 50 children and the school cloakroom was pressed into use for lessons. Minutes of the Managers’ Committee regularly reported problems with the building: roofs leaked, gutters and floors needed constant repair, unhygienic desks caused concern but it was the school lavatories that demanded most care and attention. Only in 1931, when the building was connected to the main sewer system, did the use of buckets and earth closets come to an end. Children leaving school in 1926 and 1927 continued in the footsteps of earlier generations, with 52% entering farming, gardening or domestic service and another 19% at home or in domestic trades. When appointing a new Master in 1924, Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, Chairman of Managers, expressed his views on the aims and special nature of the school and what would be required of the prospective new Master: “The aims of the teaching should be the forming of good and sound character, with a bias to rural activities and respect for skilled handicrafts and domestic work, rather than for clerks and typists of which The City has more than enough.” He went on to say: “Bromley is now so accessible that there is no requirement for teaching at advanced level for children of 14.” Miss Read needed only to read the School Archives to write her book. For a lovingly expressed but realistic account, take up Miss Read’s Village School. It’s a delight. Tudor Davies Sources Keston C of E Primary School Archives by kind permission of the Head. Village School, Miss Read, Orion Publishing Group, 1988

STOP PRESS ... CAMDEN PLACE VISIT We have a really special afternoon out on Friday 15 July at 2.15pm A tour of Camden Place — not normally open to the public — followed by a three-course high tea including Prosecco. This is now £20 a head (our special price for BBLHS members) not the previously advertised £25 a head. However, this has to be paid in advance. It is a luxury visit but it will be a highlight of the summer. Mike is taking bookings now and places are limited (details opposite)

4 Bromleag March 2016 Meetings and events Meetings are held at 7.45pm on the first Tuesday of the month (unless otherwise stated), from September to July, at Trinity United Reformed Church, Freelands Road, Bromley. Non-members are welcome at meetings for a nominal charge of £1. Meetings 5 April AGM followed by Uncovering Scadbury with an aerial survey — Janet Clayton [This is a change to the previously advertised talk] 3 May Some historic buildings in Chislehurst — Joanna Friel The talk will be followed by a walk on 4 May, see below 7 June Street Furniture in South — Sue Hayton [This is a change to the previously advertised talk] Visits Friday 1 April 1.30pm (visit approx two hours) A visit to Croydon Old Palace Meet in Old Palace Road outside the 15th century Palace in the heart of Croydon. £7 or £6 concession for guided tour and tea Booking in advance essential, contact Mike (details below) Wednesday 4 May 10.30am (walk approx 2½ hours) An historic walk around Chislehurst This is a Chislehurst Society event and will be guided by members of the society. Meet at Chislehurst Caves. Sunday 22 May 2pm (walk approx 2½ hours) Rediscovering WW2 in the streets of Bromley Led by Gordon Dennington Meet outside the Old Town Hall, Tweedy Road. The walk will end at Shortlands Station. Limited numbers so book with Mike (details below) Friday 17 June 10.30am Historic Bromley Town A walk by our vice-chair Michael Rawcliffe. Meet outside, or in the foyer, of the Central Library, Bromley, depending on the weather Limited numbers so book with Mike (details below) Mike Marriott, programme co-ordinator: [email protected] 01689 820794 or 07917 101520

5 Bromleag March 2016 News The Grangerised Horsburgh!

For many years I had heard about a copy of ELS Horsburgh’s “Bromley” book which had been annotated, added to and corrected by local chemist, photographer and historian William Baxter soon after the book was published in 1929. When the Society was fortunate enough to receive a very generous bequest from the late Jean Tresize, I suggested that this might be a project on which some of the money could be spent, turning it into a useful adjunct to the original for the wider use of members and others. After consultation with Lucy Allen and Simon McKeon at the Central Library, where the book was held in a locked cupboard, my first concern was an annotation on almost the first page: “Grangerised ed.” Once we had discovered that this is just a fancy word for “annotated” (named after a Joseph Granger in 1769), my first task was to get all the pages scanned. Fortunately, Simon, with his Bexley hat on, was able to provide not only excellent scanning equipment but knew of two history students who would be prepared, for a reasonable fee, to carry out the important but unexciting task of making what turned out to be over 900 scans. Our thanks to Elizabeth and Harry for their work. The additions made by Baxter consisted of small annotations on existing pages combined with longer scripts on inserted blank pages, often with accompanying pictures or diagrams. He used a lot of abbreviations and references to then current people and events. That, together with his far-from-copperplate handwriting, set our team of transcribers a considerable task. A sample, opposite, relating to page 205 of the Horsburgh book, is shown. Incidentally, this is on the back of the photograph of John Wells which, according to Baxter, is actually William Wells! At the time of writing, the basic interpretation of his comments has been done but

In our December 2015 issue we revealed more about the beehive of Grete House. Our transcribers found this picture pasted into William Baxter’s “Gangerised Horsburgh” with the note: “Recess from Grete House 1 of 16-17 from garden of Lynton She 20 Wilmore Road 1931” It would still be interesting to know how it got from Lynton House to Church House Gardens. Ed

6 Bromleag March 2016 News there remain a lot of queries and decisions on how best to present the material. I am not sure how long all this will take but there is much interesting information here and we are keen to share it with as many people as possible. Watch this space! Horsburgh still on sale If you are a Bromley resident without a copy of Bromley – From the earliest times to the present day (roughly the end of WW1), then I would certainly recommend you try to get hold of one. They are often available on eBay. Max Batten

Work begins on new Bromley Museum displays The new Bromley Museum, which is scheduled to open later this year in the Central Library, will have displays that reflect three narrative themes — technology, tradition and creativity. One of the key exhibition pieces in the creativity exhibition will be the late David Bowie’s jacket. The work of Farnborough sculptor Elsie March, the books of Beckenham author Enid Blyton and commemorative material from the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace are covered by the creativity theme. But it will not only be celebrities whose imagination will be highlighted as the artefacts will range from Anglo-Saxon and Roman jewellery to the work of Beckenham, Ravensbourne and Bromley schools. Technology starts with Palaeolithic and Neolithic hand axes. It will cover farming and fruit picking, road building and some of the big — now long gone — industries such as paper making along the Cray, Morphy Richards (one of the earliest industries sited on the A224) and Muirheads of Elmers End. Finally, tradition will tell the stories of rituals, religious, civic and community traditions and celebrations, with objects ranging from a stained glass window to a May Queen outfit. These displays will be unchanging but additional money has also been made available by Bromley Council for the Local Studies Library to buy in curatorial services for occasional changing exhibitions. A curator is now deciding on the exact make-up of each of the displays, using material from the Priory museum, the Local Studies Library and the Art Collection

7 Bromleag March 2016 News Community centre plans for The Priory

The Priory could become a community centre if Bromley Council accept the business plan being drawn up by Orpington Priory Community Hub (OPCH). The Hub was set up as a direct result of the Save The Orpington Priory campaign, which initially tried to persuade Bromley Council not to sell the 15th century rectory, which housed the Bromley Museum, and its 1950s library extension. Although this was unsuccessful, they did get the building listed as an Asset of Community Value. At the end of last year the campaign group set up OPCH and Bromley Council has accepted its right to bid to run the building as a community asset. They now have until 20 May to submit a business plan, which Bromley has to consider. OPCH trustees include local business leaders — who are keen to see the building become part of the regenerated town centre — a former councillor, David McBride and others with backgrounds in architecture, sales and finance. There could be some business use in the mix of the proposed new centre but it is also envisaged there would be a cafe, arts, community events, rooms for let to local organisations and educational use. The Hub plans to acknowledge the history of the buildings, probably with information boards, but a couple of the museum’s immovable artefacts, the Orpington Village Hall drinking fountain and a mill wheel, will remain on the site whatever the future use. Discovering a neighbouring village

Just five hundred yards over the eastern border of Bromley lies the tiny village of Crockenhill, home to our member Susan Pittman, who has produced the most delightful and informative Crockenhill Heritage Trail. Once no more than a hamlet, its history dates to 1388 when it was known as Crockern-Held, “the hill where stands the pottery kiln”. Even today there is a Tilecroft house in the village. Crockenhill is a bit off the beaten track but I have passed through it many times and this booklet was a real eye opener as to the amount of history that can still be seen in the buildings and fields of the village. The booklet takes us, with pictures — old and new —

8 Bromleag March 2016 News along the main road and half a dozen or so side roads that are the village. More than half the 38 stops in the trail are pictured and there is a lot of interesting information, such as Marlpits which was moved in 1975 brick-by-brick from a previous village location and then had a 15thcentury timbered hall, from elsewhere in Kent, added. There are many connections to Orpington. Once, the land was part of the estates of the Hart Dyke family and the fruit-growing family of Vinson were major owners and employers as Crockenhill was part of that great fruit farming boom that spread up the Cray valley in the 19th century. This is a 20-page A4 colour booklet and, at only £2, it is well worth buying just as a pictorial history of an interesting village. But the walk is only a gentle stroll of three miles and ends at the village shops and the tea shop. CH It is available from our book stall at meetings or by contacting John Barnes directly (see inside cover) or from Crockenhill Council Offices 01322 614674 Clock House celebrates its heritage

A heritage festival for the Clock House district in Beckenham is being held from 30 April to 7 May with concerts, an art exhibition, heritage walks and talks. BBLHS member Cliff Watkins, who is organising two concerts, says the festival will celebrate “an area which for the last 120 years has been the cultural and services heart of Beckenham”. The concerts are in the Methodist Church (30 April) and the Baptist Church (7 May). Clock House is centred on Venue 28 — the former Beckenham Technical Institute on Beckenham Road — which stands on the exact location of the famous Clock House Mansion. Cliff says: “Within a half mile or ten-minute walk are many fine buildings, including homes, places of work, study and recreation of 50 notable national people including Julie Andrews, Enid and Carey Blyton, Rob Bonnet, David Bowie, Admiral Brett and Harold Bride. Two highlights of the concerts are Gary Higginson performing his composition Inventions on a Theme by Carey Blyton and Roy Hanscombe talking about his relative Bert Hanscombe, the dustman from Church Fields Road who unveiled the Beckenham War Memorial. and Bert’s eight brothers who all survived the horrors of WW1. The Festival will be concluded by the unveiling of a plaque/information panel about the Clock House District. More information will be available in April on the BBLHS website, www.bblhs.org.uk and the West Beckenham Residents Association website www.westbeckenhamra.org or contact Cliff on 020 8650 7347

9 Bromleag March 2016 Feature The changing fortunes of Sundridge Park

Tudor Davies

he most famous man of his age in the field of landscape design and viewed as the successor to Launcelot “Capability” Brown, Humphry Repton was T employed in 1799 to transform one of Bromley’s most splendid country estates, Sundridge Park. This was a time when the Classical revival was at its height and many property owners sought to “improve” their estates by turning to Greece and Rome for ideas on how to create the finest houses and landscapes. Edward George Lind bought the Sundridge Estate in 1794 for £6,000 and invited Humphry Repton to advise him on the trees on his new estate. Repton never missed an opportunity to gain a profitable commission and, having walked the estate, he thought it his “duty to give a few hints for the improvement of the estate”. His first critical thought was that the house was in the wrong place, being situated at the bottom of the valley which would make it difficult to produce a pleasing aspect, and recommended a new site at a higher elevation offering extensive views in all directions. Repton had a particular dislike of red brick and always expressed his views

10 Bromleag March 2016 Feature that a discerning gentleman of taste should not choose to live in such a house. He went on to propose that the farm and cultivated fields should be converted into a park suitable for a gentleman’s residence. Being an astute businessman and consummate salesman, he presented his thoughts not in negative comments on the existing house and grounds but presented the owner with one of his famous Red Books, which were a marketing man’s dream. In these books he described his grand transformative plans in words and pictures with pull-up leaves, much like children’s story books. Every book was painstakingly and professionally produced with a specific client and property in mind. His Red Book for Sundridge Park is now housed in the Garden Museum at Lambeth Palace. Before acting on Repton’s plans, Edward Lind sold the estate (1797) to Claude Scott of Holbrook, Chislehurst (baronet 1821), a wealthy victualler and corn factor with contracts to supply grain to Wellington’s armies on the Continent. He accepted Repton’s recommendations in full and work began on building the new house in the style of a Roman temple on a levelled plot on the hillside. John Nash had worked with Repton on other commissions and he was now invited to complete a house to the structural design of Humphry Repton. However, the two men quarrelled before the commission was finished and on Repton’s recommendation Samuel Wyatt was appointed to complete the work. The new house of three floors comprised a top floor assigned as servants’ quarters, a first floor of five bedrooms each with dressing rooms, and on the ground floor a drawing room, dining room, billiards room and saloon with a service section at the back of the house. The saloon with the bedroom above, known as the King’s Room, were contained in a domed circular rooms 30 feet in diameter with full length windows providing sweeping 180 degree views of the park. The main entrance on the west side, a portico with four Corinthian columns topped with a triangular pediment, was replicated on the east side to maintain the symmetry Repton always desired. The farmhouse, outbuildings and field hedges were swept away, the duck pond fed by the Quaggy stream was expanded to form a small lake and the pleasure gardens were separated from the park by a Ha-Ha. The drive or “Approach” as Repton named it and now called Willoughby Lane, was accessed from Plaistow Lane via a new lodge house. Having designed all the internal fittings and finishes Samuel Wyatt then designed the semicircular coach block on two floors with three coach houses, stabling for up to 12 horses and living accommodation above for the staff. By the time of the Tithe Commissioners Assessment in 1842 the Estate had grown to 500 acres extending from Plaistow Lane, Widmore on the south to Elmstead Wood and Burnt Ash Lane on the north.

11 Bromleag March 2016 Feature Claude Scott’s son Samuel, a keen gardener and member of the Horticultural Society of London, built in the 1820s a large heated conservatory 100 feet long by 40 feet wide with a curved glass roof 35 feet high. In the 1860s, Edward Henry Scott enlarged the house, adding a ballroom, extending the kitchens and increasing the servants’ quarters. He introduced pheasant-rearing and the shoots attracted the future Edward VII, who was a frequent guest at the house. The decades 1860 to 1890 marked the high point in prestige of the family, as illustrated when Edward Henry “persuaded” the railway company building the Bromley North line to open a station in the countryside at Sundridge Park. In 1900 and again in 1904, attempts were made to sell the estate but both failed. Following the failure of the first sale ,most of the park was leased to a newly-formed golf club, with Sir Samuel Scott as first President, a post he retained until 1934. In 1904 the mansion was leased as a hotel and farmland near Elmstead Woods station and at Sundridge Park station was sold for housing development. The hotel, having gained high repute, failed in the dramatically different conditions of the post-war world and closed in 1953 to be replaced two years later by a Management and Training Centre. The coach house and conservatory were converted for use as halls of residence and lecture rooms but this enterprise closed at the turn of the 20th century. After some years unoccupied, a development company gained permission to demolish the conservatory, replacing it with housing and refurbishing the coach house and mansion to create elegant houses and apartments. This work has only just been completed, with great efforts made to retain as much as possible from the legacy of Repton and Wyatt. Should you wish to move to a high-end apartment in a spectacular architect- designed mansion that is Grade 2 listed, or a grand terraced house in a glorious setting, investigate immediately as they are now all for sale. Sources Sundridge Park, Ken Wilson Bromley, from earliest times to the present century ELS Horsburgh The Red Book, Humphry Repton Outline of the History and Antiquities of Bromley in Kent, John Dunkin Sundridge Park and the Scott Family JL Filmer BBLHS Magazine 1979 www.historicengland.org.uk www.londongardensonline.org

12 Bromleag March 2016 Society meeting Charting the history of the Cray Rising just above the ponds in Priory Gardens, Orpington, the River Cray is a small river with a big history embracing royalty, industry and some still beautiful stretches of scenic beauty. It meanders north through St Mary Cray and St Paul’s Cray off into Bexley and joins the Darent before emptying into the Thames at Dartford Creek, in what Katherine Harding and Denise Baldwin described in their November talk to the Society as a “very Dickensian landscape”. Here we find the river’s war heritage of the Joyce Green aerodrome and ammunition works and the bleak Crayford marshes — a part of the river one may not be tempted to explore. However, the Foots Cray meadow and the Five Arches Bridge, now a conservation area in Bexley, is a very beautiful stretch of the river. The meadow spreads into North Cray (the by-pass demolished a lot of the village) and along to Bexley village. Once this length had more than its fair share of grand houses stretching down to its banks. Some have survived as offices or events venues, but it is no longer an area of choice

The Domesday Book lists three mills in Orpington and one of these is probably on the site of Hodsolls. This building dates from the 18th century with a 19th century chimney. The picture is from about 1890. The mill was demolished in 1935 and the land and the pond were built over to become Carlton Parade and the housing estate behind.

13 Bromleag March 2016 Society meeting for rich Londoners looking for a country residence as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries. But the Cray is best known, historically, for its mills – particularly, from the 19th century, paper mills – that peppered the river bank all the way to the Thames. There were 11 mills along the valley and four of them were in the Bromley borough section of just over two miles. They dated back to medieval times and a licence was needed to build one. They were greatly sought-after and were six times harder to acquire than a beer and spirits licence, said Katherine. There was good money to be made from grinding corn. The first mill on the river was Hodsolls, formerly Colgate mill (pictured on Page 13), a corn mill which would have supplied Sir Percival Hart Dyke’s Orpington house. In 1573 Elizabeth I came to visit Sir Percival and he arranged a pageant on the river which included a mock sea-battle involving small ships called barques. She is said to have named the house Barque Hart afterwards. The next mill, smaller and probably of later date, was Snellings, which brewed a fine beer. But the two big mills of our part of the Cray were Joynson’s and Nash’s in St Mary Cray and St Paul’s Cray respectively. In the 18th century they turned to paper making and were, effectively, the first major industrial concerns in the whole borough. It is at this time that St Mary Cray expanded, with terraces of houses at the edge of the village. In 1881 Joynson’s was employing 700 people. These upper reaches of the Cray valley also became the market garden for London in the later part of the 19th century and the combination of market gardening and the mills turned the village of St Mary Cray into the main commercial heart of the area until the 20th century. While the 18th and 19th century is when the Cray emerges as an important valley, it has a much more complex history. Katherine and Denise – who began their researches into the valley when they were teaching social history to primary school children – told us that Roman and Saxon remains have been found all along the valley, particularly at Fordcroft on the Orpington parish border. Then in the 20th century road overtook water and the A224, following the line of the river, became first an industrial zone and later an out-of-town shopping area. Our upper reaches of the Cray have benefited from that and Denise showed us photos of the very picturesque walk you can now take from Orpington and along the riverside. Their informative and wide-ranging talk took in the history of the whole river and its mills and villages. If you would like to find out more, they have published a book, Along the River Cray: a pictorial history of the Cray Valley, which is available from Bromley libraries. CH

14 Bromleag March 2016 Society visit Richard Dadd and Bethlem Museum

Eighteen members of the Society enjoyed the visit to the Museum of the Mind at Bethlem Hospital at West Wickham in January when we were presented with three very different ways to understand the history and working of this ancient institution: a short lecture on the history of the Hospital, a view of the permanent museum and an exhibition of artwork by Richard Dadd, a respected 19th century artist, trained at the Royal Academy, who spent 42 years in Bethlem and Broadmoor. The archivist, Colin Gale, gave an informative and entertaining lecture, supported with a few selected slides, summarising the long history of the hospital from its foundation on the original site at Blackfriars in 1247 to the present day in Monks Orchard Road, Beckenham. The range of questions that followed the stimulating presentation reflected the interest that had been aroused in the listeners. We were then encouraged to spend time viewing the Dadd exhibition and the museum, each attractively displayed in a compact room, with a number of interactive exhibits in the museum section. My first surprise on arriving at the hospital was the Art Deco building in which the museum is housed, and on passing through the front doors, to be greeted by a wonderful Art Deco staircase with gorgeous heavy bronze hand rails, which seemed fitting for the grandest of public buildings. At the bottom of the modernist staircase stood two disturbing sculpted figures, representing individuals in varying degrees of anguish, making a dramatic contrast and powerful statement. I think we all came away from our visit strangely uplifted by the efforts made to improve our comprehension of mental illness and, at the same time, distressed at the treatment provided to patients in the past and awareness of our inability to understand many conditions in the present day. This is a small but excellent museum. If members of the Society are looking for a fascinating place to visit, for an hour or two, I recommend Bethlem’s Museum of the Mind, open to groups only, Monday and Tuesday, the general public Wednesday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, and first and last Saturday of the The statues of Melancholy and Despair now grace the Art Deco foyer of the new museum month. It is easily accessible from Bromley and admission is free. TD

15 Bromleag March 2016 Society meeting Chelsfield’s Miss Read brought to life Author Miss Read – real name Dora Saint, nee Shafe – was the subject of Patrick Hellicar’s unusual talk for the Society’s first meeting of the New Year, focusing on her autobiographical book “Time Remembered”, which recalls her idyllic years at Chelsfield School from 1921-24. He guided the group “in Dora’s footsteps” (the title of his talk) with slides of Chelsfield then and now, beginning with her arrival with her mother Grace at Chelsfield railway station in March 1921 from their old home in and following their footpath walk from there to their new home on Chelsfield Hill. Illustrating and explaining many of the places Dora loved, including the pond, fields and woods where she played, he traced her everyday walk to school and brought to life many of the people mentioned in Time Remembered. Through detailed research, Patrick has been able to “colour in” the principal characters featured in the book and has unearthed previously-unpublished photographs of many people mentioned. Among these are charming snaps of Dora and her schoolfriends as children, and as grown-ups. As well as confirming the author’s descriptions of places and memories of people she encountered, he has enlarged on the lives of several of those featured, placing them firmly in their village context. These include the headmaster Dora adored, her music teacher, the village postmaster and mistress, various tradesmen, her friends and their parents, neighbours and others who played a part in her childhood years. Old black and white photos helped to evoke the rural Chelsfield of the 1920s and recently-taken pictures of the same spots today made interesting comparisons for BBLHS members. Chelsfield likes to think it “owns” Miss Read, but in reality she spent only 10 or 12 years there, Patrick pointed out. Her parents, Arthur and Grace Shafe, remained at Chelsfield Hill much longer, however – her mother until her death in 1937 and her father until he passed away in 1968. The little bungalow called “Bramleigh” where Dora grew up with her elder sister Lillian and much later arrival Betty, was one of the first homes built in the “garden village” of Chelsfield Park in 1920. Demolished in February 2014, it has been replaced with a five-bedroom house now on sale at £2 million. From Chelsfield School, Miss Read won a scholarship to Bromley Girls’ School, then studied at Homerton College, Cambridge, and moved to Middlesex after becoming a teacher. Marriage in 1940 to Douglas Saint, also a teacher, took her to Oxfordshire and then to Shefford Woodlands, near Hungerford in Berkshire, where she died in 2012, 10 days short of her 99th birthday.

16 Bromleag March 2016

But it was Chelsfield that “awakened her love of the countryside”, for which she said she “never ceased to be thankful”. That love stayed with her throughout her life and helped inspire and inform her 28 much-loved novels about the fictional villages of Fairacre and Thrush Green. These are still widely read and have legions of devotees, not only in this country but also in America and elsewhere. As well as the Fairacre and Thrush Green series, (the first book of which was published in 1955) Miss Read produced several other novels, two short autobiographical books, 10 children’s books and a cookery book. At a conservative estimate, her sales total well over five million. She was honoured with an MBE in 1998 for services to literature. Time Remembered, published in 1986 when Dora was 73, was already familiar to several folk at the meeting. But Dora as a young girl, top, and the Chelsfield village school Patrick’s talk gave a fascinating that helped inspire her writing and love of the countryside and fresh perspective on Miss Read. It highlighted too the remarkable fact that much of what Dora knew as a child can still be found in and around Chelsfield, even though time has wrought inevitable change on the village. Several important houses — and a range of lesser ones — still stand. The Five Bells pub thrives and the old shops, post office and chapel are easily identifiable, although now converted to homes. Even some of the views across fields that Dora would have enjoyed have not been lost, including the one from the Shafes’ back garden, which impressed Dora’s aunts from but left her grandmother Read unmoved. Chelsfield, Grandma decided, was “far too green”. Fortunately, with the village now a conservation area, it remains a green gem on one of Bromley’s furthest fringes with a rich history to celebrate.

17 Bromleag March 2016 Society meeting The landscape of Beckenham Place Park Weaving together history, ecology and conservation, Mal Mitchell gave us a fascinating insight into the development of Beckenham Place Park — now entirely in the borough of Lewisham and the subject of a £4.9 million Heritage Lottery Fund bid. The park owes its existence to , who bought the manor of Beckenham in 1773. Over the coming years he added more and more plots of land to the park, built a splendid mansion and landscaped the grounds, adding a lake, nursery, kitchen garden and formal gardens. Mal showed us several early maps which reveal how John Cator made major alterations to the landscape. He moved the road that ran past the house from Beckenham to Southend to the northwest through Stumps Hill, allowing the old road to become the drive to his mansion. He took out altogether another ancient route that crossed his land, then added a lake and landscaped the grounds. Mal showed us how the landscape changed using Rocque’s 1746 map, surveyors’ Ordnance Survey working drawings from 1800 and then the Ordnance Survey map of 1863, which is so detailed it shows every major tree, a reed bed and ancient woodland ponds. Cator also built the splendid Beckenham Place — which is not part of the HLF bid — finally adding a portico believed to have come from Wricklemarsh House in Blackheath. (Later Cators “nibbled away” at their estate, selling of parcels of land for development. The house and grounds survived, let to private tenants, then as a boys’ school, later a sanatorium. The estate was saved for the public in 1927 when it was bought by the , passing eventually to Lewisham Council. Mal is knowledgeable about the history of the Cators but his passion is clearly for the Park and, as a member of the Friends of Beckenham Place Park, he was able to tell us about the landscape and the current concerns for trees, with Ash Dieback Disease and the Oak Processionary Moth. The HLF bid plan is to close the golf course, upgrade pathways, rebuild the stable block — which was gutted by fire in 2011 — as a cafe and visitor centre and restore the lake. Mal would prefer the partly silted-up lake to be left as it is to retain the wildlife habitat of the present environment. There will also be a flood alleviation scheme between the railway line and Bromley Road. Mal’s pictures gave us a feeling for the beauty and complexity of the park’s ecology and he has offered to take members who would like a little exercise on a guided walk, with a tea! I am sure Mike Marriott will have that in his sights for a future BBLHS visit. CH The life of John Cator was the subject of an article by Pat Manning in the December 2015 issue of Bromleag and a photo essay is on the BBLHS website.

18 Bromleag March 2016 Letters and queries Where was the Beckenham GWK motor works? Researching for an article on motor cars from the early part of the 20th century, I stumbled upon a fleeting reference in the diaries of George Asprey (chairman of the famous Bond Street jewellery firm, who lived at Court Lodge in Chelsfield) to a make I had never heard of – GWK. On 25 September 1914, Asprey wrote: “Clive [?] fetched Maurice’s GWK car from Dover and arrived here abt. 6.30, had supper and left by 7.45.” The diaries contain several later mentions of Maurice’s car without naming the make. Maurice, the eldest son of George and Florence Asprey, was a Captain in The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) in the First World War. He was killed at the Battle of the Somme on 12 August 1916, aged 23. An online search told me all I needed to know about the GWK, but threw up a delicious morsel. Several sites noted that “the prototype was made in a stable in Beckenham, Kent” in 1910 – which brought irresistibly to mind the story of a birth in another stable long ago and a little town with the soundalike name of Bethlehem! The GWK got its name from its founders, Arthur Grice, J Talfourd Wood and CM Keiller. Wood and Keiller had worked together on the Great Western Railway. Grice conceived the car’s unusual friction drive gear train, inspired by machinery used in optical lens-grinding. Only a few of their cross-mounted-engine vehicles were sold before 1911, when the company moved to Datchet, Buckinghamshire. I have been unable to develop the tantalising Beckenham line any further and would be grateful to hear from any Bromleag readers able to provide information about the location of the stable or confirm whether all or any of the car’s trio of designers and makers were residents of Beckenham or neighbouring areas. Patrick Hellicar [email protected] Remembering Brian Reynolds Cliff Watkins and Mike Shaw recall how Brian Reynolds, who died late last year, [obituary Bromleag December 2015] helped them secure funding for book, concert and film projects. Cliff writes: “Brian was a great help to me with Beckenham projects. He secured a grant to fund a day of two concerts in June 2005 in St George’s Church, Beckenham, to launch the book written by Pat Manning and I, Beckenham — the Home Front 1939-45. Several BBLHS members came to help with the evening concert, including Tony Allnutt. And at his home at Bromley Common Brian hosted a meeting from which emerged much of the heritage filming by Footprint, led by Mike Shaw.”

19 Bromleag March 2016 Letters and queries Mike recalls: “Brian was extremely helpful to us in our endeavours to get all of the film material gathering dust in Bromley Archives digitised. There was some invaluable material locked away in those old film cans. The Enid Blyton prize-winning film was a follow-up to the film we were asked to make of the building behind the “high red-brick wall” Bromley Colleges (Bromley's Best Kept Secret). Who was Johanna’s ‘old friend’ with an elegant villa? In the diaries of Johanna Schopenhauer (1766 – 1838) she refers to an old friend and his house near Bromley. “When we were last in some years ago, he was a merchant of moderate means with his office and small house in the City: now we found him to be the wealthy owner of Tunbridge Park. Our friend had built this elegant villa in the Italian style, the Temple of Ceres near Rome having inspired the main facade, and surrounded it with an impressive park and a charming garden.” * The account says they continued for a few miles and reached Knole, near Sevenoaks. But who was the “old friend” and what house was she referring to? It has been suggested that the friend might have been a member of the Norman family but which was the house that she refers to as “Tunbridge Park”? Johanna Schopenhauer was born in Danzig into a wealthy merchant family and following her husband’s death in 1806 moved to Weimar, which was the centre of German literary life at that time. There she set up her salon which became famous for its twice-weekly gatherings of literary celebrities, including Geothe. She also published several books – under a pseudonym – and in her time was the most famous author in Germany. She was the mother of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. So how did this highly intellectual lady come to be known in Bromley society? I would be delighted to hear if anyone has any knowledge—or educated guesses—as to her friends and their home. Christine Hellicar [email protected]

*From Ruth Michaelis-Jena and Willy Merson (eds) A Lady Travels. Journeys in England and Scotland from the Diaries of Johanna Schopenhauer (London 1988) The Canadian Letters and Images Project Can you help locate Canadian WW1 materials? What do you have in your closets and attics? The Canadian Letters and Images Project is an online archive of the Canadian war experience. They borrow materials, digitise them and then return them to their owners, bringing into the public domain archival materials that would otherwise not be seen.

20 Bromleag March 2016 Letters and queries Roughly half of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in WW1 was foreign-born, largely from Great Britain, so when they wrote home those letters ended up in Great Britain rather than Canada. They project is looking for letters, diaries, photographs, etc, connected to the wartime experience. If you can help, please contact us by writing to: Dr Stephen Davies, Project Director, The Canadian Letters and Images Project, Vancouver Island University,

Continuing the Blue Plaques tradition Until a few years ago, Bromley Council erected blue plaques on an annual basis either to commemorate citizens who had made a significant contribution to the world around them, or to mark locations of special importance. Sadly, this scheme has now been discontinued. To raise awareness of some of the many individuals who have been important in their chosen field, whether locally, nationally or internationally, I feel the Bromley Borough Local History Society would be the perfect organisation to continue the tradition of installing blue plaques across the Borough of Bromley. It would also be a magnificent way of promoting the group to a much wider audience through the valuable media publicity such a scheme would undoubtedly generate. This would especially be the case if the public were invited to nominate those whose contribution they believed should be acknowledged in this way. This could be achieved initially through a media campaign involving local newspapers and thereafter via a page on the BBLHS website. Plaques could be installed on an occasional basis, as appropriate, and could bear the name of the Society to promote its work. Blue plaques help contribute a sense of identity to a community and an appreciation of history. What better project could the Bromley Borough Local History Society get involved in? Jennie Randall [email protected] The BBLHS committee is giving the suggestion serious consideration. When erecting blue plaques, agreement and permission is required from many people and organisations and not everyone is always in favour. Cost is also another consideration. Supplying a quality weatherproof plaque costs over £600 before erection and incidental expenses. But the idea of commemorating important people or events in the borough is a good one. We would be interested in knowing who, or what, our members would nominate and if they have suggestions about other forms of commemoration we might explore. Tudor Davies, Chairman

21 Bromleag March 2016 Letters and queries Can you help — queries from our website? People regularly ask us for help via the Seeking Information page of our very popular website. If you can throw any light on the queries below you can log on to www.bblhs.org.uk and click on the “Questions and answers” tab, or if you prefer, drop a line to the editor either by email or letter, address on inside front cover. Crabb’s Croft Can anyone tell me which houses had the address Crabb’s Croft in West Wickham? My dad lived there in 1939. It seems to be Kent Road/North Road area. Bromley School for the blind I’m trying to help an elderly friend research her family tree. She has come across some papers stating that her grandfather worked at the Bromley School for the Blind in approximately 1937/38. Whilst at this school he met his second wife (who was visually impaired) and they married in 1940. I have searched for info on this school but have drawn a blank. Tallow Chandler’s Yard I am interested in a street called Tallow Chandler’s Yard which is covered in the 1861 census for Bromley. The street no longer seems to exist. I am just wondering about its history, where it would have been geographically located within Bromley etc. Orpington’s meticulous historian, Arthur Eldridge

September’s Bromleag charted the history of Orpington Museum. One of its founders was the meticulous, self-taught historian Arthur Eldridge. He played an important part in nurturing my own local history interest and his role in preserving the history of Orpington deserves wider recognition. Just after the War, I began to be interested in local history, and it must have been in October 1946 that I first met Mr Eldridge, the moving force behind the exhibition Old Orpington and Ancient Kent. This was quite an ambitious affair, held in the old Village Hall and opened by Lady Zoe Hart Dyke, no less — she who had established a silk farm at Lullingstone Castle. I have always felt it fortunate that Mr Eldridge took to me. He could well have dismissed me as coming from a family of those incomers who were altering the face of rural Orpington beyond recognition, while he had been born into a family which had lived in the parish and nearby for generations. However, once he had established that my interest was genuine and likely to be long-lasting, Mr Eldridge was generous in his gifts of photographs, transcripts of documents, even original documents and

22 Bromleag March 2016 Letters and queries books. I have, for example, the copy he gave me of that rare book, Blandford’s Farnborough and its surroundings, which has some of his comments in the margins. “I do not agree”, he pencilled against a statement about the water level in Orpington, and he was well qualified to comment on such matters, as he worked for many years as sewer foreman for Orpington Urban District Council. The first thing to greet you at his house in Homefield Rise was a large reproduction of Matania’s famous Great War painting of the Artilleryman saying farewell to his stricken horse — Goodbye, old man! Mr Eldridge had a large, immaculately kept garden, and he also grew watercress in the Cray near St Andrew’s church. His love of gardening formed a bond between him and my wife Brenda. Another shared interest was in St Andrew’s church, opened in Lower Road, Orpington, in 1893. Mr Eldridge’s father, William, a stern Victorian parent, was also a Council employee and caretaker of the new church. Mr Eldridge gave me many original documents from the early days of St Andrew’s. Mr Eldridge’s work for the Council gave him ample opportunity to keep an eye on developments and changes, and after my interest became centred on Chelsfield parish he gave me many of the photographs he had taken there, not least those of the bombed Lillys Farm and cottages. His two children appear in photographs of the churchyard at Chelsfield in 1936, showing the bells which had been taken down before being re-hung with the newly-presented sixth bell. He was a prime mover in founding the Orpington and District Historical Records Society in 1945, chairman in 1947 and president from 1948 to 1950. As his obituary tactfully puts it, he “resigned in a disagreement over policy”, but the situation was rather more complex. It cannot be denied that Mr Eldridge was a man of strong opinions. I recall that, for example, he was for some reason much opposed to the celebrations of the Festival of Britain Arthur Eldridge investigating a tunnel in 1951. found during excavation for the He represented an older generation of foundations of Ramsden Schools,

23 Bromleag March 2016 Letters and queries Orpington parishioners and, having left school at 14, his was a working class presence, which did not go down well with some of the more recent arrivals, despite his outstanding abilities. After leaving the Society that he had largely inspired, he continued with his researches and was a very popular speaker. I recall assisting at a show of his at St Andrew’s, with the traditional lantern slides. He continued to feed me with material, and I remember with affection the way he would come up to me in a rather mysterious manner and produce an original document, presenting it to me with the words “a gentleman gave me this …” I never enquired who these donors were, as indeed I would never have dared to call him by his Christian name. I was reminded of his wide interests when a few years ago fellow BBLHS member Elaine Mackay asked if I would like to help her in cataloguing various collections of documents relating to Orpington and district, in Bromley Local Studies Library. We dealt with large collections of material deposited after Mr Eldridge’s death, and although much was familiar, there were some surprises too, reflecting Mr Eldridge's wide knowledge. I understand that the Library also holds many of Mr Eldridge’s lantern slides. [The Eldridge collection is available in the online catalogue] Among my own collection of items that he gave me there are photocopies of his painstaking tracings of the huge Tithe Maps of both Orpington and Chelsfield. Included too are early photocopies of the local drawings for the first OS survey, which must have been difficult and expensive to obtain 60 years ago, although now easily available. Mr Eldridge really was a pioneer in seeking out and copying anything which might be of value in tracing the history of Orpington and district, and his written work includes excellent notes on the history of St Andrew’s. Already a member of the St Mary Cray Constabulary, he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the Great War — hence the Matania print. Afterwards, he rejoined the Constabulary and rose to the rank of Chief Inspector, not retiring until 1945. We lost touch after I moved to Tunbridge Wells in 1960. Local history took a back seat and we were rather overwhelmed with family affairs. It is indeed fortunate that so much has survived of Mr Eldridge's work, and we must be thankful that there was someone like him to record the years of destruction and development in Orpington and district. Mr Eldridge died in 1966 and his wife Ethel in 1972, and they, and other relatives, are commemorated on a gravestone in All Saints’ churchyard, Orpington. Geoffrey Copus

24 Bromleag March 2016 News Useful online sites for research

The North West Kent Family History Society has over 2,000 copies of documents and photographs relating to Kent and elsewhere in the UK on their Flickr pages. They date from the 1700s to the early 1900s and have come mainly from private collections www.flickr.com/nwk/albums There is a great archive of old newspapers at http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ ukpressonline/?sf=KM Better still, all the stuff up to 1912 is free – you just go to the shop and buy a one-year subscription for £0! The easiest way to use the material appears to be to open it as a pdf file and either read it online or save to your PC. Lewisham online photo archives : A glimpse of history over the border can be found at the new online photo archive of Lewisham Local Studies and Archives Centre. So far they have 2,000 photos online and expect to double that over the next few months. http://boroughphotos.org/lewisham/ England Jurisdiction Maps: The London Family Search Centre at The National Archives has a series of interactive maps showing the boundaries of a range of key jurisdictions in England in 1851. The separate layers available include: counties, civil registration districts, dioceses, Poor Law Unions and hundreds. When you find a locality of interest, you can home in on “Street View” or follow up a range of options such as compiling a list of parishes within a particular district. Your search can also move on to discover associated material in the Library catalogue and Research Wiki . Tithe Maps: The National Archives, and partner archives, has teamed up with The Genealogist to digitise more than 50 tithe maps and associated documents from England and Wales. The project was completed at the end of 2015, which means that historians can now search and view the maps and apportionment records from home, for a fee. The records detail, for example, who owned and occupied the land in the mid-19th century.

If you have discovered any interesting websites, please let me know so that we can share them with members. And don’t forget, Max Batten has provided links to a range of useful local and national websites on our BBLHS web pages

25 Bromleag March 2016 Feature Bromley’s struggle for Sunday cinema Gordon Dennington

hile one may dispute whether the heyday of the British cinema occurred in the 1930s or during World War 2, it seems beyond question that weekly W or bi-weekly visits to the “flicks” or the “pictures” — only Americans called them “movies” — were a regular source of entertainment for countless ordinary people after the arrival of “talkies” in the late 1920s. For real addicts, the silver screen represented the highlight of their existence. It served up escapist romance, music, comedy, and drama in modern picture palaces of such plush comfort that those from poor homes felt themselves transported into the cosseted, pampered world of the rich and famous. It goes almost without saying that certain sections of society thoroughly deplored what they saw as this latest corrupting influence on a feckless and morally wanting portion of the country’s “lower orders”. Mostly Victorians and Edwardians in upbringing, the critics were loud in their protests, but there wasn’t much they could do to stem the tide – except to dig in against the threat of cinemas invading the sanctity of the Sabbath. Very strong and bitter emotions were aroused in the inter-war period by popular pressure on Parliament to introduce legislation which would allow the showing of films on Sundays, until then confined to the London County Council (LCC) area and some other places of progressive governance. Such exceptions, it must be said, acted under a free and generous interpretation of the 1909 Cinematographic Act, which no one got around to challenging successfully in court. With churchgoers in the van, opponents of Sunday Cinemas organised a vigorous counter-campaign, none more so than in the old borough of Bromley, where neighbouring Lewisham offered Sunday performances under LCC licence. Most churches and churchgoers were furiously against further desecration of the Sabbath, as they put it, though the struggle ran more widely along other social fault lines, e.g. Left v Right in politics; youth v older people; and town v countryside. London supporters of Sunday cinemas felt under threat from opponents as early as 1913. A declaration from the stage of the Broadway Picture Playhouse, , stated: “… There is a very grave danger that if a progressive majority are returned on the LCC they would shut up the picture palaces round London. The cranks and faddists would drive them to this … The poor man has as much right to his picture palace as the rich man to his golf course.” In January 1930 the Bromley Times described the issue as a fight between the “somewhat Godless youngsters of today, who have little or no respect for the

26 Bromleag March 2016 Feature conventions of their elders, and those more staid people who still have some regard for the decencies of the Sabbath day”. A young correspondent spoke up for the “much maligned modern youth”. He asked what the alternatives were on offer by those who would have cinemas closed on Sundays. “We are told to go to church, but when we go we expect to find something worthwhile. This we do not find. We are given a moth-eaten service, often conducted by parsons who seem to have lost interest in their message, if they ever had it.” Another young reader weighed in with some heavy sarcasm. “I feel conscious of my lack of years, so that I possess a viewpoint only less biased than that of my elders … I am quite tolerant about my elders’ churchgoing. It keeps them out of mischief. It gives them vocal exercise, a sense of their own virtue, and opportunities to show off their clothes … In short it’s a form of harmless amusement, like Sunday cinemas would be for others.” Inevitably, got dragged into any Bromley controversy. It was everyone’s favourite whipping boy – not much has changed. When around 1930 people complained that introducing electric lighting to Bromley High Street would “Catfordise” the town, the Bromley Times felt obliged to ask: “Can nothing good come out of Catford ?” Now it seemed someone had written impudently that as Catford had Sunday cinemas, so should Bromley. Young church-goers replied: “We would like to ask whether if Catford and Lewisham had bad drains that would be a reason for Bromley neglecting theirs.” With the debate conducted at this level, it would be wrong to suppose the whole thing was a storm in a teacup, for it actually illustrated enduring divisions in British society. In an effort to take the sting out of the problem, the Government introduced a Bill in 1931 to give Local Authorities power to license Sunday cinemas where a public debate and an electors’ poll were first held favouring the change. This skilfully passed the buck but did not lower the temperature. Sir Edward Campbell, Bromley’s respected and fairly progressive MP, voted in favour of the Bill despite a well- organised and vociferous campaign by its opponents. He said:“I have received more correspondence on this question than on any other since I have been in Parliament. Every Member has received stacks of postcards urging them to vote against the Bill.” Campbell was partly persuaded to support the Bill by the National League Of Social Service, which told him that if he knew the lives some of their boys led and the kind of homes they had in the slums, he would know that Sunday cinemas would be a Godsend to them. The Bill was passed and became the 1932 Sunday Entertainments Act. Under it, Mr Critchley Auty, Bromley’s Town Clerk, arranged a local poll which resulted in 4,580 votes in favour, 3,920 votes against. Bromley Council promptly voted to retain its prohibition. One local paper described the decision as “very courageous” and a blow against “a further deterioration of Sundays”. So it was that

27 Bromleag March 2016 Feature Bromley Sabbaths remained undefiled oases of peace and tranquillity for some years to come— or as the younger generation might say: “Dead and alive.” In Beckenham, councillors were more responsive to local feeling – except for a certain Councillor Rev R Burges, who regularly opposed licences for Sunday performances. The way, however, was eased by the Regal Cinema allowing the Rector of St George’s Church, Rev Francis Boyd or anyone he cared to nominate, to address the audience at the end of each Sunday show. A large, eager audience turned up on New Year’s Day,

Bromley Odeon (top) opened in September 1936 and the Gaumont in the following month. The former, which was revamped internally in the 1970s, is still going strong but the Gaumont closed in 1961 and has been replaced by shops

28 Bromleag March 2016 Feature 1933 (a Sunday) to listen to music on the theatre organ, then watch two U-rated films. The Rector alluded humorously to a remark someone made that as soon as he appeared there would be a rush for the exits. Not so — it was the National Anthem which had that effect on many patrons on all nights. The Regal undertook to show films suitable for family viewing and not offensive to the Sabbath. Only, like most New Year resolutions, the spirit soon weakened, judging by the showing of The Mummy with Boris Karloff in the lead – ex-public school, born William Pratt in Forest Hill, and star of Universal Studios horror films. In Bromley, the upholders of the traditional Sunday eventually lost their long- running battle, as in their heart-of-hearts they probably guessed they would. But it happened in an unexpected way. When war came in 1939, cinemas came to be seen as playing a vital role in civilian morale, as well as that of service personnel in camps and barracks far from home. Under Regulation 42b of the Defence (General) Regulations, a competent senior officer could now issue a certificate permitting a Local Authority to open cinemas on Sundays without a public hearing or a local poll. That being the case, one can only surmise that RAF personnel at Biggin Hill pressed for this authority to be exercised in Bromley, which was their nearest town for off-duty relaxation at weekends. At any rate, in February 1940 a letter from the Air Vice Marshal commanding No 11 Group RAF (in which Biggin Hill served as a sector airfield) dropped on the town clerk’s desk, enclosing such an authorised certificate. Bromley Council obviously took the hint, for we find that on 2 April 1940 a Sabbath audience gathered at the Gaumont in the High Street to enjoy not only two films but also Sandy MacPherson at the theatre organ and Billy Thorburn’s Dance Band on stage. Other cinemas in the borough likewise opened their doors on Sundays from about this date. Thus ended Bromley’s marathon cinematic embargo. All it took was the Second World War!

This article is based on an extract from Before The War – A Portrait Of Bromley And District, 1929-1939, written and published by Gordon in 1985 under the pen-name Lewis Blake and serialised in the Bromley Advertiser. It is a follow-up to a mini-talk given at the Bromleag Members’ Evening on 1 September last year.

29 Bromleag March 2016 Feature Churches built upon sand The theory that the ancient churches of a line of villages along the A246 road west of Croydon were sited upon a narrow strip of Thanet Sand because it provided a dry foundation, and yet a reliable water supply at the spring line, intrigued the late Patricia Knowlden. It was proposed by geologist Maurice Rogers and Patricia did her own research to see if this really was a deliberate pattern of settlement and if it continued further east into Kent.

hanet Sands were laid down in the early Eocene over the chalk in shallow brackish water in temperate conditions. In this area they form a non- T fossiliferous bed mainly of sand about 80 feet thick. Local historians from WG Hoskins in the 1950s at least have recognised the importance of water supply and drainage for a settlement site, together with a supply of materials and suitable land for tillage. These considerations were, of course, paramount not only to the men who laid out these early parishes in Saxon times but also to their precursors of Romano Britain, the Bronze Age and even the Neolithic, traces of whom have been found all over the region. Looking eastward in Surrey along the Thanet strip, at first Rogers’ premise certainly does seem to hold water (if you will forgive me for putting it that way). However, continuing eastwards, Addington, church and village, is just onto the chalk, although there are two separate outliers of Thanet Sand a little to the south at Sanderstead and West Wickham, where the church is indeed built on (Thanet) sand. So, in both cases, is the manor house. I would argue that the manorial site would be the more significant, predating that of the church, because it was usually the estate owner, in Saxon times – long before the Normans imposed a manorial system – who built himself a church, conveniently close to his own dwelling. And it was his hall-house, surrounded by the cots and huts of his estate workers, needing all those basic amenities, which became the nucleus of any village. Note that I said “any village”, because in reaching West Wickham we have crossed the county border from one system of settlement to another. To quote Alan Everett in his Making the agrarian landscape of Kent (Archgeologia Cantiana Vol.92) here there is “a very marked dispersal of its settlement pattern, i.e. scattered settlement”. In other words, while the big house and church would mark one dwelling site – the most prestigious – there was no central village but tenant farms scattered around the estate who would also need similar facilities.

30 Bromleag March 2016 Feature Water supply must have created not a few headaches, although I know that those of Wickham’s farmers on the chalk, at least, had a well, as did the manor house of Wickham Court. But what was the situation in the rest of Bromley? Except for Hayes and Downe, there is some evidence for the antiquity of all the villages. West Wickham has a name first given it by Saxon people who recognised its Roman origins. There are Roman tiles in the wall of St Paulinus’s church at St Paul’s Cray, and a Saxon window. Roman coffins were found at Keston under the church wall. Cudham and Chislehurst have other Saxon traces in their fabric, while Orpington sports a Saxon sundial set into the wall (upside down). At Chelsfield, manor house and church are side by side and at Beckenham and Bromley they are not much further apart. Both are mentioned in the Domesday Book as being in existence “in the time of King Edward”, before 1066. Farnborough, Keston, Wickham and Chislehurst are all mentioned in Anglo-Saxon charters for Bromley. The place-names have Saxon roots. Hayes may have formed from part of West Wickham. It is not named until the 12th century, and perhaps Downe was a late clearance, being on the heavy clay with flints (over chalk). Bromley, Beckenham and Chislehurst are situated on the Blackheath and Woolwich sands and gravels that overlie the Thanet Sands and Chelsfield on an isolated patch of this. The Crays are on river gravels, as is Orpington village, although its church and manor house are just up onto the chalk. Cudham, like Downe, is on clay-with-flints, but never developed into anything like a village before Victorian times. Nor did Keston, which is the only other church situated on chalk, but the nearby manor house is on the narrow band of Thanet Sand. Of them all, only Farnborough stands wholly on Thanet Beds. That narrow band of Thanet Sand swings northward along the west side of the Cray Valley, but to the east towards Bexley there is a complicated pattern of exposures remaining after the erosion of Reading and Woolwich Beds in the later Eoscene. Large deposits of Thanet Sand lie over the chalk that makes up the dip slope of the North Downs, much of it covered with a further layer of Woolwich and Reading pebbles. Only Crockenhill has developed on the Sands, Swanley sits on chalk, and Bexley is down on the river gravels. So although the Surrey sites conform to the suggested pattern of further west, within our Bromley area those villages that developed from early Saxon estate centres are indeed scattered, along river valleys or up on the lower slopes of the North Downs, and seem to have been set down on any kind of geological foundation so long as it provided the necessities of life – water and drainage, raw materials and fertile land.

31 Bromleag March 2016 Bromley Local History Society Registered Charity No 273963 History is continually being made and at the same time destroyed, buildings are altered or demolished, memories fade and people pass away, records get destroyed or thrown in the bin. BBLHS was formed in 1974 so that those with an interest in the history of any part of the borough could meet to exchange information and learn more about Bromley’s history. We aim, in co-operation with the local history library, museums and other relevant organisations, to make sure at least some of this history is preserved for future generations. We hold regular meetings and produce a newsletter and occasional publications where members can publish their research. The society covers all those areas that are within the present day London Borough of Bromley and includes : Anerley - Beckenham - Bickley - Biggin Hill - Bromley - Chelsfield Chislehurst - Coney Hall - Cudham - Downe - Farnborough Green Street Green - Hayes - Keston - Leaves Green - Orpington - - Petts Wood - St. Mary Cray St. Paul’s Cray Shortlands - Sundridge Park - West Wickham.

www.bblhs.org.uk

Subscription Rates Yearly subscription from 1 January Individual £10.50; couple £12. Senior citizens pay a reduced rate of £8 per person or £10 for a couple. Members joining after 30 June pay half rates. Membership Secretary 020 8467 3842

32 Bromleag March 2016