Bromleag The Journal of Borough Local History Society

Volume 2: Issue 17: March 2011

Bromley gardens name-change mystery

Hard times for Farnborough clergyman Air raid devastation in , Bromley and 70 years ago What the census does—and doesn't—tells us Tracking the famous names of Beckenham Bromleag The journal of the Bromley Borough Local History Society

Society officers Chairman and Membership Secretary Tony Allnutt Woodside, Old Perry Street, , BR7 6PP 0208 467 3842 [email protected] Secretary Patricia Knowlden 62 Harvest Bank Road, West Wickham, BR4 9DJ 0208 462 5002 Treasurer Brian Reynolds 2 The Limes, Oakley Road, Bromley, BR2 8HH 0208 462 9526 [email protected] Programme co-ordinator Peter Leigh 29 Woodland Way, West Wickham, BR4 9LR 0208 777 9244 [email protected] Publicity and website Max Batten 5 South View, Bromley, BR1 3DR 0208 460 1284 [email protected] Publications John Barnes 38 Sandilands Crescent, Hayes, BR2 7DR 0208 462 2603 [email protected] Bromleag Editor Christine Hellicar 150 Worlds End Lane, , BR6 6AS 01689 857214 [email protected] Minutes Secretary Valerie Stealey 9 Mayfield Road, , BR1 2HB 0208 467 2988 [email protected]

BBLHS website http://bblhs.website.orange.co.uk/

Bromleag is published four times a year. The editor welcomes articles along with illustrations and photographs. These can be emailed, on disk 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 — 30 April 2011

2 Bromleag March 2011 News

Society Meetings and events April - June 2011 Meetings are held at 7.45 pm on the first Tuesday of the month, from September to July, in the Methodist Church Hall, North Street, Bromley. The hall has free off-street parking, good public transport links and facilities for the disabled. Non-members are welcome at meetings for a nominal charge of £1. Meetings 5 April Annual General Meeting followed by Railways of Beckenham An illustrated talk by Andrew Hadjuki 3 May Victorian Hayes An illustrated talk by Jean Wilson 7 June Scadbury An illustrated talk by local Chislehurst historian Roy Hopper Conference 7 May History Federation Annual Conference At Crofton Halls, A full day’s programme with speakers and visits on historical and archaeological themes organised by Kent History Federation, BBLHS and the Council for Kent Archaeology. All members should already have received a conference leaflet with full details of the event and a booking form. If you have not, please contact Val Stealey on 0208 467 2988 or at [email protected] Walks 15 June A guided walk around the Kelsey area of Beckenham with Doug Black, to include the works of Francis Hooper The two-mile walk starts at 6.30pm and begins at Kelsey Park Lodge at the junction of Kelsey Park Road, Manor Way and Court Downs Road. Numbers are limited so please let Peter Leigh know if you would like to join the walk. Telephone 0208 777 9244 or email [email protected]

3 Bromleag March 2011 Society news Conference - books for sale - publicity- publications The main focus for the committee until May is the major conference we are holding with the Kent History Federation on 7 May at Crofton Halls, Orpington. (See Page 5) Joyce Walker’s daughters have passed to the society unsold copies of her own publications and her personal local history library for the society to sell, with the proceeds being split between the society and the family’s designated charity, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA). Our publicity officer, Max Batten, has over the last couple of years had success with reports of our meetings in the local paper but recently the papers have not published reports of meetings by any local organisations. As well as the electronic publication on education sources (see below) we are also beginning work, in conjunction with the Local Studies Library, on a new publication on Orpington – as there is now nothing in print available – and a publication on the theme of “Lost Houses”.

Education database gets off to a flying start

In the last edition of Bromleag Tony Allnutt asked members to help him compile a database for sources of historical information on schools and other educational establishments in Bromley. The project involves, said Tony, “collecting and organising information that is scattered over a range of sources and making it easily accessible”. This will probably be in a digital rather than paper form. There has been a very positive response from members. A great deal of information on schools in Beckenham has been provided, as have details on individual schools in other areas, and a volunteer has come forward to help Tony go through directories to establish when and where there were schools in the borough. Unfortunately, Tony’s email address was printed wrongly in the last edition, so if you were unable to contact him please try again at [email protected] or at Woodside, Old Perry Street, Chislehurst, BR7 6PP, 0208 467 3842 Even if you do not have access to school logbooks or other material, Tony believes many members – particularly those who grew up in Bromley borough— have valuable information. Any facts, however trivial they may seem, will be welcomed. Please let him know if you can help.

4 Bromleag March 2011 Society news Contents March 2011

News and Events Letters P 15 — 18 Society news P4—5 Features Local news and Beckenham’s famous on the move photo conundrums P12—14 P10 —11 Ivy Millichamp mystery P19—21 Society Meetings Hard times for Victorian clergy Country House Christmas P6 P22—25 Investigating the census P7 —9 The day of the air raids P26—31

Books on West Wickham history The late Joyce Walker wrote a number of excellent books on the history of West Wickham. Thanks to the generosity of her daughters, we are able to offer the following five titles for sale.  West Wickham and the Great War (hardback)  A West Wickham Diary (hardback)  West Wickham in the Second World War (paperback)  Some People of West Wickham (paperback), written jointly with Patricia Knowlden  West Wickham Past into Present (paperback), also with Patricia Knowlden These are all new copies and are available at the reduced price of only £5 each. Postage and packing to a UK address is an additional £2.20 for any single book and £3.10 for any two books. For three, four, or five books, the cost is £4.50. Postage for larger quantities will be negotiated. Please send your order to John Barnes, 38 Sandilands Crescent, Hayes, Bromley, Kent, BR2 7DR The books will also be on sale at our meetings or can be collected directly from John. If you wish to buy one at a meeting please give John a call first to check that he will be attending and running the book stall at the next meeting, Phone 0208 462 2603

5 Bromleag March 2011 Society meeting A bit more than a country house Christmas Pat Mortlake began researching the history of Christmas when she was asked to do a talk for the National Trust around the theme of A Country House Christmas. While retaining the title, Pat decided country house Christmases are a bit samey – even if they do provide some beautiful pictures of National Trust properties decorated for Christmas – so the talk she gave to our December meeting was a wider history of the celebrations. Some aspects of Christmas go back to pre-Christian days, with the Church appropriating the date of an old pagan mid-winter festival and incorporating many traditions ,including holly and ivy and, much later, mistletoe. Pat’s talk focused mainly on the festival rather than the religious aspects of Christmas and while it has changed considerably over the centuries, the abiding theme has been “eat, drink and be merry”. For many centuries the Lord of the Manor would host celebrations for his people, providing them with food as the winter set in. Palace records for 1482 show 2000 people being fed during the 12 days of Christmas. The menu included seal and porpoise. Boar’s head and roast peacock also appear in the records. Entertainment could be on a grand scale too. At Ightam Mote in 1525 a troupe of actors built a castle in the great hall in which the Lords and Ladies sat while the actors performed around them. The first book of carols appeared in 1521. All of this came to an abrupt end with the Commonwealth when Christmas was banned as a “vile Episcopal arrangement”. However, many people continued to celebrate and in Kent and East Sussex 300 vicars were imprisoned for defying the ban. Until the end of the 18th century the custom was for New Year presents but, said Pat: “At the beginning of the 19th century we start to get the sort of Christmas we celebrate today.” Cards make their appearance from 1843 with the introduction of the penny post and when Queen Victoria and her consort Albert began to adopt the German tradition of a Christmas tree. “The idea caught on like wildfire,” said Pat. The Victorian family went to church in the morning but the commercial Christmas with children at its centre was born once new toy stores like Gamleys opened. There were family games with names such as snapdragon as well as the better-known charades and singing round the piano. Christmas was different in the past but perhaps not quite so different - as Pat Mortlake told us at the beginning of her entertaining talk. “Snow was more common before the 17th century,” she declared. Last year we definitely experienced one element of an old-fashioned Christmas.

6 Bromleag March 2011 Society meeting Censuses open a window to the past The wealth of historical detail that can be found in the census was revealed by Michael Rawcliffe when he explored the history and uses of censuses in the first talk of our 2011 season. Britain, it seems, was a little behind in the modern census game, not getting going until 1801. Quebec had its first census in 1666 and we were even decades behind other Europeans: the Swedes introduced theirs in 1749 and the Icelanders even earlier, in 1703. Censuses have, of course, been held since time immemorial, as witnessed by Joseph going from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Luke 2.2) for the census at the time of Jesus’s birth. And even Domesday which, like all censuses, was intended to help those in charge get a better idea about their subjects and their assets. But the censuses that were the focus of Michael’s talk were our own from 1801 to 1901 and touched on later ones that are not yet available to the public, although the 1911 one was made available some years ago. The censuses from 1841 have become a key source for family historians and Michael pointed out that, once you find the right entry, they will usually give you many of the answers you are seeking. But while providing a lot of information, they often also raise more questions than answers when used as a local history source. There had been calls for a census in the 18thcentury because of changing demographics, industrialisation and Malthusian predictions of population outstripping food supply. But the “we don’t want the state intruding into our private lives” lobby won the day until 1801. That first census and the following two gave bald numbers of inhabitants - no names or addresses. But for local historians they offer population and family numbers, inhabited houses and, in very broad categories, occupations. So the historian can see the demographic changes that occurred over the 30 years to 1831, although the way occupations were categorised changed. With the 1832 Reform Act widening the electoral franchise and the introduction of measures such the general registration of births, marriages and deaths in 1836, a new system for census collection was introduced in 1841 and more information gathered. The organisation was taken away from the parish and overseers and centralised. For the first time, everywhere took the census on the same day – avoiding double counting – and enumeration districts of 25 -200 houses were established. Forms distributed a few days before had to be filled in by every household on 6 June 1841 and they were collected the following day. There was help for those who

7 Bromleag March 2011 Society meeting needed assistance, all the information was copied into the enumerators’ books and everything went off to the General Register Office (GRO) for analysis. The drivers for the state needing more information were industrialisation, changing demographics and concerns about slums, so the local historian can use the census just as the original bureaucrats did to plot changes in communities. Each house entry was divided by two horizontal lines and the households within by a single line. The census included everyone who was resident on census night. Some residents may have been away from their normal abode but they would have been recorded elsewhere. Conversely, visitors would have been listed. From 1851, relationship to the head of the household was added, which gives a more accurate picture; such as showing how poor households took in lodgers to help pay the rent and wealthier ones employed servants. The system stayed the same until 1901 but by then the census date had settled in April, as fewer people were likely to be away from home, and more information began to be asked down the decades - where a person was born, how many rooms the household was comprised of and whether anyone was blind, deaf or dumb. In 1911 the introduction of punch-cards allowed clerks to process more data and the number of questions increased until, in 1961, computers took over from punch- cards. And, as we all know, in the last few decades census forms have become more and more complicated or, as some critics say, intrusive. So the census produced a nice collection of straightforward information — well, not quite. Michael took us on a walk around one census enumerator’s patch in 1851. He explained that details of the circuit taken are set out in the enumerator’s books but if you are trying to build a picture of an area beware: sometimes the enumerator doubled-back on himself, making houses and terraces appear in the wrong place. He also noted that Bromley Palace appears to have fewer than the expected number of live-in servants for such a big house because many slept over the stables, which was treated as a separate dwelling. There was also only one gardener listed – for a very big estate - indicating that the owner, Coles Child, must have employed gardeners who lived in the surrounding area. At the other end of the scale, particularly in slum areas, the question arises of what is a house and what is a household – parents, children, lodgers, servants and visitors? In a town like Bromley, the census gives a very clear idea of the movement of people over time, particularly in families. Parents were born further down in Kent, first child a bit further up, say Sevenoaks, and then the rest of the children in Bromley. In the 19th century the town was drawing people in for work and much of the work came from the needs of the affluent families moving from London to the suburbs. Again, this can be seen from the families’ birthplaces. Earlier in the century there

8 Bromleag March 2011 Society meeting were many agricultural labourers but 10 years later the same men have become gardeners or traders serving a new, affluent suburb. And in the big houses it is amazing to see how servants came from every part of Britain and sometimes there were tutors or ladies’ maids from abroad. There are, however, pitfalls. Illiteracy or ignorance – such as not knowing where or precisely when you were born - or simply someone else filling in the census for you, can create misleading or puzzling entries. Michael’s recommendation for anyone who wants to explore their local area through the census is to use it in conjunction with the six-inch and 25-inch Ordnance Survey maps from the 1860s and local street directories such as Strong or Kelly’s to open up a fascinating window into the past.

East End Bromley Hall ruled out of the picture

The Bromley Hall mystery has not been solved, it seems. In the December 2010 issue, P25, it was suggested that the Bromley Hall pictured right, was in fact in Bromley -by-Bow to the south of Limehouse Cut in an area once famous for calico and dyeing works. However, Tower Hamlets Local Studies have quashed this theory, as you can see from their picture, bottom right. The East End Bromley Hall, which has somehow survived the bombing and demolition of much of the East End, is a Tudor building and was never going to fit the bill. The beautiful Bromley Hall is not recognisable as any known building in Tower Hamlets, and there never was a Bromley Hall in our borough. It has been suggested that it was an idealised version of Bromley Palace, now the civic centre, probably painted by someone who had never seen the building. Unless anyone has come across a Bromley Hall elsewhere in the country...

9 Bromleag March 2011 Feature

Where do you think you are? By Cliff Watkins

t our January meeting, Michael Rawcliffe explained that the evolution of place and street names over time makes it very difficult for family and local A historians to locate where their ancestors lived in the past. But even today it can still be difficult for many of us to offer a definitive reply if asked — Where do you think you are? In June last year, those eligible to vote among the 44,000 inhabitants of the Crystal Palace, and Cator, and Clock House wards found they were voting for a Lewisham MP. By this definition they were no longer part of Beckenham. For those with a sense of place, and very happy with being part of the community in Beckenham, this change came as a great shock even though the boundary change had been mooted for almost 10 years. Another huge part of the former Cator estate lands is now in the Parliamentary constituency of Lewisham. It required an Act of Parliament in 1773 to legally transfer the ownership of most of Beckenham to the 5th John Cator. He adopted the title of Lord of the Manor and built the Mansion in the 100 acres or so of his private lands now known as Beckenham Place Park. In the 1930s the London County Council divided the Park between Lewisham and Beckenham. With the coming of the Council and London boroughs in 1965, the whole of the Park became part of the London Borough of Lewisham. But if you live in the road called Beckenham Place Park, which is the route from the Beckenham end of Southend Road, you live in Beckenham. Even before the Parliamentary boundary changes, some people moving into parts of West Beckenham have been confused as many roads have either an SE20 postcode (instantly thought of by outsiders as Penge) or SE26 code (Sydenham). The biggest annoyance for many in Penge and Beckenham today is the repeated reference to the Crystal Palace having been built in Sydenham. The grounds of what is today called , to where Paxton’s Palace of the People was transferred in 1854, was 70% in Penge and 30% in Beckenham. Since I retired in 1998, I have advocated that Beckenham’s heritage and its community groups offer the best of everything. I have mellowed my views and increasingly I am reminded that Beckenham is not an island and that its history and future are interwoven with its neighbours. Beckenham and Penge have been closely linked since the early 1900s. Until 1910, Penge’s main shopping area was in Beckenham Road (i.e. in the road to Beckenham). Penge people would travel to Beckenham to the library, to the swimming baths, to

10 Bromleag March 2011 Feature see international tennis at the pre-Wimbledon tournament in Foxgrove Road. Beckenham folk went to Penge for its three department stores, choice of cinemas and to be educated: the Beckenham Boys County School (now Langley Park Boys) was in Penge. Many Beckenham boys won scholarships which entitled them to places in public schools such as Dulwich College or St Dunstan’s College in Lewisham. In the north of Lewisham is Deptford, named after a “deep ford” across the river Ravensbourne where it meets the Thames. The map, right, shows that most of Lewisham’s waterways are fed from the rivers of Bromley, including the Beck and the Chaffinch, so important in the childhood of Carey Blyton and his aunt Enid Blyton, whose father was born in Deptford. Beckenham’s seafaring connections Henry VIII established the royal dockyard in Deptford in 1512. The yard built and refitted the ships of famous seafarers like Captain Cook, Captain Kidd and Sir Francis Drake. Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake aboard the Golden Hind on completion of his voyage round the world in 1581. Admiral Sir Percy Brett of The Clock House, Beckenham, gave Lieutenant Cook the orders for his first circumnavigation of the globe in 1768. As a Lieutenant, Brett had sailed round the world in Anson’s voyage 1740 to 1744. Other famous seamen associated with the Beckenham neighbourhood were Shackleton, who lived in Sydenham, and Fitzroy, who moved to Crystal Palace after navigating Darwin’s Beagle. In his years at , , the first of Darwin’s 9,000 letters to the UK and abroad were routed through the Albemarle Road Post Office in Beckenham. To avoid the long delays due to his incoming post being sent to Northern Ireland, Darwin changed his letter headings to read Down House, Beckenham, Kent, so his colleagues knew where he was.

11 Bromleag March 2011 News Misnamed or misplaced?

All the old pictures given to the society by former chairman and founder member Fred Whyler have now been put onto our website: http://bblhs.website.orange.co.uk But two of them, seen below and on page 13, are puzzling. The captions and details on the back of the cards do not seem quite right for the pictures. Did the publishers of the postcards just get their facts wrong? Take a look and see if you can help.

Did Bromley have a Victoria Gardens? This card is inscribed Victoria Gardens and Homeopathic Hospital, Bromley. In Horsburgh’s Bromley, he says the hospital was in Queens Gardens – but were they ever called Victoria Gardens? The card, an original, was sent from Balgownie, Blyth Road, Bromley, to Chatham in 1907. It reads: “I like it up here very much it is such a pretty place and a lot of nice walks, have been in these gardens this afternoon, what splendid weather we are getting. Hope you are well.” The signature in unreadable. Balgownie sounds like a grand house. Does anyone know if it is still in Blyth Road?

12 Bromleag March 2011 News

High Street or London Road? This is a Palim Print a 1970s reproduction of an older photograph. On the front it says: OLD BROMLEY – London Road & The Greyhound. It doesn’t look like the Greyhound in Bromley and it is recognisable as the High Street ,not London Road, which starts at the top of Beckenham Hill. So was the road re-named at some time? If you can shed any light on the pictures, drop me a line at: [email protected] or to the address on page two.

Camden workhouse under threat A petition has been launched to try to persuade the Government and Camden Council not to demolish the best-preserved Georgian workhouse in central London at 44 Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia (near London's BT Tower). Originally built on fields in 1775, it has been used for the care of elderly and sick Londoners ever since. It was the Outpatients Department of the Middlesex Hospital for many years until it was closed in 2006. The building stands pretty much unchanged since Georgian times, and it is a rare living testimony to those bleak institutions as a whole, rich in architectural as well as historical interest. To find more about the workhouse and the petition, go to: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39594.html

13 Bromleag March 2011 News Crossing the borders with third ‘Beckenham’s famous’ concert

Fanfare for Beckenham — A Grand Charity Concert Leslie Lake is bringing the Lewisham Concert Band to Beckenham for the third in Cliff Watkins’ Beckenham’s Famous concert series at St George’s Parish Church on Saturday 26 March at 7.00 pm. The band was formed in 1967 by Joseph Procter, who had a music shop in Bromley High Street, and it found fame on BBC radio during the 1970s and 80s. The band is now under the musical direction of Leslie Lake — formerly bass trombonist with ENO — who attended the Beckenham County School. The concert will be celebrating a wide range of famous people and places, including those in Penge, Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Lewisham and elsewhere in Bromley. It will include music by local composer Carey Blyton, Elgar, Handel and Donald Swann, among others. Tickets at £10 each are available at the door from 6.15pm or call the box office on 0208 650 7347. Proceeds from the concert will go to Woodlarks Campsite Trust for the disabled and St Christopher’s Hospice. A feature by Cliff Watkins looking at the links of Beckenham’s famous with neighbouring areas is on page 10.

Reprieve for ’s archives and museum

Plans by Croydon Council to shut the Local Studies Library, slash the museum exhibitions, cut the summer festival, close the David Lean cinema and cancel all Clocktower events, saving between £150,000 and £1.5 million, have been put on hold. It has now begun talks with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which in 2005 gave Croydon a 25-year, £933,000 grant to make improvements to the museum, which houses the historically important Riesco Collection, Chinese ceramics dating from 2500 BC to the 19th century. It was left to the council by local businessman Raymond Riesco. However, if the council is unable to come to an agreement with the HLF to keep the museum open, it may have to repay a portion of the money. The Local Studies Library is already operating on reduced opening hours and the council is to carry out a “value for money exercise” to decide how the archive section of the library will continue.

14 Bromleag March 2011 Letters Identifying the Bromley Red Cross shoulder patch

I have been going through a bunch of items from my father in law, who fought for Canada in the Second World War. One of his stops was , prior to going to other parts of Europe. Among his effects I have located a shoulder patch from a uniform. The patch itself is curved at the top and has a khaki background. The word BROMLEY is embroidered in red with a red cross centred below. Beneath the curve, the side of the patch comes in straight from the edge then comes to a point at the bottom to accommodate the cross. My father in law fought for Canada. He joined the RCA (Royal Canadian Artillery) in December 1939 and travelled to England by ship from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Once in England, I think he went to Aldershot, and then was deployed to various areas in Europe and Africa. I know he was in Italy and Belgium, to be specific. He stayed with the Artillery throughout and returned to Canada in 1945, but was never in a medical unit. I do not know what or who the badge represents and was wondering if you could help me. Jack Robinson [email protected]

Information sought on Carn Brea pupils I have just restored a World War Two war memorial in memory of old students and teachers of the Carn brea School, formerly in Orchard Road, Bromley. I am seeking assistance in researching the men mentioned on the memorial for use by students at Breaside School. Phillip Sarginson [email protected]

Get more from your Society Visit the website for the latest information about meetings and visits. Why not have a look at the "Can you help?" page to see if you have the vital information researchers are looking for. http://bblhs.website.orange.co.uk

15 Bromleag March 2011 Letters Chelsfield school logbooks online Paul Rason has been actively identifying and preserving school records for some time and will be contributing his knowledge to Tony Allnutt’s education Paul writes: “I have just been reading your item in the Journal regarding school logbooks etc. Just to let you know, I have already, with the North West Kent Family History Society, copied the registers and logbooks for School. I believe the school is planning to bring out some sort of publication. “I am in the process of copying the Chelsfield School records. I have three friends transcribing the logbooks, which takes a long time. About 20 years have already been done (1883-1906) and are shown on the school’s website. “I tried some years ago to do the Chislehurst Road School, Orpington, now Perry Hall Road School, but got nowhere. However, I plan to try again, perhaps with the Head of Chelsfield putting in a good word. “Pratts Bottom Registers were done many years ago and the Local Studies Library has a paper copy, from a chap in New Zealand. I am trying to re-contact him to see if he still has it in any electronic form, as the paper version is not complete.” Chelsfield logbooks A look through just one year of records shows the wealth of historical information in logbooks— and the stories and tragedies of late 19th century village life: 2 March 1883 — Very poor attendance today – the no. of families with Measles have now reached 40. The managers have decided to follow the recommendation of the Sanitary Doctor and close the school till Easter Tuesday to prevent a further spreading of the epidemic. The school did not re-open for three weeks. 6 July 1883 — Attendance very bad this week, only 100 present out of nearly 200 on account of the Fruiting. Numbers continued to decline until early August. 31 January 1884 — Several deaths have occurred during the last few weeks from Croup – which are attributed by the parents to the over-crowded state of the schools and from draughts. Lesson to 1st Class on Analysis. Not clear if the deaths are just locally. 4 March 1884 — The Medical Officer inspected the school building. Has given orders to several children not to attend school – Anticipates closing the schools unless diphtheria decreases in the neighbourhood. Recommends enlarging of the schools & better ventilation. Next day the logbooks recorded that Ada Filmer had died.

Chelsfield School logbooks: http://www.chelsfield.saintolaves.net/vle/ More information on the Education database P 4

16 Bromleag March 2011 Letters Eric’s brave but short flying career

I was interested to read the item about the Lubbock War Memorial in the last issue of Bromleag. With my interest in aviation, I looked up Lubbock in the old copies of the weekly magazine Flight. There were two entries. The first was in the issue of 26 November 1915 when the Honours page recorded that Temp Lieutenant the Hon Eric Fox Pitt Lubbock of the Army Service Corps and attached to the Royal Flying Corps, had received the Military Cross. The award was for conspicuous gallantry on 26 October 1915 when he attacked a German Albatross aeroplane at a height of 9,000ft with machinegun fire. The hostile pilot was shot and the plane was brought to the ground within British lines. The attack finished at a height of only 600ft and, during an almost vertical dive, when the pilot was fully occupied, Lubbock fired deliberately and with effect. The second Lubbock entry in Flight was 22 March 1917. It recorded his death on 11 March 1917 at the age of 23. It noted that he was the son of the late Lord Avebury (died 1913) and brother of the present baron. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, he enlisted on the outbreak of war in the new Motor Transport section of the Army Service Corps (this was probably at the former Grove Park workhouse building which the ASC had taken over). He went to France with ASC in September 1914 and was given a commission but soon became attached to the Royal Flying Corps, with which he saw the bulk of his service. He remained at the front as an observer. Twice mentioned in despatches, he returned to England and obtaining his pilot's licence and was retained in the country on instructional work for a period. In October 1916 he retuned to the front as a Flight Commander. A memorial service was held in the Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street. John King

Flight has been digitised and is available free on the internet at http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/index.html

17 Bromleag March 2011 Letters Who were the Beckenham men of P with flat caps?

Who were these men of Beckenham with their flat caps, plus fours, bow-ties and simple lapel badges of the letter P? Did the P represent a society, a work place, an estate, a club or perhaps a sports association — they all look pretty fit? It was posted from 164 Birkbeck Road, Beckenham, on 25 August 1912 and Marion Gower believes it was sent by James William Fox, a 24-year-old shop assistant, and that one of the men whose face was half-hidden was his father, also James, a bricklayer aged 51. In the 1911 census Jim, father and son, and other members of the Fox family lived at 164 Birkbeck Road. The back of the postcard is covered in tiny handwriting and Jim is writing to a cousin to let him know that he and Alice have arrived home “safe but not sound”, having had a puncture and a spill “when some fellow had us over on the tram lines”. He also refers to the men pictured as “some of our crowd”. It has been suggested that they might have belonged to a philanthropic group, a walking or hiking group or be fellow workers. However, the most likely suggestion is they were a cycling group. If you can throw any light on the picture or have information on cycling clubs in the Beckenham area, please let the editor know at [email protected] or phone 01689 857214

18 Bromleag March 2011 Feature Unravelling the mystery of where Ivy Millichamp died

uring our visit to the Local Studies Library, at the end of last year, Simon Finch presented us with a mystery to solve – exactly where did Ivy D Millichamp die? And how come the secondary sources are more likely to be right than the primary sources? Ivy was the last civilian killed by enemy action in Britain during the Second World War. In his book Bromley in the Front Line Lewis Blake sets the scene: “The last salvo of Hitler’s V2 rockets against England came on 27 March 1945. There was nothing to suggest to the average Londoner that this would see the end of the ordeal.” Four bombs fell earlier that day, one killing 134 people in Stepney. “It left only one more to come – rocket 1,115. This fell just before 5pm in rear gardens of Court Road and Kynaston Road, Orpington. Mrs Ivy Millichamp of 88 Kynaston Road was the sole person killed in the blast.” According to Lewis Blake, Ivy’s husband Derek pulled his wife out of the wreckage of their bungalow Two other books The Blitz: then and now and Doodlebugs and Rockets

Destruction: 88 Kynaston Road after the bombing. It is impossible to see where one property’s garden ends and the other begins.

19 Bromleag March 2011 Feature tell the same story but the official records says she died at 86 Court Road – several hundred yards away. (See map) Simon explained: “The secondary sources are in general agreement. Ivy was in her kitchen, the rocket landed and she was killed by the force of the blast, being pulled clear by her husband. However, the mortuary record disagrees with almost every aspect of this. According to the record she was found half a mile away in the front garden of another house – 86 Court Road – she had her coat on, suggesting she was not indoors. Cause of death is given as rocket-bomb splinters. “Is the official record, made within a few minutes of the incident, really this inaccurate or have later writers made a mistake relying too much on fading memories of eyewitnesses and relatives?” With the three books, the mortuary report and one other record, the Civil Defence Incident Book, plus maps of the area to examine, what were our conclusions? The Civil Defence Incident Book made it clear that the explosion was big: extensive damage to property including shops in the High Street – over half a mile away – and the crater was 40ft x 20ft. So, in theory, Ivy could have died in the front garden of 86 Court Road. The publishers of The Blitz contacted Ivy’s family and they state: “Regrettably, the details passed by the clerk of Orpington UDC to the General Register Office were incorrect, the place Back to back: Court Road and Kynaston Road in of death being given 86 Court Orpington are parallel and the back gardens back Road.” The clerk had been onto each other. relying on the mortuary report. On balance it seemed unlikely that she was found half a mile away in Court Road, though it is not inconceivable that the blast could have killed someone that far away. It is more likely that a series of mistakes led to the incident being reported wrongly. These could have included: The rescue team probably entered the site from the main road, Court Road, not from Kynaston Road and then got the numbers of houses and names of roads confused.

20 Bromleag March 2011 Feature If the rescue crew had entered from Court Road and had not realised there were two rows of houses, especially if the Court Road houses were extensively damaged and the fences were all down, they may have assumed the back garden of 88 was in fact the front of 86. Exiting the same way, they never discovered the existence of Kynaston Road at all. JS Holland, a member of Light Rescue who completed the mortuary form, may not actually have been the person who found Ivy Millichamp, or he may have been unfamiliar with the area Even if he was the key officer, as the form was typed, it is possible he dictated the information from notes to another person at the mortuary, allowing for more mistakes to creep in The form says Ivy Millichamp was wearing a blue coat when she was supposed to have been killed in the kitchen. Could she have just come into the house or was it cold in the kitchen so she kept a coat on? The form states she was found in a front garden – not the back where the explosion occurred. Her husband may well have carried her through the house to the “safer” front garden. Unfortunately, none of the secondary sources gets to the bottom of why the record was wrong. But, in the confusion of war and tragedy these sorts of errors are bound to happen. It makes you wonder just how much unintentional misreporting goes on in the heat of battle. Sources: Burial of war casualties Orpington Civil Defence Incident Book No 3 The Blitz, then & now volume 3, Battle of Britain Prints, 1990 Doodlebugs and Rockets by Bob Ogley, Froglets, 1992 Bromley on the Front Line by Lewis Blake, Bromley Libraries, 2005 Was Ivy really the last civilian casualty? Last month the Kentish Times carried an article by Bob Ogley in which he raised the possibility that young Jocelyn Hughes, who died on the same day, may have actually been the last civilian to be killed by enemy action. Jocelyn worked in Trittons baker’s shop in Orpington High Street, about a quarter of a mile from where the rocket landed. She was dressing the shop window when the V2 rocket struck and was, according to a distant relative who contacted Bob, killed by the blast. Her gravestone in Star Lane cemetery St Paul’s Cray says “Killed by enemy action 27th March 1945”. Hopefully, future research will throw some light on this new Ivy Millichamp mystery.

21 Bromleag March 2011 Feature The woes of Victorian clergy in Farnborough and Downe.

Delving into church archives, Geoffrey Copus has been looking at the Archbishops’ correspondence and Visitation returns for late Victorian times, held at Lambeth Palace Library, and the Faculty papers at Canterbury Cathedral Library. Some fascinating material came to light, revealing that all was not well in Downe and Farnborough. Wesleyans, Baptists, Infidels and Heathens. he Lubbock family's connection with our area began in 1809, when John William Lubbock, a wealthy London banker, acquired the High Elms estate with T some 260 acres in Downe and Farnborough. The estate descended to his grandson John Lubbock, later created Lord Avebury, who was distinguished in scientific circles. Charles Darwin came to live in Downe in 1842, when he purchased Down House, and the Darwin and Lubbock families, who shared many interests, became very friendly, and both are mentioned in the ecclesiastical records at Lambeth Palace. The Archbishops’ Visitations there contain much which is of great interest, not just for the church historian. The questionnaires drawn up for the Visitations, held at intervals of several years by the Victorian Archbishops, are incredibly detailed. In 1872, Archbishop Longley’s questions to his parochial clergy had 37 main headings, with many sub-divisions. The Rev George Sketchley Ffinden had been instituted as Vicar of Downe in the previous year, and the picture he painted of the parish in his response was a gloomy one. He also attached to his return a letter to the Archbishop, in which he wrote: “…considering that the leading families are either Infidels or Dissenters … humanly speaking, owing to their example, I do not see any prospect of an increase in the number of Church people.” In 1876 he was more specific— in response to question 17, about the reason why “the congregation does not bear a fair proportion to the population”, he wrote: “The deficiency is to be attributed to the leading families, Sir J Lubbock and Mr Darwin and others being Socinians and Infidels.” In 1880 he wrote: “About half of the parishioners are not Anglican but Wesleyans, Baptists, Infidels and Heathens.” The Lubbock family, who supported the Church in a general way, really did not deserve the epithets heaped on them by Mr. Ffinden. It is not surprising, therefore, that in protest at his attitude they moved their allegiance from Downe to Farnborough church, where they seem to have settled down quite happily. Oddly enough, a photograph of Mr. Ffinden, also at Lambeth, shows that he sported

22 Bromleag March 2011 Feature an immense beard, and had an uncommonly simian appearance, as seen in Victorian cartoons sparked off by the controversies about Darwin’s theory of evolution. The curate’s lot is not a happy one. An episode which could have come straight out of one of Anthony Trollope's Barchester novels is to be found in the Visitation returns for Farnborough, where the Rev George Hingston was employed as curate in charge by the Rev Folliott Baugh, Rector of Chelsfield, at £150 per annum. Mr Baugh’s income was about £900 per annum, with spacious residence (now Chelsfield Park Hospital) and he also had a private income. It is clear that Mr Hingston, on the other hand, was one of life’s losers. He first wrote in very humble terms to Archbishop Tait in 1869, asking to change his residence from Farnborough to . Mr Baugh wrote in support, commenting: “It is scarcely possible to get a decent lodging in Farnborough even for a single man — for a married man with a family a sufficient house cannot be obtained. Mr Hingston has been living for 2 years in a very poor cottage in Hard times: Rev George Hingston was which his wife and child have nearly died of the poor curate of Farnborough gastric fever.” Permission for this change of abode was duly granted. Folliott Baugh seems to have been a kindly, thoughtful parish priest, who had been instituted as Rector of Chelsfield with Farnborough attached to it in 1849. Some way of altering this arrangement and making Farnborough an independent parish was long overdue but, charming as he was, Mr Baugh was also a great procrastinator — not least in the time he took to effect the severance of Farnborough from Chelsfield. In 1875 Mr Hingston wrote to the Archbishop to enquire anxiously whether it was certain that the proposed new living of Farnborough would be given to him, as he had been promised. Evidently nothing concrete came of this and poor Mr Hingston was moved to write to the Archbishop again six weeks later: “May I ask your Grace if you can kindly give me any fresh information as to the separation of these livings? …. I feel in a state of very great uncertainty, fearing that there may yet be some unexpected,

23 Bromleag March 2011 Feature but inevitable, hitch, which may arise to disappoint the hopes I have long been led to cherish...” In the event, Mr Hingston was duly presented to the new, separated living of Farnborough in 1876, but it would seem that still things did not run very smoothly for him, and he continued to be dogged by ill-health. In 1884, one of his parishioners, Mr Beale, wrote to the Archbishop (then Edward White Benson) to complain of Mr Hingston’s ministry and received this reply from a Chaplain: “From enquiries made, his Grace believes that you have not overstated the case as regards the condition of things at Farnborough. Narrow means and ill health are serious drawbacks to the efficiency of pastoral ministrations … as you have kindly interested yourself in this case, perhaps you might be able to prevail upon some of the parishioners to guarantee the stipend of a curate.” Benson, perhaps the best Archbishop we have ever had, never missed a trick, and his defence of Mr Hingston and suggestion that Mr Beale should himself do something about the situation is adroit, and typical of him. Mr Beale (evidently one of those people who arrive in a parish and immediately start to busybody around) could hardly demur, and responded: “Though I have only recently come to reside here, I will do my best to prevail upon the parishioners to guarantee the stipend of a curate, beginning with £5 from myself….” But the situation resolved itself, as a little later he wrote, rather unfeelingly perhaps: “After all it will not be necessary to provide a locum tenens for this place as Mr Hingston died this morning…” Selling off the presentation to the new parish This was not quite the end of the story, as there was an astonishing twist, when All Souls College, while retaining the patronage of Chelsfield, actually sold that of the new parish to a private individual, who at once put it up for sale again. He entrusted the negotiations to Mr Anthony, the Landlord of the George Inn, to the horror of another well-off parishioner, who wrote to the Archbishop about “the scandal of the appointment of a man whose influence we hoped would be used to stop the horrible amount of drunkenness that now exists here, being handed over to a local beerhouse keeper…” This very odd episode eventually resolved itself satisfactorily, and the living was acquired by Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who are still the patrons. Dragging Farnborough into the 19th. century The Rector presented by them, the Rev Frederick J. Kelly, soon set about putting things on a sounder footing. Typical Victorian cleric as he was, almost the first thing to which he turned his attention was restoring and refitting St. Giles’ church to comply with the latest fashions, and the story unfolds in the Faculty papers in Canterbury

24 Bromleag March 2011 Feature Cathedral Library. All went well to start with and the plan by Joseph Clarke, the Diocesan Architect, to rebuild the chancel was approved. A further plan to add an organ chamber was also submitted but here a serious setback occurred: the application came back, showing the elevation of the proposed organ chamber crossed through with the Archbishop's comment in his vigorous handwriting: “This organ chamber not allowed.— EW Cantuar”. Poor Mr Kelly was distraught and wrote again, stressing that the organ which Mr T Hamilton Fox, a prominent parishioner and employer of local labour, proposed to give would not be presented unless the Chamber were built as planned. He even made the rather unrealistic request that as a matter of urgency the Archbishop should come to Farnborough to see for himself that the wall it was proposed to demolish was not of an ancient character. The correspondence thereafter is rather confused, but there are some lively exchanges between Rejected: the original plans for the organ chamber at Mr Fox and the Archbishop, and Farnborough did not get the Archbishop’s approval a letter from the eminent architect Ewan Christian whom the latter had evidently consulted. At one point Mr Kelly wrote rather bitterly to the Archbishop's Chaplain: “Farnborough people are certainly more anxious to adapt the Church to the needs of worship in the present day than to preserve it as an example of what was deemed sufficient 600 years ago, and they are hard to convince” — sentiments one frequently hears expressed today by incumbents anxious to modernise their buildings. The upshot was that the Archbishop (whose concern for church buildings was indeed commendable) was eventually convinced that the proposed plan was acceptable, the chamber was built and the organ duly presented.

25 Bromleag March 2011 Feature ‘The Wednesday’ — the day the air raids came

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the worst bombing of World War Two for Bromley, Beckenham and West Wickham. Ron Cox, who lived through those days, recalls the tragedy and the devastation wrought by The Luftwaffe on the borough

he Blitz of the 1940 autumn died down during the winter months because, apart from all else, fog on the French airstrips made it hazardous for the T returning German bombers. In March 1941 south-east London had its heaviest air raid to date, but there were few incidents in the Beckenham-Bromley-West Wickham areas, though five Coney Hall firemen were killed on the 19th when called to fight fires in East London. But then, in April, the pattern of raids by a single plane or by small groups, with only spasmodic activity locally, came to a sudden end, with three raids, each of them so unpleasant that their dates, 16 April, 19 April— frequently referred to, respectively, as “The Wednesday” and “The Saturday – and 10 May, were long remembered. It was “The Wednesday” that most affected our area. This was the first time in our area, I think, that large clusters of flares had been dropped before a raid began to guide the bombers to their target. It may well be that the only reason our locality suffered at all was because the flares were dropped prematurely. As this attack is thought to have been a reprisal for a raid on Berlin, it is extremely likely that the raid was intended for the City or the Docks. The flares were dropped particularly over Bromley, which should have been a (selfish) comfort to those of us watching at West Wickham, but so bright were they that they gave a feeling of vulnerability. One felt that observers and bomb-aimers could see one moving about the garden. That was, of course, a nonsense, even though their light made it possible to read a newspaper. The early waves of planes approached on a wide front by way of Kent and, soon after nine o’clock, isolated incidents began to occur in rural parts of the county. By 9.20 incendiaries were falling at Halstead, Badgers Mount and Shoreham. Ten minutes later, high explosives and incendiary bombs were raining down in an advancing line at Stone, Horton Kirby, Darenth and Sutton-at-Hone; and white marker flares lit the sky at Cobham, West Malling and Wilmington. Soon the bombers reached the London outskirts and a line of fires quickly stretched almost unbroken from to Bromley and beyond. The attack then crept on to Lewisham, Catford and Deptford. Forest Hill and Sydenham were soon affected, with large fires there,

26 Bromleag March 2011 Feature and at Bellingham and Downham. Seven hundred bombers took part. They carried 900 tons of high explosives and 150,000 incendiary bombs. They were to kill 1200 civilians that night. The raid lasted from shortly after dusk until dawn. For the first time in West Wickham High Street, the conscripted fire-watchers (a result of the huge fire in the City over the Christmas period) were put to the test and they prevented massive uncontrolled fires breaking out. The Bromley fires and our local experience It was “The Wednesday” raid that was unquestionably the worst of the three in our area. Ironically, that very afternoon, the north tower of the old Crystal Palace was demolished (Fred Dibnah style) because of the unlikely contention that bombers were using it as a marker. Bromley had a particularly bad time that night. One of the first bombs there, a parachute mine, demolished the ancient parish church, killing a senior pupil from the Girls’ Grammar School who was on firewatch duty. Soon afterwards, the adjoining Church House caught fire, but appliances couldn’t reach it because the ruins of the church were in the way. That, of course, meant that Bromley was suddenly a bomb- worthy target. The whole locality was at once at risk. An hour later, fires were raging in premises all about the High Street and these attracted more high explosives. By midnight, the raid had spread into Beckenham and north into Lewisham; German airmen must have thought, Why travel in central London when one could offload onto what seem to be important targets in the suburbs? At the west end of West Wickham High Street up to this date, although we hadn’t realised it at the time, on only two occasions had two planes dropped bombs within a mile of us on the same night. Every other time, one could have gone to bed quite safely after the first incident. That was not to be the case on this night when at least six separate planes unloaded high explosives or incendiaries within a mile of us; and at least one more did so a little farther away, on the Coney Hall estate. Our closest escape was from a plane that dropped a line of bombs on Glebe Way, Wickham Court Road, Grosvenor Road, Manor Road and at the bottom of the High Street. They almost straddled our air raid shelter and a slight deviation to the north could well have resulted in our demise. Indeed, such a shift to the north could also have virtually wiped out the High Street, for the bombs fell in a line parallel with that road. The Grosvenor Road bomb was our nearest. It fell behind No.5, perhaps 75 metres from where we were. We had, of course, heard the explosions getting nearer and

27 Bromleag March 2011 Feature nearer. The vibration of the one opposite rocked our shelter. We were surprised to find ourselves still alive and unhurt. Soon after that, we heard the familiar clatter of incendiary bombs. But this time it was much closer than usual. We peered out and could see the reflection of a bright light against the wall of the house. My father, who was on leave from the Navy and was probably wishing he’d been at sea, my uncle and I jumped out and saw that the bomb had fallen on the very top of the Anderson air raid shelter and had rolled down the side (I still have the fin). We grabbed buckets of sand and threw them over the bomb. Our greatest difficulty was not in extinguishing it but in persuading my father not to throw buckets of water over it. During his 24 years in the Navy he’d never been trained on incendiary bombs. Had he thrown water over it, it would have caused the phosphorus to spit fire in all directions or even make the bomb explode. But Uncle and I were, of course, trained firefighters — even if our experience up to that moment had been purely theoretical. We had a sudden feeling of technical superiority. Events in West Wickham All over West Wickham, according to the local paper, incendiaries “fell like rain”. Some of them were tackled less promptly because they were inaccessible or unnoticed or because the number overwhelmed the firefighters. They caused serious fires in Ravenswood Avenue, at No 4 The Avenue, at Wickham Court Farm and at three houses in different roads on the Coney Hall estate. Mercifully, Wickham Court escaped. The bombs at the bottom of the High Street fell at the back of Smith’s farmhouse. They did great damage to the farm buildings and a row of lock-up garages was destroyed by blast, several cars being set on fire. Yet the only casualties were a large number of fowls. Much later, in the summer of 1944, the devastation was much increased by a flying bomb that fell near the White Hart pond. A different plane dropped three bombs on Langley Park Golf Course in Monks Orchard Road. Other bombers caused damage in seven roads just over the Shirley border. A fifth plane unloaded on Pickhurst Lane (a delayed-action bomb), Nos 7 and 9 Hayes Chase, Goodhart Way, Wickham Chase (two), Langley Way and No12 Hawes Lane (another delayed-action bomb). No 9 Hayes Chase was the home of Jarvis, a 17-year-old prefect at my school. He and his father were fire-watching upstairs; his mother had gone downstairs. The bomb fell on the back of No 7. All three members of the Jarvis family were buried under furniture, but they rescued each other, assisted by an unidentified 15-year-old boy. They had only slight cuts, although both houses were totally ruined. The occupant of No7 had left 10 minutes earlier to go to a friend’s house.

28 Bromleag March 2011 Feature Eleven or more bombs fell at Coney Hall. Three civilians and six Canadian soldiers there were killed and three members of the Home Guard were injured. The uniformed personnel were in requisitioned houses. At the junction of Wickham Road and Court Downs Road, Beckenham, a bomb fell 20 feet away from an Auxiliary Fire Service towing vehicle and trailer pump. The petrol tank caught fire and the driver, a local hairdresser, and also a Canadian soldier, won the George Medal for attempting to rescue one of the firemen. Incidentally, three days later, on “The Saturday”, the local fire service suffered further grievous losses. While firemen were mustering for orders at Poplar, the building was hit and partially demolished and caught fire. Thirty-four firemen were killed. Twenty-one of them were from the Beckenham brigade, 10 of whom were attached to West Wickham fire station. An appraisal On that memorable night, 16-17 April 1941, 300 high-explosive bombs, 17 landmines and at least 20,000 incendiary bombs fell on Bromley, Beckenham and West Wickham. Later, some of the delayed-action bombs went off before they could be made safe; one in the rear garden of no 12 Hawes Lane (at 6.30am on the 17th) and one on the railway embankment at Tiepigs Lane, six Bromley: Only the tower of the parish church of hours later. St Peter and St Paul remained after the raids The Hawes Lane bomb and one at No 154 Pickhurst Lane, Hayes, which went off at 1pm the following day, destroying a bungalow and killing two people, were probably dropped by the same plane, as was one just across the county boundary in Shirley. Remarkably, the bombs that fell within a mile of our air raid shelter, at the lower end of West Wickham High Street, seem to have killed no-one at all. Bromley, as was indicated earlier, had a very bad night. In the 206 high-explosive

29 Bromleag March 2011 Feature bomb incidents in the borough, eight churches suffered greater or lesser damage. In one Air Raid Precautions sector, almost a third of all the bombs that fell there during the entire Blitz did so on that one night. There were 349 fires in the borough (which at that time did not include Beckenham or West Wickham) and in the three areas combined there were 144 deaths – 74 of them in Bromley town and 40 in Beckenham town. At least 17 of the 144 were children, including a Beckenham County School boy, R O Smith (form 1a). A third- former was killed three days later, in “The Saturday”. The Borough of Croydon, which was of course much bigger, suffered proportionately less. There, 230 fires were reported and 76 people were killed. At Wimbledon, only a few miles away, there was virtually no activity at all, illustrating to what extent the raid was centred on Bromley, whether intentionally or not. For this raid, scarce resources of materials and manpower had been used to manufacture the bombs and to convey them to the airfields. Luftwaffe pilots and planes had been put at risk. Even if no aircraft were shot down (I have no record of this) it is unlikely that every plane and aircrew returned to base unscathed. Had the raid been worthwhile? The answer must be a firm “no”. Some small-scale military production may have been put out of action for a few days or weeks, and local railway and road transport was temporarily disrupted (though in an area where there were plenty of alternative routes). If there was any effect on civilian morale, it was to strengthen the resolve to win the war regardless of cost. It is true that if “The Wednesday” and “The Saturday” and the subsequent raid of 10 May had been the start of a rapid series of similar attacks, the long-term effects might have been significant. But the raid would have been of greater consequence if carried out on a military target such as Aldershot, or a naval base like Chatham, an industrial centre like Woolwich, or a railway junction like Clapham. In the event, the planners of these three raids must have known that the pattern could not continue after 10 May because the impending invasion of Russia would need every plane, every pilot and every bomb available. One must conclude that “The Wednesday” raid was a pointless, ill-directed and unsuccessful exercise, whether or not its aim was retribution. Berlin continued to be bombed, by ever-greater forces. “The Wednesday” certainly did nothing to stop that process. But those of us who were there will always remember it.

Sources Blake, Lewis, Red Alert: South East London, 1939-45, 1982 Knowlden, Patricia and Walker, Joyce, West Wickham: Past into Present, 1986 Blake, Lewis, Bromley in the Front Line, 1980

30 Bromleag March 2011 Feature Knowlden, Patricia, The Long Alert, 1988 The Beckenham and Penge Advertiser, 24 April 1941; Plastow, Norman, Safe as Houses: Wimbledon, 1939-1945, 1972 The Beckenham Journal, 21 October 1944 The Beccehamian (the magazine of Beckenham and Penge County School) Summer Term 1941 Sayers, W C Berkwick, Croydon and the Second World War, 1949 Personal recollections This is an abridged version of a longer article being published over four parts during 2011 in The Beckenham Historian and is produced here by kind permission of the editor John Wagstaff.

Garlands in Bromley churchyards A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1747 said: “In 1733, as the parish clerk was digging a grave in the churchyard, close to the east end of the chancel wall, he dug up a funeral garland or crown, artificially wrought in filigree work, with gold and silver wire in resemblance of myrtle; its leaves were fastened to hoops of large wire of iron, which were corroded with rust.” The above is quoted in John Dunkin’s History of the County of Kent published in parts in 1856. He adds that they were “carried before the corpse by two maids” and hung in the church. By the early 18th century they were thought to be unseemly and were ordered to be taken down and no longer hung. In some places they continued to be made and were placed in the grave instead. Dunkin notes that garlands had been seen in Wrotham Church in 1836, St Paul’s Cray in 1794 and in Crayford. John Dunkin was a printer and bookseller born in Bicester, Oxon in 1782. He took over a shop on the Upper High Street — which still exists today — in 1812. The shop was previously occupied by Thomas Wilson. Both men wrote a History of Bromley, in 1797 and 1815 respectively.

31 Bromleag March 2011 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 - - Bromley - Chelsfield - Chislehurst - Coney Hall - - Downe - Farnborough - -Hayes - - - - Orpington - Penge - - St. Mary Cray - St. Paul’s Cray - - Sundridge Park - West Wickham.

http://bblhs.website.orange.co.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 0208 467 3842

32 Bromleag March 2011