THE NEWSLETTER OF THE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY FOR THE LONDON BOROUGH OF

Vol 7 No 3 January 1984 PRICE 10p Free to Members Cultural or Heritage Centre

The Committee informed the Bromley Council that a local museum should be established in the former School of Sci­ ence and Art in Tweedy Road. This is a “listed” building THE MARCH FAMILY AND GODDENDENE and would be very suitable as a museum and cultural centre The Bromley Council has agreed to a suggestion by this for the borough. The reply from the Council is as follows: - Society that the home of the famous family of artists, the “The position in a nutshell is that the possibility of the March family, at Goddendene, Locks Bottom, should be Council providing a museum/cultural centre to serve the marked by a suitable plaque. The concurrence of needs of the Borough is in abeyance. The General Pur­ Sainsburys is being sought. poses Committee received a report setting out various options, with approximate indications of cost, but _decided that it could not recommend the Council to pur­ MISS PLINCKE sue the matter at the present time, largely because even When Miss Plincke retired from the post of Bromley’s the adaptation of an existing building would require Local History Librarian, the Committee, on behalf of the fairly substantial capital outlay. However, the Commit­ Society, made a presentation to her and expressed best tee did formally place on record its wish to see such a wishes for a long and happy retirement. The following let­ project implemented at a future date, when finance ter has been received from her:- allows, and Members recognise that there is a need for “ Would you please convey my thanks to the Committee such a facility. and members of the Local History Society for their most If and when the Council is in a position to give generous gift. The surprise was complete and I am most renewed thought to implementing the project, the ques­ touched by this appreciation. I would also like to thank tion of where the premises should be located will be members for all the help I and my colleagues at the Lib­ actively considered, but at this stage no options are rary have received over the years; the information and being discounted”. copies of research projects given and the exhibitions they worked so hard to set up. These things have done OLD PICTURE POSTCARDS much to make my work easier and more rewarding. I Environment Bromley has an increasing range of reproduc­ wish the Society a continuing and increasing success for tions of old picture postcards of local scenes: , the future”. Farnborough, , Hayes etc. The price is 12p each. Philip Daniell (300 Baring Road, London SE12 ODS) will send you a specimen of each for a deposit of £4 and credit MARY WRAGG AND HER POLISHED COFFIN you for those you return. Mary Wragg who was buried at in 1797, stipulated in her will that the vault was to be opened yearly on 28 January, and her coffin which was of mahogany, to ^MEMBERSHIP OF COMMITTEE be well polished, the vault to be swept clean, the locks oiled The constitution of the Society provides that the Bromley and the rails and doors of the vault repaired. The vault was Local History Librarian is ex officio a member of the Com­ to be left tidy and the exterior painted every three years. If mittee. As members know Miss Plincke has retired and Mr no repairs were required to the vault, the money was to be Alex Freeman has been appointed in her place. Mr used to provide for each of twenty of the poorest Freeman is therefore a member of the Committee. inhabitants of Beckenham parish, eighteen pennyworth of There is power under the constitution for the Committee good beef, eighteen pennyworth of good bread, five to co-opt members. They have decided to co-opt Mrs Joyce shillingsworth of coals and four and sixpence in money. Walker and Mr Les Stevens as members of the Committee According to the Bromley Record these terms of her will and they have agreed to serve. were being complied with up to 1868. She left various bequests to the local people including a sum to the church wardens for an annual dinner for the tradesmen of Beckenham. If the money was not properly distributed to FUTURE the poor of Beckenham it was to go to the poor of MEETINGS Bromley. Members are reminded that future meetings are as WHAT’S IN A NAME? follows:- The oldest place names in Britain of which the origins are 19th Jan. Hayes a hundred years ago. traceable have come down to us from Celtic times. The Mrs. J. Wilson. Celtic tribes who lived in , left a few place names after 16th Feb. Waterways in London Philip Daniell. them, not least because their permanent settlements were not numerous. Many of their place names would have gone These meetings will start at 7.45 pm and will be held out of use completely or been supplanted by those of in the small hall of the Bromley Central Library. newcomers. The names that survive are mostly of rivers - (Continued) ( Continued) Thames, Medway, Darent and Cray. Darent (‘Diorente’ in We must of course, look for a reason why Hayes would Roman times) comes from the British word ‘derva’, an have got its “brushwood” name. For this, we can suggest oak, and means ‘river where oaks are common’. Cray that the plateau where the farmland to the east of the (Saxon form ‘Craegn’, pronounce it cray-y’n, still found village now is — an area which was farmed in Roman times as the River Crane in Middlesex) means ‘fresh water’. and has probably been under almost continuous The name of the river Ravensbourne, appears to be no cultivation for 2000 years — was edged by young trees and earlier than mediaeval, as does the Quaggy. ‘Quaggy’ brushwood spreading up from the wooded valley through means ‘flowing through boggy soil’. The Oxford English which the Bourne flowed. Dictionary records the earliest noted use of the word There is a much bigger problem with “ Baston” , the ‘quag’ as in 1589. name of the mediaeval manor which still exists in name. The present spelling of Hayes is of recent origin. The Canon Thompson’s view was that the name meant earliest known spelling is ‘Hese’, in the Pipe Rolls of 1168. “bastion” (OED: “a large mass of earth or masonry It also appears thus in the Index to Charters and Rolls, standing out from a rampart”) and attempted to justify 1391, in the British Library. Other recorded variations, this by the existence of then Caesar’s Camp ramparts. mostly occurring in the 16th and 17th centuries, include in Subsequently the argument has been complicated by alphabetical order: Haies (Parish Register, 1611, 1636); reference to the remains of a circular tower, 29 feet in Hease (in a will c. 1584); Heese (Cottonian Manuscript, diameter, in the Roman remains near Court. 1177, in the British Library); Heies (Canterbury/Lambeth Whilst this may have been a watchtower, it could hardly be ecclesiastical records); and Heys (local spelling c. 1550- described as a bastion, and Caesar’s Camp is three 1560 and also in a state document in the time of Henry quarters of a mile distant. The word bastion was in fact VIII). Canon Thompson also listed Hays, Hayse, Hees, borrowed from the French in the 16th century, whereas the Heze and Huse — an improbable variation that suggests de Bastane family were the head family in Hayes three careless work with a quill pen. The first known use of the centuries before, by which time mediaeval English spelling “Hayes” appears to have been by the Rector in included the word baston (OED — “one of the warden of 1634 and it appears to have become the definitive spelling the fleet’s men, who attends the King’s courts with a red by 1723. staff, for taking such to ward as are committed by tb The Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names gives Court, and likewise attends on such prisoners as arc—' Hayes as deriving from Old English chaes’ meaning ‘a suffered to go at large by licence”). Baston could also be wood’; it refers to haes, “a word found only in plural spelled bastun, and the de Bastane family name appeared nouns” , corresponding to Low German ‘hees’ or ‘hese’, in the 14th century as Bastian. If all this proves anything, it “brushwood” or “underwood” and related to Middle is that we just do not know the true origin of the name. High German ‘heister’, “young oak or beech” . H. J. Fleure in “A Natural History of Man in Britain Laurie Mack (Collins,1970, p.225) remarks — “Hese is land covered with brushwood” . Kevington Estate Records by Peter M. Heinecke Recently I was privileged to inspect three books of estate as a free gift one guinea for Easter offering.” records from the manor of Kevington in St. Mary Cray. As The remainder of the book consists of memoranda these are in private possession and have not previously which were obviously relevant to the new lord of the been catalogued, I felt that a description and outline of manor: rates of pay (“a common labourer per day 18 their contents would be a worthwhile undertaking. pence”), table and measures, abstracts of Acts of ACCOUNT BOOK 1768-1770. 82 pages. 21 x 28cm. Parliament relating to taxes and dues on property (Bound in leather with flap and ribbon. Empty document windows and servants. pocket inside rear cover). Only 24 pages of this book are written. The remainder ACCOUNT BOOK 1772-1824. 372 pages. 33 x 21cm. are blank. Of the written pages, half are accounts and half (Bound in cloth over parchment. Cloth missing from back are memoranda. This, the account book of Herman cover due to damp.) Berens, begins with his purchase of the Kevington estate This is the account book of Joseph Berens of Kevington, including the house and 273 acres on 15th March 1768 for commencing with his marriage in August 1772. The first £9000. His expenses in improving the property over the entry is a credit of £5000 given him by his father (Herman next two years are then itemised. These improvements cost Berens) “as an establishment”. The money was paid into another £6192. 10s. The main part of this was for their partnership at an interest of 4% per annum plus a “building dwelling house, kitchen, offices etc., adjoining third of the nett annual profits of the business. This is to the old mansion house” and “erecting and compleating followed by a cash receipt of £3000 from Sir. E. Hulse, “as coach house and stable offices” and other outbuildings. a marriage portion with his second daughter Elizabeth my “Klinkers” and “pantiles” were specially imported from wife.” Rotterdam, marble chimney pieces for the dining and Nearly all of the 372 pages are fully written in a careful, drawing rooms from Livorno. Three paintings in bas relief perfectly legible hand. They illustrate in great detail for for the dining room were also imported from Holland, just over half a century the Finances of a wealthy land- from Martinus Joseph Geevaerts. William Chapman was owner and businessman, sometime director of the paid £52. 19s. for installing a water engine. A major Hudsons Bay and South Sea Companies. project was the garden wall which used 248,000 bricks and The capital value of the assets inherited from his father 1,356 coping bricks; the former at £1 per thousand and the in 1795 is given as £99668. 13s. 6d. This includes bank latter at 10 shillings a hundred, making a total of £254. stock, Hudsons Bay stock, London Assurance shares, 15s. Labour on the wall came to £142.14s. Chelsea Water Works shares a house in Devonshire Expenses such as window tax, poor rate, highway Square, warehouses in Thames Street and the freehold composition and tithes are recorded. The annual tax on 91 estates of St. Lyng Ockmere, Kevington and Crouch in St. windows was £18.17s.6d. In 1769 Berens records his Mary Cray, estates at Crayford, Crockenhill and Norrads agreement with the Rev. M. Fawkes to pay a compositon in . The Kevington Estate was valued at £17125 for tithes of 5 guineas per annum “after which I paid him and St. Lyng Ockmere at £9740. Year by year income and expenditure are recorded: rents Loose enclosures in the book include a letter from Wm. from cottages and farms, salary from the South Sea Hodsoll to Mr. Berens, 1888, concerning the acreage of Company, dividends on stocks and shares, payments for and a note, probably from solicitors, on the his sons’ school and university fees, repairs and upkeep of early deeds of Cribbleden Crouch (Crouch Farm). Kevington, property taxes, purchase of a farm and Nowhere in the estate books is there any mention of cottages in St. Paul’s Cray and St. Mary Cray, purchase of Cockmannings Farm, traditionally associated with the horses, stable expenses gifts to his family, to select but a Manning family who previously held Kevington. few from the thousands of entries. KEVINGTON ESTATE SURVEY 1885. 22 pages. 34 x 22cm. (Bound in red leather. Title gold blocked on cover: “Kevington Estate.” On title page: “Reference to the plan The Plague of the Kevington Estate, the property of R. B. Berens Bubonic plague or the Black Death was carried by the fleas Esqre. Wm. Hodsoll, Surveyor & Land Agent, of black rats from China, across Asia and Europe, Farningham. 1885.”) eventually reaching , in 1348, and for two years This meticulously produced survey contains eight thereafter, it carried off a substantial part of the country’s beautifully drawn and coloured maps. Each wood and population, probably as many as a half. It raged when­ field is numbered. On the page facing each map the ever there was a crowded population, living in rat infested, numbers are given with a description (usually the name of dirty, insanitary dwellings with filthy ill-drained streets. It the field or wood), the land use (arable, pasture etc.) and fell more severely on the poorest and worst fed people. It the acreage. The maps are: 1) Kevington Mansion, park remained in London, and to a lesser extent elsewhere for and lands in hand. 2) Kemps Farm and “Marlings” . 3) over 300 years. It must be remembered that villages in Lands, house premises in the parish of St. Mary Cray in those days consisted of collections of filthy hovels, whose inhabitants wore the same rags for months on end. Their bodies crawled with vermin and they drank from the same streams as their cattle and pigs. Their huts were havens for rats, fleas and lice. The towns were congested stinking death-traps in which disease could spread quickly and disastrously. The people did not possess either the means or the knowledge to live otherwise. The last major epidemic, known as the Great Plague, was in 1665. It was estimated that 69,000 of London’s 450,000 population died — 8,000 in one week. The plague had shown itself in 1664, but as the spring of 1665 advanced, so it spread. The nobility fled from London to the country. The court of Charles II went to Salisbury. As the hot summer came, so the number of deaths increased. People fled in crowds to the country and the residents of the nearby towns and villages drove them away. Those 8 who had escaped from London were forced to live in the occupation of Mr. Frederick Crowhurst (later altered fields. In the town itself, as soon as it was known on the door to Mr. A. Vinson). 4) Manor Farm in the occupation of plague was in a house, a red cross was painted on the door Mr. Alfred May. 5) Farm. 6) Crouch Farm.) and for a month after no one was allowed to leave the Lashes Farm with other premises and lands at Crockenhill. house. Persons escaping from such a house were liable to 8) Woods in hand (two maps on one page: Petts Wood and suffer death as felons. But to remain in the house meant .) Finally there follows a list of small holdings death from the plague or starvation. Many escaped from in St. Mary Cray occupied by various tenants (including these houses, fled through the streets and plunged into the *he blacksmith’s shop) and a summary. Subsequent Thames. The dead carts collected the bodies thrown out mendments show that most of the property at Crockenhill into the streets, which were cast into pits and as quickly as was disposed of in 1896 and 1897, except for a cottage and possible covered over. three acres which were sold to Mr Clements, the tenant, in During the Great Plague period several writers left 1926. Some of the property went to Sir W. Hart-Dyke in descriptions of the local situation. The most vivid accounts exchange for Walden’s Corner Field. The total area of the are those given by Pepys and Evelyn. Pepys recorded that estate was 1469 acres at the time of survey, subsequently in August 1665, whilst staying at Greenwich, he saw the reduced to 1398 acres. The lands of Kevington Mansion body of a person who had died of the plague, in a coffin, and park comprised 309 acres (compared with the 273 left in the open, because nobody had been appointed to originally purchased by Herman Berens 117 years earlier). bury it. Another time he recorded that “It was the child of “Woods in hand” accounted for 423 acres including 130 a very able citizen of Gracious Street, a saddler, who had acres of Petts Wood, with the Keeper’s Cottage (now buried all the rest of his children of the plague, and himself National Trust land). The woods ran down either side of and his wife now being shut up in despair of escaping did the railway through Marlings as far as St. Mary Cray desire only to save the life of this little child. I so prevailed Station to link with Manor Farm and across towards to have it received stark naked into the arms of a friend who (Birchwood, Covet Wood, Robin Hood Croft) brought it (having put it into fresh clothes) to Greenwich”. to surround Poverest Farm. At a glance this may seem a rather fragmented estate. In The disease was far worse in heavily populated areas, fact if one were to join up and superimpose the maps, the such as Deptford and Greenwich, than it was in Bromley. picture would be of a fairly well consolidated area Although the epidemic died down in London early in 1665, arranged along an axis from Crockenhill to Petts Wood, it appears to have continued in some areas. In September Kevington itself centrally situated, with Star Lane, of that year it was still raging in Deptford, where in 1665, Crockenhill Road and Blacksmith’s Lane, Poverest Road there were 374 deaths from the plague, with 552 in 1666. and Leesons Hill providing the arteries and to a certain Horsburgh says ‘Owing to its elevated position and extent the boundaries. Although no dates of acquisition the purity of its air, it is probable that Bromley suffered are given, it would appear that the Berens family had less from epidemic diseases than towns less favourably probably enlarged the Kevington estate in the course of the situated” . Nevertheless it was reported that in 1630 the 19th century, extending it westwards in the parishes of Bishop of Rochester had fled from his house at Bromley, Chislehurst and Orpington. because of the plague. In 1665 eight people of Bromley “THERE’S A TIDE IN THE AFFAIRS OF’’ — A MAN. just beginning to study them, so there should be more In the next century, our Society’s notepaper will bear the enjoyable evenings ahead. legend, “Founded in 1974” . Even to-day, few of us can March was the A.G.M. which is reported elsewhere in look back and recall that first meeting in the Local History this newsletter. room of the Central Library in its temporary premises in April brought members’ night — and a ‘home brew’ Tweedy Road, when Mr. Laverick, my successor as provided by Mrs. Joyce Walker, Mr. Frank Scott and Mr. Borough Librarian, presided. But not for long, as he Leslie Stevens. Mr. Stevens brought ‘few’ of his enormous quickly engineered the proceedings so that I found myself collection of post cards and explained how the post card in the chair and I only vacated it on 25 March last; meta­ industry had begun. Mr. Scott’s ‘insights into 19th century phorically speaking, because I was not well enough to life’ culled from memoirs left by his father, presents a vivid preside at the meeting. This was a disappointment for me, account of the life of a shop boy in Bromley in the 1870’s. mollified to some degree by my receiving soon afterwards Mrs. Walker showed us the results of a phone call to the the card with all your autographs, condolences and good head mistress of Spring Park Upper School shortly before wishes. The chief organiser of everthing that happened in it closed — a suitcase full of photograph albums, record those nine years was our Secretary, Mr. Fred Whyler, and I books and other treasures that were about to be disposed wish to record my gratitude to him for making things run of: which just shows how necessary it is to keep an ear on so smoothly. the ground, and take appropriate action. Altogether, these Our main activity from the beginning has been the three short talks formed a most enjoyable and informative annual programme of meetings, in the early days at programme. Stockwell College, visits to interesting buildings and walks around the various districts of the Borough. In this we SUBSCRIPTIONS have tried to live up to our name, The Society of the London Borough of Bromley. We have fallen short of the If you have not already paid your subscription it would be ideal which we set ourselves but can record some successes, appreciated if you would do so as soon as possible. The firstly through the Saturday meetings held in four widely rates are £4 for an individual member; £5 for a husband separate parts of the Borough; equally valuable have been and wife; £3 for a pensioner and £4 for a husband and the village meetings at Farnborough and Downe. At one wife who are both pensioners. Payments should be sent time we organised informal meetings but we found it diffi­ Mr. John Nelson, 69, Road, Biggin Hi cult and uncomfortable to try to introduce informality into , Kent. TNI6 3LX. a class-room. One thing remains from those meetings, however, and that is the custom of serving a thimbleful of FROM THE NEW CHAIRMAN wine at our meetings. Dear Fellow-Members — when this society was formed The lasting achievement of these years is the almost nine years ago, Mr. Watkins was the natural choice to be annual publication, containing in permanent form the its Chairman. As the lately retired Borough Librarian he records of researches made by our members, which form a had all the history books on Bromley and Kent at his valuable supplement to the published histories of the fingertips — and the interests of Bromley in his heart. I London Borough. I hope the Society’s finances will one know he hoped to complete a decade; and I know he is day permit of further publications, such as monographs on retiring now, only so that a new chairman could find his particular subjects which cannot be satisfactorily dealt feet before our secretary Mr. Whyler also retires, as he with in an article, and which otherwise might be lost intends to do next year. And for this I am indeed grateful. through non-publication. Mr. Watkins has always chaired our meetings with kindly I have enjoyed occupying the position of Chairman courtesy and efficiency and it will not be easy to — as they which has enabled me to assist in forwarding the growth of say — follow that. We are all glad he has promised not to the Society. I know that I would have enjoyed the work desert us altogether. still but I believe “there’s a tide in the affairs of” a man The Chairman of a Society such as ours, unlike that of a and at the flood is the best time to hand over to a successor political party, does not formulate policy (thank goodness who will have a fresh contribution to make. I wish our you say) but you must know that I have a couple of bees in Chairman, Mrs Knowlden, great happiness and success in my bonnet. The first, is that members should be her new position. I congratulate you all in having elected as encouraged to join together on society projects; and thp Chairman such an able lady. ^ / / Watkins second, the establishment of a local heritage centre: n simply a museum, although a borough such as Bromley"'7 should be most concerned that all it can boast is the very HON. SECRETARY cramped premises in Orpington, but a place where At the Annual General Meeting, Fred Whyler said that he especially the children can go to discover the sort of lives would stand as Secretary for this year, but he would not be their great-grandparents lived, and to experience some standing as Secretary or as a member of the Committee, at aspects for themselves such as, for example, cooking on a the 1984 Annual General Meeting. He will then have been coal-fired kitchen range. Something of thos sort was Secretary for ten years and feels that the time has come for envisaged at the inception of the society but the financial a change. climate has been unencouraging. This will change. When it The Society will therefore have to look for a new does we really must be ready both with the nucleus of a Secretary. If anyone who has a flair for administration collection — a beginning has been made — and with would like to take over the job, he or she is asked to get in sensible suggestions for setting up and maintaining such a touch with the Hon. Secretary (Farnborough 58679) as very useful and enjoyable ‘educational and cultural soon as possible. It will then be possible to initiate the project’. person into the duties so as to ensure a smooth transition. Please do think about this. It could even be said that it is The duties could perhaps be divided into sections under­ the duty of the society to establish such a centre before taken by different people, on the basis that many hands even more, quite ordinary, by-gones disappear. I would make light work. If you are at all interested and are willing appreciate your comments — through the medium of this to help the Society, please let the Hon. Secretary know and newsletter, perhaps? arrangements can then be made to discuss the matter. Finally, may I say that, especially as I grew up in Bromley and have lived somewhere around for most of my life, I consider it a great honour to be asked to take the RECENT MEETINGS Chair of this organisation of some importance in the At the February meeting Mr. John Filmer gave us a further locality. „ . . T, account of the Norman family of Bromley which had so Patricia Knowlden. much to do with local affairs for so long. He says he is only Designed and produced by Raven Studios Ltd. , 5 Rectory Road, Beckenham, Kent on behalf of The Local History Society for the London Borough o f Bromley. Editorial contributions to: J.W. Edwards, 150 Tubbenden Lane, Orpington.