Bromleag The Journal of Borough Local History Society

Volume 2: Issue 18: June 2011

 Roman invades our history conference

 Commemoration of a Southborough pub  Neuwied — an historical look at Bromley’s twin town  Bromley, always a commuters’ haven Bromleag The journal of the Bromley Borough Local History Society

Society officers Chairman and Membership Secretary Tony Allnutt Woodside, Old Perry Street, , BR7 6PP 020 8467 3842 [email protected] Treasurer Brian Reynolds 2 The Limes, Oakley Road, Bromley, BR2 8HH 020 8462 9526 [email protected] Secretary Elaine Baker 27 Commonside, BR2 6BP 01689 854408 [email protected] Programme co-ordinator Peter Leigh 29 Woodland Way , BR4 9LR 020 8777 9244 [email protected] Publicity and website Max Batten 5 South View, Bromley, BR13DR 020 8460 1284 [email protected] Publications John Barnes 38 Sandilands Crescent, Hayes, BR2 7DR 020 8462 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 020 8467 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 e-mailed, 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 — 1 August 2011

2 Bromleag June 2011 Annual General Meeting reports 2011 Proposal to change meetings venue next year The key issue raised at this year’s AGM was the rising cost of our current venue for meetings, the Methodist Church hall in central Bromley. The annual cost for hire of the hall has gone up over a 10-year period from £100 to £800 this year. While other expenditure, such as printing and speaker’s costs have also risen, the cost of the hall is by far the biggest increase and one, treasurer Brian Reynolds told the meeting, we could address. Subscriptions were raised last year and the committee would not wish to make any further increase at present or to reduce our current contingency fund. As a result the committee has decided to look at alternative venues for 2012 onwards. The key requirements will be a capacity of 55-plus seats, kitchen facilities, easy car parking and near to good public transport routes. It has also been decided that we will keep the first Tuesday of the month as the meeting day. There was full support for the proposal at the AGM. Brian has visited several possible central Bromley venues and a final decision will be made over the summer. Praise for bookstall success During the past year John Barnes has expanded and developed the Society publications and bookstall with the result that in the two year since John took over he has generated more than £1000 in income. The stall, which is held at meetings and events we attend, sells not only our own publications but also a wide range of history books which are often given by members. This year, following the death of Joyce Walker her daughters donated her personal history book collection. We are also selling copies of the five books she wrote which are still in print. Continued P4

June 2011 — contents

News and Events P3 — 9, 17, 18 Letters P 12 — 17 Society Meetings P 10 — 11 Features Escaping to the countryside of Bromley P19 — 22 The history of Bromley’s twin town Neuwied P23 — 26 A lot of fuss about a footpath P27 — 31

3 Bromleag June 2011 News Both Tony Allnutt and Brian Reynolds acknowledged and thanked John for the enormous amount of work he puts into making the bookstall a success and the benefits that it has brought to the Society in these more-difficult financial times. Chairman’s report—Tony Allnutt I am happy to report that the Society has had another successful year. Eleven evening meetings were held during the year including a members’ evening and a meeting at the Local Studies Library. In addition we had a visit to Bromley Museum and other sites in and the rare opportunity to visit Fort Halstead. The membership of the Society in 2010 was 175, an increase of six on the previous year. A flow of historical enquiries continues to come in through the website and several new members have joined by this route. As usual the Society was represented at local events, including the Local History Day at High Elms where we had about 200 visitors, managed to sell a lot of our publications and obtained several new members. The rise in subscriptions at the beginning of 2010 has helped our finances and once again I should like to express the gratitude of the Society to those members who, very generously, added a donation to their subscription. Treasurer’s report — Brian Reynolds We have finished the year with a decrease in our funds of £374.38. Unfortunately Her Majesty’s Tax Inspector has been his usual dilatory self and did not refund our Gift Aid for 2010 until 2011 and this would have made a difference of £284.97 in our favour and would have reduced our decrease to £89.41. Once again we must thank all members who contribute via the Gift Aid scheme, which has yielded £284.97 for us in 2011. I hope that all of you who are UK income tax payers have signed up to this. This source of income is vitally important to us as the interest we get from our bank account, while better than most, has declined alarmingly over the “Credit Crunch” period. As I reported last year, our current account balance hovers around £3,500 and our expenditure roughly equals our income of about £2,000 and we, your Committee, decided to invest £2,500 in an investment bond with the Scottish Widows Society with a better rate of interest. I would again like to give a very sincere thank you to our auditor Ian Carter for sorting out and auditing our accounts. Committee changes There were no new members joining the committee but Elaine Baker has taken over the post of Secretary which was left vacant by the death of Patricia Knowlden. Valerie Stealey was also officially confirmed as Committee Minutes Secretary.

4 Bromleag June 2011 Society meetings and walks June-September 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. 5 July Essentially Ethel A monologue by actress Gill Stoker on the suffragette activities of Ethel Smyth 6 Sept Members’ Evening — Picture Book memories Many members have old photos of the borough and we would love to see what forgotten gems are lurking in your collections. If you have some treasured photo albums you would like to share, please bring them along to the members’ evening. There will be no need to do a formal talk, just chat to others about the photos and share your knowledge of your area’s history.

15 June An evening guided walk led by Doug Black around the Kelsey area of . It will include some of the properties designed by 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.

13 July A guided walk around Cemetery. Local historian Ellen Barbet, assisted by Cliff Watkins and Bill Tonkin, will give a tour of the cemetery with stories about some of its more interesting inhabitants. Afterwards, members are invited back to Elmers End Free Church in Goddard Road for tea and to view a display of photos The tour will last about 1½ hours and good walking shoes are strongly advised. Meet 2pm at the cemetery gates in Elmers End Road. There is ample parking within the cemetery or in Elmers End Road. Birkbeck tram stop is about 100 metres and is about 400 metres. Parking for the church is across the road in ’s car park, which is free for two hours. The tour will be limited to 20 people but if heavily oversubscribed Ellen will consider giving a second tour. To book a place on either walk call Peter Leigh 020 8777 9244 or email [email protected]

5 Bromleag June 2011 News A Des. Res. success for Bromley Conference The history of Bromley from Roman times to the 20th century was revealed to fellow historians from across last month at the Kent History Federation annual conference Bromley – A Des. Res. for 2000 years organised by BBLHS. KHF president, Dr. John Whyman and Bromley Mayor Councillor George Taylor gave the opening speeches. to over 170 delegate from as far away as Hythe, Wateringbury and Headcorn. They joined others from our neighbouring local history societies in North West Kent who travelled to Bromley, one of the most suburban areas of Kent, to discover that we have a wealth of local history second to none and, as our first speaker and vice chairman Michael Bromley’s Mayor, Councillor George Taylor, right, Rawcliffe pointed out: “The borough and speaker Brian Philp is both urban and rural with two major rivers and Green Belt that has preserved many villages and we still think of ourselves as part of Kent, not of South London.” Michael’s talk Bromley & its Environs – 200 years of Development traced the developments that led to the suburanisation of much of the borough. Then we went back in time to look at a much earlier era when Bromley was a Des. Res. for the Romans. Brian Philp from the Council for Kentish Archaeology gave a talk on Archaeological Discoveries in the Bromley Area including the identification, by Brian, of the lost Roman town of Noviomagus in West Wickham. The conference took place at Crofton Halls in Orpington adjacent to the remains of the Crofton Centurion surprise: Brian used Roman Villa at the head of the along shock tactics during his talk, with a Roman soldier storming into the which there was considerable Roman settlement. conference hall to illustrate the Many delegates, particularly those from the Council impact of the Roman invasion

6 Bromleag June 2011 News for Kentish Archaeology, took the opportunity in the afternoon to visit the villa with Brian as their guide. Our final speaker, the society’s Chairman Tony Allnutt, revealed Bromley Residents – A Famous Five, not the usual suspects such as Charles Darwin but some less well- known colourful characters: “A scientist, a tradesman, a prosperous merchant, an aristocrat and a tramp.” Among them was intrepid explorer Eric Teichmann (see Bromleag March 2008), the dashing Prince Imperial who, with his family, had settled in Chislehurst after their exile. He died, aged 26, fighting in the Zulu wars. Also included was “Smoky Joe”, a tramp who in the early-mid 20th century cycled around on a bicycle with no tyres or pedals but a small fire in the basket on the front. Needless to say, he had to keep moving on when his habitat was destroyed by fire and so became well known across the borough. The afternoon gave delegates the chance to explore the borough. Members of the society led trips and walks to Chislehurst Caves, the Priory and museum in Orpington and our Grade I-listed Bromley and Sheppard’s Colleges. Other tour options were the less well-known Arts and Crafts houses of Camden Place in Chislehurst and a walk around Beckenham illustrating how even in the more suburban areas a large number of fascinating buildings have been retained. This was the first time the society had hosted a Kent-wide conference and its success was down to the careful planning by the organising-committee of Tony Allnutt, Elaine Baker Max Batten and Valerie Stealey. Our thanks go to them and to the members who came along to help on the day. Articles by Michael Rawcliffe and Brian Philp, complementing their talks, will appear in Bromleag later in the year.

Getting to know you: throughout the day there were opportunities for delegates to talk to members of other societies. To give our visitors a wider view of the varied and different histories of the urban and village areas of Bromley there was an exhibition featuring 10 different historical “villages” of the borough and BBLHS and Orpington and District Archaeological Society bookstalls sold a variety of local publications.

7 Bromleag June 2011 News Patricia Knowlden 1927— 2011

It was with great sadness that we learnt at the beginning of March of the death of our secretary Patricia Knowlden. Patricia was one of the best known members of BBLHS and many friends from the Society and the wider local history community paid their respects at her funeral on 22 March. She had been battling cancer for the last few years, but right up to the end she refused to let it break her spirit or dampen her infectious enthusiasm for her love of local history. Whereas most of us are amateurs who get enjoyment out of learning about our surroundings, Patricia, through her intelligence, hard work and love of the subject, was very much a “professional” local historian. Her specific interest was West Wickham where she lived, but her detailed knowledge took in a much wider area of Bromley town and environs, particularly during the Civil War period. And there really wasn’t a corner of the borough that she did not know about or was not interested in. Her local knowledge was set against a very deep understanding and reading of local history sources and the history of Kent. This wider interest led to her being actively involved with both the British Association for Local History, where she served on the council, and as a delegate to the Kent History Federation. Patricia was simply a mine of local history knowledge and if she didn’t know the answer to something, she knew where to find it and was always intrigued enough to find out. It was this infectious enthusiasm that imparted itself to anyone who asked her for help and advice, both of which she gave freely and generously. Since her passing so many people have said how she inspired and supported them and how she was one of those people who always had time to talk and take and interest in whatever area of local history interested you. Patricia was one of the earliest members of the society and joined the committee in 1977. She has served continuously ever since, taking over as chairman in 1983 and recently as secretary. But, officially or unofficially, she has been involved in every

8 Bromleag June 2011 News aspect of the society’s work from producing the newsletter and publications, arranging speakers to putting on exhibitions and always being there as part of the team when we had stalls at events such as Keston Countryside Day. Her enthusiasm for local history began when she moved to West Wickham with her husband Geoffrey in 1947 and decided to find out about her new home. This led to many years of research and study and she was awarded a Diploma in Local History by London University in 1980. She then taught local history for some years for the Extramural Department and for the Workers’ Education Association. Over the years Patricia contributed many articles to Bromleag and edited our two most popular publications, Around Bromley and The Town of Bromley a Century Ago. She published The Long Alert, 1937-45, drawing on her own experiences as Bromley’s youngest Air Raid Warden, and was co-author with the late Joyce Walker of West Wickham, Past into Present. She also contributed to the Phillimore series with Bromley. A pictorial history. But Patricia also wrote a wealth of more academic-level material. Some of this has appeared in local history and archaeological journals and some is deposited at Bromley Local Studies Library. She leaves behind a body of work that will inform and delight local historians of the future but her passing will leave a gap in the lives of those who knew her not just as a first class local historian but also as a friend.

Patricia was a regular contributor to Bromleag and several of her articles have yet to be published. These will be included in the Journal over coming issues, starting with Half a Day’s Ride to London, which she wrote to complement the Kent History Federation conference, which we hosted last month. It appears on Page 19. We also plan to publish, in conjunction with Bromley Local Studies Library, a final book she wrote: Farms and Farmers in West Wickham.

Snippets from Patricia – non-conformist Bromley 1772 — John Wesley preached in a new “preaching house” in Bromley 1776 — A Wesleyan Chapel opened at Widmore Green 1772— Followers of the non-conformist “Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection” met off Bromley Market Square – their Bethel Chapel opened there in 1788 1835 — The first Congregationalist Church opened in Widmore Road

9 Bromleag June 2011 Society meeting

Revealing the real history of Chislehurst caves Gordon Dennington — who is better known among local history buffs as Lewis Blake, the pen name he has sometimes used for his books on the war years — was the speaker at our March meeting. His subject was Chislehurst Caves and he divided the talk into two broad parts: first a general history of the caves up to the outbreak of war in 1939, and secondly their use as the country’s biggest air raid shelters between 1940 and 1945. In this article Gordon gives a briefer history of the caves, touching on the key themes in his talk.

hislehurst caves are chalk mine workings created for the most part in the 17th, 18th and early-19th centuries but with primitive origins probably going back to the later C phases of Neolithic man, say 3,000-4,000 years BC. In geological terms the chalk at Chislehurst is an inlier, forced up among younger rock formations by pressures on the earth’s crust. Over millions of years of gradual uplift the inlier’s western flank was exposed by river erosion which rendered the chalk accessible to modern man as a source of building material, agricultural fertiliser and much else, as well as yielding an abundance of flints. The mine workings form a maze of caverns and rocky alcoves and passages [galleries] squeezed in a relatively small area, yet exceeding 20 miles in linear terms. The area lies east of Station Approach and is largely bounded by Summer Hill/Bromley Road and Old Hill. The workings are in three separate groups or series, though now linked, classified as Outer, Inner and Middle. More than a century ago William Nichol, vice-president of the British Archaeological Society, designated them as Saxon, Celtic [or Druid] and Roman respectively. He identified a Roman well in the Middle Series, ancient deneholes of Celtic origin, and in the Inner Series sacrificial altar pieces, which he ascribed to Druid priests. The imaginative but un-historical account did wonders for the caves as a tourist attraction in the fullness of time. The first recorded mining activity dates from the 13th century, with the oldest workings thought to be in the Outer Series and the latest in the Middle Series. Mining died out in the Outer Series around 1830, while continuing in the Middle Series until the 1860s. Technological changes spelt the end for chalk mining in Chislehurst with developments like mechanical excavators and narrow-gauge railways for transporting excavated material from open-cast quarries at Greenhithe and Swanscombe, for example. Flint knapping was another thriving little industry in Chislehurst until a slump in demand came with the end of the Napoleonic wars. Untold thousands of finely knapped flints had been expended at Waterloo alone by the British army using flintlock muskets. The later replacement of flintlock muskets by more modern weapons made the drop in demand permanent. In World War I the caves served as a storage facility for munitions produced at Arsenal, followed during the 1920s-30s by a revival of guided tours for day-trippers and

10 Bromleag June 2011 Society meeting organised parties. The army also conducted annual poison gas exercises inside. In the 1930s James Geary Gardner, who was born in China and came to for health reasons, took up mushroom cultivation in the Middle Series, whose “epicentre” appears to have been the church and grounds of St Nicholas [now no more] in Mill Place. In the 1938 Munich Crisis the army again took over the caves and James Gardner was in his own words “turfed out”. When the crisis blew over the army departed but Gardner found difficulty in getting back. Meanwhile, Government inspectors condemned the caves as quite unsuitable for an air raid shelter on health and safety grounds. Gardner nonetheless threw them open as a deep shelter in September 1940 for London’s blitzed citizens. In particular, Trust Houses Ltd, which owned the nearby Bickley Arms and the approaches and entrance to the caves, had not given their permission. Technically, Gardner and every shelterer were trespassing throughout the Blitz. Conditions inside were very primitive for the first few weeks. There was no heating, lighting, water, canteen, sanitation, nor bunks or any of the other amenities which came later. Every family pitch was a pile of bedding, clothes, personal effects ... flickering candlelight dancing on the moist rock walls showed where each group resided. Beyond these small oases of muted light and murmuring voices, everywhere was pitch black, an endless black void. People went to sleep on the cold, hard rock floor with just blankets or eiderdowns for protection. Gardner and two associates, who comprised the Caves Committee, worked hard without official funding to bring about improvements. Matters gradually got better but the caves were not officially recognised as a public shelter until March 1941. Until then expenditure relied upon a “sanitary collection fund”, then the sale of weekly admission tickets. A set of rules governed what shelterers could and could not do, with marshals and captains appointed to deal with people’s problems and ensure rules were kept. Canteens were installed, toilets partitioned off and disinfected, a medical centre set up, also a chapel, ventilation provided and emergency exits constructed. Not to mention 11,000 tiered bunks [and a 200-seat cinema managed and constructed by a cinema projectionist from Downham]. Total costs for the taxpayer came to £20,516. Even Government auditors were impressed. They said the caves at £1.16s [£1.79p] per shelterer worked out the cheapest in the country. After the Blitz ended in May 1941, Trust Houses Ltd threatened to brick up the entrance unless the caves were requisitioned by the Government as promised, thereby relieving the company of its exposure to legal action should anything go wrong. The ultimatum achieved the desired result. But numbers had fallen sharply by then. However, only a few hundred found much point in using the refuge during V2 rocket attacks, which lasted from September 1944 until March 1945. One month after VE-Day, 8 May 1945, the Caves Committee held their last meeting. The caves officially closed as an air raid shelter and the entrance, emergency exits and so- called deneholes were blocked up or filled in. In this manner the final curtain came down on a unique saga of the wartime Home Front.

11 Bromleag June 2011 Letters Blue plaque for the Crooked Billet

More than 66 years after the event, those who were killed and injured in the V2 Rocket attack on the Crooked Billet, Bickley, are to be remembered with a blue plaque outside the rebuilt public house (now a Harvester) on Southborough Lane. The explosion occurred on Sunday 19 November 1944. It resulted in the largest number of casualties in any one incident in the old Borough of Bromley (as it was before boundary changes in 1965). Following extensive research by the Friends of , it is now known that 26 people were killed at the scene of the disaster and at least one other person subsequently died of their injuries in hospital. Dozens more were injured in the blast, the devastation from which extended over a radius of more than 300 metres. The initiative to get the plaque installed was driven by the Friends of Jubilee Country Park, who have an ongoing project to research and record the history of the area that now forms the park. The Friends discovered that three soldiers, from the gun site which occupied much of the park during the Second World War, were among the fatalities at the Crooked Billet. However, being military personnel, their names were not recorded on the published casualty list. Because of this connection, during the History Walks which the Friends lead in the park, the story of the V2 attack on the Crooked Billet is told. Many people on these walks queried why there was nothing outside the pub to remember all those involved in this tragedy. The Friends, therefore, decided to do something about it. Funded by an anonymous donation from a supporter of the Friends, the plaque was unveiled on Saturday 21 May 2011 at 11am by Beckenham’s MP Bob Stewart. We hope this plaque will be a lasting tribute to all whose lives were affected by this terrible event. If you have any memories of this incident, the Friends are compiling a Crooked Billet after the V2 attack file about what happened and we would be very

12 Bromleag June 2011 Letters pleased to hear from you. Please write to Jennie Randall, c/o , Shire Lane, Farnborough, Kent, BR6 7JH, or email [email protected] or telephone 07840 542261

Was this the original Crooked Billet and what was its history?

Jennie Randall has been told that the picture above shows the original Crooked Billet in Southborough Lane — not the one that was bombed. A pamphlet produced by the current owners of the pub shows this as the “Tudor” pub that was demolished in 1938 to be replaced by the short–lived building that was obliterated by the V2 just six years later. The Crooked Billet of today was built in 1957 and is a replica of the bombed building, incorporating some of the original features such as the chimneys and rear walls that survived the blast. Jenny is looking for a picture of the bombed building before the V2 rocket fell. It would also be interesting to know more about the first Crooked Billet. It looks like a large and substantial building, so why was it demolished and was it always a public house? If you know the answers or have a copy of that elusive picture, drop me a line at: [email protected] or to the address on Page 2.

13 Bromleag June 2011 Letters Solving the picture caption conundrums The two pictures dubiously captioned as London Road and Victoria Gardens which were featured in the March issue of Bromleag were soon identified by members. Marie Edwards called to say that the picture captioned London Road was definitely the Upper High Street. She noted it was a Pamlin Print, produced by a Croydon company that specialised in reproductions, particularly of transport photographs. The reprint purporting to be London Road dated from the 1970s. “They were notorious with their naming,” said Marie. The Pamlin reprint was probably a late 19th century view but Ernie Burkin has a later original postcard, pictured below, showing the same parade of shops and this is clearly marked High Street, Bromley (Looking North).

Ernie’s postcard was sent to and is postmarked 1918. He said: “I have studied the brickwork through a magnifying glass, the windows are the same and the Greyhound Inn sign is in the same position.” But the attribution of the second picture as Victoria Gardens was not a mistake, though Jenny Mewis wondered if just the area around the homeopathic hospital was called Victoria Gardens. Ann Edit took a careful look at Horsburgh and on Page 58 he says: “The remaining portion of it (White Hart Field) was appropriated to the erection of the Phillips

14 Bromleag June 2011 Letters Memorial Hospital, and for Lownds Avenue. The layout of the gardens, known originally as Victoria, but now as Queen's Gardens was entrusted to the borough engineer, Mr. Stanley Hawkings, and it is to his taste and discretion that the existing design is due.” The name of the gardens must have changed around 1907. Well, one mystery always seems to lead to another ... Napoleonic prisoners Marie Edwards revealed a personal interest in the Upper High Street picture. The first shop on the right was Daniel Grinstead General Store and where the horse and cart was standing in front of the shop with all the clutter outside was a business run by her mother’s relatives, the Lowrences. She hoped the horse and cart was her uncle’s but unfortunately there are no readable markings on the photograph. Having cleared up the problem of the street name, Marie wondered if anyone can throw any light on a tale she had been told about the area. Two alleys ran between the shops to Walters Yard and Hooks Place. On one of the walls in Waters Yard were iron rings and, said Marie: “My uncle had been told that was where they chained up prisoners from the Napoleonic wars when they stopped overnight on their way from London. It would make sense as that back area would have been countryside then and there would have been barns in that area where they could have secured the prisoners while the guarding officers stayed at an inn.” Can anyone shed any light on the tale?

Could Bromley Hall be in Staffordshire? Concerning the location of Bromley Hall, Bromleag March 2011, Page 9: since it seems to have been established beyond reasonable doubt that the property is not in our local Bromley nor within Tower Hamlets borough, one must look elsewhere — and there is indeed a Bromley in Staffordshire. During a recent visit to Bromley Central Library, I checked the Staffordshire volume in the Buildings of England series. It does not contain any direct reference to Bromley Hall or Bromley, nor is a Bromley Hall listed under either Kingswinford or Brierley Hill, the nearest urban areas. This seems to indicate that the building either does not exist any more or, perhaps less likely, that it was not considered to be of sufficient merit to be worth mentioning. Alternatively – and I have not checked this – it might be worth looking at the entry for Abbots Bromley, also in Staffordshire. It should be borne in mind, of course, that the illustration reproduced in Bromleag may originally have been prepared for the then owner/occupiers of Bromley Hall and may therefore present a somewhat flattering or idealised view of the property. Kenneth Richardson

15 Bromleag June 2011 Letters Fanfare for Beckenham a great success On Saturday evening 26 March I was delighted to be invited to attend the Fanfare for Beckenham concert in St. George's Church, Beckenham. Created by our own Cliff Watkins, it was unashamedly a musical history of the town. Under the conductor Leslie Lake, the Concert (Brass) Band together with a number of soloists gave a delightful programme of music taking us from the time of James Cook up to recent times. Cliff had done a remarkable amount of research to choose authors and composers from his home town, including Cary Blyton, Donald Swann, Gordon Carr, Peter Warlock, Hubert Gregg and Gustav Holst and weave them into a concert. As a late addition to the programme, Ellen Barbet recited a poem Who Do I Thank by Patricia Knowlden. As well as the performance of the Band there were other performers; Paul Allen and Christian Strover sang two pieces, Paul Allen played a solo on the French Horn, Derek Foster and Anthony Green played a piano duet and the audience were encouraged to join in a song by Peter Warlock and the wartime favourite Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner. During the interval we were all invited to enjoy a complimentary drink. All-in-all it was a most sociable and enjoyable evening. Cliff’s research was impressive and very deep and with the number of Beckenhamanians featured in this programme it is no wonder that there is a strong movement to rename our borough The London Borough of Beckenham including Bromley. Brian Reynolds National catalogue for art collections I am writing to you about an organisation called the Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF). Basically, I am trying to track down ALL paintings held in public collections in South East London. The UK holds one of the greatest publicly-owned collections of oil paintings in the world. However, probably 80% of these are held in storage and rarely displayed. At the same time the vast majority of public collections lack a complete illustrated printed catalogue of the oil paintings they own. The Public Catalogue Foundation has been specifically set up to improve the public's access to these collections by publishing a national series of comprehensive illustrated catalogues. We believe this project is of great importance to our national heritage. So far we have catalogued more than 100,000 paintings from over 2000 collections and are over half way through the cataloguing process. We have done museums, galleries,

16 Bromleag June 2011 Letters/News universities, town halls, hospitals etc; and we have included the Arts Council, the Government Art Collection, the National Trust, the V&A, the Imperial War Museum, the Fitzwilliam and many others. I am Catalogue Coordinator for South East London and my role involves organising the data collection, photography and working with the collection to ensure that the catalogue accurately represents the paintings. The Bromley Museum has agreed to participate in our project and I am making enquiries to ensure I don't miss any other paintings dotted around Bromley. This is really just a starting point for me and any information your members could provide would be greatly appreciated, or if you know of anyone else I should contact. You can find out more about the PCF at http://www.thepcf.org.uk/ Heather Ann Bennett, South East London Coordinator, Public Catalogue Foundation 075 1745 9186 [email protected]

Events around the borough and Open House weekend Bromley Museum — Famous Faces, 4 July-5 September Bromley has been home to an variety of famous and infamous people over the centuries, from politicians, inventors and scientists to authors, entertainers and rock stars. The exhibition will tell the tales and explore the local links of our Famous Faces. Festival of British Archaeology — Road Roman Bathhouse and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery, 23-24 July The Roman Bathhouse on Poverest Road, Orpington, which is normally closed to the public, will be open for a weekend of archaeological activities for all the family including an historic trail and a Saxon re-enactment group. Scadbury Open Weekend, 10-11 September ODAS hold their annual open day at the old manor site. London Open House Weekend, 17-18 September Bromley Museum at the Priory, Orpington, will be one of many Bromley properties hosting free guiding tours during the weekend. Details of all properties opening will be on the Open House website and at Bromley Library in the next few weeks http://www.londonopenhouse.org Bromley Museum — Curiouser and Curiouser: Bromley’s Cabinet of Curiosities 19 September-5 November Find out about the museum’s collectors and see some of the more unusual items from the museum collection in this cabinet of curiosities.

17 Bromleag June 2011 News Cuts to funding of Chislehurst Commons

The Trustees of Chislehurst and St Paul’s Cray Commons have launched a public appeal for help following a reduction of £15,000 in their grant from Bromley Council. Vice chair of the commons’ Trustees, Colin Yardley, said: “This appeal is crucial to the future of the commons. If they are built over then it will change the character of the area radically and forever.” The land is owned by the Lord of the Manor, Princess June Lobanov-Rostovsky, a niece of the last Viscount Marsham Townsend. It is currently protected after a group of residents achieved the passing of a law to keep it as common land in 1888, giving the trustees rights to regulate it. But if they cease to exist they would revert back to the Lord of the Manor The commons cost around £100,000 to run, which includes two full-time keeper posts. Along with dozens of volunteers, they keep it clear of litter, fly-tipping and unsafe trees. Cash boost for heritage centre Plans for a heritage centre at Biggin Hill airfield to celebrate its role in World War Two have taken a step forward as Bromley Council has agreed to give £40,000 towards the project and the Battle of Britain Supporters Club has given £20,000. The money will be used to fundraise and design the centre to house exhibitions and artefacts as well as show the airport’s role within the Biggin Hill community. The project will need to raise £2.64 million and it is hoped building work will begin in March next year. Move for Orpington Library Orpington Library which has been on the site at The Priory for more than 50 years, has closed and moved to a newly refurbished old council offices in The Walnuts shopping centre located between Sainsbury's and The Silver Lounge, opposite Orpington College and the Police Station. Opening hours have been increased and there are more computers for public use. The Bromley Museum remains at the Priory. Keston Countryside Day The Friends’ of in partnership with Bromley’s Countryside Service are hosting this years’ Keston Countryside Day on Sunday afternoon of 26 June. BBLHS will be having a stall at the event.

18 Bromleag June 2011 Feature Half a Day’s Ride to London Patricia Knowlden takes a look at how, over the centuries, Bromley and its environs became a commuting haven away from – but still offering easy access to – the metropolis

Not far from smoky London’s sulphurous clouds And not far distant stands my rural cot ... Swift as my changing wish I change the Scene, And now the country, now the town, enjoy.

o we, as turn-of-the-second-millennium commuters, recognise the London Borough of Bromley as a rural retreat? Unlikely – even though much of the D borough remains as Green Belt countryside. But this is how it was until about a century and a half ago, appealing to many from the metropolis as an ideal place to spend as much time as they could. Unfortunately, it was by people building their dream homes in the country that they began to spoil the very idyll they were seeking. It was William the Norman who began it, by allocating the old Anglo-Saxon manors to his courtiers, both to reward them for services past and to maintain them during expected future service to the Crown. When London became established as a great trading centre, City merchants wanted country estates as well, both for prestige and for the practical purpose of producing supplies for their own houses. And in being just half a day’s journey away, our area was obviously ripe for such development. Fortunately, a number of their places survive, however altered and added to over the centuries, and some have records from their early years. In the case of Scadbury in Chislehurst, the evidence of when the de Scathbury family owned the little mansion in its moat is from 12th century pottery sherds: the Tudor brick remains are the site of an ongoing investigation by the Orpington and District Archaeological Society. Another Medieval survivor is Wickham Court, where chalk blocks and a pointed stone arch in the cellars indicate a building far older than the impressive red-brick 15th century mansion built by Henry Heydon. Henry was an up-and-coming young London lawyer and a courtier when he purchased the manor of West Wickham. Sundridge Park was Sundresse in 1301 when it was bought by John le Blunt, a London merchant draper. The present impressive building was erected for Sir Claude Scott to a design by James Wyatt in 1777, at the same time that Humphrey Repton re- designed the park. Camden Place must surely have an equally long history, for when the Elizabethan

19 Bromleag June 2011 Feature historian William Camden bought it he had to make repairs: his timber-framed house is now encased in later Baroque-style brickwork. In the 1870s it was home to the exiled Napoleon III. After he died, Empress Eugenie stayed on, visited on occasion by her friend Queen Victoria. Plaistow Lodge is another grand Georgian mansion that in 1777 replaced an earlier house for Peter Thellusson. After he died it was leased out and then, in 1822, bought by a group of grateful clients who clubbed together to present it to Walter Boyd; he was a banker and financier with connections in Paris, where he bravely stayed throughout the French Revolution, looking after the interests of his clients and his bank as best he could and obviously with considerable success. He was – back home – a Member of Parliament and a friend of Pitt the Younger. Freelands in Plaistow Lane was being leased out by 1543. Early in the 18th century it was occupied by a merchant named John Whally and a little later the present Georgian house was built. In about 1750 this was occupied by Robert Nettleton, Governor of the Russia Company, around 1790 by Thomas Raikes, a Governor of the Bank of England a friend of Pitt and Wilberforce. London entrepreneurs were already buying up properties by the mid-1600s to lease out as investments. In West Wickham there was James Huckle, Cup Bearer to the Court of St James’ Palace and his brother William, a Master Grocer, and a little later Citizen and Soap-Master Thomas Harrison. Sometimes their lessees were men of distinction, such as Gilbert Scott of Ravenswood in West Wickham, who penned the lines at the beginning of this article. Here, according to Dr Johnson, he: “retired to devote himself to learning and piety and writing”. He was a friend of William Pitt the Elder who often rode over from Hayes: “To find books and quiet, a decent table and literary conversation.” Pitt’s own country residence was Hayes Place and it was there that he died after being brought home when he collapsed in the House of Lords in 1778. Pitt’s second son – William Pitt the Younger – was born at Hayes in 1759 and later in life he bought

20 Bromleag June 2011 Feature Holwood in Keston, where he lived until 1803. The previous owner had been a shipbuilder named Randall. His house is now gone but its successor, built by Decimus Burton for Lord Derby in 1827, still stands on its hillside with the vista over “one of the most fertile, variegated and extensive inland prospects in the whole country”. Close by is the home farm. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries wagons would trundle daily up to town, when the Derbys were there, taking fresh supplies of farm produce and the clean laundry. “The environs are beautiful in every point of view,” wrote Thomas Wilson in 1797. But he was not speaking of Holwood alone. He was writing a little guide book, An Accurate Description of Bromley in Kent including everything interesting and amusing in that delightfull part of the county, and five miles round. In it he lists the five gentlemen’s seats and another 15 handsome buildings close to the town itself. He includes Bromley’s four clergy headed by the Bishop of Rochester in his Palace – his private staging post on the way to London – two lawyers and four medical men. Among the gentlemen is George Norman who arrived in 1755 – his money stemmed from the Norway timber trade – and whose family was a beneficial influence in Bromley for three generations and more. One Norman family property was Elmfield Lodge at . To the north of the town stood Bromley Hill Park, the home of Lord Charles Long whose fortune came from his father’s dealings as a West India merchant. He may have been another friend of Pitt but he and his wife Lady Amelia were not in favour of the abolition of the slave trade. Wilson lists the tradesman including himself: Thomas Wilson, Bookseller – adding an appendix listing the 58 titles then in stock. He then eulogises over the other fine residences out in the countryside, such as that of shipbuilder John Wells who erected Bickley Hall in 1780, the Rt. Hon. William Pitt and so on. By Wilson’s time, roads – and carriages – were much improved and journey times were being cut, thanks to the Turnpike which had now got as far as Bromley. All the local landowners were interested parties and became trustees and investors, although it is doubtful whether they even had any financial gain from it. Very soon there were coach services to London running through Bromley every day. More and more ancient farmsteads were being turned into gentlemen’s estates such as Carpenters Farm at West Wickham where Sir Thomas Wilson (probably no relation) celebrated his becoming Sheriff of Kent in 1760 or Crouches which became Wickham House and came into the hands of the Earl of Devonshire in the early 1800s. “There have been some improvements in this village of late,” admitted Wilson grudgingly and added somewhat maddeningly, “but not such as entitle them to any historical record.” In tax records of Ruxley Hundred a couple of years after Thomas Wilson’s

21 Bromleag June 2011 Feature publication Wickham came third in this area and Chislehurst came top, for possessing riding horses, carriages, dogs, male servants and other luxuries. When they wrote their report in 1838 the assessors for the Tithe Commutation declared: “From its contiguity to the metropolis [West Wickham] abounds with the villas and ornamental grounds of the opulent.” – a description that could certainly be applied to the whole area. Twenty years later the railway came to Bromley and it was not only possible to reach the metropolis in a single day, but to return as well. Members of the lesser gentry and the middling sort were coming into the area as well as more doctors and lawyers. In an early volume of Strong’s Directories of Bromley and District [1875] there are pages of private residents and a smattering of professionals. Included is a list of Acting Justices of the Peace which shows that “the better sort” were still attracted to the locality; living in – but his son moved to St. Mary Cray and became its lord of the manor – was Henry Hulse Berens, a director of the Bank of England and director of the Steam Emigration Company; Lord Arthur Kinnaird, from Perth in Scotland, banker and Liberal MP had just bought Plaistow Lodge; Colonel Samuel Wilson, Alderman of the City of London, lived at the Cedars in Beckenham – he had been Lord Major in 1838. And Charles Darwin resided at in . In the later 19th century Bromley and the area around attracted not only speculative builders but people who could afford architect-designed houses by such as the Arts-and-Crafts movement’s Norman Shaw. Local estate owners took the opportunity to sell up and move away, Bickley Park and Bromley Hill among them. Others like Hayes Place lasted out until the 1930s. The Green Belt has protected the area around Bromley from further building development since then but change is in the air: investment companies are eagerly awaiting their opportunity to move in – not half a day’s ride away.

A paperback reproduction of Thomas Wilson’s book An Accurate Description of Bromley, in Kent, ornamented with views of the Church and College, Including Every Thing Interesting etc has been published by Gale ECCO and is available online. Strangely, the cover picture is of a harbour with mountains behind!

22 Bromleag June 2011 Feature Neuwied — Bromley’s twin with a rather different history By Peter Heinecke n 1987 a partnership or twinning agreement was signed between the London Borough of Bromley and the German town of Neuwied. Neuwied is a Kreisstadt, I the administrative centre of some 25 municipalities. It lies on the right bank of the Rhine, where the River Wied enters the Rhine about 15 kilometres north of Koblenz. The name suggests a new town. Indeed it was, in the 17th century, a deliberately new foundation. So, one asks, was there also an “old” town. The answer is also, yes, there was. Altwied still exists, to the north of Neuwied, as a small settlement dominated by the ruins of a medieval castle that was built on a rocky promontory overlooking a bend in the River Wied. However, before considering this transition, we need to go back a whole millennium, to a site that lies between the two. On the northern fringe of Neuwied is the settlement of Niederbieber, a name that will be familiar to students of Roman archaeology. These settlements lie on the line of the Upper Germanic Limes, part of the great “iron curtain” that the Romans built from the Rhine to the Danube. This section starts at Rheinbrohl, one of the constituent municipalities of Neuwied. There, as at Oberbieber, visitors can see a reconstructed Roman watchtower, pictured right. At Niederbieber the foundations of the great Roman fort have in recent years been the object of conservation work that has saved them from threats by the building industry. Excavation has taken place intermittently since the 18th century.

23 Bromleag June 2011 Feature Now and again it has produced dramatic finds, such as the “dragon standard”, the top of a Roman standard in the form of a dragon’s head, pictured right. The fort is thought to have been established in the reign of Emperor Commodus (AD 180-192) and to have replaced another at Heddesdorf , a Neuwied suburb. Much of the latter site was excavated in1898 but has since disappeared under modern building. Many finds are now housed in Bonn although Neuwied has a significant museum of its own, the “Ice Age Museum”. Several traces of the Limes are to be found throughout the Neuwied district, including the remains of a watchtower near Altwied. It was at Altwied that the medieval fortified castle overlooking the River Wied was begun in the early 12th century by Metfried, the first documented “Count of Wied”. It remained the home of his successors and descendants until the late 17th century. The Thirty Years War devastated Germany. After the Peace of 1648 Count Friedrich III saw the possibility of revival by benefiting from the Rhine trade and preventing his territory being squeezed by the two big ecclesiastical electorates, Cologne and Trier, that lay either side of it. In 1653 he obtained privileges from Emperor Ferdinand III for the founding of a new town, Neuwied, on the site of the former village of Langendorf. At the neighbouring village of Fahr he decided to build a new family residence, a baroque palace. The project flourished, partly due to the enlightened foresight of Count Friedrich whose town charter of 1662 sought to attract settlers “of whatever status or religion they may be”. Members of persecuted Protestant sects, such as Mennonites and Moravian Brethren came. The town also has a Jewish cemetery with some 600 headstones testifying to this diversity. The policy prevailed through the 18th century under Friedrich’s grandson, Johann Friedrich Alexander. Neuwied became a noted producer of ironware but also, in cultural terms, a centre of educational excellence and of relatively free publishing. In 1784 Johann Friedrich

24 Bromleag June 2011 Feature Alexander was raised from the rank of count to that of prince, the first prince of Wied-Neuwied. Then in the Napoleonic Wars the kaleidoscopic map of Germany was severely shaken. With the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1803 and the establishment of a new legal order in 1806 a protracted and highly complicated process of “mediatization” began. This subsumed the small states into larger ones. Wied- Neuwied was at first integrated with Nassau and later into Prussia, with the princes retaining their title and certain vestigial rights. Effectively princely rule ceased in 1848. This did not hinder the continued economic development of the town. An export trade in metal goods and timber developed along the Rhine. Schools were opened, the boys’ and girls’ schools even attracting considerable numbers of English children. Particular attention was paid to the disabled, with a school for the deaf and dumb and another for the blind, founded in 1899, that is still a major institution in the Rhineland. The town was considerably enlarged by the incorporation of the district of Heddesdorf in 1904. In 1852 Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen had become mayor of Heddesdorf and a statue to him stands in Neuwied. Raiffeisen, noted for his social

Neuwied in 1784

25 Bromleag June 2011 Feature work, was the founder of a system of credit unions or cooperative banks. It is from him that the Austro-German banking group takes its name. The aim of his work was above all to assist the rural poor. In this he was supported by the liberal and progressive princes of Wied-Neuwied. The dynasty has produced some notable characters. Prince Maximilian Alexander (1782-1867) was an explorer, ethnologist and naturalist. Princess Pauline Elisabeth (1843-1916) married in Neuwied Prince Karl Eitel of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen who became King Carol I of Romania. Officially known as Queen Elisabeth of Romania, she was also a talented musician, artist, mistress of several languages, author and poetess who wrote under the pseudonym Carmen Sylva. Her nephew, Prince Wilhelm of Wied, (1876- 1945) accepted the throne of Albania in 1914 but stayed there only six months, leaving at the beginning of the First World War to become a Prussian officer. The present head of the House is Prince Carl who still occupies Neuwied Palace, pictured above, and ranks 553rd in line of succession to the British throne. All was not always idyllic. The town, being low lying and on the Rhine, was frequently inundated by floods. The problem was only solved in 1931 with the construction of a dyke of 7½ kilometres including a massive defensive wall. This was followed in 1935 by another engineering feat, a bridge over the Rhine. Unfortunately for Neuwied, it was this that attracted allied bombers in World War Two. The first raid on 1-2 March 1941 killed 12 of its citizens, but it was only in the last raid, on 16 January 1945, that American bombers destroyed the bridge. It took Neuwied several years to recover and rebuild. Today it flourishes again both commercially and culturally. The people of Neuwied refer to Bromley as their “Partnerstadt”. A partner certainly, but is it really a twin? Now you decide.

26 Bromleag June 2011 Feature Much ado about a Bromley footpath he Bromley Direct Railway Company (Bromley North By Max Batten station), although well supported by local residents T fed up with the slow and indirect services to London available from Bromley (South), was always a front for the South Eastern Railway (SER) and its irascible chairman, Sir Edward Watkin MP. The fiction of it being independent was obvious at its first half-yearly meeting on 28 February 1877. It was held at London Bridge Station, the headquarters of the SER. On its board was Alfred Watkin MP, and one of its proprietors (or shareholders) present at the meeting was his father, Sir Edward. By 1887, it had been part of the SER for eight years and was doing reasonable if unspectacular business and a small item, Minute 1078, at the SER board meeting on 20 October 1887 was unlikely to have been communicated to anyone in Bromley. It was recorded that: “The General Manager also submitted a plan of a proposed new Siding at Bromley for increased Goods Traffic. The Engineer’s estimate of the cost being £520. The General Manager was directed to examine the estimate to see if any saving could not possibly be effected and then to authorise the Engineer to proceed with the work.” Map 1 , left, shows the Bromley North area around 1860 with some modern day roads marked on for orientation. At the time Love Lane, which can be seen lower right, came to a halt when it reached what is now Sherman Road and the footpath from Plaistow passed round the woodland and across the field to what has become the junction of Tweedy Road and East and North Streets. After the railway was first built, this footpath was

27 Bromleag June 2011 Feature diverted over a footbridge to the north but continued as before past the side of the station, although only with the intervention of a Major General Babbage who, through the Bromley Local Board, compelled the SER to maintain public access after they initially blocked it with their new station. Meanwhile, at the SER, the new siding gets no further mention at board level, but clearly wheels had been set in motion. Just over a month later, in November, early morning pedestrians making their usual journey from Plaistow along the footpath past the signal box towards the town centre found their way blocked by a new fence behind which the South Eastern Railway had decided to create its siding. News soon spread to, among others, Henry Nye who lived nearby at 36 Palace Road. In addition to being a cabinet maker and undertaker and agent for Atlas Fire and Life Insurance, he was also well known as a local campaigner for civic rights particularly public footpaths. He immediately went to the site and started pulling down the fence; and when it was re-erected, he pulled it down again. How physical this all became is not wholly clear, although the number of people involved in the demonstration is alleged by one source to have been over 200. A newspaper report on 3 December commended “Henry Nye (who) has been felling barriers and filling trenches which had been constructed across the way”, but “Where oh! Where is the Bromley District Public Rights and Footpath Preservation Society,” lamented The Idler (Bromley Record) in his gossip column. On 6 December the Bromley Local Board chaired by James Batten received “a requisition bearing the Signatures of 27 Ratepayers and Owners of the District requesting the Board to convene a meeting of the Ratepayers and Owners of the District for the purpose of submitting to such Meeting the following resolution: “That this Meeting urgently requests the Bromley Local Board to take immediate proceedings against the South Eastern Railway Company, for the purpose of compelling the said Company to reinstate the public footpath (leading from the top of East Street across the fields to Plaistow) which they have wilfully destroyed”. At the same time the clerk to the Local Board, RG Mullen, also received a rather cheeky letter from the SER, saying: “The Company have recently extended their siding accommodation at the Bromley Station and this has necessitated the diversion of the footpath which had previously existed on the land, to the position shown by the red lines on the enclosed traced plan. Will you be good enough to bring the matter before the Local Board at their meeting tonight and I shall be glad to hear that they approve of the proposed diversion, at your earliest convenience.” The letter, not surprisingly, led to considerable indignation being expressed by members. George H Payne said it was a “gross outrage” while Thomas Davis thought the SER should be required to reinstate the path before further discussion was held.

28 Bromleag June 2011 Feature The following day a reply was sent to the SER at London Bridge: “I am directed by the Bromley Local Board to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday’s date with enclosure and requesting the Board to sanction the diversion of a Public footpath. In reply I was requested to state that the Board cannot take such an application into consideration until the Pathway in question had been properly reinstated and restored to the original condition for the use of the Public. I am to request that this may be done forthwith.” Mr Mullen also wrote to Henry Nye, saying: “I am directed by the Bromley Local Board to thank you and your fellow requisitionists for your communication with reference to the action of the South Eastern Railway Company in closing a public footpath leading from the top of East Street across the fields to Plaistow and to state that, as there is no statutory necessity for obtaining the assent of the Rate-payers to the adoption of proceedings of the Board in respect of any illegal action on the part of the Railway Company, the Board do not see that any good purpose would be served by convening such a meeting as you refer to. “I am however to inform you that the Board are in communication with the Railway Company with reference to their action and that the Board will take all necessary proceedings for protecting the interests of the public.” This brush-off did not deter Mr Nye who, on Tuesday 12 December, wrote again to the Board enclosing a copy of the resolution passed at a Public Meeting of Ratepayers and Owners which had been held outside the Board’s office two days earlier. This followed word-for-word the original petition (or requisition as it was referred to) together with the request it be signed by the Chairman of the Board. This was presented to the Board at their next meeting on 20 December. Two days later, Mr. Nye was sent another letter from Mr Mullen: “I am directed by the Bromley Local Board to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th inst enclosing copy of a resolution stated to have been passed at a meeting of Ratepayers and Owners of Bromley and in reply to inform you that at the meeting of the Board on Tuesday last, the Clerk reported that pursuant to the Board’s instruction he had served a notice upon the South Eastern Railway Co. requiring them to properly reinstate and restore to its original condition for the use of the Public the footpath damaged by them. The Surveyor was also instructed to inspect the land in (question?) and report if it has been duly restored to his satisfaction.” Perhaps, with the season of goodwill approaching, tempers cooled, and on 17 December it was reported that the SER had “abandoned their attempt to destroy the public footpath outside their station at Bromley and have reinstated the ground”. However, on 3 January 1888, following a meeting of the delightfully named Highways, Building, Lighting and Road Watering Committee and at a full Board

29 Bromleag June 2011 Feature meeting the same day (and with many of the same Members), the Surveyor reported that the SER had not properly restored the path and the Clerk was instructed to write again, which he did on the 9th, sending a brief note concluding: “The Board trust that without incurring further trouble and expense your Company will without delay properly restore the said footpath.” With Sir Edward Watkin engaged in his usual spats with the Chatham Railway and, at this time, with the Brighton Railway over use of the route from London Bridge to Reigate (the original SER mainline to Tonbridge and Folkestone), in addition to his and his wife’s ill health, it may be the General Manager or the Company Secretary decided not to bother the SER board with the issue and just got on with sorting it out. When you look at Map 2, right, which shows the station as it was at the turn of the century, with the extra siding on the south-east side (and the turntable at the south end of the station where it appears the ground has recently been subsiding in front of the 1926 rebuilt station), you can see what has happened. The old, direct footpath has gone, replaced by a new route down to Sherman(’s) Road, coming out opposite Love Lane. Mr Nye seems to have turned his attentions to other matters including, it appears, an ambition to be elected to the Bromley Board himself and one previously supportive newspaper was, by 25 February, deploring his attacks on the competency of the Board. Not least on one member who was also editor of that newspaper! It seems that the railway provided the alternative walking route without too much

30 Bromleag June 2011 Feature delay and the matter seems thereafter to have been quietly forgotten as it does not appear again in either the local press or at the Bromley Local Board. But anyone using the path from Sherman Road to the footbridge to Babbacombe Road, pictured below, will know of its strange dog-leg route and how close it comes to the railway at one point, as can be seen in the photograph. Now it appears we know why.

Sources Bromley Record Bromley and West Kent Telegraph South Eastern Railway - Adrian Gray, Middleton Press, 1990 South Eastern Railway Board - Minute Books 25 and 26 Bromley Direct Railway Co - General Meeting Minute Book Bromley Local Board Minute Book 11 Town Clerks’ letters book

31 Bromleag June 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 : - - Beckenham - Bickley -Biggin Hill - Bromley - Chelsfield - Chislehurst - - - Downe - Farnborough - -Hayes - Keston - - - Orpington - - - 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 020 8467 3842

32 Bromleag June 2011