Bromleag The newsletter of the Borough Local History Society

December 2005

Sermonising vicars of the 17th century

Famous chickens of the 19th century

Finding shelter in the

20th century Bromley Borough Local History Society

Registered Charity No 273963 About the Society Bromley Borough Local History Society was formed in 1974 so that anyone Contents with an interest in any part of the borough could meet to exchange information March 2005 and learn more about Bromley’s history. History is continually being made and at the same time destroyed, buildings Society meetings are altered or demolished, memories fade and people pass away, records get destroyed or thrown in the bin. We aim, in co-operation with the local history Members evening P3 library, museums and other relevant organisations, to make sure at least V2 Rockets P4 — 6 some of this history is preserved for future generations. Reminiscence We hold regular meetings and produce a journal and occasional publications V2 rockets P7 — 8 where members can publish their research. News P8 Chairman and Membership Secretary Features Dr Anthony Allnut William Cook P8 — 9 Woodside, Old Perry Street, , BR7 6PP 020 8467 3842 News P10 [email protected] Feature Secretary Worlds End Lane P11 Mrs Patricia Knowlden Feature 62 Harvest Bank Road, , BR4 9DJ Thomas Watts 020 8462 5002 of and Bromleag William Assheton of P12 — 13 This newsletter is published four times a year. The editor welcomes articles of between 100 and 1,000 words, along with illustrations and photographs. Feature These can be in paper copy, disk or e-mailed. Air Raid shelters in Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope if you wish material to be Beckenham P14 returned. Items remain the copyright of the authors and do not necessarily reflect Society views. Each contributor is responsible for the content of their Research queries article. And obituary P15 Articles are not always used immediately as we try to maintain a balance between research, reminiscences and articles about different subjects and Tailpiece parts of the borough. Gunpowder sermon P16 Editor Christine Hellicar 150 Worlds End Lane, , Kent BR6 6AS 01689 857214 Email chrisandpathellicar @talk21.com COPY DEADLINES

All copy for the March edition of Bromleag must reach the editor by the Subscription Rates first week of February Yearly subscription from 1 January 2006. Individual £8.50; couple £10. Senior citizens pay a re- duced rate of £6 per person or £8 for a couple. Members joining after 30 June pay half rates.

2 Bromleag December 2005 Society meetings September songs Patricia Knowlden reports on a very We were encouraged to handle the many pieces; but successful addition to the society’s “treat them with respect as relics of people’s lives over many years”: china and bits of metal, many of them calendar, a members’ evening automobile parts from the 1920s-30s, clay pipes, a china egg, a very worn WWI medal…but not to touch his prize find, a gin trap. This year saw the re-introduction of a meeting in September, when some 30 of us enjoyed a series of mini-talks by a quintet of fellow Hidden hospital treasures members. Dr.Adrian Thomas has been rescuing historic items Crystal Palace memorabilia from Bromley’s closing Victorian hospitals, once the pride of the communities that funded them. He brought some To begin with, Leslie Stevens spread out a small part of for us to see, such as Beckenham Hospital’s 1912 his collection of memorabilia of the Crystal Palace. Certificate from the Non-teaching Hospitals’ Garden The oldest piece was a snuff box illustrating the grand Competition. He has letters from Alexander Muirhead opening, and another souvenir was a cup depicting the referring to early radiography; in around 1914 Elmers exterior. Besides the post cards he always produces End station was known as Muirhead’s Station. were posters, programmes and a workman’s pass – even Pride of place might go to an album of Beckenham six of the much sought after season tickets. His especial Cottage Hospital’s Linen Guild, which, in the early days, pride was several of the keepsake medallions that had supplied (and mended) such essentials as bandages and been issued to exhibitors. sheets, and their most splendid embroidered banner. Fasinating books, posters and paper ephemera He also had the hospital’s Memorial Book with more Tony Allnut told us about some of the records and than one eminent visitor’s signature on its pages. books that he had acquired, all of which had some tale As contrast, he told of the graffiti found under to tell, or potential theme for study. wallpaper at Beckenham: ‘Sam Griffiths papered this He showed us a poster giving notice of an auction sale house, 1869’, three years before the Cottage Hospital ‘by candle’ (last one to bid before it goes out gets the was opened. goods) of shipwreck salvage in Margate; another poster of 1849 advertising the now closed Blackheath Cavern Mapping the deer parks behind Trinity Church and a dog licence from 1903 for Susan Pittman brought some of the maps of the the great sum of 7/6d – which was never increased. But, Bromley area she has been using for her current study of perhaps the most appealing was the journal of a young Tudor and Stuart deer parks in Kent. lady who seemed to be ‘sweet’ on the Prince Imperial in Beginning from a base list of 53 parks in the the 1870s – shortly before he was killed in Africa; Elizabethan William Lambard’s Perambulation of Kent fascinating to the gardeners among us was the mid-19th she has almost doubled that number, and also defined century Planting List book from Lord Sydney’s estate at the boundaries of many of them from surviving Frognal. documents combined with field walking them herself. Garden gatherings Hugh Jordan entitled his contribution History from a Vegetable Patch and told us about the cottage in West Wickham where he and his wife have lived for some 40 Local Studies Library years now, how the once farm house came down in the world – suffered a fire – and how, while restoring it, he closure has been finding things when digging in the garden. Bromley Local Studies and Archives will be closed for stocktaking for a week beginning Monday 12 December 2005, reopening on Monday 19 December 2005.

December 2005 Bromleag 3 Society Meeting The experience of V2 rockets

Gordon Dennington, the speaker at our November meeting, writes about the V2 and on P7 Peter Gillman recounts his own experiences as an unlisted casualty of the bombing

he V2 (A4 was its German designation) was the 25th rocket incident so far. The explosion would have been world’s first operational long-range rocket and strongly felt in Bromley. T was the first city to experience long-range Shortly afterwards the airborne operation Market Garden rocket bombardment. The weapon’s all-up weight of 12.7 at Arnhem forced German V2 artillery units to retire from tons – of which fuel accounted for 70 per cent – included the Hague area and Walcheren Island so that for several a one-ton warhead with a high explosive charge of 750kg weeks they were beyond range of London. They relieved (1,650lbs) fused to explode on impact. their frustration by targeting Norwich and Ipswich instead. When raised vertically, its 46 feet length gave the V2 the Meanwhile, British authorities admitted nothing about the height of a three or four storey block of flats. Its maximum attacks, even pretending innocence for all direct contact range was 200 – 220 miles and at the limit of operational with the weapon. Rockets? What rockets? range it could be accurate to within 10 – 11 miles radius A total news blackout contributed considerably to the of the target, if all went according to plan. general mystification about the sudden loud and The peak altitude of a distance shot was some 50 – 60 unexplained explosions. Londoners soon guessed, of miles, which took the missile through the stratosphere and course, that they related in some way to Hitler’s latest into the ionosphere. secret weapon, a rocket threat they had read about in the During descent its speed press for months past. Some witnessed unusual sights in reached up to four times the sky bearing no relation to anything they had seen the speed of sound. The before, and certainly not to ‘gas mains blowing up’, as had propulsion unit shut been put about. It was eerie and unsettling. People down at an appropriate wondered uneasily whether those in authority were moment consistent with actually aware of what was taking place. the planned range, after Another feature which made the V2s different from which the missile previous attacks and helped produce an air of surrealism travelled in a parabolic was the complete absence of air raid warnings, gunfire, curve with the ballistic the whistle and crash of falling bombs, searchlights, properties of an ordinary artillery shell. barrage balloons, the wham-wham of German bombers, The first shots reached the London area on 8 September hours spent sheltering … and all the nervous tension, 1944 around 6.40pm at Pardon Woods, Epping and in anxiety and sense of danger and excitement that Stavely Road, Chiswick. accompanied them. takes Bromley’s first hit Astonishing reaction Three days passed before a hit occurred within strong Everyone went about their daily tasks and relaxations – audible distance of Bromley. This was on a farm at employment, shopping, school lessons, cinema going etc - Crockenhill and caused no material damage or casualties. largely unaffected by the occasional thunder crashes, Then the 8th rocket to hit the country exploded among unless they were uncomfortably close. It was a quite trees at Layhams Farm, Keston on 12 September, again astonishing reaction even to the contemporary observer, with no known damage or casualties. and, from a modern standpoint, almost beyond belief. A The next incident to produce a distinct audible shock- strange, detached and impersonal form of warfare had wave locally – i.e. the sound of the V2 explosion and/or its come about, something which happened to others, ‘sonic boom’ - was No. 12, which killed several people and something for them – fire-fighters, rescue teams, police, injured over sixty in Dairsee Road, Woolwich. doctors, nurses, air raid wardens to name only some – to deal with, unless or until it happened to affect you or your recorded a hit on open ground on 17 near ones. Then the full horrors of the pitiless weapon September, the rocket having apparently disintegrated in mid-air over Knockholt with the warhead flying on intact. were revealed to one’s shocked awakening. Mid-air burst or disintegration was a regular feature of the When operation Market Garden I failed to achieve its main bombardment. The Germans were aware of the defect purpose and the British and Polish airborne force were from test firings but were unable to cure it until quite late killed, captured, or had retreated under cover of darkness, in the campaign. On the same day, the worst incident to German rocket units were able to resume firing from the date in south east London occurred at Adelaide Avenue, vicinity of The Hague, bring London back in range. In the Ladywell, with 14 lives lost and 66 injured. This was the latter part of October 1944 the sky above and the ground

4 Bromleag December 2005 Society meeting in the Bromley area below again shook, rumbled and reverberated to for casualties. Shortly after 9pm the missile exploded on thunderclap bangs. South Norwood, Swanley, Lee, New the forecourt of the Crooked Billet pub in Southborough Cross, Camberwell, Plumstead, Bexley and Crockenhill Lane, producing a crater 30 feet wide and 15 feet deep. were among the targets at this period. Only a few among The four-storey building collapsed on the very lip of the the general public usually learnt about exact locations, nor crater, burying scores of casualties under piles of did they usually care to enquire too closely. “If you heard it, masonry. you were all right; if you didn’t you might not be.” Twenty-three civilians, plus several military personnel, On 8 November the Nazis lost patience waiting for some lost their lives at the horrific scene. Sixty-five people were admission from Britain. Berlin broadcast that for weeks seriously injured, with a further 34 treated for minor past England had been under rocket attack and that injuries. Recovery of bodies went on through the night Churchill was deliberately concealing the truth from his under flood lamps and eventually a complete clearance people. For good measure they gave examples of places of the site was required to bring out the last. hit, which included, they said, the complete destruction of Euston Station. Budapest radio (German controlled) Catastrophic incident painted a vivid picture of “the tempest of hell raging over The most catastrophic incident of the whole London … the judgment of God.” Which was pretty good, bombardment occurred the following Saturday at coming from a virulently atheist source. Woolworth’s store in New Cross Road when crowded with early Christmas shoppers, mothers and young children First lives lost in Bromley prominent among them. At least 160 died here in scenes The announcements forced Churchill’s hand, obliging reminiscent of the bloodiest battlefields. him to tell Parliament that the country had indeed been New Cross Woolworth’s was rocket No 255; leaving facing rocket attacks over recent weeks. The Prime 860 to come. The capital’s share of V2s overall was 517, Minister ignored the enemy’s specific claims. He was and the great majority of casualties and the worst aware of their source – information fed to German damage were concentrated here. South East London intelligence in a diet of half-truths by ‘turned’ agents boroughs, including the Bromley area, accounted for controlled by London. about 180 of the total – and one-third of all casualties It was not until 14 November that the first lives were lost nationwide, namely, some 860 killed and 6,000 injured. in today’s Bromley borough. In these figures the area of today’s London Borough of Bromley (plus Sidcup) recorded 43 direct hits and felt the At Bushey Avenue and Towncourt Lane, an early morning blast killed two and injured 25. It was arrival of many more. England's 185th rocket. This was followed five days later, Continued on P6 on Sunday the 19th, by Bromley’s worst wartime incident

Future meetings January to March 2006

Meetings are held at 7.45 pm on the first Tuesday of the month, from October 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 the society’s meetings for a nominal charge of £1.

3 January Ray Garwood, A sideways look at Nelson and Trafalgar 7 February Paperchase, A tour of the borough in records old and new A visit to Bromley Library local studies section 7 March Josie Cole A History of Aerodrome in two world wars.

December 2005 Bromleag 5 Reminiscence Peter Gillman’s V2 incident

t is one of my early memories: an upstairs window that injuries – another image that has stayed with me is of the shatters inwards, with a flash and a roar, just after a sink and the tap where my cuts were bathed. I train has passed on the embankment on the far side of I don’t know if they had taped the bedroom windows to the street. I thought the train itself had exploded, but later stop them shattering, but I do know they had lace curtains, my mother told me it was a V2. which had mostly protected me from the flying glass. My image of the shattering window dates from New Year The other mercy was that the V2 had landed on the far 1945. I was almost three years old, and my mother had side of the railway embankment, which deflected much of left me with two of my aunts while she went shopping in the blast. My worst injury was a laceration across my London. My aunts lived at 22 Rowden Road, , and I nose. presume my mother caught the train from Clock House to I have no idea when my mother learned there had been Charing Cross. an explosion in Penge, or when she knew I was injured but We lived in West safe. I wonder if she walked along the damaged street, Wickham at the time. horror rising as she wondered if I was alright. My father had fought in Nor do I know whether she was aware then that it was a the first war, as they V2 which had landed, as at first knowledge of this new used to call it, in terror weapon had been suppressed. But it did feature Palestine and then on strongly in the stories I was told as a child – the rocket the Western Front. A that you only heard coming after it landed as it fell faster Customs officer at than the speed of sound, unlike the V1 where you knew Croydon Airport, he was you were safe until you heard the engine cut out. too old for the second These were tales I was raised on, part of the inheritance war, but went fire- that those of us born during the war grew up with, along watching in the City, with stories and memories of the black-out, the shelter in which I know frightened our garden and rationing, along with a detestation of my mother enormously. Germany that took a long time to shed. I enjoyed staying with Both my parents died when I was young, so I was never my aunts – my father’s able to talk to them as an adult about those times. Only unmarried sisters – as Peter Gillman as a child recently did I try to research the precise events of that they always made a time. I looked at wartime copies of the Beckenham Journal fuss of me. in Beckenham library, and also found the accounts of I remember the Morrison shelter under their dining table assiduous local historians such as Stephen Henden, David and used to hide inside when we were playing games. I Johnson, Chris Doran, and Pat Manning. also liked to watch the trains from their upstairs bedroom I learned that there had been two V2 incidents in Penge window and they would give me a chair to stand on, just as in early 1945. The first, on January 2, was listed as they did on that day in January 1945. occurring at the Midland Bank sports ground in Lennard After the explosion my aunts rushed upstairs to find me Road; the second, on January 9, on the sports ground in and then took me down to their kitchen to attend to my Kings Hall Road – presumably Cator Park.

Continued from P5 old housewife, Ivy Millichamp – the last civilian to be killed by enemy air action in Britain in the Second World War – It would be a repetitious catalogue of human suffering and injured 56 others. The missile dug a 20-foot deep to recite all the incidents. Enough has been said on that crater in the neat suburban gardens, which was quickly score to paint the picture. filled in and the scar covered. Within a few months all the We will end appropriately with a mention of the now destroyed and damaged bungalows had been rebuilt and well-known final incident of the campaign, No. 1115, restored. which exploded at 4.57pm, 27 March 1945 in the rear In its immediate aftermath, no one really wished to be gardens of bungalows in Court Road and Kynaston Road, closely reminded of the war. It was not something one Orpington. talked about very much. Things were buried and erased, It was a lovely, golden spring afternoon, suddenly physically and in the mind. So how ironic that sixty years shattered by a terrible wave of blast that killed 34-year- later more people know more about Hitler’s last rocket

6 Bromleag December 2005 Reminiscence

I felt it more likely that “my” incident was the one on January 9, as it was closer to Rowden Road. The records Darwin mural for show that 20 people had been injured and 60 houses badly damaged or destroyed. I don’t know if the houses in Rowden Road were included, but I am fairly sure that I Market Square was not accounted one of the injured, as I had not been A three-storey mural of Charles Darwin has been taken to hospital. unveiled in Market Square. Bromley Council wanted That was in fact a sore point for my mother, as she had the mural to serve as a reminder that Darwin lived and been unhappy that my aunts had tended to my injury worked in the Borough. It also ties in with the UK’s themselves. Had I gone to hospital, she believed, the cut 2006 World Heritage proposal for , Darwin’s on my nose would have been stitched, sparing me the bicentenary in 2009 and the 150th anniversary of the scar, which lingers to this day. publication of ‘The Origin of Species’. Yet I am proud of it in a perverse way, perhaps because The Darwin mural replaces the HG Wells mural, it provides a tangible link to an epic time that fewer and which had to be replaced as the wall needed re- fewer people can recall. It is also humbling to realise rendering. It was designed and painted by local artist that at the age of 63 I must be one of the youngest Bruce Williams. It has been painted with special paints people in Britain who can remember the war. and UV filter glaze, which will ensure that the illustration lasts without fading for a long time. Several significant themes are represented in the illustration; Down House, where Darwin lived and developed his famous theories; the 'Beagle' ship, which Darwin used to undertake his global voyage Peter Gillman including to the Galapagos Islands; the variety of today flowers, which represent the ‘entangled bank’ that was written about in ‘The Origin of Species’, and the evolution from man to ape, as Darwin believed that man and apes had a common ancestor. By studying fruit and vegetables, Darwin also established that if domestic selection could create such variety, then natural selection would be able to produce even greater results over a much longer period of time. The mural depicts this fact by showing the transition from a wild boar to the farmed pig. William Darwin, direct descendant of Charles Darwin said: “Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to Bromley, notably to use the local chemists. The mural is particularly significant because of Darwin's association with the local community. He would be delighted by this tribute”. Work starts on colleges A grant of £487,000 by the Housing Corporation means work has now started on upgrading Bromley & Sheppard’s Colleges. £660k has been raised in total salvo than was the case at the time. This is true of the In the two years since the £1 million appeal was civilian war in general, of course. Once it was suppressed launched to up grade the accommodation provided as in the mind. Instead people referred constantly to how retirement homes for Anglican clergy and their things had been pre-war. ‘Before the war …’ prefaced widows. countless conversations. . The buildings, respectively listed as Grade 1 and 2, Although to-day’s constant reminders of the war in the also require expensive upkeep and all modernisation media risk creating a sort of Golden Age of courage, of the accommodation and remedial work is being heroism, sacrifice and suffering, it is perhaps preferable to a self-denial of painful events in the past. Without carried out under the auspices of English Heritage. remembrance how can we pay tribute to past sacrifices? The Canterbury Choristers in Concert' on Saturday Remembrance is, after all, a kind of spiritual resurrection. 11 March 2006 is the next fund raising event. More information from 1 February from 020 8460 4712

December 2005 Bromleag 7 News

Mulberry harbour engineer remembered The chicken that

n the autumn of 1886 the world became aware of the Allan Beckett, who was responsible for the existence of the little town of Orpington (population 4000). design of the floating roadways and anchor William Cook had sent out, as he put it, the first of the systems for the Mulberry Harbours used to I Orpington breed of chickens. In Cook’s own words, “it has spread land vehicles and equipment on the more rapidly throughout the world than any other breed of fowls Normandy beaches after D-Day, died in June, has ever done.” Certainly this large, aged 91. handsome black bird was instantly Beckett, who lived from 1949 until his death successful and The Orpington Club in Farnborough, was a yachtsman who kept a was founded in 1887. boat all his life. William Cook was born in 1849 at In 1942 floating harbours were proposed. An St. Neots and, as a child, derived American harbour, Mulberry A, and a British great pleasure from caring for the harbour, Mulberry B. Beckett a young officer poultry on the farm next to his home. in the Royal Engineers was brought into the At the age of twenty he married Jane, Mulberry B project. a step which he later referred to as He made a tin-plate model of his proposed the happiest he had ever taken. roadway which was immediately taken up by He is first heard of in North West the War Office. A prototype was built which Kent when in 1882 he published the survived intact and workable — when rival first edition of W Cook’s Poultry designs broke up — during tests in a howling Breeder and Feeder, or How to Make The Buff Orpington gale. He went on to design a flotation unit for Poultry Pay from 1 Park Road, the roadway, known as the ’beetle’, and an Chislehurst. He is thought to have been in service as a coachman. anchor, called ’Kite’. Certainly, his knowledge of horses was extensive enough for him On D-Day plus one he left for France to to be able to produce a book on the subject The Horse, its Keep provide technical advice necessary on site for and Management. both the American Mulberry A harbour at His little book on poultry was widely acclaimed in the poultry Omaha Beach and the Mulberry B at keeping world and its success probably prompted him to set up as Arromaches. a breeder. For this he needed larger premises and in about 1884 The Americans Mulberry A failed after only he moved to Tower House, Tower Road, Orpington. There he one week but the Mulberry B had been built produced the ‘Orpington’ which combines the blood of Minorcas, to withstand the violent Channel waters. It Langsnans and Plymouth Rock. It is from the Langsnan that the survived the storm and did what was required Orpington derives its green-black plumage and deep breasted of it. body. Experts predicted that it would revert to the original For his contribution to the success of the Langsnan type, but it has retained its characteristics and is still Mulberry operation Beckett was appointed popular with fanciers. MBE (military) in 1949. He was also awarded The White Orpington was introduced in 1889, but was not taken £3,000 for his invention of the Kite anchor, up with the same enthusiasm as the Black. Cook himself admitted and he used the money to build a house in that it did not always breed true. Nevertheless, it survived Farnborough. commercially for many years but As well as his work on the Mulberry harbour now seems almost to have Allan Beckett was involved in the design of disappeared from the poultry scene. emergency lock gates, ship conversions and, The business of William Cook and in Holland, railway bridge construction and Sons was not confined to the repairs to the Walcheren Dykes. . Fowls of all varieties After the war he worked as a civil engineer were bred, including ducks and and among other projects he designed and turkeys and they were now being advised on major port development and flood sent to all parts of the world. The premises at Tower Road could not William protection projects throughout the world. cope with this expansion and Cook He also carried out design work on the lifting William Cook moved to Walden sector gates devised for the Thames Barrier. manor - which he renamed He continued to work as a freelance Orpington House – in , in about 1890. consultant for his son Tim’s firm of marine The most famous of the Orpingtons, The Buff, was introduced at civil engineers until his eighties.

8 Bromleag December 2005 Feature put Orpington on the map the Diary Show in 1894 and was immediately acclaimed. This article was written by the late This bird was unrelated to the previous Orpingtons, being derived from Golden Spangled Hamburgh cocks mated Dick Turner with Coloured Dorking hens. Some of the pullets from this cross were of a reddish brown colour and these were in his fifty five years. mated with a Buff Cockin cock, producing the Buff Orpingtons. They were big birds. Offering plenty of meat The Second generation and the hens were prolific layers of large brown eggs. William Cook attracted some criticism from other William Henry set up his own poultry business, WH breeders who thought the name Orpington having been Cook Ltd specialising in Orpingtons, first at St Pauls appropriated to the Blacks and the Whites, and Buffs Cray and then, in 1911, at Tubbenden Lane near being in no way related, they ought to have been given Orpington Station. He too exported to all parts of the different names. world. Cook replied by saying that he had the right to call any The business of William Cook and Sons was carried bird he introduced by any name he pleased. on after William’s death by Elizabeth Jane, now Mrs Taylor and the two firms, run by brother and sister A further objection was raised by some breeders who respectively, traded in apparently acrimonious rivalry said they could detect no difference between the Buff until William Cook and Sons was forced into Orpington and the Lincolnshire Buff which had been liquidation in March 1935. WH Cook Ltd continued established fifty years earlier. The Buff Orpington’s trading at Tubbenden until William Henry’s death in qualities seem to have been such that it survived these 1947 criticisms. The Orpington breeds live on and may be seen at The Buff Orpington Club was soon founded – the already most agricultural shows. The Queen Mother had a existing Orpington Club refusing to acknowledge the Buff flock at Sandrigham and nearer to home they can be as an Orpington. seen at the South of England Rare Breeds Centre at All these birds found their way to all parts of the world Woodchurch near Ashford. and in Australia a derivative was given the ill-sounding The chicken’s memory lives on in Orpington in a pub name of Australorp. In addition, the Spangled Orpington name. Courage’s – with their cockerel logo – chose chicken and Blue and Buff Orpington ducks were the name The Orpington Buff for their pub at The introduced. In 1897 the Diamond Jubilee Orpington was Crescent, . It has since become produced. This was a large, handsome speckled bird, a breeding pen of which was presented to Queen Victoria. It simply The Buff. is recorded that Her Majesty was “graciously pleased to accept it.” The business continued to expand and branches were opened in America and South Africa. Cook wrote and lectured on poultry, published new editions of The Poultry Breeder and Feeder at two yearly intervals and edited the monthly Poultry Journal which he had founded in 1886. In all his work he was supported by his wife and assisted by his daughter, Elizabeth Jane Clarke. But William’s life was marred by tragedy. Two grandchildren died in infancy and his eldest son, William Henry, quarrelled with him. The quarrel came to a head with the death of William’s wife Jane, at the home of their son William Henry in , St Mary Cray., in a gas explosion on 25 June 1903. A year to the day of his wife’s death William himself died at Skegness of Morbus Cordis (Syncope). William Henry Cook’s poultry farm in He was, seemingly, worn out by hard work, constant Tubbenden Lane, Orpington travel worldwide and grief. He had accomplished so much Photo from the Bill Morton collections

December 2005 Bromleag 9 News Beckenham’s 30 Glorious Historical Years 1935-1965 Atlas of Kent An Historical Atlas of Kent by BBLHS member Pat Manning is districts into the London Borough and David Killingray and Terry hoping to have her latest book Beckenham’s consequent loss of Lawson has been published, on sale in time for Christmas. control of its own affairs. on the initiative of the Kent The book’s format is similar to the “This book is based on my own Archaeological Society, by publication earlier in the year of experiences of living in Beckenham Phillimore. Beckenham the Home Front. The for most of my life. The selection of There are 86 topics foreword is written by Valerie information taken from the wonderful contributed by 52 authors Sheldon, née Thornton, the local library resource of the and illustrated by 250 maps. granddaughter of the proprietor of Beckenham Journal and Kentish Hard backed with 214 pages the Beckenham Journal. Times reflects my interests rather it costs £30 and is available than the requirements of a local “Today Beckenham is one of the from bookshops or direct history book.” five districts comprising the London from the publishers Borough of Bromley but from 1935 Cliff Watkins and Ian Muir have Phillimore say: “Kent can to 1965 it was a borough in its own contributed their expertise in the probably claim to have more right, running all its own affairs with editing of 180 black and white images unique features in its history twenty six different Mayors,” says and the A4 sized book has 144 than most other counties. Pat. pages. Several of the images appear in colour on the cover. “Also Kent’s relationship with “It had an exceptional fire service London has been that was recognised during the The graphic design is by Chris and exceptionally close since London blitz as much better than Mark Edwards and the book will sell medieval times and is a those of the surrounding at £11.99, obtainable from the recurring theme in this Atlas. districts. Ironically, this led to the Beckenham Bookshop or Jenna “The 250 newly-drawn and eventual amalgamation of all those Publishing at 29 Birchwood Avenue, reader-friendly maps cover BR3 3PY (020 8650 3418). topics ranging from the earliest Stone-Age occupation to such modern developments as the growth Beckenham Conservation area of leisure industries. Several topics not usually covered in Bromley Council has designated a new Conservation Area in Elm Road, county historical atlases are Beckenham and the Aldersmead Road and Road Conservation included, for example the Areas are being extended. introduction of public water The decision follows the Council commissioned GL Hearn (GLH) study of and gas supplies in the 19th built heritage in March 2004. The consultants were asked to consider the century, together with the heritage merit and local distinctiveness of Victorian and Edwardian residential expansion of banking services properties and areas in the wards in the north west of the Borough and how and the local press.” best to protect that heritage outside of the existing Conservation Areas. The Elm Road/Beckenham Road/Cedars Road, which forms part of the new Conservation Area, is characterised by late Victorian houses and includes The Studio and Beckenham Library both on Beckenham Road. The extension of the Aldersmead Road Conservation Area includes parts of Kings Hall Road and Cator Park, and Cator Park School on Lennard Road. It incorporates an additional 94 residential properties within a conservation, which is characterised by Victorian and Edwardian housing. The Shortlands Road Conservation Area has been extended slightly to consolidate the area boundary at the junction with Church Road and Shortlands Road and give protection to 1 Beckenham Grove, a prominently located Victorian house of some character. Councillor George Taylor, executive councillor for the environment, said: "We have a wealth of Victorian and Edwardian heritage. We will not stand by and see it disappear and are therefore taking action to protect the best examples ." 10 Bromleag December 2005 Feature The not so ancient history of Worlds End Lane

orlds End Lane sounds like one of the oldest road names in the borough and a track, if not a name.” W road, has certainly run along the route from They add that for many years it was called Chelsfield Green Street Green to Chelsfield for a long time. But that Road or Chelsfield Lane, “In the manner of roads leading evocative ancient name is another matter. towards a particular destination.” Recently Peter Heinecke spotted an article in The Which brings us back to the caption on the postcard. The Orpington Philatelic Society Bulletin that shows just how corner shop in the centre of the postcard was the post confused people were, even in 1904, about the name of office and as well as the picture saying Chelsfield Lane the the road. card is stamped Chelsfield Lane post office. Today’s road The article carried a picture of a postcard stamped 1904. called Chelsfield Lane has never had a post office. The caption said Chelsfield Lane, Green-Street-Green. But In the Orpington Philatelic Society Bulletin article Len the picture is clearly Worlds End Lane. The view today is virtually unchanged (see picture right). Other postcards of the same time show a lower part of the same road clearly marked as Worlds End Lane, Green Street Green. In his book Chelsfield Chronicles, Geoffrey Copus says the earliest reference to the name World’s End is in a will of 1730. He adds that the lane was called Big Lane on an estate map of 1774 - apparently the sole reference to this name. There was a farmhouse at the Chelsfield end of the lane known as World’s End farm but even this had originally been called Jetors and in the records of the Manor of Chelsfield in the early 17th century it was called Newfield. The name Worlds End is not mentioned until 1803. The farmland around this property was developed as Chelsfield Park in the 1930s and in 1962 the farm was demolished and Brimstone Close built. Lasseter says that the confusion of name continued until But where did the name Worlds End come from? In John 1931. As part of the development of “new” Chelsfield the Field’s English Field Names there are a number of Orpington Journal of 23 January 1931 reported a meeting references to The World’s End. He gives the derivation as at Chelsfield to decide what to call the road from The “land on or near the boundary of the parish”. While the Queen’s Head Green Street Green to Chelsfield. farm was not on the parish boundary Geoffrey says: “it was “Should it be World’s End Road or Lane? Trouble lies certainly well away from the village.” when part of the road is called Chelsfield Lane, The Marjorie Ford and Geoffrey Richard in The Story of Green Queens Head corner named World’s End Lane and higher Street Green searched for the origin of the name and also up the Post Office is called Chelsfield Lane Post Office.” noted that the name is often used to donate a boundary The meeting decided to call the lane World’s End Lane. point. But they also consider more colourful possibilities. The Post Office was renamed Worlds End Lane in 1933 “The relative remoteness of the spot may well be the only and since then, with the apostrophy dropped, the reason for its name for despite the legends of Roman picturesque, but not very old name, has remained soldiers and highwaymen referred to later (in the book) unchanged. there is no firm evidence for any specific origin of the

December 2005 Bromleag 11 Feature Two strong minded vicars— Thomas Watts of Orpington and William Assheton of Beckenham By Geoffrey Copus of the Great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power…” which, curiously enough, I One of the pleasures of being the Honorary Archivist of the chanced upon on the day the proposed Bill to deprive us French Protestant church in Soho Square is that when of some of our Habeas Corpus rights was debated in assisting people who come to see our wonderful (but little Parliament. known) collection of archives, I can myself find time to look Again, this leaflet does not seem to be known locally, at items. I was surprised recently to find references in the and I have made digital images of the entire work. catalogue to the Rev. Thomas Watts, Vicar of Orpington Thomas Watts is a character who has long fascinated 1689-1732, and the Rev. William Assheton, Rector of me - a most conscientious parish priest, he was a friend Beckenham 1678-1711. of Mr. Assheton, and very much in the same mould. Popish controversies In 1714 Watts published a short work entitled “The The section devoted to Popish Controversies has many bound volumes of pamphlets published c1680-1720, and among these I discovered a bewildering collection of ms copies of leaflets sparked off by one in 1686 by Mr. Assheton entitled: “The country parson’s admonition to his parishioners”. This was followed by: “The plain man’s answer to the country parson’s admonition”, together with “The Missioner’s answer to the plain man’s reply, Permissu Superiorum” - printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King’s most Excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chappel, 1686 – the King of course being James II. It is not quite clear in which order the subsequent torrent of pamphlets appeared, but we have “The plain man’s reply to the Catholick missionaries, 1686”; “A defence of the country parson’s admonition against the Exception of the Plain-Man’s Answer, 1687”; and “The country parson’s reflections upon the missioners’ answer”. What must I think be the final shot in this heated controversy is “A defence of the plain man’s reply against the missioners’ answer to it, being a further examination of the Pretended Infallibility of the Church of Rome, 1687.” This pamphlet concludes: “Sir, this Discourse of our Parson, against the Infallibility of the Church of Rome, seems to be very convincing, and therefore I desire your answer to it.” But, if there was any response to this invitation, it does not seem to have survived in the French church. I would be interested to know if this collection of what H.G. Wells referred to as “the horrors of religious Christian indeed and faithful pastor…the life and works controversy” is to be found anywhere locally. of William Assheton DD ” and there is a copy of this in Even more interesting to me in the Library is a leaflet Bromley Library, which I read recently. recording a sermon preached by the Rev. Thomas Watts, Vicar of Orpington, on 14 February 1689, “Being the Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God for having made His HIGHNESS, the Prince of Orange the glorious Instrument

12 Bromleag December 2005 News

A sympathetic and eccentric character Watts comes over as a generally sympathetic if somewhat Nelson — viewing an eccentric character, and it is interesting that despite the fiercely anti-Roman Catholic feelings expressed in his sermon of 1689, he did not apparently extend these to his historic occasion personal relationships. In the parish registers of Orpington there is an entry in he body of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson 1720 recording the burial of: was brought back to England aboard HMS “George Westbroke, an old eminent Chirurgeon, a most T Victory, and landed at Sheerness on useful friendly neighbour and charitable Christian, to all Sheppey. From there it was carried up the ever most kind, and respectful to the clergy [more] than Thames to the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, most of our own Communion – attested upon 31 years to lie in state in his coffin made of oak from the experience in mutual peace” main mast of a captured French warship. Thousands of people came to bid farewell to their Now George Westbroke, who lived at Place Farm, hero. On 8th January 1806, in a south-westerly Crofton, then a remote area on the outskirts of Orpington, gale, a procession of river boats brought him to was a Roman Catholic – his wife, moreover, was the London. Crowds lined the banks wherever there formidable Lucy Darell, a member of the die-hard was a view. Among them Recusant family of Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst. was George Norman from One of Mr. Watts’ services to the Westbrokes was to , with his enter the births of their children in the register of son George Ward Norman,* baptisms, which could be a useful record in the days then a schoolboy of Eton, before Civil Registration. I was born a few hundred yards who watched from a from Place Farm, an ancient building which I remember friend’s house at very clearly. I like to picture Mr. Watts visiting the hospitable George Westbroke there, and perhaps calmly Blackfriars. discussing doctrinal differences over a glass of wine. The coffin was landed at Westminster Stairs during a It has to be said that Thomas Watts displayed a less hailstorm. But the next day attractive side in his responses to the questions in the was fine and sunny, if cold. On the way to Archbishop’s Visitation of 1717, when he wrote: St.Paul’s Cathedral the hearse was followed by “Blessed be God, we have no meeting house in either many mourners, including 31 Admirals and 100 parish, since I Legally broke two Anabaptist ones in St. ships’ captains. Solemnly ‘the people of London Mary Cray and we never had any other Sort”. Equally, he watched the cortege pass by with every sign of did not spare his own flock from criticism but wrote of: sorrow – the very beggars left their stands to see “Some very Prophane, Hypocritical, and Sacrilegious the passing of a hero.’ [persons] that come to Church, and some aged Persons To commemorate Nelson’s fleet 27 new who will neglect Confirmation. None have been put to any woodlands are to be planted across the United Publick Penance in these Churches; however many have Kingdom, and named after the Ships of the Line. Deserved it…” Eleven of A somewhat macabre incident was solemnly recorded by these had Mr. Watts in the parish registers of St. Mary Cray, in which been built in he wrote on 5 July 1723: Kent. In Kent, a “Mrs. Anne Parker A Midnight Funeral when I fell wood named headlong into her Grave, and so much bruised my leg that Victory I was confin’d to my bed and chamber and leg under the because surgeon’s hand 5 weeks; a painful yet happy retirement Nelson’s Deo gratias. After ..?.. at Church here and return’d thanks flagship was Aug. 18…” built at Incidentally on 11 February following he recorded the Chatham, will be sited at Lamberhurst Farm in the burial of Stephen Parker Esquire – perhaps Anne Parker’s Forest of Blean near Canterbury, with views husband ?- and added: “most obstinate sinner.” across to Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. Mr. Watts resigned the living of Orpington with St. Mary My thanks to friends at Local Studies for Cray in 1732, and became Vicar of Bilsden cum Rolston pointing this out in George Ward Norman’s and Rector of Goadby in Leicestershire. He died in 1739, memoirs. but unfortunately the microfilm of his will is illegible and any further information from that will have to wait until I can see the original.

December 2005 Bromleag 13 Feature Sheltering from the storm in World War II

Pat Manning takes a look what life was like for people in the shelters in the Beckenham area

f Hitler had turned his Blitzkrieg onto London in As for Beckenham and West Wickham, Ruthen’s, the September 1939, Penge, Beckenham and West hairdressers, advertised shelters for its customers from I Wickham at least would have been grossly unprepared. the outset of the war and many firms provided shelters for When Sir Ernest Gowers, the Regional Commissioner for their staff. Twinlocks built shelters on their sports field at London, visited us on 4 October 1939, it was because the , which were covered over with ground used for Home Office had not received our Councils’ schemes. allotments. These were open to the public who would sleep Being classed as a neutral zone our children were not there in the night. Geoffrey Crabb tells of nights spent in eligible for evacuation, but the schools could not open in the Twinlocks’ shelters sleeping on planking and waking to the September term 1939 until they had shelters for all the smells from the sewage farm. I can remember the children. At least fifteen sleeping in the surface shelters of John Bell, Hills and months later, during the blitz, Lucas near Lower Sydenham station dressed in an itchy evacuation was allowed for one piece ‘siren suit’ complete with pixie hood. the children of schools west As for the public shelters, little Jean Bogle was terrified of the Hayes to London by the searchlights sweeping across the path by 101 Eden railway line. But not until we Park Ave where she spent many scary nights in a shelter became ‘doodlebug alley’ in heated by a Primus stove with a dim light at one end. the summer of 1944 was Another shelter was in the news when Florence Willis evacuation available to all. was killed on the night of 9/10 October in the surface The Penge committee shelter at Elmers End. Shoppers in Beckenham High St decided to accept the tender could make their way to the shelters built in the Croydon from Walkers of Bromley for Rd Recreation ground or to the surface shelter in Fairfield The public shelter near Christ shelters costing between Rd by Christchurch that just about survived the VI of the Church in central Beckenham — a £215 and £338. They were night of 5 January 1945. long, low rectangular brick building surface, basement and part covered by rubble. This design Lucky cyclist Pamela Johns (niece of Beckenham tunnel shelters although was historian Rob Copeland) narrowly missed the VI that fell on most of the 23 shelters Mrs Richard’s diner near Clockhouse station, having similar to the one which can still be planned were of the surface seen on the edge of the playground passed by a few minutes before to make for safety in the type and would of shelter near to the Beckenham library. accommodate a total of Bromley Road Infant School in Do you have a story about our public shelters in WWII? 2,541 persons. Beckenham. Pat would be interested to hear from you. The surface shelters in Penge Photo and caption, Cliff Watkins and were on the Southern Railway’s land at Thicket Grove, the Crystal Palace Parade, Anerley Rd Residential School, the entrance to Betts Park, outside 208 Anerley Rd, Robin Hood Public House, Green Lane, Penge High St, Penge Empire, Royston playing field, Beckenham & Penge Grammar School, Thicket Rd by number 40 and the Council’s depot in Hawthorne Grove. Dot Figg tells of nights spent in the shelter at the Boys Grammar School until they found it flooded one night. They decamped to an unheated shelter in Cottingham Rd and then found the one by the Penge Odeon more to their liking. They celebrated Christmas there, with a family from Hawthorndene in Southend Road, Beckenham. The Barnmead Rd, taking a windup gramophone for singing building at ground floor level with the rounded roof and dancing. There was another shelter by the Penge was an air raid shelter. The house was built for the recreation ground but it was not popular because the RAF Robertson Jam family and is now split up into flats. The house was requisitioned by the Ministry of had a barrage balloon there, which seemed asking for Defence who in turn made it available for use by the trouble. voluntary fire service personnel shown in the Nearly a year later, nine people were killed in the Anerley photo. Cliff Watkins Rd surface shelter during the blitz on 9 October 1940.

14 Bromleag December 2005 Research queries Missing paintings and Farnborough and Downe in old grave stones picture postcards Pat Manning is looking for help in tracing animal gravestones in Langley Park We have been able to answer a num- and a painting of a horse. ber of queries from Mr.Hitchin of Pat writes: “I found a lovely snippet today about animal lover Charles Stanmore, who is engaged in expand- Emmanuel Goodhart - died 1880 - of Langley Park who erected monuments to ing the captions in Farnborough and his dead pets, horses and dogs, in the parkland. Downe in Old Picture Postcards Leonard Johnson, in 1933, painted a water colour of a monolith that he found (Muriel Searle 1990). to a favourite horse (picture p4 11.9.1964 Kent Advertiser). Some of them have related to build- ings e.g. several cottages, the Meth- Charles King, secretary to the Bromley FC, used to go black berrying there odist Church. His present concern is and recalls several memorials to dogs and horses that he placed three quarters to know the wording on ‘the circular of the way down Hayes Chase from Pickhurst Lane. sign in the centre’ of illustration Finally Mrs Moss thinks she found the base of the one to the horse in the No.58. garden of her house at 102 Hayes Chase. But Mr.Hitchin’s main interest is This was reported in the Kent Advertiser of September 1964. clearly in the buses that ran in the Does anyone know what happened to the painting and whether the stone is Farnborough locality. He would also still in the garden of Hayes Chase? like to obtain copies of photos of There was also reputed to be a ghost of a white horse seen there. buses in that area. Naturally he would pay all expenses. Pat can be contacted at 0208 650 3418 or [email protected] If you can help please contact our secretary Patricia Knowlden on 0202 462 5002. Information sought on Dorothy Elderslie House and archi- tects Pawley and Pawley Vernon (Horace) Smith We have had inquiries about a house named Elderslie off South Eden Park I am a part-time research student very helpful to discover in which Road – now replaced by Elderslie of the University of Bristol seeking church he ministered. Close – and about the architects Paw- ley and Pawley of Sydenham who information on Dorothy Vernon Some of this information may be probably have Bromley links. [Horace] Smith, later the (much readily discovereable in local younger) second wife of the 19th sources, but I am hampered by a Has anybody any information on ei- century novelist William Hale White lack of local knowledge and hope ther of these please? (pseudonym 'Mark Rutherford'), and that someone can point me to a If so please contact our secretary a native of Beckenham. local history or other source(s) which Patricia Knowlden on 0208 462 5002 I think the Vernons were a might help. My own initial prominent Kent family, explaining researches have not produced any that part of her name. Her father, results. Travels through Horace Smith, was a stipendiary I shall be very grateful for any help Magistrate in London. As a young or advice. suburbia woman Dorothy was active (ca. With thanks,, Michael Brealey, Artist Stephen Chaplin re- 1900-1910?) in her local (Anglican) Bristol church, and ran a children's club in turned to the suburbia of his youth, Orpington, and with the a poorer part of the town. Mike.Brearley@wesley-college- bristol.ac.uk A-Z street map to guide him What I would love to know is what spent two years recording sub- church she attended, and the parish If you are able to help Michael but urbia in art. in which the club operated. One An exhibition of his work will be local clergyman early in the 20th do not have access to email you can contact him through the Editor on show at Bromley Museum, century was the Revd John H. The Priory, Orpington until 6 Matthews, and because of other January 2006. connections with him it would be

December 2005 Bromleag 15 The Gunpowder Sermon At the west end of St John the Baptist Church, West Wickham is a wooden tablet on which are listed Benefactions of this Parish. Among the Benefactions is one: “In memory of the execrable Gunpowder Plot Sir Samuel Lennard Brt., in the year 1617 gave 20 shillings per annum to the Minister to preach on the 5th November and 40 shillings to 40 poor people, viz. 15 of this parish, 10 of Keston, 10 of Haies, 5 of Farnborough, who are all to be present to hear the Sermon. The land in Haies called Dockmead is charged with the payment of this money.” Samuel Lennard, the Lord of the Manor of West Wickham, was a staunch Protestant and he expected the priest to preach against the Pope as well as commemorating the Gunpowder Plot. Samuel Lennard died in 1618 and was buried in the chapel where his tomb chest is used as an altar. It has a fine black marble slab lid and against the wall is a black marble inscription in Samuel Lennard’s memory. This inscription was badly defaced in the 19th century, presumably because of the harsh words used about “bastard Rome.” The annual Gunpowder Sermon was discontinued in the 1970s – it was difficult to reconcile such a sermon with moves towards closer alliance with all Christian churches, including that of Rome. The other ‘Benefaction’ was instituted in 1610 but the Benefactions Board itself was not erected until 1734 during the incumbency of Christopher Hussey. No one can be truly sure why there was such a lengthy interval between the two dates but perhaps there is a clue in Christopher Hussey’s own plaintive words: “By Sir Samuel Lennard 20s for a sermon on 5th November yearly … but several sermons have been preached upon ye 5th November since I became Rector (1720) but no one payd for to this day.” Perhaps Christopher Hussey thought by putting the terms of the bequest on public display his fee would not be overlooked! Joyce Walker

16 Bromleag December 2005