GREENWICH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY

Volume 5, Issue 4, July 2002

ARTICLES

GREENWICH'S OLDEST INDUSTRIAL
REMAINS REDISCOVERED
MY JOYFUL ADVENTURES AT
MESSRS HARLAND & WOLFE, IV
WOOLWICH WATER &
MIXED BAG

CLAY PIPE MAKING IN PLUMSTEAD

REGULAR ITEMS
MEETINGS, EVENTS & COURSES
LETTERS
BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS
LOCAL & COMMUNITY NEWS

GREENWICH CONSERVATION GROUP

GIHS MEETINGS

9th July - Dr. Rob Allen - William Morris's Red House, Bexleyheath

17th September - Wesley Harry - Film of the Royal Arsenal at work.

15th October - Harry Pearman - 'Moles Eye View' of Underground Greenwich

19th November - speaker from Kew Bridge Engines Trust

18th February - Brian Sturt on Wandsworth Gas Works and the 'flat iron' colliers

18th March - John King on the Trains and Planes of Berlin

All meetings will take place at The Old Bakehouse in Blackheath Village at 7.30 pm.

OBITUARY

WE ARE SORRY TO LEARN OF THE DEATH OF....

F.G.Gilbert-Bentley, one of our founder members. Mr. Gilbert-Bentley lived near Guildford and was therefore unable to attend GIHS meetings but he did make a number of contributions to this Newsletter.

Some of Greenwich's Oldest Industrial Remains Rediscovered

On 13th May the Times, no less, announced in an article by Marcus Binney that 'Two Deptford residents with a passion for history have discovered the foundation stone of one of the first buildings erected by the Royal Navy' and went on to describe 'the stone, bearing the date 1513 and the initials of Henry VIII set in an elaborate flame-headed Gothic Arch formed of the finest moulded Tudor brickwork. This 'originally stood over the entrance to a magnificent 140ft long storehouse that formed the showpiece of a new Royal shipbuilding yard built by Henry VIII at Deptford just up-river from his palace at Greenwich.

Our readers will know the story of the Shipwrights' Palace on the Deptford Dockyard site and how it was taken over and is being restored by Chris Mazeika and William Richards. As part of their researches on the Dockyard they began to look at the naval architect Samuel Bentham, since he had connections with the Shipwrights' Palace. Samuel's brother, Jeremy, was the famous economist whose corpse is preserved in a cupboard at University College - not, as it turns out, the only relic kept there. Chris Mazieka was astonished one day, while on his way to lunch, to bump straight into some bits of Deptford Dockyard itself!

In the Second World War bombing on the dockyard site had brought to light the old Tudor storehouse within a Georgian storehouse which had been built round it in the 1720s. In 1951 it was decided to clear the whole site for commercial use. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings reported that at least 80% of the Tudor brickwork remained as did several original roof trusses together with a mullioned window, Tudor fireplaces and loophole windows. The London County Council tried to persuade the Admiralty to preserve these remains and the building inspectors advised that it had 'an outstanding place in naval history as one of the earliest buildings of its class and as one of the starting points of the growth of the Tudor navy...' Deptford Council took a tablet which commemorated Peter the Great's visit to Deptford and 20,000 Tudor bricks went to repair Hampton Court. Photographs existed of the arch and date stone but - as anyone who has attended local history lectures on the subject in Greenwich will know - they had gone into the care of the LCC and then completely disappeared. Until, of course they were found by Chris Mazeika at University College.

The Times article left the mystery there - but a few days later a letter appeared from Negley Harte, Senior Lecturer in Economic History at University College, who said 'I can shed light on how the Deptford Dockyard founding stonework and brickwork of 1513 came to University College'.. The hero who rescued it was Sir Albert Richardson the 'wonderfully eccentric architect' who was professor of architecture at UCL. He was given the pieces by the LCC and they were put in what was then the Bartlett School of Architecture - now the Department of Computer Science.

The only thing the article doesn't say is how you get in if you want to see these pieces! UCL is not the most accessible of buildings for the general public.

LETTERS

Where addresses are not given, please contact through the Editor, c/o 24 Humber Road, London SE3

From: Jeremy Bacon

I have a steam car engine. The plate on it says Steamobile built 1962 by N. C. Gregory. I have been told that he was possibly Apprentice Foreman/Teacher at J. Stone & Co. (Deptford). Can you help at all?


From: Pat O'Driscoll

In the May issue a letter from Paul Harcombe mentions some 'old maps' at the Land Registry showing a building called the Magnetic Office close to the Rotunda, Woolwich. Unfortunately he does not give the dates of the maps.

In 1844 the newly created Admiralty Compass Department acquired a house on Maryon Road, Charlton for testing compasses for the Royal Navy. It had a large garden in which a wooden observatory was built. The official address of the establishment was 'The Compass Observatory, Woolwich'. In 1869 as the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich was closed, the Compass Department moved to Deptford Yard where they remained until 1917.

Could the Magnetic Office have any connection with the time when the Compass Department was at Charlton. I hoped to find an answer in 'Steady as She Goes: A History of the Compass Department of the Admiralty' by A.E.Fanning, published in 1986 but could find no reference to the Magnetic Office in the area described by Mr. Harcombe. This is not to say that there was no connection. I think that this is a good place in which to begin further investigation.


From: Nick Martin

nickmartin@FreeNet.co.uk

I have just come across your website and your email address. I wonder if you have any information on the following. I am trying to trace details of my great-great-grandfather's company "Martin & Co". It was started by Robert Martin with his two sons Alfred and Albert. Albert left it to his son Ernest, in 1932. They were manufacturers of Horse Hair clippers, later becoming hairdressers clippers, from about 1875 until at least 1927. Robert Martin lived at No 1, The Village, Old Charlton, Woolwich from 1881 until 1906 and with his sons, had several business addresses over the years, including:

1861 - 4 Upper Market Street, Woolwich

1873 - Old Charlton, Kent

1881 - 15 Rectory Place, Woolwich, Kent

1890 - Charles St, Plumstead, Kent (from Patents)

1891-1900 - 229 Burrage Road, Plumstead, Kent

1893 - North Kent Works, Charles Street, Plumstead, Kent (from Patents)

1910-1928 - 4 Nightingale Place, Woolwich Common, Woolwich (business address? - printed on hair clipper sales pamphlet and from patents)

1913 - Owned factory and adjacent land in Woolwich Dockyard. Owned freehold property, address 9, Gildersome Street, Woolwich (from Will)

If you have any information, I would be delighted to have details.


From: Bill Burns

billb@ftldesign.com

My friend in Australia, Julian Holland, Curator of Scientific Instruments at the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney, is looking for material on S.H. Silver. I had suggested he check the GIHS site.


From: Peter Mumford

I was very interested to see from your website (which I have only just discovered) that someone from English Heritage recently gave a talk on the Mumford Mill. My name is Peter J.G. Mumford and the mill was owned by my family. I was taken around the Mill just before my family sold it in the early sixties when it was an empty shell having been stripped of its contents by Rank Hovis when their lease ended. I have many old photographs of the Mill and indeed some original plans (I think). I will have to dig. I lived in London for many years and often used to pass the Mill but I haven't seen it for about fifteen years. I would be very interested in knowing what info you have about the Mill, and indeed if you could advise me of the current ownership. I long to see inside it again and would very much like to show my sons what their grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents achieved. Does the Mill now have a preservation on it?


From: Bruce Peebles

I'm from Laverton in Western Australia. I recently acquired a set of old rigging and sail plans for the Cutty Sark but after many hours of close examination am unable to verify them as correct or to date them in any ways There appears to be no author's name or period on them. They do appear to be of some age due to the discolouring of the paper and hand drawn. Are you able to assist me in the dating and authentication of these plans?


From: John Greig

My cousin from the Hawaiian branch of the family has come up with some interesting papers that might be relevant to the oil milling trade at Greigs' Wharf in Greenwich. Firstly, it is likely that there could have been considerable changes around 1903 - my great-grandfather was then in financial difficulties and might have had to make economies. Secondly, the estate in Trinidad was more diversified than just sugar cane, there was land under coconuts and also, certainly in later years, some was used for cocoa cultivation. The coconuts might account for the oil milling and you mentioned a fire in the cocoa store at the wharf in 1895. Thirdly, there was a connection with a line of steamers - this was probably the Trinidad Shipping and Trading Company Limited. However, this may only have run between Trinidad, New York and Glasgow.

In addition, I have been in touch with the oil milling trade association and they have put me in contact with three people with a knowledge of the history of the trade. One of them has said that most of the linseed came in from the Baltic rather than from other areas.

BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

We receive a great many newsletters and booklets - thank you, and keep them coming - however, what is listed here are only those which have something of Greenwich interest in the current edition. Reviews of any publications of Greenwich interest are always welcome.


GLIAS Newsletter

This edition is the 200th Newsletter and contains a great deal of congratulation and a number of commissioned articles (no mention of GIHS, however much we might consider ourselves a daughter organisation!). The issue contains news from all over London - and includes three paragraphs on the Deptford Dockyard (Convoy's site) by David and Olwyn Perrett giving some details of the site's past history - and a review of the play 'The Gut Girls' which has been doing the rounds in Lewisham. There is also a short mention of the Blackheath Hole.


Local History News

We are now signed up with the British Association for Local History (www.bath.co.uk) and now receive 'Local History News' - details from Steve Daly. No mention of Greenwich in the current issue- but that's something we can work on!


Industrial Heritage

The Vol.28 Spring 2002 edition contains an article on The Porthcurno Story; this tells about the site of the Museum of Submarine Telegraphy near Lands End, in Cornwall - and a bit about the Museum set up there. It ends by saying that next time they 'intend to turn the pages back still further and visit Greenwich on the river Thames where it all began' - we wait with interest!


CHELSEA SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY RECORDS AND KENT UNDERGROUND RESEARCH GROUP
REPORT 2001. VOL. 27

This excellent publication - which first appeared in the 1960s - details everything you could want to know about underground research in the past year.

Nothing in Greenwich Borough appears this time - but there are numerous dene holes and chalk wells in the surrounding area of North West Kent and some fascinating World War Two sites, some of which are only 'somewhere in England'


Industrial Archaeology Review

This twice-yearly journal features in its May 2002 edition Jonathan Clarke's article on Mumford's Mill in Greenwich. Members might remember when Jonathan came to lecture to us about the Mill and his researches into it. This is a most important article in a prestige journal - hopefully the start of many Greenwich based articles in such places!


Purchase details of Iris Bryce's book, A Tree in the Quad

Reviewed in our May edition, this is ISBN 1 86166 162 2. Price £3 plus £1 postage from Janis Howley, University of Greenwich, Library Information Services, Riverside House, Beresford Street, Woolwich, SE18 6BU.

Iris's 'Remember Greenwich' (ISBN 1 874678 10 3) is also available from the University for £5 plus £1 postage.

Both together cost £7.50 plus £1 postage.


The GUIDE

The May edition of the Blackheath based freebie magazine The Guide featured an article on The Shipwrights Palace in Deptford. This important house - in Lewisham, but right on the boundary and in the bit that used to be in Greenwich - has been extensively renovated over the past few years. This was the office block and Shipwrights' house for Deptford Dockyard - on the riverside and worth a fortune. However, two Deptford residents - Chris Mazekia and William Richards - persuaded Convoys to sell it to them and have begun to restore it. Contact them on 020 8692 5836 or msh1708@hotmail.com

MY JOYFUL ADVENTURES AT MESSRS HARLAND AND WOLFE - PART IV

by John Fox

After spending 18 months with Deafy I was sent for a spell in the machine shop, here I was lucky in not going on the lathes but working with a little Geordie chap, on the shapers, milling machines and a slotters. His having a mouthful of bad teeth (perhaps due to him, as a child, having been weaned on Newcastle Brown Ale) and always wearing brown overalls is all I can recall about the chap. I do remember that the fellow's ability wasn't highly regarded by the fitters, others in the machine shop would only leave a few thou for the fitter to work with to make the final fit whereas the closest our Geordie measurements came was 16ths. He must have taught me something however, for when a vessel built by Harland's at Belfast sunk on her maiden voyage outside Buenos Aires, I was given the task of drilling hundreds of 2 inch holes running together into her now unwanted spare propeller. This done so that wedges could be driven into the slots I'd cut to split the prop into more manageable pieces for ease of transporting the valuable phosphor bronze to be melted down. I did all this on a very big boring machine. When I say big, I really mean big.. it was huge, a cricket pitch could have been laid out on its bed. But I will admit a fast bowler would have shorten his run up, for it would be a lie to infer that it was as large as all that.

In ship repairing, mechanical drawing were very rarely used. If, for instance, a valve stem had to be made you would be given the worn out stem and told to make the new one from that. A man's experience as a marine fitter and turner told him what clearances were needed and as a skilled man, he would not allow anyone to tell him how to do it. There was a case of a fitter working outside on one of the ships in the dock, who, on direct instructions from his charge hand, had fitted a set of unsuitable water pump rings to a boiler feed pump. The ship nearly blew up its boiler when raising steam to sail and when the cause of the fault was found the fitter was sacked. The chap's attempt to enlist union help to get his job back failed, for it was universally thought by his fellows that he should never have obeyed instructions to do something he knew to be wrong. I can recall, when apprentice, drilling the shuttle of a Weirs shuttle valve on a pillar drill in the fitting shop. Something went wrong and another fitter, seeing I was in difficulties, told me how to put it right. This friendly help made things worse and when I pleaded to Ernie that is what I was told to do, he burst out. "You don't do everything you're told, you wouldn't stick you head in the gas oven if I told you to would you."

The last spell of my apprenticeship was spent working outside the North Woolwich site on the ship's engines of the many vessels that crammed the Royal Group of Docks in those days. Here again there was no suggestion that you should work on your own, even though we were on our last year, we would be put to work with a fitter and his mate to be given instruction, not as cheap labour. Many years later, I was a labour officer within a large organisation, my work took me a lot into our apprentice training school, sitting on interview panels, advising on disciplinary matters, negotiating with the trade union, selecting the next year's intake of apprentices etc. I had to listen to a continual complaint from the lads, and the unions, that the boys were being used as cheap labour. They and the union were so effective in this that eventually the school was closed down, I feel sure there is a message there somewhere. Over the negotiations for the closure of the school the dreaded hand of accountants and their mentality hang, They produced figures which proved that the school was not cost effective, based on the ground that the firm did not receive any benefit from the money spent, as the lads, when their apprenticeship was completed, left. But Messrs Harland and Wolfe gave you the sack when yours was over, go and work as a Journeyman with other firms, the apprentice expected to be told, and if, after a couple of years you want to return, we will consider re-employing you. Which to my mind is a more profound way of approaching apprentice training. They did not want a man who only knew their way of doing a job, but, quite rightly, wanted a more rounded employee.

However, to get back to my year of apprenticeship spent working on merchant ships in the Royal Docks. The organisation of the outside section was that the foremen were at H & W's number nine site, which was where City Airport's main building is now; perhaps, over a mile away, the tradesmen on the ship would be working under a charge hand. Of course, there were many other services milling around the ship's engine room while it was under repair. A heavy gang who did the rigging and lifting the weighty lumps of machinery that make up a ship's engine. Scalars, whose unenviable task was to climb into the boiler to chip away at the scale that had built up on its tubes and wall. Laggers who maintained the asbestos pipe lagging, Invariably small men racked with consumption, (no one had told us of the dangers carried by asbestos fibre, we apprentices regarded it as a great joke when working on a boiler to drop a lump on a fellow apprentice working below). There were the riggers, a holdover from the sailing ship days, whose once important trade now whittled down to rigging barriers around potential dangers, boilermakers, electricians, plumbers... all these adding to the confusion of a ship's engine room under repair.

Harland and Wolfe had built many of the ships of the Union Castle Line, whose run was carrying passengers and mail to and from South Africa. Most of these ships had Burmister Wain diesel engines, made under licence in Belfast, and the bulk of my remaining time was working in the docks on these 'Castle' boats. A ship's diesel engine is not to be confused with the engine of your motor car, it is a lot bigger for one thing. An eight cylinder B&W would be about 20 feet high and 45 feet long and many Union Castle liners had two of these. I found working on a ship's engine was a hard, dirty, uninteresting job. The memory of perhaps 40 men queuing up to wash their oily hands in a solitary grease encrusted bucket of hot water is still with me. On one occasion, an old fitter was vigorously rubbing at the dirt and grease that covered his hands when I, to be friendly, said. "That's right, Ted, have a good wash now, it'll save you having another one in the morning." Old Ted went spare; it took him ten minutes at least to splutter out his procedure for cleaning up when he got home, leaving me with the impression that Ted had no sense of humour.

A while ago, I was on a conducted tour of the Tower at Canary Wharf and the guide enthused about the new vitality brought to the deserted dockland areas of London and gestured to the derelict buildings below. I think we both saw different scenes below us, in his mind was the exhilarating prospect of money being made. In my mind though, those building were teeming with the ghosts of the many characters with whom we worked. How sad is the scene to anyone who had worked in London docks in their heyday, now the sheds and wharfs are empty, a lifeless shell, like the remains of a crab cast aside when its meat has been extracted.

These were the days of National Service and as an apprentice you would not be called up for your turn until you had completed your 'time', but a matter of two months before mine ended I received notice to go before a medical board at Blackheath Drill Hall. In almost a blind panic I enlisted the full cooperation of Harland's management and to avoid doing National Service I ended my apprenticeship at sea, as a Junior Engineering Officer on the MV Trevelyan, one of the Haines Steamship Company ships, on a trip to Australia.

GREENWICH CONSERVATION GROUP NOTES

by Philip Binns

Meeting of meeting held 15th May

Water Tower, Site B, Brook Hospital, Shooters Hill, SE18

Conversion to residential use. Glazed living room with an observation balcony at the top, a slate roof with dormers - but concerns about some of the windows on the side elevations lower down.

Cambridge House, Cambridge Row, SE18

Demolition of industrial unit and erection of 118 homes in 2 four-storey blocks. Considered to produce unacceptable overlooking and over-development.

Gala Bingo, Powis Street, SE19

Replace existing canopy with a new fascia and refurbishment of signage. Seen as a sensitive solution for a Grade II listed building.

Minutes of Meeting held 19th June

Former Coronet Cinema, John Wilson Street, SE18

Insertion of mezzanine floor to create a space overlooking the rear yard. Group welcomes it in principle but hopes that the need to conserve the internal fabric as far as possible can be applied,

Land at Tom Cribb Road, SE18

Erection of 9 industrial and warehouse units. Object strongly to this banal proposal unworthy of the site's importance as an approach to Thamesmead and its proximity to the Royal Arsenal complex.

196-212 Plumstead Common Road

Re-submission of advertising by Co-op Market Town to external signs on this prominent locally listed building. Letter too large - and signs better sited and different.

 

The Group has also written to English Heritage about the old Merryweather factory site in Greenwich High Road, asking them for support for retention of the 'Station House' building at the rear of the site.


CLAY PIPE MAKING IN PLUMSTEAD

By John McLean

My grandfather, William Luckett, lived in Palmerston Road, now a crescent, in a terraced house. This had a side entrance to the back garden where he had a ramshackle workshop from which he ran a one-man business manufacturing clay pipes. These were predominantly for the beer industry and later for tobacconists.

I was told that the pipes were given to customers who bought a pint of 'porter' in the pubs. Granddad received four pence a gross for his pipes - from which you will understand that he was unlikely to be a rich man. He ran the business totally on his own and I can remember seeing rack after rack of pipes of varying shapes and sizes in the roof space above his workshop.

There was an all pervading smell in the workshop, not at all unpleasant. Presumably this came from the china clay, which he procured from Cornwall and was delivered by rail to Woolwich Arsenal Station. How on earth he managed to transport such heavy loads I don't know - I believe he had a pony and trap at one stage but in my time he used 'shank's pony'.

As far as I can recall - and I apologise for my lack of memory - the process involved a mixing system to acquire the correct consistency, a moulding process using cast moulds (iron) with inserts for forming the bowl and a needle to form the airway. Incidentally, I have one of granddad's moulds with 'Merry Christmas' embossed on it. Whether he had multiple moulds I cannot say, but as a production engineer I would have thought it an obvious way to go.

The final process after 'fettling' or cleaning up the clay that exuded through the joints in the mould, was to fire them in a high temperature open furnace. Granddad had built this himself and it was a bit like Dante's Inferno. It had a chain-lifted cast iron bucket full of pipes which was lowered into a coke fire. But it all worked and beautiful little and large clay pipes emerged. The chimney of the furnace was incredible. Granddad used anything available to construct it - bricks, bits of glass, rock, porcelain, - you name it, Granddad used it. How it ever resisted the ravages of nature I do not know but it did. The only mementoes I have is the mould and two small pots made from 'Arsenal clay' and 'Plumstead' clay,

Granddad's brother, Fred Luckett, was financially much more successful and he became a well known builder in the Plumstead area living in Griffin Road and having a works close to Plumstead High Street. I believe there is a garage in the High Street with the Luckett name above it to this day.

LOCAL & COMMUNITY NEWS

TWO PICTURES OF TUNNEL AVENUE IN THE 1920s

By Mary Mills

GLIAS has been given two photographs by Simon Bass. One of them shows what appears to be a factory yard, taken from above, the other shows a crowd of people standing in the road. In both the ground appears to be covered with something black, and shiny. The crowd are standing in Blackwall Lane in Greenwich - since the distinctive frontage of the Inlaid Lino Works and an advertisement for them can be seen in the background.

I have a fair idea what is being shown in the pictures - since an account of it appears in 'A History of the United Molasses Company Ltd.' (W.A,Meneight 1977). 3,000 tons of molasses had escaped from a tank and was making 'its ponderous and inexorable way into Tunnel Avenue'. As Mr.Meneight pointed out, this was not useful in an area where 'trams were served by a conductor rail running in a gully between the lines'. Try as I can in the local papers I cannot find the date of this incident which must have taken place in the late 1920s.

The molasses was used by the Molassine Company which had a riverside factory on the Greenwich Peninsula on part of the site now largely covered by Hays and Amylum. In October 1999 we published an article about them in the Greenwich Industrial History Newsletter. This described how the company was founded in 1907 to exploit a Balkan secret formula for animal food - and the company made a number of well known brands including Vims which 'all dogs love' and a sphagnum moss and molasses based feed for horses (also used as a plaster by First World War soldiers). The article included some memories of the works contributed by John Needs and he remembered how Vims was frequently mentioned in Norman Wisdom films and how the yard sweepings were sold as a garden fertiliser 'RITO'. The company eventually became part of Tate and Lyle. Today there is a large red stone office block in Blackwall Lane which is said to have been built by Molassine - although I have never seen any actual details of this. Behind it are a number of large tanks. I cannot believe that these are the same tanks which stood there in the 1920s and which leaked so dramatically into Blackwall Lane and which Molassine's publicity department described as a landmark on the river, although it might be a good story to say so. To local people the most notable thing about the factory was the smell!


WHAT A PITY - there is to be no celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Last LCC Tram which was driven to the Tramatorium in the Woolwich Road, by Alf Jago, Mayor of Woolwich - amongst scenes of great distress from the general public. David Riddle points out that Lewisham are to celebrate their 'last tram' (but Greenwich's really was the very last one).

WOOLWICH WATER

By Jack Vaughan

There was a recent planning application for changes to the water tower of the ex-Brook Hospital at Shooters Hill Road plus a possible threat to an adjacent stone building known as Headway House, which fronts onto the road. Study of Ordnance maps for 1869 and 1890 show the building to be the former 'Kent Water Company' pumping station.

The base of the tower itself has coupled with it a massive collection of hydraulic apparatus, probably connected to Headway House, although the tower post-dates the maps mentioned.

We are trying to determine if the House is threatened. We are also taking an interest in the hydraulic arrangements mentioned above. The applicants have refused to leave this apparatus in situ but will offer no objection to them being removed and taken away for possible restoration and exhibition elsewhere.

The pumping station supplied water to the Barracks, the Royal Arsenal, both Royal Dockyards (Woolwich and Deptford) and the Royal Military Academy and is therefore a very significant industrial monument in Woolwich history….

…… more of this later.

MIXED BAG

Mike Neill is extremely keen that all members look - and approve or criticise - his work on the Royal Arsenal which will be used as part of the display in the new Greenwich Heritage Centre. At the moment this is in the shape of a web site, www.royal-arsenal.com and members are urged to look at it. Mike also says that he will try and produce this as a CD-ROM for those who do not have Web access - or contact him via Greenwich Council.


Rose Baillie of the City of London Archaeological Society is interested to receive any information on barge building and repairing on the Thames - in general. Rose Baillie, 15 Escuan Lodge, Aberdeen Park, Highbury, N5 2AP. R.baillie@unl.ac.uk 020 7753 3143


NO NEWS - we still have no news of the event to mark the centenary of Greenwich Foot Tunnel - last mention from Barry Mason was a note - saying 'I took today off work and went down to Redhill to see Binnie, Black and Veatch. The firm founded by the FT engineer, Alexander Binnie. Now a multi-national. The company is excited about the FT 100th birthday on Sunday, 4th August and today confirmed their budget of around £5,000 on the event. Our meeting laid down the ground-rules and outlined who does what. We meet again, on site, in about 1.5 weeks. If you've got time to help with all this, please let me know direct. If, for example, you work at Canary Wharf and tunnel commute, can you firm help too? Tower Hamlets. Are you in? More soon.

Barry

MEETINGS AND EVENTS

This list of meetings and events has been culled from leaflets and notices brought to our attention.

If you want your meeting listed here please contact 24 Humber Road, SE3 7LR (020 8858 9482)

Every Sunday

People required to do real work at Woodlands Farm.
Hot drinks provided. Ring Iain 020 8691 8979 or the Office 020 8319 8900

2002

JULY

3rd July, David Allen. A Waterman to the Queen, Docklands History Group, 5.30pm. Museum of London.

4th July, Richard Trevithick - seminar at Kew Bridge Engines Trust. 10.30am. £45. Ring 020 8568 4757

6th July, GLIAS walk. Spitalfields: Soup Kitchens and Silk. Led by Chris Grabham. 2.30pm. Liverpool Street Station.

6th July, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

13th July, Chris Foord on Highwaymen. Adult Lecture Borough Museum. 2.30pm. Ring 020 8855 3240

16th July, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book ring 020 8311 3711)

17th July, GLIAS Walk. St. Paul to St. George. 6.30pm. St. Paul's station.

19th July, Eltham Palace. Judith Habgood Everett. Lewisham Local History Society, Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way, SE13 7.45 £1 donation

19th July, Marlburian Artillery Day, at Firepower. Re-enactments and displays from the time of the Duke of Marlborough,.

20-21st July, Three Mills Boat Rally. 11am-4 pm behind Tesco, Bromley by Bow.

27th July, Daphne Wright on Crime Authors. Adult Lecture, Borough Museum. 2.30pm. Ring 020 8855 3240

28th July, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book, ring 020 8311 3711)

AUGUST

3rd August, GLIAS walk. Greenwich: along the river to the Jubilee. Mary Mills. 2.30pm. Cutty Sark Station.

4th August, Celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Cutty Sark Gardens, Greenwich.

7th August, Peter Gurnett on the History of the General Steam Navigation Company. Docklands History Group, 5.30pm. Museum of London.

21st August, GLIAS walk. River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Blackfriars. 6.30pm by the Lion, Westminster Bridge.

22nd August, Chris Foord on Highwaymen. Adult Lecture, Eltham Library. 7.00pm. Ring 020 8855 3240

25th August, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

SEPTEMBER

3rd September, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

4th September, Visit to All Hallows by the Tower. DHG, (see above)

7th September, GLIAS walk. Acton. 2.30pm. Turnham Green Station.

7th September, Film Show of the Queen's visit to Greenwich in 1975. Adult Lecture, Borough Museum. 2.30pm. Ring 020 8855 3240

19th September, Murder on the Thames. Crime and Punishment in Greenwich. Frances Ward, East Greenwich Library 7.15pm.

22nd September, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

21st and 22nd September, London Open House W/E

24th September, Paul Sowan on the Archaeology of Reigate Stone. 7.30pm. Hawkstone Hall Kennington Rd, SE1 SLAS

26th September, Chris Foord on Highwaymen. Blackheath :Library. 7.00pm. Ring 020 8855 3240

27th September, Elliott Bros, of Lewisham. Ron Bristow, Lewisham Local History Society, Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way, SE13. 7.45pm £1 donation

28th September, Prison Hulks. Adult Lecture, Borough Museum. 2.30pm. Ring 020 8855 3240

OCTOBER

1st October, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

2nd October, Victor T. C. Smith. The Defences of the Thames. DHG, (see above)

13th October, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

25th October, The Woolwich Story. Tony Robin. Lewisham Local History Society, Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way, SE13. 7.45pm £1 donation

30th October, The Royal Arsenal Woolwich. By Jack Vaughan at RB, Time and Talents, 7.45pm

NOVEMBER

6th November, Tony Rolfe, HM Customs and Excise work. DHG, (see above)

12th November, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

22nd November, Henry Williamson's Lewisham Brian Fullagar, Lewisham Local History Society, Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way, SE13. 7.45pm. £1 donation

24th November, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

DECEMBER

4th December, Seasonal Delights. DHG, (see above)

6th December, The Roland Moyle Papers. Roland Moyle. Lewisham Local History Society, Methodist Church Hall, Albion Way, SE13. 7.45pm £1 donation

10th December, Crossness Visitor Day. (You must book on 020 8311 3711)

2003

JANUARY

29th January, One Hundred Years of an Eltham Street. Gaynor Wingham. RBLS Time and Talents, 7.45pm.

APRIL

5th April. SERIAC to be held in the University of Greenwich, Romney Road, SE10.


COURSES

Second Symposium, Shipbuilding on the Thames and Thames-built Ships
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich - Saturday, 15 February 2003

This will be the successor to the first symposium, which was held at Nelson Dock House, Rotherhithe, in September 2000. Papers offered to date include:

William Evans, shipbuilder of Rotherhithe and his steamships - Stuart Rankin
Thames built ships of the Orient Line and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company - Peter Newall
The General Steam Navigation Company Yard at Deptford - Peter Gurnett
Early steamship machinery installation and repairs on the City Canal, Isle of Dogs - Roger Owen
Coastal shipping and the Thames - John Armstrong
Convicts to Australia. The story of HMS Glatton and her sister ship HMS Calcutta, former East Indiamen, 1802-3 - Brian Swann
An aspect of warship building on the Thames - Rif Winfield

Further offers of papers are invited, to Dr. Roger Owen, the Organising Secretary, by 30 September 2002.
Dr. J.R. Owen, 8, The Drive, West Wickham, Kent, BR4 OEP,
Tel: 020 8777 7013, e-Mail:- jr_owen100@hotmail.com

Professors Sarah Palmer and Andrew Lambert will co-chair the Symposium.
The fee will be £10. Further details will be issued towards the end of the year.

INTERESTING ARCHITECTURE AND UNUSUAL SITES IN LOCAL BOROUGHS AND LONDON

Goldsmiths' College Course, Autumn 2002. Mondays 10.15am-12.15pm, Mycenae House.
Starts 30th September 2002 - includes Deptford Creek & Museum in Docklands. Ring PACE, 020 7919 7200

EXHIBITIONS

FIREPOWER - have a Royal Salute in the Arsenal on 5th August at 12 pm. They have tours of the Arsenal in July and August on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays 11.30 am and 2.30pm. They advertise Paintball activities at £1 for 10 shots.

On the 190th anniversary of the Battle of Salamanca, BBC Newsnight's Mark Urban Lecture will be based on his book The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes: The Story of George Scovell, - Scovell cracked Napoleon's Grande Chiffre, leading to Wellington's finest victory in the Peninsula. Mark Urban is diplomatic editor of the BBC's Newsnight. The lecture will be held in Firepower's Breech Cinema at 6.30pm on the evening of 22nd July (doors open 6.00pm). Tickets £10, include a glass of wine and a chance to view the galleries.

For further information please contact;

Firepower on 020 8855 7755, info@firepower.org.uk, website www.firepower.org.uk


GREENWICH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY SOCIETY

The Society's officers are curently as follows:

Chair - Jack Vaughan

Vice-Chair - Sue Bullevent

Secretary - Mary Mills

Treasurer - Steve Daly

Committee - Alan Parfrey, Andrew Bullevant

Auditor - Juliet Cairns

Members are reminded that subscription renewals fell due in October 2001.
Subscriptions remain at £10 and should be sent to:

Steve Daly, 5 Pankhurst House, Garrison Close, Shooters Hill, SE18 4JE


This newsletter was produced for Greenwich Industrial History Society, Chair, Jack Vaughan, 35 Eaglesfield Road, SE18. Views expressed in it are those of the authors and not of the Society.

Contributions (within reason) are always welcome.

ANY NEWSLETTER IS ONLY AS GOOD AS ITS CONTENTS MAKE IT.
IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO TO CONTRIBUTE - ARTICLES, REPORTS, LETTERS - ANYTHING

Please send to Mary Mills (address below).

MEETING PLACE

Meetings as advertised at the head of this newsletter will be held at;

The Old Bakehouse, (at back of the) Age Exchange Reminiscence Centre, 11 Blackheath Village, London, SE23 9LA.

Do not go to the Reminiscence Centre itself - The Old Bakehouse is at the back, in Bennett Park. Walk into Bennett Park and turn left into a yard. The Old Bakehouse is the building on your right. The entrance is straight ahead.

.... OR PLEASE CONTACT MARY MILLS, 24 HUMBER ROAD, SE3 7LR. 020 8858 9482

And......  DON'T FORGET TO ASK US FOR A MEMBERSHIP FORM



The Web version has been created by;

.... David Riddle, Goldsmiths College

Space courtesy of Goldsmiths College, University of London