ARCHIVAL OR INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY? -
Mary Mills
Marsh Lane in East Greenwich wound down through the fields and fens towards the Thames on the east side of the Greenwich Marsh peninsula to end on the riverbank. Around 1800 someone decided to develop the area. Today there are plans to develop again with 'luxury housing' on the riverside. The lane is called Riverway and it contains some old houses, a public house, some derelict
industrial buildings and heaps of rubble. The history of the
industry which that rubble represents reveals some dramatic events
and some markers in the history of technology,
New East Greenwich
A plaque on the wall of the public house, The Pilot, reads 'New
East Greenwich' (1) and that may have been what was intended in
1804 -a new development away from the main industrial town of
Greenwich. The developer was probably George Russell, the site's
owner.(2) Russell was probably the son of another George
Russell.(3) who had made a fortune from soap manufacture, founding
the old Barge House Soap works,(4) and who died in 1804 at
Longlands, Sidcup.(5)
In 1804 a brickfield,(6) indicated that building was going on. By
1805 a row of cottages, Ceylon Place, had been built and one person
was in residence.(7)
The Tide Mill
Ceylon Place was probably built to house workers at a tide mill.
This large and important mill was constructed by the leading
millwrighting business of John Lloyd. Lloyd was based at Brewers
Green in Westminster(8) but within two years had moved to Nelson
Square in Southwark(9) as a partner in Lloyd and Ostell.(10) The
company were government contractors and were to install the
equipment at Waltham Abbey Gunpowder Works(11) and a number of
other important sites. They represent a point at which water
powered mill wrighting was at a peak; a few years later such a big
industrial installation would have chosen steam power with little
consideration of any alternative.
One day in 1802 Olinthus Gregory, Professor of Mathematics at the
Royal Military Academy in Woolwich,(12) walked along the riverside
from Woolwich, chatted to the foreman and recorded what he found on
site.(13) He described the mill as parallel to the river with a
forty foot waterway from the river to the mill's sluice gates.
Through this waterway the tide came in to fill a 4 acre reservoir.
The 11ft diameter water wheel was also parallel to the river, and
had 32 float boards. The wheel was in the middle of the waterway
and the tide flowed on either side of it into the reservoir. The
wheel is raised by the impulse of the flowing tide admitted through
the sluice gates. When the tide was its highest the water was run
out of the reservoir back into the river, turning the wheel and
reversing the direction to that used on the incoming tide.
Gregory's drawings illustrate this process. [his lengthy
description of the wheel workings could make an appendix].
The First Explosion
Steam power was available on site: a high pressure engine built by
Richard Trevithick was in use, apparently for building work. It had
an 8 inch cylinder and worked without an expansive cock. Trevithick
himself said that it was 'too light a load to do good duty' and 'on
a bad construction .. the fly wheel was loaded on one side, so as
to divide the power of the double engine'. It was reported that the
fire 'in contain with the cast iron' had heated the boiler red hot
and burnt all the joints.(14)
Eels congregated under the mill and on Thursday, 8th September
1803, an apprentice, left to look after the steam engine, went to
catch them. 'Impatient to finish the work he had put a piece of
timber between the top and the safety value and bent it down so
that it could not rise to allow the steam to escape'(15). The
boiler blew up, killing three men on site. At the remote riverside
a wherry was called and the injured taken by river to St. Thomas's
Hospital. (16) One man, Thomas Nailor, died a few days later; his
head and neck had been covered in boiling water.(17) Another man
was deafened, but the boy, the cause of the trouble, although
injured, recovered.(18)
Trevithick feared that Boulton and Watt, as rival engine
manufactures, would be quick to point out the dangers involved.(19)
It was said that customers 'would not patronise high pressure
engines .. from apprehensions that the boiler might explode as that
at Woolwich had done'(20) although the cause of the explosion had
been negligence.
Despite the accident the mill began to work grinding corn. The mill
seems to have remained in the ownership of George Russell for a
number of years. In the 1830s the miller was Thomas Patrick. It was
sometimes called 'Patrick's Mill'.(21)
East Lodge
Around 1835 a house was built on the other side of Marsh Lane;(22)
now the site of Tideway Yacht Club.(23) It is said to have been
built 'for parties by a Mr. Hughes' - perhaps he hoped to promote
rowdy or illegal events on this remote site an echo of the rave
events held in the 1980s in some adjacent buildings. The house was
called East Lodge and had seven bedrooms, and a bow windowed
frontage facing the river. It was reputed to have a ceiling painted
on canvas by Sir James Thornhill (he had died in 1734!).(24)
Frank Hills and his East Greenwich Chemical Works
In the late 1830s ownership of the mill changed. It seems to have
gone through a number of owners(25) until it was bought by Frank
Clarke Hills, perhaps in 1847 as his marriage settlement
indicates.(26) He was an industrial chemist who manufactured a
wide range of chemicals at the Deptford Chemical Works in Copperas
Street, Deptford.(27) He was a major purchaser of by products from
the local gas industry. His chemical works were to continue on both
site for the next fifty years. In the early 1880s, the South
Metropolitan Gas Company was to build its massive works on
surrounding sites at East Greenwich. Until then Frank Hills
chemical works was just one of several active industries on the
riverside in that area.
Frank Hills was to make his fortune from the purification of coal
gas. The history of gas purification is a long and complicated one.
Sufficient to say that by the early 1850s oxide purification had
become an important method of cleaning gas and that Frank Hills
held the patents. This process yielded a sulphur rich residue which
could be processed to make sulphuric acid.(28) It was no doubt with
this in mind that Frank bought the old mill and set up chemical
manufacture on the adjacent site. It seems very likely that corn
continued to be ground at the same time.(29) There is also a
persistent story that a mauve dye being made on site, the sale of
which underpinned Frank Hills' future fortune.(30)
Another Accident
Soon after Frank Hills bought the site another accident happened
there. In 1846 Francis Levers, Thomas Darby and Richard Middleton
were suffocated by 'sulphuretted hydrogen' while cleaning out a
giant mixing bowl.(31)
The Davies family at East Lodge
Hills appointed a manager in the works, Thomas Davies, from
Oswestry who lived with his family in East Lodge.(32) In the late
1880s his second daughter, Mildred, produced a magazine 'The Four
Wheeler' which was distributed throughout a large extended family.
Illustrated with drawings and poems and with contributions from
many family members it described family holidays and visits.(33)
Inevitably the industrial surroundings of East Lodge are not
mentioned.
Hills' Chemical Works and riverside pollution
The riverside location of East Lodge may have been attractive but
pollution would have been an everyday fact of life. In 1870 the
site had been visited by a specialist in industrial pollution;
Edward Ballard.(34) He said that manure had been made since 1856
and earlier nitric, tartaric and oxalic acid. Manure was made from
shoddy, waste leather, dry bones, bone ash and the refuse from
sugar bakers. Although he reported that the smell from the works
was not too bad he nevertheless asked Mr. Pink the local Medical
Officer of Health, to look at the works and see what could be
done.(35) Ballard later visited to inspect the manufacture of
sulphate of ammonia, but gave no detail on his findings.(36)
During Hills' occupancy of the site an artesian well was dug under
the mill. A 25 hp steam engine, described as having two oscillating
cylinders and a 18ft 6in fly wheel built by Joyce of Greenwich, was
installed.(37) Other machinery included two 30 ft long steam
boilers with a chimney, elevators with strap and buckets,
separators, and seven pairs of stones, as well as an 'archimedean
screw' and a bone crusher.(38)
River Terrace and Thames Church Mission
More cottages were built at some time in the late 1840s.(39) This
was River Terrace, now demolished and included a shop occupied by
Thames Church Mission.(40) This had been set up through Trinity
House to 'promote the spiritual welfare' of seamen, mainly on
colliers. Collier brigs would wait in Bugsby's Hole for a berth in
the Lower Pool. Gradually, the use of Cory's steam discharging
pontoon at Charlton, seems to have led to less work for the
Missionaries.(41) This 'Iron Room', fitted up by Frank Hills(42)
and in the charge of Thomas Davies, was also used as a Working'
Mens Institute.(43)
Perhaps the main excitement of the 1880s was the gas workers
strike; in the winter of 1889 when there were several running
battles between police and strikers in adjacent Blackwall Lane; at
one point an effigy of the South Metropolitan Gas Company's
Chairman, George Livesey, was burnt on a bonfire outside The
Pilot.(44)
The Hills move out.
Frank Hills died in 1892 leaving nearly two million pounds(45) - a
tribute to his energy. By then he and his sons and brothers
controlled an industrial empire with mines in Spain(46) and
Wales(47) and a copper works in Newcastle.(48) At the time of his
death Frank was also the Chair of Thames Ironworks, the engineering
company situated opposite East Greenwich at Bow Creek.(49)
The chemical works seems to have closed around the time of Frank
Hills death(50) and part of it was sold to the adjacent South
Metropolitan Gas Works for 14,000 to become their Phoenix Wharf
Chemical Works.(51) It continued to make sulphuric acid and
sulphate of ammonia, under the South Met's brand name of 'Metro'.
Following bombing in the Second World War the site was cleared and
new plant installed.(52) It continued in use until the gas works
closed in the 1980s.
The First Electricity Works
The old mill, now nearly a hundred years old, remained and was put
up for sale. By 1898 the land immediately adjacent to Riverway had
already been acquired by the Blackheath and Greenwich Electric
Light Co. for a power station.(53) This was a private company set
up to supply electricity to the Greenwich area - unlike Woolwich
where a municipal electricity works was already in production. It
began supply with two 125 KW non-condensing steam driven sets.(54)
The Company soon became the South Metropolitan Electric Light and
Power Company Ltd. The site at Riverway was known as 'The
Powerhouse'.(55) It must be assumed that the mill was demolished
during the building of the power station.
Another Explosion
Just before Christmas 1906, William Shaw and James Coombes were
killed as the result of a boiler explosion 'blown to pieces their
bodies were beyond recognition'. Mr. Shaw, an inspector from the
National Boiler and General Insurance Company, had been called in
to examine a leaking drum on the boiler(56) and was looking for the
site of crack when the explosion occurred. The accident was
reported in some detail, together with pictures, in the works
magazine of the adjacent South Metropolitan Gas Company. It appears
that employees of the gas company's other works were invited to
Greenwich to see the damage in order that 'those who have charge of
boilers .. realise more fully the extent of their
responsibility'.(57)
Blackwall Point Power Station
The power station was badly bombed during the Second World War and
a decision was taken by the then owners, the London Electricity
Board, to rebuild with a targeted output of 90,000 kilowatts.(58)
It opened in the early 1950s, a period when the dimensions of
turbo alternators were controlled by law. Three pulverised-fuel
coal-fired boilers supplied steam at a temperature of 454oC and a
pressure of 41.4 bars to three 30 MW English Electric turbo
alternators.(59) It was known as Blackwall Point power station and
closed in June 1980.
On 14th December 1980 GLIAS visited the power station which had
already been shut down.(60) They noted the control room 'unusual
in that it is situated in a separate building on the other side of
Riverway".
The Site in 1994
Today (1994) the control room is all that remains of the power
station; no doubt surviving because of scanning equipment installed
on the roof. What else remains in River Way? Ceylon Place is now
owned by a Housing Association; The Pilot, recently extended,
appears to be flourishing; the site of East Lodge is a sailing
club. Of the industrial activity on the site very little remains -
a semi derelict jetty and heaps of rubble. Two hundred years of
intensive industrial use on this part of the riverfront at
Greenwich have come to an end, apparently unremarked. Despite the
amount of activity there is little left for industrial
archaeologists to find. What remains must be found in books and
archives. In wet weather the site at East Greenwich seems sometimes
to be returning to the marshland it once was - or is there an echo
of millponds in the puddles?
1. W. V.Bartlett in "The River and the Marsh at East Greenwich. The
History and Development" (Trans. Greenwich & Lewisham Antiquarian
Soc. Vol 7, No.2. 1964-5 pp 68-85) reads the plaque as 'New Pier
Greenwich' and it is, of course, possible that the plaque has been
changed.
2. George Russell has not been identified although he was a local
landowner in the period. He may have been the George Russell was
lived at Longlands near Sidcup in the 1830s (cf. Pigot's Directory
1839). He may have made money which he wanted to invest in
retirement and perhaps the name of 'Ceylon Place' points to a
fortune made in tea.
3.George Russell, son of George Russell of Longlands, is described
in a deed of 1830 in the possession of LB Bexley as 'of Mill Place,
Greenwich'.
4.Old Barge House soap works have been associated with the Hawes
family see Mary Mills 'Obscure Gas Works of East London' GLIAS
Newsletter 154 October 1994.
5.Gentlemans Magazine May 1804 p.480 Obituary to George Russell.
6.St. Alphege Greenwich Poor Rate 1801
7.St. Alphege Greenwich Poor Rate 1803
8.Johnsons Street Directory 1804
9.Pigot 1806.
10.Kent's London Directory 1815
11.see for ie. A.E.Robinson & J.G.L.Burnby Guns and Gunpowder in
Enfield Edmonton Hundred Historical Society No.50.
12.DNB
13.Olinthus Gregory, A Treatise on Mechanics G.Kearnsley, London,
1806.
14.Letter from Richard Trevithick 1st October 1803 quoted by
Francis Trevithick Life of Richard Trevithick Spon, London 1872.
15.London Journal 1803 vol.16 p.372
16.This was of course St.Thomas's Hospital on its old site near
London Bridge.
17.Southwark inquests City of London Record Office. It has not
proved possible to trace inquests for those who died on site.
Greenwich inquests from this period are missing.
18.Trevithick op cit.
19.Trevithick op cit.
20.John Farey A Treatise on Steam Engines.
21.Bartlett op cit.
22.cf. Morris Map 1834 where the house appears.
23.St.Alfege Greenwich Poor Rate 1835
24.Unattributed cutting in LB Greenwich Woodlands Library 'Marsh
Lane' file.
25.I have not listed the details of the various ownership changes
but part of the site had been owned by Peter Rolt, MP, future
chairman of Thames Ironworks.
26.Papers in the possession of Mr. Humpheries, Aberdeenshire.
27.I have not listed Frank Hills' many early activities. It is
hoped to make them the subject of a forthcoming article.
28.Lewis Thompson, Nature & chemical Properties of Coal Gas.
Published from Surplus Funds by the Committee for the Exhibition of
Gas Apparatus at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in the Year
1851, London, 1851
29.The same mix of corn grinding and chemical manufacture seems to
have taken place at an early Hills family site, the Bromley by Bow
Steam Mills.
30.Info.Patrick Hills. The dye is also mentioned in an
unattributed, and lost, cutting and in some family history research
undertaken for Patrick Hills. Extensive enquiries on this matter
have come up with nothing but it would have made before the
registration system was set up. There would have been good reasons
for secrecy.
31.Unattributed cutting in 'Marsh Lane' file Woodlands Local
History Library.
32.'Davies' file at Woodland Local History library and info. Mrs.
Wagstaffe.
33.'The Four Wheeler'. A great deal of photocopied material from
the children's magazine has been sent to me through the kindness of
Mrs. Marge Wagstaffe of Dorchester.
34.Ballard was the Medical Officer of Health for St.Mary's Vestry,
Islington. He undertook a number of reports, presumably on a
consultancy basis, on industrial pollution outside that area. The
report on East Greenwich was undertaken for the Local Government
Board.
35.Edward Ballard, Report on the alleged nuisance from noxious
trades carried on the shores of the River Thames from Blackwall
Reach to Erith Reach, Local Government Board, nd
36.Edward Ballard, Report of the Effluvium Nuisance arising in
connection with various manufacturing & other industry, HMSO,
London, 1882.
37.Surveyor's report in the possession of Mr. Humpheries. For Joyce
see London's Industrial Archaeology II 1980 D.Perrett "London and
The Steam Engine".
38.Ellis Estate Agents poster 1898; and Ellis MS schedule of plant
(in possession of Mr. Humpheries)
39.Instructions for valuation. In possession of Mr. Humpheries
40.Estate Agent's material 1898
41.Roger Homan "Bread Upon the Waters" Bygone Kent Vol 8, No.12. pp
711-721.
42.Mercury undated cutting in 'Davies; file Woodlands Local History
Library. For detail on mission see Bygone Kent Vol VIII. No 12.
'Bread Upon the Waters' (which refers to material held by Missions
to Seamen Library).
43.Info. Mrs. Wagstaffe.
44.Mary Mills Profit Sharing in the South Metropolitan Gas Company
1889-1920 Unpublished Thesis. M.Phil CNAA. 1983.
45.See comments in Peter J. Morris & Colin A, Russell Archives of
the British Chemical Industry 1750-1914 BSHS Monograph 6.1988.
46.Info. Mr. Patrick Hills.
47.D.C.Davies, Metalliferous Minerals & Mining, London, 1892.
48.Chemical Gazette 1882 List of Members.
49.Thames Ironworks Gazette Vol.7. p.153.
50.Patrick Hills (great grandson) says that it was sold 'to ICI'.
However ICI, as such, did not exist in this period. By 1906 the
Spanish Mines were in the possession of United Alkali. It seems
more likely that the assets were disposed of piecemeal.
51.W.F.D.Garton "History of the South Metropolitan Gas Company" The
Gas World 9th August 1952 p.354.
52.A detailed description of Phoenix Wharf in the 1950s can be
found in "Phoenix Wharf" Gas Journal 6th June 1956 p.704-5.
53.Info. in papers in the possession of Mr. Humpheries.
54.GLIAS Newsletter 72. p. 6.
55.Photocopy letter in my possession.
56.Kentish Mercury
57.Co-partnership Journal February 1907 pp49-50.
58.The Industries of Greenwich MB Greenwich 1951.
59.R.J.M.Carr Dockland GLC & NELP 1986.
60.GLIAS Newsletter 72 op cit
No comments:
Post a Comment