Coombe Farm - Home Farm - Westcombe Park Station - Angerstein Railway - Police - Angerstein Hotel - Mission - Relief Station

 In the past two weeks I’ve been looking at the area which was once the site of Combe Farm with a view to getting eventually to the modern works which were on site in the 20^thcentury. So far in the two previous episodes I’ve discussed the farm itself and how the area around it began to change in the mid-19^th century.  We’ve seen the first railway here built over on the west side of what was Coombe Farm Lane (now Westcombe Hill) when the Blackheath Tunnel was opened in 1849. There was soon to be another railway here, albeit one which is goods only.

I feel that I’ve written exhaustively about the Angerstein railway in the last couple of years but it is important to mention it again here because it was such avital part of change in the area.  The line was planned by John Angerstein to go from the Blackheath Tunnel to a wharf on the river. It was to be on his own land and thus would not need the usual Act of Parliament with its accompanying consultation process,except where the railway needed to cross the turnpike road - the bridge which still crosses slightly to the east of the AngersteinRoundabout.  This Act went through in 1851 and the railway opened in 1852. It is built on an embankment rumoured to have been made up of the spoil from the Blackheath tunnel.

The Parish Council was on the whole less than delighted at some of this, saying  ‘The plan would no doubt greatly benefit Mr. Angerstein’ and suspected that ‘they would handover to the South Eastern Railway, and they knew what that was’.  They were quite right as the line was immediately let to the South-eastern Railway and has remained with them, and their successors ever since.

The line ran parallel toCoombe Farm Lane. Looking at maps you can see the narrowness of the road remaining outside the farm once the railway had been been built.  In the 1960s the motorway was squeezed into that narrow gap. To work out exactly what it was like earlier we need to be aware that today’s Farmdale Road as it joins Woolwich Road is actually the bottom of Westcombe Hill/Coomb Farm Lane. Draw an imaginary line from it south until it meets Westcombe Hill and you can see how narrow the gap was in the 1850s.

We also need to note the foot crossing on the railway - about which there was such a kerfuffle last year when the railway authorities tried to remove it.   Initially it was put in to give access to fields on the far side of the railway and they may have originated as a tunnel under the line and not a bridge as it is now.

In July 1851 the area on the Charlton side of the railway was enlivened by a balloon which had come from Batty’s Hippodrome and seemed likely to come down on the lime kilns in the field to the east of the farm. Happily it missed the lime kilns but did £5 damage to the potatoes grown in the fields.

Within a year the railway was finished and opened, having been leased to the South-Eastern Railway.  Reports of its opening were rather hidden in the local press because of the numerous reports of the new church in Blackheath which Mr Angerstein had so kindly funded. There was also notice of a massive scheme to be undertaken by the South Eastern Railway and others involving a railway line to link Charlton to Blackwall Point and also a plan for a major dock. Obviouslythis was never proceeded with.

There was also another small farm, called Home Farm in the area attached to Woodland’s House which was rented to the Roberts family whose main base was of course Coombe Farm.  This seems to have been on the site used by business units at 102 Westcombe Hill.   Westcombe Hill divides into two to go round an area used for parking south of Humber Road – and this reflects what was once a path leading to Home Farm.

The usual petty crime cases mentioned in the local press continue - one was abouttwo soldiers who broke into Coombe Farm,for reasons which are not made clear, andset light to a stack of hay.

In 1871 the railway again became an important feature of the area and preparations were made to open the main line up through from Greenwich Station to Charlton - something which had always been made impossible by the difficulty of getting it through Greenwich Park and the attitude of the Royal Observatory. A public meeting in Greenwich was presided over by Mr Angerstein and it was announced that work was in progress, The first section would be built from Charlton to Maze Hill would include a station at Coombe Farm Lane,

So, we have arrived at last of one of the most important features of this area Westcombe Park Station, originally called Coombe Farm Lane Station.  It had two platforms both with ingle-storey brick buildings and this would be like some other newer stations. The platforms had generous canopies and a subway - described as a ‘luxury’ - between the platforms.  There was also a signal box at the London end of the platforms with big sash windows. Perhaps we should also note that the downside appears to be built on a considerable embankment as the land falls away down the hillside to the site of the farm.  It is built up in order to raise the station and line it up for the bridge across Westcombe Park Road.

Clearly, given the tide of new housing in the area the station was asset -but also would contribute anincentive to the expansion of in the area more and more houses on sites hitherto given up to agriculture.

The Roberts family were to sell the Coombe Farm in 1883.  They were the family I described in earlier article and who used the farm as a market garden. They are the subjects of a book by Barbara Ludlow and Sally Jenkinson,

The farm seems to have continued in use for a few more years- maybe on a lease or short-term arrangements. In 1882 a Mr Alfred Baigent described himself as ‘of Coombe Farm’ when he was prosecuted by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Cattle belonging to him – four cows, four heifers and bull were found by the police grazing on Blackheath.  This is not the first time that happened and he said that he couldn’t understand how they got there and it must be because boys are broken his wire fences down. He was fined 16 shillings. And quite honestly an untethered bull up on Blackheath was something that really did need to be dealt with quickly.

However with the Roberts gone land was quickly sold for building purposes. Around the same time another very large estate on the Charlton side of the railway was sold. In 1886 an advertisement is for an auction ‘to Sell the Field adjoining Coombe Farm House  …with 24 fine, walnut trees, standing m the above field, which is about to be laid out for building purposes.

 

Various facilities beganto spring up in the area. A police station was built to supplements that in Greenwichtown. It was on a freehold site in Coomedale Road and coast the police authorities £950. It had in 1891 an inspector, six   Sargent’s and 36 constables. I would very much recommend a little booklet giving theHistory of Westcombe Parkpolice –although I have no idea whereyou can get it!It is by Sgt David Hardaway. And it is extremely entertaining and full of all sorts of unlikely details - for example original orders were that police should remove any orange peel seen on the pavement.  Another item is about a book of poems write by police at the station during the Great War.  We all know this is now close and turning to flats like everything else but this booklet gives the whole flavour of its life and work there.

The Angerstein Hotel also dates from the mid-1880s. The license for the hotel was the only one issued in the Blackheath area for several years, and a petition in its favour was signed a very large proportion of the residents in the district’.And was soon hosting meetings of local Westcombe Park club and other local organisations.

There was also a mission hall in Coombe Dale Road and in Ormiston road the building now used by Greenwich Mind had been set up by what was by then Greenwich Council, as a Relief Station.

The new road names in the area reflectits recent past asCoombe Farm – Westerdale, Farmdale and so on.  It might also be noted that a new sailing barge built by the Peninsula firm of Hughes, barge builders, was named Combedale.

Part of the farm was still there and a certain extent some work continued. A strange and prolonged shooting affair in 1891 involved somebody described as ‘the farmer’ Edward Lewis.  Later a Henry Cole went to prison for three days of stealing a lettuce from farmer Lewis. There is an advert in 1894for a ‘respectable boy was wanted for the farm to take care of a pony and trap’.

None of this was to last much longer and very soon we have the first mention of Plaxtol Place.  Next week eventually we will get on to the firm’s which were based there and the work which they did.

And other stuff ….. Wasit alaundry?  .. Was there a suicidecOOMBE