Trenchards and Kamptulican

 Last week I wrote about the Maltings on Hope Wharf and found it was a lot bigger and more important than I had bargained with.  So now I need to move on to the next wharf on the Creek which seems to have been a timber wharf which in the late 19th century was owned by  firm called Trenchard who also owned a number of big sites near Deptford bridge.  I haven’t found anything much about them and Hope Wharf was so much more interesting.  Perhaps Ishould stay on Hope Wharf then.

As part of my investigations into the Trenchards I was sent an article (thank you Julian) with the reminiscences of an old, old man about the wharves along Deptford Creek. He said that before the maltings on Hope Wharf there was a brewery owned by a John Hall.  That makes sense in terms of types of industry because brewers and maltings sort of go together  and it is confirmed in the official recorrdes, but no detail.  But it did set me thinking a bit more.

Kamptulicon.  Now, where was the famous Kamptulicon works which was supposed to be in Greenwich High Road – it  must have been on one of these wharves, but I have found no sign of it.   Was it Hope Wharf?

Kamptulicon??  You may well ask ‘what’s that’.   Well it did exist and there is even a Wikipedia page about it, not a very informative Wikipedia page, but better than nothing.  Wikipedia says it was invented by Elijah Galloway in 1843.  Now that is a name around a lot in the early 19th century- he was a south Londoner and an inventor of a lot of things, mostly steam engines and boilers and the like. He tended to invent things a bit off the mainstream and died in abject poverty – so much poverty that someone in Blackheath started a fund raiser to help his widow and their daughter.

You will usually find information on Kamptulicon in books and article on lino – and it is a direct precursor of that.  Before that were a whole lot of inventions which are generally described as 'floor cloth' – that’s ‘floor cloth’ as something you put on the floor like a carpet, not something you use to clean it with. There were many variations on this ’floor cloth’ but they were basically all some sort of oiled or painted surface on a canvas or similar backing. There were several factories, most famously in Knightsbridge and of course Islington Planners were for many years in the 18th century 'Palladian floor cloth factory. Kamptulicon is a step on from that and then lino a another step further forward.  Those of you who have read my articles on the Greenwich lino works (near the Blackwall Tunnel entrance) will know about the work undertaken by Frederick Walton who wanted to invent something that used the skin off paint and then had a series of works, in Chiswick and then in Staines making what he named ‘linoleum’ .

So Kamptulicon  -  to quote Wikipedia again ”Kamptulicon was manufactured by sprinkling powdered cork on to thin bands of rubber…..it was then coated on one or both sides with linseed oil,  varnish or oil paint. Powdered sulphur was also sometimes mixed in, and the material then heated”.

It is also said to have been a sensation at the 1862 Crystal Palace exhibition with a beautifully designed piece from a company in Bristol and which is now reproduced and sold as an artwork. But mostly, I think, it was all beige and boring.

So – back to Hope Wharf.  The Kamptulicon factory probably opened in Greenwich – the first factory to make it anywhere - in 1843 or 1844. The most likely person behind this was one, George Walter.  Now, it is perfectly possible to write an entire article about him - but, briefly: - George Walter had been a Lieutenant in the Royal Marines, and member of the Stock Exchange with probably insurance company links.  He had been involved in a number of speculative companies and became one of the main promoters and managers of the London to Greenwich Railway in the early 1830s, resigning in 1837. He had earlier founded Herepath’s Railway magazine. In 1843 he appears to be the manager of the Kamptulicon Company – or the Elastic Pavement Company, or both. His partner in this was an Ebenezer Gough – who was probably also involved in insurance. There is no mention of patentee Galloway, nor is there ever again, although I more than suspect they all knew each other and Galloway was working as ‘engineer’ or some of the railway companies in this period that Walter and his friends were speculating on. 

In 1844 numerous people attended the launch of a ‘life-boat’ made of, and also named, ‘Kamptulicon’.  This was said to have been designed and built by George Walter. It turns up later in lists of items for sale on Hope Wharf. Later there were demonstrations ‘on the Woolwich marshes’ to various military personnel of cannon being fired at a target lined with Kamptulicon. This was to demonstrate how the holes in the substance would close despite having been shot through (there were worries about fires and some awful splintering’s when the target was reversed).  There were also all sorts of press stories of the numerous uses to which Kamptulicon could be put – road surfaces (several were laid), padded cells (these were actually built at Bethlehem Hospital), soles for waterproof shoes, covering for vaults in churches to keep down the smells, protection for horses hoofs – and much much more.

As far as can be ascertained the factory was set up on Hope Wharf and manufacture and sales began.  There also seems to be a lot of law suits which are reported with comments such as the case was ‘unusual’ or ‘novel’ – they seem to involved debtors and many complexities. In connection with one of these the entire plant and machinery of the works was put up for auction in January 1849.  This gives an interesting insight to what was there:

“ large cylinder rollers, with wheels, shaftings, and stands, plummer-blocks and carriages, two wrought iron steam pans, a steam chest, fitted with pipes, two large steam boilers, 22 feet each, large quantity of steam piping, a Kamptulicon life boat, with fittings complete, a pair of large millstones, with wheels. Ac., force pump, stone paving, brick-work, counting house fittings, Kamptulicon paving, a chaise, harness, and spring cart”. 

A week later the auction was cancelled and things seem to have progressed as normal – or at least for the next end months because in November 1849 the entire works burnt down.  The only thing to be saved was the stock waiting to be delivered to customers.  Fire engines came from all over and the local gas company inspector managed to turn off the gas supply before that could cause more damage.

By the next May – 6 months later - they announced that the works was up and running again. In 1851 George Walter left the partnership – and presumably the whole works – and was replaced by Matthias Boyce- who was a solicitor which is just as well seeing as the amount of legal case work the firm seemed to get through.

The Kamptulicon works seems to have kept going through the 1850s although there are less and less reports of it with the departure of George Walter. It appears to be exclusively advertised for use for cleaning knives and little else.  By 1862 there seems to be no more advertisements for Kamptulicon from the Greenwich works – and there are other manufactures, other patentees and other works advertised by then.   The maltings was in place by the mid-late 1870s but in the meantime at happened on Hope Wharf isn’t clear. There may have been Mr. Hall the brewer and perhaps we will learn more about him as we work down the Creek

I began by saying that the next wharf on the Creek working up river to Lewisham was a timber merchant, saw mill and building supplies.   Certainly when the Kamptulicon works was in full swing oin the neigbouring wharf was James Langton, a timber merchant.  He was replaced in the late 1860s by Edward Penny Trenchard.  

Trenchard operated a number of wharves, including the every large Albion and Ravensbourne wharves at Deptford Bridge and another wharf and inland site on Deptford Church Street.  They appear to have been primarily builders merchants. E.P. Trenchard had property in Wincanton in Somerset where he had a role in a number of public bodies but in London he had valuable property in Honor Oak Park where he appeared to live.  He is said to have had antiquarian interests and that one of his sites covered an ancient pottery – and I look forward to finding out more about that. At his death in the late 1890s a massive property portfolio was disposed of covering many sites in south London.  His wharves and works were split between two sons: one inheriting the timber and the other the stone elements of the business. They were eventually disposed of

One of his sons Albert Trenchard was a leading light in the local Liberal Party and represented Blackheath Ward on Deptford Council.  He seems to have been pretty, lively, to put it mildly, and local newspapers of the early 20th century are filled with his speeches and constant interventions in other’s speeches with a ‘loud and slashing style’ and as an ‘emphatic speaker’. On the whole it seems a pity that he was active fifty years after George Walter because it would have been interesting to see ow the would have got on as neighbours