Wharves near Creek Road Bridge

 

Working down the Lewisham bank of Deptford Creek with wharf by wharf histories I am nearly at Creek Road.  Last week I wrote about the revolutionary artificial manure works of J.Lawes and the week before that Wheen’s successful soap works – so I’m afraid this week’s article about sites and works nothing like them.  Between their works and Creek Road were a number of small wharves mostly dealing with coal imports plus some scrap dealers and the like.  Clear information about works and structures on these sites is shown on the Goad insurance maps of the 1890s and some later maps on ‘Old Maps’ web site– but I am afraid these articles are beginning to suffer from the demise of the ‘OldMaps’ web site which gave a complete range of OS maps through the 20^th century which are not easily obtainable on line elsewhere. Sorry - and like a lot of other researchers, a bit cross.

 

J.B. Lawes had left Deptford before the start of the 20th century.  On the Goad plan his wharf – by then ‘Creek Bridge Iron Wharf’ - was in the hands of ‘L.Longman & Sons – iron, metal and machinery’. This I assume is a longer way of saying ‘scrap’.  That they were scrap dealers is borne out by a long newspaper account of theft of cable from an electric sub-station on Sydenham Hill and which the thieves had tried to sell to Mr. Longman and some other local dealers.  However in other local newspaper report J. H. Longman seems to be entirely occupied with cricket. There are numerous reports of matches against other local teams with much detail on scores and tactics.  In 1896 Longman’s Cricket Club advertised for ‘Gentlemen, desirous of joining a good medium club’ where they could play in ‘friendlies’, test matches and holiday fixtures. In 1901, for example, they were challenged by the West Kent Wanderers.  At one such event Mr. Longman proposed a toast to ‘Greenwich Conservative Club’ and was supported by Mr. Pinks  - presumably the local Board of Works inspector who has featured in many of these accounts of local factories. The only reference to actual work by Longman’s which I have found is the purchase of an old steam roller from Southwark Council.

 

Next door to the old Lawes site going towards Creek Road was Essex Wharf.  Here there seem to have been several types of traders and it is sometimes difficult to separate them out.  On the insurance plan next to Longmans is a strip of land occupied by J. Martin, Hay and Straw dealer – presumably storing and selling hay for the all the horses which worked these wharves amd in the streets.  Next to them is' Creek Essex Wharf' occupied by J.S. Smith and Sons.

 

In 1869, the wharf was said to be occupied by Gilders and Beale, of St.Osyth and Wivenhoe, Maltsters. Surely there wasn’t a maltings here – a specialist trade needing specialist buildings.  John Gilders was a prominent figure in Clacton and St.Osyth.  He had taken over the maltings from an earlier John Gilders who had died in London of cholera in 1854.  In 1869 he had taken over the Wivenhoe Brewery along with a Mr. Beale - who is said to have lived in Deptford. I have written a lot in the past about members of the Beale family in Greenwich but cannot connect any of them with either Deptford or malt.   In 1870 Gilders and Beale sold a maltings and granaries in St.Osyth and I can find no connection between this business and Essex Wharf – although, just faintly it might account for the ‘Essex’ part of the name which seems to date from around 1863.

 

Newspaper reports cover many more and different users of ‘Essex Wharf’ – were they all on the wharf at the same time or were they short term users? In 1863 a  Messrs Murrell tendered to the local parish for a contract to collect dust – they failed to get it - but appear again from time to time chasing and failing to get work with the local authority.

In 1872 a Mr. Parsons from the same address tendered to the Parish for ‘slopping’. I am not sure what that entails and probably don’t like to think – but ‘slops’ 9n the 19^th century could mean items of clothing but probably doesn’t in this context. They lost the tender anyway.  A very shocking is a case reported in the local press of 1872 when the wharf was being used by Mr. Parsons.  This involved Benjamin Smith, age 15, a lad ‘poor, ragged and unintelligent’ who had been working for Mr.Parsons for the past five days.  It turned out he had stolen two pieces of brass, part of a harness and tried to sell them for ‘a penny or two pence'.  The shopkeeper he tried to sell them to had called the police.  Asked what his father did he said he was ‘a collector’ - when asked what he collected he said ‘rags and bones’ (laughter in court).  The Policeman who had arrested him said the boy had no home and slept in doorways. He was sent down for fourteen days hard labour, described as ‘a mercy’ as prison was preferable to being poor in 19^th century Deptford.

 

From the early 1880s stabling was advertised at being available at Essex Wharf and there are also regular advertisements for horses of various sorts. ‘a cob ready to ride and drive .. perfectly shoed ‘. … with a ‘handsome four wheeled light phaeton’ … “handsome Black Pony. 13 hands .. very fast, with nearly new harness .. trap if required”.  Oddly, potential purchasers are told to apply at Parry’s Pottery for details of these creatures.

 

Did these horse sales have anything to do with Mr. Martin’s hay and straw business?   There were those among the poor of Deptford who had a use for bundles of hay.  There are stories of homeless men breaking in at night to sleep on them. In 1897 William Henry Scent, labourer, with no home, was charged with sleeping in the hay loft and ‘damaging a quantity of hay’. No details of what this damage was - and anyway he denied any damage had been done.  Was it more than just a few bent stalks?  He was fined 1/2d or 5 days hard labour.  Later two homeless teenagers John Allen and Charles Whitewood were charged with climbing over a gate to sleep in the hay. The judge said that there ought to be spikes on the gate and other spikes hidden in the hay.  They were sent down for hard labour without the option of a fine.  At around the same time there is an advertisement asking for the return of a stolen ‘dung fork’ - with a reward offered for its return and a conviction for the thief.  

 

There were also coal sales at Essex Wharf and throughout this period there are constant advertisements for Hughes and Hawke’s, coke and coal ‘... ‘best Wallsend’...’Silkstone best seconds’  with an office at St. John’s Station.  There are also advertisements for salesmen – travellers...  agents and canvassers.

 

The final site before Creek Road is ‘Lower Halls Wharf’.  I was, and still am, puzzled by this. If you have a ‘Lower’ something then presumably there is also an ‘Upper’ – and there is no sign of that. I wondered for some time if this referred to the vast Croydon building supplies business, Halls of Croydon – at one time the biggest such business in the country, and now part of Jewson’s. They had a depot somewhere in Deptford – illustrated on their map of company sites with a rather cute little crane.  But, no, it turns out that the wharf was owned by a London based shipping company, John Hall & Co.  There seems to be very little information about their use of the wharf.  They were ‘ship owners, ship brokers, insurance brokers and general clearing and forwarding agents, and patent fuel merchants’. They had several other wharves on the river and canals and seem to have traded with Portugal .. Gibraltar.. Malaga with ‘first class screw steamers’.

 

The wharf is also shown with as dealing with ‘Sunderland Diamond Block’ – that may sound exciting, but it is just a trade name for another sort of coal.

 

So – we have reached Creek Road and Creek Road Bridge.  The Goad plans show something else here – right up against the bridge is a small building marked ‘Hydraulic Station LCC’.  What is this?  The old pre-1900s Creek Bridge was originally privately owned, and there is very little information about it but it well predated Hydraulic power.  It was taken over by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1880 – did they, or later the London County Council, install a hydraulic system at the bridge, or does this ‘Hydraulic Station’ refer to something else entirely??  I can’t promise to have solved that puzzle by next week –but I am onto the case!