Boundary Walk 3 - Deptford Bridge to Locks' Mead

 

It’s about time I got back onto the Civic Boundary Walk of 1851.  I think this is the third episode about our Greenwich procession of local dignatories following the Parish Boundary with a walknwhich had started at Garden Stairs, near Greenwich Pier. At first they went along the riverside to Deptford Creek and then turned to walk up the Creek - all the while accompanied by a boatman going alongside  them in the waters of the Thames and then the Creek where the real boundary lay, in the middle of the stream. We left them in the middle of Deptford Bridge where they had just been joined by a lot of local school children and sung the Old Hundreth Psalm.

The next stretch should be on the south side of Deptford Bridge and follow the Ravensbourne on some of its way up to Lewisham. But it was more complicated than that.  We are told in the report that when they had done their walk in previous years ‘it was formerly the practice to pass through the adjoining ,now occupied, Cobbett’s  carpet warehouse’.   They had already been through some of Cobbetts other warehouses and I think I mentioned the firm in the previous episode of this walk. It was a ‘large floor cloth works with furniture and carpet warehouses ... covering more than an acre of ground’ . They were soon to advertise a ‘new material of floor covering .. the kamptulicon  . . introduced into the new reading room of the British Museum.”

I have spent far too long trying to work out exactly where this warehouse was.  It’s down in directories as No.1 Deptford Bridge - and I thought that, like everywhere, one side of the road would have the odd numbers and the other the even numbers. But - oh no - not Deptfford Bridge!  No.1 was on the site alongside the Greenwich side of the Ravensbourne river where there is now  a small bus station and the DLR railway bridge.The numbers then continued across what is now Deal’s Gateway to the corner of Blackheath Road. They then crossed the road and the numbers continued on the north side up to Deptford Church Street where they crossed the road again to continue to the Lewishsam bank of the Ravensbourne where they met No.1. Like in a circle.  This is completely crazy and I’m not surprised I’ve been confused  - is the numbering still like this?

However it appears that the carpet warehouse was on the south side of Deptford Bridge alongside the Ravensbourne. The procession was not able to go through the building because ‘there was no means of egress from there’ and so they had to use adjacent premises - Mr Loft's ground.

Mr.Loft had a florist’s business with a market garden and nursery and a considerable amount of land on the south side of Deptford Bridge and so permission was obtained to pass through a neighbouring house to get to it. The whole procession did not do this small section and the house and Mr Loft's ground were “traversed on foot by Mr. High Constable Reeve, and a few others, while the waterman encircled the spot in his boat “.

It appears Mr.Loft had been to Greenwich Vestry meetings complaining that he was assessed for rates to both St.Paul’s parish in Deptford and also in Greenwich Parish. There was a long standing problem as to exactly which parish his property was in – he said he was paying St.Paul’s and ignoring Greenwich. He also complained about the parish boundary procession and said that in previous years some of his garden had been damaged.

The account of where procession went after it left Deptford Bridge is not particularly clear in the report on the walk - but then the actual boundary and where they went is not particularly clear either.  The Borough boundary between Greenwich and Lewisham today in this area follows the Parish boundary which was extant in 1851, with a few modifications at the southern end.  Once past Deptford Bridge the boundary follows what appears to be eastern branch of the Ravensbourne. The river divided south of Deptford Bridge with a smaller eastern branch which has now totally disappeared under blocks of flats. The Borough boundary still more or less follows this stream which went up the back of some of the houses and buildings in Blackheath Road. It eventually turned and curved south forming the boundary of various sites - including the Penn Engineering works.  It eventually returned to join the mainstream of the Ravensbourne before reaching the Silk Mill and then Lewisham. I am assuming that this is the route which the 1851 procession followed but it is now really hard to imagine how it was with no housing; just open fields and the waterworks.

We could probably guess that Mr Loft's premises and his market garden were roughly on the site which is now Deals Gateway – maybe the area of Broadway Fields. When the procession had passed this point it met the waterman again at what is described as the ‘furthest point of Mr Lofts property’. There had previously been a boundary stone at this point but had been replaced by a cross on the stump of a tree. The procession moved on from there to a path which followed the stream (or a ditch) on its right while the waterman walked up the middle of the water course or used his punt.

Eventually they reached a point where in 1831 there had been a notice which referred to Mr. Bicknell the then Vestry Clerk but that had disappeared by 1851. They continued following the stream (or ditch) till they got to a point where it was crossed by another ditch.  I cannot see anything on the Ordnance Survey map for that date which could be this crossing point and I think that probably illustrates how minor are these streams were.  However at the place where they met there was another ‘Greenwich stone’ and opposite it there had once been a Deptford boundary post but by then it had been moved into the centre of the stream.

By this point they must have been well into the property of the Kent Waterworks and indeed found their way blocked by a newly excavated reservoir. I think this must have been the large settling reservoir which Kent Waterworks built on the site in 1851. The Ordnance Survey map shows the line of the Kent Boundary turning to go across the area where the reservoir was built and then making a right angle turn to the South. The reservoir is not there now and I think it very likely that its site is under the current waterworks buildings, which remain on the east side of the Ravensbourne.

The line of the boundary in the reservoir was followed by the boat which carried some of the Vestry officers and some of the school boys. It followed as nearly as possible the line which in previous years had been walked. They then went to what they describe as ‘the overflow’ which I think is the point at which the stream they’ve been following joins the main line of the Ravensbourne. The report says that they then all got in a boat and travelled down the river until they got to the corner of Lock’s Mead. This was a field of the Lewisham border which in the 20^th century became the site of the Elliott’ Automation factory.

In think the point at which they reached the Ravensbourne must have been at near the end of today’s Bliss Crescent - you can’t get to the river from that road because it is fenced off. This stretch of the boundary is different now from what it was in the 1850s and it does not cross the river but continues along the river side until Elverson Road Station and then turns back towards Blackheath.

The 1851 procession had a much longer stretch of the boundary to cover. They crossed the river ‘having on the right now garden ground, to a  line formerly a Deptford boundary post, thence marked by a ditch, which is now filled up, to a gate or opening into Mr. Sbepherd’s garden’. I do not know who is Mr.Shepherd was and I’m not entirely clear from the report where his garden was.  They then followed a ditch in which ‘is a plantation of water-cress’ to a brick wall, and ’crossed the North Kent Railway’.

Railways going to need an explanation. There are a lot in this area.  The railway they first crossed is not a railway which exists today.  It was the line which once ran from Greenwich Park Station which was on the site which is now the Ibis Hotel. It ran from there to cross under Blackheath Hill - it is understood that the railway tunnel still exists below the road - to a station on the other side of Blackheath Hill. It then continued through the streets and houses and eventually turn down to Ravensbourne somewhere near the point of Elverson Road Station where it crossed the river. It is possible to follow the line of the railway through the extreme southern end of Brookmill Park and there is a hump you can walk up on which was the embankment which the railway ran on. It then crossed what is now Brookmill - people may remember the remains of the railway bridge which were there for many years. It then passed into the Nature Reserve or the other side of Brookmill Road. It is this last section which the boundary will have crossed. The report says that they went to a stone dated 1847.  

The boundary turned slightly south east and continued by crossing the railway again. In fact it crossed a different railway – it crossed at the junction of the railway lines coming out of Lewisham. One line goes up to London Bridge and the other veers round to a higher level to go to Nunhead and Peckham. I am afraid that this is the site of the 1957 rail crash - the third worst rail crash in Britain. So it’s probably a good place to leave the boundary which at that point turned east to begin a long journey back up to Blackheath and on to Charlton and Kidbrook. First note the 1957 ‘temporary’ rail bridge. It is a military ‘trestle’ bridge built in a few days by Royal Engineers with steel from many sources via Greenwich’s Redpath Brown.