Rennie Works on Deptford Creek

 J & G Rennie are said to have opened their Greenwich shipbuilding site in ‘Norman Road, Greenwich’ in the 1830s. To be really pedantic, I must point out that Norman Road did not exist in the 1830s. 

I assume the Rennies’ site is that shown on the 1860s Ordnance Survey map as lying adjacent to and north of the Greenwich railway and with access to Deptford Creek. This area may, or may not, have been part of a copperas works plus a ‘big’ house, which seems to have gone out of use in the 1830s when the Pearson family who owned it moved to Maze Hill. 

In the mid 1840s, the Greenwich Vestry had a map drawn up in order to have something more accurate for collection of the rates. There is no sign whatsoever of Rennie’s works on it and the site that later seems to be theirs is a collection of small holdings – described as ‘market gardens’, ‘meadows’, ‘sheds’. The freeholder is either a local dignitary, ‘Joshua Hargrave’, or John Manship Norman, a lawyer after whom Norman Road was to be named. Some of the holdings are, however, let to ‘Faulkner’ and I have wondered if he is an agent or some connection of the Rennies. 

SO FAR, SO MYSTERIOUS… 

The Rennie site seems to have been known as ‘Creek Yard Boiler Works’ and, although it is described as a shipbuilding site, the Creek here, above Creek Road Bridge, could hardly be described as ideal for building a vessel of any size. Thus in 1859, the Rennies took over Dreadnought Wharf with a Thames deep-water frontage where William Joyce had already built some substantial vessels. There the Rennies began with the Carthagena floating docks project and stayed until the early 20th century. 

Every account I have seen about work by the Rennie family in Greenwich is about projects undertaken at Dreadnought Wharf. I appreciate that, for those who do not know the area, the two sites are easily confused, but they were different and did different things. The next thing I am sure of about the Creekside site is that in 1864 the Phoenix Gas Company bought the adjacent site to the north which involved some discussion with Rennies on access to the Creek – which the gas company did not need and which Rennie took over.  I very much suspect that in the 20^th century the gas company sure – by then South Met., took over the rest of the Rennie site. In the 1950s the nationalised gas industry had an enamelling factory on what had been the Rennie site.

 
So what was going on at the Deptford site?  A newspaper report of 1869 describes a strike there. This involved a government contract for ‘60 or 70 flat bottomed vessels for the shallow navigation of rivers in India’.   Two hundred men downed tools thinking that this valuable contract ought to lead to more pay for them.  The Rennies apparently got the Government to cancel the contact and sacked all the men.  While I suspect there was rather more to it than all that, it does give us two clues to what was done there. ‘Flat bottomed vessels’ could mean anything from punts upwards – but probably means something like a lighter.  ‘Two hundred men’ though does seem rather a lot of men.  I appreciate that 20^th century boat builders had power tools but Joe Jakubait built 90 ft New Orleans in 1991 in Greenwich with a staff of 20.

 The Rennie’s Greenwich engine and boiler shop was closed apparently  in 1887. Subsequently  1895, eight years after the work is supposed to have  closed,  two advertisements appeared in the local press for its sale. One advertisement describes a plot of freehold building land ‘near the station and park’… ‘a freehold wharf and dock on with a water frontage Deptford creek’  and which had been run as a boiler works.  It was for sale by auction but whether this sale ever took place I do not know.

 The other advertisement is for a different auction sale of the tools on the premises - boilermakers tools soe of which are described as ‘nearly new’ ......

.....including nearly new hydraulic riveter, by Hugh Smith and Co., to admit of 10ft. 6.in,, and press 130 tons on rivet plate closer, Tweddell’s riveter, with wrought iron man 5ft. high, steam riveter, set nearly new vertical steel plate-bending rolls, by Scrivcn, 10ft. 6in. wide, 14in and 18in. diameter, two sets horizontal ditto, sis punching and shearing machines, two steam hammers, two screwing machines, five drilling machines, a 4-spindle multiple adjustable drill. An 11 ft plate edge planer, lathe, two Goliath and five overhead travellers, two derrick and 13 forge and other cranes, two testing machines, proving pump, Cornish boiler, donkey-feed pump, two marine boilers, 20h.p. horizontal engine, 36in fan plate, furnaces and smiths hearths, eight tanks, wagon weighbridge, corrugated iron anvils, levelling slabs, shaping blocks, shafting, pulleys, leather belts, vices, jacks, and a large assortment of smiths' and boilermakers’ tools, adapted to the foregoing machines. (South London Press, June 29, 1895) 1 | LEFT 

This impressive list of machinery was offered for sale by auction in July 1895 on the premises of Rennie’s Boiler Works, Norman Road, Greenwich, and in fact gives one of the few pieces of hard information we have about this well known, but elusive, sin 1864 the Phoenix Gas Company bought the adjacent site to the north, which involved some discussion with the Rennies on access to the creek, which the gas company did not need and which Rennie took over. I very much suspect that, in the 20th century, the gas company – by then South Met – took over the rest of the Rennie site. 

A newspaper report of 1869 describes a strike at the yard in Deptford Creek. This involved a government contract for ‘60 or 70 flat bottomed vessels for the shallow navigation of rivers in India’. Two hundred men downed tools thinking that this valuable contract ought to lead to more pay for them. The Rennies apparently got the government to cancel the contract and sacked all the men. While I suspect there was rather more to it than all that, it does give us two clues as to what was done there. ‘Flat bottomed vessels’ could mean anything from punts upwards – but probably means something like a lighter. ‘Two hundred men’, though, does seem rather a lot. I appreciate that 20th-century boatbuilders had power tools but Joe Jakubait built the 90ft New Orleans and all its complex superstructure in 1991 in Greenwich with a staff of 20. 

In 1887, it is said that Rennie’s engine and boiler shop closed, and I have the sale details, eight years later, quoted above and taken from the South London Press on June 29, 1895 (fig.01). It has been commented to me that much of the listed equipment is reminiscent of that seen 100 years later at the sale of the River Thames shipbuilders’ [builders’ name?] works at North Woolwich in the late 1970s.2 After the 1880s, the OS maps show a vacant site. It is not until the 1950s that maps show an enamelling works owned by the nationalised gas industry and clearly part of an extension to the adjacent gas holder site once owned by Phoenix. 

There seems remarkably little to know about this works. There are numerous references to items manufactured by the Rennies – and they inevitably state that the item was made at their Blackfriars works. Is it possible that items were actually made in Greenwich and then taken to Blackfriars for sales, finishing, or whatever? The Norman Road site is usually described as a ‘shipbuilding yard’ but contemporary references are to a boiler and engine works. 

Their ‘shipbuilding yard’ was nearby – Dreadnought Wharf, on the Thames to the north with which it is so easily confused. The only evidence I have found is that the Rennies did not build ‘60 or 70 flat bottomed vessels’ and I would be interested in some hard and conclusive evidence of something they did make. This is clearly an important site and frequently mentioned in works on the Rennie family and their work. It seems to be assumed that we know what went on there. But that really is not clear, nor is how it linked into their other engine works and shipyards. If anyone can shed any more light on the Norman Road site

 

ROYAL DOCKYARD DEPTFORD

I have been working away at all sorts of early local industry for another project and doing a lot of work on the history of the Royal Dockyards – because they are so early and so huge both in their output and in their number of staff.  I don’t think I have ever done a proper article about Deptford Royal Dockyard. To be honest I’ve done so many of these articles that I’m not sure what I have done!

I should start with a disclaimer. The site of Deptford’s Royal Dockyard is now entirely within the London Borough of Lewisham - but I feel I should include it as a Greenwich site. The whole of the Dockyard area was originally in Kent and would have been in St Nicholas parish. Half of it remained in the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich but eventually it was handed over to Lewisham in the 1970. This was mainly so that the London County Council constructed Pepys Estate could be administered as a single body by Lewisham Council.

The Greenwich area is remarkable in having two Royal Dockyards. This area had had a Royal presence since the Middle Ages. In the late 15^th/early 16^th century the Court gradually moved from Eltham Palace to Greenwich and it was the ambition of the monarch – Henries VII and VIII to build a Navy.  It must have seemed obvious that nearby areas on the riverside could be used as site. Henry VII had a storehouse here in Deptford and the site was greatly expanded under Henry VIII.

There is a vast amount of information on Deptford Dockyard – and this is only a briefest summary. The archaeological report produced in 2014 is a substantial volume and there are many other articles and blogs. For many years I have been a Member of the Naval Dockyard Society which is based in Portsmouth, but which produces regular volumes many of which refer to Deptford. In 2013 the Dockyard featured in a special conference at the Maritime Museum and which was opened by Joan Ruddock who was then the Member of parliament for Deptford hello

The Society’s web site is https://navaldockyards.org/   and their front page shows a grand picture of the launch of the Lenox in 167 0 8. Followers of Deptford’s voluntary sector will know about the ‘build the Lenox campaign.’  https://www.buildthelenox.org/ https://www.buildthelenox.org/ but I really don’t know what has happened to them and I’m afraid they might just have given up in despair.  Perhaps somebody would let me know

The Dockyard itself was built around a naval store house built in 1517 to which moorings and a dock basin were added. But it may have been sited here at first as the result of a natural pond which may have been used since the 13^th century to moor Royal ships and where repairs and maintenance could take place

The Tudor 'Great Store-house' lasted for a century after the Dockyard closed but was demolished by the Admiralty in 1951. Following some agitation the foundation stone was preserved and given to University College, London in 1953 by the London County Council. The University managed to cover it up and forget they had it.  It was discovered a few years ago by Chris Mazieka from Shipwrights Palace and is now back on display.  The storehouse building was parallel to the river and the Great Dock - a double-length dry dock - lay next to it. At the same time as docks were built there were also offices, stores and other amenity buildings. These included large houses for senior officers.

Deptford was the most important of the Royal Dockyards, and, as The Kings Yard, it was visited on occasion by the monarch to inspect new ships building there.  Under Elizabeth the yard was expanded and it was associated with Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind and ships which opposed the Armada. Elizabeth is said to have knighted  Francis Drake there in 1581.

By the 17th century the yard covered a large area and included several storehouses. The Great Dock was lengthened and enlarged in 1610, several slipways were remodelled and in 1620 a second dry dock was built, with a third was authorised in 1623.  After 1688 a Great New Storehouse was built.

Diarist Samuel Pepys was Clerk to the Navy Board 1660-1689 and Deptford was well within his remit. In 1675 he said that 305 shipwrights were needed to build one ship and Deptford Dockyard  had a huge workforce of tradesmen, labourers and clerks with a Master Shipwright at their head.  A century later on 14^th September 1755 there were 1,066 workers at the yard. Industrial action was far from unknown and I have written an an earlier article about the constant disputes and an action which was not then known as ‘a strike’ but came to the same thing.

In 1698 Tsar Peter the Great in 1698 came to learn about work in the yard and the damage done to Evelyn’s Sayes Court by his entourage –‘right nasty’ –is well known.  A group of rather strange statues on the Deptford riverside is said to commemorate his visit.

Clearly many important and very beautiful ships were built at Deptford. I am not going to try to describe them at all - after all that’s what the Maritime Museum is here to do and I am sure that whatever I say will look very silly compared to what they have to say.

As warfare increased through the 18^th century so there was a massive growth in naval power and the Royal Dockyards were at the heart of foreign policy.  They were not only massive industrial complexes in themselves but generated many additional industries. But as the smallest Dockyard, upriver Deptford was difficult to access by large vessels but convenient for Navy Board officials based at Somerset House. Deptford was increasingly used as a depot for the distribution of naval supplies. In the Hanoverian period, voyages by James Cook, Martin Frobisher and George Vancouver began here.

After 1763 Britain’s naval perspective altered and was less concerned with foreign wars. “There was a more competent bureaucracy, a thriving maritime economy .. and British maritime ascendancy”.  From Deptford were launched several ships for Nelson’s Navy including ships which fought at Trafalgar. As well as the site of the launching of over three hundred ships it was the point of departure for countless journeys of exploration, voyages of discovery and naval battle

Machinery and steam power were becoming important. The second steam dredger was built at Deptford in 1807 and the navy’s first steam vessel, Congo, launched here in 1816. But it was in Woolwich and other yards that the steam Navy was built.

River walls were constructed in the early 19^th century including work by John Rennie, with Jolliffe and Bank as contractors, dating from 1815-16. These are now listed along with the eastern boundary wall along Upper Watergate which is also the current borough boundary.

The yard was closed in 1830 – but reopened in 1843 with a restriction on the size of vessels. Some of the largest roof structures of the time were built in iron over the ship building slips. One remains on site known as the Olympia warehouse. The yard finally closed, along with Woolwich, in 1869 as part of a general government cost cutting exercise. Its 800 remaining workers were transferred elsewhere.  This site was used as City of London’s foreign cattle market and then by a number of military and naval bodies. In 1984  was sold to Convoys paper warehousing for News International

What remains are many great paintings of important ships under construction or repair, reflecting their glamour and fame.  There is also an exact model of the yard prepared for George III now in the National Maritime Museum.  The bell tower of the quadrangle storehouse is now a feature of a supermarket in Thamesmead. 

At the extreme downriver end of the dockyard site is a large and rambling building. It dates from 1708, but was added to and used as the Master Shipwright’s house and offices.  It was sold separately by Convoys to two young men who have since restored the building - as The Shipwrights Palace and they have undertaken much meticulous research on the site. The Former Master Shipwright's House, Olympia  and the former Office Building are both Grade II* listed. 

In 2025 the remaining Dockyard site still remains largely derelict and awaiting development. I am very aware of a number of people who have projects they would like to undertake on the site and I am also unaware of the very lively and involved local community Many of whom have had great ideas about the future of this important site. Constant delays by developers and others still mean is future is unknown.

 

 

 

 

What is left from Woolwich Dockyard

 

Last week’s article was about the basic history of the Royal Dockyard in Deptford and I thought I should also do something about the Royal Dockyard in Woolwich - but I’ve done several articles about that in the past with quite a bit of the background history.  Perhaps I should look more generally at what actual remains there are of the Royal Dockyards – things we can go and see.

In the Deptford Dockyard article I did mention some of the things left at Deptford - and I’m sure there is lots of things there that I just don’t know about.  It seems we have this huge site which is still just as the archaeologists left some years ago – please tell me if I am wrong! The one Interesting building still there is ’Olympia’. But this article is going to be about Woolwich so I’ll leave Deptford for now.

There are some remains of Woolwich dockyard which are no longer in Woolwich. I mentioned above the Olympia warehouse at Deptford and it was one of the huge roofs which were built to cover shipbuilding slips. I hope sometime to do a whole article about them because there’s been quite a bit written up about them in industrial history and shipbuilding journals. There were several at Woolwich and the survivors of them are those that were moved to Chatham Dockyard in the late 19^th century.

One of the ones which went to Chatham has gone but there are still two very much in use there. The first was innovative 6 Slip erected at Woolwich, in 1844–52  thought to be the oldest surviving example of wide metal frame structure. It was moved in 1880 to Chatham where it was adapted for use as  a machine shop.  Currently, it's an empty, skeletal structure awaiting redevelopment. The other iron-framed slip cover at Woolwich was built in 1847–8 and was ‘wider in span, more robust and about double the price’. It was moved to Chatham in 1876 to become their main boiler shop. It’s since been restored and you can go and see it as the Mall of Chatham Dockside Outlet Shopping Centre

Even further away from Woolwich than Chatham is Blists Hill Museum in Shropshire. That is where part of the Anchor Forge or Smithery from Woolwich Dockyard is.  It was built in 1814 and designed by John Rennie – for the first industrial use of steam power  for the Navy, and where the largest ironwork could be made plus the manufacture and assembly of steam engines. The centre section is now at Blists Hill Museum as part of am local ironworks exhibit. I am getting together information about how it got there and I promise I will write this all up here soon. And ‘thank you’ to  those people who have already given me information. What I would really like to know is who funded it - it must have cost a lot of money to move all that stuff up to Shropshire

So what remains on site from the Dockyard in Woolwich?  Start at the Ferry Roundabout.

Going from Woolwich Ferry in the direction of Greenwich the road passes a very long wall on the right which dates from 1833. The first section of the Dockyard is on our right as the road - Woolwich Church Street  - leaves the Woolwich Ferry roundabout. The oldest part of the Dockyard is on the right and I will come back to that at the end of this article.

On our left is The Mitre pub and a path which leads steeply up to the churchyard and St Mary Magdalene church is at the top.  There is a brick retaining wall apparently holding up the land between the road and the churchyard. The wall slopes down to ground level at the corner of Church Hill.   Cross over the road to the Dockyard wall - on the other side of the wall, is Maud Cashman Way but it is so far below us that down there are two storey houses with roofs lower than Woolwich Church Street. 

Once there must have been a continuous hillside between the church and the river – but now there is just Woolwich Church Street and empty space! The Survey of London, Woolwich volume, says that the Dockyard was originally built in a quarry and they give quite a bit of detail.  So, perhaps that empy space is the earliest industrial relic of the dockyard! I must add it to my list of quarry remains along the Riverside between Greenwich and Woolwich!

Along the road is th4 junction with Francis Street opposite what became the main gate to the Dockyard. This is a grandish gateway with two stone piers on either side with an anchor and rope carving on them; obviously original. Once inside the gateway,on the right. are two buildings  - one of them was the Guard House built in 1788, with a pleasant looking loggia and it was originally a single storey building. Next to it is the Master Warden’s Lodgings built at around the same time. In 1980s they were together turned into a pub called ‘The Gatehouse’. That has now gone - and I’m not going to speculate why – and they have now been converted into flats.

Once through the gates the Clockhouse Community Centre is straight ahead. It was an office block – Woolwich Dockyard never had an Admiral Superintendent! - built in the 1780s. I did a long article about it here last year.

On the riverside the granite River Wall goes all the way along the length of the Dockyard from Trinity Stairs in Warspite Street to the Ferry Approach.  On the Riverside past the Clockhouse is a gun emplacement built in 1835 and a central landing place built in 1847. There’s a circular platform as a turntable for naval guns - made of course - in the Royal Arsenal. They were thus enabled to turn – but today they are pointing at the London Borough of Newham. 

Nearby and also on the riverside are 19^th century stepped docks of granite, built themselves on the site of earlier docks. These are the earliest extant dry docks associated with the steam navy. Modern steel caissons seal both docks, which are permanently flooded. They are, or were, used for fishing and recreation as the South-East London Aquatic Centre. I would be interested to know more about their current status and use.

Back in Church Street and further on from the ferry roundabout we go past the spectacular chimney and we should be very pleased that it still exists.  It was probably built in the early 1840s by a specialist engineer and it vented all the flues for the Woolwich Naval Steam Factory and in the 20^th century by the Royal Arsenal Co-op Commonwealth Buildings, on site from the 1920s.  It is 180 feet tall, reduced from 208 feet, and octagonal in stock brick.  There are said to be underground tunnels connecting it to the River.

Even further down Church Street there is another gateway into the Dockyard site.  This was the entrance to the Steam factory – to build steamships when the Navy realised that the great wooden sailing ships of Nelson’s Navy needed to be replaced. The gateway was later used as the entrance to the Co-op’s  Commonwealth Buildings factory and the decoration on the gates here is thought to have been put there by the Co-op.  Alongside the gate are the buildings now used by the Co-op funeral department but which were built as the Apprentice School. I did a special article about them last year. On the other side of the gateway is what was the Police building  of 1843.

Beyond them are many buildings of the steam factory which still survive several of which were also used by the Co-op as part of Commonwealth Buildings. If you wander around this area you will see many 19^th century buildings and there is a great deal of detail in the various listings documents and in the Survey of London, Woolwich.  Some of them were built by Royal Engineers.  One of these is the concrete Woolwich Store Warehouse built in 1914 when the dockyard was being used as a military store depot.

Now there are three more things to look at. If we go back to the Woolwich Ferry there are a number of new blocks of flats on a site called Mast Quay – these are the flats which have recently been the subject of some publicity by Greenwich Council. This is the oldest part of the dockyard but also the part most recently used for shipbuilding.  There are two Shipbuilding Slips which are now a feature of the housing estate. They are both replacements for older slips and they are probably very much older than anything else here. No 6 slip was Lengthened and straightened in 1844-6 and has been used most recently, in the 1970s, for the building of some fairly substantial  ships by Cubow – again this is a subject I have written about here last year and the works of the Cunis family here,

Now that leaves us with two more Dockyard relics although neither are particularly maritime. One of them is the old railway tunnel which goes under Church Street from Prospect Vale, near Woolwich Dockyard Station. It is now a pedestrian subway under the main road. It was built in the 1870s when the Dockyard was being used as a military store depot to connect the yard with the North Kent Line.  There is also a tiny bit of line left in a completely derelict condition going from the main line towards Prospect Vale in the adventure playground.

There is another subway under Church Street going to the shops in Kingsman Parade. This was built for the residents in the – then new – Dockyard Estate and has murals by Greenwich Mural workshop supervised by the, sadly late, Steve Lobb.

The other thing is a building which is still in use but not on site – and even more surprising. This is St Bartholomew’s church in Rochester Way, Eltham, at the Well Hall roundabout. This church, by Sir George Gilbert Scott, was once down by the main gate of the Dockyard. It was rebuilt in 1932. It’s not as it was originally because it was bombed quite badly in 1944 and restored in the 1950s.  But it’s still in use – although I don’t know if it includes any reference to maritime construction.

Sir George Hume. Tory MP

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the 1945 General Election and how Greenwich had elected a Labour member of Parliament - Joe Reeves. I thought Joe was an exceptional person which is why I took time to write about him

Joe won the seat for Labour - but it may be a surprise to many people to learn that throughout most of the 1920s and all of the 1930s Greenwich was represented by a Tory Member of Parliament. Joe Reeves’ win was probably not only because of the Labour ‘landslide’ but also because the Tory,  George Hume,  had retired and in fact died quite soon after in September 1945. So, Hume had retained the seat for over 20 years -  what could I find out about him?  The first thing that caught my eye was that he was born in the city of Poltava.  I’ll come back to that later and I must admit I had never heard of the place – but, thanks to Google Street View I now know that it is an extremely beautiful city – with a phenomenal number of street trees.

George Hume appears to have been in his mid 30s when he became involved in Greenwich politics. His family seems to have had some longstanding  connection to Greenwich –more about that later. He came to Britain from Russia.- probably  in his teens – his father says he sent him and his brother to live in Cheltenham for a ‘thorough English Education’ at a school in Stroud.   However his Parliamentary biography says he was educated in Russia, Switzerland and  Finsbury Technical College. He later undertook an apprenticeship in Woolwich with Siemens as an electrical engineer.  He was also a lawyer and was called to the Bar in 1900.  He retained the relationship with Siemens acting as their legal adviser and eventually taking up a directorship with them.

His father describes travelling round parts of eastern Europe on geological expeditions with ‘my son’. He doesn’t say which son this is but I think it more likely to have been his other son, William.

In the first years of the 20th century local politics was going through an era of change in that the  vestries and boards of guardians were, in London,  being turned into municipal boroughs with the first elections to them in 1900. Hume had been elected to Charlton Vestry in the 1890s and then to the  Lee Board of Works which covered the Charlton area. Both were about to be abolished.

In 1900 Hume was elected to the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich for their first session. He was the Leader of the Conservatives  majority ‘Moderate’  Party – making him the first Leader of the Council .  In a newspaper report of a tumultuous early Council meeting  on the appointment and salaries of the newly appointed officers Hume’s calm, fact based, report is in contrast to the accusations and insults flying about from both Council members and public in the gallery..

He did not stand for Greenwich Council again and in 1910 he was elected to the London County Council as member for Greenwich. As such he sat on the Thames Conservancy Board for over 30 years . He was Chair of their London Electricity Committee  and appears to have specialised in  bodies with a public electrical supply interest. In May 1914 he presided over a ceremony to commission new turbines at the Greenwich Power Station, built to power London’s  trams. 

The London County Council was then dominated by the Conservative Party - calling itself at this point the Municipal Reform Party. He became their leader in 1918, making him in effect Leader of the Council.  This really is the peak of his political career – the leader of the London County Council Is the equivalent almost of today’s London Mayor, now Sadiq khan. However In the 1920s the post wielded far more power influence - and money  than Sadiq could ever dream of. It was certainly very very much more important than any backbench Member of Parliament.

 In1922 he was appointed as County Alderman. which he held until his death and In 1924 he was knighted in Stanley Baldwin’s dissolution honours . In 1925 he resigned as Council Leader, and took on the ceremonial post of Chairman. 

Clearly this early part of his political career in local government is one of someone who was exceptionally able. He doesn’t seem to have continued to get recognition of that as a Member of Parliament and spent his entire career of around 20 years as a backbencher.  Did he decide that he was only interested in local relationships rather than national legislation?  Did he do something exceptionally awful which would have excluded him ever again from office. I just don’t know.

He was first elected to parliament in 1922 as a ‘Unionist’ candidate . He had stood against the Labour candidate, Edward Palmer. General elections came thick and fast  -in  1923 he lost and Palmer won the seat ...... and in 1924 he won the seat back .....but in 1929 Palmer won it ..... in 1931 Hume won   Palmer didn’t stand again  and in 1935 Hume  won against Labour’s Joe Reeves = who I wrote about last week.  In 1945 Hume didn’t stand and Joe Reeves won.  Hume died a few months later.

I have gone on a bit here about his political career and we need to get back to the Ukraine. I am not going to even begin to try to list the number of organisations he was involved with in his 20 years as Greenwich’s Member of Parliament.  In the local Press he appears most weeks at some local event or other and was involved with some national Conservative Party bodies like the Primrose League. He is said to have been very religious and was involved with some charities outside of Greenwich - for instance the Mildmay Mission in Hackney. Nationally he retained an interest in public electricity supply like the Advisory Committee of the Board of Trade on Electricity and Power Supply and the London Electricity Authority.

So how was it he came to be born in the beautiful city of Poltava in the Ukraine? In fact he seems to have lived for most of his childhood in Russia where he became fluent in French, German and Russian as well as English  His father, also George Hume, had lived in Russia for some years and had a business and works in Poltava and in Kharkov.  He was one of what seems to be many 19th cerntury young men who had trained as engineers in England and then went to Eastern Europe to seek their fortune - and some of them found it.  Readers of Dicken’s Little Dorrit will remember how Arthur’s problems are all solved with the news of the engineering machinery opportunities in eastern Europe!

The Hume family seem to have had a Scottish background but his grandfather had come to work in a London brewery ‘to superintend the making of Scottish Ale. I do not know which brewery this was but the London breweries in this period where sources of vast profits. The family had clear links with Greenwich where his maternal great grand father, a Mr. Purvis, was a property owner–the young George Hume senior lived in Circus Street and commented that nearby Prior Street was named for his grandmother who had been a Miss Prior. 

George Hume senior spent his childhood in Felbridge in Surrey and went to school in Egham.  On leaving he undertook an engineering apprenticeship with a Mr.W. of Ipswich. On completing his time with them he returned to Greenwich to take up a post at ‘the great engineering works of John Penn’s – the proudest day of my life!’ He was soon working on’erecting the engines of several of our ships of war’ – the last he worked on was Warrior ‘the first engined ironclad’. Then working for Penn’s at Samuda’s Yard he went to sea while monitoring a device fitted on a vessel commissioned by the Russian Gcvernment   

He eventually stayed on board the boat until it reached Odessa where it was to be delivered. After a whole saga of adventures he was asked to stay on as Chief Engineer – and a telegraph to Penns got a reply ‘Study your own interests – England is very slack’. Many more adventures followed all described in chaotic detail in his book ‘Thirty Five Years in Russia’. Eventually he began a business importing steam grain handling equipment from various British firms including Marshalls of Gainsborough.  He also erected a number of mills. Later, in partnership with a Mr.Lister he opened a foundry and manufacturing businesss in Poltava.  Unable to get workmen there he moved to Kharkov where built a distillery. He moved back to Poltava with a contract for mills and a dam, but again labour was only available in the major city of Kharkov.

Many sources say that he was in fact a British Vice Consul for this part of Ukraine – but there is no mention of this in his book. He also says very little about his family.  He had married Jane Hopwood in Cheltenham and she lived with him in the Ukraine and possibly accompanied him on some of his adventures. The couple had six children,  four of whom died as babies in the Ukraine. Hence the decision to send their two living sons – future MP George and his brother William  - to England to be educated.

So our MP from the 1920s and 1930s having had a childhood in eastern Europe came to Greenwich and stayed until he died. I don’t know his earlier addresses but he lived in Lee Road for many years until the end of his life. In reference to his Parliamentary record for those who measure a Member of Parliament by the number of questions he asks of Ministers, George Huram said that he did not ask questions in Parliament - he got things done instead. And that doesn’t seem to be too bad in the way of her epitaph

.

 

 

WORKERS IN THE ROYAL DOCKYARDS

“Artisanal skilled, literate, dissenting, democratised and independent minded’.   This is a description given of Royal Dockyard workers in Deptford in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in a report on Deptford High Street housing.[1]  In addition to the description of the High Street houses, there is an introductory essay which says some important things about Deptford, including a great deal about [2]the dockyard and its workers.

These articles in the Report say that Deptford was an ‘exceptional place’ which expanded around the Royal Dockyard ‘as an early industrial facility at the heart of the rise of British sea power’. It’s obviously important that in Deptford the main employer is the State, as it is in Woolwich with its Royal Dockyard and military establishments, - and also Greenwich with the Palace and Royal Hospital. Although Deptford was near London it was not a suburb but an independent town with its own local economy-. It had a population of shipwrights who' walked to work from the town to the Dockyard' and were paid wages and were ‘independent minded’. 

In the early days of Greenwich Industrial History Society we had as a speaker, Rodney Dobson, who had written and researched industrial action before 1800.  I had done ‘Labour History’ as an undergraduate at Thames Poly and then it was being said that trade union history before around the late 19^th century was all about craft associations for skilled workers. ‘Real’ militant trade unions were later.

The shipwrights who worked at the Royal Dockyards were skilled workers  but I also find the word ‘shipwrights’ quite difficult because it seems to cover many grades of workers from the top man in charge of the while dockyard right down to barely skilled labourers.  Some other dockyard workers were named after their trades - for example carpenters and caulkers. Also of course many other shipyard workers who lived in Deptford could have worked in one of the numerous local private shipyards.

Looking for information about ‘shipwrights’ I found a newspaper report of 1730 about a Mr Holt ‘a shipwright belonging to his majesty’s yard of Deptford who was robbed in a field by two foot pads who knocked him down. They took from him a silver watch half a Guinea and three shillings[3]. That was hard luck on Mr Holt and I don’t want to sound like him supporting the foot pads but somebody who goes around with a silver watch and that much money is not hard up.

Dockyard wages were frequently paid in arrears with long delays between payments.  Men must have supported their families during this time without regular wages and clearly had means of doing so - which says a lot about their relative prosperity. With some irony it appears in 1679 that men who were found smoking were fined 6 days pay but this could not be enforced because their wages were in arrears. [4]

Much has been written about dockyard workers and the issue of the ‘chips’ and I I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here because several people seem to have written entire books about the chips issue – and  I have space for one paragraph only!. Over two centuries the dockyard authorities, and indeed the government, tried to find a way of controlling the ‘chips’  issue and as fast as new regulations were made so  workers found ways round them.  ‘Chips’ had nothing to do with fried potatoes – they were scraps of waste wood which workers had originally been allowed to take home for firewood. They were to do with what you might have on your shoulder and they were the reason why many dockyard workers were not allowed to wear trousers to work. [5]

‘You are to suffer no person to pass out of the dock gates with great coats, large trousers, or any other dress that can conceal stores of any kind. No person is to be suffered to work in Great Coats at any time yeah None over any account. No trousers are to be used by the labourers employed in the Storehouse and if any persist in such a custom he will be discharged the yard.[6]

On the whole press stories about the shipwrights at Deptford are positive and they come over as hard working and honest patriots. In 1768 a spokesman said.’ there is no man amongst us who would not freely die for King and Country but we will not suffer ourselves to be slaves ... for we are free born subjects’. 

We learn of urgent work undertaken by the dockyards over the centuries.  For instance in 1755  because of ‘Rumour of War’ ‘Orders were received from the Lords Commissioners to get ready the following Ships, which lay in Ordinary up the Harbour, viz: Mary and Tilbury, each of 60 Guns, Oxford and Isis, each of 50 Guns, Chesterfield and Lynne, each of 40 Guns, Ferret Sloop-of 12 Guns and Deptford Storeship. The “Shipwrights, Caulkers, Rope-makers, Joiners, &c. belonging to the Dock, worked last Sunday, which they did not for two Sundays ; the King’s Bakers likewise worked. [7]

But for many shipwrights if conditions in England didn’t suit them they could always work abroad. In 1779 it was reported that “more than two thirds of the Spanish navy have been built by English workers ‘. [8] Which was ok as long as it wasn’t the enemy’s yards they were working in.

Sometimes things were more leisurely. In 1782 it was reported that ‘The manner that men were employed in the yards was absolutely scandalous.  they were bound to work till 12 and yet they  left off at 11:30 and though the bell rang for them to begin again at 1:00 not a stroke of work ever was begun before 3:00’.  [9]

They will also not averse to striking. For instance in 1802 ‘the shipwrights and caulkers of Deptford Dockyard have struck for an advance of wages’[10]. Also less peaceably “On Friday afternoon mutiny of a very alarming nature took place at Deptford amongst the shipwrights. As we are given understand it arose about the perquisites of chips. About four o'clock, they were got to such pitch, desperation that the whole town was in the utmost, consternation imaginable, Peace was restored by a body of Guards’.[11]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that dockyard workers were so highly organised that in case of industrial action all Dockyards could be got ‘out’ in 24 hours - that’s not just Deptford and Woolwich but also  Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth and Milford Haven.

Things could be very difficult but shipwrights could find a way round it. On another occasion when the master joiner decided to abolish chips without wage increases, carpenters and joiners stopped work, ‘occupied the yard and placed pickets armed with axes at the gates.... A battalion of the First Regiment of Guards was sent but at six the next morning none of the workmen came in’. [12] When that happened war with Spain had just been declared putting the workers in a very strong bargaining position. There was nothing like a good way to get increased advantages for dockyard workers.

One aspect of the ideas among them was the setting up of the earliest recorded co-ops. Something I would like to write about in future.

So – as I said above this has been a very quick look at the shipwrights of the Deptford dockyards.  who were  “Artisanal skilled, literate, dissenting, democratised and independent minded’.  

And there were always surprises: There is now living at Deptford a Woman, who served as a Shipwright in our different Dock-Yards fourteen Years without Suspicion or Discovery; at the Expiration of this Time had a Pension granted, when the has married and had several Children.

 

THE BIRTH OF CO-OPERATION

In Woolwich we had the earliest co-ops recorded.

Labour relations in the Royal Dockyards in the 18^th and 19^th centuries were not good, to put it mildly, but historians have found what they describe as ‘indications of mutual activity’. After a long strike in 1745 there is a report of groups of shipwrights getting together and making offers to various contractors to deal with them rather than with their employers. The Survey of Woolwich describes how ‘enterprising mutualists’ developed in the Thameside 18^th naval dockyards. Shipbuilding was, they say, ‘an unusually co-operative trade and dockyard employment fostered strong collective values’.

Dockyard shipwrights came together in the 1750s to form a retail society, and hoped to gain some control over the supply and price of basic food. ‘Open to all who were employed within the yards, this was, it has been claimed, the first co-operative society in England. This Society of Shipwrights came into existence as a retail co-operative society’. It opened a bakery in Chatham, a corn mill in Woolwich and a butcher shop in Church Street, Deptford.

I Physical In Deptford a report of 1758 describes  a new Butcher Shop, ‘set up by subscription of the Artificers in his Majesty's Yard at Deptford ...opened in Church Street, to the great benefit of the poor in the Town -the Meat being sold at the lowest prices ... which immediately occasioned a great fall in the value of meat’[13].  I can’t imagine that went down well with the local butchers either but I have found no report of their reaction.

Happily we know more about the Woolwich corn mill.

Mill Lane in Woolwich is a turning off Woolwich New Road. It is on land once known as Mill Hill because several windmills were sited there. probably from the 15^th century.  Among them was the ‘shipwrights mill’ built on the high ground in 1758 by the Shipwrights’ Society along with a bake house.  In the 17th century the Board of Ordnance had owned land here and built a conduit to supply water to what became the Arsenal down at the Warren. The Shipwrights Society got permission to build on this area for the annual rent of a shilling, so long as they allowed artillery officers and Ordnance Board employees to subscribe and that they supplied bread to the barracks if necessary.[14] It was said later that “some time ago the Artificers in his Majesty's Yard at Woolwich had agreed to build a Corn Mill, and make their own Bread, in imitation of their Brethren at Chatham.’[15]

A public house just across Woolwich New Road was known as the Jolly Shipwrights.

However in March 1760 ‘the mill built by the Shipwrights belonging to His Majesty’s Dockyard at Woolwich was on Sunday, the 16^th of this instant, consumed by fire  - and the said Mill had worked for about six Weeks, but did not work on Sunday.  nor was there any Body in it from Twelve that Day, yet that Night it was entirely consumed, by what Means, is variously suspected”.  Naturally it was other local bakers who were suspected.[16]

It was said ‘scandalously and maliciously’ that Woolwich bakers ‘were concerned in setting the same on fire’. Six Woolwich bakers swore before the, Lord Mayor of London on March 24^th 1760 that they ‘do severally make oath and say that they neither knew nor heard of the same in flames, and that they, nor any of them, did not set the same on fire or were in any matter whatever accessory to the said accident; .[17]

The rebuilt mill appears to have settled into productivity –although in 1782, when trade was slack, the shipwrights approached the Board Ordnance offering to supply the newly built Royal Artillery Barracks with bread. However the shipwrights carried on trade with the mill for over eighty years.  It was drawn in 1845 by an artist, W Clifton, who shows an octagonal timber smock-mill.. Later the mill was let to a private company was empty and disused by the 1840s.  The property was finally ‘acquired’ by the War Office and it was demolished by the 1850s, when housing began to be built in the area.[18]

The Dockyard itself closed in the 1860s when the mill was long gone, but there are hints of suggestions of mutual organisations in its final years. However as the Dockyard closed so the first hints of a different sort of Co-op began among workers in the Arsenal – and the start of what was to become the vast Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society .It would be interesting to discover if ideas of mutual trading organisations spread almost as a legacy from the Dockyard to those able to take forward these values to Arsenal worker.

 

 

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[1] Royal Commission for Historical Monuments. Survey of Deptford High Street. 1993

[2] Dobson. Masters and Journeymen

[3] Kentish Weekly Post 7^th December 1730

[4] Dobson

[5] Dobson

[6] See https://carolineld.blogspot.com/2011/07/from-archives-deptford-dockyard-chips.html

[7] Aberdeen Press 17 June 1755.

[8] Hampshire Chronicle 1^ST November 1779.

[9] Quoted by Dobson

[10] Norfolk Chronicle 28th August 1802.

[11] Quoted by Dobson

[12] Quoted by Dobson

[13] Sussex Advertiser 5^th June 1758.

[14] Survey

[15] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 24 March 1760

[16] Survey

[17] Vincent

[18] Survey