A few weeks ago I started another episode in the history of Kidbrooke. I have been following the route of the three Kid Brook streams – and this is now the second article on the Middle Kid Brook.
In the first article I said that the stream rose where the Brook Hospital stood until recently. It then ran down Shooters Hill Road and turned south at Belgrave Court flats. From there it flowed south to what was once Arnold’s Farm and from there continuing south to what is now Kidbrook Park Road. As evidence for the route of the stream Ken White, in his booklet on the Quaggy, quoted residents’ comments on wet patches. One saying how his garden in Wricklemarsh Road was always damp, and another how in wet weather a stream of water would flow into Farjeon Road from the Shooters Hill Road sports ground at the rear of The Fox Under the Hill pub.
In its early stages the Middle Kidbrook turns south from Shooters Hill Road, and passes through what was farm land some of which became sports fields in the late 19thand early 20th centuries. Some of these were for local factories or colleges -perhaps another result of industrialisation. The recreation ground between Shooters Hill and Farjeon Roads is now the London Marathon Playing Fields but was previously the Royal Naval College Recreation Ground. It closed when the college moved from Greenwich and prevented from being sold for housing development by The London Marathon organisation’s funding. The Hervey Road Sports Ground, previously for staff of Harvey’s Greenwich engineering works, was described in my piece on the Upper Kidbrook. On the 1920s OS map the Harvey sports ground is not shown but north of its later site are allotments at the rear of the Shooters Hill Road Cottage Hospital. South of these to the south west is a small ‘athletics ground’ with a pavilion and to the south east on the east side of the Middle Kid Brook is a ‘tennis ground’ with a pavilion. These areas are now housing – but sports grounds are a feature as Kidbrook.
Arnold’s Farm probably stood somewhere near the centre of Merriman Road but by the 1860s it had already become a brick field - bricks are very much what would have been wanted in then in Kidbrooke and in the early 20th century. In the 1890s the farm is shown as three ponds, or, more likely,three flooded excavations. The whole of what were farm fields here in Kidbrook is now housing. South of Wricklemarsh Road it is posyt war council housing but to the north between Wricklemarsh and Shooters Hill Road - the area through which the middle Kid Brook will have run was run – was developed in the 1930s by Kidbrook Estates Ltd. private developers.
These houses are predominantly three-bed semi detached. I can compare them with the three bed new build terraced house vwhich my parents bought at around the same time in Gravesend. In many ways they are very similar - three bed, garden front and back, separate bath and toilet upstairs, Crittal windows, Ideal boiler. Yet these houses built near the South London border with Kent, were more than double the price which my parents paid in Gravesend. The critical difference is that they had a garage. Gravesend factory workers could get a mortgage for a house but would never aspire to own a car. These Kidbrook houses were either for city workers or management grades in local factories.
The 1860s OS map shows the parish boundary going South East and then looping to the south west. This line is followed by Dursley Road and Kellaway Road which fronts onto a line of open land. This was farm land which remained unsold to the developers of the Kidbrook Park Estate.
In October 1942 No
141 Gliding
School for cadets was set up here east of
the parish boundary. It provided initial training using rudimentary "primary gliders" to
make short, low-altitude hops along the grass to practice basic take-offs and landings. It trained
young air cadets aged 16 the
fundamentals of airmanship and trainees did not soar over London. Gliders played a critical, spearheading role
in the Normandy landings because they were silent and could deliver
intact, but the role
of the Kidbrooke training was to provide
initial, elementary aviation training for teenage air cadets—not combat glider
pilots. The scheme moved to Gravesend airfield in
December 1945.
After the war, Dursley Road, Holburne Road, Corelli Road and other side-roads were built on part of the site of the glider school. This also included Kidbrooke School, opened in 1954 and the first prototype comprehensive. The school was renamed Corelli College in 2011 and then Halley Academy, part of the Leigh Academy.
‘I wrote an article about the school a couple of years ago as-one of my Weekender pieces. The manuscript version of it is on my blog at https://maryswritegreenwich.blogspot.com/2024/12/kiobrooke-school-and-dome-of-discovery.html; In the article I was keen to talk about its relationship with Festival of Britain constructions and try and identify its Indian architect, B.K.Chattergee. I also wanted to describe the school not just as the first ever comprehensive but also as a pioneering school for girls.
South of the school is a wide swathe of open land surviving from farmland which lay between the Middle and :Lower Kid Brooks. These were once fields called Pear Tree and 16 Acres and the northern boundry follows the cart track between Middle and Hill Farms. 13 acres are used by Kidbrooke School as their sports fields and beyond them open land is used by others for sports; The Northwood Ground is the home of non-league Long Lane Football Club and community sports hub for local grassroots football with club buildings and spectator stands. Other areas are used by Samuel Montague Boys Club . The Old Askean Sports Ground was the home of the Old Askeans Rugby Club and a venue for Kent County Cricket, but the grounds were sold for redevelopment
All of these organisations and some structures stand in the area through which the Middle Kid Brook flows. On the mid 19th century map it all looks so easy - there is a line representing the stream going from Shooters Hill Road to Kidbrooke Park Road, or its predecessor. Now it is far from simple it has become an area of small roads intersected by both the A2 motorway and the earlier Rochester Way alongside it. The route of the stream is only clear on the far side of Kidbrooke Park Road . This area needs to be looked at in detail since it may, or may not be, the site of what may have been an actual early mediaeval village
I assume that the Middle Kid Brook is underground as it nears the motorway, but whatever it is it has come through the various sets of playing fields to encounter Woolacombe Road. Apparently 90-100 Woolacombe Road is the site of Manor Farm in the early 19th century- a farm which lay on the south side of the brook. If the stream ran to the north of the farm then it could well have passed down what is now Dursley Road and which is the cul-de-sac which goes just to the motorway. Wherever it crosses the Kid Brook must go in some sort of pipe. This section of the M2 motorway opened in 1988. It is in a deep trench and at a time we understood that it was done In order to cut noise and that this was the result of much campaigning by the ladies of Greenwich Communist Party.
A bit further down the motorway there is a bridge across it and a footpath leads which goes to the parade of shops which has everything you could including a post office and buses. To the rear of the shops is a great deal local authority and it is thought to be the site of the mediaeval village.
111-114 Brook Lane is thought to be the site of early parish church, first mentioned in 1207 In 1358 it is called Saint Nicholas but by 1428 there was no priest. In 1494 it is called Saint Blaise and said to be in ruins. Ground at the southern end of Delme Crescent may be the site of the burial ground to the mediaeval church.There is some speculation that this village was wiped out in the Black Death – but it is so near both Greenwich and Woolwich but surely we would hear from them if contagious were so near and also to mention its proximity to Eltham where the Royal Palace was in use
Next we need to get to and cross over Kidbrooke Park Road. It is easy to find the Middle Kid Brook since there is a small section visible. It is on the other side of the road to the catholic St. John Fisher church
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