Woolwich in 1780

 I have been thinking but I ought to write up all the research i’ve done over 40 years on the man who built the Greenwich railway – the first powered railway in London - George Landmann. He had been a senior and  early Royal Engineer with an extremely interesting local background. He was a civilian when he built the Greenwich railway and it was not his only innovative project

However there are huge gaps in my knowledge of his life and but I really don’t think I’m going to be able to fill some of them at all them at all - so perhaps I should just go ahead and write up the bits I do know about.  Its the 200^th anniversary of the Greenwich Railway in 2036-8 but I am now so very very ancient that I think I had better do it now!!

So, I must apologise if I sometimes try out ideas here of what could go into a book about George Landmann.  To start with he was born in Woolwich in 1780 on the Arsenal site.   I thought perhaps I should say and say something about what Woolwich was like in 1780.  It’s not that easy because we don’t have - or i’m not aware of - relevant maps which would fix what thev town was like at that time The best I can come up with is the 1746 Roque map which shows Woodwich town centre. I rather suspect that Woolwich was one of the most highly industrialised towns in England at that time though I don’t have comparative figures.

I used to always enjoy going to talks where the origins of some industry or other was discussed and the late Professor Ray Riley was there. At the mention of ‘industrial revolution’ he would get up and point  to the size and complexity of the Royal Dockyards two hundred years before the supposed revolution began apparently  around 1780. In 1714 a thousand families were said to ‘belong to the Dockyard’ in Woolwich -  - and where did they live Add where were the facilities Which they would have needed.

I think we can name the area as North Kent Riverside and  it is the area of hillside between the River and the Dover Road. There is marshland between a series of Riverside settlements;- Rotherhithe, Deptford; Greenwich; Woolwich, Erith and ultimately Gravesend. One feature is that on that hillside are numerous excavations and pits – everything from dene holes  to the 1960s cement factory complex at Swanscombe.  In Woolwich  there are several pits right in the town centre. One example is in the land between St Mary’s parish church and the dockyard where concerns about the church’s stability date from the 17th century.

These riparian towns all had a very typical riverside  - fishing,  boat building, barge repair,maybe a ferry. The only exception  is Greenwich where the Palace was on the Riverside while  In Woolwich the Royal Dockyard formed one end of the  riverfront.  In 1780 the national press was full of stories about the need for more ships and thus expanding  the Royal  Dockyards citing Woolwich as the ‘mother’ dockyard  and describing planned extensions there. These extensions, undertaken over the next decade, included the Clockhouse and the gateway, still in place.  The primary ship launched in 1780 at Woolwich was a frigate called ‘Minerva’ – and so built for speed and action rather than size.  However  I don't think there is any reference to Woolwich Dockyard in George Landmann’s  autobiography  which is extraordinary since he must have seen it  every day at a time when the Navy near it's peak of its world leading assurance and effectiveness

Another major works in central woolwich was the Gover reply nment rope yard =  something which I have never written up here although I probably ought to. The rope walk was set up in the mid Tudor period  in order to provide rope for the Navy - every warship used several miles of it, all of which needed to be renewed on a regular basis. It is a very interesting institution In that it was the government owned factory at such an early date. The rope yard was on the line of what is now Berisford Street with a path called Ropeyard Rails running parallel and to the north.

 These two  big important workplaces must have dominated the Riverside in Woolwich in 1780 but George Landmann mentions neither. He does talk a bit about another such workplace - the Arsenal along with and in particular the Military Academy.

To the east of the dockyard and the rope walk lay what became the Royal Arsenal and, rather to my surprise, I find it was not designated as such until the early 19th century but I was very aware that it grew as a number of organisations were brought together. It is also important that this happened under The Board of Ordnance, a body which had been set up by under The Tudors to look after the nation’s military establishments and oversee supplies of armaments. A couple of weeks ago I wrote briefly about the establishment and ideas behind the Royal Military Academy and before that we had a speaker at Greenwich Industrial History Society, Mark Thompson talking about the rise of the scientific soldier along with Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers in Woolwich.

So , in 1780 the Woolwich Riverside was dominated by big government institutions – all of them ‘security’.  The Royal Dockyard was to the west going roughly from the Charlton boundary to what is now the Ferry Approach. To the east is the area which in 1780 had yet to become the Royal Arsenal  - it runs east from the point where the riverside path crosses the Arsenal wall as today. These big industrial sites didn’t leave very much space for the town to exist, particularly when we add in the rope walk on the line of what is now Beresford Street -- Where was Woolwich in all of this? I decided I didn’t know and so I emailed Julian Watson because he knows everything. Julian said: “Good question. Rocque shows it best, squashed between the Dockyard and the Arsenal and overlooked by St Mary Magdalene Church. Crammed into narrow streets leading off Woolwich High Street and Market Hill. Hog Lane with its Medieval houses which was later Ferry Approach… A small but densely populated community of great antiquity with an Iron Age/Roman fort at its heart by a similarly ancient Thames crossing.

South of Woolwich town is Woolwich Common along with Charlton and Plumstead Commons.  There is a whole history to the fate of these Commons but basically Woolwich Common was taken over by the military and actually purchased by them in around 1800 plus a Parliamentary order. This move was not popular and there were many complaints about the behaviour of the military On the Common - something which has not really gone away, since many conservationists  in Woolwich complain  about neglect by the military who still own it

North of the Common and to the west of the town were larger estates owned by the Bowater family. A great deal of that area is now housing. On a site purchased from them is huge range of Royal Artillery barracks built in the mid 18^th century by the Board of Ordnance and currently for Sale. There is also a considerable of amount of  open land around the barracks.  Further to the West is Repository Wood which again was purchased from the Bowater family.

The area of common and military open space has created a big green area to the south of Woolwich town. There are also several features of some interest - probably a great deal of it  in Repository Wood. One feature which should be noted Is the ha which goes along Ha Ha Road

There are of course numerous other military buildings in Woolwich and far more than that have been demolished over the years