Local Oral History – Mrs T Coombes in 1989

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Mrs T Coombes, daughter of J. Pepper (Headmaster of Raglan Road Junior School 1941-59 and previously master in Senior Boys) in Raglan School’s Centenary 1889-1989:

Something I shall always associate with wartime is seeding grass – it grew along every pavement and at the bottom of every fence This contributed to the general air of shabbiness in the streets. The houses mostly had peeling paint, gates leaned on their hinges or were propped open, and windows were obscured by sticky netting or replacement parchment, or were blacked out with old lino or impenetrable dark air raid curtains.

The disused brickfield behind Havelock Road, which was used as a tip for industrial and household rubbish, was an irresistible adventure playground. We called it the Brickie and would sometimes wander there at lunch break and scramble about through the rubbish via little pathways, having to take care to avoid the more unpleasant patches.

Local oral history – Mr Arthur Sheppeck

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Mr Arthur Sheppeck

Some recollections from Arthur Sheppeck, who played in the brickfield, mainly from 1941 to 1949. He remembers the Brick Pit being 60 feet deep.

He told me, in 2015:

‘One day, one of the ARP wardens approached us boys. He told us “For God’s sake don’t do what I’m going to do” and he took an incendiary bomb he was carrying and lobbed it into the pit. It exploded with a blinding flash of white light, and the warden told us “that could have been you”. I can tell you, it fair put the wind up us…!’

Local oral history – Mr Daniel Bentley

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Daniel Bentley writing as Chatterton Road History Society, in 1917:

“Tony, my friend, a retired butcher was telling me that during WW2, they used the pits to dump the debris from bombed houses, things like bricks, wood, house fittings etc.

After the war the area was grassed over and used as a football pitch. Problem was that even when things are buried, the lighter materials come to the surface, and this includes the broken glass from all the house windows, which resulted in some pretty horrific injuries. Imagine the consequences of a slide tackle over broken glass . . .”

Local Oral History – Reg from Bourne Road

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Reg from Bourne Road

One long-time local, Reg, from Bourne Road told me in 2017, that when he was a boy he used to cut across the brickfield and through all the piles of dumped rubbish, as his family lived in Cannon Road, and he attend Raglan Road school.

He and the other lads would look through the rubbish discarded from the little model railway factory, (which was where Excel house now stands by the railway, on the corner between Homesdale and Godwin Roads) in the hopes of adding to their own railway sets (or selling re-usable parts).

One teacher he particularly remembers is a Mrs Evans, They called her “Creeping Jesus” because she would appear silently behind them, and when they were not attending to their school work, and hit them across their hands with a ruler.

He remembers a bakers on Havelock Road that they frequented.

Two families he remembers living in Havelock Road, and having loud remonstrations on Fridays nights, were the Crisps and Danhers.

At that time, most pupils attended Raglan Road until they were 14, and some of their lessons were in one of the school extensions, the one behind the Hayes Lane baptist chapel on Hayes Lane (I think it’s now a pupil referral centre). When they had to get back to the main buildings for the next lesson (or registration at 4pm), and one of the horse drawn rubbish carts was coming up the hill, he and his friend would run out – without the driving spotting them – and hang on the back of the cart.

Sometimes, when they got to the main road, a public spirited soul would tell the driver that the poor horse had two hanger-on at the back and they would have to jump off. Other times they would get a lift all the way to the Havelock Road entrance to the dump and then they only had one road to walk back down.

Local Oral History – Mrs Marisa Dennington

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Marisa Dennington, Havelock Road, since 1959.

Marisa told me in 2015: The brickfield was already a grassed playing field when I moved here in 1959, but the lady down the road, who had moved in 8 years earlier remembered it being grassed over. The work was done by the contractors, the McIntoshes.

I was told that in the war there were two big guns (anti-aircraft) in there as it was a very big pit. And, there was half a house left (from the WW2 bombing) at number 43 with all the children playing in it.

raglan school sports day 1969

Every year at the end of the year, Raglan school would have a sports day on the brickfield, and my Maurizia was the champion running one year.

At the weekend, the Raglan boys used to come and play football with the teacher. We used to go there in the evening as a family and play tennis and badminton. My Maurice would never allow us to picnic on the other side of the field, it had to be in our corner.

The Brickfield was left to the children of Raglan Road School, and the council was to look after it on their behalf.

History of local Road-names: supporter/context letter

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Date: Tuesday, 17 February, 2015, 9:39

Dear Friends of Havelock Rec,

My wife and I only recently heard about this plan to move the ‘La Fontaine’ school to Havelock Rec this past weekend… I whole heartedly support your efforts in stopping the proposal to build on this land….
I would also like to add that the individuals planning this proposal have failed to consider the appropriateness of having a French named school located around Victorian built street names that are named after famous and revered British Generals, namely : Lord Wellington (Battle of Waterloo 1815 defeated the French) Wellington Road, The Duke of Marlborough (Battle of Blenheim 1704 defeated the French) Marlborough Road, Lord Raglan ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade (Crimean War 1853-1856) Raglan Road and last but not least Major General Sir Henry Havelock who was mostly associated with India and the recapture of Cawnpore during the Indian Mutiny 1857 Havelock Road.Therefore my point is that it is highly insensitive to British military history and the respected and former British generals that a French named school should descend upon our neighbourhood in the 200th year of the defeat of the French by Lord Wellington Arthur Wessley in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. I am not anti-French and I appreciate other peoples’ cultures and nations and the need to move forward with the times but please can we respect British history too.Perhaps we should consider lobbying the Ministry of Defence for additional support on this topic namely to stop the building and relocation of this school to Havelock Rec in this bi-centenary year of the Battle of Waterloo (1815–2015)?

Please keep up the excellent work.

Regards
[name with-held]
Marlborough Road Resident

History of local Road-names: Chatterton

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Thomas Chatterton

There is also a page about Thomas Chatterton, that Chatterton Road (and now ‘Village’) is named after: from Chatterton Road History Society pages (with this evocative picture):

Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis

History of local Road-names: Pope

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Alexander Pope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope

(21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.^[1]The money made from his translation of Homer allowed Pope to move to a villa at Twickenham in 1719, where he created his now famous grotto and gardens.

History of local Road-names : Haywood

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

William Haywood (engineer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haywood_%28engineer%29

With Joseph Bazalgette he was responsible for the enormous undertaking of improving London’s sewerage system which enable the growth of the city (Abbey Mills pumping station). He worked with James Bunning on the Holborn Viaduct.^[1]

His main work however, for which he should be remembered, is the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium. The facility was built near Little Ilford (now Manor Park) as a way of relieving the appalling overcrowding of London’s church burial grounds (described e.g. in Dickens’s ‘Bleak House’). As the City was redeveloped the remains from many of its churchyards were reinterred there. Haywood was a pioneer of cemetery reform.

There is a small Gothic mausoleum near the gates of The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium which contain his ashes.

History of local Road-names: Homesdale

Posted on March 18 by Kerry Hood

Homesdale Road

The original Lord Holmesdale was Wolfe’s commander at Quebec and a native of Sevenoaks; but the pub – and road – was probably named after Viscount Holmesdale, the local MP from 1859 to 1868. The road has always been spelt without the ‘L’.