Letters from May 2000
From John West
Referring to the query from Dennis Grubb regarding his great grandfather’s brickfield I hope the following information will be of help.
Edward Grub Hope Cottage 2 Plumstead 1881
Henry Grub Barnes Cray 1851
Henry Grub Sydney Cottage 3 1881
Thomas Grub Stonham’s Brickfield,Crayford 1841
Thomas Grub Skittles Lane 1851
Thomas Grub Cemetery Brickyard, Plumstead 1882
I obtained this data from an Index to Kent Brickmakers by David Cuffley, put out as a microfiche by North West Kent Family History Society.
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From Anna Townend
With reference to the group’s visit to White Hart Depot can I follow up my interest in the remaining Blind Workshop’s stone which are stored there - on the ground outside the buildings that is.
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From Diana Rimel
What an interesting Industrial History Newsletter for March 2000 with mostly short, easily absorbable well written articles and packed with information on forthcoming activities, events, etc. The Index is excellent too and will help all of us who use past material. I will be setting up more new courses/venues for Goldsmiths in the future and will let you have details of what I hope will be an exciting programme when it is agreed. All the best and congratulations again.
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From Robert Cox
I am at the moment writing up the various power companies which were provided with Willans and Robinson steam turbines. The South Metropolitan Electric Light Co, with power station at Blackwall point had two in 1905 and I am wondering whether anyone has ever come across any references to this,. Willans and Robins also provided two 5000 JKW turbines and Dick Ken Alternators for the LCC Tram Power Station instead of further reciprocating engines by Musgraves of Bolton who had already installed four of these.
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From Bernard Elmer
My father was injured in a boiler explosion in the Greenwich/Deptford area some time in the late 1890s/early 1900s. He was badly scalded and reputedly left for dead, until workmates discovered he was still alive and wheeled him on a handcart to the Miller Hospital. He survived but was heavily scarred as a result of the accident. I have made some attempts to discover the date and place of the explosion in which he was injured but without success.
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From Julie Tadman (by email from Australia)
I have just received my copy of "The Enderby Settlement Diaries" from New Zealand. Barbara Ludlow has found some fascinating information about my ancestor, ggg grandfather William Bracegirdle the fisherman, and we have also discovered that my great grandfather's brother James also went to the Auckland Islands as an apprentice aboard the Sir James Ross early in 1850. I do not know if they actually met there, one would hope so. The Mitchell Library in Sydney apparently has the major source of information about the settlement so I shall make arrangements to look at it when we go down in a few weeks time. It is only a three hour drive from Canberra. The English records are mostly missing or destroyed, from what I have read.
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From Jon Garvey
Does anybody have any information on the bakery run by the Tyler family in Tyler Street Greenwich during the late 19th and early 20th century? The business was started by my maternal great great grandfather, William Tyler. Other branches of the family had bakeries in Thaxted, Cambridge (which ran until the 1980s) and in Bocking, where the Tyler family can be traced to the 16th century.
How big was the business, and what became of it? The family had links with non-conformism, and indeed Henry Tyler built a mission hall in Old Woolwich Road which is still there, though now housing an architect's practice. Any local information would be much appreciated
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From David Riddle
At the weekend I noticed that work was in hand on the main buildings in the large so-called Angerstein Triangle site, the area of land off Bramshot Avenue and immediately facing the backs of houses in the lower section of Westcombe Hill across the width of the A102.
The roof had been removed from one of the large buildings, and on further checking it was noted that the buildings at the northern end of the site had already been largely demolished, and a new fence was being erected around the perimeter.
The Planning Office inform me that the site, previously owned by RailTrack, was sold to a Dartford company called Fort Knight, and planning permission was granted on 1/11/99 to this company to erect an 'engineering works'.
[Editor’s note: The site was that of the ‘Angerstein Works’ - previously a chalk pit. Last year one of members made an arrangement with Fort Knight for access - but no-one turned up to let him in!)