Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 4/1 (The Herons Lake)

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Church House Gardens – Springs, fish pond and thatched bandstands

Welcome to Church House Gardens and it’s historic features! This location is the first stop in this park for heritage and biodiversity trail around the green spaces in Bromley Town Centre.

This was the garden for Church House, built in 1832 by Abel Moysey on land he leased from the Diocese of Rochester (Lords of the Manor). In the short time he lived here, Abel Moysey under- took extensive landscaping with specimen trees, some of which survive. The site was acquired by the District Council in 1926 and added to Library Gardens, and opened with considerable pomp and ceremony (2 brass bands, all the important people in the district, etc).

2021 midsummer nights dream

The amphitheatre on the left was constructed in the Great Depression, a constructive project to create work. It edged the terraces with granite cobbles from Market Square, from when it was resurfaced in the 1920s.

Originally the town had a beautiful rustic bandstand in the lake, thatched, and connected to land with a little bridge. This was burnt out in the 1969, and a concrete stage placed on the other side of the lake. This is now derelict (about 2010, it was functional in 2006) and the lower tiers of the amphitheatre have been filled in to create another stage, which has also not been maintained making the power connections interesting, and means the lake fountain was not working even before the water supply to the lake stopped.

Another Fact

Why is this side of the Ravensbourne Valley so steep? Why is this little valley carved into the side? This is all down to the springs along here – over 1000s and millions of years sand and gravel is washed out and the soil above collapses down. 

These springs are from the ‘perched water table’ under the town centre (probably why there was a settlement there in the first place) where rainwater is stopped from sinking down by a layer of clay.  

Diagram of the perched water table under Bromley town centre, coming out as spring lines above Shortlands and at St Blaise’s Well. After Paul Rainey, 2012.

Have you been to the disappearing springs yet on Martin’s Hill? They come out from the perched water table, trickle down to where the Thanet sand formation is under the grass, and then the water sinks back in.

All the stops in the Bromley Town Centre Parks Heritage & Biodiversity trail can be found on the page about it here.

There is more information on Church House Gardens at the entry on this park in the Bromley Civic Society site, here.