Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 6/1 (Martins Hill and War Memorial)

Posted on 24 July 2024 by campaignr

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Martin Hill – War Memorial

Welcome to Martins Hill, this is Bromley town’s war memorial This location is the first stop in this park, on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.

postcard with 4 views of broom flowers and martins hill
Broom flowers on Martins Hill

The origin of the name Martins Hill is lost in time, but the likely explanation is that the martins (a bird like a swift or swallow) used to circle in the thermals created by the slope. There used to be a lot of sand martins in Bromley, they nested in holes in the sandy banks and walls of various gravel pits.

postcard of war memorial
Martins Hill entrance with the war memorial, formal beds, and lodge.

War Memorial by Sydney Marsh

Originally there were some formal beds and a drinking fountain at the top. After the war the memorial was moved to the bototm of the hill (Queens Mead Recreation Ground) and the sculptor Sydney March (who also designed the National War Memorial of Canada) created the rather splendid memorial there today. It is made from Portland limestone, and the figures are Liberty, Victory and Peace.

Fun Fact

Martins hill was the first public park in Bromley, but only after a campaign to save what was left! An anonymous supporter wrote this ditty about it:

“On this, the people’s piece of land, May builder never ply his skill. May never innovating hand deprive the town of Martin’s Hill.”

The path coming up the hill to this spot, the bends at the bottom were a drovers road up to the market square, where there were butchers. Without refrigeration, the butchers shops slaughtered the animals in the yard behind the shop.

Broom flowers

1920s lady's head and shoulders with a sprig of broom flowers
Programme for the town’s annual Broom Day celebration

Martins Hill is the last place that the Broom – the flower Bromley is named after – can still be found. Initially abundant, the park was the only place left after all the area came into cultivation. Bromley has started holding the Broomtime festival again on the 2nd weekend in May (normally; it may vary).

The Civic Society’s page on Martins Hill, with some more old photos, is here.

The Friends page on Martins Hill with lots of information about the acid grassland and Field of Hope daffodils is here.

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

To continue the Heritage Trail: (1) longer route – go down the path lined by lime trees along the top of the park until Deadmans steps, down to the road, are reached. (2) shorter route – retrace steps to the gates, turn left down the road to the High Street. Turn left up the High Street, then right into Walters Yard. Go left and right to the front of the supermarket, then left to the far corner of the car park. The gap here takes you to the K2 phone box.

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Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 4/4 (The Church House)

Posted on 24 July 2024 by campaignr

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Church House Gardens – The Church House

Welcome to Bromley Palace Park and it’s historic features! This location is the fourth stop in this park, on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.

On this site there was a fine gothic house, with a tower, large conservatory, and large terraced Garden. Looking out towards the Church, you can see the former Carriage Drive – with the circular end for horse-drawn carriages to drop their passengers at the door. You can also see the walls of the former walled kitchen garden (currently a depot, though there’s proposals to build flats there).

In the first world war, from 1914 until 1919, the house was used as a Red Cross VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) hospital for wounded soldiers. The VAD scheme predated the war, but with the high level of casualties on the Western Front, there were 2.5K of these hospitals in the UK. Recently some photographs have been found from this time, and they are available on the borough Local History society site, here. One of the patients wrote home to Shetland from Church House.

Church House bombed out in 1941

On the night of the 16th April, 1941, in WW2, a German bombing raid dropped an incendiary bomb on the house and it burnt to the ground. All the churches in central Bromley were also bombed that night, and a large store in Market Square. The rubble from the parish church blocked access to the house, so firecrews could not reach it and fight the fire.

circular bed right with bedding flowers
The Carriage Drive flowerbed, by Tony Banfield in 2010.
large church floodlit in pink and blue
The Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul in October 2023. The Church that ‘Church House’ is named for.
A view seen through curved tree trunks and mossy path
Cypress tree silhouetted against the Ravensbourne Valley, January 2022.

In recent years the flowerbed in front has won awards.

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

To continue the Heritage Trail, follow the little path (on the right hand side of the Carriage Drive) and on your right there is a rocky cliff – this is the fernery.

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Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 4/3 (Terraces & Bowie Balustrade)

Posted on 24 July 2024 by campaignr

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Church House Gardens – Terraces and Bowie Balustrade

a stone balustrade casting shadows on the path
The intact end of the Bowie Balustrade in 2022.

Welcome to Bromley Palace Park and it’s historic features! This location is the first stop on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the historic parks in Bromley Town Centre.

These terraces were designed in 1832 by Abel Moysey, and they provide a visually appealing layered appearance to the side of the little valley. They contain a world-wide collection of cypress trees, original specimen trees from the 1830s and 1920s, and the rockery. Local people say that some of these specimens came from Charles Darwin but the labels to these plants were removed in the 1980s.

The first rockery occupied the south part of the current installation, and on the top of it was the conservatory of Church House. In the 1950s it was remade, including fascinating bits of the bombed Church – these are heavily overgrown at present but the park Friends intend to have a project soon to refurbish the rockery.

The stone balustrade you can see here was originally the boundary between Church House and the gardens.

group of boys in waistcoats sitting with guitars on a stone balustrade
1965 photoshoot of David Bowie (David Jones) and the Konrads in Church House Gardens. Unfortunately that actual section of the balustrade has not been repaired/replaced after it was broken in the 2000s.

The balustrade’s claim to fame is that an early photo shoot for local boy David Jones, better known as David Bowie, was photographed with the lads on the balustrade. There is no basis for the rumour that it was an attempt of the band to recreate the photo for the Millennium that broke the stone railings! It is thanks to the effort of the Friends chair (Jeff Royce), LBB officer David Braybrook, and the ward’s LibDem councillor Sam Webber, that the balustrade has been repaired in 2024.

Ballustrades, after the demise of Church House. The nearest section has been allowed to fall down.

Fun Fact

Though David Bowie never showed any liking for his home town, one of his last videos was filmed in Whitehall Recreation ground. His favourite condemnation is reputed to have been “That’s so f*****g Croydon!”

David Bowie moved to Bromley and attended Raglan Primary school before graduating to Ravenswood School for Boys at 11. Here he formed his first band, the Conrads, with fellow pupils. When he was older he moved to Beckenham and performed in the bandstand at Croydon Road Recreation Ground. Though he never seems to have had any involvement with the town and local charities, he did film part of his “Buddha of Suburbia” video in Whitehall Rec, near Raglan Road Primary school in BR2.

crowds of people, ladies in bucket hats, and flags draped over the balustrade

If you wander to the west, there are fine views over the Ravensbourne Valley between the trees.

The Civic Society page on this park, with some old photos, is here.

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

To continue the Heritage Trail, continue uphill and on the other side of the trees, on the level ground at the top, is a Carriage Drive in a loop around the flower bed.

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Glassmill Pond

Posted on 22 July 2024 by campaignr

This mill pond is one of the stops in our heritage and biodiversity trail , the entry is here.

There were a number of mills recorded in the Doomsday Book along the River Ravensbourne in Bromley, but the only one that survived until the modern era is this one.

Paper. fulling.

It is often called ‘Glass Mill Pond’ as there was a glass mill on the higher bank. It ground lenses for opticians glasses and optical instruments.

The mill also ground glass for scientific instruments.

two convex glass mirrors with ornate frames of Regency age
Two Regency Gilt Convex Mirror by Thomas Fentham Co
Working in a glass mill in the Victorian age
Working to cast shaped glass in the Georgian age

The proprietor that electricuted his neighbour.

long fenced pond reflecting trees in bloom
The mill pond on a sunny day in March

The pond was remodelled in 2023 by Thames 21 which included recreating the pond, separated from the river by a bank, over which the river can wash when the water levels are high.

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Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 4/2 (A pond for fish, model boats, people and now sand)

Posted on 22 July 2024 by campaignr

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Church House Gardens – From Fishpond to Yachting Pond to Paddling Pool to Delux Sandpit

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

an amoeba shaped walled enclosure with sand
The remodelled yachting pool, now a deluxe sand pit

There has been a terrace on the hillside here for 100s of years, and on the old tithe maps there was one of four fish ponds that stepped down the hill, on this level site (with 2 above and one below).

Fishponds, and their fish, were an important food source in the Medieval era.  This was especially true of religious households, and these ponds belonged to the Lord of the Manor, the Bishop of Rochester. Meat was not eaten in observant Christian households for over 150 days a year, so fish was important – see the entry for the Moat in Bromley Palace Park (here). 

An black and white photo of an octagonal yachting pool
Church House Gardens yachting pool in 1957

In the late Victorian times the pond was converted to an octagonal pool for sailing model yachts. This became a popular pastime with the Model Yacht Sailing Association being formed in 1876 and the London Model Yacht Club (using the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens) being founded in 1884.  This pool was built in the 1930s as a work scheme. It was a popular venue for local children to sail the boats they had built, with various companies also providing boats and yachts in model kits.  There is one surviving boat-sailing-pond on the River Cray at Fordcroft (the bottom of Poverest Road) in Orpington (BR5 4BQ). It is drained every winter and the fallen leaves removed. There are still model-boat sailing clubs to be found, for instance in Leonardslee, Sussex.

Another Fact

The exceptionally heavy rains meant that, not just was this little valley flooded, but so did everything downstream – this is remembered as the Great Lewisham Flood

River Ravensbourne downstream, flooding Lewisham

In 1968 there was a cloudburst over Bromley and Lewisham (and the surrounding area) and the resulting floods are still remembered as The Great Flood of Lewisham and the Lewisham Underwater project. The ponds above this terrace flooded and overflowed, washing the bank down.

a large model yacht with two while sails
One of the larger model yachts being sailed at Leonardslee, Sussex. The rudder is radio-controlled.

When the repairs were carried out the Yachting Pool was reborn as a Paddling Pool, with a bubbles-shaped outline and ceramic tiles with pictures of various ports around (mostly) the North Sea.  The paddling pool was very popular in sunny summer weather, and to keep good water quality, it was empty over winter.

Then, the terrace had another make-over and became a large and delux sandpit – it is probably the most popular incarnation it has had yet, it is rarely ever unused.

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.

To continue the Heritage Trail, turn left along the edge of the fish pond and along the causeway between that and the sandpit. Go down the left hand side of the sandpit and straight on to the gate. In front, and to the right, is Glassmill Pond.

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

Posted on 22 July 2024 by campaignr

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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 a hill with a perched water table in it

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.

To continue the Heritage & Biodiversity Trail, turn left along the railings at the side of the water, walking to the bottom of some steps.

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Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 3/1 (Library Gardens of Neelgharies House)

Posted on 22 July 2024 by campaignr

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Neelgharies – George and Emily and their bequest

Welcome to the historic Library Gardens! This location is the first stop on the heritage and biodiversity trail around the parks in Bromley Town Centre.

The land that the Churchill Theatre stands on, and the level garden here, were bequeathed to the people of Bromley by Emily Dowling, the widow and second wife of George Dowling.

Fun Fact

HG Wells would never have become a famous author, and written The War of The Worlds, if he hadn’t broken his leg here while his father played cricket.

drawing of hexagonal roof on pillars over well

xxx

Although the council thought about building their own offices on the land, the terms of the bequest did not make this possible – so the Carneigie Library was built, funded by the philanthropist Andrew Carneigie. Before this, libraries were not normally free for use, and often provided by bookshops. There had been a free library in the Old Town Hall – HG Well’s father borrowed books from this library for his son, who became a famous author.

The Carneigie building was demolished to provide the site for the Churchill Theatre, the Central Library, and the archives.

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 Library Gardens at the entry on this park in the Bromley Civic Society site, here.

To continue the Heritage Trail, carry on straight on through the park to the 3rd table-style bench, and there is a path down the hill to your right. Follow this down to the Fishpond.

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Waitrose’s Bromley Cliff Face proposals approved.

Posted on 20 July 2024 by campaignr

The proposals were approved. One of the major problems we had with the campaign was the approx 100 supportive comments lodged on the proposals after the first consultation. Most of these were because the authors thought that this proposal would help the local ‘housing crisis’. Unfortunately, it will not.

It will not help local housing need; even the few “affordable” ones will be at 80% of market rates, pricing them beyond local people’s pockets – to be precise this is requiring an income of £51K and costing £1196 a month*.

Continue reading →
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The Ha-ha! – Grade II Listed

Posted on 18 July 2024 by campaignr

The Ha-ha features as a stop in our Bromley Town Centre Park Trail, here.

a look-like stone wall in bushes
2021 the curved end of the Ha-Ha, as revealed that summer. Note the squares of scorched brick that look like stones from a distance.

The Ha-ha remained a fashionable feature of a stately home’s grounds for many years, because it also had a practical value. Instead of some ugly fence and wall, necessary to keep out local livestock and deer, that spoiled the vista from your windows, you had a ha-ha instead.

cross-section showing ditch taller than a deer
Cross-section illustrating our Ha-ha keeping grazing animals out but not hindering the view.

Like other ha-ha’s that James Pulham built, this ha-ha followed the line of an existing water course. There were ponds underneath the ‘Y’ buildings and this was the line of a pond/stream that drained them down the valley:

expansive lawn with distant stately home and a deep walled ditch in the foreground
A particularly fine Ha-ha at Burghley House – the nearer grass is grazed but the grass the other side is mown (photo in 2015)

The page on the Bromley Palace Park, including the other historical features, is here.

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Bromley Town Centre Park Trail – Stop 1/4 (Cascade & Ha-Ha)

Posted on 18 July 2024 by campaignr

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The Cascade & Ha-Ha!

This stop on the Bromley Town Centre Park Trail looks at two of the Grade II listed historic features of the park.

The Cascade
brick wall with large bushes on top
The restored Ha-Ha in the Bromley Palace Park in 2022

The Pulhamite Cascade Installation (Grade II Listed by Historic England)

In the 1700s, young aristocratic men would go on a ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe, and from the landscapes they saw, a fashion grew up for ‘Gothic’ features in the gardens of landed gentry, including gloomy glens and waterfalls. Like much of southern England, Bromley is underlain by clay and gravel, rather than hard rocks where waterfalls might naturally occur. So, James Pulham came up with an early recipe for concrete, and could supply the fashionable by building these features in their gardens – in this case, a waterfall with realistic looking ‘Pulhamite’ rocks so that waterfalls could be convincingly created.

The Monet-style bridge

The little Monet-style bridge when it was in place at the top of the Cascade

Our cascade also had a little bridge at the top – unfortunately, for some reason the council contractor has moved this to the bottom. The bridge was probably only for visual effect – you had to have good balance to cross with it, as it is rather small and narrow.

No natural waterfalls? No Problem, we’ll make one (for a price)!

You live somewhere, where nature has not provided your garden with a waterfall? Or not even any rocks at all, for many a league? Then James Pulham and Son can craft you one that is so convincing it can deceive a naturalist (though they never said who the disillusioned naturalist was). 

This Pulhamite waterfall, The Cascade, makes the mundane outlet for the Moat (well, fishpond most of the time) into a fashionable feature, the dam itself becomes decorative. Unfortunately, the top basin of the cascade is cracked so the water no longer tumbles down the face.

watercolour of a cascade surrounded by large square lumps of rock
Inspired by the Peak District. This Victorian style water-colour is of Three Shire Bridge on the River Dane. The rocks here are Millstone Grit, the same as the Pulhamite installations were recreating.

Field Trips to observe the Original

James Pulham & Sons sent their craftsmen to Derbyshire to observe the Millstone Grit rocks.  There, the gritstones form ‘scars’, small cliffs, across the hillsides. Seeing how the rocks outcrop, helped them imitate it convincingly in their installations (no photos in those days).

The Ha-ha! (Ah-ha in French)

The Georgians had Infinity Views instead of an Infinity Pools.

The recently revealed Ha-Ha, is a fine brick example, added by James Pulham when his company built the Fernery, Cascade and Folly for the (new) Lord of The Manor of Bromley, Charles Coles Child esq, Standing on top of the Ha-ha meant that you had a fine view over the valley and down to the River Ravensbourne where St Marks Church was built a few years later.

A diagram of our Ha-ha! showing how it kept grazing animals out without installing an ugly fence. Our Ha-ha! followed the ditch already dug for the fishpond drainage.

It’s thought they are called ‘Ha-Ha’s because the ‘infinity’ view would lead to a surprise when the drop and ditch was revealed, here’s the explanation from the National Trust:

Originally a feature of formal French gardens of the early 18th century, the ha-ha was first described in print in 1709 by the gardening enthusiast Dezallier d’Argenville in his La Theorie et la Practique du Jardinage (The Theory and Practice of Gardening). According to d’Argenville – and his first English translator, John James – the ha-ha derived its name from the success of the optical illusion it created from a distance on viewers of the garden: the concealed ditch and wall would ‘surprise the eye coming near it, and make one cry,‘Ah! Ah!’’

Ha-ha’s were fashionable for a long time, This is one of the finest, at Bughley House:

To continue the Heritage Trail, take a few more paces down the Carriage Drive to reach an elegant porch.

The page on the Civic Society website for the Pulhamite Cascade is here, and the Ha-ha! here, and the one for the whole of the Palace Park is here.

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