Author: blackfenpastandpresent

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Holy Redeemer Lamorbey: 90th anniversary

There was a lovely dedication service on Sunday 22 October 2023 at the Holy Redeemer Lamorbey to celebrate the church’s 90th anniversary. The vicar, Rev. Mell Jemmett, gave a very poetic history of the church from its beginnings as a mission hall in 1909, surrounded by fields, woodland and flowing streams, to a unique church which opened on 21 October 1933, the first church to be built entirely of steel and concrete. The Bishop of Rochester, Rt Rev. Jonathan Gibbs, gave a sermon which emphasised that ‘place matters’ – where you live, the people you spend your time with, the community you identify with – these things are all important, and the Holy Redeemer is vital as a space for a broad range of activities for the whole community.

There was also the news that The Holy Redeemer has won the A Rocha UK Eco Church Gold Award for the way it looks after its land and buildings and its engagement with the local community.

Well done to Mell and all the members of the church who made this anniversary weekend so special.

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The Rev. David Silk

The Rev. David Silk died in Torquay in September 2023.

He arrived as curate at the Holy Redeemer Church, Days Lane in 1963 and one of his remits was to develop church life at the ‘tin hut’ in Blackfen Road, opposite Leechcroft Avenue. Regular Sunday services began and there was soon a congregation of 90, packed into the hall with music by a harmonium and piano. The Woodman pub (now the George Staples) played a significant part in church life with meetings and fundraising events held there. The Bishop of Tonbridge was so impressed when he visited that he set aside money to build a new dual-purpose hall and church. Opened in 1967, the choice of the name was left to the people of Blackfen. ‘The Good Shepherd’ was chosen, and The Rev. David Silk became Priest-in-Charge. Fundraising continued in events that involved the whole community.

The picture below left shows Rev. David Silk (right) at the marriage of my Uncle George and Auntie Marion in the grounds of Holy Redeemer in 1963. Below right is The Church of the Good Shepherd building in 2020, with a new housing development already encroaching.

The Rev. David Silk went on to become Bishop of Ballarat in Australia. He was a great help to me in 2014 when I was researching the history of Blackfen. He said: “A few years ago I was in conversation with the man charged with writing my obituary. He asked me, ‘which were the best years?’ I was able honestly to say, ‘Blackfen and Ballarat’. Blackfen was because that is where we had a sense of freedom from stuffiness, where we learned from the companionship of the people with whom we shared the adventure of forming the Church of the Good Shepherd, a church in both senses of the word – a community as well as a building; Ballarat was because it all happened again – the same sense of freedom, of purpose and of companionship.”

When I told him that the future of the Good Shepherd building was uncertain and there was a possibility of redevelopment, he said: “At the very least I hope that it will be for the provision of affordable housing for which there is a desperate need right across the country.”

The Rev. Mgr David Silk, 1936-2023.

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Pylons

Pylons: they might not be particularly attractive, but they are part of our environment, and part of our local history. According to the National Grid, the word pylon comes from the Greek word ‘pyle’ for ‘gateway’. There was a competition run by the Central Electricity Board in 1927 to design the basic structure, and this ‘lattice’ design was considered to be more delicate than the structures used in Europe and USA.

Electrical cables carried by pylons sweep across Blackfen from Penhill Park to Lyndon Avenue and beyond. There was some dismantling of pylons in the 1980s, including the one in Sherwood Park Avenue. A Lamorbey & Sidcup Local History Society newsletter from 1988 commented “the one in Sherwood Park Avenue was useful as a break to the rat run. If another does not take its place it is to be hoped that the site will be retained as a mini roundabout.” And indeed the site is still there today.

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The Jolly Fenman re-opens March 2023

Friday 24th March 2023 was the grand re-opening of The Jolly Fenman after a refurb, but it was on 6 March 1957 that the pub originally opened. Like most pubs at that time, it was divided into smaller bars: the Kingfisher Lounge, the Saloon Bar and the Public Bar. Paintings of geese and ducks adorned the walls, along with a specially commissioned painting, ‘The Kingfisher’. A competition was held to choose the name of the new pub, and the winner was Mr Tidy of 14 Curran Avenue. He won a cheque for £25 and had the honour of drawing the first pint of beer, attended by the directors of Watney’s (the brewers) and the pub manager, Humphrey Seaman, an ex-Irish Guardsman.

Robert Joseph Henry Tidy had been born in Ireland in 1899 and served in the Royal Marines during the First World War. He moved to Blackfen with his wife Annie in 1932 and worked as a postman. He died in 1960.

I don’t know what the inspiration was for Mr Tidy’s name ‘The Jolly Fenman’, but I like to think he was celebrating the cheery nature of us Fen dwellers and that we like to enjoy a pint with friends.🍻

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Blackfen Platinum Jubilee Trail

Join us for this historic occasion by taking part in our free, magical augmented reality story-trail.

Until 12 June 2022, located around Blackfen are seven magical characters on a day trip from Buckingham Palace. Join Sir Barnaby Beacon on the trail as he visits his friends, you’ll be able to see them augmented reality, decide what happens next in the story and even win a free digital fun pack at the end. Not only that, but each of the characters will tell you about a decade in The Queen’s historic seventy-year reign.

To take part simply:

1. Visit the website to see the trail map https://highstreetsafari.com/locations/jubilee-blackfen

2. Visit each of the seven characters in order. You will see them in the shop windows.

3. Scan their unique QR codes with your smartphone, learn more of the story and take a hilarious selfie with the character in AR.

4. When you’ve found them all, download your free digital fun pack.

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Blackfen Platinum Jubilee Beacon

There is a long tradition of celebrating royal jubilees, weddings and coronations with the lighting of beacons. Over 2000 beacons will be lit throughout the UK and Commonwealth to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s 70th year as our Monarch. Blackfen is taking part by lighting a beacon at 9.45pm on 2 June at the front of Premier Autocentres, 184-214 Blackfen Road. Join us for this historic occasion and pay tribute to her long service.

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Louie French, MP

Our new Member of Parliament Louie French was sworn in at the House of Commons on 6 December 2021, having won the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election, triggered by the death of James Brokenshire.

And he makes history as Blackfen’s first homegrown MP, having grown up in Orchard Rise West. He became a Bexley Councillor for the Falconwood and Welling ward in 2014, which until the boundary change included the north part of Blackfen.

In fact Blackfen has produced a few notables recently: Matthew Scott, who became Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner in 2016, also grew up in Orchard Rise West, and Blackfen lad James Hunt is serving an historic second term as Mayor of Bexley.

Blackfen is making its mark on history!

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The Lemon Well at Avery Hill

Lemonwell Drive is named after the ‘Lemon Well’ which was a bricked well beside the road from Avery Hill to Eltham. At one time it had a reputation for its medicinal properties and was used for ‘affectations of the eye’. The spring which supplied the well was in the grounds of Lemon Well House, occupied by Major Sir Harry North, son of Col John Thomas North of Avery Hill.

Born in Leeds in 1866 and educated at Cambridge, Harry served in the Royal Munster Fusiliers. He was knighted in 1905 for his military service. He married Jessie in 1894 and they lived at Lemon Well with their three children, a butler, cook/housekeeper, housemaid, kitchen maid, nurse and ladies’ maid.

The house was sold after his death in 1920 and divided into three units. But in 1961 it was demolished and twenty-four flats were constructed in its place.

This part of Bexley Road, between Avery Hill and Eltham, still has a rural feel to it.

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Col North: mechanic to millionaire

Avery Hill Mansion and the Winter Garden were created by Col John Thomas North ‘Nitrate King’ in 1890. But he didn’t get long to enjoy his house, as he died suddenly in 1896. In his obituary he was described as “a solid, sturdy Yorkshireman, shrewd, honest”.

John Thomas North was born in Leeds in 1842 and was apprenticed to a machine manufacturer. He was sent to South America to superintend machinery there. While there he found vast deposits of nitrate of soda and he realised the commercial value of this as fertiliser. This made him very wealthy. On his return to London he became a familiar face in the City, built himself an extravagant house at Avery Hill and became Honorary Colonel of the Tower Hamlets Volunteer Engineers. He had risen from mechanic to millionaire. But his business empire collapsed, and after he died his widow sold Avery Hill.

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Barber & Son bakers

The 1933 Sidcup and District Free Press has an advert for Barber & Son bakers in Blackfen Road. William Barber opened this bakery with his son Andrew in 1932, and customers were enticed by the warm yeasty smell and the sight of iced buns. Bread was delivered to local residents on a bicycle-powered cart. The business was bought in 1949 by Frederic John Ayre and he installed his son Jack to run it. Eventually Jack bought the shop and named it J. Ayre.

I wonder how many loaves of bread and iced buns have been sold since then!