Tragic end to local World War 1 romance (part 2)

This is the second, and final, blog recalling the experiences of local couple, Jack Richardson and May Larby, as they meet in 1913 and engaged in a relationship that was to end prematurely, with Jack's death, in France in May1915.

The blog is based on a recently self published book by local author and publisher, Paul Holloway, which consists principally of the letters from Jack that his grandmother (May Larby) kept, during the less than two years of their relationship. Details of the book, and its availability appear in the footnote, below.


Lt John "Jack" Richardson, 1915

The first half of the story (see here) told how Jack, the son of Shaftesbury Road Elementary school's headmaster and May, daughter of a local police constable, met in 1913 and how their relationship blossomed over a shared interest in the arts. As war loomed, they each volunteered for appropriate service and the correspondence plotted their progress to conflict.

The previous episode ended with Jack's departure to France, on 17 March 1915, some nine months after volunteering for action, and eight after the outbreak of hostilities.

The reality is, however, at this time, the average allied forces' officer only survived six weeks on the front line, before death struck - Jack managed seven.

Jack, like most of his contemporaries, could not wait for action, and was frustrated at the delays he had experienced.  He viewed the prospect of the front line, if not with relish, certainly with eager anticipation.

It is now mid March 1915, and Jack's first letter from the trenches is received.  For understandable security reasons, the exact location is not identified. The tone is cheerful. Clearly the war is on, work is to be done, but all seems well.

"I came to the trenches for four days last night about 6.30. We marched along a railway line, then a road with just one or two bullets whistling here and there but with no casualties..  ... The Germans giving us quite a rifle bombardment at 'reveille'. They keep this up more or less all night. ... It's such lovely weather today and the fellows here are jolly decent. I've even begun sketching the ruined houses etc. ...

"We stay here in the trenches 4 days and then have 4 in the billets. The latter are quite nice and we live in comparative luxury, although the shells come quite close and knock the corners off houses and break windows."

"There is very little danger here and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. The business doesn't seem nearly so horrible now that I am here. I'm in that frame of mind which is prepared to take the whole thing as a game, and a good one too."

The message by 23 March is still upbeat: "We had a 'working party' too last night and in front of the trench parapet throwing up earth to strengthen it. It's rather exciting for the enemy send up rockets and star shells and light up the whole scene.  Then we have to drop down until everything is dark again.  However there isn't much real danger and its jolly good exercise."

But the mood soon changes.  The next day's letter reports: "The trenches are some 4 or 5 inches deep in mud and you can't distinguish the shape of our boots for the mud round them and my puttees are caked in it up to the knees".

"However, none of us will be sorry to see the end of the war - this life is jolly interesting and exciting for a time, but after a few months I should think it becomes well nigh unbearable and monotonous".


Jack Richardson's Memorial Scroll

The next letter is from billets - some way away from the front, where troops went for some rest, after four days of action in the trenches.  The message is further downbeat, even from this comparative haven:  "There was only one officer left ... every day he told us, he had to go to his observation tower along a road swept by bullets and he escaped death daily. Time and again officers who went were killed or badly wounded, but he still remained and he was going back to it tomorrow ...

"Here and there is a house with great holes in the walls or roof, where a German shell has landed; and the Town Hall clock looks down on you with half its face blown away. It is, at night, absolutely a town of the dead - a city of dreadful night and the guns boom all the time"

"I have never felt death so omnipresent before ... We shelled the Germans as they left the town a month ago. There was house to house fighting, to force them out, and the fields outside must be sown with corpses. May, the war must end before the summer. And everywhere, during the day, outside the town where we are in the trenches it is one incessant scream and whistle of bullets and shells and at night absolute silence between the booming of the heavy guns and the bursts of rifle fire and the machine guns."

And then, for a while, the letters are less graphic.  Perhaps conditions improved, more likely Jack did not wish to depress May with his observations.  But the letters kept coming, reflecting once more on their shared cultural interests, or often detailing the more mundane aspects of life in a foreign country. That, and hopes for the future, when the two long for their reconciliation, that tragically will not occur.


Jack Richardson's medal entitlement

As March turned to April, Jack received his first casualty. His dismissive description of it was presumably to set May's mind at rest, but it was at variance with the more serious response of his comrades: "After putting several (bullets) through the German sniping hole opposite me and splitting the sand bags around about, I got a reply - and this was rather too good It caught the stock of my rifle and sent splinters and pieces of earth  .. and they caught my left hand slightly. However, very little damage was done and after getting it dressed by the stretcher bearers , to whom I went, I walked down to the Field dressing station and got it seen to again ...

"As a result I am now in hospital for a day or two, in order to get my hand cleaned of the grit and little splinters ... I expect to be quite capably left-handed again in a day or two.... At present of course, my hand has a plum pudding appearance, but in all I should think there is hardly a dozen small cuts and scratches, though much bandage."

His hand is still recovering five days later, but Jack is still able to show what a small world even that of warfare is, when recounted to May: "I met an old Shaftesbury Boy in the street here - in the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) - and he tells me that Hudson (do you remember him at the Tech?) is in billets in the town.  I am going to seek him out."


University Roll of Honour and Roll of Fallen

Jack was put on the "Casualty list", as a result of his hand wound, but tried, in vain, to have it removed from that list; because, as a result of the listing, the War Office sent May a telegram, informing her of Jack's injury. He was not amused and tried to minimise the significance of the wound, in what turned out to be his last, undated, letter to May - from the trenches.

He was, of course, completely unable to predict his final demise, but the closing paragraphs of his last letter almost seemed designed to offer reassurance to May, in what are clearly extremely difficult conditions "Yesterday night the Germans managed to drop three shells, out of some fifteen fired, into our trench, but the damage was slight and there were no casualties. These are awfully good trenches and will stand any amount of shell fire.

"While the weather lasts, I think, on the whole, I would rather be in the trenches than in billets. I scarcely ever sleep comfortably in town because I expect to be called up with an alarm every night I hear the gunfire; here the guns boom all night, and one doesn't notice it."

"My beloved, these days of sunshine make me feel only a matter of weeks or a month or so before I see you again - I dream of it at night"

Sadly, it was not to be. On Sunday 25 April 1915 Jack was wounded having been reconnoitring in front of his trench, at night, with his sergeant. He died of these wounds on Friday 7 May 1915, aged 22.

Thus, a young and local life, with someone with hopes and real aspirations for a bright future came to a tragically premature end. It was the fate of 16 million other young men of the age, in the 'war to end all wars', which effectively recommenced just 20 years later.


Jack is buried at Ferme Butene military cemetery
, Houplines - 2 kilometres from Armentieres.
It was used as a war cemetery from January -
October 1915 and contains 129 Commonwealth losses

May  later married, Richard Williams, and had four children. She became a successful mathematician, was awarded a CBE for her contribution to maths in education and died in 1986, aged 91. But the memory of that brief affair linger with her till the end - 70 years on; individual testimony to the lasting grief that the 'war to end all wars' brought to so many.

Footnote: There Are No Flowers Here - Collected Letters of Jack Richardson, published by My Fat Fox  priced £9.29 (inc p&p), from Amazon. We are most grateful for Paul for permission to run these extracts and recommend his collection of letters to you - they put local flesh on the bones of some of the raw data that is published about World War 1.

Tragic end to local World War 1 romance (part 1)

The centenary of the outbreak of World War 1 is with us, and we hope, over the coming months, to record how the war impacted on Forest Gate and some of its residents.

Behind each statistically-laden story of horror there lays the reality of ordinary lives transformed forever, or cut cruelly short. One such graphic account has recently been published by Forest Gate resident, Paul Holloway, There Are No Flowers Here, which we will be retelling over two episodes of this blog.

It is the story of his Forest Gate grandmother, May Larby, and her brief romance over the 1913 - 1915 period with Jack Richardson, the son of the headmaster of Shaftesbury Road Elementary school. It tragically concludes with Jack's death on the battlefields of France. Jack lived at 296 Katherine Road   and May at 28 Lansdown Road. The school and two houses within a quarter of a mile of each other, in Forest Gate.



Jack Richardson c 1914

May kept Jack's letters, many of which are personal, detail the day-to-day reality of life and trace the ever-deepening nature of the relationship. Others, however, record the build up to mobilisation, from the perspective of one bright, ambitious, patriotic young man, the enthusiasm to go into battle. Then later, the grim reality of life in the trenches in this 'war to end all wars', which scarred the memories of a generation.

May kept the letters, as her lasting memory of the man she loved, and her daughter, Elizabeth Holloway, carefully transcribed and prepared for publication almost 80 years later.  Now, unfortunately after Elizabeth's death, her son, Paul has negotiated his way around the pitfalls of self-publishing to produce this touching story.  Details of the book, and how to obtain it are found in the footnote.

This episode of the two-part serialisation traces the emergence of the romance and its impact on these two Forest Gate residents, until he point at which Jack is despatched to France, and his death.

In 1913 John (Jack) Richardson was the 20 year-old son of the headmaster of Shaftesbury Road Elementary school. May Larby was 18, and the daughter of a local police constable. (By the end of the war, Jack's parents had moved to Hampshire).They were both very bright, university students, with a wide range of interest in the arts.

A chance meeting on the Tube, on a train from Upton Park to central London,  developed into a regular rendezvous, and then correspondence, that ended with one fateful letter from a French trench, in 1915.


District Line train of the day - start of the romance

Many years after Jack's death, May wrote a memoir, which, unwittingly, provides an introduction to the collection of letters and provides a context for them.  In this she recalls the chance encounter with Jack in 1913, while she was on her way to a morning session at King's College, London, where they were both students; he studying English and she mathematics.

Such was the success of this meeting that they engineered to meet up regularly, each week, to continue with unfinished conversations on arts, poetry and matters of the moment.  These meetings lead to visits to art galleries, museums and cathedrals where May's appreciation of the arts, history and Christianity was broadened. The couple's relationship blossomed and developed into assignations at each other's Forest Gate houses.


May's house: 28 Lansdown
Road, today

As the spectre of war loomed, in 1914, the pair took the 'Be Prepared' slogan literally; May joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment, with a view to taking up nursing, at the front, in the event of hostilities, and Jack joined the University Officer Training Corps.  By the end of July he was camping, and training with his detachment, on Salisbury Plain.

When war broke out, Jack was commissioned in the City of London Regiment, based in Westminster. He trained and waited for despatch to the front. Meanwhile, May graduated (as a 19 year-old) and was awaiting the start of her teacher training course in January 1915.

Jack's first letter is dated July 1913, and is sent from his home at 296 Katherine Road. It, and the next 16, sent over the following year, sent from the same address, record the couple's shared, and growing mutual interest in a wide range of the arts.

From July 1914 the originating address, and the tone of the letters changes. They are from the army training camp, which is "perched on the slope of a hill on the very edge of Salisbury Plain".  At first they are all very mundane, with unexceptional descriptions of local conditions and circumstances: "The regularity of the life, inspections, parades, drills and field operations has the effect of breaking off the flow of ordinary life and it seems literally months since I came here. I have seen no books or papers since Saturday and I have only heard of war and rumours of war".


May Larby aged c 20 years old

Many of the letters, unfortunately are undated, but Jack seems to have been deployed into the 2nd City of London Fusiliers by the start of 1915 and is based in Epsom, he is positive and almost itching for action: "Everything here is splendid and there has been no trouble at all. We see very little of the Colonel and Major Hogan is practically O.C. (officer, commanding). The officers are splendid fellows and I expect a good time".

By February he has a substantive post, as second in command in a company. Some of the grim realities of civilian life, that the war flushed out are beginning to strike him. The poor educational and physical state of many working class men who volunteered was noticed and became a concern for the army's high command, perhaps for the first time - and was something many post-war reforms were designed to address.



Shaftesbury Road Elementary school -
Jack's dad was headmaster here at in 1914

Jack had his own experience of this. Hence in February 1915, he writes: "The other officers are jolly decent fellows and keen - the men are the worst I've seen - some are almost cripples and some, I think, mentally deficient, still I suppose there are enough decent ones to get on with."

In common with most of his comrades, Jack could not wait to get into combat, and so play his part in bringing the conflict to an end. In an undated letter, Jack had bad news, from this perspective, for May "The very worst happened last night. About half past nine, just as I had finished packing, the doctor hauled me up for a medical exam and failed me on account of my heart".



Flats now occupy land on which Jack's Katherine
Road house stood, just around the corner from
the school where his dad was headteacher

A little (unspecified) time later another letter had better news: the Captain assures me that "I shall go abroad right enough so I am considerably bucked ... What a thing it would be aboard a ship ... with a further chance of going to France!"

Then, a number of items of correspondence from Jack, expressing his  frustrations as bureaucracy seems to shuffle him around army units, with no front line action in sight.

By March 1915 (nine months from his original volunteering for duty), Jack is stationed in Epsom and is taking riding lessons, in preparation for an overseas posting. His disappointment at inaction seems to have abated "life here is splendid and I feel absolutely fit."


Jack, with comrades on Salisbury Plain, 1914

An undated letter or two later, comes the message "You will be as surprised as I was to hear that I am likely, as things stand now, to be off to France in a month or less." Then, the note of resignation, based on bitter experience: "Of course everything may and probably will be altered again but the chance is here and things begin to be exciting."

And so it is, by the next letter the message "Here I am safely on board the boat and ready to sail tomorrow  ... The boat is fine and we (as officers) travel 1st class as I myself have a cabin .. Comrade, goodbye and au revoir. My love, good luck and fitness be yours till I come back. Sweetheart, I kiss you farewell."

The story thus far then, is of two local bright young things pursuing an almost two year romance, lubricated by a shared and developing interest in poetry, fine art, literature and history. The backdrop is the distant sound of war approaching.  They both volunteer to do what they feel their duty to be, and Jack spends nine frustrating months, being moved around army camps and barracks awaiting deployment, so that he can see some action. The fate that awaits him will be relayed in the next blog ...

Footnote: There Are No Flowers Here - Collected Letters of Jack Richardson, published by My Fat Fox (www.myfatfox.co.uk), priced £9.29 (inc p&p), from: Amazon.co.uk, here

We are most grateful for Paul for permission to run these extracts and recommend his collection of letters to you - they put local flesh on the bones of some of the raw data that is published about World War 1.

 

Wanstead Flats saved from post WW2 development plans

Just as the war-time government had found Wanstead Flats useful for their purpose (see here), so those responsible for post-war reconstruction saw great possibilities in using the common to help rebuild the country.

But strong resistance from a local 'Wanstead Flats Defence' committee, and others, helped save the area as the common land, wild life preserve, it is today.
This blog is greatly indebted, yet again, to the Leyton and Leytonstone Historical Society's efforts for much of its content.  Their 2008 booklet, Homes for Heroes or Space to Breathe (for details see footnote)tells a gripping tale.

Epping Forest, of which the Flats are the southernmost extremity, has a recorded history as a royal hunting ground, and later common grazing area, stretching back to the middle ages.


Donkeys on Wanstead Flats, Whitsun Fair, 1900

The pressure to build houses on it, as part of the rapid suburbanisation and spread of railways from the mid nineteenth century was considerable.  How easy would it have been for the rapidly developing Forest Gate, of the 1870s just to have nudged a little further north, take it over as part of urban sprawl, and thus destroy the Flats forever?


Wanstead Flats fair, 1895

We are beholden to the City of London for its late 19th century intervention.  Following an Act of Parliament it sponsored in 1878, the council took over responsibility for managing the Forest, including the Flats, to preserve what remained of it as: "unenclosed and unbuilt on as an open space for the recreation of the public."


Advert for 1892 Easter
fair at Wanstead Flats

Organised sports and holiday fairs began to appear regularly on the Flats from the end of the nineteenth century.  In the early years of the 20th a model yacht pond was constructed, and a bandstand at the corner of Capel Road, near Angell Pond - which attracted large crowds, particularly on Sundays.


Sketch by 'Pip' "All the fun of the fair,

at Wanstead Flats" 1894

By the 1930s over 100 football clubs were using the Flats regularly, and as we have seen, the area became a Sunday meeting point for local fascists, being situated close to their local Woodford Road headquarters.


Crowds watching boats at model yacht pond, 1908

During World War 2, as shown in the previous blog, the Flats housed a Prisoner of War (PoW) camp and also anti-aircraft batteries.  The area to the north of the Flats, particularly around Aldersbrook Tennis Club, consequently, suffered considerable bomb damage during the conflict.



Bandstand at Wanstead Flats, c1925

By the end of the war, the Flats were in a poor state of repair.  Much of the area had been churned up by military vehicles, or turned into allotments.  East Ham and West Ham councils had been allowed to build pre-fabs on part of the Flats, as temporary accommodation for those bombed from their homes, to the detriment of local wildlife.



Whitsun Fair, 1900

The councils had negotiated with the Corporation of London to build temporary "hutments" on the Flats, as accommodation for the bombed-out, blitz victims.  The conditions were that the accommodation was to be temporary (two years, in the first instant) and constructed of short life materials (asbestos, as it happens!).


Wanstead Flats fair, 1907

In West Ham, alone, 14,000 households had been destroyed by war damage, mainly in the areas surrounding the docks.  This huge loss of housing and pressure on the surviving stock was soon compounded by large numbers of returning members of the forces needing somewhere to live, which in turn provoked the post war baby boom.

Housing and space for accommodation, 'fit for heroes', were major political and social issues  at this time. Unlike today, when there is an obvious housing shortage and crisis, the reconstruction, Labour, government then sought to address it by direct and interventionist action.

With this as a back drop, West Ham, council in 1946 proposed acquiring 163 acres of the Flats (see map), via a Compulsory Purchase Order, for new housing. This was on the land already partially occupied by the 102 pre-fabs that had already been built as temporary accommodation, and it was envisaged would provide housing for 7,400 people.


Map published by Wanstead Flats
Defence Committee, 1946

Encouraged by this move, Walthamstow council began to develop similar plans and East Ham council sought to build two secondary schools and a technical college on the wedge of land between the City of London cemetery and the Golden Fleece pub.

These development proposals received strong support from the Labour government and NHS founder, Aneurin Bevan, in particular, as they sought to help reconstruct the infrastructure of the country. Referring specifically to the Flats, and the CPO proposals, Bevan declared "I regret very much that we have to do it, but the people of East Ham must have shelter. The Commoners of Epping Forest must surrender to the overwhelming needs of the people of East Ham."


Wanstead Flats prefabs, 1946

A group of Leytonstone residents, mainly from the Aldersbrook area, and lead by school teacher, Stanley Reed, mobilised a strong local campaign against the development proposals, via a petition and local meetings.  Reed, incidentally, was employed by West Ham council, who gave him unpaid leave of absence to assist with his campaigning work against them. Not sure such democratic magnanimity would be extended today.

The conflict of views, locally, led to the establishment of a public inquiry at Stratford Town Hall in 1946, which was to last for four days; to which a petition with 60,000 signatures opposed to the plans and 346 formal objections were put. The opposition was formidable, including from the Corporation of London (City council), Wanstead and Woodford council, The National Playing Fields Association, Ilford Trades Council and the Footpaths Preservation Society.
The inquiry verdict was delivered in April 1947, and rejected the housing proposals.  West Ham council accepted it gracefully and committed itself to help the Corporation of London fulfil its obligations to develop Wanstead Flats "as a public opens space, along modern lines".

By this latter phrase, they wished to develop the facilities there, by building sports facilities, including a gymnasium, running track, golf course and swimming pool, as well as developing an outdoor theatre.
 
These proposals came to nothing, but the City was stung into action over its generation-long neglect.  It responded by embarking on a major restoration programme, of clearing war-time debris and tree planting on the Flats, to enable local people to continue to find solace in this peaceful haven.

Footnote: Homes for Heroes or Space to Breathe, by Mark Gorman was published by Leyton and Leytonstone Historical Society in 2008 and can be obtained from their website. We thank them for it and recommend it to you.

Prisoners of War on Wanstead Flats

A fascinating booklet, recently published by the Leyton and Leytonstone Historical Society, records Wanstead Flats' intriguing role as a Prisoner of War (PoW) camp during World War 2. The article that follows is based on the booklet, for details, see footnote.

Wanstead Flats played a number of key, strategic, roles during the Second World War, including housing anti-aircraft batteries and barrage balloons, as well as being an important assembly point, prior to the D-Day invasion of June 1944, whose 70th anniversary has recently been commemorated.

The Flats were also home to a large number of PoWs during the war, initially mainly Italians, and later, mainly German. Although the exact details are sketchy and difficult to determine - certainly from official documents, many of which were, for understandable reasons, classified.

The main location of this PoW camp was within the triangle boarded by Centre Road, Lakehouse Road and Dames Road, now more familiar as the fairground site, near Jubilee Pond (see detail from contemporary RAF aerial photo).


RAF photo of Wanstead Flats, 1944,
with POW camp to the right of the pond

Some older local residents remember Italian PoWs being held there from December 1940, following the Allied North African campaign, during which upto 100,000 Italians were taken prisoner. One local resident, according to the booklet, recalls bus trips to see them on the Flats, early in 1941.

Prisoners were initially housed in Nissen huts (see photograph), while others were held in tents on Tower Hamlets Road, following bomb damage to the area. Another local resident recalled going to the pond at the Flats every Sunday, to feed the prisoners, most of whom were described as being "very cheery and talkative".

Evidence of the Italian PoW presence on the Flats survived until the 1990's in the shape of what had become known as "The Italian Goalpost" (see photograph from here, with thanks).


"Italian goalpost" on Wanstead Flats,
photo taken in 1994

According to The Newham Story, there was also an Italian PoW camp on Whipps Cross Road (see photo), and possibly another on the site of what is now Forest Gate school, in the early years of the war.



VJ party outside PoW camp Nissen huts,
Whipps Cross Road

After the Allied invasion of Europe, in the summer of 1944, many thousands of Germans were captured and held prisoner in hundreds of camps, throughout the UK - including on Wanstead Flats.  Many continued to be held there until 1946.

The Italian prisoners who were still held there began to enjoy greater freedoms from this period.  Italy had surrendered from the war the previous year, although it was a further two years before all of their prisoners were released and repatriated.  They were, in the interim, as a consequence, given more freedoms: to visit local people in their homes and go to church and the cinema etc, unaccompanied.

German prisoners seemed to dominate the camp, numerically, from this time.  The Stratford Express, however, reported hostilities between prisoners of different nationalities breaking out, in 1944. The report also described community singing by the prisoners in the floodlit camp, at night.
The camp was surrounded by a wire fence and patrolled by members of the Home Guard; but security was hardly severe.  No details exist of any escape attempts, successful or otherwise.

The original 60-feet long Nissen huts were unable to cope with the increased demand brought about by the influx of German prisoners, so upwards of 200 bell tests were erected on the Flats to accommodate the increased numbers.
Few official records survive, or are accessible, about the Wanstead Flats camp, which was, in fact a satellite of the larger Camp 30, on Carpenter's Road, Stratford, where more than 1,500 German prisoners were held from 1944.


Nissen huts on Queen's Road,
similar to those used on The Flats

Among the few surviving details is a response from the Minister of War to concerns from local MPs, whom he assured (in 1944) that the facility was a temporary one, which would be closed by the end of the year (it wasn't). There were still at least 10 German prisoners there, as late as July 1946.

There was some attempt at the "political re-education" of prisoners, particularly those assessed has having very pro-Nazi sympathies. Unfortunately no records seem to exist detailing how the prisoners found the conditions and their treatment within the camps.

Many of them were employed, locally, on work to rectify war-related damage, such as clearing up bomb sites, and constructing prefabs for East Enders displaced by the Blitz and later V1 and V2 raids (see future blog for details of this).

Other attempts at occupying/re-educating the camp's inmates included regular trips to Upton Park to watch West Ham play, where an enclosure had been built to accommodate the prisoners (see photograph). Cue lots of jokes about punishment enough, inhumane torture etc...


PoWs being escorted to a football match at Upton Park

The prisoners seemed, for the most part, to have been reasonably well treated by local people and the Stratford Express reported, in 1944, that local girls would go to the site and throw sweets over the wire to them, much to the chagrin of local, jealous, young men.  In a slightly different account, on the Newham Story website, however, one local resident recalled going down to the camp regularly and throwing stones and rocks at it
.
Unfortunately, we have no details of how and when the camp was decommissioned and the last accommodation removed. There was a post-war follow-up, however, to the human occupation of Wanstead Flats, which we will detail in next week's blog.

Footnote, with grateful thanks to: Behind The Wire: Prisoner of War Camps on Wanstead Flats, pub 2013 by Leyton and Leytonstone Historical Society, 85 Forest Drive West, Leytonstone E11 1JZ, priced £3.00, website.

We would very much welcome any recollections or reminisces readers may have about this fascinating episode of our relatively recent history.  Please feel free to comment, below, or e.mail.

The early recorded history of north Forest Gate

Over the last few weeks we've run a couple of items on the nineteenth century Industrial School, that later became a workhouse then hospital, and is now residential accommodation, on Forest Lane.

Now, a combination of details from a booklet brought to our attention by Gladys Dimson House (the present incarnation of the buildings)resident, and local author, Paul Holloway, and maps from the Newham archives enables us to offer an earlier history of the site before it was built upon in the 1850s, and north Forest Gate, more generally.

The Friends of Forest Gate Hospital, in 1954 published a booklet celebrating the centenary of the building as a public institution - during the course of whose existence it had at least four titles and was controlled by six different public bodies.

The booklet, The History of Forest Gate Hospital, compiled by West Ham's then librarian, ER Gamster,  states:

At the time of the Norman Conquest the skirts of the great Forest of Waltham came down to the northern edge of the Saxon village of Hamme - from which the modern East Ham and West Ham (get their names) ..This proximity of the forest is still preserved to the people in the remnants of Epping Forest and Wanstead Flats.

Map of Hamme, c 1050 - Forest Gate
would be where "Forest" appears, north of
the road, which is the basis of the current A12

Forest Gate takes its name from a gate across the road to the forest (now Woodgrange/Woodford roads), near the Eagle and Child public house. The gate was erected in former times to prevent cattle straying on to the high road. As the locality developed and its original necessity declined in later years, it stood open, but the gate and its attendant cottage were not demolished until 1881.

Eagle and Child, once a pub on border
of Forest Gate, now a pharmacist
and block of flats

Picture of Ye Olde Forreste Gate, c 1860

A West Ham antiquary has traced the mention of a "Forest Gate" back 300 years (360 - today!) to the time of the Commonwealth, but it did not come into use as the place-name of a locality until the first half of the nineteenth century.  The aspect of the neighbourhood at the time of the hospital's first foundation is graphically described by an old West Ham resident - Major Sharp Hume.  he is writing in a Notes and Queries in 1890, in answer to a resident's query regarding the gate, and says:

John Oliver's map, 1696

I perfectly remember the old five bar gate leading to Wanstead Flats, from which the suburb of Forest Gate takes its name. Not more than thirty years ago (i.e. c1860) the surroundings were perfectly rural, however improbable that may seem today. Approaching the gate from the south (or from the railway station), on the left hand the lane was bordered by a row of labourers' cottages, with a pump in front of them, the houses dating back to the beginning of this century.

1840 map of East London, Forest Gate
is on either side of Eastern Counties Railway

At the end of this row of cottages, which have now been built out and turned into shops, stood the gatehouse, projecting into the road, and the gate itself spanned the road to a post on the other side. Opposite to these cottages was the park of West Ham House, with a fine row of elms overhanging the lane. The mansion is still standing, but is quite hemmed in by small houses and shops.

On passing through the gate, on the right was a small brick cottage and a smaller wooden one , and adjoining them, the old Eagle and Child inn, which was approached by a double row of stone steps. This old inn is now transformed into a modern tavern (and now, a pharmacist, and block of flats!).

Beyond that again was a mansion, standing in its own grounds, at the corner of Chestnut Avenue, and another large house where the lane merged into the flats. On the left hand, after passing through the gate, were fields, bordered by a hedge and elms opposite the inn, and at the fork in the road, opposite Chestnut Avenue, were the fine grounds, splendidly timbered of a very large mansion, running on that side, as far as the Flats.'

The twelve acres of land on which the hospital now stands, originally formed part of the Woodgrange Farm. This area formed the ancient manor of Wood Grange of which separate records go back to the 12th century. Then, as part of the Lordship of Hamme, it was granted by William Montfichet to the newly founded Abbey of Stratford Langthorne, and in whose possession it continued for four centuries, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry V111.

Newham in Tudor times. Source: Newham archives

From that time the manor passed through various hands, but apart from the first Queen Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester and the Jacobean Earl of Totnes, no one of any national note appears to have possessed the property. In the later part of the 18th century it came by marriage into the hands of the Peacock family, and in 1847 was purchased by Samuel Gurney, the local Quaker, banker and philanthropist and brother of Elizabeth Fry, the prison reformer.

It is always fascinating to look at old maps, and in this way the development of West Ham can be traced in reasonable detail over the past two centuries. John Roque's Map of London (1741-5) shows the neighbourhood..:

John Roque's map, 1746

Maryland Point, The Eagle and Child, Wood Granges Farm, Stratford Common and two windmills off Romford Road, south of the Pigeons Hotel (now Tesco metro on Romford Road, near the fire station).
"It may be interesting to note that the present Vicarage Lane (a little further into Stratford) is shown as Ass House Lane on the map and this lane was alternatively known as Jackass Lane...

Chapman and Andre's Map (1777) shows similar details, together with a property called "Mousleys" between Maryland Point and the site of the hospital, along Forest Lane, and Stratford House, the seat of the Henniker family in what is now The Grove.

Chapman and Andre map, 1777

Map, 1800 - East and West Ham; Eagle
and Child and Wood Grange marked

One of the most valuable possessions in the local collection of the (Newham Archives) is a survey made of the parish of West Ham in 1821 by James Clayton. ... What we now know as Forest Gate, Upton and old West Ham proper were in the Church Street ward of the parish - the wards then, of course, being of larger extent and greater administrative significance than the present day electoral wards.

Clayton's map, 1821

Key to Clayton's 1821 map

To return ... Samuel Gurney (who is commemorated by the obelisk and fountain in Stratford Broadway) was not only a great private philanthropist, but was also ready to assist local authorities in developing their responsibilities (West Ham has cause to remember him with gratitude and we originally owe West Ham park to the generosity of his family). In 1852 he conveyed the plot of land to the Guardians of the Poor of Whitechapel Union for the sum of £2,640 and the original buildings were erected at a cost of £40,000

Samuel Gurney (1766 - 1856)

For the onward history of the buildings see here.

Upper Cut - May 1967

May was a bumper month at Woodgrange Road's finest. Continuing our monthly series on the gigs that Woodgrange Road's upper Cut club hosted, 47 years ago - in May 1967

The month kicked off with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (6th). Manchester born, Fontana, took his stage name from Elvis Presley's drummer. Early hits for the band included Roadrunner, Love Potion Number 9 and Duke of Earl, but the band they had their biggest hit The Game of Love, just before their Upper Cut gig.

Wayne Fontana, an
early May attraction

 

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders

Like many of the bands who played Woodgrange Road almost 50 years ago, Wayne Fontana and his group are still on the scene.  He made his most infamous recent appearance, however, in the dock rather than on the stage, and has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
 
Terry Reid followed the next Saturday (13th).  Reid is the great nearly man of British Rock, having turned down the singer role in Led Zep, because he was touring, to be replaced by Robert Plant and having almost become the lead of Deep Purple, only to be pipped at the post by Ian Gillan. 




Terry Reid - still good value at under
£20 at the 100 Club, these days

Reid has supported most of the great popular music acts of the last 50 years, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Rolling Stones etc. Like many others of his era, he is still on the road and can be still be seen in some of London's smaller clubs knocking out a great night for under £20!



Bill Wyman, way back when!
Drug free Stones promoter

The Stones never played the Upper Cut, but nearly ...  On 14 May Bill Wyman made an appearance, as the accompanying  publicity stated "To celebrate their latest Columbia disc, a personal appearance by Rolling Stone, Bill Wyman". Admission price? 5/- (25p!).


Bill Wyman,
for five bob!

The record he was promoting would have been Let's Spend the Night Together.  The reason the rest of the band were not present may not be unconnected to the fact that Mick Jagger, Keith Richard and Brian Jones were helping the police with their enquiries following a cannabis raid at Jones' house four days previously. In the confused times, the three were charged, found guilty, sentence to prison, released etc as the establishment got itself into knots over the merging youth culture.

May 19th saw a return of Sounds Incorporated, who had already played the Upper Cut on 20 January.

Another, publicly-caught-up-in-drugs accusations, at precisely this time, was the Scottish, heavily Dylan-influenced Donovan. He appeared at the Upper Cut six days later (the 20th), performing for the "12's - 17's ... absolutely free", as the publicity says.  Surely this wasn't the encouragement of drug use to under aged Forest Gate youngsters?



Hurdy Gurdy man - Donovan,
admission-free, if not drug-free

Donovan had already had a hit with Sunshine Superman and was moving up the charts with Mellow Yellow at the time of his Woodgrange Road gig.  Like many of the troopers who played the Upper Cut, he is still on the music scene and was inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.




Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers

Donovan supported Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers on his Forest Gate outing. That band's biggest claim to fame was that they opened the bill on the Beatles final European tour, the year before the Woodgrange Road show.  They had a number of minor hits (One Way Love, Gotta Get You Intta My Life etc) and effectively disbanded in the early 1970's.  Bennett, himself, however, has been back on the road over the last few years on 60's package/nostalgia tours.



Donovan for free,
and the Kinks,
for not much more!

In the evening, having been warmed up by the Beatles warm-up band, came The Kinks.  One of the great acts of British popular music over the last half century, with beautiful lyrics that paint such great pictures of many aspects of English life (even Lola??).



The Kinks, one of the finest bands
to emerge from the 60's

These Muswell Hill boys are perhaps as well known for the tempestuous relationship between the Davies brothers, Ray and Dave, as some of their quixotic hits. Time slots of gigs at the Upper Cut were short. There would been barely enough time for the Kinks to have played their hits-to-date on their set before time ran out.  They had already recorded: You Really Got Me, All Day And All of the Night, Set Me Free, Tired of Waiting, See My Friends, Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Sunny Afternoon and Dead End Street.

They had just released the quintessentially London track Waterloo Sunset when they appeared in Woodgrange Road. What a pleasure it would have been to have been there!

But the month wasn't done yet! The following weekend (26th) saw the Graham Bond Organisation an early jazz/rock fusion band -and the Troggs. Although Graham Bond was never big, commercially, the band did spawn Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, who were later to constitute two thirds of Cream - who were to play later at the Upper Cut, in 1967.  The Organisation dissolved in 1967, soon after the Upper Cut gig, as a result of an inability to handle drugs misuse and disharmony within the ranks.



Graham Bond Organisation
- short lived, but influential

 
The Troggs were an altogether different kettle of fish (appearing on the 27th). Lead by Hampshire-born vocalist Reg Presley, who died a little over a year ago, the band had four huge hits - three before the Woodgrange Road gig - which would undoubtedly have had an airing (Wild Thing, With a Girl Like You and I Can't Control Myself) and one after (Love As All Around), which got far greater recognition when covered by Wet, Wet, Wet, and provided the theme tune to Four Weddings and a Funeral.



Wild Things - The Troggs

The Troggs have been cited by many as the godfathers of punk.  Presley used much of the royalties he gained from the Wet, Wet, Wet version of his song to fund his interest in crop circles, alien spacecraft and lost civilisations!

Back catalogue

This site has published a number of articles on the history of the Upper Cut club: the first detailing the time when Otis visited it, in March 1967. This post was followed by two, recording the first six months and the final six months of the club's existence.

These posts were followed by almost monthy updates on who played at the club, that month, 47 years previously. The final blog is a record of a recent meeting with former boxer, Billy Walker, the name under whom the club exisited, on his memories of it and Forest Gate almost half a century ago.

Below is a list of those blogs: the hyper links are the titles of the articles, and when hit upon should give access to them. The dates (in italics) are the time covered by the blog and the date in bold are the months the blogs were posted.

Although the content, and some of the comments on the individual posts, is pretty definitive, we'd love to hear any memories readers may have of the gigs, or corrections they could make to the copy. Just post in the Comments box, below.

When Otis played Forest Gate (March 1967) May 2013

Upper Cut (1) - a summary of the emergence of the first six months of the club (December 1966 - July 1967) July 2013

Upper Cut (2) - a brief survey of the second, and final half year of the club's existence (August 1967 - December 1967) July 2013
Georgie Fame, The Tremeloes and Unit 4 + 2 - (September 1967 at the Upper Cut) October 2013

When Stevie Wonder played Forest Gate - (October 1967) November 2013

Mouthwatering musical fayre on Woodgrange Road - (November 1967) December 2013

Club bills for the Upper Cut's two Decembers - (Decembers 1966 and 1967) January 2014

The Upper Cut beds down - (January 1967) February 2014

Essex comes to Forest Gate - (February 1967) March 2014
Stax comes to town - (March 1967) April 2014

A mixed bunch at the Upper Cut in April (April 1967) May 2014

Upper Cut - May 1967 (June 1967) June 2014

Summer of Love in Forest Gate (Summer 1967) August 2014

Golden Boy, Billy Walker's Forest Gate memories September 2014