Western end of Capel Road

The chance receipt of a couple of photos dating from the 1930s of activity at the western end of Capel Road set regular contributor Peter Williams and his colleague and collaborator Mark Gorman in search of life on that strip of highway from the 1890s until the 1990s. Activity there during that period was very different from that in the primarily Victorian houses that populate the rest of Capel Road today.

The article references several sources that people researching the histories of their properties may find helpful.

The area today

The area covered by this article today is largely occupied by a row of houses built in the late 1990s – see photos below.

Modern houses at the western end of Capel Road (2016)

The history quest began with site photos of a petrol station (see later) located at 10 Capel Road. Half a century earlier, that site had been the location of Manor Farm, run by the Banes family, as suggested by these newspaper adverts from 1899 and 1907.

Barking, East Ham and Ilford Advertiser 18 February 1899

Westminster Gazette 28 October 1907

The site soon became occupied and managed by Thomas Henry Mullins, who gave the address (still known as Banes’ Manor Farm – see photo) for selling a cart (see below).

Banes Manor Farm sign, Capel Road c1907

Barking, East Ham and Ilford Advertiser 31 August 1907

Mullins was a Somerset-born dairyman who lived at 10 Capel Road during the 1911 census. He was one of many country- folk who migrated to towns and cities, maintaining their previous rural occupations. In his case, it was cow-keeping. Several cow-keepers lived near Wanstead Flats until the 1990s, when they let their often small number of beasts graze on the land.

Thomas Henry Mullins - 1911 census - Ancestry

The reasonably prosperous Mullins died in 1916, as this extract from the probate register indicates.

Thomas Henry Mullins - Probate Records, Ancestry

As these clips from the British Newspaper Archives catalogue indicate, the dairy would appear to have been wound up in 1921.

The Gazette - 5 July 1921

It's not entirely clear what happened on the site for the next decade and a half, but by 1937, it featured in a Watsonian Sidecars brochure, selling motorcycle spares. This advert was accessed via an eBay search, which can be an excellent source of images for historical research.

Watsonian Sidecar brochure, 1937

The location was soon converted into Bradley’s Autodrome – a service station, Hillman car dealer, and car repair business. See below.

West Ham and South Essex Mail 06 January 1939

This would have been when the photos that provoked this research were taken. The first is a photo of the petrol pumps, located on the site of the modern houses.

The second is a West Ham-registered car with a number plate dating to the 1930s awaiting a fill-up. A close inspection shows that the service station sold both BP “Ethyl” and Shell products, indicating that the garage was independent and not tied to a sole supplier.

Strangely, the location was described as doubling up as a refreshment room run by Morris James Gregory (see this 1940 Trade Directory). 

1940 Trade Directory

We have no further details of this business. However, a photo emerged recently on Facebook, spotted by a friend of the blog, Tony Morrison, showing these tearooms occupying the site next door, 11 and 12 Capel Road. Unfortunately, it is undated.

A collection of photos in the Newham Archives, dating from 1957, shows that  Autodrome was still an active business. 

Above - 1957 Newham archive photos of the Autodrome, Capel Road

An advert in Commercial Motor magazine from the 1970s suggests was by then trading in Land Rovers and other commercial vehicles.

Commercial Motor magazine, via Google Books

At some time after this notice was placed, the site was taken over and run as a Q8 (Kuwait) fuel station, bearing the familiar logo below. The green posts at the foot of the 2016 photo, above, of the houses now occupying the site were from the Q8 forecourt. They have subsequently been removed. Unfortunately, we do not have pictures of the service station under this badging. We would be grateful to anyone who could supply any.

Q8 logo - on Capel Road service station - 1990s

Capel Point

Tony Morrison’s eagle-eyed skimming of Facebook uncovered a photo showing pre-WW2 1-4 Capel Rd, adjacent to the garage – below.

Front of pre-war 1-4 Capel Point (via Facebook)

These houses were bomb-damaged, and the pictures from the Newham Archive 1957 series on bomb damage clearly show an Anderson shelter at the rear of 1-4 Capel Road.

Back of 1-4 Capel Road, 1957 - Newham Archives

The houses were demolished to be replaced by Capel Point below around 1965.

Capel Point today - source: Google Maps

Footnote. Other articles, by Peter Williams,  about Capel Road can be found here and here.

Forest Gate Freedom Walk

Peter Ashan began a series of Freedom Walks in east London in 2007, during the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade. These walks aim to reveal the hidden history of the contribution of people of colour to the east end of London and the struggle against inequality. Below, we feature some aspects of his Freedom Walk of Forest Gate. 

Portrait of Peter in a mural in Wood Street, Walthamstowe

Full details of Peter’s other walks and work can be found in the footnote. 

  

Forest Gate Youth Zone, Woodford Road  

 

Tony Lee Fielding (1944-2006) was born in Jamaica and migrated to England in 1960 to be with his parents in Hackney. 

Forest Gate Youth Zone, where Tony Lee Fielding was a youth worker

He began a career as a youth worker with Waltham Forest Council in 1975. In the mid-1980s, he established Sing and Deliver, which provided opportunities in the performing arts, such as singing and street dance. These activities occurred in youth centres in Waltham Forest and further afield, such as Forest Gate Youth Zone.   

 

The programme included his Inner-College Vocal Search, which took place at various colleges in London.   

  

Eagle and Child Pub, Woodgrange Road  

  

Before it became a pub, The Eagle and Child, now the Woodgrange pharmacy, was a Pleasure Garden and Tea Room dating back to 1744. Venues like this were popular in England during the c18 to c19, where the wealthy could enjoy music, dancing, food, and drink, particularly tea, for a fee. 

Woodgrange Pharmacy, on the site of the Eagle and Child pub/Pleasure Garden and Tea Room

  

The British East India Company began importing tea from China in 1664. The prosperous preferred to add sugar to their tea. This became the main crop enslaved African labour was forced to grow in the Caribbean. Exploited Indian labour on tea plantations meanwhile grew the tea, in what became the British Empire in India.   

  

Portrait of Ranjit Singh 1780-1839, Woodgrange Road   

 

Ranjit Singh was the first Maharaja and founder of the Sikh Empire. The Artful Skecha painted his portrait on the side of a block of flats.  

 

When Ranjit Singh died in 1839 his empire was weakened by rivalry and the East India Company sought to exploit this internal weakness to expand its territory in India. His youngest son, Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, 1838 to 1893, became, aged five, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire in 1843, with his mother, Maharani Jind Kaur, ruling on his behalf.  

Portrait of Ranjit Singh on block of flats on Woodgrange Road

  

Two wars between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company (1845 -1846 and 1848- 1849) saw the East India Company victorious, and they renamed the area the North West Frontier Province (of India). 

   

Duleep Singh was exiled to Britain at 15 and befriended by Queen Victoria, who became godmother to several of his children, three of whom he had when married to Bamba Muller (1864 to 1887). Bamba’s mother, from Ethiopia, and her father, from Germany, were suffragettes. 

 

Two of their daughters were socially significant activists in their own right.   

Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh (1871-1942) has been called by the Holocaust Memorial Trust the “Indian Schindler” for her role, when living in Germany, in helping several Jewish people to escape from the Nazi’s, to safety in Britain.   

Princess Sofia Alexandra Duleep Singh (1876-1948) was a particularly well-known suffragette activist in the Women’s Social and Political Union.  

  

Durning Hall Community Centre, Earlham Grove 

   

Newham Monitoring Project (NMP-1980-2016) used Durning Hall for meetings and fundraising events. I remember attending at least one NMP party there, with a female DJ playing music reflecting the diversity of east London, such as Bhangra, Funk, and High Life. 

Newham Recorder reporting the murder of Akhtar Ali Baig

  

NMP brought the diverse communities of east London- White, Black and Asian - together to challenge racism. It was formed in 1980, as part of the Asian Youth Movement after the racist murder of Akhtar Ali Baig as he left East Ham Station. 

   

One of its founders was Gulshun Rehman, who also founded The Newham Asian Women’s Project. (see here and here for further details of the NMP) 

  

Hazel Goldman, Earlham Grove 

  

Among the many diverse communities who have made Newham their home is the Jewish community, escaping anti-Semitism in Europe. Hazel Goldman’s family has lived in Britain since the 1880s. Her grandfather Shmula Peprzhik, upon arriving in England in 1913, had his name anglicised to Harry Goldman. 

Helen Goldman (photo: Forest Mag)

  

The family moved to Forest Gate in the 1950s and were members of the Earlham Grove Synagogue (consecrated in 1911—demolished in 2004—see here for further details). It was the first in Essex and the largest in Newham. 

   

Hazel attended Chelsea School of Art and worked for Freeform Arts Trust, leading its Community Design and Technical Services Department and has continued to work within community arts ever since. From 1984 to 2002 she was an Executive Member of Pepetual Beauty Carnival Association in Stoke Newington, leading its design team, as well as supporting the development of the first accredited courses in art and design, through carnival arts at a UK college. 

  

Her work can be seen in the Forest Gate Community Garden on Earlham Grove.   

  

Newham Black Performing and Visual Arts Workshop (NBP&VAW) MacDonalds drive-in Romford Road 

   

The N.B. P & V. A. W. was founded in 1980 by Tony Cheeseman, who became its first Development Worker.  His co-founders were Pearla Boyce, Harian Henry, Peter Mavunga and Nathalie Pierre. Benjamin Zephaniah was the organisation’s patron.  

Tony Cheeseman

 

Its workshop tutors included Hakim Adi: History; Rosette Bushell-Adi: Dance; Sandra Agard: Poetry; Joe Blackman: Creative Writing and Colin Paddy: Sculpture. 

   

One of its aims was to give African Caribbean youth opportunities to learn about and develop their skills in the arts. Its original headquarters was above a bicycle shop at 324 to 326 Romford Road. It is now Forest Gate MacDonalds.  

MacDonald's, Romford Road, site of NBP&VAW

  

Workshops were organized in drawing, painting, creative writing, spoken word poetry, singing, dance, and Black history.  

 

From 1986 to 1989, they collaborated with the Newham African Caribbean Centre on 627 to 633 Barking Road, now known as the Barking Road Community Resource Centre.   

    

Clapton Community FC, Disraeli Road   

 

Walter Daniel John Tull was born 28^h April 1888 in Folkestone and died on 25^h March 1918 near Favreuil Pas-de-Calais Aged 29. He was a professional football player and officer in the British army. His father was Daniel Tull, an African Caribbean, born in Barbados and his mother Alice Elizabeth Palmer, white English, born in Kent. Walter was soon orphaned and faced and overcame many adversities, including racism, throughout his life to become an inspiration for justice and equality.   

Walter Tull

 

He played football for amateur club Clapton at the Old Spotted Dog Ground from 1908 to 1909 and was in the team that won the FA Amateur Cup, the London County Amateur Cup, and the London Senior Cup. The club is proud of the part he played in its history and will soon name the passage behind the ground Walter Tull Way. There will also be an information panel with a QR code erected on the ground, directing visitors to more information about him. 

  

From 1909 to 1911, he played for Tottenham Hotspur in the 1st Division of the FA Football League, making him one of the first Black outfield football players to appear in the league. From 1911 to 1914, he played 111 games for Northampton Town in the Southern League, which the legendary Herbert Chapman then managed. In 1917, he signed up to play for the Glasgow Rangers, becoming their first Black player. 

  

He joined the British Army in 1914, becoming the first Black officer to lead white troops into battle, rising in the ranks to become a 2nd Lieutenant, and died in battle.   

  

  

West Ham Park 

    

The park owes its existence to the perseverance of Dr Gustav Pagenstecher (1829-1916).  He was born in Westphalia Germany to a Franco/Caribbean mother and his wealthy German father, who died when Gustav was 5 years old.  

Gustav Pagenstecher (1896)

 

Gustav was home-educated. It is believed he left Germany in 1852 for England to avoid military service.  In England, he worked as a tutor for a family in Norfolk, and later became a tutor for MP Sir Edward Buxton’s family. He joined Buxton in visiting Ham House (the site of what was to become West Ham Park) in 1860 to meet Buxton’s Gurney relations. He was also Buxton’s secretary in Parliament. 

  

In the 1870s, John Gurney, owner of the Ham House estate, was keen to sell it, as the family was in financial difficulties due to the collapse of their bank. John Gurney asked Gustav for help selling the estate. He persuaded Gurney to consider turning the estate into a public park.  

 

Gustav identified the Corporation of London as the potential owners and managers of the park, and found other wealthy donors willing to contribute to the cost of creating a public park. 

  

He was the deputy chairman of the Parks Committee until 1916 and wrote the first history of the Park. From 1886, he lived in Cedar Cottage at 206 The Portway, adjacent to the park. 

  

He regularly returned to Germany during summers and in 1914 returned to England to find that he was expected to report daily to West Ham Police Station as an alien. He was caught up in the anti-German policies of the British Government during World War One. 

   

The way he was treated during this period is said to have contributed to his death two years later. There is very little information about him in the park, apart from a small plaque in the Pagenstecher Winter Garden opened in May 2015. (See here and here for more details on Pagenstcher and the Park) 

 

Footnote. Peter’s original Freedom Walks were of Leyton, Leytonstone, and Walthamstow. He then added walks around Ridley Road, Hackney, Green Street and Newham (which we hope to feature soon), and Battersea. In 2023, he added walks in Chingford North and Chingford Mount. 

 

Peter has also produced a book, Freedom Walk: The roots of diversity in Waltham Forest, to support his work. You can obtain this from him at the email address below. 

 

Peter welcomes enquiries from local community groups interested in him providing a Freedom Walk for them, at: peter.ashan.pa@gmail.com  

 

 

The Busby family – Forest Gate missionaries to China

Following on from articles Jane Skelding has written for this blog on the Canning Town Women’s Settlement (CTWS) story (E7 Now & Then: The Canning Town Women's Settlement: its workers and the women who wanted to help, E7 Now & Then: Rebecca Halley Cheetham (1852-1939) - first warden of Canning Town Women's Settlement and E7 Now & Then: The Canning Town Women's Settlement: its workers and the women who wanted to help), she now traces the missionary work of one of the settlement workers, Nora Busby (nee Thompson). 

Together with her husband, Forest Gate local Charles Busby, Nora worked as a missionary in China between the 1920s and 1950s. During their long mission in Northern China, they were interned by the Japanese until the end of the Second World War and then, on their return, continued to support the local work of the CTWS until their deaths.

When she died, the well-known Rebecca Cheetham, former warden of the CTWS, left an intriguing codicil in her will. Most of her estate - around £1600 - was bequeathed to her sister and family, but there were other small bequests, amongst which was £100 to “My dear friend Norah Mellor Busby of the London Mission Peking.” This small note prompted me to do further research, and a remarkable story unfolded, linking the CTWS, a local Forest Gate family, and Chinese missionary work.

Nora Busby 1922 Reproduced with permission from the Council for World Mission Archive, SOAS Library. Photograph reference C.W.M Missionary Portraits, Box 1 A-C

As other articles [E7 Now & Then: The Durning Hall story, E7 Now & Then: Forest Gate's role, in WW1 The Hammers battalion (1)] recounted, the Busby family were socially active Forest Gate residents and lived at 14 Sherrard Road at the time of the 1911 census. The family consisted of Charles Busby and his German wife Minnie; they had three sons, Charles, Wilfred, and William, and a daughter, Violet. 

14 Sherrard Road today

William was killed in the First World War [see epilogue at end of this article]. The other two brothers went on to work for the London Missionary Society (LMS), both spending significant periods in China, Charles as a minister and Wilfred as a doctor, becoming the director of a missionary hospital in Changchow near Amoy.

Much less is known about Charles’s wife, Nora, but in researching her story, it emerges that she was also significant in the local community. Nora Busby, or Nora Mellor Thompson, as she was christened, was born in Islington; her father was an Independent Minister from Hull.

Sometime after 1901, the family moved to Eastbourne, and upon her parents' death in 1912, Nora, now 29 and of independent means, first travelled to Calcutta and then back to Canning Town in London. There, she lived and worked for the Canning Town Women’s Settlement under Warden Rebecca Cheetham from November 1912 until August 1917.

As a settlement worker, Nora would have paid for her room and board at the settlement (around 18s-21s at the start of the war) and then volunteered her time in the various clubs and educational activities of the settlement work in the local community, learning about social work and the realities of life in the poorest parts of London. Nora is listed in the CTWS roster of settlement workers throughout the First World War until 1917 when she is recorded as a ‘leaver.’ There is no record of her activities after departing from CTWS until she reappears in the archive on a ship bound for Hong Kong, travelling to become a missionary in China. We pick up the trail again in 1921 when Charles Busby enters the narrative.

Charles Busby 1921 Reproduced with permission from the Council for World Mission Archive, SOAS Library. Photograph reference C.W.M Missionary Portraits, Box 1 A-C.

Nora and Charles's family life

Travel records suggest that Charles set off for Shanghai as a missionary in 1921, at that time unmarried. Nora likely departed around the same period, as the LMS archive at SOAS holds both of their photographs from 1920/1921; however, without personal papers, it remains impossible to ascertain whether they were acquainted before they departed for China. When they married in 1923 at the Union Church in Shanghai, both indicated their occupation as ‘Minister of Religion’.

Nora, who was 41 at the time of their marriage, was six years older than Charles, leaving room for speculation regarding whether they married for love, companionship, or convenience; perhaps their shared travel experiences and common cause drew them together. They never had any children of their own. 

However, there is evidence that they adopted two Chinese girls and supported their emigration abroad when the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949.

Nora and Charles (centre) with Lan Mei Bao Busby (front row left) in a group photo from 1926 of the Northern China Missionaries. Reproduced with permission from the Council for World Mission Archives, SOAS Library. Photo reference C.W.M. London Missionary Society China Photographs, file 88-96, 98-160.

Missionary life in China

The couple continued their missionary work together for the rest of their lives, working as a partnership in their ministry to the local Chinese community. They settled in Tientsin in Northern China, where they ran a mission church and worked in the community. Their settled work in the 1930s is recounted in Nora’s reports to the LMS. These annual reports describe their efforts, and it is striking that Nora continued her interest in women and children; in a similar vein to the work at the CTWS, she was fundraising and building better facilities for women and children. 

The couple’s ministry included sharing English traditions; Nora describes providing Christmas dinner for the local community whilst adapting by providing chopsticks for the turkey.

Their life during this period appears to have continued peacefully in the same area until the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. This era in Chinese history may be most familiar from the work of J G Ballard, who fictionalised his childhood internment in Empire of the Sun (1984).

Nora and Charles, along with other non-Chinese foreigners, found themselves rounded up in 1943 and sent to the Weihsein internment camp by the Japanese, where they would spend the next two years in notoriously difficult conditions. Stories from the camp and their memories are recorded by a memorialising website, Snapshots of Weihsien [http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/index.php].

Nora’s memories, recorded after their release by the London Mission in Peking on 4^th August 1945, reflect a cheerfulness amidst the harsh reality. The internees were determined to organise life normally, particularly for the children, and maintain a positive atmosphere. She highlights the significance of arts and crafts, Christmas, and church parades in uplifting spirits, though one can sense the weariness of camp life.

She notes that the second Christmas “promised little” and states, "How well we have been served by the Scouts and Guides ( a family passion, see the epilogue, below) – what a desolate place it would have been without the laughter and games of children." In contrast, Charles adopts a more measured tone, revealing that he had been confined to bed with illness for two months. He placed greater emphasis on the educational and spiritual aspects of camp life. 

While he believed it had been successful, given the diversity of religions and nationalities, he also expressed frustration that the inmates were not more reflective regarding the upheaval of the war and its implications for faith, stating, “When so many idols of the marketplace are being overthrown, there is the possibility of deeper scepticism but also the opportunity for purer worship.“ (Impressions of Weihsien, August 7, 1945)

At the war's end in 1945, the Busbys were liberated along with the rest of the camp and returned to England. Their dedication to their work appeared undiminished, as the couple returned to Hong Kong in 1948, now aged 66 and 60 respectively, and continued their efforts in the post-war territories, even amid the advent of Chairman Mao and the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC).

While abroad, the couple maintained a home in Woodford, travelling back and forth to China. Charles’ last voyage to England from Hong Kong appears to have occurred in April 1951. The regime of the PRC was not necessarily a significant factor in the Busbys’ decision to return to the UK. 

The LMS society reports from this period suggest a positive outlook, noting that there is space for the missionaries to continue their work safely under the new regime. However, this may also have influenced their choice at a personal level.

Although busy, the couple never forgot their commitment to CTWS or Forest Gate, continuing their work with the organisation. When she commenced her Chair in 1952, aged 70, Nora wrote about her pride in the settlement's achievements.

“which in spite of numerous setbacks and obstacles, has continued to serve West Ham from the days of its beloved Founder, Rebecca H. Cheetham. As one who was closely connected with her work in days gone by, it has given me great pleasure during the past year to be associated once more with the work of the Settlement.”

Nora served as CTWS Chairman from 1952 to 1958, and both were on the executive committee. Charles continued on the committee until 1961, after Nora died in 1958.

Charles published Hitherto henceforth, 1856-1956. A short history of Forest Gate Congregational Church, Sebert Road, etc in 1956) and in the introduction showed his family's commitment to the church and area. He said the booklet was:

Dedicated to my parents: Charles E Busby, for 56 years a member, 40 years a deacon and 30 years secretary of this church to whose careful records much of this history is indebted (and) Minnie H E Busby, for 64 years a “Mother in Israel.

During her final years, Nora continued to work on projects. She became interested in the spiritual welfare of the elderly or convalescent women staying at Loughton Lodge (later ‘Fairmead’ at Theydon Bois) and conducted services and Bible classes each Sunday.

Conclusion…

It is known that the settlements trained missionaries, but we can rarely trace the work directly from the London settlement to missionary work abroad. Nora and Charles's lives exemplified the aims of the settlement movement in many ways. They showed how the work in the local community, rooted in Christianity, could spread and grow into a lifetime of dedication and service.

Epilogue – William Walter Busby

William Walter was the missionary Charles’ brother, and we have written of him in previous articles (see above) He was born in West Ham in 1891 and, after leaving school, went to Birkbeck College London and worked as an industrial chemist. He was instrumental in establishing the 2^nd West Ham troop of scouts, when he was little more than a youth himself. It met until recently at Durning Hall and bears his name, “The Busby scouts”.

Capt William Walter Busby (Newham Scouts)

He enlisted as a 24-year-old to the recently established West Ham Pals (Hammers Battalion) in 1915 for service during World War 1 and was soon promoted to Captain. He was awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous gallantry” on the first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916). He was killed in action four and a half months later on 13 November and is buried at Serre Road Cemetery No 2.

Serre Road Cemetery No 2