Part 1
All About Battersea,
BY
HENRY S. SIMMONDS.
London: ASHFIELD, PRINTER, BRIDGE ROAD WEST, BATTERSEA.
1882.
This small volume IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED (BY PERMISSION) TO THE REV. JOHN ERSKINE CLARKE, M.A., _Honorary Canon of Winchester, Vicar of Battersea;_ AND TO THE INHABITANTS IN GENERAL.
INDEX.
PAGE. INTRODUCTION.
Nine Elms Lane.--The King's Champion. 3
Thorne's Brewery.--What Battersea has been called. 4
London and South Western Railway Company's Goods Station and Locomotive Works. 4-7
Mill-Pond Bridge.--New Road. 8
A Royal Sturgeon caught in the wheel of the Mill at Mill-Pond Bridge. 9
Wallace's Vitriol Works. 10
Sleaford Street.--Coal. 11
Street Lighting. 12-13
London Gas-Light Company's Works and Vauxhall Gardens. 14-23
On a recently-exposed Section at Battersea. 23-24
Phillips' Fire Annihilating Machine Factory Destroyed.--Brayne's Pottery.--The Old Lime Kilns.--Laver's Cement & Whiting Works. 25
The Southwark and Vauxhall Water Works. 26
Water Carriers and Water Companies. 27-29
The Village of Battersea.--Growth of the Parish. 30-31
Boundaries.--A Legal Contest between Battersea and Clapham Parishes.--Clapham Common. 32-33
Lavender Hill.--The Seat of William Wilberforce.--Eminent Supporters of the Anti-Slavery Movement.--Frances Elizabeth Leveson Gower.--Mr. Thornton.--Philip Cazenove.--Charles Curling, Lady George Pollock, and others. 34-36
Battersea Market Gardens and Gardeners. 36-37
Stages set out for Battersea from the City.--Annual Fair.--Inhabitants supplied with Water from Springs.--The Manor of Battersea before the Conquest. 38
Battersea and its association with the St. Johns. 39
Henry St. John Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. 40-42
A Horizontal Air Mill. 43
St. Mary's Church. 44-46
The Indenture. 47-48
Epitaphs and Sepulchral Monuments. 49-51
Rectory and Vicarage. 52
A Petition or Curious Document. 53
Dr. Thomas Temple.--Dr. Thomas Church. 54
Cases of Longevity.--The Plague.--The Three Plague Years.--Deaths in Battersea. 55-56
Vicars of Battersea from Olden Times. 56-57
Thomas Lord Stanley.--Lawrence Booth. 57
York House. 58
Battersea Enamel Works.--Porcelain.--Jens Wolfe, Esq.--Sherwood Lodge.--Price's Patent Candle Factory. 59-62
Candlemas. 63-64
The Saw.--Mark Isambard Brunel's Premises at Battersea.--Establishment for the preservation of timber from the dry rot burnt down. 65
History of the Ferry.--The Old Wooden Bridge. 66-67
Albert Suspension Bridge. 68-69
Chelsea Suspension Bridge. 70
The Prince of Wales.--Freeing the Bridges "For Ever." 71-73
The Stupendous Railway Bridge across the Thames. 74
The spot where Cæsar and his legions are stated by some antiquarians to have crossed the river. 75
A haunted house.--Battersea Fields.--Duel between the Duke of Wellington and Lord Winchelsea. 76
The Red House. 77
"Gyp" the Raven.--Billy the Nutman.--Sports. 78
"The Old House at Home."--Sabbath Desecration. 79
Her Majesty's Commissioners empowered by Act of Parliament to form a Royal Park in Battersea Fields.--Wild Flowers.--Battersea Park. 80-84
London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company's two Circular Engine Sheds and West-End Goods Traffic Department. 85-86
Long-Hedge Farm.--London, Chatham and Dover Railway Locomotive Works. 87-90
A Canvas Cathedral. 91
H.P. Horse Nail Company's Factory 94
St. George's Church, its clergy, its graveyard, epitaphs and inscriptions (St. Andrew's Temporary Iron Church 96). 95-99
Christ Church, its clergy. 100
St. John's Church. 101
St. Paul's Church. 102
St. Philip's Church. 103
St. Mark's Church. 104
St. Luke's Chapel-of-Ease. 105
St. Saviour's Church. 106
St. Peter's Church. 107
Temporary Church of the Ascension.--St. Michael's Church. 108
All Saints' Temporary Iron Church.--Rochester Diocesan Mission, St. James', Nine Elms. 111
St. Aldwin's Mission Chapel.--The Church of our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph. 112
Church of the Sacred Heart.--The Old Baptist Meeting House, Revs. Mr. Browne, Joseph Hughes, M.A., (John Foster), Edmund Clark, Enoch Crook, I. M. Soule, Charles Kirtland. 113-116
Baptist Temporary Chapel, Surrey Lane. 116
Battersea Park Temporary Baptist Chapel. 117
Baptist (Providence) Chapel. 118
Baptist Chapel, Chatham Road.--Wesleyan Methodist Mission Room and Sunday School.--United Methodist Free Church, Church Road, Battersea.--The United Methodist Free Church, Battersea Park Road. 119
Primitive Methodist Chapel, New Road. 119
Primitive Methodist Chapel, Grayshott Road.--Primitive Methodist Chapel, Plough Lane. 121
St. George's Mission Hall.--Battersea Congregational Church, (Independent), Bridge Road. 122
Stormont Road Congregational Church, Lavender Hill. 123
Wesleyan Methodism in Battersea. 124-126
Methodist Chronology. 127
Wesleyan Chapel, Queen's Road. 128
Free Christian Church, Queen's Road. 129
Trinity Mission Hall, Stewart's Lane.--Plymouth Brethren. 130
"The Little Tabernacle."--Thomas Blood. 131
Battersea Priory.--Alien Priories. 132
Ursulines. 132-134
Battersea Grammar School, St. John's Hill. 134
The Southlands Practising Model Schools.--St. Peter's Schools.--St. Saviour's Infant. 136
Christ Church National Schools.--St. George's National Schools.--Voluntary Schools. 136
London Board Schools. 137
London School Board, Lambeth Division. 138
The Elementary Education Acts.--Regulations affecting Parent and Child. 139-140
A Coffee Palace.--Latchmere Grove.--Plague Spots.--The Shaftesbury Park Estate. 141-142
The Metropolitan Artizans' and Labourers' Dwellings Association. 143-144
Latchmere Allotments.--Dove Dale Place.--An Old Boiler.--Lammas Hall.--The Union Workhouse. 145
Old Battersea Workhouse.--The "Cage."--The "Stocks." 146
The Falcon Tavern.--A Cantata. 147
Origin of Bottled Ale in England.--"Ye Plough Inn."--"The Old House."--Stump of an Old Oak Tree. 148
"Lawn House," Lombard Road.--The Prizes for the Kean's Sovereigns and the Funny Boat Race.--The Old Swan Tavern.--Royal Victoria Patriotic Schools. 149
St. James' Industrial Schools.--Royal Masonic Institution for Girls. 150
Clapham Junction.--Battersea Provident Dispensary. 151
Wandsworth Common Provident Dispensary.--Charity Organization Society.--The Penny Bank.--No. 54 Metropolitan Fire Brigade Station.--Origin of Fire Brigades. 152
The Metropolitan Police.--Police Stations, Battersea.--St. John's College of the National Society. 153
The Vicarage House School.--Various Wharves and Factories. 154
Mr. George Chadwin.--T. Gaines.--Tow's Private Mad House.--The Patent Plumbago Crucible Company's Works. 155
Silicated Carbon Filter Company's Works. 156
Condy's Manufactory.--Citizen Steamboat Company's Works. 157
Orlando Jones & Co.'s Starch Works. 157-159
Battersea Laundries.--Spiers and Pond's.--Propert's Factory.--The London and Provincial Steam Laundry. 159-160
St. Mary's (Battersea) Cemetery.--Numerous Epitaphs and Inscriptions. Scale of Fees, etc. 161-175
The Battersea Charities. 175
Parish Officers.--Vestrymen. 176-178
Battersea Tradesmen's Club.--Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs. 179-180
London, Chatham and Dover Railway--Battersea Park Station--York Road Station (Brighton Line).--West London Commercial Bank. London and South Western Bank.--Temperance and Band of Hope Meetings.--South London Tramways in Battersea--Fares. 180-181
[Transcriber's Note.--A list of illustrations has been added in below. Some obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have also been silently corrected.]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
St. Mary's Church. 44
Price's Patent Candle Company. 59
St George's Church. 95
St. John's Church. 101
St. Mark's Church. 104
St. Luke's Chapel-of-Ease. 105
St. Saviour's Church. 106
Baptist Temporary Chapel, Surrey Lane. 116
Battersea Park Temporary Baptist Chapel. 117
The New Baptist Chapel. 119
Battersea Congregational Church. 122
Orlando Jones & Co.'s Starch Works. 157
Introduction.
London, after the lapse of centuries, has been compared to an old ship that has been repaired and rebuilt till not one of its original timbers can be found; so marvellous are the changes and transmutations which have come over the "_town upon the lake_" or, _harbour for ships_ as London was anciently called, that if a Celt, or a Roman, or a Saxon, or a Dane, or a Norman, or a Citizen of Queen Elizabeth's time were to awake from his long slumber of death, he would no more know where he was, and would be as strangely puzzled as an Englishman of the present generation would be, who had never stirred further than the radius of the Metropolis, supposing him to be conveyed by some supernatural agency one night to China, who, on rising the next morning finds himself surrounded by the street-scenery of the city of Pekin. Costumes, manners, language, inhabitants have all changed! Viewed from a geological stand-point, even the soil on which New London stands is not the same as that on which Old London stood. The level of the site of the ancient city was much lower than at present, for there are found indications of Roman highways, and floors of houses, twenty feet below the existing pathways. There are probable grounds for supposing the Surrey side to have been some nineteen hundred years ago a great expanse of water. London so called for several ages past, is a manifest corruption from Tacitus's _Londinium_ which was not however its primitive name this famous place existed before the arrival of Cæsar in the Island, and was the capital of the _Trinobantes_ or _Trinouantes_, and the seat of their kings. The name of the nation as appears from Baxter's British Glossary, was derived from the three following British words, tri, nou, bant, which signify the 'inhabitants of the new city.' This name it is supposed might have been given them by their neighbours on account of their having newly come from the Continent (Belgium) into Britain and having there founded a city called _tri-now_ or the (new city) the most ancient name of the renowned metropolis of Britain.[1] Some have asserted that a city existed on the spot 1107 years before the birth of Christ, and 354 years before the foundation of Rome. The fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth state that London was founded by Brute (or Brutus) a descendant of the Trojan Æneas the son of Venus and called New Troy, or _Troy Novant_ until the time of Lud, who surrounded it with walls, and gave it the name Caer Lud, or Lud's town etc. _Leigh._ A certain Lord Mayor when pleading before Henry VI. assumed from this mythological story with a view to establish a claim to London's priority of existence over the city of Rome. The Celts the ancestors of the Britons and modern Welsh were the first inhabitants of Britain. The earliest records of the history of this island are the manuscripts and the poetry of the Cambrians. Britain was called by the Romans _Britannia_ from its Celtic name Prydhain. _Camden._ We need not tarry to discuss whether Londinium originally was in _Cantium_ or Kent the place fixed by Ptolemy and some other ancient writers of good authority, or whether its original place were Middlesex, or whether situated both north and south of the _Tamesis_ Thames. The _Trinobantes_ occupied Middlesex and Essex, they joined in opposing the invasion of Julius Cæsar 54 B.C.; but were among the first of the British States who submitted to the Romans their new City at that time being too inconsiderable a place for Cæsar to mention. Having revolted from the Roman yoke they joined their beautiful Queen Boadicea and were defeated by Suetonius Paulinus near London A.D. 61. But before reducing the Trinobantes who had the Thames for their southern boundary, it is the opinion of some antiquarians that the Romans probably had a station to secure their conquests on the Surrey side, and the spot fixed upon for the station is St. George's in the Fields a large plot of ground situated between Lambeth and Southwark, where many Roman coins, bricks, chequered pavements and other fragments of antiquity have been found. Three Roman ways from Kent, Surrey and Middlesex intersected each other in this place. It is thought that after the Normans reduced the Trinobantes the place became neglected and that they afterwards settled on the other side of the Thames and the name was transferred to the New City. The author of a work entitled "London in Ancient and Modern times." p.p. 12 and 13 writes.--Let the reader picture to himself the aspect of the place now occupied by the great Metropolis, as the Romans saw it on their first visit. He should imagine the Counties of Kent and Essex, now divided by the Thames, partially overflowed in the vicinity of the river by an arm of the sea, so that a broad estuary comes up as far as Greenwich, and the waters spread on both sides washing the foot of the Kentish uplands to the south, and finding a boundary to the north in the gently rising ground of Essex. The mouth of the river, properly speaking was situated three or four miles from where London Bridge now stands. Instead of being confined between banks as at present, the river overflowed extensive marshes, which lay both right and left beyond London. Sailing up the broad stream, the voyager would find the waters spreading far on either side of him, as he reached the spots now known as Chelsea and Battersea--a fact of which the record is preserved in their very names. A tract of land rises on the north side of the river. It is bounded to the west by a range of country, subject to inundations, consisting of beds of rushes and osiers and boggy grounds and impenetrable thickets, intersected by streams. It is bounded to the north by a large dense forest, rising on the edge of a waste fen or lake, covering the whole district now called Finsbury and stretching away for miles beyond. This tract of land, rising in a broad knoll, formed the site of London.
An old writer says "it is now certain that the spot, (viz. St. George's in the Fields) on which the city was described to have stood, was an extensive marsh or lake, reaching as far as Camberwell hills, until by drains and embankments, the Romans recovered all the lowlands about the parts now called St. George's Fields, Lambeth etc. London never stood on any other spot than the Peninsular, on the northern banks, formed by the Thames in front; by the river Fleet on the west; and by the stream afterwards named Walbrook on the East. An immense forest originally extended to the river side, and, even as late as the reign of Henry II. covered the northern neighbourhood of the city, and was filled with various species of beasts of chase. It was defended naturally by fosses, one formed by the creek which ran along the Fleet ditch, the other by that of Walbrook. The south side was protected by the river Thames, and the north by the adjacent forest."
In the reign of Nero the first notice of Londinium or, Londinum occurs in Tacitus (Ann xiv. 33.) where it is spoken of, not then as honoured with the name _Colonia_ but for the great conflux of Merchants, its extensive commerce, and as a depôt for merchandise. At a later date London appears to have been _Colonia_ under the name Augusta (Amm. Marcell.; xxvii. 8.) how long it possessed this honourable appellation we do not know but after the establishment of the Saxons we find no mention of Augusta. It has received at various times thirteen different names, but most of them having some similarity to the present one. However as it is not a history of England's Metropolis but _All about Battersea_[2] we write, we will at once commence at Nine Elms.
[Footnote 1: The inhabitants of ancient Britain derived their origin partly from an original colony of Celtæ, partly from a mixed body of Gauls and Germans. None of them cultivated the ground; they all lived by raising cattle and hunting. Their dress consisted of skins, their habitations were huts of wicker-work covered with rushes. Their Priests the Druids together with the sacred women, exercised a kind of authority over them.
Britain according to Aristotle, was the name which the Romans gave to Modern England and Scotland. This appellation is, perhaps derived from the old word _brit_, partly coloured, it having been customary with the inhabitants to paint their bodies.
According to the testimony of Pliny and Aristotle, the Island in remotest times bore the name of Albion.
The Sea by which Britain is surrounded, was generally called, the _Western_, the _Atlantic_, or _Hesperian_ Ocean. Herodotus informs us that the Phœnicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, especially the first were acquainted with it from the earliest period and obtained tin there and designated it _Tin Island_. The name Great Britain was applied to England and Scotland after James I. ascended the English throne in 1603. England and Scotland however had separate Parliaments till 1st of May 1707, when during the reign of Queen Anne the Island was designated by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The terms at first excited the utmost dissatisfaction; but the progress of time has shown it to be the greatest blessing that either nation could have experienced.]
[Footnote 2: The Manor is thus described in Doomsday-book among the lands belonging to the Abbot of Westminster:--"St. Peter of Westminster holds Patricesy, Earl Harold held it; and it was then assessed at 72 hides: now at 18 hides. The arable land is--Three carucates are in demesne; and there are forty-five villians, and sixteen bordars with fourteen carucates, there are eight bond men: and seven mills at £42 9_s._ 8_d._ and a corn rent of the same amount, and eighty-two acres of meadow and a wood yielding fifty swine for pannage. There is in Southwark one bordar belonging to the Manor paying twelve pence. From the roll of Wendelesorde (Wandsworth) is received the sum of £6. A villian having ten swine pays to the Lord one; but if he has a smaller number, nothing. One knight holds four hides of this land and the money he pays is included in the preceding estimate. The entire Manor in the time of King Edward was valued at £80, afterwards at £30; and now at £75 9_s._ 8_d._
"King William gave the Manor to St. Peter in exchange for Windsor. The Earl of Moreton holds one and a half hides of land, which in King Edward's time and afterwards belonged to this Manor. Gilbert the Priest holds three hides under the same circumstances. The Bishop of Lisieux had two hides of which the Church of Westminster was seized in the time of William and disseised by the Bishop of Bayeaux. The Abbot of Chertsey holds one hide which the Bailiff of this will, out of ill-will (to the Abbot of Westminster) detached from this Manor, and appropriated it to Chertsey."
Hide of land in the ancient laws of England was such a quantity of land as might be ploughed with one plough within the compass of a year, or as much as would maintain a family; some call it sixty, some eighty, and others one hundred acres. Villian, or Villein, in our ancient customs, denotes a man of Servile or base condition, viz, a bond-man or servant. (Fr. Vilain. L. Villanus, from Villa, a farm, a feudal tenant of the lowest class.)]
ALL ABOUT BATTERSEA