Veronica Thornton taught art in south-east London for 30 years and is now based in Cambridge. She has just written her first novel, set the 1970s. and partly inspired by the long abandoned Greenwich to Crystal Palace Railway. As part of her research Veronica used old maps, various archive photos and magazine articles related to the subject. These are the images she will share in her talk, to show the railway as it was at different times in the 20th century. She will also explain how photos of the railway helped confirm the location of a Pissarro painting.

* ‘Screaming Alice’ is Cockney rhyming slang for the Crystal Palace.

Maeve Donegan’s opening remarks introducing Father Kevin Robinson are reproduced below:

They say a church is built of “stones” and also “living stones”.

Fr Kevin will speak to you in a few moments about the “stones”of our church. My interest is more in the “living stones”, or rather, those that went before us.

Any discussion about our present church has to start with the catholic naval pensioners of Greenwich.

In the late 1700s their pastor was Fr John Griffiths who operated out of the London Road chapel.This had been built by catholic architect,James Taylor,of Islington.

Fr Griffiths was determined to have a place of worship for these  “old worn out sons of the sea”, near the Naval Hospital. Mr Taylor who owned a house on Park Vista, next to The Plume Of Feathers, agreed to lease part of his spacious back yard to the church. Fr Griffiths attempts to raise £1200 only achieved £260, but Mr Taylor stepped in and made up the shortfall. By 1793 St Mary’s Chapel was built. Mr Taylor also housed the priest at that time, in Clark’s buildings. The congregation then was made up of “Aged and infirm pensioners and the labouring poor”, according to The Laity’s Directory To The Church Services in 1825.

In an article published in The Penny Christian Magazine of April 1833 a reporter writes a glowing account of the Royal Naval Hospital.In it he reassures the public that these old men,who have done their country such service, are being well looked after. Even their spiritual needs are being attended to,and all faiths are respected.

He says ,”By an esteemed officer in this establishment we are informed…….that about 250 profess the Roman Catholic faith and are lead out by a boatswain of their own persuasion to their Romish chapel in Greenwich”.

Fr Richard North, a young priest of 28yrs, arrives here in 1828. He describes the chapel thus in 1846, “It is a miserable building in an avenue of horrors!”

We know he started fund raising almost immediately. He got the old tars to give one or two pennies a week, from their allowance of a shilling from the Navy. And he wrote incessantly to the Catholic press of the time about his cause for “The companions of Nelson and other heros”. By 1841 he had managed to collect approx. £900, a vast amount for that time, especially considering how poor the donors were.

Unfortunately, Wrights Bank, where he had invested the money failed and he lost everything.

It must have been crushing but, he started all over again and redoubled his efforts. He says himself in one letter, to be priest in want of money for a church, “One needs the tenacity of tooth of a bulldog and the hide of a buffalo!”. The Admiralty even donated £200 to the fund in recognition of his efforts with the old sailors. Amazingly he is sending money to Ireland also, to aid the poor there at the onset of The Great Famine.

By 1846 though, enough money has been raised to buy a site, clear it and start building. By 1849 the spire is raised and by 1851 the first Mass is said. In 1852 it is finally consecrated to Our Ladye Star Of The Sea.

Our church, these “stones”, have been at the heart of our community for 166 years.

For prayer, for meeting, for solace on dark days and added joy on the bright ones. We give thanks for the determined pastors and generous sailors who made it all possible.

“Our Ladye Star of the Sea” lecture was given on Wednesday 27 September by Father Kevin Robinson.

 

Wednesday 24 May

Trinity Hospital

ED RICHARDSON

Trinity Hospital, built in 1614 is one of the oldest buildings in Greenwich. Photographer Ed Richardson’s interest in Trinity began in 1975 and has been his fascination ever since. To celebrate the 400th anniversary in 2014 Ed produced a photographic book and an 18 minute film using the present-day residents to provide an insight into their lives there.

Meetings are held at James Wolfe School, Royal Hill Campus, Greenwich SE10 8RZ. Meetings commence at 7.30, doors open 7.15. We welcome non-members, from whom we invite a donation of £3 for each meeting. More useful information about our meetings can be found here.

Wednesday 26 April 

Mudlarking.

Nicola White.

When the tide is out along the banks of the River Thames, there is a myriad of pieces of history waiting to be found along the shoreline. Local artist and mudlark Nicola White searches the Greenwich foreshore for such objects to use in her artwork and also spends time researching the personal stories behind her mudlarking. Nicola will talk about some of her local finds such as small brass luggage label she discovered in the Greenwich mud which brought back to life the fascinating story of a local First World War soldier, Frederick Jury.

Meetings are held at James Wolfe School, Royal Hill Campus, Greenwich SE10 8RZ. Meetings commence at 7.30, doors open 7.15. We welcome non-members, from whom we invite a donation of £3 for each meeting. More useful information about our meetings can be found here.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

AGM. The Rise and Fall of Robert Cocking

ANTHONY CROSS.

In his Address, Anthony Cross, President of Greenwich Historical Society, introduced the audience to Robert Cocking (1776-1837); artist, amateur scientist – and pioneer parachutist – who, in an attempt to demonstrate his device, fell to his death at Lee, near Greenwich, on 24 July 1837.

The talk looked at Cocking’s attempt in the context of the time that it was made: how in September 1802, he had witnessed André Jacques Garnerin descend by parachute in London, and had been moved by the sight of the wild oscillation of his chute. Then, how he had thereafter spent 35 years designing what he considered to be a better, safer model – an upside-down cone not unlike a dandelion seed head. Having finally persuaded Charles Green the balloonist to attach his parachute to the great Nassau balloon, the events of the fatal day at Vauxhall Gardens, were described in some detail.

There was some discussion of what had probably gone wrong; whether the attempt was doomed from the outset, or that poor manufacture was at fault. The talk also gave some thought to the most likely location of the spot where he fell to earth.

Cocking’s last moments, the macabre exhibition of the parachute and corpse, and the subsequent inquest held at the Tiger’s Head, were all covered, as well as his funeral at St Margaret’s (old) Church, Lee.

Anthony concluded by quoting the words of John Edmund Hodgson, the author of the ‘History of Aeronautics in Great Britain’: “[Cocking was] a victim to the very dangers which, with the ardent but unscientific enthusiasm of the amateur, he had so long sought to overcome. Nevertheless, it may justly be added that in his unobtrusive determination and quiet courage, he exhibited no small measure of that unselfish devotion to an idea – even unto death – characteristic of much greater pioneers”.

Our speaker then went off to the pub where he raised a glass to the memory of Daedalus.

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Vanishing Greenwich: HOW WE CELEBRATED THE JUBILEE

HORATIO BLOOD

In a change to the advertised programme, Horatio Blood takes his inspiration from Robert Byron’s delicious 1937 polemic How We Celebrate The Coronation and reflects upon the continuing erosion of the architectural fabric of Greenwich. He casts a particular gaze on the right royal wreckage that occurred during Greenwich’s annus horribilis of 2012 and wonders what on earth this UNESCO World Heritage Site has done to deserve this truly terrible treatment.

Meetings are held at James Wolfe School, Royal Hill Campus, Greenwich SE10 8RZ. Meetings commence at 7.30, doors open 7.15. We welcome non-members, from whom we invite a donation of £3 for each meeting. More useful information about our meetings can be found here.