Notes from the Archive: Rural Catford & Lewisham
The Lewisham antiquarian Leland L. Duncan (1862 - 1923) produced an astounding volume and diversity of papers in his lifetime. The KAS is fortunate to have some of his papers and the Archive Survey has now completed one more box, Box 35, and is nearing the end of another of the original wooden boxes deposited with the Society. Leland L. Duncan's possessions were auctioned off in 1924 and much of his library and collections were bought by his friends. The family retained some items and others were deposited with The Society of Antiquarians of London and with the KAS. His papers are therefore in several different deposits, much of it in Lewisham Local History and Archive Centre, and it is hoped that listing the holdings will make life easier for researchers.
Box 35 contains seven bundles of Manuscript papers accumulated between ca. 1880 and 1920. It contains a large number of items related to Mr. Duncan's published works and may be of special interest to those who wish to study his methods of collation and research. The main topics in this box are the Monumental Inscriptions of Churches and Church Registers. The inscriptions from Folkestone Church and Churchyard were published in instalments in Miscellanea Genealogical et Heraldic between 1892 and 1893 and copies of these are present. The content includes inscriptions at Chislehurst, West Wickham, Chelsfield and Bromley, and transcriptions of The Registers at Lewisham and the Registers at Allhallows, Hoo and Chislehurst.
The Wooden Box carries the somewhat cryptic inscription ‘Hart’s Manuscript 2nd Edition’. This refers to a printers proof of Hart’s History of Lee, which is included in the box along with a letter requesting correction of it. The box contains material related to the study of churches. There are records of Monumental Inscriptions of West Kent Churches, photos of Waltham Abbey and Cudham as well as notebooks from his field trips to Folkestone Church and Churchyard. However, the most striking part about this box is how much of its content is concerned with recording the heritage which was disappearing around him. There are pictures from Orpington and Lewisham of buildings and street scenes which have now long vanished. One example is Tapley’s Barn, Singley Farm in Catford. This Farm was located on the eastern side of the Bromley Road and is mentioned in his book The History of the Borough of Lewisham (1908). He informs us that the farm can be traced back to the Court Rolls of Edward II and then goes on to say part of the old house of timber remained until a few years ago, when it was rebuilt, but the old kitchen still exist. The farm lands are now built over.
The photo shows an outside and, more interestingly, an inside view of the barn. Leland Duncan also had an interesting copy of an 1828 Survey of the farm among his papers (now in Lewisham). The farm was bought by A. C. Corbett in 1894 and became part of his St. Germans Estate. The ‘New House’ became The Priory House School and this building disappeared in the 1980s. In Lewisham they hold a postcard view of the same barn from around 1894 and a sales catalogue from 1849, but these two photos are a rare record of this once substantial 200 acre farm in Catford.
The rural theme continues in a collection of newspaper cuttings where Leland Duncan has selected those of interest for recording the past way of life in the area. A good example is a series of articles in The Journal and District Times from January 1911 called Fifty Years Ago, Mr. H. C. Motts Local Notes and Reminiscences. These recall the rural delights of Lewisham in Mr. Motts’ childhood, how people used to live in cottages near the stream in Lewisham and drink from its water, how he used to watch the ducks on the crystal waters
. He remembers with particular delight the trees in Lewisham, the elms and the weeping willows along the stream. Walking down Lewisham High Street today it is hard to imagine this quieter rural past amongst the cheerful bustle and rumbling traffic.
Pernille Richards