Thames Tributary Ravensbourne - The Beck - Addington

Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
The river Beck rises here and begins its flow north towards the Pool and the Ravensbourne,

Addington is a small village near the boundary with Kent and Surrey. It is called ‘Eddintone’ in the Domesday Book. It means 'farmstead or estate associated with a man called Eadda or Eddi' and this may be the same man whose name is recorded in Addiscombe.  This square covers the majority of the village which has a stop on the Croydon tramway and there is also a depot for trams and buses.  The village has pubs and houses and a church notable for its links with the Archbishop's Palace (in a square to the north). It was also a village with a notable cricket team

Post to the north Shirley

Post to the south Addington Interchange


Addington Road
Croydon Rugby Club

Boundary Way
Addington House. The front is c.1630 and it is a 17th timber-framed and brick house with 18th parts. Listed.

Bridle Way
An ancient track that runs through the woods. Kennel Wood is to the west and Shirley Heath and Jackson's Common to the east. This area was previously part of a golf course opened in 1922 and later used for war time housing
The southern part of the golf course was kept as public open space and some of the open areas among the trees, built as fairways are used for sports pitches
Three Halfpenny Wood. The name is thought to come from the discovery of a body in a pond here in 1805. The only means of identification was the sum of 1 ½d. Which he had had on his disappearance three years earlier. The woods support Birch and Oak as well as birds and small mammals. The only site in Greater London where small-leaved lime, grow near the boundary ditch. Other trees are overgrown sweet chestnut with oak and birch. Towards the centre there is bramble.
Boundary ditches on the Kent Surrey border. The wood is parallel to the main road, and is on a narrow ridge of sand and clay.
Spring source of the Beck. A wedge of woodland extends north, and along its edge runs the start of the Beck stream, which eventually disappears below ground.

Kent Gate Way
This is a bypass road to Addington Village Road
Petrol station on the site of Lower Farm. Early medieval plough soil has been found here plus fragments which may have been an outbuilding and yard belonging from the late 17th farm. .

Spout Hill
This was Shaw Hill until 1843 when Archbishop Howley provided a water supply for the village from a spring.
Lion Lodges. Gate piers with lions, possibly from an earlier Addington Place: They were put in place when the Place was rebuilt in 1778-9.

The Wicket
In the 18th Addington had one of the strongest cricket teams in England.
Addington Cricket Club. In 1749 Addington won against All England.

Village Road
Lodge
Flint Cottage three late 18th cottages
36 Cricketers Inn. 1847 replaced the Tudor Three Lions.
Corner site of the village school, provided by Archbishop Howley in 1844 and demolished in 1967. Prior to this two old cottages had served as a small workhouse and schoolroom.
Smithy. A working forge rebuilt in 1740. Reconstructed in 1815, the forge made and repaired agricultural equipment. For over fifty years it has been run by the Collins family who have made Custom made ornamental ironwork there since the 1960s
Farm buildings and farm cottage
Cricket green, home to Addington Cricket club founded in 1743
Addington Park Farm. A Georgian building which includes an ancient open hall house.
Home Farm
Old Vicarage.1867
Church Hall. Modern.
Church of St.Mary the Blessed Virgin. Founded in the 11th and since enlarged and restored. Five archbishops are buried here - Manners, Sutton, Howley, Sumner, Longley and Tait and they have added much to the church – there are figures of successive archbishops in the reredos. There are Norman windows in the chancel which is 12th. The porch was added by Archbishop Howley in 1848 and the outside was refaced in 1876 by St Aubyn, who also rebuilt the 18th tower. Monuments:- memorial to Archbishop Benson 1896; brasses to John Leigh 1509 and his wife, figures in armour; Jacobean monument to John Leigh, 1576; Sir Olliphe Leigh 1612, wife, parents, and grandparents, Mrs. Lovell and Mrs. Leigh, 1691, by Nost,; Mrs. Grizzel Trecothick 1769, by Wilton;; Barlow Trecothick, Lord Mayor of London, 1775,; Archbishop Howley 1848.
Churchyard. There is an ornate cross and pedestal put up in 1911 by Archbishop Randall Davidson to his predecessors who lived here.

Sources
Croydon Cricket. Web sit
Anderson. History of the Parish of Croydon
Field. London Place names,
London Borough of Croydon. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
Penguin. Kent
Penguin. Surrey,
Pevsner and Cherry Surrey
Pevsner and Cherry. South London,
Stewart. Croydon History

St.Mary's Church. Web site

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