Thames Tributary Ravensbourne - The Beck - Monk's Orchard
Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
The Beck continues to flow northwards
Post to the north Eden Park
Post to the south Shirley
Beckenham Road
St David's College. Independent junior school founded in 1926. The school began in Mr. and Mrs. Davies' house 29 South Eden Park Road, and comprised a Kindergarten. Sometimes the pupils were able to play in the field beyond the garden of the house, and in 1935 the first Sports Day was held in this field and the school was sold to Mr. & Mrs.Schove who owned the field. During the Second World War but the school opened its doors to students up to the age of 33. After the War the older pupils moved into Justin Hall which had been bombed and rebuilt. In 1968 the Little School opened in St. David's Close. The grounds still connect Justin Hall with 'Number 29', and the whole site was part of Lord Gwydir's estate, sold in 1820.
Blake Recreation Ground,
It was opened to the public in 1932 and named after local GP. It has horticultural features and it is partly wooded. Public air raid shelters were set up here in the Second World War
Chamberlain Crescent
Oak Lodge Primary School
High Broom Wood
Beck stream, called Ridle Brook locally. Remerges from underground and flows here within natural banks but divides the wood in two. It is joined here by a stream running parallel to it from the White Hart.
A long slim wood with ancient coppices although they were tipped with wartime spoil creating higher ground in the middle of the site. It is an alder wood with small wetland patches with kingcup, wavy bitter-cress, mosses and liverworts. In the east on higher ground is sweet chestnut, coppice plus oak standards, and birch. There is also moschatel, Solomon's-seal, marsh-marigold, common valerian and opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage
High Street, West Wickham
New Church Centre. This was built as an infant’s school and later taken over by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
St.Mark. RC church opened 1963. by Bingham Towner Associates. Stock brick in the plan of a distorted octagon, with a parish room at the end
136 Wheatsheaf. 1825
Flats on the site of Smith’s Farm opposite the White Hart
Garage on the site of Victoria Cottages
Supermarket on the site of Stevenson’s Cottages, Sparrows’ coach builders and the fire station
Croft Parade stands on the site of The Croft demolished 1930s.
Kent Road
Was previously Love Lane
92-100 Wickham Hall stables. Was a Unigate Dairy a milk distributing depot. Stables etc. But built for Mellins, German baby foods manufacturers. Now flats.
Woodbine Cottage 1883
Manor Park Road
Manor House was on the junction with the High Street. Holm Oak from the grounds remains in a garden.
Monks Orchard
Monks Orchard. Named from Monks Orchard Farm & Wood called Monksmead in 1661, lands here was once owned by a family called Monk. Monks Orchard was the name of a mansion built in 1854 by Lewis Lloyd. The estate straddles the county boundary of Kent and Surrey. The fields which make up the estate date from the Middle Ages. The estate included a grand house in the eastern part of the grounds near the lake. In 1920 the property was put up for auction. Much of the mansion site was sold for housing
Field names in the area - Long Field, Blythe Field, Goodwin's Piece, and Monks Orchard – as well as Monks Mead, Monks Orchard Field and Monks Orchard Wood.
Cold Shaw
Bethlem Royal Hospital moved here when the site was bought by the Corporation of London and opened in 1930. Bedlam is the oldest insane hospital in the world fined in Bishopsgate in 1247 and moved later to Lambeth. The hospital was built in 1928.
Museum of the Mind Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum. Art gallery, in the workshops of the occupational therapy dept.
North Road,
Oldest bit of West Wickham. Known as Pix or Pig Park and used for cricket.
Congregational Mission church 1888. Has become used as housing,
Oak Lodge Drive
Named for Oak Lodge Farm
Oak Lodge. 1820 Considered for use as a military hospital in the First World War. Listed.
Pine Avenue
British Legion Club
Greystones Scout HQ
Pond Cottage Lane
Crittenden’s Caravan Park on the site of Pond House.,
South Eden Park Road
Sports ground
Springfield Gardens
Springfield House. Built 1890 and home of a diamond merchant. Replaced by Knotley House School built for Barnardo's. It was previously West Wickham Social Club.
Sussex Road
Wickham Hall. Day centre - Used for amateur dramatics but built as a lecture hall. 1904.
Motor repair works on the site of the old forge
The Alders
Once lined with hazel nut hedges.
Victorian cottages here until the 1980s.
West Wickham
Means 'settlement on a Romano-British site' and distinguished from East Wickham. Modern West Wickham lies across a Roman road from Lewes to London, and finds of pottery and roof-tiles confirm the association with a Romano-British settlement West Wickham lay on the Roman road which formerly ran from Lewes to London; there are Roman settlement remains here. West Wickham is Wickham Street on the Ordnance Survey map of 1819, with Wickham Green nearby.
Wickham Road
Car park site of pond, maybe mill site. The Beck passes under here. There is a spring in the pub garden which runs parallel to the Beck all the way to High Broom Wood. Maybe something is blocking it – could that be part of a mill dam?
White Hart Pub was previously the King’s Arms; this became Pond House, and in turn became a rebuilt White Hart.
Surrey Field was on the south east corner of the Monk’s Orchard estate, on the county boundary.
White Lodge. The Entrance to the Monks Orchard mansion from the Croydon-Wickham road. This was one of two long drives.
The Beck continues to flow northwards
Post to the north Eden Park
Post to the south Shirley
Beckenham Road
St David's College. Independent junior school founded in 1926. The school began in Mr. and Mrs. Davies' house 29 South Eden Park Road, and comprised a Kindergarten. Sometimes the pupils were able to play in the field beyond the garden of the house, and in 1935 the first Sports Day was held in this field and the school was sold to Mr. & Mrs.Schove who owned the field. During the Second World War but the school opened its doors to students up to the age of 33. After the War the older pupils moved into Justin Hall which had been bombed and rebuilt. In 1968 the Little School opened in St. David's Close. The grounds still connect Justin Hall with 'Number 29', and the whole site was part of Lord Gwydir's estate, sold in 1820.
Blake Recreation Ground,
It was opened to the public in 1932 and named after local GP. It has horticultural features and it is partly wooded. Public air raid shelters were set up here in the Second World War
Chamberlain Crescent
Oak Lodge Primary School
High Broom Wood
Beck stream, called Ridle Brook locally. Remerges from underground and flows here within natural banks but divides the wood in two. It is joined here by a stream running parallel to it from the White Hart.
A long slim wood with ancient coppices although they were tipped with wartime spoil creating higher ground in the middle of the site. It is an alder wood with small wetland patches with kingcup, wavy bitter-cress, mosses and liverworts. In the east on higher ground is sweet chestnut, coppice plus oak standards, and birch. There is also moschatel, Solomon's-seal, marsh-marigold, common valerian and opposite-leaved golden-saxifrage
High Street, West Wickham
New Church Centre. This was built as an infant’s school and later taken over by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
St.Mark. RC church opened 1963. by Bingham Towner Associates. Stock brick in the plan of a distorted octagon, with a parish room at the end
136 Wheatsheaf. 1825
Flats on the site of Smith’s Farm opposite the White Hart
Garage on the site of Victoria Cottages
Supermarket on the site of Stevenson’s Cottages, Sparrows’ coach builders and the fire station
Croft Parade stands on the site of The Croft demolished 1930s.
Kent Road
Was previously Love Lane
92-100 Wickham Hall stables. Was a Unigate Dairy a milk distributing depot. Stables etc. But built for Mellins, German baby foods manufacturers. Now flats.
Woodbine Cottage 1883
Manor Park Road
Manor House was on the junction with the High Street. Holm Oak from the grounds remains in a garden.
Monks Orchard
Monks Orchard. Named from Monks Orchard Farm & Wood called Monksmead in 1661, lands here was once owned by a family called Monk. Monks Orchard was the name of a mansion built in 1854 by Lewis Lloyd. The estate straddles the county boundary of Kent and Surrey. The fields which make up the estate date from the Middle Ages. The estate included a grand house in the eastern part of the grounds near the lake. In 1920 the property was put up for auction. Much of the mansion site was sold for housing
Field names in the area - Long Field, Blythe Field, Goodwin's Piece, and Monks Orchard – as well as Monks Mead, Monks Orchard Field and Monks Orchard Wood.
Cold Shaw
Bethlem Royal Hospital moved here when the site was bought by the Corporation of London and opened in 1930. Bedlam is the oldest insane hospital in the world fined in Bishopsgate in 1247 and moved later to Lambeth. The hospital was built in 1928.
Museum of the Mind Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum. Art gallery, in the workshops of the occupational therapy dept.
North Road,
Oldest bit of West Wickham. Known as Pix or Pig Park and used for cricket.
Congregational Mission church 1888. Has become used as housing,
Oak Lodge Drive
Named for Oak Lodge Farm
Oak Lodge. 1820 Considered for use as a military hospital in the First World War. Listed.
Pine Avenue
British Legion Club
Greystones Scout HQ
Pond Cottage Lane
Crittenden’s Caravan Park on the site of Pond House.,
South Eden Park Road
Sports ground
Springfield Gardens
Springfield House. Built 1890 and home of a diamond merchant. Replaced by Knotley House School built for Barnardo's. It was previously West Wickham Social Club.
Sussex Road
Wickham Hall. Day centre - Used for amateur dramatics but built as a lecture hall. 1904.
Motor repair works on the site of the old forge
The Alders
Once lined with hazel nut hedges.
Victorian cottages here until the 1980s.
West Wickham
Means 'settlement on a Romano-British site' and distinguished from East Wickham. Modern West Wickham lies across a Roman road from Lewes to London, and finds of pottery and roof-tiles confirm the association with a Romano-British settlement West Wickham lay on the Roman road which formerly ran from Lewes to London; there are Roman settlement remains here. West Wickham is Wickham Street on the Ordnance Survey map of 1819, with Wickham Green nearby.
Wickham Road
Car park site of pond, maybe mill site. The Beck passes under here. There is a spring in the pub garden which runs parallel to the Beck all the way to High Broom Wood. Maybe something is blocking it – could that be part of a mill dam?
White Hart Pub was previously the King’s Arms; this became Pond House, and in turn became a rebuilt White Hart.
Surrey Field was on the south east corner of the Monk’s Orchard estate, on the county boundary.
White Lodge. The Entrance to the Monks Orchard mansion from the Croydon-Wickham road. This was one of two long drives.
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