Thames Tributary Ravensbourne - Chaffinch Brook - Shirley

Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
A stream from the Spring Park area flows north to join the Chaffinch and ultimately the Ravensbourne.

Post to the north Shirley
Post to the south Addington Hills

Post Mill Close
Windmill. The first known windmill in Shirley .was a wooden post mill built in 1808 by William Alwen. In 1854 it was burnt down and his grandson, Richard Alwen built the present brick tower mill. the machinery came from a mill in Stratford. Inside is an oak beam was discovered dated ‘1710’ – so it is assumed this was recycled. In the 1880s the mill was bought by Alfred Rayson who milled animal feed until 1892 and it was abandoned. Following lightning strikes two of the sails and the fantail were damaged. In the 1920s, George Givan, saved it from demolition. In 1951 it was acquired by Croydon Corporation and a secondary school was built nearby but they restored the mill and it remains their property. It is the last windmill in Surrey.

Shirley Church Road
Shirley High School. Shirley High School Performing Arts College is a co-educational comprehensive Foundation school reorganised in 1983.
Hall Grange. Old people’s home
Pinewoods. Woodland scout centre
St.John the Evangelist. Built in 1854 to the designs of George Gilbert Scott.
Churchyard. Ruskin's parents buried in the south east part. Flint and stone.
Vicarage. The Shirley Poppy was created by the vicar. Wall plaque to him.
Recreation ground. Bought in 1928 by the Council to preserve an area of open space among the suburban estates

Shirley Road
107 Surprise pub, commemorating the rare Camberwell Beauty butterfly. Converted 1867
125-7 Windmill House. 1983 rebuild of the old coach house to 'the Ferns'
Ferns demolished 1952.
110-112. 18th cottages
120 Alleyway to the smithy and The Old Forge
132 old post office. Pillar box
114 & 118 entrance to a brewery demolished in 1892. This was north of the Sandrock.
Coloma Convent Girls School. Includes Shirley Court built in 1878. The Very Reverend Canon Van Crombrugghe founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph in Belgium in 1817. In 1869 three nuns arrived at Wellesley Road, Croydon and opened a school. Two years later they moved to Tavistock Road and named Coloma after the owner of the property in Belgium and in 1965 they moved to Shirley as a grant maintained Catholic Comprehensive girls school
118 serving as the Sun Tap
Trinity School. The school can be traced to the 1850s, though is founder was Archbishop John Whitgift, whose will established education as part of his foundation in Croydon. In 1856 the Governing Body approved two schools. One opened in 1858 in central Croydon for poor boys but in 1881 it became the Whitgift Middle School. In the 1830s the school split and some part went to Haling Park. In 1954 at the original site the name was changed, to 'Trinity School of John Whitgift’. The Shirley Hotel was bought, and Trinity moved to its present site in 1965.

Upper Shirley Road
Shirley Park Golf Course

Spring Park Road
St.John's Church of England School. The school began in an adapted cottage, as a 'Dame' School, on the corner of Spring Park and Shirley Church Roads. By 1885 the boys’ school was separate and both buildings were replaced. The school steadily grew and was taken over by the education authority. It was badly bombed in 1939 and for ten years the school moved away. The present School opened in 1954 designated a 'controlled school' and so remained a Church School
55-53 old cottages.
Chaffinch Brook rises somewhere between this road and Barmouth Road.

Wickham Road
Shirley Inn mid 19th
White Lodge, 1840. listed
Shirley Poppy pub. Now a Macdonalds
28 Crown pub
23-29 old cottages including site of the smithy
Shirley Village building once used as a library
Shirley Cottage early 18th house converted to flats
Coach house to Shirley cottages was once the front of the Parish Hall. main hall added in 1930.

West Way Gardens
Was the drive to Spring Park
Lodge 18th thatched

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

South Norwood

Bromley by Bow

River Lea/Bow Creek Canning Town