Barnhurst

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Avenue Road

14 Prince of Wales

Wheatley Mansion,

Congregational Chapel, largely set up by Anderson,

Lesney House, Anderson's home,

Northumberland Heath modern School

Wonderful new grammar school

Bexley Road

Convent School of the Holy Union of the Sacred hearts

Drill Hall and training centre of the 30th AA Workshops Company of REME (TA)

Wheatley Estate,

63-65,

88,

St Mary's

Our Lady of the Angels, R.C. Capuchin Fathers, 1903, church 1963 by Archard & Partners.

270 Royal Oak

Franciscan Friary

322 Duke of Northumberland. Odd assortment of memorabilia

Erith Fire Station.  Built 1907 demolished 1960. Housing now on site

Northumberland Heath quarry was taken over by Talbet Estates Ltd 1932 and quarrying ceased soon after.  The narrow gauge railway which ran to the newly constructed deep-water wharf on the River Thames was removed too. In the 19th there were store stables and yard, and ballast office and grounds, occupied by the landowner, William Wheatley.

Lesney Park

83

Meyer Road

Leo Meyer was the founder of New Ideal Homesteads in 1929. Rooms were small and prices were rock bottom.

Mill Road

St.Paul's Church. Consecrated in 1901 and becoming a parish church within four years.

Windmill. Built in 1819 on a circular brick base of an early c19 tower mill is part of a boundary wall. Its upper storeys were of timber. 19th smock mill. Last used 1880 collapsed in a gale in 1890.  It also functioned as a beacon for vessels on the river.

25

Northumberland Heath

The name has been in use since the 13th and has nothing to do with the northern county – it is ‘heathland north of the watercourse’. Recorded as ‘Northumbere’ 1529, named from an earlier place called ‘Northumbre’ possibly '(land) north of a stream called Humbre', from an ancient preCeltic river name of uncertain origin. The small stream referred to flows into the River Darent. Until late in the 19th it consisted entirely of heath and woodland crossed by the road from Erith to Bexley and intersected by smaller paths and tracks. The village grew up around one of these intersections. In 1800 Northumberland Heath was a 200 acre area of heathland. It was common land under the control of Erith parish but became part of the Wheatley Estate under the Erith Enclosure Act of 1815. The fields which Wheatley laid out are reflected in the current street pattern.  For much of the 19th the main buildings were the parish workhouse and a mill. Residential development began in the 1880s and by 1900 a community was established with a church and a school. In early years of the 20th it was the tram terminus for both Erith and Bexley's trams and all passengers were required to change cars.

Park Crescent

76-78,

173,

Hospital, Patients arriving for an X Ray at Erith Hospital often express interest in the unusual layout and from its exterior and interior appearance assume it was originally converted from an old air-raid shelter. The building is almost entirely underground, its roof being a thick covering of earth, grass and trees and is entered through double doors via long sloping ramps to each doorway. It is, however, a most interesting example of a Civilian Field Hospital / Casualty Station, believed to be one of only six of this particular design to be built in the country. It was constructed in 1938 by Erith Borough Council and opened in 1939» being fully operational at the outbreak of World War II. Though it saw only limited use under enemy action it was constantly manned by permanent staff and volunteers during the war years. It was described as being Erith's ' Maginot Lines.' Erith and District Hospital, formerly Erith Cottage Hospital, was built in 1923 and ceremonially opened by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, on 19th. November 1924. The original Cottage Hospital, situated in Crayford Road, Erith, had been opened in 1871, when two villas named ' Sun Cottages ' had been converted to meet the needs of what was then a small riverside village. It had six beds but this number soon proved to be inadequate for an expanding population, so in July 1875; another site was found in Erith High Street, and a larger. Erith Cottage Hospital came into being. This building had accommodation for nine adults and three children but within a few years this, too, had become inadequate. There was, for instance, only one bath for both patients and staff and a patient being admitted was carried bodily into a ward as the stairs were not wide enough to admit a stretcher. By the year 1911 the population had expanded from some 8,000 people in 1871 to about 28,000, so in order to alleviate a growing demand for hospital treatment a Hospital Building Committee was formed and methods for raising funds were discussed. In only two years £13,000 had been raised and a generous gift of land by a Mr. Gunning was accepted, this being situated at the top of Park Crescent. Here the new hospital was built and indeed, still stands. It had a total of twenty one beds but by the 1930's demand had again grown to such an extent that a number of outbuildings and additions were completed. These included a Children's Ward, a Sun-Balcony, a new Outpatients Dept. and Nurses Home. Facilities within the hospital were also renewed or improved; the Operating Theatre was enlarged and re-equipped and an Anesthetic Room was added. In 1934 the first X Ray Dept. was opened. In 1948 Erith Cottage Hospital became part, of the Woolwich Group of Hospitals and its name was changed to Erith and District Hospital It now comes under Bexley Health Authority.  Up until this time the X Ray Dept. had been situated in the main hospital building: but in an era when T.B. was still all too common and a much dreaded disease, screening and treatment of patients at the hospital was out-growing the somewhat limited facilities of the existing X .Ray Dept. For instance, in 1939 there were 1962 X Ray examinations but by the following year the number of patients X Rayed had risen to 1,637. Therefore, in 1950, the Field Hospital, unused since the end of the war, was converted into an X Ray Dept., a. function for which it was ideally suited. For a time the Out-Patients Chest Clinics were conducted there several times a week.


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