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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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