Well Hall

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Well Hall
Kent

Well Hall Road
Location
Grid reference: TQ425749
Location: 51°27’25"N, -0°2’57"E
Data
Post town: London
Postcode: SE9
Dialling code: 020
Local Government
Council: Greenwich
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Eltham

Well Hall is an urban village to the north of Eltham in the north of Kent, within the metropolitan conurbation.

In the past Well Hall was a hamlet that grew up in the grounds of a manor house of the same name. Today it is a largely residential suburb and housing estate absorbed by the development of Eltham. It is centred on the main road between Eltham and Woolwich, on which many shops and businesses are located. Several major A roads]] including the South Circular Road and A2 road pass through the area, as does a railway line, serving Eltham station which is located in Well Hall.

Name

In 1100 two manors were recorded in the Eltham area, East-Horne and Well-hawe or Well-hall,[1] probably corresponding to the areas later named Horn Park and Well Hall. The place was recorded as Wellehawe in 1401, then as Welhawe in 1446, meaning "a hedged enclosure by a spring or stream" from the Old English word Wielle (a spring), and haga or hawe a hedged enclosure.[2] On a 1746 map published by John Rocque it was recorded as Wale Hall,[3] possibly erroneously. On a map by Emanuel Bowen from around 1762 it was also called Well Place.[2] It was recorded as Well Hall on a 1797 map by Edward Hasted[4] and in an 1801 Ordnance Survey map.[2] The Hall part of the name refers to a Tudor mansion house that previously existed there built in the early sixteenth century.[2]

History

In 1100, Jordan de Briset Lord of Clerkenwell was recorded as owning two manors in the Eltham area East-Horne and Well-hawe or Well-hall;[1] the manor of Well Hall was also sometimes described as a mansion. These manors were recorded as being passed down and sold to numerous people including lawyer and member of parliament, William Roper and his wife, writer and translator, Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More in the sixteenth century.[1][5] In around 1525 the Tudor Barn which still stands today was constructed for William Roper next to the Well Hall manor house.[5] In the 1730s, art collector, landowner, and baronet, Sir Gregory Page bought the property of Well Hall for £19,000 and had the mansion which was then dilapidated, demolished, but the moat and the Tudor Barn were left and remain to this day.[6] Page had another mansion built on the grounds, known as Page House, and Well Hall House, which stood for two centuries before being demolished in 1930 or 1931. By 1746 Well Hall appeared on maps as a hamlet on a country lane junction, with Eltham close by on the road to the south, Shooters Hill, then Woolwich on the road to the north, and Kidbrooke on the road to the west.

Tram on Well Hall Road, 1912

In 1905 the local council built Well Hall Road, a straight paved road, replacing the smaller winding country lane named Well Hall Lane, and Woolwich Lane, which went north from Eltham High Street through Well Hall toward Woolwich. In 1910 trams started running along Well Hall Road from Woolwich to Eltham,[7][8] passing through Well Hall. In 1913 motorised buses began being used in the Woolwich borough and gradually replaced the horsebuses that were previously used.[7] In 1932 another tram route was created along Westhorne Avenue running through Well Hall.[7][8] The trams ran until the early 1950s when they were gradually phased out.[7]

In the late nineteenth century the Bexleyheath Line was constructed, bringing the railway through Well Hall, where a station was opened, originally named 'Well Hall', but later changed to 'Eltham', In 1908 another railway station opened on the Bexleyheath line, just under 600 yards to the east of Well Hall station, for the convenience of the first class passengers living in that area, originally named 'Shooters Hill & Eltham'; later 'Eltham Park' in 1927. In 1985 a new railway station and a bus station were built opposite the old station, replacing it.

On 11 June 1972 at approximately 21:35, a train with a diesel locomotive and 10 coaches derailed near Eltham Well Hall station, when the driver took a sharp bend too fast. The train driver, Robert Wilsdon, and five passengers were killed in the derailment, and another 126 were injured. An investigation revealed that the driver was drunk.[9][10]

Progress Estate

Houses of the Progress Estate

The Progress Estate is a housing estate located immediately east of Well Hall Road, north of Eltham railway station and A2 Rochester Way. It was built in 1915 as a wartime measure under the Housing Act, 1914 by HM Office of Works[11] and was visited by Queen Mary in 1916.[12] It was not known as The Progress Estate until 1925, when it was sold on to the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. It was built to house some the senior and skilled workers from the nearby Woolwich Arsenal munitions factories which were in use during the First World War.[13] The estate comprises 1,086 houses and 212 flats and has been described as "the first and most spectacular of the garden suburbs built by the government during the First World War to house munitions workers[14]" Its unique design makes the area popular today. Today it is a Conservation Area.

Well Hall Pleasaunce and Tudor Barn

Tudor Barn, in Well Hall Pleasaunce.
Main article: Tudor Barn, Eltham

On the west side of Well Hall Road in Well Hall Pleasaunce is the Tudor Barn, a large brick barn, despite the stone plaque stating the year 1568, it is believed to be built around 1525, for William Roper and his wife Margaret More, the daughter of Thomas More[5] It was built next to his family home Well Hall a moated manor house, now demolished, which gave its name to the place. The barn is a Grade II* listed building, and houses Well Hall Art Gallery.[15]

In 1933 the local council opened Well Hall Pleasaunce and the recently refurbished Tudor Barn served as a centrepiece to the new park. Originally there were plans to open a library and museum in the barn, but instead an art gallery was opened on the ground floor in 1936, and the space upstairs was used as a restaurant and reception room for weddings and other events. The path that runs along the southern edge of Well Hall Pleasaunce is named Edith Nesbit Walk after the author, who lived there for over twenty years at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Sport

  • Rugby: Blackheath Football Club, whose grounds are on Kidbrooke Lane, north of Well Hall Pleasaunce. The club was founded in 1858: it is the oldest open rugby club in the world, since becoming open in 1862, and is also the third-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Daniel Lysons, entry, in ''Eltham': The Environs of London: Volume 4, Counties of Herts, Essex and Kent' (1796), pp. 394–421
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 A Dictionary of London Place Names (2001), by A.D. Mills pp. 264–265 "Well Hall" entry ISBN 978-0-19-956678-5
  3. ↑ Map of Eltham and Kidbrooke, Engraved by Richard Parr, surveyed and published by John Rocque, 1746 (map [1])
  4. ↑ The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 by Edward Hasted
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Tudor Barn". Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust. https://www.greenwichheritage.org/visit/tudor-barn. Retrieved 4 February 2017. 
  6. ↑ "Well Hall" entry of London Gazetteer by Russ Willey, (Chambers, 2006) ISBN 0-550-10326-0 (online extract [2])
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Jefferson, Edward Francis Ernest: 'The Woolwich Story, 1890–1965' (Woolwich & District Antiquarian Society, 1970) ISBN 0-950-13520-8
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Eltham and Woolwich tramways (Middleton, 1996) ISBN 1-873-79374-X
  9. ↑ "Accident at Eltham Well Hall on 11th June 1972 :: The Railways Archive". http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=134. 
  10. ↑ Ministry of Transport; Col J.R.H. Robertson (1973). Railway accident : Report on the Derailment that occurred on 11 June 1972 at Eltham (Well Hall) Station in the Southern Region, British Railways. HMSO. ISBN 978-0-11-550303-0. http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoE_Eltham1972.pdf. 
  11. ↑ Billinghurst, Keith (2017). Origins and Evolution of the Progress Estate.. [S.l.]: Brown Dog Books. ISBN 978-1785451782. OCLC 993964771. 
  12. ↑ "Ideal Homes Progress Estate". http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/case-studies/progress-estate. Retrieved 1 October 2015. 
  13. ↑ www.advertisebydesign.co.uk, Lesley Corti, Advertise By Design. "History of Eltham, Mottingham and New Eltham - Royal Borough of Greenwich - London SE9 UK". http://www.thisiseltham.co.uk/history1.php. 
  14. ↑ Taylor, A. J. (March 1985). "The Buildings of England. London 2: South. By Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner. 22 × 12 cm. Pp. 813, figs, and maps + 111 pls. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983. ISBN 0-14-071047-7. £11·95.". The Antiquaries Journal 65 (1): 196–197. doi:10.1017/s0003581500025221. SSN 0003-5815. 
  • Mills, A.D.: 'A Dictionary of London Place Names' (2001) pp. 264–265 ISBN 978-0-19-956678-5
  • Hasted, Edward: 'The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 1' (1797)
  • Willey, Russ: 'London Gazetteer' (Chambers, 2006) ISBN 0-550-10326-0
  • 'Eltham and Woolwich tramways' (Middleton, 1996) ISBN 1-873-79374-X
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