known unknowns

the Ranger's House in Greenwich was built by the son of the Storekeeper at Deptford dockyard, a Francis Hosier.

though there is a little street in Deptford named after the man, who knew that Trevithick was buried at St. Nicholas, Deptford?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Trevithick

Convoy's Wharf Planning Permission

It appears that there will be no further public consultation on the permission currently being sought for the Convoy's Wharf site. Anyone preparing a response should be aware of the December 30th deadline and consult the following helpful documents for policy and guidelines on planning and the historic environment. Happy reading!

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1514132.pdf

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/pps-practice-guide/pps5practiceguide.pdf

Sweet Fanny Adams

There is an interesting connection between 

canning and the phrase 'Sweet Fanny Adams'. 

In 1867 a sailor from Portsmouth murdered his 

girlfriend (Fanny Adams) in Alton in Hamp- 

shire and tried to get rid of her body by hacking 

it into small pieces. The murderer, Frederick 

Baker, was hanged in Winchester jail on Christmas 

Eve 1867. The morbid humour of his fellow sailors 

at Portsmouth soon suggested a connection 

between this murder and canned meat being turned 

out by a newly established canning factory at the 

Naval Victualling Yard in Deptford. It is one of the 

few cases where the victim rather than the murderer 

has achieved immortality! 

An Old Dockyard, Bedtime reading from Mr.Dickens Jnr's. 'All The Year Round'

other uses for clocks

Just below Limehouse Hole, and at a little distance from the eastern shore, lies Limehouse Rock,  on which are only four feet. Opposite the Victualling Office at Deptford, on the Isle of Dogs side, a shoal begins, and extends about one-fourth over the River, which makes the channel very narrow between it and the ships at the Red House. You will avoid it by keeping Deptford Spire just open to the westward of the Clock House

in the Royal Dock Yard.

GREENWICH REACH lies winding in a circular direction from S.S.E. to E.N.E. At Deptford Creek a shoal begins and runs down almost to the west end of Greenwich Town; it nearly dries at low water: outside this shoal are 13 or 14 feet. The Clock House on with the two trees in Deptford Yard just clears it……..

……..On the north shore, off Millington’s or Anchor Wharf, and close in shore, is another shoal, which will be avoided going down, by keeping the Storehouse Clock in Deptford Yard open to the southward of the Isle of Dogs Ferry House, until Blackwell Reach comes open.

Excerpt from The New British Channel Pilot 1839.

The clock tower of 1712-20 replaces an earlier tower of the seventeenth century. Imagine Greenwich losing the turret from its seventeenth century Flamstead House, another maritime structure employed to set ships' clocks in the Thames, or another building contemporaneous with the early Eighteenth century Deptford Dockyard clock tower, the Royal Naval College losing its domes.

Putting the clock back in Deptford

Images 1,2 dockyard model d.1774
Image 3, photograph 1870
Image 4, 5 photograph 1984
with thanks to Marmoset at Crosswhatfields for the title and inspiration.

Cherokees in Deptford