Northfleet History Group - November 2012 Meeting.
STORIES OF OLD NORTHFLEET
Mavis Windibank
Mavis Windibank
At our meeting on November 6th, we were delighted to welcome back our former Hon. Secretary, Mavis Windibank, who had travelled down from her new home in Norfolk to present an illustrated talk, in which she brought together a collection of short stories relating to past events in Northfleet to a practically ‘full house’ of members and visitors.
Mavis showed us a very fine old print of Crete Hall, the mansion by the riverside, built by Benjamin Burch and later occupied by his son-in-law, Jeremiah Rosher, in part of whose grounds the famous Rosherville Gardens were established. She also made mention of John Huggens who built and endowed the College on Stonebridge Hill and various other ‘Northfleet notables’ including James Walford, the architect of Lawn Road school and of Northfleet cemetery. His original cemetery chapel building was surmounted by a bell tower, but this was declared unsafe in 1938 and the council declined to rebuild it as the cost would have been £200. Mavis also gave an account of the murder which took place at Wombwell Hall in the early 1800s, when a young maid was shot dead. Our thanks to Mavis for a very entertaining and informative presentation.
After the tea interval, our current Hon. Secretary, Michael R. Thompson, gave a short presentation on the Gravesend West Railway line which ran through Longfield Halt, Southfleet and Rosherville Halt to the pier head in Stuart Road, but was closed in the 1960s, having been relegated to ‘freight only’ traffic since 1953. He showed some very interesting photographs of the line in its heyday and also showed some recent photographs he had taken of some of the hidden traces of the line which can still be found in places today.
Mavis showed us a very fine old print of Crete Hall, the mansion by the riverside, built by Benjamin Burch and later occupied by his son-in-law, Jeremiah Rosher, in part of whose grounds the famous Rosherville Gardens were established. She also made mention of John Huggens who built and endowed the College on Stonebridge Hill and various other ‘Northfleet notables’ including James Walford, the architect of Lawn Road school and of Northfleet cemetery. His original cemetery chapel building was surmounted by a bell tower, but this was declared unsafe in 1938 and the council declined to rebuild it as the cost would have been £200. Mavis also gave an account of the murder which took place at Wombwell Hall in the early 1800s, when a young maid was shot dead. Our thanks to Mavis for a very entertaining and informative presentation.
After the tea interval, our current Hon. Secretary, Michael R. Thompson, gave a short presentation on the Gravesend West Railway line which ran through Longfield Halt, Southfleet and Rosherville Halt to the pier head in Stuart Road, but was closed in the 1960s, having been relegated to ‘freight only’ traffic since 1953. He showed some very interesting photographs of the line in its heyday and also showed some recent photographs he had taken of some of the hidden traces of the line which can still be found in places today.