GLIAS NEWSLETTER AND GREENWICH

The March 2012 edition of the GLIAS newsletter just came through the door  - its most remarkable feature being seven and half pages of events.  These include - of Greenwich interest -

21st March - Deptford Dockyard, its history and archaeology. Duncan Hawkins - this is in the Willoughby Lecture Theatre, Charterhouse Square, Barts Medical School, EC1  18.30  02086928512

18th April  Maassey-Shaw Fireboat. Its History and Restoration. David Rogers. Willoughby Lecture Theatre, as above.

18th February Symposium on Thames Shipbuilding. Museum in Docklands, West India Quay, E14. £30 Booking necessary.  info@docklandshistorygroup.org.uk

21st February Ropemaking in Greenwich.  John Yeardley. GIHS Old Bakehouse, Blackheath Village, SE3 7.30

13th March Bricks and Brickmaking in Greenwich, David Cufley. GIHS (as above)

17th April. Sugar and Soap - Amylum site - Peter Luck. GIHS (as above)

Then there is a very considerable article about the Deptford Creek Railway Bridge:

The London and Greenwich railway and its locality is of great importance. As well as the threats to London Bridge station, the whole length of the original line will be upgraded in the near future. This swathe of South East London deserves special consideration. Although the present Deptford Creek railway bridge is not yet 50 years old it serves as a significant landmark for the Creek, proclaiming that the Creek is tidal and navigable. In a similar way Tower Bridge symbolises the Thames and even London itself. The Eiffel tower in Paris plays a similar role there.
At the National Maritime Museum to the east of the bridge in Greenwich, when a visitor was to come down by rail from London to the museum on business a tide table was consulted. Train services from London Bridge could be seriously disrupted around high tide and for whoever was meeting the traveller there might be a long wait on Maze Hill station before the important person finally made it.
The previous bridge of 1884 was replaced in December 1963, the present electric liftbridge being designed by A.H. Cantrell, chief civil engineer of BR Southern Region, and built by Sir William Arrol & Co of Glasgow. When the 1884 bridge was opened to allow a small ship to pass there was what now seems a ridiculous performance. Even the rails had to be completely removed and no less than twelve men were needed to do this.
Where the railway crosses, the Creek has a large tidal range with plenty of water at high tide. Nick Bertrand from the Creekside Centre still leads his ecological walks with everyone in waders to explore the bed of the Ravensbourne at low tide. It is well worth taking part in one of these Low Tide Walks if you get the chance. There is an important ecological aspect to this part of the creek which is also under threat. Bob Carr

AND not done yet.  Also there are little Greenwich notes:

- a note that Fieldwork on the Thames Foreshore is noted in the London Archaeologist as taking place in Greenwich.

-  a note to say 'Boris Johnson's cable car' is progressing 'at a fine pace'. 

- a note admonishing a previous writer on the Woolwich ferry for getting the date of the first London County Council wrong

- and in a book review on Psychogeography - a reference to a quotation about 'Greenwich not being the spirtual centre of the British Empire'.

(!!!)