From time to time we receive requests for information about people and places in the Borough, often from those not living in the area but carrying out research. Some recent requests are listed below and, if you are able to help, please let us know and we will pass on the information or arrange for the enquirer to contact you direct, whichever is preferred.
If you are carrying out research and need help, by all means mail in your request and it will be added to this page.
Roy is writing a booklet on the history of the Park Langley Sports Club (44 Wickham Way, not the golf club) to help celebrate its centenary in 2011. If anyone can supply information or help with some ideas on approach/layout etc. he would much appreciate it.
Bob is writing a biography of T W Cowan, Chairman of the British Beekeepers Association 1874 - 1924, who lived in Beckenham 1864 - 1870, but it is not known where. His wife was confined in Ryde House for the birth of their first child. If you can 'shed some light' on where he lived and Ryde House - assuming they are not the same - this would be gratefully received.
Pat is trying to locate copies of a book published in 1910, Beckenham Past and Present by Robert Borrowman. If you have a copy, knowing of its existance would be helpful and the inscription (if any) on the book's flyleaf is of particular interest. If you can help, please get in touch.
CAN YOU HELP?
Peter is searching for details about Nellie Mable Boorman, born 1890, daughter of Edwin and Ellen Boorman of College Road in Bromley. If you know what happened to her after 1910, please let us know.
Tony Arbour of the London Assembly Planning and Housing Committee is attempting to identify all of London's war memorials and assess how well they are being maintained - and by whom. A war memorial can include a cenotaph, a hospital, a public hall, a brass plate or an alms house. If you can help, please send your experiences of this issue to: Michael Walker, London Assembly, PP10, FREEPOST LON15799, City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London, SE1 2BR; or email: warmemorials@london.gov.uk
Dennis is trying to find a date of build for The Mill House in Biggin Hill, or any reference to a mill on that site at any time between 1700 and 1800. If you have any information, please send it to us so we can pass it on.
Pat King is looking for information about some relatives who lived at 14 Napier Road, Bromley in 1881. Her grandmother was Annie Tasker, daughter of George, a painter and glazier, and Sarah Maria Tasker, and died in 1925 in Liverpool. According to the 1901 census, her Grandmother?s brother was called George, or George Henry, born 1880, and employed by his uncle John L. Woodhams, a local builder. She can find no further trace of him or his sisters Mary E. Tasker and L. E. Tasker and wonders if anyone in the Society has anything further on these elusive characters. In return, she would be very willing to help anyone in researches in Liverpool where she lives.
JC from Keston wonders if anyone remembers the Bromley Carnival Day before the War? The many decorated floats drove through Bromley High Street to Bromley Common. The same weekend there was a fair on the Mead at the end of Glassmill Lane. And, does anyone remember a line of pennies along the pavement from the town centre up to Masons Hill? Who laid the pennies down and picked them up at the end of the day? If you know anything about all these activities, please let us know.
Whilst walking the dog, Lynn Curtis, passes through woods off Lower Gravel Road on Bromley Common and the site of the Lennard Hospital. On the site there once stood a smallpox isolation unit which, she believes, later became nurses' quarters. Can anyone supply more information about the builiding, particularly a picture, as she would love to know more about the debris that can still be seen?
Connie Williams is searching for descendents of Latham GAY also known as Frederick Francis Gay. He was born in Marylebone in 1885, the youngest of eight children. His mother (her great grandmother) was widowed very young and four of her children were sent to Canada as child migrants. Latham GAY died in 1967 and his son Robert GAY, a Highways Supervisor, died in 1987 while living at the same address in Jeff House, Beckenham, survived by his wife Joan Elinor GAY who would be now about 85 years of age.
New request added:
16th August 2009
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