'Wandering' in Wartime: A look-back at memories of World War Two in our social history book of the Crays.
This year 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of publication of our social history book Wandering Through the Crays (2015) and also the anniversary of VE Day in May 1945
bringing World War Two closer to the end.
Here now we reprint from Wandering Through the Crays an extract from the chapter entitled Two World Wars.
This year 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of publication of our social history book Wandering Through the Crays (2015) and also the anniversary of VE Day in May 1945
bringing World War Two closer to the end.
Here now we reprint from Wandering Through the Crays an extract from the chapter entitled Two World Wars.
'As a preface to the outbreak of war in 1939 it is interesting to reference the formation in 1925 of the St Mary Cray and St Paul’s Cray Women’s Institute. The first minute book shows that the original President was Mrs Berens of Kevington Manor, while Mrs Joynson of Effingham Lodge was Treasurer. The W.I. had been founded in 1915.
'In conjunction with the National Executive of the W.I. the good womenfolk of the Crays petitioned the League of Nations in 1935 to halt Germany re-arming and becoming belligerent in Europe. It was all to no avail and St Mary Cray would suffer substantial war damage from bombs aimed at the railway viaduct. Two landmines parachuted down in 1941, destroying the middle stretch of the High Street, including St Joseph’s Church and its school. Nearby in the new spacious Cray Valley factory estate that had been earmarked for pre-war development, 7,000 gas masks were stockpiled in a government storehouse.
'In comparison with WW1 when Cray Wanderers stayed inactive throughout, there was much more football during WW2 for local players and spectators. Indeed from the 1942/43 season onwards, the South London Alliance (South) was operating a surprisingly efficient autumn, winter and spring schedule with a dozen or more member clubs spanning an area that covered Belvedere, Bexley, Bromley, Catford, Charlton, Cray, Plumstead and Woolwich. Not all the fixtures were completed, but in an area nicknamed ‘Bomb Alley’ just 15 miles from London, the locals were determined that Hitler’s barrage of bombs, shells, shrapnel and dreaded doodlebugs would not put a stop to their precious football.
'Sheila Barnes, whose mother was one of the founder members of the local W.I., recalled that during the war there was a wonderful occasion at Grassmeade when the famous band leader Geraldo came to Cray for the radio programme ‘Workers Playtime’. Sheila remembered too that an American Forces band gave a concert there.
'Sheila recalled that deep shelters had been dug at the Recreation Ground where St Mary Cray Primary school now stands. After the bombing on 16th April 1941 the Swallow Patrol of 1st St Mary Cray Guides helped to remove the bedding from the stricken vicarage of St Mary’s Church. The Guides made many contributions to the war effort: piles of pennies to buy a Spitfire; miles of books, miles of keys. The bomb was devastating to the village: many shops from Little Essex to Market Meadow were destroyed, and residents of the cottages lost their lives. Patullo Higgs, the corn and seed merchants, had to move to Star Lane, near Walter Babbs the builders. The Temple Church and Moffatt Hall were badly damaged.
'A handy place for locals to shelter from air raids was the deep cellar of the Barratt Laundry building in Wellington Road. The Home Guard, 53rd Kent Battalion, met at the Drill Hall in nearby Anglesea Road. Men were posted on the roof of the Tip Top bakery in Cray Avenue to spot foreign aeroplanes. Manoeuvres were held on farmland at Hockenden and Sheepcote. There were huge concrete tank traps in Station Woods, by the railway line. The air raid warning siren was at the Police Station, where the police staff kept pigs for the war effort!
'Ian Fordyce whose family firm built the A224 Orpington bypass in the 1920s recalls that after the war he saw the open-air Lido filled with stretchers. This swimming pool in Cray Avenue had been damaged by the bomb, had become derelict and would never reopen. It presumably had been commandeered in war time for the air raid emergency service.
'The loss of four million bomb-flattened homes in Britain during the war is a statistic that helps explain the post-war building of the new council housing estate in St Paul’s Cray. The damage in south London, especially near the docks, had been extensive. Moreover, a London County Council slum clearance programme was ongoing (having started, in 1893, in Bethnal Green). Between the wars this had seen council house occupation rise from 1% to 10% of the population. The notion of resettling inner city working class families from overcrowded and grimy mean streets to open, green provincial sites like Becontree and Letchworth was the reason for the LCC selecting the strawberry fields behind Scadbury to accommodate 10,000 imported new residents into the Cray Valley during the 1950s. The propaganda was that society could be transformed for the better on the strength of improving the living conditions of its people.
'In St Mary Cray the post-war rebuilding saw Elizabeth Way gain its name in 1953 to mark the Queen’s coronation. The rebuilding of St Joseph’s Church brought relocation to the Rowlands Manor end of the High Street. The new building, completed in 1959, was remodelled in 1986. Local author and artist John Blundell depicted the three different towers of the RC church in his Illustrated Guide to St Mary Cray (2000).
'In conjunction with the National Executive of the W.I. the good womenfolk of the Crays petitioned the League of Nations in 1935 to halt Germany re-arming and becoming belligerent in Europe. It was all to no avail and St Mary Cray would suffer substantial war damage from bombs aimed at the railway viaduct. Two landmines parachuted down in 1941, destroying the middle stretch of the High Street, including St Joseph’s Church and its school. Nearby in the new spacious Cray Valley factory estate that had been earmarked for pre-war development, 7,000 gas masks were stockpiled in a government storehouse.
'In comparison with WW1 when Cray Wanderers stayed inactive throughout, there was much more football during WW2 for local players and spectators. Indeed from the 1942/43 season onwards, the South London Alliance (South) was operating a surprisingly efficient autumn, winter and spring schedule with a dozen or more member clubs spanning an area that covered Belvedere, Bexley, Bromley, Catford, Charlton, Cray, Plumstead and Woolwich. Not all the fixtures were completed, but in an area nicknamed ‘Bomb Alley’ just 15 miles from London, the locals were determined that Hitler’s barrage of bombs, shells, shrapnel and dreaded doodlebugs would not put a stop to their precious football.
'Sheila Barnes, whose mother was one of the founder members of the local W.I., recalled that during the war there was a wonderful occasion at Grassmeade when the famous band leader Geraldo came to Cray for the radio programme ‘Workers Playtime’. Sheila remembered too that an American Forces band gave a concert there.
'Sheila recalled that deep shelters had been dug at the Recreation Ground where St Mary Cray Primary school now stands. After the bombing on 16th April 1941 the Swallow Patrol of 1st St Mary Cray Guides helped to remove the bedding from the stricken vicarage of St Mary’s Church. The Guides made many contributions to the war effort: piles of pennies to buy a Spitfire; miles of books, miles of keys. The bomb was devastating to the village: many shops from Little Essex to Market Meadow were destroyed, and residents of the cottages lost their lives. Patullo Higgs, the corn and seed merchants, had to move to Star Lane, near Walter Babbs the builders. The Temple Church and Moffatt Hall were badly damaged.
'A handy place for locals to shelter from air raids was the deep cellar of the Barratt Laundry building in Wellington Road. The Home Guard, 53rd Kent Battalion, met at the Drill Hall in nearby Anglesea Road. Men were posted on the roof of the Tip Top bakery in Cray Avenue to spot foreign aeroplanes. Manoeuvres were held on farmland at Hockenden and Sheepcote. There were huge concrete tank traps in Station Woods, by the railway line. The air raid warning siren was at the Police Station, where the police staff kept pigs for the war effort!
'Ian Fordyce whose family firm built the A224 Orpington bypass in the 1920s recalls that after the war he saw the open-air Lido filled with stretchers. This swimming pool in Cray Avenue had been damaged by the bomb, had become derelict and would never reopen. It presumably had been commandeered in war time for the air raid emergency service.
'The loss of four million bomb-flattened homes in Britain during the war is a statistic that helps explain the post-war building of the new council housing estate in St Paul’s Cray. The damage in south London, especially near the docks, had been extensive. Moreover, a London County Council slum clearance programme was ongoing (having started, in 1893, in Bethnal Green). Between the wars this had seen council house occupation rise from 1% to 10% of the population. The notion of resettling inner city working class families from overcrowded and grimy mean streets to open, green provincial sites like Becontree and Letchworth was the reason for the LCC selecting the strawberry fields behind Scadbury to accommodate 10,000 imported new residents into the Cray Valley during the 1950s. The propaganda was that society could be transformed for the better on the strength of improving the living conditions of its people.
'In St Mary Cray the post-war rebuilding saw Elizabeth Way gain its name in 1953 to mark the Queen’s coronation. The rebuilding of St Joseph’s Church brought relocation to the Rowlands Manor end of the High Street. The new building, completed in 1959, was remodelled in 1986. Local author and artist John Blundell depicted the three different towers of the RC church in his Illustrated Guide to St Mary Cray (2000).
New Book
Our Wandering Through the Crays book is now sold out after its third print run, although copies can be borrowed or viewed from Bromley Libraries at the St Paul’s Cray branch or the central library in Bromley.
Published in 2023 our Curiosities of the Crays (2023) book is a part-sequel to Wandering Through the Crays in which we amplify and update some of the topics covered earlier.
Copies of these new books can be obtained by e-mail [email protected]
Our Wandering Through the Crays book is now sold out after its third print run, although copies can be borrowed or viewed from Bromley Libraries at the St Paul’s Cray branch or the central library in Bromley.
Published in 2023 our Curiosities of the Crays (2023) book is a part-sequel to Wandering Through the Crays in which we amplify and update some of the topics covered earlier.
Copies of these new books can be obtained by e-mail [email protected]