I find that maps, both old and new, have started to fascinate me - particularly on wet, cold misty mornings. Whilst whiling away the morning hoping that the weather would improve I ended up looking at
Wyld's 1872 map of the local area. Looking south of Deptford I was surprised to see that the area to the south of Lewisham Way did not get the name of Brockley but is shown as Deptford Common. Even the Brockley Cemetery is given as two adjoining cemeteries: Deptford and Lewisham. So as Deptford has shrunk, Brockley has spread a little. But because there is a historical precedent, the next time I go to (contemporary) Brockley I shall consider it as Deptford. And Hilly Fields as Deptford Common. In fact I believe that it would be perfectly acceptable to call the next Brockleyite I meet a Deptford Commoner. I wonder how they would react....
edorourke (see comments) has very kindly taken the trouble to put the two map files I originally uploaded together into one file. My previous best attempt was to place the two side by side, but it's much better as one file.
Apologies to any Brockley people for associating the place with Deptford and Common.
7 comments:
What beautiful maps! And I do like the sound of Ploughed Garlick Hill. I'm sure the good folks of Brockley will take your comments in good spirit, as long as it doesn't affect the house prices ;-)
I uploaded the maps joined up for you if you need/want it: http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4839/mapsjoined.jpg
Mr O'Rourke, you sir are a gentleman! I'll swap it over this evening. Many thanks.
And DD, as well as the maps on mapco/archivemaps, there are is also the excellent Stanford map from the 1870s at http://www.mappalondon.com/.
I suppose it's just a matter of time before Deptford becomes West Greenwich in the north and, to judge by the way it's spreading, Lower Brockley in the south.
No way! Deptford forever!
When I lived north of the river, I was in Lower Highgate - or Archway to non-estate agents! After that, the emergence of 'West Greenwich' isn't much of a surprise.
There is an ebb and flow about these boundaries. In Domesday book times, Deptford was also known as West Greenwich, later we pegged them back to the river, and now they're pushing back again. But some places do seem to fall by the wayside. Hatcham is a local example - it's the ghost of a place more than any tangible location, these days. It's now swallowed up by New Cross and the school I went to that had Hatcham in the name is now somewhere in a tug or war between Telegraph Hill, New Cross and Brockley.
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