HISTORIC ELTHAM Queenscroft Park
John Kennett looks at the history of one of our lesser known parks
Lying
mainly to the south of Eltham Hill Technology
College and bounded by Kingsground and Queenscroft Road on the edge of the Middle Park Estate is a fenced local park within an open space of undulating green interspersed with playground equipment and some ancient trees.
The area was originally part of the medieval royal hunting grounds of Middle Park attached to Eltham Palace. After the seventeenth century Civil War the grounds were given over to farming following the removal of much timber to the shipyards alongside the River Thames.
rural aspect of the estate corner greens were incorporated into the design and a broad sweep of open space retained through the estate between the houses of The Vista; at the higher part of this road an open field was retained alongside King John’s Walk.
The other retained open space was the area adapted for the recreation ground. The site incorporated a natural spring, where animals once quenched their thirsts, some old field hedges and trees including some venerable oaks and elms. Its nearest neighbour was Eltham Hill School, which had been built on a former nursery garden site, and opened in 1926. Facing Eltham Hill, alongside the emerging Queenscroft Road, stood four Victorian detached houses (replaced in the mid 1960s by terrace housing) and
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Slit trenches being excavated in 1938 in front of
in 1935 it was agreed to name the open space as the Queenscroft Recreation Ground. Trees were planted on the park side of the railings and paths laid from the entrance gates to the paddling pool, boating lake, children’s playground and the park keeper’s hut. The ground soon became popular with the new estate residents which included many children.
The paddling pool in use in the 1950s
Fields were created, hedgerows planted and springs were utilised for the water supply of livestock and on the site of a hunting lodge a farmhouse, barns and stables were constructed for the farmer, who held a Crown lease on Middle Park Farm.
After the First World War the extremities of the farm were nibbled at for private housing. In 1930 agreement was reached between The Crown and Woolwich Borough Council for the sale of the rest of the land for housing. To maintain the
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five pairs of semi-detached houses built in 1930 by WE Wright who lived in the one nearest the school grounds.
Late in 1933 the Council agreed to adapt the two ponds for children’s paddling and model boat sailing by laying concrete bottoms, erecting a brick wall and constructing paths.
The estimate was
£800 and the pools needed a regular supply of water to keep the level constant. In 1934 a fence of iron railings was installed around the park’s road boundary and
The park in 1971 before the diseased elm We are proud of Eltham
One boyhood memory of the time states that, ‘I recall arriving home wet one day having fallen off a sheet of ice in the Queenscroft pond’. Another early resident recalls a couple who lived in a now long- gone wooden cottage by Eltham Palace who made home-made sweets that they sold from their door. ‘They also had a hand cart made from a pram chassis
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