Swamp Cypress. Taxodium distichum
The swamp cypress is a deciduous conifer. Unlike other cypresses it loses its leaves in winter. In spring it is a tall spire covered in a haze of pale green leaves which turn reddish brown in autumn. It comes from America and as you would expect, often grows in swamps where its roots appear above ground, and are known as knees.
There is a fine one in Dulwich Park, on the right hand side just inside the College Road Gate. There are two dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostrobides) on the opposite side of the carriageway which are very similar to the swamp cypress. One way of distinguishing them is by the leaflets which are alternate on the swamp cypress and opposite each other on the redwood. There was, until recently an old and dying Swamp Cypress in the Dulwich Picture Gallery garden which was once magnificent. People felt sentimental about it but it was finally felled in October. It is hoped that either a bench or a sculpture may be made from the timber. There is a new one in memory of David Halsey, a Friend of the Gallery, been planted nearby. Yet another swamp cypress is to be found in Belair, to the right of the entrance.
There will be profiles of other interesting Dulwich trees in future editions.
Stella Benwell
I am aware that in writing an article in October, a time of great change in our wildlife populations, winter will have arrived by the time the Newsletter is published and many seasonal changes will have passed. But at the time of writing the flocks of winter thrushes are arriving from Scandinavia and both Fieldfares and Redwings are to be seen mostly at the tops of trees where they briefly stop in transit for elsewhere. Those remaining will come down from the Hawthorn berry feast and once finished will start to rake the fields for invertebrates. The Redwing can be heard often in the dead of night giving a thin high pitched “zee” call as they pass over.
Much of the October movement of our small birds, typically Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Goldfinches and Pied Wagtails happens by day with also the occasional Meadow Pipit and Skylark. They move through so quickly that it is often only by flight call that you are aware of their passing. The summer migrants mostly migrate at night and it is only by chance that you wake and find them missing. Indeed most of our House Martins had disappeared by mid September, a little earlier than usual, perhaps reflecting a shortage of insect food life.
Migration time can produce oddities. Surprising, was a call from Mr Robinson of Great Brownings who reported a Lapwing on a rooftop. Lapwings are of course countryside birds of open fields, so finding itself in Great Brownings it had few options, but it must have been extremely uncomfortable.
However, the most amazing event came at a weekend at the end of August when Audrey Lambert phoned to report that on two consecutive mornings she had seen five Nutcrackers in Lings Coppice. She could scarcely believe her eyes, thinking at first that they might be Mistle Thrushes but with time and a good view she was able to look them up in her reference book and confirm that Nutcrackers they must be. Nutcrackers are birds most closely related to Jays and Magpies resident in central Europe, mostly in coniferous forest. They are slightly smaller than a Jay, dark brown and white speckled all over, emitting a call if anything harsher than a Jay if that be possible. They tend to occur in this country very occasionally in the autumn in so called eruptions when they are observed in numbers. However the last eruption was in 1969 and there were no other records of Nutcrackers this year, so Audrey’s record was exceptional. The saving grace was that they departed after her two observations so she was spared the ordeal of the descent of hordes of twitchers.
Winter will hopefully bring a new crop of records, perhaps none as spectacular as a Nutcracker, but it is always worthwhile keeping an eye on berry trees for a Waxwing which occur from time to time, the last one seen in Rosendale Road a year or so ago.
Peter Roseveare
Wildlife Recorder (020 7274 4567)
Bats are getting more and more popular and over 50 keen bat-watchers came on the Belair Park walkabout organised by the Dulwich Society and the Friends of Belair in July. And even though hardly any of us caught a glimpse of a bat as it ducked and weaved through the evening air, chasing its insectivorous supper, there were triumphant cries from trackers of all ages as three varieties of this small flying mammal revealed their presence.
Bat-spotting triumph came thanks to the wizardry of the hand-held ultrasonic detectors that Colin Higgins (from London Wildlife Trust) had distributed before he led the walk. By pre-tuning one of these battery-powered devices to a particular frequency - bat calls are so high that they are inaudible to all but the most sensitive of (young) human ears - it is possible to identify which species of bat is “shouting” in the vicinity. Its whereabouts can be pinpointed, even though it may be hidden from view by dimming light or thick leaf cover.
A bat emits a rapid series of squeaks as it flies. These extremely high-pitched sounds can be picked up and transmitted by the detectors, which look like small transistor radios, or walkie-talkies. They reach the human ear, translated into a stream of metallic clicks. A particular variety of bat can be identified by twiddling the detector’s knob before setting out on a walk, thus pre-setting the equipment to a particular “waveband” or frequency range, which is known to be that bat’s type. Each kind of bat will be “broadcasting” within a specific sound band.
That warm Thursday night, as dusk fell, the calls of two of the three Pipistrelle varieties most usually found in London, as well as the sounds of a Noctule, were picked up, loud and clear. (Members of the London Bat Group, who came along with their own state-of-the-art electronic detection equipment were particularly pleased by the Noctule because they had not realised they were using this particular Dulwich habitat).
Those of us who strolled back beside the lake were also able to see, as well as record on our borrowed handsets, a Daubenton’s bat swooping low, as the water reflected what was left of the fading light. A pipistrelle must eat up to 3,500 tiny flying insects in a single night (that’s a third of its bodyweight) if it is to find the strength to fly and hunt the next evening. In Belair, the railway line and embankment and the mature trees around the edges of the sports fields and lake are regularly used bat roadways. The newly planted Woodland Walk, edging the sports fields, aims to enhance this ideal insect-hunting ground.
Bat-detector equipment, like that used on the walk in July, is brilliant but it’s not always able to differentiate between some of the less-common species. Certain “pulses” of clicks appear so similar, between species, or are issued at such long or irregular intervals, that it would take an experienced bat expert to interpret them correctly. It is only by using a mist net to temporarily trap bats as they exit a roost, and examining them closely in-hand (an enterprise which is against the law unless carried out by a licensed bat handler) that species can be identified beyond doubt. At a distance, in the dark, bats may all look alike to us. But seen close-up, they do have very distinctive face and ear shapes. It was this netting method that proved the presence of a Brown Long-eared Bat (and probable presence of a Natterer’s) both previously unrecorded in Southwark, at Sydenham Hill Woods nature reserve in 2006.
In Belair, a number of batboxes (including a maternity roost) have been donated to the park by the Dulwich Society to try to help bats thrive locally and it is hoped that these will be in place before the winter. During hibernation, bats must find frost-free, dry quarters if they are not to die during their seasonal torpor. They interrupt their “sleep” to move to a safer roost if there is any danger of their blood freezing.
Angela Wilkes
Chair, Wildlife
During summer 2008 Dulwich Going Greener carried out a Survey of Lifestyle and Attitudes to Green Issues in Dulwich. Participants completed a questionnaire on-line via the DGG website and 174 replies were collected.
Key Points:
- The sample is sufficient to get a snapshot of the way Dulwich people are living and thinking in 2008. We cannot, however, be sure that the views expressed in the survey are typical of the local residents as those participating may be more sympathetic to green issues than the average and almost 60% are already members of DGG or would like to join.
- The survey will, however, provide a baseline against which to measure changes in the years ahead but we should not read too much into the results of a single survey.
- Participants in the survey are much better off than the average UK resident, most own their own houses which are of average size. Household size is a little above average.
- Most houses in Dulwich are poorly insulated, only half the light bubs are low energy and many central heating boilers are old.
- Most households have one car and the majority the use petrol rather than diesel and very few are electric or hybrid. Most are medium sized and only a few are small.
- Few people drive to work or drive their children to school.
- Dulwich residents make an average of two return air trips a year mostly to Europe.
- Respondents have a pronounced sympathy to the “Green” point of view but there is some ambivalence about some issues. Two of these, charging air travellers for the damage they do and taxing car users more heavily, would affect most of us directly.
- By no means everyone has set low a temperature for their central heating or cut down on holiday flights to reduce their carbon footprint. Similarly not everyone regards the statement that “We use our car and seldom/never use public transport” as being completely untrue.
- The final questions relate to more short term issues can lead to direct saving of money. Again there is considerable sympathy towards the green point of view although there is some variation in levels of commitment to particular issues although most people are well over in the right direction.
Demographics of the Sample
- Two thirds of respondents were in SE21, SE22 or SE24 with almost all the rest coming from adjacent areas. Dulwich is an affluent area and the average household income of respondents was £80,000 compared to a national figure of barely £30,000.
- Most respondents live in detached, semi detached or terraced houses with only 13% in flats. Ninety percent of houses are freehold or on long leases. The age of houses is spread over a wide range with 20% built before 1900 and 18% after 1960. 19% of people have been in their house for less than 2 years but 22% have been resident for over 20 years. The average is about 12 years.
- Most houses are on 2 or 3 floors with an average of 3_ bedrooms, a little above the national average. Only 30% of houses have a garage and these are mostly for only one car. Almost 40% of houses have no off street parking.
- There were 464 people in the households covered by the survey giving an average household size was 2.7 significantly higher than the national average or 2.3. 35% of houses include at least one person over 65. 12% of houses are occupied entirely by people over 65. 27% of residents are in full time education while 16% are retired. The remainder are in full or part time work and 20% of these work from home.
Energy Saving in the Houses
- 18% of people do not know the construction of their external walls. Of the remaining houses 65% have solid brick walls, 22% have cavity walls and only 13% have cavity walls with insulation.
- 40% of houses have double glazing on most of their windows but a quarter have no double glazing. The rest have about half their windows double glazed.
- Loft insulation is not appropriate unless you occupy the top floor of the house which applies to 7% of respondents. Of the remainder 15% don’t know what loft insulation they have, another 14% have none and only 12% have over 200mm, the minimum amount recommended for efficient insulation.
- 24% of houses have all or almost all energy saving lighting but 5% of houses have none. On average about 50% of light bulbs are low energy but a higher proportion of lighting comes from such bulbs as they are usually put where they will be used most frequently.
- 3% of houses have solar thermal panels, 1% have solar electric panels and 1% have wood chip boilers. The only significant energy saving device is metered water which almost half the houses have.
- Gas is by far the most widely used fuel. It provides the fuel for 96% of heating, 85% of hot water and about 75% of cooking
- Central heating boilers have improved from 60% to 90% efficiency over the last 20 years. Boilers over 10 years old should be replaced but a quarter of houses in the survey have boilers older than this and 43% of houses have houses less than 5 years old.
Travel
- Half the houses in the sample have only one car but 30% have more than one and only 17% of houses do without a car. Between them respondents own 199 cars or 1.14 cars per household
- Nearly 80% of cars run on petrol and most of the rest are diesel but there is one electric car in the sample and 8 hybrids.
- Most cars are medium sized with engines between 1.4 and 2.0 litres but 30% of them are smaller than this while 14% and over 2 litres.
- Only 11% of the sample travel to work by car. 40% walk or cycle and 46% use bus, train or tube.
- Half the children walk to school, 20% cycle and only 16% are taken by car.
- If more public transport were available locally half the sample say they would use buses etc somewhat more while 15% would use it a lot more but it would make no difference to the remaining third.
- Between them members of the households in the survey had made an average of almost two return air trips each. The majority of these, 70%, were within Europe, including UK but 15% were to North America or the Caribbean and only 6% were to the Far East or Australasia.
For more information on Dulwich Going Greener and further results of this survey go to www.dulwichgoinggreener.org
Edwin T Hall (1851-1923) by Ian McInnes
Edwin Thomas Hall, not to be confused with his son Edwin Stanley Hall, also a noted architect, was a local resident and the architect of the Old Library at Dulwich College, built in 1902 to commemorate the Boer War. He published the well known ‘Dulwich History & Romance’ in 1917 and lived at ‘Hillcote’ in West Dulwich.
Born in 1851, the son of an architect, George Hall, he began practice in 1875, and was best known for most of his life as a major designer of hospitals. He won the 1894 competition for the design of Hither Green Infectious Diseases Hospital but his most important work was the Manchester Royal Infirmary, a competition he won in 1908. He also designed two hospitals in Leeds, the Homeopathic Hospital in Queen’s Square and several hospitals in Sussex and, closer to home, the St Giles Hospital in Peckham and the Camberwell Infirmary.
His practice was large and other projects included factories, offices, churches, houses and flats - the latter including Sloane Mansions in Sloane Square and the St Ermins Hotel in Victoria. However, his best known work today was the one he carried out towards the end of his life, in conjunction with his son, the design of Liberty’s, the store in Regent Street. Captain Stewart Liberty, the store’s owner, had long cherished the desire to build a larger than life-size Elizabethan style building in Regents Street and had purchased three old wooden ships to provide the timber. The Crown Estate, the landowner, refused to consider such a proposal and insisted that any building fronting Regent Street should be stone faced. Hall acquiesced but built the gloriously esoteric black and white timber framed building behind.
He was a vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and was an active participant in drawing up the Institute’s charter in 1887. He was known as ‘Bye law Hall’ not only because of his incisive legal mind but for the major part he played in drafting the updating of the London Building Acts in the 1890s.
Edwin Hall was a Dulwich Estates Governor for 22 years and chairman in 1908-10. As well as the Old Library, his local projects included the Camberwell Public Library and Council Offices, and the completion of the British Home for Incurables at Crown Point in Streatham - when its original architect died just as building started. Perhaps his most important local project, however, was the Sunray Gardens Estate. Although in the end that estate was partially redesigned and built by others, his was the initial concept and, had it been built, it would have been a model for future housing in this country - with its garden city layout and innovative integral community facilities. At the end of his life he was also involved in the design and development of Roseway in Turney Road.
His obituary in the RIBA Journal noted that ‘his life at Dulwich was one round of public duty very cheerfully undertaken and very carefully performed’. He was an active member of the Dulwich & Sydenham Golf Club, a Governor of Dulwich College and a trustee for the Charity Commissioners of Dulwich College Chapel. He was also a vicar’s warden at the old Emmanuel Church in South Croxted Road for 30 years and a master of the No. 5 Masons Lodge and a grand steward of Grand Lodge. One of his daughters married the vicar of St Stephen’s.
Wildlife Rescue By Angela Wilkes
Reviewed by Bill Bradbeer
Wildlife committee chair, Angela Wilkes, has published a substantial handbook for the rescue of wild animals suffering from wounds, injuries, poisoning, disease, starvation, abandonment etc. as well as those animals trapped by natural or man made hazards. It is aimed at the general public and presents a range of recurring themes: When to act? When not to act? What to do? What not to do? What is legal and what is not? Essentially the unqualified person is allowed to administer first aid to an injured animal and for each type of animal the book gives first aid instructions and the suggested composition of a casualty kit. Where appropriate a single-page first aid procedure mirrors that for human casualties as an A, B, C (and D) guide: Airways, Breathing, Circulation and Do’s and Don’ts. The rescuer should then seek instructions from one of the listed centres of first call, without delay, and may then become committed to delivering the casualty to a local animal hospital or rehabilitation centre. The book lists 113 of the more established ones in the United Kingdom, but the author estimates that there are more than 700 specialist wildlife hospital treatment centres in England and Wales alone.
Almost the whole of the book comprises seven comprehensive chapters on different classes of wildlife. The life-style of hedgehogs makes them particularly vulnerable to accidental contact with suburban man, while their bumbling gait and taste for slugs and beetles makes them something of a favoured resident (there are not many ground-nesting birds in Dulwich), so they get the first chapter. Garden birds and water birds get the next two, there is one on foxes and another which covers a mixed bag of 17 species which comprise rodents, rabbits, hares, shrews and moles. Badgers merit their own chapter and everything else goes into Chapter 7, which is described as “Rescuing the Rest, from Stags to Stag Beetles”. Each of these chapters starts off with factual information about the animal, such as estimated population, distribution, habitat, identification, breeding, feeding, territory, the Law, problems caused by hazards, the animal diseases affecting human health, other diseases, internal and external parasites. Anecdotes about successful rescues are included, although success may be partial, in that recovery may not permit the return of the animal to the wild. However injury often requires euthanasia. Invertebrates get the simplest attention; rescue usually involves nothing more than the transfer of displaced animals to a place of safety.
This is not just a book for the compassionate minority who are willing and able to devote time and money to animal rescue. It provides food for thought for anyone with an interest in the natural world. Highly controversial opinions exist in the field of conservation and failure to reach some level of consensus weakens the impact of conservationists. Foxes arouse mixed emotions in Britain and Angela Wilkes shows a particular soft spot for them in Chapter 4, in which she reports that 80% of surveyed householders in Greater London were pleased to see foxes in their gardens. Fox cubs are undoubtedly cute, furry and apparently cuddly and even deemed to be a suitable model for soft toys. In contrast, I am one of those who have viewed with horror the rise of the suburban fox, of which those in Dulwich seem to be a mangy, scrounging, quarrelsome and disease-ridden apology for their rural ancestors. Our first fox, more than twenty years ago, was a splendid beast, but I attribute their subsequent population boom to failures in garbage disposal on the part of the public, to food dropped in public places or even left in fox-accessible litter bins and to the feeding of foxes in gardens. The population grows, becomes overcrowded, is inadequately accommodated, territories contract and diseases and parasites spread, with consequences for humans and their domestic animals. I identify the occurrence of Toxicara canis eggs in the faeces of foxes and the potential of foxes to spread rabies, in an outbreak, as my main public health concerns. Zero tolerance would seem to be appropriate for those of us who wish to have gardens safe for small children. I am relieved to see that the book recommends feeding only in the case of foxes undergoing rehabilitation. Any proposal to reduce an animal population in Britain seems to throw local and national government into frozen inactivity, lest the electorate be offended. In Dulwich, the Estates Governors are not believed to go in fear of electoral defeat and thus might be open to persuasion to appoint a keeper with the remit of achieving a sustainable balance of species here!
The book is generally well balanced and written with a light touch. It is both a good read and a standard source for action and reference with a well-prepared index. A glossary is included and most of the numerous illustrations are both amusing and informative.
Wildlife Rescue (256pp.) is published by Broadcast Books, Bristol, in soft back at £15.95
Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre
Reviewed by Stella Benwell
This engrossing book is about Eddie Chapman, a double agent during the Second World War. Its particular interest for Dulwich readers is that Chapman’s handler was the late Ronnie Read, a resident of Court Lane Gardens and a long-time member of the Trees Committee of the Dulwich Society.
Eddie Chapman was a small time criminal who escaped to Jersey before the war to avoid a prison sentence. When the Germans occupied Jersey he learnt some German, saw his opportunity, and volunteered to spy for them. He was taken to Germany, treated royally, rigorously trained as a spy and finally parachuted into England to blow up the de Haviland factory which manufactured Mosquito aircraft. But his basic loyalty was to England, and on arrival he went straight to the police. He became a double agent handled by Ronnie, sending back false information to the Germans. At one stage the British were financing one of his girl friends in England while the Germans were financing another one in Norway!
Chapman was both clever and utterly fearless and both Ronnie and his counterparts in Germany developed affection for him, though never certain of his loyalty. But Ronnie Read was a modest and retiring man who never revealed anything about the improbable part he played in was, except for his radio expertise. John Le Carré describes this book as superb and meticulously researched.
Agent ZigZag is available at Village Books, Dulwich Village £7.99
“Your Own Allotment - How to find and manage one and enjoy growing your own food”, by Neil Russell-Jones, 370pp, Spring Hill Books, £12.99.
Reviewed by Adrian Hill
This book is written by a Dulwich allotment holder and its sub-title summarises what it sets out to achieve. It appears to have been written after the author had worked his allotment, his first, for only one year, such appears to be his desire to lose no time in sharing his enthusiasm for growing his own vegetables and fruit, something not possible on any scale in the small garden of his house.
After many years of decline in the allotment movement, allotments are now in demand again and most sites have long waiting lists (two years being commonly quoted), as the author found when he decided he wanted to grow his own food. Fortunately, he was able far sooner than expected to locate a very overgrown plot that was available at the Dulwich Horticultural and Chrysanthemum Society (DHCS) site (at one time known as the Alleyn’s Nursery allotments) alongside Cox’s Walk. Soon afterwards he as able to add to this a neighbouring plot to give him the traditional 10 rod plot (in his case 130 feet by 20 feet). This is far larger than most allotment holders nowadays will wish to take on, five rods now being the norm on many sites. With the help of his wife and two daughters the author seems, however, to have coped with a full ten rods.
He gives a brief history of the allotment movement and of its decline after WWII. He states that by 1973 9,400 plots were being lost each year in England. Most sites in the country are run by local authorities, though not his site or the other four allotment sites in Dulwich, which are all privately run by allotment societies on land leased from the Dulwich Estate.
The book gives advice on how to set about finding a plot and, when successful, how to bring it into production and to plan for future years, including crop rotation. His approach is strongly from an organic gardening point of view, disparaging the use of pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and artificial fertilisers. Unlike most books on vegetable growing this one has no long chapter on the medicine chest. Instead, there is advice on dealing with pests, weeds and the like in an organic manner, for example encouraging ladybirds which have a voracious appetite for aphids, eating up to 500 a day we are informed. The DHCS requires all its plot holders to garden organically, though this is not a requirement of any of the other allotment sites in Dulwich. Again, unlike other local allotment sites, the DHCS enforces a ban on the growing of tomatoes because of their proneness to blight and the risk of this spreading to potatoes. To this reviewer, this seems rather drastic as open-air ripened tomatoes (given the right varieties) taste vastly better than supermarket ones which are likely to have been picked green in southern Europe to avoid damage in transit. Allotment grown potatoes, on the other hand, are unlikely to taste much better than bought ones, except perhaps in the case of first earlies which will have been harvested long before there is any risk of blight.
In line with organic principles, he gives much sound advice on improving the state of the soil in accordance with the maxim “Look after the soil and it will look after you”. He also gives useful tips for successful compost making and other soil improvement techniques. The author has not succumbed to the questionable fashion for no digging but his advocacy of double-digging (two spits deep) seems back-breaking advice for Dulwich’s London clay.
The book describes the different plant types, their life cycle and the plant families that allotment holders are most likely to be interested in, together with methods of propagation of vegetables. There is much of interest here, even to old hands. There is a short section on fruit suitable for allotments but no advice on pruning, a topic which can be something of a mystery to allotment holders.
The author is realistic on how much effort needs to be devoted to make it worthwhile to take on an allotment. He does not suggest any particular minimum time, though in this reviewer’s opinion a minimum of five hours per week is probably required in the busy months. As he neatly puts it: “An allotment is not a destination - it is a journey. You never arrive - you just keep going”. Depending on what financial value one places on one’s time, own-grown food is unlikely to be cheaper than bought food. He is however clearly of the view that, with some luck and sufficient devotion to the task, the effort is well justified in terms of the pleasure derived from growing one’s own food and the superior taste of most fresh home-grown produce. On this, your reviewer is in complete agreement.
The reviewer is chairman of the Camberwell & Dulwich Allotment Society.
On the street where you live
Dekker Road (conclusion) by Ian McInnes
Following the Governors agreement to build working class housing in Dekker Road at their meeting on 31st October 1901, the Manager wrote to the Charity Commissioners confirming their intention. The Commissioners agreed in principle but asked how ‘the construction of working-class dwellings on the Estate would be a remunerative investment of the Charity funds, and that capital expended for the purpose could be replaced. In the event the Commissioners agreed that the Governors could raise a loan of £18000 on the security of an order of the Board subject to the repayment of such a loan by annual instalments in a period of thirty years.
The Surveyor was then instructed to prepare the working drawings for the dwellings to be erected and he was ‘instructed to prepare the necessary specification, and that the names of not less than seven and not more than ten builders to be selected.
The contractors returned sealed bids on 19th March 1903 and the winner was Mr George Parker of 124 Sumner Road, Peckham in the sum of £15,525. The Estate informed the Charity Commissioners who shortly afterwards insisted that the scheme be further reviewed by an architect of their choice at the Estate’s expense - they suggested W D Caroe, a well known church architect of the time. His fee was £31 10s.
The final letter of approval from the Charity Commissioners contained four conditions:
- There should be a doorway from the living room in the C blocks into the inner cubicle so that the latter can be used separately if desired. The cubicle division must be at least 7 feet high.
- 6lbs lead, or asphalt, which is considerably cheaper and more permanent, must be used instead of zinc on the flat roofs of C block.
- The fanlight specified over the doors should be shown upon the drawings on which they are now omitted.
- Lead roof gutters must be 7lbs lead.
Tenders for the road and sewer were received and Messrs R Ballard of Child Hill NW started work on 23rd July 1902. The building contract with Mr George Parker was finally signed on 22nd October, in the slightly increased sum of £16,050, which reflected a rise in material prices.
Initial progress was good. On 26th November the Surveyor reported that the average number of men on site was 17, that roughly 43000 bricks had been delivered, and ‘all the blocks of buildings, the proposed new road, and the increased width of Court Lane have been set and staked out upon the ground. The trenches for the foundations of a block on each side of the new road at the Court Lane end have been dug out, and the trenches of the first block of the south side of the said road have been partly concreted.
By the end of January 1903 the first block of single tenements had ‘their walls built to an average height of 4ft above first floor level, the stud partitions in position and all door and window frames of ground floor built in.’ By 24th March the ‘Roof boarding was finished, and roofs partly tiled; a large proportion of lead work on roofs laid. Chimney stacks cleaned down and pointed. All internal framed partitions fixed.’
At the Board meeting in May Mr Barry put forward a sketch for commemorative tablets to be fixed to the two end walls facing Court Lane and Woodwarde Road. ‘After due consideration I would suggest that the material of the tablets should be Hopton Wood stone, or a fine grained stone of similar character and that the lettering should be incised and gilded. Grey granite or marble are of course alternative materials; but both of these would be much more expensive and possibly too conspicuous.’ It was left to the Chairman and the deputy chairman to decide although, on 27th October, Mr Powell, one of the Governors, tried to have the tablets removed ‘as the College Arms, affixed to each block of the working class dwellings, sufficiently indicate their origin.’ There was no seconder to his motion, so it was dropped.
The new road was half completed by 26th May and the remainder of the blocks were constructed through the rest of 1903 and well into 1904, the final account not being agreed till December 1904. In the autumn the Manager advertised locally for potential tenants and he reported on 5th January 1905 that although there were originally 130 applicants for the initial 24 houses, only 13 had returned properly completed application. He then added ‘I was only able to select four whose occupations were those of bona fide working men, and in three of these cases permission to take an approved lodger had to be given. The other nine applicants were described as Clerks, Travellers, School Mistress, a Stationer’s Assistant, and a lady of small independent means. A large number of the application forms were returned in blank with a notification that the rents fixed were beyond the means of the applicants’. It would seem that, despite the Governors best intentions, the new properties were just too expensive for the ‘working classes’ at which they were aimed.
There were 15 conditions in the lease agreement. Number 10 provides an interesting reflection on conditions at the time ‘The tenants shall immediately report to the Governors any birth, cases of infectious disease or death… tenants shall cause any case of infectious disease to be removed to the proper hospital without delay.’