The Dulwich Society Journal for Spring 2017.
Celebrating 100 Lunchtime Concerts
On the 9 November 2016 the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery and the three Foundation Schools celebrated the hundredth concert in their series of lunchtime concerts in the Chapel.
The idea came from the Master of Dulwich College, Dr Jo Spence, when he and Jill Alexander, former Chairman of the Friends, were discussing a suitable event to celebrate the bicentenary of the Gallery in 2011. There has been a regular and supportive audience of friends and parents supplemented by visitors to the Gallery who are always very appreciative when they find music as well as art to enjoy.
We do not know what we are a going to hear each week until the musicians arrive with their programme. It may be keyboard or brass, voice or strings, jazz or classical, soloists or quartets or sextets or a whole orchestra. The variations are endless but the standard is always high.
These weekly concerts take place in the Autumn and Spring terms (except for half term) from 1.30 to 2pm in the Chapel and are free with a retiring collection.
Still a Place for Matins says Marilyn Harper
Matins is a venerated service in the Church of England, identical in structure to Evensong, but with differences in content. Most people who attended parish churches in the 1950's and early 1960's became familiar with a weekly Sunday morning service of Matins, only attending Holy Communion one Sunday morning per month. Evensong, especially Choral Evensong, still survives in the consciousness of churchgoers, organists and singers, largely because of a combination of the time of day and a wealth of beautiful settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, together with the elaborate settings of the Preces and Responses and a large library of beautiful anthems that choirs love to sing. Instead of the Mag and Nunc, as choirs affectionately refer to them, the Matins canticles include the Venite, the Te Deum and Jubilate. The extra canticle, near the start of the service, hardly makes the service longer. Matins is sung less often because of the church's general trend towards Holy Communion as the main morning service. Today it is only sung in a few cathedrals and churches. This is a pity as both Matins and Evensong derive directly from monastic hours, which date right back to the days of the early Church.
In Christ's Chapel, Dulwich, we are fortunate that the Book of Common Prayer is still used for worship. Since my appointment as Organist, Matins has alternated with Evensong. With a small choir and just myself at the organ we have chanted our way through psalms and canticles and those who come cherish what we do, with its emphasis on congregational singing. Towards the end of last year a proposal was made that Matins should be abolished in favour of weekly Evensongs. At first I thought that might be a good idea, then thought again. When singing or accompanying the words of the Te Deum each first and third Sunday I feel the majesty of this ancient, beautiful text in praise of God. It is part of our heritage and ideally should be preserved. The choir largely agreed with me and a compromise has been reached.
The service pattern at Christ’s Chapel is now as follows:
First Sunday in the month, Matins at 10.00am
Second, Third and Fourth Sundays in the month, Evensong at 6.30pm.
Fifth Sunday has no sung service.
No sung services during the last two weeks of July and the whole of August.
On the second Sunday of the month, except in April, August and December, there is a short organ recital following the service.
Our choir is a very sociable group. We rehearse one hour before the start of each service, and occasionally during the week if something special is planned. We also meet to celebrate birthdays and always have a party after the organ recital. New members are always welcome. An ability to read music is essential.
Dulwich College and JAGS both sing their own services, fitting into the parish pattern. The Schools' Choral Matins / Choral Eucharists start at 10.30am and Choral Evensong at 6.00pm on designated days, published in their respective calendars.
The Dulwich Players present:
The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson
5, 6, 7 April at 8pm, Saturday 8 April at 7.30pm
Edward Alleyn Theatre, Dulwich College, SE21 7LD
Tickets £10 (£12 on the door)
Email:
Three estranged sisters return to the family home for their mother's funeral. There's Teresa the long-suffering one, Mary the clever successful one, and Catherine the flaky neurotic one. Their bickering is punctuated by moments of hilarity, and emotions are laid bare as some unwelcome truths are unearthed. The theme of memory runs through the play like water. How reliable are our memories? Why do the sisters have such different recollections of their childhood, and why is Mary so obsessed with finding that green tin? Their mother, Vi, had lost her memory by the end, but she has one last opportunity to give her version of events before she goes. The earthy dialogue sparkles in this witty yet emotional play, which won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 2000.
Dulwich charity expanding services for older people
Link Age Southwark (formerly Dulwich Helpline & Southwark Churches Care) is starting the New Year with a recruitment drive to expand its volunteer team. This follows the charity securing funding to increase its provision of social activities for older people in Southwark. The charity, which has been based in East Dulwich for 23 years, currently has a team of 380 volunteers supporting over 500 older people in the Borough. All services are volunteer-led and include a range of social groups, weekly befriending visits, and transport to social engagements provided by volunteer drivers. These free services allow older people to stay socially active and combat loneliness.
The need for these services is increasing, as statutory services become stretched through lack of funding coupled with an ageing population.
For more information about volunteering for as little as an hour a week to support an older person, please telephone 020 8299 2623, email
Helena Wilson, Marketing, Communications & Fundraising Officer Link Age Southwark Tel: 0208 299 2623
King’s Critical Care
At King’s College Hospital we are radically changing the way we care for our most seriously ill and injured patients by creating a new world-class Critical Care Centre. Linked to the Helipad, Theatres and Emergency Department, it will be the heart of the Critical Care Service which will support around 5,000 patients and 15,000 relatives each year.
Support Life Appeal
A target has been set to raise £2.6M to fund a new initiative which will improve the quality of life for both patients and their families by reducing delirium, provide faster rehabilitation and overall a better long-term recovery. King’s Charity has committed £1m and the Fundraising Team have launched King’s Critical Care Appeal to raise the remaining £1.6m.
Bringing the outside world into the ward
Every room will have floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over Ruskin Park. Innovative technology and artwork in every room will make the environment feel less medical, less isolating and more comforting. And table lamps will give a warm glow in the evenings.
A uniquely equipped roof garden will for the first time in the world allow life support to be provided outdoors. Even some of the most seriously ill patients and their families will be able to benefit from the stimulating elements of the open air.
Individual touchscreen bedside computers will not only capture medical data, but also provide a portal so families at home can stay in touch with their loved ones and their progress.
No other UK hospital will provide this range of critical care.
For more information or to find out how you can get involved visit the fundraising website www.supportkings.org.uk
Facing Dulwich Picture Gallery from the gateway you will see, at any time of the year, two huge glossy green-leaved trees, one on either side of the building. These are Magnolia grandiflora. They show their enormous white flowers, which can be up to 25cms across, in late Spring but they continue to flower intermittently until November. Though they are reasonably hardy in this country, it is good that they have such sheltered positions to protect against frost. I wonder when they were planted here. They are the largest members of the genus Magnolia. Their popular name is bull bay.
They are of course trees native to the south eastern states of the of the USA. They were introduced to this country by the botanist Mark Catesby, who was English but had spent much time in America and is famous for his work: The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731-49). The watercolours illustrating this were purchased in 1768 by George III, and remain in the Queen’s collection.
I have seen these wonderful trees in their native home when travelling in North Carolina. I saw them in flower in spring, with their huge white blossoms. Some of the trees which had recently flowered looked quite exhausted, with their leaves flopping. George Washington grew them in his gardens at Mount Vernon, which was initially planted in 1785. The American Museum in Bath has planted a replica of the small botanic garden which was included in these gardens.
Magnolia is a huge and ancient genus, dating back to evolutionary times and indeed fossil remains have been found. There are about 210 species. The scope of it is easily understood, for after seeing these huge specimens you might also see a tiny Magnolia stellata in someone’s front garden, brightening up the spring with their star-shaped flowers.
Many hybrid varieties have been produced. One of the most successful of these occurred by chance in the wonderful garden at Nymans. Many of us have visited there with the Dulwich Society. The hybrid was named after :Leonard Messel, the owner of the garden who died in 1953. In 1955 it achieved an RHS Award of Merit. This was upgraded in 1969 to a first class certificate. It is a hybrid of M. stellata and M. kobus varieties. It is a very successful plant, much in evidence in garden centres, particularly as it flowers very young while still in pots. Magnolias are slightly tender, and need to be kept sheltered from north and east winds.
Judy Marshall, Trees Committee
What a difference there is in our winters. Last year we had Daffodils flowering in January and I reported a Blackbird in full song from December onwards. At the time of writing in mid January we have had many days of hard frost, the Daffodil bulb shoots are barely visible and the Blackbird has to spend its daylight hours foraging for food and cannot waste time in out of season song.
The cold winter is having its effect on our wildlife. While we appear to have plenty of Blue Tits and Great Tits, conspicuously absent are the flocks of finches that have been such a feature of our garden bird life. Particular mention should be made of the Goldfinches that came so frequently to our feeders. They still come occasionally in ones and twos but the regular flocks have gone. We are aware that Greenfinches have been hit by disease and Chaffinch numbers were never high but Goldfinches could appear in flocks of upwards of twenty or thirty. Residual garden berries are maintaining Blackbirds and hopefully the more secretive Song Thrushes, but significantly in a walk through the woods this week where there were few berries I did not see a single Blackbird which shows the value of our garden cultivation.
Paradoxically this year the south east appears to have been colder than further north and it may be that absent birds have simply voted with their wings and moved to warmer areas and this will almost certainly account for the fact that there have been very few Redwings and Fieldfares this year. Earlier in the winter when winter migration was on a flock of Fieldfares descended on to a berry crop in Dalkeith Road and this can of course happen at any time. These are large Thrushes about the size of a Mistle Thrush but with pale blue rumps and heads. They are very noisy with a loud chack-chack call so are not easily missed. In some years when rural food is scarce they arrive in numbers to forage in our sports fields, so they may yet appear.
The findings of the RSPB big national garden birdwatch which takes place each year in the last weekend of January will be of interest to see if the changes that we observe here are present elsewhere or whether the south east with its continental cold is unusual. Some of the very small birds such as Goldcrests, Wrens and Long Tailed Tits will undoubtedly have taken a hit as they always do in cold winters but large broods in succeeding summers usually aid recovery. Large birds such as Wood pigeons, Magpies, Jays and Crows clearly are very little affected and neither are Parakeets in spite of their Indian origin.
Unfortunately the Dulwich Park Water Rail which featured in the last report did not stay, but four Shoveler Ducks have been overwintering and can be seen on the lake quietly “shoveling” with their spade-like beaks. The Rosendale Allotments are clearly a fertile habitat and a Tawny Owl was heard there this week perhaps having discovered a supply of rodents and I hear also that they have a colony of Hedgehogs which are hopefully hibernating just now.
Tawny Owls are strictly nocturnal and although one or two pairs have historically bred in the woods they very rarely have been known to stray outside and certainly not in daylight to permit photography. However the late lamented Rosa Davis put up an Owl box in her garden at 117 College Road many years ago and did achieve a successful nesting pair. Little Owls are more obliging and will often venture out in daytime. The golf course and the Grange Lane allotments provide a very suitable habitat and Margaret McHugh has had the good fortune to see this Little Owl for several days in Grange Lane with an excellent photo opportunity.
Peter Roseveare Wildlife Recorder (tel: 020 7274 4567)
The Sad Tale of the Little Fox
Like many of Dulwich’s residents I am not a fan of foxes. They strut about the garden, damage the fences and flower beds and leave what wildlife enthusiasts call ‘scat’ all over the place. I once read that the first time they appeared in Dulwich in modern times was in 1947. All that said, I really did fall for the little fox that mooched about our garden, took naps on the lawn, peered through the French doors and showed no fear of humans. He was usually on his own and over the weeks and then months, he never seemed to grow any bigger. One day, I found him sitting upright, just like a cat, with his tail; curled around him, peering into the empty pool. A couple of days later I found him lying dead on the path. Despite my aversion to foxes I felt very upset.
In October 2016 I led a London Wildlife Trust walk supported by the Dulwich Society on the subject of Dulwich Park’s remnant boundary oak trees. 30 people attended a very lively and interesting event where we measured the girth of the English oaks (Quercus robur) and discussed their management and natural history. I’ve received a number of enthusiastic emails following on from the walk and firstly may I thank everyone who attended and contributed to it. The oaks of Dulwich Park are significant to London and could be afforded further protection and management consideration where possible.
Rural remnants
As former common and farmland, Dulwich Park is a remnant of the Great North Wood, a tract of woods, commons and farms that spread from Deptford to Selhurst, along what is known as the Great North Wood, a ridge of clay overlaying chalk and running between Honor Oak Park and South Norwood Hill. From Dulwich Park there are fine views of the Dulwich Woods straddling thie ridge, with the park residing low in the River Effra watershed. England’s parks, commons and wood pasture are home to many of our ancient and veteran oak trees today, with places like Epping Forest and the New Forest key reserves of ancient beech and oak trees at a national and European level. Oaks are significant trees not only in Dulwich but also in western Europe and the Americas. In Britain and Ireland, the timber from English and sessile oak (Quercus patraea) trees was used to build the ships which allowed the British Empire to ‘rule the waves’. Not even the entirety of Dulwich Wood and Sydenham Hill Wood (approximately 25 hectares combined) would have provided enough oak timber to build one of the great British ships as several thousand were needed. The reason why there are still oaks to be found in Dulwich is because these trees once had an economic and social purpose, perhaps even a spiritual one.
English oaks were often planted as boundary trees between smallholdings or to demarcate the edges of ancient parishes. Indeed, a walk along Wood Vale in East Dulwich will reveal a line of old oaks which once set the border between the ancient parishes of Camberwell (now London Borough of Southwark) and Lewisham. There are individual oaks of past and present that are of local fame. The Oak of Honor gives the name to One Tree Hill and the now lost Vicar’s Oak, which once sat atop Anerley Hill before it was felled, just in time for the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1854, was a famous tree in Penge. These oaks were once part of ritual perambulations, whereby parishioners walked or ‘beat the bounds’ annually as local tradition. This is also where the name ‘gospel oak’ arises from, with prayers read out beneath the oaks during the traditional walk. London Wildlife Trust have tried to keep the tradition of beating the bounds alive with our Great North Wood walks over the past 35 years in Southwark.
What is a veteran tree?
The Ancient Tree Forum is the leading light in British ancient and veteran tree education and campaigning. It defines a veteran tree as one which is ‘big for the species’ and that is of high ecological and heritage value. In Sweden it is far simpler - ‘a tree that is very old, more than 1m in diameter at breast height or hollow.’ In Britain we consider a tree to be ancient if it is over 400 years old, which is also the same for our ancient woods. Veteran trees are interesting because they are often warped, battered and gnarled, not the lollipops that many of us were brought up expecting trees to look like. The ‘health’ of a tree can be highly subjective and the job of a local authority trees official can be very difficult. Making a sound decision about the management of a tree requires experience, understanding and a will to find the best solution for people and nature, not just Health & Safety box ticking or appeasing the whims of individuals.
The Dulwich Park oaks
The image below shows a line of three boundary oaks of great significance. There is the likelihood that a hedgerow once filled the space between these trees and was grubbed out to create sightlines, possibly as part of the formal park in 1890. The combined age of these trees is approximately 900 years.
The oak on the far left has suffered a hefty limb loss in recent years, opening up the core of the tree to decay, something that inevitably occurs in long-lived trees like English oak in one way or another. The tree has done something remarkable but not unusual for its type, putting out ‘aerial roots’ higher up the tree to feed on its own internal decay and thus reroute the nutrients available from the tissue. The reason the oak has become unbalanced is because it once was pollarded (cut at a height that grazing animals can’t reach with their teeth) but has not been pollarded probably since the early 1900s. This specimen has a girth of over 5.5m which means it is over 400 years old, using the measuring charts of the Ancient Tree Forum and VET project. Thoughtful management from Southwark Council has meant that the limb has been left and allowed to decay naturally, something seen across Dulwich and Belair Parks. The kind of internal decay found within veteran trees is crucial for a group of invertebrates that feed on this decay. Scientifically they are known as saproxylic invertebrates and they are the most threatened species community in the whole of Europe. Our native stag beetle is the only such beetle easily identifiable to most of us.
In Epping Forest experimental re-pollarding of similar oaks has drawn the conclusion that severe cutting leads to the death of the tree, due to a kind of shock. This is typical of old pollards across Britain, largely because of the end of the oak era in the 1860s when coal and gas became the most important sources of fuel and iron replaced timber in shipbuilding. Such factors led to the end of old fashioned woodland management.
The oak closest to the gate is a difficult one to age because it has a fair amount of extra wood that has been ‘put on’ by the tree over time, either from stress or internal fibre-buckling where the tree’s evident growth towards the light - phototropic growth - has meant it has become internally unstable and requires a process of realignment where the roots meet the soil. This oak is another lapsed pollard. This tree is likely to be between 250-350 years old. As I child I remember climbing this tree, inconveniently located next to the ladies’ toilets. Jokes aside, it is not an ideal place to loiter with a camera because the image that is really needed to show the scale of this tree would include the toilets as well. This image, however, still gives a sense of the tree’s size and shape. It is another lapsed pollard with large burring and bulgewood put on around the base of the trunk. The oak is an incredible 6.6m all the way around, putting the tree at an age of over 500 years. If that is correct, this tree has survived from the days of Dulwich Common being monastic land, through the dissolution of the monasteries, the English civil war, the Industrial Revolution, Napoleonic War and the World Wars. One note of caution is the amount of extra growth put on around the base of the tree, but even if this does superficially add on a century or two, the tree is still a magnificent specimen hailing from pre-industrial Dulwich.
One of the most famous oaks is the bulbous specimen located by the boating lake. This is also a tree that I remember hiding behind as a teenager on Friday evenings after school, usually having evaded a petty mugging or an attack from some rival school kids (we were from Forest Hill, so in enemy territory). It has a large girth of around 4m, meaning it is at least 300 years old. The tree is showing signs of stress and evident damage to the bark from dog urine where the tree is completely accessible. A simple knee-high fence as used for other oaks would suffice to start.
In this photo the exposure the tree is experiencing is evident, with signs of the damage being done to the bark at the base also clear. On closer inspection the bark looks to be breaking away in part. Oaks are hardy trees and can withstand damage. This leads on to considerations for the management of the trees.
This sizeable oak near the College Road entrance has a knee-high fence protecting it from vehicles creeping onto the grass. It’s a clever way to keep footfall back also, meaning that the tree can absorb oxygen through the roots via the soil because compaction is limited.
Saving our veteran trees
The next image is an example of sound management of our veteran trees. This oak lost a limb in a recent storm but the tree has not been felled on safety grounds. The tree is wounded, but the fallen limb has once again been left for those important decay-dependent insects and the tree is beginning a process of retrenchment, where the lateral buds latent in the bark (the tree’s leafy insurance policy) are coming into life and creating a new branch structure. This is thoughtful management from Southwark Council. Some of the most emotive responses to local authority plans relate to trees and green spaces, yet we continue to lose wildlife habitat which includes our veteran trees. The Forestry Commission estimate that London’s trees are worth £43billion in all they offer to our environmental, physical and mental health. This is an underestimate, as with the value of trees and nature it is largely a case of attempting to ‘quantify the unquantifiable’. We live in an age where money talks and even natural ecosystems, the most ancient ways of the world, are being earmarked for how much they are worth in economic terms. The value of the ancient and veteran oaks of Dulwich Park is great, relating to their ecology, amenity and heritage importance. But it’s not simply in Dulwich Park that these oaks are found, with future veterans in at least two other gardens subject to planning applications to have them felled. Veteran trees need management to keep them alive and organisations like the Dulwich Society, London Wildlife Trust and the Ancient Tree Forum campaign for their preservation. The efforts of Southwark Council to preserve these trees is crucial and should be recognised. They enrich our public and green spaces in ways we do not quite understand and harbour untold tales about the history of our landscape.
The biggest challenge facing our trees in 2017 is the lack of available funding for their care due to public sector funding cuts as part of central government austerity measures. There is less and less money to spend on trees, other than for the most basic safety measures, which sometimes are unnecessary. There is also less money to employ people to inspect and protect our trees, leaving them open to spurious safety claims from insurance companies and the like. This is where our veteran and ancient trees, unless they start causing trouble in their own way, could be forgotten. In this time of need it is up to local people to volunteer to find a way to celebrate and protect these irreplaceable symbols of our natural and cultural heritage. Every single tree mentioned in this article is unique and once gone, their stories are lost forever. Some of them could live to over 1000 years. We all need to work together to ensure future generations can experience these ancient trees.
Daniel Greenwood is the Manager of the Sydenham Hill and Cox’s Walk Nature Reserve administered by the London Wildlife Trust
In the distant past, when the population was smaller, people’s houses would have been identified by their owners’ name. Only very grand houses such as the Manor House were given an actual title. As development progressed however properties were often linked to a person’s name: in the Middle Ages, John and Cristina de Reygate gave their name to a property later called Reygates. A house named after them, Ryecotes, was demolished in 1967 to build the road called Ryecotes Mead. Kingswood House, it is believed, was named after Edward King, a tenant in 1535. Sometimes the houses were decorated in coloured paint which lent the house its name; probably this is how Blew House is so called. Ironically, the house where the blacksmith lived (the site of Harold George, ladies’ hairdresser) was called the White House and there was also a house in the Village called Plas Gwyn which also translates as ‘White House’. A house could also be named for other distinguishing features, such as Coppedhalle on Dulwich Common, named for its roof, or Wood House, on the edge of Dulwich Woods however, which was named for its location rather than its building materials.
From the early 1800s houses were often given names that reflected their location such as College Place (now Belair), Fivefields Cottage, West House on Dulwich Common. Fairfield in Dulwich Village which has its name on the stone pillars supporting the front gates and also on the gates themselves, might reflect the location of the earlier house on this site or the fell in the Lake District. Crossways at the junction of Red Post Hill, East Dulwich Grove, Dulwich Village and Village Way is a good example of this tradition though it was not built until 1927. The house named Eastlands was, as its name suggests, on the east side of the Dulwich Estate and survives in the name of Eastlands Crescent.
As the Dulwich population grew it became necessary to identify houses more systematically. Houses had been given numbers from the 1750s though it was not until the 1850s that this became properly regulated and organized. Even today some houses on Dulwich Common only have a name, not a number. At first houses were numbered consecutively up one side of a street then down the other before the present odd/even system was adopted whereby houses on the left heading out from the centre of an area are given odd numbers and houses on the right have even numbers. In Dulwich however this system was not always adhered to. Builders often started from both ends of a street at the same time, as can be seen in Woodwarde Road where the odd numbers 51 - 55 are missing from the middle of the road as the builders miscalculated the numbering.
Once streets were numbered, house names were not strictly necessary for locating a house, though people continued to use them. Now the names tell us something about the people who chose them: the image they wanted to project, the ideas they had about their homes. Builders often allowed the first resident to choose the house name which was then inscribed on the fanlight above the door; if no name was chosen then this could be left clear. Often only the person who named the house can tell us the reason behind a name but house names also went in fashions and additionally, by identifying residents on censuses we can gather clues from information such as where they were born, etc. which help us identify why names were chosen.
In the 19th century it became popular to name houses descriptively, after elements of nature, in particular for trees. This fashion is well represented in Dulwich, not surprising given its green and pleasant environment and the increase in development at this time. We see houses named The Hollies and The Laurels in Dulwich Village and The Chestnuts and The Willows on Dulwich Common. Among the many houses named for elms, Elm Lawn on Dulwich Common is in the vanguard of the trend as a house with this name has been on the site since possibly as early as 1739. Additionally, Elm Lodge is the name of the surgery in Burbage Road and The Elms was on Dulwich Common, close to where the Rosebery Gate to the park stands now. Before the advent of Dutch elm disease, elms were some of the largest and most distinctive trees (see Constable’s ‘Hay Wain’) and were used as landmarks and boundary markers which may account for the number of houses named for elms in Dulwich. Cypress House stood on Dulwich Common and Sycamore Villa was near the Old College gates, though both were demolished to make way for Dulwich Park. Cedar House was next to Gail’s Bakery, where North House and South House are now and was the tied accommodation for the Lower School (later Alleyn’s) headmaster. Ash Cottage, at the junction of Court Lane and Calton Avenue and Oakdale on Woodwarde Road still stand. As well as the many houses named after trees there are also those named after plants as seen in Woodbine, Rose and Briar cottages in the Village. Roses were popular and we see Roselea, Rosebank and Rosemead.
The Orchard was a boarding house of Dulwich College but surprisingly not many houses were named after apples, cherries or other fruit. Berry Cottage, which was near the chapel, was not actually named after any berries that grew there but for the Berry sisters who lived in it. St Martin Pomeroy was named for the parish in Cheapside which had been covered in apple orchards, rather than for any orchards here in Dulwich. I haven’t found any house names connected with other kinds of food either. It seems that house names borrowed from nature showed a sentimental rather than a practical link.
The fashion for giving houses names continued into the late Victorian/early Edwardian period, a time of huge development in Dulwich as elsewhere. Houses often had their name written in gold paint on the glass above the front door or inscribed within the stained glass leaded lights. Excellent examples still exist all over Dulwich, giving us a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of the people who named them, either the builder, or one of the first people to live there. In Calton Avenue we can still see Marlborough, Melrose, Ringwood and Abinger painted on the glass above front doors, all places which may have meant something to the first residents and Woodwarde Road has Waroona (Aborigine for resting place), Arosa and St Keverne.
A popular way of naming houses in Victorian times was after literary connections or beauty spots. Sir Walter Scott, celebrated the scenery of Scotland and Queen Victoria also did much to boost its popularity with her championing of the Highlands.. It became common to twin the word glen with other descriptive words so we see Glenholme and Glencoe in Calton Avenue, Glenlea on Dulwich Common (now Tappen House) and Glenmaye on Desenfans Road. Other places used as house names in Dulwich include Wimereux in France, Vigo in Spain, Parknasilla in Ireland, showing us that Dulwich residents either had fond memories of their travels or that they yearned to visit these places. The many houses called Melbourne may have been named in admiration of the Prime Minister or perhaps of the village in the Peak District. In amongst the Chestnuts and Elms of Alleyn Park we find names redolent of the Raj and though I have not been able to connect the residents of Khyber House, Bela or Umballa directly to India, they were in businesses such as stockbroking and shipping and so would have had links around the world. Indeed, Nils Schjott, a shipping agent, was born in Norway, married in France, lived in Constantinople and could easily have had the kind of connection with India that led to him calling his house Cawnpore.
Towards the end of the 19th century groups of houses in a road often had their own name and within that name would typically have a number rather than another name. These rows of houses were built for renting and would be named by the builder, sometimes the name and date would be incised in the stonework along the front of the terrace. Examples here in Dulwich include Gorleston Villas and Alleyn Terrace on Park Hall Road, now demolished. Similarly a row of houses on Boxall Road was named Pearson Terrace after its builder.
As part of transforming a house into a home, the names people chose often reveal autobiographical information about them and Victorian Dulwich is no exception. Thus, people often named their house nostalgically, after a place they had left behind. Sir James Douglass named Stella House in College Road after the place in Northumberland where his father was born. The Lampards named their Calton Avenue house Hollingbourne after the village they came from in Kent; Velindre is named for a family’s birthplace in Wales and similarly, Bungaree, the Aborigine for hut, commemorates the Australian heritage of the family who first lived in it. Toksowa may come into this category as it may be a transliteration of То́ксово a place in Russia. These transferred names might sometimes reflect a honeymoon or memorable holiday - perhaps Pentire, Lyme Regis or Stresa were linguistic souvenirs of fondly remembered holidays. For Victorians, unlike for cats, the naming of houses sometimes was ‘one of your holiday games’ (pace T S Eliot).
Other popular ways of naming houses include memorialising saints: St Austin’s, St Ronan’s, St Cyril’s; or ancient history: Tusculum, Pandura; or people: Marlowe House, Pickwick House, Tappen House. You could even name your house after your best beloved, as James Cocken did when he named his Woodwarde Road house Florence, after his wife. In the 1930s people often blended their own names to produce a symbolic name such as Ronilda or Gladroy just as Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford had blended their surnames to call their Hollywood house Pickfair. However, this does not seem to have happened often in Dulwich although there is Derval in Gilkes Crescent, named after the owners’ children Derek and Valerie. Finally, Dulwich residents might like to know that, so long as they use their house number in their address, they can use any house name they like without having to notify the post office or local council. If no house number is allocated then the house name forms part of the official address and permission to change it must be sought from both the local council and the Royal Mail.
Have you ever given a thought, maybe when mowing your lawn or perhaps digging the flower beds, that some predecessor, in the distant past, might once have been labouring, like you, on the same spot of earth? Or have you ever considered, when you have been stuck in traffic in Croxted Road or the slaloms of Red Post Hill, that some similarly frustrated individual, seven or eight hundred years ago, might have had his cart and oxen caught up in the same road in a similar jam? If you have ever pondered about this, then you will be pleased to know that there is a considerable amount of information on the people who lived in this place all those centuries ago. In this, and a further issue of the Journal we examine in detail, life in medieval Dulwich, see how it has evolved and changed, list the names of its inhabitants, its roads and fields.
Having only just celebrated the 400th anniversary of the of Edward Alleyn’s foundation of his College, Chapel and almshouses, it might come as a surprise to some to learn that apart from one brief period during the four centuries prior to 1616, Dulwich was actually owned and administered by the Priory of Bermondsey. In 1127, Henry 1 gave the manor of Dulwich, then spelt Dilewiche, to this Cluniac monastery which had been founded some forty five years earlier and which would grow to be a wealthy foundation owning over thirty manors, rectories and lands mainly spread over the Home Counties. Henry 1 was particularly generous to the Priory, confirming earlier gifts to it by his predecessor William Rufus, and making further grants of land himself and in 1159 adding the advowson of the rectory of Camberwell.
Bermondsey Abbey
The priory had a sound reputation. When the abbot of Cluny ordered an inspection in 1262 it confirmed that all devotional offices were most properly and becomingly performed, that the rule of silence and the correction of abuses were rigidly fulfilled, and that almsgiving and hospitality were carried out according to established custom. There were thirty-two monks and one lay brother in residence.
However, despite its apparent wealth and piety, all was not entirely well. Appeals were constantly being made by creditors of the house in order to get their claims settled. In marked contrast to the importance enjoyed by Bermondsey, with its vast possessions and imposing rent roll, are the accounts of its struggle with dire poverty from the twelfth century onwards, ever hampered by debt and threatened with destitution. In addition to the losses they suffered by the flooding of their lands in the low-lying district surrounding Bermondsey and the economic causes which impoverished all religious foundations during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the policy of the Cluniac order itself seems to have contributed to that want of good government which might have overcome, or partially overcome, these natural difficulties.
Nor were relations of the brethren with their tenants and neighbours always of the happiest description; scuffles were not unknown and complaints were lodged of rough treatment on the part of the monks. Overzealous servants were also responsible for occasional transgressions, sometimes demanding work on the Priory’s demesne land when there was no requirement to do so.
In Dulwich, in 1235 we find that the Priory’s steward William Gerarde was something of a bully. He had discovered a poor woman named Mabel, the daughter of Walter of Camberwell, gathering firewood in what is now Dulwich Wood, which also belonged to the Priory. Gerarde struck her, took her cloak ( and she claimed he also took her gown and four shillings) to ensure her attending the manorial court where she could expect to be fined. However, Mabel did not take this act of violence quietly and complained to the Surrey Eyre court conducted by a Crown appointed Justicular, a travelling magistrate, with a sitting jury, including four men from Dulwich. It is not known if this jury settled other scores against the Priory because, although they did not believe Mabel’s story, she had clearly embellished it too far by claiming she had four shillings which Gerarde had also taken, a large sum for a poor woman to have, so instead of finding Mabel guilty, the court dismissed the charge against her for the theft of wood because she was so poor, but fined William Gerarde for assault and put him in custody until it was paid.
Dulwich Manorial Court
While written accounts record the life and times of kings, nobles and religious houses, discovering the conditions in which the lower classes lived through the centuries is a much greater challenge. That is where we are particularly fortunate in Dulwich because the proceedings of the local court which dealt with minor infringements like trespass, supplying under-weight bread or watered-down beer and even assault, are recorded in the manorial rolls, a number of which survive, the earliest being dated 1333. The court rolls tell us a number of things about life in medieval Dulwich, from the names of the inhabitants to details of its agriculture, from topographical references to indications of the size of the population. The rolls, together with records of land holdings, taxes and inheritances can tell us a considerable amount about the life being lived by our predecessors.
The manorial court was held four times a year at Dulwich Court, which later became Dulwich Court Farm which stood at what is now the Court Lane entrance to Dulwich Park. Another court, known as a View of Frankpledge was held twice a year. The proceedings of both courts were written on rolls of parchment by a professional clerk. The court rolls, which cover much of Dulwich’s history right up to the nineteenth century, are kept in the archives at Dulwich College. Some are being transcribed and translated from their original Latin by Patrick Darby and will be put online in their entirety in due course. An example of what Patrick laboured on is given at the end of this article.
The 14th Century
There are 123 names on the six court rolls covering the years June 1333 to 1335. Of these, 36 are women. The names may be divided into three categories; those whose surnames indicate the place from which the person originated; so we have Philip de Atescombe, (Adiscombe) and William of Havering. From these and 36 more individuals we can see that there was considerable mobility of population, most came from Kent or Essex but some as far as Scotland and Wales and several from France.
The second group of names in the rolls indicates the occupation of the person. From this we can discover that there was a miller (Henry le Meleward), a carrier (Ingolph le Carter), three shepherds and others connected with wool and cloth; Reginald le Spyndelman (maker of spindles), Margate la Kembestre (wool comber), Elias le Webbe (weaver). There was also a farrier and another was a form of solicitor. Keeping the whole community entertained by accompanying their dancing there was Robert Gifford le Tabourer, who beat a drum with one hand and played a three note pipe with the other.
The third group of names refer to topographical features. We find Roger Bythewode (By-the-wood), Richard atte Wode (at the wood), Thomas atte Grene (at the Green) and Sabina atte Styghele (at the stile) Several more of her family - Christina, Roger and Maurice are also listed in the rolls and other documents. They were better off than most of Dulwich’s population and appear to be freemen. When Christina atte Styghele suffered an untimely death, the court ordered that her possessions should pass to her young son Hugh. They consisted of “two parts of a crop of two acres sown with winter wheat (now growing) worth 4s, a brass pot worth 2s, a chest worth 12d, a vat worth 2d, a larder worth 4d, a gander and a goose worth 10 pence, a cock and a hen worth 3 pence, and … four bushels of dranckcorn worth 16d and a third part of two young oxen worth 2s.”
A rough estimate of Dulwich’s population at this time would be 400-450. Most of these inhabitants were peasants, properly called villeins, who worked the Priory’s demesne land and in return were given accommodation, protection and land of their own to work to sustain their families. Villeins were normally excused 12 days work at Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas), 1 week at Easter, 1 week at Whitsun, and approximately 24 saints' days. Work for the manor occupied 264 days plus additional boon work, usually at harvest time. By law, villeins were bound to the lord of the manor, in Dulwich’s case the Priory, in this service.
There were also a number of freemen; individuals who had either made a success of their own farming and were able to lease land from the Priory or who had inherited property or land. Ten individuals were wealthy enough to pay the newly introduced Lay Subsidy tax of 1332-4 and some may have also had land in Camberwell. Sixteen freemen are listed in the court roll. From various references, we can see that the descendents of William Gerarde continued to live in Dulwich, possibly inheriting William’s office as bailiff. A hundred years after the unfortunate affair in Dulwich woods Alan Gerarde sold a house and land ‘ next the Eststrete and pasture called Dylwyssch Wode to the south.’ which he had inherited from his father Hugh Gerarde, to Roger and Matilda Berlyng.
Everyday LIfe
From other sources we know that conditions at the beginning of the fourteenth century were difficult. In the previous century there had been a considerable expansion in population for reasons which are still unclear. This had required the cultivation of those marginal lands previously not thought to be productive enough, to feed the increased population. The effort needed to achieve this was to an extent mitigated by technological changes, the most significant was the change from a hook plough to a wheeled plough drawn by animal power. We know that In Dulwich, the Gerarde family had cleared some marginal land described as rude or uncultivated and in time even lent their name to it - Gerardes Rudene.
However, other factors made life precarious. Between 1315-22 there had been what was called The Great Famine following a series of bad harvests due to poor weather caused by cold winters and wet summers. In Dulwich, a court roll tells us that two (female) beasts of burden, 3 chickens (one of them a cock) and a cow died since Michaelmas last (1332), not through lack of looking after, nor from old age, but from a sudden attack of the murrain. Murrain was the umbrella term used to define death of cattle and sheep and might well in this case have been foot and mouth disease. The loss of such animals would have been a great financial blow to their owners.
There is plenty of evidence of the importance of the production of wool to Dulwich life. There were the three shepherds (interestingly, all originally hailing from Essex) and we have seen by some of the names of the inhabitants the involvement in the preparation of wool and cloth. When the Dulwich Society arranged an archaeological dig near Lovers’ Lane some years ago, the jaw bone of a sheep was found.
Much of the evidence contained in the court rolls relates to fines imposed by the court for the straying of animals into the Priory’s fields and damaging the crops. In the autumn of 1333, nine inhabitants were fined for this offence. This large number of fines suggests that either the owners of the offending animals were grazing them on the Common and the Priory’s cornfield, oatfields and pastures were adjacent (in what is now Dulwich Park) or the 2-3 common field system still existed in Dulwich in the first half of the fourteenth century. This system was a fair division of good and poor land divided into strips of between a quarter acre and two acres ( probably unfenced or unhedged), and shared between the Priory, who had the considerable part and the remaining inhabitants. There were also three fines for trespass caused by animals brought by the villagers against each other, which further supports this hypothesis. In other cases, fines were imposed for trespass by individuals into Dulwich Wood, either, as in the case of Mabel, to cut timber or to graze animals in what by this time were areas that had been partly cleared to provide additional grazing land. Some of the Dulwich and Sydenham Golf course and the adjacent allotments might be identified as this.
The diet of the peasants was largely made up of vegetables and fruit, however most kept pigs, either around their cottages, or by allowing them to forage for acorns in Dulwich woods for which the owners made a payment to the Priory for what was termed pannage. Thirteen inhabitants paid this charge and between them kept as many as 75 pigs in the woods.
The keeping of the peace was administered through the system of Frankpledge, meaning ‘peace pledge’ which is derived from the Old English name frith-borh. It was a system which began to operate widely through England as early as the tenth century. Families or groups of neighbours numbering ten or more were bound together by pledges known as tithing and were responsible for each member’s activities and behaviour. As the population increased a tithing could increase to as many as 20-40 individuals or families. Every man over the age of 12 was obliged to be a member of a tithing and would swear fealty (loyalty) to the lord of the manor, ie the Priory. Dulwich’s population was large enough to require three tithings. A headborough or head of each tithing was elected annually to ensure the attendance of the whole tithing at the manorial court as well as the apprehension of any culprits. It was not a popular job. The headborough might be assisted by an aleconner who was responsible for ensuring that ale was brewed correctly and bread was sold at the proper rate.
Law and Order
Twice a year the court held what was termed the, ‘ View of Frankpledge’, In Dulwich, this court appears to have been conducted by the Priory’s manor steward and took place following one of the regular manorial courts we have discussed. The fines imposed by the court of frankpledge passed through the hands of the steward, the Priory and the King who each received a share. There was always a financial result; if a culprit failed to appear at the court then the whole of the tithing would be fined. Records of the View of Frankpledge survive in two of the court rolls of the 1330’s.
While much of the frankpledge records deal with minor infringements relating to the brewing of beer - eighteen people in Dulwich were fined between 2d and 3d for brewing and selling ale of the incorrect strength, they also show us that life in Dulwich was frequently violent. There are a number of cases of assault involving the drawing of blood. The victims in these cases raised what was called the Hue and Cry. This was a general alarm accompanied by shouts and noise and the sounding of horns to which the whole manor had to respond to pursue the assailant.
There was one particular ruffian among Dulwich’s inhabitants, named John de Boloyne. He assaulted and drew blood from both Philip de Atescompe and Roger de Berlynges and on another occasion, Richard le Brand who lived near Crokestrete (Croxted Road). All three victims rightly raised the Hue and Cry and John was fined 6d for each offence. In the event he was unable to pay, the two inhabitants who pledged for him would have to pay instead.
One year later, in the summer of 1334, there was a violent dispute between neighbours which would have done credit to a modern TV soap like ‘Eastenders’. According to the manorial court rolls it had all started when Richard Rolf struck Phillipa the wife of William Hosewode whereupon she rightly raised hue and cry. Richard was found guilty and fined 3d Alas it did not end there. Apparently, soon after, Richard Rolf counter-claimed that William Hosewode ‘took, abducted and carried away his wife Edith together with one cow worth 10 shillings .. as well as other goods & chattels to the value of 40s in breach of the peace..’ William Hosewode denied all this and ‘says that in nothing is he guilty as the same Richard imputes to him’ and reminds the court that ‘ the same Richard on Thursday next before the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Dyluyssh in the said present eighth Regnal Year of the king Edward & there insulted & unjustly wounded the said Philippa . Richard denies this and says that ‘ the said Philippa, wife of the said William, insulted and attacked him in breach of the peace.’ As the Hosewodes failed to mention any damage they sustained, to the court, it was assessed at 12d, the amount Phillippa had apparently earier acknowledged, presumably without consulting her husband. This clearly outraged William Hosewode who ‘.. comes to Court & using verbal threats to the Court & others said that the said twelve [pence] for the damage to himself & his wife awarded to him cannot be enough’.
(Signal Books, 2016. £9.99)
Jon Newman has written a timely account of the river that once flowed from the Crystal Palace ridge through Dulwich and via Herne Hill to the Thames and is now largely underground. Lost rivers form a part of the optional ‘Going Underground’ unit recently added to the curriculum for London schools, and the London Wildlife Trust’s ‘Lost Effra’ project uses sustainable planting schemes in the area to alleviate flooding caused by rainfall.
The author focuses on the two chief branches from Upper and Lower Norwood and the main river which starts where they join just north of Thurlow Park Road and west of Croxted Road. A particularly useful feature of the book is the itinerary with their routes shown on specially drawn modern street maps, blue lines superimposed on present-day photographs and detailed descriptions.
The first part of the book is a thoroughly researched discussion of the history of the river, in particular two major diversions, the earliest by Bermondsey Abbey to connect it to the Thames at Vauxhall rather than Rotherhithe, and its transition in the nineteenth century to an underground storm relief sewer with the flow diverted to the Crossness Pumping Station via intercepting sewers. The Effra Branch had a significant effect on Dulwich by drying up the watercourse from Thurlow Park Road to Herne Hill in normal times. However it was never capable of dealing with exceptionally heavy rainfall as some residents know to their cost, especially in 2004, and a considerable investment in flood relief measures has taken place recently in response.
This book is the most comprehensive overview in print of the subject to date. With Martin Knight’s website section The Effra in Dulwich and its appendix on wells in the area, which concentrate on the geography (martindknight.co.uk), there is now a remarkable amount of information available, enough to satisfy the interest of pupil and public alike.
Bernard Nurse
Ties of Blood and Friendship: the Complicated Life of Francis Lynn. By Patrick Darby
Reviewed by Jan Piggott
We nourish the imagination with stories about historical characters who frequented an area one knows and loves, together with features of its former landscape and buildings. Before our own Dulwich days: Byron, a mischievous schoolboy at Dr. Glennie’s, dressing up as a highwayman on the South Circular where that derelict Grove Tavern now stands; John Ruskin at the study window of his mansion on Herne Hill, above the mega-store Sainsbury’s (then a small wood where the corncrakes sang), noting the qualities of the sunset, called from his desk by a man-servant who announced its appearance daily, and looking out again in the morning, hoping he would see the Crystal Palace flattened by the wind. Beneath our suburb-scape, the earlier meadows and corn-fields, large villas and grounds, streams and orchards.
Patrick Darby, researching the history of Hall Place (dating from the thirteenth century; demolished in 1882), discovered that four families who occupied or owned it in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century were inter-related by marriage, strangely connected by a fatal duel between two young men near Sheerness in 1678. Francis Lynn (1671-1731) fifty years later was bequeathed the mansion and grounds by the survivor, Samuel Hunter. Lynn’s “best Friend”, Captain Morgan, was a Regimental Agent heavily involved in Jacobite attempts to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty and whose activities he and Hunter helped to finance.
Patrick Darby is a retired solicitor, zealous for detailed careful research and extraordinarily knowledgeable about Dulwich before 1800. His father William Darby was a famous Classics teacher at the College and also the local historian who published the excellent Dulwich Discovered in 1966 and Dulwich: a Place in History in 1967. Patrick has published histories of Kingswood House (1999 and 2010) and The Houses In-between (on the north side of Dulwich Common) in 2000, published by the Dulwich Society.
This book is something of a new genre: there is a preponderance of very many documents, quoted in detail, from many diverse sources, but strung on the thread of a narrative, proven or surmised, which Darby communicates with gusto. It has thus the appeal of a historical novel - more melancholy than romantic in that Lynn was cheated by Hunter and misjudged his best friend. We learn interesting incidental facts about late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century - political, naval, commercial and social history - and very much detail about property law and litigation. The reader must have a strong digestion for facts, figures and lists; the market price of heifers in 1716 may well interest us, but minor information and lists of tangential names might have been banished into footnotes. There are good maps, prints and portraits. Some prints have been hand-coloured, not a good idea. That of the Old College in 1792 is misleading: the brickwork on the entrance façade is given such a tint as to suggest that it was rendered and painted a pale pink.
The discovery of a diary of Francis Lynn’s in the National Library of Scotland was a great boon. We learn from it that the young Francis was fined sixpence at Westminster for breaking the rule that the schoolboys were expected to converse in Latin; Darby drily remarks that ‘nowadays this might be regarded as child abuse’. Hunter worked in the Royal dockyard at Sheerness and we learn about his work and problems with the Navy Board, where he became a Commissioner, and about Lynn’s time as Secretary to the Royal Africa Company trading in slaves, gold and ivory. As well as West Africa, the story takes us to Trinity College, Cambridge, to properties in the English countryside, and to Paris, Madrid, Barbados and Nova Scotia.
Hall Place stood among 32 acres south of what is today Park Hall Road, with a barn, stables, outhouses and yards. The estate comprised 30 acres of rich pasture, gardens and orchard. There was a moat, gated bridges and three other dwellings. Indoors an Eating Parlour had ‘a neat China Closet adjoining’. Burglaries and the theft by a maid of clothing are recorded. However, it was not the main manor house of the Dulwich estate nor the residence of Edward Alleyn - my own History of Dulwich College (2008) is much at fault in uncritically passing on this legend.
Darby throws new light on the feud between Samuel Hunter and the formidable Scottish Schoolmaster Fellow of the College, James Hume. Incidental vignettes of those days include Lynn being laid up for a month after falling from a Dulwich stile, and the quarrel of the Lynns with a neighbour on the Common who spoke ‘Billingsgate’ spite about their friend William Morgan with ‘a great deal of female Sawciness’. The documentary evidence about the main characters is naturally rather heavily circumstantial in spite of a few lively letters. Even so, all lovers of Dulwich will want to possess this wonderful piece of research.
The subsequent history of Hall Place was followed up by an excellent article by Bernard Nurse in the Dulwich Society Journal for December 2012.
Ties of Blood and Marriage is available from Amazon and on Kindle
Dulwich, Democracy and Africa by Gardner Thompson, reviewed by Michael Twaddle
Woodwarde Road must be one of the coolest roads on the Dulwich Estate, but its residents have included some of the most knowledgeable experts on the hottest parts of the world.
The great West Indian sociologist, M.G.Smith, lived for many years in the road with his wife Mary. Michael wrote a seminal study of government and society in northern Nigeria after earlier pioneering work on Rastafarianism in Kingston, Jamaica, while Mary used her time in West Africa to compose one of the classics of women’s history: “Baba of Karo, a woman of the Muslim Hausa” (Faber&Faber 1954; Yale UP 1981 ISBN 0-300-02741-9).
M.G.Smith struck me as one of the most frighteningly intelligent people I have ever met. I first encountered him as head of the anthropology department at UCL where I gave a paper on Uganda to one of his seminars. Other experts on Africa I met first informally through having children of similar ages in local schools - these included several officials working in the Treasury or Overseas Development in Whitehall who would regale one with accounts of sometimes dramatic changes - or continuities - in British policy towards different parts of Africa during and after the Cold War. Huw Evans was one such, both before and after his secondment to be an executive director of the IMF in Washington.
Gardner Thompson is another resident of Woodward Road, and together with his wife Elizabeth a distinguished authority on Africa during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I met both when I was on SOAS’s staff as a ‘trouble spots teacher’ teaching MA courses and funded by the then UK Department of Technical Cooperation. Elizabeth went on to research and publish an important study of “Ghana during the First World War: The colonial administration of Sir Hugh Clifford” (Elizabeth Wrangham, Carolina Academic Press 2013, ISBN 978-1-61163-360-3) and Gardner an account of Uganda during the Second World War. Gardner has now published a timely study of “African Democracy: its origins and development in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania” with Fountain Press in Uganda, available in UK through the African Books Collective in Oxford and Amazon worldwide (ISBN 978-9970-25-311-1).
This study has been written during Gardner’s retirement from the post of head of history at Dulwich College and his involvement in a number of NGOs ranging from smallish charities running schools in the Uganda-Kenya borderlands to the Anglican church in Zimbabwe. This particular account of democracy and its problematic development in East Africa since the advent of independence from British colonial rule in the 1960s, concentrates mostly upon the divisiveness of multi-party systems of government in some of the poorer parts of Africa. These were previously subjected to highly authoritarian rule by foreigners in the face of dramatic changing Western and Eastern foreign and developmental policies during and after the Cold War.
Gardner Thompson’s view of political change in this part of the world is relentlessly historical and comparative, the principal heroes being Julius Nyerere in Tanzania and, more surprisingly, Yoweri Museveni, as ‘exceptional leaders’ in Uganda. Both countries were well governed during their earliest years in power, in his view. Both African leaders may also have ‘genuinely .. aimed to transcend short-term interests in favour of longer-term developmental goals’, but they were ultimately frustrated ‘by their inability to engineer a political substitute for patron-client networks at the core of political legitimacy’ (p.412). Additionally, there are frequent references to Athenian democracy, French Revolution and successive constitutions of the infant United States of America in this book - references more familiar to former history pupils at Dulwich College perhaps than in other accounts of Africa’s traumas during the post-colonial era. Nonetheless, these references may not be entirely irrelevant to other readers in the age of Brexit and Donald Trump.