A lovely read Ruth. The protests over the proposed gold course remind me of the outcry earlier this year over the Addington golf club's proposals for Shirley Heath. Glad we didn't have to organise a massive protest this time. But free beer would've been nice.
Thanks for reading, Martin. Yes there's definitely similarities with the Shirley Heath proposals. And a reminder of how grateful we should be to those who defended green spaces in the past.
One Tree Hill was a playground for me and my two older brothers, as we lived nearby in Athenlay Road. My brothers were born in 1937 and 1939, followed by me in 1941, and with our childhood friends we had great fun on the hill with our bows and arrows, playing at Robin Hood and his Merry Men. I'm those days there was a hollow oak tree close to one of the entrances on Brenchley Gardens, which we were able to stand inside. Sadly that tree was cut down some years later. I'm always sceptical about a visit to the hill by Queen Elizabeth I, as in the days when there were very few good roads, why would she have been riding over what is quite a steep hill, to reach Lewisham. I much prefer the suggestion that trees, such as oak trees, which live a long time, were used as boundary markers. An oak tree at the top of the hill is said to have marked the Southern boundary of the Norman Honour of Gloucester. Not so romantic, I guess.
Thanks for your comment, Ken, and for providing your own memories of One Tree Hill. I knew that oaks were commonly used as boundary markers but I hadn't heard about that as an alternative suggestion for how the Oak of Honour got it's name. It does seem a little more likely than a visit by Queen Elizabeth I, which is presumably a story made up at a later date to attract visitors to the Hill.
A lovely read Ruth. The protests over the proposed gold course remind me of the outcry earlier this year over the Addington golf club's proposals for Shirley Heath. Glad we didn't have to organise a massive protest this time. But free beer would've been nice.
Thanks for reading, Martin. Yes there's definitely similarities with the Shirley Heath proposals. And a reminder of how grateful we should be to those who defended green spaces in the past.
One Tree Hill was a playground for me and my two older brothers, as we lived nearby in Athenlay Road. My brothers were born in 1937 and 1939, followed by me in 1941, and with our childhood friends we had great fun on the hill with our bows and arrows, playing at Robin Hood and his Merry Men. I'm those days there was a hollow oak tree close to one of the entrances on Brenchley Gardens, which we were able to stand inside. Sadly that tree was cut down some years later. I'm always sceptical about a visit to the hill by Queen Elizabeth I, as in the days when there were very few good roads, why would she have been riding over what is quite a steep hill, to reach Lewisham. I much prefer the suggestion that trees, such as oak trees, which live a long time, were used as boundary markers. An oak tree at the top of the hill is said to have marked the Southern boundary of the Norman Honour of Gloucester. Not so romantic, I guess.
Thanks for your comment, Ken, and for providing your own memories of One Tree Hill. I knew that oaks were commonly used as boundary markers but I hadn't heard about that as an alternative suggestion for how the Oak of Honour got it's name. It does seem a little more likely than a visit by Queen Elizabeth I, which is presumably a story made up at a later date to attract visitors to the Hill.