History
Roman Britain
The London to Lewes Way is a 71 kilometres (44 miles) long Roman road between Watling Street at Peckham and Lewes in Sussex. It was a busy commercial route which brought corn from the South Downs and iron ore from Sussex to be sold in the markets of London.
First and early second century pottery fragments were found deposited over the edge of the road near Barcombe Mills, East Sussex.
These fragments, together with the heavy construction and the alignments of the London to Lewes Way, indicate a late 1st or early 2nd century date.
Very few traces of this Roman road can be found in the routes of Lewisham’s modern streets. While no archaeological dig has been undertaken within the reserve area itself, the potential to find Romano-British remains, including Romano-British settlements and burials, is moderate to high at the south section of the Buckthorne Cutting as the projected route passes straight through.
Ivan Margary, one of the 20th century’s leading experts on Roman roads, writes in “Roman Ways in the Weald”:
Beyond [Nunhead] station the line is taken up by the long straight of Ivydale Road… to the Crystal Palace Railway which it crosses just at a point where the old Kent-Surrey county boundary makes a sharp kink upon the alignment. Just across the railway the road enters the London Playing Fields, now all built over… and here the road was found buried intact, made of small and large flints, enabling the line to be accurately fixed. It crosses Brockley Rise at St Hilda’s Church, making straight for Blythe Hill just beyond.
The London-Lewes Roman road may well have survived as a trackway in medieval times leading to the hamlet of Brockley Green. A footpath is seen on historic maps which is one of few remaining historic routes still evident today. The ‘Brockley Footpath’, as it is known (also variously known as ‘Mud Lane’ and the ‘Brockley Jack Passage’) may have veered off from the original Roman Road leading to the Brockley Jack pub. This ancient inn, one of the oldest in Kent, is well documented as a stopping point for travelers and highwaymen.
The London-Lewes Way has been documented by excavation on King’s College Sports Ground and Blythe Hill Fields to the south of the Buckthorne Cutting.
London Sheet O Series: Ordnance Survey.
Six-inch to the mileRevised: 1913 to 1914 Published: 1920
Medieval to 1800s
Historic maps and field patterns show that the area of the nature reserves was part of a small agricultural Kentish hamlet, known as Brockley Green. The settlement sat in the midst of woods and cleared farmland, at the very edge of the Great North Wood.
Brockley Green
The name of Brockley Green has since disappeared from Ordnance Survey maps. ‘Brockley’ is said to derive from the words ‘Broclega’ (1086) / ‘Brocele’, which are the earliest recordings of this place name, probably meaning ‘woodland clearing by a brook’ or ‘woodland clearing frequented by badgers’. ‘Broc’ meant either badger or brook and ‘ley’ meaning a wood.
Maps also show the course of the old Roman road from London to Lewes, which may have remained in use as a trackway during the medieval period, and a long-established lane leading north-east to Ladywell (present-day Brockley Grove). Broadly, Eddystone Road aligns with the route through the site towards Brockley Hall, with Brockley Green Farm linking to the site via a route running approximately along present day Courtrai Road.
Later historic maps of the 18th and 19th centuries show a cluster of three farmsteads – Brockley Farm, Brockley Green Farm and Brockley Hall which overlooked the site.
1789 Map
Finding Gorne Wood
Ralph Treswell’s map from 1600
It is because of this map, drawn by the famous mapmaker Ralph Treswell in 1600, that we know the name of “Gorne Wood” today. This map shows the nine acres of Gorne Wood as a blunted triangle of of broadleaf woodland with its narrow side fronting Brockley Green. The southern section of the Buckthorne Cutting (south of Eddystone Road) lies approximately over the area described as Gorne Wood. This is evidence that this area was wooded as far back as 1600, which supports the designation of this area as ancient woodland (woodland that has been continuously wooded for over 400 years). This important map was found in Christ’s Hospital Archive.
Gaps in the woodland can be seen in subsequent maps for the cutting north of Eddystone Road, but the southern section from Courtrai Road to Eddystone Road appears to have been continuously wooded. This is the oldest part of the woodland with remains from its medieval woodland past visible in the ancient / veteran coppiced trees.
It is believed that one meaning of ‘Gor’ means ‘up’ or ‘hill’ in Anglo-Saxon times. The English Place-Name Society’s volume shows that ‘gor’, which formed parts of place-names such as Gormire, Gorwell, Gorton, was Old English for ‘dirt, dung, filth’ and Old Norse for ‘the cud, slime’.
Two major landowners: Christ’s Hospital and the Bridge House Estate
Between the 1600s right through to the early 1900s the land had two major owners: Christ Hospital and the Bridge House Estate (present day The Bridge Trust).
In the later part of the 1500s, the Buckthorne Cutting was mainly owned by Christ’s Hospital. A couple of sections were owned by Roger Manwood, an English jurist and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Bridge House Estate who were responsible for London’s bridge building. Christ Hospital and Bridge House Estate were major landowners, continuing to own the land for a further 300 years, However, Manwood’s section came under the ownership of Brian Anslowe in the 1600s, Lord Clare in the 1700s and Earl of St. Germain in the 1800s.
Christ’s Hospital leased their land (part of Brockley Green Farm) to a much respected farmer named George Colgate from 1814, as documented in minutes from Christ’s Hospital archives. Colgate came from a family of reformists with strong socialist principles.
Gorne Wood: part of the Great North Wood
These woodlands once formed part of the Great North Wood, a mosaic of managed oak and hornbeam coppices and open wood-pasture that stretched from Deptford towards Sydenham and Croydon. It was so called because it was north of Croydon, a thriving medieval market town. This woodland is remembered in local place names such as Forest Hill, Honor Oak and Norwood.
Today only fragments of the woodland, wood-pasture and wooded commons can be found. In Lewisham, these include Sydenham and Dulwich Woods as well as Dacres Wood. Most remnants are designated as Ancient Woodlands as a result of their links to this past medieval woodland land use.
Throughout the Middle Ages the Great North Wood had a history of strong ownership by local people and was managed for timber (including shipbuilding), charcoal, tannin (for Bermondsey’s leather-making industries), as well as firewood. It was not created as a royal hunting ground, and so it cannot be called a ‘forest’.
The area around the railway line would have been disturbed as a result of the construction of the Croydon Canal in 1805 and later the railway line in 1836, and so the woodland is mostly secondarily developed from that of the Great North Wood. Maps show the changes to the landscape around the Gorne Wood site, with that woodland remaining on estate maps through the centuries.
Enclosures
The enclosure movement began in the 12th century and continued through the period 1450–1640, when many common rights to land were removed. The purpose was mainly to increase the amount of full-time pasturage available to manorial lords. This is evident in maps from 1650 which start to show carved land parcels, but not yet linear field patterns, with different woodland names.
The Enclosures Acts of the late 1700s formalised the removal of common lands from public use, where commoners had traditional rights, such as that pasturage and estover (rights to cut wood). Across Britain land was parceled up and sold to private landowners for farming, and eventually for housing development. Coupled with the Industrial Revolution, this meant that from the 18th century onwards the Great North Wood lost its economic viability. Much of it disappeared in the first half of the 1800s, because of the building of the Crystal Palace and the development of the railways, which drew many more people to live in this attractive but rapidly urbanising countryside.
By late 1700s, a more planned enclosure pattern emerges for the land surrounding Gorne Wood with predominantly much straighter boundaries, although the field patterns around Brockley Green remain largely irregular. Gorne Wood, not being as large as the Oak of Honor wood (now One Tree Hill), is drawn as a woodland pasture, while enclosures north of here appear cleared, presumably for farming.
The Colgate Family: Farming, toothpaste and peace movements
Farming dominated this area in the mid to late 1800s, evident from the three important farmsteads associated with the village of Brockley Green, namely: Brockley Hall (situated east of Brockley Road, now Sevenoaks Road, built in the 1930s); Brockley Farm (east of Brockley Road. A triangular green space and open paved space marks the approximate location of the farm today, and is the start of the area known today as Brockley Rise; and Brockley Green Farm (sometimes referred to as Colgate Farm in historic accounts) near to the Castle Inn (now Brockley Jack) and aligned to Eddystone Road leading to the cutting.
George Colgate lived in the Brockley Green farmhouse. He was well respected and viewed as a farming expert in newspapers of the time. He developed drainage techniques for farmland, as his land had been impacted by the creation of the canal and he had to deal with spoil from the canal cutting as well as drainage issues. In 1836 he was awarded the position of Surveyor of Highways, which meant organising repair works on the local roads in the parish, such as filling in potholes.
George Colgate’s first cousin, William Colgate, fled England to America with George’s uncle, Robert Colgate, because of Robert’s sympathy for American independence, which was unpopular with the British government. In a later book about him he is described as “A Radical of intense type, a champion of the Dissenters and an ardent sympathizer with France as well as with the American colonists in their struggles for liberty” (Robert Colgate the Immigrant, Abbe & Howson 1941).
The Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger who was a childhood playmate and life-long friend of Robert Colgate, sent him a warning that he would be arrested and needed to leave Britain urgently. After settling in America, William Colgate went on to become the founder of the world-famous Colgate toothpaste empire.
After George Colgate’s early death in 1847, his widow Jane Colgate managed the farm with their five children and, in 1850 the beauty of this picturesque landscape attracted a notable visitor from America named Elihu Burritt (1810-1879).
Elihu Burritt was a powerful voice in the history of the peace movement and anti-slavery in America and spent many years in the UK and Europe working with eminent politicians and public figures such as Victor Hugo (author of Les Misérables) to advance and strengthen the peace movement. He started a female-led movement known as the Olive Leaf Circle which was an important stepping stone for the Suffragette movement, being the first organisation to give women a political voice outside the home.
Burritt was appointed as United States Consul in the UK by Abraham Lincoln. His messages of international peace attracted the Colgate daughters and in particular Elizabeth Colgate (1934-1918), then only 16 years old. She was secretary of the first female-led peace movement in Lewisham (Olive Leaf Circle), as announced in the League of Brotherhood publication of Elihu Burritt. In 1874, Elizabeth was a founder member and secretary of the Women’s Peace and Arbitration Auxiliary. The Auxiliary was initially part of the London Peace Society. The Society was a British pacifist organisation active from 1816-1930s.
Elizabeth Colgate went on to devote her life to the peace movement, documented in several newspaper and society journal articles. Elizabeth is buried with her sister Jane in the Brockley and Ladywell Cemetery.
It was the peace and tranquility of this landscape that resulted in Elihu Burritt returning again and again and referring to it as his ‘old home’ and his ‘kind home’. In his 1852 diary, Burritt remarked about the beauty of Brockley Green Farm:
‘it is a privilege to sleep in this quiet country place, and breathe the air of the green fields and hedges after a week’s confinement in the city. The family seem to delight in making their house a home for me’.
Evidence shows that the Colgates held onto their beloved land for as long as possible, till about 1868. Later maps show the farm as allotments, and the land is now part of the Cypress Gardens housing development.
From wild to managed: Gorne Wood in the 19th and 20th centuries
As seen in maps dating to 1863, 1864 and 1893, the woodland is reduced but it is still clearly evident and appears to move from a ‘wild’ to a ‘managed’ woodland. Woodland can still be seen on maps dating from 1913, 1938 and 1950, with a scout hut on site in 1938.
There is then a gap in woodland cover depicted on historic maps of 1950s. This may be as a result of the majority of the woodland having been destroyed in WWII bombings and therefore missing at the time of the ordnance survey. It could also be that the scale of the mapping did not consider it relevant to map this land use. The rest of the cutting has what is known as secondary woodland, where trees have grown back following the clearance for allotments as part of the Dig For Victory campaign. While the middle part of the woodland has relatively new trees, there are also a handful of veteran oaks.
Croydon Canal
New transportation opportunities
In the first half of the 19th century, the landscape was dominated by the Croydon Canal (1809-1936) running from Croydon to Bermondsey. Construction began in 1805 and created the beginnings of the linear topography that we know today.
The canal was intended to transport fuel (timber, coal, charcoal), building materials, foodstuffs and other goods more quickly and conveniently than was possible on the roads. Coal was brought to Croydon, and agricultural produce, chalk and fullers earth were sent to London. Canals played a vital role in the Industrial Revolution.
Winding through the hills of Brockley
The Croydon Canal rose through a series of 28 locks between New Cross and Honor Oak. From the final lock, near Honor Oak Park station, the canal wound round the hills of Brockley, Forest Hill and Sydenham towards Norwood and Croydon. Its highest point was at Brockley, reported to be at 150-160 feet (46-49 meters) above sea level, descending the hill towards Grand Surrey Canal.
The Canal was constructed to follow the landscape’s contour lines, with impressive views across the surrounding countryside. As such, the Canal quickly became an attraction for boating, angling and leisure parties.
A contemporary account in the Times states that the travelers, “finding themselves gliding through the deepest recesses of the forest, where nothing met the eye but the elegant windings of the clear and still canal, its borders adorned by a profusion of trees of which the beauty was heightened by the tints of autumn.”
Part of a nationwide canal network
The Croydon Canal opened on 23rd October 1809. It ran 9.25 miles (15 km) from Croydon, via Forest Hill (the name is first recorded in the late 18th Century), to join the Grand Surrey Canal at New Cross. By 1850, over 4,800 miles of canals had been built in Britain.
Sixteen locks between Brockley and Honor Oak Park
The greatest concentration of locks was between Brockley and Honor Oak Park – sixteen of them in the short distance between one station and the next. This is reported to have been one of the reasons for the Canal’s eventual decline, as it took the barges too long to travel the route. Because the canal proved uneconomical and difficult to manage, it closed on 22 August 1836, the first canal to be abandoned by an Act of Parliament.
The two existing footbridges over the railway, at Dalrymple Road and Eddystone Road, were the locations of the Brockley swing bridge and Lock 22 swing bridge respectively.
Local remnants of the Canal
There are few clues to the existence of this waterway in today’s urban landscape. A plotting of the canal route shows that the canal followed the Buckthorne Cutting more or less in parallel up to Courtrai Road, where it veers off, but re-joins the alignment of the cutting at the Garthorne and Devonshire Road nature reserves further south.
Hedgerows were frequently planted by canal companies and these hedgerows are some of the UK’s oldest established habitats. A line of veteran hawthorne trees can be seen at the cutting. Hawthorne trees were and are used for hedgerows as they are thorny and dense. Some of the hawthorne trees along the Buckthorne Cutting are older than the canal so it is very possible that they once formed part of a field boundary disrupted by this manmade waterway.
A canal towpath?
A pathway, believed to be the canal towpath, was revealed when setting out the footpaths of the Buckthorne Cutting Nature Reserve. It appears to be at the right height and side that the canal would have followed as marked on the 1788 map. The path is straight and runs along a dip or edge that has mosses and ferns as well as pendulous sedge, a plant indicative of ancient woodland.
Much of the alignment was used by the London & Croydon Railway Company (LC&R), which had bought the canal to build the railway between London Bridge and (what is now West) Croydon.
The Honor Oak Recreation Ground 1914 with references to canal locks.
Canal Swing Bridges
The Railway
The London & Croydon Railway Company
In 1834 the London & Croydon Railway Company (LCRC) began showing an interest in the land and assets of the Croydon Canal. In 1836, they bought the land and started to build the railway line from London to Croydon, which generally followed the route of the Canal. However, the greater speed of trains meant that, unlike the leisurely meanderings of the canal, the railway line used cuttings and embankments to avoid such twists and turns. The railway opened in June 1839, and is the second oldest passenger line in London.
In 1846 this railway line became part of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). By 1868, the train line had been running for 30 years. During this time the footpath, Dead Lane crossed the railway line leading from present day Courtrai Road towards Brockley Forest, now the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries. These had opened ten years earlier, in 1858. Courtrai Road is now a dead end. The woodland at the Courtrai Road entrance is also shown in mid-19th century maps.
Cartographic and documentary information indicates that the site remained as undeveloped woodland and agricultural land throughout most of the post-medieval period, until intensive suburban residential development took place in the late 19th and early 20th century following the opening of Brockley Station in 1871 and Crofton Park Station in 1892. At this time the area of the Buckthorne Nature Reserve was called the Brockley Cutting.
Walter Besant’s account in London: South of the Thames (1912, but written over a decade earlier) eloquently describes this massive shift in land use:
“The old farm south of the inn [The Brockley Jack] will soon be built over, and houses are already appearing in the lane to Honor Oak, but most of the ground is still pasture […] To the north and north east there are still fields as far as Brockley Station, but seen from the heights the green fields towards Nunhead are rapidly disappearing under the long tentacles of streets”
By 1869, the railway had carved away most of the farmland by an Act of Parliament. The railway bridge that splits Buckthorne Cutting in two is a strong reminder of the railway’s impact, creating two distinct sites either side of the Roman road. Known previously as the Brockley Bridge, it was rebuilt and is now generally known as the Eddystone Road Footbridge.
Signal box
From the 1840s, huts or cabins were provided for railway workers, including signalmen who operated the railway signals (known as signal boxes). Homes were built for key roles, e.g. station masters and signalmen. At this time there were few houses available, often only farmsteads were situated near the newly constructed railway line. Signal boxes were often located on raised platforms containing levers to operate the signals, and in the early 1860s, the fully glazed signal box was developed, this was initially raised high on stilts to give a good view down the line.
A signal box is clearly shown on historic maps from 1863 onwards, built on the right of the Eddystone bridge just inside the entrance to the Buckthorne Cutting Nature Reserve towards the track. No traces of the signal box have been found, however steps have been unearthed under bramble going down to the railway track from where the signal box would have been located.
The signalman and his family
Charles Adams, his wife Margaret Adams and their four children were listed at living at No 3 Railway Cottages in the 1871 Census, where Charles is described as a signalman. Charles was still listed as a signalman in the 1881 census, but the family had moved to No 1 Railway Cottages. The children were now at school and Margaret possibly had more time on her hands and could bring in a second income as a launderess.
We know from Forest Hill Station payroll records that Charles Adams was based at No 9 Bridge and he was earning £1 and 4 shillings per week. His uniform was provided and his rent was due to the Railway Company of 3 shillings and 6 pence per week. A signalman’s job was lonely but important, and there were many bonuses to try and ensure that the men did not fall asleep on the job during their 8-12 hour shifts.
The signalman’s cottage
Christ’s Hospital were the owners of Buckthorne Cutting, as they had been since the 1600s, and in relation to the Colgate land at Brockley and the railway’s impact on the land, their minutes record: ‘June 1865/page 522: Two cottages to be built at Brockley, similar in style to new ones at Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire (also CH property).’ These two new buildings are depicted on maps in late 1800s. The Booth poverty map colours these in red which denoted ‘middle class’.
The only photo found of those cottages depicts the one that was built on the other side of the cutting, where Brockley Mews housing now sits. One can assume the 2nd of the two cottages built on the Buckthorne Cutting side, was built in similar style. There was also a house named ‘Bleak House’ further along the track where the Station Master for the Crofton Park Station used to live. This was demolished when Crofton Gateway was built in the 1980s.
The foundation of a garden wall was unearthed at the site where the signalman’s cottage would have stood. In the middle is a huge mature lime tree, aged approximately 180 years old, which was clearly planted in the garden as it is the only lime tree in the entire cutting. There is also typical vegetation you would find in a garden such as privet hedge and euonymus shrub.
Brickfields and new suburbs
Over a period of 20 years, the railway company cut deeply along the canal pathway that runs along the Buckthorne Cutting, up to 50 feet in places. As a result there was an excessive amount of railway spoil. This unearthed London Clay was ideal for brick making and very desirable for its yellow colour. Additionally, the septarian nodules (lupus helmantii) which form around organic material in the London Clay rich in calcium carbonate made them suitable for crushing and turning into ‘Roman cement’, so-named because it can set very quickly.
It is not surprising therefore that brickfields also started to develop in the vicinity as a result of this resource and, as agriculture and woodland farming declined, brickfields took their place. The presence of scattered chalk at the cutting also suggests that brick-making was occurring nearby. Chalk was added to London Clay to make robust bricks.
Brickfields developed either end of the cutting. In the Street Directory of 1894 to 1898 John William Webb is listed as owner of brickfields at Holdenby Road which is one of the roads that leads on to Buckthorne Road. Another Brickfield is listed at Grierson Road – the owner being the Woodmore Estates. Grierson Road is the road next to Buckthorne Road beside the Courtrai Scout Hut site. The historical maps begin to show brickfields from about 1863. The brickfields around Brockley Green begin to appear in the 1880s and 1890s maps, although they may have existed before. Some brickfields around Brockley were referred to as ‘Brockley Tips’, as rubbish was brought in and used in the brickmaking process.
In 1874, Christ Church minutes state that Webb leased 3 acres of land at £25 per annum from Christ’s Hospital and that the land was to be leased until the railway spoil had been removed. By this time the brickfields owner was living at Brockley Green Farm. The Colgate fields were soon sold for housing made from these bricks. On Grierson Road there are houses whose front garden walls are made from discarded burnt bricks.
The Buckthorne Cutting, at the edge of these brickfields, remained intact however, and were not built on, largely due to its steep topography which protected it from development.
The Scouts
The start of the Scout movement
Gorne Wood was used for 90 years by the Scouts and Guides for outdoor pursuits (1912-2004). The Scout movement in England began in 1908, to teach boys outdoor and survival skills that come from camping. Several of the very earliest British Scout groups include the Forest Hill, Brockley and Crofton Park troops, all formed between 1908 and 1910 and all used the site as their camping ground. In 1912 the 1st Forest Hill Scout group (later called the St. Hilda’s 2nd Crofton Park Scout group) formed, using the land at Courtrai Road. The woodland there provided the perfect surroundings for the Scouts.
In 1914 the Courtrai Road bridge was begun to be demolished. The war broke out and archive photos show the 1st Forest Hill Scouts group patrolling the railway bridge at Courtrai Road.
Scouts from the Forest Hill troop patrolling a rail bridge in 1914
Scouts putting out fires on the railway bank
1922-1938: The Dandy Fifth Park
After World War I, the area at the rear of Buckthorne Road continued to be open and accessible. During this period the the local community raised the funds to buy the first Scout hut which was built in 1922. According to Ken White’s written account, the Second Crofton Park Scout group formed there in 1927. He also mentions that “the wooded area along the line is considered a Nature Reserve”.
In 1922, the site was opened as the ‘Dandy Fifth Park’ after the Brockley Scouts who were popular because of their smart uniform, their drums and their mascot – a British bulldog. The park was opened by the Mayors of Lewisham and Deptford and the Scouts quickly moved to this new Scout hut. A newspaper cutting at the time described this heritage landscape as being very picturesque with shrubs and heather. There were pleasant views and that it was locally well-known as the Scout’s pleasure ground. For several years the Scouts, the Cubs and the Guides continued using the Dandy Fifth Park as their headquarters and looked after the woodland habitat.
Scout diaries document how the hut came to be a focal point for gathering and entertainment. The UK Scouting Heritage have confirmed the site’s significance to the Scout’s history. The hut is evidence of the very early Scouting movement in Britain and the subsequent determination to protect the right of children to play and learn in an urban woodland. A network of paths leads from the Scout hut through the woodland which shows how they used and managed the site.
1917 Article about the Dandy Fifth
1940 to 1965
The Scout hut has disappeared from maps at this point, most likely destroyed during World War II, as Buckthorne Road was heavily bombed including 114 Buckthorne Road and 8 Courtrai Road. Two people lost their lives and the residents of 8 Courtrai Road (next to the Scout hut land) had to move out as their house was so severely damaged.
An aerial photo from 1965 clearly shows that trees populate the whole stretch, but also suggests that the land was still openly accessible at this point, with no perimeter fencing.
The Forest Hill troop – possibly camped at the Courtrai Road site
1967 to the present day
No sooner had it been rebuilt after being destroyed during World War II, the Scout hut was destroyed by fire one hot summer’s evening. However, the woodland site was so loved by the Scouts and the community that another fundraising initiative was launched and two years later in 1969 the third Scout hut was built. Scouting activities continued for a further 20 years, during which time the children played amongst the trees and acted as custodians for the heritage site.
This Scout hut was destroyed by fire yet again in 1997, this time due to an arson attack. The land was under private property developer ownership. The hut was once again restored and used till 2004 when the Scouts were forced to leave. The hut remains till today, however now lying empty and showing signs of dilapidation.
Buckthorne: War & interwar
World War I
There is a strong connection between the Scouts that made the Buckthorne woodland their home, and the World Wars. In 1914 with the outbreak of World War I, several of the older Scouts went to war while the younger Scouts stayed home patrolling the railway bridges.
Dead Lane Bridge had been built as compensation to the Colgates of Brockley Green Farm in 1864 to enable access to land severed by the railway. As the bridge did not lead to an established right of way, it was decided to demolish it at the outbreak of World War I. The Scouts patrolled the bridge, preventing any obstructions to trains which carried the injured and essential materials for the war effort.
In 1921, after the War, two war memorials honoured the names of the older Scouts who had died in the fighting and who had belonged to troops which camped at this heritage site. One memorial is at St Hilda’s Church (Crofton Park Scouts) which sits on the road leading to the cutting and the other at 320 Brockley Road (the Brockley Scouts), five minutes away from the site.
World War II
In 1939, World War II broke out and the Buckthorne landscape was at risk of disappearing after it was heavily bombed during air strikes. On 16th August 1944, Buckthorne Road was severely damaged and the Scout hut along with ten houses were destroyed. George and Catherine Lyddon, who lived at 114 Buckthorne Road lost their lives. Residents who lived next to the cutting at the time recall their gardens being turned into massive bomb craters. Bombs continued to hit Buckthorne as railway lines were a common target and bombs hit the road in front of 50 Buckthorne Road and behind 12 Buckthorne Road.
Local people had been using the land along the railway lines since the 1850s and enjoying them as open land. Known as ‘District Ground’, the Gorne Wood section was used by Scout groups for tucker nights, badge work and camping. Scouts and Guides continued to use the site despite the heavy bombing along railway lines, which had even destroyed their hut. This was an exciting time for the children who recorded the hut fundraising activities and hut development in their journals.
War time allotments developed for housing
As part of the Dig for Victory movement a section of the cutting, behind what is now the Rivoli Ballroom was used as allotments. Many people who lived on Buckthorne and neighbouring roads in the 1940s-1960s have fond memories of visiting the allotments and enjoying the landscape as Guides and Scouts.
The site of the allotments was developed in the 1980s into what is now known as Crofton Gateway by Barratt Homes. Although the allotments were developed for housing, the area of the reed beds was protected by covenant as a nature reserve as part of the approval for the Crofton Way housing development.
1960s-present
An aerial photo from 1965 clearly shows trees growing across the whole stretch of the nature reserve and suggests that the land was still openly accessible, with no perimeter fencing. In the mid-1960s, the pre-fab Scout hut was built on the site and this was used by the Scouts until approximately 2004.
In the 1980s, Lewisham Council negotiated with British Rail who agreed to lease the widest parts of the Cutting as nature reserves, while the railway sought to sell off other sections for development. The Council tried to get licenses for four nature reserves including the Buckthorne Cutting however the Railway only granted licenses for Garthorne, Devonshire and Vesta Road reserves.
The Buckthorne Cutting was largely sold off for development. At one end the Crofton Gateway site was built for Barratt Homes, although an agreement was reached that the reed bed area to the rear of the housing development would be open to the public as a nature reserve. At the other end the site was sold for development but has never gained planning permission.
1990
The railway proposed a housing development on the Scout Hut site at Courtrai Road. The proposal failed based on its environmental value and in 1999 it was sold to a private developer.
The site was designated as a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.
Sites of Metropolitan importance are sites “which contain the best examples of London’s habitats, including particularly rare species, rare assemblages of species or important populations of species, or sites which are of particular significance within otherwise heavily built-up areas of London. They are of the highest priority for protection.” London Environment Strategy 2018
1997
All trees on the woodland stretch from Courtrai Road and along Buckthorne Road to Eddystone Road were granted Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs).
1998
This Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) land with TPOs was sold again to another property developer. The site comprised two separate pieces of land: the Scout hut land at Courtrai Road, and the rest of the space up to Eddystone Road. The developer proposed development of flats at the Eddystone Road end of the site. The proposal failed based on its environmental value and the two sites were sold at auction to another buyer, meaning that the land from Courtrai Road to Eddystone Road came under one ownership.
2000-2004
Until c.2004, the Courtrai Road end of the site was accessible by the community and in use by the Scout group. In 2003 after failing to gain planning permission this section was sold on to the current owner. The Scouts were given immediate notice to leave on the basis that the developer intended to build flats. To the dismay of the Scout troop using the hut, when they arrived there for one of their club nights, they found the locks had been changed. They were locked out. The 2nd Crofton Park Scout Troop were forced to leave their headquarters after almost 100 years of Scouting on this site.
2010-2017
The Scout hut was leased by the property developer owner to the Celestial Church of Christ Mercy Land Parish and during this time there appears to have been a general disregard for the site’s SINC designation and its environmental value. There were visible signs of degradation with much rubbish dumped on the land. TPO-protected trees were removed and not replaced.
In July 2017, the Church moved out leaving this once beautiful site scarred and unsightly. A plan was published by the property developer owner for 14 residential units to be built on the Southern end of the site.
A survey was funded and carried out by Crofton Park Assembly Community Grant. The survey stated that the site exceeds the requirements needed for nature reserve status.
2018
The Scout Hut and surrounding land are designated as an Asset of Community Value following an application by the Fourth Reserve.
The Fourth Reserve Charity gained a license from Network Rail to manage the land at Eddystone Bridge as a nature reserve.
2018-2020
The Charity win grants totaling £30,000 to build an outdoor classroom as well as create infrastructure and other spaces to make the site accessible for the community and make a greater range of habitats for wildlife.
2020
The charity gain permission to transform the space outside the nature reserve to link up the green corridor and to make the site more community friendly. Planters are added, trees planted and a wildlife mural created. The Buckthorne Cutting gains designation of Locally Important Geological Site (LIGS).
2021
With the Treswell map and survey evidence, Natural England confirmed that the Gorne Wood Site at Courtrai Road is Ancient Woodland. Lewisham Council met with the land owner to help the community to buy the site. The land owner is told by the council that they will never allow any development on the site, due to its designation as Ancient Woodland, but the land owner rejects the lease offer.
2022
Following repeated attempts to discuss the site with the owner, Lewisham Council confirm that they will support a compulsory purchase of the site with the community raising the required funding.
The Fourth Reserve launch the campaign to raise the required funds.
2023
In January 2023 the fundraising campaign to buy back Gorne Wood for the community hits the £100,000 target, helped by extensive media coverage.