I crossed over the bridge four times a day to go to school at Haseltine Rd in Bell Green. If I had a penny, I might put it in the BeechNut chewing gum machine where every fourth time two packs were delivered. I did not really like chewing gum but it was the excitement of seeing two packs come out instead of one!

Although Worsley Bridge road provided access to the eight-acre field, housing was restricted to the higher ground in Copers Cope Rd. Building began opposite the end of Brackley Rd near the new church of St Paul. On either side of the river, the London banks used the land for their sports grounds and our field was leased to the Yokohama Bank with the National Provincial bank taking the 13-acre field over the other side. When it rained, the river overflowed mostly our way. There is evidence that the river existed in Roman times. Parts of the Roman road between London and Lewes lie on a line of flat land on the well-drained Blackheath pebble beds between the thickly forested London clay on the high ground to the East and the often marshy Pool valley to the West. Between the end of Greycot road and Meadowview Close, in the 7-acre field of Copers Cope farm, the Roman road is only just over a foot below the present surface. It consists of 30ft wide gravel, 11ins thick, with rut marks, resting on pebbles and flints. In this way the Romans on their way North avoided climbing up to Stumps hill but kept away from the river until a crossing over a firm river gravel near Catford.

      

An early photograph of Lower Sydenham station looking up towards Catford Bridge

THE BEGINNING OF THE END...In 1940, two silver and blue bombs angled through the air from a German bomber aiming for the railway line where it crossed the river. One bomb fell in our field. My brother, waiting to join the RAF, was working at the factory, John Bells, painting the air raid shelter doorframes yellow. His foreman made the dry remark “That should improve the drainage”. The second bomb hit its target and stones from the railway went through a line of white towels that my mother had just pegged on the line. She did not let us forget it because we had no electricity or gas and she had spent the best part of the day boiling the laundry up in a copper outside.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, 7.12.1941, we moved to one of the end houses in Copers Cope Rd but my dog, Rover (1936-1954), found a way back that became his daily routine. A fallen willow tree formed a bridge over the river. Every afternoon, Rover took his diagonal route across the National Provincial Sports Ground to visit his birthplace. His path passed between the wickets of the first team cricket pitch and play stopped at three o’clock on Saturday afternoons to let him take his constitutional.

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