Bard of Barking Billy Bragg to join Stone Walk ceremony
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Author: |
Jane Nower |
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Date published: |
22-Nov-2007 |
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Keywords: |
Creekmouth, bulbs, Princess Alice, flood defence, Stone Walk |
PHOTO CALL: Creekmouth Open Space, River Road, Barking
TIME: 11am, 28 November 2007
Poet, punk and protester Billy Bragg will join members of the Creekmouth Preservation Society as they put the finishing touches to the £290,000 Environment Agency project.
Local children from Thames View Junior School will plant over 500 wild flower bulbs at the “Creekmouth Open Space” at the Barking Barrier on Wednesday 28 November 2007.
The regeneration work – which started in 2005 – has seen the Environment Agency work in partnership with local charity the Creekmouth Preservation Society to transform disused land at the Barking Barrier into a green space.
Local historians shared stories of the past with the Environment Agency as it installed flood defence works designed to fit naturally into the surroundings, echoing the days when the site was home to a small village called Creekmouth.
A pathway which runs the length of the new park will also be officially named “Stone Walk” after Les Stone, a former resident of the village, and one of the founders of the society’s campaign to keep memories of Creekmouth alive.
Built by agricultural scientist John Bennet Lawes in 1857, the self-contained village of fifty properties housed the workers at Lawes Chemical & Fertiliser Company and their families, as well as boasting a school, church, pub and village shop. The village was cut off from the surrounding area and villagers had to walk along a muddy two mile track to reach the rest of Barking, or row if they were lucky enough to own a boat.
However, it seems that most were content with this pocket of rural life within the growing industrial area and enjoyed many picnics, parties and treats organised by their employer Mr Lawes. It was on one of these special days that the village came into its own, as the residents were on hand to rescue survivors from the biggest recorded shipping disaster in British peacetime waters.
On the 3 September 1878 a pleasure steamer called the Princess Alice was hit by an 890 ton collier (coal ship), The Bywell Castle. Hundreds of passengers from the ship fell into the stinking, heavily polluted waters of the Thames, just upstream of Creekmouth. The village sprang into action and survivors and dead were brought ashore and cared for, actions which were praised by the coroner at the inquest.
Edna Miller-Reynolds, 70, a member of the Creekmouth Preservation society remembers: “My grandma told me that a rescued baby shared her cot for the night, before being collected by Welfare the following day. It seems so sad that these people died and have just slipped out of mind. Planting these flowers will act as a fitting memorial.”
Almost a century of history came to an end for the villagers of Creekmouth in 1953, when floods known as “the great surge” washed through their cottages. The residents, including Les Stone, born there in 1927, were forced to move away to a newly built housing estate nearby. It is his story and many others that the Creekmouth Preservation Society hopes to keep alive through Stone Walk and the flower memorial.
Simon Hudson, from the Environment Agency’s asset system management team said: “It is a priority for the Environment Agency to work closely with local organisations to make sure that we not only fulfil our remit with regards to controlling flood waters effectively but that we do this in a way that fits naturally with the surroundings, and takes into account local feeling about the area.”
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Notes for editors
More information, photographs and further anecdotal evidence on Creekmouth are all available from Creekmouth Preservation Society publicist Maria Williams on 01708 508554 Mayor of Barking & Dagenham Fred Barns, who is also the Councillor for the Creekmouth area, will oversee the officially naming of the path and bulb planting ceremony.
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