John W Townsend, click
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Blogs by John W Townsend
It is 12.45 gmt 7/22/2009 3:34:31 AM
Where I live Thought it might interest some of you. To the rear of where I live there used to be a farm, Goldbeater Farm. It actually disappeared during the mid 1920's when it was sold to the London County Council as it was called in those days.
Today it is a recreational park, much of the surrounding land was used for housing, a huge housing estate which at the time was the biggest in the world, ugh! but then I live there.
Some history about Goldbeaters Farm is a little amusing. When the railway was being built, The London Midland Railway Company wanted to build the line across his farm, but the farmer protested that it would divide his farmland and that he could not have access to the large grazing land for his cattle. Well he struck a deal with the railway company. The deal gave him the right to wave a red flag to halt any train when his cattle were crossing the tracks. He never used that right of passage. Then in the years ahead the first world war came and life would never be the same, he lost sons in war.
To this day when, and I say a cynical when, when we have long periods of hot weather, the ground becomes dry and the foundations of the farm buildings can still be seen. Buried in my garden I unearthed an ornate piece of iron work from the old farm house, some clawed feet that were probably holding up the iron guttering.
