A Wanstead Flats WW2 mystery solved

Frequent contributor, Peter Williams, takes us on a detective hunt to discover the origins of a piece of WW2 debris he discovered on Wanstead Flats, in 2018, with colleague Mark Gorman.

During WW2, Wanstead Flats was heavily militarised with anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and PoW camps.  Later in the war, prefabs were built as temporary housing for families displaced by bombing.

In 2018, a particularly extensive grass fire covered many acres. In the days after the fire in the City of London, on the advice of the fire brigade, called in an agricultural contractor to harrow some of the ground to open it up so the brigade’s water would penetrate the soil surface and extinguish the fires that had burned for about a week.

Once the fire was out, Dr Mark Gorman and I walked over the burnt areas to see what was revealed, as the vegetation had been destroyed and the soil surface turned over. We made some interesting finds, which were carefully noted and mapped by the City GIS team under the guidance of their heritage manager.

We found World War II shrapnel, concrete remains of emplacements, and even remnants of Victorian picnics in the form of shards from stoneware lemonade bottles. On one walkover, Mark found a particularly intriguing small object, shown below. It was a German object, marked ADTY NUERNBER:

 

The German object marked ‘ADTY NUERNBER’ found by Mark Gorman on Wanstead Flats, August 2018 after the large grass fires.

Our initial thoughts were that it appeared to be made of some form of plastic, not metal. We speculated that its purpose may have been to penetrate barrage balloons, which were flown over the Flats. The object was clearly broken, as the German stamp was incomplete, and one end appeared to have been sharpened but was also damaged.

Internet searches of “ADTY NUERNBERG”  produced no clues as to its identity. The mystery remained.

In 2023 we were leading a guided walk on the Flats about its history. We took the object along and it got wet in very heavy rain. I then realised for the first time that it was made of graphite, as it behaved like a pencil in the rain. But the internet still yielded no clues.

In 2024, I remembered that my wife had a close German friend who, for many years, edited the most popular German history magazine, comparable to the BBC's history magazine.

I sent details to him, Dr. Franz Metzger, who forwarded the query to a military technical museum run by volunteers near Nuremberg (http://www.wehrtechnikmuseum.de/Info/english/english.html) and at last the mystery was solved.

A few months after the initial enquiry, an answer came back in German from one of the museum volunteers, Herr Sunkel. Using Google Translate this is what we discovered:

‘Your "bullet" is the remains of a presumably burned-out electrode for an anti-aircraft searchlight - in German searchlights with a diameter of 1.5 m, the negative electrode had a diameter of 13 mm (length 540 mm) - the positive electrode measured 16 mm diameter x 800 mm. The minus coal is made of pure graphite and burns to a point, the plus coal has a wick made of mineral salts to increase the light output (so-called Beck coal) and has a so-called crater when it burns.

Your electrode has a different diameter, and the tip could also be mechanically made.

Unfortunately, we don't have any English headlight regulations and the former manufacturer stopped production after it was sold to its Indian competitors and the company's staff was radically reduced. The old documents must have been destroyed long ago.

The manufacturer was the Conradty company in Röthenbach/Pegnitz - headquarters in Nuremberg . Conradty was one of the largest pencil manufacturers in Nuremberg and moved the production of the new graphite electrodes to a new factory in Röthenbach. With the introduction of arc lamps for street lighting and the electrodes for Siemens-Martin furnaces for steel production, Conradty experienced a boom..........

The Conradty company certainly exported graphite rods to England before 1939. The stub is either a discarded remnant after use in a searchlight position, or someone carved a pencil from a found object... ‘

The graphite company’s website is https://www.graphitecova.com/company.html

Screengrab of the "history" section of graphitecova's website

It is ironic that in the 1930s, the German firm of Condraty must have been supplying the British military with graphite components for searchlights, which were later to be used against German bombers during WW2 in East London.

It is an added twist that a soldier stationed on Wanstead Flats probably found this object, sharpened it, and used it as a pencil before discarding it, for it to emerge from burnt ground in 2018.

Footnotes:

1. You can contact us at pows.wanstead@gmail.com

2. We are authors of Wanstead Flats - a short illustrated history (2023) and other booklets on the Flats published by Leyton History Society, http://www.leytonhistorysociety.org.uk/wanstead_flats_publications.html

The history of Hamfrith Farm

Mark Gorman (@Flatshistorian) continues his series on the farms of pre-suburban Forest Gate and district with a look at the history of Hamfrith Farm, some of which is today occupied by Godwin and Woodgrange schools.

Hamfrith (literally “Ham Wood”) was originally part of the lands of Stratford Langthorne Abbey, the great Cistercian monastery on the banks of the river Lea. In 1538, after the abbey’s dissolution Hamfrith, together with the rest of West Ham manor, was acquired by the king. At the end of the C17th George Booth was given a 99-year lease for the manor of West Ham for services to the crown. Booth later made a grant which divided the manor into two parts. He assigned Hamfrith farm (which had been made out of Hamfrith wood) to Sir John Blount, a director of the South Sea Company, for 69 years, starting in 1733.

After the South Sea Bubble burst Blount was ruined, and his estates were sold. The Stratford and Hamfrith property was bought in 1734 by John Tylney, later Earl Tylney. It was then inherited in his family until the end of the 18th century.

Map of Essex by John Chapman and Peter Andre 1777. The map shows Hamfrith incorrectly marked as "Wood Grange" (sic), Woodgrange farm is the collection of buildings to the south of the Eagle and Child pub.

Both parts of the manor remained Crown freehold until the end of the 18th century, but the demesne land (land in the manor retained by the owner for his own use) and the manorial rights were then sold separately. In 1787 the whole manor contained 290 acres demesne lands, and 54 acres of commons, most of which formed part of Wanstead Flats. The demesne lands were mainly scattered in the southern marshes, the only substantial tenement (occupied buildings) being Hamfrith farm, 128 acres lying north of the London-Ilford road, on both sides of the boundary between East Ham and West Ham, occupied by John Greenhill.

Map c 1800 showing the Greenhill holdings. Their land streches from Forest Gate in the west to what is now Manor Park, and bordered the southern edge of Wanstead Flats, as well as fields south of the road to Romford. Hamfrith farm was east of the Eagle and Child on the map.

 

By 1799, when the occupiers were William, John and Richard Greenhill, Hamfrith comprised 148 acres. William Greenhill bought the freehold of Hamfrith Farm (without manorial rights, which were sold separately) from the Crown for £8,642. At this stage the Greenhills had substantial holdings both north and south of the Romford Road. William Greenhill's father, John, was said to have been the first large-scale potato grower for the London market, probably from the middle of the C18th, and his son had continued to develop the business. By the 1820s the Greenhills were employing upwards of 100 workers, mainly Irish.

By this time, however, William Greenhill seems to have run into financial difficulties, as between 1824-8 he mortgaged the farm for a total of £9,000. He died in 1832, leaving over £50,000 (approx £4.7m today) and directing that Hamfrith should be held in trust for life, and should later be sold. Financial problems continued for his heirs, however, for in 1835 William's son, John, was declared bankrupt and the contents of Hamfrith farm were auctioned off, while three months later part of the farm itself, described as "130 acres of superior land, in the highest state of cultivation" was offered to let. John's brother, William, occupied Plashet Hall at the time, which also had farm buildings and 145 acres of farmland, much of it south of Romford Road.

 

Hamfrith Farm and "Potatoe Hall" on the 1797 draft Ordnance Survey map.

Their house, Plashet Hall, on Romford Road, was known locally as "Potato Hall". The name "Potatoe Hall" also appeared on the draft Ordnance Survey map, made in 1797 (see above), showing that the Greenhill's business was nationally recognised.

The trustees finally sold the entire estate of 300 acres, as well as Plashet House, "a most Desirable and Gentlemanly residence" in 1850. The farm was described as "superior and productive Market Garden land", but significant emphasis was also put on the extensive building frontage "to very excellent roads".

The estate was eventually bought by Samuel Gurney (see here), owner of the neighbouring manor of Woodgrange and Ham House, for £17,710. Hamfrith then comprised 131 acres, bisected by the main line Eastern Counties Railway. John Greenhill, despite having to sell off his interest in his father's estate in 1836, appears to have enjoyed a comfortable life after moving to Leytonstone, where he died in 1869.

The 1863 6-inch OS map, showing that Hamfrith Farm has become West Ham Hall with an entrance where Chestnut Avenue meets Avenue Road. The red line running through the map is the projected route of the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway, opened in 1894.

 

West Ham Hall c1890

John Gurney, grandson of Samuel, sold most of Hamfrith in 1872 to the British land Company, who in turn, in 1874, sold it to the Manor Park Cemetery Company. The eastern part was used for the cemetery, while the remainder was gradually developed by the Cemetery Company for building. Sebert Road, built up by 1878, runs through the centre of the Hamfrith lands.

The site of West Ham Hall is now occupied by Godwin primary school

Hamfrith farm-house had existed at least since the early 18th century. In the 19th century it became a gentleman's residence, with ornamental gardens. From the 1860s it was known as West Ham Hall. It stood on the north side of Sebert Road between Avenue Road and Cranmer Road. A carriage drive stretched north to the modern-day junction of Avenue Road and Chestnut Avenue.

About 1890 it was acquired by the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway Company, which was then building its line, via Wanstead Park, to Woodgrange Park. West Ham Hall was still standing in 1893, when the company put it up for sale, with other surplus land. The house was bought by West Ham School Board, which demolished it. Today it is the site of Woodgrange and Godwin schools.

The main entrance to Hamfrith Farm was at the junction of Avenue Road and Chestnut Avenue. The farm gates were where the post box is today.

 

Wanstead Flats and D Day – 80th anniversary

80 years ago, allied troops staged the biggest seaborne invasion in military history, landing thousands of soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. The liberation of Europe had begun.

Our part of east London played a role in the D Day operations. Throughout the war, Wanstead Flats was the scene of military activity, with anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons, and a radar array part of London’s defences against the Luftwaffe. 

Anti-aircraft battery on Wanstead Flats

The anti-aircraft defences meant that the Flats and the surrounding area were frequent targets of German bombing, and some houses in the area still bear the scars of war.

Wanstead Park Avenue after an air raid

In the summer of 1944, the Flats became a muster point for troops joining the invasion force. On the 50^th anniversary of D Day in 1994, one veteran remembered how they found out they were on their way to France. On 28^th May, he received his pay packet in French francs. “That told us where we were going” he recalled, but from then on everyone was confined to barracks. An elaborate operation was underway to persuade the Germans that the invasion would be much further east than Normandy in the Pas de Calais. Secrecy was vital to maintain the deception.

From early June troops moved from Wanstead Flats to the Royal Docks to board ships joining the invasion fleet.  A huge convoy of army vehicles was also assembled, and a resident of Latimer Road just south of Wanstead Flats remembers seeing the streets filled with army vehicles as a little girl. Another local resident recalled that after the Americans arrived, their heavy artillery was to be seen along Capel Road. Then overnight, they were gone, on their way to France.

Field guns and ammunition in East Ham High Street North, heading from Wanstead Flats to the Royal Docks

Throughout the summer, troops passed through the area to join the invasion force. Then, later in 1944, German troops began to arrive on Wanstead Flats – as prisoners of war. A small camp opened just south of Lake House Road, which housed some of the hundreds of thousands of troops captured in the months after D-Day.

Little remains of the wartime installations on the Flats, but it is possible to see one of the mess huts used by the crews of the anti-aircraft batteries. It is next to the changing rooms on Aldersbrook Road, now used as a store by the City of London ground staff. A peacetime use for a wartime installation. 

The hut used by anti-aircraft crews in World War II is now a store used by the City of London. It is on Aldersbrook Road between the changing rooms & the Esso filling station