Deptford, Kent

Map

The overlays that highlight 17th century London features are approximate and derived from Wenceslaus Hollar’s maps:

Open location in Google Maps: 51.479994, -0.035711

Summary

Situated on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, Deptford was the location of the Deptford Dockyards, the first of the Royal Dockyards from the mid 16th to 19th century. Also home of the diarist John Evelyn in 1652.

25 Annotations

First Reading

vincent  •  Link

Home to John Evelyn and his famous garden at Says-Courtt

vincent  •  Link

DEPTFORD SHIPBUILDING
gihs.gold.ac.uk/gihs11.html#deptf…

The East India Company was formed in 1600 and ran its first voyages to the far east from Deptford. The first Company fleet in l601 was commanded by Sir Thomas Lancaster, a Deptford dock owner. At first it borrowed facilities from the Royal Dockyard to lay its cannon and other stores on the wharf. In 1607 the Company leased the Stone Wharf at the end of Watergate Street in Deptford Strand from the Bridge House estate, and built a timber dock in Deptford the following year. The lease was extended in 1610. The Company was building ships at Deptford in 1609.
ac.uk/gihs11.html

vincent  •  Link

Sketch map of Evelyn estate, Deptford, with annotations 1623 [copy] available at the library?

www.lewisham.gov.uk/localStudies/…
archives
Copies of source materials held elsewhere
Public records
Hearth Tax returns for Deptford, Lee and Lewisham, 1664.
Deptford is located to the west of a creek where the River Ravensbourne enters the Thames. The Roman road from Dover to London forded the creek where Deptford Bridge is now located and a Saxon cemetery existed on the site of the Dover Castle public house, Deptford Broadway. At the beginning of the 16th century Deptford was only a small fishing village when Henry VIII established the Royal Naval Dockyard on a site to the west of Deptford Strand. This served as England's principal dockyard until Chatham took over in the late 17th century.
www.lewisham.gov.uk/architectural…

Hamish Gallie  •  Link

As a resident of the borough of Lewisham for five years now have had a chance to visit the site of the Deptford Victualling Yrds twice now. It is great that there are still the original storehouses left and the terrace and indeed the original gateway to the yard with original cobbled streets and oficers accomodation. Also the water stairs are still there with token foundry cannons nearby. Good views to the River and Greenwich in particular. Special site, recommend visit.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... and walked thither and back again from Deptford, where I did do something checking the iron business, ..." www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1664/01/…

Anyone know what the iron business there was? Terry Foreman gives a good annotation on this day about the first recorded instance of iron being used in Navy ships being in 1670, but apparently something was going on at Deptford in 1663/64.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, in what is now the London Borough of Lewisham, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deptford_Do…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Some of the iron made in the Kentish Weald found its way to Dartford where, in 1590, Godfrey Box, an immigrant from Liege, set up the first slitting mill in England for cutting iron bars into rods. The engineering industry at Dartford claims a long ancestry.

Dartford was also a pioneer town in paper-making. The mill which John Spielman, a German, set up there early in the reign of Elizabeth was the second paper-mill to be opened in England.
(also see www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/07/… )

The Darent provided the power to drive the mill, and also the supply of clean water that is essential for paper-making.
Spielman was given a monopoly of the making of white paper for 10 years and was authorised to ‘gather all manner of linen rags … scraps of parchment, leather shreds, clippings of cards, and old fishing nets, necessary for the making of white writing-paper’.
He employed at least 600 men, many of them Germans.

The paper-making in­dustry in Kent received a big impetus from the arrival of refugee Huguernots after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) and many French terms are still employed in the industry; the large room where the paper is finished, for example, is still called the salle.

By the end of the 17th century there were several paper mills working in Kent, including a second mill at Dartford, a brown-paper mill at Canterbury, and a very small mill at Aylesford ....

EXCERPTED FROM “Industries in the 15th to 18th Centuries“ [in Kent]
www.wilcuma.org.uk/the-history-of…

We also had exchanges about paper in general starting at
www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1666/07/…
and
www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/07/…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Boat-building was carried on in a larger way at the royal dockyards, at Deptford, Woolwich and Chatham.
Deptford was in use as a shipbuilding yard at least 1400.
Woolwich and Chatham did not follow until the 16th century.

All 3 yards derived much of their timber, especially oak, for the building and repair of ships from the Kentish Weald.
Transport presented great difficulty because the roads were old, and often totally impassable after heavy rain.

Oak and Spanish chestnut were also largely used for the building of houses in the Weald, and on those parts of the North Downs where the clay overlying the chalk carried timber-forest.

EXCERPTED FROM “Industries in the 15th to 18th Centuries“ [in Kent]
www.wilcuma.org.uk/the-history-of…

Bill  •  Link

For 2 Maps & Views of Deptford: www.grubstreetproject.net/places/…

Deptford, anciently called West Greenwich, is said to have received its present name from its having a deep ford over the little river Ravensbourn, near its influx into the Thames, where it has now a bridge. It is a large and populous town in Kent, four miles and a half from London, and is divided into Upper and Lower Deptford, which contain together two churches, several meeting houses, and about 1900 houses. It is most remarkable for its noble dock, where the royal navy was formerly build and repaired, till it was found more convenient to build the larger ships at Woolwich, and other places, where there is a greater depth of water: but notwithstanding this, the yard is enlarged to more than double its former dimensions, and a vast number of hands are constantly employed. It has a wet dock of two acres for ships, and another of an acre and a half, with vast quantities of timber and other stores, and extensive buildings, as storehouses, and offices, for the use of the place, besides dwelling houses for those officers who are obliged to live upon the spot, in order to superintend the works. Here the royal yachts are generally kept, and near the dock is the seat of Sir John Evelyn, called Say's Court, where Peter the Great, Czar of Muscovy, resided for some time, and in this yard completed his knowledge and skill in the practical part of naval architecture.

In this town are two hospitals, one of which was incorporated by King Henry VIII. in the form of a college, for the use of the seamen, and is commonly called Trinity House of Deptford Strond; this contains twenty-one houses, an is situated near the church. The other called Trinity Hospital, has thirty-eight houses fronting the street. This is a very handsome edifice, and has large gardens well kept belonging to it. Though this last is the finest structure, yet the other has the preference, on account of its antiquity; and as the Brethren of the Trinity hold their corporation by that house, they are obliged at certain times to meet there for business. Both these houses are for decayed pilots or masters of ships, or their widows, the men being allowed 20s. and the wome, 16s. a month.
---DodsleyLondon and Its Environs Described, 1761

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

St. Olave's, Deptford, has a famous minister, Dr. Ralph Venning.

BOOK REVIEW: Puritanism and the Pursuit of Happiness : The Ministry and Theology of Ralph Venning, c.1621-1674 -- By S. Bryn Roberts
Imprint: Boydell Press

Reveals a much neglected strand of puritan theology which emphasised the importance of inner happiness and personal piety.
The traditional view of puritans is that they were killjoys – serious, austere, gloomy people who closed theatres and abolished Christmas.
This book, based on extensive original research, presents a different view.

Focusing on both the writings of the leading Independent divine, Ralph Venning, and also on his pastoral work in the 1640s and 1650s when he was successively chaplain to the Tower of London and vicar of St. Olave’s, Southwark.

The book reveals a neglected strand of puritan theology, which emphasised the importance of inner happiness and the development of a personal piety which, the author argues, was similar in its nature to medieval mysticism, and not that different from the piety promoted by earlier meta-physical preachers, and not at all driven by the predesti-narian ideas usually associated with puritans, ideas liable to induce a sense of helplessness and despair.

In addition, the book reassesses the role of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where Venning was educated, in shaping puritan thought, discusses Max Weber’s (1864-1920) ideas about puritanism and capitalism ... and demon-strates that Venning’s strand of puritanism favoured toleration, moderation and church unity to a much greater degree than is usually associated with puritans.

FROM boydellandbrewer.com/book/puritan…

@@@

"An intelligence report in March 1661 'noted that a Deptford radical was expending funds to win supporters in the army, while another report of about the same date indicated that ministers in the west who were managing a design were corresponding with the Congregationalist Ralph Venning, lecturer at St. Olave's, Southwark'."

MORE AT www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1661/03/…

In 1661 Venning married Hannah Cope, a widow; they had at least two children. Refusing to conform to the 1662 Act of Uniformity, Venning was ejected from this post.
In the years that followed, he served as co-pastor with Robert Bragge to a nonconformist congregation which met at the Pewterers’ Guild Hall in Lime Street www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1… .
His last sermon, after which he was taken ill and died (March 1674), was preached to a similar congregation meeting at Joiners’ Hall.

FROM banneroftruth.org/us/about/banner…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base on the River Thames, operated by the Navy from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it.

Founded by Henry VIII in 1513, Deptford was the most significant royal dockyard of the Tudor period and remained one of the principal naval yards for 300 years. Important new technological and organisational developments were tried here, and Deptford came to be associated with many great mariners, including Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Deptford encompassing a large area and served as the headquarters of naval administration, and the associated Victualling Yard became the Victualling Board's main depot.

Deptford's Tudor 'Great Store-house' (which outlasted the Dockyard) dated from 1513, as recorded on its surviving foundation stone. 172 ft long, it stood parallel to the riverbank on a north-west/south-east axis; it was a 2-storey brick building with an attic, standing 35 ft high. The Great Dock (a double-length dry dock) lay perpendicular to it, to the south-east, and was built at around the same time.

North-west of the storehouse, a natural pond (which had formed at the mouth of the Orfleteditch) was converted into a wet dock to provide a protected mooring area in 1517.

In the 1540s a large house was built, adjoining the north-west end of the storehouse, which served as he official residence of the Treasurer of the Navy until the 1660s; with the creation of the antecedent of the Navy Board in the mid-16th century, a new house was built nearby at Deptford Strand for the "officers' clerks of the Admiralty to write therein".

The dock was rebuilt and wharves expanded to cover 500–600 ft of the river front by the end of the 16th century. It had by then become known as the "King's Yard". Deptford became increasingly sophisticated in its operations, with £150 paid in 1578 to build gates for the dry dock, removing the necessity of constructing a temporary earth dockhead and then digging it away to free the ship once work had been completed. [SOUNDS DANGEROUS TO ME! - SDS]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

Under the Stuarts, Chatham Dockyard on the River Medway threatened Deptford's supremacy, and by the early 17th century the idea of closing and selling the Deptford yard was being discussed. Deptford and Woolwich possessed the only working London docks, the Thames was too narrow, shallow and heavily used commercially, and the London dockyards too far from the sea to make them attractive anchorages for the growing navy. Attention shifted to the Medway, and defences and facilities were constructed at Chatham and Sheerness.

Despite this, Deptford Dockyard continued to flourish and expand, being closely associated with the Pett dynasty, which produced several master shipwrights during the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

A commission in the navy in the 1620s decided to concentrate construction at Deptford. By the 17th century the yard covered a large area and included large numbers of storehouses, slipways, smiths, and other maintenance facilities and workshops. The Great Dock was lengthened and enlarged in 1610, several slipways were remodelled and in 1620 a second dry dock was built, with a third being authorised in 1623.

There was further investment in the Commonwealth period, with money spent on providing a mast dock and 3 new wharves.

Facilities were again improved in the wake of the 1688 Revolution: a 'Great New Storehouse' replaced the Treasurer's House alongside the Tudor storehouse, and by the end of the century additional ranges had created an informal quadrangle of buildings.

Around the same time, terraces of houses for the officers of the yard were built along the south-eastern boundary of the site (they continued in use after the closure of the Dockyard, and were only demolished in 1902).

The yard was visited by Tzar Peter the Great, in 1698. He stayed in nearby Sayes Court, which had been temporarily let furnished by John Evelyn to Adm. John Benbow. During Peter's stay, Evelyn's servant wrote to him to report "There is a house full of people and right nasty. The Tsar lies next your library, and dines in the parlour next your study. He dines at ten o'clock and at six at night, is very seldom at home a whole day, very often in the King's Yard or by water, dressed in several dresses." Peter studied shipbuilding techniques and practices at the dockyard.

The Great Dock was rebuilt again in 1711, with gates provided halfway along its length so as to form a true 'double dock' (able to accommodate 2 vessels lengthwise).

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 3

The early to mid-18th century was a time of rebuilding and upgrading at Deptford Dockyard. The storehouse complex was rebuilt more formally as a quadrangle, enclosing the 1513 Great Storehouse; the mast pond was rebuilt, as was the wet dock, and the smithery (where anchors and metal items were forged) was enlarged

In 1716 another dry dock was added, opening into the wet dock, as did 3 of the yard's 5 building slips.

With increasing specialisation among the royal dockyards, Deptford concentrated on building smaller warships and was the headquarters of the naval transport service.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the navy relieved pressure on the main fleet bases by concentrating shipbuilding and fitting out at the riverside docks like Chatham, Woolwich and Deptford, leaving the dockyards at Portsmouth, Plymouth and the Nore for maintenance and repair.

Deptford declined in importance after the Napoleonic Wars. Its location upriver on the Thames made access difficult, and the shallow narrow river hampered navigation for large warships. ...

The dockyard was largely shut down between 1830 and 1837, with only shipbreaking carried out there during that time; although the navy was reported to have kept a keel laid down in building slip No. 1, in fulfilment of a lease from John Evelyn, who had made it one of the terms of sale that a ship was always to be under construction at the yard. (HMS Worcester had been laid down at the yard in 1816 and was complete by 1831; but was only finally launched in 1843 when the slip was required for HMS Terrible.) The navy had to hastily lay a keel down in 1843 when it was discovered that the term was not being adhered to. ...

In 1856, the Admiralty purchased the adjoining Sayes Court estate with a view to expanding the dockyard. ...

Deemed surplus to requirements, Deptford Dockyard was closed on 31 March 1869. ...

Part of the site (everything to the north of No.1 Slip) was retained and remained in operation as a naval store depot, overseen by an Inspector of Naval Stores. As such, 'Deptford (Store Yard)' continued to be listed as a home dockyard in the 1870s-80s (albeit with a permanent workforce of 28, plus 40 or so hired labourers). Its main role was to serve as the central despatch point for all naval stores destined for overseas stations; but some manufacturing also continued on site into the 1880s, mainly in the sail loft, colour loft and joiners shop. ...

By the mid-1890s, the management of Deptford Naval Store Yard had been merged into the neighboring Royal Victoria Victualling Yard. In 1898, owing to a lack of available space, the naval stores were moved to new warehouse at the West India Docks (called the Admiralty Depôt), and the Victualling Yard expanded into the vacated area of the former Dockyard. ...

Apart from the Naval Store Yard (the northernmost part of the site, annexed to the Victualling Yard), the land occupied by the Dockyard was sold after its closure.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

CONCLUSION

Fifteen acres to the south-west (namely that part of the land that had been purchased in 1856) was sold back to William John Evelyn, who resolved to turn it into a public park. He planted the area with shrubs and trees taken from his grounds at Wotton House, erected a bandstand and another building to the side to serve as a museum to his ancestor Sir John. Butm when he tried to place the park and museum in public ownership, he found that there was no public body to receive the gift (the experience helped inspire his friend and contemporary Octavia Hill to found the National Trust). ...

Many of the Royal Dockyard's buildings and features survived until the 1950s, but have since almost entirely been lost or destroyed and the waterways infilled. Henry VIII's Great Storehouse of 1513 was demolished in 1954 (its bricks were used for repairs to Hampton Court Palace). ...

Master Shipwright Deptford dockyard -- an incomplete list:
Peter Pett, 1550–September 1589.
Joseph Pett, 1589–1606.
William Burrell, 1619–1623
Peter Pett, 1630–1652
Christopher Pett, Aug. 1647–March 1668.
Jonas Shish, April 1668–Nov. 1675.
Fisher Harding, October 1686–Nov. 1705.

EXCERPTED FROM everything.explained.today/Deptfo… This site has an extensive list of books you can read for more information about the Deptford dockyards.

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Diary references

Number of references in each month of the diary’s entries

Links to diary entries in which this place is mentioned

1660

1661

1662

1663

1664

1665

1666

1667

1668

1669

Letter references

Letters in which this place is mentioned

    1665

    • 4 Sep 1665, Samuel Pepys to Elizabeth Carteret (0 annotations)
      Your Ladyship will not (I hope) imagine I expected to be provoked by letters from you to think of the duty I ought and should long since have paid your Lady­ship by mine, had it been fit for me…
    • 3 Oct 1665, John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys (0)
      I was in some doubt whither those Letters you commanded me to prepare, ariv'd timely enough to accompany yours to Court on Saturday-night; For finding divers Chyrurgeons, and Sick-persons at my dores who had come from Several places with sad…