140 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
CHAPTER VI. 
CATFORD, PERRY HILL AND Forest HILL. 
r- has ATFORD is an ancient place name, which goes 
back in documents as far as the reign of Edward I, 
and is probably still older, as it was even then 
giving its name to a family of ‘‘de Cateforde.” At 
what period the Abbot of Ghent alienated the lands 
round Catford is uncertain—it was certainly prior 
to the reign of Edward I—but in the 13thcentury, 
Sir John Abel, who belonged to the family of Abel, of Erith, owned 
a considerable property in the district, together with the family of 
De Castello. Nicholas de Castello, Clerk of the Exchequer, in 
1300 sold about 160 acres to Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham, and 
the Bishop seems to have also acquired the Abel’s lands, so that 
at his death in 1311, amongst his possessions were lands and rents 
at Catford and Romburgh, in Lewisham, for which he paid quit 
rent to the Abbot of Ghent of 23s. 4d. and a plough share at 
Michaelmas. 
This property coming to the Crown on the Bishop’s death, 
Edward III, in 1331, granted Catford to Sir William de Montacute, 
as areward for having apprehended Roger Mortimer, Earl of March. 
In the same year Sir William, and Katherine his wife, purchased 
about 4oo acres of land in Lewisham, and these, together with the 
Manor of Catford, they bestowed in 1338 on the College of 
St. Lawrence Poultney, in London, and the College continued in 
possession until its suppression in 1548. In that year Catford was 
granted with other lands to Henry Polsted, of Chileworth, and 
William More, of Loseley, in Surrey, for £2,034 14s. 1od. Henry 
Polsted’s son, Richard, dying without issue, the property came to 
Francis Polsted, his cousin, who in 1578 sold it to Brian Annesley, 
of Lee, another cousin, and from him it has descended to the 
Earl of St. Germans in the same manner as Brockley. Catford, 
historically, includes the St. Germans Estate at Hither Green (g.v.) 
and that in the Stanstead Road. 
The connection which lasted for more than 2co years between 
Catford and the College of St. Lawrence Poultney on Pountney 
Hill, in the City of London, is commemorated by the dedication of 
the church opposite the Town Hall, which was so named in honour 
of St. Lawrence. It was built in 1886. 
The building now known as the Town Hall was erected in 
1874 by the Lewisham District Board of Works for its offices. It 
is built on land which was the property of the parish, being a part 
of the Rushey Green, and cost £9,784. Considerable additions 
were made in 1900. It is intended to be in the Gothic style of the 
13th century, but the details are open to criticism. However, 
taken together with St. Laurence’s Church and the new shops on 
~~ Snider —tigs 
HA 
