PERRY GILL. 145 
Mr. Brooke, who was concerned in the India trade, fitted up 
two rooms in the Chinese style, with large screens decorated with 
grotesque figures, forming a curious combination of Eastern finery 
with Elizabethan wainscot. 
This part of the house in 1810 became the property of Mr. 
John Forster, of Southend, and was pulled down (Plate 66). Not 
a vestige now remains, and the site is covered by Creeland Grove. 
The name Perry, z.e., the place where the pear trees grow, is 
found in very many parishes in the South of England. Here, in 
Lewisham, it is of early date, occurring in a rental of the manor of 
the time of Edward I], in which it is recorded that amongst the pay- 
ments made by Sir John Abel was 14d. for land he had bought of 
Gerard atte Pirie. In 1473 Cicely Lamkyn mentions her house 
and gardens in ‘‘Perystrete,’’ and in the Parish Registers of the 
18th century there is evidence of two hamlets, one called ‘‘ Perry 
Street” (now Perry Hill), the other known as ‘‘ Perry Slough” 
(now Perry Vale), which latter was apparently marshy ground on 
the confines of the forest. 
From the maps of the 18th century it may be gathered that 
the roadways—perhaps trackways would be a more appropriate 
description—in this part of the parish were Stanyhurst (Stanstead) 
Lane on the north, a lane now Vancouver Road, with a connecting 
lane now Blyth Vale, but marked on the Ordnance Maps of 1870 
as ‘Stoney Street”; a lane now’ Woolstone Road, which Mr. 
Colfe, in his will dated 1657, calls ‘‘Green Lane,’’ which led to 
Perry Slough; Perry Street Hill (now Perry Hill), and a lane now 
called Perry Rise, which in Rocque’s Map of 1745 is marked as 
“*Glover’s Lane.” These last led down to Sydenham or Bell Green, 
a piece of open common, enclosed in 1810, and now covered by 
the houses near the gas-works. 
Commencing at the Catford end of Perry Hill, on the eastern 
side, the houses are of various dates within the last thirty or forty 
years as far as Castlands Road. This road is an ancient right-of- 
way leading across the river to Castle-lands, part of Broadmead, 
one of the great fields of the manor. At the corner of Castlands © 
Road is Orchard House, on a small estate, shown on plans of 1723 
as then belonging to Thomas Dyer, Esq. Beyond this, as far as 
the foot of the hill, is the estate of the Leathersellers’ Company, 
anciently known as ‘‘ Brongers,” probably from Walter Bronger, 
who held land here in the time of Henry VII. The old house, 
“*Brongers,” has recently been pulled down, but the farmhouse, 
now known as Perry Hill Farm, still maintains the appearance 
of a small 18th century homestead. In 1723 it was known as 
Clowders Farm. The house now styled ‘‘Clare Lodge” had not 
then been built, the site being styled on plans as ‘‘The New 
Orchard,” but it must have beer erected shortly afterwards. The 
fields stretching down the hill were known as ‘‘Tanner’s” and 
‘*Annable’s” respectively, the latter being that next the road, whilst 
the land between them and the river was styled ‘‘ Rowland’s.” 
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