Someone has asked me about the title of this Blog; William-on-the-hill. Well, I live on the Sydenham/Forest Hill borderlands, high up on the hill ( a ridge really) on the summit of which lies Crystal Palace (burnt down in 1936). My bedroom window faces east and I would have a brilliant view over the eastern south 'burbs - "if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between"! As it is I often experience wonderful sun rises. I also use the title in the sense of trying to give an overview of the things which I comment on.
Having recently purchased a digital camera I intend to post photos of some of the local sights just as soon as I can learn to control the technology!
I will also write on local history from time-to-time. The local Anglican church, St. Barts has a mass grave containing the bodies of 13 workmen who fell to their deaths on the same day during the construction of the Crystal Palace. In the house next door, once the Vicarage, Sir Ernest Shackleton was born (he later spent a term at the nearby Dulwich College). The neighbourhood was once very fashionable, especially after the Crystal Palace was opened. Along the hillside there are some large Victorian Villas, and in one of them the Oratorian Fathers lived. In 1856 they founded the Orotorian church, at the bottom of the hill in lower Sydenahm - Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception & Saint Philip Neri. Until 1976 this was the only catholic church in this area. The parish to which I belong - The Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord - was calfed off and consecrated as a church in its own right in 1985. Before that our church was a chapel of ease. We are the daughter parish of the Oratory church (not now an Oratorian church, sadly).
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