An abnormal load.

The photos above were taken by local resident and Maggot Sandwich reader Rosemary. She grabbed the shots on Monday, whilst an absolutely huge Dutch barge was moored alongside Erith Pier. The four giant storage silos had been transported by sea from the Netherlands; they were waiting on the pier for a final trip a little further East and across to the other bank of the River Thames, in order to be installed at an industrial plant in Dagenham. Personally I would have thought that it would have been quicker and more convenient to have built the silos actually on the Dagenham site, but I guess that there must have been pressing reasons why though could not be achieved. What also amazes me is that the local press have been entirely silent on the subject, even though the silos actually stayed on the barge next to the pier all week. I know that the North of the London Borough of Bexley gets treated poorly when compared with the more prosperous South, but something of this nature would surely merit a few lines of text and a photograph? In the eighteen years I have lived in Erith, I have never seen anything so large and imposing moored on the pier. Comments and feedback to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Last week I walked almost the entire length of Bexleyheath Broadway for the first time in a couple of months; there has been much talk in the business pages of the broadsheet newspapers about the economic recovery and the end to the recession. In practical terms this has yet to be reflected in the recovery of the retail sales business. Many units in both the shopping centre and the Broadway are still shuttered and empty, and it made for a rather depressing walk. One hears many horror stories as to how the high street is dead, and that online sales are everything - personally I have seen the likes of Amazon dominate certain sectors of the market, but I still feel that physical shops have a very important role to play. The trouble is that compared with an online shop, a physical shop is a far larger financial outlay, and consequently much more of a risk. This may well be why despite the apparent upturn in the market, that locally both Erith Riverside Shopping Centre and and Bexleyheath Broadway are still struggling with a number of empty shop units. What can be done to remedy this situation? Well, I feel that the cost of rent and the business rates both are of concern - for anyone wanting to start a retail outlet, the costs can be prohibitive. I know that Bexley Council have an almost obsessive focus on cash - at the expense of pretty much everything else. Their central mantra would seem to be “don’t increase the council tax level - even if it means catastrophic cuts to local services”. An example of this can be seen in their attitude to the Belvedere Splash Park, as I have previously mentioned; It seems that they can see a new cash cow in the recreation park opposite to the Splash Park in Woolwich Road. It is well known that Belvedere Library is threatened with closure, and the parcel of land that the library site, along with the adjacent recreation park site, complete with tennis courts and children's play area would make a prime site for residential development. Moving the non - water based recreation park over to the current Splash Park site would rid the council of two perceived headaches - what to do about the relatively maintenance intensive, but extremely popular Splash Park, and secondly to free up a sizable parcel of land to be sold off at immense profit to property developers - which would also have the longer - term benefit to the Council's coffers in bringing in more council tax revenue. The fact that all of this would be in direct contravention of the clearly expressed wishes of the existing tax paying residents is of little concern to those in the council who can see nothing other than the figures on a spreadsheet.

Early on Monday morning I was making my usual way to Erith Station to catch the train to work; I normally walk along Pier Road, past the small huddle of pensioners who wait outside of the Martin newsagents for it to open at 7am – as I have written before, it entirely escapes me why they need to go so early when they have all day to pick up the paper and a pint of milk; they stand around in the semi dark and freezing cold. It seems to be some kind of obscure and arcane ritual that entirely puzzles me. I walked down the steps towards the underpass that runs underneath the horrendous fish roundabout and leads to Erith station. The lights in the foot tunnel have recently been upgraded to LED bulbs, and the tunnel is far better lit than it ever used to be. I noticed a couple of bundles on the ground, pretty much smack bang halfway through the underpass. I mentally tutted. It looked very much like someone had fly tipped a load of domestic waste where it could not be seen by the nearby CCTV cameras. As I walked closer, I realised that my assumption was incorrect; it was not the results of fly tipping – it was two sleeping bags on some flattened cardboard boxes with a couple of people and a dog sleeping rough. I was shocked; in all my years of living in Erith, I have seen many things, but I have never encountered people forced to sleep rough. The sleeping bags did not look very warm, and it was bitterly cold at just before 7am – only around three degrees, though the temperature in the tunnel is usually a couple of degrees above this, but it is still most certainly not somewhere anybody would want to sleep. There was no movement from the sleeping bags, or indeed the dog that slept between them; I decided that there was little I could do to help at that point, and continued on my journey to work. I did alert the authorities in the hope that something positive could be done for the couple. I have not seen them since. One gets somewhat hardened to seeing people sleeping in the street in London – though personally I think any society which has homeless people is failing in some way. To see people with no option but to sleep in an underpass no more than a few minutes’ walk from my own house is something that really brought the whole situation home to me. I know that there are charities that help homeless people throughout the year, and there are also special projects to care for the homeless over Christmas, but it seems to me that these are little more than a sticking plaster for an axe wound. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Following the piece I wrote on the newly re - formed Friends of Christ Church Erith last week, the group has just made the following announcement online, which I reproduce with permission:-

There is no denying that Christ Church is an architectural landmark in Erith, standing tall among the ever changing urban landscape. Step into the grounds and you suddenly find a place of peace from the everyday bustle, venture inside the church and admire the impressive stained glass windows and murals. The Victorian Church, consecrated in 1874, is a listed Grade 2 Star building, and together with the bell tower and extensive grounds is not only a place of worship but also a valuable facility for the local community. Friends of Christ Church Erith recognise the importance of the building and the need to maintain the fabric and improve it where possible. Christ Church Erith receives no financial support towards the church's upkeep and repairs (an average of £10,000+ a year) and these are funded by the generosity of the congregation and supporters. We would truly appreciate you joining us and becoming a Friend of Christ Church Erith. As a Friend it would be entirely up to you to decide how much you would like to be involved. You would receive a welcome pack including a brief history of the building, be invited to exclusive gatherings, have the opportunity of participating in social events and fundraisers, and receive a Friends Newsletter at least once a year. But more than this you would be making a real difference to an important part of Erith’s heritage. By becoming a Friend of Christ Church Erith and kindly making a minimum annual donation (£10 individual/ £15 joint/ £50 corporate), you will be contributing to the funds required by the Parochial Church Council to help maintain the building and its grounds, for the benefit of local people.  If you are not sure, perhaps you are not a church goer or you are of a different faith, we warmly invite you to come and visit Christ Church to see for yourself what a special place we all have here. If you would like to join Friends of Christ Church Erith please Click on the links below for the relevant forms. if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact the Friends at the following Email address:- focce@aol.com 

Download Individual/Joint Membership Here

Download Corporate Membership Here

The photo above was sent to me by reader and local resident Christine; it shows the newsagent that used to be located in Watling Street, Bexleyheath on what is now the site of the new Bexley Council offices, which were originally constructed for the Woolwich Equitable Building Society. Christine tells me that she thinks that the photo was taken in 1977, shortly before the buildings in the photo were demolished to make way for the construction of the office building. I think she is correct in her date; one can clearly see an advertising board with an advert for the then new Renault 14 car. The Renault 14 was released in 1976, and became available in the UK in 1977. Unfortunately whilst the 14 was technically innovative, with a very large amount of internal space, due to it being fitted with a transverse engine powering the front wheels, in the same way as the original Mini, the Renault 14 was a substantially larger car, more in the mould of a Ford Escort; in fact Ford launched a new, front wheel drive version of the Escort only a year later as a direct response to the innovation that the Renault 14 brought. Things got off to a bad start when the Renault 14 was launched, with a disastrous advertising campaign that compared the 14 to the shape of a pear. A preview at the Pompidou Centre in Paris as a bare body shell did little to win it customers. The car would later gain a reputation for premature body corrosion which saw the 14 being dubbed as the "rotten pear" by the motoring press. In France, "La poire"' (literally "the pear", but also slang for "gullible") still refers to the 14. However, the best-selling Renault 5 also had a reputation for premature body corrosion, but a far more effective advertising campaign for the Renault 5 helped boost its sales and resulted in it being a commercial success. The Renault 14 (click here for a photo view) also had a reputation for being difficult to start in damp conditions, due to easy water ingress into the ignition coil, which was poorly placed and not well sealed against damp. The placement of the temperature gauge on the transmission tunnel behind the gear-lever, rather than on the instrument panel where it was directly in the driver's field of view, led to incidents of engine damage if the engine overheated and the driver failed to notice. It also had a nasty habit of jumping out of reverse gear unless the driver physically held the gear stick in place when reversing. Bearing in mind many driving schools in the UK used Renault 14’s in the early 1980’s this did not endear it to either instructors or pupils, despite it being easy to manoeuvre, and having both good all - round visibility and very comfortable seats. I must admit that despite being a classic car enthusiast, I have never seen a restored and running Renault 14; the model was never a massive hit, and with somewhat fragile mechanics, perilously dodgy electrics and very poor rust protection, they don't offer much reward for even the most ardent collector.

On occasion life imitates art; in this case you may recall that only last week I wrote about the rise of the simple and cheap Google Chromebook in the education market, at the apparent expense of Microsoft. This week major U.S based market research company IDC published a report that states Google, for the first time ever, has overtaken Apple as a provider of computer hardware to both students and teaching staff in United States schools. The research firm claims that Google shipped 715,000 Chromebooks to schools in the third quarter, while Apple shipped 702,000 iPads to schools. Chromebooks as a whole now account for a quarter of the educational market. IDC says that the lower cost of Chromebooks when compared to iPads is a huge factor for school districts. Chromebooks start at $199, while last year’s iPad Air, with educational discounts applied, costs $379. The research firm also says that many school corporations prefer the full keyboard found on Chromebooks instead of the touchscreen found on iPads. Some schools that use iPads, however, supply students with a keyboard case as well, but that only further increases the cost of iPads compared to Chromebooks. IT departments also tend to favour Chromebooks because they are simpler to manage when compared to iPads. Regarding the shift in purchasing behaviour, IDC analyst Rajani Singh was quoted as saying:- “Chromebooks are really gaining traction. The growth of Chromebook is a major concern for Apple’s iPad. As the average age of the student grows, the need for a keyboard becomes very important.”  In 2013,  Apple worked diligently with the Los Angeles Unified School District to supply every student with an iPad. The deal fell apart, however, over how the iPads would be given to students and the fact that students were figuring out how to bypass usage restrictions. The Los Angeles Unified School District has since supplied students with Chromebooks and a small number of Windows laptops. Chromebooks have consistently been among the most popular and highest rated laptops on Amazon since their initial release. The Acer C720 is currently the best-selling laptop on Amazon with a four and a half star rating from more than 2,600 reviews. Unfortunately these figures are very U.S centric, and IDC have not done a similar analysis in the U.K or mainland Europe at this point. My understanding is that UK schools still strongly favour Apple over competition, but if Google can market the fact that remote administration of Chromebooks is far easier, along with the hard fact that a fully featured Chromebook is only around a half the price of a competing iPad, and the iPad will need an additional external keyboard to give it the same functionality as a Chromebook. This could well tip the balance in the future; either way, Microsoft is so far behind in the race to win the favour of the massive and influential education market that it needs to either drastically re – evaluate its’ strategy or to exit the race altogether.

In the photos above you can compare and contrast a locally manufactured (either at Crayford or Fraser Road, Erith) Vickers machine gun (the upper photo courtesy of local historian Ken Chamberlain) from 1911 with the modern equivalent in the lower photo – the 2014 Manroy Engineering General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) manufactured at their factory in Slade Green Road. There is an incident that had been mostly lost to history, which involves a tragic loss of young people as a result of the historic local involvement with the arms trade. You may recall that back at the end of August I described in some detail the events that led to the terrible gunpowder explosion on the Belvedere Marshes back on the 1st of October 1864. Unfortunately this was not the only accident to claim the lives of local people as a result of munitions work. A lesser known accident occurred back in 1924. Slade Green was at that time home to a number of armaments factories (and it still is home to Manroy Engineering – more on them later). The marshland between Lower Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green was an ideal place to locate factories working with explosives, as though the locations were physically relatively close to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, they were isolated from centres of population, thus limiting casualties in the event of any catastrophe. Ethel Pullen, 18, nicknamed “Topsey”, was one of twelve young women to die in the Slade Green Filling Factory in the disaster which also killed their foreman Edward Jones, 29, on February 18, 1924. The factory, on the Slade Green Marshes, was used to produce two inch and six inch mortar shells and to break up and render safe surplus ammunition recovered from the First World War battlefields. On the day of the fatal explosion the women, all aged 16 to 24 years old, were breaking up cartridges used as flares to light up the trenches. Just before 9am, the explosion occurred and a fire broke out in the shed they were working in. Tragically Ethel Pullen was engaged to be married the very next week, and would have most likely have given up work to be a housewife thereafter, as was the custom at the time. There is a memorial to the victims of the explosion in Erith Cemetery in Brook Street. It is ironic that in the past so many local people relied for their livelihoods on weapon and ammunition production which also could result in their very lives being put at risk. Nowadays the only defence contractor to my knowledge still operating in the area is the aforementioned Manroy Engineering. Thankfully they don't manufacture ammunition or explosives, so the risk of a modern version of the 1864 or 1924 explosions are really minimal. Manroy are basically a light engineering company that make machine guns and sniper rifles for NATO military forces, along with armour and gun turrets for light armoured vehicles.

Erith, Slade Green and Lower Belvedere have been home to all sorts of mechanical and infrastructure engineering for many years. One world leading such organisation was Callender’s Cables, a company that was originally formed by William Callender in 1880; Callender had already been in business for at least ten years; he started off importing bitumen and asphalt from Switzerland to the UK in order to feed the demand for tarmac roads in London. At this time the business was run by Callender and his two sons from offices in Leadenhall Street in the City of London; they also had a large depot in Millwall where the raw asphalt and bitumen was landed ashore from cargo ships before it was sold on to the civil engineering companies engaged in road building. Later Callender decided to diversify; he realised that the world was becoming electrified, and that a great deal of money was going to be made by those in the business. His son Thomas took over the production of large capacity insulated electric cables, and famously provided electric lighting for the St. Petersburg Opera House in Russia; Cables were also supplied for the electric lighting of the new law courts in the Strand, and for the Royal Opera house in Covent Garden in 1883, as well as mains cables for the growing number of electricity supply companies. By this time the large factory in Erith had opened, which was the base of many Callender operations for the next five decades. By 1898 the number of contracts won had grown from 31 to 70; total sales over the same period had increased from £95,764 to £296,946 – a fortune at the time. Callender Cables continued with the development and sale of high voltage, large capacity power cables until World War II, when their specialised engineering skills were devoted to war work. Callenders jointly developed PLUTO (Pipeline Under The Ocean) with Glovers of Trafford Park in order to supply fuel to the Allied invasion force in June 1944. By the end of the war Callenders were a very different organisation to that they had been prior to the conflict; at this point they opted to merge with British Insulated Cables to become British Insulated Callenders Cables ltd – better known as BICC. The story of BICC to the present day will be covered in a future Maggot Sandwich update.

I don't normally promote mainstream TV shows, but something on the BBC Christmas schedule really caught my eye and imagination. When I was at primary school I was a voracious reader; indeed when I was seven years old I was rated with a reading age of eleven. I read anything and everything I could - something that has stayed with me today. My favourite works of fiction back then were the "Professor Branestawm" books by Norman Hunter. On Christmas Eve there is going to be a made for TV one hour movie:- The Adventures of Professor Branestawm, with the eponymous character being played by comedian and TV presenter Harry Hill. I have to say that in normal circumstances I don't have a lot of time for Harry Hill, but if the trailer is anything to go by, he was born to play Professor Branestawm. The show is to be aired from 8.30 to 9.30 on Christmas Eve. See what you think.

The Vickers Maxim legacy.

The photo above (click on it for a larger version) was taken just after 7am last Monday morning by Maggot Sandwich reader and local businessman Manjinder in Manor Road, Erith. It shows the rising sun illuminating the vapour trails left by jet aircraft that have flown over the town. I must admit that I too saw the scene whilst I was waiting for my train at Erith station, but I did not have my trusty Nikon with me; Manjinder kindly sent a couple of shots through to me, one of which is displayed above. Occasionally the weather and lighting conditions coincide to produce some really stunning scenes like the one you can see. If you ever take a photo that you think may be of interest to other readers, please feel free to send it through - you will get full credit, or can stay anonymous, as you wish. Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier this week I was going through some of the historical photos of Erith that I have stored on the hard drive of my Apple iMac. I noticed something quite remarkably consistent about the shots, whether they had been taken in the 1920’s, 1960’s or in the last few years. Unless the photos depicted the river, or the area around what is now the Riverside Gardens, they all contained one element – the spire of Christ Church Erith. The church has dominated the skyline of the local area since it was constructed. The building has a dominant location on Victoria Road, adjacent to the railway and the Bexley Road Bridge, at what could be construed as the gateway to Erith. Whatever one’s beliefs, or lack thereof, it is clear that Christ Church forms an important part of the local community, and is a historical, cultural and social centre of the town. To reflect this, a group of local people have been invited to form a committee to oversee The Friends Of Christ Church Erith (FOCCE). This is to be a secular organisation that will assist in fund and awareness raising to maintain the fabric of the Church and its’ ancillary buildings, and to raise money for local charities and other worthy causes, and to encourage the use of the church in community affairs. FOCCE will be assisting in the forthcoming annual Christmas Tree Festival, which is held in the church on the 12^th to the 14^th December, and has been a very popular attraction for years. The idea behind the festival is simple but astonishingly effective. Local companies and private households alike can donate to have a Christmas tree displayed in the church for them to decorate to their taste; alternatively they can pay a little extra to have the decoration done for them. The entire church is filled by eighty decorated and lit Christmas trees over the three days, and a huge number of visitors come to view what is a really spectacular sight. The money raised is donated to the Greenwich and Bexley Hospice and to the church. I would strongly encourage you to pop along for a visit. The Christmas Tree Festival runs from 12 to 7pm on Friday the 12^th December, from 10am to 6pm On Saturday the 13^th December (immediately followed by a Carol Concert between 7 and 8pm) and between 12 and 5pm on Sunday the 14^th December. Admission to the Christmas Tree Festival is free, but donations are welcome – all of which go to good causes. Members of The Friends Of Christ Church Erith will be on hand throughout the festival, with leaflets on how people can join the group. Membership applications can be made on the day, or visitors can take away a leaflet to fill in and return at their leisure. If you would like to become more acquainted with other members of the community, and to help several extremely worthwhile causes, you may well wish to join.

One problem the Maggot Sandwich has long suffered from is spam messages the purport to be comments from readers; fortunately the Blogger platform I use is part of Google, and they have extremely clever and powerful spam filtering technology. Nevertheless every so often a spam message or two does manage to evade the filtering and make it into the Maggot Sandwich editorial control panel. This is one of the reasons that I have comment moderation switched on at all times – I get the final say in what is published, not an automated system, however good it might be. This kind of problem is besetting many online publications, along with malicious posts being uploaded by internet trolls. Some online publications have had so much libellous and / or offensive content posted on their websites that they have taken the step of removing the option to leave a comment altogether. The expense of having a human moderator was judged to be uneconomic in many of these cases. One only has to look at the News Shopper website to see how this can happen – and most of the comments on that site are relatively mild when compared  to those found elsewhere. One only has to look at the comments left after the publication of a story covering a violent incident involving a knifing that took place last Saturday evening in the Maharana Indian Restaurant in Halfway Street to see that a regular bunch of so called “wits” take delight in making jokes at the expense of the people involved in the story. Personally, if I was running a website with a large number of comments and a proportion of those trended towards the malicious and hurtful, I would be inclined to remove the commenting option too. Fortunately the Maggot Sandwich readership is thankfully devoid of trolls, the angry and the deluded (with one notable exception, which I hope to be in a position to tell you all about after the 15^th of January – there is a court case pending regarding the sorry individual). Nevertheless, the posting of offensive comments is so rife online that it is no wonder that site operators are giving up in disgust.

On a lighter note, it would seem that the mobile device market is about to enter a new round of competition; after a year or so of consolidation, the big players are planning on some innovations for 2015; Samsung, who are the market leaders in terms of share, if not profitability, are planning on introducing a new range of mobile phones with flexible, foldable screens. Quite what benefit this will bring to the user I cannot quite see. In my opinion it strongly smells of a solution in search of a problem, though no doubt there will be many who will be wooed by the new technology and flock to be amongst the first with a “bendy phone”. Samsung needs a shot in the arm after the Galaxy S5 failed to fly off the shelves, and there are reports that warehouses in the Far East a chock full of the model that they cannot shift. I foresee a similar issue with smart watches – however they function and whatever benefits they bring to their users, I question their long – term viability. Even the most parsimonious models run flat after less than two days, and most models require a charge after only eight or nine hours use. Even if users are prepared for this level of inconvenience, I can see problems halfway through next year; the early adopters will then have had their smart watches for eighteen months or so; bearing in mind most models use a variant of Lithium Ion power storage technology, which is usually good for around 500 – 550 charging cycles, the power cells will be coming to the end of their life, and will hold their charge for an even shorter period of time. I have not heard any experiences with changing smartwatch power cells, but I would not be at all surprised of some cannot be fitted with a new battery. An expensive and relatively short life cycle device may be the end result. It will be interesting to see what happens; as always the early adopters do tend to carry out beta testing for the manufacturers - one of the reasons I have a policy of "never buy version 1.0 of anything". Comments / feedback to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Finally after weeks of terrible luck, I have been able to sample a couple of pints of Bexley Brewery BOB Ale in the manner that it was always intended to be served - in draught form directly from the cask. I happened to meet my Mother for lunch in the excellent Robin Hood and Little John in Lion Road, Bexleyheath yesterday, and BOB was the guest ale. A cracking pint of proper real ale, and something that I would heartily endorse. As you will notice it was served as it should be - in a dimpled jug. Top notch. 

Maggot Sandwich readers of long standing may recall that quite some time ago I explained why I refused to take advertising on the blog. One of the reasons I cited was that I did not want to be at the thrall of an advertiser or sponsor, and thus be muzzled as to what content I wrote. It would seem that my feelings on the subject have now been crystallised after a report from The Advertising Standards Authority specifically targeting Vloggers (video bloggers) who have been promoting commercial products and using product placement in their videos, for which advertising agencies and public relations firms have been financially rewarding them for. Whether The Advertising Standards Authority actually have any power over Vloggers is debatable; many are based outside of the UK, and other may be based in the UK, but use platforms that are hosted outside of the UK. I suspect that the ASA are having a bit of a “fishing trip” to see who they can scare into submission. I think that in many cases their words may prove to be an empty threat. I get the feeling that the ASA don’t really have much of a clue as to exactly how video services such as YouTube actually operate. Whilst a file may be uploaded from an I.P address in the UK, it may end up being hosted on a server in the USA, Japan or a host of other locations, from which it is then “broadcast” to viewers via the World Wide Web. Which country is legally responsible for video content? The country from whence it was uploaded, or the country that hosts the video files? Users may upload files using a proxy, mirroring the upload to a third location anywhere in the world – The Advertising Standards Authority would need the resources of GCHQ to track activity of this nature, and I cannot see it ever happening. I think some clueless Whitehall Mandarin is blowing off steam over something that they really don't have a handle on. Let’s see what happens.

The area around Erith, Slade Green and Crayford has a long history of invention and engineering innovation. Factories have employed hundreds of local people for well over a century. Companies such as Maxim, Vickers and the Jennings Organ Company (later much more widely known as Vox) were based in the area and contributed much to the local economy. Many of the warehouses and factories that housed these companies are now long gone – in many cases housing has been built on their sites; only the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road is left of the original Victorian factory structures that once dominated the skyline. During both World Wars, the area economically benefited– for example in 1914, the number of trams run in Crayford and Erith was increased to transport the large number of munitions workers many of whom worked for Vickers making ammunition for use on the Western Front. With most of the young men volunteering for military service (conscription was yet to begin) many women entered paid employment for the first time, something that directly led to the start of female emancipation with the Representation of the People Act 1918. I have written at some length about inventor and businessman Hiram Maxim in the past; Maxim was American born but later naturalised British. He invented the sprung mouse trap, the first practical machine gun, the incandescent light bulb (though he famously failed to get the patent registered before Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan) and  the first heavier than air aircraft. After moving to England in 1881, Maxim began his aerial experiments at Baldwins Park, in the late 1880's, leading to the construction in 1893 of his enormous biplane Test-Rig, which weighed about three and a half tons. The machine's two steam engines each produced 180 horsepower. and turned two pusher propellers each 17-1/2 feet in diameter. Since the device was intended to be a test vehicle it was held to a track, preventing it from rising more than a couple of feet. On the Maxim Biplane Test-Rig's third test run, on July 31, 1894, with Maxim and a crew of three aboard, it lifted with such force that it broke the reinforced restraining track and careened for some two hundred yards, at times reaching an altitude of two or three feet above the damaged track. It was believed that a lifting force of some four and a half tons had been generated. After this, Maxim allowed his assistants to demonstrate the flying machine on a number of further occasions, but he took no further part in the development – he rightly realised that the machine was a design “dead end” as it lacked practical flight controls. It was not until 1903 that the Wright Brothers worked out their system of ailerons and rudders that made flying practical and controllable. Hiram Maxim was best known as the inventor of the Maxim machine gun, and many of these were manufactured both in Crayford, and in Fraser Road, Erith from 1887 onward. By 1903 the armaments part of the business (which was in a partnership with Vickers) was getting less orders, due to the end of the Boer War in South Africa. Some of the production capacity was turned over to producing motor vehicles – something that was still a bit of a cottage industry in the UK.  The factory produced Wolseley type cars under the name Siddeley Autocars. This ceased in 1910, when the manufacture of cars was moved to Birmingham. During the First World War both the Crayford and Erith plants produced Vickers machine guns (a development of the original Maxim gun made with fewer parts which was cheaper to mass produce and also more reliable and easy to maintain). What is less well known is that Vickers Vimy bombers were also constructed on a limited basis. It is thought that the aeroplane which transported Alcock and Brown on the historic very first flight across the Atlantic was one of those produced locally. In the present the fact that both Erith and Crayford were major arms manufacturing towns is unknown to many residents; indeed the only relic of the Vickers Maxim factory in Erith is that the area of shops and houses located at the bend where Woolwich Road becomes Fraser Road is still known by older locals as “The Pom Pom” – due to the sound of guns being tested in the dedicated shooting range that was adjacent to the factory for many years. I think it sad that many people still call the area by the informal name, but very few seem to know the actual reason for it. Nowadays one could be forgiven for thinking that all of the changes that have happened over the years that arms manufacturing was no longer something that no longer happened locally. In matter of fact nothing could be further from the truth. Slade Green is home to Manroy Engineering, a company that specialises in the manufacture and refurbishment of machine guns and light cannon for the military. They also make all sorts of weapon mounts, gun turrets for armoured vehicles and assorted other military hardware such as specialised sniper rifles and vehicle armour packages. They keep a very low profile for security reasons, but they are actually located on the Power Works site on Slade Green Road. It is amazing what a little bit of searching on Google Street view can find!

As regular readers will be aware, I am a great fan of Google Chromebook computers. They are very cheap, simple and light, and are capable of a great deal, as long as one has a Wi-Fi or 3G / 4G network connection. In essence they are not a “full” laptop, rather a cut – down device that only runs a sophisticated web browser. To be honest, for many people who used web based Email, check Facebook or upload photos to Instagram or Flickr, a Chromebook is more than enough – cloud based storage and browser based applications are the norm for very many people. There are certain pieces of software which cannot be run via a browser – complex applications such as AutoCAD and Photoshop have always had to be installed on a local hard disk, and have historically required high end PC’s to operate. This is now starting to change. The producers of Photoshop – Adobe Systems have been quietly working with Google for the last couple of years in order to produce a version of Photoshop that will be capable of running within a web browser and will not require to be installed locally. The way it works is pretty simple. The application is downloaded via the Chrome Web Store, and when you open it up you are actually connecting to a server which is running the desktop version of Photoshop CC 2014. The user interface of the desktop version is captured as a video and sent to your web browser, where JavaScript relays your actions back to the server, completing the interactive loop. It is not much different from how a virtual machine setup works, but it means that the application could be run in the browser on any computer — even on Chromebooks. Adobe essentially wants to let you stream a pound-for-pound copy of Photoshop, and I understand that the company is about ninety percent there. It does, however, have its limits. Right now, Photoshop Streaming works exclusively with files hosted on Google Drive, but  Adobe hopes to add the ability to work with other cloud storage services down the road. There are core functions that don't work in the program at the moment, such as printing, or processes that require a GPU (Graphic Processing Unit) like Photoshop's 3D functions. Otherwise, everything from making layer masks to using the Camera Raw editor works, though it was difficult to judge the amount of lag over the screen sharing software. Adobe will use the trial period to build out functionality and troubleshoot the overall experience from the feedback it gets. Initially the web based version will be offered to schools and colleges in the USA. Many educational institutions are full of people working with low-end hardware — which is what Adobe wants to optimise the program for. Once Adobe feels comfortable with the experience it will open up the trial to a broader audience and, hopefully a commercial release in the not too distant future. This could well prove to be a “killer app” for Chromebooks – but, as they say, time will tell.

A couple of readers have mentioned to me that nothing seems to be happening with the old Andrew Carnegie gifted Erith Library building in Walnut Tree Road, opposite the new Bexley College campus, which has been empty and unloved since the library was relocated to the soulless eyesore of a new building in the High Street. One person has even enquired with Wetherspoon’s as to if they would consider converting it into a pub and restaurant, but apparently got a response in the negative. I am aware that negotiations are under way to put the superb building into productive use, but I will refrain from mentioning the details at this point as this might potentially put any deal at risk; suffice to say the proposed use will be excellent and very beneficial to all concerned if it get the green light.  Hopefully more news on this subject in the not too distant future.

The ending video should prove to be of interest to many readers. As I covered back at Easter, this year was the fiftieth anniversary of Radio Caroline coming on the air, back in 1964. It was also the fiftieth anniversary of Manx Radio beginning on the Isle of Man. As some may know, I used to work for Radio Caroline when it was still broadcasting from the South Falls Head in the North Sea back in the late 80's / early 90's. You can see a few photos from back then here. Manx Radio took the opportunity to visit the Ross Revenge, which has been the floating home of Radio Caroline since 1983 at its current mooring on the River Blackwater in Essex. I can now let you into a secret; for a couple of years there were negotiations between Radio Caroline and Bexley Council about mooring the Ross Revenge on Erith Pier during the 50th anniversary celebrations. I had a very minor role in the talks, but due to a number of reasons no agreement could be reached, and the project was regrettably scrapped. If the ship had come to Erith Riverside, as well as broadcasting on a short term RSL (Restricted Service Licence) it would have been open to the public. I had several conversations with my old boss, Caroline Managing Director Peter Moore about the situation, and had things panned out differently, I could have had a small role in responsibility for the ship and the station, had the trip to Erith been made. It however was not to be the case. The video below shows the Ross Revenge as she looks today - which is far smarter than back in the day when I was on board, when it looked like a floating student bedsit for the most part. Now she is far better cared for, and at certain times can be visited by the public. Radio Caroline broadcasts 24/7 on the internet - you can listen live by clicking here, and the station has a large and active listenership around the world; watch the video and see what you think.