I moved to the Woolwich area in 1975, and from 1976 until 1982 I lived on the Abbey Wood estate.
Abbey Wood is now well known for being the south-east London terminus of the Elizabeth Line, but back in 1976 the estate was surprisingly isolated. The council-built estate is roughly triangular is shape, with the southern edge being delineated by the railway line from Woolwich to Abbey Wood and the north side by the Southern Outfall sewer bank. The eastern side is bounded by a road - Harrow Manor Way - and the westernmost part of the former GLC Thamesmead estate. There is one road onto and out of the estate, Eynsham Drive, and local bus services connect the estate to Woolwich, Plumstead, Erith, and Bexleyheath. There is a small local shopping area, a comprehensive school, several primary schools, a number of churches and public houses, a library, and a medical centre. As a result, many of the local residents tended to stay within the Abbey Wood area and it developed its own unique community outlook.
In the run up to the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War it was suggested that a local Garden of Remembrance be created in Abbey Wood. In February 2014, the London Borough of Greenwich donated a small piece of derelict land for such a garden, and by April work had begun to clear the site. The original intention was that the memorial would be a simple one a that listed the names of fifteen servicemen who had links with Abbey Wood and who had died during the First and Second World Wars. Finance for the project came in the form of a grant of £200 by C2K Community Centre and a £300 donation by Network Rail.
The Memorial Garden was officially opened by the Mayor of Greenwich on the 30th August 2014. The Mayor was accompanied by soldiers from the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich as well as a number of local Royal Air Force Cadets, and the blessing and dedication was performed by the Vicar of William Temple Church, Abbey Wood.
In September 2016 it was decided to fully redevelop the garden, and work began to assemble the necessary materials and funds. By the middle of November 2016, the original garden had been stripped bare and the ground dug over, and by the end of the year over a thousand used bricks, twenty-seven barrow loads of paving slabs, and hardcore had been collected. In February 2017, Crossrail (now the Elizabeth Line) contractors Balfour Beatty offered their assistance, and local people raised almost £10,000. There was also a donation of £1,500 from Skanska Costain, who were also one of the contractors involved in the building of Crossrail.
In addition to the help of workers from Balfour Beatty, members of the Thamesmead & Abbey Wood Royal British Legion helped with the work of rebuilding and re-modelling the garden. This was completed by the beginning of July 2017, and on 2nd July 2017 - the 75th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein - the memorial garden was formally reopened.
The ceremony was performed by Dr Pieter Van Der Merwe - the Deputy Lord Lieutenant - and Greenwich's Mayor, Peter Brook, A large number of organisations, including the Royal Air Force, the Royal Artillery, the Royal Navy Cadets, the Royal British Legion, and Councillors from the London Borough of Greenwich, were in attendance, and as two of the people commemorated in the memorial garden were Canadian, Colonel Rory Radford of the Canadian High Commission also attended the ceremony.
The entrance to the Abbey Wood Memorial Garden.
One plaque in the part of the memorial garden dedicated to children commemorates the children killed by the Germans during the Lidice massacre.
One large board in the memorial garden lists the personal details of those people from Abbey Wood who died during the numerous conflicts that occurred from 1900 onwards.
