Place Name
Industrial heritage. A large lake had formed on the former Ham Fields in the pit dug for gravel excavation on land owned by William Tollemache, 9th Earl of Dysart, of Ham House in the first half of the 20thCentury. Work began in 1904 when the family leased a large area of the 348 acre Manor Farm to the Ham River Grit Company to extract sand and gravel for the growing construction industry. Within a decade the construction of a dock was underway to assist with transporting the gravel from the pits. By 1955 most of the pits had been filled in and in the 1960s a large area was covered with flats and houses and a new church, St Richard’s, was consecrated in 1967.
