Place Name
Industrial heritage. Despite its unpromising boggy ground this small corner of Wandsworth sitting at the mouth of the River Wandle as it flows into the Thames has quite the history of industry. For many years there stood Lower Mill, which ground flour, this was the last of the very many water mills that relied on the Wandle to turn its machinery, while the nearby Union Brewery used the vast quantities of water to make beer for Langton & Sons and later, in 1902, as a subsidiary of the Holsten Brauerei of Hamburg, making Holsten Pils. The brewery closed down in 1920 as a result of anti-German feeling. Across the marshes, this isolated location made it ideal for more dangerous industries and in the late 19thCentury The Osiers fireworks factory was set up here, owned by one Harry J Cadwell. As well as fireworks it is also likely to have manufactured caps for toy pistols and snaps for Christmas Crackers. In 1895 the factory was burnt to the ground after a fire was left untended in one of the machines overnight, around £1,000 of damage was done. Unfortunately it was not insured, perhaps because four years earlier Mr Caldwell had been fined £100 for several breaches of the Explosives Act, most notably unsafe practises at work and a huge amount of explosives (well above that allowed by law). Later it became the Morganite Works and the Shell Oil Terminal and a number of other smaller industries. APV Holdings made armaments in the First World War and petrol tanks for Spitfire aircraft in the Second. The industry slowly declined in the late 20thCentury and the land was cleared for housing from the 2000s onwards.
