Place Name
Lying on the southern boundary of what was, until the late 19thCentury, once marshland and reed beds. Osiers (Salix viminali) were common here. They were particularly useful for their robust leafs that could be weaved and dried to create household items, hence their other name the basket willow. The name itself comes from late Middle English, and is of French and Latin origin Stanford’s map of 1864 shows osier beds in the Wandle delta. Factories, which needed to be isolated, were established here in the 19thCentury, firstly a fireworks factory, itself known as The Osiers and owned by Harry J Cadwell. The same factory or another close by also made 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.
