In March in place of the planed talk, we were treated to an impromptu potted history of Top o’ th’ Lane and its history from Bernard Fleming, supported by Pat Fleming. The cottages there were originally built for quarrymen and weavers. The weavers collected bales of cotton from barges on the canal and wove it into cloth in the cottages after which it was taken for dyeing in the mill at Lower Copthurst. Small though they are, some cottages contained up to six looms and at one time there were some 300 people living in the cottages.
The Brindle Workhouse, although started by the parish in the early 1700’s in a small converted mass house, later took in the poor from numerous parishes in the area and became a substantial business, housing between 200 and 300. At one time some 80 townships were recorded as sending their poor to Brindle.
In the 1800’s there was a very large meeting of Chartists on top of Denham Hill when a number of thousands of people came from the surrounding area to hear the outcome of a vote in parliament on electoral reform. The conditions in the workhouse were harsh and it was closed in 1843. During the cold war post WW2, a Royal Observer Corps monitoring post was constructed on Denham Hill. Closed in 1991, this “nuclear bunker” is currently being restored with the aid of a Lottery grant. There is so much of interest at Top o’ th’ Lane, and it was a busy place. We are considering arranging a walk round during a summer evening to see and hear more.
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