PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History


Click here to return to the Home page 
Click here for more information about this website 
Click here to go to the A - Z Contents page 
Click here to go to the Links page 
Click here to go to the Disclaimer page 
Click here to link to the Can you help? page
Click here for information about the sources of the information in Plymouth Data 
Click here to return to the Keyham Memories - Introduction page 
Click here to visit the shops in Station Road, Keyham , in the 1950s  
Click here to find out about the bus service at Keyham, Plymouth, in the 1960s 
Click here to find out about the train service at Ford Station, Keyham in the 1960s


KEYHAM MEMORIES

6 - IN THE BEGINNING

As I have said elsewhere, it was the history of Keyham Barton that started me off in local history.  That was in 1961 but it seems like only yesterday.  It might therefore not be amiss to include something about the origins of the housing in the area, even though this story is well before my time and thus cannot claim to be a "Keyham Memory".

If you stand on the Blockhouse at Stoke and look towards Keyham it is impossible to believe that the area was once just fields.  But this is what it looked like circa 1860:

LM-Keyham 1860.jpg (26812 bytes)

At the bottom is Keyham Lake, now St Levan Road, and at the top, Weston Mill Lake.  Keyham Farm, the original Barton, is shown along with Keyham Quarry and, somewhat surprisingly, the Sportsman's Arms Public House in the middle of nowhere.  At the top, on the shore of Weston Mill Lake, is the Keyham Chemical Works.

It will be noted that a track leads up from Keyham Bridge, by the "O" in Stoke, to the railway bridge at what is now Station Road.  The main access to Keyham Barton was from the Saltash Road.  The Ford area was already laid out at this time.

 

Copyright:   Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK

Page created: 15 May 2006

Any problems should be notified to the webmaster at plymouthdata dot info