please empty your brain below
Why let the facts get in the way of a good marketing promotion?
Plaque 13 could have been bus stop M, with the added bonus that you might be able to get home from here.

scrumpy | 20.06.19 - 8:00 a.m. | #

Not your fault, DG, but a very depressing story which fails to distract me from other depressing news.

Malcolm | 20.06.19 - 8:26 a.m. | #

More historical inaccuracy on the clickable guide: No. 12, Bow Bridge. Queen Matilda was the granddaughter (not daughter) of King Malcolm III of Scotland and was married to King Stephen of England, not King Henry I. The whole story of how the bridge was named after its shape of a 'bow' sounds like folklore to me, but I can't check this out myself.

dg writes: It's very widely-accepted folklore.

Charles | Homepage | 20.06.19 - 8:41 a.m. | #

And what shape exactly is a "pudding bowl"? As the word pudding derives from either a case made of some animal's entrails filled with other matter, or latterly, a cloth tied in a ball around some edible matter that is boiled, the idea that there is a bowl at all is just preposterous. I suspect 'pudding mill', or specifically, the mill pond, was probably renowned for collecting the blood and wastes from butchery and tanning business slightly up stream. That is, this was a noxious place. People don't want to be reminded of that though so, it is not surprising that the real reason gets lost in the mists of time.

B | 20.06.19 - 9:52 a.m. | #

The helping hands monument at Three Mills commemorates the three men who died down a well nearby. The report says the cause was carbon dioxide (which suffocates without any warning). Urban explorers beware!

Bob L-S | 20.06.19 - 10:05 a.m. | #

The windmill on that blue plaque looks a little... phallic.

Zappomatic | 20.06.19 - 11:08 a.m. | #

Charles, I think you are mixing up your Queen Matildas - easy to do, as all three Queen Consorts in the Norman era had the same name.

timbo | 20.06.19 - 12:16 p.m. | #

Whoops, Timbo -- I think you may be right! Should have checked before I commented!

Charles | Homepage | 20.06.19 - 1:46 p.m. | #

I am not clear whether Pudding Mill in Stratford was a windmill or a water mill. There was a tidal water mill called Pudding Mill in Southwark, near Blackfriars and Bankside, for several centuries. I wonder if there is some common reason for these mills having that name - perhaps that both were shaped like pudding bowls.

Andrew | 20.06.19 - 2:19 p.m. | #

Thanks for your interesting article DG

I've been doing a bit of research of the area and came across the British History On-Line website which holds a copy of the Victoria County History publications. These are a fascinating read for anyone interested in the history of the area, Volume 6 of the County of Essex includes a section on the Ancient Mills in West Ham.

In it there is are several paragraphs detailing the history of the Pudding Mill, also known as St Thomas's Mill, including a reference to it's demolition in 1934. Hope it is of interest.

IanD | 20.06.19 - 4:40 p.m. | #

The deaths at Three Mills are also commemorated on one of the plaques on the Postman's Park memorial I believe.

Tony Martin | 20.06.19 - 11:15 p.m. | #

Any idea if the footpath around Three Mills Studios, which links to Three Mills Lock along the Channelsea River, and which has been closed off for a long time now, will ever reopen?

Darren Reynolds | 22.02.20 - 5:11 a.m. | #











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