Crayford

My father was born and raised in Crayford and my grandparents continued to live there until they passed on in the late 1960s.  I used to go to Crayford a lot as a child.
 
Crayford Social Club is a working man's club close to the Waterside and was built in 1925; my parents used to take the family there on Saturday evenings. Nearby, the Crayford and Bexleyheath Stadium was a greyhound racing stadium; we knew it as Crayford Dogs and, as children, went there on several occasions.  In 1985 it was rebuilt as part of a development project by Ladbrokes into a new greyhound track and sports stadium and renamed Crayford Stadium.  I took my father there in 2016 as a treat and the picture shows greyhounds being paraded before a race (I didn't back the winner!)

The Penny Farthing micopub opened in 2014 in what was originally an old bicylce shop on the Waterside; it is a superb place. There is no music, mobiles are not to be used for talking and beer is served from the wood - the picture shows me and dad enjoying a pint after the greyhound racing.

Crayford Clock Tower, a commemoration of the coronation of Edward VII, was constructed in 1902. It has a secondary purpose; it is also a sewage lift station - there are vents at the top of the tower. 
 
Looking up the High Street, we see the Dukes Head pub on the left and the green top of the Masjid Abu Makar (the Methodist Church was converted to a mosque in 2007); at the top of the hill is the tower of St Paulinus Church.  This church is of great relevance to the family as my parents were married there and now buried there too; my father was christened there, as was I.Read more