The area that became known as Clapham was built mainly of working class houses and comprised of the streets listed below:-
1. Sweetbriar St.
2. Alvin St.
3. Swan Rd.
4. Guinea St.
5. Worrell St.
6. Council St.
7. Sherbourne St.
8. Suffolk St.
9. Columbia St.
10. Union St.
11. Worcester Parade.
12. Sebert St.
For about one hundred years the name of Clapham existed only in its verbal form and was never officially recognised until after the majority of the streets above were demolished and the blocks of flats were built in Alvin St. The City Council then named the block of flats Clapham Court. So far as we can determine this was the first time that the name of Clapham had officially been recognised by the powers that be ( when referring to the area within Kingsholm Gloucester )
One of the disadvantages of being a verbal name only was that no official records were kept under the name of Clapham but instead became incorporated under the name of Kingsholm and therefore any records of Clapham itself became blurred.
The very name 'Clapham' has been the subject of many varied theories as to its origin and will be discussed in depth at a later stage within our Website.
Any knowledge or theories/stories about this would be appreciated.
We have a Committee that meets once a month and in addition we have a few key helpers/workers. The Committee consists of:-
Eric Jones. Chairman.
Shirley Dicks. Treasurer.
Joan Price. Secretary.
Albert Mayo.
Frances Polson.
Bernard Polson.
Allison Bailey.
Fred Maysey.
Eric Jones has been ill for some time but hopefully he will make a full recovery soon.
Bernard ''Dinky'' Polson is the general organizer for the project. He initiates the monthly group meetings at the Spartans Rugby Social Club. He and his son, Kim are in the process of making a film about Clapham and they are also designing and building a Website. Bernard has also amassed a photo collection of Clapham of over 800 photos so far and is supervising the line drawings of all of the streets of Clapham.
One of the other key workers helping him in his endeavours is his wife, Frances who he describes as ''The World's best gopher''. Fran walks six miles to work and back every day to her full time Tesco job and much of her spare time is taken up with the Clapham Project although she herself did not originate or live in Clapham.
One of the other key workers in the group is Kim Polson, Bernie's son, who combines computer work for the film as well as the Website plus camera and prodution work for the film.
We have commissioned an artist ( Rob Rowland ) to draw the streets of Clapham from peoples memories and several key workers have helped in this so far. They are:-
Harry Wheeler.
Albert Mayo.
Marie Spalding.
Fred Maysey.
Ruth King.
Eventually the results of their work will be seen on the film and on the Website.
So far three streets have been completed and some of the streets have needed two drawings.
Copyright for these drawings stays with Bernard ''Dinky'' Polson and Rob Rowland.
Bernard ''Dinky'' Polson and the Committee act as agents for the Clapham group.
Other key workers in other types of work include Adrian Polson, Pam Mathias and Shirley Dicks.
We are doing our best to ensure that Old Clapham and its inhabitants will be known about long after we ourselves are gone.
