MOSES LINE  1829 - 1892

(contributed to our web site by Mr.David Proud)

Moses Line was born in Snodland in Kent in 1829. Little is known of his parents. He came to Chislehurst in c1849 at the age of 21 and the 1851 census shows him living at 164 Prickend with his younger sister by two years Elizabeth D Line.

Moses married Sarah Wood probably in 1852 and between them they had ten children all of whom were baptised in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. They were Elizabeth (31/8/1853), Emily (28/4/1855), Harry (26/3/1858), Arthur (8/9/1859), Herbert (30/5/1862), Mary (17/1/1864), Eva 924/9/1865), Sidney (1/5/1867), Louise (20/12/1868), Percy (8/11/71)

At the time of the 1851 census Moses was a Grocer and Draper and during the succeeding ten years added grocery wholesaling to the business but it was not until the mid 1870s that his businesses really took off.

In 1876 he formed a partnership Wood Line, probably with his brother-in-law, to produce mineral waters from a factory in Park Road. Such was the initial success that they could not meet demand and in 1879 advertising space had to be taken in the Bromley Record to apologise to customers for shortage of supplies and to announce major expansion. In the meantime Moses’ original business was expanding with the addition of an Outfitters in 1880. By 1887, by which time he was trading as H. Line and Son, the businesses comprised Family Grocers, Provision Merchants, Oil and Italian Warehousing, General and Fancy Drapers, a Boot and Shoe Shop, a Milliners, and an Outfitting department which supplied made-to-measure clothes as well as ready made. By this time they were trading at nos 1,2, and 3, Chislehurst West and were sporting in their advertisements the supply warrant to the Empress Eugenie. It is thought that by now they had had developed a three story property, known then as Regent House, next to the original shop to accommodate the growing enterprise and there is also mention of ‘Lines Cottages’ thought to have been erected at the rear of the premises adjacent to Queens’s Terrace. This tends to support hearsay that at one time Moses owned most of the shops on the north side of what is now the High Street.

In 1886 the Partnership changed at the Chislehurst Mineral Water Works with the ownership now being in the hands of Line Shaddock and Co. The reason for this is not known but could possibly have been due to the death of the previous partner. Nothing is known of the new partner. Under the new partnership the Mineral Water Works continued to flourish. Not only did they have a depot at Blackboys yard in Sevenoaks but also one at Spittal Street Dartford. An advertisement of 1890 refers to investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and further advertisements talk of yet further expansion of the factory to meet demand. Pictures of the factory in successive advertisements show at least three additions to the factory buildings to accommodate the continuing growth in trade.

The Mineral Water Works were ahead of their time with their marketing not just in terms of advertising but also with the use of branding. The brand WL was used initially (obviously taken from Wood Line) and this was also carried through changes of ownership with ‘HL’ also being used presumably as Harry Line became involved with the business.

It is known that the company operated one of the first steam powered lorries in existence for the purpose of transporting stock from the factory in Chislehurst to their depots in Sevenoaks and Dartford. It was apparently a daily sight for residents of what is now known as Royal Parade as it passed through on its way to Sevenoaks.

A number of bottles used by The Chislehurst Mineral Water Works are available for viewing at Bromley Museum located at Orpington. These include salt glazed ginger beer bottles, early torpedo shaped glass bottles, Codd bottles and glass of various sizes.

The success of Moses’ businesses was probably mainly down to his integrity and entrepreneurship but also due to the large population growth at Chislehurst. Notes from the prefaces of local directories of the time indicate that the population was doubling every 10 years. During Moses 43 years in Chislehurst he would have seen significant changes.

The main part of Chislehurst, then known as ‘The Village’, was centred around what is now ‘Royal Parade’. What now is known as the High Street was in the early 1800s known as Prickend. As this area grew both in population and housing shops developed first on the south side. Moses’ initial premises seem to have been one of the earliest buildings on the north side along with the original Queens Head and the Wesleyan Chapel on the corner of what is now Park Road. The later White and Bushell’s hardware store appears to have been built onto the front of the chapel building and the two amalgamated. From that point there was nothing on that (north) side before the White Horse pub at the top of White Horse Hill.

Maps of the time show that Willow Grove went from a no-through country lane with no houses to a road with a number of imposing residential houses one of which, Blacklands, became the Line family home probably in the 1880s. As far as can be ascertained this house was located on the north corner of what is now Willow Vale and Willow Grove. (Much later Blacklands was occupied by a veterinary surgeon). After Moses death the family seem to have moved a few houses up the road to Willow Grove Villa (1901 census).  Later this same residence seems to have been known in numbered parts of Willow Grove Villa e.g. No 1 Willow Grove Villas etc.

Again during this time Park Road came into being with houses being built along its entire western length on either side of the Mineral Water factory. On the eastern side houses were also built as well as in Queens Road. This would have run up the back of Moses’ High Street premises and significantly this is where Lines Cottages were located. A street map of 1890 shows that at that point in time there was no significant development west of the Willow Grove / Park Road junction.

Moses was heavily involved with the building of the new Wesleyan chapel between 1868 and 1870 (in what is now called Prince Imperial Way) and he is commemorated as a benefactor in a window situated in the church. Hearsay says that it was he who was responsible for negotiating the purchase of the land on which the church was built however the ‘History of Chislehurst’ (which is occasionally unreliable in its perspective) maintains the land was donated by the trustees of John Stroud the late owner of Camden Place. Whatever the previous ownership of the land or the circumstances a condition of the deal was that the Wesleyans had to agree to liturgical morning and evening prayer being used for Sunday services. Moses was certainly a trustee of the church from the time it was built until his death and saw it flourish. Indeed the gallery had to be added in 1881 to provide more seating and two years later the south transept was also added for the following reason. It seems that at the same time the rooms at the back of the church were added as well as the ‘upper room’ to accommodate smaller meetings. This was followed by the building of a substantial manse next to the chapel. In the meantime in 1875 a Sunday school in Willow Grove had been built which subsequently saw too enlargements and later became a church day school as well. A schoolmaster’s house was also built on the site. Further hearsay links Moses Line as a Sunday School Teacher.

Clearly the Wesleyans were a major influence in the fast developing working-class area of West Chislehurst. This may well have produced some envy in the eyes of Anglican landed-gentry patrons whose estates lay in the area known then as the ‘Village’ where St Nicholas Parish Church was situated. It was probably not without co-incidence that as the new Wesleyan chapel neared completion a new Anglican parish was created in West Chislehurst and work started in 1870 on the construction of the Church of the Annunciation. This seems to have been a hurried move as work started without adequate funding and stopped at least once when cash ran out. It was good fortune that the cash crisis co-incided with the publication of ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ which had been compiled by a team including the then rector of Chislehurst, Canon Murray, who kindly diverted his share of the royalties to fund the completion of the ‘Annunciation’. Typical of attitudes at the time the 1909 publication ‘The History of Chislehurst’ while chronicling the lives of the noblefolk of Chislehurst interestingly chooses to ignore the development of West Chislehurst, its people and its non-conforming churches. Not surprisingly it makes no mention of Moses Line despite his influence as major businessman, benefactor, and property owner.  It is a mystery how Moses Line who was closely identified with the working class of West Chislehurst, being ‘in trade’, and his strong Wesleyan involvement, managed to become a member of the Parochial Committee or indeed to be ultimately buried in the St Nicholas churchyard.

Moses was a well respected member of the community and had a reputation for both his kindness and care for others. There is a story about how he took pity on a distraught woman whose felonious husband had been vilified as an effigy to be burnt on the annual bonfire by Prickend Pond. To console her Moses gave her half a ham!  Each year Moses laid on a summer treat for the children of West Chislehurst using the Mineral Water Company’s horse drawn drays to take them to the fields behind the White Horse Hotel. There they would be treated to a picnic and a free supply of the company’s lemonade.

Moses is recorded as being a member of the Charity Organisations Society as well as a member of the Chislehurst Parochial Committee.

Around Christmas time 1891 Moses was “attacked by influenza” which turned into bronchitis and a “compilation of disorders” over the next six months. He died at his 

home, Blacklands, Willow Grove on 24^th May 1892. He was buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas Church, Chislehurst three days later on the 27^th with the Rector, the Rev. Canon Murray officiating. Despite reports at the time that he had died at the age of fifty-four he was in fact sixty-three.

Two years before his death Elizabeth (Lizzie) his eldest child died at the age of 25. Of his other surviving children Arthur appears to have become involved with the family Outfitting and Clothing wing while living at 7, Red Hill Villas while Harry (later to move on marriage to 11, Red Hill) and Herbert were both involved with the Mineral Water business. Mary had become a Music Teacher and Eva a Housekeeper in the family house. Nothing is known of Sidney except that after Moses death he took over the fishmongers at 10 Royal Parade previously run by W Cooling however he may have died shortly afterwards as four years later there is no record of either the business or Sidney. Percy was to die two years later in Jacksonville Florida having been shot allegedly while trying to stop a brawl.

It seems that within ten years of Moses’ death the businesses were no longer in the family apart from the mineral water works which continued as Line Shaddock and Co until 1926 whence it became Line and Co. The grocers business appears to have been taken over by W Uridge and later became Home and Colonial. The Drapers and millinery fell under the ownership of H R Judd and Co. There is no record of what happened to the Outfitters although this might have metamorphosised into J Wise a bootmaker who operated from no.2 High Street part of the erstwhile Line premises.  

DSP November 2005