Gallery
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Round Ash Way looking east Round Ash Way looking towards the green from Oast Way 

Round Ash Way looking west.

Conifer Avenue from Fairby Lane end

These three roads were built in two phases on land that was formerly part of Fairby Grange. All the road names are fairly explanatory, although Round Ash Way has lost the Ash tree on the green which gives it its name. Originally the houses were named, but in 1973 the roads were numbered at the request of the residents to make it easier for public services.

Round Ash Way has 26 detached houses, leading to the Primary School, while another dozen detached houses make up Conifer Avenue. However Oast Way is a little different with 6 detached houses and 8 bungalows in pairs joined by their garages.

From the earliest the land that underlies Round Ash Way belonged to Fairby Farm, in the 19th century it was pasture land called Upper Meadow and Lower Meadow (numbers 22-30 (even) overlie Upper Meadow, the rest of the road was once Lower Meadow). When Alfred Salter bought Fairby and the remaining 13 acres of grounds in 1917, he turned the house into a nursing home for mothers and babies, while the grounds became a nursery too - of trees and flowers to beautify his borough of Bermondsey. According to Fenner Brockway ("The Bermondsey Story") "One of his first actions after Labour secured a majority in 1922 was to present it to the borough council for two purposes: the building and the gardens were to be used to rehabilitate the lives of mothers and children after childbirth or illness, the estate was to be used to grow trees and flowers for the beautification of Bermondsey. Mr W H Johns, the Borough Gardens Superintendent, soon got to work plaing striplings of elms, poplars, planes and acacias in long rows, and within a year they were being transplanted to the streets of Bermondsey". Local people in Bermondsey were also offered bulbs from Fairby to make their own window boxes.

During the last war the land that would become Round Ash Way was mainly growing vegetables, with 2 acres of grassland being ploughed up for the first time in 1941. The War Agricultual Executive was impressed with the management, giving a grade A status.

When Fairby Grange was being sold by Bermondsey Council, a number of prospective purchasers applied for planning permission to see what the council's attidude would be (applications 54/339 and 55/80), as well as the eventual purchaser - Ron Billings. He applied in 1957 for what would become Round Ash Way, Conifer Avenue and Oast Way (application 57/258). It was a complicated application, with negotiations about mains drainage and the siting of the school to be settled before building could take place. The roads might have looked very different too - a 1961 draft shows 28 houses in Round Ash Way and no "round ash" at all; instead there would have been a grass verge in front of the even numbers. In addition Conifer Avenue would not have carried on to Fairby Lane. The conveyance of the school site (29 November 1963) shows a very different Oast Way, which would have joined Fairby Lane, instead of Conifer Avenue.

Number	Name	Date	Notes
Round Ash Way	South Side
1	Fairby House	1964
3	Tara	1964
5	Talland	1964
7	Catkins	1964
9	Lugano	1964
(Conifer Avenue)
11	Hatfield House	1964
13	Drumbrydan	1964
15	Fairstead	1964
17	Passfields	1964
19	Kesdene	1964
21	Tertan	1964
(Oast Way)
	North Side
2	Angles	1964
4	Laudara	1964
6	Suelin	1964
8	Dane Lodge	1964	Previously called "Bridence Cottage" (1964-66).
10	Plot 23	1964
12	Kwanzan	1964	Kwanzan is the name of a flowering cherry tree
14	Salters	1964	Named after Alfred Salter, who bought Fairby in 1917
16	Fairway	1964
18	Corrie	1964	Planning permission for ground and first floor side extension (SE/03/2252)
20	Penralt	1964	Penralt is a village in Gwynedd
22	Little Gidding	1964
24	Appleskip	1964
26	Kronberg	1964	Planning permission for front extension to ground floor (SE/01/1352)
28	Koinonia	1964
30	Birkenhaus	1964
Primary School			Planning permission renewed for mobile classroom (SE/00/1057)
Conifer Avenue
(Round Ash Way)	East side
1	Four Ways	1968
3	Amberley	1968
5	The Beild	1968	Beild means a "place of shelter"
7	Nova	1968	Planning permission for first floor rear extension (SE/01/617)
9	White Wings	1968
11	Utne	1968
13	Drybeck	1968
(Fairby Lane)
	West side
2	Sherwood	1964
4	Copperfields	1968
6	Holly Hey	1968	Possibly named after street in Knowsley; planning permission to convert garage to room (SE/02/2763)
8	Conifer House	1968
10	Appleton	1968
12	Tayga	1968
Oast Way
(Conifer Avenue)
1	Maltings	1970
3	Rangimarie	1970
5	Kimberley	1970
7	Wyndana	1970
9	Can Picafort	1970	Can Picafort is a place in Spain
11	White Gables	1970
13	Warwick	1970
15	Roundel	1970
17	Ventura	1970
19	Argil	1970
21	Ashoka	1966
(Round Ash Way)
2	Calella	1970
4	Kirabalu	1970
6	Tequendama	1970	Tequendama is a place in Argentina

Links:
Map (with link to aerial photograph) at Multimap.co.uk
Upmystreet profiles: Round Ash Way; Oast Way; Conifer Avenue
House Prices at Nethouseprices.com
Hartley Primary School