In 1787 when Gerald Bulsom wrote the above in his journal it was in reference to a weekend spent at a cousin’s farm in Brocklea. Whether the entry refers to the cousin’s hygiene or the area in general is not made clear, however it matters not. Brocklea or Brockley as it later became known, was widely regarded, even in those days, as a place best avoided. Situated to the south east of London and surrounded by inhospitable woods and terrible roads, it was a dank, unwelcome place. It was a popular stopping point for  roaming gipsy tribes, and regularly attracted other types traditionally frowned upon by civil society.

Matters weren’t helped any by the notoriety of Brockley’s most famous son, the highwayman nicknamed Brockley Jack, whose debauched reign of terror began in 1784 and ended with his arrest and subsequent hanging in 1789 by angry (and probably humiliated) locals.

Jacks modus operandi was to waylay unsuspecting gents on the way home from local ale-houses, hold them at pistol point and force them to remove their trousers and perform lewd acts with his nag Long Jarvis. Even now, two hundred years since he was sent to his maker, Brockley Jack’s name is still used when referring to any sexual act of an unsavory nature.

Why then, that it was in Brockley that Odham MacGuinness chose to build his new home Buckthorney is anyone’s guess, but in 1906 that is what he did.