History
A brief and potted history of the Farm by it’s current Acting Chairman:
Ian Lowe
“The following brief history of the Farm owes no small debt to the wonderful work of Sigrid Werner, a local Historian, who’s knowledge is certainly second to none when it comes to the area around Stepney that the Farm occupies. I hope in time she might be able to flesh out the barest details I present here for your perusal”.
The area around Stepney Green and St. Dunstans Church has been extremely important, historically, for several centuries and the Farm itself contains a goodly portion of that history with archeaology dating back to the 16th Century and before on site. Indeed I’ve been told that there may be some links between the site and one of the reaffirmations of the Magna Carta (there have been several).
The remains of Worcester House’ are said to be located on the corner of Stepney Green and Garden Street, around the area of the current ruins visible to the public. Those are the entrance to what was the Chapel of ’Stepney College’ built c 1809 to train Baptist Ministers.
The ruins in the centre of the Farm, comprising of one large standing wall with two distinct styles of brickwork, and a lower wall running towards Stepney Way are said to be the last standing remains of a Congregational Church built in 1862-63 and subsequently virtually destroyed during the second world war. It was itself built to replace a much older Meeting House on the site.
The Stepney Meeting House was built in 1674 (possibly partly on the same site as the current remains or alongside) and was used to serve The Stepney Meeting, a very notable non conformist congregation set up in 1644.
It is notable because it is the site of the oldest non conformist Meeting House in Tower Hamlets, and quite possibly London. It is certainly one of the oldest in England.
At the boundary fence on Stepney way you can find a stone gate pier that was on one side of what would have been an open passageway that ran alongside the Church between Spring Garden Place and King John Street, it leads to the (now) blocked Archway you can see from inside the Farm.
In the middle of what is now the goat and sheep barn you can also find another little slice of more modern London history in the form of the remains of an old world war II bomb shelter.
Speaking of the second world war most of the housing that used to occupy the current site of Stepping Stones Farm was destroyed by air raids and the land left derelict for some time afterwards. This derelict land was a source of concern and frustration to many of the local residents and by 1978 due to the involvement of workers at Dame Collet House the first embryonic seeds of Stepping Stones Farm were born. During the first year alone over 82 wagon loads of rubbish were removed from the site in preperation for the creation of a new City Farm, not a dissimilar undertaking to what the current volunteers have been doing in fact.
Over the subsequent years the story of the Farm has been one of both heart warming success and unfortunate failure. One thing though has remained constant. It has always relied on volunteers from the local community to keep it’s spirit alive and vibrant.