There’s a lot of history in the ECCO area to be discovered. Check out our history pages https://eastcroydon.org.uk/the-history-of-east-croydon/

Grants up to £2500. Projects must be completed between 1 February – 12 April

• celebrate/commemorate Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his legacy
• explore/celebrate/commemorate Global Majority heritage
• explore/surface/celebrate a Croydon hidden history

More information https://www.culturecroydon.com/apply-to-our-samuel-coleridge-taylor-150-grants-programme/

Image from the Autograph ABP website
Thomas Johnson (on the right) with his wife (seated) had both been enslaved.  They came to London from America in 1876 as beneficiaries of the Manchester YMCA and the Baptist Missionary Society of London.  The other couple are C.H. Ricardson and his wife who arrived a year later to accompany the Johnson’s on their mission.  The photograph was taken in 1878, shortly before they left for West Africa.  Johnson taught and preached in the village of Bakundu in Cameroon.  However, after his wife died, his own ill health forced him to return to England in 1880.  He continued to preach and give lectures on Africa in Ireland and America, as well as England. He also ran a Sunday School in the roller skating rink on Cherry Orchard Road c1910.