The two estates, one at Northumberland Heath and the other in Crayford were being sold by the freeholder, the engineering and armaments firm, Vickers.

They were built for their workers by the Vickers company in World War I. The company exerted a huge influence over the Crayford area during the early 20th century, but the sale shows that they were prepared to off-load assets where there was no longer a business case to retain them.

Title page of sales particulars of Northumberland Heath and Whitehill Estates, published by Baxter Payne & Lepper, 1927.

Wendy Walters writes:

I grew up in Northumberland Way, my brother now lives opposite, and my sister in Whitehill Road in Crayford. My brother's neighbour grew up here and his dad was a Geordie who came down to work in the Vickers factory. The houses were different sizes, depending on the level of job in the factory: labourer, skilled, manager, etc. The smaller houses in and off Heath Way had baths in the kitchen until grants became available for bathrooms. There were bigger houses at one end of Northumberland Way. He also remembered Barnehurst County Primary opening as there wasn't enough room in Northumberland Heath, and could remember the orchards at the end of his garden disappearing for the ABC roads in the 1930s.