THE Testonites were fully aware of William Wilberforce's friendship with the Prime Minister of the day William Pitt, who born at Hayes, near Bromley.

Pitt went on to build a house at Holwood, Keston and one marker on the path to abolition still exists in the form of a bench at the side of the footpath on the boundary of the Holwood estate, just south of Keston ponds.

The bench commemorates the spot where Wilberforce sat with Pitt under an ancient oak tree (of which there is very little left to see).

The Wilberforce Oak as it became known was the place where the two men first decided to bring the abolition bill before Parliament in 1788.

Pitt was always reassuring his friend Wilberforce that he was totally committed to the abolitionist cause, and yet he was thought by some to be dragging his feet over the issue.

Pitt's poor health, drink problems and personal debt, not to mention the equally pressing Catholic emancipation Bill and an on-off war with Napoleon might have had some bearing on his flagging enthusiasm for his friend's obsession. Pitt also had to be seen to be loyal to King George III.

Not far from William Pitt lived a staunch anti-abolitionist, Viscount Sydney. His estate was at Frognal, the site of Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup today. Viscount Sydney of Chislehurst was more renowned for the part he played in the setting up of a penal colony in Australia; hence Botany Bay Lane and The Sydney Arms, both in Chislehurst, and Sydney, Australia.

He was so against the abolition of the slave trade that it was one of the reasons he retired from politics in disgust.