Sunday 27 January 2008

History of London Borough of Bexley

The area now called the London Borough of Bexley came into existence in 1965 and unlike other London Boroughs does not possess a central hub like Bromley or Croydon or Lewisham but is an amalgamation of Thamesmead, Little Heath, Bostall, Picardy, Belvedere, Upper Belvedere, Lessness, Erith, North End, Slade Green, Northumberland Heath, Barnehurst, Barnes Cray, Crayford, Bexleyheath, Brampton, Welling, Danson, East Wickham, Falconwood, Blackfen, Lamorbey, Blendon, Bexley, North Cray, Foots Cray, Royal Park, Sidcup & Longlands.

Some of these places were not there 100 years ago. Most of these places were not there 200 hundred years ago. A few are mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 AD and Bexley has a charter for 814 AD. Beyond that we know the Roman road was called Casincstraete by the Saxons; and the rampart and ditch through the eastern boundary was called Faestendic which means strong dyke but whose origin may be primarily Iron Age.

Then we enter the realms before history with a Roman village called Noviomago somewhere on a rise between two streams in Welling where many Roman cremation urns have been found and a Romano-British settlement at Old Road Crayford. There have been a few Roman lead coffin burials in the area similar to the recent one in Spitalfields, London. There are Roman villas, spaced along the River Cray all the way up stream to Orpington beyond the present A20 which is Bexley’s southern boundary.

The River Cray flows north in a wide rounded valley to the east of the Borough and a smaller stream, the River Shuttle runs east to join it at Bexley. To the south of the River Shuttle is the range of hills ending at the Sidcup ridge. To the north is the Greenwich to Erith ridge with its high point at Shooters Hill just to the west of the Borough boundary. To the north of this ridge are the River Thames marshes stretching from Thamesmead around to Slade Green.

Although Bexley Borough seems to be an expanse of suburbia, each community is separated by a stretch of green woodland, parkland, riverine glades, open farmland, and marshes with an immense variety of different peaceful environments. It is in these green spaces that the wealth of the historical and archaeological landscapes can be seen and to which the ancient settlers were drawn.

John Acworth

Origin of North West Kent Placenames



In Welsh or Celtic, ‘Llandin’, means “sacred eminence” and is the old name for Parliament Hill, the highest point 6 km north west of the City of London (known to the Romans as Londinium). So perhaps London took its name from the Celtic religious site. About 3 km to the south east of this hill is another promontory known as the Penton or “sacred mound on the head”. The latter site is on the top of Pentonville Road between present day Kings Cross and the Angel.
There is also the River Thames, a name acknowledged to be pre-¬Roman. Within South East London we too have a Pen at Penhill and it is also at the end of a Iow ridge. There may be other Celtic names in the area but they have been overlain by Roman, Saxon and Early English names. Below and west of the Iron Age hillfort by the Thames Barrier in what is now Maryon Wilson Park have been found iron age buildings, and possibly the original site of Charlton or ‘Ceorlton’ - “free peasants village”.
To protect the area from incursions from down river from the earliest times, the ‘ness’, the high headland at the east end of the ridge known as Lessness, has visibility a long distance towards the estuary. This ancient name for a headland is unusual in this part of Britain. Also around the edge of the promontory is a rampart and ditch suggesting a fortified settlement showing its antiquity. ¬
Other local high points with ‘ton’ and possible Romano-British connections are Keston, Crotton, also Upton near the Roman Watling Street, all near springs. Vicus was a name given to Romano-British settlements near or on old Roman roads. On the eastern slopes of Shooters Hill is an early settlement’ now called East Wickham, which straddles the ridge between the north draining into the River Thames, and the tributaries of the River Shuttle to the south. Corrupted over time to Wick and with the addition of the suffix ‘ham’ - “estate”, and the Roman ‘Streate’ indicating the near Roman road, Wickham Street, latterly East Wickham is probably the earliest known Anglo-Saxon settlement in the area.
There are many Anglo-Saxon names in South East London mainly in the river valleys of the Ravensbourne, Beck, Kidbrook, Quaggy, Darent, Cray, and Shuttle. Some of these names may be original celtic or pre-celtic, such as Beck, Quaggy, Darent and Cray.
There was once a heated debate over which suffix ‘ing’ or ‘ham’ was amongst the first village settlement names. As ‘ham’ is “estate” and ‘ing’ is “of the people” it is obvious that the single ‘ham’ must come before the plural ‘people’. Locally Lewisham and Beckenham in the valley and Eltham (Alteham). on the hill, surrounded by springs, show the early reliance on a good water supply. And these were closely followed by ‘ingham’ the “estates of the people”, Bellingham, Mottingham, Farningham and ‘ington’ the “villages of the people”, Dansington (now Danson) , Orpington, Wilmington, Addington. There are not many ‘ing’ villages in the area, Welling probably noting the springs around it being a late hamlet on the edge of three parishes. There were ‘hurst’ ¬places on the hill, Chesilhurst = stony hill, and Hurst on the hill opposite Penhill south of the River Shuttle.
There were places in the valleys where there was wide grazing land for animals and arable land for crops on the edge of the woods. These were the ‘lea’ lands as at Bexley, Bromley, Lee, Brockley and Ruxley with the village on the higher land..
And to protect these settlements towns were created at the lowest fordable points on the Rivers Ravensbourne. Darent. and Cray at Deptford, Dartford and Crayford respectively, the first two being King’s lands and all have their origins lost in the mists of time. When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, 20 years after the Normans invaded, the compilers were only interested in the land that had been acquired by the Kings retainers and the Kent Volume is a good example of how the Archbishop, bishops and courtiers had spread themselves over the good farming land in the county. Many places are missing - who wants a village on a stony ridge (East Wickham) or hilltop (Chislehurst) or on the Darenth floodplain (Shoreham) or were these left to the Saxons. One has to remember that the winners write history, the losers hope to survive.
The names written down by the French scribes for each of the villages are their approximation to the sound of the name, i.e. Charlton = Cerletone, Keston = Cheston and Crofton = Croctune. But these Norman names might hide a hint of the origin, Charlton we know about, but Cheston must refer to the Roman fortification theory of the Iron Age Holwood hill known as Caesar’s Camp high on the bluff. As for Croctune, there is a Roman villa on top of the hill facing south east.
The Domesday Book and old maps hold a clue about Woolwich. On the River Thames up to 1965, there was part of Kent, North Woolwich on the north bank of the Thames opposite Woolwich. ‘Wich’ means port as in Fordwich and Greenwich. Woolwich owned by Hamo the Sheriff, who also leased Dartford from the King, was obviously the customs officer for London as ships passed through his land holding, basically two river frontages opposite each other, 65 acres in total, in the massive county tome. Recently found on the power station site fronting the river were probable Roman docks near the present ferry.
In Norman times there were many hundreds of acres of woodland in this area and in the weald. Most of the villages named in the Domesday Book are connected to water showing the settlement pattern. But there are many places, with stated Saxon churches not mentioned, such as there are many in the Kent listings that have not been located on the ground. Some places grow, evolve and vanish through emparking, civil wars, unproductive soil or lack of that vital bit of elbow grease needed to turn a few cogs, manual or non-manual.
Others have Royal connections, i.e. Eltham is spelt Alteham or high village. Does this relate to the early palace built there, whether it was a Saxon Royal Vill or purely that from the heights by the palace can be seen the City of London, therefore high village, Alteham.
There is a lot of history in place names but you have to know the history that created them, the geography that placed them, at that certain point where they still existed, before that great explosion called Greater London began to overwhelm them from 1850 onwards.
But it also happened much earlier too. In the West Riding of Yorkshire was a Saxon village with it’s parish boundaries on two rivers and a Roman road. Named Acworth on the earliest maps, its residents were on the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses and lost land and a few lives at the battle of Towton, just up the road, in 1461. The village is spelt correctly on John Speed’s map of Yorkshire, but once coal is found near the surface and new manorial owners are installed the place becomes Ackworth. It is a common mistake, even Samuel Pepys couldn’t resist writing about William Ackworth’s wife in Woolwich. . But there are three places named Acworth in the United States and as I know the family have spread around the world, there may be others I do not know about. People always name places after their family name or where they came from.

novionews

NOVIOMAGO - WHERE IS IT


An Article appeared in Sunday Telegraph on 30 July 2000 about Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit's discovery of 'Noviomagus' near West Wickham on the Roman Road to Lewes, and also the Roman road Mr. Philp has found from this town to Vagniacis (Springhead) to the Antonine Itinerary. He stated that the new road crosses the River Cray near Fordcroft Road, St. Mary Cray. The article seemed so vague on any other references to Noviomagus (Noviomago) that I sent the following letter to the Sunday Telegraph the next day and tried out my E-Mail skills. I had a quick reply on E-mail, which looked an automatic reply, within a minute and a letter dated 10 August 2000 thanking me for the letter and a copy had been passed to Mr. Brian Philp, Best wishes from Dominic Lawson, Editor.

The Editor
The Sunday Telegraph
1 Canada Square
London E14 5DT
Dear Sir,
Your article of the finding of a Romano-British village south of London near West Wickham, Kent and calling it by the Roman unknown whereabouts place name of Noviomagus is a very egocentric answer to a long sought conundrum and on the wrong Roman road. There is no mention of the other possibilities on Watling Street in the article.

The Museum of London has Noviomagus as Crayford on their display map of Roman London as was proposed late in the 19th Century when 'villas' were found on the outskirts of the town.
Dartford has also been proposed as Roman buildings have been found in the town. We know there was a place called Noviomagus as it appeared in the list of distances throughout the Roman Empire called the Antonine Itineraries. The lists were used by Empire officials, tax collectors, and government agents and they show distances between places on the main roads throughout the provincies. Itinerary III shows 27 Roman miles between Londinium and Durobrovis. As a Roman mile is equivalent to 1618 yards or 0.919 English miles then 12 Roman miles is slightly over 11 English miles. Using National Grid references, the actual distance from the south gate of Roman London (or London Bridge) TQ 328 803 and the west gate of Durobrovis (Rochester) TQ 742 688 is 26.7 English miles or 29.0 Roman miles. But that is direct and ignoring the bend in the River Thames at Greenwich and skirting south to Deptford to cross the River Ravensbourne.

Itinerary II is the schedule creating the problems with Noviomagus, called Noviomago on both known copies which show a total of 37 (or 38) Roman miles from Londinium to Duobrovis as thus:- Londinium - Noviomago x (10)
Noviomago - Vagniacis xviiii (19)
Vagniacis - Durobrovis viiii ( 9)

Vagniacis is Springhead, SW of Northfleet, at the spring line in the Ebbsfleet Valley near where the new Union Rail will sweep down to join with the Connex South East rail network before going under the River Thames bound for North London. The distance from Springhead to Rochester is 8 English miles, or just under 9 Roman miles, which equates with the Itinerary. There is another Wickham in West Kent, East Wickham. The Wickham derivative is usually taken to refer to a native settlement next to a Roman town. The hamlet, and old parish, is half a mile north of the Roman Watling Street and now part of Welling. On the early editions of the Ordnance Survey maps when the whole area was open fields, it is shown as having straight boundaries on the southern and eastern side of the parish. These straight boundaries are explained in a charter showing the grant of land called Bixle (Bexley) by Cenwulf, King of the Mercians to Uulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury in 814AD. This is in the short time that Mercia controlled Kent and one of a series of charters between these two men concerning lands in the country before Wessex overran Mercia from 825 AD.

The charter states in Anglo Saxon, in this part :-
OF THAM BURNAN ANDLANG HAGAN UN CASINCSTRAETE
EAST ANDLANG STRAETE ON SCOFFOCCES SAE
THANON NORTH ANDLANG STRAETE OTH LYTLANLEA

Or in English:-
From the stream along the hedge to Casincgstraete
East along street to Scoffocces Marsh
Then north along street to Little Lea.

The area stated on the charter is at the head if a valley where springs still occur but now channelled as the whole area has been built on, except the low lying area in the north part of Danson Park, south of the road, known here as Scoffocces Sae. Casincgstraete is the Saxon name for Watling Street in this area now Welling High Street and Park View Road, the unnamed street is now Gipsy Road in Welling which went due north down Knee Hill, Abbey Wood and Harrow Manorway out to the River Thames.

In this area there has been found four sets of Roman cremation burials, all near the present Park View Road, in 1829, 1842, 1938 and latterly in 1989 when Brian Philp and the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit found a series of burials just south of the road, ("Roman settlement at Welling", Garrod and Philp KARU 1992) with pottery and coins covering almost a full span of the Roman period. As Romans were buried usually outside the towns along the main road, the settlement must be nearby.

This area is 10 - 11 Roman miles from Londinium and 10 -11 Roman miles from Vagniaci. One idea suggested for the difference between the 29 Roman miles and the 27 stated on the Antonine Itinerary III is that the distances were only counted from the edges or gates of the settlements - hence the discrepancy. Welling is now definitely accredited as a Roman settlement, has a straight road connection with the River Thames but has never been looked for here due to the whole area being heavily suburbanised in the 1930's and later.

It does however meet the ten Roman mile criteria of the Antonine Itinerary II. I did read somewhere, but cannot remember where, that the copies known had distances which were over a fold of the page on the copy of the Itinerary, and the copying scribe may have been misled by the crease, and given the distance from Noviomago to Vagniaci a problem for future generations.

Yours sincerely
John R. M. Acworth, Treasurer / Archivist / Researcher, Bexley Archaeological Group

I had the following reply from the

Mr. Malcolm King is not shown on the committee of KARU as listed in the above publication. His note above ignores the fact that not much has been dug up at Welling to promote a town anyway. Also the distance from West Wickham to Vagniaci is only 14.5 English or 16 Roman miles.

The road would have continued south along the river terrace to Fordcroft. We need to find earlier maps of the whole area to see if there is an older track.

I am grateful to Mr. Philp for giving me an idea that made me look at the First Edition, Ordnance Survey of 1805, to follow up these lateral thoughts. If Noviomago is to the north of the Park View / Gipsy Road junction i.e. east of the burials found at Welling, then the following may apply:-

· There may be Roman buildings under Crook Log Sports centre open space.
· There could be a Roman road running south from here to Penhill and Foots Cray.
· Probable reason for original Foots Cray village site north of Maidstone Road


John Acworth
August 2000.