This is not going to be an easy section to
write. It is about a world which is all
round us but which we do not see. In
Greenwich, Charlton and Woolwich we go about our business without realizing we
are within an area in which where there were once many quarries and underground
workings. Of these we know very little.
But the evidence is there.
When I was teaching local industrial history I used
to ask the class ‘What can you tell me about dene holes’. Silence – except for the one person who came
from North Kent. North Kent knows all
about dene holes.
Dene holes are normally ‘on the chalk’ and range
from long forgotten holes of inderminant size to what were clearly elaborate
small mines. There are many theories as
to their age and purpose - holes to extract chalk to spread on fields, to small
mines extracting flint and chalk. Some
are probably medieval, or older, others more recent. Greenwich has had its share – although the
larger concentrations tend to be slightly down river, in Bexley and Dartford,
as well as a Grays in Essex, is some areas where there are many such holes
crowded together.[1]
Sites of dene holes have been identified in Eltham –
at a site in Eltham Park[2] and possibly under the site of flats in
Sherrard Road.[3] Sites were identified in the 1890s at Abbey
Wood and Plumstead. There are also a number of sites on Blackheath and
Blackheath Hill.[4]
Blackheath is also a mass of hollows and bumps –
many more of which have been ironed out over the past century or so. In 1695 Samuel Travers Survey found that
“Henry Cleisby hath within three years past digged great quantities of sand and
gravel of the said waste, called Blackheath”.[5] Gravel continued to be removed until the
1870s. The results can be seen in the
area alongside Maze Hill and Vanburgh Park, and even inside Greenwich Park
itself where, for instance, the Observatory Garden with its terraces was once a
gravel pit.[6] Above Maze Hill Station the area now known as
Woodlands was once Gravel Pit Field or Ballast Field where gravel was dug for
ballast for ships.[7] In all probability these were coal ships,
colliers, from north east sea ports which needed ballast for the return journey
[8] –
and hence Ballast Quay on the riverside.[9].
In 2002
Blackheath Hill collapsed suddenly and dramatically leaving what was initially
as six metre diameter hole.[10] Blackheath
Hill was, and is part of the Dover Road from London and had been a Roman Road. Over
the centuries as a main road it was widened to take an increasing load of
traffic and by 2002 was carrying buses and vast lorries as well as many cars
and vans. On the south, the Lewisham, side of the road behind the flats and houses
and industrial buildings there are cliff
faces from the pits from which chalk had been quarried over the from century’s .
Thus it appears that some of these old quarry men had also burrowed under the road
and successive centuries of road widening had been built over voids
This was also an
area with numerous lime kilns the area being known as ’the lime kilns’ and Greenwich
South Street, the main road between Greenwich and Lewisham, was once known as Lime
Kiln Lane.[11]
Kilns here are said to have existed at
least by 1432.[12] South of the hill, in Lewisham, in the area
now covered by the Lethbridge Road area was a huge pit – Loat’s pit - and the
wander round the area will reveal chalk faces, dips and huge hollows now filled
with housing. On the south side of the
road, much of it owned by Morden College, housing developments in the 18th
century covered what had previously been gravel and chalk extraction areas.[13] It is quite clear from numerous records of
small collapses quite how widespread quarry was in this area.[14] At the top of Blackheath Hill on the south
side lying under Point Hill is the once notorious and much publicised
Blackheath Cavern, used as a night club in the early 19th century. There have been numerous investigations into
the cavern some of which are detailed in a number of web sites and
elsewhere. It had been attributed to
chalk workings by the Steers family in the 17th century but could be
older.[15]
In Deptford there were many potteries which may
possibly have been associated with these chalk workings and kilns. Many of
these were noted by Christopher Philpotts in his work on Deptford. ‘Deptford Ware’ was also noted in histories
of the area.[16]
There were large potteries here in the 19th century the last closing only in
1961 and a number of smaller potteries are also recorded from the 18th
century. [17]
All one Deptford product were the special pots used in the late 18th
century by both up Captain Bligh and Joseph Banks for transporting breadfruit
plants across the world.[18] In 1839 two potteries are noted as
specialising in moulds for sugar manufacture.[19]
There may also have been early glass made in
Greenwich. There is small sand mine in a
Diamond Terrace back garden. There have been a number of theories of the date
of it and it has been claimed as 17th century although this is
disputed. [20] Sand is also associated with glass
manufacture, but there is little hard evidence of this in Greenwich itself. In
1673 John Evelyn recorded a visit to an Italian glass house in Greenwich, but
with no detail. It has been conjectured that this may have been the site for which
Venetian glass maker Jacopo Verzelini received a licence in 1575.[21]
It is possible that the Diamond Terrace sand mine was a nearby source of
glassmaking sand.[22] A glass house is also said to have been built
by a Jeremiah Bagg and a Francis Bristow in 1641 in Greenwich for the
manufacture of broad glass and there is also a reference to a crystal glass
manufactory in Greenwich by a John de la Cam in the Restoration period.[23] However it is reported that the sand from
this mine was tested by glass manufacturer, Pilkingtons, and found to be
unsuitable glass manufacture and they suggested the sand may have been used as
an abrasive for cleaning purposes.[24]
To the east of Greenwich and Deptford a pump and
lime kiln are shown on the 1863 OS map in the large chalk pit on the Charlton
and Greenwich border. This is the area
now known as the Angerstein Triangle and is where the North Kent line emerges
from the Blackheath tunnel on its route to Charlton Station and from here the
Angerstein line runs to the river. It
was the site of the Southern Railway signal works and is now the police car pound.
In the thick undergrowth on the chalk faces a few years ago a young girl’s body
lay undiscovered for many weeks despite extensive searches. Who dug this pit
and who operated the kiln; still extant in the 1860 is not known.
Until the 1970s a strange crenallated house stood in
Woolwich Road, Charlton. This was the
Crown Fuel works – ‘fuel’ being the white pottery elements which used to stand
in gas fires. Thomas Nichols came to
Charlton in the late 1840s but much of the local chalk was built over or worked
out. He set up as a lime burner close to
Charlton Station and moved to 444 Woolwich Road; naming it 'Lime Villa' behind
it he had two bottle kilns’. In 1950 they made animal figures for the Festival
of Britain. Everything was demolished in 1965 and Barney Close, was built over
the site. [25]
It appears that lime for the works was eventually obtained from the Riddlesdown
limeworks at Whyteleafe in Surrey. This was the vast Rose and Crown pit, on the
A22 through which the railway line to East Grinstead runs. [26]
Charlton Football Ground is called ‘the Valley’ but
anyone who has visited it can see it is an old pit. In the 1800s this was owned
by the Roupell Boyd estates but quarried by Lewis Glenton, limeburners. [27] It
had previously been known as the Great Pit or the Ballast Pit. [28]Lewis
Glenton was actually a developer who built the former Holy Trinity church in Blackheath. He lived at the Pagoda
House. He also developed Aberdeen Terrace and Kidbrooke Grove as well as St. James Kidbrook. He was also respionsible
for buildings in the City of London and Brighton.[29]
His pit at Charlton was later filled with debris from the London Sewer Works,
and a Thames Water pumping station still stands all at the southern end of the
site. As well as the football ground
with its s massive stadium the old pit now also contains two housing estates
and the number of shops.
In 1840 the Turnpike Trust gave Glenton permission
to build a railway from the quarry to the riverside. The route of Glenton's
railway is today's Ransom Road and that the rather strange angle, and bridge,
on this road is explained once you realise it is an old railway track bed. Once
in the pit, the lines fanned out over the area of today's football ground. Part of the railway was reused by British
Ropes - and indeed some track remained by the riverside until recently and
inside the rope works.[30]
All 1867 Ordnance map shows the Glenton Pit
stretching as far as Charlton Lane. On the other side of Charlton lane is
marked ‘hanging woods’ and Roman camp’ and then ‘the sand pits’ - and there is
another excavated area between the railway and the Woolwich Road. By 1890 the Ordnance map shows the ‘hanging
woods’ to be part excavated as ‘Charlton sandpit’ and the sandpits are is now
‘Maryon Park’. And by 1914 all sign of
the ‘hanging wood’ has gone and the area is entirely ‘Charlton Sandpits ‘.
Charlton Sandpits, adjacent to and reached from
Charlton Lane, has recently been landscaped to become part of an extended
Maryon Park. Much of the pit itself
remains fenced off and known as ‘Gilbert’s Pit; a protected area of geodiversity
interest, and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is understood that this is because of the
section of the Woolwich beds which are visible and the three different qualities
of Thanet Sand available - ‘strong loam’ or ‘blackfoot’ at the lowest level
used to make mould for brass; a middle layer of ‘mild loam’ used for moulding
and the uppermost level of sand suitable for making amber and green bottle
glass.
Throughout the early part of the 20th
century the sand pit was used to extract sand for the huge bottle works which
stood in Anchor and Hope Lane. This was
on the site of the current Sainsburys Depot and the area surrounding it. It is
said to have been the largest bottle works in Europe. The glassworks first came to Charlton in 1907
as Moore and Nettlefold making bottles by the traditional blown glass methods,
in 1913 of a consortium of glass manufacturers was set up, including Moore and
Nettlefold, and was called United Glass Manufacturing Company. In 1919 the Charlton works was greatly
extended. Included as a member of the consortium was the Londonderry Bottle
Works from Seaham in Durham it is thought that Durham Wharf was named after
this works. It became United Glass’s
main wharf. From 1920 the 33 acres sites
was expanded, including a 120 foot high chimney and a number of Owen Automatics
American bottle making machines. The
Charlton sand pit continued to be used but also Dutch and Belgian Sand was
imported. The works made about 200,000,000 glass containers every year. In the Second World War sand came from the
Redhill area and the company made four million blood transfusion bottles as
well as all milk bottles used in London. Mass production facilities enabled
millions of two bottle water sterilisation unit to be produced for British
troops as well as bottles for children’s juices. The introduction of the National Health
Service led to a great expansion in their manufacture of medicine bottles in
the 1950s with 220,000,000 glass bottles produced and along with this new
machinery was introduced. But by the early sixties the company was beginning to
suffer from competition from plastic bottles and glass bottle manufacture began
to fall away. The furnaces closed at 1965 and in 1966 the works was closed.
Today, at Day Aggregates’ Murphy’s Wharf on Lombard
Wall in Charlton waste glass cullet processed, ground and recycled for a number
of uses - for example for road mending. [31]
The area shown on maps as sand pits on the 1867 OS
map lying south of the railway is now Maryon Park. This area was presented to the London County
council by this site owner, Sir Spencer, Maryon Maryon Wilson as the site of a
worked out chalk sand and gravel pit. It includes a raised area called Cox’s Mounts
where there was a semaphore and where in the 1880s a Mr. Cox built a summer
house. It was later used by the Admiralty and famously as a site of the film
‘Blow Up’.[32]
East of Maryon Park lies the 1960s Morris Walk
Estate. This is built on the site of sandpits which were redeveloped for
housing from the 1840s as a response to the need for housing for workers at the
expanded Royal Dockyard. These sand pits belonged to a John Long who was a
partner in Blight, Long and Blight, ship owners and ship breakers. Trinity Wharf in Waspite Road was used by Long
to export sand from this area. [33]
It is also said that part of the expanded dockyard site itself was built on an area
used for sand extraction area. [34] Survey of Woolwich points out that in
Glenavlon Way on[35]
the Morris Walk Estate that the ridge on the east side of the sand pit can
still be seen in the design of the estate.
North of the railway on the Charlton and Woolwich
borders were more Pits. The railway runs
through a series of tunnels and through Woolwich dockyard Station itself, said
to be sited in an old sand pit.[36] In 1849 railway builders tunnelling in this
area came across ‘a cave’ described as having ‘considerable dimensions cut in
the chalk and flint rocks’ and that they had found there a knife and a
spoon. Lighting was put in the tunnel
and the visitors were shown round at 3d. a time. It is thought that this
feature may have been a small drift mine but there has been speculation that it
was a dene hole.
Sand extraction appears to have taken place across
much of the area we now regard as built up Woolwich. Remains of this can be
seen in the layout of streets and in the sites which were once barracks and other
military buildings. Spray Street and the area around the current Woolwich Arsenal
station were part of a sand pit owned by the Pattison family. Much of sand was probably shipped out of the
area for use as ballast but some may have been used for local industries. It is said that it was used on the Arsenal for
moulding and in the Brass Foundry. There
was also a small glass industry here and a much larger pottery making
complex.
Glass Yard survives in Woolwich as a short pathway
running between the leisure centre and the ferry. There were two glass houses here in the 17th
century - one making ordinary glass and one making plate glass. The works are
said to have been built by Sir Robert Mansell who held a monopoly on glass
making granted by James I.[37] Mansell’s Woolwich works were managed by the
Henzey family said to have originated in Bohemia via France and continued
through two generations of the family, , although it does not seem to have gone
well. It was it was advertised for sale
in 1701 and seems to have closed.[38]
The medieval production of pottery in Woolwich has
been recently illuminated by discoveries in 2007 on a site bounded by Beresford
Street and Warren Lane. This includes a
kiln dated to 1300-1350 and seems to indicate a major production site of what
is known as London-type ware. [39] In the 1970s two kilns were found near
the Woolwich Ferry Approach during an archaeological project which used a wide
community base. Both dated from the third
quarter of the 17th century. A stoneware kiln was thought to be the earlier of
the two and produced what are known as Bellarmine jugs[40]
with other stoneware vessels. It is thought to be the earliest stoneware kiln
of this period discovered in Britain.[41]
Other pottery kilns lay between the Warren and the 17th century ropewalk.[42]
In 1839 it was said that pottery, and in particular the manufacture of sugar
moulds, was the main industry in Woolwich.[43]
Moving further east and passing on our
way no doubt more sandpits which remain unresearched at Plumstead are two
mining complexes, one of which turns out to be surprisingly modern.
In 1899 the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society embarked on a massive building project - the Bostall Estate constructed by the R.A.C.S. works department. A mine was dug to provide chalk for the building operations: most was burnt in a kiln to give lime, which was suitable for internal plasterwork. Un-burnt chalk was used as a foundation for the estate roads. When the estate was finished the shaft to the chalk mine was capped with a steel grill. The works canteen was re-named the Co-operative Hall – and remains as the amenities building for the Abbey Wood camp site. The underground galleries remained accessible up until the 1960’s when it was still possible to crawl into the rubbish filled 1914 entrance. It has been entered on a number of occasions since by research groups. The extensive chalk mines to the west of Wickham Lane, Plumstead, were dug in the 19th and early 20th centuries to support brick and tile making operations and has apparently recently flooded.[44]
To the north of this at Kings Highway
and Wickham Lane is a much larger series of underground workings connected to
the brick making industry. Recent house
building on the site - called Brickfield Cottages – led to evacuation of new
residents following a collapse into the mines below. Apparently this came as a surprise to
everyone[45]
despite the well documented mines and a 1950s Act of Parliament concerning them.
[46]
The extensive chalk mines to the west of Wickham Lane, Plumstead, were dug in the 19th and early 20th centuries to support brick and tile making operations by a series of brick making companies – Wickham Lane Brickworks and South Metropolitan Brick and Lime Company Ltd. and Gregory’s brickyard. This is a very large area of interconnected underground workings and may include areas considerably older than the documented brickworks. The mined chalk was mixed with brick earth to make London stock bricks. It was mined with picks and there were internal rail systems where trolleys brought the chalk to the surface.
There were also
cement works on the Peninsula although nothing like as much on the scale
the what could be found down river. In [51]the
late 19th century Rowton and Whiteway had a cement works on the eastern
part of Greenwich Wharf where there were
also lime kilns. Bricks were made on site and an area to the rear of the wharf
was dug for brick earth. Rowton applied
to erect a Portland Cement Works with the river frontage let separately but
this may never have been built.
[1] LeGear. Underground Kent
[2] https://subterraneangreenwich.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/the-eltham-denehole-a-sad-and-unsatisfactory-conclusion/
[3] Chelsea Speleological Society. Records Vol.4
.JPG)
4] Chelsea 4. There are also details of all these sites on the subterranean Greenwich website, above.
[5] Rhind. The Heath
[6] https://www.friendsofgreenwichpark.org.uk
[7] Rhind. Blackheath Village and Environs
[8] Once, visiting Seaham on the Durham Coast, I encountered a local historian complaining about the ballast brought to Durham in return for coal “and I say to Londoners” he said “you sent your rubbish up here, you come up here and you take it back!”
[9] http://www.ballastquay.com/about.html
[10] New Civil Engineer June 2002
[11] Somerville. Roads & Streets of Greenwich. GrAntSoc Trans IX 2
[12] Philpotts. Deptford (MS) quoted in Subterranean Greenwich website
[13] Bonwitt. Leonard Searles the Elder. GrAntSoc. Trans IX 2
[14] The author of the Subterranean Greenwich website has researched many of these and has detailed them on https://subterraneangreenwich.wordpress.com
[15] The author of the Subterranean Greenwich web sites has speculated that it is a chalk block mine, Elizabethan, or older. It has been known for many years as Jack Caves Cavern, an all an association which would place it in the mid 15th century.
[16] Dews. History of Deptford
[17] http://www.mernick.org.uk/BrownJugs/Deptford/deptford.htm quoting Garrodd Kent Arch Rev.1989
[18] Lincoln. Trading in War
[19] Pigot 1839
[20][20] http://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/newsletter-no1.html
[21] Watts. Glassmaking in London
[22] The Diamond Terrace sand mine featured in Greenwich Industry History Newsletter Vol.1/1. 4/98. Also in Le Gear. The London Archaeologist. Vol 5/11. The issue is discussed in detail in Watts, Glassmaking in London
[23] Watts
[24] GIHS Newsletter No.1 1998
[25] Ludlow. GIHS Newsletter May 2001
[26] Sowan. GIHS Newsletter July 2001
[27] Ferris. Voice of the Valley
[28] Green Chain Geological Walk
[29] https://runner500.wordpress.com/tag/lewis-glenton/
[30] Smith. History of Charlton
[31] http://www.daygroup.co.uk/
[32] Smith history of Charlton
[33] Survey of Woolwich
[34] Survey of Woolwich
[35] Survey of Woolwich
[36] Survey of Woolwich
[37] Survey of Woolwich
[38] Watts
[39] Medieval Pottery Research Group. Newsletter 61 August 2008
[40] Originally a German design these stoneware jugs are distinguished by a bearded face on the neck
[41] Woolwich Antiquarians Proceedings XXXV 1976. In 2017 the kiln was digitised and destroyed by Oxford Archaeology.
[42] Survey of Woolwich
[43] Pigot
[44] http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/authors/006.pdf
[45]http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/14838110.Residents_evacuated_as__chalk_mines__investigated_in_Plumstead/. It is beyond belief that these houses were built and sold with no knowledge of this mining complex, which is well known, well researched and with a considerable history of resident concern and action by the authorities – including rehousing several families in 1939. Caves and Tunnels in Kent. Chelsea Sp.Soc. Records 6
[46] LCC (Woolwich Subsidence’s) Act 14 Geo IV 1950
[47] There is an enormous amount of material about these brickfields sand mines in the Subterranean Greenwich web site. There is also older material available in the Records of the Chelsea Speleological Society and Subterranea Britannica. The North West Kent Family History Society maintains a special interest in the local brick industry and has material available for sale or reference on brick fields and brick makers in South East London.
[48] North West Kent Family History Society. microfiche
[49] Smith. History of Charlton
[50] Mills. Greenwich Marsh,
[51] Morden College Archive
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