Pits into parks

 

I have written several times about the now built up area of Greenwich and Woolwich which lies between the A2/ Roman road and the River. Under the streets and houses are a series of quarries and pits. These were sites for thre extraction of chalk, gravel and sand worked out and then covered up by more recent uses. Reading Candy Blackham’s Green Greenwich book I realised that some of them were now parks and gardens - or in some sort of  leisure use. So I thought this week I should write  about  them, although  I now realise that there are less sweet flowery places in these old pits than I first thought.

So. let’s start off with something positive and Candy mentions that inside Greenwich Park itself there are areas which were once quarries. One was on the east side of One Tree Hill in Greenwich Park and is marked as a ‘gravel pit’ on Travers map of 1695 and there are others –for instance the area called The Dell was once a small gravel pit. On the other side of the Park there were pits in areas near the Royal Observatory.

West of the Park was a whole area of chalk pits and underground mines alongside the Roman road going down Blackheath Hill. Much of the land was owned by Morden College, and their housing developments in the Maidenstone Hill area cover what had previously been gravel and chalk extraction areas.  At the top of Blackheath Hill lying under The Point is the once notorious and much publicised Blackheath Cavern, - used as a night club in the early 19^th century.  The author of the, now closed, Subterranean Greenwich web site speculated that it was Elizabethan, or older. 

A local researcher has produced some interesting maps for that area which show all the pits and workings which he knows of between The Point and Greenwich South Street - and I would be interested to know how many them remain as open space or small neighbourhood gardens,

Back up on Blackheath iself were numerous holes and quarries. Candy has noted Marr’s Ravine, Crown Pits and Washerwomen’s Pits – all filled in - part of the Blackheath open space but now indistinguishable from the rest of the flat grass following post War clear ups by the London County Council..

In the north east corner of Blackheath are Vanbrugh Pits – which Candy says’show the original appearance of the Heath with bright yellow gorse and broom in the spring, Oak, ash, birch and lime trees have also been established here’. Geologists point out that the ‘many rounded pebbles of the Blackheath Beds can be seen in the paths that go down to the quarry bottom .... the round black pebbles give Blackheath its name’. I am very aware that stepping off the busy road and walking down into the deeper area of Vanbrugh Pits is to go into another world.

Only one of the ponds on Blackheath is actually in Greenwich. That is the one near the derelict toilets where Charlton Way joins the A2.  The area was once a quarry known as Crown Pits and a tiny pond is shown there on the 1860s map. It is now called larger and called Folly Pond.  This is not the most attractive area in the Borough and it’s difficult to think of it as a open space. However it appears that at one time it was more attractive than it is now and there were once seats around the pond. There is at least one website the author of which loves the pond. (https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2020/09/folly-pond/) and don’t let us forget the geese who sometimes cross the main road on the zebra here/

We need to move south and east to Maze Hill Station. On its old up-side sidings are the flats of Seren Park Gardens and Restell Close, originally built in the 1970s to house staff at the new Greenwich District Hospital.  In the hillside above is the gardening project known as Westcombe Woodlands and the area was once called Gravel Pit Field or Ballast Field and it was where gravel was dug to use for ballast for ships – most likely for coal ships, colliers, from north east sea ports which needed ballast for the return journey  –hence Ballast Quay on the riverside. https://www.westcombewoodlands.uk/

After we leave Maze Hill and continue eastwards there are a number of large old pits in various uses, None of them have been made beautiful  - although I am sure that in some of the undergrowth there must be places where flowers grow.

Still further on: I am not sure if we should count Charlton Football Ground as parkland although it is certainly in leisure use. Their site is called ‘the Valley’ but anyone who has visited it can see it is an old pit. In the 1800s this was a quarry owned by Lewis Glenton, limeburner and developer and it had once been called ‘the Great Pit’ or ‘the Ballast Pit’. As well as the football ground with its massive stadium the old pit now also contains two housing estates,  number of shops and a sewage pumping station.

On the other side of Charlton Lane old maps mark ‘hanging woods’ and ‘Roman camp’ . By 1890 the Ordnance map shows the ‘hanging woods’ to be part excavated as ‘Charlton sandpit’ and by 1914 all sign of the woods have gone and the area is entirely ‘Charlton Sandpits ‘. This area is now ‘Maryon Park’. 

Much of what is left of Charlton Sandpits remains fenced off and is now known as ‘Gilbert’s Pit.  This is a protected area of ‘geodiversity interest’ and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.  This is because it shows a section of the Woolwich beds and the three different qualities of Thanet Sand available there. ‘Strong loam’ or ‘blackfoot’ at the lowest level was used to make moulds for brass; a middle layer of ‘mild loam’ was used for moulding and the uppermost level wascsand suitable for making amber and green bottle glass.

Throughout the early part of the 20^th 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. It is said to have been the largest bottle works in Europe. 

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 the site owner, Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson as the site of a worked out chalk, sand and gravel pit.

Leaving Maryon Park and continuing eastward - there are plenty of old extraction sites but no sign of any beautification of them We must wait to see what happens if any leisure facilities or gardens are included as the site of the old Morris Walk Estate – built on a sand pit - is redeveloped. Let’s see what the new estate is like.

 

 After that bit of Charlton we continue through Woolwich where the railway took up a great deal of space left by old extraction areas and where Woolwich Station itself is said to be built on the site of a sand pit . And so we follow through into Plumstead and beyond.

Carying on right down almost to the Borough boundary we reach the Abbey Wood camping site and this is undeniably a leisure use.  If you come to London and you want to put up a tent or live in your camper van it is one of a number of sites run by the Caravan and Motorhome Club. It is a pleasant tree lined area with a fairly new facilities building which replaced....what????

 

In 1899 the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society embarked on a massive building project – and the Bostall Estate constructed by their works department.  A mine was dug to provide chalk for the building operations - most of it was burnt in a kiln to give lime to be used for internal plasterwork and the 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 grille.The underground galleries remained accessible up until the 1960’s when it was still possible to crawl into the rubbish filled entrance. The works canteen was re-named the Co-operative Hall. and became the amenities building for the Abbey Wood camp site but now replaced.

 

So - some old extraction sites are used as gardens, but not many – and some have interesting leisureish uses.  And some are just lost opportunities.