The London/Kent boundary - Dartford Heath and Maypole

This square covers an area of Dartford Heath bisected by the M2. Most of the square is the Kent side of the boundary
TQ 50957 73010

Boundary area with some vast pits on the edge of Dartford Heath


Boundary London/Kent/BexleyThe boundary crosses Chastilion Road between North Road and Heath Road and turns west south of, and parallel to, Chastilion Road. It crosses Station Road and continues along Hillcrest Road, leaves it slightly northwards and cuts across the end of Heathview Avenue, and then turns north west along the northern edge of a piece of woodland.
The boundary comes south down the side of a small wood and goes south west, skirting another small wood and the end of the cut off section of the old Rochester Way and crosses the current Rochester Way.



Post to the west Coldblow
Post to the north Crayford


On the boundary

Baldwyn’s Road
Maypole Institute which has become a social club.
St.Barnabas Church was built here in 1925. Closed in 1971 and moved to Tile Kiln Lane.

The London/Bexley side of the boundary

Melrose Avenue
New housing in Wansunt Pit
Coal duty boundary marker. Above the base is written ‘24&25 VICT CAP 42.’ Plus mouldings with the arms of the City of London. At the foot is the maker’s name Regent’s Canal Ironworks London Henry Grissell 1861. This marker was in the quarry, quite near the office portacabin, and then hidden in the undergrowth.

Pearwells Pit
Old Stone Age finds in the 1880s. good view of this almost enclosed space with steep sided cliffs, at the end of Heathview Avenue. There is also a view, though not all that satisfactory, of the site as a whole by peering through the fence along Denton Road on Dartford Heath

Wansunt Pit
This vast quarry, was also known as the Gun Club Quarry. on the site of the ancient settlement of Wansunt. It has been a very important site for prehistoric discoveries - Bronze Age finds here in the early 20th. It now contains a housing estate. What was extracted from these pits. who owned them? Denehole the shaft was 60 ft. deep and the height of the chambers 12 ft. Rail line went down to the pit


The Kent/Dartford side of the boundary

Bowman’s Road
Bowman’s Lodge. HQ of Royal Society of Kentish Bowmen 1785. Shooting matches, plays, dinners and entertaining actresses. It was founded by the owner of Mount Mascal and they all had to wear ‘dandyish’ costumers. The Prince of Wales was a patron. They built a house to use as a headquarters.
Bowman’s Gravel pit. Where Old Stone Age finds have been made. Pit dwellings, bracelets etc. found

Chastilion Road
Denehole between Bowman's Lodge and Crayford Bridge.

Dartford Heath
Lesnes Abbey tile works were at ‘Bekersden’ on Dartford Heath. Where is this??

Denton Road
Not made up until the 20th. Sometimes locally called ‘The cinder road’. But seems to have been a main footpath over the Heath.

Hillcrest Road
1-2 formerly called Edith Villas, probably 1870s, with decorative plaster work
Modernist house – now private health institute

Maypole
Name now given to housing built in the area of the grounds of Maypole House, which was part of the Baldwyns Estate. Built to house hospital staff

Portman Road
Maypole House was on the site of this close.

The Dell
The woodland at the rear has a valley with a stream in it. The stream follows the London/Kent boundary

Walkers Wood
Is now under the motorway. It was on a high ridge and Heathwood Lodge was on it. It was between the Dell and the ‘Second Valley’. The third valley was ‘The Paddock’.

Sources
Chelsea Spelaeological Society. Newsletter
Coal Posts, Web site
Kent Underground Research Group Newsletter
LeGear. Underground Kent
Maypole/Coldblow. Web site
Spurgeon. Discover Bexley and Sidcup.

Comments

Maypoleman said…
Hi,

The Blog shows many hours of hard work - well done and keep it up !

You refer to an excellent web-site on Msypole and Coldblow - could this be mine ? Maypolehistory.wetpaint.com ? If so I am pleased that it has been useful, for that is part of the intention of it's creation. If not is there a site I can visit in order to assist with my continuing research ?

Regards,

Maypoleman
Edith said…
Edith says - yes I think it was your (very good) site. I took an early decision not to include references - I guess that was bad but it would have meant a lot of clutter.I thought your site was great and it shows a lot of dedication to detail in a quite small area - and it is that detail we need to make sense of the whole.
As I've been doing this I am amazed at how some areas seem to have very little available about them - either books or web sites, or anything. (Balham has been worst so far).
Jane said…
What an excellent site - so much hard work! I was born in Crayford in the late 1950s and we left in 1967. We lived in Station Rd. and often visited Dartford Heath, which I loved. I have been back to Crayford a couple of times. Just before you reached the Heath, on the right, was a house belonging to the Lyle family of Lyle lemonade. The house intrigued me because there was a huge garden and in fact I never properly saw the house, which was hidden.Instead I just dreamt about it! Now there are modern houses there, but I wonder if anyone else remembers the house or knows anything about its history, or indeed the Lyle family today? from Jane
Romartus said…
I know Station Road in Crayford very well. There is a photo of the house at 180 but you need to create a free account at https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk and look for this image in particular - (EAW027957), top right corner, side on towards the main road (Station Road) with that distinctive bend you can see.
Romartus said…
Hi, just read your comment. I know Crayford very well. Check on the website - https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk.

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