Shuttle - Tributary to Cray and Darent. Bexley

River Shuttle, tributary to the Cray, which is a tributary to Darent, itself a Thames Tributary
The Shuttle continues to flow eastwards to join the Cray under the M2.
TQ 49529 74626

Post to the east Hall Place
Post to the south Bexley
Post to the west Upton

1930s housing around the A2 road and the interchange at the Black Prince - in fact the area locally is generally known as 'The Black Prince'. To the north of the A2/M2 housing is often built with generous open space on downland grass, to the south older housing slopes towards Bexley Village and the Cray.

Bexley Road
Milestone

Broomfield Road
South side developed in the 1890s.
1 Warren Wood
25 with tile-hung upper floors, and looking sedate amidst the later development around.
The Warren. A large grassed area is backed by a tree-lined ridge, on which a grassed plateau overlooks dense woodland descending steeply to the A2. The name has its origins in the 16th when rabbits were kept for sale there. The farmhouse -was used as a hospital for Hall Place School in 1845 despite being known locally as the "Pest House,” after a carrier died of plague there in 1665 following a trip to London. Warren Farmhouse was demolished in 1937 and its former site is now an open mown area bordered by long grass and shrub, whilst most of the hillside is covered by oak and elm woodland. Birds find nesting sites in the woodland.

Gravel Hill
The road to Erith was Bourne Street
Meredith and Drew Bakery. Formerly Vickers Aircraft factory. Biscuit maker employing 200. Closed after Second World War.

Hartford Road
Development in the 1920s.
Bexley and Erith Technical High School
Shuttle. On the riverbank are alder, crack willow, black poplar - all trees which prefer damp soil. On the north bank is oak dominated woodland with sycamore and silver birch.

Rochester Way
A2 Opened round Bexley in 1971 spring. Built by Kent County Council.  Development around was spurred on by the opening of the Rochester Way
V2 62 injured. 27th November 1945

Southwold Road
Black Prince Roadhouse and pub. Now a Holiday Inn. Supposed to be named that because the Black Prince bedded Fair Maid of Kent in Hall Place. Development was spurred on by the building of this classic mock-Tudor road house on the site of Bourne Place by Charringtons in 1934 and opened in 1935.
Bourne Place a small mansion house. Demolished 1933.

Sources
Baldwin. The river and the marsh
Bexley and Erith Technical High School. Web site
Bexley Council. Shuttle Riverway
Black Prince. Web site
Bygone Kent,
Carr. A spot that is called Crayford
Kent County Council. History
London Borough of Bexley. Web site
Shaw. The Bexleyheath Phenomenon,
Spurgeon. Discover Bexley and Sidcup
Tester. Bexley Village

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