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.