M25 Dunton Green


Post to the north Polhill
Post to the west Star Hill

Anisbirches Wood

Ivy House Lane
Little Dunton. This was a farm with an important well.  It appears to be gone.


Lime Pit Lane
This short road seems to have once been called the Pilgrims Way and led to Polhill Road and then carried onto the Pilgrims Way now west of the M25.
North Downs Business Park. Trading estate built up during the 1980s.th site includes building supplies, cement, exhibition fitters and very posh car servicing.
Dunton Green Lime Works. The works dated from at least the 18th the site is on the crest of the North Downs scarp face working the Middle Chalk. Lime kilns were of the 'shaft' or 'bottle' type producing quicklime. There was an associated quarry


London Road
Rose and Crown.  The pub name symbolises the union of York and Lancaster. This was a coaching stop on what was then the main London to Hastings Road. It dates from at least the 1830s in this form but was the Chequers in the 17th and stood on what was probably the original village green.
Post Box – wall mounted on the east side
Milestone. 21st milestone from London Bridge and third from Sevenoaks
Donnington Manor Hotel. This is a mock Tudor building built just after the Second World War by Bill Newman who used genuine   materials from all over the country.
Emma Hotel. This house is now the hotel restaurant at Donnington Manor. It is a timber framed house from the 15th with an entry wing from the late 16th. It was later converted to cottages; and then in 1936 remodelled and extended as one building and many additions made. The whole building has been changed a great deal but is still substantially an old structure. There are large additions at the back.
Marble elephants stand in front of the hotel.
Mount Pleasant. Late 18th house, at the end of the terrace and hidden from the road. It appears at one time to have been a smithy
Balancing Pond – to soak up excess moisture from the motorway
Reservoir. Built by Sevenoaks Rural District Council


Morants Court Road
This is the final section of London Road from the roundabout at Morants Court. Before the M25 was built this was the main A21. The road name refers to a farm in the square to the south.
Morants Court Cross. The roundabout at the junction of the old A21 with local roads.  It stands above the M25 but there is no junction with it. We're now at the bottom of Polhill. After a junction for Otford, This was also where the old  Sevenoaks By-pass used to start – now its route is the M25.
In the mid 1980s, the A21 was upgraded from D2 to D3M to become the M25 and the A2028 became the A224 when that road was extended south of Badgers Mount. The junction for Otford, which was formerly a GSJ, is one of the leftovers from those days.


M25
The M25 running southwards has also been the current A21 from junction 4 to the north. In this stretch the roads begin to divide as they approach junction 5, to the south.  The old A21 runs parallel to it as the Polhill Road.

Pilgrims Way West
Pilgrims Way Link Bridge. This goes across the M25 to link the Polhill Road with Pilgrims Way West.
Anglo Saxon cemetery. This was found near current link bridge during the building of the M25. During previous road building in this area Saxon remains had been found. In 1967  an excavation of some of the site was done and continued in 1984 in response to the expansion of the M25. It is on the lower slopes of Polhill on a false crest of a steep hillside, with a view across the valley and to the north and south-west.  From the centre of Otford, the cemetery is visible and thus the ancestors could see and be seen.
Dane Bottom. Supposed site of a battle between Edmund Ironside and the Danish King in 1016. It is thought the battlefield was actually nearer the river Darent

Polhill Road
This is the old turnpike road to Sevenoaks and lattery the A21. Now downgraded to the A224. Until the 1960s this carried on into Dunton Green becoming London Road.  A road, shown on maps as ‘New Cut’ then took it onto its present route to continue into Sundridge Road – this became then the Sevenoaks Bypass, and, now, very much rebuilt and altered, the M25.


Star Hill Road
Road going from the A21/M25 to Knockholt. This would have once been the main road superseded because of its steep slope. Double decker buses however still use it.

Sundridge Road
This is now the B2211 numbered in the late 1930s. It continues to Westerham


Sources
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Domesday Reloaded. Web site
Dunton Green Brick and Tile Works. Web site
Kent Archaeology. Web site
North Downs Business Park. Web site
Rose and Crown. Web site
SABRE. Web site
Pub History. Web site
Whitaker. The Water Supply of Kent

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bromley by Bow

Post to the west (north west quarter) Mile End Post to the west (north east quarter) Post to the east Bromley by Bow Post to the north Old Ford Addington Road Addington Arms . Pub dating from the 1860s. It does not appear to be still there. Police stables . From 1938 twenty horses were located here. These stables were built in moderne style white concrete by police surveyor Gilbert Mackenzie Trench. There is a stable at the back as well as tack rooms and a chimney for the forge – there was a full time farrier. Above are two flats for married police officers. The white concrete wall is original.  Alfred Street 1-5 Inland Revenue Office . Sold off 1981. Has been used as a college an as offices Almshouses Way, This was once called Priscilla Street.  1 Drapers' Almshouses . These were built in 1706.  What remains is a brick group of four tenements with central raised and pedimented chapel. They were restored in 1982 but were originally part of a larger group...
Read more

South Norwood

Post to the south Woodside Post to the east Birkbeck Post to the north Anerley Albert Road This road is the earliest built here, first listed in 1855, and although the Croydon Canal was no longer in use it influenced the alignment of the road. From the junction with Portland Road looking the curve of the road reflects the line of the old canal which was to the north of the houses. It is named after Albert, the Prince Consort. 74-76 Stanleybury . Very large three-storey semis. Built for William Stanley, who moved to 74 in 1867. William Stanley’s works in South Norwood was complimented by his local philanthropy. His site is now a close of modern flats. Accidentally demolished. 67 small trading estate and MOT centre .  At one time this was home to a theatre transport specialist. St.Mark . This was the first church in the area and is the parish church by G. H. Lewis. The nave was built in 1852 and the church was extended in 1862 and in successive years until 1890. It is in Ke...
Read more

River Lea/Bow Creek Canning Town

River Lea/Bow Creek The Lea winds itself generally southwards towards the Thames TQ 39505 81448 Canning Town on the Essex bank of Lea/Bow Creek. This was, and is, a heavily industrialised area together with a very down market housing area with markets, shops, cinemas, pubs and many charitable and missionary organisations. In the 2000s public transport has been transformed and much housing renewed, and it is an area in a great deal of change. Post to the west Poplar Post to the south Leamouth   and Dome Post to the east Canning Town, Butchers Road Post to the north West Ham Station Appleby Road The road is named after a local ARP warden who was killed during the Blitz. A pre-war suburban ideal is demonstrated in this West Ham estate. Barking Road It was built by the Commercial Road Turnpike Trust from the East India Docks eastwards. Now the A124 it formed part of the original A13 before the building so the East Ham  and Barking Bypass in 1928. It was widened ...
Read more