Chelsfield
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Chelsfield Lane
Coal post. One the west side by a park
entrance
Court Road
Orpington Sports
Club. Dene hole in the
north east corner,
Goddington Park
Goddington.
Marked thus on the Ordnance Survey map of 1876, recorded earlier as Godinton in
1240, a manorial name
from the de Godinton family who took their name from the hamlet of Godinton
near Ashford in Kent.
Dene Hole. This open shaft, known locally as "Goddington Park denehole",
is situated in a small copse approximately 500 yards S.E. of the junction of the A 222,
Orpington by-pass, with Charterhouse Road. The copse is situated near the West
edge of a field owned by the O.U.D.C. and leased to a farmer. The shaft is
reached by entering Goddington Park and walking across to the Sports Pavilion. Here a footpath leads across the field to
Chelsfield. The course is plainly seen
from here, and the other path, running alongside the hedge, leads to it. The path continues through the wood and
leads right up to the hole, about 100 yards inside the wood. It is rather
difficult to ascertain the original dimensions as the hole has had a lot of
rubbish tipped into it and the sides of the shaft have fallen in at the
top. The apex of the rubble cone is now
only surface. The shaft, now about '12
ft. in diameter, was probably about 3 ft. across and of constant width. It was originally about 20 ft. deep, with a
quatrefoil arrangement of chambers at the bottom. The East chamber is the
largest; about '16 ft. long and 8 ft. high.
Denehole about 10 ft. long and 8 ft. high, one being the
full of rubble. There is about 5 ft. of
loam overlying
the chalk, which contains few flints.
Denehole
Site Just inside the wood, coming along the path,
there is another remarkable site about 20 ft. across, which may well be another
shaft, which has been filled in.
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