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MONUMENT NO. 761479

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Possible pre 1433 road extenting across Greenwich Park recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey between September 1993 and February 1994. It compised a low scarp, 0.4 metres high, running east to west between Vanburgh Park and the Flower Garden. The scarp is perpendicular to a bank TQ 37 NE 110, with which it may be broadly contemporary. The Ordnance Survey Second Edition map of 1895 depicts the scarp as the northern side of a hollow, aligned east to west, which continues the line of Vanbrugh Park. In the area of the present Flower Graden, it forms a cross junction with a north to south hollow, the east side of which is formed by bank TQ 37 NE 110. The hollow recorded in 1895 probably represents a Medieval routeway, the continuation of the existing Vanbrugh Park. It is possible this was the road which Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, diverted when he enclosed the Park in 1433 (1b, 2). This was the possible route of a Roman Road between London and Rochester.

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TQ 3946 7725: possible course of former road, recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey, Sep-1993 to Feb-1994.

A low scarp, 0.4m high, running east to west between Vanburgh Park and the Flower Garden. The scarp is perpendicular to bank TQ 37 NE 110, with which it may be broadly contemporary.

The OS Second Edition map of 1895 depicts the scarp as the northern side of a hollow, aligned east to west, which continues the line of Vanbrugh Park. In the area of the present Flower Graden, it forms a cross junction with a north to south hollow, the east side of which is formed by bank TQ 37 NE 110 (1a).

The hollow recorded in 1895 probably represents a Medieval routeway, the continuation of the existing Vanbrugh Park. Perhaps this was the road which Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, is alleged to have diverted when he enclosed the Park in 1433 (1b, 2). Vanbrugh Park may follow the line of the Roman road between London and Rochester (RR 1c, TQ 37 NE 63). The Ordnance Survey map marks the houses north of Vanbrugh Park with the legend "Roman Remains found previously to AD 1867" (1a), although this find is not authenticated (see TQ 37 NE 12). Antiquaries have often speculated whether the Roman road did cross Greenwich Park at this point, or diverted southwards across Blackheath, and the excavations carried out on the `villa' site in 1902 (see TQ 37 NE 8, probable RB temple site) were originally designed to test this hypothesis.

Subsequent excavations, in 1906 (3) and 1926 (4), were also designed to locate the Roman road. The VCH account of the 1906 excavations obviously refers to the two hollows marked on the Ordnance Survey maps, although they are identified as `the corner of a perhaps rectangular earthwork enclosed by mound and ditch'. The account of the finds, which included Roman tiles and course pottery, may, however, be confused with a rectangular earthwork on Blackheath, situated immediately to the northwest of Hollyhedge House (NGR TQ 386 765). RCHME identified this earthwork, marked on the OS Second Edition map as a `supposed Roman Camp' (1c), as the site of the 1906 excavation and finds (5).

The possibility that the Roman road did originally cross Greenwich Park at this point must be considered, despite the unhelpful nature of the archaeological evidence. The temple (TQ 37 NE 8) would have been in close proximity to a major route into and out of London.

See survey plan at 1:1000 scale archived with record TQ 37 NE 69 (UID 610590). (1-5)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1a) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 1895. 1:1056 sheet London XII.23

( 1b) Illustrated London News

29/6/1844 Page(s)420

( 1c) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 1895. 1:1056 sheet London XII.32

( 1) Field Investigators Comments

Struth P: RCHME: ROYAL PARKS PROJECT: Greenwich Park Survey, Sep-93 to Feb-94

( 2) Land Use Consultants 1986 Greenwich Park : historical survey

Page(s)65

( 3) edited by William Page 1932 The Victoria history of the county of Kent, volume three

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)116-7

( 4) Transactions of the Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society

Page(s)94-95

( 5) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1928 An inventory of the historical monuments in London. Vol. III: Roman London

Page(s)150

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GREENWICH PARK

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Greenwich Park was the site of a manor since the early Medieval period and under royal ownership from the fifteenth century. The manor consisted of a ...

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