Comments on: Black, Bleak or Bubonic?

By: Neil Rhind

Neil Rhind — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:34:02 +0000

I didn’t mean to get involved (as Mr Know-all) but the place name Blackheath for our bit of south east London was well-established in the 9th century – the so-called Black Death was not evident until the period 1349-1350. No trace of burial grounds have been found on the Heath despite trenching over the last 150 years or so.

We must also remember that Blackheath ah originally stretched from Deptford to Kidbrooke and encompassed the whole of Greenwich Park. Humfrey of Gloucester encroached part of Blackheath in 1432 for his private use; after his detah it was not returned to the Heath but remained as now – Greenwich Royal Park.

Two extra points:

The terms “the Black Death” was coined by Mrs Elizabeth Markham who write popular history books in the early to mid 19th century. Beofre her time the BD was known simply as the Plague and, in france, as The Blue Death.

Nexb boring point: Blackheath is owned by HM The Queen (roughly north of the A2) and the Earl of Dartmouth (roughly south of the A2). It is not common – more correctly it is designated “Manorial Waste”

Sorry to go on. I must get out more.

Neil

By: Abigail

Abigail — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:38:27 +0000

Alan
I thought Deptford got its name as there was literally a Deep Ford there? Another question for the Phantom !?

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:41:16 +0000

Hum I am also guessing that the other related myth that Gravesend was called that because that’s where the graves of those killed by the plague ended (presumably having started on blackheath) – is also untrue.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 09:40:30 +0000

Andrew – I wonder if the Burndept factory became the AEI Research Laboratories ? I worked there for a brief time (before I started my apprenticeship with them) in the mid-1960′s, and I can’t remember what they looked like from the outside ! The capacitors allegedly dumped on Blackheath were large 2mF types used in power supplies, and these were about 4 inches by 2 inches by 1 inch, and if you frequented the surplus stores in Tottenham Court Road in the 1960′s, you could buy them for pennies.

By: Alan Burkitt-Gray

Alan Burkitt-Gray — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:43:33 +0000

Nick (more) — There was a radio factory in Blackheath in the 1920s and 1930s — Burndept, behind Grotes Buildings. It was originally based in Deptford (which is where part of the name comes from). But you’d need an awful lot of capacitors to fill even a small hole in Blackheath. Even in the days of valve (vacuum tube) radios, they were rarely more than an inch or so across. They would have had a bit of lead in the soldered joints, but not much more than that.

By: Alan Burkitt-Gray

Alan Burkitt-Gray — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:38:28 +0000

Abigail, you’re right. See http://www.historyextra.com/feature/black-death — note 3 at the end. The monastery at Charterhouse Square was founded to pray for the victims buried in London’s biggest plague pit.
Nick — I’ve looked at the shapes too, but don’t forget that much of the heath was used for allotments in WW2 and then temporary housing afterwards. All that will have left their marks (as will the lines from football fields which make grass grow differentially for years afterwards).

By: Nervous around Onions

Nervous around Onions — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:43:55 +0000

@bugs

Bits of it were encroached. The Captains Houses on Shooters Hill Road just west of Stratheden road where built open common land – I think by Angerstein but I’m at work so can’t confirm that. He had to pay a yearly fine to (again I think) the church. I have more details at home so will look them up when I get home if I remember.

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:35:51 +0000

As I understand it, Blackheath was originally not flat at all, but more like the area between Vanburgh Park and Charlton Way. Blackheath has been used as a dumping ground for all sorts of rubbish over the years – don’t worry about the dead bodies – allegedly one part of the heath was infilled with thousands of electronic capacitors which had been stockpiled for military radio sets, and are a rich source of lead and other heavy metals ! Try looking at Blackheath on Google Maps satellite view, and look at all the strange shapes lurking under the flat grass.

By: Abigail

Abigail — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:54:49 +0000

Thank you everyone for your comments – and thank you Phantom for posting my email.
Alan – that has always been another arm of my argument, indeed why wuould horse and carts come up hill from the City of London to bury the dead. I know there was a huge pit in Charterhouse Square (just behind Smithfield meat market)

By: Alan Burkitt-Gray

Alan Burkitt-Gray — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:25:06 +0000

Oh, come on, this is just such a ridiculous myth. Put yourself in the position of 14th century Londoners (in the City, the Square Mile). People are dying every day in their hundreds. What do you do with their bodies? Do you put them in carts and trundle them across the narrow, congested London Bridge, then six miles down Watling Street, across Deptford Creek, up Blackheath Hill, and dig graves there? Where there is almost no one to actually dig the graves, because Blackheath is rural.
No, of course not. You take them to the nearest open space beyond the City walls — Smithfield, maybe. Or somewhere round Mile End. Or just use the graveyards in City churches.