26 February 1971 Construction of the concrete world of Thamesmead completes work begun by monks, 700 years ago
KENT: The old estate map showed that the woodland had been divided into eight parcels. All coppiced, and the boundaries running down the steep slope from heath to marsh accorded closely with the alignment of the present footpaths. The tree stumps were gnarled and knotted from the lopping of many centuries. The ancient rabbit warren and orchard had gone, making way for an open grassy sward surround the foundations of the abbey that had once owned the woodland. Only in the last two decades have the ruined walls of Lesnes been rescued from the obscurity of time and an overgrowth of shrubs. Below the abbey ruins, the flat marshland began. It is still criss-crossed with drainage channels and earth banks initiated by the monks seven hundred years ago. We threaded a difficult route along the banks through a small world of silence broken only by the occasional duck taking off in frightened flight and a flock of agitated plovers. The old marsh farm still shown on my map had gone and the wet pastures were overgrown with thorn bushes and reeds, the timbered causeway was mouldering under a dense thicket.
Related: Let’s move to Abbey Wood, south-east London
Continue reading...source https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/22/country-diary-final-conquest-of-thames-marshland-thamesmead-1971
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