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MONUMENT NO. 662299

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A linear earthwork possibly a pre 1433 boundary bank or a park pale in Greenwich Park. The earthwork was recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey between September 1993 and Feburary 1994. The bank was 5 metres wide and 0.4 metres high, running north to south between Maze Hill and the Flower Garden. It was well defined, with a flat top 2 metres wide. The bank is overlain by small mounds formed by three standing trees; it is cut by at least two tree holes and a drain which runs north-west to south-east along Lover's Walk. The bank fades at its northern end, where it is cut by an east to west scarp and the modern path. Beyond the path, the bank continues for roughly 15 metres towards the Park boundary, but fades within 10 metres of the wall. To the south, the bank disappears into the Flower Garden, where it has been levelled.

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TQ 3941 7730: Linear bank, recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey, Sep-1993 to Feb-1994.

An earthen bank, 5.0m wide and 0.4m high, running north to south between Maze Hill and the Flower Garden. The bank is well defined, with a flat top 2m wide.

The bank is overlain by small mounds formed by three standing trees; it is cut by at least two tree holes and a drain which runs north-west to south-east along Lover's Walk. The bank fades at its northern end, where it is cut by an east to west scarp (see TQ 37 NE 108c) and the modern path. Beyond the path, the bank continues for roughly 15m towards the Park boundary, but fades within 10m of the wall. To the south, the bank disappears into the Flower Garden, where it has been levelled.

A series of low ridges and hollows run parallel to the bank on its west side (see TQ 37 NE 105). The ridges are contained within the triangular area defined by the Flower Garden, the bank and Great Cross Avenue, apparently overlain by the latter. They resemble plantation ridges or ridge and furrow cultivation (1).

The bank must be Medieval, since it is ignored by the seventeenth century avenues, but its function is uncertain, although it appears to delimit the area of the ridges on the east. The OS Second Edition map of 1895 shows the bank, somewhat perversly, as the east side of a north to south hollow. This hollow continues southwards into the area now occupied by the Flower Garden, where it forms a cross junction with another hollow (TQ 37 NE 115) running east to west towards Vanburgh Park (1a).

The construction of the Flower Garden has removed all trace of the bank further south, but the east to west hollow is still visible as a scarp at TQ 3946 7725 (see TQ 37 NE 115). This scarp runs perpendicular to the bank and thus may be broadly contemporary. The scarp has been interpreted tentatively as a pre-existing road, diverted after the enclosure of the park in 1433. The bank may be a Medieval field boundary, running north from the road, with an area of ridge and furrow cultivation to the west.

Alternatively, the bank may have supported an early park pale. The brick wall constructed by James I between 1619 and 1624 evidently enclosed land which had previously been outside the Park (see TQ 37 NE 85), so the earlier boundaries should lie within the confines of the modern park. The bank may be one such boundary.

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

SOURCE TEXT

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

OS 1895 1:1056 sheets London XII.22, 23

( 1) Field Investigators Comments

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

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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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