More information : TQ 39 76 (LO). Several antiquarians record the tradition of Viking encampments on Blackheath. In 1719, Dr Harris refered to `A great number of small tumuli as well as some large and eminent ones... out of which bones and urns have been dug up', which he attributed to the Viking period (2). However, the most persistent tradition, first recorded by Lysons (3) and Hasted (4) in the late 18th century, associated Greenwich with the martyrdom of St. Alphege. In 1011, the Vikings sacked Canterbury and carried off Archbishop Alphege, whom they later murdered (5). Although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1011/1012 does not mention either Greenwich or Blackheath, both Lysons and Hasted supposed that `the Danish fleet was several times stationed in the river Thames near Greenwich, their army being encamped on the hill above'. The memory of these encampments was supposed to be preserved by the place-names East and West Combe, but these are almost certainly topographical names refering to valleys cutting the Greenwich escarpment. Hasted also recorded the existence of tumuli on Blackheath and mentions 'many trenches and other remains of the lines of camps... though these, in all likeleihood, are most of them works of much later date' (4). No earthworks survive on Blackheath. The parish church of Greenwich, dedicated to St. Alphege, provides the only support for the antiquarian traditions. (1-5)
It is likely that the tumuli refered to by antiquarian sources are those in Greenwich Park [TQ 37 NE 6], between Blackheath and the River Thames. (6) |