Dartford Heath

At the mouth and thence downward they were narrow, like the tunnel of a chimney or the passage of a well, but at the bottom enlarged; and some had several rooms or partitions, strongly vaulted and supported with pillars of chalk".

In his History and Antiquities of Dartford, John Dunkin quoted historian Edward Hasted, “on the authority of Tacitus”, that it was “most probable that some of them were used as secret hiding places by our Saxon ancestors, for their wives, children, and goods, in times of civil war or foreign invasion”.

Dunkin noted that the 1st Baron Tredegar, the lord of the manor and owner of the heath, had restricted the public’s right of way, though his tenants were allowed to graze cattle there.

However, extensive granite, chalk and turf extractions continued until the Law of Property Act 1925 severely restricted the right of lords of the manor to deface common lands as they saw fit; at which time Courtenay Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, sold the heath to Dartford Urban District Council and much of the excavation works in the area ceased.

In the 19th century, towards the north of the heath, a series of parallel mounds known as the Glory Bumps were left after the extraction of clay for use in brickworks.