Leyton Cross
Minute traces of a rough textile weave were found on the blade of the razor, suggesting the items had been wrapped in cloth before being hidden in the ground.
Bronze was a precious metal at the time and experts have speculated that the hoard formed part of a bronzesmith's supply that was to be melted down for reuse.
[1] At the time of the Roman invasions (55 BC, 43 AD) a tribe of Celts known as the Cassi or Cassii lived in Cantiace (Kent) under chieftain Caswallen.
The historian Edward Hasted notes in his History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (1778) that this Celtic “city” evidently became Roman.
[6] He observed a “great quantity of Roman bricks and other building materials” here and cites an S. Landale Esq., a “labourer in the archaeological vineyard” as saying that he (Hasted) would find “a mass of Roman brickwork in a cart lodge at Hook Green Farm” (some 800 metres south of Leyton Cross), “…It is therefore most probable a Roman mansion was erected there some years after the conquest of Kent; since the city of the Cassii was not at once destroyed after the victories of Aulus Plautius (A.D. 43) but by degrees fell into decay after the divergence of the road from the sea coast into the better formed and more direct Watling Street, aided by the establishment of the station of Noviomagus (Dartford), which by degrees attracted and absorbed the aborigines”.
The name Baldwyns probably derives from the area’s possession in “ancient times” by a Sir John Baude, “a man of an honourable family in this kingdom”.
Lands associated with Baldwyns Park then covered an area of Dartford and Wilmington in the south-east and south-west side of Oakfield Lane from Maypole, eastwards to about where the Wilmington Grammar School for Girls now resides, and south to Rowhill Wood and Rowhill Farm (the south side of which borders the village of Hextable in the present Sevenoaks District), Joyden’s Wood, and Ruxley (now in the London Borough of Bromley).
In 1739, Hulse became King's physician and was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Levett, a former Lord Mayor of London, before retiring to Baldwyns several years before his death in 1759.
[8] Today, Wilmington has two homes and a cul-de-sac named after Hulsewood, an area at the far east of Richard’s land, of which the girl’s grammar is also now part.
[8] Notwithstanding this apparent attempt to restrict a right of way, a member of the Minet family was later celebrated for his support of public open spaces: Susan’s brother Charles (1803–1874) was hailed by the local press as the 'Champion of the people of Dartford' for his efforts.
[8] Indeed, at the time of his death Charles Minet was involved in a civil action against the 1st Baron Tredegar, who owned some 350 acres of Dartford Heath on the north side of Leyton Cross, adjacent to Baldwyns.
One sale advertisement read:[13]The beautiful Freehold Residential Estate, distinguished as Baldwyns, extending over about 841 acres in the parishes of Dartford, Wilmington and Bexley, a short distance only from the ancient and interesting market town of Dartford, about a mile away from Bexley and Crayford and only 14 by road from London, in a neighbourhood proverbially healthy and picturesque, and with excellent railway facilities by the North Kent Line, by which the City and West End are reached in little more than half an hour.
It comprises a capital Mansion, with suitable attached and detached offices of every description, desirable for the occupation of a family of distinction, approached by a carriage drive, with ornamental entrance lodges, beautiful pleasure grounds, gardens, and orchards, surrounded by a richly timbered park, ornamental woods, plantations, and adjacent meadow land, through which are delightful walks of considerable extent.
The woodland, which includes the well known Ruxley-Heath, Rowhill and Joydens Woods, is well adapted for the rearing of preservation game, and affords excellent shooting, and several packs of hounds hunt the district.
The property presents unusual attractions as the site of the ancient city of Caswallon, and from the interesting remains of encampments and excavations made by our Celtic ancestors found thereon; while in addition to its present residential advantages, it possesses extensive frontages of Dartford Heath and the high road, immediately available for building purposes, and by a judicious widening of the intersecting road leading from Bexley to Wilmington.Clayton Croft and the Maypole area were sold by auction in 1882.
The manor house was adapted for hospital use (the Bexley Lunatic Asylum) after 1898 and is now the main office of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.
His rights to use the heath as he desired having been severely restricted, Lord Tredegar chose to sell the land to Dartford Urban District Council for the sum of £1,000.
A Royal Artillery anti-aircraft regiment was based there, and their dispatch riders would train by riding their motorbikes over the network of sand banks known locally as the Glory Bumps.
[22] In 1977, TV director Jeremy Summers made a Children's Film Foundation production of Fear at Leyton Cross,[23] though it is not known if this featured the Dartford location.
