in the far background
Pre-medieval Work carried out at the former
British Gypsum site in Church Manorway by the
Museum of London Archaeological Service shows that the area was covered by a dense forest of
oak,
yew and
alder in the
Neolithic Period, which by the
Bronze Age had given way in part to
sedge fen. The museum's work at the former site of Erith School in Belmont Road revealed traces of prehistoric settlement and a substantial community or farmstead in the first century CE.
Anglo-Saxons After the collapse of
Roman rule in the early 5th century, Britain was colonised by
Anglo-Saxon invaders from northern Europe. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that they won the
Battle of Crecganford (thought to be modern
Crayford) in 457 and shortly after claimed the whole of
Kent. Their different way of life was reflected in their settlement pattern. The town and country estates of Roman bureaucrats gave way to a network of villages occupied by warriors and farmers. Erith was one such and has a Saxon name, originally
Ærre hyðe meaning "old haven". There was probably a church on the site of the present St John the Baptist's in the Anglo-Saxon period. The early settlement was based around it, meaning that the centre of Erith was once west of its current location.
Medieval The earliest written reference to the area is in a Latin charter of 695, recording a grant by the Bishop of the East Saxons of land at Erith. The surrounding area was known as Lesnes or Lessness, which is mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086. After the
Norman Conquest, Lessness passed into the possession of
Bishop Odo. In 1315, a
Royal Charter was granted for a market to be held in Erith every Thursday, but it was noted in 1776 that the market was long discontinued. Erith owes its existence to the Thames, and was until the 1850s essentially a small riverside port, given prominence by
King Henry VIII's decision to open a naval dockyard there, approximately where the Riverside Gardens are now. Henry's famous warship,
Henri Grace à Dieu, was fitted out there in 1515. After the death of
George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1538, Erith "alias Lysnes" was granted to his widow, Elizabeth, by Henry VIII "with all its members and appurtenances, to hold in capite, by knight's service." Erith remained a popular anchorage until the 19th century. Ships often discharged cargo there to reduce their
displacement before entering shallows upstream.
Industrial era In 1797,
Edward Hasted described Erith as "one small street of houses, which leads to the water side", and mentions annual fairs at
Ascension and
Michaelmas. In 1831, Erith's population was 1,533. It was composed in 1840 "chiefly of two streets, one leading down to the water side, the other branching off to the left towards the church." By 1849, Erith was enjoying a short spell as a riverside resort. Its pier and nearby hotel gave hospitality for
day-trippers arriving on Thames pleasure boats or by rail. Erith Iron Works was established in 1864 on a riverside site at Anchor Bay, east of Erith's centre, by
William Anderson. On 1 October 1864, a 46½-ton
gunpowder explosion blew out the river wall, exposing large areas of South London to flooding at high tide. A crowd of navvies and soldiers directed by a local engineer managed to plug the gap just before high water. From 1881, an area north-west of Erith's centre was the site of a cable works founded by William Callender. This became
British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) and eventually
Pirelli, which announced its partial closure in 2003. The remainder became
Prysmian.
20th century in Walnut Tree Road by William Egerton, opened on 7 April 1906. , completed in 1932 The
Local Government Act 1894 brought into existence Erith Urban District, which became the
Municipal Borough of Erith in 1938. It included
Northumberland Heath and
Belvedere. Erith's first library, designed by local architect William Egerton and funded by philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie, opened in 1906. Engineering became an important industry in Erith, with armaments and cables as the main products.
Vickers was a major employer, with links to the
Royal Arsenal at nearby
Woolwich. In 1965, under the
London Government Act 1963, Erith became part of the
London Borough of Bexley. Demolition of the old town started in 1966 and continued in phases until 1980, leaving only a few reminders of the old town centre. Many of the original
Victorian buildings were lost, but some original townscape remains, including the
White Hart in the High Street and St John's Church in West Street. The regeneration falls within the remit of the Thames Gateway project, with Erith as a focus for
Bexley Council, as its only population centre on the
River Thames. Since 2000, a significant number of new flats have been built on the river by private developers. The Erith Western Gateway will include riverside flats, and is expected to include the regeneration of a large underused area of the town centre, earmarked by Bexley Council for a mixed-use development with up to 6,000 sq. m of new commercial space and over 500 new homes. ==Demography==