Etymology An
Anglo-Saxon dictionary asserts that "Slade" most commonly meant a broad strip of grass-covered land. The
London Borough of Bexley suggests the current name most likely derives from
Saxon "Slade", with their definition being low-lying ground. An alternative is the
Old Norse "Slad", meaning a place for launching boats. Most sources agree that "Green" was added to reflect the deep colour of the grass-covered ground. Sources differ on when Slade Green was first mentioned with one suggesting the 16th Century.
Prehistory Collectors such as
Flaxman Charles John Spurrell discovered diverse
Palaeolithic fossils around Slade Green, along with flint artefacts that provide evidence of
prehistoric human habitation. Pre-war maps indicate a
barrow stood near the current Hazel Drive children's play area,
Medieval Some sources claim the area is recorded in the
Domesday Book as Hov, and others suggest this was Hou (later Howbury). An early translation states that Howbury was a hamlet on the bank of
River Darent, which is approximately 1 km east of the small Slade Green hamlet recorded by 19th Century geographers. Askell the Priest from
Abingdon Abbey held estates in various parts of England and bequeathed titles to
Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester. A moated
seigneurial residence was built much closer Slade Green in the
High Middle Ages, with its country house completed during the
English Renaissance, and these structures were named Howbury Manor. Surrounding
green belt marshes contain
willows thought to have been planted over 300 years ago to shelter livestock. :
See also History of Kent and Kingdom of Kent Victorian The communities of
North End and Slades Green (formerly Slads Green) had remained disjointed throughout the
British Agricultural Revolution.
Samuel Lewis' 1848
A Topographical Dictionary of England states that Slades Green was the smaller hamlet with 66 people. While judicial, political and cultural boundaries are continually revised to address various concerns, the tracks of the
North Kent Line have been the immovable border between North End and Slade Green since . The pub was demolished and rebuilt in 1958.
Victorian photographic evidence captures the high crop yield of these agricultural gardens at Slade Green. Historic maps also chronicle an increasing number of clay pits along the railway on the North End side of the tracks. Marshes are a natural source of clays and brick earths, and local firms produced large numbers of
London stock bricks throughout the 19th Century. "Furner of Slade Green" operated the North End brickworks from 1867 to 1911. Slade Green gained a
National School in 1868, and became a
village when St. Augustine's Church opened in 1899. The isolated
Crayford Marshes, which could support barges along the Rivers
Thames and
Darent, were seen as an ideal location for the 40 acre ammunition works that may have operated from 1879 to 1962. Noted mechanical engineer, Hugh Ticehurst MBE, worked at the site from 1893 to 1930. A comparison of historic and contemporary maps confirms that the boundaries of the Victorian site outline the current Darent Industrial Estate or Crayford Ness Industrial Area.
Edwardian Rapid expansion followed the construction of a major
rail depot designed to service 100 steam locomotives for
South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Bexley borough's archived photos suggest the significance of the village had increased by 1905 and that it had absorbed historically important Howbury Manor.
First World War NTWFF Erith, a
National Trench Warfare Filling Factory, was constructed next to the larger
Thames Munition Works in 1915. For a short time a mortar filling station was connected to Slade Green station by the 1½ mile “Trench Warfare Light Railway”. Miss Mary Edith Sheffield, identified only as a superintendent at the
Thames Ammunition Works in the
Crayford Marshes adjacent to Slade Green, was awarded
MBE in King
George V's
1918 Birthday Honours.
Interwar Slade Green endured a national tragedy. En-masse explosions at a former
Trench Warfare Filling Factory operated by Messrs. W.V. Gilbert, a contractor to the
Disposal and Liquidation Commission, caused blinding flashes and the death of 13 workers— 12 teenage girls and one man who was their foreman— on 18 February 1924. The W.V. Gilbert factory was near to or adjoining Thames Munition Works. The parliamentary debate that followed showed that the contract did not require a Fair Wages Clause, and was exempt from the provisions of the
Explosives Act of 1875. A prominent mass grave at
Northumberland Heath stands in memory of the victims. Development may have stagnated in the
interwar years. Records show a
Baptist Church was built on Elm road in the early 1930s, and Anti-Aircraft defences were constructed on the edge of Slade Green in the late 1930s. Thames Munition Works Ltd. became part of the
Vickers-Armstrongs conglomerate in 1927.
Second World War Throughout
Second World War the marshes were used for the 4.5-inch HAA (Heavy Anti-Aircraft) Guns of the
6th Anti-Aircraft Division, corresponding with
No. 11 Group RAF. The
4th Home Counties Brigade (Kent) formed from volunteers in the surrounding area in 1908, deployed overseas, and manned London's air defences at Slade Green in 1941. The disused command post and circular battery ramparts remain in the marshes between Slade Green and the former munition works. Slade Green was subject to a series of air raids, notably the night of 16 April 1941 when
incendiary raids caused many fires and explosions capable of levelling the area; these threats were contained by the brave intervention of residents resulting in the award of three
British Empire Medals and a
George Medal. The Museum of London states that Howbury Manor House, pictured within the moated medieval walls, was bombed during an air raid and then demolished. RAF campaign diaries show Thames Ammunition Works was hit on 12 October 1940. During the war the community was served by a
British Restaurant operating from St. Augustine's Church Hall, which supplied up to 250 lunches six days a week to residents, the school, and nearby factories. Explosives operations ended in the 1960s, and Bexley borough council gave planning permission for an industrial estate on the site in the 1970s. Slade Green emerged as a
London suburb in the
post-war era following the construction of at least 1050 new dwellings, and a road bridge spanning the
North Kent Line.
Notable buildings and structures The
Scheduled Ancient Monument known as Howbury Moat or Howbury Manor (c. 900), and a
Grade II Listed Tithe Barn (c.1600s), are located between Slade Green and Crayford Marshes. In 2006 the medieval moat site was the subject of an
English Heritage sponsored research project by the
University of Oxford's Geography Department into techniques of
Soft Wall Capping for preservation purposes. Following an investigation by
English Heritage, the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport listed the
Second World War anti-aircraft batteries in Slade Green's London artillery zone.
Locally listed buildings are the former Railway Tavern, the Grange and Cottages at Howbury farm, and train sheds with works. Oak Road is a conservation area with Railway workers' cottages dating to 1900. The former Railway Tavern (1a Moat Lane), built by Smith & Sons of South Norwood around 1899, was notable for being illuminated by electricity.
St. Augustine's Church was built in 1899 and extended in 1911. Substantial rebuilding was required following a direct hit during a
Second World War air raid in 1944 and following a fire in 1991 that destroyed the roof along with much of the internal fabric. ==Present and future==