Blackheath | |
---|---|
Map of the Hundred of Blackheath, published in 1797 |
|
Area | |
• 1831 | 12,650 acres (51 km2) |
• 1887 | 17,316 acres (70 km2) |
Population | |
• 1851 | 121,753 |
• 1887 | 234,987 |
History | |
• Created | in antiquity |
• Abolished | 1889 |
• Succeeded by | various, see text |
Status | hundred |
• HQ | Blackheath |
Blackheath was an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England. Its area has been entirely absorbed by the growth of Greater London; the name "Blackheath" now refers to a locality of SE London. Its former area now corresponds to the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the London Borough of Lewisham and part of the London Borough of Bromley.
The name is first recorded as Blachehedfeld in 1166, meaning dark-coloured heathland. The open space at Blackheath was the site of hundred meetings. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is recorded as the hundred of Grenviz (Greenwich), which was part of the lathe of Sutton at Hone. The hundred contained the parishes of Charlton, Chislehurst, St Paul and St Nicholas Deptford, Eltham, Greenwich, Kidbrooke, Lee, Lewisham, Woolwich and Mottingham.
The northern boundary with the Becontree hundred of Essex was mainly the River Thames; however there was also a short land boundary as the parish of Woolwich included two small exclaves north of the river, totalling 402 acres (1.6 km2). Also to the north along the river was a short boundary with the Isle of Dogs and the Tower division of the Ossulstone hundred of Middlesex. In the west it bordered the Brixton hundred of Surrey. Within Kent, it was bounded by the hundreds of Bromley and Beckenham to the south, Ruxley to the south east and Lesnes to the east.