Joyden's Wood
| Joyden's Wood | |
|---|---|
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| Geography | |
| Location | Kent, England |
| OS grid | TQ501719 |
| Coordinates | 51°25′34″N 0°09′29″E / 51.426°N 0.158°ECoordinates: 51°25′34″N 0°09′29″E / 51.426°N 0.158°E |
| Governing body | Woodland Trust |
Joyden's Wood is an area of ancient woodland located south-east of Bexleyheath and south-west of Dartford, on the border between South-East London and Kent. It is one of over 1,000 woodlands in the United Kingdom looked after by the Woodland Trust. The first records of a wood on this site go back to the year 1600.
There are nine ponds in the wood, each of which is a habitat for all three British newts:
There are traces of settlements in the forest that are over 2,000 years old, and deneholes have been found. There is also Faesten Dic, ‘the strong dike’, that was built 1500 years ago by Saxon settlers and which runs for over a kilometre through the forest.
Archaeological investigation during the 1950s has also revealed that a medieval hall flanked by two smaller buildings was present in the area, now underneath an area of housing that is east of Summerhouse Drive and south of Joyden's Wood Road. The hall was likely constructed out of timber with a tiled roof, and the period of occupation has been dated to between circa 1280 and 1320 through an analysis of the pottery found at the site. This reflects the likelihood that the site was inhabited for about two generations, but no longer. It is possible that this building was the Manor of Ocholt, which is known from historical records to have been located nearby and which was owned by Lesnes Abbey. Some of the pottery sherds found were identified as belonging to grey ware produced in the Limpsfield area of Surrey; such Limpsfield ware was supplied to London and northern Kent, having also been found at nearby sites Cray House and Eynsford Castle.
The likely source of fresh water for the hall's inhabitants was a nearby well. A number of earthworks surrounded the hall, although the exact date of these has not been ascertained. Why the hall was abandoned is not clear, but possibilities include a failure in the water supply, a rapid impoverishment of the sandy soil found in the surrounding fields, or the impact of the Black Death. There was no archaeological evidence suggesting that the house might have been devastated by fire.
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