blackheath?

Question

does anyone know anything about blackheaths history if so please let me know

Answer 1

Blackheath is an open common and residential area mainly in the Greater London boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich. It lies about 6 miles southeast of the City of London. The site of both Roman and Saxon remains, the heath was crossed by the Roman Watling Street (now partly traced by Shooter's Hill Road). Blackheath was the rallying ground of historic English popular rebellions under Wat Tyler (beheaded 1381) and Jack Cade (d. 1450). In 1497 an army of Cornish rebels was crushed there by the forces of Henry VIII. The site of England's first golf club (founded in 1608 by James I, who brought the sport from Scotland), Blackheath became a notorious haunt of highwaymen. It now serves as a recreational common of some 270 acres and is bordered by Greenwich Park to the north.

Answer 2

Much of what we see in Blackheath [SE London] today is the result of money from the Slave Trade. Major English slaving families and companies purchased land at Blackheath and built their Georgian houses there.

Further back and during the English Peasant's Revolt, Blackheath is where Wat Tyler was stabbed and killed by the Lord Mayor of London. So ended the revolt.

Blackheath is also where the Cornish Gorsedd assembled to demand the teaching of English in Cornwall, thus signing the death knell of their own native Cornish Language.

Blackheath is also the site of mass plague victim burials. No digging allowed.

A Roman road runs along the northern end of Blackheath. Don't bother driving there, it's a bottle neck often jammed up, esp. during the Summer.

Also, on Blackheath there are one or two prehistoric burial sites, probably dating from the Bronze Age. No digging allowed.

Answer 3

If you are talking about the Blackheath in south-east London, England, I was born and bred in Blackheath and therefore know it very well. We studied the history of our town at school, and as most of the answers so far have already stated I can confirm it was a place where those who died of the plague were buried.

Greenwich Park which is a royal park which is close by, and the fun runners in the London Marathon start there and also
The London Marathon's elite runners start from Blackheath itself. It is also a very pleasant (but expensive!) place to live.

Answer 4

Blackheath is now part of south London, but it used to be just heathland during the time of the plague, or black death as it was known as one of the first signs was the gums going black. Once your gums turned black, you were on the way to your death, usually within 3 days.

because there were so many people dying, there wasn't any space in the London graveyards, and also most people who caught the black death were the poorest of the poor, living in very squalid conditions, with no sanitory facilities (toilets)

So the wagon men went around with a hand drawn cart shouting 'bring out your dead, bring out your dead'

Relatives of the dead had to pay the carter, or undertaker (because he 'undertook the foulest and most dangerous job) Most carters either did not last very long, or they were immune to the plague, having caught a very mild dose and lived.

This was poverty at its worst. The plague was caused by lack of sanitory facilities in London, sewage was just emptied in to the street gutters. No proper drains existed. The rats ran every where and were the cause of the rapid spread of the plague. The black death was just confined to London because of these conditions.

Shortly after the plague, the government started building a sewage system in London (most of which is still in use today) and made a law preventing sewage being left in the streets.

So the carters were employed again to collect the sewage in buckets with their carts! The first binmen! Not a nice job!

Rats still carry the germs, that caused the plague, although nowadays it is a much less virulant strain and is called 'weils disease' and has spread through out the world.

Answer 5

Many famous people live in Blackheath, including former British triathlon champion Alan Ingarfield, and Danny Baker.

Answer 6

Yes. In the peasants revolt in the 14th century it was the place where the peasant army under Wat Tyler camped on their way to London. This was a revolt over the poll tax.
During WW2 Blackheath was covered with anti aircraft guns and searchlight batteries.
There used to be two fun fairs and a travelling circus every year when I lived there but I don't know if that still happens

Answer 7

Blackheath is a town in the coal region of east central Pennsylvania.

Answer 8

Blackheath
Originally an area of windswept heathland (Old English blaec + haeth = dark-coloured heath) in north-western Kent to the southeast of London. It gave its name to one of the ancient hundreds (administrative areas) of Kent, whose meetings were held on the heath. In former centuries it was the scene of momentous events, both ominous (Wat Tyler's supporters gathered there during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381) and propitious (the restored Charles II was welcomed here in 1660). An annual fair was held here from 1689.

The village and district of Blackheath (now in the London borough of Lewisham, SE3) evolved, mainly in the middle of the 19th century, into a solidly elegant suburb for the well-to-do. It has strog sporting association: the Royal Blackheaath, founded by James VI amnd Iin 1608, is the oldest golf club in ENgland (its course is now in neighbouring Eltham); and Blackheath Rugby CLub (1853) is the oldest in Britain.

Denizens of the Heath were often known facetiously in the past as "Heathens", particularly in sporting contests:
"Blackheath crossed over with a goal to love...The Oxonians...got two goals, while the Heathens were unable to score." (Pall Mall Gazette, 1891)

Black Heath was known as Black Heath before the Black Death.

Answer 9

This is apparently true and the massed graves ended at Gravesend, hence the name of the latter. It was also infamours highwayman country in the 17th and 18th centuries. Worries me a bit, my mother was born in Blackheath!

Answer 10

Blackheath was the site for a mass grave during the Blackdeath - it spanned as far as Gravesend.
It was also a site for a major sermon as part of the 'Great Revolt'