Blythe Vale lies on the border between Forest Hill and Catford in south-east London. At first glance it looks like an ordinary suburban residential road with nothing special or noteworthy about it. However, it does have a history that goes back a long way.
Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many suburban roads around London were created by property developers dividing up former farm land land and creating frontage for new build housing. However, some roads, like Blythe Vale, had more ancient origins. They were tracks that linked two places together. In the case of Blythe Vale, it links an ancient Saxon village called Sippenham, located at the road junction at its south end, with the heights of Blythe Hill Fields a few hundred yards to the north.
This road junction is hardly noticed by most locals or travellers, but it marks a track from the village to the heights of Blythe Hill Fields.
Blythe Vale, looking north, photographed at some time between 1895 and 1910. Photo courtesy of Steve Grindlay and the Lewisham archive.
Once it is understood that Blythe Vale follows the line of an ancient track, we can question its origins.
Possible Roman Road
There is a possibility that Blythe Vale dates back 2000 years, to the time of the Roman Empire. During the Roman occupation of Britain, between 43 AD and 410 AD, a large number of roads were built linking together important cities, towns and ports. One of these roads was Watling Street, the south London section of which ran from Southwark to Richborough in East Kent. The initial section of this road follows the line of the present Old Kent Road as it goes from London Bridge south east towards Deptford. As it passes north of Peckham there was a branch going south, which was the start of a road called The Lewes Way, which went all the way down to Lewes in East Sussex.
The remains of this road are fragmentary and only a few sections in the London area can be identified. Importantly, its beginning has been identified as the junction between The Old Kent Road and Asylum Road, which initiates its course as it goes south through south-east London.
The green line shows the approximate line of the Roman Lewes Way as it branches off Watling Street and follows the line of the present Asylum Road.
Image from Google Maps
Further south, the line of the Roman road is picked up at Ivydale Road, which runs past Nunhead Cemetry and which is heading directly towards Blythe Hill. ludes what they do, how long they’ve been at it, and what got them to where they are.
The Roman Lewes Way continues south along the line of the present Ivydale Road, passing the high ground of Nunhead Cemetery.
Image from Google Maps
After that point it vanishes and no trace of it has ever been found until it re-emerges in the countryside outside London.
However, the approximate line of the road as it goes towards Blythe Hill suggests it went over the hill, then along or very close to the line of Blythe Hill Lane, then down Blythe Vale, before going on south to the Pool River near Bell Green.
This map shows how the road would have passed over Blythe Hill and then gone along or very close to the line of Blythe Vale.
Image from Google Maps
After the withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain in 410 AD the country became open to Saxon invasions from mainland Europe. It is important to understand that this was not a military invasion but rather a sequence of migrations by peoples from northern Germany and Denmark. They came to East Anglia and Kent and gradually over many years became integrated into the local population.
People need viable places to live, so the tendency was to follow the line of rivers, which would provide a source of fresh water and farm land. The Thames is the major river in south-east England, well known to the Saxons. Going south from the Thames was an important tributary, the tidal reach of which is now known as Deptford Creek. South of Deptford it is freshwater and is known as the River Ravensbourne.
Following the Ravensbourne south, the first settlement to be established was Lewisham. The letters "ham" at the end, Saxon for hamlet, indicates that it was a Saxon village belonging to a person called Lewis. Continuing south we reach Catford, the location of a ford over the river, perhaps a crossing place for cattle (not a crossing place for cats as is often said). And at Catford there is another tributary branching off the Ravensbourne and running south called The River Pool.
Flanked by wide meadows (used as watercress meadows right up until the late nineteenth century), the River Pool was the ideal place to establish a new village. This village was located about a hundred yards north of the River pool and was, to the best of our understanding, exactly at the present junction between Blythe Vale, Catford Hill, Perry Hill and Elm Lane. It was called Sippenham, or Chippenham, meaning Sippa or Chippas's Village, a hamlet belonging to a Saxon called Sippa or Chippa.
This map shows the junction between Blythe Vale, atford Hill, Perry Hill and Elm Lane, the original location of Sippenham. The Pool River is to the right of the map.
Map courtesy of Ordnance Survey, Ed. 1894-96, CXXVIII, published 1897.
It is believed that the name Sippenham evolved into Sydenham, and that its centre gradually moved west to where the present Sydenham is now located. If true, this means that the junction at the south end of Blythe Vale is a truly ancient village and the birthplace of Sydenham.
During the Medieval period the a Sydenham Manor House was built in Elm Lane, formerly known as Sabin's Lane. This grand house was called Place House, and it is known to have been visited by Queen Elizabeth I.
Place House, from a print of 1791.
Image courtesy of Sydenham Town Forum.
The map below shows the approximate location of Place House, its footprint being across the present Bargrove Crescent, formerly known as Creeland Grove, and on the site of a modern block of flats.
Location of Place House and The Elms
Map courtesy of Ordnance Survey, Ed. 1894-96, CXXVIII, published 1897.