Abbey Wood - 6.24 miles - Tuesday 8th November

Abbey Wood is on the Woolwich loop of the line to Dartford. It has a very good service, trains every 10 minutes I believe. It is also where the Crossrail is going to start in South East London so there is a lot of building work going on, including four new platforms (the original ones have been moved) and a spanking new Railway Station, I would expect it to re-generate the area beyond belief and may also have an impact on Thamesmead.

New Station at Abbey Wood

New Platforms at Abbey Woo

I arrived at Abbey Wood (13:20) from Waterloo East having been to Raynes Park via Blackfriars, Haydons Road  and Wimbledon on one of my Jolly's! Video footage can be found on my You -Tube account Ubley Halt (when I finally get around to posting it). The Abbey Arms public house looked in better shape than it did when I was last in the area and there were some splendid murals on the house wall-ends.

From Abbey Wood I walked down Fendyke Road and joined the Green Chain Walk again into Lesnes Abbey. The Abbey was founded in 1178 by Richard de Luci, Chief Justiciar to Henry II. It was probable the Abbey, dedicated to St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr, was founded as an act of penance by de Luci who was closely implicated in the murder of Thomas a Becket in 1170. The Abbey is in ruins, but a good impression of it can be obtained by walking around them. All the buildingss are labelled and I easily found the cloisters and the Abbey Church. The Abbey also boast a 150 year old Mulberry Tree which is believed to have descended from James I time when he tried to establish a British silk industry in the early part of the 1600's.

Its free entrance and a lot of work in being done, including a new visitors centre. It has lovely gardens and is well worth a visit, set against a background of Lesnes Abbey Woods.

The Cloisters

The Abbey Church

I followed the Green Chain Path behind the Abbey and into the aforementioned woods, crossed News Road (which like the Rochester Way is used for free parking for Abbey Wood Station) into more woodland, past a pleasant duck pond to end up at the crossroads of Bostall Hill / Woolwich Road / Knee Hill / Brampton Road where can be found one of those old road signs, the ones with yellow background, with black writing in white boxes, they have a special name which I can't recall. Bostall Hill is where the Royal Borough of Greenwich begins in this part of SE London.

Free parking in New Road

Pleasant Pond in Lesnes Abbey Woods

Crossroads at Borstall Hill

Lesnes Abbey Woods

At this point I got a little dis-orientated and ended up walking in the wrong direction along Hadlow Road in East Wickham, which has a row of shops serving the local community. I re-orientated myself and headed for Ron's to drop off a couple of series of the Sopranos and had a couple of mugs of tea and chocolate biscuits, very welcome.

Hadlow Road

Leaving Ron's I headed west towards East Wickham Open Space to rejoin the Green Chain Walk, but first passing Welling School and the site of Fanny on the Hill, a Public House which has been pulled down and replaced by flats, I must admit it looked quite a nice development.

Once the site of Fanny on the Hill Public House

East Wickham Open Space was busy with dog walkers.

East Wickham Open Space

Previously the Green Chain Walk crossed Woodlands Farm pasture but this has been diverted along the streets of Welling passing a farm of sorts where two goats were on the look out for snacks, The Green Man Public House and St Mary the Virgin CofE church. This took me down Wickham Street into Bellegrove Road where I joined the route I took on my Welling walk, I arrived home at 15:00.