Are Hazelwood Fields on Shooters Hill part of Castle Woods?
Hazelwood Fields
Thomas Lingham secured a lease of land from the Crown Commissioners and built Hazelwood House on Shooters Hill Road. (Who was Thomas Lingham? What were his dates?)
Then he apparently acquired more land, Hazelwood Fields, and built Castle House in 1829. Castle House Lodge, the lodge to the house, still stands on a bend of the lane from Shooters Hill Road to the Severndroog car park, but it is in the process of being modernised and will soon be unrecognisable.
Stoney Alley
Stoney Alley is another of the ancient ways in Eltham, like Gravel Pit Lane. But as yet I can’t find any information about it other than it linked Shooters Hill to Eltham. The entrance is opposite The Bull pub on the main road but a link between a pub and the village of Eltham doesn’t make sense. So surely this lane must have gone further, perhaps to the dockyards and industries on the river in Plumstead?
It was clearly an important lane at some point in time because there are two old lamp posts in the lane and a third has fallen down near the exit on to Crookston Road. Most streets in London had gas lighting by 1816 but this lane was in the countryside – how would gas have been delivered here? Could these have been electric lights?
Hazelwood Fields on Shooters Hill is hidden and can be tricky to find but it is worth extending a walk to find it. And on reflection I think this is part of Castle Woods.