Since the beginning of March when travel became restricted, I’ve been making a concerted effort to explore more things on my doorstep and now I realise that I’ve been overlooking places that were under my nose the whole time. One of the lesser known places which I think is worth sharing is Lesnes Abbey Woods in the suburbs of South East London.
From my home in Greenwich I usually travel in a westerly or northerly direction to be closer to Central London, but after my friend Sarah noticed a big, green space on Google Maps we decided to go further east this time and explore somewhere neither of us had visited before.
I confess, I’d never even heard of Lesnes Abbey Woods until Sarah spotted it on the map. Bigger attractions like Greenwich Park and quaint towns like Dulwich draw in the crowds, so this place remains quite the little secret of South East London.
The Ruins of Lesnes Abbey
After walking for approximately two hours from Greenwich, we arrived at the woods (or you can hop on a train from London Bridge and be there in 25 minutes.) The first attraction we clocked were the ruins of Lesnes Abbey which the woodlands’ name derives from.
To give you some background information we have to travel back far in time. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, the estate of Lesnes was owned by Bishop Odo, the half-brother of William the Conqueror and who was one of the most powerful men in Norman England. Lesnes Abbey was built by Richard de Luci in 1178. De Luci was the Chief Justiciar of England under Henry II, and it’s rumoured that he founded the abbey to appease his conscience for his role in the murder of Thomas Becket eight years earlier.
By 1525 it was dissolved by Cardinal Wolsey who concluded that any abbey with fewer than seven inhabitants should be closed because they were deemed ineffective. Then in 1536 – 1541, at the demands of Henry VIII all the monastic buildings in England were pulled down in a process called the Dissolution of the Monasteries, luckily some ruins still remain like this one. It is not however comparable in scale to ones like Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire which is one of the best preserved monasteries in England.
In 1930 the London County Council bought the site and opened it to the public as a park. In 1986 control passed to the London Borough of Bexley. Today only the foundations of the ancient monument remain, including the foundations of a brewhouse, kitchen, cellarer’s store, parlour, chapter house, porter undercroft and warming house.
The Quirky Tree Carvings
Next up we ventured further into the woods and found a few surprises. Hidden among foliage and forest are quirky tree sculptures that were recently added by artist Tom Harvey who specialises in large-scale wood sculptures.
I spotted a number of them in the park but my favourite was the Green Man, an ancient pagan icon of fertility. You can also find three other delightful carvings depicting an owl and foxes, a monk and lastly, ‘The Lady of the Woods’. They really add a touch of magic for kids, an imaginative landscape that is free to explore. The craftsmanship shows incredible detail – I wondered how long each one took to complete…
The fossil pit
Part of the woods are listed as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest. In this section is the ‘Fossil Bed’, a small designated area where members of the public can dig for fossils.
Back in the Eocene Epoch, about 54.5 million years ago, Southern England was in the Southern Hemisphere and just crossing the Equator. At that time, the land hereabouts was formed of a large river estuary where the remains of dead fish and other animals would settle out of the slowing water. I saw a couple of children in the Fossil Bed intent on finding some fossils, a task I’m sure kids excel better at than adults, I think because they have sharper eyesight and of course, they are closer to the ground.
Elsewhere is small but pretty flower garden. We didn’t go inside because we had a dog which are not allowed in this enclosed area. To complete your trip to Abbey Woods is an attractive cafe that has been built to fit in with the natural landscape.
For more green spaces, take a look at this list of more parks in South London.
