page_title: Thamesmead
section_title: Military use
hierarchical_section_title: Thamesmead / History / Military use
caption_attribution_description: English: Pilkington Canal, Thamesmead Only the first few hundred metres remain at the Thames end of the Pilkington Canal, and its connection to the river has been severed by recent development. It remains as a water feature in the Thamesmead housing development.
context_page_description: Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located 11 miles east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consists of social housing built from the mid-1960s onwards on former marshland on the south bank of the River Thames.
context_section_description: Most of the land area of Thamesmead previously formed about 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of the old Royal Arsenal site that extended over Plumstead Marshes and Erith Marshes. There is some evidence of prehistoric human occupation of the area: flints, animal bones and charcoal were found in bore holes around Western and Central Way in 1997 by the Museum of London Archaeological Service (MOLAS). In Roman times, the river level was significantly lower, and work by MOLAS in 1997 around Summerton Way revealed evidence of field ditches and pottery and quernstones from Germany dating from around the 3rd or 4th century. After the Roman era, river levels rose again and the area reverted to marshland. According to Hasted, some areas of this marshland were drained by 1279 by the monks of Lesnes Abbey.
  Between 1812 and 1816, a canal was built by convicts to take materials such as timber from the River Thames to Woolwich Royal Arsenal. Much of this canal has been filled in, but part remains in Thamesmead West and is now called the Broadwater. A disused lock gate and swing bridge over the canal still exist beside the River Thames.
caption: Pilkington Canal (also called Broadwater Canal) - used to connect to Woolwich Arsenal, now remains as a water feature
exif: {}