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ted for over 2,000 years—certainly Crooms Hill is pre-Celtic whilst
Shooter's Hill, along with many other place names, is clearly of Celtic
origin. Recovered coins and fragments of pottery show an almost
continuous Roman settlement from 41 B.C. to 423 A.D. and Saxon
burial mounds and barrows dating from the 6th century are still
to be seen in Greenwich Park.
Village life, which survived the Romans' departure and the
coming of the Jutes in the mid 5th century, was predominantly that
of men whose business was with the sea and ships with the trade
of waterman as their most important occupation. Indeed, even
up to 100 years ago, fishing smacks were sailing regularly from
Greenwich, a busy attractive little Thames-side town, to the North
Sea, Iceland and Greenland. This was hardly surprising for here
the river affords an excellent roadstead for shipping. So much so
that in the time of King Ethelred (1011 A.D.) the whole Danish
Fleet lay off Greenwich for three or four years whilst the army
was for the most part encamped on Blackheath. This army ravaged
the whole country and sacked the City of Canterbury from whence
they brought Archbishop Alfege to his martyrdom at Greenwich
on April 19th, 1012. Domesday Book, compiled in 1086 records
the existence at that time of a church on this site, a situation which
has continued to the present day.
Although efforts to obtain a Royal Charter have so far proved
unsuccessful, Greenwich is unquestionably royal by association for,
although the early Norman Kings preferred Winchester, at the
time of St. Alfege's martyrdom the English king was resident and
had a Royal Treasury at Greenwich. Later, at the Palace of
Placentia, Henry VIII, his daughter Queen Elizabeth I and her
half sister Mary, were born and spent much of their time and when
Westminster became the centre of government Greenwich again
became a royal resort and was the favourite royal palace from the
time of Edward I (1272) to James II (1685). It was here in its heyday
that the great Elizabethan admirals, statesmen, writers, musicians
and courtiers thronged the riverside and splendid palace and it
was towards the end of this "golden age" that, in 1675 on a Warrant
of Charles II, the Royal Observatory was founded and, to the design
of Christopher Wren, Flamsteed House was built on the site of
Duke Humphrey's Tower.
Very early in the 18th century Daniel Defoe described Greenwich
as "the most delightful spot of ground in Great Britain" and