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fact that the present Royal Naval College stands on a site where
once stood handsome Roman villas and courts.
Notwithstanding that documented history of Greenwich appears
to begin only during King Alfred's reign when he was Lord of the
manor (circa 900) there is evidence that Greenwich has been
inhabited for over 2,000 years—certainly Crooms Hill is pre-Celtic
whilst Maidenstone Hill and Shooters Hill along with many other
place names, are clearly of Celtic origin. Charlton is a corruption
of Ceorl-tun, the Romano-Celtic "freeman's village". 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.
Although early English kings had no settled domicile, in 1012
A.D. Ethelred II had a residence at Greenwich, and Eltham was
prominent in royal affairs for some 200 years during the Plantaganet
period. Later, when Henry IV (the first of the Lancastrians)
was king, Greenwich was regarded as one of the seats of government
and, from then on, the court at the Palace of Placentia became
world famous. Especially was this so during the Tudor period and
particularly during the reigns of Henry VIII and his daughter
Queen Elizabeth when the palace was frequented by the most
eminent people of the time.
The founding of the Navy Office and Trinity House and the
establishment of the Deptford and Woolwich Dockyards by Henry
VIII merely confirmed the Borough's long standing affinity with
the sea and shipbuilding. Present basic industries of the area owe
their origins to these latter occupations with their associated trades
and skills and also to the fact that, somewhat later, manufacture
and testing of the country's arms and equipment became located
at Woolwich Arsenal.
At the opening of the present century the Greenwich and
Woolwich areas, which were still predominantly shipbuilding and
engineering centres, were already feeling the effects of the changeover
from sail to steam. Acceptance of the steamship had led to
the building of bigger ships and, as a consequence, this trade passed
to other and more suitable areas of the country with the result
that many local industries were seriously affected. Sail-makers
and repairers were no longer required; men engaged in the refitting,
etc., of the sailing vessels lost their employment and concerns which
catered for the revictualling of such vessels saw their trade wither
away. Firms were compelled to close down owing to competition
and the heavy rates and taxes imposed and such movements of
industry only tended to aggravate the unemployment problem in