BUILT HERITAGE SURVEY REPORT Site 21: EARL PUMPING STATION - PARISH BOUNDARY STONES

The removal of two boundary stones were monitored by built heritage specialists working on behalf of MHI. The two stones, one located on Yeoman Street and the other on Croft Street, related to the parish boundaries between St Paul Deptford and St Mary Rotherhithe. The Yeoman Street stone also had an OS datum level marker, with the datum level being added in the late 20th-century. Both stones were removed and stored with a mind to reinstate them at the culmination of the project. The stones mark the parish boundary between the parish of St Paul Deptford and the parish of St Mary Rotherhithe. The recording revealed that the Yeoman Street stone is Portland stone and was probably positioned in 1859 and that the Croft Street stone was granite and likely placed in 1871. The 1897 date inscribed on both stones is undoubtedly to record the date of relocation for both stones following parish boundary changes earlier in the decade. The Yeoman Street stone was also inscribed with an Ordnance Survey benchmark. Following the Second World War, bomb damage to buildings in Yeoman and Croft Streets, and the clearance of these buildings prior to the construction of the Earl Pumping Station, the boundary stones were removed and then reinstated as part of reconstruction work. Evidence for this potential reinstatement is the inclusion of some modern building material around the stones, such as aluminium mesh, particularly in the case of the Yeoman Street stones. Later mapping does not show the stones, although it does show a benchmark at the location of the Yeoman Street stone, providing evidence that this boundary stone was marked with a benchmark by the mid-20th century. Both stones were removed from the site in 2017 and were stored until reinstatement, which at the time of removal was expected to be in 2021.