The Greenwich Meridian

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With effect from 31 August 2012 Peacehaven Infant School and neighbouring Hoddern Junior School were closed and immediately reopened as a new community primary school known as Peacehaven Heights. In October 1995, three trees were planted on the Meridian where it crossed the grounds of Peacehaven Infants School. At the time of planting, the school buildings fronted Edith Avenue and the grounds fronted Roderick Avenue (as in the aerial view). When the school was rebuilt at the time of the millennium, the positions of the grounds and the buildings were reversed, necessitating the removal of the trees (assuming they hadn’t died already). Following the school’s rebuilding, the Meridian was marked with a mosaic.

The three trees were the very first to be planted by Millennium Tree Line (MTL) project. The line on which they were planted was located with unprecedented precision (to the nearest centimetre) with the help of the Ordnance Survey and Leica – an exercise that took a full day to complete. The three trees were: a large-leaved lime (tilia platyphyllos), a field maple (acer campestre) and a box (buxux sempervirens). The maple was planted where the playing field met the playground with the hope that one day, it might have a circular seat around its trunk.