LOCAL historians have suggested Erith High Street could hold an explosive secret.

Research by Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre has uncovered a link between Erith and the gunpowder plotters who tried to blow-up parliament in 1605.

In Easter that year Erith manor house on Erith High Street was rented by Anne Vaux, a daughter of Lord William Vaux and scion of one of England’s most prominent Catholic families.

At a time when Catholics were persecuted by the Protestant majority, Anne used her wealth to purchase or rent safe houses where priests and their associates could meet in secret.

Erith manor house was just such a place for Guy Fawkes, ringleader Robert Catesby and other plotters to meet and plan their audacious assault on the British establishment.

Posing as a Mrs Perkins, Anne rented the house; thought to be ideal because of what Catesby called its "secluded but convenient situation" with an easy escape route by boat on the nearby Thames.

He helped arrange the lease using Anne's cash under the pseudonym Mr Roberts.

But as BLSAC librarian Will Cooban says, the house did not prove a very safe one.

He said: "However secluded, Erith manor house was no safe house and by midsummer 1605 its strange and mysterious band of visitors drew it to the attention of the authorities who assigned agents to investigate.

"When Guy Fawkes failed in his mission on November 5, Robert Catesby became a prime suspect.

"It was discovered he had rented the Erith house which by now was deserted as the conspirators had fled."

But none escaped, including Anne Vaux who was arrested and imprisoned but later released.

Most of the other co-conspirators were hanged, drawn and quartered the following January.

Mr Cooban says the manor house fell into disrepair by the 19th century and was replaced by a new one near Avenue Road in the grounds of Erith School.

He added: "I trust no pupil is plotting to blow up the school."