BEXLEY VILLAGE
INTRO
A Kentish village, 13 mies of Ch.Cr
Its name means “clearing among the box trees”.
It grew up where 2 roads converged to cross the river CRAY: the road from ELTHAM to DARTFORD and the one from CRAYFORD to ORPINGTON.
It was well establíshed by the time of the DOMESDAY BOOK. It had 41 inhabitants, with 100 pigs and 10 ploughs.
The church, ST. MARY’s, and the little rectory estate belonged to the PRIORY OF HOLY TRINITY, ALDGATE, who sent the vicars. The vicarage survived until the 1770s.
The MANOR OF BEXLEY, including the hamlets of BLENDON, DANSON, HURST, UPTON. and WELLING belonged to the estate of the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. The 18th c. MANOR HOUSE still survives. In the 1530s, though, the manor was acquired by the Crown, who leased it to SIR JOHN CHAPNEIS, merchant, former LM. He built himself a fine house, about 1 mile NE of the village, on the N bank of the CRAY, using old stones salvaged from demolished monasteries.
The manor and the house were granted by King JI to the antiquarian and herald WILLIAM CAMDEN. When he died, in 1623, he left the estate to the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, to fund a history professorship. OXFORD remained the L of the M into modern timed
BEXLEY HISTORY TIMELINEhttp://www.southlondonguide.co.uk/bexley/history.htm
Railway Station
The railway played a critical role in the transformation of Bexley in a London suburb. While being absorbed by the urban sprawl, the GREEN BELT restrictions have made of Bexley THE LAST VILLAGE of London.
Until the 19th c. you reached the country village through a rutted road infested by marauding highwaymen. Large country estates and mansions gave way, from 1866, to Victorian villas, and, once the former village was connected to London, the new middle classes would commute daily to their clerical jobs in the City and the West End.
From a pop. of 1.500 in 1801, to 11.000 in 1891. And, during the 20s and 30s the villages around were linked up thanks to the sprawling suburbs.
Bexley station was opened in September 1866. It had five sidings on the down side, to the west of the station building with a row of coal stacks.[citation needed] Farm produce formed much of the goods traffic in the station's early years, much of it grown in local fields.[citation needed]The station had an SER-designed two-storey timber signal box which came into use about twenty years after the station opened.[citation needed]In 1955 the platforms were extended to accommodate ten carriage trains. The goods sidings closed in 1963 and the signal box closed in 1970.[citation needed] The clapboard buildings of the original station are well preserved.
Tanyard Lane
Former tanning yard
Beside the workhouse, some dirty industries… Traditionally, ost villagers worked as farmers, in the mills, as servants of the country estates. Skilled people like JOHN DUNN, a carpenter who, in 1804, received money for his work for the church, and supplemented his income with burial work.
Riverside meadowland
BEXLEY CRICKET CLUB
Cricket has been played in Bexley Village ever since the time when it really was a village. The exact date of the formation of the Club - if it had a formal foundation is lost in the mists of time, but Bexley men were certainly playing cricket by 1746.
The most famous match in the Club's history took place in 1805, when Bexley, with three guest players, played and beat Kent. The remarkable thing about this match is that Kent were bowled out for only six runs-or five if other reports arc true – and as the match was played for a wager of 500 guineas there must have been great celebrations in Bexley that night. To this day the Club badge bears the date '1805', as a reminder of that victory.
Hurst Road
Parkhill Road
Manor Way
HOUSES (started 1869)
ST.JOHN’s Church
Many people are familiar with St John's from the outside as a landmark in Bexley Village "the pretty church on the edge of Golden Acre Park".
St John's has served the community for over 130 years.
The architect was G. Low and it was consecrated in 1882. French Gothic-style church features an aisled nave, an apsidal chancel.
INTERIOR: includes round piers, pointed arches to the nave, and a painted chancel with an iron screen. The roofs are tie-beam with king-posts, and the chancel has a ribbed and pointed tunnel vault.
A north tower with corner turrets, and an octagonal upper stage, crowned by a stone spire
Along High St.
This street and indeed the street pattern of the former village are centuries old.
STYLEMAN’s ALMSHOUSES
Established in 1755 by a former governor of MADRAS, providing housing for the poor and the elderly. These 12 almshouses were built in 1755. They were built under the terms of the will of John Styleman, a director of the East India Company, who lived at Danson Park. His will requested 'twelve almshouses for twelve poor families of this parish, to be nominated by the trustees, minister, and churchwardens; and he ordered, that two guineas should be paid to the minister of Bexley yearly, for preaching an annual sermon on Midsummer-day; and three guineas for a dinner yearly on that day'. He died in 1734 and the almshouses were built after his widow's death.
Former parish WORKHOUSE
Established by the parish in 1787 to look after 40 poor inmates, people who had fallen on hard times.
THE RAILWAY TAVERN P.H.
The building itself can be traced back to as early as 1681, but didn't get its license till 1743 when it operated under the name of the "Tower of London." Over time the "of London" part of its title was lost and it was referred to simply as the "Tower." The railway station opening in 1866 and I am led to believe the pub was referred to as the "Tower Inn and Railway Tavern" for a few years, before the Tower bit was finally dropped, probably between 1881 and 1903 when it finally became the "Railway Tavern."
In 1897 the "Railway Tavern" was the headquarters for the Bexley Cricket and Cycling Clubs A.O.F.
JACKSON HOUSE (No.57)
The late seventeenth or early eighteenth-century structure at 57 and 59 Bexley High Street, a Grade II listed building
FREEMANTLE HALL
Victorian-era community center built in 1894. It was established by Mr. Freemantle on Conservative and Unionist principles, intended to serve local needs through diverse activities, including community events and private functions. The hall remains an active part of the community, available for public hire and various local events like art exhibitions, dance classes, and charity fundraisers.
THE KING’s HEAD P.H. with accommodation
Named after King HVIII, who had a hunting lodge in DARTFORD.
“Our kitchen serves up the very best in authentic Thai cuisine”
THE GEORGE P.H.
The original building can be traced back to the 1700s, but was rebuilt in 1878 and operated by Whitbread since 1891. It's also been a Hogshead tied pub and now (2020) Green King owned
Under the railway line
River CRAY
the largest tributary of the River Darent. It is the prime river of outer, south-east Greater London, rising in Priory Gardens, Orpington, where rainwater percolates through the chalk bedrock of the Downs to form a pond where the eroded ground elevation gives way to impermeable clay. Initially it flows true to form northwards, past industrial and residential St Mary Cray, through St Paul's Cray (where it once powered a paper mill) and through Foots Cray, where it enters the parkland Foots Cray Meadows, flowing under by Five Arches bridge (built in 1781 as part of their designs by Capability Brown). It then flows by restored Loring Hall (c.1760), home of the Lord Castlereagh who killed himself there in 1822. It continues through North Cray and Bexley. It neighbours a restored Gothic (architecture) cold plunge bath house, built around 1766 as part of Vale Mascal Estate. It is then joined by the River Shuttle (a small brook) and then continues through the parkland of Hall Place, which was built for John Champneys in 1540. The Cray turns eastward through Crayford and Barnes Cray to join the Darent in Dartford Creek. The Creek is a well-watered partly tidal inlet (of the Tideway) between Crayford Marshes and Dartford Marshes by a slight projection of land, Crayford Ness. The villages through which the Cray flows are collectively known as "The Crays".
The bridge has been rebuild and the route widened, but this remains a medieval route.
No.84 Indian restaurant
Old building, newer façade
Modern replica of the former CORN MILL
The Bexley Old Mill was a historic water mill with a long history stretching back to the Domesday Book (that means it was already here in SAXON times) , located on the River Cray in Bexley, England. Operating for centuries, grinding barley and maize, although it stopped producing flour around 1910.
The last mill building here dated to around 1779, and was destroyed by fire in 1966. Then, the arches under the building were restructured to help avoid flooding due to accumulation of debris.
The site has since been redeveloped, first as a restaurant and now as apartments
CRAY HOUSE
Possibly built by the mill owner, when that was built
COTTAGES
Early 19th c.
No.101 COTTAGE
Another new front disguising an older building: 3 round and 2 long screw iron bolts or plates bolt the QUEEN ANNE façade on to the 15th C structure.
Row of 1666 houses
The carriage entrance can be spotted.
The modern tiled roofing used to hide an older thatched roof until the 1970s.
HIGHSTREET HOUSE. John Thorpe, antiquarian, lived here
The iron railings were among the only ones which not scraped for metal during WW2
His mention, in Custumale Roffense of a Roman mosaic pavement, discovered about 1750 in Lullingstone Park by workmen digging post holes, led archaeologists in 1949 to not only locate and uncover the pavement, but also to reveal the extensive Lullingstone Roman Villa to which it belonged
Thorpe contributed also "Illustrations of several Antiquities in Kent which have hitherto remained undescribed" to the first volume of Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica’ A letter from him to Andrew Coltée Ducarel, maintaining in opposition to Daines Barrington, that the cherry is indigenous to England, was published in Philosophical Transactions during 1771, p. 152). He frequently wrote on antiquarian subjects in the Gentleman's Magazine
Manor Road
ST.MARY’s Church
Unique cone and pyramid spire.
BRASS: Castilayn family
MONUMENTS: Chapneis, Austen, Styleman families
Churchyard
Oldest tomb: Payne family (1603]
John. Thorpe himself had a massive boulder placed on the grave of his wife Catherine when she died in. 1789 to discourage grave robbers.
From the churchyard you can catch a glimpse of the MANOR HOUSE
MANOR FARM HOUSE
Footpath to COLDBLOW area
CHURCH HALL, on site of TITHE BARN
The medieval Tithe Barn was demolished in 1910
VICTORIAN MANOR COTTAGE
Site of Manor Farmyard, now Sand and Ballast Co.
MANOR HOUSE
Hardly visible
The site has a long history, with a previous building on the site. The manor belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury until it was sold to Oxford University in 1536.
A significant part of the manor house was built around 1790 as Palace Green House and later known as Sidcup House before its current name, Bexley Manor House, was adopted.
The house was used as a school before World War II and then as a nursing home. It was eventually sold to the Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District Council in 1950. It is now used for council offices and apartments, and a portion of it was also used as a nursing home
The gardens are noted for their arts and crafts style, featuring sculpted queen's beasts and herbaceous borders overlooking the River Cray
Footpath
CHURCHYARD extension, now ecological park
Opened in 1858, and turned into a protected ecological area in 1990.When you reach the corner of the wall, there is a good view of the upper part of the Manor House, across the old farm orchard
Cray Riverway
Churchfield Wood
Stile
Alongside the road embankment
Under the road
Path leading to road level
Over the railway line
Steps: Back onto ground level
Alongsided railway line
Left: into HALL PLACE grounds
HALL PLACE
Hall Place is a Grade I listed country house built in 1537. A rare example of its type, many of the original features remain today. These include the distinctive checkerboard style of masonry crafted from flint and rubble
The beautiful 17thcentury redbrick courtyard and the spectacular plaster ceiling in the Great Chamber were added around the same time.
In the 18th century Hall Place came into the ownership of the Dashwood family. Sir Francis Dashwood was a politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1762–1763, but he was also a known rake and founder of the secret and immoral Hellfire Club.
The most notorious club associated with the name was established in England by Francis Dashwood,[5]and met irregularly from around 1749 to around 1760, and possibly up until 1766. The term was closely associated with Brooks's, established in 1764.
They met at the George and Vulture Inn and their motto was Fais ce que tu voudras (Do what thou wilt), a philosophy of life associated with François Rabelais's fictional abbey at Thélème and later used by Aleister Crowley.
The downfall of Dashwood's Club was more drawn-out and complicated. In 1762, the Earl of Bute appointed Dashwood his Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite Dashwood being widely held to be incapable of understanding "a bar bill of five figures". (Dashwood resigned the post the next year, having raised a tax on ciderwhich caused near-riots).[38] Dashwood now sat in the House of Lords after taking up the title of Baron Le Despencer after the previous holder died.[39] Then there was the attempted arrest of John Wilkes for seditious libel against the King in the notorious issue No. 45 of his The North Briton in early 1763.
From 1795 Hall Place was leased as a school for young gentlemen.
Maitland Dashwood, grandson of Sir Francis, made the next set of significant changes to the fabric of Hall Place, beginning in the 1870s (addition of a lodge, connection to water mains, interior alterations, like flooring and panelling).
The 20th century saw a series of short-term leases to the aristocratic and the fashionable. The tenants during this period reflected a new glamorous pre-war elite and included Baron Emile D’Erlanger and his American wife Matilda, a former gaiety girl.
The last tenant of Hall Place was Lady Limerick who lived in the house alone from 1917 – 1943. She added a number of mock-Tudor features including beams and fireplaces. Lady Limerick and the house appeared in a 1922 edition of County Life Magazine.
In January 1944 the U.S Army’s Signal Corps 6811th Signal Service Detachment arrived at Hall Place to operate an intercept station, code named Santa Fe. The station was set up in a new spirit of co-operation between British and American intelligence services.
The Signal Corps were to participate in the Enigma code breaking operation, Ultra. The Santa Fe station intercepted encoded Morse signals mostly from the German Air Force and the Luftwaffe. Radio aerial wires were strung over the rooftops and the Great Hall was converted into a ‘set room’ with banks of Hammarlund Super Pro radio receivers lined up on wooden-plank tables. The Great Chamber became the soldier’s dormitory.
Visit
Entrance to the historic house is available by booking onto one of our House Tours. On the House Tour you will have the opportunity to explore all of these fascinating parts of the building along with the Tudor/Stuart Discovery Gallery, where you can learn more about the first two major families to have lived and shaped Hall Place.
Alongside the grandeur of the Great Hall, Tudor Kitchen, Great Chamber and Hallway, you will explore and learn more about how the many different occupants lived in these spaces, there are also three permanent displays
Gardens
I hope you are enjoying this guide!
