Bromley

From the records: “Stone Age tools have been found in several areas of Orpington, including Goddington Park, Priory Gardens, the Ramsden estate, and Poverest.[citation needed] Early Bronze Age pottery fragments have been found in the Park Avenue area.[citation needed] During the building of Ramsden Boys School in 1956, the remains of an Iron Age farmstead were excavated.[citation needed] The area was occupied in Roman times, as shown by Crofton Roman Villa and the Roman bath-house at Fordcroft.”

From the records: “In AD 862 Ethelbert, the King of Kent, granted land to form the Manor of Bromley.”

From the records: “The first record of the name Orpington occurs in 1038, when King Cnut's treasurer Eadsy gave land at "Orpedingetune" to the Monastery of Christ Church at Canterbury.[citation needed] The name means 'Orped's farmstead', Orped being an Anglo-Saxon first-name.”

From the records: “The name is first attested in a charter of 1067, as Penceat.”

From the records: “The settlement is referred to as Bacheham in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in the Textus Roffensis as Becceham.”

From the records: “Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, chartered in 1158.”

From the records: “In 1185 Bromley Palace was built by Gilbert Glanvill, Bishop of Rochester.”

From the records: “King John granted a charter for the Market to be held every Tuesday in 1205, with Henry VI revising this charter to every Thursday in 1447.”

From the records: “The estate was granted to William Kelshulle in 1408.”

From the records: “Penge Green appears as Pensgreene on Kip's 1607 map.”

From the records: “Camden Place (now Chislehurst Golf Club) takes its name from the antiquary William Camden, who lived in the former house on the site from c. 1609 until his death in 1623.”

From the records: “Bromley Cricket Club was founded in 1820, but evidence of cricket being played in Bromley dates to 1735.”

From the records: “John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke sold most of the manor to John Cator the younger in 1773.”

From the records: “After Cator died in 1806, his heirs under his nephew John Barwell Cator became aware that an area relatively close to London was ripe for development, and the Cator estates and those of Lord Gwydir (who died in 1820) began to be split up, sold and developed,”

From the records: “This earlier location was on the eastward side of Penge Green, which disappeared as a result of the Penge Inclosure Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 35 Pr.) which enclosed the whole green.”

From the records: “There are several Victorian almshouses in Penge, the oldest being the Free Watermen and Lightermen's Almshouses (also known as the Royal Watermen's Almshouses), built in 1840–1841 on Beckenham Road, to designs by George Porter by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the City of London, for retired company freemen and their widows.”

From the records: “John's Road, founded in 1847 and built in 1848 to designs by Philip Hardwick at the request and expense of Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the widow of King William IV, to provide shelter for twelve widows or orphan daughters of naval officers.”

From the records: “St John the Evangelist's Church, Penge (pictured right) in Beckenham Road, was built in 1850 to designs by Edwin Nash & J.”

From the records: “It was a quiet rural village until the arrival of the railway in 1858 in Shortlands, which led to rapid growth, and outlying suburban districts such as Bickley (which later overflowed into Bromley Common) were developed to accommodate those wishing to live so conveniently close to London.”

From the records: “By 1862, Stanford's map of London and its Suburbs shows large homes had been constructed along Penge New Road (now Crystal Palace Park Road, Sydenham and Penge High Street), Thick Wood (now Thicket) Road and Anerley Road.”

From the records: “Wells was born in Bromley on 21 September 1866, to Sarah and Joseph Wells; his father was the founder of the Bromley Cricket Club and the proprietor of a shop that sold cricket equipment.”

From the records: “Orpington railway station opened in 1868 to the southwest of the town centre, prompting housing development in the Crofton and Broom Hill areas, with the Derry Downs areas to the east also developed at about the same time.”

From the records: “An occupant of the house, from 1871 until his death there in 1873, was the exiled French Emperor, Napoleon III.”

From the records: “Penge was once a small hamlet attached to the manor of Battersea and became independent from the manor in 1888.”

From the records: “Orpington is known for the "Buff", "Black" and "Speckled" chickens bred locally by William Cook in the 1890s.”

From the records: “Penge Urban District was the only part of the new borough which had been within the boundaries of the London County Council and Metropolitan Board of Works, although it voted to leave in 1899 to become self-governing until 1965.”

From the records: “As part of the growth of London's conurbation in the 20th century, Bromley Town significantly increased in population and was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1903 and became part of the London Borough of Bromley in 1965.”

From the records: “The Chislehurst War Memorial was dedicated on 17 October 1920.”

From the records: “The Orpington Car, designed by Frank Smith and built by Smith & Milroy Ltd at their works in Wellington Road, was shown at the 1920 Motor Show.”

From the records: “Since May 1929, Bromley has had an annual festival of "dance, drama and comedy" in and around the town's venues.”

From the records: “The Municipal Borough of Beckenham came into being in 1935.”

From the records: “Like St Peter and St Paul's, St Mark's was heavily damaged in the London Blitz of 1941.”

From the records: “Bromley has its own team of Morris dancers, The Ravensbourne Morris Men, founded in 1947 as a post-war revival team following an inaugural meeting at the then Jean's Café, which was located opposite Bromley South Station.”

From the records: “Journalists in the 1960s used "Orpington man" to designate a typical member of the lower middle class, for example as the target audience of an electoral or advertising appeal.”

From the records: “The modern borough was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, covering the combined areas of the former Municipal Borough of Bromley, Municipal Borough of Beckenham, Orpington Urban District, Penge Urban District and the Chislehurst area from the Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District (the Sidcup area went to the London Borough of Bexley).”

From the records: “In 1967, Eric Lubbock, then Liberal MP for Orpington, promoted a Private Member's Bill to provide permanent Romani sites; this resulted in the Caravan Sites Act 1968 that placed an obligation upon local authorities to provide sites for locally residing travellers.”

From the records: “In 1971, an international meeting of Romany people was held at Orpington; this Orpington Congress marked the founding of the International Romani Union, a group seeking political representation for Romanis throughout Europe.”

From the records: “The Churchill Theatre was opened on 19 July 1977 by the Prince of Wales, and seats 781.”

From the records: “Beckenham is also one of the main locations of the novel The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), by Hanif Kureishi.”