BECKENHAM PAST AND PRESENT.

CHAPTER I.

FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO 1538.

The parish of Beckenham, which extends from the crown of Stump’s Hill in the Southend Road, on the north, to the village of West Wickham on the south, and from a spot near Bromley Station, on the east, to the North Tower of the Crystal Palace on the west, is situate in the hundred of Bromley, in the lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, in the Western or Sevenoaks Parliamentary Division of Kent, and in the Rural Deanery of Beckenham, in the Diocese oi Rochester. Until the year 1845, when it was transferred to the Diocese of Canterbury, the parish of Beckenham was part of the Diocese of Rochester, but in the year 1905, when several of the dioceses in the neighbourhood of thee metropolis were re-arranged, Beckenham reverted to its old Diocese of Rochester.

The outline of the parish is very irregular, and this is particularly noticeable on the western side, where a tongue of land runs up to the Crystal Palace, dividing the district of Penge from that of Lewisham.

As an explanation of this curious strip of land there is a tradition that centuries ago an unknown corpse was found on the top of the hill where the Crystal Palace now stands, and that as the authorities of the parish on which it was found declined to bury it, those of Beckenham did so, and removed the body, claiming in return the land on either side of the body and a strip back to the original boundary of Beckenham Parish. (the 1623 Beckenham Manor map shows part of the manor lands  extending to  this point so  the traditional reason is unlikely?)

Beckenham is called in the Domesday Book “ Bacheham,” and “Becceham” in the Textus Roffensis, a collection of ancient charters and other documents relating to the see of Rochester compiled by Bishop Ernulphus. The name, there is little doubt, signifies “ A village on the stream,” from the Saxon “ becc,” a stream, and “ham,” a village or dwelling. Philipott states that the place derives its name from “ the Beke or small stream arising there.” In the Textus Roffensis, the meaning of the word Becceham is given as “ the town of Beeches.” The spelling of the name varies from time to time. In 1080—1086, it formed part of Bronlci (or Bromley), and was so called until the reign of Edward I. when it appears as Beghkinghum, and we find no less than twelve varieties of spelling between the reign of Edward the Confessor and that of Edward VI.

We can find no mention of Beckenham prior to the entry in the Domesday Book, to which subsequent reference will be made. The word “Toot” or “Toote” is of Saxon origin, and is used generally in connection with tumuli or a look-out hill or beacon point. It is therefore interesting to find in the highest part of Beckenham, to the east of Hayes Lane, a small wood, now extensively built over or enclosed, known as “Toots Wood,” Shortlands. It is also an interesting fact that Roman pottery was discovered in 1884 in this neighbourhood, about two feet below the surface of the bottom of certain curious inverted conical pits, the object of which is not known. It has been conjectured that the pits were “perhaps stockaded, and thus formed a place of sufficient size and strength to afford refuge and protection for a large body of men and cattle, in fact a fastness.” It is frequently stated that the neighbourhood of Beckenham was the scene of conflicts between the Romans and British, and this is proved by the existence of the well- known Caesar’s camp and wells at Keston. There is (or until recent years was) the site of an ancient Roman Temple not far from Keston Common.

It appears from the Domesday Book that in the reign of Edward the Confessor, Beckenham was held from the King by one Anschil or Anschillus, a Saxon, and was valued at £9, and, according to Hasted, this Anschillus de Becheham was said to have had the liberties of “ sac and soc within his lands in the lathe of Sutton.” This liberty of sac and soc was a most important privilege, inasmuch as it gave to the Lord of a Manor the right of holding court, trying causes, imposing fines, and other powers relating to the administration of justice and the execution of the law throughout his manorial area. The privilege was equivalent to what, in later times, was known as a Court Baron. At the time of the compilation of the Domesday Book, Beckenham, therein called “ Bacheham,” was held by Ansgot or Ansgotus, a Saxon, of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. It was taxed at two “ sulings,” i.e., a quantity of ploughed land which varied from 60 to 120 acres, according to the kind of soil and modes of ploughing. “ Suling ” is a word peculiar to Kent, and, according to some it indicated as much land as could be tilled in a year and a day. There was as much arable land as eight teams could plough in a year. In “ demesne,” or that part of the Manor which the lord had not granted out in tenancy, but which was reserved for his own use and occupation, there was as much arable land as two teams could plough in a year. There were twenty-two farm labourers (villani), and eight cottagers (bordari), with eight teams and a half, and twelve acres of meadow land, with four slaves and one mill. There was also pannage or pasture for sixty hogs. The value was £13 as against £9 in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Such is the earliest description which we have of Beckenham, and the following is the extract from the Domesday Book: —

“ Ansgot’ de Rouec’ ten’ de epo BACHEHA . IN BRVNLEI HD

 “ p. II. solins se defd’ . Tra . e. VIII. car’. In dnio sunt. II. & XXII.

“ uilli cu . VIII. bord hnt . VIII. car’ & dimid . Ibi . XII. ac pti .

“ & IIII. serui . & un mold . & silua . LX. pore’

“ T.R.E. & post ualeb . IX. lib . Modo . XIII. lib . Anschil tenuit de Rege . E.”

 

Several writers have conjectured that the Great Council or “Witan,” composed of the Clergy and Nobility, said to have been convened at Becaneld in 694 by Withred, King of Kent, was held at Beckenham, but it is now generally supposed that this Council was held at Bapchild, near Sittingbourne; moreover Beckenham must not be confused with Bekingham, in Lincolnshire, or with St. Mary de Begeham, Bayham Abbey.

It has been stated that a wooden Church existed here prior to the Conquest, but there is apparently no authority for this, as there is no mention of “ a Church here ” in the Domesday Survey, and the first notice of a church at Beckenham is gleaned from Textus Roffensis whence we learn at  that “Becceham” paid 9d. a year “Chrism rent” to the Mother church of the Diocese. This “ Chrism rent” or yearly pence, was a payment made to the parish priest for the consecrated oils (used by him in the Sacrements of the Church), which were in the first instance blessed by the Biship and were obtained from the Cathedral Church on pay ment of a small fixed sum yearly. We have not been able to find much eary documentary information as to Beckenham, but, as Miss Trollope points out it is interesting to note that in certain lists of appeals to Rome for dispensations etc.  extending from  1198-1419, the Rectors of Beckenham do not appear once. The name of the Beckenham  Church appears in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV (Taxation Ecclesiae. Angliae et Walliae auctoritate P. Nicholai 4 circa AD 1291”).

 In 1318, a certain ]ohn de Malmains obtained from his lands in Begenham from Edward II. a charter of free warren or royal franchise, granted by the Crown to a subject for the preservation or custody of beasts and fowls of “warren.” A descendant of this John de Malmains held one half of a knight’s fee in Beckenham in the 20th year of Edward IV. A knight s fee {feodum militaie) consisted of twelve plough lands, i.e., as much land as could be reasonably ploughed in one year by twelve ploughs. The owner of a kmght’s fee was bound to attend his lord to war on horseback, armed as a knight, for forty days, if called upon, and this attendance constituted his rent or service for the lands which he held.

In the records of early Chancery proceedings we find, in the reign of Henry VI., mention of litigation between Thomas Causton and William Causton with reference to “ A messuage xxx acres land, xij acres mede and “ iij acres wodd ” situate in “the Towne and felds of Bekynham in the shire “ of Kent.’

In 1450 in the roll containing the pardons granted to the followers of “ Jack Cade,” twenty-two men are mentioned as belonging to the parish of “ Bekenham,” amongst them being Robert Langley, Richard Langley and Robert Pain, the latter being the Constable of Beckenham. This Richard Langley, or Langle, was probably the son of Ralph Langle, of Beckenham, who by his will proved in Rochester in 1453, bequeathed 3s. 4d. to the new bells of Beckenham Church

There is little in any of the wills of persons resident in Beckenham, which throws any light on the history of the place prior to 1538. Such wills deal with the lands of the respective testators in Beckenham, and in some cases contain bequests to the altars in Beckenham Church and directions as to burials in the Church or Churchyard. The earliest will which we have been able to find is that of J. Kelshyll, the elder, proved in 1432, who devised lands in Beckenham; and the first mention of Beckenham Church contained in a will occurs in that of Thomas Chapman (1451), who bequeathed money and a cow for the reparation and ornamentation of the Church—to the light of the Holy Cross a cow, to the new bells 3s. 4d., and to each priest celebrating on the day of his burial 4d. Six years later Robert Payne desired to be buried “ In the graveyard of the Church of S. George of Beckenham.” Ralph Langle in 1453 left money for “the amend- “ ing of the King’s way between the Church and the well,” possibly referring to the well which until comparatively recent times was in existence in the depression in the Bromley Road between Bevington Road and the east end of the Manor Road. This Ralph Langle left the following bequests:—to the High Altar of the Church 2od.; every year for seven years after his decease one taper of wax to St. George’s light in the said Church, and every year during seven years one taper of wax to the weight of 3lbs. to the Sepulchre light in the said Church.

There is no doubt that the pestilence, which ravaged Oxford in 1471 and destroyed more people throughout England than the preceding year’s war, found its way to Beckenham, as William Dawe in his will makes a certain bequest if his son Richard die of “ this sickness that now vexeth.”

The earliest burial in the Churchyard of any importance which we can trace is that of the Rev. William Danyell, alias Malham or Masham, who was Rector 1447—1458, and one of the attesting witnesses to the will of Thomas Chapman, where he is described as Rector of the Church.

In 1505, Henry Violet, probably of Langley, died, having by his will directed that he was to be buried “ in the Churchyarde of Beknam besid “ my wif.” This same Henry Violet bequeathed to the Parish Church “a cowe “ boloke of ij yeres of age for the maynteyning of a taper before the ymage “of Our Ladye in the said Churche” One of the witnesses to this will was “Sir Hugh,” parish priest of Beckenham. William Brodefote in 1509 directed that the Churchwardens of the parish of Beckenham should have the occupation and use of certain land in the parish, the earliest instance of a bequest for parochial purposes.

The following entry in the Treasury of Receipts, dated 22nd day of May in the 10th year of Henry VIII., is of interest, viz. : —

“ Costys ande charges hade and made by the Kinge is Comaundment “ opon the makinge of a newe barke namyde the Kateryn Plesuance “ for the transportynge of his gace to Calice. xxij daye of Maye Ao “ x Hen. VIII. Payde also to Herry Kynge of becknam for the “carriage of a xi lode of tymber from chelsam ”—(probably Chelsham, in Surrey)—" at ijr., eny lode xxijj. Itm. to him pd. for ix “lode cariage out of bromley pishe at xvj di the lode xijs.”

The ship referred to was the one which conveyed Henry VIII. to Calais in June 1520, when that monarch met Francis I., of France, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, at Ardres, near Calais. '

In the assessment for a lay subsidy (a tax upon persons in respect of their reputed estates) in the twenty-sixth year of Henry VIII., Beckenham appears at £4 8s., and the subsidy is made up as follows:—“Robert “ Brograve for his lands xvj., Humphrey Style for his lands xxxiiij., Edward “ Alegh for his goods xvj., Henry Vyolett for his goods xvj., Henry Ivyng “ vs., Isabel 1 Dunce for her goods xvx ’ It will be seen from this assessment that Sir Humphrey Style, who was then the owner of Langley, was by far the greatest land owner of the parish. Robert Brograve would at that time have been the owner of Kelsey; Edward Alegh, possibly, of Foxgrove.

Frequent mention is made of Beckenham in the “Feet of fines for “Kent” in the reign of Henry VIII., but not such as to throw any particular light upon the old houses or estates in Beckenham at that time. There are also references in these fines to the manor and advowson of the Church. In the Record Office appears the following entry of Church goods sold in Beckenham on the ist of October in the twenty-eighth year of Henry VIII., and the prices realized, namely:-

We learn from the earlier Kentish historians that in the reign of Edward I. the MANOR 0f Beckenham was held by a family called in the old I.atin records De Rupella, in French De la Rochell, and in English Rokell, which came from Rochelle in France. Richard de la Rokele died possessed of the manor in the fifth year of Edward I., and he was succeeded in its possession by Philip de la Rokele, who held it until his death in the twenty-third year of the same reign. His daughter and heiress, Isolda, and her husband, Sir William Bruyn or Bruin, Knight, became possessed of it in her right. (now known to be Maud or Matilda Rokele married to Sir Maurice Bruyn) The manor descended to their son, Sir Maurice Bruyn, Chamberlain to King Edward III., who died in 1354, and his son William Bruin in the thirty-sixth year of Edward III. died seised of the manor of Begenham together with the advowson of the Church. His son, Sir Ingelram or Ingram Bruin, Knight, of South Ockendon, in Essex, died in 1400 possessed of the manor and advowson to which his son, Maurice, succeeded.This descendant, Sir Henry Bruin, died in the reign of Henry VI., leaving two daughters, Alice and Elizabeth, co-heiresses, each of whom had three husbands. Alice married originally Robert Harleston, secondly Sii john Heveningham, and lastly William Berners. Elizabeth, the othei daughter of Sir Henry Bruin, married first William Mallory, and on his death without issue, William Brandon, standard-bearer to Henry VII. on Bosworth Field, where he was killed. By this second marriage there was issue Sir Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, “ the flower and perfection of English " chivalrie in his time.” It is stated that he resided at Beckenham for some time, and entertained Henry VIII. on one of his journeys to Hever “ with all the cunning pompe of magnificence.” Elizabeth Bruin married a third time Thomas Tirril, a descendant of Sir Walter Tirril, who shot William Rufus in the New Forest.

(The marriages of Alice and Elizabeth differ, Tyrell was a first husband etc, see  timeline)

These two daughters of Sir Henry Bruin divided the manor of Beckenham and the advowson between them, their husbands in their right possessed the same in moieties, John Berners, the son of Alice Bruin, held one moiety on the death of his mother, and it subsequently came into the possession of the Leigh family (probably of Fox Grove [a separate “Leigh” family we subsequently find”]), who alienated it to Henry Snelgrave. This Henry Snelgrave, whose name appears in the fly-leaf of the oldest register of the Parish Church, who moreover, was buried in the Chancel in 1639, sold it to Walter St. John, of Battersea. The other moiety after the death of Elizabeth Bruin passed successively through several hands, ultimately coming into the possession of Sir George Dalston, of Cumberland, who in the reign of Charles I. sold it to Patrick Curwen. He in the same reign conveyed the moiety to Sir Oliver St. John, of Battersea, whose son having previously purchased the other moiety from Henry Snelgrave, became on the death of his father the owner of the entire fee of the manor and advowson. (certain differences  to this account have been discovered)

The two moieties of the manor and advowson, thus again united, remained in the St. John family, and on the death of Baron St. John of Battersea, which occurred in 1742, his only son, Viscount Bolingbroke, succeeded. This Viscount Bohngbroke died without issue and was succeeded by his nephew Frederick, who sold the manor to John Cator in 1773, the latter at the same time purchasing what is now known as the Cator estate in Beckenham. He shortly afterwards built Beckenham Place. Lord Bolingbroke subsequently sold the advowson to Joseph Rose, whose son, the Reverend William Rose, was presented to the living in 1778. The advowson was subsequently purchased by the Cators, and both the manor and advowson have continued in the Cator family up to the present time. (we  now know that Cator purchased land in Foxgrove Manor as early as 1757. The old manor house and grounds had been exhanged by Bolingbroke  for Woolseys Farm with Peter Burrell in 1757, see timeline)

As the mansion “Beckenham Place” was built by John Cator, in all probability the Manor House opposite the Church, now the offices of the District Council, was the dwelling-house of the Lords of the Manor. (exchanged by Frederick St. John to Peter Burrell in 1757)

According to Ireland (W.J.Ireland, historian) the living of Beckenham was, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Edward I., valued at 25 marks, and afterwards estimated in the King’s books at £16 18s. gd. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1534 the entry for Beckenham is : “ Received in fact for thirty years for the Rectory “ House and twenty-five acres of glebe £40 6s. 8d., in corn and hay £4 is. 3d., “ for all other tithes and oblations £17 gs. Sd., then of other things 10s. 10d., “ with 7s 6d. for p.x.c.s. and synods, and 3s. 4d. for visitation of the Bishop “of Rochester.”

“ Fox Grove ” was at one time a Manor, and, according to Philpott, had owners of the same name in the reign of Edward III. We find among the assessments in Kent for the “ Aid to knight the Black Prince under the Hundred of Bromlieghe et Begenham ” the following: —

“De heredibus Johannse de Rokesle et Johannis de Foxegraue “pro dimidio foedo quod predicti Johanna et Johannes tenuerunt in “ Begenham xxs.”

The Manor was successively in the families of de Burghersh, de Paveley, Vaux, Greene, Beversea, Hollingworth, Olyffe, (Borrowman omits Leigh and Tolson here and simplifies the transfer of various parts of Foxgrove,  see timeline) Timewell and Brydges. Edward Brydges, of Wotton, about the year 1765 sold the Manor to Jones Raymond of Langley, and on his death in 1766 it passed to his only sister Amy, the wife of Peter Burrell of Langley. On her death the Manor passed to her son Sir William Burrell, of the Deepdene, Dorking, who is buried at West Grinstead. Sir William Burrell sold the Manor to his nephew Peter Burrell, of Langley, afterwards Lord Gwydir, who in 1792 conveyed it to John Cator, the Lord of the Manor of Beckenham.

Langley, according to these Kentish historians, was also formerly accounted a Manor. We have elsewhere given some account of the earlier history of Langley Park, and as this property also ultimately came into the possession of Amy, the wife of Peter Burrell and only daughter of Hugh Raymond, it is possible that the manorial rights if they still existed descended to Lord Gwydir, and may have been transferred to John Cator when he purchased the manorial rights of Fox Grove at the end of the eighteenth century.

Kelsey was at one time a Manor, and we find it so mentioned in the thirty-third year of Henry VIII. It is not, however, so described by the earlier writers, and in the year 1820, when the property was sold with the rest of the Gwydir estates, there is no mention of any manorial rights in the particulars and conditions of sale. (the term 'manor' loosely  used to describe an estate?)

It must be owned that information about Beckenham in early times is very meagre, though the place is mentioned by Philpott, Hasted, Kilburne, Ireland, Lambarde, Harris, and others, to whose works the reader is referred. (the internet and  other archive sources have allowed some additional and corrected information to be gathered and in several cases, corrected. Borrowmans necessary reliance on other writers has picked up some of their errors or misunderstandings)

 

CHAPTER II.

1538-1717

We have selected the above as a suitable period for another Chapter on the ground that the first local records, that is the Registers of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, commence in 1538, but unfortunately, with the exception of a few years towards the latter end of the seventeenth century, the minute-books of the old Vestries do not commence until 1774. The entries in the Registers are of course for the most part confined to the simple mention of the baptism, marriage or burial, but from these entries we are able to trace some of the events which took place in the village in chronological order. There is also frequent mention of Beckenham and of litigation with regard to lands there in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Philip and Mary. In the calendars of the Patent Rolls in 1542, we read of a moiety of the manor of Beckenham, lands and the advowson of the Church being assured to Humphrey Tyrrell, and in the sixth year of Edward VI. there was litigation as to “the Manor of Kelsellys “and of tenements in Kelselys and Beckenham,” John Brograve being apparently then the owner.

The entries in the Parish Registers are principally in Latin up to the year 1609, after which date English is for the most part employed. In the earliest of the Baptismal registers the date of birth as well as of the baptism is also given.

The first entry of interest in the Burial Register is the record of the burial in 1548 of Dame Bridget Style, the wife of Sir Humphrey Style of Langley, who only survived his first wife four years. One of the chief objects of antiquarian interest in the old Church was the monumental brass to this Knight and his two wives on the north wall of the chancel, We reproduce a copy of this brass, which is how in the side Chapel, surmounted by a modern brass to the young soldier Edmund Humphrey Style Cator, who died in the Egyptian campaign in 1902 (1897)?, and who was a descendant through his mother (great grandmother; Dorothy Style via the Styles of Wateringbury. He would trace his Cator line back to Joseph Cator of Clockhouse) of the Sir Humphrey Style, who died in 1552. The effigies of the Knight and his two wives, each of whom is depicted with her children in rows behind her, all meekly kneeling; the first, Dame Bridget, with nine-—six sons and three daughters, and the second, Dame Elizabeth, with two children—a son and daughter, are in brass. The Knight is habited in a surcoat. We have here a specimen of the tabard of arms worn over the armour. The two wives are represented as wearing mantles, also embroidered with their coats of arms, which are repeated in the shields above their heads. It is interesting to note that the end of the inscription “On whose soules will Christ Jesu have pity,” has been wantonly defaced, and does not appear in Thorpe’s description of the monument. Above the effigies of the Knight and his wives are four shields on which the arms are more clearly emblazoned, while the colouring in some parts of the shields and effigies is still quite discernible. Sir Humphrey was knighted in 1544, being “ dubbed Knight at Dover by the Kinge when he came from the “winninge of Boleyn, he being then Shirif of Kent.” An excellent coloured rubbing of this brass, executed by N. Sydney Harding, can now be seen in the narthex of the Church. It is curious that a comparison of the dates on the monument with those in the Register appears to indicate that in both cases the burial took place on the same day as the death, but this is probably an error.

This Sir Humphrey in his will directs “ my body to be buried within “the Chancel of the Parish Church of Beckenham on the North side of the " Hifh Altar in the wall at the foot of the steps that go up to the place “where the High Altar stood in the same place where my beloved dame “Bridget, my late wife lyeth buried, if it please God to call me out of this “world within the said country, and if not then where yt shall please God “to out into the mynds of my executors, and my body to be brought to " the earth as it shall become a good Christian man according to my vocation, « and Yt my bodye be buried within Beckenham Church in the aforementioned place in the wall. I will there be made a memorial of me, my wife and “ children, and of the time of her decease and of my decease at the discrecion of my Executors.” As we have seen, this direction was faithfully carried out.

Sir Humphrey also directed that certain persons were to have a black “cloke ” each at his burial, and he bequeathed “ certain money to remain to myne Executors to dispose in deeds of Charity for my soul and all Christian “ souls by their discrecion.”

Close to the last mentioned brass in the Parish Church is one to Dame Margaret Dasell, who was probably embalmed, for the following entry is made in the Register in November, 1563:—“The harte and bowells “ of ye Ladye Dasell or Damsell ye sixte daye. The bodye of ye sayme “ ladye ye tenth daye.” The lady is represented in the loose dress of the period of Oueen Mary with embroidered front and puffed and slashed sleeves. According to Belcher a similar dress is to be seen in the brass to John Toke, his wife and seven children (1565) at Great Chart, and in the brass to Mary Boys (1558) at Goodnestone. This Lady Margaret Dasell was the wife of Sir William Dasell (knighted between 1555 ano 155? 2nd October 1553 - History of Parliament) a daughter of John Barney, of Reedham, Norfolk, and there is underneath her monument a plain brass inscription let into the same stone, in memory of her sister Ellen Berney, who died in 1609. Sir William Dasell is mentioned by Lambarde as among the gentry in the “Herald’s Visitation ’ in 1574. Mary, another daughter of John Berney, married Edmund Style (the son of Sir Humphrey), and he was therefore brother-in-law to Dame Margaret Dasell.

Parish Register entry

10 Nov 1563	1563	DAMSELL	The bodye of ye sayd ladye
5 Nov 1563	1563	DAMSELL(DASELL #p13)	Ladye(harte and bowells)

       

In 1570, one Thomas Wood, “servant to Mr Curtis,” was “killed in “ a sand pit and buried before ye west door,” and in March, 1572, we find that one John Curtis (possibly the Mr. Curtis mentioned above) had a daughter unbaptised who was buried outside the “ coemeterium,” showing that at that time the burial of unbaptised persons was not allowed in consecrated ground.

Between the last mentioned date and 1615 there are no entries in the Registers calling for special comment, but the names of the old families, such as the Styles, Violetts, Batts, and Kempsalls frequently occur. We read in 1615 of a chapel attached to Langley “lawfully consecrated,” and in November of that year, John, the son of Edmund Style, was baptised at Langley.

An event of considerable importance in 1618 was the building of the two transepts of the church by Sir Oliver Style, of Wateringbury.

In 1629 there is an entry of the burial of two children, and a careful note is made that one of them was unbaptised. Ten years later Sir Henry Snelgrave, who held half the manor and advowson, was buried, and we learn that in Lent, 1620, he had paid the Churchwardens “ for his license for “eating of flesh to the use of the poor, 13s. 4d.” The lateness of this entry is, as has been pointed out, interesting, as the period involved is usually deemed a more easy-going one than the entry quoted would suggest.

Edmund Style, of Beckenham, was buried on the 15th December, 1626. He was the brother of William Style, of Langley, and grandson of the Sir Humphrey, whose brass is still extant. His father, Edmund, was at one time owner of Langley, but on his death it descended to William, the elder brother of Edmund. The opinions of Edmund, the grandson, differed materially from those of the grandfather, Sir LIumphrey, for in place of leaving money to his executors to dispose of in charity for his soul and all Christian souls, Edmund bequeathed 13s. 4d. for preaching a sermon on Passion Sunday in Beckenham Church for ever; 3s. 4d. to be distributed in bread on that day, and three twopenny loaves every Sunday in the year, for ever, to be distributed to three poor householders, and also “4/- to be “given in bread among the poor on the 5th November yearlie for ever in a “ thankful remembrance and acknowledgement of God’s great Mercy showed “to us and to the whole state in delivering it and us from the bloodye “ design of the Pope and his adherents, priests and papists, intended against “the same, which was, as upon the 5th November, to have blown up the “ King and whole estate then assembled in Parliament with gunpowder.”

The whole of the will, dated 16th July, 1625, is interesting, and we make no apology for printing one or two further extracts: —

Edmund Style, who has been called the “good old Protestant Squire”  states his opionion that neither our workes, the praiers of Saints departed or anything that the anti-Christian power of the Man of Sinne, the Pope of Rome challengeth to himself by waye of Purgatory, pardoning and remittinge of synnes or other his indulgences, can or do availe anything.”

Besides this somewhat uncharitable allusion to the head of a branch of The Church to which he apparently belonged, Edmund Style indulges, to larger extent than even is usual in wills of that period, in professions as to his religious belief.

At the time of making his will there was evidently some epidemic raging at Beckenham as the testator calls to mind “ the uncertaintye of man’s lif …. and the present contagious infection invironinge the place “wherein I live” He directs his body to be buried without any other pomp than some scucheons of arms placed upon his coffin in the new family vault in the south aisle where his brother William and his last wife were buried, and then goes on to say Bread diet and bread, wine and beere shall be provided for the entertainment of such friends and neighbours as shall please to accompany my bodie to the grave without either dynner or banquet, rather chusing to undergoe the censure of the vaine multitude for this my direction to my Executors than (according to that which  now a daies is too much used) to be carried to my grave in the night, which anciently was the manner for those that durst not shewe their faces while they lived and left not behind them wherewith to satisfy their just debts, of which number, I thank God, I am not.”

Probably in these days the Church at Beckenham served Penge as well, for in February, 1634, we find the entry of baptism of an infant “born “at Goodman Wimbells at Penge.” In January, 1636, some little sensation must have been caused by finding in the Church porch an infant barely a Week old, who was baptised “ George of Beckenham,” but a subsequent entry in the Register throws some light on the parentage of the child, and somewhat destroys any romance which might attach to his discovery in the sacred precincts.

In the reign of Charles II. a law was passed “ that no corpse shall “be buried in any other material than a manufacture of sheep’s wool under “penalty of £5.” One moiety of the fine went to the poor, and the other to the informer. This act, which was passed to benefit the wool industry, was slightly amended in 1680, and only repealed in 1814. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth an act had been passed to prevent the exportation of wool. Brewer states that in order that this source of our national wealth might be kept constantly in mind, woolsacks were placed in the House of Peers, but another writer states that the woolsack came into use in the reign of Edward III. In connection with burials in wool, Pope writes in his Moral Essays—Epistle I.—the following lines: —

“ Odious in woollen! t’would a saint provoke “

(were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke)

“ No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace

 “Wrap my cold limbs and shade'my lifeless face,

One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead,

“ And—Betty—give this cheek a little red."

 The Beckenham registers, like all others at this time, contain numerous entries of burials in wool, and of fines being paid for burials in other materials. The first entry is that of Old Elizabeth Prowden ” in 1678. We read, however, in the same year of Richard Hale being “ buried in linnen “ and forfeiture paid,” and a similar entry of the burial of Mrs. Ambrose in 1685, and, as late as 1731, William Lethieullier paid 50s. to the poor for the burial of his daughter Ann in silk.

 There was a gravestone, which has disappeared, to Elizabeth Christmas, the wife of John Christmas, a citizen of London, and mother-in-law of John Storer, the “able minister,” who was intruded by the Parliament: about 1650. Elizabeth Christmas died on the 20th May, 1653. Lysons in his “ Environs “of London” states that there was a stone on the floor of the old Church to John Christmas, of the City of London, who died in 1653. It is, of course, possible that John Christmas died and was buried in the same year as his wife, but it is more probable that Lysons refers to the stone to the wife, the inscription of which according to Thorpe was as follows: —

“ Here under lyeth interred the body of Elizabeth, late wife of John

“ Christmas, citizen of London, to whom she bare….children

“ whereof  two were abortives, two chris. . . . and she gave suck to eleven

“but three only surviving, Joanna, the wife of John Storer, Minister

 ‘ of this place, Elizabeth and John. She departed this life the 20th May, 1653,

and in the 47th year of her age.”

 

A copy of a letter from Sir Humphrey to his wife, written evidently in the year 1633, is still preserved, and it refers to the piocession of his cousin, Sir Thomas Style, of Wateringbury, who was Sheriff in that year. 7'he letter is sufficiently interesting to reproduce. It runs as follows:

“ Dear Harte,

“ I have had, since I parted with thee, three fits of an agewe, wich “ hath troubled mee very sorely, but I thank God I have nowe quite lost yt, and begun to be very well. Monsieur de Soubise kisseth your hand, and B desired me to write you word you must not be angry with him for keeping “ mee beyond my apointed time. Newes wee have none here, but of horses “ and dogs. I hope that thou hast lost they could by this time. I shall not “ be in London till the 4th of March wch will be Shrove Mondeye, therefore « 1 vvould entreate thee, the Satturdie before to goe out of towne to my ladie “ Prescot’s house. I would have thee stay till the Sises bee ended; then I « will come and fetch you theare. Take all the men with you but Snelgar, who must help mee to my clothes.

“ Leave Lucres and Marie to look to the house in London. Pennefather I would have goe down to Langleye, that he may help to look to the Parke “ in the absence of Moseley. I would have all my menne to meete mee on « Shrove Tuesday, by 10 of the clock in the morning, at the Bull in Dartford,

“ for at that time, God willing, I intend to be theere, and from thence to “ Rochester that night, to meete the Hie Sherife. French and Oxenbridge, "as I remember Sir Thomas Stile did desier, should be, without fayle, on "Ash Wensdaye morning by eight of the clock, at Westram, to meet the Under Sherif, to come along with the Judge that cometh out of Surreye.

' Pray bid Snelgar to buie mee 6 javelins, wheere Sir Thomas hath bespoke "his, and that he paye for them two shillings a piece; allso that he call to " Mr. Wood the haberdasher for the hats and feathers, also the bridles and "saddles; and that the groom have order to fit all the saddles and bridles “ to everie horse, and that all the horses be well dressed, fed and trimmed.

“ I would have the white gelding for Snelgar to ride on, Ashfield for Barlow,

‘ the great bay mare for William Bennet, and the black nag bought of “Charles for the groome; Moseley on his own horse, the Cook upon Crop, "and Harnie’s horse for Mr. Lovekin, for he hath lent mee his horse for his own boy to ride on. My little black nagg, Terringham, 1 would have “ saddled with my crimson velvet pad, and that the groome be sure that I “have newe stirrops, stirrop leathers, bridle and girts, and that nothing be « amiss. I would have the groome with all the rest of my men, Snelgar and «t^e hoye who shall come along with mee from London, to bee up very early " upon Shrove Tewesdaye in the morning, that theye may coom softly with the horses to Dartford, and that they lead with them my black nag “ Terringam, the white gelding for Snelgar, Harnie’s horse for Mr. Lovekin, “who shall likewise coom downe with mee from London; so they shall meete “ their horses at Dartford. The foot man I would have coom alonge with “ them, becawse I woold have his clothes handsome. If Sir John Prescot “ will not goe to the assizes, which I hope he will, then I desire his gelding “may be brought along to Dartford, for my wife to ride on; then one of “my men shall ride on my black nag, and I wold have Crop left at home, “because he is very poor and ilfavoured. On Saturdaye morning, before “you goe out of towne, send Snelgar to Sir John Spralie, to fetch the horse “ hee hath lent me, and let him be wel looked to at my stable in London, till “ I coom thither on Mundaie; then I will dispose of him, and would have Mr. “ Brookes to fit the boyes shute to him, and if there be ever on ould laced « band of mine past my wearing, let the boye have it. If the Croidon Shoe- “ maker hath not brought my boots and the boy’s let him be sent for with “ all speede. I woolde have the Cochman, if thou canst spare him to goe to “ Langlie for a day or two, and let him take oile with him, to oile the great “coche, and let him bee sure it bee well mended and cleane, for I wolde “ have that Coche brought to mee on Shrove Sundaie to London, to be theare “in readiness. I would have thee send for Sir Cornelius Fairemedu, to “ desier him not to faile to be ready according to his promis, on Tewesdaye “morninge, to goe along with mee; allso that he speak to Sir John Ashfield “ and Mr. Braye and any one gallant man like himselfe, that may make the “ better showe. Let Mr. Brooke be spoken to my satin shute bee in readiness, “ and, if I have never a silver hatband, that he bespeake mee a curious neate “ one. I wold have brought from Langleye the felt hat laced with satten, “ and my damaske night bagg and cloth.

“ This is all, Sweete Harte, I can remember for this time, I pray thee “ bee merry, and make mutch of thyself, and take the coch and goe brode «tbis fayre wether, it will do thee good so, with my best love to thee, and “ my kind remembrance to my sister and all our friends, in great haste by reason of the spedie departure of the bearer, who hath promised me safely “ to deliver this letter, I rest,

“ Thy trewly loveing husband,

“ Hm. Stile.”

“ From Monr. de Soubise, his howse neare " Salisbery, the 16th February.”

“To his ever honoured friend the “ Lady Elizabeth Stile, at her howse “ in Aldersgate Street, next door to “the Half Moon Taverne, be these “ delieured.”

In the reign of Charles I. the “ chief rent ” payable by the Parish of Beckenham to the Crown, called “lathe” or “ tythe silver,” was 6s., and at that time the parsonage with a house and forty acres of glebe land was worth £30 per annum, the profit arising from the tithes being estimated at £110.

William Lambarde in his “Perambulation of Kent,” published in 1656, mentions Beckenham, and gives the name of Edmund Style as Justice of the Peace for Beckenham at that time, and records under the heading of “The tenth and fifteenth of Kent” that Beckenham paid £5 19s. 6d., as against the £8 paid by Bromley. Lambarde’s “Kent,” which is referred to by nearly all the later writers, is full of Kentish, Norman, and Saxon history, but unfortunately contains little information about Beckenham. Kilburne in his “ Brief Survey of the County of Kent,” a list of parishes in tabular form, published in 1656 states that no market or fair was at that time held in Beckenham. In the returns for the unpopular “Hearth” Tax in 1662, the Rector was charged for 9 hearths. Richard King, at the sign of ye George, for 7, Brograve of Kelsey for 15, while Langley had 24. In all fifty-two persons were charged for 181 hearths, and forty persons were non-chargeable as not possessing more than one.Dr. Thomas Style, half-brother to the last mentioned Sir Humphrey Style, died in 1677, and his monument is now on the north wall of the north aisle. In the floor of the old Church there was, according to Thorpe, a stone with the following arms, viz., “ Three pheons impaling three swans’ “ heads erased, and this inscriptionHere lyes the bodies of Richard Hale “‘and of Sarah his wife, who departed this life anno domini 1678.’”

In the Langley vault was also buried William Style of the Inner Temple, who died in 1679. This William Style was half-brother to Sir Humphrey, and on his death in 1659 succeeded to the Langley Estates. This baronetcy became extinct on the death of Sir Humphrey, as he died without issue. There is a monument in West Peckham Church, Kent, to Elizabeth, the wife of this William Style, who is there described as a Knight. The wife Elizabeth died in 1668, leaving two daughters, Mary and Hester, and one son Humphrey, who was the last of the male line to succeed to the Langley estates. (Borrowman apparently makes  a mistake here confusing two different William Styles? easily done as the family was awash with Humphreys, Edmunds, and Williams. The last male heirs to Langley were Humphrey Style 1648-1718, son of William Style and this Humphrey's son also named Humphrey 1681-1744 who did not inherit probably for some health or mental reason, hence the daughter Elizabeth Style 1686-1731 inherited and married Sir John Elwill). Lysons says of William Style, barrister-at-law, “I suppose “ to be the same person who in 1657 published a work called the ‘ Practical “ ‘ Register ’ treating of the practice of the Common Law. This book has “ gone through four editions. W. Style published also (1658), Reports in “ the King’s Bench from 21 Charles I. to 1655. which are esteemed very “valuable as the only cases extant of the Common Law Courts for several “ years.” (further confuse by another  Doctor  (William Style), doctor of laws who resided at West Wickham and died without issue)

As has been already stated, the earliest minutes of the Vestry of which we have record are to be found in a book containing the Churchwardens’ accounts from 1686 to 1689. Although these accounts cease from the latter date, and do not recommence until 1801, there are entries of Vestry Meetings in the book we have mentioned as late as 1717. There is then a gap in the minute-books up to 1774, from which date entries are regularly made. Of course the minutes until recent date deal with secular as well as with purely ecclesiastical matters, and therefore a reference to some of the more interesting entries cannot fail to throw some light on the history of Beckenham during the last 150 years.

From 1686 to 1689 Beckenham appears to have suffered from what must almost have been a plague of hedgehogs, as there were as many as 104 killed during that period, and for each of them the Parish paid 4d. It is difficult to understand why these payments should have been made unless from the erroneous idea, which is even now prevalent in some country places, that these harmless animals suck cows and eggs. This accusation is not, we believe, proved, but on the contrary, the hedgehog is active in the destruction of slugs, snails and various insects, and should therefore have been protected. Entries of payments for the destruction of hedgehogs or, as they are sometimes called, “ urchins,” are frequently to be found in the old records of other parishes, as, for instance, those of Hastings and Solihull. Beckenham also appears to have waged war against foxes, for we find that in 1687 one shilling was paid for “one foxes head,” and again later in 1787 it was “ agreed that any person who shall kill an old fox shall be paid five “shillings and for a cubb one shilling.” The same Vestry decided to pay 3d. a dozen for killing sparrows, which amount was increased to 6d. per dozen in 1799. Either the reward offered was sufficient or the amount which the Parish was called upon to pay became too burdensome, for in 1806 it was decided that “nothing more be allowed for killing sparrows.” In June, 1816, the Churchwardens allowed one John Lunn three shillings for mole- catching, probably in the Churchyard.

The first entry of beating the bounds of the Parish is May 17th, ,687, when the Churchwardens "paid out for the halfe part of a dinner “ for the Parishioners when they went part of the bounds of the parish, as by bill appears 02.00.10,” so that at that date the ceremony was no doubt made the occasion of a social gathering, to the expense of which the parish made a contril tion. On the 17th April, 1806, we have an entry that the parish was perambulated. The custom appears to have fallen into abeyance, for as late as 1868 the Churchwardens and Overseers reported the greatest difficulty in tracing the boundaries of the parish, and were instructed to purchase, and did purchase, some thirty or forty cast iron posts at a cost of £37 I0S- 6d- for the PurPose of defining the boundaries. Several of these posts still exist. In 1883, the Vestry ordered the bounds to be beaten we believe for the last time.

In 1694 Anthony Rawlins, a wealthy citizen and dyer of London died at Beckenham, probably at Kent House. He appointed the Lethieulliers of Kent House his executors, and was buried in the churchyard. He left £50 to be laid out with the concurrence of the Rector and Churchwardens for the use of the poor, and it was ultimately decided to build the Alms Houses with “ three distinct rooms, all under one roof ”: these still exist, and were erected with the consent of Sir Walter St John, the then Lord of the Manor, on what was then vulgarly called “ the Lord’s wast. Anthony Rawlins also possessed property in Crutched Friars, London. In the early part of 1700 many burials occur of persons from Rotherhithe, and this is probably accounted for by the fact that the family of the wife of the then Rector came from that part of Kent, which would be within easy reach of Beckenham, and we are told that Mrs. Assheton was buried at Rotherhithe. There was a gravestone, now lost, to a Captain Thos. E\erard, of Limehouse, who died in 1702. One of the most handsome monuments in the Church is that to Benjamin Burdett, who died in 1710. The tablet, which was formerly on the north side of the Chancel, is now over the door at the west end of the north aisle, and is in such a position that it is difficult properly to appreciate the carving of the marble. The colours in the coat- of-arms which surmounts the inscription are still distinguishable. Benjamin Burdett was a merchant of London, and grandson of Sir Thomas Burdett, Bart., of Bramcote, Warwickshire. His wife was the daughter of Nathan Wright, Merchant and Citizen of London.

On the morning of Sunday, September gth, 1711, the respected Rector of the Parish, Dr. William Assheton, died, and was buried eight days later in “ his own decent Chancel.” He was a celebrated author of tracts and was the originator of a “jointure” project, not only the benefit of widows of clergymen, but for all ranks and professions, which was taken up by the Mercers Company.

The entries in the Burial Registers during the time which we have under review often contained more particulars of the deceased than appear in those of more modern date. The description and occupation is often given, e.g., three entries of “Priests” (1545-1562), “atyler,’ a hose-maker of “ London,” “ a taylor,” “ a strange girle,” “ servant to Mr. Oliver Style,  one “of the Prince of Orange’s souldiers,” “a barber’s child,” “a black etc. Where the deceased had attained a great age, the fact is often recorded, viz, in 1678 “Old Elizabeth Prowden aged (as it is reported) ’nigh 100.” Relationship to other persons is also given, as in 1563, “mother-in-law to,” and 1705, Dorothy Monk, “Greene’s wyfe’s sister.” In cases of important personages we find the date of death as well as of burial, as in 1641, Lady Style; 1676, Roger Clissold (Rector); 1699, Mrs. Assheton, and 1702, Mrs. Mary Style; 1711, Dr. Assheton (Rector).

There are many instances where the fact of the person who was buried, having been “ christened at home ” is recorded, notably in 1564 to 1568, and the cause of death is often given, e.g., 1566, “Thomas Hamond “being killed with a carte”; 1571, dyinge suddenly”; 1572, “ drownded “in a pit”; 1630, “Buried a poore fellow that died in the high wind—unde " fuit nemo novit*’; 1696, “John King murdered by a souldier.'’

Personal deformities or afflictions are also noted, for we find such as “Joan Kempsall, a lame woman” and “Margery Raybye, a blind child.”

Familiar descriptions are not uncommon, e.g., “ a poor old man,” “ ould “Mother Wilson,” “old Mother Gossage,” “old Mother Skillingworth.” In 1642, “Nicholas King, ‘amicorum meorum facile optimus.’” In 1678, “old “Woodward”; 1692, “old widow Lane”; “old widow Daniels.” In September, 1709, there is an entry of the burial of Hannah Pierce, and immediately after it on the same day “ another Hannah Pierce.” There is a curious entry in November, 1711, the meaning of which we have not been al le to ascertain, “ old Goody Musgrave (vulgo dicta ye Queene’s mother).” Whether the old lady was so called from her resemblance to, or whether she claimed to have been foster-mother of some Royal Personage, or, possibly, the mother of the Queen of the Gipsies, is uncertain, but she was evidently a celebrity in the village, from the fact that the name by which she was commonly called is given.

Although the Burial Registers purport to be records of burials in the Church-yard, it is evident that in some cases the officiating minister made entries of burials of persons, either of public local importance or of personal interest to himself, for we find in 1557, “ Nicholas Rookwood, Esq., buried in Norfolk.” In 1638, “ Richard Lever (a son of the ‘ Minister’) ‘ in ecclesiae ‘Bexliensis Choro’”—the Bexley Register has the record of the burial at, this date of the son of Richard and Anna Leaver. Again in 1699, the wife of the Rector is entered as having been buried in Rotherhithe. There is an entry of a Thomas Grandyer, who was “interred in a pit,” probably a case where the last Rites of the Church were denied. The place of death is less fiequently given, but in 1632 was buried “a poore woman who died in Bedfords barn ; and in 1691, “Thomas Case, a stranger, who died at “ George Bygraves, in Peng.”

In the case of the Style family, at that time the leading one in the place, the hour as well as the day of birth is given in the Baptismal Register, e.g., 1644, April 17, “ Humphridus—(in red ink to mark his importance)—filius Gulielmi Style Armig et Elizabethae uxoris natus autem Nono “ die ejusdem mensis ad horam sextam --(illegible).” In 1651 and 1655 there are entries of the baptisms of children of John Storer, a Minister put in by Parliament, whose mother-in-law, Elizabeth Christmas, was, as already stated, buried in the Chancel. In the time of the Commonwealth the duty of making the entries was assigned to “Parish Registers,” who were popularly elected, and whose election had to be approved by a Justice of the Peace. There are two entries in 1653 and 1654 respectively, recording the election of “ Henry Kempsall—a yeoman” and “Richard Eastland,” the Parish Clerk, as “ Parish Registers ” for Beckenham. The election of these officials came to an end with the Restoration. In 1682, there is an entry showing an adult Baptism, viz., “ Baptised then Thomas, Ellen and Margrett, the son and daughters of Nicholas Hinge and Ellen his wife. Ellen was born (as appears “ by this Register) November 27th, 1656. The age of Thomas and Margrett “ I do not find. But Thomas is above 20 years old and Margrett at least 17.” And again 15th April, 1683, "Baptised Georg Bygrave, aged about 23 (as “he tells me).” In 1686, the first mention of “twins” occurs. In 1689, Elizabeth (a black), the wife of John Loppus (a black), and Andrew, their son, were baptised, and in the following year there is an entry of "Joanna,- an Indian, aged about 10 years, servant to Mr. Clarke, of Queen’s St., near “Cheapside, London.” Careful mention is made in 1695 of the birth of Lydia, the daughter of Benjamin Adgate, an Anabaptist, and a note seems to have been taken of the birth of each of this man’s children. Two other cases of adult baptism occur in 1696, and in this year is recorded the baptism of a son of Mr. Peter Gaily, a French Minister, and that one Collier had a “still-born” son. In 1702 there is the following entry: “Jane, daughter of Georg Shallcross—another child not baptised”; and in 1703, “Mary, “daughter of a poor traveller.” In 1704, “Charles, son of John Walsh,” at “ Ye Crown,” and, presumably, this is an entry of birth only. We have not so far been able to trace any Inn in Beckenham then or subsequently known as the “ Crown,” but, it may have been the sign of some shop. In April, 1705, the date of death is given in a different hand after the date of baptism, evidently an interpolation, and another case of a similar interpolated entry occurs in March, 1720. Many entries of adult baptism occur again about this time, but they are somewhat devoid of general interest.

The entries of marriages for the period 1538-1717 do not provide us with as many interesting extracts as those found in the Registers of Baptisms and Burials. Some of the entries particularly in 1572—5 are quaint, and, couched as they are in good plain language, show that the Church did not look lightly on offences against morality. In the year 1572 there is a record of a marriage of an Elizabeth Cawston at Beddington. On the 19th May, 1617, there is an entry of a marriage in “Langley Chappell.” In 1645 it is stated that Henry Davy and Mary Botley were married with the “consent "of Parents on both sides.” No marriages at all are recorded in 1646-7, and it appears to be very doubtful whether all the marriages from this time up to 1653 were carefully registered. From 1687 to 1715 there were many marriages of persons living on the south side of the Thames, such as Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, and the same occurs in the case of the Burial Registers.

An important Vestry meeting was held in June, 1703, in consequence of certain disorderly meetings which had taken place in the parish, at which Vestry certain rules and regulations for the conduct of business were drawn up. At that time the meetings took place in the Church itself, in fact we cannot find that there was a proper Vestry Room until about eighty years later, and it was ordered that one of the Church bells should be tolled beforehand to give notice of the meeting to the parishioners. A quorum was to consist of six persons (exclusive of the Rector and his Curate) owning, possessing, or renting land, or tenements, to the yearly value of £10. This meeting also decided that the Churchwardens should be allowed fifteen shillings and no more for their own private expenses at each visitation, and that “ when any Thing is Proposed in Vestry it be first examined and debated “And after due examination (of which the Rector is to be Judg) that it be “ then put to the vote And that the Majority of votes do determine it and for “ the avoiding of future mistakes” that all orders of the Vestry be transcribed in the “ Parish Booke.” The latter part of this direction was more honoured in the breach than in the observance, for the entries up to 1717 are few and far between, and we have no trace of a “Parish Booke ” between that date and 1774. Indeed, from a note in 1703 by Dr. Assheton, the Rector, it appears that the original entries were kept separately “amongst the Parish “ writings.”

The following entries in the Churchwardens’ Accounts, 1686-89, throw some light on the price of labour and materials during that period: —

There must have been some curious incident connected with the second marriage of Dame Elizabeth Elwill. In his will, dated 1727, Sir John Elwill describes her as “ his dear and loving wife Dame Elizabeth Elwill,” and gives her the use of Langley Park during her life, and the will of Henry Barttelot, jr., proved in 1732, contained the following direction: “I give and “ order the sum of £30 to be laid out and expended in setting up and “ devoting a monument to the memory of my late dear wife Elizabeth “ Barttelot in Beckenham Church in County of Kent and desire that no notice “ be taken of my affinity to her by any Inscription to be engraved or inscribed “ on the same.” The directions of the Testator were it is seen duly carried out, but the reason for the direction is not apparent.

About this period there are some curious entries in the Burial Register: for example: “a negro killed by thunder,” in 1726, in 1732 burial of “a stranger found dead”; and in 1737. "Francis, a black.” In 1740, Margaret Finch, a person of notoriety in the locality, who was known as “The Queen of the Gipsies,” died. She is reported to have been 109 years old, and was buried in a deep square box (near the foundations of the. present tower) instead of in an ordinary coffin. From a habit of sitting on the ground with her chin on her knees, generally with a pipe in her mouth and attended by her faithful dog, her sinews became so contracted that she could not rise from that posture. She resided for a long time at Norwood, and a sermon was preached on the occasion of her funeral, which was attended by a large concourse of people and e\en two mourning coaches. A picture of Margaret Finch used, many years ago, to hang outside a public house in Norwood, whose woods were, until quite recent times, a favourite resort of the travelling gipsies. At the beginning 0 as century the grand-daughter of Margaret Finch lived at Norwood and inherited her title of Oueen. She was a niece of Queen Bridget, who was buried at Dulwich in 1768. It is stated, but we have failed to find any authority for the statement, that a celebrated King of the Gipsies was also buried at Beckenham and that his body, after  lying in state on Penge Common, was followed  to the grave by many of his tribe, clad in velveteen coats the buttons  of which were made of half-crowns, thos on their waistcoats being made of sixpenny pieces. During the work of digging the foundations of the present tower, a careful watch was kept for the square box enclosing the remains of Margaret Finch, but no trace of it was found.

It is recorded in the burial register that a Mr. Roger Laurence was buried at Beckenham, on March 11th, 1736. Laurence was a remarkable man who made a great stir in his day. He was a Blue Coat boy and a dissenter, and was sent early into business in the firm of the Lethieulliers, one of whom lived at Kent House. Laurence read divinity and began to have doubts of the validity of his baptism; ultimately he caused himself to be re-baptised in 1708 at Christ Church, Newgate Street, and joined the nonjurors. His baptism attracted much notice and was disapproved by the Bishop of London. Laurence explained his reasons for re-baptism in a pamphlet which started a controversy that spread to Convocation. He entered non-juring Orders, being ordained November 30th, 1714, by Bishop George Hickes, and shortly afterwards became minister of an oratory, on College Hill. in the City. He was consecrated as a Bishop by Bishop Archibald Campbell, with a more famous, but not more able man, Thomas Deacon. The consecration was irregular and not recognised by other non-jurcrs, in that he had only one consecrator, and Laurence is generally reckoned, therefore, as belonging to the “ irregular succession ” of the non-jurors. He died when staying with Sir John Lethieullier, (Sir John died in 1716 so possibly this would have been with William Lethieullier) at Kent House, on March 6th 1736, and, as we have stated, was buried at Beckenham either in the Church or churchyard. Some monument was probably erected to his memory but if such was the case, the monument is not now in existence. This is a matter for regret, as the brief and taking epitaphs over graves of non-jurors are well-known. For a more detailed account of the life of Roger Laurence and his controversial writings the reader is referred to Canon Overton’s book on the non-jurors, and to Elwin’s “ Minister of Baptism.”

On the 29th August, 1745, Mrs. Phoebe Blundell Crane, daughter of Dr. John Freke of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, was buried in the Churchyard, as was her daughter Elizabeth, an infant, in the October following The marble tablet with a pathetic inscription to their memory Was formerly affixed to the north wall of the old Church, on the outside of the Chancel, and its position can be clearly seen in the photographs of the old edifice. In the rebuilding the tablet was apparently forgotten, and was allowed to lie in the Churchyard, where it was found in 1903 almost covered and overgrown. It was cleaned and affixed to the north wall of the north transept in the following year.

In 1750 John Cade (a well-known Kentish name), the village schoolmaster, was buried, and to the memory of his “worth and merit” a tombstone was erected by several of his scholars at their own expense “ moved by “ affection and gratitude.” Cade was only thirty-three years old at the time of his death, and is described as “ skilful in his profession and of extensive " ingenuity.”

In March of this year London was visited by a violent earthquake, the shock of which was felt in Beckenham.

In 1753 Mr. John Warriner (or as the Register has it “Warrener”), the Parish Apothecary, was buried, and his tombstone is still in existence. In 1750 a negro servant of Mr. Burrell’s was buried, and from the frequent entries of negroes in the Registers, it is evident that they were at that time largely employed as servants by the Beckenham gentry.

In 1754 Jane Brome was married to John Clerke, but she died three years later, and the following epitaph to her memory by the poet Gray is worth noticing:

“ Lo, where this silent marble weeps,

“A friend, a wife, a mother sleeps;

“ A heart, within whose sacred cell

“ The peaceful virtues loved to dwell,

“ Affection warm and faith sincere,

“ And soft humanity were there.

“ In agony, in death resign’d,

“She felt the wound she left behind;

“ Her infant image here below

“ Sits smiling on a father’s woe.

“Whom what awaits while yet he strays 

Along the lonely vale of days?

A pang to secret sorrow dear,

A sigh - an unavailing tear,

Till time shall every grief remove

With life with memory and with love"

This monument was on the north wall of the Chancel of the old church, and is now to be found at the west end of th north aisle, but owing to the height from the floor at which it has been affixed, it is impossible to read the inscription. This Jane Clerke was probbly the daughter in law of the Rev. Thomas Clerke, the then Rectdor, who died and was buried in 1765; in the register the name is spelt Clark.
In 1756 (Sir - not knighted) Peter Burrell of Kelsey, the husband of  Amy, the daughter of Hugh Raymond, died, and on the south wall of the south transept, to the left of the great south window of the Church, is a handsome monument, surmounted by a medallian, erected by the widow and the son Peter, who succeded him. The (Sir) Peter Burrell to whom the tablet was erected and who presented a silver alms dish to the Parish Church, was sub-governor of the South Sea Company, (Baron of Dover - perhaps confused with Baron Gwydir, Peter's grandson?), and M.P. for Haslemere and Dover. He lived at Kelsey, and perhaps subsequently at Langley, but the latter property did not pass to his widow until some years after his death. (as Langley did not come down to Amy Burrell until 1769 after her husband's death it is unlikely he resided at Langley which was owned by Jones Raymond, Amy's brother).

On the wall of the south aisle to the west of the great door is a monument of Osgood Gee and Sarah, his wife, who died in 1766 and 1784 respectively, worthies who, as appears from the Baptismal Regisreters, resided in Beckenham for many hyears, and Mr. Gee is designated Esquire. We have been unable to ascertain where he lived, but possibly at Fox Grove, and he would probably have been some relation of the Gees, of Orpington, one of whom, Richard Gee, in 1780, took the name and arms of Carew.
......

 Pages 34 and 35 missing

On the 24th June, 1768, Bartholomew Tyear, or Tayer, a baker of Sydenham, was buried. He gave to “The meeting at Sydenham the interest “of One hundred of my three per cent annuities for ever to be paid half- “ yearly into the hands of the Managers of the said meeting towards the “ support of Divine Service, but if there should be no preaching in the said “meeting for the space of eight months, then the interest of the said £100 “ to the three Almshouses in Beckenham.” The last payment to “ the meeting “at Sydenham” was made in 1856, to the proprietary Chapel there where Church services were held, and in i8gi the legacy was claimed by the Churchwardens of Beckenham, and the interest paid over to them by the Leathersellers Company, the Trustees of the will. The interest is now applied by the Churchwardens in groceries for the benefit of the Almshouse women. We  have always considered it probable that “Thayers Farm ” was the residence of this generous baker. There are, however, several entries in the Baptismal Register (in 1724 and again in 1726) of persons of the name of “Theyr.”

Captain Thomas Motley, Commander of the “ London,” in the service of the Honourable United East India Company, was buried in the Churchyard in 1770.

John King, “for 61 years a servant to Mr. Francis Valentine, Joseph “Valentine and Paul Valentine, from father to son without once quitting “their service” was buried in 1774.

Before the establishment of a regular police force the duty of maintaining the peace and bringing to justice those by whom it was broken was committed to officers called Constables. These were of two sorts, high constables and petty constables. The duty of the high constable was to keep the peace in the hundred, while the petty constables’ duties were confined to the parish. We find many entries in the older books of the appointment of {Jetty constables for Beckenham and also of the appointment of " borsholder. ’ The office of “borsholder” or “boroughs ealder” dates from the time of King Alfred, and the holder of the office was supposed to be the most discreet man in the town. The office became more or less merged, with that of constable. As an instance of these appointments in Beckenham, we find in 1774 two constables and two borsholders being elected, and in Harris’s “ Kent” two constables are mentioned as serving Beckenham in 17l9-

In 1846 the County Court system was established for the recovery of small debts and claims. Prior to this date these matters were dealt with by local “ Courts of Request,” which w'ere composed of persons elected annually for the purpose. 1 hesc local courts proved inadequate chiefly because their jurisdiction extended only to claims of a trivial amount and to particular places or small districts. These Courts must be distinguished from the “Court of Request” of the King in person, which was virtually abolished in the reign of Charles I. Beckenham elected eight members to the local Court of Request in 1774.

The housing of the poor was evidently a subject which exercised the inhabitants of Beckenham more than a century ago, for at a Vestry held in l775 (at which the Rev. W. Fraigneau, the Rector, was present) after mentioning the great want of small houses for industrious shepherds and labourers in the Parish, it Was decided to ask John Cator, the Lord of the Manor, to build twelve houses, “ four on the waste at Elmorsend Green, four at Uppcr Elmorend Green, and four on the waste lyeing on the side of “ the road Going to Penge.” This requisition was confirmed by a subsequent Vestry at which John Cator was present, but he does not sign the minutes.

Peter Burrell, the eldest son of Peter and Amy Burrell, survived father twenty years, and died in 1776 at the age of fifty-two. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Lewis, of Hackney. He was Surveyor- General of Crown Lands and at one time M.P. for Launceston. His wife, who was of the same age as himself, survived him eighteen years, dying in 1794 aged seventy. He directed that only a square marble slab should be erected to his memory. His direction was faithfully carried out, and the slab is now to be found at the west end of the north aisle of the Parish Church.

Small-pox was apparently rife in the neighbourhood in 1778. when the Vestry ordered an enquiry “among the poor Famelys for all that is “willing to be Inoculated at the Parish expenses.” Inoculation was first tried in England in 1721, on seven condemned criminals, who submitted to the operation on condition that their lives were spared if they survived the ordeal, but the practice was opposed by many until 1760. Vaccine inoculation was not introduced until 1799, and by Act of Parliament in 1840 inoculation was prohibited.

In 1779 disputes appear to have arisen with regard to the seating of the parishioners in Church, and the powers of the Churchwardens with reference to the matter; for on the 28th March the following entry appears in the minute-book : “ It is the opinion of the Vestry that one Churchwarden “ cannot place any person out of one pew into another, without the consent “of the other Churchwarden or of the Vestry. It is also the opiinion of this “Vestry that Mr. Rucker being placed in a pew where Mr. Humphrey used “to set, by one Churchwarden only, he is not legally placed there.” At a subsequent Vestry meeting held in the same year, it was resolved that “suspending the consideration of the legality or illegality of that act, the “Vestry was of opinion that Robert Chapman acted improperly in placing “Mr. Rucker there.” Neither Churchwarden was re-elected. In 1782 the Vestry resolved that a Mr. Fenner (who was apparently a new-comer, as his name does not appear before on any of the minutes) was “ to set in the Pew “ with Mr. Lloyd, till Mr. King make his election which seat he chuse to have.”

About this time many “ fondlins ” from Penge and elsewhere were buried.

Sir Piercy Brett, "Admiral of the Blue,” who lived at the Clock House was buried in 1781, and the entry in the Register is written in very bold handwriting, so that he was evidently considered a person of importance. Admiral Brett served as lieutenant on board the “ Centurion ” under Lord Anson, and commanded the detachment which captured Payta in November, 1741. He was then made post-captain. When commander of the “Lion” he had an engagement with the “ Elizabeth,” which was conveying Prince Charles Edward, otherwise known as “ The Pretender,” to Scotland, and obliged her to return to Brest disabled. He was knighted in 1753, and made Rear-Admiral in 1761. He sat as M.P. for Queenborough. His wife, Henrietta Colby, died in August, 1788, and was buried at Beckenham

In the year 1782 the first mention is made in the Baptismal Register of sponsors at a baptism, and subsequent mention of sponsors is principally confined to entries relating to members of the Cator family, in 1811 the names of the sponsors are given “ by desire,” so that the custom at this time was not by any means universal, and in the same year there is an entry of the baptism of a lady in Yorkshire, who was on the 24th June “ admitted a “ member of the Church of England,” the names of the sponsors being given.

Several minutes were passed to regulate Sunday trading, for instance, in 1785 the Vestry ordered that no shop in Beckenham should sell any goods on Sundays after 10 o’clock, in the morning, that no public house should be open between 10 and 1, or between 3 and 5 on Sundays, and that “no “person do shave or dress their hair after 10 o’clock on the Sunday morning.’’ Two years later the officers of the Church were requested “ to search and “ examine the public houses and the shops of a Sunday during Divine “ Service, and if they find any persons tipling they shall cause the said “ persons to be put into the cage and the shopkeepers whom they shall fmd “selling during Divine Service to report the same to the Vestry.”

In 1787, a person of some local importance, Thomas Watford, the Parish Clerk, died, having held the office forty-four years. He succeeded his father, John Watford, who died in 1743> and had served the same office for thirty-five years. Among earlier holders of the office we find Hugh Corke, 15351 William Ethertonne, buried 5th September, 1643, and Richard Eastland in 1654. The last named was elected “Parish Register” on the death of his predecessor, Henry Kempsall, who was appointed in 1653. Among the more recent holders of the office were Benjamin Wood (died 1807), William Levens, and King.

On the 13th July, 1787, Sir John Edward Swinburne, Bart., of Capheaton, Northumberland, married Emelia Elizabeth Bennett. The bride’s mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were present at the wedding, and the eldest lady lived long enough to see another generation by the birth of a great-great-grandchild.

In 1789, Mrs. Amy Burrell, of Langley, the daughter of Hugh Raymond and widow of the second Peter Burrell, died at the advanced age of eighty-nine, and we can quite imagine what a loss her death must have been to the village.

On the south wall of the south transept, to the right of the great window, is a handsome monument of various kinds of marble, executed by Hickley, and erected to her memory by her son, Sir William Burrell. The bas-relief in the monument represents the deceased in the act of distributing charity to the poor. This memorial was on the east wrall of the south aisle of the old Church.

The inscription on the monument to Mrs. Amy Burrell is as follows : —

“ Ye to whom Truth and Charity are dear,

“ Survey this marble and this bust revere.

“ Here sleeps a Heart that never learned to feign,

“ A Heart devout, affectionate, humane.

“ A liberal Temper ever prompt to give,

“ Zealous to please and anxious to relieve,

“ Attentive, kind, benevolent and just,

“True to each social tie, each sacred trust.

“Thro’ a long Life respectably she moved,

“ And died lamented, as she lived, beloved.”

 

It is stated in the “Sussex Archaelogia” that these verses were composed by William Burrell; further that “ These are the only verses by “our great Sussex antiquary which have come down to us; perhaps it is as well that he preferred county history to poetical composition.”

As stated above, it was through this Amy Burrell (the daughter of Hugh Raymond) that Langley came into the family. The old lady survived her husband and their son Peter, and lived to see her grandson, Sir Peter Burrell, afterwards Lord Gwydir, married in 1779, and succeed to the baronetcy on the death of his great-uncle, Sir Merrik Burrell, of West Grinstead, in 1787- A tablet to Sir Merrik Burrell will be found at the west end of the north aisle on the north wall. Pie was the fourth son of the original Peter Burrell, who died in 1718, was Governor of the Bank of England and M.P. for Marlow and Grampound. He was created a Baronet in 1766, with remainder to the heirs male of his brother Peter, so that when he died without issue in 1787, he was, as already stated, succeeded in the Baronetcy by this great-nephew, afterwards Lord Gwydir. There is a very fine marble monument to Sir Merrik Burrell in West Grinstead Church, with a medallion of the deceased by Smith, a pupil of Roubiliac. There are, or were until recently, at Knepp Castle, near Horsham, portraits of Amy and Peter Burrell painted in 1724, and those which we reproduce as illustrations are from photographs of these pictures in Lewes Museum.

William, the son of Amy Burrell, who erected the monument in Beckenham to his mother, also lies buried in West Grinstead Church. His monument there is a simple sarcophagus surmounted by an urn, executed by Flaxman. He was an LL.D. and Fellow of the Antiquarian Society, M.P. for Haslemcre, and a Commissioner of Excise. He was a collector of manuscripts and drawings relating to Sussex; these he bequeathed to the British Museum. He became possessed of Knepp Castle, in Sussex, through his wife, Sophia, daughter of Sir Charles Raymond, and the estate on his death in 1796 descended to his son, Sir Charles Merrik Burrell. This William Burrell became second baronet on the death of his father-in-law, Sir Charles Raymond, who had been created baronet with remainder to Sir William. This is one of the few instances in which a baronetcy has been inherited apart from any blood relationship. (The current Sir Charles Burrell of Knepp Castle has possession of the two maps, 1723 and 1735, of the Burrell's Beckenham estates and provided this image. Borrowman had copied another copy held in the Hoare papers apparently from a conveyance of property after the 1820 sale of Burrell estates. The extent of the holdings is apparent and also the intermix of property held by other landlords. Substantial changes took place from 1759 to 1793 due to exchanges with John Cator and absorbsion of the Raymond Langley estate into Burrell possession after 1769. Woolseys Farm shown here was exchanged for Beckenham Manor house and Court Downs in 1757 with Frederick St. John [ed. 2024])

Courtesy of Sir Charles Burrell, bart. Knepp Castle

In 1789 “John Beckenham, an orphan from the workhouse,” was buried, apparently unbaptised, as no mention of his name appears in the Baptismal Register. In 1790, the year in which the Church steeple was destroyed by lightning, two casualties are recorded:—“George Goard was “ killed by the falling of a wall belonging to Sir Peter Burrell, which he ‘“was pulling down,’” and “John Robertson, an infant, was killed by a “ roller which run over him.”

On the west wall of the south transept is a tablet to Elizabeth, the wife of the Revd. Edward Auriol Hay Drummond, who died at the age of twenty-seven. This lady left two children under five years old, “ to “ whom,” as her epitaph tells us, " she would have proved the greatest of “all blessings, if the length of her life had been equal to the excellence of “her virtues.” Mrs. Hay Drummond was the daughter of William Devisme, Esq (Churchwarden 1780—i), to whom a gravestone existed in the old churchyard, and, from the wording of the tablet to Mrs. Hay Drummond, it is more than probable that she was also buried in the churchyard. This illustrates the haphazard manner in which some of the stones and monuments were placed in the rebuilding of the Church.

This period seems to have been an unfortunate one, for in the following year, 1791, John Turner “ was killed by a fall from his chair in Mr. Banyer’s “kitchen,” and the death is recorded of William Jeffery, to the entry of whose burial is appended the following note:—“N.B. He was setting off to Town in T. Bargrove’s caravan which was overturned near the Three “Tons by which accident his skull was fractured and he died in a few “hours.” In 1794, a father and two sons named Fox, were “suffocated by “ wood ashes being placed in their bedrooms to dry the walls which were new.”

In the olden days, as at the present time, there was a reluctance on the part of many of the leading parishioners to serve the parish offices. For instance, in 1793. Hoggart, of Foxgrove, “agreed to pay a ffne of £5 to “clear him from serving constable. Two years later Joseph Cator paid £12 fine for exemption from serving all parish offices, and in 1804, “Geo. Wm. Dicker, Esq., produced a Tyburn ticket by which he claimed relief “ from serving parish offices.” It should be mentioned that a “ Tyburn “ticket” was a certificate which was given to the prosecutor of a felon to conviction.

On the 27th December, 1794, we find the entry of the baptism of “George, son of George and Selina Mary Grote,” who was born on the 17th November in the same year. This George Grote, afterwards the historian and philosopher, was born at Shortlands House, Beckenham. His father was a member of the banking house of Grote, Prescott & Co., and his name frequently appears in the local records of Beckenham about this time. He was one of those principally concerned in forming the Armed Association in 1798, to which we have elsewhere referred, and his name still appears on the old treble Bell (now the third, cast in 1796, and recast in 1903) as one of the Overseers of Beckenham for the first-mentioned year. George Grote, the son, who died in 1871 at No. 12, Savile Row, is best known for his “ History of Greece,” the first volume of which was published in 1846, and the twelfth and last ten years later. George Grote was also the author of many articles in the “ Westminster Review,” “ Plato and other companions “of Socrates,” “Aristotle,” and other works. He was always greatly interested in University College, in the establishment of which he took a leading part, and was M.P. for the City of London in 1833. At the age of sixteen George Grotc entered the Banking establishment of his father, with whom he lived until his marriage in 1820, when he took a house in a Court adjoining 62, Threadneedle Street, and it was whilst living there, that, at the suggestion of George Warde Norman, of Bromley, he undertook to write the history of Greece rather than that of Rome which he had originally contemplated. Grote is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

In 1795 a benefactress to Beckenham passed away in the person of Mary Watson, who died on the 5th of August, and to whom a simple stone now stands outside the Church on the north side of the nave. Mary Watson gave the residue of her personal estate (after the death of two annuitants, and subject to several legacies to persons residing at Langley and others) to the Rector, Churchwardens, and Overseers of Beckenham, the interest to be applied by them in paying for the teaching to read and write and other common school education of so many of the poor people of Beckenham as were not maintained or supported by the Parish. When the fund became available in 1807 on the death of the annuitants, the Parish agreed with a schoolmaster to educate as many children as they should send to him, at forty shillings a year each. Owing to the benefaction being limited to the children of such parents as did not receive parish relief, the expenditure did not exceed, up to 1818, £20 a year, and in this year the accumulated interest amounting to £294 16s. 2d. (then in the hands of George Grote, one of the trustees) was applied in aid of a subscription raised about that time for building National Schools, and the dividends were carried to the credit of the Schools, to which the scholars (about eighteen in number) on the foundation of the testatrix were sent, until the establishment of the Beckenham Parochial Charities scheme. The fund is now represented by a sum of India 3 per cent Stock, and is administered by the Parochial Trustees.

In the year 1795, there was evidently a great scarcity of bread, and a subscription was started in the village to reduce the price. Sealed weights and measures were provided for the use of the parish, and wheat was to be purchased, and ground, and served to the poor at 9d. per loaf.

In April of this year, the Vestry agreed to give one Benjamin Wood £20 to serve in the Navy for the Parish.

A curious and now obsolete office is mentioned in 1795, when Benjamin Wood (the Parish Clerk) and David Bassett (the village carpenter) were appointed Ale Conners, or officers appointed to examine into the quality of ale sold in the parish, and to inspect the measures used in public houses in order to ascertain that they were of proper legal capacity.

Bassett appears to have been a man of many occupations, and he also labours under the charge of having carried away the font of the old Church, after the hre, during his year of office as Churchwarden. At this time public scales, weights and measures, were provided by the Parish, and in the following year it was ordered that “ the light weights which were “taken away from the shops to be sold and the money returned to them.”

In 1797 is recorded the burial of Mary Wragg, whose name had, from her death up to a few years ago, been as well known as any in Beckenham, as she took care she should not be forgotten. By her will, Mary Wragg bequeathed £15 a year to be paid to the officiating Curate of Beckenham for the following usesTwenty-one shillings to be laid out in a dinner for the curate, clerk and parish officers; twenty-one shillings for his trouble in taking care of her family vault; £12 10s. for the cost of keeping the vault in repair, and if in any year the vault wanted no repair, the money, or so much as was not required for repairs, was to be applied in the purchase of beef, bread and coals for the poorest inhabitants; the remaining eight shillings was to be given to the clerk, who was once a year to sweep the vault clean, oil the locks, and repair the rails and doors of the vault. If the money was not properly distributed to the poor of Beckenham, it was to go to the poor of Bromley to be distributed in like manner.

It is said that Mary Wragg was passing through the village in great distress and was helped by the villagers, but she was able at her death to reward the inhabitants of Beckenham by this curious bequest. This is, however, only a legend, and there is little doubt but that she was the daughter of Samuel Wragg, a London merchant, and Mary, his wife, the latter of whom was buried on 29th December, 1737 The particulars of her parents’ names appeared in the stone above the vault now beneath the new Parish Church. The coffin, which contained the benefactress, was of cedar and of a peculiar shape with a sloping lid, and is well remembered by many who were privileged to descend into the vault when it was annually opened. Poor Mary Wragg has not, we think, been well treated by Beckenham. First her bequest was diverted by the Charity Commissioners; her vault, which she had taken so much pains to keep for ever open to the outside world, was built up and eventually disappeared under the Church; and her body, removed from what she intended to be its last resting place, now lies in the pathway near the present vestry. All that remains to keep her memory green is the copper tablet at the south end of the narthex of the Parish Church, her name in the Register, and a curious old book which shows how her bequest was expended year by year from her death until unfortunately, as we think, the Charity became absorbed in the Beckenham Parochial Charities. The opening of the vault used to be followed by a dinner which was attended by the Church officers and made the occasion of a friendly gathering.

There was in our young days a tradition that every year when the vault was opened a tinder box and a loaf of bread used to be placed near the coffin, but this is a tradition without any foundation in fact.

CHAPTER IV.

1800—1850.

We have elsewhere given a short account of the workhouse and have referred to the price of provisions one hundred years ago, but there are a few facts relating to the poor which may perhaps be of interest. There was evidently a scarcity of bread in 1795 when the Vestry, as stated in the preceding chapter, ordered wheat to be purchased and ground for the use of the poor at ninepence a loaf, and a public subscription was raised to meet the prevailing distress. About this period, 1795-1800, the price of the quartern loaf in England varied from one shilling to even one shilling and tenpence halfpenny, and this is seen from numerous entries in the minutes; while in 1796 an extra allowance was made to the Master of the Workhouse in consequence of the dearness of provisions. In 1809 a sum of £86 was collected for the celebration of the Jubilee of George III., when the following distribution of provisions was made “to every poor, labouring family in the “Parish and the Hamlet of Penge”:—families exceeding three members had two quartern loaves, not exceeding three one quartern loaf, while every individual had 1 lb. of beef, a pint of porter, and one peck of potatoes, and the “paupers in the workhouse had two legs of mutton and one pint of porter each.” Altogether there were distributed 262 quartern loaves, 650lbs. of beef, 650 pecks of potatoes, and 650 pints of beer, exclusive of the provision for the workhouse.

In consequence of the threatened invasion of this country by France in 1793-94 Volunteers for home defence were enrolled, and in 1798 the patriotism of the inhabitants of Beckenham prompted them to form an “Armed Association.” The inhabitants were requested by the Vestry to “cheerfully come forward and testify their loyalty and love of their country “at this season of imminent danger,” a public subscription was invited, and £131 14s. od. was raised and paid into the Bank of England. No one was to be admitted into the Association unless he was a housekeeper or could bring two respectable housekeepers to answer for him, and sons of housekeepers were admitted on their parents being answerable for them. Some sixty-three persons enrolled themselves, many with arms, but in June of the same year the offer of the “ Armed Association ” was refused by the Government on the ground that a Volunteer Corps had been formed within a short distance of Beckenham. In 1803 the martial spirit of Beckenham again found expression, and the Vestry resolved that “ it was the bounden duty of every “subject (of whatever rank he may be) to forego all private considerations “ in order that he may be enabled to co-operate with the general powers of “ Government for the distribution of any force that may attempt the invasion “ of this happy island.” Volunteers between the ages of eighteen and forty- five were called for, and a Committee formed consisting of the Rector, Parish officers and others, to make such necessary arrangements as should be best calculated for the public good. It was decided that every person liable to be balloted for in the Militia and not subject to the Poor Rate, who should contribute 10s. 6d., and all house-keepers rated to the Poor Rate and male servants in gentlemen’s families who should contribute 21s. to the funds of the Association, should have a substitute found for them by the Parish or the penalty paid if they should happen to be drawn for service by ballot under the existing Militia Act, and that all gentlemen not liable to be balloted for should be recommended to pay £3 3s. to the funds. The contributions were to be paid either to the Churchwardens or Overseers, and any deficiency was to be made good out of the Poor Rate. A general meeting of the inhabitants above the age of seventeen years was held on Sunday, the 24th July, 1803, in the "Tons Field,” U, the old “ Fairfield,” at half-past five in the afternoon, at which meeting the Association was formed. The provisions of the Act having been suspended in certain counties, and amongst others in Kent, the Association appears to have been disbanded. In 1B12 the Vestry offered a bounty of £2-2s. each for four volunteers to fill up the vacancies in the local Militia.

To the Rev. William Rose, the Rector from 1778 to 1829, who built the present Rectory, and whose father purchased the advowson from Lord Bolingbroke, whose name too is inscribed on the old treble (now the third) bell, we are indebted for many entries in the Registers setting out the cause of death, such, for instance, as that of two boys who “ were drowned in the “ Canal on Penge Common.” Others are Sophia Edwards, “ burnt by “accident”; John Thorn, “died by falling from a haystack”; Sarah Pratt, “suddenly”; and there are many entries of death by typhus, scarlet and other fevers. In fact, in 1811-12, the mortality, especially among the young, was exceptionally great. The Penge, or as it is sometimes called, the Croydon Canal, which was cut through Penge Common in 1801, seems to have been the scene of several fatalities, the victims of which were buried at Beckenham. There is an entry on the 18th March, 1804, of the burial of Mary Goodchild at the advanced age of 107.

The monument to Dame Frances Ann Hoare, who died in 1800, (now on the east wall of the north transept of the Parish Church), with a figure in bas-relief is ascribed to Flaxman.

John Cator, of Beckenham Place and Lord of the Manor, died in 1806, and was buried in the family vault of the Cators in the Churchyard.

In 1807, Edward King, F.R.S., was buried in the Churchyard. He, the only son of Edward King, of Norwich, was educated at Clare Flail, Cambridge, and practised as barrister on the Norfolk circuit, eventually being made Recorder of King’s Lynn. It is stated that he defended a lady from a faithless lover and afterwards married her. He was a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and was elected President in 1784, but failed to secure re-election in the following year, being succeeded by the Earl of Leicester. He was the author of works on Archaeology, and political and social essays and poems, the principal of which are, “ Observations on Ancient “ Castles,” “ Morsels of Criticism,” tending to illustrate the Scriptures, and the “ Monumenta Antiqua.” King at one time resided at the “ Oakery,” or “Clay Hill.” His wife, who lies beside him, died in 1821, and was at her death apparently residing at Kelsey, which is described at the time of the sale of the Gwydir estates in 1820, as in her occupation. In 1838, “The “ Oakery ” was in the possession of Robert Gibson.

The monument to the Kings is described in 1877 as “a handsome “freestone monument on which is a sarcophagus.” It is now, however, in a very bad state of repair, and the sarcophagus has disappeared, or is overgrown by ivy.

King may have come to Beckenham in 1782, for we find a Vestry minute of November 1st of that year which runs as follows:—“Agreed that Mr. “ Fenner is to set in the pew with Mr. Lloyd till Mr. King makes his election “ which seat he chuse to have.” It would appear as if Edward King succeeded George Grote in the occupation of Clay Hill, as we find no record that the latter held or occupied property in Beckenham in 1802-3. After the death of Edward King the property probably passed into the occupation of Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, of Lincoln’s Inn, who is described as of “ Clay Hill, in the Baptismal Register in 1815.

In the early part of last century and at the end of the 18th, it seems that marriages frequently took place by license at private houses, for we find in 1798 a marriage recorded at “The Oakery,” the seat of Edward King; in 1805, at Langley Park; and in the same year at the house of Richard H. A. Bennett, at Kelsey, the first and last of these three marriages being solemnized by the then Bishop of Rochester. A marriage in 1807 had a tragic ending, for against the entry we find suspendit sese spcnsus “ postridie de arbore juxta Croydon.”

Thomas Randell, probably of Kent House, whose name appears on the old treble bell (now the third) as one of the Churchwardens in 1796, died, and was buried in the Churchyard in .805, his colleague, Robert Hoggart, of Fox Grove, surviving him another three years.

On May .6th, 1808, the burial is recorded of a "man (name "unknown) found hanging on a tree on Fenge Common, supposed to have " committed suicide through disappointment in the Lottery but burred by“authority of Crowners warrant.”

On November 6th, .809, another benefactor of Beckenham, William Fenner, of Sydenham, and Yeoman, Citizen and Stationer of London, was buried. He directed in his will that he was to be buried in Beckenham Churchyard beside his first wife, and that his Executors were to repair the vault, place an inscription thereon, and enclose it with rails. No doubt this was done, but vault, stone and rails have all disappeared, probably under the new Church, and nothing is left except the entry in the Register and a board in the narthex setting out the bequest. Fenner left £800 three per cent. Consols to the Rector, Churchwardens and Overseers, the interest to be laid out in bread to be given to the poor of Beckenham " who “ shall attend the worship of God on the Sunday mornings the six months “October, November, December, January, February, and March, one pound “ for each Sunday.” The income of the Consols was applied in the purchase of bread for the poor up to 1878, when the funds (now represented by £836 os. 8d. India three per cent. Stock) became absorbed in the Parochial Trustees Scheme, and the income diverted from what was the intention of the testator. Among other bequests left by Fenner was one to the Stationers Company, the terms of which, we hope, are still carried out. The Rev. George Fletcher received a five guinea ring and the Rector one costing £ I 7s.

William Fenner was a printer in Lombard Street, and afterwards removed to Paternoster Row. He served the office of Master to the Stationers Company in 1786, and presented the Company with a large silver coffee urn, which is not now, we understand, in existence.

The Honourable Catherine Isabella Vansittart, the wife of the Right Honourable Nicholas Vansittart (afterwards Baron Bexley), and daughter of William, Lord Auckland, died in 1810, and a massive stone was erected by her husband “in memory of the mutual affection which blessed their union, of the “elegance of mind, manners and person by which she embellished all the “comforts of domestic society, of the cheerful piety and Christian virtues of “ her life, and of the tranquil resignation of her departure.”

In 1811 there was evidently some friction between the Rector and the parishioners as to the allocation of the offertories at the Church, as the Churchwardens were directed by the Vestry “ to apply to Mr. Cholmeley for 'their proportion of the Sacrament money to distribute as they shall think ‘proper,” Cholmeley was at the time Curate-in-charge.

During this and the following years, Beckenham appears to have been visited by a scourge of typhus and scarlet fever, as there are many entries in the Burial Register of deaths from these diseases during this period.

A celebrated inhabitant of Beckenham, the Right Honourable William, Lord Auckland, who died suddenly at the breakfast table on the 28th May, was buried on the 3rd June, 1814. He lived at Eden Farm, and was the third son of Sir Robert Eden, Bart., of Windlestone, Durham. Lord Auckland, who was called to the Bar, and sat in Parliament, was one of the Commissioners for concluding peace in America in 1778, Chief Secretary of Ireland 1781, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Versailles 1785, Ambassador at Madrid 1788, and to the States General in 1789, in which year he was created a peer of Ireland as Baron Auckland. In 1793 he was created an English peer as Baron Auckland, of West Auckland, in the County of Durham.

Eleanor, Lady Auckland, who was the daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Gilbert Elliot, Bart., survived her husband only four years, and died in 1818, having “lived a bright example of every quality which can adorn “the wife, the mother and the Christian.” The monument to Lord Auckland and his wife is now on the west wall of the south transept.

On the wall of the north aisle is a simple monument to Harriet, the wife of T. G. Lambton, Esq., of Lambton Hall, Durham (afterwards Earl of Durham), who died on the nth July, 1815, in her twenty-fifth year. Of her it is said that “ She lived a blessing to her husband and her friends. She suffered with angelic sweetness the most acute and lingering pains and having lived and suffered an example to all, she died with such a blessed hope of immortality as we trust have given her imperishable claims to the Divine protection of God.”

William Merrick, a surgeon, for many years resident in Beckenham, and beloved by the poor of the Parish, died in 1818. He was by birth a member of the Society of Friends, and was buried in the Churchyard “ after their manner.”

In the year 1818, the following rather curious entry appears in the Vestry minutes:—“That Mr. Latter be desired to prepare a new bond to be “executed by Mr. Fall, in place of the one stolen from the Vestry.”

On the south wall of the south transept is a simple stone to the first Baron Gwydir, who died at Brighton in 1820, at the age of sixty-six, having succeeded to the Langley estates through his grand-mother, Amy Burrell, the daughter of Hugh Raymond. He was the second Baronet, and came into the title on the death of his great-uncle, Sir Merrik Burrell, in April, 1787. Six years previously he had been knighted, and was at one time M.P. for Boston. He was created Baron Gwydir, of Gwydir, in the County of Carnarvon, in June, 1796, and married in 1779, Lady Priscilla Barbara Elizabeth Bertie, eldest daughter and co-heir of the third Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England. On the death of her brother Robert, the fourth Duke of Ancaster, without issue, a few months after her marriage, Lord Gwydir’s wife became Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby, and, by a decision of the House of Lords, Great Chamberlain jointly with her sister, Lady Georgiana Charlot'te Bertie, Marchioness Choimondeley. Lord Gwydir acted as Deputy Great Chamberlain, and is so described on his monument.

According to Clark’s “Introduction to Heraldry,” the office of Lord Great Chamberlain was vested in the Barony of Eresby, which fell vacant in 1779, and for the office were several claimants, viz.: the Lord Brownlow Bertie, then Duke of Ancaster; Earl Percy, eldest son of the Duke of Northumberland; the Duchess Dowager of Athol; Baroness Strange of Knockyn; and the Ladies Priscilla Barbara and Georgiana Charlotte Bertie, sisters and co-heirs of Robert, fourth Duke of Ancaster, deceased. After hearing all parties, the House of Peers desired the opinion of the twelve Judges, and according to their decision, the House determined that the office devolved to the ladies Priscilla and Georgiana, as co-heirs to their brother the Duke, and that they had power to appoint a deputy to act for them not under the degree of a Knight, who, if his Majesty approved of him, might officiate accordingly. Whereupon Peter Burrell, husband of the Lady Priscilla Barbara, was appointed, and received the honour of Knighthood from His Majesty, after which appointment he was created Lord Gwydir.

We reproduce a ticket of admission to the Peeresses’ seats in the House of Lords issued by Lord Gwydir as Deputy Great Chamberlain on the occasion of the trial of Lord Viscount Melville—the arranging of Westminster Hall being one of the peculiar duties of the office. Lord Gwydir was also Deputy Great Chamberlain at the trial of Warren Hastings.

With the death of Lord Gwydir in 1820, the connection of the Burrell family with Beckenham came to an end, as the whole of the estates situate in Beckenham, Bromley, West Wickham, Hayes, Keston, and Lewisham, comprising 3,202 acres, were sold by auction at Garraway’s Coffee House in 92 lots, on 31st October, 1820, and three following days.

The lots in Beckenham included Langley Farm, then in the occupation of A. W. Colville; Langley Lodge in the occupation of the Marchioness of Exeter; and Langley Park and house, which was described as “ one of the “ completest domains of its extent in the Kingdom, the neighbourhood is of “ the first respectability and the situation particularly desirable for a noble- “ man or gentleman fond of hunting or shooting, being in the midst of every “ kind of field sport.”

The second day’s sale included Kelsey Park; Eden Farm, then in the occupation of Mrs. Wildman; The Home or Stone Farm (“suitable for “the residence of a genteel family”); the Three Tuns and cricket field adjoining; Elmer Lodge, and many houses and some shops in the Village. In his “ Posthumous memoirs of my Own Time,” Sir N. W. Wraxall mentions “ the rise of the Burrells of Beckenham from a respectable “ middle-class position into the ranks of the Peerage, as one of the most “ remarkable freaks of fortune, and that all these honours and this wealth “ came to the family without any public services and not gained in the battle- “ field or in the Senate.”

In March, 1819, the children of “ the upper coachman of the Marchioness “ of Exeter ” (the sister of Lord Gwydir) who then lived in the Dower House, were baptised.

The following figures relating to the population of Beckenham about 1821, and taken by the Rev. Andrew Brandram, then Curate and subsequently Rector of Beckenham, are interesting; —

Inhabited Houses ...	...	...	196
By plowmans families ...	...	...	214
Houses building ... ...	...		15
„ inhabited ... ...	...	. . .	3
Persons employed in agriculture	...		77
„ „ „ trade manufacture and		handicraft	46
and others not comprised in above Males ... ...	. . .	558	91
Females ... ...	...	622	1180
Aged.	60 to 70	70 to 80.	80 to 90
Males ... • • •	27	16	4
Females ... ...	39	19	6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beckenham Churchyard does not appear to have been free from the raids of the Resurrectionists, for on November 24th, 1822, certain bodies were removed by night and proceedings were taken, but we have not been able to ascertain whether the perpetrators of the outrage were punished, although they were apparently discovered. There were living until recently old inhabitants of Beckenham who remembered the time when it was not unusual for a watch to be kept on the graves of recently buried persons to prevent such graves being outraged. In 1818, there is an entry in the Parish accounts of eleven shillings “ paid 2 men for watching the Church 2 nights.” The watchers used to secrete themselves in the beams of the old Lych Gate We have been informed, on the authority of a well-known old inhabitant, since deceased, that about the year 1826 a schoolmaster, who lived near the “Three Tuns” was buried in the Churchyard. On the morning following the funeral the grave clothes were found on the surface of the ground and a search proved that the coffin was empty. The son of the deceased man went to London and searched all the hospitals, at last discovering the partially dismembered body of his father in one of the dissecting rooms. The body was re-buried at Beckenham. We have it on the same authority that it was usual after a funeral for watchers to be stationed in the Rectory stables, which until recent years stood opposite the Churchyard near the site of the present Church House. There are other tales of the Resurrection men in Beckenham Churchyard, but the subject is not a pleasant one on which to dwell.

We may mention, however, that in the year 1823, the parish clerk, William Arnold, appears to have been suspected of complicity in the removal of bodies from the Churchyard, but his character was completely vindicated by a resolution of the Vestry in that year, when it it was recorded that it was the unanimous opinion of the Vestry that there was no ground whatsoever for suspecting William Arnold, the clerk of the parish, of being in any way concerned with the stealing of bodies from the Churchyard, or of giving any information which might lead to such an outrage.

The entries in the baptismal registers about this period are not of general interest, but we find the baptism of Thomas Standing “ a post boy ” in 182

In Hone’s “Table Book,” Beckenham is thus described in the year 1827 : “ Beyond Chaffinch’s River there is an enticing field-path to Beckenham “ but occasional sights of noble trees kept us along the high road till the “ ring of the blacksmith’s hammer signalled that we were close upon the “ village. We wound through it at a slow pace vainly longing for some- “ thing to realize the expectations raised by the prospect of it on our way. “ Beckenham consists of two or three old farm-like looking houses rudely “ encroached upon by a number of irregularly built dwellings and a couple “ of inns, one of them of so much apparent consequence as to dignify the “ place. We soon came to an edifice * * *, the cage, with its accessory the “pound. An angular turn of the road from these lodgings for men and “ cattle when they go astray, afforded us a sudden and delightful view of “ ‘ the decent church that tops the neighbr’ing hill.’ On the right an old high “ broad wall, flanked with thick buttresses and belted with magnificent trees ‘ climbs the steep to enclose the domain of I know not whom. On the "opposite side the branches from a plantation arch beyond the footpath, “ on the summit of the ascent is the village Church with its whitened spire crowing and pininnacl’ing this pleasant grove, pointing from amidst the graves like man’s last only hope, towards heaven.” The writer goes on to say that “the Church had been deprived by former beautifyings of “ carvings and tombs that in these times would have been remarkable. It “ has remnants of brasses over the burial places of deceased rectors and gentry “from whence dates have been wantonly erased.” The description of the Church Hill in 1S27 would be equally applicable forty years ago, except that the cage was removed in 1858, but the arching trees and the high broad wall of the Manor House grounds still remained, and it was not till after the flood in 1878 that the Church Hill lost its country appearance.

John Parr Welford, of Sydenham, was buried in Beckenham Churchyard in 1828. He was Secretary of the Committee of the Patriotic Fund, established in 1803, “to animate the efforts of our Defenders by sea and “ land,” by providing a fund for the relief of themselves when wounded and of their widows and orphans, and for granting pecuniary rewards and badges of distinction for valour and merit. Welford was also Secretary to the Waterloo Subscription, raised after the great battle in 1815. The inscription on the stone reads that these funds “ were two great examples “of British Spirit and British Liberality,” and that “in executing this “important trust his (Welford’s) duty was his delight, the manner in which “ he discharged it is recorded in the memory of the soldier’s and sailor’s, " widow and orphan.

On the 6th December, 1828, Richard Lea, of Village Place, now "The Cedars,” died. The deceased was an Alderman of the City of London, and on his death the property passed to his son-in-law, Samuel Wilson, also an Alderman and Lord Mayor of London.

James Cionk, the Parish Beadle, who was buried in 1831, was the grandfather of the late Sexton, James Dennis, who also for many years held the same office. James Cronk kept the “ George.”

The office of Parish Beadle, now unfortunately extinct, presumably dates (so far as we have any written record) from a Vestry held in 1717, when it was agreed “ that the Churchwardens do put locks on what pews “ are necessary and employ a person allowing him one pound six shillings “ a year, to open them to Parishioners and keep all dogs out of the Church “and keep the boys in order.” In 1777 the Vestry ordered “that Samuel “ Harryson do attend the Church with a Greate Coate and hatt in order to “keep the Church at peace.” In 1808 James Cronk was allowed £2 2s. a year to act as Parish Beadle. Subsequently the office appears to have lapsed for a time, for in 1836 the Vestry recommended the Churchwardens to appoint a Beadle to attend the Church and take care of the Churchyard and fences. John Hillier was appointed, being succeeded in the office by James Dennis. Up to the building of the new Church the Beadle used to wear a gold laced coat and red waistcoat, but not the “ hatt,” and the last holder of the office certainly carried out that part of his duties which required him to “ keep the boys in order.” It is a matter of regret that the quaint costume of the Parish Beadle (although not of great antiquity) should have been abolished.

In the year of the passing of the Reform Act, 1832, a very large number of applications for workhouse relief appear to have been made, and there is no doubt that the poverty in Beckenham, as elsewhere throughout the country, was very acute.

On the north wall of the north aisle is a tablet to the Revd. George Fletcher, M.A., Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, at one time Curate at the Church, and for more than sixty years a resident in Beckenham. He died at Croydon, November 29th, and was buried in the Churchyard at Beckenham, December 5th, 1835, beside his wife. He resided for many years at Clay Hill. His son, the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, M.A., was for twenty-four years “ Minister of the Episcopal Chapel, Southend, Kent.”

In the year 1834, the Vestry appears to have been desirous of limiting the number of licensed houses in the village, for the following resolution was passed: —“That the beer shops are a nuisance in the parish, that they “ are baneful to the labouring poor, pernicious to their families, and injurious "to the community; that there are already in this parish five beer shops “ and two public houses, and it is the opinion of this Vestry, that the  application of Thomas Hollyfield for a License to sell excisable liquors by “retail to be drunk in his house be resisted.” This Thomas Hollyfield was subsequently the landlord of the “ King William IV.,” at Elmers End.

In the year 1835, Beckenham suffered, as it does at the present time, from inadequate police protection, and the Vestry agreed to a voluntary rate of 4d. for one year only, for “ paying the Police ” for the protection of the lives and property of the inhabitants at large. It will be remembered by our readers that the London Police force was founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1829.

At the same Vestry, a vote of thanks was passed to Alderman Samuel Wilson, for his active and zealous exertions on a recent occasion, in directing “ measures for the apprehension of persons, who had committed a daring theft “ in the parish, and for his great attention to the interests of the inhabitants “ in the discharge of his duties as a magistrate.”

In the year 1836, the Statute 3 and 4, William IV., for “lighting' and watching purposes ” was adopted.

In 1837 another benefactress to Beckenham passed away in the person of Elizabeth Ann, Dowager Marchioness of Exeter, daughter of Peter Burrell, of Langley, and sister of Lord Gwydir. She left the sum of £1,000, the interest on which was to be laid out by the Rector and Churchwardens in the purchase of coals for the deserving poor of Beckenham in the month of December every year. This daughter of Peter Burrell married the eighth Duke of Hamilton, whom she divorced in 1794. After his death in 1799, she became in 1800 the third wife of the Marquis of Exeter, who died a few years after the marriage, which was solemnised at Langley, by special license.

On the west wall of the south transept is a cenotaph to the Honourable Mathew Fortescue and Henrietta Ann, his wife, who died within a year of one another and were buried in Barnes Churchyard. He was the second son of Lord Fortescue, of Castle Hill, Devonshire, and his wife was the only daughter of Sir Richard Hoare, Bart. Henrietta Fortescue died at the old Manor House (the site of which is now occupied by the District Council Offices), which until a few years ago was a country mansion standing in its own grounds, with a large piece of ornamental water, where the Manor Road houses now stand.

A great event for Beckenham occurred in the year 1839, when Alderman Samuel Wilson was elected Lord Mayor of London, and some of the older inhabitants recollect the state coach, leaving Village Place, to convey the Lord Mayor to various civic functions.

In this year we read that the Railway Road Company “ was assessed ” for Church rate for £8. It is not clear what railway this could have been, but it would probably be the London and Croydon Railway, which was opened on the 1st June, 1839) and it would have passed through that portion of Beckenham Parish, which lies near where the present Crystal Palace now stands. In 1848, the Brighton Railway “was assessed for Church rate.”

On September 10th of this year, the Archbishop of Canterbury visited the Parish Church, and a special entry is made in the Churchwardens* accounts of a sum paid to the bell-ringers on this occasion.

In consequence of a circular letter from the Poor Law Board “ respecting an Act of Parliament for the removal of nuisances,” a sanitary Committee was formed on the 28th October in this year, and considerable activity was shown by the Vestry at this time in the way of causing the removal of pigsties and other nuisances in the parish, among other places mentioned being Harris’s Yard, Fuller’s Row and Mount Pleasant, the latter name being, we suppose, an obvious euphemism.

On the 6th January, 1849, George Eden, Earl of Auckland, G.C.B., was buried in the family vault in the aisle of the old Church. He succeeded to the Barony of Auckland on the decease of his father in 1814, and was a statesman of considerable repute. Amongst his other public appointments, he was at different periods of his life, Auditor of Greenwich Hospital, President of the Board of Trade, Master of the Mint in Earl Grey’s ministry, and twice First Lord of the Admiralty, while in approbation of the manner in which he discharged the duties of the post of Governor General of India, which he held from 1836 to 1841, he was created on December 21st, 1839, Baron Eden of Norwood, Surrey, and Earl of Auckland. His administration was marked by tire Afghan War, 1839-42. He died unmarried, and the creation of 1839 became extinct; his brother, then Bishop of Sodor and Man, and afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, became third Baron. Ihe monument to the Earl of Auckland is on the north wall of the north aisle. Lord Auckland was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of his death, and he apparently died at his official residence. An interesting account of his funeral appeared in “The Lady’s Newspaper,” of January, 1849, which also published at the same time a print of the Lych Gate. The funeral cortege proceeded by Lewisham to Beckenham, and the ceremony, in accordance with the previously expressed wishes of the deceased, was a very quiet one.

On the 6th July, 1849, Lydia, the daughter of the then Rector, the Rev. Andrew Biandram, was married to Dr. George Smith, “ the Lord “ Bishop of Victoria, in the British Dependency of Hong Kong, in China.”

In 1850 occurred what is known as the “Papal Aggression,” when on the 30th September, Pope Pius IX. in a consistory held at Rome named fourteen new Cardinals, amongst whom was Dr. Wiseman, who was at the same time nominated Lord Archbishop of Westminster. On its becoming generally known that England had been divided into Roman Catholic Dioceses great indignation was manifested throughout the Kingdom, and among the 6,700 addresses which were presented to the late Queen Victoria, was one from the Vestry of Beckenham, a meeting of which was held on the 26th November of that year to protest against the recent assumption of '* the Pope of Rome to appoint Archbishops and Bishops in this Kingdom.”

Among the well-known Beckenham names which appear in the Registers during the period covered by this chapter we find those of “Dennis,” “ Hillier,” “Overy,” “Quin,” “ Obee,” “ Rippingall,” “ Hollifield,” “Terry,” “ Glazebrook,” “Churcher,” “Levens,” “ Ovenden,” “Austin,” “ Croucher,” " Bassett,” “ Whiffin,” “ Town,” “ Sparrow," “ Sturgeon,” “ Killick,” and others.

 

CHAPTER V.

1850—1894.

Baron Bexley, the President of the British and Foreign Bible Society, died in 1851, and was buried in the same vault as his wife, who, as v«e have already noticed, died in 1810. He was a member of the House of Commons for twenty-seven years, representing Harwich and other constituencies. Baron Bexley (or, as he then was, the Right Hon. Nicholas Vansittart) for some time resided at Foots Cray Place, and was chief Secretary for Ireland and Chancellor of the Exchequer, upon the resignation of which latter post, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Bexley, a title which became extinct on his death.

The British and Foreign Bible Society sustained another loss about this time, for the Rev. Andrew Brandram, M.A., for thirteen years Rector °f Beckenham, and for twenty-seven years one of the Secretaries of the Society, died a month before Baron Bexley, and was buried in the churchyard. A tablet setting out his attainments and virtues will be found on the wall at the end of the north aisle, while the place of his interment is marked by a gravestone over a vault in the churchyard. There is a curious discrepancy between the two inscriptions. The tablet states that he was for twenty-two years Rector of the Parish, while the inscription on the stone, which is the correct one, states that he was Rector from 1838 to 1850. Brandram was, however, Curate of Beckenham from 1816 to 1S27, and was “Minister of the Savoy Chapel” from 1823 to 183S. He died at Brighton, and at one time resided at Elm Cottage, Beckenham.

In the autumn of 1852, there was considerable infant mortality in Beckenham. Later in the year, the Vestry recorded their strong sense of objection to any part of the Crystal Palace grounds being open on the Lord’s Day. It will be remembered that the first column of the Crystal Palace was raised on its present site in 1852. In March of this year, a Highway Committee was appointed to superintend repairs to and the preservation of, the highways and footpaths, and to issue notices with reference to the removal of road scrapings, and the cutting of trees overhanging the roads.

In 1853, in consequence of the appearance of cholera in this country, a committee was formed to combat the scourge. It is hardly to the credit of Beckenham that the Relieving Officer reported that he considered the condition of the Parish was “the most dirty of the Parishes within his “ range.”

On September 2nd, 1854, leave was given to the Crystal Palace District Gas Company to introduce gas into the parish at their expense, the charge for gas not to exceed six shillings per 1,000 cubic feet. We believe, however, that gas, at any rate, for street lighting, .was not introduced until some years later. In this connection it may be interesting to note that the first system of public lighting in Beckenham comprised three lamps only, one at the Rectory gate, another below the pound and cage, and a third at the corner of Beckenham Road, near the entrance to Beckenham Lodge.

A monument, which attracts considerable attention in the Church, was erected about this time to Captain Hedley Vicars, of the 97th Regiment. He served in the Crimea, and fell before Sebastopol on the night of the 22nd March, 1855, aged twenty-eight. Hedley Vicars was buried at Sebastopol, and a short account of his life entitled “The memorials of Captain Hedley Vicars ” was published by Catherine Marsh, the sister-in-law of the Rev. F. S. C. Chalmers, the Rector of Beckenham, in 1856.

The extent to which Beckenham has increased during the last fifty years is emphasised by the fact that it is recorded in the Vestry minutes of 1857 that the whole extent of the roads in the parish was eight and a half miles, while at the present time the road mileage is forty-nine and a half miles. In January of this year Beckenham Junction Station on the Mid-Kent

Railway was opened for traffic and was then the terminus of the Railway, but in January of the following year the Chatham and Dover Railway and the Crystal Palace and West End Railway were opened. There was for many years a station on the latter system where the line crosses the Beckenham Road. In the year 1858 the Nuisances Removal Committee, consisting °f nine members, was appointed under the Act of 1855, and Hawksley, the well-known engineer was consulted with reference to the general sewerage of the parish. On August 25th, 1858, John Cator, who had succeeded to the estates on the death of his uncle in 1806, died. He was baptised as John Barwell Cator, but in the Burial Register he is described as John Cator only.

The first public sewer in Beckenham was laid in 1860 by the Nuisances Removal Committee, and was constructed to drain the main street through the village.

In the early part of the year 1861, the question of the unemployed was again acute in Beckenham, and in order to find occupation for those out of work in the winter, which was apparently an exceptionally inclement one, the Vestry decided to make up certain footpaths in the parish. Later in the year it was decided by the Vestry, that the Nuisances Removal Acts should be executed by the Board of Guardians. In 1862, the rateable value of Beckenham was £14,510. It is now £271,968. In 1863, Hillier, the Beadle who had been Surveyor of Highways for many years, retired from office and received the thanks of the Vestry, together with a testimonial for his past services. In 1864 Dr. Marsh, the father-in-law of the Rector died and an elaborate monument to him with a lengthy inscription is to be found over  the south door of the present Church. Dr. William Marsh was Rector of Beddington, Surrey, but for some years, towards the close of his life he resided with his son-in-law, the Rev. Frederick Skene Courtenay Chalmers, at Beckenham Rectory, having resigned his living at Leamington. In May 1860, Dr. Marsh was offered the living of Beddington, in Surrey but but dreading the break up of the happy home circle at Beckenham Rectory he twice declined it. When asking the advice of Archbiship of Canterbury and of the Bishop of Winchester, in whose diocese Beddmgton was situate, he was told “by all alike that in their opinion, he would close a door of usefulness which the providence of GOD “had opened to him.” He accepted the living. He is described on the monument as “for sixty-six years a good minister of Jesus Christ,” and a memoir has been written by his daughter, Catherine Marsh, who is still living.

It is not at all unusual to find people falling into the error of describing Dr. Marsh as having been Rector of Beckenham, which is not the fact. The mistake is no doubt explained by the circumstance, as stated by Miss Marsh in her “Life of Frederick Chalmers,” that the Rector and Dr. Marsh “worked together in holy union, Mr. Chalmers always putting “ Dr. Marsh to the front as if he were the Rector and himself the Curate.” Although Chalmers resigned the living of Beckenham in 1873 to accept the comparatively small charge of Nonington, in Kent, where he died in 1885, it is a matter of surprise and regret that no monument exists to him in the Parish Church, as his influence for good was undoubtedly felt in Beckenham So, many years. Ho held the living al a time when Beckenham was emerging from the status of a quiet country village into that o£ a growing suburb of London. In ,1853 the building of the Crystal Palace brought hordes of navvies into the neighbourhood, as many as two hundred finding quarters in Beckenham. The Rector and his sister-in-law, Miss Marsh, did much good work among  these  men. many of whom used to attend the Church, and meetings for them were held in a barn (since removed) near what is now the Cottage  hospital, in the Croydon Road.

The influence of Chalmers and Catherine Marsh may, we think, be traced in several of the inscriptions on the gravestones about this period. We wellremember  the Rector riding on his white horse through the village, generally at high speed, but he always had a kind word to say to the children whom he met. We think that we are correct in saying  that he was ,he last priest to preach m Beckenham Church in the black gown. When Chalmers left Beckenham he was presented with a cheque for 700 guineas, an illuminated address, and a large silver salver beautifully engraved with a picture of Beckenham Church and the Lych Gate, with a suitable inscription. Among other good works started by the Rector and Miss Marsh was the foundation of a Home for the orphan children of parents who died of cholera in 1866. The Home was situate in the High Street, near the Manor House, and was enlarged by the addition of some iron rooms. When he left Beckenham the Home was removed to Nonington. During the time Chalmers held the living, the Church was reseated and other repairs carried out. The old oak panelling was removed and was, we believe, until recently to be seen in one of the villas in Beckenham.

In 1864 Admiral Bertie Cornelius Cator, the fifth son of Joseph Cator, and the Rev. Thomas Cator (the sixth son), Rector of Kirk Smeaton and Vicar of Womersley, died, and were buried in the Joseph Cator vault. On the 10th July in this year the first portion of St. Paul’s Church in Brackley Road was opened. It originally consisted of the nave and north porch, but the spire and aisles were added some years later. St. Paul’s was not constituted a separate Parish until 1872, and up to that time was a district Church worked in connection with the Parish Church.

In 1864, it was considered desirable by the Vestry that the village should be lighted from the County Bridge at Penge to Beckenham Junction Station. At this time the road from the County bridge to the lower part of the village was a country lane with trees arching overhead. The late Dr. Stilwell called the attention of the Vestry in this year to the impure water supply which existed at Beckenham. In April of this year the original New Beckenham Station on the Mid-Kent line was opened. The station master’s house between Clock House and the present New Beckenham station still stands.

On August 6th, 1865, the Parish Church, which had been closed in the previous year in order that the old-fashioned pews might be removed, was re-opened.

In the early part of the following year the Beckenham Cricket Club was formed, the first secretary being A. C. Wathen, of Beckenham Lodge. The club had permission from Mr. Peter Hoare to use the private cricket ground at Kelsey for their first season, but shortly after the formation of the club the ground in Foxgrove Road was leased and play has continued there ever since.In the month of January, 1866, in consequence of rain melting the snow which had fallen in large quantities, great floods took place, and on the 14th of the month (Sunday) the railway bridge which spanned the stream over what is now the Blakeney Road becoming undermined by the floods, gave way and precipitated a goods train into the water. The fireman of the engine was killed. The present brick culvert over the stream at this point was built shortly after the accident. On Sunday, December 29th, the great fire occurred at the Crystal Palace, and a large portion of the north end of the building was destroyed and many animals perished in the flames. The conflagration was, of course, seen at Beckenham and is one of our earliest recollections.

An interesting ceremony took place at the Parish Church in 1867, when the Rev. F. Chalmers, the Rector, baptised an Afghan servant in the employ of Colonel Colin Mackenzie. Reginald Fowden, who was Churchwarden from 1835 up to the date of his death, died in this year and was buried in the Churchyard, and in the same year another local celebrity passed away and was buried on August 18th, in the person of Peter Nesbit, the “old Bromley carrier,” who used to say that as a boy he held Lord Byron’s horse when he had his farewell interview with Lady Byron at the Clock House ! Peter Nesbit was a great eater and always replied when asked as to the state of his health that he should be better if he had more to eat. An enormous pie was once provided for him by the assistants of Baxter, the chemist at Bromley, and this pie was eaten by Nesbit in front of the old White Hart Inn, Bromley. Peter Nesbit was a tenant, in 1820, of one of the old houses near the Three Tuns, and used to travel between Bromley and Beckenham on foot.

THE OLD BROMLEY CARRIER

On July 13th, 1867, the first Athletic Sports were held in Beckenham This fixture continued without a break until a few years ago, when it was suspended. On December 13th, 1867, the shock of the Fenian outrage at Clerkenwell Prison was clearly heard in the village.

It will be a matter of surprise to some of our readers that as lately ago as the year 1869 the Vestry passed a resolution that “as it was difficult to keep so old and thickly filled a churchyard in order by hand work,” the Churchwardens were authorised to admit sheep for the purpose. On New Year’s Day in this year an infant girl “probably about 11 months old ”found near the Bromley Road Schools deserted by her parents. She was baptised “ Dorothy ” and was for some time called “ Dorothy Frost,” on account of the bitter weather then prevailing. She was subsequently adopted by a talented authoress, since deceased, and for many years resided in Shortlands.

It is perhaps fitting at this point that some slight sketch should be given of the progress of local self-government in Beckenham. In the year 1872, the Public Health Act of that date divided England into Urban and Rural Sanitary districts, and in the Rural districts, the Guardians formed the sanitary authority. Up to this date, parish affairs had been in Beckenham, as in other villages, administered by the Overseers and the Vestry, and therefore the effect of the Act was to revolutionise the form of local self-government. It thus became necessary for the inhabitants to elect a certain number of members to the Bromley Rural Sanitary authority, and they, under the provisions of the Act, nominated a Parochial Committee for Beckenham, consisting of certain members of the Rural Authority. The powers of the Parochial Committee were, of course, limited, as they were only the agents of the Rural Authority, and were subject to the regulations and restrictions imposed on them by such authority. There were other disadvantages connected with this form of government for a rising place such as Beckenham; for instance, the constitution of the Parochial Committee might be altered from time to time, and it could be dissolved at any time by the Rural Authority. The Committee could only incur expenses not exceeding an amount for which they were empowered, and had to report their expenditure to the Rural Authority. They were unable, moreover, to appoint their own officers. The Act of 1872, however, empowered the ratepayers, provided they were assessed at a certain rateable value, to make an application to the Board, which might, on satisfactory evidence, invest the Parochial Committee with the powers of an Urban Authority, and declare it to be a Local Government district, subject to the jurisdiction of a Local Board. It should also be borne in mind that, up to the passing of the Local Government Act of 1894, the election for Guardians or for a Local Board, as the case might be, was not by ballot, and plural voting was allowed. Women were not allowed to be members of either body, although this question does not appear at that time to have been a burning one.

Shortly after the passing of the Act of 1872, a movement was set on foot in Beckenham, under the leadership of the late John G. Rhodes and E. J. Athawes, both men of great ability and well versed in the subject, for the establishment of a Local Board in Beckenham, in place of the Parochial Committee. Their efforts, in the first instance, met with comparatively little success, and in 1875, the Public Health Act of that date was passed, a measure which did not, however, materially affect the position of the Parochial Committee.

In February, 1873, the first of the numerous associations for the protection of the ratepayers of Beckenham, which have flourished, more or less successfully, since that time, was formed, and as a result a requisition by ratepayers representing over £ IQ,000 rateable value was made to the Local Government Board for additional local and sanitary powers. An enquiry was held on June 21st in that year, and in June of the following year the Guardians were invested with powers and duties as an Urban Authority so far as regarded the parish of Beckenham, in respect of certain sanitary acts. Nothing, however, was done at that time with regard to the establishment of a Local Board. In March, 1877, the agitation for a Local Board in substitution for the system of the parochial administration of affairs reached a climax. On the 13th of that month a Vestry meeting was held at the School Buildings in the Bromley Road, at which all classes of parishioners were present, and a resolution that it was expedient to constitute an Urban Sanitary district, under the Public Health Act of 1875 was carried by a very large majority. This meeting was succeeded by another on the 21st of the same month, at which it was resolved that the Local Government Act of 1858 should be adopted, and the Parish divided into Wards; thus the establishment of a Local Board in Beckenham was assured. In August, 1877, the Local Government Board intimated that they were prepared to issue their Order, which eventually came into operation on November 1st, 1877; the district was divided into five Wards, and the election took place in the following month. A comparatively small number of voters, in proportion to those on the Register, recorded their votes. Many members of the Parochial Committee were returned as members of the Local Board—in fact, they composed the majority on that body. VVe believe that we are correct in stating that only one of the members of the old Parochial Committee is still alive and resident in Beckenham. We refer to Charles Purvis, who, at one time, took a very considerable interest in local affairs.

ihe last meeting of the Beckenham Parochial Committee was held on January 7th, 1878, and the first meeting of the Beckenham Local Board was held on the same day. Thomas Beggs was unanimously elected the first Chairman of the new authority, and, as he was for many years the Chairman of the old Parochial Committee, his election proves that the desire of the members of the newly elected body was for a continuity of administration.

It is interesting here to record that Frederick Stevens, the able clerk of the present Urban District Council, was elected first clerk of the Beckenham Local Board, on March 4th, 1878. The Beckenham Local Board continued in office, until, under the provisions of the Local Government Act of 1894, they were superseded by the present Urban District Council, to which we shall subsequently refer. As a matter of record, it may be stated that in 1877, the district was divided into five Wards, namely:—Langley Park, Copers Cope,, the Manor House, Eden Park and Laurie Park, the present Wards of Kent House and Shortlands having been added by order of the Kent County Council on July 17th, 1894. The names of the first members of the Beckenham Local Board were as follows:—T. Beggs, T. Cabban, W. Groves, J. G. Rhodes, Charles Purvis, Geo. Holman, T. Price, G. M. Pascall, R. Turle, W. Harrison, R. Holifield, William Lovelock, M. MacGeorge, W. Malyon and Peter McKinley.

In May, 1873, Peter Cator, son of Joseph Cator, who lived at the Hall, died, and was buried in the family vault in the Churchyard. He had formerly been in the Indian Civil Service as Registrar of the Supreme Court at Madras, and on his return from India took in hand as agent the active management of the Cator estates in Beckenham, the development of which for building purposes owes much to his initiative. Peter Cator also took an active part in all parochial work and identified himself with and supported the various local organisations-educational, religious, and social. He was interested in the re-seating of the Parish Church, and the east window in the old Church was presented by him in 186S. He was the founder of the Peter Cator Madras Prize Fund for the encouragement of Biblical and other sound learning for subjects of the British Crown who should have received their education exclusively in India.

On the 23rd June, 1875, an order in Council was made for the formation of the Beckenham School Board, and the election took place on the 17th of the following month.          -

In March, 1876, the Beckenham Charitable Society was formed, and it has’continued as a useful institution for the relief of the suffering poor in the parish ever since, while on September 1st in the same year the first local newspaper, then, as now, known as the “ Beckenham Journal,” was published.

On May 20th, 1876, the Church on the Fairfield, known as Christ Church, was consecrated by Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, the foundation stone having been laid on April 3rd of the previous year by the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G. The Church, with its lecture hall, originally used as a Sunday School, was erected by private subscription upon land (part of the Fairfield) given for the purpose by Cornelius Lea Wilson of the Village Place, The building is of brick, but possesses no striking architectural merit. The first Vicar was the Rev. William Welch, M.A., Dublin, who was previously Secretary of the Irish Church Missions, while the first Churchwardens were William Roberts of “ Rosenberg” and John Flooker.

On December ioth, 1876, Charles C. F. Cator died after a short illness, much regretted by all classes throughout the parish. He was the son of the late Lady Louisa and the Rev. Thomas Cator, Rector of Kirk Smeaton, in Yorkshire. In the early part of the year 1865, he came to reside at Beckenham, and assisted his uncle, the late Peter Cator, in the management of the Cator estates. His principal study was meteorology, and he was the inventor of the leverage anemometer. He resided in one of the first villas erected at the summit of Stump’s Hill.

In 1877 Beckenham gained unenviable notoriety by reason of the murder of the ill-fated Harriet Staunton in a house at the extreme limits of the parish on the Penge border The sordid details of the crime and the leniency which was extended to some of the participators in it are still remembered. The remains of the murdered woman were eventually laid to rest in what was then the new part of the Churchyard of the Parish Church, and a stone marks her grave. In October of this year the old Beckenham Mission in the Bromley Road was opened by Colonel Travers, R.A.

On April nth, 1878, as we have stated elsewhere, the piece of water in the old Manor House grounds overflowed in consequence of the great floods, and aoout 120 feet of the w'all at the bottom of Church Hill gave way, and the lower part of the village was flooded. In consequence of the same inundation the traffic on the Mid-Kent Railway was stopped, and the bridge over the road at Southend was broken down. The year 1878 showed great activity in Church building in Beckenham. On June nth, the foundation stone of the permanent Church of St. Barnabas was laid by the Right Hon. Earl Nelson, and on the 22nd of the same month, Holy Trinity Church in the Lennard Road was consecrated by the Bishop of Dover. This Church was built from designs of Messrs. Daukes, by Francis Peek, in memory of his parents, and the ground was given by the late Albemarle Cator, the Lord of the Manor. The building is capable of accommodating between 800 and 1,000 people.

       

On July 30th in the same year, the Congregational body opened in the Oakhill Road their permanent schoolroom, which was eventually superseded by the present large building. Congregational services were first held in Beckenham on September 9th, 1877, in an iron room erected on the Railway Company’s property, near New Beckenham station. On September 29th, John Hooker, Churchwarden of Christ Church, and then carrying on business as a builder in the Wickham Road, died of blood poisoning. He was an old inhabitant of Beckenham, and details connected with his earlier life will be found in “A tale of old Beckenham,” published by Catherine March. He was in his younger days a leader of the Village Middle-class Cricket Club which used to play on the Fairfield, and at one time used to assist the Rector with cottage readings at Elmers End. He became a partner with his uncle, a much respected builder in Beckenham and was at one time Overseer, Inspector of Lighting, and a member of the Sanitary Committee.

In August, 1880, Hulbert Wathen, who for many years lived at Beckenham Lodge, formerly situate at the end of the village at the junction of the Croydon and Beckenham Roads, died at Reigate and was buried in the Churchyard. It has been stated that Beckenham Churchyard is the first Church burial ground in which, in accordance with the Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880, a religious burial service was conducted with other rites than those of the Church. The ceremony took place on September 9th, 1880, the officiating minister being Mr. G. Samuel, of Penge Tabernacle. The deceased was Elizabeth Beal, of 26, Somerville Road, Penge.

January 18th, 1881, will long be remembered throughout England for the unprecedently severe snow storm or blizzard which raged on that day. In Beckenham its severity was particularly felt, the snow being accompanied by a bitter east wind. The roads became almost impassable, and the SouthEastern Railway was entirely blocked near Lower Sydenham. We remember ' the roads and streets of Beckenham snowdrifts, some of which were over six feet in depth. Two very old residents—John Ward and his wife, of Ward’s Farm, Elmers End—died within a day of each other in March of this year and were buried in the same grave. Their ages were respectively 80 and 82 On July 7th, Samuel Wilson, of the Village Place, died at the advanced age of 90. He was the son of John Wilson, of Stenson, Derbyshire by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Whyte, merchant, of London. He was Commissioner of the Lieutenancy for London, and Magistrate for Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex and Middlesex. He was formerly Colonel of the Royal London Militia, was an Alderman of the City of London, Sheriff in 1833 and Lord Mayor in 1838. He married in 1813, Jemima, the daughter of Richard Lea, of the Village Place. In 1881 Beckenham was honoured by a visit from Royalty, in the person of H.R.H. Princess Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, who in June opened a bazaar held at Beckenham Place in aid of St. James’ Church School and Working Men’s Club. On the same day, the Princess paid a visit to the old Beckenham Mission. On June 16th Julius Kressman resigned the chairmanship of the School Board and was succeeded by the Rev. H. F. (now Canon) Wolley, a post which the latter held until the powers of the School Board were transferred to the present local Education Committee under the Act of 1902.

The year 1882 was not one of great interest so far as Beckenham is concerned, the principal features being the angry discussions which took place at the Local Board, the first meeting of which in the new offices at the old Manor House opposite the Church, was held on August 28th. On November 28th the memorial stone of the Baptist Chapel in the Beckenham Road was laid by the Rev. Charles Sandford, the Secretary of the London Baptist Union.

In January, 1883, the Lord of the Manor, Albemarle Cator (since deceased) abolished the toll gate, which had stood in the Kent House Road since 1853. Before that time, Kent House Road was simply a country lane which led from the County bridge in the Beckenham Road to Kent House Farm, and there was at that time a path from Copers Cope Farm, leading across the fields to Sydenham.

A company having been formed for the purpose of building a Public Hall for Beckenham, in February of the year 1883, the first annual meeting of the shareholders was held, when it was decided to proceed with the building of the Hall where it now stands, the architect being George Vigers, of Old Jewry. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Charles Mills, on October 13th, and in a hollow in a stone were placed specimens of all the current coin of the realm and a copy of "The Times” of that day. As the building is still in existence, although owing to the requirements of the Local Authority considerable alterations, notably the removal of the gallery, have been made, there is no occasion to describe it in detail.

THE PUBLIC HALL 1909

The autumn of this year witnessed considerable excitement in the village over the question of the advisability of re-building the Parish Church, but we have dealt with this subject in our chapter upon the old Church. On October 31st, the Elm Road Baptist Chapel, which stands at the corner of Beckenham Road and Elm Road, was formally opened. In February a very old inhabitant—Henry Austin—died at the age of 86. He was born in Beckenham, and began life as a lad in the employ of John Cator, and continued in the service of the family for nearly 70 years. He resided for 40 years in an old cottage which formerly stood in the Bromley Road.

On May 17th, 1883, the “bounds” of Beckenham were, we believe, “ beaten ” for the last time. About 60 men and boys joined in the procession, which started at half-past ten from Blind Corner, and proceeded across the railway line by Monks Orchard to the Wickham Road. The party had lunch at Hayes Lane, and then continued to Bromley station and so to Stumps Hill, where the proceedings ended for that day. On the following day, the bounds were completed by crossing to Laurie Park up to the North Tower of the Crystal Palace, across the London, Brighton and South Coast line down Parish Lane to the County Bridge and so back to Blind Comer The re-painting of the boundary posts in red was done during the proceedings, and “bumping” was freely indulged in. In this year the Rev. john Harding, M.A., Oxon., succeeded the Rev. Wm. Welsh as Vicar of Christ Church by an exchange of the living of Weeley, Essex.

We have elsewhere referred to the village Pound, which in the year 1884 was the cause of considerable friction between the Local Authorities and the Lord of the Manor. In the previous year the wooden fencing of the Pound had been gradually disappearing, and on April 7th, 1884, the structure was re erected by direction of the late Albemarle Cator, who claimed the right as Lord of the Manor, and the Pound was watched by his workmen for several nights. There seems little doubt that the Pound, and possibly the cage and stocks, formerly used to stand on the site of the garden of the present Bromley Road School, but was removed to the foot of Church Hill in the year 1818. Lengthy negotiations took place between Cator’s agent and the Local Board, and eventually on March 4th, 1885, the Pound was removed by Cator’s men, the Board undertaking to indemnify him against any damage which might arise, consequent on the removal. This year saw other changes on Church Hill. The old trees at the foot were cut down, and the new Police Station erected. The porch at the entrance to the old Manor House was also demolished, and the aspect of this part of Beckenham completely changed. There was in 1884 considerable activity on the part of the Nonconformists in Beckenham, for at this time the Wesleyan body first started their services by meetings in the Public Hall, and on September 3rd the memorial stones of a Congregational Mission Chapel in Langley Road were laid, and the Chapel itself opened on December nth. The architect was E. W. Whitaker. The Rev. J. Wardle, who still carries on his ministrations at Elmers End, was the resident Evangelist. The Mission itself was started in 1871, first in a room and subsequently in an iron building in Eden Road.

The year 1884 witnessed the retirement from public life of Charles Purvis, who is still with us in Beckenham. Purvis, who for many years resided at Foxgrove Farm, had for the past twenty-eight years been engaged in public life in Beckenham. He was a member of the old common law Vestry, and took a great interest in local sanitary matters. He served the office of Overseer, and for many years represented the Parish at the Bromley Board of Guardians and on the Highway Board. He was for over six years people’s churchwarden at the Parish Church, during which time the new portion of the Churchyard towards St. George’s Road was added, and the present Churchyard wall was built. A stone let into the wall marks his connection with this improvement. During his Churchwardenship extensive repairs to the Church spire were carried out. Purvis was a member of the Rural Sanitary Authority, of the old Parochial Committee and afterwards of the Local Board, and rendered distinguished service to Beckenham as Honorary Superintendent for many years of the Volunteer Fire Brigade, inaugurated by the late Sir Francis Tress Barry, of the Clock House, a post which he resigned on June 2nd, 1886. On September 29th, 1884, the Social Club, which is now an institution in Beckenham, was opened in its present rooms beneath the Public Hall.

Shortly after ten o’clock in the morning of February 13th, 1885, a terrible boiler explosion took place at the Mid-Kent Brick Works, which then existed in Worsley Bridge Road. Five men were killed. The funeral, at which between 6,000 and 7,000 people were present, took place on Ash Wednesday, the first part of the service being held at St. Paul’s Church, and the burial at Elmers End Cemetery. The verdict of the jury at the inquest, which was several times adjourned, was to the effect that the deaths from the explosion were accidental.

In 1886 the Wesleyan body which had since 1884, under the ministration of the Rev. R. B. Shepherd, held services at the Public Hall, took active steps to provide themselves with a permanent building, and a bazaar, at which about £600 towards this object was realised, was held in December. The Parish Church Mission in the Churchfields (then Arthur) Road had since about the year 1874 been carried on in a private house, and in November, 1886, a new iron mission Church was opened, the Rev. A. J. Fletcher being the Priest-in-charge. In June of this year the death took place of J G Wheller, who was an inhabitant of Beckenham for nearly 40 years. He kept the “George” Inn and was a member of the first Sanitary Authority in Beckenham. Wheller took an active part in the introduction of gas into Beckenham and his hostelry was one of the first houses in the village to be lighted with gas. The Rev. F. Brown, who had resided in Beckenham since 1869 died in 1886, and was buried in Bromley Cemetery. He was for 30 years Rector of Nailsea, in Somerset, and after he settled in Beckenham used to assist the Rev. F. S. C. Chalmers at the Parish Church and subsequently acted as Curate at St. Paul’s. One of his daughters married the Rev. Canon Wolley. The Rev. F. Brown was well known as a genealogist and as an historian of Somerset County families. 

On March 16th, 1887, the four memorial stones of the Wesleyan Chapel in the Bromley Road were laid, and the building was opened for service on September 28th in the same year. The structure is in the perpendicular style of gothic architecture, and is cruciform in shape It is of Kentish rag with Bath stone dressings and cost about £4,500, the architect being James Weir and the builder James Holloway, of Lavender Hill, S.W. On July 13th, 1887, William Gage Spicer laid the foundation stone of the Congregational Chapel in Crescent Road, the sermon on that occasion being preached by the late Dr. Parker, of the City Temple. The opening service at the Parish Church which, with the exception of the tower, was completed in this year, was held on St.George’s Day. The Oueen Victoria Jubilee celebrations which were universal throughout the country, were not imposing or particularly well supported in Beckenham. This may have been to a great extent caused by the difference of opinion as to how the Jubilee should be celebrated, a fact which unfortunately manifested itself at a public meeting earlier in the year, but it was undoubtedly owing in part to the facilities which Beckenham residents enjoyed for taking part in the actual celebrations in London. PIow- ever this may have been, the decorations and illuminations in Beckenham were far from general, although there were some notable exceptions. A movement was started to improve the Cottage Hospital; the old people dined together at the Bromley Road Schools, and an entertainment was provided for the children of the Elementary Schools. Sunday, June 26th, was observed in most of the Churches as a special Jubilee Thanksgiving Day, and the prayers authorised for the occasion were generally used.

In June, 1887, the Rev. Marshall Hall Vine died. Vine was curate at Beckenham from 1837 to 1849, and at one time lived at Gordon House in th High Street. He subsequently became and was for many years Rector of t e well known Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, in London. On Octob the literary world sustained a loss in the death of the authoress of John Halifax, Gentleman,” who was for many years connected with ec: en a . Miss Mu lock, as she then was, came to live at Chilchester L ge, ic^a Road, in 1866, and in the following year married George Lillie rai years later they went to reside at Corner House, Shortlands. The uner ^ took place at Keston, and on the Sunday following, the sermon, a Shortlands, at which the deceased had been a constant worshipper preached by the Rev. (now Canon) H. F. Wolley. Mrs. Craik was born a Stoke-upon-Trent in 1826, and published “ John Halifax, Gentleman, in 1856.

In January, 1888, Beckenham lost the services' of a much respected inhabitant, Dr. R. R. Stilwell, who practised for many years in the village and was in the early sixties the only medical practitioner there. He formerly resided at the old house now converted into the Greyhound Inn. At that time the stream, now culverted over, separated the house from the High Street. Dr. Stilwell is still well remembered by the writer and other older inhabitants of Beckenham, many of whom owe much to his skill and kindness.

In February, 1888, the Beckenham Provident Dispensary, which has done such good work in Beckenham, was founded. On July 8th the enlarged Church of St. Mary, Shortlands, was consecrated and a new organ dedicated by the Bishop of Dover, the entire cost of the enlargement being undertaken by a “generous friend.” The cost of the first portion of the Church was entirely borne by the family of the late W. A. Wilkinson, of Shortlands House, the foundation stone being laid by the late Miss Wilkinson, on October 5th, 1867. The Church was opened on Sunday, July 5th, 1868, the first incumbent being the Rev. H. F. Wolley, who had been for 15 months previously curate of Beckenham. The first portion of the Church was consecrated on September 21st, 1870. The present handsome Congregational Chapel in the Crescent Road was opened on June 20th, 1888; the building, which cost about £11,500, is in the Early English Gothic style. The exterior is faced with best Kentish rag in drop course work with Bath stone dressings. The tower with its spire is 120 feet in height. The architects were J. W. and R. F. Beaumont, and the builder, James Holloway. The Cator Lodge of Freemasons was consecrated in July of this year. Diana Cator the daughter of Peter Cator, died on October 3rd, 1888. She was at one time well known in the village and resided with her father for many years at “The Hall.”

The first elections for the new Kent County Council took place in the early part of 1889, the late Arthur H. Baker being the first representative for Beckenham. Later in the year his brother, Alfred J. Baker, was elected to represent the Penge Division. On January 19th of this year the Archbishop of Canterbury consecrated St. James’ District Church at Elmers End The first portion of the Church had been erected some years previously and had been dedicated and specially licensed. The additions consisted of a part of the nave, the whole of the chancel, new organ chamber, the heating chamber, fleche, and porch. The whole of the work was carried out by the West Kent Building Co., Limited. John Cox gave the chancel wall.

On March 25th, 1890, Beckenham suffered a great loss by the death of William J. Vian, who had for many years done good work in connection with the Cottage Hospital, the Charitable Society and the Provident Dispensary. He was born in London in 1827 and came to Beckenham in 1870, and was connected with the Railway Passengers’ Assurance Company from its formation in 1849. He was one of the trustees of the Beckenham Parochial Charities and a director and one of the founders of the Public Hall. A thorough-going Liberal in politics and the organising secretary of his party in the district, his death was nevertheless regretted as much by his political opponents as by his friends. Another old resident passed away in March of this year in the person of William Churcher, one of the oldest tradesmen in the village. The business in which his whole life was spent was founded by his father in 1820.

The principal event in 1891 was the opening of the Recreation Ground in the Croydon Road. The ground was formally declared open by a resolution of the Local Board on September 7^th, but this was not considered a sufficient ceremony by many of the inhabitants. On the 23^rd of the same month a public demonstration in celebration of the acquirement of the ground was held. The Chairman of the Local Board, the late Arthur H. Baker, entertained his colleagues, the clergy and others at a luncheon at the Public Hall. A procession to the ground was then formed at the Local Board offices in which the Friendly Societies and other organised bodies in the Parish took part, accompanied by their banners, flags and regalia. A holiday treat was given to 3,000 children of the Elementary Schools, each child wearing a special commemorative medal.

On January 6^th 1892 Michael Moore, a well known figure in Beckenham died at the age of 74, and lies buried to the east of the apse in the Parish Churchyard. Moore, who had a highly successful career in Beckenham, was at one time station-master at Beckenham Junction, when Beckenham was but a village. He was Churchwarden in the troublous times which ensued after the appointment of the Rev. William Cator to the living, and he held the office until his death. He was deservedly popular with all classes of the community, and only on one occasion was his re-election opposed, namely in 1878, when a poll was demanded, but not proceeded with. It has been well said of Moore that “ he was singularly simple and retiring in manner, “one had to know him well to know how keen and punctual he was in all “ that related to the business part of his office, while his deep personal piety " was hidden in the same way.”

On August 18th, 1892, an order was made by the Privy Council discontinuing burials in the Church and Churchyard of Beckenham, except in certain vaults, graves and earthen graves in the Churchyard and certain reserved grave spaces. The burials, therefore, during the last 12 years have been decreasing, and it is now an unusual sight to see a burial in the Churchyard. There are still three vaults open for burials under the Church, but entered from the Churchyard, i.e., the Langley, Wilson and Hoare vaults; all the rest of the vaults and intra-mural graves have been filled and cemented over.

In March, 1892, the chancel and presbytery of the Roman Catholic Church in Overbury Avenue (the foundation stone of which was laid on October 27th, 1891, by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark) received the episcopal blessing.

In the autumn of the same year Mrs. Terry, for 30 years connected with the Beckenham Needlework Society, died and was buried at the Parish Church. Mrs. Terry was the sister of Mary Elliott, and her family date back as inhabitants of Beckenham for at least 150 years. Her father was the builder of Beckenham in his time, being born in 1789, and her grandfather’s birth is recorded in the parish register at the commencement of the 18th century. On July 12th, 1892, the Railway from Nunhead to Shortlands was opened for traffic. .

 The Church House in the High Street was formally declared open on October 10th, 1893. Prior to this time parochial gatherings and the Sunday School of the Parish Church were held at the Church Schools in the Bromley Road; for, although these Schools had been leased to the School Board and had ceased to be Church Day Schools, the Rector and Trustees of the Schools had still certain rights over the building after school hours. The Church House has, ever since its erection, been of great benefit to the organisations of the Parish Church, and indeed to many benevolent and philanthropic societies in the neighbourhood. This year saw the death of Sir Arthur Blackwood, K.C.B., Secretary of the General Post Office, who came to reside at Shortlands House about 1880 and lived there some years. The deceased had been a cadet at the old Addiscombe College and was, in their time, on terms of great friendship with Dr. Marsh and Mr. Chalmers. Sir Arthur was notorious for his animus against Roman Catholicism and Ritualism and was President of the local branch of the Protestant Alliance. He married in 1858 the widow of the sixth Duke of Manchester. Another well-known evangelical worker died in December of this year, “Sergeant James Marshall.” Marshall was in charge of the Beckenham Police Station in the time of Catherine Marsh, and was an active worker with her among the navvies during the building of the Crystal Palace and the construction of the railway through Beckenham.

WIDLERS POND, GREEN LANE

September of the following year, 1894, saw considerable changes in the fast vanishing rural appearance of Beckenham. The old “Green Lane” which ran past the south side of Oakery Cottage to Scott’s Lane gave place to the wide Oakwood Avenue. The fine old elms which belted the Parish field known as “ Cow Lees,” were cut down and the road widened. The green lane in our younger days, although very muddy, was picturesque and was a favourite resort of travelling gipsies. Another of the connecting links between old and modern Beckenham was broken by the death, on October nth, 1894, at Sandhill Lodge, Kelsey Square, of James Dennis, for nearly 30 years the Beadle and Sexton of the Parish. Pie was the last to wear the gold laced coat and red waistcoat, which used to be so familiar to us on Sundays in our early days, and which moreover, invested the Beadle with such dignity and inspired us with such awe. It is, as has been said, much to be regretted that the coat and waistcoat are now things of the past and that they were not continued as interesting relics of a by-gone period. The memory of Dennis is still so fresh that it is not necessary here to say more of his connection with the Parish Church and Beckenham in the latter part of the last century. He was a bell ringer and an authority on tne history of Beckenham during the nineteenth century. After his funeral on October 13th, the bells of the Parish Church rang a muffled peal. He was succeeded by his son John Dennis, the present Parish Clerk.

The year 1894 was a memorable one in the history of Local Government in Beckenham, the district being divided into wards by an order of the Kent County Council preparatory to the establishment of an Urban District Council, in place of the Local Board. The first election took place on December 17th, there being thirty-seven candidates for the nineteen seats. Considerable interest was shown in the contests and a Ratepayers Association was formed. A stormy meeting of this Association, which was largely attended, was held shortly before the election. Out of the nine members of the Local Board who sought election, eight were returned. The first members of the Urban District Council were W. H. Lendon, Joseph Walker, H. N. Grenside, J. J. Wilks, J. A. Rippengal, A. Gurney Smith, C. E. Baker, A. H. Baker (the first chairman), W. Lovelock, A. Moss, Dr. E. R. St. C. Corbin, Dr R. M. H. Randell, A. J. Lees T C. Cole, W. E. Ashworth, T. Whiffin, F. P. Harbert, R. Bowles, and J. Douglas.

CHAPTER VI.

1895-1909.

It is not possible within the limits of a single chapter to describe in extenso all the changes which have taken place in Beckenham during this period, and we cannot do more than refer as briefly as possible to the principal events which have occurred during these fourteen years, making passing references to those old inhabitants who have gone to their rest during the same period. Our purpose has been rather to select from the mass of material at our disposal such incidents as seem to be possessed of the maximum of interest, and we must leave it to others to write a more detailed account of this chapter of the history of Beckenham.

With the establishment of an Urban District Council in 1894 it was thought that a keener interest would be taken in local affairs That this is so, has to a certain extent proved correct, but the inhabitants of Beckenham in recent years have changed more rapidly than in the earlier days, and we doubt whether on the whole there is the same keen interest in the election of the members of the governing body of the place as there used to be in the days of the old Vestry. There have been, and are still, many leading inhabitants who have given, and are giving, their time to the promotion of the best interests of the place and they do so often without any recognition of their labours. The tendency of recent legislation has been to add to the duties of the local authority, notably so under the recent Education Act; and, in order properly to discharge their duties, the members should be in a position to give almost their whole time and attention to the work. In a suburban district such as Beckenham this is impossible. On the whole, however, we have to congratulate ourselves on being well governed and if, as some think, the rates and assessments are high, we do at any rate get value for our money. Our streets and roads are well lighted and cleaned, our sanitary condition is in advance of most suburban districts, and there is an entire absence of any political feeling or religious intolerance in the deliberations of our local Councillors. We are inclined to attribute much of the prosperity and well-being of Beckenham to this fact, and we venture to express the hope that this condition of things may long continue!

The first year of the administration of the District Council was marked by the smooth manner in which the members of the new body worked together under the able chairmanship of the late Arthur H. Baker. The principal subject under discussion was the proposed provision of Public Baths and a Technical Institute; a poll of the inhabitants was taken in July, but as the result was adverse to the scheme it was not proceeded with. Early in the year John G. Rhodes, a well known figure in Beckenham in the latter part of last century, passed away. It was chiefly owing to his efforts that the old Parochial Committee was abolished and a Local Board substituted. Although he was a man given to long words and grandiloquent phrases, Beckenham owes much to his energy, and it was under his care that the main drainage works of the place were carried out. In October, i8g5, John Austin, for 20 years servant to C. Lea Wilson, died; he was in his early days considered the champion ploughman of the County. The Congregational body at the close of this year sustained a loss by the resignation of the Rev. Thos. Sissons, for twelve years the Minister of that body in Beckenham, a man of broad-minded views, and generally respected. He was succeeded in October of the following year by the Rev. T. Eynon Davies, and died four years later.

The year 1896 saw many changes in the rural aspect of Beckenham. Early in the year the old Clock House in the Beckenham Road was demolished to make room eventually for the Technical Institute and Baths, and the whole character of that part of Beckenham was changed. 

The old Love Lane which ran from what is now Kelsey Park Road to the Wickham Road was closed, and although, here and there, some part of the hedges on either side of the footpath remain, there is little to remind us of the pleasant shady walk which led across the Downs meadows. The woodcutter’s axe was also busy during this year, and the old elms in the footpath opposite the Churchyard, near the Rectory gate, were felled to the ground. No doubt there was good reason for the removal of these trees, but the change which it made in that part of the High Street was great and the cause of much regret. The fine trees in the Avenue were also topped, and they have never recovered, and we doubt if they ever will recover, their former beauty. Beckenham attracted considerable attention throughout England in this year in consequence of the adoption by the School Board of a proposal by Mr. Alderman, now Sir Fredk. P. Alliston, that the Union Jack should be hoisted on all the Elementary Schools on specified occasions. This is we believe now general throughout England. In March, 1896, Thomas Beggs died at Shortlands in his 88th year. Pie had taken, in his time, a leading part in Beckenham parochial life, and, after being Chairman of the old Parochial Committee, was elected Chairman of the new Local Board, an office which he held for some years. His knowledge of sanitation was considerable, and Beckenham owes much to his energy and judgment. He was an ardent Temperance reformer and frequently lectured on this subject.

The year 1897 was an important one in the history of Beckenham, as in all other parishes throughout the Kingdom, for in this year the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria was celebrated. The inhabitants were called together on May 6th to consider various schemes for celebrating the Queen’s record reign, and eventually a resolution was passed in favour of the addition of a wing to the Cottage Hospital. Jubilee rejoicings were carried out on an extensive scale, and in order that the residents might participate in the memorable celebrations in London, the Beckenham festivities were held on the following day. A bonfire was however lighted at Stone Park in connection with the other bonfires in the country on the Jubilee night. The actual Jubilee celebrations commenced with the opening of an addition to the Alexandra Recreation Ground in Lennard Road by W. H. Lendon, the Chairman of the Council, and in the afternoon upwards of 2,000 school children marched to the Croydon Road Recreation ground, where various games were provided, the children afterwards returned to their schools and were entertained at tea. About 350 aged and infirm inhabitants were presented with tickets for grocery.

Amongst those who passed away during this year, we have to record William Lovelock, who for many years carried on business in Beckenham as a stone mason, originally commencing at the corner of Chancery Lane and afterwards removing to the High Street. Lovelock supplied the whole of the stone work for Kelsey Manor, and also erected a very large number of monuments, both in the Parish Churchyard, and in the neighbouring cemeteries. He was a member of the old Parochial Committee, afterwards of the Local Board, and still later of the Urban District Council. He was a staunch Churchman, and for several years was one of the Churchwardens of Christ Church, and was the designer and donor of the font in that Church. Lovelock took the greatest interest in all affairs connected with the locality, and although not a great speaker, was always listened to with respect, and his practical knowledge was of the greatest use to his colleagues. He was a great supporter, if not the originator, of a scheme for making use of the old Manor House estate for a public Recreation ground, and, had his views been accepted by the majority of his colleagues, there is no doubt that the central part of Beckenham would have worn a very different aspect to that which it presents at the present day. He was buried in the Churchyard of the Parish Church, the first part of the service being held at Christ Church. His funeral was attended by all those closely connected with parochial matters in Beckenham. Theophilus H. Clarke, an old and much respected inhabitant, also died during this year, having a few years previously retired from his offical position in the Army Medical Department of the War Office. Although he did not take an active public part in local affairs, he was interested in everything connected with Beckenham and was one of the oldest “villa residents.” We have also to record the death of Francis Downham, which took place at the age of 76, on September 25th, 1897. He came to Beckenham in 1852 as schoolmaster, afterwards engaging in private tuition, becoming Secretary to Miss Marsh’s Home at Brighton and agent for the Charitable Society.

It might not be out of place to give some slight account of William Henry 'Lendon, Chairman of the Urban District Council in this Jubilee year, more particularly as for a great number of years he was intimately connected with the parish, although he has ceased to reside in Beckenham for some years. He was born in 1850, and became a solicitor in active practice in London in 1885. Nominated Rector’s Churchwarden of the Parish Church, a position which he held for many years, his greatest work in Beckenham was undoubtedly- done during his connection with the erection of the present building, in which he took a very active and leading part. He evinced a keen interest in and was a great supporter of sport of all kinds. His retirement from public life in Beckenham was a great loss to the locality. On Sunday afternoon, June 6th, 1897, a terrific thunder-storm visited Beckenham, accompanied by torrential rain, the basements of several houses were flooded and the roads in places rendered impassable. In this year the Rev. John Rooker, formerly of Coldharbour, near Dorking, became Vicar of Christ Church, and during his incumbency the clergy vestry was erected at the cost of C. Lea Wilson, and Sunday Schools, with class rooms and a Young Men’s Institute, were provided and furnished at the sole cost of two members of the congregation, whose gift remains anonymous. About the same time the presentation to the living of Christ Church was transferred by the original Trustees to the Trustees of the National Church League.

F. Kendall Glover, the first President of the Beckenham Young Men’s Christian Association, died on the 25th November, 1898. He was a member of the School Board and a licensed lay-reader. During this year frequent discussions took place on the District Council as to the site for the proposed Baths and Technical Institute, and eventually the Clock House site was agreed to. It is to be regretted that a more central position was not available, but the position of the buildings has not, as events have turned out, materially interfered with the success of both undertakings. In August a much needed improvement was carried out by the diversion of the dangerous turning at Long Lane at Elmers End near the Croydon boundary.

In 1898 Dinah Overy, an old inhabitant of Beckenham, was buried in the Churchyard in the family grave near the south door. She was the last surviving daughter of George Overy, who died in 1841, after holding for twelve years the office of Churchwarden of the Parish Church (1814-1826). Overy was one of the sixty-three persons, who, on April 22nd, 1798, enrolled their names as forming the nucleus of an association to act in case of emergency in the defence of the neighbourhood and country. Among other names enrolled at that time, many “ with arms,” were Peter Robert Burrell, George Grote, the father of the historian, Isaac Levens, Wm. Fuller, junr., William Arnold (master of the workhouse) and Samuel Levens. The offer of the armed association for local purposes was, however, declined by the Government in June, <798, on the ground that there was a volunteer corps within a short distance.

There were formerly three toll-gates in Beckenham—one in old Penge Lane (Hardings Lane), one in Newlands Park, and one at the corner of Kent House Road and Lennard Road. The toll-house in Hardings Lane still stands, wedged in between some modern property, and on the opposite side of the road was a black wooden shed with a pantile roof. The toll-gate occupied the site of what was subsequently known as the “ Hardings Lane obstruction,” which was the subject of several somewhat heated debates on the District Council. This obstruction was eventually removed in February, 1899, to the great improvement of the thoroughfare.

The new wing of the Cottage Hospital was completed in May, 1899. as a memorial of the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Victoria, and was opened by Princess Henry of Battenberg, and later in the year the foundation stone of the Technical Institute in the Beckenham Road was laid by Charles E. Baker, the Chairman of the District Council. Both these ceremonies attracted considerable local interest.

In October of this year the death occurred of Hannam, the station- master for 36 years of New Beckenham station, and one who was well known in Beckenham. He had some time previously resigned his position as station- master, which he had held since 1863. A great supporter of the Congregational services, originally held in the iron room at New Beckenham station, his death was widely felt. He was buried in Elmers End Cemetery, a very large number of persons attending the funeral.

Mrs. Margaret Hoare, wife of the late Charles A. R. Hoare, died on October 7th, 1899, and at the close of the year death removed the Rev. Thomas Lloyd Phillips the founder of the Abbey School and at one time Curate of the Parish Church when the Rev. F. C. S. Chalmers was Rector.

In 1900 the headquarters of the Volunteer corps were established at Elm Cottage in the High Street, the first Church Parade being held at the Parish Church on August 26th. Several Beckenham men during this time rendered service to their country in South Africa. This year was also noted for the inauguration of the electric light in Beckenham. The building of the Baths was also commenced.

Considerable damage and excitement was caused in Beckenham during the night of Sunday, February 18th, 1900, by an elephant, named “Charlie,” which escaped from the Crystal Palace, and wrought great destruction in the gardens of the suburban villas of Beckenham before it was eventually captured on Hayes Common.

The first portion of the new Church of St. Michael and All Angels, on the Birkbeck Estate, was dedicated on July 28th, 1900, by the Bishop of Dover, while the Rev. A. N. Armstrong, subsequently the first Vicar of the recently constituted Parish, was Priest-in-Charge. The Reverend W. G. Wrightson, the first Vicar of St. Paul’s, died in this year. He had retired in 1876, and was succeeded by the Rev. Charles Green, who resigned in 1902. The death of the late Queen Victoria in the month of January, I90I> cast a gloom over the country, and special memorial services were held in the Churches at Beckenham. The local memorial took three forms, subscriptions being invited to the National Mansion House Fund, the local Cottage Hospital and the building of the Church tower. The latter object received the largest support from the inhabitants, a sum of nearly £550 being contributed. Ihe principal local event of this year was the opening of the Public Baths on April 20th. The baths, which were designed by John A. Angell, A.M.I.C.E., the Surveyor to the Council, soon became deservedly popular, not only in Beckenham, but in the neighbouring parishes. Several swimming clubs were formed, and the art of swimming has since continued to take a foremost place among the sports of Beckenham. Owing largely to the efforts of Dr. Randell, a member of the Council, swimming is now made a compulsory subject in the Elementary Schools of Beckenham, and it is much to be desired that this requirement will, ere long, be universal throughout the schools of England. The new Post Office was opened on August 25th, and the conclusion of the year also saw the completion of the three-way bridge connecting Copers Cope and King’s Hall roads, an improvement which had long been urgently- needed. The Census taken in 1901 showed that the population of Beckenham had increased to 26,388. R. Gordon Mullen, who had been Clerk to the Beckenham School Board since its formation, and Dr. Montague Sturges, an old and much respected local practitioner, died in this year. During the year 1901 and the two succeeding years the principal question which attracted local attention was the provision of tramways. An electric traction company had promoted a Bill in Parliament to sanction the introduction of tramways into Beckenham, a proposal which met with violent opposition by a great number of the inhabitants, and in the early part of 1902 this Bill was defeated so far as Beckenham was concerned. The District Council being of opinion that tramways were inevitable, then decided to promote a Bill of their own, which would enable the local authority to control the lines when made, and to construct them on such routes as would best serve the interests of the inhabitants. A statutory meeting, held in October, 1902, proved to be in favour of the Council’s proposals, but a poll having been demanded was held on January 28th, 1903. The poll resulted in an overwhelming majority for the Council, and the Bill eventually received the Royal Assent on August nth in that year, a special vote of thanks being passed by the Council to Arthur John Lees, one of the members to whose exertions the success of the scheme was largely due. Difficulties, however, arose with the Electric Traction Company, with whom the Council had entered into an agreement, and a new Council coming into office cancelled the scheme in 1905. The reasons which were assigned for this change of policy were financial and engineering difficulties, the prospect of costly litigation, and the alteration in means of locomotion consequent on the introduction of the motor-omnibus. Much dissatisfaction was expressed at the time with the course adopted by the Council in reversing the decision arrived at by their predecessors in office. It had been intended to substitute for the tramways a service of motor-omnibuses, but it is, in our opinion, most fortunate for Beckenham generally, and for the inhabitants on the proposed line of route, that this scheme was never carried out. It must not, however, be forgotten that, while the Private Act obtained by the Council primarily dealt with the provision of tramways, it contained many useful provisions lor the local government of Beckenham.

In 1902 the Rev. Charles Green, who had been Vicar of St. Paul's for 26 years, resigned the living, to the great regret of his congregation, and was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph Hammond. The Rev. Canon Wolley was also succeeded, as Chairman of the School Board, by the Rev. Stewart Fleming, who continued to hold the position until the functions of that body were taken over by the Education Committee.

Edward J. Athawes, Stipendiary Magistrate for Chatham, and formerly a well known resident of Beckenham, was buried in the Churchyard in November, 1902. He was Churchwarden from January, 1S76, to Easter, 1879, and also took a very leading part in the local government of the place. He was the moving spirit in obtaining from the Charity Commissioners an enquiry into the church and parochial Charities, which, as we think, unfortunately, resulted in the formation of the schemes under which such Charities respectively are administered.

In 1903 the new tower of the Parish Church was completed, and the bells, which had been silent except for chiming, since the old church was demolished, were re-cast and the peal augmented by the addition of two bells, which now became eight in number. On November 14th, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Randall Davidson) formally dedicated the tower and a stained-glass window and memorial tablet to those men of Beckenham who lost their lives in the South African war. The memorial tablet, which is inside the west porch, sets out the names of the men, while the subject of the window above the stone is “ Joshua and the Captain of the Host of the Lord.” Both window and tablet are beautifully executed, but it must always be a matter of regret that the inhabitants of Beckenham did not respond more generously to perpetuate the memory of their neighbours who fought and died for their country.

On July 1st, 1903, the new Education Committee took over the duties of the old School Board under a scheme drafted by the District Council and approved by the Board of Education. Notwithstanding the gloomy forebodings of those who thought that the formation of the new authority would be the cause of religious strife in Beckenham, the reverse has been the case, and, on the whole, the new Education Act has been administered in Beckenham wisely and impartially and to the satisfaction of the inhabitants generally.

In the early part of 1904 Lady Inglis, the widow of Major- General Sir John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, K.C.B., Colonel of H.M. 32nd Regiment, died, and was buried in the Churchyard of the Parish Church, at which she had been a constant worshipper for many years. Her name will long be gratefully remembered by the many poor to whom she devoted so much time and kindness. Amongst other deaths during the year we may notice those of B. A. Heywood, of “ Banner,” the founder, with Captain P. W. Stephens, of “ The Old Beckenham Mission,” and Mrs. Lea Wilson, the wife of the owner of Village Place, a lady closely connected with Christ Church, and well known throughout the village. In December of this year the present New Beckenham station was opened for traffic.

In June, 1905, the parish of Beckenham, after forming part of the diocese of Canterbury since 1845, was re-transferred to the diocese of Rochester, and after being one of the constituent parishes of the Rural Deanery of West Dartford was subsequently formed, with other parishes, into the separate Rural Deanery of Beckenham. We have elsewhere referred to the negotiations which took place during this year between the Church Authorities and the District Council with reference to the Bromley Road Schools, which resulted in a scheme sanctioned by the Charity Commissioners and approved by the Education Committee, whereby the schools were transferred to the Local Authority in consideration of a perpetual rent charge. On March nth, 1905, George Palmer Ollett, for 30 years the head-master of these schools, died at the School House in Bromley Road. He had been Vestry Clerk in the old days before the duties were taken over by the present Clerk to the District Council. Although not a brilliant scholar, Ollett was a man of solid attainments and deeply religious convictions. His death was felt not only by his scholars, past and present, but by many others in Beckenham, and it was a matter of regret that it was not possible to find a resting place for him beneath the shadow of the Church which he loved so well and served so faith fully. A memorial to him was erected in the Bromley Road Schools. In October, 1906, T. Eynon Davies, who had been for 10 years the pastor of the Congregational body in Beckenham, removed to Woodford Green, and no successor was appointed until 1908, when the Rev. J. G. Stevenson took his place. The close of the year 1906 saw the completion of the first portion of the church of St. Michael and All Angels, which had been commenced some years previously. The Church which is of brick in the early pointed style of architecture, was consecrated on December 17th by the Bishop of Rochester, vested in cope and mitre, and the interest evoked by the occasion was so great that over 1,000 persons were unable to obtain admission to the ceremony. The architect was Arnold H. Hoole. The year 1906 saw tne removal by death of several well-known inhabitants, among whom we may particularly notice William Gibbs Bartlect, William Levens, and J. A. Rippengal. William G. Bartleet, who came to Beckenham in 1880, was a well- known architect, and one of the oldest fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects, to which body he was elected in 1858. He was the architect of the Parish Church, and had also acted for the Rector and Churchwardens when the church was re-paved in the early sixties. We are indebted to him for the interesting ground-plan of the Parish Church, which we reproduce, showing the sites occupied by the old and new churches. He was for many years Honorary Secretary of the Cottage Hospital, was at one time Churchwarden of St. Paul’s, and at the time of his death was one of the fourteen sidesmen of the Parish Church. Albemarle Cator, who was of recent years little seen in Beckenham, died at Happisburgh, in Norfolk, and was buried at Woodbastwick. He took a prominent part in the rebuilding of the Parish Church in the early days of the movement, and contributed liberally to the building fund. He was succeeded by his son John Cator, M.P., of Woodbastwick. In the death of William Levens, Beckenham lost one who had its interests much at heart, although of recent years he had not taken, openly, a leading part in local affairs. A member of one of the oldest Beckenham families, William Levens always took a keen interest in the history of the place, and we had, fortunately, the opportunity of discussing w'ith him the incidents which occurred in the latter half of fhe last century. He was universally respected, and his death before the publication of this volume is, to us, a source of deep regret. To talk with William Levens of old Beckenham was to feel that we were talking with one who had a real interest in the subject. Levens was at one time Churchwarden of Christ Church, and took a leading part in the scheme for building the Public Hall. James A. Rippengal, a widely respected tradesman, was a prominent member of the Wesleyan body. He was a member of the District Council, and for many years one of the Overseers of the Poor, in which office he did much useful work for the Parish.

On August 1st, 1907, the Recreation ground in the Churchfields Road was opened without any formal ceremony, and has proved a great source of health and happiness to that thickly populated part of Beckenham. Later in the year the temporary Church of All Saints, near Clock House station, was built to supply the spiritual needs of that district. The font in All Saints Church is the old carved stone font from Christ Church, St. Leonards. It may be remarked that during this year building made great strides in that part of Beckenham, and the rapid influx of population has continued since that date. Towards the close of 1907, the Rev. John Rooker, the Vicar of Christ Church, Beckenham, accepted the living of Sevenoaks, and was succeeded by the Rev. Harrington Clare Lees, M.A., Vicar of St. John’s, Kenilworth. On April 8th, 1907, William Atkinson, of “ Erwood,” Beckenham, passed away at the age of 81 years, more than half of which had been passed in Beckenham. As a civil engineer of repute, William Atkinson was during his life engaged on many important works both at home and abroad, and did not relinquish active work until 1890. He first took part in public affairs in Beckenham in 1875, and strongly supported the West Kent Drainage scheme; two years later he was appointed one of the Overseers of the Poor. During his term of office the whole of the assessments of Beckenham were reviewed, and although some appeals were lodged, none were finally urged before the Assessment Committee. William Atkinson was a total abstainer for thirty years, and a great supporter of the Temperance movement in Beckenham and elsewhere. He was a keen politician and took a great interest in local societies and institutions, which interest continued up to the time of his death. The decease of his wife, which took place two years before his own, was a great blow to him, and his last journey to London was to inspect some of the work which was being done to the memorial stone which he had designed for her grave. This stone, as we have elsewhere mentioned, bears two medallions of the heads of the husband and wife, faithfully portrayed. It has been well said of William Atkinson, that in him Beckenham lost “ a well-known figure, an upright “ man, and a kindly heart.” No account of Beckenham would be complete without more than a passing reference to Mary Elliott, who died on Sunday, December 8th, 1907, at the age of 81. Mary Elliott was the great helper of Catherine Marsh in her work among the navvies in the early fifties, and is constantly referred to in her books as “Mary E.” Mary Elliott devoted herself to the nursing of sick people, and later took to monthly nursing, and it is to be feared that her kindness was often imposed upon. In 1898 a public subscription was raised to provide for her old age, and sufficient money was obtained to provide her with an annuity. Canon Wolley writing at this time, says:-“ Forty years ago when Beckenham was a village with a population of between two and three thousand, Mary was known to “everyone in the Parish. “ At every school treat, at the many navvy tea-parties under the trees in front of the Rectory, Mary was a valued helper. Without her kindly and genial presence no parish gathering was complete.

If a navvy had to be nursed, or any sick person cared for, it was Mary who was summoned. Her large heart, then as now, “ brimming over with kind and generous sympathy, made her a ready “ helper to Miss Marsh in her work so widely known. She has ever “been the friend of the sick and needy, lending a willing ear to “ every cry for help, nursing women in their hour of need, and often “ at her own cost ministering to their wants. Her influence has ever “ been of the highest kind, she has never ceased to witness for the “ Saviour she sought to serve.

“The unfailing friend of the poor, she has been honoured " by all who have known her.”

When Mary Elliott was buried in the family grave in the parish Churchyard, there was a public manifestation of the regret which was so generally felt. Among other well-known old residents who died in 1907 were Thomas E. Garrard, William Grain, Thomas Layman and A. Gurney Smith.

The two concluding years of the period which we have under review have not been marked with any incidents of particular interest. Perhaps the most important event in the ecclesiastical history of Beckenham in 1908 was the severance of St. Michael and All Angels from the Parish Church, thereby creating a separate parish; the Rev. A. N. Armstrong, who had been Priest-in-charge for many years, being appointed the first Vicar. During this year the Baptist body celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary in Beckenham, the occasion being made one of considerable importance. Hugh Maltby, the “ father” of the Congregationalists in Beckenham, and Arthur Burrows, the ‘ father of the English Bar,” both died in this year, other deaths being those of W. M. Bullivant, Dr. Joseph Walker and Charles A. R. Hoare. The first was an old resident well known for his philanthropic benevolence, and Joseph Walker was for several years a member of the District Council, and at one time Churchwarden of St. Paul’s. The late Charles A. R. Hoare, the owner of Kelsey, was better known in Beckenham in his younger days, and used to drive a four-in-hand to the city; he had, however, ceased to reside in Beckenham for many years prior to his death. On June 4th, 1908, one of the most severe thunderstorms, accompanied by a terrific rainfall, which has visited Beckenham in recent years, broke over the district, the low lying parts were flooded, and houses, shops and cellars were inundated. The rainfall was registered at 1.20 inches, a remarkable fall for the short period during which the storm lasted. Although the Gwydir family severed their connection with Beckenham in 1820, when, on the death of the first Lord Gwydir, the Burrell estates were sold, it is fitting that mention should be made of the death of the fourth Lord Gwydir, which took place at Ipswich, in April, 1909, within twenty- four days of his entry into his 100th year. He was able to boast that he had been present at the coronation of three British Sovereigns, and lived in the reigns of five, and that he had also lived during the time that thirty Ministries held office. Mary Ann Seels, an old inhabitant of Beckenham, died on May 26th, 1909, in her ninetieth year. She was the daughter of the village postman when there was only one in Beckenham, and married the gardener of Peter Cator, who lived at the Hall.Bo

The year 1909 was a singularly uneventful one in the history of Beckenham. In the early autumn the Rev. Joseph Hammond, who had held the vicarage of St. Paul’s, New Beckenham, for several years, resigned the living, and was succeeded by the Rev. the Hon. Maurice B. Peel, son of a former Speaker of the House of Commons. In the summer the Rochester Diocesan Conference was held for the first time in Beckenham, and by a rearrangement of the Rural Deaneries in the Diocese, a new Rural Deanery of Beckenham was created.

Lister Beck, long a familiar figure in Beckenham, passed away in October of this year. He was born of Quaker parents in 1822, but soon after he left school his family severed their connection with the Society of Friends and he was baptised. He came to Beckenham in 1875, and up to the date of bis death took a great interest in Church work in Beckenham and elsewhere. He was Rector’s Churchwarden at the Parish Church for eight years, during which time the tower was completed and St. Michael’s Church was built. He was an enthusiastic lover of music, and was precentor of the choir of the Parish Church before the rebuilding. A man of deep and unostentatious piety, those of us who were privileged to know him intimately, realised by his death the loss of a true friend. Notwithstanding his great age, he continued to lead an active life until about two years before his death, and, by his energy and will power, set such an example to many a younger man as is rarely seen. In the same month John Tolhurst, one of the oldest of Beckenham residents, and for many years Chairman of the Penge Bench, died, and Dr. E. R. St. C. Corbin, a well known local practitioner, who was for many years an active member of the District Council, of which he was at one time Chairman, passed away.

 

CHAPTER VII.

OLD BECKENHAM CHURCH.

It is generally supposed that the old Parish Church of Beckenham, which was pulled down in 1885-86, was built about the reign of Edward III., and it must originally have consisted of the long nave and, possibly the tower. A Church existed in Beckenham in 1100, but its dedication is unknown.

History has nothing to say as to the date at which the Church was founded or who endowed it, but the endowment must have been amply sufficient. Dr. Assheton, rector in the reign of Queen Anne, replied to enquiries on the s-.-bject that “ this Church was endowed with all sorts of tythes, but there “ had been no augmentation or benefaction whatsoever made to it.”

The earliest records in our possession are the Registers commencing in 1538, so that we have to turn to outside sources for information as to the earlier history of the Church.

In the sixth year of Edward VI. an inventory was taken of the Church goods at Beckenham, which shows that at that time the Church was not wanting in ornaments. A copy of that inventory is set out in the appendix.

The old Church at Beckenham, as we knew it before it was pulled down, consisted of a chancel, nave, transepts, tower and vestry. The chancel was 34ft. by 16ft., lighted by windows on the south side. The nave was 52ft. by 29ft., lofty and with clerestory windows, and an open roof with large tie beams and traceried open brackets under the same. The transepts which were 25ft. 6in. by 16ft. 6in., had double arched approaches from the nave, the arches springing from octagonal piers, the labels over each pier terminating with a large carved “ head ” stone boss. The tower, which was at the west end, was loft, by 10ft. inside dimensions, and was built of rubble covered with stucco. It was surmounted by a lofty timber spire covered with copper. In the tower was a non-striking clock with black dial and gilt hands, on the south face; the hands of the clock now hang in the belfry of the new tower.

The vestry was a comparatively modern addition on the north side of, and approached from, the chancel. The old church was built of rubble, the walls being 2ft. gin thick, those of the tower being 4ft. thick, and all covered with stucco, dating from the 14th century. The windows had square traceried two-light apertures, excepting the east window of the chancel, which was three-light and pointed, of later date. There was a large gallery at the west end supported by two iron columns springing from the nave, with a second gallery over it; in this was the organ, and here in former days the school children used to sit. The galleries were approached by a staircase leading from the large south porch (lift. 3m. by 16ft.). The ground plan of the old Church is indicated by the etched lines on the plan of the new Church, which shows at a glance the relative sites and sizes of the old and new Churches.

The north and south transepts and the vaults beneath were built in 1619-21 by Sir Oliver Style, second son of Sir Humphrey Style (whose brass is now on the south wall of the Chapel) “ for the sole use, ease and “behalfe of Langley howse and the family thereof.” There are two marble tablets, which used to be in the north and south transepts respectively (but which are now in the south transept and the wall of the south aisle), which set out the fact, but the date of the actual building is left blank. The reason of this omission is probably, that, as the transepts took three years to build, the tablets may have been let into the walls as the building was in course of erection, and when the aisles were eventually completed, the insertion of the date was omitted. From an entry in the Churchwardens’ accounts made over one hundred years later by the then Rector, it appears that the erection of the two aisles took place in the years we have mentioned, and that the cost was £438 is. iod. The Sir Oliver Style who built them vvas at one time Sheriff of London, and it is from him that the Styles of Wateringbury are descended.

In 1570 we read of the west door of the Church, before which one Thomas Wood (a servant to Mr. Curtiss), who was "killed in a sand pit”, was buried. There was a west door in the tower of the old Church. There is no doubt that the tower was added prior to 1550, as in the inventory taken in 155r» mention is made of “ iiij bells of "bell metell suted in the steple whereof on was broken,” so that the tower was clearly of earlier date than the aisles. There are now only four monuments prior in date to 1619—viz., a brass to the Rev. W. Danyell, Rector, already mentioned; a brass over a tomb in the wall to Sir Humphrey Style and his two wives; and brasses to Dame Margaret Dasell and her sister, Ellen Berney, the daughters of John Berney, of Reedham, in Norfolk. Thorpe, whose “ Registrum Roffensis ” was published in 1769, mentions that "on two brass plates are these arms viz. (1) a chevron, between nine doves "six in chief and three in base (2) a crop, a sword in the first quarter, the “inscription lost.” It would appear that about the time when the two aisles were built other alterations were made, the four bells mentioned in the inventory were probably removed, and were replaced by three new ones in (624, 1625 and 1629 respectively, a fourth being added in 1640.

These bells, it may be mentioned, were recast in 1902-3 of the same metal, and now hang in the present tower. In 1686-7 certain repairs or improvements were made, as is shown by the purchase at a cost of £2 8s. of “ two thousand «tyles and five hund bricks.” Part of these tiles came from Deptford, and there is an item in the Churchwardens’ accounts for this year that they gave one, Nicholas Kinge’s man, who brought the tiles, the sum of 6d. “to drink.” In 1704 the Church was certainly not a free and open one, the pews being carefully allotted, and a Sir Francis Leigh, the owner of the Manor of Foxgrovc,' expended a sura of money in altering and repairing certain pews in the body of the Church. In 1715 it was decided to build a vestry room over the church porch, but it is impossible to say whether this was ever carried through; probably the idea was abandoned, as the only vestry which existed in our recollection was the small room already referred to opening out of the north side of the old chancel, which was built about 1783.

It is stated that in 1717 a large pew or gallery was built by one William Davies, the then owner of “Village Place” at “great cost.” 1 here is unfortunately a gap in the Church records between 1715 and 1774, so that we have no entries relating to the building between these dates other than those to be found in the registers, and there is little or nothing in them which throws any light on the Church. Many monuments, however, were erected to the Styles, Burrells, Raymonds, and others. We have the record of the visitation of Archdeacon Denne in 1735, which gives a “repertory “of the Goods belonging to the Church,” as follows: —

“ One Bible. One large Common Prayer for the Reading- Desk.

“ One smaller for the same.

“ One Pulpit cushion velvet.

“ Carpet for Communion Table velvet.

“Two cushions for Communion Table velvet.

“ Two Books for Communion Table.

« Benches to kneel at the Communion scarlet plush, purchased by the

“Rector with £17 ios. given by Lady Elvvil to that use.

“ Two Linnen Tablecloths.

“ One Napkin.

“ One Silver enchased Flagon the gift of Sir Henry S. John, Bart.

“A.D. 1712.

“One plain Flagon the gift of Humphrey Style Esq. 1712.

“ One Silver Plate for the Bread the gift of Peter Burrell Merchant

“ 1712.

« One other Plate for Offerings the gift of John Elwill Esq. 1712.

“ One Chalice and Cover, the Donor unknown, given 1633-

The wants that were to be supplied before Easter were: —

“No Chest for Alms.

“ No book wherein to enter names of preachers.

“ No Hood.

“The Fabric.—To repair the rough casting and underpinning of the “ Church and Chancel wherever the mortar was decayed and to “make good the buttresses on ye N. side of the Church and of “ N. chancel before Easter.

“ To repair the shingling of ye steeple where it is decayed before Easter.

“To make the pavement in the N. and S. Chancels even and decent “ before Easter.

“ Seats.—To repair the bottoms and holes of the seats throughout the “ Church where they are decayed.”

In 1774 the Vestry minute-books commence, so that information is more abundant and reliable. In 1783-4 the gallery, probably the one erected by William Davies in 1717, was taken down and enlarged, and the Vestry room built, the pews were altered and the number of bells increased to six. It is interesting here to note that the Vestry decided that John Cator, who had recently come to Beckenham, in right of his ownership of Copers Cope Farm (in the minutes called “Cokers Cope”) was entitled by prescription to a pew, but on the rebuilding of the Church no claim was put forward. On the 23rd December, 1790, a terrific storm of thunder and lightning destroyed not only the steeple, which was then covered with shingles, but also, according to Ireland, a considerable portion of the Church, and for some three or four years the Church was undoubtedly in a more or less ruinous state, especially the belfry. In February, 1791, it was decided not to rebuild the spire but to make good the lead gutters in the belfry and to allow the tower to remain as it was, but some three years later a sum of between £600 and £700 was expended in “ performing all the repairs of the Church, building “a spire and re-hanging the bells,” and a new bell (the present 3rd) was added in 1796, possibly to replace the one by which the peal had been increased about fourteen years earlier, which moreover may have been cracked or broken in the fire of December, 1790. In connection with this fire it may be mentioned that the steeple was from that date always more or less a source of expense, constructed as it was of wood, covered with copper, and whitened. The last time it was repaired was in 1868. It is clear from entries in the minutes that during these few years the building was badly protected, and was exposed to theft and pilfering, for in 1792 it was broken into and robbed, and as a reward of fifty guineas was offered by the Vestry, the amount of Church goods taken away, or the damage done, must have been considerable. It is probable that at this time some of the old Sacramental plate was stolen, as only the cover, marked 1633, now remains of “the one chalice and cover’ which were still here in 1735 and had been given in 1633.

One of the improvements or supposed improvements carried out about this time was the removal of the old font by one of the Churchwardens, said to have been David Bassett, who held office 1800-1. Ihe font was afterwards sold to Henry Holland, the landlord of “The Crooked Billet,” on Pengc Common, who used the font basin for several years as a cistern, and ultimately converted it into a doorstep or part of the floor of a summer house at the Inn. The old font was replaced by “ a thick wooden baluster with an un- “ seemly circular flat lid, covering a sort of washhand basin.” This monstrosity was removed in 1833, and a stone font (now at St. George’s Mission Church, in Churchfields road) purchased for £6. Another font was subsequently purchased, and is the one now in use. It was refixed on new steps in the present Church, and carved panels were inserted, the cost of which was subscribed by the School children. The Rev. William Cator, w'hen Rector of Beckenham, hearing of the desecration of the old font basin, purchased it in 1876 from the landlord of “The Crooked Billet,” and had it brought back to the Church. It was hoped that in some way this old font basin might be utilized, but owing to the fact that a large piece had been broken or cut out of the side, this proved impossible, and for many years it stood outside the south door of the old Church on a flat gravestone. When the new Church was built it was sunk in the Baptistery floor and the present modern font rests upon it

In an account of a visit to Beckenham published in 1827, the writer says:—“We soon came up to the corpse-gate of the church-yard, and I left “ W. sketching it whilst I retraced my steps into the village in search of the “ Church keys at the parish clerk’s, from whence I was directed back again to “1 the woman who has the care of the Church,’ and lives in the furthest of “three neat almshouses built at the Churchyard side by the private benefaction of Anthony Rawlings, in 1694. She gladly accompanied us with the “keys clinking through the mournful yew tree grove and threw open the “great south doors of the Church. It is an old edifice—despoiled of its “ ancient font—deprived by former beautifyings, of carvings and tombs that “in these times would have been remarkable. It has remnants of brasses “ over the burial places of deceased rectors and gentry from whence dates 'have been wantonly erased and monuments of more modern personages ‘ which a few more years may equally deprave.”

The Churchwardens, a hundred years ago, were troubled, as they are at the present day and always will be, with the problem of heating the Church. Numerous and rather costly experiments were tried, with the result that the efforts of the Churchwardens were not crowned with success, for in 1821 it was decided that the stoves be discontinued and disposed of. In 1812 the Church was whitewashed at a cost of £15, and this item in the accounts requires no comment for it simply illustrates what was then the style of decoration for the interior of a place of worship.

There was apparently no organ in the Church prior to 1815, at least we find no mention of the fact. The instrumental music, when it was used, being supplied by the usual old-fashioned stringed orchestra, and in 1802 we find an entry of two shillings paid for “ viol strings.”

In or about the year 1815 a barrel organ was erected at the west end of the Church, and the Vestry decided to pay the “ organist,” one William Arnold, the Parish Clerk, £10 a year for attending to it. It was at this time no doubt that the second or organ gallery was built, a Church rate of is. in the £ being levied to pay expenses. In 1831, the organ was repaired and a new barrel added at a cost of £20. Some years later Edward Lawford, of Eden Park, the Solicitor to the Hon. East India Company, presented a modern instrument to the Church on condition that the Parish paid an organist £50 a year salary. The sale of the old organ realised £25.In 1858 a discussion took place at the Vestry on the subject of the organist and the ringing “which gave dissatisfaction to many inhabitants.” In 1865 the organ presented by Lawford was rebuilt and enlarged at a cost of about £150 by Walker and Son, of London, and in 1879 it was still further enlarged. When the new Church was built it was sold, and its place taken by the present magnificent instrument.

It is interesting to note that in 1825 the pews (exclusive of those for the children of the National Schools) were capable of seating 334 persons, and of such pews seven only were allotted to the poor. In the account of the visit to the Church published about this period, and to which we have already referred, it is stated that: “In the middle of two family pews in “ this Church, which are as commodious as sitting parlours, there are two „ ancient reading desks like music stands with flaps and locks for holding “ and securing the service books when they are not in use. These pieces of furniture are eilher obsolete in Churches or peculiar to that of Beckenham, “ at least I (the writer of the account) never saw desks of the like in any “other Church.”

There is a most interesting water-colour sketch of the interior of the old Church about this period, painted by David Cox (b. 1783—d. 1850) and exhibited in the Tate Gallery (No. 1736). It was evidently painted before the chancel was lengthened. The old-fashioned “three-decker ” with the sounding board is on the north side of the chancel arch, and the pulpit is approached by steps reaching well out into the floor of the chancel. There was at that time apparently no east window (unless it was concealed by the laro-e curtains which figure in the picture behind the altar), and the tables of the law were in a high “reredos” surmounted by figures or statuettes behind the altar. There is a skylight (which certainly did not exist in the cld Church as we knew it) shown on the south of the chancel roof, and midway between the chancel arch and the altar is a transverse beam with an upright post (possibly an old rood) passing from the beam to the ceiling. Such of the pews as appear in the sketch are very high and have doors, one of such pews being on either side of the chancel. A window (of which we have no recollection) is shown on the north of the pulpit, and as the monument with a scroll to Peter Burrell, which was undoubtedly on the south side of the chancel arch of the old church when it was demolished, is not shown, we are inclined to think that the water colour to which wre have referred is a somewhat fanciful sketch of the old Church. It is stated that the water colour was bequeathed by Miss Julia E. Gordon.

The late Sir Stephen R. Glynne, in 1829, says that Beckenham Church ‘ is situated within a churchyard so completely shaded with trees as to darken “the interior, but the scene is highly picturesque and beautiful.” There is little doubt that at that date the fabric, although picturesque, was in such a state of decay that the building was not safe for public worship. In 1830, it was decided to carry out the necessary repairs. The Committee appointed to consider the question recommended the enlargement of the Church, but their recommendation was not acted upon. The Committee considered that having regard to the state of the Church, the small proportion of pew room which was available for the use of the parishioners, “ to the “ almost entire exclusion of the poor from the public service of the Church,” and the necessary expenditure then required for essential repairs, it was a most favourable opportunity for enlarging the Church and thereby obtaining sufficient accommodation for the parishioners, including free seats for the poor. The appeal for funds did not meet with a liberal response, in fact, the Vestry regretted that considering the large number of wealthy proprietors in the parish a larger sum was not contributed. Out of the £947 10s. required, Merrick Hoare gave £105, and £800 was raised on mortgage of the Church rates at three per cent. This certainly shows that having regard to the many wealthy people residing in Beckenham at that time, the response to the appeal for funds must have been disappointing to those interested in securing an enlargement of the Church, and probably caused them to abandon the scheme. The Rev. Charles Cator, the then Rector, took an active part in this movement, and a special vote of thanks was passed to him by the Vestry.

The repairs then carried out apparently only extended to the nave and chancel and not to the Langley aisles, the state of the latter being frequently the subject of adverse comment by the Archdeacon in his Visitations up to 1847, when they were repaired externally. Complaints continued for another ten years as to the internal damp and discolouration of both aisles, but ultimately they appear to have been put into a state of satisfactory repair. The old Church remained in much the same condition until 1864, when the old-fashioned square high pews in the nave and chancel were removed and the Church reseated and warmed with hot-water apparatus under the direction of the late William Gibbs Bartlcet, who was subsequently the architect of the present Church. The oak pulpit, which took the place of the “ three decker,” was altered and enlarged when the new Church was built. In carrying out the reseating, the floor was raised about six inches, and several old monuments and stones were either raised or covered over, amongst others a stone to Arthur Heywood, yeoman, and Elizabeth, his wife, who died in 1612 and 1617 respectively, has now disappeared.

The difficulty in the seating accommodation was increased owing to the fact that the two transepts were the private property of the owners of Langley. The pews in these transepts were capable of accommodating 140 persons, and although in 1879 the Churchwardens entered into an arrangement to lease some ninety seats, it soon became evident, owing to the rapid growth in population of the parish, that either the Church would have to be enlarged or another Church or Chapel-of-ease built. The population of Beckenham had increased from 6,700 in 1871 to about 16,000 in 1883, and the accommodation for worshippers at the Parish Church had not been increased. Opinions were divided as to the course which it was advisable to adopt, and feeling ran very high upon the subject. One party, and as it eventually turned out, the majority, held that the difficulty of providing a new site and of dealing with the old Church after it should be deserted was insuperable; the other party, the minority, held, we think with reason, that a site could have been found and that the old Church might have been spared to be used, if necessary, as a Chapel-of-ease, and that the bodies of the dead resting in the Church and Churchyard might have been left undisturbed. It would serve no useful purpose, however, to re-open a controversy now forgotten by all but the older inhabitants, and whatever opinions might be held as to the propriety or otherwise of removing the old building, there can be no difference of opinion as to the magnificence of the edifice which now occupies the site of the little old village Church with all its associations and memories. The task imposed upon those who favoured the demolition of the old Church and the building of a new one was not a light one.

Apart from the very important question of finance and the determined opposition in certain quarters, there were existing vested interests to be dealt with and conciliated. The late C. E. Goodhart, owner of Langley, was admittedly the proprietor in fee simple of the two transepts, but by an arrangement with him before applying for the faculty to carry out the scheme, the Rector and Churchwardens obtained his consent to the scheme on condition that certain pews in the new south transept were to be secured to him as prescriptive or faculty pews. A similar arrangement was made with Cornelius Lea Wilson, who claimed a prescriptive right to pews in the gallery of the old Church, and he was allotted the two pews opposite the Chapel in the new Church. The Wilson family vault, now under the present south transept, but formerly in the Churchyard, remained undisturbed, and is approached from the exterior of the building by a passage. Certain stained glass windows put up by the late Alderman Samuel Wilson were incorporated in the large south window, which was subsequently presented by C. Lea Wilson. It should not be forgotten that both Goodhart and Lea Wilson, who were strongly opposed to the enlargement, met the Rector and Churchwardens in a handsome and liberal manner, and owing to the conciliatory position adopted by them, much friction and opposition to the granting of the faculty was avoided.

On the 25th October, 1883, a vestry meeting was held to obtain the sanction of the Vestry to the scheme, and the proposal was carried by a large majority. A poll was demanded by the opponents of the enlargement, and was taken on the 30th October in the same year, with the result that out of 1,339 votes, 899 were in favour and 440 against; the promoters, therefore, were encouraged to proceed. They were strengthened in their intention by the views expressed by the late Archbishop Benson, who strongly recommended the enlargement. He thought that it would be a great mistake to give up the site, which was hallowed by the worship of centuries, and stated that although a few people might be displeased for a few years, yet that numbers of people would be benefited for ever. The faculty for the enlargement was obtained on July 4th, 1884, and the Consecration of the eastern part of the new Church by the late Archbishop Benson took place on May 8th, 1886, St. George’s Day (the 23rd April) falling on Good Friday. The completed Church was opened by Bishop Jenner on St George’s Day in the following year.

Unfortunately very little of the old structure remains. Some of the tracery of an old window found a place in the two-light window at the east end of the organ chamber; and the old piscina, which was discovered in one of the walls during the demolition of the old Church is preserved on the south side of the Sanctuary of the Chapel. One of the corbels in the narthex was also part of the old Church. There was probably not much of the old fabric which could have been utilized, but it is to be regretted that more could not have been saved than was the case. The old hatchments in the porch, the carved Royal Arms over the gallery, the old leathern fire buckets, and many other relics of the past, even if they were not sufficiently ancient fo be interesting from an archaeological point of view, might have been spared and retained in the present spacious choir vestry, or in the tower and belfry. All, however, have gone, and all trace of them is lost. One of the twelve old leathern fire buckets presented by the late Colonel Wilson in 1833, bearing the City Arms and the date, was, however, saved by the present Sexton, and after hanging for many years in the Church House, was removed in igoS to the south transept of the Church. A portion of the old carved wooden screen which separated each of the old aisles from the nave is in the chancel of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, and the copper hands of the clock, which for over a hundred years indicated the passing hours and minutes to us and our forefathers are preserved in the belfry. It is a matter of congratulation that the old collecting box was preserved, and it can now be seen padlocked against the narthex wall. The box was in use less than a hundred years ago but must have been singularly inconvenient. The money is placed in a slit between the back and the top of the lower part of the box, and thus disappears from view. This arrangement, certainly, had the merit of concealing from the observer the amount of money deposited, but it must have been a difficult and tedious process to extract the offerings of the congregation after service. There is, or was some years since, an alms box of a similar pattern at the House for Poor Travellers at Rochester. In “Antiquities and “ Curiosities of the Church,” the Beckenham Alms box is thus described :

‘ It consists of an oblong rectangular case about half of the top of which “is open the other portion being closed and flat. The bottom of the case “extends a trifle beyond the sides and one end, the opposite end spreading “out into a broad pyriformed handle decorated with a large fleur-de-lys and “ having a disc at the apex perforated with a round hole to enable the “ utensil to be hung up when not required for use. There is little about this “collecting box besides the fleur-de-lys to indicate its age, but the fashion ‘ of the lily points strongly to the sixteenth century, and to this era we seem “justified in assigning it.” There is an engraving of the box in the Book from which we have quoted and a rough wood-cut in Hone’s Table Book. At the back of the box are two dates M. 1696 and R. 1797 rudely scratched.

No description of the old Parish Church of Beckenham would be complete without a reference to the Lych or Corpse Gate, which is one of the oldest and most perfect in the County, if not in England. The word lych or lich means a corpse, hence the death-owl “ that never doth cry but “ boding death ” is called the “lich” owl, and we see the same word in Lichfield and in the Scotch “ lichwake,” the time of watching with the dead. We have been unable to find in any of our local records a single reference to the lych-gate, although tradition says that, concealed in its beams, the watchers used to lie in wait for “ the body snatchers ” in the early part of last century. It is under the roof of the gate that the corpse rests and awaits the arrival of the officiating priest, and in many country churches there is a flat slab or table on which the coffin is placed. The lych-gate at Beckenham has been the subject of many paintings and sketches. The accompanying plate, which is from a sketch made by the father of the writer in 1863, shows the old paling or fence which surrounded the Churchyard, and which was replaced in 1868 by the present stone wall. There is also a very similar wood-cut taken about forty years earlier which appeared in Hone’s Table Book. In the Prayer Book of 1549 it is stated that the priest and clerks are to meet the corpse at the Church stile or lich gate. The rubric directs that “ The Priest metyng the corps at the Churche style shall “ say: or els the priestes and clerkes shall sing and so goe either into the “Churche or towards the grave.” The lych-gate was no doubt intended to shelter the corpse and the mourners from the weather while the priest was advancing from the Church door.

CHAPTER VIII.

BECKENHAM PARISH CHURCH.

The modern Parish Church is built of Kentish rag with Bath stone finishing, the internal stone being Corsham Down and Reigate Freestone with Forest of Dean shafts. The external facings and dressings are Box ground stone. The roofs are covered with Broseley tiles, the vestry, aisles and chancel having stone parapets to the gutters, that to the chancel being traceried.

The Church consists of nave, with narthex and porch at the west end, north and south aisles and transepts, tower, chancel, with organ chamber and vestries on the north, and chapel on the south. It was built in four sections.

In the year 1885, a faculty having been obtained, under circumstances already stated, for the removal of the old Church, a contract was entered into with Cornish and Gaymer, of North Walsham, for the demolition of the chancel and vestry, and for the erection of the north and south transepts, part of the nave, priests’ vestry, organ chamber, chancel and chapel, at a cost of about £18,000, to which the patron, the late Albemarle Cator, contributed £4,000. This first portion of the Church was completed in 1886. Ihe building of the nave, the north and south aisles, porch, narthex and west porch, and 44 feet of the tower was then taken in hand, and the second portion of the Church was completed and opened by Bishop Jenner in 1887. The bells were hung in a wooden shed on the summit of the uncompleted tower, and for many years were struck by means of a chiming apparatus. During the building of this portion, a temporary iron structure took the place of the body of the Church over which the present nave was erected, and it is worthy of note that during the whole of the rebuilding not a single service, Sunday or week-day, was suspended!

In the year 1890 a third contract was entered into for the erection of a choir vestry on the north side of the Church with approach doors from the north transept, and from the priests’ vestry.

In the year 1902 a final effort was made to complete the Church by finishing the tower, and a fourth contract was entered into with the same builders. The tower was completed and the bells rehung in 1903, and they were dedicated by the present Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Randall Davidson) on November 14th in the same year. The erection of the whole Church was therefore spread over a period of eighteen years, and the present Rector, who was instituted in 1885, and who laid the foundation stone in the same year, has had the satisfaction of seeing the completion of the work in which he took an active part. William Henry Lendon (Churchwarden from 1885 to 1898) was Honorary Secretary and Treasurer to the Building Committee during the whole period of the building. The completed Church cost a sum of about £30,000, the entire amount being provided by voluntary offerings.

The most striking feature of the exterior of the Church is the tower, the height of which, from the finials on the massive pinnacles to the floor of the nave, is 115 feet. The outside buttresses of the tower are finished, at the level of the belfry, with niches, in each of which is a stone statue of an angel playing a musical instrument. From the roof above the chancel arch rises a stone bell-cot with gablet and surmounting cross; in this the Sanctus-bell is hung. There are buttresses at each angle of the apse surmounted by stone pinnacles with crockets and finials. The south porch occupies the position of the entrance to the old Church, and is at the north end of the avenue of yews leading from the lych-gate. Over the great west window is a stone statue of St. George, the Patron Saint, which was subscribed for by members of the Guild. The Church is entered from the High Street by means of the west porch, communicating with the narthex and the north aisle. Both aisles have flat roofs covered with lead, and at the north-west comer of the north aisle is a small staircase turret which gives access to rhe lead flat.

The narthex is at the west end of the Church, and is separated from the nave by three massive arches. From it a fine view of the east end is obtained, the distance from wall to wall being 151ft. 6in. The nave is 95ft. 6in. long by 29ft. 6in. wide. The height from the floor to the ridge of the roof is 56ft. 6in. Over the arcade at the west end, from which the narthex opens, is a magnificent circular west window, 18ft. in diameter, with a pointed arch and spandrils at foot filled in with tracery and stained glass. There are six clerestory windows of two lights each on the south side of the nave, and eight similar windows on the north side. The roof is open with tie beams across, and traceried brackets above and below the beams. The principal rafters are brought down by stone columns on corbels between the clerestory windows. The archway from the nave into the chancel, is 36ft. high and 26ft. 6in. broad, and is formed of two orders and a label, which spring from large moulded capped corbels with Forest of Dean shafts in responds. On the north side of the nave, counting from the west end, four arches open into the north aisle and one larger arch into the north transept. The arches to both aisles spring from quatrefoil columns of Portland stone with small Forest of Dean shafts at the intersections. On the south side of the nave, counting from the west end, an arch opens into the lower part of the tower, this arch being opposite the first arch in the north arcade which opens into the north aisle. The large pier of the tower separates this arch from the three arches which open from the nave into the south aisle, these are similar and opposite to the arches opening into the north aisle. On the east side of the large pier of the tower is a list (completed from materials supplied by Miss C. E. Trollope) of the Rectors of Beckenham, engraved on a marble slab, the gift of Mrs. Trollope. The large arch opening from the nave into the south transept is similar and opposite to the arch on the north side. The wooden pulpit on a stone base is placed in the nave to the north of the chancel arch. Although the pulpit originally stood in the old Church, it is comparatively modern, and when the present Church was built it was enlarged, the panels being removed and the shape somewhat altered.

The north aisle is 66ft. long and 16ft. broad. There are four three- light, traceried windows on the north side, a door at the west end opens into the porch, and there is a small single-light window to the north of the door. The south aisle is 49ft. long and 16ft. broad. There are two three- light, traceried windows on the south side. A massive arch at the west end of this aisle connects with the baptistery or lower part of the tower. On the south side opposite the first arch into the nave is the great south door of the Church. Under this aisle and opposite to the first window counting from the south door is the Langley vault, one of the three burying places which still exist under the Church. The vault is approached by steps from the churchyard.

The lower part of the tower, forming the graceful baptistery, is connected with the nave and the south aisle by the arches already described. The walls are 4ft. thick, and the space forming the baptistery is 12ft. 3m. by 12ft. 3in., the vault, which is in stone, being 24ft. from the floor. There is a three-light window on the south side, and a two-light window on the west side.

The font is of Caen stone, and is octagonal in shape, with carved medallions on its eight sides, one of these medallions being worked in bronze. It is set on a plinth of four steps, and is supported by a stone shaft, surrounded by eight marble pilasters.

A circular staircase leads from the narthex to the upper part of the tower. The staircase is not built in the thickness of the wall, but stands clear of it, and is roofed with a small stone spire. At the summit of this staircase is a small door leading into the ringing chamber above the baptistery, a most convenient room for the purpose. In it are the ropes connected with the bells, and the chiming apparatus. The deep windows are fitted with seats, and it is admitted that the chamber is fitted with all the conveniences found in modern towers for the use of the ringers. Above the ringing-chamber is the clock-stage in which are the works of the clock, with skeleton dials on the south and west faces, by Thwaites and Reid, of Clerkenwell, given by C. E. Atkinson, with the treble and second bells, in memory of the late Cecil Rhodes. A wooden staircase leads from the ringing-chamber to the ceiling of the clock-stage, where a sliding trap-door gives access to the belfry in which are the eight bells, hung on the same level, in an iron frame. An iron ladder leads up past the third bell to a platform above the bells, from which one can ascend by a wooden staircase to the roof. The belfry has eight traceried and transomed two-light windows filled in with slate louvres. The lower portions of these louvres are boarded in on the inside in order to throw the sound of the bells away from the houses in the vicinity of the Church.

The tower is finished by a lead flat, eighty-nine feet from the floor of the nave and some feet below the parapet. In order to enable visitors to obtain views of the surrounding country, a wooden staging has been erected on the lead flat. Rising from the flat is a massive flag-staff made of larch, forty feet high; from this St. George’s Cross floats on festivals and days of public rejoicing, or at half-mast on days of mourning.

The transepts are each 28ft. by 29ft. 6in., giving a distance from north to south across the nave, of 90ft. Each transept has a large five-light traceried and transomed window at the north and south ends respectively, and each has a door in its western wall opening into the churchyard, with a small lancet window in the west wall. The entrance to the choir-vestry is from the north wall of the north transept, and an arch on the east side opens into the organ chamber. Under this north transept is the Hoare vault. The south transept has an arch on the east side opening into the chapel, and to the south of this arch is a two-light window. In this transept are the pews allotted by faculty to the Wilson family, as owners of “ Village Place,” and to the owners of Langley.

The chancel is approached from the nave by three steps through wrought iron gates in an alabaster septum wall, the latter the gift of the late Mrs. Tendon. It ends in a polygonal apse of five sides, and is 42ft. long, 29ft. 6in. wide, and 43 ft. high. The chancel is vaulted in pitch pine, with moulded ribs springing from shafts in the angles of the apse. There is a clerestory of two circular windows on each side. The upper part of each of the sides of the apse is occupied by a three-light window below which the walls are arcaded with the sedilia on the south and the Bishop’s seat, with mitred finial, on the north, and on the south side of the altar is a credence in the arcade. It will be noticed that the Bishop’s arms to the west of the seat are those of the see of Canterbury and not those of Rochester. This is of course explained by the fact that the chancel was built before Beckenham was retransferred to the Diocese of Rochester. The gilding of the arcade, which has added so much to the beauty of the Church, was worked by R- E. Davis as a gift. In the autumn of 1908 the roof of the apse was coloured blue and decorated with gilded stars to represent the firmament of heaven, and at the same time the ribs of the roof and the upper mouldings of the Sanctuary were gilded. The whole of this work was carried out at the expense of an anonymous donor. Two descriptions of marble are ed in the marble pavement of the Sanctuary, the green is the Greek “Cippolino” froin the ancieent quarries in the Island of Euboea, and the white “Pilastraccia,’’ from the Italian quarries above Serravezza. The cost of this work was defrayed out of money bequeathed to the Rector for the purpose by the  late Miss Price. In 1907 the stone base of the pulpit and leading from the nave into the chancel were removed and replaced by the handsome grey marble in memory of W. Gibbs Bartleet, the late architect of thef Church.

 The altar, which is raised five steps above the main chancel floor,is of oak richly carved and traceried. The reredos behind the altar is of  alabaster, having a central cross niche, with crocketted spire above and on each side three traceried panels. Beneath, and forming part of the reredos, the retable, in the centre of which is a sculptured Agnus Dei. On either de of the altar is the figure of an angel with a censer, carved in white ble The stalls of the choir, which are of carved oak, give accommodation for a large choir and there are six returned stalls for the clergy. The chancel opens into the chapel on the south, while on the north side is the organ chamber.  A passage at the east end of the organ screen leads to the priests’ vestry.

The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament on the south side of the chancel, which is 31ft- by l6ft., has an open roof,  the ridge being 30ft from the fioor. There is an arch into the south transept, above the floor of which the chapel is ailed two steps. The chapel is divided from the chancel by two arches, with a moulded red Mansfield column in the centre, from which the arches spring. 

These arches are partly filled in with a richly carved and glazed oak screen, there being a similar screen, but with figures, niches and canopies, in its western arch. The chapel is approached from the chancel by a traceried archway. This screen (erected in 1895) suggests a comparison between the wide open chancel arch and the artistically veiled opening to the chapel, but it is difficult to decide whether the Church would be improved by a chancel or rood screen. The carved oak figures of angels on either side of the door of the screen leading into the chapel, representing the guardians of the altar, should be noticed, one with a censer (devotion) and the other with a sword (warning). The chapel ends in a semi-circular apse in which are four single-light windows, cinqfoiled at the heads. There are three similar windows in the south wall. The altar, which is raised on two steps, is of oak, with an old oak retable beautifully carved, having in the centre a figure of “ a pelican in her piety.” The marble pavement is of the same description as that in the floor of the Sanctuary, and was put in at the same time. All the windows represent types of the Blessed Sacrament.

On the south side of the apse of the chapel is an old stone piscina with credence shelf, which was found in one of the walls of the old Church. On the south wall of the chapel are the brasses to Sir Humphrey Style and his two wives, and to Lady Margaret Dasell, to which we have already referred.

 The organ chamber, on the north side of the chancel, has arches to the chancel and transept. On the south and west sides of the organ are handsome vaulted traceried oak screens carrying the pipes, with arched openings giving access to the chamber.

There arc two vestries, the priests’, and that for the choir. The former is approached from the chancel through the organ chamber, and there is also an entrance through the organ screen in the north transept. The choir-vestry, which has a. door into the priests’ vestry, is considered one of the finest in the diocese. It is 37ft. Gin. by 23ft., has an open roof 24ft. high, and is apsidal towards the east. There are several plans, engravings and sketches relating to the old Church hung on the walls. These exhibits are of interest, particularly a copy of a plan on an old terrier, showing the Church lands in
1680 and a design (dated 1791) for rebuilding part of the tower and stone spire to replace the one destroyed in 1790. Fortunately this design was never adopted. The whole of the Church is now lighted by electricity, so arranged that all the lights are concealed. The removal of the old basket-like gas chandeliers was a great improvement to the spacious appearance of the interior.

CHURCH LANDS 1680 FROM AN OLD TERRIER

The windows of our churches have been well called “ the Bible of the unlearned,” on whom, as on children, impression is made more readily through the eye than through the ear. With a view to increasing their value as a means of instruction, the subjects treated in the stained-glass of Beckenham Parish Church follow a plan by which the windows in the different parts of the fabric contribute, each its share, to the lesson taught by the whole. They are, moreover, for the most part, memorials of the departed, bearing witness to the close communion between those before and those beyond the Veil, and they record how those who have received blessings from the Almighty return Him some of their substance in adorning and beautifying His House.

The scheme of the windows has been carefully arranged to agree with the symbolism which Christians of all ages have loved to trace in the structure of a Church; the nave representing the Church on earth; the choir, with its white-robed ministers, the Courts of Heaven; the Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, with its nearer approach to the Throne and its clearer vision of the Presence of God. Guided by this symbolism, ancient art almost invariably placed representations of our Lord in Glory at the extreme east end of the Church (altar crosses being for the same reason floriated or enriched with rays, in contrast to the plain realistic cross of the rood screen); while the entrance to the chancel bore some representation of the Crucifixion as a sign, legible to the most unlettered, that the entrance to Heaven is only through the merits of the Passion. Sometimes this lesson was conveyed by a painting over the chancel arch, as at Beckenham; more often in mediaeval times it was expressed by means of a rood or figure of the crucified Lord, on a beam across the chancel arch. No other object is proper to this position in the Church. If it is omitted the symbolism of the structure is sacrificed.

The idea so carefully carried out in early and mediaeval Church architecture and decoration has been followed with scrupulous fidelity at Beckenham. From narthex to apse, each detail has been so planned as to bring out some point of doctrine without which the lesson taught by the whole fabric would be mutilated, while all lead up, just as the lines of the building all converge, to the Vision of the Enthroned and Glorified Christ.

Over the chancel arch of the old Church was a circular window, filled with yellow glass, on which was the I.H.S. with the three nails, surrounded by clouds and surmounted by the dove to represent the descent of the Holy Spirit. This window, which is absolutely devoid of artistic merit, was removed to St. George’s Mission Church in Churchfields Road, in 1885.

In the chancel of the old Church were two windows, of two lights each, to the memory of Mrs. Jemima Wilson and Colonel Samuel Wilson, who died in 1861 and 1885 respectively. These windows were incorporated in the present great south transept or Wilson window. The other stained windows of the old Church are now in the clerestory on the south side of the present nave.

The stained-glass in the modern Church is for the most part very beautiful and artistically executed, but the windows in the north aisle are not all yet filled..

A valuable series of oil paintings in one frame, now in the east wall of the north transept, was presented to the Church by Sir Thomas C. A. Parkyns, in memory of his wife, Dame Hannah Parkyns; they are beautifully executed, but are somewhat small for the walls of a large Church. To the north of the chapel altar is an oil painting of the Madonna and Child, by the late Ada J. Rawcs, after that by Giovanni Bellini in the National Gallery.

The organ was built in 1887 by Messrs. Forster and Andrews of Hull, a firm holding a high reputation in organ construction in the north of England.

According to the Inventory of the “ Church Goods ” at Beckenham taken in the sixth year of Edward VI. (a copy of which will be found in the Appendix), the plate then consisted of two chalices, two patens, a little pyx of silver, a cross, a pyx for the Reserved Sacrament, and two little “ Sacring bells.” These have all since disappeared, having been lost, stolen or sold. An interesting article on the Church Plate at Beckenham appeared in “ Archeelogia Cantiana” in 1887, but of the articles then enumerated one has disappeared, namely, an almsplate of the year 1711, presented to the Church by John (afterwards Sir John) Elwill. Of the older plate there remains a paten of 1633 (probably a chalice cover), a flagon given by Sir Humphrey Style, dated 1711, an alms plate given by the second Peter Burrell in 1734, two chalices dated 1812, an old tankard with lid, and two metal alms dishes. The oldest piece, the silver paten, is inscribed underneath with the date 1633. It is 5 inches in diameter, and stands on a foot 2 inches across and I-J inches high; it weighs 5-iozs. Troy. Ihe Hall Marks are (i) R.W. in a shaped escutcheon; (ii) a small italic letter “Q”, the date letter for 1633-4; (iii) lion passant; (iv) leopard’s head crowned. It has been conjectured that it may have been the paten cover for an old cup, no longer in existence, but the donor is unknown. It is interesting to note, however, that at the date inscribed upon this paten, Archbishop Laud was trying to bring about a higher standard of reverence and order in the Church throughout the length and breadth of the land; and it may be surmised that Sir Humphrey Style, of Langley, was not improbably under the influence of this revival, and may have presented this silver paten to his Paxish Church of St. George.

SILVER TANKARD 17th C.

Humphrey Style, who presented the old flagon, was the last of that name in possession of Langley, and was High Sheriff of Kent in 1711, in which year he probably gave the flagon to the Church. It bears the inscrip tion “Ex dono Humfrey Style Annig”, and “Beckenham in Kent”, while on it the arms of the family are engraved. The weight of the flagon is 3g|ozs. Troy; the height to the top of the domed lid is 11J inches, the diameter 4 inches; and that of the splayed foot 61 inches. The Hall-marks are (i) “Q” in Court hand—1711-12; (ii) Maker’s mark (half illegible) commencing with the letter B; (iii) Britannia; (iv) Lion’s head erased. This flagon is not now used. Humphrey Style, the donor of the flagon, died in 1718. The alms plate of the same date and with the same Hall-marks as the flagon, was presented to the Church by Peter Burrell, of Kelsey, in 1734 : it is 10 inches in diameter, and its weight 18ozs. Troy. Above the coat-of- arms are engraved the words “ Beckenham Parish,” and below “ The gift “of Petre (sic) Burrell Esqre. A.D. 1734.” The two silver chalices of 1812-3 are extremely plain and light. They are each 7.1/2 inches high, the bowls 4 inches deep by 4 inches wide, with bases 3.3/4 inches in diameter. The Hallmarks are (i) S.W.; (ii) Lion passant; (iii) Leopard’s head; (iv) George III. head; (v) R—1812-13. The weight of each cup is 10.3/4ozs. Troy. In connection with these chalices it may be noted that on April 4th, 1813, the Vestry ordered Mr. Harris, the Churchwarden, “ to provide a new silver cup “ for the sacrament,” but from an entry in the Churchwarden’s accounts, two chalices were purchased by the Churchwardens at a cost of £g 153 These two chalices are not now used.

The tankard is not of an ecclesiastical character, and bears Lhe maker’s mark “IB ”, beneath which is a small crescent and two dots. There is a handsome design in high relief, probably representing a scene from the Crusades, running round the body, as a figure in armour on horseback is depicted bearing down an enemy in turban and carrying a scimitar On the lid, which is raised, is a shield with the arms of the Merrick family surmounted by an eagle, supported by two nude male figures, one carrying a lance and the other a bow. There are four silver cups or tankards, with detachable lids, at the Reformed Dutch Church in Austin Friars, London, which bear the same maker’s mark, with the addition of the lion passant and leopard’s head crowned, and the inscription on them states that they were presented to the Church in 1670 by one Jan Van Pieren. We think therefore that we may safely assume that the Beckenham tankard dates from the latter part of the 17th century and is possibly of Dutch manufacture It may possibly have come into the Burrell family through Isabella Merrik, but if it is the same as the “ silver enchased flagon ” referred to in the Repertory of Church goods in 1735, it was the gift of Sir Henry St. John in 1712. The tankard has not been used in recent years, and it is difficult to conjecture for what purpose it was intended; its weight is 72|ozs. Troy.

The two metal alms dishes are inscribed “ Beckenham Parish ”: the one weighs 16.3/4ozs. Troy, and is 10.1/2 inches in width; the other weighs 14.1/4 ozs. troy, and is 10 inches in diameter; they are no longer used.

The modern plate comprises some beautiful and costly specimens, all presented within the last thirty-five years, which have been characterised by greater love, devotion and care for all the accessories of worship. There are two chalices (I. and II.) and two patens (I. and II.), which were presented by some of the communicants in December, 1876, a chalice (III.) and paten (III.) given in 1889, a chalice (IV.) and paten (IV.) presented in 1897, and a paten (V.) of 1899. The patens I. and II. are both gilt and engraved with a cross within  a circle on the rim, the centre is sunk: the diameter of one I.) is 7.1/2inches and its weight is 6.3/4ozs. Troy, the other (II.) is 5.7/8 inches wide and weighs 4.3/4ozs. Troy. Both bear these Hall-marks: (i) H.L. above vithin a quatrefoil; (ii) Roman capital letter A for 1876-77; (iii) lion passant; (iv) leopard head.

The chalices I and II  are gilt and alike in their shape, which is that of a medieval Chalice, but one (I.) is larger than the other. The base, of each is hexagonnal. On each stem there is a handsome knop, the one on (II.) has been enriched with five garnets and a diamond. Of the larger cup (I.) the height is 8.1/2 inches, the greater part of which is occupied by the stem foot, the latter is 5.3/4 inches in diameter; the bowl is only 3.1/2I inches deep although its mouth is 4.1/2 inches wide; the foot has I.H.C. on one panel, the Agnus Dei engraved on one, and a raised crucifix with diamonds let in round it on another; the weight is 19.1/4 ozs. Troy.

Chalice No. II. Weighs 11.1/4ozs. Troy, its height is 7 inches, the bowl is 2\ inches deep though the mouth is 3I inches wide; the foot is 4§ inches in diameter, and the stem and foot together are 41 inches high: the panels of the latter are engraved with the sacred monogram, the Agnus Dei and a crucifix, the latter surrounded with pearls. The Hall-marks for both I. and II. are (i) HL above HL; (ii) Lion passant; (iii) Leopard’s head; (iv) Roman capital A, being the date letter for 1876; and (v) Queen’s head.

It is interesting to note that the account of these chalices and patens given in the " Archaelogia Cantiana ” referred to above from notes furnished by the Rev. F. A. Boodle, wrongly gives the date letter as a black letter “A,” which is the date letter for 1836, and the plate is described as of that year; a close examination shows that the letter is a capital Roman A, the date letter for 1876, which identifies them with those which were presented in that year by certain of the communicants—a letter being preserved giving the names of all those who contributed—there Is, moreover, no record of any plate being presented in the year 1836.

The chased silver gilt paten (III.) and chalice (III.), given in i3Sy by J. P. and Evelyn Laurence, in memory of their son who died in P'lorida, are very handsome, the latter is enriched with precious stones. The paten bears on the under side the inscription “ A.M.D.G. et in mem. Percival J. “Laurence filii valde dilecti 19U1 Jan. 1886.” It measures 6'i inches in diameter and has a sunk centre, it weighs 5 jozs. Troy. The chalice is 9 inches high, the base 6| inches diameter, and the bowl is 4 inches in width and 3$ inches deep. The foot is richly chased, the work extending up to the base of the bowl; the knop of the stem has six garnets or rubies, and the raised crucifix on the base is surrounded with pearls; the weight is 21 Jozs. Troy. The Hall-marks for both are: (i) J.W.B. over E.C.B.; (ii) Lion passant; (iii) Roman capital letter O, the date letter for 1889-90; (iv) the Queen’s head; and (v) Leopard’s head.

Ihe large chalice (IV.) and paten (IV.) were presented by Emma Littlehales in memory of her late husband, and were dedicated on Easter Eve, 1897. The chalice is a very beautiful specimen of the finest repousse work in silver gilt. The six panels of the base are richly chased : one with the sacred monogram, one with the Agnus Dei, one with the vine and grapes, two with floral designs, and one with a representation of the Crucifixion. The height is 9J inches, the diameter of the base is 63} inches, the width of the bowl is 5 inches, and its depth 3J inches; the weight is 24J0ZS. Troy; the stem is enriched with a handsome knop. The chalice bears on the underside the inscription “ Presented to S. George’s Church Beckenham by Emma ‘ Littlehales in loving memory of Eldred Harry Littlehales died Jany.12 th 1897.”

The paten (IV.) is of concave form and is perfectly plain, bearing no inscription, its diameter is 7 inches and it weighs 8Jozs. Troy.

The chalice and paten bear the same Hall-marks: (i) J.W. over E.C.W.; (ii) Lion passant; (iii) Leopard’s head; (iv) Small Roman letter “a,” the date letter for 1896-97.

Paten No. V. is exactly similar to No. IV., it is gilt of concave shape and is perfectly plain, bearing no inscription; its diameter is 7 inches and it weighs 8|ozs. Troy. The Hall-marks are: (i) J.W. over E.C.W.; (ii) Lion passant; (iii) Leopard’s head; (iv) Small Roman letter “c,” which is the date letter for 1898-99.

The monuments are, for the most part, those which were on the walls of the old Church, and it must be borne in mind that their original positions were unfortunately, although perhaps necessarily, changed when the Church was rebuilt. Many of them are now placed at such a distance from the floor that it is impossible to read the inscriptions, and it is to be regretted that some better system of grouping was not adopted. Thus the Burrell family monuments are in the transepts, while those to the Styles are in the chapel and on the walls of the north and south aisles. We have given in the Appendix a complete list of the inscriptions on each monument, and we do not therefore propose to do more than call the reader’s attention to such of the monuments as are more particularly interesting.

In the south aisle, to the right of the door, and below a slab to the memory of Osgood Gee, Esq., is a stone to the memory of Humphrey Style, son of William Style, of the Inner Temple. Many entries relating to this family appear in the earliest registers of the Church.

Above the south door, and slightly to the west of same, is the monument to the memory of Dr. William Marsh, Rector of Beddington, in Surrey.

The monument to Sir Peircy Brett, “ Admiral of the Blue,” who lived at the Clock House, is above the door and to the left of that to Dr. Marsh. Surmounting this monument is an urn, on which, in bas-relief, is represented the forepart of a wooden man-of-war with the figure-head of a lion, and with guns showing through the ports. There is also a representation of a broken mast emblematic of the finished course of the deceased. In the old Church this monument was over the door leading into the churchyard on the south side of the chancel.

Between the door and the window on the left is a tablet to the memory of Sir John Elwill, Bart., to whom the Langley Estates passed on his marriage with Elizabeth, the only surviving daughter of Humphrey Style.

Underneath a marble slab commemorating the building of the south aisle of the old Church by Oliver Style, will be found the monument to Sir Humphrey Style who was the great-grandson of the Sir Humphrey Style who died in 1552. As this monument shows, Sir Humphrey Style was a man of great importance in Kent, being “intrusted wth ye weighty affaires of this Countye ” of which he was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant, and “ alsoe (an honour not “ formerly conferd upon any) made Coronell of all ye trayned band horse “thereof.” He was created a baronet in 1627.

Turning into the south transept we find on the west wall a glowing tribute to the memory of Elizabeth Drummond, the daughter of William Devisme, Esq., churchwarden in 1780-81. This stone was formerly in the Churchyard. Immediately over the foregoing is a memorial of Jones Raymond, of Langley.

Above and to the right of the window is to be seen the monument to Lord Auckland, who died suddenly on the 28th May, 1814. He was the third son of Sir Robert Eden, Bart., of Windlestone, Durham, and lived at Eden Farm.

On the south wall of this transept, close to the door, are tablets in memory of Christiana Goodhart, Emanuel Goodhart, and their son Charles Emanuel Goodhart, of Langley; and above them, to the west of the great window, is the monument to Amy Burrell, representing the deceased in the act of distributing charity to the poor.

Below the great window are memorials of Colonel Samuel Wilson, of “The Village Place,” and his wife, Jemima Wilson. On the left is a stone to two children of the above and two grand-children. On the left again to Mary Ann Allnut, a daughter of Richard and Mary Lea, who is

commemorated on the next tablet; Richard Lea was the father-in-law of Samuel Wilson. These tablets were formerly in the Churchyard.

The unpretentious stone, beneath one to the wife of Wallis Nash, is in memory of Peter Burrell, Baron Gwydir, the grandson of Amy Burrell.

To the east of the great window, and above the foregoing, is a handsome veined marble, with medallion, commemorating the second Peter Burrell (the husband of Amy), who was born in 1692. He was the donor of the alms dish, which bears the inscription, “ The Gift of Petre Burrell “Esq., 1734,” and the Burrell arms. The monument was erected by his widow and son. This was in the north aisle of the old Church. Between the window on the east of this aisle and the entrance to the chapel, and above a memorial of Richard Lea and his v\ife, is ihe second tablet recording the building of the aisles of the old Church by Oliver Style.

Above this is a massive monument surmounted by a bust, in memory of the Hon. Catherine Isabella Vansittart, daughter of Lord Auckland, previously mentioned, and her husband Nicholas Vansittart, who resided at Foots Cray Piace He was ra;secl to the Peerage as Baron Bexley, a title which became extinct on his death.

Entering the chapel, on the right is seen the brass in memory of Dame Margaret Dasell. Underneath, and let into the same stone is a brass bearing an inscription to her sister, Ellen Berney, who died in 1609- This stone (with the brasses) was on the floor of the chancel of the old Church.

To the east of the foregoing is placed one of the chief objects of antiquarian interest in the Church, viz.: the brass in memory of Sir Humphrey Style (already mentioned): it will well bear a close inspection.

On the south side of the nave next to the arch into the south transept is a large modem brass to the memory of William Cator, for twelve years Rector of this Parish, succeeding F. S. C. Chalmers in 1873.

On the north side of the north transept is the monument to Captain Hedley Vicars.

Above the tablet to Captain Hedley Vicars, on the north side of the north transept, is the striking monument to Peter Burrell, of Kelsey, who died in 1718. He was the ninth son of Walter Burrell, of Cuck&eld, Sussex, and married Isabella, daughter of John Merrik, of North Ockenden, Essex. He was the first of the long list of Beckenham Burrells, having settled here in 1684, when he bought Kelsey from John Brograve. On the sinister side of the shield surmounting this memorial are the arms of the Merriks, which are also found on the lid of the old tankard.

On the north wall of this transept to the west of the vestry door and below the great window is a monument to John Crane, Phoebe Blondell Crane, and Phoebe Elizabeth Susanna Crane, erected by Stafford Crane, son, husband and father to them respectively. The tablet was formerly on the outside of the north wall of the old chancel, and it can be clearly seen in the older engravings of the Church.

Above and to the east of the window, is a monument to Richard Acland, who died October 6th, 1735, and to his wife Anne (the youngest daughter of Peter Burrell), who died in 1771.

The monument was executed by V. Tyler, and on the urn above the tablet are the words, “Hinc illae Lacrymte.”

On the west side of this transept is the stone to commemorate Peter Richard Hoare and his wife. He was the great-grandson of Peter Burrell, whose monument is on the opposite wall. It is interesting to note the recurrence of the Burrell Christian name.

The monument above with figures in bas-relief to Dame Frances .Ann Hoare, mother of the Peter Richard Hoare just mentioned, is worthy of notice, as it is ascribed to Flaxman.

The tablet on the north wall of the north aisle to the east of the first window is that to Thomas Style, LL.D., half-brother to Sir Humphrey Style, the cup-bearer to Charles I., whose monument on the south wall of the south aisle has been already noticed.

Between the first and second windows of this aisle is the tablet in memory of Dame Elizabeth Elwill, daughter of Humphrey Style.Between the next two windows will be found a tablet to William Style, the brother of Dr. Thomas Style. He was the father of Humphrey Style, whose monument is almost opposite, on the wall of the south aisle. His wife Elizabeth is buried in West Peckham Church.

Beneath this monument is one to George Fletcher, at one time curate and for sixty years an inhabitant of Beckenham.

The tablet between the next two windows is to George Eden, Earl o. Auckland. He succeeded to the Barony of Auckland on his father’s death, and died unmarried, 1st January, 1849.

On the left of the next window will be found three monuments, the lowest of which is to Sir Merrik Burrell, Bart., a monument to whom is also in West Grinstead Church, Sussex. He was created a Baronet in 1766, with remainder to the heirs male of his brother Peter; consequently when he died without issue in 1787, his grand-nephew, subsequently Lord Gwydir, succeeded to the title.

Above this is the tablet to Andrew Brandram, for twelve years Rector of this Parish. He was curate at Beckenham from 1816 to 1827 and " Minister of the Savoy Chapel” from 1823 to 1838, and at one time resided at Elm Cottage. He was for twenty-seven years Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Above this is the monument to Jane Clerke, the lines on which are by Gray. This monument was on the north side of the old chancel.

Over the door is one of the most handsome monuments in the Church, although it is placed in an inconvenient position. It is to Benjamin Burdett. The colours on the coat-of-arms are still distinguishable. This monument was also on the north side of the chancel of the old Church.

Beneath the monument to Andrew Brandram is a large tablet to Peter Burrell (who by his will directed that only a square marble slab should be erected by way of monument), the son of Peter and Amy Burrell, whose memorials are in the south transept. He was Surveyor Geneial of Crown Lands, and at one time M.P. for Launceston He married Elizabeth daughter of John Lewis, of Hackney, who also lies in the Langley vault.

The older portion of the churchyard is that to the west of the path, at right angles to the present apse, the portion lying to the east of this path having been consecrated in 1868. The churchyard is closed except for burial in existing grave-spaces. Some of the older headstones are quaintly carved, and attention is particularly called to the graves of John Cade, Schoolmaster (on whose gravestone appear the implements of his craft, viz., books, compasses, globe, plans, pencils, pen and inkpot, and musical instruments), Elizabeth Buerster, John Saxby, Jane Whitmill, and William Wicker, Jr. (on the south side), and to those of Mary Watson, Edward Gwyn, Isabella Walker, Elizabeth Weaver, and Isabella Couchman (on the north side of the Church).

On the north side of the nave is the tomb of Edward King, F.R.S., almost completely covered with ivy and enclosed with iron railings.

There are only two wooden monuments and one post remaining, and these are, unfortunately, in a state of rapid decay. In the new portion of the churchyard, to the east of the chancel, is the grave of the ill-fated Harriet Staunton, the victim of the “ Penge Murder” in 1877.

 

CHAPTER IX.

THE BELLS OF BECKENHAM.

So much has been said and written during the last few years for and against the bells of the Parish Church that we have thought that even those who regard the ringing with disfavour might desire to learn something of their history. We do not propose to discuss the arguments which have been used and the statements which have been made as to the bells and their ringers. Many interesting books have been written on bells, and there are very few, if any, of us who do not, perhaps unconsciously, take an interest in the subject. “ Their voices to some tell of “ daily duty, of trains to catch, of the return of the hours of toil, of the “ceaseless flight of inexorable time; to others they speak of devotion, and “are as the voice of a mother calling us to her knee for prayer; to others “ again the bells are means of healthful exercise and instruments of heart- “ stirring music.” Bells also take a real part in the history of a place. We often think when we hear the solemn tolling of the great bell which tells us that another soul has passed beyond the veil, how often during the past centuries that same bell has announced the passing of those bygone inhabitants of Beckenham of whom we have endeavoured to give some account, however imperfect.

When we hear the wedding bells we think how often they have rung for those marriages recorded in the time-worn registers of the Church to which we have referred, and how the same bells have rejoiced our forefathers with the news of the declaration of some peace or the birth of some Royal Prince, events which meant much not only to the nation as a whole, but also to the inhabitants of the village. Surely the least sentimental of our readers must admit that our bells have their part in our local history, and we therefore make no further apology for the following account of the bells of Beckenham.

Beckenham Parish Church possesses a peal of eight bells of the total weight of 3 tons, 4 cwt., 13 lbs. Two of them, the Treble and II., are modern; the others, although recast in the original metal when the present tower was built, vary in date between 1624 and 1796.

We find from the Inventory of Church goods taken by the Commissioners appointed by King Edward VI., that in November, 1551, in addition to the ij litle sacryng bells of brasse” there were “ iiij bells of bell mettell suted in the steple whereof on is broken.” These four bells have disappeared, and the oldest bell which the Church possesses is the old III- '.now V.), which bore the inscription “ Thomas Bartlet made me 1624.” The next in order of date is the old V. (now VII.) wuth the inscription “ Thomas Baitlet made this bell 1625.” Four years later the old Tenor and IV. now the Tenor and VI.) were added, and these also were cast by Thomas Bartlet. There is a local tradition to the effect that the old Tenor was cast in the Churchyard. There is no authority for this, but it is quite possiole that this may have been so, as owing to the defective condition of the roads in the 17th century, which made the transport of heavy masses of metal a matter of difficulty, the bell founders of that period frequently ..et up temporary foundries on or near the churchyards of the Churches for which they worked.-

The old II. (now IV.) was cast by William Lambart in 1640, and bore the inscription “WILLIAM LAMBART MADE ME—R.L.—1640.” There was thus for nearly 150 years a peal of five bells only, as no further additions were apparently made until about the year 1783, when the Vestry decided that the number of bells should be increased to six. As the old treole bell is dated 1796, it is probable that the sixth bell, which was added to the peal in 1783 was either cracked or broken in the fire which occurred on the 23rd December, 1790, when the spire and a portion of the old Church were destroyed. In the following year it was agreed in Vestry not to rebuild the spire, but to make good the lead gutters in the belfry, and to allow the tower to remain in its thus incomplete condition. In 1794, however, it was decided to rebuild the spire, and as the old treble is dated two years later, it was probably added to the peal when the spire was completed. The treble may possibly have been recast from the bell which was added in 1783, if such bell was not completely destroyed in the fire of 1790, but as it bears the date 1796 and the founder’s name, it is more probable that it was a new bell.

This bell (now III.) bore the following inscription, “The Revd. Wm. “ Rose, Rector, Robt. Hoggart and Thos. Randell, Church Wardens, George “ Grote and Robt. Tanner, Overseers. Thos. Meares of London fecit 1796.” This last bell is the only one of the old bells which bore any inscription other than the name of the maker and the date. The Rev. William Rose Rector from 177s to 1829, and George Grotc, the Churchwarden, was the father of the celebrated historian.

The diameters of the old bells are given by Stahlschmidt in his “Bells of Kent” as follows:—Treble, 29 inches; II., 31 inches; III., 32 J inches; IV., 362 inches; V., 40$ inches; Tenor, 45 inches. Rubbings of the old inscriptions taken in 1902 are now preserved in the ringing chamber of the present Church.

It is recorded that between five and six in the morning on the 8th of March, I75°i a violent earthquake took place in London, and that “the “shock was sensibly felt in most parts of Essex, Surrey and Middlesex; “ also at Bromley, Beckenham and Croydon, in Kent (sic), at which last “ two places, it occasioned the hammers of the clocks to strike upon the “bells” There are several interesting accounts of the effects of this earthquake in London and of the terror caused to the inhabitants.

No other entries of special interest relating to the bells are to be found in the minute-book, except the record in 1858, that a discussion took place at a Vestry on the subject of the ringing “ which gave dissatisfaction “ to many inhabitants.” It is not stated whether this dissatisfaction was caused by the quantity or the quality of the ringing.

In the earliest book of Churchwardens’ accounts (1686-89), we find amongst others the following: —

“For ringing on ye King’s birthday and on ye 5 Novr 11/Sd” (1687).

“For mending a bell wheele and rails in ye bellfry 4/4”           (i<5S7).

“ For ringing 2'/-” (1688).

“ Paid to John Lane for mending ye greate bell wheele 2/6” (1688).

“For oyle for ye bells 1/3”       (1689).

‘For putting a peice uppon ye raile of ye 3rd bell wheele 2/-” (1689).

“Ringing on ye Coronation Day 10/-” (nth April, 1689).

In the later books we find many entries of the bells having been rung on occasions of public mourning or rejoicing, of which the following will be of interest: —

1802. Ringers for the Peace 10/6.

1830. Tolling the Bell for the King (Geo. IV.) 2/6.

„ Bell for the King’s Funeral 2/6.

1837. Ringers, Queen’s Proclamation 12/-.

„          Queen’s Birthday 12/-.

„          Restoration 12/-.

„          Celebration of Queen’s            Marriage 12/-.

„          for Birth of Princess Royal 12/-.

„          Birth of a Prince (H.M. King Edw. VII.) £l.

„          Gunpowder Plot 12/-. (Similar entries showing that

the bells were rung on Guy Fawkes’ Day appear up to 1858).

1848. Ringers on the Archbishop’s visit and preaching 6/-.

1861. Tolling bell for Prince Consort 5/-.

In an article dated 1827 in Hone’s “Table Book,” Beckenham is described as having a peal of five bells, but this is clearly an error on the part of the writer. A fatal accident occurred in the belfry of the old Church about forty years ago. The bells had all been raised in readiness for a wedding peal, when a workman, ignorant of the situation, proceeded to the belfry to execute some repairs. While he was amongst the bells the ringers returned, and commencing the peal, little thinking there was anyone in the bell chamber above, were the cause of the unfortunate man’s death. One of the bells (the old V.) in its descent struck the man on the head, and

he died immediately. The traces of this sad event remained in the belfry until the old tower and steeple were pulled down. During the rebuilding ;.f the west end of the new Church the bells were of course silent, but on the completion of the lower part of the tower, they were raised to the summit, being protected by an unsightly penthouse or shed, where they remained until the building of the new tower was commenced. During the whole of this period they were not rung, but were struck by hammers worked by a chiming apparatus in the ringing chamber beneath. The weekly practices were also discontinued.

All the old bells with the exception of No. II. were cast at the famous Whitechapel Foundry, London, to which Thomas Bartlet (whose mark was three bells surmounted by a crown), succeeded in 1619, and he and his descendants carried on the business until the end of the century. Stahl- schmidt states that the dates of Thomas Bartlet’s bells range from 1619 to 1647, but there is nothing in Kent later than 1629. In addition to the four bells at Beckenham there are five other bells of the same founder in Kent, viz., two at Sholdon (I. and II.), one at Otford (Treble), one at Keston, and one at Sundridge (IV.). It is also stated that the mark of Thomas Bartlet is on the first bell of St. Nicholas, Rochester. William Lambart, the maker of the old II., was a small and little known London founder, and the Beckenham bell is, we believe, the only one which bears his name in Kent. According to the same authority, his workmanship does not appear to have been of a high order.

In connection with the makers of the old Beckenham bells, the following inscription on the 4th bell at Richmond, Surrey, is interesting; It is as follows : —

“ Lambart made me Weake not fit to Ring

“ But Bartlet amongst the rest did make me Sing.”

As the Beckenham bells were, with the exception of the old treble, between 250 and 300 years old, and had consequently deteriorated in tone, it was decided on the building of the tower that they should be recast, and on the nth July, jg02) they were lowered to the ground, and removed on the following day to the foundry of John Warner & Son, Ltd., in Spitalfields. It was originally suggested that all the bells should be melted dov/n in one mass, additional metal added, and a new peal of eight cast, the reason put forward being, that by so doing, an uniformity of tone would be obtained. On the other hand, it was contended that to adopt such a course, however advantageous it might be in other respects, would destroy tlic individuality of the bells, and it was ultimately decided that each bell should be re-cast from its original metal, and that the old inscriptions and dates in every case should be reproduced. The two additional bells required to complete the octave were given in 1903, by a generous resident, in memory of the late Cecil Rhodes.

On all the bells as recast the name of John Warner & Son, Ltd., and the year of recasting appears, with the addition on the Tenor of the names of the Rector and Churchwardens in 1902-3, and the architects of the tower.

The recasting of the old Tenor took place in the presence of the Churchwardens and other officials on Friday, the 6th March, 1903, and the ceremony was witnessed by several Beckenham residents. One of the Churchwardens was entrusted by members of the congregation and others with silver coins, and these were cast into the molten metal before it was poured into the mould. The casting of all the bells was completely successful, and, although it has been suggested by those who are probably competent to judge, that the tone of the new bells is not absolutely true, still, to the ordinary ear, they give a particularly pleasing and melodious sound; and it is a great satisfaction to those of us, and there are many, who wish to preserve a link with the memories of the past, to think that the same bells, which, for 300 years, had been rung for rejoicings and tolled for mourning, are still in the tower above us, and will continue their message to the people of Beckenham long after we are gone.

To those who take an interest in bells and bell-ringing, or who have any sentiment about old associations, and the past history of a locality, lt>ere is something very real about a Church Bell. How often have the bells voiced the feeling of the inhabitants in times of public rejoicing or sorrow! How often have they tolled for those who have passed out of the life of the village, and were forgotten almost before the grass was green over their last resting place beneath the belfry! How often have the bells pealed out joyously to those to whom, passing from the Church below, along the avenue of ancient yews, everything seemed full of joy and hope! How often has their sound, calling to the worship of God, fallen on unwilling and irresponsive ears ! When we think of these things, we cannot but admit that the bells of a Parish Church are the voice of tiie Parish, not of the particular Church or of a section of the community, but of all the parishioners of whatever shade of opinion.

In concluding this short notice, it may be of interest to record the note, weight, and other particulars of the new bells and those which have been re-cast, viz.: —

No.	Diameter Inches	Note	Weight cwt. qrs. lbs.			Date
Treble	28	F	4	3	20	1903
2	29	E	5	0	19	1903
a	3°i	D	5	2	10	1796
4	324-	C	6	2	26	1640
5	35	B flat	7	3	3	1624
6	36J	A	8	0	17	1629
7	40	G	11	0	12	1625
Tenor	44	F	14	2	iS	1629
	Total Weight		64	0	13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following were the Inscriptions on the old Bells: —

THE REVd Wm ROSE RECTOR ROBt HOGGART & THOs RANDELL CHURCHWARDENS GEORGE GROTE & ROBt TANNER OVERSEERS THOs HEARS OF LONDON FECIT 1796

WILLIAM LAMBART MADE ME. R.L. 1640 THOMAS BARTLET MADE ME 1624

IV. THOMAS BARTLET MADE THIS BELL 1629 V. THOMAS BARTLET MADE THIS BELL 1625 Tenor. THOMAS BARTLET MADE THIS BELL 1629

The clock, which was given by the donor of the Treble and II., is a magnificent piece of work, executed by Thwaites and Reid, of Clerkenwell. The quarters are struck by hammers on II., III., IV., and VII., the hours being struck on the Tenor.

No other Church in Beckenham possesses a peal of bells, the nearest being Bromley on the east, Penge on the west, Lewisham on the north, and West Wickham on the south. The new Church of St. Michael and All Angels has a fine single bell (note C).

The gravestones in that part of Beckenham Churchyard which may be described as the old part, that is the part which lies to the west of the path leading past the apse, are not inscribed with epitaphs of quaint or general interest. It is unfortunate that so many of the more ancient stones lie buried beneath the Church, and that no note was taken of the inscriptions. We have, however, examined all those stones which remain, many being sunken and decayed, and for those of our readers who are interested in epitaphs, we propose to set out a few of those in Beckenham Churchyard. We have, with a few exceptions, omitted the more modern inscriptions and such as are well known and arc met with in almost every Churchyard.

The earliest verse is in 1697, to a husband and his first and second wives:—

“ All you that pass by behold and see “ Even as we are now, so you must be.”

The carving on the stone (which is on the east side of the avenue to the south door) represents the winged hour glass indicating the flight of time, skull and two cross-bones, and spade and mattock crossed, and two arrows crossed—the crossing meaning rest or disuse, emblematical of the finished work of the deceased.

John Cade, the Schoolmaster, who died in I750 Is thus described : —

“One skilful in his profession and of extensive ingenuity, as he lived “universally beloved, so he died as much lamented.” “Several of “ his scholars moved by affection and gratitude at their own expense “erected this in remembrance of his worth and merit.”

“ Virtue, good nature, learning, all combin’d “ To render him beloved of human kind “ With solemn words from yc sincercst liearts “ We moan his loss, wanting his great desarls.”

Mr. John Franksen, who died in 1765, is thus described : —

“ A humble Christian and a neighbour kind “ Sweet temper with a most obliging mind "A calm comportment and not partial to strife “ Kind to his friends and tender to his wife.”

and John Brown, who died in 1774, was—

“ An honest man and friend sincere “ A tender father and husband dear.”

The next in order of date is to the wife of Jacob Mann, of Kent House, in 1775, on whose gravestone is the following epitaph: —

“ Though her mortal remains are here consigned to the grave to “ submit to the power of corruption her better part hath ascended “ to the region of immortality to receive the reward of her labours, “ and her memory as an affectionate wife, a tender parent, and “ benevolent and useful member of society will long survive in the “hearts of all who knew her.”

In 1766 we meet with the following verse over the grave of Mrs. Isabella Couchman:—

“ My dearest friends, pray weep no more,

“ For I am gone but just before,

“ My time is past, my glass is run “ And now, Dear Lord, I come, I come.”

 

In 1777 John Horsenall is described as—“An honest man, whose mind, like his countenance, was open, “generous and undisguised—a Friend to all, an enemy to none.”

 

NO LADY Can claim Admission into the Scats called the Peeresses Seats, by this Ticket, unless her Name is written, on the Back there-, of, ou the Line denoting the State of her Claim

ticket of admission

TO THE TRIAL OF LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE.

By Order of the. House of Lords—

PETER LORD GWYDIR, Or GREAT CHAMBERLAIN.

SIXTEENTH DAY.

On the stone over the grave of Mrs. Mary Freeman in 1778 is inscribed : —

“ Reader, walk in her steps and you may Death defy “ The good and virtuous never fear to die.”

and the following verses (1779 and 1784) appear over the graves of James and Mary Isted (the parents of the unfortunate Ann Isted “ who was killed *' by the careless discharge of a pistol ”) respectively:—

“ With thyself and with Lhy God “ Delight to make thy chief abode “ There repose secure and free “ And no mischance can trouble thee.”

“ Sweet remembrance of the Just “ Shall flourish when she’s in the dust.”

In 1789 these verses are to be found in memory of a widow aged

33 : —

“ Stay Reader, and for a moment contemplate “ On ashes which rest within this peaceful cell,

“ Thou know’st not how soon this may be thy fate,

“And not too much on worldly pleasures dwell,

“ In prime of life the Almighty’s sacred hand “ In Lethe’s fatal stream instilled my poor heart “ Sympathise on that dire command “ Which snatched me off by death’s unerring dart,

“ Remember, mortal, keep thy conscience clear,

“ Beneath these mossy roots, this rustic dome,

“ For soon the scythe of Time will bring you here “ Alas, to this for ever sequestered home.”

The next inscription (in 1793) is a curious intermingling of the third and first persons. It runs as follows: —

“ Here lies an honest man industrious in his labour “ Faithful to his friends and true to his neighbour

“Tho’ on a sudden God my life did take “ Yet still I trust He’ll not my soul forsake “ Then, grieve not, Children, for grief you know is vain “ I hope your loss is my eternal gain.”

ine “wretched and disconsolate” widow of William Watson in 1795 erected an “ humble stone ” to his memory, and it states that he “ possessed “ and practised so far as humanity would permit every Christian and moral “ virtue.”

A monument “an unavailing token of affection” was erected in 1789 to a young lady of Walworth, in Surrey, aged 23, and is thus inscribed : —

“ No pompous monument, it is not due

“ Dear Gentle, lovely Ann, is rear’d for you

“ But Truth, in ample guise, imparts

“ How once you charmed all eyes and won all hearts

“ It was by making Virtue thy late guide

“By elegance and beauty void of pride

“By constant tenderness and filial love

“Affection strong as could the Bosom move

“Yet softer far than is the meek eyed dove

“ By sweet simplicity and every grace

“ That smooths the temper or illumes the face

“ It was to exhibit these that thou wast given

“ On earth awhile to bud then bloom in Heaven.”

In 1815 the inscription on the tomb of a lady says: —

“To name her virtues ill befits our grief “What was our bliss can now give no relief “ We mourn her loss, the rest let friendship tell “Great was her worth, her children know it well”

In the following year this epitaph appears over the grave of a young girl of sixteen years: —

“ Remember, Lord, our mortal state “ How fair our life, how short the date,

An empty talc a morning flower

“ Cut down and withered in an hour.

“ Are not thy servants, day by day “ Sent to their graves and turned to clay.”

It is stated of a wife who died in 1814 that her “urbanity of manner “ and kind disposition endeared her to a numerous and respectable circle “of friends by whom her loss is sincerely regretted”; and of her husband, who died a few months later that—

“ He was a man of strict integrity “punctual in all his dealings.”

In 1820 over a man who died in his forty-fourth year:—

“ Grieve not for me for since my race is run “ It is the Lord then let His will be done.”

In the following year we find two epitaphs in verse, the first of which, also appearing over a grave in 1849, runs as follows: —

“ While in this world I did remain “ My latter end was grief and pain “ But Christ who knoweth all things best “ Has took me to a place of rest.”

The second, which is to an infant of seven months, reads thus: —

“ Adieu, Sweet Babe, our fond delight “ For ever say Adieu “ Pleasure by day and joy by night “ We had every hope in you,

“ So early torn from earthly bliss “And yet we’ll not complain “ Mem’ry recalls the parting kiss “With agonyzing pain.

“ Three short days thine anguish ended “And tore thee from our arms “ Hope with despair for ever blended “ With all its flattering charms.

“ Tho’ blest with every wish on earth “A Father’s, Mother’s care “ All could not stay thy fleeting breath “ Which fled thy pain to spare.

“ Forgive, O Lord, a parent’s wish “ That Death had spared our son “ But see thou’lt give Eternal Bliss “ O Lord, Thy will be done.”

The epitaph to a young man who died in 1828 is as follows : —

“ A tender father, a husband dear “ A dutiful son and friend sincere “ Made peace with all, their faults to shun “ Our loss, the great God’s will be done “ Unto the last aloud did call,

" His infant son and family all,

“Keep all together, my glass is run,

“ My morning sun is gone down at noon “To rise again above the skies '

“With angels meet to sing His praise “ What Jesus hath for me in store “ My sun will rise to set no more.”

Again in the same year we find this inscription over a woman of thirty-seven            “ Good God on what a tender string

“ Hangs everlasting things.”

 

before the addition to the churchyard, 1868.

The more recent epitaphs in verse are the following: —

In 1S30—

“ My sorrows are now at an end “Ihe days of my troubles are past “ And I a blest Sabbath shall spend “With Jesus the Author of Peace.”

In 1843—

'‘To look our last on those we loved “And held in life most dear “ We turn submissive to our God “ But can’t suppress a tear.”

In 1852—

“ Why do you weep, my dear friends “ Or shake at Death’s Alarms “ Tis but the voice that Jesus sends “To call us to His arms.”

In 1864—

“ Though seed be buried in the dust “ It shan’t deceive their hope “ The precious grain can ne’er be lost “ For Grace ensures the crop.”

In 1865—

“ The objects that we love how soon they die “ We feel their loss and oft in secret sigh " But he who takes those idols from our breast « Kindly informs us this is not a place of rest.”

It is perhaps to be regretted that it is not now the custom, as was formerly the case, to give on the gravestone particulars of the occupation of the deceased and other information of local interest, although the substitution of a text or sentence (often, however, more or less inappropnate)

from the Scriptures must, we suppose, be regarded as an improvement on the doggerel rhymes, which appear on gravestones during a certain period. It must, however, be remembered that these rhymes, however ludicrous and even irreverent they may now appear to us, were intended as tributes to the departed dead, and they should not therefore be made the subject of jest or ridicule as is so often done. After all, the ill-expressed verses, so common at the end of the 1 Sth century, convey quite as much meaning and are not in the slightest degree less appropriate than the verses ana texts which, at the present time, can be seen in every modern Churchyard or Cemetery.

Several of the carvings on the older headstones, especially those of the 1 Sth century are quaint, particularly those on the graves to Pocknell, Edward Gwyn, John Cade, Isabella Walker, and Isabella Couchman. They possess, however, no special features other than those which were common at this period, namely, the cherubim, trumpets, skulls, cross bones, and other emblems of mortality.

The few wooden tombstones, of which there were several in our younger days, are fast disappearing, and now only two remain, and the inscriptions on these are indecipherable.

Amongst those tombstones which have disappeared, but were existent at the end of the 18th century were those to Henry King, and his son, of Beckenham (1520-1555), the Rev. Epiphanius Holland, Mary Wragg, and her parents, and to John Willis, of Beddington Hall, and Temperance, his wife.

Some of the more recent monuments are very artistic, and we would call the attention of the reader to the monument to William Atkinson (a well-known inhabitant of Beckenham) on which are two medallions of the deceased and his wife in bas-relief faithfully executed on the stone.

Near this last mentioned monument is the grave of The Honorable Emily Eden (the daughter of William First Lord Auckland) who died on the 6th August, 1869, aged seventy-two.       She was the talented

authoress of several works, amongst which may be mentioned " Letters " from India ” and “ Up the Country.”

It was formerly the custom, particularly in the iSth century, to state on the gravestone the trade which the deceased followed in life, but this custom has almost fallen into disuse. We find the following trades mentioned on the stones which still exist:—butchers, plumbers, bakers, nurserymen, shipbuilders, carpenters, yeomen, gardeners, wheelwrights, fishmongers, sailors, sextons, bricklayers, railway labourers, nurses, distillers, smiths, builders, tinmen, coopers and farmers. We also find Admirals, Generals, Colonels, Majors, Commanders, Captains, Consuls, a Brother of the Trinity House, Solicitors, Rectors, Curates, Surgeons, Apothecaries, Schoolmasters and Parish Clerks. There is frequent mention of the death having taken place suddenly or “ in an instant.” In concluding this brief description of the Churchyard and its epitaphs, it may be stated that the Parish Church Records show that 8,441 persons have been buried in the Church or Churchyard between 1538 and the end of the year 1900.

CHAPTER XI.

THE RECTORS OF BECKENHAM.

The sources of information available for an account of the rectors themselves are very meagre, and this is chiefly due to the fact that no men of exceptional distinction are numbered among them. No one was ever raised to the Episcopal Bench, and two only, Assheton and Fraigneau, have found a place in the Dictionary of National Biography. During the last four centuries most of the rectors were University men, and it is a coincidence that one only among them all was of Cambridge. The earliest rectors were probably men of wealth or power, who delegated their clerical duties to priests now nameless, and it is doubtful whether before the XV. century there were many inhabitants to need the services of the Clergy. The first rector, however, whose name occurs in accessible records is WILLIAM DE Knapton, who is mentioned in the Patent Rolls of Edward I., as having with many others granted the half of his beneficed goods to the king. Nothing else is known of him nor of his immediate successors beyond some bare dates of their institution, the names of the patrons, and the bishops, and the causes of the living being vacated, but from his time the roll seems complete, and the succession, if not actually unbroken, may fairly be so lonsidered. De Knapton was probably succeeded by WILLIAM BUSH, who was parson in 1310, and who was put on his trial for having entered the houses of Master John Bush at Beckenham and carried away his goods; but as Robert de Langley, Walter de Longe, John de Paton and Ralphe de Stoneshulle accompanied him on the expedition, it may well have been that they thought they had just cause against him. Four years later, JOHN BUSH, whether William Bush’s opponent or another, was Proctor in Convocation as Rector of Beckenham, and was still rector in 1329, as in that year a monition of his bishop, Hamo de Hethe, dated at Bromleghe, was communicated to him directing him to reside on his benefice. If the enterprise of William Bush raises doubts as to his interests being purely spiritual, what to be thought of Robert DE SANCTO Laudo, or St. Loe, who was instituted in the chapel of Trottesclyfe, July 10th, 1333, to the Church, void by the death of Master John Bush, on the nomination of Sir Maurice de Bruyn, Chamberlain to Edward III. patron of the benefice, notwithstanding that he was not ordained acolyte until the following September, nor priest until May 25th 1336? Can it be that Robert de Sancto Laudo was a man of means, who had lent money to Sir Maurice on the security of the manor and advowson of Beckenham and other properties? Sir Maurice’s father, William de Bruyn, by his marriage with Isolda Rokele, the last heiress of her name had come into possession of the large estates of her family in Essex, Kent and Hampshire, (we now know that it was Maud or Matilda Rokele, married to Sir Maurice Bruyn who inherited these estates) and it would seem as if the father or the had for some valuable consideration made over the properties to Robert de Sancto Laudo. Another William de Bruyn, son of Sir Maurice, having obably “married money” in 1356, bought back the manor and advowson and in 1361 was able to present to the living RICHARD DE SAXLINGHAM, who was duly instituted Rector of Beckenham by Bishop John de Sheppey.

Next in succession came JOHN WARNER, who in 1368 on presentation of the King, as guardian of the youthful Ingelram de Bruyn, whose father had died in 1362, was instituted to the living, which, however, he exchanged with Henry Green for that of Stockton, Wiltshire, in 1374. To Edward III. again fell the next presentation, and JOHN DE ELME, who received it, became rector in 1375, under a special license, being allowed to hold the living though he was illegitimate. He was succeeded by JOHN MARTHAM.

It looks as if Martham had presented himself to the living. Ingelram de Bruyn, on coming of age in 1377, whether under pressure or from filial duty or for some consideration, granted the manor and advowson of Beckenham to his mother, Alice, and her second husband, Sir Robert de Mamy They disposed of, or mortgaged, both in 1388 to John Martham and two brother clerics for the not inconsiderable sum of 500 marks of silver and Martham became rector; but the contract was possibly of a fictitious nature, for in 1392 Martham executed a deed by which he retransferred the manor and advowson to Sir Robert de Marny for life, with remainder to Ingelram de Bruyn and Elizabeth his wife, and after them to their son Maurice and Sir Robert’s son, William de Marny. It is not known when Martham died or resigned, though he was still rector in 1398, or which of the de Bruyns presented in his stead to the living THOMAS KENT, the date of whose institution is not given in the episcopal registers, but Sir Maurice de Bruyn presented JOHN COWESBY on the death of Kent in 1418.

Cowesby died rector in 1437, and PETER Meade was next instituted, but he “exchanged” livings in 1443 with WALTER Adam, rector of Cory Malet, Somerset, and a prebendary of Lincoln. On the death of Adam in 1445, John Belchamp was instituted by Bishop Lowe, but he died within a year and was replaced by JOHN THURSTON, who, a few months later, resigned and was succeeded, early in 1447, by William MALHAM.

Malham marks a new era in the history of the parish, inasmuch as he was the first rector to whom, so far as is known, a monument was erected in the Church. He was buried in the chancel, his grave being marked by a brass shewing a priest vested in full canonicals, but in Thorpe’s time (1769) the figure had disappeared and only the inscription remained, which is given by him as follows: “ Hie jacet Willelmus Danyell alias dictus “Willelmus Malham quondam rector istius ecclesias qui obiit XXIIII di "mensis Juni anno dom Millesimo CCCCLVIII.” (“Here lies William “ Danyell otherwise called William Malham formerly rector of this Church who died 24th day of the month of June 1458”).

A fragment of this brass is still preserved, but it is not in the Church. Why the rector was called indifferently Malham or Daniel has not been explained, but whatever the reason he was a man of mark in life as well as in death, for it is in his time that the first mention of the church bells is found, and it is safe to assume that he was instrumental in procuring them, for in the will of John Chapman, dated 1451, and witnessed by the rector himself, the sum of 3s. 4d. was bequeathed to “the new bells.” The bells were not paid for when installed, as two years later Ralph Langley

left a similar sum to the bells, which in his will are still described as new. John Chapman’s will furnishes not only the first mention of the bells but also of a curate, his will having been also witnessed by “ Sir William, parish “ priest,” whose surname is unfortunately not recorded.

Richard Tressburgh was instituted by Bishop Lowe after the death of Malham; he died in 1465, and it is uncertain whether the wish expressed in his will that he might be buried in the churchyard was carried out.

WILLIAM Horneby, till then vicar of West Peckham, Kent, was the next rector, being appointed by Thomas Tyrell and his wife Elizabeth, coheiress with her sister of Henry de Bruyn, and then there is no new entry in the episcopal register for thirty-nine years. Horneby was still rector in 1474, in which year he acted as witness to three local wills. Three years earlier the name of “ Sir ” Stephen Hayward, parish priest of Beckenham, occurs as witnessing other wills. Hayw'ard was probably a curate, and it is noteworthy that during the interval, when the Rochester registers failed to register, extant wills, which are fairly plentiful, were witnessed not by rectors but by clergy of lower rank. Thus “Sir” Thomas is curate in 1477- “Sir” Robert Rutter is priest in 1490. “Sir” Richard Dalby is parish priest in 1495. “Sir” Ralph Boscow, or Burshaw, is chaplain of the parish church in 1500 and 1501, and “Sir” Hugh parish priest in 1505. Some or all of these may have been, like Hayward, assistants to Horneby, of whose death or vacation of the living no record has been found.

There is evidence, lacking corroboration, that Roger Iocket was taxed as Rector of Beckenham in 1504, but it is quite possible that he was the next incumbent, although in 1487 he had become rector of the adjoining parish of Lewisham, and in 1493 was nominated rector of St. Nicholas, Cole Abbey, London. He resigned Lewisham in I53°> but at death in 1532 was still Rector of Beckenham and St. Nicholas. How he divided his time between his three cures is not to be known, but that Beckenham was not altogether handed over to the care of “Sir” William Sye, priest (1525) and “Sir” David, curate (1531), is shown by the rector’s own signature to the will of Joan Ffarant, who died in 152L

In March, 1532-3, ELIZEUS or ELLIS Bodley was instituted to the living by Bishop Fisher. He was related to the Gresham family, and had been vicar of Braintree, Essex, from 1527 to 1530. While still holding Beckenham, he was presented in 1534 by the Grocers’ Company to St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, London, and in 1537 he was given a prebendal stall at Wells. He was unanimously elected Proctor in Convocation for Rochester in 1533, and was still Proctor in 1542, and he remained rector throughout the difficult days of Henry VIII., dying early in 1548. He left directions in his will, which was dated September 2nd, 1547, that he was to be buried in the parish church “ where it fortuned him to decease,” but although the absence of his name from the then newly instituted register is not conclusive evidence that he did not die in Beckenham, it is perhaps more likely if he died in either of his parishes that it was in Walbrook.

There is a reference in the Rochester Consistorial Rolls to Bodley having exchanged in 1533 with Robert Truelove or Truslove, but exchanges at that period were very rare, and Bodley was clearly Rector of Beckenham 'n 1535» 1536, I544> and 1547* in all of which years he acted as witness or executor of local wills. He had as assistants “ Sir ” Thomas Capulwood, parish priest 1535, Peter Kekewich (or Racwyche), “my ghostly father and curate (1541—1545)> and Robert Fferon, clerk, curate (1546). Kekewich who was buried in the churchyard, left instructions that there should be at his burial “ five priests at the least in the worship.”

ROBERT Cosen, or COSYN, succeeded on Bodley’s death in 1548- In the previous year he had become a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, where he had graduated B.A. in 1533, and in 1545 had been appointed vicar of St. Laurence, Jewry, London, and a prebendary of St. Paul’s Cathedral. In the same year that he came to Beckenham he was presented to the far away living of Crick, Northamptonshire; but distance had seemingly no significance to Robert Cosen, who besides being Precentor and Treasurer of St. Paul’s in 1558, became in the same year rector of Great Greenford, Middlesex, and in the next of Frampton, Dorset. He appears to have been deprived of his preferment at St. Paul’s in 1559' His occasional presence in Beckenham is indicated by his signature as witness to the codicil of the will of Sir Humphrey Style in 1552, and it is possible that some of his duty there was taken by his father, John Cosen, who died in March 1553~4* and is described in the register as “ parson,” his wife Agnes having died in the previous November. Other assistants to Cosen were Robert Sherlock or Strongclowe (1549), Robert Parrott (1556), John Smith, who was buried in the churchyard, I557> and “Sir” Hugh Taylor, who was buried November I oth, 1560.

Cosen seems to have died early in 1559-60, and on March 14th in that year William Gravesend, who was presented to the living by Queen Elizabeth, paid first-fruits, but he was never instituted to the living, and on April 30th first-fruits were again paid by JOHN CALVERLEY, who was duly instituted also on the Queen’s presentation by Bishop Geste. He was a son of Sir Walter Calverley, and was a fellow of All Souls’ College, Oxford, when he took the B.C.L. degree June 26th, 1555. Simultaneously he held several livings in the diocese, being vicar of Darenth (x557-1561), rector of Stone (1559 to death), and rector of Cliffe at Hoo (1572 to death), and was Chancellor and Archdeacon of Rochester. Wherever he may have lived, he died at Beckenham, and was buried there July 4th, 1576. He had desired to be buried, “if I dye in Beckenham as near to my sister “Elizabeth as conveniently may be.” “Sir” Thomas was acting as his curate in 1563.

Calverley was succeeded by THOMAS LLOYD, a native of Cardigan, who had been educated at Christchurch, Oxford, and when instituted to Beckenham by Bishop Piers, was already a canon of Hereford, a canon and treasurer of St. David’s, and incumbent of at least two Welsh livings. In 1586 he became also vicar of Birling, Kent, and within a year or two became responsible for two other cures of souls, one in Pembrokeshire and another in Cardiganshire. It is not surprising to find that Lloyd was not a constant resident in Beckenham, and that he let the rectory to his brother Griffith Lloyd, with an agreement that Griffith’s widow should she so become " should “enjoy and possess the parsonage house for one year, bearing all charges “and paying £w rent for that year and then to depart.” So it is set out in the will of Griffith, who left but his prayers to his brother, who had also leased to him the “corps” of his treasurership of St. David’s. Griffith Lloyd was himself a man of some eminence, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford (1572-1586), a fellow of All Souls’ College, and Regius Professor of Civil Law. He resigned his University appointments to become Member of Parliament for Cardigan in 1586, and died the following year, leaving his wife in possession of Beckenham rectory. It looks as though he may have taken some of his brother’s duty there, as his name is found in the place usually taken by the parson as witness to a will in 1578; but there were curates also, and from 1585 to 1589 various wills are witnessed by Richard Hayes, Minister, a daughter “Lettice” of Peter Punter “minister” was baptised in 1607, while later, in 1612 and 1613, Jonathan Stockwood signs two notes in the flyleaf of the Parish Register as curate.

Thomas Anyan, who was next appointed, was one of the most remarkable men who have filled the position, though so great were his activities in other directions that Beckenham can hardly be supposed to have received much benefit from his presence or attention. A Kentish man, having been born at Sandwich, in February, 1583, Anyan was sent to Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1594, and in 1601 was transferred to Corpus Christi College, as a member of which he took his various degrees, including that of Doctor of Divinity, and was elected a probationary fellow; In 1612 when he was already chaplain to Lord Chancellor Egerton he obtained a prebendal stall at Gloucester, and the next year he was instituted to the livings of Beckenham and of Ashtead, Surrey. A few months later he was elected in the face of considerable opposition President of Corpus, the duties of which office must in any circumstances have made serious calls on his time, and in his case, perhaps, more than usual as he was harried by relentless enemies.

Some scandal undoubtedly attached to his name, and in 1624 the King, whose Chaplain, he had become, was petitioned for an enquiry by means of a Royal Commission into the “enormous offences” of the President. Persistent attempts were made to depose him, and at length in April, 1629, he resigned his position and was instituted to Crawley, Sussex on the resignation of John Holt, who succeeded him in the presidency. In January, 1633, he died at Canterbury of the smallpox, and it is stated, was “ buried ignominiously by his wife Martha.” Two sermons by Anyan were published, one preached at St. Mary’s, Oxford, on Act Sunday, 1612, and the other at St. Mary Spittle, in 1615: they have been described as “moderately Calvinistic " but without any leaning to Puritanism.”

How long Thomas Anyan retained the living of Beckenham is not known, but it was probably only until 1621, in which year WILLIAM SKINNER was instituted. Skinner, who was a native of Ledbury, Herefordshire, was born in 1593, and matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1609. In 1621 he paid to King James first-fruits of the living at Beckenham, and in 1622 married Mary, daughter of Edmund Style, the “protestant squire,” and was later a prebendary, a canon and chancellor of Hereford. His daughter Elizabeth was buried in the Church, and her tomb, which no longer exists, bore the following inscription: —

“ Scire cupis (studiose lector) cujus oculos perpetuus sopor hie urget “ cujusque caput hoc marmor supprimit ? En oculi pulchri & caput splend . . “intacti corporis et tenerae v . . . generos Elizabeths Skinner quae filia “ fuit domini Gulielmi Skinner legum doctoris Herefordiae cancellarij & hujus ecclesis rectons observantissime clanssiroa & maxima natu.

“ obijt anno salutis       1642    10 Aprilis

aetatis 18         & die Paschae ”

(Would’st know enquiring reader whose are the eyes whose are here closed with eternal sleep and whose the head which this stone covers ?

They are the beauteous eyes and noble head of the lady Elizabeth Skinner of stainless body and gentle life, the most dutiful, most dear and eldest daughter of Sir William Skinner, LL.D, Chancellor of Hereford, and Rector of this Church, who died In the year of salvation 1642  on 10th April of her age 18 and Easter Day).

Skinner was probably more often absent from, than present at, Beckenham after 1631, when he became a resident canon at Hereford, and it is significant that during nearly the whole of his tenure of the rectory, the parish registers were signed from 1625 to 1644 in the clear and beautiful writing of Richard Lever as “minister.” Lever and his wife Anna had nine children, who were baptized in the Parish Church. Whether absent or present in 1644, Skinner was in that year under sequestration, and disputes were rife as to who should pay the taxes due on the lands of “ the late “ rector.” The like fate fell to him at Hereford, when the Committee ordered on March 7th, 1645, that his goods were not to be removed without their leave, and took away his prebendal house with its appurtenances to bestow them on one of their own number.

Skinner died in 1647, presumably in retirement, and there is no direct evidence of any successor being appointed in those troublous times preceding and following his death until July 15th, 1657, when upon the presentation of the Lord Protector under the Great Seal, JOHN STORER was admitted to the rectory of Beckenham. It is possible, however, that this Commonwealth intruder was then merely confirmed in duties he had already assumed as there was formerly a monument in the Church to Elizabeth Christmas, whose daughter Joanna was wife of John Storer, Minister, and who died in 1653, and in 1650, John Storer, “an able Minister put in by Parliament” preached twice every Lord’s Day. Less than a year after his formal admission to Beckenham Storer was transferred to St. Martin Vintry, London, his place at Beckenham being taken by Roger CLISSOLD, a young Oxonian of Lincoln College, who was admitted March 26th, 1658, on a presentation exhibited by M/illiam Skinner, the patron. "In good King Charles’s golden “days” when Church order was restored Clissold found himself able to step into line with it, and was confirmed in the living, which he held until his death in 1676, having been appointed Surrogate in 1670. Roger Clissold was in considerable request for drawing the wills of his parishioners, with whom he seems to have been influential and popular, as he is more than once mentioned in wills as “ my loving friend ” and appointed sole executor and residuary legatee. He was even called in to prepare the will of John Scott, who had married Dame Hester, the widow of Sir Humphrey Style, and was living at Langley; but the will was never executed, for Clissold having taken it home, “to write it out fair,” John Scott grew rapidly worse and died before it could be returned. That Clissold was a married man is shown in the registers, where are the names of his wife, buried in 1665, and two of his sons who, moreover, while still under ten years of age were left £20 apiece under the will of Mrs. Joanna Bosvile.

The St. John family, who had in the reign of Charles I. obtained complete possession of the advowson from the descendants of the de Bruyns, presented Dr. WILLIAM ASSHETON to the vacancy created by Clissold’s death. He was of a good Lancashire family, son of William Assheton, rector of Middleton in that County, and was born in 1641. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow, and might later have been Principal had he wished. Thanks to the affectionate interest of his friend and admirer, Thomas Watts, rector of Orpington and St. Mary Cray, who in 1714, some time after Assheton’s death, published a biography of him, many more details of his life and its methods are known to us than of most other rectors.

On leaving Oxford Assheton became chaplain to the Duke of Ormonde, who procured his appointment to the living of St. Antholin, London, and his translation thence to “ his darling retirement of Beckenham,” where he quickly gained the respect of the neighbouring clergy and the love of his parishioners as “ an honest, regular clergyman indeed, no pluralist, no popular or ambitious time-server, no purchaser of steeples, or careless non-resident, but one who most consistently discharged all respective duties.” It is recorded, almost as if it was extraordinary, that he duly observed religious feasts and fasts, holy and litany days, and, above all, every Sabbath day, when he not only preached twice but in the summer months catechized also. Moreover, he published in 1701 an Exposition of the Church Catechism, with a preface to the inhabitants of the Parish of Beckenham, in Kent, in which he earnestly desired parents to assist him by instructing their children privately at home to say their daily prayers and to repeat their catechism. As he grew older and began to find his work harder, he appointed an assistant to whom the catechizing was specially entrusted. This fortunate curate received a stipend of £30 a year with five shillings extra for every Sunday, and on all Church days he had his meals at the Rectory, a privilege which with other gifts and advantages was considered as making his position worth £50 a year. Such a salary in the opinion of Mr. Watts, of Orpington, though too little for a family was a good allowance for a single minister, but at the same time he did not think that any less should be given.

As a preacher Dr. Assheton enjoyed considerable reputation, and that he made a deep impression on the minds of some of his congregation is shewn by the story of a devout lady-parishioner, who one Sunday thanked him particularly for his sermon, which, she said, she remembered he had preached fifteen years before and which she had always wished to hear again. It is said that the rector was pleased! In his early days Assheton had preached extempore, but having once been dis-countenanced by a woman fainting in church, he never afterwards entered the pulpit without his notes.

Great hospitality was shewn at the rectory under the management of Assheton’s sister until her death, when her brother at the age of forty- eight married Mrs. Anne Peache, a widow of Rotherhithe, “ A truly virtuous “ wife, tho’ very sickly, for whom he set up his coach.” Guests were entertained daily except on fast days, and the more often they came the more they were welcome, but the only set meal—possibly to the curate’s dissatisfaction—was dinner, at which the rector took a glass of wine, contenting himself during the rest of the day with warm ale and tea.

Assheton died on Sunday, September 9th, 1711, and was buried in the chancel of the Church. He is best known as the author of a scheme for providing annuities for the widows of clergy and others, which was the first on a large scale in the direction of modern life insurance, and was adopted by the Mercers’ Company in 1698, but being based on insufficient knowledge of vital statistics, was in its original form a failure. Besides his work on the Catechism Assheton published several theological books of but little permanent interest. He has been described, not unjustly, as more of a compiler than an original writer.

The Churchwardens’ book, which was not long ago discovered in a private library and presented to the Rector and Churchwardens for the time being, dates from 1686, and its institution may have been inspired by Assheton.

THOMAS Clerke, who was presented to the living on the death of Assheton by Sir Henry St. John, was rector for fifty-four years, but his long tenure of office left little mark on the parish. He was elected procurator in the Diocesan Synod in 1754. His son John was godson to Sir John Elwill, and was in all probability the husband of Jane Clerke, whose tombstone in the Church is distinguished by an inscription which was composed by Thomas Gray. John Clcrke, a “ doctor of physick,” was married by license to Jane Brome, in Beckenham, in 1753, and they settled at Epsom, then becoming famous as a health resort, but not for them, as their married life was cut short by her death in 1757. There is no memorial to the old rector himself, who died in 1765. His curates were R. Nicholas, John Smith and Nevil Maskelyne, and in his time Humphrey Style, Sir John Elwill, Hugh Raymond and two Peter Burrells were all buried in the Church.

Clerke was succeeded by WILLIAM FRAIGNEAU, on the presentation of Frederick, Viscount Bolingbroke. Born in 1717> *n London, he was the son of John Fraigneau, the representative of a Huguenot family. He was a Queen’s scholar at Westminster School, and went thence in 1736 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained the respective degrees in the Arts m !739 and 1743. Having taken orders, he was elected a fellow of his college, and became professor of Greek to the University from 1743 175O1 when he resigned the post and accepted that of tutor to the family of Lord Bolingbroke, who in 1758 presented him to the family living of Battersea. Three years later his patron promised him Beckenham also, and a dispensation was obtained in 1765 permitting him to hold the two livings simultaneously. And so he held them both until his death, which took place at Brighton in 1778. He was described by Cole (A.M. Cantab.) as “ a little man of great iife ancj vivacity.” He had as curates at Beckenham Francis Leathes, R. Nicholas, William Bearcroft and Bertram Russell.

The Manor of Beckenham had in 1773 been sold to John Cator byLord Bolingbroke, who, however, reserved the advowson to himself, but afterwards disposed of it to Joseph Rose, of Doncaster, whose son, WILLIAM R0SE, became rector in 1778. He was born in 1751, and was a M.A. of Exeter College, Oxford He was presented in the same year as to Beckenham to the living of Carshalton, the advowson of which still belongs to the Cator family. Though he remained rector for more than half a century, his chief claim to memory is as the builder of that “ neat parsonage “ house in a very pleasant situation—the existing rectory. The names of ten at least of his curates will be found in the appended chronological list. Of one of them, George Fletcher, a memorial was placed in the Church, recording that he had been an inhabitant of Beckenham for sixty years.

THE REVEREND CHARLES CATOR     

RECTOR OF BECKENHAM   1829-1835

On the death of Rose in 1829, John B. Cator, of Beckenham, who had then obtained the presentation, gave the living to his brother, CHARLES CATOR, who was born in 1786, and was a member of Brasenose College, Oxford, where he took the B.A. degree in 1810. He also was rector of Carshalton, as well as of Kirksmeaton, and probably left much of his local work to his curates, Challis Paroissien, Elijah Smith and W. Hardy Venn; but in 1S35 he exchanged the living of Beckenham for that of Stokesley, Yorkshire, where he remained until his death. He married a member of the Osbaldistone family, famous in the traditions of sport, and is said to have been very handsome and very extravagant.

His partner in the exchange of Stokesley for Beckenham was LEVESON VERNON Harcourt, the second son of the Archbishop of York. He was born in 1788, and had married in 1815 the Hon. Caroline Mary Peachey, daughter of John, second Lord Selsey. Mrs. Harcourt was an active worker among the poor, but her husband was not strong, and delegated his more strenuous labours to his curates (Francis Storr 1835, C. F. Bury 1835, C. F. Bourdillon 1837-8, and Marshall Hall Vine 1837-1849), while he himself found recreation in driving a coach-and-four. His name appears only once in the registers, when he officiated at the marriage of Francis Storr, but he published several sermons and a learned work on “ The Doctrine of the Deluge.” On the death of his brother-in-law, who had become Lord Selsey, he resigned the living and went to reside at West Dean, Sussex, where, though he took no regular work, he gave what help he could to the neighbouring clergy.

He was made Chancellor of York, and died July 28th, i860. On the resignation of Harcourt in 1S38, the living was presented to the Rev. ANDREW Brandram, who was already well-known in Beckenham, having been curate to Rose from 1816 to 1827. The son of Samuel Brandram, of Lee, Kent, he was born in 1791, and at the age of seventeen gained an exhibition at Oriel College, Oxford, where he later took a “ double first ” in classics and mathematics. He left his curacy at Beckenham to become minister of the Savoy Chapel and secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which latter post he retained till his death. He was considered an eloquent preacher, and, according to the inscription on his monument, which is now at the west end of the north aisle, “ devoted a vigorous intellect and “ benevolent disposition during a life too short for all but himself to the “ proclaiming of the unsearchable riches of Christ and to promoting the "distribution of the Holy Scriptures." His son, Samuel, was well-known as a reciter of Shakespeare’s plays, and his only daughter married George Smith, D.D., first Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong. Brandram died December 26th, 1850, aged sixty, and the living was then given to Frederick Skene Courtenay Chalmers, vicar of South Mailing, and the son-in-law and former curate of Dr. Marsh, rector of Leamington. Chalmers was born June 14th, 1804, at Cornwallis, in Nova Scotia, his grandfather, Colonel Des Barres, having been recently appointed governor of Prince Edward Island, and his father having obtained a civil appointment there. The Chalmers family returned to England in 1807, and the boy was educated at Richmond, at Ealing, where John Henry Newman was head of his school, and at Marischal College, Aberdeen. He obtained a cadetship in the Madras Army, and sailed for India in 1821. He served in the first Burmese war of 1825, and in 1827 was appointed Staff-Officer at St. Thomas’ Mount, the headquarters of the Madras Artillery. He was nominated to the charge of a district of Mysore with a million-and-a-half of its inhabitants under his control. He retained this appointment till 1842, when he returned to England, a widower, with one little boy. He resigned the service in 1843, and was ordained in June of that year to St. Mary’s, Leamington, where he remained as curate to his father-in-law for neaily six years. On his L coming to Beckenham, one of Chalmers’ first proceedings was to invite his father-in-law, whose increasing years tended to make his. work at Leamington too much for his strength, to join him in the occupation of his pleasant rectory. Marsh fell in with the proposal, and helped Chalmers by preaching once on every Sunday and giving an address on every Wednesday, so that Beckenham became well known among the Evangelical school in connexion with his name. The building of the Crystal Palace and subsequently of the Railway, brought large numbers of navvies to the neighbourhood, and the labours of Chalmers’ sister-in-law, Catherine Marsh, among them were recorded in several pamphlets, while her life of Hedley Vicars, the gallant young soldier who perished at Sebastopol, and who had been engaged to her niece, made Beckenham Church distinguished as containing a tablet to his memory. Chalmers kept up great interest in the army with which he had served so long, and found a link with it in the East India Company’s Military Training College of Addiscombe, whose cadets were welcomed and encouraged to find a home at Beckenham Rectory.

   THE Revd. FREDERICK C. S. CHALMERS.

     RECTOR OF BECKENHAM 1851-1873.

 Beckenham was fast changing from a village to a large residential suburb: the little Parish Church was all insufficient for the needs of the inhabitants, and was supplemented by the Church of St. Mary, at Short- lands, which was built by Conrad Wilkinson, and in the other direction by St. Paul’s, New Beckenham. In 1873 Chalmers resigned, and was presented to the living of Nonington by Archbishop Tait—-he died in 1885. His assistant clergy at Beckenham included Thomas Lloyd Phillips, who established the Abbey School, S. Tomkins, Henry F. Wolley, Frederick Brown and William C. Upton.

William Cator, brother of the patron succeeded Chalmers. He was born August 26th, 1839, and was educated at Bromsgrove and St. John’s College, Oxford. On his return from a visit to Australia he was ordained, in 1870, to a curacy at Great Yarmouth. His views on ecclesiastical questions differed widely from those of Chalmers, and he encountered considerable opposition and mistrust in his efforts to carry out the prescriptions of the Prayer Book as to daily services, the practice of which had for long been foreign to Bedenham. His simple, straightforward character, however, in time wore down hostility and suspicion, while, thanks to his unstinting generosity, the difficulties of providing fresh centres of worship in the still developing parish on the Birkbeck Estate at Elmers End and at Beck's Lane (now known as Churchfields Road) were overcome. Cator, in fact, spent nearly the whole of his income from the rectory for the benefit of Beckenham and in promoting charitable work. Owing largely to his diffident and sensitive temperament, he was never satisfied with his work or its proQress, and confronted with the necessity of enlarging or rebuilding the old Parish Church and with other difficulties, he convinced himself that his duties could be more efficiently carried out by another, and in 1885 resigned the living in favour of the Rev. Henry Arnott, vicar of Bussage, Gloucestershire, his former curate. Cator, after his retirement from Beckenham took up work as a curate under Dr. Linklater, at Stroud Green, where he remained for fifteen years, when he accepted the living of Stratton Strawless, Norfolk; here he died June 6th, 1902. He had married soon after he d^me to Beckenham the Hon. Isabel Anne Ord.

THE REVEREND HENRY ARNOTT, F.R.C.S.

HON. CANON OF ROCHESTER.

RECTOR AND RURAL DEAN OF BECKENHAM.

Henry Arnott was born at Brighton and educated at University College. Although he was himself desirous at the age of sixteen of going to Oxford with the view of subsequently taking Holy Orders, his father and uncle, who were both physicians, wished him to adopt medicine as a profession, and he matriculated at London University. After his training at university College Hospital he was house-physician and house-surgeon, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1868. After acting as surgical registrar and pathologist and surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, he was elected on the Surgical staff of the new St. Thomas s Hospital when it was opene at Westminster Bridge, and appointed lecturer on surgical pathology. Besides bemg a member of the Councils of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society  Mr. Arnott wrote many papers on professional subjects, and was the author of a book on "Cancer: its Varieties and Diagnosis” He resigned his hospital appointments in 1876 in order to undertake a course of  study at Chichester Theological College, on the completion of which. he was ordained by Archbishop Tait to the curacy at Beckenham. In 1881 he was presented to the living of Bussage, Gloucestershire, where he remained until summoned back to Beckenham as rector. He was elected Rural Dean of West Dartford in igo2, and when in 1905 the deanery was restored to the see of Rochester, from which it had been severed in 1845, to be attached to Canterbury, he was appointed honorary Canon of Rochester. He was chosen Proctor in Convocation for the diocese in 1906, and is now Rural Dean of Beckenham, the rural deanery of West Dartford having been sub-divided into those of Bromley and Beckenham.

 

  

HEADSTONES: BECKENHAM CHURCHYARD.

And so ends, it may be hoped for a long time, the roll of the Rectors of Beckenham. A list of their names and those of their curates, so far as is known, is appended.

Rectors.		Curates.
William de Knapton.	1294
William Bush.	1310
John Bush.	1314
Robert de Sancto Laudo.	1333
Richard de Saxlingham.	1361
John Warner.	1368
Henry Green.	1374
John de Elme.	1375
John Martham.	1388
Thomas Kent
John Cowesby.	1418
Peter Meade.	1437
Walter Adam.	1443
John Belchamp.	1445
John Thurston.	1446	“ Sir ” William, parish priest.
William Malham.	1446
Richard Tressburgh.	1458	‘‘Sir” Stephen Hayward, parish priest of Beckenham.
William Horneby.	1465	“ Sir ” Thomas, curate.
		“Sir” Robert Rutter, priest.
		11 Sir ” Richard Dalby, parish priest. “Sir” Ralph Boscow, or Burshaw, chaplin of the parish church.
		“Sir” Hugh, parish priest.
Roger Tocket.	1504	“Sir” William Sye, priest
		Sir ” David, curate.
Elizaeus Bodley.	1533	“Sir” Thomas Capulwood, parish priest.
		Peter Kekewich, “ my ghostly father and curate.”
		Robert Fferon, clerk, curate.
		R. Strongesclowe.
		Robert Sherlocke. Robert Parrott.
Robert Cosen, or Cosyn.	1548	John Smith, priest. “Sir” Hugh Taylor.
William Gravesend.	1560	“Sir” Thomas, curate.
John Calverley.	1560	Griffith Lloyd.
Thomas Lloyd.	1576	Richard Haics, or Hayes, Minister. Peter Punter.
		Jonathan Stockwood.
Thomas Anyan.	1613	Richard Lever, Minister.
William Skinner	1621
	John Storer	1650
	Roger Clissold	1658
Roger Clissold	1661
William Assheton.	1677	Richard Peter.
Thomas Clerke.	1711	Epiphany Holland. John Smith.
		R. Nicolas.
		Nevil Maskelyne.
William Fraigneau.	1765	Francis Leathes. William Bearcroft. Bertram Russell.
		F. Archard.
William Rose.	1778	John Mayor.
		George Fletcher.
		J. H. Brasier.
		Joseph A. Stephenson.
		R. Cholmeley.
		George Cornelius Gorham. Thomas Bartlett.
		Henry Cockeran.
		Erskine Neale.
		Andrew Brandram.
		Frederick Leicester.
		Joseph Fenn.
Charles Cator	1829	Challis Paroissien.
		Elijah Smith.
		W. Hardy Venn.
Leveson Vernon Harcourt	1835	Francis Storr.
		Charles A. Bury.
		C.    F. Bourdillon.
		Marshall Hall Vine.
		N. V. Fenn.
Andrew Brandram	1838	S. Tomkins.
		H. F. Clerk.
		Henry F. Ralph.
Frederick Courtenay Skene Chalmers	1851	Thomas Lloyd Phillips.
		E.    H. Knight.
		J. C. Pinney.
		W. Prosser.
		R. M. Hawkins.
		Henry F. Wolley.
		Frederick Brown.
		F.     Howlett.
		William C. Upton.
		D.   J. Drakeford.
William Cator	1873	John Andrews Foote.
		Charles Dent.
		Charles A. Baker.
		Francis H. Murray.
		Arthur Dunn.
		Alfred Barber.
		Henry Arnott.
		P. Clementi-Smith.
		J. Campbell.
		Edward Rivaz Fagan (to 1895). Edward Graham.
		J. A. Bruce.
		Warwick Elwin (to 1892).
Henry Arnott	1885	Theophilus L. Taylor (to 1886).
		Arthur J. Fletcher.
		G.   B. Howard.
		Harry H. Bartrum.
		T. E. F. Cole.
		J. H. Martin.
		H. W. Jordan.
		A. M. Calcutt.
		James Parker.
		W. M. Woodward.
		A. J. McM. Dutton. Edward Graham.
		Henry F. Gipps.
		Walter St. John Field.
		J. W. Stenson.
		Theodore T. Norgate. .
		Alex. N. Armstrong.
		Mountford Benbow
		Harold Musgrave.
		W. C. E. Partridge.
		Percy H. Lea.
		Francis N. Heazell.
		G.   H. Morgan Smith.
		H.   Mansell.
		Ronald Ringrose.
		Lionel E. Cree.
		C.J.Ritson

The following are the Vicars of the parishes which have been carved out of the ancient Ecclesiastical parish of Beckenham

(to be added)

 CHAPTER XII.

THE OLD WORKHOUSE.

We have been unable to find any record which shows how the site of the old workhouse became vested in the Parish, but it was probably given by the Style family, with whose money the adjoining field of “ Cow Lees,” or Five-acre Piece was purchased in 1674. It was supposed, however, by the Commissioners in their report made in 1836, that the site of the old workhouse never formed part of Cow Lees as the garden appeared to have done. The site had, however, for many years been treated as part of the Style bequest, and this was so stated in the application made to the Charity Commissioners in 1877.

A statute passed in the forty-third year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth gave power to parishes to provide habitations on the waste or common for the lame, impotent, old, blind, and those who were unable to work, and it may be that the Beckenham workhouse was erected under the provisions of this Act, and from its position it might have been built on part of the waste, or it may have been erected under the powers given to parishes in the ninth year of George I. In 1782 it was expressly provided that the able-bodied poor should not be required to enter the workhouse, the use of which was to be confined exclusively to the aged, impotent and infant poor, and the Guardians were compelled to find work near their houses for all applicants able and professing to be willing to work, but unable to get employment, and to make up any supposed deficiency of wages out of the Poor Rates. In 1815 the legislature went to the length of providing that relief was to be paid to poor persons at their homes, and the Justices were empowered to order relief to be given. Able-bodied pauperism had grown to such an alarming extent, especially under these more recent Acts, that at the end of the reign of George III. Select Vestries were appointed, the members of which to a certain extent superseded the powers of the Overseers and Justices.

There were frequent deliberations at Beckenham about this time as to the best means of employing the able-bodied paupers, and it was decided in 1817 to employ parishioners out of employment in digging gravel at 6s. a week. In 1819 men able to work and applying for relief were to be sent to the City Farm House at Islington. In 1821 the Select Vestry decided to employ men to sift gravel for the roads at 8d. a load, giving preference to those who were married, and to employ single men on the roads at is. per day, and the Surveyor was instructed to see that the men did a fair day’s work, and to discharge those who did not do so, while these were not to be employed again without an order of the Vestry; and in the same year the Vestry requested a Mr. McCormick, who was about to form a new road on his property, to employ men out of work, and thus relieve the Poor Rate. In 1831 the poor were to be employed in spade husbandry on additional land to be rented by the Churchwardens and Overseers. In *832 there were large applications for relief, and in September of that year eighteen men out of employment were set to dig Parish lands at 3d. a rod. The Beckenham Select Vestry was appointed in 1820, and the Workhouse was administered by this body until it was closed in 1836, when no doubt Beckenham was formed into one of the parishes under the Bromley Union.

A comparison of the Poor Rate in the early part of last century with that of the present time is instructive, and shows that the people of Beckenham have financially benefited by the amendments in the Poor Law.

The following are fair samples of the rates paid by our forefathers.

 

The beneficial effect of the amendment in the Poor Law was immediately felt in Beckenham, when the rates were enormously decreased, as appears from the following: —

1/- in 1838.

9d. in 1839.

6d. in 1843.

8d. in 1844.

Ihe Old Workhouse in Beckenham stood on the south side of Bromley Road, near Oakery Cottage, at the entrance to the old Green Lane, or, as the present wide thoroughfare is now called, “ Oakwood Avenue.” There must still be people in Beckenham who as children remember the Blouse, and from the old books and from descriptions supplied to us, it would appear that it was a two-stcried building with two attics in the roof. On the first floor were two bedrooms, a room for the children with a railed door across the stairs, and a store which was also used as a sitting-room for the women paupers. On the ground floor was a kitchen or parlour for the Master, a Committee room, and a hall in which some of the cooking was done and in which the paupers took their meals. There was also a large bedroom or ward, probably used for the male inmates and casual poor. The lock-up room was also on the ground floor, and was, it is perhaps unnecessary to say, scantily furnished—with a chaff bed and a blanket; it had, however, a fire grate, a convenience which was wanting in nearly all the other apartments. The offices comprised a mangle room, washhouse (laid with Yorkshire pavement at 8d. per foot in 1776), two pantries and sheds, and there was a cellar under the building. The furniture, as might be expected in a building of this character, was of the most meagre description, and even the master’s parlour, which had a stove, was without luxuries. It may well-be, however, that paupers past work were allowed to bring what little furniture they had into the House, as was the case in 1818, so that although the amount of furniture in the rooms appears to have been insufficient, it is possible that the Overseers in making the inventories, ignored furniture which was the property of the inmates.

There were fourteen bedsteads in all, so that on cccasions when the House was accommodating over twenty-four persons, overcrowding must have taken place to a large extent. Lights were not apparently allowed except in the hall, which was lighted with three candlesticks, and it was here no doubt that the meals were taken, as there were three tables (the only ones mentioned in the house) and seven forms. Occupation was found for the male inmates in the garden adjoining the House and in wood splitting, and, as there is mention made of seven pestles and mortars, boxes and bags “ for glass ” and blocks, it would appear that some industry connected with glass powder, possibly the manufacture of glass paper, was carried on. The women would find occupation in the washhouse with its two coppers and oven, and in the mangle room with its oak mangle and ironing-board, and they would probably also work in the garden and cook the meals. Mention is made of one pair of knitting needles (kept with two “ safe guards ” and a straight waistcoat in the Committee Room), so that the necessary stockings were probably made by the paupers. Pork was bred on the premises, which had piggins and a pickling tub, and it is to be hoped that the pig derived more sustenance from the pig-tub which stood in the yard, than the paupers could have done from their dietary. The supply of towels for the whole establishment never exceeded eight, but as there is no mention made of any conveniences for washing, the ablutions were probably made under the pump in the yard. The supply of sheets for the fourteen bedsteads never exceeded twenty-nine, and a feature in the inventories is made of the one flannel gown, used no doubt for the invalids; there was only one pillow case, perhaps for the master!

The paupers were, no doubt, allowed to use their own clothes so long as they lasted, otherwise it is difficult to reconcile the lists of the clothes in use with the number of paupers in the house from time to time. That this was so appears from the fact that in 1822 one Hannah Upton was ordered to the House, “ but not to be cloathed,” and in 1823 Mathew Edwards applied for a shirt and pair of small-clothes, and it was agreed to give them to him until he left the House. Jackets, hats, waistcoats, trousers, check flannel-shirts, boots, stockings and neck-handkerchiefs were supplied to the men, with great-coats for cold weather. Ihe women had bonnets or caps, and wore gowns of camlet, serge or print, with aprons and shawls. There seems to have been no special clothing for the children. The women were supplied with night-caps, and there were in 1835 two bed-gowns for the children, but with these exceptions, no night attire appears to have been supplied.

BECKENHAM, 1824

Feeding the paupers was, until 1833, a matter of contract with the master, who in 1776 got 2s. 6d. per week per head during the spring and summer, and 3s. in winter. In addition to feeding and clothing the paupers, the master had to teach the children. In 1801 the master was allowed 5s. per head as he had lost money on his contract, and in 1805, when a woman (Mrs. Sarah Hunt) was appointed, she was allowed 4s. 6d., and in 1808 she received a bonus of £10 10s. on account of the dearness of provisions. In 1824 William Hunt was appointed in the place of his mother, and was allowed 4s. per head, an additional 6d. being granted in 1825 “on account “of the high price of provisions.” In 1833 the contract system came to an end, and the office of Master of the Workhouse and Assistant Overseer was combined, John Higham being appointed in March of that year (out of thirty-one applicants), his wife being matron. The salary was fixed at £60 per annum, and the Select Vestry took upon itself the supply of provisions and probably clothing also. The following were the articles for which tenders were invited, with the prices: —

Clods sticking free from bone and mutton for the sick, 2/8 per stone.

Meat for the master’s table, 4/- per stone.

Good wheaten bread, 6d. per 41b. loaf.

Flour 43/- per sack—the best household.

Coals 28/- per ton.

Candles 5/9 per doz. lbs.

Soap 50/- per cwt

Cheese 52/- per cwt

Butter 76/- per cwt

Bacon 3/4 per stone.

Split peas 11/- per bushel.

These articles will show the class of fare which the paupers enjoyed, and we may feel sure that, except for those on the sick list, there were not many occasions when the able-bodied paupers were regaled with any meat except bacon. As we have mentioned elsewhere, on the occasion of the Jubilee of King George III., the paupers in the Workhouse had two legs of mutton and one pint of porter each, so that meat was evidently a luxury. There seem to have been several beer stands in the cellar and elsewhere in the House, so probably the usual drink was the common thin small beer.

The comforts of the House were not, as will be seen, very attractive, and it was not an uncommon thing for the inmates to run away, and the lock-up was, we may be sure, often put into use. We find many instances of recalcitrant paupers being ordered by the Vestry to be kept on bread and water, and that the discipline of the House must have been lax is evident from the fact that one, John Bristy, an inmate, was punished for being irregular in his conduct, and often intoxicated. Rules were drawn up in 1822 to “ prevent those in the House from going in and out at their pleasure “ as they have been accustomed to do.” One of these rules was that the names of the inmates were to be called over at least three or four times a day. If this rule was rigidly adhered to, the master’s office was no sinecure. The undertaker’s account for the burial of a pauper in 1780 was only 14s. It is recorded that on April 6th, 1835, William Westbrook went out of the House without leave, and took all his clothes, shoes and hat with him.

The old Workhouse ceased to exist as such in July, 1836 and the Overseers were empowered to let it on lease. In 1S44 was agreecl that it was desirable to repair “the house formerly used as the workhouse an “belonging to the Church,” and to divide it into three or four tenements; and subsequently, Mr. Talman, a tenant of Oakery Cottage, agree to ta e the whole of the workhouse and the adjoining field  held on a fifty years at a rent of £25, and undertook to lay out not less than £300 building, which must by that time have fallen into want of considerable  repair. This offer does not appear to have been accepted, and ultimately the house was pulled down about 1858, and the two old ^ freehold known as “ Brentwode ” and “ Hazelwode ” built on the site. The freehold still remained vested in the Church authorities, and so remained until this, with other Church property, became vested in the official Trustees of Charity Lands, and the income arising from the ground rents of the two houses is now received by the Trustees of the Beckenham Parochial Charities.

There was in existence until a few years ago, a considerable quantity of old apprenticeship Indentures entered into by the Churchwardens and Overseers, binding poor boys to different trades. All of them with the exception of two have unfortunately been destroyed. By one dated 1802, the Churchwardens and Overseers bind one Edward Roots, aged 13 years, “a poor child” of the Parish, to an anchor-smith, of Rotherhithe, until the apprentice should attain the age of twenty-one years. No premium was paid. The other and more interesting Indenture is dated in 1808, and by it a poor boy of the Parish, aged about 11 years (probably illegitimate) is bound by his mother to be an apprentice to learn “the Trade Business Art and Mystery “ of a Chimney Sweeper.” Amongst other duties imposed upon the master was that of supplying the unfortunate boy with a dress suited for the climbing of chimneys, which dress the boy was not to be allowed to wear on the Sabbath Day. The master was also once a week to cause the apprentice “ to be thoroughly washed and cleansed from the soot and dirt “ and to require him to attend the Public Worship of God on the Sabbath “ Day and permit and allow him to receive the Benefit of any other religious “ Instructions.” The apprentice was not to be let out for hire or to be required or forced to climb or go up any chimney which should be “ actually “ on fire,” and generally the master was in all things to treat the apprentice “ with as much humanity and care as the nature of the employment of a “ chimney sweeper will admit of.” One can easily imagine the lot of the unfortunate little boy, and one recalls the description of Mr. Gamfield, the sweep, who “knowing what the dietary of the workhouse was, well knew “that he (Oliver Twist) would be a nice small pattern, just the very thing “ for register stoves.”

Before leaving the subject of the old workhouse it may be of interest to note some of the entries in the old Vestry minutes, such as the following: In 1775 John Warren was ordered to be clothed as follows, “2 shirts, a pair “ of breeches, 2 pairs of stockens, a pair of shoes, a round frock and a hatt ; and in the same year Ann Johnson was to have “ two caps, two shifts, one “ petty coate, two pair of stockings, a pair of shoes, two aprons and a “ handkerchieft,” and again, “ agreed to give Daniel Lewiss £$ to take “ Ann Price apprentice and to cloth her,” and there are many similar entries.

In 1776 ordered “that Edward Smith pay the money for Elizabeth “ Willmott cloathes as are pledged for if they are found to be worth ye “money.” In 1777 the wife of Isaac Osburn was “admitted to the workhouse being delirious,” but the unfortunate husband was ordered later in the year “ to pay 2s. 6d. a week otherwise his wife would be sent home to “him.” In 1784 the Vestry “ordered Mary Howard 5s- to buy her daughter “a pair of shoes and a shift.” In 1797 the master of the workhouse was directed to drive “ all hoggs straying in the Churchyard to the workhouse for the use of the poor. In 1799 Dame Cheesman was ordered to receive “ a pair of sheets.” Paupers of unsound mind were 1 century ago removed to Mr. Talbot’s mad house at Bethnal Green, and tw'o entries to this effect appear in 1806. In 1S11 “ordered Glover’s nurse child one frock, one “pinafore and tw'o shifts.” In 1820 “ordered Sarah Hughes into the work- “ house and to be kept on bread and water one week. In 1821 Thomas “ Gooding applied for work ” was “ ordered to seek it (there is a similar entry two years later), and “ agreed to lend John King of Mitcham £4 to ” buy a hawker’s license.” In 1822 “ Samuel Sanders applied for clothing when “Mr. Brandram (the Curate) was requested to employ Mr. Cooper to fi “ him with a thing of a sort as cheap as he can.” “ Bennets daughter applied “ for relief was refused on account of not keeping her place". 'Samuel Watkins applied for a donkey was refused.” In this year there was a difference of opinion between the Select Vestry and the BromleyBene , having ordered two men of notoriously bad character 7s each per week’' In 1823 John Bentley was refused relief on the ground that “his master having fallen out.” In 1824 William Hollege met with a similar refusal on account of his “ frequent tippling- In the followlng year “Anthony Harding applied for a pair of shoes for a girl who waits “on his wife,” and Sarah Tipper was ordered £l “to furnish her basket.

CHAPTER XIII.

BECKENHAM CHARITIES.

The Charities of Beckenham may be divided into two classes, Parochial and purely Church Charities. The former are administered under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners by a body known as “ The Beckenham Parochial Trustees,” consisting of the Rector, Churchwardens and Overseers ex-officio, five Trustees elected by the Urban District Council (formerly by the Vestry) and five elective Trustees, who are co-opted by the Trustees themselves. The Charities included in the Scheme are (0 Mary Watson’s Charity; (2.) The Charities of Edmund Style and others; (3) Anthony Rawlins’ Alms Houses; (4) Mary Wragg’s Charity; (5) William Fenner’s Charity; and (6) The Marchioness of Exeter’s Charity. We have already referred at some length to the Watson, Rawlins, Wragg, Fenner, and Exeter Chanties, and it is not necessary here to again recapitulate the terms of the several bequests. It may be pointed out, however, that only one of them, the Watson Charity, is educational. Notwithstanding this fact, the Commissioners in formulating the Scheme under which these Charities are now administered, thought fit to divide the income arising from all the Charities, after certain payments to the Alms women and others, equally between education and the poor. Some few years ago an unsuccessful attempt was made to alter the proportions in which the Trustees were compelled to apply the income, and to obtain the sanction of the Commissioners to a larger allowance being given for the benefit of the poor of Beckenham. The introduction of free education in the Public Elementary Schools appeared to the Trustees to be a sufficient reason for their application to reduce the amount assigned under the original scheme to education, but, although the Trustees were unanimous, the Commissioners declined to interfere. This refusal of the Commissioners is the more remarkable as the income from the parish lands has largely increased, as will be seen, since the scheme was first sanctioned.

Briefly, then, the income available for distribution by the Parochial Trustees is distributable as follows:—In the first place, after providing for the expenses of management, the Trustees are to pay to the officiating Curate for preaching two sermons a year in the Parish Church, the sum °f £1 6s. 8d. The Trustees are then, after providing for the repair and maintenance of the almshouses, to pay a weekly stipend of not less than 7s. 6d., or more than 10s., a week to each of the three inmates, who must be poor widows of good character, who shall have resided in Beckenham for not less than three years preceding the time of their appointment, who shall not, during that period have received Poor Law relief, and who from age, ill health, accident, or infirmity, shall be unable to maintain themselves by their own exertions, a preference being given to those persons, who, being otherwise qualified, shall have become reduced by misfortune from better circumstances.

Subject to the above payments the clear net annual income of the Charity is divided into two equal parts. One of such parts has to be applied in the advancement of the education of children, who, or whose parents, are bond-fde resident in Beckenham, and who attend, or have attended, a public Elementary School, in one or more of the following ways: (a) Rewards to children at School; (b) Payments to encourage the continuance of attendance at School; (c) Exhibitions at any place of Education higher than Elementary, or of Technical, Professional, or Industrial Instruction, or in grants to pupil teachers; (d) The maintenance of a Library for the benefit of the scholars in any Public Elementary School in Beckenham; or (*) Providing lectures or evening classes for the benefit of scholars attending, or who have attended, any Public Elementary School in Beckenham.

The remaining moiety of the income is to be expended for the benefit °f deserving and necessitous persons resident in Beckenham, in such a way as shall be considered by the Trustees most advantageous to the recipients, and most conducive to the formation of provident habits. The discretionary powers given to the Trustees in this respect are wide, and they can expend the income in subscriptions to any Dispensary, Infirmary or Hospital, contributions towards the provision of nurses for the sick and infirm including the inmates of the almshouses, contributions towards the purchase of annuities, donations or subscriptions in aid of any local coal, provident or clothing club, or any provident or friendly association, accessible to the inhabitants of Beckenham. The Trustees may also contribute towards the outfit of any infant entering upon a trade, occupation, or service, or may supply clothes, linen, bedding, fuel, tools, medical or other aid in sickness, food or other articles in kind. There is also a further provision that the funds are in no case to be applied directly or indirectly in relief of the Poor Rates of the Parish.

It will thus be seen that the powers of the Trustees, as to that part of the income which is allocated for the benefit of the poor, are sufficiently ample to ensure the proper distribution of the funds available, but the fact remains that the wishes of the original benefactors are not being carried out. The income of the Charities has largely increased, but the number of the poor in Beckenham, although there are many who believe, or affect to believe, that we have no poor, has increased in proportion. There would, at the present time, be no difficulty in disposing of the bread and coals on which the various testators wished their benefactions expended, but the tendency of modern times is to ignore the wishes of those who have passed away and are almost forgotten; and in the present day, when so much is done and, possibly, rightly done, to advance education, one cannot help thinking that some of these old bequests for the benefit of the bodies and not the minds of the recipients might well have been spared. It was alleged, however, that the changes which took place in the character of Beckenham altered the circumstances under which these doles in kind were distributed. From a purely agricultural parish, with a small village for its centre, the district became transformed into a suburb of London. The parish itself was subdivided into districts, each with its own Church and parochial organization, and difficulties arose in the distribution of the doles. Under these circumstances, on August nth, 187;, the then Rector and Churchwardens (the late William Cator, E. J. Athawes and Michael Moore), applied to the Commissioners to appoint Trustees of the Charities, and eventually on September 9th, 1880, the Commissioners made an order establishing a Scheme under which, as slightly altered in 1894, the funds have been administered up to the present day. This Scheme was not established without a considerable amount of opposition, but it cannot be denied that Beckenham has received considerable benefit from the funds annually at the disposal of the Trustees.

The direction that £\ 6s. Sd. is to be paid annually to the officiating Curate of the Parish Church for two sermons will perhaps strike the reader as curious in a scheme dealing with parochial, as distinguished from purely Church charities. The direction is, however, in consequence of legacies bequeathed for this purpose, and in this respect the wishes of the testators have been followed.

The most valuable part of the property administered by the Parochial Trustees is the freehold land on the south side of Oakwood Avenue, where it joins the Bromley Road, formerly known as “ Cow Lees.” The table of benefactions in the Church states that “ Edmund Style, of Langley, Nicholas ‘ Style, Alderman of London, and Sir Humphrey Style, of Langley, Bart., Save £20 each with which total amount of £60 was purchased in 1674 a field called * Cow Lees ’ and a rent charge of 10s. per annum issuing “ out of ‘ Kempsalls Land ’ in this Parish.” Although it is not so stated in this list of benefactions, the sum set aside to provide the yearly payments for sermons, was probably added to the purchase money of “Cow Lees.”

The field so purchased was divided into two parcels, the Five Acre Piece containing 4a. 2r. 33p., and the “ Garden.” The former is described in the terrier of Parish lands, subsequently referred to, as “ all that piece “ and pasture land lying in the Parish and County aforesaid lately bought by the Parishioners for the use and relief of the poor together with ten “ shillings per annum out of the land purchased by Mistress Joan Pyne “ deceased which field is or may be called by the name of ... and “ is sided by the King’s Highway Northward and Southward upon a field called Firzie Field and contains by measure 5- 2- !5-”

This five-acre piece was in 1826 let to Henry Cracklow as a yearly tenant, at what was then considered the high yearly rent of  £12, the “ Garden” was then held by the parish officers with the old workhouse which then adjoined it, and was used as a garden, but it was supposed by the Commissioners in 1836 that the site of the workhouse never formed any part of the Five Acre Piece as the ‘‘Garden” appeared to have done. No rent was at that time paid by the parish officers. The site of the old workhouse has, however, for many years been treated as part of this bequest, and after the building had stood empty for many years, it was pulled down, the present villas, known as “ Brentwode ” and “ Hazelwode,” being built on the site. They bring in an annual rent of £20, and are let on long leases. The rent-charge of 10s. mentioned above as having been purchased in 1674, and as issuing out of Kempsall’s land, was apparently paid by the Styles and Burrells up to Lord Gwydir’s death in 1820, and Kempsalls land ” was presumably situated in part of the Park, now known as Kelsey, for in the conditions of sale of the Gwydir estates in 1820, it is stated that “the Beckenham property is subject to the payment of ten shillings per “ annum to the Parish and is to be paid by the Purchaser of Kelsey Park. The Commissioners in 1836 considered that as the whole of Lord Gwydir’s property had been sold to different purchasers, the identity of the land would have to be clearly ascertained before any claim could effectually be made. The matter remained in abeyance until about twenty years later, when the Parish made a claim on the owner of Langley for the arrears.

Cowlees, the workhouse field and the rent-charge, were by an order of the Court of Chancery, dated July 29th, 1854, vested in the Official Trustee of Charity Lands, and in 1856 the rent-charge was sold and the proceeds invested in £18 4s. 6d. 3 per cent. Consols, the workhouse field being let for building. The £18 4s. 6d. Consols is now represented by £18 19s. iod. India 3 per cent. Stock.

The income arising from the funds of the Parochial Charities has been largely augmented in recent years by the successful letting on building leases of Cow Lees field, on which are now built the houses, 2, 4. 6> 8. 10, 12, 14, and 16, Oakwood Avenue, and Nos, 1, 3, ^ ^ ancj jo, Perth Road, so that the gross yearly income of the Charities amounts to over £280 as against £150 some thirty-five years ago. It is interesting to notice that this large increase in income arises from the original “ Styles bequest,” which in 1786 brought in £5 15s. per annum as against over £150 at the present day. It is regrettable that the old name of “ Cowlees ” was not given to the road passing through the property instead of the present name of Perth Road.

The poor of Beckenham have benefited during recent years by “ The Richard Lea Charity.” On February 16th, 1906, by a Deed of Gift Cornelius Lea Wilson, of The Village Place, founded a Chanty in memory of his grandfather, Richard Lea, with the intent “ that the said Richard Lea “ shall be for ever borne in remembrance by the poor of Beckenham.” The sum of £1,000 2.1/2 per cent. Consolidated Stock was purchased in the names of the Vicar of Christ Church, the Clerk of the Goldsmiths’ Company, and the Rector of Beckenham, who and their successors are to continue to be the Trustees of the Charity. The income is to be applied in gifts of money to persons of good character, at least 40 years of age and who must have lived in Beckenham for at least five years. The recipients must not at any time have received Parochial or Poor Law relief and must not have been convicted of any crime or offence against tire laws of the Realm. The income is distributed at Christmas in each year in sums of not less than £3 nor more than £5 to any one person, and the Trustees have a discretionary power to apply the money in any manner which they may think fit for the benefit of the recipients. The Trustees can accumulate the income if in their opinion there shall be no person eligible for the gifts in any year. This Charity will, we trust, long continue to exist for the benefit of the poor of Beckenham without interference by the Charity or any other Commissioners.

In June, 1850, Col. Samuel Wilson, of Village Place, founded a charity under which the inhabitants of Beckenham still benefit. In the original settlement of certain trust funds to be administered by the Weavers’ Company, the Company were to pay to ten poor parishioners of the Parish of Beckenham not receiving parochial relief, to be yearly selected by the Rector and Senior Churchwarden of Beckenham, the sum of ten shillings each. In 1897 certain questions having arisen as to the construction of the settlement an order was made by the Charity Commissioners directing that the income of the endowment of the Charity constituted by the settlement should, so far as Beckenham was concerned, be applied in paying the ten shillings per annum to such ten poor parishioners of Beckenham, and that after making such payments and other payments amounting at the whole to £20, one-third part of the residue of the income should be applied for the benefit of such poor parishioners of the parish of Beckenham as the Rector and Churchwardens might select.

The other old charities in Beckenham are, with the exception of Tayers, to which we have referred elsewhere, purely Church charities and were so held by the Charity Commissioners in 1877, and the mcome is solely applicable for Church purposes.

These charities are The Churchfields Charity, The Beckenham National School Foundation and The Elmers End National School.

It is stated on the board            of benefactions in the Parish Church as follows:—“Style of Langley aforesaid gave Church Field at “the yearly rent of £2, two acres in Backs Lane at £1 10s. per annum, “Grubs Field at 10s. per annum the donor unknown.” It was stated at the public enquiry which, as already stated, was held as to the Beckenham Charities in 1877, that “ E. Style gave Church field and Two Acre field in “Becks lane also Grubbs field in Becks lane for Church purposes, the rents“ of which had hitherto been applied in aid of Church rates.” Becks, Backs, or Baxes lane is the road lately known as Arthur Road, but now Churchfields Road, which is still called by some of the older inhabitants “ the lane.”

There is an interesting old terrier (copy of the plan on which we reproduce) among the Parish Church records made by one John Adgate in 1680 at the request of Dr. Assheton, the Rector, in which the Parish and Church lands are shown. The plot of pasture land containing 5a. 2r. 15p. shown on the plan is the field known as Cow Lees, to which reference has been made. The pieces of Church land are three in number, namely No. 1, " Churchfields pasture,” ia. ir. 36p., No. 2, “ Churchfields pasture,” 2a. Or. 22p., in Backs Lane, and No. 3, "two pieces of land adjoining one another and containing ia. or. i4p. and ia. ir. 24p. respectively,” and simply described as “ belonging to the Church.”

We will deal with these pieces of land in the order in which they appear on the terrier. Plot No. 1 is described as follows “ All that piece " or parcel of land being pasture now in the tenure and occupation of George Woman called by the name of Churchheld lying in the Parish of Beckenham in the County of Kent abutting on the King’s Highway northward, eastward and westward upon the lands of Squire Style and contains by measure ia. ir. 36p.” This plot of land was situate on the south side of the high road leading from Beckenham to Penge opposite to the old Clock House. In the terrier certain buildings to the east arc shown, apparently of some size, but they have long since ceased to exist and it is possible that they cither represent cottages or may have been, through an error of the draughtsman, placed on the wrong side of the high road. This plot of land was in 1821 let to John Cator, the owner of the Clock House, at a rental of £4 9s. od., and is described as “ part of an orchard,” and the rent was apparently paid annually by the Cator family up to 1862, when the plot was exchanged with Albemarle Cator for another of larger size on the north side of the road nearer Beckenham village. As the Clock House has now disappeared it may be interesting to record that the plot No. I on the terrier was situate as nearly as possible opposite the present Technical Institute and Baths. The exchanged land known as “Exchange Field” was let for ,610 per annum for a few years, and eventually building leases for a term of 99 years from Michaelmas, 1877, were granted and the six houses known as “Tregaron,” “ Glenhurst,” “ Eversley,” “ Prestinari,” “ Innishail” and Laindon ” erected. The gross ground rents now received in respect of the exchanged land amount to £75.

Plot No. 2 on the terrier is thus described:—“One other piece “called by the name of Churchfield, in the occupation of Joseph Prowden,

“ lying about 2 furlongs South-west from the other (i.e., No. 1) the land of the “ Lord of the Manor called the Hurst, being rerth-west and Backs Lane east,

“ and is by measure 2. o. 22.” The bearings of this plot do not appear to be accurately defined, but it is undoubtedly the piece of land which was

until lately in the possession of the Church, and recently purchased by the Local Authority for a Recreation Ground adjoining the present Dust Destructor and Electric Lighting Works. It is mentioned in 1821 as being let to Mrs. Catherine Brown at £4 6s. od. per annum, and in 1830 it is called “ Footpath Field in Backs Lane.” This plot is no doubt the “ two acre piece” in Backs Lane devised to the Church by the will of E. Style. Some years prior to 1904 the advisability of providing a Public Recreation ground in Churchhelds Road had been impressed upon the District Council by one of its members, but the suggestion was not at that time adopted. In October, 1904, however, the Council approached the Trustees of the Churchfields Charity with a view to arranging terms for the acquisition of the two acre plot for a Public Recreation Ground, and after lengthy negotiations the Trustees, with the consent of the Charity Commissioners sold the land to the Council for this purpose subject to a perpetual rent charge of £37 IOs- The Council and the Trustees are to be congratulated upon the course which was adopted, as the recreation ground thus provided has secured an open space much appreciated by our poorer neighbours in that part of Beckenham. In order that the origin of the land should not fail to be perpetuated the trustees made it a condition of the sale that the ground should be known as the “ Churchfields Recreation Ground.” Shortly after the sale the name of the road was altered by the Council from Arthur Road to Churchfields Road.

The remaining piece of Church land, Plot No. 3, referred to in the terrier is described as “All that piece called the Grubd piece belonging to "the Church in the occupation of Gyles Theires in which a part belongs to “ the Manor of Foxgrove which is about 60 perches distant from the aforesaid “mentioned piece (i.e., No. 2) and is sided with the land of Mr. Clisold on “the west and abuts upon Backs Lane on the North, and is by measure both “parts 2. 1. 38.” This field, or a part of it, was well known as “ Bellrope Field,” the origin of the name presumably being that the rent was to be applied in providing bell ropes for the Parish Church. We can find no authority other than local tradition for this name, but the land is so described in 1889 when the Trustees obtained the consent of the Charity Commissioners for its sale to the Beckenham School Board. In 1778 this piece of land was let for £2 per annum increased to £3 15s. in 1821, and again reduced to £3 in 1830 and the rent was continued at this rate up to 1877.

In 1885 a part of the Grub Piece or Bellrope Field was given up to the then Local Board in order to allow of the widening of Churchhelds Road to 40ft., and in the following year another piece of the held of about 30ft frontage was utilised for the site of St. George’s Mission Church and Sunday Schools in connection with the Parish Church. In 1889 the Trustees ^old the remainder of the plot with a frontage of 178ft. to the Beckenham School Board for £900, and the present Churchfields Road Schools were erected on the land. In 1907 the Trustees sold a further piece of this land to the local Education Authority for the purpose of an extension of the Church- helds Road Schools.

These three plots of land, or rather the exchanged piece in Beckenham Road the Grub Piece or Bellrope Field (or the proceeds of sale) and the Churchheld in Church Helds Road are administered by the Rector and Churchwardens of the Parish Church and three trustees.

On November 15th, 1878, an order was made vesting the land in the Official Trustee of Charity lands and appointing three trustees to act with the Rector and Churchwardens, and a further Scheme was established by order of the Commissioners on September 14th, 1888. The income of the charity is applied in the maintenance of the fabric of the Parish Church.

We deal in the concluding chapter of this volume with the negotiations which took place with regard to the National schools of Beckenham, and the arrangement which was ultimately arrived at between the Education Committee and the Church Authorities. It is only necessary therefore to give the principal details of the Scheme of the Board of Education dated March 21st, 1905, which dealt with the Beckenham National School in the Bromley Road and the Church School at Elmers End. A body of Trustees known as the Trustees of “ The Beckenham National School Foundation ” was established consisting of six members: the Rector, one trustee appointed by the District Council, one appointed by the Kent County Council and three co-optative trustees, these latter holding office for five years. The trustees in consideration of a capital sum of £300 and a perpetual rent charge of £40 were authorised to sell and did eventually sell the Bromley Road Schools to the Council. The National School Foundation Trustees then lent to the Trustees of the Elmers End School (being the Rector and Churchwardens of Beckenham) the sum of £300 to be applied by the latter in the repairs and improvements to the Church School at Elmers End rendered necessary by the recent Education Act. The income of the National School Foundation is applied under the Scheme as follows:—A sum of not less than £17 per annum is set aside and invested until the capital sum of £300 is by this means repaid, subject to this, a yearly sum of not more than £15 is to be paid to tne Trustees of the Elmers End School to be applied by them for the benefit of such school, and the residue of the income is to be applied in the maintenance of Exhibitions tenable at a public Secondary School or Technical Institute with, if the Trustees think fit, a yearly payment of not more than £10. These exhibitions are to be awarded as nearly as possible equally between boys and girls whose parents are bona-fide resident in Beckenham, and who have been for not less than three years scholars in a Public Elementary School and also in a Sunday School in connection with the Church of England and who have, under examination, shown a satisfactory knowledge of the doctrines of the Church of England.

Before leaving the subject of Charities it may not be uninteresting to recall some of the bequests to or for the benefit of the poor of Beckenham which are to be found in the older wills. The earliest benefaction of this description is in the will of the Rev. Elys Bodley, who in 1548 gave and bequeathed to twenty of the poorest householders of the parish of “ Becking- “ ham half a busshell wheate and a busshell ric,” each and also to “XII. other of “ the pooreste of them thirtene pence a pece in the honour of God ower Lady "and the XII. appostles and to other poore people two pence a pece to the ‘sume of six shillings eight pence and to seven Poore maydens nighe there “ to be maryed in the saide parrishe of Beckingham twentie pence a pece in “ the honor of God and ower blyssed Lady.” Sir Humphrey Style (whose brass is on the south wall of the present chapel) three years later gave £5 to such poor householders of Beckenham as were not able to live by their hand labour in addition to 20s. to the iron box for the relief of the poor of the said parish, and “to mayds marriage £20In 1575 Joan Violet bequeathed 6d. to “ the poore mens boxe of Becaneham,” and we find several bequests of this description about this time. By his will dated 1583 James Scroby, of London, who appears to have been a relation or friend of the Styles, of Langley, gave “ to the poore of Beckenham fower markes of lawful money of England,” and Robert Draper, Citizen and Merchant Tailor of London, who owned lands in Beckenham, bequeathed eight years later, “ to the poore of the parishe “of Becknam three shillings fore pence.”

By his will dated 1613 Sir Nicholas Style Alderman of London and brother to Edmund Style the Elder and Oliver Style, who built the north and south aisles of the old church, after a bequest of 50s. to such poor householders in Beckenham as were not able to live by their hand labour, directed as follows :

“ I will and bequeath to the parish of Beckenham in the countie of Kent the “ sum of £20 corant monie to the intent that the parishioners of the saide and ' their successors for the tyme beinge shall att their charge fynde and provide “ a lerned preacher in divinitie to preach a sermon everie year in the said “ Parish Church upon the Sonday in lent next before Easter Day usuall called “ passion Sunday before noone wherein to sett forth the benehtt received that “ every Christian by the blessed passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which ‘ yearly sermon my mynde is shall continue so long as the world shall “ endure by the Churchwardens,” who were also to distribute yearly to the poor of Beckenham bread to the value of 3s. 4d. Edmund Style, the brother of Sir Nicholas, appears to have given another £20, and these two sums were in the hands of Edmund Style the younger, who in his will in 1626 gave directions that lands to the yearly value of 46s. should be assured to the Churchwardens of Beckenham, the income arising from such lands as to 13s. 4d. for preaching the sermon on Passion Sunday, 3s. 4d. in bread to the poor and “ also to distribute and give 3 twopenny loaves every Sundaie in the “year for ever to 3 in course of 12 poorc householders of the said parish to " be yearly nominated uppon the Sundaie which shall next ensue the 5th of “Julie which was my birthdaie whereof 6 I will shall be alwaies nominated “ by the said Sir Humphrey Style (i.e., his nephew, son of William) and his “ heires (if they soe will) 2 by the parson of the said parish if he shall be

“resident and if not then by his curate and the other 4 by the said Church- “ wardens. Also to distribute 4s. to be bestowed likewise in bread amongst “the poore of the said parrish uppon the 5th daie of November yearlie for “ ever in a thankful remembrance and acknowledgment of God’s great mercie “ shewn to us and the whole State in delivering it and us from the bloody “ designe of the Pope and his adherents priests and papists intended against “ the same was as uppon the said fth of November to have blown upp the “ Kinge and whole Estate there assembled in Parliament with gunpowder. “ To retain iad. to themselves for their paines to be taken thereabout. 4d. to “ remain yearlie as in stocke ' . . .’ . and the remainder thereof to be by “ them emploied either in the schooling of some of the poore children of the “ said parish or to be reserved till it may be sufficient to binde out some one “of them as an apprentice.”

This Edmund Style also gave 40s. to the poor of Beckenham. It would appear that the lands to the value of 46s. were never assured to the Churchwardens by Edmund Style, for we find that in 1658 his nephew, Sir Humphrey, states in his will that he has £40 in hand belonging to the poor of Beckenham, to which he adds another £20, the £\o to be disposed of for the intents and purposes for which it was given by his ancestors, and the £20 to be ordered and disposed of to such poor of the Parish as his executors should think fit. The £60 was, as already stated, employed in 1674 in the purchase of the Cow Lees Field and rent charge, but it is difficult to reconcile the statement on the board of benefactions in the Church which states that 13s. 4d. out of the income of the land was appointed for a sermon on Good Friday in each year and not on either Passion Sunday or 5th of November. As however the bells were, until quite recent times, rung on Guy Fawkes' day, this may have been with the intention of carrying out to a certain extent the wishes of Edmund Style the younger.

In 1670 John Scot by his will, made when in extremis, left £5 to the poor of Beckenham, and six years later Dr. Thomas Style, of West Wickham (a monument to whom will be found on the wall of the north aisle of the present church) left a sum of £10 for a similar object. The last of the older benefactions was that of Sir John Elwill, of Langley, who married Elizabeth, sole heiress of the last Humphrey Style. By his will, dated, 1727, Sir John left the sum of £187 10s. “in trust for the binding out 10 poor boys of the “ Parish of Beckenham in the County of Kent and 5 poor boys of the “ Parish of Hayes whose parents did not receive alms apprentices unto such “ trades ” in such manner as certain trustees named in his will should think fit “ and for clothing them giving unto each of them as they shall be bound “out a good Bible and common prayer book intending £10 each for their “ apprenticeship and 50s. each for such clothing and books.”

In order to exhaust, so far as possible, every source from which we might obtain information bearing on the history of Beckenham, we have examined the wills of bygone persons connected with the locality. A list of these wills will be found in the Appendix, from which will be seen that the earliest is that of John Kelshyll the elder in 1432. A considerable amount of the information from this source has been embodied in the earlier pages, but as many of the wills contain quaint bequests and directions as to the disposal of the testators’ goods, it has been thought that a chapter dealing with the subject might usefully be added.

With regard to information concerning places in Beckenham the result has been, we are compelled to admit, disappointing. For the most part the wills refer to fields, lands and meadows by names which can no longer be traced. We may instance such names occurring in 1432-1500 as “Suscriscrofte,” “Thomsowtraves,” “Somerfelde,” “Suthereden” 1457 (possibly referring to the modem Eden Park), “ Jencokercrofte,” “ Reynoldysfeld,” “ the Kings way between Scotelscrofte and Brodefelde,” “ the King’s way “between the said Church and the well,” “ Hubbardscrofte” “ Cher" mannesfeld,” “My messuage lying in Beckenham Strete with one crofte “called Piccottscrofte.” “ Chermannesfeld,” subsequently referred to as “Germans field,” we can identify as a piece of land on the west side of the road leading from the village near the old police station to Eden Park. In 1474 we find land known by the name of ‘Chalk Croftys ” and “ Westfeld," and it is quite possible that the land near Stone Farm in the Wickham Road, which in our earlier days was known as “ The Chalks,” took its name from a very early date. In the year 1471 we find “ Penge Croft” referred to in the will of Ralphe Mason. The present “ Churchfields Road ” was formerly known as Becks, Baxes, or Backs, Lane; and that this name is of early origin is shown by the will of William Mydday, who in 1490 devised a piece of land “ called Upper Cokks lying bytwixt Bakk lane and “ the highway that goeth to Croydon.” The same testator refers to a piece of land “ nexte Gamondymede,” and a piece “ at Blendon brigg lying “under Cokks hegge”; “ffoxgrove” is also mentioned in this will. John Alexsander in 1501 directed that his land called “the Naker” should be sold and the money expended about his funeral and for a trental, i.e., for thirty masses to be sung for his soul for thirty days successively after his death. A house known as “ Goldstones ” is mentioned as being in the Bradfote family in the early part of the 16th century, and it appears to have passed to Nicholas Leigh in 1585, who describes it as “one Tenemente “orchard gardeyne and ffoure acres of ground thereto belonging.” John Hitchenson in 1536 left “my 4th ox for the repair of the highway of the “parsonage against the churchyard.” Rayffe Ilamond in 1541 to “the stone “ at Swans Cross to the stone at the horse style Xlld.,” and the same testator refers to his house called “ Broke and two crofts are called “ Wyltecrofte and the other Marysled croft.” Sir Humphrey Style (who died in 1552) left £10 ‘ unto the mending of the way leading from “ Lewisham Myll unto Beckennam Church to be bestowed from the nether “ parts of the foote (of) Stumpes Hyll next unto the myll towards Beckenham “ Church where most need is.” The reference to that part of the Southend Road now, or until recently, known as “ Stumps Hill ” is interesting, but wc cannot otherwise trace the existence of the mill, unless it may refer to the mill at Southend. The will of Izarde Curtis in 1590 refers to “my “ house and lande within pischc of Lewisham called Stumpeshill.” In the 16th century we come across the names “ Shorams ” (a leasehold farm), the “ Common of Penge,” “ Elmers End,” “ Kimus crofte,” “ Wormescrofte,” and a farm called “ Abbotts.” William Pledge in 1591 gives to his son Robert “the highest end of my house that is to say that part where Henry Catyn “ now dwelleth in and so of the yard nexte unto the streete as Henry Catyn “ doth now occupie and a part of the orchard right behinde that parte of the house directe from the back dore unto the ponde and from the ponde “ unto the corner beneth the old gnadling tree next unto Will Staynesmore.” The testator then gives the other part of his house and orchard to his son George. It has been suggested, and with good reason, that this bequest refers to “ the old woodhouse ” still standing in the High Street, and undoubtedly one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of the buildings in Beckenham. In the 17th century we find the names “Great Bunises,” “Little “ Bunises,” “Nayelde” and “Kent House.”

As our readers are aware, it was customary until about a century ago, or even later, for a testator to commence his will with a profession of his faith. This custom has fallen into disuse, but it is interesting to note in the copies of the wills which are before us, the alterations in the mode of expressing these professions of faith before and after the Reformation. Space will not allow of our reproducing more than a few extracts, but the following will perhaps illustrate our meaning. In 1432 the will of John Kelshyll the elder commences, “ I commend my soul to Almighty God my “ Creator and Saviour to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Company of “Saints in heaven.” In 1457 William Plege, of Beckenham, commences, “ Be hyt knowe to you yt yis was my laste wyll as yey shall answer at ye “day of Jugement.” For an example in the early part of the 16th century, prior to the Reformation, the following in 1523 may be instanced, “My “ soule to Almighty God to our blyssed ladie and virgin Sainte Marie “ to St. George martyr (patron saint of Beckenham Parish Church) my mother “and to all the glorious company of Heaven.” The will of John Duns in 1535 commences, “being of hole mynde lawdes be to GOD tho syke in “ bodye calling to remembrance the uncertayne houre of deth willing to “ prevent the same make this my last Will.” Although references to the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Saints do occur after 1536, they are the exception, and the last reference is in 1585. The Rev. Elys Bodley, the Rector of Beckenham, in 1548 recognises the then newly assumed position of the Sovereign to be considered the supreme head on earth of the Church in this land. Although instances do occur for a few years later of  testators “ bequeathing ” their souls to the Almighty, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, they for the most part “ bequeath ” their souls to the Almighty and His Son our Redeemer. After the latter part of the 16th century the custom of “ bequeathing ” the testator’s soul ceases and the expression is used and continued of “ commending ” the soul. The first instance which we may cite is that of Rev. Griffith Lloyd, brother of the Rector of Beckenham, who, in 1586 commences his will as follows, “Feeling “ some griefes in my bodye whche doe admonishe me of my mortalitye yet “ I thank GOD of good memory and judgment doe by these presente make “ my last will Imprimis I doe comend my sowle to GOD who for his sonnes “ sake Christ Jesus I hope wyll have mercye and compassion on me and “ make me partaker of the joyes of heaven wh GOD graunte for his mercy’s “ sake.” In connection with these professions of faith the following extract from the will of Edmund Style in 1626 is worth reproducing in extenso. That staunch “ Protestant,” to whom we have frequently referred, makes the following lengthy and narrow-minded statement of his faith, viz.:—“to “ leave testimony of my faith to them that shall survive,” viz.: “ I doe “ acknowledge and believe that all mankind being through the transgression “of our first parent Adam made subject unto death and eternal damnation “ GOD out of his exceedinge love and goodness in the fullness of time sent “ his onely sonne and our oneley Savioure Jesus Christ the second Person “ in the Holie and undivided Trinitie to take our nature uppon Him who “ by His obedient death and sufferings satisfied the justice of his father “ and purchased salvation unto as many as shall trulie and faithfully believe “in Him and be trulie penitent for all their synnes committed against his “ divine majestie in which work of our salvation neither our own workes the “ praiers of saints departed or anything that the Anti Christian power of “ the man of sinne the Pope of Rome challenged! to himself by waie of “ of purgatorie pardonings and remitting of sinnes or other his indulgences can or doe availe anything but the onely death and passion of our Saviour “ Christ and the application of his merites and sufferings to ourselves by a “ true and lively faith in Him as aforesaid is the only meanes of our salvation “ and the assurance thereof unto ourselves which I most humblie beseech the “ holie and undivided Trinitie to give me grace trulie and faithfully to doe “ unto my lives end for Jesus his sake our only Lord and Saviour.” It is noticeable that his nephew, Sir Humphrey Style, making his will thirty-four years later in the time of the Commonwealth, expresses a hope that he will at his death be taken into the “ Holy Communion of Saints “ and Angels, to live and worship Him in the highest heavene eternally.” With this exception, however, there is in none of the later wills any reference to Saints or Angels.

In the earlier wills there are many bequests to lights and altars in the Church, the earliest being by one Chapman in 1451 of a cow to “the “light of the Holy Cross”; while Henry Violet in 1505 leaves “a cowe “ boloke of ij years of age for the maynteyning of a taper before the yrnage “ of our Lady in the saide Churche.” i nere are also numerous bequests until the end of the reign of Queen Mary to the High Altar, the Rood light, and to the lights ol St. Mary Magdalen, St. Anthony, St. Katherine, St. George, the High Cross, the common light and the Sepulchre light. John Hitchenson bequeathed “ two kyn ” to the “ mending of St. Georges harness ” in 1536, so that the image of the patron Saint of the Church was probably one in armour. In some cases legacies are bequeathed to the mother Church at Rochester, and we find in 1535 a bequest of 3s. 4d. to “the Brotherhood “ of St. George,” so that, as at present, a guild of St. George existed in Beckenham. In 1557 Thomas Wood left 3s. 4d. “to the reparacions of the “ Church of England.”

Small legacies for the repair of the fabric of the Parish Church were general between 1451 and 1585, and it is to be regretted that this pious custom has fallen into disuse. Experience shows that, at the present day, while it is comparatively easy to obtain donations towards the maintenance of the Services and Charities of the Church, it is much more difficult to enlist sympathy with the less interesting object of keeping up the fabric itself.

It is interesting to note from a perusal of these Beckenham wills how in the pre-Reformation period testators almost invariably left money to be expended in masses for their souls. As an instance:—William Erodefote in 1509 states: “I will that an honest prst be ordeynea by ineyn “ executors to sing for my soul my friends and all Christian soules in the “ Church of Beckenham by the space of a quart of a yere,” and this testator further directs that his son shall spend about 3s 46. yearly for fifteen years in order that a “ yerely obit,” i.e.', an anniversary Service for the soul of the departed on the day of his death, might be kept in the said Church for himself and his friends. The expression “honest priest” in this connection frequently occurs, but whether it is merely synonymous with “ upright,” or whether it has reference to the difficulty in finding a trustworthy priest in the unsettled times following the Wars of the Roses we are unable to say. After 1536 when directions as to masses for the departed soul fell into disuse, we find bequests of money for sermons, and the direction by Sir Nicholas Style in 1613 is of interest, as showing that Palm Sunday (the next before Easter Day) was at that time called Passion Sunday, which is the term by which modern Churchmen distinguish the fifth Sunday in Lent.

Between the years 1495 and 1555 we find frequent small legacies for “ tithes negligently forgotten,” but later a donation to the “ pooreman’s box “ of Beckenham ” seems to take the place of this bequest.

There are several legacies for the repair of highways, the most curious being that by John Hitchenson in 1536, who directs as follows: “To the “ highway of the parsonage against the Churchyard in relieve of my masters “ soul my 4th ox after Mast psons discretion.”

Directions as to funerals and burials either in Beckenham Church or Churchyard frequently occur, and a great many of these directions are elaborate and interesting. If our space permitted this is a subject upon which we might enlarge, but in order not to weary our readers we will only give such extracts as appear to us to be of more than usual interest.

In the directions as to funerals there is frequent mention of the “ month day,” which was presumably the day at the expiration of a month after the death or burial, when a service was held and refreshments supplied to those who attended. For example, “Sir” Peter Kekewyche, Parish Priest at Beckenham, desires in 1545 to have five priests at his burial, who were to have 8d. apiece, and “ as many more as will say comendation and at the month “ and to the poorpeople that will come to my buryall to pray for my soul “ a peny a pece”; and Wood in 1525 directs that his executors shall “ ordeyn meat and drynk convenient both for my buriall and my moneth “day”; and in 1525 William Brodefote leaves directions that two torches shall be burnt round his body “ the daye of my decease and about my “ grave months day.” This testator also directs that the torches shall after the month “ burn about the holy sacrament as longe as they will endure.” Rayffe Hamond in 1541 leaves “ XXd ” so that “a loade of graved be “ brought to the gate where I lye.” Burials at one time, especially in the case of “ the gentry,” used frequently to take place at night, and several testators protest against the practice. The “ Protestant Squire,” Edmund Style, is very particular on this point, and his directions as to his funeral are sufficiently quaint to re-produce in full:—“I will that bread diett bread “ wine and beare shall be provided for the entertainment of such friends “ and neighbours as shall please to accompanie my bodie to the grave without “ other dynner or further banquett rather chusing to undergoe the censure “ of the vaine multitude for this my direction to my executors than (according “ to that which now a daies is too much used) to be carried to my grave in " the night which anciently was the manner for those that durst not show " their faces while they lived and left not behind them wherewith to satisfie “ their just debts of which number I thank GOD I am not.” Thomas Style in 1677 directs “that he shall be buried decently in the day time”; Brograve in 1503 desires to be buried “in honest manner w’out pompe or pryd of the “ woorld ”; Taylour (1638) wills a “decent and comelie buriall”; Hester Style (1671) “in a decent manner without any pomp or vanities.” Edmund Style (1681) “to be buried Christianlike”; Burdett (1710) “in Christian and “decent manner”; Humphrey Style (1718) “with as much decency and little “cost as my executors shall think fit”; Jones Raymond (1738) “in decent but not pompous manner”; and Peter Burrell (1756) directs that no more than £60 shall be expended on his funeral. “Sir” Peter Kekewyche (1545) directs that he shall have a tomb with four posts of heart-of-oak at the ends and with a great stone on the same. Peter Burrell (the Surveyor General of Crown Lands and M.P. for Launceston) left instructions that he was to have only a square white marble slab by way of monument. His wishes were carried out as the square slab will be seen at the west end of the north aisle of the Parish Church. There is, however, a more imposing monument to him at Cuckfield in Sussex.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when furniture, bedding and clothing were expensive, we find that testators often disposed of these articles with great particularity. The following bequests of bedding will serve as examples:—“ fether bed, a peyer of shetts, a peyer of blankets" (1503); “a tablecloth and 2 towills a worst and a myddell, one bedd of “ down with all that belongeth thereunto" (1546); “my seconde bedstede of “ waynscot and one fether bed next the best, one matteres 4 paires of “flaxen sheets and bolsters 2 pillowes, some pillow boxes” (1568); “2 “ blanketts one of the beste and another of the worste sorte” (1575); “one “ greene rugg three blankets belonging to the high bed ” “ .... a tawny “ coverlet ” “ two paire of sheets the one payre being fine holland sheetes “ and stiched at the end with a Katherin wheel stiche with two breadths “ and one half in them the other paire coarser,” “ 15 napkins wrought with “a broade laced worke and edged at ends with lace” (1635); “ childbedd “ lynnen ” (1591)- Before leaving this subject the following bequest is interesting: “In tenement wherein I now dwell my said wyf shall have her “ dwelling in one chamber over the hall and the use of bed bedsteded one “ shet and the new coverled during the term of her naturall life the said “ Katheren shall have free liberty of egress and regress in and from the “ said chamber at all times convenient.” One wonders how such a bequest would work in daily life, and how long the few articles of bedding so bequeathed would last.

Bequests of furniture and utensils during this period are so numerous that it is difficult to make choice of the most interesting. There are many legacies of pots, “ panns,” platters, (pewter and otherwise) “ dyshes,” saucers, porringers, bowls, spoons, cups, basons and kettles, and of this class we give the following: “a grydyron a tryvett and a fryinge panne” (1548); “a “brass pott with a snake on the side—half a pynt pot of pewter—a pewter “ pott of garland work—one salt of pewter” (157 5) i * a stone pott striped “ down on the side and covered with silver gylte ”—“ 6 Spoons ratted and “a postel spoon” (1576); “my best nutsell in silver with a gilte foote and “without any cover—a mazer—” (1591); “a bason and a cover of silver “pall gilt” (1613); pewter quart pot—backing tubb—pewter acqua vitae “bottle” (1636); “my alabaster morter—my ordinary silver mandle pott (1635). There are many bequests of chests of oak and elm, and John Calverley, Rector of Beckenham (1576) bequeaths “ a great shipp cheste which “standeth in my chamber at Beckenham.” Gertrude Style (1635) leaves “ one broad barred chest with two locks and all that shall be in it at the “tyme of my decease.” From the bequests of furniture we select the following : “ wainscot cupboard standing in the hall—wainscot bedstead and one “ trundle bedstede—wainscot settle—the great brasse andyrons—two yron “ dogs also the firetongs and shovel 1—a cupboard in the still chamber where “ the sirrups and conserves are putt—two lowe chayres and two stools all of “them of coronation figured satin” (1635-7). William Style in 1679 bequeaths "my flagelots, recorders and kitts and my small violin.” The same testator also bequeaths all his law manuscripts whether written in Court or Italian hand, and among other legacies of books Gertrude Style in 1635 leaves “a "book of divinity published by Mr. John Downeham Minister of GOD’s “ worde intltled ‘ A Guide to Godliness or a treatise of Christian life.’ ” James Scroby in 1583 makes a bequest to one of his executors of “2 hoggesheds “of clarett wyne.”

The following among the many bequests of clothing between the years 1546 and 1635 appear worthy of notice: “One of my best gownes—a “ coat of lyon colour—my best gown faced w’satten—my furred cloke faced “wconys— my night gowne that I last made—a kercher double stitched— “a russet frocke of died wolle—a redd pettycote—a whole neckercher playne " a yarde of russet my best shirte—my leather doublett and hose—a black “satten doublc-tt and my best hose—my russett satten doublett—a jerkyn “edged with bever—my cloke with buttons—my best yellow hose without “ stockings—a jerkyn of a violett color layde on vrith lace a crymson taffeta “ dublett a dagger with damaske hilte-my gowne furred w’black lambe “which I do use at Bkngham—my best dublitt and my shorte frocke—my “ ffured frocke my black gowne lined with damaske—to my brother to buy “him a paire ot gloves 2/6 all my wives wearinge apparell unto my daughter “. • • • a gowne likewise befitting her and unto their daughter (aged “ three) a gowne likewise and a cloke for her man—unto my son John (whom I bless in GOD S name) a cloakc of black cloth—all my wearing smocks— my mufte my fumed fanne—my poynt lace— my crimson figured satine “ petticoate my many collored rugg that I did use to weare when I did lye “ in chyldbed—my wrought velvet cloake lyned with squirrel skynnes—my “ best ffan of fethers with a gould handle—my kersie cloake which I use “ dayly to weare laced with gould lace—my ordinary wearing lynnen as “ smocks, bands, aprons, and all other my necessaries of wearing lynnen.”

Up to the year 1727 we find frequent gifts of gowns to the parson of the Parish, or to the minister who should preach at the funeral, none of these bequests occur prior to the Reformation, after which period sermons took the place of masses at the funeral. The following are some examples:—To the testator’s brother his “ scollers gowne with wide sleeves “ and a whoode desyring GOD to bless him and multiply His Graces on “him”; “a gowne of blacke clothe fitting his degree”; unto the minister "that shall preach at my funeral a mourning gown and £3 in money”; “ a through suit of clergymans habit of the best kind.” There are of course many bequests of mourning and other rings, the earliest being in 1439 of a “signet ring,” and the Rev. Elys Bodley in 1548 bequeaths a ring “ for a “ token to pray for my soule.” In the earlier wills there are frequent legacies of cows, sheep, colts, hogs and other animals. In 1545 Sir Peter Kekewyche left money to buy saddles for the children of his patron—“ 3/4 to Humphrey “ (Style) to bye hym a saddile to Edmund 3/4 to bye him a saddile to John “a colt and 3/4 for saddile.” These legatees were quite little boys as may be seen from the entries of their baptism in the registers.

There are a few legacies of coals in the 16th century. BrOgrave in 1546 leaves “XV quarters of coles” during his “liff naturall,” and John Draper in 1591 “a loade of greate coales” every year during the life of the legatee: we also find similar bequests of loads of wood.

Among the bequests of money and goods to servants we may notice one by the Rev. Elys Bodley, who gives to “every householde servante “ serving me at Beckinghm fyve shillings besides their quarters wage, my “ woman servant there fyve shillings in monney and an olde gowne that “ liethe on her bedd.” As might be expected godchildren are frequently the objects of the bounty of testators, and Henry Ridon in 1568 makes the following curious bequest: “unto everyone of my godchildren being alyve “ at day of my death who can say w’out boke the Lordes praier the articles “ of 0’ belief and Christian faith and the ten commandments of Almightie “ GOD in the English tongue iiiid and if they can say likewise w’out boke “ the Catechisme in the Englishe tongue other viiid.” The Rev. Elys Bodley, whose will is throughout most interesting, gives 3s. 4d. to “ every godchild “ at London and Beckingham that berethe my name.” So far as we can ascertain from the Beckenham baptismal registers there would appear to have been only one of such godchildren in Beckenham. There is a bequest in 1525 of a legacy of “an ewe shepe” to each godchild of the testator.

We deal with legacies to the poor of Beckenham in another chapter, but may mention that bequests to the " poor mans box at Beckenham ” are frequent at the latter part of the 16th century, the amounts varying from 8d. to 3s. 4d.

John Rogers in 1552 makes this provision in his will:—“To the "godlye poore scollers of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to such as doo studye and lerne to set forth the trew and lyving worde of GOD “ and to be favourers and mayntainers of the same three pounds 60 marks “ provided always and my will is that the said shall studie the divinitie and be “of the towardness aforesaid.” In the previous year Sir Humphrey Style had left £20 “ to relief of scollers in Oxford and Cambridge.”

In connection with marriages the following bequest in 1573 is worth recording:—"To Johan my daughter one cowe and a bullock of 12 months “ at her day of marriage two stone of beefe four bushels of wheate fourteen “bushells of rye four quarters of malt four kilderkins of beere two calves “ and also to apparel her all newe against her marriage.”

In the first half of the 16th century we find bequests to the prisons of the King’s Bench, Ludgate, Newgate and the Marshalsea, and in 1613 to St. Bartholomew’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. In 1527 William Clerk leaves the reversion of certain lands in Beckenham “ for the reparacion of “ London Bridge.”

We have only been able to find one direction by a testator that a pilgrimage should be undertaken on his death, and that is in the will of John Hitchenson in 1536- This case is of more than usual interest. The direction is in the following terms:—“I will that parson in the way of “ charitie go and two with him to visit the blode of Hailes and of Plaws “ which I have telled him of and charged him with        and to say “ mass by the way to refresh poor people   and towards the charges“I will him to sell the ox two mares one colt.” It would be interesting to know whether this pilgrimage was ever undertaken. At Hales in Worcestershire was a phial of blood, famous, like the blood of St. Januarius at Naples, for its miraculous properties. The relic was enclosed in a round beryl “ garnished and bound on every side with silver.” This relic was examined by the Commissioners appointed in the reign of Henry VIII., who reported in 1538 to Cromwell, the Vicar General, that the supposed relic was an “ unctuous gum coloured, which being in the glass appeared to be a glistening “ red resembling the colour of blood and after we did take out part of the “ said substance out of the glass and then it was apparent yellow colour “ like amber or base gold and doth cleave as gum or bird lime.” The relic had evidently been an object of great veneration to the faithful, as we find that the Abbot of Hales subsequently applied to Cromwell for permis sion to destroy the case in which the blood had been held “so that no manner of token or remembrance of that forged relic shall remain. V,e have been unable to ascertain the reference to “ Plaws.”

An instance of satire and lack of charity on the part of a testator is contained in the will of Sir Humphrey Style in 1658. His widow Dame Hester Style married shortly after his death John Scott, who is buried at Hayes, and we gather from the following extract from Sir Humphrey’s will that his married life could not have been a happy one. He gives to his wife “the summe of £20 to buy her mourning apparell to mourne for me “if she please. Item I give unto her the sum of 5/- and so no more for “good reasons best known unto myselfe but not for her honour to be “ published.” It may be remarked that Sir Humphrey prefaces his will by expressing his trust that his Lord and Saviour would remit and forgive all his sins and offences whereby he had provoked His justice ! Sir Humphrey died childless, and his widow died and was buried in Beckenham on August 23rd, 1671. William Style, the half-brother of Sir Humphrey, to whom the Langley estates descended on the latter’s death, conjures his daughters Mary and Hester “to live in the feare of GOD and to bee loving “ and affectionate as it becometh sisters one to the other.”

We find this curious bequest in the will of Edmund Style in 1564: — ‘To John Bage that ran out of flanders whome I brought upp in my house “ for GOD his sake fower pounds at his lawfull age of twentie and one “years.” One can only conjecture that this John Bage was some refugee rrom the Spanish Terror in the Low Countries, on whom the worthy citizen and grocer of London, the cousin of the first Sir Humphrey, had taken pity.

Robert Payne, of Beckenham, who made his will in 1457, gives this simple direction to his Executors: “ and myne Executors to do for me as ‘I would do for them,” and John Yorke, of “the towne of Beckenham,” in  l473 charges his Executors “to fulfyl with effects thys my psent testament as they may see GOD yn the face at the hye doom.” Wyllym Messenger in the reign of Henry VIII. desires his widow and sole executrix to pay his debts "and bryng me honest to the yerth.” Robert Cowper in 1575 leaves to his “overseers” “ XXd a peece and they to be an aide and helpe to my "wife in her nede and busyness and so my wife to pay my debts.” Griffith Lloyd, the brother of Thomas Lloyd, the Rector of Beckenham, in 15S6 gives the following direction to his executors:—“Item for that my two “ brothers Morgan and Thomas are well to live GOD be praised I doe not “ bequeathe to them but my prayers desyring GOD to prosper them in all “ their doings and dealings and doe desire them for my sake to be favourably “ friendlye naturall and assistaunt to my poore widoe and daughter and I “ requyre my wife to shew herself loving towards them and so I praye GOD “ send them all His blessing and us all everlasting lyfe.”

We will conclude this chapter with a few of such extracts from the wills as relate to the education or bringing up of children. Thomas Adcoke in 1563 says: “and my mind and will is that my said children shall be “ ordered by their mother my wyf “ Sir ” Thomas the Curat at Beckenham “ and Robert Cowper and if they shall them to use any playe or shall spending “ their tyme in waste that then the said Sir Thomas, Robert with my wyfe shall “ take away their part of my legacie herin to them bequeathed and divide it “ among the rest of my children that will be ruled by their mother, and Sir “ Ihomas, and the said Robert Cowper.’’ Robert Draper in 1591 directs “my “ other executors shall have the tuition education and bringing upp of my other “ four children wh. 4 children my desire is to be well and vertuously brought “ up my sonnes to learn the latten ffrench Italian or Spanish tongue whereby “ they may be the more apt and fitt for any vocation whereunto GOD shall call “ them, and my executors appoint them my two daughters to learne such things “ as to their sexe appertaineth and as my executors shall think for them most “ requisite and convenient.”

CHAPTER XV.

THE COUNTRY SEATS OF OLD BECKENHAM.

The oldest country seat in Beckenham undoubtedly is Langley, but the original house, like those of Kelsey, Foxgrove, Eden Park, Langley Farm, Clock House, Beckenham Lodge, and others, has been “improved out of existence. Beckenham Place, Kent House, Shortlands House, the Village Place, the Manor House, and the Hall still remain, but the surroundings have been so altered that in most cases they are hardly recognisable.

Amongst the less important houses, we may mention Stone Farm, Elmer Lodge, Elm Cottage, Copers Cope Farm, and Eden Lodge. We ha\e already dealt in a separate chapter with the old Workhouse, and we propose to give a short description of the houses which we have mentioned above, adding in conclusion a few facts about certain farms, cottages and other old landmarks, which have either disappeared or are threatened with destruction. The present residents of Beckenham, and even those whose recollection of the parish only dates back some ten to twenty years, would be astonished at the appearance which Beckenham presented half a century ago, at the time when it began to change from a pretty rural village to the present modern suburb, almost a part of London. It is sad for those of us who knew Beckenham as it was, to look down on it now from the summit of the Church tower, and note the changes which time has wrought. The Rectory and the Village Place with their gardens and fields are almost the only open places in the centre of Beckenham. The old Foxgrove farm, with its picturesque moat is now covered with houses. The Manor House gardens and lake, which were such a picturesque feature of old Beckenham, are occupied by the Manor Road and its adjacent streets, while old Love Lane, which ran from the Fairfield, then really a field, to Wickham Road has gone. The smithy, the pound, the cage, the brook in the High Street have disappeared, and trie Church Hill is changed from a rural lane with trees arching overhead and a walk on the bank under the high moss-grown wall, on the east side, as shown in our illustration, to a modern street flanked with shops, a Police Station and a Bank. A few stunted trees which remain are looked upon as stumbling blocks in the march of municipal progress, to which nothing in the nature of a road is satisfactory unless it is asphalted, kerbed, channelled and made as unsightly and tidy as possible It is unprofitable, however, to recall the departed beauties of Beckenham, and we must seek consolation in the undoubted fact that notwithstanding, and perhaps in spite of, the alterations and improvements, Beckenham is one of the prettiest, healthiest and most attractive of the London suburbs. Some of us still refer to it as “ the village,” but we have to admit that it is in reality a town, and that little of the old village remains. We may perhaps be pardoned for having given expression to our feelings as “old inhabitants,” and, having done so, will proceed to the description of those country seats and houses which were once the most important dwellings in Beckenham as it was in bygone years.

LANGLEY.(the history of Langley has since been amended in the timeline as a result of more recent research i.e. John Stile acquired it around or before 1500 as he mentions it in his 1505 will)

Langley, or “ long pasture,” was formerly a Manor and is said to have been in the possession of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and to be mentioned in Domesday Book, but we doubt whether “ Lasela,” (now known to refer to Seal near Sevenoaks) there referred to, was the Langley of Beckenham.  Hasted supposes the name of Langley to be taken from that of the manor, while other authorities hold that the name of the family of Langley was given to the manor. The place was, soon after the Conquest, in the possession of the family of Malmains, one of whom in the reign of Edward II. was granted a charter of free warren. Nicholas Malmain died in the 23rd year of Edward III., and the property then passed into the hands of the Langley family, the last of whom, Ralph Langley, to w'hose will we have elsewhere referred, died in 1451, and on his death John Violett became the owner by purchase. Langley remained in the possession of this family until 1510, when John Style of Ipswich, Alderman of London, purchased the property. Sir Humphrey Style, his son, who was Sheriff of Kent in 1543, inherited the estate and on his death in 1552 his eldest son Edmund succeeded. This Edmund Style, who was born at Langley in 1538, left the property to his son William, who was twice married. His eldest son, Humphrey, by his first wife Ann Eversfield, succeeded to the estates, and was created baronet in 1627, dying childless in 1659. His sister Ann married Sir Nicholas Miller, of Oxonhoath, but Langley being entailed, the property passed on the death of Sir Humphrey to his half brother William Style. Ihis William Style enjoyed the estates for another 20 years and his son Humphrey then became possessed of the property and was the last of the name of Style to hold it. He had four sons and two daughters, and on his death in 1718 the property passed to his daughter Elizabeth, whose first husband wras Sir John Elwill, Bart., of Exeter. She had issue one son, who died in infancy. Sir John Elwill died in 1727, and shortly after his death his widow married one Henry Bartelot, junior. We have referred elsewhere to the tablet with the incomplete inscription erected to Dame Elizabeth Elwill, in Beckenham Church, in accordance with the terms of the will of her second husband. In 1732 the property, which appears to have passed to Sir Edmund Elwill, was sold by him to Hugh Raymond, of Great Saling, Essex, whose memory is perpetuated in a handsome monument with a medallion of the deceased, now on the south wall of the south aisle of the Parish Church. On his death, Langley descended to his only son Jones Raymond, who died in 1768 without issue, and the property passed to his only (surviving) sister Amy, who on March 14th, 1723, had married Peter Burrell, of Kelsey. We reproduce portraits of Amy Burrell and her husband, painted in the year following their marriage. This lady survived her husband and their son Peter, the Surveyor General of Crown Lands, and lived to see her grandson, Sir Peter Burrell, afterwards Lord Gwydir, married and succeed to the baronetcy in 1787.

     

            PETER BURRELL 1724                          AMY BURRELL 1724

Her monument, which is one of the finest in the Parish Church, is in the south transept, and a bas-relief represents the deceased in the act of distributing largesse to the poor. Amy Burrell was 89 years old when she died, and having survived her son, Langley passed into the possession of her grandson, Sir Peter, who was created Lord Gwydir in 1796. Seventeen  years previously he had married Lady Priscilla Barbara Elizabeth Bertie daughter and heiress of the third Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, who was also Marquess and Earl of Lindsay. Baron Willoughby a’Eresby and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. When the fourth Duke of Ancaster died in 1779 without issue, Sir Peter Burrell's wife became in her own right Baroness Willoughby d’Eresby, and was declared by the House of Lords in the following year to be entitled to the office of joint hereditary Great Chamberlain of England with her sister Lady Georgina Charlotte Bertie, afterwards Marchioness of Cholmondeley. Lord Gwydir died at Brighton on June 29th, 1820, and in October of the same year the whole of the Gwydir estates came under the hammer. The sale which lasted four days was herd at Garraway’s Coffee House, Change Alley, Cornhill, the auctioneers being Skinner, Tuchin and Forrest, and the solicitors Bray and Warren, of Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. The sale comprised 3,202 acres in the parishes of Beckenham, Bromley, West Wickham, Hayes, Keston, Lewisham, Croydon and Addington, in 92 lots, and included Langley Park, Langley Farm, Langley Lodge, Kelsey Park and Eden Farm. Langley Park was put up on the first day, and is described as “ situate in a much admired and fine sporting part of the County of “ Kent and most justly celebrated for an abundance of every sort of game, which “ has been carefully preserved for many years, ornamented with a great variety ' of full grown and stately timber, pleasantly clumped and scattered, with “ a grand avenue or vista upwards of a mile in length and several beautiful “ groves.” This avenue can still be seen extending from the summit of Pick- hurst Hill to the mansion. There was at that time a herd of deer in the park. The lot, known as Langley Park, included 423 acres 1r. 17p. The house contained on “ the principal storey ” “ a lofty noble drawing room 40 feet by 30 feet,” a dining parlour, morning room, “ a gentleman’s dressing room and a water closet ”, on the upper stories, “ 6 bedchambers, four dressing rooms,” “ a water closet and proper apartments for servants.” There were extensive domestic offices and out-buildings with a tennis-court (still standing) 105 feet by 38 feet, with a dressing-room adjoining, stabling for 28 horses, bams, granaries, forcing-houses and a melon ground. Among other advertised attractions was “a cold bath in the Park.” At this time the mansion was  occupied by the Hon. Lindsey Burrell. This lot realised £22,700, but was probably bought in. The estate was described as “ one of the completest “domains of its extent in the Kingdom; the neighbourhood is of the first “ respectability, and the situation particularly desirable for a nobleman or “ gentleman fond of hunting or shooting, being in the midst of every kind of “ field sport.”

Langley was acquired at or shortly after the sale by the Goodhart family, in whose possession it has since remained. Emmanuel Goodhart, the purchaser, died in 1853, and his son Charles Emmanuel Goodhart, in I9°3> at an advanced age. C. E. Goodhart took considerable interest in local affairs, and was Churchwarden of the Parish Church from 1856 to 1873. On his death the mansion became untenanted and will no doubt, ere long, share the usual fate of mansions near London, and be demolished. We recently had occasion to visit this house. It was a large, rambling building in a bad state of repair, with rooms of all shapes and sizes. The greater number of the principal room were very lofty and well lighted. The north-east corner or higher portion of the building was evidently of different date to the other, which is much lower and covered with white stucco. The porch, which is on the west side, was insignificant, and the carriage-drive approach was also mean compared with the size of the mansion. Although the dining-room and library were fine rooms, the principal room was undoubtedly the drawing-room, 1 magnificent apartment about 45 by 30 feet with frescoes round the upper part of the walls representing the arts and sciences. There was also a fine marble mantelpiece. An organ, stated to have formerly been in the Parish Church, used to stand in the library, but it was sold with the furniture on the death of the late C. E. Goodhart. From some of the upper windows and from the roof, fine and extensive views were obtained of the park and the “ vista ” of trees extending from the east front of the mansion to Hayes Lane near Pickhurst Hill.

John Warkworth, the chronicler in the reign of Edward IV., mentions, among other “woe waters,” a pool at Langley Park, the drying up of which presaged the battle of Barnet in 1471. He says: —

' Also ther is a pytte in Kent, in Langley Parke: ayens any batayle he “ will be dry, and it rayne nevere so myche; and if ther be no batayle towarde “ he will be fulle of watere, be it nevyre so dry a wthyre and this yere he is “ dry.”

The subject of these “woe waters ” is an interesting one, but space does not permit of its discussion. They were intermittent springs, issuing from the chalk strata, such as the “ Bourne flow ” at Croydon, where the appearance of the water in considerable force gave rise to superstitious dread of coming evils. It is impossible to say in what part of Langley the pool, mentioned by Warkworth, existed.

In 1607 Dr. Barlowe, Bishop of Rochester, consecrated a private chapel at Langley, and the form of Service used at the Consecration is still preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Dr. J. Wickham Legg, the learned liturgiologist, is shortly publishing a book containing seventeenth century forms for the consecration of churches in England and among these will, we understand, be found that used at Langley. As the consecration is a matter which will interest many of our readers we make no apology for the following translation of the proceedings, the prayers used (most of which we have omitted) being in English in the original MS.

“ The business of the Consecration of “ the chapel in the house of Edmund “ Style, Esquire, of Langley.

On Sunday, namely the 16th day the month of July in the year 1607 between the hours of 9 and “ 11 a.m. the Rev. Father in Christ, the Lord Bishop, in the house of the “ honourable Edmund Style, Esquire, situated in the parish of Beckenham “ in the County of Kent, in the Diocese and Jurisdiction of Rochester, blessed “ and consecrated as a chapel a certain oratory which was built after a fair “ and comely fashion, and dedicated it to the eternal honour and service of « Almighty God. There were present the aforesaid Edmund Style, Henry “ Snelgrave, Robert Leigh, Esquire, William Style, Edmund Style, Junr., O

“ Edmund Scott (gentry), and likewise Christopher Fountains and Arnold “ Stansmoor, Churchwardens of the aforementioned Beckenham, and certain “ upright and trusty witnesses.

‘ And the mode of procedure in this business was as follows: —

“The Rev. Father aforesaid entered the chapel, which was empty, but “ furnished in a seemly way, alone: while the great crowd of bystanders “remained at the door and looked on, the Bishop himself standing at the “threshold of the entrance pronounced a blessing on the place.”           

“ And then, proceeding slowly, genuflecting, (towards the east) and “ with his hands raised to Heaven made the following speech.”      

“ When this was finished the whole congregation was gathered together “ in the chapel, and immediately by the order and command of the Rev. “ Father the ordinary prayers were recited by Master Nathaniel Gifford, M.A., “ Clerk, and Rector of the ecclesiastical parish of Stone, and Peter Punter, “ B.A., Clerk, curate of the Church of the aforementioned Beckenham, “chaplains to the aforesaid Rev. Father.

“ In the place of the ordinary Psalms, were chosen to be read.—Psalms “ 24> 27 and 84 and for the first lesson II. Chron. vi. and for the second lesson “ St. John x. v. 22 to the end.”

“ After the Collect found in the Litany for Bishops and Curates, the “ following prayer was said.”   

" Then followed Psalm 23, which was sung, the Psalm being followed “by a discourse by the aforementioned Master Gifford, who chose his text “ from St John ii 16. The sermon being at length finished, the Rev. Father in “ G°d preparing himself for the celebration of the Eucharist, calling on the “ father of the family and his two eldest sons there present, bade them sit “down by the Altar, and addressed them in these or similar words: —

“ Mr. Style, it was yor most earnest desire to have this Place conse- “ crated; which request you have obteyned, and therein a double favour, both ' from God, that it will please him to accept from synfull men such meane “offers, and to tye his presence (by promise) to such places as this; and also “ from the Church, which hath appointed the meanes for perfourmaunce “thereof; and this yor request is by mee already satisfied and that Dutie “ perfourmed. Now then you must know, that this Place is become an "Anathema, and that in every Anathema there is both a Consecratione and “an Execration, a Blessing and a curse: yf you shall use it rightly, and to “ that purpose, only for wch. it is sanctified, it will bee an Anathema a “blessing to you and your families; yf otherwise, and that you shall pro- “ fane it, it will bee an Anathema a Curse to you and your posteritie. There- “ fore, I do here charge you in the name of the Almighty God, in whose “ presence yee now appeare, and to whose great and glorious Name, this “ house is Dedicated, that neither yee, by yorselves, or by permission of others, “ doo or suffer to bee doon anything contrary to that is intended and per- “ fourmed; yf yee shall, I doo call ye great God of Heaven, beefore whose “Altar ye stand, and this Congregation heere preent, witnesses against the “ soules of you and yours, at the dreadfull day of judgments: But my “ hope is yee will not; and yet for more assurance, I doo require yee to passe “ me your promises, beefore God and this Company, not to doo or to suffer it “ anyway to bee prophaned.”

“ Then (when the aforementioned Edmund Style, Snr., and his sons “had given their promise to the aforesaid effect) the Rev. Father standing “at the North side of the Table recited the Decalogue, and for the collect “read the following: —

“ Most Blessed Saviour, which by thy bodely presence, at the feast “of Dedication, didest approve and honour such devoute and religious “services, as this wee have now perfourmed; present thyself at this time “ also unto us by thy holy spirit; and because that holiness becometh thine “ house for ever, consecrate us wee pray thee, as an holy Temple unto thine “ owne self, that, thous dwelling in our hartes by faith, wee may bee " cleansed from all carnall and Prophane affections, and devoutly geeven “to all good workes, for the glory of thy most blessed Name; to whom, etc. “ the aforesaid chaplains read

i Cor. I iii.

Jer. xvi. to end.

St. John ii, 16 to end.

“Then the Rev. Father vested himself for the Lord’s Supper. Those who “ did not intend to communicate went out and there remained with the Bishop “ and his Chaplains, the father of the family and his two sons, and their "wives and a certain number of others of both sexes.”

“ The service being finished (synaxi vero peracta) the whole congregation was summoned into the chapel and the Rev. Father commanded that “there should be paid certain necessary moneys to which the aforementioned “ Edmund Style is held by a bond on behalf of himself and his heirs to the “Rev. Father and his successors (there being certain conditions attaching “ to this business). And these conditions were publicly read by the Public “ Notary, Simon Bibye, in that same place, then sealed by the same Edmund “ Style and given into the hand of the aforesaid Rev. Father. When this “business was finished the Rev. Father in God the Bishop, added this thanks- “ giving in conclusion, and pronounced in a loud voice as follows :

“ Blessed bee thy Name O Lord our God, for that it pleeasth thee to “have thine habitation among men, and to dwell in the assembly of the “righteous; and blesse wee beeseech thee, this Dayes Action unto us; prosper “ thou the worke of our hands upon us, Lord prosper thou our handy worke; “Blesse this Familie and the Owner thereof, into whose minde thou didst “put it, to have this Place Consecrated unto thee; bee with him and his in “their going out and coming in, and make them truly thankfull unto thy “glorious Name, who beeing soe greate a God and the Lord of the whole “ Earth, vouchsafest to accept these poore offeringes from sinful! men which “are themselves but earth and ashes; and graunt, that they and their Pos- “ teritie, may faithfully serve thee in this Place, to the comfort of their owne “ soules and the everlasting prayse of thy glorious Ma’ty through Jesus “ Christ our Lord and only Saviour.”

“And so at length the Rev. Father dismissed the The whole congregation, “ giving them his Apostolic blessing.”

the whole ot the proceedings are certified by the Notary Simon Bibye and the form of the bond entered into by Edmund Style was as follows;-

“26 July, 1607. Edmund Style of Langley in the County of Kent “Esquire, am held bound to the most Revd. Father in God, William Bishop of Rochester and his successors for the sum of £200 under the endorsed “ conditions, viz.: —

“ The condition of this obligation is such, that whereas the within “ named Reverend Father hath upon the day of the date hereof consecrated " a Chapell in the house of the within bounden Edmund Style at Langley “ within written, and the same hath dedicated to the Honr. and Service of Almighty God, as by a frmall Instrument tripartite hereof made, and “ sealed \vh. the episcopall Seale of sd. Re. F. (whereof one part, remayneth “ in the custodie of the sd. Edm. Style for him, and his heires to all “ posterity, one othr. pt. is kept in the Church-Chest at Beckenham within “ mentioned, and the third in the Regrie. of the Bishops of Rochester for a “ perpetual Record, as it doth more at large appeare, in which Chappell, it " shall and may be lawful! for any Minister (being ordeyned according to the Lawes, Orders and Constitutions of the Church of England, and “ autherized thereunto by the Arch. Bp. of Canterbury or the Bp. of Roch. “ for the time being) there to celebrate Divine Service and administer the Holy Sacraments after the Ordr. prescribed in the Booke of Comon Prayer confirmed by his most excellent Ma’ty. Now therefore, if the sd. Edmund Style with his familie, and his heircs for evr. hereafter wth. their famellyes doo twice at the least in every yeere (wheereof Easter to bee one) unlest “ extremitie of Age, Sickness, or some other necessarie let or impediment, to “ bee approved by the sd Arch B. of Cant, or B. of Roch. for the time beemg, shall hinder them) and there doo reverently heare divine Service, and receive the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour “ Jesus Christ, according to the manner appointed in the sd booke of Comon “ Prayer; or yf any of their families shall refuse so to doo, that when they cause such persons to bee presented to the Ordinary of the Diocesse of Roch * that shall bee for the time. And also, yf the sd Edm. Style and his he " for evr. with his and their families doo from time to time satisfie content “ and pay unto the sd. Pish. Ch. of Beckenham and to the Parsons, vicars,

“ Curates, and all othr. officers and Ministers of the same, for the time beemg.. “all such Tithes, Offrings, Obventions, Oblations, and other duties and “ payments of what name, nature or condition, soevr  they bee “ which by lawe right custome or prescription shall bee due and payable from “ them or any one of them, in as full and ample manner as hath been used “and accustomed beefore the Cons: and Dedic: of the sd Chapell; Then “ etc. or else etc.”

In connection with this consecration it is interesting to note that in the Bishop’s license for the chapel it is recited that “ it has been repeatedly •* pointed out to us with humble supplication by the venerable Edmund “ Style, Esquire, that from ancient times and within the memory of man there “ has been within his house at Langley a certain oratory or chapel well " built and properly furnished.”

We find several entries in the Registers of baptisms and marriages at Lanjley subsequent to 1607. It would be interesting to know where the old chapel was situated and when it was demolished—probably after the Burrell family acquired both Langley and Kelsey. At our visit to Langley we failed to find any trace of a chapel.

The mansion of Langley was practically rebuilt since the year 1776, the date of the old engraving in Hasted’s Kent, which we reproduce. Some of the outbuildings are very old, the most noticeable being the old tennis or racquet court and a barn, the timbers of the latter being very massive. The tennis court is very lofty with a fine wooden roof and is now used as a cowhouse On the death of the late C. E. Goodhart, Langley became unoccupied and the whole estate is now in the market for building purposes. It is interesting to note that about seventy years ago, there was a wooden foot bridge across the Wickham Road connecting Langley with Eden Park.

BECKENHAM PLACE.

(It has been found that Beckenham Place is established on the lands  of the former Foxgrove Manor. Although Cator acquired Beckenham Manor lands in 1773 the Manor house and grounds had been exchanged by Frederick St. John with Peter Burrell in 1757, hence Cator had built Beckenham Place/Stumps Hill in 1760. Borrowman had not seen supporting evidence for this in his day)

In the reign of Edward I. the manor of Beckenham was held by a family, called in the old Latin records “ De Rupella,” in French “ de la Rochell,” and in English “ Rokell,” which name came originally from Rochelle in France. Richard de la Rokele died possessed of the manor in the fifth year of Edward I., when it was found by inquisition that he held it of the King “in capite” by Knight service, as one Knight’s fee. The manor subsequently became vested in Sir William Bruyn, from whom it descended to his son Sir Maurice Bruyn, Chamberlain to Edward III. William Bruyn, in the 36th year of Edward III. was found to die seised of the manor of Begenham, together with the advowson of the Church. His descendant, Sir Ingelram or Ingram Bruyn, of South Ockendon, died possessed of the manor and the advowson of the Church, to which his son Maurice succeeded. His descendant, Sir Henry Bruyn, in the reign of Henry IV., left two daughters, co-heiresses, each of whom had three husbands. Alice married (1) Robert Harleston, of Essex, (2) Sir John Heveningham, and lastly William Berners. Elizabeth married (1) William Mallory, by whom she had no issue, (2) William Brandon, who was standard-bearer to Henry on Bosworth Field, by whom she had issue Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who some time resided at Beckenham, having entertained Henry “ with all the cunning pomp of magnificence ” upon his journey to Hever to visit his repudiated wife, Anne of Cleves. His mother, the coheiress of Sir William Bruyn, before mentioned, married lastly Thomas Tyrrell, of Herne, in Essex, whose family is said to have enjoyed the honour of knighthcod in a direct line for more than 400 years, and to be descended from the Tyrrell, who shot William Rufus in the New Forest. These two daughters of Sir Henry Bruyn divided the manor and the advowson of Beckenham between them, and their husbands successively, by right of their wives, possessed the same in moieties. Alice held at her death the half part of the manor of Begenham and the advowson, and this moiety subsequently became vested in Robert Leigh, then in Sir Henry Snelgrave, from whom it descended to his grandson, Henry Snelgrave, who alienated it away to Walter St. John. Sir Thomas Tyrrell subsequently became possessed of the other moiety of the manor and advowson which afterwards became vested in the Warren family, from whom it descended to Sir George Dalston, of Cumberland, then to Sir Patrick Curwen, who conveyed his interest to Sir Oliver St. John, of Battersea. The last named passed it to Walter St. John, who having before purchased the other moiety of the manor and advowson, became possessed of the entire fee of both. The advowson and manor continued in the St. John family until the death of Baron St.John, of Battersea, in 1742, when he was succeeded by Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. The Trustees of Frederick, Viscount Bolingbroke in 1773 conveyed the manor to John Cator. For more detailed accounts of the manor of Beckenham prior to its being acquired by the Cator family the reader is referred to Phillipott’s “ Villare Cantianum,” published in 1659, and Hasted’s History of Kent, published in 1778.

(As Peter Collinson’s Hortus Collinsonianus records John Cator building Beckenham Place in 1760/62 then several aspects of Beckenham  Place have been reappraised)

The Cator family is of Quaker origin, being found settled at Ross, Hereford, during the Commonwealth. The first of the family who appears in Kent was John Cator, of Bromley. He married in 1728 at the Meeting House of the Society of Friends in the Savoy, London, Mary, the daughter of John Brough, of the Parish of St. James’ (sic), London. He died in 1763. His wife died in 1787 and is buried at Beckenham. His son John, who was born in 1728, married Mary, the daughter of Peter Collinson, F.R.S., F.S.A., a noted authority on botany, who is said to have been the first to introduce the “conifer” into this country from America. She died in 1804 and lies buried in Beckenham with their only child Maria, who died at the early age of three years, there must nave been a house on or near the site of the present mansion, although we have been unable to find any record of such building, for Hasted states that John Cator having purchased the property in 1773, shortly after rebuilt Beckenham Place, situated on Stumps Hill, in this Parish, with much " taste and elegance.” The portico of the house and various fittings were subsequently added, having been brought from Wrickle- marsh Park, Blackheath, the seat of Sir Gregory Page Turner, which Cator had purchased in 1784 and which was resold by him by auction in lots in 1787. Wricklemarsh House, a magnificent edifice of stone, stood near the site of Blackheath Park Church, on the west side; the round pond still exists. John Cator represented Wallingford, Berks, in Parliament in 1774. He was Sheriff for Kent in 1781 and was elected member for Ipswich, but unseated for bribery in 1784. He was a man of cultivated tastes and collected a considerable library of books, most of which were chosen for him by his friend, the celebrated Dr. Johnson, as is proved by a letter in the possession of the Cator family. He also had several pictures of considerable value. He was a friend of Linmeus, the great botanist, who is said to have planted several shrubs and flowers in the woods and garden of Beckenham Place. John Cator was on intimate terms with Dr. Johnson, acting with him as cotrustee for Mrs. Thrale, afterwards 'known as Madame Piozzi. Fanny Burney, afterwards Madame d’Arblay, the authoress of Evelina, was a constant visitor at Beckenham Place, though from her memoirs she does not appear to have appreciated the qualities of her host. Dr. Johnson, in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, thus describes John Cator:—'‘Cator has a “ rough, manly, independent understanding, and does not spoil it by com- “ plaisance. He never speaks merely to please and seldom is mistaken in things “ which he has any right to know. There is much good in his character and “ much usefulness in his knowledge.” Boswell adds that Johnson ‘ found a “ cordial solace at that gentleman’s seat of Beckenham, which is indeed one “of the finest places at which I was ever a guest.” John Cator acquired a large extent of land in the neighbourhood of Beckenham and elsewhere near London, much of which was sold by his nephew and heir, John Barwell Cator (born 1781), Parliament sanctioning the sale of these entailed lands by private Act of Parliament, Sess. 1825-6 Geo. IV. The lemainder of the purchase-money after payment of debts was applied in the purchase of further land at Woodbastwick in Norfolk. Amongst othei land then so.d was that on which the Crystal Palace now stands. John Cator amassed a large fortune at the Adelphi, London, died there in 1806, and is buried in Beckenham Churchyard. His brother, Joseph Cator, lived at the Clock House. He had spent most of his life in India and was connected with Sir Richard Barwell of the Hon. East India Company. • He married Diana Bertie, sister of Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie, reputed daughter of Lord Albemarle Bertie. He and his wife are buried at Beckenham. In connection with Joseph Cator the following extract from a book published in 18.4, entitled “ The Fruits of Experience,” or " Memoir of Joseph Biasbridge, may be interesting. Brasbridge was a silversmith in the City of London, between 1770 and 1824. Many of his anecdotes have reference to City personages of note with whom he was brought into contact. He writes thus . “ Mr. Joseph Cator passed the last thirty years of his life at “ Beckenham and died at the age of 84 leaving a numerous progeny.

    

        JOHN CATOR 1728-1806                                                                    JOSEPH CATOR   -1818                                          JOHN BARWELL CATOR

" Six of his sons were customers of mine and the finest men I ever saw; “ they bear an exact resemblance to the description Parson Jones gave of his first born in his letter to the India Directors, being all of them “equal to that sample. I hope these gentlemen will pardon the liberty “ I take in thus introducing their names in connection with that of “ their father, for whose memory I retain all the respect which his own “ worth and his invariable kindness to me for many years were calculated to inspire.”John Barwell Cator, the son of Joseph Cator, inherited the estates of his uncle John Cator. He married at Westport, Co. Mayo, Ireland, Elizabeth daughter of Sir Ross Mahon, Bart., of Castlegar, Co. Galway. He lived at Beckenham Place for some years, spending much of his time in Ireland. Ide was devoted to sport and bought Woodbastwick in 1813, but in his later years, owing to his reckless extravagance, combined with great eccentricity, the estates would have been ruined, but for the timely arrival in England of his brother Peter Cator, of the Indian Civil Service, who arranged that the estates should be handed over to the eldest son, Albemarle Cator, and who took in hand, as agent, the active management of the property. John Barwell Cator died in 1858 and was succeeded by his eldest son Albemarle Cator, who was born in 1813, and who married his first cousin, Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of John H. Blakeney, of Abbert, Co. Galway. Albemarle Cator did not live at Beckenham Place, but resided at Woodbastwick, and in Ireland: he died in 1868, having surv'ved his father only 10 years. This Albemarle Cator had several children and his second son, William Cator was Rector of Beckenham. Albemarle Cator was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Albemarle (the elder brother, John, having died unmarried in 1859 from wounds received in the Crimea), who married Mary, the daughter of Christopher Mohun Harris, of Hayne, Devon. He died on April 10th 1906, and was succeeded by his son, John Cator, M.P. for South Hunts the present lord of the manor, who was born in 1862, and married Maud daughter of H. J. Adeane, of Babraham, Cambridge. The heir to the estates is Henry John Cator, bom in January, 1897.

Greenwood, in his " Epitome of County History,” published in 1838, describes the house as “ an elegant stone edifice with a handsome portico, “ supported by four magnificent columns, the interior being spacious and “ elegant.” It is stated in “ The Beauties of England and Wales ” that Beckenham Place was formerly the residence of Rear Admiral Sir Piercy Brett, who died in 1781, but we believe that this is incorrect and that Admiral Brett lived at the Clock House.

Amongst the tenants of Beckenham Place we may mention Alexander Inglis, 1829, and a Banker named Peters, 1835, who made a private cricket ground on the land now occupied by the Beckenham Cricket CTub. Peters was succeeded by Captain Walter Raleigh Gilbert, R.H.A., and then by Page, or as he subsequently became, Page Henderson, and he in his turn was succeeded by Sir John Kirkland, an Army agent, who died in January, 1871. Other more recent tenants were J. Christie, Spenser Brunton and Edwin Co veil. The mansion was subsequently let as a boys’ school, and is now used as a sanatorium. Several houses have been built, some fronting on the Southend road and others on a private road running through the estate. The remainder of the beautiful park and woods are leased to the Beckenham Golf Club.

A fine steel engraving of Beckenham Place, drawn by T. P. Neale, and engraved by S. Lacey, was published in 1821(1812)  in Neale’s “Views of the Seats “ of Noblemen and Gentlemen,” a copy of this engraving will be found among our illustrations.

KELSEY PARK.

Borrowman's copy of the Burrell Kelsey estate map of 1723. Copied from another copy in the papers of the Hoare family; The original and another map of 1735 are at Knepp Castle, West Sussex in the possession of Sir Charles Burrell, bart.

Kelsey was a seat of note as early as the reign of Henry III., and had owners of that name, as appears by the deeds of that period, and we read that John de Kelsey, William de Kelsey and others of that surname, had interests in the seat. In the reign of Richard II. it was possessed by the family of Brograve, who acquired the estate by purchase and resided there, and one of whose descendants in 1688 conveyed the estate to Peter Burrell, a merchant, to whom we have already referred. The name “ Brograve” is sometimes spelt "Burgrave” or " Boroughgrave.” The descendants of this Peter Burrell held the property until it was sold with the rest of the Gwydir estates in 1820. In 1479 William Brograve had a license from the Bishop of Rochester for an oratory or chapel at his manor house of Kelseys, “ the “vestigia or reliques ” of which, says Phillipott in 1659, “are yet obvious to “the inquisitive eye.” In 1820, on the death of Lord Gwydir, the mansion was in the occupation of Mrs. King, as lessee at the rent of £750 per annum, and is described as “ a spot extensively admired for the extreme beauty and “ variety of the scenery.” The park is described as ornamented with a variety “ of ornamental timber, tastefully grouped and scattered, intersected with a “ handsome piece of water which winds through the grounds for a considerable “ distance, and margined by groves and sloping plantations, with shady walks “of great extent.” The house with 153 acres of land sold for £16,300. The mansion was built by Richard Henry Alexander Bennett, “ one of the “ wealthiest commoners of the time,” who married Elizabeth Amelia, the daughter of Peter Burrell.

 

On the death of Lord Gwydir in 1820, the house passed out of the Burrell family, and became the property of Edward Grose Smith, who conveyed the house and part of the grounds in November, 1835, to Peter Richard Hoare the elder, together with two pews in the old parish Church, which, it was stated, had for many years devolved with Kelsey estate. In 1837 Peter Richard Hoare, the elder, entailed the estate, then about sixty acres in extent, on his son Peter Richard Hoare, the younger, who, on his father’s death, acquired land to the extent of another eighty-two acres, and several shops in the village, and his uncle Henry Merrick Hoare, still further added to the estate by the settlement of certain property in the Wickham Road. The chapel, dedicated to St. Agatha, was added in 1869 and the Rev. F. Linklater (afterwards of Stroud Green) was resident chaplain. The choir boys lived at the choir house, now known as Sandhills Cottage, but the choir house and the residential chaplaincy were abolished in 1873. After that date services were held in the chapel at stated times by the Rev. E. P. Williams and the Rev. G. O. F. Griffith, now Vicar of St. Barnabas.

On the death of the younger Peter Richard Hoare in 1877 the estate descended to Charles A. R. Hoare, who died in 1908, but who had ceased to reside in Beckenham for many years prior to his death. A considerable portion of the estate has been sold or let on building leases, but the house with its extensive and beautiful grounds still remains, and was for some years in the occupation of the Sisters of All Saints, Margaret Street, and more recently used as a large school for girls. The mansion is now empty and the park has been acquired for building purposes. The younger Peter Richard Hoare was buried at Luscombe, near Dawlish, but Margaret Hoare, the wife of the late Charles A. R. Hoare, was buried in iSgg in the family vault, which is under the north transept of the Parish Church. The pews in the old Parish Church were on the south side of the nave, near the chancel, but no corresponding pews appear to have been reserved by the faculty which was obtained for the rebuilding of the Church.

In making excavations for the foundations of one of the new houses on the south side of Wickham Road in 1898, the workmen came across a large quantity of ancient brickwork, apparently the foundations of an old building of some extent, supposed to be the old Kelsey dower house. (recently discovered map evidence shows  that Stone Farm was originally on the west side of Wickham Road and this may be the remains described. Also the Roman Road is projected to follow this line.)The late Peter Hoare believed in the former existence of some large structure near the manor and made several attempts to find the ruins. The walls of the old building, discovered in 1898, were about four feet in thickness and were about two feet below the surface and went down some six feet or more lower. Within the grounds of the modern house, already referred to, stands a fine cedar tree said to be many hundred years old, and as these trees are usually found near old houses, as for instance the old cedar near Beckenham Lodge, it is quite possible that the tree was planted when the house was built. We remember a story, which was current some forty-five years ago, to the effect that Elm Cottage in the High Street used formerly to stand in the Wickham Road, and had been removed brick by brick, some said, in a single night. It may have been the case that the house in the Wickham Road, the foundations of which were discovered in 1898, was pulled down, and part of the materials used in the erection of Elm Cottage, but we only give the tale for what it is worth. In connection with Kelsey was a building known as The Temple, but we have not been able to trace its site, unless it may have been the house to which we have referred. In a plan published in 1778 two houses near Kelsey lake are shown, one undoubtedly the mansion, and the other marked as “ The Temple ” on the west side of the south end of the lake. There are discrepancies in this plan and it is therefore quite possible that the Temple was on the east side and might have been the house, the foundations of which were discovered in 1898. Kelsey Cottage, adjoining Kelsey Park, was built in 1832 by John Wolley and was in 1S38 the residence of Herbert Jenner, son of the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Jenner, of Chisle- hurst. Greenwood writing at this last mentioned date says, “ It is situated on the west of Kelsey and commands a most beautiful prospect into the adjoining county of Surrey.”

FOXGROVE.

Foxgrove probably takes its name from a family of that name, as we 6nd that John de Foxgrove paid aid for it in the reign of Edward III. It \.as, as already stated, one of the Manors of Beckenham, and was in the reign of Edward III. in the possession of the Burghersh family, from whom is passed to Sir Walter de Pavely. In the reign of Richard II. it was con- yed to the Northampton family of Vaux (hence some have conjectured, but we think erroneously, the name Foxgrove), passing to John Greene, in the reign of  Henry VI and to the  family  of Beversea in the reign of Henry VIII when it was purchased by one Luke Hollingsworth. Luke Hollingsworth in 1547 sold the farm to Sir John Olyffe, whose only daughter and heiress Joan  married John Leigh, of Addington, Surrey. From him it descended to Sir Fancis Leigh, and in connection with his ownership of the farm, it is.recorded  ln the old minute-books at the Parish Church, that in April 1704, in consideration of his having spent £12 in alterations and repairs to the pews in the  body of the Church, the said Sir Francis Leigh was granted sole use of “ the first and largest seat adjoining to the north aisle, he, having promissed to  leave the key of the said pew in his absence with the Clark to place such strangers of Ouality and good fashion as shall be thought fit and that the other foremost adjoining seat shall be always left open tor any of the Panshioners to sit intermixt with tenants of Foxgrove, as the Church wardens shall appoint”; and there is a subsequent entry in the minutes under date June 28th, 1784, that the owners and occupiers of Foxgrove (at that time belonging to Amy Burrell) had had a right to a pew in the Parish Church from time immemorial. Sir Francis Leigh died in 1711, having directed that this and other estates should be sold.

     

It was bought in 1716 by John Tolson, and subsequently came into the possession of the Brydges of Wootton. In 1765 it was sold to Jones Raymond, of Langley, who on his death in 176S left this estate between Amy, the widow of Peter Burrell, and William and George Evelyn Glanvill, the sons of his sister Bridget. Amy Burrell bought the shares of these two brothers, and on her decease in 1789, the whole of the property came into the possession of her son, Sir William Burrell. He eventually sold the same to Sir Peter Burrell, his nephew, afterwards Lord Gwydir. In pursuance of a special Act of Parliament Lord Gwydir in 1793 exchanged these lands for others in the possession of John Cator of Beckenham Place. Early in the nineteenth century the house was in the occupation of William Gibbons, who carried on a farm there until about the year 1853, when he was succeeded by his son Henry. The farm subsequently passed into the occupation of Charles E. Purvis.

The claim for a faculty pew in respect of the house was not pressed when the new Church was built, and the rights, if any, to a pew, like those of Copers Cope farm, have now' been lost. The old house was pulled down about the year 1830, and a more modern building erected. This in its turn was demolished about the year 1878, and the moat, which even in our early days partly surrounded the farm buildings, was filled up, and the site is now built over. The road, which closely adjoined the south side of the moat, now' known as “ The Avenue,” wras for some time called Moat Road. The house stood in the depression betwreen Foxgrove Road and The Avenue, near where the house called Eton Hall now stands.

There was a local tradition that Sir Walter Raleigh lived and first planted potatoes at Foxgrove, but this w'as, we think, only a tradition without any foundation, although it clung to the house with great tenacity, and used formerly to be believed. Some have ascribed its origin to the fact, that, as mentioned above, Sir Walter de Pavely once lived at Foxgrove. We are inclined, however, to think that there is more ground for the tradition than is generally supposed, and that although the story of planting the first potatoes at Foxgrove may be, and probably is, mythical, there is no reason to question the probability of Sir Walter Raleigh having lived or at any rate being a visitor at Foxgrove. The knight fell under the displeasure of Oueen Elizabeth, on account of his attachment to one of her Maids of Honour, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, whom he afterwards married. Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, the son, the brother of Elizabeth, took the name of Carew, on the death of his uncle, Sir Francis Carew, of Beddington, who died in 1611, and by whose will he was adopted as next heir, and this Sir Francis Carew at one time held the advowson of Beckenham. It is therefore not improbable that he also held property at Beckenham, which descended to his nephew, the brother-in-law of Sir Walter Raleigh. It is said that the first orange trees seen in England were planted at Beddington by this Sir Francis Carew, from the seeds of oranges, which were imported into England by Sir Walter Raleigh.

At one time, a lane led from the High Road, now called Southend Road, to the house of Foxgrove, running through what are now the gardens of the houses on the south side of Foxgrove Road, and some of the holly trees, which formed the hedge of this lane, can still be seen. The house known as "Raleigh" is one of the few instances in suburban Beckenham where a modern villa has been named with some reference to its surroundings and old associations.

THE VILLAGE PLACE

The Vlllage Place, or as it was at one time called, “The Cedars, which stands  ln the village, was the residence of Michael Leigh, who sold it to one William Davis. The new proprietor, having acquired adjoining land, pulled down the house and erected the present buiding on the site, in 1717. He also built one of the galleries in the old Parish Church, and at the present time there are two faculty-pews appurtenant to the mansion. Village Place became the  residence of Lady St. John, a relative of the then lord of tne manor, and prior to its passing into the possession of Alderman Richard Lea, it was the residence of the Right Honourable Lady Dacre. In 1828 Col. Samuel Wilson became possessed of the property on the death of his father-in-law, Alderman Richard Lea, and died in 1881, at the age of 90. He was one time Lord Mayor of London, a Justice of the Peace for Kent and Westminster and Colonel of the Royal London Militia. He held the office, now obsolete, of Harbinger to the Queen, and the family still have in their possession the three silver sticks, used respectively in the reigns of George IV., William IV., and of the late Oueen. There are also at the Village Place two full length portraits in the costume of “ Harbinger,” by Rippingal, one of the present owner, C. L. Wilson, in the original dress worn at the coronation of Henry VIII., who instituted the office, and the other of the late Colonel Wilson in the dress worn at the coronation of George IV.

       

  C. LEA WILSON, Esq., J.P., 1892                                                                                                                                               THE QUEEN'S  HARBINGER

Colonel Wilson, at the time when he was Sheriff of London, presented to the Parish Church twelve leather fire buckets, bearing the arms of the City of London, and the date 1833. These buckets, until the time when the Parish Church was demolished, used to hang in the porch, but, during the rebuilding, all of them, with the exception of one, disappeared. The remaining bucket was, however, rescued, and for many years used to hang at the entrance to the Church House. In 1908, this bucket was removed to the Parish Church, and now hangs over the Wilson vault in the south transept.

In 1838 there existed in the grounds of the Village Place an old elm tree, nearly 15 feet in circumference, and at one time about 100 feet high. There was a spiral flight of stairs from its base to the summit, containing several seats. Previous to November, 1836, the highest landing point was 93 feet 7 inches from the ground, approached by 161 steps, from which height views of the surrounding country could be obtained. In that month, however, a terrible storm struck the tree, carrying away the two top flights of steps, and reducing the tree to the height of 93 ft. 9 in. and the topmost landing to 66 ft. 10 in. from the ground. The tree has since disappeared. The grounds of the Village Place are most picturesque and of considerable extent. The stream, known as the Beck, flows through the grounds and the temple or summer-house facing the west is still a feature of the Church hill,

THE CLOCK HOUSE.

This mansion formerly stood on the site of the present Public Baths, and was probably built in the early part of the 18th century. The house is not mentioned in the earlier descriptions of Beckenham, but in the latter part of the 18th century it was in the possession of Admiral Sir Piercy Brett, who died in 1781, and of whom we have made mention elsewhere. It was a substantial red brick mansion, and the fine magnolia which covered the front of the building will be remembered by the older inhabitants of Beckenham. It was in the early part of last century the seat of Joseph Cator. Among the tenants of the old house since the death of Joseph Cator may be mentioned John Goddard, afterwards of Elmer Lodge, E. Richards Adams, for many years Churchwarden of the Parish Church, and Sir Francis Tress Barry. At the time Adams took the house it had the reputation of being haunted, probably due to the fact that the building was at this time greatly infested by rats.

 

It has been stated that Lord Byron had his farewell interview with Lady Byron at the Clock House. It is, however, very doubtful whether this interview took place in Beckenham at all. Peter Nisbet, the old Bromley carrier, used to state that he held Lord Byron’s horse outside the Clock House, but we believe when Lady Byron separated from her husband she went to reside with her relatives, and if Lord Byron went to see his wife before his last journey to Greece, the parting probably took place in London and net in Beckenham. There was a tradition that Queen Elizabeth visited the Clock House, but this can hardly have been the case, certainly not at the building which was demolished when the Baths were built, as this had no trace of architecture so early as the Tudor period. John Wallace was the last tenant. The Clock House stables still remain, and are occupied by a livery-stable keeper. The gardens of the house were well wooded, and some of the old trees still remain on the land not yet built upon to the north of the Beckenham road. The old two-tier fountain, which now stands in the ornamental water in the Croydon Road Recreation Ground, was formerly in the lake of the Old Clock House. We have not been  able to trace the origin of the name, and can only conjecture that the house was so called from a large clock which used to be fixed over the stables. We have been told, on very good authority, that there existed at the Clock House over fifty years ago, a spring containing excellent medicinal properties, and we recall the fact that when the well was sunk for the present Baths, the water obtained by the boring was pronounced by experts to be of exceptionally good quality.

EDEN PARK.

Eden Park, or as it was formerly called, Eden Farm, was part of the Gwydir estates, and was included in the sale in 1820. It is then described as “ an elegant seat," late the residence of Lord Auckland, and then of Mrs. Wildman, consisting of “ a residence of handsome and uniform “elevation, replete with domestic offices, erected in a circular form, on a “beautiful eminence in the Park, commanding a picturesque and “ interesting view of the adjacent country.” William Eden, or as he afterwards became, Lord Auckland, lived at Eden Farm, where he entertained Pitt, Dundas, the elder Wilberforce, Vansittart, Lord Teignmouth and others. This Lord Auckland died suddenly at Eden Park in 1814. It is supposed that he never really recovered from the shock of the death of his eldest son, the Hon. William Frederick Eden, who in 1810 was found drowned in the river Thames, and was buried at Beckenham.

 THE OLD MANOR HOUSE.

The old Manor House (now the Urban District Council Offices) opposite the Church in the Bromley Road, was in the possession of Peter Burrell, in 1788, when he sold it to the Hoare family. The property was increased by the purchase from Lord Gwydir in 1820 of part of the large adjoining meadow, known as “ The Downs,” and a small house, known as “ Down Cottage,” afterwards known as “ Beckenham Cottage, in the Wickham Road, near the entrance of a footpath, which ran to the Fail field, and was known as Love Lane. Five years later, all these premises were assured to Charles Hoare and Henry Merrick Hoare, brothers of Peter Richard Hoare, the elder, as joint tenants, and in the year 1827 Henry Merrick Hoare acquired in his own right from the executors of Thomas Maude, deceased, the remainder of the “Downs meadow',” and another field at the foot of the Church Hill, known as “footpath field” from the fact that a public footpath led across it to Love Lane. A few years later, Henry Merrick Hoare still further increased the estate by acquiring another large held, adjoining the “ Downs,” and known as " Stone field.”

In 1838, the house is described as “the residence of the Hon. Mr. “ Fortescue, standing in beautiful grounds, in which is a fine sheet of water.” It is said that the interior was elegantly fitted up, and contained some paintings and drawings of merit, among others, copies of Guido’s “Aurora” and “ Andromache.”

It has been supposed that Henry VIII. held his court at the old Manor house, and it was said that a bedstead belonging to Anne of Cleves was preserved in the house. We think, however, that these traditions are as true as the many others relating to the visits of more than one Royal personage to Beckenham. It has also been said that the original word “ Court Downs,” still preserved in “ Courtdowns Road,” is derived from the fact that a Royal court was held here by Henry VIII. In the garden on the side terrace of the old house, there was an old stone seat, supposed to have been used by Anne Boleyn.

The house and the adjoining fields were known as the Manor House estate up to the year 1881, and part of the footpath meadow was thrown into the Manor House grounds and enclosed. The property was successively occupied by Mrs. Mary Hoarc, and in 1851 by H. Fortescue. Jn that year, Charles Hoare and Henry Merrick Hoare settled that part of the property lying to the north of Love Lane, and including Footpath meadow, upon their nephews, H. Fortescue, and Peter Richard Hoarc the younger, and their respective children. The south portion of the property was settled in the same year by Henry Merrick Hoare on his sister-in-law, Arabella Penelope Hoare, widow of Peter Richard Hoare the elder, with remainder to Peter Richard Hoare the younger, and became part of the Kelsey estate. The old Manor House was successively occupied by Mr. Christie, Col. Bevington and others, up to the time of its sale in 10M.

Old inhabitants will recollect a high brick wall running inside a fringe of trees on the east side of Church Hill, and the path which led from the pound, by way of a footbridge across the stream to Love Lane. This wall was the cause of serious floods on April 11th, 1878, by reason of the flow of the water in the stream being checked, in consequence of which it accumulated during a heavy rainfall behind the wall, cvenrually breaking it through for a considerable length. The view, taken in 1878 from a spot near the present Kelsey Park Road, show's the extent of the damage aonc. The tops of the posts of the submerged pound appear in the distance, with a glimpse of the grounds of the Manor House, which at that time beautifully wooded. The stream flowed through an arch in the wall, the footbridge crossed the stream, and as children, we used to stoop do 1 when crossing this footbridge to obtain a view' of the Manor House faiounds, through a grill which protected the arch. The wall was rawer properly rebuilt, and the stream, which in greatly reduced volume flows behind the houses in Kelsey Park Road, is now culverted out of sight.

The old Manor House estate remained in the hands of the Fortescues until the year 1881, when it was sold to George Fletcher Jones for £20,000.

The house and a portion of the land was resold by Jones to the Becken ^ Local Board in 1882 for £5,000. The Board subsequently sold portions o their holding to the London and County Bank and the Metropolitan Police respectively. It will always be a matter of regret that at that tune ^ Local Board either could not or would not purchase the whole of the o Manor House estate, on which the Baths, Technical Institute, and other inevitable municipal buildings might eventually have been built. The centre of the estate would have formed an ideal recreation ground, and the fringe might have been sold to builders. We believe that such a scheme was Pro posed at the time, but the minority in its favour was defeated

After the Local Board acquired the building, a portion of the land opposite the Church was given up to the widening of Bromley Road, and the wall enclosing the house, which was approached through the conservatory, was pulled down. The trees, which stood beside the house, were cut down, and most of the trees on Church Hill shared the same fate.

KENT HOUSE.

(here Borrowman follows Hasted and Lysons who do not mention Kent House until the Lethieulliers possessed it but records for Kent House go back to well before 1500, refer to the Timeline)

Kent House is situated to the north-east of the Lennard Road, close to the County boundary, hence probably the name. It was for generations possessed by the family of Lethieulliers, the first of whom was Sir John Le Thieullier, a Hamburg merchant, who had raised himself by his industry in trade and settled in Beckenham. According to Ireland, this Sir John Le Thieullier devised the house to his son William, who by his will gave it with his mansion and other estates in Beckenham to his second son Manning Lethieullier, whose son John alienated it in 1776 to Thomas Lucas, of Lee. Thomas Lucas died possessed of the estate in 1784, leaving his widow surviving, and the property subsequently came into the hands of John Julius Angerstein, of Charlton, her second husband, after which it passed into the hands of the Cator family. Angerstein was an opulent City merchant and a patron of the fine arts. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1735, and settled in London about the middle of the 18th century. His collection of paintings was purchased by the Nation for £60,000 on his death in 1822, and formed the nucleus of the National Gallery. It will be of interest to note that Anthony Rawlins, who left money which was used in building the Almshouses in the Bromley Road, had property in the parish of St. Olave, Hart Street, in the City. He appointed two of the Lethieulliers his executors, and from a codicil to his Will, it is probable that he died at Kent House.

Pepys in his diary, under the date December 13th, 1665, says:           On “ the Change invited by Sheriff Hooker, who keeps the poorest mean, dirty “ table in a dirty house, that ever I did see any Sheriff of London, and a - plain ordinary silly man, I think he is, but rich. Only his son Mr. ' Lethuilier, I like for a pretty civil understanding merchant, and the more, “ by much because he happens to be the husband of our noble fat brave “ lady in our parish, that I, and my wife admire so.” This Lethieullier referred to by Pepys was the husband of Anne Hooker, eldest daughter of Sir William Hooker, Sheriff of London in 1665, and Lord Mayor in 1673. John Letheuillier was Sheriff of London himself in 1674, and died in 1718, having been knighted, and was the father of the William Letheuillier, of Kent House, to whom we have referred. In the Burial Register of May ioth, 1771, we find that Ann, the daughter of William Lethwillier (sic) was buried in silk, and fifty shillings fine was paid to the poor, in accordance with a law then in force, enjoining burial in wool, to which we have already referred.

In 1815 the house is described in an advertisement which appeared in the “ Morning Post ” as having common rights on Penge Common, no doubt a valuable privilege in those days, and as being well situated for the markets. It was then in the occupation of James Randall. It has been conjectured by some that Kent House was intended by Thackeray for the house in which the hero and heroine of his unfinished novel Denis Duval ” were to have resided when they were married, for among the notes left by the celebrated author in connection with this work, is one giving a description of a villa at Beckenham which might very well be Kent House Farm.

CLAY HILL or THE OAKERY.

Clay Hill, or The Oakery, now known as Oakwood House, is situated on the summit of the hill between Beckenham and Shortlands, and was in 1783 the residence of William Smyth, and afterwards of Edward King, F.RA.S., the historian, and in the year 1798 we find an entry of a marriage being solemnised there by special license by the Bishop of Rochester. Seventeen years later we find Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, M.P-, 01 Lincolns Inn F ields, living there.

From a sale plan in the year 1837, the property, bounded by Bromley road, Scott’s Lane, and “ Green Lane ” (now Oakwood Avenue) was then di\ided into three portions on which three houses stood, Oakery Cottage, the Oakery, and a house standing at the corner of the Bromley Road and Scott s Lane. Robert Gibson purchased the two latter, and one of the Gators bought Oakery Cottage, which stood at the junction of Bromley Road and Green Lane.

Oakwood, or the Oakery, subsequently came into the possession of Dr. Scott, of Bromley, of anti-bilious pill fame, and his son-in-law, named Ogle, demolished the house and built Oakwood in 1847, the Architect being St. Albyn, of Furnivalls Inn.

It has been said that Dr. Scott used the water in a well in the' stable yard at Oakwood, in the manufacture of his celebrated pills. This may or may not be so, but we are informed that the water did contain certain medicinal properties, but since the main drainage system was introduced the well has been dry.

 

The Oakwood property subsequently passed into the hands of Francis Cramp and on his death in 1870, was purchased together with Oakery ottage by the present owner, C. W. Moore. Oakery Cottage was a picturesque old wooden building, as will be seen by our illustration, and was rom 1840 to 1853 in the occupation of one Talman, afterwards of Sir Henry Howarth, H. M. Phillipps, and others. The old wooden house was demol ished many years since, and the modern Oakery Cottage stands upon its site.

CHAPTER XVI.

OLD HOUSES AND LAND-MARKS OF BECKENHAM.

THE MANOR HOUSE, now in the occupation of Dr. Curtis, must not be mistaken for the old Manor House in the Bromley Road. It is an old building of which unfortunately very little is known. There is, however, a local tradition that Queen Elizabeth once stayed there, but we think that this can be dismissed, as the present building is obviously of later date. We are informed that the father of George Grote, the historian, lived there, probably after he left Shortlands House. The Beck still runs through the gardens, which are most picturesque. To the east of the Manor House, in a building now converted into a shop, the Rev. F. C. S. Chalmers and Catherine Marsh started an Orphan Home for children whose parents died of cholera at the first serious outbreak of that malady. The Rev. Canon Wolley was chaplain.

(This house nearly opposite the George Inn was on the site of Thomas Motley's The Mead shown in his 1736 map of his properties.)

BECKENHAM LODGE was an old house which stood at the junction of Croydon Road and Beckenham Road. It was over a century ago in the possession of the Banyer family, and was not a part of the Gwydir estates, which were sold in 1820, although surrounded by them, There is an entry in the old burial register that in 1791 one John Turner was killed “by a “ fall from his chair in Mr. Banyer’s kitchen,” and in the plan attached to the particulars of sale of Lord Gwydir’s estates in 1820, this property is marked as “ late Banyer’s.”

Thomas Wilson, in his “Accurate description of Bromley and Five “miles round,” published in 1797, says, in referring to Beckenham: “At the “ south end of this village are the handsome house and neat gardens of “ Laurence Banyer, Esq., and there are several other good houses in the “ neighbourhood.”

The road to Croydon ran in front of Beckenham Lodge, and on the right hand the road led to Penge, or, as the old direction had it, to “ Penge Common.” The house subsequently came into the possession of Hulbert Wathen, who purchased the property about 1842 from John Woolley. Hulbert Wathen’s sons were keen cricketers, and Arthur C. Wathen founded the Beckenham Cricket Club, the ground of which is now, and has been since 1866, in Beckenham Place Park. Beckenham Lodge was eventually sold for building purposes, and the house demolished. The site of the house and grounds is now being rapidly covered with villas, and only one of the cedar trees (which gave the name to Cedars Road) remains to mark the spot, which was once a “ neat garden.”

In Rocques map of the environs of London (1747) Elmers End is shown as consisting of a few scattered houses, and is called “ Elms End.” In the map accompanying Hasted’s folio edition of the History of Kent (1778)1 the district is called " Aylmours Green.”

The principal house at Elmers End was that known as ELMER LODGE, now occupied as a boys’ school, and known as Craven College, situated on the east side of Croydon Road, after passing the lodge leading to Eden Park. The original house was, we believe, built in the year 1610, and was, at one time, the property of Hugh Raymond, the owner of Langley. It was included in the sale of the Gwydir estates in 1820, and is described as forming a residence " suitable for a genteel family.” It was, at that time in the occupation of Samuel Evans, and subsequently came into the possession of Edward Richards Adams, F.S.A., magistrate for the county of Surrey. He resided there to the time of his death in 1856. E. Richards Adams was for many years Churchwarden of the Parish Church and the family own a large vault in the churchyard The original house with the lodge was demolished shortly after the death of Adams, and the new house was for many years in the occupation of John Goddard, since deceased, actuary to one of the large Insurance companies and a well-known figure in Beckenham

Richards Adams claimed a prescriptive right to a pew in the Parish Church in July, 1864, but the claim was not sustained.

ELMER LODGE 1838  

EDEN LODGE, as it is now called, in the Wickham Road, (South Eden Park Road, remains of the foundations are in Harvington woodland) almost opposite Langley Court, was probably erected since the year 1820, as it does not appear upon the sale plans of the Gwydir estates of that year. It was in 1838 described as a modern building and as in the occupation of a family named Marshall. It was subsequently sold to Alderman Truscott, and passed into the hands of the Kingsford family, who made considerable additions. By the Kingsfords it was sold or let to to the late Peter James Nicholas, the senior partner in a firm of East India merchants. It was subsequently purchased by a family named Campbell, and is now in the occupation of Henry S. Cowdell. In “Greater London” it is stated that Eden Lodge is the same as Eden Farm, but this is clearly not so. The grounds are exceedingly picturesque, and the stream which flows through the small park is formed into a lake, opposite the house. The same authority, already quoted, states that in the grounds were three or four oaks and cedars, under which Pitt and his friends may often have sat. This may have been so, but we feel sure that the Eden Farm occupied by Lord Auckland was not the house now known as Eden Lodge.

EDEN COTTAGE is a comparatively modern house on the north side of Wickham Road, nearly opposite Langley Court. It was in 1845 in the occupation of one Hankey, and subsequently was bought by the late C. A. R. Hoare It is now in the occupation of Mrs. Miers. Many of the older inhabitants will remember the time when C. A. R. Hoare drove a four- in-hand coach to London, and this coach was kept in the coach-house at Eden Cottage, the roof of which, as can still be seen, was raised to receive it.

The modern building known as LANGLEY COURT, erected about the year 1886 and now the residence of J. L. Buck nail, who built it, stands on the site of the premises formerly known as “Langley Farm,” forming part of the Burrell estates, which came under the hammer in 1820. It was then in the occupation of A. W. Colville. It is described in the particulars of sale, to which we have already referred, as “ of handsome and uniform “elevation, erected in the style of a pavilion, on a pleasing eminence at the “ extremity of the paddock which is margined by a fine range of plantations.”

The architect of the present modern building, which cost nearly £10,000 was James Barnett, of Beckenham, and the old house with about 249 acres of land was sold in 1820 for £14,900. Lancelot Howard lived there in 1830 and H. L. Holland occupied the house in 1845. His eldest son Henry, Governor of the Bank of England, married a daughter of Peter Cator, of the Hall. Mrs. Holland, the widow, died in 1876, and was buried in the family vault at the Parish Church, and one of her sons occupied Beckenham Place for a time. “The whole family are remembered by the old parishioners for “ their benevolence and kindly interest in all parochial matters at the time when they were residents in the Parish.” A subsequent tenant was Mrs. Gladstone, whose first husband was Admiral Ralph Cator, the eldest son of the late Peter Cator.

LANGLEY LODGE, or, as it is now called, the Dower House, was also part of the Burrell estates, and was in 1820 in the occupation of the Marchioness of Exeter, one of the sisters of the first Lord Gwydir. It was then described as “ a cottage residence neatly and genteelly fitted up.” It was purchased by William McCormick and it appears from the Vestry minutes that he claimed a prescriptive right to pews in the Parish Church. The property was subsequently acquired by the late C. E. Goodhart.

Photo courtesy of beckenhamhistory.co.uk

SHORTLANDS HOUSE (originally Woolseys Farm, now Bishop Challoners School) was an old country house standing in beautiful grounds at the side of the hill on the Bromley Road leading from Beckenham to Shortlands. It was the birthplace of George Grote, the historian, whose father has been already mentioned as a leading inhabitant of Beckenham in the early part of the 19th century. The house is still standing, but the grounds have been cut up into building plots. It was for many years the property of the late Conrad Wilkinson who had in his possession a skull reputed to be that of Oliver Cromwell. Considerable difference of opinion existed as to the authenticity of this relic, about which there was some controversy in 1864, but we fail to see that the arguments then put forward prove conclusively that it was not the head of Cromwell. The skull was some twenty years ago in the possession of the late Horace Wilkinson, at Ightham Moat, in Kent.

We have not been able to find any interesting details with regard to THE HALL, the old building, now occupied as a girls’ school, in the Bromley Road. It has belonged for many years to and was probably built by the Cator family, and Peter Cator lived there for some time prior to his death.

ELM COTTAGE, opposite the Cedars, a house in which we take particular interest, is the property of C. Lea Wilson. There have been, of recent years, many occupiers of this house. At one time it was the residence of the “ fat boy of Beckenham,” who weighed 16 stone when quite a child. In the house adjoining Elm Cottage, one Legg kept an omnibus, which used to ply from old White Post House, at the corner of the Wickham Road, the site of which is now occupied by Iken House, to convey passengers to the station on the “ atmospheric ” railway from London to Croydon. It is now the Headquarters of the local Territorial Force. We have already referred to the tradition that the house used to stand in the Wickham Road, and was removed brick for brick in a single night. The surroundings of Elm Cottage fifty years ago were very different to those at the present day.

GORDON HOUSE, adjoining the Manor House on the south-west, was presumably built at the time when the window-tax was in force. It was at one time occupied by the Rev. Marshall Hall Vine, curate to the Rev. Andrew Brandram, and afterwards Rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, London. More recently it was for many years the residence of the late Julius Kress- mann, who, it will be remembered, took a leading part in local affairs in Beckenham. It is now occupied by T. H. Ridsdale.

GOWLAND COTTAGE, in the Croydon Road, nearly opposite the Recreation Ground, still stands, although its grounds have been taken away.

It was at one time the residence of the father of Sir Richard Glass, and not far from Gowland Cottage, to the south, is the picturesque row of houses known as Fullers Place.

The High Street from “ The George ” to the corner of Croydon Road was, in our recollection, a simple village street. Many of the old-fashioned houses stood back from the road, with small gardens in front, and passengers on the modern omnibus, which plies along the High Street, can still see the roofs and upper stories of the old wooden houses, most of which have been converted into shop premises. There was near Elm Cottage the country butcher’s shop, with trellis-work shutters, and still further towards the west end of the village, was an old-fashioned shoemaker’s shop, approached by wooden steps. The old cottage, formerly occupied by the Overy family, is still in existence, but it is shut out by the modern buildings in front, and in the garden of the house in our younger days, we well remember hearing the nightingale sing. Some of our illustrations show, to a certain extent, the aspect of the old village street.

At the corner of the Croydon Road, at its junction with the High Street, were several small one-storied buildings, which have now made way for the shops, which have been built beyond the “ Bricklayers Arms.”

The oldest house in Beckenham is, we think, undoubtedly, the one which is known as the OLD WOOD HOUSE. It has been suggested, but with little reason, that this house is as old as the time of the Wars of the Roses, and it has been conjectured that the six panels, garnished with flowers, on the front of the house may possibly represent the white and red roses.

THE VILLAGE POUND, CAGE, and probably the Stocks undoubtedly existed from early days, and stood at the foot of Church Hill. The first mention of the cage in the Vestry minutes is in 1799 and a building stood near the pound until 1856. We are fortunate in being able to reproduce a copy of a water-colour sketch made of the cage, before it was demolished. In 1810 the Vestry ordered that “the constables do go in “search of disorderly people and put them into the cage,” and later, in 1819, that “ at any time when the Constable shall have occasion to put any person “ into the cage, he be authorised to have a watchman to keep watch at the “ cage during the night.” Even in later years this precaution was not unnecessary, if we may judge from a story told us some years ago by a very old inhabitant, who recollected the case of a disorderly person who was put into the cage in a state of intoxication. He was found in the morning to be even more drunk than he had been on the previous night, his friends having passed him in liquor through the keyhole of the cage, by means of a straw during the night! The cage was removed under authority granted from the Metropolitan Police Office, in November, 1856, and the materials delivered to Peter Cator, the agent for the lord of the manor. The pound, which was an ordinary post and rail enclosure, existed until the so-called improvements were made at the foot of Church Hill, when it was removed as an obstruction to traffic. We believe that the pound at one time stood on the waste of the manor in the Bromley Road near or on the site of the present schools. The first entry in the Vestry minutes, relating to the pound is in 1806, when Mansfield, the Pinder, or Pinner, was directed " to pound the cattle that shall “ be straying in the roads and lanes of this parish, particularly in the churchyard.” In one of our illustrations of the memorable flood of 1878, when the lower parts of the houses at the foot of Church Hill were inundated, the tops of the posts of the pound can be seen standing out of the water.

 

It is most probable that the village stocks were erected by the side of the cage or the pound, but we can find no entry relating to them, although they undoubtedly existed.

There were, up to about twenty years ago, several farms in Beckenham, which perhaps call for some slight notice, more especially as most of them have now been swept away and villas built upon their sites. One picturesque farm which remains is that known as the NEW FARM in the Croydon Road, almost opposite Elmer Lodge. It was in 1820 in the occupation of Robert Brown, and subsequently came into the possession of Peter Paget, at one time a well-known resident in Beckenham, and an overseer. It may be a surprise to many to learn that steeplechases were held at Beckenham as late as the year 1849. The course was from this farm in the Croydon Road to a point near where Sidney Cottage, in the Beckenham Road, now stands. The river and hedge near Sidney Cottage was one of the jumps. The refreshments for the spectators at the steeplechases were supplied by the landlord of the George Inn, and the booth stood near the Chaffinch stream, close to Sidney Cottage.

(Thomas Motley's map of 1736 shows Elmers End Old and New Farms in his possession, refer to the Timeline)

Another farm, long since demolished, stood at the west corner of the Crescent Road in the Bromley Road. It was a picturesque building with a good orchard. It had excellent barns, and was in 1820 in the occupation of A. W. Colvile. The lands of this farm, at which at one time extensive horse breeding was carried on, adjoined the old workhouse.

At the corner of Churchfields Road, opposite to where the “ Prince Arthur” now stands, was a small country-house described in 1820 as “ a neat “sporting box with chaise house.” It was then in the occupation of Mrs. Peters. This house has ceased to exist for many years past, but was, at one time, in the occupation of a Mr. and Mrs. Duke. At the opposite corner of the road, on the site of the “ Prince Arthur,” was a collection of old farm buildings. On the other side of the Beckenham Road, beyond the bridge carrying the railway, where the “Victoria Terrace” shops now stand, was another building known as “Elm Farm,” an illustration of which we reproduce.

COPERS COPE FARM, now known as Copers Cope, at the corner of Copers Cope Road is still one of the most picturesque houses in Beckenham, and, until the prescriptive right was lost, its ownership carried the right to a pew in the Parish Church. In 1783 it was acquired by John Cator. Up to the year 1866 a foot-path led across the fields from Copers Cope Farm to Sydenham, but in that year an order was made closing the footpath. The farm was, for many years, in the occupation of Michael Mathew, who at one time also rented Stone Farm.

 At that period the farm carried with it 252 acres of land, and included the sites of Brackley Road, Park Road, Copers Cope Road, Aldersmead Road, part of ICingshall Road, and Worsley Bridge Road, and it is interesting to note that, in laying out the Cator estate in this part of Beckenham, the names of the roads are taken from the old meadows belonging to the farm.

 On a plan attached to a lease granted to Mathew, these meadows, with the names by which they w'ere then known, clearly appear. A gravel pit in which the present Abbey School is now' built is also shown, and it is a curious fact that the small copse, which still exists near New Beckenham station was not included in the lease, although surrounded on all sides by the farm meadows.

There has been much discussion as to the origin of the name, but the generally accepted theory appears to be that it is a corruption of “ Coopers Copse”; we have, however, been unable to trace any connection between the farm and any occupier or owner of the name of Cooper. In a vestry meeting held in 1784 it is described as “Cokers Coke.” Others suggest, but we have failed to find any authority for the statement, that Cope means a chestnut coppice and they point to the well-grown chestnut trees which still exist in the grounds of Minshull House and “The Chestnuts” as corroboration of their suggested derivation.

STONE FARM, the well-known white house, still standing at the corner of Hayes Lane and Wickham Road, also belonged in 1S20 to the Burrell family. At that time, the property consisted of about sixty acres of land and an excellent dwelling house, "suitable for the residence of a “ genteel family.” It was then in the possession of William Rogers, and some of the farm land was in the possession of A. W. Colville. The house was subsequently in the occupation of Michael Mathew, who lived there until about the year i860. It is, we think, of interest to note that in a lease dated 1854 several acres of the farm land at that time were in cultivation for hops. The farm has remained, more or less, in the same condition for many years, and is one of the few houses in Beckenham which has not undergone much alteration during half a century, although the new entrance to “ Parklangley,” the name adopted for the building estate which is to take the place of Langley Park, has certainly not improved the surroundings of Stone Farm. Our illustration shows the high bank on the south side of Hayes Lane, since levelled to make the approach to “ Parklangley.” 

Burrell Cottage, on the opposite side of the road to Stone Farm, was erected since 1820, although the cottage in Wickham Road, further to the north, was built before that date.

Another farm, known as THAYERS FARM, was situate in the lane leading from Clock House stables, but beyond the fact that it was a picturesque old building, and gave its name to the modern road, known as Thayers Farm Road, there are no facts connected with it which demand special attention. We have referred elsewhere to Tayer’s Charity, and we find in the old registers an entry of the burial of “ Giles Thaires the “elder” in 1642. Giles Theyr, presumably the younger, in 1644 successfully petitioned for a return of £5 3s. 4d., which he had been obliged to disburse to redeem his team of horses, which had been seized for non-payment of the iod. tax levied on Beckenham Parish. Theyr, who was a poor man, had apparently been called upon to make good this sum which he had been unable to collect from Dr. Skinner, the Rector, the living being under sequestration. There may be some connection between these names and the name of the farm. An old barn used to stand in the Croydon Road, near the east end of Cedars Road, and it was in this barn that Catherine Marsh held her services for the navvies employed at the time of the building of the Crystal Palace. These services were largely attended, not only by the navvies, but by the inhabitants of Beckenham and elsewhere.

(today we can explain a bit more about Thayer's Farm, the Thayer family and its passing through the hands of Thomas Motley, refer to the timeline)

A meadow, now occupied by Christ Church, Burnhill, and other roads, was formerly known as the Fairfield, and sometimes “The Tuns Field. If was used as a cricket-field, and rented by the proprietor of the “ Three Tuns. There was not much room for the cricket pitch as two paths crossed the field. A fair was held in the field up to about fifty years ago, on the first or second Monday in August of every year. It was the place for such public meetings as were held in Beckenham in those days, and in the Fairfield bonfires were formerly lighted on Guy Fawkes’ day. Two well-known local celebrities, a man named Bragg and his wife, came annually to this fair to sell their gingerbread, and we have been informed by one of the oldest inhabitants that she remembered the time when silks and other more expensive articles of dress were sold there.

The two oldest licensed houses in Beckenham are undoubtedly the “Three Tuns” and the “George.” In 1820 the “Three Tuns” had an Assembly room, and the landlord was at that time John Scagell.

Scagell was succeeded by Ruston as proprietor of the “Three Tuns,” and he in his turn was followed by Ovenden, who took over the omnibus and horses from Legg at Elm Cottage, and used to drive them himself until he met with an accident. Ovenden was known locally as a very good underhand bowler

It is stated that the “ George Inn” is 300' years old—it certainly \\a:. in existence in 1662, as the landlord of “Ye George” paid hearth tax. It is mentioned in the “Daily Courant” of May 24th, 1715, that “A stage “ coach, being set up from Beckenham in Kent, lying betwixt Brumly and “ Croydon, which goes from the George Inn, Beckenham, every Monday and “ Saturday morning, and returns from the Star Inn, Fish Street Hill, London, “the same days, performed by John Hobbs, who lives at the George Inn at “ Beckenham.” The Petty Sessions were held at the “ George ” until comparatively recent times. Thomas Cronk, at one time, the parish beadle, kept the house and died there in 1831. In the year 1886 there was still in use in the inn a drinking-pot bearing the stamp of William III. The “ George ” was one of the first houses in Beckenham to be lighted by gas.

The “ Greyhound,” which has been modernised so completely as to destroy entirely the character of the building, has only become a licensed house, within the last forty years. It was originally an old-fashioned country house, standing back from the High Street on the other side of the Beck, and reached by a bridge. It was in 1845 occupied by the Misses Woodruffe, then by the late Dr. R. R. Stilwell, and subsequently by the late W. Levens

It has been generally supposed that the ALMS HOUSES, standing in the Bromley Road, at the corner of St. George’s Road, were built by one Anthony Rawlins and this is, in fact, so stated by some of the topographical books containing references to Beckenham, and indeed on the stone let into the face of the building. It is evident, however, from entries in the Churchwardens’ books, that the houses were built in or about the latter part of the year 1694 upon a portion of the then waste land of the manor, belonging to Sir Walter St. John, with a sum of £50, which Anthony Rawlins, who lived at Beckenham and was a worthy citizen and dyer of London, bequeathed by his will. Anthony Rawlins died and was buried “ in wool ” in Beckenham Churchyard, on May 4th, 1694, and at the Vestry meeting held on July 29th in the same year, it was decided that the £30 should “be employed and “ disposed in building a house with three distinct rooms for the lodging and “ housing of the poor of this parish.” There are several entries relating to the almshouses in the minute books and the appointments were apparently made by the Vestry. In 1796 we hnd this entry “ that the widow Price and the widow Humphrey be turned out of the Alms houses w'ith their children ; and in 1802, the vestry ordered “that the upper rooms of the alms houses “ be cieled as Mr. Roberts, the Parish Apothecary, has given it as his opinion “ that they are at present injurious to the health of the persons who inhabit “them.’’ In 1832 it was decided that if the conduct of a certain James Howard “ be as disorderly as it has been of late he be removed from the “ Almshouse.” The houses were frequently repaired at the cost of the parish, and were thoroughly renovated about the year 1881. They are now administered by the Trustees of the Beckenham Parochial Charities and only poor widows are eligible as inmates.

The RECTORY was built about a century ago by the Rev. William Rose, the then Rector. The extensive grounds form one of the few picturesque spots left in Beckenham, but of recent years part of the land to the north and east has been built over. Up to 1881 there was extensive stabling near the site of the present Church House, and from these stables a look-out was often kept for the “body snatchers” who plied their gruesome trade in the early part of last century. The Rectory does not appear to have been always occupied by the Rectors of Beckenham, for in 1821 we find a Mr. W. Jenner living there, and during a part of the time when William Cator was Rector it was let as a boys’ school.

The earliest record of educational matters in Beckenham is contained in the Life of the learned Dr. Assheton, Rector of Beckenham, who died in 1711. It is there stated that the Doctor, in order that “none might want “good education and instruction, began to raise a Charity School, which the " best of his parishioners freely concurred in, for his worthy Curate’s sake too.” We cannot trace where the school was held, or for how long it continued, but it was probably abandoned at, or shortly after the death of the Rector, as not long after that date we read of children being sent to the master of the village workhouse to receive elementary education.

Captain Leonard Bowyer or Bower, in 1717 bequeathed £100 to parish, the interest of which was to be applied in teaching four boys belonging to the parish to read and write, and for many years, the master of the workhouse received the income of this fund and taught on the average three children sent to him by the Churchwardens. This fund is now lost and was probably not in existence even at the beginning of last century. Although it is probable that prior to 1818 there was no sort of popular education in Beckenham, a VILLAGE SCHOOL did undoubtedly exist, as appears by the tombstone in the Churchyard of John Cade, who died in 1750. His school was probably at the entrance to Eden Park, near the old Police station, and a school was held there in later years.

Mary Watson, whose neglected tombstone in the Parish Churchyard is, or should be, a reproach to our local educationalists of the present day, gave a considerable sum of New South Sea Annuities for the teaching to read ana write and “ other common school education ” of so many of the children of the poor people of the parish of Beckenham as were not maintained or supported by the parish, the administration of this fund was left in the hands of the Rector, Churchwardens and Overseers. Owing probably to the fact that the fund was only applicable to the children of parents who did not receive parish relief, there were comparatively few applications, and no more than twenty children at a time were sent to the School. In consequence of this, interest on the fund accumulated, until in 1815, it amounted to £294 16s. 2d.

In the year 1811 the Church of England “National Society for Educating the Poor” was founded on the system of Dr. Andrew Bell, and the starting point of popular education in England was the institution of this Society, and that known as the British and Foreign School Society, founded by Joseph Lancaster, a member of a Society of Friends, in 1805. Under these two Societies, a number of so-called “National ' and “ British” schools were gradually established in England. In 1818 a movement was started for the establishment of a school in Beckenham for the education of the children of the poor on Church lines and at a Vestry meeting, which was fully attended, on March gth it was resolved to form a Society in the parish, in connection with the National Society in London, and to invite subscriptions towards building two schoolrooms, with a suitable house for the master and mistress. The first annual report of the local society was printed and a copy is still extant, from which we are able to gather many interesting particulars.

Andrew Brandram, then a curate of the Parish Church, and subsequently Rector, was elected secretary of a committee, consisting of the resident master for the time being, and all annual subscribers of two guineas and upwards. George Grote, the father of the historian, was the first treasurer. Buildings were erected in a field adjoining the Parish Church on a site given for the purpose by the lord of the manor, John B. Cator. Each of the schoolrooms was 30 by 22 feet, and 10 feet in height from the floor to the wall plate. The total cost of the building and fitting was AI>°54 I2S- Subscriptions were collected, amounting to £748 3s. and the balance of income in the hands of the trustees of Watson’s Charity was, with the consent of the Vestry, allocated to the building fund. The sum of £12 os. 4d. was received from the treasurer of the Sunday School, which was merged in the National schools, with the unanimous consent of the subscribers. John Cator, in addition to the gift of the site, provided a garden at the rear of the premises, and the necessary quantity of gravel, the cartage of which to the site was provided by several parishioners, assisted by Glazebrook and Mathew, farmers of Beckenham. Parishioners out of work were employed in levelling the ground, and making a garden round the school building. The work was commenced on April 20th, 1818, and the School was opened on October 12th in the same year, with 36 boys and 36 girls. On June 1st Thomas Pritchett and his eldest daughter were elected master and mistress, and it is stated that "they qualified themselves at the Central Schools in Baldwin’s Gardens,” their salaries being £70 and £50 per annum respectively. One of the terms of their engagement was that they were to find coals for the use of the school. The whole of the boys’ school hours was devoted to reading, writing, etc., while in the girls’ school, one half of the day was occupied by needlework. It is, to some, a matter of regret that the same allocation of time is not adhered to at the present day. Religious instruction was daily given out of the National Society’s schoolbooks, and the committee claimed that, at the end of the year after the schools were opened, “considerable alteration for the better had taken piace in “ the behaviour of the children in Church/’ and that " the crime of lying was far less frequent than at the opening of the “ scnools.” Corporal punishment was never administered except by direction of the committee. A system of pecuniary rewards for tfie scholars was instituted, an account was kept in each child’s name monthly, and the amounts paid every six months. Between 30 and 40 children banked their money at the Savings Bank at Bromley, and we have been told by an old inhabitant, since deceased, that he used to walk to Bromley with his schoolfellows to deposit his money. A successful experiment was also made in teaching the boys to make garden nets, and the committee reported that the “ boys delight “ in their work.” The weekly pence received during the first year amounted to £22 3s. 8d., and the rewards paid, to £21 gs. 5d. Amongst the subscribers to the building fund were John Cator, of Beckenham Place; Lord Auckland, of Eden Farm; Lord Gwydir, of Langiey; J. P. Courtenay, M.P., of Clay Hill; the PI on. PI. Windsor, the Hon. Lady F. Harpur, the Rev. William Rose, the Rector, the Rev. A. Brandrain, Curate; Joseph Gwiit, the architect; Richard Lea, of Village Place; George Grote; A. W. Colville, of Langley Farm, and others. We have been unable to trace any subsequent reports of the committee, and the old minute-books of the schools, which undoubtedly existed, have disappeared. Many interesting details of the progress of the schools are therefore wanting. In 1831 it appears that vestry meetings were held at the National school, and even up to a comparatively recent date vestries were adjourned from the Church to the schools. From the registers of the Parish Church we find that Richard Thomas Arnold, William Brown, Thomas William Wilson, and Francis Downham are described as schoolmasters in 1824, 1828, 1850, and 1855 respectively. The office of Vestry Clerk was even, until about 30 years ago, often combined with that of headmaster of the National schools, one Ramsey being appointed in 1840 as Vestry Clerk, on condition that it did not interfere with his duties as schoolmaster, and it will be remembered that prior to the establishment of the old Local Board, the late George P. Ollett held the two offices.

In 1856 the school buildings and site were formally vested by the Cator family in the Rector, Churchwardens and Overseers, under 5 Victoria, c. 38, the condition being that they were to be used as a school for the education of children of the labouring, farming, trading, manufac- facturing, and other poorer classes in the parish. 1 he school was to be conducted according to the principles of the Church of England, and to be under the management of a committee, consisting of the Rector, or his licensed curate, if nominated by the Rector, such of the Churchwardens as were communicants, and seven other persons, elected by such of the subscribers to the schools, as were members of the Church of England. Ihe officiating minister for the time being of the parish was then the superintendent of the religious and moral instruction of all those scholars attending the school, and the trust-deed follows in general form those of the Rational Society. In 1858 an additional piece of land was conveyed by the Cator family on the same trusts. In the year 1875, when the late William Cator was Rector, and party feeling ran high, a determined attempt was made to alienate the schools from distinctive Church teaching, in spite of the provisions of the trust-deed and of the energetic resistance of the Rector and nis friends; and in November of that year, the majority of the subscribers were induced to assent to the National schools being leased to the Beckenham School Board, at the nominal rent of 5s. per annum, subject to the right of the Rector to use the schools on Sundays and two evenings each week. The circumstances attending the granting of the lease are not such as roncct credit on the majority ox the Churchmen then resident in Beckenham, but it is an incident, which, although still fresh in the minds of the old inhabitants, is now far better forgotten. The school ceased to be used as a Sunday-school when the Church Blouse in the High Street was erected, although the rights resen ed under the lease were never abandoned. In the year 1905 negotiations were entered upon between the Education Committee C Beckenham and the Rector and Churchwardens, and eventually a scheme was sanctioned by the Board of Education, under which the trustees sold the site to the Urban District Council of Beckenham for a perpetual rent charge of £40 per annum, and a Board was formed, known as the Beckenham National School Foundation, to administer the income. Under the scheme the yearly sum of not more than £15 was to be applied for the benefit of St. James’ School, Elmers End, the only other Church School in Beckenham, and the residue of the income is made available for scholarships of not more than £10 per annum, open only to boys or girls who have for not less than three years been scholars of a public elementary school, and also in a Sunday-school in connection with the Church of England, and who have under examination, shown themselves possessed of a satisfactory knowledge of the doctrines of the Church of England. The board of trustees consist of the Rector for the time being of Beckenham, three co-optative, and two representative Trustees, one appointed by the Beckenham Urban District Council, and the other by the Kent County Council. This scheme had the assent and support both of the Education Committee and the Church authorities, and it is to be hoped that the fair arrangement which has been come to has put an end, once for all, to the religious controversy in the schools of Beckenham.

There can be no doubt that in the eighteenth century when smuggling, especially in Kent and Sussex, was carried to such great lengths, and when the roads were unsafe by reason of highwaymen, Beckenham harboured some of these lawless characters. A certain outlawed smuggler named William Pring certainly had a house at Beckenham. Pring, although an outlaw, had not been concerned in murder, and being desirous of obtaining his pardon, undertook to deliver up one Mills, who had been a party 10 the particularly brutal murder in Sussex, of a man named Hawkins. Being assured of his pardon, he went down to the west of England where he found not only Mills but two notorious smugglers and highwaymen named Kemp. Pring offered his advice as a friend and suggested that as they were all four in a hopeless condition they should band together as highwaymen, and by this means inveigled them to his house at Beckenham. He then pretended that his horse being an indifferent one, he would go to town to fetch a better, and return as soon as possible. The others agreed to stay at his house until his return, but instead of going to town Pring rode to Horsham, and, returning in the dead of the night, with a party of officers all well armed, they secured Mills and the two Kemps who were tried and sentenced to death. It would be interesting if we knew in what part of Beckenham Pring’s house was situated. Two notorious highwaymen, George and Robert Weston, rented a house in Beckenham under the name of Green in 1776, but in their case also we unfortunately cannot identify the house in which they lived, although Kent House has been suggested as their dwelling. The brothers Weston, on January 29th, 1731, robbed the Bristol Mail of £10,000. They were apprehended and executed at Tyburn in the following year.

It is, we think fitting, in a history such as this, that mention should be made of the origin of the Beckenham Cricket Club, a club which has flourished successfully for nearly half a century and whose matches have always been played on the same ground in Foxgrove Road. In the early part of last century there was the usual village cricket club in Beckenham which played their matches on the Fairfield, and in the early sixties, one, G. C. Edwards arranged matches which were, with Peter Hoare’s permission, played in Kelsey Park, but che Beckenham Club, as such, never played at Kelsey. To Arthur C. Wathen, son of the late Hulbert Wathen, of Beckenham Lodge, belongs the credit of founding the Beckenham Club, which he managed for many years. On March 24th, 1866, it was agreed to start the Club and the first minute of the club is of a meeting on the 29th of the same month, when A. C. Wathen, G. C. Edwards, C. H. King, and A. H. Wathen were present. Permission was obtained to use the field in Kelsey for the first season, but the members do not appear to have availed themselves of this permission. On April 5th a committee meeting was held at Beckenham Lodge, and by the 28th of the month the ground at Fox Grove had been secured A dinner wes held on May 1st, 1866, at the “Three Tuns” to celebrate the formation of the Club, Peter Cator, of the Hall, being in the chair- The first match on the ground was played on May 19th, 1866, “ Married v. Single” Among those who took a prominent part in the formation of the Club, in addition to Arthur C. Wathen and G. C. Edwards, were Messrs A H Wathen, Wallis Nash, Carritt, Mackenzie Dalzell Chalmers son of the then Rector,and now Sir Mackenzie Dalzell Chalmers, KCB, CSI, and W. Blundell, the latter a good left-hand bowler.

We have received a letter from a lady, who has long since ceased to reside here, giving her recollection of the village over sixty years ago, a nd the letter is so interesting that we make no apology for printing it in full. It is as follows: —

“ I was born in 1836, at ... . (Beckenham). Mr. Brandram was “ Rector and Mr. Vine, Curate, and I remember hoping the latter would “ preach as his sermons were sometimes less than 45 minutes long, which " Mr. Brandram’s never were. I do not remember the stocks, but recollect “ being held up by my nurse to peep through the grating in the door of “ the cage, which she supposed to be empty. To my horror I saw a man “ sitting on the floor with chains on his ankles, and he haunted my ‘ dreams for long afterwards. Over the door was a flat stone on which “ was carved ‘ Live and Repent.’ I can also recall standing trembling “ on the outskirts of a small crowd in the Churchyard while Mrs. Mary “ Wragg’s tomb was unlocked by the Churchwardens, as was annually “ done in accordance with her will. There was no coach, but an omnibus " went every morning to Sydenham (our nearest station) for the con- “ venience of those who went to town every day. There was a grocer “ named Offen and a fishmonger, Mrs. Burtenshaw, who went about with “ a cart. Captain Fortescue lived in the old house opposite the Church,

“ Mr. Goodhart in Langley Park, Mr. Holland in Langley Farm, Aldcr- “man Wilson at a large house in the village behind high walls. A Dalmatian or plum-pudding dog always ran with his carriage. Kelsey “ Cottage and one other house near it, occupied by Mr. William Whit- “ more, were the only houses then built on the Eden Park Estate, the “ large house on which was occupied by Mr. Lawford. Kelsey Cottage “ was afterwards bought by Peter Hoare, enlarged and altered. Mr. Whitmore subsequently pulled down and rebuilt his house and after his “ death it Was occupied by Mr. Charles Harrison. Kelsey Park was “occupied by Mr. Hoare. Mr. Wathen was another resident. Mr “ Peters occupied Beckenham Place and Mr. Desborough an old house “in the Village. ”

We cannot leave the history of Beckenham, especially in these restless and prosaic days, with a pleasanter memory of the peaceful old-world village than is pictured for us in this interesting letter.

APPENDIX A.     (the scan of the book  requires format editing of this section)

INSCRIPTIONS ON THE MONUMENTS AND BRASSES IN THE PARISH CHURCH, BECKENHAM.

WEST PORCH.

[south wall—tinier west window).

TO THE GLORY OE GOD AND IN MEMORY OF

LANCE CORPORAL HENRY CHARLES BALDWIN  1ST  OXFORDSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY 

PRIVATE HORACE J. BOND  2ND BATTALION EAST SURREY. REGIMENT

LANCE CORPORAL SIDNEY CARR 13TH MIDDLESEX VOLUNTEER RIFLE CORPS (QUEENS WESTMINSTERS)

BOMBARDIER ALBERT GEORGE HERBERT  ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY (14TH COY) (WESTERN DIVISION)

TROOPER ROBERT LANGLANDS  SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTABULARY 

SERGEANT WILLIAM HENRY PAINTING  34TH IMPERIAL YEOMANRY

PRIVATE WILLIAM TAYLOR  QUEENS OWN (ROYAL WEST KENT REGIMENT) 

SERGEANT WALTER FELIX BUDGETT  GORDON HIGHLANDERS (VOLUNTEER COMPANY)

who were killed in action or died of wounds received or disease contracted in the South African Campaign 1900-1902 the window above this stone was erected by some of their fellow inhabitants of Beckenham.

“Duke et decorum est pro patria rnori”

W. Lovelock.

WEST PORCH.

[south wall—tinier west window).

TO THE GLORY OE GOD AND IN MEMORY OF

LANCE CORPORAL HENRY CHARLES BALDWIN  1ST  OXFORDSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY 

PRIVATE HORACE J. BOND  2ND BATTALION EAST SURREY. REGIMENT

LANCE CORPORAL SIDNEY CARR 13TH MIDDLESEX VOLUNTEER RIFLE CORPS (QUEENS WESTMINSTERS)

BOMBARDIER ALBERT GEORGE HERBERT  ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY (14TH COY) (WESTERN DIVISION)

TROOPER ROBERT LANGLANDS  SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTABULARY 

SERGEANT WILLIAM HENRY PAINTING  34TH IMPERIAL YEOMANRY

PRIVATE WILLIAM TAYLOR  QUEENS OWN (ROYAL WEST KENT REGIMENT) 

SERGEANT WALTER FELIX BUDGETT  GORDON HIGHLANDERS (VOLUNTEER COMPANY)

who were killed in action or died of wounds received or disease contracted in the South African Campaign 1900-1902 the window above this stone was erected by some of their fellow inhabitants of Beckenham.

“Duke et decorum est pro patria rnori”

W. Lovelock.

(north wall—under east window).

Ad Dei gloriam et in piam memoriam Fanny Lendon cujus animae sicut Christianorum omnium miscreatur Deus aineam hanc tabulam et superpositas fenestras conjux ejusdem qui custos olim hujus ecclesia; et liberi mserentes

F. CC. MDCCCCIII.

NARTHEX

(brasses under west windows).

In memoriam

R.S.P & E.P.

1867      1876

To the Glory of GOD and in memory of Anne
the beloved wife of Henry Mitchell Phillipps
of Beckenham. Entered into Rest 12th April A D 1867. 

To the Glory of GOD and in memory of Henriette Mary Heaton Nov. 23 A D 1888

[on south wall).           

BENEFACTORS

to this Parish. 
Edmund Style of Langley, Esqre also Nicholas Style Esqre once Alderman of London and Sr Humphrey Style Bart of Langley gave 20£ each with which 60£ was purchased in the year 1674 a Field called COW LEES and A rent charge of 10 shillings Pr Annm issueing out of Kempsalls Land in this Parish 13s 4d of which is appointed for a Sermon on Nov. ye 5th. and the same sum for a sermon on Good Friday every year the Residue to be disposed of weekly in Bread to the Poor.

 ...Style of Langley aforesaid gave Church Field at the yearly rent of 2£ two Acres in Backs Lane, at 1£ 10s 0d Pr Annum Grubs Field at 10s Pr Annm the Donor unknown Anthony Rawlins Esqre erected an Almshouse for three poor people of this Parish in the Fear 1694. Captn Leonard BOWER gave an 100£ Stock the interest of which is appointed for teaching poor Children to read,

MARY WRAGG,

of the Parish of St. Johns Westminster, purchased Fifteen Pounds Pr Annum for ever, to be paid out of the 3 Pr Cent Consolidated Bank Stock of the Year 1726, to keep the Family Vault in this Churchyard in repair & did order it to be paid into the Hands of the Curate who shall perform Church duties here annually for the following uses: Twenty one shillgs to be retained by the Curate for his trouble in taking care that the Vault be kept in good & proper repair; Twenty one shillgs to be laid out in a Dinner for the curate, clerk, and parish officers; Twelve Pounds, Ten Shillgs, to defray ye expences of repairing the said Vault; and if in any year it wants no repair; then the Money to be disposed of in the following manner : Eighteen-penny-worth of good Beef, Eighteen-penny-worth of good Bread, Five Shillgs worth of Coals and Four shillgs & Six Pence in Money, to be given to each of Twenty of the Poorest Inhabitants of this Parish; and if there wants repairs what Money is left to be laid out in like manner & quantity, with Four Shillgs and Six Pence each, to as many as it will extend to, & those the most necessitous, and to be distributed on the 28th of Jany in every Year, the remaining Eight Shillgs to be given to the Clerk and desire he will examine what repairs are wanted, & keep the vault clean, & also to repair the rails and doors belonging to ye Vault when wanted—if the same it not properly distributed to the Poor of the Parish of Beckingham, then to go to the Poor of the Parish of Bromley, and to be distributed in like manner, as mentioned in her Will.

Mary Wragg has left by Will Twelve Pounds Ten Shillgs Pr annum for ever.

Mary Watson, late of this Parish left the interest of 1270 Pound Stock in the New South Sea Annuities for ever, for The Education of Poor Children 

October 1809.
William Fenner Esqre left the interest of 800 Stoc
to be given Annually for ever
in Bread to the Poor of this
Parish From October to the

End of March, by the

Rector and Churchwardens

For the Time Being.

(on south wall).           

BAPTISTERY.

This church is erected upon the site of the old and smaller Parish Church of St. George, Beckenham, the nave and tower of which are believed to have been built in the reign of Edward the Third. It is known that a church was in existence here A.D. 1100.

The foundation stone of the present building was laid in May, 1885.

The eastern portion of the church was consecrated by Archbishop Benson on the 8th May, 1886.

When completed the nave was opened for public worship by Bishop Jenner, on St. George’s Day, 1887.

The choir and vestry were built in 1890

The tower was completed in 1903, and was dedicated by Archbishop Davidson on 14th November, 1903.

Henry Arnott, Rector.

CHURCHWARDENS.

MICHAEL MOORE, 1874-1891.

WILLIAM HENRY LENDON, 1885-1899.

JOHN CUTHBERT STENNING, 1892-1901.

LISTER BECK, 1899-1907.

ROBERT BORROWMAN, I9OI-

The building is 151-ft. 6-ins. long; width from north to south across the transepts, 90-ft. The height of the nave is 56-ft. 6-ins., and from the floor of this baptistry to the finials of the tower, 115-ft.

The total cost was .£30,000, nearly the whole of which, together with the ornaments was provided by voluntary offerings.

The clock and the treble and second bells in the tower were presented in 1903 by Charles Edward Atkinson, J.P., of Beckenham, in memory of the late Cecil Rhodes.

The architect was William Gibbs Bartlect, of Beckenham.

To commemorate the above facts this stone was erected in 1907.

Hcnn Arnott, F.R.C.S.. Rector, Rural Dean, Canon of Rochester, and Proctor jp Convocation for Diocese of Rochester.

Robert Borrowman - Cardross Grant - Churchwardens.

James Craig, M.D. - R. E. Davis-George Platt - C. Neldrett - Frank Hay- \V. Lawrence - J. Willoughby - E. W. Brett - Vernon B. Chalk - G. W. Clarke - J. G. Tolhurst - J. B. Gallie - G. H. Collier - H .F. Davies - Sidesmen.John Dennis, Parish Clerk.”

[brasses under west window) 

who entered into Rest, December 13th 1905 aged 62 years.

(south wall).

THE PARISH CHURCH BECKENHAM

The shaded portion indicates the site of the old church

  

In Langly Burying Vault Lieth the body of Humphry Style Esqr Owner of Langly 
who died the 31st of March 1718 Aged 70 years
He married Mary the Daughter and Heir of Hugh Hovell of the County of Norfk Esq: 
by whome  He had 4 sons and 2 Daughters (vizt) Humphry, William, James, Hovell, Mary & Elizabeth.
His only Surviving Daughter Relict of Sr John Elwill Bart 
who in Duty Love Honour and Gratitude Erected this and Sir John Elwills
Monument.

{brass under first window).

'To the Glory of GOD this window was erected by Philip Secretan sidesman at this

Church 1887-1893.

Hugo Raymond de Langly Armiger