West Wickham, Kent Genealogy

England   Kent



Parish History
West Wickham St John the Baptist is an Ancient Parish.

The church at West Wickham was mentioned in the Domesday survey and the present church was built on the site of that original in the 15th century.

The church of St John the Baptist Layhams Road West Wickham has been designated as a grade II* listed building British listed building

See Edward Hasted The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 2 (1797), pp. 29-37 at British History Online and Kent Churches website

West Wickham developed from the village prior to the 1882 arrival of the railway into a twentieth century expanding suburb.

The 1963 London Government Act meant that from 1965 West Wickham was absorbed into the London Borough of Bromley.West Wickham Wikipedia

see West Wickham North West Kent Family History Society and West Wickham St John the Baptist

The London Borough of Bromley Archives reference 601/1 contains a valuable history of Bromley, Beckenham and Penge deposited as part Mother Mary Baptist (formerly Bessie Taylor) of Coloma College, West Wickham, for a London University Ph.D. thesis (1967) entitled Bromley, Beckenham, and Penge, Kent since 1750

The Heydon family history is referred to in The London Borough of Bromley Archives reference 601/2 16 chapter "the Hey-day of the Heydons of Baconsthorpe, Norfolk, and West Wickham, Kent which forms part of the papers of Sister Mary Gregory (Cater) (formerly Barbara Batten) deposited at Bromley Library and Archive.

Civil Registration
See Bromley Registration district

Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Deposited Parish Registers for this parish are held St John the Baptist - Baptisms 1538-1903, Marriages 1538-1900, Burials 1538-1871 Surrey History Centre- 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey GU21 6ND Tel: 01483 518737 Fax: 01483 518738 Email: shs@surreycc.gov.uk www.surreycc.gov.uk/surreyhistorycentre Link to the Family History Library Catalogue showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
Census returns for West Wickham 1841-1841

FamilySearch Records includes collections of census indexes which can be searched online for free. In addition FamilySearch Centres offer free access to images of the England and Wales Census through FHC Portal: Computers here have access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions. to locate local Family History Centres in UK to locate outside UK. Many archives and local history collections in public libraries in England and Wales offer online census searches and also hold microfilm or fiche census returns.

Images of the census for 1841-1891 can be viewed in census collections at Ancestry (fee payable) or Find My Past (fee payable)

The 1851 census of England and Wales attempted to identify religious places of worship in addition to the household survey census returns.

Ancestry UK Census Collection

Find my Past census search 1841-1901

Prior to the 1911 census the household schedule was destroyed and only the enumerator's schedule survives.

The 1911 census of England and Wales was taken on the night of Sunday 2 April 1911 and in addition to households and institutions such as prisons and workhouses, canal boats merchant ships and naval vessels it attempted to include homeless persons. The schedule was completed by an individual and for the first time both this record and the enumerator's schedule were preserved. Two forms of boycott of the census by women are possible due to frustration at government failure to grant women the universal right to vote in parliamentary and local elections. The schedule either records a protest by failure to complete the form in respect of the women in the household or women are absent due to organisation of groups of women staying away from home for the whole night. Research estimates that several thousand women are not found by census search. Find my Past 1911 census search

Poor Law Unions
Bromley Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Kent Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

See England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Local Family History Centre
Orpington Family History Centre, Kent is within the London Borough of Bromley, located adjacent to Orpington Station and on major bus routes through the borough.


 * FHC Portal: This centre has access to the Family History Centre Portal page which gives free access in the centre to premium family history software and websites that generally charge for subscriptions.
 * Publication of the restricted access images England, Kent, Wills and Probate (FamilySearch Historical Records) and England, Kent, Land Tax Assessments (FamilySearch Historical Records) means that it is advisable to telephone the centre to reserve a computer if you wish to view these collections using the portal.