User:Lionelfullwood/Sandbox4

England London Boroughs  Bexley

Guide to London Borough of Bexley ancestry, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
As with most of the other London Boroughs, the British Government action of 1965 destroyed all traces of the original settlements from the point of view of Family History. The Borough was formed from Bexley and parts of Erith, Crayford Urban District, and part of Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District. Researchers should instead consider researching Bexley and its associated villages and towns in its original county of Kent.

Prior to the 19th century the area now forming the Borough was sparsely populated: very few of the present settlements were mentioned in the Domesday Book, although the village of Bexley has a charter dated 814AD. Within the district, Erith was a port on the River Thames until the 17th century; the opening of the sewage works at nearby Crossness in the late 19th century turned it into an industrial town.

Today's settlement pattern is the result of the gradual extension of the London influence. Until the 19th century it was an area with a few isolated buildings such as the Georgian Danson House. With the coming of the railways building began apace, although the area is still composed of many disconnected settlements, interspersed with area of open ground and parks.

Erith had been the earliest area of the Borough to be developed. Before the Civil War it possessed its own Mayor and Corporation, but Charles II revoked its charter in 1660, leaving responsibility for local government divided between the Parish Vestry and the still functioning Manorial Courts. After the opening of the Crossness sewage plant in 1865 Erith was transformed from a small riverside resort into an industrial port. The existing administrative structures proved unsatisfactory so Erith Local Board was established under the Public Health Act 1875 to act as the sanitary authority for the Parish. About the same time a new town began to grow up along the London to Dover Road, where it crossed Bexley heath. The common lands of Bexley had been enclosed by special Act of Parliament in 1819, which facilitated the building of private houses there. The town was still administered by Bexley Parish Vestry, but this arrangement proved unpopular with the people of Bexley heath. One result of this was the creation of a separate Bexley heath Burial Board in 1852. In 1880 a solution was found by the creation of a Bexley Local Board, similar to the one at Erith.

Bexley, Crayford and Erith were small towns of two to four thousand inhabitants and there were some small villages and hamlets but open country predominated. Most men worked on the land or on jobs closely allied to agriculture. There was very little industry. Local government was largely in the hands of the parish vestries. By the end of Victoria's reign the coming of the railway had made it possible to live locally but work in London. Some of the large estate had been transformed into streets of suburban villas and the new middle-class commuters who lived in them attracted tradesmen and domestic servants to the area. The railway also brought industry and this in turn meant more jobs and more houses for the workers. Most of the district was still rural in appearance. The big housing developments did not begin until the 1920's. During this period there had been great changes in local government and social services and the structure of society was infinitely more complex than it had been 60 years before.

Cemeteries (Civil)
Sidcup Cemetery


 * Foots Cray Ln
 * Bexley, Sidcup DA14 4NS

Erith Cemetery


 * 303 Brook St
 * Erith DA8 1DY

Bexley Heath Cemetery


 * Valley Sundries
 * 20 Upland Rd
 * Bexleyheath DA7 4NR

Bexley Council Cemeteries Office:


 * Bexley Civic Offices Broadway
 * Bexleyheath DA6 7LB
 * Phone: +44 20 3045 3691

Hillview Cemetery


 * 12 Peters Cl
 * Welling DA16 3LL

Woolwich Cemetery


 * Kings Highway
 * London SE18 2BJ
 * Phone: +44 20 8921 6885

Chislehurst Cemetery


 * Beaverwood Rd
 * Chislehurst BR7 6HF
 * Phone: +44 1689 853617

Kemnal Park Cemetery


 * A20 Sidcup By-Pass
 * Chislehurst BR7 6RR
 * Phone: +44 20 8300 9790

Eternal Gardens Muslim Burial Ground


 * A20 Sidcup By-Pass
 * Chislehurst BR7 6RR
 * Phone: +44 800 211 8569

Plumstead Cemetery


 * London SE2 0PB

Eltham Cemetery and Crematorium


 * Crown Woods Way
 * London SE9 2AZ

Rippleside Cemetery


 * 3 Meadow Cl
 * Barking IG11 9QE
 * Phone: +44 20 8270 4740

East Hill Cemetery


 * 147 East Hill
 * Dartford DA1 1SW

Watling Street Cemetery


 * Watling St
 * Dartford DA2 6AA
 * Phone: +44 1322 290059

Charlton Cemetery


 * Cemetery Ln
 * Charlton, London SE7 8DZ
 * Phone: +44 20 8854 0235

Parishes
St John's


 * Parkhill Rd
 * Bexley DA5 1JA

St Martin's


 * Erith Road
 * Barnehurst DA7 6LE
 * Phone: +44 1322 523344

Christ Church


 * Victoria Rd
 * Erith DA8 3AN
 * Phone: +44 1322 334729

Christ Church


 * 174A Broadway
 * Bexleyheath DA6 7EE
 * Phone: +44 20 8301 5966

St Peter's


 * 50 Bristow Rd
 * Bexleyheath DA7 4QA
 * Phone: +44 20 8303 8713

William Temple


 * 180 Eynsham Dr
 * Abbey Wood, London SE2 9PT
 * Phone: +44 20 8312 2566

St Michael and All Angels


 * Abbey Wood Road
 * Abbey Wood, London, SE2 9DZ
 * Phone: +44 20 8311 0377

St James the Great


 * Blendon
 * Blendon, Kent, DA5 3BS
 * Phone: +44 20 8301 5387

St Paulinus


 * Perry St
 * Bexleyheath, Dartford DA1 4RL
 * Phone: +44 1322 557532

St Mary the Virgin


 * Manor Rd
 * Bexley DA5 3LX
 * Phone: +44 1322 523457

St Albans


 * 67 St Albans Rd
 * Dartford DA1 1TE
 * Phone: +44 1322 224052

Non Conformists
Mount Zion Christian
 * Baptist
 * Christ Church
 * Christian Spiritualist
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * Evangelical
 * Greek Orthodox
 * Jehovah's Witnesses
 * Methodist
 * Pentecostal
 * Roman Catholic
 * Redeemed Christian Church of God
 * Seventh Day Adventist

There are a number of communities of non Christian religions including the following:


 * Buddhist
 * Confucian
 * Jewish
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the UK government from July 1837 to the present day. Prior to that, the only available records were those kept by the ecclesiastical bodies. The familysearch wiki has many references to links where to find these records.


 * Bexley Council BMD records


 * forbears.io: Bexley


 * Kent on Line Parish Records: Bexley


 * ukbmd: Bexley registration district


 * Kent Registration Services: Bexley

Local Histories

 * Bexley Council History


 * Greenwich University: History of Bexley Borough


 * Bexleyheat, A History by John Mercer


 * Chislehurst through Time


 * Sidcup and Foots Cray by John Mercer

Maps and Gazetteers

 * opnestreetmap: Bexley Borough


 * mapquest: London Boroough of Bexley


 * hjiddel london: Bexley Gazetteer


 * hidden london: Sidcup Gazetteer


 * hidden london: Erith Gazetteer

Newspapers

 * News Shopper: Bexley


 * The Bexley Times


 * The London Evening Standard: Bexley

Occupations
The Borough is still primarily a bedroom area for Central London. More than 50% of its residents commute to the Central City area daily. Bexley is also a major agricultural area, primarily in Market Garden companies providing fruits and vegetables to the Capital's grocery stores.

Bexley has industry and innovation in its DNA. Ever since Henry VIII founded a naval dockyard at Erith in 1515 the borough has been highly industrious, making a significant contribution to the London economy. Today, the borough remains one of the most important manufacturing locations in London, home to almost 400 companies making everything from sausages to prestige sports cars. Other key sectors include energy, construction, low carbon goods and logistics. Notably, because of almost six miles of frontage on the River Thames, Bexley has the highest rate of commercial river activity of any London Borough, shipping millions of tonnes of food oils, construction materials and recycling in and out of the capital every year.

Societies

 * Bexley History Society


 * Kent Family History Society


 * North west Kent Family History Society

Archives

 * London Borough of Bexley Archives


 * The National Archives: Bexley


 * The National Archives: Sidcup


 * The National Archives: Erith Borough


 * The National Archives: Chistlehurst

Web Sites

 * London Borough of Bexley


 * London Borough of Bexley: wikipedia


 * Bexley: wikipedia


 * Sidcup: wikipedia


 * Erith: wikipedia


 * Chislehurst: wikipedia