Bromley St Peter and St Paul, Kent Genealogy

A guide to genealogy in the ecclesiastical parish of Bromley - St. Peter St. Paul in Kent with information on where to find birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records; census records; wills; cemeteries; maps; etc..

Bromley - St. Peter St. Paul is an ecclesiastical parish within the town of Bromley in Kent, England.

Parish History
In 1848: BROMLEY (St. Peter And St. Paul), a market town and parish, and the head of a union, in the hundred of Bromley and Beckenham, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, W division of Kent, 10 miles SE from London, on the road to Tonbridge.

Bromley St. Peter & St. Paul Church Road is the site of the Ancient Parish church for the market town from which subsequent parishes were created. The church was destroyed in 1941 and the present church interior is illustrated and described below at the Kent Churches website.

This parish formed an ancient parish in the Bromley and Beckenham hundred and the Sutton-at-Hone lathe of Kent. In 1840 it became part of the expanded Metropolitan Police District. The parish adopted the Local Government Act 1858 and a local board was formed in 1867. The board was reconstituted as Bromley Urban District Council in 1894 and the parish became Bromley Urban District. It formed part of the London Traffic Area from 1924 and the London Passenger Transport Area from 1933. In 1934, as part of a county review order, the borough was expanded by taking in 1,894 acres (7.66 km2) from the disbanded Bromley Rural District; an area including parts of the parishes of Farnborough, Hayes, Keston and West Wickham. Bromley became part of the newly-created Greater London in 1965, in the new London Borough of Bromley. For the early history of Bromley see Edward Hasted's description.

Bromley Holy Trinity, Kent was formed from this parish.


 * Bromley North West Kent Family History Society for other parishes formed from this parish
 * Bromley St Peter and St Paul
 * Bromley Christ Church Highland Road

After much debate concerning the need for an additional church or an expansion of the parish church it was determined that Reverend Hellicar as rector had the right to establish a chapel of ease in the parish if he chose to do so. The controversy in the town and local press had become heated and the position had to be determined by Archbishop Tait. Reverend Hellicar and the church wardens immediately secured a lease on land in Park Road and established that the town of Ryde Isle of Wight had a large iron church for sale. The building was purchased and transferred to Bromley and erected to serve from 1872. Meanwhile freehold property was acquired and funding raised to enable a foundation stone to laid in July 1879 and in May 1880 Archbishop Tait dedicated St John The Evangelist.


 * Bromley St John the Evangelist Park Road Kent Churches website


 * Bromley St Mark Westmoreland Road
 * Kent Churches website

The expansion of building after 1861 on the previous Bickley Park residence of the Dent family. On the sale of the property residential development took place and a church was built from 1863 with services beginning in 1864 and consecration in 1865. Originally conceived as a district church it became necessary to appoint one of the curates of the Parish church to serve the needs of the Widmore district of the Ancient Parish.


 * St George Bickley Park Road
 * Kent Churches website

The northern part of the Town was felt to need a church and in 1860 the Reverend Adams chaplain to Bromley College and his family raised contributions to establish St Mary Plaistow. The church was consecrated by Archbishop Longley in 1863 and subsequently enlarged.


 * Plaistow St Mary College Road

Census
For the 1801 Census see Bromley 1801

Civil Registration

 * See Bromley

Church Records
Bromley St Peter and St Paul parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

To find the names of the neighboring parishes, use England Jurisdictions 1851 Map. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

Kent Online Parish Clerks has indexes available for select parishes. Records are also available at the Kent Archives.

Non-Conformists (All other Religions)

 * 1717 England & Wales, Roman Catholics, 1717 at FindMyPast ($), index and images (coverage may vary)

Websites

 * Kent Online Parish Clerks are in process of transcribing the complete parish register series in partnership with Bromley Archives and the local Archdeacon on behalf of the Diocese. The completed transcripts will appear on-line during 2014 All Bromley parishes appear on a single page Bromley Parishes
 * Henry Mantell's blog a researcher in Archives Blog about transcription of material for online publication in the Bromley area of Kent.
 * Bromley on GENUKI