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Maidstone Road
Milestone
Ruxley Cottage
Tollgate
Ruxley
The name
Rokesley (Ruxley) is said to derive from Rookesley
(O.E.) and means 'a pasture in which rooks do breed'. Gregory de Rokesle
(Ruxley) possessed the manor of St. Mary Cray, and King Edward I authorised him to hold a weekly market and
annual fair in the village. A plaque,
set in the wall of Lloyds Bank, Lombard Street, London, records the fact that Gregory had his town house on that site, and
was made Mayor of London no less than eight
times between 1274 and 1285.
Ruxley Garden Centre – covers the entire area of the
former village.
Ruxley church. Ancient church of St. Botolph, disused for years. It is above the main
Rochester Road on a hummock with, one is surprised to find, far-extending views
in all directions. The walls are built of flint and Kentish Greensand,
which survive intact. Incorporated into the foundations of the
latter are some Roman tiles, which may have
been moved from the bathhouse, which stood in nearby Beden's Field. This former church is now used for storage and the attached oast kiln has been partially
dismantled. For many years it was used as a barn - it was
never more than a chapel a simple rectangle.
It is recorded in Textus Roffensis (1120) that 9 denarii were paid to
the see of Rochester at the time of the
Domesday Survey (1087). Some 60 graves were
discovered here many dating from the 14th century and
suggesting that the occupants were victims of the Black Death. Gregory de Rokesle was buried in the Greyfriars Church in the
City of London, but there is a remote possibility
that his remains were transferred to the new medieval church at Ruxley, which
had been rebuilt by the de Rokesles over the earlier
Saxon structure. A skull and bones found beneath
the site of the altar during the excavation presumably had some special
significance. With a major stretch
of the imagination, the bones may even be regarded as those of St. Botolph himself, translated from St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate,
City of London! In 1557 the church was
suppressed by Cardinal Pole, and authority given for the removal of building materials to the parish of North Cray.
Tiles from local Roman
bathhouse.
Ruxley Manor. An 18th century red
brick building incorporating
parts of an earlier timber-framed structure
Ruxley Farm
Upper Ruxley Farm. Denehole
Ruxley Wood
Denehole
Swanley Bypass
1926: Ruxley to Wrotham KCC 1926
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