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Bromley Road
Chiselhurst Common. A cluster of relic heaths and ancient woodland with heavy visitor
pressure mainly concentrated at Chislehurst Common. Although fringed by housing
from Tong Farm to Scadbury Park this is a considerable stretch of rural
landscape. Once heath controlled by
grazing it was protected under the Metropolitan Commons Supplemental Act of
1888 which established a board of elected conservators to oversee management. The ground fairly well drained and results in
a typically poor acid soil. Former gravel extraction and pockets of clay have
caused a number of ponds to form, most of which are in need of sympathetic
management to maintain their wildlife interest. Those on Chislehurst Common are
suffering from trampling although examples of bur-marigold, marsh penny wort
and purple loosestrife still decorate the banks.
Crown Lane
St.Nicholas Church. Standing on the common. The medieval parish church, c 15, of rough flints, enlarged and
partly rebuilt in the c19. The tower stands over the bay of the isle, and bears
a tall shingled spire, quite a landmark. The windows in tower and aisle
segment- headed, of two lights. Four-bay arcade, besides the tower bay, on
piers quatrefoil in plan. Arches with two chamfers, tower arch with three.
Probably this c15 work was undertaken by the rector of 1446-82, whose monument
stands in the founder's position on the side of the chancel. No more of it is
left. The wall of the nave however is old, and in the gable a small blocked
window rudely turned in flint may be Saxon. In 1849 the chancel was practically
rebuilt by Ferrey. There were lancets before the rebuilding. He also added the
aisle with the Perpendicular doorway reset, copying the windows but modifying
the arcade to make it approach more nearly the style of the late c13. The spire
was rebuilt by Wollaston, after a fire in 1857, a little higher than before.
The chancel lengthened eastwards, with a fancy wall, by Bodley & Garner,
1896. The Font is Norman with The usual square arcaded bowl on five shafts of Bethersden marble. Chancel screen and
screens in the chapel are basically genuine Perpendicular. Organ case 1888.
Reredos. 1896 by Bodley & Garnerin Alabaster. A fine red and white
Sanctuary pavement by Farmer & Brindley. Stained glass Sanctuary windows
1896 by Burlison & Grylls. Aisle window, 1894 and 1900, by Kempe. A Rector
wrote Hymns A&M. In the Scadby Chapel is a corbel of a little face which is
probably a Jack in the Green. Willet of daylight saving is buried there. Alan
Porter f 1482. 9 in. brass. Half-effigy of a priest. Sir Edmond Walsingham f
1549. Early c15 tomb-chest, the side panels with tracery of considerable
complexity. In 1581 a back piece was added with an inscription to Sir Edmond
plus Corinthian colonnettes and embryonic strap work and another inscription
added in 1630. The whole repainted. Sir Edmond was at the Field of the Cloth of
Gold and was Lt. of the Tower. Also his father James Walsingham Sheriff of
Kent. Tomb of Thomas Walsingham who was
Elizabeth’s spymaster. Tomb of Walsingham
which was opened in 1956 to see if the Shakespeare MS was in it. Sir
Richard Betenson 1679. Big black and white marble tablet with side scrolls and
three cartouches attached to the top pediment. Mid-C 17 in feeling. The odd
thing is the Tuscan pilaster that supports it, flanked by palm-scrolls. This
must be an addition at the death of Lady Betenson in 1681. Sir Philip Warwick f
1682. Large and outstandingly elegant cartouche carved with great finesse.
Putto-heads and a skull among the scrolls. The scrolls themselves have a
peculiar tendency to assume the shape of half-spread wings. Secretary to
Charles I. Thomas Farrington f 1694. Another good cartouche, but not in the
same class. Note the wreathed skull at the bottom, and the bravura of its
carving. Thomas Farrington 1712. A third cartouche. Putto-heads again around
the knotted drapery. Roland Tryon f 1720. Hanging monument, with at the top a
medallion bust, and on the cornice over the tablet an urn and two reclining
cherubs. Rather flabbily executed. Sir Edward Bettenson f 1733. The seemingly c 12 corbel on a fat face looks
ungenuine. Large hanging monument, with
more marble than ideas. Signed by Thomas Easton. Lord Thomas Bertie f 1749.
Hanging monument with trophies of arms at the top, and an urn. What makes it
memorable is the relief at the bottom, an exquisitely carved representation of
a naval battle, the ships riding on waves as stylized as rocaille work. The
monument is not signed, but Cheere's design for it has been recently identified.
Roger Townshend 1760. Tablet by Rysbrack. Sir Richard Adams f 1774. Large
tablet in the Adam taste. Lord Robert Bertie f 1782. Large tablet. First
Viscount Sydney f 1800. Exceedingly large tablet. William Selwyn f 1817. Signed
by Chantrey, 1823. Very large hanging monument. A young man stands, two young
women sit pensively by a tomb. Chantrey eschews realism, for all the
contemporary dress, yet he makes one accept that these really are Mr Selwyn's
children and no generalized mourners. Second Viscount Sydney. 1845 by .Brown.
Allegorical female too small for the sub- structure. Earl Sydney 1890.
Reclining effigy in Garter robes, by Sir E. Boehm, completed by Alfred Gilbert.
He was Victoria’s Chief Steward.
Churchyard.
Grave of Sir Malcolm Campbell racing driver. Also grave of William Hyde
Wollaston physicist.
St Nicholas College
contingency plans to move K.CC. County Hall there in the war
Ambulance Centre. 1973 by
Greater London Council architect
Hawkwood Lane
Priests House
St.Mary’s Church. RC 1854. The architect of this
simple ragstone building was W. W. Wardell
Mortuary chapel In 1874 Glutton added a mortuary chapel. It was ordered by the
Empress Eugenic for the body of Louis Napoleon, the home of whose exile had
since 1870 been Camden Place, although in the end he was buried in a far
grander setting at Farnborough, Hants. Ashlar. The chapel's roof is sharply
gabled, but rises behind a rich pierced parapet; an arrangement that echoes the
chapel in the chateau at Amboise. Internally there is a stone rib-vault on
wall-shafts with naturalistic leaf capitals. Clever Cluttonian detail. –
Sculpture Christ in the Tomb. In a recess. - Monument. The Prince Imperial f
1879. He lies recumbent, fully armed
Girls Technical School. 1960 and 1967 by E. T. Ashley-Smith, the Kent County Architect.
Cooper's. A plain brick house of the late c
18, three bays in the centre, with lower wings. It seems all of one date, although the front is yellow brick, the
back red. At the back canted bays
flanking the centre. The interiors
however
are of c. 1750, and the staircase has two turned balusters per step and richly carved tread-ends. So it is a matter of recasing, it seems
Police Section house
Manor
Park
Cookham Dene. An early house by Sir Aston Webb c. 1882. He uses
the Norman Shaw idiom but has nothing
much to say in it
Walpole.
Much more personal, one of five beetling Queen-Anne-style houses of
the 1870s by George Somers
Clarke Sen. This was his own
house;
Pelham
Harley
Manor Place
Walsingham
Manor Park Road
Manor House. Basically a gabled half-timbered house, with a two-storeyed porch; but now roughcast and greatly added to
Morley
Road
2 Morley Cottages
Whin Cottage. A pretty pair of cottages. Part of a larger scheme designed in 1878 by George & Peto. They introduce the leitmotif of late c 19 Chislehurst houses,
wide tiled and half-timbered
gables over red-brick walls
Shepherd
Green
1-5 nice group
St. Paul's Cray Common,
Streams feeding down to the
Quaggy. A cluster of relic heaths and ancient woodland
once heaths controlled by grazing protected under the Metropolitan Commons
Supplemental Act of 1888 which established a board of elected conservators to
oversee management. A famous fire that raged out of control for two weeks in
1870 across St Paul's Cray Common may well have encouraged the succession of
woodland that the decline in grazing had begun.
The ground is fairly well drained and results in a typically poor acid
soil. Former gravel extraction and pockets of clay have caused a number of
ponds to form, most of which are in need of sympathetic management to maintain
their wildlife interest. The three central ponds in St Paul s Cray are choked
with purple moor grass. The secondary woodland is mostly oak and birch with an
under storey of holly hawthorn and bracken. Patches of acid grassland survive
near two clearings near St Paul's Cray Road. The West clearing has the best
example of relic heathland dominated by heather. The East clearing has suffered
from insensitive management in woodland becomes damper towards the boundary
ditch with Pett's Wood with sedges and buckthorn replacing the meadow grasses
on the higher ground.
St.Paul's Cray Road:
Grange Cottage Queen Anne house by Somers Clarke, c 1880,
Crayfield
one of a
trio rising sheer from the pavement
Cleveland
Warren
House dated 1878
Chesil House. Best eighteenth century house in Chiselhurst c 1770. Redbrick. Only three
bay sand two storeys, yet all the windows have
arched centres making them into
simplified
Venetian windows. Plain parapet with a centre pediment growing up through it. Lunette window in the pediment. Porch on fluted Ionic columns, with a broken
pediment. A date c. 1770 would seem appropriate. Later addition at the right side.
Susan Wood:
Lime kiln, chalk pits etc.
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