Orpington, Kent, England

Notes:
ORPINGTON, KENT



Stone age tools have been found in several areas of Orpington, including Goddington Park, Priory Gardens, the Ramsden estate, and Poverest. Early Bronze Age pottery fragments have been found in the Park Avenue area. During the building of Ramsden Boys School in 1956, the remains of an Iron Age farmstead were excavated. The area was occupied in Roman times, as shown by Crofton Roman Villa, and the Roman bath-house at Fordcroft [11]. The first record of the name Orpington occurs in 1032, when King Cnut's treasurer Eadsy gave land at "Orpedingetune" to the Monastery of Christ Church at Canterbury. The parish church also pre-dates the Domesday Book.



Until the railway came, the local commercial centre was nearby St Mary Cray, rather than Orpington. St Mary Cray had a regular market, and industry (paper mills and bell foundry), whereas Orpington was just a small country village surrounded by soft fruit farms, hopfields and orchards.



Coming of the railway

The South Eastern Railway arrived in 1868, linking Orpington to central London and Sevenoaks, and housing development began on a small scale on the Knoll. The line was widened and Orpington railway station was rebuilt in 1904, expanding to six platforms. The resulting improvement in rail services lead to an acceleration in housing development, and hundreds of houses were built in the 1920s and 30s. The population rose from 5,000 in 1911 to 25,000 in 1931, and 49,500 in 1939. Orpington overtook St Mary Cray as the local commercial centre. Development was brought to a halt by the second world war.





Second World War

In World War II the town suffered incendiary bomb damage and, later, V-1 and V-2 attacks because of its location on the flightpath to London and also its proximity to Biggin Hill aerodrome which was an important airbase for Spitfire and Hurricane fighters in the Battle of Britain. The last British civilian killed by German bombing was Mrs Ivy Millichamp, 34, who was killed in her home at 88 Kynaston Road, Orpington on 27 March 1945, by a V-2.





After 1945

After the war, a large estate of council housing was built at Ramsden, but Green Belt legislation has limited further expansion to the east and south. As a result, suburban semi-detached houses incongruously adjoin open fields.

Latitude: 51.3405, Longitude: 0.144489

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