Chiselhurst

"CHISELHURST, a parish in the hundred of Ruxley, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, in the county of Kent, 3 miles E. of Bromley, and 2 from the St. Mary Cray railway station, on the Chatham and Dover line. It is pleasantly situated on the high road between Bromley and Cray. The manor formerly belonged to the Walsinghams, of Scadbury (now a farmhouse), where Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, and Lord Keeper Bacon, were born. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury, of the value of £487, in the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester. There is also a district church at Sidcup, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, of the value of £150, in the patronage of the rector. The parish church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a handsome flint edifice, with tower and spire, and fine peal of bells. The body of the church is in good condition, and the tower and spire new, the former having been destroyed by fire in 1857. In the church are monuments to the Berties, Walsinghams, Dr. Wallaston Sir Philip Warwick, and other celebrities. The register dates from 1558. The charities amount to about £40 per annum. The Wesleyans and Roman Catholics have chapels, and there are National schools for both sexes, and also infant schools. The chief residences are Frognals, the elegant seat of Viscount Sydney, who inherits the manor through the Betensons; Pheasant Grove, the seat of Lord Wynford, son of the late eminent Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who was raised to the peerage for his services on the bench; and Camden Place, now the property of the Marquis of Camden, where the celebrated antiquary, Camden, wrote the annals of Queen Elizabeth, and died in 1623. In Camden Park may be seen the elegant piece of architecture which is commonly called the Lanthorn of Demosthenes, or choragic monument of Lysicrates. A pleasure fair is held on Wednesday after Whit-Sunday."

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]