A Brief History of Bexley

The area now called the London Borough of Bexley came into existence in 1965 and unlike other London Boroughs does not possess a central hub like Bromley or Croydon or Lewisham but is an amalgamation of Thamesmead, Little Heath, Bostall, Picardy, Belvedere, Upper Belvedere, Lessness, Erith, North End, Slade Green, Northumberland Heath, Barnehurst, Barnes Cray, Crayford, Bexleyheath, Brampton, Welling, Danson, East Wickham, Falconwood, Blackfen, Lamorbey, Blendon, Bexley, North Cray, Foots Cray, Royal Park, Sidcup & Longlands.

Some of these places were not there 100 years ago. Most of these places were not there 200 hundred years ago. A few are mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086 AD and Bexley has a charter for 814 AD. Beyond that we know the Roman road was called Casincstraete by the Saxons; and the rampart and ditch through the eastern boundary was called Faestendic which means strong dyke but whose origin may be primarily Iron Age.

Bexley High Street 1911

Then we enter the realms before history with a Roman village called Noviomago somewhere on a rise between two streams in Welling where many Roman cremation urns have been found and a Romano-British settlement at Old Road Crayford. There have been a few Roman lead coffin burials in the area similar to the recent one in Spitalfields, London. There are Roman villas, spaced along the River Cray all the way up stream to Orpington beyond the present A20 which is Bexley’s southern boundary.

The River Cray flows north in a wide rounded valley to the east of the Borough and a smaller stream, the River Shuttle runs east to join it at Bexley. To the south of the River Shuttle is the range of hills ending at the Sidcup ridge. To the north is the Greenwich to Erith ridge with its high point at Shooters Hill just to the west of the Borough boundary. To the north of this ridge are the River Thames marshes stretching from Thamesmead around to Slade Green.

Although Bexley Borough seems to be an expanse of suburbia, each community is separated by a stretch of green woodland, parkland, riverine glades, open farmland, and marshes with an immense variety of different peaceful environments. It is in these green spaces that the wealth of the historical and archaeological landscapes can be seen and to which the ancient settlers were drawn.

Bexley High Street 1906

John Acworth