West Wickham

"WEST WICKHAM, a parish in the hundred of Ruxley, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, county Kent, 3 miles S. of Bromley, 4 S.E. of Croydon, and 21 S. of the Beckenham railway station. The village is situated near the borders of Surrey, and within the south-eastern postal district of the metropolis. It was a market town under the Hunting-fields in the reign of Edward II., and afterwards came to the Heydon and Lennard families. The soil is principally chalk, alternated with gravel and clay. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury, value £514. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is situated a mile to the E. of the village, and has some stained windows, and tombs of the Lennards. The register dates from 1548. There are National schools and a parochial lending library. Hayes Place was the seat of the Earl of Chatham, whose son, William Pitt, was born here in 1759. Colonel J. F. Cator Lennard, who resides at Wickham Court, is lord of the manor. A fair is held on Easter Monday."

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