Local historical facts
These are some facts that we have been told about the area. If you have any corrections or know better, then please contact us.
... On 1st September 1940, engaged in action during the Battle of Britain, 21-year-old Sergeant John Hugh Mortimer Ellis, RAFVR, of 85 Squadron, lost his life in his Hawker Hurricane P2673 VY-E near to the Chelsfield viewpoint.
... Edith Nesbit on her walks to Chelsfield station from Halstead Hall may have inspired her famous novel, 'The Railway Children' (1906). Another theory is that this was Knockholt Station which was nearer to Halstead Hall.
... Miss Read's 'Fairacre' books were based on her early life in Chelsfield village, where her parents were in the church choir and her father was occasionally the organist
... Chelsfield is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Cillesfelle and Ciresfel, later becoming Chellesfeld. The soil was regarded as poor and indifferent, and the lands were let at easy rents
... Aspen Spring Wood is built of World War 2 rubble from the East End
... German bombs landed within Aspen Spring Wood
... due to enemy action on 4 November 1940 the footbridge at Chelsfield Station collapsed onto a train, the footbridge was rebuilt to the same design in 1941 and has recently been refurbished
... 9 navies were killed excavating the Chelsfield Tunnel
... Chelsfield station was opened on 2 March 1868 by the South Eastern Railway and with the cooperation of Mr Waring the local landowner, to shorten its route to Dover
... famous residents of Chelsfield include: Brass Crosby who coined the phrase 'Bold as Brass', Kenneth Wood the founder of Kenwood and TV Chef Gary Rhodes
... Chelsfield Station building was destroyed by fire in August 1973 and replaced by our current booking office within a glass box
... to avoid confusion with Halstead in Essex, Halstead Station was renamed Knockholt Station on 1 October 1900
... Warren Road School started in Warren House, in Old Warren Road
... Many of the houses on the new Warren Road side and in Cloonmore Avenue were built on market garden land between 1954 and 1955. The builder was Gleeson Homes which is probably how we get the name of Gleeson Drive
... New Chelsfield Methodist Playgroup operated in the Chelsfield Methodist Church hall and was run by Bridgit Marsh and Norma Mann - some of you or your children may have attended
... The land running from Green Street Green, across Foxbury Woods and Chelsfield Green, was the intended route of the South Orbital Motorway, later replaced by the M25
... The Chelsfield pub was renamed for a short while as the Heavy Horse before reverting to The Chelsfield
... The Co-operative in Crescent Way became Sperrings, then Alldays, before becoming a Co-operative again. The original store included a butcher’s shop
... Early residents say that it was long after the houses were built in new Warren Road that the footpath and road were surfaced
... The source of the River Cray was a pond that is now under the roundabout at Green Street Green. The river now runs underground along the route of Sevenoaks Road and Orpington High Street to the Orpington Pond in Priory Gardens, that we now know as the source of the River Cray.
... 177 Warren Road was a local landmark known as, ‘The Half House’, which if not a listed property should have been. Together with 175 Warren Road, these hundred-year-old properties are examples of Edwardian vernacular architecture and part of local history. In 1906 two brothers, the Arthurs, purchased several plots here as a nursery and site for their homes, Maythorne & Woodside in Warren Lane, what is now, 175 and 177 Warren Road. No. 177 appears as it does because one of the brothers planned to complete the adjoining semi for his son, but WW1 intervened. Tragically the son didn’t return and the building was not completed, hence the “The Half House”. The land was worked by the brothers, until their deaths and was sold with the dwellings, in about 1960, after which 175a & 177a were built. We are told that Arthurs Nursery employed WW1 Italian POWs and that the current owner of 175 was shown a picture of them receiving their pay at the gate of the house. Sadly 177 has now been approved by Bromley Council for demolition and a new house has been built in its place.
Brittenden close in Green Street Green is named after James Brittenden, who was a civil engineer, town planner and a member of Orpington Urban District Council from 1945. As chairman of the Housing Committee he is credited with expanding council housing in the area including the construction of 60 homes for old people on what was Green Street Green cricket field.