Bromley Kent Poor Law Union Creed Registers

Some years ago transcribers undertook work for Bromley Archives on the Workhouse Creed registers for the period 1884 to 1894. These were then published online on the former Bromley Archives pages.
For over two years following Bromley Council's reorganisation of its webpages the index was no longer available although visitors to the archive could access the data as well as the archive material for searches.
Bromley Councillors decided to close their museum service to the public and to reorganise access to museum artefacts as well as archive material. Bromley Historic Collections was brought into being. Shortly following this the Councillors considered Library closures but finally decided to transfer libraries and Bromley Historic Collections to a not for profit organisation GLL. This resulted in the change of Bromley Historic Collections telephone and email and in time the reorganisation of the London Borough of Bromley web links to Bromley Historic Collections. Bromley Archivist Lucy Bonner was in time able to reorganise the data and to bring it online once again.
I have received many queries via email through this saga so clearly the interest in the content for this period of Bromley's Poor Law Union history is strong. The series of PDF files can be found on the Bromley website although navigation to the index of PDF files is not simple. The page containing the PDF files can be found Index to Creed registers and each of the PDF files can be downloaded.
The original registers are available in several volumes and volunteers only compiled data for part of the volume under Bromley Historic Collections reference 846GBy/W/I/c/1 which is available on microfilm at Bromley and covers the period March 1870-4 January 1894. Subsequent volumes continue until the formal closure of the Workhouse in 1930.
This series of Creed registers can establish dates of admission and discharge to the Workhouse and of course children born in the Union Workhouse Infirmary. In my experience it is rare to find such children's births registered within Bromley Registration District. The best plan for searchers is to examine the both the Creed Register for an entry and in the case of Church of England as mother's stated religion to examine the baptismal register for Farnborough. Children born in the Infirmary would be referred to the Workhouse chaplain who might conduct a private baptism or do so in the Chapel at the Workhouse or at Saint Giles the Abbot Farnborough. The chaplain would provide details of the baptism to the curate or from Vicar for inclusion in the Farnborough Parish Baptismal Register. Communication between these members of the clergy is often less than efficient resulting in many gaps in the Parish Register reserved for Workhouse baptisms which were reserved but did not take place.
I am currently concluding transcription of the Farnborough Parish  Baptism Register which covers the period to 1894 which will be published by Kent Online Parish Clerks in due course.

 © Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2018-2019