Bromley Saint Luke Kent Occupations 1887-1906

The transcription of the first baptismal register of Saint Luke Shooting Common contained some interesting occupations worthy of record as part of the social history of the Bromley Common and Bickley areas as part of the rapid development of Bromley.
Bromley had during the Napoleonic wars a history of Royal Naval men; surprising when one considers it's landlocked state. It is no surprise therefore to find the Saint Luke's registers recording all ranks of naval men; additionally there are examples of Naval Dockyard (Chatham) workers and trawlermen and Thames Lightermen.
The development of houses along Shooting Common as far as the Old Crown Inn attracted retired Army and Navy Officers and Captains including one Captain of a Schooner. A variety of regiments are referred to including the 98th Foot 1st York and Lancs Madras Army and one reference to the Royal Marine Light Infantry (the earliest name for the Royal Marines). The area also housed many Government Servants from the Admiralty to the Law Courts. Most of the housing development described in the history of the Parish is occupied by a wide range of occupation from construction,gas fitting,and the railway industry of Bromley from platelayers to Railway Timekeeper and Inspectors. Both Bromley and Bickley stations and their engine sheds were in the parish both operated 24 hours a day and signalmen and shunters were employed continually.
In 1887 the first reference to a Park Fencer is found and throughout the volume this occupation is represented. The precise nature of this occupation cannot be located elsewhere in Bromley Historic Collections but Bromley as a town had extensive recreational areas and the occupation seems to have sustained several families.
Also of note is the Town Gasworks in Homesdale Road. A variety of employees from gas stokers to managers lived in the vicinty and within the parish.
Another local institution in the town at this period were it's Lamplighters who tended cleaned and lit the gas fired streetlamps of Bromley. Three addresses for families of Lamplighters and their foreman are situated in Addison and Havelock Road with two families at each address. In no other registers of churches in Bromley have I found this occupation and it seems reasonable to assume the the town's lamplighting was organised here.
At this period horsedrawn transport of both humans and goods was at a peak so it is not surprising to find fly proprietors,Horsemen and Carmen in abundance as well as Coachmen and Coach Proprietors. Also on an equine theme Bromley Race Course despite it's reputation for disorder at meetings and heavy equine casualty rate was home to several staff until it was finally closed.
Railway commuters are commonplace at this period. But the register contains two interesting examples of commuting out of London. One is a Driller at Chatham Dockyard; the other commutes to Barming to work as an Attendant at the County Asylum. Other Kent bound employees of the London Chatham and Dover Railway fulfil their roles on the railway.
Farming is still associated with Bromley Common and Bickley. In additon to Licensed Victuallers in the Southborough and Bickley area large houses in Bickley and their domestic staff including Butler's families are represented.
The baptismal register also records two local children baptised at East Malling whilst their parents were hop picking.
Two Romany children are baptised whilst working on farmland at Bromley Common; there are other Romany surnames in the parish and around this time Romany settlement in permanent housing was beginning.
As I mentioned in the history of the creation of the parish the church at Shooting Common above there was no burial land at Shooting Common but the rapid development of Saint Luke's Cemetery includes the baptism of children of the Cemetery Superintendent.
The Post Office at Shooting Common was well established but development of housing elsewhere in the parish enabled postmen to live nearby.
Finally the parish housed several commercial laundries. My colleague Suzanne North researched a piece for the Bromley Times some years ago about Henry Podger's  Homesdale Road Laundry and his family appear in the Saint Luke's registers. A large number of the occupations relating to laundry are linked to this and other laundries in the parish,possibly one of the largest employers in the town.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

The Marriage of James Wingfield and Emily Farley

Inside the 1892 marriage register of Saint Luke's Bromley Common at the page for the the marriage of James Wingfield and Emily Farley there is a 1914 letter from Mrs Emily Wingfield of 102 Old Lane Hollington Saint Leonards on Sea addressed to the church. In response a marriage certificate was given to her on the 3 September 1914.
Sir,
I am taking the liberty of writing to you asking you if you would be kind enough to forward me a copy of my Marriage Certificate as I have lost mine. My husband has been called up to the war and I cannot get any money till I get a copy and as work has been so scarce I don't want to be left without money as I don't know what we are going to do. We were married at Saint Luke's Bromley Common on 5 November 1898.
My name was Emily Farley and husband's name James Wingfield
Sir if you will let me know how much money I am to Send I will forward it on to you.
yours truly Mrs Wingfield.
It is an interesting insight into life on the Home Front for women whose husband had enlisted.
Prior to the war the family are found in the 1911 census at 34 Silverlands Road Saint Leonards on Sea and James is employed as a Nurseryman's Foreman Gardener. On his marriage his employment was  florist. At the outbreak of war James would be around 38 years old and in the 1911 census entry he and Emily had a three year old daughter.

The Kent Online Parish Clerks Bromley Parishes page two volumes of marriages for Saint Lukes including this entry. The entry appears in the first volume transcription here later marriage transcripts are available 1898-1911 .

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Bromley Saint Luke Baptisms 1887-1906

I have previously described the history of Saint Lukes in my blog.
        Image courtesy of Bromley Historic Collections.

The front page of the earliest baptismal register denotes the church correctly as Saint Luke's Shooting Common as at the time this was the postal address. It also reflects the history of Shooting Common as the piece of commons land which had been used for archery practice and the area for billeting and training soldiers.Later the church was described as Bromley Common although it had its parish boundary at the Crown.
As explained in that blog the core membership of the church was an Evangelical group who had lost their place of worship when the contentious issue of patronage had arisen and the metal Bromley Christ Church had been removed.
With the resolution of the patronage issue the congregation of Saint Luke's remained very distinct in preaching and teaching the gospel.
In transcribing the first 2400 baptismal entries (three of which are deleted due to errors) there is immediate evidence that many people outside the parish boundary from the town itself and from village parishes in the district chose to have baptisms at Saint Luke. I believe they were attracted by the style of worship and teaching there and absent in other Church of England congegations locally.
The other evident observation from entries is the curate's unfamiliarity with the spelling of local street names and the wide variety of parental occupations. Two neighbours who were lamplighters had their children baptised- they worked adusk and dawn lighting and dimming the gas street lamps of Bromley.
There are a considerable population of the parish employed on the railway and the railway was the means of travel for many businessman in the City of London whose children are included.
There is one Park Fencer with several children baptised and it is interestion to question whether he worked locally or throughout Bromley. There are some Gypsy baptisms included and the register records those children baptised elsewhere in Kent whilst parents were involved in seasonal harvesting.
One road with a large number of businesses is the extended Chatterton Road and families are baptised at Saint Luke's.
The church with no churchyard had a very efficient Burial Board and the chidren of the Saint Luke Cemetery superintendent are included.
The transcript of Baptisms 1887-1906 is available  at Kent Online Parish Clerks Bromley page  or by this link.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

The Parish of Saint Luke Bromley Common

(above image with kind permission of Bromley Historic Collections)
Arthur Percy Jackson self published a small history of Saint Lukes a copy of which is included in the George Payne collection (presented by Mrs Payne) held at Bromley Historic Collections. Arthur Percy Jackson MA Magdalen College Oxford was a solicitor  in practice in London but he resided at Bromley Common and was one of a group of Evangelical members of the Church of England which brought to the parish boundary a metal church referred to as Christ Church Bromley which was sited on land at the junction of Hayes Lane and Homesdale Road.
In the introduction to his account he ends with "I must unfotunately be very egotistical. I must be somewhat personal" and certainly there were many in Bromley who were unhappy about his history. Despite his comments about people his is the authoritative narrative about the creation of a new Anglican Church and parish to serve the Bromley Town end of Bromley Common and two separate districts of new housing. His account informs Horsburgh's 1929 "Bromley from the earliest times to the present century" and is therefore a permanent history of church and parish.
The developing population of housing along Bromley Common in streets was in two districts with no connection apart from the main road due to the life occupancy of Mrs Treadwell. The Bromley Common Post Office marked a point wich served both districts and was to the rear adjacent to Mrs Treadwell's land. In 1870 the Building Land Company bought up land and developed streets of housing from the Crown to a footpath (now part of Southlands Road). This development was in addition to the earlier development of houses from Homesdale and Great Elms on the former common land known as Shooting Common and when developed Havelock Road and Great Elms were called "Long Shots" Nelson Road was called "Short Shots" indicative of the positions or archery targets which gave rise to the name Shooting Common for that area of common land decades and a century earlier. In passing it is worth mentioning the military training and billeting of troops which is frequently recorded in both the 18th and 19th century parish registers.
The Ecclesiastical parish for Bromley Common from 1843 was Holy Trinity church which was at the far end of Bromley Common from Bromley Town. The advocates of Christ Church Bromley as a temporary Mission Church were therefore somewhat at odds with the Ancient Parish and Holy Trinity and eventually Christ Church lost patronage and the metal church was removed. Jackson probably at his most offensive spends a good deal of time making clear his distance from local Church of England clergy and his (and other like minded people) that the teaching of christian faith in Board Schools was unacceptable to those in Bromley. There was a clearly recognised need that the growth in Bromley Commons two divided districts could not be met by eith the town parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul or by Holy Trinity. Even more pressing was the need for local education for a new generation.
It is difficult for twenty first century Bromley people to conceive that in order to leave Chatterton Road to visit an address in Havelock Road it was necessary to travel to and along the main road to Homesdale Road and then enter the other district to reach Havelock Road. This was however the position as a result of the Treadwell land and the refusal of Mrs Treadwell to permit development on the land. This view was not shared by the reversionary owners of the land and a protracted Chancery law suit ensued.
The question of locating a permanent school to serve the two districts was problematic.The school at the rear of Holy Trinity Church was too far away for small children to attend. Jackson and others proposed to serve one of the districts with an Infant school on land at Addison Road. They formed a group of which Jackson became Treasurer and raised funds to construct Addison Road Schools. The group erected a metal school building which provided education for infants. This development lay outside the scope of the National Schools and public concern about the facilities led Jackson to canvass every household in both districts. The outcome of this was although willing to support a permanent school local residents were overwhelming in supporting a School Board. Jackson and other like minded evangelical Church of England members resisted this and his book contains a good deal of his opposition to the School Board. The matter was put to an election and on the 5 May 1888 the School Board was elected. Jackson's group were elected equally the group representing Bromley Town were successful. The School Board, which he criticises at length,went on to develop Raglan Road School which still serves the district and Addison Road Schools which survived until 1936.
Jackson was solicitor to the Board and the Treadwell land had become subject to a Chancery case which as chancery cases did showed no sign of resolution.The building of Raglan Road Schools necessitated the extension of Raglan Road on one side and Chatteron Road on the other to unite both districts.Jackson clams in his account that this was the single most important thing up to that time that had been done for residents.
The need for a church had  also encountered two legal disputes firstly about patronage (which had closed Christ Church) and secondly acquisition of a site. Jackson acted as solicitor for the Committee for the much needed church. The question of patronage was complex but Jackson progressed a solution that three trustees would hold patronage for the church until they would transfer their functions to the Archbishp of Canterbury.
The site problem was resoved when Jackson  proposed that the Treadwell Chancery case be stayed in order that  the Reversioners of the Treadwell Estates take a lease on the exact piece of land for a new road (later Southlands Road) and the land for a church. This proposal was finally accepted by all parties. In November 1885 the land was thus secured and the plans of architect Arthur Cawston were executed. The Archbishop of Canterbury laid the foundation stone on 31 July 1886 in a ceremony he personally devised.The church was dedicated 10 April 1890. Jackson records the fury of Committee members at the discovery that without informing them the architect had made the pillars in the first portion of the church "too large" and therefore built the remainder smaller. This is a feature to the present day.
The order  in Council signed by the Queen created the parish in May 1889 and at this time the Archbishop of Canterbury assumed patronage.
Jackson had been Organist and Choir Master previously at Christ Church. He secured the organ from Lewis of Brixton and was Organist and founder of Saint Lukes Choral Society.Due to health problems he gave up his role as Honorary Organist and Choirmaster on Easter Sunday 1892.
Due to the restricted site the parish had no burial ground and the number of burials was too great to continue at Holy Trinity. In 1893 a Burial Board was able to purchase the land to form Saint Luke's Cemetery Two third of the planned two chapels and superintendents lodge had been completed before the consecration on 25 July 1894. For this reason all burial records are kept by the local authority and there are no records at Bromley Historic Collections.
The deposited church registers for baptisms commence in 1887 and these have been transcribed for Kent Online Parish Clerks for 1887-1906 and contain 2400 entries. The transcript will be available online at Kent Online Parish Clerks Bromley page in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

Bromley Poor Law Union Births 1900-1913

My transcript of the birth record of Bromley Union held at Bromley Historic Collections is now online at Kent Online Parish Clerks. Bromley Poor Law transcripts can be located via the Bromley  Parish Page under the Bromley Union Records heading in the right hand column of the page.
The transcript is extremely useful as the Infirmary had expanded and was providing maternity service to family doctors throughout the Union parishes.  The relevant parish is included in each entry and one can see that difficulties in birth,twins and still born children were being accommodated.
The time of birth of twins is recorded.
It is a valuable record as family historians may locate children they were not aware of or birth within the Workhose which may lead to other workhouse records. The Church of England Baptisms at the Workhouse Chapel which are copied into the Farnborough Parish Baptisms register are another resource.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019 

Bromley Poor Law Union Deaths 1907-1914

This record held at Bromley Historic Collections amongst the Inmate series is held under reference GBy/W/I/d/1 and the transcript I prepared is available at Kent Online Parish Clerks.
Entries contain an age (although not always reliable) Religion,Parish of origin within the Union and place of burial and who was responsible for burial.
This information reflects that infants and elderly persons predominate although there is a distribution of children and young adults. Together with the Creed Registers for the union the detail of parish and places of burial are useful pointers to other records for further information for family history research.
The use of cemteries as well as Parish burial grounds as places of burial is also useful in considering locating graves.
I have checked and recorded civil registration information where it differs in age or name from the Workhouse record.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

Farnborough Kent Baptismal Register 1908-1918

The clasped Register of Baptisms for 1908-1918 held at Bromley Historic Collections reference,P/144/1/11 is an interesting insight into the over 600 inhabitants of the parish and the additional population of Bromley Union Workhouse with resident staff of around 700 people.
Baptisms at Bromley Union Chapel which are in a Parish provided register from 1908 are for Farnborough Hospital reflecting the growing role of the Infirmary under control of the Board of Guardians. The Maternity ward of the Infirmary dealt with births from family doctor referred women and twins are often included in this group along with the poignant infant mortality deaths.
The Chaplain throughout this period was Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch and rarely are Baptisms at the Workhouse Chapel performed by other clergy. Unlike earlier Parish Baptismal Registers Ebenezer Welch copied all Workhouse Chapel Baptisms into the Parish register.
The Parish in this period was growing in population and the Register reflects the growth  in the number of Railway Workers living in the village.
There are 799 Baptisms recorded in this volume with only one crossed out and entered on the line below. Unfortunately the entries are not always legible or accurately spelled surnames and some date entries in Ebenezer's spidery hand are debatable. I have transcribed all of the entries and spent additional research time in other sources to identify correct surnames and parents names as the original entry is scrawled and unreadable.
The transcript will be prepared for publication online at Kent Online Parish Clerks in due course and will be the final Baptismal Register for Farnborough in the series.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

Farnborough Saint Giles Kent Baptismal Register 1893-1908

This clasped volume for 800 Baptisms is completed with 798 entries and two crossed out or blank entries.
It had been practice in earlier Baptismal registers of the parish for those from 1845 onward baptised at Bromley Union Workhouse Chapel to be copy entered into the parish register.
At the beginning of this volume Reverend Fred J Kelly is Vicar and Reverend Philip H Percy is Chaplain to Bromley Union Workhouse and Percy or a scribe copy baptisms at the Workhouse Chapel. It is worth bearing in mind that the chapel also was used for the children of staff and also local parishioners in the northwest of the parish.
There are entries for Reverend J Pulling Curate although these are few in number.
In autumn 1898 Reverend Percy signs entries as Curate in Charge prior to the arrival of Reverend G Lombard MA who resides at Netherby (Bush's Directory 1899 and 1900);Reverend Percy resides at Feniton Farnborough. In 1902 and 1903 Bush's Directory Lombard is residing at The Rectory.
Lombard ends the practice of recording Workhouse Chapel Baptisms in the register in December 1898 and until September 1904 the register only contains parish baptisms. There is a sense that he insists that people come to Saint Giles from all areas of the parish.
For the searcher there are two valuable records of Workhouse Baptisms of children and adults and Births to cover this gap in parish register entries. I have transcribed both records:
Hospital Chapel baptisms
Bromley Union Births Register (1900-1913) Bromley Historic Collections reference 846 GBy/W/I/b12 which includes still births and supplements Anglican Baptisms.

In September 1904 Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch is appointed Vicar and also serving as Chaplain to the Workhouse he ensures that all Workhouse Chapel baptisms are copied into the Parish Register.
This register also records in a marginal entry by Ebenezer Welch "By an Order in Council dated 7 August 1905 the parish of Farnborough was formally transferred from the Diocese of Canterbury to the Dioces of Rochester. One of the last entries in 1908 records a Canon of Rochester Diocese performing a baptism.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019

Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch

Image with kind permission of Bromley Historic Collections

Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch was born in Wimbledon Surrey in 1856 and married Jane Steers in 1880. In 1886 Ebenezer graduated from the London College of Divinity and two years later was appointed curate of Clerkenwell from 1888-1899. Ebenezer and Jane were parents of five children all born in London before Ebenezer was appointed Chaplain to Bromley Union Workhouse at Locksbottom.
In the 1911 Census completed in his own hand all five of his children live in the Parsonage in Farnborough his eldest daughter is 29 and single. His wife's mother aged 86 is also resident with the family.
He served in his capacity as Workhouse Chaplain as well as Rector and Vicar of Farnborough parish  1904-1927 and his dedication to the Workhouse staff and inmates is borne out in Bromley Guardians Minutes. Welch established a Workhouse Library which was situated within the Workhouse Chapel and this work as Librarian was recognised by an annual honorarium by the Board of Guardians.
The Baptismal Register of the the Workhouse Chapel contains baptisms almost wholly conducted by Welch;the subsequent register of Farnborough Hospital is almost entirely the work of Welch. The Farnborough Parish Register 1908-1918 contains 799 baptisms and very few entries are attributable to Curate baptisms. The image above taken in the doorway of Saint Giles the Abbot Parish Church dates from 1927 when Welch died aged 71.
For the transcriber Ebenezer's handwriting represents a challenge and some of his spelling of surnames is rather approximate. However by comparing his spidery and inconsistent capital letters with other record sources and directories it has been possible to produce a complete transcript for Kent Online Parish Clerks which will be published online in due course.
Welch was an integral part of caring for inmates of the Workhouse in the first quarter of the twentieth century as well as fulfilling his parish duties as Rector. All baptisms at The Workhouse Chapel were copied by him into the Farnborough Parish Register of baptisms. The Workhouse Chapel baptisms are mainly illegitimate children from all parishes in the Union, although the Hospital Maternity unit also dealt with complicated deliveries and parishioners of Farnborough in the Northwest of the parish would also have new born children baptised there.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019