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
