Charlton, Kent

Historical Description

Charlton, a parish in Kent, 9 miles from Charing CroSiS railway station, with a station of its own on the North Kent railway. The village lies among the low hills between Black-heath and Woolwich, near the river Thames, 8 miles E by S of London Bridge. It is within the parliamentary borough of Greenwich. It is supplied with water from works situated at Crayford and Lewisham. The assembly-rooms, erected in 1881, form a handsome building of red brick, and are used for lectures and concerts. The parish has grown into a fine suburb. It has a head post, money order, and telegraph office. The manor was given by William Rufus to Bermond-sey Abbey; went at the dissolution to the Newtons; passed to the Langhornes, the Ducies, and the Maryons. Charlton House was built about 1612 by Sir Adam Newton; forms a, fine specimen of the architecture of its age; contains a good portrait of Henry, Prince of Wales, to whom Sir Adam Newton acted as tutor; was the death-place, in 1679, of Lord Doune. It is the seat of the Wilson family. The grounds connected with it have some very old cypresses; the 'l Hanging Wood," adjoining it, affords a charming walk, and some sand-pits in the vicinity present great attractions to geologists. A farmhouse in the parish, called Cherry Garden, is said to have been erected by Inigo Jones for his own residence. Several handsome villas have recently been built. Acreage of parish, 1236; population, 11,742. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester; net value, £287 with. residence. The church is a plain brick edifice of 1640. The rectories of St Thomas and St Paul, and the chapelries of Blackheath Park and St Germans-Blackheath, are separate charges; value of St Thomas, £300; of St Paul, £174. St Thomas' Church stands at New Charlton, is a handsome structure, and was built in 1850, at a cost of over £5000'. St Paul's Church was built in 1867, is in the Second Pointed style, cruciform, and highly ornate, and has a SW tower and spire. There are a Wesleyan chapel, the cottages on Woolwich Common, Morden College for decayed merchants, and Langhorne's school and almshouses.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient County	Kent
Ecclesiastical parish	Charlton St. Luke
Hundred	Blackheath
Lathe	Sutton-at-Hone
Poor Law union	Lewisham

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Findmypast have the following online for Charlton by Greenwich, St Luke: baptisms 1813-1872, marriages 1562-1837, burials 1754-1963

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Charlton from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Charlton (St. Luke))

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.