Downe, Kent
Historical Description
Downe, a parish in Kent, 16 miles from London, 5 SSW of St Mary Cray, 3 from Orpington station on the S.E.R., and 5½ SE by S of Bromley. It has a post and money order office under Farnborough (R.S.O.); telegraph office, Farnborough. Acreage, 1652; population, 581. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £400 with residence. The church has a spire, contains a piscina, six brasses, and monuments. A yew tree in the churchyard is upwards of 700 years old. There are a Baptist chapel and a school. Downe was for many years the residence of the great naturalist Darwin.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Kent | |
| Hundred | Ruxley | |
| Lathe | Sutton-at-Hone | |
| Poor Law union | Bromley |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538.
Findmypast have the following online for Downe, St Mary Magdalene: marriages 1538-1812, burials 1813-1851
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary the Virgin (parish church)
The church of St. Mary the Virgin, formerly a chapel to Orpington and Cray, is of flint, in the Rectilinear style, and has a tower with spire containing a clock and 6 bells: there are several stained windows, two 15th century brasses with small figures, and in the chancel a larger one with effigies to John Vezeglini esq. a native of Venice, ob. 1606, and Elizabeth his wife, of the ancient house of Vanburen and Olace, of Antwerp, ob. 1607, and their children. The church was restored in 1872, at a cost of £2,000, and has 220 sittings. In the churchyard is a yew tree said to be 700 years old. By an Order in Council, gazetted Dec. 1, 1896, burials were discontinued in the churchyard, and a cemetery of half an acre has been opened as an extension of the churchyard. In 1904 a choir vestry was added.
Baptist
Baptist Chapel
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 Downe from the following:
Maps
Online maps of Downe are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:
- Kent & Sussex Courier
- Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
- Dover Express
- Kentish Gazette
- Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
- Kentish Chronicle
- Maidstone Telegraph
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.