Foots Cray, Kent
Historical Description
Cray, Foots, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on the rivulet Cray, 1 mile from Sidcup station on the S.E.R., and 2½ miles from St. Mary Cray (L. C. & D.R.), and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under London. The parish comprises 762 acres; population, 3487. The manor belonged at the Conquest to Godwin Fot or Foot, and in the time of Edward III. to Sir Simon de Vaughan. Foots-Cray Place is an edifice of 1752, after the model of Palladio's villa. Ursula Lodge, 1 mile NW of the village, is a building founded by H. Berens, Esq., for six maiden ladies, who must be possessed of £50 a year in their own right. There is a steam laundry, which was formerly a paper mill. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £226 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is partly Transition Norman, partly rude Early Decorated English, and has effigies of Sir Simon de Vaughan and his lady.
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 | Foot's Cray All Saints | |
| 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 1650.
Findmypast have the following online for Foots Cray, All Saints: marriages 1567-1811
Churches
Church of England
All Saints (parish church)
The church of All Saints is of runt and stone in the Perpendicular style, and has a turret with spire containing five bells: several of the windows are stained, and there is a Norman font; a monument to Sir Roger de Vaughan and his wife, with effigies of both, and a brass to Thomas Myton, formerly rector here, 1489: the church has 200 sittings: in the churchyard is an iron monument to Martin Manning, 1665.
Foots Cray Mission Church
The Mission church in connection with the parish church was built in 1898, and will seat 100 persons.
Baptist
Foots Cray Baptist Chapel
The Baptist chapel, erected in 1836, and enlarged in 1885, has sittings for 400 persons.
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 Foots Cray from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Cray, Foot's (All Saints))
Maps
Online maps of Foots Cray 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.