History of Old Bexley
Old Bexley is of great antiquity and has a history surpassed in interest by few villages in the country. In earliest times it was known as Bixle, and probably existed much earlier than the Saxon era. A place of worship is known to have existed here in the ninth century. It is recorded in the Domesday Book that “there is at Bexley a Church and two Mills.”
Through the ages many distinguished statesmen, soldiers, historians, and preachers lived and worked within its boundaries. Agriculture was, and still is to this day, an important source of livelihood to the inhabitants.
St. Paulinus is said to have preached the Gospel here in the year 615 and was sent by Pope Gregory to assist St. Augustine in this work.
Kenulph King of Mercia subdued the King of Kent in battle and gave the Manor of Bexley to Archbishop Wilfred of Canterbury in the year 809.
Between the years 1042 and 1066, a wooden church was replaced by a Saxon Church of stone and wood on the site of the present Church of St. Mary the Virgin, and the reference in the Domesday Book would appear to apply to this Church.
In 1123, Bexley was formed into a Parish and the first Vicar was appointed. At that time the area consisted of some ten thousand acres.
King Edward the Third of England (1327-1377), his son the Black Prince, together with their prisoner, King John of France, are said to have stayed at Hall Place, Bexley, the home of the Atte Hall family at that time.
In 1510, a Chantry (a chapel, generally within a church), was endowed for the singing of masses for the founder after his death. The practice of founding chantries, or chantry chapels, in western Europe began during the 13th century) was founded at Bexley and between the years 1525 and 1531.
King Henry the Eighth suppressed Lessness Abbey which was affiliated to the Church at Bexley, and made over the great tithes of the parish to one, Henry Cook of Mount Mascal, who acquired at the same time the property of the dissolved Abbey of Lessness.
A former resident of Hall Place, Sir John Champneys, became Lord Mayor of London in 1534, also Sir Richard Ford of Baldwyns, Bexley, was Lord Mayor of London in 1671.
Francis Moore (1657-1715) lived at Bexley and a long-standing local tradition connects this name with Francis Moore of “Old Moore’s Almanack” fame, but research has failed to reveal his real identity, which is wrapped in obscurity.
The Reverends Charles and John Wesley stayed and preached here, and between the years 1737-42 the Reverend Charles is said to have written the beautiful hymn “Jesu Lover of my Soul” whilst sitting under a tree in the vicarage garden.
John Styleman, a merchant of Danson Park, had five wives. His fifth wife, who survived him, had been married twice before. He left money to build and endow the Almshouses in the High Street, which stand to this day.
The daughter of Oswald Smith of Blendon Hall, Francis Dora, married Lieutenant Claude Bowes-Lyon (afterwards Earl of Strathmore) in the village on 28th September 1853. Their eldest son was the father of H.M. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
Three and a quarter centuries ago, Camden, the great historian, was Lord of the Manor of
Bexley and lived for a time at the Manor House. He bequeathed his estates here to found the Camden Professorship of Ancient History at Oxford. The great East Window in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, the subject of which is the Adoration of the Magi, is dedicated to his memory,
The founders of the Old Bexley Lodge were deeply grateful to Catherine Moore, who compiled the historic data from which the foregoing extractions were taken, also to the Vicar of Bexley, the Reverend Harry Thomas James, for the assistance given to Worshipful Brother I. H. Stringer, P.M., in the writing of these notes.