In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Bexley like this:
BEXLEY, a village, a parish, and a subdistrict, in the district of Dartford, Kent. The village stands on the Cray river, and on the Lee and Dartford railway, 3 miles W of Dartford; has a r. station with telegraph, a post office under London SE, and a fair on 13 Sept.; and gave the title of Baron to the Vansittarts. The parish includes Bexley-Heath and three hamlets. Acres, 5,025. Real property, £25,284. Pop., 4,944. Houses, 1,002. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged, in the Saxon times, to the see of Canterbury; was alienated, by Cranmer, to Henry VIII.; granted, by James I., to Sir John Spielman; sold by Spielman to Camden the antiquary; and bequeathed by Camden to University college, Oxford, for maintaining a professorship of history. ...
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £592.* Patron, Viscount Sydney. The church is chiefly early English, with later windows. The vicarage of Bexley-Heath and the p. curacy of Lamorbey are separate benefices. There are a national school, an infant school, alms-houses with £100 a year, and other charities £104.-The subdistrict comprises four parishes. Acres, 12,969. Pop., 13,026.
Bexley through time
A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing Bexley has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Bexley. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering Bexley and units named after it.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Bexley in Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/576
Date accessed: 24th May 2013
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