Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CRAYFORD

CRAYFORD, a village and a parish in Dartford district, Kent. The village stands on the rivulet Cray, near the Lee and Dartford railway, 1½ mile W by N of Dartford; and has a post office under London SE, and a r. station. It was once a market-town; and it still has a fair on 8 Sept. It is the Creccanford of the Saxon Chronicle; and was the scene of the battle, in 457, between Hengist and Vortigern. The parish includes also the hamlets of Northend and Slade-Green. Acres, 2, 474; of which 90 are water. Real property, £13, 738. Pop., 3, 103. Houses, 598. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged, at Domesday, to the see of Canterbury. May Place, a building partly of the time of James I., now a farm-house, was the seat of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovel. Numerous caverns, of great depth, with narrow mouths, but ample vaulted interior, exist in chalk rocks of this parish and the neighbouring heaths; and are thought by many persons to have been formed by the ancient Britons for retreat in the time of war. Some large establishments for silk and calico printing, and some large saw-mills, are on the rivulet near the village. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £869.* Patron, T. Austen, Esq. The church is ancient; was recently restored; and has an altar-piece, given by Sir Cloudesley Shovel. There are chapels for Baptists and Roman Catholics, and a national school.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Crayford AP/CP       Dartford RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Crayford

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