Orpington

For the breed of chicken see Orpington (chicken).

Orpington
Population
OS grid reference	TQ460660
London borough	Bromley
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ORPINGTON
Postcode district	BR5, BR6
Dialling code	01689
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Orpington
London Assembly	Bexley and Bromley

Orpington is a suburban town in the London Borough of Bromley.

Retail and commerce

The High Street and adjacent Walnuts Shopping Centre contain a wide selection of high-street shops. There is a general market located in front of Orpington College, three days a week. Planning permission was granted (in 2005) to demolish a multistorey car park at the south end of the High Street, and replace it with a large Tesco supermarket. Work started at the beginning of February 2007 and since then the car park has been fully demolished and work on the foundations has started reusing the concrete from the demolished car park. The new Tesco is due to open in 2009/2010. Metered parking has been installed at various street locations around Orpington station to cope with the loss of the car park This has resulted in the exit of long-established local businesses as the office space they occupied will no longer be feasible without adequate parking. There are larger retail outlets in the industrial estate on Cray Avenue and Sevenoaks Way in St Mary Cray including the new Nugent Shopping Park.

• 
  Orpington Town Sign
• 
  Orpington High Street, looking south
• Station Road Car Park Demolition
  Station Road Car Park Demolition

Sport and leisure

The Walnuts Leisure Centre [2], just east of the High Street, has a six lane, 33.3 metre indoor swimming pool which is home to Orpington Ojays Swimming Club [3] which competes at county, district and national level. Other facilities include squash courts and gym with sauna and steam room as well as a sports hall used for activities such as badminton, basketball, trampolining and fitness classes.

The pond at Priory Gardens is the source of the River Cray

There are two other local leisure centres: one at the Priory School [4] which has a floodlit synthetic pitch for hockey and football, 3 outdoor tennis courts, 2 netball courts, 4 outdoor cricket nets, and a sports hall, gymnasium/fitness suite and dance studio. The other is a members only health club on Sandy Lane called Dragons Health club. [5] There are rugby, football and cricket pitches in Goddington Park. Westcombe Park RFC [6], Orpington Cricket Club [7] and Orpington Football Club [8] are based here. Westcombe Park RFC is one of Kent's premier clubs, competing in National Division Two (only two league away from premiership rugby). 'Combe' moved from the Blackheath area to Orpington in 1936. Cray Wanderers F.C., established in 1860 no longer plays in Orpington, but now shares a ground with Bromley F.C..

Since 1985, the local running club, Orpington Road Runners [9] have met every Tuesday near The Buff Pub and on Sundays at High Elms Country Park. Bromley Indoor Bowls Club is situated off Gillmans Road. Lawn bowls is played at the Excelsior Club [10] in Poverest Recreation Ground. Knoll Lawn Tennis Club [11] has (despite its name) five tarmac courts tucked away amongst the houses of Mayfield Avenue. Bromley Tennis Centre (six indoor courts and four floodlit outdoor courts) is in the grounds of Newstead Wood School for Girls.

Set back from the High Street and near to the historic parish church, Orpington has a large and well-used public library [12], set in attractive grounds: Priory Gardens. The Priory itself contains Bromley Museum [13].

History

Stone age tools have been found in several areas of Orpington, including Goddington Park, Priory Gardens, the Ramsden estate, and Poverest. Early Bronze Age pottery fragments have been found in the Park Avenue area. During the building of Ramsden Boys School in 1956, the remains of an Iron Age farmstead were excavated. The area was occupied in Roman times, as shown by Crofton Roman Villa, and the Roman bath-house at Fordcroft [14]. The first record of the name Orpington occurs in 1032, when King Cnut's treasurer Eadsy gave land at "Orpedingetune" to the Monastery of Christ Church at Canterbury. The parish church also pre-dates the Domesday Book.

Until the railway came, the local commercial centre was nearby St Mary Cray, rather than Orpington. St Mary Cray had a regular market, and industry (paper mills and bell foundry), whereas Orpington was just a small country village surrounded by soft fruit farms, hopfields and orchards.

These crops attracted Romani people, working as itinerant pickers, to annual camps in local meadows and worked out chalk pits. This work has largely ended, but the Borough still provides a permanent site at Star Lane, and the gatherings are commemorated in local street names, such as Romany Rise. In 1967, Eric Lubbock, then liberal MP for Orpington promoted a private member's bill to provide permanent Gypsy sites, this resulted in the Caravan Sites Act 1968 that placed an obligation upon local authorities to provide sites for locally residing travellers. In 1971, an international meeting of Romany people was held at Orpington, this Orpington Congress marked the founding of the International Romany Union, a group seeking political representation for Romanis throughout Europe.

Romany History Orpington

Romany History Orpington For Romany History the beginnings please see[Romani People][[15]]on wikipedia, this is about the Romany History Orpington, Orpington and surrounding area was a rural area, and had many Farms, and kent had many Hop & fruit Farms so Orpington became along with other area's such as Erith a stopping area or 'Atchin Tan' One of the stopping areas was Corkes meadow 'Corkes pit' and Ruxley Pit [[16]] another, Corkes pit[[17]] is not there any more and has been built on, but it was near to the gas works in Sevenoaks road. The other area was Ruxley pit which would of been located at the top of chalk pit avenue. Many Romany families would have stopped at Corkes pit from all over the uk, not just the kent Travellers, in the 1960s, the hop farms started to use machinery to pick the hops and didn't require the labour from the travellers, also they started to use labour from abroad. It was now coming hard to find stopping places, and the council made it hard for travellers to stop. The council had to provide permanent stopping areas for these travellers. One such area is Star lane site which is one of the largest in the uk and [St Mary cray] as the largest group of Romany travellers, the lucky famlies got plot's on these sites and others took houses kenners with great upset around the corkes pit arealesson Hill others moved from kent, and continued to struggle to get work and find Kushti Atchin tans' After the Farm work tried up and the travellers could not follow the seasons for picking such as Fruit apples or pobble Cherries Gulos and potatoes and hops, and when it became over for the women and men to 'hawk'. The men started to look for local labouring work and many families settled. Many of the young travellers are very far attached from the old nomadic life of the Romany people that left Indiaover 1000 years ago, some are worried that the Romany jib or language will be lost as time goes by, even travellers in there fourties can't speakroker full romany, there is only 1000 people in the uk that can speak Romany compared to Romania 40,000. The travelling life is now really over for the travellers, but they still stay in touch with some of there past, along with fruit picking the women would of made and sold pegs and flowers door to door which is called 'hawking' they would taken things to sell in baskets called 'kels' This way of selling is now illegal, and is sadly lost. The Brazil family in Marden are trying to show young travellers the past, along with others throughout kent, at the [Romany museum][[18]] Some of the families from kent and who would of stopped at corkes pit are, Rutherford,Buckley,Saunders,Scamp,Lee, Love, Jackson,Chapman, Arnold, French, Ripley,Stanley, Crittenden,Price, Webb, Marny, Smith, Roberts, Jones, philips, Renolds, Waller, Smith,Brazil, Ball, Elliot, Taylor, Driscol, Mead,Pateman,Beany,Ward, Dighton,James, Walker,Green, Ray and many more, most of the families still live in Orpington, and others live in kent or London. Famous Romanys from Orpington

[Gypsy Rose lee]][[19]] [Gilderoy Scamp][[20]][,Mark Ripley Mark was not beaten by Bartley Gorman and was mentioned in his book., Jonny Love, Private Walter Pateman[[21]] Henry Jackson[8]] A book as been writen about Private Walter patemen

Fame

Orpington chicken

Main article: Orpington (chicken)

Orpington is known for the "Buff", "Black" and "Speckled" chickens bred locally by William Cook in the 1890s. The Buff Orpington can still be seen at Tripes Farm, Chelsfield Lane.

Orpington car

The Orpington Car, built by Frank Smith & Jack Milroy at their works in Wellington Road, was shown at the 1920 Motor Show. It was a two-seater convertible, with a dickey seat, and a 10 horsepower (7 kW) engine. Although briefly successful, Smith and Milroy could not compete with mass production, and the last car was built in 1925. Unfortunately, there are no surviving examples.

Notable residents

• Steve Bennett, football referee
• Charles Darwin, scientist in nearby Downe
• Emma Johnson, clarinettist, BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1984
• Eric Lubbock, politician
• Sir John Lubbock, banker and politician
• Gary Rhodes, chef
• Barry Knight, football referee
• Brian Moore, sports commentator
• David Nobbs, comedy writer, was born in Orpington
• Brian Jacks Judo champion
• Darren Jackson Martial Art Champion
• Mark Baker Boxing Champion
• Kim Medcalf Eastenders
• Jimmy Cable Boxing Champion

TV appearances

• An Orpington curry house was featured on British television for being "one of the worst in Britain", for its practice of reusing leftover curry in the following day's menu. The next morning it had a window smashed, and closed down shortly afterwards.
• A Honda Civic advert.
• A Eurostar advert.
• Orpington has been the set for a number of episodes of The Bill, including a Christmas episode filmed on the High Street.
• The live-action opening for The Simpsons was filmed there in late 2005. It was first used on Sky One in the UK, and appeared before Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife in the U.S. The same house was also used for the national lottery Christmas draw advert 2006.
• A Kodak TV advert was filmed here in which a fighter jet was placed in the front garden of a house on Hillcrest Road.
• The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is based on life in Orpington. Born in Orpington, its author, David Nobbs, says, "the town must be considered to have had a seminal influence on my work."

References in pop culture

• In the classic Only Fools and Horses episode 'Yuppy Love', (which includes the famous scene of Del Boy (David Jason) falling through the bar), Rodney (Nicholas Lynhurst) and Del are arguing over the morality of Del's decision to buy, and then hopefully sell, their Peckham council flat. Rodney says: 'Del, council properties were built so the poorer classes would have somewhere to live! If they start selling them to Hooray Henrys where are they gonna go?' To which Del casually replies: 'Esher, Orpington - somewhere like that.'

Places of interest

• The art deco tower at Allied Bakery is a local landmark.
• Crofton Roman Villa
• Goddington park
• Orpington College

The Parish Church

All Saints Church

The Parish Church, "All Saints", stands upon pre-Norman foundations. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, it is Early English in style, but some Saxon work is visible. It was endowed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1173. The tower and steeple were damaged by a storm in 1771. The rebuilt steeple was struck by lightning in 1809, and it was not replaced. The church was greatly enlarged in 1957. The present Vicar is the Reverend Alan Mustoe.

The Priory

Orpington Priory

The Priory is a fine example of a medieval 'hall house'. In 1032, Eadsy, chaplain to King Cnut, gave his estate at Orpedingetune to Christ Church Priory, Canterbury. The first Rector of Orpington, Hugh de Mortimer, held court here in 1270. The house was rebuilt, this time of stone, in 1290, and added to in 1393 and 1471. In the 17th century the house ceased to be a rectory and passed into private ownership - a timber framed extension was added, which no longer exists. The house was acquired by Orpington Urban District Council in 1947, and now it houses a museum and a public library. The garden forms an attractive public park, and contains a natural pond which is the source of the River Cray. Each year the Orpington May Queen is crowned in the gardens.

Orpington Hospital

During the first world war a large military hospital, the "16th Canadian General", was built south-east of the station, funded by the government of Ontario, Canada. It originally accommodated 1050 patients; an extra wing was added in 1917. By January 1919 more than 15,000 wounded soldiers had been treated here. Many of the 182 who died are buried in "Canadian Corner" of All Saints' churchyard. Most of the original pre-fabricated buildings remained in use for more than 80 years before a major renovation around the turn of the century. Today Orpington Hospital provides rehabilitation and therapy services, outpatient and diagnostic services (including dermatology and diabetes), but it no longer has an Accident and Emergency Unit. The nearest A&E is Queen Mary's, Sidcup, or Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough.

Hewitt's Farm

Orpington is home to Hewitt's Farm. A large "pick your own" fruit business is all that remains of what was once a major European farming enterprise. After a failed attempt to get planning permission for an out-of-town shopping centre in the 1990s, much of the land is now the 18 hole Chelsfield Lakes Golf Centre. The former grain store, which was used to sell locally grown produce, has been converted into a showroom for a furnishings company.

Education

Pre-school Nursery & Primary Schools

• Robin’s Den Playgroup (Hillside Primary school)[22]
• Happy Faces Montessori
• Charterhouse [23]
• St Paul's Cray CE Nursery
• Bridgehouse Pre School
• Bright Sparks
• Cannock House [24]
• Threshers Day Nursery
• Asquith Nursery Crofton [25]
• Warren Road Primary school [26]
• Hillside Primary school [27]
• The Highway Primary school [28]
• Blenheim Primary school
• Darrick Wood Infant school [29]
• Darrick Wood Junior school
• Perry Hall Primary school [30]
• Holy Innocents Catholic Primary school
• Crofton Infant school
• Crofton Junior school [31]
• Poverest Primary school
• Tubbenden Infant school, federated with
• Tubbenden Junior school [32]
• Avalon pre school playgroup Church of Unity
• Midfield Primary School
• Leesons Hill Primary School
• Grays Farm Primary School

Further education

• Orpington College, the tallest building in the town

Transport and locale

Orpington railway station is a transport hub served by Southeastern trains to Charing Cross, Cannon Street, Waterloo East, London Bridge and Victoria stations.

Orpington is also a major hub on the London Bus network and is served by routes to Sidcup, Chislehurst, Bromley, Lewisham, Addington, Chelsfield, Green Street Green, Farnborough, Cudham, Downe, Knockholt, Halstead, and Biggin Hill.

Because of the developed transport system, Orpington is a popular commuter base. Rail lines from Orpington offer connections to the Eurostar stations at London Waterloo and Ashford International. There are also connections to London City (via Lewisham DLR station), London Biggin Hill and London Gatwick (via Victoria station) airports.

Nearest places

• Chelsfield
• Petts Wood
• St Mary Cray
• Farnborough
• Ruxley

References

• Dorothy Cox (1983). The Book of Orpington. Barracuda Books. ISBN 0-86023-164-X.
• John Edwards (1991). A Look Back at Orpington. Bromley Leisure Services. ISBN 0-901002-13-5.

External links

• Bromley London Borough Council - Orpington town centre Accessed on 1 February 2006
• Orpington and District Archaelogical Society
• Orpington Astronomical Society
• The Romany Museum in Marsden, Kent

Photos of around town :-

• Photos
• http://www.wsn.co.uk/orpington/index.html
• http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=872272
• http://www.orpington-kent.co.uk/gallery/