This is a temporary version of the Scadbury park website
The Friends of Scadbury Park 2010 Walks Programme will be shown here soon.
Walks begin at the car park in Old Perry Street unless another start is shown.
How to get there
Scadbury Park can be reached easily using public transport and there is a car park at the Old Perry Street entrance (see map).
Scadbury Park is served by buses on routes 160 and 269. Route 160 (Eltham-New Eltham-Chislehurst- Sidcup) runs about every 15 minutes and 269 (Bromley North-Bickley-Chislehurst-Sidcup-Bexley-Bexleyheath) about 10-12 minutes. There is a bus stop in Perry Street, close to one of the Park entrances.
Click here to link to Transport for London for travel information and bus maps.
Free leaflets showing the circular Acorn Trail and the Easy-Access trail are available from local libraries. Some of the footpaths can be muddy in wet weather.
If you are attending an event at the TrEE Centre click here for a map showing the entrance from Perry Street.
A Brief History of Scadbury
Beginnings
The de Scathebury family were the first recorded settlers at Scadbury; their name suggests that they took it from the place where they settled. It is possible that they were granted land, perhaps by the King, and made additional acquisitions by purchase or leasehold from Kemnal Manor. Later documentary evidence indicates that Scadbury was 'held of the Manor of Kemnal' for a long time. Between 1257-1261 John, Daniel and Alicia de Scathebury are mentioned as witnesses and vendors of land to Hornchurch Priory. They became resident Lords of the Manor and appear to have been quite wealthy. A lay subsidy (a tax on goods and property) in 1301 shows that John de Scathebury was by far the richest man in the Parish, his goods being valued at £22 3s (£22.15). The Priory of Hornchurch, owners of Kemnal, were the next wealthiest, their valuation being £6 10s 2d (£6.51).
In 1311 a complaint was made against John de Scathebury and his son, also named John, by William de Craye that they had taken goods belonging to him at Paulinscraye (now St.Paul's Cray) and assaulted his servants. Evidently any action taken had little effect as a later complaint records them assaulting William in London. The de Scathebury family remained here until about 1369.
It appears that the younger John married Christina de Hadresham, and died childless. She then married Nicholas Heryng, Seneschal and Supervisor of the King’s castles and manors in Kent. They sold the manor in 1369 to John de Hadresham (possibly her nephew), Richard Northwych and John Aleyn for 100 marks of silver.
There follows a poorly-documented period, lasting until 1424 when Thomas Dale, described as a clerk, released the Manor and other lands ‘held in the gift and feoffment of Alan Everard, citizen and mercer of London’ to Thomas Walsingham and his wife Margaret. Alan Everard was sheriff of the City of London in 1415 and his connection with Scadbury is unclear. Margaret was the daughter of Adam Bamme, a Gillingham goldsmith who was Lord Mayor of London in 1391.
The Walsingham Era
The Walsingham family may have originated in Little Walsingham in Norfolk. Thomas Walsingham (d.1457) was a vintner in the City of London. He owned a house at St. Katherine's by the Tower and may well have used that as his primary residence. How much time he spent at Scadbury is unclear but his will of 1456 mentions “Sr Thomas Sutton my prest atte Scatbury”, which seems to show that there was a chapel there. Thomas and his wife were buried at a church at St. Katherine's which was demolished when the London docks were being excavated.
The manor was inherited in 1459 by Thomas's son, Thomas II (d.1467), and then by his son James (1462-1540), who was Sheriff of Kent in 1497 and accompanied King Henry VIII to the Field of the Cloth of Gold (about 11 km from Calais, between Guînes and Ardres), where the King and Francis I of France met to arrange an alliance against Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1520. James and his wife, Eleanor Writtle, had unusually long lives for the time, celebrating their diamond wedding.
James's son Sir Edmund Walsingham (c.1480-1550) was knighted in 1513 for his part in the battle of Flodden. Sir Edmund became Lieutenant of the Tower of London in 1540, and had custody of many of the prisoners of Henry VIII including Sir Thomas More, and Anne Boleyn. It was to Sir Edmund that Sir Thomas More addressed the well-known words, "I pray you, Master Lieutenant, see me safe up, and for my coming down let me shift for myself" when preparing to mount the scaffold for his execution.
He was succeeded by his son Thomas III (1526-1583/4), who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I at Rye in 1573 and held the post of Sheriff of Kent. He married Dorothy Guildford about 1555. After his death in 1584 the Scadbury estate passed firstly to his son Edmund, who died unmarried in November 1589 and then to a younger son Thomas IV.
One of Thomas III’s daughters married Sir Thomas Pelham and the Townshends are descended from them.
His cousin Sir Francis Walsingham was born at Scadbury in c.1532 but did not live there. He went on to become Elizabeth I’s Secretary of State. He became involved in gathering intelligence from abroad and built up a spy network which had agents in several foreign courts.
Sir Thomas Walsingham IV was visited twice at Scadbury by Queen Elizabeth I, the second time being in 1597. This is the visit commemorated on the Chislehurst village sign. He purchased the Royal Manor of Dartford in 1611 and sold most of it except the Chislehurst Manor.
He was the patron of playwright Christopher Marlowe.
Following his death in 1630, Scadbury passed to his son Sir Thomas V. He was the last Walsingham to be Lord of the Manor of Scadbury, and lived through the Civil War and into the Commonwealth. He was knighted by James I at the age of 13. During the Civil War he showed an ability to keep on the winning side. He held the post of Vice-Admiral of Kent for 25 years from 1627. He not only retained the post during the Commonwealth but was appointed Militia Commissioner for Kent as well.
In a letter to Sir Thomas Pelham he relates how he ‘killed a buck which ran seven miles on end, and so ended the best sport in the world with a lean deer,’ which gives an idea of the open nature of the countryside around Scadbury.
Sir Thomas Walsingham V retired to Saffron Walden and on his death in 1669 was buried in St Nicholas’ Church, Chislehurst, the last of the Walsinghams to be laid in the family vault there.
The Bettenson and Selwyn years
In 1655 the Scadbury and Chislehurst Manors were sold to Sir Richard Bettenson.
Sir Richard was succeeded by his son Sir Edward Bettenson (d.1733) who heavily mortgaged the property.
After the death of Sir Edward his three sisters jointly owned the estates, and manor courts were held in their names.
One of Sir Richard Bettenson’s granddaughters, Albinia, had married General William Selwyn. Her son, John Selwyn, purchased the Lordships of both Manors in 1736 and discharged the mortgage. He sold the estates to his cousin Thomas Farrington, only retaining Scadbury.
Albinia’s granddaughter, also called Albinia, married the Hon. Thomas Townshend.
The Townshends and Viscount Sydney
When John Selwyn died in 1751, his sons agreed to settle the Scadbury estate on Thomas Townshend (1701-1780). He pulled down the old manor house at Scadbury about 1730, possibly because it had become unsafe, intending to build a fine new house on the site, but the early death of his wife at the age of twenty five caused him to give up the project.
He purchased Frognal House in 1752 where the family was to remain until the First World War.
The Townshends were a Whig family and strong supporters of the House of Hanover, receiving favours from the monarchy as a result.
His son Thomas (1733-1800) succeeded to Scadbury in 1780. He was advanced to the peerage by George III in 1783 as Baron Sydney of Chislehurst, and then as Viscount Sydney in 1789. He served in various administrations and held the post of Home Secretary, which at that time also had responsibility for the Colonies.
In 1787 the First Fleet of 11 ships and about 1350 people under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip set sail for Botany Bay in Australia. On arrival, Botany Bay was considered unsuitable and on 26 January 1788 - a date now celebrated as Australia Day - landing was made at nearby Sydney Cove. Phillip named the settlement after Baron Sydney, the Home Secretary. The new colony was formally proclaimed as the Colony of New South Wales on 7 February 1788. The Canadian city of Sydney on Cape Breton Island is also named after him.
The second Viscount Sydney (John Townshend, 1764-1831) succeeded in 1800 and his son John Robert Townshend (1805–90) followed him in 1831 as the 3rd Viscount Sydney.
John held many posts including M.P. for Whitchurch from 1826–31; Captain, West Kent Militia, 1827; West Kent Yeomanry, 1830; Colonel of the Kent Militia Artillery and Lord Lieutenant of Kent, 1856–90. He was present at the funeral of the exiled French Emperor Napoleon III in 1873 at St.Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Chislehurst. Queen Victoria conferred an earldom on him in 1874, and paid him at least one visit when she is said to have been shown fig trees planted by Queen Elizabeth I on one of her visits to the Walsinghams.
The titles died with him in 1890 and, having no children, he was succeeded as Lord of the Manor by his nephew the Hon. Robert Marsham, on condition he added the name of Townshend.
Marsham-Townshends and the Twentieth Century
Robert Marsham was the second son of Charles Marsham, 2nd Earl of Romney. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, worked in the Diplomatic Service from 1855 to 1859, and served as Lieutenant in the Kent Militia Artillery from 1859 to 1869. He married Clara Catherine Paley in 1877.
Yale University Library has a collection of letters and diaries containing descriptions of his travels.
Many of the letters are written to him, although there is a group of 22 letters written by him to a relative identified only as Harriet, dated 1856-1864. Correspondents include Henry Alabaster, interpreter to the King in Siam; scientists W. S. Atkinson and Robert Stirling; George Ferguson Bowen, first governor of Queensland, Australia. Stirling writes at length from the Sandwich Islands describing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, a particular interest of Robert Marsham. There are also fifteen letters from Youhannah El Karey, a missionary at Nablous, near Jaffa, Palestine.
The diaries span the years 1853-1876, and carry descriptions of travels to Brazil, Egypt, Hong Kong, the Philippines, China, Japan, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, California, Australia, Indonesia, Siam (Thailand), India, Persia (Iran), the Middle east, South Africa, Russia, and Europe. There is a great deal of geographic and volcanic observation, as well as descriptions of cities, cultures, and peoples he encountered. The papers are accompanied by a bound notebook with notes on volcanoes throughout the world, two passports for him to use in Persia, and three contracts and receipts for hiring mules and drivers in Persia.
Robert Marsham had two sons, Hugh and Ferdinand.
Ferdinand (b.1880) joined the Scots Guards, Special Reserve, as a Second Lieutenant on 3 Feb 1915, went to France on 18 March and was killed in action in Rue du Bois, near Festubert on 16 May.
Hugh Sydney Marsham-Townshend (b.1878, d.1967) married twice. Firstly to Cecilia Bunbury (d.1912), and after her death to Laura Bunbury (d.1950). Hugh had two sons, John (b.1905) and Thomas (b.1915). Thomas died in 1944 at the age of 28, from wounds received in action in Italy.
After the death of Robert Marsham-Townshend in 1914, the family moved from Frognal to the former steward’s house near the site of the moated Manor House at Scadbury. Frognal was purchased by the Government and a large hutted hospital was built in the grounds. It opened as the Queen’s Hospital in 1917 for wounded servicemen and became a general hospital in 1930 when it was renamed Queen Mary's Hospital.
Following the death in 1975 of John Marsham-Townshend, the last resident Lord of the Manor, Thomas’s two daughters inherited the estate.
The estate was bought in 1983 by the London Borough of Bromley and is now managed as a farm and local nature reserve.
Orpington and District Archaeological Society (ODAS) has been excavating the moated Manor site since 1986.
Some notes about the Christopher Marlowe connection
Christopher Marlowe was born at Canterbury in 1563 and became one of the greatest poets and playwrights of his age.
Thomas Walsingham IV had been employed by his cousin Sir Francis on secret missions overseas and it may have been through this work that he met Marlowe. At any rate, Thomas became Marlowe's patron and the poet is known to have stayed at Scadbury from time to time, and to have attended services at St.Nicholas' Church in Chislehurst.
He may have obtained material for 'The Massacre in Paris' from the Walsinghams. Sir Francis Walsingham was the English Ambassador in Paris at the time of the St.Bartholomew's Day massacre of Protestant Huguenots in 1572.
Marlowe was arrested at Scadbury on 18 May 1593 on a charge of heresy brought after allegations made by Richard Baines. Baines appears to have been a doubtful witness, being hanged at Tyburn the following year for a ‘degrading offence’. Marlowe was freed following examination by the Privy Council on condition he remained within a few miles of the Court at Greenwich.
He died in a brawl in the house of Eleanor Bull at Deptford Strand on 30 May 1593. He was with there with Ingram Frizer, Robert Poley and Nicholas Skeres, all of whom were associated with Thomas Walsingham and probably companions of Marlowe at Scadbury. The subsequent Coroner’s report stated that they ‘could not be at one nor agree about the payment of the sum of pence, that is, le recknynge..’, and in the ensuing struggle Marlowe was fatally wounded above the eye.
It is interesting to note that Scadbury has a connection with the 'Shakespeare authorship' question. Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland, is said by some to be the author of the plays and was married to the grand-daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham.
Another faction believes that Christopher Marlowe was not killed at Deptford but was spirited away and went on to write Shakespeare's works.
Calvin Hoffman, an American theatre critic, claimed in 1952 that Marlowe was the author of Shakespeare's plays while in hiding at Scadbury or elsewhere following his contrived 'death'. He developed a theory that copies of the plays in Marlowe's hand could have been entombed with his patron, Sir Thomas Walsingham, in 1630. In 1956 the monument in St.Nicholas' Church was opened and found to contain no manuscripts. The remains of Walsingham were not disturbed, being in the vault below.
The Moated Manor House
Very little remains today of the moated manor house apart from some brick footings which have enabled some of the ground plan to be traced. It was built early in the Walsingham years.
It seems to have been a large brick and timber building, possibly something like Ightham Mote, although no drawings or plans of it survive. A 1727 inventory names some of the rooms and parts of the house. It includes a Great Gate, Great and Little Brown parlours, Great Hall, kitchens, pantries and cellars. There were eight principal bedrooms, one described as Queen Elizabeth's Room above the Great Parlour. With dressing rooms, closets, a brewery, dairy and gardens also listed it must have been an impressive building. The corbels of the drawbridge can still be seen.
The manor house was finally demolished in the mid 18th century, possibly because it had become unsafe. According to volume II of Hasted's Kent of 1797, 'the ancient mansion of Scadbury has been many years in ruins, and there remains now only a farm house, built out of part of them'.
A track leading from the drawbridge through the remains of a Tudor archway (the centre of which collapsed about 1980) has been excavated by Orpington and District Archaeological Society, who have been carrying out an excavation of the site for a number of years.
Some brick columns standing on the island date from the 1930s, when the then Lord of the Manor, Hugh Marsham-Townshend, carried out some excavations and reconstruction. The only complete structure on the island today is the early 20th century building once used as an apple store.
Scadbury and the Home Guard in the Second World War
A unit of Local Defence Volunteers was formed in Chislehurst in May 1940 which became the 54th Kent Battalion of the Home Guard. Its main defence posts were at Hawkwood, Camden Place, Green Lane, Scadbury and Farrington’s School (which had been requisitioned by the Government).
Col. F W Chamberlain C.B.E., the local commander of the Home Guard, set up P Sector headquarters at Scadbury. Some concrete pill boxes were constructed around the Marsham-Townshend’s house and stood until after the fire which destroyed the house in January 1976.
A number of bombs fell in the woods and fields of Scadbury during the Second World War. Some of the craters are still visible – one can be seen beside the footpath close to the pond on the Chislehurst Common side of the moated manor site.
The last V1 flying bomb of the Second World War to cause any damage in England fell in the farmyard at Scadbury on 28 March 1945 and demolished a Tudor barn.
Perry Street
Old Perry Street is one of Chislehurst's older roads and may be named after pear orchards which once grew there. It was called Perry Street until the straightened modern road was constructed.
In 1525 it is recorded as Piry Streete, as Peristrete in 1530 and Peryestrete in 1585.
The two terraces of brick cottages called Orchard Villas and Orchard Cottages were built for Scadbury workers in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
The present-day timber yard was originally a school for the local children, founded by Countess Sydney. Her monogram of an S and two Es appears over the door. The school underwent rebuilding work in 1891 and this date appears in the gable at one end. The school bell hung above this gable but has long since been removed.
The school closed at the beginning of the 20th century, and became the Rose Cottage Laundry. It was later used by the Empire Banana Company as a banana ripening and distribution depot.
The nearby Sydney Arms was established in the 18th century and has been known variously as the Swan and, in Pigot's Directory of 1832, as the White Swan with Matthew Tester as landlord. It was renamed in the 1880s in honour of John Robert Townshend, 3rd Viscount Sydney.