Barnes Cray

Barnes Cray
Barnes Cray

 Barnes Cray shown within Greater London
OS grid reference TQ525755
London borough Bexley
Ceremonial county Greater London
Region London
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town DARTFORD
Postcode district DA1
Dialling code 01322
Police Metropolitan
Fire London
Ambulance London
EU Parliament London
UK Parliament Bexleyheath and Crayford
London Assembly Bexley and Bromley
List of places: UK • England • London

Barnes Cray is a place in the London Borough of Bexley. Its name derives from the prominent local Barne family.[1]

Up until the Victorian era it was a hamlet a kilometre downstream of Crayford where no more than sixteen homes were clustered. A calico-printing works drew water power from the culverted River Wansunt in early Victorian times, being later adapted for the manufacture of rubber goods, then felt and finally Brussels carpets. This carpet mill was demolished by 1890 and Barnes Cray House, the next largest building, was cleared by 1933, ending its days as a nursing home.

The remnants of the settlement became absorbed into Crayford with the building of a munition village to facilitate the expansion of Vickers' armaments factory during the 1915 to 1919 period. In 1920 the area became part of the Crayford Urban District of Kent (having previously been in Dartford Rural District). Following World War I Crayford Urban District Council erected further housing estates to the north, eventually merging with estates spreading southwards from Erith. In 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, the urban district was abolished and its area transferred to Greater London to form part of the present-day London Borough of Bexley.[2]

The Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre is in Barnes Cray.

The site of the current Barnes Cray Primary School is the proposed site for a new Academy for ages 3–19, which was consulted upon from September - December 2008,[3] and the primary school will convert to the Academy in September 2009, with the secondary part of the Academy due to open in September 2010.[4]

Contents

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Education

For education in Barnes Cray see the main London Borough of Bexley article

Transport

Buses

Nearest places

References