Foots Cray

History

It took its name from Godwin Fot, a local Saxon landowner recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and from the River Cray that passes through the village. It lay on the old Maidstone Road (now bypassed by the A20 road) leading from London to north Kent. Until the 20th century, Foots Cray dominated the nearby, less ancient hill-top hamlet of Sidcup. The combined area was designated as the Urban District of Foots Cray in 1902. Soon, however, the two settlements' fortunes were reversed, as Foots Cray's traditional industries declined after the First World War, and Sidcup grew rapidly as a commuter town after a railway was built linking it to central London. In 1921 this change was reflected in the renaming of Foots Cray Urban District to Sidcup Urban District. In 1965 both areas became part of the London Borough of Bexley.

The estate of Foots Cray Place was rebuilt about 1754 for Bourchier Cleeve, on the site of the manor, as a Palladian mansion that was attributed to Isaac Ware; it was illustrated in this form in Vitruvius Britannicus iv (1777, pls. 8-10). Foots Cray Place was remodelled for Benjamin Harenc (1792) by the minor London architect Henry Hakewill, who further remodelled it in 1823 for Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Further works were carried out for Lord Bexley by another London architect of equally modest reputation, John William Hiort, who also built Bexley's London house in Great George Street, Westminster. After a fire in 1949, it was demolished in 1950. Now only the stable block remains, but the grounds, known as Foots Cray Meadows, provide a valuable public green space in this south-eastern suburb of London. This 89-hectare park was formed in the early 19th century from two mid-18th-century landscaped parks. It is listed by English Heritage as a Grade II historic park and is a Local Nature Reserve. The "London LOOP" walk passes through Foots Cray Meadows on its way from Old Bexley to Sidcup Place and Petts Wood. There is some industry in an area next to the meadows and bordering the river.

The naval wireless engineer and short-story writer F. G. Loring died at the Old House, Foot's Cray on 7 September 1951, aged eighty-two.

Foots Cray stable block and adjacent walled garden were placed on the English Heritage 'at risk' register but have now been rescued following redevelopment by Morgan Restoration to form a luxury home that was for sale in 2008 at £3.5 million.

Church

All Saints Church, Foots Cray, is situated in Rectory Lane on the edge of Foots Cray Meadows near the River Cray. The church was built in the 1330s but is believed to stand on the site of an earlier (possibly Saxon) church evidenced by the late 12th century Norman font. The church includes a mid 14th century effigy, two 14th century windows on the south side of the nave and in the chapel, and a brass plate recording the death of Thomas Myton, Rector of Foots Cray, in 1489. The west door-case and porch date from about 1500. In 1638 the church owned eight acres of land which included an orchard, garden and cowyard, a dwelling house, hovel, barn and stable.

In 1863 extensive alterations took place, including the removal of the old box pews, with the church being substantially rebuilt. The nave was extended westwards with the bell tower at the west end of the church left standing on four oak posts so that the bells are now rung from the centre of the aisle. During the enlargement and remodelling of the chancel, the remains of twenty burials were found, as was a brass plate engraved with the date 1440 which still had a bunch of lavender placed underneath it. The stained glass windows date from the second half of the 19th century as do the three bells, although the bells were recast in 1987. In 1995-97 major roof repairs took place to the nave, chancel, chapel and vestry at a cost of nearly £70,000.

The original parish registers dating back to 1559 were stolen in 1948 when vandals broke into the church and threw the church records into the River Cray, but fortunately copies of the register from 1559 to 1832 had been made.

The original churchyard was extended in 1876 courtesy of a donation of one acre of land by Robert Arnold Vansittart, and again in 1885. The churchyard includes an unusual iron stone grave slab which marked the burial of Martin Manning 'Yeoman' in 1656 (although the inscription is no longer legible). The granite Sir John Pender monument was blown over in the hurricane of October 1987 despite its great weight and later re-erected by the Pender family and Sir John's old company Cable & Wireless plc.

In 1996 when contractors were cleaning out the void just above the walls around the nave, they found a Daily Express newspaper dated 29 October 1957 in an envelope signed by the seven workmen who had been installing a gas-fired boiler.

Buses

Five London Bus routes serve Foots Cray, four pass through, and one terminates nearby at Ruxley. The 233 bus travels from Swanley through Ruxley, Foots Cray, Sidcup, New Eltham and terminates in Eltham. The 492 bus comes from Sidcup railway station, and passes east though Sidcup, Foots Cray Ruxley Corner were it turns north along North Cray Road and takes passengers to Bexley, Bexleyheath and eventually Dartford then Bluewater shopping centre. The 321 bus, which has been a 24-hour bus since 2009, terminates at the Tesco Superstore in Ruxley, from there it takes passengers west through Foots Cray, Sidcup, New Eltham, Eltham, Lee, Lewisham and New Cross. The 321 bus has been running since 1997, before this time the 21 bus, which now only travels from central London to Lewisham, had a longer route which took it through Foots Cray, and it terminated at Ruxley, Swanley or West Kingsdown. The R11 bus travels from Green Street Green, through Orpington, northward passed St Mary Cray, St Paul's Cray, up to the Tesco store in Ruxley, then back through Foots Cray, and Sidcup before terminating at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup. The 51 bus travels from Woolwich, through Plumstead, Welling, Blackfen, Sidcup, Footscray then continues south along Sevenoaks Ways through St Paul's Cray, St Mary's Cray, then finishes it's journey at Orpington station.

Rail

The nearest rail links to Foots Cray are Sidcup station, Albany Park railway station and St Mary Cray station.

Industry

The Coca-Cola Company has a large manufacturing and bottling plant in Foots Cray which opened in 1961 and employs 361 people. This plant was where Dasani water was produced.

Kolster-Brandes was a manufacturer of radio and television sets that moved to Foots Cray in 1928. The company was later acquired by ITT. The Kolster-Brandes company rugby team, which was formed in 1967, is now called Foots Cray RUFC[1] and competes to this day. The team's badge incorporates the STC letters which represent Standard Telephones and Cables, the company which took over the Kolster Brands business.

Fujitsu had a call centre and software development offices on the site of the former Kolster-Brandes factory which closed in 2009.

Richard Klinger Group, an Austrian company which made engine gaskets, hydraulic pipelines and water level gauges and valves, had a factory in Footscray built in 1937 in a Modernist architectural style. The Klinger factory, which was later bought by French company Trouvey Cauvin, closed in the 1990s and was severely damaged by fire in 2013.