ST MARY'S, BEXLEY

PARISH RECORDS

The records described in the following list have been deposited at various times. Many of them were deposited with the Bexley Public Libraries Service in March 1953. In April 1962, these records were divided: the civil records remaining with Bexley Libraries and the ecclesiastical records transferred to the Kent Archives Office (the Diocesan Record Office), where some records had already been deposited in May 1961.

Further deposits of records were made at the Kent Archives Office in July 1972 and November 1975 and at the Bexley Local Studies Centre in November 1979. In October 1985, the Local Studies Centre became the Diocesan Record Office for the Deaneries of Erith and Sidcup and in November of that year the Bexley parish records at the Kent Archives Office were transferred to the Bexley Local Studies Centre. Since then, further deposits of material have been made in May 1986, December 1986, April 1987, March 1991 and July 1995.

The following list includes all the material mentioned above. It is based on the catalogue made at the Kent Archives Office by M.A. Naylor in 1964 with additions by P.T.D. Wharton in 1973 and A. Revell in 1975 to which has been added the material previously held at the Local Studies Centre and material deposited here since 1985. The list was substantially revised in November 1997.

St Mary's, Bexley is one of the six ancient churches lying within the London Borough of Bexley. During the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Parish was repeatedly subdivided, and new ecclesiastical Parishes created, to provide for the growing population of the area. Until the Local Government Act 1894, the Parish Vestry was responsible for civil functions such as the welfare of the poor and maintenance of highways throughout the ancient parish. By the terms of that Act, these powers were transferred to Bexley Urban District Council.