Ruxley (previously Rokesley, and in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

Helmestrei) was an ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

, a land division in the north west of the county of

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Its area has been mostly absorbed by the growth of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

; with its name currently referring to the Ruxley district.Mills, A. D., ''A Dictionary of London Place Names'', p. 214 (2001) Its former area now corresponds to a majority of the

London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley () is a London Borough, borough in London, England. It is the largest and southeasternmost borough in London, and borders the county of Kent, of which it formed part until 1965. The borough's population in the 2021 ...

, a large part of the

London Borough of Bexley The London Borough of Bexley () is a London boroughs, London borough in south-east London, forming part of Outer London. It has a population of 248,287. The main settlements are Sidcup, Erith, Bexleyheath, Belvedere, London, Belvedere, Crayford ...

and a small part of the Kent District of Sevenoaks.Vision of Britain map shows old boundaries map
/ref> The hundred was within the

Lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, threading and turning, with tools that are applied to the w ...

Sutton-at-Hone Sutton-at-Hone is a village in the civil parish of Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It is located 3.5 miles south of Dartford & 3.6 miles north east of Swanley. History The place-name 'Sutton-at-Hone' is fi ...

,An Historical Atlas of Kent, edited by Terence Lawrence & David Killingray (2004) - Maps front cover and back cover inlayVision of Britain - Hundred of Ruxley - Divisions and changes
/ref>The Hundred of Ruxley at British History Online.
/ref> in the west division of Kent. The hundred was approximately at its longest north to south and about and its widest east to west. The River Cray was the largest river in the hundred of Ruxley flowing northward through six of its parishes, four of which are named after it. The River Cray rises in Orpington then flows through

St Mary Cray St Mary Cray is an area of South London, South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. Historically it was a market town in the county of Kent. It is located north of Orpington, and south-east of Charing Cross. History ...

, St Paul's Cray, North Cray, Foots Cray, and Bexley before crossing the northern border and Watling Street into the Hundred of Lesnes. In 1797 the hundred was recorded as being divided into two half hundreds named ''Upper Ruxley'' and ''Lower Ruxley'' and under the jurisdiction of two constables. As almost all the area of the Ruxley hundred has now been absorbed by the growth of London, and as civil parishes were abolished in Greater London,

Knockholt Knockholt is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent. It is located north west of Sevenoaks & south of Orpington, and is adjacent to the Kent border with Greater London. The village is mostly a ribbon development, surrou ...

which was in the south of Ruxley is the only parish of the Hundred that is a civil parish today. Knockholt is also the only part of this Kent Hundred that is in Kent today, although both would not have been true whilst Knockholt was in the London Borough of Bromley between 1965 and 1969.

Parishes

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es that were recorded as being wholly within the Ruxley hundred were Chelsfield, Cudham,

Downe Downe, formerly Down (), is a village in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley, which formed part of the historical county of Kent until 1965, and is beyond London's contiguous urban area. Charles Darwin lived ...

, Farnborough, Foots Cray, Hayes, Keston,

North Cray North Cray is an area in South East Greater London, London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley. It is located east of Sidcup and south of Bexleyheath and is south-east of Charing Cross, the traditional centre of London in the Metropo ...

Orpington Orpington is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Mary Cray, sou ...

, St Paul's Cray, and West Wickham. Also more parishes were recorded as being partly or sometimes within the hundred, they were: Bexley,

Chislehurst Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Greater ...

, Chiddingstone, Hever, and Ruxley.Helmestrei (Ruxley Hundred) recorded in the ''Domesday Book'' (1086)
posted at Opendomesday.org The Parish of Chislehurst was partly within the hundred of Blackheath, and the parish of Bexley was partly in the Codsheath Hundred. Some records show that Ruxley, at least for a time had an

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

to the south containing parts of two parishes, Hever and Chiddingstone, which are in the geographical area of the Somerden Hundred and usually included in it. The settlement of Ruxley itself had its own parish until 1557 when it was absorbed into North Cray parish.North Cray history at www.idealhomes.org

Boundaries and neighbours

Ruxley occupied a central north-western position within the Sutton-at-Hone lathe, with borders with all but perhaps one of the other hundreds in the lathe. Ruxley was bordered by the hundreds of Little and Lesnes to the north, Dartford and Wilmington to the northeast, Axstane to the east and northeast (sometimes the hundred of Dartford and Wilmington and the hundred of Axstane were recorded as one hundred), Codsheath to the east and southeast Westerham and Edenbridge to the south; Ruxley's southwestern border was part of the Kent border with

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

; Bromley and Beckenham bordered to the west and finally Blackheath to the northwest. The only hundred of the Sutton at Hone lathe that would have not have shared a common border with Ruxley was the Hundred of Somerden, the southernmost hundred of the lathe. However, the Hundred Ruxley was recorded as having an exclave several miles to the south in the geographical area of Somerden, containing parts of the Hever and Chiddingstone parishes, and if the exclave is included, it would also give Ruxley a border with the Somerden Hundred, and thus give Ruxley borders with all other hundreds in the lathe of Sutton-at-Hone. When Greater London was created in 1965 what was previously Ruxley's eastern and southern border with the hundreds of Dartford and Wilmington, Axtane, Codsheath, and Westerham became roughly part of the border between the London Boroughs of Bromley and Bexley and the Kent districts of Sevenoaks and Dartford (although Knockholt left the London Borough of Bromley and became part of the Kent district of Sevenoaks in 1969, moving part of the border in that area).

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England, running from Dover and London in the southeast, via St Albans to Wroxeter. The road crosses the River Thames at London and was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the M ...

ran past the north side of the Bexley parish, and part of it formed some of Ruxley's northern boundary with Lesnes.

Watermills

Within the Hundred of Ruxley there were eight

watermills A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

on the River Cray. From source to downstream they were:

Orpington Mill

Domesday Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

site, Orpington Mill stood almost at the source of the River Cray. The mill building dated from the 18th century and was of traditional construction, with a timber frame clad with weatherboards under a peg tile roof. The mill was powered by an

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

carried on a cast iron axle which had replaced an earlier wooden one. Much of the machinery was of cast iron, including the wallower, great spur wheel and crown wheel. The upright shaft was of wood. The mill drove three pairs of millstones. Miller John Colgate had introduced steam power by the 1870s, and the tall chimney for the steam engine was known locally as "Colgate's Folly", as it did not function as well as intended. The mill was used as a store in its final years before its demolition in 1934 or 1935.

Snelling's Mill, St Mary Cray

A weir near the Black Boy hotel marked the site of a Domesday mill. The mill was demolished in 1872 and the area landscaped as part of the grounds of a public park. William Joynson bought the mill for £8,000 to enable the creation of the park.Rootsweb
''St Mary Cray–by John Blundell'' section The by cast iron waterwheel survived. It was used to drive a beam pump which supplied water to fountains and conservatories at "The Rookery". The wheel was intact until 1962, when the shed it was in was stripped of ivy and exposed. The wheel was then vandalised and had been cleared away by March 1964.

Upper Paper Mill, St Mary Cray

This mill stood opposite the Temple public house; it had an undershot

. Nicholas Townsend was mentioned in insurance records in 1757, and William Sims in 1771.Rootsweb
''St. Mary Cray Paper Mills'' section In 1784 William Townsend was first mentioned as a

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

maker in St Mary Cray. In 1786 Samuel Lay of

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in the Swale district of Kent, southeast England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The town stands next to th ...

was the paper maker; he was described as a master papermaker in 1801. Martha Lay ordered two moulds in 1806. Martha Lay was running the mill in 1816;Rootsweb
''The History of St Mary Cray'' section paper from this mill bore the

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations i ...

''Martha Lay 1804''.Mills archive

The mill ceased working in 1834.

Joynson's Mill, St Mary Cray

This was a

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

which stood near St Mary Cray church. It was replaced by a paper mill, then a paper factory and in recent years by a warehouse complex. In 1787 this mill was being run by Henry Brightly. John Hall was the owner in 1816. Charles Cowan was working at the mill in 1819, when the mill had two vats and was producing an estimated of paper a week. William Joynson took over in 1834.Ideal Homes
He had previously been at a paper mill in

Snodland Snodland is a town in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It lies on the River Medway, between Rochester and Maidstone, and from central London. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 10,211. History "Snoddinglan ...

.Snodland history
/ref> Paper produced here bore the watermarks "''Joynson Superfine''" or "''WJ&S''" over "''St Mary Cray Kent''".
/ref> In 1839, Joynson was granted a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for

ing paper produced by machine. The waterwheel was of cast iron construction and may have been overshot, as the head was some . The mill was expanded in 1853, when a second machine was installed, enabling the steam driven mills to produce 25 to 30 tons of paper a week. William Joynson died in 1874 and the mills were left in trust to his two grandsons. One of them, William, drowned in 1875 leaving Edmund Hamborough Joynson as sole heir. Cowan mentions that the mill was producing an estimated of paper a week in 1878. Some 700 people were employed at the mill in 1881 and E. H. Joynson took over the mill in September 1882, expanding it the following year with a new steam engine and machinery. An engraving of the mill in 1891 can be see
here.
ref name=Mill/> Joynson produced only high quality writing papers. In the late 1890s, a dryer was sold to Nash's and installed in their mill at St Pauls Cray. Edmund Joynson took his son into partnership shortly before World War One. The firm became William Joynson & Son. In 1914, Joynson's paper was used in the first £1 and 10/-

banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...

issued by the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

. Edmund H Joynson retired in 1930 and the mills were taken over by Messrs Wiggins Teape & Co. who promptly closed the mills in order to rebuild them. 350 people were made redundant, and only 200 were employed in the reopened factory. The paper factory made greaseproof and vegetable parchment paper.Rootsweb
''Bombshell at St. Mary Cray, Joynson's mill closed. "Village out of work."'' section The mill reopened in April 1933 as the Vegetable Parchment Mills (Delcroix) Ltd. The production of "vulcanised fibre" began around 1943. In 1963 the mill was the home of the National Paper Museum The mill closed in 1967 and the paper museum collection was transferred to the Museum of Science and Industry in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

.Rootsweb
''Joynson's Mill'' section

St Paul's Cray Mill

In 1718 this mill had two waterwheels driving machinery for dressing

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

in oil, and a third for corn milling. The mill was replaced by a paper mill, powered by a turbine.

Foots Cray (Nash's) Paper Mill

This paper mill replaced the earlier corn mill. Papermaking had been established by 1742. A steam engine had been installed by around 1820. It was used in the 1830s as a meeting place for Baptists.Foots Cray Baptist Church
/ref> In 1845, Mary Ann Nash inherited the profits and rents of the mill until her sons came of age under the terms of her husband's will. Mary Ann Nash died on 7 June 1852. Thomas Nash enlarged the mill in 1853. After his death at the age of 21, his brother William was manager under the trustees until he came of age in 1857. William Nash was married twice, and had five children. In 1870 they moved from the Mill House to a new house called Crayfield House. It is recorded that the axle of the waterwheel protruded into the kitchen of the Mill House. William Nash died on 11 September 1879 and the mill was in the hands of trustees again. In 1898 a 250-horsepower (about 190 kW) double-expansion condensing steam engine by Pollitt & Wigzell was installed, along with a second paper machine. Shortly after this a secondhand dryer was purchased from Joynson's mill to replace one that had proved unsuitable.
''Paper Makers 1817-1967'' section By 1954 the site was a factory complex. It had been demolished by 1986.

Foot's Cray Mill

Foot's Cray mill was a paper mill. By the 1870s it was used as a fabric printing works. In 1900 the mill was being used as a factory making photographic film. Its final function was the processing of

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

. The paper mill had two cast iron overshot waterwheels in parallel. Each was diameter. One was wide and the other was wide. The mill was demolished in 1929.

Old Mill, Bexley

A Domesday site, one of three in Bexley. This was a corn mill. In 1255, the miller, Auxellus, was censured for allowing the escape of a suspected murderer. A millstone was bought for 55s.6d. in 1300.Ideal Homes
The last building on the site dated from 1779, when the low breast shot waterwheel of powered four pairs of millstones. It was owned by the Cannon family from 1839 to 1907. Stephen Cannon was the first of the Cannon family, also running mills on the

River Darent The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford. 'Darenth' is frequently found as the spelling of the river's name in older books and ...

. The miller in 1872 was Stephen Cannon (son), who concentrated the business at Bexley, the mills on the Darent being sold. A steam engine was installed in 1884, the tall chimney was built by a Mr Hart from

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, who fell from the top whilst doing repairs and lived to tell the tale as his fall was broken by the roof of the engine house. The Cannon family sold Bexley mill in 1907. The mill was used in its latter days for making sacks.Ideal Homes
A picture of the mill can be see
here
The mill was burnt down on 12 May 1966 and was replaced by the Old Mill PH, a pub with a mill theme.
/ref>

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