Orpington

Coordinates: 51°22′27″N 0°05′55″E / 51.3741°N 0.0986°E / 51.3741; 0.0986

Orpington is a suburban town and electoral ward in the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London and lies at the south-eastern edge of London's urban sprawl. It is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It was, until shortly before the 1974 General Election, in the county of Kent.

History

Stone Age tools have been found in several areas of Orpington, including Goddington Park, Priory Gardens, the Ramsden estate, and Poverest. Early Bronze Age pottery fragments have been found in the Park Avenue area. During the building of Ramsden Boys School in 1956, the remains of an Iron Age farmstead were excavated. The area was occupied in Roman times, as shown by Crofton Roman Villa and the Roman bath-house at Fordcroft. During the Anglo-Saxon period, Fordcroft Anglo-Saxon cemetery was used in the area. The first record of the name Orpington occurs in 1038, when King Cnut's treasurer Eadsy gave land at "Orpedingetune" to the Monastery of Christ Church at Canterbury. The parish church also pre-dates the Domesday Book. On 22 July 1573CE, Queen Elizabeth I was entertained at Bark Hart (Orpington Priory) and her horses stabled at the Anchor and Hope Inn (Orpington High Street). On the southern edge of Orpington, Green St Green is recorded as 'Grenstretre' which means a road covered with grass. It is known in the 1800s as Greenstead Green.

Orpington (UK Parliament constituency)

Orpington is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Jo Johnson, a Conservative.

History

Orpington was created in a minor boundary review enacted at the 1945 general election.

The seats of Dartford and Chislehurst had both seen their electorate grow enormously since the 1918 review and were treated as one and divided into four, creating the additional seats of Bexley and this one in 1945.

The seat has changed a little in subsequent boundary reviews since 1945. For the 1997 general election the Ravensbourne seat which had emerged in the west by Bromley was divided between three constituencies which before then overshot the London Borough of Bromley, adding to Orpington the community of Biggin Hill.

The seat is famous for its 1962 by-election when it was taken in a shock result and substantial victory by the Liberal Party candidate Eric Lubbock.

Boundaries

1945-1974: The Urban District of Orpington, and part of the Rural District of Dartford.

Orpington Urban District

Orpington was a local government district in northwest Kent from 1934 to 1965 around the town of Orpington, England. It was suburban to London and formed part of the Metropolitan Police District. Most of the former area of the urban district is now part of the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London.

History

It was created an urban district in 1934 from parts of the abolished districts of Bromley Rural District and Chislehurst Urban District, taking in the entirety of Chelsfield, Cudham, and Knockholt parishes, and most of Farnborough, part of Keston, most of Orpington, most of St Mary Cray, part of St Paul's Cray and part of West Wickham.

The urban district was within the Metropolitan Police District and part of the review area of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London. In 1965 it was abolished by the London Government Act 1963 and its former area transferred to Greater London from Kent. Its former area was combined with that of other districts to form the London Borough of Bromley.