Monuments & Ruins

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Scadbury Moated Manor

The moated island the Walsinghams held for two centuries, and where Marlowe was staying days before he was killed.

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Photo by Jim Osley, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A manor is recorded here in the thirteenth century, held by the family who gave it their name. Thomas Walsingham, a City wine and cloth merchant who sat in Parliament in 1410 and 1413, bought it in 1424, and his descendants held it until about 1655. Francis Walsingham, who ran Elizabeth's intelligence service, was born here. So was the end of a different story: Christopher Marlowe, whose patron was another Thomas Walsingham, was staying at Scadbury in May 1593 shortly before he was stabbed to death in Deptford. Bromley bought the park in 1983 and opened it two years later; what is left of the house is footings and brickwork on the island inside its moat, dug and consolidated over decades by the local archaeological society.

Where
Scadbury Park Local Nature Reserve, Chislehurst, BR7
Nearest station
St Mary Cray · 24 min walk

The nature trail runs past the moat and is open like the rest of the park. The island itself is fenced and opened for one weekend a year, usually the first in September, by the Orpington and District Archaeological Society, who have been excavating it.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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