Chelsfield

"Chelsfield is a small parish and village, consisting of a few scattered houses in a rural neighbourhood, 2 miles from Orpington, 8 from Sevenoaks, and 7½ from Bromley .... and is situated to the east of the high road from Sevenoaks to London. ... The living is a rectory, in the gift of All souls' College , Oxford, and diocese of Canterbury; the Rev. Follett Baugh, M.A., rector. The National School is partly supported by subscription and by weekly payments. The are of the parish is 3,280 acres, and the population, in 1851, was 878."  1852 directory

Administrative Units

Chelsfield fell within the Hundred of Ruxley. Its 19th century Registration District & Poor Law Union was Bromley.
Probate Jurisdiction was Rochester to 1845, PCC 1846-57.

The town of Orpington now extends in the ancient parish of Chelsfield.

Census Publications

• 1851 Name Index and Page Images published on CD-Rom as part of CD7 (Bromley Registration District).
• 1851 Name Index (only) published on microfiche as part of Volume I (Bromley Registration District).
• 1891 Transcript published on CD-Rom as part of CD2 (Bromley Registration District).

For ordering details see Census Publications.

Churches and Chapels (pre-1910)

Church of England

• St Martin of Tours (Ancient Parish church) 

Baptist

• Baptist Green St Green.

Wesleyan/Methodist

• Methodist:   (1812). No information on registers