In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described St Mary Cray like this:
CRAY (St. Mary), a village and a parish in Bromley district, Kent. The village stands on the rivulet Cray, and on the Mid Kent railway, 4½ miles E by S of Bromley; was once a market-town; includes a number of modern houses; and has a railway station with telegraph, a post office under Foots-Cray, London, S. E., and fairs on 13 Feb. and 10 Sept. The parish comprises 2, 010 acres. Real property, £6, 923. Pop., 1, 46 4-Houses, 277. The property is much subdivided. There is a large paper-mill. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £300.* Patron, the Archbishop. The church is later English. There are Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a literary institute, a police station, an endowed school with £70, and charities £12. . . .
A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing St Mary Cray has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Bromley. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering St Mary Cray and units named after it.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of St Mary Cray, in Bromley and Kent | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
Date accessed: 31st August 2014
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