Editing Orpington (section)

==History==

[[File:Internal View of Crofton Roman Villa.jpg|left|thumb|The ruins of Crofton Roman Villa near Orpington Railway Station]]
[[File:View of the West Side of All Saints' Church, Orpington (II).jpg|left|thumb|The medieval Church of All Saints in Orpington]]
[[Stone Age]] tools have been found in several areas of Orpington, including [[Goddington]] Park, Priory Gardens, the [[Ramsden Estate (Orpington)|Ramsden estate]], and Poverest.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} Early [[Bronze Age]] pottery fragments have been found in the Park Avenue area.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} During the building of Ramsden Boys School in 1956, the remains of an Iron Age farmstead were excavated.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} The area was occupied in [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, as shown by [[Crofton Roman Villa]] and the Roman [[Public bathing|bath-house]] at Fordcroft.<ref>{{Cite web|date=16 June 2006|title=London Borough of Bromley {{!}} Poverest Road Bath House and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery|url=http://www.bromley.gov.uk/leisure/museums/Poverest+Road+Bath+House+and+Anglo-Saxon+Cemetery.htm|access-date=16 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616215600/http://www.bromley.gov.uk/leisure/museums/Poverest+Road+Bath+House+and+Anglo-Saxon+Cemetery.htm|archive-date=16 June 2006}}</ref> 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 [[Canute|Cnut]]'s treasurer Eadsy gave land at "Orpedingetune" to the Monastery of Christ Church at [[Canterbury]].{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} The name means 'Orped's farmstead', Orped being an Anglo-Saxon first-name.<ref name="Willey">{{cite book |last1=Willey |first1=Russ |title=The London Gazetteer |date=2006 |publisher=Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd |pages=369}}</ref> The [[Church of All Saints, Orpington|Church of All Saints]] was also built in the Anglo-Saxon period.<ref name="Willey"/> On 22 July 1573, Queen [[Elizabeth I]] was entertained at Bark Hart (Orpington Priory)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pateman|first=John|title=The Ramsden Estate|publisher=Pateran Press|year=2009|isbn=9780956081285|location=United Kingdom|pages=28|language=en}}</ref> {{Citation needed span|and her horses stabled at the Anchor and Hope Inn on the High Street|date=November 2021}}.

Historically, the major local commercial centre was nearby [[St Mary Cray]] rather than Orpington.<ref name="Willey"/> St Mary Cray had a regular market, and industry (paper mills and bell foundry). In contrast, Orpington was a small country village surrounded by soft fruit farms, [[hops|hop fields]] and orchards. These crops attracted [[Romani people]], working as itinerant pickers, to annual camps in local meadows and worked-out chalk pits. Although this work has largely ended, the Borough still provides a permanent site for travellers at Star Lane, and historic gatherings are commemorated in local street names, such as Romany Rise. In 1967, [[Eric Lubbock]], then [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] MP for [[Orpington (UK Parliament constituency)|Orpington]], promoted a Private Member's Bill to provide permanent Romani sites; this resulted in the [[Caravan Sites Act 1968]] that placed an obligation upon local authorities to provide sites for locally residing travellers.<ref>''Stopping Places: A Gypsy History of South London and Kent'' Simon Evans (Univ of Hertfordshire Press 2004) {{ISBN|1-902806-30-1}}</ref> In 1971, an international meeting of Romany people was held at Orpington; this [[World Romani Congress|Orpington Congress]] marked the founding of the [[International Romani Union]], a group seeking political representation for Romanis throughout Europe.<ref>[http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo005/ ''The Roma'' (Czech Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, October 2002)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724140140/http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo005/ |date=24 July 2011 }} accessed 3 December 2007.</ref>

[[Orpington railway station]] opened in 1868 to the southwest of the town centre, prompting housing development in the Crofton and Broom Hill areas, with the Derry Downs areas to the east also developed at about the same time.<ref name="Willey"/> The station was expanded in 1904, prompting a wave of house building that peaked in the 1920-30s, transforming the area into a suburb of London.<ref name="Willey"/> The Walnuts Shopping Centre was built in the early 1970s.<ref name="Willey"/>