Shortlands

SHORTLANDS, a suburb of Bromley, is an ecclesiastical parish, formed out of Beckenham in 1870; it has a station on the main line of the South Eastern and Chatham railway, and is 10 miles from London, in the Western division of the county, lathe of Sutton-at-Hone, hundred of Bromley and Beckenham, Bromley union, petty sessional division and county court district, rural deanery of West Dartford, archdeaconry of Maidstone and diocese of Canterbury. Shortlands is governed by the Beckenham Urban District Council. The church of St. Mary is a building of Kentish ragstone, in the Gothic style of the 13th century, and has a tower with spire containing 3 bells: the east, west and north windows are stained: the church was enlarged and altered in 1888, and affords 536 sittings, 105 being free. The register dates from the year 1870. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £435, chiefly from pew rents, with residence, in the gift of Miss E. M. Wilkinson, and held since 1870 by the Rev. Henry Francklyn Wolley M.A. of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The land is held by many freeholders. The area of the ecclesiastical parish is 436 acres; the population in 1891 was 1,492, and in 1901, 2,206, and of the Shortlands Ward, 1,775. The Kent Waterworks Co. have a pumping station here.