The villages of Cudham and Downe have long histories; with Cudham Church mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Church guides for both churches giving detailed information are available by clicking on the links below:-

• Click here for the Cudham Church history and guide
• Click here for the Downe Church history and guide

We have included on our website some additional notes about various aspects of our churches' and villages' history which we hope will be of interest to you

• Charles Darwin - Downe
• Jacob Verzelini, glassmaker - Downe
• Yew trees - Cudham
• Transcriptions of the old memorials in Cudham churchyard (from Leland Duncan's notes made in 1919 on the Kent Archaeology website)
• Transcriptions of the old memorials in Downe churchyard around St. Mary's Church (also from Leland Duncan's notes made in 1919 on the Kent Archaeology website)

Registers

Both churchyards go back a long way. The more recent burial and grave registers are kept in the churches' safes.

The older records in Cudham for baptisms, marriages and burials between approximately 1650 and 1850 were transcribed by Sir Thomas Colyer-Ferguson of Ightham Mote, and they are available for inspection. We also hold a transcribed copy of the records for Downe from 1538 with more details found by clicking on the Downe church history and guide above.

If anyone wishes to research their family history in any other period of time, they will probably have to go to Bromley Central Library where all the older records of both parishes have been stored.