West Wickham - About The Town

About The Town

West Wickham was mentioned in the Domesday book with the following entry "In lordship 2 ploughs. 24 villagers have 4 ploughs. 13 salves; a church; a mill at 20d.; a wood at 10 pigs. Value before 1066 8; later 6: now 13. Godric son of Karl held it from King Edward".

In Tudor times, the Manor House Wickham Court was expanded by the Anne Boleyn family and the area was popular for deer hunting. The Grade II Listed building, was built by Sir Henry Heydon in 1469. His wife was Anne, a daughter of Sir Geoffrey Sullen, who was mayor of London in 1469. She was the great-aunt of the famous Anne Bullen or Boleyn. The house was later sold to the Lennard family in 1580. In 1935, it was sold and adapted for use as an hotel. After World War II, it was sold to the Daughters of Mary and Joseph. An American order of Nuns. Currently, it is known as Coloma College (a teacher training college) run by the Daughters of Mary and Joseph, a community of religious sisters.

Until the 1900s West Wickham remained a small village. The inter-war period saw rapid development and transformation into a suburb, facilitated by the arrival of the railway (which had opened in 1882).

Modern day West Wickham is a suburb of Greater London, after the London Government Act 1963, which came into effect in 1965, with West Wickham absorbed into the London Borough of Bromley. Like many suburbs of Greater London the area consists of local retail outlets, pubs, restaurants and primarily 1930's housing.

It also hosted a plaque containing the original bark of Stock Tree (a tree so called as it was behind the village stocks) that once stood opposite 'The Swan' which was cut down owing to the requirement to build a new road. The plaque and bark now reside at West Wickham Library, on Glebe Way.

West Wickham is also home to Beccehamians RFC a Rugby Union Club founded in 1933 which plays competitive rugby at Sparrows Den at the bottom of Corkscrew Hill.

Other clubs nearby include Croydon RFC (formerly Shirley Wanderers), a club that currently competes in Surrey 1, that has a rugby pitch used often for county matches.

There are several parks, West Wickham playing fields (McAndrews), Wickham Park and Blakes Recreation ground.

All Saints Catholic School was a Catholic secondary school located on Layhams Road, West Wickham, London Borough of Bromley which closed in 2007. Formerly known as 'St. John Rigby Catholic College', its name was changed in 2004 as a rebranding because of falling pupil numbers and substantial debts following the conviction of former headmistress Colleen McCabe in 2003.

McCabe was convicted of stealing around £500,000 from her school over a period from 1994 to 1999, which she spent lavishly both on herself and on gifts for her friends. The story was the subject of the 2006 BBC docudrama, The Thieving Headmistress Money was diverted away from the school's budget resulting in the children being without books in a dirty unheated school.