CRAYFORD, a parish (formerly a market-town)
in the hundred of LESSNESS, lathe of SUTTON at
HOVE, county of KENT, 13 miles (E. by S.) from
London, containing 1866 inhabitants. The living is
a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, rated in the king's books at £35. 13. 4.,
and in the patronage of Thomas Austen, Esq. The
church, dedicated to St. Paulinus, is a spacious modern
structure, adorned with an elegant altar-piece;
it stands on an eminence at the upper end of the
village, which consists of an irregular street, branching
off to the left of the road from London to Dartford.
There is a place of worship for Particular Baptists.
Crayford is so called from Creccanford, an ancient ford
on the river Creccan, now Cray, which here flows in two
streams, having upon its banks several extensive establishments
for printing calico, and a large mill for
making iron hoops. One of the archbishops of Canterbury,
who formerly had possessions here, procured a
weekly market on Tuesday, and a fair on our Lady's
Nativity; the market has long been disused, but an
annual fair is still held on the 8th of September. In
the immediate vicinity of Crayford some antiquaries
have placed the Roman station Noviomagus, near which
a great battle was fought, in 457, between Hengist the
Saxon and the British king Vortimer, which ended in
the secure establishment of the kingdom of Kent under
the rule of the former. In this parish are many ancient
caves, of which some are from fifteen to twenty
fathoms deep, increasing in circumference from the
mouth downwards, and containing several large apartments,
supported by pillars of chalk: it is conjectured
that they were used as places of security for the. wives,
children, and moveable goods of the Saxons, during
their wars with the Britons. The manor-house, which
was built and occupied by Sir Cloudesley. Shovel, is
moated, and is now occupied by a farmer.