Do you have Irish ancestry? Today is an exciting day if you do, with the release of the 1926 census for Ireland.
Here at Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre we have a large collection of family history books to assist with your #familyhistory. #1926census
Join us for a Rebellious Ramble through the Loyalist Land with Community Archivist Oliver Wooller – a guided walk from Danson to Hall Place marking 250 years since American Declaration of Independence. Tickets £5. Contact us to book your place at archives@bexley.gov.uk.
Join us on 20 June 2.30-4pm for A Walk Around Welling, with Archives Officer Penny Duggan. From a hamlet on Watling Street to a bustling high street, what events have had an impact on its history? Tickets £5. To book your place please visit us or email archives@bexley.gov.uk
Join our walk on 16 May 2.30-4pm – 'The General Strike in Erith' with Archives Officer Penny Duggan. How did the 9-day strike in 1926 affect workers and what impact did it have on residents in Erith? Tickets £5. To book your place please visit us or email archives@bexley.gov.uk
#BexleyArchives guided walks coming soon:
16 May: The General Strike in Erith
20 June: A Walk Around Welling
18 July: A Rebellious Ramble through the Loyalist Land, from Danson to Hall Place
We are now taking a break and will re-open on 7 April. We wish you a Happy Easter.
Join Archives Officer Penny Duggan for 'Memories of School Days', a reminiscence-style interactive session talking about where we live. 24 March 10.30am-12 at #Sidcup Storyteller Ageing Well Hub for Sidcup/Bexley residents aged over 50. No need to book, just drop in. #LiveWellAgeWell
Join Archives Officer Penny Duggan for 'Memories of School Days', a reminiscence-style interactive session talking about where we live. 24 March 10.30am-12 at #Sidcup Storyteller Ageing Well Hub for Sidcup/Bexley residents aged over 50. No need to book, just drop in. #LiveWellAgeWell
Today is World Sleep Day and we hope you will stay awake long enough to look at these impressive beds at Hall Place from the time Lady Limerick was in residence. These photographs date from c1938. #WorldSleepDay #Bexley
Join Archives Officer Penny Duggan for 'Memories of Sidcup', a reminiscence-style interactive session talking about where we live. 24 Feb 10.30am-12 at Sidcup Storyteller Ageing Well Hub for Bexley residents aged over 50. No need to book, just drop in.
arena.yourlondonlibrary.net/web/bexley/w...
Join Archives Officer Penny Duggan for 'Memories of Sidcup', a reminiscence-style interactive session talking about where we live. 24 Feb 10.30am-12 at Sidcup Storyteller Ageing Well Hub for Bexley residents aged over 50. No need to book, just drop in.
arena.yourlondonlibrary.net/web/bexley/w...
On #WomenAndGirlsInScienceDay we wonder what became of these girls from Lessness Heath School, Erith in October 1970.
On Saturday March 2.30pm, mudlarker Sean Clarke will give a talk here at Bexley Archives, Small Change in Muddy Waters - stories of trade tokens.
Tickets £5
To book your place please call 020 3045 3369, email archives@bexley.gov.uk or visit the centre (open 9.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Thursday).
On Saturday 14 February 2.30pm to 4pm we have a talk by Chris Hawkins on 'Lesnes Abbey - Dissolution and the Years After'. Why was it one of the first to be dissolved and how were the ruins saved?
Tickets £5, location Central Library Bexleyheath - contact us to book your place!
Thanks to @jpaprice.bsky.social who gave an excellent talk at #BexleyArchives on Deptford Ragged School which later provided education to working people. Here in Bexley evening classes in arithmetic, dressmaking and leatherwork (1928) had expanded to car maintenance and Tourist French by 1963.
Still a handful of tickets left for our talk on 17 January at 2.30pm by Dr John Price - Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its Place in the Community.
Tickets £5, location Central Library Bexleyheath - contact us to book your place!
We wish everyone a #MerryChristmas and hope you all have a jolly good time. (Pictured, Rose and Crown, Welling, 1981). #ArchiveAdventCalendar
Here is a snowy scene at Hall Place Gardens, Bexley in 1964. #WinterWonderland #ArchiveAdventCalendar
Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre is now closed for Christmas. We will re-open at 9.30am on 5 January.
This is how locals in Bexley village celebrated Christmas in 1995! Were you there? As well as splendid costumes, there are some lovely interior views of the shops as they used to be.
Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre is now closed for Christmas. We will re-open at 9.30am on 5 January.
Our first talk of 2026 is on 17 January 2.30pm by Dr John Price @jpaprice.bsky.social - Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its Place in the Community, exploring stories of the children who attended. Tickets £5, location Central Library Bexleyheath - contact us to book your place!
Parcels of ‘toothsome cake and chocolate’ were sent by Sidcup residents to boys in the trenches in 1916, but by 1917 the making of fancy pastries was prohibited. (Sidcup Times). #NaughtyOrNice #ArchiveAdventCalendar
We have a small display here at #BexleyArchives on Hides department store which includes this paper bag. Hides was a popular shop in Bexleyheath's Broadway 1861-1979 and had wonderful displays every Christmas. #WrappingPaper #ArchiveAdventCalendar
Our first talk of 2026 is on 17 January 2.30pm by Dr John Price - Educating Deptford: The Deptford Ragged School and its Place in the Community, exploring stories of the children who attended. Tickets £5, location Central Library Bexleyheath - contact us to book your place! @jpaprice.bsky.social
Thank goodness for the lamplighter on #DarkNights, here at 1. Bridgen and 2. Erith #ArchiveAdventCalendar
Some fabulous costumes here at Welling's Hook Lane School nativity play in 1963. Photograph from our Kentish Times collection. #Nativity #ArchiveAdventCalendar
1970s food at its finest at the Mayor of Bexley’s Christmas Luncheon in December 1972, held at the Riverside Baths, Erith: ham and melon, soup, scampi, pineapple, cheese, Riesling and brandy. #FestiveFood #ArchiveAdventCalendar
Still stuck for gift ideas? We have #Christmas2025 bargains here at #Bexley Archives.
⭐️Bargains on our books, plus 3 for 2 on our Old Ordnance Survey maps.
⭐️And if you aren’t able to visit us to make your purchase, we are offering free postage to UK addresses until 18 December.
Sometimes what wasn't built is more interesting than what was built! Our collection of planning applications includes a proposed development in 1951 for Blackfen which included building an ice rink. These plans were eventually abandoned. #WinterSports #ArchiveAdventCalendar
2025 has been a year of anniversaries for #CelebratingBexley and #BexleyArchives – Dissolution of Lesnes Abbey (500 years), Crossness Pumping Station (160 years), Danson Park (100 years), London Borough of Bexley (60 years). #EYAAnniversaries #ExploreYourArchive
Bexley parish baptisms, marriages, burials and electoral registers have been digitised and are available to search for free on Ancestry at Bexley Library branches - invaluable for #familyhistory and #localhistory. #EYADigital #ExploreYourArchive
