The privilege of holding a market on Wednesdays was granted by Edward I (1272 - 1307) f[1] The district being an agricultural one, the small population worked on its many fruit farms and hopfields.

The factories along Cray Avenue were engaged in industries ranging from paint and ink manufacture to baking and preserved foods.

[4] During and after the Second World War, Star Lane cemetery was to become the burial ground for several airmen of the RAF and Commonwealth Air Forces.

John Horam, then the MP for Orpington, recorded in 1999: "The Crays are truly a slice of Kent, on the edge of London, once rural, now full of housing and commerce.

The Orpington & Kentish Times had the headline: "Gang Battle" at Railway Station: Edwardian Youths in Half-Hour Fight: Wooden Stakes, Sand-Filled Socks as Weapons".

The two gangs were from Downham and St Paul's Cray, and sported stovepipe trousers, crepe shoes and drape jackets.

Trouble had started earlier in the evening when a "rowdy" party of youths and a few girls from Downham Estate, Bromley, arrived at St Paul's Cray Community Centre, where a dance was being held.

The paper reported "a knife was drawn when a member of the band objected to being jostled", and "a man had a glass of orange juice thrown in his face during an exchange of words."

The MC, George Couchman said: "I warned the crowd police were standing by and also took the precaution of the band playing calming music – no quicksteps."

Like nearby St Paul's Cray, it has been somewhat overshadowed by the growth of Orpington, which now provides local communities with their main shopping and business facilities.

Other areas are now home to retail outlets such as PC World, Comet, Land of Leather, Homebase, JJB Sports, MFI, Currys, Carpet Right and Arco.