Chislehurst its earlier format corresponded to the letters IMP (for "imperial"). The Chislehurst civil parish formed an urban district of Kent from 1894 to 1934. In 1934 it became part of the Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District, which was split in 1965 between the London boroughs of Bromley and Bexley. The Walsingham family, including Christopher Marlowe's patron, Sir Thomas Walsingham and Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, Francis Walsingham, had a home in Scadbury Park, now a nature reserve in which the ruins of the house can still be seen. A water tower used to straddle the road from Chislehurst to Bromley until
Edward Walsingham Edward Walsingham Edward Walsingham (died 1663) was an English royalist author, known for his verse of the First English Civil War and "Arcana Aulica", often wrongly attributed to Sir Francis Walsingham. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Walsingham was related to the Earl of Bristol. In the preface to the "Arcana Aulica" Walsingham is described in 1652 as one who, "though very young, in a little time grew up, under the wings and favour of the Lord Digby, to such credit with the late king that he came to be admitted to his greatest trusts, and was prevented