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
Thomas Walsingham (MP) when King Charles I decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was made vice-admiral of Kent in 1627. In April 1640, Walsingham was re-elected MP for Rochester for the Short Parliament and again in November 1640 for the Long Parliament when he sat until 1653, surviving Pride's Purge. He sold the family property of Scadbury in around 1655. Walsingham died in 1669 and was buried at Chislehurst on 10 April 1669. Walsingham married twice, his first wife being Elizabeth Manwood, daughter of Sir Peter Manwood. Thomas Walsingham (MP) Sir Thomas Walsingham (c. 1589 - April 1669) was an