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
Henry Vaux August 1584 Henry Vaux was mentioned in a report to Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s spymaster, and from this time onwards his name appeared regularly in confessions and the reports of spies. (Henry Vaux unwittingly had two apostate priests in his employ). By May 1585, the government knew that Henry Vaux was serving as treasurer for the priest-smuggling network. At around that time he attended a large meeting of Jesuits, recusants, and secular clergy in Hoxton which established a fund for the support of the Catholic clergy and to which he promised one hundred marks. In May 1585 Anthony Babington