History of Purley on Thames

You can look at history in so many different ways and on this website we attempt to guide you via several different approaches.

• Chronicles of Purley - This gives you a year by year brief record of key events in Purley
• Purley through the Ages - This provides the story of what happened in Purley during the major periods of English history.
• People and Families - How individuals and families influenced not only Purley, but often National affairs as well.
• Buildings and Estates - tracing the history of buildings –  who lived in them and what they were used for.
• The Church - All about the Church of St Mary The Virgin
• Transport – How people got around in the past, train and bus services
• Education – How and where our children were taught
• Social History - covering a wide variety of topics, Poor Law, Crime, Recreation, Sports, Pastimes, Achievements
• The Work Place - our farms and farmers, local craftsmen, industry, shops

Most of these sections will link you to articles and images in our extensive archive, but you can browse the archive directly:-

• Articles – articles published in local journals or written especially for Project Purley
• Images – photographs and images, maps and drawings
• Lists – lists of office holders, extracts from Parish Registers
• Statistics - of all sorts
• Transcripts – of ancient documents
• Press Cuttings - extracts from local and national newspapers about Purley and Purley People

Please note however that the items listed form only a small fraction of what we have available so if you have a query about anything related to Purley CLICK HERE and we will try to help you. Alternatively post a message on the MESSAGE BOARD