Sir John’s purchase of the Estate

When Sir John Champneys bought the Hall Place estate in 1537 he would have seen a number of attractions in the property. In the early sixteenth century country houses were built on flat land near to water needed for both drinking and cleaning, usually on the outskirts of a village and with a handy supply of wood for fuel. Hall Place stands on the River Cray halfway from its source to its union with the River Darenth, which in turn flows into the Thames at Dartford. On the south side of the river stands the village of Bexley and behind it to the east Dartford Heath. To the north lies Bexleyheath and the main road from London to Canterbury and Dover, which crosses the river at Crayford a mile downstream.

We sometimes fail to realise from our perspective in the twentieth century how poor communications were at this time. Roads were often mere tracks and it was hopelessly uneconomic to transport grain more than a few miles by cart. The Dover Road, the pilgrimage way to Canterbury for centuries past, and the overland route to the Kentish ports, English held Calais, and the continent was probably better maintained than most. The large numbers of people passing along it provided useful labour at harvest-time; but to transport surplus crops to the markets of the capital a mere 12 miles away, it was necessary to carry them over water and Hall Place had excellent access to the extensive waterways system of the south east via the Cray. The large and healthy London market meant that local produce could command good prices, making the estate an economically attractive proposition, especially given the good prices on offer during the land glut created by Cromwell and his policies.

Sir John Champneys may have had other motives too. During the sixteenth century the king and his court would travel round the country on 'progress' being entertained by landowners. The cost was often ruinous, but was repaid with honours, favours and influence. If Sir John was not quite grand enough to contemplate hosting the entire Court, Eltham Palace was a short ride away from Bexley and Greenwich Palace not much further and perhaps a small but exalted hunting party would not have been too much to hope for as guests at Hall Place.