Chislehurst is a village of two parts, just outside the London Postcode area but not outside greater London. One part has a Sainsburys and is a bit downmarket, but cross the common and the shops become posher and the houses bigger- very big in many cases!
The church of St Nicholas was open when I called, with a tapestry of shields of the other parishes that had been formed from parts of the parish when that area became more built up. The rood screen came from the 15th century and the tomb of Thomas Walshingham was broken into in the 20th Century by Calvin Hoffman in the hope that the original manuscripts of Shakespeare would be there. This is one of the wierder aspects of an interesting book: grave goods were extremely uncommon during Elizabethan times....
The church is built of knapped flint and the Walsingham chapel contains Tomas Walsingham's tomb.
