The name Blackfen literally means ‘black marsh’ and
probably refers to the dark, marshy soil of this area, which lay
between the ancient estates of Danson and Lamorbey and on the edge
of the great West Wood to the north. The local pubs the Woodman
and the Jolly Fenman testify to the area’s links with both the
marshland and the woodland.
The whole area, including the hamlet of Blackfen, came within the
manor of Bexley. Its earliest mention was in an assize roll (trial
record) of 1241 when it was referred to as ‘Blackwene’.
Farmland covered the area until a major programme of house building
began in the 1920s. The two most ancient farms were Black Fenn
Farm and Days Lane Farm, both of which were mentioned in documents
in the 1600s.
However, Blackfen was also surrounded by great estates such as
Lamorbey, Danson and Blendon with their grand houses and rich
residents. The main estate, Danson, was owned by the railway
entrepreneur Alfred Bean in the latter part of the 19th century.
It was sold in 1922 and this was the stimulus for the house building
that would take place throughout the latter part of the 1920s and
on into the 1930s.
Bean had always envisaged the estate being broken up for this
purpose, and he was the prime mover in the building of the
Bexleyheath Railway in order to facilitate the process.
Nevertheless, much of the core of the estate remains to this day
as Danson Park. The Queenswood and Westwood estates that straddled
the Blackfen Road just west of the junction with Westwood Lane
were built by CR Leech in the early 1930s and featured
semi-detached three-bedroomed houses offered freehold for Ł675.
The Blendon Estate was sold to the local builder DC Bowyer in 1929
and developed for residential building shortly afterwards.
