main content Priory Gardens - Garden of Remembrance

Church Hill, Orpington, BR6 0HH

In 1946 the Orpington Urban District Council, the British Legion, the local Churches and other notables set up a working party to ascertain the views of the community as how to commemorate the fallen of the Second World War.

The Working Party suggested a number of alternatives but the ones finding popular support were:

• purchase of the Priory Gardens and turn them into a Garden of Remembrance where people could reflect upon lost ones. There was to be a bandstand, rose gardens, etc.;
• build the Petts Wood War Memorial Hall;
• build the Cudham Village War Memorial Hall.

The Orpington Urban Council did all three.

While the Petts Wood and Cudham War Memorial halls all indicated their purpose there was no indication as to why the Priory Gardens had been purchased in 1947.

The Mayor, Councillor Sue Polydorou, unveiled a Blue Plaque on 11th November 1999, in the presence of a large number of guests from the Royal British Legion, Councillors and members of the public. As the Mayor unveiled the Blue Plaque she said, "this last Armistice Day of this century was a fitting time to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms enjoyed by the current generations and those to follow in the 21st century. We shall be eternally grateful to those who took up arms to defend this country and this should never be forgotten".

The Mayor dedicated the Blue Plaque to the many citizens from the Orpington area who died or who were wounded together with their families whose pains of loss still lasts to this day.