Place Name
Richard de Tubbenden was a 14thCentury farmer who had previously rented land in Orpington from a Gilbert Saundre of Croston but when the contract came to an end he left the area with his family and moved to Southborough, arriving in 1355. Tradition claims that Turpington Farm was the site of the court house of the first lords of the Blackbrok estate in the 14thCentury. Writing in 1797, Thomas Wilson in his history of Bromley says: “I heard this place was famous for having been an ancient barony of one of the feudal lords; was shewn a farm-house that had been the barons’ court-house; another which had been the jail.” Both Tubbenden Lane and Turpington Lane are believed to be named after him.
