Place Name
Named after the Barne family and in particular Colonel Frederick Barne, chairman of the Bexleyheath Railway Company. The hurst element, from the Saxon word meaning a woody bank, was added when the train station was built in 1895, in what was then a rural area with woods. The Barne family’s connection with the area began in 1745 when Miles Barne, the son of a wealthy London merchant, married Elizabeth Elwick. She was the only child of Nathaniel Elwick of May Place in Crayford and on his death five years later, the Barnes family inherited May Place and its large estate. The family retained May Place and the remaining estate until 1938, when it was sold to Crayford UDC for £24,500.
