Place Name
Directional. The village on the River Cray, which itself means clean or pure, although it has also been suggested that the name comes from the Celtic word crei, meaning turbulent. Whichever it is the river’s name goes back to antiquity, it was first recorded as Cræges œuuelma in AD798 and much later around the beginning of the 13thCentury as Craie. The reference to St Paul came from the church dedicated to St Paulinus, an early saint who was buried at Rochester in AD644 although this addition came much later. The village was first mentioned as Craie in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was to be nearly two centuries later that it became Craye Paulin in 1258 and in other records as Creypaulin in 1291 and in the first decade of the 17thCentury as Paulscray.
