Comfortable commuter belt territory lying north-east of Bexleyheath. The May Place estate had been in existence since the fifteenth century and in the hands of the Barne family from 1750. In the latter part of the nineteenth century the house was occupied by Colonel Frederick Barne, who was also chairman of the Bexleyheath Railway Company. ‘Hurst’ used to mean a ‘woody bank’, but the Barnehurst name was simply an invention for a station in the middle of nowhere. Only fifteen people lived with half-a-mile of the station when it opened in 1895 and not a single first class season ticket was sold for over ten years. The lane that served the station was called Hills and Holes until the 1920s, when it was renamed Barnehurst Road and 600 homes were put up on land acquired from Michael Barne. Shops were built on Midfield Parade in 1928. Wates were among the various developers to pitch in later, laying out the Barnehurst Park estate in 1933 on land to the south of Mayplace Road. With prices as low as £535 for a four-bedroom house, this was one of the most affordable new estates in London, although the fourth bedroom was less than eight feet by seven. Crayford urban district council acquired May Place in 1938, and what remains of it is now part of the clubhouse for Barnehurst golf course. More than a thousand homes were damaged during the blitz, resulting in extensive rebuilding after the war. Modern Barnehurst is an ethnically uniform locality with 95 per cent of residents classified as white. 84 per cent of homes are owner-occupied.