Fantasies of St Mary Cray: Ray Galer's Memoirs (1946, 1947, 1948, 1950)
It was eighty years ago in 1946 that an entertaining little booklet entitled Fantasies of St Mary Cray made its mark as a new local history publication. The author was Ray F. Galer who was the vicar at St Mary’s Church in St Mary Cray.
Ralph Fry Galer held the post of vicar from 1934 to 1950. He is one of the great 20th-century Crays characters. His legacy is four St Mary Cray local history booklets for after publishing Fantasies 1946 he added Romances, Historical Sketches and Traveller’s Joy in 1947, 1948 and 1950. All four were published by Kentish Times Ltd, Bromley.
To welcome in the New Year 2026 we believe that the Reverend Galer’s nostalgic writings from the 1940s deserve a new airing for readers. Coming soon, he will be extensively featured in our forthcoming new book Religion and Philanthropy in the Crays 1800 to Today. This new book from Cray 150 will be published in March 2026.
It was eighty years ago in 1946 that an entertaining little booklet entitled Fantasies of St Mary Cray made its mark as a new local history publication. The author was Ray F. Galer who was the vicar at St Mary’s Church in St Mary Cray.
Ralph Fry Galer held the post of vicar from 1934 to 1950. He is one of the great 20th-century Crays characters. His legacy is four St Mary Cray local history booklets for after publishing Fantasies 1946 he added Romances, Historical Sketches and Traveller’s Joy in 1947, 1948 and 1950. All four were published by Kentish Times Ltd, Bromley.
To welcome in the New Year 2026 we believe that the Reverend Galer’s nostalgic writings from the 1940s deserve a new airing for readers. Coming soon, he will be extensively featured in our forthcoming new book Religion and Philanthropy in the Crays 1800 to Today. This new book from Cray 150 will be published in March 2026.
The Reverend Galer enjoyed a long talk one day with Mr Edward Venus who said he was 82 years old. During their chat on the bridge looking towards Market Meadow his veteran parishioner recalled that St Mary Cray’s weekly cattle market was of considerable importance to the whole county, while the wheelwright, the blacksmith and the basket-weaver stood for the flourishing industrial side of village work. The Reverend added: ‘Schooling was not as it is today, and our friend left school behind at a very early age. His first job was bird-scaring, with a rattle, at 2s 6d a week; working his way up to sheep-minding at 4 shillings a week. There were no houses round the church then, but the brick shed by the lych gate was the headquarters of the Cray Fire Brigade. He minds the time when a bridle path came across where the railway station now stands, right across the village, through the northern part of St Mary’s churchyard and out through Star Lane to Kevington and Swanley.
To get to London before St Mary Cray gained a new railway station on the London, Chatham and Dover railway [in 1860] a pair-horse bus used to run from Orpington to Lewisham, and the passengers then took train on the original Greenwich railway to London. Hardly the twenty-minute service of today!
Reprinted from Fantasies of St Mary Cray, the Reverend Ray Galer’s booklet published by Kentish Times Newspapers Ltd in 1946.
To get to London before St Mary Cray gained a new railway station on the London, Chatham and Dover railway [in 1860] a pair-horse bus used to run from Orpington to Lewisham, and the passengers then took train on the original Greenwich railway to London. Hardly the twenty-minute service of today!
Reprinted from Fantasies of St Mary Cray, the Reverend Ray Galer’s booklet published by Kentish Times Newspapers Ltd in 1946.