DICKENS family - Orpington burial question

[Chris Doran]

All the above dates match the list from NWKFHS except for Amy and James who are still AWOL. They may be mistranscribed but the PDF isn't machine searchable so will take longer to find. However as you have a plot number the grave should be findable, even if unmarked, as they're close to Sgt Edgar Buckley at C.A.4, with another soldier and an airman in the same row. The only Vallins listed is Pte Henry Vallins at D.R.6. The existence of plot numbers, which are used in the CWGC listings, suggests that a map does exist, though it may not have names.

I seem to remember looking through the NWKFHS website a while back and finding mention of someone working on records for St Mary Cray, not far from Orpington, so there may be someone nearby.

[Gibel]

In the 1871 census your Frederick Dickins was living on High Street Orpington if you look at the entries it goes
Frederick
Bethesda Chapel
Chapel Walk

If you google Bethesda Chapel Orpington you get the info that it was a Baptist Chapel in a house until they built an actual Chapel. Then google photo of Bethesda Chapel Orpington you’ll find a photo that has
Chapel Yard
Bethesda Chapel
Another house which I guess must have been where your Frederick lived

The photo is on www.boroughphotos.org

There might be other relevant photos on that site

[louisemcm]

Thank you so much Gibel!
I would never have thought to google Bethesda Chapel. It's amazing to see where Frederick and Annie Dickens and their children lived.
I've been trying to find details of the shop that his wife Annie Dickens had called "Nails in the Shoe Shop" which she had as her occupation in the 1871 census. On the 1881 census she seems to have expanded to be a boot and tailor's shop.
I just received the wedding certificate for my great-great-grandmother Louisa Dickens (their daughter) and Frederick is deceased but listed as having been a bootmaker.
Thank you so much. You're amazing at research.
Best wishes
Louise