Jubilee Country Park

From 1250-1400 a family by the name of Blackbrook was associated with the area and the C16th some of the land was pasture for sheep and cattle. In 1780 Bickley Hall was built nearby for the Wells family, wealthy shipbuilders from Deptford who rented and sublet fields for arable or pasture until John Wells was declared bankrupt in 1841. The 1st edition OS Map of 1871, Kent, Sheet XVI shows the area as farmland. During the war an army base with anti-aircraft guns was sited in the north-east of the site and the club house was destroyed by a parachute mine in 1940. In 1916 the developer of the Bickley Park Estate turned the site into a golf course, managed as West Kent Golf Club until WWII, which attracted top golfers. Following the war the land was let for grazing, housing development threatened the site in 1968 and 1973, but Petts Wood Residents Association mounted a campaign and, following a public enquiry in 1974, the land was purchased by London Borough of Bromley in 1977 and named to mark the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Jubilee Country Park was officially opened as a country park in 1981. The park is made up of nearly 25 hectares of mixed woodlands, meadowland, hedges and scrub. Thornet Wood, an ancient woodland, is included in the site. In 1996 the site was declared a local nature reserve. It is linked with other areas of countryside including Petts Wood (q.v.) and Scadbury Park (q.v.). The London Loop runs across the south-east part of the site.

The Friends of Jubilee Country Park was set up in c.2005 to protect and conserve the park. The park is now managed by idverde UK, which in June 2015 was contracted by Bromley Council for the management of the borough's parks, green spaces and countryside service, a relationship that was extended in April 2019 for a further 16 years.