![Chimney, South Darenth - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Chimney%2C_South_Darenth_-_geograph.org.uk_-_919320.jpg)
South Darenth is a village in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Horton Kirby and South Darenth in the
Sevenoaks District
Sevenoaks is a local government district in west Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Sevenoaks.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Sevenoaks Urban District, Sevenoaks Rural District and part of Dartford Ru ...
of
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is located 4.2 miles east of
Swanley
Swanley is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England, southeast of central London, adjacent to the Greater London boundary and within the M25 motorway periphery. The population at the 2011 census was 16,226.
History
...
& 4.4 miles south of
Dartford.
Village
South Darenth boasts a
supermarket, a cafe, a newsagent, a hairdresser and a post office/pharmacy, as well as three public houses: the Jolly Miller on East Hill, The Queen on New Road and The Bridges on the corner of Horton Road and Station Road, which was run by former wrestler Wayne Bridges. The small retained fire station has now closed. The village hosts a small brewery on St Margaret's Farm, called Millis, which supplies some of the pubs in the surrounding area. The South Darenth Village Society organises a number of events, often in conjunction with neighboring Horton Kirby. An Independent Travel Agency operates from Willow Cottage in the center of the village. The paper mill, which defines the village, was closed in February 2003 and is now a redevelopment of 210 homes and four new businesses: Chris Parry Handmade Jewellery, The Mill Osteopath Clinic, Bow Beauty Salon, and
The Co-operative Food
Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom.
Prior to reintroducing the brand in 2016, the group used " The Co-operative" branding, which is still used by a number of consumers' co- ...
.
History
The village history is relatively recent as it was developed around the Horton Kirby mill, originally built in 1820 by Henry Hall. Before the mill there were only a few farms and some small cottages for workers, as well as a
forge. The mill was at first a
flour mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated ...
, which employed a handful of local people.
Some years later the site was expanded and converted into a
paper mill which took up a much larger area, and included a small tunnel through which the
River Darent
The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford, as illustrated by the adjacent photograph, snapped at high tide. 'Darenth' is frequen ...
was diverted. The paper produced was said to be a good quality, used for magazines and plans.
Towards the end of the 19th century the mill further expanded, with a boiler house and large chimney built in 1881. In 1918 an extra 70 ft of circular stock was added to the chimney made of mostly red brick to ensure that emissions escaped from the valley. The chimney is now
Grade 2 listed.
Accommodation was needed for the workers, so small terraced houses were built close by. The mill ceased operating in February 2003 and has since been redeveloped extensively for housing. A
Co-op Food
Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom.
Prior to reintroducing the brand in 2016, the group used " The Co-operative" branding, which is still used by a number of consumers' co- ...
supermarket is located in one of the listed mill buildings.
South of the village is the
Chatham Main Line, which runs between London and the East Kent coast. The viaduct, built in 1859-60, has 10 arches each approximately 10 metres wide and 20 metres in height. Arch 2 goes over a footpath where arch 3 spans across the Horton road, the 6th across the River Darent and the 8th over a small road leading to an industrial estate. The viaduct was designed by Victorian architect
Joseph Cubitt
Joseph Cubitt (24 November 1811 – 7 December 1872) was an English civil engineer. Amongst other projects, he designed the Blackfriars Railway Bridge over the River Thames in London.
Early life
Cubitt was born in Horning, Norfolk, on 24 Nove ...
, known for designing the original
Blackfriars Railway Bridge
Blackfriars Railway Bridge is a railway bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and the Millennium Bridge.
First bridge
There have been two structures with the name. The first bridge was opened in 1864 and was d ...
in London. It was built by teams of Irish
'navvies' for the
London, Chatham & Dover Railway
The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and no ...
.
Farningham Road station
Farningham Road railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving the villages of Farningham, Sutton-at-Hone, Horton Kirby and South Darenth, Kent. It is down the line from and is situated between and .
The station and all t ...
to the west of the village was opened in December 1860. A
signal box was constructed in 1886. The station previously had some sidings, as well as a water tank, which was removed in 1939.
At the end of the 20th century there were protests about the proposed
High Speed 1 rail line passing close to the village, including a new viaduct parallel to the existing line. The planned line was later diverted away from the area into
Thurrock
Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...
.
The Farningham home for little boys was located south of the village, and organised on the ‘cottage homes’ principle. In 1866 the foundation stone for the new buildings was laid by the Prince of Wales, and the home was opened the next year by the Earl of Shaftesbury.
Its chapel (standing on high ground) once had a spire but was destroyed in the
Great Storm of 1987. The home was officially closed in 1961 and saw various educational uses until its reopening as a retirement village in 1978.
The fire station
The village had a fire station for over 100 years. It first served the paper mill with a small truck, in case of a fire in the mill. After a few years a small fire station was built in the centre of the village which served local communities with a horse and cart. As the villages grew, so did the crew, and new appliances were acquired. The fire crew had a wide presence in the community, visiting schools and local youth groups as well as attending village fetes.
The station had been threatened two times before its eventual closure. The first proposal led to protests with wide community support, which helped secure the station’s survival for the following 30 years. In 2012,
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the administrative county of Kent and the unitary authority area of Medway, covering a geographical area south of London, to the coast and including major shipping route ...
proposed to close the station. Meetings were held between local communities and KFRS, and thousands signed a petition in opposition to the closure. After more than a century of firefighting in the area the station was closed due to budget cuts at the end of 2013. The event was marked by a ceremony attended by local residents and councillors.
Transport
Roads
The A225 road passes through the village from
Dartford to
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...
.
Rail
South Darenth is served by
Farningham Road railway station
Farningham Road railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving the villages of Farningham, Sutton-at-Hone, Horton Kirby and South Darenth, Kent. It is down the line from and is situated between and .
The station and all trai ...
with
Southeastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
services to
London Victoria
Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...
via
Bromley South and to
Dover Priory
The Priory of St. Mary the Virgin and St. Martin of the New Work, or Newark, commonly called Dover Priory, was a priory at Dover in southeast England. It was variously independent in rule, then occupied by canons regular of the Augustinian r ...
via
Chatham and
Canterbury East.
Farningham Road
National Rail
Buses
South Darenth is served by Arriva Kent Thameside route 414, connecting it with Dartford.
See also
* Darenth
Darenth is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles south east of Dartford and 4.6 miles north east of Swanley.
History
The parish was part of Axstane Hundred and later Dartford Rural Dis ...
References
External links
Horton Kirby Paper Mill
{{authority control
Villages in Kent