Swanscombe
/ˈswɒnzkəm/ is a village in the
Borough of Dartford in
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 ...
, and 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
Swanscombe and Greenhithe
Swanscombe and Greenhithe is a civil parish in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. Swanscombe and Greenhithe is a recent renaming of the ancient parish of Swanscombe, covering Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It includes much of the Ebbsfleet Vall ...
. It is 4.4 miles west of
Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of
Dartford.
History
Prehistory
![Swanscombe bear skull](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Swanscombe_bear_skull.jpg)
Bone fragments and tools, representing the earliest humans known to have lived in England, have been found from 1935 onwards at the ''Barnfield Pit'' about outside the village. This site is now the
Swanscombe Heritage Park
Swanscombe Skull Site or Swanscombe Heritage Park is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Swanscombe in north-west Kent, England. It contains two Geological Conservation Review sites and a National Nature Reserve. The park lies ...
.
Swanscombe Man
Swanscombe /ˈswɒnzkəm/ is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford.
History
Prehistory
Bone fragments an ...
(now thought to be female) was a late ''
Homo erectus'' or an early
Archaic ''Homo sapiens''. According to the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
, however, the remains are those of a 400,000-year-old early
Neanderthal
Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While the ...
woman.
The c. 400,000-year-old skull fragments are kept at the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
with a replica on display at the Dartford Museum. Lower levels of the Barnfield Pit yielded evidence of an even earlier, more primitive, human, dubbed
Clactonian Man
The Clactonian is the name given by archaeologists to an industry of European flint tool manufacture that dates to the early part of the interglacial period known as the Hoxnian, the Mindel- Riss or the Holstein stages (c. 400,000 years ago). C ...
.
Nearby digs on land for the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link revealed a c. 400,000-year-old site with human tools and the remains of a
Straight-tusked Elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus''), and evidence of
water vole,
pine vole,
newt
A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqua ...
s,
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...
s etc., indicating a site with standing water similar to a swamp.
Viking era
![St Peter and St Paul, Swanscombe, Kent - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/St_Peter_and_St_Paul%2C_Swanscombe%2C_Kent_-_geograph.org.uk_-_326667.jpg)
During archaeological work undertaken at
Ebbsfleet, before construction of
High Speed 1, an
Anglo-Saxon mill and a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
villa
A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
were found near Swanscombe.
From
Crayford to the
Isle of Thanet
The Isle of Thanet () is a peninsula forming the easternmost part of Kent, England. While in the past it was separated from the mainland by the Wantsum Channel, it is no longer an island.
Archaeological remains testify to its settlement in an ...
the
Danes occupied the land and terrorised the
Saxon inhabitants, giving rise to the appearance of
Denehole
A denehole (alternatively dene hole or dene-hole) is an underground structure consisting of a number of small chalk caves entered by a vertical shaft. The name is given to certain caves or excavations in England, which have been popularly suppose ...
s, of which many have survived to this day. These were
well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
s, cut deep into the
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
landscape, thought to be for concealing people and goods. They have a simple vertical shaft with short tunnels bearing horizontally from the base.
The
Vikings
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...
settled throughout the winter along the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
estuary with their ships and established camps in Kent and
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
. In surveying the distribution of the many deneholes along the Thames corridor it would appear that Essex, on the northern shore of the Thames, sustained a greater influx of Vikings than did Kent, there being considerably more recorded deneholes in Essex, particularly around
Orsett
Orsett is a village, former civil parish and ecclesiastical parish located within Thurrock unitary district in Essex, England, situated around 5 km north-east of Grays. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1771.
History
It has historic ...
and Grays – see
Hangman's Wood
Hangman's Wood and Deneholes is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Little Thurrock in Essex. The deneholes, which were created by medieval chalk mining, are a Scheduled Monument.
The name Hangmans Wood dates back to at least t ...
.
Archaeological digs and centuries of tilling have revealed a Danish
castle and settlement, with pottery, anchors, weapons and some ships' timbers. The settlement was later variously called ''Suinescamp'' (in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086), ''Sweinscamp'' and ''Swanscamp''. Legend derives the name from the Viking king
Sweyn Forkbeard, who landed in
East Anglia and became
King of England in 1013. The father of
Canute
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
, Sweyn died at
Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to:
Places
* Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England
** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich
* Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England
** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency)
* Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...
, on the
Trent
Trent may refer to:
Places Italy
* Trento in northern Italy, site of the Council of Trent United Kingdom
* Trent, Dorset, England, United Kingdom Germany
* Trent, Germany, a municipality on the island of Rügen United States
* Trent, California, ...
, in 1014. Canute (Cnut) died in
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...
in 1035, and his sons were unable to hold on to his empire. But the name of Swanscombe cannot derive from Sweyn Forkbeard, as the place-name is first attested in 695 AD.
Other research suggests that deneholes might have been dug as a method of extracting chalk for use on the fields above, or the mining may have been a by-product of defence. In any case the practice reached a peak around the 13th – 14th centuries, long after the Viking raids had ceased.
Norman Conquest
It is claimed, apparently without evidence, that in 1066 Swanscombe locals massed an army in defiance of
William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
and so won the right to continue their ancient privileges, including the tradition of passing inheritance by
gavelkind
Gavelkind () was a system of land tenure chiefly associated with the Celtic law in Ireland and Wales and with the legal traditions of the English county of Kent.
The word may have originated from the Old Irish phrases ''Gabhaltas-cinne'' or ...
. The men of Kent met William near Swanscombe, where the Saxons concealed their number with branches, thus intimidating the Norman army. Again according to legend, they were offered a truce that left Kent as the only region in England that William left unconquered. Hence in this area of England alone, Kent County Council adopted the motto ''Invicta'', meaning unconquered.
Churches
Richard Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
designed All Saints' Church in 1894, built out of knapped flint for the workers of the cement industry. It survives as a rare example of his design, covering several
Gothic Revival styles throughout its architecture and features, such as
Decorated tracery on the windows and
Arts and Crafts Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...
woodwork in the interior.
The flint parish church of
St Peter and St Paul is mostly of the 13th century. However various sections contain Early Norman material. The tower and chancel contain 11th- and 12th-century work respectively, although the tower was reconstructed in the 13th century and the chancel arch is from the 14th century. The lower section of the tower contains some Saxon material. The tower is topped with a broached shingled spire, and in 1902 the church was struck by lightning causing extensive damage. A large-scale restoration was undertaken by Jabez Bignall in 1872-73 and again by him after the damage from the lightning strike. The parish register dates from 1559.
George Cecil Renouard is buried in the Swanscombe
churchyard.
Second World War
Just after 8 o'clock in the evening of Sunday 10 November 1940 a German bomb crashed down direct into The Morning Star Inn, causing in a single explosion Swanscombe's worst wartime disaster. All that was left after the explosion was, where the pub had stood, a "heap of bricks and twisted rafters"¹ surrounding the smouldering pit that had been the cellar, although the staircase leading to the clubroom upstairs extended up out of the wreckage. Distressed families of those known to be in the pub at the time gathered at the street corners awaiting news of the casualties as bodies were gradually recovered from the ruins.
The official casualty lists revealed the death toll to be 27, with six others seriously injured and five people slightly hurt.
:"The landlord was amongst the dead, although his wife and son survived. The barmaid who was killed had given notice the week before the raid but had stayed on that evening because of the match. One of the other victims was a merchant seaman on seven days' leave who had spent two days travelling from Scotland to see his wife and children and was having a drink with his father in the pub at the time of the bombing: both were killed."
On 30 July 1940 another
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
raid led to the death of more than a dozen civilians, with 22 seriously injured. Its proximity to London and position under the German flight path to the city meant that Swanscombe fell victim to this kind of damage several times during the
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
.
On 30 July 1944 a V1 rocket landed on Taunton Road. Half of one side of the road was wiped out. 13 were killed and 22 seriously injured.
Governance
Swanscombe was originally part of
Axstane Hundred and in 1836 also became part of
Dartford Poor Law Union. When
Dartford Rural District
Dartford Rural District was a rural district with an area of in the county of Kent, England. In 1971 it had a population of 64,561 and an electorate of 43,911. At dissolution it was the most populous rural district council in Kent, but had o ...
was created in 1894 Swanscombe parish became a member, as did most of the parishes of Axstane, but in 1926 it separated to form its own
Urban District
Urban district may refer to:
* District
* Urban area
* Quarter (urban subdivision)
* Neighbourhood
Specific subdivisions in some countries:
* Urban districts of Denmark
* Urban districts of Germany
* Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...
. However under
Local Government Act 1972 Swanscombe was joined to
Dartford District in 1974. Although it lost its
Urban District Council
In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...
the area continued as a
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 ...
, now under the aegis of Dartford Borough Council, and in 1981 Swanscombe Parish Council was upgraded to
Swanscombe and Greenhithe
Swanscombe and Greenhithe is a civil parish in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. Swanscombe and Greenhithe is a recent renaming of the ancient parish of Swanscombe, covering Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It includes much of the Ebbsfleet Vall ...
Town Council
A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities.
Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions.
Republic of Ireland
Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second t ...
, thus electing its own mayor for the first time. The name recognises the importance of the settlement of
Greenhithe
Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend.
Area
In the past, Greenhithe's waterfront on the estuary of the ri ...
within the parish.
Cement industry
![LDCementThamesPlants](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/LDCementThamesPlants.png)
The southeast of England has abundant resources of
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
and
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
. The first mining activity known in the area was for
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...
, a rock commonly found across the
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and
South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...
and in the
Weald
The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and Kent. It has three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the ...
. This was used for tools.
Swanscombe was important in the early history of
cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...
. The first cement manufacturing works near Swanscombe were opened at
Northfleet by
James Parker, around 1792, making "
Roman cement
Roman cement is a substance developed by James Parker in the 1780s, being patented in 1796.
The name is misleading, as it is nothing like any material used by the Romans, but was a "natural cement" made by burning septaria – nodules that are ...
" from cement stone brought from the
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is derive ...
.
James Frost
James Martin Frost (born 22 August 1986) is the guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist of Welsh band The Automatic, and guitarist and backing vocalist for Cardiff-based band Effort. As well as his musical duties for The Automatic, Frost ha ...
opened a works at Swanscombe in 1825, using chalk from Galley Hill, having patented a new cement called British Cement. The Swanscombe plant was subsequently acquired by John Bazley White & Co, which became the largest component of
Blue Circle Industries
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...
when it formed in 1900. It finally shut down in 1990. Between 1840 and 1930 it was the largest cement plant in Britain. By 1882 several cement manufacturers were operating across the north Kent region, but the resulting dust
pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
drove the people of Swanscombe to take legal action against the local cement works. Despite various technological innovations, the problem persisted into the 1950s, with telegraph lines over an inch thick in white dust. Modern
cement kiln
Cement kilns are used for the pyroprocessing stage of manufacture of portland and other types of hydraulic cement, in which calcium carbonate reacts with silica-bearing minerals to form a mixture of calcium silicates. Over a billion tonnes of ...
s in Kent using chimneys 170 m (550 feet) in height are now said to be the cleanest in the world. However, the neighbouring
Medway towns
Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to f ...
are reported to be the most polluted inhabited area in the
UK, and the cement industry contributes to
acid rain in
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
.
Blue Circle
The Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM), later known as Blue Circle Industries, came to the area in 1900 and by 1920 owned four local factories located at Swanscombe,
Northfleet,
Greenhithe
Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend.
Area
In the past, Greenhithe's waterfront on the estuary of the ri ...
and
Stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
.
By 1970 the North Kent cement industry had evolved to become the largest centre for the production of cement in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, supporting a long tradition of research and development to perfect the processes used in the manufacture of chalk-based products. Since then the industry has declined considerably due to the potential for more economic manufacture elsewhere, and by 2007 only two operational kilns remained, both at Northfleet. all have been removed.
Developments
One of the large quarries created as a legacy of the cement industry, between
Watling Street
Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main ...
and the village of
Stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
, is the site of the
Bluewater (shopping centre)
Bluewater Shopping Centre (commonly referred to as Bluewater) is an out-of-town shopping centre in Stone (postally Greenhithe), Kent, England, outside the M25 motorway, east south east of London's centre. Opened on 16 March 1999 in a former cha ...
, one of the largest such centres in Europe.
An adjacent quarry is to be given up for housing – more than 6,000 houses will be built there. The development by
Land Securities
Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...
, known as 'Eastern Quarry', will consist of three primary schools, a secondary school, a health and social care centre and more than of new parkland, lakes and woodland.
''Palaeoloxodon antiquus''
The skeleton of an ancient species of
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
has been preserved in the
sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...
near what was once the edge of a quite small lake revealed by excavations in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The skeleton was surrounded by flint tools suggesting it was butchered for its
meat by early humans of that era. Only a few elephant skeletons have been found in Britain. The Swanscombe example was discovered in 2004 by Palaeolithic archaeologist Francis Wenban-Smith and was identified by the Natural History Museum as the straight-tusked ''
Palaeoloxodon antiquus
The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reac ...
'', which became extinct more than 100,000 years ago.
Cricket club
There is one cricket club with its home in Swanscombe, Swanscombe and Greenhithe 1880 CC. Its home ground is at Broomfield Park. The club dates back to 1880.
http://swanscombegreenhithe.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp
''swanscombegreenhithe.play-cricket.com''
Demography
At the 2001 UK census the Swanscombe electoral ward had a population of 6,418.
The ethnicity was 96.6% white, 1.1% mixed race, 1.2% Asian, 0.8% black and 0.3% other.
The place of birth of residents was 96.6% United Kingdom, 0.5% Republic of Ireland, 0.5% other Western European countries and 2.4% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 72.7% Christian, 0.3% Buddhist, 0.3% Hindu, 0.3% Sikh and 0.2% Muslim. 17.3% were recorded as having no religion, 0.2% had an alternative religion and 8.7% did not state their religion.[
The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 46% in full-time employment, 11.9% in part-time employment, 6.5% self-employed, 3.8% unemployed, 1.4% students with jobs, 2.5% students without jobs, 11.1% retired, 8.7% looking after home or family, 5% permanently sick or disabled and 3.2% economically inactive for other reasons. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 7.7% had a ]higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...
qualification or the equivalent, compared with 20% nationwide. The sector of employment of residents was 21.6% retail, 9.3% health and social work, 15.7% manufacturing, 10.5% construction, 10.4% real estate, 4.7% education, 8.6% transport and communications, 4.7% public administration, 3.7% hotels and restaurants, 4.4% finance, 0.7% agriculture and 5.7% other.[
]
Transport
Rail
Swanscombe railway station
Swanscombe railway station is a railway station that serves the village of Swanscombe in north Kent, England. It is down the line from .
History
The first station, a small wooden halt, was opened in 1908. In 1930 the present station was open ...
connects the village with National Rail
National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the ...
services to Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...
via Woolwich Arsenal and London St Pancras
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a London station group, central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Bor ...
and London Charing Cross via Sidcup
Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of Bromley and Greenwich. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the ...
, Gravesend and Rainham.
Buses
Swanscombe is served by Arriva Kent Thameside
Arriva Kent Thameside is a bus operator based in North-West Kent, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva. The company operates services in Northfleet, Gravesend & Dartford as part of the Arriva Southern Counties division from their Northfleet ...
routes B, 306, 480, 481, 484, 485B and 490, which connect it with Bluewater, Dartford, Ebbsfleet, Gravesend, Greenhithe
Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend.
Area
In the past, Greenhithe's waterfront on the estuary of the ri ...
and Northfleet.
See also
* Swanscombe railway station
Swanscombe railway station is a railway station that serves the village of Swanscombe in north Kent, England. It is down the line from .
History
The first station, a small wooden halt, was opened in 1908. In 1930 the present station was open ...
* The Ebbsfleet Academy
* London Resort
The London Resort is a proposed theme park and resort in Swanscombe, Kent, first announced on 8 October 2012 and since repeatedly delayed. Examination of its application for planning permission has also been delayed. Eventually, a decision wil ...
proposed theme park and resort on Swanscombe Peninsula
References
External links
Swanscombe archaeology
Swansconme Skull Site National Nature Reserve
PDF file Swanscombe in the County plan
Government regeneration scheme
Full local history
By the Vice-Chairman of Dartford Historical and Antiquarian Society
Visit Swanscombe Town Guide
{{authority control
Borough of Dartford
Villages in Kent
Thames Gateway
Populated places on the River Thames