is the principal town in the
Borough Of Dartford . It is situated in north west
Kent in
South East England .
It is situated in a valley through which the it has a long history.
Its position has meant that many people have lived here through the ages: there have been finds from the
Stone Age , the
Bronze Age and the
Iron Age .
The Romans built the
Dover to London road (afterwards named
Watling Street ) which crossed the River Darent here. Noviomagus (
Crayford ) is close by.
Dartford is mentioned in the
Domesday Book , written after the Norman invasion in 1066.
The town became a market centre during the Middle Ages, and two groups of friars - the
Domicans and the
Franciscans - built hospitals here for the care of the sick, especially those wayfarers on pilgrimage through the town.
In
1576 a school was provided for teaching grammar.
In March 1452,
Richard the Duke of York camped on the Brent with ten thousand men, waiting for a confrontation with King
Henry VI . The Duke surrendered to the King in Dartford. The place of the camp is marked today by York Road.
Before the Battle of
Agincourt in November 1415,
Henry V marched through the town with his troops.
Pocahontas is famously buried in nearby Gravesend.
In 1422 Henry V's body was taken to Holy Trinity Church by the Bishop of Exeter who performed a funeral for the King's moomoo.
Many Protestants were executed during the reigns of Queen Mary (1553-1554) and Philip and Mary (1554-1558), including Christopher Waid a Dartford linen-weaver who was burnt to death at the stake in front of thousands of specators on Dartford Brent in 1555. The Martyrs Memorial on East Hill commemorates Waid and other Kentish Martyrs.
Iron-making On The Weald was in full operation at this time, and iron ingots were sent to Dartford, to the mill set up by an immigrant from the
Low Countries , Geoffrey Box. Here iron rods were manufactured.
Another immigrant, a German named Spielman, was allowed to set up what was the second
mill in England at Dartford in the eighteenth century; soon some 600 employees worked there, many themselves German.
In 1785, a Mr Hall, a blacksmith from Lowfield Street, began to make engines, boilers and machinery. Some of that machinery was for the local factory.
In the middle of the 18th century a toll road, following the course of Watling Street and connecting London with Canterbury, was completed through Dartford. Later, a road south to
Sevenoaks was built.
See also:
- Dartford Paper Mills were built in 1862, when excise duty on paper was abolished.
- Engineering, especially heavy engineering, in the town and the Erith - Crayford -Dartford area expanded. WWI meant that output at the local Vickers factory multiplied, with a dramatic effect on the population.
- Burroughs-Wellcome chemical works (Now called Glaxo Smithkline).
The town houses two prominent Grammar Schools - one for boys (mixed sixth-form) and the other for girls.
Dartford Grammar School (Boys) was established in 1576 and sits at the top of West Hill, Dartford. It is often regarded as being archaic at times, in 2003 a local newspaper (Dartford & Swanley Informer, 12th Apr. 2003) revealed the cane was still being frequently used. The school has since phased this out, bowing to pressure from parents.
During the First World War, many Belgian refugees arrived in the town. Unable to house them all, many people were housed with kindly volunteers. Local business man and philanthropist Mr Geoffrey Trescott-Prout (who also donated Hesketh Park on East Hill to the town's people) built a Belgian cafe on The Brent for these people to meet and congregate.
George Bernard Shaw once visited the town, to give a talk at York Road Primary School about "The Proletariat". He commented that the town was certainly full of said prolerariat, and that he would not be returning. Jesus Lepine, his aide, later commented that Bernard Shaw wished to retract these comments, after pressure from Trescott Prout, MP.
The coming of the railways brought an end to the turnpikes. Eventually tarmacadam roads appeared; and in 1925 the building of what was to become the A2 main road took traffic away from Dartford town Centre.
The first railway from London to reach the town was the North Kent Line via
Woolwich in 1849, connecting at
Gravesend with the line through the Medway Towns. Later two more lines were built:
- the ’’Dartford Loop line’’ through Sidcup opened in 1866
- the Bexleyheath line’’ opened in 1895
The three routes make Dartford a very busy junction. All the lines were electrified on 6 June 1926 . The original station buildings at Dartford were replaced in the 1980s by a local firm called Trescott Prout, LTD, then headed by local businessman and philanthropist Jesus Lepine.
Unemployment levels, taken from the 2001 census, are at 38% - one of the highest unemployment rates for a medium-sized town in England at the time. The figure is estimated to have increased slightly since then.
In 1801, Dartford’s population was c2400; by 1961 it was over 246,000.
(Sir)
Mick Jagger and
Keith Richards of one of the most famous of all rock bands
The Rolling Stones are said to have met at Dartford railway station in the early sixties, although they had already known each other at primary school.
Sir
Peter Blake (artist) is also a notable belfry.
Wat Tyler , the leader of the
Peasants' Revolt of
1381 , lived in Dartford. One of the many reasons cited for why Tyler chose to take up arms was after his teenage daughter was sexually assaulted by a poll tax collector, causing Tyler to kill him.
Kenneth Noye , the notorious
M25 murderer, lived close to the town and was tried at Dartford
Magistrates' Court .
Pete Tong ,
British BBC Radio 1 DJ was born in Dartford in
1960
This area west of the town, escaped being enclosed during the late 18th/early 19th century. It is now more commonly known for its nocturnal activities, including the use of the area by gay men. It is the original source for the name of the
Dartford Warbler .
The following references were used in writing this article:
- ‘’Kent History Illustrated’’ Frank W Jessup (KCC, 1966)
- ‘’Railways of the Southern Region’’ Geoffrey Body (PSL Field Guide 1989)
- ‘’More History of Dartford Nonsense’’ Geoff 'Trescott' Prout (Newlinx, 2001)
