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Borough of Dartford
Shown within Kent
Geography
Status:	Borough
Region:	South East England
Admin. County:	Kent
Area: - Total	Ranked 278th 72.77 km²
Admin. HQ:	Dartford
ONS code:	29UD
Demographics
Population: - Total (2006 est.) - Density	Ranked 259th 89,900 1235 / km²
Ethnicity:	94.5% White 2.7% S.Asian
Politics
Dartford Borough Council http://www.dartford.gov.uk/
Leadership:	Leader & Cabinet
Executive:	Conservative
MP:	Howard Stoate

Dartford is a local government district and borough in northwest Kent, England. It has a population of 80,000 and is part of the London commuter belt. The town of Dartford is the administrative capital and is so named from the River Darent which flows through the town northwards to the River Thames, the northern border of the borough (in Saxon times the town was Darentford, in the Domesday Book Tarenteford) . To the west lies the London Borough of Bexley; to the south is Sevenoaks district; and the borough of Gravesham is to the east.

It gives its name to the Dartford Crossing of the River Thames, a pair of road tunnels (1963 and 1980), and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge (October 1991), linking Kent and Essex and linking sections of the M25 motorway.

Since 1997, Dartford's MP is Howard Stoate (Labour). The Mayor for the year May 2007 to May 2008 is Councillor Sheila East. The Leader of the Council, from February 2006, is Councillor Jeremy Kite (Conservative).

The current borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Dartford, Swanscombe Urban District, and part of Dartford Rural District. The parish councils listed below also come within its authority.

Traditionally, the main industries were papermaking, cement, and pharmaceuticals.

Foolscap (or rather Fool's Cap' - from the watermark of a boy wearing a dunce's hat) paper was invented at the papermills in Dartford and was produced until the adoption of ISO standard A4 paper in the 1970s.

High-quality chalk from Swanscombe and Northfleet was used by Blue Circle for the production of Portland cement until the end of the 20th century. Indeed, many properties in the areas have special covenants stating that any chalk beneath the properties is the property of Blue Circle Cement!

Until the 21st century, Wellcome (later part of Glaxo SmithKline) had a large production facility on Temple Hill and was a major employer in the area.

With the reduction in these traditional industries, Dartford has become a dormitory town for commuters to London.

A large area of heathland - Dartford Heath - lies to the west of the town. It is the original home of the Dartford Warbler, a small bird. North of the town are the Dartford Salt Marshes, bordering the River Thames where Joyce Green Hospital once stood. In August 1909 the Vickers Company, tentatively diversifying into aircraft production at nearby factories in Bexleyheath, Crayford and Erith, began to create a rudimentary airfield at Joyce Green. A road name in this low-lying area commemorates one-time Dartford MP Bob Dunn.

There are six railway stations in the borough: at Stone; Greenhithe (for Bluewater); Swanscombe and Dartford, all on the North Kent Line; and Longfield and Farningham Road on the Victoria - Medway Towns line. From Dartford there are three lines serving London and one to Gravesend, the Medway Towns and eastern Kent; for many services Dartford is the terminus.

A new international railway station opened at Ebbsfleet in the east of the borough on 19th November 2007. Seven high-speed services to Paris and five to Brussels run daily via the Channel Tunnel. The station will also carry commuters to St Pancras station in London in only 16 minutes, and to Stratford International (next to the 2012 Summer Olympics site) in just 10 minutes.

The first of Dartford's Fastrack bus services, using a combination of ordinary roads and dedicated 'bus tracks' commenced in March 2006. The service runs from the Temple Hill area of Dartford, through the town centre and on to Bluewater Shopping Centre, Greenhithe, Ebbsfleet station and Gravesend.

Plans for the area include large numbers of new housing and employment areas - including 'The Bridge' and Crossways to either side of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, areas around Greenhithe and a 740 acre site planned to contain five separate 'villages' in the Eastern Quarry near Bluewater Shopping Centre.

The Parish Church, Holy Trinity, is situated on the western bank of the River Darent, where a hermit would conduct travellers across the ford.

The church was originally 9th-century Saxon but with later Norman additions. In the 13th century a Royal Wedding was celebrated there, thus the choristers are entitled to wear scarlet cassocks. One of the more interesting items on display within the church is a brass plaque commemorating the work of Richard Trevithick, the pioneer of steam propulsion, who lived and worked in the town for a number of years.

The graveyard is situated in St Edmund's Pleasance on the summit of East Hill, which gave rise to a traditional (and derogatory) rhyme about the people of Dartford being '...buried above the steeple'. The church actually has no steeple: it has a tower featuring a ring of eight bells.

The oldest school in Dartford is 'The Grammar School', founded in 1576 by William D'Aeth, William Vaughan and Edward Gwyn. Originally located in the market, the school moved to its current location in West Dartford in the 19th century. Perhaps its most famous alumnus is Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, who is now commemorated by The Mick Jagger Centre for the performing arts, which was opened in the late 1990s.

• Bean parish
• Darenth parish
• Dartford town
• Longfield and New Barn parish
• Southfleet parish
• Stone parish
• Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley parish
• Swanscombe and Greenhithe parish
• Wilmington parish
• Joydens Wood in Wilmington parish

• The borough website

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