Thames Tributary Darent - Farningham
Thames Tributary Darent
The Darent continues flowing north west
Post to the east Franks
Post to the south Farningham
Calfstock Lane
Farningham Wood. This ancient woodland on a hill top and designated as a Local Nature Reserve and SSSI. It is a site for the Small-Leaved Lime, a rare tree and there are several other unusual plants here including the largest British colony of the Deptford Pink.
The Folly. Site of Roman villa
Dartford Road
87 Chequers late 18th. Traditional ale house. Outdoor benches on the steep High Street opposite a butchers.
Flint wall with recess called a bee bole shaped to take an old straw hive called a skep.
Bridge. The river is crossed by a bridge built originally in 1773. The road slopes down to it from each side. Here Charles Dickens spent hours fishing for trout. In 1833, the bridge was widened by eight feet because of traffic on the main road.
Screen under the bridge. Built to protect the ford from water wear – it looks like an underwater bridge that used dumped stone and rubble. Said to be a cattle screen and dates from the mid-16th.
Ford - the river is shallow here and there was a ford before there was a bridge - you can see where it entered the water.
Farningham
V 2 attack 14 February. In field. Damage to houses and shops. 2.23am
High Street
Narrow road which Leads down into Farningham, once part of the main highway from London to Maidstone, Ashford and the channel ports.
Bridge Cottage, 19th Gothic
Farningham mill. Domesday Book noted a water mill in the Mane 'Femingehame" in 1087. Built by the Colyer family to replace Roper's manor house of 1610 "a corn mill and built about 1790 to grind flour for London bakeries. The miller used to ride to London once a week for the cash. The stable weather vane is a life side replica of a trout found in the mill pond in 1808. House, stables etc The mill is the last standing along Darent.
Folly garden house, three turrets in the grounds. Shell lined summerhouse.
Sparrow's Herne 17th cottage, probably the original village inn, added to in the mid-18th and early 19th
Lion Hotel. 18th coaching inn, part of a Tudor building at the back. Once a more formal hotel, frequented by such as Charles Dickens and George Grossmith for the fishing. The Lion’s staff could change a team of horses in three minutes!
Hardware shop which had an iron plough, over the alley leading to a second forge where the bellows remained. It was put there in 1925
Old pub which was the Bricklayers Arms, opposite Sparepenny Lane was converted into flats between the wars when one of the occupants was Patience Strong, famous writer of popular, home-spun verse
London Road
London Hotel
23 Lime tree house
Sparepenny Lane
18th name when a penny could be 'spared' by using this lane instead of the Sevenoaks turnpike at the other end of the village.
The Mount. 1820, Yellow brick. Regency for William Colyer
Mount Pleasant 1720. Red brick,
Bypass
Farningham by Pass – The Swanley by pass between Ruxley and Wrotham built by KCC in 1926. The approach road between it and the Dartford Bypass was agreed in 1937. Numerous road development schemes were devised by the Ministry of Transport to create work for ex service-men after the Great War. One of these was the construction of a bridge across the Darent to carry a diversion of the road outside the village. Opened in 1923, it has been superseded by the motorway close by.
The Darent continues flowing north west
Post to the east Franks
Post to the south Farningham
Calfstock Lane
Farningham Wood. This ancient woodland on a hill top and designated as a Local Nature Reserve and SSSI. It is a site for the Small-Leaved Lime, a rare tree and there are several other unusual plants here including the largest British colony of the Deptford Pink.
The Folly. Site of Roman villa
Dartford Road
87 Chequers late 18th. Traditional ale house. Outdoor benches on the steep High Street opposite a butchers.
Flint wall with recess called a bee bole shaped to take an old straw hive called a skep.
Bridge. The river is crossed by a bridge built originally in 1773. The road slopes down to it from each side. Here Charles Dickens spent hours fishing for trout. In 1833, the bridge was widened by eight feet because of traffic on the main road.
Screen under the bridge. Built to protect the ford from water wear – it looks like an underwater bridge that used dumped stone and rubble. Said to be a cattle screen and dates from the mid-16th.
Ford - the river is shallow here and there was a ford before there was a bridge - you can see where it entered the water.
Farningham
V 2 attack 14 February. In field. Damage to houses and shops. 2.23am
High Street
Narrow road which Leads down into Farningham, once part of the main highway from London to Maidstone, Ashford and the channel ports.
Bridge Cottage, 19th Gothic
Farningham mill. Domesday Book noted a water mill in the Mane 'Femingehame" in 1087. Built by the Colyer family to replace Roper's manor house of 1610 "a corn mill and built about 1790 to grind flour for London bakeries. The miller used to ride to London once a week for the cash. The stable weather vane is a life side replica of a trout found in the mill pond in 1808. House, stables etc The mill is the last standing along Darent.
Folly garden house, three turrets in the grounds. Shell lined summerhouse.
Sparrow's Herne 17th cottage, probably the original village inn, added to in the mid-18th and early 19th
Lion Hotel. 18th coaching inn, part of a Tudor building at the back. Once a more formal hotel, frequented by such as Charles Dickens and George Grossmith for the fishing. The Lion’s staff could change a team of horses in three minutes!
Hardware shop which had an iron plough, over the alley leading to a second forge where the bellows remained. It was put there in 1925
Old pub which was the Bricklayers Arms, opposite Sparepenny Lane was converted into flats between the wars when one of the occupants was Patience Strong, famous writer of popular, home-spun verse
London Road
London Hotel
23 Lime tree house
Sparepenny Lane
18th name when a penny could be 'spared' by using this lane instead of the Sevenoaks turnpike at the other end of the village.
The Mount. 1820, Yellow brick. Regency for William Colyer
Mount Pleasant 1720. Red brick,
Bypass
Farningham by Pass – The Swanley by pass between Ruxley and Wrotham built by KCC in 1926. The approach road between it and the Dartford Bypass was agreed in 1937. Numerous road development schemes were devised by the Ministry of Transport to create work for ex service-men after the Great War. One of these was the construction of a bridge across the Darent to carry a diversion of the road outside the village. Opened in 1923, it has been superseded by the motorway close by.
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