Thames Tributary Darent - Farningham

Thames Tributary Darent
The Darent continues to flow in a north westerly direction

Post to the north Dartford Road
Post to the west Farningham

Calf stock Lane
This may have been part of a prehistoric track which went across the North Downs.

Dartford Road
The Hundred Year Wood planted in 1994 to commemorate one hundred years of the Parish Council's existence.
Three clumps of Scots Pine planted as landscape features.


Franks Lane
Avenue of lime trees with rookery,
Picture gallery built by Vavasour Earle at the end of the lime avenue for his vast collection. It had caretakers' quarters at each end. Only the walls stand following Second World War incendiary bombing which damaged the glass roof and burned the oak floor.
Franks Hall. The name comes from a house a Frankish family built beside the river in the 13th and this is marked by lumps in the pasture on a grassy mound. The present house was built for Lancelot Bathhurst, a London alderman and represents a new era of prosperity.. In 1591 on a Square plan. Queen Elizabeth the First visited Bathurst here. By the 18th it was no longer owned by the Bathursts. In 1861 the courtyard was roofed over and a large staircase built in the space. In 1877 the owner was Vavasour Earle. In 1880 it was bought by Mr. Power, said to be the great-uncle of film-star, Tyrone Power but it was re-possessed by the Earl of Bathurst. In the 1930s it was bought by Alfred Morris Wheeler, a wealthy property owner and draper from Bexley, and in the Second World War, it was a maternity home while the Wheelers lived in The Lodge. It has since become headquarters of a Findlay Publicatrions who publish technical magazines which undertook considerable restoration before 1982. Grade I Listed
Franks Generating Station. Ruined building on a leat to the east of the main Darent river, used a turbine to generate power for the estate.
Franks Farm. Part of the Franks Hall estate. From the early 1900s to 1936 the land was farmed by Mr. Langland.
Abington
Cricket Ground. –Horton Kirby Cricket Club
Little Franks

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