149-741: Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford , Kent , England. It is located 18 mi (29 km) south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary , is Thurrock in Essex , which can be reached via the Dartford Crossing . To its east lies the Borough of Gravesham and to the south
298-871: A German naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas , as a valley that once connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents. By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the Volga–Don Canal and the Volga, the other following the Kuma–Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural River, and the third abandoning
447-643: A Semitic term for west , this being either Akkadian erebu meaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) or Phoenician 'ereb 'evening, west', which is at the origin of Arabic maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav . Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor", while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to
596-818: A boundary along the Terek and Kuban rivers, so southwards from the Kuma and the Manych, but still with the Caucasus entirely in Asia. However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest, and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps. Some view the separation of Eurasia into Asia and Europe as
745-449: A car or van, this was 6.6% above the national average, however still marginally lower than South East's record and national-high of 81.4%. 1.0% of the population lived in a communal establishment in the area. As to homes, as 12.6% of properties in the area are detached, these form a smaller minority than the regional and national averages (at 28.0% and 22.3% of dwellings respectively). Its people in 2011 were more economically active than
894-513: A centre for the pharmaceutical industry . There had been a large power station at Littlebrook on the Thames, to the north of the town, from 1939 until its closure in 2015. The station, including one of the tallest chimneys in the UK, was completely demolished in 2019. The Mazda motor manufacturer has its UK head office at the large Thames-side Crossways Business Park. Thomas Walter Jennings created
1043-582: A common currency, the euro , and participate in the European single market and a customs union . A large bloc of countries, the Schengen Area , have also abolished internal border and immigration controls. Regular popular elections take place every five years within the EU; they are considered to be the second-largest democratic elections in the world after India's . The EU is the third-largest economy in
1192-536: A funeral. In March 1452, Richard, Duke of York , camped at the Brent allegedly 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, Dartford. The 16th century saw significant changes to the hitherto agrarian basis of the market in Dartford, as new industries began to take shape ( see below ). The priory
1341-406: A large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. Prior to the adoption of the current convention that includes mountain divides, the border between Europe and Asia had been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity , but always as a series of rivers, seas and straits that were believed to extend an unknown distance east and north from
1490-481: A legacy from the club's rugby origins, when the rugby players simply removed the sleeves from their old rugby shirts to create running vests. Dartfordians Rugby Football Club have five adult teams and a large youth section, and play their home matches at War Memorial Club House on Bourne Road. Their first team currently plays in London 1 South, following promotion from London 2 South-East in the 2017–18 season. Dartford
1639-763: A precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension of Muscovy began to include North Asia . Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of Eurasia into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the Turkish Straits , the Black Sea , the Kerch Strait , the Sea of Azov and
SECTION 10
#17327654571321788-711: A residue of Eurocentrism : "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. [...]." During the 2.5 million years of the Pleistocene , numerous cold phases called glacials ( Quaternary ice age ), or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in Europe and North America, occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. The long glacial periods were separated by more temperate and shorter interglacials which lasted about 10,000–15,000 years. The last cold episode of
1937-685: A result, the Reconquista took the greater part of eight hundred years, in which period a long list of Alfonsos, Sanchos, Ordoños, Ramiros, Fernandos, and Bermudos would be fighting their Christian rivals as much as the Muslim invaders. During the Dark Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe, respectively. Eventually
2086-530: A similar but not identical area to the borough. The Member of Parliament (MP) since 2010 has been Gareth Johnson (Conservative). The council is based at Dartford Civic Centre on Home Gardens in the centre of Dartford. Dartford also has a youth council called the Dartford Youth Council (DYC) which comprises members of the youth representing local secondary schools, youth groups (such as Scouts ). They discuss important issues relating to
2235-743: Is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere . It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Asia and Africa . Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by
2384-441: Is a local government district with borough status in the north-west of the county of Kent , England. It is named after its main town of Dartford , where the council is based. Other notable settlements include Greenhithe , Stone and Swanscombe , along with an emerging new town at Ebbsfleet , and a number of smaller villages. It also includes Bluewater , one of the UK's largest shopping centres. The borough lies just outside
2533-401: Is also evidence that Homo sapiens arrived in Europe around 54,000 years ago, some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany) and Isturitz (France). The European Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and
2682-506: Is also home to Dartford and White Oak Triathlon Club; formed in 1988, it is one of the oldest British Triathlon Federation clubs in the UK. The club trains at The Bridge Estate, Dartford. Sports centres in Dartford include the Becket Sports Centre, within the grounds of Dartford Grammar School on Shepherds Lane, which is the home of several sports groups. Since the town is close to London, television signals are received from
2831-608: Is an important rail hub; the main through-road now by-passes the town itself. Dartford lies within the area known as the London Basin . The low-lying marsh to the north of the town consists of London Clay and the alluvium brought down by the two rivers—the Darent and the Cray —whose confluence is in this area. The higher land on which the town stands and through which the narrow Darent valley runs, consists of chalk surmounted by
2980-488: Is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is considered part of Europe politically and it is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of North-western Africa for centuries, but now it is considered to be part of Europe as well. "Europe", as used specifically in British English , may also refer to Continental Europe exclusively. The term "continent" usually implies the physical geography of
3129-562: Is generally considered a transcontinental country divided entirely by water, while Russia and Kazakhstan are only partly divided by waterways. France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are also transcontinental (or more properly, intercontinental, when oceans or large seas are involved) in that their main land areas are in Europe while pockets of their territories are located on other continents separated from Europe by large bodies of water. Spain, for example, has territories south of
SECTION 20
#17327654571323278-468: Is known as Langley Square. Further regeneration is taking place at Market Street, to be known as Brewery Square. Some of Dartford's key industries, including brewing, paper-making, flour milling and the manufacture of cement, suffered extreme decline in the 20th century, causing redundancies and unemployment. Swanscombe Cement Works (now redeveloped into Bluewater shopping centre) was closed by Blue Circle in 1990. This industry had been an economic boon to
3427-570: Is served by two local newspapers: the Dartford & Swanley News Shopper and the Dartford Messenger. Between 1877 and 1903 the number of hospitals in Dartford rose to 11, together providing 10,000 hospital beds, at a time when the town's population was a little over 20,000. The majority of these have been closed, especially since the opening of Darent Valley Hospital . One of the best-known, Stone House Hospital , in Cotton Lane to
3576-570: Is situated in St Edmund's Pleasance on the summit of East Hill (the place where Richard Trevithick is buried), which gave rise to a traditional and derogatory rhyme of Dartford's people: "Dirty Dartford, filthy people, bury their dead above the steeple." The church actually has no steeple; it has a tower featuring a ring of eight bells. Dartford is twinned with: The following are from or have lived in Dartford (or other connection if specified): Borough of Dartford The Borough of Dartford
3725-490: Is situated on the western bank of the River Darent, from where a hermit would conduct travellers across the ford. The church was originally a 9th-century Saxon structure, but gained later Norman additions. In the 13th century a royal wedding was celebrated there; thus today the choristers are entitled to wear scarlet cassocks. Also on display within the church is a brass plaque commemorating the work of Richard Trevithick ,
3874-550: Is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE; the closure of the pagan Platonic Academy of Athens in 529 CE; or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe. During
4023-422: Is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent compared to any clear-cut definition of the term "continent". The current division of Eurasia into two continents now reflects East-West cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border between Europe and Asia does not follow any state boundaries and now only follows a few bodies of water. Turkey
4172-477: Is the largest and most populous , spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population ) in 2021; the third-largest after Asia and Africa. The European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents, such as the Gulf Stream , which produce a temperate climate , tempering winters and summers, on much of
4321-567: The 2023 election , a subsequent suspension of one councillor from the Labour Party and a by-election following the death of Residents Association Cllr Peter Harman, the composition of the council as of Nov 2024 is: The next election is due in 2027. Since the last full review of boundaries in 2019 the council has comprised 42 councillors representing 20 wards , with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years. The Dartford constituency covers
4470-722: The A226 roads also cross the borough, among others. Dartford gives its name to the Dartford Crossing of the River Thames , a pair of road tunnels (constructed in 1963 and 1980), with the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge (October 1991), dual-linking Kent with Essex and connecting sections of the London Orbital M25 motorway . The layout of the district is clustered development in the northern half and buffered , dispersed settlement interspersed by
4619-845: The Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the Western Church , as opposed to both the Eastern Orthodox churches and to the Islamic world . A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam , and limited to northern Iberia ,
Dartford - Misplaced Pages Continue
4768-848: The Crystal Palace TV transmitter, placing Dartford in the BBC London and ITV London areas. Some areas of the town can also pick up a signal from the Bluebell Hill TV transmitter that broadcasts BBC South East and ITV Meridian . However in 2011 Bluewater Shopping Centre was used by BBC South East as their regional location for BBC Children in Need . Local radio stations are: BBC Radio Kent (96.7 FM), Heart South (103.1 FM), Gold (603 AM) and KMFM West Kent , which broadcasts from its studios in Strood on 96.2 FM. The town
4917-703: The Dartford Loop Line through Sidcup , which opened in 1866, and the Bexleyheath Line , which opened in 1895. All the lines were electrified by 6 June 1926. The station is served by two train operating companies : Dartford is served by many bus services provided by Transport for London , Arriva Kent Thameside and Go Coach Buses. These routes connect Dartford with areas including Bluewater , Bexleyheath , Crayford , Erith , Gravesend , Greenhithe , Orpington , Sidcup , Swanley , Welling and Woolwich . The parish church, Holy Trinity ,
5066-517: The Don (ancient Tanais ). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at Kalach-na-Donu (where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by the Volga–Don Canal ), into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers. Around 1715, Herman Moll produced a map showing the northern part of the Ob River and
5215-573: The European population at the time. The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews , beggars and lepers . The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until
5364-709: The 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 International and Gravesend . Three of the county's main roads pass through the borough boundaries: the M25 and M20 motorways and the A2 dual carriageway . The A20 , A225 and
5513-512: The Greeks and Phoenicians gave rise to early Mediterranean cities. Early Iron Age Italy and Greece from around the 8th century BCE gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BCE, the year of the first Olympic Games . Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western democratic and rationalist culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece. The Greek city-state,
5662-636: The Inquisition against heretics. In the Iberian Peninsula , the Reconquista concluded with the fall of Granada in 1492 , ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the south-western peninsula. In the east, a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims, and reconquered the Balkans. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to
5811-801: The Iron Curtain , with NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East . This divide ended with the Revolutions of 1989 , the fall of the Berlin Wall , and the dissolution of the Soviet Union , which allowed European integration to advance significantly. European integration is being advanced institutionally since 1948 with the founding of the Council of Europe , and significantly through
5960-442: The Irtysh River , a major tributary of the Ob, as components of a series of partly-joined waterways taking the boundary between Europe and Asia from the Turkish Straits, and the Don River all the way to the Arctic Ocean. In 1721, he produced a more up to date map that was easier to read. However, his proposal to adhere to major rivers as the line of demarcation was never taken up by other geographers who were beginning to move away from
6109-435: The Local Government Act 1894 . The Dartford Urban District was incorporated to become a municipal borough in 1933. The modern district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 , covering the whole area of two former districts and five parishes from a third district. The three districts were all abolished at the same time: The new district was named Dartford after its largest town. The new district
Dartford - Misplaced Pages Continue
6258-419: The Mediterranean Sea —namely, Ceuta and Melilla —which are parts of Africa and share a border with Morocco. According to the current convention, Georgia and Azerbaijan are transcontinental countries where waterways have been completely replaced by mountains as the divide between continents. The first recorded usage of Eurṓpē as a geographic term is in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo , in reference to
6407-490: The Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge , were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe. The modern native populations of Europe largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers , descended from populations associated with the Paleolithic Epigravettian culture; Neolithic Early European Farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago; and Yamnaya Steppe herders who expanded into Europe from
6556-427: The Neandertal valley in Germany ) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago (115,000 years ago it is found already in the territory of present-day Poland ) and disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago, with their final refuge being the Iberian Peninsula. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans ( Cro-Magnons ), who seem to have appeared in Europe around 43,000 to 40,000 years ago. However, there
6705-443: The North Downs which is an escarpment of varied farms and woodland in the south. Housing is a mixture of relatively high rise in Dartford centre through to low rise in all of the villages. The number of listed buildings in the district exceeds 50. This includes 7 churches listed in the highest grading in the national listing system (Grade I). The population rose in the 10 years to 2011 from 85,911 to 97,365, by 13.3%, which
6854-484: The North Kent Line ; and Longfield and Farningham Road on the Victoria – Chatham Main 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. Ebbsfleet International railway station on High Speed 1 opened in the east of the borough on 19 November 2007. Six high-speed services to Paris and five to Brussels ran daily from here by Eurostar . However since
7003-432: The Pechenegs and the Cuman-Kipchaks , caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east. Like many other parts of Eurasia , these territories were overrun by the Mongols . The invaders, who became known as Tatars , were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established
7152-435: The Pigou family), marking the foundation of J & E Hall , an engineering firm specialising in heavy engineering , and later refrigerating equipment, and, for 20 years from 1906, vehicle production, plus lifts and escalators . From those humble beginnings in the 18th century was to come the industrial base on which the growth and prosperity of Dartford were founded. In 1840 the mustard factory of Saunders & Harrison
7301-409: The Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia in the context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago. The European Bronze Age began c. 3200 BCE in Greece with the Minoan civilisation on Crete , the first advanced civilisation in Europe. The Minoans were followed by the Myceneans , who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BCE, ushering the European Iron Age . Iron Age colonisation by
7450-504: The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge , areas around Greenhithe and a 740-acre (3.0 km ) site planned to contain five separate 'villages' in the Eastern Quarry near Bluewater Shopping Centre , itself a large employer. In 2012 plans were announced for the London Resort , envisaged as a major theme park to be built on the Swanscombe peninsula, which at the time was said to be able to create up to 27,000 jobs by 2018. As of 2023 no development had taken place. There are eight civil parishes in
7599-457: The River Thames , Thurrock , to which it is linked by the Dartford Crossing . The first local authority for the town of Dartford was a body of improvement commissioners established in 1814 to maintain and light the streets and establish a watch . The commissioners were superseded in 1850 when the parish of Dartford was made a local board district , governed by an elected local board. Such districts were converted into urban districts under
SECTION 50
#17327654571327748-406: The Serbian Principality (later Kingdom and Empire ), and the Duchy of Croatia (later Kingdom of Croatia ). To the east, Kievan Rus' expanded from its capital in Kiev to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988, Vladimir the Great adopted Orthodox Christianity as the religion of state. Further east, Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in the 10th century, but
7897-501: The Vox musical brand, with products such as the AC15 and AC30 amplifiers originating in Dartford. In early 2006, the since-closed South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) purchased the former Unwins depot on the edge of the town. The warehouse was demolished and a business centre, The Base, built in its place, funded by the Homes and Communities Agency . By 2018, the former GlaxoSmithKline manufacturing site in Mill Pond Road had been redeveloped with residential apartments and
8046-430: The brewing of traditional beers and ales . Lime-burning and chalk-mining also had their place. Fulling was another: the cleansing of wool needed a great deal of water, which the river could provide. This led to other water-based industries, using hydropower to operate machinery. Upon his return in 1578 from Frobisher Bay in the Canadian Arctic with a reputed cargo of gold-bearing ore, Sir Martin Frobisher had
8195-426: The decline of the Roman Empire , Europe entered a long period of change arising from what historians call the " Age of Migrations ". There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the Ostrogoths , Visigoths , Goths , Vandals , Huns , Franks , Angles , Saxons , Slavs , Avars , Bulgars , Vikings , Pechenegs , Cumans , and Magyars . Renaissance thinkers such as Petrarch would later refer to this as
8344-465: The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, Christian consolidation of Europe in the wake of the Migration Period marked the European post-classical Middle Ages . The Italian Renaissance spread in the continent a new humanist interest in art and science which led to the modern era . Since the Age of Discovery , led by Spain and Portugal , Europe played a predominant role in global affairs with multiple explorations and conquests around
8493-432: The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago. Earth is currently in an interglacial period of the Quaternary, called the Holocene . Homo erectus georgicus , which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia , is the earliest hominin to have been discovered in Europe. Other hominin remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca , Spain . Neanderthal man (named after
8642-517: The polis , was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece. In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens . The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in philosophy , humanism and rationalism under Aristotle , Socrates and Plato ; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides ; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with
8791-457: The watershed of the Ural Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian Sea , the Greater Caucasus , the Black Sea , and the waterway of the Bosporus Strait . Europe covers about 10.18 million km (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model ). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states , of which Russia
8940-402: The "Dark Ages". Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this, very few written records survive. Much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period disappeared from Western Europe, though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire. While the Roman empire in
9089-461: The 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000. The Empire was weakened following the defeat at Manzikert , and was weakened considerably by the sack of Constantinople in 1204 , during the Fourth Crusade . Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, Byzantium fell in 1453 when Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Empire . In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as
SECTION 60
#17327654571329238-401: The 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480, and eventually becoming the Tsardom of Russia . The state was consolidated under Ivan III the Great and Ivan the Terrible , steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries. The Great Famine of 1315–1317
9387-444: The 18th century. During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe. The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence , and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin . The Renaissance spread across Europe between
9536-400: The 50 years of peace that followed are known as Golden Age of Athens , the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation. Greece was followed by Rome , which left its mark on law , politics , language , engineering , architecture , government , and many more key aspects in western civilisation. By 200 BCE, Rome had conquered Italy and over
9685-432: The Blackheath Beds of sand and gravel. As a human settlement , Dartford became established as a river crossing-point with the coming of the Romans; and as a focal point between two routes: that from west to east being part of the main route connecting London with the Continent; and the southerly route following the Darent valley. As a result, the town's main road pattern makes the shape of letter 'T'. The Dartford Marshes to
9834-421: The British Isles, France, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy. The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance : Europa often figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin . The transition of Europe to being a cultural term as well as a geographic one led to the borders of Europe being affected by cultural considerations in
9983-481: The Community Stadium at Princes Park. Dartford Harriers Athletic Club was formed in 1922 and is currently based at Central Park. Originally founded as Dartford Rugby Football Club, the rugby players began taking part in cross-country runs in an effort to keep fit. Running soon became more popular with the players, and the club eventually dropped rugby around the end of the 1927–28 season, becoming Dartford Harriers AC. The club's running colours of blue and blue "hoops" are
10132-531: The Covid Pandemic trains destined for the Continent no longer stop in Kent at all. Despite efforts to reverse this decision, Eurostar have said they will only reconsider the situation sometime in 2025. The station still carries commuters to St Pancras station in London in only 17 minutes, and to Stratford International (next to the 2012 Summer Olympics site) in just 10 minutes, while eastbound commuter services link Ebbsfleet to Ashford International , Dover , Folkestone and other stations in Kent. The first of
10281-402: The Dartford area around 250,000 years ago: a tribe of prehistoric hunter-gatherers whose exemplar is called Swanscombe Man . Many other archaeological investigations have revealed a good picture of occupation of the district with important finds from the Stone Age , the Bronze Age and the Iron Age . When the Romans engineered the Dover to London road (afterwards named Watling Street ), it
10430-448: The Don altogether, following the Greater Caucasus watershed to the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with Douglas Freshfield advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers". In Russia and the Soviet Union , the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906. In 1958,
10579-427: The Early Middle Ages, and soon spread throughout Europe. A struggle for influence between the nobility and the monarchy in England led to the writing of Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament . The primary source of culture in this period came from the Roman Catholic Church . Through monasteries and cathedral schools , the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe. The Papacy reached
10728-559: The East, especially relating to areas under Byzantine, Ottoman, and Russian influence. Such questions were affected by the positive connotations associated with the term Europe by its users. Such cultural considerations were not applied to the Americas, despite their conquest and settlement by European states. Instead, the concept of "Western civilization" emerged as a way of grouping together Europe and these colonies. The question of defining
10877-707: The Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I . Charlemagne , a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed " Holy Roman Emperor " by the Pope in 800. This led in 962 to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire , which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe. East Central Europe saw the creation of the first Slavic states and
11026-520: The Great 's efforts to make Russia more European, ignored the whole boundary question with his claim that neither Russia, Scandinavia, northern Germany, nor Poland were fully part of Europe. Since then, many modern analytical geographers like Halford Mackinder have declared that they see little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents. The mapmakers continued to differ on
11175-655: The Levant and North Africa and making inroads into Asia Minor . In the mid-7th century, following the Muslim conquest of Persia , Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region. Over the next centuries Muslim forces took Cyprus , Malta , Crete , Sicily , and parts of southern Italy . Between 711 and 720, most of the lands of the Visigothic Kingdom of Iberia were brought under Muslim rule—save for small areas in
11324-648: The Mediterranean Sea without the inclusion of any mountain ranges. Cartographer Herman Moll suggested in 1715 Europe was bounded by a series of partly-joined waterways directed towards the Turkish straits, and the Irtysh River draining into the upper part of the Ob River and the Arctic Ocean . In contrast, the present eastern boundary of Europe partially adheres to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, which
11473-615: The NHS to manage regional health care delivery, and was also home to a nursing school, Livingstone Hospital , on East Hill. The main buildings of this facility are now closed, and have been turned into luxury flats. The route of an ancient Celtic trackway which the Romans later paved and identified as Iter III on the Antonine Itinerary , later to be called Watling Street , and which the current A2 roughly follows, passed close to
11622-801: The Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay , on the Kara Sea , along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the Ural River until the Mugodzhar Hills , and then the Emba River ; and Kuma–Manych Depression, thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe. The Flora Europaea adopted
11771-509: The Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary. The Roman Empire did not attach a strong identity to the concept of continental divisions. However, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire , the culture that developed in its place , linked to Latin and the Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of "Europe". The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in
11920-660: The Weald was in full operation at this time, and iron ingots were sent to Dartford, to England's first iron-slitting mill, set up by the Darent at Dartford Creek in 1595 by Godfrey Box , an immigrant from the Low Countries . In 1785, John Hall , a millwright set up a workshop in Lowfield Street and began to make engines, boilers and machinery (some of it for the local gunpowder factory run by Miles Peter Andrews and
12069-495: The administrative boundary of Greater London , but a sizeable part of it lies within the M25 motorway which encircles London . Many of the borough's urban areas form part of the Greater London Built-up Area . The borough had a population of 116,800 at the 2021 census . The neighbouring districts (clockwise from east) are Gravesham , Sevenoaks , the London Borough of Bexley and, to the north across
12218-496: The adoption of Christianity ( c. 1000 CE) . The powerful West Slavic state of Great Moravia spread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent under Svatopluk I and causing a series of armed conflicts with East Francia . Further south, the first South Slavic states emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted Christianity : the First Bulgarian Empire ,
12367-439: The area, but left behind a lot of derelict land and pollution. In 1990 Dartford contained around 1,700 acres (6.9 km) of spoiled land resulting from extractive industries, and cement-dust pollution from local cement works was a regular subject of complaint in the local press throughout the 20th century. The closure of Dartford's major employers (including Seagers' Engineering Works, J & E Hall International, and Vickers ),
12516-648: The basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the Hagia Sophia and brought the Christian church under state control. From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring Sasanid Persians were severely weakened due to the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars , the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking
12665-435: The borough are covered by civil parishes , which form a third tier of local government for their areas. The council has been under Conservative majority control since 2007. Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows: The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Dartford. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council . The leaders since 1974 have been: Following
12814-594: The borough. The parish council for Swanscombe and Greenhithe has declared that parish to be a town, allowing it to take the name "Swanscombe and Greenhithe Town Council". The main part of the Dartford urban area, roughly corresponding to the pre-1974 borough, is unparished , as is the Ebbsfleet area which was removed from the parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe in 2019. Dartford, Greenhithe, Longfield and Swanscombe are all post towns . Europe Europe
12963-563: The boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The 1745 atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as Serafimovich before cutting north towards Arkhangelsk , while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as John Cary followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the Kuma–Manych Depression was identified c. 1773 by
13112-590: The continent The prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the east and north-east are usually taken to be the Ural Mountains , the Ural River , and the Caspian Sea ; to the south-east, the Caucasus Mountains , the Black Sea , and
13261-573: The continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu ( 歐洲 / 欧洲 ), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu ( 歐羅巴洲 ) ( zhōu means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū ( 欧州 ) is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō ( 欧州連合 ) , despite the katakana Yōroppa ( ヨーロッパ ) being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages,
13410-424: The continent. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable producing more continental climates . European culture consists of a range of national and regional cultures, which form the central roots of the wider Western civilisation , and together commonly reference ancient Greece and ancient Rome , particularly through their Christian successors , as crucial and shared roots. Beginning with
13559-640: The continents as the lands given by Noah to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar , separating it from Northwest Africa , to the Don, separating it from Asia. The convention received by the Middle Ages and surviving into modern usage is that of the Roman era used by Roman-era authors such as Posidonius , Strabo , and Ptolemy , who took
13708-640: The development of major commercial routes along the coast of the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas . The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the Maritime Republics a leading role in the European scene. The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism developed in France in
13857-505: The district of Sevenoaks . It had a population of 51,240. The town centre lies in a valley through which the River Darent flows and where the old road from London to Dover crossed: hence the name, which derives from Darent + ford . Dartford became a market town in medieval times and, although today it is principally a commuter town for Greater London , it has a long history of religious, industrial and cultural importance. It
14006-545: The east of the town, was opened on 16 April 1866 as the "City of London Lunatic Asylum". It was, and still is, a large castellated structure built in spacious grounds. It remained under the direct administration of the City of London until 1948, when it was transferred to the National Health Service (NHS). It remains one of the largest and most visible structures in Dartford, and was until recently operated by
14155-718: The end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe and eventually the wider world. Both world wars began and were fought to a great extent in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence and competed over dominance in Europe and globally. The resulting Cold War divided Europe along
14304-590: The epic poems of Homer ; in drama with Sophocles and Euripides ; in medicine with Hippocrates and Galen ; and in science with Pythagoras , Euclid , and Archimedes . In the course of the 5th century BCE, several of the Greek city states would ultimately check the Achaemenid Persian advance in Europe through the Greco-Persian Wars , considered a pivotal moment in world history, as
14453-520: The existence of a town centre public house named after him could give credence to Dartford's claim. Dartford, however, cannot claim a monopoly on public houses named after Tyler. It is probable that Dartford was a key meeting point early in the Peasants' Revolt with a detachment of Essex rebels marching south to join Kentish rebels at Dartford before accompanying them to Rochester and Canterbury in
14602-559: The first week of June 1381. Although lacking a leader, Kentishmen had assembled at Dartford around 5 June through a sense of county solidarity at the mistreatment of Robert Belling, a man claimed as a serf by Sir Simon Burley . Burley had abused his royal court connections to invoke the arrest of Belling and, despite a compromise being proposed by bailiffs in Gravesend , continued to demand the impossible £300 of silver for Belling's release. Having left for Rochester and Canterbury on 5 June,
14751-531: The following two centuries it conquered Greece , Hispania ( Spain and Portugal ), the North African coast, much of the Middle East , Gaul ( France and Belgium ), and Britannia ( England and Wales ). Expanding from their base in central Italy beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe by the turn of
14900-651: The height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An East-West Schism in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade against Muslims occupying Jerusalem and the Holy Land . In Europe itself, the Church organised
15049-509: The idea of water boundaries as the only legitimate divides between Europe and Asia. Four years later, in 1725, Philip Johan von Strahlenberg was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary. He drew a new line along the Volga , following the Volga north until the Samara Bend , along Obshchy Syrt (the drainage divide between the Volga and Ural Rivers ), then north and east along
15198-546: The large department store previously occupied by the Co-operative has now been demolished, having been bought by Dartford Borough Council. The oldest independent business still trading in Dartford, the butchers Richardson & Sons in Lowfield Street, established in 1908, closed down in 2014 to make way for the proposed Lowfield centre superstore development. The problems with obtaining planning permission for this development and associated residential units were compounded by
15347-596: The latter waterway to its source in the Ural Mountains . At this point he proposed that mountain ranges could be included as boundaries between continents as alternatives to nearby waterways. Accordingly, he drew the new boundary north along Ural Mountains rather than the nearby and parallel running Ob and Irtysh rivers. This was endorsed by the Russian Empire and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted. However, this did not come without criticism. Voltaire , writing in 1760 about Peter
15496-475: The mean for the country, Christians form just over 60% of the area's population. Although many of area's traditional industries of papermaking, cement, and pharmaceuticals are in decline or closing down, and many of borough's inhabitants travel away from the borough by rail and road (many commuting to London and other areas for work), there is still a large industrial and commercial base. Included among those areas include 'The Bridge' and Crossways to either side of
15645-577: The millennium. The Roman Republic ended in 27 BCE, when Augustus proclaimed the Roman Empire . The two centuries that followed are known as the pax romana , a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity and political stability in most of Europe. The empire continued to expand under emperors such as Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius , who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting Germanic , Pictish and Scottish tribes. Christianity
15794-420: The north and the proximity of Crayford in the London Borough of Bexley to the west, mean that the town's growth is to the south and east. Wilmington is contiguous with the town to the south; whilst the almost continuous Thames Gateway development means that there is little to show the town boundary in an easterly direction. Within the town boundaries there are several distinct areas: the town centre around
15943-710: The northwest ( Asturias ) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees . This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus , became part of the expanding Umayyad Caliphate . The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, which ended their northward advance. In
16092-763: The number of chain stores located in the town as B&Q , M&S Simply Food , TK Maxx and Asda Living opened new outlet stores in the town centre. Before this Safeway had taken part in the development of Dartford's second shopping centre, The Orchards, located next to the Orchard Theatre . The Safeway's site was eventually taken over by Waitrose but this closed in March 2014 and a new Aldi store opened in June 2015. The historical and once bustling main High Street and adjacent shopping centre, The Priory, continued to decline, and went into receivership in 2013, and
16241-483: The originally Persian name Frangistan ("land of the Franks ") is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa . Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries Key: blue : states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia ; green : countries not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with
16390-585: The parish church and along the High Street; the Joyce Green area; Temple Hill estate constructed in 1947; the Brent ; Fleet Downs; as well as two important areas of open space and several industrial estates. The open spaces are Central Park, alongside the river; and Dartford Heath . Like most of the United Kingdom, Dartford has an oceanic climate . In prehistoric times, the first people appeared in
16539-435: The pioneer of steam propulsion, who, at the end of his career, lived, worked (at J & E Hall) and died in the town. Other places of worship in Dartford include: Brent Methodist Church, Brethren's Meeting Room, Dartford Methodist Church, Highfield Road Baptist Church, Net Church, St Alban's Church, St Andrew's United Reformed Church, Christ Church Dartford, Grace Outreach Church, and Zion Strict Baptist Chapel. The graveyard
16688-444: The poetry devoted to it. An alternative view is that of Robert Beekes , who has argued in favour of a pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from eurus would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece, and localities such as that of Europos in ancient Macedonia . There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to
16837-480: The realisation of the European Union (EU), which represents today the majority of Europe. The European Union is a supranational political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation and is based on a system of European treaties . The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of its members have adopted
16986-527: The rebels passed back through Dartford, swollen in number, a week later on 12 June en route for London . In the 15th century, two kings of England became part of the town's history. Henry V marched through Dartford in November 1415 with his troops after fighting the French at the Battle of Agincourt ; in 1422 Henry's body was taken to Holy Trinity Church by Edmund Lacey , Bishop of Exeter , who conducted
17135-459: The recession. This created persistent delay in regeneration of the Lowfield Street site, and on 8 January 2015 it was finally announced that the Tesco plans were to be abandoned. The Orchard Theatre is a professional theatre in the town centre, with a schedule including drama, dance, music and entertainment. The Mick Jagger Centre , within the grounds of Dartford Grammar School on Shepherds Lane,
17284-440: The reduction and subsequent closure of Burroughs Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline ), the redevelopment of nearby Bexleyheath as a shopping town in the 1970s, and the opening of Bluewater Shopping Centre in 1999, all had a negative effect on the economy of Dartford, but the town is still home to major brands such as Sainsbury's , W.H. Smiths , and Boots . With the opening of the major Bluewater regional shopping centre just outside
17433-528: The refining done on Powder Mill Lane in Dartford. Assiduous efforts to extract gold were made over five years, but the ore proved to be a valueless rock containing hornblende and was eventually salvaged for road metalling and wall construction. Sir John Spielman set up the first paper mill in England at Dartford in 1588 on a site near Powder Mill Lane, and soon some 600 employees worked there, providing an invaluable source of local employment. Iron-making on
17582-409: The regional and national average; while self-employed inhabitants were at parity with the national average, those in full-time employment were 6.0% greater. As to religion, statistics mirrored closely the national average, save that more Hindus and Sikhs live in the borough, at a combined, equally split 3.2% of the total population and fewer Muslims, also forming 1.6% of the population. Being almost at
17731-490: The reigns of Queen Mary (1553–1554) and Philip and Mary (1554–1558), including Christopher Wade , a Dartford linen-weaver who was burnt at the stake on the Brent in 1555. The Martyrs' Memorial on East Hill commemorates Wade and other Kentish Martyrs. In 1576 Dartford Grammar School was founded, part of the Tudor emphasis on education for ordinary people. The earliest industries were those connected with agriculture, such as
17880-575: The remote regions of north-western Iberia and the middle Pyrenees the power of the Muslims in the south was scarcely felt. It was here that the foundations of the Christian kingdoms of Asturias , Leon , and Galicia were laid and from where the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula would start. However, no coordinated attempt would be made to drive the Moors out. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focused on their own internal power struggles. As
18029-422: The state of the Golden Horde with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion, and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries. After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldavia and Walachia . Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans. From
18178-459: The town to the north. Its prime purpose is to carry traffic from the riverside industrial developments on to the Dartford Crossing from both west and east. Dartford is perhaps most well known for the latter, the main mode of crossing the River Thames to the east of London, where the southbound A282 (part of the London Orbital ) crosses the river via the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge toll bridge, opened in 1991. The northbound carriageway crosses via
18327-512: The town, the high street has seen a growth in cheaper brands such as Primark and Wilko taking over empty premises. Wilko announced in 2023 that it was going into receivership. In the 1990s, the local economy was boosted by the establishment of a number of business parks in the area, the biggest being Crossways Business Park at the foot of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge . The former offices of Hall-Thermotank have been converted for use as Dartford Civic Centre . In 2007 Dartford saw an increase in
18476-434: The town. After the Romans left Britain, it fell out of use, as the town developed and traffic went into the town itself; the name Watling Street transferring to the new route. The introduction of stagecoach services increased the amount of traffic through the town, so that by the 18th century it had become necessary to control the upkeep of such a heavily used road. Turnpike Trusts were set up by Act of Parliament ; Dartford
18625-412: The twin bore Dartford Tunnel ; the first tunnel was opened in 1963 and the second in 1980. Dartford railway station is located in the town centre and is connected to London by three National Rail routes. The first London to Dartford connection by rail was the North Kent Line via Woolwich Arsenal in 1849, connecting at Gravesend with the line to the Medway Towns. Later, two more lines were built:
18774-407: The waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea . Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North America , although politically belonging to Denmark. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus
18923-445: The west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artifacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as causewayed enclosures , burial mounds and megalithic tombs . The Corded Ware cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic . During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as
19072-416: The west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire , also known as the Byzantine Empire . During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Emperor Justinian I presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a legal code that forms
19221-399: The western shore of the Aegean Sea . As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BCE by Anaximander and Hecataeus . Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni River on the territory of Georgia ) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. Herodotus mentioned that
19370-419: The widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BCE in Greece and the Balkans , probably influenced by earlier farming practices in Anatolia and the Near East . It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine ( Linear Pottery culture ), and along the Mediterranean coast ( Cardial culture ). Between 4500 and 3000 BCE, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to
19519-411: The world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts—Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa)—with the Nile and the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the River Don , rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River Don. The Book of Jubilees described
19668-410: The world. The place name Evros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears the same name today. The principal river there – Evros (today's Maritsa ) – flows through the fertile valleys of Thrace , which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent. In classical Greek mythology , Europa ( Ancient Greek : Εὐρώπη , Eurṓpē )
19817-452: The world. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times the Americas , almost all of Africa and Oceania , and the majority of Asia. The Age of Enlightenment , the French Revolution , and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically, and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution , which began in Great Britain at
19966-461: The youth of Dartford, such as mental health, to staying fit and how they can help and combat those issues. They attend a monthly meeting, at the Civic Centre. They have represented Dartford's youth in several events. Every November, members attend and represent Dartford Youth Council in the annual Dartford Remembrance Parade. There are seven railway stations in the borough: at Stone ; Greenhithe (for Bluewater ); Swanscombe and Dartford , all on
20115-422: Was legalised by Constantine I in 313 CE after three centuries of imperial persecution . Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul ) which was renamed Constantinople in his honour in 330 CE. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE the emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan religions. This
20264-399: Was a Phoenician princess. One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς ( eurús ) 'wide, broad', and ὤψ ( ōps , gen. ὠπός , ōpós ) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'. Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and
20413-445: Was above the national average. 87.3% of residents were born in England, which was 2.5% higher than the average for the South East. The next most common group of countries of birth was the non-EU, however this was 0.3% lower than the average for the South-East and 2% lower than the average for England. As to residents of EU birth, only 3.3% of the population were such, slightly below the national average and two-thirds of this migration
20562-399: Was an important waypoint for pilgrims and travellers en route to Canterbury and the Continent , and various religious orders established themselves in the area. In the 12th century the Knights Templar had possession of the manor of Dartford; the National Trust property at Sutton-at-Hone , to the south of the town, is a remaining piece of that history. In the 14th century, a priory
20711-588: Was completed in 2000 and provides facilities for community arts. library and Museum are located on Market Street. Central Park, in the town centre, is used for various community events. It comprises 26 acres (110,000 m) of land. Dartford F.C. play at Princes Park Stadium and compete in the National League South . There are also three other senior clubs based in Dartford: Southern Counties East Football League Division 1 club Kent Football United F.C. and Kent County Football League clubs Fleetdown United who play at Heath Lane Lower, and Halls AFC who play at
20860-399: Was described as being "perhaps the largest in the kingdom". Dartford Paper Mills were built in 1862, when excise duty on paper was abolished. Between 1844 and 1939 the fabric printing works of Augustus Applegath were in being in Bullace Lane: again a firm using the waters of the river. RAF Joyce Green , at Long Reach, near Dartford was one of the first Royal Flying Corps airfields, It
21009-435: Was destroyed in 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and a new manor house was subsequently constructed by King Henry VIII . In 1545, Henry held a series of meetings of his Privy Council in the town, and from 21 to 25 June 1545 Dartford was the seat of the national government. Henry's fourth wife Anne of Cleves lived at the new priory for four years before her death in 1557. Many Protestants were executed during
21158-417: Was established here, and two groups of friars—the Dominicans and the Franciscans —built hospitals here for the care of the sick. At this time the town became a small but important market town . Wat Tyler , of Peasants' Revolt fame, might well have been a local hero, although three other towns in Kent all claim likewise, and there are reasons to doubt the strength of Tyler's connection to Dartford, though
21307-419: Was established in 1911 by Vickers Limited (the aircraft and weapons manufacturer, who used it as an airfield and testing ground. It was superseded by Biggin Hill, and closed in 1919. The demand created by World War I meant that output at the local Vickers factory multiplied, with a positive effect on the local economy. Burroughs-Wellcome chemical works (later incorporated into GlaxoSmithKline ) made Dartford
21456-428: Was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later. The period between the year 1000 and 1250 is known as the High Middle Ages , followed by the Late Middle Ages until c. 1500. During the High Middle Ages the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the Renaissance of the 12th century . Economic growth, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible
21605-428: Was from the accession countries from 2001 to 2011, a 12.5% higher proportion than that seen nationwide. As to older people, the borough has a below national and regional proportion. In common with most of the country, an increase in people living in their area above the age of 74 took place, whether through change in preference or most commonly longevity, from 6.5% in 2001 to 7.1% in 2011. With 80.8% of households with
21754-429: Was necessary to cross the River Darent by ford, giving the settlement its name. Roman villas were built along the Darent Valley, and at Noviomagus ( Crayford ), close by. The Saxons may have established the first settlement where Dartford now stands. Dartford manor is mentioned in the Domesday Book , compiled in 1086, after the Norman conquest . It was then owned by the king. During the medieval period Dartford
21903-531: Was not initially made a borough, and the town of Dartford was therefore given charter trustees to preserve its right to appoint a ceremonial mayor. The new district was subsequently awarded borough status in April 1977, since when the chair of the council has taken the title of mayor instead. The borough was enlarged in 1987 to take in the parish of Longfield from Sevenoaks District. Dartford Borough Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Kent County Council . Parts of
22052-403: Was served by two: that for Watling Street and the road south to Sevenoaks , both brought into being between 1750 and 1780. From 1925, the A2 main road took traffic away from Dartford town centre via the Princes Road bypass. Today, the original main road through the town is the A226 and the former turnpike road south to Sevenoaks is now the A225 . A newer by-pass is the A206 , which skirts
22201-495: Was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages. The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced by half. Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period. Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death , one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of
#131868