Swanscombe: A Guide to the Historic Village in Kent

Swanscombe is a village located in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It is situated 4.4 miles west of Gravesend and 4.8 miles east of Dartford. The village has a population of 6,300 people as of 2005 and is part of the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe.

It might be a small village, but it has a surprisingly interesting history. This is why, when I visited last time, I was intrigued to find out more about Swanscombe history and the places I’ve seen during my walk.

Swanscombe Prehistory

Swanscombe, a village located in the Dartford Borough of Kent, England, has a rich and diverse prehistoric history. Bone fragments and tools, representing the earliest humans known to have lived in England, have been found at the Barnfield Pit, located about 2 km outside the village.

The remains are those of a 400,000-year-old early Neanderthal woman, according to the Natural History Museum. Lower levels of the Barnfield Pit yielded evidence of an even earlier, more primitive human, dubbed Clactonian Man. The site is now the Swanscombe Heritage Park.

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Swanscombe Viking era

The Vikings settled throughout the winter along the Thames estuary with their ships and established camps in Kent and Essex. Archaeological digs and centuries of tilling have revealed a Danish castle and settlement, with pottery, anchors, weapons and some ships’ timbers.

The settlement was later variously called Suinescamp, Sweinscamp and Swanscamp. Legend derives the name from the Viking king Sweyn Forkbeard, who landed in East Anglia and became King of England in 1013. However, the place-name is first attested in 695 AD.

Nearby digs on land for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link revealed a c. 400,000-year-old site with human tools and the remains of a Straight-tusked Elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), and evidence of water vole, pine vole, newts, frogs, etc., indicating a site with standing water similar to a swamp.

Norman Conquest

It is claimed, apparently without evidence, that in 1066 Swanscombe locals massed an army in defiance of William I and so won the right to continue their ancient privileges, including the tradition of passing inheritance by gavelkind.

The men of Kent met William near Swanscombe, where the Saxons concealed their number with branches, thus intimidating the Norman army. Again according to legend, they were offered a truce that left Kent as the only region in England that William left unconquered. Hence, in this area of England alone, Kent County Council adopted the motto Invicta, meaning unconquered.

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Swanscombe Churches

Swanscombe is home to two historic churches: All Saints’ Church and St Peter and St Paul’s Church. Richard Norman Shaw designed All Saints’ Church in 1894, built out of knapped flint for the workers of the cement industry. It survives as a rare example of his design, covering several Gothic Revival styles throughout its architecture and features, such as Decorated tracery on the windows and Arts and Crafts Perpendicular woodwork in the interior.

The flint parish church of St Peter and St Paul is mostly of the 13th century. However, various sections contain Early Norman material. The tower and chancel contain 11th- and 12th-century work respectively, although the tower was reconstructed in the 13th century and the chancel arch is from the 14th century. The lower section of the tower contains some Saxon material.

The tower is topped with a broached shingled spire, and in 1902 the church was struck by lightning causing extensive damage. A large-scale restoration was undertaken by Jabez Bignall in 1872-73 and again by him after the damage from the lightning strike. The parish register dates from 1559. George Cecil Renouard is buried in the Swanscombe churchyard.

Swanscombe during Second World War

Swanscombe was not spared from the horrors of the Second World War. On 10 November 1940, a German bomb crashed down directly into The Morning Star Inn, causing Swanscombe’s worst wartime disaster.

The explosion resulted in the death of 27 people, with six others seriously injured and five people slightly hurt. The official casualty lists revealed the death toll, and the barmaid who was killed had given notice the week before the raid but had stayed on that evening because of the match.

One of the other victims was a merchant seaman on seven days’ leave who had spent two days travelling from Scotland to see his wife and children and was having a drink with his father in the pub at the time of the bombing: both were killed.

On 30 July 1940, another Luftwaffe raid led to the death of more than a dozen civilians, with 22 seriously injured. Its proximity to London and position under the German flight path to the city meant that Swanscombe fell victim to this kind of damage several times during the war. On 30 July 1944, a V1 rocket landed on Taunton Road. Half of one side of the road was wiped out. Thirteen were killed, and 22 were seriously injured.

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Cement Industry and it’s impact on local history

The southeast of England has an abundance of resources of clay and chalk, which has historically been used for various purposes, including mining for flint. Cement manufacturing works were established in the area around Swanscombe, with the first works opened at Northfleet by James Parker in 1792, making “Roman cement” from cement stone brought from the Isle of Sheppey.

Later, James Frost opened a works at Swanscombe in 1825, using chalk from Galley Hill, having patented a new cement called British Cement. The Swanscombe plant was subsequently acquired by John Bazley White & Co, which became the largest component of Blue Circle Industries when it formed in 1900. Between 1840 and 1930, it was the largest cement plant in Britain.

The Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM), later known as Blue Circle Industries, arrived in the area in 1900 and by 1920 owned four local factories located at Swanscombe, Northfleet, Greenhithe, and Stone. By 1970, the North Kent cement industry had evolved to become the largest center for the production of cement in Europe, supporting a long tradition of research and development to perfect the processes used in the manufacture of chalk-based products.

However, the industry has declined considerably due to the potential for more economic manufacture elsewhere, and by 2007 only two operational kilns remained, both at Northfleet. As of 2014, all have been removed.

New developments & housing in old quarries

One of the large quarries created as a legacy of the cement industry, between Watling Street and the village of Stone, is the site of the Bluewater (shopping center), one of the largest such centers in Europe.

An adjacent quarry is to be given up for housing – more than 6,000 houses will be built there. The development by Land Securities, known as ‘Eastern Quarry’, will consist of three primary schools, a secondary school, a health and social care center, and more than 20 acres (8 ha) of new parkland, lakes, and woodland.

The cement industry has contributed to environmental issues such as dust pollution in the past. However, modern cement kilns in Kent using chimneys 170 m (550 feet) in height are now said to be the cleanest in the world. Despite this, the neighboring Medway towns are reported to be the most polluted inhabited area in the UK, and the cement industry contributes to acid rain in Scandinavia.

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A great find – Palaeoloxodon antiquus

An ancient elephant species, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, was discovered in the sediment near the edge of a small lake exposed during excavations conducted before the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

The skeleton was surrounded by flint tools, indicating that early humans of that era may have butchered it for its meat. The Swanscombe example, identified by the Natural History Museum as the straight-tusked Palaeoloxodon antiquus, was found by Palaeolithic archaeologist Francis Wenban-Smith in 2004.

This species went extinct over 100,000 years ago, and only a few elephant skeletons have been discovered in Britain.

This blog post was originally published on 15 January 2024 and last updated on 15 January 2024

Swanscombe: A Guide to the Historic Village in Kent