Dartford Historical Society in Parliament

Recently I took Dartford Historical Society on a tour of Parliament which was of course of great interest to the group as Parliament is steeped in rich and interesting History.  However, Dartford too has a rich history which pre-dates that of Parliament.

Dartford town centre and the surrounding area has a rich and prosperous history which can be traced back over hundreds of thousands of years.  In fact archaeologists have found discarded tools and bones that show evidence that tribes of nomadic hunters lived in the Dartford area some 250,000 years ago.

Until the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD Dartford remained very much a small collection of rural hamlets.  Important sites of Roman heritage have been found along the length of the River Darent. Other evidence of Roman life has been found in Ash, Longfield and Joydens Wood.

It was the Romans that created the first road in Dartford which was known as Watling Street and is still called the same. The exact course through Dartford's centre is unknown but it has been suggested that it passed under the tower of Holy Trinity Church which itself was built nearly a thousand years ago. The origins of Dartford's name can be chased back to this time too, where it was known as 'Darent-ford', which has since been contracted to 'Dartford'.