Borough Green

The central area is situated on the A25 road between Maidstone and Sevenoaks, with the M26 motorway running through the centre dividing Wrotham and Borough Green.

Two Paleolithic rock shelters were found at Oldbury Hill some two miles west of Borough Green with flint tools from about 50,000 years BCE.

[1] Roman cinerary urns were first found in Barrow Field off Staley's Road in 1839 but were reburied and lost to history.

In 1898 a local archaeologist Benjamin Harrison of Ightham persuaded the owners to stop destroying them.

[3] The name of the community describes what it originally was – a green to which the people of the area went for sports and games.

Its location at a crossroads with the old route from Gravesend to Hastings meant that inns were gradually opened.

The Bull of 1753 survives, but the "Red Lion", Fox and Hounds (1837) and The Rock (1860) have been turned into private housing.

The London, Chatham and Dover Railway opened a line to Maidstone on 1 June 1874, and a station named Wrotham and Borough Green was built.

[4] Western Road was planned in 1877 after the sale of 56 acres of land by the Tomlyn family between the High Street and Fairfield.

This area of 18.33 acres is a mile south from the centre of the town and is on the border of 4 parishes: Borough Green, Ightham, Platt and Plaxtol.

[8] Although named after Wrotham, the urban district council was always based in Borough Green, which was growing to become the largest settlement in the parish following the opening of the railway station in 1874.

Borough Green is home to the British Racing and Sports Car Club, one of the major organisers of motorsports events in the United Kingdom.

[citation needed] It has close ties with Borough Green Junior Football Club, which is also located in the village.

[2] The first recorded practitioners in Borough Green were Dr AA Lipscomb and the Walker family.

The Red Lion, once the White Bear, dates back to 1576. This front section is 19th Century. It closed in 2007 and the building and its garden and car park were later transformed into housing - Red Lion Square.
This map of Borough Green is from early 19th Century and shows the purchase of the future Baptist plot in 1816.
Bridge House, later Clokes department store, was built circa 1887/1889 by Joseph Walls, whose firm bought most of Yew Tree Farm. [ 2 ] There is currently one of Borough Green's two pubs and a takeaway (presently closed) on the site.
Church of the Good Shepherd, consecrated in 1906
Borough Green Baptist Church
This new Catholic Church is part of the Catholic parish of Sevenoaks and was opened in 2017.
The ten small shops were built by a Mr Gregory between 1904 and 1908. A Bank opened on Fridays in 1904.
A similar view today. NatWest Bank closed in 2017 and is now Costa Coffee.