In about 1830 Borstal House was built near the farm, and at the time of the 1840s Tithe Map the settlement was just a hamlet of a few cottages, mostly owned by local woman Mary Tuff.

[5] She sold her nearby lime-works in 1853, which was developed into a cement factory owned from 1864 by London solicitor Samuel Barker Booth.

Its success led to the hamlet's growth into a village of terraced houses with two new pubs, shops and a workmen's institute.

The western end of the meadow mentioned in Domesday Book is now crossed by the M2 motorway and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

It was built on land donated by Mary Tuff's son Thomas, who also dedicated a window in the church to Saints Matthew and Margaret.

Fort Borstal was built as an afterthought from the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, by convict labour between 1875 and 1885.