This makes perfect sense as the land was on the boundary of the Saxon settlements of Dartford, Bromley and Sutton at Hone.

But the land on the Birchwood side of Hextable, where the post would have been, is not high, at least compared with nearby Rowhill and Swanley Village, and it is hard to see how Hage would have derived from Hey.

word "hage" meant a hedge, an enclosure or hawthorn, any of which could have been a means of uniquely delineating the boundary post in some way.

Many of these villas are still standing, although two, Southbank and Newbank in College Road, were recently demolished to make way for flats and townhouses.

The village's to-date most famous resident, Arthur Mee, known for the Children's Encyclopedia, lived in one such villa, St David's.

The village quickly grew beyond being just a retreat for the upper middle class with the coming of the railway at nearby Swanley Junction coupled with the fertility of the land and the mild climate.

Emersons Avenue was built upon "The Rec", an old recreation ground left by a resident in Victorian times "for the use of the children of the village in perpetuity".

The gardens of the old House, as would have been seen in its final role as an agricultural college, are kept up with the aid of Lottery money at the Hextable Heritage Centre.

is a family run junior football club founded in 2003 who play their games at Hextable Park at the top of Emersons Avenue.