River Darent
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The River Darent or River Darenth is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames in England. Its name is believed to be from a Celtic word meaning 'river where oak-trees grow'. Fed by water from greensand hills south of Westerham in Kent, it flows northwards past the villages of Otford and Shoreham, past the castle and ruined Roman villa at Lullingstone, past Eynsford, Farningham, Horton Kirby, South Darenth, Sutton at Hone, Darenth, and through the large town of Dartford to meet the Thames at Crayford Marshes where it forms the boundary between the London Borough of Bexley and the borough of Dartford.
As its name suggests, Dartford ('Tarentefort' in the Domesday Book) was once a fording place over the Darent where it crossed the road from London to the Kent coast. There are records of a ford operating in Roman times. A ferry, operated by a hermit, was established there by 1235. The post of hermit continued until 1518, long after the first bridge was built (a footbridge, constructed during the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413) and surviving until the mid-eighteenth century). The landscapes of the river's valley were painted in a visionary manner by the early Victorian artist Samuel Palmer.
North of Dartford the Darent receives the waters of the River Cray from the west as it passes through Dartford Marshes and Crayford Marshes, joining the Thames near Crayford Ness. Its length from the springs at Sevenoaks to the Thames, estimated from a map, is about 25 miles (about 40 km).
The river is largely small and peaceful, a surprise given the breadth of the valley it has cut out. The cause of this is believed to be that the 'proto-Darent' was formerly much larger than the present day but that the River Medway, through erosion of the soft chalk and clays of the North Downs/Western Weald, captured much of the headwaters that once supplied the Darent" (Source: Stone Museum of Geology).
By 1989 it was realised that the flow of the river was decreasing dramatically, when it was officially recognised as the 'lowest flow' river in the country. Wildlife was being destroyed. Since then much work has been carried out to rectify the situation, including shutting down of a number of boreholes along its length, by the Environment Agency. A sculpture has now (2004) been unveiled to celebrate the renewed life of the river, depicting the wildlife which has been saved.
