Wilmington, Kent

Wilmington
Wilmington
Shire county	Kent;
Region	South East;
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DARTFORD
Postcode district	DA2
Dialling code	01322
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Dartford;
Website	Wilmington Parish Council
	List of places UK England Kent 51°25′51″N 0°11′15″E / 51.4309°N 0.1876°E

Wilmington is a village and

civil parish in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It is located 2.7 miles south of Dartford, 3.5 miles north of Swanley and 4.3 miles south east of Bexleyheath, adjacent to the Kent border with Greater London

.

History

Wilmington is believed to have been the site of a major Celtic settlement and a place where the Cantii tribe fought Roman invaders near Leyton Cross and Joyden's Wood.

In the reign of

Edward IV, a manor house in the village was a residence of the king-making Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick

. In the 19th century Wilmington was noted for being surrounded by gardens and cherry orchards.

In the 1970s the village was bisected by the

A2 dual carriageway

.

Notable residents

Wilmington is perhaps most famous for being the childhood home of

Rolling Stones.^{[citation needed]} An earlier resident was Sir James Whitehead, whose family grave is in the village churchyard.^{[citation needed]} He was Lord Mayor of London c.1888-9 and he lived for a number of years in the Manor, which was an early part of the girls' school. Two daughters, Leila and Florence, lived at Hazlewood in Rowhill and they founded the mission in Broad Lane.^{[clarification needed}

]

Transport

Rail

The nearest

Swanley

.

Buses

429 to
Joydens Wood, Swanley & Farningham. Monday to Saturday. Operated by Go-Coach
.

477 to Dartford or to Orpington via Hextable, Swanley, Crockenhill & St Mary Cray. Monday to Saturday. Operated by Arriva Kent Thameside.
B12 to
Go Ahead London for London Buses
.

Sport

Wilmington Cricket Club has been a part of the village for over 100 years and has had many successes in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, playing at Lords twice and winning many competitions over the years. They currently play in the Kent Regional Cricket League and the home ground is in Oakfield Park.

Wilmington used to have a successful football club whose history, in the form of trophies and shields, is displayed in the Wilmington Pavilion on Oakfield Lane.[2] In 2014, Richard Moore, a resident of Wilmington, started a new Wilmington FC team playing in the North Kent Sunday League. In their first season they won the League Three title as well as the League A cup.

Schools

There are three secondary schools within the parish: Wilmington Grammar School for Boys (WGSB), whose students wear blue blazers, white shirts, grey trousers and different ties for each house within the school (these colours are red, green, white, black, yellow and purple, after the houses Telford, Stephenson, Darwin, Newton, Hawing, and Brunel ); Wilmington Grammar School for Girls (WGSG) formally The Grammar School for Girls Wilmington (GSGW), where the uniforms are maroon jumpers and skirts and a sky-blue revere collar blouse; and the mixed-sex Wilmington Academy (formerly Wilmington Hall), whose pupils wear black blazers.

Wilmington Academy and 'Wilmington Boys' are situated near Common Lane While 'Wilmington Girls' is situated on the nearby Parsons Lane. The Academy was built in the mid-1970s on the site of Wilmington Hall Manor^{[citation needed]} and is a specialist centre of excellence for both business and vocational courses. Wilmington Grammar School for Boys has engineering specialist status. Wilmington Grammar School for Girls specialises in mathematics and computing.

There is one primary school in the village, Wilmington Primary School, and another in Joydens Wood Estate; a nursery school is situated next to Wilmington Academy.

Three of the schools in the village (WGSB, WGSB, and Wilmington Primary) are part of the Endeavour Mat trust, which also includes Stone lodge, a school located in nearby Stone.

The Dartford Campus of

North West Kent College is accessed via Oakfield Lane, Wilmington,^[3]

but its grounds lie within Dartford.

References

^ "Wilmington CP". Neighbourhood Statistics. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
^ "Expired website - This website has expired".
^ Only the westbound lane and properties to the south of the road lie within Wilmington parish

External links

Official website

[1] "Wilmington CP". Neighbourhood Statistics. Retrieved 29 November 2013.

[2] "Expired website - This website has expired".

[3] Only the westbound lane and properties to the south of the road lie within Wilmington parish

[3]