Dartford in north Kent is an old market town where, at the request of Dartford Borough Council, a Farmers’ Market was founded in November 2005 and takes place on the third Friday of each month on the pedestrian area of Dartford High Street. Locally produced meat, bread, plants, preserves and fudge are some of the products on sale.
And if you need to top up on fresh food in between markets, pop over to one of the many nearby Farm Shops including Stanhill Farm in Wilmington, which has a shop open all year round, Pick Your Own and an online shop. With between 20-30 varieties of fruit and vegetables farmed from its own fields as well as wheat, you are sure to find some great tasting, locally produced food whatever the season. Broadditch Farm Shop in Southfleet, meanwhile, has recently celebrated its twenty fifth year in business, and provides seasonal fresh vegetables from its fields, as well as other fresh produce from local farms.
Dartford has few historical buildings remaining apart from Holy Trinity Church and some eighteenth century buildings on the high street, but the area was revitalised by the creation of Bluewater Shopping Centre in 1999. It might now be best known for Dartford Tunnel, which runs for one mile beneath the river Thames re-merging near West Thurrock in Essex, but the town of Dartford is also of historical significance. Dartford Manor is mentioned in the Domesday Book, written after the Norman invasion in 1086, and the Romans built the Dover to London road at the crossing of the River Darent, which is now it got its name Darent Ford.
