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Darenth Park Hospital  

A subsidence revealed a shaft in the hospital grounds on the 5^th September, 1958 after a heavy rainstorm.   It was within 50 ft. of one hospital block at and was 5 ft. in diameter and went through a thin layer of chalk. it was 20 ft. deep and had three chambers at the base.   The original height of the chambers was obscured by large quantities of debris which had been thrown down the shaft.

Darenth Wood

Dene holes In 1960, the Ministry of Works asked were about to destroy part of the earthworks.  the main earthwork enclosed an area of 88 acres and this was not thought to be a defence as little attempt had been made to take advantage of naturally defensive contours. next to the mound was a ditch, which had become silted up. There were also ashes of a fire and a broken pot. The pot was dated at around 1250, tthere were 13 deneholes in the wood.  It was thought that after the ditch was dug some of the excavated material would have rolled down the slope and into the ditch and a blocks of chalk and discarded flints were found there.  So the deneholes were dug around 1200 and villagers were taking out strips of woodland, surrounding them with mounds and ditches to keep out deer anddigging deneholes along the perimeter to provide chalk for marling and planting barley. Bat conservation site.

Deneholes. two open deneholes in the wood, which is now bisected by the A2(M),

Area of Gore Farm

Became Darenth Asylum

Smallpox camp

DarenthHospital. 1876 built as a lunatic asylum. Frontage half a mile long. Dismally mean. Transferred from Metropolitan Asylums Board to LondonCountyCouncil

Southern UpperHospitalTransferred from Metropolitan Asylums Board to LondonCountyCouncil

Subsidence and shaft in 1958

Darenth Wood

Deneholes