Borough Green is situated in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. The central area is situated on the A25 road between Maidstone and Sevenoaks, with the M26 motorway running through the centre dividing Wrotham and Borough Green.
History
Roman Remains
Roman cinerary urns were first found in Barrow Field off Staley's Road in 1839 but were reburied and lost to history.In the 1880s there was a much more important find on location north of the railway station where sand was being excavated. In 1898 a local archaeologist Benjamin Harrison of Ightham persuaded the owners to stop destroying them. He called in George Payne who identified them as Roman. There was a Roman cemetery consisting of rows of cinerary urns six feet apart and two feet deep. The burials date from around the year 100 CE.
Historical Inns
The first record of this name was in 1575, when it appears as Borrowe Grene. Middle English grene means village green The name itself is much older. It is not known if this from Old English burh ‘manor, borough' or from beorg 'hill, mound'.
The name of the community describes what it originally was – a green to which the people of the area went for sports and games. There is also a view that "borough", which predates any borough council in the area, relates to the word barrow, possibly referring to the Roman remains near the station site.
Its location at a crossroads with the old route from Gravesend to Hastings meant that inns were gradually opened. The Red Lion, originally the "White Bear", first mentioned in 1586, is now closed. The 1592 Black Bull became the Black Horse, then The Black Horse and Hooden, and recently The Black Horse again. The Bull of 1753 survives, but the "Red Lion", Fox and Hounds (1837) and The Rock (1860) have been turned into private housing. The Red Lion building still exists as part of the Red Lion Square housing development. The Fox and Hounds and the Rock were demolished to make way for Foxlea and Tavern Close respectively. The 1878 Railway Hotel, later The Henry Simmonds, is now a Sainsbury's Local food store.
Nineteenth Century
In Borough Green there were 360 residents in 1841, 241 in 1861, 232 in 1871. The village expanded after the railway opened and in 1891 there were 682 inhabitants.
The London, Chatham and Dover Railway opened a line to Maidstone on 1 June 1874, and a station named Wrotham and Borough Green was built. Later the names were reversed to Borough Green and Wrotham, in line with the position of the station within Borough Green, and the fact that Borough Green had outgrown Wrotham.
An infant school was built on the direction of the local school board in 1875 to the design of architect Robert Wheeler.
Western Road was planned in 1877 after the sale of 56 acres of land by the Tomlyn family between the High Street and Fairfield. Town gas was provided by the Wrotham and Borough Green Gas Co from 1880 and in 1904 was taken over by the Mid Kent Gas Light and Coke Company.
The River Bourne
flows through the southern part of the parish. It once powered a paper mill at Basted.
Recent History
Piped water came from the Mid Kent Water Co. in 1900. Kent Electric Power Co. brought electricity in 1930.
Sports
Borough Green is home to the British Racing and Sports Car Club, one of the major organisers of motorsports events in the United Kingdom. The village's main football team is Potters Football Club of the Sevenoaks & District Premier Division, which fields one men's team. It has close ties with Borough Green Junior Football Club, which is also located in the village.
Churches
Several denominations have places of worship in Borough Green: Anglican – Church of England: The Church of the Good Shepherd, Quarry Hill Road. Before 1875 Church of England members walked to Wrotham, Ightham, Platt or Plaxtol to go to Church. From that year services were held in the new Church of England Infants School. The foundation stone of the Church of the Good Shepherd was laid by Emmeline St. Tour, Countess Torrington on 9 January 1906 and consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr John Harmer on 5 July 1906. The Architects were Monckton and Gillespie.