London Road, Swanley - 01322 614 660 towncouncil@swanleytowncouncil.gov.uk

Within Kent, Swanley is adjacent to the parishes of Wilmington and Hextable to the north, Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley and Farningham to the east, and Eynsford and Crockenhill to the south. To the west there is a boundary with St Mary Cray in the London Borough of Bromley and Ruxley in the London Borough of Bexley.

The closest large towns are Bexleyheath, Dartford, Orpington and Sidcup.

The Swanley post town in the BR postcode area includes the hamlet of Hockenden in the London Borough of Bromley.

Today, Swanley is essentially a commuter and distribution centre, home to a mainly lower-middle and working class population. It relies on trading via its rail links to Central London and its proximity to the M25 motorway. Being on the outskirts of south east London, it is a convenient commuter town for people who work in the city, as they can still be paid the London living wage. It still keeps some traditional links with Sevenoaks and Kent but it is heavily associated with South East London due to the expansion of that area close to Swanley's borders. The majority of housing development took place from the post-war period to late 1980s. A new fire station was opened in 1962, and new post office two years later. Victorian houses and shops were demolished to create a new town centre. Its 1970s shopping centre was then re-modelled in the 1990s when the Asda supermarket was extended and is one of the larger Asda stores.

In 1066, Swanley only consisted of a few cattle farms, surrounded in oak, sycamore and ash (Fraxinus) woodland. Because Swanley only consisted of a few homesteads, it was not mentioned in the Domesday Book.

There is a theory that the placename Swanley developed from the Saxon term 'Swine-ley', "Ley" meaning a clearing in the woods and "swine" meaning pigs. So it has been suggested that it was originally a Saxon pig farm or a stopping place for pigs on the way to the markets in Kent . This later developed into what we now know as Swanley.

In the 6th and 7th Centuries, there were probably two homesteads. After the Norman Conquest, these portions of land were turned into manors, which were then often divided among the monks at Ghent Abbey and Bermondsey. The original settlement of the town of Swanley (as opposed to modern-day Swanley Village) was based around Birchwood which does get mention in later medieval and early modern documents.

The town developed from a crossroads with very few buildings to a town with a population of 16,588 (in 2001) in one and a half centuries. It had only three houses before the advent of the railway in 1861. The newer settlement grew up around the railway junction and was originally named Swanley Junction, it became Swanley, and the original Swanley became Swanley Village, in the 1920s.

The arrival of the railway changed life in Swanley. The town became the location of Swanley Horticultural College which opened in 1887 and led to horticulture becoming the predominant industry. The college originally only catered for male students. Then in the early 1890s the first female students were admitted. Local Nurseries and florists' outlets blossomed, while casual farm labouring job opportunities on farms became in short supply. Some properties in Swanley still have apple and pear trees in their gardens from the original orchards. The college amalgamated with Wye College near Canterbury.

Contrary to popular myth, Swanley was never a major flower growing or orchard area (at least not more so than any other part of North Kent) however its location became attractive for London doctors seeking a cure for sick Londoners, escaping the smog of London.