THE TOWN OF WESTERHAM IS SET in a broad east-west valley some twenty miles south-east of London, bounded by the North Downs to the north and the Greensand Ridge to the south. The River Darent rises in the Greensand and flows through the town; to the north the countryside is mainly farmland, while the south, except for Squerryes Park, is mostly woodland. The Parish as a whole covers slightly over nine square miles, and is home to something in the region of 4,250 people (the 1999 Electoral Roll listed 3,937 individuals of voting age).
Local geology provides a rich variety of small hills and valleys, with a range of soils yiel-ding a profusion of types of trees and plants.
As market garden-ing and hop-growing have dec-lined, much of the land they used has gone over to new housing estates and industrial use, especially in the last five to ten years - driven by development pressures created by the motorway, and by the demand for more commercial premises and homes in the South-East generally.
These pressures are here to stay, and will probably intensify; so there will be a need for even tougher and more determined planning policies to manage them in the future.
Westerham's railway station was closed nearly forty years ago, and the M25 motorway now follows much of the old track route. With no higher school surviving in Westerham today, students now commute to Sevenoaks, Oxted or further. .......>
