Badgers Mount is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Sevenoaks District Sevenoaks is a local government district in west Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Sevenoaks. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Sevenoaks Urban District, Sevenoaks Rural District and part of Dartford Rur ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, in southeast England. It is south east of

Orpington Orpington is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Mary Cray, sou ...

and north west of

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

, adjacent to the Kent border with

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

History

Evidence of early settlement can be found in the surrounding countryside, where there are ancient earthworks and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Polhill. 'Badgers Mount' appears as the name of a geographical feature, east of the London-Sevenoaks road and adjacent railway tunnel, in an 1871

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

map. The area was sparsely populated until the 19th century arrival of the railway. The establishment of Knockholt railway station (originally 'Halstead for Knockholt') in the 1860s brought more visitors to the area and spurred some suburban growth. However, the village remained a quiet agricultural community through much of the early 20th century. After World War I, farmland around Badgers Mount was used for residential purposes. This shift was part of the broader suburbanisation of the area as London expanded, and the later

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major ring road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 th ...

brought more access to the Kent countryside. Until 2015 Badgers Mount was part of the Shoreham parish.

Local area

Badgers Mount is part of the

Kent Downs The Kent Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in Kent, England. They are the eastern half of the North Downs and stretch from the London/Surrey borders to the White Cliffs of Dover, including a small section of the London Boroug ...

AONB and includes the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Polhill. Both lie to the west of the

Darent Valley Path The waymarked path Darent Valley Path is long, following the River Darent from the banks of the River Thames at Dartford through the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to the Greensand Hills above Sevenoaks. It runs through the vill ...

. The

North Downs Way The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in South East England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover in Kent, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, through the Surrey Hills National Lan ...

footpath and the

Pilgrims' Way A pilgrims' way or pilgrim way is a standard route that pilgrims take when they go on a pilgrimage in order to reach their destination – usually a holy site or place of worship. These sites may be towns or cities of special significance such a ...

, an ancient route for pilgrims travelling to

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, also pass to the south of the area.

Transport

Rail

The nearest national railway station to Badgers Mount is Knockholt railway station, to the northwest. Southeastern operates regular services to London and to nearby towns.

Buses

Badgers Mount is served by Go Coach route 3, which operates on weekdays and connects the village with Orpington and Sevenoaks.

Notable residents

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by ''Complex'' as one of the greatest British ...

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent Sevenoaks District