Halstead, Kent

Halstead is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is on the border of Kent with Greater London bordering the London Borough of Bromley. It is located south east of Orpington. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census is1,607.

The name Halstead is derived from the Old English hald (refuge, shelter) and stede (site, place), meaning 'safe place' or 'place of refuge'. The parish church is dedicated to St Margaret. Halstead Community Primary School is located in the village.

Author Edith Nesbit spent some of her adolescence in Halstead during the 1870s and her book The Railway Children is thought to be based on her time living in a house, Halstead Hall, whose garden is about a mile and a half from the railway line.

The parish is adjacent to Fort Halstead, a government defence research centre that is thought to have developed Britain's first atomic bomb.

Halstead is served by Transport for London bus routes R5 and R10 to Orpington via Green Street Green and to Knockholt, as well as the Arriva Kent route 402 to Bromley via Farnborough and to Tunbridge Wells via Sevenoaks. The nearest rail link to Halstead is at Knockholt station.

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