Learning from local villages: Southfleet 

Southfleet takes its name from the River Fleet, a minor tributary of the River Thames, which was subsequently renamed the River Ebbsfleet in recent times.  The banks of the Fleet also happens to be where watercress was first commercially grown in the UK, just down from Southfleet at Sprignhead.  The river flows on from Springhead into Robins Creek at Northfleet, where it once joined the Thames.

The original historic village is grouped around a crossroads. The distinctive Kentish red brick with patchwork of blue headers and typical brick and ragstone plinths, are combined with a palette of horizontal black boarding and earlier half-timbering.