DARTFORD, urban district and market town of Kent, Eng land, 17 m. E.S.E. of London, by the S.R. Pop. (1931) 28,928. The town lies in the valley of the Darent about 3 m. from the Thames, and is flanked by two chalk hills. Its most noteworthy building is the parish church, restored in 1863, which contains an old fresco and several interesting brasses, and has a Norman tower. The grammar school dates from 1576.
Dartford was the scene, in J235, of the marriage, celebrated by proxy, between Isabella, sister of Henry III., and the Emperor Frederick II. ; and in 1331 a famous tournament was held in the place by Edward III. The same monarch established an Augustin ian nunnery on West Hill in 1355, of which, however, little re mains. After the Dissolution it was used as a private residence by Henry VIII., Anne of Cleves and Elizabeth. The chantry of St. Edmund the Martyr on the opposite side of the town was a part of Edward III.'s endowment to the priory, and became famous as a place of pilgrimage on the way to Canterbury. The part of Wat ling Street which crossed there towards London was sometimes called "St. Edmund's Way." Wat Tyler's insurrection began at Dartford in 1377. On Dartford Heath is the mental home main tained by the London County Council. Greenhithe, on the banks of the Thames, has large chalk quarries in its neighbourhood, from which lime and cement are manufactured. One of the first at tempts at the manufacture of paper in England was made here by Sir John Spielman (d. 1607), jeweller to Queen Elizabeth. Paper making is still important here as well as chemical, metal and leather working.