WAR MEMORIAL and QUARRY HILL PLANTER
 | The War Memorial was designed to echo the local building vernacular, ragstone with soft red brick quoining. Buried in the foundation of the Memorial and the flagpole are World War 1 Centenary £2 coins from the Royal Mint. |
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more CONSTRUCTION pics
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Borough Green did not exist during the First World War, only becoming a Parish in 1934, but a much smaller area than today, although we are still the smallest Parish in Kent by land area. So the decision was made to include the names of all those who lived in what is now the Civil Parish of Borough Green. When we excavated for the footings, we discovered the remains of the foundations of the old Russell's Green Grocers that stood on the site until the 70s, when it was demolished by crashing tippers (see below). One of those bricks were incorporated into the memorial at the rear of the centre plaque Our memorial was built at the same time as Platt's old War Memorial was demolished to be moved across the road to the new Memorial Hall, and they very kindly donated one surplus brick for our memorial as a hint at continuity, as some of our Remembered Soldiers were Platt residents at that time, because Those two bricks are incorporated into the memorial at the rear of the centre plaque |
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2018 Memorial and Dedication Services |
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A sculpted copy by Pat Moore of the Borough Green Herald, originally designed by Charles Willsher |
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This plaque, carved by our stone mason Don Sheppard, commemorates the Quarries and Sandpits that are the only reason Borough Green exists |
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Don Sheppard our stonemason, with the main plaque ready for collection. Don is one of a band of fast vanishing craftsmen, and he carved the Parish white bricks for free. |
Borough Green did not exist in its own right during the First World War, it was just an area of the Old Wrotham Rural District Council of Wrotham, later merged with others to form Malling Rural District Council
The Parish of Borough Greenwas not created until 1934. and was carved out from parts of Wrotham Ightham, Platt and Plaxtol. Platt used to reach as far as Station Road, Plaxtol to the junction of Rock Road with what was then the High St, now Quarry Hill. Ightham came almost to the High St, and Wrotham to the Railway Hotel, later the Henry Simmonds, and now long gone. Borough Green's boundaries were expanded again in the 80s to their current extent. It used to be said there was only one pub in Borough Green, the Fox and Hounds, where Fox Grove is now. The Black Horse was in Platt, the Railway in Wrotham, and the Red Lion and Rock Tavern in Ightham.
We decided that the names on our Memorial would be drawn from those who used to live in the area of what is now the Civil Parish of Borough Green, but as a courtesy to our "Parent Parishes" each of the white bricks in the corner is carved with their names, Wrotham, Platt, Ightham and Plaxtol
