Cyclopark

Istead Rise is a village in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England, 3 miles (5 km) south of Gravesend. It had a population of 3,437 at the 2011 Census.The name of the village is not an ancient one; it first appears as a road-name on the Ordnance Survey 25" map of 1907. At that time Istead Rise was the only road in the region and led to Frog's Island at its western end. The name may be connected to a field-name, Highstead, appearing as plot 690 on the Northfleet tithe award of 1838. By road, it is 23 miles (37 km) east of London on the A2 road. The nearest railway station is 1.7 miles (3 km) away at Meopham (34 minutes from London Victoria). Istead Rise is 3.7 miles (6 km) from Ebbsfleet International for Eurostar services to Paris, Brussels and Lille. Southeastern commuter trains run on the high-speed track to London St Pancras (16 minutes away), stopping only at Stratford International. When devising the route of the high speed railway in the early 2000s the line was planned to pass right through and destroy the village. It transpired that very old maps had been used which did not feature Istead Rise; the railway was duly redrawn one mile to the north but not without vigorous protests from the residents. The new Linear Park, on the site of the old A2, is 15 minutes' walk away, 5 minutes by bike, and is suited to cycling, walking and jogging. At the Eastern end is Shorne Country Park. The new Cyclopark opened there in September 2012. Istead Rise Primary School provides education for children till the age of 11. In addition, on the site of the primary school, there are two nursery schools. St Barnabas Church (Church of England), founded in 1957, is located near the shops. There is a small parade of shops with an Indian restaurant, fish and chip shop, butcher, pharmacy, Co-op and dry cleaner. On Lewis Road there are an hairdresser, florist and dentist. There is a GP surgery on Worcester Close. Istead Rise was a pig-farming community in the 1860s, situated in the North Downs pathway. A pig farm was on what is now the site of Istead Rise Primary School. Kent County Council bought the site for its school in the 1960s. Until then Istead Rise did not have a school as there were insufficient children in the area to make this viable. As well as a pig farm on Downs Road, there were orchards on what are now the Community Centre fields and the surrounding housing area. There was also a flower farm with large greenhouses around what is now Flower Hill House and Flowerhill Way. Frog Island is on the site of what is now Istead Rise Parade. Frog Island is also the name of the local Morris Men group. References to these can be found in the local history of Istead Rise The Rise of the Rise, by Ken Jones. Istead Rise community centre was destroyed by a fire started during a burglary on 20 March 2007. The centre was re-built and opened again on 17 December 2008.

St George's Church of England School is a mixed all-through school and sixth form located in Gravesend in the English county of Kent.The school was founded in 1580, and is administered by the Church of England Diocese of Rochester. The school was converted to academy status in November 2011, and was previously a voluntary aided school under the control of Kent County Council. The school continues to coordinate with Kent County Council for admissions. St George's Church of England School offers GCSEs, BTECs and OCR Nationals as programmes of study for pupils, while students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of A Levels and further BTECs. It was also the school of Alec Shelbrooke, Member of Parliament for Elmet and Rothwell.

Northfleet School for Girls is a high school for girls, located in Northfleet in the English county of Kent.The school first opened in March 1937 in a new building next to Northfleet School for Boys in Colyer Road. In 1950 The Upper School moved to the current school site in Hall Road in 1950, with the rest of the school following in 1955. that the whole school was able to move to the new buildings. Building work for the South Wing of the school were started in 1971.It is a foundation school administered by Kent County Council, who coordinate admissions. As a foundation school, it is supported by a Cooperative Learning Trust which includes The Co-operative Group, Age UK, North West Kent College, the University of Greenwich and the Workers' Educational Association as partners.Northfleet School for Girls offers GCSEs and BTECs as programmes of study for pupils, while students in the sixth form have the option to study from a range of A Levels and further BTECs.

Northfleet Green is a hamlet in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. It is located around two miles southwest of Gravesend and just east of Southfleet in the neighbouring borough of Dartford. The High Speed 1 railway line passes just to the north of the hamlet. The population of the hamlet is included in the ward of Istead Rise.

Northfleet Technology College (formerly Northfleet School for Boys) is located in Northfleet, Kent. It is an all-boys school that offers secondary education for students aged 11+. As part of the Building Schools for the Future programme, a new school building was opened in 2010, with state of the art vocational learning areas.

Mayfield Grammar School (formerly Gravesend Grammar School for Girls) is a grammar school with academy status, located off Old Road West (B261) in Gravesend, Kent, England. The school accepts girls at age 11 by examination and both girls and boys at age 16, based on their GCSE results.

The Bat & Ball Ground is a cricket and sports ground in Gravesend in Kent. The ground was used as a first-class cricket venue by Kent County Cricket Club between 1849 and 1971. It remains in use by Gravesend Cricket Club who have used the ground as their home since their formation in 1881. The site also has lawn bowls and tennis facilities and is the home of Gravesend Bowls Club.The ground is situated south of Gravesend town centre on the western side of the A227 Wrotham Road. The Bat and Ball Inn, which was named after the ground, is on the eastern side of the ground.

Rosherville Halt was a railway station on the Gravesend West Line which was built to serve the popular Rosherville Gardens, a pleasure garden in Gravesend which closed in 1910. The station survived a further 23 years before itself closing in 1933.

Gravesham () is a constituency in Kent represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Adam Holloway, a Conservative.

Northfleet is a town in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. It is located immediately west of Gravesend, and on the border with the Borough of Dartford. Northfleet has its own railway station on the North Kent Line, just east of Ebbsfleet International railway station on the High Speed 1 line.

Singlewell or Ifield is the name given to the area south of Gravesend in Kent, England. Originally two separate settlements on either side of Watling Street, it is now separated by the A2 road and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and bears little resemblance to its past. Singlewell Road leads from Gravesend town southwards to the A2, linking with Hever Court Road just to the north of the former site of the A2. The A2 was moved to the South in the 2000s, allowing a widening from three to four lanes in each direction. The carriageways were then turned into a parkland area. Singlewell is one of the highest points in Gravesham, including Marling Cross, which forms the junction at Gravesend East on the A2, which is the highest point in the Borough. The name Singlewell, originally Shinglewell – and not therefore referring to it having the only well in the district – and its eponymous ancient well with ancient origins has now come to mean the area now part of the built-up area of Gravesend. The well was filled in during World War I. The original Watling Street is now Hever Court Road and the nearby estate named after it was built in 1957. Hever Court itself was the original home of the medieval family who moved to Hever, Kent in 1331. Hever Court eventually became derelict and was demolished in 1952. Ifield, once a large rural parish, is now a few houses south of the main road, and the tiny church of St Margaret, with Norman architecture included in its walls. The parish formed part of the Hundred of Toltingtrough, then Strood Rural District from 1894 and was abolished on 1 April 1935, split between Cobham and the Municipal Borough of Gravesend.The George Inn is also in Hever Court Road: it was a favourite establishment of Gravesend residents in the 19th century, being within walking distance from the town; not too different from today, although there is also a Best Western hotel (the Manor); and the Gravesend South Premier Inn, both serving traffic on the A2 road.

Nurstead (or Nursted) is a locality, ecclesiastical parish and former civil parish situated 3 miles south of Gravesend and ½ a mile north of Meopham, Kent, England. The parish was in the Hundred of Toltingtrough in the Lathe of Aylesford in the county of Kent. It has an area of 522 acres.The name of the parish was "Notestede" in the Domesday Book, but by the 18th century although formally spelled "Nutsted" it was at this time commonly called Nursted.It is at present in the civil parish of Meopham, which is divided into three wards, one of which bears the name "Hook Green and Nurstead". Nurstead has a small 14th-century church, dedicated to Saint Mildred and this is still the church of the parish, although the benefice is united with Meopham. St Mildred's church is a listed building with walls of oblong flints.A quarter of a mile north of the church is Nurstead Court, one of the most famous small medieval houses in the country. The civil parish was abolished in 1935 when it was united with Cobham and in 1963 it was transferred to Meopham. A minor exception was Zimmermans a private bungalow built between 1928 and 1930 on 3/4 acre of land purchased from Nurstead Court Estate. This land was next to the border with Cobham and was not transferred into Meopham in 1963, as indicated in 2000 when a boundary marker was erected on White Post Lane. The Sallows Shaw area south of that road also remained in Cobham.Nurstead is a small parish, being not quite a mile in extent each way. It lies most of it on high ground, and has a great variety of soils, having in it arable, orchard, and hop ground, and some woodland towards the north boundary of it, next to Northfleet (formerly a parish and then an Urban District; it joins to Meopham southward. In 1797 there were but five houses in it, i.e.. Nurstead Court, Nurstead Hill Farm at the west end of the parish, and Copthall, at the east end, plus two cottages. Nurstead has a thriving village team in the grounds on Nurstead Court. In the following century and up until the abolition of the civil parish, the population remained low, as follows: