Salt Marshes

Click to see a map of this area.
Use the aerial photograph option on the map page.

After leaving Dartford the river Darent flows through marshes before it feeds into the river Thames.

From early times the marshes have been valued grazing land. The soil, regularly enriched with sit from flood water and drained by the man-made dykes, grew good pasture for farm animals to graze on.

The land is open and flat. There are no trees.

The River Cray joins the River Darent near the beginning of the marshes.

(Click here to see an aerial view of the two rivers merging)

The Darent along with the water from the Cray continues to meander through the marshes.

Look carefully at the photograph on the right. Can you see where silt has been deposited on the inside of the meander? Rivers flow more slowly around the inside of bends dropping the silt they carry.

The tidal river has left a wide ribbon of refuse along the high tide mark - wooden planks, plastic bottles, old tyres .....

The isolation of these marshes have been taken advantage by man. There are two sets of derelict buildings that were once used to house explosive materials. The several small bunkers near the river housed ammunition during the Second World War.