| Halstead | |
|---|---|
 Church Road | |
  Halstead Location within Kent | |
| Population | 1,607 (2011 Census) |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Sevenoaks |
| Postcode district | TN14 |
| Police | Kent |
| Fire | Kent |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| UK Parliament | |
Halstead is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 4.7 miles south east of Orpington and & 6.1 miles north west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with Greater London. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,607.[1]
The name Halstead is derived from the Old English hald (refuge, shelter) and stede (site, place), meaning 'safe place' or 'place of refuge'. The parish church is dedicated to St Margaret. Halstead Community Primary School is located in the village.
Botanist and photographer Anne Atkins lived since 1841 to her death at Halstead Place, where she is buried. Author Edith Nesbit spent some of her adolescence in Halstead during the 1870s and her book The Railway Children is thought to be based on her time living in a house, Halstead Hall, whose garden is about a mile and a half from the railway line.
The parish is adjacent to Fort Halstead, a government defence research centre that is thought to have developed Britain's first atomic bomb.
- ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 18 September 2016.