One Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks - Riverhead
Riverhead, a one-time small village and now a village part of the built-up area to the north of the town Sevenoaks, is also a civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish has a population of around 2500. The parish stretches from Chipstead Lake and the River Darent in the north to Mill Bank Wood in the south.
The parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin
Behind the church is an area known as the sand pits, it is popular amongst the young people in Riverhead. The area features a steep sand cliff, an open field, woodland, and a park.
The village is an exuberant and flourishing place. Every year there is the Village Fete and Carnival on the local common, held by the 3rd sevenoaks scout group. The Riverhead Parkland offers a great open space to walk and play, set in a wealden greensand vale, between the new Riverhead Infants School and Brittains Lane.
There are two pubs in Riverhead, The Bullfinch (private ownership) and The Riverhead (Harvester). The Bullfinch also serves good coffee and offers Kentish Cream Teas in the afternoons during the summer. The village also boasts an old fashioned sweet shop and milkshake bar located on London Road. The village has a great butchers on The Square, Batchelors, a small family run business. The speciality of the shop is a spicy sausage from a South African recipe called 'Boerewors'.
There are also range of shops on the White Hart Parade and London Road, including a couple of boutiques, a small art gallery, restaraunt (Malaysian cuisine) called Longhouse, a dry cleaners and educational suppliers. The parade gets its name from a pub that was once there.
At the north end of the village is Tesco and a range of other shops such as Bathstore and Majestic Wine. There is also an Aston Martin and Jaguar dealership. The Barratt built Lakeside Place estate, built on the former Marley Tiles site in the mid 1990s, sits rather pleasantly on the banks of Chipstead Lake.
Interesting fact:Some idea of the competition the Riverhead stone age man must have face were demonstrated with the discovery of a huge mammoth tusk at Riverhead Lakes.