Now a small suburb of Rochester in the Medway Towns conurbation, Borstal was historically a separate village to Rochester - being recorded independently in the 1086 Domesday Book. Contemporarily, Borstal’s most common connotation is to the HM Prison Rochester - initially called Borstal Prison. A youth offenders prison which still operates to this day. However, given its removal from Rochester and proximity to the pastoral green spaces of the Kentish North Downs; houses and house prices in this area tend to be grand with refurbished oast houses and country manors on sale for over £1.2 million!

Borstal was initially recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as ‘Borchetelle’ and even then it was a small village settlement with only a few inhabitants. Over the centuries the village developed as a vital cement manufacturing location; owing to the abundance of chalk and the quality water of the River Medway. The prison association came in the late 19th century, with the building of the Borstal Prison in 1870. Although initially an adult male prison, by 1902 the Borstal Prison had become exclusively a youth offenders rehabilitation prison. The experimental project, helmed by Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise (who famously was the Prisons Commissioner during Oscar Wilde’s trial and prison sentence) aimed to deter young offenders to developing into career criminals aiming to halt the ‘revolving door’ of the prison system. The Borstal, being the first prison of its kind, ending up becoming the colloquial name for all youth offender units across the country, so much so that the Borstal re-named HMP Rochester during the 1980s.

Although this association with the prison is strong - Borstal also has another civic association, that of the Foord Almshouses. Opened in 1927 and designed by the Royal Institute of British Architects’ president Edward Guy Dawber - the almshouses are currently protected as a Grade II* listed building and are still fully operational today!

Borstal, owing its proximity to Rochester and the other Medways Towns, is naturally under the jurisdiction of Medway Towns Council. Due to its rural history and abundance of privately owned land; development in Borstal has often been slow and stagnant compared to nearby Rochester or Chatham. This, coupled with the proliferation of grand country homes in the area, means that development has been overlooked and overshadowed in recent years. The Medway Council’s local plan for the period up to 2041 is still in preparation currently, therefore it is difficult to say what development will come to the Borstal area. However, the council is preparing to build over 28,000 new homes across the borough by the year 2041 - meaning development in Borstal is likely!