South of Rochester, nestled in the Kentish North Downs on the banks of the River Medway, sits the village and civil parish of Halling, Kent. With a history stretching back thousands of years evidenced with Neolithic remains and artefacts, Halling retains its quaint village identity even today. Owing to its pastoral landscapes and close proximity to the large Rochester - Halling has long been a highly sought-after location in Kent, with the mixture of idyllicism and urban connectivity one of its key unique features. Although within the North Downs, Halling is not known for its large country manor houses, instead the built environment is dotted with large suburban builds and new developments!

Halling was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book for William the Conquerer - with the lands being owned by the Bishop of Rochester nearby. However it’s first recorded history was in a charter dating back to the 8th century! Although recorded here, archaeological evidence suggests that Halling’s first human occupation stretches much farther back in time, thousands of years back in fact. In 1912, workers were digging for a sewage tank behind the railway station and discovered the remains of a skeleton. After detailed analysis, experts placed the approximate date of the skeleton to 4,000 years ago! This heavily suggests that Halling was occupied by Neolithic humans over 6,000 years ago. There later, in the 1940s, a canoe was discovered in a nearby location which was also dated back to the Neolithic era, further cementing the idea of Neolithic settlers in the Halling locale.

For most of Halling’s history, the locale was known for its chalk quarrying industry, although this is in substantial decline. However, one of the most interesting features of Halling’s landscape is its blue lake, named St Andrews Lake. Dug from a former cement quarry, the lake has a unique bright blue colour owing to the chalk particles that still float in the water! This lake is open for a variety of activities, from paddle-boarding to lake swimming!

Halling, despite its proximity to Rochester, is a rural locale and has been protected as a conservation area by Medway Council since the 2003 Adopted Local Plan. It is also located within the Metropolitan Green Belt, which further inhibits development in the area. This local plan also denotes the importance of keeping the several localites that surround Halling (including Coxton and Strood) to be kept separate; so limited infilling has been granted over this last 20 year period. However - the Medway Council is currently preparing its new local plan for the period up to 2041. Although underway, the site policies map is not to be produced until later in 2024 - so it is hard to say which areas of Medway’s council shall be implemented in this new stage of development. However, in 2019 the St Andrews Park housing development was completed in Halling - granting many new homes to the area!