Halstead, Kent

Halstead
Halstead Location within Kent
Population	1,607 (2011 Census)
District	Sevenoaks
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Sevenoaks
Postcode district	TN14
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
UK Parliament	Sevenoaks
List of places UK England Kent 51°20′N 0°8′E / 51.333°N 0.133°E / 51.333; 0.133

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, were 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.