the names of these now long-gone nurseries still persist in road names such as Emerson and Panters. Emersons Avenue was built upon "The Rec", an old recreation ground left by a resident in Victorian times "for the use of the children of the village in perpetuity". It is consistent with the fast-changing nature of Hextable that perpetuity only lasted 100 years. The railway drove the expansion of the village in the 20th century as a convenient dormitory village for north-west Kent and London, and this is its main purpose today. Much of the initial development of the village in the early 20th century was memorialised in a collection of photographs from a village resident, Christopher Casstine. He was an orphan brought up in the Homes For Little Boys (opened in Hextable by the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, in 1883 and still standing as Furness School) who stayed on in the village opening up a photography studio on the main road to Swanley. His photographs were used for many of the local postcards as well as for Mee's Children's Encyclopedia. His name lives on in the road Casstine Close. The disorderly growth of the village explains the rather jumbled architecture that dominates the village. Hextable House, which was the only house in the village for much of its life, was bombed in the Second World War and wantonly torn down. The Avenue of Limes which was planted in Elizabethan times as a magnificent entranceway to the House still remains linking New Barn Road and College Road. There has been some replanting of the trees in recent years, and its full beauty can now be appreciated for half of its length, although the remaining half should be visible in the near future. The gardens of the old House, as would have been seen in its final role as an agricultural college, are kept up with the aid of Lottery money at the Hextable Heritage Centre. The outskirts of Hextable largely comprise farmland, stables and small woodland areas. The village has three churches: Anglican – St Peter's, part of the united benefice with St Paul, Swanley Village Methodist – part of the North Kent Circuit Pentecostal Notably, there are no pubs within the village, due to restrictions placed by former landowners in the late 19th century, although there are pubs to be found on its woodland outskirts. According to the