Learning increased with the Reformation (Foundation of Gravesend and Milton Free School in 1580), through the setting up of private schools run by clergy (such as at Northfleet) and others who earned a living from teaching privately, and via the needs of industrialisation and the vast expansion of the British Empire. The curriculum was very limited in the many schools found in the urban and rural areas until expansion in the 1930s and especially after the 1944 Education Act.

The Gravesend Technical Institute in Darnley Road was opened in 1893 with the need for evening classes in a society with increasing literacy levels and the need for technical education in the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Evening classes and Adult Education grew out of this in later years as did the Boys County School (later Gravesend Boys Grammar School which moved to its present site in Milton during the 1930s).

In 1893 Gravesend Borough (the town only) adopted the Public Libraries acts for its area helping with an increasing demand for informal education - the library moving to its purpose built Windmill Street building in 1905.

As the urban areas grew and as Victorian education legislation advanced so more schools were founded such as Church Street, Cecil Road, Wrotham Road and Milton Road schools. The 1930s saw a spate of brand new secondary and primary schools spreading out in the suburbs, or replacing a host of old condemned buildings. Example include St George's Church of England Secondary School, which opened in 1939 replacing the old Gravesend Free School in King Street whose old building of 1835 was collapsing. Gordon Secondary School in Ordnance Road opened in 1930 (now Chantry Primary School), Whitehill Secondary School in 1933 (it became a primary school in 1954 when Southfields Secondary School was opened in 1954. Westcourt and Northcourt primary schools opened in 1939 and 1938 respectively to cope with the increased council estates on the eastern edge of Gravesend and to replace the condemned Chalk National School.

Another waive of new schools came in the 1950s through to the 1970s and now yet another programme of changes are heralded by Government plans to rebuild schools for the 21st Century.

Click on a story to watch, listen or read. For help with viewing or listening to the stories, click here.