The world of work has changed enormously over a relatively short time period, leaving individuals and communities with new choices which are often difficult to come to terms with.

Gravesend and Northfleet have made much of their riverside locations which in turn has influenced working in Gravesham. Until the 1980s the local economy had relied for income and employment on huge industrial concerns such as engineering, paper making, cement and shipping. The river could export products and bring in others with great ease.

The harsh industrial reality of the Victorian and Edwardian eras softened after 1945 into a more caring and paternalistic outlook, by the larger companies, towards their work force and their communities. The most obvious industry to leave its mark is cement, responsible for altering the landscape in its desire to win chalk, clay and flints from the soil. The huge pits created were often used as sites for other industries - especially those near the river, where dockyards and factories sprang up in these pit or cliff like locations.

The onset of economic changes brought in by so called market forces soon wiped many of these heavy and large industries away, or at least severely cut their sizes in terms of employment.

The world of work had to redesign itself for a new reality which brought unemployment and relocation to Gravesham, yet at the same time freed the area from pollution and vast industrialised landscapes. The various industrial estates sprang up during the late 1970s and early 1980s, which allowed a plethora of smaller companies to grow offering more consumer goods and service industries in place of large factories.

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