Iwade & Kemsley

Iwade and Kemsley sit in the borough of Swale, Kent. Iwade is a village located just off the A249, with a village hall, primary school and a cluster of playing fields around the centre. The settlement fronts fields and marshland that lead down to The Swale, and local footpaths give access to shoreline channels and drainage ditches that mark the local landscape. Community facilities and small shops serve day-to-day needs, and recent housing has been built alongside older cottages and terraces.

Kemsley grew up around the local paper industry; the Kemsley Paper Mill and its rail sidings shaped much of the area’s 20th‑century development. A narrow‑gauge industrial line survives as the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, running through parts of the former mill estate and offering a visible link to that industrial past. The area combines former industrial plots, pockets of wetland and small woods, with road links to the wider Swale borough and local bus services connecting residents to nearby centres.