Borough Green here!
We moved here 5 years ago. We initially focused on Sevenoaks but what we could get for our money wasn’t great & we found a lovely property here so that really made our minds up!
In terms of broader info - while there is a cohort born and bred here, many people are DFLs (slang for Down from London) or have moved from Bromley. When I moved here I googled the place and there was a reference to it being ‘chavvy’. Living here now, that isn’t fair and I’m guessing a comment from someone living in Sevenoaks itself. Sevenoaks has a very affluent demographic while it is more mixed in BG. There are certainly plenty of professionals living here but there is a higher proportion of lower income workers than in Sevenoaks itself. Ethnically it could be a lot more diverse but there are BAME families here and I’ve noticed a greater increase in BAME people moving here over the last year or two. It is like a lot of Kent very much a white, conservative area. Going by the local community Facebook page, there was a lot of support for Brexit!
Other positives are frequent trains to Victoria (with a couple to Blackfriars). Season tickets are more expensive than the Sevenoaks-London option and there is a car park at the station. A lot of people commute. Be aware though that the journey quite often will be standing room only (or at least it was pre Covid).
Non Grammar options in Kent can be lousy but another plus for BG is Wrotham Secondary which about 50% of the village kids go to. It’s a decent school - many state secondaries in Kent perform under average but Wrotham bucks that trend. We’re also in the catchment area for the Grammars in Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and the girls Grammar in Sevenoaks. If you are religious, Bennett and Trinity are good options. So on the school front, we’re well served. My DD went to BG Primary. It’s a biggish Primary but a really nice school and just missed out on ‘Outstanding’ in its last Ofsted. DD was happy there. Some parents prefer a smaller school and go for Platt or St George’s in Wrotham. Sevenoaks is less well served for State school options.
There is a good community spirit and in recent months, that’s really shone through. One thing to be very aware of though is that there is a huge (3000 houses) planning development potentially on the horizon. The community have really pulled together to defeat this and at the moment it thanks to the fraudulent activity of one of the landowners it looks (hopefully) like this won’t go ahead. There is obviously the possibility that it might though.
I like BG - if we had our time again as we like old characterful villages and towns (BG isn’t an eyesore at all but I prefer quaint!) I think we’d have gone for Wrotham or West Malling (not the Kings Hill area though & the State secondary in W Malling is really terrible!).
Any questions at all, happy for a PM