Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. Its council is based in Sittingbourne. The borough is named after the narrow channel called The Swale, a channel that separates the mainland of Kent from the Isle of Sheppey, and which occupies the central part of the district.
The Roman Watling Street passed through the area, as witness the straightness of the A2 main road, now by-passed by the M2 motorway. Apart from northern coast of the Isle of Sheppey, and the immediate areas around the towns, it is a mainly rural borough, containing a high proportion of the UK's apple, pear, cherry and plum orchards, as well as remaining hop gardens.
The district was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, from the boroughs of Faversham and Queenborough-in-Sheppey (which covered all of Sheppey), the Sittingbourne and Milton urban district and Swale Rural District.
Swale railway station is at the southern end of the Kingsferry Bridge.
There are four towns in the borough: Sittingbourne and Faversham on the mainland; Sheerness, Queenborough on the Isle. In addition local government is carried out by the following parish councils:
- Bapchild
- Bobbing
- Borden
- Boughton-under-Blean
- Bredgar
- Conyer
- Doddington
- Dunkirk
- Eastchurch
- Eastling
- Faversham
- Goodnestone
- Graveney
- Hartlip
- Hernhill
- Iwade
- Leysdown
- Lower Halstow
- Lynsted
- Kemsley
- Milstead
- Milton Regis
- Minster-on-Sea
- Murston
- Newington
- Newnham
- Norton Buckland & Stone
- Oare
- Ospringe
- Rodmersham
- Rushenden
- Selling
- Sheldwich, Badlesmere and Leaveland
- Stalisfield
- Teynham
- Throwley
- Tonge
- Tunstall
- Warden