Aylesford
Encyclopedia
Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....

 in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, 4 miles NW of Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...

 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. One pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

, a Post Office
Post Office Ltd.
Post Office Ltd is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products including postage stamps and banking to the public through its nationwide network of post office branches.-Structure:Post Office Ltd...

 and four small independent shops remain. Aylesford has expanded rapidly over the past thirty years to gain a population of around 5,000.

The Parish of Aylesford covers more than seven square miles, stretching north to Rochester Airport estate
Rochester Airport, England
Rochester Airport is a small airfield located south of Rochester, Kent, England, with the River Medway from the end of runway 34, from Chatham and its Historic Dockyard and the Medway area....

 and south to Barming
Barming
Barming is a civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It lies to the west of Maidstone, the county town, and had a population of 2234 persons . The eastern end of the parish is part of the built-up area of Maidstone, although the remainder is much more rural...

, and has a total population of over 10,000, with the main settlements at Aylesford, Eccles
Eccles, Kent
Eccles is a village in the English county of Kent, part of the parish of Aylesford and in the valley of the River Medway.-Archaeology:It is the site of a Roman villa estate and pottery kiln, excavated between 1962 and 1976. It replaced an Iron Age settlement , and was occupied until the end of...

, Blue Bell Hill Village and (part of) Walderslade
Walderslade
Walderslade is a large suburb to the south of Chatham, Kent, England, encompassing almost all the ME5 postcode district ....

.

Aylesford Newsprint, a long-established major employer in the area, is the largest paper recycling
Paper recycling
Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products. There are three categories of paper that can be used as feedstocks for making recycled paper: mill broke, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste. Mill broke is paper trimmings and other paper...

 factory in Europe, manufacturing newsprint
Newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...

 for the newspaper industry.

History

There has been activity in the area since Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 times. There are a series of chamber tomb
Chamber tomb
A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one...

s north of the village, of which Kit's Coty House
Kit's Coty House
Kit's Coty House or Kit's Coty is the name of the remains of a Neolithic chambered long barrow on Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the English county of Kent. It is one of the Medway megaliths....

, 1.5 miles to the north is the most famous; all have been damaged by farming. Kit's Coty is the remains of the burial chamber at one end of a long barrow
Long barrow
A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs...

. A similar structure, just south of this, Little Kits Coty House
Countless Stones
The Countless Stones, also known as Little Kit's Coty House, is the name of the remains of a Neolithic chambered long barrow on Blue Bell Hill near Aylesford in the English county of Kent. The site is one of the Medway megaliths...

 - also known as the Countless Stones is lower down the same hillside.

Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 swords have been discovered near here and an Iron Age settlement and Roman villa stood at Eccles. The village has been suggested as the site of the Battle of the Medway
Battle of the Medway
The Battle of the Medway took place in 43 AD on the River Medway in the lands of the Iron Age tribe of the Cantiaci, now the English county of Kent...

 during the Roman invasion of Britain although there is no direct evidence of this.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

 records the Battle of Aylesford
Battle of Aylesford
The Battle of Aylesford or Epsford is a battle between Britons and Anglo-Saxons recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum. Both sources concur that it involved the Saxon leaders Hengist and Horsa on one side and the family of Vortigern on the other, but neither mentions who...

 taking place nearby 455, where Hengest
Hengest
Hengist and Horsa are figures of Anglo-Saxon, and subsequently British, legend, which records the two as the Germanic brothers who led the Angle, Saxon, and Jutish armies that conquered the first territories of Great Britain in the 5th century AD...

 fought Vortigern
Vortigern
Vortigern , also spelled Vortiger and Vortigen, was a 5th-century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. His existence is considered likely, though information about him is shrouded in legend. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Kent as mercenaries to aid him in...

, although his brother Horsa is said to have fallen in this battle; Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

 defeated the Danes in 893; as did Edmund II Ironside in 1016.

The manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

 of Aylesford was first owned by William the Conqueror: the church of St Peter and St Paul is of Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

 origin. Here there is a memorial to the Culpeper
Culpeper
Culpeper, Colepeper, or Culpepper are varying forms of the last name of several people:*John Culpeper , knight in the court of Henry V*Thomas Culpeper , courtier of Henry VIII...

 family, who owned the nearby Preston Hall
Preston Hall, Aylesford
Preston Hall is a manorial home in Aylesford, Kent, England, dating back at least to 1102. Once owned by Henry Brassey and the Culpepper family and latterly used as a hospital, part of the estate became the Royal British Legion Village in the 1920s, and with some of the remaining land now given...

 Estate.

The Friars

In 1240, Ralph Frisburn, on his return from the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...

, founded a Carmelite monastery under the patronage of Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor: the first of the order to be founded in Europe. He was followed later by Simon Stock
Simon Stock
Saint Simon Stock, an Englishman who lived in the 13th century, was an early prior general of the Carmelite religious order. Little is known about his life with any historical certainty. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Carmelite habit, the...

; who, in 1254, was elected Superior-general of the now mendicant Carmelites. The relics (remains of his head) of St Simon Stock are retained at the friary, having been preserved in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 for centuries before being returned to Aylesford in July 1951.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

 by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 in 1536, ownership of the site was transferred to Sir Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt (poet)
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English lyrical poet credited with introducing the sonnet into English. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent – though his family was originally from Yorkshire...

 of nearby Allington Castle
Allington Castle
Allington Castle is a stone-built moated castle in Allington, just north of Maidstone, Kent in England.-History:Allington Castle is a Grade I listed building. Much of the stonework was laid in an intricate herringbone pattern which is still visible today...

. Following the rebellion
Wyatt's rebellion
Wyatt's Rebellion was a popular uprising in England in 1554, named after Thomas Wyatt the younger, one of its leaders. The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English...

 against Queen Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

 by Sir Thomas's son, Thomas Wyatt the younger
Thomas Wyatt the younger
Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger was a rebel leader during the reign of Queen Mary I of England; his rising is traditionally called "Wyatt's rebellion".-Birth and career:...

, the porperty was forfeited back to the crown. It was later granted into the possession of Sir John Sedley
Sedley Baronets
There have been three Baronetcies created for members of the Sedley family of Kent, all in the Baronetage of England. All three creations are extinct....

 by Mary's half-sister Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

. Although the Sedley family made some changes to the priory, it was the next owner Sir John Banks
Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet
Sir John Banks, 1st Baronet, was an English merchant and MP, who rose from relatively humble beginnings to be one of the wealthiest merchants in London and owner of several properties.-Life:...

 that was responsible for the rebuilding of the Friary during the 1670s.

The main part of the house was destroyed by fire in the 1930s. The Carmelites took it over in 1949 and have successfully restored it to its former glory: it is now a place of retreat and a conference centre. The friary has some notable artwork such as the ceramics created by Adam Kossowski
Adam Kossowski
Adam Kossowski was a Polish artist, born in Nowy Sacz, notable for his works for the Catholic Church in England, where he arrived in 1943 as a refugee from Soviet labor camps and was invited in 1944 to join the Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen.-Life in Poland:In 1923, uncertain about a...

. The remains of the manor house present at the foundation of the Priory are believed to lie under the Great Courtyard. This could date from as early as 1085.

River Medway

Due to the village's location on its banks, the River Medway has been a key influence on its development. Aylesford takes its name from an Old English personal name, and literally denotes ‘Ægel’s ford’. Its first recorded use is from the tenth century, as Æglesforda.

It was also the place where one of the earliest bridges across the Medway was built, believed to be in the 14th century (although the wide central span seen today is later). Upstream from Rochester Bridge
Rochester Bridge
Rochester Bridge was for centuries the lowest fixed crossing of the River Medway in Kent, southern England. There have been several generations of bridge at this spot, and the current "bridge" is in fact four separate bridges: two carrying the A2 road, one carrying the railway and one carrying all...

 it became the next bridging point. The river was navigable as far as Maidstone
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...

 until 1740, when barges of forty tons could reach as far as Tonbridge
Tonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...

. As a result wharfs were built, one being at Aylesford: corn, fodder and fruit; and stone and timber were the principal cargoes.

Due to increased traffic in recent years, the ancient bridge has now been superseded by a modern structure nearby, but remains in use for pedestrians.

The village

The oldest parts of the village lie north and immediately south of the river. Many of the buildings are of great antiquity: the Chequers Inn and the George House (formerly a coaching inn
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

) and the almshouses among them. St Peter and St Paul's church, parts of which date back to the Norman invasion
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

, sits on a hill in the southern part of the village.
Major construction took place during the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

, when houses were constructed to serve the nearby quarry. The brick and tile industries have been replaced by a large area of commercial buildings; and what was once the huge Aylesford paper mills site has now been regenerated by a leading newsprint plant surrounded by newly developed private estates featuring high value accommodation.

Recent expansion has been to the southern side of the river, where a substantial suburban housing estate has grown up, partly because the village is served by the railway, with connections for Maidstone and London. Many of these homes were originally owned by employees of the paper mills, which are now closed and which have been replaced by a number of smaller industrial estates with a variety of specialist businesses that include engineering, manufacturers wholesale and others.

In spite of the above the village has not lost its original integrity and it is a popular place for visitors.

Schools

Henry Arthur Brassey (1840–1891) was a great benefactor of Aylesford, and as well as financing major repairs to the church, also provided the village with a school. This was replaced in the 1960s with a new building to the south east of the village, next to the site of the local secondary school (now Aylesford School - Sports College
Aylesford School - Sports College
Aylesford School – Sports College is a secondary school in Kent, England, housed in recently completed modern buildings, situated in Teapot Lane, and serving an area to the west of Maidstone....

) which was housed in buildings largely built in the 1940s by Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 prisoners of War
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

. The old school buildings were totally rebuilt on the same site, in 2008. The original village school - now known as the Brassey Centre - is used as a church office and community hall.

Railway

Aylesford railway station
Aylesford railway station
Aylesford railway station first opened on 18 June 1856. It is on the Medway Valley Line in Kent, and serves Aylesford. Train services are provided by Southeastern.-History:...

, opened on 18 June 1856, is on the Medway Valley Line
Medway Valley Line
The Medway Valley Line is the name given to the railway line linking and the Medway Towns with and onward to , and London St Pancras International...

 connecting Strood
Strood
Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It is part of the ceremonial county of Kent. It lies on the north west bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point, and is part of the Rochester post town....

 with Maidstone (West)
Maidstone West railway station
Maidstone West railway station is one of three railway stations which serve the Town Centre of Maidstone, the County Town of Kent.It lies approximately halfway along the Medway Valley Line from Paddock Wood; from Strood) and train services are provided by Southeastern.- History :Due largely to...

 and Paddock Wood.

The original station buildings - gabled and highly decorated, built in Kentish ragstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 with Caen stone
Caen stone
Caen stone or Pierre de Caen, is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in northwestern France near the city of Caen.The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 167 million years ago...

 dressings, with windows which replicate those at Aylesford Priory - have been used as a fast food restaurant in recent years following restoration to an award-winning standard in the 1980s.

Royal British Legion Village

Located to the South of Aylesford, on the A20 London Road, The Royal British Legion Village was founded after the First World War to help injured soldiers on discharge from the nearby Preston Hall
Preston Hall, Aylesford
Preston Hall is a manorial home in Aylesford, Kent, England, dating back at least to 1102. Once owned by Henry Brassey and the Culpepper family and latterly used as a hospital, part of the estate became the Royal British Legion Village in the 1920s, and with some of the remaining land now given...

 hospital. It was first the centre of a small farming community known as The Preston Hall Colony.

When The British Legion was founded in 1921, it became one of the first branches and, by 1925, was known as Royal British Legion Village.

A thriving community has since developed, providing nursing homes, sheltered housing and independent living units, as well as employment and social activities, helping all disabled veterans living in, or moving to, the area.

In 1972 the Poppy Appeal headquarters moved to the village, which now forms one of the main centres of Legion life and activities. An industrial complex in the village houses Royal British Legion industries, including the manufacture of road and public signs used throughout the UK.

Demography

Aylesford compared
2001 UK Census Aylesford ward Tonbridge and Malling borough England
Population 4,548 107,561 49,138,831
Foreign born 3.8% 4.6% 9.2%
White 98.2% 98.3% 90.9%
Asian 0.9% 0.7% 4.6%
Black 0.1% 0.1% 2.3%
Christian 77.4% 76.1% 71.7%
Muslim 0.2% 0.3% 3.1%
Hindu 0.5% 0.2% 1.1%
No religion 12.8% 15% 14.6%
Unemployed 1.9% 1.9% 3.3%
Retired 15.3% 14.2% 13.5%

As of the 2001 UK census, the Aylesford electoral ward had a population of 4,548. The ethnicity was 98.2% white, 0.8% mixed race, 0.9% Asian, 0.1% black and 0% other. The place of birth of residents was 96.2% United Kingdom, 0.5% Republic of Ireland, 1% other Western European countries, and 2.3% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 77.4% Christian, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.5% Hindu, 0.1% Sikh, 0% Jewish, and 0.2% Muslim. 12.8% were recorded as having no religion, 0.1% had an alternative religion and 8.8% did not state their religion.

The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 41.1% in full-time employment, 14.5% in part-time employment, 9.3% self-employed, 1.9% unemployed, 2.2% students with jobs, 2.5% students without jobs, 15.3% retired, 6.7% looking after home or family, 4.4% permanently sick or disabled and 2.2% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents was 19.6% retail, 13.6% manufacturing, 9.2% construction, 13.2% real estate, 9.7% health and social work, 6.1% education, 8% transport and communications, 4.8% public administration, 3.6% hotels and restaurants, 4.7% finance, 1.1% agriculture and 6.4% other. Compared with national figures, the ward had a relatively high proportion of workers in construction, and a relatively low proportion in agriculture, education, hotels and restaurants. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 14.3% had a higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide.

External links

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