Aylesford

infobox UK place
country = England
static_

static_image_caption=Aylesford Bridge at low tide
official_name= Aylesford
latitude= 51.304680
longitude= 0.482630
population = 4,548 (2001)
shire_district= Tonbridge and Malling
shire_county = Kent
region= South East England
constituency_westminster=
post_town=
postcode_district =
postcode_area=
dial_code=
os_grid_reference=

Aylesford is a large village on the River Medway in Kent, 4 miles NW of Maidstone in England. Originally a small riverside settlement, Aylesford has expanded rapidly over the past thirty years to gain a population of around 5,000.

History

There has been activity in the area since Neolithic times. There are a series of chamber tombs north of the village, of which Kit's Coty House, 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. A similar structure, just south of this, Little Kits Coty House - also known as the "Countless Stones" is lower down the same hillside.

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

The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" records the Battle of Aylesford taking place nearby 455, where Hengest fought Vortigern, although his brother Horsa is said to have fallen in this battle; Alfred the Great defeated the Danes in 893; as did Edmund II Ironside in 1016.

The manor of Aylesford was first owned by William the Conqueror : the church of St Peter and St Paul is of Norman origin. Here there is a memorial to the Culpeper family, who owned the nearby Preston Hall.

Aylesford Priory (Also known as 'The Friars')

In 1240, Ralph Frisburn, on his return from the Holy Land, 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; 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 for centuries before being returned to Aylesford in July 1951. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536, the Friary was rebuilt in 1675, but the main part of the house was destroyed 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. 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

The village has long had river connections. 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 was built, believed to be in the 14th century (although the wide central span is later). Upstream from Rochester Bridge it became the next bridging point. The river was navigable as far as Maidstone until 1740, when barges of forty tons could reach as far as Tonbridge. As a result wharfs were built, one being at Aylesford: corn, fodder and fruit; and stone and timber were the principal cargoes.

Due to the amount of traffic in recent years, the ancient bridge has now been superseded by a modern structure nearby, but it remains 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) and the almshouses among them.

Major construction took place during the Victorian era, 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) which was housed in buildings largely built in the 1940s by Italian Prisoners of War. 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, opened on 18 June 1856, is on the Medway Valley Line connecting Strood with Maidstone (West). The station buildings are gabled and highly decorated, built in Kentish ragstone with Caen stone dressings. Windows replicate those at Aylesford Priory.

British Legion village

The British Legion Village is located to the south.

Demography

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.cite web | title = Neighbourhood Statistics | publisher = Statistics.gov.uk | url = http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadDatasetList.do?a=3&b=5945206&c=Aylesford&d=14&g=460483&i=1001x1003&m=0&r=1&s=1204032021234&enc=1&domainId=16 | accessdate = 2008-02-26]

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 qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide.

References

External links

* [http://www.ukvillages.co.uk/ukvillages.nsf/villages/Royal+British+Legion+Village-Kent More on Royal British Legion Village and its surroundings]
* [http://www.thefriars.org.uk/ The Friars website]