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Aylesford in Kent County England History and GeographyAYLESFORD, a parish in the hundred of LARKFIELD, lathe of AYLESFORD, county of KENT, 3½ miles (N.N.W.) from Maidstone, and 34 (S. E.) from London, containing 1136 inhabitants. This place, by the Britons, was called Saissenaig-hobail, in commemoration of their having here defeated the Saxons; and by the latter, after their settlement in the country, Eaglesford, of which the present name is a corruption: in the battle above mentioned, which took place in 455, Horsa, the brother of Hengist, was slain. In 893, Alfred defeated the Danes at Fenham in this parish, and, in 1016, Edmund Ironside, in a fierce encounter with those invaders, pursued them to this place with great slaughter, and drove them hence to Sheppey. In 1240, Ralph Frisburn, on his return from the Holy Land, founded a Carmelite monastery under the patronage of Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor, many parts of which are still entire, though the greater part of the site is occupied by a mansion, erected by Sir William Sedley, and now the residence of the Earl of Aylesford. The town is pleasantly situated on the north-east bank of the river Medway, over which is a neat modern stone-bridge of six arches; it consists of one principal street, on the east side of which the ground rises abruptly to an elevation of one hundred feet. A paper mill by the side of a small stream, is the only manufactory in the place: a pleasure fair is held on the 29th of June. The living is a vicarage, in the archdcaconry and diocese of Rochester, rated in the king's books at £10, and in the patronage of the Dcan and Chapter of Rochester. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is situated on rising ground to the east of the principal street. A school for the education of poor children was endowed, in 1766, by Mr. William Milner; and there is an hospital, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, which was founded for six aged persons in 1617. Military relics are frequently discovered here: at Horsted, there is a monument of upright stones, erected, as it is supposed, to the mcmory of Horsa; and three miles distant is another, called Kit's Cotty house, to the memory of Certigorn, brother of Vortimer, who was slain with that prince in the battle with Hengist and Horsa. Aylesford confers the title of earl on the family of Finch. Sir Charles Sedley, a celebrated wit and poet in the reign of Charles II., was a native of this parish. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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