HISTORY
These two close neighbors are worlds apart. West Malling is an ancient market town built around a 900-year-old abbey, while Kings Hill is a modern community built on the site of a wartime airfield.
Beginning with West Malling, we must travel back to 1090 and not long after the Norman invasion, when Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, chose the tiny Saxon settlement as the setting for a great abbey. The nuns were given the right to run a market outside the abbey gates and the town, which was known until relatively recently as ‘Town Malling’ slowly grew.
Parts of the original abbey are still there, although mainly hidden behind high walls. Occasional public tours of the buildings are offered by the community of Anglican Benedictine nuns who still call Malling Abbey home.
Easier to get a good look at – although only from outside – is the unusual St Leonards Tower, a short walk from the town center. The ruin is a mystery, having been used by farmers as a store for hundreds of years and its origins long forgotten. The safest guess is that it was a Norman keep, built around the same time as the abbey.
With numerous Tudor and Georgian listed buildings along the pretty High Street and Swan Street, it’s easy to see that much of the original look of the town has remained unchanged. Although it went through a certain amount of development, the heart of the town is pretty and compact.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2020-Ausgabe von Kent Life.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2020-Ausgabe von Kent Life.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
The choice of leaders
It’s a small, scenic Kentish market town on the border with Surrey, famous for not one but two great leaders. We take a look around Westerham
The eco-warriors
Awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2019 in recognition of its research in global nature conservation, the role of Kent-based DICE has never been more relevant
Kent's most CURIOUS MONUMENTS
Our county can boast some of the most celebrated and downright unusual protected mouments in the country
Ghosts of a river's life
Kent Life discovers an an other-worldliness about the marshes, creeks, and saltings of the lower reaches of the river Medway
The return of the son
The Unknown Warrior’s journey from the World War One battlefields via Dover to his resting place in Westminster Abbey is 100 years old this month
We will remember
In a year when we got an inkling of what living through a war means, we remember the 75th anniversary of the end of the Great War
Age-old advice
Just become a grandparent for the first time? Perhaps you need a little guidance, so here are some top tips about how to embrace your new family role
10 GOOD REASONS TO VISIT Medway Towns
A vast Dockyard, a Napoleonic fort and a JCB diggers theme park - let’s visit Chatham and Medway
KENT'S CREEPIEST- GHOST STORIES
Here are 10 tales to make you shiver as we celebrate All Hallows’ Eve
Joking apart
From his home in Broadstairs, Royston Robertson comes up with satirical, topical and sometimes just plain silly cartoons