The Ancient Parish Church of East Farleigh Alms House, Workhouse Lane East Farleigh Village Plan Adopted by the Parish Council at a meeting on 12 May 2009 Contents 1. INTRODUCTION What is a Village/Parish Plan? 3 How the Consultation happened 3 The Village Plan Group 4 Introduction to East Farleigh 4 A brief History of East Farleigh 4 Maps 6 2. THE PLAN Overview 9 Summary of Consultation Results 9 Ideas for Action 13 3. APPENDIX Detailed Questionnaire results and analysis 16 Main Survey 16 Youth Survey 29 Business Survey 30 Exhibition feedback 30 Activities and Actions of note, at the time of going to print 33 Useful contacts 34 1 Whilst the village has expanded somewhat during the last fifty years, it remains a pleasantly rural environment in which to live 2 Introduction 1 What is a Village/Parish Plan? was invited. Attendance was encouraging Village or Parish Plan is a vision of how and a draft questionnaire was discussed. A the local community wishes to see After several changes it was circulated to itself developing over the next few years; it is all homes and businesses in the community. a document which is based on a consultation Response was good with 60% of the exercise with all sections of the community. questionnaires completed and returned. • It reflects the views of all sections of the Once the questionnaires had been local community analysed, volunteers were again called for to discuss the results. Several meetings • It identifies which features and took place which then led to an exhibition ...A Village or Parish characteristics local people value of results and ideas late in January 2009. Plan is a vision of how • It identifies local problems and The comments on these ideas from the opportunities exhibition were collated and added to the the local community • It spells out how residents want the questionnaire results. wishes to see itself... community to develop in the future Collectively they then formed the • It prepares a plan of action to achieve consultation basis for the Action Plan in this vision this document. The plan was collated and further meetings took place to ensure the The concept of the Parish Plans grew planned publication was a true reflection of out of the Government’s Rural White Paper the information collected. “Our Countryside – the Future” in November 2000. This led to the introduction of the This document is the result; a vision that, Rural Strategy 2004, encompassing a vision as a village, we can be proud of and which of sustainable communities which balance will establish guidelines as to how the economic, social and environmental community would like to see East Farleigh interests develop. The next stage of the process is for an What happens next Action Plan to be written and agreed which An action group will be formed to work achieves the vision set out in this Village Plan. with various authorities to action where possible the ideas for action on page 13. If How the Consultation happened you would like to be involved in this group In February 2008 the first Village Plan meeting please contact Glyn Charlton on 727117 or was held in The Bull and the entire village email [email protected] The view from Forge Lane 3 Introduction to East Farleigh The village of East Farleigh lies on the south side of the River Medway, about two and a half miles south west of Maidstone. It is comprised mainly of clusters of homes and farms spread across the valley, from the highest point down to the river. Many of the older buildings are constructed using the local Kentish rag stone that lies beneath the soil. The river itself meanders slowly through the village and during the warmer months is used for leisure purposes by boats and anglers. In the winter its mood can change and the water can be seen roaring across the weir and churning its way to the sea. Historically East Farleigh is linked with the brewing of fine English ales. The fields in the area were used to grow hops and many Londoners spent the late summer here, hop- picking. Some of the hop-pickers’ huts can still be found close to the river off Station Hill. Nowadays the fields are mostly used for Workers at a Farleigh hop farm fruit growing. The Village Plan Group Today, East Farleigh has a successful, Some notable dates non denominational, primary school which Jean Adams Michael Bartlett 1899 - The first gas lamps appear Ofsted describes as ‘a good school with a Peter Beasley Ian Bruce in the village; on the bridge and number of outstanding features’. The village Glyn Charlton Elaine Colman has a 12th century church, which is situated Farleigh Hill, Tovil. Andy Dagger Barbara Dagger in the centre of the village and conservation 1844 - The Medway Valley railway area. East Farleigh also has a selection of Eric Percival Jamie Shelford line opens. public houses, a railway station offering Penny Spearman Pat Sowerby 1903 - Mains water is first service from Strood to Paddock Wood via supplied but only to the lower part Bruce Sturdy Julie Tidey Maidstone and a bus service to Maidstone and Yalding. of the village. Terence Quinn Alan White Lynda White John Wilson Whilst the village has expanded somewhat 1920 - Mrs Maconochie donates during the last fifty years, it remains a pleasantly And others land in Vicarage Lane for use as a rural environment in which to live, offering as it recreation ground. With grateful thanks for their does a look and feel of the England of old, yet 1925 - Maidstone Corporation time and contribution thriving in the modern world. investigates the possibility of Further acknowledgements supplying electricity to the village. Elaine Colman for Questionnaire research A Brief History of East Farleigh 1938 - Refuse collection begins. and analysis The Medway Valley has been occupied from ancient times and many Palaeolithic 1963 - East Farleigh parish council East Farleigh Parish Council and Action with Communities in Rural Kent for Funding tools have been found in Coxheath. Quarry loses Coxheath which forms its Wood camp (once part of East Farleigh), in own parish council. Maidstone Borough Council for maps Loose, was a late Iron Age oppidum, or proto- 1980 - The village is connected to Delivery Team for questionnaire and leaflet town constructed around 40BC which would mains drainage. delivery have served the typically dispersed villages and farmsteads of these times although no Lee Tidey, Peter Beasley, Barbara Dagger & 1991 - ‘The end of an era’ Hop Iron Age roundhouses have been discovered Glyn Charlton for village photographs farming finished in East Farleigh in the parish, to date. Alex Grundy for FLAG Fete Photographs an association that dates back to at In Roman times, villas and temples were least 17th century Parents for photograph on page 9 spread along the banks of the Medway and 1992 - The first speed limit in Brian Hegarty and the History Society for the archaeological investigation is currently the village was introduced in History underway on what appears to be a dwelling and several farm buildings just off Lower Lower Road, following a hard Phil Clark for the sketches of East Farleigh fought campaign by the Residents Road. In Roman times, the quarry off Dean Association in liaison with our M.P. Compiled by Glyn Charlton and written by Street produced rag stone for London’s Elaine Colman buildings and walls as well as the shore forts the Police and KCC 4 of Reculver and Richborough and it has been suggested that the Roman farm in East Farleigh provided food for the workers in the quarry. Roman pottery and coins have been discovered in several sites throughout the village and two cremation urns have been found in Gallants Lane. In 961, East Farleigh manor was given by Queen Ediva, the mother of King Edmund, to Christ Church Canterbury. Following the conquest, the manor is listed in the Domesday Book and was held by Bishop Odo of Bayeaux (also Archbishop of Canterbury), William’s half-brother. Mention is made of 110 villagers and slaves, (but probably only counts the men of the parish), 4 mills, 6 fisheries producing 1200 eels pa, woodland for 145 pigs and a church. In the Domesday Book the village is called Ferlaga; usually translated from Saxon as “the way of the on the Barming side of the bridge produced Farleigh Bridge passage” (over the river) or from Gaelic as a many bones of men and horses as well as a “clearing in the woods (or grass, or alder)”. By canon which was kept outside the Victory 1300 it is referred to as Fearnlega in the Book pub for many years. It is clear that there was of the Church of Rochester and on a map of ...In 1849, an outbreak Royalist opposition at the bridge but Fairfax of cholera among the 1575 as East Farly. reported the crossing was relatively easy. In about 1120, The Normans rebuilt the The subsequent Battle of Maidstone was one hoppers resulted in 45 Saxon church; all that remains of the original of the fiercest fought of the civil war starting deaths, 43 of whom are is a little tufa stonework on the outside of the at 7pm and finishing at midnight in St Faith’s buried in a communal north-west corner. The tower was added in churchyard with the Royalist surrender. grave under a wooden the 12th century and the aisles in 1835. In 1801, the population of the village was memorial in the The medieval bridge is said to be the 642. Over the next 30 years it more than churchyard.