Aylesford
Aylesford is a tiny, charming village that has evolved along the banks of the River Medway, accessed from Maidstone via an ancient five arched medieval bridge. It is believed to be one of the oldest villages in England and its name comes from “Anglesford” literally meaning the place in which the Angles crossed the river.
Aylesford and the surrounding area have been settled periodically from around 5000 BC. Although prehistoric man would have passed through the area on their hunting expeditions for woolly mammoths they have left little evidence of their time. The Neolithic people were in the beginning similar to prehistoric man in that they hunted and gathered their food but they soon developed the ability to produce their own by farming rather than just hunting. It was these farmers who made Aylesford their home and they have left plenty of evidence of their time on this earth with the long barrow of Kits Coty and others.
The name Kits Coty was once thought to be a corruption of the name Catigern, for whom it was wrongly thought to be a monument, a part from the fact that there is no evidence to support this, the barrow actually predates this man by thousands of years. Long barrows like Kits Coty (the name “coty” means home, so it literally means Kits home) were built as communal burial places by the Neolithic farmers. Catigern was a Romano –British prince killed in single combat against the Saxon Horsa, in a battle fought in Aylesford in 455 AD.
Despite their prince losing his life the British forces led by Vortigern were ultimately victorious. Vortigern must have bitterly regretted inviting the mercenaries Hengist and his brother Horsa into the country in the first place to help defend his kingdom from the northern invaders. Although the Jutes lost the battle as well as one of their leaders, Horsa, his brother Hengist set himself up as king of Kent
Another unwelcome guest was William the Conqueror, who invaded in 1066. Aylesford must have been a fairly wealthy or worthy settlement as William kept it for himself. A fellow Norman, Ralph Frisburn on return from crusading in the Holy Lands in 1240 decided to found a Carmelite monastery in Aylesford. It was probably during his time in Jerusalem that he came into contact with the Carmelites, an order that traces its origins back to a group of hermits who established themselves on Mount Carmel sometime around the 1190’s. These hermits had in all probability travelled to Palestine from Europe during an earlier crusade as either pilgrims or as crusaders – defenders of the faith. It was sometime between the period 1209 – 1214 that the order was officially recognised by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and Papal Legate who was later to become St. Albert of Jerusalem.
As time went on and because of increasing animosity between the Eastern Orthodox Church and that of Rome the Carmelites decided to leave Palestine and settle in Cyprus and Sicily and eventually Aylesford, England with the help of Ralph Frisburn. By 1245 their communities had rapidly grown in number and they had even spread to southern France.
Aylesford is still recognisable as a medieval settlement, very little has changed within the village even the Carmelites have stayed despite having to rebuild their monastery in 1675 following the Dissolution of Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536.
copyright© Wendy Stevenson 2011
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