Yalding is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Borough of Maidstone The Borough of Maidstone is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. It is named after its largest settlement of Maidstone, the county town of Kent, which is also where the council is based. The borough also includes sur ...

in Kent, England. The village is situated south west of

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

at a point where the Rivers Teise and Beult join the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

. At the 2001 census, the parish, which includes the villages of Benover, Laddingford and Queen Street, had a population of 2,236. increasing to 2,418 at the 2011 Census. YaldingTwyford0529

There are three bridges in the village; the Twyford Bridge (meaning ''twin ford'', where there was originally a double crossing of the two rivers) is one of the longest

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

bridges in the south-east of England. Yalding was one of the principal shipment points on the River Medway for cannon, from villages of the

Wealden iron industry The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the wrought iron, bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until abou ...

. The wharf was later used for transporting fruit from the many orchards in the area.

History

The

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

village was called Twyford and was close to the bridge. But the name was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as the “Saxon manor of Hallinges seized by

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

and given to his half brother

Odo of Bayeux Odo of Bayeux (died 1097) was a Norman nobleman who was a bishop of Bayeux in Normandy and was made Earl of Kent in England following the Norman Conquest. He was the maternal half-brother of duke, and later king, William the Conqueror, and w ...

”. Yalding was derived from the Old English pre-7th century "Ealdingas", and translates as the place of the Ealda people, a tribe who were widespread until the 9th century (the old village). It was recorded in Domesday as "Hallinges" by a Norman-French cleric who had little knowledge of the area. In 1212 it is recorded more correctly as "Ealding" (ref; www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Yalden.ref; www.britannica.com Encyclopaedia-Britannica William 1st King of England. ref; Yalding surname meaning and statistic
Forebears: Names & Genealogy Resources
ref Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. Wikipedia. Phonological history of English diphthongs. Wikipedia) By 1642 this had mutated to Yaldinge. The

records from Yalding are so complete that it was used in a History Case Study for Secondary Schools, called The Yalding Project. During the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

in 1643, a battle took place at Town Bridge between the

Roundheads Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...

and

Cavaliers The term ''Cavalier'' () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of Charles I of England and his son Charles II of England, Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum (England), Int ...

. The Cavaliers had advanced from Aylesford towards

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

, but the Parliamentarian soldiers had marched to block their movements, bombarded them and forced their surrender, with the result that 300 were captured and 300 escaped. Yalding was a favourite of Edith Nesbit, author of '' The Railway Children'', who wrote in the 1920s: "The Medway just above the Anchor t Yalding, Kentis a river of dreams...If you go to Yalding you may stay at the George and be comfortable in a little village that owns a haunted churchyard, a fine church, and one of the most beautiful bridges in Europe." The village was home to a chemicals manufacturing works from 1912 to 2003. In the early years it manufactured soap, then progressed to crop protection products under

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

' Agrochemicals Division. It was run by

Syngenta Syngenta Global AG is a global agricultural technology company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It primarily covers crop protection and seeds for farmers. Syngenta is part of the Syngenta Group, entirely owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state ...

at the time of closure. Garden Organic, previously known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association, the UK's leading organic growing charity, created a demonstration garden near the village. This was closed in 2007 but was leased and reopened by the business Maro Foods, in 2008. The gardens are now known as the Yalding Gardens.

Buildings

St Peter's and St Paul's Church is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It is built from ragstone, and is judged to be from the 13th century. The tower turret has a weather vane dated 1734.The Greensand Way in Kent, 1992, Kent County Council, YaldingHovis0518

Yalding Baptist Church is located on Vicarage Road.

Rivers

Twyford Bridge crosses the

. It is just downstream of the automatic sluice where the river drops from +11.2m to +7.41m above mean sea level, the navigation bears left through the Hampstead Rd Canal, and the Hampstead Lock, the main stream drops over the weir and sluice and is joined here by the River Teise (Lesser Teise) and both pass under Twyford Bridge. The river then flows in a loop towards the village where it is joined by the River Beult which has passed under Town Bridge. However the main stream of the River Teise flowed into the Beult near Benover, 3 km upstream of Town Bridge. Twyford Bridge is not navigable. Twyford bridge is 16 km from Allington, where the Medway becomes tidal.The Medway navigation, Leaflet,March 1991, NRA-National Rivers Authority The medieval Town Bridge is built of ragstone in the 15th century, it has seven arches and spans the Beult and the marshy ground each side. It is reputed to be the longest existing medieval bridge in Kent being 150m in length. YaldingBeult0512

Floods

Parts of Yalding that have flooded before are, e.g.: * Christmas Day 1927 *eight times in the winter of 2000–1. * in December 2013

Transport

Yalding village and environs are primarily served by Nu-Venture buses 23 and 26. Yalding railway station lies on the Medway Valley Line which links Strood, Maidstone West, Yalding, Paddock Wood and Tonbridge.

Education

The village primary school is St Peter's and St Paul's Church of England Primary School. At secondary level, the school is in the Mascalls Academy Comprehensive catchment area. However, the village is home to many children who attend grammar schools in the neighbouring town of Maidstone.

Leisure

The Greensand Way long-distance footpath crosses the Medway at Twyford Bridge, and follows up the High Street, passes through Blunden Lane, and leaves the village by an ancient byway by Bustom Farm Cottages. The Medway Valley Walk follows the river from

to the sluice on the east bank, then the Hampstead Lane Canal, and the river to Maidstone on the west bank. Yalding Organic Garden has a display of fourteen individual gardens, demonstrating gardening through the last 800 years. The plants have been carefully chosen to make sure that they are accurate to their historical period. Yalding had an annual contemporary music festival called 'The Vicar's Picnic', set on the edge of the village. Taking place every July it attracted up to 4,000 visitors who camped in adjoining fields. Notable acts included The Fun Lovin' Criminals, Starsailor, Reef, Norman Jay MBE, Seb Fontaine, Bruce Foxton, Nightmares on Wax, 90's Indie Britpop band

Cast Cast may refer to: Music * Cast (band), an English alternative rock band * Cast (Mexican band), a progressive Mexican rock band * The Cast, a Scottish musical duo: Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis * ''Cast'', a 2012 album by Trespassers William ...

, Canterbury folk-hiphop act, 'Coco & the Butterfields' and The Bluetones lead vocalist Mark Morriss. The festival last took place in 2018. The Yalding and District Beekeepers Association was formed in January 2011, by a group of local beekeepers, and meets monthly in the Chequers Inn, Laddingford. There is a football club, formed in 2011 by S Faulkner for local children – Yalding and Laddingford FC based at the Kintons ground and the Jubilee field Laddingford with teams in the Maidstone and Mid Kent Sunday League. The teams are in Div 1 and 3. In 2012 club formed a side to play in the Tonbridge Saturday league . A new junior section of under 10's and under 13's was formed in 2013. In April 2014 the Saturday side won the club's first major trophy by winning the chairman's cup at Longmead Stadium and the following week the Sunday reserve side became league winners. Following this season the club was accepted into the Kent County League in division 3 East. The club has a junior section with 7 teams playing between the ages of 6 and 18. At present the club have 1 sides at u7 1 at u8, one each at u10, 2 at u11, 1 at u13 and 1 at u14 a junior futsal side and an u18 side.

Notable people

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...

, (1896–1974), Great War poet, lived in Yalding during the first decade of the twentieth century and the village inspired more than fifty of his poems.Bergonzi, Bernard, "Blunden, Edmund Charles (1896–1974)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 28 Nov 2008
/ref> * Barry Evans, (1943–1997), actor best known for the sitcoms ''

Doctor In The House Doctor in the House may refer to: * Doctor in the House (novel), ''Doctor in the House'' (novel), a 1952 novel by Richard Gordon ** Doctor in the House (film), ''Doctor in the House'' (film), a 1954 British film adaptation of the novel *** Doctor i ...

'' and '' Mind Your Language'', lived in Yalding for a short time. * David Sadler, (b. 1946), football player, was born in Yalding.

References

External links

Yalding Parish Council

photos of Yalding and surrounding area on geograph
{{authority control Villages in Kent Civil parishes in Kent