The Ancestral Villages of the Alchin Family

Aylesford

English history starts early here. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a 9th century record started by King Alfred the Great, tells how in AD 455 the Anglian warrior mercenaries Hengist and Horsa fought and defeated Vortigern, King of the Britons, at Aegelsthrep, as Aylesford was then called. Horsa was killed and Hengist and his son Aesc “received the kingdom”. Their descendants were to be Kings of Kent for the next 400 years. Aegel’s threp or ford, was one of the earliest crossings over the River Medway. The Romans used it, and the ancient Britons before them, and it formed part of the ancient Pilgrim’s Way.

The Norman church of St Peter and St Paul stands on a steep, walled bank, and beneath it the jumbled rooftops of Aylesford stagger down the hillside towards a large medieval bridge spanning the Medway. The Vicar of Aylesford from 1902 to 1909 was the Reverend Arthur Thorndike. His daughter, Dame Sybil Thorndike became one of the great stage actresses of the 20th century. She was married at St Peter and St Paul in 1908.

A charter to hold a weekly market was granted to Aylesford in the 13th century, and what is now the Little Gem inn was probably built then – possibly as a market house. The 16th century Chequers Inn was built as a merchant’s house, and along the Rochester Road is a row of almshouses built in 1605.

On the Downs just north of the village are the standing-stone remains of Neolithic burial chambers, Kits Coty House and Little Kits Coty House. They are about 5500 years old. The names probably derive from Kid Coit, Celtic for “Tomb in the wood”.