Aylesford, a small town, a parish, and a lathe in Kent. The town stands at the foot of a hill, on the right bank of the Medway, on the S.E.R., 38 miles from London, and 3 NNW of Maidstone. It dates from the times of the Saxons, and was then called Eglesford. A battle was fought at it, in 455, between the British king Vortimer and the Saxon chiefs Hengist and Horsa, and terminated in favour of the Britons. The alleged grave of Horsa is shown, in a heap of flint stones, at Horsted, 2 miles to the N, but is claimed also at Horsham and Horsted in Sussex. Victorious battles against the Danes also were fought in the vicinity, in 893 by Alfred, and in 1016 by Edmund Ironside. The town consists of one long street. A six-arched bridge, of considerable antiquity, is adjacent on the river. A Carmelite priory was founded at it, in 1240, by Richard Lord Grey of Codnor; passed, at the dissolution, to Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington; went, in the time of Elizabeth, to John Sedley of Southfleet; was sold, in the time of Charles I., to Sir Peter Rycaut; and came eventually to Heneage Finch, who was created Earl of Aylesford in 1714, and whose representatives still possess it. The existing edifice retains much of the ancient buildings, but includes additions and alterations, from the 17th century downward, by its successive occupants. The parish church crowns an abrupt rising-ground at the end of the town; is principally Norman, 14th century, except west tower, which is Early Norman up to the string course, and largely increased in 1892 in memory of H. A. Brassey; and contains a brass of 1426, monuments of the Colepeppers, the Sedleys, and the Rycauts, and a costly one to Sir John Banks, who died in 1699. The church was restored in 1878, and the tower in 1885. There are a neat Wesleyan chapel, a literary institution, an almshouse-hospital, restored in 1841. An extensive stoneware pottery and a large paper-mill are on the river a short way to the E. A remarkable Druidical monument, called KIT'S-COTTY-HOUSE, is on the hill-side, above the town. Cosenton, the seat of a family of its own name, from the time of King John till that of Henry VIII., but now a farmhouse, is on the same hill-side. Sir Charles Sedley, the poet, and Sir Paul Rycaut, the oriental traveller, were natives of Aylesford.
The parish comprises 4057 acres; population of the civil parish, 2947; of the ecclesiastical, 2979. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester; net value, £425 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester.
