Charing railway station

Charing is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, in south-east England. It includes the settlements of Charing Heath and Westwell Leacon. It is located at the foot of the North Downs and reaches up to the escarpment. The Pilgrims' Way, the M20 motorway and Charing railway station (between London Victoria and Ashford International via Maidstone) serve the parish.

Archbishop's Palace, Charing, is an important heritage site dating back to the eighth century, and one of the earliest to be owned by the see of Canterbury. The current palace dates back to the late thirteenth century with later additions and rebuilding, notably under Archbishop John Morton in the late fifteenth century who 'made great building at Charing'. There was almost certainly an earlier hall on the site as the palace was said to be a favourite place for visits by Archbishop Dunstan (959-88) and Archbishop Thomas Becket (1162–70).Charing was one of 17 medieval palaces in the possession of the archbishopric of Canterbury and the first in a string serving the archbishops' travels between Canterbury and London. Charing was visited by a number of royal guests, prominent among them being Henry VII and Henry VIII, both of whom paid several visits.Notably Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon stayed at the palace, together with their vast entourage numbering over 5,000, on their way to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France in 1520.The property was acquired by the Crown after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1545 and was subsequently leased to and owned by local farming gentry, notably the Honywoods and the Whelers. The present owner's family acquired the complex in the 1950s. In 1952, the palace was designated a scheduled monument and four of its buildings listed Grade I.The Archbishop's Palace now features prominently, graded Priority Category A, on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register.In 2004, the Archbishop's Palace was a finalist in the BBC/Endemol TV series Restoration, presented by Griff Rhys Jones, Ptolemy Dean and Marianne Suhr, produced and directed by Paul Coueslant.Efforts to preserve the Archbishop's Palace have recently been revived with the creation of the Charing Palace Trust, which is urgently seeking to raise the funds needed to acquire the endangered Great Hall, Archbishop's chambers, other associated buildings and the gardens. Its aim is to restore them and to make the site accessible to all as a community centre with new educational, public and leisure facilities.

Charing Windmill is a Grade II listed smock windmill, now converted to a house, on Charing Hill in Kent in southeast England. It is sometimes known as Field Mill, but that name was also used by a watermill in Charing.

Hart Hill is a 1.4-hectare (3.5-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Charing Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. This site is controversial as it exposes the Lenham Beds, the date of which has been disputed, but they are now thought to be Pliocene, on the basis of their marine bivalves and gastropods. There is no access to the site, which has been built on, but geology is visible from the Pilgrims' Way.

Westwell Leacon is a hamlet in the civil parish of Charing near Ashford in Kent, England. Its most famous resident is international Cyclocross star Ian Field.

Little Chart is a village and civil parish, situated 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Ashford in Kent, South East England. The parish lies south of the M20 motorway.

Spuckles and Kennelling Woods is a 20-hectare (49-acre) nature reserve north of Charing in Kent. It is managed by Kent Wildlife Trust. It is in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. These ancient woods on the steep escarpment of the Kent Downs have diverse trees including mature oaks and beeches. Flora include greater butterfly and lady orchids. There is access by a footpath from Thorneycroft Road.

Otterden is a civil parish and village on the Kent Downs in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England.

Stalisfield is a village in the borough of Swale in Kent, England, located on a secondary road about 1½ miles (2.4 km) north of Charing and 5 miles south west of Faversham. The parish includes the hamlet of Stalisfield Green. Stalisfield Green lies high on the North Downs (a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), some 650 feet above sea level, and close to the escarpment above Charing.

Hothfield Common is a 56.5-hectare (140-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Ashford in Kent. It is also a Local Nature Reserve, and is part of the 86-hectare (210-acre) Hothfield Heathlands nature reserve owned by Ashford Borough Council and managed by Kent Wildlife Trust.

The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germany, but after the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, she began to see that the school had no future in Germany. She quietly found a new home for the school and received permission from the parents of her pupils, most of whom were Jewish, to bring them to safety in England. The new school was called New Herrlingen School, but came to be known as Bunce Court. The school closed in 1948. Alumni, who sometimes stayed on at the school even after finishing, were devoted to the school and organized reunions for 55 years. They have referred to its "immense effect" on their lives, as "Shangri-La" and to being there as "walking on holy ground".

Charing Beech Hangers is a 52.6-hectare (130-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Ashford in Kent.This steeply sloping site has mature beech and oak, and the ground flora is varied with some uncommon species. Invertebrates include the rare slug limax tenellus and several scarce moths.The North Downs Way runs along the south side of the site.