Bearsted railway station

Bearsted ( BAIR-sted, traditionally BUR-) is a village and civil parish with railway station in mid-Kent, England, two miles (3.2 km) east of Maidstone town centre.

Holy Cross is a parish church of the Church of England in Bearsted, Kent. Its construction begun in the 13th century.

The Kent Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in Kent, England. They are the eastern half of the North Downs and stretch from the London/Surrey borders to the White Cliffs of Dover, including a small section of the London Borough of Bromley. The AONB also includes the Greensand Ridge, a prominent sandstone escarpment which lies south of the chalk escarpment of the North Downs. It was first designated as an AONB in July 1968 and covers 878 square km (326 square miles). The AONB's highest point is Toy's Hill, at 250m above sea level, and its boundaries include three main rivers: the Darent, Medway and Stour.To the west, Surrey Hills AONB adjoins the Kent Downs AONB, and includes a continuation of the North Downs chalk ridge which runs through the Kent Downs, stretching from Farnham to the English Channel and reappearing within the Parc Naturel Régional des Caps et Marais d’Opale in France. High Weald AONB lies to the south east, separated by a distance of just over 2km at Bough Beech Reservoir. As part of the management of the AONB, Village Design Statements have been adopted by 14 per cent of villages within its boundaries, going on to form part of Supplementary Planning Guidance, recognising the character of the historic landscape and distinctiveness of settlements.

St Mary the Virgin is a small parish church in Thurnham, Kent. Begun in the 12th century, it is a Grade I listed building.

Weavering is a village, mainly consisting of parts of the Grove Green and Bearsted Park housing Estates, centred on Weavering Street, within the borough of Maidstone, Kent in South East England that was formerly farmland. At the 2014 Census the population of the village was included in the civil parish of Thurnham.

Thurnham is a village and civil parish which lies at the foot of the North Downs 3 miles (4.8 km) north east of Maidstone in the Borough of Maidstone and ceremonial county of Kent in England. It had a population of 1,085 in 2001 including Weavering, which increased to 1,205 following the 2011 Census.There have been several archaeological finds in the area: an Anglo-Saxon burial ground was discovered within the grounds of Thurnham Friars in 1913, a 7th-century gold cross was found in 1967 and the remains of a Roman house were excavated in 1933. The remains of Thurnham Castle are just north of the village. Two miles further north are the fragmentary remains of Binbury Castle, a medieval fortified manor house beside a medieval motte. St Mary's church (a Norman building) and Milgate House are Grade I listed buildings. The railway station at Bearsted, opened on 1 July 1884, was originally named Bearsted and Thurnham. Residents of the village joined forces with the neighbouring village of Bearsted, in voicing their objections to the proposed Kent International Gateway development.

Caring is a settlement south of Bearsted, near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. It is located amid several farms on the River Len, a tributary of the Medway. The population of the settlement is included in the Thurnham civil parish. Caring Wood is a private family home designed by architects James Macdonald Wright and Niall Maxwell. In 2017 the house won an RIBA National Award and the RIBA House of the Year.

St Martin of Tours is a parish church in Detling, Kent. Dedicated to Martin of Tours, the building was constructed in the 12th century with 13th and 15th-century additions and restoration carried out in the late 19th century. It is a Grade I listed building. The nave and chancel are of early Norman construction and built of flint with a plain tiled roof. The aisle to the north of the nave is Early English and is constructed of flint and local rag-stone. It was enlarged in the 1880s. The adjacent chapel on the north side of the chancel and the porch on the south side of the nave are Perpendicular Gothic. The tower is built in two stages of galletted rag-stone with diagonal corner buttresses. The timber-shingled broach spire was added in 1861 by R. C. Hussey. The roof structure to the chapel is original, but the rest of the roof was replaced in the 19th century.The church windows are of varying sizes and periods although mostly perpendicular in style. Over the doorway on the west side of the tower is a large rectangular three-lighted perpendicular window added in the 19th century. The windows to the nave, aisle and chapel are mainly two-lighted in design. Those to the south-east and east of the chancel and three-lighted. Internally, the nave and aisle are separated by a pair of wide plain arches and the chancel and chapel by a single arch.The large twelve-sided font is early and plain and stands on a 20th-century base, having once been built into the wall of the tower. An ornately carved four-sided oak lectern dates from 1340–50. It probably came from Boxley Abbey and has been described as "the finest medieval fitting in any parish church in the county". The church's pipe organ dates from the 1850s and was brought from the Congregational Church in Maidstone in 1973, and was installed and to a large part funded by long time organist, Colin Savage, from East Court, Detling.The churchyard contains a headstone and a table tomb that are Grade II listed.

Spot Lane Quarry is a 0.1-hectare (0.25-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the eastern outskirts of Maidstone in Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.This site exposes loess, probably dating to the glacial Wolstonian Stage between 352,000 and 130,000 years ago. It contains the fossils of land snails, and as loess in Britain is usually unfossiliferous, it is one of the few sites where loess fauna can be studied.The site is now a public footpath.

Detling is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is located on the slope of the North Downs, 4 miles (6.4 km) north east of Maidstone, and on the Pilgrims' Way.

Downswood is a civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 2,291. It is bounded to the north by the River Len and Bearsted, and to the south by Otham, and is 2 miles (3 km) from Maidstone, the county town of Kent. Downswood has been a parish in its own right since 1987. Prior to this it was part of the civil parish of Otham.The village is to the east of the Maidstone urban area, with Mote Park forming the western boundary. A corn mill was recorded in the Domesday Book on the River Len. A fulling mill was also established on the river but this was not until around 1550. To the south of Downswood lies St Nicolas's Church which has its origins in the 12th century and to the east stands The Orchard Spot, a local public house, that was originally established in the 14th century as a farm house for local orchards.Between 1940 and 1970 the area was quarried for ragstone which is still evident from outcrops that appear in Spot Lane Nature Reserve and The Len Valley Walk. The easternmost ragstone quarry exhibits a series of cambered blocks, tilted down slope and intervening loess filled gulls. The site in Downswood provides the best cross section through a series of cambers and gulls that are currently visible in Britain and is a site of special scientific interest.

Jade's Crossing is a footbridge in Detling, Kent, England. The footbridge crosses the A249, a major road which runs between Maidstone and Sheerness. The crossing is named after Jade Hobbs, who was killed attempting to cross the road in December 2000 aged eight. Her mother, Caroline, subsequently campaigned for the crossing to be built, and won a Special Award at the 2003 Pride of Britain Awards for her efforts.