All Saints Church, Ulcombe

Ulcombe is a village near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The name is recorded in the Domesday Book and is thought to derive from 'Owl-coomb': 'coomb' (pronounced 'coo-m') meaning 'a deep little wooded valley; a hollow in a hill side' (Chambers Dictionary) in Old English. The original deserted Medieval village site lies to the east of the parish church in a valley. There is also a water-mill below this site, probably of early origins. It stands below the Greensand Way. There is much evidence from recent archaeological fieldwork, undertaken under the direction of Neil Aldridge, for prehistoric and later occupation. A number of Palaeolithic hand-axes have been found to the east of Great Tong Bank, and are the result of solifluction over the last 70,000 years from an earlier river system. Lithic implements from the Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Neolithic periods show that the landscape was being used by early settlers. The Iron Age is the period when the local deposits of iron ore were being smelted and this continued into the Roman occupation of the 1st-3rd century AD. Near Jubilee Corner an Iron Age cremation cemetery was excavated along with an iron smelting site. A later Roman occupation site lay to the north, when excavated, two timber buildings, one of sill-beam construction, were recorded. The old village hall was dismantled and re-erected at the Museum of Kent Life, Sandling, having been made redundant by the construction of a new building. The manor of Ulcombe belonged to the St Leger family. All Saints Church is a 12th-century Grade I listed building. It includes monuments of the St. Leger family, the Marquess and Marchioness of Ormonde, and Lady Sarah Wandesford, daughter of the Earl of Carrick. In the 16th and 17th centuries Ulcombe was the location of a bell foundry run by three generations of the Hatch family, whose output included the bell known as "Bell Harry", after which the central tower of Canterbury Cathedral is known. In 2012, Hill House (a private house) won the Minor Residential category of the Kent Design Awards.

Kingswood is a village in the Maidstone District of Kent, England and forms part of the civil parish of Broomfield and Kingswood.The main village was constructed in the early 1960s, after earlier sporadic development in both Pitt and Gravelly Bottom Roads on land given to soldiers returning from WW1. Kingswood is situated to the south of the more ancient village of Broomfield. The village has a single village shop/post office but no public house. An annual senior citizen outing is arranged by the parish council and paid for from the village precept. The woods surrounding the village has three large craters often mistakenly attributed to World War II bombs; the origin of the craters is unknown.

Fairbourne Heath is a scattered settlement in the civil parish of Harrietsham, Kent, England. It is located on a crossroads of two minor roads. Fairbourne Manor Farm lies to the north.

Broomfield and Kingswood is a civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England. The parish lies to the east of Maidstone, south of the A20 road to Folkestone. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,545, increasing to 1,604 at the 2011 Census. The parish covers the villages of Broomfield and Kingswood.

Chegworth is a hamlet in the parish of Ulcombe in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The hamlet lies along the Chegworth Road, Chegworth Lane and Water Lane, and comprises no more than 20 dwellings, including the historic Chegworth Water Mill on the River Len. The hamlet is just south of the M20 motorway and the Eurostar high-speed railway line, and is less than a mile from Leeds Castle and Harrietsham.

St Peter's and St Paul's Church is a parish church in Church Lane, East Sutton, Kent dedicated to saints Peter and Paul. It was begun in the mid-13th century or earlier and additions were made in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Restoration work was carried out on the church in the late 19th and late 20th centuries. The church is a Grade I listed building.

HM Prison East Sutton Park is a women's open prison and young offender's institute located in the Parish of East Sutton, near Maidstone in Kent, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison & Probation Service.

East Sutton is a parish approximately 6 miles south-east of Maidstone in Kent, England. East Sutton is small in number of dwellings but relatively large in area: the parish has a women's prison, a council estate of 16 houses and the Grade I listed 13th-century St Peter's and St Paul's Church. The population is included in the civil parish of Sutton Valence. HMP East Sutton Park is a prison and Young Offenders Institution for females, situated in a manor house, located just outside the village. King Edward VII used to visit the village for liaisons with his mistress, Alice Keppel at Pleasure House, on the border with Sutton Valence.

Broomfield is a village in the Maidstone District of Kent, England, and forms part of the civil parish of Broomfield and Kingswood. It lies 6 miles (10 km) to the east of Maidstone. The village is located just upstream of Leeds Castle on the River Len, one of the tributaries of the River Medway. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Margaret. In the 16th and 17th centuries Broomfield was home to the first two generations of the Hatch family of bellfounders, who lived in the farmhouse at Roses Farm. Their output included the bell known as "Bell Harry", after which the central tower of Canterbury Cathedral is known.There is also a Broomfield, in East Kent, in the parish of Herne and Broomfield, on the outskirts of Herne Bay.

Hollingbourne Rural District was a rural district in the county of Kent, England. It was named after the village of Hollingbourne. Following the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the district was merged with Maidstone Rural District to form the Borough of Maidstone.

Pollhill is a hamlet in the parish of Harrietsham near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England.

Leeds Castle is a castle in Kent, England, 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Maidstone. It is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds. It is a historic Grade I listed estate. A castle has existed on the site since 857. In the 13th century, it came into the hands of King Edward I, for whom it became a favourite residence; in the 16th century, Henry VIII used it as a dwelling for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The present castle dates mostly from the early 19th century. Its last private owner, Olive, Lady Baillie, left the castle in trust to open it to the public. It has been open since 1976.