Wateringbury SSSI

Wateringbury is a village and civil parish near the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. The Wateringbury Stream flows into the River Medway just above Bow Bridge. It formerly powered three watermills in the village, one of which survives. The Wateringbury railway station is on the Medway Valley Line.

Wateringbury railway station is on the Medway Valley Line in Kent, England, serving the villages of Wateringbury and Nettlestead. It is 39 miles 77 chains (64.3 km) down the line from London Charing Cross via Paddock Wood and is situated between Yalding and East Farleigh. The station and all trains that call are operated by Southeastern. The station building, regarded as one of the finest Tudor-style stations in the country, was listed at Grade II in 1985.The APTIS-equipped ticket office in this building (on the northbound platform) closed in 1989; the building has remained disused for many years, though is in reasonable condition. In 2007, a PERTIS permit to travel ticket machine was installed at the entrance to the northbound platform. The signal box, which was Grade II listed in 2013 remains to control the level crossing.

Nettlestead is a village and civil parish on the road south-west of, and part of the borough of Maidstone. The parish includes Nettlestead Green and part of Seven Mile Lane. More than 800 people live in the parish. The parish church of St Mary the Virgin has links with William the Conqueror's half brother, Odo.According to the reference quoted below, 'it is said that Nettlestead church owes its enormous stained glass windows to a 15th-century Agincourt veteran who came back from France very impressed with what had already been done with stained glass decoration for churches there. The man was Reginald de Pympe, and his son, John, added more stained glass later in the same century. The de Pympes made quite an impression upon Nettlestead in their day. Reginald moved into Nettlestead Place, which he rebuilt at about the same time as he had the church rebuilt and embellished with the new glass. Nettlestead Green is a separate village lying two miles farther south. Both villages are close to the River Medway. Wateringbury is immediately to the north.

St Mary the Virgin is a parish church in Nettlestead, Kent, begun in the 13th century.

Nettlestead Place is a country house in Nettlestead, Kent, England. The house and its gatehouse are each separately Grade I listed buildings.

The August 1923 Air Union Farman Goliath crash occurred on 27 August 1923 when a Farman F.60 Goliath of Air Union crashed at East Malling, Kent, United Kingdom following an engine failure and reported panic amongst the passengers. One person was killed and nine were injured, including celebrated French actor Jean Murat.

Royal Air Force West Malling or more simply RAF West Malling is a former Royal Air Force station located 1.6 miles (2.6 km) south of West Malling, Kent and 5.2 miles (8.4 km) west of Maidstone, Kent, England. Originally used as a landing area during the First World War, the site opened as a private landing ground and in 1930, then known as Kings Hill, home to the Maidstone School of Flying, before being renamed West Malling Airfield, and, in 1932, Maidstone Airport.During the 1930s many airshows and displays were held by aviators such as Amy Johnson and Alan Cobham, flying from a grass runway. As war approached, the airfield was taken over by the military, to become RAF West Malling in 1940, serving in the front line against the Luftwaffe. The station saw further service after the war, first with some of the RAFs first jet squadrons, and later as a US Naval Air Station. After closure as an operational air station in the 1960s, West Malling acquired a more civilian guise, hosting several major Great Warbirds Air Displays during the 70s and 80s, until eventually closing completely as an airfield. The site is now occupied by Kings Hill, a community of mixed residential, commercial, and civic amenities, but still retains several features of its military aviation heritage.

Teston /ˈtiːstən/ or /ˈtiːsən/ is a village in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It is located on the A26 road out of Maidstone, four miles (6.4 km) from the town centre. There is a narrow stone bridge over the River Medway here.

Kings Hill is a civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is one of several new villages built in Kent since the 1950s (other examples including Vigo and New Ash Green). Development started in 1989 near West Malling, on land previously occupied by RAF West Malling. The plan was for a multi-purpose site of both residential and office/business space. Parts of the 2007 Channel 4 drama series Cape Wrath were shot in the village.

Oaken Wood is a 18.7-hectare (46-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Maidstone in Kent. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.Known locally as "Barming Wood" due to the village of Barming being the closest settlement to Oaken Woods, it is an ancient woodland with orchids, dormice, tawny owls, nightingales and many species of bat (alongside various other species).This site provides the best example of a very unusual topography, with cracking and tilting of underlying weaker strata during the Pleistocene by periglacial processes producing crests and troughs in the surface rocks.A public footpath crosses the site. In 2013, plans to uproot parts or all of Oaken Wood for a ragstone quarry were met with controversy due to its environmental importance (with various different species residing there) and its possibility in setting a legal precedent for up to 300 other ancient woodlands in the UK.

Nettlestead Green, like its near neighbour Nettlestead, lies in the Medway valley southwest of Maidstone in Kent. It has a church and a 17th-century pub. The railway station for Yalding is actually closer to Nettlestead Green than to its own village, which lies on the opposite side of the River Medway. It was here on 26 June 1944 that Warrant Officer R.A.B ("Red") Blumer RAAF died when his Spitfire crashed. A memorial has been erected to his memory, and on the Saturday closest to 26 June each year a memorial service is held at the crash site. Blumer's portrait, and four information panels, hang in the village pub.

St Peter's and St Paul's is a parish church in Teston, Kent. It is a Grade II* listed building and was rebuilt in 1736 for Sir Philip Boteler of Barham Court.