Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MALLING (WEST)

MALLING (WEST), a village and a parish in Malling district, Kent. The village stands adjacent to the Otford and Maidstone branch of the Southeastern railway, 2½ miles W by S of Aylesford r. station, and 5½ NW by W of Maidstone; occupies the site of the Saxon mark of the Mallingas; was itself anciently called Mealinges; is now sometimes called Town-Malling; is a seat of petty sessions; and has a post office‡ under Maidstone, a police station, three inns, a weekly corn-market on Monday, and fairs on 12 Aug., 2 Oct., and 17 Nov. The parish comprises 1,366 acres. Real property, £8,599; of which £152 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851,2,021; in 1861, 2,086. Houses, 357. The property is subdivided. The manor was given by Edward the Confessor to the bishops of Rochester; and, by Bishop Gundulph, to Malling abbey. Malling House is the residence of the Hon. R. P. Nevill; St. Leonard's House, of John Savage, Esq. Broughton House and Brook House likewise are chief residences. A Benedictine nunnery, known as Malling abbey, was founded here in 1090 by Bishop Gundulph; went, at the dissolution, to Archbishop Cranmer; passed to the Honeywoods and the Akerses; and is now represented by interesting remains, of dates from Norman to late perpendicular. The great gateway has a facing of later English, evidently over older work; a chapel, attached to the gateway, has decorated English windows and later English S door, and was recently restored; the W front of the church is Norman, with ornamented pilasters and slender turrets similar to those of the W front of Rochester cathedral; and the cloisters, now included in a modern mansion, are late early English, ninth very fine broad trefoiled arches. A cell of the abbey, with a chapel, stood at St. Leonard's, but has disappeared.. A large, square, ancient tower also stood there; and has left some remains, which have been doubtfully pronounced to be Norman. A belt of woods and heaths, called Malling woods, conjoined with others called Mereworth and Great Comp woods, lies along the S of both West Malling and East Malling parishes. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, 320. * Patron, W. Lawson, Esq. The church has a modern nave, an early English chancel, and a Norman tower; was extensively restored in 1866; and contains brasses of 1497 and 1532. There are a national school, a private lunatic asylnm, the Malling district workhouse, and charities £63.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: West Malling AP/CP       Malling RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place names: MALLING     |     MALLING WEST     |     MEALINGES     |     TOWN MALLING     |     WEST MALLING
Place: West Malling

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