Coxheath is a village situated some five miles south of the county town of
Maidstone on what is known as "The Greensand Way". It is
approximately 400 feet above the sea level.
Old maps indicate that men have lived along this ridge since prehistoric
times and early documentation shows the name of Coxheath as Cokkyshoth (1489)
and Coxhoth (1585).
Early maps indicate that there was only one road running from Maidstone
southward towards the old town of RYE in Sussex.
The strategic position of the ridge determined its choice for one of the
sites in the network of beacons erected in the year of the Armada of 1588. The
first known site of a beacon was on the ridge near what we know today as
Amsbury Road and Westerhill Road.
