Fruit is grown in East Farleigh,which stands on steeply rising ground on
the south bank of the River Medway, south west of Maidstone.
Parliamentary troops marched over the 14th Century bridge in 1648 and
captured Maidstone from the Royalists. The Bridge with its five arches is said
to be the finest medieval bridge in the South of England.
A cross in the churchyard of the ancient parish church of East Farleigh
marks the grave of 43 hop pickers who died of cholera in 1849. Two of the
vicars were sons of the reformer William Wilberforce, whose wife is buried
there, as is the artist Donald Maxwell.
