YALDING, a parish (formerly a market-town) in
the hundred of TWYFORD, lathe of AYLESFORD, county
of KENT, 5 miles (S. W.) from Maidstone, containing
2414 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Rochester, rated in the king's
books at £20. 18. 9., and in the patronage of the Rev.
Richard Ward. The church, dedicated to St. Peter and
St. Paul, is principally in the decorated style of English
architecture. The parish is intersected by different
branches of the Medway, and upon two of the larger
streams stands the village, approached by a' long narrow
stone bridge, besides which, there are two others in
the parish, called Brant and Twyford bridges. The river
is navigable to this place for barges, by which a considerable
traffic in timber and other naval stores is carried
on with Chatham, Sheerness, London, and other ports;
the vessels returning with a variety of necessary articles,
particularly coal, from which a considerable quantity of
coke is made, and distributed through the neighbourhood
for drying hops. The market has been long disused
5 but fairs for cattle and hops are held on Whit-
Monday and October 15th. William Cleave, Esq., in
1665, founded a free school, and endowed it with a farm
now let for £50 a year, which, with the previous bequests
of Julian Kenward and Thomas and John Twiffer,
amounting to the additional sum of £ 17 per annum, is
applied' to teaching from thirty to forty children. A
charity school, founded in 1711, for girls and young
children, has been endowed by Mrs. Alchorn and Mrs.
Warde,  sisters, with a school-house, besides certain
lands and other premises, the rents of which are paid
half-yearly to a schoolmistress for teaching from twenty
to twenty-four children, under the superintendence of
the vicar.