Aylesford Friary
Contact information
The Friars
Aylesford
Kent ME20 7BX
Telephone: 01622 717272
Fax: 01622 715575
Email: enquiry@thefriars.org.uk
Facilities and additional information
Aylesford is said to be the oldest village in England. The name Aylesford comes from Angle s Ford - the place where the Angles crossed the river Medway. The brothers Hengist and Horsa, leaders of the first Anglo-Saxon invasion, landed in Aylesford in 449 A.D., where they set themselves up as the first Kings of Kent. Horsa was killed in 455, so he wasn t such a cute Angle. His obtuse brother, Hengist, lived another thirty-three years.After a peaceful four hundred years, Alfred the Great beat the Danes (the score is not recorded) and some four hundred years later the Carmelite order founded the Aylesford Friary in 1240 or 1283, (depending on which book you read). Today The Friars is a place of refuge and calm for thousands of visitors