Leeds, Kent

Historical Description

LEEDS is a village and parish, 5 miles south-east from Maidstone, in the Mid division of the county, Eyhorne hundred, Maidstone county court district, Hollingbourne union, lathe of Aylesford, rural deanery of Sutton, archdeaconry of Maidstone and diocese of Canterbury. The church of St. Nicholas is an ancient stone structure in the Early English and later styles, consisting of chancel, with side chapels, nave, aisles and a remarkably massive western tower of very Early English character and perhaps unrivalled in size, crowned by a shingled spire and containing a celebrated peal of 10 bells: the nave is divided from each aisle by arcades of three pointed arches on octagonal pillars; a screen of wood crosses both nave and aisles at the entrance to the chancel and there is another in the north chapel, which also has a piscina: in the chancel are three sedilia: the church was thoroughly restored in 1879, when some fine old windows previously blocked up with masonry, were opened out and two of them filled with stained glass. The register dates from the year 1575. The living is a vicarage, with that of Broomfield annexed, joint gross yearly value £300, with residence, in the gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury and held, since 1877, by the Rev. Adolphus Philipse Morris M.A. of Worcester College, Oxford. The rectorial tithes are held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Congregationalists have a chapel here. Leeds Castle, the seat of Mrs. Wykeham-Martin, is situated in the parish of Broomfield, under which a description of the Castle will be found. Leeds Abbey, some parts of which remained until 1795, was situated about a quarter of a mile south of the church: the abbey lands are now the property of the representatives of the late Philip Wykeham-Martin esq. Battle Hall, adjoining the church, is supposed to have been built in the reign of Edward II.; it is now occupied as a farmhouse. The representatives of the late Philip Wykeham-Martin esq. who are lords of the manor, and Sir Edmund Filmer bart. M.P. are the chief landowners, but there are several other smaller owners. The soil is loam; subsoil, ragstone, The chief crops are wheat, fruit and hops. The area is 1,653 acres; rateable value, £4,293; the population in 1881 was 727.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Leeds from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Leeds (St. Nicholas))

Maps

Online maps of Leeds are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Photographs

Photographs of Leeds Castle, Kent, taken in 2004.