Tonbridge and Malling

The area has been occupied for thousands of years. The Neolithic people left behind much evidence: megaliths such as Kit's Coty House at Aylesford and the Coldrum Stones at Trottiscliffe; and the Long barrows at Addington being examples. Bronze and Iron Age finds are also plentiful. There is evidence of the Romano-British civilisation along the Medway Valley.

The immediate district of Tonbridge is omitted from the Domesday Book; however most other settlements in the Borough are included. Castles were built at Tonbridge, Allington and West Malling in the 13th century. Religious houses: Malling, Aylesford and Tonbridge were built: one such was St Mary's Abbey dating from 1092. Aylesford Priory on the banks of the Medway, was built in the 13th century.

There are surviving medieval manor houses including Ightham Mote and Old Soar Manor.

Tonbridge district can be divided in two distinct areas, which were divided at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the woods and heaths of the ragstone (1) ridge from Great Comp to East Malling. Northwards lies the well peopled Vale of Holmesdale with the market town of West Malling as the principal centre of population, an area crossed lengthways by the railway and motorway (M20); southwards of the ridge is the heavy clay of the Weald and valley of the Medway[1]

Kentish ragstone geologically speaking is the Upper Greensand Ridge, used in church building in Kent.

Hadlow Tower is in Tonbridge and Malling Borough

Fairlawne House is in this borough

The land included is mainly agricultural – orchards, and livestock in the main – although major business parks and buildings within 30 miles (50 km) coupled with the railways and the motorway means a majority of working residents commute to work in the more built-up villages and Tonbridge. The new settlement of Kings Hill can be regarded as tied in with the economy of Maidstone equally with that of parts of Kent further to the western extremity.

A remnant of the once flourishing hop-growing industry is provided by a tourist attraction at Beltring: once the Whitbread Hop Farm, it puts on weekend exhibitions and shows. Tonbridge and Malling has 27 listed buildings in the highest category of the national system, Grade I. This includes eight churches, five reduced structures left over from St Mary's Abbey or Malling Abbey, West Malling and four manor houses, mostly built by lower social ranks than the titled nobility.

Ightham Mote is in Tonbridge and Malling

A diverse materials and appearance construction is Ightham Mote which is recognised in the highest category of the UK's architecture listing system, Grade I, though no longer in private hands. East Malling Research Station disseminates results of research into matters affecting horticultural crops, with particular emphasis on the fruit, hop and nursery stock industries.

Many of the villages are beside long-distance walks with tourist accommodation, enabling tours of the orchards and bluebell woods.

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council
Type
Type	Non-metropolitan district
Leadership
Mayor	Sue Bell, Conservative since 10 May 2022
Leader	Matt Boughton, Conservative since 13 July 2021
Chief Executive	Julie Beilby
Structure
Seats	54
Meeting place
Gibson Building, Gibson Drive, Kings Hill, West Malling, ME19 4LZ
Website
tmbc.gov.uk

• See Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council elections for historic political control and leadership.

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council's main offices are at the Gibson Building in Kings Hill; this is the converted and extended officers' mess building from the former RAF West Malling.[2] The council moved to the Gibson Building in November 1974, just a few months after the council's creation.[3] The council also has an office at Tonbridge Castle, which had been the offices of the former Tonbridge Urban District Council.[4]

Following the 2015 elections, the political makeup of the council was the following: 48 Conservative, 4 Liberal Democrats and 2 Independents.

Following the 2019 election the council is still under Conservative control, as it has been since 2003.

The borough is divided for borough council elections into 26 wards, including seven in the town of Tonbridge (Cage Green, Castle, Higham, Judd, Medway, Trench and Vauxhall wards). Outside the town, councillors serve wards covering the following villages or groups of villages, many of which have parish councils also (see below):

• Aylesford
• Blue Bell Hill and Walderslade
• Borough Green and Long Mill
• Burham, Wouldham and Eccles
• Ditton
• Downs
• East Malling,
• East Peckham and Golden Green
• Hadlow, Mereworth and West Peckham
• Hildenborough
• Ightham
• Kings Hill
• Larkfield – two wards: North and South
• Snodland – two wards: East and West
• Wateringbury
• West Malling and Leybourne
• Wrotham

The lower tier of local government is the civil parish. In this district they are as follows:

Tonbridge, being the former area of Tonbridge Urban District Council, is an unparished area.

In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the area is covered by the larger Tonbridge and Malling Parliamentary Constituency and part of Chatham and Aylesford Parliament constituency.

• The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.[15]
• 29 Squadron, RAF.

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