Aylesham

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History

By British standards, Aylesham is a relatively new village. It was established in 1926 to house miners working in the Kent coal mines. The heads of the first families to be housed there all worked at the nearby newly sunk Snowdown Colliery. It was planned to also accommodate future workers at two other proposed new pits at Adisham and Wingham, but neither colliery was ever built. Aylesham was part of the parish of Nonington until the creation of a separate parish in 1951. Although it is still a village, it was originally intended by its masterplanner, Sir Patrick Abercrombie, to grow to be a town with a population of up to 30,000, but only 1,000 houses had been built by the 1960s. Miners from all parts of the UK (notably South Wales, Scotland and the North East) seeking better wages and safer conditions, travelled to the South East to work at Snowdown Colliery. The miners brought with them the traditional male voice choir, brass band and Rugby pastimes; all of which are still in evidence today and each of these organisations keep the colliery name as their identity. During the Second World War, the Aylesham coalminers formed a Home Guard contingent that took part in many rescue operations during the German bombings, especially in Canterbury and the surrounding areas. Old pillboxes can be found in the fields and woods around the village. Whilst Aylesham could be considered a young village, the location of the village is steeped in history. Over recent years, there have been findings of Saxon skeletons, Bronze Age urns and Roman domestic items within the village. In addition, some of the older properties within the village are evidenced to have been home to Edward of Woodstock, The Black Prince. King Richard II, the son of the Black Prince, ruled England from 1377…