some of the valley slopes on its eastern and western flanks; its area is upwards of three thousand acres. The land is mostly arable, although there are extensive woodlands, especially near the parish’s southerly boundaries. In the northerly reaches of Ash, a substantial area has been lost to its traditional use by the creation in these last years of a major village settlement, New Ash Green, which straddles the ancient boundary with Hartley and has been developed as a series of neighbourhood units with open spaces between. Some four hundred and thirty acres are affected, but not all belong to Ash. The bulk of the parish remains essentially rural and, though but a long day’s march from London, retains much of that aura of remoteness which is a glory of the chalk country.
   Historically, Ash adjoined the parishes of Wrotham, Ightham, Kingsdown (the name ‘West Kingsdown’ is a modern invention), Fawkham, Hartley, Longfield, Meopham, Ridley, Stansted and a detached part of Kemsing. For good measure there seems to have been, even in quite recent times, a piece of adjacent land that belonged to no parish.

   The multiplicity of its neighbours may or may not account for the extraordinary shape of the parish, which may be likened to some primitive drawing of a Norman footman striding into battle, Head and helm are represented by the area once associated with the medieval manor of Scotgrove. Within the broad stocky body are to be found the hamlet of West Yoke, a name this of massive antiquity, the original village of Ash Street and the splendid parish church of St Peter and St Paul. An arm is thrust forward through North Ash, now New Ash Green; the mailed fist holds a shield, wherein is Idleigh. One leg, its foot lost in Kingsdown, includes the lands of South Ash and, away beyond the Maidstone road, Peckham Wood and Terry’s Lodge Farm. The other leg has Berry’s Maple, the Haven and Pettings, with its foot turned upwards to collect the hamlet of Hodsoll Street.
   Although Ash is basically a piece of chalk, the chalk is largely overlaid by clay-with-flints and other deposits usually, if inaccurately, called by that name. Especially notable are patches of what is sometimes described as the