his way by Meopham and the country lanes. thereabouts to the escarpment of the Downs near Ryarsh. The local inhabitants fled in terror as his troops approached and he passed through a deserted countryside. There were few left to watch or warn as he unexpectedly continued southwards to achieve his surprise crossing of the Medway by East Farleigh bridge. That made possible his flank attack on Maidstone from the south west. The town was stormed house by house and street by street and finally won near midnight in a battle in the churchyard. Fairfax’s victory was won by brilliant generalship, the professional skills of the New Model Army and sheer weight of numbers. Even so, the amazing courage and tenacity of the defenders was the true glory.
   Inasmuch as most, though not all, of the clergy of Ash and its neighbouring parishes seem to have escaped the kind of calamities that befell so many of their brethren 

elsewhere, the question arises as to how far, during these times, they were obliged to compromise or depart from the traditions and practices of their communion. The answer may well be that, by and large, eye winking was the order of the day. It has been said that ‘whereas in 1640 England was virtually a baptized nation, in 1660 it was virtually unbaptized’, but there was certainly no dearth of baptisms in Ash during most of the years of strife or during the Commonwealth. It is also apparent that Ash did not trouble itself with the edict of Barebones Parliament in 1653, whereby the Justices were to have custody of the registers and marriages were to be solemnised by a new secular official to be elected by the ratepayers and called the ‘Parish Register’. There were parishes In the diocese in which such an official operated, but Ash was not one of them.
   Some authorities have subjected Ash to the