Langley is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone

Maidstone (borough)

Maidstone is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. Its administrative centre is Maidstone which is also the County town of Kent...

 District of Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The parish is located on the A274 road leading south from Maidstone

Maidstone

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...

 to Headcorn

Headcorn

Headcorn is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the floodplain of the River Beult south east of Maidstone....

 .

History

Langley is a common English place-name, from the Old English lang leah or ‘long field or woodland’. This village first appears in the records in 814 as Longanleag.

The village church is dedicated to St Mary. Behind this church is a lake, which is possible place for 'trial by cold water'[citation] a medieval way, when the jury couldn't decide on a persons innocence, to try them. the idea that God would decide. If the accused floated they were guilty because the water rejected them. If they sank, the water accepted them and thus were innocent. As is often thought it is not if they drowned, but the result was drowning im some cases!. It had to be close to the church because the water would be holy.

Bleak House in Langley is named after the Charles Dickens novel Bleak House. A majority of the book was written in the house.

Maidstone museum exhibits articles excavated from a site in Langley believed to have been a walled Roman cemetery.

Culture and Community

The village has two public houses

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

, The Horseshoes, and The Plough.

Its post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 has been closed for over 10 years.

There is also 'Langley Heath', which by it, is a woods, called Abby Wood.

It also has a golf range, and hosts a boot fair, most Sundays, in late spring to early September.

There is also a village hall, on it is a playing field with room for 2 football pitches, and a small play area, and a basketball net.

External links

• http://www.langley-kent.org.uk
• Langley church