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MARKET TOWNS OF KENT (from SDUK Penny Cyclopedia)

West Malling in 1836

Town Malling, otherwise West Malling, is in Larkfield hundred, lathe of Aylesford, 29 miles from London Bridge, just out of the Maidstone road. Here was an ancient Benedictine nunnery, the yearly value of the possessions of which at the dissolution was £245, 10 shillings, 2½ pence gross, or £218, 4 shillings, 2½ pence clear. Many parts of the conventual buildings are yet standing, especially a portion of the west end of the church, a specimen of Norman architecture.

There is also St. Leonard's, a hamlet of Malling, a tower 71 feet high much resembling the keep of a Norman castle; it belonged St. Leonard's chapel, now destroyed. Town Malling church, a handsome and spacious building, has a Norman tower at the west end. There is a small endowed free-school. The market, held on Saturday, has not been long discontinued. Population in 1831, 1,459.