One of Kent’s largest and most ancient villages, Headcorn is eight miles south east of Maidstone on the floodplain of the river Beult. Headcorn is made up of attractive medieval cottages, Elizabethan houses and half-timbered buildings such as the Old Cloth Hall that reminds us of the village’s connection to the Wealden woollen industry between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries.
The New Village Hall off the High Street is home to Headcorn Farmers’ Market, which takes place on the second Saturday of every month and provides quality, local goods including free range meat, fruit and vegetables, preserves, cakes and apple juice.
And if you fancy a good meal out, try local pubs such as The George and Dragon, which specialises in food made from local produce and fresh seafood, or The Smarden Bell Country Pub, which has recently been taken over by acclaimed chef Carleton Smith who favours using locally produced food in his dishes.
The village also boasts a thousand-year-old oak tree in the churchyard said to have grown from an acorn shed when the area was thick with the Andredsweald or the Anderida forest. Outside, meanwhile, is Headcorn Airfield, which is used for private flying and includes a museum.
