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You may find this relevant information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit

The local sandstone is known as Sarsen stone and is found in various parts of the country and natural formations can be found in Meopham, Harvel, Horsted, Lenham amongst many others. These megaliths were built during the Neolithic period, principally as a method of burial. The body was placed in a kneeling position inside a chamber made of slabs of stone, like a box, and finally resting a large slab on the top of the four uprights. It is interesting to note their position on the ancient track of the Pilgrim’s Way, which originally went to Salisbury Plain. Unfortunately other megaliths have been lost either through the recycling of the stone or through their destruction in the 17th and 18th centuries when it was not uncommon for them to be blown up and the fragments dispersed if they hindered farming activities or over the centuries during treasure hunts. For instance in the same field that contains Kits Coty, fragments of a sarsen stone was found in a hedge, being a monument known to have been blown up in 1862. This is believed to have been a single stone, similar to the coffin stone and known as The General’s Tomb

Addington Stones

Also known as the Chestnuts, these remnants of stones on a hill would form more of an oval than a circle. There were probably originally 20 in number and just north west of these was another heap of 6 large stones. Kits Coty is an unusual site. It’s construction is the normal box-like form, however, it also had an earth mound built over the top of the chamber, forming a 60 metre long barrow and this was circled by a ring of stones. Today only the uprights are left.

Lower Kits Coty

Also known by other names: the Countless Stones or The Numbers. These are the remains of a burial chamber once covered by earth mounds known as barrows.

The White Horse Stone

A single standing stone near Blue Bell Hill, the remaining fragment of a probable burial site. The stone has some holes that appear naturally in sandstone giving the suggestion of a face.

Tottington Stones

South of Kits Coty and west of the Countless Stones, are two groups of stones. The first, is a series of circles in and around the banks of a stream. These may be have occurred through random natural formation, eroded by water and weather over the years, or it has been proposed, they may be for water worship, laying as they do at the source of this stream. The second is a huge isolated stone, known as the Coffin Stone due to it’s shape and measures nearly 5 metres long, nearly 2.5 metres wide and over ½ metre thick. Coldrum at Trottiscliffe one of the finest Neolithic megaliths in Kent. Orignally a long mound running east to west, with burial chamber. The mound now gone and leaving 4 sarsen stones of the burial chamber and a scattering of other stones around. The burial chamber held 22 skeletons and must have been about 48 metres in circumference.

Since the 13th century, the windmill has played an important role in the agricultural landscape of the county and apart from East Anglia and Lincoln, Kent probably had more working windmills than any other county. The area around Rochester had the most mills and at it's peak, which was around 1870, there were over 40 working windmills. However, from this point on, there was a gradual decline and by 1883, there were 29 mills and by 1930 only one survived. The windmiller's trade across Kent continued to decline and by 1930, there were only 14 mills working under sail, with a handful more using mechanical power. Since the 1960's many of the mills have been rescued and restored and are in the hands of Kent County Council, Windmills Trusts or some are privately owned.