IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Kirkdale, MAIDSTONE, ME15 0EA

Kirkdale Cottages are next to a footpath leading north from the village of Loose. In the centre of the cottages is a plaque on the wall which says 'KIRKDALE COTTAGES, 1868'.

Half-timbered cottage facing the Brooks Path. The stream once powered a water mill.

Reflections of half-timbered cottage in Loose Stream. The stream formerly powered a water mill.

Grade II listed. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-432885-the-dairy-house-loose

This path, since incorporated into the KCC network, crossed the Loose Court Estate/Farm

White weatherboarded cottage, formerly a shop, in the valley bottom at Loose village.

The Loose stream rises near Langley and flows into the River Medway near Tovil. For several hundred years until the early 20th century the valley was a local centre of industry with a number of ragstone quarries and a series of 13 water-powered mills. The historian William Lambarde recorded that the mills all existed in 1570. At various times they were engaged in fulling woollen cloth, paper making and corn grinding. They have all either been demolished or long ceased working but the Loose Valley and the sites of the mills were designated a Conservation Area by Maidstone Borough Council in 2000. The name Loose seems to come from the Old English 'hlose' meaning 'place of pigs', probably reflecting the main activity of the local Saxon peasants. This view is from the causeway between Old Loose Hill and Kirkdale which separates the Loose stream from the millpond, both of which served Loose Mill in Bridge Street until it closed in 1912. This looks across the millpond to the timber-framed Tyler's, once three cottages but much altered since.