AYLESFORD RECTORY MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry title Aylesford Rectory Manor corresponds to the historically attested Manor of the Parsonage of Aylesford. Hasted states that the parsonage of Aylesford had a manor belonging to it, and the associated archival records place the property among the Rochester Dean and Chapter's parsonage and estate holdings. The 1649 Rochester capitular-estates survey specifically includes Aylesford parsonage.
Representative point: 51.3041, 0.4796
Basis: supported_manorial_centre — The manor was attached to the Aylesford parsonage and ecclesiastical estate. The best defensible surviving geographic anchor is the medieval parish church of St Peter and St Paul at Aylesford, the documented centre of the parochial and rectorial establishment. Historic England gives the church National Grid Reference TQ 72939 59032, corresponding to approximately 51.3041, 0.4796 WGS84.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; documented in records from at least 1335 to 1728 and surveyed in 1649
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The sources establish the manor's identity, ecclesiastical ownership and location at Aylesford, but the available web evidence does not provide a sufficiently legible manor map, parcel schedule, abuttals, or reconstructed perimeter for the specific rectory manor. The 1649 survey is described as containing acreage and abuttals, but its detailed Aylesford entry was not available online in a form permitting reliable polygon reconstruction. The Aylesford parish boundary or modern administrative boundary must not be substituted.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Aylesford Rectory Manor, F287565: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F287565 — Registry record supplied for the exact manor; authority/reference GB/NNAF/M313613 and location Aylesford, Kent.
- Hasted's History of Kent: Aylesford: https://lowermedway.org.uk/hasted/hasted_files/1798-hasted-aylesford.pdf — States that the parsonage of Aylesford had a manor belonging to it called the manor of the parsonage of Aylesford, held with the Rochester dean and chapter's parsonage and associated possessions.
- Parliamentary survey of the Rochester capitular estates, 1649: https://cityark.medway.gov.uk/Details/archive/110034287 — Medway Archives catalogue describes the highly detailed survey of Rochester capitular estates and specifically indexes the Aylesford parsonage at part 1, folio 157; it records that such surveys included capital messuages, lands, woods, marshland, acreage, abuttals and values.
- Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aylesford - Historic England listing 1337029: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1337029 — Documents the medieval parish church at Church Walk, Aylesford, National Grid Reference TQ 72939 59032, used here as the best supported geographic centre for the attached parsonage/rectory estate.
- Parish Churches in the Diocese of Rochester, c. 1320-c. 1520: https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/journal/119/parish-churches-diocese-rochester-c-1320-c-1520 — Identifies Aylesford church as a Rochester-associated ecclesiastical holding, supporting the connection between the Aylesford parochial establishment and Rochester ecclesiastical administration.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is an ecclesiastical/manorial-centre proxy, not a surviving identified manor-house coordinate.
- No historically grounded polygon for the specific Aylesford Rectory Manor could be established from the accessible evidence.
- The manor's territorial extent may have consisted of glebe, tithes, appurtenant lands and rents rather than the whole historical or modern parish of Aylesford.