Addington

"ADDINGTON, a parish in the hundred of Larkfield, lathe of Aylesford, in the county of Kent, 3 miles E. of Wrotham and 8 miles to the N.W. of Maidstone. It is situated on a branch of the river Medway. On an eminence near the church, there is a Druidical monument, consisting of a circle of stones similar to Stonehenge, with a smaller circle near it on the north-west. This has been supposed to mark the spot where Catigern, the brother of Vortimer, was buried after the battle of Aeglesthorpe, now Aylesford, in which Horsa, the brother of Hengist, was also slain. Copper swords, British coins, and other remains of antiquity have been found here. This parish has one of those singular periodical land springs, which abound in the eastern part of Kent, called the Nailbourn. It breaks out with great force once every seven or eight years, flowing along a trench dug for it to the Leybourn rivulet. It is said that the trout in the rivulet, at other times white, are turned red by this stream. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury, value £253. The patron is the Hon. Colonel Stratford, whose seat is at Addington Place. The church is dedicated to St. Margaret, and contains two monumental brasses of the year 1400,"

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]