: i 



AYLESKORD. 



AYR. 



764 



Domesday Book it appears uiiilertbe name of Eilesberiaand Elesberie. 

 By Camdcn it u written Ailbury : this mode of spelling i* retained 

 in the title of Marquis of Ailesbury, which the family of Brudenell 

 Bruce take* from this town. 



There won a bonne of Gray Friars at the south end of the town, 

 founded by Jamas Earl of Ormond in 1387, but it was very poor ; the 

 revenue, at the general suppression of religious houses under 

 Henry VIII., being valued only at 31. 2*. 5d. per annum. It became 

 the aeat of Sir J. Baldwin, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 

 to whom Henry VIII. granted it, and afterwards of the Packington 

 family ; but it was so much damaged in the great civil war that it 

 was never afterwards inhabited by them. The vale of Aylesbury will 

 be noticed under BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 



(Lipscomb's /ftttory of Buctingkanukire ; Lysons's ifagna Britan- 

 nia ; Currttpondent at A yUtbury.) 



AYLESKORD, Kent, a village on the right bank of the river 

 Medway, a little to the left of the road from London to Maidstone ; 

 it is 34 miles N. by W. from Maidstone and 32 miles S.E. by K. from 

 London : the population of the parish in 1851 was 1487. The living 

 is a vicarage in the archdeaconry and diocese of Rochester. The 

 village connists only of one street The church, a handsome building, 

 with a square tower at the west end, is situated on an eminence at 

 the back of the village. It contains a costly monument of Sir John 

 Banks, Bart, who died in 1699, a mural tablet to the memory of Sir 

 Paul Rycaut, who died in 1700, and a brass to John Covington, Esq., 

 who died in 1426. The ground rises so abruptly that the churchyard 

 is higher than the chimneys of the houses in the-street There is a 

 stone bridge of six arches over the Medway ; and on a rising bank at 

 the east end of the village is a building erected for an alms-house, and 

 endowed by the will of John Sedley in 1605 for a warden and six poor 

 persons. Aylesford has one fair in the year, on the 29th of June. 

 The parish, which extends on both sides of the river, includes the 

 hamlet of Millhall, on the left bank of the Medway. The church was 

 granted by Henry I. to the bishops of Rochester. One of the bishops 

 gave it to the priory of that city ; but towards the close of the 12th 

 century another transferred it to the newly-founded hospital at 

 Strood. The monks of Rochester priory appealed to the Pope ; and 

 the church was left in the possession of the hospital, the master of 

 that institution appointing a vicar to celebrate divine service. The 

 master and brethren afterwards resigned their hospital to the prior 

 and convent of Rochester ; and at the dissolution the king granted 

 the advowson of the vicarage to the dean and chapter of Rochester. 

 There are National schools in the village. 



Close to the Medway at a small distance west of the village was a 

 Carmelite friary, founded in 1240, by or under the patronage of Lord 

 Grey of Codnor. The friary lands are now in the possession of the 

 family of Pinch, earls of Aylesford. In the family mansion and in 

 the domestic offices many portions of the friary buildings are still 

 visible. 



There are in the parish the ruins of the ancient free chapel of 

 Longsole, now used as a barn, and called, from its lonely situa- 

 tion, ' The Hermitage.' It is about two miles from the town on the 

 other side of the Medway. On the window-frame of a large ancient 

 barn (belonging to Preston Hall in this parish), built of stone, as well 

 as on an outhouse near it, also of stone, and on a chimney-piece, are 

 the letters TC with the date 11 02 in Arabic figures. The use of these 

 at so early a period has given rise to much discussion among anti- 

 quaries: the inscription is probably of a much later date, and refers 

 not to the date of the erection of the building. 



But the most remarkable monument of antiquity is the cromlech 

 called Kit's Coty Houne, situated on the slope of a hill, about a mile and 

 a half N.K. from the village. It is composed of four large rude stones, 

 of the kind called Kentish rag. Three of the stones are upright and 



Kit'l Coljf IlouM. 



incline slightly inward, supporting the fourth stone which lies flat 

 upon them, thus forming *, capable of holdirg five 

 nervous. Two of the upright stones are each about 8 feet high, 

 i rtj feet broad, and about 2 feet thick; the third is of more 

 irregular form and somewhat smaller dimensions. The top stone 

 which is very Irregular U about 11 feet long, 8 ftet broad, and 2 feet 



thick. The form of Kit's Coty House is one common in cromlechs. 

 Recent researches have proved that such cromlechs are places of 

 sepulture. The origin of the name Kit's Coty House has been a good 

 deal discussed without any very satisfactory result having been 

 arrived at. 



A short distance southward from Kit's Coty House, in the 1 

 nearer to Aylesford, are nine similar stones, some of which are partly 

 upright, and others lying in a circle around them. Those that are 

 partly upright, with a large one lying across them, appear to have 

 once formed a kind of structure like that of Kit's Coty House, and to 

 have had the same aspect : the whole heap is now intergrown with 

 elms and coppice shrubs. This monument of antiquity is supposed 

 to have been demolished by some persons digging a trench beneath 

 it, in hope of finding treasure. Still nearer to Aylesford is a remark- 

 able stone, called from its shape the Coffin. 



Aylesford is thought by some historians and antiquaries to be the 

 place where a battle was fought about 455 between tin- Britons and 

 Saxons, when the latter were defeated, and compelled for awhile to 

 leave the island. The antiquities above spoken of are of course 

 supposed by them to be connected with this battle. 



The Saxon Chronicle calls the name of this place ^Egeleafonl. 

 According to Nennius (a British historian of the early part of the 

 7th century) the Saxons colled it Episford, and the Britons Sathene- 

 gabnil, or Saissenaig-Hobail, from the overthrow of the Saxons here. 

 Asscr (in the time of Alfred, who died about 900) cnl : lirep ; 



in Domesday Book it is Elesford, in later writers Aillesford, and in 

 I.- l.ni'l and Cumdeu Ailesford. 



(Hasted's Hutory of Kent; Grose's Antiquitia ; Archaologia, 

 voL iv. ; Communication from Ayleiford.) 



AYLSHAM, or AYLE8HAM (written in Domesday Book 

 ' Elrsham '), Norfolk, a market-town, and the seat of a Poor-Law 

 Union, in the hundred of South Erpingham, is situated on the ri.'lit 

 bank of the river Burc, one of the streams which unite just above tlu- 

 town of Great Yarmouth, in 62 47' N. lat, 1 16' E. long., about 

 11 miles N. by W. from Norwich, and 120 miles N.N.E. from London : 

 the population of the town in 1851 was 2184. The living is a vicarage 

 in the archdeaconry and diocese of Norwich. Aylsham Poor-Law 

 Union contains 46 parishes and townships, with an area of 62,984 

 acres, and a population in 1851 of 20,007. 



Aylsham was in the time of Edward II. ami III. the chief p! 

 Norfolk for the linen manufacture; in old records the '. \ilr-0iam 

 webs ' and ' Ailesham linens,' and ' the fine cloth of A ilesham ' are 

 frequently mentioned. In the reign of Henry VIII. tho linen manu- 

 facture bad in a great degree given way to the woollen, and about the 

 time of James I. Aylsham was chiefly inhabited by knitters ; but 

 this branch of industry has decayed, and no particular manufacture 

 now prevails in the town. 



The market, chiefly for corn, is on Tuesday ; there are two fairs 

 in the year. The river Bare is navigable for boats of 13 tons 

 burden. 



The church, built by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son 

 ird III., in the 14th century, is in the decorated English style, 

 and consists of a nave and clmncrl, with two aisles to each, also two 

 transepts, and a square tower with a small spire on the top. Tho 

 church contains several monumental brasses, and a richly-carved font. 

 Several windows have been recently filled with painted glass by the 

 vicar and others, and the church has been partially reseated. There 

 are places of worship for Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists and 

 Baptist*. 



There are National and Infant schools at Aylsham. Two large 



i'l Imudsome school-rooms were erected in 1848-9 to accommodate 



100 boys and 80 girls. There ore also a Commercial and Agricultural 



school in connection with the Norwich Diocesan School Society, 



established in 1846, which had 27 scholars in 1852, and a Literary 



. founded in 1848, which has a well-supplied library and a 



reading-room. 



Aybtham is a neat town, and the country around is very pleasant. 

 The town won first lighted with gas in 1860. 



(Blomi field's Hutory of Norfolk; General ffittory of XurfM- ; 

 Communication from Ayltkam.) 



AYR, the county town of Ayrshire, and a municipal and parlia- 

 mentary burgh, on the south-west coast of Scotland, i.< situated on 

 the left bank of tho river Ayr, near its mouth, in 55 28' N. lat, 

 4 89' W. long., 77 miles 8.W. from Edinburgh, and 34 miles S.S.W. 

 from Glasgow : the |'"|"- parliamentary burgh of Ayr, which 



includes parts of the three parishes of Ayr, Newton, and St-Quivox, 

 was 17,624 in 1851 ; that of the municipal burgh was 9097. Ayr is a 



trilnitory burgh, returning conjointly with Irvine, Campbcltown, 



Invcrary, and Oban (the last three in Argyleshire) one member to 

 uerial Parliament The corporation of Ayr consists of a 

 provost, two bailies, a dean of guild, and 1 3 councillors. Ayr was 

 made a royal burgh by William the Lion in 1202. 



'II,. principal street (called High Street) is broad, and has many 

 ilt houses. The town is lighted with gas, and is one of tin; 

 cleanest and bent paved burghs in Scotland. Opposite the Fish- 

 market ia the ol<l bridge over the river, used for foot-passengers only, 

 ing the town with the burgh of Newton-upon-Ayr, which, 

 though a distinct parish, may be considered as a suburb, and with 



