210. Malling, West.—The Church consists of chancel, nave, and square west tower with a short spire. The chancel is E.E., the nave modern, the tower Norm. perhaps partially rebuilt, the upper part having recently been renewed. In the south wall of the chancel are visible arches of, apparently, sedilia, but between them and the east end the wall is occupied, and one of the arches cut off, by a large monument of the sixteenth century.—Brasses: Will. Millys, 1497 (1479, Reg. Roff. and 1486, Harris); part of a female.
Of Malling Abbey there are considerable remains, comprising portions of Norm., E.E., Dec. and Perp. date. In the pavement of the brewhouse belonging to the residence is a grave slab, bearing a cross in low relief. The grand gateway is entire. The front is Perp., but examination will show this work to be only a facing. The chapel annexed to the gatehouse, now the wash-house of the cottage, has Dec. windows, but the south door and the attached stoup are Perp. A copper occupies the south-east angle of the ancient chapel.—The abbey or nunnery was founded by Bp. Gundulph (Lambarde) A.D. 1078, and burnt temp. K. Richard I. (Kilburne.) In 1090 according to Hasted, who states that the chapel of St. Leonard was annexed to a cell; but implying that it existed previous to the erection; of the abbey.—The tower of St. Leonard's "is still standing, and looks like a castle." (Harris, about A.D. 1720.) That tower yet exists (1849), and may do so for centuries, being most assuredly a Norm. keep, and as certainly never part of a church, though possibly the first floor might have been used as a chapel, but the interior presents no distinct indications that such was really the fact.
About A.D. 945 Edmund, king of the Angles and Mercians, granted this place to Burhric, Bp. of Rochester, for the good of K. Edmund's soul, and in augmentation of the revenues of the monastery of St. Andrew, Rochester. The property having been lost in the Danish wars, it was given by K. William I to Odo, Bp. of Bayeux, but was recovered A.D. 1076 in the county court at Penenden. (Monast. III. 380.) The Saxon charter will be found (ib. 383.)
211. Maplescomb.—The place bearing this name, formerly of sufficient importance to possess its own rectorial church, is now merely a farm within the parish of Kingsdown near Wrotham, though still united as a curacy to that rectory. In (A.D. 1291) "Ecclia de Mapelescombe" is mentioned separately from Kings-
