Headcorn is a village and civil parish in the borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The parish is on the floodplain of the River Beult south east of Maidstone. The village is 8 mi (13 km) southeast of Maidstone, on the A274 road to Tenterden. In addition to the parish church, dedicated to saints Peter and Paul, there are also churches and chapels for the Methodist, Baptist and Roman Catholic congregations. There is a small airfield located nearby, where there is an aviation museum and a parachuting centre. Headcorn Parachute Club is the only skydiving club in Kent and is home to national champions and world-record holders. Headcorn railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line between London and Dover. It was opened on 31 August 1842. On 1 December the same year, the South Eastern Railway opened the second section of its main line onward to Ashford. By 1844, trains were running from London to Dover. In June 1865 Charles Dickens was involved in a serious railway accident to the west of the village in Staplehurst on a bridge over the River Beult. History Early history A Neolithic polished flint axe was found in the stream near the present school in Headcorn, and a bronze palstave axehead dating from the Bronze Age from New House Farm, found during fieldwork directed by Neil Aldridge reveal the presence of people in the area from very early times. However, just to the north of the village a total of four much earlier Paleolithic flint handaxes have been found from a much earlier period. Three were found west of the Ulcombe Road and one from north-west of Tong. These have originated from the ancient river gravel terrace that partially survives beneath Tong Bank. This is evidence for a former ancient river system that predates the last glacial episode which ended around 15,000 years ago. The handaxes date from perhaps 250,000 BP. There is evidence from one site in the south of the parish near New House for a probable farmstead that dates from the prehistoric Iron Age into the early Roman period. This was discovered by fieldwork undertaken by Neil Aldridge and members of the Kent Archaeological Society between 1993 and 95. Evidence for iron smelting, in the form of iron slag, and a small cemetery with three Roman cremations in pottery vessels were found. There were also a number of ditches