to Kent, Surrey and Sussex. At 7:00 am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the Tenterden Coach set out on a 10-hour journey of 55 ¼ miles, passing through Headcorn. By 1838, the Tally Ho Coach had shortened the journey time, leaving London at 1:00 pm and reaching Headcorn at 8:15 pm and Tenterden at 9:30 pm. For 130 years (until 1915) Messrs. R. and J. Bennett ran a horse bus service between Tenterden, Headcorn and Maidstone. An advertisement of 1750, illustrates R. Hammond's Tenterden, Staplehurst, Biddenden, Headcorn and Town Sutton stage wagon, with a team of eight horses. It went to London and back once a week, taking two days each way. The current train service from Headcorn to London, takes about one hour. On 31 October 1904, the Headcorn, Sutton Valence and Maidstone Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd. opened a service using steam vehicles. This was replaced about 1912 by Reliance Motor Services. Maidstone & District Motor Services was also operating on the route by 1914 and took over Reliance two years later. Nowadays the main operator is Arriva Southern Counties. The South Eastern Railway was opened in stages, reaching Tonbridge in May 1842, Headcorn in August and Ashford in December. From 1905 to 1954 the Kent and East Sussex Railway operated between Robertsbridge and Headcorn via Tenterden. A proposed extension to Maidstone was never built. In 1940, following the evacuation from Dunkirk, many thousands of British and allied troops received their first meal in England at Headcorn Station. Local volunteers assisted the Royal Army Service Corps in providing refreshments. One hundred trains per day were halted, allowing only eight minutes for each. The Aerodrome at Shenley Farm, first used by one aircraft in the 1920s, served as an advanced landing ground for Canadians and then Americans in World War II. Today, as a private civil airfield and parachute centre, it also houses the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum, the Air Cadets of 500 Squadron and Thurston Helicopters, Ltd., a helicopter flying-school company. Notable buildings The 1986 list of buildings of architectural or historic interest has 88 entries for Headcorn, including the parish church (Grade I), the former old vicarage (II*) a traditional 15th-century Wealden hall house renamed Headcorn Manor about 1960, the Cloth Hall (II*) and Shakespeare House (II). There are a number of significant medieval buildings in the area of Church Walk and the High Street. The line of