the town, at Kings Hill. During the Second World War, RAF fighters were posted to the then-named RAF West Malling, and several US Navy squadrons were located there during the 1960s. After closure as an operational airfield in 1967, several commercial air-based activities moved onto the site, and a number of popular airshows took place – the last was in 1987. By then, work had started to convert the area to non-flying use, developing into the new parish of Kings Hill. Rail West Malling station, situated on the outskirts of the town, provides a regular service, operated by Southeastern Trains, up to Victoria, and down to Maidstone and Ashford. Journeys into London take around one hour. Direct services to London Bridge and Cannon Street were withdrawn in December 2009. With the recent development of Kings Hill, the station was renamed "West Malling for Kings Hill", and in 2007 road access was provided from the West Malling bypass, taking commuter traffic away from the High Street. Local media Newspapers West Malling is covered by the Malling edition of the Kent Messenger, published by the KM Group. There is also a King's Hill edition of the Sevenoaks Chronicle. Radio The local radio station for West Malling is KMFM Maidstone. The county-wide stations BBC Radio Kent, Heart and Gold can also be received in the town. Sport West Malling is reputed to be the site of the first recorded cricket match in Kent. The Old County Ground, off Norman Road, was once the home of inter-county cricket in Kent, and it is known that in 1705, "West of Kent" played Chatham at Malling. The setting for the cricket match between All Muggleton and Dingley Dell in Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers is reputed to be based on an amalgamation of the grounds at West Malling and Maidstone. There is a resemblance to West Malling in the original illustration of the match, a version of which featured on the back of the £10 banknote featuring Dickens, first circulated on 29 April 1992. Dickens, however, was a regular visitor to Dingley Hall in the village of Dingley, Northamptonshire. Here he would have encountered an annual cricket match against a team formed of men with the name Muggleton, from the next village of Wilbaston. Dingley Dell is an area just south of the village, steep and wooded which may instead have been the model for Dickens'