Yalding is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Maidstone in Kent, England. The village is situated south west of Maidstone at a point where the Rivers Teise and Beult join the River Medway. At the 2001 census, the parish, which includes the villages of Benover and Laddingford, had a population of 2,236. increasing to 2,418 at the 2011 Census. There are three bridges in the village; the Twyford Bridge (meaning twin ford, where there was originally a double crossing of the two rivers) is one of the finest medieval bridges in the south-east of England. Yalding was one of the principal shipment points on the River Medway for cannon, from villages of the Wealden iron industry. One iron master was John Browne from Horsmonden. The wharf was later used for transporting fruit from the many orchards in the area. History The Saxon village was called Twyford and was close to the bridge. But the name was recorded in the Domesday Book as the Saxon manor of Hallinges seized by William the Conqueror and given to his half brother Odo of Bayeux, Yalding was derived from the Olde English pre 7th century "Ealdingas" and translates as the place of the Ealda people a tribe who were widespread until the 9 the century (the old village). It was recorded in the "Domesday" as "Hallinges" by a Norman-French cleric who had little knowledge of the area. In 1212 it is recorded more correctly as "Ealding" (ref; www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Yalden.ref; www.britannica.com Encyclopaedia-Britannica William 1st King of England. ref; Yalding surname meaning and statistics https://forebears.io ref Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. Wikipedia. Phonological history of English diphthongs. Wikipedia) By 1642 this had mutated to Yaldinge. The medieval records from Yalding are so complete that it was used in a History Case Study for Secondary Schools, called The Yalding Project. During the English Civil War in 1643, a battle took place at Town Bridge between the Roundheads and Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had advanced from Aylesford towards Tonbridge, but the Parliamentarian soldiers had marched to block their movements, bombarded them and forced their surrender, with the result that 300 were captured and 300 escaped. Yalding was a favourite of Edith Nesbit, author of The Railway Children, who wrote in the 1920s: "The Medway just above the Anchor (at Yalding, Kent) is a river of dreams...If you go to Yalding you may stay at the George and be