Only a small percentage of the parish's population is under 80 years of age. The population is widely scattered but mainly related, with clusters around the village green and the picturesque Cherry Orchard Lane. The writer Ford Madox Ford lived at Bloomfield Villa (now Fir Trees Villa) from 1894 for two years. He described some of the local characters in his books and recalled the village in Return to Yesterday, which was published in 1932."Bonnington was in a scattered, little-populated village of the South of England. The village stood on what had formerly been common land; running all down the side of a range of hills. But this common land had been long since squatted on, so that it was a maze of little hawthorn hedges surrounding little closes." Industry and commerce As in Aldington, agriculture is the only significant indigenous economic activities, albeit an insignificant source of employment. However, the predominance of agriculture in Bonnington is more noticeable than in Aldington parish because of the absence of any village centre and the absence of any infrastructure provided by shops, schools, pubs or post office. As with Aldington, the majority of Bonnington parishioners work in nearby towns or in London. Facilities The parish's facilities include a mobile library, a public relief centre, a drift field and St Rumwold's, a Grade I listed Church of England parish church. History Although Bonnington is mentioned in the 11th century Domesday Book, little is known of its early history, other than the fact that for several centuries it was owned by the Knights Hospitaller. In the 19th century, smuggling was a significant activity in Bonnington, but this declined rapidly with the capture of the infamous Ransley Gang. From at least the time of Queen Elizabeth I of England, if not before, an old oak tree known as the Law-Day Oak, has played a significant role in the governance of Bonnington parish. In earlier times, the Law-Day Oak provided the setting for Courts held to hear local pleas, and to this day the Bonnington Annual Parish Meeting is held under the branches of this ancient oak. In 1889 a Mrs White wrote in a learned journal thus about the Law-Day Oak: "In the out-of-the-way villages on the borders of Romney marsh, the former home of shepherds and smugglers, the light of civilisation has not long shone, and many rites and superstitions connected with the worship