free grammar school in the village, allowing the Master £20 per year with "a good house and garden to reside in", and a person called "the Usher" was allowed £10 per year. Village Alms Houses. William Lambe also founded six alms-houses in the village with an orchard and gardens for the poor of the parish. He allotted £10 to be divided among them yearly, and entrusted the Company of Clothworkers with the management of this charity. The inhabitants were usually appointed by the master of the school. The arms of the founder, a "fess between three cinquefoils", are carved in stone on the front of the alms-houses. 18th and 19th centuries The Filmer family lent money for the construction of the turnpike road from Maidstone to Tenterden (the current A274). When gas became available and replaced candles and oil lamps, the Filmers encouraged the provision of a gas supply in the village. Many of the older buildings in the village are constructed from "ragstone" which was quarried locally at Boughton Monchelsea between the village and Maidstone. Local windmills The Sutton Valence Town Mill was a Smock mill built about 1720. In 1796 it was rebuilt and raised a storey following gale damage in which the cap and sails were blown off. In 1918 it was again damaged in a gale, and was worked into the 1930s by an engine rather than its sails. In 1945 it was demolished, leaving the base standing. An additional weatherboarded storey was added to the base and it was converted into a house. Another windmill also stood at Five Wents to the north of Sutton Valence, but was demolished by 1875. St Mary's Church In 1825 an earlier church was rebuilt, the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers contributing the sum of £20 towards the rebuilding. 1827 - the Clothworkers Company gave £20 towards a gallery at the west end, in the front of which the pupils of the grammar school had seats. 1866 - the Clothworkers contributed £10 towards a memorial window at the east end in memory of Rev. F. Walter. 1872 - the Clothworkers gave £21 towards an organ on the north side of the chancel. 1874 - the Clothworkers gave what was called at the time a "munificent sum" of 300 guineas towards further alterations. World War I and after In 1916 the Filmer family connection with Sutton Valence ended when Robert Filmer