Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The landscape around Pembury is dominated by steep-sided valleys and undulating slopes. The area is predominantly agricultural, with scattered copses and more extensive, usually deciduous woodland. Many local woodlands are used for coppicing. With soils in the High Weald being relatively poor, early farming in the area would have been dominated by grazing. Between 1600 and 1800, agriculture grew to be the primary activity, with top fruits, cereals, coppicing and hops being the main products. Few hops are grown today, although the landscape continues to be dominated by fruit orchards. Evolution of the village Until the early 20th century, Pembury remained a small rural village, with five distinct hamlets: Upper Green, Lower Green, Hawkwell, Bo-Peep and Romford. These merged during the 20th century, particularly the latter half, when several large private housing estates were developed including Woodhill Park, Ridgeway and Beagleswood. Village green The village green, originally known as Copingcrouch Green, was first recorded on a map in 1629. The green was until recently dominated by a large horse chestnut tree and has developed as the focal point of the village. The Camden Arms hotel, which overlooks the green from its south side, was developed as a coaching inn to meet the needs of travellers along the London to Hastings road. Tunbridge Wells Hospital The village is home to Tunbridge Wells Hospital, a large general hospital run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. The hospital is located on the site of the former Pembury Hospital north-west of the main village on Tonbridge Road. The new hospital was built by Laing O'Rourke at a cost of around £226 million. It opened in September 2011. The new hospital was the first acute NHS hospital in Britain where every inpatient has their own room with en-suite facilities, with ceiling to floor windows revealing views over surrounding woodland. Kent College Kent College, Pembury is a girls' independent boarding and day school. It was established in Folkestone in 1886 by the Wesleyan Methodist Schools' Association, but moved to Pembury in 1939 and is now an interdenominational Christian school. The school occupies a Victorian manor house, set in a 75-acre estate, adjacent to Pembury Old Church. War memorial In January 2012, it was discovered by local historian Richard Snow that several of the names on the war memorial were misspelled. The War Memorial in Hastings Road was unveiled and