BEARSTED (on the A20, three miles SE of Maidstone)

A gent in whites and a silk top hat takes his guard on the village sign, as a reminder that Bearsted claims to have the oldest cricket ground in Kent.

The sign portrays the Lion of Kent, 18-stone gentleman farmer Alfred Mynn, later to go bankrupt through love of the game.

Cricket is still played regularly on the broad swathe of green around on which the old part of the village is centred.

It has a small pond and a collection of attractive medieval and Tudor houses, intermingled with Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian villas.

A burgeoning number of modern houses have sprung up in small estates.

Bearsted is a popular commuter village. Maidstone and the Medway towns are nearby and London easily accessed by rail or motorway. Apart from its pubs and restaurants on or near the green, the village has a variety of shops and stores, including a post office.

There is a thriving community centre, leisure pursuits are catered for at nearby Tudor Park, and riders can take advantage of the local equestrian centre.

Bearsted revels in past eccentricity. Baroness Orczy, creator of The Scarlet Pimpernel, threw tantrums if village girls failed to curtsey, until her death here in 1947. John Dyke, the last man hanged on Penenden Heath, in 1830, was buried in the graveyard of the Church of the Holy Cross at Bearsted. He was executed after being, apparently wrongfully, accused of arson.