Loose, Kent

Description
Loose, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on a rivulet of its own name, 3 miles S of Maidstone station on the L.C. & D.R. and S.E.R., is a picturesque place, surrounded by hop and fruit gardens, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Maidstone. Acreage of the civil parish, 1054; population, 1501; of the ecclesiastical, 1377. Under the Local Government Act of 1894 it has a parish council of nine members. The Loose rivulet is sluggish, drives several paper and corn mills, flows about half a mile underground, and goes to the Medway. There are a brewery and several ragstone quarries. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury; value, £230 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church consists of nave, chancel, aisles, and chantries. In 1878 the building was greatly damaged by fire, but was restored the same year. In 1887 the interior was considerably altered and new chantiies added.