The 14th century ragstone bridge across the river Medway at East Farleigh is generally reckoned to be the oldest medieval bridge in south-east England. Interesting and picturesque it may be. Convenient, however, it is not. At it's southern end the road curves through forty-five degrees which, together with the hump of the bridge itself, creates problems for cars coming across the bridge, which is not wide enough for two vehicles to pass on it.

The railway line, with a level crossing, cuts across the approach to the bridge on the north side, so one way and another it is far from an ideal river crossing point for modern traffic.

The bridge featured prominently in the Civil War Battle of Maidstone, when Royalists tried to hold the town against Parliamentary forces led by General Fairfax. The Royalists, who assembled on Penenden Heath (then just outside Maidstone but now part of it) knew the Roundheads were at Rochester and the expected the attack to come from north or west of the town. Instead, Fairfax sent his men round the town, crossing the river Medway by way of East Farleigh Bridge and then swooping up from the south to win the day.

The East Farleigh village sign features the bridge and the river and also three oast kilns and fruiting hop bine. Once across the river, the road climbs steeply and from the top there is a splendid view across the valley, the sides of which were, until the last few years, thickly clothed in hop gardens, now largely replaced by fruit trees.

In St Mary's churchyard there is cross to the memory of forty-three hop-pickers who died of cholera at East Farleigh in 1849. Edith Cavell, the nurse who was accused of spying and was shot by the Germans in Brussels in 1915, nursed typhoid victims at East Farleigh during the time she was a young probationary nurse at Maidstone in1896.