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49-458: Historically, spritsails were the first European fore-and-aft rigs , appearing in Greco-Roman navigation in the 2nd century BC. The luff of the sail is bound to the mast, but unlike the gaff rig where the head is bound to a spar, this rig supports the leech of the sail by means of a diagonal spar or spars named a sprit ( / s p r iː t / ). The forward end of the sprit spar

98-408: A square rigged vessel. Fore-and-aft rigged sails include staysails , Bermuda rigged sails, gaff rigged sails, gaff sails , gunter rig, lateen sails, lug sails , tanja sails , the spanker sail on a square rig and crab claw sails . Fore-and-aft rigs include: Barques and barquentines are partially square rigged and partially fore-and-aft rigged. A rig which combines both on

147-686: A fast food restaurant in recent years following restoration in the 1980s. Located to the south of Aylesford, on the A20 London Road, the Royal British Legion Village was founded after the First World War to help injured soldiers following their discharge from the nearby Preston Hall hospital. It was first the centre of a small farming community known as The Preston Hall Colony. When the British Legion

196-530: A foremast is known as a hermaphroditic rig. The fore-and-aft rig is believed to have been first developed independently by the Austronesian peoples some time around 1500 BC with the invention of the crab claw sail . It is suggested that it evolved from a more primitive V-shaped "square" sail with two spars that come together at the hull. Crab claw sails spread from Maritime Southeast Asia to Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar via

245-448: A small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. Two pubs , a village shop and other amenities are located on the high street. Aylesford's current population is around 5,000. The Parish of Aylesford covers more than seven square miles (18 km ), stretching north to Rochester Airport estate and south to Barming , and has a total population of over 10,000 (as of 2011), with

294-521: Is also commonly used in a fore-and-aft rig (along with a staysail ) on local traditional wooden boats of the west coast of Norway, most notably the faering variant of the Oselvar . Traditionally, up until the second half of the 1800s, these boats used to be rigged with a square rig . In an inconvenient piece of nautical ambiguity, the term "spritsail" also refers to a sail used aboard some square-rigged vessels , typically on vessels developed prior to

343-441: Is an effective way of stowing the mainsail and gives fine control over the power obtained from the sail. In narrow channels, and in the lee of tall buildings the mailsail and mizzen are brailed and the bowsprit topped up, and she sails on topsail and foresail alone. A gaff rig was far more suitable for heavy weather and long sea passages, but when a gaff rigged vessel drops the mainsail, the topsail cannot be used. The gaff, attached to

392-437: Is attached to the mast , with the after end of the sprit spar attached to the peak . The sprit is steadied and controlled from the deck by a pair of wire vangs ( / w æ ŋ / WANG ) attached to the peak of the sail. It is said to be the ancestor of the common gaff rig that evolved in 16th-century Holland . The foot of the sail may be bent to a boom, or be loose-footed and just controlled by its sheets. The spritsail

441-684: Is home to what is claimed to be Britain's oldest operating sauna , the Finnish Sauna Bath . Built for the London Olympics in 1948, it was subsequently moved to Aylesford. At the 2001 UK census, the Aylesford electoral ward had a population of 4,548. The ethnicity was 98.2% white, 0.8% mixed race, 0.9% Asian, 0.1% black and 0% other. The place of birth of residents was 96.2% United Kingdom, 0.5% Republic of Ireland, 1% other Western European countries, and 2.3% elsewhere. Religion

490-452: Is not a commercial issue. It can be an advantage in light air. The vangs control the head of the sail which can be set so as to make use of the air above the wind-shadow of moored ships, warehouses and so on. This fine control of the sail without need for the crew to leave the deck, is achieved by brailing up . Rather than lowering the mainsail , it is gathered up against its own luff and head by means of lines called brails . This technique

539-564: Is worth 17s6d in exchange for the land on which the castle stands . 17s6d is the rental value (as used for taxation), not the capital value. The church of St Peter and St Paul is of Norman origin. Here there is a memorial to the Culpeper family, who owned the nearby Preston Hall Estate. In 1240, Ralph Frisburn, on his return from the Holy Land , founded a Carmelite monastery under the patronage of Richard, Lord Grey of Codnor , among

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588-605: The Countless Stones ). Bronze Age swords have been discovered near here and an Iron Age settlement and Roman villa stood at Eccles. A cemetery of the British Iron Age discovered in 1886 was excavated under the leadership of Sir Arthur Evans (of Knossos fame), and published in 1890. Many of Evans' finds are now kept in the British Museum , including a bronze jug, pan and 'bucket' with handles in

637-601: The Norman invasion , sits on a hill in the southern part of the village. Major construction took place during the Victorian era , when houses were built to serve the nearby quarry. The brick and tile industries have been replaced by a large area of commercial buildings, and what was once the huge Aylesford paper mills site was later regenerated by a leading newsprint plant surrounded by newly developed private estates featuring high value accommodation. Recent expansion has been to

686-444: The 18th century CE. In this form, in addition to carrying the spritsail itself the spritsail yard , mounted under the bowsprit abaft the dolphin striker , also often provided some lateral support for the jibboom and flying jibboom via the guys supporting those spars. Fore-and-aft rig A fore-and-aft rig is a sailing vessel rig with sails set mainly along the line of the keel , rather than perpendicular to it as on

735-651: The Austronesian migrations. Austronesians in Southeast Asia also later developed other types of fore-and-aft sails, such as the tanja sail (also known as the canted square sail, canted rectangular sail, or the balance lug sail). Their use later spread into the Indian Ocean since the first millennium, among vessels from the Middle East , South Asia , and China . The lateen was developed in

784-736: The Great defeated the Danes in 893; as did Edmund II Ironside in 1016. Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the manor of Aylesford was owned by William the Conqueror . Some of the land was given to the Bishop of Rochester as compensation for land seized for the building of Rochester Castle . The Domesday Book of 1086 records: Also the Bishop of Rochester holds as much of this land as

833-640: The Hewitt family and restored some of the original buildings; beyond the cloisters four chapels have been built to service the needs of the many different groups that visit yearly (The Choir Chapel - where the community celebrates daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours ; St Joseph's; St Anne's; and the Relic Chapel, which houses the remains of St Simon Stock). Aesthetically, the modern build shows sensitivity to

882-654: The Mediterranean as early as the 2nd century AD, during Roman times. It became common by the 5th century. The square rig had predominated in Europe since the dawn of sea travel, but in the generally gentle climate of southern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea during the last few centuries before the Renaissance the fore-and-aft began to replace it. By 1475, its use increased, and within a hundred years

931-543: The ability to furl the foot of the sail and raise the sheets, made gunnery much more readily possible. The sail could still be controlled using the vangs. In a commercial vessel, the rig has the advantage of allowing a high stack of deck cargo and freeing the cargo hatch of obstructions when loading and unloading. The entire sail can be quickly brailed to the mast. The overriding advantage is safety in open water. Barges are unballasted and, if overpressed, will heel excessively and must be pulled to wind. The sheet will be eased and

980-420: The aft end of a boom could drag in the water making the rudder ineffective and a capsize inevitable. The sheet of loose footed boomless barge is just released and control is regained. The boom does not project outboard so that the vessel can pass through a narrow gap between moored vessels. Loose footed sails suffer from sail twist which reduces their aerodynamic efficiency when sailing off the wind, which usually

1029-412: The area since Neolithic times. There are several chamber tombs north of the village, of which Kit's Coty House , 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the north, is the most famous; all have been damaged by farming. Kit's Coty is the remains of the burial chamber at one end of a long barrow . Just south of this, situated lower down the same hillside, is a similar structure, Little Kits Coty House (also known as

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1078-486: The existing buildings with a mixture of English Gothic (perpendicular Gothic) and Tudor features; many modern materials have been employed but traditional peg tiles are on the roofs and the walls are faced in Kentish ragstone . The priory is a popular place for pilgrimage, as well as for retreats and conferences. The friary has some notable artwork, such as many pieces by the ceramic artist Adam Kossowski . The remains of

1127-624: The first of the Order to be founded in Europe. He was followed later by Simon Stock , who in 1254 was elected Prior General of the now mendicant Carmelites. Saint Simon died in 1265, whilst on a visit to Bordeaux , whereafter, his remains were honoured for centuries. In July 1951, his relics (remains of his head) were installed in a reliquary at the friary. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536, ownership of

1176-646: The fore-and-aft rig was in common use on rivers and in estuaries in Britain, northern France, and the Low Countries, though the square rig remained standard for the harsher conditions of the open North Sea as well as for trans-Atlantic sailing. Aylesford Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent , England , 4 miles (6 km) northwest of Maidstone . Originally

1225-478: The foresail tack tackle had to be cast off. With the bridge cleared, the skipper and an extra man (the huffler) used the windlass to raise the mast. Modern use of the spritsail has also become more common through its use in the Optimist (dinghy) - this uses a boomed spritsail - in the case of which the sprit is tensioned by a snotter arrangement. This much simpler implementation sees the sprit anchored higher on

1274-469: The form of a human face from a cremation burial. With the later excavation at Swarling not far away (discovery to publication was 1921–1925) this is the type site for Aylesford-Swarling pottery or the Aylesford-Swarling culture. Evans' conclusion that the site belonged to a culture closely related to the continental Belgae , remains the modern view, though the dating has been refined to

1323-457: The head of the sprit, which is steadied by two sets of vangs. The spritsail rig was normally used without a boom . (The latter was usually found on fore-and-aft rigged vessels to keep the mainsail in an aerodynamically efficient shape.) Such loose-footed sails can also be found on gaff-rigged Norfolk wherries and the bawley class of vessel. The spritsail was a feature of the Cromster where

1372-458: The inaccessibility of gear was met in the Thames barge by stepping the mast in a tabernacle and using a windlass on the foredeck to strike the whole lot, mast, sprit, sails and rigging. The crew could sail under a low bridge such as at Aylesford or Rochester without losing steerage way. The windlass is below the tack of the foresail and the tackle at the foot of the forestay. In striking the gear,

1421-899: The main centres of Legion life and activities. An industrial complex in the village houses Royal British Legion industries , including the manufacture of road and public signs used throughout the UK. Aylesford Football Club are based in the village, playing at the Recreation Ground on Forstal Road since before the War Aylesford Bulls Rugby Football Club is located at the Jack Williams Memorial Ground in Hall Road. They run children's age-grade teams from U6-U18 plus several adult teams for men and women of all levels. The village

1470-419: The main settlements at Aylesford, Eccles , Blue Bell Hill and (part of) Walderslade . Aylesford Newsprint was a long-established major employer in the area and was the largest paper recycling factory in Europe, manufacturing newsprint for the newspaper industry. In 2015, Aylesford Paper Mill, as it was known by local residents, was closed down and stripped of all its assets. There has been activity in

1519-501: The mainsail, is required aloft to set the topsail. However, the sprit rig means that the sail is stowed aloft and unreachable from the deck. It also means that the sail cannot easily be covered when it is stowed, and thus protected from the elements. But in any case, the crews of working vessels did not trouble with such dainty ways. In keeping with the general philosophy of working boats, all sails would therefore be traditionally treated with red oxide and other substances. The problem of

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1568-541: The manor house present at the foundation of the priory are believed to lie under the Great Courtyard; this could date from as early as 1085. Due to the village's location on its banks, the River Medway has been a key influence on its development. Aylesford takes its name from an Old English personal name, and literally denotes 'Ægel's ford'. Its first recorded use is from the tenth century, as Æglesforda. It

1617-436: The mast than on barges. This is a sprit rig that uses a triangular sail, the luff is bent to the mast, and the one spar, the sprit-boom attaches to the clew of the sail. The fore end of the boom is tensioned (pulled tight to the mast) by use of a snotter chord. It is a precursor of the wishbone rig first popularised by windsurfers. On a Bolger 59 (square foot) rig, there is a 14'3" luff, 13'7" leech and 9'0" foot. The spritsail

1666-432: The middle of the 19th century CE. Unrelated to the spritsail described above, it is an evolution of the ancient Greek artemon that was eventually made obsolete by the evolution of more efficient headsails . In the context of square-rigged vessels, the spritsail is a square sail set under the bowsprit ; a "spritsail topsail" may be set above it, though this latter element of a square-rigged sailplan fell into disuse early in

1715-704: The period after about 75 BC. The village has been suggested as the site of the Battle of the Medway during the Roman invasion of Britain although there is no direct evidence of this. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the Battle of Aylesford taking place nearby in 455, when the Germanic Hengest fought the Welsh Vortigern ; Horsa (Hengist's brother) is said to have fallen in this battle; Alfred

1764-582: The principal cargoes. Due to increased road traffic in recent years, the ancient bridge has now been superseded by a modern structure nearby, but remains in use for pedestrians. The oldest parts of the village lie north and immediately south of the Medway. Many of the buildings are of great antiquity: the Chequers Inn, the George House (formerly a coaching inn ) and the almshouses among them. St Peter and St Paul's church, parts of which date back to

1813-406: The priory, it was the next owner, Sir John Banks , in the 1670s, who was responsible for the remodelling of the buildings. In 1696, the estate passed by marriage to Heneage Finch , later created Earl of Aylesford . The main part of the house was destroyed by fire in the 1930s, revealing many original features, which had been hidden by Banks's alterations. The Carmelites purchased it in 1949 from

1862-608: The same site in 2008. The original village school – now known as the Brassey Centre – is used as a church office and community hall. Aylesford railway station , opened on 18 June 1856, is on the Medway Valley Line connecting Strood with Maidstone (West) and Paddock Wood . The original station buildings – gabled and highly decorated, built in Kentish ragstone with Caen stone dressings, with windows that replicate those at Aylesford Priory – have been used as

1911-485: The site was transferred in 1538 to Sir Thomas Wyatt of nearby Allington Castle . Following the rebellion against Queen Mary by Sir Thomas's son, Thomas Wyatt the younger , the property was forfeited back to the crown. Possession was later granted to Sir John Sedley by Mary's half-sister Queen Elizabeth . The Sedleys sold the estate to Sir Peter Ricaut and his family. Although the Sedley family made some changes to

1960-492: The southern side of the river, where a substantial suburban housing estate has grown up, partly because the village is served by the railway, with connections for Maidstone and London. Many of these homes were originally owned by employees of the paper mills, which are now closed and which have been replaced by a number of smaller industrial estates with a variety of specialist businesses that include engineering, manufacturing, wholesale and others. Henry Arthur Brassey (1840–1891)

2009-414: The sprit is secured to the mast, by the muzzle , which allows the sprit the freedom to move laterally, nearly as far to each side as the shrouds. This enables the vessel to reach and run . The instability caused by allowing such a weighty spar to extend too far away from the vessel's centreline, however, had to be borne in mind when designing hull and rigging. The peak of the sail is permanently attached to

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2058-460: The ward's residents aged 16–74, 14.3% had a higher education qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide. The Lathe of Aylesford, in the western division of the county of Kent, comprised 13 Hundreds , and was bounded on the north by the river Thames, on the west by the Lathe of Sutton at Hone , on the south by the county of Sussex and on the east by the Lathe of Scray . It

2107-446: Was 19.6% retail, 13.6% manufacturing, 9.2% construction, 13.2% real estate, 9.7% health and social work, 6.1% education, 8% transport and communications, 4.8% public administration, 3.6% hotels and restaurants, 4.7% finance, 1.1% agriculture and 6.4% other. Compared with national figures, the ward had a relatively high proportion of workers in construction, and a relatively low proportion in agriculture, education, hotels and restaurants. Of

2156-444: Was a great benefactor of Aylesford, and as well as financing major repairs to the church, also provided the village with a school. This was replaced in the 1960s with a new building to the south east of the village, next to the site of the local secondary school (now Aylesford School - Sports College ) which was housed in buildings largely built in the 1940s by Italian prisoners of War . The old school buildings were totally rebuilt on

2205-473: Was also the place where one of the earliest bridges across the Medway was built, believed to be in the 14th century (although the wide central span seen today is later). Upstream from Rochester Bridge , it became the next bridging point. The river was navigable as far as Maidstone until 1740, when barges of forty tons could reach as far as Tonbridge . As a result, wharves were built, one being at Aylesford. Corn, fodder and fruit, along with stone and timber, were

2254-465: Was best known from its use in the Thames sailing barge , which employs two similarly sized spars to form the framework for the sail area. In a barge, the mast is stepped vertically in a mast case or tabernacle , whilst the sprit is suspended by chain stanliffs (standing lifts) from the hounds at the mast head at an angle of about 30° from vertical, with sprit to the starboard side of the mast. The heel of

2303-484: Was founded in 1921, it became one of the first branches and, by 1925, was known as Royal British Legion Village. A thriving community has since developed, providing nursing homes, sheltered housing and independent living units, as well as employment and social activities, helping all disabled veterans living in, or moving to, the area. In 1972 the Poppy Appeal headquarters moved to the village, which now forms one of

2352-592: Was recorded as 77.4% Christian, 0.2% Buddhist, 0.5% Hindu, 0.1% Sikh, 0% Jewish, and 0.2% Muslim. 12.8% were recorded as having no religion, 0.1% had an alternative religion and 8.8% did not state their religion. The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 41.1% in full-time employment, 14.5% in part-time employment, 9.3% self-employed, 1.9% unemployed, 2.2% students with jobs, 2.5% students without jobs, 15.3% retired, 6.7% looking after home or family, 4.4% permanently sick or disabled and 2.2% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents

2401-408: Was the second in extent, and embraced an area of 233,580 acres (94,530 ha), and had the largest population of any of the five Lathes into which this county is divided. In 1841 there were 18,303 inhabited houses with a population of 103,166. To the above may be added the town of Chatham , the city of Rochester , and the borough of Maidstone , containing together 10,570 acres (4,280 ha), and

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