For much of its history Elham was a small market town, and the Square dates from 1251, when the village was granted a market. The Grade I church of St Mary stands in the Square, and so does King Post, a late 15th-century hall house (a house built round an open central hall), now owned by the National Trust. The village has 43 listed buildings. St Mary’s, open daily, is light inside thanks to its clerestory, a high row of windows above the arches, and one window shows David and Saul, with David’s face modelled on the opera singer Carlotta Patti. The Nailbourne stream runs down the Elham Valley in the Kent Downs, though below the village it’s often dry.
