Northeast of Royal Tunbridge Wells and southwest of Maidstone, sits the village and civil parish of East Peckham in Kent. Nestled amongst the pastoral swathes of the Tonbridge borough, East Peckham’s commutability to London, its idyllic village feel, and its diverse and characterful built environment makes it a unique locale. With a proliferation of Oast houses - houses converted from hop kilns - to mid-century detached and semi-detached suburban builds, East Peckham’s diverse housing market is supported by its diverse pricing range.

East Peckham is an old settlement, and is first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book for William the Conquerer. Here it was recorded as ‘Pecheham’, with ‘pece’ refering to ‘hill’ or ‘knoll’, and ‘ham’ referring to homestead. However, it was also recorded in the 12th century Textus Roffensis as ‘Pecham’. At the time of the Domesday, the land was owned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. As an agricultural village, most of the history of East Peckham has been left unrecorded - except for their specialised crop practices. East Peckham has a strong history with beer production, and even today converted Oast houses make up a significant portion of the housing market!

Although a small village, East Peckham has been home to historied controversy. The village was the site of the very first speeding fine in England. In January 1896, Walter Arnold from the Arnold Automobile company - one of the first automobile companies in England - was apprehended on bicycle after driving at 8 miles per hour through East Peckham, when the speed limit was just 2 miles per hour! For context, this would be the equivalent of driving 130 mph through a 30mph zone!

As a rural locale with a robust agricultural history; housing and infrastructural development has been slow within the East Peckham area. Most of Tonbridge and Malling’s development focus has been towards larger locales with urbanised footprints. However, in the Tonbridge and Malling Adopted Local Plan, they have allocated provisions for the construction of over 239 new dwellings in the East Peckham area!