page_title: Loose, Kent
section_title: Features
hierarchical_section_title: Loose, Kent / Features
caption_attribution_description: English: All Saints, Loose, Kent
context_page_description: Loose is a village some 2 miles south of Maidstone, Kent, situated at the head of the Loose Valley, with which it forms the Loose Valley Conservation Area. The fast- flowing River Loose which rises near Langley runs through the centre of the village and once supported a paper-making industry, evidence of which can still be found. An area round the village is also known as Loose, but Loose village itself is based in the Loose valley and extends along Busbridge Road towards Tovil. The name is believed to be taken from the Loose Stream, which "loses" itself for several miles underground from the point where it rises in Langley.
context_section_description: In the village, the Brooks Path is a picturesque causeway along the Loose Stream that joins the two ends of the village, dividing the mill pond which once fed the village mill. All Saints Church in the Diocese of Canterbury, overlooks this section of river. A local tradition has it that whoever sticks a pin in the old yew tree in the churchyard, then runs around it anticlockwise at midnight, will on looking through a small window above the Charlton Memorial against the church wall, see a vision of a woman killing a baby. The Reverend Richard Boys was vicar here and also chaplain of St Helena during Napoleon Bonaparte's exile on the island. He is buried in the churchyard.
  To the east of the village is the Loose Viaduct, attributed to Thomas Telford and built in 1830 to carry the Maidstone to Hastings road (the present day A229) across the Loose Valley. The village has two public houses. The Chequers is in the valley beside the river and The Walnut Tree on the main A229 opposite Loose Infant School and Loose Junior School, which share the same site. New Line Learning Academy is a secondary school located in the village. A third pub,The Kings Arms, closed in 2005 and is now a private house.
  In the centre of Loose Village there is a large 14th-century building, Church House.
  The world-famous "Gonzo" illustrator Ralph Steadman lives in Old Loose Court, just outside the parish and the 'Beechgrove Garden' (BBC Scotland) presenter Carole Baxter was born there. The novelist Ernest Elmore (who also wrote as John Bude) lived in Loose in the 1930s. The artist and calligrapher Mildred Ratcliffe (1899-1988) retired to the cottage at 1, Mill Street, in 1959. She painted a number of the village's buildings.
caption: All Saints church
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