BEARSTED, or Bersted, a parish in Maidstone district, Kent; on a tributary of the Medway river, 2½ miles E by S of Maidstone r. station. It has a post office under Maidstone. Acres, 610. Real property, £2,636. Pop., 638. Houses, 132. The property is divided among a few. Some lands here were held by the Bertie family before the reign of Henry II. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £191. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Rochester. The church is perpendicular English; and has a tower with three rude figures, said to refer to the name Bearsted. There is a large national school.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))