The Male Monarch's Cranium

Today was another chance to continue our nearby villages tour, although on this occasion we settled on the singular destination of the hilltop village of Sutton Valance, about 5 miles south east of Maidstone.
We've must have passed though it (or the edge of it as I was later to discover) on hundreds of occasions over the years as it sits on the main route to many of our favourite places including the East Sussex coast. My only real previous impression of it, rather shamefully, had been the steep hill upon which it sits and the fact that it has two pubs within 50 yards of each other named after the craniums of male and female sovereigns - The Kings Head and The Queens Head. Of course we ignored both hostelries as a matter of principle - which is any readers of my journal will know is my little joke! 
In this instance we plumped for the male monarch option, were greeted warmly on our arrival, selected our pints and 'forced' ourselves to indulge in some bar snacks - pork and chorizo sausage rolls, caramelised pickled onion and cheese croquettes and a bowl of triple cooked chips. Both the pints and the snacks were enjoyed greatly. We have avowed to sample the delights of the female monarch's establishment on a future visit.
It was then time to take a stroll through the village itself, which is terraced into the hillside with a higher and a lower section and to my surprise was much larger than I had been expecting from the roadside. It has a multitude of architectural styles dating back centuries with glorious views overlooking the neighbouring valley. At one time it also had two further pubs (a four pub village sounds like nirvana to me!) - The Swan and The Drovers - a bakers, a butchers and a post office but all have been converted to private dwellings apart from the post office which is now a very upmarket looking hairdressers.
There was yet another surprise to come - we turned a corner at the end of the high street and came upon the village's very own castle - or to be more precise the ruins of the castle's keep. It was owned by a succession of important medieval lords and located to benefit from its strong position commanding a view of the road from Maidstone in Kent to Winchelsea in East Sussex and dominating the Weald of Kent.
Following the Battle of Evesham in 1265 Henry III conferred the castle on his half-brother William of Valence as a reward for for his support during a rebellion against him. The village of Sutton, or 'South Town', then became known as Sutton Valence. Little is known of the history of the castle after 1315 when William's son, Aymer De Valance (who inherited the castle in 1307) was last recorded as staying there.
After being slightly dazzled by the unexpected delights of the village and all that history I had completely forgotten to get an image until we were returning to the car and I spotted the fabulously ornate pub sign depicting the titular male monarch's cranium!