Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The town, home to 4,763 people, lies in Kent, South East.
A town with more to fix than most. Schools lag (D): primary results beat 22% of towns in England; secondary results beat 2% of towns in England. Residents are healthier than most: life expectancy is 82.6 for men and 85.5 for women. At a median £370,000, a home costs 6.1 times the yearly income of households in the Maidstone council area. Overall, that makes a C−, good for #64 of 87 in Kent. Nationally, it does better than 20% of UK towns. Its other grades sit near the middle: B for walkability and B− for hazard risk.
Figures: life expectancy and incomes, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · commuting, Census 2021 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 3 things Lenham and Harrietsham does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Lenham and Harrietsham is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 90 buildings inside Lenham and Harrietsham’s built-up area, 4 of them Grade I, and 1 scheduled monument.
13% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Lenham and Harrietsham. Best known first.
CastleLeeds Castle1.9 km outside town, to the west
MuseumDog collar museum1.8 km outside town, to the westAttractionAttractionFalconry Shows1.6 km outside town, to the westPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Lenham and Harrietsham.
Attainment 8 at the one secondary school within 3 km averages 37.3, and nearly a fifth of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths. At the town’s 2 primary schools, 55% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Lenham and Harrietsham’s two primaries and one secondary have 1,417 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harrietsham Church of England Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 393 | C− |
| The Lenham SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 820 | D |
Violence comes to 35.5 per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026, police logged 411 crimes and 90 reports of anti-social behaviour inside Lenham and Harrietsham’s built-up area. Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 14.7 reports per 1,000, above both Kent’s towns (9.3) and England’s towns (7.8). Among the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Lenham and Harrietsham has more crime per resident than 84% of them.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Historic England’s list names 90 listed buildings in Lenham and Harrietsham: 4 Grade I, 5 Grade II*. Its listed buildings include Bell Farm House, Grade I. Before 1919: that is when 13% of homes were built.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
The 15-to-24 age group makes up nearly one in ten residents. 19% are under 15, close to Kent’s towns (18%) and above England’s towns (18%). The median resident of Lenham and Harrietsham is 43.5 years old. Degrees are held by 26% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Lenham and Harrietsham | Kent | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.7% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 24% | 25% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 24% | 19% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 18% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6.4% | 5.7% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 26% | 29% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Kent and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
The nearest A&E to Lenham and Harrietsham is Maidstone Hospital, 8.9 miles away. One GP practice serves the town; three in five patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. 4.5% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, below both Kent’s towns (5.1%) and England’s towns (5.2%).
| Census 2021 | Lenham and Harrietsham | Kent | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 83% | 82% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.5% | 5.1% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · The census answers take no account of age, so a young town looks healthier; the Health Grade relies on age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
Owners make up 70% of households, above both Kent’s towns (65%) and England’s towns (61%). Private rents average £1,297 a month across the Maidstone council area. From September 2023 to August 2026, 231 homes sold inside Lenham and Harrietsham’s built-up area at standard prices; the middle one went for £370,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £512,500 | 70 |
| Semi-detached | £360,000 | 79 |
| Terraced | £325,000 | 63 |
| Flat or maisonette | £265,000 | 19 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 32% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
At the census, 17% went to work on foot, by bike or by public transport, lower than both Kent’s towns (22%) and England’s towns (27%). Among 16 to 64s, 3.8% claimed unemployment benefits in 2026. For every resident in work, Lenham and Harrietsham has 0.9 jobs.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
90 listed buildings in Lenham and Harrietsham, 4 of them Grade I.
Church of St Mary: Photo: John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bell Farm House: Photo: Penny Mayes · CC BY-SA 2.0 · The Lock-Up or Mortuary: Photo: Simon Burchell · CC BY-SA 3.0 · The Red Lion: Photo: Chris Whippet · CC BY-SA 2.0
5 notable people were born in Lenham and Harrietsham.
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenham and Harrietsham | 4,763 | — | C− | C | C− | B+ |
| Kingswood | 1,371 | 2.5 | — | C− | A− | B |
| Sutton Valence | 1,457 | 4.5 | — | C− | C+ | B |
| Bearsted | 8,349 | 5.2 | A | C− | A− | A |
| Charing | 2,170 | 5.2 | — | C− | B− | B− |
| Headcorn | 3,293 | 5.6 | C− | C− | D | B |
| Maidstone | 109,503 | 7.1 | C+ | C+ | D | C |
| Sittingbourne | 54,385 | 7.3 | C | B− | D | C |
Kingswood, Sutton Valence and Charing have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 7.8 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Bell Farm House. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Lenham and Harrietsham has 3 state schools; places are handled by Kent council.
Police recorded 411 crimes inside Lenham and Harrietsham’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, 40% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
Town in Kent, England
Lenham and Harrietsham is a built-up area of 4,763 people, in the Maidstone council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
