It is mainly centred along Heath Road which links the villages of Yalding and Boughton Monchelsea to the west and east, respectively.

Today, Coxheath is home to one of the South East Coast Ambulance Service's emergency despatch centres for Kent[2] and is twinned with La Séguinière in Maine-et-Loire, France.

In the 16th century, the strategic position of the ridge determined its choice for one of the sites in the network of beacons erected in the year of the Armada of 1588.

This remained the area's main use until 1756, when, with the start of the Seven Years' War, it suddenly became a huge military camp, with 12,000 Hanoverian and Hessian troops quartered there.

The business community was inclined, on the whole, to be forbearing about the disadvantages, but feelings ran high once or twice between Maidstone Corporation and the military authorities about which should exercise the right to punish soldiers who misbehaved themselves in the town's confines.

By all accounts, this camp was on a massive scale involving 17,000 troops as well as civilians, many representing the 700 retailers who had come from London to service the soldiers.

The camp was the scene of several big reviews of troops by visiting dignitaries, including one by the King himself, George III, and his Queen Charlotte in 1778.

[7] The king made it an occasion to knight the Mayor of Maidstone, William Bishop, before he left, which probably did something to reduce the friction between the camp and the nearby town.

The army encampment was closed in 1815 by an Act of Parliament and then in 1817 the heath was enclosed by local landowners, removing the right of villagers to use it.

A replica beacon bearing the village's coat of arms celebrates the area's role as a signal bonfire site since the time of the Armada stands on the side of the Heath Road opposite the Bird in Hand public house.

Coxheath is part of the parliamentary constituency of Maidstone and the Weald, whose Member of Parliament as of May 2010 is Helen Grant of the Conservative Party.

The industry of employment of residents was 19.3% retail, 12.3% manufacturing, 11.3% real estate, 11.2% health and social work, 10.5% construction, 7.3% transport and communications, 6.6% education, 5.8% finance, 5.2% public administration, 2.9% hotels and restaurants, 1.9% agriculture and 5.7% other.

The closest mainline services are via Maidstone East to the north (serving London and Ashford/Canterbury/Ramsgate ) or Staplehurst and Marden to the south on the Southeastern Main Line.

Coxheath has the distinction of being the original home of the World Custard Pie Throwing Championship, the inaugural event of which was held in the village on 24 June 1967.

[17] Councillor Mike Fitzgerald, who founded the championships (and latterly served as Mayor of Maidstone in 2006/7),[18] originally organised the event to raise money to build a village hall and was inspired by the Charlie Chaplin comedy film Behind the Screen.

This tradition came to an end in 1982 at Coxheath when Councillor Fitzgerald moved to Ditton taking the championships with him, and it died out in 1988 after the trophy was lost and never found.