It’s safe to say that Farningham, on the River Darent in Kent, is an old village. The guy on the village sign is Wadard, as he appears in the Bayeux Tapestry (made in the 1070s), along with the caption Hic est Wadard, which I’m sure you’ll understand, as Latin is such a widely known language today :-).

Wadard was a Norman knight who fought in the famous Battle of Hastings (1066) and was the Lord of one of the Manors at Farningham mentioned in Domesday Book (1086). Some might think it odd to have a French knight on an English village sign, but the British Isles has ‘welcomed’ many invaders over the millennia, so it would be hard to say who would be better placed to fulfil this role!