My Adventures 3: Littlebourne to Canterbury Kent Circular walk 31st May 2021

GPX File Here

Viewranger File Here

Dan and I drove to Littlebourne in Kent on Bank Holiday Monday the 31st of May 2021.

We parked up in a lay-by opposite 23 Nargate Street CT3 1UH.

We cross the road and take the footpath opposite.

We pass behind the rear of houses, allotments and a building site where loads more of houses going up!

We pass by Littlebourne lakes and continue along the path.

We then enter Oldridge Woods, thanks to be in the shade and out of the blistering heat.

These woods were very pretty full of Bluebells(Unfortunately now past their best) , wild flowers and birds.

We walk into Trenley Park Woods.

A bit further along was a tree full of perhaps 5 or 6 swings, of course we had to try them out.

As we exit the woods onto Stodmarsh Roads and stop at a bench for a drink and a bite to eat in a Rugby grounds before walking through another small wood as we leave this we can see Fordwich down below.

We walk out into Fordwich, I just love this village, I was last here in April 2018.

The town grew in the Middle Ages as a port for boats on their way upriver to Canterbury. All of the Caen stone used by the Normans to rebuild Canterbury Cathedral in the 12th and 13th centuries was landed at Fordwich. It later became a limb of the Cinque Ports. It lost its status as a town in 1880 when it no longer had a Mayor and Corporation. However, in a reorganisation in 1972, Fordwich was again made a town as much as anything because of its prior importance in what is now a rather sleepy corner of Kent. Fordwich Town Hall, supposedly the smallest in England, dates from the earlier period, having been rebuilt in 1555.

The ancient Church of St Mary the Virgin, now redundant but open to the public, and in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, contains part of a carved sarcophagus reputed to have contained the remains of St Augustine of Canterbury.

We pass the Fordwich Arms Public House. The Fordwich Arms is one of two pubs in the village, records showing an inn has stood here for over 900 years. Rebuilt in 1930 after a fire.

Fordwich is the smallest Town in England (with its own Town Council and Mayor) and has a lovely 15th century Town Hall, still in use as a Town Hall today.

The ancient Hall has all the original timbers and, as it served as a courtroom for many centuries, has a prisoner’s bar, panelled seating for a jury (hence a jury panel), jury room and even a small gaol, last used in 1855 for two men convicted of poaching!

Here we have the first look at The River Stour.

The painter Alfred Palmer (1877-1951) lived at the Manor House in King Street from 1906 to 1939. As a young man he had rebelled against the strict training of the Academy schools and went to Paris to study. Despite the influence of modernism he remained very much a figurative painter, and his work is attractive to modern tastes.

Many of Palmer's works are held by the Beaney Institute in Canterbury. He also formed the East Kent Art Society with Lord Northbourne. During the first world war Palmer worked in the Secret Intelligence Service; he also used his fluent German to good effect in interrogating prisoners of war.

The 16th-century building next the Town Hall, now known as Watergate House, was the family home of John and Gregory Blaxland, early 19th-century pioneers of Australia.

We pass the closed till 1130 The George and Dragon Pub. We'll have to wait for a beer till Canterbury!

We now walk around to the River Stour hoping I can find somewhere suitable for a wild swim.

Lovely swim, felt a little cold on getting in. But once in it was lovely!

However where I went in was too steep and muddy to get out so Dan walked downriver a bit to find a suitable place for me to get out. I swam downriver and got out there.

Leaving the river we walked back pass the still closed pub and pass the telephone box and took the footpath there.

Dan doing his impression of The Karate Kids 'The Crane' crossing the only mud of the day!

We follow the Stour Way over a golf course, through a wood before walking out into Canterbury.

We walk out and up Littlebourne Road(A257) and up to St Martins Church.

The Church of St Martin is an ancient Church of England parish church in Canterbury, England, situated slightly beyond the city centre. It is recognised as the oldest church building in Britain still in use as a church, and the oldest parish church in the English-speaking world, although Roman and Celtic churches had existed for centuries. The church is, along with Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey, part of a World Heritage Site.

Since 1668 the church has been part of the benefice of St Martin and St Paul Canterbury. Both St Martin's and nearby St Paul's churches are used for weekly services.

We pass St Augustines Abbey that I visited on a previous walk.

St Augustine's Abbey was a Benedictine monastery. The abbey was founded in 598 and functioned as a monastery until its dissolution in 1538 during the English Reformation. After the abbey's dissolution, it underwent dismantlement until 1848. Since 1848, part of the site has been used for educational purposes and the abbey ruins have been preserved for their historical value.

We cross Broad Street and here we see the Roman City Walls of Canterbury.

Canterbury city walls are a sequence of defensive walls built around the city of Canterbury. The first city walls were built by the Romans, probably between 270 and 280 AD. These walls were constructed from stone on top of an earth bank, and protected by a ditch and wall towers. At least five gates were placed into the walls, linked to the network of Roman roads across the region. With the collapse of Roman Britain, Canterbury went into decline but the walls remained, and may have influenced the decision of Augustine to settle in the city at the end of the 6th century. The Anglo-Saxons retained the defensive walls, building chapels over most of the gates and using them to defend Canterbury against Viking incursions.

The Norman invaders of the 11th century took the city without resistance, and by the 12th century the walls were ill-maintained and of little military value. Fears of a French invasion during the Hundred Years' War led to an enquiry into Canterbury's defences in 1363. The decision was taken to restore the city walls and for around the next thirty years the old Roman defences were freshly rebuilt in stone, incorporating the older walls where they still remained. 24 towers were constructed around the circuit, and over the coming years many of the gatehouses were rebuilt in stone and brick, defended by some of the first batteries of guns in England. Parts of the wall were deliberately damaged by Parliament during the English Civil War of the 17th century and the doors to the city's gates burnt; with the restoration of Charles II in 1660, new doors were reinstalled.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Canterbury's city walls came under extensive pressure from urban development. All the gates but one, West Gate, were destroyed and extensive parts of the walled circuit were knocked down to make way for new roads and buildings. German bombing during the Second World War caused further damage. Despite this, the remaining walls and gatehouse survived post-war redevelopment intact and some portions were rebuilt entirely. Over half the original circuit survives, enclosing an area of 130 acres (53 ha), and archaeologists Oliver Creighton and Robert Higham consider the city wall to be "one of the most magnificent in Britain".

We walked on up Burgate.

We stop at the Shakespeare Pub on Butchery Lane for a Shepherd Neames 'Bear Island East Coast Pale Ale'. Very nice too!

Very nice pub this, I should spend a weekend here in Canterbury and get to try more of the pubs ;)

We leave the Pub and walk on.

View to Canterbury Cathedral

We cross back over the road and back outside the city walls and after a bit of road walking we are out of the city and following the North Downs Way.

At Hodes Farm we turn left and follow the footpath.

We cross the Railway lines and up onto Bekesbourne Lane.

After a short way we turn left onto a path that leads us past the orchards as we walk towards Kentish Pips Cider Farm.

We arrive at Kentish Pip and we stopped for drinks.

Kentish Pip High Diver Cider

Cracking ciders here, however due to Covid restrictions still only table service. Experience marred by waiting half hour for our drinks to arrive! I was gagging for a drink!