My friend Colin and I set off from Romford to head over to Kent for a walk on the 3rd November 2016. After a short 45 minute drive we arrived in Shoreham and parked up in the free car park in the village.
The walk map and directions are here.
The probable derivation of the name is estate at the foot of a steep slope. Steep slope was from the Saxon word scor. pronounced shor, but written sore by Norman scribes.
The village of Shoreham contains four traditional independent pubs:
Ye Olde George Inne, The King's Arms, The Two Brewers and the Crown.
We left the car park walk a short distance up Filston Lane and took the footpath next to the Aircraft Museum that was closed, seems to be open on Sundays only.
Run by local enthusiasts, the Museum is largely funded by proceeds made
by visitors whose donations contribute to the recovery and preservation
of the artefacts. The Battle of Britain, brought the village of Shoreham
directly into the war, when on 15 September 1940, a Dornier Do 17Z,
part of a force of about 100 German bombers approaching London, was
shot down shortly before noon. The invading formation had been
challenged by nine RAF
squadrons and the battle developed into a series of individual
'dogfights'. The unfortunate pilot of the Dornier was forced to land in a
field at Castle Farm, with a Spitfire
circling overhead, its cockpit canopy open, and its pilot waving a
handkerchief, to signal a warning to the growing crowd of hop-pickers
nearby to stay away until the Shoreham Home Guard
arrived to recover the German crew. Feldwebel Heitsch, the pilot and
Feldwebel Pfeiffer, the observer, were driven to The Fox & Hounds
pub in Knatts Valley, where they were bought a brandy before being
driven to Sevenoaks Police Station. The museum holds a collection of
photographs of the Dornier, along with items taken from the wreckage at
the time.
The Darent valley was one of the major areas of Stone Age settlement; and Shoreham is mentioned in the Domesday Book.
It was also known as a smuggling
area. Moreover, Shoreham was the most bombed village in the United
Kingdom during the Second World War due to the fact the Army took over
several manor houses for operational use.
Papermaking was once a local industry; the mill closed finally in 1925.
We climb steeply up the hill to a wooded area that offers great views back across the Darent valley.
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| View to Shoreham |
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| Looking down on Filston Farm |
We descend back down the hill to Filston Land again and a short way up the lane we enter the footpath that runs through Filston farm.
Filston Farm is 1500 acres on which wheat,peas,oats,oil seed rape and grass is grown as well as pasture for sheep,cows,alpacas and horses.
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| Oast Houses now converted. But a sure sign you're in Kent. |
We made our way through the farmland across paths, missing the first planet Pluto on the Solar System model.
The model, the largest
in the world, was created to celebrate the millennium and shows the
relative positions of the Sun and planets at midnight on 1 January 2000.
Considerable effort was required to design an accurate layout
that gave public access to every planet. Each planet is on a concrete pillar, drawn to the same scale as
the model as a whole. On
this scale, the nearest star would be in Los Angeles.
We now leave the farmland out onto the High Street in Otford, where we see the first of the planets 'Uranus'.
We walk up the High Street passing Broughton Manor.
Broughton Manor was the property of the Crown at the time of Henry VIII and was used to house part of the retinue at the Archbishops Palace.
A 16th century house with 17th,18th and modern alterations.
OTFORD'S rich and fascinating history includes two
battles, the construction and ruin of a royal palace and at least 3,000
years-worth of inhabitants.
Since the early dwellers set up home
next to the river Darent, Otford has been inhabited by Iron Age farmers,
Romans, Anglo-Saxons and royalty.
The ancient village adopted its name in the sixth or seventh century, from the Anglo-Saxon, Ottanford, meaning Otta's ford.
Otta was a man of local authority, and his ford ran where the High Street now bridges the Darent river.
We pass two lovely Tudor buildings called Pickmoss House. Looks can be deceptive. The break in the roofline defines the new and the old. The timber frame to the left replaced brickwork in 1951, even though its heart is a 14th century house.
The residents of the duck house on Otford Pond have been a feature of
the village for several years now. They will never go hungry, due to the
number of visitors who like to indulge in the age-old pleasure of
feeding the ducks. The attractive pond with its willow trees forms a
natural roundabout in the centre of the village and is unusual in that
it has been granted listed status. The pond is thought to date back to
Anglo Saxon times, when it was probably used as a drinking hole for
local livestock.
Opposite the pond is St Bartholomews Church. Otford parish church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Bartholomew,
and built as a Chapel-
In the graveyard is buried Tom Pryce. Auto Race Car Driver. Born the son of a policeman in Ruthin,
Denbighshire, Wales, he entered Formula 1 racing in 1974 with the Token
team, but soon moved to the Shadow team. Considered an exceptional
driver, and many thought he had the ability to reach the very top of his
sport, his best results were a third place in the 1975 Austrian Grand
Prix and the 1976 Brazilian Grand Prix. He tragically lost his life in a
somewhat bizarre accident at the 1977 South African Grand Prix at
Kyyalami. Another driver had retired his car when an insignificant fire
started. Two marshals sprinted across the track to put the fire out just
as Pryce and Stuck appeared at top speed. Pryce struck one of the
marshals, killing him, but the fire extinguisher the marshal was
carrying struck the driver full in the face killing him instantly. The
Shadows car careered along down the straight until it hit a crash
barrier. Buried at St. Bartholomew's Churchyard, Otford, nr Sevenoaks,
Kent.
We sat outside the church on a bench overlooking the pond and shops and ate our lunch. Its far busier here than Shoreham with much noise from traffic passing through.
After seeing a palace on the map, we ask some people cutting down
bushes and tidying the green where it was. She points off down the road
by some shops.We walked off and after a distance, thought she must be
wrong it looks closer on the map so we walk back. But the lady catches
us and asked if we found it, well we couldnt say no now so back we went
along the road to find it.
We did find it a little further along the road.
Otford Palace, also known as the Archbishop's Palace.
The King of Mercia, Offa, fought the Kentish Saxons in 776 at the Battle of Otford. From those times until 1537, the palace was one of the chain of houses belonging to the archbishops of Canterbury. It was rebuilt around 1515 by Archbishop Warham to rival that of Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court. Henry VIII forced Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to surrender the palace in 1537.
When Henry died the palace fell into ruin. The principal surviving
remains are the North-West Tower, the lower gallery, now converted to
cottages, and a part of the Great Gatehouse. There are further remains
on private land, and a section of the boundary wall can be seen in
Bubblestone Road. The entire site, of about 4 acres (1.6 ha) is
designated as an ancient monument. There are many related buildings in
the village, including a wall in St Bartholomew's Church dating from c. 1050.
In 1519 Henry VIII stayed there with his court and hunted in the great
Deer Park that was attached to the palace. The Palace must have met
his approval because the following year Henry and Catherine of Aragon
along with the royal court stayed there as they made their way to France
for the meeting between Henry and Francis, King of France, at the Field
of Gold. This must have been a magnificent occasion, as the court that
accommodated Henry was believed to have numbered over 3000.
Between 1532 and 1533 Princess Mary, the future Queen of England
stayed there as a refuge from the political and religious turmoil that
was engulfing England after the end of her mothers marriage to Henry.
On leaving the palace site, we can see just up the road to where the ladies were that gave us directions. Were they having us on? They sent us a long way round to get there!
Now we looked for the path to continue our journey, but we had a little trouble. The map wasn't clear or we were crap at navigating (probably the latter) and we ended up walking up Station Road before realising we were wrong. Then down another road,wrong again. We were looking for the sun pub to turn off by. Then realising our mistake we were looking for the sun from the Solar System model, Duh!!
Anyway we found the path and headed off into the Recreation ground, where the rest of the Solar System and the sun was!
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| The Solar System Model |
We leave the recreation ground and follow a footpath come bridlepath back towards Shoreham.
There is a white memorial cross in the hillside opposite the village
church. It was dug in 1920 as a memorial to local men killed in action.
We exit the footpath out into Shoreham on Station Road after passing the golf course.
We reach The Ye Olde George Inn. Ye Olde George Inn is a 16th century local community pub.
Opposite The Ye Olde George Inn is St Peter & St Paul Church.
The porch is of very solid fifteenth-century workmanship with good,
though weathered, carvings in the spandrels and plain bargeboards above.
Inside the church the greatest treasure is the rood screen, with its
original loft - 6 ft 6 in wide. It shows the Pomegranate of Catherine of
Aragon carved on its door, and this may help us date it to the visit of
Henry VIII and his queen to nearby Otford Palace in 1520. The pulpit of
1827 is by Blore and is one of two in the county that originally stood
in Westminster Abbey (the other is at Trottiscliffe). In the south wall
is a window of 1903 depicting Joy, Creation and Love by the firm of
Morris and Co. A most unusual thing to find is the painting of Lt Verney
Cameron, who led the expedition to find David Livingstone in 1873,
painted by Charles Cope RA.
We left the church and head back out onto Church Street and pass Ye Olde George again on its other side.
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| A recent Halloween decoration ? |
We now come to the River Darent and its beautiful bridge!
Here we sat by the river and the Shoreham War Memorial and had a cup of coffee and enjpyed the peace and quiet listening to the river bubble by.
The memorial is composed of a Kent rag stone base and Bath stone plinth
with a headstone shaped memorial on top. Interestingly, the inscription
on the memorial calls for those who visit the memorial to refer to a
large chalk cross located on a nearby hill which could originally be
seen from the memorial. The inscriptions were originally carved into the
stone, but the names on the plinth have since been covered with bronze
plaques.
It commemorates those lost in WWI and WWII as well of those lost in the bomb raids here in Shoreham.
Just across the Bridge is The Kings Arms,Shoreham, a 16th Century Public House.
A historic feature to the left of the front door, is the Jolly Ostler's Box with serving hatch,
believed to be the only complete example left in the country.
We arrive back at the car and decided we didn't have time to extend the walk onto Lullingstone Castle today as we were short on time, so the 6 mile walk ended here. However we did decide to drive to the castle for a look and drove there via beautiful Eynsford.
Lullingstone Castle is an historic manor house, set in an estate in the village of Lullingstone and the civil parish of Eynsford in the English county of Kent. It has been inhabited by members of the Hart Dyke family for twenty generations including current owner Guy Hart Dyke.
Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the present house was started in 1497. Henry VIII and Queen Anne were regular visitors to the Manor House.
The Tudor gatehouse, built by Sir John Peche, who became Sheriff of Kent in 1495, is believed to be one of the first in England entirely of brick.What survives of the house is largely of the Queen Anne era.
The surrounding 120-acre (0.49 km2) park was previously a fenced deer park, with the castle serving as a hunting lodge. The grounds are located on the River Darent and hidden within are Queen Anne's bathhouse and an icehouse dating from the 18th century. Most of the grounds of the former estate now constitute Lullingstone Country Park.
It also contains some of the oldest oak trees in Britain,
wildflowers, a church (St Botolph's) of Norman and possibly earlier
foundation but much later restoration and rebuilding, and a walled
garden, and used to contain Lullingstone Roman Villa.
The Castle was previously home to the Lullingstone Silk Farm which produced silk for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation gown. In 2011, the Castle was the location for the Comparethemarket.com advert 'Tough decision', featuring meerkats Sergei and Aleksandr.
The walled garden - previously a herb garden designed by Eleanour Sinclair Rohde - has recently been converted into the World Garden of Plants by the Castle's current heir (and 20th generation of the Hart Dyke's), plant hunter Tom Hart Dyke. The garden and the castle are open to the public from April through to September.
The castle was closed now and wont open again until April, it had a £8 entry fee.
We drove off back towards Eynsford again passing The Eynsford Viaduct.
This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line
to the delightfully-named ''Bat & Ball'' station. The structure was built by the
independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham''
main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. The branch was initially
single-track, seeing its first services on 2nd June 1862, but the viaduct was
built to accommodate two tracks from the outset, because the line was doubled in
the following year. A Maidstone extension from Otford opened on 1st June 1874,
this again single-track, but following in the footsteps of the original Bat &
Ball line, this was soon doubled, two-track working commencing on 11th August
1875. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of
75-feet above the valley.
After passing through Eynsford we pass Eynsford Castle on the road above it and stop for a quick picture.
Standing within a picturesque village, Eynsford Castle is a rare example
of an early Norman 'enclosure castle'. Built by the Eynsford family,
the castle became the subject of a disputed inheritance. It culminated
in an act of vandalism in 1312. From that point, the castle was
abandoned.
Rather than having a keep or motte, like most Norman castles, Eynsford
was instead protected by an extensive curtain wall. Today, parts of the
wall survive to their impressive full height alongside the remains of
the hall building, where the inhabitants would have lived.
The castle was founded shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. There
was an earlier, Saxon building on the site, composed of a timber
watchtower on an artificial motte. No evidence of this can be seen
today.
The impressive curtain wall was built between 1085 and 1087, probably by
William de Eynsford I, a knight and sheriff of Kent. In 1130 the wall
was heightened and a gate-tower was built to strengthen the castle
defences. A hall, which provided accommodation for the Eynsford family,
and associated buildings were also erected inside the castle walls about
this time. These buildings were reconstructed in about 1250, following a
fire.
We now drove on home. A beautiful walk through some of Kent's prettiest villages. A great walk too!
