My walk last Sunday was a circuit of Canterbury, following the line of the medieval city walls. What makes it a favourite? It starts at home, is fairly flat, and is only about two miles. Lots of history plus fortyfive years of family memories.
Posters on lampposts about a lost kitten. A loud fire engine. Walking unevenly at first. Under the Wincheap railway bridge and right past Canterbury East station. Cross footbridge and turn right on to the city wall. Pleasantly elevated between the ring road and the Dane John Gardens.
Memories here: cricket with my sons. Music events. Demos. The Dane John mound is a British burial mound, later used by the Norman conquerors as a temporary castle.
A man photographs a tree stump.
Walking more evenly now. Through Broad Street car park, with the cathedral precinct behind the wall to the left. Into St Radigunds Street, where a bit of Roman wall is exposed. Tall hollyhocks near the Parrot pub. Once Simple Simons, with memories of folk and ale.
Pats the Millers Arms is the Abbots Mill project. An oasis of woodland by the river, managed for biodiversity. An earthen path to a carved wooden bench. And litter, sadly.
The river Stour has several branches through Canterbury. Follow one through Pound Lane carpark to the Westgate, the city’s only surviving medieval gate. On the river bed Alluvia, hiding among the weeds, two females sculpted by Jason de Claire Taylor.
Young herring gulls. Noisy mallards near the site of Roman Watling Street. Under Rheims Way to Toddlers Cove: many hours spent here with children.
Plodding now, a short distance along the ring road, Norman castle on the left, past Aldi and home.
Rambling Brummie 