An Easter walk

For years i’ve made a point of walking a mile a day, or more of course. For days when time is short or energy low i have a small number of one mile walks from home. Here’s one, done on Easter Sunday about 8am. Sunny. Wearing jumper but no coat. Tudor Road. Right onto Wincheap. Little traffic. Up Station Road East, behind an unsteady man as slow as me. On the footbridge over the ring road. Four probable rough sleepers with backpacks. Two tents on grass by city wall where moat used to be. Right onto city wall. Down beside Dane John mound into the gardens. Across dewy grass by sundial. Hugged a leafless tree, bark shining as though streaked with ice. St Marys Street. Fence behind White Hart pub garden. Squirrel by old graveyard. Left onto Castle Street. Notice “Sung Eucharist at St Mildreds 11”. Past castle. Subway under Rheims Way. Murals of Canterbury scenes. Cross Wincheap and home via York Road. Feeling good, humming “Sunday morning coming down”

Later in the cathedral the archbishop denounced the government’s ungodly plan to deport refugees to Rwanda.

Our word Easter comes from Eostre, goddess of Spring. A time to look forward and hope for better times.

A wasted walk in the woods

Thursday is my usual day for walks as a countryside access warden. April 7th is birthday of youngest sons, who needed the car. With trepidation i took bus to Pean Hill on the Whitstable Road. No worry about parking but more exposed to the plague. Third visit to look at paths in Ellenden Wood, five km south of Whitstable harbour. 91 hectares of SSSI woodland. On a map the paths resemble an Irish harp. Like the one on the Guinness bottle. A triangular frame with three strings. Recent visits had covered all but two strings.

Oh to be in England now that April’s there. Browning was abroad when he wrote that. This April morning, after a heavy shower at 5 had helped pierce the drought of March, was cool, sunny and blustery. All the public rights of way here are bridleways, usable on foot, horse, or pedal bike. Mostly easy to see, not easy to walk as mud and puddles aplenty. Other paths are not on the rights of way map, increasing chance of getting lost.

Mostly beech trees, not yet in leaf, also oak and holly. Patches of white flowers. Wood anemones? Anthills. Unfortunately i took a wrong turning and so revisited a walk of Feb 17th, but in the opposite direction. Too busy picking my way to think of all the things i dont want to think about.

Did no CAW work, such as pruning or waymarking. Found two places where marker posts needed. At a Y junction the route may be clear in one direction not in the other. We were told NOT to nail markers to trees.

Take positives: didnt fall over, didnt lose a shoe in the mud, didnt stray from the bridlepaths. Still need to visit the two remaining paths. Preferably during a drought.

A dull drizzly walk around Canterbury

Mothers day Mothering Sunday March 27th 2022. 7 deg C. Sons will take their mother for lunch. So car not available for walk with Dover and Thanet Rights of Way Society. Light drizzle, after ten sunny days. City circuit, anticlockwise. Slight head wind. Station Road East. Don’t like rain, even drizzle. But Sunday morning walking is what i do. City wall. Medieval on Roman. Playground in Dane John Gardens demolished, waiting for replacement. On right, other side of ring road, lots student flats on site of garage and former Mary Bredin school. Christchurch university library, Police Station. Fire and rescue. Riding Gate bridge over Roman road to Dubris. Bus station on left. Potholes marked in white. Former Zoar chapel now wedding venue. Former underground public lavatory now a bar. Irony: more places to booze, fewer to piss. Through carpark, quieter away from road, next to high wall of Cathedral precincts. Man stepped off narrow pavement for me. Much of this walk is Canterbury Inner Ring. St Radigunds Street. Exposed Roman wall. Parrot pub memories of when it was Simple Simons with folk music. Especially Tan Tethera. Computer Corner: models of moon rocket and shuttle. Also metal sculptures by local artist. Decision: do i extend walk from two to three miles? Increase stamina. Yes. Onto riverside cycle/ walk path. Three mallard drakes and one female. Cyclist. Moorhen. St Johns primary school. Coach park Toilets not open. 949 am. XXV stainless steel sculpture made at Canterbury College for Queen’s silver jubilee. Under Kingsmead Rd bridge. Used to be earth path and fairly rural. Now tarmac. Grassy bank with new housing on left. Nature preservation or gardening? Big development across river, including cinema. Some trees pollarded. Turn left on stony track, willows, wilder. Round former football field, speedway, rubbish tip. Nettles, brambles. Allotments across river. Trees more leafy maybe because sheltered from wind. Still can’t walk under Stonebridge Road: fenced off why. Kingsmead village green with football pitch. Used to be cricket. City Council wanted to build on the whole area. Objectors won.

Across Kingsmead Road, through leisure centre carpark. Back on riverside. Walked into Abbots Mill project for a wee. Empty vodka bottle. Lots fresh woodchip on paths. Millers Field ecopark. Another valuable public open space.

Path should be wider by North Lane. Into Westgate Gardens, White blossom. Bedding plants, both sides river. Massive oriental plane. Hugged Scots pine. Is leaflet on Westgate Gardens tree trail. “Taihg” Daniel Lloyd and his music, 1986 – 2012 forever in our hearts.

Ten mallard drakes, one female. Sat at Toddlers Cove and ate apple. More drizzle. No children playing. Through goat and horses tunnel to industrial estate. Bamboo Tiger cafe not open. Espresso at Shot Space on Wincheap. And home. Three and a half miles in about two hours.

Spoke to noone except to say “good morning”

Feeling of achievement: pleased to have walked distance of Datrows leisurely walks, though at a very leisurely pace.

Selling and East Blean Woods

Two recent short walks as countryside access warden. Both revisits. First, Thursday March 10th. Selling station is about 10 km west of Canterbury. (Selling: original meaning “hall dwellers”) Thought of going by train but wouldnt feel safe, especially as masks no longer required. Parked about same time as train arrived. Sunny. Warm for March. Footbridge had been repaired, allowing direct access to path ZR631. Think the path was never closed. Earth path roughly northnortheast between fruit (currant?) bushes. Short testing rise through strip of wood. Across orchard to South Street. “PRIVATE LAND” signs reminding walkers to keep to footpaths. Woman with dog. A little pruning around path number on fingerpost. Short walk on road. Right on path ZR630. Left on ZR629, a wide track to Dunkirk Road. Man with two dogs. Right on access path to station, also link to Big Blean Walk. Footbridge steps taxing to unfit walker. Robin. Train to Canterbury arrived. Woman with questionnaires for rail passengers. Attached path number on post at road. Welcome coffee at Sondes. About a mile and a half in an hour.

St Patricks day, Thursday March 17th, a grand sunny day. Revisit the famously muddy East Blean Woods. (“Blean”, rough place) About 18km northnortheast of Canterbury. Kent wildlife trust charge for parking, collected by a system i cant use. Parked in a housing estate off the Ridgeway, Herne. (“Herne”, a corner of land) Short walk to Ridgeway Farm. First obstacle: a wall with a fivefoot ladder stile, the only one i’ve seen in Kent. Bit hairy for a decrepit 78 year old but i managed.

Downhill on track. White blossom on some trees and a hedge. Into the wood: KWT sign. Uphill. Mainly beech trees. Some recently felled. Some mud. Lots near Hicks Forstal Road especially where vehicle tracks. Careful walking to avoid slipping of falling. Often detour from line of path. Should be a fingerpost at the road. Turn right, still CH33, here part of the Big Blean Walk. Firmer path, then muddy. A Peacock butterfly slowly moving after hibernation.

Fear of falling. A lack of signs: almost missed right turn onto CH32. Realised i should be going north and consulted compass. Pruned a holly tree. Here more light reached the ground. Yellow blue and white flowers. Wood anemones?

After the wood, path crosses farm land between hedge and fence with barbed wire. A very soggy stretch. Greater fear of falling: kept well away from barbed wire. Slipped and fell on backside on tuft of grass. Shoes wet and muddy. At Ridgeway Road, turned right and soon back at car.

Two miles in 1hr 45min. Welcome coffee and crisps at Herne Garden Centre.

Years ago could celebrate with Guinness and music at Caseys, Canterbury. Now reverted to The Shakespeare and not Irish. Bands like Phoenix, Hudson and Cutler. Or further afield, Chris Taylor and various musicians.

Today at home with Irish cds, Topic cd of instrumental music from London Irish “It was great altogether”

Guinness and Jamesons. No craic though

Place name origins from Judith Cutler “The place names of Kent”

International Women’s Day

I write this on March 8th, International Women’s Day. Sunday’s Datrows walk, led by Jan Tebbett, was a walk and talk to celebrate women connected with Canterbury.

We assembled in the Dane John gardens. A cold sunny morning, good for a walk if well wrapped up. Replica Victorian bandstand. Burial mound. Learnt that there was a world war two hospital nearby. A flat urban walk: no mud. Passed by Norman castle. St Mildred’s church. Stour street. Greyfriars garden. Westgate gardens, given to city by Williamson family. St Peters Street. Marlowe theatre. Chaucer statue. Butchery Lane. Lady Woottons Green, where the walk ended between statues of Queen Betha and King Ethelbert.

Jan stopped to give talks at intervals. Steve Tebbett held up pictures. Clearly Jan had done a lot of research. Confess i’d heard of less than half of the women. Education is an important aspect of women’s day.

Pity about man with loud musical backpack and a xylophonist.

I walked home via a welcome coffee in the Dane John. Three miles in total for me.

Many thanks to Jan. Must have taken much preparation.

For the record the women were:

Queen Bertha, St Mildred, Aphra Benn, Susanna de Planaz, Mary Tourtel, Harriet Halhead, Florence Kinsford Cotterell, Catherine Williamson, Audrey Williams, Judge Adele Williams, and the nurses of the VAD hospital.

Nonington and Fordwich

First, another Datrows leisurely walk, three miles in the scattered village of Nonington. Sunny Feb 27th, cold wind. The only time i enjoy driving in Kent, quiet Sunday on A2 on the way to a walk..

We meet opposite the Royal Oak pub, now apparently closed for ever. About 25 of us. Into Fredville estate, about 100 hectares of wood and parkland, belonging to the Plumtre family. A public bridleway. Over cattle grid on rough farm track. Uphill: the slight rise slows me down. Parkland, grass with scattered trees. Typical and attractive English landscape. Not natural. Sheep. Surprisingly a deer sits among them.

Unfit, i’m soon at the rear. The Fredville oak is first destination, by arrangement with landowner as its not on public path. Think i might turn back here. More than enough walkers to hold hands and embrace this mighty tree. Plans to extend walk to Barfrestone. Think i will stay on original route. Steve suggests this too. We and a newcomer, woman from Ramsgate, walk back together. Talk includes the oak. Chatham House School. Universities of Manchester and Nottingham. When to sow seeds. Return through woods mostly beech with silver birch. Snowdrops. Farmland.

Back to the start. A bus shelter is also a bookstore. Resist temptation: already have more books than shelfspace

Good exercise, good weather, good countryside, good company.

Second walk. Part of my life is a Countryside Access Warden. Kent County Council offers “Issues” to wardens. This one was removing vegetation from a stile in Moat Lane Fordwich. Seemed easy so volunteered. Another sunny morn, March 3rd. Parked north of River Stour to avoid the narrow village about three miles east of Canterbury. Once Canterbury’s port: Caen stone was landed here for the cathedral. Actually smallest town in England. It has a mayor and town council. Attractions include redundant church of St Mary the Virgin. Town Hall rebuilt about 1544. Canterbury Model Engineering Society’s railway track. Canoeing.Two pubs. Fordwich Arms has a Michelin star; we found it pretentious at a family lunch. George and Dragon more to my taste.

Walked over two bridges, past George and Dragon, quaint houses. Careful to avoid vehicles. The narrow streets here connect busy A28 and A257.

Stile looked passable to me, especially as top bar had been removed and was on the ground. Maybe someone had pruned already? Removed brambles and nettles. Sawed two obstructive branches. Three cyclists and several walkers passed on an unofficial path, not a public right of way. Took this route back. Would have liked coffee at pub but not open yet.

B&Q for logs and incinerator for allotment. Coffee in their carpark. Successful outing. Tiny bit of help to fellow walkers.

Mud glorious mud

Second visit to Tong Wood and Ellenden Wood about six km northwest of Canterbury. As countryside access warden, expected an easy walk along bridleways. Being used by horses and cyclists they are often wider and clearer than footpaths. Parked by Denstroude Lane for planned two mile walk. Usual worries about weather and fitness.

After gales and rain, calmer and sunny. Path began firm enough: gravel and old bricks. Puddles. Roar of wind in leafless trees, mostly beech. Marshy hollow. Old anthill. Molehills. More and more muddy. Bridleways are chewed up by hooves and wheels as well as feet. Heavy clay. Rider on a milkwhite steed. Path junction not quite as map. Turned sharp left following rider. Was i on right path? More mud. Figured if i kept going west i would meet another path heading south. Sun aided navigation. Relieved to find blue waymarkers at junction. Hadn’t gone astray. Tired of plodding through mud i cut short walk. Returned to car. One mile in one hour. Had shown the paths walkable needing no work from me.

Good to walk in woods. Many local woods have public rights of way and practically open access. One should see them in all seasons. Hard to see signs of spring when focussed on finding the route and staying upright.

Will need another visit to the paths i missed out.

Achieved what? Showed paths walkable. Suggested better waymarking at a junction. On way home bought seed potatoes and onion sets at meadow Grange nursery. Also coffee,

Muddy but unbowed.

Visit to Chestfield

As a countryside access warden feel i should visit all paths in my area. Even if no reason to expect problems. Thursday Feb 3rd a two mile walk in Chestfield, south of A2990 old Thanet Way between Whitstable and Herne Bay. Paths last walked 2014. Ulterior motive: to visit B&Q and Homebase, just off A2990, seeking timber to repair shed. Saving unnecessary petrol.

Chestfield. Old French Chestel vieil, old castle. Civil parish population 3214 in 2011. May be regarded as a village. To the outsider consists of housing plus a cricket club, golfcourse, Catholic church of St Joseph and pub. The Barn. Originally part of Chestfield Manor. In 1921 George Reeves created an attractive olde worlde area, converting farm buildings and building new houses with recycled old material. Dwellings for the wealthy.


My anticlockwise circuit took me along Share and Coulter Road, Ridgeway, a large field, Grasmere Road, cricket ground, across stream which meets the sea at Swalecliffe, private road, path between houses. Work has started to turn the field into housing. Talk with dogwalker. Locals tried to get it declared a village green. Seems to me developers buy land and build houses regardless of local need. Profit is all. I hope the two public rights of way which cross the area are preserved.

Urban paths are often between high fences and not attractive walks. May attract litter. Chestfeld paths are mostly between hedges and litter free Mostly good surfaces. Gravel, tar or grass

Fell onto concrete, grazing knee and cutting finger.

“The ‘Happy to Chat’ bench. Sit here if you don’t mind someone stopping to say hello” Noone did while i sat and ate my apple. Suggests there are lonely people and people who wish to help them.

Did a little pruning and reported a marker post which had come out of the ground. Two mile walk took ninety minutes. Failed to find timber i needed. Bought seeds and had welcome coffee at Meadow Grange nursery in Blean.

There is a waymarked Chestfield Walk of 3.8 miles which i may attempt if fitter.

Two Kent villages

Two villages: Selling and Chillenden. Two kinds of walking, solo and in a group. Two parts of my life.

Selling is a scattered place between Canterbury and Faversham. Old English Sellingas, hall dwellers. The church, school and white Lion pub are about a mile from the train station, which is at Neames Forstal on OS map. As a countryside access warden i was looking at footpaths east of the village. Two visits. The first through wood and orchards. Some orchardists leave gaps between the trees on the line of the public footpath. This one hadn’t. Had to walk round field edges.

Was driving round looking for parking for next walk and wondering where to seek morning coffee. The Sondes Arms, near the station, is now a shop and tearoom. Parking in station approach. Welcome coffee. The pub was built by a farmer for his workers.

Second visit to Selling had two aims: to check a path i’d found overgrown in 2017. It is now walkable. Uphill through woods, some mud, lots leaves making path hard to follow. Beech, oak, silver birch, holly. My second aim was abandoned because footbridge over railway closed for repairs. Enjoyed coffee at Sondes. Talked with two walkers going to Perry Woods.

Sunday January 30th was the fiftieth anniversary of Derry’s Bloody Sunday, a shameful event in Britain’s history in Ireland.

A lovely sunny day for Datrows leisurely walk from Chillenden [OE Ceollas Dene, valley of Ceolas] Started from Griffins Head. Pigs and piglets, with family huts, enjoying the sun. White windmill. Originally built 1868, rebuilt 2005 after a storm. Back via Goodnestone. A bank of snowdrops: sign of coming Spring.

Would have welcomed coffee at Chillenden but don’t think a crowded pub is healthy. Talked of astronomy: can one comprehend Big Bang? A whole universe out of nothing? Someone spoke about moles. Mills. “Evergiven” blocking Suez Canal. Walks from Bekesbourne. Pleasure of walking in a group.

Struggled to the end as three mile walk was more like four and a half. All good exercise.

Happy New Year

Christmas is over, New Year is over. Whatever our customs and rituals, the days lengthen and we can look forward to spring. Though worst of winter is yet to come. My resolutions will be secret except for walking. Intend to continue as Countryside Access Warden and with Datrows (Dover and Thanet Rights of Way Society) Rage against the dying of the light.

Two short walks. Last October i visited East Blean woods, inspecting footpaths and seeking sloes. Walk was disrupted at Knaves Ash by notices “FOOTPATH CLOSED DUE TO SUBSIDENCE 18022021” This time, Jan 13th, a cold sunny day, i walked the path from the other end. Hugged a thin silver birch. Found a fallen tree: stepped over it. No sign of subsidence and no reason why path should be closed. Reported to Kent County Council to sort out. Rest of walk was very muddy.

DATROWS walk Sunday Jan 16th was from Wickhambreaux, seven km east of Canterbury. Blogged last year as three churches walk. This time clockwise. Were 27 of us, an encouraging increase. I parked as Joe Root was out in the Hobart Test. Cold but a lovely sunny day. Some mud but tolerable. Frozen mud may be easier to walk on if not rutted. Walked through Ickham to Littlebourne. Back on the other side of the Little Stour. First part into wind. A fair number of other walkers. Two ponies near Littlebourne. Two pillboxes. Near Wickhambreaux church a new information board with map of 8 local pillboxes, defences in world war two. Another war connection: grave of one of the Dambusters.

We talked of gardening: is it too early to sow seeds? Food banks, a shameful necessity. Why should people with jobs need charity to survive? “Digging for Britain” archaeology on tv, esp Roman mosaics. Attenborough’s “Green planet” and birdsong. Old ideas overturned.

Tempted to have a drink in the Rose but not yet ready for indoor socialising. Australia had won the test.

I pretend this blog isnt about ME, its about walking. Of course it is about me. In particular i intend to keep walking. in spite of age and decrepitude.

Happy New Year and happy walking.