A walk in Boughton

On Thursday December 17th i visited the footpaths of Boughton under Blean, about ten kilometres west of Canterbury. Boughton means place with beech trees. The addition differentiates it from other Boughtons, e.g. Boughton Aluph near Wye.

The main street, imaginatively named The Street, is the former Roman road Watling Street later the A2. The A2 now bypasses Boughton to the south. Between the old and new A2s are houses.

As a countryside access warden i walked the public footpaths between The Street and the bypass. I parked in Burnt Oast Road. The first paths were hardsurfaced between fences, typical urban footpaths. I fitted some path number stickers and rewrote some faded numbers.

Further west was more rural. Several paths lead from The Street to a path by a stream. I met a man installing fenceposts and a dogwalker. A little pruning needed. Pleasant and a little muddy by the stream. Roar of traffic on the A2. For a short distance the path is alongside the A2, separated by a barrier.

Walked back along The Street and Colonels Lane to the car. A pleasant sunny walk. The paths were all walkable. I reported to Kent County Council a path which lacked a fingerpost. A public right of way should have a fingerpost where it leaves a road. In Kent the post has the path number. This helps fault reporting.

Checking an issue

Kent County Council asks its volunteer countryside access wardens to look at “issues”. In this case a damaged waymarker post on footpath CB487 near Chartham.

This would mean a walk of about a mile so i drove along A28 on Sunday morning. Parked at the garden centre with the feeble excuse of looking at Christmas trees. The footpath starts next to a house towards Canterbury. I rewrote the path number on the fingerpost.

Steps. Stiles either side of railway crossing. Care: stop, look, and listen. Between hedges: a little pruning with secateurs. Fishers by lakes. Seven swans a-swimming, a month too early. Sheep in grassy meadow by River Stour. Across the Stour Valley Way, footpath and cycle route. Footbridge across river. Path gravelly then leafy. At a bend is the “issue”: marker post apparently broken at ground level but supported by a convenient tree. Is fine as a marker. Someone at KCC may decide whether to replace it.

Path continues. Up steep steps – useful handrail – and across Bretts gravel works. Warnings to beware of machinery. Bretts have been extracting sand and gravel for 110 years. Most of the lakes in the Stour Valley are the result.

I walked to the end of CB487, a junction with another footpath, and turned back for the return journey. A little more pruning.

At home reported what i’d done to KCC. A short walk but a pleasant one.

Plucks Gutter

In the Middle Ages the Wantsum Channel separated the Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent. The river Stour met this channel at Stourmouth. Now the river meets the sea about eight kilometres eastward at Pegwell Bay. The Little Stour joins the Stour at Plucks Gutter, a hamlet consisting mainly of the Dog and Duck pub and two caravan sites. A mile upstream is Blood Point, where Alfred defeated the Danes.

“Stour” is a Celtic or Old English name meaning “strong one” Other Stours are found in East Anglia, Dorset, and the West Midlands. Who was Pluck? Wikipedia says he was Ploeg, a Dutch engineer who helped drain the marshes.

A long introduction to a short walk. It would have been with the Dover and Thanet Rights of Way society. The new lockdown restricted it to the walks secretary, Steven Tebbett, and me. A pleasant dry Sunday, overcast and about ten degrees Celsius.

From the bumpy carpark opposite the pub, down to the south bank of the Stour and left under the road bridge. Immediately we were on the bank of the Little Stour, a wide grassy path. Several anglers. Residential boats moored. I always like walking next to water. Usually something to see, if only a mallard.

We left the river on a restricted byway (meaning one can drive horsedrawn vehicles) leading to a road. Through the churchyard at West Stourmouth and across fields. A short walk on road back to the carpark.

We talked, of course. Origins of language. Wildlife: i once saw fortyfive swans near here. Fungi in autumn woods. Place names: Steve saying most English settlements were named by Anglo Saxons.

A pleasant walk, in good company.

A short walk in Blean Woods

Blean woods cover about 3000 hectares to the northwest of Canterbury. This walk is in a small portion called Mincing Wood, said to be named from former owners the nuns of Minster Abbey, Thanet.

I am a volunteer Countryside Access Warden and was checking the public footpaths in the area. And enjoying a sunny day after a misty start. Opposite the Royal Oak pub a fingerpost is leaning: something to report to the county council. The path descends through the static mobile homes of Woodlands Estate before entering the woods. A wide path, at first gravelly, then leafy. Oak and beech. Often walking on acorns. In autumn paths can be hard to follow if covered by leaves.

The paths were unobstructed and well marked. I did a little pruning, mostly of brambles at face height. A lovely sunny day, shared with walkers, some with dogs, and cyclists. Two squirrels, a wood ant hill, some grey fungus, a tetrahedral “dragons tooth” antitank device from world war two.

Only about two miles: a pleasant walk on a sunny autumn day.

A sentimental journey

An autumn ritual is a walk in Rough Common woods, to the west of Canterbury, to pick chestnuts. Chestnuts are welcome at Halloween and Bonfire Night. Over the years i have made numerous trips here, often with children, sometimes by bike, by car when more prosperous.

A signed footpath off Rough Common Road on the opposite side from the village hall leads downhill into the woods. Lots of chestnut trees and lots of nuts on the ground. Autumn gales make picking easy. Remembered thick gloves for prising open the spiny shells where necessary.

The path leads down to a stream, nameless as far as i know, with more nuts for the picking. Turning right leads to a footbridge over the stream, useful for acting out Three Billy Goats Gruff when sons were young.

Earthworks, presumably built for BMX riding. Follow the stream up to a wide track. A pond. Once saw a newt here. Follow the track, muddy in places, up hill. There used to be a fallen tree at the top, a pretend spaceship. The track leads to Ross Gardens and the main road. Used to be a pub here: the Dog and Bear, now offices.

I’ve never seen many people in these woods. Today, three dogwalkers. Walk made more pleasant by sunshine after days of rain. Plenty of chestnuts.

Canterbury’s Middle Ring

Canterbury’s middle ring of footpaths and roads is more than ten miles long. I am walking it in easy stages. From home i walked up Lime Kiln road, leading to an old chalk quarry. The Elham Valley railway ran through the pit on its way to Folkestone. Half of the pit is now a housing estate intriguingly called Chineham. The other half, with white cliffs, is left to nature. Views of fields and orchards.

Turn left along the edge of a recently harvested maize field. Behind the hedge on the left is a sheer drop to the lime quarry. Turn left at Stuppington Lane opposite an oast house converted to residences. Hops no longer grown here. Cross the former railway by bridge EVL 2039.

Turn left onto South Canterbury Road and right into Puckle Lane. New housing where sea cadets used to meet.

I left the Ring here and headed home via Old Dover Road and Lansdown Road. Along a footpath/cycleway next to the railway. The brick wall has been decorated with pictures and a poem by Rumi. “A weed is a flower in a wrong place”

Pity that graffitists think they can improve the mural.

A walk with history

I am delighted that Dover and Thanet Rights of Way Society (Datrows) resumed walks in September, limited to six walkers. October 4th’s leisurely walk began by the remains of the Roman fort at Richborough, about two miles north of Sandwich. The route gave fine views of the remaining Roman walls and deviated from the public path to visit the site of the amphitheatre.

The walk leader told us about three features of interest: Richborough was the site for the Roman invasion in AD 43, when Aulus Plautius led four legions to add Britain to the empire. It later became a fort to defend against Saxons before Roman rule ended about AD 420. At the west end of the fort was Roman Watling Street, the main road to London. Here the legions marched with their military equipment. Still in use as a farm track, Sic transit gloria.

The walk crossed the embankment of the former East Kent Light Railway, built by Colonel Stephens to serve the east Kent coalfield. Remains of the bridge over the road can be seen. The line also went to Port Richborough, about a mile and a half northwest of the Roman fort and harbour. The coast has altered since Roman times. Port Richborough was built during World War One and carried vast amounts of supplies to the western front.

Luckily the rain stopped for our walk.

One of the things i missed during lockdown was walking with Datrows every fortnight. This time we combined the pleasure of walking with a connection with history.

Canterbury Rings

I met the Canterbury Rings by noticing a waymarker sticker on a local walk. Google revealed that there are three concentric walks, centred on Cantebury. They were initiated by David Reekie, helped by Simon Cox and Ray Forbes. Their aim is to support health, tourism, heritage, nature, local businesses, and all those who love to explore.

Last Sunday i walked the inner Ring, about two miles. It resembles one of my favourite walks which follows the line of Canterbury’s Roman and medieval walls. So the walker sees the Norman Castle, Dane John Mound, Westgate Gardens. A short detour passes the cemetery gate of St Augustine’s Abbey and statues of King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha.

A longer detour turns left out of the Westgate Gardens, crosses three roads and two branches of the river Stour through Greyfriars Garden to Stour Street.

Most of us have favourite walks. Some have selfpublished leaflets and maps for sale in local shops. Canterbury Rings are more ambitious: maps on the internet and waymarking throughout.

Congratulations and thank you.

Urban walks

I have resumed work as a volunteer Countryside Access Warden. Kent County Council have told us to take extra precautions, including maintaining separation especially when working, wearing high visibility jacket and disinfecting any “furniture” touched, such as gates and stiles.

I have yet to be very adventurous after lockdown. Have checked paths close to home, pruning a lot of intrusive brambles. These may threaten eyes when high or ankles when low. In urban areas alleys connecting roads are one of the pleasures of walking. Connectivity accessible on foot but not to motor vehicles. Not all are designated as public footpaths.

One walk took me along St Stephens Footpath in Canterbury, leading eventually to a bridleway (and cycleway) to the Whitstable Road. Another visit in the same area revealed that i had mislabelled a path on a previous visit. Kent paths are labelled with the number on the definitive map, in this case CC10. This helps the public report faults or obstructions. I corrected my error. Also renumbered some paths where the ink had faded.

Pleasant to potter through the city. In addition to these short links, Canterbury has riverside paths with the added attractions of mallards, moorhens, pondskaters.

A favourite walk

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.