Caerwent - Motorways and Monarchs in Monmouthshire

It's been many months since I've written a Chester blog post - probably the biggest gap I've had since this project began and this is due to the fact that we were prevented from doing a Chester walk in March, because of an unexpected snowfall - although we rescheduled our Caerwent walk and did it in May instead, I've been quite busy since then and, in fact, I've resorted to writing this blog post after a busy day at the office, on a work trip to India - a million miles away from rural Monmouthshire and far removed from the possibility of being snowed in!

Getting to Caerwent was always going to be a challenge, from a logistical point of view, but we managed quite well in the end, catching the 17:30 National Express service from Victoria Coach station, all the way to Chepstow, then jumping in a pre-ordered taxi, to take us the remaining miles to Caerwent itself.

Lodgings and Victuals

We had a really lovely stay in Northgate House BnB which, as the name suggests, is located on the site where the northern gate of Venta Silurum, the Roman settlement which gives Caerwent it's Chester credentials.  Actually, one advantage of Caerwent's relatively obscure location is the fact that the Roman town is rather well-preserved and quite a few sites have been excavated and made for an interesting visit when we arrived, although it was already after 9pm.

The church at Caerwent (sunset)

The light is good in May, so we had enough time to visit the Roman ruins and we even walked along the southern wall of the Roman settlement, which led us, handily enough, to the Coach and Horses Inn, where we settled in for a couple of drinks and a chance to have a proper catch up.

Y Deml Celtaidd-Rufeinig

Caerwent to Caldicot Castle (2.4 miles/3.9 kilometres)

Starting out bright and early the next morning, we retraced our steps through the Roman town, as far as the Church of St Stephen and St Tathan, then back along the southern wall and south along the Dewstow Road, crossing a bridge at Nedern Brook.  In case you're wondering, St Tathan was a Celtic saint, supposedly the son of an Irish king, who moved to Caerwent and set up the church there.  One thing about walking in Wales is that we're learning the names of saints we'd never heard of before, as they were local figures who, perhaps, didn't make much of an impression on the ecclesiastical world stage.

The Roman Wall in the southern part of Caerwent

After Nedern Brook, we turned left down the rather busy Church Road, in the direction of Caldicot, Caerwent's more ambitious neighbour, opting for a quieter cycle path which follows Sandy Lane under the busy M48, Monmouthshire's prime motorway and into some quiet suburbs on the edge of the town.

The cycle path led us to St Mary's Church in Caldicot, where we passed around the churchyard, then took a small path through the country park to Caldicot castle.  The castle was celebrating some kind of anniversary so, luckily for us, it was free entrance and we went into the castle grounds, where we stopped for some refreshments.  It was one of the first really nice summer days, so it felt good to sit in the castle grounds and drink lemonade, before we set off again in the direction of the Severn.

Caldicot Castle

Caldicot Castle to Sudbrook (1.9 miles/3.1 kilometres)

It was a short walk from Caldicot castle to the Severn, passing under the M4, which is the main motorway between London and South Wales and reaches across the river Severn in an impressive structure called the Second Severn Crossing, or the Prince of Wales bridge.  Most times I've been to Wales, I've travelled by train, which passes through the Severn Tunnel, under the river - so it was interesting to see the other option, which is the huge road bridge linking England and Wales.  We also saw the (old) Severn bridge, later in the day, which links Chepstow to South Gloucestershire.

BAM walking on the Wales Coast path near the Second Severn Crossing

It was the day of the Royal Wedding, so more Duke of Sussex than Prince of Wales and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) was quite excited to get an update, via Australia, on the dress that Meghan Markle had chosen to wear.  We stopped briefly at Sudbrook, an interesting little workers' village that sprang up in the 1870's, in response to engineering work on the Severn Tunnel, which passes under the cliff at this point.

The Prince of Wales bridge over the Severn

One of the locals tried to interest us in a series of chalk arrows, a bit of a Da Vinci code moment, that was completely lost on me, but apparently has some esoteric significance to the villagers of Sudbrook!

Weird chalk arrows at Sudbrook

Sudbrook to Mathern (3.2 miles/5.1 kilometres)

It was a nice walk along the Wales Coast path from Sudbrook to St Tewdric's church in Mathern (queue another obscure Welsh saint!) - there were some interesting rocks on the seafront and great views across the Severn to the lighthouse on Charston Rock.  We had a short break in the shade beside St Tewdric's church, as BAM went online to book a ticket for a music festival called The Mighty Hoopla, which we went to a couple of weekends later.

Lighthouse on Charston Rock

Sitting in the shade at St Tewdric's church in Mathern

Mathern to Thornwell (1.3 miles/2.1 kilometres)

From Mathern we walked past an industrial estate to reach Thornwell, an outer suburb of Chepstow, where I managed to convince BAM to stop at Tesco Express for a much-needed ice-cream!  Thornwell had a strange kind of vibe - someone shouted something unintelligible at us, as they were driving past on Denbigh Drive, then we passed Thornwell Football club, where there was a Royal Wedding party - lots of people getting drunk and wearing plastic Union Jack hats!

It's the oldest part of Chepstow, but not the nicest and we were glad to find that the path led us into a lovely wood, above the railway line and with great views towards the Army barracks at Beachley.

Thornwell to Chepstow Castle (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

It was still quite a walk from Thornwell, over the ridge to Chepstow, past the remains of the city walls, then down past the train station to the town centre and the beautiful Chepstow castle.  I found Chepstow to be a slightly higgledy-piggledy place - medieval in its layout, which made it quite interesting.

Chepstow castle

Strangely, it reminded me a bit of Lifford/Strabane, where I grew up, there's a certain 'border' feeling I got in Chepstow - the river, the Army base, the frontier feeling - it all reminded me of home!  Although we don't have a fantastic castle in Lifford, as they do in Chepstow and I couldn't help but wonder if the castle was built to keep the English out, or to keep the Welsh in!

Cas-Gwent railway station

There's an award-winning pizza restaurant called Stone Rock pizza and we can certainly recommend it, as it was quite lovely sitting in the garden at the back of the restaurant, stuffing ourselves in the early evening sunshine. 

Access for Wheelchair users

Inaccessible path between Sudbrook and Mathern

The first part of the walk from Caerwent to Sudbrook was accessible, although you would need to be careful on the stretch of road between Nedern Brook and Sandy Lane.  The path was inaccessible from Sudbrook to Mathern, but Mathern to Chepstow was mostly on a cycle path and seemed fairly accessible, so this walk could form two distinct stages that would be accessible to wheelchair users. 

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Cirencester - Christmas Trees, Hope and Heavy Rain

The fact that I’m writing this blog post on Christmas Eve shows how busy life has been since we did our last Chester walk, more than a month ago, up in the wilds of the Gloucestershire/Wiltshire border.

There’s no train station in Cirencester (pronounced Siren-sester) which seems like a bit of an oversight, so we found ourselves jumping off the train at Kemble, late on a Friday evening, then catching a taxi from Kemble to Cirencester, a mere 12 minutes by car.

Lodgings and victuals

Cirencester

We stayed in the delightful Ivy House BnB, which is on Victoria Road in Cirencester. The BnB owners are just about to retire, so they may not be running Ivy House by the time you read this blog post. It was a bitterly cold night, but we ventured out for a night cap and found a warm welcome at The Bear Inn on Dyer Street, a bar which has loads of books, which made me happy - even if I didn’t have time to read any of the books, I still liked the idea of being surrounded by them.

Church of St John the Baptist to Upper Siddington (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

We really liked Cirencester and I could think of worse places to live, even if, what had been forecast to be a sunny winter’s day turned into a bit of a washout and the rain had come on before we’d properly set out on our walk. We’ve visited many beautiful churches during our series of Chester walks, but I really loved Cirencester’s main church, St John the Baptist. It’s an interesting building, architecturally, and there was a really lovely feeling inside and lots going on, including a display of Christmas trees and a bookshop selling cards, as well as books.

Inside St John the Baptist church in Cirencester

Detail of church organ in Cirencester

Unusual Christmas tree decoration

Hard to believe nowadays, but Cirencester was once one of the most important settlements in Britain, during Roman times, right up there with Colchester and St Alban’s and there is an area of the town, known as the Querns, where you can see the remains of Cirencester's Roman life in the Cirencester Amphitheatre.

We faffed around quite a bit, trying to find a way into the Amphitheatre, walking as far as the roundabout on the Bristol Road, then wandering around Waitrose car park, before we headed along Sheep Street and over the bridge to Cotswold Avenue. The Amphitheatre today is a covered mound of grass and reminded me of the Maumbury Rings in Dorchester, although on a much larger scale.

Roman Amphitheatre at the Querns in Cirencester

The rain started coming on quite heavily, as we made our way through the Love Lane industrial estate, on the edge of Cirencester, towards the suburban village of Siddington.

Upper Siddington to South Cerney (2.8 miles/4.5 kilometres)

We didn't actually pass through Siddington village, but we could see it on the other side of the canal, as we followed the Thames and Severn Way in the direction of South Cerney.  We saw the Thames and Severn Way very briefly, when we were in Stroud last year for the Frocester and Woodchester walk and this is a handy path that, quite literally, links the Thames to the Severn, the Thames side starting in Lechlade, finishing on the Severn at a little village called Upper Framilode. It's 43 miles (69km) in total and follows the old Thames and Severn canal, formerly an important transport route for produce and people across the Cotswolds area.

Canal bridge at Siddington

It took a while to figure out what the symbol of the Thames and Severn Way represents - at first, we thought it might be a train passing through a tunnel, until we realised, it represents a canal boat sailing under a bridge.  It made for pleasant walking and I was quite pleased to find that the ominously named Cowground Bridge didn't have any cows underneath it, just some dog-walkers, bravely bracing the elements.

Symbol of the Thames and Severn Way

We left the Thames and Severn Way just outside South Cerney, as we turned down Northmoor Lane, much to BAM's horror, as it meant walking on the roadside into oncoming traffic (BAM's idea of hell!) It didn't take very long though until we got to the end of Northmoor Lane and turned left into the village.

BAM walking towards South Cerney

South Cerney to Ashton Keynes (2.5 miles/4 kilometres)

We had a short break in South Cerney, sheltering from the rain in the porch of All Hallows church.  South Cerney gets its name, as Cirencester does, from the River Churn, a great name for a river if ever I heard one! It certainly felt like we were churning through the mud and rain on as wet a November day as one could hope to experience.

All Hallows church in South Cerney

Interestingly, the noticeboard at the church had the word Hope in different fonts and it got us thinking about the world we live in today and how important Hope is to people - hope that we won't completely destroy the environment, hope that we won't kill each other in a nuclear war, hope that the next US President might be someone to feel hopeful about!

Noticeboard at All Hallows Church, South Cerney

With hope in our hearts, we continued our walk, passing through beautiful old buildings in South Cerney, having a giggle at the curiously named Bow Wow Lane before turning onto Broadway Lane. Halfway down Broadway Lane, we turned onto a very narrow path between a residential area and an industrial estate, before coming out into the Cotswold Water park and making our way on to the village of Ashton Keynes.

Narrow path off Broadway Lane in South Cerney

Ashton Keynes to Kemble (5.9 miles/9.5 kilometres)

We've been in Ashton Keynes before and, actually, the rest of this walk we'd already done in the opposite direction, when we walked the Thames Path a few years ago. As we left Ashton Keynes, the rain got even heavier and the light was quite dim on this last part of our walk.

Ashton Keynes (Wiltshire)

There weren't many people around, so it felt like we had the countryside all to ourselves. It got dark just as we reached the road into Kemble and, by the time we got there, we were soaked through. We were pretty happy to reach The Tavern Inn near Kemble station, where we changed into our jeans and soft shoes, then dried off a bit, before getting the train back to London.

Thames path near Kemble

Access for Wheelchair Users

Unfortunately, not much of this walk would really be accessible to wheelchair users, although it would be possible to get to the Amphitheatre in Cirencester and wheelchair around there.  In our experience, the roads around this part of Gloucestershire are quite busy, with no footpaths and, therefore, dangerous for wheelchairing.  There's a nice path through the Cotswolds Water Park though that seemed pretty accessible.  

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Cheshunt - Retail, Reservoirs and Regeneration

It would be a real shame to do this Chester series and not have an excuse to include the ancient capital of Britain, founded by the Romans after their invasion in 43 CE. It goes by the name of London these days - you might have heard of it?

Actually, the first real capital was at Colchester, also included in our series of walks and the capital even settled briefly on St Alban's, before permanently establishing itself at Londinium, the main Roman settlement on the River Thames.  By coincidence, we've also been in St Alban's this month, with our walking group, The Odd Weekenders, so we've now visited all three of Britain's Roman capitals!

Of course, Londinium is where we live and, indeed, BAM's lovely new apartment is within 15-miles walking distance from Cheshunt, our main destination for the day.  For once, there was no need for lodging and victuals and the journey to the start of walk at Mile End was quite easy this time for me and BRH (Best Russian Husband) and even easier for BAM (Best Aussie Mate).

Mile End to Hackney Wick (1.8 miles/2.9 kilometres)

Now in the beating heart of East London, Mile End was once at the very edge of a nascent city - a mile beyond the city's Aldgate to be precise, hence the name!  It's an area that BAM knows like the back of her hand, so we let her guide us through Mile End Park and along the Hertford Union canal at the southern end of Victoria Park.

For a big city, London has a surprising number of green spaces and we were really lucky with the weather that day, glorious spring sunshine, which brought out hordes of joggers, dog-walkers and cyclists.

It's really lovely along the canal and this whole area is undergoing yet another period of transformation, as snazzy apartment blocks are popping up like mushrooms along the canal side. In a nice contrast to our last Chester walk (Caerphilly/Cardiff), whereas we ended the last walk with the urban graffiti, joggers and city parks in the capital of Wales, we started this walk with pretty much the same ingredients, but this time in the capital of England!

The Hertford Union canal is a really short one, just about a mile in length and was opened in the 1830's as a link between the Regent's canal and the Lea Valley navigation.  It was the first time I'd ever walked there, but BAM quite often jogs that way, so she's seen this whole area go through various stages of development in the past few years.

Hackney Wick to Springfield Park (2.7 miles/4.3 kilometres)

There's a lot going on in Hackney Wick and, ever since the 2012 London Olympics, this whole area has been gentrifying at a tremendous pace.  At the end of the Hertford Union Canal, we turned north into the River Lea Navigation, past the Copper Box arena, which is where we went to see a couple of Handball matches during the Olympics.

We also walked past an interesting building which is now called Here East and was the media centre during the Olympic games - there are plans to turn this whole area into a high-tech IT hub, a kind of digital city and I have a feeling I'm going to get to know this area quite well in the future!

From Here East we followed the canal towpath along the edge of Hackney Marsh to Lea Bridge, where the (until now) straight canal, takes swings dramatically around an attractive bend surrounded by even more apartment blocks all the way to Springfield Park.

Springfield Park was once part of a private estate, but opened to the public in 1905.  Interestingly, the landscaping work that was done on the park in preparation for opening it to the public, uncovered some Roman artifacts, sarcophagi and shards of pottery, so it was reassuring to know that we were following a path that the Romans had carved out many centuries before us!

We had a nice picnic in the park and enjoyed the sunshine, as we sat at a park bench munching on some chocolate that BAM had brought back from Central America.

Springfield Park to Tottenham Hale (1.3 miles/2.1 kilometres)

As you walk from Hackney Wick, with all of its gentrification to Tottenham Hale, in the London Borough of Haringey, the symbols of economic regeneration and the building boom start disappearing, being replaced by much poorer social housing and signs of deprivation.

No doubt one day places like Upper and Lower Clapton, more famous in the 90's for drug and gun-related crimes will become as gentrified as other parts of London further south but, at least for now, the Boroughs of Hackney, Haringey and Enfield have some serious social issues to deal with.  Whilst researching for this blog post, I found a really interesting website called London's Poverty Profile, which outlines the levels of social deprivation across all London boroughs.

I really love London, having lived in this city for more than 8 years now, so I want to see the city prosper and I hope all Londoners will get a fair chance at life, with the same opportunities as their fellow citizens in more affluent parts of the country, many of which we've also visited during our Chester series of walks.

Tottenham Hale to Enfield Lock (6.4 miles/10.3 kilometres)

After Tottenham Hale the landscape gets noticeably more industrial, as it passes by some of London's biggest industrial estates and retail distribution centres.  We're quite familiar with this walk, as we've done it a couple of times before, namely when we walked the Lea Valley path, back in 2012.  Myself and BAM walked the entire 50-mile Lea Valley path, which starts in Leagrave, not far from Luton and ends at the River Thames in Limehouse Basin.

In this part of London, the path follows the River Lea Navigation past the Tottenham Marshes, alongside a series of reservoirs; Lockwood, Banbury, William Girling, King George, that supply us Londoners with our drinking water.  I've quite often seen these reservoirs from the air, as they stand out quite majestically from the surrounding urban sprawl, when you're coming in on flights from Europe or Asia.

The reservoirs are much more difficult to appreciate at ground level, as they're hemmed in by fences, probably a good thing really, as these protect London's water supply from contamination.

As we plodded along this fairly industrial stretch, BAM entertained us with tales from her most recent adventure diving off Utila, one of Honduras' Bay Islands.  I blogged quite a bit about Honduras, by the way, back in 2013, in case you fancy an armchair trip to this fascinating Central American country.

Enfield Lock to Cheshunt (3.1 miles/5 kilometres)

Enfield Lock definitely has an edgy feeling to it and I first came here in 2009, during my first year in London, when I was walking the 150-mile London Outer Orbital Path, a.k.a. The London Loop.

The Lea Valley path, rather dismissively, crosses the London Loop, obviously not that pleased about its more prominent rival, and heads north out of London towards the M25.  From the M25, it's a fairly short walk through Hertfordshire to the town of Cheshunt, not yet swallowed by the ever-expanding city, but feeling more and more like an outer suburb of London, as the Lea Valley towns get sucked into the excitement of life in the capital.

Despite having walked past Cheshunt twice in the past, I'd never actually walked into the town but, as we were in search of a hearty meal, to end our 15-mile walk, we passed the station and followed Windmill Lane to the town centre on Turner's Hill.

It didn't look too promising at first, but we were lucky to find a really nice restaurant called Fishy Delishy on Cheshunt's College Road.

Access for Wheelchair Users

Pretty much all of this walk would be accessible to wheelchair users, as it follows a very level canal towpath - the trickiest parts would be around the locks, like Enfield Lock, but this is a path that is used by all kinds of people and I would recommend it for wheelchair use. 

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

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Reculver - Maponimoes, Marshes and a very Merry Christmas!

Reculver marked our second foray into Kent, although both myself and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) have walked on the Kent coast several times with our walking group 'The Odd Weekenders' and we're about to embark on a separate project to walk the Saxon Shore way, which runs 163 miles around the coast (well, mostly!) from Gravesend to Hastings.

I have a real soft spot for Kent, as it was the part of England I first stayed in, when I was working in the strawberry farms around Maidstone, many moons ago.  I always enjoy going back there, although the changing politics of the past few years has made Kent seem more isolated and further away from London than ever!

Lodging and victuals

But Kent isn't that far from London at all - at least when the trains are working!  I'm quite delayed in writing this blog post, so the walk itself took place just before Christmas, which meant my being accompanied on the train, late on a Friday evening, by a very glamorous BAM, who dropped into her work Christmas party, before hoofing it down to Kent with me.

Dilapidated house in the heart of Brexitland (not our hotel!)

There's very little at Reculver, by way of accommodation, so we decided to overnight in Herne Bay instead, staying at the Premier Inn Canterbury North.  BAM is quite fond of the Premier Inn and our Chester walks have seen her rising through the ranks of the Premier Inn's card-holding customers, so she gets all kinds of discounts and special treatments these days. She's like Premier Inn royalty now!

Not intimidated by Her Premier's royal presence, I enjoyed a couple of celebratory Christmas drinks at the hotel's on site restaurant, as we exchanged Christmas gifts and played maponimoes, spreading our European map and flag cards all over the table, in what could only be described as an act of open rebellion in that heart of Brexitland.

Premier Inn Canterbury North to Reculver (3.1 miles/5 kilometres)

We started out bright and early the next day, crossing over the railway line, before turning right onto the Reculver Road, leading all the way down to the coast.

It's an easy walk from Herne Bay to Reculver, along the cliff top at Reculver Country park, you get a wonderful view of Reculver's main attraction, the remains of St Mary's Church, its twin towers rising dramatically above the surrounding landscape, with the waves crashing on the seashore just below.

BAM walking towards Reculver

I feel that Reculver is pushing it a bit, as far as chesters go and it's fair to say that the chester connection is barely noticeable in the modern toponym that the village has carried into the 21st century.  But I can vouch for Reculver's chester credentials, as it was the site of a Roman castrum, which they called Regulbium, which became Raculfcaester and eventually, Reculver.

The twin towers of St Mary's, Reculver

Ruins of St Mary's at Reculver

The current ruins of St Mary's date back to the 12th century and the original Anglo-Saxon church on this site was built in the 7th century, being constructed from stone in the ruins of the Roman castrum. Reculver was an important place, once upon a time and I can't help wondering if it could have ended up being the capital of England, if history had dealt it different cards.

Map of the Kentish coast in Roman times

One of my favourite things at the site is a map which shows what Kent looked like in Roman times. Reculver was surrounded by the sea on several sides, being a port on the Wantsum Channel, an ancient body of water that separated the Isle of Thanet from the rest of England.  The land underneath the Wantsum Channel has now been reclaimed, which explains why the Saxon Shore way, which we were following for the first half of this walk, suddenly turns inland, as it follows the original shoreline, known to Romans and Saxons alike.

All of this got me thinking about the fact that there aren't many European capitals that are on the sea - London, Paris, Berlin, Rome - they're all a safe distance from invading armies!  Reculver would have been a seaside capital, in the tradition of Dublin, Venice, Barcelona and, as we gazed across the empty landscape towards Thanet, I tried to imagine a city of millions spread out in front of me - a kind of, London-by-the-Sea!

Reculver to Grays Farm (1.7 miles/2.8 kilometres)

So far, so familiar territory.  The real adventure was leaving the coast at Reculver and following the Saxon Shore way along the former Wantsum Channel, passing under the railway again and coming up to the road at Grays Farm.

Reclaimed land in the Wantsum Channel

The A299 hurtled beneath us, uninterested in the details of our journey, as these roads rarely are.  It's an impressive road, all the same, and was built in the 1930's as an unemployment relief project, easing the pressure on Canterbury, where previously, all traffic to the Isle of Thanet had to pass through.

The A299 aka The Thanet Way

Grays Farm to Boyden Gate (2.1 miles/3.3 kilometres)

It was a very beautiful walk from Grays Farm to Boyden Gate.  Although it's winter, you could still get a sense of Kent as the Garden of England and we passed through lots of orchards, some of which still had apples on the trees.  Like East Anglia, Kent is surprisingly depopulated and we really felt this in the lonely landscape around the Chislet Marshes, with no sign of human life at all, just the odd farmhouse and lonely trees in the middle of fields.

Lonely road along the edge of Chislet Marshes

Orchard near Boyden Gate

There wasn't much life in Boyden Gate either, but we'll always remember it as the place where we had possibly the most precarious lunch break ever, perched on a collapsed bench at the end of Chapel Lane!  I had a yummy sandwich with turkey and cranberry sauce - a bit extravagant, but in keeping with the Yuletide spirit.

Fallen apples

Bench at Church Lane, Boyden Gate

Boyden Gate to Grove Ferry (1.9 miles/3 kilometres)

From Boyden Gate, we crossed a field leading to the intriguingly named Chitty Lane and continued along the edge of the marshes, over Walmer's Hill, across Island Road and then downhill to the River Stour at Grove Ferry.

Lonely tree on Walmer's Hill

Riverside at Grove Ferry

Grove Ferry looked like a pleasant place, with an attractive riverside pub and we're familiar with the River Stour, having walked along it once before, from Tonbridge to Hever.  There is another Stour in Suffolk, which is where Constable painted the works around Dedham Vale - I've also been there and I can say that Kent's Stour is just as pretty, if not as well-known as its East Anglian cousin.

Swan boat at Grove Ferry

Grove Ferry to Stodmarsh (2.4 miles/3.8 kilometres)

At Grove Ferry we bade farewell to the Saxon Shore way and picked up the Stour Valley way, heading southwest towards the village of Stodmarsh.

This part of the walk was incredibly beautiful and wild - like being in another country really and so far-removed from civilisation.  Stodmarsh is the site of a well-looked after national nature reserve and the bird life was teeming around the marsh and lakes of the Stodmarsh valley.

Stodmarsh valley

Stodmarsh is an incredibly pretty village and there was some kind of service going on in St Mary's Church.  As we sat on a bench in the village green, we watched handsomely dressed young couples, taking their babies and young children for a walk and a break, no doubt, from the tedium of the service.

St Mary's at Stodmarsh

Stodmarsh village sign

Stodmarsh to Fordwich (2.6 miles/4.2 kilometres)

We followed the road from Stodmarsh, all the way to Elbridge Farm, where I bought some apples, depositing my coins in the honesty box.  The path dipped into a field full of cows, which BAM bravely faced, as I stuck to the road, embracing my bovinophobia!

The path through Trenleypark Wood

At Elbridge Farm, we left the road and followed the Stour Valley way through Trenleypark Wood, emerging at the river again, just outside Fordwich, yet another pretty little village.

We had a lovely meal at the George and Dragon in Fordwich, splashing out on mains, drinks and dessert (must have been the Christmas spirit!) before crossing the river to Sturry, where we picked up our early evening train back to London.

Access for Wheelchair users

Country road near Chislet

The way between Herne Bay and Reculver is pretty accessible and a lovely route to follow.  The former Wantsum Channel is pretty inaccessible, however the roads around Grays Farm, Boyden Gate and Chislet would make for very good wheelchairing.

The Stour valley path is pretty inaccessible to wheelchair users on the Grove Ferry side and the Stodmarsh Road is quite busy, so I wouldn't recommend it, although a visit to Stodmarsh would be worthwhile and the Stour Valley path from Stodmarsh is accessible to a certain point - it could make a nice round trip from the village.  

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse them under the following Creative Commons license:

- Attribution (especially to this blog post)
- Share-alike

- Non-commercial