Ten Poly Ramblers were on this walk which followed part of the Royal Military Canal. The notes for this walk say: ‘The canal was hastily constructed in the early 19th century to protect England from a threatened Napoleonic invasion which never came. The project was soon being condemned as an extravagant military folly. Napoleon whose armies had crossed the Rhine and the Danube was hardly likely to be deterred by this innocuous waterway.´ The canal is 28 miles long and goes from Hythe, Kent, to Cliff End in East Sussex.
After walking through Ham Street, we joined and followed the mighty canal, passing cows who thankfully ignored us. We left the canal, crossed the railway line and reached St Matthew’s Church in Warehorne.  We had a look around the church and used the facilities. We did not stop at the nice looking Woolpack Inn as it was too early. We continued through freshly harvested wheat fields to Kenardington Church standing away from its village. We had a quick look around the church and, after crossing more wheat fields, we reached Gusbourne Vineyard, a quite sizeable estate unknown to us. We met people doing a tour of the vineyard, glass in hand (£100 per person for a tasting tour with a three-course lunch paired with wine).  After making sure none of the Poly Ramblers had surreptitiously joined the tour, we reached the Mound. Chris is in charge of providing further information about this fascinating feature as he showed interest in it.  After looking at the view of Romney Marsh, we left the Mound, crossed a few fields and arrived in Appledore. We picnicked in the churchyard and had a drink in the Black Lion pub except for Ida who went to Miss Mollett’s High Class Tea Room hoping to see the ginger cat, but it was in the house next door. She had tea and apple cake instead.
Most of the afternoon walk was on the broad grassy strip along the canal. We left it by crossing a ditch on a footbridge with awkward stiles at both ends and heading to Warehorne Church. We did not stop in the church again and made our way to Ham Street via a number of fields.
In addition to the 10 mile walk, there wasthe option to do  another two miles in Ham Street Woods, a National Nature Reserve, at the end of the day. I said at the beginning that, if people were keen, we could do this walk. But we all seemed to have forgotten about it and headed straight to the Dukes Head pub or the station.

Dominique.  Photos by Ida

PS:  Chris’s research into the Mound has found that it is a Windmill Mound.  The site had a post mill used for milling corn from the 16th to the 18th century.