We met at London Bridge for a 10 mile walk through the lovely Kent countryside on what turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with a cold breeze to begin which dissipated as the day wore on.  Two more polyramblers joined us at East Croydon and we arrived at Hever Station 20 strong.   It was pleasing to have such a good turn out.   A lot of other folk (not polyramblers) disembarked at Hever too, all going to Hever Castle I thought.  

After a briefing, we headed out through the countryside passing the entrance to the castle which was the seat of the Bullen family made famous by Anne Boleyn, the unfortunate second wife of Henry VIII.   We passed through the churchyard of St Peter’s church (Anne’s father is buried within the church) and then on to the village of Chiddingstone which is owned by the National Trust.   On the way, we negotiated the only stile on the walk, the rest all being gates of various kinds.   There were also one or two muddy areas to get through but apart from that the going was very dry.  We had our picnic lunch outside the Castle pub which was unfortunately still closed due to a collapsed medieval well somewhere on the premises!  A sign said it is due to re-open later this month.  A nearby cafe was useful for hot drinks as well as having handy toilet facilities.

After lunch we paid a brief visit to the Chiding stone which is a large sandstone rock where people were supposedly scolded in times past.   Hence our word ‘chided’.   Then off across the top of a hill with beautiful views.  We descended through very dry fields heading for Penshurst village.  Most of the walk was undulating with low hills and gentle gradients with a few steeper climbs occasionally presenting themselves.  We had to negotiate a busy road before entering some parkland and seeing the rather magnificent view of Penshurst Place which suddenly emerged before us.   Nearby we  stopped to visit St John the Baptist Church, Penshurst, on the outside of which there is an old stone Dole table where food was given to the poor on special days.   Stephen produced his delicious and healthy cakes and presented them on the Dole table along with a hummus salad from Lan and sweets provided by Mick and Dolly.

After this we visited the Leicester Arms pub which is only a few minutes away in the village.  We enjoyed a half hour there and then set off for the final section of the walk.   We were about two thirds along our route by this time and had another hour’s walk ahead of us.  We climbed a steep but short hill the other side of the village and then after a while descended through fields crossing the river Medway and its tributaries several times before arriving in Leigh.  Apparently this is pronounced ‘Lie’ locally.   We arrived at the station and had a short wait before catching the 17.05 to Redhill from which there were services to London stations.   

It had been a good day out I thought.

Chris

Photos from Ida, Lan, Patricia, Steven and Joyanna