- Start: Bearsted Train Station, Bearsted, Kent
- Finish: Charing Train Station, Charing, Kent
- Distance: 23.22 km
- Time: 07 hours 45 minutes 25 seconds
Day 2 began where yesterday left off, Bearsted station. The weather was expected to be a little cooler, with a chance of rain, and we were raring to go. The walk back up to the Pilgrim’s Way was taken at a more leisurely speed than we had descended yesterday afternoon and we took time to visit the pretty church of St Mary the Virgin at Thurnham.
This 12th century building apparently has a reredos screen which was made in Oberammergau, home of the Passion Play, but unfortunately despite it being Sunday, it wasn’t open.😞
Further into the village we discovered a Victoria R post box,
so I kept an eye out for the rest of the day and discovered an Edward VII one in Hollingbourne and a George V one (now painted black as it is disused) in Charing.
I foresee a new collecting hobby, apparently George VI boxes are really rare!
As can be seen from the map above, todays route was pretty straightforward, and straight! The pleasant weather lent itself to a gentle stroll in the woods,
more than occasionally interrupted by inconvenient vehicles, Kent will be Kent!
We passed through Hollingbourne, notable for it’s 13th century Inn, ‘the Dirty Habit’,
and interesting pilgrims/cycling mural,
then Harrietsham, where we stopped for a picnic alongside Brother Percival.
In Lenham we visited the Lenham Cross, a large chalk cross carved into the hill above the village commemorating the local fallen in both world wars.
This memorial is also a particular focus for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. On the 24th of June 1944 only a few weeks after D-Day, a V1 bomb (doodlebug), landed on a REME workshop in Lenham, killing 46 members of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade outright, with many more injured, (six died later of their wounds). The unit had been preparing to travel to France from Gosport to support the D-day landings and the loss of so many highly skilled ‘Craftsmen’ was a great blow. Security meant that the dead were buried the following day in a mass grave in Lenham Churchyard, though meticulous records as to the placing of the bodies were made, so that after the war the Commonwealth War Graves Commission could erect appropriate gravestones.
It remains the largest loss of life of REME members in a single event and as a result the regiments relationship with Lenham is enduring. There is loads of further information, here.
https://www.rememuseum.org.uk/blog/remembering-the-lenham-incident
Back to the more distance past, our last stop today was in Charing. Charing is only a day’s journey by horse from Canterbury and as a result was the last stop for more prosperous pilgrims before they reached their destination. Charing Palace was owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury since at least 959 AD and served as an overnight residence on the journey between Canterbury and London, for the Archbishop himself and his retinue as well as any number of illustrious and even regal guests. Multiple Monarchs stayed here, including Henry VIII and his Court on their way to the ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’ in the last few years before he finally broke with Rome.
After the dissolution the palace fell on harder times and what is left is now a rather dilapidated farm.
The Church of St Peter and St Paul in Charing is however suitably impressive and was clearly well endowed.
The village is proud of its Christian values, this small window in the side of the the former workhouse being presented as evidence of their good works 🙄
We reached the train station in plenty of time this evening and will be back in Charing tomorrow morning, to resume our journey towards ‘Cair Ceint’ (Celtic name for Canterbury).
