Length: 20.1 km (12.5 miles)
Toughness: 4 out of 10
Either
London St Pancras: 10-10 hrs South Eastern High Speed service to Canterbury West
Arrive Ashford International: 10-48 hrs Change trains
Leave Ashford International : 10-57 hrs South Eastern stopping service from Charing X to Canterbury West
Arrive Chilham: 11-09 hrs
Or
London Charing Cross: 09-34 hrs South Eastern stopping service to Canterbury West London Bridge 09-43 hrs Sevenoaks 10-08 hrs Ashford International: 10-57 hrs (as above)
Arrive Chilham: 11-09 hrs
Return
Canterbury West to St Pancras: 22 mins past the hour
Canterbury West to Charing X: 07 mins past the hour
Canterbury East to London Cannon Street: 47 mins past the hour. Change at Swanley for Charing X and (possibly) London Victoria
Rail ticket buy a day return to Canterbury Stations If travelling from St Pancras on the HS1 service you will need to pay the high speed supplement.
We usually post this walk on Good Friday for those walkers who do not have church or family commitments today. With Easter being late this year, the walk benefits from two fine bluebell displays - one late morning in the woods where your route may be obstructed by fallen trees - and in the afternoon as you enjoy fine views of Canterbury below you as you leave the University campus.
The morning leg takes you mostly over fields to Chartham, where you have a choice of two pubs for an early lunch. The Artichoke is just off the walk route, whilst The Local (much better than its unimaginative name) is some 800 metres off route. Otherwise, your lunch pub option on this walk comes much later, in the village of Blean, at the Hare at Blean. Picnickers usually stop in the village of Chartham Hatch in the playground where there are four picnic tables and benches.
After Chartham the walk continues at first alongside the River Great Stour, then it is inland via apple orchards and hop fields before you reach the village of Upper Hambledown - where you enter Church Wood then Blean Woods Nature Reserve. Leaving these woods you are soon in the extensive grounds of the University of Kent, which you walk through before reaching the University campus. You pass through the campus and find yourselves above the city of Canterbury, with views below you of the Canterbury Cathedral and bluebells in the woods over to your left. Downhill now on a grassy way and then you walk along residential streets which take you into the city centre.
The Cathedral is usually closed to visitors on Good Friday due to its church services today. You don't need to pay the visitor fee of £ 19-50 if you wish to attend Said Evensong at 5-30 pm in the atmospheric Cathedral Crypt. Whilst Coral Evensong might be more uplifting, the Said service is pleasant - and a nice church fix for Good Friday - and lasts about 30 mins.
You have a choice of railway stations for your journey home. The service from Canterbury East is a very slow service to Cannon Street - so I recommend you head for Canterbury West where trains run back to St Pancras and Charing X. To the side of the station you find the Goods Shed - a good refreshment stop for walk-end.
Enjoy your pilgrimage today.
T=1.28
Walk Directions are here L=1.28
2 comments:
N=6 on a day that was w=mostly-sunny-clouding-later A pleasant walk with plenty flowers. Wood anemone, celandine, cuckoo flower, hesitant bluebells, wood spurge
Hopes of an early stop in Chartham were dashed. The pub was fully booked (4 bookings). The majority decided to move on. No cider for Mr Tiger ‘sigh’ They moved on a bit fast and Mr Tiger was soon left in their slipstream. But don’t you worry readers, they caught him up eventually. “More haste, less speed”, he thought smugly.
It was noted a bit further on, a garden centre boasted a “cafe / restaurant” that could serve as a lunch stop. Not that we tried it.
There was a picnic stop later in a playground, Then on.
No Mans Orchard was awash with cuckoo flower, (attractive to orange tips, one explained).
The woods on the way to Blean are not the easiest to navigate and several confessed afterward to having gone slightly adrift. Luckily good old GPS, pulled us back on track, before the (invisible) bison could eat us.
In Blean, a teensy diversion led to the Blean Hare. At last, drinkies. Then on through the university and into Canterbury. Here your correspondent found himself unexpectedly close to a relly’s house and disappeared from the group without so much as a goodbye..
One more missed train, walked independently, starting from Chartham. Makes n=7
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