Ascent/Descent:
90/84m (main walk)
Net
Walking Time: ca. 5 ½ hours (main walk)
Toughness:
3 out of 10 (main walk)
Take
the 10.10 Dover Priory train from London Victoria (Bromley South 10.27),
arrives Teynham 11.20.
South
East Londoners may
just about prefer the 09.46 Thameslink train from Blackfriars to
Sevenoaks (via Elephant & Castle, Herne Hill etc.; change Bromley South (10.22/10.27)).
Returns from Faversham are on
xx.02 and xx.37 to Victoria, xx.52 to Cannon
Street via Greenwich and LBG, and xx.58 to St. Pancras (High
Speed surcharge needed). Buy a Faversham return.
This
is a flat walk leading initially through ‘The Larder of London’, or the
‘Fruit Bowl of England’, the area around Teynham, not only the home of
English cherries, but also with plentiful orchards of apples, pears, plums,
strawberries and raspberries, as well as foraging opportunities for cherry
plums, elderberries and blackberries. The area also used to be a large exporter
of timber, grain and oysters. The local brick earth and chalk make the area
fertile for fruit, but also were the foundation for the many brickfields
in Teynham, Conyer and Faversham, remnants of which are passed en route. The
bricks were an important source in London’s Victorian building boom, and were
transported to London by the famous sailing barges, ruined remnants of which
can be seen on the walk’s Conyer Creek option.
From
Conyer you follow the Saxon Shore Way along The River Swale, a tidal channel
between mainland Kent and the Isle of Sheppey, and then along some creeks, with
mudflats, salt marshes and fishing boats on the one side and the stark
but beautiful landscape of drainage ditches and dykes, fertile meadows and
windswept grazing marshes on the other, an unspoilt and tranquil haven for
walkers, livestock and wildlife alike. Oare Marshes NR, passed late in the
afternoon, is an internationally important birdlife sanctuary.
You
finish in Faversham’s bustling streets past the stunning Market Place
and its many cafés and eateries.
Plentiful
options enable walk lengths from as short as 13.6 km/8.4 mi to as long as 29.2 km/18.1
mi. See
the route map here.
Lunch:
The Plough Inn in Lewson Street (6.1 km/3.8 mi, food 12.00-14.30), The
Ship at Conyer in Conyer (10.3 km/6.4 mi, food all day), The Three Mariners at Oare in Oare (11-12 km into the walk if taking one of the early morning
shortcuts, food to 15.00), The Castle Inn in Oare (11-12 km into
the walk if taking one of the early morning shortcuts).
Tea:
Numerous
options close to and in Faversham, see pdf page 2.
For
walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml
files click here.
T=swc.299
5 comments:
I was in the Guildford area on Sunday and there were oodles of ripe damsons (wild plums): so I would say foraging opportunities on this walk will be good
Just for the benefit of doubt: I am discouraging the picking of fruit or berries in active, commercial orchards or farms or in private gardens, plenty of which we will be walking through or past. But there are more than enough opportunities to pick from trees and bushes on public ground (roadside and pathside) as well as in some clearly disused orchards. Just saying...
17 on the platform, 2 others on the overbridge across the tracks (by car from 7oaks), plus 1 early starter subsumed into the group during the morning stretch, i.e. n=20 in w=sunny-with-some-clouds weather. Perfect temperatures, I thought, for this walk, feeling a touch warmer than the proclaimed 17 deg, and with the finest of breezes as well. The clouds made for great skies in the pm along the flat marshlands and the creeks of The Swale.
Apples and pears, plums and damsons were in great condition, the also plentiful sloes need a few more weeks. The commercial orchards and fruit farms gave a great picture as most of the fruits are still on the trees, very colurful indeed. There were good pickings to be had along roads and in old orchards, plus the odd fallen fruit to harvest. Most seem to have walked the main walk version, although a few threw in the sly Cellarhill shortcut into the equasion. About 10 ate at The Ship in Conyer, mostly at outside tables. Pub classics I'd say about the menu, but very good quality at that. We then hit The Swale at low tide getting lower, so there were plenty of waders at work, and also plenty of twitchers about with their slightly scary looking massive telescopes.
About 10 walkers could later be seen in the garden of The Shipwright's Arms in Hollowshore, before the final leg into Faversham, where a few others had a convivial one in one of the many establishments in town. 18.37 train for my group and a few others.
Thanks Thomas - and apart from thanking you for posting - and informally leading - such a lovely walk, may I again add my thanks to you and Karen for making such a supreme effort to turn up for the walk after your adventures the day before in Wiltshire. Whilst most would have stayed in bed and had a lie-in after your respective awful journeys home, the two of you made that extra effort to come on your posted walk. The other eighteen of us on the walk much appreciated this - and like me, they all had a great day.
Delicious damsons, too !
3 of us took the Road short cut to the station and had tea and drinks before catching the 6pm train to Victoria.
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