My Darent Valley Walk - Part 1 Farningham to Lullingstone

The tranquil River Darent flows from the hills near Sevenoaks down to the River Thames at Dartford.

I was fortunate enough to have been brought up in this part of Kent and, having done some research on the family tree, it would appear that many of my ancestors were too!

A 19 mile waymarked route called the Darent Valley Path links the towns of Dartford and Sevenoaks and it is my intention to walk the whole route, eventually, as time permits.

To date I have managed to walk two stages. Namely from Horton Kirby through to Farningham and then from Farningham through to Lullingstone. Most people would start from one end or the other but I chose to start in the middle....

In this post I will tell you about the walk I did recently from Farningham to Lullingstone (and back again via a very circuitous route!).

My walk started from the Lion Hotel at Farningham on the banks of the river.

I walked out of Farningham village along the quaintly named Spare Penny Lane. This narrow country lane runs parallel to the river which flows through the valley below. Even on a weekday it was very quiet with only a handful of cars. A nice change from the usual daily hustle and bustle.

On one side of the lane are orchards and fields. On the other, some very nice (and expensive) houses. As you can see, we have very environmentally friendly lawn mowers here in Kent.

A short way along the lane I stumbled across a poignant memorial to New Zealander Flight Lieutenant James Paterson M.B.E. of 92 Squadron R.A.F. who died when his Spitfire X4422 was shot down and crashed nearby on 27th September 1940.

One of Churchill's "few" many thousands of miles from home but not forgotten.

The memorial was erected by the Shoreham Aircraft Museum which I wrote about last year (see The White Cross of Shoreham at the foot of this post). Their aim is to place a memorial for each and every Battle of Britain pilot that lost their life within a ten mile radius of their museum.

Continuing along Spare Penny Lane and approaching the outskirts of the next village, Eynsford, I came across the ruined castle.

Eynsford Castle was built around 1085 shortly after the Norman Conquest. Following a fire in the 1200's it eventually fell into disrepair and was later even used as a kennels for hunting dogs. The castle is now under the care of English Heritage and open to the public (admission free - at time of writing at least).

The waymarked Darent Valley Path directs you away from Eynsford but I would strongly recommend you make a diversion away from the path and take a look at the very picturesque and historic village itself.

The ford across the River Darent from which the village takes it's name. The church of St Martin of Tours was built in the 12th century although, as is often the case in Kent, it may be on the site of an earlier Saxon structure.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I do not usually have much luck with churches. They are almost invariably locked when I try to have a look around. However, on this occasion my luck was in for a change.

A close up of the clock which was inscribed in 1903 with "Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be" taken from Robert Browning's "Rabbi Ben Ezra".

Inside, the church is very plain in comparison to many other churches I have visited in Kent.

Back on the waymarked route the path starts to climb steadily up the side of the valley across open farmland and passing the impressive nine arched red brick Eynsford railway viaduct built in 1859.

There is an unmanned crossing over the railway lines which brings you into a large open field and affords great views along the valley towards Lullingstone.

Unfortunately somewhere around about this point, there was a cock up on the map reading front Reggie! Yes, I know, I know how can anyone get lost on a simple waymarked path?...

Anyway, due to my inadvertent navigational error I somehow ended up continuing up hill and through Lullingstone Golf Course (instead of downhill towards the river). Ah hum.
  
The upside of this error was that I had to walk through some woodland which was absolutely carpeted with bluebells. Eventually I got back on track and found my way down the bottom of the valley to the Lullingstone Visitor Centre.

This Centre is run by Kent County Council and contains a (very expensive) cafe, toilets and a small book/gift shop. There is a pay and display car park which is very busy at weekends. (Picture by Indigoprime)

I treated myself to an extortionately priced Bakewell tart and cup of tea before setting off again along the river bank back towards Eynsford. The path leads past the Tudor gate house to Lullingstone Castle, ancestral home of the Hart-Dykes.
Continuing on I came to the site of the Lullingstone Roman Villa which is open to the public.

The remains of the villa, which were discovered accidentally by workmen digging post holes during the mid 18th century, include several very well preserved mosaic floors. Well worth a visit.
  
I took another country lane passing under the towering Eynsford viaduct that I'd seen from above earlier in the day and headed back into the village.

Rather than follow the Darent Valley Path back to Farningham once more, I decided to take another footpath out of Eynsford, up the side of the valley, across open farmland towards the hamlet of Maplescombe.

It was quite an uphill hike but the view was well worth the effort. After a mile or so across country, the footpath joined Maplescombe Lane and I followed this back to the Lion Hotel at Farningham just in the nick of time as the Heavens decided to open!

UPDATE - for Part 2 of My Darent Valley Walk please see here

If you have any comments about this post, please feel free to let me know. They are always welcome.

If you have enjoyed this post, you may also like -

The Saxon Shore Way

Walk around Grenham Bay

The White Cross of Shoreham, Kent

Tracing the Family Tree in Chelsfield Kent

They Burned for Their Beliefs!

Some may think that religious extremism and intolerance is a modern day phenomena born out of the troubles in the Middle East.....

In a bleak disused cemetery on East Hill, Dartford stands a stark monument to three Protestant martyrs burnt at the stake for their beliefs in 1555.

The burnings took place at the behest of Queen Mary - Bloody Mary!

The staunchly Catholic Queen was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. She was crowned Queen of England and Ireland on 19th July 1553 following the early death of her Protestant half brother King Edward VI from tuberculosis and a failed attempt at placing Lady Jane Grey on the throne by the Dudleys.

Initially Mary was a popular Queen but her decision to marry Prince Philip of Spain, who later became King Philip II, was widely distrusted by her English subjects and lead to uprisings in various part of the country which were ruthlessly suppressed.

Despite the disquiet, the marriage went ahead on 25th July 1554.

The Queen made it her mission to zealously reverse the Protestant policies introduced by her father King Henry VIII during the Reformation and continued by her half brother Edward, and return England to the Catholic faith.

Protestants from all walks of life, not only the clergy, were heavily persecuted and tried for heresy if they refused to recant their beliefs.

In total nearly three hundred Protestants were executed, mainly by burning, during Mary's short reign of just over five years. Protestants in Kent suffered particularly with more than sixty perishing in the so called the Marian Persecutions.

The Dartford memorial commemorates the names of three of the Kent martyrs - Christopher Waid, Nicholas Hall and Margery Polley.


In June 1555 Christopher Waid, a linen-weaver, and Nicholas Hall, a bricklayer, both from Dartford, were arrested and charged with heresy due to their Protestant beliefs and failure to recant.

They were tried by the notorious Bishop of Rochester, Maurice Griffiths. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to be publicly burnt at the stake.

Christopher Waid's execution was fixed for the 17th July 1555 and Nicholas Hall for the 19th July (coincidentally the second anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne). Hall met his fate in Rochester.


Christopher Waid was taken early in the morning of the 17th July to the Brent (in Dartford) - at that time an area of heath land - and put into a gravel pit which was often used for the execution of common criminals.

Waid and Margery Polley, the third person commemorated on the Dartford memorial, had been placed in the charge of the Sheriff and his men.

Polley was a widow from Pembury near Tonbridge who had earlier been tried and sentenced to death by the Bishop of Rochester, Maurice Griffiths. She was the first women to be executed in the Marian persecutions.

Polley was brought to the Brent on the way to her own execution in Tonbridge which took place the next day.


Margery Polley said to Christopher Waid, on seeing in the distance the large crowd assembled to witness his execution : " You may rejoice to see such a company gathered to celebrate your marriage this day,".

Waid and Polley then sang a psalm together.

(Incidentally, it is recorded that "divers fruiterers came with horse loads of cherries and sold them to the many people who had come to witness the martyrdom". )

Waid was stripped of his clothes and dressed in a long white garment. He was then led to the stake, which he embraced. A pitch barrel having been placed near him, he was fastened to the stake with a metal hoop by a local cooper.

As soon as this was done, he looked up to Heaven and, with a loud and cheerful voice, said :

"Shew me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed : because Thou, Lord, hast helped me and comforted me "

Near the stake was a raised mound with a platform on which stood a friar holding a Bible.

Christopher Waid saw the friar and urged the watching crowd to " heed the Gospel and beware of the errors of Rome."

The Sheriff interrupted Waid, saying : "Be quiet, Waid, and die patiently."

Waid said : "I am quiet, thank God, and so trust to die."

Faggots (bundles of branches) were then piled around Waid, who is said, with his own hands to have opened a space for his face to be seen, and so that he could see the crowd.

His voice was heard repeatedly saying : " Lord Jesus, receive my soul ! "

With no sign of cowardice, no longer able to speak, he finally put his hands over his head and towards Heaven before perishing in the flames.

Mary's reign of terror ended with her death on 17th November 1558. She had not produced an heir from her marriage to Philip and the crown passed to her Protestant half sister Elizabeth (daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn).

If you have found this post interesting, please feel free to leave a comment. They are always very welcome.

Further reading.....

Day trip to Rochester

Sir Cloudesley Shovell

Milton Church, Gravesend - Porcupines and Masons

Milton Church, Gravesend - Porcupines and Masons!

I have been living in Gravesend for just over ten years now and a few weeks ago I was walking into town with the family when we noticed that they were holding a coffee morning for the local Ellenor Lions Hospice at the St Peter & St Paul Church (also known as Milton Church) and decided to call in.

We must have walked past the church at least a hundred times before and without giving it a second thought.

The decorated side gate in East Milton Road erected in 1950 depicts the striking, if somewhat surreal, Coat of Arms of Gravesend under the Charter of 1568 depicting a porcupine steering a boat with five hooded rowers (or possibly monks).

By way of explanation, the porcupine is thought to be a mark of respect to Sir Henry Sidney of Penshurst Place near Tonbridge.

The Sidneys were granted Penshurst Place by King Henry VIII's son Edward VI - they had been respected Royal courtiers for many years.

Sir Henry used the porcupine in his coat of arms. It would appear, however, that he in turn took the use of the porcupine in his coat of arms from King Louis XII of France.

The porcupine was deemed to be a symbol of invincibility.

I was a bit puzzled to see a porcupine featuring on the coat of arms as I thought they only came from North America and therefore wouldn't have been known to Europeans in the 1400's

/1500's....

I decided to do some digging and after lots of trawling through the internet I came up with the answer to the mystery!

It would appear that porcupines do indeed live in the wild in Italy as well as North Africa.

The French fought several battles in Northern Italy during the reign of King Louis XII and it is therefore concievable that they would have come across porcupines on their travels.

In fact the word porcupine does derive from the French "porc d'epine" meaning thorny or spined pig.

By the way, did you know a group of porcupines is called a prickle? (groan)

The boat and rowers symbolise Gravesend's important position on the River Thames. Oarsmen from Gravesend had the rights to ferry passengers to and from London and across the River to Essex.

If you follow the path leading from the side gate to the church you will come across an interesting grave stone...

At first glance you may imply from the skull and crossed bones that it is in some way connected with piracy.

It is in fact a masonic gravestone. Apart from the skull and crossed bones it shows other masonic symbols including the letter G (top centre), the chequered floor, the sun, a square and compass.

The letter G represents God, the Supreme Being and Architect of the Universe and also stands for geometry.

Unfortunately the inscription on the gravestone is very worn - not really surprising when it dates back to about 1760.

There has been a church on the site at Milton since Saxon times although the present day church "only" dates back to the 14th century.

More posts you may enjoy....

The White Cross of Shoreham

Tracing the Family Tree in Chelsfield, Kent