The answer....................

 This is just a quick post to answer a question that I frequently get asked - which is why, when I go to a village or small town to explore, I generally start with the church.

Well, it's quite simply history. You can go to a city or a notable town, and the history is apparent. Big buildings, statues of the famous etc. But that's not where my interest lies. You can read any number of books on say, the Tower of London, or the monarchs of Great Britain, but I like finding the obscure, the odd and unwritten titbits of history, the social life of an area, and as the church was inevitably the centre of a community, that's where the history is recorded.

In the words of Sir John Betjeman:

'Our churches are our history shown, in wood and glass and iron and stone"

Just for a change - Sussex.

 Yesterday I caught a train. Unusually for me, I took a train even though it was no great distance and the weather was good. But I was heading for Rye. At the moment, the bike park on the Strand at Rye is being used by a company that is working on the waterways down there and it has made access even more tricky than it usually is, and it occurred to me, that in all my years, I have never been on a train travelling on the old diesel line that goes down that way. We also have 2 of the bikes partially off the road at the moment.

Anyway - Rye. Rye is ancient, and has seen more than its' fair share of history. It was one of our major Cinque Ports, and, in the 14th. century, was attacked by the French and burnt to the ground. It was also a hotbed of smuggling activity, and they left quite a mark on the town.

It is also steep. Very steep............

I took LOTS of pictures. Such a beautiful and historic place deserves it. It took me 4 hours last night to update this blog, so head on over to the Sussex page, if you will, and see what I found

At last................sunshine!

 this year summer has been one of the coldest and wettest on record, but finally, we have  had a few days of sunshine. Enough, in fact, for us to get the two little bikes out and go for a picnic.
We ended up in Egerton, a tiny village, and ate our picnic at a bench table on the pretty green. 
The green is conveniently placed next to the church, so I took the opportunity to have a look round. Being such a small village (less than 1,000 residents) I didn't expect much of historical interest. I was surprised........... go take a look.................

Yesterday's ride

 It was not a good weather day, and there's a train driver's overtime ban on at the moment. So I opted to stay local and carry on looking at local places. Well, I found a lot of things I didn't know about, and got to talk to a lot of strangers.

For some reason, people are curious as to why I'm taking photos of stuff they actually never noticed before. Anyway, a couple of those people filled in gaps in my local knowledge, and I was able to do the same for one person.

So here's a huge thanks to the organist at Lympne church, the lovely church warden in Dymchurch, and the smashing young lady doing the cleaning at St. Eanswythe's

As a further bonus, only 3 of the 15 or so churches I visited were locked.

Why would I go to so many churches when I'm not a Christian? It's because for centuries, the church was the heart of the community, and that's where the lesser-known histories remain

Did so much yesterday, it took me till midnight to update the two Kent pages.