walking into history

 Less than two miles from my house, is a small village that I never go to. And all because, when they built a new road to bypass the village, they effectively seperated it from the estate where I live.

However, you can see the village church clearly from anywhere in the locality, as it stands tall and proud on a mound at the highest point of the village. Every time I go down that road, I think, I really must go and take a look.

So today, I made time to do just that - not just the church, but the entire village. And I was amazed at what I found.

Now - I'm going to start putting up the pictures and writing the piece to go with them. I need to do a lot of research first, into not just the buildings, but some of the people who were obviously important to the village.  

There is a V.C buried in the churchyard whose name I didn't recognise, and there is one corner of the church that is purely in memorium of members of one family, who really were important to the village. I'd never heard of them either.

I'm going to paint a concise picture of the church and village, and then do some research on the people, and write my findings up as and when I can. Therefore, you may have to call back from time to time, to discover what I've found.

So - the village is called Great Chart, and it will appear on the Kent2 page.

No let up on the weather.

 But at least the rain was only showers today.

Was feeling a bit bored with being shut in the house, so decided to take a little stroll around the less obvious parts of the town centre. 

At last! I managed to get into the parish church - well, for a half hour. Then I got asked to leave, as they wanted to lock up.

It's a magnificent place, and I really need to sort out which mornings it's open for a couple of hours for coffee, so that I can have an in-depth scrutiny of everything.

Still, I did my best, and the results have been added to the Ashford chapter on Kent1

So, I also need a map of the layout of the Old Graveyard in Canterbury Road. I know that what I want is in the Catholic Section, but I don't know where that is in relation to the entrance.

A visit to the Ashford Museum when it's open is in order too.

Quick trip out for a birthday meal

 Been too busy lately to be able to get out and about visiting places and doing research. 

Hopefully, I can resume shortly. In the meantime, tonight we went for a meal in a small village pub 'out in the sticks'.

Warehorne is somewhere we go through often, but seldom turn off of the main road. Having done so tonight, I can heartily recommend the Woolpack. It's not cheap, but the food is exquisite.

St. Matthew's church stands on a mound opposite the pub Obviously by the time we rocked up there for dinner, it was closed. But it looks interesting, so I've added it to my 'to do' list, and meanwhile, I'll look to see what else is interesting about the village.

Piccy of the pub, and a section opened for Warehorne on the KENT2 page.