FAVERSHAM

 Faversham means a wright or smith's settlement. The old name for the stream which flows through Faversham was the Fishborne ('fish stream')

Faversham is the only town in the United Kingdom to be granted the privilege of using the Royal Arms of England (the three lions) and it can be found all over the town. In some places, it is as the Cinque Port coat-of-arms which has the front half of the three lions joined to the stern of three ships. The town has upwards of 500 listed buildings, and is the oldest market town in Kent, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The Creek is navigable at high tide, which has resulted is a previous ship-building industry and a former fishing fleet.

the Guildhall, which stands in the Market Place, and which still operates a daily street market. The weather vane on top has a dragon on it. The Guildhall was originally built in 1574, and rebuilt in 1814.

This is a median sundial, painted on the side of the Guildhall in 2012. It's actually pretty useless as a timepiece, as the only time it shows accurately is midday, when the shadow of the gnomen falls over the central diamond.

Faversham has more than a share of old pubs.

This is the Old Pharmacy, a former apothecary's shop from 1240, still displaying its' shop sign of a mortar and pestle 

The beautiful town pump, in the market square, dates from 1855, although a pump has stood here since 1635..

small roundabout at the junction of Market Street, Preston Street, and East Street

This is the oldest shop in Faversham, now enclosed within a later building, but still showing it's beautiful woodwork

The gateway to the church of St. Mary of Charity. It is dated 1533 on one side and 1862 0n the other.

the Masonic Hall

A curious tree stump, which has been carved with a representation of the Abbey

The real Abbey Road!

Standard Quay, on the waterfront of the Creek, is now full of quirky shops and little eateries, whilst the Creek itself is home to quite a few houseboats and a couple of Thames barges

Oyster Bay House, a former fertiliser factory

Arden's House was once the scene of a murder in 1551. A former mayor of Faversham, Thomas Arden was murdered by his wife, Alice, and her lover. They eventually succeeded after several botched attempts, but were caught and executed.

Now...............there is a known play from Tudor times called Arden of Feversham that to this day, remains anonymous. It was performed in Faversham back then, by a travelling theatre troupe, called 'The Lord Chamberlain's Men', one of whom was William Shakespeare.

Did he write the play? If so, was he assisted by local man, Christopher Marlowe? Consider.........

There are similarities in the writing style between this play and Macbeth

Shakespeare sourced a lot of his material from Raphael Holinshead's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland which has a long passage about this murder.

The quality of the play is certainly up to Shakespeare's standard, and few writers at the time exhibited such subtly of language

Computer analysis by Newcastle University and the Institute of Renaissance Studies concluded that large sections of the play were undoubtedly by Shakespeare

It is known that Shakespeare stayed in Faversham for a while, with the acting troupe, for whom he often wrote plays

In the play, (but not in real life) the two murderers who carried out the deadly deed were called Blackwill and Shakbag!

The play was published by Edward White, who was also Shakespeare's publisher.

Too many coincidences?

Why did the above portico remind me of Lego bricks? 

His brother, Charles II was housed temporarily in a house 3 doors down!

Hops - a sure sign that this was a brewery. Faversham is home to Shepherd Neame, the oldest family-owned brewery in the country. Founded in 1698, it is still owned and run by the Neame family.

Opposite the Shepherd Neame brewery experience, is this rare Victorian postbox, still in use today.

The New Royal Cinema. It was built originally as an Odeon cinema, changing its' name to The Classic in 1967, and then the New Royal

As well as the Royal Arms, and those of the Cinque Ports, there are  more than a few Tudor roses to be found

N.B. As a small addendum, I photographed these hollyhocks in the churchyard in Faversham.

According to folklore, hollyhocks were once called "outhouse flowers". These tall flowers were grown around outhouses to hide the privy. The practice was so common that the sight of hollyhocks told guests where the outhouse was located.