Stage 10 Shepherdswell to Dover (14 miles) - to the coast and beyond...

A slow start today; due to slow trains that run only once per hour. However, the train from Bekesbourne to Shepherdswell was on time so I have no complaints for the 15 minutes or so journey to the start of my final walk.

Shepherdswell was originally part of the estate of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, grew with the coming of the railway between Dover and London in the 19th century and was further expanded by coal miners in the early 20th century. Today it is a picturesque village with a green and a pub and a thriving football team, Shepherdswell Spartans and a cricket team in the, not so imaginatively named, Shepherdswell cricket club.

Shepherdswell

The route passes through Waldershare Park, originally part of the estate of Waldershare House, now converted to apartments. This was the 18th century seat of Sir Henry Furnesse and is thought to have been built by the architect William Talman who was a pupil of Christopher Wren and also designed, among other buildings, Chatsworth House. Knowing Chatsworth as I do, I can say that Waldershare and Chatsworth appear to have very little in common. I did not take a decent picture of Waldershare as, at the time, I did not know that it shared a common architect with Chatsworth otherwise I would have taken more of an interest.

The "Great Storm" of 1987 uprooted many trees on the Waldershare estate; I was in London on that night and slept through it, storm what storm? Over a thousand new trees were planted post 1987 by a group calling itself The Kent Men of the Trees and funded by the legacy left by Mary Hornsby, maid of Kent. All this is from a sign on the route passing through the estate. I cannot find out who Mary Hornsby was but the Kent Men of the Trees go back to 1931 and are dedicated to promoting the love of trees and encouraging the planting and protection of trees in Kent. 

Tree planting on the Waldershare Park estate

Shortly after leaving the estate the route turns South and joins a Roman road and follows this into Dover. This was the road that connected Richborough, a port near Sandwhich to the port of Dover and is, innevitably, a straight line to the coast at Dover. The road is part tarmac, part track until the outskirts of suburbia.

The last milepost

Path into Dover

On the outskirts of Dover the path runs in a gully between Charlton Cemetery and Connaught Park; I do not know what the history of this path is but why is it here; why in this gully?

Now, I have to admit that I got a bit lost in Dover's town centre. There were trail markers almost all the way to Market Square where I thought the NDW ended and then I made my way to the seafront before heading North East and then North to our overnight campsite at Martin Mill. It wasn't until writing this that I realised that I had missed the end of trail marker! So, no grand finish photo, just a view of the ferries coming into Dover and Dover Castle on the cliff top.

Port of Dover

I will have to go back and find that end of way marker. Apparently it is made of granite and is 8 metres long set in the ground; how did I miss that? I also want to visit Dover castle so a revisit wont be wasted.

I set out to complete the NDW over the winter and by the end of March 2017. I arrived in Dover on March 25th; job done; what next?

North Downs Way in spring, Walderhsare Park

AW

Stage 9 Canterbury to Shepherdswell (10 miles) - dragon's teeth, coal mining and the Colonel's Cafe

I am now back in sync with the official National Trail guidebook, for the first time since stage 4 when I extended that beyond Oxted to Westerham. The significance of that is that today was going to be a short one at only 10 miles and with very little climbing it was going to be a very easy day after the 26 miles (the Garmin number) in inclement weather on my walk into Canterbury two days ago.

Heading South East from Canterbury to Dover the NDW shares the route with a number of other named rights of way. There is the Elham Valley Way which leaves the NDW and heads south to Hythe at Patrixbourne and St Augustine's Way which traces the route of St Augstine (first Archbishop of Canterbury Cathedral and founder of the English Church in the 6th Century) from Ramsgate to Canterbury. There is also the wonderfully named "Via Francigena" (road from France) which is an ancient walking / pilgrim route from France to Rome via Switzerland and obviously with a connecting route from Canterbury.

Sharing the route with the Via Francigena (rectangular way marker)

I had a short diversion in order to connect my overnight stop at the Canterbury campsite and at the point I crossed the railway line that runs between Dover and Canterbury and onto London I spotted what can best be described as a large concrete Toblerone. These are Dragons Teeth or WW2 anti tank defences, placed at strategic locations, presumably here to stop advancing German tanks from accessing the rail line and providing them with a direct route into London.

Dragon's Teeth at the rail crossing near Haystack Wood

Today's route was largely across fields, either sown with crops or pasture for livestock. I was struck at how large a couple of the fields were and wondered how much this landscape must have changed over the hundreds of years that pilgrims have been walking these routes. I like to think that the landscape has changed but the routes and the motivation for people to travel them have not.

Crossing huge fields, hedges long since removed

The guidebook refers to a final view of Canterbury Cathedral as you leave the city. My own route deprived me of this view and so I still have not seen the Cathedral, although given the mist today I probably would not have had the pleasure even if I had been on the official path.

A lunch stop was provided by the village of Woolage in the form of a large village green and picnic area. This reminded me of villages and towns in France that often have such facilities but are rare in the UK. Woolage Village was built in 1912 to house coal miners at the nearby Snowdown Colliery on the Kent Coalfield. I wonder whether the park / green area was part of original design or a later addition. Like most other mines in the UK it closed in the 1980s.

Woolage village green

My route ended today at Shepherdswell rail station where I was to get a train back to Bekesbourne for a short walk back to the campsite. Shepherdswell station is also the location of a branch line built to serve the collieries connecting them with the main line. The branch line is now run by the East Kent Railway running heritage trains for tourists. The terminus houses the Colonel's Cafe, named after Colonel Holman Fred Stephens the engineer who built this part of the railway.

East Kent Railway at Shepherdswell

 The Colonel's Cafe was a large, works canteen sort of affair and on my visit its only customers were indeed workers from the railway. One large tea and huge slice of fruit cake later I left to get my train back up the line towards Canterbury.

Today, was a very short day and I was left thinking that I could have completed Canterbury to Dover in one go, returning to Canterbury by train from Dover. However, it was nice to have a leisurely stroll rather than a forced feat of endurance. I was back in camp before 1500 hrs.

AW