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