Walking England's Green and Pleasant Land

20 May 2008

Bring me my bow of burning gold;
Bring me my arrows of desire;
Bring me my spear; O clouds, unfold!

Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
-Last lines of Milton' 'Jerusalem'.

Join us as we walk across a very pleasant slice of rural England. I'm told Kent has lost it's title as 'The Garden of England' to another part of the country. However, after six hours spent strolling easily over this little part of Kent, I find that hard to believe.

We set off at a leisurely 9am and walked first to a small town named romantically, 'Larkfield'. The shopping center is not very romantic, and somehow, with all due respect to the residents, the town is distinctly modern and, well, rather drab. We posted a bunch of treasure boxes home and then visited the inevitable charity shop and then headed off to find the village of East Malling. We have talked about West Malling, well, if you consult Google Maps, or your trusty home atlas (if you still have one), you will see that there is, in fact, also an eastern version of that delightful little Kentish village. As is often the case in England, you arrive at your destination

These three pictures are all of Larkfield.▲►

Barbara checking out the options in the Larkfield Charity Shop.

sooner than you expect. Twenty minutes or so brought us to East Malling. Another amazing, this time, very tiny little village, tucked away off the main roads and sporting, as far as we could see, just one pub. Called, interestingly, The King and Queen. In this case, the King and Queen means, the 'man' and 'woman'. We entered this establishment and sampled two delicious cups of hot chocolate. Let me say, that, although the weather was fine and sunny, it was also crisp and sharp. Hence, two hot cups of chocolate went down very nicely.

This is a row of flats in Larkfield▲

Below are pictures of East Malling looking across at the King and Queen.▼

Barbara standing beside a Royal Mail box in East Malling. ▼

We spent a little time nosing around this little village. Some of the houses were rather remarkable, even by English village standards. Adjectives tumble over each other; quaint, unusual, Dickensian, curious, tiny, rustic and so on. The roads often just find their way round the walls of the houses. Houses which have been there for hundreds of years. Sometimes you think the house might be in danger of simply falling down, the materials look so old and fragile. Yet, they somehow remain upright -and livable.

By the way, don't hesitate to click on these photos for larger images. The detail will sometimes be very rewarding. This one on the right is an example. ►


◄Myself on a sort of village green in East Malling.

▲This is the church from which we started our ramble through the country side.

▲The Church tower & clock

▲Plaque on wall of this church.

▲Another view from the graveyard.
▲Meditation on the frailty of life.

LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity...And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. Psalm 39: 4-7

▲Our path took us along this path...

Barbara had a guide that spelled out how to follow the path without getting lost. I had my faithful compass, so we set off bravely into the unknown...

▲Time to smell the roses.

▲The North Downs

▲My job is to follow...

▲The trick here is to dodge the nettles and sticky grass.
▲I follow Barbara, she follows the guide. Be honest, now; we can all do with a reliable guide.


▲That's a converted Oast house. A very lovely home; the path went right past their garage and front door.
▲'We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the ground.'
▲Life is made up of choices; we had many, but the guide showed us the way -that and my trusty compass!
▲That is an orchard of fruit trees that has been completely chopped down. I wonder what will replace them?
▲Come on slow coach! I'm afraid I did slow down -just a little. We wondered if these fields were wheat or barley?

▲A close up of the green grain.

▲I found the zoom!
▲Pausing to review things.
▲Watch this...a narrow road and no footpath!
▲First vehicle...

▲Second vehicle! Both at a complete stop to pass one another.

▲A grand entrance to a farm with security cameras. The path went down beside this drive and tracked right through the farm.
▲Those are the security cams right there.
▲Long lines of post & rail fences suggested horses somewhere.
▲The path was clear before us...

▲We tried for lunch, but the midges beat us.

▲Another cross roads in the wood.

▲Somebody was chopping down trees and making them into posts.
▲I was struck (metaphorically) by the Oak.
▲They were using a combine harvester over there somewhere.

▲This has to be about as good as it gets.

▲Another conversion job: a reservoir into a private home.
Addendum: J&L have just told us that they contemplated buying this themselves, before it was converted by the present owners. They saw the plans and tell us there is a swimming pool on the top floor. Imagine that -we could have stayed in reservoir while in England!
▲Pretty spectacular I thought.
▲"I'd like to see a baby squirrel", she said. And Lo! A baby squirrel crossed her path and stayed to chat.
▲Another cross roads, another decision. Now what does that expression imply, and, what does it bode for me!
▲I looked, and looked again; and yes, it was my name!

▲The styles are very neat indeed. But woe betide you if you carry an extra kilo or so.
▲This is farewell from me and from him.

We arrived home, tired, footsore and ready for a long rest. However, in our absence J&L had been working very hard indeed and had all the concreting finished and were probably more tired than we. In their case it was the result of honest labour, in ours, just the result of a very pleasurable six hour stroll around a very beautiful corner of England.