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Stour Valley Walk
The Stour Valley Walk is a recreational walking route that follows the River Stour, through the ''Low Weald'' and ''Kent Downs,'' from its source at Lenham to its estuary at Pegwell Bay. The walk passes through some of Kent's finest landscapes, most important nature sites and most historic, unspoilt villages. The walk is signed with the logo of a heron, a bird occasionally seen in the area. The route is of interest for its landscape and history, and for its archaeological, historical and architectural features. Part of the Pilgrims' Way followed the river valley from Wye to Canterbury after the North Downs. The walk passes through a varied landscape of downland, woodland, orchards, hop gardens and farmland; lakes, dykes and marshland; unspoilt villages and hamlets, and historic towns. It is possible to reach the walk from Maidstone via the 12 kilometre long Len Valley Walk. The route *a) Lenham to Little Chart *b) Little Chart to Ashford *c) Ashford to ...
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Stour Valley Way
The Stour Valley Way is a long-distance footpath in southern England. From Stourton, Wiltshire, the path travels southeast through Dorset to Hengistbury Head near Christchurch. The path uses public rights of way and permissive paths to follow the course of the River Stour. About from Stourton, west of Zeals, the path crosses briefly to the Somerset bank of the river where it intersects the east-west Monarch's Way footpath, then enters Dorset north of Bourton. The route later passes through the towns of Wimborne and Gillingham, and the villages of Silton, Milton-on-Stour, Ecclife, West Stour, Stour Provost, Fifehead Magdalen, Marnhull, Sturminster Newton, Child Okeford, Stourpaine, Bryanston, Blandford St. Mary, Charlton Marshall, Shapwick, Oakley, Canford Magna, Knighton, Dudsbury and Holdenhurst. There are ferry crossings between Hengistbury Head and Christchurch town quay or Mudeford quay. The path has two alternative sections which can be used to form cir ...
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Orchards
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller non-commercial scale and may emphasize berry shrubs in preference to fruit trees. Most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy. Most modern commercial orchards are planted for a single variety of fruit. While the importance of introducing biodiversity is recognized in forest plantations, it would seem to be beneficial to introduce some genetic diversity in orchard plantations as well by interspersing other trees through the orchard. Genetic diversity in an orchard would p ...
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Sturry
Sturry is a village on the Great Stour river situated northeast of Canterbury in Kent. Its large civil parish incorporates several hamlets and, until April 2019, the former mining village of Hersden. Geography Sturry lies at the old Roman junction of the road from the city to Thanet and Reculver, at the point where a fort was built to protect the crossing of the river. Sturry railway station was opened in 1848 and the line was electrified in 1962, by the South Eastern Railway; it is on the line between Canterbury West and Ramsgate. The station was until the 1860s the stagecoach point for Herne and Herne Bay. The parish boundaries are the same now as they were in 1086 as recorded in the Domesday Book. History Human habitation in Sturry is thought to have started around 430,000 years ago, as dated flint implements - namely knives and arrow-tips - show. Other signs of early human activities include a collection of axes and pottery shards from the Bronze Age and more pottery fr ...
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Chartham
Chartham is a village and civil parish in the Canterbury district of Kent, England. It is situated on the Ashford side of the city, and is in the North Downs area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, south west of Canterbury, England. The Great Stour Way path passes through the village. A paper mill in the village has specialised in the production of tracing paper since 1938. There are numerous arable farms and orchards in the parish. The village has an unstaffed station, Chartham, and a staffed level crossing. It has an outlying locality sharing in many of the community resources, Chartham Hatch. Nearby communities are Harbledown and Rough Common, Blean, and to the north Thanington. History Toponymy The earliest recorded form of the name is ''Certham''. The name ''Chartham'' literally means 'Village on rough ground', and the word "Chart" is also found in other villages in Kent with this meaning. The Stone Street part of the name comes from Stone Street, a road and small h ...
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Chilham
Chilham is a mostly agricultural village and parish in the English county of Kent with a clustered settlement, Chilham village centre, in the northeast, and a smaller linear settlement, Shottenden. Well-preserved roads and mostly residential listed buildings in its centre have led to its use as a location in television and film. Settlements The village of Chilham is in the valley of the Great Stour River and beside the A28 road 6 miles (10 km) southwest of Canterbury. It is centred on a market square, where a traditional annual May Day is celebrated. At each end of the square are its major buildings: Chilham Castle and the 15th-century parish church, dedicated to St Mary. It has been claimed that St Thomas Becket was buried in the churchyard, despite his ornate tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, destroyed at the Reformation. The Pilgrims Way passes through Chilham on the way to Canterbury. The village has a number of period houses such as the former vicarage, which d ...
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Godmersham
Godmersham is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village straddles the Great Stour river where it cuts through the North Downs and its land is approximately one third woodland, all in the far east and west on the escarpment of the North Downs. It is six miles north-east of Ashford on the A28 road midway between Ashford and Canterbury in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with the North Downs Way and Pilgrims' Way traversing the parish. The village is divided in two by the floodplain of the Stour. The parish civil includes Godmersham village itself, and Bilting. It shares many of its activities with the neighbouring parish of Crundale, a smaller parish to the east. History The first known record of Godmersham was AD824 when Beornwulf, King of Mercia, gave it as a whole to Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury. The village also is recorded in the Domesday Book. Bilting is thought to be older. Although a significant number of residents wo ...
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Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the southern or scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a population of 74,204. The name comes from the Old English ''æscet'', indicating a ford near a clump of ash trees. It has been a market town since the Middle Ages, and a regular market continues to be held. St Mary's Parish Church has been a local landmark since the 13th century, and expanded in the 15th. Today, the church functions in a dual role as a centre for worship and entertainment. The arrival of the railways from the mid 19th century onwards, created a significant source of employment contributing to the town's growth as a rail hub at the centre of five distinct railway lines. The high speed rail line ( HS1 High Speed 1) between London and the Channel Tunnel passes through Ashford's International Railway Station thus linking the tow ...
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Little Chart
Little Chart is a village and civil parish, situated north-west of Ashford in Kent, South East England. The parish lies south of the M20 motorway. Geography Within the parish boundaries is the linear settlement village centre by the old water mill and two smaller neighbourhoods less than 500m east: *Little Chart Forstal (the term ''forstal'' means the land in front of a farm and farmyard; cp Painters Forstal). Colloquially known as The Forstal, it is home to Little Chart Cricket Club. *Rooting Street The river flowing eastwards, passing a long mill pond and mill on its way, is the West Stour. History The secular property that would have had the highest grading of listed building in the parish, Surrenden Park, half in Pluckley, was owned by the Dering family for over 400 years; the family estate covered about four square miles of Kent. Part of their property was Calehill Park, to the north. Neither property now exists: Surrenden succumbed to fire in 1952; Calehill was demol ...
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Len Valley Walk
Len or LEN may refer to: People and fictional characters * Len (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lén, a character from Irish mythology * Alex Len (born 1993), Ukrainian basketball player * Mr. Len, American hip hop DJ * Len Kagamine, Vocaloid LEN * The Lake Erie and Northern Railway, a defunct interurban electric railway in Ontario, Canada * Len Industri, an Indonesian electronics company known formerly as LEN * Ligue Européenne de Natation, the European Swimming League ** LEN Trophy Codes * len, ISO 639-3 code for the extinct Lencan languages of Central America * LEN, IATA airport code of León Airport, near León, Spain * LEN, ICAO airline code for Lentini Aviation - see List of airline codes (L) Other uses * Len (band), a Canadian indie rock group * Len (Norway), an important Norwegian administrative entity during 1536–1814 * Len (programming), a function that gives the length of a text string in some dialects of BASIC programming language * River ...
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Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river carried much of the town's trade as the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of settlement in the area dating back before the Stone Age. The town, part of the borough of Maidstone, had an approximate population of 100,000 in 2019. Since World War II, the town's economy has shifted from heavy industry towards light industry and services. Toponymy Saxon charters dating back to ca. 975 show the first recorded instances of the town's name, ''de maeides stana'' and ''maegdan stane'', possibly meaning ''stone of the maidens'' or ''stone of the people''. The latter meaning may refer to the nearby megalith around which gather ...
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Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. The word and concept of a hamlet has roots in the Anglo-Norman settlement of England, where the old French ' came to apply to small human settlements. Etymology The word comes from Anglo-Norman ', corresponding to Old French ', the diminutive of Old French ' meaning a little village. This, in turn, is a diminutive of Old French ', possibly borrowed from (West Germanic) Franconian languages. Compare with modern French ', Dutch ', Frisian ', German ', Old English ' and Modern English ''home''. By country Afghanistan In Afghanistan, the counterpart of the hamlet is the qala ( Dari: قلعه, Pashto: کلي) meaning "fort" or "hamlet". The Afghan ''qala'' is a fortified group of houses, generally with its own co ...
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Villages
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a usual form of community for societies that practice subsistence agriculture, and also for some non-agricultural societies. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church.
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