Shorne Woods Country Park is located between

Strood Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, South East England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham and Rainham. It lies on the northwest bank of the River Medway at its lowes ...

and

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

, in the English county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It was once part of a large estate, later passed to the county council to be used as a country park.

History

This park was once part of the large

Cobham Hall Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527 ...

Estate. The main entrance to the Hall leads through the park, with various other carriage rides around the estate. Then from the 1930s to the 1970s, part of the estate was leased by Lord Darnley, and was used for clay extraction by a cement company, drawing from a

clay pit A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement. Quarries where clay is mined to make bricks are sometimes called brick pits. A brickyard or brickworks is of ...

beneath the ancient woodland. Then in 1987,

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs most of the county of Kent in England. It is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council h ...

took ownership of the of land, and with the help of

Gravesham Gravesham ( ) is a local government district with borough status in north-west Kent, England. Its administrative centre and largest town is Gravesend, which was known as ''Gravesham'' in ancient times. Gravesham was formed on 1 April 1974 by ...

Borough Council, it was turned into a country park and opened to the public.

Facilities

It has large areas of ancient woodland and heathland meadows. The former claypit is being returned to nature (with woodland and wetland areas). The wetland ponds have many species of dragonflies, which breed in the park. A large part of the park is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI) with the designation

Shorne and Ashenbank Woods Shorne and Ashenbank Woods is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Rochester and Gravesend in Kent. Part of it is Shorne Woods Country Park. These woods have diverse and important invertebrates, especially dragonflies, beetl ...

. The park also is accredited with a

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

by Natural England. The country park has many colour-coded waymarked paths around the country park. These include; ''Purple Route'' - Easy 1.4 km, ''Red Route'' - Medium, ''Explorer Trail'' - , ''Heritage Trail'' - . A longer trail (the ''Darmley Trail'' - ) has also been developed taking area outside of Shorne Woods park, including

Darnley Mausoleum The Darnley Mausoleum, or Cobham Mausoleum as it is often now referred to, is a Grade I Listed building, now owned by the National Trust and situated in Cobham Woods, Kent ( OS grid ref: TQ694684). It was designed by James Wyatt for the 4th E ...

Jeskyns Jeskyns is a park near Cobham, in Kent, England. A former farm, it was reopened as a large open-space recreational area in 2007, with areas being developed as new wildlife habitats. History This was once a large farm which was put on the mark ...

(a one-time farm of , which is being turned into a greenspace area and country park by the

Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...

Ranscombe Farm Ranscombe Farm, in Cuxton in North Kent, is a Plantlife Nature Reserve and working farm. Part of the site is included in the Cobham Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole farm is within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Nat ...

and

. There is also a horse riding and cycle path route around the park. As well as a Sensory Garden for the less abled. Disabled visitors can also use 4*4 electro-scooters (called a Tramper), which can be hired from the visitor centre. The park also has an eco-friendly visitor centre designed by Lee Evans Partnership and costing £1.6m. It as runner up in 2007

Kent Design Awards These awards were created to celebrate design excellence in Kent and were first staged in 2003 and are usually held every two years. They were then renamed 'Kent Design and Development Awards' in 2012. Then have stayed as the 'Kent Design and Deve ...

. It was the first structure to be constructed using Sweet chestnut in the UK. The mainly sweetchestnut structure, also used

Oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

thinnings were used from Park Wood, Kent near

Appledore Appledore may refer to: Places England * Appledore, Kent ** Appledore (Kent) railway station * Appledore, Mid Devon, near Tiverton * Appledore, Torridge, North Devon, near Bideford U.S.A. * Appledore Island, off the coast of Maine In fiction * App ...

, as the window and roof joinery. Wind Turbine Shorne Wood Country Park - geograph

It is mostly powered by a wind turbine. The centre has a shop, display boards and cafe. To the east of the park, are the Furzey Leas Lakes. ''Steps Lake'' is , and ''Long Lake'' is These are used as angler permitted lakes, on Day Tickets (obtained from the visitor centre). Since 2006, the park has had a Community

Archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

as funded by the Heritage Lottery. Finds from the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

(flint tools) to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

items have been found. Most work has been taken place around the remains of Randall Manor. This was the home of Sir Henry de Cobham who lived there in 1360 to 1400. The house would have been similar to

Ightham Mote Ightham Mote (), Ightham, Kent is a medieval moated manor house. The architectural writer John Newman describes it as "the most complete small medieval manor house in the county". Ightham Mote and its gardens are owned by the National Trust and ...

but without a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

. The excavations show that it was a substantial

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

with a stone built end. It had a garderobe and a separate kitchen making it a high status building. It had outbuildings and three fishponds. It was demolished in 1500 and the building materials re-used in the nearby

, now a girls' school. More details of what was found in the park can be seen at the

website. One of the '100 Walks in Kent' Book starts in the country park, before heading towards

Owletts Owletts is a country house to the northwest of the village of Cobham in Kent, England. It is a Grade II* listed building owned by the National Trust. History The house was originally built in 1683-4 for Bonham Hayes (-1720), a successful, ye ...

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

House), Cobham and

and then returning to the park.

How to get there

Situated off the A2 Dual carriageway between

and Rochester. The main entrance for cars is along Brewer's Road leading to Shorne.

Parkrun

Shorne Woods Country park is also home to a parkrun which is a free timed 5k event fully staffed by volunteers. The first Shorne Woods parkrun took place on 30 March 2013.

Images

File:Randall Manor, Shorne Wood.jpg, The site of Randall Manor. File:Masonry at Randall Court, Kent.jpg, Exposed chalk masonry at Randall Manor. File:Floor tiles from Randall Manor.jpg, Fourteenth-century floor tiles from Randall Manor. File:Masonry head from Randall Manor, Kent.jpg, Carved sculptural head from Randall Manor.

References

External links

{{commonscat, Shorne Wood Country Park
Kent Country pageKent Downs pageShorne Woods parkrun
Country parks in Kent Parks and open spaces in Kent Gravesham