The Miner's Way Trail is a long-distance circular footpath in England, starting at Sholden, Kent. Linking up the coalfield parishes of East Kent. Including; the parishes of

Deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...

, Ash,

Aylesham Aylesham is a village and civil parish in the Dover district of Kent, England. The village is 6.5 miles (10.5 km) south-east of the cathedral city of Canterbury, and 8.5 miles (13.7 km) north-west of the town and port of Dover. Ac ...

Chillenden Chillenden is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Goodnestone, Dover, Goodnestone, in the Dover District, Dover district, in east Kent, England. It is between Canterbury and Deal, Kent, Deal. In 1931 the parish had a populati ...

Eastry Eastry is a village and civil parish in the Dover district, in Kent, England, around southwest of Sandwich. It was voted "Kent Village of the Year 2005". The parish includes the hamlets of Heronden and Selson. In 2011 the parish had a populatio ...

Eythorne Eythorne is a civil parish and small village located 7.3 miles north-northwest of Dover in Kent, with a combined population of approximately 2,500 residents including nearby villages Barfrestone and Elvington. Although not classed as one of th ...

, Elvington, Goodnestone,

Nonington Nonington () (variously, Nonnington, Nunyngton, Nonnyngton and Nunnington), is a civil parish and village in east Kent, halfway between the historic city of Canterbury and the English Channel, channel port town of Dover. The civil parish includes ...

, Northbourne, Coldred, Staple,

Tilmanstone Tilmanstone is a small village and civil parish in Kent, in the South East of England, near Eastry, a much bigger and more developed area. Tilmanstone no longer has a village school; however, the independent Northbourne Park School is close to t ...

and Wingham. The trail is approximately in length. A link route creates two shorter walks of around 14 miles each. The Waymark for the trail is a white circle with a Miners lamp, train and leaf. A Cycle Trail also follows most of the trail, starting and finishing at Deal. Sections of the cycling route follow the existing

Sustrans Sustrans ( ) is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United ...

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million N ...

Regional Route 16 (Dover to Canterbury, via

Adisham Adisham (formerly Adesham) is a village and civil parish in the English county of Kent. It is twinned with Campagne-lès-Hesdin in France. Geography The village centre, six miles south-east of Canterbury is on the B2046 road between Wingham an ...

) also and connects with Regional Route 17 (to Sandwich). Linking to the Viking Coastal Trail and

National Cycle Route 1 The cycle-path is located in the United Kingdom. Route Dover to Canterbury Dover , Deal, Kent, Deal , Sandwich, Kent, Sandwich , Canterbury Links with National Cycle Route 2, RCR 16, Kent, Regional route 16, and RCR 17, Kent, Regional r ...

. The route can be comfortably completed in a day.

History

In 2001,

Dover District Council Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

launched the 'Coalfields Heritage Initiative Kent' (CHIK) project, led by

Dover Museum Dover Museum is a museum in Dover, Kent, in south-east England. History Founded in February 1836 by the town's mayor Edward Pett Thompson, it was initially housed in the old Guildhall and run by the Dover Philosophical Institute. The Town C ...

and the White Cliffs Countryside Project. The CHIK project's aim was to record and preserve East Kent's mining heritage. In 1890, Coal was discovered near Dover; this led to a small industry based on the mineral being set-up. Many coal mines were started, only to quickly fail, and just 4 collieries survived;

Snowdown Snowdown is a hamlet near Dover in Kent, England. It was the location of one of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield, which closed in 1987. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Aylesham, Kent. As a result, ...

Betteshanger Betteshanger () is a village and former civil parish. now in the parish of Northbourne, in the Dover district, in east Kent, UK, near Deal. It gave its name to the largest of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield. In 1931 the parish h ...

and

Chislet Chislet is an English village and civil parish in northeast Kent between Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet. The parish is the second largest in the district. A former spelling, 'Chistlet', is seen in 1418. The population of the civil parish inc ...

. Most of the workers for these new mines came from traditional coal areas, including south Wales, the Midlands and the North East. New villages were built to house them, including

, Elvington,

Hersden Hersden is a village east of Canterbury in Kent, South East England. It was established as a planned coalmining village in the 1920s and is on the A28 road between Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet. Work in the Kent Coalfield was the main source ...

and Mill Hill in Deal. The last colliery, Betteshanger, closed in 1989. The trail has then been developed following current public footpaths, bridleway and byways to link all these coalfield linked villages. Much of this arable landscape, with its many hedges and woodlands, has not changed since

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

times, boasting a long and rich history. The trail also links to the

North Downs Way The North Downs Way National Trail is a long-distance path in South East England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham in Surrey to Dover in Kent, past Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, through the Surrey Hills National Lan ...

(another long distance path between Canterbury and Dover) and the East Kent Light Railway at Shepherdswell. A guide book of the trails is available. Also 9 laminated leaflets describing circular walks are available.

References

External links

Long Distance Walkers Association notes on the trail

Map of the Circular route
{dead link, date=January 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Cycleways in England Tourist attractions in Kent Footpaths in Kent