Walking in Kent

Walking in Kent describes the best walking routes in Kent, as well as recently discovered routes in all corners of the county. There’s plenty to appeal to both family strollers and determined ramblers, and each route has been rewalked by the author and carefully revised.

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Walk 13

Chiddingstone – Penshurst – Chiddingstone

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Distance: 6.5 miles/10.5km
Map: OS Explorer 147 ‘Sevenoaks & Tonbridge’ 1:25,000
Start: St Mary’s church, Chiddingstone (grid ref 501452)
Access: Via minor road south of Bough Beech on B2027 Edenbridge–Tonbridge road. On Edenbridge–Tunbridge Wells bus route
Parking: With discretion in Chiddingstone High Street
Refreshments: Pubs and tearooms in Chiddingstone and Penshurst

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Though small, both Chiddingstone and Penshurst count among Kent’s most attractive and interesting villages; the first for the simple charm of its street which is lined with half-timbered inn and houses owned by the National Trust, and with its castle seen across a lily-padded lake nearby; the second for the splendour of Penshurst Place which dominates the village and surrounding area. Both are set in gently rolling countryside, much of which is explored on this walk.

With the church on your left, walk along Chiddingstone High Street heading east for about 50m. Ignore the first path on the right with a sign to the Chiding Stone, but take the next a few paces beyond it. Passing alongside a playing field, you soon enter a large open field with views across an expanding countryside – Chiddingstone Castle and church are seen off to the right.

The single street of Tudor houses makes Chiddingstone one of the most frequently filmed of all Kent’s villages, the half-timbered buildings adding a touch of authenticity to various historical dramas. The Castle Inn has been an inn since 1730; ornate gates next to it allow private access to the solemn, stone-encased mansion formerly known as High Street House. Originally a Tudor manor, it was almost completely demolished in 1679 by Henry Streatfeild, who then set about building a red-brick replacement. A century later the whole edifice was given a stone and battlemented façade with fanciful turrets and towers, and renamed Chiddingstone Castle. The church of St Mary is surprisingly spacious to serve so small a parish, while the Chiding Stone (reached by footpath from the village street) is said to have gained its name from the practice of visiting preachers using it as a pulpit from which to chide the locals for their sinful ways.

Cross the field, sloping down towards a group of trees encircling a pond, where another path cuts sharply left. This leads to the opposite boundary and a stile by a large oak tree. Continue over the next field, making for its far right-hand corner where you come onto a country road by a field gate near a sign announcing Wellers Town, at grid ref 507446.

Turn right, but in a few paces cross another stile into a field on the left. Walk along the left headland, then through a gap into the next field. Continue ahead along the left-hand boundary, eventually coming to a stile by a field gate. A few paces after crossing this, bear left over a stream, then veer half-right towards an arched footbridge spanning the River Eden. Across this turn right along the end of a woodland (Clappers Shaw), then left up a slope, at the top of which you’ll find a pair of Dutch barns. Continue ahead, now following the right-hand boundary of a field. Reaching the corner descend some steps onto the B2176 road and walk down it (caution) towards Penshurst.

After 400m pass a lodge by a private drive on the left. A short distance beyond this cross a stile into the grounds of Penshurst Place, then cut sharply left across a brief parkland corner. (Should you be in need of refreshment, continue along the road to find a pub and two teahouses.) Go through a squeeze stile and over the drive to a second section of parkland. Keeping left of a cricket pitch, locate a stile situated about 100m left of a fence surrounding a lake known as Lancup Well. Entering a new parkland section bear right alongside the boundary fence until another squeeze stile provides access to yet another area of enclosed parkland. (Note the ancient half-dead oak tree surrounded by fencing nearby; it is said that the last bear in England was killed here.)

The mellow walls of Penshurst Place stare out across the parkland, the west side defended by a ha-ha, the south partly hidden by a wall that surrounds a garden, of which Ben Jonson wrote: ‘Then hath thy orchard fruit, thy garden flowers, Fresh as the ayre, and new as the houres.’ A house stood here at the time of the Domesday Book, but it was Sir John de Pulteney who in 1340 set the foundations of the present Penshurst Place. Its most impressive feature is the Great Hall, 60ft high with a chestnut-beamed roof. Elizabeth I was a frequent visitor, for Sir Philip Sidney (1554–86), the poet and statesman who was one of her favourites, was born here. The house is open to the public and repays a visit.

Come to an avenue of trees, then bear left up the slope between them to a stile near a magnificent specimen oak tree whose large branches are held aloft as if to support the sky. At the top of the slope veer right for a few paces, then go left along the edge of a plantation through the right-hand of two rectangular grassed areas, towards a large wood consisting mostly of conifers. A clear track leads through, but on reaching a crossing track on the far side, bear left to gain a country road at grid ref 534459.

Turn left, then almost immediately head to the right on a narrow lane which leads alongside Roundabout Wood. When the lane makes a sharp right-hand bend over the railway, walk ahead on the drive of Little Moorden. A short distance along the drive cross a stile into the right-hand field, then wander along its left-hand edge. At the far side maintain direction through a hop garden, then follow a track into a farmyard. Bear left and come to the B2176 at Moorden Farm.

Turn right, then left over a stile into an undulating meadow. Walk directly ahead, and at the end of this meadow go down a slope and veer right through a gap, then left to a field gate and another stile. Walk ahead across the next meadow to locate a stile in the far hedgerow about 30m to the right of a pillbox. Cross to another gap in the far boundary, enter the next low-lying meadow and make for the far left-hand corner where a footbridge takes the way across a stream into yet another meadow. Ahead to the left can be seen Vexour Bridge which spans the River Eden. Cross to this bridge and come onto another country road at grid ref 512456.

Over the bridge walk up a private drive for a short distance. The drive curves left immediately after passing a clump of trees disguising a hollow. Here you break off to the right on a path which rises into a field. Bear left along its headland, and on reaching the brow of the hill, turn sharp right across the centre of the field towards oasthouses seen through some trees. On the far side come onto a lane by a pond. Turn right, then left in front of a handsome group of converted oasts at a triangle of roads, and walk into Chiddingstone.