Journey 9: London to Hastings (Great British Railway Journeys, Book 9) by Bunce Charlie

Author:Bunce, Charlie [Bunce, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2013-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

While hop-picking is no more in Kent thanks to machines, grape-picking, here at the Tenterden Vineyard Park, is firmly on the agenda as the county wins acclaims for its wines.

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Wove paper was used by painters J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Gainsborough, poet William Blake, Napoleon, who wrote his will on it, and Queen Victoria. It was even selected for the document recording the peace treaty between the US and Japan that ended the Second World War.

AT CANTERBURY BRADSHAW WAS ONCE AGAIN BOWLED OVER, THIS TIME BY THE NUMEROUS MEDIEVAL FEATURES OF A CITY HE BRANDED ‘EXQUISITELY BEAUTIFUL’

An hour and a train change later we were in the spa town of Tunbridge Wells, in genteel commuter country to the south-west. Along with nearby Tonbridge, it became a centre for the manufacture of leather cricket balls which were then shipped across the country by rail.

The advent of railways changed the face of cricket in other ways too. At the beginning of the nineteenth century cricket was a game for the aristocracy and their staff only. By the end of the century it was open to all, with village and county games played by the most talented rather than the richest men. For the first time teams could travel considerable distances for matches in a matter of hours rather than days.

We continued down a branch line from Ashford – the major railway junction in the region – to Canterbury, not least because Bradshaw waxes lyrical about the trip. ‘[At Ashford] the line branches off to Canterbury, Whitstable, Sandwich, Deal, Ramsgate and Margate and from the accommodation it affords to the towns through which it passes and the exquisite beauty of the scenery along its route, will not suffer in any comparison with any line of similar length in the kingdom. It follows throughout the meanderings of the River Stour and traversing the most fertile districts in the country, has one uninterrupted panorama of luxuriant fertility … Thence the windings of the Stour, spanned ever and anon by some rustic bridge of wood or stone, enhances the romantic beauty of the landscape and we seem to be for many miles treading the sylvan labyrinth of a miniature Rhine-land.’

At Canterbury Bradshaw was once again bowled over, this time by the numerous medieval features of a city he branded ‘exquisitely beautiful’. Unfortunately, Canterbury was extensively bombed during the Second World War and much of what he saw was turned to dust.

Canterbury was a victim of the raids carried out in April and June 1942 that became known as the Baedeker Blitz. Baedeker was the name of a tourist guide that featured Britain and was available in Germany. Frustrated by Royal Air Force raids on its own historic cities and towns, the Germans pledged to target every British city marked with three stars in the Baedeker guide. Exeter, Norwich, Bath and York were subjected to terrifying raids after the historic ports of Lübeck and Rostock were bombed. Canterbury was attacked after a devastating raid on the city of Cologne.

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