The Saxon Shoreway: Gravesend to Hastings
Finished on 18 August 2005

The Saxon Shoreway covers 163 miles of extraordinary history, coastline and what's now well inland. I've spent 18 months doing it in bite-sized day trips from London, and feel fantastic to have finished it.

 Below is the first leg: links to the others are at the foot of each page or here...
leg 2

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leg 4

leg 5

leg 6

leg 7

leg 8

leg 9

leg 10

leg 11

First leg: Gravesend to Upper Upnor (20 miles)
10 January 2004

Up early and off to Gravesend for the first of my Saxon Shore Way walks. Slight snag as the railway tunnel between Dartford and Gravesend is under repair, so there was a bus link. Which meant I arrived at Gravesend 45 mins later than I'd planned. Gravesend is rather nice, although the very helpful Tourist Information Office didn't have any extra stuff on the walk. First sight of the sea came early, and made me realise how busy the Thames estuary still is.

It wasn't quite as dark as this - but there were transport ships heading towards London, and a Port of London Authority craft zipping up river

Once you've seen the estuary, the Shore Way cruelly leads you away, through industrial estates and passageways. But at last, I got to the shore way again, and headed out towards Cliffe Fort. A buzzard was sitting on a way post, but he glided off as I approached.

The sound of waves and Cliffe Fort in the distance

The shore way was badly chopped up by pesky four wheel drive tracks, but soon I was going past Shornmead Fort, originally built in 1796, to guard against the pesky French under Napoleon. After a series of demolition and rebuild, it proved useful up until after WW2, when no-one needed it anymore. So the Royal Engineers started blowing it up. It's still a formidable structure though, and you can see the windows used for the guns.

Shornmead Fort, now derelict, and Shorne Marshes on the other side

Looking back along the shore way to Shornemead Fort. The estuary is on the right, with the towers of the power station on the other bank.

It's a lovely walk along the shore and round to Cliffe Fort, built in 1859 as part of the Thames' defences. It was used in WW2 as an anti-aircraft gun site. Here, the walk skirts round and into the estuary, and there are fine views over the mud flats. I also spotted the rail tracks of what I later discovered was a late 19th-century torpedo system, used for coastal defence.

Higham Creek gurgling its way across the mud at low tide

I passed a sad old ship, beached on the shore by Cliffe Fort, while modern container ships sailed past, heading towards Gravesend.

Dreaming of the sea

Past Cliffe Fort it was difficult to find the path for a few minutes - this felt like a very remote spot with only burnt-out cars and the call of curlews.  But I was soon heading back inland: first through Cliffe, so named because this is the line of the Saxon coastal cliff. The land drops down towards the estuary and you can sort of imagine how the sea lapped the land. This is where someone had a plan to build a new airport, and there were lots of posters protesting about it. I can see why now. Then it was further inland to Cooling.

The impressive gatehouse at Cooling castle

Past the castle first, which you can glimpse through the hedge. The castle was fortified in the 14th century, and is privately owned. But the gatehouse, which faces the road, is magnificent. Then into the village of Cooling. This is where Dicken's Pip, in Great Expectations, was jumped by Magwitch. Magwitch escaped from one of the prison hulks that used to be moored close by. Despite skirting the graveyard, I failed to spot the body stones mentioned in the novel. Most of the village seems to be new build, with houses called things like 'Copperfields' and a street called 'Pips Way'. Not nice, AND no apostrophe. 

Back across country, and on to Northward Hill.

The last of the hips, and Northward Hill ahead

This was the only real climb of the walk, and worth it for the great views back over the way I'd come.

The sun had gone in, but the view over the estuary was great, with gorse in bloom

It kept threatening rain, and the sky was grey. But the day settled back into a windless, sunless afternoon. After the hill, it was on to the first of several green lanes, and after a couple more miles, I settled on a log for a welcome packed lunch.

Close to my lunch stop at Roper's Green lane

By now, I was getting a bit worried about the time. It was around 1400, which meant I had two hours daylight left. I'd covered around 15 miles, and I wanted to get to Upnor or Rochester by sunset at 1600. There were a couple of very muddy lanes, full of horse hoof holes, but after three miles I arrived at Hoo St Werburgh, which has the busiest graveyard I've seen in a long while. 

St Werbergh was a Saxon nun, who took the veil at Ely. She did some nifty stuff banishing a flock of geese, and ended up as a powerful prioress. She apparently spent a lot of time round Chester (if it's the same saint) so I'm not sure why there's a church dedicated to her in Kent.

Churchyard at Hoo St Werburgh, full of recent graves. Is there something we should know?

I'd taken the upper shore way route, not knowing the tide timetable, and was on the homeward stretch to Upnor. By now the sun was very low.

Winter sun about to disappear

I forged on, along a metalled track, past farms, then dived down though woods into Lower Upnor. And the Medway!

The sea again at Lower Upnor, with boatyards and marina

A mile further on, I arrived at the very pretty village of Upper Upnor, which has a postcard-pretty high street.

The high street at Upper Upnor - no cars, beautiful houses

I went down to the end of the street, which overlooks the Medway, and watched the last of the light go. Then I headed back up the street to the sanctuary of the King's Arms and a well-deserved half pint of cider. I got a taxi to Rochester, and was soon speeding back to London.

A great start to the Shore Way. It's mostly very well way-marked, and a fascinating route - keeps changing and a good variety of fields, tracks, and very little road walking. Next leg: Gillingham to Sittingbourne.

My Runner's World friend, Walkman, has done a couple of fine paintings from this route. See a picture of the ship at Cliffe fort here and Upnor Castle here.