If you had time to watch on Sunday evening on BBC 1 the very popular Countryfile - usually handily on just before another high rating programme for the BBC, The Antiques Roadshow, you would have seen that they were featuring Kent as their main location for the episode.
It was wonderful to see featured Brogdale, home of The National Fruit Collection (featured in an earlier blog by myself) which is out near historic Faversham. Hundreds of varieties of plums, cherries, apples, nuts and pears are grown here, and when you visit you can not only walk amongst the orchards but happily pick the fruit straight off the tree and eat it! Many a time I've visited and come away with a rather full tummy from "scrumping" various varieties from the branches. To top it all you can happily sit and enjoy a cup of tea and a then a shop in the Market Place there as well! Perfect. And to top it all if you were to head into Faversham itself you could organise yourself a visit to the UK's oldest brewery - Shepherd Neame. A tour of here can be made part of your overall visit to Faversham and Brogdale, including a historic guided walk by Discover South East England. Just contact me for further details.
Continuing on their theme of Kent on Countryfile, although no mention was made of the hop picking that used to, and in some areas, still, continues; the presenters travelled to the coast to find rock oysters and inland to explore Down House, the home of the great naturalist Charles Darwin. It was here at Down House that Darwin wrote the famous "On the Origin of Species" and would wander his garden collecting and observing wildlife. The house and garden has just been short-listed for World Heritage Status this year. For further information about Down House - take a look at: www.englishheritage.org.uk and search for the property.
The programme finally ended on one of the more unusual games unique to Kent - Bat and Trap. Still played in many local pubs, the game is believed to have been an early form of cricket. As simply as I can I will try and explain the game - you have a paddle or bat, and to release a ball from inside a box (known as the trap) you have to press on a release mechanism with your bat. Once released the ball springs into the air and in that moment you have to hit the ball and try and get it to land at the other end of the pitch between two posts. You then score if you do so. At that end are the other team who have to catch the ball and then roll it back to the trap, trying to hit a target on the front of the trap. If the target is knocked over then you are out of the game and the points are lost! Not as complicated as cricket, but still difficult enough. There are many more intricacies to the game but I will leave it to you to find out more via: www.batandtrap.org/
If you missed Countryfile on Sunday you can still watch a repeat of it on i player - go to: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t0bv - enjoy!
It was wonderful to see featured Brogdale, home of The National Fruit Collection (featured in an earlier blog by myself) which is out near historic Faversham. Hundreds of varieties of plums, cherries, apples, nuts and pears are grown here, and when you visit you can not only walk amongst the orchards but happily pick the fruit straight off the tree and eat it! Many a time I've visited and come away with a rather full tummy from "scrumping" various varieties from the branches. To top it all you can happily sit and enjoy a cup of tea and a then a shop in the Market Place there as well! Perfect. And to top it all if you were to head into Faversham itself you could organise yourself a visit to the UK's oldest brewery - Shepherd Neame. A tour of here can be made part of your overall visit to Faversham and Brogdale, including a historic guided walk by Discover South East England. Just contact me for further details.
Continuing on their theme of Kent on Countryfile, although no mention was made of the hop picking that used to, and in some areas, still, continues; the presenters travelled to the coast to find rock oysters and inland to explore Down House, the home of the great naturalist Charles Darwin. It was here at Down House that Darwin wrote the famous "On the Origin of Species" and would wander his garden collecting and observing wildlife. The house and garden has just been short-listed for World Heritage Status this year. For further information about Down House - take a look at: www.englishheritage.org.uk and search for the property.
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| Dawin's Study at Down House, Kent |
The programme finally ended on one of the more unusual games unique to Kent - Bat and Trap. Still played in many local pubs, the game is believed to have been an early form of cricket. As simply as I can I will try and explain the game - you have a paddle or bat, and to release a ball from inside a box (known as the trap) you have to press on a release mechanism with your bat. Once released the ball springs into the air and in that moment you have to hit the ball and try and get it to land at the other end of the pitch between two posts. You then score if you do so. At that end are the other team who have to catch the ball and then roll it back to the trap, trying to hit a target on the front of the trap. If the target is knocked over then you are out of the game and the points are lost! Not as complicated as cricket, but still difficult enough. There are many more intricacies to the game but I will leave it to you to find out more via: www.batandtrap.org/
If you missed Countryfile on Sunday you can still watch a repeat of it on i player - go to: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t0bv - enjoy!
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