Lenham to Wye

Day 13 – Distance walked 14 miles

Our next to last day was lovely. We only experienced one short rain shower as we walked across a field into Westwell.

Before we got on our way, we checked out Lenham’s old church called St Mary’s. It is currently under repairs to keep this special place intact for future generations. Like many old churches in this area, it is over 1,000 years old with this one being built in 906 AD. It is known for having a wall painting dating from 1350 showing the Archangel Michael weighing the souls of the dead deciding who gets into heaven. Near the entrance hangs an old entry door which is over 600 years old.

It was temping to buy some goodies for the road at the Lehman bakery including Belgium Ice Drop Scones.

On the Pilgrim Way just outside Lenham, we passed this very large cross formed in the hillside dedicated to British soldiers who died in both World Wars.

Once again our path took us near farms. One farm even sold fresh duck eggs.

Unlike the weekend, we met very few people on the trail unless a local person was out walking their dog. One local dog walker was kind enough to take our picture.

Around noon, we walked into Charing to see its St Peter & St Paul Church & enjoy the small town who had some royal visitors.

Charing had the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Palace, so it was visited by several kings. Henry VII came several times & on some visits, he was accompanied by his son Henry VIII. When Henry VIII was king, he visited several times including with his 5,000 person entourage when he was on his way to France for negotiations in 1520.

In 1545, the Archbishop of Canterbury was “persuaded” to give his palace to Henry VIII, so it became the “Royal Manor of Charing”. However, neither Henry nor succeeding monarchs seems to have stayed there again, so in 1629, it was sold to private ownership at which time the Great Hall was converted into a barn.

Charing itself was a pilgrimage site because its local church had the chopping block on which John the Baptist was beheaded. This relic was brought back by a crusader from the Holy Land in the 12th Century. Unlike other religious relics, this one survived the English Reformation only to be lost in a fire in 1590.

Charing‘s High Street has many buildings which are centuries old.

Our next church was St Mary at Westwell which is known for its stained glass Jesse window which still has some original glass in it from the 13th Century. A Jesse window is a medieval stained glass window that traces the ancestry of Jesus from Jesse of Bethlehem.

We visited one last church in Eastwell that is in ruins, Saint Mary’s Church had a bomb dropped on it in WWII which destroyed the roof that was never repaired & it collapsed in 1951.

After leaving this church, we had a final big push walking across many field into Wye.

We are staying at the New Flying Horse Inn; but, but on the way to it, we saw the original Flying Horse Inn which was a 15th Century coaching inn.

We saw this marker along the way today showing we are getting closer to Canterbury.