An Afternoon walk in Aylesford

Again, a spring Saturday and we, my sister and I headed off for the equestrian supply store in Aylesford with the intention of choosing gifts for niece who owns horses.  Aylesford is a place of family memories with St Peter's School and the Church being a part of our lives and our family history.  Our father went to the primary school there.  I was married in the church.  A favorite aunt once lived in Pratling street and my mother's family lived at the Aylesford Forstal close to the Pottery and Brick Works.  The village is now an isolated enclave of history surrounnded by industry and encroaching suburbia.  Thankfully the ancient packhorse bridge is no longer part of the main highway and the traffic lights on the other bit of road from Eccles and from Maidstone are working properly.

Aylesford has a free car park near the new bridge and from there you can walk around the village and to The Friars if you are so inclined.  Aylesford boasts the smallest pub in the county and the Hengist restaurant.  The former a rough drinkers pub and the latter a most up-market but worth it place.  Most friendly pub is The Bush but then it always was.

The team taking a well earned break

We decided to walk up past the school and was pleasantly surprised to see that the Jubilee gardens, once overgrown and neglected, are to be converted to a grand entrance, playground and gardens to the school.  The local scout troop and volunteers were working on the area to begin the tidying up - we will no doubt take a few moments to follow progress. 

We walked past the school on the road which leads back to the bluebell hill road and then onto a footpath behind the houses that follows the stream where once we used to gather watercress.  On our left was the snad quarry with its machinery and warning notices reminding us of friends and others who had died there in the cold water trying to swim or raft on the treacherous water. The path followed the perimeter of the quarry and sad to say we saw people there - about fifteen or twenty - taking their chances.

The path leads out oward the edge of Eccles and Burham where we turned down toward Aylesford keeping the tower of St Peter's on our left.  The Blackthorn was bursting to show off and looked pink and white which when we looked at the blossom we realised how the effect was achieved. The centre stamens of each bloom are red and pale yellow with white as the dominant color.  The blossom was falling giving the impression of snow introducing the entrance to Aylesford Priory (The Friars) where we took a stroll. 

We lunched late on snadwiches bought in the cafe and walked around the Priory taking time to stop in the chapels.  Peculiarly the sanctity of the place grips you and reverence for the holiness of the Priory permeates your thoughts and suggests a devotional attitude.  Sister Daffers lit a candle for a friend. I was moved to say a prayer of thanks. 

We walked back to the village and enjoyed a game of memory when viewing the Alms Houses where our Grandmother May lived for a time and me trying to recall where a perforance involving my cousin Cherry took place.