A Fleeting visit to Ryarsh and a flick through Birling

I have often passed the sign on the A20 pointing to Ryarsh and Birling and as curiosity is in danger of killing the cat I decided to use a life and have a look. A doomsday village Ryarsh has a strange charm from its modern village hall neatly ensconced beside the playing fields to its 16C pub, The Duke of Wellington.  The strange part is that the pub is called after the Duke that thumped Napoleon but dates from 1516?  Time travel?  According to its website the pub offers a friendly service but I walked in, found a few disinterested locals, a private function that drew all the staff away from the bar and a feeling that I was an intruder.  Most unpleasant but we will try it later maybe? 

However, there was a good reason for walking the village.  I wanted to see what was there and found a few old buildings, a grand Oast, and an 1852 building pictured above which the owner was working on replacing inside wall linings and and the crumbling wall outside the house. He said he was going to reinstate the iron railings that formerly made the wall so attractive.  The locals in their homes were friendly.

I walked along the old school lane and found the school which was once a school as to be expected circa 1858 and did time as the village hall and is now two houses.  The stone looks like Kentish Ragstone cut to shape.  There are other places in the village with evidence of similar material.  Notably the older houses, there are a number of new buildings with 1960's and 70's utility stamped all over them as well as some more modern ones. Tacky stuff. Take the road opposite the pub up the hill (cannot remember the name) and there is a house named appropriately 'The Old House' with buttressed brick walls and late tudor style chimneys that smack of this once being a manor house - now a row of separate dwellings.

It is above this house that the road winds around eventually to the hills and disappears into a track. Footpaths head to the hills but as this was a fleeting visit and I needed a map I declined to follow them.  The hills are those leading to the Trosley Park area and those above Snodland.  Mighty pleasant looking part of the North Downs and well worth a further tromp.

In showing the Old School House last I have a method in my madness - driving through Birling I saw many of the houses were built similarly and I marked the place for a further visit.