15 minute read
Part 2 – Canterbury to Reculver
Canterbury to Reculver
PART TWO
The town of Whitstable is famous for its oysters and in its heyday of the 1850s to the 1870s, there would have been more than 100 oyster boats working offshore.
Part 2:
Wye to Canterbury
80m
40m
0m 0km 5km
Distance: 25.1km Ascent: 240m
10km 15km 20km 25km
Highlights
• Eating oysters and seafood from the shacks and restaurants on the coast in Whitstable • The hustle and bustle of the coastal towns • The smell, sound and sense of openness and freedom of the sea • Natural sea pools along the coast to paddle or swim in • A wealth of facilities along the coastline where you are never too far from a café or ice creams • If you’re riding in July, don’t miss the famous Whitstable Oyster Festival • The Lobster Shack and the Mussel
Shack on the east quay in Whitstable, or the Oyster Shack and Crab and
Winkle Way along the harbour front, are great for seafood
Advice
• The coastal path can be busy in peak season, so don’t expect (or try) to pass through quickly. Instead, take it slowly and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells. If you need or wish to press on at a faster pace, there is a road that runs parallel to the coastal path and you can rejoin the promenade beyond Tankerton where it becomes quieter • Take care after high tide and storms, when slippery pebbles from the beach can get washed up onto the concrete promenade path
Navigation
The navigation along this second section of the route is once again straightforward. It’s always a little tricky getting out of a city centre, but the National Cycle Network (NCN) route 1 trail helps considerably. Signed for, and passing, the university, this popular shared foot and cycle path, with its steady stream of students, takes you north along residential roads, alleyways and parks, and eventually uphill to pass through the University of Kent campus.
National Cycle Network
Nature
Blean Woods, north of Canterbury, became home to the UK’s first ever herd (of four) of European bison in 2021. These are the closest living relative to the ancient steppe bison which once roamed Britain but became extinct after the First World War. Using species like bison offers a sustainable approach to land management where nature can restore degraded ecosystems and lost species.
European Bison
Clowes Wood, once managed commercially for timber production before being bought by Kent Wildlife Trust, has replaced some of its non-native conifer trees with broadleaved trees, attracting wildlife such as dormice and the nightjar back. Listen for the nightjars churring at dusk during May and June, or the nightingale singing in May, and watch for the fluttering flight of the fritillary butterfly or grazing semi-feral Konik ponies.
Woodland plants such as wood spurge, yellow archangel, dog-violet, wood rush, pendulous sedge, agrimony and devil’s-bit scabious are also thriving. In the autumn, the red leaves of the uncommon wild service tree and the crab apple also bring bright wonderful colour to the woods. Skylarks, which like open land such as heathland, marshes or dunes, are monogamous birds which pair for life. The male will spiral upwards to attract a mate or display his strength for territorial tactics. No other British bird is capable of sustaining such a loud complex song whilst hovering high above the ground.
Area introduction and route summary
The Industrial Revolution significantly helped to shape this area. The first railway in 1834 brought Canterbury residents to Whitstable for their holidays, attracted by the beaches and seafood. This line was known as the Crab and Winkle railway and attracted many famous engineers such as George Stephenson and his son Robert, who built the Invicta locomotive, which pulled the carriages. Thomas Telford built the harbour in Whitstable, where the railway ends, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel inspected the route’s railway tunnel, the first in the world to take passenger trains. Although the railway has now gone, it has been replaced by a cycling and walking path which shares its name and enables people to travel the beautiful journey between the city and coast, but these days under their own steam.
Know your oysters
This section of coast, and Whitstable in particular, is famous for its oysters. Native oysters are historically dredged from the common ground near the recently constructed off-shore windfarm. Natives reared here (a freehold area of six square miles) are the only true Royal Whitstable Native Oyster. These, although regrettably rare, have their own superb characteristics. Rock oysters (gigas), whilst not indigenous, have found a permanent home in Whitstable Bay, and self-seeded rock oysters can be harvested from the intertidal zone. Most recently rock oysters have been grown on trestles in bags with seed from the Seasalter Shellfish Reculver Hatchery.
Canterbury to Whitstable
The route heads north from Canterbury city centre, sharing what was once the Salt Way, an ancient track used to transport salt from the salt pans in Seasalter to Canterbury. Follow the well-signposted NCN 1 and the line of students making their way to and from the University of Kent campus and city centre. This shared-use foot and cycle path wends its way northwards along residential roads, alleyways and parkland. The path climbs gradually, but it’s wise to keep some energy and gears in reserve as there is a steep rise at the end just as you arrive at the campus, where there will be a few onlookers to witness your achievement. After the busy university campus, riding out past the halls of residence and sports fields, you now leave the urban surroundings of Canterbury behind you. Joining the traffic-free path of the Crab and Winkle Way, this shared path stretches for 10km, delivering you to the coast. Although the need for a cycle route between Canterbury and Whitstable had long been recognised, it wasn’t until 1997 that the council partnered with Sustrans to construct the path on the route of the old railway line, which closed in 1952.
Pioneers of engineering
On Monday 3 May 1830, a clanking passenger locomotive, the ‘Invicta’ (which can be seen at the Museum of Canterbury, on Stour Street) pulled into the platform near Whitstable Harbour carrying nearly 300 excited passengers from Canterbury. The railway line was the third ever to be built in the world and in 1834 was the first steam-hauled passenger train to issue season tickets, putting it in the Guinness Book of Records. The locomotive and the line were engineered by the famous George Stephenson and his son Robert, at their works in Newcastle upon Tyne. The ‘Invicta’ was based on Stephenson’s more famous ‘Rocket’ which came into service four months later, on the Liverpool to Manchester line. Unfortunately, with just 12 horsepower, the Invicta could not cope with the gradients and was only used on the section of line between Bogshole and South Street. Along the rest of the line, trains were hauled by cables using steam-driven engines at the Winding Pond in Clowes Wood and the Halt on Tyler Hill Road. By 1836, Invicta was replaced and a third winding engine was built at South Street. Railway engineering was pioneered on the line with embankments, cuttings, level crossings, bridges and a 764-metre tunnel through the high ground at Tyler Hill.
From 1846, the railway was worked with old engines and ancient carriages, always blackened by soot from the journey through the tunnel. It was said goods trains tended to slow down for their crews to check pheasant traps in the woods and to pick mushrooms in the fields. Passengers were carried until 1931, after which the line was used for goods only, and closed entirely in 1952. The line was offered for sale in the late 1950s and the tunnel blocked up when the university was built above it.
In Whitstable, shortly before you reach the coast, along Stream Walk, be sure to stop and read the information board showing how the town has grown and its surroundings changed. Named Stream Walk because the Gorrell Stream once flowed where you are standing, it shows both visually and with greater details in descriptions how the wetland was drained, and the Gorrell Stream and harbours were concreted over and hidden underground. Whitstable Harbour, built by Thomas Telford, opened in 1832 to import coal, although today it handles mostly aggregates and timber. Boat building was the backbone of Whitstable’s prosperity
Whitstable
As well as its oysters, Whitstable has a number of other claims to fame, such as boat building and deep-sea diving. In fact, the diving suit was developed here in 1828. Out to sea, beyond the white wind turbines, you should be able to spot the Maunsell Army Sea Forts, gun towers built during the Second World War to defend the Thames. They were built in Gravesend, towed along the river, and set on concrete 100 feet above sea level and connected by narrow catwalks. These magnificent structures make an interesting visit by boat, if you have the time.
from the late eighteenth century until the twentieth century, but today boatyards have been largely replaced by car parks and housing developments along the seafront, creating a popular and fashionable resort attracting many Londoners, or DFLs (Down from London) as they’re known locally.
Arriving at the coast, the wonderful salty sea air hits your nostrils and with the screech of seagulls overhead, a selection of cafés and shops, and a throng of people, it provides a thrilling buzz and an assault on all of the senses. The town of Whitstable is famous for its oysters and in its heyday of the 1850s to the 1870s, there would have been more than 100 oyster boats working offshore. Unfortunately, most of the industry collapsed after an imported parasite led to many of the oysters dying off in 1921/22. Today, Whitstable still has the largest commercial hatchery of oyster spat (young oysters) in the country and is home to the Whitstable Oyster Company, which has farmed the famous Royal Whitstable Native Oyster since the 1400s. This makes it one of the oldest companies in Europe, and at its peak in the 1850s, the company was sending as many as 80 million oysters a year to Billingsgate fish market. It’s estimated that Londoners alone consumed 700 million oysters in 1864. The Whitstable oyster dates back almost 2,000 years before this, though, when the Romans discovered them. Regarding them as a delicacy, they shipped them live back to Rome in around 80AD. The town is still a food-lovers’ paradise today and it’s well worth exploring the seafood shacks and restaurants along the seafront.
Whitstable to Herne Bay
After enjoying the largely traffic-free route through town, you leave the hustle and bustle of Whitstable behind you, and the trail becomes quieter once more, passing Long Rock, a site of special scientific interest. With the freedom of a wide trail and fewer people, you can once again gaze at the sights which have changed from industrial and urban, to rural and rich in wildlife. The North Kent Marshes are recognised as one of the most important estuarine habitats for birds in the UK, offering a wonderful place to watch flocks of migrating birds, wildfowl and wading birds, as well as enjoying various plants and butterflies.
The shingle beach and surrounding grass and wetland here also are home to a host of rare plants, such as the yellow horned-poppy, wild carrots and hog’s fennel, which in turn support rare insects and specialist wildlife such as the Fisher’s estuarine moth. Birds such as the skylark, ringed plover, meadow pipit and reed bunting flourish here, and thousands of migrating birds – such as the brent goose, which travels around 2,500 miles from Siberia – stop for a well-earned rest on the isolated headland of the shingle beach. The sand martin is the smallest of the European hirundinidae family (martins and swallows), and is an agile bird that feeds mainly over water and nests in the cliffs. Hopefully the ride eastwards will have the wind on your back, allowing a magical, quiet and easy, assisted ride along the flat and firm concrete coastal path. If you are facing an easterly wind though, this section will become much more of a challenge and test your endurance. Although the route mostly follows the seafront, there are some twists and turns along the way, but the Oyster Bay Trail (NCN 15) is clearly signposted, which makes navigation easy. This makes for a pleasant and easy-going ride to Hampton, where you join the road for a short climb by the Hampton Pier and which is rewarded with lovely views along the coast and to Herne Bay.
Until the end of the eighteenth century, this typical seaside town consisted of not much more than a few cottages for fishermen, smugglers and agricultural labourers. There wasn’t even a proper road to the coast from Herne or Canterbury until it came under the control of the Turnpike Trust at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. Now,
however, it is a popular and bustling seaside resort. A long row of quintessential beach huts, painted in a variety of bright colours, guides you along the esplanade to the busy seaside town of Herne Bay. Although they may not look much more than a glorified painted shed, a quaint beach hut here will likely set you back around £80,000. As in Whitstable, Herne Bay offers a good selection of eating establishments and shops, as well as the usual seaside attractions such as crazy golf, amusement arcades and even a small fairground on the pier. The central parade is usually buzzing with people and illuminated by neon most of the time, but this lovely town still makes a nice stop where you can enjoy a rest, some food and views while watching the busy world rush by. If you’d like a paddle in the sea, look for the nicely sheltered Herne Bay Beach, found just past the pier by the Waltrop Gardens and Herne Bay Bandstand. Protected by a concrete offshore breakwater known as the End of Neptune’s Arm, you can venture to the end and enjoy views further out to the vast and open sea, or back inland to the busy mainland. Just to the west of the Central Bandstand is a bronze monument and information board dedicated to the incredible story of long-distance solo pilot Amy Johnson, who died in 1941 when her plane ditched into the sea off Herne Bay. The statue is a fitting monument to women, aviation, engineering, the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War, as well as the part played by the local residents.
A little further along the coast, just before leaving Herne Bay, you pass near the statue of Barnes Wallis, the inventor of the bouncing bomb used in the Dambuster raids on three dams in the Ruhr valley in Germany in 1943. He not only lived in Herne Bay, but it was here that the final tests of the bomb were carried out.
Leaving Herne Bay behind you, there is one last opportunity for some refreshments at Extra Scoops ice cream shop, but fear not if the queue here is too long, as it isn’t far to Reculver where there are further refreshment options.
Herne Bay to Reculver
Riding past the barriers of Herne Bay Sailing club, the buildings disappear and a cliff rises up in their place as you follow the long and straight concrete track, known as the Saxon Shore Way, stretching out into the distance before you. Take care after stormy weather though as this path can be littered with pebbles washed up from the beach, and on the concrete surface it can be like cycling on marbles. It is usually much quieter along this section, but people do wander up this way to escape the crowds, so please moderate your speed and give way to pedestrians as you go.
After a way, the cycle route bears up the hill, following the steep concrete track, which is all well-signposted as the Oyster Bay Trail and NCN 15 to Reculver. The cycle route continues along the grassy hilltop now, offering wonderful, elevated views and a matting laid into the grass ensures not only easy going and grip on this firm surface, but an obvious path away from the edge. Along here, you’ll also find an unusual commemorative bench to sit and enjoy the view. Reflecting the area’s culture and history, it features three silhouette sculptures of a Dambuster pilot, an oyster fisherman and a woman in Roman dress.
From here you have a clear view of the imposing ruins of the Roman fort, Regulbium, and the imposing twin towers of a medieval church, which sit on the shoulder of the coast and dominate an otherwise empty skyline. This was the site of one of the earliest Roman forts built against Saxon raids on the Saxon Shore. It later became the site of an Anglo-Saxon monastery before becoming the parish church for Reculver. The tall towers were built in a remodelling of the church in the twelfth century, although much of the site has been lost to coastal erosion. Only the southern half of the fort wall still stands, but there are numerous information boards that do an excellent job of giving you a sense of what once stood here, and it’s all free and easy to wander around. With a nice café by the first car park, the King Ethelbert Inn just beyond, and a choice of routes now on offer, this makes the ideal end to this leg of the journey.
Reculver Towers
Silhouette sculptures
