18 minute read
Part 6 – Hythe to Rye
Hythe to Rye
PART SIX
Part 6:
Hythe to Rye
Distance: 51.2km Ascent: 245m
Highlights
• Easy, pleasant and peaceful riding along the Royal Military Canal • Unit 1 café, just off the military canal, is highly recommended • The interesting history and sights of the Martello towers • The one-third-size steam and diesel locomotives of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway • A seafood snack from the Snack
Shack in Dungeness • The bleak but beautiful Dungeness, with its wild and rugged landscape, interesting shacks, boats, wildlife, lighthouses and even a nuclear power station • The buzz and contrast of Camber
Sands after Dungeness, with a sandy beach, cafés, ice cream and holidaymakers • Knoops Chocolate café in Rye. Choose your hot chocolate from a wide range of cocoa percentages from 28% white up to 100% dark • Wonderfully preserved medieval buildings and cobbled streets in Rye, with a great choice of cafés, pubs and accommodation
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Advice
• Be aware of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) live firing ranges along the coast and stay out of the ‘Danger Areas’ when the red flags are flying
• Keep an eye on the weather forecast, as you are extremely exposed along the coast on this section, and likely to be battling into a headwind • Do not try to wild camp at
Dungeness • Stay on the permitted tracks through the Nature Reserves and Lydd Ranges
Navigation
Although not following the coast at the start, the Royal Military Canal actually offers an even easier route to navigate, as it’s well-signposted and straight. There is a short section across the fields to Burmarsh that isn’t the usual straightforward navigation you’ve become accustomed to, but it’s easy enough, and you are soon back to the familiar coastline where you really can’t go wrong. It becomes less obvious where to go around the nuclear power station at Dungeness, but follow close to the perimeter fence and then join the only (access) road to the power station and you will pass through easily. The fences, danger and nature reserve signs then shepherd you through the old marsh to Lydd where a cycle path leads you with ease all the way to the town of Rye.
If there is a strong wind, this long, exposed section can be challenging, both physically and mentally, as you slowly push southwards towards Dungeness.
Area introduction and route summary
After landing in Hythe (Hythe being an Old English word meaning haven or landing place), it’s inland where we now head, on our otherwise largely coastal journey. That is unless you fancy some refreshments by the sea first, as the Lazy Lobster Shack a little further along offers some great food in a lovely setting. Located on the beach alongside local fishing boats, it’s an idyllic spot that offers a chance to bid farewell to the coastline for now. Past this point, it becomes an MoD firing range, so you head inland, along a shared pedestrian/cycle path beside the recreation ground, along Ladies Walk, into the town centre of Hythe and the canal. The Hythe War Memorial is just over the bridge here but is on the south (enemy) side that we join the Royal Military Canal, an inland waterway created as part of a major military defence project against Napoleon’s planned invasion.
Hythe to Dymchurch
Built between 1804 and 1809 after concerns Romney Marsh could be used as a bridgehead – a strategically important area of ground to cross a body of water – this 45km defensive line was created between Seabrook, near Folkestone, and Cliff End, near Hastings. Following the old cliff line bordering Romney Marsh, it was constructed in two sections: the longer section from Hythe to Iden Lock, and the other from the foot of Winchelsea Hill to Cliff End. The two are linked by the River Rother and the River Brede.
Artillery batteries were located around every half kilometre along the canal, enabling guns to be directed along the next stretch of water. However, the canal didn’t see any military action as Napoleon never carried out his planned invasion. The canal was also used in an attempt to control smuggling, although it proved ineffective as guards at each of the bridges along its length were easily bribed. The canal was eventually abandoned in 1877 and leased to the Lords of the Level of Romney Marsh. However, during the early stages of the Second World War, it was once again manned and fortified with concrete pillboxes and entanglements of barbed wire in preparation for a feared German invasion. A number of the pillboxes still survive today and can be seen along the route. The canal is now a tranquil haven for wildlife such as kingfishers, dragonflies and marsh frogs, and also part of the Saxon Shore Way, a long-distance public footpath that runs for 262km from Gravesend to Hastings.
Did you know?
Navvy was the term coined in the late eighteenth century to describe manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects such as canals, or navigations as they were also known.
Leaving Hythe, you soon cross over to the inland side where a military road, built to allow access along the canal, now provides an easy-to-navigate, flat, tree-lined track. This makes for quick and easy progress, but take your time and enjoy it, be courteous to other trail users, and look out for the interesting information boards along the way.
Saxon Shore forts
The most distinctive feature of Saxon Shore forts is their defences, which comprised massive stone walls, normally backed by an inner earth mound, and wholly or partially surrounded by one or two ditches. Wall walks and parapets originally crowned all walls, and the straight walls of all sites were punctuated by corner and interval towers and/or projecting bastions. Unlike other Roman military sites, there is a lack of standardisation among Saxon Shore forts in respect of size and design of component features, and they vary in shape from square to polygonal or oval.
To your right, you’ll notice a steep hillside and learn that around 2,000 years ago, before Romney Marsh was drained, you would have been pedalling in the sea here. Shortly past West Hythe Dam, you pass below a site known locally as Stutfall Castle where the remains of Portus Lemanis (also known as Lemanae, the Latin name of a Roman Saxon Shore fort) lie. The fort was built between AD 260-280 to provide a base for the British arm of the Roman navy, the Classis Britannica, when there was a port here. At Aldergate Bridge you leave the military canal where the track becomes a footpath as it continues westwards, and you head southbound, aiming for the coast once more. The rough but rideable track leads to a road which you dogleg over, to follow flat, grassy field edges which can get a little bumpy further on. If you are riding on skinny road tyres and the ground is wet, you may wish to divert off the military canal a little earlier and pass through Botolph’s Bridge to join the coast by the Dymchurch Redoubt. This large defence tower, one of three (the others can be found in Harwich and Eastbourne) acted as a supply depot for the 21 smaller Martello towers between Hythe and Rye. It is owned by the MoD and although it sadly doesn’t allow any public access, it is an interesting building.
Dymchurch Redoubt
This circular, two-storey brick building with granite and sandstone dressings measures 68 metres in diameter, is 12 metres high, and possesses a nine-metre-wide dry moat with an earth bank and collapsible wooden entry bridge. The upper floor had placements for ten 24-pounder guns mounted on wooden traversing platforms, and the lower floor had 24 vaulted barrack and storage casemates, a circular parade ground and could accommodate 350 people. Ironically, by the time it was finished, the threat of invasion was over.
During the First World War, it was used for troop accommodation, and in the Second World War it was reconstructed as an emergency coastal battery. It was operational by 1942 and two six-inch breech loading guns were mounted in casemates built over the original gun emplacements. After the war it was used as a coastguard lookout, radar was installed to monitor shipping in the English Channel, and a mock-up of a street of buildings in the interior was used for army training in urban warfare. It is now disused except as a store and remains the property of the Ministry of Defence with no public access.
Dymchurch to Dungeness
Rejoining the coast once more at the village of Dymchurch, you’ll find a fine example of a Martello tower. These small defensive coastal forts were built across the British Empire during the time of the Napoleonic War, between 1798 and 1809, to protect sluices which drained the canal and Romney Marsh. By 1812 there were 74 such towers sited along the South Coast and a further 29 in Suffolk and Essex. Inspired by a fort in the Bay of Mortella, Corsica, which had beaten off British warships in 1794, the forts are made with around half a million bricks and are slightly elliptical. With thicker, sea-facing walls, they could deflect cannon fire. Meanwhile, a central round brick pillar supported the roof, on which a two-and-a-half ton cannon could be mounted with a 360-degree rotation. However, the Martello towers were never put to the test because Nelson's defeat of the French fleet at Trafalgar in 1805 and Napoleon's decision to invade Russia meant the attack on our shores never happened. They then became obsolete with the introduction of powerful rifled artillery, although many have survived and are preserved as historic monuments.
Dymchurch Martello Tower
The Dymchurch Martello Tower, no.24, is one of only three open to the public having been sympathetically restored and reconstructed. It is the only tower with an original cannon and has nearly all the features of the original design, with a front and parapet doors, window openings, fireplaces, ventilation shafts, 24-pounder muzzle-loading cannon, parapet shot lockers, hauling rings, and replica gunpowder barrels and 'Brown Bess' muskets. Just inland, running along the coast, is the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. This 15-inch-gauge light railway has been running since 1927, operating one-third-sized steam and internal-combustion locomotives along a 20km track, from Hythe (via Dymchurch, St Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney Sands) to Dungeness.
Dungeness Fish Shack
The stretch of beach along here is popular for land yachting, or sand yachting as it’s also known, where a wheeled vehicle is powered by a sail and the wind. Land yachts have been around since the 1950s but have now evolved into a racing sport and are fun to watch if they’re out and zooming around. However, it’s bound to be a bittersweet experience as it means there’s likely to be a stiff breeze, and sadly that almost inevitably means a headwind for you. If there is a strong wind, this long, exposed section can be challenging, both physically and mentally, as you slowly push southwards towards Dungeness. You pass Lydd-on-Sea, a modern village built after the Second World War and consisting mostly of bungalows, which line the roadside and face out to the large expanse of sea, shingle and sky. It’s bleak but also striking, and if you keep going, you’ll find it’s not a mirage: there really is a pub at the end of the road. The Pilot, originally built from a shipwreck, offers shelter and refreshments. Among its intriguing garden furniture is an old engine and propeller from a Second World War B17 Flying Fortress bomber (the same aircraft featured in the film Memphis Belle).
If you can hold off a bit longer, and the weather is favourable, do try the wonderful Dungeness Snack Shack on the Dungeness Estate. This seafood shop and food van provides top quality, fresh
Dungeness Lighthouse
The old Dungeness Lighthouse is a historic Grade II building from 1904, standing 46 metres tall, and made with more than three million bricks. It provided a land light to sea vessels for 56 years, and survived two world wars, before it was decommissioned in 1960. seafood snacks that are well worth calling in to sample, and can be enjoyed in a rustic setting, on outside tables among fishing paraphernalia.
The Dungeness Estate is a private estate, a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest. Although it appears a barren and desolate landscape with its unique micro-climate, it is home to many plants, animals and birds that exist nowhere else.
A staggering third of all UK plant species are found here at Dungeness alone. It feels slightly unwelcoming as you enter, passing a sign outlining all the things you are not allowed to do. However, you are welcome to go in, and it certainly feels like a unique place to ride as you pass by numerous dilapidated old shacks with lobster pots and fishing nets hanging outside, as well as trendy new revamped huts with full-length glass walls. Even the original beach huts now command prices upward of £350,000.
Prospect Cottage
Look out for a black wooden house with yellow window and door frames, called Prospect Cottage, which was the former home of world-renowned film director Derek Jarman, who cultivated its richly idiosyncratic garden until his death in 1994.
Hagstones
If you look carefully, you may see a stone with a hole in it. These are known as Hagstones, also called Holy Stones, and have had a hole worn through them by running water. In ancient times, they were sacred stones of protection, especially for children and animals, and are still highly coveted today.
At the end of this headland stands the new lighthouse with its black and white sections. Here, you swing around the corner, past the Britannia Inn, to the foot of the tall, dark and handsome figure of the old lighthouse. Behind this lies the decommissioned Dungeness B Power Station, which was the first advanced gas-cooled reactor to begin construction in the UK. It feels slightly odd to have this large and ugly, grey boxy building located in the middle of a national nature reserve, but it generated low-carbon electricity for 38.2 million homes since it was built in 1983. You skirt around the perimeter fence on a concrete footpath, from which you can peer into the grounds, and although there is not really a lot to see, it does feel exciting to be up so close. After making your way to the access road to and from the power station, you join this lonely straight, flat road, passing through the bleak landscape, to reach and join the public Dungeness Road. Riding between two large bodies of water, you soon turn off onto some gravel tracks that head into Dungeness Nature Reserve to explore off-road. A decent gravel track twists and turns through the lakes of Denge Marsh, before becoming grassy at the end. It’s all flat and easy going though, with views of the power station now off in the distance, with its long lines of pylons all leading from this huge grey structure that dominates the horizon.
Dungeness to Rye
You’re reunited with the England Coast Path once more here, but we’re all heading inland together this time, skirting around the edge of the Lydd Ranges. A turning off the road here leads to an activities centre, a surprising location for such facilities, sandwiched as it is between a live firing range and a nuclear power station, on a nature reserve in the middle of marshland. Herons Park also boasts a campsite, as well as a kart track and various water sports. Again, it doesn’t feel the most welcoming of places as you ride alongside high barbed wire fences surrounding the Lydd Ranges. They make it quite clear public access is not allowed, however there is one public right of way within the boundaries which you could venture south on when there are no red flags or lanterns out. There is also another bridleway northbound, parallel to our route, but flanked by power lines, it feels more relaxed sticking to the track on this side of the fence. As you pedal along you can peer through the fences and spot the viewing towers on top of their perches, keeping a watchful eye out. There aren’t many settlements within the marsh, but Lydd is one of them, and
Lydd Ranges
The Lydd Ranges, on this reclaimed Romney Marsh land, have been used for military training since 1869, and were often used for experimental types of warfare. They were also the main testing site for anti-tank defences, using moving tank silhouettes, so don’t be surprised if you spot one.
is home to the second largest population on the Romney Marsh. It is also the most southerly town in Kent. It reached the height of its prosperity during the thirteenth century when it was a corporate member of the Cinque Ports, as a ‘limb’ of Romney. It even has an airport, London Ashford Airport, providing mostly local and private flights, but commercial flights to Le Touquet in France also fly every weekend. Continue along the England Coast Path, which also becomes the National Cycle Network (NCN) 2, all the way to Rye. The decent track runs parallel to the road before they converge in the village of Camber. There are other alternative rights of way that venture further north into the marshes here, but they end up resulting in frustrating trudges through lumpy, grassy fields, so you are best off sticking to the easy cruise along the cycle path.
Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland, covering around 260km² criss-crossed with numerous waterways. It has long been used for sheep pasture, with Romney Marsh sheep considered one of the most successful and important breeds of sheep in the country. The area was also popular with smugglers between the 1600s and 1800s, particularly around isolated Dungeness, where in 1633 they lured the Spanish ship Alfresia aground, looted the cargo and killed the crew. The upturned hull of the ship was then used to build the original Pilot pub. In a single week in 1813, 12,000 gallons of brandy were known to have been smuggled ashore here.
If it’s towards the end of the day, you may be rewarded with a fabulous sunset as you cruise into Camber, with the sun dipping down into the sea. You are now leaving the county of Kent and passing into East Sussex, where the shingle and pebble beaches give way to a 5km sandy beach, the only sand dune system in all of East Sussex. This makes it a popular haunt for locals and holidaymakers, so it could well be extremely busy here, but the buzz and contrast to Dungeness is fun and exciting. Camber was originally just a collection of fishermen's dwellings, but by the early 1890s, the number of visitors to Rye increased as tourism became more prevalent and led to the building of Rye Golf Links in 1894, in the sand dunes of Rye Bay. The cycle path leaves the roadside after Camber, taking a pleasant traffic-free shortcut to take you to the end of the River Rother and directly to Rye. As you cross flat fields, you will see Rye rise up above the lush green pastures, all under the sea at one time. Rye was once a fortified hilltop town that stood defensively protecting our shores. As you enter Rye and navigate through a one-way system, follow a cycle route up a steep slope to East Cliff Road. At the top, you are greeted with a wonderful view of an old medieval archway, a cobbled pavement, a pretty street and views back over where you’ve travelled from.
Rye
The original and trendy Knoops Chocolate café is also here, offering delicious hot chocolates to enjoy whilst taking a moment to celebrate your arrival and mark the end of this final coastal section of the route.
Camber
Camber village takes its name from the Camber (la Chambre), the huge embayment of the English Channel located between Rye, Old Winchelsea and Old Romney. This area was gradually lost to ‘innings’ and silting-up following changes to the coastline and the changed course of the Eastern Rother since the Middle Ages. The River Rother today flows into the sea below Rye, but until 1287 its mouth lay between Romney and Lydd. It was tidal far upstream, almost to Bodiam. The river mouth was wide with a huge lagoon, making Rye a port at its western end. That lagoon lay behind an island, which now makes up a large part of the Denge Marsh, on which stood the ports of Lydd and Old Winchelsea. All these ports were affiliated to (as ‘limbs’ of) the Cinque Ports.
