Kent & East Sussex Railway and Bodiam Castle
Normally I wouldn't bother to travel to a place where I had only one ancestry connection, but after researching Tenterden, I wanted to visit because it's cute and has some cool things.
My link to Tenterden is Sarah Goldstone Merriam, who was born here in 1602. She is my 12 times great grandmother. She emigrated to America because she died and is buried in Concord, Massachusetts.
Travel to Tenterden started this morning at 6:58 to catch the train in Dover to a town called Headcorn. I could've left an hour later, but I was worried about the next leg of the journey which involved finding a local bus. I would've only had 8 minutes to figure out what I was doing. So I woke up early.
I arrived in Headcorn at about 7:45 and did end up having trouble finding the bus stop. I asked a woman waiting for a taxi and she didn't really know the area. I asked some guys working at a car wash nearby and they also didn't really know. Luckily the woman, once in her taxi, asked her driver where it was and stopped me on the road to tell me! I was on my way to the right spot anyhow, but that was nice to have confirmation. How sweet of her!
I sat down and also walked around a bit, killing 45 minutes until the bus came. The ride was cheaper than I anticipated, so that's always a plus!
It was a pretty short 20 minute local bus ride to Tenterden. From there I walked about 15 minutes to my AirBnB to drop off my bag. This place is the biggest I've stayed yet while in England--it is super nice. I am staying in the bigger of the bedrooms that they rent out because a previous girl wanted to stay for a few more days and is in the more modest room that I had originally booked--so I got an upgrade!
At about 10:00 I left the AirBnB to walk back down into town to get to the Kent & East Sussex Railway.
It's an old fashioned steam train! And it was taking me to a ruined castle!
We had an excellent, animated volunteer guide who told us the history of the train and its uses. Originally it was used to haul coal and then later used to transport people to harvest hops, which the Dutch introduced to the area. Beer was originally essentially tasteless and everyone--even children--would drink it instead of water, given that h2o wasn't clean. Hops gave it the bitter flavor and kept it from spoiling. A lot of hops farming happened in this area and you can still see hops growing on the sides of the train tracks as "weeds."
The guide also showed us craters in the landscape that looked like little ponds surrounded with trees. This is where Germans dropped bombs during WWII! So crazy.
On the way to the castle I had four retired Texans sitting in front of me! (They are retired from work, not from being Texan haha.) They are in England for a month, driving around exploring!
We made a couple of stops, but the final stop was Bodiam Castle, the home of a medieval knight. I didn't know knights had castles. Apparently there were strict rules about the kind of castle a knight could build. It couldn't be bigger than an earl's, for example. This knight made his fortune from pillaging, so good on him for stealing from other people in order to build a castle and have a luxurious lifestyle.
I took this picture at the top of one of the towers. The stairs were so steep!
This is what happens when you ask a stranger to take your photo haha. You win some, you lose some. He almost got the entire castle in the pic. Oh well!
I waited for about 15 minutes for the free guided tour to start at 12:15. This guy was so precious. His name was Peter and he had a wealth of knowledge. He said this tour would take an hour and it took an hour and a half. You can tell he loves doing this. I learned a lot from him!
My link to Tenterden is Sarah Goldstone Merriam, who was born here in 1602. She is my 12 times great grandmother. She emigrated to America because she died and is buried in Concord, Massachusetts.
Travel to Tenterden started this morning at 6:58 to catch the train in Dover to a town called Headcorn. I could've left an hour later, but I was worried about the next leg of the journey which involved finding a local bus. I would've only had 8 minutes to figure out what I was doing. So I woke up early.
I arrived in Headcorn at about 7:45 and did end up having trouble finding the bus stop. I asked a woman waiting for a taxi and she didn't really know the area. I asked some guys working at a car wash nearby and they also didn't really know. Luckily the woman, once in her taxi, asked her driver where it was and stopped me on the road to tell me! I was on my way to the right spot anyhow, but that was nice to have confirmation. How sweet of her!
I sat down and also walked around a bit, killing 45 minutes until the bus came. The ride was cheaper than I anticipated, so that's always a plus!
It was a pretty short 20 minute local bus ride to Tenterden. From there I walked about 15 minutes to my AirBnB to drop off my bag. This place is the biggest I've stayed yet while in England--it is super nice. I am staying in the bigger of the bedrooms that they rent out because a previous girl wanted to stay for a few more days and is in the more modest room that I had originally booked--so I got an upgrade!
At about 10:00 I left the AirBnB to walk back down into town to get to the Kent & East Sussex Railway.
It's an old fashioned steam train! And it was taking me to a ruined castle!
We had an excellent, animated volunteer guide who told us the history of the train and its uses. Originally it was used to haul coal and then later used to transport people to harvest hops, which the Dutch introduced to the area. Beer was originally essentially tasteless and everyone--even children--would drink it instead of water, given that h2o wasn't clean. Hops gave it the bitter flavor and kept it from spoiling. A lot of hops farming happened in this area and you can still see hops growing on the sides of the train tracks as "weeds."
The guide also showed us craters in the landscape that looked like little ponds surrounded with trees. This is where Germans dropped bombs during WWII! So crazy.
On the way to the castle I had four retired Texans sitting in front of me! (They are retired from work, not from being Texan haha.) They are in England for a month, driving around exploring!
We made a couple of stops, but the final stop was Bodiam Castle, the home of a medieval knight. I didn't know knights had castles. Apparently there were strict rules about the kind of castle a knight could build. It couldn't be bigger than an earl's, for example. This knight made his fortune from pillaging, so good on him for stealing from other people in order to build a castle and have a luxurious lifestyle.
It is a proper looking castle, right?! Moat and all. It's 600 years old.
I took this picture at the top of one of the towers. The stairs were so steep!
This is what happens when you ask a stranger to take your photo haha. You win some, you lose some. He almost got the entire castle in the pic. Oh well!
I waited for about 15 minutes for the free guided tour to start at 12:15. This guy was so precious. His name was Peter and he had a wealth of knowledge. He said this tour would take an hour and it took an hour and a half. You can tell he loves doing this. I learned a lot from him!
Also today there was medieval music. This isn't a great pic, but these musicians really set the ambiance. What a cool job.
I got a coffee and a little panini from the cafe inside the castle grounds and then just took it all in for quite a while. My ride back to Tenterden on the steam train wasn't until 4:40, so I just relaxed.
It was cute on the train when you passed people on the streets; they would take photos and wave at you. It must still be a cool thing even here.
For dinner I ended up in a place called Café Rouge. The menus of the two places I had researched seemed too complicated and expensive for what I wanted and Café Rouge was nearby, more straightforward, and not as pricey. I got a "madame croque," which was basically toast with ham and cheese in the middle and a fried egg on top. It also came with fries that had a flavorful seasoning on them. I ordered an elderflower gin spritz, which was massive in size. Elderflower is still all the rage here.
Not that anybody is keeping track (I'm keeping track), but I walked almost 6 miles today. And I thought it was going to be not such a heavy walking day!
Tomorrow I do feel like it's not going to be a heavy walking day, but we'll see! I need to sleep better tonight because it was not good last night!