If ever a pub was destined to be haunted by a pleasant ghost, it’s the Pink Lion. Regulars swear that the spirit of former landlady Doris Jemison lingers on this inn that has been a landmark in Snargate, a hamlet on Kent’s Romney Marsh, because the 1540s.
Doris, who died in 2016, is buried within the graveyard of Saint Dunstan’s church, simply up the lane. “However she’s very a lot right here fairly than there,” says her daughter Kate, who now calls time from throughout the marble-topped bar. Work, images and different Doris mementoes take satisfaction of place within the Pink Lion, whose museum-like inside has modified little in over a century.
Having raised a glass of scrumptious toffee-apple-flavoured cider to Doris, I set off on my stroll.
Inside Saint Dunstan’s I’m drawn to the ghostly picture of a galleon, etched in purple strains on the plaster wall. It was uncovered throughout renovations in 1964, and a few say the ship is an indication that the late Twelfth-century church was as soon as a haven for what was recognized on the marsh because the “free commerce” – smuggling.
For about 4 years from 1817, Richard Harris Barham was rector at Saint Dunstan’s. Underneath his pen identify, Thomas Ingoldsby, Barham wrote the humorous tales often called the Ingoldsby Legends, one in all which begins: “The world, in line with the very best geographers, is split into Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Romney Marsh.” This led to Romney Marsh being referred to as the “fifth continent”, a title adopted by the Fifth Continent Panorama Partnership Scheme, an organisation dedicated to preserving and celebrating the marsh’s countryside, historical past and traditions.
In collaboration with Romney Marsh Historic Church buildings Belief, the Fifth Continent has created a self-guided tour app for the marsh’s 14 medieval church buildings. I be taught that the spectral ship mural was “extra probably a backdrop to a guild altar for shipwrights within the space when it was stuffed with sinuous creeks and saltmarsh”.
The marsh remains to be bisected by dykes and drainage channels – referred to as sewers – forming a system of serpentine paths. A living proof is the bridleway that wriggles alongside a “sewer” between Snargate and Brenzett. I bash alongside the observe by fluffy heads of waist-high cow parsley, scattering iridescent blue damselflies and orange tortoiseshell butterflies. A flock of Romney sheep graze the adjoining fields, spring lambs wobbling behind their mums. A swan floats elegantly within the sewer.
Marsh terrain could also be pancake-flat, however wayfinding may be tough when the rights of approach are obscured by closely planted fields or rampant plant development. One thoughtful farmer has blazed a golden strip of glyphosate-treated wheat to delineate the footpath in direction of Saint Eanswith’s in Brenzett. That is the one church in England devoted to the Anglo-Saxon princess who based a nunnery at Folkestone in 630. Her picture is on the centre of the church’s Marsh Mosaic, one other of the Fifth Continent native initiatives.
Within the Woman Chapel is the tomb of John Fagge and his son, Seventeenth-century gents from Rye whose alabaster effigies recline on prime. These peaceful-looking, lifesize sculptures have been the inspiration for Edith Nesbit’s spine-tingling ghost story, Man-Measurement in Marble. The creator of The Railway Youngsters lived down the highway in Saint Mary’s Bay and is buried within the graveyard of Saint Mary within the Marsh.
Relics of second world struggle plane encompass the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum, which is reached by way of a footpath throughout the A2070. Used as a complicated touchdown floor for D-day, the positioning was later a base for the Girls’s Land Military, one in all whose recruits was a younger Doris Jemison.
The museum dates from 1972, when the founder, whose “pastime was digging up crashed planes throughout the Marsh” amassed a set too huge for his own residence. I be taught this nugget from a pocket-size “folks’s guidebook” to north Kent referred to as In every single place Means One thing to Somebody. Not too long ago printed by Unusual Cargo, it’s an evocative assortment of tales and reminiscences of a whole lot of native folks.
From the museum, I navigate tracks throughout extra fields and the previous Dungeness department railway line to Saint Augustine’s in Brookland. An uncommon characteristic right here is its freestanding picket bell tower, however for native historian and church knowledgeable John Hendy, the late-Twelfth-century lead font inside is its most unusual treasure. “Wanting on the font’s ornament, you possibly can inform how they farmed and wearing 1175 – it’s an astonishing doc,” he says.
A fraction of a medieval wall portray in St Augustine’s depicting the homicide of Archbishop Thomas Becket foreshadows the fourth church on my route. Surrounded by dykes and grazing sheep, the Saint Thomas Becket church cuts a dramatic, solitary determine. Late-afternoon daylight filters by moody clouds as I method Fairfield throughout buttercup- and clover-speckled fields to the diminutive church.
Saint Thomas Becket has been a lot rebuilt over the centuries, however the intimate Georgian inside with its white-painted field pews and triple-decker pulpit is exclusive amongst Romney Marsh church buildings. The door is locked, however a key hangs on the yard wall of close by Becket Barn Farm.
Yet one more meandering nation lane leads me from Fairfield again to Snargate. Alongside the way in which I move a subject of lime-green wheat rippling within the breeze – a mesmeric scene that jogs my memory of John Betjeman’s line that Romney Marsh is a spot the place “the roads wind like streams by pasture and the sky is all the time three-quarters of the panorama”.
Again on the Pink Lion I'm greater than prepared for a reviving pint of Goacher’s DSB – “Doris’ Particular Bitter” – named in honour of the previous landlady.
Google map of the route
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Begin Snargate
Distance 8.3 miles
Time 3 hours
Whole ascent 0 metres
Problem Straightforward (however may be overgrown in spring and early summer time)
The pub
Final refurbished within the 1870s, the Pink Lion (no web site) has been house to the Jemison household since 1911, when Kate’s grandfather Alfred grew to become the owner. Alfred’s previous bicycle leans in opposition to the pub wall, and there’s a framed photograph of him beside the bar.
The partitions are plastered with second world struggle posters and pub-of-the-year certificates. Leisure consists of classic video games reminiscent of bagatelle and toad within the gap, and an previous piano donated by a buyer. The actual ales and native ciders are all gravity-pulled straight from their casks. There’s no sizzling meals, however employees will rustle up “hen and chips” – a bag of crisps with a pickled egg plonked inside.
The place to keep
The Woolpack Inn in Warehorne, three miles north of Snargate, has been welcoming company since 1570. Slim, winding stairs result in 5 en suite rooms handsomely furnished with ornate vintage beds, roll-top baths and small complimentary decanters of port. The marine-themed Frederick suite (named after the pleasant resident ghost) additionally has a woodburning range. The wonky-beamed pub, which was linked by a smugglers’ tunnel to Saint Matthew’s Church reverse, provides mains reminiscent of Rye Bay huss curry, plus steak and woodfired pizza.
Doubles from £100 B&B, woolpackwarehorne.co.uk
Gradual Journey Kent by Simon Richmond (Bradt, £14.99) is out now
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