Gardens of Kent

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Kent Walled Garden

As it's pretty dismal in Kent at the moment, I thought I would remind ourselves of the Autumn. Photo of a Kent walled garden taken on the last day of October.

Rochester War Dead Memorial

Every village, every town, every city in Britain has a war memorial to our war dead. This is Rochester's, set in a little park between the Cathedral and the high street. I took this photo in late November.

Lullingstone Villa

Known buildings of the villa complex.

Roman villas are plentifully scattered across the English lowlands, mostly alongside the military zone but also in the London zone. The River Darent had a villa every two kilometres or so along the bank. The one at Lullingstone was built in the first century AD.

The artwork depicts  Lullingstone in the 4th Century, showing the known buildings: (i) the main villa on a levelled shelf cut back into the hill, (ii) immediately behind it a kitchen building, a mausoleum up on the hill to the right containing lead coffins with a man and woman in their mid twenties, and (iv) a massive barn to the right to store agricultural products for shipping down the Darent into the Thames.

It went through roughly three phases (i) as a farming estate with a manor house, (ii) as a high status country retreat possibly for the Governor of Britain, and (iii) as a major grain supplier probably for the Roman Army in Gaul.

The villa had an expensively imported bust of Pertinax, son of a freedman, teacher soldier, Governor of Britain and finally Emperor of Rome (192-193 AD).

Lullingstone is quite small but was always more than just another villa. A deep cellar-like cult room for veneration of river nymphs was built under the left wing (top right in the photo) with external exit for use by the community.

External access was blocked off, presumably in the second phase when the villa was used by senior officials.

Eventually a Christian chapel was built in the room over the pagan cult centre in the fourth century.

A Chi-Rho from the chapel.

One of the paintings of worshippers from the chapel. Note if this looks Byzantine, that's because it's late 4th Century Rome.

The main dining room at the back of the villa.

A high-status dinner party for the elite, say 380 AD

Note the mosaics in the dining room are pagan, built at the same time as the Christian chapel.

So what happened to the cult room? It was accessed by a wooden ladder from a trapdoor in the floor of the chapel and was still used to venerate the river gods.

The pagan Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo has a mixture of Christian and pagan symbols - but so does the late Roman villa at Lullingstone.

The villa and estate reached its peak in the last years of the fourth century and then it burned down in the early fifth and was never rebuilt. The next record we have of any activity at Lullingstone is the estate recorded in the Domesday book. The hamlet is now dominated by a 15th Century Manor House that has always been owned by the Hart-Dyke family.

In between the fifth and eleventh centuries there is only minimal evidence of Anglo-Saxon activity. Lullingstone translates into modern English as something like The Enclosure of The People of Lull.

In 390 there was a massive agricultural complex along the Darent exporting food across Europe. One generation later in 420 it was all gone - and we don't really understand why.

Kent Orchids, Green Winged Orchid

The low-resource Kent chalk downs are perfect for orchids provided they are not mowed regularly. This is one was labelled the green-winged orchid, Anacamptis morio, which is found all over Eurasia. I am pretty certain it's not an orchid but...I was a Zoologist.

Kingfisher on Rainham Marshes

Spent 45 mins waiting for a Kingfisher to appear on Rainham Marshes. Managed to get this shot via a Nikon Coolpix on the back of a Nikon scope balanced on one leg, the tripod not me, amidst a group of excited kids, behind a net.

:)

Sissinghurst

Popped over to Sissinghurst yesterday for a spot of lunch. The garden was looking great in the Spring sunshine.  climbed the tower to work of my rhubarb crumble.

Didn't have my camera but I did take a few pics on my 'phone. It had trouble coping with the high contrast but here goes.

The famous White Garden

Light through the ferns

The moat - all very Wind in the Willows

The blossom is out

The walled garden

The walk

Godinstone Open day

Popped down to Godinstone for their charity open day. Unfortunately it was just a little to early for the full flowering of the daffs. The chalklands are rather exposed so spring is later here than on the coast.

Wild orchids were up. They do well on the nutrient poor chalk meadows of Kent.

The Season of Mellow Fruitfulness

Hedgerow on the North Downs.

Pylons on the North Downs

Streaming electricity to London from the power stations on the North Kent coast. In the background are the substations, high-speed rail line to Paris and the M2 linking London to Dover.

Spring in Kent

The spring flowers are doing well this year.

Delphinium

Popped over to Godingstone at the weekend for tea and scones. The garden is famous for Dephinium flowers so I took a pic on my 'phone.

Bolt Action Dad's Army - The North Kent Coast

I took this photo at lunchtime today outside the Tate Gallery overlooking Margate Harbour on the Isle of Thanet, North Kent Coast. Turner described the light at Margate as the best in the world for an artist.

For the wargamer the interest lies in the fact that this was the Sealion invasion zone. You are looking west towards London but this Bay is the one that inspired the BBC's Dad's Army series (see new Warlord figures).

The towns in the distance are Westgate (=Eastgate as in the Eastgate platoon) and Birchington-on-Sea (= Walmington on Sea - Walmer Castle is a few miles away and the name of Walmington-on-Sea is a composite).

In the centre is the light house that you may remember Captain Mainwearing's boys guarding. There are many modern novelty rock emporiums to the immediate left of the picture on Margate seafront - and a wargame shop.

Beautiful Kent

Lots of water still around from the unusually heavy rains earlier in the year.

Taken with my Sony 'phone.

Classical Grotto

Classical grotto in the Italian Garden at Hever Castle.

For nerds, I overrode the automatic shutter speed on a Nikon digital SLR to slow down the shot and get an impression of moving water.

Hever Castle

Spent the afternoon at Hever Castle in Kent. It's a fortified Tudor House that was the home of the Bullen or Boleyn family. The Astors owned it for most of the 20th C. and restored the building.

Dover Harbour

Popped down to Dover on Saturday. I hoped to take a picture of the harbour from the castle keep but that was impossible due to the storm gusts. So here is a photo from the ground instead, taken from a Sony 'phone.

Beautiful Medway Bank Holiday

Really gorgeous in the Medway Towns this weekend. Took this pick in the Capstone valley.

Godinstone, Kent

Popped down to Godinstone House for a walk around the garden finishing with tea and scones. I took the pics on my Sony mobile.

Enjoy!

The nutrient poor chalk grasslands of Kent are full of wild orchids in the spring. See if you can spot some.

The kitchen garden.

The wildlife pond.

The woodland walk.

The formal garden.

Upnor Castle

View across the River Medway in Kent from Upnor Castle. On the opposite bank was the Royal Dockyard at Chatham, now Medway Maratime and Naval Museum. I took this photo a couple of months ago on a crisp winter's day.