Simon Richmond - Kent (Slow Travel)

Kent is a county for all seasons. In spring, lie on a picnic blanket beneath frothy clouds of cherry and apple blossoms in the orchards of the Brogdale National Fruit Collection, near Faversham. In the heat of July, ride on the small-scale Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway to the otherworldly shingle beach at Dungeness, where you can lunch on seafood fresh off local boats. Or catch the coastal breeze during a hike across the chalk wild flower meadows atop Dovers White Cliffs, followed by a cream tea at the South Foreland Lighthouse. In autumn, along the forest paths of Bedgebury National Pinetum or in the grounds of Scotney Castle, be dazzled by burgundy, rust and gold-leaved trees. And in December, listen to (or even join in) carol singing in the awesome World Heritage site that is Canterbury Cathedral.

Kent is tailor-made for Slow Travel moments like these. Yes, you can zip through parts of the county on motorways and high-speed rails but riding the slow trains and navigating the B-roads remains the best way to appreciate Kents superbly varied landscapes, wildlife, history and culture. Ancient footpaths, droveways and country lanes meander across two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) the North Downs and the Kent Weald. These rural byways offer no end of leisurely ambles or bicycle rides between picturesque villages like Elham, Eynsford, Chiddingstone and Wye, places that turn the clock back centuries with their Kentish ragstone and half-timbered buildings, churchyards of ancient lichen-covered gravestones, and cosy tea houses and wooden-beamed pubs. They are the epitome of bucolic, romantic England.

Just 21 miles from France at the narrowest point of the Strait of Dover, Kent has been Britains doorway to continental Europe for millennia. From the landing of Romans in 55BC to the opening of the Channel Tunnel nearly 2,000 years later, Kent has been central to English history. Via the Cinque Ports of Dover, New Romney, Sandwich and Hythe, the county was enriched economically by trade and culturally through the welcoming of refugees like the Huguenots. The countys abundant stock of castles and manor houses, including Knole, Hever and Chartwell, have been homes to British royalty, American tycoons and eminent politicians. Its museums and galleries are storehouses of treasures and curiosities, while its landscapes and communities have inspired artists and writers and continue to do so in regenerated resorts such as Folkestone and Margate, both riding a wave of 21st-century creativity and enterprise.

The village of Eynsford.

Scotney Castle.

THE SLOW MINDSET

Hilary Bradt, Founder, Bradt Travel Guides

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T S Eliot, Little Gidding, Four Quartets

This series evolved, slowly, from a Bradt editorial meeting when we started to explore ideas for guides to our favourite part of the world Great Britain. We wanted to get away from the usual top sights formula and encourage our authors to bring out the nuances and local differences that make up a sense of place such things as food, building styles, nature, geology or local people and what makes them tick. Our aim was to create a series that celebrates the present, focusing on sustainable tourism, rather than taking a nostalgic wallow in the past.

So without our realising it at the time, we had defined Slow Travel, or at least our concept of it. For the beauty of the Slow Movement is that there is no fixed definition; we adapt the philosophy to fit our individual needs and aspirations. Thus Carl Honor, author of In Praise of Slow, writes: The Slow Movement is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. Its not about doing everything at a snails pace, its about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savouring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. Its about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting. And travel.

So take time to explore. Dont rush it, get to know an area and the people who live there and youll be as delighted as the authors by what you find.

Kents many nature reserves and gorgeous gardens are sanctuaries of calm and serenity. There are more species of orchids here than in any other county, as well as rare butterflies and introduced animals like Exmoor ponies and European bison, used to keep the land open to a wider biodiversity. In lesser-visited locations, such as the Isle of Grain, the Isle of Sheppey and Romney Marsh, its hard to believe you are within an hour or two of London. Take your travels slowly through Kent and youll be amazed how much there is to discover, enjoy and savour.

KENT LANDSCAPES

Lapped by the English Channel to the south, the North Sea to the east and the Thames Estuary to the north, Kent covers 1,442 square miles at the most southeast edge of England. It has a diverse landscape of ridges and valleys created by bands of soft clay, porous chalk and various forms of sandstone formed during the Cretaceous period which ended some 60 million years ago. The hard sandstone forms striking outcrops in the Weald, such as the High Rocks National Monument near Tunbridge Wells, while the chalk is most dramatically exposed along the coast with the vertiginous white cliffs of Thanet and around Dover.

Fields and woodlands form a rich patchwork across Kents two AONBs the 340 square mile Kent Downs (kentdowns.org.uk), spanning from the eastern edge of Greater London to the coast at Folkestone and Dover, and the High Weald (highweald.org), the Kent slice of which falls between Hever in the west and Tenterden in the east. The AONBs are storehouses of biodiversity, as are Kents special and rare habitats such as the vegetated shingle of Dungeness and the London clay marshlands of the Hoo Peninsula and the Isle of Sheppey. Over 20,000 species have been recorded in the county nearly 30 per cent of all UK species including over 3,400 rare and threatened species, such as late spider orchids and five out of the seven rarest bumblebees in the UK. Of particular note are chalky grasslands Kent is one of the few places in the world that has this type of habitat, where as many as 50 different species of plants can grow per square yard. With careful land management, including grazing by cattle, competitive species can be kept under control, allowing more delicate herbs and orchids to flourish.

UNESCO SITES IN KENT

Kent already has one UNESCO World Heritage Site the Canterbury religious triumvirate of the cathedral, St Augustines Abbey and St Martins Church. In 2021 work began to secure the county a second UNESCO designation: either for the Kent Downs AONB to become a Global Geopark, or for the Strait of Dover to be declared a Biosphere Reserve or World Heritage Site. Running until 2023, this cross-Channel effort is being spearheaded in Kent by the Kent Downs AONB. A network of local ambassadors is being established, with the aim of encouraging more sustainable tourism experiences across Kent, and a series of new sculptures have been added along the North Downs between Canterbury and Dover.