Last weeks walkers have completed their walk and reached Canterbury without any difficulties, inspite of the inclement weather.

A morning I really enjoy is when I meet walkers and show them the tithe barn at Lenham. The owners of this magnificent rural cathedral have been kind enough to let me show walkers the barn in the morning before they commence their journey along what is mainly ancient trackway (chalk and flint surface just above the fields at the foot of the escarpment) all the way to Eastwell Park and across the Stour Valley gap to the market town of Wye

I'm told the present tithe barn dates back to about 1450. Another barn adjacent to the present one was unfortunately burnt down in the sixties.

A number of accounts of Lenham's history refer to a previous tithe barn that was burnt down by local poeple in the thirteenth century.
Records show that the culprits were never identified. However the late 13th century and early 14th century was a period of much friction between church and common people in Kent. Between 1272 and 1278 there are records of violent disputes between townspeople and the church in Canterbury. In 1318 local people in Thanet rioted and burnt buildings in connection with disputes over rents owed to St.Augustine’s Abbey. So unrest between church and local people in Kent was not unusual during at this time.

Jean Jennett is just one of many commentators who makes reference to the original barn being burnt down in 1297 in his book 'The Pilgrims Way - from Winchester to Canterbury'.

Lenham has been described as once being a flourishing market town on the old coach road to Canterbury and was granted a market by charter of the King in the thirteenth century.

The Saxon Pharmacy can be found on the north side of the market square. It is so named because during restoration work in the nineteen forties a Saxon grave was discovered that had been left undisturbed since the 6th century. Local historians have described the building as a typical Wealden timber framed house with a tall medieval window and a king-post roof.

Also on the north side of the square is the Limes Hotel and restaurant. The building is an original timber framed building dating back to the 14th century.

On the west side of the square is the Dog and Bear Hotel. This old coaching Inn dates back to 1602. Queen Anne is said to have visited the Hotel in 1704 and her coat of arms can be seen above the door. Many of the buildings in the square date back to the 15th and 16th century and later had Georgian and Victorian fronts added to them.

The village of Lenham formed part of the Lordship of Kenwulf, King of Mercia, in the 8th Century. Kenwulf granted land in Lenham to the Abbott of St Augustine’s Abbey and by AD 839 the land owned by the Abbot amounted to half the present Parish of Lenham. The Doomsday Book records that in 1086 the population of the village consisted of 250 adults.

On the south side of the square stands St.Marys church. The original church was burnt down at the same time as the barn fire in what has been described as the mysterious act of arson in 1297. The following year Archbishop Winchelsea excommunicated the incendiaries who were not named. St Mary's church was rebuilt in the early 14th Century and the tower was added in the 15th Century.

Lenham is one of a number of villages that grew up at the foot of the North Downs chalk escarpment. Travellers along the ancient trackway would have come into Lenham for refreshment from the springs and no doubt would stay overnight in the local Inn as do pilgrims walking along the old road today. After a hard day's journey along the the Pilgrims Way Lenham really does offer a welcome break with a friendly cafe open till late in the middle of the square, a tea-house and plenty of old pubs and Inns to choose from.