Sunday 28th July 2024

Kent is still 85% rural. Woods, downs, fields all that stuff. So, it is easy to forget that for a century it had, if not a thriving coal mining industry, a coal industry with mines all over east Kent.

In fact it was digging test pits for the Channel Tunnel in the 19th century that revealed that Kent had an apparent rich seam of coal under the chalk.

Mines sprang up, and three big ones survived into the 1980s, when Thatcherism did for them, like many mines.

A railway had been constructed to run between the pits, to collect the coal and take it to Richborough Power Station or the ports for transportation.

The only mine left is at Snowdon between Dover and Canterbury, the rest including Betteshanger and Tillmastone are just memories, and the railway is just a stub from the main line at Shepherdswell to Eythorne.

It is now preserved and open Sundays through the summer.

They have a couple of interesting locos there: the Purple Vanguard and the last surviving Eurostar 73s, complete with couplings.

So, after breakfast I go along to take snaps before services began for the day, but I bought a ticket so to donate.

The line is still connected to the mainline, but rarely used, visiting locos usually come by road.

So, what to do with the rest of the morning?

Orchids, of course.

A short drive away is Barham, then turn off and drive through the woods to the four way crossing. I grab a walking pole to act as a monopod, then set off up the track.

I was here to look for Violets, and Ghosts, though I know that's a fool's errand, but if you don't look and so on and on.

Up the wooded slope, the path now more like a ditch due to constant use by horses and riders, up the dogleg, then up the last incline, and here, was peace and quiet.

No power tools, mowers or strimmers here, which is now the soundtrack to a British summer.

I had heard of tales of orchids failing all over north Kent and beyond due to predation by slugs and snails, so I didn't have high expectations, but I soon found six spikes, in two groups, though that was pretty much it, and none of the spikes were in flower.

So, after one final look, I walked back down to the car, climbed in and drove back to te A2 and home. Back home for midday, where it was too hot for anything else.

So after bacon butties, I fell asleep listening to a podcast.

Awake again, so we have tart and coffee to wake us up, and somehow the afternoon has gone. Pizza for supper and instead of doomscrolling, I go for a shower and end the day reading in bed as darkness falls.