A CITY & VILLAGE TOURS BRAND NEW DAYTRIP
THE MARSH
CHURCHES &
MRS TERRY’S HOUSE
Today we visit three mediaeval marsh churches and, on the very edge of the marsh, step back into the flamboyant world of Ellen Terry -
The World, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Romney Marsh.
So wrote the Victorian humourist Richard Harris Barham, who, as a one time Romney March Rector knew the uncanny other worldliness of the Romney Marsh where, when the monks of Canterbury were done reclaiming the land from the sea built more churches than could ever be needed by the sparse population who lived there tending their sheep. As though it took the solid stone of these tiny churches to chase away the witches and ghosts.
Meet at 10.30am in picture postcard Appledore for morning coffee and biscuits included in the tour fee, visit three Marsh churches in the morning including the remarkable Church of St Thomas a Becket alone in the fields at Fairfield, its village long gone. The church, still unconnected to the grid and lit for services by candles preserves its Georgian interior with a three decker pulpit, texts boards and box pews painted white with black linings.
Bring a picnic lunch today to enjoy in the garden or on rainy days in the barn theatre at Smallhythe Place where you can buy drinks and cakes in the tea room to go with.
Ellen Terry first fell in love with Smallhythe Place when she rode by in a pony and trap. She left a card asking to be contacted if it were ever for sale which led to 30 blissful years in this Tudor master shipbuilder’s house nestled in Kent countryside long estranged from the retreating sea. Her suffragette daughter Edy lived in a ménage-
Discover the wonderful house that Ellen Terry loved. A house bursting with theatrical artefacts including the extraordinary Lady Macbeth gown shimmering with the iridescent wings of 1,000 beetles. Wander through the orchards to Edy’s writing shed by the old church where she lies buried with her ladies and return to the rustic garden cafe to buy tea before we head home at 4.45pm.
Adults & Seniors: £29pp
Includes a donation of £1pp
for each church.
Come Wednesdays from
March to the end of
September.
25 miles
1