Walking Charles' Dickens Kent Guidebook

author: Andy Bull
Kent was Charles Dickens' favourite county, and he loved to walk it. This book gathers the routes he truly adored: a mix of relaxed town and city trails and longer, focused treks through the countryside Dickens knew so well. He said, "My walking is of two kinds: one straight on and to a definite goal at a round pace; one objectless, loitering, and finely vagabond."

The 17 walks here include the very last he took, just two days before he died, from his home at Gad's Hill near Rochester to Cobham Park, and which he first wrote about in 'Pickwick Papers'. There are country rambles through the marshes of 'Great Expectations' and explorations of childhood haunts in Rochester and Chatham, plus strolls around the favourite holiday towns of Broadstairs, Folkestone and Dover. Also featured are bracing coastal hikes to Margate, Ramsgate, and Deal; an exploration of the Canterbury of 'David Copperfield'; and a ramble to the site of the Staplehurst Rail Disaster, in which Dickens heroically tended the dying.

This book will show you the county through the great author's eyes, take you to his favourite towns, villages, churches, pubs and picnic spots, and let you explore the places where he set key scenes in his greatest novels. Each chapter describes in detail the story behind the walk, the places visited and references to Dickens' novels. Following this is a panel of practical information including distance, time, terrain details, starting point with post code, OS Explorer map sheet number, getting to the start, key points along the way, and refreshment options. The following step-by-step route-finding text references an overview sketch map. There are numerous black and white photographs.

The walk locations are:
Gad's Hill and Cobham Park - 7.3 miles
Cobham and Shorne - 3 miles
Cobham to Rochester - 10.4 miles
Rochester city trail - 2.6 miles
Chatham town trail - 4.9 miles
Lower Higham, Gravesend, and Chalk - 15.6 miles
Lower Higham, Egypt Bay and Cooling - 11.3 or 20.2 miles
Rochester to Bluebell Hill, Sandling and Aylesford - 13 miles
West Malling town trail - 2 miles
Canterbury city trail - 1.9 miles
Broadstairs town trail - 1.5 miles
Broadstairs to Ramsgate - 6 miles
Broadstairs to Margate - 6.5 miles
Dover town trail - 5.5 miles
Dover to Deal - 10.8 miles
Folkestone to Dover - 9.2 miles
Headcorn and Staplehurst - 9 miles

ISBN 9781910758502 Pages 158 (2021) 148mm x 210mm