Walking To Faversham
I waled four and a half miles today towards Faversham this afternoon. It took bout one hour and twenty minutes, as it is still a fine sunny day, i took the challenge of not spending exorbitant pries on the bus system. I had a bag of books to sell at Past Sentence and got eight quid for them, which was not too bad.
I am now in the local Wetherspoons pub enjoying a Bengali Tiger from the Sixpoint brewery in New York. I sat outside the library for a while soaking up the sun and reading a book on Sartre by Iris Murdoch.
I also took some photos during my walk. These are under the cut.
The first two are taken in Ospringe, showing how old this part of Faversham is and can be traced back to medieval times.
Ospringe parish is situated on the edge of the Kent Downs and has been composed from an eclectic mix of nine hamlets, which have their origins set around a drovers road, the upper reaches of the Nailbourne Valley and farms dating back beyond 15th. Century.
The received derivation of the name is from Anglo-Saxon os (long o) and spring, meaning spring of the divinity. In pagan times all springs in this country were held sacred anyway.
The second photo is of Maison Dieu ('House of God') which was a hospital, monastery, hostel, retirement home and Royal lodge commissioned by Henry III in 1234. The timber framed building is located beside what is now the A2 road in Faversham, Kent, the main road from Teynham to Faversham.
Edward Hasted in 1798, notes, it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It consisted of a 'master' and three regular 'brethren', of the order of the 'Holy Cross'. Also two secular clerks, were used to celebrate mass for the soul of the founder, and the souls of his royal predecessors and successors. They were to be hospitable, and give entertainment to the poor and needy passengers and pilgrims (heading along the Watling Street). There was a chamber in it, which the king used to repose himself when he passed this way, which was then called Camera Regis, or the king's chamber.
In 1245, 'Robert de Bathel', the abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, in Canterbury, granted to the brethren of this hospital, wearing the habit, and the diseased who happened to die here, but to none else, the right of burial.
Also King Henry III in 1240, granted to the master and brethren of the Maison Dieu, founded by him not many years before, the privilege of a market and a fair to be held in this parish of Hedcorn. The fair used formerly to be held on St.Peter's day, June 29. But it had been for some years past, held on June 12/
In 1573, the building was leased to Robert Transham (a friend of Thomas Arden (from the 1592 play Arden of Faversham)). He also rebuilt the Parsonage (also leased from St John's College), using materials from the Maison Dieu chapel. Robert was later buried in Ospringe Parish Church.
In 1925, it became England's earliest village museum. Water Lane beside Maison Dieu still flooded every winter time until 1965, when the stream was diverted by a culvert during the building of the M2 motorway.
In 1950, it became a Grade II* listed building.
This shot is of the Faversham Alms Houses.. These are charitable housing provided to enable people (typically elderly people who can no longer work to earn enough to pay rent) to live in a particular community.
I am now in the local Wetherspoons pub enjoying a Bengali Tiger from the Sixpoint brewery in New York. I sat outside the library for a while soaking up the sun and reading a book on Sartre by Iris Murdoch.
I also took some photos during my walk. These are under the cut.
The first two are taken in Ospringe, showing how old this part of Faversham is and can be traced back to medieval times.
Ospringe parish is situated on the edge of the Kent Downs and has been composed from an eclectic mix of nine hamlets, which have their origins set around a drovers road, the upper reaches of the Nailbourne Valley and farms dating back beyond 15th. Century.
The received derivation of the name is from Anglo-Saxon os (long o) and spring, meaning spring of the divinity. In pagan times all springs in this country were held sacred anyway.
The second photo is of Maison Dieu ('House of God') which was a hospital, monastery, hostel, retirement home and Royal lodge commissioned by Henry III in 1234. The timber framed building is located beside what is now the A2 road in Faversham, Kent, the main road from Teynham to Faversham.
Edward Hasted in 1798, notes, it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It consisted of a 'master' and three regular 'brethren', of the order of the 'Holy Cross'. Also two secular clerks, were used to celebrate mass for the soul of the founder, and the souls of his royal predecessors and successors. They were to be hospitable, and give entertainment to the poor and needy passengers and pilgrims (heading along the Watling Street). There was a chamber in it, which the king used to repose himself when he passed this way, which was then called Camera Regis, or the king's chamber.
In 1245, 'Robert de Bathel', the abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, in Canterbury, granted to the brethren of this hospital, wearing the habit, and the diseased who happened to die here, but to none else, the right of burial.
Also King Henry III in 1240, granted to the master and brethren of the Maison Dieu, founded by him not many years before, the privilege of a market and a fair to be held in this parish of Hedcorn. The fair used formerly to be held on St.Peter's day, June 29. But it had been for some years past, held on June 12/
In 1573, the building was leased to Robert Transham (a friend of Thomas Arden (from the 1592 play Arden of Faversham)). He also rebuilt the Parsonage (also leased from St John's College), using materials from the Maison Dieu chapel. Robert was later buried in Ospringe Parish Church.
In 1925, it became England's earliest village museum. Water Lane beside Maison Dieu still flooded every winter time until 1965, when the stream was diverted by a culvert during the building of the M2 motorway.
In 1950, it became a Grade II* listed building.
This shot is of the Faversham Alms Houses.. These are charitable housing provided to enable people (typically elderly people who can no longer work to earn enough to pay rent) to live in a particular community.