Sutton Valence and The Harbour

Though this walk explores the surrounding countryside, a wander through the village makes a perfect beginning or end to it. There are many charming buildings; white weather-boarding alternates with hung tiles, and bare windows hang beneath peg-tiled roofs, while the plaster front of the Swan Inn masks a timber-framed hall. Motto House has texts from the Bible on its front, though "For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb" is not perhaps the most appropriate text for the doctor's surgery it once was.

Sutton Valence Castle is built of Kentish ragstone. A small 12th-century keep, with walls eight feet thick, survives. It was built to watch over the road from Maidstone to Lympne, which ran through the Weald below, carrying traffic to the Channel ports.

The castle and manor were owned by the Valence family in the 13th century, and they gave their name, which derives from Valencia in Spain, to the village in order to distinguish it from its neighbours, Chart Sutton and East Sutton.

The route descends to College Farm and you enter an orchard. Apple and pear trees are a mass of blossom in spring, and there are views to the south that stretch from Tenterden in the east to Goudhurst in the west. A gap in the alder windbreak gives a good view back to Sutton Valence. Below the orchards, the land is badly drained. In the Middle Ages, the manors Deer Park was here, and the area where the animals were often found was called The Harbour.

From The Harbour, the route begins to climb back through more orchards to Priory House. As you look south-east from here, the tall tower of Tenterden Church is visible on the horizon. Hares can be seen hereabouts, and strawberries and raspberries are grown in season. Grapes were grown on the sheltered slopes in the Middle Ages and an elderly vine flourishes beside the path at Priory House. The practise of growing grapes in the area has recently been revived.

In the hamlet of Chart Sutton is St Michael's Church. Against the churchyard wall is a mounting block of five stone steps. Chart Place nearby dates from 1708, and Court Farm behind it has shaped gables that date from the 17th century.

The route heads back to Sutton Valence along the brow of the hill. You walk past Lambe's school, rebuilt just before World War One, then return to the start of the walk.