ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY..

To Wickhambreaux with my eldest son to begin our expedition of Kent villages I have never been to before. We picked a glorious early winter day with the sun nestling above a startling blue sky.

Wickhambreaux lies some miles to the east of Canterbury among the hidden lanes of east Kent and has a long recorded history going back to Roman times.  It is first mentioned in 948, so over 1,100 years ago, when King Eadred granted land to a woman of religion.   The village, for it is no more than that, still retains its medieval pattern with the Church, manor house, rectory, inn and mill encircling the village green.

The 13th Century Church of St. Andrew (see my photo above) was restored in 1868 and is known for its art nouveau stained glass window of the Annunciation which dates from 1896.  This was the first commission given in Europe to American glassworkers, designed by Arild Rosenkrantz and manufactured in the New York studio of John La Farge.  Here`s a photo I took of the window.......

The churchyard of St. Andrew`s includes a memorial resting place of one of the Dambusters heroes - Squadron Leader David Maltby, DSO, DFC, who completed over 30 bomber operations during World War 2 before being killed when his aeroplane crashed in the North Sea in 1943 returning from an operation that was cancelled due to bad weather.   He was just 23 years old.

We strolled around the village and were struck by the quietness, the peace and almost timelessness of it all.  One of the reasons for our visit was to  see `Quaives`, an imposing residence mostly hidden behind imposing walls and hedges, for this was the former residence of chanteuse par excellence Christine McVie of the Fleetwood Mac rock combo.  She settled here to find some peace and refuge from the mad world of rock `n` roll but perhaps it was a little too quiet and so she moved on and the property is now a holiday and retreat centre; despite which we duly paid our homage to the much admired Christine.

So we enjoyed Wickhambreaux and here are a couple more photos I took that might capture something of the uniqueness of the place......

The Stour river flowing through the village

Wisteria Cottage

(As ever with my photos, please click on them for much better images.)