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Page 3: The Real Woods

Maps and advice by Brian Smith

Our "Real" Woods...

Further south, we find a far more extensive band of woodland. As described on Page 1, different sections do have their own names....

 Above: Our Real Woods - Map By Brian Smith

Scanning the scene from West to East, the main ones are Ellenden, Tong, Clowes, Thornden, Cane, West Blean, Cripps and East Blean. These are supplemented by a couple of small copses - Marley and Honey Hill woods (located alongside the main Whitstable-Canterbury road) and Hanging Wood (a narrow strip of trees just south of Bogs Hole Lane).

Of the major woods, Clowes and Thornden are the best known and most frequently visited. They actually form a contiguous area of woodland and the "boundary" between them is merely an arbitrary division established by the main Chestfield-to-Canterbury road. This highway starts life as Radfall Hill but soon becomes the Hackington Road as you travel south. It provides an attractive drive amidst trees that overhang the tarmac.

Clowes Wood is the portion to the west of the road. Thornden is the section to the east. However, at their southern tip, the two woods unite and become Cane Wood.... just before the trees peter out and open farmland stretches to the village of Tyler Hill. 

From my childhood memories of the 1950s, I recall these woods as wild, quiet, and relatively remote locations. They were also jampacked with indigenous trees including oak, elm and ash.  There were no official paths and it was easy to become disoriented... and lost amidst the foliage! 

It is all so different today with a swarm of visitors following official tracks. Anyone "disoriented and lost amidst the foliage" simply looks for the nearest signpost!

Over the years, the area has become more commercially exploited with many of the original trees being cut down and replaced by conifers and other fast growing species. In fact, during the late 1950s, part of Thornden Wood was planted with a type of tree that produced a multitude of separate, very straight trunks. I was told that they were used for hop poles.

We now live in more enlightened times and, in the future, I would like to think that much of the woodland will regain its native character. In the meantime, let's take a closer look at two prime areas..... 

Clowes Wood

In many ways, Clowes is Whitstable's main woodland area and it has some historical significance associated with the famous Crab and Winkle Railway. 

The Cycle Path heads towards Clowes Wood from South Street

The line passed through the trees on its way to Canterbury from Whitstable harbour. In fact, some of the disused trackway can still be found amidst the trees and an old bridge is visible a short distance to the north of the main treeland area. 

Brian Smith tells me that the line was originally planned as a horse drawn tramway. However, when it was implemented, static steam engines were used to pull carriages up inclines. Clowes Wood occupied high ground and access from the Whitstable "end" involved a climb up a steep slope. Thus, just such an engine was located at the high point of the wood to enable the carriages to negotiate that problem. Evidence of this can still be found - in the form of a "winding pond" set amongst the trees.

A steam locomotive operated on the relatively level ground to the north - from the base of the Clowes Wood to Whitstable. This was, of  course, Stephenson's famous "Invicta" locomotive and it still survives today - in a Canterbury museum.

Whilst the Crab and Winkle Railway gave Clowes some history, it was perhaps the line's closure in 1953 that enabled the area to grow as a "playground". The cinder trackway quickly became a popular walk and cycle trek from Whitstable to the countryside. This was particularly the case in springtime when the wood provided a carpet of bluebells and primroses. Sadly, these wild flowers are barely in evidence in the new millennium.

Although sections of the trackway have since been sold off to private owners, the woods are still accessible.... courtesy of a new cycle path that makes its way to Canterbury from Brooklands farm at South Street. In part, this path utilises sections of  the old line.

A further access point to the wood is available from the Hackington Road at Gipsy Corner. 

Here, you will find a sizeable car park and tracks that lead through the trees to the cycle path and winding pond.

Thornden Wood

Whitstable shares Thornden Wood with its neighbouring coastal town of Herne Bay. In fact, access to the very heart of the wood is best gained from Thornden Wood Road which veers from the Hackington Road at a junction just north of Tyler Hill and winds a path to the Greenhill district of Herne Bay. It is this route that provides woodland car parks and the starting point for a number of established pathways.

The less accessible Whitstable section borders the western side of Radfall Hill and Hackington Road and sweeps around the southern edge of Chestfield Golf Course  However, just to make things complicated, the small section in the immediate vicinity of the golf course also has the local title "Great Pitt Wood".

The Wood at the southern edge of Chestfield GC
with Herne Bay in the distance

The "Distant" Woods

Even further south, a band of woods surround the northern outskirts of Canterbury. This falls well outside the boundaries of Whitstable but it needs to be mentioned in order to provide the complete picture.

  Above: The Distant Woods - Map By Brian Smith

To the west of the village of Blean lie Blean, Bishopden, Church and Homestall woods. To the east, the small Hoathe Wood swarms around the northern edge of the campus at the University of Kent.

The village of Tyler Hill is edged on its eastern side by Honey Wood. This surrounds the local Memorial Recreation Ground and connects to Thornden Wood to the north by virtue of a narrow strip of trees.    

In the extreme east, Den Grove wood occupies land at Broad Oak.

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