Penshurst - Leigh - Chiddingstone Circular

Penshurst - Leigh - Chiddingstone 10.5 mile Circular

This was a great and very pretty walk on a superb English summer day.

We parked up at Penshurst because we judged that this would get us to our lunch-stop about midday - and with perfect timing we arrived 10 mins early!

The walk was called "100 Oasts and two Castles" and whilst we didn't actually count them all, we certainly passed lots of Kent Oast Houses. The first section took us through the parkland of Penshurst Place, the ancestral home of the De L'isle family. The views across the Weald of Kent are magnificent.

Walking through the quaint village of Leigh we headed off towards Chiddingstone, choosing to by-pass "The Greyhound" pub at Charcott - well actually we were too early! - and pressing on to the "Little Brown Jug" at Chiddingstone Causeway where liquid refreshment was very welcome on such a hot day.

The Little Brown Jug lunch stop

Lunch over we stepped out towards the ancient village of Chiddingstone where the entire village was purchased by the National Trust to preserve it for the nation.

Chiddingstone Village street often used in film sets

According to history, the village was named after the "Chiding Stone"; a giant boulder where the stone was used as a seat of judgement, mainly to remonstrate or "Chide" overbearing and nagging local wives. Apparently the nagging spouse would be placed atop the stone and the village menfolk would tell her off! We agreed that we needed to return to this place with our own spouses as soon as we could! Unfortunately on this day we only had Trevor to test it on so we put him atop the rock and hurled abuse at him for 10 mins - but it didn't seem to work!

Try as we may, we simply could not "Chide" Trevor on the Chiding Stone

From here we had a gentle 2.5 mile trip through the rolling countryside back to the car.

The Oast Houses in the distance belong to the Larkins Micro Brewery whose ale we disposed of at lunch. 

Stats for the day were ...

Date	Steps	Distance (mi)	Time (Hr)	Calories	Average speed (mph)	Elevation gain (feet)	Elevation lost (feet)
02/09/2013	20,985	10.5	4:22	1,151	2.4	1,338	1,344