Kent Ramblers: Walk 81

Points of Interest

Benenden

This secluded, very pretty, village, set among Kent's hop fields, has a fine green and some exquisite timbered houses.

Benenden School

Known as Hemsted Manor, an earlier house on the site was visited by Queen Elizabeth I in 1573. The house was rebuilt in 1860 by Gaythorne Hardy (later Lord Cranbrooke). It belonged to Lord Rothermere from 1912 until 1924 when three teachers from Wycombe Abbey School established a new boarding school for girls here. The Princess Royal, amongst other members of the current royal family, was educated here.

The Grange

... now a home for people with learning disabilities, has an informal shrubbery and woodland garden with a notable Japanese cherry tree collection laid out from 1919 by the horticulturalist, plant collector and hybridist Collingwood Ingram (1880-1981) around a late-19th-century house.
Prior to Covid the gardens were open once a year, usually in April, but it is not clear whether opening has yet resumed.

Public Transport

Benenden is served by the 297 bus from Tunbridge Wells to Tenterden which runs every couple of hours except on Sundays when there is no service.

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