# Kent Ramblers: Walk 81

![](https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/banner_081.jpg)

## 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

![](https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P081a.jpg)

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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