# Kent Ramblers Walk 3

![](https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/banner_003.jpg)

## Points of Interest

### Dunstall Priory

The English home of the playwright Lord Dunsany 
						(1878-1957) who at one time had five plays running 
						simultaneously on Broadway.   The family also 
						had an estate at Dunsany in Ireland.

### Pilcher Monument

![](https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P003a.jpg)

Opened in 2006, the monument marks the site of 
						pioneering experiments in manned flight undertaken by 
						Percy Pilcher in 1896 and 1897, initially using gliders.  
						He later designed and built a powered triplane but was 
						killed in a gliding accident in 1899 before he had the 
						opportunity to test it.  Had he lived he might have 
						beaten the Wright Brothers to the first successful 
						powered flight.

### Concrete Structures

![](https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P003c.jpg)

You will pass two or three of these on the walk.  
						They are the remains of unusual stiles dating back 
						before, possibly well before, 1964 when they were 
						mentioned in a London Transport book of "Country Walks".

### Public Transport

The walk is ideal for travelling by train to Shoreham 
						Station on the route from Victoria to Maidstone or St 
						Pancras and City Thameslink to Sevenoaks.

### Fox and Hounds

This pub at Romney Street which you may find marked 
						on your Ordnance Survey map is no longer open.

### Austin Lodge Valley

![](https://www.kentramblers.org.uk/KentWalks/public/images/P003b.jpg)

This charming valley, now dry, was probably formed in 
						the white chalk of the North Downs during the most 
						recent glacial period.  There were no glaciers here 
						but the climate was cold enough to freeze any moisture 
						in the chalk, making it impermeable to water so that 
						during periods of surface thaw the water would form a 
						stream that cut the valley into the chalk.  In 
						modern times the chalk is permeable to water so that 
						streams cannot form.  As the chalk gradually 
						dissolved and washed away there were left behind flints 
						which had been suspended within the chalk and clay 
						formed from silt deposited with along with the shells of 
						tiny sea creatures when the chalk was laid down in clear 
						water.  This 'clay with flints' forms the 
						relatively thin soil of the valley.

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