Fredville Park

The Fredville estate includes an area of parkland, grazed by sheep and cattle and known for its ancient oak and chestnut trees, some of which are over four hundred years old. We walked from the pretty thatched lodge house beside Nonington cricket club to the companion cottage beside another gate in the hamlet of Frogholt. The first part of our walk was on a metalled driveway, the second part, after we passed the entrance to the farm and other buildings, was a reasonably accessible track, firm enough for J's wheelchair if a little bumpy. It's always good to find a new walk, and particularly good to have another rural alternative to the many accessible seafront walks we enjoy around the Kent coast. It was a beautiful afternoon, and our walk was very peaceful in warm, golden early evening air. 

Nonington is between Canterbury and Folkestone, just a few miles from home, but until last week had never heard of Fredville. The estate was developed in the eighteenth century, with a large house and walled garden, but the manor of which this estate was a part dates back to 1250 or earlier. The eighteenth century house was demolished in 1945, following a major fire during the second world war, but the estate is still owned and farmed by the same family. The area around Nonington was, a generation ago, the heart of the Kent coalfield; we passed the derelict remains of Snowdown colliery, and Aylesham, where we stopped to stock up on laundry supplies at the Co-op, is built in a style almost indistinguishable from the many pit villages we knew in County Durham. The surrounding landscape is varied and ancient, inhabited and farmed from Saxon times, and at least one pretty village and the nearby windmill will be our destination for a future stroll with plenty of opportunities for photography and perhaps sketching. We will also return to Fredville, perhaps to enjoy the trees in autumn.