Tenham one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Tenham here.

The downloadable route for this walk is relatively poor in places and conditions on the ground aren't great.

The start of this walk, as far I can tell first-hand and from a range of maps, around the back of Tenterden Church to Eastwell Meadows, does not exist at all. So that's a pretty awful start. Instead you should use the TenAsh route directly east from the High Street to Summer Close where you leave the town into the woods - that is a perfectly pleasant start.

There was a tree down along the next bit and because the fences are all topped with barbed wire I did get snagged trying to push through this narrow bit (see picture). Otherwise it was all pretty good for the next hour and a half to Woodchurch. This all is follows the TenAsh route which has a higher level of accuracy in the gpx file. I definitely and highly recommend the stretch from Tenterden to Woodchurch along TenAsh.The Six Bells pub was a nice stopping point and there's the Bonny Cravat pub next door as well.

Getting beyond Woodchurch to Ham Street isn't straight-forward.

Leaving Woodchurch you enter a cattle field quite quickly but no sign of any bull yesterday. Rejoin the farm track and head southeast, you soon go into a weird strip of light woodland next to the track and it's 'fine'. Rejoin the track until you find the gate into a muddy yard on your left. When you get in there you will find that the footpaths on the maps and the gpx file don't reflect reality. Do not go north into the field. Head right through the muddy yard so that you are parallel to the farm track you just left. Follow this track into the Rare Breeds Centre and stay on that track. After you pass and impressive wooden 'thing' on the right that looks like a turkey you will find a stile with its step missing. Cross the field diagonally roughly eastwards and there's a similar stile. Maintain that direction to the easternmost corner of the field and there's another broken stile. Beyond is an overgrown bramble plagues metal kissing gate. Beyond that you're on a very quiet boreen style of minor road and it's a bit of a relief. Follow the road southeast and watch out for the footpath signpost as it's fallen over (see pic). You enter that field and cross it and the next one directly eastwards. The walk along the edge of Adam's Wood is pretty nice. There's an often inundated/flooded bridge here but it is passable with waterproof boots, about 10cm of water yesterday. At Leacon Farm the stile northwards through the hedge is broken and there's a tree down so you have to step down into a ditch. The rest, to the B2067 is fairly nice.

What I would advise here is that you ignore TenHam and instead walk the quiet lane to Warehorne where there's a nice pub, a nice church, and the Saxon Shore Way route to take you into Ham Street with few difficulties - that's a well-used path. Instead TenHam wants you to:

The B2067 is not nice but there is a usable verge for parts of it. When you leave the road after 200m it is immediately obvious that this is not well-used. Despite it being a footpath we were challenged by a very shrill lady with 'why did you choose to come through here?' - 'because it's supposed to be a footpath and that's a busy road'. The footpath on her property is blocked and it appears lost beyond there through the neighbouring properties. You must road walk into Ham Street from here. The traffic is fast and although generally visible and observant it was the icing on a rubbish walk from Woodchurch to Ham Street.

I don't know if there is a solution to fully link Tenterden to Ham Street without being overly diversionary or it being dilapidated or blocked in some way. Kent's rights of way team clearly needs a lot of investment as my usual experiences of walking in Kent are regularly negative. I wanted this route to work but it doesn't.

- Would you walk it again? - No.
- Would you suggest it to others? - No.
- Is it reasonably safe? Generally.
- Is it reasonably accurate? No.
- Does it have access issues? - Yes.

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