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| Southern Bush Valley parish boundary stones... |
Today I decided to try and trace the line of concrete parish boundary markers that the 1907 OS map revision suggests run from North Wood westwards down to the bottom of Bush Valley...
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| Marker stone locations superimposed on an aerial map of southern Bush valley. The circled ones are those I found... |
The map suggested that there was a stone right by the path that runs through North Wood (on the right of the above map) but I could not find it. In his book, Cuxton - A Kentish Village, author Derek Church describes being able to track westwards down the hill, following the line of markers. I tried this but hit an impenetrable barrier of scrub and brambles, so I scrambled back up the hill, returning to the path through North Wood. This comes out by the overhead power cables, and it is possible to follow the clearing under the pylons down to the bottom of Bush Valley.
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| Boundary post example... |
Heading east up the slope between the field fence and the old pheasant pen, a row of five boundary markers can be found, although the fifth one behind the old pheasant look-out is pretty well hidden in the scrub beneath an old yew tree.
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| Boundary post... |
I did take a picture of each of them but they are all similar in appearance so I haven't posted them all here. Superficially these stones seem similar in design to the Hilton and Anderson quarry markers,
two of which can be found further up the valley above White Pit. They are smaller, however, and lack the full stop between the H and the A, which the White Pit stones have. Some people believe that the "HA" on these stones also stands for Hilton and Anderson, but personally I think it just stands for HAlling...
I tried to find the sixth one but once again the brambles made the quest difficult. I have no doubt it is hiding in there somewhere.
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| Panorama of Bush Valley from the eastern path... |
I took the path that tracks along the eastern edge of Bush Valley back to Upper Bush. The above panorama shows the rather blasted look of the valley at the moment, courtesy of Vineyard Farms...
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| Borrow Hill... |
After stopping in the White Hart for refreshment, I made my way up Church Hill into Mays Wood via St. Michaels...
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| St. Michaels graveyard... |
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| St. Michaels... |
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| Buttercups at St. Michaels... |
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| Daisies and buttercups... |
The buttercups were also on show at Church Hill...
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| Looking down the hill... |
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| View south over the Medway valley... |
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| Cuxton from Church Hill... |
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The Medway bridge from the top of Church Hill...
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Although not as showy as their counterparts further up in Wingate Wood, the bluebells in Mays Wood have nevertheless put on a good show this year...
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| Bluebells, Mays Wood... |
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| Purple anenomes, Mays Wood... |
