Hamstreet, Kent - An Objective View

Smugglers, stamps and the Saxon Shore

Links to photographs, cycle routes and free 'five pub' walking guide at bottom of page!

"Hamstreet is 'interesting' and retains the characteristics of a traditional and proud working village, something that is increasingly rare"

- Kent Life Magazine (Nov 2003)

You will find other road related links in these two sites

TRAVEL/HUMOUR BOOKS BY A LOCAL AUTHOR

Get the latest news on the parish council's official site here

Check out Hamstreet's original village site here

Introduction to the Village

The Kentish village of Hamstreet is affectionately known as ‘the gateway to the marsh’, being located six miles south of Ashford where the ridge of clay hills meets the flat expanses of Romney Marsh, an area once awash with smuggling. The village was bypassed in 1994, but remains an important junction and is twinned with the little town of Therouanne in France. Therouanne was once a city with a cathedral which was sacked by the troops of Henry V. The stone canonball near the flagpole in Hamstreet was a gift from the mayor of the twin town, presented with the words 'You can have your cannonball back!' More local history can be perused on the Forge Gardens noticeboard and at the station.

Traditional weather-board buildings and a generally unspoilt appearance make the place well worth a detour from the beaten track. Three long distance footpaths pass through the village; one follows the peaceful banks of the Royal Military Canal - the UK's third longest defensive structure, and two pass through the expansive deciduous woodland that is Hamstreet Woods. A walk incorporating both the canal and the woods was featured in the 'Top 50 best summer walks in Britain' in the Independent newspaper. A second area of public woodland is located northeast of the village at Orlestone Forest.

To get a reasonably accurate population for the village, add together the populations of Orlestone and Warehorne, for the ancient boundary runs through Hamstreet itself. This amounts to roughly 2,000 people. Orlestone is the original location of the village - now just a hamlet a mile to the north centred around the eleventh century parish church of St Mary. The Church of the Good Shepherd is a more modern place of worship in the village's High Street and the ancient church of St Augustine's in Snave also comes under Hamstreet and holds one service annually at harvest festival.

Hamstreet's Claims to Fame

H E Bates who wrote the Darling buds of May would have known the village well, and both Noel Coward and the writer Joseph Conrad resided at nearby Aldington. Within a five mile radius of the village, we have seen the likes of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Paul O'Grady, Julian Clary, the actress Jan Francis and international golfer, Peter Mitchell. Hamstreet has also been featured in futuristic writings by Sir Peter Hall and David Boyle. But what of the village itself?

Mountain Farm in Hamstreet once featured in Blue Peter as a base camp for an expedition up the 'Marsh Mountain’. Romney Marsh is of course completely flat, so this humorous concept involved presenters turning a map of the area upside down and crawling along the road!

Hamstreet had its real moment of fame in the early 1990's, with maps of the village appearing on postage stamps all over the UK. John Craven even did a 'Countryfile' special on the village. This was to mark 200 years of the Ordnance Survey. Hamstreet was chosen because the area was the first to be mapped and the changes to the village over the years showed up very well on a series of stamps.

The village is also on the route of the Tour of Britain cycle race which passed through in September 2006. The village was also filmed in 2007 as a case study of a community undergoing change for a DVD to be studdied by geography students countrywide.

Visitors enjoying the huge potential for walking and cycling around Hamstreet will find that villagers enjoy a good range of amenities:

The Post Office/supermarket remains open until 10pm daily and includes meat and fresh vegetables in its range. There is a cash machine, a paper shop selling local farm produce, a garage and stove shop, a DIY/joinery store, a hardware and cycle shop, a garden centre including a cafe, an antiques shop, hairdresser, estate agent, dentist, school and a doctor’s surgery which the Government declared the best surgery in Britain for customer care in 2005. The village also has its own care agency for the elderly.

For leisure there is The Old Schoolhouse Indian restaurant (which also provides a takeaway and delivery service) as well as the Duke’s Head pub and restaurant. Accommodation can be found locally and there are a further four pubs within two and a half miles of the village cross; these are the Woolpack, World’s Wonder, Blue Anchor and White Horse. The village also has a dancing school, a bowling green and a hot-air-ballooning company which regularly launches from the football field.

A fish and chip van visits on Saturday evenings and there is a youth club on Thursdays as well as Scout and Guide associations (shared with Ruckinge), youth drop-in centre, over 60s, CARM coffee mornings on Fridays, playgroups, lunch club, Royal British Legion, history society, WI, mountain biking club (Weds) and much more.

Events and festivals

The village hall committee and ‘sports and leisure association’ run many local events, the ultimate aim of the latter being to construct a modern pavilion to augment the flood-lit 'multi use games area' and football field. Particularly good is the Country Fayre and Festival of Transport weekend every June which includes an evening dance to live bands. Also look out for posters for Hamstreet bonfire and fireworks on Pound Leas each November. One month later the houses in Carters Wood put on an array of Christmas lights for charity. The village also gets a bus service to the annual Rare Breeds Centre beer festival each June.

Public Transport / Accomodation

As well as daytime bus services to Ashford and New Romney (Mon to Sat), Hamstreet has a railway station on the Ashford to Hastings line - one of only two remaining diesel lines in the Southeast. You will find the station master to be very helpful and may be surprised at the improvements in information, comfort and reliability.

Trains now run direct to Brighton and are half-hourly to Ashford and Rye at peak times. Surprisingly, a return or season ticket from Hamstreet to London doesn't cost a penny more than one from Ashford. Timetable here.

Sadly the guest rooms at the Duke's Head are currently not in public use but visitors seeking accomodation will be able to find B&B facilities nearby or book a room at The Railway Hotel at Appledore Station - just a five minute train journey away (01233 758253).

This is an opportunity for visitors to see the kind of challenges that villages face. The author of this site has actively campaigned for many issues, including the following:

** Request for staffing of Hamstreet railway station after six months of closure in late 1990s - success.

** Request for the authorities to act to save Hamstreet's final filling station from closure in 2001 on grounds that the village is selected for growth because of its amenities - failure.

** Suggestion for an annual village bonfire (made with many other villagers) - success.

** Request for a cash machine (made with many other villagers) - success.

** Suggestion for brown 'local services' signs on bypass to encourage greater use of amenities (as found at many other Kentish villages) - failed.

** Request for more, not less, trains to operate from Hamstreet during review of the line in 2005 - success.

** Support for Indian takeaway and increased pub licensing hours in line with other local rural pubs - success.

** Suggestion of plaque depicting points of interest on village sign - success

** Request for Hamstreet to be linked to the national cycle network with an official route to Ashford - currently in limbo due to lack of Sustrans funds.

** Request for tax discs to be made available at village Post Office - failed.

** Suggestion of improved road signage for the village - failed.

**Support for Hamstreet Surgery to expand - pending.

As you can see it is a pretty mixed bag, but more support for these campaigns cannot do any harm:

** Our Post Office was offered the tax disc sales around 25 years ago but this wasn't taken up so that now even the hamlet of Stubb's Cross has jumped the queue. There is no reason that this anomaly cannot be addressed as Hamstreet's Post Office fits all the criteria for this service. Please write to Royal Mail Customer Services, FREEPOST, RM11 1AA.

** Sustrans have even drawn up a Hamstreet to Ashford cycle route. Tell them that current routes to the town are unsafe. Suggest a link to route 18 at Shadoxhurst via either Long Rope Lane (cheap option) or the forest route on the cycling page of this site to info@sustrans.org.uk - The Royal Military Canal Path would also provide a great link to Ruckinge as a proper cycle route.

** There is a battle of minds taking place in our village. Going back to the 1950s is not an option; we need to encourage expansion of local services and accept new types of amenities or die. With an increased population and villages like Ruckinge and Kenardington in our catchment area, there must also be demand once again for a butcher's store, but sadly much-needed commercial sites are still being priced prohibitively and then converted into residences. Please write to express your support to the parish and borough council whenever new facilities are prosposed.

** Hamstreet used to appear on roadsigns all the way from Newenden 13 miles away. Due to being categorised as no more important than the very smallest of villages we have since been expunged from signs in Tenterden, New Romney, Lympne, Aldington Knoll, Bonnington, Chequertree, Millbank and Appledore Heath. This is in spite of being located at at a central junction on a trunk road (the county council's own criteria for improved signage). Whilst a recent campaign may reduce the number of HGVs travelling via our village from Tenterden, the suggestion to revert to the old destinations on the signs has fallen on deaf ears which will result in unwanted heavy traffic through the village of Appledore instead. So why state the case for Hamstreet to be a secondary destination like Charing and Sellindge to Road signing policy, Kent County Council, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent ?

All in all, there is much to be positive about in Hamstreet and it is clear that campaigning CAN work. So please BE VOCAL and SHOP LOCAL.

And if you don't live here, why not pay us a visit and perhaps try some of the walks and quiet country cycle rides.