Swale District Faversham Sittingbourne Isle of Sheppey Kent UK

Faversham Tourist Guide

Faversham is at the heart of the Kent Real Ale Trail, and home to best Kent brewer Shepherd Neame. The ancient Kent market town of Faversham is no newcomer to beer brewing and hops growing - that's been going on round here for over 850 years! Find out how famous Kentish beers like Spitfire and Bishop's Finger are made. The brewery tour does well to compare old and modern methods, including the modern packaging of today's beers. A brewery shop selling gifts and all of Shepherd Neame's Kentish beers is on-site.

Faversham makes rather a good Kent holiday base for families. Its three outdoor swimming pools are especially popular in Summer, and this Kentish town has a huge number of attractions including Britain's oldest Gunpowder Mill which produced gunpowder for all those Medway port ships in the past. Other attractions in and around Faversham include Farming World, a great petting farm and family attraction, plus Faversham and the Swale area's annual Hops Festival which takes place annually across the first weekend in September.

Shepherd Neame Brewery Tour, 11 Court Street, Faversham, Kent. Tel. 01795 542016.

Faversham Tourist Information Centre, Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 13 Preston Street, Faversham, Kent ME13 8NS. Tel. 01795 534542.

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Sittingbourne Tourist Guide

Ancient Kent market town Sittingbourne on the Swale actually has Roman settlement roots, but is perhaps most famous for its Victorian industrial heyday. Handy deposits of clay in the area made for good brickmaking, and the Smeed family made good use of it. This Kent town was also a key supplier of paper from the huge Sittingbourne Mill, shipped to London by barge and rail as the raw material for the Daily Chronicle no less. Today Sittingbourne is renowned particularly for its popular Greyhound Racing Track. Racing takes place here every Thursday, Friday and Saturdays (sometimes Sundays, and often on Bank Holidays, check their webguide right for more information). The Central Park Stadium covers 24 acres, and parking plus dining options are onsite.

Well worth heading to for an all round insight into the history of Sittingbourne and the Swale area is the town's comprehensive heritage museum. Sittingbourne's fascinating industrial heritage is around brickmaking and barge making, Sittingbourne bricks were what Victorian London was built out of, and the famous brickmaking manufacturing family the Smeeds are given due attention in the museum, which also has displays on local Roman finds. Personal and oral histories of local folk are particularly well represented, with 'before and now' photography of the town.

Sittingbourne's history of paper making dates back to 1708. The town's huge paper mill only closed recently in 2007, and rumours point to the plant becoming a heritage site. A light steam railway was built to transport the paper to London. Sittingbourne Mill's heyday was under the ownership of newspaper publisher Edward Lloyd. Lloyd purchased the Daily Chronicle in 1876 and quickly made it London's first daily and top selling newspaper. The raw material came from Sittingbourne, and the mill continued production through the 20th century, employing many women workers before 1969 who, before machine cutters and sorters were brought in, cutted and sorted the paper by hand. Read more via the Sittingbourne Mill's heritage webguide right, and visit the Sittingbourne Heritage Museum.

Sittingbourne Heritage Museum, 67 East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 4BQ. Tel.01795 423215. Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway Ltd. PO Box 300, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 2DZ. Tel. 0871 222 1568. (check the Railway's webguide for opening times and details - usually from Spring through the peak Summer season). The splendid gardens at Doddington Place near Sittingbourne are also not to be missed. Doddington Place & Gardens, Nr Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 0BB. Tel. 01795 886101.

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Isle of Sheppey & Bluetown Sheerness

The Isle of Sheppey is separated from the mainland by the Swale waters and contains a wealth of natural treasures including the sublime Elmley Marshes - now an RSPB reserve and one of the UK's finest coastal grazing marshes. Birdwatching fans will be well aware of the area, which has a number of hideaways, plus trails criss-crossing the reserve.

To the north Sheerness is a historic Kent Medway port town, once home to a navel base. Sheerness's beach has blue flag status, plus take time to visit the Sheerness Heritage Centre housed in one of a small row of surviving 19th century listed original wooden dockyard worker's cottage. The heritage centre lays bare the history of the dockyard at Sheerness which was the major employer in the area until it closed in 1960. The first large vessel to be built at Sheerness was the appropriately named Sheerness built in 1691. Then and through the 18th century most shipbuilding workers lived in hulks but eventually dire conditions in these pushed the workers ashore and they built wooden houses (of which the heritage centre is an example) and painted them Royal Navy blue hence the nickname 'Bluetown'. The heritage centre also highlights the history of the Co-operative Movement in Sheerness which took off from 1816 when a small group of Sheerness Dockyard Workers had had enough of the high prices of local shopkeepers.

Sheppey's defensive role during the Second World War is best explore in Queenborough to the west. Queenborough Harbour was the main home for huge numbers of mine sweeper vessels during that period.. Artist Hogarth was rather enamoured with the town when he visited Queensborugh and Nelson rather conveniently had a house here with mistress Lady Hamilton. Find out more at Queenborough's Guildhall Museum. Sheppey's Leysdown coast on the eastern side overlooking Whitstable (fine views are from here of the Whitstable beaches) also has award winning beaches and is a popular seaside spot for caravan and holiday park holidays. The coast is home to the Priory Hills Nature reserve, so plenty of opportunity for superb coastal walking and birdwatching. A couple of miles south of Leysdown at Eastchurch look out for the stone monument to early aviators in local All Saints church. Two of them died in the area. Shurland hall, the Tudor Manor house near Eastchurch where Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn spent their honeymoon, is currently receiving some much needed attention from English Heritage.

Sheerness Heritage Centre, 10 Rose Street, Sheerness, Kent ME12 1AJ. Tel. 01795 663317.

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