Coldrum Long Barrow & the Lost Village of Dode

I’m reading Ben Aaronovitch again so magic is very much on my mind and this landscape had it in spades. A fella had stopped me on Leyton High Road during the first lockdown, while I was out on one of my daily walks and told me I had to visit the ‘Lost Village of Dode‘. He then disappeared down the road on his bike before I could enquire further. I made a note on my long list of walks and thought no more of it til one evening a couple of weeks ago when I realised it was not far from the neolithic Coldrum Long Barrow that had been on my list for a few years. The walk formed in my mind.

This expedition into the Medway Valley was blessed with some magnificent early Spring sun – with temperatures hitting 20 degrees (in late March). I was released into the hills and started the climb onto the Downs from the village of Halling, crossing the ancient Pilgrims Way on the way up. Chalk breaks through the tree roots. I cross a field of pylons and a Richard Long style path. The enchantment of the walk never fails. It takes the first couple of hours to process and shake off your worldly worries then they just dissipate and disappear, the walk takes over and you are claimed by the landscape.

Coldrum Long Barrow, Kent
Coldrum Long Barrow, Kent

The video above maps out what follows. Arriving at Coldrum slightly earlier than expected, ready for a rest and lunch, I sat on a bench in the sun by this 6,000 year old burial chamber for nearly an hour. It was hard to wrench myself away to walk the paths, roads and fields back to the station at Snodland. Now I’ve experienced this terrain on foot, felt it through my boots and in my soul, I’ll certainly return to continue along the Pilgrims Way. It’s going to be a great summer of walks. Hiking season has well and truly begun.

Walking the Thames Estuary from Thorpe Bay to Wakering Stairs

The Broomway is regarded as Britain’s most dangerous path, claiming over a hundred recorded victims and many more undocumented. It’s considered incredibly unwise to even attempt to walk out across the treacherous Maplin Sands without an experienced guide, but I wanted to stand at that point where the path leaves the land.

The walk in this video starts at Thorpe Bay and heads through Shoebryness to the point where the Thames flows out into the North Sea. An incredible walk that will live long in the memory.

A stroll round Oxford

This daytrip to Oxford came with the first whiff of Spring. I felt the excitement trickling through my nervous system as the train departed Marylebone for the ‘City of Youth’. And unlike those excursions where expectation and reality clash, the day unfolded like a dream in the radiant sun.

With no plan and a mostly unhelpful foldout map I just drifted the streets – down past Christ Church then back along the High Street and through the covered market. I took lunch sat outside in Turl Street not far from Brasenose College. Near the Bodleian Library I remembered the day I spent here shooting a BBC Culture Show with Russell Brand in 2007 that culminated in his address to the Oxford Union. A fun day.

Although I’d carried the image of finishing the day in a pub garden beside a river, when I reached the end of my perambulations I fancied a return to the ancient Turf Tavern where I’d spent an evening here celebrating the recent arrival of my 40th birthday. Emerging into the twilight I followed the voices in the alleyways (there’d been exams that morning) til I arrived at The Bear, said to be one of the oldest pubs in Oxford.

A glorious day and I shan’t leave it so long to return next time.