Faversham

[poliphilo]

We had planned to go to Canterbury but- having stopped for lunch at Chilham- which was lovely and quiet- we thought,"Lets not go where the tourists are"- so we turned left into the hills and drove by narrow, unimportant roads though orchards and vineyards and tiny villages to Faversham.

I've never loved Canterbury, but I've always loved Faversham. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because no-one ever told me Faversham was beautiful- and I got to find out for myself.

Court Street which turns into Abbey Street is one of the prettiest streets in England. Here's Arden's House- where the murder was committed which inspired the first social realist play in English literature.



St Mary of Charity is an ugly church with wonderful things inside- like this pillar with its medieval paintings still largely intact and their colours unfaded.



I walked around the churchyard taking pictures of gravestones. I particularly like this one- which I remember from my first visit 40 years ago. I photographed it then as well. Photographing it again felt a little weird- as though I were crossing my own time line.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Heh, I was in Chilham yesterday, doing a recce for an upcoming scooter forum ride. (It would be lovely to meet up at some point; that part of Kent is dead easy for me to reach.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That'd be good. I guess we're about three quarters of an hour away from Faversham...

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Faversham's one of my favourite Kentish towns.

St Mary's also has the tomb of King Stephen who founded the abbey.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I missed the royal tomb, but I did get to see the misericords. Never mind, I'll be back.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Misericords!

I do love me some nice misericords! :o)

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

The colours and details on those medieval pictures are astonishing! I wish some of our local wall paintings had survived that well, rather than as faded enigmatic fragments - St Christopher's detached foot in a river full of fish, and that sort of thing...

And I do love the matching skulls on that gravestone.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know any other English medieval wall paintings that have kept their colours so well.

the gravestone is a great piece of folk art. Picasso would have been happy to have come up with the shape of those skulls- so bold, so stylised, so tactile.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

The painted pillar is fantastic! Would you happen to know its date?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm hopeless at dating medieval stuff. I'm guessing early 1300s.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should re visit Kent this summer