Pilgrims Path

by Roger Cockett

The old Thames frontage from Greenhithe to Gravesend has been largely destroyed by industry. Only a few old lanes run up from the river to higher ground and preserve the old ground profile.

Most of Swanscombe marsh remains untouched, though development is coming. A long-forgotten little lane runs south from the Thames foreshore across the marsh. At the edge of the marsh the lane finds its way up a fragment of ancient hill slope between deep chalk quarries. Local people call it the Pilgrims’ Path. At Galley Hill, the lane becomes Swanscombe High Street and the modern pilgrim may follow it onwards into Southfleet parish at Betsham.

Then the lane heads south towards the Wheatsheaf Inn at Westwood, down White Hill and along the Fawkham valley passing close by the medieval church and manor of Fawkham. At Fawkham Green the lane bears slightly left for Crowhurst Farm and at West Kingsdown windmill it becomes Pells Lane and runs past Drane Farm and Summeryards Wood.

Finally the lane crosses the North Downs Trackway and descends a little green valley to join the Pilgrims Way at the St Clere estate, which before 1300 was known as Aldham, “the old place”. Its further course into the Weald is unclear.

Routes such as Roman roads and Victorian railways are easy enough to confirm, with a little clearance of the ground surface. Anything else is notoriously hard to prove. This trackway may not have been used by pilgrims, but it looks like an ancient route and it feels like one when you walk it. But is it, or was it?