Oare Creek, Faversham
Faversham Brewery
Faversham is one of the Cinque Ports I’ve heard about but never before visited. It’s famous for the Shepherd Neame brewery, the umbrella factory and the abbey but infamous for its pirates. I could have lingered in Faversham but my schedule needed me to move on. Next, I drove across Graveney Marshes to Seasalter, then Sandwich and Deal on my roadtrip round the Kent coast.
Creekside Boxing, Faversham
The Anchor, Faversham
Standard Quay, Faversham
SB Repertor at Standard Quay, Faversham
SB Henry at Standard Quay, Faversham
SB Repertor at Standard Quay, Faversham
Faversham
Shepherd Neame offices, Faversham
At the wheel of a hired tintop: white Aygo at Graveny Marshes, Kent
Beachuts at South Oaze
The Oaze
The Oaze
Z1000SX and Ninja ZX12R bikers at Seasalter
USN P-22, WW2 Rhine cruiser, at Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich, Kent
Toll Bridge, Sandwich, Kent
Deal Beach, Kent
Deal Pier, Kent
Deal, Kent
Faversham could be my new favourite of the Cinque Ports. Its access to the sea isn’t quite silted up yet so it has a small working port. The beer from the famous Shepherd Neame brewery all leaves by road these days. The histories list Faversham’s colourful past: King Stephen established the abbey in 1148. Jack Ward left Faversham to go pirate, operating off the Barbary Coast in the early 17th century. And there was an explosives factory on the marshes... until it blew up in 1847. Not quite the sleepy historic town Faversham seems at first sight. It does have a boxing gym and a Sea Scouts base next to one of the breweries, each reusing interesting buildings and a cut above the tattoo parlours common in the other Cinque Ports.
Faversham’s Standard Quay is the colourful home to several historic sailing barges, also several pubs and now has a handful of boutiquey shops. I enjoyed an espresso and homemade carrot cake in the “secret garden” and chatted with a couple of bikers, obvious because they were wearing leathers, both rueing the joys of riding motorbikes in France due to the restrictions this year. Our roads crossed again a little way further round the coast road, at the sea wall at Seasalter overlooking The Swale. One riding a Z1000SX like I rode to Austria, the other a Ninja ZX12R with a sticker from Moto Aix, (bike shop in Aix-en-Provence) a souvenir of being recovered there after an breakdown on the electrics.
So that was Faversham, I liked that place, its character.
Sandwich didn’t impress me, there’s the toll bridge, a small port and the historic town but Sandwich’s character seems only in the past. It’s a Cinque Port left isolated not just by the silting up of its port but strangled by the surrounding industrial centres clustered around Dover.
Deal is more interesting. It has a small castle, a Martello Tower and is also a Cinque Port; but Deal’s unique feature is the concrete pier, slightly reminding me of that autostrada bridge at Genoa that fell down spectacularly and tragically in 2018. The beach at Deal is pebbles as this is now the Channel coast, some fishing boats are drawn up on the beach within strolling distance of the town centre and make an attractive display in the September sunshine.