Faversham; Saturday, 10 August, 2013

After breakfast I headed out into town for a bit more of a wander, before heading over to the Shepherd Neame brewery for my pre-booked tour.

I had a very interesting tour and a good sample of several of their products, including the particularly pleasant, but lethally strong 1698 brew.

Having taken in the main industry in town today, I headed out to the back of town and the site of one of the former big employers, the gunpowder works.

At one point Faversham was one of the most important gunpowder producing locations in the country, with the works being built up over centuries. In fact it was only the location of the works, in the South East of England with the clouds of war starting to build in the early 1930’s that lead to their eventual closure and relocation to the coast of Ayrshire.

Today the works have been turned into a country park with several waymarked walks around the site, taking in many of the ruins of buildings that were important in the manufacture of gunpowder.

Having visited the works I walked back into town and then diverted slightly to the former gunpowder mill just on the edge of the town centre.

With Faversham’s industrial past and present taken in I wandered over to the station and caught the train one stop down the line to the seaside resort of Whistable, where I spent the late afternoon having a wander around.

I caught a mid-evening train back to Faversham and walked back over to the pub for dinner and another sample of their wonderful range of beer, before retiring to bed.