Bird Walk 20th January

 

Bird Walk at Oare Sunday 20th January

RSPB expert Alan Johnson will lead a family-friendly Bird Walk on Sunday 20th January at OARE nature reserve

Meet at Oare Reserve Car Park at 1.00pm

The walk will be approximately 1 – 1.1/2 hours, with a stop in a hide.

All welcome, including children, but no dogs please.

Directions: http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/pdfs/reserves/oareMarshes.pdf

Please contact hernhill@machin.f9.co.uk if you would like to come.

Blast from the past: Oare Gunpowder Works

Continuing our ‘Out and About’ series, with independent reviews of local attractions and amenities.

Just west of Faversham lies Oare Gunpowder Mills, a former working gunpowder factory that provided gunpowder used in the infamous Gunpowder Plot. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Faversham was the centre of Britain’s gunpowder manufacturing industry, including the mills at Chart, Oare and Marsh, collectively known as the ‘Home Works’ complex.

Since its closure in the 1930’s, and its susequent rescue by Swale Borough Council, the area has been recognised as a site of prime national importance by English Heritage and turned into a preservation and conservation area, not only preserving aspects of the factory but also including the creation of a nature reserve, including large lakes created from  former reservoirs. The original canals, or leats, that were used to transport the powder around the factory, survive, and there are signposted paths around the site that lead visitors around the extant buildings and along the lakesides; there’s also a visitors centre.

A walk around the entire site takes around forty minutes, so it’s perfect for a short escape from contemporary life to find refuge in a country ramble.

Admission is free: the centre is open from 9am – 5pm on weekdays, and 10am – 4pm weekends.

(Review and images by Tom O’Bedlam).