The Darling Buds of May
Top: The east front of Ightham Mote, showing the perpendicular window of the Great Hall. Above: A ‘perfick’ pub in Pluckley. Top middle: A restored oast house at Smarden. Above
far right: Period
cottages line the streets of Chilham.
Far right: Sunrise
over apple orchards near Chartham
84 BRITAIN
tart a discussion about Kent and the subject of hop picking will certainly arise. The county, originally known as Cantia, is called the Garden of England because of its low rainfall and mild climate, its many orchards and hop gardens. Hop picking was once the annual
‘working holiday’ for Londoners who would travel to Kent to pick the hops, first introduced to Britain by the Romans. Today, a familiar sight in south-east England is the
distinctive cone-shaped oast house, a reminder of Britain’s once thriving beer industry. An oast consisted of three rooms: the kiln, the drying room and the cooling room. The hops were dried in the drying room – just above the kiln, then dragged into the cooling room, before being pressed and baled into packets for despatch to the breweries. However, times change and imported hops now flood the market and oast houses have been converted into exclusive and expensive homes. In 1991 when The Darling Buds of May burst onto our
television screens – and we first heard Pop Larkin utter the word “perfick” – those idyllic rural scenes of Kent in the
1950s evoked memories of life in the good old days. Filmed in and around the village of Pluckley, with its chocolate- box cottages, oast houses and ghostly legends, H E Bates’ classic tale about the Larkin family soon had the public clamouring to see for themselves where they ‘lived’ and Pluckley found itself on the tourist trail. Reputed to be one of the most haunted in England, the
village claims at least 12 ghosts, one of which inhabits the Black Horse pub. An interesting feature of this building is the curiously shaped windows. It was through such a window that a member of a local prominent family – the Derrings – escaped from Parliament, during the Civil War. Similarly- shaped windows are now replicated throughout the village. Another enchanting Kent village is Chilham. Nestling
high above the River Stour valley, its narrow steep lanes climb up to emerge into the picturesque village square where, annually on May Day (the first Monday in May), the square is transformed by festivities and market stalls of every variety. At each end of the square, major buildings stand guard: Chilham Castle, owned by prominent businessman and gambler, Stuart Wheeler, who claims he
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