Walks WEST MALLING - A ‘smart’ place for time travel
Phone in hand, Dawn Kingsford went to West Malling to try out the only ‘Smart’ heritage tour in the country and to learn more about its famous visitors, including The Beatles and the incredible Mr Perfect...
One thing you could be forgiven for failing to realise when you arrive in the historic market town of West Malling is its reputation at the cutting-edge of tourism technology for its Blue Plaque Trail.
Knee-deep in centuries-old listed
properties and protected monuments, a motivated band of community players and local historians have developed the first “web-wired” tour in the country, in an incredible 14 months.
Today, the smart phone history trail is
just one more reason to visit this enchanting place, where you can use your mobile to read all about the town’s star-studded history.
Using our map, take a circular walk -
lasting an hour-and-a-half - past the 17 “swipe” signs, each with a QR code linked to Visit Kent’s website and a bank of information about West Malling’s famous
PUT A FACE TO A PLACE
• The Beatles, including late-comer Ringo, who joined the band in 1962, chose West Malling and its nearby airfield to film their 52-minute film Magical Mystery Tour (1)
• The world’s first professional cricketer, Fuller Pilch, played for Town Malling, mowing the pitch and pulling pints in the former Cricketers’ Inn (2)
• English Romanticist landscape painter Joseph Mallord William Turner travelled to West Malling for inspiration, painting the cascade and the priory, among other scenes (10)
• Propaganda suggested WWII pilot Captain “Cats Eyes” Cunningham ate carrots to give him excellent night vision, but he was actually trialling airborne radar (15)
• Dr William Perfect was an 18th century poet, surgeon and male midwife, who wrote a book on the subject (17)
Read all about them using the QR codes on the plaques or simply go on to the Visit Kent website.
22 Mid Kent Living
MP Tracey Crouch views the much-visited Beatles plaque at the Rain Grill.
Images courtesy of Dawn Kingsford and David Hodgkinson Photography
natives and visitors, including The Fab Four, George Orwell, the internationally- renowned artist Turner and a beau of Princess Margaret.
Trudy Dean realised how special the
area was when she moved to West Malling in the 1970s, and is one of those behind the award-winning blue plaque scheme, to which another dozen local celebrities will be added in September.
She said: “Buildings outlast our lives, but it is people who change our world. We realised early on that the history of West Malling’s best-known characters relied largely on being handed down, but as communities change, we wanted to ensure that these people and their stories would live on.
“It has proved a huge success as a way
of recording and sharing our history, creating a sense of belonging for those who enjoy living here.”
Peter Cosier, from the Blue Plaque
Project team, came up with the idea that has prompted interest from other community groups, earned funding from Tonbridge and Malling Council, and received the High Sheriff of Kent’s award for innovation in 2016. It now regularly attracts more than 1,000 visitors to the town each year.
He said: “We decided the high cost and
limited wording on the blue English Heritage plaques in London did not meet our expectations so we decided to come up with our own scheme.
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