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From and email received 24 January 2023. I am not 100% sure
about what I am about to say, but . . . .
Many years ago, in my youth, a friend and I had a favourite pub.
It was Called the Yew Tree at ‘Wichling’ (alternate spellings?) near
Sittingbourne (Doddington). We lived in Sittingbourne and I am going
beck to the 1970s. At the time, the Landlord was a chap called
‘Roly’ – possibly short for Roland? There was a large grass field at
the back of the Pub’ and Roly kept a donkey there. There was often
an inviting log fire in the bar in the colder months, with armchair
seating, where my friend Frank and our girlfriends spent many
evenings! Sadly, I do remember that the pub was later bought and
turned into more of a ‘yuppy’ type wine bar – which totally ruined
it in our view. I do not remember exactly when this happened
(Sometime in the 80s maybe) and neither do I remember what it would
have been named.
My buddy Frank and me wanted to do some running one lunchtime and
we started from the pub car park and turned right. At the end of the
road we turned to our left and ran for approximately 1 mile before
making a very sharp left turn and running back towards the pub. The
last stretch was another left turn and up a jolly steep hill for
about a hundred yards or so, ending back at the pub car park. That
run took us at least 40 minutes. We measured the route by driving
around it in the car and it was almost exactly 2 miles. We kept it
up for a good number of weeks, starting from and finishing at the
pub and drinking a welcome pint afterwards, and eventually ran the 2
miles in 13 minutes! That was a long time ago – nearly 50 years. I
have lived in many places around the country since then.
I mention the running route and the name of the pub, because
today I decided to take a trip down memory lane. I looked to find it
on Google earth. After many minutes looking, I could only find one
place that could possibly be that 2 mile route. What was likely the
pub (now Yew Tree Cottage?) sits on a narrow lane that seems to have
no name and sits between Faversham Road and Old Lenham Road. I have
measured that ‘triangle’ and it does indeed appear to be very close
to 2 miles. It is the only likely route that I can find in the area
that fits the bill, right down to the last hundred yards up hill,
although it is now vastly more overgrown than I remember it.
I am almost 100% sure that what is now the cottage was originally
the Yew Tree Public house – it’s just that after 50 years it looks
rather different to how I remember it, the ‘lane’ is much more
overgrown and there appears to be newer buildings roughly where the
grass field and Donkey were.
My name is Glenn Ives and I am 5 months away from my 70th
birthday. I hope this has been of some help, but maybe just an
interesting little story if I am wrong.
Regards,
Glenn Ives. |
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