Blue Bell Hill is a chalk hill between Maidstone and Rochester in the English county of Kent. It overlooks the River Medway and is part of the North Downs. Settlements on the hill include Walderslade; and Blue Bell Hill and Kit's Coty villages. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries much of the hill was quarried for chalk.
The south west side of Blue Bell Hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest as it harbours several rare plant species. A picnic area serves as a rest point for walkers on the North Downs Way which runs along the top of the hill whilst the prehistoric trackway of the Pilgrims' Way skirts its foot. A modern crematorium also surmounts the hill as does the Bluebell Hill transmitting station, which comprises five steel lattice towers, each approximately 45–50 metres in height.
The A229 dual carriageway follows the route of a former Roman road and climbs the hill, today linking the M2 and M20 motorways. High Speed 1 also runs beneath the hill, via the North Downs Tunnel, and archaeological work in advance of it uncovered a Neolithic long house on its slopes.
Which is all very nice but I like it most because my Dad loved to go up there and just stare out over the Medway and over to the North Downs.
When you are on the other side of the world, the things that you took for granted take on a different importance, the things you'd forgotten come crashing back and the things that you love amplify themselves to a fever pitch! However, not everything is beautiful, not everything is great and not everything can be forgiven. Such is the life of a Flâneur...
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Friday, 7 May 2010
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