This peaceful 18th-century Kentish farmhouse has ancient beams fashioned from ships’ timbers from Chatham dockyard. Escape from London by train and be here in about an hour.
Bedrooms have garden views and the room in the Victorian extension has two big windows that look eastwards to the glorious Kentish Weald. Sit by the old log fire in the dining room for a breakfast with free-range eggs from the farm, homemade jams and local honey. Well-fuelled you can then join one of the nearby walks that Sue recommends: Greensand Way, Wealden Way and Medway Valley.
Sue used to run a well-known nursery at Rock Farm. She knows which plants grow best in these alkaline conditions and her garden is open for the National Garden Scheme. An evergreen Berberis stenophylla provides a striking backdrop to the herbaceous border – 90-foot long. The bog garden below the house is filled with candelabra primulas, trollius, astilbes, day lilies, gunnera, lythrum, filipendulas and arum lilies flowering from April to July. In a further area – around two natural ponds – contrasting conifer foliage interplanted with herbaceous perennials is set against a backdrop of woodland.
