Venues in Kent; hire a String Quartet

Alkharn

A village in a quiet, secluded valley behind Dover, among elm trees and rolling chalk hills. It is notable for its 'nailbourne'—a stream which appears and disappears for no known reason. Legend says that disaster is imminent when it appears.

Ashford

A shopping centre which still has many medieval houses despite an expanding industrial area, based originally on the railway workshops. It is a central point for visiting numerous attractive villages. Godinton House, 2 miles north-west, has curved gables, stands in a park and dates from 1628.

String Quartets at Ashford International Hotel, Ashford, Kent

String Quartets at Best Western Donnington Manor Hotel, Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent

String Quartets at Bexleyheath Marriott Hotel, Bexleyheath, Kent

Barfreston

The village church, built in 1080 of flint and Caen stone, is notable for the rich stone carvings on its interior walls. The carvings, which date from c. 1180, surround the doors and windows in long friezes of fantastic complexity, with leaves intertwining round angels, human heads and strange animals.

String Quartets at Boys Hall, Ashford, Kent

String Quartets at Britannia Grand Burstin Hotel, Folkestone, Kent

String Quartets at Broke Hill, Halstead, Kent

Deal

Its past importance as a Channel port is recalled by the endless pageant of ships visible from the sea-front as they pass close inshore to avoid the Goodwin Sands. The Sands are 5 miles offshore; waves can be seen breaking on them at low tide, and there are cruises out to them in summer. The town is a good centre for fishing, and has a pebble beach and many Georgian houses. Deal Castle, in the shape of a clover leaf with rounded gun emplacements, was built by Henry VIII. A similar castle at Walmer, i mile south, is the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. A plaque marks the spot where Julius Caesar is said to have landed in Britain in 55 BC. There is a bracing 5-mile cliff walk southwards to St Margaret's Bay; watch out for warning signs indicating dangerously crumbly stretches of the cliff edge.

String Quartets at Bromley Court Hotel, Bromley, Kent

String Quartets at Bromley Manor Hotel, Bromley, Kent

String Quartets at Bull's Head Hotel, Chislehurst, Kent

String Quartets at Café Bistro, New Romney, Kent

Dover

Much of Dover has been rebuilt since the Second World War. It is an efficient port now, with handsomely built modern passenger terminals. Up by the castle, in what is left of old Dover, is a splendid park, a reminder of quieter and slower days.

The great castle was built by the Normans in the I2th century, using Roman foundation stones. They left intact the stone Roman pharos, or lighthouse—the earliest in Britain— which still stands today as a survivor of the Roman walled city of Dubris. The road to Canterbury still follows the route of the Roman Watling Street.

Grabble Mill, at River, two miles north-west of Dover, is a watermill that was built during the Napoleonic Wars to grind flour for the local garrison. It was recently restored to working order.

String Quartets at Chapel Down, Tenterden, Kent

String Quartets at Chart Hills Golf Club, Middenden, Kent

String Quartets at Chaucer Hotel, Canterbury, Kent

String Quartets at Combe Bank, Nr Sevenoaks, Kent

String Quartets at Council Chamber, Bromley, Kent

String Quartets at Crofton Halls, Orpington, Kent

Folkestone

One of the most lovable of Britain's seaside resorts, and one of the prettiest. The Old Town is a picturesque harbour area with narrow cobbled streets, and the harbour is still a working harbour for cross-Channel steamers and fishing boats. The Leas, a beautifully laid-out cliff walk, is ablaze with colour whenever flowers can bloom.In the Church of St Mary is a window in memory of William Harvey, the man who discovered how blood circulates, who was born in Folkestone in 1578. To the east is The Warren, a rugged landslip basin between high cliffs and the water's edge, with rare plants, hundreds of trees and shrubs, and fossils. From The Warren there are cliff paths eastwards to Dover.

String Quartets at Eastwell Park Boat House, Ashford, Kent

String Quartets at Etchinghill Golf Club, Folkestone, Kent

String Quartets at Ferrari's Restaurant, Bromley, London, Kent

String Quartets at Finchcocks, Goudhurst, Kent

String Quartets at Folkestone Racecourse, Westhanger, nr Hythe (nr Folkestone/Ashford), Kent

String Quartets at Holiday Inn Garden Court & Kemptons, nr Charing, Kent

Ramsgate

A holiday resort which lives in a state of intense but friendly rivalry with its neighbour Margate. The atmosphere of the two towns is quite different. Both have miles of safe sands and plenty of organised entertainment, but Ramsgate is more of an old-world and sea-going town. It is a major yachting centre, but its harbour surroundings still look like those of a small fishing port. Around its Royal Harbour and Yacht Marina the visitor can watch ships all day—including cargo boats as well as pleasure yachts and day-trip steamers. Sea-angling, from harbour or boats, is excellent; fishing boats can be hired for the day. There is a big open-air swimming pool by the sands, and a well-designed row of modern bathing chalets. At Ebbsfleet, on Pegwell Bay, i mile south, there is a hovercraft terminal, opened in 1969, and a modern replica of a Viking long boat of the type used by Saxon raiders who landed on this shore in AD 449.

String Quartets at Jarvis Great Danes Hotel, Maidstone, Kent

String Quartets at Larkfield Priory Hotel, Larkfield, Maidstone, Kent

String Quartets at Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone, Kent

String Quartets at Leeds Castle, Maidstone, Kent

String Quartets at Little Silver Country Hotel, Tenterden, Kent

String Quartets at London Beech Hotel & Golf Club, Tenterden, Kent

Reculver

The twin towers of Reculver are a conspicuous landmark, deliberately preserved as a navigational guide for Thames Estuary shipping. They are the remains of a Norman church which was built on the site of a former Saxon church. Earlier still, c. AD 200, a Roman fort occupied the site, part of the defence camp of Regulbium at the northern end of the Wantsum.

String Quartets at London Golf Club, Ash, Nr Brands Hatch, Kent

String Quartets at Lympne Castle, nr Hythe, Kent

String Quartets at Mercure Hythe Imperial Hotel & Spa, Hythe, Kent

String Quartets at Oakley House, Bromley, Kent

String Quartets at Penshurst Place, Penshurst, Kent

Sheerness

The main town on the Isle of Sheppey and a naval centre since the time of Charles II, though modern changes in defence needs have reduced its importance. The sea front by Garrison

Point provides a grandstand view of shipping in the Thames Estuary. A favourite naval inn, The Royal Fountain, is opposite the pier to which Nelson's body was brought home after Trafalgar.

String Quartets at Port Lympne with Wild Animal Park & Gardens, nr Hythe, Kent

String Quartets at Priestfield, Gillingham, Kent

String Quartets at Ramada Hotel Dover, Whitfield, Dover, Kent

String Quartets at Ramada Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

String Quartets at Ripley Arts Centre, Bromley, Kent

Teynham

The first place in Kent where apples and cherries were systematically grown, in the reign of Henry VIII, and still a good starting place for a blossom-time tour through the Kent orchards in the spring.

String Quartets at Salomons Centre, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

String Quartets at Shorncliffe House, Folkestone, Kent

String Quartets at St Margaret's Bay Hotel and Resort, St Margaret's at Cliffe, nr Dover, Kent

String Quartets at The Bell Hotel, Sandwich, Kent

String Quartets at The Croft, Ashford, Kent

String Quartets at The Hop Farm, Tonbridge, Kent

String Quartets at The Marquis at Alkham, Dover, Kent

String Quartets at The Orchard, Maidstone, Kent

String Quartets at The Pines Calyx, St. Margaret's Bay, Kent

String Quartets at The Wildlife Heritage Foundation, Ashford, Kent

String Quartets at Thistle Brands Hatch, Brands Hatch, Dartford, Kent

String Quartets at Turkey Mill, Maidstone, Kent