Petts Wood to Hayes via West Wickham - urban walk
The urban walk gang take in a south London stroll!
(Photos/words © urban75, September, 2009)
The walk started off - as usual - at a trusty pub.
The Daylight Inn, Petts Wood, is named after William Willett, a campaigner for daylight saving time, who lived in nearby Chislehurst for most of his life.
The walk followed part of the London Loop.
The full length of the Loop almost completely encircles Greater London, covering a total distance of around 240km (150 miles).
The London Loop is well signposted, even if this one has suffered a bit of 'urbanisation'.
Old fella taking in the view.
The walk took us through Farnborough Village (Kent).
The Farnborough Village Society explains a bit of its history:
 The village name derives from Fearnbiorginga, meaning village among the ferns on the hill. Records date from 862ad when Ethelbert, King of Wessex,
gave away 950 acres at Farnborough. Although the village was not mentioned in the Domesday Book, the manor existed in the middle ages and was held in the 1200's by Simon de Montfort.
The village developed on the main road from London to Hastings which originally ran via Church Road and Old Hill. The George pub existed in the 16th century and was used as a coaching inn. Coaches and horses
were later accommodated at the Change of Horses.
The centre of the village is a conservation area with quaint and historic
buildings dating back to the 17th Century. Church Road retains the rural
character of the past and the path to the Lychgate connects church and village.
The flint and brick church of St Giles the Abbot was rebuilt after a storm
in 1639 when the large yew was planted outside the west door. 
Attractive cottage opposite the church.
The picturesque parish church of St. Giles the Abbot, Farnborough, Kent, dating from 1639. A church has stood on this spot for some 1500 years.
The well photographed Lychgate at St. Giles.
The area around the church has been used as a Parish Burial Ground since 1000 A.D. I liked this gravestone.
Inside the church.
Tombstone dating from 1795.
In the Victorian Extension to the Churchyard can be found Gipsy Lee's grave. She was the last Gipsy Queen in the area and lived the later part of her life nearby.
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