10 July 2023 The Road to Tonbridge

Today we saw two churches and one castle. The other castle we tried to see, Chilham Castle, was closed, so we passed it by and headed to St. Leonard's Church in Badlesmere. The town of Badlesmere is nothing more than a couple of farms. It was named after one of my ancestors, Bartholomew Badlesmere. He was around during Edward II times (the weak King after Edward I Longshanks, from Braveheart). Bartholomew was the King’s favorite, then turned on him. That ended up in him losing his head. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_Badlesmere,_1st_Baron_Badlesmere 

However, the church was old, and abandoned. The churchyard around it was grown over with vegetation, and the tombstones were ancient.





Our next stop was the town of Tonbridge, where we will be staying for 3 nights. Another ancestor of mine, Richard FitzGilbert, was granted land in Tonbridge, and built a very nice example of a Motte and bailey Castle. His family maintained it for nearly 250 years, until the family line ran out, and the castle was given over to the Stafford family. Richard FitzGilbert was also granted lands in Clare, Suffolk, and later changed his last name to De Clare. He was a Norman Duke who followed William the Conqueror to England, and helped him defeat the Saxon King Harold at The Battle of Hastings in 1066. To the victor goes the spoils, as the saying goes.







After visiting the castle, we found an old church in Tonbridge called the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul Tonbridge. The clock tower still worked, and there were several gargoyles along the edge of the roof. There was also an old churchyard, where we walked around. I went to Findagrave.com, and there were 5 requests for pictures of the headstones from some genealogists. Unfortunately, 4 of those requests were for people who died well before 1859, and the oldest headstone we could find was from 1803. The rest had weathered away and were difficult to read at best. It nice to walk around though.









After that, we checked into the Rose and Crown Hotel, and settled down for some rest. We’ve been walking a lot, and as warm as the weather is, added to our jet lag, we needed to take it easy. It’s been fun so far, but I am ready for my body to be on local time and get some decent rest. Here are also some pictures we took at a local children's playground. I have never seen a zipline for kids, but I saw one here today.








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