Waterside footpath

On December 5th, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will authorize an Inspector to determine whether or not a footpath along the water's edge at Faversham should remain on its ancient route, or whether a local landowner should be allowed to alter the route - send the public around the back of his property, to protect his privacy, security and view. This small local question has been hovering over the statute books for a few years. Documents have been submitted, requests made. Legal procedures have been duly observed. No-one lost their temper. (I might, if I had to type my words in perpetuity in the slow, time-lag system demanded by this blogger site).

The path in question runs along the eastern bank of Faversham Creek. It starts in a pretty, medieval setting of the old merchants' houses of Abbey Street, then moves into a quaint quayside area with low old wooden warehouses and sheds, then a muddy boat yard, then a narrow fenced footpath, and eventually a nationally adopted pathway through marshlands which eventually leads out around the coast of the whole of the British Isles. Once this path gets out onto the marshy farmland, there is not much between a walker and prehistoric times. You are actually in a place of air, wind, quiet, weeds and reeds, light, silence, birds, your own heartbeats and footsteps, and slow time. It is about sixty miles from the centre of London and yet you could be in a timewarp of 5,000 years ago. Not much has changed.

We have a surprising amount of archaeology for this area. Hollywood has a blockbuster launch waiting for BEOWULF for the 13-year old boy-market, but historians, archeologists, learned professors of Anglo-Saxon and Early English, and all sorts of tourism chiefs ought to be taking notice.

For this quiet, dull, open ancient landscape is where the action of Beowulf took place. I will not give you all the details here, but refer you to the Faversham Society, and its published paper no 64, 1998, titled 'Beowulf in Kent, ISBN 1 900214 11 3

OK - I am a co-author of the piece, and it's in my interests to talk about it. But my co-author is the genius of the whole idea. He is Paul Wilkinson and it is he who identified this ancient, rich coastline as the scene of the poem. He's the marine archeaologist. He's the one who keeps on identifying the real landscape of Kent.

He's as outraged about the assault on the Faversham Creek footpath as I am. He's the one whose doctorate into the history of the Port of Faversham identified so many important and fascinating facts.

But the main point is this. We mostly live by rules - laws. Astonishingly, in the UK, laws do still mostly seem to protect the lowly rights of ordinary people to go about their honest business. This includes walking peacefully alongside the water's edge, to get out to the sea, or to haul a barge against the tide or the wind, into the town quay or back out to deep water.

When someone decides that they'd like to change things - cut off a footpath, or fence off a hauling path, we all need to take notice.

If you think you have something to say about this, come to the Public Inquiry. Dec th, Graveney Village Hall, 10am. The Queen will guarantee your right to speak.

Be thankful this is not a country where the Head of State is also in direct control of the Army, and can sack Judges, and appoint news ones at will.