Sailing pretty

Above: Boats on Faversham Creek

Your first stop in Faversham should be the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre in Preston Street, where you can get the official guide. In this you will find an excellent walking tour of the town which will take you around and past the great number of historic houses which you see in this very attractive and historic centre.
Abbey Street, in the words of Nigel Nicolson, “is one of Kent’s most pleasing sights. Houses of many periods are dealt along each side of it like playing cards laid out for a game of patience.”
Four streets meet at Market Place, where you have the Guildhall, with its open arcade, rebuilt 1814 after the original Market Hall burnt down. Visit on a Tuesday, a Friday or a Saturday and you can browse the market which bears witness to Faversham’s position as market town surrounded by rich agricultural countryside: historically it was also important as a farming centre in Roman times.
Faversham was originally settled by the historic Belgi, with the Romans following on. However, Jutish jewellery in gold, silver and glass has been found in cemeteries in Faversham, attesting to it as a residential centre back in the fifth century.

Character and history
Faversham grew in importance as a shipping centre on its famous creeks, and indeed because a limb of the Cinq Ports. Boats are repaired in Faversham to this day.
The status of Cinq Port enabled Faversham to attain a reasonable degree of autonomy from the autocratic Crown. This historic character is still reinforced today, with the people of Faversham retaining a rather distinct personality from other parts of Kent.
Faversham was England’s main wool exporting port in the 17th century. The population of north Kent almost doubled between 1850 and 1900 with industry spreading into the Medway valley.
Faversham, for its part, had the famous brewery, Shepherd Neame, England’s first brewery, but the ship building industry continued. At one stage, there was also a thriving oyster fishery, before the grounds became polluted. Some 10 per cent of the population, according to Arthur Percival, honorary director of the Museum, was employed in the oyster fishery at one stage.

Faversham faces back into the past, as well as into the future

Another industry was brick making, which was, of course, essential with the push created by the expansiont of Victorian industry. Indeed, bricks from Faversham were used in the building of Westminster Cathedral (but not in its facing). A historic brick-making company still exists here, Cremer Whiting, which produces traditional bricks.
A particularly important industry in the town was explosives. Making gunpowder started here in the 16th century and there were three gunpowder factories. Mainly these were for making low explosives, used as a propellent. The industry flourished, according to Jessop in his History of Kent, in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The stream, which runs through Ospringe, provided power to drive the mills. The high explosives industry started in 1840 and gun cotton, TNT and cordite were made here on a vast scale. The biggest factory is now a nature reserve at the Oare Marshes, with the factory dismantled after World War I.

Gunpowder
The oldest gunpowder mill in the world is in Faversham and has been restored by the Faversham Society. A modern gunpowder mill has been repatriated from Scotland.
A considerable amount of trade was carried on up the Swale and on into London and in 1860, the railway was extended from Faversham to Whitstable.
Today, the brewery, Shepherd Neame, is still a large employer in the town. Jonathan Neame says that many employees may be second or third generation from the same family: “Many people have worked here for years.”
The brewery supports the Hop Festival which takes place on the first weekend of September, as well as the Christmas lights, and the Food and Drink Festival, and is doing more to develop local walks in the town.
Some £500,000 has been invested in upgrading visitor facilities at the brewery, and while it has been said that there is no showstopper, like the Cathedral at Canterbury, the Brewery certainly brings tourists into the town.
As Jonathan says: “When compared with wine, France is more ahead in promotion, but now, in the UK, there is much more interest than 10 years ago in food and drink culture. Faversham is blessed with small producers, greengrocers and butchers and services.”
The Local MP, Hugh Robertson, points out that Faversham is still ringed with successful fruit farms, and the Farmers’ Club is thriving. The surrounding countryside is delightfully varied, with marshes on one side and the foothills of the North Downs too.

A fascination with water
Within the town too there is the fascination of water at the very attractive Creek and shopping in the town is good, with a combination of specialist, privately owned shops and multiples, but as Arthur Percival says: “You get friendly, helpful service in spades.” Laurence Young, of the Faversham Enterprise Partnership, adds: “Faversham is an idiosyncratic place, traditional, and has kept the market town flavour, but it faces back into the past as well as into the future: it’s a lovely, jumbly sort of place in a unique way.”
The town hosts a series of events throughout the year, which include a Classic Car Rally this month, as well as the Hop Festival (1 and 2 September), a Faversham Society Open House Scheme (7,14 and 21 July), the Davington Fair (14 July) and an unusual after-dark Carnival (13 October).
While Arthur notes that some Kent people have never been to Faversham, I would say that this is both an unusual and very intriguing town to visit.

Words by Diana Crampton