Alphabetical Kent: Acrise

As part of a project to get to know my home county a bit better, I'm visiting one randomly chosen place (that I've never been to before) beginning with each letter. Here's A.

Acrise is a hamlet in southeast Kent, about 6 miles north of Folkestone. The civil parish had a population of 172 people according to the 2011 census, which should give you an idea of the size of Acrise. I wasn't particularly enthused by my (or rather Excel's) choice for my first location of this project, especially after a glance at a map showed a church and not much else. However, maps don't tell you everything, and so I set off on a dull, slightly snowy morning to start a 2 hour journey, beginning with a bus to my local station (I could've walked, but I was feeling lazy). From the station it was a train to Canterbury, then a bus ride down to Densole. From here walking was my only option.

The walk into Acrise took about 25 minutes, down a straight flat country lane at first, lined by low bungalows on one side, and open fields on the other. The snow had picked up slightly by this point, and a fair breeze was blowing it all around, adding to the already chilly conditions. Cars were an infrequent hazard (no pavements here), and a couple of dog walkers were the only people I saw for the next hour. Coming to a crossroads, I was formally welcomed into Acrise, with the sign also proclaiming it to be in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Here the lane got narrower and more undulating, and I soon found myself descending into a small valley. The fields on either side, with the exception of one small paddock containing a few horses, were strangely devoid of flora or fauna save grass, and it didn't take long to find out why; Ministry of Defence signs proclaimed the area to be used for troop training, and forbade access to the public. Never mind, my destination was just up the other side of the aforementioned valley.

And suddenly I was in the centre of Acrise.The road I was on formed a small triangular junction with another road that led off to the north, towards Swingfield and Denton according to the signpost in the middle. The signpost also told me where the church was located, not that I would've had much trouble finding it, given the lack of much else significant in the vicinity. I therefore squeezed through a narrow gap between a fencepost and a white gate and set off up a muddy path towards the church. The church is dedicated to St. Martin, and is from Norman times, although much of the original architecture has been hidden behind 14th century alterations. It's a small, simple church, and reputedly has remains of a wall painting depicting Saint Martin himself to the side of the chancel arch.

I say reputedly because unfortunately the church was locked and gated on my visit, and so the above information has been lifted from the informative Friends of St Martin's Church website. The outer walls of the church were discouragingly lacking in any sort of information, historical or otherwise, and so my initial curiosity about the church was left unsated at the time. I wandered cautiously round the side of the church, taking care to avoid any graves, but the church remained stubbornly obstinate in its absence of any sort of interesting fact, and so I decided to head back out to the road.

The only other building of significance in Acrise is Acrise Place, which borders the church on its western side. Some history about the house can be found here, but suffice to say the site was definitely not open to the common public thankyouverymuch. Apart from that, there was a small trading estate with a large warehouse and some small stone outhouses (and a surprising number of Jaguars parked up), and a couple of farm houses further up the road. Generally speaking however, this was not the most auspicious start to this project, and as I walked back to Densole to catch a bus and start my journey back home, I was already wondering what I'd do if the whole project turned out like this. I guess I'll just have to hope Excel throws me somewhere slightly more interesting for B.

Some more pictures from this trip on Flickr: