Faversham

Faversham sits on a tidal creek a couple of miles inland from the Swale estuary in north Kent, and it wears its history well. The medieval street plan survives almost intact, lined with more than 400 listed buildings, from crooked timber-framed shopfronts to the elegant Georgian facades thrown up when the town grew rich on brewing, brickmaking and gunpowder manufacture. It has never been a big place, and that is much of its appeal: this is a working market town rather than a heritage theme park, with independent shops, real pubs and a creek still used by working boats rather than a marina full of gin palaces.

The surrounding countryside is classic north Kent: orchards, hop gardens and arable fields rolling down to the marshes and mudflats of the Swale, an internationally important home for wading birds and wildfowl. Inland, the North Downs rise gently towards Canterbury; seaward, Faversham Creek winds out past old wharves and boatyards to the open estuary, with Whitstable and its oyster beds only a few miles along the coast. It is a quiet, unshowy corner of Kent, well placed for exploring both the county's countryside and its coastline without the crowds of the more obvious tourist towns.

Top things to do in Faversham

Faversham rewards a slow wander, but there is plenty to see beyond the streets themselves.

• Shepherd Neame Brewery — Britain's oldest brewer, tracing continuous brewing on the site back to 1698 (and monastic brewing on the site further still). Guided tours of the working brewery finish with a tasting in the visitor centre.
• Faversham Creek and Standard Quay — a working waterway lined with historic sailing barges, boatyards, independent galleries and a scattering of quayside cafes; a favourite spot for a creekside walk.
• Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre — the Faversham Society's free town museum, telling the story of the town's gunpowder, brickmaking, shipbuilding and hop-picking industries.
• Chart Gunpowder Mills — the oldest surviving gunpowder mills in the world, restored by the Faversham Society and a reminder that this was once a major centre of explosives manufacture for the Royal Navy.
• Faversham Market — a street market has traded here since medieval times; today's market fills the town centre on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Oare Marshes Nature Reserve — a Kent Wildlife Trust reserve on the Swale estuary just outside town, superb for birdwatching, with wide skies and views across to the Isle of Sheppey.
• St Mary of Charity Church — a large, largely medieval parish church with an unusual openwork lantern spire, one of the town's most recognisable landmarks.

Getting to Faversham

Faversham has its own railway station on the main Kent Coast line, with fast trains to London Victoria and London St Pancras (via the high-speed line from nearby Ashford or Ebbsfleet) taking around an hour to ninety minutes depending on the service. The town also sits on the branch line to Whitstable, Herne Bay and Margate, making it an easy base for exploring the coast by rail. By road, Faversham lies just off the M2/A2, roughly midway between the M25 and Dover, with the A2 running through nearby Canterbury; the M20 and Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone are also within easy reach.

Best time to visit Faversham

Faversham is pleasant year-round, but late spring through early autumn brings the best of the town: hanging baskets and market stalls in bloom, the creek at its busiest with boats, and warm evenings for sitting outside one of the pubs. The Hop Festival, held over the first weekend of September, is the town's biggest event, celebrating its brewing and hop-picking heritage with parades, morris dancers and stalls filling the historic streets. Winter is quieter and greyer, but the Christmas market and candlelit late-night shopping evenings give the town a cosy, old-fashioned charm, and Oare Marshes is at its best for winter wildfowl.

Where to stay in Faversham

Accommodation in and around Faversham runs from characterful town-centre inns to countryside bed and breakfasts in converted oast houses and farmhouses. The creekside setting and easy rail links to London make it popular with weekenders, while the surrounding villages and orchards offer quieter rural bases within a short drive of the town and the coast at Whitstable and Herne Bay.

Food and drink in Faversham

Unsurprisingly for the home of Shepherd Neame, Faversham is well stocked with good pubs, many serving the brewery's Spitfire and Bishops Finger ales fresh from just up the road. The Sun Inn and The Bear on Market Place are long-standing town-centre favourites, while Faversham Creek has its own scattering of independent cafes and restaurants overlooking the water. The Friday and Saturday market brings local produce into the town centre, and being this close to Whitstable, fresh seafood — including the famous native oysters — is never far away for those willing to drive the short distance to the coast.