54km A peninsula ride
Lee Green Road
Ride overview
‘The sea-reach of the Thames stretches out like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky are welded together without a joint.’ (Joseph Conrad - The Heart of Darkness)
After 35 minutes in a train from Central London, you could be forgiven for thinking that you have been transported to the end of the world, into a brooding and mysterious land. Here the wind blows keenly and you’ll probably be the only person you’ll see all day. The Hoo is a luminous place, filled with birds, apple orchards and sheep grazing on the salt marsh. Ride in spring and you pass enchanting bluebell woods, orchards in full flower. There are ancient churches and empty country lanes, a castle and the shadow of Charles Dickens throughout - he lived nearby and used the Hoo as inspiration for Great Expectations. And throughout your ride, there is the silent river, shimmering in the grey light. If ever you have wondered where you could go to blow away the confines of the city, wonder no more - for it is here, in the Hoo!
Ride Practicalities
START/FINISH: Gravesend/Rochester DISTANCE: 55km. TOTAL ASCENT: 839m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: Roads throughout, other than a short section of gravel beside the Military Canal and prior to Hoo St. Werburgh. Both sections very manageable on a road bike with 28mm tyres. FOOD: Gravesend Maries Tea Tea Room, Lower Upnor, The Tudor Rose, Rochester, The Cheese Room ACCOMODATION; It is possible to ‘camp’ inside St. James’ Church, Cooling. Camp beds, tea and coffee are provided. Book through www.champing.co.uk MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Gravesend and Rochester served by HS1 - rapid service to London St. Pancras, no need to book bikes onto train, or for an hour longer, regular trains to London Victoria. LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Heron Trail (NCN 179) - a shorter, family orientated version of this ride, London to Rochester, NCN 1 Dover to London
Ride reviewed and amended September 2024
Ride Notes
Gravesend has nothing to do with graves. The name is derived from Old English; ‘grāf’ meaning a ‘grove, copse’ with ‘ende’ as an ‘end, the end of something’, so literally the name means ‘the end of the grove’. There are graves of course, in the churchyard of St. George’s Church, the most notable of which is Princess Pocahontas.
Pocahontas was a Native American who, in the year 1607, saved the life of explorer and trader, Captain John Smith. He was captured by the local Native American tribe, Powhatan and placed on two big stones where he was to be clubbed to death. In ran the daughter of the Chief and placed her head over his and Smith was saved. Over the next few years, Pocahontas met with several English explorers and having converted to Christianity, she married John Rolfe, who brought her back to England. She died in Gravesend in 1616, as she was about to set sail for her homeland.
On the edge of town is the promenade where Londoners in the late Victorian times paraded having come up from London on one of the regular pleasure steamers. Beyond the promenade is the fort, one of many Thames forts built to protect London by General Gordon of Khartoum. There route through the lumpy, pot-holed streets, crowded by small Victorian warehouses may well be closed. The council are taking an age to repair the canal dock over which you first have to pass. If this is the case, head to the other side of the dock and follow the road around to the beginning of the old Military Canal which was built as a safe passage away from the sea, for supply barges to the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham. The further you ride, the more remote the landscape becomes - a flat line of marsh grazed by horses and sheep, where warblers sing, dunnocks fuss, and cuckoos usurp both of their nests.
The Hoo, due to both its proximity to the capital as well as its remoteness, has been home to weapons manufacture and weapons testing for over 150 years. The Armed Police Training Centre is still used, whereas the MOD testing range at the far end of the peninsula is being decommissioned. Across the marshes are remnants of old ordinance factories - you’ll spot them looking like old sheds, well spaced apart in the marshes of Cliffe. It was not only the armed forces who benefitted from the isolation, but monks too. At Upper Higham, there’s a deviation, if you’re in the mood, to the ruins of an old priory, whose buildings and stones have been sequestered into a farm and church.
Cliffe marshes are one of the stranger highlights of the ride. The gravel and sand pits are now RSPB reserves and are home to some rare species, particularly in winter. It’s a lonely place, semi-wild filled with gravel tracks which are exhilarating to ride on. You may discover the old fort, and the torpedo launch mechanisms beside it. Riding back onto the ridge, you pedal past woods, which in spring are carpeted with bluebells.
Bluebells in Cliffe woods
Back up on the route, you ride to Cooling, perhaps the Hoo’s most evocative place. The castle which looks the very part of a medieval fort with turreted walls, round towers, a drawbridge and moat, was built in the 1380s by the Cobham family, the local lords of the manor. It achieved national fame in 1554 during Sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion against Queen Mary I. The castle was besieged by 4,000 men and its walls were the first to be battered by gunpowder propelled weapons. However, the siege did not last long and Lord Cobham, who only had only eight men armed with four or five handguns, four pikes and some blakbylls, managed to defend the castle. Wyatt proceeded to London and where he was defeated, before being executed for treason. Today Jools Holland, of the Squeeze, lives there. Opposite is church whose graveyard was made famous by Charles Dickens. In Chapter I of Great Expectations, Pip is surprised by Magwitch an escaped prisoner.
‘Pips’ Graves at Cooling Church
The riding continues under huge skies whose cloudscapes delighted JMW Turner until All Hallows, where after WWI, there was a plan to turn the marshland around the hamelt into a major seaside resort, in the style of Herne Bay. It was planned to be the best holiday resort in Europe, with the largest swimming pool in the UK, along with the first artificial wave generator. Over 5,000 houses, a cinema and theatre, were all planned. Nothing came of the plans, just as nothing came of the London Airport which was destined for the marshes in the early 2000s. There’s a caravan park and a feeling of being at the end of the line. But its rather an evocative end of the line!
The Pilot at All Hallows, the only remnant of a plan to make the village one of the largest pleasure towns in England
From All Hallows, the riding is easy as the route weaves through apple orchards which are a full of blossom in spring and there are superb views to both the Medway and Thames estuaries. The roads become a little busier as you approach Hoo St. Werburgh, but once past the small town peace is restored and you arrive at Upper Upnor, surely one of the prettiest villages in Kent. The small cobbled main street has two pubs and it would be foolish not to enjoy a bit of traditional village pub atmosphere and beer at the Tudor Rose. The high street is lined with old weatherboarded homes some of which housed admirals, and at the end is a castle. The gardens are filled with roses in summer and the views across the Medway are gorgeous.
There’s a short hop across the Medway on a cycle path to Rochester, with its castle, cathedral and pedestrianised high street - which is often bedecked in flags and bunting. There are plenty of places to eat and drink before catching the 40 minute train back to London.
Every route on this website has been carefully researched as well as ridden. However situations on the ground can change quickly. If you know of changes to this route, or cafes, pubs and the like which you think other cyclists need to know about, feel free to share your thoughts below.
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