Top Of The Hops

Described as ‘the market town of kings’, Faversham has beautiful creekside walks, a long association with the brewing industry and just the right blend of vintage charm and modern conveniences

- Caroline Read

THIS medieval market town is alive with history and about as picturesque as they come. With its unique creekside location, fabulous local food and drink and its streets lined with historic listed buildings, it’s easy to see how so many visitors fall in love with Faversham.

Early settlements were established here because of its enviable location; on a navigable creek surrounded by fertile soil and with easy access to the sea.

Romans, Jutes and Saxons all understood Faversham’s value and each left their mark on the area, but it was King Stephen who really changed the fortunes of this little town, founding an abbey here in 1148.

Sadly, it was destroyed during the Dissolution but it left behind the thriving market town which had sprung up around it. With a mention in the Domesday Book, the market is thought to be the oldest in Kent and still takes place around the historic Guildhall and Market Place.

A busy trading port for hundreds of years, Faversham became one of the Cinque Ports as a ‘limb’ of Dover and was the nation’s main port for the export of wool throughout the 17th century. In the 19th century, local brickworks made the famous ‘London stock’ bricks and sailing barges piled high with them made daily deliveries to the city.

Between 1573 and 1934, Faversham became the centre of the UK’s explosives industry, with a total of six factories producing gunpowder. Visitors can still see the works at Chart Gunpowder Mills, the oldest of their kind in the world, thanks to the conservation work of The Faversham Society.

But the town’s most famous association must surely be with beer. Faversham and the brewing industry have a relationship that goes right back to its earliest days.