Aylesham

Aylesham is a coal-mining town dropped into the Garden of England, and the orchards have never quite forgiven it. The pits are long gone, the old workings still run under a good share of the gardens, and the place carries on between Canterbury and Dover with the unbothered air of somewhere built to do a job rather than to be admired. Buyers hunting for the oast-house Kent off the tea towels drive straight through, while the ones who stop get a station, the Kent Downs up the road and change left over from what Canterbury would have cost. It is the least pretentious place for miles, which around here counts as a provocation.