Our last key project deliverable

Since the summer, we have been working on the last part of our project, which is to create new visitor information for Lyminge and the surrounding area. We were delighted to be invited by the Lyminge Historical Society to create new material for their existing information board in the Station Road carpark. At the same time, we have worked with the Parish Council to expand the range of information provided, and this is why a new noticeboard was installed in the latter part of last year. Together, the two noticeboards provide a lot of information about the history of Lyminge, what there is to see, and the facilities that exist here.

The LHS board focuses on the history of the village, with information about the various archaeological discoveries around the village, in particular those from the early Medieval (or Anglo-Saxon) period, as well as the Elham Valley Railway and the interesting historic buildings within the parish. There are numerous historic photograph’s from the society’s archive, as well as information highlighting what you can learn from the society’s serial publication Lyminge a history, available for sale in the Library, in the Village Store or on-line from the society direct. There is space for advertising the society’s next meeting, so you can still use this noticeboard to find out what is going on.

The Parish Council’s panel focuses on what visitors need to know to find their way around the parish, and what there is to see. The central map highlights all the named walking routes that pass through the parish, as well as marking all the public rights of way, the cycle routes and the places where food is available.

Within the Parish Council’s poster is a panel that is dedicated to giving interesting or quirky historical information about our community. The idea is that this panel will be changed every couple of months, and initially we have created 12 different panels, so we hope you will continue to come and have a look through the coming months as this panel is changed. If this idea is popular, we might have to create a few more!

On the reverse side of the Parish Council noticeboard is new material created in partnership with Elham Valley Walkers Group. The Parish Council has sponsored the group who are behind the popular annual Elham Valley Walking Festival, and they have produced for us a ring of walks around Lyminge, all starting from the Station Road carpark, which are mapped out on the poster and available for download. The whole Elham Valley is now covered with three groups of circular walks, the other groups centring on Elham and the north of the valley between Barham and Patrixbourne. The Parish Council is very grateful for all the hard work put in by EVWG to create these walks. Together, this group of 21 walks is a great resource for us all, residents and visitors alike.

The Elham Valley Walking Festival has regrettably fallen foul of Covid for the past two years. Hopefully it will be able to proceed again in 2022. If it does, there will be plenty of walks to try with a great deal of variety to suit all tastes. But you may like to watch out in particular for the guided walk around the historic sites of Lyminge, led by Rob Baldwin!

The final element of this new visitor information is a new leaflet that incorporates much of the information included on the noticeboard panels. This is currently available in the Library, and will be distributed around various local outlets as well as local tourist offices just as soon as we are able to get them out there. In the coming weeks and months, the Parish Council will be working on updating its website with up to date information about the parish to complement and supplement this new printed material.