A Canterbury Tale location walk

[Steve Crook]

"This is Chillingbourne, not Chicago!"



A film location visit to Fordwich for devotees of Powell & Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale on Sunday, August 31, 2008.



By popular demand we are revisiting Fordwich, just off the Margate road (A28) to the west of Canterbury. But this time we will have our first opportunity to inspect the Undercroft (recently restored and previously not open to the public) in the Town Hall and see for ourselves if it bears any resemblance to the ground floor of Chillingbourne Town Hall, where Alison and Bob Johnson reported their encounter with the glueman. You can also marvel at the interior of the smallest Town Hall in England and see why they couldn't film in there but faithfully reproduced most of it in the studio.



The Town Hall will be open from 1.45 - 4 pm (admission £1.50). We will see a new DVD of the history of Fordwich in the Undercroft and then visit the Court Room. We will also see St Mary's parish church (where Chillingbourne's parishioners were filmed arriving for matins), the entrance to the "Colpeper Institute", and various other nearby places that represented Chillingbourne village.



Your guides will be Paul Tritton, author of A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie and Steve Crook of the Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society.





We will meet at on Fordwich Quay at 1 pm. There are very few public parking spaces in Fordwich village. Please find one on or off the road leading from Sturry to Fordwich. For details of bus and rail services to Sturry (¾ mile from Fordwich) visit Stagecoach and National Rail. Please check the National Rail website the day before you travel to ensure that there are no timetable alterations due to engineering works etc.



See you there



Steve

[Steve Crook]

Southeastern Railway have a notice on their web site saying:

Engineering work will affect services on the following routes:

Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 August 2008

Southeastern services between London Charing Cross and Ramsgate/Margate will terminate/start at Canterbury West. Bus services will run between Canterbury West and Ramsgate.



Steve

[Steve Crook]

Be prepared. The 5 day forecast says that on Sunday in the Canterbury area there will be some "Thundery showers". A gentle (5mph) ENE wind with a max temperature of 25 degrees Centigrade (77 Fahrenheit)



Steve

[Steve Crook]

name='Steve Crook']Be prepared. The 5 day forecast says that on Sunday in the Canterbury area there will be some "Thundery showers". A gentle (5mph) ENE wind with a max temperature of 25 degrees Centigrade (77 Fahrenheit)



Steve

They've changed the forecast from "Thundery showers" to "Sunny intervals"

So be prepared for just about anything



See you in Fordwich at 1pm



Steve

[Mark O]

Have a great time all those that are going and hope the Weather behaves itself!



Looking forward to seeing some pics.......

[wagner1966]

Enjoy the walk guys. Sadly we came home from Kent (Deal) yesterday after a weeks holiday (I had booked on the assumption the walk would be on the bank holiday sunday - Argh). Had thought of staying the extra day but car trouble (and cattery/kennel dates) prompted an immediate return. Spent sometime in the Canterbury locations (Checked out the villages on a previous visit 5 years ago - missed the walk by a week then too!).

Look forward to seeing some pics (and videos?)

Hope the weather holds out for you.



Think I may have permission to pop down for a couple of days next year.



yours, green with envy,



Ben

[Dame Starry]

name='Steve Crook']They've changed the forecast from "Thundery showers" to "Sunny intervals"

Steve

It's the same thing - it just sounds better; the "sunny intervals" will be inbetween the "thundery showers"!



Have an enjoyable afternoon anyway.



DS x.

[Steve Crook]

Well after all those weather scares, we only had a few spots of rain, hardly anything at all.

It was quite warm, but not hot. You don't want it too hot when you're walking quite a bit.



We all met at the pub by the Town Hall. An average turnout of about 70 people. 15-20 of them were first-timers and one lady even admitted that she'd never seen the film but she'd been "persuaded" to come and she seemed to get on OK even though she didn't know what we were talking about most of the time



We had a good look round the Town Hall (in two batches because it's so small). The people that look after it gave us an introductory talk about it and we then amazed them about how precisely it was all recreated in Denham. They've also opened up the ground floor a bit more than they had on previous visits. That's where the town jail was and they've also opened up a store-room at the back where they showed a 10 minute video about the history of the place.



Then into the church. This is the church which we see Bob Johnson come into with Jim & Mrs Horton just after he's met the boys on pow-wow hill. We see a bit of the outside of the church and then a shot from inside as they walk in and a quick shot of the bell being rung.



After that it was up to the top of the high street to point out the lane leading to Pru Honeywood's farm and then down the high street aka the Beverly Hills of Fordwich because that's where most of the boys were living when they were recruited.



Past the old farm (briefly seen) where the hay cart came from that General Leslie is standing on when he first meets Bob. Just next to the farm entrance is (in real life) the Manor House which was the exterior of the Colpeper Institute and is also seen when Bob's talking to Leslie on the hay cart. Trying to explain how magical the room was that Bob stayed in at The Hand of Glory. That he could look out of one window and wave to the butcher in Wingham and then look out of another window and see Leslie in Fordwich - 6 miles away! That's almost as clever as the way that Bob could run down pow-wow hill, just outside Chilham, and arrive at Fordwich church which is nearly 10 miles away and on the other side of Canterbury. The magic of the movies



After all that time was getting on, a few people had to leave early to get trains. Or rather the shuttle bus that took them back into Canterbury because no trains were running east of Canterbury. Some of the rest of us stopped off at the other pub in the village, the George and Dragon, for a spot of refreshment. That was also used as part of the exterior of the Hand of Glory, as was part of the Red Lion in Wingham. Micky stayed at the George while they were shooting in the area and that was their main HQ.



It was raining quite hard in SW London all morning. As I drove down the rain seemed to stop as soon as I got into Kent and then held off (mainly) all day. And now that I'm home again, I've only been in for 15 minutes and I hear it raining outside, with a few rumbles of thunder.

Crazy weather



Today was a bit chaotic in places. We didn't manage to do any of our playlets, reciting (or getting people to recite) lines from the film at the location where they were said in the film. But it all seemed to go reasonably well.



I was kept too busy to take any photos myself. But we have an "official photographer" and various other people were taking pictures as well. As soon as any of those appear I'll post a few here.



Steve

[Rob Compton]

Sounds good, Steve, thanks



rgds

Rob

[Freddy]

Thanks Steve



Oh to be in England!



Freddy

[Steve Crook]

Outside Fordwich Church









Instructing and elucidating in Fordwich









Steve

[Steve Crook]

There are now a few more pictures available



Steve

[Chevyman]

Loved the photographs on the P&P website.



Excellent

[Mark O]

name='Chevyman']Loved the photographs on the P&P website.



Excellent

Me too!.....thanks for the link, nice to see Fordwich

[Steve Crook]

name='Mark O']Me too!.....thanks for the link, nice to see Fordwich

There are other photos from Fordwich from our 1999 Location Walk or when John Sweet visited Fordwich - for the first time. Although many of his scenes in the film were based on Fordwich, none of them were filmed there.



Steve

[Chevyman]

name='Steve Crook']There are other photos from Fordwich from our 1999 Location Walk or when John Sweet visited Fordwich - for the first time. Although many of his scenes in the film were based on Fordwich, none of them were filmed there.



Steve

Thank you.



Is the village as well preserved as the photos suggest?

[theuofc]

name='Steve Crook']There are now a few more pictures available



Steve

Steve -



These are excellent photos. Many thanks for sharing them along with your narrative of the ACT walk.



Barbara

[Steve Crook]

name='Chevyman']Thank you.



Is the village as well preserved as the photos suggest?

I seem to have missed this question. But the answer is Yes.

The vast majority of villages in North East Kent are still very well preserved and retain their charm. There are more cars than there were since 1944 of course and there are TV aerials on every house and cottage. But they are still recognisably the same villages as they were in 1944 and before.



The main development in Kent has been along the London to Dover road, the Channel Tunnel and the rail link. The area around Canterbury still has many lovely villages like Fordwich, Chilham, Wickhambreaux, Shottenden and the other places seen in the film.



Canterbury itself has been "redeveloped" many times. But there are parts of it, like the big church, which haven't changed for a thousand years



Steve

[stevie boy]

sound like a jolly good time, thanks for sharing it Steve

[Chevyman]

name='Steve Crook']I seem to have missed this question. But the answer is Yes.

The vast majority of villages in North East Kent are still very well preserved and retain their charm. There are more cars than there were since 1944 of course and there are TV aerials on every house and cottage. But they are still recognisably the same villages as they were in 1944 and before.



The main development in Kent has been along the London to Dover road, the Channel Tunnel and the rail link. The area around Canterbury still has many lovely villages like Fordwich, Chilham, Wickhambreaux, Shottenden and the other places seen in the film.



Canterbury itself has been "redeveloped" many times. But there are parts of it, like the big church, which haven't changed for a thousand years



Steve

Thanks for that. I'll keep a note for next time I'm in the area