Aaaahhhh, Dymchurch: ‘Children’s Paradise’ as the sign proudly proclaims as you drive into the village. And to be honest, I would have to agree! I have very many happy memories of summers spent on the beach there when my children were small. As the tide receded over the vast expanse of sand, it would leave toddler friendly lakes and rivers for splashing about in – much less intimidating for little ones than the sea itself. It was a surprise result as it had looked very much as if we would be going to Darford, but the pointer just crept over the edge of that segment and kept us a little closer to home – although it does take two buses to get there!

Beyond the beach, the amusement park and a very occasional visit to the arcade to have a go on the 2p machines if the weather was bad, we had never explored the village itself however, so were both quite excited by the prospect – especially once we realised that the biannual Day of Syn celebrations would be taking place over the Bank Holiday Weekend, and so we decided to time our visit to coincide with that.

The festival pays homage to the character of Dr Syn, the protagonist in a series of novels by Russell Thorndike. Dr Syn is the Vicar of Dymchurch by day, but at night he becomes the masked Scarecrow, leader of a gang of smugglers – although in the prequel novels which Thorndike wrote some time later, one discovers that Dr Syn has in fact had a very chequered past, including a stint as a pirate, which makes the smuggling bit less of a surprise! Such is it’s popularity that although called The Day of Syn, the festival now runs for the whole of the August Bank Holiday weekend and is no longer just a day, but despite the popularity – and the fact that not only did we used to visit a lot back in the day, but my sons were both pirate/smuggler fans – we have never got round to attending. Discovering the A – Z of Kent meant that was all about to change!

We had planned to go on the Saturday as the bus service was better, but as the weather forecast was better for the Sunday, we decided that overall we would rather not be rained on. With the two buses needed to get there however, the more restricted Sunday service meant that our first bus to Folkestone, wouldn’t allow enough time to change and make it to Dymchurch for the start of the costumed parade through the streets. It couldn’t be helped, but on arrival we realised that it hadn’t long been underway, and with a road closure still in place, the bus ground to a halt on the outskirts of the village. We couldn’t just sit there and wait it out though, so jumped off, and with a bit of speed walking, managed to catch up with the parade as it was leaving the High Street and heading off along residential streets towards the recreation ground – and all before the traffic had started moving again! There were bagpipers, militia, Dr Syn characters, and lots of locals who had donned pirate costumes. A real community event.

Once at the recreation ground there was a line up with a group of bikers which seemed very random, until I discovered that they were from The Scarecrow Motorcycle Club based in Dymchurch, and that they apparently help to sponsor the event.

The main characters then proceeded to parade around the central arena. Here comes The Scarecrow,

with some of his fearsome henchmen.

I realised very quickly that it was just as well we hadn’t come twenty years ago. My younger son was a child of a very nervous disposition and he would have been so terrified that we would have ended up having to go straight home!

Caffeine was calling. There were food and drink stands at the recreation ground, but as we were on a Dymchurch day out we wanted to support one of the village businesses, so we headed back down the road to try out the top rated tea and coffee spot – The Coffee Lounge. It was very small and it was a very busy day, so not surprisingly it was full, but we got a takeaway mocha

and wandered back to the recreation ground instead, to watch what we thought was going to be a battle reenactment, but which turned out to be a musket and cannon firing display. The whole process of loading and firing a cannon was explained and was surprisingly interesting (although I’m not sure that I retained much of the information!)

After that it was time to explore the delights of our D destination. Dymchurch is most well known for its vast sandy beach which I mentioned earlier (it’s traditionally been a blue flag beach but sadly seems to have lost this status lately), but the tide was right up to the sea wall – and in many places splashing over the top – so there was no sand in evidence that day. Off in the distance, were good views across the bay and round to Dungeness however, and I took a moment to think back to when I was at the start of my Kent Coast Walk.

Just off the beach there is a very sweet children’s amusement park with family friendly rides, and my daughter had a moment of nostalgia when she spotted the boat ride which used to be her favourite I still mourn the demise of the log flume, which is about to as adrenaline fuelled as I have ever managed to cope with, and was sorry to see that the ghost train had gone as well – apparently closed at the end of last summer.

Just down the road is the amusement arcade where we used to play the 2p coin pusher machines, but we didn’t go in to see if they are still there.

Dymchurch has a small high street, which rather suffers from being the main road through from Hythe to the Romney Marsh and beyond, and so is quite busy with traffic. It has an assortment of shops and cafes, where you can buy everything that you need for the beach.with a focus on beach paraphernalia – and oh how a display of buckets and spades, rubber rings and windbreaks cheers my soul!

If you don’t want to drive – or travel by bus – then you could take the train. But not just any old train. Dymchurch is one of the stations on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, a miniature steam train which, despite its name, runs between Hythe and Dungeness. (The original line, which opened in 1927, did only run between Hythe and New Romney, via Dymchurch however, and it was extended to Dungeness the following year!) Fun fact of the day is that the miniature railway was the brain child of Captain Howey and Count Zborowski, the latter being the owner of the actual Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the car that inspired Ian Fleming (sometime Kent resident) to write his famous book! Sadly the Count died in a crash during the Italian Grand Prix, and so it was Captain Howey who saw the vision to completion.

Another famous name associated with Dymchurch is Edith Nesbitt, author of The Railway Children, who was a big fan. She first visited in 1893 whilst on holiday in Hythe, but liked it so much that she returned every summer for over ten years. As a result, there are several blue plaques with her name on.

She gradually stayed in bigger and better houses as she became more successful,

eventually buying a house and settling down at nearby St Mary’s Bay. (She is buried in the churchyard at St Mary in the Marsh.)

Dymchurch has three martello towers. This is tower number 24 of 75 that were built along the coast of Kent and East Sussex as a defence against the threatened invasion of the French under Napoleon. Many of them have been converted into homes, but this one is managed by English Heritage. We were hoping that it might have been open for visitors as it was a special weekend, but it seems to only be open from 2pm – 4pm on Saturdays.

The church (St Peter and St Paul’s) isn’t open on Saturdays, but does open after the Sunday service, so we went there instead. Apparently it has two medieval scratch dials – a primitive form of sun dial that, as the name suggests, used to be scratched into the south facing exterior walls of churches before the days of clocks, so that clergy and parishioners would know when it was time for a service. Dymchurch has two because the first one had the porch built around it and could no longer be seen, so a replacement was needed. Unfortunately we couldn’t find either of them, despite trying to use our knowledge of the fact that churches traditionally face east in order to make sure that we were looking at the correct wall.

Although the church has been extended and altered over time, inside the porch you can see the original Norman carved doorway,

and there is also a Norman chancel arch. A morning service leaflet had been left in one of the pews and we were both amused to see that under Collect, it said ‘Dr Syn to address the congregation’. I am assuming that this was in his Vicar of Dymchurch capacity, rather than his Scarecrow alter ego! That would have been fun to see, but a) we didn’t know about it and b) the bus wouldn’t have got us there in time anyway.

Across from the church was New Hall, the old court house and gaol. Visiting is normally only available by prior agreement, so it was good that it had been opened especially for the weekend. – appropriate as it was here that the Lords of the Level (Governors of the Romney Marsh), would meet to discuss and rule the Marsh

and dispense justice in the courtroom. The last case was heard here in 1951, and it is now a small museum.

There was an interesting display about past Day of Syn events including a leaflet for one of the first.

Adjoining New Hall and through a thick metal barred door was the village gaol, used until 1866.

Inside we found a volunteer dressed as an 18th century gaoler who told us all about life and conditions in the cell – a tiny room that would have held up to four prisoners, all sleeping on straw on the floor. She pointed out the graffiti which had been scratched into the wood, which improved in quality the nearer to the tiny window – the only light source – it was. I was particularly fascinated by the tiny notches which had been scratched by the prisoners each day to record their time of incarceration.

We’d originally thought about having fish and chips for lunch, but the reviews for both chip shops were pretty bad. Then, as it was a Sunday, we wondered about having a roast dinner at The Ship, a 16th century inn which, as well as having plenty of smuggling connections in its own right – and being opposite the gaol, meant that many plots to help prisoners to escape were planned there – also served as the fictional headquarters of Dr Syn in the novels (and I’m assuming that having a sign that looked like a gibbet was no coincidence!.).

The beetroot wellington vegetarian option sounded tempting, but my daughter had spotted an arancini van at the recreation ground which also sounded tempting – and not only would it be considerably cheaper than a roast dinner, but it would also allow us to watch the battle skirmish between the smugglers and militia as well. The latter option won, although we did stop for a drink at the pub first. (It was nice inside, and there were some period features, but the bits we saw weren’t giving us olde worlde smuggler vibes which is what we’d been hoping for, so we didn’t regret the decision. Also, the service was not great, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it was because they were having a busy weekend, even though it wasn’t that busy when we were waiting at the bar!)

Back at the recreation ground, we ate our arancini, and watched on as the smugglers, not surprisingly, won their skirmish after sending forth a decoy Scarecrow for capture and then taking the militia and the revenue men unaware in their subsequent attack. All good fun.

We had a really lovely time and were pleased that, as it only happens every two years, we were able to incorporate the Day of Syn into our visit. We are definitely riding high with these days out so far and I am excited to see where E will take us!

You can read my A to Z of Kent: C is for Cliffe (and Cooling) here