Nicholas Toke and Godinton Park
Nicholas Russell finds 17th-century conspicuous consumption in the Garden of England.
They are concreting over the Garden of England. Agrarian Kent has been losing a long, slow battle against suburbanisation for decades. Railways and the motorcar have inexorably turned its towns and villages into London commuter-land. Now the cherry orchards, that most potent expression of its horticultural heritage, are being grubbed up. Hop gardens are closing down as the licensed brewers of Continental lagers, which take an ever increasing share of the market for beer in Great Britain, are forced to use German hops, rather than the fruits of our own bines.
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