Smarden

Description

Smarden Village

Smarden, situated in the central Weald of Kent, is now a sleepy, picturesque backwater of old England, so classically Kentish it has more than once been used as a film set. It was, however, once a bustling town to which Edward III granted a much prized Charter in 1332 to hold a weekly market and an annual fair. Smarden went on to maintain a prosperous wool trade for several centuries. This drawing is of the lychgate and adjacent heavily timbered Wealden houses as seen from the churchyard of St Michael.