These notes provide commentary on the geology and how it has shaped the landscape along a Long Distance Path in East Kent, the “Royal Saxon Way” (RSW). They are intended for walkers who not only enjoy looking at the landscape but also want to learn how to read the landscape, so they might understand why a valley is shaped as it is and how it came to be there. The RSW is chosen as a route because it crosses most of the geological units found in East Kent, offering the opportunity to see the effect of changing geology on the landscape.
The RSW links the north and south coasts of the Kent peninsula via sixteen parish churches and eight former church sites. St Mary & St Eanswythe Church in Folkestone marks the southern end, and St Mary the Virgin at Minster-in-Thanet marks the northern end. Further information about the RSW is available via the Long Distance Walkers Association web page, or directly via the Royal Saxon Way web page of the local parish council. If you just want a map, go to the Royal Saxon Way route, which takes you to the OS Maps App with a simplified map showing the route. (If you subscribe to OS Maps, you will have access to the full Ordnance Survey mapping).
A section compiled by Joan Blows, the author of “A building stone Atlas of Kent” (Blows, J. 2017), provides information on the building stones used in the external walls of the churches along the Royal Saxon Way. Notable stones are highlighted, with a discussion of their likely origins. This section can be accessed from the main menu or directly via the link: Royal Saxon Way Building Stones. Details and photographs of the churches are included on the parish council’s Royal Saxon Way pages, Churches of the RSW.
Photographs are included of most of the landscape features described, along with their six or eight figure British National Grid reference (BNG) in the form TQ 2927 8050 and their what3words location in the form /// breed.feared.these
The Geology
Firstly, the basics. The topography – the hills, valleys, bumps and hollows – was formed by erosion acting on the geology. The resulting landscape is a function of the type of erosion involved and the resistance of the rock to erosion. So, it is a good idea for the walker to know a bit about the underlying geology. But understanding the mechanisms of erosion is more involved and is dealt with in the section on the origins of Chalk Downland landscape.
The surface geology of south-east England comprises sedimentary rocks, which accumulated on the bottoms of seas, lakes and rivers, and in their original state formed flat layers, at least on a larger scale. Tectonic (deep-seated) earth movements lifted and distorted these sediments, which in south-east England formed an anticline (an upward fold) oriented west-northwest to east-southeast, with sides sloping down at right angles to the fold axis. The fold also slopes down slightly at each end, so it forms an elongated dome. It stretches from Hampshire to the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France and is called the Weald-Artois Anticline.
As uplift of the dome continued, erosion removed rocks forming the crest, exposing the core and leaving two opposing ridges on either side of the core, forming the North Downs in Kent and the South Downs in Sussex. These ridges are asymmetrical. In the North Downs, the south-facing (scarp) slope is steeper than the north-facing (dip) slope.
The sequence of features described along the RSW assumes a direction of travel from south to north, which conforms to the listing order in Churches of the RSW. The rock strata along the route slope northwards, so a succession of rocks is exposed at the ground surface, becoming successively younger along a northward journey. The route presents the walker with a sequence of rocks spanning almost the full age range found in east Kent, covering a period of about 126 million years.
The route does not extend to the north Kent coast, but that area has been the subject of many geological pamphlets and publications over the years, the most recent of which is “The Smugglers Trail” by Richard Hubbard and Geoff Downer published by GeoConservation Kent, which presents a comprehensive review of the coastal geology of north Kent.
For the purposes of these notes, the RSW route has been divided into five sections based on shared geomorphology.
The names of the various rocks underfoot along the route are introduced at each location, with brief descriptions. More detailed descriptions are provided in a separate section, “Rock Types encountered along the RSW”, which are based on the descriptions in the British Geological Survey (BGS) “Lexicon of Named Rock Units”. The positions of the boundaries between Formations have been determined from the digital geological maps “BGS Geology Viewer” and “GeoIndex”.
The smallest rock units addressed along the route are the “Formations”. Formations are defined as mappable units, that is, their boundaries should be recognisable by their effect on topography. (The recognition of smaller units would require excavation to allow closer examination of the ground, a level of detail which is unlikely to be of interest to the walker).
Andrew Coleman.
Rev. 13/10/2026
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