St Augustines Church

St Augustine's Church sits quietly in the Sussex countryside just outside Tenterden, the kind of place you'd drive past without a second glance if you weren't looking for it. But stop, and you've found something genuinely worth your time - a medieval church with proper character and a real sense of age pressing down on you the moment you walk through the door.

Inside, the stone work tells the story of centuries. You get the usual medieval bones - a chancel, nave, some decent stained glass - but it's the accumulated weight of all those years that gets you. The church is almost certainly not staffed, so you're exploring at your own pace, which is exactly how these visits should feel.

This works best for history enthusiasts and anyone doing a church crawl through the High Weald. Families with restless kids will manage perhaps twenty minutes before the boredom sets in. Admission appears to be free, and there's no timing pressure - turn up when suits you, though daylight hours make obvious sense for photography.

If you're camping nearby at Wild Boar Wood, just under two miles away, or staying at Romney Meadows or any of the other parks dotted around this corner of Sussex, St Augustine's makes a sensible leg-stretcher on a lazy afternoon. It pairs nicely with a walk through Tenterden itself, though don't expect the church to anchor a full day. Thirty minutes, maybe forty if you're thorough. Real value lies in the drive itself through proper Kent-Sussex countryside - that's where the actual pleasure is.