Around the farms of Aldington

It's never been easy being a visionary – as one woman from Aldington found to her cost. Her name was Elizabeth Barton and she was born in 1506, a time when superstition, politics and religion were closely intertwined. When Elizabeth was young she was taken on as a servant in the household of Thomas Cobb, the Archbishop of Canterbury's local steward who looked after the Archbishop's Palace that once stood here.

In 1525 Elizabeth began to suffer from fits and would go into deep trances. When she came round she would tell people about events that were happening some way off, or would mention strange images she had seen. Her parish priest believed that she was having divine visions – although historians think they were probably epileptic fits. With the priest's encouragement, Elizabeth began to make her 'prophecies' widely known and hundreds of pilgrims were soon flocking to see her at Aldington.

Elizabeth was credited with some minor miracles and William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, became interested in her visions. She was eventually allotted a religious cell at a convent in Canterbury and became known as the Holy Maid of Kent. Unfortunately for her, the Church was in turmoil at the time, for Henry VIII was planning to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn. The authorities realised that Elizabeth's visions gave them the ideal opportunity to prevent the marriage, and so stop England breaking away from the Catholic Church in Rome. Elizabeth was poor and uneducated and they could see that she would be easy to manipulate. They cleverly encouraged her to prophesy that if the marriage to Anne went ahead, Henry would lose his kingdom.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who had supported Elizabeth, was arrested and his successor, Thomas Cranmer, set up a commission to investigate her prophesies. The inquiry took months and in the end Elizabeth was forced to confess – no doubt aided by a bit of gentle torture – that she had never had visions at all. Along with several of the monks who had installed her at Canterbury, she was tried for treason and, in April 1534, they were all executed at Tyburn in London. Elizabeth was aged just 28. Today, few people have heard of Kent's unfortunate oracle and the Archbishop's Palace has crumbled away.

In later years, Aldington gained further notoriety as the headquarters of the Aldington Gang of smugglers, probably formed by soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars. They operated from the Walnut Tree Inn at Aldington Corner, where this walk starts.

From the Walnut Tree Inn at Aldington Corner, walk down Forge Hill. At a path on the left go through a gate to join the Saxon Shore Way. Walk across the field, cross over a stile and continue ahead down the next field, keeping the fence line on your left-hand side. Cross a stile into the woods, which can be very muddy and badly tangled with prickly weeds.

Walk through the woods, climb over a stile and, keeping the fence line to your right, follow the field margin downhill, turning left at the bottom. Look to your right to go over a stile and plank bridge in the hedge line and go into the next field. Bear diagonally left and walk uphill through pasture between pylons. At the far top corner, go through the gate on your left-hand side and walk ahead across the next field. Go through the next gate out onto the road.

Turn right and then go left along the road leading to Aldington Church. Walk past the church and take the track right opposite Street Farm that leads past Court Lodge Farm, once the site of an Archbishop's Palace. Continue to a wooden gate, go along the track, then follow the treeline down to a stile. Keeping the hedge to your right, follow the field margin round to a waymarked stile at Middle Park Farm.

Walk through the farm and two gates, then walk past a modern house and along the left side of a field. Some 54 yards (50m) before the pylons, cross a stile on the left and continue along the field-edge, crossing a stile and plank bridge. Walk in front of Lower Park Farm and continue along the surfaced drive to a gate and the road.

Turn left down the road, then turn right on to the drive of Hogben Farm. Turn immediately left through the gate by the hedge and cross the paddock diagonally right to a waymarked gate. Pass in front of the house, following the marked path, bearing half-left by the ash trees towards another gate in the far corner. Keep ahead, cross a footbridge and bear right and go through two gates in the hedgerow on your right. Bear half-left across the field, passing under power cables to a gate in the field corner.

Go through a kissing gate immediately to your left and bear half-right across the next field to a gate. Follow the left-hand field-edge to a gate and turn left along the road and back to the Walnut Tree Inn.