A short and very pleasant stroll from our base in Penshurst brought us to the lovely village of Chiddingstone.
The village, which is one of the prettiest in Kent, was bought in it's entirety by the National Trust in 1939. Most of the buildings in the village date back to the 16th and 17th Centuries, but the building housing the Post Office, which you can just see the red sign for in the photo below is mentioned as far back as 1453.
These ancient buildings are not Chiddingstone's only claim to fame though!
This magnificent stone is reputed to be the "Chiding Stone" for which the village is named. Local legend has it that nagging wives and other wrong-doers (!) were brought to the stone to be told off or "chided" by the (presumably mostly male!) villagers. Needless to say my husband thought that this was definitely a practice worth reinstating :)
