When we were booked to play Chequers Folk we had no idea what a special time we would have. From a stunning venue, warm welcome and fascinating stories to awesome views, inspirational exhibits and glorious weather, we experienced a lot in a wonderful 24 hours.
Chequers Folk is held every 2 weeks in a 300 year old barn at Cherry Tree Farm in Great Kingshill. The barn is joined to the main farmhouse by a maze of different rooms, each time we were lead through a door we thought ´we are here’, but no, there was another room! The barn itself has beautiful exposed beams, at painful head height at just one point behind the stage area, and has lovely acoustics.
We were warmly welcomed by owner John and Colin who is the sound guy and member of the Wicktrimmers, hosts of the folk nights. After loading in, setting up and a leisurely sound check, we were guided through to the house by Colin where we met up with John and Kate, who was in the process of cooking us a delicious plant based meal. We had time to enjoy the meal together and have a good long chat before getting changed and heading back into the barn (we found our own way after only one failed attempt) where the audience had started to arrive and the band were sound checking. They started the evening off with a set of Irish tunes and songs as a nod to St Patrick’s day which was a few days previously. Obviously all very accomplished musicians, one tune, an original by Colin, had at least 5 different time signatures and there were a lot of notes! The audience sang along and were nicely warmed up when we stepped up to the mics.
We kept our set fairly up beat, starting with The Ballad of Gabriel Oak, and playing for about 30 minutes before a drink and raffle break. Lots of chat in the interval then we played for another 40 minutes , The Legend of Uncle Jim being our nod to St Patrick’s Day, finishing the evening with an enthusiastically requested encore – Romance at the Panto which I think the whole 40ish strong audience joined in with, with gusto.
Clearing up could wait until the morning so we had time for more chatting with the band and our hosts while we all packed away our instruments. A cup of tea and a biscuit and, having endured 3 different motorways on the 3 hour journey up, we were ready for bed which was just upstairs (through a few rooms, along a corridor and round 3 sides of the landing). Bliss.
More chatting with John and Kate over breakfast then we wended our way, very grateful for being so well looked after. They had recommended we visit Coombe Hill so we found our way there and had a glorious sunny day to enjoy the walk and the far reaching views from the monumental monument to the Boer War. We decided not to rush back but visit another recommendation, the Roald Dhal museum in Great Kingshill. Walking through the giant chocolate bar doors was so exciting! It’s a small but very well put together museum, lots to interest all ages but it would be particularly wonderful for children – about half the rooms are dedicated to hands on stuff for kids – but we spent a happy hour there, learning lots and feeling some literary inspiration seeping through.
As it was nearing lunchtime we had a quick look to see which local National Trust property we could visit. Hughenden was just the ticket. The cafe was busy but we found a spot to sit out in the sun to enjoy a snack lunch before a quick walk around the gardens, in particular the daffodil strewn parterre. We weren’t that inspired to go inside the house and time was getting on so we headed back, avoiding the M25 and enjoying the sunny countryside.
Things we learned in this trip:
- The BFG was inspired by a real man
- Chequers was a type of tree, the fruit of which was used to flavour beer before hops, hence the number of chequers pubs.
- Some goldfinches are resident in uk, some are migratory.
- Croque, as in Croque Monsieur (sandwich) means ‘crunch’.
- George Osborne and Pete Waterman (Stock, Aitken and Waterman) came up with the idea of HS2 over a pint in the pub, both being train enthusiasts.
- We heard about the creation of the Othona Community in Essex. More on that another time or look it up [Here’s a piece about Othona https://www.vap.org.uk/vap-s-work-in-the-uk/current-projects/othona-community]
- Kalettes are little sprout like mini kales which are delicious when blanched and stir fried.
- Threestile Road was renamed Knob Hill
