Hamstreet
Primary School
Convenient Village Shops
Countryside Walks
Hamstreet is a thriving well connected village set on the ancient Saxon Shore at a gap in the wooded hillside overlooking Romney Marsh. 8 miles to the north is Ashford easily accessible in 16 minutes up the A2070 , and only 8 minutes by train to Ashford every hour for high speed connections to London. Hamstreet looks south over the Royal Military Canal to Romney Marsh and the English Channel coastal villages of New Romney, Lydd, Camber Sands and the historic town of Rye .
Why Live in Hamstreet?
The area has many scenic footpaths – the long distance Saxon Shore Way and also the Greensand Way inland into the Weald of Kent , and it is midway along the 28 miles path along the Royal Military Canal between Rye to the west and Seabrook at the edge of Folkestone to the east. There are also local footpaths that look up into the wooded hillside and out over the Canal to the big skies of Romney Marsh.
Hamstreet sits in two parishes: it is on the eastern edge of the rural parish Warehorne to the west but most of the village is in the ancient parish of Orlestone that extends north over the remnants of Orlestone forest. Much of this Wealden forest is publicly accessible and protected for its Scientific Interest (SSSI) and as a Dark Skies area:the Milky Way is sometimes visible on a clear night.
Compared to nearby historic villages Hamstreet is relatively new. It was just a hamlet known as Ham until 1793 when the Toll Road arrived connecting Ashford and Hastings, and the village developed into a Street and became Ham Street . The railway arrived in 1849 with connections from Ashford to Brighton which have been maintained ever since. The scenic B2067 main road runs west to Tenterden through Warehorne and Kenardington along the Saxon Shoreline , and east to Hythe through Ruckinge, Bilsington and Lympne . The original Toll Road, now the A2070 was happily diverted to a bypass round Hamstreet in 1994, improving the village centre.
There is wide range of housing , much of it quite recent. That and the railway station have helped to create a strong community with a thriving primary school, surgery, local businesses, teashop ,pub and restaurant. Hamstreet is also a useful centre for the smaller nearby villages along the B2067.