TR3454 : Finglesham Drove towards Ring Wall sluices
taken 8 years ago, near to Finglesham, Kent, England
A former drove road from the junction of Broad Lane, Burgess Green and Bridge Hill at How Bridge near Finglesham, to and across the Sandwich Road adjacent to the Coach & Horses public house, continuing past Ring Wall sluices and out to Roaring Gutter. At some point east of the Coach & Horses, Finglesham Drove adopts the name Pinnock Wall, which continues northwest to Blue Pigeons Farm near Worth.
The drove long predates the construction of the turnpike road in 1797 direct between Bridge Hill and Hacklinge: until then, the course of Finglesham Drove was uninterrupted in the vicinity of the Coach & Horses (which itself did not exist until the turnpike created the demand for a coaching inn), and traffic between Deal and Sandwich travelled down Bridge Hill, over How Bridge and through Finglesham.
Burgess Green, which today provides an option to continue straight on from How Bridge up to a junction with the former turnpike between Deal and Sandwich, was not built until the 1920s, possibly to facilitate the council housing development by Eastry Rural District Council. Once Burgess Green opened, it seems that any traffic for Worth and Deal approaching the main road over How Bridge preferred to use the tarred Burgess Green in preference to Finglesham Drove. Since then, traffic over Finglesham Drove has dwindled, and it is now impassable and obstructed. It is possible to resume the Drove from footpath EE365, which crosses a footbridge over the South Stream and joins Finglesham Drove to emerge at the Coach & Horses. The Drove east of the main road is owned by the Environment Agency.