How to get there - From A26 2 ml NE of Tonbridge centre, turn right by petrol station for Golden Green. As you reach Golden Green, turn right and continue 3/4 ml to river at Hartlake Bridge.
For thosw with SatNav a nearby postcode is TN11 0BL.
Get a map with driving directions to start (enter the postcode of your starting point at A)
Suggested Launch Site - Roadside parking and a nice platform under the bridge for a put in, upstream for Tonbridge and downstream for Oak Weir at East Peckham
General
Description - Oak Weir and return, 4 miles, one lock; centre of Tonbridge and return, 5 miles, 3 locks. At Tonbridge you can do the circuit of Barden Park and drop in on the Tonbridge Canoe Club (just below and opposite the castle) or continue upstream to Leigh (see Tonbridge - Leigh section)
Flat country with pieces of woodland on either side of the river. No development on this stretch except at Tonbridge itself.
A memory from 1955; you could buy cherries in Tonbridge at 10 pence per lb (10 new pence per kilo) and have change from your pocket money to hire a canoe on the river!
Photos have been supplied by Matt Oseman, whos own version of this trip is here.
Additional photographs (particularly of the launch and recovery sites and Oak Weir) are needed. If you have such photos please contact the siteowner.
Comments on this trip
Keith Day 22 Feb 2010
Over recent years the Environment Agency have beed very active in providing aditional facilities for canoeist. See the link "Medway Canoe Trail" in the links section for details.
