Herne and Broomfield are two little interlocking villages near the north coast of Kent, a few miles north of the cathedral city of Canterbury. The villages aren't well known, no one famous lived there and no battles were fought out around there, but they do have an interesting background.

There are four pubs in both Herne and Broomfield. One of them, in Herne, is called the Smuggler's Inn. This is because Herne used to be a meeting place for smugglers. They had tunnels leading from the inn to the church¹ and all around the village. Some early pub entrepreneurs found out about this, came along and turned it into a nice little pub.

Go down the main street and you will get to Strode Park. Although this is now a retirement home and hospital, they used to build cars there. Every year they host a fun-run around Herne and the surrounding area, for which athletes come from all over the world.

Further up the main street is Herne Infants and Junior School. These two schools - although up to recent times they were just one school - have been around for roughly 130 years, and are still going strong.

Go yet further up the main road and up a second road and you will get to Herne Windmill. This windmill can be seen for miles around.

As you go through into Broomfield, you get to the duck pond. There's nothing really special about this, except for the unusual feat of being bone dry in winter and overflowing in summer.