{"id":2423,"date":"2015-06-10T14:03:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T14:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/?page_id=2423"},"modified":"2021-11-06T22:39:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T22:39:26","slug":"marden-meadow","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mardenhistory.org.uk\/home\/?page_id=2423","title":{"rendered":"Marden Meadow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A<\/a> A pond at Marden Meadow with the Chequer tree at right<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s mid-May, a lovely morning, what better thing is there than to walk to Marden Meadow with my daughter. The footpath goes through Stonepit Farm (signs not always there), across Park Road and along the Marden Road to Staplehurst and then you clamber over the wonky stile into the Meadow. On the way, we passed a stallion and foal, a group of curious, newly-shorn sheep and a pond of noisy frogs. On arrival, my daughter observed that there were a lot of people there \u2013 four !! We wandered around an amazing variety of colours in the green – winged orchids for which this site is famous. Abundance was there in all the colours of the rainbow \u2013 yellow rattle, glowing meadow buttercups, red clover, vetch, bird\u2019s foot trefoil, meadow saxifrage, bugle and ox-eye daisies, to name but a few; plus a variety of wonderful grasses. The pond was edged with yellow flag irises and bulrushes. Yet there were two disappointments. I couldn\u2019t find the rare adder\u2019s tongue fern \u2013 it might have been a bit early for it; also the small pond which used to be carpeted with water violets is now bare of them. Leaning over this is a chequer tree (wild service tree). This has given its name to many pubs. Why? There are several theories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n