Things to Do Around Canterbury in Autumn
Apples, oysters, open fires and a cathedral full of circus
The Stour valley in autumn is all low mist and heavy orchards, and Kent spends October picking, pressing, cooking, and then making a proper fuss about the results.
It is a good month to be in this corner of the county. Canterbury hands the whole city over to a fortnight of music and mischief. Faversham counts out two thousand kinds of apple in a single afternoon. Whitstable goes quiet and the oyster season gets going. And there is a wood ten minutes from our front door where you can spend an entire day cooking over flames, which is about as good a way to spend a Saturday in October as we can think of.
Most of it is within half an hour of us. Here is what we would make the drive for, and where to end up afterwards.
Worth the drive
1. The Canterbury Festival
16 to 31 October | Free and ticketed | Just up the road
For a fortnight every autumn the city gives itself over to a programme that runs from cathedral organ recitals to late-night comedy and does not much mind which end of that you turn up for.
Anna Lapwood opens it on the Cathedral organ on 16 October, which is worth the ticket on its own. Then the Australian circus company Circa spend five nights from 20 October turning the Cathedral upside down with Eternity, performing under some of the oldest ceilings in the country. Around all that there is cabaret, walks, talks, and a fair amount that costs nothing at all.
Book the big evenings early. The daytime programme is a better bet if you are the sort who would rather decide on the morning.
2. Cooking with Fire at FIRE + WILD
Saturday 10 October | £275 | 11am to 4pm | Ten minutes away
A day in a private wood in an old railway cutting outside Canterbury, gathering wild things in the morning, learning which log burns how and why it matters, then cooking game and fish over the flames until it is time to sit down and eat the lot with a glass of something.
Grown-ups only, and not one for vegetarians. It is a proper day rather than a workshop, and you will go home smelling of woodsmoke for about three days afterwards. Very much our sort of thing.
Numbers are small and it goes early, so if this is the one that has caught your eye, book it before you book anything else.
3. The Apple Fair at Brogdale, Faversham
3 to 4 October | 10am to 4pm | Ticketed | Half an hour or so
Brogdale is home to the National Fruit Collection, which means more than two thousand varieties of apple growing in one place, and this is the weekend they let you taste your way round a good number of them.
There are tractor rides out through the orchards, juicing for the children, and experts on hand who will name any apple you put in front of them, which is a strangely satisfying thing to watch. Go hungry. Take a bag - you will not leave empty-handed!
4. Whitstable, once the season has turned
Any day, October especially | Free | Half an hour from us
Oyster season is underway, the beach huts have gone quiet, and the sun goes down over the Street.
October is the month Whitstable goes back to being a working town rather than a queue for lunch. Walk the shingle out along the spit when the tide allows, potter through the harbour, and eat oysters somewhere with a view of the water. Everything is better here without the August crowds, and the light in the late afternoon is the whole reason people paint the place.
5. Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral
Most days | Free | Just up the road
Forty-five minutes of choir in a near-empty cathedral as the light goes out of the windows. It costs nothing, you do not need to book, and you do not need to be religious to find it does something to you.
Check the times before you go, as they move about and it does not run every day. If you are coming for the Festival, this is a lovely quiet thing to do beforehand.
And then supper
Everything above is better with something waiting at the end of it, and that is where we come in.
We are ten minutes out of Canterbury in the village of Bridge, with the fire lit and the Kitchen Garden doing what it does best in October. The autumn 25 Mile Menu has landed - venison carpaccio with pickled walnut and Old Winchester, caramelised onion and smoked garlic soup, apple and sultana crumble under a proper quantity of custard - and there are a handful of dishes back out of the archive for our fifteenth year, including the Brock Eggs with Colman's mustard and the beetroot and blue cheese.
Come in muddy, nobody minds.
A few things people ask us about autumn around Canterbury
What is there to do around Canterbury in autumn?
October is the busiest month in the local calendar. The Canterbury Festival runs for a fortnight from 16 October, the apple harvest is celebrated at Brogdale near Faversham in early October, and the oyster season gets going at Whitstable half an hour up the coast. The orchards and the Stour valley are worth a walk on any dry day.
When is the Canterbury Festival?
It runs from 16 to 31 October, with a mix of free and ticketed events across the city. The bigger evenings in the Cathedral sell out well in advance.
Is Whitstable worth visiting in October?
We would arguably say it is better in October than in August. The oyster season is underway, the crowds have gone, and the sunsets over the Street are the best of the year. It is about half an hour from Bridge.
When is the apple harvest in Kent?
Picking runs from late August through October depending on the variety, with the peak in early October. The Apple Fair at Brogdale on 3 and 4 October is the best single day to see the range of it.
Come and find us
Ten minutes from the Cathedral, half an hour from the oysters, and a very short walk from a table by the fire.
If you want a steer on what to do with a day around here before you come, just ask!