The growth of modern-day Sittingbourne started around the time of the industrial revolution when paper mills, brickyards and barge building industries were established locally. An interesting fact is that the London Bridge - Greenwich railway viaduct, the first elevated railway line in the world, was constructed from bricks made in Sittingbourne. As Sittingbourne grew, it consumed some of the adjacent settlements which are now suburbs of Sittingbourne. However, before the 18th century one of these suburbs, Milton Regis, previously known as the Manor of Middleton Regis, was in fact the largest and most powerful manor in the local area, and Sittingbourne was one of its hamlets.
Milton Regis was recorded in the Domesday Book as Middleton Terra Regis. It was known as a port of wealth, which is probably why William the Conqueror claimed it as his own. The area's use as a settlement may go back to the Mesolithic age. It is certainly known that there was a Roman presence here as artefacts and foundations of their buildings, possibly a fort, have been found. A Roman villa once existed next to what is now Holy Trinity Church, which was founded shortly after the 597 arrival of St Augustine. This makes it one of the oldest churches in Kent. Some of the villa's Roman bricks were used in its construction.
Milton Regis sits next to Milton Creek, which is an arm of The Swale (the stretch of water that separates the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland) and much of the area is marshland. The area to the south and east of the church was historically known as Church Marshes and was also home to Church Farm. It was also home to some of the area's brickworks which took advantage of the naturally available materials such as clay and chalk. The holes that were created by the clay and gravel extraction were back-filled with the domestic waste from London which was brought back on the barges that delivered the bricks into the city. The landfill site was eventually closed in 1973.
By the time the new millennium came around, the decision had been made to transform the former landfill site into a country park. Work began on decontaminating the site in 2001, and this included capping the filled areas. It was initially opened as Church Marshes Country Park, but was later renamed Milton Creek Country Park. It features many different areas including open grass, rough grass, scattered trees, woodland, an orchard, scrubland, ponds and marshland. The majority of the park has a country feel, but the far western section has more of a structured layout, and also contains a children's play area. In February 2016 the park became home to a free, weekly, timed 5k event called Sittingbourne parkrun.
The parkrun is open to all abilities including people who wish to walk the course. It is of course primarily a community event and is a great place for locals to meet and become part of the volunteering team, even if they have no interest in walking or running the course. I first visited in March 2016 where I took part in event number 3, I then revisited with the rest of the family in October 2024, where we took part in event number 376. It is this later visit that this write-up is from. In the years that have passed the park's flora has really become more established and I found most areas unrecognisable from what I remembered from my first visit.
There is a free-of-charge on-site car park which can be accessed from Saffron Way / Mill Way (B2005). Should alternative parking be required, there is an Asda with a large car park just a short walk away. There are also some residential roads which appear to be free of restrictions. If using sat nav or an app for directions, I found that entering Milton Creek Country Park resulted in directions being given to the opposite side of the park, so I set my Google maps planner to head for the new Greggs Drive-thru which was constructed right outside the car park entrance in 2022. Incidentally, the construction of the building also included an upgrade to the car park entrance and this resulted in a change of the parkrun route.
Travel by public transport is possible by using Southeastern National Rail services and alighting at the main Sittingbourne station which is in the centre of the town. The station is on the Chatham Main Line with services running between London Victoria and Dover Priory / Ramsgate. It is also on the High Speed 1 (HS1) route which runs between London St Pancras International and Ashford International. Lastly it is on the Sheerness Line which is a branch line connecting Sheerness to the main line at Sittingbourne. The onward walk from the train station is approximately 1.1 miles. If you happened to be on the Sheerness Line, you could alight at Kemsley and the onward walk is just under a mile.
If using the buses, the 347 service stops not far from the park's north-west tip. In addition to this the parkrun course page says that the 344 bus stops nearby, but I cannot find any information on this particular service, so it may be that it has been discontinued since the page was last updated. If visiting from afar, there are few large chain hotels present in the town, notably a Holiday Inn, a Travelodge and a Wetherspoons all located on Sittingbourne High Street. There is also a Premier Inn, but this is located just outside the western boundary of the town. Finally, cyclists can find a bank of cycle racks within the car park.
Once at the park, the place to head for is the open grass area at the western end of the park. It is located to the immediate north-west of the car park. I found that there was a split of people gathering - some had congregated near the finish area with most of the volunteers while others had gathered near the start area which is on the path which faces the Holy Trinity Church - both areas are in line of sight of each other. The park has toilets and these are located just behind a cluster of trees in-between the parkrun finish area and the children's playground. Their advertised opening time is 8am. Should you happen to pop into the Greggs for a pre-parkrun snack or drink (it opens at 6am), there is a customer-only toilet available here too.
The first timers' briefing and the main briefing are both held at the start area. As of my October 2024 visit, the parkrun takes place over a lollipop-style course with two clockwise laps around the sweet part. However in no way, shape or form does the actual shape of the course resemble a lollipop! As I noted above, the course was changed in 2022 and although the new one uses many of the same paths as the original, the configuration is quite different.
Although the course features the ocassional minor change in gradient, this remains a flat course and my 2024 GPS data reported the elevation change as zero. The surfaces underfoot are a combination of hard-standing paths, dirt tracks, some grass and some gravelly sections, quite possibly a hoggin path. It is worth bearing in mind that the local area is historically marshy, and it doesn't take much rain for the ground to become wet and muddy. So unless it is the height of summer I would strongly lean towards wearing trail shoes here. People participating with buggies are more than welcome, but do take note regarding possible splashy and muddy conditions. For wheelchair users, I'd say this is not the ideal course, but it should be possible to navigate with a heavy leaning towards avoiding the winter months.
The start area is on the park's most westerly path and begins with the participants heading directly towards the church. The course very quickly turns and follows the northern border heading towards the east. The surface underfoot gradually changes to a track-way as the path curves around the adjacent housing. Take note that just to the left of the path the ground drops away quite steeply underneath the line of bushes, so stick to the path. At around 800 metres into the parkrun, the route turns off of the northern border and goes deeper into the park. All the turns are well-marshalled and signed, and to be honest they need to be, because the park features a network of intersecting paths and the course would be difficult to navigate without them.
The opening stick part of our lollipop course lasts 1.2 kilometres, and at this point the course joins the loop. The two laps of the loop are themselves also 1.2 kilometres each in length. The surface remains largely a light gravel most of the way around. It passes an additional children's play area with brightly coloured posts, and every now and then various picturesque views present themselves - quite often with the tower of the Holy Trinity Church in the distance. There are plenty of turns to negotiate which keeps the course interesting to navigate around. I was pleased to see the carved tree trunk dragon called Gladys is still on the route, however it is not quite in as good condition as it was on my previous visit.
If you happen to notice a weird, foul smell in the air, it is likely that this is coming from the local recycling plant or the local sewage treatment facility. News reports suggest it is common for sewage to be released into Milton Creek at high tide and this may be the source of the unpleasant smell wafting through the air.
When the loop has been negotiated twice, the course rejoins the stick section where it follows the exact same paths all the way back to the original start point. If you've done your maths properly, you will note that the total so far is only 4.8 kilometres, and that means that there are another two hundred metres to go before reaching the finish. So when reaching the start area, the course simply follows the park's main path around the edge of a circular landscaped feature and then heads along the path adjacent to the car park before reaching the finish line.
Barcode scanning takes place immediately after the finish line and when the event has finished the team head off to 'a local cafe', which just so happens to be the Greggs just outside the car park entrance. It really is perfectly placed for the post-parkrun refreshments and has plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. The results were published a short while later and on this visit there were 216 finishers while 21 people were credited with a volunteering role. The number of attendees is usually in the high one-hundreds or low two-hundreds so event 376 was quite representative. I recorded the course using my Garmin and the course GPS data can be found on Strava. There is also an accompanying Relive course fly-by video which can be viewed on YouTube.
If you are looking for something to do after the parkrun, Sittingbourne isn't a particularly tourist oriented location as it is largely residential and industrial. A notable exception is the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway which is a narrow gauge heritage railway, first constructed to move materials between the early 20th century Kemsley Mill and Ridham Dock on the Swale. It now operates on quite a restricted timetable, generally running over the summer or for special events, and not very often on Saturdays. A section of the railway line crosses the Milton Regis Viaduct which is believed to be the longest concrete viaduct in the UK. The line also passes along the southern border of Milton Creek Country Park.
Overall it is a nice event with a very friendly and welcoming team of volunteers, I was surprised at how much the country park had changed since I was last there. I made sure to thank the day's run director before leaving, but would also like to add a wider thanks to all of the volunteers who made us feel welcome during our visit.
Related Links:
- The course GPS data (12 October 2024)
- The course fly-by video (12 October 2024)
- The original course GPS data (12 March 2016 - course no longer in use)
- The original course fly-by video (12 March 2016 - course no longer in use)
- The Kent parkrun venues (blog7t)
