5 miles from Stoke Parish

Set in tranquil grounds adjoining a riverside village, this rare example of an Elizabethan artillery fort was begun in 1559 and redeveloped in 1599-1601, to protect warships at Chatham dockyards.

6 miles from Stoke Parish

Strategically placed astride the London Road, guarding an important crossing of the River Medway, this imposing fortress has a complex history of destruction and rebuilding.

7 miles from Stoke Parish

Part of a manor house of the Knights Templar, built in about 1240, with a fine first floor hall displaying traces of wall paintings.

8 miles from Stoke Parish

The romantic ruins of a royal castle overlooking the Essex marshes. Hadleigh was begun in about 1215 by Hubert de Burgh, but extensively refortified by Edward III during the Hundred Years War.

9 miles from Stoke Parish

The remains of two megalithic 'dolmen' burial chambers. Impressive Kit's Coty has three uprights and a massive capstone: Little Kit's Coty, alias the Countless Stones, is now a jumble of sarsens.

11 miles from Stoke Parish

Milton Chantry is all that remains of a 14th-century hospital later used in turn as a public house, a Georgian barracks, and Second World War gas decontamination chamber.