This is the very quaint (as the American’s would say) village of Goudhurst, in Kent. It was the scene of a stand off between the Hawkhurst Gang, (notorious smugglers of the mid 18th Century) and the local villagers who were fed up with the intimidation and treatment the rascals dished out.
I popped over there yesterday to see what the place was like and also to iron out any problems when filming. It is so important to have a look about the intended filming location because you pick up many things you hadn’t thought about. For example, is it under a busy flight path or in this case, how noisy is the traffic on the road though the village. Actually, very is the answer. That tells me I will need to restrict the PTC’s (pieces to camera) to away from the main village. That’s not to say I cannot have various shots of me walking about admiring the splendid 16th and 17th century weatherboard clad timber framed property.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to access all the locations I wanted to see. I did want to venture on the top of St. Mary’s Church in the village to appreciated what the views are like over the Sussex and Kent weald and get an idea on where the ‘stand off’ described earlier took place. There were builders in the church, but no wardens or officials to chat to about the project.
I also wanted to venture down to the Seven Sisters and Cuckmere Heaven where to get the most beautiful scenery that is so quintessentially Sussex. As I approached the turning off the A27, the Heavens opened and an afternoon of heavy rain poured relentlessly down. I am not normally a put off by the wet stuff, but as I wanted to spend a bit of time pottering about and working out potential shots, I figured I could come back another when it was considerably dryer!
The project is coming together very nicely and I am thrilled.