The Great Stour runs straight through the middle of Canterbury, and for most of the city’s history it was a working river — a route for goods up from Fordwich, a source of power for mills, and the reason several of the buildings on its banks are built out over the water on arches. Today it carries punts, and getting on one is the best thing most visitors do here after the cathedral.
The reason is simple: from the water you see a version of Canterbury that is invisible from the street. The medieval city turned its back on the river, so what you pass is the working side of the buildings — timber frames overhanging the water, mill races, gardens dropping to the bank, and stretches of the old city wall.
A punt is a flat-bottomed boat propelled with a pole against the riverbed. In Canterbury the river is shallow, narrow and slow, which makes it well suited to it, and the punts sit low enough that you are almost at water level.
A typical guided trip lasts around forty minutes and covers the stretch through the middle of the city. The guide poles and talks, and the talking is much of the value — Canterbury’s guides are generally very good, and the history comes with the anecdotes that do not make it into the guidebooks.
Trips run through the day in season, roughly from spring to autumn, with reduced operation in winter. They are popular enough that booking ahead is sensible in July and August.
Three operators work the city stretch, all launching from within a few minutes of the high street.
The Canterbury Punting Company is the largest and best known, running guided tours through the centre and self-punting hire for people who want to try it themselves.
Canterbury Historic River Tours runs guided trips with a strong historical emphasis, and is the choice if the commentary matters more to you than the boat.
Westgate Punts operates from near the Westgate and covers a similar stretch.
There is also Captain Colin’s Riverbus, a small boat service, and — outside the city — Grove Ferry River Trips, which runs on the Stour through the marshes near Stodmarsh and is a completely different, quieter proposition.
Guided is the right choice for a first visit, and for most people, all visits. You get the commentary, you do not get wet, and the guide handles the low bridges.
Self-punting is available and is enormous fun if you have a group and a sense of humour about it. Punting looks easy and is not: the pole catches in the mud, the boat turns, and the low bridges are unforgiving. Allow an hour, expect to be laughed at by people on the bank, and do not attempt it in a good coat.
The city stretch is short but dense. Going through the middle of Canterbury you pass the Old Weavers House, the timber-framed building on the bank that is the most photographed thing in the city after the cathedral, with a replica ducking stool hanging over the water beside it. Greyfriars Chapel stands on arches directly over the river, the only surviving building of England’s first Franciscan friary. Blackfriars — the Dominican refectory — is a little further along.
You pass sections of the city wall, the backs of buildings on the high street, mill sites, and gardens that most visitors never see. Westgate Gardens, with its enormous oriental plane tree, is at the western end, and the Westgate Towers — the largest surviving medieval city gate in England — close the view.
Spring is the prettiest, with the gardens coming out and the river high enough to be easy.
Summer is the busiest and the warmest; book ahead and consider an early evening trip, when the light on the buildings is at its best and the day trippers have gone.
Autumn is quiet and the trees along the Stour turn well.
Winter operation is limited and weather-dependent.
Trips generally run in light rain and are cancelled in high wind or when the river is high. Kent has a mild climate and the season is longer than you might expect.
Punting works very well with children — the trips are short, the boats are low, and there is a pole and a river, which covers most of what a child wants from a boat. Very young children need watching, as with any open boat. It is one of the few historic-city activities that a five-year-old and a seventy-year-old will both enjoy, which makes it a good choice for a mixed group. Our family guide has more.
Grove Ferry, on the Stour north-east of the city near Stodmarsh, is a different river entirely: wide, slow, and running through reedbeds and grazing marsh with marsh harriers overhead. River trips run from the picnic site there, and combining a boat with a walk in the Stodmarsh reserve makes an excellent half day. See our walks guide.
Further downstream, the Stour reaches the sea at Pegwell Bay near Sandwich, and the whole lower river is a nature reserve.
Booking is advisable in summer and at weekends, and most operators take online reservations.
Length. Around forty minutes for a standard guided trip.
Accessibility. Getting into a punt involves a step down into a low boat; contact operators in advance if that is a difficulty, as arrangements vary.
What to bring. Nothing much. The boats have cushions, and in summer some operators allow you to bring a drink.
Where they launch. All the city operators are within a few minutes of the high street; look for the boards near the river crossings.
It is worth understanding why the Stour looks the way it does, because the punt trip is essentially a tour of a working river that stopped working.
Canterbury was a port. Boats came up from Fordwich, five kilometres downstream, which was the city’s harbour and is now a village claiming to be the smallest town in England. The river drove mills — Abbots Mill, whose garden survives, was one of several — and the city’s tanners, dyers and weavers all needed water, which is why the medieval buildings on the bank are built out over it on arches and posts.
Then the river silted, the trade moved, and the city turned its back on the water. Buildings were put up facing the streets with their untidy sides to the Stour, mills closed, and by the twentieth century the river through the middle of Canterbury was a backwater in every sense.
That is exactly what makes it worth seeing now. What you pass on a punt is the unimproved back of a medieval city, never tidied up for visitors because for four hundred years nobody was looking at it.
If punting is booked out or the river is too high, there are other ways onto the water. Rowing boats and pedalos operate on the Stour in summer near Westgate Gardens. The riverbus runs short trips through the city. And Grove Ferry, twenty minutes out, has a boat on the lower Stour through the marshes, which is slower, wilder and better for wildlife.
Further afield, Whitstable has boat trips out to the Red Sands sea forts in the Thames Estuary — a strange and memorable half-day.
Around forty minutes for a standard guided tour through the city centre.
Yes, self-punt hire is available. It is harder than it looks and the low bridges are the main hazard.
Mainly from spring to autumn, with limited winter operation and cancellations in high wind or high water.
Yes. The trips are short and the boats sit low, which children like. Watch the very youngest as you would in any open boat.
Early evening in summer, for the light and the quiet.