Cliffe Marshes, Kent
Taken on 23 May 2015 and uploaded 10 November 2024.
The North Kent Marshes extend from (roughly) below Dartford (which forms the border between Kent and London) to coastal towns like Whitstable and Herne Bay.
Like Dartford Marshes, Cliffe Marshes has a strange, slightly mysterious history. Now, there are extensive RSPB ponds, with all sorts of bird life: there was an explosives factory and, of course, a cement factory. There are rumours of a decoy town/airfield/embarkation point from WW2 and parts of Dickens' Great Expectations are set there. Now, compared to Dickens' time, the marshes are enclosed and less dangerous but a reminder of that is at the church at the village of Cliffe, St Helen's Church: a charnel house, built to store bodies recovered from the River Thames.
Nowadays, this part of the marshes is private land and not accessible. It's used for grazing, but possibly also for shooting, although I didn't see or hear any evidence of that. I don't know what these buildings were, but there are a good many of them
[DSC_1092e]
Cliffe Marshes, Kent
Taken on 23 May 2015 and uploaded 10 November 2024.
The North Kent Marshes extend from (roughly) below Dartford (which forms the border between Kent and London) to coastal towns like Whitstable and Herne Bay.
Like Dartford Marshes, Cliffe Marshes has a strange, slightly mysterious history. Now, there are extensive RSPB ponds, with all sorts of bird life: there was an explosives factory and, of course, a cement factory. There are rumours of a decoy town/airfield/embarkation point from WW2 and parts of Dickens' Great Expectations are set there. Now, compared to Dickens' time, the marshes are enclosed and less dangerous but a reminder of that is at the church at the village of Cliffe, St Helen's Church: a charnel house, built to store bodies recovered from the River Thames.
Nowadays, this part of the marshes is private land and not accessible. It's used for grazing, but possibly also for shooting, although I didn't see or hear any evidence of that. I don't know what these buildings were, but there are a good many of them
[DSC_1092e]