A friend recently emailed me this about Dungeness in Kent and Hythe, a town near it. It sounded like a cute, windswept little place, so wanted to share…
- Alexa
“We had a good break down on the Kent coast – it’s so peaceful there even though the town is a busy one, and the air is so clean and clear. We spent most of the time just exploring the town – lots of old cottages and houses in higgledy piggledy narrow roads and little alleys leading by steps up the hill the town is on.
Lots of weatherboard houses and walls clad with hanging tiles – all very English and quaint. Stopped at the ancient church and looked at their ossiary – never seen one before – shelves and shelves full of skulls and a huge bank of bones beside.
Went on the miniature steam train that runs for miles along the coast to a wild promontory called Dungeness that is dominated by a nuclear power plant and two lighthouses. The whole area is natural pebbly shingle and over the centuries fishermen built little wooden houses to live in. It’s all very bleak and wild but worth seeing. Many wildflowers grow in the shingle so it has its own strange beauty.
Derek Jarman the filmmaker owned one of the huts. If you google ‘Dungeness’ and look at the images, there’s a picture of his hut and garden.”
Further information:
Pictures of Dungeness
Picture of Derek Jarman’s cottage
Guardian piece on Derek Jarman’s cottage
