Isle of sheppey revisited

[brogdale]

Growing up on the boarder of SE London and NW Kent a lot of people I went to school with and later work, their families had caravans on Sheppey.
I am sure I have been there as a kid but I can't really remember.
Would love to go now though, I do love a bit of bleak marshland

I love Faversham for the same reason brogdale.
Have walked across the marshes to The Shipwrights Arms many a time. It always reminds me of the beginning to Great Expectations

Know exactly what you mean; last time I went out round the Nagden bend (in search of any residual signs of the Nagden bump ( Beowulf’s grave ?? ) it was foggy and I almost expected to find Abel Magwitch in a ditch at any moment.

Harty Ferry was used as a location for the 2012 Great Expectations (Helena Bonhan-Carter Miss Havisham one).

 

[not-bono-ever]

End of the fucking world also filmed on the IoS for the cursed earth / caravan scenes

 

[brogdale]

End of the fucking world also filmed on the IoS for the cursed earth / caravan scenes

Yeah, Eastchurch never looked so good as in those scenes with the Shuggie Otis Sweet thang track.

 

[not-bono-ever]

 

[Gort]

Growing up on the boarder of SE London and NW Kent a lot of people I went to school with and later work, their families had caravans on Sheppey.

During the seventies, my father used to know a friend who'd lend us the use of his caravan for a week each year in Eastchurch's caravan park. We didn't have much money, in that holidays were a bit difficult for us to organise, so it was great for us to get this week away from south London to this north Kent island that seemed a world away with its wooden bridge and its being an actual island.

It might seem like a craphole today, but as a kid I actually enjoyed my time there. Met a few friends who were holidaying from other areas of London, tramped around the island trying to avoid the marshes, went to the amusement arcades in Leysdown-on-Sea, saw those bunkers that were in the photos in this thread, went to the "beach", etc. Yeah, it might not be much, but I do have fond memories of it.

 

[BigMoaner]

My folks had a caravan there for years and we would escape London every few weeks or so. Kids loved it. Esp the arcades! Miss it badly since my folks got rid

 

[BigMoaner]

That pic is a of a cafe by the lake. Nice spot. Always very windy

 

[BigMoaner]

Millwall on Sea

 

[Supine]

Mad to think it was only 1967 that the Dutch handed back control of Queenborough to England. The independence Day party each year is supposed to be fun. You still get lots of Dutch yachts visiting for old times sake.

 

[marty21]

Mad to think it was only 1967 that the Dutch handed back control of Queenborough to England. The independence Day party each year is supposed to be fun. You still get lots of Dutch yachts visiting for old times sake.

It was 1667 and only for a few days , but independence is independence!

 

[brogdale]

It was 1667 and only for a few days , but independence is independence!

Mind you, (shameless bump), it was only in1965 that Kent gave up part of Newham!
Wonder if they celebrate their independence in North Woolwich?

 

[not-bono-ever]

I never got to use the ferry to Holland as cheap flights came in by the time I was aware of it

 

[not-bono-ever]

Pretty sure that the housing around east down are an ex holiday camp ? Look to be chalets and there seems to be the remains of an entertainment hub in the grounds of one of them - can anyone confirm?

 

[Supine]

It was 1667 and only for a few days , but independence is independence!

It wasn't a typo. There is an alternate version of reality on the island

 

[not-bono-ever]

That’s mad

 

[BigMoaner]

 

[BigMoaner]

i asked for a soya latte and got glassed.

 

[BigMoaner]

no apostraphe

 

[brogdale]

View attachment 260356

Out at Eastchurch they've even got the No one likes us..." statue.



But seriously, what's not to like about the island?

 

[marty21]

It wasn't a typo. There is an alternate version of reality on the island

View attachment 260355

 

[BigMoaner]

Out at Eastchurch they've even got the No one likes us..." statue.

View attachment 260360

But seriously, what's not to like about the island?

View attachment 260361

it's just no man's land really with a few beaches as per above. but strangely it was great for weekends away.

no matter how much i would think the place is a bit crap, i still miss it badly now we can't go there a couple of times a month.

on a bright day you can see all the way to southend

 

[BigMoaner]

as a teenager i used to fish under the big bridge onto the island.

used to catch little bass if i was lucky.

one day by the floating pier there i saw this 3 foot fish flash just below the surface and disappear. took my breath away. god knows what it was. but it broke the surface, turned on its side and was gone. in a truly wild water setting like that (no fish stocking etc), it was a fisherman's site to behold.

 

[brogdale]

it's just no man's land really with a few beaches as per above. but strangely it was great for weekends away.

no matter how much i would think the place is a bit crap, i still miss it badly now we can't go there a couple of times a month.

on a bright day you can see all the way to southend

I grew up just on the other side of the Swale, overlooking the island and have always had the sort of love/hate relationship with the island you get between neighbouring districts. But it was always there as the brooding (surprisingly hilly) backdrop to our sunset views across the water. When we got to pub-going age we used to get the train (via Sittingbourne) and go on crawls of the Sheerness boozers!

 

[BigMoaner]

I grew up just on the other side of the Swale, overlooking the island and have always had the sort of love/hate relationship with the island you get between neighbouring districts. But it was always there as the brooding (surprisingly hilly) backdrop to our sunset views across the water. When we got to pub-going age we used to get the train (via Sittingbourne) and go on crawls of the Sheerness boozers!

"Leave him alone, Terry, it ain't worth it" the most over used phase on the island on a Sat night.

I'm not snobby - it's all linked to SE london life in a way. most of my dad's mates have had a caravan on their at one time or another. the pubs get busy for millwal games. everyone you speak to seems to have some sort of roots in south east london.

the most gentrified place on their is the drive through costa. completly untouched by cosmoplitan life.

 

[BigMoaner]

i liek the banner on one of the amusements

"Built for and patronised by the Great British Working Class"

been on it since it was built, i think.

give me sheppey over whitstable any day of the week, seriously.

 

[BigMoaner]

Also think a survey of newspapers would throw up a disproportiant amount of sentances that read something along the lines of "John/Keith XX, of Deptford/Bermondsey/etc was arrested on the Isle of Sheppey"

 

[BigMoaner]

powerful carboot on there during warmer months.

 

[BigMoaner]

Also think a survey of newspapers would throw up a disproportiant amount of sentances that read something along the lines of "John/Keith XX, of Deptford/Bermondsey/etc was arrested on the Isle of Sheppey"

if the job didn't go as planned and you're on the run and the spanish coast won't do, there's always a caravan site in laysdown

 

[trashpony]

I like Sheppey and I like the fact they call themselves islanders. Some rarely go to 'the mainland'.

I live in the Isle of Thanet and we do the same thing - we say 'getting off the island' even though the Wantsum channel that separates us from the mainland is largely silted up and is only a few feet wide now

 

[brogdale]

i liek the banner on one of the amusements

"Built for and patronised by the Great British Working Class"

been on it since it was built, i think.

give me sheppey over whitstable any day of the week, seriously.

Yeah, IKWM, but I've always had family in Whitstable and what's happened to the place is a bit of a tragedy. When I was a nipper it was a pretty ordinary, working town that had it's moments in high summer, but now*...

Curiously, either side, W & E of the town and it's stratospheric DFL house-price bubble, at Seasalter & Swalecliffe there's mini Leysdown-style static caravan sites that both have the best views across to Eastchurch and Leysdown!

* of course there are still good folk left in the town.