Wednesday 27 April 2016

Motley Crew

The fifth and final part of the seawall walks guide for St. Mary's Island to Motney Hill has just been added here.

Joking with a friend a few weeks ago, he said he thought the place would have been better named Motley Hill- I was quite pleased to pull up an old Ordnance Survey map from the 1930s and send him a copy;



A nautical aside. The obvious 'wreck' off of the northern end of Motley/Motney, marking the tip of Wallop Stone, and tidal rest spot for Cormorants, Turnstones, the occasional Grey Heron, Peregrine or Shag, is not an old boat, as some would have it. It was in fact a caisson, one of the special watertight containers that allowed workers down to set up foundations for bridges, locks, etc.

I recently found it mentioned in 'The Jottings of a Thames Ditch-Crawler', by Nick Ardley, an excellent read of tales afloat, ninety-five per cent of the time on the Greater Thames or the Essex saltings, aboard his Finesse class yacht 'Whimbrel', which can still be 'ticked' down here on the Medway from time to time- I'm a bit of a boat-dude, my notes have sightings of 'Whimbrel' as less than annual, whereas the eponymous wader is passing through in fair numbers right now:








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