The towns along the east-south coast-line in England have different features. My impression on them and selected photos.
Tim's grandma lives in southeast England, so we got chances to explore quite a few interesting places around there, including one important historical city-Canterbury, three castles, and several towns. I would like to select out the representative photos and write down my impressions on them before my next exploration. This blog will start from the towns along the east-south coast-line.
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is the most north town I have been in that southeast region. Because it is facing the European mainland, it has been an important port, which has provided ferries to cross English-channel for many years.
When I saw this town, I felt it does not look like other English town I have been, as it doesn't not have much medieval timber-houses but rather looks "new" in architecture style. Later I checked on wikipedia, and found that indeed many buildings in Ramsgate are many Regency (early 19 century) and Victorian (mid-to-late 19th century) style, much younger than many of other English towns I will talk about in this blog.
One impressive thing is that there is a big park along the sea, which offers ~ 1km paved road for people to walk, run and cycle while enjoying the wonderful sea view.
Another interesting thing is some people were practicing with surfing near the port.
It is not too uncommon to see people riding horses on the street in England, we saw one in Charing, and saw another pair in Ramsgate.
Dover
Dover is another town as a major ferry port. It is the most close town to France, across the narrowest part of the English Channel. When we stand on the top of Dover cliff, Tim's Austrian cell number even sent him a message saying "welcome to France".
The most famous morphology feature in Dover is probably the surrounding chalk cliffs so called the "White Cliffs of Dover".
In France across the English Channel, there exists the same geology feature: the white cliff. Why? I was very curious about it, especially because I am working for Geology Department now. At the beginning I thought it is due to the plate move, but when I discussed with my colleague, I realized my thought was wrong.
The research on the origin of the English Channel (see references [1-2] two Nature paper at 2007) shows that the Channel was mainly formed by erosion caused by two floods. One about 4.25 millions years ago, another about 2.25 millions years ago. In both floods, the huge ice overflowed in and cut massive channels in the dry bed of the English Channel. Powerful ice flood. Can not imagine that if it happens now, how many human being will die from it.
In Dover, I unexpectedly encountered the below stone monument. I was shocked as I did not hear the existence of this accidence. I searched online right way and found out what this monument is referring to. In 2000, the customs in Dover found a suspicious truck. When the polices opened the door of the truck, they found 60 Chinese people lying inside, 58 of them already died and started to smell. Only two survived. Those Chinese were from Fujian Province, my hometown, which is near the sea therefore was one of the biggest labor-exporting area (legal or illegal) in China. Knowing they were from Fujian made me more shocked about that I did not hear about this news before.
The reason they died was because the venting system in the truck stopped working (not sure it was broken or the driver turn it off), which caused overheat and choke. They were first sent to central-Europe (Belgium and Netherland) before they were moved to UK. Those people borrowed a lot of money to pay the smugglers (both Chinese and Netherlander), with the dream of earning more money in UK. But they did not even see the sky of UK.
I was moved that English people build a monument for them, in spite of the fact they were illegal immigrations. Those people will even not be considered to "deserve" a monument in China. "All Human Life is Precious", I had not heard about this on my education from kindergarten to PhD in China, unfortunately. Instead we were told individualism is selfish, collectivism is nobel.
Hyth
Hyth is a very typical English town. Most of the English towns have a most important street called "high street". Very different with "high way", "high street" is usually old and narrow, with many shops existing from hundreds of years ago.
There is also a 11-century parish church of St Leonard in the center of the town, on a hill. The church covers a ossuary with 2000 skulls and 8000 thigh bones.
Of course Hyth also have a pretty beach, a long walkway near the sea for people to excise. The houses near the sea look very neat, making people feel oh what if I live here!
Hyth to Dungeness-little steam engine train
From Hyth to the nearby town Dugeness, there is a touring railway for a cute tiny steam engine train. The train is lower than me when I stand next to it, roughly 1/3 of the normal train, a bit like a big toy.
The railway was opened at 1927. I thought it was meant for transporting good at the beginning, and the small size is for saving the energy. Then when we went to the Museum and Play Park at New Romney Station in the middle of the railway, learnt a bit history, and realized that I was wrong again. This railway was built by two millionaire racing car drivers Captain J.E.P. Howey and Count Louis Zborowski, just for fun....
Changing the direction of engine:
Sitting in such a "toy" train was a very interesting experience. I even need to low my body to go into the cart. Driving along the beach line, the view was also very pretty, not only the natural view, but also the folk houses along the railway. There is a tall tower in the end of the railway at Dugeness, with a gorgeous far-scenery of the sea.
The Museum at New Romney Station was absolutely the funnest part. There is a huge model of the railway in a big room. When you first went in, the things you saw are tiny but still just a reduced size of real world. Train models run at the railways, along the rivers, across the bridges, and though the tunnels inside mountains. But when you went further in, the stuffs you saw became weird, really weird....
There is a huge mouse (taller than the toy-train) running crazily on the railways, sometimes even blocked the train.
There are also many monsters hiding in the corners of the room-size models, it is so fun to spot them.
Rye
Rye is not near the sea now, but about 2 miles away from the open sea. However, it was surrounding by the sea in medieval times, and was an important port (one of the five medieval Cinque Ports).
It is one of my favorite towns in England, the ancient cobblestone roads, countless medieval timber houses, the entire town is kept the time still. I would like to come back and explore more.
⬇️Cobblestone road
⬇️A personal prison
⬇️From AD 1420
⬇️From AD 1490
Hastings
As another medieval Cinque Ports, Hastings is very distinguishable from other port towns I have been, because of its unique fishing net shops.
It is impossible to miss those net shops, which are wooden houses with black, tall and skinny looking.
Many of the wooden houses were derived from the upended old boat, for storing fishing gears. Some only have two floors, but most of them have three floors because by then (before World War I), fishermen had 3 types of net:herring net, mackerel nets and trawls.
Other place also have this kind of net shop, but only in Hastings, they seemed to have developed in such a massive way: around 55 between 1875-1950, but 34 were washed away due to the lack of defenses.
One boat called "RX40 The Golden Sovereign" was cut from the middle: the bow was converted into a net shop, and the shorter stem part was converted in to "The Half Sovereigh Cottage" display.
Besides, there is also a even tinier steam engine train in the park near the coastline at Hastings. How much do English people love steam engine trains!
References:
[1] Gupta, Sanjeev; Collier, Jenny S.; Palmer-Felgate, Andy; Potter, Graeme, "Catastrophic flooding origin of shelf valley systems in the English Channel", Nature 448, 342–346 (2007)
[2] Philip Gibbard, "Europe cut adrift" Nature 448, 259-260 (2007)
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