The Fairways

The Fairways is the name given to the new development on the former golf course. I decided to look online and see what Redrow Homes (the developer) had to say about the place.

‘Just minutes from the coast that they call the Kent Riviera’

‘charm of a classic seaside town’

‘jobs and excellent schools of Canterbury within easy reach’

‘the perfect location for our Heritage collection homes’

‘with kerb appeal architecture and modern interiors’.

Kerb appeal architecture I have never heard that phrase before! They are highlighting the fact that the window frames are made from glass reinforced plastic and Tesco are nearby as well as Morrison’s, there is also an Aldi being constructed as well but they have not updated their website with that one.

A section on how easy it is to buy one of their homes, they say they would appoint an estate agent to sell your old home and take care of all the paperwork, even agree a figure towards the fees you encounter. You will only find the finest appliances in your new home AEG and Smeg and one eye has been kept on interior design trends!

And not only are Redrow Homes better for the planet, but they also work out much cheaper to run…backed up by loads of stats on money saved with smart meters, efficient water fittings and more energy saving equipment than you can shake a stick at!

There are about 10 different types of house you can buy and I noticed that 5 of those are ready to take sales (building is still at the infrastructure and groundworks stage).

The Ludlow (from £309,995 – 3 Bedroom)

The Stratford (from £379,995 – 4 Bedroom)

The Warwick (from £349,995 – 3 Bedroom)

The Worcester (from £399,995 – 3 Bedroom)

The Oxford (from £409,995 – 4 Bedroom)

No prices on the other five but Shaftsbury and Kenilworth sound expensive?

Do you know what, I think I feel an artists brief coming on for a piece of Public Art!

I have cycled across now and again, walked over there occasionally never found anything to write about particularly! I have watched 4×4 travel across the remotest parts of golf course, then when they are out of site I go and investigate what was happening……the answer is always either drilling or digging some kind of test hole?

The ground works being carried out are focused near the road and can be seen in the distance from the only path you are allowed to traverse the site along. This path is a corridor made by hundreds of meters of wire fencing. The fencing is lying on the ground now, both sides fallen in towards each other covering the track they once hemmed in. The only way to walk across is outside the fencing now.

I have found nothing inspiring about the place. The most interesting aspect is the graffiti going on nearby. I have occasionally spoken to the guys doing it if I see them. They tell me that people now come some distance (Margate – Broardstairs)  to graffiti here. There was always graffiti but it was relatively unknown place apparently ! But now a place with a high turnover of new works and lots of people doing graffiti there, a bit of a graffiti Mecca by the look of it. The guys I spoke to recently were just preparing the walls for pieces especially for Halloween. They were young men and told me they had children and families at home. I asked them if they would bring their children down here to help when they older. They said yeh they thought they would.

I think I had gone over the golf course looking for solace?

I never knew it as a golf course only a large empty place where all I could see were trees, grass and sky. My own wilderness that I could walk into and reflect on things, watch the seasons, the birds and the clouds pass by. A place where I felt I was in the landscape, not just looking at one. There is a big difference.

I used to have an itinerary; places I would go and just see if there were any changes happening? How high was the water level in the Brook of Plenty, had the lonely horse got a new stable, had the grass been cut or was I going to be waist high in long grass. Had the blown down tree remained down or was it sawn up and removed and was there any new graffiti in the tunnel….you know nothing really, but still valuable down time for me where a mental shut down or tick over was on hand any time, at the turn of a tap or the flick of a switch.  I felt like a Red Indian patrolling the lands….any sign of the white man?

Well yes the ‘White Man’ was very much here, and gone was the freedom to roam at will to visit my clumps of wild flowers and see the fox holes. I had particular pleasure in seeing how high the weeds were growing out of what used to be putting greens, a symbol to me that nature takes things back. There was miles of wire fencing and large mounds of soil from excavations.  The white man was focusing on the area closer to main road where a lot of demolition, excavations and ground works were taking place. The area noticeably flater and much more open after the removal of many hedgerows and trees.

A day or two ago I cut my finger quite badly with a saw, bad enough to know it might not be quite the same when it eventually heals. An industrial injury you might say. I’d gone over the golf course to find solace, but there was none there.

I have walked over the golf course 2-3 times since my last posting but somehow unable to write anything? May be there seemed no change worth talking about? But I think the reality is it’s difficult to talk about change. There has been plenty of it in my life over the past year or so and the golf course kind of symbolises that change as it goes through a transformation of its own.

Ever since the dog died it seemed to trigger a slow domino effect or catalyst to a string of events, culminating in my children finishing their degrees courses, my youngest about to start a foundation course and my father dying. Of course there is the whole Brexit thing which hangs over everyone like a storm cloud with no rain just yet, but clearly going to get a soaking any time soon.

The referendum seems to have shattered politics into smithereens, broken the constitution and is committing GBH on the economy. A clear message to other countries that if there were any little thoughts on leaving the EU then it’s not a good idea and best forgotten, don’t let those ideas grow.

My own work, seems to be changing as well as I have an exhibition in a Gallery in Canterbury coming up soon and I am working on a small animation festival with a group of local Thanet Schools. I don’t do exhibitions as I work on community and public arts projects so I have little work in the traditional sense to exhibit. I have never made a film or even know how to make them? But there I am making stop motion animated films with a small team of creatives. Taking my work into new areas. I find myself recently appointed onto a small team of directors working for a community arts CIC in my home town. Again outside my sphere of experience.

Here’s the thing: Do you attempt to steer a course through these storms and strive to retain some kind base line trying to stabilise a buffeted ship not allowing things to get wildly blown off course.

Or do you decide to let the currents take over for a short while, make no rash decisions complicating things even more and see what shores you get washed up on, allow a degree of serendipity to deal you the next couple of hands?

I don’t think I have ever been one to draw up five year plans, as to what course I was following is a little unclear but things were ‘going west’. What direction are the current winds of change? Anything that’s not ‘west’ will do.

PS. The horse with no home has gone, the field empty and a low plastic fence goes straight through his field.

One on Christmas Eve and the other on New Years Eve 2015.

Christmas Eve: It felt like walking in spring, the sun was out my jacket too warm and the wild flowers were out! The first thing I saw was a Magpie and  how unusually low the sun was, casting shadows from the bunkers and earth work hazards that had never seemed that prominent before. I remembered children playing war games amongst these earthworks one summer and thought how prehistoric they looked, like something you might find along Offa’s Dyke or the Ridgeway.

I noticed new graffiti on the footpath markers and passed a man with a dog.

I saw dandelion clocks and what I think was wild carrot which I believe comes out in June. To see the lonely horse in the far corner of its field walking freely about made a wave of happiness flow over me as it usually stands motionless on a concrete floor where its stable used to be. Then I disturbed a large flock of seagulls who were just sitting on the grass. I made them all noisily fly up and circle round and round just by walking nearby. I saw a Jay and a crow and went home.

New Years Eve I walked around the swamp for a change and entered through the gate I had never encountered wide open before. I could hear lots of different birds singing, but could only ever see woodpigeons. The sun was low again and I decided to walk through the prehistoric earth works as they seemed very prominent again and thought it time to check out the graffiti in the tunnel under the dual carriage way. I could see the horse standing motionless on the concrete base where his stable used to be.

The graffiti had exploded and the tunnel was completely covered with new stuff. The floor was equally amazing, it was completely littered with the detritus from an underground rave or something! Just covered with broken bottles and cans along with countless little gas and air canisters from whipped cream boxes of 20 or even 50 in each, and there are dozens of these boxes everywhere. I did see a Strongbow dark fruit cider can and thought how I would hate to drink that.

I remembered reading a book called The Mind In The Cave which basically says hallucinations  are very much part of Palaeolithic cave art in Europe. A ritualized event, pretty much what seemed to have happened here? I remember a phrase called Vision Quests where Shamans using hallucinogenic drugs would visit cave paintings. It was suggested that altered states of consciousness was a key a part of anyone viewing cave paintings and the deeper you went into the cave, the deeper the trance or journey you went on! or something like that anyway. I walked back through the earthworks.

I noticed a wire fence had been torn down and thought I aught to explore as access is free. I was about to explore… but instead became aware of a very large black dog standing still and watching me!  Just for a moment it felt like this dog was hunting me…. and now it’s cover was blown it would leap towards me and I would have to wrestle with it. It was only about 20 yards away, and my memory of it is a cross between a Newfoundland and an Alsation, I could see no owners. I stood still looking at it knowing I was not really under any threat at all and the surprise of seeing it staring at me had triggered my imagination. I watched it trot off towards an owner somewhere I preume. I watched till it was obscured and I could see it no longer and wished it was my dog. I carried on through the broken fence and found some scaffolding at the edge of the swamp where workmen must have reduced the height of this boundary hedge down to about six foot.