I’m still catching up on the weekend’s activities on the south side of the river, when I took part in the Night Walking North Kent Festival organised by Inspiral London. It was fortuitous that this event was taking place during my residency at Metal Southend and a first opportunity to explore a section of the Thames Estuary on the south side.
Saturday’s events were focused on the Hoo Peninsula, a unique area of marshland and an important nature conservation area located on the South Thames Estuary. Popularised by Dickens in his novel Great Expectations, it is also an area that until recently, was under threat as the site proposed by Boris Johnson for a new airport. Thankfully, this is no longer likely to happen, but the area remains vulnerable to other proposed new developments, not least from the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, which should it go ahead, will cut right across the internationally protected wetlands by 2025.
The pre-walk series of talks were hosted on LV21, the distinctive bright red former lightship, moored near the ferry pier in Gravesend. Now an arts project space, this was also the setting during the afternoon, for a series of video installations by Richard Couzins, Sarah Sparkes, Anne Robinson and the Inspiral group, as well as Caroline Gregory’s Talismans, John Whitfield’s photographs of Abandoned Wrecks on the Hoo Peninsula and Alan Ball’s Estuary series of objects.
The first of the evening’s talks was given by Grant Smith, a sound artist and London coordinator of SoundCamp, a London-based artist collective who develop site-responsive work and research around ecologies of sound and place. They also coordinate a network of soundcamps around the world and produce the Reveil 24 hour broadcast on International Dawn Chorus Day each year. This was a fascinating presentation into how to make live sound streaming accessible in a way that seemed relatively low-tech and feasible in a range of situations. It immediately made me wonder what the possibilities could be for Thames run work I am developing and I will be definitely contacting Grant for some advice. If I can get my act together, I may even try joining the Reveil 24 hr SoundCamp on International Dawn Chorus Day on May 5th-6th 2018, using my mobile phone.
The second talk was an in-conversation between writer and conservationist Carol Donaldson and artist, educator and ecologist Jane Trowell, who lives near the marshes at Higham, east of Gravesend. The focus was Carol’s recent book On the Marshes which follows the authors journey walking across the North Kent Marshes, examining landscapes, wildlife and people who have chosen to live in unconventional ways and to make their home in this particular environment. This too, was a great insight into the area, told from a personal and insider’s perspective. I will definitely be purchasing a copy, but I’ll have to wait until the paperback version comes out next month as the hardback is out of stock.
A short gap followed the talks and we set off on the Long Hoo Night Walk, conceived as a ’26km slow walk through the night in 3 parts’ and inspired by Deveron Art’s Slow Marathon , taking place on the same night, which is actually 26 miles long. Following in the literary footsteps of Dickens, the walk was also intended as an exploration of the unique flora and fauna of the marshes and led in part by Inspiral’s ornithological expert J D Swann (aka Calum F Kerr). Unfortunately the premises of the Port of London Authority restricted immediate direct access to the riverside, so Part 1 of the walk took us through some rather salubrious alleyways of half-decaying industrial warehouses to get onto the Saxon Shore Way, along river’s edge. It was then quite a stretch of uninterrupted access as the sun went down, walking directly along the river’s edge- quite a magical experience.
The ground was a predominantly grassy ridge, which was soft on the feet until we reached a small pebbled section, which was rather harsher underfoot. On the way we passed a strange police training centre to our right, which looked like a deserted film-set, complete with fake high streets and banks. There was also an old fort, which I have now identified as Shornemead Fort, built in the 1860s to guard the entrance to the Thames from seaborne attack. As we walked and as it got darker, we became more a tune to the sounds around us, particularly those of frogs in the nearby marsh ponds. I had never heard such a loud chorus before- it was quite amusing. A diversion across footpaths through Higham Marshes took us into Higham and to St Mary’s Church, where this first part of the walk was ending. This was to allow for some sustenance and for those returning to London to take the train back from Higham Station.
As is inevitable with a group of mixed ability, people were walking at different paces and there was some some difficulty over some high stiles and some very muddy paths, which slowed us down and consequently the group arrived at the Church later than intended. The original plan had been to stop for some brief refreshment and for the hard-core walkers to continue with Stage 2 of the walk from Higham to the village of Cooling, before embarking on Stage 3, the long return back to Gravesend. Due to our late arrival and also perhaps the realisation of the ambition of the long walk, after already 2 days and nights of intense activity, an executive decision was made by Charlie Fox, one of Inpiral’s directors, to abandon the walk to Cooling and to make the return from Higham to Gravesend along the path running along the former canal.
I was disappointed at first, as I had been in it for the long haul and had specifically opted to do this walk due to its length and location. However, I completely understood the Charlie’s decision- he must have felt responsible for the welfare of the group and I think was also pretty exhausted himself. The walk back felt much slower and relentless, following a hard chalky path along the canal, but it was straight forward and there were some highlights of nocturnal animal and bird sounds as we passed through the marshlands. Eventually I saw the guiding lights of a huge industrial light ship moored on the other side of the river near Tilbury Fort, that told us we were nearly back in Gravesend, where most of us had booked rooms at the Clarendon Royal Hotel. I must say, my legs and feet were feeling it by that stage and I was quietly relieved that we had cut the walk short. It was already around 12.30 am and the original walk would have taken us another 3-4 hours or so.
