I come from a country that is geologically active. New Zealand is on the “Ring of Fire”, the name for the plate boundaries that edge the Pacific Ocean, and so even as a child I was fully aware that our landscape was new and subject to change. Volcanic action (mostly smoke and ash but sometimes stones and boulders) and earthquakes were constant reminders of the changeable nature of the earth we live on. I did not apply that knowledge to Europe, however, and it came as a shock to me to realize that the landscape of the British Isles had also changed. As recently as the 16th Century small boats were still able to navigate the Wantsum Channel from the Thames estuary to Sandwich, Kent. In Roman times, ships passed through this channel. Now it is completely silted up.
Because I was writing Bound by an Oath and setting it in the Kent coastal area I decided to go and see for myself what it looks like today. We walked part way along the Saxon Shore Way from Herne Bay up to Whitstable where we ate oysters in honor of Blaedswith of Wingham. We walked in the opposite direction from Herne Bay to Reculver, to see the ruins of St Mary’s church and the Roman fort. My then six-year-old grandson declared his feet were falling off after having completed the 6-mile return hike! (We had intended to get a taxi back, but there was a long wait, and so we decided to walk back over the hills instead of around the shoreline. It was a magnificent hike on a gorgeous day, and nobody’s feet fell off!) We made a separate trip to Richborough, the gateway to Roman Britain, and the terminus of Watling Street.
It was thrilling to me to be walking where people had walked 1,500 years before! It was also instructive to discover that some of the locals did not even know the Saxon Shore Way existed, let alone why it was named after the Saxons! One woman had heard of it but insisted that she drive us from Sandwich (where we ate a sandwich, of course,) to the Richborough Fort because she thought the country roads would be too dangerous to walk down! She might have been right. The roads were typical of English country roads - wide enough for about one-and-a-half cars and bordered with hedgerows and brambles. However, we were alone on the road as she drove us to the amazing fort in her Land Rover.
I suppose I am as guilty of ignorance as those English folk who had never given a thought to why a walkway would be called the Saxon Shore Way. I live in an area once occupied by Native Americans and I know very little about them. I shall have to fix that.
Comentários