Reculver

After a morning in the office I took an afternoon trip out with my friend Linda. Our destination: was somewhere that we both visited often as children. First stop Herne Bay, where my grandparents used to live. I fondly recall collecting winkles on the shoreline with them, that nan would boil for tea and serve with a pin on each plate to pick the winkles out of their shells, and accompanied by delicious local bread.

Today we had seafood salad, fish and chips and icecreams in the old bandstand at a branch of Makcaris, which has been in the town as an icecreams parlour since 1931. It was a favourite stopping off point on childhood visits to the town.

Then we took a stroll along the shingle beach, finding shells and watching hardy swimmers, before heading to Reculver. The old flint-built towers are all that remains of a dismantled church on the headland, where they stand proud as a landmark for shipping. Nearby, long ago, stood a Roman garrison fort, but some of the land on which it stood has long since been consumed by the sea.

Such perfect English summer weather for a seaside afternoon!