From Essex to Kent (over the Dartford Bridge)

Day two of the site visit was spent in Kent. After leaving my wonderful B&B (Beeby's in Rochester) I went to Cliffe to meetup with Rick. I found Rick in the car park by the Church and we decided to go in my car down the long track that leaves the village, towards the marshes.

It is a long rutted track that is tortuous and can only be attempted at about 5MPH. As we drove down past the beginning by Court Sole Farm which is a Georgian farmhouse that has been there for years, we passed points of interest such as the clay pools and the half house/half barn. The RSPB had erected signs and benches where birds could be sited and the whole place looked a lot tidier than when I first came down here over 10 years ago. In some ways I am pleas

ed because it means that the site is more secur

e than before from development with a big organisation like RSPB involved. On the other hand, I liked the more rambling and confused nature of the place where it was hard to discern between public footpaths and industrial motifs.

We parked the car up in sight of the sea wall and then continued on foot. As we came up to the seawall we came across an old door with a metal pier behind it. The door was locked with a heavy padlock but when I came here 5 years ago, the door was o

pen and you could walk out on to the pier which was magical. Underneath the pier is a thick pipe and on the door is a label for a dredging company so I presume the pipe is something to do with dredging?

We walked on around the sea wall following the edges of the land. The wall is set up

high so you have to walk either on the shoreline, on the wall itself (precariously) or along the marsh. We walked on the marsh

with short diversions up to the seawall every now and again.

It was interesting to swap roles; Rick became the one who was looking out intently to Essex from the seawall, eyes scanning details, whereas I relived past sitings and points of interest. Things were so familiar, yet also there was evidence of transition and change. Buildings

crumbling, the locked door of the pier, more birdsong then I remembered. We wound our way to the group of old buildings which were part of the Munitions Factory at Cliffe whose production peaked during WW1. It seems so ironic that here was the manufacture of such violent objects and yet it is one of the most tranquil places I've experienced. As we approached the scattered buildings, a big ditch of water lay in between us and the buildings. I had miscalculated the crossing of it and so we searched for a point to cross. Eventually we found a ramshackle piece of wood that was slung across thesmall channel. I had forgotten the need to navigate your way through these ditches and small channels of water that criss cross the land. Early visits to this place had often resulted in hours of trying to find points to cross these barricades.

The buildings were more derelict, a roof caved in on a Victorian single storey building.

I still found the series of round brick built structures intriguing. Grassy banks of earth surround the exterior but you can walk through the doorways into the centre.

Apparently they were where the explosives were made. At the centre of each one is a water pipe, to dampen any explosions.

These round structures are dotted around the marsh, humps of earth with muted trees

atop them lie in between like prehistoric

tombs. Some of these irregular shapes were I think, to stop explosions spreading.

Here I began experimenting with the camera and a piece of blue fabric across the lens. I have been thinking of filters, handmade ones, so I wanted to try out some ideas. I liked the

blue fabric as it reminded me of those Cynotope

images from early photography. I also tried out a crotcheted scarf. The image was more fragmented but nonetheless still has potential.