365:53 NEALE JAMES

Listeners to last week’s Photowalk show will be aware of my trip out to the Maunsell Forts ten miles off the east coast of Kent, the Garden of England, isn’t that how they refer to the county? These extraordinary historical features that are not readily visible to the human eye from shore, were used to protect the entrance to the Thames Estuary during WWII as aircraft used the glimmer of this arterial waterway and river to guide them toward London. Designed by Guy Maunsell, only three clusters of this array of forts were built but they played a major role in saving hundreds, some say thousands of lives. Seven sixty foot high forts housed up to two hundred men. In summer they were essentially big tin cans and exceptionally hot. In winter their rudimentary heating systems left them feeling decidedly chilly. With two to four miles to run on smooth water with a hint of fog still lifting, they appear like ATT-ATT Walkers from the film Star Wars, a strange sight indeed in a sea otherwise deserted from traffic around them, due to the fact they sit on an area that is shallow depth due to a sandbank.

This actually is a photograph as we departed on the pilot vessel used to service and visit the forts. I liked the way the forts had taken on an almost animated appearance, seemingly stalking and training their guns (winches in actual fact) on the audible bell ringing buoy to the left.