COMING CLEAN

 

Briqueterie de Lomme 

 

I was contacted by a reader who said her book group is reading Blood on the Tide, which is great news. But she wanted to know where some of the locations are. I explained, that like my characters, they are an amalgam of research and memories of places I've visited. One of the questions was about the brickworks, which plays a pivotal roll in the book. I had to come clean. 

 

 

Excavating clay

 

The brickworks was inspired by The Briqueterie du Nord, in Lomme, near Lille in northern France. (You can google it). However, there was a brickworks up Udimore Road from Rye, near where the Valley Park estate has been built. I know this from experience as I have designed and built three gardens on the site and there is solid clay just below the surface. Also there is an existing brickworks at Three Oaks.

The clay train

Having been involved in the ceramics industry for the first part of my working life, I know quite a lot about clay, so, hopefully, I've got the details right.

And did I say that Blood on the Tide is available on Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle





INTRODUCING WOMEN

One or two of my readers have given me a verbal rap over the knuckles for having an all male 'cast' in Blood on the Tide. I did, in fact introduce one young German female, but she only played a small part in the story. So I'm trying now to make amends.

In the soon to be published Blood on the Shrine, DI Sonny Russell has a love interest. It's not giving too much away to say that he is smitten but ... she is not all she seems.

And in Blood on the Strand, which is my current work in progress, there is now a WPC Nettie Sharp, who, I think, is going to play a major part in the story. There is also a female jewelry expert whose character I'm just about to develop. She may come from aristocracy that has fallen on hard times, but you'll have to wait and see - so will I until I discover what direction she takes!

WRITER'S BLOCK?

 

Writer's block? Touch wood, it hasn't happened yet. But... I do get stuck on plot lines and character development form time to time. So what do I do? Sit and stare at the screen? Just write rubbish, hoping something useful will come out of it? Panic? None of these. I take myself, and Aggie, for a walk to the beach, preferably when the tide is out.

Then, as we roam on the exposed sand and rock pools, my mind roams too, things become clearer and ideas coalesce. When I return home, 'Hey Presto!' I'm back on track.

I just love the solitude, the sound of the waves, the feel of the wind and, of course, the birds. The insistent and nervous piping of the oystercatchers, trotting on their orange legs, looking for cockles to eat; the bubbling song, and rising glissando of curlews then, when disturbed, their urgent, arrow-straight flight, beaks drooping like a feathered Concorde.

 

 

And at the end of the walk, time to sit down on a bench and just savour the seascape for a few minutes before returning home, filled with a new enthusiasm to get on with writing. Which is what I must do now.



PUSHMI - PULLYU

 



I had a spare twenty minutes waiting for my daughter so took advantage of being close to Rock-a-Nore beach, where the Hastings beach-launched fishing fleet is based - the largest in the country. It's a wonderful jumble of fishing gear and rusty relics, as well as old and modern beach boats.

Back in the 19th century, horses were used to bring the boats back up the beach when they returned after a fishing trip. They were used to drive a windlass which wound a thick rope round a pulley which pulled the boat in. By the twentieth century the poor old horse was replaced by a geared winch, man-powered. This must have carried on until the advent of the internal combustion engine, which powered the winches until comparitively recently. Below, on the left is one of the hand-cranked variety, on the right, a powered monster.

 

 

There are many sitting around on the beach, now derelict and the reason is...

 

Well, the drawback with any winch, is that it pulls, but doesn't push so launching relied on men putting their shoulders to the boats and pushing them down the shingle and into the sea. The innovation that allowed pushing as well as pulling is the tracked bulldozer. There are more of these than there are winches and many are even more derelict, replaced as they wear out by slightly less work-worn examples. The constant sea air, and sea water takes its toll on them, hence the number of non-working rust heaps. I'm not sure if Huw Lofting ever visited but he would have been impressed by the pushmi-pullyu's on the beach.

 

 

I've just had a very successful weekend taking part in the xmas art fair at the Rye Harbour sailing club. I just managed to get a pitch as a result of a last minute cancellation. The other exhibitors where showing artwork or crafts but were happy to have me there with my model of Compass Point and my books.

It was so good that I actually sold out and had to borrow extra copies that I'd supplied to the nearby Avocet Gallery, who were also taking part in the xmas fair. I had details of the next to two books, which were well received and it was great to be able to show the layout in the setting it was inspired by.

I was also able to point out the still extant Golf Links Halt, one time intermediate station on the Rye and Camber Tram, across the river. This line ran from 1895 until 1939 and the layout is partially an homage to it.

Althogether a most convivial weekend with lovely people. The visitors weren't bad either!

The view from the end of the line.



BAGGYWRINKLE AND THE BITTER END

 



The river front in Gravesend is not what it was. At one time, not so long ago, the river would have been teeming with craft of many sorts - lighters, tugs, pilot boats, all manner of smaller boats as well as the associated shoreside nautical paraphernalia. Sadly most of this has gone, but I did come across one or two remants including a section of landing stage, the remains of two winches and these gracefully curved structures. They are davits. These were, and still are - you can often see them on the stern of large motor cruisers - used to lift or launch smaller boats. It got me thinking abnout other nautical terms, often used by landlubbers without really knowing their meaning or origin. Here are a handful.

bitter end: The last part or loose end of a rope or cable. The anchor cable is tied to the
bitts; when the cable is fully paid out, the bitter end has been reached.

bitts: A post or pair mounted on the ship's bow, for fastening ropes or cables.

spring: A line used parallel to that of the length of a craft, to prevent fore-aft motion of a boat, when moored or docked.

avast: Stop, cease or desist from whatever is being done. From the Dutch hou' vast - "hold on".

And probably one of the best and most obscure:
baggywrinkle: A soft covering for cables (or any other obstructions) that prevents sail chafing.

Finally a term used to mean something that is awkward or requires an inordinate amount of effort:
devil to pay: "Paying" the devil is sealing the devil seam. It is a difficult and unpleasant job (with no resources) because of the shape and postion of the seam. (To pay is to fill a seam between two planks with caulking or pitch).

SIR GILES GILBERT SCOTT

 

 

While researching for the soon to be published, Blood on the Shrine, I wanted to find out more about the iconic red telephone box. Essentially I knew that it had been designed by Sir Giles Glibert Scott but didn't realise how prolific an architect he had been. Blending gothic tradition with modern he produced a huge, varied canon of work - Livepool Cathedral, Cambridge University Library, Waterloo Bridge and Battersea Power station and Bankside power station, now Tate Modern amongst his works.

 

 

Today we went to Gravesend with my wife's American cousin so he could meet his English relatives. We visited The Church of Our Lady of Assumption in Northfleet where the family have a pew. I was interested to discover that it is yet another design from Scott's drawing board. It's pretty massive, in brutal regular brickwork but there are some lovely details inside. I will take more notice of his work in future, not just the telephone box.