The Sandhills and the Mary Bax Stone.

Looking towards the Chequers Inn and the Caravan Park.

To the North of Deal there is an area of low lying land which stretches to Sandwich Bay, it is known as the ‘Sandhills’ or as we called it as children ‘The Golf Links’ due to the fact that it is a golf course belonging to The Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club. A Summer treat after school when we were children was to eat our dinner early, then my Mum, brother and I would meet up with my Mums friend and her son and we would walk via the ‘Ancient Highway’  to an isolated pub known to us as ‘Dick Marsh’s’, Dick Marsh was the landlord of the pub known as The Chequers Inn. Mum and her friend would go inside for probably a much needed drink whilst us children were left outside with a bottle of coca cola and a packet of crisps (complete with the blue twist of salt) each. We loved this walk on a summers evening, and I think we probably got home quite late for us, it was a real treat.

The pillbox

The tarmac road only went as far as the pub back then, but the Ancient Highway continued as a track through to Sandwich Bay, it was passable by car but was not a very comfortable ride!! I think that around 2003, the remaining track from The Chequers through to Sandwich Bay was tarmaced to help the traffic flow to the The Open Golf Championship which is periodically held at The Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich. It is still a single track road but it is much easier to drive to Sandwich Bay now.

The Chequers Inn, known to us as Dick Marsh’s.

The barn opposite the pub, I think it looked as if it was falling down even when we were children!

The Ancient Highway was once the main route from Deal to Sandwich, and there were a number of buildings along the road, The Chequers being one of them. There was also a halfway house and a Lookers (Shepherds) Cottage between the Chequers and Sandwich Bay. I was out there at the weekend and it looks as if the Lookers cottage has either gone or has been extensively altered to make a very nice house.

Found it, but only because I knew it was there somewhere!

Shame it is so overgrown now.

The reason I was out that way is that for some time now I have been wanting to get some photos of the Mary Bax Stone. The stone is actually a gravestone set on the top of a bank. The grass in front of it used to be kept short and a small plaque was placed near the stone telling the sad tale, but it took me quite a while to find it yesterday as the grass has grown very long and only the top of the stone is now visible, the plaque has also now gone, which is a shame, luckily there is a record of the writing that was on the stone.

The stone reads:

On this spot

August the 25th, 1782

MARY BAX, Spinster

aged 23 years

was murdered by

MARTIN LASH, a foreigner,

who was executed for the same.

Mary Bax was a young woman of 23, on the morning of 25th August 1782 Mary was walking from Deal to Sandwich carrying a bundle. She had just passed the halfway house when she passed a man sitting by the side of the road. He stopped Mary and asked the way to Sheerness, which is a long way from Sandwich, then he asked her for money. Mary refused, the man who was a foreigner then attacked Mary ultimately killing her (he may have slit her throat) and dumping her body in a ditch. He then made off in the direction of Sandwich carrying the bundle Mary had been carrying. The man did not know that he had been seen by the 13 year old son of the Looker, the boy was scared that he would share the same fate as Mary so he hid in a haystack until the man was out of sight, then he set off in the direction of Deal and raised the alarm. It was found that the man Martin Lash (Laas) was a deserter from a ship anchored in the Downs, he was Norwegian and aged 27. He was finally found asleep with Marys bundle next to him, in a churchyard in Folkestone which is nearly 20 miles away from Sandwich. He was tried and executed for his crime, and the stone still stands in remembrance of Mary Bax. I am glad that I found the stone, but it is a shame that the site is not looked after. I don’t think Mary was buried at this spot, but I could be wrong.

Lost photos – Scarecrows!

The Frog Prince

For some time now I have been transferring all my photos onto my external hard drive and copying them all onto disc, then eventually getting some of them printed up in photo books. I thought that I was doing ok but checking through my old memory cards I found the whole month of May 2011 had been overlooked.

Peter Pan and Captain Hook

Dobby from the Harry Potter books

I am so pleased I realized, as some of the missing photos are those shown here. Every two years the village of Wingham in Kent stage a ‘Scarecrow Trail’ which my friend Pauline and I went to in 2011. The scarecrows are just amazing, perfect photo subjects, and we had the chance to look round some of the beautiful gardens in the village which are usually hidden from public view.

The Royal Wedding – 2011

The Archbishop

We had a really lovely afternoon, including tea and cakes on someone’s front lawn, and we promised ourselves that we would go again the next time this event was staged. To my disappointment we missed it this year, I never heard a thing about it (and I work in a Library!) and only found out that it had been on when one of the customers in the Library told me how lovely this years event had been!

Toad of Toad Hall

Winnie the Pooh and friends on the river.

Dr Who’s Tardis and a Dalek

I will make sure I look out for this in 2015, it really is a lovely idea, and makes a very interesting day out.

Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones

Cruella de Vil and some of the Dalmation puppies.

Pinocchio

I think you will agree the Scarecrows are just amazing, I hope you enjoy the photos

Little Red Riding Hood

Fairy Godmother

Dragons can hide anywhere

For everyone suffering from our English heat wave, keep cool if you can, at least we are getting a summer this year

Summer flowers and a quick catch up.

Lets start with the catch up, I am pleased to say that my daughter passed her degree, she now has BA Hons after her name lol. She is now on the job hunting trail, hopefully she will find something soon

Finally summer has arrived in this part of the country, and guess who manages to get a horrible chest infection, which so far has lasted over a week, but is thankfully now getting better each day.

I haven’t been anywhere much to take photos, but I realized that I do have quite a lot of flower photos, and if I don’t share them in the summer, they won’t get shared at all.

I am doing a photography course this Thursday evening in Sandwich with a professional photographer, which I am really looking forward to, I hope to learn a lot. I will let you know how it goes, and will share the photos I take if they are any good!

Sunset from Deal Pier

A couple of weeks ago my friend and I decided we would try to get some sunset photos from Deal Pier, or, if the weather was bad just have a drink in a nearby hostelry..

My friend duly appeared at my house,and luckily the weather had brightened up after the rain during the day, so we walked into Deal along the Promenade. There was a pretty strong wind blowing but we enjoyed the walk to the end of the pier, and we could see that we might just catch the sunset we were aiming for.

The cafe was still open, but only just, so we bought two large hot chocolates to take away and spent the next hour waiting for the sun to do her stuff, so to speak. I think the hour was well spent, I am really pleased with the photos.

When the sun finally slipped behind the rooftops of Deal, we made our way to the pub, where we had a couple of drinks and a warm up, before walking home. We had a lovely evening, and we have promised ourselves another evening walk as soon as we can