Kent Battle of Britain Memorial through Elliott's lens

Can I post photographs in this section? If not, I’ll slip one of the mods a tenner. :dev2:

Thought I’d post up a few photographs from my spiritual second home, Kent. I’ve never lived there, but have been visiting for day trips and holidays since I was a baby, which has left me with a strong connection to the county.

I’m actually considering a personal photo project showing the contrast between old and new in the Isle of Thanet – for example, the contrast between the closer down, tattered arcades in Margate and the new casinos springing up along the coast. All very arty and whatnot!

Nothing spectacular, just a general overview of the area really. More coming soon at http://www.flickr.com/photos/esmarsh.

1. Viking Bay, Broadstairs. This is the main bay for tourists in Broadstairs, and one of the most popular beaches in Thanet. Broadstairs was once Thanet’s crown jewel, a thriving mix of students, tourists and locals. Unfortunately, the local “youff” population have done their best to tarnish the town’s reputation, their behaviour and violence leading to the cancellation of the weekly summer fireworks. It was very sad to read newspaper articles about large groups of teenagers drinking all day on this particular beach, leaving upturned broken bottles buried in the sand and vandalising the beach huts. Still, it remains a pretty bay, framed by the pier/jetty.

2. St. Mildred’s Bay in Westgate-on-Sea is another lovely beach, which has a lot of potential to become a popular day trip location if the council had the money to renovate the tattered lavatorial facilities and ‘horse shoe’ beach huts. The putting green to the east of the bay used to be the site of the old Royal Navy air station; there is little, if any, evidence of the base ever existing, save for a regularly vandalised plaque commemorating the men who served there. This photograph shows the main row of new beach huts and the modern day flats overlooking the bay.

3. The bathing pool at Minnis Bay, Birchington. Minnis is a very popular resort for day trippers and locals, being one of the largest beaches in Thanet. You can see the beginnings of the large row of beach huts to the top right of the photograph.

4. Shades of ’28 Days Later’ with this chalked-on message on the corner of Minnis Bay…

5. The new Thanet Array wind farm sits in a perfect position for ruining sunset photographs. Nature vs. Technology in one shot.

6. Seagull’s eye view.

7. Dover during the Bleriot celebrations, July 2009. Note the lack of period atmosphere and Edwardian village…

8. Pebbles on St. Mildred’s Bay.

9. Dover harbour, January 2010.

10. The following photographs were taken at Capel-le-Ferne during the Great Ash Cloud Disaster of 2010. I’ve never seen such an immaculate sky – quite fantastic. Here, we look west towards Folkestone.

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On Weald of Kent,
I watched once more,
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes,
Yet all around the sky was clear
And none were near.

Borne on the wind a whisper came,
Though men grow old,
They stay the same,
And then I knew, unseen to eye,
The ageless few were sweeping by.

– Lord Balfour.

Thanks for looking.