A lifetime of Islands: Island 54

Monday 21 March 2011

Island 54 - Sheppey, Kent

Sheppey has been inhabited for at least 6,000 years. It was later occupied by the Romans and settled by the Saxons. In 675 AD a nunnery was founded at Minster by Queen Seaxburga. In the 8^th century it was attacked by Vikings. The highest point on the island is south east of Minster and is 76 metres above sea level.

Sheppey is located at a strategically important location. Edward III built a castle at Queenborough in the 1360s and a town and harbour grew up around it. There is a museum in the Guildhall in Queenborough, which tells the story of the town.

In 1665 Sheerness was chosen as a site for a new royal dockyard. In 1667 before it was completed it was attacked by the Dutch Navy, who occupied the town and destroyed 15 Royal Navy ships in the Medway. The dockyard closed in 1962. Sheerness is a major freight port. From 1971 until 2012 it also had a steelworks.

There is a Heritage Centre in Sheerness, which is the largest town on the island. Sheerness also has a large reconstructed smock mill. The original mill was completed in 1816 but demolished except for the brick base in 1924. The mill was rebuilt minus its sails as flats in 2007 but was badly damaged by fire in 2008 and then had to be rebuilt again.

There were originally 3 ferries to the island from mainland Kent – the King’s Ferry near Iwade, one at Elmley and one from Oare on the mainland to the Isle of Harty in the south east corner of the island. The Isle of Harty passenger ferry ran until 1946. There is still an isolated pub called the Ferry Inn there.

A railway and road bridge was built across the Swale, which separates Sheppey from mainland Kent, in 1860 and the railway terminated at Sheerness. This was replaced in 1906 with a rolling lift bridge. This was, in turn replaced in 1960 by the current Kingsferry Bridge. A second bridge, the imaginatively titled Sheppey Crossing, opened in 2006.

Kingsferry Bridge and Sheppey Crossing

In 1909 an airfield was built initially at Muswell Manor and then at Eastchurch. This was the UK’s first airfield. Seaplanes were built there. In 1911 it became the first military flying school in the UK. During the First World War the Eastchurch Aerodrome was used by the newly formed Royal Naval Air Service. The Aerodrome closed in 1950 and a prison was built on the site. There are now 3 prisons there: Elmley, Swaleside and Standford Hill. There is a memorial opposite All Saints Church in Eastchurch to commemorate the village’s part in British aviation history.

Aviation Memorial, Eastchurch

All Saints Church, Eastchurch

Metal plane sculpture at Eastchurch

In 1901 a light railway was opened from Queenborough to Leysdown-on-Sea via Minster and Eastchurch in a failed attempt to develop Leysdown as a resort. The railway closed in 1950. There are lots of caravan parks and amusement arcades at Leysdown.

Elmley Marshes are a privately owned and run National Nature Reserve for wading birds, ducks and geese, including avocets, teal, redshanks and wigeon. In 1688 King James II was captured in the Elmley Marshes by local fishermen while trying to flee to France.

I spent a few hours on the island in 2002. We went there mainly because we wanted to see what Southend-on-Sea and Shoeburyness looked like from the other side of the Thames Estuary! I went back for a second visit on Christmas Eve 2011 and spent 4 hours exploring Sheppey and its neighbouring islands of Elmley and Harty.

Sheppey was home to malarial mosquitoes until comparatively recently. There were epidemics in Queenborough and on the neighbouring Isle of Grain in 1917 and 1918 and at least 330 people were infected. In 1952 the last death in England from locally acquired malaria was on Sheppey.

The ship the SS Richard Montgomery ran aground on a sandbank and sank off Sheerness in 1944 with an enormous quantity of explosives in her holds. The ship is still there and much of her deadly cargo is still on board.

Blue Town, Sheerness

Blue Town was so named because dockyard construction workers in the 17th century were allowed to use blue grey naval paint to paint their houses. The name is now applied to the north-west area of Sheerness by the docks.

Whelans is the largest concrete garden ornament manufacturer in the UK. It was founded in 1974 and is located in Blue Town, Sheerness.