Newsletter

Canterbury’s popular image is of medieval spires, Gothic tracery, and cobbled streets lined with overhanging jetties. Yet if you turn off the main shopping street down a narrow lane alongside the Adobe Hotel, you are quickly into a former industrial complex with several stories of brick, warehouses and factories. Today, it is a silent world. There are no longer roaring flames or the clanging of metal as the coke furnaces have long gone; as have the Founders, Braziers, Tin-men, and Engineers who worked in Stour Street and Jewry Lane.

2024 has been a very active year for Whitstable Maritime, not just regarding restoration of the Gamecock, but also the continued popularity of the 5km Coastal Trail and the growing partnership with the Marine Conservation Society and Kent Wildlife Trust. Such partnerships are critical as this enables the Charity to drive towards our objectives.

On Sunday mornings I am in the habit of walking along the seafront to purchase one of the national papers. I may meet a runner or dog walker but otherwise it is a silent world unless an Oyster Company tractor is struggling through the mud on the sea-bed.

I hope this site reflects our continued focus on ‘celebrating our coastal connections’, a strap-line that was coined when the Charity was formed.