Contributions of the group Strictly ~ Land/Sea/Sky

wbb[25] - incoming breaking waves {44 of 52}

nobody@ipernity.com (StoneRoad2013) — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 19:07:50 +0000

StoneRoad2013 has posted:

rather frothy at the moment !

wbb[25] - incoming breaking waves {8 of 52}

nobody@ipernity.com (StoneRoad2013) — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 19:09:04 +0000

StoneRoad2013 has posted:

Some of the waves are breaking quite a way out.

Contraflow

nobody@ipernity.com (Amelia) — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 19:56:47 +0000

Amelia has posted:

We are away from the computer on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Enjoy HFF, SC and HBM.

gbw - Bamburgh

nobody@ipernity.com (StoneRoad2013) — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 21:12:31 +0000

StoneRoad2013 has posted:

Bamburgh Castle has a wondeful setting. No wonder the Crewe Trustees established a lookout post there to watch for vessels in distress around the Farne Islands.

rsf[24] - Roker Pier at dusk

nobody@ipernity.com (StoneRoad2013) — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 22:43:36 +0000

StoneRoad2013 has posted:

Lighthouse on Roker Pier, taken just about sunset.
.
Completed in 1903, built in alternating layers of red & white Aberdeen granite, to a design by Henry Hay Wake. Still operating.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roker#Roker_Pier_Lighthouse

Bournemouth Beach and The Portal

nobody@ipernity.com (Old Sea Dog) — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 18:35:08 +0000

Old Sea Dog has posted:

Bournemouth, Dorset

Bournemouth Beach

nobody@ipernity.com (Old Sea Dog) — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 14:13:27 +0000

Old Sea Dog has posted:

Bournemouth, Dorset

Boscombe Pier

nobody@ipernity.com (Old Sea Dog) — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 17:15:10 +0000

Old Sea Dog has posted:

Boscombe, Dorset

Boscombe Beach

nobody@ipernity.com (Old Sea Dog) — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 17:15:34 +0000

Old Sea Dog has posted:

Boscombe, Dorset

Richborough Power Station

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 15:16:32 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

Richborough power station was a power station close to the mouth of the River Stour near Sandwich, on the east coast of Kent. It operated from 1962 to 1996; the towers were demolished in 2012. It was built on land within the Port of Richborough but being on the northern edge its site lies mostly within the neighbouring parish of Minster, Kent.
The Central Electricity Generating Board started construction of the power station in 1958, with Unit 1 coming online in December 1963, and Unit 2 following in August 1963. It opened as a 342MW coal-fired station, using coal from Kent and other coalfields. It was converted to burn oil in summer 1971 and further converted in 1989 to burn a proprietary oil and water emulsion called Orimulsion, imported from Venezuela through Port Richborough.
The site was also chosen as the site for an experimental 1MW wind turbine, which was at that time the largest ever installed in the UK, with permission given in 1987, and the turbine becoming live in 1989.
After growing concerns over the environmental effects of the Orimulsion fuel in the main power station, court action was taken in two separate actions, with both cases settled out of court. The 360MW station ceased generating in 1996. Following the plant closure, the majority of the equipment was removed during a strip out programme, which also saw the demolition of a number of the buildings, leaving only a few outbuildings, the office block and the landmark cooling towers and chimney standing.
In controlled blasts, the three 97m cooling towers and a single 127m chimney stack were demolished on 11 March 2012. Some locals had campaigned to keep the towers, saying they formed part of the historical landscape and were used as a navigation point by boats wanting to enter the mouth of the river Stour known to have a narrow channel of useful depth.

These pics were taken in the space of 1 minute and show the demolition process, the pics on the top are the first and last.

Made the collage and it removed exif info taken with Panasonic FZ45.

Don't get out so much now but doing archive digging! Best viewed Large

MY THANKS TO ALL WHO VISIT AND COMMENT IT IS APPRECIATED

Westcliff Ramsgate

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 16:28:16 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

The green in the foreground used to be an old pitch and putt course you can still see the bumps in the grass today. The tree is near the cliff edge and looks over Pegwell Bay (the tide is out), on the other side of the bay can be seen a small wind turbine (which I have never seen work) and was there when the cooling towers of Richborough power station were in operation, the site is still active as the power generated by the wind farms (behind my left shoulder) is carried by cable under the sea across the bay to a new facility and onwards by pylons to keep the lights on in Canterbury!

Better viewed large Please.

MY THANKS FOR ALL VISITS AND COMMENTS IT IS APPRECIATED

Westgate-on-Sea Kent

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:26:42 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town and Civil Parish on the north-east coast of Kent, England. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate Its two sandy beaches have remained a popular tourist attraction since the town's development in the 1860s from a small farming community. The town had a population of 6,996 at the 2011 Census.
The town is notable for once being the location of a Royal Naval Air Service seaplane base at St Mildred's Bay The bay next to this, which defended the Thames Estuary coastal towns during World War 1 The town is the subject of Sir John Betjeman's poem, "Westgate-on-Sea". Residents have included the 19th-century surgeon Sir Erasmus Wilson and former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple. The artist Sir William Quiller Orchardson painted several of his best-known pictures whilst living in Westgate-on-Sea. The British composer Arnold Cooke attended the town's Streete Preparatory School in the early 20th century,
My father-in-Law ran a nursery in Westgate and was well known for his tomatoes, It is now a block of flats.
The RNAS seaplane base was eventually moved to Manston which became a RAF Station closing in 2014.

HFF Everyone!!

MY THANKS TO ALL WHO VISIT AND COMMENT IT IS APPRECIATED

West Bay cafe, Westgate-on-Sea.

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 18:46:39 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

This is part of West Bay and the new café on the seafront.

A little about Westgate-on-Sea.

Westgate-on-Sea is located in northeast Kent, on the coast of the Thames Estuary. It is bordered by the town of Margate to the east and the village of Birchington-on-Sea to the west. The town is built beside the two sandy bays of St Mildred's Bay and West Bay, which both have a sea wall and groynes to prevent coastal flooding. Chalk cliffs are present in between the bays and either side of the bays. The whole of the northeast Kent coast has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The town lies on the Isle of Thanet, a separate island from mainland Kent until around two hundred years ago, when the channel in between silted up. The geology of Thanet consists mainly of chalk, deposited when the area was below the sea. The Isle of Thanet was formed when the English Channel was formed by the sea breaking through, an island of chalk being left on the east side of the county. It was separated from the rest of Kent by the Wantsum Channel.

MY THANKS FOR ALL VISITS AND COMMENTS IT IS APPRECIATED

The White Cliffs of Dover

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 18:59:56 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

The nearest this southerner gets to Rocks Andy! Dover from an aeroplane when I was younger!!

View from Dover Castle

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 18:39:36 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

The Church is St Mary-in-Castro (explanation below) and next to it is the Roman Lighthouse.

There are records of a church being built 'within the castle' (Latin 'in castra') by Eadbald of Kent in the 630s. However, it is unclear whether this means within the Saxon burgh (usually dated to later than 630) on the Eastern Heights, or within the ruins of old Roman fortifications in the valley. The large, late-Saxon cemetery around the present church does suggest the existence of a c.600 church, but not definitively. Whether or not it had a predecessor, the present Saxon church was built on the Eastern Heights around AD1000. It is immediately adjacent to the surviving eastern pharos, which was used as a source of spolia (spoil): Roman tiles can be still be seen in the church fabric, particularly in the window arches (usually of stone), and flint and tile from the pharos is used throughout the church's walls. The plinth that projects out from beneath the church and on which it stands, however, is of new stone. The church is cruciform with a central tower the same width as the nave but broader than the chancel and transepts. The nave has no aisles. The door arch is the earliest to survive in any standing church in England.

The building next to the Church is possibly the oldest building in England as it is a Roman lighthouse constructed in the 1st Century AD the top stage was reconstructed 1415-1437. Complete with Roman lightning conducter!!!!

The coast of France is some 20.7 miles from Dover or 33km. I managed to catch 2 ships sailing across the pond!

Taken from the top of the great tower Dover Castle.

My Thanks to all who visit and comment it is appreciated

North Foreland Lighthouse

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 14:24:17 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

A light was first exhibited at North Foreland in 1499, but the first real lighthouse was built by Sir John Meldrum in 1636, consisting of a two-storey octagonal tower made of timber, lath and plaster with an iron coal-burning grate on top; this tower was destroyed by fire in 1683.
A temporary measure of a single candle in a lantern hoisted on a pole proved—perhaps not surprisingly—ineffective and the present lighthouse was built in 1691; originally the tower was 12 metres tall, constructed of brick, stone and flint. In 1698 the lighthouse is recorded as using 100 tons of coal a year.
North Foreland Lighthouse came into the hands of the Trustees of Greenwich Hospital in 1719; surplus light dues went towards the upkeep of the hospital for the benefit of seamen. They enclosed the fire in a glazed lantern in 1719 but this was removed in 1730 after complaints from shipping. In 1793 a further two storeys were added to the tower and the coal fire was replaced by 18 oil lamps.
Trinity House purchased the lighthouse in 1832. In 1890 a separate room known as the lantern house, was built on to the top of the tower to accommodate the light. An improved light source was installed in 1894, a pair of eight-wick Trinity House-pattern burners for heavy mineral oil, replaced in 1904 by a triple mantle burner, and again replaced in 1923 with a ‘Hood’ 100mm petroleum vapour burner.
North Foreland was the last Trinity House lighthouse to be automated; the occasion was formally marked at a ceremony presided over by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in 1998 in his capacity at the time as Master of Trinity House.
The lighthouse is now monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.

My thanks to all who visit and comment it is appreciated

The Jetty & Viking Bay, Broadstairs

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 14:56:57 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

Broadstairs was originally known as Bradstowe which is of Anglo-Saxon origin and means "Broad Place". The name evolved into Broadstairs as a result of the broad "Chapel Stairs" which once led up from the beach to the cliff top.
Originally a small hamlet, the inhabitants made a living from fishing, shipbuilding and during periods of the 18th and 19th centuries ....... from smuggling!
There has been a pier or jetty here since 1490 the last one was destroyed by the great storm of 1897 and rebuilt in 1905.

Viking bay originally known as "The Main Sands", this name was later changed after the arrival, at this bay, of the "Hugin" on July 28th, 1949. The Hugin, a replica Viking Ship, was sailed from Denmark to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the landing by Hengist in 449 AD.
The Hugin is now on permanent display at Pegwell Bay, Ramsgate - the site of the original landing.

Also on the horizon can be seen the turbines of the Thanet Offshore wind farm

Best Viewed Large or Full Screen

MY THANKS TO ALL WHO VISIT AND COMMENT

Ramsgate’s Royal Harbour

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 15:04:18 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

Ramsgate began as a fishing and farming hamlet. Its earliest reference is in the Kent Hundred Rolls of 1274-5 as ‘Ramisgate’ or ‘Remmesgate’ from Anglo-Saxon”Hræfn’s geat”, or “raven’s cliff gap”, later to be rendered ‘Ramesgate’ from 1357. The legendary mercenaries Hengest and Horsa landed in the 5th century to herald the pagan Anglo-Saxon age in England. The Christian missionary St. Augustine landed in Ramsgate in 597 which re-established the link between England and the Christian church in Rome.
In 1820 King George IV set off from Ramsgate with the Royal Squadron en route to Hanover. He was so impressed by the hospitality he received at the Kent port that he decreed it be declared a ”Royal Harbour” – a status that’s unique in mainland Britain.
Ramsgate largely developed in the form we know today from 1749 onwards. It was intended as a Harbour of Refuge, following a violent storm in 1748. Later, during the Napoleonic wars, British troops were quartered at Ramsgate before embarking for the continent. Climb up Madeira Walk to Ramsgate’s East Cliff to see Wellington Crescent, a reminder of this period.
Ramsgate’s harbour is a defining characteristic of the town. Ramsgate was a member of the Confederation of Cinque Ports, under the ‘Limb’ of Sandwich, Kent. The construction of Ramsgate Harbour began in 1749 and was completed in about 1850. The Harbour has the unique distinction of being the only Royal Harbour in the United Kingdom. Because of its proximity to mainland Europe, Ramsgate was a chief embarkation point both during the Napoleonic Wars and for the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.
In this picture can be seen in the inner harbour there all kinds of pleasure boats and a few houseboats. the outer harbour is the working space there are various craft for the 3 windfarms (not visible in the haze) and they are Kent Flats, London Array and Thanet Offshore, there are also 2 of the 3 pilot boats which take the pilots to large ships in the Thames estuary and guide them through the English Channel plus various small fishing vessels that operate out of Ramsgate. The fishery protection boat arrived back in harbour 10 mins after I took this picture.

HFF Everyone! An apology I straightened the horizon then uploaded the wrong version and I can't replace it!

MY THANKS TO ALL WHO VISIT AND COMMENT IT IS APPRECIATED

Botany Bay, Broadstairs,Kent

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 19:50:19 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

I used spend the school summer holidays on this beach, as we lived up the road, there used to be an archway going across to the island but that has eroded now. Health & safety didn't exist either!!

It was a grey old day! when I took this

Botany Bay is linked with the history of smugglers. In 1769 smuggler Joss Snelling and his gang were caught with contraband on the beach by the Revenue Patrol, after a fierce fight Joss escaped. Joss survived to become an old man, who was introduced to Princess Victoria on a visit to the area. He died in Broadstairs in 1837. There is also Joss bay a litte further up I wonder who that is named after!

THANKS FOR ALL VISITS & FAVES IT IS APPRECIATED

Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm (sunrise or sunset?)

nobody@ipernity.com (John Lawrence) — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 20:32:43 +0000

John Lawrence has posted:

The Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm is a Wind Farm located off the coast of Kent, England on a large, flat and shallow plateau just outside the main Thames shipping lanes. The wind farm is operated by Vattenfall.
The distance from the nearest wind turbine to Whitstable is 6.2 miles (10.0 km).
Construction was completed in August 2005, with commissioning and testing of all turbines completed by September 2005. The wind farm consists of 30 Vestas V90 3MW wind turbines with a total nameplate capacity of 90 MW Turbines were installed by the Danish offshore wind farms services provider A2Sea, this picture was taken by my son when he worked there as a service engineer taken from halfway up a turbine. The turbines are turned off during servicing.

He has since been reported missing in Japan

UPDATE He has been found fit and well in Tokyo and will be returning to work in Japan soon.

Thanks for all visits comments etc it is appreciated