A History Lesson

I went for a much needed walk today. I was snappy and fractious and needed to get out.

But first I drove. I drove out of town and turned into Tide Mills, a place I haven't been for years, despite being right on my doorstep.

There's a reason Tide Mills gets forgotten about - there's nothing much there. I remember going blackberry-picking there once or twice as a child, and even then I got a sense of it being an out-of-the-way place, recalling the past and stubbornly refusing the present.

Now it's right in the middle of a developing nature trail and exercise walk initative, so the car park was fairly busy, but it hasn't lost it's charm.

I walked along the white concrete path, which is bordered by overgrown brambles and broken fences on either side. Almost immediately I came to the railway - a place that provoked fear in me as a child. There's no proper crossing - only a kissing gate either side and a warning sign which warns you it is actually a functioning railway line and there does indeed exist the possibility of being mown down by a passing train.



Once over the line you continue the walk past ruins - remains of flint walls stand on either side, and the more you look, the more you realise foundations and evidence of former buildings are all around, beneath the thriving thorns and wildflowers.

Tide Mills, once the ghostly place where we picked blackberries with our grandparents, has been taken under the collective wing of a group of volunteers and there are now information posts at various points along the pathway, informing the casual walker of the history of the now deserted and crumbling site.

I was amazed to learn that Tide Mills used to house not only a working mill, but also a small village, with cottages for the workers. It was sold in 1901 (if memory serves me correctly - and it may well not) but the buildings were all finally destroyed by the armed forces during the war, to prevent the Germans being able to use the buildings as shelter.

There was also a hospital to house disabled children after operations - the sea air was thought to help them recover.

the foundations of the hospital

Places like Tide Mills fascinate me, because they've been left and so the echoes of their history linger. And yet - it isn't a eeiree place, but more a welcoming one, a place for reminicising and reflection. Just what I needed today.