Kent

Picture taken just before lunch today from the old lighthouse.

Boy was it windy!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness_nuclear_power_stations

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness_Lighthouse

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16139774

Plans to build a solar farm the size of 86 football fields in Kent have been rejected as "insane".

Developers of the installation on "high-grade" farmland near Sittingbourne were told by a councillor the panels should instead be placed on roofs and car parks.

Supporters pointed out the site - sitting either side of Vigo Lane and Wrens Road near Borden - would have provided clean energy for 11,500 homes.

Developers Industria Solar said they were "disappointed" by the decision, but would review their application and consider "further steps".

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Building the sprawling solar farm near the boundary of the Kent Downs National Landscape was criticised by Green Party councillor Terry Thompson, who pointed out it took up Grade 1 farmland.

As a farmer, he said it was "insane" to build on such fertile land, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“It isn’t an industrial landscape, it’s the garden of England.”

“We really seriously need to think about security of food production," he added.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14880829

For the team behind the Wilder Blean bison release at Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust it seems like only yesterday when, in front of the world’s media, the founding herd members made their first tentative steps into the woodland. It was a historic day, not just in conservation but in climate, as the UK experienced temperatures past 40 degrees for the first time since records began – a stark reminder of the challenges faced by climate change.

In the two years that followed the release of three original herd members, they increased in number to six, with a surprise calf, a bull arriving from Germany and a not-so-unexpected birth of a male calf in the winter. The woodland now has a New Forest feel to it, with free-roaming Exmoor ponies, longhorn cattle, and Iron-Age pigs, all bringing their unique browsing behaviours to the reserve, shaping the landscape naturally, boosting biodiversity, and helping to build climate resilience.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14688506

Archaeologists are finding out more about prehistoric life in Kent from 5,000 years ago at one of the country’s largest ancient burial grounds.

Experts say the multi-year dig at Stringmans Farm on the Lees Court Estate, near Faversham, has uncovered artefacts dating back to the Neolithic or Bronze Age period.

The community excavation project led by a team from the Kent Archaeological Society unearthed a selection of items including flint chippings (leftovers from making stone tools), fragments of rare, decorated pottery created 3,000 years before the Romans came to Kent, and evidence of human prehistoric cremations.

A free family fun day will be held in Cliffsend to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of Viking ship Hugin in Thanet.

On July 28, 1949, the replica longship, now sited at Cliffsend, was met by a large crowd at Viking Bay (formerly called Main Bay), Broadstairs.

It had sailed from Denmark to Thanet to celebrate the 1500th anniversary of the invasion of Britain, the landing of Hengist and Horsa and the betrothal of Hengist’s daughter, Rowena, to King Vortigen of Kent.

The boat was built in Denmark to a design used by the Vikings between the 5th and 8th centuries. It was then sailed by 53 Danes to Broadstairs. It was presented to the people of Thanet by the King of Denmark, its costs having been paid by The Daily Mail, and was placed in its current location at Cliffsend.

In 2005 the ship underwent major repairs coordinated by marine restoration specialist Fred Walker and funded by Thanet District Council, assisted by EU funding.

Hugin’s arrival was presented in a newsreel short entitled “Kent Welcomes Viking Invaders”, which British Pathé has uploaded to YouTube.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/13268442

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16448379

The Bat Beast of Kent, sometimes referred to as the ‘Saltwood Mystery’, is often considered to be an extraterrestrial sighting. Let’s begin with the story as it is roughly retold today.

November 16th, 1963, Four teenagers were making their way home from a party through Sandling Lane. Something unusual in the sky caught their attention: a golden oval shaped orb, seemingly a few metres in diameter. The object was intensely bright, they began to run from it, and it followed them, before returning back to its original position, it then slowly descended behind some trees. Curious about what it might have been, the boys headed to where they thought the object had ‘Landed’, but all was now dark. Soon they heard some rustling and felt a change in the air to cold and ‘charged like static electricity’, they looked towards the sound to see a hairy figure, around 5 feet tall, headless, with bat-like wings and webbed feet shambling out of the trees.

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It seems reasonable to think that there was no evidence of a deliberate hoax, there is some corroboration from the pub landlord that the original group were indeed spooked by the encounter, and there is a fair amount of consistency between the reports from the three boys. While additional sightings of the figure can be questioned as influenced by previous reports or even fabricated, there do appear to be some kind of unusual lights appearing with some frequency in the area, which may have various explanations, although none confirmed.

The idyllic and peaceful landscapes of Dungeness, the UK’s only desert, should be all you need for an otherworldly getaway right without going abroad.

Based in Kent, Dungeness is described by reviewers on Tripadvisor as a ‘history-filled natural paradise’ with sandy terrains stretching 16km long.

With views like that, it should come as no surprise that the place was identified by Jeep as one of the best ‘off the beaten track’ places to visit this Easter.

From seals, to Arctic terns, to porpoises, Dungeness is full of lively wildlife and unexpected treasures to discover.