Day 6/10 Part 2: Visit to Eastchurch and Leysdown with Jo Eden

We start off at the church and speculate from the outside which of the windows is the one dedicated to Charles Rolls from aviator (and Rolls Royce) fame. We meet people who recognise us from Big Fish's Sea Shanty walk in Queenborough last weekend. They tell us they've just cleared the graveyard of overgrowing plants and have found a wooden grave marker. They're going to find out the name of the person who's laid there and get it carved back in. 

Across the road is the memorial to the aviators. It's a total beast. It reminds me of Soviet war memorials in east Berlin. There's a hunky Ancient Greek looking god on the top, a globe at one end and a globe-like aviator at the other. Me and Jo really like that the craftspeople, whilst not indidivually honoured like the rich aviators are at least mentioned. Jo says that there's a real respect on the island for craftspeople, started from the admiration for the skills of the dockworkers. 

We go to see Shurland Hall, the gatehouse of a Tudor mansion Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn probably came and stayed in. Jo tells me about a Zoom she went to last week where she learnt about how royalty would tour around grand houses and the owners would have to put on feasts and festivities and to make sure their houses looked grand enough they'd go round “borrowing” tapestries from anyone in the vicinity. The house was done up by the Shoreditch Trust and then got sold to a wine merchant who has inconsiderately put up a massive gate and let the trees grow to shroud his fancy home. Jo and I consider ways to get in before walking up the lane instead where we can at least get a view of the Tudor chimneys.

We go back to Jo's car via a listed cottage that shows the Kentish clapboard style and a park where we meet the lady from the churchyard again and look out over the fields where Jo and a friend did some sketching. Jo gives me a lift to her house and as we get out of the car I'm hit by the most amazing view of THE SEA! It's right there. I meet her lovely dogs (and her fella!) and have a cup of tea before getting a tour of the artwork on her walls (a mixture of artworks by her, her husband and her friends). We finish off in her studio, which is a real pleasure to behold. Jo's experimenting with some oil paints as well as working on a project with other musicians to write, arrange, record and perform a song for a local care home resident to tell the story of her life as a dancer and dance teacher. On the walls are posters advertising performances that Jo's taken part in and she shows me the music for a performance she'll be part of in Gravesham at LV21 on 7th August. On the window are lots of interesting sculptures that Jo's made including this brilliant one called Swampies – the derisive name for those on the island which some people hate and some people reclaim, hence for me the webbed feet sticking proudly from the boots. 

We go to Leysdown for a fish supper. This is where the holiday makers come to stay in chalets and static caravans. There's a pub, some restuarants, shops and amusement arcades. I applaud the holiday makers who are making the most of their holiday in the unseasonably cold weather. We get sucked into one of the amusement arcades and I have a go on a couple of the machines. We really like it in here. It's bright and joyful. People are having a good time. Kids are running round, hyped up. As we walk deeper in the natural light starts to disappear and I'm aware the patterned carpet and flashing lights are playing havoc with my depth perception. We come across a kiosk with a sign reading Prizes and Redemption, with a person inside behind perspex. It's presumably where you redeem your tokens. Jo loves this idea of finding redemption in a place like this. I totally agree.

We get fish and chips and sit on a bench memorialising those who died in the first world war. We eat them in the cold wind and not quite rain.