This is fascinating, thank you. The aerial photo shows how brutal that area is, amazingly dangerous.

And the boatmen salvaging wreck material? Clearly not just a S E Kent impulse..!

So if you would be kind enough to follow our podcast along, you'll hear tales of hovercraft pilots who flew across there, archaeological discoveries, daring rescues, violent storms, and how to change (a MASSIVE) lightbulb.

Wherever you get yours, here's what to look for:

#deal #kent #history

And that's why we made this podcast. To raise their profile and to hear the voices of those who live by, work with, and rescue people from, the Sands.

Because we want to put a permanent stop to the ecological destruction of such an important area:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

#deal #kent

A few years ago a local company put in an application to dredge the Sands for building aggregates. The Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust was set up to stop this as the Sands are a resting place for so many souls, not to mention a wildlife refuge for seals. There's also important archaeology there too

They saved lives in storms but would also plunder the wrecks when the seas had settled. This was an activity called 'huvelling' - maybe a ship loses an anchor the Downs, you can buy a replacement from a Boatman. After you've gone, he'll be out there finding it ready to sell to the next bloke

Over hundreds of years ships have anchored in The Downs as a resting area and the Deal Boatmen have rowed out to meet them - to bring them ashore, sell supplies, or even be a lifeboat before the RNLI was a thing.

The Deal Boatmen had a fearsome reputation as being hard as nails (ships' nails obv)

But it's thanks to the Sands that Deal as a town exists at all. Deal is a port without a harbour - the Sands offer a natural anchorage which shelters ships from storms and high winds. This are is called The Downs and I've highlighted it here in blue:

This makes them a monstrously dangerous hazard to shipping. Unless you really know your navigation skills it's best to steer clear - at low tide they rise out of the sea but at high tide they are there ready to catch the unwary.

How many ships have been wrecked there over the years?

A few:

Look at the geography of the coast and you can imagine, the currents that swirl around the Channel as the tide rises and falls deposit a huge amount of material in that kind of bay area between Deal and Ramsgate. A feature of the Sands is they can't really be mapped as they move from day to day.

1. A single unopened 2 litre bottle of full fat coke buried in someone's potato plot.

Your guess is as good as mine.

#coke #buried #potatoes #delicious #growyourown

(don't break them, they stink, the foxes never remember where they are buried)

3. Board games bits. I have found Connect 4 tokens, Monopoly houses, top trumps and playing cards

2. Bones from the disturbed graces of beloved pets. We try not to think about this one too hard

#bones #gardens #kent

As a professional gardener and outdoors person I rely on this app more than you can appreciate, I think. The realtime radar allows the planning of my day down to the half-hour, very useful for data where there's multiple jobs in different locations.

Thank you, and keep up the good work.

I have been dying to find time to visit the museum for ages, so thanks for this :-)

Yes but what about the sandwich