DYMCHURCH

If you take the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway out of Dungeness, you pass through several small seaside settlements – Lydd-On-Sea, Greatstone-On-Sea, Littlestone-On-Sea, St Mary’s Bay – before reaching Dymchurch. Dymchurch can be found hiding behind a large, possibly Roman, embankment called Dymchurch Wall, which is just as well because the village itself is over 2 metres below high-tide level. There are Martello towers here, one of which has a display about the defences against Napoleon.

Dymchurch featured in a series of novels by Russell Thorndike based around a character called Dr Syn, a local vicar leading a double life, his alter ego being “The Scarecrow”, leader of a smuggling gang called “The Marsh Men”. The Ship Inn was Thorndike’s local, and it offers Dr Syn memorabilia and merchandise. Every other year, on August Bank Holiday weekend, the character is remembered in a weekend of festivities titled the “Day of Syn”. The rest of the summer is given over to traditional holiday activities such as amusements, a ghost train and donkey rides on the beach.

Live streaming webcam view of the beach.

Map of the area.

Martello Tower number 23, Dymchurch - geograph.org.uk - 1326484. Photo by Oast House Archive, via Wikimedia Commons.