ST. MARY-IN-THE-MARSH

 This tiny village lies in the heart of Romney Marsh, to the north of St. Mary's Bay. 

                                       

The Golden Jubilee commemoration stone, just by the entrance to the church. At this point, three lanes leading into the village form a natural village centre, flanked by the church and the pub opposite

The Star Inn still sports its beautiful old Whitbread inn sign. Sadly most of these have now gone, whether it is because the pub has closed, or has been renamed and 'modernised'. at one time, you could collect little thin metal plates with all the old Whitbread inn signs on them, and I had quite a few when I was young.

The clock on the tower was erected in memoriam of those who died during WWI . There is a brass plaque to that effect in the church. However, due to the current pandemic, the church was only open today for private prayer, and I didn't want to impinge on anyone's privacy, so the church remained off limits to me

The grave marker of Edith Nebit, author of  'The Railway Children'. She didn't want a fancy funeral or a headstone, so her husband, Thomas Terry Tucker,  carved out this simple wooden marker. There is a memorial plaque to her inside the church

John Sullivan, Master of the Merchant Navy fuel tanker S.S. Empire Gawain. Although he died in 1947, the fact that his grave bears a Commonwealth War Grave headstone would indicate that he died of illness or injury caused during wartime. The Empire Gawain was sold to Esso after the war, and renamed Esso Dakotah. It was finally scrapped in the 60s

You may think having an old Shepherd's hut in the churchyard a little strange. However, the village stands in the heart of the sheep country of Romney Marsh. The hut took me back to my childhood, as my father was a shepherd, or 'looker' as they are known on the Marsh, not far from here, and I slept in his hut on more than one occasion, on a pile of straw and sacks in the corner