Month: August 2024

Prospect Cottage and Dungeness

It was a wet, extremely windy day when we decided to drive to find Prospect Cottage. Prospect Cottage is a turn of the century fisherman’s hut which sits on the shingle at Dungeness. It is easy to find on the road to the lighthouses and power station with its black walls and yellow paintwork. Getting out of the car however was a battle against the strong wind and it took two of us to open the drivers door. The bad weather did however mean we were the only visitors looking around the cottage.

Derek Jarman moved to Prospect Cottage in 1986. The cottage soon became a source of inspiration to all who visited and a creative hub where his artistic practices and collaborators came together. Prospect Cottage was, and continues to be, a place that inspires artists, and creative minds of all varieties. By booking one of the limited places you can step-inside the cottage and soak up the atmosphere of this unique building. 

Who was Derek Jarman? Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist. He was born in 1942 and died at 52 of an AIDS related illness. He made feature films, short films and music videos. He is credited in 55 films, including “Jubilee”, “Caravaggio”, and “Blue”.. To be honest I had not heard of him until I heard of his home Prospect Cottage near the power station at Dungeness.

We were unable to look inside on the day we visited but as there was no-one around we looked through the windows. It was however the garden that I was most interested in. Those who have visited Dungeness will be familiar with the very un-English prospect of encountering private gardens without fences. Regulations in the protected nature reserve mean that fences are mostly forbidden, so property boundaries remain blurred. The weather conditions meant we were the only people about and once we were able to stand against the wind we could enjoy the area. It was April and so no poppies or roses.

When Derek first moved to the cottage and started gardening he had hoped to surround himself with roses but most of the ones he planted could not cope with the exposed salty conditions. He turned instead to native plants – sea kale, wild peas, viper’s bugloss, teasels and sea holly. He used items he found on the beach and his neighbours were a little concerned that something occult was afoot. “People thought I was building a garden for magical purposes,” Jarman said at the time, “a white witch out to get the nuclear power station.” Driftwood totems now rise above shaggy tufts of sea kale, strings of pebbles dangle from rusting iron posts, and metal balls of fishing floats emerge from clumps of gorse.

Dungeness is home to the world’s smallest passenger railway as well as the largest shingle beach in Europe, and it’s a haven for wildlife and over 600 species of plants a third of all the plants found in the UK. Dungeness is host to many insect species. It is one of the best places in Britain to find insects such as moths, bees, beetles, and spiders. 

Trees are Amazing

Trees are amazing, we need them in so many ways. In Japan people are encouraged to spend time de-stressing amongst trees. Japanese doctors promote forest bathing as a relaxing break from hectic urban life. If you’ve been in a forest, listened to the birds and watched the sunshine filtering through the leaves, you’ve already participated in one of the best things you can do for your physical and mental well-being.

Trees help us breathe, they take in CO2 and give out the oxygen we need to live. They keep us cool by absorbing water and releasing it as water vapour and give us shade and shelter. It’s estimated that trees can reduce the temperature in a city by up to 7°C. They also improve air quality and remove pollutants that could otherwise contribute to health problems. I remember seeing a TV programme about a city school that planted trees around its boundaries, air quality improved, the temperature cooled, noise reduced and most importantly children’s health improved. It’s thought the UK’s ancient woodlands absorb 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

At St Peter’s Church in Belper we are lucky to have 96 trees, at times when branches and leaves have to be cleared it may not always feel like this. Trees are homes to organisms which range from bacteria to fungi, lichens, free algae, mosses, vascular plants, invertebrate animals, birds and mammals. They are also fun, in the National Trust’s list of 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4 the first is, ‘Get to know a tree.’ When I was younger I loved climbing trees and I had a favourite tree in all the woods local to where I lived.

Scientist now believe trees communicate with each other by a common mycorrhizal network. This is an underground network found in forests and other plant communities, created by the hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi joining with plant roots. Harvard University has done some experiments which confirm that trees are indeed communicating and sharing nutrients through their roots, forming a complex system sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web.” 

My favourite tree is the English Oak. Oak trees provide a rich habitat and support more life forms than any other native trees.” A single oak tree hosts 532 species of caterpillars. A single oak tree also shelters 147 species of birds, 120 species of mammals, and 60 species of reptiles and amphibians. Dead trees and logs also provide shelter and habitats for fungi, wood-boring insects, woodlice, beetle grubs, wood wasps, spiders, frogs, toads, hedgehogs and birds. A simple pile of logs can very quickly become a flourishing wildlife community, including, ants, beetles, snails and squirrels. Its is possible to provide a small log pile in the smallest garden and a delight to watch birds such as the wren looking for food in this habitat.

I have noticed King Alfred’s Cake fungi on the trunk of the odd shaped tree on the south side of St Peter’s church Belper. The fungus gets its name from the traditional tale of King Alfred who lived in the 9th century when parts of Britain had been over run by Vikings. The story says that the king was taking refuge from the Vikings in a peasant’s home in 878 AD. He forgot to watch some cakes baking on the hearth and was scolded by the women when they burnt. Looking at the fruiting bodies, it’s not a stretch to see their resemblance to burnt buns. This species is also known as a tinder bracket. It has been used for thousands of years as portable fire lighting material. Once a spark is created by hitting flints together or creating friction between pieces of wood this fungi can easily catch fire. It is said to have been used to carry fire from place to place as it burns very slowly. It may look as though it has gone out but once blown on, flames appear. It is also known as ‘carbon balls’ or ‘coal fungus’.