Queenborough Rules!

After another very cold run with my brother he had to rather forcefully persuade me, I'm always a bit reluctant to try somewhere new at first, to make for Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey. Thankfully it was gloriously sunny with blue skies and that did give me added impetus to change my mind and I'm so glad that I did. What a revelation it turned out to be!
We have visited Sheerness and Minster-On-Sea which are only a couple of miles away but never Queenborough itself. The town sits near the Thames Estuary at its western entrance to the Swale where it meets the River Medway. It has quite the history too - growing from a small Saxon settlement to a wealthy borough with a royal castle during the reign of Edward III in the 14th Century to establishing itself as a port, being invaded by the Dutch (for a few days) in 1687, retaining much of its Victorian industrial heritage, hosting over 100 minesweepers during Word War II and even had the pirate radio ship Radio Caroline mooring just offshore in the 1960's.
When we arrived we headed straight towards the estuary and walked along the sea wall straight into the wind. It was mind numbingly cold but the views across the Swale towards the Isle of Grain power station (with what looks like its three chimneys which are in fact natural gas turbines that have replaced its much taller coal fire and oil burning predecessors) in the distance were spectacular and this is where I captured my main shot. I'd seen this blue bench right next to the sea wall with a bunch of fading red roses tied to it and just loved the juxtaposition between it and the smoke emerging from the turbines in the background.
My first extra is one of a series of delightful little painted plaques lining a part of the sea wall that we spotted as we headed back towards the town itself with the piercing wind now thankfully at our backs and the sun in our faces.
We then strolled down to the shoreline itself just as we entered the town to see the Welcome to Queenborough mural you can see in my second extra with my shadow taking the shot and my brother in the background contemplating his next photo opportunity.
Once we had left the shoreline we ambled past what appeared to be the old Customs House and down a side street on to the High Street with its imposing Holy Trinity medieval church and 18th Century Guildhall before finding another side street to the town's creek where a small fleet of fishing boats are moored and which you can see in my third extra.
By then of course it was time for a pint and we settled on frequenting The Old House at Home right on the shoreline with views out across the water. We were greeted warmly by the landlord and served two pints of Stella for the princely sum of £8.80 - I can't remember that last time I've been able to get two pints for under a tenner!
A couple of friendly locals at the bar said it was always bone chillingly cold at this time of year when a north east wind was blowing and they were also having a laugh at three health and safety guys in high vis jackets inspecting two nearby lampposts in various states of disrepair as it appeared to to take one of them to actually manhandle the metalwork, one to supervise and the other to write things down on a clipboard. The coup de grace as far as our fellow patrons were concerned was when one of the men threw the keys of their van to the other and they dropped them!
Before we left we took one last walk along the waterfront in the sparkling light and then headed home. As far as we are concerned Queenborough rules!