Pigeon Dock

I walked through the marabella tree tunnel to Pigeon Dock today for the first time since I was a child.

My father and my mother's brothers used to swim here as children. My mother never learnt to swim. Even though this creek is not far from the family home I only remember going there to swim once. My father swam in his pants. My parents were always busy working on the nursery and we never had holidays or days out.

My pic shows the jetty where the Thames barges used to moor in my grandmother's time and up until the 1950s. Horse manure was brought from London and loaded onto trucks on rails which were drawn by horses from here to The Homestead where Thomas Smith used it for his French style of gardening and vegetable production.

Osea Island, where Amy Winehouse went for rehab, can be seen on the skyline.