Jenny Brown's Point

This was taken at Jenny Brown's Point, near Silverdale on the edge of Morecambe Bay. I've tried to get a slightly different angle on this view than the usual tourist guide photos which show the whole of the isolated chimney on the edge of the beach. At the Point there is an isolated cottage, where an old lady called Jenny Brown is said to have lived in the 18th century. This is the place that I have always had a hankering to live, isolated but near to civilisation, on the edge of the bay, dynamic, constantly changing and one of the best places for watching coastal and sea-going birds in the area. With current predictions for climate change, I'm less keen now.

The chimney is supposed to be the remains of a copper smelting operation from the late 18th century. Copper was mined locally from seams in the limestone. The Point at the time was navigable for boats coming up the Kent Channel in Morecambe Bay, and there are the remains of jetties and bridges over the channels (as seen in the background, there is a fallen down bridge over Quicksand pool). The migration of the Kent channel westwards into the Bay left the Point inaccessible to boat traffic in the early 20th century, and that's how it remains today.

For those curious to see the whole chimney, I've posted a picture here.

The photos were taken shortly after dawn after the sun had made a fleeting appearance from under the blanket of stratocumulus cloud that covered us all day - in total contrast to the last three days of brilliant blue cloudless skies. The tide was low, but there were good numbers of birds feeding along the creeks, including 5 little egrets.

The rest of the day was spent on the works in the garden. I've posted a picture of Simon filling Tommy the Tipper with soil to go in the new beds that we have been making, view here. Simon is in his element operating heavy machinery, and this was a rare chance to fill the Tipper himself. We then had five hours of grunting, cussing, and sweating while we tried and finally succeeded in excavating the stump of a Leyland cypress in the back garden. Hard work but satisfying.