March 29, 2006. Charles Dickens, writing in 1860 from his home at Gad’s Hill in Kent, 12 miles (21 km) south-west of Westcliff, gives a description of Cooling Churchyard and Marshes situated half way between them on a winter’s day (Great Expectation p.2):

“The dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and the low leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea.”

On can see Cooling Church from Westcliff in Southend-on-Sea, both on a nice sunny day and on that kind of windy day in which the rain showers look like black holes in the universe heading over to Kent. It is only the poor inhabitants of Kent who cannot bask in the sun on their Thames Estuary and look north. But the wind is more usually coming from Coolings in the southwest. It is not actually warm when full of rain but does at least clear away to show either the church or a romantic illusion of open sea or infinite mud flats hidden in sea fog. Today the wind is blowing from a clearly seen Cooling Church. The tide is predicted to be among the highest in the year and with little or no rain or fog about. It is a good time to repeat the walk of March 14. Just don’t go in the coldest sea-water around the U.K.