It’s good to talk . . .

It’s always nice when people get in touch to say hello and give feedback about what they like on this website.

I’m often contacted by people passing on information and news about local events and activities, with others sharing memories and photographs of the area. But it isn’t just local residents who get in touch.

It’s nice when people from around the world do so too - who perhaps lived on the Hoo Peninsula once themselves, or have relatives and ancestors who lived in the area. I’ve also been getting quite a few messages from people who are thinking of moving to the area.

Please do carry on getting in touch via the contact page, especially if you have old photos or postcards of places on the Hoo Peninsula.

I will feature some of those who have recently made contact, in the coming week, including two former residents of Hoo.
 

Hoo Peninsula Film Project

Over the past few years, I’ve been meeting lots of the peninsula’s longer-standing inhabitants, or ‘peninsula elders’ as I like to call them! And I’ve been recording on camera their stories and memories about living and working here.

Often more than just the typical - and edited - recollections you tend to read in history books, I’ve heard some fascinating tales, some of which have been truly shocking in their detail. Always unique and personal insights into everyday life in this often overlooked corner of Kent and Medway, it’s been a real joy and privilege to have listened to them.

I now have a growing selection of recordings, each of which is being very slowly and carefully edited. When finished I’m planning to donate them to historical archives and any interested local history groups for posterity and, hopefully, for watching by future generations of historians, and residents, seeking to expand their knowledge of local social history.

All those ‘elders’ I’ve had the pleasure to meet so far have been very generous in their willingness to be recorded on film. Not always an easy process, especially when an amateur like me is doing the filming!

I have a whole list of people on my list to get through in the coming months, but it’s always good to hear of anyone else with a few interesting stories to tell.

Just get in touch via the contact page.
 

Egypt Bay - feedback from Mervyn King

Following my recent posts asking if anyone knew how Egypt Bay came to get its name, I have received another interesting suggestion, this time from Mervyn King. 

Mervyn told me about a reference to Egypt Bay in a book called ‘The Thames’ by A. P. Herbert, which was published in 1966 by Weidenfield & Nicholson (pictured below).

A. P. Herbert (Sir Alan Patrick Herbert) says: ‘Egypt Bay, a strange sandy indent, so named, I suppose, because of the sand’.

I recently looked online for some old maps of the area, and there’s a really good website called Old Maps. A very useful commercial site that contains many old maps of the area, dating back to 1872, all of which can be easily viewed online.

The 1872 map itself shows Egypt Bay to have been joined by a sizable stretch of marshland known as Egypt Saltings – with ‘The Kite, Coast Guard Station’ located near its mouth with the Thames. The indent of the bay was much bigger in those days, with most of what was Egypt Saltings having long since silted over.

Any more ideas? Use the contact page to let me know if you have any views on how Egypt Bay got its name.
 

Egypt Bay – feedback from Malcolm Coomber of High Halstow

Following my recent post about how Egypt Bay got its name, I’m really pleased to report an interesting development!

My thanks go to Malcolm Coomber, from High Halstow, who got in touch with a possible explanation . . .

Dear Tony,

In response to your enquiry about how Egypt Bay got its name, I may have come up with a long shot that might be worth exploring.

I have a book called ‘The Hoo Peninsula’, written by local historian Philip MacDougall in 1980, which mentions Phoenician artefacts being found in Hoo and Higham.

This book states the following:

"During pre-historic times Hoo St. Werburgh was probably a fairly important settlement. The discovery of a Phoenician coin at a point just south of the present village also suggests that Hoo may also have been a small trading centre. The coin was discovered in 1903 and is said to be a drachma dating from the reign of Philip of Macedon. This particular king will probably be better recalled if one remembers that he was the father of Alexander the Great.

The importance of the coin demonstrates that Kent had trading links with the Phoenicians, traders who ranged far and wide bringing with them such saleable commodities as silver, high quality pottery and wines. Perhaps, indeed, it was the Phoenicians who brought the imported pots found near Cliffe. It should be pointed out that these pottery fragments do not come from so far east but would have been collected by the Phoenicians on their journeyings.

Hoo is not the only place in North Kent where Phoenician coins have been found. Not very long ago a number of such coins were unearthed at Higham. They were all contained inside a hollow flint purse."

The Phoenicians came from a land called RETENU (CANAAN) which had a direct boundary with EGYPT.

Just a thought! Did they sail up the Thames to trade and come across what we know as Egypt Bay, and named it such due to the unlikely event of finding a sandy beach in an unlikely spot on the River Thames? Stranger things have happened!

Best wishes - Malcolm.

Many thanks Malcolm for getting in touch and sharing your thoughts. A possibility certainly worth looking into!

Personally, I hope he’s right. Having been to Egypt and spent time exploring the Nile near Luxor, it would certainly be nice to think the two distant, but equally tranquil, locations were somehow connected.

I'm also grateful to everyone who got in touch to share stories about enjoyable walks around this bit of the peninsula.

Use the contact page to let me know if you have any views on how Egypt Bay got its name.
 

Egypt Bay

Someone recently asked if I knew how Egypt Bay (pictured below) came to be named. I had to admit I had no idea! A favoured landing spot for smugglers, Egypt Bay was also home to Napoleonic prison hulks.

I would really like to hear from anyone who might be able to shed light on this one. Just get in touch via the contact page.
 

Get In Touch!

Since launching this site last May, I have been contacted by many people with a connection to the Hoo Peninsula – people living here now, those with family links to the area and others with an interest in exploring our special landscape.

Lots of people have happily shared knowledge about local history and sent copies of old photographs, whilst others have emailed their Hoo Peninsula family history enquiries, provided information about community events, or given suggestions for good local walks.

Please keep getting in touch, via the Contact page, or by sending an email here.