The history of the Downs

Herne Bay is lucky enough to have the Downs because, from 1881 onwards, a series of local people gifted plots of land to the town. About half of the site was gifted to the town in this way. There are long-standing covenants between these benefactors and the Council to keep the Downs as a public open space for the recreation and enjoyment of local people and the wider public forever. The Herne Bay Urban District Council, in receiving these gifts of land on behalf of the town, recognised at the time what a great resource and asset the Downs would be to Herne Bay.

Tithe map - before the Downs, there were fields

The other half of the site has come into the hands of the Council for a number of different reasons. Some plots of land were acquired under the powers of the Coast Protection Act. Others have been acquired on the basis of adverse possession.

It is important to the Friends of the Downs to stay true to the original intentions of the town’s benefactors, and to keep the Downs open for everyone to use for lawful recreation, freely and free of charge, forever.

In the town’s Victorian heyday, the Downs was used extensively for that popular pastime – promenading. “A Visitor’s Guide to Herne Bay” published in 1859, has the following description:

“It is a pleasant change from the stroll along the beach to ascend the rising ground at either extremity of the Parade. At the eastern end, you come immediately on The Downs, which though narrow, extend for miles along the coast. Gradually ascending, they form at first an easy slope of greensward, dotted with brakes of furze and heath, and falling away to the level of the beach. Seats planted on the green turf are liberally provided, and no healthier spot can be imagined for exercise and recreation. Here children gambol in freedom an safety in the sea breeze; and after the plunge of bath or bathing machine, of which there are stations just below, nothing can better help to circulate the blood than a bracing walk on The Downs.”

 “The New Guide to Herne Bay” published in 1875, describes the Downs as follows:

“The East Cliff, situated beyond the confines of the old town, a parade of an altogether wilder character, is not inappropriately styled “The Down”. Here invalids who cannot make excursions inland may take advantage of the many rustic seats dotted in every direction on these grassy slopes, and enjoy at leisure the exhilarating sea breezes, and the expansive view across the bay below.”

An undated painting, earlier than 1831, shows a crop of what looks like corn being harvested on the Downs and a story going as far back as 1818 tells of two soldiers from the military signalling station at Herne Bay fighting a duel on the Downs.

The threat to the Downs

To set the scene: People have been walking, running, playing, dog-walking, kite-flying and just sitting on The Downs for hundreds of years. It's a nicely unkempt, tapering strip of land that runs east from Herne Bay to Reculver Country Park, sloping down from the sunlit uplands to the exceptionally shiny shingle of the north Kent coast.

Long, long ago, most of what is now The Downs was part of the Beltinge Estate (map), owned by Thomas Dence. With the passing years, the Beltinge Estate was broken into smaller parcels, and around the beginning of the last century this patchwork of land passed into the care of Herne Bay Urban District Council (later transformed by an evil spell into CCC).

When the Council was entrusted with this land, there were conditions (covenants) attached, spelling out what must be done with the land, what could be done with the land, and what mustn't be done with the land. I have highlighted the bits that give me a warm feeling:

"Covenant by Council to keep the land as an open space and pleasure ground for the recreation and use and enjoyment of the public for ever subject to such rules and regulations as the Council their successors and assigns may from time to time make respecting the use and enjoyment of the same with power nevertheless to construct and maintain thereon such shelters seats bandstands kiosks and underground lavatories or conveniences and other buildings and erections suitable or convenient for the use and enjoyment of the said lands and heriditaments as an open space and pleasure ground as the Council shall from time to time think fit but nothing shall be erected built placed or allowed to remain on the said land as shall obstruct the view of any of the houses built or to be built on the two Estates now known as Beacon Hill Estate and The Lees Estate and the land fronting to Beacon Hill and lying between Hilltop Road and Bellevue Road."

(Full stop keys don't get much wear and tear on an average legal keyboard.) So the Council is supposed to be looking after the land, keeping it as an open space for the public, and adding nothing that blocks the view (unless it's a 'something-for-everybody' kind of structure, like the examples given). So far, so good. However...

Towards the end of last year, CCC decided in favour of "the disposal of a small part of the coastal slopes by the granting of a lease of a site for the provision of high quality beach huts".

There have been huts at East Cliff before. Originally they were concrete and brick structures built into the bottom of the slope; with nothing on the slope; with no views obstructed; and were owned and managed by the Council. Later, wooden huts were built on the slope, and obstructing the view: they fell into disuse, were neglected and vandalised to the point of dereliction (photos), and the Council demolished them.