Ian Goodban began his career with the Royal Navy and then worked as a hydrographic surveyor before becoming a teacher, publican, and member of the UK Coastguard. He spends many hours scouring the beaches adjacent to the Goodwin Sands for interesting items and historical artefacts as well as fishing and cockling. His experience and trained eye have led him to recover some amazing artefacts such as a whale jawbone, 300-year-old glass onion bottles (some even complete), and a Second World War Dornier aero propellor blade.
In this episode he discusses the techniques he uses when beachcombing (and how a lot of it is down to luck), the processes that must be followed when recovering items from the beach, and how items found on the beach can only ever tell part of their story.
This is an interview conducted as part of the Goodwin Sands Oral History Project, a podcast series which speaks with those who have grown up within sight of the Sands, who make their living upon or around them, or who have been creatively inspired by the air of uncanny mystery they invoke. The Goodwin Sands are a pair of large sandbanks of the south-east Kent coast which offer both shelter and a dangerous hazard to unwary shipping or those caught in storms, and are the site of great historical importance and maritime archaeology.
This podcast project was undertaken as a response to an application to dredge the Goodwin Sands for aggregates and building materials to expand Dover Harbour, a proposition vehemently opposed by local residents and the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust, who have created this podcast series. It is hoped that through hearing the voices of the people connected with the Sands their cultural status might be raised and further industrial interference might be avoided in the future.
Credits:
Presented and interview conducted by Joanna Thomson, co-founder of the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust.
Production, editing, sound design by Ben Horner.
The music is "She Comes Through the Fog" by Haunted Me, used under Creative Commons licence.
For more about the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust please see https://goodwinsands.org.uk/, and please see https://theaudiosphere.com for more on our producer.
