The Goodwin Sands are a pair of sandbanks off the Kent coast in the south-east corner of the British Isles which are notorious as a place of maritime disaster and a source of great local folk legend. Because of the geography of the English Channel the Sands also offer shelter for vessels from stormy seas, dissipating savage waves and providing a natural harbour off the coast of Deal.
They are also home to hundreds, if not thousands, of shipwrecks as a result of treacherous weather, unwary sailors, or wartime conflict and are the last resting place of captains and crew since times of antiquity. As the Battle of Britain raged in the skies over Kent so grew even further the numbers of souls whose last resting place is on the Goodwins.
This podcast is an oral history documentary 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. Some of our interviewees give up their spare time to save the stranded ships who run aground there, and some comb the local beaches looking for historical artefacts or work with maritime archaeologists charting their history.
This 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:
Interviews conducted by Joanna Thomson, co-founder of the Goodwin Sands Conservation Trust.
Production, editing, sound design and music by Ben Horner.
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.
