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Dear All
Greetings! I thought I'd write a blog entry about a lovely day trip I did from London. I had not long arrived home after an amazing trip to New England USA, when my travel feet continued to itch and I was ready to do a bit more exploring again. This time I planned a little trip I'd been thinking about for a while now, ever since I watched the film "Pocahontas" when it came out in the 1990s really, but my plans developed more recently to include some really quite lovely places nearby. It was a Saturday trip on a Bank Holiday weekend to take in the lovely town of Gravesend on the southern bank of the River Thames in Kent, and then a short ferry ride just across the River Thames onto its northern bank, to take in the smaller town of Tilbury in Essex on the opposite shore.
After having just returned from New England, I was filled with wonderful visions of pilgrims and settlers travelling westwards across the Atlantic Ocean from English shores, bound for new lives in a wild, rugged and adventurous country. My mind reverted to the Disney film "Pocahontas" which I
had watched as a teenager when it first came out, and very much enjoyed, and after researching more about this Native American princess, I found she had returned to England not long after meeting and marrying Englishman John Rolfe (not in fact John Smith as depicted in the cartoon film), and lived out the rest of her short days in both London and Norfolk, until only a year after arriving in the country, she planned to return with Rolfe to the Americas whence she came, but became gravely ill shortly after leaving London and died after she was taken ashore at nearby Gravesend. Her remains are in fact buried in the grounds of St George's Church in the town, and are marked by a life-sized bronze memorial statue dedicated to her. My recent American adventures beckoned me to at last visit this place, and thus on the morning of this weekend day a couple of weeks after my own return from America, I headed eastwards to visit it, and a few other places besides.
My journey to Gravesend was pleasant, taking first a train from East Croydon to London Bridge, and then from there a direct train eastwards taking
around 50 minutes to reach Gravesend. Upon arrival, I enjoyed a late breakfast of one of my favourite English delicacies: a sausage bap with brown sauce from a local English "caff", the classic English eatery known to some as a "Greasy Spoon Cafe", and enjoyed it with a morning coffee on a bench in the middle of town. Duly fuelled, I headed through the very English streets of this lovely little Kentish town of around 75,000 inhabitants, decked out at the time with lots of Union Jacks and reds, whites and blues, presumably in advance of our Queen's upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations, or otherwise simply up there showing the town's pride in being British - great stuff I thought!
I headed first to St George's Church, and admired the lovely statue of Pocahontas in the midst of its grounds there. Upon asking a groundsman, it turns out that the American Indian princess's remains are located somewhere within the grounds, though the exact location is unknown. It seems this was due to the rebuilding of the church and its grounds in 1731, and now the exact location of any of the remains are unknown. Still, I liked the way the
Pocahontas Statue
St George's Church, Gravesendtown paid tribute to this influential figure in early English-American relations, and peacefully contemplated the poor girl's short life whilst there. After becoming Christian, marrying John Rolfe in 1614, and having their son Thomas in Virginia in 1615, it was decided in 1616 that the family return to England as an example of the "taming of the New World savage", and to encourage further development in the Virginia Company's newfound settlement there. Rolfe and Pocahontas met several notable people back in England, including King James himself - she was treated very much like a princess of the New World. As mentioned, in 1617, as the family's ship began its voyage from London to return to Virginia, Pocahontas became gravely ill and died at Gravesend from an unknown ailment. Through her son Thomas, there are many Americans who claim direct descendency from one of these earliest of Anglo-American relations. It felt fitting that I had come to this place after having re-connected again myself with wonderful America.
From here, I headed down to the River Thames, and enjoyed a lovely walk along its banks through the town's old riverside quarter, contemplating its important geostrategic position at the mouth of the
River Thames as its large estuary narrows and enters into the urban sprawl of London. My walk took me passed the Port of London Authority Headquarters based in Gravesend, as well as the remains of the 16th century Gravesend Blockhouse, built by King Henry VIII in conjunction with Tilbury Fort on the opposite side of the river, to protect London from the threat of Spanish invasion. I then headed back into town again, past the lovely 19th century Gravesend Clock Tower dedicated to Queen Victoria, and onto my other main destination in Gravesend for the day - the majestic, and rather incongruous, Sri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, Britain's largest, and perhaps its most famous, Sikh Temple.
Along with Pocahontas, Gravesend is also today synonymous with this important Sikh place of worship, completed in 2010 to cater for the growing Sikh community of the town. It is a very striking building, arising out of the surrounding typically English terraced streets like an exotic apparition directly imported from the Indian sub-continent. Walking around and inside the building, one could easily be forgiven for thinking one was in India - the place is beautiful, exotic and a real pleasure to visit. I
first paid respects to the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, as it sits on its throne in the main prayer hall. Sikhs show so much reverence to their holy book, containing the teachings of its first five gurus since Guru Nanak began the religion in the late 15th century, that it is sat on a "takht", or throne, covered with a canopy and fanned with a "chaur" while it is being read. This reverence for the book seems to stem from the religion's Hindu origins, in which murti, or statues infused with the spirit of the deity it represents, are treated as living human beings, and at night, just as with many Hindu murti, the book is taken to a separate room and literally laid in a bed with sheets and pillows to rest. It is considered the final and eternal Sikh Guru, or teacher, after Guru number 10, Guru Gobind Singh, died in the early 18th century. Sikhs look to the book as their guide in life, and it forms the central part of their worship as they pray to God. As well as having Hindu origins, the religion is also influenced by Islam, brought to India
by the Mughals in the 15th century, and Sikhs thus also believe in one God like in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I was fortunate to have arrived as a group of ragi, or musicians, were singing hymns and playing their instruments. I sat down and was in awe at the transformation in my trip: from quaint terraced English streets, to full-blown Indian spiritualism and music - it was amazing! I was also fortunate to have arrived just as a wedding was taking place, so there were many men and women dressed beautifully in traditional Indian clothing throughout the temple.
After my time in the prayer hall, I partook in the taking of prashad, a food made out of semolina, water, sugar and butter which is offered to anyone who visits a Sikh temple, and then followed my nose to the Langar hall. Langar is a wonder of Sikhism, traditionally borne out of the desire for Sikhs to come together in communion to both worship God and to share a meal together. It is a free kitchen which is prepared by volunteers of a Sikh temple, and anyone who visits, whatever religious background they come from, is welcome to take part.
It was Guru Amar Das, Guru number three, who institutionalised this practice in the mid-16th century, encouraging all to join together during a time of both religious integration and conflict as the Mughal Empire spread through Hindu India. All participants are invited to sit on the floor, representing equality as children of God at a time of the strict Hindu caste system, as well as the imposition of Mughal rule and hierarchy over India. I very much admire many aspects of Sikhism, particularly this tradition of all being welcome and all being equal in the eyes of God. Unfortunately due to a dodgy knee, I ended up sitting on a nearby table for the more elderly folk who can't sit on the floor, but nevertheless very much enjoyed the simple meal of chapati, lentils, potato, curry and yoghurt - lovely! I do hope to visit the centre of the Sikh world at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, some day, but this little taste of India in England very much hit the spot for me, and I was made to feel very welcome by pretty much everyone I passed and encountered.
Duly fuelled further, I headed towards the river
again, and onto the Town Pier, the world's oldest surviving cast iron pier, built in 1834, after having passed through Gravesend's lovely market, one of the country's oldest, dating back to the 13th century. I was heading to one of the Thames River's last remaining working ferry crossings, the Tilbury Ferry. The very idea of still using a ferry to cross the River Thames, now that it has a plethora of bridges and tunnels crossing the waterway, sparks back to a golden age of travel I believe, with horse-drawn carriages and silver coins to pay the ferryman with. I was very excited to take this ferry! After a short wait on the pier, I joined around 10 other passengers, and rather than using silver coins, I paid the ferryman with my contactless debit card the £4 ferry fare. It was a short five-minute crossing, but significant - I had crossed by river from the county of Kent to the county of Essex, and was excited to explore further on this northern bank of the River. There must have been at least 30 people awaiting the ferry ride back to Gravesend in Tilbury, and all seemed to be jovial Essex-types off
Pocahontas
St George's Church, Gravesend to Gravesend for a posher pub crawl than they'd have been able to find in Essex. They all managed to cram on to the little ferry taking them over to Kent, as I headed through the spectacular, albeit rather crumbly, wooden and iron bridge connecting the ferry landing to the mainland, and taking me on to my next destination for the day, the fantastic and very impressive Tilbury Fort.
Tilbury is a small Essex town of around 12,000 inhabitants on the northern bank of the River Thames, famous for being home to the Port of Tilbury, London's principal port and one of the UK's biggest, and also the 16th century, quite famous, Tilbury Fort. Originally built by Henry VIII to protect England from the threat of French attack on London up the Thames, it was further fortified during the Spanish Armada of 1588. In the late 17th century it was expanded still further during the Anglo-Dutch Wars (we seem to have had a lot of conflicts with our neighbours...!) to form the star-shape it is famous for today, adding to its defensive capabilities. It is also the site of Elizabeth I's famous 1588 "Tilbury Speech", in which she declared
Pocahontas Statue
St George's Church, Gravesend to her troops amassed to protect England from Spain:-
"I know I have the body butt of a weake and feble woman, butt I have the harte and stomack of a king, and of a king of England too".
The Tilbury Speech was enacted by Cate Blanchett in her second film on the famous English queen, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age", but she unfortunately missed these most famous of lines. I was looking forward to visiting this most famous of English forts.
The walk to the Fort from the ferry pier followed the Thames Path affording lovely views over the River back to Gravesend again. On the way, I passed a quite-famous dock bridge housing the Tilbury Walk of Memories, which marks the place where many people from the former lands of the British Empire arrived in Britain to seek new lives during the post-war period. I also passed a famous pub called "The World's End", dating back to the 17th century. I imagined many a tale could be told by the pub's four walls, harking back to times of the British Empire, sea pirates, foggy marshes, and Dickensian heroes and villains. Upon arriving at the Tilbury Fort,
Pocahontas Statue
St George's Church, Gravesend I paid the entrance fee, and enjoyed a wonderful hour or two wandering the expansive site, taking in its strong stone walls, defensive moats, towers, gatehouses and numerous cannons. There was also an interesting part where you could wander the underground tunnels used to store explosives, as well as a terrace of houses, some of them still lived in, formerly serving as the officers' quarters. You could even visit a re-creation of one of these officers' houses, and I just love exploring these places and getting a feel and a sense for what life must have been like there back in their day. After a wonderful and very informative visit, I partook in a free sampling of English Heritage Gin at the gift shop on my way out, and enjoyed a very merry walk through the surrounding marshes, passing by a number of horses and ponies, as well as a pig (?!), whilst heading on into the town of Tilbury, my final destination for the day.
I didn't really do much in Tilbury to be honest, and just walked through it from its eastern edge to its town centre around a mile away, gaining the impression that it was
a rather run-down backwater of Essex, probably not visited by many, and I imagine for good reasons. On one occasion, three youths on motorbikes screamed past on the road as I was walking, each of them doing wheelies and trying to show off, whilst a bit later on I was overtaken on the pavement by a ten-year-old boy on an electric scooter smoking something which smelt suspiciously like marijuana. Hmmm, it didn't really seem the kind of place I wanted to explore, so I just headed to the train station to await my train back into London again. Since this was a commuter train heading into town from Essex, it arrived at Fenchurch Street Station, which I was most pleased about. On my last (and first) visit to this station last year, written up about in a blog entry I wrote on a day trip to nearby Purfleet-on-Thames and the Rainham Marshes, I didn't take a picture of this Monopoly board station. This time I did, and I was happy! I crossed the Thames again, this time via London Bridge rather than a river ferry, with great views of Tower Bridge and the Shard, and took a train home from
London Bridge station which would take me to Selhurst station, rather than East Croydon. Slow trains stop at Selhurst which is actually closer to my house, while fast trains go to East Croydon. It felt a treat to return home from this nearer station, and then to put my feet up with a cup of tea back home again, after what turned out to be a very enjoyable day trip from London.
Whilst I have very much been enjoying getting on the travelling road again after a brief hiatus, I think I will continue to explore and write up about local travels in between trips. There really is so much to see in this south-eastern corner of England, and since public transport is also really good around here, so much seems reachable within a day trip. I imagine I will continue to write similar blog entries on similar types of days in the future.
So until the next time, thank you for reading this one, and all the best for now 😊
Alex
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Pocahantas...
Now for the rest of the story. My 10th great grandfather was Henry Rolfe, the brother of John Rolfe and brother in law of Pocahantas. When she died, Henry became the guardian of their son. Henry died in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony on 1 March 1642/3.