Another visit to Leigh on Sea, this time on a sunny day, and another sample to add to my Museum of Dust. Years ago a cockle fisherman told me you can hear the cockles sighing as the tide turns. In the old days cockles, a Thames estuary shellfish delicacy once sold by the pint outside London pubs, were gathered using rakes in shallow water. Now they’re scooped by dredge, and harvesting is seasonal, in designated intertidal zones.
If you travel by train from London’s Fenchurch Street Station into Leigh, you’ll see the ruins of a castle on a rise above the salt marshes, one of my favourite walks, by the way. These are the remains of 14th century Hadleigh Castle, painted by Turner and Constable. Built of Kentish ragstone, its walls were cemented with crushed cockle shell mortar.