Seasalter

A Memory of Yorkletts.

As a lad, in the fifties after Sunday lunch, my father would drive my mother, my two sisters and I to Seasalter. The beach was made up of pebbles and shells, not as comfortable as the sandy beaches further into Kent, on the other hand the sea always seem to be much warmer than the other beaches we would visit further east.
We would park the car on the wide grass verge opposite the sea wall and cross the road to the beach. Mid way through our trip out, we would return to the car and boil a kettle on a small gas stove to make a cup of tea.
When the tide was out we would go cockling. These tasty small shellfish, cockles, could be found just below the muddy/sandy surface, the rising bubbles giving their existence away.
During the afternoon a man would ride along the track next to the sea wall on his pedal bike selling ice creams and toffee apples and we considered it a real treat to be bought one or the other.
Back home, around 7pm, it was time for Sunday tea. After washing the cockles thoroughly under a running tap and boiling them in a pan for ten minutes, they tasted delicious in vinegar with bread and butter, although I have to confess, winkles are by far my favourites and even to this day I can be found on the Kent beaches foraging for my Sunday tea.

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