1/15 Good morning everyone. I’m excited to be presenting the first paper at #PATC5 - on @CITiZAN1 #EastKentCoast #DiscoveryProgramme work at Pegwell Bay Hoverport, Kent, including collaboration with @EastKentMencap there 
2/15 Construction began in 1968, using waste from Chislet Colliery 10 miles away to build up the ground: “a fleet of 100 lorries is carrying away over ¼ million tons of black shale – disposing of an unsightly tip and improving the local amenities” bit.ly/3ae1LSd #PATC5
3/15 4000 crossings planned p.a. “The new hopping off point for Europe!” bit.ly/2ZN9ghE Ramsgate, famous for seaside hols, now sends people away instead. ‘Pilots’ ‘fly’ hovercraft; pillbox hatted stewardesses attend passengers. Souvenirs of glamour & connectivity #PATC5
5/15 #PATC5 Now a dog walkers haven: accessible, a café, parking and toilets. There’s also fire pits, beer cans, food wrappers: evidence for evening gatherings. There must have been an illegal rave here late 80s/early 90s: maybe there’s glow sticks and smiley badges!
6/15 #PATC5 Go karting tyres, but also more sinister remains: the poster, I found out later, is for a Neo-Nazi social network. No date on it and glad there’s been no newer ones but it's disturbing all the same. All this shows how the site is claimed by different groups
7 /15 #PATC5 And other-than-human interaction with the site. An escapee beaver, sadly found dead soon after (📷 JGerlack). Buddleia, birch, tamarisk, orchids encroaching. And the sea: 2019/2020 high tides washed right over the apron, contributing to the fracturing of the concrete
8/15 #PATC5 The site still contradicts: colliery waste makes for contaminated land but surrounding are multiple nature designations (National Nature Reserve, Ramsar, SSSI + bit.ly/3ae4gUB). This conflict inhibits development but ensures, so far, survival as public space
9/15 #PATC5 Last autumn I visited the site with @EastKentMencap photographers for an exploration, a random sample condition survey. Their photographs show the inseparability of the cultural/natural and capture the site's complexity and contradictions…
10/15 …while the foul weather captured in the rain blurred edges gives a cinematographic sense of multiple dimensions. This is Sarah’s long view: fennel, grass and shrubs jostle with the laid surface and white lining, dog poo bag and dead rabbit detail #PATC5
11/15 Robert’s butterfly friendly buddleia squarely in the middle of a path, roots disrupting the tarmac #PATC5
12/15 Michael’s: fennel silhouetted against the expanse of sea - and weather - that affects the site #PATC5
13/15 And Lee’s view towards Ramsgate: one port to another, fragile windblown loess top the neighbouring chalk cliffs. Lee summed up the site perfectly: ”it was weird, but interesting” #PATC5
14/15 #PATC5 In February we held an exhibition @NiceThingsRamsg. We’d planned more trips this year w/ @EastKentMencap to photo the #Hoverport through the seasons, plus, possibly, exhibition at @Sandwichbirdobs. That's now on hold but inly temporarily we hope. Through this site...
15/15 ..we’ll keep poking at the boundaries of what archaeology is & who gets to do it; co-opting Lee’s words & paraphrasing @jeremydeller: making archaeology weird but interesting again. Thx #PATC5 @heritagefunduk @LR_Foundation @MOLArchaeology @historicengland @archaeologyuk
