Isle of Sheppey
— the marsh the river leaves at low tide.
Not only on a wall.
“An island the Thames lets you onto by two bridges, both at the same crossing. The Saxon nunnery at Minster has stood on the hill above the sea since 664. South across the marshes, Elmley holds one of the largest breeding populations of lapwing and redshank in England. The light comes off the water in a flat, low-country way that owes more to the Netherlands than to Kent.
Isle of Sheppey, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Isle of Sheppey sits in the Thames Estuary off the north Kent coast, separated from the mainland by the narrow tidal channel of The Swale. The island measures roughly fifteen kilometres east to west and covers about 90 square kilometres, much of it grazing marsh held just above sea level. Access is by the original Kingsferry Bridge, opened in 1960, and the higher Sheppey Crossing, opened in 2006, both carrying the A249 south of Queenborough. Sheerness, on the western tip, faces the Medway.
Minster Abbey, on the high ground above the sea, was founded as a nunnery in 664 by Sexburga, queen of Kent and widow of Eorcenberht. Of the Anglo-Saxon foundation only the eastern stub remains, attached to the Norman parish church the Augustinians built around 1130. The twin-nave plan, parish church on the south and conventual church on the north under one roof, is rare in England. The carved knight effigy inside is reputed to be Sir Robert de Shurland, the thirteenth-century baron.
South of the high ground the land flattens into the Elmley marshes and Capel Fleet. The RSPB and Elmley National Nature Reserve hold over 3,300 acres of grazing marsh that winter geese, wigeon, and waders use by the tens of thousands. Breeding-season counts have recorded more than 200 pairs of lapwing in a single year, among the highest densities anywhere in England. Marsh harriers and short-eared owls quarter the dykes through the colder months, low and slow over the reeds.